elbrin dovahkiin (hey it rhymes) @howistouchtheskyrim - Tumblr Blog

★ for Yarrow, ★★ for Larkin, ★★★ for Elbrin!

Yarrow

★ Of the factions currently associated with the Tower, Yarrow would fit in best with the Future War Cult; the main reason she doesn’t end up among their number is that she has little patience for secrets and subterfugeand political faffing about, and the Cult does so love its secrets.

Larkin:

★ She prefers baths (or dips into the local lake) to showers. Water is just best interacted with in its controlled and reasonably stationary form.

★ Her interest in outer space, and particularly the technology associated with it, started when she was about fifteen and, bored one evening, started flipping through a tatty book written for 5th graders with plenty of pictures that she found on shelf somewhere. Prior to that, the night sky was the night sky - pretty enough, but more or less fireflies stuck in the blue-ish black thing or whatever.

Elbrin:

★ OnceElbrin grows comfortable around people, she starts dropping randomquestions on them out of the blue. There’s never any explanation as to why shesuddenly wants to know what that sailor’s knot is called or whether you’refamiliar with the works of some scholar, just a thoughtful nod of thanks shouldyou have the answer. Erandur was extremely accommodating of the habit and Lydiaat least identified it as a harmless quirk, but Marcurio still gets kind ofparanoid about why exactly she wantsto know these things (even if he never passes up an opportunity to go into detail when it’s a subject he’s familiar with). He just doesn’t quite get it. Is it a Dragonborn thing? An archmage thing? What is theelf scheming about this time?

★ Thescars on her face are from a Khajiit, and it was her error in dismissing them as unarmed. A Khajiit is never unarmed, of course, and it was only quickreflexes that saved her from losing an eye. He still managed to land a hell ofan open-handed slap across the lower half of her face, and even with the light healingshe was afforded it was a while before she could comfortably eat again.

★ Evenafter the events of Skyrim, and the various titles and abilities and allies sheacquires, she’s unlikely to consider going back to her village of origin. It’sa little bit of a “that woman is dead” thing, a little bit of a “I’ve made aplace for myself here” thing, and a little bit of a “I’ve spent too longthinking of it as off-limits” thing.

#elbrin

I guess the College decided this was the best way to salute having the Dragonborn as a member. (It actually flailed its way out of the ground shortly afterwards and continually migrates around the courtyard to this day. I don't know, maybe the kids are testing spells on it.)

Travel Log 9: Lots Of Sidequests And Also A Sad Thing

Just before parting ways with the Blades, Elbrin took Delphine aside and quietly admitted she had not seen Erandur since entering the Embassy; she had not been too concerned over him not being where they'd agreed to meet, as freeing the prisoner has resulted in enough of a furore that he might have had to relocate, but that there was still no word from him was...unusual. Delphine promised to look into it.

From there several small tasks took her attention, including finding yet more dead relatives for people, before she dropped briefly by the College. Despite her agreement with Tolfdir she was accosted by Onmund in the halls, asking for intervention in a bad trade he had made. She decided this would be a good time to go fetch Shalidor's writings instead and thus avoid further flocks of students descending on That Helpful Arch-mage Individual.

As they passed through the Western Watchtower, Marcurio eyed off the scattered rubble and asked what had happened. "Dragon," Elbrin said. "Like that one," she added helpfully when a roar rang out from overhead.

"There's a cave here! Think we should check it out?" At least he was enthusiastic about the bulk of her work.

Detouring to Whiterun on the long walk back to Winterhold, Elbrin found a courier had arrived for her from Delphine, with an answer to her enquiry. Erandur had not made contact with Elbrin again because he was on the casualty lists of those who had lost their lives at the Embassy. Whether he had been identified as another accomplice, had attempted to cause a distraction, or had simply caught in the crossfire was unclear...but the truth remained that the parting at Solitude's stables had unknowingly been their last.

