Under Autumn Skies: An Elder Scrolls Novel

Greg J Miller

~O~

Chapter 7

Tirdas the 28th of Hearthfire 4E49 Evening

After cleaning up and shedding their armour for plain clothing, Forester and Maplewood came downstairs to the main tavern area of the Arborwatch. They quickly found Alaron Suvaris sitting at a table with his younger Dunmer recruit.

Though they'd left their weapons behind, both of the Dark Elves were still wearing their armour. Suvaris wore that expensive ensemble of ebony. The younger Dunmer's armour was something of more modest value. It looked to be a customised chainmail outfit with some steel plating added in strategic places.

Suvaris' companion seemed young, but that might have been a misleading assumption, given that he was Dunmer. He was slightly shorter than Suvaris and his colouring was a darker shade of gray. Of course, his eyes were the typical blood-red colour of pretty much all his people. Like the older Dark Elf, he wore his dark hair cropped short.

Sizing up the younger Dunmer, Forester spoke first. "Ah Suvaris, my friend, I see that you've brought your comrade along, as suggested."

Suvaris tilted his head in acknowledgment. "Allow me to make the proper introductions. Arvon Aldreth, this is Forester and ah, Maplewood, from Skingrad's guildhall."

Forester took the younger Dunmer's hand in greeting, making mental note of his name and still seemingly taking his measure.

"Forester." Aldreth repeated the name with a respectful nod. "Maplewood." He said her name also, as he took her hand.

"You can call me Rena." The Imperial woman affected a friendly smile.

"Rena." He repeated her first name with another courteous nod.

Forester leaned casually on a chair, without actually taking it to it. He looked toward the main service bar. "I suppose that we should go look into acquiring food and drink, before the activity becomes busy in here."

Suvaris and Aldreth responded by immediately rising from their seats.

Rena pulled out a chair. "I'll stay right here and mind the table." She looked to Forester with a mild smile. "You know what I'll like."

Forester returned a similar smile with a short nod. "Of course."

Maplewood sat down as the three men left for the service bar of the tavern. She glanced toward the front door and briefly wondered whether Monika and Alex might be joining them. Given Monika's tone, she suspected that they wouldn't, but still held to some passing hope that she might change her mind or that Alex might persuade her.

After a short while, the three men returned with meals and beverages. Forester passed a hot bowl and mug of ale to Rena, before taking a seat at the table. Responding to her curious glance, he advised her that it was a lamb and vegetable stew with some sort of mix of spices. It seemed that everyone had ordered the same thing, though Suvaris had opted for wine instead of ale.

To begin with, it seemed that eating took immediate precedence over any conversation. That kind of thing was fairly typical after a lengthy training session. Rena, Aldreth and Suvaris made short work of their meals.

As was often the case, Forester appeared to be tackling his stew more slowly, pausing several times to sip at his ale. More than once, he'd stopped to take a deep breath and comment that the mix of spices held a little more bite than he'd anticipated.

Maplewood was hardly surprised by his fussy eating habits. Nevertheless, she responded by insisting that the stew wasn't really all that spicy, prompting him to finish it before it grew cold.

Relying heavily upon his ale, Forester quietly acquiesced and continued to work his way though the meal with an absence of further comment.

Still waiting for Forester to finish his meal, Rena looked to Suvaris' comrade with a curious expression. "So ah, Arvon, you're from Cheydinhal?"

"That's right. My immediate family is from there." His accent sounded rather more typical of a Cyrodilic Imperial than that of his superior. Suvaris' accent indicated that he must have lived a number of years somewhere in Morrowind, before coming to the Imperial province.

Rena shifted her glance to Suvaris. She was no expert on Morrowind accents. She had no idea what part of that land he might have hailed from. "You're not from Cheydinhal, I mean not originally?"

The older Dunmer affect a wry smile. "No, not originally. I was originally born in the homeland of my people. I came to Cheydinhal a number of decades ago, after the troubles in the east." His tone indicated that he didn't really care to elaborate upon the last part.

If only broadly, Rena understood that a lot of Dark Elves must have died when Red Mountain erupted. A great many Dunmer would have also perished during the Argonian invasion not that long afterward. Her gaze flickered between the two gray-skinned faces trying to discern any obvious connection beyond their race. "Are you two related at all?"

Suvaris raised a dark eyebrow, then shook his head slightly. "No, no, I am an acquaintance of Arvon's father, Varon. He's a guard serving in Cheydinhal's city watch. He has been for a great many years. In fact, since the time of Count Indarys, and Varon now serves the current Count in the same capacity."

Aldreth added some more. "I had been intending to look toward following in my father's footsteps." He shot a glance toward his mentor. "At least, that was until this opportunity arose."

Rena took a sip of her ale, digesting that information. She did know that County Cheydinhal had been the only part of Cyrodiil under the stewardship of a Dunmer family. At least, until fairly recently. That circumstance ended with the demise of the Indarys line. Though that new Count was an Imperial noble, Forester had told her that at least half the people of Cheydinhal were Dunmer.

