Little experiments

Turns out, Rictus was not going to make it to see Dante today. He made sure a letter was sent to letting them know he would be there tomorrow instead. Dante should understand the delay. Rictus was a busy man after all and would still technically get there in the required time.

Right now though, Rictus and Rev were standing in a hidden glade carved into the mountain near the base at White River Watch. He and Dravynea had carved this area out for various experiments undertaken by the Restored. Grass, trees, and other plants filled the glade giving it a serene feel. It was separated into a few areas where different animals were kept. They were currently in the goat enclosure.

These were not the ordinary goats found throughout Skyrim though. The most obvious difference was their size. Each of these creatures were as big as a horse. They still retained a shaggy tan coat of hair with large horns atop their heads which spiraled around into a sharp point. These horns gave them the ability to ram things with the blunted curves or gore them with the sharp tips. These magnificent creatures were to be the new mounts of the Restored.

The whole project had been started as a joke initially. A couple of the more senior Restored had persuaded Rev that Rictus had a secret wish of all the Restored having their own goats to ride into battle like he did with his familiar Billy. Taking their word for it, Rev had started experimenting on some of the goats in his free time. He already got practice altering the bodies of his undead creatures, so it was not too difficult for him to work on living creatures.

As time went on though, a few other of the Restored started liking the idea. Danica was often consulted for help and ideas since she had so much more experience working with the alter body spell. When Rictus had finally found out about it, the project was already well underway and showing promising results.

Two other Restored had joined the project and were instrumental for its eventual success. Lith Pinevale was a Bosmer who had joined up a little before the assault on Japhet's folly. He was not much of a fighter and preferred the company of animals. He became the caretaker of all the animals in the hidden glade. His natural inclination towards nature made him perfect for such a position, and the animals all loved him.

The second man made Rictus smile every time he heard his name. Garders Dwarf-Legs was an older Nord and retired legion solider. He had been part of the Empire's cavalry during the Great War and had command a small company of men. His nickname of Dwarf-Legs had been gained during that time since he had lost both of his legs from the knee down during the war. Instead of leaving, he had just gotten people to strap him onto his horse so he could keep fighting. When the goats were finally ready to become mounts, Garder would be the one leading and teaching the cavalry.

Rictus was here though because he wanted to see if he could enhance the goats with dragon bones and scales. When he inadvertently found out he could enhance bones and skin with materials from a dragon, he decided to test it on a few of the goats. They had a decent number of materials from the one dragon, but it was still precious so only a couple would get the enhancements for now.

Lith brought over a breeding pair to Rictus for experimentation. They were hopeful the enhancements could affect the offspring of the pair, but they weren't holding their breath. No one really knew how much the alter body spell interacted with genetics. Finding an answer would not be quick, but Rictus hoped to see the long-term implications of it. 'Hopefully, I will live long enough to see how these experiments change the creatures. Heck, if it works well enough, maybe I will even uplift the falmer back into snow elves. That would be something for the history books for sure."

The two massive goats laid down at Rictus's feet as if they knew what was happening. The animals were given a heavy dose of a sleeping potion so they would not have to experience any potentially painful changes about to happen. Rictus then brought out a bag of powdered dragon bone and some crushed scale fragments. He was hopeful to one day be able to just use his spells for making the alterations, but the materials were still needed for right now.

Horns fell to the ground as they were removed by his ax. A little bit of the skin around the horns was also removed for testing the dragon scales. Light then encompassed the male as powdered dragon bone and crushed scales moved towards the stumps on its head. Slowly, the horns began growing back out as the flesh knitted itself back together. After repeating the process for the female, Rictus stopped to observe his handy work.

Success! The horns of the goats had grown stronger and sharper while the skin in that area had grown much thicker. Unlike the thick coat of hair before, the top of the goats' head had thick leathery skin with whisps of hair coming from it, like an elephant. The horns were heavier than they were before, but increasing the corresponding muscles helped alleviate the problem. Had the horns been totally dragon bone, their weight may have been too much for the creature. Rictus was quite proud of the final changes while Rev could barely contained his excitement.

"It's a success! I knew it would be! Think of how much this could increase the power of some of my summons? If we get enough materials, can I use them on Honey the bear?"

"Hmm. I think that could be arranged. It would probably be a good idea for you to practice on your undead creature before moving on to the bones of live subjects. Enhancing the horns and some of the skin is easy enough, but I fear doing the other bones may be more challenging."

Rev's ecstatic expression was slightly tempered by confusion as he tried clarifying what was just said.

"Why would the other bones be more difficult? The horns didn't really pose much of a problem."

