Always Lost, Always Hopeful (73) On Big Stage without Audience

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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






4-201-10-29 04:42
Jauffre's Rooms, The Ratarseway, Sancre Tor, Cyrodiil


I've slept well, but I'm no less disdainful of this appalling dump. I'm not going to make the slightest effort to find their stupid four keys or six journals or seven sacred spittoons. I'll go on exploring until I'm completely lost and then Bardslayer will help me out. I know he hates shitholes like this just as I do. And a shithole this location is. A grim, drab, dreary, wretched shithole. A network of dunghills that sucks everything positive out of you.

Wait, I hear my inner voice say. Are you suggesting this place is worse than Miraak's horrorworld?

Without the tentacle monsters, it'd be pretty close, I reply. Those Black Book worlds at least looked kind of curious in their horrid way. The Ratarseway is just a huge system of common dungeons without anything even remotely interesting.

Enough of the whining, Laura. Better get a move on. You know that if you give your best and still fail, Bardslayer will help you out. Most people aren't that fortunate.

So I explore the other rooms and kill a few more hostile human ghosts.

I find so much loot that I have to leave less valuable items behind. That's the only good thing that can be said about the Ratarseway – there are many unusual items lying around places.

The task of finding the four keys  turns out trivial. Those ghosts killed by me carry one each. With the four keys, I get through the last door and end up in a room with two huge sarcophages.

That wooden grating is impossible to open, so Bardslayer helps me through. (Yes, there's a switch on the ceiling visible in this picture. I noticed it months later.) Then I reach a portal to the Imperial City Prison. Now we're getting somewhere! Imperial City is, if I'm not greatly mistaken, the capital of our Empire. I'd be most fascinated to see it.

The portal takes me into a prison cell. There's a white flash and I witness a mute scene with some people glowing like ghosts in blackish light-blue.

I realize it must be a flashback of something that has happened in the past. Those ghostly people walk back and forth and finally open a passage in the stone wall and leave the prison. There's another white flash and I'm back in the reality. My cell door is now open, but there's no opening in the wall. In one of the other cells, there's a fight on between someone hostile and someone friendly. Before I can begin to pick the lock, the celldoor is opened by a thalmor who attacks me. I kill him after a not-too-tough fight, and enter the cell. There are two naked men chained to walls. One appears to have been tortured rather badly. Neither one would talk to me.

In another cell, there are two naked women in a similar state. While looking for a way to free the prisoners, I run into another thalmor and kill him without any difficulty. In one of the other cells, I find the skeleton of someone called Valen Dreth. Something tells me he wants his remains to be buried in Falkert, so I take them with me.

I can't find a way to do anything for the prisoners, so I'll just have to leave them here.

I must have picked this up from those thalmors.
I dread to imagine what they use it for.

Unfortunately, the door that leads out can't be opened in any way, and neither can the wall of my cell where the secret passage in my vision was. However, I notice I have picked up a spellbook titled "Ancient Vision". Spellbooks work in such a way that when you read the book, it is destroyed and you acquire the ability to cast the spell whenever you want to (as long as you have enough magicka). This spell Ancient Vision  is unknown to me. The book says it's supposed to make me able to "see the ancient past".

I learn the spell, stand in front of where the secret passage was and cast the spell. A strange purple glow appears, everything goes kind of faint and the wall opens. I go through and a few seconds later it closes behind me. I proceed along the passage until I reach a dead end. After some confusion, I realize I have to use the spell again. Another passage opens for a few seconds. Going on like that, I reach a really big cavern.

I descend to the bottom of the cavern, explore it and find some really cool loot but no way out. Finally I remember about the spell again. Its casting materializes bridges that lead onto that floating island and from it to the other end. I reach what looks like the inside of a citadel. There's a wide spiral staircase like in many citadels in Skyrim, as well as passages in the basement just like any old basement in Skyrim. Seriously, the place looks like created by a Skyrim fortress interior designer with no imagination and very much spare time. Apart from the kind of loot you usually find in dungeons, there is nothing worth mentioning. Neither is there any sign of any kind of life.

Having explored everything (I believe), I end up in front of a grating, behind which is a statue of a human and a dog.

