Always Lost, Always Hopeful (233) Some People Are Never Satisfied

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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






4-202-04-09 03:47
Shaman's Hut, Skaal, Solstheim, Morrowind


At this hour, the area south of Skaal is completely dark like the Winterhold region. Only with the help of my Circlet of Night Eye  are we able to see where we're going:

...more or less.

Bujold's camp is not far. A few people are already awake (or maybe keeping nightwatch which is of course a very sensible thing to do around here) and they're enthusiastic to attack Thirsk with our help. So is Bujold whom we find in her tent too restless to be able to sleep. It would of course be preferable to have her well-rested before a battle as important as this, but we can't do anything about that now.

At least this early in the morning we have a good chance of catching the enemy unawares. While Bujold explains the attack plan to her companions, I suddenly recall one of our numerous encounters with virrs in Skyrim:

We are certainly not going to follow that rule here. But then of course it's clear the virrs mean "light" in the figurative sense, as the good, whereas "dark" means evil.

I wonder: if there were any virrs in Solstheim, would they help us against the Rieklings? Probably not. Virrs hunt down the undead, but the Rieklings are quite flesh-and-blood, simply different from us humans. Something like giants or goblins, only smaller and much more aggressive.

Huh? Yes, Bujold, we're ready. Let's go.

Thirsk is a large wooden building on the southern shore of a small lake. They have sentries outside, but most occupants are sleeping inside. Thanks to that, we win easily, even though the battle gets a bit nastily chaotic.

They have turned the hall and the siderooms into a big Riekling camp with their characteristic tents and things.

Bloodthirsty savages as they may have repeatedly proven themselves to be, I must say I do feel a little sorry for them. Yet, remembering that cute little human child in Skaal, I still believe we did the right thing.

This is not over yet, though. Bujold asks me to come outside. She informs me she has to go to a place called Hrothmund's Barrow in the northern part of the island and perform some kind of an ancient ritual to ask forgiveness for her failure to defend Thirsk, and she'll need a trustworthy outsider as a witness.

No, I can't be bothered with that. All I wanted was to diminish the threat of Riekling attacks on human settlements and that goal has been achieved. If Bujold needs to sort something out with the gods, then it's none of my concern.

Bujold gets indignant, as well as insolent, but I'm unmoved. I summon my followers and we head south.

The depressing dark night is turning into a beautiful winter morning. On pursuit of the next Deathbrand artifact, we run past that ash-spawn fortress where we killed that 200-year-old undead general a long time ago. Between Tel Mithryn and Silt Strider Port, we are fortunate enough to be attacked by a couple of mages who thereby lead us to the hiding place of the last piece of Deathbrand armor. It's in a chest which also contains a key that is supposed to open something in a place called Gyldenhul Barrow on an island east of Skaal.

I've little interest in that. We travel to Kolbjorn Barrow south of Ravenrock instead.

It's a large stone circle in the ground surrounded by a few remains of columns and such. There's an elven man named Ralis. Apparently he came here to earn a load of cash by retrieving a certain rare and valuable artifact for some fat cat (I mean, a rich person) collectioner, only to find the entrance to the treasure trove buried under sand. He's appalled, because he would have to waste time on excavations, as well as spend money to hire workers. He would need 1000 septims, but he hasn't so much.

Now, I could easily throw away a thousand septims, but I don't like that jerk's attitude. That's why I just give a sign to my girls and we return to Ravenrock.

We don't have anything important to do in Solstheim anymore. Sofie is, however, categorically against returning to Windhelm so soon. She says she feels so happy here.

I ask her if she'd perhaps like to stay. Yes, she would, but not without me.

In that case we'll have to leave Solstheim for now, sad as it may be.

During our rounds saying goodbye to our friends, Sofie informs me Mogrul likes me. "Yes, I've noticed," I reply drily. Sofie says he's really nice, and Orc men like women who are good fighters, as someone told her back in Windhelm.

Oh, thank you very much. I'll keep it in mind.  ;-)

The trip takes a lot less than the last time. Sailing during daytime goes faster, the sailors explain us, because you can actually see where you're going and won't have to rely on magic – and go very slowly because the seamen don't in fact really trust magic.

"Always walk in the dark," I say, "because if you run, you might trip and hurt yourself."
Everybody laughs out loud, except Sofie whom I have to explain about the Vigilants of Stendarr.

