- Fredas, 31st of Frostfall, 4E 201
I have spent the last few days drowning my sorrows in ale. I believe my tab is well into the hundreds, but it is no matter. I still have enough coin to carry me through Sun's Dusk on ale alone.
I finally felt the energy to leave the inn and browse the shops around town today. After finding nothing of interest at Gray Pine Goods or from Lod, the blacksmith, I wandered into a small alchemy shop named Grave Concoctions. A lone Redguard woman tended a counter covered in a variety of poisons, poultices, and solvents. All sorts of flowers, herbs, and fungi flourished all across the store. It was positively mesmerizing.
Perhaps alchemy was more than I once thought. Alchemy is not just about potions to restore your health and stamina. It is an art in which you use natural ingredients to create all sorts of useful things. Lethal poisons to drain, slow, or paralyze your enemies, poultices to fortify your skills in a particular area, potions allowing you to resist the elements. All of it can be created by a skilled alchemist, which is what I now plan to become. A new hobby is just what I need distract me from Faendal's death, anyway.
I greeted the woman and she introduced herself as Zaria. I told her I was an aspiring alchemist and she offered me a recipe for a resist fire potion. The recipe called for a cup of Bonemeal and a pinch of Frost Salts be ground together at an alchemylab. I knew I could probably obtain Bonemeal from a Draugr in Bleak Falls Barrow, but I had never heard of Frost Salts. I asked Zaria where I could find them and she told me Frost Atronachs, massive, frozen creatures residing in the planes of Oblivion, have them.
I did not plan on going to Oblivion any time soon, so I disregarded the recipe and began mixing various herbs I found lying in the bottom of my satchel. I managed to create a potion that will restore a good bit of my Magicka, should I ever run out. I poured the liquid into a small vial and bid Zaria farewell. I paid my respects at Faendal's grave, then headed to the inn for a drink.
I am excited to pursue my new hobby. It is the only thing I have enjoyed since Faendal's death. I suppose I will hunt game and gather ingredients in the lush forests surrounding Falkreath tomorrow and see what I can create. Faendal would not want me lying around this inn pitying myself another day!