This was hardly the first tragedy in Elbrin's life, nor even the worst, but it was still painful. The death of Malborn had been unfortunate, but this was a familiar face, this was a friend, someone she had travelled with for weeks and swapped stories with and fought alongside as a willing - a trusted - ally. He had recovered from a dark youth and had earned a better end than this. He had only been there that night because of her.

Another might have lost heart at this, grown fearful of a role that so easily lead to the deaths of those around them. Instead, it gave Elbrin the last kick in the behind she really needed. She had made a choice and the consequences for it had rebounded onto others. Fine - time to change that. Time to stop casting her eyes downwards, stop treating her responsibilities as a gift she was reluctant to receive, time to stop denying that had both the freedom and power to make a difference, time to stop letting others die because she was going into her duties half-hearted. She was thane of three holds. She was arch-mage. She was Dragonborn. And now? She was going to own it.

She didn't quite storm back to the College, kick the doors open, and shout, "WHO NEEDS SOME FUCKING HELP?" She did immediately go to Enthir and shake him roughly awake in order to start negotiating the return of Onmund's amulet.

(After getting rather turned about on the way to where Enthir's lost staff was, they finally entered the single room at the end. "Are you sure you can find your way?" Marcurio drawled. "It's easy to get lost in here." Yes. She's sure. Thank you, Marc.)

Elbrin then proceeded to find Tolfdir's lost thingmajig, fight a second dragon in the courtyard, close an Eye-related rift near Morthal, agree to test scrolls for J'zargo, and let Brelyna turn her into a series of animals. No one was quite sure what had provoked this sudden change in their new arch-mage's level of involvement but, well, no one was going to argue.

She also decided to pursue Words of Power more diligently - if this was her unique gift as Dragonborn, then she really ought to put effort into mastering it.

The final clear change was rather darker than the others. Elbrin had never thought kindly of the Thalmor; she had been in Cyrodiil in the invasion and travelled through the aftermath, lost family and peace alike. She still did not side with the Stormcloaks (was still closer to Empire-loyal than that, having a greater understanding of why the compromise had been necessary) but from this point on she did not turn her gaze aside and pass meekly by the Thalmor patrols on the road. Snow and animals dealt with bodies quickly enough out here.

#travel log #elbrin

Brelyna is adorable.

I want to marry her 8|

#maybe once they know each other better #and elbrin's STOPPED MOURNING #the player speaks #wow i hate tumblr on my phone

SO UM

I THINK ERANDUR DIED

#the player speaks #I'M SO SORRY OH MY GOD

shirleyjacksons

"i’m not ignoring you i just don’t know what to say to you" a film written, directed, produced by and starring me

#elbrin #it's elbrin

Excessive chatter about followers.

Broadly speaking, Elbrin earns an antisocial reputation with tragic ease despite being very much a team player (she went from life in a small village where everyone had to pull their weight to life in a mercenary company where group tactics were a big part of their success, so she actually prefers to have someone at her back and doesn’t need to like or even trust whoever’s there). It’s not that she pushes people away, but she has no idea how to handle small talk as the talker or the listener, and people tend to get a bit put-out by her apparent disinterest in anything but the job at hand when in truth she just can’t think of anything to say. Also her “curiously listening” face looks a lot like her “sternly disapproving” face and it’s unhelpful.

Cooperating with Faendal and Kharjo is therefore easy to justify—there was a favour owed / a mutual goal, and they travelled together long enough to see the job done and then parted ways without issue. Skyrim seems to have a well-established culture of brief professional partnership, what with mercenaries lying around everywhere and adventuring being a respectable career path, so it doesn’t seem a stretch that folks sometimes go “yeah sure” and follow a stranger down into the local zombie-filled pit. She doesn’t have strong feelings about either of them and I doubt they have strong feelings about her.

