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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
4-201-09-19 04:28
The Winking Skeever, Solitud, Haafingar, Skyrim
We have a nice bath and console Rayya who is unhappy because Fadeel's ship is away. That's how it is when your sweetheart is a sailor. Rayya knows this, theoretically, but she can't help being downcast, as she's used to a man being always there. Who would that man have been, we wonder. Jarl Siddgeir? Rayya casts her eyes down and doesn't answer. Of course. We should have guessed as much. We don't press her further on this topic.
In the first light of the day, we go to the harbor to check out that mysterious flying ship. It would appear that it can be used for a journey to a place called Doltania of which we know absolutely nothing. I'm not interested in that kind of an adventure at the moment, but I'm going to keep it in mind.
There's a boatman who would gladly transport us to any of the other harbor towns in Skyrim for a decent price. Then we see a ship called The Winter's Warmth. A woman with the name Rithleen tells us a story about a "filthy swit", a corsair captain who abused her.
After that, me and my followers run south along the coast. We pass by two rowing boats with nothing interesting in them, and then there's a watermill and a farm. We check out two little islands and then swim to the eastern bank. I can see on the map that we are not far from the Dragonbridge–Dånstar road, so we head that way. The forest is adorable, outright bewitching.
I know immediately that this is the kind of place where I grew up. Not necessarily (and not likely) this particular location, but my birthplace is certainly in exactly this kind of a climate zone. I look at the ground, the grass, the shadows of the trees – everything feels exactly right, right up to the way how the rays of the sun touch my skin. I mean, Western Falkreath is close, but not quite the same. This here is home. This is where I belong. I could sit down on the ground and stay here forever.
Well, I do sit down on the ground a quarter of an hour later, albeit not forever. That's on the roadside where a group of imps and a group of storks are loudly hammering away at each other's helmets and cuirasses. They're taking their time, but I don't mind. The forest is so beautiful. So is Lydia:
I happens to sit down somewhat aside from Lydia and Jenassa. While they are reminiscing on their life in Hviterun and their common acquaintances, Rayya comes and sits quietly down next to me. I realize to my surprise I feel like soulmates with her, even though we don't have hardly anything in common.
I ask Rayya what it was like to grow up in Hammerfell, and she tells me she was born in a traditional Redguard community, relatively peaceful and prosperous in Hammerfell terms. I learn about her parents and siblings and such. It's fascinating. I know absolutely nothing about Hammerfell, other than the fact that it exists.
Eventually, one of the groups has been exterminated (I don't even pay attention to which one) and the other one walks away slowly. We grab all the gear from the corpses and move on eastwards.
That building across the bridge in the next picture is the entrance to The Naked Dragon Morthal . The larger part of it is underground.
The Naked Dragon is the only actual brothel chain in Skyrim. All the others are unaffiliated establishments or just streetwalkers with or without their own houses. I'd love to see what this brothel looks like inside, but (unsurprisingly) women are not welcome here, unless they're looking for work.
What I really meant to say is that if this is the Morthal branch of The Naked Dragon, then it means the Morthal town itself shouldn't be too far.
Soon we find it. It's a little way off the main road. There's a group of agitated men in front of what appears to be the jarl's house. A representative of the jarl urges them to calm down and not worry, but I don't understand what it's all about. Finally the gathering begins to disperse, and I speak to a couple of men. They tell me something about a house that burned down recently, and a wizard the locals don't like.
My daily rhythm is playing tricks. (I said "daily "!) It's only noon and I already feel dog-tired. I guess we'll stay a while in this town.
I go into the jarl's house and talk to everyone.
That's Taurinus. Somehow I suspect he's a lot leaner underneath that massive armor. Hope I can find out someday.
He suggested I join the Imperial Army, but I'd rather not go that far.
He suggested I join the Imperial Army, but I'd rather not go that far.
The jarl is an old woman Idgrod who apparently has "wisdom" revealed to her by "Divines" every now and then. I carefully refrain from comments. Her bodyguard Gorm warns me sternly not to disrespect the jarl, but he leaves little doubt that he's greatly worried about the potential effect of those "visions" of hers.
I now head for the inn. Innkeepers are often the most valuable sources of goss... I mean information, especially when they're female.
I pass by a group of playing children. Someone shouts the name "Joric". I enter the inn.
