Today In Skyrim (Spoilerific), Like the other one, but with added spoilers!!! Options

[Renee]

Yeah, that's my big surprise for the season... the return of my Ice Witch. Wooo.... Her story continues probably this weekend.

Let's see where Bjorn left off.


Middas, Frostfall 15

At about high noon, Bjorn had just passed a mage's fort (Fort Amol), and began stalking a lynx for its pelt. But then, everything went wrong. Suddenly the lynx ran away, and as Bjorn followed it, he saw it was running toward the horse he stole several weeks before. The lynx was fighting the horse, but then so were a couple of frost mages. Arrgh!

The horse Bjorn stole from Whiterun did not last long, with a lynx and two mages attacking it. And this is not good. Bjorn carries a lot of things with that horse. So it's time to find another one.

He had passed Mixwater Mill not long ago. Time to head back here to see if they've got anything worth buying. And if he can't afford its price, maybe he'll even steal it.

But surprise at Mixwater though! The guards here attacked him, immediately drawing their bows as he walked by. What had Bjorn done here to deserve this? I know he stayed here once before. Whatever it was, there was no way he could defeat them all, and there was no horse at Mixwater to steal anyway. So he headed straight for Windhelm, as the sun began to go down.

This post has been edited by Renee: Feb 8 2017, 10:35 PM

[Acadian]

Lol. Bjorn's getting famous. . . but not in a good way.

[Renee]

Lol. Bjorn's getting famous. . . but not in a good way.

It gets worse, Acadian. You'll see. I only have maybe a dozen more Bjorn updates left to post, and he definitely deals with more of this as time goes on.

---------------------

Turdas, mid-morning, 16th of Frostfall

Days Passed: 60
Days Jailed: 8
Current Gold: 940

Whiterun Bounty: 150
Eastmarch Bounty: 1,540


Bjorn begins this day with a bottle of alto wine, and a walk from Windhelm's inn to its stables. Turns out, he has a lot of gold, but not enough to buy a horse.

"Hey, put that back!"

In a flash, he's out of there, with several guards + the stablehand chasing him. (and this time, I'm going to SetAv Health on this horse so that it's not as weak). Passed by Mixwater Mill on "his" new horse by late morning, but by the time he does this, he's drunk, with a big brown bear chasing him and his new horse. Bjron was too drunk by now to fight the thing, so he decided to lure it into Mixwater instead, thereby causing distraction.

By the time he finally returned to the site where his previous horse had fallen, Bjorn got really upset to find it was no longer there. Eaten by some animals, most likely. Dang. That horse had a lot of stuff in its inventory. Food, drink, potions, about a dozen soul gems (some saleable, some unenchanted), a few bottles of skooma he could have sold, lots of stolen loot he could earn some coin from in the Ratway, even his Dark Brotherhood armor and his Bow of Soul Snares. All gone. Yea, better give "his" new horse some better health.

Spent the night at Nilheim Tower, with bandits all around, sharing stories and getting even drunker.

This post has been edited by Renee: Feb 14 2017, 10:40 PM

[Acadian]

Hee! Is Bjorn related to Kahreem? Wine-drinking horse thievery? Bjorn does have a much harder edge to him. Too drunk to fight the bear!

[gpstr]

Moving to the spoiler section so I don't have to worry about what I'm posting, and trying an experiment:

Fredas, 12th of Hearthfire
-----------------------------

Up early and out to take a look at Traitor's Post - the bandit den Brunwulf mentioned.

Brunwulf... now there's a fine old Nord warrior. If only Ulfric was more like him.

The trip was beautiful - the road ran right along the river for the first half of the way, and it was foggy and quiet that early in the morning. Further along, the road started climbing up out of the valley, and I got above the fog and into the sunlight.

Didn't recognize Traitor's Post for what it was at first - I guess I expected another cave or ruin, but all I saw was a house near the top of a hill. As I got closer though, I could see that it was abandoned and run down, but with a fire burning in the fireplace, so I figured that was the place. Snuck up and sniped a mage and stirred up three more bandits - all archers. I had to run them down, but they weren't much of a challenge at all. The guards really must be slipping to let such a feeble bunch of bandits stay so close to town.

There was a broken tower in sight a bit further up the hill, so I hiked up just to see what it was. There were two bears inside it, and a locked chest at the top (how, much less why, anyone put a chest up there is beyond me - those bears were almost more than I could handle).

Since it was still early, I decided to walk down the hill to the river and go back that way and catch the road at the bottom of the hill. Halfway down the hill I came across a wounded Snow Bear, and after I dealt with him, I followed my hunch and looked around and found the bodies of two more bandits and a merchant, along with the merchant's cart (overturned) and horse (dead). I guess the bandits killed the merchant, then before they could collect the loot, the bear killed them.

