"This is the place."
Following Isran's orders to investigate Dimhollow Crypt, we arrived at the cave's entrance accompanied by Tolan.
"Ugh... it's freezing..."
I surveyed our surroundings. Snow was piled high on the mountain ridges flanking the cave, and a dry, biting wind whipped across my face.
Since Dimhollow Crypt was located in The Pale, south of Dawnstar, it was naturally bone-chilling. Being someone who absolutely loathed the cold, Choi Ha-neul tried to stave off the chill by vigorously rubbing her arms.
"Then let's head inside."
The cave was pitch-black. We had no choice but to rely on torches.
"I can't see a single thing..."
Torches in this medieval world weren't exactly high-quality light sources. Unlike a flashlight from Earth that can illuminate dozens of meters, a torch barely covers a few meters around you.
It wouldn't be so bad if everyone was equally blind, but we were up against vampires. They are creatures of the night, perfectly acclimated to the dark. They could likely spot us easily even in this crushing obsidian gloom.
In short, fighting in a dark cave was a massive disadvantage for us.
"Just a moment."
As everyone hesitated, Eloise spoke up. She cupped her hands together, concentrating Magicka between them until light began to leak through the gaps of her fingers.
When she opened her hands, a sphere of pure white light began to hover around her.
"Whoa! You can do that too?"
"It's only basic magic, but..."
I had almost forgotten, but Eloise didn't just have a talent for Restoration; she was skilled in Alteration magic as well. Between healing, buffs, and now providing light, she was proving to be a top-tier support. Recruiting her from the Winterhold Community College was definitely one of my better decisions.
The sphere of light illuminated a good twenty meters around us. With this, the battlefield wouldn't be so one-sided.
Thanks to the orb, we secured our visibility and pressed deeper into the cave.
Tolan and Choi Ha-neul took the front line, while I followed right behind them. Lydia brought up the rear, shielding Eloise while she maintained the light spell.
Our boots splashed through the puddles of stagnant water on the cave floor as we advanced.
Unlike the entrance, the deeper we went, the more our eyes adjusted to the faint glow of bioluminescent plants and mushrooms scattered about.
Suddenly, the sound of conversation echoed from the far side of the cavern. I immediately signaled Eloise to kill the light.
She dimmed the spell until the sphere gave off nothing more than the soft glow of a candle.
As we moved deeper, the voices grew clearer. We suppressed our presence and peered toward the source.
Crimson pupils, sharp fangs, and skin so pale it was sickening—as if it hadn't touched sunlight in decades. This was my first time seeing a vampire in person since arriving in Skyrim.
"Honestly, those Vigilant bastards just don't know when to quit."
"Stupid prey. What do they know?"
I pulled out the crossbow I'd received from Isran and aimed it at the chatting pair.
—Grrr... Bark! Bark!
The moment I went to pull the trigger, a Death Hound caught our scent and started barking, blowing our cover.
—Thwip!
The steel bolt fired from the crossbow and buried itself squarely in one vampire's right eye.
"Gah!"
I thought they wouldn't feel pain since they're a type of undead, but the creature shrieked in agony, clawing at the bolt to pull it out.
What happened next, however, left me speechless.
The second the bolt was removed, the ruptured eyeball began to regenerate at an incredible speed.
"Holy..."
Their regenerative ability was nothing short of miraculous.
—Snarl!
The Death Hound that had spotted us first lunged and sank its teeth into Tolan's leg.
Grimacing through the pain, Tolan remained calm and brought his two-handed warhammer down hard on the beast's head. The Death Hound slumped to the floor, dead instantly, oozing dark blood and brain matter. He was clearly an experienced undead hunter from the Vigilants.
"Just mere prey!"
"Die!"
The vampires, having lost their dog, charged at us. Tolan swung his hammer in a wide arc, forcing them back. As one vampire dodged and retreated, Choi Ha-neul lunged forward, thrusting her Blades Sword.
"Eh?"
She had definitely aimed for the heart. The sharp blade pierced the vampire's chest, and thick, dark blood dripped from the point protruding through his back—but the vampire didn't die.
Ignoring the sword embedded in his chest, the vampire reached out and gripped Ha-neul's neck, his fingers tightening like a vise.
—Grip!
"Ack... khk...!"
The vampire's supernatural strength caused her face to turn pale blue almost instantly. With her airway cut off, Ha-neul began to thrash in desperate struggle.
"You bastard!"
Tolan immediately intervened, shattering the vampire's leg with a heavy hammer strike. The grip on Ha-neul's throat finally loosened.
—Crunch!
The moment she was free, Tolan delivered a finishing blow, crushing the vampire's skull.
While Tolan and Ha-neul dealt with that one, Lydia and I had already taken down the remaining vampire. I rushed over to the gasping girl.
"Are you okay?!"
"Cough... I'm... fine!"
The handprints on her neck were deep, showing how hard the creature had squeezed, but they faded quickly once a healing spell was applied.
"Vampires... they truly are formidable," Tolan muttered under his breath.
He wasn't lying. The ones we just killed were just low-level fodder, not even bosses, and they were still a nightmare to deal with. If these grunts were this tough, how powerful were the named vampires of Castle Volkihar or Lord Harkon himself?
Regrouped and ready, we continued deeper into the labyrinth.
We encountered more vampires and skeletons along the way, but they mostly traveled in pairs. Applying what we had learned from the first skirmish, we dispatched them with relative ease.
