Oblivion Mod:Stirk/Weight of Guilt, Part II

nce I had procured the name of the necromancer, who oddly enough was a Dunmer, I exited the building to inquire of her whereabouts to Kevius. He assured me that Artisa Arethi would not be too difficult to deal with; it seems that when she had first moved to Cyrodiil from Morrowind years ago, she was very defensive, and very, very private. As she realized that necromancy wasn't the absolute taboo in Cyrodiil that it was in Morrowind, she gradually softened her manner.

Kevius was kind enough to give me directions to her home, but seemed taken aback when I made another request of him:

"At the moment, I cannot tell you why, but I need for you to do something, not question it, and remain silent about it until further notice. Is this possible?" Cautiously, he agreed. "Very well, then. I want you to go to each of the houses these murders took place in, but I do not want you to enter any of them. You are to search around them, and try to find glass from a shattered window. Check the sites in the order they occurred. If you're able to find glass at one, sit and make sure no one disturbs it, and do not disturb it yourself. Are you willing to do this?" Kevius nodded with his regular animation.

That done, we parted ways and I proceeded on to Artisa Arethi's home. Having seen necromancer's caves in Morrowind, as well as Velothi towers they seemed to enjoy invading, I must say a simple house was a nice change of pace. Artisa greeted me with surprising warmth, considering the situation.

"Sera Fuchon," she explained "You must understand that - despite my charm - it is not everyone who offers their body to me to look after when they've passed to Oblivion. While I do pay surviving family members handsomely, there is a level of trust and familiarity involved. I mean, would you want your corpse handled by just anyone? No, I think not. So I must say, while having a number of bodies on hand is good for my practice, I'd rather have acquired them later in life. They were good sorts, and certainly undeserving of murder."

"Then you would not mind showing me the bodies?" I asked hopefully.

Artisa nodded. "Certainly. There are others who have promised me bodies, who I would similarly wish no ill upon. If doing so will help you identify or catch the killer, then I am at your service." she paused a moment, then went on cautiously "Sera Fuchon, I considered these people friends. While I'm not hunted as I would be back home, I do not have so many friends as to suffer much more loss." she resumed her normal speaking voice "I keep the bodies in the basement, on stone slabs. It's the coolest room in the house, and they keep better there. I do try not to offend the neighbors too much with the rot."

As she began to lead me toward the stairs, she paused again, flustered. "Sera Fuchon, I almost forgot to warn you. And I -- I. . . let me explain. . . As you can see, I am not especially strong, or used to carrying around the weight of a dead body. There is someone in the basement for that, and it's. . . well, I'm not entirely sure it's legal to have him in the city. It's -- he's not -- that is. . . he's an Ogrim."

"An Ogrim?" I considered thoughtfully, "Did you summon him?"

"Well, yes. I doubt I could have snuck him into the city. I also doubt I could reproduce the spell; I'd been trying to summon a Daedroth - takes up less space - but I must have gotten something wrong. At any rate, he's cheaper to keep on that man or mer, he doesn't complain, and he follows direction. He does tend to. . . eat bodies when I've finished with them, though."