Hour 14: The Saarthal Expedition

Time for a character update. As a Conjuration mage, here are my vital stats:

Level: 18

Magicka: 420 blaze it

Health: 100

Stamina: 100

Conjuration: 75

Alteration: 46

Destruction: 37

Restoration: 37

Illusion: 21

Enchanting: 21

All other skills extremely low

Spells learned: 31

Favourite spell: Fire - Potent Flames

Favourite school: Destruction (don't see how this is possible tbh)

Locations discovered: 65

Dungeons cleared: 9

Days passed: 17

Gold found: 28,403

Quests completed: 9

Misc objectives completed: 6

People killed: 103

Animals killed: 110

Creatures killed: 60

Undead killed: 25

Daedra killed: 15

Automatons killed: 15

Assaults: 20

Murders: 15

Largest bounty: 6080

Total lifetime bounty: 9245

I head inside Saarthal and complete the quest, which is quite straightforward. Tolfdir accompanies me through the ruins, and we battle through traps, Draugr, and a simple puzzle. I'm warned by a ghostly vision of a Psyjic mage that only I am capable of preventing disaster. Well of course, I'm going to be the most powerful mage Tamriel has ever seen! But I shan't be preventing disaster - I shall be the disaster. Anyway, the trusting Tolfdir isn't to know this, for now at least. As an aside, I do marvel at the sheer breadth and depth of the backstory and lore for The Elder Scrolls. The Psyjic Order, a mysterious group of mages who vanished over a century ago; that sounds incredibly awesome. Then there's the Blades, the Dark Brotherhood, Dragon Priests, Daedric Princes, the Mythic Dawn, Dwemer, Thalmar, Dawnguard, and the list goes on and on.

At the end of the dungeon we discover a huge glowing orb, guarded by a named Draugr:

I stay up high and summon my army of skeletons to keep him occupied while Tolfdir drains the orb of power, and the Draugr lord is then cut down in short order. I very much enjoyed pitting my summoned Undead against the more sinewy Ancient Nord undead of the tomb, and altogether it was quite an enjoyable quest. I return to the College and get to meet the Archmage, and the Orc librarian in the College tells me that in order to learn more about the orb I'll need to retrieve some stolen books which a rogue student made off with.