15 Go Forth, My Minions!

          (4E-199 28th of Evening Star)

      Galeron was standing in front of the ruins of Labarynthian, as he thought about the unexpected effects of the Ritual Stone's blessing that he had recently acquired.

     During his trip here, he had stopped by the Ritual Stone to receive its blessing. The effects seemed to be much like the one from TESV only, in order to achieve its goal, when activated his body would send out waves of blackish purple death energy that would reanimate nearby corpses.

     'If I'm being honest, it actually looks pretty sick but I've never seen that energy before. I can just kind of intuit that it is death energy but where does it come from? I've never sensed it from the dead or undead before. Looks like yet another mystery to unravel, once I'm done here.'

     Continuing forward through the massive ruin site, he reached the opposite side of the ruins where a wall with an arched doorway was standing between two hills, fifteen minutes later. Using his levitation, he raised himself up onto the top of a broken structure just before that wall.

     'Here it is. The entrance, or rather exit, to the Labarynthian Tribune. Going in this way should save me quite a bit of time. Not to mention, I don't have the torque and so it's really my only option.'

     Opening the trapdoor that had been set into the top of the broken structure, Galeron lowered himself down into the room below and prepared himself for the upcoming battle.

           (4E-200 3rd of Morning Star)

     Galeron had cleared out all of the Druagr, up until he arrived at a gate blocking his way. The gate needed to be activated, by a lever on the other side, but this was a rather trivial issue, considering his proficiency with Telekinesis.

     He had chosen to stop here, in this area he knew was safe, and to finish forming the Daedric Rune 'Oht' inside his magicka core. It had taken him the better part of five days but he finally finished it and his control over summoned Daedra completely outshined what it was previously.

     He could now summon a full twenty Atronachs, ten Dremora and ten Atronachs, or fifteen Dremora. This new and improved understanding of Oblivion should greatly improve his chances against his upcoming enemy.

     Galeron wasn't at all satisfied with this level of power, since he knew the dragons would be fearsome foes. Being able to overpower individuals of great power, while you outnumbered them, was all good and well but he knew such tactics would be much less successful against larger non-humanoid adversaries.

     He wouldn't have lied, crushing his opponents with overwhelming power was quite exhilarating and he loved it. Yet, his desire for even greater power never waned.

     In another time perhaps he would be heralded as a great and mighty Necromancer, whose name and deeds would outshine even Mannimarco himself. However, with the return of the Dragons, he needed to make sure that every conceivable precaution was taken and every ounce of power acquired. Whether he was the Dragonborn or not, he needed to remain vigilant and prepare for the worst.

     After summoning fifteen Dremora, five squads of three, two Archers and one Supporting Mage, Galeron approached the gate and manipulated the opening lever with Telekinesis.

     About five minutes after walking through the gate, they came upon a room with a sunken floor and raised platforms running along near the walls that led up to the entrance where Galeron was standing.

     Protruding from the walkway nearest them were two overhangs that reached out towards the opposite wall. The two offshoots had been carved in the shape of a dragon head and there was a spirit occupying each dragon head.

     The spirits, companions of the long since deceased Arch Mage Shalidor, stood at the edge of each overhang sending constant streams of energy into a prison-like dome located on the opposite walkway.

     Inside the magical dome-shaped shell of energy, the Dragon Priest Morokei was floating serenely. After confirming the presence of Morokei, Galeron instructed each of his five teams to position themselves at strategic points throughout the room.

     He stood at the highest point on the walkways and gave the signal to two of his teams. The two Dremora teams responded immediately, with a volley of arrows that saw the two spirits crumbling away into piles of gooey looking dust. Galeron knew the spirits wouldn't have released their barrier no matter how he asked and so their sacrifice was a necessary one.

     Once the spirits had been defeated, the protective barrier surrounding Morokei quickly vanished and Galeron's Dremora wasted no time going into full assault mode. Morokei, likewise, immediately began targeting the Dremora team closest to him.

     Galeron, however, wasn't about to let that happen. He had prepared his Orbical ahead of time and, as soon as the Dragon Priest started pointing his staff, he sent the Orbical forward and not only knocked the staff off its target but also connected Galeron's Telekinesis Spell to the staff.

     This is the role Galeron would play during this fight. Controlling his Orbical to interrupt Morokei's attacks and using his Telekinesis to try and wrest control of the staff. He had already given his Dremora detailed instructions on how to proceed and so it required very little of his attention to keep them in order.