I use my new spell again and get through the grating. The statue can be activated in order to reach a place called Umbra. I do it and find myself in a very large amphitheater. You know, a large round arena with several levels of stone seats all around it. There's a man and a woman who attack me. They're quite weak. After a few blows, a man starts to beg for mercy. No, asshole, it's too late for that now. You attacked me without any provocation and I was on my last nerve even before you did. There'll be no mercy. He runs quite fast and I have to chase him across the arena, but finally I get him. The woman looks like she can't make up her mind if she ought to attack me or try to look like she's just passing by. I cut her down too.

I hear clanking from somewhere above me. I ascend the stairs to the spectator seats and find a blacksmith at work at his forge. He's not hostile, but he won't talk to me either.

I walk around the place, looking everywhere.

There is no exit. My spell does nothing. Now I'm completely lost and clueless. Bardslayer agrees I've done everything in my power, and teleports me (as well as my followers) to Falkert.

I can barely sit down before that dork Wilaar approaches and informs me triumphantly that he has finally found a shortcut through the mountains. That really the last thing I was missing. I cut him short rather rudely and leave the inn.

You have no idea what a delight it is to walk on a street in a human settlement and look at the houses while the first drops of the beginning rain are falling down on me.

I set to work on our loot. At least my unadventure in The Ratarseway has given me some really useful items. Among other things, we all get to wear those pretty Glass Helmets now.

By the time I'm done crafting, it's dark and the shops have closed. I remember that Valen Dreth dude. I go to the cemetery and bury his bones. After I've done it, his ghost appears for a minute to thank me and to give me a ring that is supposed to "light my way". I'm not sure what exactly it means, but thanks. Rest in peace, Valen Dreth, whoever you were.

I walk around the town and chat with several people.

Believe me, there are places much worse.

I wouldn't mind some sex, but I can't find any man that would attract my fancy. Come to think of it, I've been sleeping around in this town so much that maybe I should exercise some caution. So I just return to the inn and go to sleep.



next awakening

Always Lost, Always Hopeful (72) Trapped by Feminine Intuition

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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






4-201-10-28 04:43
Dead Man's Drink, Falkert, Falkreath, Skyrim


I had a dream about a wonderful land. I am rapidly forgetting the details, but I still remember some magnificent, stunningly beautiful buildings. I am sure it was the land of the Gray Cowl quest. I feel I have to see it for real. That's why we'll try and find that "initiation hall" today. It's so near that it would be silly to just pass by.leave ot for another time.

Unless it turns out to be a lengthy adventure, we'll travel to the Rift after that, where we give the Gaybores their sacred horn and proceed to Bitchen, killing a dragon at the Autumnwatch Tower along the way.

We leave Falkert and turn off the road. Our destination lies beyond Ancient's Ascent. I have no idea if it's even physically possible to get to the Initiation Hall from Ancient's Ascent or is one supposed to find another road. We just go southwards and look for places where the map suggests the mountains may be not entirely unpassable, and try to ascend there.

With great effort (and a lot of time) I have managed to climb about to the halfway of this very slippery slope.
It has turned out absolutely impossible to ascend further, so I'll have to go down again and try another way.
And this is before Ancient's Ascent.

After several unsuccessful attempts of getting across the mountains, we end up on the familiar staircase to Ancient's Ascent. There's even a dragon up there, albeit a very weak one. Miraak steals the dragonsoul and claims he's growing stronger all the time. But is there a way further south? With some effort, we succeed in climbing onto the rocks on the southern edge from which we can jump down to a halfway decent path.

We can see some very impressive high strucures in the distance.

Soon we end up at a fortress called Bloodlet Throne. A door leads to big caves where we have to kill a large number of vampires, horrible bloodhounds and even flying monsters called gargoyles. They're frightening, but our discipline is flawless and we are never in real danger.

This wasn't that Gray Cowl thing, though. We exit and move on towards those amazing towers. They're quite near. The place is called Eye of Cyrodiil. That must be it.

There's an entrance that seems right, except that our progress is blocked by a grating that can't be opened in any way. The grating leads to an open passage, I mean a long narrow corridor without a roof. I find a place from which I can climb over the wall into the passage. Unfortunately, I soon reach another closed grating and I can see yet another further on. I have no choice but to climb out again.

