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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
4-201-10-06 05:36
The Retching Netch, Ravenrock, Solstheim, Morrowind
We hurry out the south gate and towards Ashfallow Citadel. After we've run for about half an hour, we see a battle between two mages. It's an impressive sight in the early morning light. I've never seen anything like this before.
It seems that there's an ice mage on the left who has just cast a spell,
and the fire mage on the right is defending himself with a ward.
Never mind my followers' status bars in the corner.
They're (of course) ready, but not participating.
and the fire mage on the right is defending himself with a ward.
Never mind my followers' status bars in the corner.
They're (of course) ready, but not participating.
The frost mage is sending out icy things while getting hit with fire.
We wait until one of them is dead. You may be surprised, but it's the one on the right. The winner is, however, so badly battered that I can kill him with one arrow. Then we take all their gear and move on. Mages rarely carry anything a warrior can use, but when they're dead, why leave it there? Magic-enhancing robes can be sold for very decent money.
We go to Silt Strider Port next, where I sell Revus as much loot as I can. Ashfallow Citadel is not far in the north. We find a dead Ravenrock guard and are attacked by two cutthroats from an organization called Morag Tong I've never heard of before. They're not hard to kill. After that, we enter the citadel.
There are many enemies, but they're scattered all over the place and fight without any coordination whatsoever, so our well-trained group of four just smashes our way through without much difficulty. We walk carefully around a number of horrible traps and Bardslayer helps us through a couple of gratings, a way to open which is simply humanly impossible to find. I've told you that Bardslayer and I share a passionate hatred for twisted minds who take pleasure in hiding door switches in absurd places.
In the last room is Vendil Severin-Ulen himself. He's a bit tougher to kill (as well as far more skilled in hiding and evading) than his soldiers.
Our killing dance with him provides us with the gratifying feeling that we didn't just get our victory handed to us on a silver platter. Maybe you've guessed it by now that my girls and I actually enjoy a little risk every now and then.
We head back to Ravenrock. It's not even noon yet.
On our way to the west, we clear out two bandit camps and discover that there's a path into the town from this direction.
When you're headed east from Ravenrock (such as towards Skaal),
you don't actually have to exit through the southern gate and bypass the mountains.
You can take this steep easy-to-overlook path uphill between the mine and the smelter.
you don't actually have to exit through the southern gate and bypass the mountains.
You can take this steep easy-to-overlook path uphill between the mine and the smelter.
When Councilor Arano hears of our success, he looks like he'd like to hug us all and dance with joy. Exercising all his will-power, he settles for asking us to accompany him to the house of Councilor Morvayn. On the way there, I have to stop and say hello to my boyfriend Veleth. He is strangely reserved and wouldn't even let me kiss him. Maybe that's considered inappropriate here. I ask him how his work is going on, just to make conversation, and he says he's got an alcohol problem of sorts. His men seem to have gotten their hands on some extremely strong booze known as Embershard Wine . They have a supply of it hidden somewhere. Their drinking is beginning to affect the discipline. If I could find that secret stash, Veleth would be most grateful.
Sure thing. I'll find it even if I'll have to capture a few guards and torture them.
But now to Concilor Morvayn. He just stuns me by giving me Severin Mansion as a reward for thwarting the assassination plot. Now that's what I call work that pays off! It's rather disappointing when you get a dozen bandits (and almost yourself) killed and then are given some useless amulet or a hundred septims of money. Morvayn is truly a great man who knows how to show his gratitude. I'll be glad to do pretty much any job for him, should he require my services in the future.
Actually he does ask something of me – to consider staying in Ravenrock as a member of their community. And consider it I do for a moment, but I won't stay. I understand they're eager to get valuable people to settle down here, but Solstheim is just too depressing for me. I long for sunshine and green grass and the scent of pine trees and birdsong. And foxes. Like in that (spruce, but still adorable) forest east of Dragonbridge.
Sorry, I got carried away daydreaming. We'll now go searching for that ususual booze.
There's plenty of daylight left and I have a good nose for such things. Well, not really. I have a good nose all right, but as you know, I'm awful at finding hidden switches. Maybe I'll have better luck with hidden alcohol. Maybe one of the bottles is broken, so I can smell it. At any rate, I'm prepared to do just about anything to prove my worth to a man who has made me so happy – even though I still find it a little strange how he acts so reservedly as soon as we're in a public place.
My instinct tells me to look in those urns and barrels, of which there's plenty around the houses near the harbor. And heaps of ash, of course.
It takes us a long time. We look absolutely everywhere, even underwater. But we finally find it and report to Veleth. Then we go to check out our new house.
As we already noticed when we were here before, it has all the crafting facilities. I now no longer have an excuse to chat with Milore when doing alchemy at her shop, but it's no big deal – I can go chat with her just like that. But now I really must stop this gabbing and set to work. Not only have we gathered lots of weapons and armor made of local materials unknown in Skyrim, I have also picked up an amulet that enhances my Smithing skill when I wear it. So I get much work done. Most of our loot is for selling, but my girls get a little better helmets and I get a really cool one:
It's called Glass Helmet of Extreme Magicka. It almost doubles my magicka, which means I can uphold my Healing spell for much longer, as well as generally afford to cast more advanced spells that have a higher magicka cost. Apart from which, the helmet looks just awesome. I've seen Glass Helmets a couple of times and I always wanted to have one. I'm so happy.
This is our last evening in Solstheim. Tomorrow morning I want to go and have a look at those two small islands just off Ravenrock, and then we'll take the ship back to Windhelm.
When we are already lying in our beds, I'm suddenly surprised to hear myself say:
"You know what, girls? It was actually a great adventure!"
Rayya turns to look at me. "I'm glad you liked it."
"Yeah, I didn't like all of it." I've told them in very general terms what those Black Book things did to me. "But..."
"Wanna get drunk, Laura?" Lydia's voice interrupts me from the other side.
I hesitate for a second only. "Yeah, let's."
"Great!" says Rayya.
"However..." I make a little pause to get their attention. "I hate to be a spoilsport, but one of us has to stay sober. The local men are..." I see the girls' faces that I won't have to explain that we have become much too popular here to risk losing control and end up participating in a sex orgy.
From the corner of my eye, I can see Rayya and Jenassa nod.
"Jenassa?" I look at her questioningly. She's usually the mature and responsible one in our group, to say nothing of reserved.
"I can do it," says Lydia.
"You, Lydia?" I'm surprised. She was the one who suggested getting drunk to start with.
"Oh, it's all right, Laura. I'll come and sit with you, but I'll stay sober." She looks me deep in the eye and smiles kind of coyly. "I'll much rather see to it that nothing bad happens to you."
I suddenly get it. She must have been worrying herself sick when I was away in those Black Book realms. With some effort I loosen myself from her eyes. "All right, toughass chicks." I jump up from my bed. "Let's enjoy ourselves being women for a change."
I see that Rayya has been watching us. "Maybe you two would like to stay behind while Jenassa and I have fun with men," she says with just the tiniest hint of sarcasm.
"What is it?" I enquire with just the tiniest hint of a grin. "You jealous?"
Rayya is at loss for words. I pat her butt. "Come on." I walk to the door. I realize how excited I feel. It hasn't come up in our conversations, but I've been really eager to taste of all those elven alcohols with exotic names. Sujamma, Mazte, Flin, Shein... Well, maybe not all of them.
"Are we still returning to Skyrim?" asks Lydia.
"Yes. We're still returning to Skyrim."
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