The Possession

To whom it may concern, I thought it'd be a good idea to put my experiences down on paper. Before I start detailing my recent escapades I pose this question, have you ever had a game that you've replayed time and time again and each time discovered something new? For me that game was The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. I was only a child when I first picked this game up and played it on my older brother's laptop. It drove him nuts, I just couldn't pull myself away. To me it was more than a game, it was an experience. Waking up on that ship, traveling across the vast landscape, for an antisocial recluse of a child this fictional world was even greater than the one I lived in. But as we all do, I grew out of the game.

I was just making it into my teenage years when my older brother left and went off to college. For a graduation gift our parents bought him a brand new laptop to use at his new school. I still remember him walking into my room with that old laptop in hand and telling me "Here ya go bud I always remember how much you wanted this thing so it's all yours." All those nostalgic memories with it came back as soon as I cracked it open. The nostalgia only increased when I saw a desktop shortcut staring me in the face. "Morrowind Launcher". It was almost like muscle memory to me I immediately clicked and opened it up. The rest of that weekend was full of quests, immersing story lines, and the reliving of an unforgettable experience.

School on Monday went by slower than Church the day before (and that's saying something). The only interesting thing that notable that happened was when I brought up my Morrowind revisitation to my small group of school friends. One of them immediately asked me, "Have you checked out any mods yet? The game never gets boring." It seems strange that an avid Elder Scrolls player would have no prior knowledge of modding but think about it, I was only a child and even know I'm not one to go out and "surf" the web. Of course, upon hearing the news my anticipation grew and school got even slower.

I got home, ran through the door, shot up to my bedroom, and opened up the laptop with a measure of excitement I haven't experienced since childhood. I opened up Google Chrome and not knowing where to start did a simple search of "best Morrowind mods". I did another search to figure out the installation process and then I almost went crazy downloading mods. I was so excited to get started it was like a brand new game. With all my mods ready to go I loaded up the launcher again and was sent into Morrowind for a whole new experience.

I spent the whole day playing through the mods and seeing all the new things I could do with them. Everything about it was great and I enjoyed Morrowind more than I ever have before. I got brand new modded armor, quests, and I even got a mod that put children into the cities just for the aesthetic effect. If I had knew what was waiting for me I wouldn't have been so excited.

Look, I'm not claiming that a ghost or demon entered my copy of Morrowind and made blood shoot out of the screen okay? But I can't make sense of what happened. I'm a rational person, and to this day I have absolutely no idea what the hell I saw in that game. And I refuse to make any assumptions or explanations because I just do not know. It could have been a mod or a glitch or maybe something we were never supposed to see hidden away in the hundreds of thousands of strings of code. At this point I don't even care if any of you believe me I just want to get this out in the open because it has haunted me for too long.

It all started a couple days after my mod downloading marathon. I was wandering around Balmora when an NPC ran up to me, a child. He was franticly screaming something along the lines of "Help me! Help me! My friend fell in the river! Somebody get him he can't swim!" I wasn't shaken by this I thought it was just a part of the mod I installed to put children into the game. I was almost excited! I ran over and as soon as I did, the child was gone. All I saw was a book in the place he was standing. "Disyen: The Drowned Daedra". I had little knowledge of the Daedra but this sight intrigued me even more. All I knew was that the Daedra were the opposite of the Divines, gods among demons essentially. I flipped through the book and when I did a brand new quest started called "The Possession" and I heard a faint voice. "Why couldn't you save me... Why couldn't you save me... Why couldn't you save me...". At this point I was starting to get suspicious. Who the hell created a mod like this? Who was this Daedric Prince and what did he have to do with children? I was confused and a bit overwhelmed but not scared, not yet. I decided to see this quest through out of curiosity and love for the game.

That voice in my character's head picked up again. It guided me through the next several steps of my new quest. It took me quite a long time to go through all the steps necessary. I traveled throughout Morrowind, collecting various items, books, and even knowledge from several scholarly NPC's. After about an hour of searching for the materials necessary that same eerie, almost child-like voice came through my speakers... "You're ready for The Possession". Like I said, I still wasn't scared I thought it was simply a quest implemented by one of the many mods I downloaded. After hearing that I was prepared to finish this quest, i was instructed to go to the Odai River, which runs through Balmora. I reached the Odai River with all of the requested items in my inventory not sure what would happen next.

I approached the edge of the river and my camera moved into third person, into almost a cinematic view without me touching anything. My screen was completely immobile and for a second I could have sworn the game was frozen but then I saw it. Something started rising out of the water slowly. I had no idea what it was and when I first saw it I remained calm as I'm a very rational person. Until it rose further. First I saw a forehead, then, eyes, a mouth, and all the way up to a neck. I was completely frozen in place, chills went up my spine. I tried moving my mouse, Ctrl+Alt+Delete, Alt+F4, nothing was working I was stuck. My last resort was the power button, I pressed it over and over but nothing was working I finally just slammed that damned laptop but before I did I got one last good look at that child, no that thing. And I'll never forget that sight.

There aren't words horrible enough to describe that child that demented horrifying child, Disyen I guess his name was. Who the fuck would make a mod like this? What sadistic bastard could do such a thing? If you have a weak stomach then it'd be a good idea to stop reading now. I'm going to muster up all that I have in me and try to give an accurate description I'm sorry if you suffer from the same nightmares I have but I need to get this out in the open.

Disyen, this Daedric Prince taking the shape of a child rose out of the water. His eyes were almost a void, deep and black with nothing human about them. His hair matted and stringy like it was washed with mud. His body was rotting, his flesh was almost falling apart. He was covered in vegetation and mud like he had been stuck at the bottom of that river for decades. After he was fully risen and floating out of the water he started walking towards my character. I didn't see him walking because I was looking away and frantically trying to close out of the program. But what I did see before I closed my laptop was Disyen this demon, Daedra, monster whatever you choose to call it, reaching into my character's chest. Disyen fell to his knees and then to the ground. It was all obvious what had happened, that was the possession. He wanted to be alive again and who better to choose than the strongest person in the game. He wanted life again so he took it from my character. But the absolute worst part the reason I'm still fucking scarred to this day is what happened when I made the mistake of reopening that god damned laptop. There he was, plastered on my desktop, Disyen. That face, that terrible, disfigured, rotting face. I smacked the laptop closed so hard that it broke the screen and I'm never going to try transferring the data to a new one. Whatever the hell that was, I'm never letting it haunt me again.

I know what you're thinking after reading this... "This guy's just messing with our heads this is obviously fake. This could never happen in Morrowind." Well consider this. I'm not trying to tell you that anything paranormal or supernatural happened. Is it possible? Absolutely. If you want to try to rationalize my story then feel free I really don't fucking care I just want this memory and this experience out of my mind for good. If none of you believe me I don't care, if just one or two people even read this, I just don't care. I can't bottle this up anymore. It's finally out in the open and maybe I'll even be able to sleep tonight.