The Dockworker 30: The Other Battle of Dawnstar

• Posted by Clement Bilhorn July 15, 2012 - 457 views

  My debt to Dawnstar paid, I continue on my way south to intercept the Stormcloak courier and set about opening the way for the Legion to invade the town. I rough up a local innkeeper for information.

  

  Hearing that the courier is already on her way north, I ride ahead, beating her to the intersection, jumping behind some rocks, and finding a polar bear to scare my horse away. 

  And then I wait.

  

  After I snipe the courier and pick up the orders she's carrying, my horse comes running back to me, having clubbed the bear to death. Which is nice, because it's a long run back up to the Legion's camp.

  

  Rikke reads over the orders and decides that it's time to attack. Now, I'm not quite clear on how a fort this far from Dawnstar is any sort of protection...it certainly doesn't work on the dragons. But I signed up for this ride, so I'll stick it through.

  

  Now, had I told the Imperials about my little disability, they might have offered to reschedule the attack for another time, preferably at night. 

  But I manage.

  

  But not entirely--my strength waning, I do a bit of extracurricular fighting to keep myself afloat, out of sight of the Imperials.

  

  I don't know for sure, but I suspect if any surviving Stormcloaks start spreading rumou--reports that the Imperials have hired a vampire to augment their forces, it might make the undecided Skyrimmers--Skyrimians?--more sympathetic to Ulfric's side. I mean, vampires are pretty alien, especially the lizardy ones.

  So I guess I should make sure none of them survive.

  

  Seeing a panicked horse running through the fortress's courtyard, I intercept and appropriate it for my usage. Nothing like a half-ton wall of horseflesh to take the edge off of being a daylight vampire.

  

  We end up cleaning out the fortress, but a few of the Stormcloaks get away. I'm miffed, but that's that, I suppose. I head down to Riften, then, to meet up with the Legion camp there for the next attack, and also to check in with the Guild for the first time since I met with the daedra they unwittingly worship.

  I'm disappointed to see that some of them aren't mingling with the crowd.

  

  But I don't like to micromanage my people, so I move on out west, where I meet up with some of my usual roadside friends, the bandits. Well, their dogs, actually, but it's the same thing.

  

  Having enchanted one of the swords I took from the Alik'r, I do a bit better out in the open than I'm accustomed--the sword does the blood-draining for me, which is nice.

  

  Inside the fort, the bandits lose the one advantage they have. I even find their leader fast asleep on his cot. 

  

  The same goes for some people eating coins. Or counting them. I didn't ask.

  

  Sadly, like all good things, the interior of the fortress does come to an end and I'm forced back out into the sunlight. 

  

  The real bandit leader, a truly formidable fellow, shows up to avenge the deaths of his entire crew. And that's what my sword's for.

  

  That little detour having been dealt with, I keep on toward the camp. I meet a civilian who tells me he's on his way to join the Stormcloaks. So I guess word of who I am hasn't spread all that fast.

  

  And now it won't be going any faster.