I walked from the store to the gate back out of Rihad. I prepared myself to step into the wilderness, and opened the gate. The cold was biting, even though the sun was shining. Winter was always rough in Tamriel. I went to the stables to find my horse. He was doing well, and I paid the stable boy well for keeping him happy and comfortable.

I climbed on him and began to ride. For three days and two nights I rode out to the ruin of Stonekeep. I jumped off my horse in excitement as I approached the door to the old Court. I tethered my horse to a pole outside, and pushed open the gate slowly. I didn’t want anything inside detecting me before I even had a chance to do anything. As I entered, and the light from outside shed on the inside.

A cracked sign faced me, with a faded message written on it.

Welcome to Stonekeep. Surrender all weapons to the guards, for we are the keepers of peace

I moved past it, letting the door close silently behind me. Everything got much darker, and it took a while for my eyes to adjust correctly to the lack of light. Finally, I was still able to see the sing again, and I moved cautiously forward. There was a very bright light ahead of me, probably a few torches. On the way to the light, a rat jumped at me from the darkness. One wack from my hammer broke its skull and it fell to the ground in a heap.

I guess there was nothing stuck in its fur that would be useful, and left it there. I continued into the light, and saw that it was the throne pointing out towards the door. I could imagine a mighty king sitting in it, with guards on all sides. I felt about sitting down, just to see what it was like to feel this kind of power, but didn’t out of respect. I walked to the right of the throne, around a corner and saw a giant pool of water. I walked around it to a room with quite a few tables and torches in it. There were 3 goblins inside, which I killed easily. There was a door in the room, but it was locked, and it hadn’t occurred to me how to open it.

I turned and went back to the water pool. I start walking around the water again. After rounding a corner, a goblin who must have heard the sounds of the fight I had with the goblins and was going to investigate. No matter, I killed it and took the buckler it was carrying for sale later. I went back to the throne where another 3 goblins were waiting for me. They put up more of a fight than the others, but I managed to win. Suddenly, another goblin lying in wait attacked me from behind. I put him out of his miserable life with a few quick swings. I couldn’t find anything to get from them.

I found a door in the same room and went through it. As soon as I opened it, 7 rats were hanging around. They turned and attacked, and I actually had a little bit of trouble keeping them off of me for the entire time. I run back out of the hallway and stand in the darkness. I was very tired, so I sat and rested for quite a while. But there was no sleep for me, as a goblin came from the darkness as well, and I had to be very quick. I picked up my hammer, spun, and used momentum to knock the goblins body into the wall on the other side of the room. He doesn’t have anything usable, and I decided not to explore the hallway any longer, as it was not yielding any good loot.

I figured since there was a door on this side, there would be one on the other. I was correct, and I opened the door to a wolf waiting for me. How it lives down here, I don’t know. I killed it and another two wolves came around the corner. Luckily, the first one took up the entire doorway as the one behind it struggled to get to me. It eventually did, but only when I had killed the first wolf. I killed the second one, and ran to the end of the hallway before anything else could get to me.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to avoid a scaly lizard man, who attacked me on sight. I was able to kill him after a momentary fight. He, as the rest of everything, didn’t have anything on him. I opened the door at the end of the hall. It was an ordinary bedroom, but every ordinary bedrooms have beds. I climbed in. It was hard, but I didn’t care. That’s how tired I was already. I slept in that bed for a while. I didn’t even know how long I was out, due to the lack of sunlight. There was a space above the wall. I tried to climb up into it, but I was unsuccessful.

So, after this, and trying the other doors, none of which led me anywhere, I decided it was the door by the water that led somewhere else besides this throne room. I walked all the way back to it, uneventfully, as I had already killed everything there. The door was still locked, and that’s when I thought of it. I took my hammer and bashed the door in. It swung open, and I entered what seemed to be an old office. There was a single goblin, which at least had 27 gp on it. There was another door in the room, which opened to the Royal Bedchamber. 3 more goblins came rushing at me from the other side of the door. I collected a staff from one of their corpses, and from another, another buckler.

Inside the bedchamber, there was another sign facing me from by the bed. It was very faded, but I could still kind of make it out.

The King and palace are lost. We, the last survivors of the court of Stonekeep, are heading south through the Goblins’ caves

This was big. Stonekeep had been destroyed by goblins. They even killed the King. As I was standing there, a lizard man attacked me. I killed him, but there were no places to go in this room. I moved back out to the water, where two more lizard men waiting. I had to fight both at the same time, and they yielded another 27 gp and a buckler. I continued back to the end of the hallway on the left. I killed two more goblins, went through another door, and killed another goblin. From all of them, I got 30 gp and two daggers.

The only problem now, was that I was lost. I was wandering through the corridors, and wandering, and wandering. I finally opened a door that led to a tunnel. I went through it, and there was another giant pool of water. Only this time, I couldn’t see the other side.

I was standing there for a second, when an orc looking creature attacked me from behind. He must have been following me this whole time. I knew I couldn’t take him, so I ran and jumped into the water. I couldn’t feel the bottom, and the water felt very thick and slimy. Fortunately, there were no creatures in the water. I swam straight, and eventually found another island. I climbed up, and shook my hair out. My armor was soaked, and was getting very heavy. I started walking around when I saw red eyes staring at me from the darkness. They started coming closer and closer. I knew that it was something hostile, but I was too curious to just jump in the water. Eventually, it appeared within my vision. It was larger than me, green, and looked sickly. It had a huge spike wedged in a club. He began to take a swing at me. I ducked, and missed most of it, but he still scraped me.

It hurt pretty bad, and I knew I couldn’t survive a direct hit. I spun and once again used momentum to my advantage. Except the ghoul barely budged and swung at me again. I jumped backwards and the spike slammed into the ground. It was stuck there for a second, and I used this moment. I swung my hammer over my head and brought the business end of it down on top of its head. I crushed it with a single blow. It fell over, still grasping its club. I searched it, and found a bag of 56 gp. I was injured, but didn’t want to jump back in the water. So I ran around the island looking for an alcove, or a bridge. I finally found one, and ran across it to the land on the other side. I rested there for a bit, killed a couple of rats, and then started back across the bridge. Based on the creatures over there, I knew they were guarding something there. I saw a ghoul waiting for me across the bridge. That’s when I noticed that the hammer I was carrying was longer than its club. I swung, and landed a blow on him. He came running at me, as I ran backwards, hitting him with the hammer all the while. I finally killed him, searched him, but couldn’t find anything on him.

I ran across the bridge and found a dead body of a man. He must have been one of the guards left in Stonekeep. He had a bag of gold, but I didn’t have time to count it, as there was a ghoul coming up on me.

It would take me too long to explain the ensuing battle between me and the last three ghouls. Let’s just say that it involved the water, a fire bolt, and a little maneuvering to make them actually hit each other with their clubs. Anyway, I found my into a little path on the island, which led to an enclosed space, with a lot of loot. I found: a bag of gold, iron helm, 96 gp, bracelet, round shield, 15 more pieces of gold, another 98 in another chest, a Mark, a longsword, and a steel longsword. I had no intention of using any of it except the mark and the bracelet, and was saving the rest to be sold when I get back to Rihad.

Finally, I found what I had come after all along. A piece of parchment lying on the ground. It was dirty, and seemed as though it had been stepped on too many times to count. I picked it up and blew the dust off. It was indeed what I was searching for. The paper that would tell me where Fang Lair is. I put it in my pack and lifted my hammer. It was time to leave.