Skyrim - Clearing Morvunskar

I awaken from my slumber in Candleheath Hall, and walk out of my room. The innkepper I met yesterday is still stood behind the bar, displaying not a sign of tiredness. In front of the bar is a table, and at this table is sat a man in armour.

I walk over to him. His name is Stenvar, and he is muscle for hire. The the princely sum of 500 gold, he will follow me. Thanks to yesterday's pugilistic endeavour, I have some money burning away in my pocket. With memories of my old Housecarl fresh in my mind, I decide to hire Stenvar as a follower - he's a mercenary after all. I've walked the cold hills of Skyrim alone for too long. If anything, he'll provide some useful extra carrying capacity for me while we clear out forts.

To this end, we leave Windhelm together and head back up to the fort of Morvunskar once more. I'd only cleared out the area outside the fort - now that I have backup, I'll be a lot more comfortable heading into the fort itself.

As we approach the fort, Stenvar says how he always wished for a fort of his own as a child. I can tell he's going to be chatty, despite being paid for. The outside of the fort is still littered with the corpses of those I had slain previously, yet he mentions nothing of this - death obviously has no impact on him.

The interior of the fort doesn't prove as easy as the exterior. Mages fill all rooms, and all are of a very high level. Frost magic is used in abandon against us, and I am forced to use potions of health just to stay upright. But once we get close, the mages are not able to suffer many hits from our blade.

Stenvar favours double-handed weapons, and swings his steel broadsword wide. Mages fall within a couple of strikes of his heavy metal, and I hack away with my blade too.

Soon, the fort is cleared, and both of us are still standing. I am impressed with Stenvar's resilience and power in battle - he will prove useful in the battles to come.

We exit the cave, and make our way back down the road that leads up the hill to the fort. At the bottom, I pass a group of four men, who only seem to realise who I am when I have passed. They attack us, but are obviously not up to speed on how well I excel in close combat. All are slain.

I check the bodies of all of them for gold and some such, and discover a note - it is signed Lars Battle-Born, and it describes orders to have me killed. The Battle-Borns are a family in Whiterun. I will be having words next time I see them.

Skyrim - Windhelm

I turn away from the fort of Morvunskar, and walk towards the edge of the hill it is built upon. In front of me, I see Windhelm, a large town on the shore of a slow and wide river.

I travel down to the town, across a small bridge and along a road. Windhelm is only accessible via a large fortified bridge, so I have to once more cross the river to get to it. As I approach the bridge, I notice an encampment of Khajiit next to the Windhelm stables.

The Khajiit are a strange humanoid cat-people, and though their language and custom is different from mine, I approach and we trade with each other. Throughout, the merchant named Ma'dran remains cross-legged in front of his animal skin tent.

Windhelm is a big place, encircled by a large stone wall. The snow snow falls around me as I cross the bridge, passing numerous guards on the way. My entrance to the town is via a tall metal door, which I enter without any fuss made. I'd have thought the conjurer blood dousing me would have made them think twice.

Inside, I speak with the towns folk. By the sound of things, the dark elves are not universally liked here, and their kind appear to have been forced into a shantytown ghetto. Why they are so hated, I have yet to find out, but I am not comfortable with this unabashed racism.

As I work my way through town, I remind myself that a child called Aventus Arentino lives here. He left the orphanage in Riften, intent on finding the Dark Brotherhood assassins guild to murder the old hag who ran the place. One of the other workers in the orphanage told me about this, and she wants me to ensure he doesn't act irrationally. In all honesty, I don't blame him - I've met the hag too, and she is a nasty piece of work.

My excellent tracking skills soon lead me to the house where Arventus is living. He has locked the front door, so I have to use a lockpick to carefully let myself in. The house is dusty, filled with cobwebs, and I find him in the main room, surrounded by candles and some bones - he is clearly a very disturbed child.


As I approach him, I can here him reciting the Black Sacrament, the verse used to draw the Dark Brotherhood to a person. He turns to face me, and rather than being scared by a strange adult breaking into his house, is genuinely excited to see me. He believes that I have been sent from the brotherhood, to answer his prayer for the hag at the orphanage to me murdered.


Of course I am not, but he won't listen to me, and insists that I leave quickly to begin my mission. He seems safe enough here on his own, so I nod slowly, and walk backwards and out of the crazy boy's home.


I'm feeling tired by this point, it's been a long day. So I enter the Candlehearth Hall, a large inn in the middle of the town. A warm fire burns, and the innkeeper is hospitable. But before I can ask her for a bed for the night, a drunk approaches me, and challenges me to a fight.


He doesn't really stand a chance. I punch him again and again and again, and he is soon on the floor asking for mercy. I give it to him, and he gives me some gold. Not that I asked for it. If anything, it'll pay for me rest, and then some.


I return to the innkeeper, and she shows me to my room. I thank her, close the door, and am asleep before my head hits the pillow.

Skyrim - Northward bound

Leaving the cave of Eldergleam as the sun begins to set, I head for the north into lands cold but new to me. Passing once more over the blasted landscape of thermal vents and bubbling shallows, I skirt an encampment theatrically called Broken Limb Camp - a place of giants. They beat their clubs against the ground in warning, one which I am all too eager to listen to.

After the surprise spriggan attack earlier in the day, one would think I would want to keep my head above ground for a while. However, the loss of Lydia still haunts me, and I see my own life as cheap - the potential danger of cave-based combat means nothing to me.

Yet despite this I do no enter. I continue north, following a river and soon see a dilapidated shack lying on the shoreline. A sign proclaims this place to be called Riverside, which in all honesty it is. I find no find evidence that someone or something is using this as its home, so with the rapidly fading light choose to set up camp for the evening. I find sleep quickly.

I awake and head for the opposite bank of the river. It is flowing slowly, so I fair well in my crossing. On the beach, I hear a bear growl close by, and by survival instinct kicks in - I bring my sword out, and get down into a crouch. Sneaking up the bank, I see not only a bear, but also a huge giant. They are both involved in mortal combat, and as expected, the bear loses. I wait until the giant wanders off before taking the dead beast's claws.

All around me are thermal vents, and tucked between them are large deposits of iron and corundum. Placing my sword back in it's scabbard, and instead produce my pickaxe and mine each rich seam I come to. Soon my pack is laden with large amounts of ore, and I set out once more on exploration.

The vents have now vanished, to be replaced by cold rock and snow. A hill rises in front of me, and I can see the remains of a fort build atop it. My curiosity gets the better of me, and I ascend with great swiftness to see what this place may be.

The fort is called Morvunskar, and is populated by a large amount of conjurers. None of them seem keen on showing me their magic tricks, though many do chose to display their mastery of ice and lightning magic. For this insolence alone, I end all of those on the outskirts of the fort with my trusty bow and sword. I'll return for the others another day.