Always Lost, Always Hopeful (148) Rewarded More than Enough

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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






4-202-01-13 06:41
Grove Dwelling, Ebon, Summerset, Aldmeri Dominion


As Lydia and I bathe in the river with Jenassa and Jordis keeping watch, I mention I've been feeling guilty about wandering around here in Summerset while there are wars in both Skyrim and Falskaar where our help may be badly needed.

Lydia reminds me there are always people doing bad things to other people here and there, war or no war. I (or anyone else) can impossibly put an end to all the cruelty in the world, she points out, and even more importantly, curing the world is not my responsibility. "You have always said you don't care when someone comes and tells you he has found a use for your special Dragonborn gift," she says. "So why are you trying to invent for yourself a responsibility for the wars in the world? Your only real responsibility is to pass on life. Everything else is just, I don't know, setting."

She's right, you know, but I still feel I'd enjoy Summerset a lot more if we went and spent some time on the problems of Skyrim and Falskaar and then returned here. Lydia agrees that it's reasonable.

My general plan is to find Corgrad, then proceed to northern Summerset, and then back southeast to Shimmerene, skipping Lillandril this time.

So we follow the northward road. Soon we arrive in a village of half a dozen buildings well apart from each other among lush vegetation (and fields and an orchard and such).

It's Corgrad.

Having told the girls to go and walk around, I find Dothiel and she takes me to a pitiful-looking cute goat. Trying to look like I know what I'm doing, I raise my hands and cast the spell. The goat stands up with a slightly surprised look.

After a while, it begins to eat grass.

Dothiel is touchingly glad and indeed it's most gratifying to observe the goat feel better. I'm really very happy I was given this quest.

Moving on, I am greeted by a very tall man Aranath who enquires who I am and where I'm going. He looks cool and is very friendly for a High Elf. We chat a little and then he enters a house nearby, evidently his home. He smiles me before he closes the door and I can't help smiling back.

Next, I get acquainted with a nice married couple Erundil and Camandil, and then a Khajiit man Ra J'Dar who looks like a blacksmith.

He tells me he has lost a precious heirloom called Black Arrow  and he suspects it's been stolen by a "smelly man" in a place called Old Falls further northeast. I promise him I'll look into it.

Ra J'Dar seems wise and philosophical, but at the moment I can't stop thinking about Aranath.

I meet my followers on the street. They inform me they found a trading house. We go there together. There are as many as four traders in there, including a mage who sells empty Black Soul Gems (the biggest ones that are very rare) and (gasp) a woman called Nona who sells various garments, including one that looks like the one Sylwia was wearing. I buy it and we're all so excited and I can't wait to try it on, but not in the middle of a settlement.

Now I return to Aranath's house and knock on the door. He lives alone. He asks me if I would like something to eat. I say no and just stand there, staring at him. (I must look really silly, as it occurs to me later.)
Aranath asks me if I'd like to go to the bedroom then. I nod and remain standing.
When he puts an arm on my shoulder, I awake from my trance and walk to the stairs ahead of him. Aranath follows me to the small bedroom where we undress eagerly and make love.

He's so great. I'm most thoroughly happy. I've found the best man in Summerset by far. (I was a little afraid of his size at first, but he was very gentle and then it was all right.)

Before leaving, I put on that dress. Yes, it's exactly like Sylwia's.

I ask Aranath how it looks on me and he says it suits me perfectly but he still prefers me naked. Yeah, I guessed as much. I'd better ask Jenassa. I'll have to find a moment when Lydia is not there. I'm afraid Lydia would say something ironical – not to hurt me, but simply because she'll think it's fun.

At any rate, I'm not bold enough to walk on the street looking like this. So I change back into my armor, hug Aranath with all my strength (which isn't much) and go to round up my followers.

Oh... What's with that staircase over there?

It leads to a building up on the hill which is large but still easy to miss thanks to all those trees. It's the Court House. There are three people in the entire building and none of them has much to say. In the basement is a prison with two empty cells.

Fine. Now we'll head northeast to take care of three tasks that are geographically close to each other.

The first one is in Nirn Scar Hollow where we'll have to find a substance called Dried Spider Silk for Bolwing of Shimmerene.

The second one is a little way to the southeast from there, in Old Falls where we'll have to ask around about Ra J'Dar's Black Arrow .

The third one is in the town of Cloudrest which we already know. We'll have to show Syrius the diary we found in Dusk on a chance he has some use for it.

