{ === + === }
To my eternal surprise, we're actually at the Jarl's Longhouse. I legit expected them to just jump me in a dark alley.
That said, the fact that the Jarl and only maybe a quarter of his staff are present implies that this wasn't a coordinated effort. The Jarl's longhouse is almost exactly like it is in game, size difference aside. One big long room, some small side rooms. I don't come here often.
"I come with questions!" The Thalmor Captain(?) shouts out as soon as we all enter the longhouse. "Questions for the Jarl!" Huh.
…Am I being tokenized?
"The Court is currently not in session, good sir." A guard says, more out of formality. "I will have to ask you to–"
The Captain cuts him off. "You will ask nothing of me, guard. I am an Adjudicator of the Empire, here on official business." He barges right through and focuses upon the Jarl. "Now then. Jarl, kindly explain why there is a cultist of the Wolf Queen under your service."
Moment of confused silence.
…What is his play? "Bro." I say. "Are you ok?"
He ignores us.
I just make a 'I don't know what's going on' shrug to the Jarl.
"I…will have to ask you to at least present evidence." The Jarl, Sid…Sid something, says slowly. "It is the least of decorum, considering the circumstances."
Siddgeir.
Yeah, this is a really weird play. Like, Sid and I are…well, not friends, but we're friendly enough that something like this is not going to work.
Regardless, the Captain pulls out a hefty looking scroll from within his cloak. "You'll see the accusations as listed, among more pertinent observations as made by members of my party." He throws it at the Jarl.
It gets intercepted by the Jarl's bodyguard. "There is a limit to your audacity, Thalmor." She spits. "Watch your manners, or we shall beat some into you."
"My audacity is for naught but the safety of the Crown." The Captain says with incredible confidence. "And it is being threatened by the likes of him." He glares at me.
I roll my eyes. "In my defense, I'm awesome without outside help." I stare at him. "And, with all due respect, you're talking a lot of shit for somebody within smacking distance."
The Captain smirks again. "Jarl, what say you?" He looks to the Jarl again.
The Jarl takes the scroll, reads/scans it, and sets it on fire with Flames. "It seems that my hand slipped." He says disdainfully. "Guards."
…Uh.
The Thalmor ready their weapons as the guards pull theirs.
…I kind of expected something else to happen? Like, this was obviously some sort of power play but whaaat the fuck
That said, neither side seems to be surprised about the state of affairs.
"Looks like the rumors were true." The Thalmor Captain's smirk grows wide. "There really are traitors in the midst."
The Jarl, now standing, stares him down. "Certainly, and they seem to stride into my halls with not a care in the world." He crosses his arms. "Windcaller. Subdue them."
Pause.
Oh that's me. "Done." MAGIC
A blast of Paralytic magical energy sweeps the Thalmor crew around us and they all drop to their knees.
Thalmor routinely walk around in Elven armor, which are very good at guarding against magic and a testament to their power and influence. Funnily enough, the same Thalmor have no issues switching to more standard forms of leathery armor and retain only their decorations when we're still within the aftermath of them being hilariously anti-empire with their actions.
Either way, I still feel like I'm being played. The guards move in, tie them all up, and escort them downstairs into the dungeons. As that happens, Sid shakes his head and gives me notice to go to a side chamber.
So we do.
"What a farce." Sid snarls as we enter a side room with his housecarl and steward. "Windcaller, can you ensure that we are not being overheard?"
Easily. "Sure thing." I snap my fingers and put a room-wide ward. "What gives? That was so weird."
It's a ward, with wind swirling on the other side. Any noise that escapes gets wooshed.
"It was a show, of course." Sid growls. "I may be young, and some of the more…ambitious, of the minor nobility are looking for a leg up." He takes an empty cup, spins it in his hand, and slams it onto the table. "You are aware, I imagine, of at least one of these nobles?"
The No Pants Fuckhead? "I might have some ideas."
He nods. "Good enough. Still, this was sloppy. Very sloppy." He scratches his chin. "It's not like him."
Our information on the Fuckhead in question is built via the brothel girls: presents himself as being very sophisticated, is actually well read, reasonably intelligent, fat in all the wrong places, and his ego weighs more than his lard.
And, politically, reasonably shrewd, but incredibly passive. More of a hanger-on kind of person than someone who'd actively do schemes.
The girls consider violence from the powerful to be an unavoidable truth of their job description.
…Fuckhead aside, nobody else in Falkreath dislikes Sid to the point where they'd tag with Thalmor for a play like this. Hell, Fuckhead wouldn't tag with the Thalmor for this. If they were after me I'd get it, but, again, the dark alley would've been a better bet.
Hm. Yeah. If I'm reading this right, this action is meant to cast a shadow on the legitimacy of the Jarl. But if that's the case, then waiting for a time where the Court is actually in session would've been better.
And, again, the fact that the Thalmor Captain showed not a shred of concern about getting arrested is odd. I mean, yeah, dudebro here burned the evidence that he was given, but there's not much to say that it was evidence to begin with, and nobody in the room at the time liked the Thalmor enough to testify in their favor.
So…what's the most likely reason?