The small staircase right of the two spruces is where the closed grating is.
If it were open, it would lead to that long corridor with further gratings I just mentioned.
In the foreground, before the two spruces, is a long staircase that leads to the towers (see below).

I look around and find a long staircase that leads to a door. Inside is a magic elevator of sorts which brings me onto a long and narrow walkbridge high in the air. It connects two towers. There's a door at the other end. I enter and another magic elevator takes me higher still, to the top of a tower with an awesome view but nowhere further to go.

That's me on top of the nearer high tower, next to the trapdoor.

I return to the ground the way I came. We keep looking around and eventually find another door that leads to a lever. I pull it, hoping it'll open one of those gratings. I return to the door that led me to those magic elevators on the last picture. I find another lever up there which I missed the first time. I pull it. Now I go to that passage with gratings. The outer grating is still closed, but the other two seem to be open. I return to the place where I climbed over the wall earlier. After several unsuccessful attempts, I succeed in doing it again. Yes, the two gratings are open now.

I walk to the end of the passage, alone for the time being. A door opens to the Hall of the Initiation . It's an oblong dimly-lit profoundly joyless room with large rough stone steps along the left and right wall, as well as a wide staircase and something that resembles a bricked-up well at the far end. The latter looks very much like a portal to somewhere and I'm apparently supposed to guess how to make it work.

I try to remember if Seviana gave me any hints. I don't think she did. I go back to the entrance door without discovering absolutely anything. Then I look towards the "well" again. Now I notice something on the floor halfway down the hall. I go closer and see that it's a Gray Fox bust . I can activate it and after I've done so, the arch in the back of the hall lights up with purple energy and a beam of bright light rises up from the well.

It's indeed a portal to a place called Old Way of the Thief . I go through and find myself on a high narrow bridge that leads across some horrible green liquid.

I enter a dungeon and end up on a platform with a large pool of fire in front of me. There's a door on the other side to which I'll have to find a way. On this side, there's another Gray Fox bust , which upon activation gives me cryptic instructions that mean absolutely nothing to me. Utterly clueless and with my patience just about running out, I have Bardslayer float me across. The door leads to a dungeon that looks basically like The Ratway in Bitchen, only worse. And twenty times bigger. There's no one attacking me, but that's the only good thing that can be said about this dismal place.

Eventually I arrive at a portal to Hidden Chambers of Sancre Tor. That's an even more appalling dungeon with passages leading in various directions without any way to tell where I should go. I find the volume 2 of a journal that suggests I'll have to find the other 5 volumes and contains otherwise nothing that would make sense to me. I just walk in random directions. It's hopeless to follow any plan. Everything is so uniform I can barely recognize places where I've already been.

I'm naming this system of dungeons The Ratarseway. Just as The Ratway gets its name from the rat, this place gets its name from the rat's rectum. It's truly the arse-end of the world. I won't even apologize for my vocabulary. I'm not sure I've ever felt so betrayed. The only reason why I even considered giving this pointless quest a try was to see those faboulous palaces and towers from my dream, and what I got instead is this world of filth and bad light where my entire mind is focused on the sole desire to find a way out. (Going back the way I came is impossible.) What kind of a twisted mind designed this crazy maze? Not only is orientation utterly impossible, some of the occasional gratings blocking my way don't even have locks to pick. Undoubtedly there are switches for them in some other passages, but even if I would find one or another switch, I'd have no chance finding my way back to the grating it opened. That's why Bardslayer helps me through them. In fact, I'm very close to begging him to teleport me back to Skyrim. I know he can do it. I'm just going to walk around some more until I've lost those last traces of hope I still have.

I get hurt extremely bad several times by traps that are activated by my walking over something completely invisible. In one of the so-called rooms I see a map on the wall that suggests that Sancre Tor is in Cyrodiil. Apart from an occasional book and such, nothing suggests that there may be a human civilization within a thousand miles.

Eventually I end up on a platform where I'm given a task of finding 4 keys. Don't tell me I'll have to go back into that dungeon.

I step up to one of the doors and find it can be opened without any key. It leads me to a place called Jauffre's Rooms. There's a man, the first living creature I'm seeing in The Ratarseway. He seems hostile, so I kill him without waiting to see if he's going to attack me or not.

