Neramo’s Dwemer fetish can always be counted on for good times.

Nice job showing us Crafty Lerisa, along with some of her crafty tricks.

So, we learn the nature of the heist Kaleen has planned now. Seryn will be the point girl, with appropriate help from Neramo, Lerisa and Jakarn. Having Isobel sit this one out go look for a gift for Aurelia is a good idea.

Success! Looks like Kaleen’s given Headman Bhosek a boatload of problems and she now has an adequate crew for the Spearhead – next stop Betnikh.

Victory! The various personalities are well represented here, love it!

I never noticed if the two courtyard ladies made it to the ship. How funny. I will pay more attention next time!

Good idea for Isobel to sit out the activities that would not be becoming to a knight. I hope she likes Betnikh. More beach!

Previously: A start has been made along the path to acquiring Hunding's.

@Acadian I was debating Seryn taking Isobel along, rather than leaving her with Jakarn.

@Grits I'm not sure if it's them, but there are a few extra passengers.

-----

Betnikh and Daggerfall

Betnikh was an island, about the same size as Stros M'kai, but greener, damper, and quite a bit cooler. The Orcs living there, (and it seemed it was all Orcs, and anyone else was just visiting), built crescent-shaped houses I hadn't seen anywhere else. Their tents were smaller versions of the same shape, and we saw several of those being used as temporary structures while more of the larger ones were built. A small town had grown up around Stonetooth Fortress, which lived up to its name by being the only fully stone building.

There were quite a few older ruins in a totally different architecture that I think was Ayleid, or maybe Aldmeri. I'm not a scholar of architecture, so it's just a guess. The Orcs had taken the island from the Bretons centuries ago, and there wasn't a lot of Breton influence remaining. Some of the old graveyards suggested Breton style in the crypts and mausoleums, but even tourists like us don't linger long in those.

I couldn't find any presence of the guilds, although most of the other amenities were there - a bank, stables, traders and a tavern. You couldn't do daily crafting writs here, either.

We found the wayshrines, just in case we ever wanted to return, and then went back to our routine of crafting, guild dailies etc at Elden Root.

---

"One of the Undaunted was telling me that they have other Enclaves at Wayrest, and Mournhold. The other guilds are there too, and crafting writs are available in lots more places," Izzie began.

"We're supposed to be establishing our credentials as good potential citizens of the Covenant so we can buy Hunding's, so shouldn't we be doing our dailies in Wayrest?" she asked.

"It's the same guilds, whichever alliance's capital we go to, so I don't think that matters, but we should probably be doing more non-guild things in between. Maybe we should just pick up any side-quests that are offered whenever we're in the Covenant territory anyway." That was my take on it.

"The guilds do send us all over the map, so that makes good sense," she conceded. "And we've often found lost items to return in the delves, or done other quests for people in the dungeons."

---

Bolgrul sent us back to Ilessan tower the next day, so I decided to do my crafting in Daggerfall, instead of Elden Root. It was a long way between the crafting stations and the quartermasters there, and I was hoping they'd be closer in Daggerfall.

I noticed a dog following me around as I did them, and stopped to find out what it wanted. It led me to a corpse lying in the river, and I was attacked when I picked up a note lying next to it. I left the assassin's corpse with the other, and called up Izzie, to show her the note.

It looked like a shopping list, not something that anyone would get killed over, but the items on it were strange. I decided we should talk to the vendors, and see if the items were anything special.

The grocer told me that 'three blood oranges' told him we'd found Roy, and this was all about the King's intelligence network. He'd rather not get involved. The florist told us that 'black roses with thorns' meant dark magic was involved somehow. The tailor added that the 'cloak with a crescent moon' pointed at house Casimir, the king of Daggerfall. We should speak to Captain Aresin of the King's Guard about the note. We'd find him up near the castle.

We'd apparently been followed, as another assassin waylaid us on our way up the castle steps. Just one, so no much of a problem, but it all pointed to a larger group being involved somehow. Captain Aresin knew the code Roy had used in his 'shopping list', Added up, it meant that someone intended to use dark magic to assassinate King Casimir. He sent us the the tavern, to talk to an Orc agent there.

Grenna gra-Kush was standing by the fire in the downstairs room, where she had a good view of the people coming and going. She'd seen of the Bloodthorns go upstairs, but he'd know her if she followed. Could we go up and try and get him to talk? As strangers, maybe we wouldn't arouse his suspicion.