…A two-headed plot? If randomly accusing the Jarl doesn't work, then him arresting the Thalmor would be a step for the future. But that step only really matters if the Thalmor can show that it is aligned with the Empire, and the previous campaign…uh, really didn't.
…So who stands to win with something like this?
Hmm.
…Regardless, it stands a fact that there is now a strong enough link between 'shooting electricity into the air' and 'the cultists of Potema' for me to get into trouble, and I should take some sort of counter action before things get even more out of hand.
Sid clears his throat. "Done with your theorycrafting?"
"More or less." I sigh. "Alright, what gives?"
"The burned letter was a warning from the Thalmor." Sid says. "It aligns with the recent trend of them trying to remove the Empire's magical assets." You read it that fast.
Sure. "That feels like a very dumb way of doing it, though."
Sid nods. "According to my people, this is partly because they were surprised by General Tullius's quick reaction to the damage done." He holds up a folded piece of paper. "My compliments to you as always, Windcaller."
I sold him a cipher system different from what the Empire is using. It's less structurally complex than Playfair, but is still stronger than the currently existing systems.
Incidentally (though we will never know this) The fact that a new spy network from Falkreath has a brand new, comparatively very difficult to crack code has put Siddgeir on the Thalmor's kill list. Nevermind that the head of the network is named 'Vikar'.
"Yeah, yeah." I wave it off. "So the Thalmor can be surprised?"
Sid sneers. "As wide-reaching as their network seems to be, there are gaps." His sneer drops. "Still, the Wolf-Queen's return is…troubling. It shows a distinct lack of Imperial power at a moment when it's needed the most."
Huh. "Ok, and that's bad coming from the Thalmor because…?"
Sid thinks it over for a minute. "The Imperial army as it stands still has a chance of reclaiming Skyrim, Thalmorian interference notwithstanding. If General Tullius's performance is rendered irredeemable by some aspect of the Wolf-Queen's resurrection, then we run the risk of a Thalmor-aligned general being appointed instead."
That…that would actually be really bad. Like, lose-lose-lose situation bad.
Sid seems to catch my expression. "I take it you can already deduce why that would be unpleasant."
I mean… "Best case scenario, Skyrim turns into a quagmire of a civil war that exists to drain empire resources. Worst case, it breaks off entirely and turns completely anti-Empire." Like, the Thalmor gets to be the big bad because everybody involved knows they're a bit of a third party here, and even then the narrative at the moment is 'Empire bad because Thalmor bad'.
Imagine how much worse things'll be if the Thalmor gets to say that they're officially the Imperial army, rather than just attached to it.
"Even better, they pegged you as a Potema Cultist ahead of time." Sid adds, "Prematurely watering down the effect of having the Hero Windcaller destroy the evil queen."
…Yeah? "I can't imagine that having an ancient Skyrim hero take down an Imperial evil will do good things for the Imperial image." That seems like a misstep on their part, not gonna lie.
Sid chuckles. "True. Still, the threat must be dealt with. As usual, we'll share what information we can when we know more."
With that, we're good to go.
I still say that, as far as operations go, 'Thalmor panic' doesn't quite seem to justify it for me, but at the same time, incompetent middle management is a universal problem that transcends time and dimensions, so…
…well, that's fine, I suppose. Not my problem at the moment.
Discounting the whole being accused of being a cultist thing…so I guess that does make it my problem, huh? Fuck.
Guess that means I'll have to look into it.
Later.
…
[Some Days Later]
…
About eight or nine.
So, being accused of being a Cultist of the Evil Wolf Queen has not changed my reputation in any way. The people who are already wary of me are like 'ah ha we knew it' and everybody else is like 'yes but tornados' while the everybody else of everybody else is like 'he pays us a lot so why should we listen to you'.
It's still a concern, but so long as the messenger is the Thalmor I'm good.
In related news:
Aria is back! Woo!
Or, more accurately, Aria came out of the dungeon the same way she went in, very tired, very under-geared. It's taken two days for the courier to get here (and the letter looked like it was intercepted and copied), so I'm going to pick her up via flying sonic wolf.
She did not find the scroll, though, which is a shame, but I'm just glad she's fine. I know she's the Dragonborn, but still.
I depart at 0800 in the morning.
…
[1000, two hours later.]
…
And I'm in Winterhold! It's kinda scary to have a wolf that can clear a mountain in a single bound.
Definitely took multiple bounds.
Also, the rapid elevation change is not doing me any favors. I'll need to sit down for a bit before I can go anywhere. It's just G-forces, right? Not like getting the bends from diving, no?
It's a mix of hypothermia, oxygen deprivation, and adrenaline-based exhaustion. We take what little strength we have to haul ourselves to an inn and spend a coin to lie down.
…
[1015]
…
And, yes, this does mean I can visit my daughters every week. But I try not to, because I want them to be able to fly solo.
Operative word here being 'try'.
They need good, hot meals, and it's cold up here.
…
[1020]
…
Ok, I feel healthy enough to resume operations.
…
It takes me a minute to find the safehouse, and I knock.
"Who is it?" I hear someone (Delphine) ask from behind the closed door.
It's me. "Ned Flanders."
The door opens.
"You know that's not going to work all the time, right?" Delphine says with a sigh. "Come in."
