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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
4-201-11-01 02:00
Vilemyr Inn, Ivarsted, The Rift, Skyrim
We have a nice bath and start out across the river and up the mountain.
We meet a pilgrim, a friendly man Barknar, and have a little chat. After that, it's only trolls. I decide we'll just run past them whenever we can. There's no point killing them. We end up meeting at least four, and they're slow enough for us to avoid them comfortably. However, darkness is a real problem up here. I was wrong about the snow giving enough light.
I remember about the ring that's supposed to "light my way". Maybe it means exactly what it says – visible light? I hope the ring isn't cursed or anything. I take it out and put it on my finger. No it's not cursed, and it fills my surroundings with a purple glow – maybe a little eerie, but light enough for us to move around comfortably.
This is great. Now I no longer need the Magelight staff and can sell it.
In the castle of High Hrothgar, I find Arngeir praying or meditating in front of those little shrines. I give him the horn. He informs me solemnly that I have now passed all the trials. I'll be taught one more shout, after which they will officially recognize me as Dragonborn. We walk to the main hall and the group of Gaybores around me perform a ceremony in which they speak in the dragon language which is so mighty that it makes things shake all around us.
My followers who stand well out of the way – in fact, hudde near the entrance door – are most relieved when the "speaking" is over. It was sheer horror, they tell me later.
Arngeir informs me that now High Hrothgar is open to me. Does it mean I can go through that energy barrier in the back yard? No, I can't. So the girls and I will just return to Ivarsted. The Gaybores apparently have no further business with me – or if they do, they don't deem it necessary to inform me about it. The only thing I can do if I want to pursue this quest any further is to return to Delphinebitch. My intuition tells me that working with her is the only way how I can continue to work with the Gaybores, which in turn is the only way to end the war in Skyrim. Don't ask me for details. I don't know exactly how those things are connected. This is just one of those hunches I have from time to time.
I already know what I'll do with Delphinebitch. I'll endure all her insults, but as soon as we're in a place without witnesses, I'll strip her naked and whip her until she screams and begs for mercy. Then I'll make her humbly apologize and swear she'll improve her behavior.
But first we'll need to get past those trolls again.
The reddish glow means the troll has noticed me approaching and decided to attack.
It's about to turn around whereas I intend to jump over that stone and continue to run downhill.
It's about to turn around whereas I intend to jump over that stone and continue to run downhill.
It's already light enough, so I won't need the ring. Still, we manage to lose our way once in the heavy snowfall, have to use the Clairvoyance spell and just barely manage to escape a roaring troll. Almost out of the snow zone, we run leisurely with the last troll on our heels when I see the pilgrim Barknar and realize my mistake. We can't just go on running – the troll would attack Barknar. So we have to stop and kill the troll. Fortunately, Barknar is smart enough to run away in utter panic.
I decide to rename this mountain Mount Nexus because of all the trolls. Nexus was a realm in a book I read as a child where great many trolls dwelled.
Rushing through Ivarsted, we catch yet another discussion of Fastred's parents as to what to do with their adventure-hungry daughter. On our way south, we get to see some pretty birds quite close:
Soon we're in the Rift Imperial Camp where we sell some stuff and run on towards Autumnwatch Tower to kill a dragon on the jarl's request. We actually meet the dragon near the imp camp. I shoot several arrows in its direction, but it just teases us by flying quickly back and forth and easily evading my arrows. I've told you several times before how I hate that.
The Autumnwatch Tower is a small tower, or a citadel if you prefer. I run up the stairs and when I've reached the top, the dragon finally deigns to attack me. My anti-fire amulet and ring protect me almost completely against fire damage. The only problem is that I have to shoot blindly into the white-yellow glow, because I can't see the actual dragon. And to taunt me right to the end, when the dragon is almost dead, it rises up for an acrobatic flight just out of my field of vision. Precariously balancing on the edge of the citadel roof barrier, I manage to deliver the last shot, or maybe it was one of my followers down on the ground. At any rate, I swear I'll never go voluntarily dragon-fighting again.
There's also a word wall from which I learn a shout that may be even useful, or at least its name sounds cool – Marked for Death. Then we head east-northeast. Our ultimate goal is the city of Bitchen, but I want to explore the southern edge of The Rift, the area where your travels usually never take you, to see if there's anything interesting.
It's a mountainous area, but there are quite comfortable passes. We soon find a shrine with a huge statue of Talos.
Down below, we can see some big arches that may lead to something interesting. The catch is we'd have to descend a very high slope without any chance of coming back the same way; and the path leads west – that is, basically back to where we came from earlier today.
I decide to go down there anyway. It's only 11 o'clock, so even if we should end up having to travel all the way back to the area of Ivarsted, we'll surely be able to reach Bitchen today. The girls are afraid of the descent. No wonder. I promise to keep them safe by teleporting them over the most dangerous places, but I can understand that it's not a pleasant experience for them. Nothing doing – that's what you have to put up with when you are my follower.
Arrived on the road down below, we move forward along it very cautiously. Just before the first stone arch, there's a kind of altar with two dead draugrs. ("Dead" means they won't come to life and attack us.)
I think this is the first draugr I've ever seen who looks female.
Past the second big arch, we see a low stone structure at some distance. In front of it are two trolls. They look really cool, actually, but of course I know they'd attack us on sight and their blows would be very painful. In fact, they are seeing us already and roaring threateningly.
Fortunately, they're so far away I can shoot them before they can become dangerous. I feel sorry for the trolls, but if they won't coexist with us peacefully, then what can I do?