Yes, but would he talk to a stranger? It turned out that he'd attack a stranger - as soon as we stepped onto the next floor. We found another man up there, cowering in a corner. Leveque had been hired by Martine Lenneaux to get hold of some plans of the tunnels beneath the castle, and it looked like Martine had decided to eliminate him, instead of paying.

We went back down to Grenna, who suggested we search Martine's manor, just next door to the tavern, and see what we could find. "Take any evidence direct to Captain Aresin; there's no time to waste."

The door wasn't locked, but we ran into guards on the upper floor, as well as Martine himself. There was a note on a desk about assassins hiding in crates in a ship in the harbour, ready to move when the time was right. We took the note straight to Aresin, up by the castle.

By this time, we'd already killed at least four of the Bloodthorns, so when he asked us to go search the ships, we agreed. We didn't want to be the Bloodthorns' loose end. And we hit pay dirt on the first ship, when an assassin popped out of a crate we opened. She sneered that we were too late, and Verrik (whoever that was) was already on his way to kill the king.

Joining up with Captain Aresin on the way, we rushed to the main door of the castle and entered. King Casimir saw us arrive, at the same time as assassins appeared from the basement. He ran upstairs, hoping the fight would stay on the main floor.

We followed, as I suspected that these people had been sent to drive the King to the real assassin, and I wasn't wrong. Isobel put herself between Verrik and the King, while I faced Verrik directly. Of course he attacked me, and I had to block, but that let Isobel thrust her sword into his back. Aresin came panting up the stairs, having cleaned up the rest with the aid of the palace guards.

King Casimir apologised to Aresin for not believing his warnings, and asked him to give Isobel and myself all possible assistance against the Bloodthorn.

Did we just get volunteered for another quest? At least we got a reward for this one.

---

"Remind me to avoid stray dogs in future, Izzie. I was not expecting all that."

"Well, if we were going to do an unplanned quest, at least this one's going to count a lot towards getting Hunding's. You can't do much better than saving the life of the King."

I'm not surprised that the two ladies didn't linger in Betnikh.

Isobel makes a good point about the Undaunted sending them all over for good exposure and experience, but she is an Undaunted Fangirl, after all. Daggerfall is probably an even better idea.

Paydirt! An important Covenant quest completed! And one that was appropriately knightly for Dame Isobel. She's right that such a feat should help pave the way into the Hunding's house.

Izzie has an excellent point. If you’re going to do some quests in Covenant territory, why not for the King of Daggerfall? That should count double toward acquiring Hundings!

When Gabrielle was killed off, I started to re-think using her in the story, but after reviewing what I had, I decided to go ahead. So Seryn can continue her part of the story.

-----

Previously Seryn and Isobel had saved the life of King Casimir, and buying Hunding's was starting to look
possible.

-----

Wayshrines

The next day, the Fighters Guild daily sent us to Glenumbra for a dolmen, so we decided, (or rather I decided, and Isobel agreed,) to do a bit more exploring, and find the wayshrines and all the dolmens. We could just close the first one we found, but knowing where they all were would give us more options later.

We'd heard people talking in Daggerfall about Camlorn being overrun by werewolves, so we avoided going there, but it seemed that they were all over the place. When we discovered the dolmen at Cambray Hills, there were werewolves all around it in the swamps. The dolmen was active when we arrived, so we helped close it, to complete our daily quest. We'd go find the third one in the north next.

Just as we mounted up to go look for it, however, we heard one of the other departing adventurers call out "Werewolves at the camp", so we followed to find out what was special about these. And the answer was that they were tougher than the usual ones, and it was a good thing we were all there for the dolmen. Izzie and I could not have managed them on our own.

We headed North, but by a very roundabout route that visited all the wayshrines on our map. On the way, we found a dead adventurer with a handbill about collecting crocodile teeth, so we did that whenever they attacked us, and in Hag's Fen, that was quite often. We had to pass the trader who was asking for them on our way to the dolmen, so why not?

There were a couple more side-quests like that. Ones we did because we were passing through, and they didn't take us out of our way. Getting rewarded for something you were going to do anyway, just makes sense. So bandits blocking our path were an opportunity, not a problem.

Such as the Bloodthorns at Merovec's Folly. We need to get down to the beach to reach King's Guard dolmen, so when the mage we met on the way wanted our help getting past them, we did so. Everything she needed us to do would take us closer to the dolmen.