Passed another bear coming back along the river - he was out in the river, hunting salmon I guess. I figured that if he didn't bother me I wouldn't bother him, but he decided to charge me anyway, so I had to kill him.

Got back to Windhelm about midday, sold some stuff to the blacksmith and the rest to Revyn in the Gray Quarter, then tracked down Brunwulf and collected my reward and got some much-appreciated heavy armor training from him. And since it was still early and didn't look to be a very long trip, and since I was just tired of being in Windhelm anyway, I decided to go to Morvunskar and see if I could find out anything about that Sam fellow and that night I still don't remember.

Peaceful trip out, but Morvunskar itself was a nightmare. It wasn't tough at all - it was all mages, and I just moved slowly and sniped them. But it was just a vile place - nothing but blood, bones and empty wine bottles. I don't want to even think about what those people were up to there.

Saw no sign of Sam or anything that even looked like it had anything to do with him, but then when I stepped up onto one platform in a corner of one of the rooms, a shimmering sphere appeared in the air, and when I approached it, I was sucked into some sort of void, and appeared in a beautiful, twilit garden.

At the end of the garden path was a group of revelers, and Sam. When I talked to him, he revealed himself to actually be Sanguine. I asked him, but I'm still not clear on why he was interested in me in the first place or what any of any of that was about. He talked and I listened and I heard what he said and all the words made sense on their own, but there still didn't seem to be any underlying logic to any of it. Whatever the reason though, he gifted me with a staff, then, just like that, I was sucked back into the void and appeared in the inn in Ivarstead - where I first met Sam.

Ah well... I was planning on returning to Ivarstead soon anyway - just not quite like that. But what else could I do? I got a room and here I sit, writing this. Busy day.



Loredas, 13th of Hearthfire
-------------------------------

The problem with being so suddenly back in Ivarstead is that I planned on delivering the bear pelts to Temba, but other than the five I've collected on this trip, most of them are in the chest upstairs at Breezehome. I had planned on swinging by Whiterun first, then coming here. But now that I was here...

I knew the Greybeards were waiting for the Horn, and it seemed sort of rude to make them keep waiting just so I could pick up some bear pelts and collect a reward from Temba, and it honestly seemed sort of stupid to go all the way to Whiterun just to pick up some bear pelts, but I really don't know when I'll be out this way again, so... I spent most of the day hiking to Whiterun and back. It was an easy trip - I took the south pass through Helgen both there and back, and only saw a few wolves and a troll along the way. And that hunter that seems to spend all her time up at the top of the pass. Got back into Ivarstead early in the evening and gave the pelts to Temba, then just loafed around the rest of the evening, steeling myself for the trip up to High Hrothgar tomorrow.


Sundas, 14th of Hearthfire
------------------------------

Up early and out to the 7000 steps before dawn. The weather was horrible, even by local standards - windy and snowing so hard I couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of me. Ran into three Snow Bears (and one dead Ice Wraith near one of them, so I guess I know which one of those two would win a fight) and another Frost Troll in about the same spot where I fought the last one last time up. I kept hoping I'd get up above the storm, but it was snowing and blowing all the way to the top. Got there about noon.

That was... odd. I really don't know what it was all about. Arngeir had one of the brothers teach me the third word for Unrelenting Force, then all four of them surrounded me in the middle of the temple and... shouted. I guess it was some sort of test? It was deafeningly loud, and I could feel the ground shaking, but I couldn't actually feel anything myself - as if the force of their shouts affected everything else, but not me. I guess that was the test, and I passed. When they were done, Arngeir just said that High Hrothgar was open to me, then they all went back to their devotions. I wandered around a bit, but there really wasn't much to see. I found what must be the path up to wherever their leader is - the one that Arngeir said I'd be able to follow when I learned how. I have to presume I don't know how yet, since just approaching it was so cold and windy that it literally hurt. And that was pretty much that - there didn't seem to be anything more to do there at the moment, and I had no particular interest in staying the night, so I went back down the steps. Got into Ivarstead just at dark and rented the room at the inn for another night. Going to spend the night here, then head back to Whiterun tomorrow.

[Renee]

That was fun to read. I'm stuck at work right now and haven't gamed in 3 days, so I'm pretty much jonseing for some Skyrim... or Oblivion... doesn't matter.

I like the part when it says he was undecided about delivering bear pelts. Seems kind of rude to keep the Greybeards all waiting up there. After all this time (and multiple characters... two dozen by now) none of them has ever been up those 700 steps. I mean 7,000. Apparently the number is closer to 700 than 7,000.

[ghastley]

Many of my characters have climbed the steps, but I've only done Temba's quest once in MANY characters, and that was one of the Bosmers I created as test characters for the Hearthfires mod. I RP'ed her as a bear hunter, and she needed a lot more bones than pelts, so she gave the surplus to Temba. We were very disappointed that she didn't want more.

