Always Lost, Always Hopeful (50) Getting and Taking Away

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SPOILER INFO
This fanfic novel is based on the events that occurred in an actual game of Skyrim I played. Therefore, it inevitably reveals a lot about the game.
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previous day






4-201-10-06 05:36
The Retching Netch, Ravenrock, Solstheim, Morrowind


We hurry out the south gate and towards the Ashfallow Citadel. After we've run for about half an hour, we see a battle between two mages. It's an impressive sight in the early morning light. I've never seen anything like this before.

It seems that there's an ice mage on the left who has just cast a spell,
and the fire mage on the right is defending himself with a ward.
Never mind my followers' status bars in the corner.
They're (of course) ready, but not participating.

The frost mage is sending out icy things while getting hit with fire.

We wait until one of them is dead. You may be surprised, but it's the one on the right. The winner is, however, so badly battered that I can kill him with one arrow. Then we take all their gear and move on. Mages rarely carry anything a warrior can use, but when they're dead, why leave it there? Magic-enhancing robes can be sold for very decent money.

We go to Silt Strider Port next, where I sell Revus as much loot as I can. Ashfallow Citadel is to the north, not far from here. We find a dead Ravenrock guard and are attacked by two cutthroats from an organization called Morag Tong which I've never heard of before. They're not hard to kill. After that, we enter the citadel.

There are many enemies, but they're scattered all over the place and fight without any coordination whatsoever, so our well-trained group of four just smashes our way through them without much difficulty. We walk carefully around a number of horrible traps and Bardslayer helps us through a couple of gratings, a way to open which is simply humanly impossible to find. I've told you that Bardslayer and I share a passionate hatred for twisted minds who take pleasure in hiding door switches in absurd places.

In the last room is Vendil Severin-Ulen himself. He's a bit tougher to kill (as well as far more skilled in hiding and evading) than his soldiers.

Our killing dance with him provides us with the gratifying feeling that we didn't just get our victory handed to us on a silver platter. Maybe you've guessed it by now that my girls and I actually enjoy a little risk every now and then.

We head back to Ravenrock. It's not even noon yet.

On our way to the west, we clear out two bandit camps and discover that there's a path into the town from this direction.

When you're headed east from Ravenrock (such as towards Skaal),
you don't actually have to exit through the southern gate and bypass the mountains.
You can take this steep easy-to-overlook path uphill between the mine and the smelter.

When Councilor Arano hears of our success, he looks like he'd like to hug us all and dance with joy. Exercising all his will-power, he settles for asking us to accompany him to the house of Councilor Morvayn. On the way there, I have to stop and say hello to my boyfriend Veleth. He is strangely reserved and wouldn't even let me kiss him. Maybe that's considered inappropriate here. I ask him how his work is going on, just to make conversation, and he says he's got an alcohol problem of sorts. His men seem to have gotten their hands on some extremely strong booze known as Embershard Wine . They have a supply of it hidden somewhere. Their drinking is beginning to affect the discipline. If I could find that secret stash, Veleth would be most grateful.

Sure thing. I'll find it even if I'll have to capture a few guards and torture them.

But now to Concilor Morvayn. He just stuns me by giving me the Severin Mansion as a reward for thwarting the assassination plot. Now that's what I call work that pays off! It's rather disappointing when you get a dozen bandits (and almost yourself) killed and then are given some useless amulet or a hundred septims of money. Morvayn is truly a great man who knows how to show his gratitude. I'll be glad to do pretty much any job for him, should he require my services in the future.

Actually he does ask something of me – to consider staying in Ravenrock as a member of their community. And consider it I do for a moment, but I won't stay. I understand they're eager to get valuable people to settle down here, but Solstheim is just too depressing for me. I long for sunshine and green grass and the scent of pine trees and birdsong. And foxes. Like in that (spruce, but still adorable) forest east of Dragonbridge.

Sorry, I got carried away daydreaming. We'll now go searching for that ususual booze.

There's plenty of daylight left and I have a good nose for such things. Well, not really. I have a good nose all right, but as you know, I'm awful at finding hidden switches. Maybe I'll have better luck with hidden alcohol. Maybe one of the bottles is broken, so I can smell it. At any rate, I'm prepared to do just about anything to prove my worth to a man who has made me so happy – even though I still find it a little strange how he acts so reservedly as soon as we're in a public place.