Lydia was kind of hobbled from the start by the whole housecarl thing since Elbrin was weirded out enough by being given enchanted weapons as a gift and was reallydisturbed at being given a person. They actually got on much better in the first playthrough, which might be because I did half the Companions quest-line and they bonded over mutual unease about the whole suddenly-a-werewolf thing (Elbrin did not think that through). In any case she’s even less sure how to interact with Lydia than she is regular people, and although they cooperate well enough on the field it takes a while for them to settle into a relationship that, while it isn’t bubbling with warm fuzzies, at least isn’t stiff as a pole. It gets easier once Lydia splits off to act as Elbrin’s Whiterun intermediary, since it guarantees lots of comfortingly practical affairs to discuss when they meet. Also I have to figure Lydia grows to be fond of a thane who does things like come back from a holiday to admit she’s now the head of the mage’s college and needs somewhere to store this cursed mask she got off an undead dragon priest.

That Elbrin and Erandur get on well is mostly due to him being such a nice old guy?? The things he says suggest that he’s an older mer and may have been around for a century or few, which really highlights how less-than-five-decades Elbrin is still a wee bab by her people’s standards and probably helps remove a fair number of the social hurdles she faces with other people. Erandur’s too old and affable to be offended that some young wood elf has a mean resting face and doesn’t make impressed sounds in all the right places, and if he’s happy to drop conversational pieces while surrounded by trolls then he’s probably fine with having one-sided chats—he may even appreciate an audience who doesn’t mind his old fart observations on everything. That said, as the first non-hostile mage she’s spent close time with, not to mention one with too much of a chequered past to judge her own, she actually has more to say to him than she does other folks. Starts off getting pointers about the proper form for conjuring, slowly loosens up enough to ask him for opinions on other points of curiosity, and in return gets a companion who respects her decisions without being too intimidated by her demeanour or status to see that she’s young and a little sad and could do with some non-serious treatment now and then. I can’t picture anything romantic happening because the mentorship overtones give their relationship too much of a power imbalance, but assuming they both survive the end of the plot I have to figure he’ll remain a close friend she visits regularly and swaps stories with.

Honestly, it was difficult to concoct an in-story reason for Marcurio to join her since she wouldn’t go so far as to fork over 500 septims to get a companion and he doesn’t strike me as desperate to jump on just any old expedition; triggering suspicious stalking via the magely pride button was the best I could do. He does seem to be rather keen on the kinds of Strange Places of Legend that Elbrin spends half her time visiting, though, so hopefully I can get away with him deciding that he might as well continue to accompany her since there are apparently some important events going down in the world and this woefully inadequate arch-mage is responsible for making sure things emerge from the other side in good shape and oooh dwemers. I’d like to justify keeping him around, partly because he’s absolutely murderous in battle, and partly because his attitude is notably different to all other companions thusfar and it gets some interesting responses out of Elbrin. Not that she’s suddenly running her mouth, but Lydia was forcibly below her on the hierarchy and Erandur vaguely above in terms of life experience, while Marcurio’s closer to a peer and will argue with her. It’s to everyone’s benefit that he meets Elbrin after she’s passed through Erandur’s hands and remembered that she has a sense of humour and is allowed to express emotions, and it’s fun to see her having to take control of her place in this partnership.

In other words Lydia and Erandur were fairly passive companions, though they were still good guides for Elbrin’s development, but now the training wheels are off and she’s having to deal with someone more aggressive and as a result he stands to do for her what I’d expect loudmouth extrovert Bhaarja’s influence to do in that position. I haven’t travelled a huge deal with Marcurio yet though, so ehh it’s hard to say for sure. It depends a fair bit on whether it seems like he’d judge her harshly for basically being a bandit for a while. She doesn’t need cry on anyone’s shoulder over her sordid past, but if he didn’t drop her himself she still wouldn’t want to travel with someone who makes her feel even bleaker about it.

It should also be noted that if the game didn’t restrict followers then the trio of Elbrin, Lydia, and Erandur likely would have gone really well, as Ranny’s open amiability would have buffered the lingering awkwardness between the two women and let the friendship from the first playthrough blossom. Apparently the key to unlocking full Elbrin and Lydia adorableness is a chatty dunmer AND/OR turning into a werewolf and accidentally scaring the piss out of your housecarl and having to overcome your social ungraces in order to go fuck I’m so sorry about that. They may still get there, mind you. It’s pretty cute picturing them swapping tired anecdotes about Whiterun Shenanigans Vs How I Found More Mythical Junk Of Untold Power, and Lydia still gets to meet the various other followers when Elbrin drags herself back to Breezehome smelling like dragon gizzards and ash.

