19/20th of Sun's Dusk, 4E 201
Hulda finally let me leave the inn yesterday, after my wounds had been fully treated. The temple healers had recognized the soreness I felt as Bone Break Fever, and as such they were able to cure it before it became serious. As soon as I left the Bannered Mare and sold off a few extra things I had been carrying, I took the carriage to Riften, but not before speaking with a group of warriors of the Alik'r Coterie who were trying to gain entry to the city. They were arguing with a city guard over something, and the guard won out, which caused the mercenaries to begin making their way out of the city walls. Curious as to what any fellow natives of Hammerfell would be doing here in Skyrim, I caught up with them and struck up a conversation.
The warriors were in search of a Redguard woman, a noble of Taneth who fled from Hammerfell after selling out her city to the Thalmor. I remembered back to when I was a very young boy, when the Great War was still being fought. I vaguely recalled the men of my family grumbling about a traitor who allowed the Thalmor to sack much of the south. Anyway, the warriors believed that the traitor was living in Whiterun under an assumed name, but because of their reputation as sellswords suited less for politeness and society and more for getting their job done, the warriors would not be allowed into the city. They informed me that they were headed to Rorikstead, and they could be found waiting there if I had any information about the traitor. I assured them I would let them know if I learned anything, then climbed into the carriage.
I arrived in Riften extremely late last night, just as today was beginning, and walked into the city to find only the guards up and about. I began to make my way to the Bee and Barb, but suddenly, a roar shattered the quiet of the night. A dragon was attacking the city.
The monster landed atop one of the shops of the market and began spewing flame from its mouth towards the numerous people who rushed out to defend their city. At least half the city guard were launching arrows at the dragon as it took off from its perch and found a new one. This went on for a few moments before the populous's attacks began to do some serious damage. The shower of arrows, including my own from my frost enchanted bow eventually brought the dragon to land next to the cemetary. Immediately, townspeople and guards swarmed the creature, slicing at it from all angles. The beast caught one elf in its jaws and threw him against the city wall, but as it began moving towards another person, I used my shout of force to interrupt the attack. While the dragon was still stunned, I climbed onto its neck and drove my sword into its skull. The flesh began to disintegrate, and now the people were stunned. More than anything else I was tired, so I left the gawking crowd and headed inside to the inn, collecting a few scales and bones on the way, as well as a coin purse the dragon must have consumed while killing some person.
After I slept at the inn, I walked back outside to the marketplace and found it abuzz as usual. Some of the guards and townsfolk who had been outside when I killed the dragon applauded me on my bravery, or marveled at my gall. Those who had been asleep were astonished by the idea that they might be in the midst of a Dragonborn. I did my best to stay somewhat modest; save the tavern tales for back home in Hammerfell, where my stories of battling dragons and whatnot might be even more outlandish and incredible. After slipping on an Amulet of Zenithar I picked up not long ago, I sold some of the dragon bones and scales I had collected to Brand-Shei, who assured me he would have some rare jewelry made from them and I would perhaps receive a piece in return from protecting the city; the rest went to Belrand the blacksmith, who was pleased at the opportunity to experiment with forging from dragon bones and scales. After this was done, I set off for Fort Dawnguard, simply to see what developments had been made in the fight against the vampires. Close to the city gate I was attacked by three vampires, who I put down swiftly with the help of the guards. It was not long before I reached the Fort. I asked Soraine if she could show me how to craft crossbow bolts, and she obliged, and even tried to show me how to craft a crossbow. She said anyone with some basic knowledge of steel smithing could do it, but I have no knowledge of smithing whatsoever. I did grasp crafting bolts to a point, but I'll have to learn from a blacksmith how to work metal if I am to craft anything of some quality. Soraine tasked me with retrieving a set of Dwemer schematics from a bandit camp near Falkreath as I bid her goodbye. I will retrieve them when I next return to Rayya.