"Well, the main reason is that all the experiments have been with regrowing the bones and skin. The alter body spell is great for adding or removing things which are already present. Think of how we have altered most our members' eyes to see in the dark like the Khajiit. Humans and other races just have less of a certain part in their eyes as compared to Khajiit. Since the part is already present, making the change is relatively simple after some experimentation."

Rev nodded along with Rictus's explanation and continued listening attentively.

"From some of my scans, dragon bones have something in them which the bones of other races do not. I admit, I do now know what exactly gives them this quality, but that will hopefully come in time. For our purposes though, we are creating completely knew bones which are a mixture of normal bones and dragon bones. We are adding in a material which is not found there naturally. This means that for right now, we must completely build back the bones from scratch."

Realization dawned on Rev's face after that.

"Ah…removing and restoring certain bones would be very difficult. I understand your reasoning now. I do think me practicing on the undead would be good before we move towards live subjects. Even then, we may need to use young offspring of the animals since their bones are more pliable."

Rictus cringed a little bit at the wording and thought of doing the experiment on young animals, but the idea did have some merit.

"For now, let's focus on the horns of the animals and maybe some of the skin in key areas. Try to keep it as painless as possible since putting the animals through too much pain would make training them more difficult. I know getting a sizeable force will probably take years since we do not have the manpower to alter that many goats, and it takes a couple years for a goat to mature. A quick reaction force, especially in mountainous terrain would still be immensely useful."

After getting a nod from the redeemed necromancer, Rictus finished talking.

"Unfortunately, I have another appointment at the College to get to today so I cannot stay here with you. Let me know if you have any questions or need additional help. Keep me posted on your progress."

"Of course, sir. I will do my best on this whenever I am not out on missions elsewhere."

Rictus gave him a friendly smile and wave before taking off. Making sure to leave a couple bags of materials behind. While walking away, a thought occurred to him. 'Based on my own words earlier, maybe it wouldn't be that difficult to alter the rest of the bones in a body. If you just altered one, then the body now has an example to pull from. Then altering the rest to be the same as the first could be feasible. I don't know if that really would work though since the materials were still needed to create the new bone. Could just be a logical error on my part. Oh well, I'll let Rev test out his own theories first before mentioning mine. It will be good practice for him.'

A happy whistle could be heard as he left the hidden glen. Originally, he was going to stay and experiment a little more, but there was another meeting planned for today which could prove profitable.

A quick teleport later found Rictus inside the College of Winterhold. He had already sent a message informing Tolfdir of his arrival. It was time for them to perform a little ritual.

Awhile back, Tolfdir and Rictus had talked about a new spell Tolfdir was trying to create. Rictus already knew it was the dragonscale spell, but he was still interested in observing the process. So, he had agreed on helping the man out. Tolfdir needed a dragon heart scale for the ritual. The heart scale was no ordinary scale though and could only be retrieved using a special dagger called Kahvozein's Fang. It had been a ceremonial dagger used by a sect of the dragon cult who were quite fond of ritual sacrifices. They had taken pride in the sharpness of the dagger which could slice of individual dragon scales with ease.

Retrieving the Kahvozein's Fang would normally be quite difficult. Thankfully, all the hard work had already been done. The dagger was conveniently located at High Gate Ruins. The place which had been cleared a while ago when Rictus and the Companions helped out Anska. Sending a team of Restored to find the dagger was a trivial matter. The only thing he had been lacking for the ritual was a dragon corpse which he now had.

([AN]: Warning. The following paragraph is a completely fabricated piece of lore I made up because I liked the thought of it better than the game's explanation. If you really don't like it, just pretend that this is an AU story for this part. It won't really have a huge effect on the story or be a big deal, but I wanted to warn you.)

The heart scale was different than what he faintly remembered from the game. It was not located externally like all the other scales. Instead, the heart scales were found on the inner part of the spine near where the dragon's heart was located. As a dragon aged, these scales would grow until they encapsulated the heart once a dragon reached full maturity. They did not impede the hearts functions in anyways, but their strength and durability would act as an additional layer of protection, like the ribcage did to other organs. This made targeting the heart of a mature dragon ineffective.

Rictus quietly made his way through the college as everyone went about their business. The academic atmosphere was quite nice and a good change of pace for him. Memories of school and university were more pleasant for him compared to many people he knew. Rictus had always enjoyed school no matter what level. It had been fairly easy and didn't require much work or studying to get good grades. He would have gladly been a lifelong student if money wasn't an issue. Seeing young mages with their heads stuck in a book or hurrying towards their next lecture brought back sweet memories.

Once out in the courtyard, he made his way onto the ramparts of the college. The ritual would take place atop one of the towers since the spaces were specifically created for larger and more powerful rituals. There were special failsafes built into the towers in case something went wrong. Most of the spaces were used by conjuration mages, but occasionally other magic schools would use the spaces for practicing new spells.

