Always Lost, Always Hopeful (272) How Low Can You Fall?

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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 inevitably reveals a lot about the game.
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previous day 






4-202-05-18 06:49
Nimalten Barracks, Nimalten, The Rift, Skyrim

It's cloudy and a little foggy, but there's no wind or rain, so it's quite pleasant to be outside, and the forest looks just excitingly sinister.

Vaalmungar is right here, over the nearest hill. We have to jump down from a scary height (because I can't be bothered with locating a road), which of course is completely undangerous with our enchanted armors, but Ghorbash isn't really used to it yet and is seriously struggling with not looking frightened.

The front door of Vaalmungar opens into a foyer of sorts which has pretty decent light.

On the floor lie three dead bodies. One is a common draugr. Another one is a very old skeleton. Could be one of those who came here in the distant past with that cursed or accursed ancient treasure. Or not. The third is a quite recent corpse of a Nimalten guard.

We proceed cautiously. There's a place where I probably step onto something, because a couple of seconds later a device releases a huge beam of fire which looks properly awesome, as well as very painful. By a mere chance, I stopped to think just one step before it.

In the next halls and passages, light gets really crappy. Of course, I still have the Sense of Smell  power. I'm wearing less Resist Shock  gear this time, and indeed when a draugr hits me with a shock shout, it only makes me stumble for half a second. Weird.

You'll be glad to hear that Ghorbash is really efficient when equipped with a sword. And he seems eager to make good his past shortcomings. He doesn't even get in our way.

Lydia is impressed too. Later when we get a chance to talk in private, she asks me to ask Ghorbash if he would like to have sex with her. But that's later.

Among the ghosts we kill is Vulkar, a past thane of Nimalten. And we do find a heap of gold bars maybe half a meter high. We can't recognize any curse or evil magic. Of course we're rather ignorant about curses, but Ghorbash has very sharp instincts in that respect.

There's a nice view from outside Vaalmungar, even though the sky is still full or gray clouds.

We return to Nimalten to bring the treasure to the thane. Having given us a generous reward, she seems to prefer we wouldn't hang about, what with us knowing her embarrassing secret.

Well, guess we'll head north now.

No, let's at least find out if one really can't get to Riverwood across the mountains. This means west.

We run a little way along a northwestward country road that would eventually end up on the Hviterun–Darkwater–Riften highway. Soon the road turns northeast (right of the pink marker on the map below), but we can indeed see a path that goes further northwest, into the mountains.

In a few minutes, we reach an impressive tower up a steep rocky slope.

Bypassing the hill, we soon find a stone staircase that leads to the very structure I saw in my dream in Dunparwall. It's called Candle Makers Hall. Ready for the battle of our lives, we go in.

Well, this is one of the most incomprehensible places ever. Very badly lighted rooms (couldn't they really get at least some more candles?), the motliest variety of people (from a hunter to an Imperial soldier; the only kind that seems to me missing is a vampire necromancer) who would neither attack nor talk nor are engaged in any evident activity, dorms with several times as many beds as there are people present... I can't make heads or tales of this place.

Anyone happen to know what that symbol means?

There's another exit on the other side that opens to a long bridge which in turn leads to a citadel completely empty. The exterior of this fortress is exactly like I remember from my dream.

We head southwest now. It seems highly likely that we can take a shortcut across the mountains and descend all the way to the vicinity of Riverwood, bypassing the road that goes past Valtheim and Hviterun.

We can't see High Hrothgar, but we do catch a glimpse of that weird dragon fortress that hangs partially in the air. So that one exists for real as well.

The girls remind me that we have already seen it from the ground near Hviterun. Right, we have.

And that should be Bleak Falls Barrow over there:

Hviterun is just beyond the right edge of the picture, and Riverwood is somewhere on the nearer bank of the river to our left.

After a number of normally-deadly jumps, we can see the eastern defense wall of Riverwood behind some trees a hundred meters ahead. Ghorbash can't even hide his shaking and we do our best to not look in his direction and to act like everything is normal. We should be in Hviterun soon and then I'll take Jenassa back and Ghorbash won't ever have to go through such horrifying fallings.

In Riverwood, we do a little shopping and socializing first, simply because the shops close in the evening whereas a brothel, I presume, won't. At half past six, caressed by the golden rays of the setting sun, we enter the Fox Club under the pretext of making sure there is no skooma there.

Now, this place has a quite pleasant feel to it.

For some reason, all the prostitutes and waitresses (which in fact seems to be the same thing here) wear collars not unlike a dog's.

Even a sleeping girl who is otherwise naked hasn't taken off her collar. Maybe this is some kind of an SM joint. Who knows? The only thing I'm certain of is that the personnel as well as the guests dislike our presence.

We walk in on a couple in bed (sorry!) and then find a truly incredible room with torture devices and two tied-up girls.

I can see Lydia preparing to say something to Jordis and shake my head. That would not be funny.

Well, I can understand the girls are most embarrassed to be seen by women from outside in this kind of a setting.

I wonder if Ghorbash would like to spend some time here, but he doesn't seem to, or is too shy to let us know he would, or hasn't quite recovered from the scare of our jumping down mountains a couple of hours earlier. Jokes aside, he is most likely disgusted by the very concept of women offering themselves for money. He's probably wondering who would ever marry such women.

What I find incredible is how an establishment like this can operate in, of all places, the rustic traditional village of Riverwood. I ask Hadvar that question a little later. He says they pay very good money in taxes, thanks to which Riverwood can afford its modest defense wall and all those guards. But generally the villagers act like the brothel isn't there and there's the strictest agreement that the Fox Club personnel keep to themselves. Their clientele doesn't even visit the local inn, because they (understandably) prefer the bar in the Fox Club, and there's plenty of room for sleeping too. And since they seem to cater for rich people with, um, refined tastes, there are no worries about any of the Fox Club customers stealing a horse or groping a village girl.

