I read through the captain's journal. After that I ended up rereading it. This was a fucking mess! I looked at Sorex and Viree, "Okay, so I'll summarize some of this."
They nodded, they had already been waiting for me to read it all. So I began telling them, "So the story basically starts when the pirates followed an Atmoran Burial vessel to a crypt. Which is just a truly awful idea. After that things spiraled out of control. They killed the burial keepers to steal the keys to the crypt."
"From there they discovered valuables at the beginning of the crypt. These were offering to the dead obviously. However they decided to go deeper into the crypt. They didn't really encounter any undead, but according to the journal the graves were literally locked down with cages. As they went down it got colder and colder. Eventually they started seeing Stalhrim deposits. Which had some ancient nordic pickaxes among the deposits."
Viree cut in, "So the artifact thing?"
I continued, "I was getting to that. Eventually they got to a vault. One similar to the ones here in skyrim. The pirates being the fools they were shattered the vault door with pickaxes. Once they got in they found the gold, silver, ebony even the hearts of daedra. Above all of that though, was the artifact."
"It doesn't say how they found this out, but the artifact is called the Hearth of Isazmelta. One of the sailors was overcome with greed and grabbed the Hearth. That was when the first sailor started to freeze into Stalhrim. A never-melting ice stronger than steel. From there they basically transport everything to the ship including the guy who froze."
Sorex than asked, "What about the crypt? The artifact?"
I shrugged, "Honestly the crypt doesn't matter." I got a gut feeling for what the place was so I explained. "Simply put, that crypt was actually a stalhrim processing site. Basically corpses go in, stalhrim comes out. Though it is most likely a real crypt for burials. It just has other purposes."
Viree asked then, "The Artifact? Where is it now? I'd prefer not to become stalhrim."
Sorex included, "You are from Atmora right?"
I nodded, and the same gut feeling struck me. So I explained, "The Hearth of Isazmelta is a sort of Gem. A special enchanted jewel made in secret. From what I can say, it was made from a living storm."
Truthfully I didn't know how I knew that. It felt like the information was a memory and yet at the same time. It felt like reading a guide book. I rubbed the back of my head, "Anyway the Hearth of Isazmelta is locked inside a strongbox inside another chest down in the cargo hold. The Captian put it there so it wouldn't cause anymore problems. However this was an act of self sacrifice which left him like the rest of his crew."
"We can loot the rest of the ship when we wake up. I am pretty sure I know how to handle the artifact. I've never seen the thing, but I got a pretty good feeling about it."
Viree sighed and grabbed the side of her sleeping bag. Sorex nodded, "I'll keep first watch. Best to keep the fire going. I'll wake you up for the second watch Vek." He looked at Viree and whispered, "She scares me a little."
I held in a chuckle. Viree definitely heard him. She spent a long time as a werewolf. No way she doesn't have heightened senses. I turned over, hopefully I can level up tonight.
It wasn't long until I woke up in the dreamscape. I was surprised to see I had leveled up twice though. I placed both attribute points into mana. Stamina could increase my carry weight. However I had yet to reach that limit. So Mana was more important.
I had 4 perk points though. I think I am getting way more perk points than I should. Well actually I am getting more perk points than I should. I seems to get 1-3 each level up, though how the number was determined I had no clue.
I tossed my perk points into speechcraft. Combat was yet to be... difficult. I didn't want to jinx that, but it was true. I believe named enemies will prove challenging in combat or maybe foes that are able to protect their vitals. So for now speechcraft was my choice.
Speechcraft was currently 78. I had the basic persuasion, intimidation and bribery perk points maxed out. While the rest of the points in the persuasion branch. Which was maxed out Allure and Kinship. Along with the bardcraft perk point. I needed 80 points in speechcraft for the silver tongue perk though.
Which meant I had started point perk points in the bribery branch. I had 3 points in haggling, a perk point in Salesman and a perk point in Fencer. Which meant I could sell any item to anyone as well as stolen goods. Though I had yet to really sell anything.
I looked at alteration skill tree. I realized I might need to start power leveling it. I didn't even know if power leveling would work. I paused, actually... Why don't I just use Harvest on all the Stalhrim deposits.
I smirked, That would certainly be one way to handle them. Not to mentioned it could allow me to test the carry limit I had. I think I needed access to an ancient pickaxe though. Perhaps I can use the harvest spell on the deposit with the pickaxe stuck in it?
I felt something tug at me. I realized Sorex must be trying to wake me up. So before I was possibly dragged out of the dreamscape I left willingly through the exit.