It's interesting to compare the reactions of characters who do the 7000 steps early, and hate the frost troll, and those who do it late, and have already killed four or more randomly spawned frost trolls on the way, before they reach the placed one.

[gpstr]

@Renee - thanks, and sorry to hear you're jonesing. Oh, and it's she - I should've included that bit. That was Valri, the Nord warrior I made specifically to do the MQ. For the time being at least, I'm going to just play her - I want to get her through the main quest and whatever other quests suit her personality, just so I can get some sort of feel for how it all works, so I'll have a better idea of what other characters need to do or avoid.

She's actually the second character to go up there - my first character, Simon the Breton, also made the trip. But since he was my first character, he just ran around and did whatever while I tried to figure out some of the game mechanics, so it wasn't that I actually roleplayed him as someone who made that trip - he just did it.

@ghastley - I've completed that one with a couple of characters already, just because it's simple enough to do - all they really have to do is keep the bear hides they inevitably collect until they have 10 of them, then shuttle them over to Temba. It just got a bit complicated with Valri because she ended up appearing in Ivarstead without all the bear hides she'd collected. But the trip to and from Whiterun is pretty pleasant really, so that's fine.

And on that note:

Valri - female Nord warrior, level 22, Superior Steel Plate Armor enchanted with fortify carry weight, fortify two-handed and fortify stamina recovery, Superior Skyforge Steel Battleaxe enchanted with frost, Dwarven bow enchanted with shock.

Morndas, 15th of Hearthfire


Just a beautiful, pleasant day. Looking at the map, I saw that there's a road over a high pass, almost straight across to Whiterun, starting a bit north of Ivarstead. So I went up the road a bit until I found that path and set out to explore.

It was wonderful - just quiet and pretty and the weather couldn't have been better. I expected it to be a relatively tough trip, since it looks to be a little-used road, but it was peaceful the whole way. Maybe the fact that it's little-used means that all the things that normally try to prey on travelers just don't bother with it. In any case, it came down on the other side just north of the Whiterun Stormcloak camp, where I got back on that main road and went the rest of the way into Whiterun, arriving early in the afternoon. Spent a while doing some smithing and enchanting - nothing important - just practicing. Sold all of the stuff I had made, then just loafed around the house the rest of the evening. I'm sort of curious to see what the Jarl of Falkreath wants, but something about the way he contacted me so quickly makes me a bit wary. I think instead I'm going to head to Markarth - I left a lot of things hanging there.


Tirdas, 16th of Hearthfire


Set out early for Markarth. The trip itself was relatively uneventful - occasional bandits and wolves and the like, but nothing out of the ordinary. Stopped along the way at the cave that Eola - the self-professed cannibal I met in Markarth - had mentioned. I'm not sure what to make of her - she seems like a relatively decent person really, except for claiming to be a cannibal of course. I want to believe she's not serious, and haven't seen any real sign yet that she is, but still...

Anyway - the cave she was concerned about was full of Draugr, and particularly nasty Draugr at that, but it was fairly short and she was definitely a good ally, so we made it through fine. But now she wants me to lure some poor priest back to that cave - she says that he's going to be the main course of a feast.

I... I still don't want to believe that she really is a cannibal, but... I don't know. I think I'll just let it go.

Made it into Markarth mid-evening, sold a bunch of stuff, then spent a while at the Inn, talking to as many locals as I could get to talk, trying to get an idea of what's going on in this city. And I met an interesting mercenary named Vorstag - looks like a barbarian but sounds like a professor. I think I might hire him to go with me into the ruins tomorrow.


Middas, 17th of Hearthfire

Spent the morning asking around town, trying to get some more information about Margret and the Forsworn and Weylin and all of that. There's something really ugly going on in this city. I'm not sure I really want to know all of it though - what I really wanted to do was see the rest of those Dwarven ruins, so i swung back by the Inn and hired Vorstag and off we went.

And wow. That was a fascinating place, and Vorstag was the perfect person to bring along. What could be better than someone who alternates between making insightful comments about Dwemer history and culture and burying his axe in Falmer skulls?

Most of the trip through was just interesting, and the Falmer weren't much of a challenge, but near the end, we started to run into some of the old Dwemer automatons, and they were something else entirely. I don't want to fight any more of them any time soon. The spiders are okay, but the spheres are really tough. We saw one centurion, but it was down on a lower platform from where we were and couldn't get to us, Nine be praised. I lost count of the arrows I shot into it before it finally collapsed.

Then we beat it out of there and showed all the journals we'd collected to Calcelmo and collected a welcome reward. Calcelmo had an enchanter set up, so I took the time to break down some of the items we'd collected, then we made our way back to the Inn. Even Vorstag was uncharacteristically quiet, so we just crashed early. I have no idea what we're doing tomorrow - I'll worry about that after I sleep a bit.

