Today in Skyrim..., Epic battles, mudcrab sightings, anything but spoilers. What did your Options

[PhonAntiPhon]

TIRDAS - 12th SUN'S DAWN:

Kaia loves her new dress and boots, which kind of surprises her and is not something she would explicitly admit to anyone except Ysolda and the girls, for whom she has also bought new clothes.

She wears it to see Viarmo at the Bards' College upon her return to Solitude with the verses that he required - (having stopped first to give Noster his helmet back and throw him a few coins) - Viarmo frets that the Burning of King Olaf festival will not be reinstated, but his confidence is bolstered by Kaia's timely and inventive intervention with the unhelpfully faded verses.
The festival goes ahead and the Kaia is made a member of the College by a very satisfied Viarmo, who hints that there's further work available should she want it - ("being the adventurous type"). She does, but not yet; she has errands to run and Whiterun beckons to the south.

The next morning she awakes and heads out of the city. Saddling Embla at the stables she sets off in the early morning sunshine, plotting a course to the south, home for a few days. After that she'll head to Windhelm and report to Endario, then maybe head south to Riften, and after that...
She smiles to herself; one step at a time, Kaia.

For the moment, she's enjoying the crisp, cool air of the peaks, the sun warming her scarred face. It won't be long till she sees her family - (her new family). Reaching behind her she pats the saddle-roll, feeling within the oiled leather the reassuring outline of the dresses she's purchased.

This post has been edited by PhonAntiPhon: Sep 14 2021, 01:11 PM

[Renee]

That would be fun to attend the Burning of King Olaf festival. In real-life here in Maryland our Renaissance Festival is going on. Pretty sure they had fake burnings back in the day.

Do you have any mods installed for the Bard's College? I think by default there are only like two actual quests for that faction.

[PhonAntiPhon]

It was actually done a really good way I thought, there was food and drink as well, and Kaia got 2 bottles of free spiced wine and a pastry!

There was a fire pit, it was a cool celebration.

[Acadian]

Shopping in Solitude! I thought the Bard's College was neat and was happy to see it also well done in ESO.

[PhonAntiPhon]

THE NEXT MORNING

Kaia rises early, but reluctantly, and leaving Ysolda asleep she pieces on her armor and makes her way, via the pitcher of washing-water in the corner of the bedchamber, out of Breezehome and up to Jorrvaskr. Around her are the sounds of Whiterun coming to life and she gains a thankful satisfaction from the commonplace awakening of the city, the banal conversations, the sleepy-eyed traders unpacking their stalls in the market.

At the Companions' stronghold all is as usual though, ordered and dark and grim. Kaia had decided the night before to visit with them, reasoning they may have tasks for her that would keep her closer to home for awhile.
Ysolda pointed out that even she could see many flaws in this thinking, and so could Kaia if she were honest, but it wouldn't hurt to try though, would it?

Aela, as usual, is up and active in the hall. Hailing her, she replies with her usual humorless smile and directs Kaia to Kodlak.
"The old man is asking for you. No I don't why..."
Intrigued, Kaia makes her way down to his quarters.

10 minutes later she leaves and stands for a moment staring at the wall.
Kodlak was his usual dour self and after giving Kaia a dressing-down over her and Aela's recent misadventures, he proceeded to essentially tell her how she can lift the (what he sees as a) werewolf curse.
Kaia took the blood in the Companions ceremony, after a lot of thought, but since then has used The Power only once, and was quick to push the Djinn back in the jar, not liking how she felt.
A lack of control does not sit well with the Dunmer.

Since then, with kids and a wife, she's all the more aware of the chaotically destructive potential of The Beast.
And so she found herself on a path to Glenmoril Cavern, to retrieve the head of one of the witches who live there, and do what she will with the rest.
What she found in the Cavern she would never tell, but the witches were doomed from the moment saw what lay discarded in a rotting and fly-blown pile just inside the entrance to their lair. Kaia is not a woman who is unsettled easily, but she was trembling and struggling to keep the contents of her stomach from spattering on the ground as, with an expression as stony as the granite that surrounded her, she put paid to the inhabitants of that foul den.

Standing outside afterwards, gulping in fresh, cold air and with a cooling rain pattering onto her, she resolved to push the memory of what lay in the Cavern deep inside, to join with her darker history down in a place where even Ysolda's love could not reach it and pull it into the light.

Then, without glancing back, she found Embla and set off back to Whiterun.

[PhonAntiPhon]

It was somewhere past the 2nd hour of the morning when Kaia arrived back at Breezehome.

