Fences-Poorly's Journal

I'm Fences-Poorly, an Argonian... businessman from the city of Helstrom in Black Marsh, currently... exploring business opportunities in the frigid lands of Skyrim. This is where I share tales of my journey with the world at large.

[fences-poorly-blog]

Sundas, 25th of Frostfall

Started out from High Hrothgar today to go visit Windhelm, since I figured it was closer than Solitude. Nearly had a heart attack when I turned around the bend where I lost my horse to that murderous highwayman not too long ago, and saw a figure standing there by the mysteriously unrotted bodies of his old victims.

Quite luckily for me, and more luckily for my horse, it wasn't another horse-hating highwayman. It was just that bard who keeps walking around all over Skyrim. He still really starting to creep me out, though. When I stopped and said hello, he just said how lucky I was to chance upon a bard on the road. As if he knew I was still dealing with the death of my last horse at some subconscious level.

It was actually a pretty quiet ride the rest of the way to Windhelm, then, although when I got there, the Jarl simply wouldn't give me an audience. I tried talking to his assistant, and though he was willing to talk to me, he said that he wasn't authorized to speak on such millitary matters as the ones I wanted to discuss. So I just decided to head to Solitude.

Since it's such a long and desolate ride going from Windhelm to Solitude along the roads by the Sea of Ghosts, I decided to head back via Whiterun today, though. Unfortunately, this meant that the dragon I'd been seeing circling up in the air all day finally found me and decided to attack.

I was able to handle the dragon— though this one did seem a bit harder than most of the dragons I've been fighitng up to this point— but unfortunately, he managed to scare off my horse, and when I went to find her, I couldn't find a trace! Somehow all I found were a sabre-toothed cat and a Khajiit with a knife. I figured that my horse would be all right without me, but it was annoying to think that I'd have to walk all the way to Whiterun, then.

I was quite surprised then when I did happen to run into a horse on my way— and not just any horse, either. Of course, it wasn't mine, and I couldn't find a way to borrow it without making a scene, but I'm still no less astonished that the crazy jester-man with the broken cart I'd seen on the road before was still in the same place I'd seen him before. He seemed to be all right, though, so I just walked on the rest of the way to Whiterun. I'll travel to Solitude from there tomorrow morning unless something else comes up.

[fences-poorly-blog]

Loredas, 24th of Frostfall

Pretty light day today. Started out by riding over to Whiterun, where I was able to convince the Jarl that it would, in fact, be in his best interests to let me have a conversation with the dragon trapped in his palace. Unfortunately, despite my very best efforts, he still gave his go-ahead only on one condition: I'm supposed to stop the war between the Stormcloaks and the Imperials.

The Jarl suggested that I might try to get the Greybeards to call a peace talk since both factions look favorably upon them when they think of them at all. I decided that I might as well take his advice, so I headed back up to High Hrothgar right away.

I made excellent time up to High Hrothgar once again and had no trouble convincing the Greybeards that they should try to end Skyrim's civil war. Just my luck that I still have to go see if Ulfric Stormcloak and the head of the Imperial Legion would be interested in a parlay.

It was late afternoon by the time I was done on the mountain, though, and I figured that it would be easiest for me to just head to bed early and get up before dawn. I'll try to head to Windhelm or Solitude tomorrow.

[fences-poorly-blog]

Fredas, 23rd of Frostfall

Made excellent time across the mountains to Riverwood today. Surprisingly tranquil walk, as well; didn't get attacked by any assassins, dragons, or even any bears that I recall. I may have run into a few wolves, but I've gotten so used to dealing with them since I've come to Skyrim that I don't think they even merit any mention any more.

Made a stop in Riverwood to sell some more of the jewelry I've been carrying around since nobody ever seems to carry enough on them to sell quite everything at once. Also stopped by the blacksmith's store and found that a suit of armor that matched the malachite-glass helmet I found not too long ago. I wasn't expecting to find much in Riverwood, but I'm now quite glad that I looked.

Since Riverwood was this well stocked, I figured that Whiterun might be even more so, and as luck would have it, my hunch was right. I've got a full suit of glass armor now, boots and all. It cost a mint, but I was quite able to afford it, still.

Of course, there was still a dragon on top of a mountain waiting for me to visit after I'd finished shopping, so I headed to the stables to borrow a horse and head up to visit the leader of the Greybeards. I made excellent time, but the sun was still setting by the time I got up to the peak.

Paarthurnax seemed somewhat surprised that I'd managed to get my hands on an Elder Scroll, but he was still quite calm when I approached him with it. He seemed quite calm telling me to go read the scroll known for blinding some men and driving others mad, as well— probably just because he wasn't putting his eyesight on the line.

Of course, everything did turn out all right with reading the Elder Scroll. It gave me an awful headache while it was happening, of course; everything looked all fractured, off-color and off-kilter, and I couldn't even move but to look around. I can see fine now, though, and I did get to hear the words I was supposed to use to bring a dragon to the ground.

I'm not sure how long I spent in that awful half-dreamy trance, but when I came out of it, the sky was dark, and Alduin was in it, and apparently he decided that he wanted to kill me— and Paarthurnax, too, of course. I might have really enjoyed just watching those two dragons fight if Alduin didn't make me fight him, too.

The dragon who had me go back in time and I managed to "defeat" Alduin, in any case— or at least, that's what the dragon tried to tell me after Alduin, pressed to the ground and seeming close to death, just got up and flew away. Supposedly I'm expected to go track him down now by talking to the dragon trapped under the Jarl of Whiterun's palace to find out where Alduin went. I'm not sure how that'll work out, or if I'll even be able to catch up with him once I do. I'm staying in Riverwood tonight, but I'll go to Whiterun and figure everything else out tomorrow.