Outside, I decided to begin walking to Ivarstead, and thought it best to go throught Shor's Stone, passing through the Black-Briar property. The property was near Dayspring Canyon, and I found it quickly, as I had been there when I retrieved Frost for Louis Letrush. I found that there were again mercenaries guarding the lodge, and they took none too kindly to my trespassing. Like those before them, the sellswords died quickly by my hands. I exited the propery and began venturing to the woods. I followed a brook to an open space, dotted with trees here and there. I heard a growl in the distance. All of a sudden, two frostbite spiders sprung upon me! I am resistant to their venom, but the arachnids' strong strikes at me were painful and quick. It was a group of spiders that left me bedridden for a week not long ago, so I knew to run. And run I did...
Right into a pack of four bears. I was in over my head and had to think quick. I glanced over my shoulder and saw a fort in the distance. Holding off the bears as best as I could was taking its toll on my stamina and my life was ebbing away, and my heart was beginning to pound more violently than before. As is in the blood of Redguards, my adrenaline reserves kicked in and I moved my feet like never before. The rush was enough to get me to the fort. There were at least three bandits around the fort, but they would more likely be concerned with the four bears than me. I was right for the most part, as I retreated up to the top of part of the fort, which had been somewhat consumed by nature, while a bandit rushed into the fray. He must've been in a thick stupor of skooma and mead or something, because he seemed to think he could take on all four bears. A bandit was firing arrows down next to me, and I did the same. Our efforts did bring down one bear, but after that, the bandit next to me decided I was worth his attention, and I had to kill him. When I turned back, I looked down to see the bandit who fought with sword and shield being mauled to death. Another bandit came running from inside the fort just in time to meat the bears rushing up to where I was, and he met a similar fate, while I jumped to the ground and quickly made my way into the fort.
My eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim light. When my sight returned, I glanced around the place and saw that it was a bit ruined, with stone rubble littering the floor, along with pots, tankards, and some miscellaneous items. There was a lower chamber of the room visible through a wooden frame near the floor, though it was inaccessible. I lurched onto a nearby bench and unwrapped my meal; cooked rabbit, an apple, a loaf of bread, and a bottle of ale. I needed that ale after being chased by four bears! After my quick supper I continued through the fort. The inside of the fort was relatively barren, except for a few brigands in the captain's quarters. Once I cleared the bandit chief's quarters I found a few hundred Septims and a piece of steel armor to sell. I stowed these things away and climbed up the ladder leading outside.
Shor's Stone was a short walk from there. I considered staying the night in the settlement and heading to Ivarstead the next day, but because Shor's Stone is a small mining settlement, there is no inn, so I just sold the steel armor I looted and kept walking. I knew I had to follow the river to reach Ivarstead, and just outside the settlement was a small mountain, so I decided to hike up the side and get my bearings on where the river was. About this time the sky was beginning to darken, and it looked as if it might rain. I contemplated this until I reached the peak of the mountain, when a dragon swooped up and began to bathe me in frost. I loosed a few arrows at the dragon, but its frost was doing mor damage than I was. It flew away, so while I prepared for it to circle back, I gulped down a couple small health potions and looked for a place to defend myself. I spotted a shack below me and decided the roof would help me defend myself from the dragon's breathe while it was airborne. As the beast started to swoop back around I climbed as quickly as I could down the rocky face and ran into the shack, crouching and trying to conserve my strength. The dragon made another pass through the air, then come down for a landing. I sprung from behind the wooden wall and swung wildly at the dragon, but it was strong, and harder to defeat without ten, twenty men by your side. I even used the shout I learned in the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary to weaken the monster– I had managed to use the energy of the soul of the dragon I killed in Riften to use the shout– but I was ineffective overall. The dragon took off again, and I took my last few health potions. This went on for more than an hour at least, the only change being that I would run from the other two shacks I saw nearby, darting from cover to cover. Eventually as I weakened and the dragon did not, I knew this had to end, so I devised a strategy: when the dragon took off from the ground, I would make a break for the cliff face opposite my position, find a crevice I could fit into, drink an invisibility potion, and wait for the dragon to leave me be. When the opportunity presented itself, I ran, jumped down to a small crack in a boulder, drank a couple potions- and waited. The dragon saw which way I went, but not exactly where I was. It flew around and faced me, hovering in place and searching for my figure, but it had no luck and left as I hoped. I glanced back at the clearing where those shacks were and saw why the dragon was there; there was a word wall between two of the shacks I hadn't noticed, and it dawned on me this was the dragon's roost. As I scaled the cliff in the dark, I regretted not making an attempt to learn the word the dragon guarded before escaping, and I vowed to return with help.