My instinct tells me to look in those urns and barrels, of which there's plenty around the houses near the harbor. And heaps of ash, of course.

It takes us a long time. We look absolutely everywhere, even underwater. But we finally find it and report to Veleth. Then we go to check out our new house.

As we already noticed when we were here before, it has all the crafting facilities. I now no longer have an excuse to chat with Milore when doing alchemy at her shop, but it's no big deal – I can go chat with her just like that. But now I really must stop this gabbing and set to work. Not only have we gathered lots of weapons and armor made of local materials unknown in Skyrim, I have also picked up an amulet that enhances my Smithing skill when I wear it. So I get much work done. Most of our loot is for selling, but my girls get a little better helmets and I get a really cool one:

It's called Glass Helmet of Extreme Magicka. It almost doubles my magicka, which means I can uphold my Healing  spell for much longer, as well as generally afford to cast more advanced spells that have a higher magicka cost. Apart from which, the helmet looks just awesome. I've seen Glass Helmets a couple of times and I always wanted to have one. I'm so happy.

This is our last evening in Solstheim. Tomorrow morning I want to go and have a look at those two small islands just off Ravenrock, and then we'll take the ship back to Windhelm.
When we are already lying in our beds, I'm suddenly surprised to hear myself say:
"You know what, girls? It was actually a great adventure!"
Rayya turns to look at me. "I'm glad you  liked it."
"Yeah, I didn't like all  of it." I've told them in very general terms what those Black Book things did to me. "But..."
"Wanna get drunk, Laura?" Lydia's voice interrupts me from the other side.
I hesitate for a second only. "Yeah, let's."
"Great!" says Rayya.
"However..." I make a little pause to get their attention. "I hate to be a spoilsport, but one of us has to stay sober. The local men are..." I see the girls' faces that I won't have to explain that we have become much too popular here to risk losing control and end up participating in a sex orgy.
From the corner of my eye, I can see Rayya and Jenassa nod.
"Jenassa?" I look at her questioningly. She's usually the mature and responsible one in our group, to say nothing of reserved.
"I can do it," says Lydia.
"You, Lydia?" I'm surprised. She was the one who suggested getting drunk to start with.
"Oh, it's all right, Laura. I'll come and sit with you, but I'll stay sober." She looks me deep in the eye and smiles kind of coyly. "I'll much rather see to it that nothing bad happens to you."
I suddenly get it. She must have been worrying herself sick when I was away in those Black Book realms. With some effort I loosen myself from her eyes. "All right, toughass chicks." I jump up from my bed. "Let's enjoy ourselves being women for a change."
I see that Rayya has been watching us. "Maybe you two would like to stay behind while Jenassa and I have fun with men," she says with just the tiniest hint of sarcasm.
"What is it?" I enquire with just the tiniest hint of a grin. "You jealous?"
Rayya is at loss for words. I pat her butt. "Come on." I walk to the door. I realize how excited I feel. It hasn't come up in our conversations, but I've been really eager to taste of all those elven alcohols with exotic names. Sujamma, Mazte, Flin, Shein... Well, maybe not all of them.
"Are we still returning to Skyrim?" asks Lydia.
"Yes. We're still returning to Skyrim."



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Always Lost, Always Hopeful (49) Trying to Do What's Right

———————————————
SPOILER INFO
This fanfic novel is based on the events that occurred in an actual game of Skyrim I played. Therefore, it inevitably reveals a lot about the game.
———————————————




previous day






4-201-10-05 06:49
The Retching Netch, Ravenrock, Solstheim, Morrowind


As I walk to the bathroom, I avoid looking in the direction of the barkeeper Geldis. Of course none of the guests from last night are here anymore.

This morning I have to wash myself very thoroughly. After that, it's the usual round of crafting. Gone are the days when I took the strongest weapons and armor to myself and gave my followers the next best. Nowadays I give the best gear to the girls and leave the next best for myself.

Jenassa tells me she heard last night about a ship that ran aground on the southwestern shore some time ago. It was called "Strident Squall". Seems to be the same one that carried that valuable folio Adril Arano's wife Cindiri wanted found.

