Chapter 3: Lead On


In what felt like no time at all, Katie and Ralof had reached the bottom of a flight of stairs, where they found a large room, full of cages and chains, as well as a raised stone platform in the center of the room, and a table off to one side, with a book, a small blade and a knapsack. Katie might have mistaken the place for a prison compound, but it seemed that Ralof had seen enough rooms like that one. He knew what it was.

"Troll's blood!" he gasped, "A torture room!"

However, as he and Katie drew nearer, they could see that something was going on in that room besides torture. There were two men in imperial armor down there, and they were engaged in fierce combat with two other men; both wearing stormcloak gear; the blue sash and chainmail. For the first time, Katie was struck with a pang of guilt over even getting involved in a fight like that. Still, she knew she'd be mistaken for a rebel if she was seen in Ralof's presence, and in just a moment, he'd rushed to the attack, and she had little choice but to follow behind.

That battle went much faster, as the odds were far more in their favor, and pretty soon, the torturer and his assistant were both dead. However, one of the stormcloak soldiers had died as well. Once again, Katie felt the tragic sense of loss at the sight of so many dead men, but that time, Ralof didn't stop to look at them. In fact, Katie realized in dismay as her eyes took in the blood and shattered armor all around her, he'd never once stopped to look twice at any of the imperials he'd killed. It was a sobering thought.

"Was Jarl Ulfric with you?" Ralof asked, turning to the surviving Stormcloak with a look of some concern. She was a beautiful, young woman with long, blond hair, but Ralof's expression seemed distant, as though he were worried, but not about her.

"No." she replied, shaking her head sadly, "Not since the dragon attacked."

Katie, however, had taken a moment to look through the book and knapsack that were on the table near the raised platform, while the two had been talking. The book was a very odd volume called "the Book of the Dragonborn." Katie only had a moment to flip through the pages, and note, in some surprise, that it was some old legend about a being who had the blood of dragons in his veins; that the dragonborn was a special person; given the blessing of the time god Akatosh; who was believed to be a dragon himself. In was all gobbledegook, of course, thought Katie. Power came from effort, not from blood.

"Hey!" Ralof exclaimed a moment later, however. He'd taken up a position near one of the cages, "I think there's something in here! Can you... can you...? No, I don't suppose you can pick locks, can you?"

"No..." Katie admitted as she got closer to the cage, looking at the lock for a moment or two. It was an old lock, and not very sturdy, but Katie was still hesitant to try to break it with the heavy hand axe, given how little experience she had with it.

"I wish I had my spear, or a lighter axe." Katie muttered sadly, "I could bust an old lock like this wide open."

Ralof looked curious for just a moment, and finally, he said "You must think I've been rude up to now, but I was just in a hurry. I never asked your name."

For a moment, Katie wasn't sure what to say; whether it would be alright to tell her real name to someone who was clearly an outlaw, but then again, it wasn't like she would have been hard to track down, even if she didn't.

"Katie." she admitted quickly.

"That is not a Nord name..." Ralof observed, however, his face falling just slightly as he took in what she'd just told him, "You... Ah, I see. Your first time in Skyrim, but you were born of Nord parents, and raised in Hammerfell. Of course. I should have guessed. You must have been given a redguard name to help you adjust."

"Right." Katie replied, "Although the real reason was that the two people who raised me were redguards themselves."

Once again, however, Ralof's face fell, but only for a brief moment.

"I see. Well, no harm done. You're back in your homeland, and you've got the heart to rescue your brothers and sisters, even when you've never met them before. People like you give me hope."

Katie was completely taken aback by those words. She had no idea how she was supposed to take them. It certainly seemed as if Ralof was being sincere about liking her spirit and such, but on the other hand, he also seemed, for a moment, to have viewed her as a bit less of a person, since he'd learned that she'd been raised by redguard parents. It was like a compliment in one way, but a veiled insult in another; the worst kind.

However, before Katie had the chance to formulate any really good replies to what he'd just said, Ralof and the other stormcloak were headed off down a passage nearby, which was situated on the other side of the torture room, and Katie found herself rushing to try to catch up.


