Fingers of the Mountain

Fingers of the Mountain is the name of a quest, as well as the name of a book and a spell found on the quest.

The Quest
For information on the quest called Fingers of the Mountain, refer to Chorrol Recommendation.

The Book
This unreadable book is found on a lightning-charred handless corpse found on Cloud Top. It is a quest item linked to the Fingers of the Mountain quest, above.

Storlyline-wise, the book contains research done on Ayleid ruins at Cloud Top involving weather magic. Apparently the Ayleids possessed a magical method of absorbing lightning bolts and converting them into magical energy. This naturally required a magical device (the pillar) placed at a high point to absorb as many as possible. "Fingers of the Mountain" is thus a poetic way of describing the natural lightning that would repeatedly strike such high locations. It should be noted that gaining the spell is likely a side effect of the original intent of the Ayleids as the pillar is broken and can not serve its intended purpose of drawing energy from lightning as a power source for other magics.

The Spell
Fingers of the Mountain, the spell, can be found on the quest of the same name. Unlike most spells, this one costs no gold, but it does consume an item and run the risk of killing the character who acquires it.

How to Acquire
Acquiring Fingers of the Mountain requires a character to first gain Earana's notes from the quest (see Chorrol Recommendation). The player must acquire a Welkynd Stone and a spell that deals Shock damage. Then the player must travel to Cloud Top. Located at Cloud Top is an ornate shattered Ayleid pillar next to the charred corpse from which the player previously acquired the Fingers of the Mountain book. Attacking the pillar will consume the Welkynd stone and cause four lightning bolts to spring from the ruins to strike the pillar, creating a massive Shock blast in a decent radius around it. This will do approximately 70-90 points of Shock damage to anyone standing close. If the player survives, they will now possess the Fingers of the Mountain spell.

It is recommended that one use a defensive buff of some sort to endure the damage successfully if still low level. Alternatively, one can activate the ruin from a distance with a ranged Shock spell and simply stand outside the blast radius.

Spell Statistics
Fingers of the Mountain requires a Destruction skill of 50. It is a ranged Shock spell dealing 20 points of damage in a 5 foot radius. Early in the game it is likely to be one of the most powerful spells available to most spellcasters. It is also quite reliable as a standard attack spell for a quite some time later. It is less tactically useful for those who use Conjuration as well, however, due to the lack of Shock-resistant monsters in the early-to-middle game. Will add the Magicka cost and perhaps a spell statistic table later.