We see the ruins of a stone building, half-buried in the snow. It's called Nord Dwelling. There's a man's corpse inside. Don't tell me people actually lived in a thing like that! It doesn't even have proper walls.
Whatever. We move on. There's one of those structures that look like a round hole 3–4 meters deep in the ground surrounded by a thigh-high barrier. I can see a draugr inside, in an upright coffin-cupboard, like they usually are.
That Dwemer automaton was conjured by me.
Fortunately our combined efforts bring the draugr down pretty easily.
We climb out again and suddenly three or four walking skeletons appear as if out of nowhere. Skeletons are not very strong, but they're still nasty when they get too close to you. Also the clacking sound they make while they move is spooky.
Having killed the skeletons, we move on and arrive at a bigger robust stone structure called Arcwind Point. We can see a platform with a draugr in a horizontal coffin for a change. As I approach it carefully with my bow drawn, a huge shadow covers the ground around me. A dragon. This one is very cocky. After flying back and forth above my head, it sits down in front of me. I am fascinated to see its face and jaws and eyes from up close.
My fascination doesn't keep me from shooting one arrow after another into the dragon, and the girls follow my example. Half of my health is gone by the time we finally kill the magnificent reptile. I must admit I actually enjoyed it this time.
I'm glad the draugr in the coffin has been kind enough not to join the fight. But we'll have to kill it all the same, because we don't want it to awake and attack us when we least expect it.
So I approach the coffin and the thing comes out. It actually floats in the air. It's extremely scary. It's called a Dragon Priest. Well spread out, so the monstrosity can attack only one of us at a time, the girls and I kill it eventually. When it's dead, it doesn't look impressive at all:
Behind me: Lydia. Further below: Jenassa and Jordis.
Dragon priests used to worship dragons in very, very ancient times. My girls and I, we've all heard stories about them, but the storytellers are disagreeing as to what they were actually up to – were they somehow trying to control the dragons for their own purposes, or were they trying to appease them so they wouldn't destroy the humankind, or did they simply think dragons were cool?
Behind the platform is a word wall from which I get yet another dragon shout whose function is rather unclear and usefulness doubtful.
When we're about to leave, a few more skeletons appear and attack us.
Looking at my map, I realize we're already way past Autumnwatch Tower. For that matter, we've ended up farther to the west than Ivarsted. We're not too far from Haemar's Shame to our northwest.
To the north goes a long staircase. On top, there's a small hut-like stone building with a trap which we avoid. And then there's nowhere further to go. Just a high drop to the west–east road that we traveled yesterday.
Ivarsted is ahead, past the mountains and to the left.
The descent is dangerous even for me, but I'm very cautious and arrive on the ground unharmed. Then I magically bring the girls down not too badly shaken up.
Across the road is a small hut. We approach it cautiously, but there's no one there. It's called Alchemist's Shack. There's a bed and a herb garden and an Alchemy Lab.
After a little rest, we run east. Jordis heard someone mention a town southeast of Ivarsted yesterday. We'll go check it out.
What we discover instead is The Naked Dragon Riften. Quite far from Riften (Bitchen), actually.
But a little further northeast, we can indeed see roofs of many houses behind a low hill.
There's a troll fighting someone not tall enough for us to see. I shoot the troll. Its adversary turns out to be a town guard. This is Sunguard City – not exactly a city, but a nice little town regardless.
We rest a while at the inn. It's half past 4 in the afternoon. I ask the girls what they think we ought to do – stay here or move on. There's a good chance we'll be able to reach Bitchen more or less in the daylight. We could also check out an Orc village that should be south of the river, about halfway from here to Bitchen.
We decide to move on. Surely we'll get another opportunity to spend time in this hospitable town.
On the road, there are great many elks. They're kind of cute, but very difficult to take good pictures of, as they always run away from humans.
We go across the river and see a windmill nearby. Behind it is a Sarethi Farm. An elven woman Aduri Sarethi with most fascinating dark skin, almost black, tells us how she's so bored living in this place where nothing happens.
Another woman with slightly lighter skin and orange hair called Avrusa Sarethi, apparently the elder sister, tells us how she's killing herself with farming and keeping "a tight rein" on Aduri. She is growing Nirnroot and asks us to gather 20 Jazbay Grapes for her. Jazbay is supposed to be useful for making Nirnroot grow better. Fine.
We proceed southwards and cross the river by a nearby bridge. We notice a campsite with three people who don't seem hostile. There's a woman with one eye and a fascinating face paint. She is one of the two bodyguards of the man Stalleo. He seems to have been waiting for some soldiers and mistakes us for them.
He tells us a tale of woe about his family who has been captured by some villains. Making things clear is not one of Stalleo's strongest qualities, and I don't like his impoliteness. Someone who is as desperate as he claims to be can't afford to act in such a haughty manner. On second thought, I shouldn't be so harsh with a man whose loved ones may be suffering heaven knows what horrors even as we speak.
The point is, we're supposed to go into the cave whose entrance is nearby, and try to sneak up on the bandits and rescue Stalleo's family. I think we'll do it since we're already here. Probably won't make it to Bitchen tonight, but Sunguard City is very close and we'll be able to spend the night there.
The cave entrance leads to passages supported by wooden beams. It looks like an abandoned mine, or possibly not so abandoned. After we've killed a couple of bandits, we see sleeping mats and I decide we'll get some sleep before continuing our mission that may take an unknown amount of time.
next awakening
