The Vianto Diaries - Entries 8-9

• Posted by Andrew Shepherd July 10, 2015 - 732 views

  Dairy entry 8. Date - 2nd of Sun's Dusk ( I actually know the date for a change)

   So I made it to Dawnstar without incident, except I could no longer feel my buttocks - the boat owner gave me a pair of ragged pants which weren't very warm... I got to Dawnstar with virtually no money but there was work in the mines so I made a bit of money mining quicksilver. Then I discovered that my silver 1 % increase smithing skill ring had enabled me to create a quicksilver dining set. I found that when I enchanted it with a fire enchantment, it would cook food at the same time as eating it, negating the need for cooking first! It was the first great thing I had done in Skyrim! I was so proud of my achievement that I took it to the Jarl to see if he was interested in buying a set - he was so impressed that he offered me 1000 septims for the patent. In retrospect, I really shouldn't have sold out, but I was desperate for money so I caved and sold it to him.

   Newly cashed up and geared out I headed to the tavern for some mead with juniper berries, but every poor sod in there looked like they had the hang-over from hell. It turned out they were all suffering from horrible night-mares and none of them could sleep. I could certainly sympathise with that - ever since my experience in Labyrinthian and the reach I had had the same problem..

   This priest of Mara, Earandur approached me and told me that the nightmares were being caused by an artifact in the nearby temple and would I be able to help him destroy it. I was pretty drunk by then and he made it sound like a pretty easy get in, break the staff and get out job, and he said it might help with my nightmares too so I said yes. Turns out he was a lying bastard.

   We get to the temple and it was full of formerly comatose and now pyschotic Vermina worshippers and Orcs which we had to fight through, then it turned out Earandur used to be a cultist too, then he tricked me into drinking a potion that put me in someone else's head back in time to break down a barrier (turns out it was his head, which is messed up) and then after fighting another couple of psychos who were not asleep so I couldn't stab them before they got up, we get to the staff which turned out to be the f***ing SKULL OF CORRUPTION which parents told their kids about to scare them into going to bed when I was little. Earandur starts up a spell that would destroy the staff, and it creates this sizzling barrier around it and I just stand in the background waiting. Then I hear the daedric prince's voice in my head, telling me to kill Earandur and take the staff. Now I'm not really the murdering type, I've done what I had to do in the past, but I've been so humiliated and disrespected since coming to Skyrim, that being lied to by Earandur was a bit more than I could bear. So I gave him a little shove, not really meaning to hurt him, but he tripped and fell head first into the barrier and IT MELTED HIS HEAD!

   So anyway, after I had gotten over the shock, I took the staff and ran back down to Dawnstar, but everyone who saw me coming ran the other way in abject terror, the guards started firing arrows at me and I was obliged to steal the ferry man's boat and row with everything I had along the coast! So now I am again sitting in this bloody row boat, freezing again, writing in this damn journal again. It never ends! I'm thinking if I can get to the College of Winterfell or whatever its called I might be able to flog both of these staves and make enough money to get out of here! Arkay!!

  Diary entry 9 - some day in Sun's Dusk.

   I am now sitting at the bar in the tarvern in Winterhold, at last warm and comfortable, sipping on fine Alto wine and writing in my journal after several harrowing days of yet another epic ordeal (some people call them adventures, I call them ordeals...)

   Last I wrote I was sitting in a stolen dinghy bobbing up and down on the frigid Sea of Ghosts, somewhere between Dawnstar and Winterhold, again freezing my butt off. I had rowed until my arms and back burned and then a stiff breeze came along and thankfully pushed me in the direction I needed to go, so I finished the rest of my meager rations and rested. I could see numerous predators patrolling up and down the coastline, but fortunately none of them dared to come in after me. Until I suddenly realized that snow bears can swim. Really well. One came charging down into the surf and began paddling furiously towards me. I had no really effective weapons, but then I came up with the idea of casting frost spells into the water infront of the bear and creating mini-icebergs as obstacles. So the bear kept climbing up over the berg, then falling off again, and after several attempts realized it would be easier to chase some horkers that were flopping about on the shore line and gave up.

   After that I was exhausted so I stopped on a clear bit of shoreline where I thought there was a campfire, but it turned out to be the burning corpse of some poor fool who had tried to cast flame cloak and failed miserably. The spell tome was lying nearby so I read it thinking that it might come in handy as a last resort...

   So after a rest, and (I am ashamed to admit it) some charred Yisra (I was starving, ok?) I got back in the boat and continued rowing.

  Nothing else disturbed me for a few hours until I realised that ice-wraiths can fly over water - one of them attacked me whilst I was having a short nap. The first thing I felt was a very sharp and cold stabbing pain in my leg and I suddenly awoke to find this frozen horror with its fangs imbedded in my thigh. So in my panic I cast the flame cloak spell, which worked a treat in destroying the wraith, but had the unfortunate consequence of catching the boat on fire as well, so I had to jump into the freezing water and make for shore.

   When I finally dragged myself up onto the beach I heard the unmistakeable roar of a frost troll, and I thought, this is it, this it where it all ends, but then I realised the roar was a scream of pain and when I looked up I saw several warriors cutting it down. Afterwards, the lead warrior, who's name I now know is Farkas helped me to my feet and they built a fire and gave me some food. I told them my story which they all greatly enjoyed, but I wasn't going to complain because they had saved me from certain death and they also offered to accompany me to Winterhold. So I smiled and kept my mouth shut.

   Unfortunately, on the way there, I kept trying to engage Farkas in conversation. Not only is he not much of a talker, but I kept pronouncing his name as Fark Arse, which made him really annoyed. After several hours we came to a hilltop looking out over the College and Farkas pointed it out and said the town was just below the hill. I said "Thank you so much for all your help, Fark Arse" and he replied angrily "you should be able to make it from here!" and promptly shoved me down the hill. I slid for a bit but then started rolling and before I knew it I had become a large snow ball which rolled into the town and killed several chickens. A couple of guards saw the incident and fined me 40 septims for killing the chickens, even though it was an accident!  Bastards! Anyway, that's the worst that happened and I made it to the tavern. Tomorrow I will try and sell these Arkay-damned staves to the mages at the college.