#the player speaks #elbrin

Travel Log 8: The Blade In Riften

Kharjo cheerfully agreed to guide Elbrin to Riften, since she had yet to travel that far east and he would be able to reunite with his caravan there. This is a nice, narrative way of addressing the fact he turned out to be absolutely fucking useless in a fight.

Riften smelled like mould, sewerage, and fish, and the guards immediately tried to rob her. She had to admit it was a little nostalgic.

Finding Esbern seemed like one of those tasks that might involve subterfuge, which she hadn’t actually gotten any better at and people needed to learn to stop asking her to miraculously develop a talent in. Experience gave her just enough savvy to prowl around the marketplace and the local inn, though, and her habit of hoarding rare materials in her bedside table came in handy when she found a market for half her junk and helped the cause of true love or at least adorable lizard marriage.

In the Bee & Barb she met a young Imperial mage and another Priest of Mara, the latter of whom recognised her as the Winterhold arch-mage (presumably via the Priestly Gossip Chain) and got the indignant attention of the former. “You,” Marcurio said flatly, giving her the hairiest eyeball she’d yet earned. “You are the arch-mage.” Elbrin wasn’t particularly bothered by his disbelief until he insisted that since she was supposedly the Grand Poobah of educated mages in Skyrim she wouldn’t mind if he accompanied her for a little time to absorb some of her mighty wisdom, being but a mere apprentice himself. Needless to say she did mind a bit, but he also claimed to know something of the Ratway and, well, taciturnity aside she was much more used to working with company than without.

(Later she would pull the arch-mage robes out of her chest at Breezehome and successfully earn a silence lasting several entire seconds. She would then offend him all over again by asking if he wanted to use them when she wasn’t at the College, since she didn’t favour their lack of armouring and the tassels got caught on everything. No. No he did not. He would take the hide destruction helmet and some gauntlets, though. Why did she have so much stuff.)

In the present day, having found a clue to Esbern’s location, Elbrin and her perplexing tagalong enjoyed a round of sewer-diving that at last lead to his secret hideaway. No long after providing some cheering information on an impending apocalypse, Esbern was attacked by – surprise, surprise – a posse of Thalmor, necessitating a battle back out of the sewers. Perhaps developing an interest in the tangle of world-eating intrigue he had stumbled upon, Marcurio helped escort the Blade to Riverwood, where Delphine consciously chose not to be surprised that the Dragonborn had left with a cat and come back with a snooty mage and yet still didn’t seem to have developed the social skills usually required to pick up companions like a child with a butterfly net.

The Blades and the Dragonborn agreed to meet at the fabled Alduin’s Wall at…an unspecified date, leaving Elbrin free to look at her shopping list of things to do as thane thrice-over, arch-mage, and generally responsible individual with a growing grudge against people who thought they desperately needed obscenely powerful things found in ruins. Marcurio did a poor job of hiding his giant nerd-boner for ruins. The ridiculous partnership managed to continue.

#travel log #elbrin

Travel Log 7: The Embassy

Elbrin managed to convince Tolfdir to take over most of the practical arch-mage duties, promising to at least show up for formal events and future catastrophes so long as she didn't ever have to try and actually teach anyone.

She didn't quite manage to escape the Jarl of Winterhold though, who took time out of his busy day to shout, "THANKS FOR THE HELP, HAVE A THANEHOOD" and throw a sword after her. She put it in the chest with the others.

A variety of small tasks were completed, most of little note: found the body of a lost woman, found a moon amulet, found some words of power. The words of power involved another contender for worst fight, when attacking a bear brought into the mix three spriggans, a sabre cat, a very delusional fox, and, of course, a dragon.

