The Dockworker 11: People are Skeevers, Too!

• Posted by Clement Bilhorn June 27, 2012 - 433 views

  I take a moment to watch the sunset while I plan my next move. Dragon detours aside, I'm still on track for Whiterun, as I have business with both the Legion and the Guild in that area.

  

  I arrive at Whiterun around midnight, but I expect my contact with the Guild will still be up. I head inside the inn to meet him.

  I hope no one recognizes the bow.

  

  I meet Mallus Maccius, a sallow fellow who keeps to his own. He's a worker at the local Honningbrew Meadery--the plan is for me to enter the meadery and, under pretense of poisoning a skeever infestation, also contaminate the vats, framing the owner for a bad product.

  

  Mallus is the owner's assistant, so he'll help facilitate the operation. Judging by his appearance, I reckon he's been sampling some of the stuff over there. Not the mead--the rat poison. He looks like crap.

  While at the inn, I realize that one of the workers matches the description the Alik'r headhunters gave me outside. I confront her, but she says she'll out-pay her hunters to get me to kill them. I go along with it.

  I spend the night at the inn, getting up in time for the shops to open. But first I meet the priestess from before, and remember that knife my horse died for. Although it pains me to think about it, I realize Assfalloff's death is truly meaningless if I don't finish what I started. She tells me where I need to take the knife, and some eavesdropper asks if he can come along.

  Beats me why he'd want to. I mean, has he seen me?

  

  I relent and tell him he can come. I don't mention that we're going to run some errands first.

  

  I make myself some elven arrows at the local smithy, giddy with the prospect of using them, and also put together a raft of bracers I've made from the hides I've been collecting. 

  

  I sell them at another store, along with all the surprisingly tasteless potions I've been making.

  

  And then I dabble in enchanting, adding a fiery touch to my bow. I even make a second bow that harvests lifeforce for future enchantments. I scrawl a label on it to distinguish it from my first bow--I wouldn't want to accidentally set someone on fire while trying to steal their soul now, would I?

  It's midday by now, so I get some lunch.

  

  And then go to the prison to get some information.

  

  He's stuck with me thus far, so I figure he's in for the long haul. We go to the meadery, and my companion promptly dies fighting an army of skeevers. The skeevers stop to pick over his body, and I launch a flurry of arrows at them, trapping their...well, their souls. I didn't know skeevers had souls; I was already having doubts about Noses.

  

  Well, I suppose it's better than dying under a pile of spiders. That just seems worse somehow.

  

  The operation is successful, fortunately. I poison the nest and the vats, and the owner is displaced. Score one for Team Thief. I suppose after all this, though, I owe it to that guy who was following me--I forget his name--to finish this whole deal with the tree and the knife. But it gives me a bad vibe...Assfalloff and now this guy. Everyone who goes with me on this journey ends up dead.

  I should ask for an escort from Windhelm.

  

  But first I'm going to Korvanjund. The Legion is waiting.