Always Lost, Always Hopeful (3) Overkill?

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SPOILER INFO
This fanfic novel is largely based on the events that occurred in an actual game of Skyrim I played. Therefore, it's inevitably a spoiler.
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4-201-08-19 09:26
The Bannered Mare, Hviterun, Whiterun, Skyrim


After I've had a bath and exchanged a few words with a few people at the inn, I set out for the Halted Stream Camp with my followers .

Heidi wonders if the name has anything to do with urination, and laughs loudly. It sounds a little forced. Maybe she's scared. Or has noticed I am.

Shortly before our destination, we see another fortress-like structure in distance, but we keep away from it. I don't feel ready to fight anyone without dire necessity just yet.

I spot the Halted Stream Camp early enough to sneak closer and take up an ideal sniping position on a nearby rock overlooking the whole camp. The only problem is that it's too far to see our potential targets properly. I have an inborn special power called Khajiit Sense of Smell , which is not really a sense of smell, but makes nearby creatures glow in my mind's eye in various colors, depending on if they're hostile on not. Usually Khajiits have it and humans don't, hence the name. That bandit camp below me is, unfortunately, too far for the Sense of Smell  power. There's only one thing I can do – sneak closer downhill. That has the result that they notice me before I can target them.

See what I mean? Where the hell is everybody?

I notice two people running, apparently headed for the gate. Meaning, they're not archers, which means I should have a good chance of shooting a few arrows into them before they manage to climb all the way up to where I am.

There's only one thing I haven't counted with. Two things, to be more precise – Jenassa and Heidi. With stunning agility, they are down below before I can get a clean shot at the bandits. Now there's a furious dance going on outside the camp entrance with people moving back and forth so quickly that I have no chance of shooting at them without risking hitting my followers. I rush downhill where one or two more bandits have arrived in the meantime. We kill them all and I'd like to think I was able to make a contribution, but there is no denying that essentially my girls won the battle for me. Their reaction speed is just superhuman. (I call them "girls", although Jenassa is actually older than me. She's a tiny bit haughtyish, you know, so it's good to put her in her place a little bit.)

But our mission isn't completed yet. These fortifications are simply to guard a wooden gate at the foot of a nearby hill that looks like a mine entrance.

We go in and find another group of bandits.

Heidi is the one on the left, with red hair.
Jenassa is being hit with some kind of magic from down below.

After that ghastly mess outside the camp gate, I instructed the girls to wait until I engage the enemy rather than charge blindly at every hostile-looking creature they see. Still, the moment I shoot my first arrow, they rush past me, screaming childish threats at the enemies and blocking my view. That seems to be the Skyrim way of fighting.

This battle is harder, meaning I also get my chance to put arrows into bandits, but it's still my followers who do most of the work.

Here Jenassa is using a magical staff to set the bandit on fire.
Elves are rumored to be much more comfortable with all things magical than Nords.
Nords are the indigenous people of Skyrim. And my race, the Bretons, are the native people of, um... somewhere else than Skyrim.

It was only yesterday that I was worried about my inability to defeat even one opponent without having to run away and heal myself several times, and now I suddenly have so powerful helpers that even 3 or 4 bandits are no longer a big deal. Thinking logically, this was exactly what I needed, but somehow I don't feel too happy. I don't know why. Maybe I'm just generally downcast for... other reasons.

Jenassa sits down to rest while I and Heidi look thoroughly around in the cave and pick up everything even remotely valuable. Among other things, I notice several Mammoth Tusks lying around. When we're done looting the bandits' possessions, we are dismayed to learn Jenassa is hurt so badly by some kind of magic that she has no strength to stand up, let alone walk. We're in real trouble, because my Healing  spell cures only myself and I don't know any spells that would cure another person.

Heidi thinks we should just wait until she recovers. Do you realize what you're saying, girl? You'll be bored out of your tits in half an hour, and a few hours later I will, and gods help us then. Besides, we have no guarantee that Jenassa will actually heal, ever.

Finally, Bardslayer gives me a special power to get Jenassa back on her feet. I told you he has unusual abilities and can help me out when I'm in a really impossible situation. This is one of those moments.

Now let's get back to Hviterun. We should arrive early enough to sell our loot. I plan on spending the night in the city and going to Bleak Falls Barrow tomorrow.

Jenassa is rather quiet, but Heidi gabs incessantly. Among other things, she mentions someone I've (of course) never heard of and who has died recently, and then she explains to me that the Nords bury their dead by storing their mummified corpses on shelves in catacombs called Hall of the Dead  where a priest of Arkay watches over them. Every bigger settlement has one. Unfortunately, there's some kind of weird magic connected to death, so that the corpses have a tendency to wake up to life occasionally, especially when a Hall of the Dead is visited by someone who is not supposed to be there.

This is properly creepy. It's a good thing that at least the weather is nice:

In the city, we first hurry to the marketplace where I give that nice woman Ysolda a Mammoth Tusk. As a reward, she gives me some advice on improving my Speech  skill. What's more important, I've made a new friend. I really like Ysolda. I feel we might have a lot in common.

I happen to strike up a conversation with a market trader Carlotta and she happens to mention there's a man named Amren in this city who has a problem, and can she refer him to me? I ask cautiously if that's something she can't help him with. Carlotta laughs and says: no, it's nothing like that. He's got a valuable family heirloom stolen, his late father's sword. Is there some kind of a gang of sword thieves here? Carlotta asks what I mean and I reply: I mean, is it the same people who stole Pelin Varlais's sword? No, she insists it can't be. The latter is rumored to be connected to some kind of a political intrigue and involves extremely evil and dangerous people I mustn't get involved with. But I might be able to help Amren. I say: fine, he can find me and talk to me. I'll be around.

Heidi and Jenassa walk to the palace with me when I go to report to the steward Proventus about the destroyed bandits.

When we're about to leave, a man with brown skin and short dark hair enters and walks up to us. He nods to Jenassa and Heidi whom he evidently knows and introduces himself to me as Amren. He tells me about his father who was a brave warrior and had a sword which he used for many years. Amren cherished it greatly, but recently it got stolen. He made some inquiries and heard a couple of names which mean nothing to me, but Jenassa says it may be a gang that used to reside in Redoran's Retreat, a cave west-northwest of here.
I wonder how I would recognize his sword. Before Amren can answer, Heidi informs me that there's a spell that reveals if an article is stolen or not. All shopkeepers use it and she's sure Farengar the court wizard can teach it to me.
I promise Amren I'll look into it one of these days, and go to see Farengar.

Farengar tells me to come back later when he's finished working, so I decide to pay a visit to the Hall of the Dead with the girls, in case some dead bodies might be causing trouble. Sure enough, the priest Andurs asks us to recover his amulet he somehow lost among the undead.
We go in and encounter a number of aggressive mummies, but they are not too difficult to kill. We get the amulet and are back out in less than an hour.

Now I let my followers go for the rest of the evening. I return to the palace and let Farengar teach me the spell to recognize stolen goods. He looks like he would like me to stay longer and make conversation, but then he's struggling to find anything to say and the situation gets a little awkward. So I leave and walk around in the city, talk to some people and finally rest my tired legs at The Bannered Mare. I hear about a place called Forgotten Ruins somewhere far in the west. A woman named Cassia has announced that her brother got lost there, and whoever helps her find him she'll reward with "riches beyond imagining". I am rather skeptical about it and so is Jon who has sat down next to me and keeps suggesting we could spend some rewarding time together without having to travel far. Every once in a while he tells the brown-skinned maid Saadia to bring us more drinks, and it's quite late by the time I succeed in shaking him off and going to bed, alone.




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