Always Lost, Always Hopeful (99) Cough Up the Money

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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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4-201-11-24 05:54
The Copper Cask Inn, Darkwater, Eastmarch, Skyrim


Without waiting for the meager village shop to open, we cross the bridge west of the village and head south past the waterfalls and then east. The weather is warm and nice, although there are some clouds. From the west–east highway, we have lovely views to the geysir area far below us in the north.

And here is yet another cute fox.  :-)

Being so fond of foxes, how about I start calling myself Foxy Laura instead of that silly "Dragonborn"?
Yeah, I know. The people wouldn't understand.

At the intersection southwest of Vernim Wood, there's again a massive battle going on. While we sit and watch, Jordis tells me timidly that if I had planned to do anything tonight, I shouldn't postpone my plans just for her birthday party. I tell her not to worry. I will have a number of errands to run in Bitchen and they can celebrate at the inn while I'm busy elsewhere.

I've been having the impression that Jordis is very shy about being in the center of attention. She also dislikes alcohol (or possibly doesn't tolerate it well). So maybe we won't spend the whole evening in Bitchen.

I suddenly realize I have no use for a dozen sets of garbage armor, so there's no point in waiting for this battle to end. I give a sign to the girls to get up, and we move on.

I sell some things in Shor and have a brief chat with my friend Sylgja. On our way south to Bitchen, I won't bother to bypass that fort in the middle of the highway nor fight the bandits. We simply run through, ignoring their excited shouts. They're so clumsy they can't even hit us running.

Having arrived at the Bitchen inn full of people, I announce the happy event. After we've tossed Jordis in the air as is the custom, I invite everyone to a drink at our expense. Then I leave them to their party. I have stuff to deliver to several people. I also report to Anuriel about that dragon we killed on the jarl's orders. Both she and the jarl are very happy, but they don't have any further work for me. It's a little weird. The bartender Keerava has told me the city administration is trying hard to catch skooma dealers. I'd love to participate in it, but what do I have to do to be allowed to?

I go shopping. That's all I can do.

That's a modest but very well stocked Argonian trader down by the canal.
I've heard people wonder why Argonian women have breasts if they're reptiles.
Maybe they lay eggs like reptiles do, but then suckle their hatchlings? I haven't yet dared to ask any Argonians.

Then I join the party. Lydia is the only one who looks sad. That's because her period has not yet ended, so she can't go to bed with Maul. But all the other people at the inn are having a great time. Jordis is sitting between two men and is having some difficulties parrying their (so far friendly, even though persistent) physical attention. I ask Jenassa if we should leave. She thinks we'd better, because Jordis is on the verge of getting drunk and doing things she might regret tomorrow.

So I pay the bill, including one more round for everyone, and suggest the folks continue to have a good time without us.

We're generally headed for Riverwood, but I've had dreams of a skooma den somewhere halfway between Bitchen and Ivarsted. We'll try and find it today, since we're going in the direction of Ivarsted anyway. Maybe we'll discover something that'll give me an opening with Jarl Laila.

We run west-northwest through a hilly birch forest under the blue sky. The weather is as delightful as could be. Jordis agrees that this is a better way of celebrating a birthday than getting drunk in a place like Bitchen.

A couple of bears want to play with us, but we're too fast for them. One troll can't be shaken off, though, so we kill him. He has a strange brown color. They're usually white. (Lydia explains me that the ones who are white live in the snowy regions. This "strange" brown is the usual color of forest trolls. All right. Thanks.)

We pass by a Hunter Camp inhabited by two poachers. After some friendly small talk, we move on. Just about halfway betweenˇthe Hunter Camp and the Sarethi Farm, we come across the ruin of a wooden farmhouse familiar to me from my dreams. In front of what used to be the oven sits a woman in a fur dress that leaves her shoulders open almost all the way down to her belly.

If I were a man, I wouldn't head on anywhere anytime soon.

With some effort, I tear my eyes off her adorable chocolate-brown skin and hurry to the trapdoor. This place is called Redwater Den.
[Chocolate is an unimaginably delicious sweet produced in High Rock.]

We descend the ladder to a small room with a wooden door, in front of which stands a rather ugly man with a beard and horns. Upon closer look, the horns are of his helmet. He tells us we'd better behave downstairs or he'll come and teach us manners. Yeah, right. Passing throught the door, we enter a big room divided into niches, in each one of which sits a coughing and completely incommunicative person. That is with the exception of one niche with a woman who doesn't cough. She's dead.

Yeah, the woman near the entrance who sells skooma isn't coughing either.

She looks so tough I don't think she even needs this grating for protection.

"Maybe we should've had your birthday party here?" I say to Jordis. She laughs without bothering to answer.

Past the dealer's booth and the niches is a locked grating-door. Beyond it is a room with some furniture and a wide passage apparently leading into a dungeon. Motioning to my followers to watch my back, I set to work on the lock.

Hearing the lock click, a servant comes running to tell us we're to leave it alone. Unperturbedly, I open the door, the servant attacks my followers and is promptly killed. The dealer realizes she's outmatched and tries to hide, but I kill her too. Somewhat surprised that the tough guy guarding the entrance hasn't rushed down the stairs yet, I sneak up the stairs instead. He stands just where he was before, with his back turned to the open door. Maybe he has consumed some skooma? I kill him with one arrow. Then we put all the customers to death as well. They're such a wretched sight that I have little doubt that they're better off dead.

But I see now how skooma may have a certain allure to it. (That man is dead. See the arrow?)

Having looted all the bodies and stolen what's valuable, we go through that grating-door whose lock I picked. The passage leads to a huge cavern with some guggling and steaming machinery as well as several guards on wooden platforms and walkways. They notice us quickly. In fact, one of them gets dangerously close to me and I'm having real trouble killing him.