[fences-poorly-blog]

Turdas, 22nd of Frostfall

I was in the saddle for most of the day today, but I really didn't get very far. I headed straight to Riften as soon as I got up, and though my trip to the ruin I had spent the night at was quite uneventful, I ran into two people I wasn't expecting to meet on my way back to town.

As I was nearing Riften's outskirts and passing by the side of the lake, I noticed a Khajiit and an Argonian who seemed to be waiting for someone or something, since they were just standing around. When I got off of my horse to see what was going on, though, the Argonian in expensive-looking armor pulled a knife on me and told me to fork over my cash. He wouldn't back down when I told him what a mistake he was making, but thankfully just then, I recognized him as a member of the Thieves Guild. I don't know if he let me off then because he recognized me too as a guildmate, because he didn't realize that he could get in serious trouble with the guild for threatening to kill people, or because he knew I wouldn't tell Maven or Brynjolf. For whatever reason, I got off fine.

The Khajiit was that M'aiq fellow I've seen around before. We had a very brief conversation about the atrocity of the Mudcrab and whatnot before we both went on our ways. I didn't wonder then, but now that I'm thinking about it, I have to wonder why he was hanging out with a highwayman, and why they weren't just fighting.

I was just outside of Riften's south gate then when I saw three guards gathered outside a farmhouse. I couldn't tell why they were all just hanging around there, so I went over to investigate. They wouldn't tell me anything— too busy thinking about getting drunk; "Oh, you fancy yourself an alchemist? Mix me some ale!"— but I heard the reason soon enough. It was hard to see the dragon circling overhead through the clouds (or mist?), and none of my arrows seemed to hit. I think the dragon must have been having more trouble than we were, though, because he didn't even seem to notice me, or the guards. Once I figured that much out, I just put away my bow and walked into Riften. (Since I haven't seen the dragon since then, I figure he must have flown into Morrowind. For Riften's sake, I hope he doesn't come back.)

While in Riften again, I sold a few goods to the merchants who had restocked since my last time in town before heading to the docks to talk with the lady who'd given me the lexicon. I tried to talk to her, but past "thank you" she had nothing to say. She could obviously see me, and it's not like she couldn't talk… I just couldn't get her to.

I decided to leave town and head toward Whiterun and the Throat of the World then like I'd planned to before I left for the ruins. When I was leaving, I was on the north side of town, though, and my horse was on the south, so I decided to borrow one of the Riften stables' horses, instead.

Writing now from the shack south of Ivarstead I visited once before, I'm completely horseless, though (since the stupid thing ran off while I was fighting a bear and I couldn't find it anywhere). I'll just have to cross the mountains on foot tomorrow. I'll probably at least head to Riverwood before heading to High Hrothgar.

[fences-poorly-blog]

Middas, 21st of Frostfall

Spent some time this morning doing odd jobs before I felt like I'd run out of things to do in Riften. Delivered a sword for one of the whiny nobles in town, first off, and since the recipient was in the castle, I helped myself to a courier's fee while I was there before heading out.

Outside of town, I realized I didn't know what to do, or where I was going. Taking a look at my map, though, I saw that the ruin the Argonian woman I ran in to on Tirdas wanted me to visit was on the way to the Throat of the World and Whiterun if I took the right route, though, so I decided to head west and plan on "returning the lexicon", or whatever it was I was supposed to do there. I figured that after that, I could cross the mountains and head to Riverwood or Whiterun to sell some of the merchandise I was hauling around before climbing up to visit the dragon who told me to grab an Elder Scroll so I could go back in time and learn how to kill the dragon that's going to destroy the world. Or something along those lines.

The ride to… Avanchnzel, I think it was, was quite uneventful; almost unsettlingly so. When I got there, I was less than thrilled with what I found, though; only entrance I could find was little more than a literal hole in the wall. Things were, as one might expect with a Dwarven ruin, quite different inside.

While I was surprised by the lushness of the vegetation just inside the entrance, still more surprising was when I came to the end of the path and heard voices, and saw them coming from what appeared to be red, glowing spectres. I recognized one of them as the Argonian who gave me the cube. There were three others with her that I didn't recognize, though.

One of them was a male Argonian who seemed to be some sort of an authority on the Dwemer. Another one of them was a male Imperial, and the last a female High Elf, Breton, or Bosmer— I couldn't tell which. I kept seeing them again and again then as I went through the ruins, just looking for where I was supposed to put the "lexicon" I got back in Riften. They weren't very thorough when they swept through the place, though, (apparently because they didn't think to hire a thief), and I was only too glad to clean up behind them.

It was a pretty big ruin, all things considered, and it was late by the time I was nearly at the bottom. It was only then that I began meeting the three voices I didn't know— the Imperial, lying dead from reasons unknown, the Argonian man, cut down by a trap, and the probably-Breton smashed by a metal monster. It was almost like watching them all die right there, and it really upset me. I had no trouble getting rid of the "lexicon" once I found the pillar it came from, though, and there was a lift-thing like I've seen in some of the other ruins I've explored now, too, that made it pretty easy for me to get back outside.

I had to set up my own camp outside the ruin, though, since I couldn't find any abandoned campsites nearby to sleep in, and it was too late to head back to Riften or even to Ivarstead. I think I may head back to town tomorrow to see if the Argonian lady who gave me the cube can tell me anything more now that I've done what she asked me to. I mean, I should at least tell her to contact me in the future if she's doing any more mercenary work and she needs a thief someone who can pick locks. Assuming I'm still in the area, then.

