Trouble never comes alone Options

[jack cloudy]

Yes, so I just couldn't resist and had to get this off my chest. We'll see how long it lasts. Same deal as with redemption, I'll be using this post as a character list and the first part will be in the next one. For now the list is simple.

A question. Should I add a separate entry for Spar at the very bottom that is basically the extra-spoilers edition?

Spar: A female Imperial and the main character of this story. Is guided by 'Them'.
(Portrait)

Silent Fist: A Companion Spar hires to escort her into Bleak Falls Barrow. He doesn't speak, wear shirts or use weapons. Click here for portrait

Faendal: A wood elf who lives in a small village known as Riverwood. He works as a hunter and lumberjack.

Lucan Valerius: The shopkeeper of Riverwood.

Jarl Balgruuf: The Jarl of Whiterun, a city located in the center of Skyrim between the fronts of the Imperial and Stormcloak factions.

Hrongar: Jarl Balgruuf's brother. Looks like he walked off the set of a Conan-film.

Irileth: A Dunmer who serves as Jarl Balgruuf's bodyguard.

Proventus Avenicci: Jarl Balgruuf's steward.


Vilkas: One of the Companions, a mercenary group in Whiterun
Vignar Grey-Mane: Formerly of the Companions, now retired.

Ulfric Stormcloak: The rebel leader in Skyrim, once on of the Emperor's generals.

Arkarik: Someone Spar was supposed to meet in Cyrodiil.

This post has been edited by jack cloudy: Aug 1 2013, 06:34 PM

[jack cloudy]

A short one because I found a good spot to cut it off and I'm still keeping the advice of the handsome boozeloving Nordmer with a temper in mind.

And I should update the character list. Farengar, vilkas, Vignar. Anyone else I missed?


Chapter 1.8


Getting Vilkas on my team had cost me about a quarter of the budget, counting both payments. Before doing anything else, I returned to the castle and arranged to have a seemingly innocent letter sent. I then took a tour of Whiterun to scope out all the stores, their inventory and their prices. Being a trade city, Whiterun had plenty of small shops selling anything from clothing to sewing needles. But for my purposes I stuck with the big boys that catered to the adventuring business. That meant a general store, an alchemist and a smithy. They were the ones most likely to have what I needed, and most likely to accept a letter of credit. Proventius had provided me with a clinking bag of coin for the sake of the Companions, but we'd both agreed that carrying enough money for everything would be too heavy and just turn me into a magnet for muggers.


An almost complete list of things to buy rose up in my mind just through thinking the word 'adventure'. Getting the definite one was simply a matter of adjusting for the mission, the shop's actual inventory and the means at my disposal for obtaining said inventory. I purchased a length of rope, strong enough to carry two men, a pair of climber's anchors, a sealed lantern and half a gallon of oil to fuel it. I bought three vials of restoratives, freshly made and good for at least a month if unopened. I also got one tiny vial containing a muscle-killer, just in case.


The smith fitted me for a set of warm furs and thick leathers. She had me pay extra to get it done by morning, but then waived the fee when I mentioned I would pay through credit given by the steward. My list also pushed me towards buying a bow and a handful of arrows. I couldn't count the number of times I'd stopped a fight prematurely by piercing the enemy before they got in range. One look at the cost and the expected nature of my future enemies however, made me reconsider. Right now I didn't possess the drawstrength to work a warbow and undead generally didn't respond well to precision damage anyway. Besides, if all went well I could let Vilkas do the fighting for me.


With the money I had left over at the end I returned to the general store. I'd spotted a series of spellscrolls behind the counter the first time I'd entered. While they were expensive and could be used only once, scrolls were the sole means by which even a knownothing like me could use complicated magic. How he'd obtained them was a mystery, but in his own words, 'everything was for sale, even the clothes on his back'. I unrolled them all and gave them a detailed lookover. If the scroll was in any way damaged or showed signs of forgery, I placed it back on the shelf without explaining why. It wasn't worth giving this Belethor fellow pointers on how to improve his craft. I might want to buy more scrolls later. I also returned the scroll if the described effect wasn't to my liking, or if its method of invocation was either too elaborate or too simple. In the end I stuck with two scrolls, that left me with only a handful of imaginary coin. That handful I exchanged into real coin, for any future purchases I might make someday in other places.



After all that, there wasn't much for me to do but go over the information the court wizard had dug up. I did so nestled away behind one of the many stairs of the castle. Farengar had come through for me. He'd done well, too well. There was of course a small stack of folktale lore, the half-truths and blatant lies that were found in every region of the world. Then there was the more concrete information from research, geographical in nature and mostly extrapolations based on the outside and comparison with other tombs. But that wasn't what had roused my suspicions.


It was a map of the inside. A room by room listing of traps, coffins, number of draugr. Vilkas had mentioned the word in his mad tirade. Nordic undead then. It was too complete and detailed compared to the rest of the info. If it was made-up it was extremely thorough. If it was the real deal, then I was obviously not the first woman Balgruuf or one of his forebears had sent into the Barrow. I couldn't ask about it anyhow. Not with the Thalmor sniffing around. But for my own sake I should assume it was both real and incomplete. Nothing was as bad as becoming careless because one assumed a map marked all threats.
"There's no mention of cubic stones. Because it wasn't found, or because it wasn't sought then? And what is with this room of 'unique descriptions' right at the end?"



I would see in two days.

This post has been edited by jack cloudy: Jul 16 2013, 03:26 PM