[X] Secure the Elder Scroll. Do this before going to sleep.
[X] Wait in the Castle until Vita gets here, making sure it's cleaned and supplied properly.
- [X] Get to know the vampires around the castle. Try to find someone who is interesting.
-- [X] Also try to figure out who might be a halfway decent steward to take care of this place while you're off travelling
You sigh again and turn to leave the room. While you don't know where the Elder Scroll is, you know where someone who should know is – or at least, you know where her room is. It's not too far from your new room, and you knock politely on Serana's door. There's a muffled cry of irritation, and after a few moments she throws the door open, glaring furiously until she realizes that it was you who knocked on her door. Her face pales and she gapes for a moment, trying to come up with something to say.
"You have the Elder Scroll, right?" Her shock turns to confusion and she stares blankly at you until she shakes herself and adopts a suspicious expression.
"I … yes, I do still have it. I thought you didn't believe in the prophecy." She stands in the doorway, blocking your way in, and you clear your throat aggressively, gesturing toward the room.
"I don't," you reply as she makes room and you float in, surveying her room. You note with irritation that she has a bed, but you turn toward her when the Scroll doesn't immediately reveal itself. "However, I also don't intend to allow others the chance to abuse it, and so I shall be taking charge of its security." Serana gives you an odd look but moves to the upper level and ducks under the far side of the bed.
"It's not like anyone could read it, but if you'd rather keep track of it, I'm more than happy to oblige." She comes up with a long scroll, rolled up, and gingerly hands it to you. It's oddly heavy, and curious as to what all the fuss is about, you unroll it. Serana gasps in shock and jumps back, but you stare in confusion. There's nothing there. It's not invisible, or even a blank sheet, it's just … nothing. Like the end of existence, or like the space you're looking at doesn't exist, and the scroll is still rolled up. You quickly look at the back of the scroll, just to make sure, and it's normal, and you frown at the front. Thinking that maybe it needs to be 'triggered' in some fashion, you quickly look for the Scroll's Eye, only for a chill to run throughout your spine as the Scroll remains nonexistent. You try to focus on the parts of it that definitely exist, and you feel it start to slip away, fading out of existence until you stop and roll it back up. Unnerved as you are, you are still more disturbed when you find that the Scroll simply won't join the rest of your things, stubbornly remaining in the world. You try to shrug as nonchalantly as you can, and you smile at Serana as she stares at you, a horrified expression on her face.
"Don't worry, I'll take good care of it!" Saluting jauntily with the impossible Scroll, you stride out of the room and return to your own. Of course, with your preferred means of safeguarding it removed, you're forced to resort to more mundane methods, and you eventually punch a hole in one of the walls with Laevateinn, hiding it in the just-big-enough space. Then, with nothing else of importance requiring your immediate attention, you transform into a bat and curl up on top of one of the gargoyle statues mounted on the wall. They may be terrified of you, and you may be more than a match for the entire castle, but you're not stupid enough to give them a free shot just yet.
The next two weeks are simply exhausting, but you manage to whip the castle into shape. Your room is renovated, the torture implements removed and placed near the dungeon, and you arrange for a nice bed from the fort to be brought there. In fact, you arrange for much of the fort to be brought to the castle, with the elves – who happen to be Thalmor – and their prisoners serving as food and, if they're good, as servants. One woman, hard-faced and fairly strong, tries to attack you as you're inspecting the dungeon, only to be dragged down by Dormarth and Sköll. Some of the vampires disapprove of being forced to clean up the castle and do actual physical work, but your own example, as well as your willingness to kill them out of hand, does wonders for getting them to actually work. You do have to travel to Solitude, not for a meal, although you do enjoy yourself, but to get some tea, because there's none in the castle. As if you needed any more indications of barbarism. You also pick up some excellent art supplies, and in the same warehouse you find some decent wine and a selection of silver jewelry; you take the wine but leave the jewelry. Solitude itself almost seems like it would be a nicer place to live; certainly, the architecture is more familiar and higher-quality, and much more comfortable. A shame you're living at Volkihar, really.