[fences-poorly-blog]

Tirdas, 20th of Frostfall

I don't know what I did to get the Dark Brotherhood out for my head, or where I'd go to find them, but they must be amazing trackers, because they definitely know how to find me. It's not like I'm hiding (except from the guards in the Reach), but I swear that the assassin that attacked me this morning must have known where I was going better than I did.

I had just set out on the road east from Darkwater Crossing when I met the assassin, and I think it was the only time I knew where I was and where I was going all morning. It wasn't too far into my trip when a bear chased me off the road and I stumbled across a dwarven ruin. I think that that may have really been when I got lost, but in any case, I found that one part of the ruin was just a storehouse, filled with ingots and jewelery, so that was lucrative, at least.

Once I got out of the ruin, back on my horse and back on the road, I realized that I was actually lost, and heading away from Riften, so I decided to head back toward the only landmark I could find— Mistwatch— and pick the trail back up from there. I felt like I was just heading the same way I had before then until I came to a signpost I must have missed before, and though I think the route I followed was the one marked "Riften", I didn't see any of the sights I was used to seeing.

I was thinking about turning back around (again) when I came across a guy sitting by the side of the road and stopped to see what was going on. He claimed he had been attacked by bandits, but he had friends at a camp very nearby. He didn't seem to understand that when I asked him "What can I do to help?", I wasn't saying I'd help him for sure, but the man wouldn't take no for an answer, so I decided I'd lead him to his smelly old camp. (He was offering payment, after all.)

About halfway across the bridge, when he said we were nearly at the ruin and I saw a camp of shaggy-looking angry people rather than a band of merchants, I had figured that something was up. I thought that they might be bandits, though his ploy seemed so painfully obvious that I didn't want to be right. That's when they shot my horse.

I did not like it when they shot my horse. My last horse had just died less than a week ago, and there was no way in Oblivion I was going to let those bastards kill another perfectly good horse on my watch. Those thugs didn't stand a chance.

After I'd ensured the safety of my equine companion, I headed back to the main road across the bridge that the horse-hating bandit band had lured me across and rounded a bend only to find that I finally knew where I was: I had gone through a western pass and wound up on the northern shore of the lake west of Riften. I might have just left my horse to figure out how to get to town by land then (since horses do seem to do an excellent job of such things) if I hadn't then been distracted by a brilliant blue glow on a nearby hill, which when I went to investigate, turned out to be a patch of nirnroot.

Seems I stumbled upon the only nirnroot farm in Skyrim, and found working it the apprentice to the alchemist I found dead in Mushroom Land just a couple days ago. She didn't seem too surprised to hear that he was dead, though, and she didn't want me to really do anything about it, so I just went along on my way after our briefest of chats.

Finally found my way to Riften then and sold off a lot of jewelry and some questionable goods before just wandering around at the docks. I ran into an Argonian lady there who I hadn't seen around town before then who just came up to me and handed me some "lexicon" I was supposed to take to a dwarven ruin of some sort, apparently. I was too shocked to say no, let alone ask who she was or where she'd come from. It was late by then, so I decided to turn in for the night. Since I didn't see any Thalmor around town, I decided it would be okay to sleep at the Thieves' Guild again.

[fences-poorly-blog]

Morndas, 19th of Frostfall

The first thing I had to do when I got up this morning was figure out where I was. I hadn't been to the camp I decided to sleep at before I got the Elder Scroll, and I didn't know where it was, but I knew it wasn't where I wanted to stay. I was able to figure out how to head to Windhelm, at least, pretty easily, though, and started walking east.

Just that short leg of my walk from the campsite to Windhelm was more eventful than all of the day before it, I would declare. While I was just walking down the road, I ran into a Dark Elf in dark Ebony armor who started attacking me for no reason. He wasn't even an assassin! I swear, he just started attacking me for no good reason. I'd say the man went mad, but he wasn't nearly chatty enough to be one of Sheogorath's fellows. When Windhelm came in sight then late in the afternoon, I was then faced with a dragon that led me to quickly rethink my plans for the day. As I turned my horse south toward Riften, I told myself that it would be good to sell off some stolen goods there, anyway, and I figured that I might not run in to any more dragons if I went by a path I'd taken before. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it any more than halfway to Riften, thanks to that dragon that just wouldn't leave me alone.

Since it was so late after I slew the dragon, I was ready to lay down and sleep somewhere, but the first place I thought of off the top of my head turned out to be a less than ideal place for a nap. (I swear, you borrow someone's shirt for half a day and they never let you live it down.) I realized that I was pretty close to the conundrum mining town I'd visited before, though, so I'm spending the night tonight at Darkwater Crossing.

[fences-poorly-blog]

Sundas, 18th of Frostfall

Today was quite upsettingly uneventful. I have now in my possession one of the most valuable and purportedly powerful items in all existence, yet I really feel like I did nothing.

From the hut I stayed in last night, I wandered around Mushroom World for a while before I found a building with some sort of lift-type thing inside it that took me up to yet another level of the ruins, this one much like the ones I'd explored before, but with much better lighting. There wasn't much in that part of the ruin aside from a room with a bunch of weird metal rings in it that had a few button-type controls at the top.

It was pretty obvious that if there was an Elder Scroll in the ruin like the guy from the cave with the cube said there was, this would be where they kept it. I swear I must have spent all day pressing those buttons thinking that. Just moving around cubes and pressing buttons to move those stupid metal rings. Eventually, the rings did come down, and there was some sort of a scroll inside.

