Good land or more resources…I need to think carefully about this. I leaned against my bedpost and closed my eyes. Which to choose…
Fertile land would be something that I would only see the benefits of in the long game. Growing food and plants at a much faster rate, as well as what I could only assume to be a quality improvement too, will ensure that growing food won't be an issue, which means that my people won't go hungry…probably. And with our big quantities of food, people will flock to join under me if it means that they can be sure that they will be fed. Our potion ingredients would also begin to grow faster, and when we get a proper alchemist division that would help us tremendously, however…
Resource aplenty seems to be just as good, if not better because it'll benefit me in the short term and the long term, if handled correctly. Its description is more vague compared to the one provided to Fertile land, but if I understand it correctly I will just have more and better quality ore, wood, and animals. The immediate benefits would include ore for weapons and armor, wood for houses, leather from the increased animal population, amongst other things. All of these could be used in establishing proper trade with the neighboring…nations? Of Hammerfell and Cyrodiil, crazy to think that both main roads to these places in Skyrim are stationed in Falkreath.
I crossed my legs under me and drummed my fingers across my thigh, although, neither option is completely perfect. Fertile land can only be useful if I have people to cultivate it. I know nothing of farming, and none of my current underlings do either, so it's effectively useless to me as of this moment. Likewise, extra resources right now amount to more silver and wood, both of which aren't things I truly need at the given moment. But…it does provide an excellent opportunity to practice Transmute. After going through all the effort into learning it, it's a crime that I haven't dedicated any time to practicing it.
I thought about it a bit more before making my decision.
Resource Aplenty selected!
Resource Aplenty added to Territory benefits list
Happy with my decision, I laid back down to sleep.
(-)
The next day was…a bit odd. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but there was nothing for me really to do. Mining was taken care of, I had no idea where Hircine is with no real means of tracking him, and I had no real reason to go back to Falkreath, it would be the same as just wandering the forest.
So that's how I ended up doing just that, wandering the forest. I didn't wander too far, didn't want to get lost, but I managed to walk a semi considerable distance, I could see the Twilight Sepulcher from where I stood amongst the trees, but never strayed too close to it. I don't want to be anywhere near Nocturnal unless I somehow managed to get the skeleton key, I'd rather return the thing than keep it and have a Daedric entity against me.
Snap
My ears twitched at the sudden noise behind me. I turn slowly around and see a wolf, standing somewhat behind a tree. My hands make their way towards my axe holster and shield strapped to my back, but snarling to my left and right interrupts my movements. Making sure to not leave the wolf in front of me out of my vision, I carefully turn my body to get a quick glance around me.
Shit.
There are at least ten wolves that have surrounded me, but almost certainly more, all slowly starting to stalk towards me. I cursed, stepping back as they moved forward to keep distance. When the fuck did these wolves manage to form such large a large pack. Is it because I've been hunting down the other ones, leaving this pack unchallenged and unopposed to claim the territory for themselves?
Regardless, I know I can't stand and fight here, not with these many wolves. My best bet is to make a fast retreat into the forest and find a clearing of some sort so that I can fight without restrictions. I wasted no time, I turned on a dime and sprinted deeper into the forest, the wolves hot on my tail. The world raced past me as I bobbed and weaved around the many trees in my way, jumping over overturned roots and ducking under branches. As I ran I managed to grab my shield and strap it onto my arm. I spared a look behind me and not a moment too soon as one of the faster wolves had managed to catch up to me and pounced, jaws open and raring for a bite. I turned around fully and raised my shield, catching its maw on the edge. Wasting no time I grabbed its hanging tail, spun in a circle, and launched it back into the forest before hurrying deeper into the forest, the sound of running wolves becoming louder as they drew near.
I kept running and dodging the wolves as I ventured deeper and deeper into the forest, for the divines sake are there really no clearings in this damn thing?!
