The Forgotten City Skyrim
One day, you are going about your business as usual when a courier approaches you with a letter. A woman named Cassia and her brother Altrius have begun to investigate a Dwemer ruin, but Altrius has disappeared. The ruin bears an inscription promising riches beyond imagining, but warning that anyone who enters will never be able to return to the world above. Naturally, you go seek this out. Upon entering the ruins, you find Altrius's dead body - aged almost beyond recognition - hanging from a tree in the center of a darkened courtyard, surrounded by burned corpses.
On his person is a suicide note, saying that he has spent a lifetime in this place and realized that death is preferable to continued existence here. He urges you to follow his lead - and warns that whatever you do, you should never open the mysterious cabin on the lake.
Next up in quest mods was The Forgotten City. It's in the top tier of Top Rated All Time on Steam Workshop and the comments promised an amazing time. It was fully voice-acted (and tbh the voice-acting was better than Falskaar), but putting voice-acting on some of the notes felt a little OTT. I read faster than that character is saying the letter, but if I don't wait around for the character to finish the letter then it doesn't show up as completed in my journal.-'But anyway, you get a letter from Cassia asking you to come to a forgotten Dwemer ruin in the south west corner of Skyrim. Her brother has been gone in there for a long time and she wants you to come and save him.The story is a mystery that needs to be solved.
The Forgotten City Skyrim Guide
Time-travel is involved as well as paradoxes. What is the Dwarves' Law? Are the Dwemer busts on the walls really watching your every move? How does the sun under the ground work? And who will be the one to break the Dwarves' Law and condemn the whole city to slaughter?
The Forgotten City Skyrim Endings
It's non-linear and there are multiple possible endings. SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ONWhen you take the leap of faith you arrive in a deserted city. There are burned corpses everywhere and on the square in front of you, from a branch in the tree in the middle hangs the corpse of an old man. Approaching him he falls down and you pick up his suicide note. That's Altrius, Cassia's brother. How did he get old?!
The letter mentions a loop of events and the key to the Lakehouse. The Citadel is the only door that can be opened and exploring it you find several letters in the inhabitants' rooms, as well as an indicator that one of them was clearly a member of the Dark Brotherhood. On the top floor you're attacked by Altrius' ghost and then you find the key to the Lakehouse on the Jarl's balcony. The balcony collapses once you pick up the key and you almost die. Then you head to the Lakehouse where you find a letter from the Jarl saying that he opened a portal to the past with his life energy as the price and asks the player to prevent the horror that happened.So you go through the portal and end up in the past.
You're taken to meet the Jarl and after explaining that you got there from the future and giving him his own letter he asks you to find out who is most likely to break the Dwarves' Law and doom them all.SPOILERS OVER. As I talked to the characters and collected clues. I accidentally triggered the bad ending that made everyone die. I reloaded and went on. I kept on following up on clues and before I knew it I had found a good ending and completed the mod. Without even having discovered everything.
When I watched gameplay videos on Youtube I realised just how much I had missed by discovering a good ending just like that. I didn't even go into the Palace or the barricaded Underground tunnels. I could of course reload and go through it all again. But I still feel like I completed it. My good ending made everyone (except for one) get out of there alive. But I have a hunch that there is another good ending that removes the Dwarves' Law from the city and people can live there without being afraid of a single mistake killing everyone.
A part of me wants to replay to get that ending, But most of me is content with the ending I got.