So I do. "Yeah, but it's not like there's anything to hide here." The safehouse is literally just a regular house that they purchased so Atra and Alma can go to school. They're not in right now, incidentally.
The code?
I hate using the Windcaller name unless I have to, so I just make one up. There's no code, it's just Delphine listening to my voice.
"Well, as you can see." She motions to a very soft bed which contains one Aria. "The proud, returning warrior." The house is heated via a soulstone, a cooking fire, and various ways to retain heat while also ensuring proper ventilation. I put my tricks upon it and Winterhold construction is pretty solid.
Aria's basically just in her underwear, sinking into the bed, half-asleep. The ultimate image of relaxation.
"Seriously." Delphine sighs again with a faint smile. "The nerve."
"Heeeey." Aria waves at me. "Mornin'." It's kind of disarming how…
…uh.
…the only image I can draw is that she's a little like putty right now but I feel like that's slightly insulting. Like, she's criminally underdressed and lazing around in the open, taking up a lot of space and behaving in an unapologetically unprofessional manner.
Either way, she's comfy. "Good morning, Aria." Aria's cute no matter what she does, but post life-or-death Aria is especially cute. "How was your trip?"
"Pain in the ass." Aria laughs. "Blackreach really messes with my bearings. Finding my left foot from my right was near impossible." She sits up. "I really should have thought about that."
I took a magnet down there during testing and it went nuts, hence the wire. "Either way, I'm glad you're safe and sound."
Aria holds her arms out. Yes, yes…
We give her a hug.
She's usually very reserved, so the difference between well-rested Aria and tuckered out Aria is jarring. I know she knows, but I don't know if she is able to care.
Regardless.
Delphine brings me to the side room where she kept Aria's stripped down gear. "You made this, so you'll have a better idea of what she did with it." She says. "But in my eyes, it was not an easy trip."
No kidding.
The backpack is smashed in completely, the lifeline rope–which I made with spun steel, mind–is snapped, with maybe two or three meters remaining. Her swords…the ones that are here don't have blades anymore. One blade is badly bent despite what's remaining being two inches long. A hilt looks like it was used as a bludgeon.
One hilt looks like its pommel was used to end a foe rightly.
Everything is reasonably clean, with blood in the more hard-to-reach areas. Thank you Delphine.
The soulstones in the build all show significant stress damage. Overburn, looks like.
Overburn: when a soulstone is being forced to quickly accept and discharge large amounts of mana in an incredibly short amount of time.
No scrolls came back with her, no potions, either. Safe to say that she probably did a lot of scavenging and pillaging when fighting, too.
Being the Dragonborn sucks, huh? No wonder she wants to sleep in.
Thus.
I stick around and cook lunch and dinner. Delphine's here as a minder, but realistically she has her own objectives to accomplish and…uh, for a chef she's very spartan, and Pudding!Aria is all about having large amounts of tasty food.
For the record this pudding mode doesn't show up often, but when it does it leaves an impression. The first time we saw it was waaaay back when in Whiterun, and all she did then was sleep all day.
Probably because the house was cold.
So when did she first start, uh, Pudding Mode? Or, rather, when did you first notice?
Markarth, I think? I was kind of busy so I didn't pay a lot of attention. She kept getting food delivered to her room, which was kind of a tell, but that was more or less just between the kitchen staff and her, so…
Either way, it makes sense: the Bell is the first building we had that had comprehensive heating, so she could laze around without needing to bundle up. Also, to point out the obvious: this is only after she's badly spent, and that level of total exhaustion doesn't come often.
Anyways, this is her condition now. I assume it's kind of a mental recuperation technique, since the length of her…mode, directly correlates to how hard she had to work.
In other words?
I'll probably be here for a week if not for my flying-wolf-ness.
We fly her back to the mansion early next morning.
With her grumbling the entire way. It's not that she can't do amazing Dragonborn things while being putty, she just doesn't want to.
Anyway, her mood improves dramatically once we're back at the mansion, because the entire mansion is heated, so she can wander around however she pleases.
…I forgot about the new kids.
"Who's that?" Mage B asks upon seeing Aria wander around during lunch. "A new guest?" She's wearing a very lightweight sundress to wander around, and even that took some bargaining.
She insinuated that she would rather wander around naked–clothing is just uncomfortable at the moment.
Makes me wonder if her dragonborn-ness has something to do with it.
"She's incredibly pretty." Mage A says. "Actually, thinking about it, all the girls in this mansion are incredibly pretty, down to the servants." He glares at me.
Why me. "She's a friend and a Warwolf old hand, currently recuperating after a long time down in Blackreach."
"That place does make people go mad." Mage C nods. "I understand her position."
We watch Aria get into, then subsequently get kicked out of, the kitchen. Mad, yeah. She then demands a hug from the nearest person, which happens to be Alfred. He obliges with haste.
Aria's hugs are best when you have the initiative: if you choose not to give her said hug, she will hug you instead. Pudding Aria is not fussy about whether she causes damage or not so long as she gets what she wants.
So, not to hammer the point home again or whatever, but, like…I made her underwear to her specifications and they're eye candy (to me especially). She knows what she's like when she's like this, and, as far as I can tell, it does affect her standard personality when she goes back to 'normal'. She's also significantly less reserved about what she wants and cares far less about what her strength does to people. I'm filing it under the dragon-ness of her blood coming out when she's too drained to keep it in check, but…yeah. I don't know. Eyecandy is neat, less when there's a sense of a bomb in the background.