I just hope that this is the Elder Scroll I want— that is, the Elder Scroll. I decided to head out of the ruin through another lift-type thing like the one I took to get to the level with the Elder Scroll and the one I took out of the ruins as soon as I grabbed it, and I noticed it was already starting to get dark. Someone seems to have set up a camp that's still usable here, though, so I'm going to turn in for the night

[fences-poorly-blog]

Loredas, 17th of Frostfall

Turns out finding an old man in the icy wastes of Skyrim was the easiest part of my day today. I suppose the fact that there was nothing else north of the college really made it pretty easy to figure out where the crazy Scrollmaster the librarian told me about was hiding, but I really was expecting to be more lost.

I'm not sure what I was expecting to see inside his hovel, though; I only know that what I found wasn't it. The guy's apparently been living in an ice cave with a giant metal cube (that doesn't even seem to do anything) for some time now, if the librarian is to be believed. All by himself. I really do wonder what he's been eating. I could tell what he had been drinking— the skooma bottles were everywhere— but I don't remember seeing (or grabbing) any food while I was down in his icy, cube-filled lair.

When I tried talking to the man, he was unfortunately as crazy as you'd expect an old hermit who had penned an incomprehensible book, run away from society and lived for over a year in an isolated ice cave full of broken ancient metal cubes to be. He was just as hard to understand, too. Thankfully, he didn't really seem to have too much trouble understanding me, and he was able to babble something about an Elder Scroll hidden in Dwemer ruins to the south, which he tried to mark on my map. So then I set off to find them.

Since the crazy Scroll expert was in a cave in the middle of the Sea of Ghosts, I had quite a bit of swimming to do before I could even start looking for the ruins he'd tried to mark on my map (which were on the mainland). I had quite the journey, running first into a notably amateurish-looking wizard of sorts who seems to have failed at pacifying a crate full of rats, and then didn't know how to defend himself. It wasn't too long after that that I found a shipwreck at the bottom of the sea that seemed fairly recent, judging by the flotsam that lead me to discover it (because I do have experience in underwater scavenging). I found a weird standing stone— one of the Stones of Fate that An Explorer's Guide to Skyrim was talking about, I imagine— before I reached the mainland, too.

Once I reached the mainland, I faced the challenge first of figuring out where the place the old man had marked on my map was actually at, and then of how to get there. The northeastern shoreline of Skyrim is not one of my favorite places to travel; it's nearly impossible to get inland from the seashore, and it was definitely a problem when I went looking for the ruins that held an Elder Scroll.

When I did find a ruin that seemed to match what little description the man in the ice cave had given, I realized that they were quite familiar: I'd found these ruins the first time I headed east from Dawnstar! It then took me a few hours of running up and down the stairs through the ruin before I realized that those ruins were not where I was supposed to be at all— I was supposed to be looking for a secret entrance in the ruins that I had found the dead expedition team in. I only then realized how close that site and the tower I had been exploring were.

I took my good old time following the long route that I'd been given to get to the secret entrance to the secret underground Elder Scroll storage facility the ice cave hermit said I'd find, and I'm quite glad that I did, all things considered. I happened across quite a nice helm on the way— made of malachite, I think, and even better than what I usually wear. I figure I won't try to wear it out before I can get the rest of my armor to match, though; I don't want to look like a mismatched madman when I go waltzing through town.

So when I got to the heart of the old Dwarven city in the ruins, where I'd fought the two thieves who had murdered all their comrades just for some mediocre loot, I found out what the fancy machine at the top of the steps and everything was made for. When I left the ice cave in the morning, the crazy old man had given me two old Dwarven artifacts and told me I'd need them to get the Elder Scroll. Turns out the fancy machine-looking table-thing was the keyhole for one of the gewgaws I got: I just started hitting them both against the table, and then the floor below me collapsed and I fell onto a spiral staircase into a cave that was more full of mushrooms than anywhere I've ever been.

I found an alchemist's house (and the former occupant) down here, straight in front of me when I stepped in, and since I figure it's getting late about now (not that I can see the sun or any light but candles, fungus, and mushrooms). More than a few odd things lying about, not the least of which being a red nirnroot which the guy apparently wrote a book on before he died (by ambush, judging by the arrows I found in the old man's chest). I've got a lot of questions I feel like asking right now, but I'll wait until the morning to ask them.

[fences-poorly-blog]

Fredas, 16th of Frostfall

Spent some time doing Business around Windhelm this morning before checking in at the White Phial to see what the man who sent me a letter wanted me to do (and quite hopefully pay me for). I can't say everything went quite as I expected, though.

First, I was just walking about town when I came upon the site of a murder— apparently the work of a serial killer who has been killing Nordic women around town for some time now, although this was the first time I know I'd seen a body. I had run into the victim before: she had been the cook at the inn where I was staying just last night. I wasn't nearly as shocked when I recognized the latest victim as when I found the house where she was killed while I was searching around town for unwanted valuables, though; hardly in a mood to solve a murder mystery, though, I decided to just pay a quick visit to the Phial before heading out of town.

So when I got to the Phial, it turns out that the man who had sent me the letter— the assistant to the old man who'd sent me to get the flask— just wanted me to fetch some fancy ingredients to fix the old phial up. I don't know why he didn't just ask for the ingredients in the letter, though.

I decided to buy a horse before riding up to Winterhold, then, and made good time on the journey. Although I did stop to trade with some travelling Khajiit merchants, nothing of real import happened until I reached the bridge to the College of Winterhold. I was talking with the woman who acted as a sentry for the college about getting inside when I noticed a dragon flying up in the air. I was quite surprised when it didn't seem bothered by the arrows the town guards or I were shooting at it, although not exactly disappointed.