[Renee]

Oooh, yes. I am also curious what you'll think about "what the Jarl of Falkreath wants." In my opinion, he contacts us a little too quickly...sometimes before our guys & gals have even warranted such a contact. But my crusader guy was already well into the game by this point, so it made sense for him to get contacted.

Some of my characters have loved this part, but I had one who merely tossed the Jarl's letter aside, because she was a "do it my way" type who hated authority. On the other hand, my crusader guy loved this part. He really rose to the task and got exactly what he wanted because of it. But i don't wanna spoil, even though this is the spoilers section.

I predict you'll like it gpster, but maybe you won't like the way it's implemented. Depends. Like I said, it's all about the character you're rolling with at the time.

Markarth is really amazing, isn't it? It reminds me of one of those M.C. Escher pictures where all those staircases just send you in circles. After 5+ years of wandering around Markarth, I finally began to get the hang of its layout with Bjorn, last time he was there. Speaking of....I really need to post his next update tonight. *mental note*

This post has been edited by Renee: Feb 17 2017, 02:17 PM

[gpstr]

So I've played a full week of Valri's life since the last update (but none of it's involved Falkreath... yet ), and I'm not even going to try writing it out as a diary. I'm not really satisfied with that anyway.

Let's see... she finished up in Markarth first, spread over about a day and a half - confronted Thonar, fought the Forsworn who killed his wife (a death Valri didn't mind in the least), confronted Nepos and fought him and his Forsworn retainers, then got thrown into the "inescapable" Cidhna Mine, from which she escaped in about an hour. Just stood around and watched as the Forsworn ran rampant, then said goodbye to Vorstag and rode the wagon back to Whiterun and slept.

The next morning, she set about upgrading her weapons. She had been carrying a Dwarven bow, but had started to run across Elven ones. She hadn't found one with an enchantment she really wanted, but she had kept a normal one, so she got it out, then swung by the Skyforge and picked up a new battleaxe, then upgraded both of them, then hiked up to Farengar's and used the enchanter and a couple of grand souls she'd bought along the way - did the axe in shock (and named it Anya) and did the bow in fire (and named it Belial).

Then she decided it was time to check in with Delphine - hopefully she'd had enough time to set things up for whatever she had planned with the Thalmor embassy (and yeah - in-game, she says that she needs to set things up, but then she's ready to hand out the quest the instant you get back from Kynesgrove, but that's nonsense - in Valri's game, she needed at least a few days). Everything was ready, so she made the trip up to Solitude.

She'd already done most of that trip when she went to Northwatch Keep, so there weren't any new sights, though she did get to look around a bit more than she had the first time. Solitude was pretty impressive, in multiple ways, though there are a bit too many stuffy and self-involved people for her tastes. And it seemed like everyone she met had some errand they wanted her to run for them.

Oh, and she bought a horse, finally. She'd been interested in one for quite a while, but was looking for one of those Palominos the hunters seem to favor, and hadn't found one yet. She found one at the stable outside Solitude.

And...

She browsed all the stores, met with Delphine's Bosmeri contact, went by the palace and met the Jarl and a bunch of other people, swung by the Bard's college and talked to some of those people (and found and swiped a copy of Song of the Alchemists for Lami) and... probably a bunch of other things I'm forgetting. Then she met up with Delphine and headed out to the reception at the embassy.

That all went off without a hitch, so she just stayed around Solitude - there were still plenty of things to do, and while Delphine was predictably anxious for her to rush off to Riften and find this Esbern, she figured if he'd managed to stay hidden for decades, he could do it for another few days. She had what little information the Thalmor had been able to extract from the guy they were torturing, and she'd freed him, so the Thalmor were at a bit of a dead end.

Ah... and the dossier she'd gotten on Ulfric was very interesting - just further solidified her decision, in spite of her adamant opposition to the Empire, to not get involved with him or his Stormcloaks.

Probably the most unusual thing she did was Sheogorath's quest (and meta: I was disappointed by both Sheogorath and his quest). At the moment, she just got back from Wolfskull Cave, and is preparing to finally head back toward Whiterun, and excited to be able to ride her new horse.

This post has been edited by gpstr: Feb 17 2017, 10:42 PM

[Renee]

Valri's been busy, *smile*. I read her accounts in a few, time to post some Bjorn.

-----------



Fredas, mid-morning, 17th of Frostfall

[u]Location[/uj: The Rift

Hopefully he'll make it to Riften today, and I say this because Bjorn Tubewyyld came to the village of Sunguard. At first, he thought he'd be safe here, nobody was unsheathing any weapons, no guards reminding him "it's time to face da Jarl's justice..."

And then they did, they ALL did, coming after him and his horse, all at once. It seems like his horse takes more damage at times like this (mostly from arrows) than Bjorn does. Again, I have no idea what he did here, and why they attacked him. The mod-added settlements I've got in my Skyrim seem to track their own bounties though, separate from holds.