     Even so, controlling two different objects in different ways with Telekinesis was not an easy task. When done separately, he could achieve either of them with ease but with three tasks, each of a different level of difficulty, Galeron was feeling the pressure from the very beginning of the battle.

     His Supporting Mages continued providing wards and elemental damage to the Archer's arrows. The Archers continued rapid firing arrows into Morokei, not letting him rest for a second. Morokei, though certainly one tough bastard, was completely on the defensive.

     Ever since the battle started, Morokei had either been summoning wards, dodging arrows, or recovering from dastardly Orbical sneak attacks. The staff in his hands, seemingly having a mind of its own, did nothing but worsen an already dire situation.

     Over thirty minutes had passed, since the battle had begun, and Galeron wasn't liking the way things were looking. 'That damned Morokei just won't fucking die! He could literally substitute for a Giant's pincushion right now and he's completely covered in scorch marks but dammit if he isn't still alive...or undead...or whatever.'

     As Galeron continued to struggle on three different fronts against the Dragon Priest, an idea suddenly came to him. He recalled a certain strategy that arm wrestlers would employ to gain a last second advantage. 'Yeah, let's see how that works.'

     Galeron prepared his Orbical for another assault and released a slight bit of his control over the staff. 

     Morokei sensed his new found control over the staff and made to direct it at a nearby Dremora.

     Galeron then immediately sent his Orbical directly up Morokei's robes and into his crotch. He wasn't foolish enough to imagine that this would have the same effect it would on a living target but it was still prime real estate.

     Using his Orbical to conjure a pillar of his hottest crimson flames, Galeron immediately retrieved his Orbical, let it fall to the ground, and put all of his efforts into yanking the staff out of Morokei's hands. 

     Morokei had been burned many times throughout this fight but Galeron had been trying to conserve his magicka and so none of those burns had been caused by Galeron. As such, Morokei was thoroughly unprepared to be completely wreathed in such potent flames nor was he prepared for the now even more rambunctious rebellion of his staff.

   Less than two seconds after making his move Galeron finally wrested the staff from Morokei's grasp and summoned it to his hands.

     The last spell he cast had cost nearly all of his remaining magicka and the last bit of his magicka was mostly from his natural magicka regeneration. He needed to end this battle quickly and now that he held the Staff of Magnus in his hands he would soon be able to.

     Targeting the Dragon Priest with the Staff of Magnus, he immediately began draining the undead of its magicka. He wasn't sure how large the Dragon Priest's reserves were but he hoped that they weren't too far outside the ballpark of his own. If this was the case, then it shouldn't take too much longer to defeat him.

     Under the constant barrage of Galeron's renewed Crimson Flame Pillar and his Dremora, Morokei managed to hold on for another minute, before finally running out of magicka and therefore defenses. Only a few seconds later, the Dragon Priest finally fell to the ground completely charred and his dried out corpse scattering into dust particles.

     Galeron approached the pile of rags that once cloaked the Dragon Priest. Picking up the mask and the clothes, he opened a small portal to the Eye of Magnus. Using this connection to the Eye and the newly acquired staff, he opened up another portal and threw the clothes and the ghostly remains inside.

     Galeron held the mask of Morokei in his hands and inspected it. It seemed to function in the same manner that the in game version did and so he decided to equip it. Upon donning the mask, he immediately noticed his magicka recovery rate being doubled.

     Smiling madly, Galeron sat down and managed to completely refill his magicka in less than two minutes. 'If I continue increasing my magicka regeneration at this rate, I'll soon be able to reliably regenerate magicka during combat.'

     Ever since beginning his magical training, he had noticed that magicka regeneration didn't seem to refill as quickly as those lucky game avatars. He had always needed to sit down for nearly thirty minutes in order to completely refill. That time requirement had obviously decreased bit by bit, as he continued to increase his magicka regeneration rate, but it had never reached a level where he could reliably regenerate his magicka during combat.

     Now, however, he knew that he only needed a little more than double his current rate and he would be able to regenerate entire spells worth of magicka in only a couple seconds.

     Galeron now had his primary prize in hand but there were still other curiosities here in Labyrinthian that he wished to acquire. As such, he made his way through the tunnels of Labyrinthian collecting Draugr corpses and especially Spectral Draugrs and their weapons.

     After several hours of traversal, he finally came upon a room inhabited by mostly skeletons as well as a Skeletal Dragon. He quickly defeated the room's occupants and then sent all of their remains through a portal to Fort Doomguard. 