I was let into the College in any case, because while at first the gatekeeper didn't want to let me in, (since I'm not too hot with magic, and apparently visitors aren't allowed,) but once I told her I was dragonborn, she decided to let me in and induct me into the college as a full member (even though I only needed access to the library). I don't know why she thought that would be a good idea, but I didn't feel like arguing, in any case.

I was led on a short "tour" of the facilities once I got inside, and I was expected to attend a lecture of some sort, as well; the instructor seemed a good enough wizard and such (although the other initiates who were attending the lecture with me found it a bit pedantic), but I really wasn't paying any attention at all. As soon as I could, I just headed up to the College's library.

I found a few neat books on my own (like an Explorer's Guide to Skyrim, which I even took notes on), but I wasn't able to find any Elder Scrolls just lying around (unsurprisingly). I asked the librarian if they might still be hiding any anywhere, but as it happens, the Greybeards were wrong; there are no Elder Scrolls at the College of Winterhold. I was told that there's a crazy old man who might know where to find one somewhere in the wastes north of the College, though, so I figure I'll head up there tomorrow. Hopefully crazy hermits have more valuables lying around than the College seems to here.

[fences-poorly-blog]

Turdas, 15th of Frostfall

I lost a day. I swear I lost an entire day. I don't know where it went. I don't know when it happened, but somehow I lost a day. I know it was Turdas when I woke up this morning, and I know it was Mondas when I last saw Delphine, but I'm sure I only saw the sun set twice between Mondas and today. I'm sure I'd notice missing a night of sleep, too! I don't know who I can blame. The old dragon at the peak? The Greybeards? The gods? I don't even know where to start.

Even if I hadn't have lost a day somewhere, today would have been quite unusual. I started it off with a ride down from High Hrothgar toward Riverwood, since I figured that I might run into Delphine there and maybe tell her how things had gone. I had no such luck. I decided to spend a little time at the forge while I was in town, though, and while I was trying to sharpen a sword, I was interrupted by a courier who had a letter from Windhelm. Apparently, I was wanted at the White Phial, the alchemist's shop, to do something about fixing the phial I fetched from the dank depths of an icy cave some time back. I figured that Windhelm was on the way to Winterhold, where I was supposed to look for an Elder Scroll so that I could go back and time and kill an ancient dragon so that the world won't end, so I might as well go to Windhelm.

I had an easy trip until I was across the river from Whiterun and I came upon a highwayman slaughtering some travellers on the road for no obvious reason. I was thinking about just riding on by, but when I got close, started swinging his axe at me! What's worse yet, is that he decided to slaughter my horse, too; it's like the bastard thought I would try to run away! I had really gotten attached to that horse, too, climbing so many mountains and fording so many rivers on its back. It may have been the best thousand gold I ever spent.

It was made all the more depressing when I slit the bandit's throat and checked his wallet and all his victim's packs and found that there wasn't anything of value on any of them: This man had killed five people, a wolf, and my horse because he wanted their mediocre armor! It really upset me, but there wasn't anything I could do about it, so I just walked away.

I went to Whiterun then to borrow a horse, since I figured that I'd need one for the day if I wanted to get to Whiterun by nightfall, and I didn't want to buy another horse from the same man who sold me my last one, especially I got a new horse killed and he decided to stop selling them to me because he thought I was too hard on them, or something. (And because it was cheaper.) I didn't stay in the saddle for too long, though, before I came across a man in a strange red suit with one of the weirdest hats I've ever seen, whose wagon was broken down on the road.

He flagged me down and offered to pay me if I could convince the guy who owned the farm his cart broke down in front of to let him use his tools to fix his wheel. I was quite eager to accept, since it sounded like good money for easy work.

The guy who owned the farm was quite easy to convince, as luck would have it. He said that the guy in the hat had been up several times already to ask to borrow his tools (even offering to pay) but that he'd turned him down repeatedly because he thought that he was off his rocker (which I must admit, the hat-man really was). He came across as a big believer in Divines, though, so I was able to convince the farmer quite easily that helping out the guy in the suit would be the Right Thing to do. And of course, I got paid.

I wasn't able to get a horse to ride the rest of the way to Windhelm then, though, so I had to walk the rest of the way. By nightfall, I was nearly to the city when everything happened at once. I don't know if I saw the dragons in the sky (that's dragons, plural) first, or the merchants on the road, but I know it just seemed like a joke when I ran into the Wandering Bard of Skyrim, too! I'm quite thankful that neither of the dragons seemed to notice me (or the bard, or the merchants, somehow), but I unfortunately cannot say the same of the assassin who I ran into a little bit later as I was crossing a bridge. Thankfully, things did get quiet once I got into town. I figure tomorrow I'll see about doing some business around Windhelm before heading up to Dawnstar.

[fences-poorly-blog]

Tirdas, 13th of Frostfall

Made excellent time to High Hrothgar today. Although the ride to Riverwood was pretty mundane aside from an encounter with an orc who decided to pick a fight, I'm really quite proud of myself— and of my horse— for getting to the top of the tallest peak in Skyrim as quickly as we did. I swear it didn't take me even two hours to make it up there. I don't know how my horse made it up some of the cliffs and slopes that it did, but I feel like I've really gotten my money's worth and more now with all the time I've spent in the saddle. (Discounting the time I spent in saddles on borrowed horses, which I haven't spent any money on at all.)

