Fools ' Ebony , Book I Summary . This book is part of a six part series on Fools ' Ebony , as follows : Content . Fools ' Ebony , Part The Oneth . Concerning Priests and Nackles As related at length by two Priests of Akatosh to the Adventurer , who at the time was not having an adventure , and had nothing better to do . In which some ( probably unwanted ) light is shed upon the Priesthood and its members , and upon an old peasant myth of some significance , especially common in High Rock . And in which the mysterious Fools ' Ebony appears , that strange material that could bring either drastic cultural change for the many , or just great profit for a few , or death for a bunch , or have no result whatsoever . Daggerfall and Environs in the Doldrums of the 3rd Era Early in the month of Frostfall . The Dead Daedra Inn . Enter Prologue PROLOGUE : Our poor players will try and remember their lines and not trip over our meager set . I beg you , the audience , not to heckle , badger , or throw rotten foodstuffs . You will only make this short play last longer . The Guild of Playwrights , Actors , and Dramatists wish any of you who are sensitive or allergic to rambling dialogue , wooden acting , incomprehensible exposition , or unsatisfying endings that leave one confused and unhappy to exit the theatre immediately . Your gold will , alas , not be refunded . As a saving grace , this series of vignettes contains gratuitous references to all pleasures of the flesh . You may enjoy it . Ah , here comes our hero , the roguish Dark Elf called the Adventurer . It is time for Prologue to trip merrily away . Exit Prologue Enter the ADVENTURER ADVENTURER : What an odd conversation I just heard between those two mages . It is best not to speak of such matters next to privy hedges . Enter 2 Priests of Akatosh ( LHEBAN , KOMON ) LHEBAN : Mind if we join you , fellow ? . . . Good , need some company ourselves . I am named Lheban , my fellow priest here is Komon . We both serve Akatosh , all in our own ways , of course . . . ADVENTURER : Make yourselves at home , it ' s not my bench . But I thought that priests . . . didn ' t go to . . . er . . . places like this , Inns . I mean . . . unless on duty ? LHEBAN : Oh , we ' re not on duty . Got to regenerate our internal vital energies , so we can go on blessing and curing . . . KOMON : We often come here , hike up our robes , kick up our heels , as it were . Fill up with some bottled energy . . . LHEBAN : Looking for those in need of comfort and blessing , of course . . . KOMON : Oh , yes , Oh yes . . . like that young girl outside the other evening . . . KOMON : . . . and anyway our High Priest told us to get lost . . . LHEBAN : He means told us to get some air . We ' ve been having visions , you see . . . KOMON : Yes , sort of weird , really . . . and we hadn ' t even been taking any of that . . . LHEBAN : Both of us been having the same visions - real odd . ADVENTURER : Do tell , I ' m not going anywhere in a hurry . LHEBAN : Well , we ' ve both been hearing sort of . . . words . . . for a start . Like ' Sir Nich ' or ' Sain Nack ' . . . ADVENTURER : You said ' Nick ' or ' Nack ' ? Just a minute . . . let me have a swig from your bottle , Brother . . . Ah ! That ' s better - high - class stuff you fellows drink ! Yes , I recall - some story or old legend about an elf , name of Nuckle , I think — from Morrowind ? LHEBAN : You know , maybe you ' re on to something there — there is an old legend around these parts , comes from deep in High Rock I think . . . hmmmm . . . Nackles , that ' s it ! ADVENTURER : Nackles , eh ! Seems that several Dark Elves use that name . . . particularly the . . . more peculiar ones . . . KOMON : Yes , I guess that the bad ones are into all that weapons magicka stuff . . . very nasty fellows . . . LHEBAN : ( to Komon ) Komon ! This fellow ' s got pointy ears and red eyes . . . KOMON : Pardon me , friend . . . it ' s sort of dark , and I didn ' t . . . uh . . . ADVENTURER : Oh , that ' s fine . These are strange times . You know , live and let live — or die — as the case may be . Now . . . suppose you tell me about this Nackles myth ? Here , let me help you with that bottle . . . Ah ! Thanks . LHEBAN : Er . . . sure , if you want to put it that way . . . Here , have another swig ! Sure , we ' ve got the time , and I recall it clearly now . KOMON : Yes , we ' ve a couple hours ' til that little blonde shows up at her lamp . . . LHEBAN : ( to Komon ) Quiet ! Remember , we had to tell the High Priest her address , so she won ' t be around for a while ! ( to all ) Very well , here ' s the story , best as I can recall it . This is a tale the peasants up in High Rock tell their kids to scare them into being good for a while , I guess . They tell it , let me see . . . either on Tales and Tallows , or is it Witches ' Festival ? - - just before the kids are sent out to the barn or pigsty to sleep . KOMON : Nasty cruel peasants ! But then , I ' d send them all out to the midden . . . LHEBAN : Really , Komon ! Remember , those poor souls need our compassion and blessing , we are their salvation ! KOMON : Now who ' s in Old High Mucky - Mucks ' study ? LHEBAN : Er . . . anyway . It goes a bit like this . If the kids have been real good during the year — filched enough in the market , mucked out the stables every day , not gone playing with goblins , left the sheep alone , and so on . If they have been real good , they ' ve nothing to worry about . But if they haven ' t been real good then there is this nasty , horrid Dark Elf spirit called Nackles . Doesn ' t look like your typical Dark Elf — thinner , taller . Pasty white face , long as your arm . Walks like his knees and elbows bend the wrong way . Snickers like when you drag your fingernails across slate . Wears a tight black suit ( not Khajiit , more like a formal suit with buttons ) but too tight and small . He visits the bad girls and — KOMON : Why are you talking about Old High Mucky again , Lheban ? LHEBAN : You really must excuse Komon here : overwork , you know . Too many curings and conversions . . . Anyway , Old Nasty Nackles is supposed to wander under our Tamriel , in dirty deep dark dwarven tunnels . Everywhere under the lands , if you can believe that ! Rides in a rusty squeaky old mine cart , on old mine tracks . . . ADVENTURER : I saw some of those in Fang Lair once , down in Hammerfell a long long while ago . . . KOMON : ( to Lheban ) What the Sheogorath was he doing in Fang Lair ! ? LHEBAN : ( to Komon ) Hush ! If he ' s who I think he is , you do not want to know ! ( to all ) Um , yes . Well , Nackles gets pulled all around these deep tunnels by goblins — not your usual dirty yellow ones , but nasty black things . Anyway , they pull Nackles round and through these dark tunnels , and then , late at night , he stops below each and every bad child ' s hovel or house or castle - makes no difference . Then he slides up the drainage pipes . . . KOMON : Creeps up cracks . . . crawls through holes . . . LHEBAN : Oozes up oubliettes . . . KOMON : Climbs giggling up garderobes . . . LHEBAN : Right into the kid ' s place ! Then , if the kid ' s only been sort of bad , Nackles will just mess things up in general , so the kid gets blamed . Make greasy dirty marks everywhere ( more than usual , anyway ) , break some things , steal some things , so on and so forth . Maybe take the sugar sweets , leave some lumps of fools ' ebony instead . . . ADVENTURER : Fools ' Ebony - what ' s that ? Heard mention of that , oh , a few hours ago . . . Some Mages . . . LHEBAN : You did now ? Interesting . . . Very . . . Well , lets talk of that in a bit . . . just let me finish this Nackles thing . Where was I - - Oh yes . . . Now , if the little brat has been real bad — then all the little brat ' s toys get taken . The copper dagger , the wooden sword , the little whip , and so on . All the usual favorite kids things . KOMON : Whips ? I like those . LHEBAN : Now if that little brat has been very , very bad then Nackles grabs the brat . Pops him or her in his dirty great sack . Hauls the sack off down the holes and cracks , down to his rusty old mine cart ! And away they go ! KOMON : Hope he leaves some bad little girls behind . LHEBAN : Er . . . so we can save them , of course , friend . . . Well . Sometimes , so I ' ve heard tell , the brat never comes back . No great loss , I guess , peasants just breed another . KOMON : Know ' bout that , I do , I do . . . LHEBAN : But , as the story goes round here anyway , often the brat is just put to work , digging out lumps of Fools ' Ebony , shoveling dirt , bagging it . Extending the tunnels of the Nackles . After a while , Brat is pushed back up to where it came from . Seems that Brat might think it ' s spent a year down there , but only a day has passed up top . . . Brat comes back real thin and dirty though , covered in black mess . . . You know , come to think of it — on the day past Witches ' Festival , I ' ve often seen some little brats , scrawny , real dirty black mess on them , looking terrified , too . Parents drag them into Temples to get blessed and cured , if they have the gold . By the Beard of Sheogorath , the wailing and noise ! Enough to drive a priest to . . . er . . . well , never mind . . . that ' s our problem . . . KOMON : Nah . . . it ' s a problem with our suppliers , I tell you . . . LHEBAN : Anyway , that ' s the short of it , this Nackles legend up around here . I recall now , it ' s widespread all over Tamriel . . . and knowing the place , probably more than a grain of truth in the tale , much , much more . . . ADVENTURER : So , I guess some of the . . . er , darker Dark Elves sort of identify with this Nackles . Take on the persona , so to say . . . LHEBAN : Yeah , that sort of sums it up , I guess . . . though we don ' t see those types hauling off brats in sacks , now do we ? KOMON : Nah , that ' s wot we does , girly brats anyway , isn ' t it not ? ADVENTURER : That ' s a very interesting tale , gentlemen . Say , let me repay you with another bottle — what ' s that you ' re drinking ? Ah , thought so - Innkeep ! More holy wine for these holy men ! LHEBAN : A blessing on you for that kind gesture , friend . ADVENTURER : I thank you , I sure could use one or three . . . Anyway , this ' Fools ' Ebony ' , I ' ve heard mutters and murmurs about that of late — mostly eavesdropping . . . pardon me . . . listening . . . to Mages and the like . What ' s with this stuff ? Here , have another swig . . . good ! LHEBAN : Well , we ' re not supposed to tell outsiders . . . but then , you seem to know something already . And if you have been hearing Mage gossip . . . Why , maybe we can do some business . Profit all round ! Well . . . for the Akatosh Chantry , of course , and your fee , good Sir . ADVENTURER : More and more interesting — tell on , I pray you . KOMON : Time for me to go convert that little lamppost girl . . . no , no , no - not last nights one , but the blonde . . . LHEBAN : Friend , you ' ll have to excuse Komon . He ' s a bit . . . you know strange . . . Got these . . . ADVENTURER : Oh , that ' s all right , we ' ve all got our own . . . EPILOGUE : Our apologies for the quality of this drama so far . If those of you still present will wait for a few minutes while our bard plays " Silence Implies Consent , " we will change the set for the next act , Part the Twoth . Please don ' t forget to tip your wench . Do you believe there ' s such a thing as Fools ' Ebony ? Maybe we ' ll find out in Part the Twoth . Or maybe not . End of Part the Oneth , Being Mostly Concerned with The Legend of Nackles .