It's been a very busy day.
After breakfast, we went next door to Adrienne's to sell off the armor and weapons we'd collected, and to see what she had for sale. When we were done there, we went to the marketplace.
I sold our other goods to Belethor (ugh - he's as slimy as ever) and then we headed for Dragonsreach.
As we walked by the dead tree near that loud and annoying priest of Talos, Erandur greeted Danica, who was sitting on a bench under the tree.
He wished her a good morning, and she nodded back, but he stopped. She looked unhappy, and he asked her what troubled her.
I'll never be able to figure out how priests and priestesses can just Know when they're talking to another one. No matter what Order they're in or what they're wearing, they just seem to Know. It's cute how they call each other Sister and Brother, though. I dunno why, I just like that.
We all stopped and listened as she told us about the Gildergreen (the dead tree). It's a tree scared to Kynareth, planted when Whiterun was settled. It came from the Eldergleam, its mother tree, one of the oldest living things in all of Tamriel. The faithful used to go to Whiterun to hear the wind of Kynareth in the Gildergreen's branches, but that stopped when it went to sleep.
Yeah, Danica says it's not dead, only sleeping, and needs sap from the Eldergleam to wake it.
Erandur looked at the rest of us and we could practically hear his question in his head. I said that yeah, we'll do it.
Danica was shocked. She hadn't even asked, but quickly went on to explain that the Eldergleam was older than metal, and couldn't be harmed by a normal knife. To collect the sap, we'd need a special knife called Nettlebane. We'll have to fight more Hagravens to get it, but oh, well. She marked the location on my map, and we continued up the steps to Dragonsreach.
Once there, I went to speak with Proventus while Lydia went up to Jarl Balgruuf and Irileth to give them a bit of a report.
Unfortunately, Proventus told me that I can't add a child's room because I already have my alchemy lab there. Still, I outfitted the rest of the house, so that's done. If I want space for children, I'll have to empty out the alchemy lab, first.
Such a hassle. Maybe I'll just wait to see if there's another city I can get a house in?
At least I know Alesan and Sofie have warm places to sleep at night. Maybe they've already been adopted? Oh, well. Even if they have, the work I do to get a space set up for them won't go to waste. If there's one thing I know, it's that there's always more orphans than there are people who want them.
Anyway, an interesting thing happened while Lydia was talking with the Jarl. Of course, I did some eavesdropping. Lydia left out any mention of what she knew of my past or Erandur's, simply that he was a Priest of Mara from Dawnstar. Irileth looked at Valdimar and Erandur with suspicion, and sneered at Septim, who had gone up to get pets from Balgruuf.
But that's not the interesting part.
While Lydia talked I decided to see Farengar to do some trading. He asked me to take some Frost Salts to Arcadia for him, and I said sure. I was planning to go there next. The wizard didn't have much for me to buy, sadly. Still, I got some soul gems. He was as stuck-up and condescending as usual. I can't stand that guy.
While we haggled, I could hear Balgruuf asking about the Greybeards, and Lydia had to admit that we haven't gone there, yet. We were only stopping by because we were seeing to a personal matter from Jarl Elisif. He was intrigued as to why she would trust us, so Lydia stepped forward to whisper to him, probably about Potema. I peeked just in time to see Jarl Balgruuf wave Irileth away so they could talk a bit privately, which she wasn't thrilled about, as you can imagine.
The interesting thing happened as I was looking over Farengar's spellbooks. I saw Irileth approach Erandur and Valdimar. She ignored Valdimar even though he was standing right there, and introduced herself to Erandur in Dunmeri. He returned the pleasantry, then she asked him a question I couldn't understand.
Like I said, my Dunmeri's not great, but I could tell he was telling the truth, but he was… Skirting the question, as I later learned.
I paid for the soul gems as the two Dunmer continued talking, then walked over to them. As I approached, Irileth leaned in and said something harsh-sounding to Erandur that made him recoil slightly. She gave me the slightest of nods as I got close, then said to him, in Cyrodilic, "I trust you'll keep our words in complete confidence, Priest of Mara?"
"Of course, my lady," he said, and smiled and bowed slightly, with his hand on his heart. She didn't catch the sly twitch of his brow that I did.