A sudden flaring pain erupted in my calf as I restrained the urge to yell out in pain, but that didn't stop me from stumbling a bit. I growled and grabbed the wolf that had managed to attack me by the scruff of its neck and tossed it into a tree. A sharp and crisp crack sounded in the air as the animal's neck snapped at the force. I grimaced in brief sympathy but hissed at the fiery pain that the wolf had caused. Cursing, I tried to run but my leg just wouldn't fucking cooperate.
I could hear the wolves getting closer, but I couldn't run anywhere with this injury, or at least until I can dress it up proper. I placed my hand on the trunk of a tree next to me to catch my breath.
Wait…
I looked up at the tree, it wasn't tall, if anything it was only about 15-25 feet, but it had plenty of branches and was as thick as about two of me, so it could handle my weight…
With no other option I could think of, I braced myself for a bit of pain before jumping and latching my arms and legs around the trunk of the tree. I bore through my hurting calf as I basically shimmied my way up the tree, I had made my way to the top just as the wolves came into view.
By the divine there must be 20 of them or more
I grunted as I lifted my leg up to lie it down across the branch I was situated on, observing the large gashes that raked against my leg. I opened my inventory and cursed as I had no potions on hand, foolish of me really. Instead, I grabbed my common shirt and started to tear off the long sleeves. I know that this won't really treat or make the wound any better, but at least if I tie it up tight enough there will be a good bit of pressure to stop excessive bleeding.
After I finished tying my sleeves tightly around my wound I looked below towards the large gathering of wolves as they circled and snarled at the base of the tree. Why the hell are they so determined to get me? Surely chasing me down will end up being a waste of energy to them, so why continue chasing me?! Any wolf back on Earth surely would have given up on the chase if the chase itself would cost them more energy than the food could give them, so why aren't these wolves giving up?
It doesn't matter in the end I guess; I still need to get out of here, but I can't continue running, that will just make the wound worse. I looked up at the some of the branches above me, a loose plan forming in my mind. I reached up and experimentally tugged at it, it held strong. More confidently, I carefully stood up and grabbed it with both hands as I dead hang from the branch. It curved a bit under all my weight, but it still held strong. I grinned and gazed at the trees laid out before me.
Okay, you got this Ragnar, it's just like monkey bars.
I took a deep breath and started to swing back and forth from the branch, and once I had built a large enough swing I let go of the branch and launched myself into the air to the next tree. I grabbed the next branch and swung myself again, letting go of it as well and sailed towards the next one. The wolves quickly bounded after me as I launched myself from branch to branch. I kept going, swinging from tree to tree as I kept ahead of the wolves behind me, never losing focus for that would mean possibly crashing to the ground.
Just like monkey bars, just like monkey bars. Just keep moving forward.
I kept swinging forwards as wolves bounded and leapt at me, most missing my dangling legs by a mere foot or two, but some had managed to scratch at my disguised iron boots and had caused some rather loud and unpleasant sounds to ring out. To those wolves that had managed to get high enough I had kicked them harshly with my good foot, my iron boot making my attack extra effective in kicking them back down into the dirt.
Unfortunately, it didn't last much longer. As I continued forwards, I eventually caught onto a branch that just couldn't support all my weight. As I was swinging forwards, the branch snapped, launching me forwards prematurely as I tumbled on the ground, rolling into a small clearing. Grunting, I picked myself up, wincing as I applied too much weight to my injured leg. I was forced to arm myself, however, as the sounds of the wolves drew ever closer. I gritted my teeth as I raised my shield and readied my axe, just in time for all the wolves to burst out into the clearing. Four of them wasted no time and straight up charged me, while the rest began to encircle me.
I blocked the first with my shield and bashed the other in the head with the head of my axe, smacking it onto the ground. The other two slashed my arms with their claws but ended up scratching my disguised armor. I harshly kicked one of those wolves away, sending it tumbling towards the other wolves. In the same instance, I turned my body, smacking the wolf I blocked earlier with the side of my shield as I cleaved my axe into the second wolf that attacked me, killing it instantly as my axe blade buried itself into the wolf's head.
