Always Lost, Always Hopeful (214) Conceal and Expose

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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






4-202-03-21 10:45
Gautierre Manor, Bruma County, Cyrodiil

I had planned to go to Bruma today, but looking at the map, I realize Fort Pale Pass is so near that we can go and give that innkeeper some motherworts he asked us to gather the last ime, see if we can find that Stormcloak agent whom Olaf mentioned, and find out what it is Legate Precilius Varro wants from us. Then we can travel to the city or, who knows, maybe even return to Skyrim? At least we ought to locate the border crossing which we somehow forgot to do the last time.

The weather is very nice. Without meeting anybody along the scenic mountain road, we reach Snowstone Rest.

We give the innkeeper the herbs, politely decline the elven bard's offer to sing for us, and move on northwards. As I had guessed, the Stormcloak agent is hiding in that citadel halfway between the inn and the fort. His name is Ungveir and he is quite friendly, as well as good-looking, except for the hairstyle. I tell him Olaf and I retrieved the Imperial secret agents' reports and I have them on me. However, I am going to bring them to Windhelm myself.

Ungveir is clearly not a fanatic who wants to continue the war. In fact, he's not at all happy being away from Skyrim. I ask him if he has a family. He says he hasn't but is looking forward to establishing one with his sweetheart in Riften.

I inform him I'm going to Bruma where I'll try to find the Imperial agent who was supposed to be the contact person for that courier who lost his life. I want to see if I can make him reveal something interesting. Ungveir should return to Skyrim or wait for me on this side of the border, whichever he believes to be safer. Under no circumstances may he fall into the hands of the Imperials.

Ungveir says he can easily hide in the Serpent's Trail and he'll wait for my return from Bruma. Then we can decide if he's going to return alone to the Falkreath Stormcloak Camp where he was stationed or we'll travel to Skyrim together. Technically, the Imperial soldiers in Fort Neugrad aren't supposed to bother him, but there's no way of telling if there may be more thalmors lurking north of the border.

If it wasn't so cold, I might stay a little longer with Ungveir, but now I just urge him to be extremely careful. The girls and I proceed to the fort.

To be honest, I haven't been quite sure we weren't going to find ourselves surrounded by secret police agents upon reaching Fort Pale Pass. But there is nothing of the sort.

All Precilius wants is for us to venture into the ancient Akaviri ruins in the ground below this fortress and try to kill the many frightening undead residing there.

I'm unsure if we should do it now. I've been rather keen to travel to the city today so we could actually get something useful done. At any rate, we'll go and find that official border crossing first. It shouldn't be far. We'd better not return to Skyrim before we have found out more about that weird magical forcefield, but I want at least to know where the border post is.

We follow the road north, slightly uphill. The border gate is just a few minutes away from the fort. The two soldiers guarding it are formally polite but evidently not allowed to chat with travelers.

After a brief stop at the Snowstone Rest, we run towards Bruma. We take the off-road route this time, more or less in the straight line. We encounter a mage who is reviving corpses of soldiers killed in a skirmish with the bandits or something. We kill her, after which the zombie she has just conjured dies by itself.

A little later we discover a tent with a campfire. There's a woman Ovacca who says she's an ex-bandit who quit, and now her former gang members led by a certain Cornelius are chasing her.

I offer to kill him. Maybe he's the same bastard who was harassing the blacksmith's brother.

Ovacca is doubtful, but evidently can't afford to turn down any help offers. So she marks the location of their base on my map. Maybe Cornelius is there, maybe he's somewhere else searching for her. She can't come with us, because she doesn't want her ex-comrades to have any clue as to her whereabouts. She's unsure if she should stay in the wilderness or try to disappear in the city. I have a better idea: why doesn't she come along to the Bruma Eastern Watchtower? Ereia owes me a favor. She can look after Ovacca and Ovacca can help the guards.

Ovacca remains silent for a long time and eyes us most thoroughly. Then she decides we are trustworthy enough, and comes with us.

After I've arranged things with Ereia, we go to the stables that are just outside the city wall. I want to say hello to Ila and ask how she's doing. After a little chat, I mention casually that I encountered a strange mage named Razzada and does she know him. Ila says the man's a fraudster.

