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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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previous day
4-201-09-11 02:49
Four Shields Tavern, Dragonbridge, Haafingar, Skyrim
In the silence of the night, I can do my smithing without being distracted. Among other things, we picked up several pairs of Vampire Boots in that cave yesterday. They offer clearly stronger protection than the boots we've been wearing so far, and they look stylish too.
I have a few hours to kill before the shops open, so I decide to walk around and explore what I can. My first stop is at the barracks. The guards in this village have a funny name – Penis Occultus or Penitus Oculatus or something like that. There's only one guard in the guard dormitory. He's quite handsome, so I decide to take the opportunity and slip into his bed. But then he fails to get a hard-on! We try for more than an hour, and then I give up and leave.
I feel like crying. I return to the inn.
Yesterday, on our way to Dragonbridge, I thought I should give our dog to the market trader Eydis. She has a daughter and no husband, so I think the child would feel less sad if she had a dog for a companion. And I don't want a dog hanging around us all the time. He won't survive long, not with the kinds of enemies we're dealing with.
I left the dog at the inn and now I'm going to fetch him and go and see if Eydis is already up and if she would take the dog. Strolling uphill pensively, I begin to wonder how would a dog react when seeing a Khajiit. They're felines, after all.
Well, I'm getting my answer now. There is a Khajiit in the taproom, and our dog doesn't pay any special attention to him.
As concerns the Khajiit, I've seen him here before. Now I strike up a conversation with him. His name is Dar'Jidarr and he says he doesn't need any help from fighters. He hints that he's hiring prostitutes, and I suspect he may also be a slave trader. I'm not interested.
I don't have a problem with prostitution as such. It's good that men can get their needs satisfied and women get men's money. Better the horny guys go to a brothel than roam about catching women and raping them. And from what I hear, Skyrim is well covered with licensed brothels that provide a civilized environment where both the workers' and the customers' interests are protected. For that, the owners make good profits which they totally deserve.
Yes, Eydis and her daughter Sveina are already up, eating breakfast.
They cheer up visibly when I ask them if they'd like a dog. Yes, they'd be delighted to. I hope he hasn't grown too fond of me yet.
In the meantime, shops have opened, and I sell what I don't need. Weirdly, the general store isn't opening at all. Has the owner gotten himself killed or something? That would be really inconsiderate of him. Although, come to think of it, Solitud is quite near, so it's not such a big disaster after all.
My followers are ready. They tell me how they chatted with Faida the barkeeper and Julienne who lives in the last house on the road to Solitud. Then they notice I'm downcast and ask me if something happened, and I tell them.
Rayya says when a man can't get hard, you're supposed to suck his... well, that. As a matter of fact, I knew it, but I was kind of shy. I'll do it the next time. Although I hope this will never happen to me again. Maybe I should change my hairstyle? Lydia says: yeah, down there. I slap her, friendly-like. She runs away from me. All right, let's get serious. People are looking at us. Lydia... come... here... now!
I'll deal later with her and her smutty jokes. I occasionally do trim my pubic hair, but you're not supposed to talk about it so casually. Or maybe I'm envious because Lydia isn't embarrassed to talk about it so casually.
In a cheerful mood, we run northwards along the highway, and in a cheerful mood we run into a thalmor patrol twenty minutes later. They are clearly aggressive. I'm not entirely sure it's us they're after, but I won't wait until they hit me with their terrible magic (okay, maybe it's not so terrible, but I'm afraid of such things), so I shoot first. There are four of them. Our enchanted weapons prove clearly superior. Or is it that mages wear virtually no armor, relying only on their magic to protect them, and once they get hit by an arrow poisoned with the Damage Magicka Regeneration poison, they're doomed? And maybe they weren't after us to begin with, and we shouldn't have killed them? Well, never mind. It's done. Even if thalmors haven't yet declared us their enemies, they're bound to sooner or later. Apart from which, High Elves are so haughty that they totally deserve to have their numbers reduced a bit.
