I told Laurenna I'd be out looking for a ghost, and she gave me her blessing, said to be careful, and she'd stay out of the tombs so I could have all the fun.

Well, I searched and searched all over the place, one tomb after another.

When I reached the city of Vivic, I decided to check the sewers (for lack of a better idea), and what do you know? In the Rhedoran canton's sewer, I finally found an ancestor ghost.  It was apparently guarding a dead body nearby.

Using my own magic, I cast the capture spell on the angry spirit.

If it wasn't outraged at my presence before, it was certainly upset with me now!

The ghost slashed at me with it's fingers, casting evil spells at me. Because of my astrological sign, I simply absorbed it's harmful magic, adding it to my own powers.

I used my Ring of Weapons to form a chest plate, shield, and a broadsword, and made short work of the ghost, before the soul capture spell wore off.    

After the ghost was sucked into the soulgem, I checked it visually, and felt the ghost's presence in it.  Then I noticed the dead body it had been guarding. It wasn't the body so much as the object near it. It was a type of pike with several pieces of rotting flesh on it.  

As I looked closer, I could make out several markings on the pike. They were the symbols of the Sixth House, the one I had recently gathered information on for the spy master.

I had encountered a Sixth House base on a Mage's Guild mission for Sink-in-tree's-shade, but that was in some old dingy hole in the ground, not in the sewers of a major city.

I wasn't sure if this was cause for concern or not. Who's body was that lying here? I found a rusty key near the corpse, but had no idea what door it might open.

I returned to Balmora and gave the soulgem to Thuvien Demnevanni. He told me that there was rumor of an extremely rare artifact that he had heard of. Over a thousand years ago, a race called the Dwemer simply vanished from Vvardenfell, leaving behind their strange strongholds with those strange, enchanted robot machines that walk around. Once in a while, you'd encounter one of their spirits, but nothing physical remained of the Dwemer race since their disappearance - until now.

"Rumor has it that in Aleft, a Dwemer structure south of the fishing village of Gnaar Mok, an actual bone may be found somewhere inside. Necromancers can use bones of the dead to commune with the spirit of the deceased." he said. "It may be possible to communicate with the spirit of this Dwemer, find out what happened to them."

I said I would be happy to help, and rightly so, since it might be the key to solving one of the greatest mysteries of the Empire: What happened to them?

Of course, there are no guarantees of anything, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. 

Laurenna was bored sitting around the house all day, so she was happy we were to go on an adventure together again (as long as it wasn't in some old tomb).

"Where's your armor?" she asked.

"Oh, I intend to travel light." I replied. "These Dwemer ruins have lots of loot in them, but most of it has very heavy. I'll simply use my Ring of Weapons to conjure them up when needed."

I also stocked up on several of my homemade restore magic and restore health potions. Dwemer strongholds can be a pretty tough run, if one is not prepared properly. 

We decided to waste time by taking the stilt-strider to Ald'ruhn. The sky was yucky and overcast when we arrived but at least it wasn't raining or in the middle of an ashstorm. There was actually no 'fast' way of getting to Gnaar Mok from Balmora, so the best way was from Ald'ruhn, head north, then turn east into the Bitter Coast region. 

It wasn't too long that we left the dusty area of the ashlands, arriving in a much greener area, and from there, just a short 20 minute walk until we arrived in the swampy lands of the Bitter Coast.   

After fending off a few nix hounds and cliffracers, we finally arrived at Gnaar Mok, a sleepy little fishing village with a representative of House Redoran nearby.  

After checking with the locals, we saw the Dwemer stronghold we were looking for just to our south.

Neither of us wanted to swim, so we did a water-walking spell and trotted the short distance to the next piece of land where Aleft was located.  

It wasn't long before we saw the stronghold before us.

To the left, a lonely bull netch drifted back and forth, sometimes flowing with the breeze, sometimes propelling itself to a tree. 

We finally found the entrance and made our way inside. "Laurenna, I may be using the wall of fire spell, as well as a spell of God's Fire, and I need to make sure you stay behind me."

"Ok," she said, "I'll let you blast away, and only use arrows if necessary."  

It wasn't long before we found trouble. A centurion sphere attacked us as we came down the stairs from the front door. 

I checked over by one of these mysterious steam machines for a bone, but no such luck here. There were a few odds and ends in some of the containers, but no Dwemer bone. 

Nearly attacked by steam Centurions, I set up a Wall of Fire spell, burning the metal guards, rendering them "dead".

Laurenna said "You like using that wall of fire, don't you, honey?"

"Well," I replied, "it saves wear and tear on the weapons and armor."