I cried out as more wolves came to attack, slashing and biting at me as I was forced to defend myself from all angles. My armor helped me quite a bit for most of the fighting, but eventually the wolves had managed to find out where my weak points were, my forearms, knees, and calves. I was starting to wear down, my health was dropping, my stamina was running out, and there was still at least half of these wolves left, the others dying quickly when I managed to hit them. Because despite them being a large group, each one individually was weak. Weak enough to die in one or two good hits.
But as stated before, they had a lot of numbers, which makes this really fucking difficult.
I panted heavily, taking in labored breaths as I bashed another wolf head with my shield, slashing its side with my axe as it was dazed, effectively killing it. I yelled out in pain as another wolf took the opportunity to bite at my exposed knee on my already injured leg. I growled and kicked it in the ribs with my good leg, caving in the top of it's head with my axe head as I swung it down.
A wolf jumped on my back sending me to the ground, it tried to bite the back of my head, but it instead got a jaw full of helmet, breaking some of its teeth. I growled and punched the beast in the side of the head, turning around quickly. My arm swung with me, using the momentum of me turning to increase the power of my attack as I bashed the bastard's skull open with my axe. I yelped as the rest of the wolves piled onto me, one attempting to bite my face off. I managed to get my axe in the way just in time for it to clamp down on my axe handle, but with my arms exposed some of the wolves took the opportunity to bite down on my forearms. I yelled out in pain as their teeth bit into my flesh. Luckily, the other wolves were either just scratching at my armor or too busy trying to untangle themselves on top of me to attack me, but I was running out of options.
What the hell do I do?!
The fuck can I do? Im pinned, my arms are injured, and my legs are getting more and more fucked up as time passes, and I don't have any potions on me to get me out of this mess. What the fuck was I thinking doing that?! No, the problem was me not thinking, and now I'm paying for that mistake. But in order to beat myself up more for this fuck up, I need to get out of this mess. So what can I do when I essentially can't use my legs or arms?
Wait…that's it!
I took a deep breath and concentrated. My neck started to turn red, bulging out as my veins bulged out. My pupils became small dots, my eyes bloodshot and the veins in my forehead became more pronounced. And then, I let go of all the air I took in.
"RRRAAAAHHHHHHH!"
The wolves stopped. Slowly, they backed away cautiously. Their backs hunched over, snarling as their tails started to tuck into themselves, suddenly all on the defensive as they took careful steps backwards as if attempting to retreat.
Battle Cry has affected all but two creatures in the area!
Wait, but all of the wolves are attempting to leave, what two creatures are you talking abo-
One of the wolves let out a startled yelp as a furry paw swiped out from behind them, sending it flying into a tree. A huff escaped the creature's maw as it stepped forwards into view, where a family of bears stepped into view; a large black bear, a slightly smaller (but no less huge) brown bear, and their two cubs. The wolves that gave me so much trouble stood no chance. Oh they tried to run, but them chasing me for so long and such a long distance had bit them in the ass on this one, as the bears easily caught them and tore them to shreds. Slashing with their mighty claws and tearing their throats and stomachs with their powerful jaws, reducing the remaining wolves to a mess on the forest floor.
You have defeated twenty wolves!
+2 Axe Proficiency [27/100]
+5 Heavy Armor Proficiency [23/100]
{EXP for nine of the wolves reduced due to outside interference}
+310 EXP
You have leveled up! +2SP +1PP
Due to low HP (63/200), system recommends adding all SP into END
Would you like to add both points into END stat?
Yes please.
Allocating points…
Profile updated!
Name: Ragnar
Race: Nord
Level: 10
EXP: 180/ 550
Health: 220 Magicka: 300 Stamina: 210
STR: 16 (17)
INT: 27 (30)
END: 20 (22)
DEX: 16 (21)
SP: 0
PP: 6
Land Controlled:
-Cracked Tusk Keep (+2 END)
-Halldir's Cairn (+2 INT)
-Bannermist Tower (+1 STR)
-Hunter's Rest (+1 DEX)
-Moss Mother Cavern (+1 INT, +1 DEX)
People under your leadership:
Happy: 22
Neutral: 10
Unhappy: 0
I sighed in relief, and just laid down on the ground, the aching pain of my injuries becoming just bearable enough for me to effectively ignore it as I just..take it all in. Heavy steps made their way closer to me, as a familiar brown furry face peered down at me, their black eyes staring at me. I could hear the other bears making their way around eating on the wolves in the background as I smiled at the brown bear above me. I slowly and carefully raise my arm, ignoring the pain in it as I waited to see if there was any sign of resistance or reluctance. There was none. I cupped the side of the bears face and rubbed my thumb on her jaw. A pleased growl like sound rumbled in the throat of the bear as I continued to pet her. I grinned, a laugh escaping me.