Two people were diligently looking over a large ritual circle as one of them consulted a large worn looking book. Clearing his throat brought the two's attention to him. Tolfdir gave him an excited smile while moving to shake his hand.

"Ah Rictus, good of you to join us. We have been working diligently setting up the ritual. Everything is in order, besides the heart scale. I hope you do not mind me inviting Brelyna here for the demonstration. I have been helping her refine a novel spell she has been working on. Brilliant work, if a little unpredictable. This ritual could potentially give her some inspiration for her own work."

Rictus studied the younger looking dark elf. She was wearing traditional mage robes which had some strong enchantments upon them. Her medium length black hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail which highlighted her pointed ears. Sharp eyebrows rested above large dark red eyes. Light freckles dotted her cheeks and nose.

He had seen her a few times but had not interacted with her before. She had been with Morrigan the first time they met while fighting the magical anomalies. They had also crossed paths a couple times in the hallways of the college when he had visited for business. She had actually been one of the people he thought of recruiting and making a Minion, but Morrigan had already beat him to it.

"I don't mind at all. Talking about magic can only get one so far. Seeing and being part of new magical experiments can lead to inspiration. It has for me at least."

She gave a polite nod of her head in agreeance.

"I am thankful Master Tolfdir has given me this chance. Observing a master level alteration ritual in action is not something commonly seen."

A smile crept to his face at her wording. Many mages would consider his teleportation glyphs to be a master level alteration ritual, and those saw use daily.

"Well then, we shouldn't put it off any longer. Here's your heart scale."

Tolfdir grabbed it excitedly as he carefully placed it in the ritual circle. There was a place directly in the middle of the ritual for it to be placed. Obscure arcane symbols surrounded the scale in a spiral pattern where they grew larger the further away from the center they got. A few different components were arrayed inside the circle, including a blank book.

"Wonderful, just wonderful! And it's just as I suspected. The energies need to be channeled back through the nexus a second and third time..."

The symbols and lines of the ritual glowed blue as magical energies pulsed through it. The heart scale slowly began dissolving while an inky blackness covered the book. As the final pulse of magic burned its way through the circle, the darkness covering the book slowly faded away revealing the symbol for alteration on the cover. Once the magic had fully dissipated, Tolfdir turned back towards him.

"And that's it. I certainly think you deserve the first copy of the tome, but would you consider an alternative instead?"

Rictus was a little taken aback by the request. He had been expecting to receive the book but couldn't help but be interested in the trade. Seeing his interest, Tolfdir quickly continued.

"I have a tome containing the blueprints of the ritual as well as my notes in creating it. I will give this to you if you agree that when you create more of them, you will provide me at least 10. They can be spaced out however you like, but I would like one at least every other month."

It was a tempting offer. The ritual lines had already dissipated after running its course. He could potentially create it from memory, but it would take some trial and error to get it perfectly correct again. Also, seeing Tolfdir's personal notes on the subject could prove enlightening.

"Hmm. Getting heart scales is no easy task. I will agree to give you 6 of them and deliver them no later than one every two months. This is a master level spell after all. It is not like there will be a huge market for such a thing."

Tolfdir smiled and nodded at the counter argument.

"Splendid. I do believe that will be an appropriate arrangement. I look forward to future collaborations with you."

They shook hands after that as Tolfdir handed him a journal containing all the relevant information. Rictus could barely hold his excitement at the prospect of working with the information contained within it. His thoughts were consumed by what could be. 'If we used a heart scale to create a spell which emulates dragon scales, what if we substituted other body parts and changed the corresponding runes? Could we make something like wings? Or even vocal cords? Would vocal cords even make a difference? Ugh…I regret agreeing to meet Dante tomorrow. Maybe I can do a little experimentation tonight…that could work.'

He looked up from his thoughts to find Tolfdir gone. Brelyna was still there though and giving him a curious look. Seeing him look at her finally she spoke.

"Tell Reysera the House isn't aware of her yet. They are most likely too occupied to care though. Let her know not to contact me anymore. I don't want to be drawn into any more House drama."

Without waiting for a response, she turned and walked away. Rictus just stood there a moment pondering her words.

"Well, that wasn't ominous or foreboding at all."

He shook it off though as he looked at the journal in his hands. He would have to hurry if he planned on getting any sleep before meeting Dante tomorrow.

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[AN:] Rictus will finally visit the Hall of the Vigilant next chapter. Also, sorry for the lack of responses to comments. I have been a little busy recently so haven't had the time to properly review and respond. I still love getting the ideas though since they help me a lot. Thanks for those of you who do comment.