First thing, I overhear the end of a conversation between a young woman and a young man. The woman shouts to the man: "Joric is not crazy!" I can't disagree with her, because the boy looked perfectly normal to me. But I can't enquire what's it all about, because the woman storms out. I apprach the innkeeper Jonna. From her I learn that the woman was the jarl's daughter, Idgrod the Younger, and Joric is her little brother. I find it quite unbelievable that the jarl can have a child so young. Jonna says she has aged quickly and doesn't want to elaborate on it, so I ask her what's that fire everyone is talking about. She tells me that the house of a man named Hroggar burned down and his wife and daughter lost their lives. What the people find suspicious is that Hroggar lives with a woman named Alva now. That's why some of them think Hroggar started the fire himself to get rid of his family. The jarl whom I ask about it next clearly suspects the same, but she refuses categorically to prosecute a man because of rumors only. She asks me to go and search for evidence of his guilt or innocence.
On my way to the burnt house, Idgrod the Younger approaches me and says she has heard I'm an adventurer on my way to Hviterun. I confirm I am. She asks me if I would bring a letter to the priestess Danica in Hviterun. Sure, I can do that. But what's the deal with Joric?
Right. I have no further questions.
Now I go check out the burnt ruins near the town wall. There I meet the ghost of a little girl Helgi, apparently the daughter of Hroggar, who was killed when the house burned down. She says she's lonely and asks me to play hide-and-seek. If I can find her after dark, she'll tell me how her house caught fire.
As I'm really very tired, I decide to have 4 hours of sleep and then it'll probably be dark enough. Pondering this crazy mess as I walk towards the inn, I find myself wondering for a moment if it's possible that the Dånstar nightmares somehow ended up doing their damage in Morthal instead. The thought makes me chuckle. I hope not.
A little after 8 in the evening, I don't feel quite rested yet, but I hope I'll be able to sleep some more later. Helgi is nowhere in the vicinity of the burnt-down house, but my intuition tells me to exit through the nearby gate in the town wall. I notice a woman, a vampire at first glance, who is angry and attacks me for some reason, so I have to kill her. She was a vampire all right.
Nearby is a small coffin. I learn Helgi is in it. Her ghost says her home burned down because the woman I just killed, Laelette, was ordered to set it on fire.
Guess the mystery is solved, for the most part. On my way back to town, I encounter a man named Thonnir who is looking for none other than Laelette, his wife who got lost without a trace recently. He has built up quite a hysteria and finding his wife's dead body nearby doesn't exactly help. Fortunately, he doesn't ask how she met her death. I eventually manage to drag it out of him that Laelette was supposed to meet Alva the night she disappeared. Yet, he refuses to believe that Alva could somehow be involved in all this. I shrug him off and return to the town to find the house of that mysterious Alva to whom all the clues seem to be pointing at.
Even the sky looks vampiric to me right now.
I order my followers to come with me, in case this should turn difficult. On our way to the house, we meet Alva herself. She says sneeringly that she has heard I put Laelette out of her misery. I let her walk away for the time being, because she's doing us a service by not being at home while we want to search her house for clues.
The door is locked, but the lock is easy enough to pick. The house turns out not empty, though. We're attacked by none other than Hroggar. I step aside and let my girls make short work of him. I'm kind of not in the mood right now.
The evidence we came to look for is in the basement – a journal where Alva reveals how she seduced Hroggar and ordered her subordinate vampire Laelette to kill his family. Alva herself is in turn acting on the orders of a master vampire whose name is Movarth.
We have to report this to the jarl, but that can wait until the morning. As we saunter towards the inn, we see Alva in a fight with the town guards. She must have somehow sensed that we have found her journal, and then she probably snapped or something. We give the guards a hand, although they would have probably been able to kill her without our help.
(Jenassa explains that Alva probably didn't snap. Vampires don't hide from getting exposed the way normal people do. She sensed her game was over and came out into the open "to honor her defeat by fighting it out" as Jenassa puts it. I don't quite understand it, but whatever.)
Nearby is a bathhouse. Unlike the two "bathhouses" in Solitud, this one can actually be used as a bath, although there are also two luxurious bedrooms for more intimate kind of services. We decide to relax a bit. They have a large pool downstairs and a steam room upstairs.
That's allowed! This is a place where everybody is naked.
See?
Front to back: Rayya, Jenassa, Laura, Lydia.
Having lazied away a couple of delighful hours in the warm water, we return to the inn for our well-earned sleep.
next awakening
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