The Oghma Infinium

Talin is showered with dust and broken bits of mortar as an azure ball of fire shears through the pillar he takes cover behind, mere inches above his head. Deep within the winding halls of the Crypt of Grolus, he nears his goal of retrieving the fabled Oghma Infinium, yet his way is blocked by a hostile mage who clearly desires the artifact as much as he does.

Taking a steadying breath, he eyes another nearby pillar and quickly dashes to safety, tossing a spell of his own in the direction of his attacker as he does. The mage, a wizened Breton with cold grey eyes and hooded robes, gives Talin a mocking smile as he effortlessly slaps the spell aside.

Just as he slips behind the pillar, waves of coruscating projectiles begin tearing it apart. The mage is relentless in his attacks. Drawing on lessons nearly forgotten with time, he conjures a shimmering, transparent shield around himself and charges from cover. The mage stands on the other side of a deep gulf in the dungeon floor, leading down into darkness. Trusting in his shield spell to keep him alive, he leaps over the gap and quickly closes with his quarry. Longsword in hand, he brings it slashing down towards the head of the mage, who catches the blow upon a wicked ebony dagger with uncanny speed.

Despite the superior reach of his weapon and the protection of his kite shield, Talin is forced back towards the gap from the rain of vicious blows from the mage, whose white goatee and wrinkled face bely fierce strength and agility. Between his lightning fast-attacks with the dagger, the mage unleashes several gouts of fire from his free hand, nearly blinding him with their intensity and quickly whittling down his shield. Growing desperate, he thinks back to the words of Armsmaster Festil during a particularly grueling training session “The intent of your opponent can be seen in his blade.”

Looking to his opponent’s attacks, he understands. The blade is there merely to keep him busy while the mage exhausts his shield and eventually slays him with magic, he must finish this fight quickly. As the mage stabs downward with his dagger, Talin dips his shield arm and lets the attack in. He roars in pain as the deadly sharp tip of the blade punches through chainmail and stabs down into the meat of his shoulder. Broken chain links clink as they strike the dusty stone floor. Through gritted teeth, he gives the mage a vicious grin as he plunges his sword deep into the gut of his wide-eyed enemy. Withdrawing his sword, he twists around and kicks the mage into the chasm. Some seconds pass before he hears a distant thud over his panting breath.

He agonizingly pulls the blade from his shoulder and closes the wound with a healing spell. The pain remains, and he knows this will take some time to heal even with magical aid. He sheathes the dagger in his belt and returns his sword to the scabbard.

At the far end of the chamber, Talin crosses through a short corridor to find an empty room, save for a single chest in the center. Keeping his wounded arm close to his body, he opens the chest. Nestled within, wrapped in cloth, lies a thick tome bound in patchwork leather. The Oghma Infinium.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he opens the book and begins to flip through the pages. Strange symbols and runes of unknown origin greet his eyes. He finds he cannot look away from the pages, and they begin to flip of their own accord. Faster and faster the pages begin to turn, yet somehow, he perceives every detail. His nose begins to bleed as his eyes frantically flit from page to page and he is overcome with vast, ancient knowledge. Names, dates, locations, events, and secrets beyond counting fills his mind as a thousand turns of Masser and Secunda seem to pass in a heartbeat. At last, the book closes, and crumbles into dust before him, and Talin finds he can once again move of his own accord. He feels… better, faster, wiser. Yet one thing sticks out in his mind, of the countless things he learned from the book, among them was a vision of what could only be the Fang Lair, a menacing, serpentine fortress forgotten amongst swirling dunes of sand and sharp crags of rock. There could only be a few places such a locale could be found in the empire, and one bordered High Rock. Without a second thought, he turns from the chamber and begins the long journey to Hammerfell.

After descending into the Crypt of Grolus and battling the enemies within, including a troublesome mage, Talin has at last discovered the Oghma Infinium. On a mechanical level, this tome is one of the strongest artifacts in the game, giving you fifty permanent stat points to spend on your attributes. With these, we max out Talin’s intelligence to maximize his number of spell points, and come close to maxing out his agility as well, an essential attribute for any combat class in Arena as it directly affects the accuracy of your attacks in addition to your armor rating.

It’s worth noting that in-game, the Oghma Infinium doesn’t reveal any dungeon locations to you. To discover the location of the Fang Lair and every subsequent dungeon in the main quest, you simply ask townsfolk about the location until they reveal what province it is in. You then head to that province and ask around until someone points you to a quest giver, who gives you the location of a secondary dungeon to retrieve an item for them. In exchange for this service, they mark the dungeon which holds the staff piece on their map. This is not particularly exciting, and I think this system is simply a limitation of the time and not necessarily keeping with the spirit of adventure, so for our narrative purpose, Talin has been pointed to the dungeon province via the vast knowledge within the Oghma Infinium.

Stay tuned for next week, in which our hero will travel to the desert province of Hammerfell, discover the Fang Lair, and retrieve the first piece of the Staff of Chaos.