After only a short time of rushing through tunnels, however, Katie started to hear voices coming from up ahead, an it was plain that Ralof had heard them too, since he'd gestured for Katie and the other stormcloak to stay back.

"Imperials." Ralof hissed furiously, "Not sure how many, but we've got to get past them to get out of here."

Katie felt a lump form in her throat over the idea of fighting again; especially against a force of unknown size, but Ralof, it seemed, was used to that kind of situation, which was probably what had gotten him arrested to begin with. In just a second, he and the other stormcloak had charged forward to meet an imperial soldier, who was standing in the middle of a stone ledge, not far into the next chamber. However, Katie could already see that it had been a trap. Two more soldiers were advancing on them from the ground floor of the chamber, off to one side, and worse yet; two archers were standing on the other side of the chamber; fitting arrows to their bows. As bad as things were, and as likely as it was that she'd die in the next few minutes, she knew that she couldn't let Ralof die alone.

In just a second, she'd charged the two imperials who'd been advancing on her new friends, although one managed to step out of the way completely, and the other was only slightly scratched by Katie's axe as she charged him. Still, the noise drew Ralof's attention. Fortunately, neither of the soldiers had been ready for her, and neither was prepared with a counter-attack, even though both had their weapons drawn. However, she wasn't prepared to try to dodge anything either, and the archers were already fitting arrows to their bows.

It horrified Katie to think of one of those deadly shafts driving its way into her, but nevertheless, she knew that she couldn't afford to turn her attention to them yet. Sweeping all the way around behind her, Katie executed one fast, powerful swing with her axe, this time succeeding in striking both of her opponents in the chest, leaning hard into the blow as she did so, and knocking both of them back. That, unfortunately, was when the archers fired their first rounds.

One archer had attempted to hit Katie dead center, and his arrow had glanced off one of the stalagmites that still protruded from the floor of that cavern, but the other succeeded in driving a shaft into one of her hips, causing her to wince in agony. Ultimately, though, the arrow was only a flesh wound, and it hadn't gone down quite as deep as it might have. The danger, she thought as she pulled it from her skin, would be the two armed enemies in front of her, who had just recovered from the pasting she'd given them, and were lifting their weapons.

Katie did her best to dodge the blows of her enemy as they attacked with their swords just a moment later, and although she didn't really succeed, neither blow was able to dig very deeply into her, and all told, they hadn't done nearly as much damage to her as she had to them.

Katie only had a fraction of a second before swinging her axe again, to notice that the stormcloak soldier with the long, blond hair was fighting for her life against the imperial guard she'd first engaged, and neither seemed to be making any headway against the other, because of the fact that somehow, Ralof had disappeared. For a moment, Katie wondered where he might have gone, but she knew she couldn't take her eyes off her own enemies to go looking for him. She'd swung her axe at one of her enemies just a moment later, hitting him just cleanly enough to deal some serious damage to him, although he was still trying to fight. His next swing didn't hurt that much, but unfortunately, the swing of his companion dug much deeper, and Katie felt something tear inside of her as she raised her axe again, finishing off one of the soldiers who'd been struggling against her, and turning to face the other, who still seemed not to have had enough, though his next attack hurt much less than the last one, and pretty soon, the two were trading blows again. However, the other soldier never managed to strike as deeply with his weapon as he had before, and in the end, he fell to the ground too, giving up his last breath.

Katie was still panting with exhaustion as she surveyed the bodies of the two enemies she'd just defeated, and the third, who had apparently been beaten by the other stormcloak soldier. However, that was when she realized something; the archers had stopped firing at her.

Quickly, she turned to face the place where the archers had been, and there, she saw a sight that almost made her want to scream aloud. The blond-haired stormcloak was lying dead on the ground, along with one of the archers, and Ralof and the last archer were in combat together, each covered in wounds, and only a hair away from dying.