When I've finished working, I do some shopping with the girls. We seem to be heroes of the town. Everyone we meet congratulates and thanks us for getting the mine reopened and the ash-spawn attacks stopped.

When I go to see Second Councilor Arano, as Captain Veleth said I should, he tells me he has information that someone wants to murder his boss and close friend, First Councilor Morvayn. Apparently Morrowind is ruled by a number of great families who have agreed upon some kind of a power compromise but in fact hate each other's guts. Solstheim is the domain of House... Redoran, was it? And House Hlaalu seems to have come to the idea to try and get Concilor Morvayn assassinated. Arano suspects that there are already some Hlaalus living in Ravenrock under assumed names, waiting patiently for their hour. Or year, rather. Or decade. Elves seem to be able to wait for very, very long.

When Mr. Morvayn tells me all that, I almost exclaim: "It has to be the Severins!" But I keep my silence and try to exercise at least some patience. The little conversation I overheard in Severin Mansion the other day proves that they're up to something upon someone's orders all right, but people do all kinds of bad things and only very few of those involve the murder of a mayor. At any rate, Arano says he doesn't know whom in the town he can trust, but with me he can be certain that I'm not a Hlaalu because I'm not an elf. How about suspecting my follower Jenassa, I almost want to ask him, but that would be a very bad joke and who knows, maybe he'd take me seriously and that might ruin the trust he has in me. I promise to try and find out what I can.

I go to the innkeeper Geldis Sadri. I feel I'm kind of good at getting along with the Sadris. Indeed, Geldis mentions there's an Ulen Ancestral Tomb in this very town. So what? Ulens are a branch of the Hlaalus, he informs me. Oh. I see. The point is, someone's been bringing offerings to the souls of the dead Ulens in the tomb. Councilor Arano has been trying to find out who, but his attempts have failed because the Hlaalu agents in the town are somehow keeping themselves informed about the doings of the guards. But if I should secretly watch the tomb, I might be able to find out who the snake in the grass is. As it happens, today is one of those traditional offerings-bringing days, according to some elven ritual calendar.

Geldis further tells me that the whole conflict started when one of the Ulens arrived in Ravenrock and instigated a rebellion in order to take over Solstheim for House Hlaalu. He was subdued and executed on the orders of Concilor Morvayn, and now the Ulens feel offended and believe they are entitled to revenge.

I just can't believe this. In Skyrim, when one jarl openly attacks another, it causes a civil war. In Morrowind, when one clan openly attacks another, it's just normal politics. Those elves are crazy.

Now, I'm going to...

I beg your pardon?
Oh. You're asking: didn't I say how elves were so sensible in chapter 23?
Um... let's not waste time on tangential details, okay?

So... as I was saying, the time is half past 2 in the afternoon. As sneaking is better done in darkness (that goes for the Ulens bringing their offerings as well as me and my followers trying to catch them), I figure this is the perfect opportunity to travel to the southwestern corner of Solstheim and try to find that shipwreck "Strident Squall".

This shouldn't take long. Solstheim is small and there are no mountains in our way this time.

About halfway there, we see one of those magnificent netches. We killed a family of them the other day because Milore the alchemist had asked me to bring her some netch jelly. I felt really bad about it afterwards. That's why when a group of hunters approaches us now and asks us to help them kill that very netch we're seeing off the coast, I tell him we will (because there's no point offending him), but in fact we stand aside and watch the battle.

I'm utterly captivated by the gracious movements of the gigantic animal. Contrary to what I had assumed, those extremities are not legs. They are tentacles:
[series of 3 pictures you can click through; click on the first picture to make it big, then press the right arrow to see the next picture etc.; press  Esc to return to the text]

The netch floats in the air – I wouldn't dare to guess how – and it can actually lash out with those tentacles, as the next two pictures will demonstrate:
[series of 2 pictures you can click through; click on the first picture to make it big, then press the right arrow to see the next picture etc.; press  Esc to return to the text]

We watch the spectacle in almost reverent awe, hoping that the netch would win. With dozens of arrows in its body, it begins to resemble a giant hedgehog, but the hunters fall one after another.