I excused ourselves from Balgruuf's presence, promising to go to the Greybeards once we were done with the tasks I had agreed to do. He approved. A thane should be a lady of her word, he said, and he bid us safe travels as we left.
It took every ounce of self-control I had to not burst out laughing as we left Dragonsreach.
Lydia had been talking with Balgruuf, so she missed the whole thing between Erandur and Irileth. We told her Irileth had given Erandur a "little talk", so she asked what she said to him. He smiled smugly and said that he was a mer of his word. He promised not to say anything! Just as Lydia started to whine, I turned to Valdimar and asked, "So, what did Irileth say to Erandur?"
Lydia started laughing so hard she ended up wheezing!
Valdimar told us that Irileth wasn't happy (surprise surprise) when Erandur had introduced himself simply as "Erandur, Priest of Mara," while she had given her full name and House. She then asked it of him, and he told her that he was born in The Pale, a citizen of Skyrim. The Order of Mara is the only House he needs.
Obviously, Irileth didn't accept that answer one bit, and asked him what he was doing in armor, following the Dragonborn. He said that he was only looking to spread Mara's Light to every corner of Skyrim, and that I had helped him rid the world of a terrible evil. Who better to travel with than one who would defy a Daedric Prince in her own temple?
That harsh thing Irileth said to him was a warning. It was something like, "While I trust that you are a Priest of Mara, I don't believe for an instant that you're anywhere near as saintly as you let on. I've got my eye on you. Make one false move in this city, and I'll hear of it."
Erandur nodded to confirm Valdimar's recounting, and Lydia laughed again and shook her head.
She told him not to worry; that was normal for Irileth. She didn't trust anyone not in stabbing distance, and even then, it was iffy. She doesn't trust me, either, and I'm the Dragonborn! Apparently it was painfully obvious to her that I was no Imperial soldier when I first walked in.
Oh, well. I never said I was in the Legion, so technically not a lie.
I told them about how we'd have to wait on the house, then we went to Arcadia's Cauldron.
Arcadia thanked us for the Frost Salts, and said she needed it for a Love Portion. Erandur and I exchanged glances. She dreamily mentioned testing it on Farengar, before shaking herself out of it and asking if we needed anything.
Girl, you can do SO MUCH better!
Well, despite her terrible taste in men, she's a great alchemist. She and Erandur talked quite a bit while I got out potions to sell and went through ingredients of hers to buy. We walked away with a nice pile of gold, and I'm sure Erandur helped with that.
Valdimar joked with him about laying on the charm while I was buying food from the market stalls. Erandur told him that no amount of charm would save her, and whispered to him about how Arcadia fancied Farengar. Valdimar looked surprised, then thought for a minute. He said he could see it, and when we expressed our disbelief, he added, "I sure as Shor can't HEAR it, but I can see it."
We had a good laugh at that while we walked back to the house to get things ready for our trip ahead.
Once we had resupplied, we left Whiterun and went left, down the road towards the shrine. On the way, we spotted a Dunmer attacking a pair of travelers in the road!
We couldn't save the travelers, but we got him, and on him was a book, "Boethiah's Proving".
I read it, and it seems that the mer was a Cultist of the Daedric Prince Boethiah. The book was an account of a cultist who sought the favor of the Prince, and told how he gained her favor by murdering another would-be servant. I think killing people is how they prove to her that they're worthy of living? Anyway, the last sentence of the book was this:
~If in the reading, your blood boils in your veins, and your mind blazons with fire, then Boethiah calls you. It is then most wise to heed her call. Find her on the mount which overlooks Windhelm. Meet us there and be tested.~
Ugh. Nope, staying far from that place. The others agreed.
We left the road and went up the hillside towards the Shrine of Talos. The shrine sits in a grotto under a rocky overhang in the side of the mountain. As soon as we set foot in it, we were attacked by Thalmor agents who, according to a note I found on one, were waiting to kill any Heretics they caught worshiping here.
With that pair dealt with, we put the horn in its place, then started walking east, over the mountain.
Not far past, we came across this place, and were attacked by two Conjurers. We fought them, and figured we could get some lighter-to-carry loot and possibly a place to spend the night, so in we came.
