An Account of the Disaster at Cheydinhal
An Account of the Disaster at Cheydinhal, Written by Silas Handro of the Black Courier
Word of mouth passes knowlege quick enough through the empire, though, from source to ear it oft gets horribly mangled. That is why I, Silas Handro, Investigative Journalist for the Black Courier, have braved body and soul to get to the bottom of all the rumuors and tales coming out of the Eastern Cyrodiil city.
Naturally, one has to see the locale first hand. Even well after the fact, the events that took place at Cheydinhal render this locale no different. Granted, the legion has done a good job in clean up, but it was not a fruitless endeavour as I had the chance to speak first hand with eye-witnesses, and see the scars left on the town.
At first glance, it looks like a small riot took place. A few trashed houses, and some buidlings missing windows. The people have a tired look about them. A large mass burial is also a sombre new addition to the town, which is rumored to hold as low as 20 to as many as a 100 bodies of various daedric cultists, legionnaires, and rioters. A deeper investigation led to two discoveries:
A large patch of dead grass outside the town separate from the new grave, indicative of an encampment, out by the watchtowers. I also found a Legion issued dagger. Strange, considering the official word from the White Gold is that the only response to the disaster the Legion had was to put down some rioting caused by daedric cultists...
Soul gems, scattered about the perimeter of the town. Perhaps indicative of necromancer activity?
These discoveries had my interest piqued. So, I took the next logical step, and began talking to the townspeople. Most of the people are reluctant to talk about the events, and a general story of Daedric cultists (sometimes worshippers of Vaermina, sometimes worshippers of Peryite, Sometimes, oddly enough, worshippers of Hermaeus Mora) using dangerous magicks to take control of the town and give the town guard a run for its money before the legion arrived is told. One odd coincidence arises among these stories. No one has a good memory of it, and all say it happened kind of like a dream.
One eyewitness did happen to have more information than the others. A local farmer, out by Lake Poppad. He requested to remain anonymous.
This eyewitness says that for the past three weeks, he'd noticed strange happenings from Cheydinhal. First thing, he saw black robed individuals began travelling from the far side of the lake, to Cheydinhal. Secondly, about three days later, he noticed traffic to and from Cheydinhal all but stopped. He says shortly after that is when the Legion arrived. He even states one legionnaire came running from Lake Poppad out of his wits, and died in his house! He showed me the bloodstains on his bed as proof. He said there was some strange magickal device that got the legion all worked up. Things got quiet then for about a week and a half, and then one night he heard a deafening roar from Cheydinhal.
He says his curiousity got the better of his fear, and he went to the outskirts of the town, only to see absolute anarchy. What he believes he saw was a terrible battle, involving a bright green dragon, and what he describes as 'tentacled demons' fighting alongside the legion, putting down zombies and creatures he says he's only seen in his nightmares. The fighting went on for a night, but he says the legion and their unholy allies won in the end. A terrifying story to behold firsthand, I tell you.
Now, I can't say that what this man saw was truth, but given his story, coupled with my investigation, the legion is clearly leaving out some parts of the story. Was this an Aldmeri terrorist attack? Are the Legion working with Daedra? why would the legion lie about its involvement prior to this event? Are we facing another Oblivion Crisis?
I don't know, but I promise you we won't get the whole story from the legion.
As always, editing for spelling and grammar. Questions and Comments welcome.
And in case anyone is wondering, yes, this is definitely written like a tabloid piece. I did that on purpose :P