Obviously, Razzada can't claim payment for merchandise that was not of the promised value and indeed caused harm. The man ought to be punished. I make a mental note to take it up with the authorities at a suitable moment.

Having wished Ila a pleasant evening, we proceed to the palace where I ask to see Adius's successor. The guard at the entrance wants to know what it's about, and I tell him about Alammu and her late accomplice in the Frozen Grotto. The guard says we can take care of that by ourselves right now.

I give the guad the package I got from that overarousable elven man, warning him about the curse. He says not to worry, they'll ask Synod to send them an expert mage and then let Alammu open it in a safe place.

But first we go to the inn, the five of us. Alammu is there in blissful ignorance of her upcoming downfall.

She protests her innocence, but the guard acts as if he's not even hearing. He puts her in irons. I release my followers and follow Alammu. I could impossibly deny myself the pleasure of walking unhurriedly with the guard and the deceitful bitch all the way to the prison.

Before she's led to a cell, I get a chance to whisper to her that next time she'd better tell her accomplices that if they want me to do something, they ought to ask me first, and sneer and threaten only after I've refused.

The guard thanks me and promises he'll take care of the investigation. I strongly suspect they knew something about Alammu already and I just gave them a welcome excuse for arresting her, but he won't tell me anything.

I catch up with an Orc serving girl Urma on the staircase and find out she's from Skyrim and her brothers would be shocked to see her here, but they can go to hell with their age-old traditions for all she cares.

Now I go to the steward Rignar and report on the destruction of those goblins, and he gives me my reward. I also catch Count Desilus at the dinner table and show him an Akaviri katana I have picked up somewhere. Remember, when I recovered his stolen collection from the bandits, the katana was missing. I ask if this katana is his. He says it's of the same kind but not the same katana, and would I sell it to him. I tell him he can just take it, and reward me now or in the future in whatever way he finds appropriate. He is almost touched to tears and assures me I can always turn to him, should I need anything. He asks me if I've already eaten. I'm not really hungry, but I agree to sit with him and eat a little. Sinja and Afanna join us after a while, but I can see that Afanna doesn't like me any longer. Clearly she was friendly with me only in the hope that I'll denounce Simund, and after I've let him off the hook she has no more use for me. Too bad, but I don't believe in forcing people into friendship, and neither do I think it's right to destroy a man just because he has rejected you. I hope she'll be able to get over this one day and we can be friends again. Maybe she hasn't a very commendable character, but she's incredibly interesting to talk to. You have no idea.

It's getting late. I had actually planned on doing my smithing and alchemy today, but I still have one call to make. I go to The Restful Watchman inn and let a man named Servus Vodaci chat me up. He asks if I've seen a guy called Caius or Claudius or something. He must be the agent the unfortunate courier was supposed to give the secret documents to.

I try to coax some information out of him. I have to be extremely cautious, so he wouldn't guess I actually know something about the dead courier, and so I fail to find out anything. He's a professional and knows how to not blab. Therefore, I excuse myself after a while and leave the inn.

On my way to the blacksmith's shop, I walk past the Synod headquarters, the com... con... whatever they call the place, and I remember I wanted to tell them about those crazy experimenters up on the mountain.

The boss, Cadius, agrees that it's very serious and I did the right thing coming here. However...

I learn that the Synod isn't some kind of a magic authority as I had assumed. They are just one organization and the lunatics up in that Frostspire Crag or Cragspire Frost belong to another organization, and the Synod has no power to go there with a dozen guards and have them all arrested. They would have to go maybe not quite to the Emperor himself, but the official way of dealing with the outrage in the Cragfrag-tower would be long and complicated. Unsurprisingly, there is another way. Me and my followers could just sneak in there and destroy a device called "teleportation portal". Cadius explains me how to do it and warns me not to get caught.

Just teasing him. I know such reckless madness can't be allowed to go on.

Now I go and find Dumrag. This morning in the bath, I discussed the case of his missing wife with my followers and Atul herself, and I think we came up with a pretty good story.

I tell him Simund was actually attracted to his wife. He hesitated to hire Dumrag and Atul for that bandit job. He was torn between the reluctance to put her in danger and the fear that if he won't give them a job, they might decide to leave Bruma and seek opportunities elsewhere. Eventually he came to a decision to hire them. He was devastated when the bandits proved too strong and overwhelmed his task force of mercenaries.