[series of 2 pictures you can click through; click on the first picture to make it big, then press the right arrow to see the next picture etc.; press  Esc to return to the text]

Finally the last hunter is dead and we awake from our trance. It has taken an hour. As the netch unhurriedly floats back towards the sea, we cautiously go and loot the dead bodies, trying to look as undangerous as we can. Luckily, we succeed. And then we rush onwards. Indeed, we soon see a ship or a shipwreck right off the shore. The ground next to it has been fortified and there are bandits. They're not expecting an attack. That's why they need some time to get over their surprise and realize our enchanted bows are a serious threat. Thanks to that, we succeed in killing them all, two or three at a time.

This is indeed the Strident Squall we're looking for, and we find Cindiri's folio. I'm mildly appalled to find it's not some album of family pictures or something. It's just the book "The Lusty Argonian Maid" in decorative binding. Is this what we killed almost ten good men for? I feel like the serial killer of Windhelm. No, that's an exaggeration, but it's still awful. I thought I knew that nobles can get very vain and spoiled, but I would have never expected this.

Well, tough luck. We've no time for crying. It's 5 o'clock in the evening and we must waste no time getting back to Ravenrock. Along the way, we see "our" netch peacefully doing its netch things five meters off the shore. We wave it farewell and hurry on.

I quickly drop the folio in the Concilor's residence and get our reward. The Ulen Ancestral Tomb is nearby. We sneak in when no one is looking, make ourselves comfortable and wait. I rather wish the conspirators weren't the Severins. They're such nice people.

Soon enough the front door opens and in comes none other than Tilisu Severin. My hunch was right after all, I'm sorry to say. We confront her, but she insists she has nothing to do with the Hlaalus. She just thought she was doing a good deed by honoring the memory of the dead as there are no Ulens in the town. I don't believe one word, but there's nothing I can do. So I go to Arano for further instructions. He tells me to search the Severin Manor for evidence and gives me the key to the front door. Of course. Why didn't I think of searching the house as soon as I became suspicious of the Severins? Back then they had no reason to mistrust me and I was allowed to walk in and out of the place freely. But there's little point in pondering on that now.

We find the front door locked and use Arano's key. The house is not empty, though. There are two people inside: the wife Tilisu and the daughter Mirri.

I inform them that they are suspected of conspiracy to murder the First Councilor Morvayn, and we're going to search their house and they are not allowed to leave. To my greatest regret, Mirri attacks us with spells in spite of her mother's entreaties. We have no choice but to kill her.

We search the rooms with Jenassa escorting Tilisu, holding a sword against her back. Tilisu looks terrified. She keeps looking around, seemingly searching for a way to escape, but she knows she doesn't have a chance.

We look everywhere, but find nothing that looks like evidence of anything. I ask Tilisu if there's some kind of a secret hiding place, but she won't say a word. I suppose we'll have to bring her to the town prison for torture, but before that, we'll double-check everything one more time.

Now we find a safe we overlooked earlier. I succeed in opening it and we find this letter:

This is what we needed. Let's go.

Tilisu prostrates herself on the floor and begs me to kill her rather than hand her over to Morvayn. Now that we have found out where her husband is hiding with his gang, she won't be able to tell anything we don't already know. Morvayn would only have her tortured to death in a slow and atrocious manner we can't imagine.

I think she's exaggerating, but her wails are truly heartbreaking, and I liked their family to begin with. I ask Jenassa if it's customary in Morrowind to be so cruel. She says she has no idea. She has never interacted with people important enough to know about such things.

So I decide to grant Tilisu her wish. I instruct her to charge at me, so I can stab her in a manner that looks like we actually fought. I don't want the guards to become suspicious when they come to remove the bodies later.

Tilisu's knees are shaking really badly, but she does her best. I stab her through the chest and then quickly one more time before she falls down. This will have to do.

We bring the letter to the Second Councilor Arano and inform him that Vendil Severin is most likely in the Ashfallow Citadel while his wife and daughter attacked us and we had to kill them. He instructs us to head for Ashfallow Citadel with four of his best fighters. I reply that we're too exhausted to fight and need some sleep. We'll go there in the morning. Those guards can go ahead or wait for us, just as they please.



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