Either way, it takes a week for her to go back to normal. Once she does, though.
"Hey, question."
We've just finished breakfast.
"Yeah?"
Aria shuffles her feet. "Out of curiosity. You know how Jake once said something about, uh, what was it…"
…bad feeling? Maybe?
Aria is being rather fidgety.
She takes a bit to find the words. "...uh…ecological stability?"
…bad feeling. Yes. "...what about it?"
"Blackreach is, like, an ecology thing, right?"
Very bad feeling. "I think so, yes."
"How…how much damage can an ecology take before, y'know, bad things start to happen?"
.
.
Aria
Aria no
.
.
It…it takes a bit. Of questioning. But, uh, yeah. Aria, in an effort to not die in Blackreach, killed her way through a significant chunk of everything around her. For obvious reasons it's hard to get an estimate from up here, but it's probably safe to say that there's a few square miles of Blackreach where there are only corpses.
…Correction, Aria made a tower of corpses and it apparently reached the ceiling. OKAY THEN
I don't have experience in that field, Jake has no experience in that field, none of us knows what kind of downstream effects it will have, so…yeah. I assume a corpse pyramid rotting out in an enclosed space is a bad deal all around, but…
"I mean, it's a good, uh, refresher, of the place, right?" Aria says nervously.
I pat her head. "Whatever works for you."
Since we will be blamed if shit goes to pot, for the sake of plausible deniability I shall scrub this information from my memory and we shall never talk about it again.
Incidentally.
Some days later.
During a break in training the new kids. "Hey, Aria. Do you have any new clues about how to get to the Elder Scroll?"
"No. My…Uniques? Didn't work in Blackreach." Aria says. "But I do have a suggestion." Aria's referring to her innate abilities as Uniques per our suggestion, like the waypoint markers in the game. "I can locate objects over great distances provided that I know what they look like and their state. If we can find another Elder Scroll to compare then maybe?"
…We don't even have one, though.
Hm. "So…do you know where we can get another Elder Scroll?"
She chuckles in response.
Honestly, I…I mean, I know the series is called the Elder Scrolls, so, again, more than one. I played through the Oblivion storyline once but I don't remember if a scroll was actually involved. Jake…I think he got more hours in Oblivion than me, but he also didn't really do main story shenanigans past Kvatch.
Also, and let's be real, it's been a couple of rather exciting years since our Computer Game days. We did write down as much as we knew, but with all the moving around…our records are incomplete.
So, yeah, I don't know. That said.
We bring this issue to Jake to get a second opinion.
"It probably stands to reason that something as important as an Elder Scroll would be kept in the Imperial Capital." Jake says. "The question is more 'are they willing to give us that access'." He side-eyes me.
The response is a shrug.
We've theorycrafted on this before, based on the idea that if there's more than one they'd be important, and important to the Empire means being well guarded. All scenarios in which we decide to take action first tend to be not ideal. Thus I decided to leave it to Aria to pose the question first. Better she ask about other Elder Scrolls after looking for one than, say, me doing it at random.
Aria thinks on it. "I assume that, considering how the Empire is handling the war, they wouldn't give access until Alduin knocks on their front door." She sighs. "And by then it'd be too late."
Also, "I assume they'll give us better access for a Dragonborn, but that comes with its own complications." I don't remember if she explicitly called herself a Dragonborn in front of us.
Aria simply nods in response.
Jake's response is somewhat noncommittal. "I mean, we can start working on that angle. Esbern said he would be ok with going back to the Capital and pulling on some of his old threads, it's only the Thalmor that he has to worry about again."
Surely nothing can go wrong there.
"So that's one angle." Aria sighs. "Well then, how's it going with regards to the killing Dragons department?" She asks me.
"Slow." I admit. "I have a few weapons that do work, but they work under extremely specific circumstances." Yes the giant rail gun murderized the dragon, but, insert caveats here.
She has a slight smile. "Hm. So would you prefer if I snuck into the Imperial Capital, or if I stayed here and helped you?"
"Yes, Ash, what would you prefer?" Jake echoes in the most annoyingly coy tone.
Fuck you both. Also. "Stay."
Aria gives an exaggerated salute. "Yes sir."
Lady. "I need somebody to watch the house as I go handle some other stuff."
Aria narrows her eyes. "Oy."
What? I have cards too, y'know.
…
Also that is like the worst part of having out-of-context knowledge. Like I know Aria's the dragonborn, but I can't ask to confirm because it'll get real awkward if she didn't tell us ahead of time.
You should keep a journal.
I should, but I keep forgetting.
…
[Anyways]
…
"If Aria doesn't kick your ass when we go home, I'm calling the cops, 'cuz somebody swapped her."
The two of us–me, Jake–have departed to handle the Potema issue. "If Aria kicks my ass I expect you to take over development."
It's been three weeks since the start of the chapter.
The most obvious reason is that, by virtue of us both having some memory of how the quest goes, it's just faster with the two of us. Apart from all the opsec issues with Aria being so noticeable.
