What with singlehandedly turning the tide of a raging civil war, it's been some time since I checked in with the Dark Brotherhood. So I pay them a visit.
Astrid has finally decided that listening to the talking corpse upstairs might be a good idea. So she sends me north to some tomb. Not, unfortunately, to assassinate anyone, but just to talk to some archaeologist or something. Boring.
So I'm not exactly un-leisurely as I head north, stopping to hunt pretty much anything that moves. It's a pleasant day for such activities, as the sun hasn't quite hit its stride yet.
A dragon makes a brief appearance, but it doesn't seem to see me in the fog and I don't really feel like dealing with one at the time. It's getting tiring.
But even with the heavy cloud cover and light rain, the sun is still pretty exhausting. So I sap the life force of a passing pony.
And then I see something highly unusual. In some culture somewhere in the world, this must be a sign of horrible things to come.
As I get closer to Ustengrav, I pass by a bandit camp I'd seen before. I'd killed everyone once, a month ago, and now another group has already moved back in.
The bodies of the dead are not a deterrent to Skyrim's lawless, apparently. Maybe I'll just leave a note this time.
But I don't have any paper. Sorry, bandits, I'm off!
Inside the tomb, I brush up on my local pagan dragon-worshiping history. Or whatever's going on here.Â
...is that an owl?
So the ancient people of Skyrim had a seriously complicated past. I don't care. What I do care about is the fact that most of them never really died, apparently, and they still remember how to scream people up against the wall.
Their married couples must have been legendary.
But for the most part, the draugr don't really hear me sneaking around in their tomb, which is just fine by me.
Because the people who do notice me are generally a bit of a pain to kill. I'm just glad that arrows can still stick in ghosts.
And then I find my guy, hiding away in some locked room in the tomb. If he had just opened the stupid door and come out to see me--I'm not here to kill him, all right?--this would've been easier for everyone.
He tells me that he wants me to kill the Emperor.Â
So I back away slowly. I think I need to talk this over with Astrid before I do anything untoward. The appearance of another ill omen makes me wonder what's coming.
Why, deja vu, of course! Maybe I should leave a note for these guys, too.
Nope, still no paper. Maybe I'll remember to borrow some from the Brotherhood next time I visit.
As it turns out, Astrid will not let me have paper. But she will give me another reason to go hiking across the entire subcontinent again, just to meet up with some guy in the Thieves' Guild who can appraise an amulet for us.
I point out that Delvin Mallory in fact works for me, seeing as how I run the Thieves' Guild. Astrid merely nods. What is it with these people? Why do they all act like my meteoric rise to unparalleled power is so ordinary?
Does this happen a lot in Skyrim? Do ordinary people discover previously unknown powers and become legends in the span of weeks? Where'd they all go, then? Did something kill them all? Do legends just have mysteriously short lifespans? It's almost like there's some organization dedicated to killing people who become too notable for their own good.
Wait a minute.
Comments
have followed some similar styles as you, although I use the map still (maybe next time on that one).