With a roar of fury, Katie charged at the archer, slamming into him hard, and knocking him into a nearby wall, probably saving her friend's life. As badly as she'd been injured in that last fight, she could tell just by looking at Ralof, that he needed the last potion more than she did, and it only took her a moment to hand it to him.

Once the archer got his bearings back, he drew a sword and tried to attack her, but once again, the attack was too shallow to do any serious damage, and soon, Katie had driven him back with her axe. Finally, with a howl of rage, and having finished the potion, Ralof darted forward, and lopped off the final archer's head, then just stood for a moment, looking at the nord woman who'd saved his life, then turning to look at the fallen stormcloak in dismay.

"How...?" Ralof gasped out in exasperation and confusion, "How did you survive, and...?"

However, Katie couldn't answer. It was, in some ways, a miracle that any of them had survived. They'd been outnumbered almost two to one, and the enemy had had the advantage of being able to strike from a distance, yet the two of them were alive, at any rate, although she felt like she was about to drop dead at any moment, and even after taking the potion, she suspected that Ralof felt the same way.

"None of us should have survived." Katie said at last, "It was a total mismatch."

For the next several seconds, however, Ralof just stared at the body of the blond-haired woman, any number of guilty thoughts probably running through his mind.

"There should be potions" he gasped out at last, "for more of the things that matter."

However, when he finally turned back to face Katie again, there was a strange look in his eyes, like the look of a lost child.

"I should be dead." he said, as though the idea had never really occurred to him before, "I should be in Sovngarde with her. But... you saved me. We were trained since birth to be great, nord warriors, and... you saved me?"

"You can't be a great warrior if you're dead." Katie observed, but that seemed to have not been the point that Ralof had been trying to make, because he soon started shaking his head sadly.

"I should be thanking you." he said at last, "Yet, all I can feel is shame; shame over not being strong enough. Shame over leading her to her death. She didn't need to die like that."

Katie had nothing to say about that, however, and at last, she was pleased when Ralof got to his feet again, straightening up as much as his wounds would allow.

"Never mind." he said furiously, as though he were still chastising himself inwardly for some kind of weakness, or another, but was finally ready to move on, "Lead the way."

"What?" Katie asked in amazement, "Me? Why do you want me to lead?"

"You've proven that you can survive things that I never could." Ralof admitted, the anger fading just a little from his face as he spoke, "Honestly, at this point, I trust your judgment more than I do my own. Go ahead. Lead on."

For a few moments, Katie wished that she could trust her own judgment nearly that much, but in the end, she did lead on, through a tunnel beyond that cavern of death, and over a wooden bridge, which was operated by a nearby lever, into the cave beyond. Fortunately, that cave didn't contain any soldiers, but it did have a stream running through it; apparently from aboveground, which seeped through the rocks at one end of the cave, and seemed to have dug out a small gully in the floor, which led into a tunnel.

Though it got her feet absolutely soaked, Katie pressed on down the path of the water, until she found a place where the water seeped through more rocks, and another tunnel branched off from it. However, she caught a whiff of a horrible smell, coming out of that tunnel, and that wasn't the only sign that something was wrong there.

There was a small ledge just next to the entrance to the tunnel, and resting on that ledge was a human skeleton; its bones having been picked utterly clean. There was no question what had happened to that poor soul; some ravenous creature had killed him, slowly devouring every inch of flesh on his body. They'd left behind the bones, as well as a small bag of gold coins, which Katie stuffed into the knapsack she'd been using. However, she couldn't help but ask herself; what kind of horrible creature had consumed that poor traveler, and was it still alive; still waiting for new victims in the tunnels up ahead.

The idea gave Katie pause for just a moment, as she thought of some vicious monster tearing into her side, just like the swords of those soldiers, in the cavern they'd just passed through. Then again, as badly as those swords had hurt her, they'd nearly killed Ralof, and as unpleasant as her thoughts about him had started to become in the recent past, she didn't want him to get hurt. It was the strangest feeling she'd ever had, but in just a moment, she turned to look at him, pleased to see that he was watching her carefully as she lead the way onward.