After that, unless something unexpected happens, we'll travel to Shimmerene and return to Skyrim.

We trot leisurely northwards along the road, with me a little ahead of the others as usual. Reaching the top of another low hill, I almost step on a sleeping pahmar. There are four or five of them, catnapping in the low grass as they seem to be in the habit of doing. But it takes them but an instant to awake from their slumber and fill the air with polyphonic roaring.

We kill them all by they end, of course. I wish we didn't have to. They're so beautiful.

Further north, we reach a place where a very long looking staircase goes up the mountains. Might well be leading to that Old Falls place. We're going the other way, though – past the mountain to Nirn Scar Hollow.

It lies on a scenic seashore and is a system of caves with moss hanging from the ceiling in many places. There's an elven man Neltharion who doesn't know anything about Dried Spider Silk.

There are ladders leading to other caves, but I soon find out the navigation is utterly hopeless. So I have to ask Bardslayer to help me. He teleports us to a large cave that has countless poison spiders.

Really, they're at least 20 and each one of them takes several arrows to kill. Fortunately, we are at a somewhat higher place, thanks to which they have to spit their poison upwards.

After we've killed the main group and begin to search the cavern, new spiders turn up. It's a long and tiring battle. And then we search everything and still find no sign of anything called Spider Silk. Only after a tedious trip transported (without my followers) magically by Bardslayer through places weird beyond description, I finally get the damned thing. And then he has to take me back as well. It's very scary thinking that something might happen and I'd be stuck forever in a place filled with nothing that resembles anything earthly. I'm quite nauseous by the time I'm back, but I guess that was the only way of doing it.

I can't get out of this dungeon fast enough. Outside, the sun is already going down.

We hurry on to find Old Falls before the dark, only to end up circling the mountains clockwise and reaching a place that is just as close to Cloudrest as to Old Falls. That's as the crow flies, and the way to Cloudrest is easy while Old Falls is gods know where in the mountains. All that would be very disappointing if we hadn't made an interesting discovery along the way:

I mean, interesting in the sense that now I know that that beautiful stone I saw on those mysterious ruins past Tusamircil's Passage is apparently called "coral". It sounds like something normally found underwater, but I'm not sure. My followers have never heard the word.

So, as I was saying, the distance from here to Cloudrest is about the same as to the presumed location of Old Falls. But I'm determined to find the damn place tonight. So I just climb up the nearest mountain as high as I can and begin circling it clockwise while the girls follow me down below as well as they can. In my reckless climb, it's a miracle I don't fall to death.

It's past 9 in the evening when we're finally on normally walkable ground and seeing houses.

The first house is called Abandoned Hostel. It's unlocked and it's exactly what the name says. There's one bed on the first (ground) floor, two on the second and one on the third. Just what we need! I'm taking the third floor which I name "the luxury suite", because its walls and floor are somewhat less dirty.  ;-)

However, I want to do a little exploring before going to bed.

The next house uphill is abandoned and in a really bad shape. The next one after that belongs to a man named Edgar. Now, Ra J'Dar mentioned a "smelly man". I badly suspect that for the Khajiits' acute olfactory sense, we all stink. But this man Edgar has indeed a strong body odor which even my nose can detect. Also, he acts suspiciously as if he were constantly expecting to, um, get caught? And on top of everything else, he proposes us to steal something together.

In short, all about this man stinks (figuratively speaking this time) to the heavens. I tell him he's going to strip naked and sit still, and we're going to thoroughly search his house and belongings. Indeed we find the Black Arrow we're looking for. I'm afraid that during the search I ended up hurting Edgar a little where it hurts. I'm really sorry, but it was his own fault. People ought to have enough sense to realize when they're hopelessly outmatched.

Now we can return to our hospitable Abandoned Hostel for our well-earned sleep.



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Always Lost, Always Hopeful (112) The Curse of Ingratitude

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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.
———————————————




previous day






4-201-12-06 03:07
Folkvangr–Windhelm ship, Eastmarch, Skyrim


I'm told we'll be in Windhelm soon. I can feel the wind of barely bearable temperature blow, and the ship is rocking gently, but I can't tell if it's moving anywhere, because it's pitch dark. I can only hope the navigation mage knows his job.

As there's nothing to do, I'll tell you, while we're waiting, how I learned to remember the names of Skyrim holds.