Having found one-third of the Amulet of Geirmund, Elbrin decided to go collect the other pieces, mostly on the grounds that everything she'd seen so far suggested no one else in this entire godscursed country could be trusted with anything of unusual properties. The power-crazed dead dunmer explorer she found in one cavern did not disillusion her.

She also collected a broken star of Azura after yet another person insisted she was the subject of prophesy. She ended up somewhat at a loss having found it, though; what little she knew of daedra did not make her inclined to fulfil her supposed destiny, but she frankly didn't trust the mage's intentions either. Erandur had unusually little to say on the matter (right when it would have been damned useful). The choice was postponed.

Luckily (cough) something else took her attention - it was time for the party! Elbrin hoofed it to Solitude just in time to watch an execution, which was mildly uncomfortable considering her personal introduction to Skyrim. The meeting with Malborn involved very little exchanging of racial solidarity, and a lot of emptying pockets. As this was not a mission that favoured numbers, Elbrin parted ways with Erandur for the time being, giving the old guy a probably welcome holiday from danger and tomb-diving.

The plan was simple enough: pass through the doors of the embassy on the pretense of being a party-goer, and then slip away to find information proving the Thalmor responsible for the dragons' return. At the party, she was pleasantly surprised to see Jarl Ravencrone, who good-naturedly assisted in causing a distraction and allowing Elbrin and Malborn to enter the more forbidden areas. She crept through the embassy, collecting her evidence, and eventually worked her way down to a torture chamber.

(Or...at least that's how it went in the story. In the game, we blew our cover barely two rooms in and sprinted the rest of the way to Elenwen's place where they promptly forgot we'd ever been seen. Also Malborn died partly because I didn't realise he was even being threatened until I found his corpse among the rest. I WAS BUSY STABBING THALMOR OKAY I DIDN'T HEAR THE THREATENING PROPERLY. Apparently he's very hard to get out alive, though, so I don't feel too, uh, bad.)

In the chamber, something in Elbrin...wavered. She had her instructions. Get the evidence and get out without being seen, plain and simple. As she crouched in the shadows, watching the cold brutality inflicted on a desperate man, however, she was moved - moved to more than the indecisive dithering that had her still holding onto the Star, moved to more than unspoken irritation at reckless mages, moved to take her axe from her belt and sink it solidly into the Thalmor's skull. She fled with the prisoner down the trapdoor, and the quick cast of a spell saw them safely past the frost troll lurking there. He thanked deeply before they went their separate ways.

On the way back to Riverwood, she ran into Kharjo and returned his moon amulet. As a show of gratitude, he accompanied her since Erandur was still, um...elsewhere. Probably, hopefully, still hiking back to the Nightcaller Temper.

Following a reconvening with Delphine, they determined from the documents gathered that the Thalmor were not in fact responsible, and that another Blade lived in Riften who might know more.

She also learned that Malborn had been outed as conspirator to what had happened in the chamber, and lost his life for it. Consequences were nothing new to Elbrin. This time, though, it had been her decision and hers alone that had lead to them.

(Saved lvl 22, and favouring a supple Nord bow spelled to drain health and named Shrike. My naming skills are getting very slightly less appalling.)

#travel log #elbrin

I forgot to mention - the combination of arch-mage robes and the Morokei mask resulted in an...interesting issue. I wonder if it improves stealth at all.

#erandur is being judgemental in the background #whatever just because you have a face #elbrin

Travel Log 6: The College of Winterhold

Elbrin touched base with Delphine, and agreed to meet the Blade's contact, Malborn, at a date that will remain unspecified so the player has reason to justify going off and doing some other quests in between.

With time to kill (cough), Elbrin decided to pursue a point of personal curiosity and head to see the fabled Mage's College at Winterhold. She didn't truly aspire to be a mage - would never not turn to bow and axe first in a fight - but having finally had a chance to explore what natural ability she had, she was interested in at least walking the hallways, browsing their library, maybe even listening in on a lecture if she was permitted. Luckily, the individual barring the bridge asked for her favourite spell as an example of aptitude.