"You beautiful fucking bear, how the hell are you here? Do you live around here?"
As expected, the bear gave no response, only pleased growl met my words as I brough my other hand up and rubbed her head and scratched her scalp between her small ears.
"I suppose all the noise I made could have drawn you and your family to the source as well…buuut I'll choose to view it as you coming to my rescue because you like me."
All she did was tilt her head as I sat up fully and grinned down at her face. Her pleased growl returned as I renewed my pets tenfold. Other footsteps made their way towards me as her cubs came to my sides and pawed my thighs. Their father, who was carrying wolf bodies in his mouth, layed the corpses by the mother bear and sat down next to her as he eyed my hands. The mother bear made a noise as she shifted around and began to eat her own fill. With nothing to do my hands found themselves petting and playing with the cubs, making sure not to do anything to aggravate the father, but that fear was quick to be put to ease as the father bear made no moves or warnings as time went on.
I noticed another thing as the minutes passed, the pain of my injuries started to slowly but surely go away, just a little at a time but it was very noticeable when the bite marks on my arms had scabbed up far quicker than what was normal. Could this be a passive effect of Gamers Body?
In a way. Your HP will regenerate over time, it is just very slow. Wounds like the ones you sustained (slightly deep, non-life-threatening gashes and punctures) will heal over in a matter of hours.
So I'll be completely fine by late afternoon?
Besides some scarring you will be fine.
I grinned. That's fine, a little scarring won't hurt me. And spending more time with these bears sounds fuckin great.
(-)
After many hours of petting, cuddling, and playing with the bears, I was finally healed up to full health as the sun started its decent from the sky, so around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. I said my goodbyes to the bears and headed back to the base, with some wolf corpses in my inventory for their fur and leather but took them out once I could see the fort in the distance in the gaps of the trees I was walking through.
I could hear Abelon hard at work at the forge as the sound of fire crackling as coal was shoveled into a furnace. I yelled out my greeting as I walked through the main courtyard and into Morbrukks hut to deposit the wolves to get skinned. Once that was done, I walked out just as the workers got out of the mine for lunch. As I walked up to go inside I saw Abelon wave me down, so I walked over to his station to speak with him.
"Hey Abelon, you need something?"
He grinned, "Hey boss! Nah, I don't need anything but Gavnuk wanted to talk to you about something that he found. Told me to tell you to meet him when you get back from your walk."
"Oh? Color me interested, thank you for that Abelon. If you can't make it to lunch I'll be sure to grab you a portion so you can eat it out here."
"Oh it's fine boss I can make it, the ore will take a while to melt and my current ingots are cooling down in their molds as we speak, but thank you for offering!"
"Not a problem, now can you point me in the direction of where Gavnuk is?"
"He should still be in the mines if you didn't see him walking outside earlier. If he's not there you could just wait around until he shows up if you want to."
"Thanks man, go get lunch and I'll see you later."
"See ya boss!"
I left the forge and traveled to the mine, walking inside and marveling at how much we've already excavated. It amazes me how much we've already accomplished in such a relatively short amount of time, though I guess some 12 miners working at once can accomplish a lot if they are determined enough.
I could hear the faint echoes of someone deeper into the mine, so I followed the sound as I headed further and further in. I followed the pathway until I had to go through a side path to continue following the sounds of Gavnuk moving and mining. I came across a hole big enough for a person to slip their way in and a small light just beyond it, so I flattened myself against the wall and shimmied my way through the crack.
What I saw was amazing.