Later in the morning, he found a group of bandits settled around some sort of Dwemer ruins, and had a peaceful breakfast with them. He'd been forced off the road by the guards of Sunguard, meaning that when he met these bandits, he found them in the middle of nowhere.

The day soon went from mild, foggy weather to a rainstorm (Lopov, you are right. It's almost never sunny in Riften. Oddly on Xbox it was sunny more often than on PC). He finally reached Riften by about 6:00 pm, and was tired and stressed out from constant wolf, bear, and spider attacks along the road. But luckily, nobody wants him dead in Riften hold.

He was able to spend a couple hours at Riften's smith, peacefully turning all his latest bear and wolf pelts into leather, before heading down to the Ratway, getting paid for finishing his job in Solitude, and having a late supper. Then he headed off to the nearest bedroll.

The next morning, he realized he hadn't finished his other job yet. He's supposed to seek the court wizard of Markath, who will (hopefully) translate the text Bjorn found in Karliah's possession. Since Bjorn's latest job involves pickpocketing somebody else in Markath, now he has two reasons to go there next.

This post has been edited by Renee: Feb 17 2017, 11:02 PM

[gpstr]

Bjorn has a rough time of things. And Bjorn's horse an even rougher time...

Another quick Valri update, just because I played some more and it was sort of interesting.

She still hasn't left Solitude yet. She was pretty much ready to go, but then she remembered about that whole lighthouse deal - the Argonian who had asked her to put out the fire on the lighthouse so some ship would run aground. She'd done that, but hadn't followed it up at all. She really wasn't that concerned about it either way - it's not as if she needed the money or much cared - she'd just done it because it was simple enough and it was an Imperial ship and making their lives a bit more miserable was fine. But she figured she might as well go meet the Argonian's sister - who was apparently out at the ship - and collect her cut.

Ah... but then she got there only to discover that they intended to doublecross her. That changed everything. The money still wasn't important, but she'd be damned if she was going to stand for a betrayal like that.

She was so angry she just mowed down the marauders on the ship, starting with the Argonian's sister, then waded and swam to shore and started hiking to the cave they'd apparently taken the loot to. She didn't even start to cool down until she was approaching the cave, but by the time she got there (luckily), she'd at least calmed down enough to realize that she'd be a lot better off sneaking and sniping.

And it was glorious. She went through the entire complex, picking off marauders one at a time. There were a couple of times when they got close to discovering her, but she always managed to melt back into the shadows until they let their guard down, then she'd take out another one. She finally got it down to the point that the only one left alive was the Argonian, then she took out Anya, her axe, and very calmly and purposefully walked up to him. She was hoping for something from him - at least some acknowledgement of his betrayal - but he just charged her and started swinging (with a dagger that barely even drew blood). She just cut him down right there.

He could've just treated her fairly and he'd be alive now. He didn't and he's not.

[Lopov]

Hey, at least Valri didn't need to share hard-earned gold with anyone.

Bjorn - welcome by bandits, wanted by guards. Life of a bandit's not an easy one.

The day soon went from mild, foggy weather to a rainstorm (Lopov, you are right. It's almost never sunny in Riften. Oddly on Xbox it was sunny more often than on PC). He finally reached Riften by about 6:00 pm, and was tired and stressed out from constant wolf, bear, and spider attacks along the road. But luckily, nobody wants him dead in Riften hold.

Yep, 99% of time there's some kind of gray blanket over Riften in my games and I don't use any weather mods. Even if it's sunny at first, it changes after a few seconds. I think there are some weather-changing triggers placed in the town, weather always turns for worse outside Mistveil Keep (at least the name is appropriate) and at the point where Maul greets you for the first time.

[Renee]

Yee-haw, look out marauders. They just made a mistake. Sneaking 'n' sniping is fun.

Bjorn has a few more updates before his story concludes. Now here is part II of Mycharonna the Ice Witch's return. It seems all of us lately have been posting stories about evil or chaotic neutrals lately, except for my crusader guy on Xbox. We can't really count him though, I don't really write about him anymore like I used to.



Sundas, late evening. Last Seed 16, 4th Era Year 202

Days Passed: 364



She was here several hours ago.

Emperor Titus Mede II was troubled about the odd woman, the one who'd shown up in his cabin early that morning, but had not defended herself at all, as Mede had rained blow after blow upon her. Where was she? Where had she gone? "I was sure I locked my quarters," Mede had mused to his new posse.

One of his new crew had made an interesting suggestion though. Perhaps somebody up in Solitude had heard the story about the old woman getting downed by the emperor, and had decided to take action. Several people had the Katariah's key. It was possible somebody could have returned to the ship, unlocked Mede's cabin, and then removed the old hag as a sort of 'gift.' Maybe this person even had his own reasons for doing so, beyond pleasing Emperor Mede (yet remaining anonymous). The woman had been some sort of high-powered witch after all; perhaps this person might have taken the woman's body somewhere else, where her various parts (hair, eyes, fingernails) might be used for magical experiments.