"Ralof..." Katie said, sure that the worry must have been showing on her face, "I want you to stay here for a minute. If I don't return in five minutes, you can come in after me."

"Alright." Ralof replied, looking a little confused still, but willing to take her advice.

Katie could barely believe how much she'd changed in just the last hour. She'd never thought of herself leaving home and going on adventures, much less risking her life. In fact, she rarely even thought about people who actually went out and did things like that; fought wars, protected caravans... that sort of thing. Back home in Karohad, she'd just sort of assumed that people didn't fight that way anymore. However, it was quickly becoming obvious that the world hadn't changed that much since the war, and even more obvious that as little as she'd tried to prepare for combat, she was actually surprisingly prepared.

It was a good thing, too, because as soon as Katie came within sight of the next open cavern, she saw, in dread, that it was absolutely filled with truly enormous spider webs, and that could only mean one thing.

Katie pulled out her axe as fast as she could, just as spiders the size of wagon wheels began descending from the ceiling to attack, apparently having noticed her. She counted at least five, and they all looked pretty ferocious, although their legs were thin, and seemed likely to break under stress. They were all moving in to attack, poisonous venom dripping from their mouths as they advanced, and then one of the larger ones actually fired a ball of webbing and venom directly at Katie. It didn't hurt much when it hit her, and neither did the next one, having been fired by another spider. However, that proved something about her new enemies. Namely; they were perfectly capable of attacking from a distance, which was an advantage that she needed to undermine, and fast.

With all the speed she could muster, Katie charged right into the nearest spider, demolishing it with a single blow of her axe afterwards. However, the remaining spiders were on the attack, striking her from all sides. Only one of them, however, dug deep with its teeth into her leg, and it was one of the smaller and weaker ones. She'd crushed it in no time, with another swing of her axe. Still, she was starting to feel weak from the constant strain that she was putting on herself, and from all the blood she was losing.

Soon, another of the spiders had gotten another good lick in; a big one that time. Katie felt like the whole world was spinning, but she shattered one more spider with her axe before the bigger ones went on the attack again, driving her to the floor with their teeth. It was no good anymore, at that point. The remaining spiders were just too fast, and she couldn't keep up with them.

However, just then, as she was about to black out, she heard a ferocious war cry, and that was the last thing that she would hear for hours.


When Katie finally woke up, she still felt incredibly weak, but somehow alive. She wasn't sure how, but it seemed that Ralof had somehow gotten her to another river, further on in the cave, and had washed and bandaged most of her wounds, as well as several of his own. He was smiling at the puzzled look on her face, but quickly put one finger to his lips as she tried to sit up.

"No noise." he whispered under his breath, and that was when she heard the sound of another creature breathing; some large beast, which must have been very nearby.

Though she was still hurt all over, Katie struggled to sit up as silently as she could, and sure enough, across the cavern from the two battle-worn nords, there was a large, fearsome-looking black bear. The only thing that might have made it seem even a little unthreatening was that it was apparently asleep. It was curled up on the cavern floor, and its breathing was very heavy.

Finally, Ralof dared to take a few steps closer to Katie, and begin whispering into her ear.

"I've found the exit, but it's past the bear, in the cavern to the left. If we can just sneak past it, we'll be... we'll be..."

However, a look of open horror and despair had begun to cross Ralof's face the moment he'd mentioned his ridiculous plan, since the very idea of Katie sneaking past anything was a fiction that only vast blood loss could have conjured up.

"Apologies." Ralof said with a sigh, "I feel I could fight somewhat now, but a bear is a dangerous foe, even at my best. I can lodge an arrow in it's hide to start with, and take it by surprise, but I need your help to overpower it."

Katie couldn't feel her arms. She was still dizzy from the blood loss and spider venom, and she hated to think of what a beast like that one could do to her in her weakened state. But what else could she do? There was no other choice?

In a moment, Ralof had fitted an arrow to his bowstring, as Katie got to her feet, and let it fly the moment she'd picked up her axe. The bear howled in rage and began its charge towards them, and she responded with a charge of her own, hoping desperately that Ralof would follow and lend her what aid he could.