Now, it would obviously be the easiest if Windhelm were the capital of Windhelm Hold, Morthal the capital of Morthal Hold etc. Unfortunately, they haven't made it so simple. The nine holds of Skyrim are, in alphabetical order:
Eastmarch
Falkreath
Haafingar
Hjaalmarch
The Pale
The Reach
The Rift
Whiterun
Winterhold

The nine hold capitals are:
Bitchen
Dånstar
Falkert
Hviterun
Morpork
Morthal
Solitud
Windhelm
Winterhold

Now, it's not difficult to guess that Winterhold town goes together with Winterhold Hold.

Also rather obvious are Falkert–Falkreath and Hviterun–Whiterun.

If you know that Bitchen's historical name is Riften, you can easily guess that it's located in The Rift.

Windhelm–Eastmarch is not too difficult to remember, because the city is in eastern Skyrim.

What about the remaining two The-holds, The Pale and The Reach? They go with Dånstar and Morpork. I have memorized them like this:
Dånstar is in the north, which means there's little sun and therefore the people are pale. So its hold is The Pale.
Morpork, in turn, is in the western end of Skyrim and further west is High Rock, the country of the Bretons. But I haven't yet found a way to travel there, because in the west from Morpork, there are high mountains everywhere. Meaning, the historical homeland of my ancestors is beyond my reach and it's beyond The Reach (if you look at it from central Skyrim).
That's how I can remember that The Reach Hold is in the west and The Pale Hold is in the north.

The pair I've been struggling with big time is Haafingar and Hjaalmarch – the areas around Solitud and Morthal. I've never been able to remember which is which. Only this morning did I come up with a wordplay to help me sort them out, and that's why I'm telling you about it now.

The last part of "Hjaalmarch" sounds somewhat similar to "marsh", reminding of the marshlands north of Morthal. So the capital of Hjaalmarch Hold is Morthal.

The first part of "Haafingar" sounds somewhat similar to "harp", which is a musical instrument, reminding of the bards' college in Solitud. So the capital of Haafingar Hold is Solitud.

Brilliant, am I not? I'm so proud of myself right now – as if I had found a way to make dragons go away. [Laughing uncontrollably.]

And there they are – the lights of Windhelm's eastern harbor. After we've disembarked, we're not even going to enter the city. We use the pavement that leads around the city wall and past the prison. We're headed for Vernim Wood. Possibly we'll kill a dragon for the jarl of The Rift along the way. You know how I hate dragon-hunting, but I'm still hoping I can ingratiate myself with Jarl Laila eventually, so that I'd get a chance to rid the city of the Black-Briar mafia's stranglehold. Mjoll would surely help me, but she's neither patient enough nor sneaky enough to approach problems from the right angle. That's why I want to get the jarl at least sympathetic to our cause.

I seem to be in a gabbing mood this morning, don't I? What I actually started to tell you was that we're headed for Vernim Wood on our way to Bitchen, and from there we'll go to Largashbur, the unfortunate Orc village.

The dotted purple line is the path to Northwind Summit where there's a dragon to kill.
The orange dot is the approximate location of Labyrinthian.

The next brief stop after Largashbur will be Ivarsted from where we'll proceed through the mountain pass to Riverwood to meet up with Rudelphine, and then all the way north to Labyrinthian, probably with a stopover in good old Hviterun. Having found the Staff of Magnus in Labyrinthian, we'll retun to Winterhold to save the College. Then we'll have made a circle around almost all of Skyrim.

Mikki is thrilled with her adventure which far exceeds the ones her sisters had. And she dreads our eventual return to Hviterun where I might get an idea of substituting another follower in her place. Well, we'll see. I tell her she'd better enjoy what she's having now to the fullest, and let the future worry about itself.

It's almost pitch dark on the road.

That's a street lantern ahead, its light partially obscured by a hill.

We make a brief stop at Kynesgrove inn and then it begins to get light. In Vernim Wood, even the innkeeper is still asleep. The taproom is completely empty.

I haven't been quite sure if we're going to make that dragon-slaying stopover at Northwind Summit. Now I decide we'll do it after all. This dragon bursts fire and is not too difficult to kill. Of course, my team has gotten well into combat routine by now, so I hardly ever need to give my followers any instructions. They seem to read my mind. What a striking contrast to my frustratingly messy battles a few months ago!

This is the view I promised you the last time here when it was raining cats and dogs.
When I look at the objects on the ground, it's so excitingly scary to realize
how far it really is to the ground and how certainly I'd be dead if I fell down,
and how many seconds I would have for being aware that these are the last seconds of my life.

