Delphine and I arrived in Kynesgrove just in time to watch a gigantic dragon flying overhead and apparently conducting some kind of ritual. It was the same dragon that attacked Helgen. I think it must have been Alduin himself. I shot at him, but he ignored me like I was throwing dirt. When he completed his ritual, another dragon rose from the earth and attacked us while Alduin flew off. This was the first time I ever heard dragons speak. I hadn’t really thought of them as intelligent before. It spent the entire battle telling me I wasn’t good enough, but in the end, it died and I lived. That impressed Delphine. She watched the dragon’s soul flow into me, and told me that I was the only one who could truly kill a dragon—that unless I absorbed the soul, the dragon could always be resurrected, like we had just seen. As if I hadn’t been overwhelmed before.
Delphine suspected the Thalmor were behind the dragons returning. I told her about the Thalmor searching for the amulet in Markarth, but I left out the part about me being the one to activate it. Delphine had never heard of the amulet, so she was very interested. She said she did not think the Thalmor were aware of me. She may even be right. All the Thalmor that came to Markarth to look for the amulet died at the hands of the Dark Brotherhood—at least I think so.
Delphine’s next idea was for me to infiltrate the Thalmor Embassy by attending a high society party. I was excited to do this job at first, but much like the Goldenglow Estate job, this one ended in a bloodbath. I was feeling confident in the party, wearing my fancy dress, hobnobbing with all the Thalmor toadies, including Maven Black-brier, but once I had met with my contact and snuck out, everything went to hell. I had to kill three guards before I made it to the office, then found myself in the dungeon, where I recognized a prisoner chained to the wall—Etienne, a Guild thief from Riften. My first thought was that they had snatched Etienne to get to me, but Etienne said they were looking for someone named Esbern, who lived in the Ratway Warrens. Great! Another set of Warrens! Then my contact got himself captured and summarily executed, and I had to kill the rest of the guards in order to escape. Outside, I nearly killed Lydia before I recognized her.
I don’t regret killing all those Thalmor. Truth is, the first time I ever noticed the Thalmor Embassy, I fantasized about going on a one-woman rampage. I never really thought it would happen and now it sort of has. Ironically, it turns out the Thalmor don’t know anything. They think the Blades might know something, which is why they are looking for this Esbern character, who was a record keeper for the Blades. I won’t even mention what I learned about Ulfric Stormcloak!
So with many misgivings, I returned to the Ratways to find Esbern, convinced him to trust me and accompany me back to Riverwood to meet with Delphine. There, he shared his books with us. I learned that being Dragonborn is not hereditary, so the mystery of how I could be related to Tiber Septim is resolved. I’m not. My birth parents were probably ordinary orcs, as much as orcs can be ordinary.
Esbern convinced us to travel to a site in the Reach where he believed there was an old Blades stronghold where there might be some answers. We split up, the two of them travelling together, and Lydia with me.
I split with them because I had gotten a rumor about another word wall I wanted to check out. I found it and discovered it was crawling with Forsworn and hagravens. What’s more, the entire valley below the word wall was a Forsworn base. Lydia and I were vastly outnumbered and magically outclassed. I quickly used up all my health potions and retreated into the rocky slopes above to heal up. Lydia, like she does, kept fighting down in the valley. She continues to amaze me. I think she fought all day. I, on the other hand, pulled my bow and sniped at the Forsworn from the rocks until they were all dead. They were tiny in my eyes, really at the edge of my archery abilities. I used up a lot of arrows that day, but did manage to knock them all out by the afternoon. That left only their leader and one hagraven to deal with face-to-face at the word wall, where they were conducting some kind of dark ritual.
I thought that fight was long and hard, but then that evening, we found ourselves in the fight of our life against a dragon almost as big as Alduin himself. I pulled my bow and reached for my potions. That’s when I remembered I was entirely out of health potions. Knowing that a single blast of that breath could kill me, I ran for better cover, and ended up literally falling into the best cover I could have found—a circular stone house, with doors and windows, and an open courtyard in the middle. Just as I was thanking Nocturnal for my fortune, the leaves in the courtyard stirred up and formed themselves into the figure of a spriggan. I drove her out of the house, and, based on the blast of heat and light, I think she ran directly into the dragon. It was twilight when I found this cover, and I kept close to it, stepping out to shoot at the dragon circling overhead, and then jumping back in when he breathed at me. Only problem was, the only time I could get a good shot was when he was preparing to blast me, so every arrow resulted in new burns. Lydia danced around on the roof, shooting arrows and shouting insults at the sky—you know, like she does. She should be the Dragonborn, not me.
After a couple of hours of this, I realized that despite many direct hits, I had done little damage to the dragon. This elder beast could maintain this level of combat forever. Furthermore, I was out of all my poisons except the ones labeled jnpr/bldcrn/wkns2fire. What good were these? I lit upon the idea of conjuring a fire atronach. The atronach stayed in the open, constantly pelting the dragon with fire, while I shot it with arrows poisoned with juniper and bleeding crown. Even with this effective strategy, we fought that dragon until after midnight, at which point I was so exhausted I fell asleep on the cold stone floor of what will forever be my favorite stone house.
The next morning, it was the same thing all over again with another dragon, but I used a bridge over a swift river as cover. The water put the fire out, but it was cold, and the river kept trying to drag me away. That was miserable! Delphine and Esbern showed up after a couple of hours to help us finish that monster off.
You what I find ironic? I prayed to the Warrior Stone for strength in battle against dragons, and now it seems that the only way I’ve won any fights against them is with stealth and magic. On the other hand, when I intend to use stealth to secretly infiltrate someone's home or whatever, it's a pitched battle. I’m going to find the Screw-up Stone and pray to it.
Comments
Find the screw-up stone.
I'll do it!