She determined to attend Kodlin at around the 8th hour, which would give her some time to rest. Additionally, following the unsettling experience she had had in the Cavern, she felt she needed Ysolda and the girls close for a little before ploughing on with The Companions' requirements.

The girls were still up when Kaia arrived, though they were in bed. Ysolda, seated on a cushion on the floor between their beds was in the process of telling them a story, to which both girls were listening, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.

"And it was said that out in the wilds, and amongst the trees, there was a wild elf, a Bosmer; naked as a babe and tattooed like a book from head-to-toe. She was feral and filthy, with dark pools for eyes..."

Ysolda looked round as Kaia came into the girls' bedroom, she winked at her and Kaia grinned; practically everyone who'd been in Skyrim for longer than a season had heard of the "Legend of Niamh": the Wild Bosmer, who killed for sport and flesh. She lived, armed only with a bow and arrows, amongst the trees and tombs and broke into isolated homesteads at midnight to steal away naughty children.

Kaia pointed upstairs to their bedchamber, and made a surreptitious movement with her fingers. Ysolda nodded and went smoothly back to her story, picking up from where she had left off, her audience still rapt; deaf and blind to anything else that had passed.

Above their heads came the tramping of Kaia's tired feet on the stairs and landing as she made her way to bed.

[Acadian]

And Niamh gets a cameo mention!

[PhonAntiPhon]

And Niamh gets a cameo mention!

I just really felt like she had to make an appearance somewhere!!

[PhonAntiPhon]

So as it turns out the Silverhands managed to suck it up and hit Jorrvaskr.
Kaia is a might surprised given exactly where Jorrvaskr is located but supposes that given the Jarl's outwardly neutral stance and the prevailing attitude to keeping internecine issues at arms length, that maybe it's not that surprising after all.

There is disarray in the hall, Kodlak is dead, murdered by the Silverhands and the scent of revenge is in the air as well as a will to carry out Kodlak's last wishes; to enter Sovngarde as a whole man and not a beast.

[macole]

And Niamh gets a cameo mention!

I just really felt like she had to make an appearance somewhere!!

Niamh, is she your character with the fluorescent trimmed, how do describe it, armor?

[PhonAntiPhon]

And Niamh gets a cameo mention!

I just really felt like she had to make an appearance somewhere!!

Niamh, is she your character with the fluorescent trimmed, how do describe it, armor?

That was Oblivion Niamh, who had a suit of unique Dwemer powered armor of discreet and rare design.
Skyrim Niamh was the stuff of nightmares - she wore nothing at all except tattoos, carried only a bow and arrows, and lived in the woods and caves - she ate nothing but human flesh and was utterly batshit.
Both of them were Bosmers, and both of them were aspects of a single Niamh, and neither was the stable part.

[Renee]

Yes, that is always nice, when different characters get blended into the same world. I imagine Kaia is teaching her kids all about the legend that is Feral Niamh.

[PhonAntiPhon]

Yes, that is always nice, when different characters get blended into the same world. I imagine Kaia is teaching her kids all about the legend that is Feral Niamh.

Yeah both her and Ysolda make very sure their daughters are aware of THAT particular legend, if only as it ensures the girls get to bed on time and do their chores.
I doubt they are the only parents in Skyrim to be doing that either...

[PhonAntiPhon]

It has been a busy couple of days for Kaia.

Having spent a week or so carrying out quests for The Companions, and collecting bounty for the Jarl, primarily because these jobs kept her around Whiterun and her family, she reluctantly headed out of the city.

Windhelm to the north to report back on the East India situation. This played itself out with her being temporarily conscripted by Adelaisa Vendicci - a particularly hard-nosed commander - to assist in the termination of a mage; Haldyn, in his stronghold at Japhet's Folly, guarded by the Blood Horkers.
It didn't matter though in the end, Kaia went through them and him like a knife through butter and was back in Windhelm accepting payment in pretty short order.

She stayed that night in the Hall, having first bought all of the flower girl's produce and made sure she had a bed for the night.
In the morning she set out for Riften, with deliveries of Nirnroot for Ingun and Fire Salts for the smith. She'll spend a day or so in Riften as Ysolda has asked her to pray at the Temple. Ysolda's parents are old, and her mother is sick with the Rattles, as often happens this time of year.