Katie struck the beast with all her might, but the creature barely seemed to feel it, lashing out with a power just as great, and knocking her back into the stream, her head reeling again and her strength fading already. Ralof made his move next, slashing out at the beast with his own axe, but it turned on him, making a huge gash in his chest almost effortlessly, though it had failed to knock him down.

Katie finally managed to struggle to her feet after several seconds, and charged again, however, and that time, the bear seemed hurt. Ralof's next attack, in turn, seemed to hit a vulnerable spot, knocking the creature's head to one side, and leaving it open to one more strike from Katie. Her next blow drew blood, visibly, from the creature's snout and chest, causing it to roar in fury, and lash out as fast as it could, but Ralof ducked out of the way of its attack, and so avoided most of the damage that he might otherwise have taken from it.

Unlike the spiders that Katie, and apparently Ralof had just been fighting, the bear was much larger and slower, but it was also proving to be harder to kill. However, with one final, desperate effort, both Katie and Ralof swung their weapons full force at the beast's head, one last time, and with a deafening crunch, it was all over. The creature lay dead, and the path to the outside world was open.

Unable to run anymore; barely able to even walk, the two nords passed on, through the tunnel beyond what had once been the lair of that horrible beast, until at last, the daylight streamed in from in front of them, and for a while, neither one could believe what they'd just gone through. Each was having difficulty coming to grips with what had just happened; that somehow, both of them had survived.


Ralof and Katie had needed to support one another on the way out of the cave, and they were in no position to fight anyone else. A good, clean blow from another soldier could have finished off either one of them at that point. Nevertheless, they hadn't left the cave for more than a minute before Ralof seemed to freeze up, having noticed something out of the corner of his eye.

Soon, he'd helped Katie over to a nearby rock, leaning her against it, and had done his best to put his own back up against the rock as well. Katie wasn't sure what he was trying to do, at first, until a tremendous, black-winged monster soared almost directly over their heads, flying off into the mountains in the distance. She hurt all over, but in that moment, she still had to fight back the shivers.

"I think he's gone." Ralof muttered, once he was sure that the dragon was far enough away, "Probably for good this time."

That was when the stormcloak leaned his head back against the rock and sighed. It was several seconds before he could summon up the strength to speak again.

"We can't be sure how many others survived. This place might be full of imperial soldiers soon... We should really clear out."

"Probably." Katie almost whispered under her breath, barely able to move anymore.

"If we could make it all the way to Riverwood... We might be able to find some weapons... armor... healing potions..."

"Mm-hmm..." Katie muttered again, but she still couldn't get up.

"You can't move either, can you?" Ralof asked, looking sadly up at the sky.

"No." Katie just replied, closing her own eyes and relaxing as best she could, until the dizziness and confusion faded, and all that was left was darkness.


Eventually, the pain had begun to fade just slightly into a sort of dull ache, and it was a sharp chill that woke Katie from her sleep. Ralof was still sleeping; still lying against the boulder, about a yard away from her. However, she'd begun to feel some of her old strength returning, even though her wounds were as nasty as ever.

With a little effort, Katie was able to get up again, though it sent shocks of agony through her legs and torso. She was still a wreck, but at least, she noted, she could move a little, and that meant that she could do a little planning.

Unslinging her knapsack from over one shoulder, Katie dug out her bottle; the same bottle that she'd used to save the life of her mother, and held it out in front of her again, looking through it like a spyglass at the surrounding landscape. It was night, and the darkness surrounded her almost totally, but she kept looking around with the bottle all the same, guessing that the auras she'd seen in the daytime might be even more visible at night, and sure enough, after about four minutes of looking, there they were; brighter than ever before, and coming from some sort of bush, just over the next hill.

Getting over that hill was a challenge, with her legs as torn up as they were, but in the end, Katie did manage to make it to the bush. It didn't have any fruit or berries, nor for that matter, any flowers, she noticed, but it did have thin, crisp leaves, which looked, in the light of her bottle, a sort of pale reddish-brown.

