Posted by
Paul M July 4, 2014 -
487 views
Signing up to fight for the empire is all well and good, but having had a night to sleep on it there are a couple of things in Windhelm that Lydia and I should take care of before we mark our cards and find we're no longer welcome amongst the Nord fundamentalists. There are two possible ways to get to the windy city: follow the river out of the mountains and into the north; or go back to Whiterun and secure the services of a horse drawn carriage.
Both of course require we leave Fellglow Keep, and doing so brings us to a drizzly Loredas morning. I decide we'll try walking it, feeling somewhat confident given my successful trip back from Winterhold a few days ago. I take a glance at the map. If we head towards the dragon Lydia and I met on our first trip together in these parts we can then travel pretty much due east to Windhelm, cutting the corner on a good chunk of the riverside journey. We wouldn't get to experience the delights of Mixwater Mill again, but that's a price I'm willing to pay.
Arrows that diminish the dragon's stamina and potions of resist fire serve me well round the northern foot of the mountain, and Lydia and I best the waiting beast in short order. Heading up to the dragon's perch though uncovers Krosis, some sort of undead magician with a mighty flame spell that knocks out half my health and puts Lydia on her back. I surmise this is the mage that got me last time, though he looks a little different, and I don't remember him floating before. I manage to run away before taking much more damage, but in doing so I leave Lydia behind.
It is an ill stroke of fortune, but there's still a chance for Yuri, Thane of Winterhold, to show his quality. I equip a bow and some poisoned arrows and turn back to the fray. My heroic gesture lasts about a minute before I'm turned into toast, but fortunately I'm resurrected back by the corpse of the dragon before Krosis was stirred from his frosty slumber. I decide that Lydia and I have no chance whatsoever against the undead pyromaniac, so opt to take a cautious route that has as much distance between us and the dragon's perch as possible. I miss out on the word of power, for now, but I'll keep it in mind if I'm ever back here later on in my travels.
Heading east and taking a bit of a plunge down some rocks enables me to discover the ruins of Irkngthand. As with most snowy ruins in Skyrim there is a group of lawless rascals in residence. I snipe the archers from the roof tops, which have tiles that look like dragon scales, and then work my way down from the top. After a particularly fraught encounter with a bare chested thug I take a moment to use my healing spell and notice Lydia slicing her way through the riff raff from the ground up. Once again it appears she has taken the long way round rather than following my somewhat freestyle approach to path finding. On this occasion it's given us a tactical advantage, so I'll let it slide.
I do have to wonder how these bandits made a living, as this isn't really an obvious route from or to anywhere. I mean, I only arrived because I fell off the almost impassable mountain behind here. They must have moved in purely because the ruins were here and unoccupied. I suppose melted snow would provide water, and the nearby lake would attract game and huntable prey animals, and there might be just enough wood in the nearby foothills to keep a warm fire going. But that's not really the bandit lifestyle I always pictured, and I wonder if maybe these lads should have marketed themselves as "hunters" or "gamekeepers" rather than bandits.
Musing aside, Lydia and I have a brief nose around and then continue toward the south bank of a river heading away from the half frozen lake I saw when I visited the Foresaken Cave. As we leave Irkngthand Lydia identifies it as a dwarven ruin, which sounds feasible. Further along is a small gazebo with a lever that I can't reach, so I figure there must be some kind of cave system under these mountains, but as it's not what we set out to do I decide not to try too hard to find the way in.
We stay up on the mountainside for as long as possible, and only descend to the river when we are within sight of Windhelm. There's another mill at a small fall in the river, and Lydia and I brave the crab infested waters to take a look, only to find it's not that interesting. We move on, and at a nearby bridge we encounter M'aiq the liar, a cat-like man who I'm sure has a story to tell, but not to us it would seem. And then without further incident we arrive at Windhelm a little before 3pm.
I give Nurelion the white phial and get the grand total of five gold coins for my troubles. Now I've killed a fair few people in Skyrim (107 according to the in-game record) but this is the first time I've actually wanted to murder someone. I bite my lip and count to 50, and then go talk to the shop clerk on my way out. He hands me 500 bits of gold, which calms my murderous intentions somewhat. But I can't help feeling this whole diversion away from Solitude has come up as a bit of a bust.
Feeling low I head to an elf run bar and buy an early dinner and some ale. The barkeep Ambarys mentions the murdered women, but it's so far been just Nords and not elves so he hasn't paid too much attention. I take a stroll around his house and note some imperial armour and an imperial banner in a back room. Dangerous trinkets to have in a Stormcloak town, so I decide to have a more in depth conversation with Ambaz. He and his assistant give nothing away, but they do explain that Windhelm is the first city west of Morrowind, hence the relatively high elf population.
Heading back through town I jump into a conversation between a boy and a lady elf. Apparently a local lad has returned from an orphanage after the death of his mother and has taken an interest in the dark brotherhood. I have some beef with them, if I recall my encounter with the snake-man assassin correctly, and I can't help feeling there might be a connection to the recent murders of Nord women in this. In another fruitless quest I spend the evening looking for the house where this young orphan lives, but there isn't exactly a flashing neon sign, and although I've spoken to a whole heap of people about the murders, no one has yet asked me to do anything about them so I don't have a quest that could get my clairvoyance working. Fed up, I head to the inn/ church and grab eight hours sleep. Thankfully that at least is achievable is this frosty broken down slum of a city.