While it's being renovated, you interview the other residents, hoping for someone interesting – and, hopefully, someone trustworthy enough to serve as castellan. A few of your new servants have to leave as a result. Feran Sadri takes several, including Fura Bloodmouth, south to Whiterun in search of Babette. You'd shown him the potion she gave you and explained that, while you never used it, she seemed to be claiming that it protected against the sun. Apparently the sun affects their kind far more dangerously than it does you, and even the possibility of a potion to mitigate the effects was enough to send him off, almost hysterically eager. Orthjolf, meanwhile, took another small group out to ensure that the nearby ruins and forts were uninhabited, or inhabited by a group unlikely to disrupt your castle. Vingalmo you don't trust enough to send out – not that Orthjolf is trustworthy, either, but he's more direct, and if he tries anything against you it'll pit his strength against your strength. Few of the vampires are at all interesting, though, at least over the short time you have to get to know them. The thrallmaster is quite uninterested in anything except his charges, but he is quite pleased at your reforms. The forgemistress, too, is quite apolitical, focusing on her duties to the exclusion of all else – especially since those duties now include more than the creation and upkeep of arms and armor. Almost the entirety of the remainder are servants of either Vingalmo or Orthjolf, directly or indirectly, or actively unwilling to involve themselves in higher politics even at the risk of your anger.
The greatest exception, of course, is Serana. As the closest thing to an equal you possess at the moment, she actually has some noble bearing and a bit of the knowledge and charisma needed to run a castle, and she's powerful enough to handle anything short of a full-scale rebellion on her own. She's rather lost at the moment, though, out of her time and still trying to adapt to her surroundings. The other exception, and the natural choice for castellan, is Garan Marethi – he would simply be doing the same thing he's been doing for centuries, only without a direct overseer. He's rather blunt, uncaring for the subtleties of political maneuvering but knowledgeable enough of the plays to hold his own. Rather like yourself, although you aren't sure he can be trusted … well, you don't think any of them can truly be trusted, but Garan is refreshingly direct about only following you because of your overwhelming power.
But as the second week draws to a close, you sit on top of the watchtower under an awning, sketching the castle and thinking about its changes. Your room – Harkon's old room – is livable; the main hall no longer has bones and blood scattered about; the undercroft is being restored to usability, potentially as a secondary holding pen; and access to the other towers is being worked on … although you have already explored parts of them, only to find that not a whole lot has survived the years, and all of it would need to be repaired. Pianos, too, seem unknown, which annoys you to no end. Garan seems to have taken the lead in ensuring your desires are fulfilled – at least with regards to the castle's reclamation – and your position is as secure as your limited time here can make it. As a result, you have some time on your hands, leading to your current location and activity. You sip at the tea, frowning a bit at the unfamiliar taste, and consider the Elder Scroll. You tried observing it at different times of night and day, tried studying it more intently and less, but all results were the same as your initial attempt. You also found that it makes for a decent weapon in extremis, and even striking it fully with Laevateinn failed to so much as crease the material. You came to two conclusions – either the Elder Scroll, and possibly all Elder Scrolls, doesn't exist … or else it's not real in the sense of normal material things. The first you dismiss out of hand; of course it's real, that's self-evident, and the only way to argue otherwise would be to concoct some silly 'reality is a dream' nonsense. You certainly aren't someone else's dream, and you didn't just wander into a dream, either. So the only reasonable explanation is that the Elder Scrolls exist, they just aren't real. Which sounds like nonsense, too, except you know better. The Scroll has a prophecy written on it, and prophecies – accurate or not – are manifestations of Fate. Fate as a force is irresistible and cannot be destroyed, therefore the Scrolls existing as manifestations of Fate explains their inviolability and your inability to see them. That's certainly a much better explanation than your having doomed yourself by looking at it. Harkon looked at it, didn't he, and he went mad. But since you didn't see it, because Remilia protected you, you won't go mad. That's right, it's an aspect of Fate, and your sister protected you from Fate, so you are as sane as you've always been.
Nodding gently to yourself, you turn back to look toward the mainland. The Dawnguard are maybe two hundred meters from the shore, now, and while wandering about in broad daylight isn't normally the best way to get things done covertly, they happen to be invading an island of vampires. You notice some of them looking up, so you poke your head out from under the awning to see if there's something there, but you can't see anything interesting. For a moment, you'd thought Vita was with them, but it looks like the fools came alone. You can't tell if the madman is there, though, due to their helms, but if he is you might just end up killing him on general principles.
What do you do?
[ ] Stay on the tower.
- [ ] Parley when they come ashore.
- - Tone?
- [ ] Kill them.
[ ] Fly out to the boat.
- [ ] Parley.
- - Tone?
- [ ] Kill them.
[ ] Return to the Castle and wait for them to make it to the Gate.
- [ ] Welcome them as guests.
- [ ] Kill them.
[ ] Ignore them and let your minions deal with them however they like.
[ ] Other?
DM Note: I don't think I'm missing anything I planned on including. If you want clarifications on things that happened, particularly over the skip, feel free to ask.