-+-

Events with the Companions and Kodlak's demise played themselves out with Kaia now The Harbinger, much to her surprise and everyone else's, particularly Aela - (That's Yay-lah to you, friend) - and Vilkas whom she had to escort to Driftshade Refuge as part of events, and who tried her patience by constantly asking her questions about her relationship with Ysolda.
Kaia kind of likes Vilkas. He's enthusiastic and loyal, and brave, but not terribly bright and still cannot grasp even after Kaia all but spelled it out for him, exactly what she and Ysolda "do". His questioning largely centers on a touchingly naïve confusion regarding "How they make babies", at which point, and after the third round of puzzled questioning, Kaia gratefully nocked an arrow and put it clean through the forehead of an unlucky denizen of the Refuge that they had now arrived at...

[Acadian]

Busy Kaia!

I regretted in Skyrim that culmination of the vanilla Companions questline, without healthy doses of creative imagination, resulted in you being the 'guildmaster'. Again.

[PhonAntiPhon]

Busy Kaia!

I regretted in Skyrim that culmination of the vanilla Companions questline, without healthy doses of creative imagination, resulted in you being the 'guildmaster'. Again.

She is indeed!

Yeah I do get what you mean - but I guess it's kinda the same as ending up in charge of the Mage's Guild, and so on. I normally rationalise it into the narrative by her putting trusted individuals in place in her stead, and work round it from there.
Seems to work out ok!

[PhonAntiPhon]

Kaia has spent quite some time over the last few days in Altand and Blackreach.
She's currently still in Blackreach - searching for Crimson Nirnroots...

...Occasionally she stops to ask herself why.

[Lena Wolf]

Because she enjoys wandering around Blackreach and those crimson nirnroots give her a sense of purpose.

[PhonAntiPhon]

Because she enjoys wandering around Blackreach and those crimson nirnroots give her a sense of purpose.

Not in this context, no - it's just her own curiosity to see what the deal is with them, but at the same time she can think of any number of things that she would rather be doing besides that.
Gaining a sense of purpose is not, anymore, of those things.

-+-

Morndas, 9th of 1st Seed...
It's been a long week, to say the least...

First there was the whole thing with the Thalmor Embassy; Delphine was plotting and scheming at Riverwood - which was no great issue in itself if Kaia was honest. Delphine is, even at 50 summers, a very handy and good-looking woman and if Kaia were not herself already happily married then who knows...?
That being said, the thickening of the plot around the dragons and the Thalmor is providing more than enough distraction for anyone; throw into the mix a party at the Embassy at the far north of Skyrim's northernmost hold - (a party that Kaia would just as soon as not cut off one of her ears to avoid attending) - and in "party clothes" that do nothing for her appearance to boot. Kaia is well aware that she's not the most feminine of women, but she at least tries to make an effort. The Thalmor disguise that Malbor and Delphine have come up with for her is unflattering at best, emphasising all of the straight and flat bits of her physique and hiding what little curves she possesses.

Still and all, it was sort-of-successful, although the Thalmor as it turned out were as much in the dark as anyone else, a lead was provided to a contact in Riften however, and Kaia managed to at least send a few of them to their ancestors and to say she was unhappy with that would be to be wholly inaccurate.
Tangentially, she managed to also harvest the different types of blood that the seemingly unhinged Mage north of the Guild asked her for. Kaia is fairly certain that no good will come of providing him with the samples but she has an itch for following that line of enquiry through now and experience tells her it will only grow worse if she leaves it to fester, so...

She dumped a load of her stuff in the Bards' College in Solitude prior to the embassy visit, but it should be safe enough there for the moment and Delphine did point out, and she could not help but agree, that it might be best to stay away from there for a week or so, just in case.
So it was back to Whiterun, and Ysolda and the girls.

She's spent the last few days doing odd jobs for the Jarl and the Companions, just in the hold. Nothing too challenging, but satisfying nonetheless. Ysolda's business is doing very well with a tidy profit being turned and the family are, with over 50,000 stored away, quite the well-to-do unit which, aside from Kaia's own exploits, does give them a certain reputation, certainly in their own hold...
...The discovery a day ago that her wife does a side-line in Sleeping Tree Sap supplies came as no surprise at all, although Ysolda's hard-nosed approach to the death of Ulag prompted a raised eyebrow and a wry grin from Kaia as her partner slid smoothly under the furs next to her that night...

We leave her now with the Companions, sat down and taking a midday meal following a trip to Riverwood and the extermination of a rogue hagraven. There are plenty more, more important, things to be doing it's true, but sometimes it's good to just keep busy with the simple stuff.

At least for a while.

-+-

[Renee]

I hope she (and you) had fun invading Thalmor territory.

And whoa, Ysolda is selling hist tree sap? Oh, I see. sleeping tree sap supplies. So, paraphernalia, basically? What we in America call head shop supplies.