It was nighttime when I got back on the road to Ivarstead, and I had only a steep mountain road left between me and the village, but I heard a bear somewhere up ahead, so at a fork in the road I took the road that led back towards Whiterun until I found a dirt path that would eventually take me back up past the bear and closer to Ivarstead. The path did not lead directly onto the road however; I found myself at an unknown cave. I didn't know what I would find within, but I hoped for a bedroll and little if any resistance. Unfortunately, there was not a bedroll to be found, only a coven of witches led by a Hagraven, a humdred or so Septims, a paralysis staff (which could prove useful in more than a couple situations, as I'll explain) and a set of scaled horn armor which I am debating using in favor of my Dawnguard piece. By the time I made my way out it was well into the night. As I walked along the road I noticed a man with a quiver of arrows on his back, doubled over next to an overturned cart. I asked if he was alright and if I could help him, and he said bandits ransacked his goods and wounded him, and if I could get him back to his camp at the ruins of Nilheim nearby he would reward me. I was only in search of a bed, so I obliged. When we reached the camp I saw the bandits had taken it over, and he ran to the ruined tower and pulled his bow. I quickly realized it was an ambush.
Four or five bandits came running at me at once. I used my shout which drains vitality upon the group and did my best to fight them off, but I was weakening, and was already tired from traveling all night, so I fled to the tower, and escaped the brigands' view. The bandits bided their time outside, both searching to see if I had gone somewhere other than the tower and preparing to burst in if I had. There was one bandit on the first level of the structure whom I managed to kill, but he must have been the weakling of the group, as he was easy to kill. I rummaged about the single drawer before retreating up the wooden ramp to the second level. By now the bandits decided I had gone into the tower, and they were taking their time coming in. The bandit who tricked me was creeping up towards the entrance. When he walked in, I was ready. I met him with a bash from my shield, then another, and another, driving him out to the edge of the walkway and not letting him harm me. When he was teetering, I shouted him to his death.
I decided to search up one level and found in a chest a Dwemer shield, enchanted with a strong resistance to shock. I grabbed it and turned to find a bandit right in front of me who apparently had been asleep on a bedroll in the shadows! I smashed her backwards and jumped past her onto the other side of the third floor, which had a gaping hole in the center. The bandit, being a burly Nord woman, couldn't quite jump far enough to reach me, ams she wasn't quite smart enough to consider calling for help. This bought me some time, and let me formulate a plan for disposing of the woman. When the sun was just peaking over the mountaintops I jumped down next to the door outside and used my life-draining shout to weaken the bandit, then backpedaled outside. I pulled out the paralysis staff and charged it, and when the woman came running out and threw her weight into a mighty swing of her battleaxe, I released the staff's charge onto her. Her momentum threw her frozen body haplessly down the walkway, which acted as a ramp, and all the way down to the ground just outside the circle of brigands who sat around a campfire, having given up on their search for me. The woman survived, astonishingly enough– probably thanks to the paralysis– and alerted her friends to my presence. By no means did I stick around after that, for I had crept out of the watchtower and was running along the riverbank to Ivarstead by then. Right now I'm slumped exhausted and half asleep in a chair in the Vilemyr Inn, eating a heavy breakfast and looking forward to climbing into bed.