Somewhat unluckily, this display seemed to kick off a string of misunderstandings. She had barely reached the courtyard when a woman briskly tossed an armful of robes into her arms and began steering her towards apprentice quarters and a lesson. Never the most eloquent at the best of times, she shot Erandur a startled look in search of assistance, and was promptly betrayed when he clapped her cheerily on the back and told her to enjoy her first day of school.

And that was how Elbrin ended up standing among a group of fresh-faced young students, stoically ignoring Erandur's continued chortling from somewhere behind her that even having an extra load of armour dumped on him hadn't managed to cease.

She did at least get to walk hallways, check out the library, and attend a lecture.

("You think Restoration is a proper school of magic, don't you? Don't you??" Elbrin silently pointed to the Priest of Mara standing right next to her.)

The trip through Saarthal was definitely the most interesting class excursion she'd ever been on, not least for being...the only class excursion she'd ever been on. Finding a giant glowing mysterious unidentifiable orb and being contacted by a glowing mysterious (if not giant or unidentifiable) order didn't bode well for it being typical of most such experiences, however.

She left to retrieve some tomes that might help contextualise the orb, and upon returning found Tolfdir had somehow relocated their discovery. To the middle of the College. Dead centre and floating unguarded. Elbrin shot him the dirtiest look she had ever shot an ally.

Getting the attention of the Thalmor agent was extremely unfortunate, given the task she intended to do for Delphine, and she kept her head as downturned as she could get away with. No one seemed to have actively identified her as the Dragonborn and the College was quite remotely placed, but it was still a concern.

Elbrin's first experience in dwemer ruins left her...well, not as impressed as I was, but it was still a fairly awe-inspiring sight. She didn't know enough to feel pity for the falmer (instead mostly just felt tired annoyance over their habit of sicing poisonous centipede monsters on her), and perhaps less forgivably her blunt nature meant she plainly informed the mage there that they had located the Eye of Magnus, not thinking to lie or at least hedge around the full truth. Time will tell whether that has any repercussions to speak of.

The death of the arch-mage and the brief assault on Winterhold fulfilled the orb's ominous promise of trouble. On the upside, Elbrin felt even better about her future plans to dupe the Thalmor because man winning the war had definitely not made them less giant dickbags.

New worst battle ever on the way to Labyrinthian: two dragons and a cave bear, simultaneously. It was nearly two dragons and two cave bears, but mercifully one of the bears decided it wasn't worth it and bailed.

By this point, honestly, Elbrin's opinion of mages had taken a sharp blow, knocking them off the intimidating pedestal years of conditioning had worked to place them on. She still felt magic had its place, was useful, was even necessary - but professional mages were not nearly as in touch with the real world as they should be, considering the things they chose to meddle in, and frankly Winterhold's grievances felt a lot more understandable. It was an opinion that only hardened further as she witnessed the echoes of a younger arch-mage, and cleaned up the mess he had left behind him all those years ago.

From there, she returned to the College and cleaned up that mess too, with the side bonus of seeing Ancano dead, hopefully before he could draw even more official attention towards her The psijic order removing the orb seemed to be the smartest thing anyone had done in godscursed days.

...and then they ruined it. "You'll make a great new arch-mage," they said, vanishing somewhere she couldn't grab and shake them. "I agree," Tolfdir said, dumping another set of robes into her arms. "What," Elbrin asked of the psijics, the mages, and the universe in general. Behind her, Erandur's wheezing laughter started up again.

(Saved level 19, and having accumulated so much rare and expensive junk that it's kind of ridiculous. Seriously, Breezehome is loaded up with more arcane wonders than a dwemer stronghold.)

#travel log #elbrin

Bhaarja's Secret

Bhaarja has a three-year old child named Moazhan living in Riften. She is not a particularly good mother, what with running off around the country on a regular basis, but she is quite affectionate towards the boy when she is around and does not neglect her duty to pay for his care. Moazhan was the result of a brief fling between a Bhaarja and an older male who did not consider it his duty to educate a young, naïve khajiit about the risks; she does not know where said father is and he is unlikely to know he left her with child, but though the situation was something of a fright at the time she has adapted well and is disinterested in finding him.