Shorter as the trip may be, it still leaves the girls and me plenty of time to discuss our plans. We were going to Riften, but I'm having second thoughts. How about we head west instead and check out that Cave of Borea?

My followers remind me that the area is very difficult to access from the east. Finally I come to the decision that we'll go south as planned, and visit the Cave of Borea only upon returning to Hviterun eventually.

My heart is heavy as we approach Windhelm. I ask the first guard if Yrsarald has returned. No, he hasn't. They don't have any news either. The guard's reaction shows I must look really frantic. He sounds sincerely compassionate when he tells me not to worry, Yrsarald will be fine.

Then we enter the city proper.

No, but I know someone who does. She must be... yeah, there she is. Come along, I'll introduce you.

We don't spend much time in the city, but I do find a book that tells about an ancient Ayleid city, near which was something profoundly evil, and one day the city disappeared. It's presumed to be underground somewhere in a certain less explored region of Cyrodiil. It's fascinating.

We say goodbye to Sofie and her new friend, and head south. There is slight snowfall and the scenery leaves something to be desired, but we feel energetic even though I may be somewhat downcast because of my misfortune with Yrsarald.

In Kynesgrove, we speak a word or two to some passersby and step briefly into the inn. The snowfall ceases gradually as we travel on southwards.

We make a slight detour to go and say hello to Billy. Past Vernim Wood, we meet an Orc skooma seller. Without bothering to get some distance and shoot an arrow into his back, I just pull out a sword and inform him that trade in narcotic drugs is no longer tolerated in Skyrim. Then I kill him.

Shor is very calm and beautiful. There is nothing like a snowfall this far south. We while briefly in the soothing company of men sitting around that big campfire, and then we proceed to Riften. We bring Mjoll her precious sword.

Our other tasks will have to wait until tomorrow because, firstly, it's very late, and secondly, Madesi wants me. I tell him I'm exhausted, so please no acrobatic positions tonight.

Afterwards, we go to sleep quickly without speaking much.



next awakening






return to the table of contents

Always Lost, Always Hopeful (232) Rounding Things Up

———————————————
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






4-202-04-08 06:00
Shaman's Hut, Skaal, Solstheim, Morrowind


The air outside is thick with snowflakes. We go and get some training in two-handed weapons from Wulf. He mentions that a hunter recently saw a thalmor ship docked on the western part of the northern coast. There's an abandoned dock near the northernmost point of Solstheim mainland. I decide to go and take a look. Along the way, we could check out those small islands in the northeast.

Since I have decided not to help Bujold and I feel too impatient to wait for the trader Edla to wake up, we shall head north right away.

The sun is slowly rising as we travel to Wind Stone and from there to the nearest island called Haknir's Shoal. There's a tent camp with some bandits. We kill them and find a Deathbrand Treasure Map  that has four crosses in various parts of what are evidently the contours of Solstheim. One of them is where we are now, and after a little searching we find a Deathbrand Helm  in a locked and partially buried chest.

It has the Waterbreathing  enchantment which I don't need, because I know a spell to that effect, but the helm as such looks quite cool if you disregard those long horns. I've never liked horned helmets.

The next place with buried treasure, according to the map, is on the northern part of the western coast, seemingly north-northwest from Water Stone. It suits us fine, because we'll be passing through there on our way back to Ravenrock.

We return to the mainland and admire a couple of cute horkers. Then we hear clanking. Walking in the direction of the noise, we see a man working at an ore vein with a pickaxe. His name is Torkild and he talks kind of incoherently. I ask him if he's all right. Instead of answering, he begins to grow bigger. I mean, all over.

He is turning into a werewolf (or maybe a -bear if it pleases you)! I'm not sure if he's going to attack us, but then he does and we have to kill him.

Wait. Torkild... wasn't that the man from Skaal who went missing?

Indeed, he has a letter on him written by himself and addressed to his brother Wulf:

Well, there's nothing we can do for him anymore. We'll deliver the letter one of these days, but right now we're moving on to the northeast.

There are really many horkers in this region. As for the islands, we discover three. On the first one, we encounter a dragon. After killing him, I succeed in taking from him some of those heartscales  Tolfdir of Winterhold wanted. There are more horkers on this island. Evidently dragons don't eat horkers, or at least not much.

We swim to the farthest island next. We learn it's called Giant Nirnroot Isle and inhabited by spriggans. Unaffected by our Spriggan Soap, they attack us. We shouldn't have come here at all. There are also very large nirnroot plants growing on this island, just like the name suggests.