So this is what a skooma factory looks like.
(The almost-open eye symbol is indicating that someone somewhere has almost discovered where I am although I'm sneaking.)

We explore the cavern and find, among other things, some beds. It's half past 7 in the evening and I feel extremely tired. I decide to get some sleep before we move on. As I hardly need to tell you, day and night don't matter underground.



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Always Lost, Always Hopeful (51) On the Road

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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






4-201-10-07 07:21
Severin Manor, Ravenrock, Solstheim, Morrowind


We wake up maybe not as fresh as usual. A good swim in the icy ocean will do us good in this condition. I'm glad there's no thunder.

So, that's the first islet, the smaller one west of the town:

Unfortunately, we learn there's nothing on it to see. It has the remains of some old structure, but it's completely abandoned now. This is what it looks like:

The second one has a reaver camp on it. "Reaver" is the local word for "bandit". I figure since those "reavers" haven't done us any wrong, we'll leave them alone and swim quietly back to the main island. I mean, I can imagine that they steal and rob and kill, but we're not exactly saints either, so let natural selection deal with them.

We run through the town. I say a cordial farewell to the alchemist Milore of whom I've grown very fond.

My boyfriend Veleth is nowhere to be seen and I'm not going to look for him. It might be embarrassing if he wanted to make love before I leave and I would have to explain why I can't. Besides, I may be tempted to ask if he thinks it's all right for me to leave Solstheim without destroying Miraak, and I know I'd better not ask him that.

The Orc bully Mogrul finds me by himself, though. He was very impressed by our dragon-killing the other day, remember? Now he informs me he'll put the word out that I'm an Orc friend, which means I will be admitted into Orc villages.
If that's true, I won't have to bring The Forgemaster's Fingers  to Dushnikh Yal, and thus I'll be able to continue doing enhanced Smithing. That would be great.
I'm a little wary of the possibility that Mogrul might have come to admire me too much, if you know what I mean. But it hardly matters, now that we're leaving Solstheim.

Captain Gjalund greets us with a bright smile, but there are no more free rides for us. We have to pay the regular fare – 2500 septims. It's a lot of money, but I can afford it.

Much sooner than I expected, we're in Windhelm. Understandably, I'd rather not go and see Yrsarald today, so I just sell what I can and then we head for nearby Kynesgrove. Our plan is to find the city of Bitchen. I want to take care of that orphanage business. The children have to be rescued. Something tells me that affair is going to be kind of messy, but I can't put it off with a clean conscience any longer. On our way to Bitchen, we're going to make a slight detour and check out Kagrenar where that fugitive from Morrowind is supposed to have gone to.

At the Kynesgrove inn, I'm informed that the jarl wants the giant at the Steamcrag Camp killed, but I decide I won't do it. After that peaceful giant further south we've ran past a few times, I no longer want to kill giants. Let them steal an occasional cow. I'm staying out of it.

I make the acquaintance of the local witch Dravynea who teaches Alteration magic for good money. This is the porch of her house which has a really nice cozy atmosphere:

Then we run south along the highway towards Vernim Wood in a magnificent thunderstorm. Even though we carefully keep away from trees and bodies of water, the lightnings sometimes strike so close to us that it's scary.

To our right, outside the frame, is the very Steamcrag Camp where I'm supposed, and not going, to kill a giant.
This mammoth must be his.

In Vernim Wood, I manage to sell everything apart from a few handfuls of ancient gold and silver coins. You can't pay with those, you have to exchange them for septims.

Just south of Vernim Wood, we are supposed to turn off the main road. However, as I stand there and look up to the mountains where Kagrenar should be, I feel a strange reluctance. My feet just don't want to move. The girls watch me and don't say anything. I'm not sure how long it lasts that we stand there like this. Eventually I turn back onto the main road and start running south towards Bitchen. The girls follow. None of us says anything.

We cross from Eastmarch to The Rift. The rain has ceased.

We stop for a moment to admire from the green slope on this side of the valley the magnificent view to the white mountains on the other side. They look as if they're covered with powdered sugar. Then we proceed southwards. Soon we arrive in a village called Shor. (In the distant past called Shor's Stone.) There's a watchtower with several dead soldiers, but we can't find out what has happened. In the village, everything seems peaceful.

It's weird, but at 18:15 the general store has already closed. We make conversation with the men sitting around a campfire across the street. When they hear we're headed for Bitchen, they inform us it's an extremely corrupt city – even the guards at the gate demand a bribe for letting you in. And as if that wasn't enough, there's a fortress called Fort Greenwall halfway from here to Bitchen. The Windhelm–Bitchen highway actually passes through its gates. We'd better bypass it through the forest.

We thank them for the warning and move on. Soon we see Fort Greenwall. There's a battle going on in the courtyard. One of the men appears non-hostile. So we go in. After we've killed all the hostiles, he introduces himself as Mendrell. He's a bit weird. He has a voice like a 10-year-old boy. He says he loves that missing girl Bronwen and that he fears she's fallen into the hands of the slaver Dar'Jidarr – that'll be that Khajiit man we've seen at the Dragonbridge inn.

Whatever. I go and kill one bandit who is still sitting on top of a citadel looking away from the courtyard, possibly asleep.

Then we enter the castle interior. It's a decent-sized battle. I keep practising with my Aetherial Staff. I have no idea why it's successful in conjuring a Dwarven Sphere only in one attempt out of three. Not that is has much significance. We kill the bandits without much trouble.

Death of the second-to-last bandit: health bar already gone, Sense of Smell glow still to remain for half an instant.

As it's almost midnight, I decide we'll sleep here rather than proceed to Bitchen and start looking for lodging in the middle of the night.



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