THE REALM OF AQUA


This Realm can be entered through Daedrics Mill, which is located not far east of the island with the ruin of Ald Daedroth (which is itself east of Sheogorath, of course). You'll have to dive deep for the entrance, and then get back up again inside the mill. The wizard there, NOM, can be safely eliminated. There's not much preparation needed here, just jump in.

And I do mean jump in, literally, into the waterfalls. In the underground cave that you end up in there's a path leading up to a small waterfall, follow it. When you exit the cave you'll see a signpost which points north, to the Temple of Aqua.That's where you need to go eventually, so you might as well check it out now.
On the way you'll encounter some bats that may seem difficult to beat, but you just need to aim low. Or use that 'Call Bear' spell I told you about, the bear will know how to deal with the pesky creatures.
The Temple is not difficult to find, it's very big and there's a flashing blue light in front of it. When you come near the door you'll get a message about losing your willpower (you will if you keep standing in place), and about the Lady of the Depths in the east. So go find her there - actually she's in the southeast though, on top of a hill with some white rocks sticking out. Her name's Gemini.

Help this Lady and find the Black Anther for her. It's near a tower to her northwest, not far away. When you give it to her you'll get a scroll, and directions to a cave. Go to the far southwest of the swamp of Aqua, and then to the north, to find the entrance to the caves of Aqua Tenebrae. On your way in you'll have to deal with a bunch of bats (time to call the bear again?). Right behind that cave you'll see a junction. Whether you go straight ahead or go left and then right doesn't matter, at some point you'll see a pool of water in a daedric ruin, with a sphere in it. Dive in and touch that sphere (yes, I'm sure). On one of the pedestals a key will appear, take it. Now go back to the junction and take the door on the east side, then go through another door and follow the passage until you see a cave on the east side. Walk up the ramp to the door, this is what you need the key for that you dived up earlier.

Before you enter the passageway behind that door, you might want to prepare yourself by using that scroll you got from Gemini, or some potions of Fortify Speed. Then, go through it and run for your life! Or you'll be crushed, Indiana Jones-style...
When you enter the large room you get to meet the demon of Aqua, Darth Dada. You can opt to fight him, but that wouldn't be a good idea - you'll only hurt yourself more than you'd hurt him. So listen to him and do as he says, for now.
Go back to Gemini and talk to her. Don't choose for either side, but be wiser than that. Follow Gemini's advice now and go back to the demon.
The demon won't talk to you anymore, all you can and should do is kill him - but not with your own weapons. Just hit him once and make him follow you towards the swinging axes - which act as the Pendulum of Time, as Gemini explained - to let those kill him for you. His death will earn you a journal update telling you that you can enter the Temple now.

So go to the Temple. The flashing light will be gone now, you can enter it without trouble. Go around to the back - left or right doesn't make any difference - and you'll see a passage with some tapestries on the wall; a little further your next challenge awaits you.
It consists of avoiding many rotating maces, or 'potato mashers', and touching the altars behind them in the right order. The right order can be derived from the tapestry with the tree and the twelve numbered words, which correspond to the altars. It's best to write them down and then find out which altar is where (this involves a lot of levitating, or maybe jumping high if you like that better). As soon as you have mapped the altars, you can touch them in the right order that the tapestry indicates: 1, Calcinatio; 2, Solutio; 3, Elementorum separatio; 4, Conjunctio; 5, Putrefactio; 6, Coagulatio; 7, Cibatio; 8, Sublimatio; 9, Fermentatio; 10, Exaltio; 11, Augmentatio; 12, Proiectio.

After you have touched all the altars, a back passage guarded by a couple of crabs will be opened. Go through that passage and you'll end up inside a hall of massive proportions, with pillars everywhere.
On the other side you'll see Gemini again. Talk to her and follow her directions. First, get the four Drops of the Crowns from the waterspouts above her. You only need to avoid the one revolving potato masher, but this can be tricky, so be quick! With the Drops in your pocket, make a grand tour around the hall and place the Drops in the Pedestals of Frigidum (by touching them); take the Bowls that appear.
Then go to the Sphere of Chaos, which is under water in the middle of the hall, beneath a bridge. Touch it, and you'll find yourself face to face with Darth Dada again.

Fighting him is just as useless as it was before, you'll only hurt yourself more. So ignore or avoid him and hurry back to Gemini. After all, she told you she's the Pendulum of Time, didn't she? Talk to her, and she'll show you how corrupted she really is: her evil twin will appear (she isn't called Gemini for nothing!) and the both of them will force you to fight them. Take care to keep track of which one of them is the spawned one (the evil sister), and concentrate your efforts on her, because you can't kill Gemini without hurting yourself more quickly. Once you have defeated the sister, Gemini herself will die too, and Darth Dada will disappear too.
Now you can take the pearl of Corrupted Aqua at your leasure. Then exit the Realm of Aqua through the dimension door that appeared when Gemini died, to get back to Daedrics Mill.



Now it's time (if you haven't already done it) to

Or go to another mill to enter

If finding the pearl of Corrupted Aqua completes your collection, you can go to the cave and The Pit below the Black Mill to meet Tommy.