When we got down to the beach, Isobel was a bit disappointed that the water was too cold for a dip. I pointed out on the map just how far North we were. It was even further north than Betnikh, and the water was cool there.

"So Wrothgar's even further North?" she asked. "There's no ice here, and Bud was telling me some places had ice all year round."

"You haven't been to Wrothgar yourself, I take it," chimed in Gabrielle, the mage we'd arrived with.

I told her we hadn't and explained how I'd come from Vvardenfell, around the south coast, and then journeyed to High Isle from the Summerset Isle to meet Isobel.

"I had assumed you would have gone around the north of Cyrodiil, through mainland Morrowind, Skyrim, and Wrothgar. Nobody goes through Cyrodiil, as it's just a war zone these days." She paused. "But then I haven't gone in the other direstion either. I've never been to Vvardenfell."

Of course we'd all visited the provinces where the various guilds had sent us. She was on a guild job now, although it was a one-time situation, related to clearing the werewolves from the area. She had a talisman that she had to take to a Wyrd shrine on the beach to recharge. "And there it is, just up ahead."

The Wyrd shrine was under the roots of a large tree. The sand had been washed out from beneath it, but the roots went deep enough that it still stood. A rock had been carved into an altar for the ritual she needed to perform. Gabrielle told us that the tree itself was part of the ritual and would be providing the energy to recharge the talisman.

Isobel and I stayed to watch, and it's a good thing we did. Something went wrong with the ritual, and Gabrielle didn't know why. "It seemed like something had interfered with the process, maybe daedric, and possibly even from inside the talisman itself," she told us.

"While I recover, can you take the talisman further up the path to the Wyrd circle and try to purge the talisman there?"

The Wyrd circle was an arrangement of trilithons around a stone basin in the centre. It held a shallow pool of water, and we dropped the talisman into it, to wait for Gabrielle to catch us up and tell us what to do next.

We didn't need to wait, as contact with the water was enough to force the Dremora out of the talisman, and he attacked.

And as soon as we put him down, the dolmen around the corner fired up. Isobel and I rushed to take part in that. There were others there, and it didn't take too long. We were back to the Wyrd circle just as Gabrielle caught up.
We told her about the Dremora in the amulet, and she examined it, to see if it was still of any use for the ritual she'd tried earlier. No such luck.

"I need to go back to the Lion Guard Redoubt to let them know, but nothing after that. You mentioned never having visited Wrothgar, and I've never visited Vvardenfell. How about we guide each other round the wayshrines?"

That idea appealed to me, but it left Isobel without anything to do.

"Don't worry about me" she told us. "I never have problems finding something to do with the Undaunted."

We agreed to meet at the wayshrine at Elden Root after we'd reported back and completed our current assignments. When Gabrielle arrived, Izzie rushed off down to the Undaunted Enclave, following a large Orc who looked familiar.

---

Even when the travel itself is instant, going round thirty or more wayshrines takes a bit of time. We added some more by walking through Orsinium, and Vivec City, just to see the sights. And several of the wayshrines out in the wild had views to take in, or nearby sites of interest. So it took up the majority of a day.

---

Back at Snugpod, I told Isobel about our exploration, and asked how her day had gone.

"How many delves did you run through today? And did you get to 'meet up' with Bud again?" I inquired.

"Er, not so many as usual," she replied. "When I met Bud at the Enclave, he had his brother with him, and another Orc. They'd just taken a pledge from Maj, and were looking for a fourth to do the dungeon.

"They explained to me that a pledge dungeon is a private deal for the four, so nobody else gets sent there. You get to plan your strategy ... well, as much as the enemy will let you!

"It wasn't what I was used to, but a new challenge was just what I needed, so I agreed to join them. We went off to find the Banished Cells in Auridon, and discussed tactics on the way. Bud's brother Fiorello was a damage-dealing mage like he was, but the other guy was more of a group healer. His staff was a Restoration one, and he could cast stronger heals than I could. So I'd mostly be up close, holding the boss still, like I usually did when there was just two of us. I could handle that, especially with the sword and shield they'd brought along for me.

"I probably should have noticed that bit of pre-planning on their part, but at the time, I just thanked Stendarr for the forethought. And it really did all work out nicely with the fights we had. They were tougher than I was used to, doing just delves, but the step up wasn't too hard. Having three sources of damage makes things go faster, especially with the lesser enemies. The bosses were a challenge, but I like a challenge!"