I am now in a large room with beds. I realize it's already evening and I could well use some sleep. Who knows when I'll get another chance?



next awakening






return to the table of contents

Always Lost, Always Hopeful (71) Did I Do Something?

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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






4-201-10-27 08:08
Seviana's House, Whiterun, Skyrim


The woman (whose name – surprise – is Seviana) is already up, as are my followers, fresh and ready. The man Luvien is sleeping on a bench. We take our seats and Seviana begins with her tale.

My followers are right there, eager to hear everything. In fact, they are the ones actually conversing with Seviana while I soon find myself struggling to keep my eyes open in spite of just having had a perfectly refreshing sleep. It's just that I'm not the slightest interested in the ancient history of, of all things, the Thieves' Guild. But my followers are so excited that Seviana doesn't even look offended by my yawning. They talk about stuff I have never heard of. About Anvil and Martin Septim and Nocturnal. If I'm not greatly mistaken, Nocturnal should be a daedra, and Anvil may be a city in Cyrodiil, or it may not. I completely lose the thread while the other four women seem to have the time of their lives. I can imagine my followers are rather disappointed when Seviana informs us that the adventure on offer will be available for me alone. No one who is not a Dragonborn can enter the place where I ought to go to take possession of an awesome relic called the Cowl of the Nocturnal  that makes the wearer look exactly like a legendary historical figure called Gray Fox. It's south-southeast of Falkert, in a mountainous area where I've never been.

Well... That was rather heavy. But thanks for the story and for the hospitality. I cast a quick glance at the statuette of a gracious woman wearing a very revealing dress and standing in a soup plate (Nocturnal, I presume),

as well as at the bench where Luvien is still snoring. Me and my followers hug Seviana goodbye and exit the house.

I tell the girls not to worry. I'll find a way to bring them along. That's all right, says Lydia, don't sell your soul or anything for our sake. I promise her I won't.

I'm not even sure I want this adventure anymore. That loony story about some past legendary "thief" (if you ask me, it rather sounded like a fraudster, robber and murderer) wasn't too appealing, and the place I'd need to find is called "initiation hall", which seems to imply I'll have to become a member of something. But even if I won't do the Gray Cowl quest, we're still going to The Rift, bypassing those extremely high mountains on which High Hrothgar lies from the south this time. Meaning, Falkert will be in our path anyway.

Since the direct way to Falkert is blocked by those unascendable mountains east of that big forn camp, we'll have to go to the northeast, cross the river south of Granite Hall and follow the highway to Northkeep. I'll have plenty of time to make up my mind about the Gray Cowl quest.

A view southeast from the northern bank near Granite Hall.
We came from the southwest and crossed the river here (from the opposite bank to this side).

Past Fort Unguard, we get attacked by forns again. This seems to be their regular ambush spot. This time I'm ready, though, and we kill the scumbags with ease. What is weird is that just as we've finished looting the corpses, an imp appears and looks at us in an obviously hostile way. He doesn't attack us, but tells us bluntly to make ourselves scarce. I hastily motion my girls to run on towards the intersection from where the major road leads towards Northkeep and Falkert. (How about I shall refer to it as Big Northkeep Intersection and the one where we are now as Little Northkeep Intersection?)

As it often happens, I run ahead of my followers again on the Northkeep road. I can't help it, I get a kick out of running really fast from time to time. A man who looks like an ordinary citizen rather than a bandit grabs me from behind and tries to wrestle me down. I succeed in pulling my dagger and cutting him, after which he pulls a sword and a moment later we're in fast-paced combat. We exchange blows and I can see him losing health steadily. Then my followers arrive.
"Need a hand, Laura?" I hear Lydia ask.
"No, thanks. I can handle this little piece of dirt."
Using my momentary lapse of attention, my opponent takes a potion and is almost at full health again. Hitting at him furiously, I succeed in injuring him more and more until he starts begging for mercy. Not on your nelly, jerk! You attacked me for no reason whatsoever. Now you'll die like a pig.
(Maybe not without a reason, says Lydia later when I tell the girls how it started. It looked like he was trying to rape me. I don't know what to say. She is probably right.)
Northkeep is full of life. We walk and talk and shop.