There were only five, maybe six mages in the Keep, but there was one… Divines! She was NASTY!
She had to be a Master Conjurer. She summoned a Storm Atronach, and kept throwing such powerful lightning bolts at me that I was downing Health Potions like water! My stomach still feels like it's in knots, and I'm a little warm.
I hope I don't get Potion Sickness again.
Anyway, I had to hit her with a Paralysis Poison so we could get any real hits on her. I think most of the damage we did before was from things like Fireball!
But once she was dealt with, I had time to actually look around and I realized that we were in an old Shrine of Talos! Or rather, a temple in the fort. There's a statue of him, fallen against the crumbling back wall, with a shrine stuck fast under a huge rock that fell down and smashed the table it was on.
It still works, though.
With the mages dead, we went through the fort and grabbed whatever we could carry.
We also found a strange floating gem in a box. I saw one like it in Wuunferth's room, on his desk. I'll have to get it looked at and find out what it is.
There's plenty of food, too, so we'll be well-supplied for our trip back to Solitude. Lydia mentioned that if we took a slightly roundabout path, we could reach the hagraven nest Danica mentioned and get Nettlebane to help heal the Gildergreen.
Maybe. I'll have to sleep on it once my watch is over, and see how I feel in the morning. We didn't go into the dungeon area, but it's so late right now, anyone down there's probably gone to sleep already.
We honestly don't think there is, but just in case, we're keeping a watch.
All right, I was wrong. I am so glad we kept watch last night! There were about a dozen more mages hiding out in the dungeon here!
Exploring that terrible place literally took all day, so we're spending another night here. Even though we're pretty sure we've cleared the place out, we're not taking any chances. I've got first watch.
The dungeon feels like it's twice the size of the keep itself, and it's a house of horrors.
I mean, seriously, I know that the mages here are evil, but this is something else.
After breakfast we went through the nearest entrance and found some wide steps leading down. At the bottom were some prison cells, along with a mage guarding them. He was easy to take care of, so I searched the place. One of the cells had two wolves in it that we released, but had to kill when they attacked us.
We could go left or right, so we went left, and a few corridors and fights later, we found a room that I can only describe as -
Divines, it's almost too terrible to put down.
It's a large room, with half of it split into three narrow lanes. The lanes are partially blocked by low wooden cabinets, but they're easy enough to move or jump over. At the end of the lanes are targets. One had a normal practice dummy, but two of them had cages suspended from the ceiling. One of the cages had a body in it.
It's a practice range for magic spells.
I went to look at the body, and was shocked to see that it was a vampire!
I mean, I know vampires are terrible, but this is a new level of awful. This is just torture for the sake of the mages' amusement, I'm sure. There were tables with food and drinks in the rest of the room.
When I said it was a vampire, there was a split-second of relief(?) from the others, but it quickly turned to disgust. Even Erandur had to admit that no one deserved this, not even a vampire.
We kept going, and found a burial chamber lined with coffins, along with some necromancers and skeletons waiting to fight us!
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
We killed them, looted what we could, then kept going.
We came out on the upper level of the Keep, and I suggested going outside. I had spotted an entrance to the dungeon out in a ruined tower. I figured if we went in there, we'd eventually reach the door on the right in the first room with the prison cells.
Given that it was already past noon, if we did that we could come right back up here, have a nice dinner, relax, and get some rest!
Lydia wasn't sure about the plan, but Valdimar pointed out that we'd already seen one dead vampire. There were probably going to be more out there once the sun goes down, and we wouldn't want to fight them while spent from fighting more mages, would we?
Lydia agreed it would be best to be outside in daylight, so we crossed the grounds to the other entrance. We went through the door, and down some steps.
Where I promptly stepped in a bear trap!
While I was getting my foot out of it, a pack of skeevers ran at us. Septim lunged and made quick work of them, thankfully.
It was a little flooded, so we carefully picked our way through the hallway to avoid the rest of the traps, and came out into a large room. The lower level where we were had standing water, but there was a staircase to an upper level with two mages sitting at a table.
They didn't notice us, so I conjured a Flame Atronach right next to them!