However, just as Katie was bending down to pick some of the leaves, one of her legs started to give out, and not sure what else to do, she let herself fall back, her knapsack shifting position as she fell, and dislodging the enchanted book that she'd found in her possession just a few days before. For a moment or two, the book rolled over on the ground, then landed face-down, with its pages open on the grass.

Carefully, Katie got her footing back, and reached for the book, but as she turned it over, and looked at the pages in the light of her bottle, she could see in amazement that something about the book had changed. The last time that Katie had looked at the book, all of the pages had been blank, but when she'd picked it up just then, there were words on one of the pages. It was still too dark to make them out distinctly, but she could see the phrase "King's Blood Herb" in especially large letters at the top of the page.

Then, Katie got another idea. She remembered how the aura of light in the bottle had grown stronger when she'd placed something into it, so in a moment, she'd picked a few leaves from the bush and stuck them into the bottle, and was gratified to see that the light streaming out from her bottle had grown nearly three times stronger, and turned an odd, blue hue. It was just enough to read the rest of the page by, and the words she read there not only surprised her, but filled her with open confusion at the thought of just what kind of wizard could have made a book like that one.

"King's Blood Herb" the book read, "a wild herb which grows only in rough soil, and in cold climates. It can be fabricated, however, in a rotation matrix if no such climate is available. Its uses in alchemy are manifold, as it has properties of healing, which can be brought out through the following method. Pluck the leaves from the branch of the herb; leaving none of the branch attached to the leaf itself. Then, dry the leaves for fifteen minutes over a fire, but without burning them. Once this is done, use a pestle to grind the dried leaves into a fine powder, and mix into a flash filled with water. Stir well, and add a pinch of oak ash. To save time, oak can be used to fuel the fire. Shake the flask well and consume. The effects are instant, but not dramatic, and several doses may be required to heal serious wounds. In addition, the herb may be used in several more advanced recipes, such as..."

However, Katie had read enough. Quickly, she began gathering herbs and stuffing as many into her knapsack as she could fit, then walked back to where Ralof was still snoozing, and poked him a few times to wake him up. He seemed, if anything, to have recovered even more than she had, and when she asked him for oak to start a fire with, he needed her to explain her reasoning a few times. Still, he'd shaken off his grogginess before too long, and set to work finding a few nice, big logs and some smaller branches to use for kindling, which he said were definitely oak wood. Katie had worked the forge day in and day out back home, so she knew how to start fires, though she'd never really done it in the wild before. Also, she needed some help from Ralof to set up a pair of axes over the fire, to act as a makeshift platform for drying the leaves. In the end, the setup was complete, and the dried leaves were all piled up near the boulder they'd been resting next to. It was only then that Katie realized that she had another problem.

"What's a pestle?" she asked, looking over at Ralof in some confusion.

"A small, wooden club used by alchemists and potionmakers. All alchemy tables have at least one, but we'll have to make do with one of these branches, if you'll give me a minute to carve it up."

Ralof, as it turned out, was an exceptionally good craftsman, and has succeeded in crafting a passable pestle within fifteen minutes, which she began using to grind the leaves on the rocks nearby. It was long, grueling work, taking the better part of the next half-hour, and making her arms hurt even more, but at last, the powder was finished, and they were ready for the next step.

"We need a flask of water." Katie said to herself, thinking aloud, but again, Ralof has a suggestion to make.

"Use your magic bottle, and the stream in the cave. The water in there was uncommonly fresh."

That turned out to be a good idea as well, although it meant that several trips were needed to continue refilling the magic bottle, and the potions each needed to be mixed in order. Still, Katie got some experience brewing them, and after five or six trips, and five or six healing potions, she was amazed by how much better she and Ralof looked. Virtually all of Ralof's wounds had vanished, and even his arm seemed to be working right again. Katie still had quite a number of cuts, and was working on another potion, but for Ralof, the only remaining problem seemed to be that his clothes were still stained with blood.