We would have enough time to go to Hviterun for the night, but I happen to ask Hadvar if he knows where North Skybound Watch is. He says it's somewhere east of here, but he doesn't know where exactly.

In that case we'll sleep here and explore the wilderness up the hills tomorrow. I apologize to Hadvar for not being able to do anything for him tonight (in fact, I mention I can still suck, but he says not to worry) and go to the inn to have a good night's rest.

I take Ghorbash aside and ask him if he would like to spend the night with Lydia. He replies he'd be delighted. So they'll be sharing a room, and Jordis and I get another one.

next awakening






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Always Lost, Always Hopeful (43) Going Down... up to a Point

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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






4-201-09-28 05:32
Vilemyr Inn, Ivarsted, The Rift, Skyrim


We have so little loot that I see no point in waiting for the shops to open. While the sun is rising, we are already running downhill to the north, towards Lost Knife Hideout where we might find something interesting.

After crossing the river south of Nimalten, we ascend the hills and pass by Vaalmungar, apparently an ancient Nordic ruin which I won't bother to take a closer look at at this moment. We come to a very high slope with a magnificent view of a valley and roads and a fortress down below. Further to the east is that hot spring region, on the southwestern edge of which is Darkwater.

It's scary to descend, as well as thrilling to the extreme.

Nearly there.

I make it down almost uninjured and then magically summon the girls. It's not very successful this time. Lydia and Jenassa feel very bad and we need to give them some rest.

There's a fortress in a couple of hundred meters' distance. But it's not Lost Knife Hideout. That's a cave next to a little pond. There's no one outside nor anywhere else in sight. We go in.

Inside, there are caves and caverns. With some woodwork, they have been turned into impressive fortifications.

Fortunately for us, they're inadequately manned. The bandits have many good shooting positions on well-placed wooden platforms, but there are too few of the ones to do the shooting. The battles are a bit messy, but we're never really in danger, except in the very last cave where there are metal cages obstructing the view and very little room to maneuver. But even there my worry is largely unfounded, because the numbers are in our favor. I have the honor of taking down the bandit chief myself.

Loaded almost to capacity, we spend some time looking for the exit. Once when taking a wrong turn, I end up in a small cave with a live bandit inside. I use Paralyze  poison, just to be on the safe side. After the first hit, the bandit can no longer move, so I go on hitting him until he's dead. You could say that I chickened out and wasted a valuable poison unnecessarily, and you're probably right. I just don't feel confident in melee combat. In spite of my very powerful enchanted dagger, those brutal and fierce men come across as frighteningly strong compared to the fragile and vulnerable me.

Sorry about the chatter. We finally find our way out. I'm curious about that fortress, but considering the load we're carrying, this is not the time to take on another (presumably) bandit gang. So we head for nearby Darkwater. (Is that fortress Fort Amol, I ask myself later. It's well possible that I simply failed to recognize it, approaching from this unusual angle.)

I'm not awfully fond of dogs, but I love foxes. They're adorable.

In Darkwater we are greeted by a dragon. He flies around, like, endlessly, while we shoot arrows in his direction, but finally he sits down and I succeed in extinguishing his flickering life. The civilians in the village had hidden in houses and in the mine, but unfortunately a little boy Torfi is lying dead on the street. He was the son of the shopkeeper Ulfvidr and his wife Gilsa. I feel so sad for them. No matter how much you warn boys, they still have the tendency to get themselves in danger and fail to get back to safety in time.

I do a lot of smithing, but by the time I'm finished, Ulfvidr has already decided to close shop and go to enjoy the warm-water outdoors pool. So my girls and I do the same. Everyone's naked there, men and women, they are very relaxed about nudity here.

In less than an hour, though, I disappoint my followers by ordering them to climb out of the water and get dressed. It's too early to call it a day. We'll travel to Vernim Wood and spend the night there. Maybe I'm being too heartless to my girls, but there are shops in Vernim Wood. Of course, they will have already closed for tonight, but we'll be able to sell most or all of our loot tomorrow morning and reach Windhelm early enough to actually do something meaningful during the day. For that matter, I've been thinking that we should go to Solstheim. I'm sure the Pigmasks won't leave us alone.

I'm not at all certain we're strong enough to take on that "Lord Miraak". I've had terrible nightmares of Solstheim in the past. However, it's something I have to take care of eventually. At least we can sail over and have a look, and return to Skyrim if things turn out overwhelming.

The sun has already gone down as we run east on the edge of the warm water ponds area. Suddenly, I stop dead in my tracks because I notice a fortress ahead of us. It must be the same one we saw a few days ago from the distance. I can sense a bandit next to the small gate, but I can't tell if he's inside or outside, and it's too far to see him with physical eyes in this darkness. I take a shot just in case. He falls down. So he was on the outside. Now two more bandits in the courtyard have become restless. To cut the long story short, we sneak in and kill half a dozen bandits outdoors. It feels like a good battle, except that when it's all over, I notice I've been hit real bad. It's not yet life-threatening, but I can't believe I got so carried away by heat of the combat (or call it bloodthirst if it pleases you) that I wasn't paying attention to my defenses. I could have gotten killed here.

Without bothering to go into the fortress interior, we proceed to the east, past that Dwemer ruin-of-a-ruin and the peaceful giant (I'm beginning to wonder if we could get friends with him), and soon we're on that road that goes from Vernim Wood northwards to Windhelm. We're turning right, to the south.

After a short leisurely trot, we arrive in Vernim Wood where we spend the night in the friendly and comfortable inn.



next awakening