I suppose I should mention that I ran into a few people on the way up, in any case. They said they were members of the Companions, although I don't know why a group based all the way in Whiterun would be called out to kill what seemed to be just one wild animal halfway across the hold.When I made it to High Hrothgar, the monks were rather unhappy to see me. (If they had anything worth stealing that I'd taken before, then I might have understood it, but they didn't, so I was quite confused.) Apparently they didn't like the way Delphine and the crazy hermit from Riften had suggested that I stop the supposed end of the world by yelling at a dragon. "You're not ready yet," they said. They never really did give me a good reason as to why. They did admit that they don't know what I'd need to say to do so, though, and then they taught me a few neat new words to yell that I was supposed to use to run up to the top of the mountain so I could meet the head of the Greybeards. (I still just want to learn how to shout words onto the ground, like they do. It looks like a neat trick, if not too practical.)

As it turns out, the leader of the Greybeards is a dragon.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a bunch of people who dedicate their lives to learning the language of the dragons would have a dragon among their numbers, but he's been doing an excellent job of making himself scarce for a long time now if he's anywhere near as old as I imagine he has to be, considering what a novelty the arrival of a dragon was the day I showed up in Skyrim.

In any case, we had a fairly length conversation that involved me breathing fire (a surprisingly painless task), discussion of the Elder Scrolls (which I've only heard of in stories about the exploits of the Grey Fox— quite the well known figure in the circles I hung out in back in the Imperial City— and how I needed to go back in time in order to learn how to better yell at dragons and save the world.

I'm not sure if I'm any more sure of what's going on after today's events or not, or whether I'm just a lot more confused. I'm still not completely certain I've come to terms with being "dragonborn"! But honestly, when it was getting dark and I needed to head back down the mountain quickly to find somewhere to rest, I won't say that I felt a need to question much of anything. It's just too convenient to yell and become invincible. It makes getting down from high places a whole lot easier.

[fences-poorly-blog]

Morndas, 12th of Frostfall

Today was largely uneventful, at least for me. I think there's a dog and a hamlet that both had a pretty special day today, though. Not that I meant for anything special to happen.

I started the day by looking for my horse, whom I had forgotten to tie up the night before. Luckily, my horse— he? she? it?— was not only still alive, but almost where I had left it. I had to head west to get back onto the road from there, though, so I wound up passing past the mine where a guard tried to kill me again before making it to Rorikstead. Somehow, I managed to attract the attention of a dragon on the way, but thankfully, the less-than-homicidal guards of the tiny hamlet were quite happy to help me shoot the dragon down and slay it. Everyone in the town (all seven or so of them) came out then to look at the skeleton that they left blocking the main road as I rode out of town.

Unfortunately, since the dragon was blocking the road to the south of me, this means that I tried to go north, toward the bottom of waterfalls and ravines, as I meant to go east. I spent a good part of the day trying to find a troll-free way to get to Whiterun from down in that stupid ravine, and I swear I saw the same dragon just circling around in the sky the whole time, too.

I guess that getting lost and spending hours looking for a path across a mountain range that a horse can manage is really pretty normal for me, though. All that made today different was someone— or something, perhaps I should say— that decided to follow me. I was closer to Solitude and Morthal than Whiterun when I came across a cabin with a dead man and a dog in it, and unfortunately, not much in the way of valuables. I told the dog to shoo when he tried to follow me. Then I got on my horse. Then I noticed that the little fleabag was still tagging along. I was more surprised when I thought that I had lost him, but something four legged and furry followed me into the gates of Whiterun.

I tried shooing the dog again in Whiterun, and for whatever reason, it listened that second time. I just decided to take care of a little business before booking a room at the inn for the night, then. Unfortunately, I didn't quite get it all done.

I still have a lot of jewelry that I've recently noticed I should be selling, so I decided to head first over to the jewelery kiosk in front of the Bannered Mare. The merchant working the booth has some real problems, though, not least of which is thinking that I want to help her with them all. "Hello," I greeted her, "Would you be interested in buying some fine jewelry?" She doesn't say anything. I say hello again, and she starts off ranting about how the Battle-Born family is telling her her son is dead, and they're lying bastards, and we should discuss this in private. "Sure, fine," I say, "Would you like to buy a fine silver ring?"

"We can't talk here!" is her only response. So I decide to spend my time doing something else. Thinking back to the Redguards I saw harassing a woman on the road the other day, I decide to visit the local prison and see if the prisoner that the fugitive at the Bannered Mare told me about was still in residence. Turns out he was. In exchange for paying his bail, he told me where to go to find his ex-colleagues. I might act on it some time later, but tonight, I'm going to bed.

[fences-poorly-blog]

Sundas, 11th of Frostfall (Pt 2)

Looking over my journal, I realized how tangled this whole mess I've gotten myself into is here in Skyrim. I've become a wanted "murderer" in the Reach, and the thane of Hjaalmarch and Whiterun. I've become a member of a guild of thieves in Riften that's so tied up in its own corruption that I'm expected to sign my soul over to Nocturnal. A bunch of old men with loud voices that live on the top of a mountain say I'm descended from dragons and a Very Special Guy. And two crazies who claim to be among the last surviving members of a long-gone group of bodyguards are telling me I need to slit my wrist to get into an ancient ruin housing little wealth so that they can find a wall that will tell us all how to kill a dragon that's bringing other dragons back to life and intends to bring about the end of the world (supposedly.) I'm really in deep. All I wanted to do here in Skyrim was try to make enough money to move myself back to the Black Marsh, buy the nicest house I could find and live the rest of my days in comfort. I'm not sure how I'll manage that now.In any case, I did come to the decision that in the long run, a little blood shouldn't matter too much. If it does mean that I have a little bit longer to spend in this world— especially if I don't have to spend it all slaying these pesky dragons that keep turning up everywhere— then it really ought to be worth it. I'm not pledging my soul or anything; I'm just unlocking a door.