Also, this lets us do some of the harder adjustments without having any outside eyes. Aria is trusted, incredibly so, but there are some explanations that are just too hard to do.
I mean, if the house of cards starts falling, how much do you trust someone after they say "we only stuck with you because you're an important person in a work of fiction?"
And how much do you trust someone when they even lie about that part?
As such, we're currently riding hard towards the first abnormality site: That One Dungeon. The one with the crown. Last we checked, the place had incredible magical energy built up after we removed said crown.
Jake was/is apprehensive. "I'm most worried that, if the site is punishing traitors or betrayers or whatever, then we're gonna get there and see that the energy is completely gone."
"If it is, we go to Solitude." Yes it's not guaranteed that she's there, no we have no other guesses.
…
It takes an hour or so, and we make it to the site.
"Ash the Bullet Train." Jake grins. "Aiight, let's see what we got."
It's currently in the not-snowy season, so the entrance, which is just a ditch, is still a ditch, except now it's a muddy, abandoned mess. Like the last time we visited, the secondary entrance, the iron gate, is still…
Closed.
…Huh.
"Ok, that's new." Jake mutters. "Not unusual, though."
We fly down to the secondary entrance. Jake lifts the gate, breaking its locking mechanism in the process, and we let it drop behind us. I'm gonna have to reverse engineer the lock if I want to cover our tracks, huh?
Inside the dungeon, backtracking…the path has returned to its muddy slidey slope-y ness, with only some of the staircases present. The stone makeshift staircase built from the tower is still present, though.
That being said, "This place feels really empty." magically speaking.
Jake agrees. "Probably not a good sign."
We enter the throne room.
…Well. Hello there, old friend.
Above us is the blue-ish cloud of…I think it was ghosts? In front of us is the Draugr Overlord, alive and kicking. He's unarmed, though. I guess weapons don't respawn.
Upon detecting our entry, wisps of energy descend from the cloud and form into a battleaxe in the Draugr's hands.
Huh. Neat.
"Dope." Jake agrees, and…does not unsheathe his sword.
Fus!
The Draugr suddenly has a fist inside its skull.
"A-TATATATATATATATA"
Jake is Fist of the North Star-ing the Draugr.
"AAA-TA!"
The Overlord has been punched into a fine mist.
"You are already dead."
Wow.
We clap. Slightly condescendingly.
His ATAs didn't go high enough. B+.
Now then, what about this energy above us? It's giving off a fairly strong magical signature, but nothing that stands out.
...I wonder.
We reach up at the cloud, and allow our magic power to mix with it.
It starts descending.
Magic…it's a force, of a kind. So if physical force is able to record history, then magical force might be able to do something similar. I mean, a smushed dinosaur is a part of history, if only a little bit.
"If you go insane," Jake says as the power starts to flow into mine. "I will happily deal your last rites."
Ha. "Deal."
A small amount of power gathers into our hands. As it swirls, the rest vanish from view.
I feel kinda lightheaded. "Can you carry me outside?" And there's a lot of pounding on my temples. "I need to sit down."
"Yeah, man."
Jake carries us outside, where the gate is still closed. He sets us down on some dried furs and creates a fire.
I also create a barrier over the gate so it retains heat better. Now, time to chew on this.
…
It takes the better part of three hours.
…
Hm.
Well, per my expectations, nothing tremendous came up. In some ways it was like looking at memories, except it's, y'know, seconds of time with no context set over god knows how long.
…I do have a lingering sense of loss, though.
Incidentally, whatever the power is, it's gone now. I assume it's gone back to the throne room, since I can feel it swirling around underground. My greatest hope was that the energy that, to the best of my memory, had a wolf-like presentation and talked shit about traitors would allow me to link to Potema somehow and get her position.
Oh well, no outcome beats bad outcome.
Next up: Solitude.
…
Eeeh
Next up: Home
Much better.
It's on the way anyway.
Also, I had to push back the lessons for the kids for the day, so it'd be bad to miss it.
And how are they coming along?
Aria helps beat the fear of god into them. Jake is able to beat the fear of god into them too, but because he's flashier it's easier to accept that he has more talent.
Heh.
Still, they're coming along well.
…
Next day.
…
To Solitude!
Actually neither of us remembers whether if there was an intermediate stage between Potema coming back from necromancers to Potema showing up underneath the city, so…go us?
Also, more pragmatically, if we need to bust our way into a temple there's really no way for us to hide that. Sure, I can hide the fact that we need to do some damage, but us being there in the first place is a little…
Well, it is what it is. Might as well do some sightseeing.
We reach Solitude a little after noon, on the far side of the river.
It can be cleared in one jump with the wolf if I felt really braindead about it.
And yet, why are we on this side of the river?
…Because I wanted to clear it in one jump with the wolf and get inside the city.
I mean c'mon
Flying wolf
…
So, with that out of the way, we debate our options for a while, then decide that the best thing to do is just to take the path of least resistance. Thus, we sit and wait until dusk, then fly via our own Perks into the city.
Less 'we both fly' and more ' princess carry by Jake'. We lost that round of rock-paper-scissors.
The less we trigger the Thalmor the better, honestly.