We fought, and once they were dead, I looted what I could and we went on. Down some corridors and a few fights later, we came to another prison room with a bloody torture rack and similar equipment in it. There's four cages in there, and three of them held dead vampires.
We also found another mage. Once he was dead, I unlocked the cells and took what I could from the vampires. Nothing really, but I did get some vampire dust.
The next area was even worse!
It was a large work room, I guess would be the best word for it. There were more mages, but the fight was quick.
There were tables around the room, along with a cage hanging in a corner. Most of the tables head dead vampires, all in various stages of… Butchering? Processing? Dissection?
I don't know.
This is the only place we found innocent victims, though. There were three of them. One in the cage, and two dead on tables, also being cut up. Were they being infected, then studied? Or were they used as food for the vampires the mages were studying?
The others had been strangely quiet after the "practice range" and gotten more and more silent as we went on. Even Septim hardly made a sound this whole time.
Erandur's face is the only one I can see, and his was as blank as a statue as he looked around. The gruesome sights didn't seem to faze him at all. He only sneered when he stepped in a puddle of blood, and even then it looked more like annoyance than disgust.
Now, though, as we milled about the room, Lydia burst out, "What in the Nine was going on in here?!"
That seemed to break the grim spell that had fallen over us, and Valdimar sagged as he looked around the room. He said he wished he knew, but was glad he didn't.
Valdimar went up to the dead vampire on the table in the center of the room and asked who could do such a thing?
"I could," Erandur said. "I did."
He was on the other side of the table, across from Valdimar, and looking down at the vampire. We were all looking at him.
He said he did worse, actually. At least the people here were already dead when the mages started cutting them open.
There was a long pause, then Erandur carefully crossed the vampire's hands over its chest. He clutched at his heart, bowed his head and whispered, very quietly, "The only monster in this room is me."
Valdimar took off his helmet and asked Erandur to look at him. Erandur looked up, and was clearly surprised that Valdimar had taken off his helmet just to speak with him.
He asked Erandur what he had done that was so terrible. What made him worse than the dead mages lying at our feet?
Erandur set his hands on the table and leaned towards Valdimar. I could tell they'd locked eyes, but the Nord didn't flinch. Erandur said, very plainly, that while he was in the Cult, his main job during sacrifices was to cut open the victim's chest, then replace their heart with one from a Daedra. The new heart would connect them to Vaermina, and more importantly, they wouldn't die as he tortured them.
They were awake the whole time.
I balked a little, but Lydia didn't move a muscle. If I didn't know better, I would've thought she stopped breathing.
Valdimar stroked at his mustache, then asked Erandur what would have happened if he refused? If he had put down his knife and stepped away?
Erandur scoffed. They would have sacrificed him, obviously.
"You really weren't kidding when you said you didn't have a choice, eh?"
Erandur stepped back when he heard his own words said back to him. He was silent as Valdimar continued and said that the difference between Erandur and the mages here was that they wanted to be here.
They weren't raised in a Daedric cult like he was. They were like Valdimar, raised on a farm or in some town. They could be from Whiterun! They knew better. They grew up knowing the difference between right and wrong. They could've left whenever they wanted, but they chose to stay.
Erandur didn't know better. He was too young to go against the Cult's teachings once they took him in and stole his name. He was a prisoner from the moment he set foot in that temple. That night, when the Orcs attacked, was the first time in his life that he had a choice, and he chose to leave.
Valdimar had been slowly making his way around the table as he spoke, and was now right in front of Erandur. He put his hands on Erandur's shoulders (the mer flinched) and said, very kindly, "Erandur, you didn't abandon your friends. You escaped a prison."
I could see Erandur's face from where I was, and I saw him obviously blinking away tears. He tried to say something about after he left, but Valdimar interrupted him. "You weren't ready to be Erandur."
Erandur looked like he'd been slapped. Valdimar said that Casimir couldn't have joined the Order of Mara. It just wasn't in him, and it wouldn't have worked anyway because he didn't know who he was. He needed to be Kaz and have a life of his own before he could become Erandur.
"I know it wasn't easy," Valdimar said, and I could hear the smile in his voice, even though I couldn't see it, "And the road was long, but I'm glad you got to Morthal when you did."