In the alchemy shop, I end up telling the shopkeeper Viene all the details about the recent attack. Maybe I'm still in a shock. Viene is a Breton and talking to her makes me feel relaxed and comfortable.

At one moment we hear the guards in a fight, but I can't be bothered to go and check it out. Later I see the dead bodies of two imps.

The other one is nearby, just out of the frame.

This is getting really weird. Now, I can understand that imp we met on the intersection earlier may have been on the edge for any number of reasons. But Imperial soldiers attacking a settlement? What's going on with the world?

Falkreath Hold is actually on the Empire's side, adds Lydia. Right, it is. I remember now. That makes the situation weirder still.

At about 3 in the afternoon, we move on. A hello and a hug with my friend Hert at the nearby watermill (her husband is home, so we won't stay long), and soon we are in Aurora. I sell the last unnecessary items we're carrying, have a little chat with the alchemist Skarla and take a quick peek into the inn, hoping the see my boyfriend Lorm. But he's not there and I'm too shy to ask people about him. We just move on.

Now Jordis has a Glass Helmet too.
In case you're curious, amulets are more powerful when worn on top of armor, slightly uncomfortable as it may be.

I remember at the last moment that I wanted to check out that mysterious structure high on a mountain slope one can see from Falkert. As you may remember, Aurora lies directly to the north from Falkert. Now, there is one of those Nordic ruin type of things just across the road from Aurora. It leads into the mountain. Since it's called North Shriekwind Bastion, I can well imagine it having another exit on the other side of the mountain, and it's quite possible that that other exit is the very structure one can see from Falkert. However, I don't feel like going in there right now. I opt for trying and reaching the other entrance by climbing around the mountain counterclockwise.

It's a tough climb which would surely be deadly to the overwhelming majority of human beings. Even I with my unusual climbing skill end up falling and hurting myself a couple of times, but finally I'm on the southern side. I can indeed see what appears to be the southern entrance to that very cave I was talking about. I can also see the houses of Falkert far below me (on the right side of the picture below, behind those high spruces):

Those birdhead sculptures mark the entrance to the South Shriekwind Bastion.

Sneaking closer, I can sense someone undead in a small stone hut at a slightly lower height than my position.

I mean that yellow silhouette you can faintly see. It's a woken-up undead (because its glow is yellow)
and it's on the other side of the wall, that is inside the hut.

I feel playful, so I take my Aetherial Staff and conjure a Dwarven Sphere near that undead. I'm not sure if it'll work from such a distance, but it does. I manage to place the automaton exactly where I wanted to – just inside the entrance of the hut. The two start fighting and my automaton kills the thing which turns out to be a skeleton.

I go into that stone hut and out the other side and am noticed by a draugr who attacks me and is promptly killed. I go closer to the gate of that Shriekwind thing and see another creature that looks like a draugr. It's not seeing me. It is quite far, but I have a perfect shooting position, and I kill it. Going closer, I see it was a draugr all right.

Now I summon magically my followers from the other side of the mountain.

I'm standing approximately where he was standing before I killed him.

The mystery of the structure up the mountain has been solved. But Jenassa and Lydia feel bad from the teleportation. So we sit on the edge you can see in the picture above, admiring the view and trying to guess who are the tiny people walking on the streets far below us.

Maybe this is a suitable moment to ask Jordis how she ended up in Solitud?
She says she left home with her boyfriend Jurger when she was 19. She had never been good at farm work, but in the city she went through a soldier's training and did remarkably well. However, on Jurger's insistence she studied at the Bards' College for a while, just to get some scholarly education. At one time, Jurger had to go to war. Before leaving, he made Jordis swear she would never join an army. Maybe he had some kind of a premonition. At any rate, he was promptly killed, possibly in his very first battle.
Jordis felt awfully lost alone. She worked in the prison for some time, but she says it was too horrible. Then she got a job as a palace guard, about a year before she met me, and she really liked it. Still, she volunteered to become a housecarl to the new thane (me) and didn't have to regret it.
Jordis had a number of short-lived affairs after Jurger's death, once in a couple of moths or so, but she never wanted to establish a steady relationship. Mostly she went with seamen whom she never saw again.
After some coaxing, we learn that Jurger had been Jordis's first. They never dared to have sex in the village, but as soon as they were on their way to Solitud, they did it in the bushes on the roadside, too impatient to even wait until they'd reach the city.