Still, Solitude after dark is not exactly pleasant. Street lighting is restricted to those with an interest to light the streets, and that's not everyone. The lack of lighting would be good for us if not for the fact that we need a place to be, and everywhere that's open and legal has Thalmor presence.
Ergo, we slum it up in the poor people places. The important part is to be inside the walls, the rest we can handle, no problem.
…
Next morning, we switch out into less noticeable clothing, somewhere along the lines of a low-wealth shopkeeper, and go out to mingle. The goal is to hit as many temples as we can and see if we can pick up any signs of magical energy.
It would be faster if we split up, but Jake's only trained his magic detection to the point of guarding against incoming magic, so eh.
It's not exactly a religious day today.
Temples tend to have days where they have service, and it depends heavily on the temple and their availability. For example, Danica never has service days because she's so busy teaching healing or using it all the time, while That Guy In Whiterun would have service every day. Loudly.
Last time we were in Solitude we didn't really tangle with the temples, so…yay. Alternatively we can hunker down and observe for a few days, but the timing is a concern. The more we linger the higher the risk of us getting found out.
I mean, yeah, we can just ignore the issue entirely and just let the Thalmor accuse us again if they want to, but…at this point both of us have been around Skyrim politics long enough to know that the Thalmor are the masters of surprise actions.
Like, either we can spend the time doing this now, or we can spend our time three months later fighting off all of Skyrim. I don't wanna do the latter. Too much effort.
Thus.
…
We spend the day visiting the temples in the temple district.
…
We're now done visiting the temples in the temple district.
Neither of us know what we're looking for.
Going from body language and idle chatter, whatever the issue Potema might pose, the people working at the temple and its visitors are not aware, or do not care enough. We saw no ranking clerics of any temples in attendance, because it's just not one of those days. No Thalmor or Empire…captains? Middle Managements? Either. So that's nice.
The next place we can look are the catacombs of the city, but those are off-limits to everybody who isn't a party member of the recently deceased or a family member of the long deceased.
As in: if there's a funeral, we can go in and pay respects if they're hosting a party along with it, otherwise…gotta have the clout.
Necromancy is not illegal.
You can bless a corpse to make it un-raise-able, but at the same time, you can also dispel or unbless a bless. Can't curse a bless, though, which is kinda weird.
Think of a curse as having both a 'Drain HP' and 'Boost HP' status effect, while unbless is the removal of the 'Boost HP' effect.
Either way, not getting in easily.
Jake's spitballing a solution. "I mean, we can talk to Maple and see if she'll let us in as accompaniment?"
Maple is a local brothel matron, one of the newer contacts of my spy network. "Doubt it." We've only become acquainted in the past month. "The risk is also way skewed for her." Based on our intel she visits the catacombs once a week. She is nowhere near rich or influential enough to avoid getting shanked in a dark alley if things go badly.
Continuing spitballing. "Maybe she'll lend us one of her girls for that?"
Eh… "Kind of a stretch? Also probably will get that girl killed?" A nonzero amount of girls in Maple's brothel have, uh, checkered histories, and some should have family lines with enough wealth to have been interred, so it's not a terrible idea. "We can wait for the group that stopped the original issue to get involved."
I believe it was reported as being solved by the Imperial military. Rumors say different, though.
Jake nods. "And get, what, more than one person killed without solving the problem."
Ha. "You don't know that." I believe it though.
It all comes down to if Potema's release is a joint Empire-Thalmor problem. If it is, it'll get sorted and whatever fallout afterwards is entirely political. If it isn't…then things get sticky. Similarly, if the credit for the solution goes to the Thalmor, then they have a pretty useful stick to beat people with.
…also, wasn't Potema a queen? A monarchy runs on claims, right? Claims to the throne? So what happens to the throne if a person gets…un-dead-ed, has agency, and a claim?
We have a brief imagine spot where the necromantic energy of Potema is in a modern court, Ace Attorney style, arguing about her rights to the throne.
I mean, I don't think the currently existing Empire will give a shit, but…yeah, there are just so many cans of worms involved with Potema that would only come to a head ten, twenty steps from now. It might not affect me directly, but after those steps it most likely will.
Ugh.
This is why heroes always arrive after the plot kicks off. It's so much easier to solve a problem after it's happened than trying to preempt something before it blows up.
Like, how much time should I spend on this? What's my allocation of resources? If I stay here, am I going to attract attention from home? It's so much more complex than just having to rush bosses.
Uuuuuuugh
…
Alright, complaining over.
We don't know where the issue is, though we have a reason to believe that it's going to be a matter within the catacombs. So getting into the catacombs without being detected is priority one.
We also don't know how the catacombs are serviced, so straight up Replacing my way past the walls is almost certainly going to result in getting caught. Divine power is also a thing, and I'm still not entirely sure how divinity interacts with magic and so on, so forth.
I've been visiting the Falkreath temples every so often. There's an odd feeling in the air, but I don't know if that's just in my head or if it is an actual reaction of some sort.
Hmm.
We hang out around the catacomb entrance for a bit.
It's…probably the oddest structure in the temple area. So, Solitude is basically built on a giant platform, with its…north north west side hugging the mountain range. Ish. The catacombs, I assume, go underground and into the mountain regions, because otherwise there just isn't space.
