———————————————
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.
———————————————
previous day
4-202-05-09 08:55
Reach Retreat, Granite Hall, Whiterun, Skyrim
Lorm turns me sideways and uses the right hole this time. Now, how do I find my way to the kitchen where I left my armor last night?
Oh, right. Follow Lorm, of course. The only thing I really envy men for is their uncanny ability to find places.
We head southwest. Right across the river is a cave named Gloomreach. Funny we missed it the last time.
It's a Falmer place, so we retreat quickly after having regrettably killed one of them.
With some effort, we find a path uphill and pass a really large group of Stormcloaks. We run further up the mountains and have almost lost sight of them when they are attacked by a dragon. We turn back and kill him. Somewhere halfway to Dushnikh Yal, we run past a forn camp. I can hear shouted orders to gather and get ready to attack, but we leave them behind.
Ghorbash, nicknamed The Iron Hand, is in the village just as Vorstag had presumed he'd be. By the way, he used to travel a lot in Hammerfell back in the peaceful times. I hire him as my follower instead of Lydia who will in all likelihood have to wait for a week or so to travel to Markarth with an armed caravan and then it'll be easy for her to get to Hviterun.
Lorm, Vorstag, Ghorbash and I head for the Gate of Hammerfell that is not far. We see a most unusual sight: two spriggans fighting a troll:
The second spriggan is behind the troll, almost entirely obscured by its body.
I'm sorry I didn't have enough presence of mind to take a better picture.
I'm sorry I didn't have enough presence of mind to take a better picture.
I observe the amazingly beautiful green treedefenders like hypnotized, until the troll kills one of them and I realize we'd better get away from here before their combat ends.
The ghost town of Dragonstar has not been taken over by the thalmors. Probably it's not important enough to bother. There are half a dozen people unknown to me roaming about. They don't know and don't care about anything that might be happening anywhere else.
We exit through the town gate again and head straight for that fortress or village I didn't dare attack the last time. From this direction, the landcape is easier for a covert approach. Maybe it helps that several thalmors are busy fighting two sabercats. We kill the elves and the big majestic felines go calmly about their business without bothering us, evidently sensing the Spriggan Soap three of us are wearing.
The village is quite large (for a village), has no civilians and barely an intact house. We succeed really well in hiding and circling around groups of enemies, popping up behind their backs and killing them one or two at a time. Of course, it's all thanks to my Sense of Smell . And our flawless discipline and coordination. We take heavy damage repeatedly, but thanks to our successful tactic, we always succeed in hiding again long enough to cure ourselves.
After the battle, about a half of the corpses of the enemies we killed are impossible to locate in this maze of sanddunes. From the corpses we do find, we loot (in addition to a lot of armor and weapons) notes suggesting that someone is headed for Solitud hoping to find out how to contact Laura the Dragonborn. The man is only referred to by the initials "MV". The thalmors are very interested in capturing him. Unfortunately, they didn't deem it necessary to add any background information. So we have no idea what it is that man wants from me. But it's rather obvious we must travel to Solitud and try to find him before the thalmors do. As you remember, we already met one thalmor task force yesterday, much stronger than a regular patrol and sent specifically to kill me.
By the way, this village is supposed to be called Elinhir. Can't be the town of Elinhir southwest of Falkreath, can it? No, Ghorbash assures me. This is just a village with the same name. On the official maps it's referred to as Upper Elinhir because it's up on the hills. The legends say the city of Elinhir in the lowlands further southeast was established by the people from this area and is in fact named after this village.
Speaking of maps, I don't have any kind of a map of this area. I wonder how I passed through Hammerfell without a map when traveling from High Rock to Skyrim last year. Was I accompanied by someone? Maybe it's something I'm not supposed to remember. Apart from which, a couple of thalmors attack us now, coming across the bridge in the west. Having killed them, we cross it and reach a massive battle whose participants turn out to be thalmors and alikrs.
Maybe it's difficult for you to see from this far, but those long narrow white things
are magically cast ice spikes that damage health and reduce speed.
are magically cast ice spikes that damage health and reduce speed.
They are spread out over a large area. Because of the difficult terrain, one can't get a good overview of the situation.
Some of the thalmors look like vampires. Is it possible? We can't get close enough to see their eye color, and we have no time to examine the corpses, not with the alikrs hostile to us as well.