That was one amazing story. Now we need to somehow get to Falkert from here. The direct path is a vertical drop, certain death even for me.

Well, it's not too difficult. Near us is a creek flowing down the mountain in the westerly direction. Here the descent is more or less manageable.

I feel it would be a pity to waste an entire evening in Falkert. It's not even dark yet. It is, however, by the time we've finally climbed down the mountain. We look into the nearest house which belongs to Thaik the alcohol vendor. His wife Miniel is home alone. I get to cast a glance into their bedroom which is very neat and beautiful.

Thaik himself is at the inn, though. On our way there we say hello to the priest Runil. He asks us to retrieve his journal he lost in a cave northwest of Northkeep. Sure, we'll be glad to do that. We also drop by the jarlery and exchange a few words with the jarl and the steward. By the time we reach the inn, it's almost bedtime. We have a light snack and discuss our impressions of today's adventures, and then we call it an evening.

Lying in my bed, I ruminate on Jordis and Rayya. They both fancied seamen, but for entirely different reasons. Rayya was excited by adventures, big distances, cosmopolitism. Jordis, however, didn't want a steady relationship on account of her "real" boyfriend having lost his life. A big city like Solitud with new people arriving and leaving all the time is the perfect place for acting frivolously and pretending it's not serious.

I hope our company will be good influence on her and help her lead a normal woman's life and establish another happy relationship someday. (Possibly with Hreinn of Morpork.) Or, on second thought, I hope my company will not be a bad influence on her. Well, whatever. Good night.



next awakening






return to the table of contents

Always Lost, Always Hopeful (70) Fighting and Non-Fighting

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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






4-201-10-26 08:50
Uthgerd's House, Hviterun, Whiterun, Skyrim


Having listened to everything Lucia wants to tell me and made sure she has enough money, I walk with her to the marketplace where her best friend Mila is already waiting. But Lucia wants to come shopping with me. Sure, come along! I chat a little with Ysolda and Carlotta and then walk from trader to trader, occasionally explaining Lucia what one or another thing is for. This includes a visit to the palace where Farengar is exceedingly friendly. I'm unsure what to make of it. It's fortunate that Lucia is with me, so Farengar is a little shy to outright chat me up.

The good news is that Jon seems to have put up with the fact that I'm not going to be his.

A little before 11 o'clock, I hug Lucia goodbye at the eastern city gate and promise to return soon.

I visit one more shop in the eastern suburb with my followers. The weather is beautiful. Where should we go next? To the southeastern Skyrim where we have several bigger and smaller things to do, or back to the west to check out that mysterious "Gray Cowl" quest? As we discuss it, I eventually realize I am just too curious about the latter. So we head west. Along the way, we shall also drop by the castle of Pelin Varlais just in case he has any work for us.

Glad I could make myself useful. And maybe someday we can get together
and discuss this (or something else) more thoroughly?

As we run west, I suddenly realize I haven't seen Irileth in the palace the last few times I've been there. I wonder where she is. Let's hope nothing's happened to her. We've had our differences, but she's not all bad.

Well, never mind. It's not like it's important. Proceeding along the highway, we're soon past the Western Watchtower. We then run across low grassy hills and pass by a couple of mudcrabs who are (of course) much too slow to pursue us. Somewhere near the beginning of the mountain pass that leads to Varlais Mountain Glen, we can hear wolves howling, but they don't bother us and we won't bother them.

We take a quick look in and around Varlais's castle. The man himself is visibly glad to see us, but he tells us nothing of interest. I observe him much more thoroughly than I did the last time. I notice that his voice sounds like of a 20-year-old bard and somehow it doesn't make him come across as youthful in a good way. Rather it sounds weird, once you start paying close attention. Another thing I can't fail to notice is that with me, Jenassa, Lydia and Jordis standing in front of him, he is having great difficulties taking it all in with mere two eyes. Generally, we're used to men admiring our looks, but Mr. Varlais makes me uneasy. I can't explain it. He is perfectly civil and friendly, but still I'd rather not be alone in a secluded place with him. (When we discuss it later, Jordis says the very men who are pointedly civil can be really dangerous, because they hide their true nature behind good manners.)