Just like he said, there was an old carving on the wall past the blood-lock (although I didn't notice much else of note). He took his good old time explaining it, but in the end, it seems that, if he's reading the wall right, I'm supposed to stop the end of the world by yelling at dragons. I don't really think I'm quite so keen on that idea, but the innkeeper and the old librarian sent me to visit the Greybeards to see what they think about the idea, in any case. I decided I might as well head out tomorrow, but decided first to loot the temple.

Unfortunately, the whole place was pretty bare. There were a few swords on the wall in one room and a chest full of heavy armor (that I would sooner go naked than wear), and a few coins here and there, but aside then from one sword which I may only keep for its enchantment, the most valuable thing in the whole place might have been the view from the terrace, where I could see the inn I stayed at last night down below.

I headed back to the front of the cave where there were a few beds set up to spend the night.

[fences-poorly-blog]

Sundas, 11th of Frostfall (Pt 1)

Today was quite an interesting day. Since the very moment I woke up.

I'm quite thankful that I got to sleep early last night, because I was awoken from my slumber early this morning when I heard a scream from the front desk, where the innkeeper was awake for some unknown reason at 4 o'clock in the morning. I come out to see what's the matter, and she says she's seen a ghost. Then I look across the room, and I see the ghost. Just sitting in a chair, sipping ghost ale or some rubbish like that. What's more, the ghost doesn't seem to be playing with quite a full deck— he seems to think I'm some "Hjalti" fellow that promised to give him a sword and swear him my brother. I don't know who this ghost is, but I know that I've never been Hjalti.

I told the lady I'd see if I couldn't appease the spirit by finding him his sword or whatever, but it's not on my list of priorities. I just decided to go outside then and see if I couldn't find the place where I was supposed to meet up with Delphene and her crazy friend. As I was heading for my horse and trying to find a route to the rendezvous, though, I couldn't help but be unnerved as I kept hearing the call of a dragon echoing through the canyons. It wasn't five minutes before I found the dragon, though. Then it decided to attack.

I had to lure the dragon into the yard in front of the inn so that I could have a chance at beating it, but even so, I was quite low on healing potions, and I was having a very rough fight. (I guess maybe I just wasn't quite all the way awake.) I stepped inside at one point to see if I could get the innkeeper to lend me something like a potion, but when I stepped back outside, the dragon that I was fighting had flown away, so I decided to just head out like I had planned to earlier.

Of course, as soon as I was on my way down the path, I ran into what must have been that same dragon again. I turned down a side canyon to try to loose it, and suddenly came across a camp of people who looked to be the same crazies that I ran into the first time I was heading to Markarth. Of course, even with a dragon chasing behind me, some of them thought it sporting to try to shoot at me and my horse as we rode through their camp.

Even though they seemed quite happy to use me and my horse as target practice, a few people did shoot an arrow or two at the dragon, enough that I felt comfortable stopping and trying to put the dragon down. I just tried to head out of the canyon I was in then toward whatever was ahead, because the camp I had come from was clearly hostile to me. Then, I realized that I was lost.

I spent some time just riding around the Reach until I came to somewhere I recognized— the hamlet-plantation of Rorikstead. I knew I was way off course by this point, but I was at least able to reorient myself and get headed back in the right direction. Of course, I managed to spot yet another dragon off in the distance from Rorikstead, but I tried to stay as far away from it as I could. I was in no mood to fight two dragons in one day.

A brief horseback ride from Rorikstead and an upsetting encounter with with a misinformed guard later, I came to an upsetting realization, however: the camp of crazies I had slain the dragon at was, in fact, where Delphine and her crazy friend were supposed to meet up with me. Much to my relief, however, it became clear when I examined the site that the innkeeper and her cloistered comrade were already on site and clearing out the crazies in elk-horned headdresses.

I headed into a cave then with Delphine and her friend, and as suspected by the hermit, there were indeed some sort of ancient ruins inside. They were nothing new to me, but Esbern was just giddy out of his little mind. He wouldn't stop looking at everything, and acted as though I didn't know how to make my way past ancient traps and puzzles. "Ooh, look at these pillars with the symbols on it!" he'd say, trying to explain what they all meant as if it mattered while I turned them around and lowered a bridge. I came to a room filled with pressure plates then and he tried to warn me to watch where I stepped as I saw the safe path across immediately and pulled a chain to lower another bridge. That's when he was the worst, though; all at once, he just waltzed straight across the floor before we had any idea whether the traps were live. That man's a menace to himself and others, and I hope I can ditch him soon. I'd rather not die thanks to someone else's blunder.

Then they came to another room and things got better. They found a locked door and asked me to cut myself. "What?" I asked. "Are you crazy?" They acted like it was perfectly natural to ask a grown man to cut himself on a strange symbol in the floor of a long-forgotten ruin. I didn't think so. I went back to the mouth of the cavern to take a while and think.

[fences-poorly-blog]

Loredas, 10th of Frostfall

Took the wagon to Whiterun this morning with the crazy man who thinks the world is ending. (Same rate as going alone, oddly enough.) Walked over to Riverwood in short order, then (only stopping to sell off a few goods to a contact from the Guild). Thankfully, the dragon that nearly followed me to the city the other day was nowhere to be seen. Turns out Delphine's friend, though, isn't just crazy, but prone to overreacting, as well. We were just passing by a Mudcrab I was quite ready to ignore, when suddenly he summoned an Atronach and started slinging fireballs. I somehow doubt that he just hates crabs; I just hope I don't have to spend much more time around this loose cannon.