Now, that said, in-game it was a rabbit hole and a pretty long dungeon, and I can imagine that it would be less…ignored, in the real world. Or maybe more ignored? Depends on how much people want the area to be used for dark necromantic bullshit, I guess. Like, yes, she's an old queen who's hated by the people, but magic is as normal as physics, and it makes zero sense that the area would not be curated constantly to keep bad magic away.
The catacomb entrance, therefore, is a lot bigger on the inside. It's as close to the wall as it can possibly be. It's not guarded in the traditional sense, but everybody who works inside hangs out in the reception room, and there's only one of those, so…
And, again, without knowing their routines, Replacing into the paths will cause complications.
Meh, it is what it is.
…
We stay in Solitude for two more days.
There are groundwork spy stuff I can do despite not being here officially, so that's a plus. Unfortunately, everything I can produce is flashy and unique enough to be pinned onto Warwolf with a fairly high success rate, so I can't do that.
Maple tried to get us to make some outfits for her girls for work.
I did give her comfy nightgowns as a compromise, so it works out.
That said, today is day three, and being away from home base any more than this will raise questions.
…
[1300 Hours]
…
Boom.
Everybody's attention is immediately drawn to the sound of the explosion.
Oh look it's the catacombs.
…Oh fuck it's the catacombs.
We are a fair distance from the locale, perched on the roof of Maple's brothel.
From here, we can see that there's a thingiemabob of purple electrical energy some distance above the catacombs. It…it is coalescing, I think.
I assume this can mean nothing good.
The purple energy, wound tightly around a skull, grows into a vaguely humanoid shape.
A vaguely human shape of a woman plus a purple cloak of pure energy. I'd say she's vain but it's rude to judge. Is she a lich now? Ghost lich?
The purple energy (Potema) stabilizes and starts taking fire from mages on the ground. It's almost all Lightning magic.
I think the mages recognize that lightning is getting absorbed, since they switched over to fire and ice impressively quickly.
Still, Potema is a small target and she has the freedom of three dimensional movement, so spells that aren't hitscan like Shock don't make contact, and spells trimmed to go quickly seem to be unable to overpower her presence.
This is a pickle, especially because we're, y'know, officially not here.
…Fuck it. "Jake?"
Jake nods. "We can push it out of the city and beat the shit out of it there." He starts flying. "Help me out."
Same wavelength? Same wavelength. "Aye aye." I start flying.
…
[3rd Person Camera]
…
The spirit of Potema, currently flying some thirty feet above Solitude, is not a lich. Rather, it is just a bundle of raw power that Potema has chosen to send.
For the past two days, Ash had been raking the catacomb areas with his magic power, and the inquisitiveness of his intent was not lost upon his spell.
Ergo, Potema knew someone was actively searching for her specifically, and had sent this overly complex bomb into the sky to hopefully distract it from her real body. She was not weak, not by any stretch of the imagination, but being killed once does cause a person to gain a measure of caution.
Our course, energy it may be, the spirit is still born from her, and shares her combat sense and capabilities to a degree.
"She's so damn fast." One Thalmor Mage grumbles, his ice spears making no contact. "Having no Shock magic is surprisingly difficult." His light tone is entirely due to him having zero sense of danger.
Potema fires a bolt of Shock his way. He blocks it with a ward.
"Showy, but not much power." The Mage smirks. If it was alive I'd be convinced it's trying to divert our attention from something. He glances towards the damaged catacomb entrance. Maybe there's still something there? "Lieutenant."
His Lieutenant grunts. "What?"
"I recommend we send a team into the catacombs. There might be something there that this ghost wants us to avoid."
The Lieutenant's reply is a dismissive grunt. "Denied."
Oh well. The Mage shrugs in his head. Not my problem.
Suddenly, Potema is rammed by something fast. Flanked as they were by the builds around their narrow street, Potema disappears from their sight extremely quickly.
"What was that?!" The Lieutenant demands.
"Looks like something hit it." The Mage says, frowning slightly. I thought they would've just gone home. "Might be headed towards the mountains."
The Lieutenant sighs, his voice a mix of relief and annoyance at not getting a kill. "Makes our lives easier." He sees his Captain coming, and is significantly more annoyed. Fuck.
His Captain arrives, slightly winded from his short jog. "Lieutenant, you are to take your men and hunt down that apparition." The Lieutenant can't help but note how…tight, the captain's armor is around his midsection. "If that is indeed the ghost of Potema, then we stand to gain heavily from the credit of its kill."
"As you command." The Lieutenant says with extreme (-ly forced) professionalism. "Form up, we're heading out." His squad forms up into two columns of five, and they march dutifully towards the gate.
Five minutes away from the Captain, the Thalmor Mage notices that their path veers away from the gate and towards a nearby inn. "Lieutenant?"
The Lieutenant, despite his face being covered by the Thalmorian Elven Helmet, projects an air of supreme indifference. "Per the Captain's orders, the Thalmor will get the credit for the removal of Potema, and the gratitude of the Empire."
The Mage scowls. "With all due respect, sir, there are exactly two wielders of arcane power in all of Skyrim who can fly. We have our orders." Their orders were to ensure that all magic support within the Empire came from the Thalmor, and to kill everybody else via accidents, or at least remove them from play.