Forester had finally finished his meal. After taking another quick sip of ale, he spoke up with a slight frown. "Aldreth. Isn't that the name of a prominent family of Morrowind?"

Arvon returned a perplexed expression.

Suvaris interjected. "You might be thinking of Andrethi. A name of some station within House Telvanni."

Forester nodded. "Ah, my mistake. They do sound somewhat similar." He returned his gaze to Arvon. "So, tell me Aldreth, have you had the opportunity to deal with any goblins before?"

"Well no, not yet. I've faced ogres and trolls, and of course wolves. We've also had to deal with a few rogue bandits on the roads around Cheydinhal. That was just last month, but no. No goblins."

Forester glanced to Suvaris with a silent expression.

The older Dunmer responded. "We've not encountered any goblins in the populated areas of County Cheydinhal in recent time. There's been word of goblin tribes in the wilds of the south-east, but nothing of immediate concern."

Forester nodded and cleared his throat, looking back to the younger Dunmer. "Well Aldreth, you might find the goblins to be a little different from what you've faced previously."

Arvon's gaze flickered briefly about the other faces at the table, without actually forming a spoken question.

Forester resumed. "Well, I should think that an individual ogre or troll might be more dangerous than a single goblin. However, goblins are often encountered in groups and collectively, they can be most formidable opponents."

Rena chimed in. "Yeah, they sure can."

Forester went on to elaborate further. He laboured upon one point in particular. He suggested that although goblins were hardly as smart as the civilised races of Tamriel, they were not nearly as dim as ogres, trolls, or other simple-minded creatures of the wilds.

He pointed out that the goblins did actually live in tribal groups. He suggested that it was something resembling a structured society of sorts, albeit only a primitive kind of thing.

In Forester's estimation, goblins seemed as though they were addled-minded creatures that somehow failed to rise up to the measure of what might be considered a proper race of developed intelligence, like men or mer, or the Khajiit and Argonians.

He also noted that goblins would fight with a broad range of weapons scavenged from men or mer, even bow and arrow. Though some wore no more than simple loincloth or fur, he'd seen some that wore scavenged armour or crudely fashioned approximations of the same.

Suvaris commented that he'd heard some talk of the belief that the original goblins might have had something to do with the Daedric Prince Malacath, either directly or indirectly. Though he conceded that he didn't truly know whether that notion held any truth.

It was fairly common knowledge that another Daedric Prince played a part in the origin of the Orcs during ancient times. However, no one seemed to know exactly where the goblins came from. Some historians suggest that goblins were about even before the first Aldmer spread out across Tamriel.

Trying to draw things back to more relevant detail, Maplewood pointed out that the goblins that they'd recently faced seemed to come in fairly varied size. Some of them stood nearly as tall as ogres. Some others were barely more than half the height of a human and many varied in size between those two extremes. By her measure, she thought that all of them proved fairly dangerous, just some more than others.

Prompted by Rena, Forester went on to tell Arvon of the goblin shamans. He'd mentioned that they'd only encountered just the one among those that they'd recently dealt with in the vicinity of Skingrad. He added that it was fortunate that it was not one of the older and more powerful kind.

Becoming slightly sidetracked, he also added that they'd encountered more of those larger warlord goblins leading those groups that they'd fought. He suggested that those warlords were notably formidable and resilient, and should not be underestimated. It was never a wise idea to take one on without suitable support.

Returning to the matter of goblin shamans, Forester explained that those particular goblins were typically larger and more intelligent than some other types and that they held some crude mastery of dangerous destruction magic.

That particular detail surprised young Aldreth. He mentioned that he thought that goblins had to be far too primitive to have any meaningful ability to wield magicka.

Forester suggested that he believed it to be something inherent in their make up. He also noted that only those rare and exceptional goblins that became shamans seemed to have such power.

That talk of goblins went on for a short while longer. It was mostly for the benefit of Arvon, since the others already knew what to expect.

At some point, Suvaris seemed slightly taken aback by the unusual shift of topic.

Rena asked the question. "So Alaron, you don't have a wife back in Cheydinhal?"

"Well, no. It's not really been a matter of interest or opportunity. At least not at this time." The Dunmer finished off the last of his wine, with a tight-lipped expression.

Forester shot Rena a quick glance. It seemed a gentle warning not to press the matter any further. Though they'd not spoken of it directly, he'd always suspected that the Dunmer might have lost someone back in Morrowind, before coming to Cyrodiil. He cleared his throat. "I think that what Rena might be edging toward, is the news that the both of us have only recently become married."

Suvaris looked back with raised eyebrows. "Then, I should offer my congratulations and goodwill." He was actually aware that Forester had a wife and child before joining the Fighters Guild. He was also aware that the marriage had not ended by his choosing, though he was not privy to all the sordid detail.

Arvon had remained slightly bewildered by the brief exchange. He seemed to realise that he was probably missing several things that remained unspoken. Nevertheless, he made no effort to pry beyond what was openly offered.

Suvaris did choose to raise one thing. "I take it that Guildhead Canne holds no issue with that arrangement?"

