Qork & Erik return a stolen item to Avanchnzel.

About this image

Qork (father of Work, great-father of Eork, great-great-father of Rork, brother of Tork) and a half-clad crazy mercenary-in-training from Rorik's Stead, return a stolen item to a Dwemer ruin in the Rift.

It all started in Riften, where our adventurers were enjoying the lakefront in a day of respite. After doing Mara's bidding all over the province, they just wanted to net, fish, and chill. Dinya recommended the planks by the Riften Fishery, as the smell of farmed fish apparently draws wild fish near. Not long after catching a few perches, a wide-eyed argonian approached them, speaking hurriedly but clearly about "taking" and "returning" something. Qork, not having the capacity to say no or ignore a stranger's half-hinted at request, ended up receiving a cube.

Well, it wasn't just a cube. It was dwemer made, light (for something dwemer made at least), and had a peculiar glow to it. Erik didn't think much of it, but Qork felt a compulsion to explore the ruin of Avanchnzel, as instructed. Could he drop the cube in the lake? No. Could they pay the courier to drop it off at the ruin so its automatons could retrieve it? No. Erik was not sure why Qork was determined to go dungeon delving, yet again, but fine. It's a good workout.

The ruin wasn't unlike most other dwarven wrecks, except perhaps the absence of falmer. Erik was most grateful for that. At least machine-men make a satisfying sound when banged, and don't poison you with every single hit they get. Seriously, just how many poisons can those vicious creatures pack?! Anyhow, Erik enjoyed the relative quietness of the ruin, but noticed Qork was muttering to himself. Not that this was unusual, the dragonborn frequently heard voices that may or may not have been there. Sometimes he said daedric princes gave him requests, sometimes its ghosts, frequently it's that thrice-cursed journal of his. On this ruin, it was ghosts. Or maybe impressions? One of the argonians was still alive, if a bit crazed. Qork muttered something about "city to store the living memories of the entire dwemer race", which doesn't make sense. The dwemer are dead, or at least not alive, so what living memories? Erik was confused, but Qork always finds a way through.

Eventually, after a rather quick battle with a half-working centurion, they reached the podium. Qork placed the cube in the center while Erik made triple sure the centurion's core was removed; no body wants a surprise hit. The cube sank into the pedestal, which activated some contraption, and nothing else happened. "Do you hear any voices? Did you stop hearing voices?" Qork grunted something about "ancient knowledge" that was so ancient, it was barely knowledge at his point. He tried using one of the dwarven boots lying around, and found them more comfortable; he could move better in them. Still, they were no where as good as his gilded ebony boots.

Erik was wondering what was the point of a "library for a race's knowledge" if there doesn't seem to be a way of accessing that knowledge, or browsing it. Surely the dwarves would have come up with the concept of an index, or a search function? Instead, they left a cube, misplaced and stolen by low level adventurers, whose return was systematically opposed by the very automata tasked with preserving the library. The dwemer do not seem very practical, and maybe that's why they're no longer around. Maybe they were so focused on making oil, they forgot to eat. Erik was oddly amused at that idea. Qork, as usual, just stared blankly.

Erik the Slayer - Now Older and Wiser, by WolfGrimDark
Erik's armor: Barbarian Armor, from Immersive Armors (replaced WolfGrim's default with the IA version for tempering)
Erik's shield-on-back: kite shield from Immersive Armors, using Ecotone Dual Sheath for back mounting
Erik's sword: ebony cutlass from Immersive Weapons
Qork's armor: Gilded Ebony Armor, from Book of Silence
Qork's backpack: brown fur backpack with Zenithar amulet, from Campfire
Qork's hair: ragnar variant from KS Hairdos for men
Bodies: Schlongs of Skyrim (available at LoversLab)
Body textures: Tempered Skins for Males
ReShade: base 4.9.0 with DaVinci preset and the stock adaptive depth of field (ADOF) post-processor
Centurion's textures: whatever came from Book of Silence, I think...