Only several months later did another group of mercenaries hired by another of the nobles succeed in defeating those bandits. The surviving bandits told they had captured an Orc woman during that disastrous raid organized by Simund. They intended to sell her... well, after enjoying her themselves first, but somehow she succeeded breaking out of her cage and was killed while trying to escape. They buried her somewhere in the woods. Simund realized it had been Atul, but he wouldn't tell anyone, fearing that Dumrag would hear about it and accuse him of causing her death.

Dumrag asks to see Simund's journal. I tell him I had to give it back to the serving girl who had stolen it, because if Simund had noticed it missing, she would have been the most likely suspect. The truth is, of course, that I still have the journal on me, but there's no way I can show Dumrag what Simund really wrote about Atul.

Dumrag accepts with some reluctance that the only thing Simund is guilty of is desire for another man's wife, and that her grave will be impossible to find. He murmurs some more curses at the Bretons who are such swine. I suggest that Cyrodiil is generally a crappy place, with all the greed and corruption, and he might want to consider traveling to Hammerfell where I hear there is currently great demand in mercenaries. Dumrag agrees that this might be an idea worth considering.

This taken care of, I can finally get started working on our gear. That lasts several hours, so it's almost morning by the time I can finally go to sleep.

Lydia is already in our bed – without a man, fortunately. Jordis and Jenassa will be in their room. Or somewhere else.



next awakening






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Always Lost, Always Hopeful (213) Unveiled Threats

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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






4-202-03-20 04:06
Lakeside Retreat, Bruma County, Cyrodiil


It's still dark, but the road is indeed good for the local circumstances.

We reach a camp with two tents and no people, and realize we're near Sedor. The road didn't go eastwards through the mountains, it turned north and led us to almost the same place where we were yesterday evening. There's a path here going southeast, though, and it looks like it might well lead to our destination, the Frozen Grotto.

Soon we see an ogre who stands on a side path. We stop at 20 or 30 meters from him. He waves a little with his formidable club, but makes no sign of trying to come closer. We continue our journey along the main path to the east.

It's gotten light by the time we reach a Gutted Mine. We're attacked by a wolf, but it doesn't look like it killed the dead miner in front of the entrance. There are traces of many human footprints going in and out.

Well, I'm not expecting much fighting ability from Cyrodiilian bandits, but let's be careful all the same.

The interior looks indeed like a mine, a rather big one as it would seem. There are a couple more corpses, and then we run into our first enemies.

They are not too difficult, but new ones keep coming from various passages down below, and some of them are really nasty mages. Although we are on higher ground and can therefore shoot comfortably, the enemies are too far for my Sense of Smell  power most of the time and there's not much light down there, and they can still successfully cast fire magic at us, which, apart from hurting, emits light so we are well visible and somewhat blinded. We kill the mages by the end, but it was a tough fight.

Descending slowly, on the lookout for new enemies, we learn that the people we killed are vampires. Now, that easens my conscience. I was unsure if we were doing the right thing attacking bandits we had no conflict with. After all, this is not Skyrim where I have a duty to kill all the bandits. But now it emerges that we're actually doing a good deed.

The battle is still not over.

Finally, we have killed them and can explore this place in peace. It's very large. There's silver ore here, as well as bedmats, some bloody, some not. And dead miners here and there.

We seem to have destroyed the main enemy force. Only a few relatively easy targets remain.

Vampires are human too. [ROTFL]

It's delightful sunny winter day by the time we're out in the fresh air again.

We follow the path up the mountains until we reach a cave entrance inside a hill of bluish rock with many big icicles.

The not very big cave is covered with ice all over. There's a bedmat, some simple furniture and a couple of chests. When I examine those, a tall and strong-looking Dark Elf man appears as if out of nowhere. He tells me he has a dagger that is laced with a Dark Elf poison, the slightest dose of which is deadly.

Yeah, I get it. You want something. Tell me what it is and spare me the dramatics. This is decidedly not a proper setting for bombastic recitations.

Unperturbed, he goes on for a few more minutes gloating over us being under his power and completely helpless, but then he gets hold of himself and orders us to deliver a package to Alammu who is evidently his accomplice, and not ask what's inside and not try to look at the contents, because it's cursed and only Alammu can open it safely.