Bhaarja was very lucky to find a sympathetic elderly khajiit woman named Dro'tehni in Riften who first supported the pregnant cat, and then agreed to continue taking care of the newborn kitten along with her own two grandchildren so long as Bhaarja paid for his upkeep. Proving to still be of Riften stock, she was able to get a loose form of employment with a suitably disreputable merchant, in which Bhaarja’s natural talents found firm footing, and by the time of the current story she’s doing fairly well for herself.

Moazhan has strongly blue eyes and though he shares the reddish fur of his mother, it is of a noticeably lighter shade, giving him a more tawny-brown look; it’s probable this colouration will darken a little as he gets older. Given his age, his personality is still largely in question, but he has what seems to be the beginning of a headstrong streak and is warily suspicious of strangers.

#sidestories #bhaarja

Misc. notes that don't really fit into the 'narrative', thin definition as that already is.

I wish aggressive people turned up red on the markers from the beginning. There’s been a few times I’ve had to wander close enough to get attacked because I can’t tell if someone’s a traveller or a bandit.

I earned another potential follower by beating him up in a tavern brawl, and now he says “you’ve been a friend to me” whenever we cross paths. I can’t decide if he has a really low standard for friendship or if I’ve found EG’s cousin.

I still like hearing all of Erandur’s observations on places (even if he then tends to then repeat those observations every ten minutes) but he has a habit of choosing the most random moments to confess that he regrets leaving his friends to die. Like, I feel ya buddy, but we’re crouching in dank water five feet away from a pack of trolls so could you hold onto that thought for a little longer maybe?

Though it is funny picturing Elbrin shooting him a squinted look over her shoulder and getting a silent “well it’s true” shrug in return.

He’s not nearly as snotty as Lydia was about having to carry my stuff, which means I feel a lot better about loading him up with dragon bits and heavy weaponry. And whenever I leave him behind he tells me not to be too long! To think he’s so attached to me already (or at least doesn’t want to be eaten by a bear while I’m busy). The bonds of true friendship…bonds that don’t stop him from being SLOW AS BALLS when trying to move at speed. I don’t care how old and crusty you are, Ranny, keep up.

It took me until now to realise you can eat ingredients to learn some of their properties. Doesn’t seem a great idea to be chowing down on plants named nice harmless stuff like “deathbell” though.

I really hope I’m correctly remembering there’s a quest out there to collect nirnroot else I don’t know what I’m doing with all of it.

For the second time, the second time, the frost troll’s mapping glitched and I was able to archer it to death neatly while it stood unmoving. Here I stand with my flame atronach, fireball-throwing wizard friend, and fire-enchanted bow, faintly disappointed.

Seriously I hope we don’t run up against any heavily fire-retardant enemies or there’s going to be a lot of blank staring. What do you mean we can’t arson our way out of this?

The bow’s called Swift and I am genuinely repentant about my lack of creativity, but not nearly as repentant as I am about enchanting it before I upgraded it. Got a long way to go before I earn the appropriate perk, darnitall.

There's also a shock-enchanted dwarven axe called Tempest god why do I EVEN TRY.

#the player speaks

Travel Log 5: Oh God, Vampires, Really

Not two minutes after defeating the Kynesgrove dragon and parting ways with Delphine, another dragon dropped down out of the sky. Already covered in dragon blood and patting out smouldering embers on their clothing, Elbrin and Erandur felt it was a little rude when Delphine declined to jog back up the hill to help.

While the Blade went to plot against the Thalmor, Elbrin hiked the ten thousand steps a second time to bring the horn to the Greybeards and be formally inaugurated as Dragonborn. She still didn’t hold the title as a desired accomplishment, but she had at least grown comfortable enough with it to admit to it if asked, and even to volunteer the information to people under the right circumstances.

