The Dockworker 21: The Lonely Lives of Vampires

• Posted by Clement Bilhorn July 5, 2012 - 507 views

  I'm pretty battered by noon--working in the sun for so long is exhausting. Also, I'm out of materials again, so I take advantage of the recent fog and head out to Riften. I meet a waylaid traveler who seems in need of help. Smelling payment, I comply.

  

  And then a bunch of his buddies ambush me. Normally, I'd tear them apart, but my condition is only getting worse with every day. The mildest blow from these thugs--sneakier than the other bandits, though; I give 'em credit for that--might kill me. 

  I flee to the top of their tower to try and gain a height advantage.

  

  I only barely fend off the first attacker, though, and with five more on the way, I realize I can't stay trapped like this. I scale down the outside wall and run down to the nearby river. Two of the bandits split off from the group to attack me. Out in the open, I'm able to finish them off.

  

  I'm unusually brutal, even for me. I guess I just get angry when I see six highwaymen attacking a poor, sick lizard.

  

  Night falls just after I pick off the remaining thugs. My strength returns quite quickly, for which I'm happy, but it also means it's bedtime for everyone in Riften.

  Well, almost everyone. The smith is still awake, but he won't do business with me after hours. That's okay, I suppose--I just take a nap out in the open air and wait for morning. Beggars do it all the time.

  

  I awake to a strange sound. It sounds a little like an angry mob.

  

  I'm wearing the Guild's armor, so maybe this is just a case of citizens rising up to fight crime as a family. But I'm not the only person in this town who's with the Guild...and I doubt this is just a scapegoat thing.

  This must be something much, much worse, I think to myself as I dodge the million knives of a city full of angry people. I catch some of what they say--"Kill it!" and "Burn it!"--and think that if this is an anti-Argonian Nose uprising, they're not doing a very good job; Madesi is with them. Then I hear something else.

  "Kill the vampire!"

  That last bit is hugely illuminating.

  

  So I'm a vampire? I guess that makes sense. It explains all my symptoms, but I had never imagined that an Argonian could get vampirism. I must have picked it up while working for Solitude. 

  I steal outside the city and grab a horse to get some distance from the mob while I try to collect my thoughts.

  Even the horse turns on me, though--a little ways north of the city, I dismount to cut some meat from a deer I shot, and the horse tries to trample me. After I kill the horse, a bit reluctantly, I see how the day can possibly get worse.

  

  It's immediately obvious to me that luring this thing back to Riften could instantly solve my problem. But simply wiping out another city isn't my goal, even if it is allied with the Stormcloaks--I have business connections in Riften. Besides, I've been a vampire for a lot longer than today and no one minded--letting it get worse has somehow made it more repulsive to everybody. Like foot fungus.

  The dragon ends up being the only person to cut me a break--he flies away, having scarcely noticed me. I'm relieved. While I wait for nightfall to recuperate, I do some hunting and get some meat to eat. It's disgusting, living like this, but I don't have a choice.

  

  And then night falls. I know what vampires do, and suddenly my constant dehydration makes sense. I simply need a drink, and I'll feel better.

  I return to the city.

  

  Unfortunately, while I have no compunction about killing the guards--they were kind of annoying even when I just an assassin, not a vampire--I'm sadly forced to kill the stableboy when he wanders too far down the road.

  

  A little further up the road, I see another familiar face. It's some guy who's been pestering me every time I walk past him. Some lowlife obsessed with drinking games. 

  I don't know why, but there's something about him that really unsettles me. I give him a wide berth.

  

  Once I manage to infiltrate the city, I begin searching the houses for someone who's asleep--someone who'll be still enough for me to drink without killing them. Like I've said, I'm not a monster. I'm just a guy who seems to make enemies everywhere he goes.

  I can't imagine why.

  

  Finding a sleeper is hard going, though--apparently the entire city has gone on alert ever since I showed up, and nobody is asleep.

  

  I check a few more houses, but to no avail. I suppose if anyone's not volunteering on vampire watch, it'll be one of those cushion-squashing nobles in the jarl's house. I take out a few guards and make for the door.

  

  I get the wrong door and end up in the jail. I take the guards out silently enough, but the prisoners seem to notice me. Fortunately, they're all behind bars.

  

  Well, actually, it's a little unfortunate since some of them are still asleep and they'd be a perfect solution to my problem. Some of the locks are absolutely impossible to pick, so I'm forced to head back outside, still dreadfully thirsty.

  I finally manage, after killing a few more guards, to sneak into the jarl's dining hall, and duck into one of the side rooms. And there I find the court wizard.

  

  I do my thing and instantly feel much better. Less deranged. I hope the locals notice. 

  They do, as it turns out--with my foot fungus from Oblivion freshly relieved, I'm no longer a threat to common sense and decency. How delightful. 

  Although, as I head to the inn to catch my breath from the whole ordeal, it occurs to me that I can't be nearly so sanctimonious as I've been in the past. I'm now a vampire, even if one undergoing rehabilitation. I'm not just a downtrodden lizardy dockworker anymore--people actually have a reason to fear and hate me now.

  Actually, it's pretty cool.

  

  Feeling a bit cheeky, I ask the fellow at my table if he heard about the whole vampire thing.

  He just chews at me.

  ...fine. I was leaving anyways.