"Aye that," agreed one of the soldiers.

The real blow however was not Titus's confusion over what happened to her, it was to his ego. He'd been excited on their trip back from Solitude, excited that he'd be able to show the results of his axe-work. He'd be able to show his new men just what a great fighter he'd been, that he was, in fact, just like one of them, when it came to a little one-on-one. But the old hag's absence from his cabin had ruined all of this. Whoever had removed her should be found, and then punished, in fact! Even if he had been trying to make a good deed.

Titus had had a long day though, one with lots of surprises, and lots of revelry. The matter of the old woman was quickly dropped, as Mede's new crew got busy. There was plenty to do. Titus decided he'd better get into bed soon, so he could be fresh and ready for their trip back to Cyrodiil.

He'd fallen asleep quickly, and so he did not notice when the screaming began.

<o><o>

Late evening

"These corpses are damned heavy. Too bad whoever removed the old woman didn't bother to take all the other dead with him."

"Aye," agreed the same soldier from before.

"Quit yer belly-achin'," said a third soldier, one of the new captains, matter of fact. "The sooner we get these poor saps off the Katariah for proper burial, the sooner we can get into our bunks, maybe sip a little mead."

"Aye, that."

The task before them was great though, and it might even take all night. Whoever that Dark Brotherhood witch had been, she'd done plenty of damage throughout the entire ship. Not just the crew of soldiers and seafarers either; the entire place was a mess. Books and weapons strewn, crates and barrels toppled. Streaks of bluish-white essences were everywhere, too. These 'essences' were definite signs that whoever the old woman had been, she'd been quite an expert in the arts of frost magic.

"And when the dead have been moved, then the real fun begins. How will we clean up all this blood?"

"Aye."

"Hmph. Is that all you say? 'Aye', or 'aye, that?'"

There was a pause, and then. "Aye."

... Which sent the three men working the upper deck into peals of laughter. Soldier #1 dropped the body he'd been hauling with soldier #2, and even the watch captain had joined in, for a good twenty seconds or so. Laughing until they saw stars. This sort of laughter was good, and even necessary, to help them deal with the grim tasks ahead. Their laughter eased their plight, and might have helped them form a solid bond of friendship by the time they got to Topal Bay.

... and they didn't notice until it was too late...

"Been so long since I killed a Stormcloak," mused soldier #1 after the laughter ended.

"Keep yer guard up though. You never know when one of those rebels will show up."

"Aye that."

"Wonder what's for breakfast? Rabbit stew? Ugh. I hope not."

"Better to have some rabbit stew from a proper hearth, rather than getting served in a blinding snow storm."

"Aye."

"What was that?"

...something moving along the crates and barrels, up there on the ship's bow...

"This Imperial armor's damned heavy," complained the captain.

"I was sure I heard something," said soldier #1.

This time, soldier #2 did not just say aye, or aye, that. Instead, he was engulfed by a flash of red light, there one second and gone the next. He then unsheathed his sword, and went looking around for somebody to beat up. Aye, anybody close will do, he thought in his sudden confusion.

"I'll find you!"

The first soldier had also taken readied his sword, but was surprised to see that the aye that soldier was now coming after him. "Huh?" ... He readied his blade in his right hand, and a fire-based spell in his left. But the aye that soldier was not really much of a soldier in comparison. All it took was two carefully-aimed fireballs before he'd never agree to anything again.

"Where are ya?"

Adept in magic, the first soldier began looking for .... who? .... What? ...while on the ship's stern the watch captain began firing arrows into the darkness, hoping to connect. Neither man was very successful though, and after just a minute, they both began to wonder what had just happened, while cursing the fact that there was now another dead body to move.

That was when the 'dead body' began to move. On its own. After a flash of blueish essence. "Must....kill!" the aye soldier croaked. Soldier #1 initially ignored the rising man, and went looking on the Katariah's bow, finding nothing, but sensing something.

"You can't hide from me."

He didn't have much time to look though. His former shipmate raised his sword high, and took a mighty swing.

"What in the Eight Divines is that thing?" he cried.

As he fought and eventually became mortally wounded, Mycharonna the Ice Witch prepared her favorite spell, freezing both the soldier and his former shipmate to death and undeath, before the watch captain firing arrows from the ship's stern even knew what to do.

<o><o>

Over the next hour or so, the Ice Witch made her way through the Katariah for the second time, systematically defeating its entire crew with its own members. One by one, the dead fell, came back to life, and then rose again, to fight again, this time on the opposing side. All the while, Emperor Titus Mede II slept like a lamb.

But not for long.

<o><o>

3:19 AM
In fact, he awoke just as the last man fell, just yards away from his cabin. Mede awoke, and began pacing, still wearing the kingly clothes he'd killed the hag in, nearly 24 hours earlier. He got up, and began to pace and talk to himself, while a shadowy visitor walked through his cabin's door.