Forester responded. "No, no. Canne is perfectly fine with it. I suspect that she views it as good reason for the both of us to remain with the guildhall at Skingrad."

Rena affected a wry smirk. "I was planning to stay in Skingrad anyway. Just this way, I get to live in a proper house."

Forester returned a wide-eyed expression of mock surprise. "Is that so?"

She jabbed him lightly with her elbow. "The house isn't that special, but the company is good enough to keep me there." She finished off her ale with a mischievous glint in her eye.

Some further idle conversation passed between the Guild Fighters as the tavern continued to become noticeably busier. Though everyone had emptied their mugs, Suvaris had declined the suggestion to acquire another round of drinks, citing a preference for moderation. Arvon had dutifully followed the lead of his mentor.

Before too long, Suvaris declared the intent to head back to the guildhall for the evening. After brief farewells, the Dunmer were on their way.

Accordingly, since the two Dark Elves were leaving, Forester and Maplewood also decided to retire to their upstairs room at the Arborwatch for the evening. Though it was still fairly early, Rena drew the reasonable conclusion that Monika and Alex wouldn't be coming to the tavern.


Karl gro-Baroth noticed that it was starting to get dark outside. Since he'd pretty much sorted out everything he intended to have sorted, he'd decided to call it a day and look at getting something into his belly. He got up and closed the window over to his left, then started heading downstairs.

He'd been expecting things to be a fair bit noisier downstairs than normal. Given that Frederick had settled in with those other three Nords he'd brought over from Bruma, those expectations were easily met. He planned to give that lot a wide berth, if it was at all possible.

The Guild Porter intercepted the big Orc before he'd made it to the bottom of the stairs. From the flustered look on Dale's face, he'd figured on hearing something that he didn't want to be hearing.

"Guild Master, I should inform you that Elynwen has just arrived with the other Guild Fighters from Skingrad." The porter shifted his gaze toward the centre of the room.

Karl raised his eyebrows. Following Dale's eyes, he spotted the Bosmer woman standing with three others.

Even though he'd been going over the roster of Guild Fighters, Karl had trouble recalling names of the Imperial man and his Argonian comrade. He remembered the Khajiit easily enough. He'd spoken with him briefly during his recent visit to Skingrad. Ras'Dar was that one that Northwind had found near the southern border region and Forester had sponsored his recruitment to the Guild.

"Guild Master." Elynwen addressed him formally as she approached. "Please accept my apology. We'd intended to be here a bit earlier than this."

"Elynwen." Karl exposed his lower tusks through a mild grin and took her hand in greeting. "It's good ta see ya."

"And you." The slender Wood Elf tilted her head slightly. With a glance, she indicated the others behind her. "As Guildhead Canne promised, I've brought along everyone else available from our guildhall. I expect that the other two are already here?"

Karl nodded. "Yeah. Forester an' ah… Maplewood. Already seen 'em. Now you're here, I reckon that's gotta be about everyone."

Elynwen inclined her head again in silent acceptance.

Karl continued. "Reckon I'll be gettin' everyone together some time tomorrow mornin' ta hand out the assignments."

"I take it that you have everything planned out and ready to proceed?"

"Yeah, ah… yeah. Hey look, I was just lookin' to get somethin' ta eat. If ya wanna come join me, I'll give ya the main highlights."

Elynwen agreed readily enough, looking to the others she'd brought along from Skingrad. Karl advised her that he'd had the porter set up some temporary bunking on the basement level. She took a brief moment to pass that detail onto her comrades, then joined Karl in heading for the kitchen area.

Once they'd gathered some food and drink from the kitchen, they found somewhere to sit down and eat. Karl had directed her over toward one of the benches along the side wall, away from the noisier activity of the centre of the room. That was only an option because the porter had cleared away anything that was non-essential to make room for the greater number of visiting Guild Fighters. He figured that it probably also had something to do with Dale anticipating that certain things were fairly likely to get broken if they weren't stashed away somewhere out of reach. By his reckoning, that seemed like a fair call.

After making a good start on his meal, Karl started to provide Canne's second with a basic outline of what he had planned. It was really just the broad strokes, rather than every detail. Though he did go into a bit of how he was intending to spread the Fighters Guild resources, now that he was certain of exactly who he had at his disposal.

Elynwen indicated her approval of the plans, including his reasoning for specific team leaders and the general composition of each group. In fact, she'd already discussed something along those lines with her own Guildhead, with regard to the Skingrad Guild Fighters. She assumed that a communication between Canne and Karl would've passed on similar suggestions.

After finishing their meals and some further brief conversation that mostly related to the matter at hand, the pair parted company. Elynwen intended to speak with her other comrades before cleaning up and settling in downstairs in that area that had been prepared for their stay. Karl returned the dishes and mugs to the kitchen, then headed off to find the find the bathroom before retiring to his bunk upstairs. Though he knew it was just wishful thinking, he was hoping that Frederick and his people might settle down earlier rather than later. Otherwise, any chance of getting proper shut-eye seemed like it might be elusive.

~O~