THE REALM OF AER


To go to the Realm of Aer you need to find North End Mill. Just go to Dagon Fel and head north from there, you'll see the mill on an island behind the one with a dwemer ruin. There's no one to battle inside the mill this time; all you can do is read the journal to get some idea of what you'll encounter in the Realm, get your levitation gear together (maybe potions, but preferably an enchanted item with constant effect levitate, or at least a long lasting spell), and go in.

Not everything is as it seems here, but don't let it get you off balance. If you want to get back out for some reason (not enough levitation potions?), just go to the dimension door in front of you, to your north.
There are many large structures in this space, but you can safely ignore most of them and go to the southeast to find the Temple of Aer, which is the only structure you can get into. Go up a little too, to get on the same plane as the Temple entrance. On the way you'll meet some annoying cliff tigers, which might serve you nicely as target practice.
Sooner or later, depending on your viewing distance, you'll slowly see some large structures coming into view; the largest one has four spokes with similar structures attached to it on each end. Go to the central part and find the golden door, which gives access to the Temple of Aer.

Just follow the passageway in, but watch out! A headache could kill you in here. You'll end up in a huge hall, in which some attractive looking spheres are spinning around - they're flytraps! There are many doors here, two of them are fake and trigger a trap. I will go through the others below. (Btw it's better to save in the side rooms and not in the main hall; most of the time it won't be a problem, but once in awhile savegames made in the main hall can become corrupted. But it's a good habit in this mod to make many different savegames anyway, and not limit yourself to quicksaving.)


SHRINE OF AER (1)

This one will probably not be the first one you enter, since it's higher up in the hall. But this is the place to be in this Realm, which is evident by the extra lights near the entrance. And once you get inside, you'll see they have a pool too. A pool party would be great here! But there's nobody home, and the transparent doors are all closed.
So go to the left and around the back, but watch out, don't go too fast... There are some revolving maces cutting through the corridor here, the feared potato mashers (or 'tenderizers' as they're also known). You'll need to be moderately quick to avoid them and get to the switch halfway through. This switch will open the doors around the pool.

Jump into the pool and have a bath, why don't you! On one end you'll see a balcony with a blue crystal on it; beneath it is an underwater passage, blocked off by a grating. On each side is another passage, maybe you'd like to go in and add to your scroll collection.
Then go up the stairs on either side of the pool and through the passage with the rotating corridor, to get to the Crystal of the Pillars. Touch it, and you'll have to answer a question, which you can only answer correctly (except by chance) if you've been to Retina.


RETINA

The main thing to fear here is quite obvious as soon as you go in. Revolving maces again, a long row of them! You need to have good timing to get through this, and also a high enough speed. Maybe it's a good idea to go to Farr first, for a speed boost.
If you're only moderately quickfooted you can still survive this, but you'll have to make use of every 'safe haven' (to the right) that this place offers. The first passage on the right is closed off by a magic wall. You can't do anything about that now, so wait until the maces have passed you by again and run as fast as you can to the next side passage.
Fortunately the sixth one isn't a dead end, and you can make use of a passage that runs parallel to the one with the maces, to avoid the rest of them. Take care when you go left again, the last mace just brushes this connecting passage.

You seem to have a choice of where to go now, but only the room at the far left isn't barred (the one at the other end isn't either, but there's nothing there). Just push the button in there. This will lift one of the grates, and you can go into another room with a button (and a frost atronach, but at this stage of your game that will hardly stop you); repeat this once more. The room in the middle is a kind of cellar you have to jump into. Kill the lich if it bothers you, and take a good look at the tapestry. Memorize it, make a screenshot or a drawing of it, whatever - this is important information!
Jump or levitate out of the cellar again, and take the parallel passage towards the exit (you were not considering running straight ahead and try dodging those maces, were you? you'd never make it). At the end of the passage there's a switch which will remove the magic wall, so you can get out of this place. Don't forget to wait for the right moment, you don't want to get killed now, after all that trouble!


SHRINE OF AER (2)

The tapestry in Retina provides the right sequence of buttons to push at the Crystal of the Pillars; this will open the grating below the balcony, so you can go through the underwater passage now and continue up the stairs. In the room at the end there's another crystal, the Crystal of Aer. It will ask for several items, which you need to get from the other rooms of the Temple if you haven't done that already: the Goblet of I'Ljoreth from Farr, Heaven Cleaver from Hasbane, the Heart of Dreyfach from Dreyfach, and the Key of Heavens from Heavens Shrine.


FARR

Go in and follow the passageway. After a little while you'll pass some doors, three on each side. If you need some combat practice go ahead and open them, but there's not much of value in there - unless you need potions of Fortify Speed to get ahead elsewhere.
Keep walking, kill the bonewalker (I hope you can keep your strength up), and scout out the dark room at the end. There are four sub-rooms with coffins, the one on the left holds the mummy of I'Ljoreth. Touching it will earn you a lich to beat, and a cup called the Goblet of I'Ljoreth, one of the prizes.
On your way out you should be quick to pass those heads on the wall, they'll get nasty at you for leaving.


HASBANE

This will probably be the first room you'll enter upon arriving in the Temple building, but however you do it, the sequence of rooms you follow doesn't matter. Hasbane is a very dark place, and unless you have your brightness set very high you won't see a thing, except for the blue light in the middle. And you're not alone in here... Prepare yourself to fight immediately with some tough opponents: Artifex Hunters.
It's a good idea to have some light here, and the only light in this place comes from a big blue crystal, the Crystal of Light. Touch it and it'll show itself to be true to its name - probably to your relief. If you manage this by sneaking and staying unobserved, so much the better. But you're still in for a tough fight, so take your best weapon and strike first, and hard! It's best to use something with fire damage or poison, frost damage doesn't work on them.
After dealing with the three Artifex Hunters, you'll have the time to look around. There are lots of alcoves all around the room, with coffins in them; and you guessed it, you'll have to check them out for your prize. I'll spare you the trouble of having to open every coffin: go to the one above the entrance. The sword you''ll find is Heaven Cleaver.


DREYFACH

There's a Lich Ghost here that guards a lot of urns and coffins. Don't worry about them though, they're all empty. ("Phew!") Look up and you'll see two holes in the ceiling. In one of them you'll only find another addition to your scroll collection, but the other holds three coffins with corpses. Take the silver cuirass away from the one in the middle, this will reveal the Heart of Dreyfach - another prize.


THE RING

I threw this in for good measure, but there's no real need for you to go here, except for expanding your scroll collection, some combat practice, and the Claymore of the Ring. This sword may sound tempting, but it's actually quite useless.


HEAVENS SHRINE

A nice change from the other rooms in the Temple of Aer, this place is light and airy. It's guarded by some Winged Twilights. Go up to the crystal in the circle of blue flames, and take the Key of Heavens.


SHRINE OF AER (3)

Now that you have all items you need in your possession, you can get them to the Crystal of Aer. If you remember the picture of the tapestry in Retina, you'll know which one of the altars is the appropriate one for the Key of Heavens, S go there and touch that altar. Above it the pearl of Corrupted Aer will appear, for you to take.
Go back to the pool, and you'll find a new dimension door waiting for you, to get you back to North End 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 Aer completes your collection, you can go to the cave and The Pit below the Black Mill to meet Tommy.