Erandur smiled and wiped at his eyes before Valdimar pulled him in for one of his big bear hugs.
Like usual, Erandur went stiff, but relaxed after a few seconds and hugged him back.
I couldn't take it anymore, and ran over to join them. Septim trotted over, too, and wiggled into the middle. Then I felt the weight shift, and realized that Lydia was there, too.
She gave us all a big squeeze, then said we'd better go.
Fortunately, there was only a short hallway between that terrible workroom and the cell block we'd first walked into.
We went up to the main hall of the keep, which has some dining tables, and had dinner and drinks. After dinner, Erandur said he was in desperate need of a bath, and we all agreed that we felt the same.
There's a room just off the second level of the hall here, with an enchanting table, an alchemy table, an anvil, and a roaring fireplace. Plenty warm enough to wash up in, so we grabbed a cauldron and declared that the bath for the evening.
Lydia was tired and eager to get to sleep - The fights today weren't hard; there were just so many of them! She went to the sleeping quarters and said she'd clean up in there, and open the door when she was done.
That left Valdimar and I. Septim had claimed one of the beds, and last I saw was snoring away.
We could hear Erandur up above, talking to himself or maybe to Mara, and Valdimar smiled.
Valdimar said it was nice to hear him talk without the fancy accent. That was the voice he remembered.
I just sipped at my wine and gave him a questioning look. I knew he'd fill the space with words if I let him, and he did.
He explained that Erandur had changed a lot from what he remembered. He was more patient, now, and had good manners. He told me how even at his young age, he could tell that Erandur was doing his best to not snap at him every time he fell behind while they were trekking through the woods.
He laughed and said how he reminded him of his gran with the way he’d count to himself to keep from exploding, or say a prayer to try and calm himself down as little Valdimar asked him non-stop questions about magic, being a mage, or being a Dunmer. “Lady Mara is testing me,” he'd said, more than once.
I laughed. He still does that!
Valdimar finished his mead and said that at one point, they came to a wide stream. Valdimar and his sister had managed to cross on a fallen log, but it was small, and had washed away. Erandur had to carry him on his back over the water. There were bits of ice in it, and it went up to his knees. He complained the whole time, but he did it.
Valdimar opened another bottle of mead for himself and refilled my wine as he said, "Casimir wouldn't have done that."
"You talk like you met him," I said.
"I did."
Valdimar told me how, when the wolves attacked, Erandur hardly blinked. He stood up, took his mace in one hand, set the other on fire, then threw himself at the pack, fearless as always.
He fought like a dremora. Valdimar said he could hear him snarling back at the animals as they lunged at him. He'd even grabbed one by the throat in his burning hand as it leapt at him, then tossed it aside like a rag doll. Valdimar counted seven bodies the next morning.
Once the pack was dead, he turned to Valdimar. "He was covered in blood and surrounded by embers in the air. His hood had fallen back."
Valdimar glanced up towards where we could hear water before he leaned in and continued, quietly, "He was smiling."
Now it was my turn to look up at the door on the balcony. Valdimar went on and described how the smile disappeared when he saw how scared he was. "It was like he remembered himself."
Erandur asked if he was all right, but he couldn't speak. He apologized for scaring him. He said he'd try his best to not do that again.
Valdimar laughed and took a swig of his mead. He said something about how Erandur must have forgotten that part. "He scares me half to death at least once a week, the way he flings himself into battle!"
We both laughed at that, and then Lydia poked her head out of the sleeping quarters and said she was headed for bed. Erandur walked down the steps from up top and said he was going to sleep, too. It had been… A day.
He offered to help Valdimar get more water, but the Nord declined. He'd be all right with whatever was left. He said I should go next, since I had first watch. I had the distinct feeling he wanted to spend some time with Erandur, so I said that was a good idea. I heard him ask, as I went up the steps, if Erandur would like to finish off the bottle of wine I'd been drinking.
I heard them laughing and talking while I washed up.
Erandur had left by the time I was done, so Valdimar went up and I stared writing.