"And once again, I've proven Commander Maro the fool," Mede mused to himself. "I told him, you can stop the Dark Brotherhood. Never shall they return." Mede sat down. Began looking at the cup of wine upon his desk.

That's when he noticed her.

"You... no! It cannot be! But I.... you... you're supposed to be dead!"

The hag in dark clothes said nothing at first. "No, I already was dead," she spoke in a monotone. "But by performing as you did on this morn, you have only made me stronger. I have returned from death, and now undeath. My powers you cannot comprehend."

"You and I have a date with destiny it woud seem," Titus continued, trying a little bit of tact, apparently. "It is futile to even try attacking you if you'd just come back, so it would seem. As an assassin of the Dark Brotherhood who has greeted me twice, yes I must die, and yes, you must deliver the blow, but I wonder, would you suffer an old man's wish before the deed is done?"

The hag said nothing. And readied her blade.

Several hours later, the people up in Solitude began to look down toward the Katariah, wondering why it was still anchored, far below the town.

This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 16 2017, 02:17 PM

[gpstr]

I feel like I just came in in the middle of a long-running series - lots of interesting stuff, but I don't know any of the context...

Ah well...

So... Falkreath... yeah.

Well, first Valri swung back by Morthal to give the Song of the Alchemist book to Lami, which was the last thing she needed to do for the residents there, so she went ahead and bought the property and I got sucked into Hearthfires and spent hours running her back and forth and back and forth, playing with building a house. Then I reverted all the way back to the save I'd made at the drafting table right at the start and just had her do the stuff she was actually able to do at the moment. In her world, she's going to actually just work on it a bit at a time, whenever she gets the chance, but I wanted to see what the finished product looked like and how it all worked and stuff.

Then she went back to Whiterun (I keep mistyping that as Whitefun, which would actually be kind of an amusing name for the place). She's started coming across glass weapons and had already picked up a bow and some arrows. When she got back to Whiterun, Adrianne had a battleaxe, so she bought that, then upgraded both of them (exquisite with no glass smithing perk but a blacksmith's potion), then hiked up the hill and enchanted both of them - the bow with fire and the axe with shock. The axe actually does the exact same damage as her flawless Skyforge steel battleaxe, but she's been carrying Skyforge steel for too long, and it was time to switch things up a bit. Then, finally, she set off for Falkreath.

I'd actually been there before with Simon, but he didn't manage to do anything, since the first thing he did was go looking for the dog for the blacksmith, and next thing I knew, he was running all around the province with Barbas in tow. So I knew part of what to expect, and very deliberately didn't go looking for the dog first off.

And... yeah. It's an interesting place. Valri hated the jarl, but his uncle - the ex-jarl turned thane - she initially liked him, since he's one of those proud, old-fashioned Nords, but she's starting to suspect that he's got a screw loose.

She ended up doing the werewolf quest. She wasn't overly enthusiastic about it, but it didn't really bother her either. She felt a bit sorry for Sinding, but even more sorry for the couple whose daughter he killed, so it was okay. And she met Barbas along the way, but just kept going after Sinding - she figured she'd catch up with Barbas later, which is what she did. She also happened on the lost hunters from Falkreath and dealt with that mess.

Then she rode much of the night and caught up with Barbas at Haemar's Shame and met Clavicus, and is now on her way across the province to recover the axe. She's sort of liking traveling with Barbas, all in all. He's annoying, but he's really handy to have around, particularly when they're traveling, since she can just stay on her horse and count on Barbas to deal with all of the spiders and wolves and bandits and such along the way.

She's staring to worry a bit about Riften and the Blade in hiding though... going to have to get this dealt with and get over there...

[Renee]

It's okay, gpster. All of that is part of a certain questline, but it's near the end of that questline, so most of her story has been told. From now on, it's mostly confusing poetry and random vampire tales from her.

My crusader guy did that werewolf quest too, I remember we have to break into jail? Or get thrown in jail? Something like that.

[Renee]

Morndas, Frostfall 20, 4th Era 201

Bjorn Tubewyyld had a much more peaceful walk out of Riften than he did going there. Most of the enemies along the road had already been killed, after all. He also followed a group of Imperial soldiers, letting them fight the few enemies they encountered, while Bjorn took any animal pelts they left behind.



He reached Helgen by the time the sun was going down. Since this place is now inhabited by bandits, he felt right at home, and spent the night here.

I notice recently that whenever he stays at one of these bandit dwellings, he will often take up roles assigned to typical Skyrim bandits. He'll take guard shifts for instance, something he never used to do. Helgen is a rather boring place to guard, but Nilheim and his favorite place, Fort Greenwall and Nilheim both have occasional moments when enemies or ordinary travelers show up. Whether it's a lone merchant, or a mere wolf or a giant spider, that moment when the whole place takes up arms in defense is just fun to RP!