Izzie paused, and looked a bit sheepish, before she continued.

"When we got outside after the final boss fight, I started to suspect why they'd asked me along. We were on a beach, stinking of deadra gore, and Bud knew what that meant. And so did I, and I like a challenge, as I just said. The prospect of extra fun had crossed my mind, too.

"And wow, did I have a lot of fun!"

"All three at once? You're not part Dunmer, are you? That's the sort of thing I'd be doing!"

We chatted a bit more about our experiences of multiple partners. This was her first time, but I had a few other variations to tell her about.

"With a Daedric Princess?" she exclaimed.

"And I got to keep him after all that," I replied. "Still, I miss some of the others, too. I guess you can't take the Dunmer out of me, even after I've found a good one."

"You should start doing the pledges, too," Isobel suggested. "There's a lot of possible combinations of four, and any of them suit my tastes."

"I'll give it some thought. Writs, and other dailies take up a lot of time, and the pledges don't contribute to our getting Hunding's. We have a lot of considerations, other than having fun."

Maybe Clark and Isobel encountered the Chorrol guild bouncing between the Aldcroft dolmen and the WB werewolf trio.

Pairing up with Gabriel to share complementary wayshrines is a good idea.

Seems Isobel enjoyed her pledge. . . and the apparently obligatory post pledge orgy with her orc pals. From what I’ve heard of orc mating practices, and Isobel being a Breton, it seems she proved her tankiness both in the dungeon and after.

Isobel!

That oh so shiny armour I have you in might be a little tarnished now! You know, from the bathing on the beach and cleaning the gore and. Erm. Orc related stuff.

Wait, that doesn't sound right.



Oh boy. Wait until they discover trials and the possible combinations of twelve. Are Clark and Isobel proficient with variables and spreadsheets?

@Acadian: I suspect that might have been the Chorrol guild. Everything did go down quickly.

@burnt: Isobel thinks she might have overdone it. In-game, she prefers delves to group dungeons, and now she understands why they may be too much of a good thing.

-----

Previously: Exploration of Wrothgar and Vvardenfell plus a group event.

-----

Lion Guard

Not long after that, we got the assignment to close Dark Anchors in Glenumbra again, so we went to the Lion Guard Redoubt wayshrine, to see if Gabrielle was still there. It was on our way to the King's Guard dolmen, anyway.

She was there, and had news for us. The talisman we'd helped her try to restore had been analysed, and replicated. It had a specific resistance enchanted on it, and she thought she knew what it was for. The Lion Guard had sent a squad to follow up reports of the Bloodthorn cult at the nearby Cath Bedraud cemetery, and they hadn't returned. A second, larger, squad had followed to investigate the first, and potentially rescue them. Now they were overdue, too.

"They were probably overcome by whatever this talisman protects against. We have enough for you and Isobel, if you'd help me go and find out."

Cath Bedraud was nearer than the dolmen, although there was a rock ridge in between, and we'd have to come back here to get to the other side. We decided to go with Gabrielle, especially as she seemed determined to go herself, and whatever was there had already overcome two squads of Lion Guard.

"It wouldn't be knightly to let her go alone," Izzie declared, so we were going, too.

---

Closer to the cemetery, we could see a thick mist surrounding the place. An unnatural one, not pooling in the valleys, but staying on top of the hill inside the cemetery gates. We started to find some of the Lion Guard soldiers, mostly dead, but one was lying wounded, or at least choking from the effects of the mist. Gabrielle stayed with him, to try and heal him, while Izzie and I went ahead, to look for more.

It wasn't just the mist guarding the place. Hostile skeletons, and the necromancers who'd raised them, were everywhere. No sign of more Lion Guard inside the fence, so far, not even dead ones.

And then we found them. Half a dozen, all lying unconscious side by side, and another seemingly unaffected, trying to heal them, or at least keep them alive.

"We should have brought more of those amulets," Izzie remarked.

The unaffected Lion Guard introduced himself as Darien Gautier, leader of the squad. He told us that the necromancers all had amulets like the one she'd mentioned, but he couldn't leave the soldiers to try and get some. Maybe we could?

"How did you get one?" I asked.

"I haven't got one," he replied. "Somehow the mist isn't affecting me, and I have no idea why not. These men need them, hurry!"