I feel a lot better after I write. I wish I'd started doing this back when I was in Cyrodiil. I mean, I couldn't have brought my journals with me, probably, and I'm sure the Imperial Army would have taken them along with the rest of my things, but it would've come in handy!
Wait, no. On second thought, it's stupid to write down your life story when all you do is lie, cheat and steal. The Imperial Army would've put me at the top of the list!
Anyway, it's time to get Lydia. Tomorrow we head for Solitude.
We're spending tonight in Fort Dunstad. It's a bit rougher than Fellglow Keep, but noticeably less awful.
This morning we left the keep and headed east, but got turned around. I thought I found a pass over the mountain, but I was only partially wrong. There wasn't a pass, but a roof! We'd come out on top of a Dwarven ruin. Valdimar looked at the map and said this was Raldbthar.
He has the locations of the major ones memorized.
Of course he does.
It was easy to slide down to the walkway, and the others followed. Septim needed some coaxing, but he made it.
There was an alcove with a chest there, so I unlocked it and took what was inside. There was a tower, too, with a locked gate I couldn't open and a lever inside. Valdimar said that was actually a moving platform called a "Lift". It moved people between levels instead of stairs.
Amazing! I want to try it, someday!
We kept going down the ruins - the weather was terrible - and soon ran into three bandits camping out on a lower platform. We fought them and took what we could, but the snow was getting thicker and thicker.
I wasn't intending to go inside the Dwarven ruin, but we had no choice. I could hardly see.
Once we were in, we came upon a sleeping bandit near the entrance. He woke up and attacked us, but we took care of him, then kept going. We found more bandits in a sleeping area with stone beds, and by a hearth they'd been cooking at. Once they were dealt with, we took a minute to warm ourselves by the fire.
Erandur was almost in a daze. He's been to Markarth before, but never inside a Dwarven ruin, where things were working as they had centuries ago. He left the fire to examine some machine thing on the wall that was spinning away. Valdimar pulled him back just as a bit of steam hissed out. It almost got him in the face!
He thanked Valdimar, then said he understood why he was so fascinated with the Dwemer!
We could have gone on, but I didn't feel like exploring. I wanted to get back to the Manor, then go to Solitude.
We braced ourselves against the cold and left Raldbthar. Luckily, the weather had died down. As we went down the steps, a ghostly thing that reminded me of an ice wraith came out of nowhere! It seemed like nothing we did could hurt it. I tried hitting it with my axe and every type of spell I could, but it just wouldn't stop! So, I put my axe away and told the others to run!
We've never had to run from a fight before, and I could tell it bothered them. Lydia called it a "tactical retreat".
Hey, if that's what she has to do to make herself feel better, that's fine with me.
We'd run to the river nearby, and it stopped chasing us. Once I caught my breath, I recognized where we were. This was the path we'd taken when we first went to Windhelm.
Valdimar noticed a building up just up the side of the mountain, so we went to investigate. There was a clear path, so we followed it, and found the Nightgate Inn. We went inside to warm up and grab some drinks, and I chatted with Hadring, the barman.
He said that he didn't get much business, aside from his regular, there. He pointed to a man slumped over his tankard at a table in the back. (I know the type) He also had a long-term tenant; an Orc named something he couldn't pronounce. Apparently he's a writer, and while Hadring wasn't sure what sort of job that was, it must pay well, with how the Orc spends. Said he was paid up for the next few months!
Now, in the past, I'd consider this the clear sign of an easy mark. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I pulled out my compact and flipped it open without even thinking about it.
I snapped it shut and gave the others A Look. They'd caught me, and were trying not to burst out laughing.
Hadring laughed, and said that if I was that interested, I could probably find him down by the lake!
I thanked him, and we left after grabbing warm food for the road. We saw a figure standing on the dock by a small lake just to the left of the Inn. Lydia elbowed me and said I should go over and at least learn my boyfriend's name.
I rolled my eyes at her as he turned and walked towards us. He was dressed in fine clothes and boots. I greeted him as he walked past, and he said that if I needed something, I'd better ask the innkeeper. Then he went inside.
"Your boyfriend's a little rude," Valdimar said. I couldn't see it, but I could hear the smirk. Erandur coughed to cover up a laugh.