Anyway, we move on westwards. The wolves howling at some distance don't attack us this time either. On the highway, we witness a most unusual spectacle – a giant fighting a dragon. Of course we begin shooting at the dragon and hope the giant will realize we're not his enemies. He does. After the dragon has left him alone and attacked us instead, the giant leaves the scene hurriedly.

I didn't have enough presence of mind to take a picture of the fight between the dragon and the giant,
but a little later I did get my best close-up of a hare yet.

Further west, there are great many soldiers on and near the road looking for enemies. We run past the Northkeep intersection and approach the place where Rayya was killed. Nearby is that castle up on a hill I've mentioned in the past I've been curious about.

This time, I feel like going and checking it out.

Up a steep slope, we sneak closer and manage to reach a smaller sidegate without meeting anyone. The fortress is called Fort Sungard.

Up those stairs is a small unguarded gate through which we can enter the fortress courtyard to our left.
Hence this castle's new nickname Fort Unguard.

Between the walls, we don't see anyone either, so we just enter one of the towers. Not a living soul inside. This is getting weird. We ascend the stairs to the top floor of the tower and then climb up the ladder to the roof. Now I can see a lone bandit standing in the corner of the rampart with his back turned to us, carefully scanning the wide open area in front of him.

Too bad you didn't have anyone as diligent watching the road.

I have a perfect shooting position and kill the poor man with one arrow.

We sneak about and kill half a dozen more bandits. They are incredibly unperceptive (either that or we succeed superbly in sneaking). I'm not sure even one of them manages to hit any of us. At a closer distance, we notice they're actually forns.

I mean, I'm not suggesting we can recognize forns by their behinds.
We recognize them by their armor and painted faces.
This corpse just happened to fall into such position.

We search all the building interiors carefully, but there is really no one there. I suppose the forns love fresh air.

After Fort Sungard, the overall number of forns we've killed is 56. We are quickly approaching our goal of 100.

It's already dark by the time we're done searching the place. There is in fact a large dormitory in the fortress, but I'm not tired. So we return to the highway under a cloudy sky with some stars here and there.

Our destination is Seviana's House, the green dot on the map below. Now, that time when we discovered it, we were traveling from Arkngthamz to Granite Hall and we had to descend mountains, which, as I've told you, is relatively easy to do. This time, we'll be going in the opposite direction. The direct route would require climbing up high mountains which is impossible from this direction. We'll need to find a way past them. So we take some time to carefully study my less-than-perfect map:

There is, of course, the road from the highway to Dushnikh Yal and Arkngthamz which eventually leads to Seviana's House, approaching it from the southwest. Unfortunately, it's a very long detour when you're coming from the east.

Now, as I said, the mountains directly to the east of Seviana's House can't be climbed up, but the map suggests there are lower hills farther in the east-southeast. We might be able to ascend those coming from northeast. I would much prefer if it were the case. We would need to swim across the river near Granite Hall (the small orange dot marks the most convenient place), follow the road (of sorts) to the west and find a way uphill to reach the small blue dot on the map. From there, a path would lead us comfortably to the northwest, straight to Seviana's House.

As we arrive on the outskirts of Granite Hall, I'm still not tired, so we shall move on rather than spend the night at the inn. First we need to swim across the river. Although it's not very wide, it turns out really difficult, but finally we're on the southwestern bank. Finding our way uphill is surprisingly easy, even though there is no path as such through the mountains. There's just about enough light to see where you're going.

After we've reached the plateau southeast of Seviana's House and are approaching our destination, I realize I'm feeling really tired now.

The house is not locked and abandoned this time. When we knock and the door is opened, we find the interior brightly lit. There's a man sitting at the table and eating. A woman asks rather impatiently who we are. I tell her about the vision I had that led me here. She exclaims that her family has waited for generations for a Dragonborn to appear. She says to make ourselves comfortable, after which she would tell me the whole story.

Indeed I make myself comfortable. On that large bed they have there and don't seem to need at the moment. I'm going to leave lengthy discussions (as well as picture-taking) for the morning. I figure if they have waited for generations, they can wait one more night. Good night! Exchanging quick glances with the girls, I see I don't need to remind them that even though the hosts seem friendly, they'll still have to take turns standing watch.



next awakening