We run on. Speaking of which, maybe you've been wondering why we run so much. It's because people all over Tamriel are used to running ever since they're children. Long-distance jogging is our favorite means of travel. Horse-cart transport is available between major settlements (at least in Skyrim), but it's rather expensive. So we run. Within settlements, most people prefer to walk, and some walk between settlements as well, but at least all housecarls and sellswords are perfectly comfortable with running considerable distances. As am I. You don't really get tired unless you run too fast.
We leave the Dragonbridge–Solitud highway and head northwest.
Soon we arrive at a crossing near Wolfskull Cave. There's a little skirmish between imps and storks. This time the storks win.
We enter the Wolfskull Cave without any idea what would expect us there. Strange noises, or what did that man from Dragonbridge say? I can't remember.
There are passages leading in various directions. I have no idea where we should go, so we just go somewhere, killing an occasional draugr and such. Soon we find ourselves on a little rock plateau. There's a very high drop into certain death. Across a wide gulf, we can see castle-like structures that go higher than where we are.
There's evidently a magic ritual going on. Apart from those violetish-blue energy streams flowing through the air,
we can hear that someone is trying to awaken something called Potema. (An evil ruler in the distant past, Jenassa tells me. Thanks.)
we can hear that someone is trying to awaken something called Potema. (An evil ruler in the distant past, Jenassa tells me. Thanks.)
Everything is too far for my Sense of Smell power. But I imagine that there is something going on at the very top of that structure. It's too high for us to see over the defense wall, so I shoot an arrow just over it. That's a pretty efficient method of making enemies highly excited and run around frantically trying to figure out what the hell it was and where it came from.
Indeed, there seem to be several people up there, running back and forth looking for us, but they have hardly any chance spotting us in this enormous cavern. We can briefly see a creature or two, but it's rather obvious that we'll have to get closer if we want to achieve anything (such as getting a halfway decent shot at them). In order to get up there, we'll obviously have to cross the wide and deep gulf in front of us, and to do that we need to somehow descend from this plateau first.
So, we go back into the passages, looking for enemies. We descend to the bottom of the cavern, killing mages and draugrs. The mages are surprisingly harmless, but the draugrs need quite a few arrows to die. Have I already told you that in addition to conventional weapons, draugrs have the ability to do something similar to dragon shouts that can send a shockwave at you that throws you off balance? It's really scary.
As we advance, new enemies appear. We go into a citadel, up the stairs, out again, up a staircase...
Deathlord? That sounds serious.
Anticipating much stronger resistance from the main group of mages on top, I use my Ritual Stone power to awaken, among others, that very Draugr Deathlord I just killed. Now we enter the main citadel and ascend its spiral staircase. When we are near the top, several mages come to engage us. After a somewhat confused skirmish, I reach the top. There is but one enemy left on the platform. I kill it. It's an old woman.
There is no more resistance. The ritual has evidently been interrupted, because nothing spiritual and weird has materialized. So our job is done. Now, that was fun!
Bardslayer guides me to the switch that lowers a gangway that leads us to the exit.
We have plenty of time to get to The Burning Queen shipwreck. Too lazy to search for a proper road, we climb down a steep mountain slope halfway there. Just short of the ocean shore, we meet a mercenary in an incredibly cool black armor. I strike up a conversation and he warns us from going to a dangerous place nearby called Shadowgreen Cavern.
When he has left to wherever he was going, the girls and I proceed to the shore, I strip naked and swim to the shipwreck. I'm disappointed to not find any sword, just a journal that tells about some bandits somewhere in the area of Dragonbridge. Looks like I'll have to go back there if I want that sword. I'm beginning to wonder if I do want it that badly.
I return to the shore and we get onto the road to Solitud. And then we see that Shadowgreen Cavern place on the roadside. It looks kind of spooky and kind of fascinating. We could take a look inside while we're here. What do you think girls? Lydia looks rather worn out. No, she insists she's fine. Let's check the place out, they say. That's the attitude!
