Raven's Rock, Solstheim
Nirn
The 27
th of Midyear

After a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast what they and the Skaal shared with each other in the Great Hall, Belinda, Karr, Serena, and Farkas departed. Belinda carried Dione's map and the three Black Books in her pack. Their first stop was the nearby Beast Stone behind Thirsk Hall. Nords and Rieklings worked here. It was likely the only time one would see them working together. Belinda Shouted at the stone, freeing both parties. They immediately turned on one another as their work crumbled. That's when the Lurker emerged, roaring. Tentacles burst from its mouth and suddenly the Nords and the Rieklings were on it. The Rieklings shouted their little battle cries and were scrambling all over the Lurker, stabbing it with their spears while the Thirsk Nords felled the beast.

"Well, that was a sight to behold," Belinda commented as both parties went on their ways.

"Well, one good thing about this Miraak guy is that he has a way of bringing people together," Farkas joked.

Belinda chuckled and they moved on. It wasn't long before the snow was replaced by ash. They wandered a bit, and then found a Dragon nesting in its burial mound. The bronze Dragon rose, roaring at them. They fought the Dragon. Belinda was able to take the fire; the others got out of the way. After the Dragon was slain, Belinda prepared herself to absorb the soul when she felt a burning presence and turned. Miraak stood by her.

"Not this time, Dragonborn. This one is mine," he told.

"Um, excuse you!" Belinda snapped, turning to him with irritation. "Did you slay this Dragon? Fuck no! NOW GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!"

He ignored her and absorbed the soul anyway. Belinda grabbed her sword and swung at him; the blade went right through him. She could then feeling him grinning at her like the smug bastard he was. "One step closer to my return," he chuckled.

"Bro, I swear to Talos, I will wring your goddamn neck! Face me like a man!" Belinda snapped.

"No."

"Fuck you!" She tried to tackle him, except she went right through him and landed face-first in the ash-snow mixture. She growled and turned to look at him.

Miraak laughed at her. "You're quite mad."

"Well of course I am you son of a Dragon whore!"

"FUS-RO-DAH!" That had struck a nerve with him and he sent her flying several feet into a tree. He went over to her as the others ran to get her back up. "I'm stronger than you, Dragonborn. Think on that for a while." And then he was gone.

"He wouldn't have reacted like that if there wasn't truth to it," Serena pointed out.

"Yeah…" Belinda coughed up some blood. "Ouch…" She reached for the healing magic stored in a rose quartz and mended her injuries. They then went down to the Sun Stone, which was inhabited by Reavers. Belinda shouted again to free them and the stone from Miraak's control. Same things happened: What they were building was reduced to dust, a Lurker appeared, and everyone took it down with their weapons. The Reavers, all Dunmer, looked to Belinda.

"What was that?" one asked.

"A Daedra," Belinda answered. "You were being controlled by it."

That made the Reavers nervous. "Well, thank you serjo…" They departed.

Raven's Rock was a bit of a walk, and they were quickly beset by an ash storm. They drew their cloaks over themselves and hid by a tree. They huddled together, waiting out the storm. By the end though, their cloaks were shredded and their clothes torn. They had scratches. So, this made the journey back to Raven's Rock harder. They shivered upon their return and the guards helped them to the temple for healing and treatment.

"Your first ash storm, I take it?" asked Elder Othreloth, an older Dunmer man. He wiped the ash from a wound on Belinda's left arm.

"Yeah. I'd heard they were vicious," Belinda answered, wincing.

"This is nothing compared to the ones back on Vvardenfell," Othreloth pointed out, and started healing the cut. "In my youth, I was an Ashlander. I would wander the wastes, and we would always be caught in storms."

"You ever meet the Nerevar?" Belinda asked.

"Once, I think." The cut sealed cleanly. "I thank him every day for restoring the True Tribunal."

After their injuries were tended to, Adril caught up with them with the list of those commonly affected. Belinda thanked him and looked at the list. There didn't seem to be much connection though. Glover Mallory struck a bell in Belinda's mind. After a moment, she realized he shared the same last name as Delvin. He was a blacksmith, and currently working. She went over to him.

"Excuse me, are you related to Delvin?" she asked.

"He's my brother; are you here looking for the Guildmaster?" Glover asked.

"We already found her."

"Is she alright?"

"She's healing."

"How bad?"

"We're not entirely sure. The Skaal shamans are healing her and Brynjolf is with her," Belinda answered.