That's the mainland in the distance. You might recognize the famous big volcano.
(I wonder if it's possible to travel to it. Why has it never occurred to me before?)

On the third island, between this one and the mainland, is a camp of Rieklings. As we've witnessed repeatedly, Rieklings attack human settlements and that's why I don't feel bad about killing them.

We now continue to circle the island of Solstheim conterclockwise. The shore is very rocky, so we have to wade through water part of the way. I wish the helm we found had a Waterwarming enchantment instead of Waterbreathing. Isn't the ocean surface supposed to freeze solid in this cold anyway? Too bad there's no one to complain to.

We reach a place called Glacial Cave. Just as the name says, it's a cave.

It's not a very big one, has enough light to see comfortably and there are some Rieklings who live in small tents like this one:

They attack us, we kill them, take everything valuable and move on along the coast. After more horkers and a couple of dead people deceased at unknown time and circumstances, we approach the northwestern edge of Summerset. Through the snowfall, we can see something wooden in the distance. Could be a ship. But there are also three smaller islands off the shore. We'll check those out first.

They consist mostly of that strange ice- or crystal-like rock that is widespread in this region, and are completely desolate apart from one small ancient burial site.

Having swum from one island to another, we reach the mainland just a little way to the southwest from that wooden thing. Looking carefully from behind the edge of a very high near-vertical wall of rock, we can see it's a wooden pier. There's no ship, nor for that matter any people. Just a large number of mudcrabs who, on account of us having used the Spriggan Soap, don't mind us looking around.

Ever had a chance to see a mudcrab up close?

On the shore is a shack in which, among other things, is a strongbox. I'm not going to wonder how it got here. I just steal everything in it.

Our way goes to the south now. We find yet another piece of Deathbrand armor. A dragon is kind enough to wait with his attack until we have cleared out a Riekling outpost.

I have just absorbed the dragon's soul.

When we sit down and have a little rest, I suddenly remember Falskaar and how Jarl Agnar had Svegard foully murder the bandit who had told him where his wife and son were. The reason why I recall it now is that it occurs to me that I acted just as dishonorably with Paratus in Mzulft thanks to whom we had found out where the Staff of Magnus was and with The Caller in Fellglow Keep who had given us those vitally important books.

The girls try to explain me that Paratus had clearly announced his hostile intentions and no decent person could with a clear conscience have left someone as evil as the The Caller alive, and besides I hadn't made any express or implied promises to either of them. I disagree, but I don't want to start an argument. I just announce that I'm going to give Jarl Agnar a second chance. We'll return to Falskaar one more time. Someday.

Jordis doesn't say anything.

I jump up decisively and motion to the girls to follow me.

We meet a large family of netches on the shore. One of them is really small, must be a toddler in netch terms.

There's no way to bypass them, so we just run through quickly, hoping they won't feel threatened. We succeed. By 5 in the evening, we're in Ravenrock. Sofie is happy to see us and tell us eagerly about all the things she has been seeing and doing.

The third chest with a hidden Deathbrand item should be just outside the town. It's a good thing there are bandits guarding it, otherwise it might have been extremely difficult to find.

A fire mage, huh? Well, let's see what you're made of.

Now it's 6 o'clock in the evening and still light enough to travel, if  we want to go anywhere. The last piece of Deathbrand armor is in the southeastern end of Solstheim. With the other three being rather useless, I'm not at all sure I even want it. We could, of course, also check out Kolbjorn Barrow while we're here, or we could just travel back to Skyrim.

Lydia reminds me we ought to go to Skaal and tell Wulf about his unfortunate brother.

Right! This means we'll go to Skaal now.

In all likelihood, we'll end up having to travel from Skaal to Tel Mithryn in darkness, but we'll be going down the mountains, so finding our way should not be too difficult.

The sun sets and a snowfall starts while we're approaching Skaal.

It so happens that after we've made our report to Wulf, we have to help the villagers thwart a Riekling attack. By then it's almost half past 8 and pitch-dark. We'll spend the night in Skaal.

Before going to sleep, I tell the girls I'm thinking of helping Bujold and her wannabe warriors after all. The Riekling group that has occupied Thirsk is reputed to be the biggest one on the island and for that matter quite close to Skaal. People also say that the king of all the Rieklings is with that very gang. If we destroy them, it should make the people's life a lot safer in Solstheim.

The girls don't answer much. My eyes fall shut too almost as soon as I've finished talking.



next awakening