So we leave the road and approach Shadowgreen Cavern. I'm dumbstruck. What I had taken for a fascinating structure is in fact just a rock formation that looks nothing special from a different angle. The actual Shadowgreen Cavern is nothing more than a regular cave entrance like dozens of others I've seen.
We go in anyway. The interior is lush and beautiful, and it has a pond. Don't tell me there are spriggans here.
I take a couple of shots at a small animal and fail to hit it. When we get closer, I see it's a hare. (Lucky I failed to hit it. I mustn't shoot at things just because they move!!) Then we kill a few wolves. And then we do indeed see a spriggan. No! Screw it. I'm not going to kill spriggans. It's not right. Let them go on guarding this beautiful place. We're out of here.
It's about 7 in the evening when we arrive in Solitud. I go to the palace. Fortunately, the city administration is still at work. I tell Falk about that weird ritual we witnessed in the Wolfskull Cave. He's really shocked to hear that someone was attempting to revive Potema. I reckon she must have been really very powerful and very evil.
Then I inform Sybille that we destroyed that vampire gang in the Pinemoon Cave, and her attitude towards me changes completely. Now I'm suddenly like her best friend. She even shares some local political gossip with me. The late jarl Torygg, the husband of Elisif, who was killed by Ulfric Stormcloak, was actually quite independence-minded. Meaning, he had in fact a lot of common ground with Ulfric and the latter made a rather bad mistake by killing him. It would appear that their essential difference was only in their estimation of the situation. Torygg was convinced that the time was not yet ripe for Skyrim's independence. The Aldmeri Dominion is so big a threat that Skyrim needs Empire's protection. That's what Sybille thinks and that's what Torygg thought.
Seeing that no one wants anything further from me, I approach Jarl Elisif herself for the first time. We make some polite small talk and then she asks in a low voice if I would do her a favor. She would like me to bring her dead husband's warhorn to a shrine of Talos in the Hviterun area. She couldn't make an offering to Talos herself, because the ban on Talos worship is strictly observed in Solitud.
Sure thing! I'll be honored to do what she's asking.
It's past 9 now. I wonder if Hadvar has already returned to Solitud or is he still in Riverwood. I stroll from the palace up to the fortress through a long dark street somewhat lighted by symbolic lanterns. Maybe I'll see him there.
I get a blessing of Arkay at the temple – it's always good to be on the gods' good side as I've told you – and then I enter the fortress itself. There's an oldish woman talking in an agitated manner not unlike that metal bitch in Helgen.
She's in a heated dispute with none other than General Tullius. He is not as short as I remember him from Helgen. Nevertheless, the sight of him brings it all back – how I was kneeling at the chopping block waiting for the executioner's axe to cut my head off. I quickly exit before I would kill Tullius and get myself in trouble. I have been thinking the Imperial Army is not for me, and now I'm positive.
I go to the inn. The taproom is full of people, but my followers are not here. An Imperial man sitting on a bar stool evidently overhears me renting two rooms for myself and my followers. When I start walking towards the staircase, he stands up and tells me I look tired, and may he help me up the stairs to my room? Somehow I find it hilariously funny. I try to shrug and keep a serious face, but then I can't help bursting out in laughter, and he laughs and puts an arm around my shoulders. As we walk, I look quickly left and right without moving my head. Everybody seems relaxed and merry, men and women mingle freely and no one pays attention to us, only a petite female bard smiles in my direction, but maybe it has nothing to do with me.
The man introduces himself as Aurelius as we walk up to one of the rooms I rented. I'm not sure if there'll ever be a chance for an actual relationship with that antisocial-looking man, but at least a certain part of my body is getting a proper treatment tonight. That's what I needed to make my day perfect. We do it twice and it's past 2 when we go to sleep, completely exhausted.
next awakening
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