I was greeted with darkness as I stepped into the large underground cave, the only source of light was Gavnuk holding a torch some ways away as he gazed about, muttering to himself quietly, his movements echoing throughout the cave. I looked around, taking in what I could see, and even what I couldn't. I gazed through the darkness, seeing the stone and walls, and even some bigger blob of darkness further down the area, which I can only assume is a pathway to even further underground.
The cave itself wasn't amazing, nonono, it's what it represents is what is truly amazing. The potential to discover more ore, hidden batches of resources, pockets of greatness unseen since it's creation, left untouched by human interference. That is what's truly amazing, the call for exploration.
Gavnuk had already spotted me, likely from the noise I had made when I scooched my way through the hole in the wall from our mine. He motioned for me to follow him as he passed through the crack again, and I followed him. Once we were in the mine he sighed in relief.
"Ah thank the gods, sorry about leading you out Ragnar, that cave echoes every movement we make, which would just amplify the sound of us talking. My poor ears are still ringing just a bit from when I busted through the cave wall with my pickaxe."
"Yeesh, glad I missed that haha. So, was that what you wanted to show me? Abelon mentioned you found something, was that it?"
"Actually no, when I had told Abelon to get you to talk to me I was actually talking about a large vein of iron I had found. I had assumed you would have been back earlier so I left it alone, but as the hours went on we had mined it up and just continued in the direction we found it. Eventually we had stumbled onto that cave, but it was so hard to do anything in there due to the echoing that we just settled for an early lunch before coming back here. You showed up just in time, we really hit the jackpot Ragnar! I'm excited to see where this cave goes and what we can find!"
"You know Gavnuk? I'm super excited too! It wasn't too long ago when we had come up with this little idea of a mine and look where we are now, discovering a cave, not touched by the people of nirn."
"I can't wait to see what we can do with all the new materials we're bound to find! Hopefully we can find some capable smithers so we can actually use it, though selling em' all off works as well I suppose."
I gave a hum of agreement as we started heading out of the mine.
"So onto other things Gavnuk, how much progress have we made in designing a building large enough to house our new workers?"
"Ha! There's a lot of work into designing a building Ragnar, I gotta make sure all my measurements are right, gotta pick a location, make sure that the structure could hold itself together and bare through the elements, a lot of stuff really."
"I mean I get that but that's not what I asked."
"Hmph, I was getting to that. I've got an area I'm good to establish the building at but it's just outside of the fort walls, if we want those people protected, we're going to need to expand the perimeter of the walls a bit, and that'll take a lot of time."
"Then maybe for now we could dig out homes in the mine itself while we build a worker home for them. It's not entirely ideal but it'll be better than the cramped space they're sharing inside the fort."
"I see your point…I'll run it over the men and see what the consensus is. I'd rather not force them out of the fort if they're perfectly willing to stay in their until the home is finished."
"You're their direct superior so whatever you think would be best I'll support you on it. Hopefully we can get that worker home finished before winter, but I don't know how likely that is. My knowledge doesn't encompass the art of carpentry and architecture."
Our conversation ended just as we exited the mine, sun shining bright in the afternoon sky.
"Go get some lunch Gavnuk. Oh, and if you see Kragrau tell him I've got some wolves he needs to skin that I killed earlier. They're in the usual hut."
"Got it boss, See ya around."
As Gavnuk jogged inside I stay behind and look around. With the coast clear I walked over to the forge and looked around, finding the crates that Abelon stores the ore in. I pull out the one labeled IRON and take out a couple of ores.
With both ores in hand, I cast Trasmute, turning the iron into silver ores. Grinning, I pulled out the crate labeled as SILVER and placed the two new silver ores directly on the top, just to make sure they'll be smelted first. I do it once more before waiting a few minutes for my Magicka to fill up enough before casting it a fourth time. Panting slightly, I place the final transmuted ore into their new crate and pushed the crates back in their original place. Damn is Transmute draining, are all adept level spells this expensive to use?