On the right is a wounded thalmor who begs for mercy and is trying to run away.
That group of alikrs have killed his companions and are now turning their attention to me and my followers.
That group of alikrs have killed his companions and are now turning their attention to me and my followers.
Seems like the alikrs attack all foreign-looking people indiscriminately. That's why we hastily withdraw to the north, towards Dragonstar.
I was hoping to disrupt the activities of the thalmors in this area somewhat, to give the locals a chance to organize a resistance, as well as possibly delay the thalmor operations in Skyrim and maybe even find some information about the same. Now, however, it seems the thalmors are already being attacked by the natives in force. Yet, most unfortunately, the latter don't realize we are on their side.
All in all, this means we have no business staying here and getting potentially into a fight against the natives of Hammerfell. We'd better return to Skyrim and try to find that MV dude. There's a good chance he'll be able to clarify the situation for us.
It's not even dark yet when we're back in Dushnikh Yal. Lydia is still there, so I take her back as my active follower. Vorstag can return to Markarth. I'm not dismissing Ghorbash just yet. I want to give him an opportunity to have a little adventure and maybe I'll even introduce him in Solitud. There are many more opportunities there compared to this region.
Our plan is to travel to Solitud via Blackmoor. I had a dream suggesting I ought to talk to the priest in Blackmoor, and it's only a minor detour. From Solitud, we'll go to Dånstar, near which we have some unfinished business, then Winterhold where I can re-hire Jenassa and send Lorm home, and then we'll be able to go to Windhelm without Lorm, after which we'll return to Hviterun and re-hire Jordis.
The thing is, I feel confident now that I can handle the thalmors in Hammerfell with my usual followers. That is after we have somehow succeeded in getting in touch with the Redguards and explaining we're their allies. But that's in the future. Right now we need to hurry to reach Blackmoor before dark.
The rain ceases shortly after Granite Hall. Halfway to Blackmoor, we discover the ruins of a small citadel in which is a shrine of Zenithar, the god of work and wealth. (You can see it left of that tree.)
We run past a giant who is herding a mammoth, and just short of Blackmoor we witness a combat between a flame atronach and a human. The latter is a virr, not a bad-looking man but fiercely fanatical.
Virrs fight against any kind of undead, because the latter don't belong in our world.
In fact, they don't feel good in our world to begin with, but that is not why the virrs fight them.
In fact, they don't feel good in our world to begin with, but that is not why the virrs fight them.
In Blackmoor, we are astonished at the sight of half a dozen Hviterun guards resting their legs on the main square, and Danica the priest of Kynareth and Andurs the priest of Arkay in the temple. By a lucky coincidence (or divine foresight), they arrived a few minutes ago and we can be present as the local priest Valandro tells them about his problem. The remains of the former priest Forad have been stolen from his grave, he explains, whereby the traces indicate it was done by a wolf, a sabercat and a bear. Since this is highly unusual behavior for animals, Valandro suspects someone has been controlling them, a conjurer or maybe even the daedra Hircine whose worshippers Forad had been eagerly chasing.
The priests suggest I and my followers locate the animals and try to find out who is behind them, because Valandro can't go on burying the dead if they get stolen from their graves.
I ask Ghorbash if he can follow animal tracks. He says he can, but not in darkness. I had presumed as much.
After exiting the temple, I ask the Hviterun guards if they noticed by any chance whether or not Jordis was already back in the city. They reply she is back and they sure noticed. I smile and decide we'll run to Hviterun with them. Then I can re-hire Jordis and we can return here in the morning.
We do indeed run. Andurs is in an amazing shape in spite of his advanced age, and Danica is keeping up bravely. I mean, we run slowly, of course, but the distance is not too great.
It's very nice to be back in Hviterun and see all the people. I hire Jordis as my follower instead of Lorm, but of course I'm spending the night with him, which means Lucia will have to sleep in Carlotta's house tonight. She doesn't seem too happy, even though she has told me in the past she would be fine with it.
I suck Lorm a little and then he gets on top of me.
The intercourse lasts incredibly long and then we talk late into the night, reaching the deepest connection I've ever had with a man in my life. Lorm even gets hard the second time. It's past 4 in the morning when we finally go to sleep, completely exhausted.
next awakening
