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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
4-201-09-13 06:46
Windpeak Inn, Dånstar, The Pale, Skyrim
Unsophisticated as it may be, this town never ceases to fascinate me.
During our leisurely stroll, I ask Lydia how it was last night. She says they did it standing up behind the houses. Bjarne doesn't have a room of his own, so it's a little complicated. I promise her I'll let them use our inn room next time when I'm not so exhausted. I can wait outside. For that matter, the room is free now. Lydia can't help smiling brightly. A second later, she checks herself, makes a serious face and says she'll think about it. I smirk. Guess it's her turn to be embarrassed now.
I spend the morning improving our gear, selling the loot and picking up two minor quests.
My hair looks really pretty in snowfall, doesn't it?
A little after 12, I go to the inn and see the door to our room closed. I look at Jenassa who sits in the taproom. With a hint of a smile, she nods. I go and knock gently on the door. Lydia'll know it means we're leaving. I wait in front of the house with the others. Lydia appears soon.
We head south. Our main goal is to find the third Aetherium Shard, using the map from Katria's journal. On our way there, we're going to drop by Shearpoint and kill a dragon the jarl of The Pale wants to get rid of.
Not far from Dånstar, we notice a huge campfire. There is no one about. This looks like an abandoned giant camp. I walk around without seeing anything interesting. Then I jump as I see an actual living giant in 10 or 20 meters from me. I'm glad to say my reflexes work perfectly this time. I turn and run away. (FYI, giants are horribly big, but they move very slowly and don't use ranged weapons, so they're not really dangerous unless you're really careless.)
Soon after that, we see a fortress on the roadside. I'm not interested in wasting time on some silly bandits, so we try to just pass by. But they insist on getting killed. We clear out the courtyard, but I can't be bothered to explore the interior.
Shearpoint seems to be in the mountains and the map doesn't show any roads leading there, so I'll just have to improvise. Fortunately, I find a direction from which the ascent is pretty manageable. For me, that is. Apparently, my khajiitborn skills make me superior to others in climbing up slopes as well – even compared to an actual Khajiit.
By the time I've high enough for the slope to get snowy, I've lose sight of my followers, but I don't want to wait for them here. I feel insecure halfway up a mountain. I have neither a proper view nor proper foothold and am thus very vulnerable to a potential attack from above. I'll climb up and wait for the others on top.
There it is, finally! The slippery slope ends. Panting a little, but pleased with my successful navigation, I suddenly stop at this sight (just left of the two spruces, above the rocks):
Is that a dragon? Not a statue of some kind? A living dragon? The one I have to find and slay? Sitting still on the highest place, in plain view? My target served to me on a silver platter?
Well, let's find out. I'm too impatient to wait for my followers to arrive. I believe I can handle this dragon alone. And maybe I need an assurance that I'm capable of doing things even when I don't have three followers covering up for me. So I take my enchanted bow, choose the strongest arrow, aim carefully and shoot at the thing.
Yes, it's a dragon all right. He won't even play cat and mouse with me. He comes flying in a straight line, lands right in front of me and encases me in scorching, blinding fire. Fortunately, I can tell by touch which item in my inventory is which. Unfortunately, I don't have any Resist Fire potions. I've had plenty of opportunity to brew some, but failed to think of it, and now it's too late. I'll have to make do with health potions.
It takes me some time to realize that I don't need to wait for the pauses between the dragon's fire breaths to see to shoot. I can just release arrows roughly into the middle of this white-yellow glow and I'm bound to hit some body part of the dragon.
I am taking serious damage, but I'm not really scared. I can see that the dragon is losing its health faster. You might still say I was taking a rather stupid and pointless risk. In hindsight, I tend to agree with you. But sometimes you just do stupid things. And all well that ends well, right?
In due time, the combination of hard work and alchemy extinguishes the dragon's life. I absorb its soul and realize only then that I have a ring of 80% fire resistance and I failed to put it on because I had simply forgotten all about it. I'm so angry with myself that I'd like to shout it from the rooftops. Next moment, I realize I'm on a mountain and there isn't a living soul far and wide. So I actually do scream as loudly as I can some obscenities which I can impossibly write down here.
When my followers turn up, they are relieved to see that the dragon is already dead and all is well with me. Now we have to travel east to find a place where that Aetherium Shard might be. Looking carefully everywhere around us, we discover a location with some small stone structures and a lot of bones lying about. I realize this is the actual Shearpoint, that dragon's home. It's just about the most gods-forsaken place I've ever seen. Nothing stirs anywhere and we can't even see anything remotely useful to pick up. Just a word wall. With a shrug, I walk towards it. I must admit, a word wall in daylight looks actually quite pretty.
When I'm about twenty paces from the wall, a large box nearby opens and something undead jumps out. I quickly take rather heavy damage, but so does he. Soon the creature is surrounded by my followers who hopelessly block my shots. What's worse, I'm appalled to see it suddenly recover much of its health. What's going on? No idea, no time to think. I aim for the very tall creature's head, but the magic in front of the word wall creates weird lighting conditions, so that one moment you're in darkness and you take one step and you're suddenly in the light, or vice versa. There's no rhyme or reason to any of it and I get things more or less under control only when the monstrosity deigns to run into the open. Afraid of him killing my followers and afraid of accidentally hitting them myself, I still manage to place a few arrows into the creature. You can imagine my relief when one of the girls delivers the final blow and the thing falls down never to stand up again.
When I've caught my breath, I take a look around and see that Kharjo lies on the ground, dead.
I'm... aghast. Dismayed. Anguished. I'm sorry, Kharjo. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please forgive me! It was all my fault. I shouldn't have put a new follower into such danger right on the first day. I shouldn't have relaxed and forgotten to use Sense of Smell before approaching that word wall. Maybe it would have detected that undead creature in the coffin. I...
The girls lift me up on my feet and bring me back to reality. Yes. Right. We need to move on.
The thing is, I know I've told you before that I'm a big girl and I know that people get killed, especially warriors, and I'm mentally prepared for having to suffer casualties on our dangerous missions. But I was zero percent prepared for this. It was so unexpected. So unforeseeable. So pointless.
I recall the skirmish with all five of us close together in front of the word wall. What could I have done differently? Ordered my followers to run away in different directions and to turn around at some distance and start shooting? Would it have worked? Got to try it someday. Close range is our biggest enemy.
Yes, Lydia, I'm all right. I appreciate your being concerned. Let's divide up the weight and move on. Goodbye, Kharjo, my dear friend. It tears my heart out that I have to leave your body lying here, but there's nothing I can do.
We walk across the frozen ground in the direction of the place where I believe the marker on Katria's map to be. After a mere quarter of an hour, we see a small domed structure typical of Dwemer ruins:
Raldbthar, the place is called. There are staircases and great many more domed structures. Is this the right place? Is there a piece of aetherium somewhere inside? Got to go in and find out, I guess.
As everyone always assures, no Dwemers are living in any of the Dwemer ruins any longer. However, common human bandits often dwell outside them or in the interior parts nearest to the entrance. That's the case here as well.
We are already understrength and I can't afford to lose another follower. That's why we approach slowly and cautiously and don't undertake any attempts at negotiating or sneaking past.
He noticed his buddy fall down and is now running back and forth trying to find the culprit. He hasn't got a chance, the poor man.
As we enter by the main door, we see a couple of sleeping mats, on one of which is a sleeping bandit whom I shoot dead. Then I take the opportunity to get some sleep myself. I have no idea how long this adventure is going to take, so we'd better have a good rest before it.
next awakening
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