Sure, no problem. We're headed for Bruma anyway.

He gives me the package, we walk to the cave entrance and I put on my strongest Archery-enhancing gear. I mean, if that joker only has a dagger, there should be hardly any danger, but if that poison is really so deadly, I wouldn't want him to survive the first arrow and then somehow get a lucky hit on me.

Well, he's dead from the first arrow. Nothing difficult there.

Can you believe the jerk actually got hard from talking big to me?

I won't open the package, in case this is another ruse and it'll explode or something. I'll give it to the Bruma guards. I don't really care what's inside. If Neldam (that's his name) couldn't risk traveling to Bruma himself and didn't have any trustworthy accomplices, then he's unlikely to be resourceful enough to have dug up something really valuable.

We now do some mountain climbing, only to find out there doesn't seem to be a way of getting further to the east or southeast. The sights are great, though. The terrain turns from snowy to grassy. We end up finding an enormous statue on a plateau east-southeast of the Lakeside Retreat.

I decide we'll climb down to the house and follow the northwesterly road that's supposed to lead to something like Alewell or Meadspring or what was it. Yes, Aleswell.

A little way past the Lakeside Retreat, we discover some stone things with staircases and a citadel ruin. There are big humanoid creatures with horns and melee weapons.

We kill them and then I realize we shouldn't have, and then we notice there are some human corpses on spikes (in fact, you can see one in the picture above), so I guess we should have after all. The creatures are much smaller than ogres and have bull-like faces. They're called minotaurs.

Further up the road, we discover Frostfire Glade. There's a big cave, not too grim for an underground space, and without any living creatures.

There are passages leading somewhere and the whole location seems to be quite extensive. We have no reason to explore it, so we exit.

Soon we realize we've almost reached Anga and haven't seen anything that might be called Aleswell. The time is almost 5 in the afternoon. Now, we could go to Bruma, but I feel like turning north and trying to locate that high sharp tower that has been teasing us all these days with its slender elegant looks and excellent visibility on top of a very high mountain. I know it'll get dark in a few hours, but if we can't find the tower, we can at least reach Simund's country mansion. Surely he'll let us crash there if we ask him nicely. (Am I cruel or what?) Or maybe he isn't even there. His chick is sure to make no difficulties.

We discover a Red Ruby Cave which is a completely pointless place – large and unnavigable with appalling lighting, some animals and nothing interesting to find. Shouldn't have wasted time on it at all.

The sun is going down already.

We run past another group of minotaurs and then arrive at a Hunter's Shack when it's already dusk. The hunter is a Dark Elf called Zirain. He has some animal skins and such for sale. We sit a little and chat and pat his nice dog and admire some beautiful Ayleid coins.

Then a courier appears as if out of nowhere (well, not really; he comes up the same path along which we arrived). He has a letter for me. Are you kidding me? What kind of magic those people use? It's amazing, to track me down here. I'm feeling immense respect for the Cyrodiil couriers. In Skyrim, if you remember, it took them a week to deliver me a birthday card.

The courier explains he's a military courier who indeed uses a special magic to track down people. The letter he brings is from Legate Precilius Varro of Fort Pale Pass. Zirain adds that civil couriers are so few in Bruma that they're as good as unavailable for the common people (as are the military couriers, obviously).

The letter says Legate Varro hopes we're in good health and praises our valuable help with the Stormcloak prisoner, and wonders if we could help him out with something else. Well, I'm not quite believing in the sincerity of this, but we shall certainly go and find out what it is he wants.

"Why not believe in his sincerity?" asks Lydia. "Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror?"

She has a point. Anyway, we need to get a move on. It's practically night already.

I hope Jenassa the Mature and Sensible won't say that the smart thing would be to return to the city for the night and come back here in the morning. I don't care what's reasonable. I won't turn back now that we're so close.

It's pretty dark, but the snow reflects enough light to see the path. We run past several ogres who are too tardy to decide in time if they want to hit us or not.

It's half past 9 by the time we run through under a wooden walkbridge.