"I'll just wash up for a minute." Ralof said with a smile as he stepped over to the cave entrance, "You know, I've never seen an alchemist work like that before..."

"I'm not an alchemist." Katie just replied flatly, although she already knew what she'd been doing for the last hour or so; it was a potion-brewing method of some kind, though not one that she'd ever heard of.

"It doesn't matter." Ralof said, however, "All I know is, I trust you now, and I've never been able to say that to... Well, to anybody who used magic before. I owe you more than I can say."

Then, before Katie could say a word in reply, Ralof had disappeared into the shadowy mouth of the cave, and was gone, leaving her alone with her magic bottle and her powders.


As it had turned out, the book hadn't been lying about the relative weakness of the healing potions. Katie had needed to down almost five more before the last of her pains were gone, and she insisted on making one more to take with her before leaving the area. She would have made others, but sadly, she only had one bottle. Somehow, the potion bottles that had held the potions which the two had used during their escape from Helgen had disappeared, and glassblowing was well beyond anything that she'd ever used a forge for, even if she'd had one handy. It made her a little sad to have to leave the remaining powders behind, but they would have just poured right out of her knapsack, so pocketing her last potion, she headed off down the road after her new friend.

It was odd, because while he'd been steadily giving her new reasons to dislike him, she couldn't ignore the way he'd saved her life when she'd been at the mercy of those spiders, or helped her get past that bear. She'd never been in a position where she'd committed to risking her life for the sake of someone else before, but Ralof seemed to have brought that side out in her. Maybe, she thought, it was because he was such a mix of strange traits. He was a warrior, and a skilled one, and yet, in actual combat, to Katie, he just seemed so small and weak half the time; like he needed her protection, whether he realized it or not.

Still, Katie thought to herself; the man was a rebel and a soldier, and the defining trait of a soldier was their willingness to die, if necessary, for their side. It made her sad, but, she noted, Ralof would probably wind up in an early grave, no matter what she did to try to protect him. The most she could do was to survive, and do her best to convince him to consider her side of things.


Beyond the mods addendum; Things you can't do in-game

1. People in Skyrim are very ignorant, and regularly expect you to be able to do things alien to the character class you're playing, or ignore what you can do, or have done. Expecting Katie to be able to pick locks is a little ridiculous, but they ask the same thing of Altmer, Bretons, Nords and even Orcs. In Skyrim, no character will react any differently to you, based on anything at all that your character is or does, and I'll be defying this one incessantly, because you just can't have an interesting dialogue otherwise.

2. You can't set advantages and disadvantages for your character at the start of Skyrim, with the exception of the minimal racial benefits that each race receives. Katie has many weaknesses, such as minimal speed and agility, being unable to ride a horse for long periods, and being unskilled with an axe, but she doesn't take full damage from most attacks, and can charge and slam the enemy effectively in battle, provided that there's some distance between them through which to charge. These kinds of advantages and disadvantages can't be applied to your character in Skyrim.

3. Ralof won't shoot at the bear, and won't lead the attack against him. This is another instance of characters reacting differently to the player character based on what she's capable of, and what she isn't. Katie can't sneak at all, and has a penalty when using bows.

4. King's Blood Herb is not an ingredient in Skyrim, but there really aren't that many ingredients in Skyrim that restore health. No harm in putting more into the world when they're needed most.

5. You can't set up fires or mix potions in the wild in Skyrim, unlike in previous TES games, which let you carry alchemy apparati with you everywhere you went.

6. In Skyrim, health regenerates spontaneously, like magicka and stamina, even when you're not resting or recuperating. I took that out, because frankly, it was stupid. (I think there's a mod that does this as well.)


Note: Sorry this chapter took longer than expected. I've been further ironing out the gameplay mechanics of the homebrew modification of GURPS that I've created for playing Skyrim with, and I spent the whole week before last designing a sufficient spell system, which I only just finished recently. I'll be ironing out other gameplay mechanics in the future too, such as armor degradation and dungeon looting mechanics, which may cause further delays in upcoming chapters, though probably not in the next one.