Rain again.

For the past few weeks it's been nothing but rain. The constant pitter-patter of the raindrops striking the ground has been engraved into my mind, so that I hear it everywhere I go. I play some music, I hear rain. I go to read a book, I hear rain. Hell, it even rains in my dreams. And it doesn't seem like it's anywhere near finished.

I've only been on Vvardenfell for a month, but I can never remember a rainstorm like this anywhere on Tamriel. And trust me, I've been everywhere on Tamriel. You see, I'm a mercenary. A sword-for-hire. An adventurer who plays by his own rules. I've always been attracted to the sense of danger and thrill, and this career of mine supplies me with all I need. Granted, it's definitely not the easiest job in the world. There have been plenty of times where I've very narrowly escaped death. But I have a blast doing it, there's no doubt about that.

Anyway, I've been sitting in my house in Balmora for what seems like eons, doing nothing but waiting for the rain to quit. And to be perfectly honest, I can't stand it. See, I can't sit still in any scenario without becoming severely bored and depressed. I guess it comes with this danger addiction I seem to have. It's only a couple houses to the South Wall, but I really don't want to get injured. You see, this is no ordinary storm. This is a highly lethal one. One that I have never seen on the face of the continent. It's almost like the gods are firing water arrows down at our poor land, where if you get hit you get killed. Three people in the town have already died from the relentless force of the rain, and ol' Tharkis the Grey lost his arm when he was trying to fix a window that somehow got jammed open. I can't tell what's going on, but I might as well try to figure out.

Some people will think I'm crazy, that I'm just another naive lunatic throwing his life away. But for me, this is a challenge. Another thrill to feed my endless desire. I need to do this, I'm obligated to. Because if no one else dares to save Vvardenfell from this massacre of a storm, I'll have to.

But first I somehow need to get to the Mage's Guild, so that I may try to figure out how I can go about becoming immune to this storm. I look around my house, but I can't find anything that will seem to work against the rain. Not one potion, not one scroll. Not even some kind of almighty water repelling device. I guess I'll have to visit my neighbor, Drelnas Varlino. He's a nice guy, born and bred here in Balmora, and he recently opened up his own wares shop. He's an inventor at heart; he likes to turn imagination into reality. Of course, he usually fails, but he just might have the very item I need to survive this.

So, I open the door very, very slightly, getting ready to fling it open and make a mad dash for Drelnas' house. That's when a raindrop hit my foot. I scream and slam the door shut, my whole leg now searing in pain. I sit down and check out my foot. It's got a huge, swelling bruise where the raindrop hit it. But I can't let that get me now. I hastily grab some sort of rubber curtain-like thing, hoping the rain keeps at bay for the 3 steps I need to make outside. Again I open the door slightly, but as soon as I do another raindrop sears right through the curtain! Holy mother of Vivec! This is getting a bit ridiculous now. And that's when a brilliant idea hit me.

Note that usually my brilliant ideas are very stupid, and end up failing. But desperate times call for desperate measures. I open up the window, on the side of the house facing Drelnas' place. I scream his name as loudly as I can, though it does no good with the extreme noise of the rain outside. So I chuck an old boot of mine at the window there, hoping he hears the noise and comes to open it. And within a minute he opens his window and hollers, "What do you want, Selphica?"

I respond with "I want to come over."

He shouts, "What! Why the hell do you want to come over now? You do realize there's a deadly storm outside, right?

I say, "Uh, obviously. Look, I'll explain in a second. Just fully open your window and take a few steps back."

He groans and replies, "Alright. Just be careful with whatever it is you're planning on doing."

Alright, time to put my plan into action. I open up my window fully and step back as well, except this time in a crouched position, ready to sprint. After a few seconds of preparation, I fling myself forward, through both of our windows and into his house. I stand up, dust myself off, and notice I got hit twice in the leg with the killer raindrops. Man, this hurts. I rise and end up facing the bewildered Drelnas.

"Why the hell did you just do that?"

I laugh and say "Frankly, I'm just glad my plan worked out."

"No, you're missing my point, Selphica. Why do you want to be over here?"

I reply, "Well, I needed to know if you had any water-repelling devices in that workshop of yours. I need to get to the Mage's Guild, pronto."

He says, "Here, just start from the beginning. What is it you're going to do?"

Hehe. He asked for it. "Look, I'm planning on saving Vvardenfell from this terrible storm somehow. I venture to find out whom or what is causing it and how to fix it. However, this would be very hard to do without immunity to water. Therefore, I need to head over to the Mage's Guild to find out how I can go about gaining this immunity."

Then I wait, as Drelnas gives me a blank stare. After a few minutes he comes about, finally absorbing the info I just laid out in front of him, and says, "Well, I only have one Potion of Water Resistance. It's not a very common potion at all, and I do treasure it. I was actually planning on using it sometime soon, since eventually I'll run out of provisions. But I can let you have it, for a price."

Astonished, I ask, "A price? What kind of price? How much?"

"1500 septims," Drelnas says in a take-it-or-leave-it tone.

Now I'm appalled. "1500! Are you kidding? I barely have that much at my house!"

"That's my final offer."

Disgruntled and annoyed, I say, "Fine. Can I get you those 1500 septims after I get the immunity?"

He laughs, harder than I've ever seen him laugh. "Yeah, like you wouldn't cheat me out of my money. Right."

"I swear to Zenithar that I'll get you those septims."

"Haha, you and your Imperial gods. No septims, no potion. And that's final."

Very, very annoyed, I go and jump back through the windows into my own home. Through some kind of miracle, I didn't get hit this time. I grab my 1800 septims out of the chest under my bed, so that I have extra spending money for later. For the third time in an hour, I jump through the windows to Drelnas' house, or at least I try. But this time I missed Drelnas' window, and I end up getting slaughtered by the raindrops. Driven by anger, frustration, and severe pain, I scramble through the window with bruises all over my body and fury all over my thoughts. I head back over to Drelnas and pay my 1500 septims for the potion.

"Now, let me explain how this works. As soon as you drink it, you have 60 seconds to make it to your destination before the potion wears off. So you had better sprint, seeing as how the Mage's Guild is on the other side of town." He then gives me the Potion of Water Resistance, and wishes me good luck. And I'll bet I'll need it. Reluctant, yet knowing I must press on, I open the door and ready myself for the long run ahead.