Posted by
Paul M June 22, 2014 -
458 views
It's 6am when I leave the Forsaken Cave, on a windy Turdas morning. Strolling over to a good vantage point to overlook the land south of here I take in a half frozen lake and some mountains. At the western foot of the mountains the land flattens, and I reckon that is going to be my route back to Whiterun. There's a handy path along the side of the rocks which I follow for a bit, but then just when I'm thinking of heading down to the lakeside I see a snow sabre cat making short work of a horker.
I contemplate my strategically superior position, and decide it's unlikely Mr Whiskers will be able to get to me up here, so I have a go at shooting it with poisoned arrows. After about 16 arrows I kill my first snow sabre cat, as he was indeed too savagely furious to run away even though he had no viable ideas to get me standing, as I am, about 20 metres above him. I cautiously make my way down and take my prize, namely the animal's fur, eyes and teeth.
I follow a cautious route through the frozen woods, steering clear of a camp fire and some stone ruins. A couple of frostbite spiders offer no resistance to my dual cast flames, and I welcome the stark change to my last foray in these parts. Cresting a rise of the last foothills I see Whiterun's hold in the distance, and I make tracks to get there without any diversions.
I walk through the gates at 10am with three tasks in mind. First is to ditch the tree sap, which is easily done. I get a thank you for my troubles, but I can't find anyone to tell the sad news about Maurice. They're a cold bunch these tree lovers, but I guess I'll leave them to it, because my next task is to sell some of this loot I'm lugging. By the time I've done that I'm in possession of 2,500 gold coins, and have a bit more space for picking up new ingredients and the like.
I take a side step to pass the imperial missive to Avulstein Gray-Mane, but I talk him out of a full scale assault on the keep where his kinsman Thorald is being held, as I think I might be able to persuade them to hand the lad over, or maybe exchange him for some task. Job done, I head up to the keep to see to my final task: to be reunited with Lydia. Sure enough I find her eating some bread at a table. We don't hug or even say hello, because there's some kids around I guess, but I can see in her blank stare that she is pleased to see me alive and well again.
While I'm up here I stop by the prison and speak to the Redguard prisoner. He's a seasoned pro, and tells me I'll need to pay his 100 coin bail to get the info I'll need for the cook lady's quest. I duly cough up the dough, but then no one seems in a hurry to actually unlock the cell. I figure maybe I have to leave and come back, so I head out to Fellglow Keep with Lydia while we still have the daylight. As we pass through town the people make comments about me being a mage, and occasionally someone recognises I'm an alchemist, which feels rewarding. Perhaps it's the college robes which I'm still sporting.
The sun sets suddenly while we're on the road, but we're nearly at bandit bridge by that point so Lydia and I press on. We approach in darkness, and for the first time I notice there are two moons here, a smaller white one and a larger red one. I head straight for the bed, have a quick dinner of stews and cooked meats, and then settle down for eleven hours of well earned rest.
I start my day with a splash of Alto Wine, and a spin on the old alchemy table, mixing my exotic northern ingredients with the more prevalent local crop to identify some interesting properties. And then it's on to the keep, or at least it would be if I could remember how to get there. I end up reverting back to the route I took to first get there and head further north before turning east.
We end up going too far north and have to turn back south to enter the mountain range from its foothill beginnings. A dragon swoops overhead, but appears not to see us, so I carefully try to pick my way towards what I'm now 80 percent certain is the correct mountain. Somehow though I manage to get stuck on a slightly uneven bit of ground between two rocks, and no matter what I do I can't seem to get free. I try jumping, crouching, shouting, and hitting things with my pickaxe, but nothing will release me, and eventually I see no other option but to shoot Lydia repeatedly in the head with arrows. She has a surprising amount of patience, but eventually hacks me to pieces as I'd hoped, taking us back to where we were on the mountainside just after the dragon had flown over.
We eventually come to Fellglow Keep, only to find the mages have moved back in. Lydia and I deal with the riff raff outside, and the scoundrels just inside the door, and find that where there had previously been a collapsed wall there is now an extra door and corridor. We climb some stairs and come to a ritual chamber, where a lady called The Caller is standing ready for us. She favours fire based spells, as do I, so I make a hasty change to ice based powers in the hope I'll get some sort of tactical advantage. It's only after the battle that I realise we've come full circle, as it was a battle between an ice and fire mage that first brought this bunch of mages to my attention.
I grab the books needed for the enquiries at Winterhold to advance, and then in a back room get to reading about a wolf queen who used to live in the town of Solitude. The book mentions a zombie army, and a tunnel up to the castle which had an entrance behind the mage's guild shop. I'll have to test that bit of insider knowledge if I ever make it up that way.
For the rest of the evening Lydia and I relive our first date by killing everyone else in the keep. We spend the night in some of the newly unoccupied beds and discuss our plans for the future well into the night. Before drifting off to sleep I allow myself to ponder the civil unrest in Skyrim, as it feels about time for me to shift my focus from my personal betterment to doing something to help the world at large. The crux of the matter is that the empire says no one can worship Talos, aka Tiber Septim, as a god anymore. The Nords love Talos, and would rather worship him than be part of the empire. The empire can't let it slide though, because the issue is linked to a larger pact with some elven kingdom.
On the actual issue of Talos' godhood, I'm inclined to side with the empire on this one: from what I've read he was a great leader, but he lived a mortal life. But then given all the other fables and myths floating around I don't have a problem with the Nords being free to worship nine gods instead of eight, and I think the freedom to do so should be defended. For me the key thing here is looking at the reason for the empire making the pact with the elves, which is that the empire is too weak and strung out not to. Empire and Nords together have some say against the elves; empire and Nords at war with each other hands all the power to the elves instead. If the Nord rebellion was successful then Skyrim might be able to worship Talos for a little longer, but it wouldn't be long before the elves conquered the empire and came gunning for the last kingdom of men.
My mind is made up: the empire must remain strong, even if that means stamping on the freedom of the Nords to pursue their own religious beliefs. The worship of Talos will no doubt continue, albeit more quietly than it has done previously, but it may even become better because of this struggle. Come tomorrow Lydia and I will start our final quest: to secure the empire's rule in Skyrim. And our first step to doing that will be to head to Solitude and enlist in the Imperial Army.