Surely that's where we need to find a route to somehow. We must be near the top now. But then the path ends. We go a little way back and succeed in finding the path again, and indeed reach the wooden bridge. I feel as happy as if I had found a way to travel to the Imperial City.

Now, it might be a good idea not to run into an ambush here. So we proceed cautiously. Past another rock, and there's the tower, quite near. No ambush. In the middle of the path sits an animal. It's a feline, but much smaller than a sabercat or a pahmar. Can it be called a panther? Yes, it can, says Jenassa, however she has only seen panthers in books and that was in her childhood, so she doesn't really know.

Hi, kitty! You're cute. Although I badly fear you will be less cute tomorrow morning when we will have slept the night and are going back unwashed (meaning, the Spriggan Soap effect will have worn off).

I suppress the urge to squat down and hug the animal. (We won't know what it's called until it's dead, and I hope we will somehow be able to avoid it.) There's a very snowy and icy staircase leading up, and some of those blue burning things we've seen in Ayleid ruins. It's a long climb, but it feels like a child's play after all the mountaineering we've done today. Awestruck, we approach the structure that is magnificent even in the darkness. Now we know its name – Frostcrag Spire.

I hope we can sleep in there. We wouldn't even mind sleeping with somebody.

Having admired the exterior for a while (no great views of the surrounding mountains in this darkness, though), we enter through a massive stone door.

The interior of the tower is quite undescribable. It's full of weird-looking things, but before we've even had a proper look around, we are approached by an elven man who asks what we're doing here.

I mumble something not necessarily very intelligent, but he allows us to stay for a while. We talk to a number of people and they are seemingly doing some weird magical experiments. More precisely, this place used to be something very grand in very distant past, and they are basically poking around in the dormant magic here to see what they're going to find.

They're enthusiastic about it like children who have found out for the very first time how to ignite fire, and just as irresponsible about the possible consequences of their game. They refuse to share any specific information about what they have found, and are wary of the Synod. At least one man is demonstrably insane. He holds me for someone with a man's name, seemingly a long-dead mage he believes to have summoned from the past. When I tell him I don't know anyone with that name, he is convinced I'm making fun of him.

That woman Kalimbria seems to be the only one with at least some sense of responsibility around here:

The only thing we learn is that it's precisely this group who is behind the weird phenomena in Bruma. They keep trying to teleport various objects from the past and are very frustrated believing it's not working and trying to figure out what is it they're doing wrong. I inform them those objects are materializing in the Synod building instead of here, and they really should stop doing it. However, their only reaction is joy – "Wow, our experiments are successful after all! Not quite the way we have intended, but at least something is happening."

Tense as my relations with the Synod may have been in the past, I intend to denounce this bunch of lunatics to them before cities begin to disappear. I tell the aforementioned madman as much, hoping to provoke him into revealing something interesting to me. He just shrugs and says: well, go ahead if you feel you have to do it. I think he still holds me for the ghost or reincarnation of that whatever he believes to have magically summoned, and I'm not sure he has even understood the meaning of my words.

At any rate, there's zero chance we would be allowed to sleep here and I'm having real difficulties keeping my eyes open, so we're leaving for Gautierre Manor which is the closest thing to a human settlement far and wide.

The crisp air outside is making me alert again. Thanks to all of us wearing armor with the Cushioned  enchantment and indeed quite familiar with its use by now, our journey down the mountains takes a lot less time than our ascent did. Jumping down from yet another hill, I land practically on top of an obviously hostile human and kill him without bothering to find out why he doesn't like me. Then another man comes running. Before he finds us in the darkness, we can see he's wearing thalmor robes. When he runs past the spot where we are hiding, we shoot arrows into his back. His name was Nurenor and he was carrying orders to find and exterminate Talos worshippers suspected to operate at the base of Gnoll Mountain. I have no idea where it may be. There are no mountain names on my map. Could be this very mountain we just descended.

The Gautierre Manor is right behind the next hill.

Simund is not at home and there are new guards, but Atul insists she knows us and we're friends. Since we're female, the guards see no reason to deny us entry. Atul has no objections to us spending the night there. She asks if I have talked to her husband Dumrag yet (Oops! I've forgotten to.), and I reply that I haven't, but we're headed for Bruma now and she needn't worry, I won't betray her.

And now we can finally get some rest after this confused day.

next awakening






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