Ash and Jake, for all of their care, are not trained spies. Their disguises could fool a guard, but there was nothing they could do against those experienced in infiltration and espionage. Anybody with any presence of mind–and the Mage considers himself extremely well endowed in that regard–could piece together exactly who interfered in that fight just now.
The Lieutenant could not have cared one whit. "The Thalmor will be credited with Potema's removal from Skyrim." He opens the door to the inn. "That is all."
His ego aside, the Mage is not all that jazzed about the prospect of going after two men of incredible power. Figuring that he did his due diligence, he shrugs and follows the Lieutenant into the bar.
After all, if their orders are to ensure that the Thalmor gets the credit, then their job is already done.
…
As the Captain gives the orders to the Lieutenant, up in the air Jake was busy bodyslamming the ghost of Potema and pushing her from the city. The pair separates around five miles northwest of Solitude.
"Fucking thing has no body." Jake grumbles, and goes into high speed maneuvering to evade the Shocks being flung at him. "Ash!"
Ash is half a mile away complaining to himself about Jake's fly speed.
Jake notices. "Oh, right." He sights Potema and throws a knife. It meets no resistance as it zips through the ghost, but the ghost recoils as if it took damage.
"Ok, that's weird." Jake mutters as he circles the ghost.
Really wish we figured out a line of communication before doing this. Ash sighs as he gets into combat range. Beggars, choosers. He lands, puts his hand on a tree, and Replaces a crossbow into existence.
Ash fires at Potema. Again, the bolt meets no resistance, but the ghost reacts to the hit.
Ok, that's weird. Ash muses and puts a wall of dirt between him and Potema. "I vaguely remember being able to just wail on the thing in-game." Potema's counterattack fizzles on his wall of dirt.
Seeing his line of attack free, Jake pulls his greatsword and charges right in. He slashes the ghost. It comes apart in halves, obviously recoils in pain, and then throws Shocks at him.
"That looks very lich-y." Ash notes, and starts concentrating magical power.
Jake, sensing the sudden increase of power, flies low and close to the ground while throwing knives at Potema.
Potema, being 'hurt', chases after Jake and allows itself to be dragged low to the ground, until Ash's line of attack has no chance of continuing into the sky. Satisfied, Jake maneuvers Potema between him and Ash, taking a few hits in the process, and then slams into Potema again with a wall of wind.
Having no physical form, Potema is buffeted towards Ash.
"Boom boom." Ash says as a chant, and his collected power explodes in a fanning carpet of blue flames. It coats Potema, evaporating the ghost, and does nothing else.
About ten seconds later, the entire area bursts into flame.
"Too hot! Too hot!" Jake yells, half joking.
Ash encircles the burned area with a massive ward, and the fire dies down in short order.
…
[1st Person Camera]
…
Alright, that was easy.
"That was easy." Jake says. "Think we got tricked, hoodwinked, and possibly bamboozled?"
"I mean…" I gesture to the large patch of severely burned land. "...honestly? Yes."
"Huh." Jake scratches his beard. "I remember there being one last step after Potema dies." He taps his forehead. "Uh…well, if it's one additional step after a fight, then design-wise it would be a move task, yeah?"
As in, a task where the player is expected to go from A to B. "Like reporting back? Makes sense." I don't remember if there would be an item involved.
…Well, I mean…
We head back to the Catacombs.
All attention is focused upon the catacombs, so we take high into the sky and observe with spyglasses. It looks like Imperial and Thalmor troops are making their way in, along with Clerics. So, probably a comprehensive search.
Whether if they find something or not, we're not needed here anymore, I think? Either way, no entry for us.
"Time to go." Jake mutters. I nod.
We fly to the marshes east of Solitude, then summon a Giant Wolf and return to Falkreath at full speed.
…
[A week after]
…
As expected, the Thalmor took credit for the kill. Everybody expected them to, nobody believed that they did. Interesting.
Falkreath has its own Thalmor presence, and they…well, they should be aware that I'm running a training camp at this point. They've taken no action, and my network suggests that no action is in the pipeline.
Brynjolf?
He's…well, we're working together, but he's more focused on actions that counter the Thief's Guild than our stuff. Hence the Warwolf-specific spy network.
A large part of it is because The Thief's Guild seems to be making some inroads into Falkreath. Maybe the Assassin's Guild, too. At least one instance of the guild's…thingie? The summoning circle, has been found.
Jake burned the Night Mother to the ground, though, so…however that pans out, I suppose.
Either way.
Next on our agenda is, basically, more waiting.
The Empire is licking their self-inflicted wounds.
The Stormcloaks are making some fairly significant gains, to the tune of threatening Whiterun again.
The Thalmor are busy rubbing their hands together and being evil.
If there's an emergency summon, then we'll go and defend Whiterun again, because obviously one tornado isn't enough.
Otherwise, the goal for me right now is to make sure Aria can fly.
My theoretical prototyping is finished, or close to it, so I can move on to my actual prototyping of the gear that she'll be using.
So…yay?
.
.
.
{ === + === }
Author Notes:
I escaped Factorio.
And have discovered Pokemon Infinite Fusion
Help me
And Moemon
HELP ME
And emulators for the phone.