A favour out west took the duo to Morthal next, where they fell into a local mystery and ended up saving the town from vampires. This was actually vastly easier than anticipated - eons old vampire lord, sniped down in about five shots, really? - but nobody was going to complain about a simple solution, particularly when it was to such an evil problem. (That den. Wow.) Earned a second thane title too, which she received with as much grace as she ever has in her.

Elbrin was part of an amoral, ruthless group of mercenaries for a long time, and though she has a stiffer sense of honour now that she has any say in the matter, anyone who expects her not to at least acknowledge the most pragmatic option as an option is in for a shock. Similarly, if Erandur had been under the impression she relished the challenge of battle, it was likely dispelled by a brief foray into a cave that involved grabbing the required shipment of goods, throwing half of them to him to balance the load, and running right the fuck away from the angry stampede of bears and trolls that tried to follow.

I assume people who travel with Elbrin tend to pick up at least a couple of hand-signals, including the one for “back up, back up, back up right now”.

She bought a horse.

(Saved lvl 15, finally supplanting Elbrin the First!)

#travel log #elbrin

ALSO when I dismissed Lydia as a follower I was still at Dawnstar and belatedly realised she actually meant to hoof it all the way back home on foot, and I felt SO WORRIED since she has a history of taking on battles she can't win (frost trolls, ice sabres, giants), and what kind of thane doesn't even fast-travel their trigger-happy bodyguard home before running away with some stranger...

But then she turned up alive and safe at Breezehome so I guess she travelled safely enough.

#the player speaks

Also I tried giving Erandur a few small pieces of armour to boost his defense for combat.

It was a terrible mistake.

#the player speaks #please put the robes back on #wow i'm so fond of him though #i mean i truly did like lydia #but he's ten times more talkative and does it that charming accent #plus between the fire-blasting and the mace he makes a pretty good complement

Travel Log 4: The Lost Horn

Dragonborn and Housecarl decided to head to Ustengrav via Dawnstar, and for once mostly managed to stick to the path. They did drop briefly by the Hall of the Vigilant which was disappointingly devoid of quests and also battled their first ice wraiths, but otherwise had a comparatively uneventful journey.

While in Dawnstar they ran into a dunmer priest of Mara who was seeking to cure the town of the daedra-inspired nightmares plaguing it, and agreed to help. Which turned out to be a really fun quest!

Vaermina's attempt to turn Elbrin against her companion would have gone better had she not been quite confident she could take the mer in a fight if he went for her anyway. Elbrin 1, cheesy daedric persuasion skills 0.

In truth, Elbrin and Erandur hit it off very well, and decided to continue travelling together after they had destroyed the skull. It was not that she did not favour Lydia - by this point they had been acquainted for about two weeks, and had at least grown amiable during that time - but her position of supposed power over the other woman had not grown less uncomfortable. Erandur was older, well-travelled, informal in manner...and he could relate to a past filled with a quiet litany of regrets. He also knew the land well and had valuable tips to share as Elbrin began to tentatively stretch her casting muscles.

(If it weren't for game restrictions there'd really be no reason for them to not just form a trio, but I guess Lydia decided to go back and take care of the thane's duties in Whiterun while said thane was gallivanting across the countryside.)

The pair worked their way through Ustengrav, acquiring another word of power but not the fabled horn: someone had beaten them to it. Someone who turned out to be a familiar face.

"We need to get to Kynesgrove," Delphine insisted. "We can't allow delays. Remember: we're not looking for trouble." Naturally, they ran into an assassin, an atronach-summoning witch, a fortress full of bandits, three wolf packs, and a sodding bear.

At Kynesgrove they witnessed the reality of dragons returning not simply to Skyrim, but from the dead. The brief reunion with the black dragon made for a stark contrast between Elbrin's state then and where she stood now, but hearing it speak was still...unsettling.

They then fought a newly revived dragon in the dark, in a blizzard. The battle turned out to be less difficult than it might have been, however, likely because there were three of them and Elbrin had learned to be a bit of an atronach-summoning witch herself.

(Saved at lvl 13.)

#travel log #elbrin

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