When we got back with enough amulets for the men, we found that Gabrielle had caught up with us, and was helping attend to the poisoned men.

"This beautiful woman from the Mages Guild just arrived. Says she knows you! You can introduce me later," Darien said. 'I was right about the amulets, though, wasn't I?"

Once the knights all had their amulets, and were getting back to their feet again, Gabrielle told Darien to get them back to the redoubt. The three of us would remain and try to clear up the source of the poisonous mist, in the crypts below. He agreed, but he was coming back to assist, as soon as he'd done so.

"Count on me to get the knights out of here. You just protect Gabrielle. If this mad plan actually works, I'll see you inside the crypt."

---

We collected a few more of the amulets on our way to the middle of the cemetery. Gabrielle's plan, as she'd described to Darien, was to amplify the enchantment to open the entrance to the catacombs. Once inside, she could open a portal for reinforcements to join us from the redoubt, bypassing the mists completely. She was sure that Angof the Gravesinger, leader of the Bloodthorns, made the crypts his headquarters. That would be a level further down, so the catacombs were a good place to assemble our forces.

We had to defend her as she opened the catacombs door. The spell took a long time to cast, and doing so attracted the attention of just about any remaining skeletons, or necromancers, that we hadn't already fought. But eventually it was done, and we entered the catacombs. Now to find a good spot for the portal into the crypts.

"Some of the dead were protected by wards designed to prevent desecration. Look for a tomb with these wards and use this stone there. That should be safe enough for my purposes," Gabrielle told us, handing me a binding stone. "I'll stay here and open one for the knights to join us.'

As soon as we had placed the binding stone, a portal appeared and Gabrielle caught up with us. "Go on. Through the portal with you. There's no time to waste."

We stepped through into the crypts. "Good, you found the perfect spot for …. Wait, where are the others?"

"Others?"

"Yes. Sir Lanis and his knights volunteered to come with me, but I only see Dame Alexine. There must have been too many of us for the binding stone. This isn't good. The other knights could have been scattered throughout the crypts."

"So we need to round them up first," I replied.

"Right. But listen—there's only one way to get out of these crypts. You have to kill Angof. I don't have any other way to deal with his various protections and defenses now that I'm down here. He dies or we never leave. Those are our choices. And everything was just starting to go so well, too."

---

The final group of knights we found included Sir Lanis, and Darien.

"Dear Gabrielle's spell seems to have misfired. Luckily, a few of us were able to find each other. I also convinced a Bloodthorn cultist to tell me how to reach Angof. I can be persuasive when I put my mind to it."

Apparently, reaching Angof would require collecting some shard keys. We left him with Gabrielle, and set off to collect them.Two of the three were simply guarded, and all we had to do was defeat the guardians. The third had a riddle to solve, sort of. There was an incantation we needed to read, and repeat, word for word, back where the guardian spirit stood. So we had to find that, first, before we got the shard key.

With all three keys in hand, we assembled at the door to Angof's sanctum. Gabrielle, Darien and Sir Lanis entered with Isobel and me.

"There's not a lot of room to fight him," Gabrielle declared, "so here's my plan. You two take on Angof directly, and I'll defend you with a magic barrier when you need it. Sir Lanis and Darien will need to defend me while I'm doing that. We'll do what we can to help. Just stay away from his vines."

Whenever Angof started to cast one of his major attacks, she cast her barrier to counter it. "Get to the light, before his magic destroys you!"

The minions Angof summoned seemed to want to target the larger group, and Sir Lanis and Darien were kept busy, too. But that left Angof more exposed to Izzie and me, and we were able to wear him down, and finish him off. Gabrielle could now open another portal, back to the redoubt.

---

"Well, now, wasn't that fun? I'd fight alongside you anytime," said Darien. "But I'd rather carouse. You do carouse, don't you?"

Gabrielle almost agreed. "All right, maybe fun isn't the right word. But you were glorious! Angof is finally dead. We can't thank you enough for what you've done."

That reminded me what we hadn't done. Isobel and I ran off to attend to that dolmen. It would be an anti-climax to the day, but we needed to complete our daily quest for the Fighters Guild.

"It wouldn't be knightly to let her go alone," Izzie declared.’
That is so very Isobel – and informs so many of her choices.

Ugh, poison mist and necrodudes. The group did a nice job taking down minions and, finally, Angof.

I hope Clark and Izzy finally got that dolman closed!