     The Skeletal Dragon, not being a real live dragon, obviously wasn't anywhere near the power of the original. Hell, it couldn't even breathe fire.

     'Finally, Labarynthian has yielded its treasures to me and I only need one more thing, before heading home.'

     Heading back towards the room wherein an Arcane Enchanter was built into a table, Galeron sat down in the chair previously occupied by an unfortunate Novice Conjurer and began his work.

          (4E-200 5th of Sun's Dawn)

     Galeron had spent the last couple of weeks refining his Orbical technique. He only had one Orbical so far but that was only due to a lack of resources. After looting so many Draugr corpses, he had loads of Ebony that could be smelted into usable ingots. 

      His plan was to eventually have two Orbicals, one specialized in single target spells and the other in area of effect spells. Before he could create those Orbicals, however, he would also need to sharpen his smithing and enchanting skills.

     Of course, it wouldn't be of any use having two Orbicals, if he wasn't able to wield them as proper weapons. Thus, he had dedicated this time to using two heavy bowling ball sized spherical rocks as Orbical substitutes to not only establish an optimized method for wielding the Orbicals but to also to increase the ease and precision with which he wielded them.

     He eventually settled on three basic forms of Orbical attacks he called projections, the point projection, the arc projection, and the loop projection. There were also the same types of retrieval, although most projections would be followed up with a point retrieval.

     A point projection was very simply a sending of the Orbical towards the desired position and then followed up by a point retrieval which simply reversed the direction to bring it back to the wielder.

     Thus, Arc and Loop projections were exactly what they sounded like. One was an Arc and the other a Loop, nothing too complicated there.

     Galeron continued flinging his Orbical substitutes around in various attack patterns for several hours every day, until one day in a flash of light he suddenly disappeared from his training room within Fort Doomguard.

     After conquering the undead in Labyrinthian and completing his enchanting project, he went back to the room just before the exit that he had entered through. There he used the power of the Eye to create a hidden room in which he formed yet another permanent portal doorway leading to Fort Doomguard.

     Once he had entered the portal and created the connecting doorway within the Fort, he had sent Venerus back through with orders and directions to take Corpse and head northwest to find Darkfall Cave. Once he managed to reach Darkfall Cave, he was to activate the enchanted item Galeron had given him.

     During the two weeks he had stayed cooped up inside Labarynthian, Galeron had been working diligently on creating an enchantment that would teleport him to wherever the artifact was located at the moment of activation.

     It wasn't easy, as it was a task that laid just on the edge of his current skill level. However, it wasn't that difficult either, since he didn't need it to be perfect, he simply needed a handful to function properly a few times. He hadn't bothered going back to the Fort, until he had successfully crafted a handful of these artifacts. 

     Thus, Galeron found himself free falling through a massive underground hole, with a rushing river flowing through its bottom. Having been prepared for such an eventuality, he recognized almost instantly what was happening and activated his Levitation to slow his and Venerus's descent.

     Coming to a stop near the bottom of the hole, he utilized the Staff of Magnus along with a portal connected with the Eye to create another permanent portal doorway a few feet above the rushing waters. Galeron then activated the portal and stepped through after Venerus.

     Now that he had established three separate portals across Skyrim, he had finally accomplished everything that required his personal intervention and could leave the rest up to his Crying Corpses.

     After briefing his Crying Corpses on the specifics of their individual missions, he sent Morila off to Riften, Dawnstar, and eventually Morrowind, with a robe enchanted similarly to the control rod he'd taken from the vampires, to hide her Hagraven nature. As for Venerus, he was sent to Cyrodiil with Corpse. 

     Galeron had also made a Crying Corpse Horse for Morila. He didn't want his minions taking forever to finish their travels and he had no plans to leave his Fort, until a certain imperial convoy was meant to be passing through Darkwater Crossing.

     Now that his minions were off on their various missions and his home was well hidden and well fortified, he dropped every other concern and immediately began transcribing all of the runes on the Eye of Magnus.

     Once the alternative runes and the original runes were all transcribed, he went into a specially crafted room similar to the Arch-mage's quarters at the College of Winterhold. The entire room was a magically maintained garden that had several small springs and waterfalls running through it. It was a truly serene atmosphere and he had created this place specifically for his meditations.

     Sitting cross legged on the floor, 25 or 6…*Ahem* he soon began finishing his assimilation of the other runic characters in the Daedric Alphabet.