-----------------------------


Middas, Frostfall 22

Days Passed: 66

Finally arrived to Markath, and it took three days to make it here from Riften. There are lots of things to do here, but first thing Bjorn does is witness some sort of brawl, right there near the city gates. Luckily this brawl does not involve him though. Phew.

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 2 2017, 01:28 AM

[Renee]

Turdas, late morning, Frostfall 23

Level: 17



Bjorn's first full day in Markath is full of tourism moments, mixed in with his usual bad-boy stuff. Instead of wearing his bandit gear, or some tough-looking armor, he's wearing normal town clothes. Trying to blend in. He's got a couple things to do in this huge city, yet has no idea where to start.

He starts by grabbing the first bottle of alto wine he sees...(and it turns out, this bottle belonged to somebody. Uh oh). A guard was suddenly right there too. Oops. Just a small fine, but not a great way to really "blend in", like he'd originally wanted.

Getting busted put him in the area of town where the smelter and smithy are though, and since he had several animal pelts & iron ores in his pack, he spent the rest of the day crafting this into saleable armor.

Bjorn didn't find Calcelmo until Day Two though, on Fredas, Frostfall 24. He had walked all over Markath, in the gloomiest weather he thought he'd ever seen, before finding the man. Calcelmo turned out to be a pain in the ass though; he wouldn't just have a quick look at the tome given to him by Karliah. But Bjorn also realized that Calcelmo needed somebody to do a few things for him, one of which turned out to be killing a giant spider, located in some sort of "museum." Sounds fair. Maybe after doing this task for Calcelmo, Bjorn would be rewarded by getting Markath's court wizard to translate Gallus' Encoded Journal.

Bjorn wastes no time. He leaves Markath to return to 'his' horse, where he gathers up his iron battleaxe, and his hunting bow + arrows. He doesn't want to wear his bandit armor into a walled city, so he'll have to make his own armor, before heading into Calcelmo's Museum.

As luck would have it, he wouldn't need to craft any armor at all, because there had been some sort of fight (a magical fight) between what Bjorn would later learn were some guards and some vampires. There had been talk of 'vampire attacks' for a few weeks now, and Bjorn witnessed the aftermath of one of these. This attack had ended well for the city, apparently (Markath 1, Vampires 0). And he noticed the armor worn by one of the fallen guards. Though he'd been witnessed looting this armor, there was no law against looting from dead guards or citizens.

And that is the story of how Bjorn Tubewyyld entered Calcelmo's Museum, dressed as a Markath City guard.



Bjorn arrives in Markarth

Bjorn used to be an adventurer like you, and then...

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 7 2017, 03:30 AM

[Acadian]

Hee! I still thing B2BW is related to Kahreem - just a little rougher around the edges. Wearing guard armor - let's see if he's as smooth with it at Kahreem. Love that Calcemo dungeon under the Keep.

[Renee]

Yes, Calcelmo's places are definitely fun to explore, and Bjorn is about to do so...


Loredas, mid-morning, Frostfall 25

Level: 17

Days Passed: 69
Days Jailed: 8
Hours Slept: 628
Hours Waited: 123

Gold Found: 14,007

Finding his way back to Understone Keep was tricky, but it helped that he'd littered the steps leading to the place with empty mead bottles.*

He went into Markarth's dig site and killed all the spiders, but Calcelmo refused to allow Bjorn to any translating of the tome Karliah gave him. But ... since Bjorn kept his end of the deal, the Markarth court wizard did allow Bjorn access to the Dwemer Museum. Good. Bjorn decides to go in there, just to see if there's anything he can find, since the wizard is so stubborn.

Since there are several guards wandering around the museum, it helps that Bjorn is actually dressed like one of them! And I also added him into several Guard factions just to reinforce this. He wandered right in there, and begins exploring the place without incident. There are several locked doors in this area, and Bjorn is still not good enough at lockpicking to open them, but he can still use his giant battleaxe to break past them.

At some point though, he manages to find a key, which opens ALL of the doors in the Dwemer Lab area. And he also eventually finds the jackpot, the very room where the Dwemer translating slab (similar to our Rosetta Stone) is located. This was a neat part of the quest, because it wasn't like Bjorn merely clicked on this stone, and got an instant translation, instead he had to pick up a couple rolls of paper and some charcoal to write everything down.

After copying the Dwemer stone, some guards appeared at the bottom of the chamber, suddenly suspicious that a thief was in their midst. Their orders were to "search the place from top to bottom", so it's a good thing Bjorn Tubewyyld had one invisibility potion to help him slip out of there unnoticed.

*Bjorn has a habit of driking Nord Mead and ales, and then throwing empty bottles somewhere outdoors, often in town or village spaces! I can always tell where he's been if I find some his litter!