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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
4-202-03-19 06:59
Lakeside Retreat, Bruma County, Cyrodiil
I clean the house out of everything valuable. Outside, we are surprised by one more bandit, a Khajiit man. I leave him to my followers to kill while I walk to the lakeshore to have a wash. The girls join me a couple of minutes later.
We are seeing a citadel across the lake and go to check it out. Our rendezvous with that corny jerk Olaf whom we met in Bruma lies in the same direction.
In the badly ruined citadel, there's an unduly aggressive elven woman whom we kill. An Arch Conjurer.
Now we have to follow a path uphill. We see some charming deer
The goblins are something between Falmers and Rieklings. They roast rats and such over incredibly large campfires, look ghastly and are easy to kill.
We didn't set anything on fire here. That's a regular-sized goblin campfire.
This extensive system of large caves is a navigational nightmare. I have to use the Clairvoyance spell in order to find the way back out.
In hindsight, it was a pointless mission. Those goblins seemed to just lead their lives without disturbing anyone. I doubt that ingratiating myself with the pampered and corrupt nobility of Bruma merited this slaughter. I won't accept any more goblin-killing missions
A short climb further up the mountain path, and we're seeing Olaf in the company of two young Nord men. He overflows us with fake joviality (or maybe it's really his natural behavior; all the worse for him) and cheap compliments. His slip of the tongue reveals they're Stormcloaks – loyals or rebel, I can't find out. All right, let's go and see about that "friend".
Sedor where Olaf leads us to turns out to be another Ayleid ruin.
It's beautiful, but I'm too busy to fully appreciate it fighting enemies who seem to be everywhere. There's too little light to even properly see who the attackers (well, yes, defenders, rather; we are the invaders here, obviously) are. Olaf is always well ahead of us. Whatever he is, a coward he is most assuredly not. Finally we find a man of Imperial race named Caius. He is dead. Olaf tells me he was carrying important documents which he hopes are here somewhere.
While searching, we lose sight of Olaf and his companions, but me and my followers are certainly going to remain close together in a place as dangerous as this.
Without encountering any enemies, we find the documents. They are reports from the Empire's secret agent who was spying on the Aldmeri Dominion in Skyrim. It's about Ulfric's connections to the Dominion and the possibility of the latter preparing for a new war.
One sentence in particular catches my eye: "Every minute Ulfric stays alive not only prolongs the bloodshed, it strengthens the Thalmor." I'm glad an Imperial spy agreed with me on that point.
Anyway, it's clear to me now that Caius was not Olaf's friend. Olaf was only after these documents. Whose side he's on I couldn't guess.
I instruct the girls to be extremely alert and watch out for Olaf's group as we sneak back towards the entrance. Then a group of Imperial men falls upon us. A moment later, Olaf's men turn up from somewhere and join the battle on our side. In a confused skirmish in a rather small space, we kill all the enemies and go out into the open air.
Olaf thanks me and wants me to give him the documents. He says he'll send them to the Stormcloak high command in Skyrim via an agent who is waiting near the border crossing. He himself shall continue his underground work here. He emphasizes how important it is that the information in the report shouldn't reach the Imperial government and especially not the thalmors.
I inform him that with the war ended in Skyrim, I, the girlfriend of the supreme commander of the Stormcloak Army, am the closest thing to the legal representation of the Stormcloak high command around here, and I am going to take these documents to Yrsarald myself. Olaf accepts that, or maybe he sees he has no choice. Relieved he won't make any difficulties, I let his group leave without asking if they are going to keep to the peace treaty or go on fighting.
It's past 7 in the evening now and almost dark already. We have one more mission in this area – to get a veil of great symbolic value for that nice elven woman Alammu from a place east of here called Frozen Grotto. Should we return to Lakeside Retreat for the night?
Having to climb back up here would be somewhat annoying, but maybe there's another, more comfortable route from down there?
On the other hand, the distance from here to Frozen Grotto is almost the same as from here to Lakeside Retreat.
Then again, the sound of the name Frozen Grotto leaves little hope for us to find lodging there.
The third option is to spend the night here in Sedor, except that it's kind of too early to go to sleep now.
The girls remind me that there was a roadsign near the Lakeside Retreat pointing east towards a location called Mountain Watch. This means there's supposed to be a more or less decent road in that direction and it might well lead to the vicinity of the Frozen Grotto, and we may be able to discover that Mountain Watch place along the way too.
Right. That's decided then. We'll return to the Lakeside Retreat.
A thunder starts when we're halfway down he mountains. We reach the house before 9, throw the dead bandits into the lake and go to sleep.
next awakening
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