WARNING: ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM SPOILERS!
Bandits, Brotherhood and Booze
Upon exiting the shack Roggi somehow miraculously managed to find me. My suspicions of his involvement grew, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he had magic arrows that showed you which direction to go and who to talk to too.
We found ourselves extremely close to the place I had been told to go to to retreive the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, so seeing as I’d put it off for so long I figured now was a good time to grab it.
Roggi thought it would be funny to wear one of the execution hoods taken from the captives in the shack.
We made our way through the tomb searching for the Horn, but when we found the place it should have been, we found it wasn’t there. What was there was a note to meet someone in the Riverwood Inn. So that was our next stop.
A woman named Delphine was waiting for us and told me how she thought a dragon would be born in Kynesgrove very soon. She gave me the Horn on condition that I come with her to kill it and prove that I am this Dragonborn.
I agreed and then noticed that at some point during the conversation Roggi had disappeared. He must have dashed off home as soon as he heard Kynesgrove was in trouble.
Delphine and I hurried there ourselves and she showed me the place that would supposedly be where the dragon would rise.
Sure enough there was a show. The dragon that had attacked Helgen on my first day here showed up and resurrected an old friend before ordering it to destroy us and flying away.
Delphine and I beat the English speaking monster, I devoured its soul and she was satisfied that I was who I was meant to be. She told me to meet her back at Riverwood to talk some more. No sooner had she left that Roggi found me again. A little too late to be of any use.
On the way back Roggi and I decided to go for a bounty hunt. A giant was wanted for causing trouble and we were the guys to sort him out. It was a tough fight, particularly for this stranger.
When I searched his corpse, I found a letter from Deekus advising him to teach ME a lesson. Perhaps I didn’t kill Deekus as thoroughly as I thought.
I decided to stop at Breezehome for a breather and to drop off some unnecessary baggage. Thought this glass sword made a nice decoration. My Elven War Axe has a deadlier blade anyway.
Dropped into a building I was yet to visit in Whiterun after hearing that the fort was built around it. There I met a group called the Companions, who seemed like a good bunch and I asked if I could join up. Of course they wanted me to prove I was worth their time so one of the guys, Farkas told me I needed to rough up someone who had been stirring trouble in their area.
I asked who needed to be spoken to and I couldn’t believe it when he told me it was my old friend Faendal.
Assuming that his fued with Sven hadn’t been resolved as I’d hoped, I headed over there to speak with him.
We went for about four rounds of fisticuffs with Roggi cheering me on before he finally gave in. Our own differences resolved, we repaired our friendship and Faendal agreed to behave.
While in Riverwood we visited Delphine as she wanted and she told me that she thought the Thalmor Elves were behind the dragons returning and that we should investigate. Again I agreed.
As I was in the area I decided to fulfil another unkept promise by retrieving a blade called Nettlebane from a Hag to be returned to the Temple of Kynareth in Whiterun. I got it and took it back only to be asked to take it to the Eldergleam Sanctuary to get some sort of healing sap from the tree. A guy called Maurice Jondrelle asked if he could come with me because he had always wanted to see the tree. I said it would be fine.
Before heading out though I decided to let the Companions know that Faendal wouldn’t be any more trouble. What happened there was that I was told to go on another mission to retrieve an important artifact for them. Farkas was told to go with me and for some reason he made Roggi go home. So I set out with my two new companions.
The Companions Quest in Dustmans Cairn was closer and seemed more pressing, so assuming that Maurice wouldn’t mind the delay (despite him constantly saying he was in a hurry) we went there first.
We were greeted by a few skeletons and a nasty Draugr but the gang pulled through.
Feeling confident we headed into the tomb and discovered that someone else had got there first. There was a trail of dead Draugr and some mining equipment. We went in deeper.
Suddenly, we were swarmed by a group of Draugr who put up an amazing fight. Unfortunately, Maurice was not destined to see the Eldergleam after all…
What confused me was that he was carrying a powerful Elven Axe of Burning but insisted on using just his fists in battle.
Farkas and I journeyed onwards, sad for letting poor Maurice down and dragging him down here at all.
It wasn’t long before some thugs cornered us and Farkas was forced to reveal a scary secret. He was in fact a werewolf and within a few seconds the thugs were all dead.
Letting the surprise sink in, we carried on going until we found the artifact, a fragment of Wuuthrad, the blade of Ysgramor.
On arrival it was unguarded. I had a feeling this was too easy. I took the fragment and immediately the largest wave of Draugr I had ever seen burst out from various coffins.
The fight was long and hard but eventually Farkas, my Atronach and I were victorious.
We took the fragment back to the Companions and I was welcomed as one of them. Farkas rejoined his Shield-Siblings and I went my own way agreeing to rescue a friend of Vilkas.
Roggi had long since headed to Kynesgrove, so I decided it was time for Lydia to rejoin me.
I also thought we should try to tackle that cave full of Falmer again that she had previously insisted we explore. We barely made it out alive the first time, but now with our improved equipment and experience it was worth another shot.
It was a little easier this time round but still a challenge. And the rewards were minimal. I began feeling reminded as to why I left Lydia at home the first time round.
Like a fool I let Lydia talk me into exploring another cave. This time it was full of spiders and again provided little reward
Lydia did get a chance to practice her magic though, conjuring a little dog to follow her. (I could do that before I knew I was Dragonborn…)
She’s so cute thinking she’s a mighty mage.
Our next stop was picking up a book lost in a cave for Urag the College Librarian. I wish he had warned us that the place was crawling with a band of very tough bandits.
Lydia wrestled with two of them underwater. I was impressed.
The aftermath:
Once we’d secured the book, killed all the bandits and slaughtered the Sabre Cat they held captive we wandered over to the nearby Eldergleam Sanctuary. I had visited here before with Roggi, but we hadn’t stayed long.
It was an amazing place and the two people who lived there were lovely, Asta and Sond. Maurice would have liked it.
Using Nettlebane, we went up and took a little sap from the tree. Something wasn’t happy about this as a Spriggan Mother and some of its children attacked us.
When the battle was over we found the two residents had been killed and felt a little to blame…
Rather than heading straight back to Whiterun, we dropped into Riften where now it seems I have joined the Thieves Guild. I’m in two minds about this. I felt bad framing that fellow. He seemed nice enough and I had helped him in discovering his heritage already. The thieves seem a shady bunch and I was attacked multiple times making my way to their hideout under the city.
As a way of proving myself to them they asked me to get some people to settle their debts with them. I decided to deal with Keerava first in the pub. That didn’t take long after getting her lover to give me a little advice on how to convince her.
Straight afterwards a chap called Sam challenged me to a drinking contest. Thinking it would be fun I accepted…
Some time later I awoke in Markath being scolded by this woman…
How the blazes did I get to Markarth? I’ve never been there before AND it’s the complete opposite side of Skyrim!
Part 4 ‘Dwarven Ruins, Daedric Princes, Drunken Nights and a Dog’ Here
Chapter List Here
