~ 29th of Morning Star, 4E 228 ~
I'm so exhausted I can barely write these words, but I can't contain my excitement either. I have to write this story, if I never write another word again ... I have to write this story ...
Against my better judgement I decided to focus my efforts on the shades first. Originally I had intended to use a paralysis poison against the necromancer, deal with his shades, and then return my attention to him. The problem is that the paralysis only lasts for a brief time, long enough for me to kill one shade perhaps, but not all four. Even if I paralyzed the necromancer, he was going to be back in the fight before I could focus on him, and he'd still be able to raise up the bodies in the room.
So I went against my gut and followed my logic. I selected two arrows poisoned with a lingering health damaging mixture. I set my position near the doorway that led into the main chamber. Behind me was a long flight of steps. I would retreat up the steps when the time came, but until then my plan was to use the doorway as a choke point for the attack. I then took three potions myself ... a special archery fortification elixir I had found in the temple, one of the resistance potions I had created to protect from poison and fire and frost, and a magic resistance potion I'd also found on a shelf in the temple.
I don't believe in disturbing the dead, or stealing from them. My father demonstrated this the first time I saw a dead man, an unfortunate adventurer in a cave. He took nothing from the man's corpse, not even one gold coin. For this reason I was sure to not touch a single burial urn in the temple. I took nothing from the bodies of the dead that were strewn about the temple. But a potion on a shelf, that wasn't buried with someone's relative, and wasn't the property of someone that had just died, that was okay to take and use. And it's a good thing I did, because those few potions kept me alive tonight.
With an incredible amount of tension and apprehension, I let the first arrow go and watched as it sailed through the air to it's mark. It was almost like a dream, everything moving slowly for just a moment. But then the arrow struck home, sending poison into the shade, and the dream was shattered. Chaos ensued.
I could never in a million lifetimes imagined the fight that followed. I've not fought dragons as my father did, so I won't make any comparisons, but I will say this was a fight for a bard to sing about.
With four shades and a necromancer rushing toward the doorway, I let my second arrow go, making sure to strike a different shade this time. The was a slow acting poison, and I wanted to spread the impact. The plan had been to send two more arrows with the same poison into the other two shades, but as I mentioned, chaos ensued. Within moments I couldn't determine which shade was which, and all four were about to rush through the doorway.
Now at this point I was very tempted to use my arrows poisoned with the paralysis poison. Every fiber of my being was begging me to do it. And I had enough to put all four shades on the ground. But I knew my real foe was the necromancer, Malkoran as Meridia had called him. I was saving the paralysis for him. Again, I was certain how powerful he was, but I had to assume he was quite capable if he was able to take over a daedra's temple.
The only good news at this point was that Malkoran wasn't reanimating the dead bodies in the main room. This was not just good news, it was incredible news. There were easily a dozen bodies in the room, and if he had begun raising them all I wouldn't be writing these words right now.
As it was, the shades came rushing through the door, furious at my presence. And I switched to arrows poisoned with a slowing poison. This poison also harms the target, but the main effect is that it reduces one's ability to move quickly. This was critical for me to buy some time to backpedal up the stairs while continuing to fire arrows on the shades as they pursued me. The difficult part was ensuring that I poisoned each of the shades, which I definitely did not accomplish. By the time I reached the top of the stairs only one of the shades was dead, and the others were either slowed or were right on top of me. I had hoped to be in a better position at this point, but I was not.
I was forced to take several health potions as I did my best to fight with a bow in close quarters against multiple enemies with swords and axes and hammers. I used more poisons, and fought the urge to use the paralysis poisons. I was being pummeled, but I had to stick to the plan. As bad as things were with the shades, they were only going to get worse when Malkoran got more involved. I knew this much for certain.
He was content to stay back and send shards of ice at me while his minions did the dirty work. They nearly killed me on several occasions, but I managed to stay on my feet and put the last of them down. At this point the frantic pace of the battle switch to a more ominous one, as I confronted Malkoran head to head. I quickly grabbed an arrow tipped with paralysis, and let the shot go. To my absolute horror ... I missed.
Malkoran was moving side to side, sending large spikes of ice in my direction, and he was also moving up and down the steps. It wasn't an easy shot, but it was a shot I needed to make. My heart sank and I felt a bit of panic in my gut. I quickly readied the second arrow and let it go. It would have been understandable to try and take a bit more time with the aim on the second arrow, but I didn't. I had to trust myself and know that I would hit my mark the second time. There was no time to carefully aim. It was all instinct and muscle memory at this point.
The second arrow hit him, and I was in a bit of disbelief that it did. Again, it was not an easy shot by any standard. But I heard it hit and I saw Malkoran collapse on the steps. I ran over to his inert body and began to fill it with the arrows I had left. In hindsight, I probably should have used my dagger, as I would have been able to strike faster. But my bow is like my right hand. I never thought to use my dagger.
By this point I was spent. The intensity of the fight had been nothing short of epic, and it wasn't over yet. One after another I put the arrows I had left into his body. And to my surprise he began to rise again. I had mistakenly assumed he likely mine to kill. He was not.
I quickly prepared another poison arrow and struck him before he could fight back. But after a brief bit he was rising again, and I used my final paralysis arrow to keep him down. Finally I heard a horrid sound, as his life expired. Unfortunately the fight was not over. In death, Malkoran had become a shade himself. I backed up, firing off arrows, hitting with each one. I used both of my magicka damaging poisons, and then quite suddenly ... reached back to my quiver and realized it was empty. I was out of arrows.
Panic set in at this point. I had no intentions of getting in close with this evil spawn with a dagger in my hand. I had already used the powerful health potion I had found, and I was down to just a few more of my own health potions. I needed this fight to end quickly. Very quickly.
Suddenly I had the idea to run back over to Malkoran's body and see if I could quickly grab the arrows from it. I was able to pull out four, and one by one I used them. First arrow .. hit. Second arrow .. hit. Third arrow .. hit. As I set the fourth and final arrow to the bowstring, I felt a bit of peace come over me. In that moment I hadn't given up hope, but I had accepted that I was going to die. Oddly enough, for just a moment in time, the panic and fear disappeared. I let the arrow go ... put it in the hands of fate and the gods ... and watched in stunned amazement as this final arrow, my very last arrow ... killed Malkoran once and for all.
I'm still in total disbelief as I write this. I cannot believe how this journey has unfolded. How ironic that I made it to the temple without using a single arrow, and then survived to write this story because I had one arrow left. How differently would this chain of events have gone if I had used even just one arrow on that wolf in the road, instead of avoiding him altogether? Amazing.