The folks of Dawnstar are an unfriendly bunch, even with their nightmares now passed. The Jarl seems enamoured with the Stormcloak rebellion, mainly because of his absolute belief in the divinity of Talos. He seems not to recognise that the nightmares affecting the town had been the result of some divine malevolence that his beloved Talos did nothing to abate.
Finding the Stormcloak courier that I am meant to be intercepting in town is a bust however, so I try using a bit of clairvoyance to give me a clue where to start. My instinct tells me we will find our mark on the road heading south, so Lydia and I set out over the snowy peaks leading back to the Pale.
We find and kill one courier, but he it turns out is mere collateral damage in this sorry conflict, and was not carrying any Stormcloak intelligence. I look to Lydia for some consolation, having killed an innocent man on the side of this lonely mountain. She shrugs and stares at me impassively, pointing out that neither of us has a shovel with which to dig the chap a grave. I offer blessings and we continue searching into the night.
It's 9:30pm when we arrive up at the Nightgate Inn, and I decide it would be sensible to wait till the morning to continue our quest. Slipping the inn keeper some money elicits some intel that the courier just left, and will come back this way eventually. There's no time like the present, so we head out. We come across the courier about an hour down the road, and use the now tried and tested freezing shout and hit them while they're down strategy. The courier dies sure enough, but his corpse then floats about an inch off the ground which somehow prevents me from looting his corpse. After trying everything I can think of we head back to the inn hoping that a night's rest will sort it all out.
Fortunately that seems to do the trick, and I collect the documents that the Legate asked me obtain. The road back to the imperial camp takes us west through the lands of ice wolves, frostbite spiders and a snow sabre cat, all of whom Lydia and I have now developed effective tactics to deal with. The road then turns north, and leads us to Fort Dunstead: a Stormcloak base straddling the road. My travelling apprentice appearance seems to keep us free of any friction though, and after a slightly fraught cross country hike through some forests we make it back to the Legate's camp by 2pm.
Fort Dunstead it seams is in need of reinforcements, perhaps explaining why they weren't looking to start any trouble with Lydia and I when we passed through. The Legate tells us to go to Dawnstar with some altered orders, and deliver them to the Stormcloak commander stationed there. Fortunately I picked up the courier's uniform, so this bit of subterfuge should be somewhat more straightforward than it otherwise would have been.
Frorkmar at Dawnstar takes the false intel from me without any question. The plan is set then, but Lydia and I are tired and hungry from this walking war, and opt for a meal and a night at the inn before continuing with our duties. Before the sun sets I take a walk around town and visit a museum run by a chap called Silus. He seems to admire the Mythic Dawn, who were responsible for the oblivion crisis. He pays me 800 coins for the blade shards that I picked up on my travels, and asks me to keep an eye out for the sword hilt and pommel. I tell him I'll do what I can, before Lydia and I hustle back to the war.