Under the partially cloudy sky, we reach Shor. The shop is already open and we also visit the mine to say hello to our friend Sylgja. Then we proceed to Bitchen, once again running through the courtyard of that bandit fortress so fast the lazy dorks can't react quickly enough to intercept us.

Upon reaching Bitchen, I suggest to Lydia she'll tell Maul to do it quickly. Lydia laughs and shakes her head: "He'll kill me if I say something like that." Yeah, I didn't mean it seriously. We're not in such a hurry. Besides, if she'll agree to take it up her butthole this time, it can't last very long. But I won't say that. I just pat Lydia's shoulder and wish her good luck.

I go and report to the steward about the killed dragon and am very disappointed by not being trusted with any new tasks. Fortunately, my good mood is completely recovered by the following couple of hours of shopping in beautiful weather.

That as well...
Except the only stones he can try to turn for some time to come are in the walls of his prison cell.

The weather has gotten nicer still when we exit through the southern gate and head for Largashbur. On our way there, we see a group of bandits fighting a bear. We kill them all which, strictly speaking, wasn't necessary. Guess there's something of a hunter in me.

Largashbur is once again being attacked by a giant whom we help the villagers to kill. Then I give Atub the requested ingredients. She asks me to follow her, because I need to be present at the ritual. I don't like the sound of that. But she isn't saying anything about having to leave my followers behind, so I guess there's a reasonable chance I won't be sacrificed.  ;-)

Atub takes me to the house of the village chief Yamarz. They do some mutual grumbling while I stand near the door and suppress a yawn. The chief joins us as we go out again and stand around some kind of an altar. Atub lays things onto it and pronounces some ritual formulas and then I jump with surprise when a thundering voice begins to speak to Yamarz. Gosh, she has actually summoned Malacath! Well, I have nothing to fear from Him... I hope.

Malacath is quite displeased with Yamarz's weakness. We're not told what precisely it is he has done wrong, but I assume Yamarz knows. The important part is, he's being given a chance to redeem himself by bringing home the club of the leader of those very giants who have been attacking the village.

Yamarz is the big man next to that column.

The ritual is over. His Invisible Bloodchillingness has taken His leave. Chief Yamarz, in turn, addresses me. He tells me it's all my fault and I'm to help him get that club from the giants.

I beg your pardon? Thanks to me, Yamarz has a chance to save his people, but instead of being grateful, that two-legged wild boar is irked because now he'll have to move his behind out of the village?

I didn't travel all the way from Winterhold to hear such insults. I'd like to think that I understand how it pains a man to acknowledge it when things are not under his control, but still one isn't supposed to spit into a helping hand. Even when cast down by frustration and embitterment, a man should act with dignity, at least in public. A man who can't doesn't deserve sympathy.

Yamarz runs away towards a place called Fallowstone Cave telling me to follow him. Me and my followers, we're going in another direction – Sunguard City in the northwest. Yamarz can wait for me in case I decide to help him after all someday.

The sun is going down and the beautiful trees on the roadsides are so heartwarming!

This region is so picturesque I sometimes find it hard to believe it's truly real.

We happen to pass by an ancient Nordic ruin Angarvunde and then we see a group of jolly drunkards. They ask us to have some mead with them and I accept. Traveling on in somewhat raised spirits, we encounter an Orc man just on the intersection where we'd have to turn right towards Sunguard City. He's going the other way. His upper body is almost bare and I think I'd really like to... you know.

Before I get a chance to bring that topic up with him, I realize where this roads leads – to The Naked Dragon Riften. Now, I don't have a problem with men visiting brothels, but to make love to someone who is just headed there – that's below my dignity. So instead I run to Sunguard City with my followers as planned.

It's past 7 and I'm sure the shops are no longer open. Indeed, the blacksmith is already at the inn and the street stalls are all empty. Just on the odd chance, I step into the general store, though, and the vendor is still at work. Awesome!

On our way to nearby Ivarsted, we discover a strange place called Chicken Necromancers Altar. It has what looks like the ribcage of a big animal (decidedly not a chicken) and various smaller objects around it.

There's nobody about. I shrug with some amusement and we move on.

It's a great feeling to be at the cozy Ivarsted inn. Even that jerk Bassianus keeps his witticisms to himself this time. We make some friendly small talk with a number of guests, but then I feel I'm really very tired. After I've asked Lydia how it was with Maul (nothing exciting; she did let him do that horrible thing, and fortunately it didn't last long), I go to sleep ahead of my followers.



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