Carefully navigating traps and fodder mobs, we finally reached a section with an iron gate and a pull-lever.
'Serana should be sleeping just beyond this.'
As a player, it would be a lie to say I wasn't excited about this meeting. I wanted to pull the lever and open the gate immediately, but a giant spider was nesting right in front of the door.
The spider looked large and imposing, though it was smaller than the one we had hunted back at Bleak Falls Barrow.
"Wait a second."
I intended to snipe it in the head with my crossbow while it slept, but Choi Ha-neul stopped me and asked to handle it herself.
As she approached, the spider woke and spat a glob of venom. She anticipated the trajectory, dodged it effortlessly, closed the distance in a flash, and drove her sword through its head.
—Squelch!
Her growth compared to our early spider hunts was incomparable.
'Last time, she panicked the second the spider lunged at her.'
With the sentry spider cleared, we pulled the lever and stepped inside. Beyond the gate, the decor looked like an ancient mansion, dotted with statues that resembled winged demons.
"Careful with those statues. They're alive."
Just as Tolan warned, these weren't simple sculptures; they were Gargoyles that would animate if anyone got too close.
Then, a massive, cavernous space opened up before us.
"Why don't you just give up already?"
"I have nothing to say to you. Do you think a servant of Stendarr would yield to your filthy kind?"
—Thud!
"Ha...! Persistent bastard."
Since the room we were in was on a high ledge, we could look down and see the scene clearly: a group of vampires were torturing a captured Vigilant of Stendarr.
"Looks like we have uninvited guests."
The leader of the three vampires looked up at us and spoke. I immediately summoned a Storm Atronach, and Choi Ha-neul hurled a Fireball at the group.
—K-Boom!
Fireballs have excellent power, but their projectile speed is a weakness. The vampires reacted instantly, leaping out of the way and taking zero damage.
—Boom! Boom!
She continued to spam spells while Tolan and I jumped down to engage them directly.
—Clang! Schwing!
Vampires really were something else—fast, durable, and possessing that damn regeneration. But that was about it.
They were strong, but between our combined efforts and the Storm Atronach, they were manageable.
—Zzzzzzt!
"AAAAAGH!"
I drove a Bound Sword through the heart of one creature currently spasming from the Atronach's lightning. I immediately summoned a new blade and shoved it through his skull for good measure.
—Thump
No matter how well a vampire regenerates, they can't survive a destroyed brain. Now only the leader of the trio remained. Even for a high-level vampire, there's no defense against being ganged up on; our coordinated attacks soon had him looking like a tattered rag.
Still, he didn't go down easy—Tolan and Ha-neul were both sporting fresh injuries.
—Fus Ro Dah!
"Waaaaargh!"
Swept up by the Shout, the leader was blasted clear off the cliffside. With all the vampires cleared, we crossed the bridge toward the bizarre structure at the center of the cavern.
The circular floor was full of cracks, with brazier-like pedestals scattered around it. I walked to the center of the mechanism and placed my hand on a small, waist-high stone pillar.
—Stab!
A sharp needle shot out, piercing my palm.
"Gah!!"
"Are you okay?!"
It stung quite a bit, but Eloise healed me immediately, restoring my palm in an instant.
Moments later, the ground vibrated, and a purple light began to leak through the cracks in the floor. Purple flames flickered within the braziers.
"This is..."
"We have to arrange these braziers into the correct positions."
I led the way, sliding the braziers to match the patterns of light coming from the floor. As I moved the first one, a purple flame ignited. We pushed the remaining braziers into alignment with the violet glow.
The ground trembled as stone scraped against stone. Once the final puzzle piece was in place, the entire cavern started to shake.
—Rumbleeeee!
The center of the floor gradually sank, and a stone monolith rose from the very heart of the structure.
When I touched the stone pillar, one side of it slid open like a lid.
—Grind...
"A girl?" Ha-neul asked.
She was right. Inside the pillar was neither treasure nor artifact, but a woman appearing to be in her twenties, deep in sleep. As the door opened fully, she began to wake.
"Ugh... my head..."
Her legs seemed weak, as she collapsed onto the floor. When we saw her eyes and teeth, everyone recoiled.
Crimson glow and sharp fangs—she had every trait of a vampire.
"It's a vampire!"
"Wait! We don't know for sure if she's an enemy yet," I said, stepping in front of Tolan, who was already raising his hammer.
"Are you actually taking the side of that monster?"
"No... what I mean is—"
"Who sent you here?"
—...
Her single question silenced the room. After a moment, I cleared my throat and spoke as naturally as possible.
"Ahem. A man named Isran sent us."
"I've never heard that name... I thought someone more like me would come..."
"Someone like you?"
Even though I already knew her identity, I stuck to the dialogue from the game. The mysterious woman answered my prompt.
"As you can see... I'm a vampire."
"The Dawnguard will want you dead," Tolan cut in, lacking any sense of tact.
"Dawnguard? What is that?"
So much had changed during her long sleep that she was clearly bewildered. Lydia, who had been watching the woman closely, finally spoke up.
"Excuse me. That thing on your back... is that an Elder Scroll?"
"That's right... the Scroll... I need to take it home quickly," she muttered to herself.
"Are you feeling alright? First, let's get you up."
Regardless of the situation, the quest had to move forward. I reached out a hand to help her stand. She stared blankly at my extended hand for a moment before taking it and rising.
"May I ask your name?"
After standing up and brushing the dust off her clothes, she gave me a faint smile.
"I'm Serana. Nice to meet you."
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