Glover nodded. "How is Bryn?"

"Understandably worried."

Glover nodded again.

They went to the house to change next, and then it was off to the Earth Stone, deciding it was best to free it before calling it a day. The few locals working on it fled as the Lurker appeared. The couple of Redoran guards drew their weapons and helped Belinda, Karr, Serena, and Farkas defeat it. After that, they decided to have dinner at the Retching Netch Cornerclub. The proprietor, Geldis Sadri, sent his employee up to take their orders.

"What can I get you?" he asked.

Belinda looked at the menu. "Horker and ash yam stew with water," she answered.

"Same, and Sujamma," Karr added.

Serena said, "Roast boar with mashed yams, a slice of bread, red wine, and no garlic."

"What she's having but I'll have…Ashfire Mead instead," Farkas stated.

The waiter nodded and went back to the kitchen. Karr took out his pipe and smoked his personal blend. Belinda wanted to sleep, but food first. They hadn't had a chance for lunch thanks to the ash storm, and it had worn them down. The waiter brought them their drinks. Belinda drank the water rather greedily. She was parched; clearly it was the ash. Everyone sipped their drinks to clear their throats.

"Okay, so, tomorrow we'll take care of the last two stones," Belinda sighed after her second glass of water. "Then we head back to the Skaal village and see if Storn, Frea, and Lu have made any progress. I really hope Di is getting better. I actually want to hear of hers and Grete's exploits here. It sounds like they did an amazing job."

Everyone cheered to that. The food was then brought out. The horker and ash yam soup looked rather unappealing, but Belinda still ate it. It really tasted better than it looked and the ash yams had a certain spice to them. After dinner and drinks, they retired to Dione and Grete's house. They needed sleep…

Belinda dreamt again of Apocrypha, seeing Miraak as he was working on his plans. He frustrated shredded a paper with the plans regarding the All-Maker stones. Belinda picked up the pieces and looked. "So I was right," she commented, and Miraak whirled around to her, his mask off. She whistled. "Well, aren't you handsome?"

"Get out," he snapped.

"Still sour about calling you a son of a Dragon whore or mad that I'm foiling your plans?" Belinda asked.

Miraak growled at her, his pupils dangerously thin. "Pick. One."

"Awww, that's so sad." She rolled her eyes. "Seriously, if you had just left my friends and I alone, I might have ignored you long enough for you to take over the islands."

Miraak stared at her. "What?" he asked.

"Bitch, you heard me," Belinda answered, rolling her eyes.

"So if I had left things alone-."

"Pretty much."

"What about Glover Mallory?" Miraak asked.

"Yeah, maybe. Delvin was concerned about him," Belinda answered. "And people think I don't think." She then had a thought. "Sooooo, was your mom really a Dragon whore?"

He tried to hit her, and missed. His punch went right through her. "She was not a whore!"

"Well I'm assuming she was Human and your dad was a Dragon since you're the First Dragonborn," Belinda commented. "Unless your dad is Akatosh, but I highly doubt that."

"My father is Paarthurnax," Miraak pointed out.

"Oh that's-…WHAT?!" Belinda exclaimed. She was silent for several minutes. "Well that explains a lot. I'm gonna go now. I have to finish foiling yours plans."

Miraak looked irritated. "Good luck with that."

"Don't need it when it's pretty easy to foil," Belinda responded, and then woke up. "Ugh, he's such a dick," she mumbled into Karr's shirt.

"Who?"

"Miraak."


The Water Stone, Solstheim
Nirn
The 28
th of Midyear, 4E203

They passed a small family of Netches hovered close to the shore pasted the Earth Stone. Despite being giant bugs that produced lightning, Belinda was quite fascinated with them. She had never seen one before. It was hard to distinguish the bull from the betty, but the calf was the obvious small one without a glowing underbelly. It was actually a cutie.

"I heard Netch jelly is good stuff," Karr pointed out, "but sour."

"And shocking," Farkas added. Serena groaned. "What?"

"That was an awful pun," she told him.

Belinda giggled, and they moved on along the ashy shore. She checked the map. They would be passing ruined towers named "Bloodskaal Barrow: Beware of Reavers." So, they snuck along under the towers, unseen by the Reavers that resided there. After that, the sky and water turned a cleaner blue and the air was crisp and clean again. With Raven's Rock being their base of operations, they savored the clean air. And this was in spite of the boars and the ice wraiths that attacked them.

