- 15th of Sun's Dawn, 4E 202 -
So after sleeping half of the day away I rode out of Solitude feeling pretty good. With plenty of sleep and plenty of gold in my pocket, I felt a renewed sense of accomplishment. The question was what to do next. I still don't feel prepared to go back and confront the ice wraith, and the cave with the sabre cats is definitely still off limits. So I decided to head to the swamps near Morthal to collect ingredients for new paralyze potions.
I had nearly ridden to Dragon Bridge when I came across a band of imperial soldiers with a prisoner. I've encountered this several times over the past months, but had yet to do anything about it. Today I felt inspired, though. Today I would strike back at the imperials and free my fellow nord.
I turned Kili around and ran her back up the road and down to the stormcloak camp. If I was going to free this prisoner and take on a trio of legion swordsman I would need some help, and that meant the prisoner would need a weapon. I talked to the stormcloak quarter master and decided to purchase a pair of steel daggers. I could only hope the prisoner knew how to handle himself with daggers.
I also noticed the quartermaster had a very nice magical dwarven mace .. better than my own. But it was a good two hundred gold more than I had on me. Still, if I could take down the imperials and sell back their gear, maybe I could afford the new weapon. It was worth a try.
With the daggers in hand I hurried Kili back up to the road. I had poisoned the daggers to help the fight, and poisoned my mace as well. It was going to be a difficult fight for sure, and I prayed to Talos to grant the prisoner added strength today. I would need his help.
After hiding Kili in the nearby bushes I walked out to meet the patrol. They were immediately defensive and warned me to mind my own business, but I wasn't about to do that. Instead I quickly drew the daggers and cut the prisoner's bindings, handing the daggers to him a moment later. The soldiers drew their swords and I my mace, and we were in the thick of it.
The prisoner turned out to be a poor fighter. Granted, he was wearing no armor and apparently only knew how to use a blade with one hand. Within a short time he was dead on the road and I was only a few strikes away from the same fate.
There was only one option left for me, so I ran. The three soldiers pursued me, so close on my heels I expected a blade to the back at any moment. I ran through the trees, jumping down from rock to rock, trying to do whatever I could to evade the blades behind me.
As I jumped down a fairly large ledge an arrow hit me in the back and it nearly finished me. But I was alive somehow, and the soldiers were somewhere uphill from me. For the moment it seemed I was safe, but the imperials were between me and the road .. and Kili. I needed an escape plan.
I peeked around the edge of the rocks and almost instantly three arrows whizzed past my head. That was obviously not the way to go. So I spent the next hour climbing back up the rocks and winding my way around to the left of the soldiers. It was a long and difficult climb, but I made it back to the road and my horse.
But inside me, there was a piece of me that wasn't ready to give up. Just laying my eyes on the dead prisoner made me want to finish those soldiers. But how? I had already proven I was no match for them together. So maybe if I could lure them apart from each other.
I mounted Kili and rode her back down the mountain. The soldiers were on their way back up, and drew their bows the moment they spotted me. I dug my heels into Kili's side and took off again. The soldiers gave chase.
Despite all of my efforts over the next hour I couldn't seem to separate the imperials from each other. I was about ready to give up and cut my losses, but then an idea came to me. The stormcloak camp wasn't too far, and stormcloaks hate imperials as much as I do. If I could lead these legion soldiers to the camp, I might be able to recruit some real help.
It took me the rest of the afternoon to accomplish this, and took all my horsemanship skills to keep the soldiers coming. I was nearly dizzy from weaving in and out of the trees, up and down the hill .. when finally one of the stormcloaks caught sight of the imperials.
What followed was a very swift fight fought only with bows and arrows. Three imperials against a half dozen stormcloaks. It ended with three imperials dead. I looted their bodies, well two of them anyways. I think the third fell from a cliff and despite two hours of searching I couldn't find him.
After selling off the imperial gear I had just barely enough gold for the new mace. I was a little nervous about committing all my gold this way. I had just gotten myself out of a hole, and had promised not spend all my gold again. But this new mace was glorious, and I had to have it. I might not see a weapon like it again for a really long time. So I bought it. And once again, after buying dinner tonight, I have a meager fifty gold in my pocket. I hope this mace was worth it.