I told them to shut up as I pulled out the map. The road went north past the inn, and there looked to be a pass through the mountain somewhere up ahead. I figured that if we couldn't find it, we'd just keep following the road towards Dawnstar and sell our goods there.
As we hit the road and it got colder, I abandoned the idea of finding the pass and just stuck to the road. There were a lot of Frostbite Spiders, and I got into a fight with some fighter we passed on the road. He insulted me as he walked by, so I said something twice as bad back.
I can't help it! It's a reflex!
I didn't really want to kill him, but the way he swung his greataxe at me said he wasn't messing around. So, he's dead, and I'm a few gold pieces richer.
We passed a few tempting ruins, but kept to our course. We already had too many delays, and it was getting colder. Eventually, we reached here, Fort Dunstad. Erandur said there was a tavern in the fort, the Stumbling Sabercat. It was small, but good enough for warming up and grabbing a drink before we went on our way.
As we got nearer, I realized that I'd heard the name "Dunstad" before. I mentioned this, and Erandur said Fort Dunstad is all that's left of Dunstad Grove, the town where he was born. He said he'd tell us more once we'd warmed up.
We walked up to the gate, eager to hit the tavern, but unfortunately the fort was crawling with bandits.
We took care of the ones outside, then went into the pub and found two more. We found the barman dead in his bed down in the basement.
Erandur took a moment to say a few words for the man, then joined us by the fire. I was cooking some of the food that we'd found in the place, and getting everyone something to eat.
Over lunch, he told us that Dunstad Grove was once a large town; as big as Dawnstar is today. It started to decline the year he was born because of attacks from the Ice Tribes. Decades later, when the mines were discovered in Dawnstar, what little was left of the town emptied. Aside from the fort and half the foundation of the Hall of the Vigilant, there's nothing left of it.
"There's you," quipped Valdimar, and we all laughed.
Lydia asked what he meant by "half the foundation," and Erandur smiled that sad one he does sometimes.
He revealed that the Hall of the Vigilant was partially built on the foundation of his family home. He doesn't know when the Hall was built, but they'd clearly found the foundation and the cellar, and expanded on it. He hasn't been up to it, he said, but he's walked past before. He said the Hall is twice the size of his old house.
Erandur gestured to the building we were in, and said that this was more what it used to look like on the inside, but with a covered porch out front. It was up on the side of the mountain, and the only way up to it was a little path between the rocks. They had some chickens and a garden. He said it wasn't that far from town, though, and he would often go into town to play with his friends.
Valdimar said what little childhood he had sounded nice. Erandur finished his mead and said yes, it was.
By this time, we were done with our lunch and set out to explore the rest of the fort. We found another bandit we'd missed, then decided to go into the main part. There were other places to explore, but I wanted to go there, first. There was the big door, but also a trapdoor on the tower roof. I decided to take the trapdoor, because I thought going in through the back would make for easier fights.
NOPE! I was wrong! There were four bandits and a half dozen skeevers at the bottom of the ladder!
It was absolute mayhem, but we won. Thank the Divines for Septim! He took care of the skeevers so we could focus on the people.
In the tower room above me, there's a giant cage with a bunch of cheese all over the place. They've been keeping skeevers, but not just to eat. When we went downstairs, we found one more bandit. We fought him, and in the room across from the lower level of the tower, where I am now, there's two cages and a fighting pit.
It's terrible!
I've seen it before. Well, not a fight, but I've seen the fighting pits. Skeever fighting's illegal in the Capital, but it's popular around the docks. I've been invited to the fights plenty of times, but I never went. I mean, I don't like skeevers, but there's no reason to be cruel to them!
The others were as disgusted as I was, and we walked back into this room. It's a kitchen, with charred skeevers on spits around the central fire. There were a few beds, bed rolls, and hay piles in here and in the room above. Lydia and I took this room, and the other two are on the top floor.
We're keeping watch, obviously. If we're lucky the late hour and the bad weather will make whoever's in the other parts of the fort stay put while we sleep.
At least it's nice and warm in here, and we have plenty to eat.
Fort Dunstad here, you can see signs of old walls, roads and such. Clear evidence of Dunstad Grove! Great work, game devs! ^_^