They climbed up to the Water Stone, where they spotted a Cultist whipping the controlled workers to move faster, shouting and cursing at them. Belinda drew her sword and charged, grabbing the man by the shoulder and thrusting her sword through them. She ripped her sword out and let them fall to the ground. She then Shouted at the Water Stone, breaking Miraak's hold on it. The people appeared to be sailor, and they looked around in shock as their work came undone. They ran when the Lurker appeared. It was a slightly stronger one than the others. Serena raised the cultist's corpse to help fight and the five outmatched and slew the Lurker. No sooner do they defeat the Lurker, a Dragon appears to pick a fight. Belinda Shouted ice at it as the sailors fled. Unlike the Lurker, this Dragon fell easily.

"Anything else want to try and kill us today?!" she snapped, absorbing the Dragon's soul. At least Miraak didn't show up to soul-steal this time.

"Like nothing has ever tried to kill us," Serena chuckled.

They escorted the sailors back down to their rowboats, where they returned to their anchored ship. Thankfully, nothing else seemed to want to kill them after that. Then Belinda checked the map. That seemed to be all of the All-Maker Stones. Was there anything else they needed to do? "Watch for Thalmor Agents. Spotted one of their ships around the island." That was a little a little disconcerting. "Recover Glover's bonemold formula from Frostcrag. Wait for others to arrive."

It was time to return to the Skaal Village, so they travelled north along Solstheim's muddle, rocky western shore. Belinda collected several oysters that had washed ashore. They passed a caved dubbed Bristleback Cave where they were attacked by Rieklings shouting in their strange language. They struck first, but lost spectacularly. Two burst from barrels and another stupidly jumped off their watchtower and hit their head. Belinda laughed at that. Past a glacier, they reached Solstheim's north coast, where the shores were coated in snow.

Northshore Landing was a dock, a shack, several crates, barrels, and chests, a waterfall, an ebony vein, and Mudcrabs everywhere. They came to the end of the shore, and jumped on ice sheets. It took them to a mini island with some of Nordic ruins and Stalhrim, a strange, enchanted ice. Belinda looked at Dione's notes on it: "A strange ice found over the sarcophagi in and around Nordic tombs. It's a rare and unique mineral and I would love to see what Belinda and Eorlund can do with the stuff. As soon as the Skaal smith is located, I will inquire more about it. According to Glover, it requires a special pickaxe to mine. Glover has given me his." And low and behold, said pickaxe was secured to her pack. Farkas mined as much as he could from the ice-coated sarcophagi.

"You got anything in mind for it?" he asked, putting the Stalrhim in Dione's pack.

Belinda was looking at a hunk Farkas handed her. "Not sure. Stalrhim…I think I've heard the word somewhere… I wonder if it's something to do with bones…"

"Bones?" Serena asked.

"Huh, don't mind me," Belinda responded.

They returned to the shore, a snow storm picking up, and ran into a ragged, Skooma-addicted Orc woman who tried to fist-fight Farkas. He won. The group continued, pushing through the snow. They found a Riekling Cave cut into a glacier, and turned up onto the path over it. They ran into a snow bear that was weakened from a fight with two ice wraiths; of course it attacked. They soon came upon two pirates arguing, one a woman and the other a man.

"The boss said to bring you back, or your corpse!" the woman snapped.

"Is that so?" the man laughed. "He'll never get the treasure now!

They fought, and Belinda, Karr, Serena, and Farkas stayed out of the fight. The woman won, and groaned as she dragged the corpse away. They rounded the corner and Red Mountain came into view. According to the map, the Skaal Village was not much further. It truly felt like everything on the island was out to get them, even nature. After they fought a troll, they tried to jump across a river using stones. Karr slipped and fell down a thankfully small waterfall. Belinda dove him after him and got him out of the water. Near a camp of pirates.

"OH COME ON!" Belinda exclaimed. She set Karr down and drew her sword. Farkas and Serena joined in the attack.

"These must be the pirates the ones from earlier were arguing about," Serena commented as Karr quickly changed and huddled by the campfire.

