The Dockworker 24: Tourist

• Posted by Clement Bilhorn July 7, 2012 - 453 views

  My journey to Markarth takes me through a part of Skyrim I really didn't know existed. It's temperate, foggy, and Imperial-controlled. It's not bad.

  

  I also meet the first crazy person who doesn't try to kill me on sight. He's kind of cool.

  

  So when I get to Markarth, it's more or less just what I expected. Dark, tranquil, and more than a bit threatening. Kind of like Riften. But definitely better-looking.

  

  I step inside and realize the city was almost meant for me. There's a murder right as I enter, as if the city's telling me it's okay to kill people for no reason in particular.

  But I'm more principled than that. I need a reason first, which is more than I can say for this terrorist.

  

  I find the Brotherhood contact and get two targets from her, both in the vicinity of Windhelm. Works for me. But I'm also here to get information about the journal Karliah gave me, so I figure it's time to get lost looking for the court wizard.

  On the way, I meet some guy calling himself a Vigilant of Stendarr. I've met them before on the road and I'm instantly wary, since I'm pretty sure they vow to kill all vampires on sight. As a vampire, this is cause for concern. But he's persistent, and I can never resist persistent people.

  But the building's haunted by a daedra, so I probably should have kept walking.

  

  The Vigilant panics and tries to kill me, so I do the same--disturbingly, to the great pleasure of the daedra orchestrating all this. He orders me to head downstairs, and I reluctantly comply. I know it's a bad idea, but I can't pick locks that have been locked by other-dimensional lords of darkness. It's a limitation of mine, and I hate to admit it, but it's there.

  

  The daedra starts going on about his feud with some other daedra, and seeks to rope me in by offering me some rusty mace. I'm not interested, so when Molag Bal lets me go, I put him out of mind. If he wants to come after me, I'll take my chances.

  I find the court wizard sometime later in the day, but he's incredibly unhelpful, refusing my smooth words and money. He even stands his ground when I threaten him outright. 

  

  Well, maybe the guy's not scared to die protecting that code...I should have told him if he didn't give me the code, I'd just kill someone else.

  

  I'm getting that code, whether Calcelmo wants me to or not.

  I try to keep things civil once inside the museum--no reason these guards have to die just because of some old jerk's stubborn pride. But then some ill-conceived pet project activates itself and kills a nearby guard. 

  

  That can't really be my fault.

  

  But even though I manage to work my way through the rest of the museum without killing anyone else, I'm somehow seen anyways. After I get the code, I find Calcelmo's nephew waiting outside the study with a retinue of guards.

  

  It feels a bit like an invitation to have at them, but I think it's best if I keep a low profile in Markarth for as long as I can, so I slip past the new arrivals and back outside.

  

  Yep. That went well.

  Now to see how things are holding together back at Winterhold.