When we got to Riverwood, in any case, I took him to Delphine and the two talked nonsense. "These dragons are the harbingers of the end," says the crazy man; "The Dragonborn can stop it!" says the innkeeper. And they both went off to some cave I've never heard of and asked me to meet them there. I figure I might as well, since push come to shove, I'm still not sure what I'm doing. So I checked my map for the cave they were discussing, and apparently, it's near Markarth. I walked back to Whiterun where my horse seemed to be waiting for me (I'm not sure where it was before) and started riding west.

Things started getting a little weird then, though. First of all, I found the first dragon I slew lying on the road— which isn't too surprising, since I don't expect skeletons to disappear overnight— but for some reason, I swear its flesh and skin had returned. I'm sure it burned off when they said I "ate its soul", but it's just not what I saw today!

Things were pretty normal for a while then; though I ran past a couple of Redguards harassing a woman they seemed to think was a fugitive, I'm not too surprised by a sight like that these days. I probably shouldn't have been alarmed when I saw a dragon circling in the distance, either, but when they come up next to you and try to fry your horse, it can be a bit hard to keep your cool.

I managed to outrun it, though, and by nightfall, as the fog was rolling in (and it was rolling), I managed to find my way to an inn where apparently some emperor stayed a really long time ago. I'm just excited about sleeping somewhere warm. Tomorrow, I'll try to find that cave the innkeeper and the doomsayer were talking about.

[fences-poorly-blog]

Fredas, 9th of Frostfall

I made it to Riften early this morning, and things seemed a little off; it was if something had changed. I went about my business just as usual, though. I delivered some sapphires and a tusk to Madesi like he'd asked and sold him as much jewelry as he could afford to buy before heading down to the Ratways to pawn off some more questionable jewelry and see about finding the crazy old friend of— Delphine's, I think it was?— who was supposed to live somewhere down there.

It got a bit awkward when I ran into Brynjolf wearing his Nightingale armor down there, but it was after I got directions from the barkeep and was directed into the deeper Ratways that things got really interesting. I was trying to pass through a doorway when I ran into a Thalmor wizard of some sort. "Excuse me," I said to him, trying to get his attention. He decided to try to kill me. I don't know what made him think that was a good idea.

A few more Thalmor tried to kill me then before I found Delphine's crazy friend's place at the most remote place in all of the Ratworks. Like, literally, the most remote point. The man was crazy paranoid, too, but he wasn't locked up nearly as tightly as his door. I told him, "Hey, there's Thalmor down here looking for you. They're gonna find you; you should get out of here," and of course, he thinks I'm one of their agents. (Like the Thalmor would ever hire an Argonian.) I consider telling him then what Delphine told me to try to get him to open up, but just mentioning her name seems to work just as well. It took him what's got to have been at least five minutes then to get all of the chains across his door unbolted. I feel really bad for calling Delphine crazy now, since this guy clearly has her beat.

So once he let me inside, he just went off on some rant about dragons, prophecy, and the end of the world. Sounded like a bunch of nonsense to me. He was just acting totally batty, though, and if he was gonna rendezvous with Delphine, then he was going to have to calm down, so when I picked up that the only way to save the world would be for a Dragonborn to do something or rather, and he was upset because none had been seen in so many years, I just told him I'm Dragonborn. I mean, everyone else seems to say it, and it calmed the guy down.

He was ready to come out of his cloister then, but he was more than receptive to my efforts to strip his lair of its wealth before we left. Most of what was in there was just moldy old books, but a volume or two looked to be worth some gold, and he had a few coins laying around, too. While I was trying to collect all this stuff, though, the door (which he somehow managed to leave unlocked) came flying open and this raggy old Nord comes running in and swinging his sword at us. I ran the guy through, and found a note on his corpse. Seems he was hired by the Thalmor to tail me. Then the Thalmor came rushing in. We killed them and went rushing out.

So we made it to the Ragged Flagon, and I decided to take the back door out of the Ratways; head through the Thieves Guild cistern. Somehow, the Thalmor knew to look for us there. I have to wonder if Maven's in with the Thalmor, there's an informant in the guild, or the Thalmor are just way too good at what they do, but it was upsetting none the less. I was just walking through the market, then, when suddenly a suspicious looking Khajiit woman (who had refused to talk to me when I saw her earlier) just started hitting me with a dagger! What's more, the worthless city guards didn't move a muscle. I mean, I know the guards around here are corrupt. But to allow an assault like that in broad daylight? Not even the guys in Markarth would have let that go down!

It turns out the Khajiit was with the Thalmor, too. In any case, it was too late to make any way toward Riverwood, then, so I decided to pay a visit to the local palace and see if there was anything worth stealing. For some reason, I decided to check out the jail first. Unsurprisingly, there was little worth stealing. More surprising were the people all in there.

The dark elf I was made to frame for my initiation into the Guild was in jail when I got there (unsurprisingly). For some reason, though, he wouldn't run away. I unlocked his cell and left the door open. I'm not sure if he was afraid of the guards or just dumb, but he wouldn't even acknowledge that I'd left it like it was.

I ran into someone apparently related to Maven, too; a Black-Briar who was living in an upsettingly well furnished cell. Tried to get me to do some errand for him; didn't really offer anything I thought worth my time, so I declined. He may be a Black-Briar, but I figured that since he's in jail, Maven must not think him all that important. Of course, when I was looting the palace proper, I found a note to the contrary that made me rethink accepting his offer, but decided that he can wait, in any case. I'll be spending the night with the crazy old man at the Bee and Barb, to leave for Riverwood in the morning.