I wiped the sweat off my forehead, from the heat of the forge or from almost draining my reserves of magicka I couldn't tell you, but all the same I worked up a sweat. And speaking of that, I should get to training again. Even without Guruk around to spar with, I'm sure just practicing with my axe will improve proficiency. I stood up and quickly made my way towards the chest of weapons that Guruk first showed me and started to train.
(?)
Up in the tall mountains to the west of Skyrim was the capital of the Reach, Markarth. The city, built upon an abandoned Dwarven structure, was surrounded by mountains. With no room to expand outwards, else they take up what little farming land they had, the citizens adapted. They built into the very mountains themselves, expanding their number of homes upwards instead of outwards.
Despite their creative solution to an otherwise detrimental problem of expansion, this alone would not be enough to secure themselves as a major hold in the province of Skyrim. Their population of 20,000 is only somewhat above that of a minor Hold like Falkreath or Morthal. No, what separates Markarth from the rest of them was that they were an economic powerhouse. With their monopoly over pretty much the entirety of the silver ore found in Skyrim, the High King at the time had no other choice than to acknowledge The Reach as a Hold equal in value to Holds such as Whiterun and Riften.
Which is why when Thonar Silver-blood, the current head of the Silver-Blood family, owner of Cidna Mine, Markarths largest silver mine and prison, was approached by his brother, Thongvor Silver-Blood, about a possible competitor in their silver trade he treated it seriously.
"What?!"
"It's true brother, Falkreath has somehow managed to get their hands on high quality silver."
"How did you learn about this Thongvor?"
"I was hanging around the Inn by the city entrance when I overheard a conversation between a visitor and High Rock merchant by the stalls. A woman named Margret had a silver emerald necklace that she claimed to have gotten at Falkreath at a jeweler store called "The Sunken Ship," when she was passing through on her way to Markarth. Curious, I had managed to convince her to let me examine the necklace up close, told her I just wanted to examine it to make sure she wasn't ripped off.
The silver of the necklace was top notch, super high quality just like ours. Once I handed It back to her I didn't think much of it until I tired to remember if we sold silver to any of the shops in Falkreath, so I went through our business ledger to check. We never sold silver to any of the shops there, only to Jarl Siddgeir."
"And there's no way the Jarl would give the silver to any of the shop owners…"
"Exactly brother. I came as quickly as I could once I realized the heaviness of the news, what should we do?"
"Hm…we don't know how long this possible silver seller has been active for, but we can assume it hasn't been longer than two or so months given that we would have heard about something similar to this Margret case much earlier. We can also make a loose guess that this operation cannot be a large one, otherwise we might have seen a drop in sales from our ledger, but that is just a guess.
Regardless, we can't let this trader to continue. If he manages to expand then there's a real possibility that we will start to lose customers, especially if they sell the silver cheaper than we do. We cannot afford to let them grow into something that could potentially rival us, it will not only affect us financially but also the hold could be at risk of losing it's Major Hold status."
"Understood Brother, so we're sending the usual after them?"
"Yes, but triple the mercenary count this time. Regardless of my control over Madanach, those forsworn savages will attack them all the same on the road. With more numbers they'll be sure to get their safely. Do we have a direct location of the Silver Seller?"
"No Thonar."
"Hmm…send them to Falkreath proper then, they can ask around about it, but make sure they know not to mention that they're contracted by us. The locals might not take kindly if they knew we were attempting to root out this little problem right from the source."
"What should they tell them brother?"
"The usual of course, if they don't seize over control over their mine then they'll be removed. Permanently."
Name: Ragnar
Race: Nord
Level: 10
EXP: 180/ 550
Health: 220 Magicka: 300 Stamina: 210
STR: 16 (17)
INT: 27 (30)
END: 20 (22)
DEX: 16 (21)
SP: 0
PP: 6
Land Controlled:
-Cracked Tusk Keep (+2 END)
-Halldir's Cairn (+2 INT)
-Bannermist Tower (+1 STR)
-Hunter's Rest (+1 DEX)
-Moss Mother Cavern (+1 INT, +1 DEX)
People under your leadership:
Happy: 23
Neutral: 9
Unhappy: 0