"You don't say," Belinda muttered sarcastically. She was kinda done with today even if the snow storm wasn't. She was checking the pirate captain's corpse, where she found a map of Solstheim and a book titled "Deathbrand." She consulted Dione's map and saw she had been on the trail of that too. She stood and looked to where the pirates had dug up a chest. Using what Dione taught her, she unlocked it to find a beautiful, horned helm made of Stalrhim. She read the enchantment through her magic. It allowed Waterbreathing. Not an overwhelming boon truthfully, as Belinda usually had her favorite Dragon Priest Mask, Volsung, with her just in. She walked back to the campfire and skimmed through the book she recovered, which spoke of a legend (typical) about a great pirate named Haknir who wore his enchanted Stalrhim armor and was reportedly quite mad, but apparently died happily surrounded by his wealth. The story ended when a man working for Haknir put on his helm and screamed and the traditional ghost story ending of "sometimes you can still hear the screams!" She gave a laugh at that.

"What's so funny?" Serena asked.

"Just the end of this book that was on the captain," Belinda answered. She recited: "'And it is said you can hear that screaming still, on moonlit nights, on a rocky shoal off the northern coast of Solstheim.' All because this dude named Garuk disobeyed his captain and put on his helmet." She lifted the Stalrhim helmet. "Seriously, that's such a cliché ghost story ending."

"Do you believe in ghost stories?" Serena asked, sitting by the fire and adding some wood to it.

"Sometimes," Belinda answered. "I've seen ghosts and spirits. But even so, sometimes ghost stories can be ridiculous."

"What about Gods?"

Belinda was silent. "There are higher powers at work, and there are gods. Sometimes they a creatures born of belief, sometimes they're the guardians of a world, sometimes they draw their power from ancient forces beyond time like the False Tribunal, and sometimes they're just Planeswalkers. But you want my opinion? Gods are for idiots. Religions have done some good things, but too many people use their religions to excuse their horrible natures. A religion is nice to have, just don't go shoving it down the children's throats."

"Amen to that," Karr agreed, taking a swig from his flask.

"Why do you drink so much?" Farkas asked.

"To suppress several lifetimes of bad memories," Karr answered. "It keeps me sane."

Farkas nodded.

Belinda pulled out a thing of Sujamma. "I don't know my real family. I was found by Demon Hunters on my homeplane and they raised me. Karr helped. Then I first came here when I was seven. Met Zeyiizyol for the first time and he taught me to Shout." She took a drink and passed it to Farkas. "What's your story?" she asked.

"When my brother and I were pups, we were in this coven of Necromancers," Farkas answered. "I actually remember more than Vilkas because he suppresses it and uses it as an excuse to hate magic, though…" After a breath, he brought touched the ground and made plants spring forth. "He doesn't know I can do this." He looked to Belinda. "Did you know?"

"I always did," she answered.

"Well, our folks were going to use Vilkas as a sacrifice to…I think it was a Daedra, but I don't know any whose title is 'King of Worms,'" Farkas continued.

"Mannimarco, and he's not a Daedra," Belinda pointed out. "Just a nasty and power Necromancer. Though I've heard some claim he was a Lich."

That didn't make Farkas feel better. "Well, they wanted me to do the job since Vilkas and I are twins and I have the magic. I managed to get away and ran into the Companions, Skjor, Kodlak, and the man who pretty much adopted us: Jergan. They rescued us. Jergan took my brother and me to as Skjor and Kodlak finished the job. I used to have dreams about my own mother cursing me. Then the Great War happened and Jergan went…And never came back." Serena touched his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. He squeezed back, took a drink of Sujamma, and coughed. "Strong stuff!" He passed it to Serena.

"Well, you've all pretty much met my family, the hot mess that it is," Serena pointed out. "I've managed to reconnect with my mother over the past few months. She's not thrilled I gave up my Vampirism, but oh well." She took a drink of the Sujamma and passed it to Karr.

"Not tonight. It's late," he chuckled. He took a drink. "That and I just don't want to talk about it." He set the jug down and crawled into one of the vacant tents.

Belinda ate a few rolls she had in her pack and joined him, huddling close to him. Serena and Farkas kept watch for the female pirate dragging her dead colleague back. At some point, Belinda was sure she heard them fight her, but soon fell asleep, dreaming of Apocrypha again…

"You again? Go away," Miraak snapped. "I'm busy."

"Trying to come up with a new plan since I foiled your first one?" Belinda asked, trying to look over his shoulder. "I wanna see! Lemme see! You're sooooooo tall! You're a tree!"

"ARE YOU FIVE?!"

"Yes."

Miraak's eye twitched. "How are you alive?" he asked very seriously.

"Because I'm a living plot device? Fuck, I dunno," Belinda answered.

"I hate you."

"I wuv you," Belinda responded in a rather silly voice…