Chapter 54: Angarvunde - leaving

[12th of Sun's Height 4E 202]

We had managed to explore Angarvunde and had had to fight against a significant number of undeads there, including one very dangerous dragon priest. We had prevailed and found some treasure there plus a word wall for Fiona. Medresi Dran, the Dunmer we had met, had not made it, though; she had been too eager to find the treasure and had been killed by a dart trap before we could do anything for her.

Nothing special happened during the night, and we were not getting attacked. Our housecarls had taken the watch, and when I woke up, early as usual just before sunrise, I greeted Jordis and decided to start with breakfast preparations. We had been on the road for some time, and we did not have many fresh supplies with us, but there was dried meat, bread, dried fruit, and fresh water from a small brook coming down from the rocks nearby. If we decided to head towards Riften today, we should be able to indulge in a proper meal again tonight.

An hour later, when everybody was awake, we talked about our next plans. Fiona confirmed that it had been great to learn new shouts and do lots of fighting, but she wouldn't mind to have a few slow days in between after the last few exciting and packed days. Thus, we agreed to head towards Riften for now. Iona, who was familiar with the hold, confirmed:

"Sure, Riften is not so far from here, and even with a few minor interruptions we should easily be able to make it there before the end of the day."

"What kind of 'minor interruptions' are you talking about?" Fiona wanted to know.

"Bandits, maybe, my Thane" her housecarl replied. "The area around here is frequently used for bandit camps, and I'm afraid that this is somewhat tolerated by the hold guards."

"That's ridiculous, isn't it?" the Dragonborn told her.

"To be honest, my Thane, this is, unfortunately, common practice" Lydia responded. "Think of Fort Greymoor in Whiterun hold."

"Yes, but…" Fiona started, but stopped talking in mid sentence.

"Lydia has a point" I commented. "In some situations, like in Whiterun hold, it's lack of guards and other priorities. Do you remember Falkreath and the deal the Jarl had with bandits and what he asked us to do before you became Thane there?"

"Oh, right, those things happen, do they?"

The Bosmer pondered that for a few moments and then asked:

"But, Jarl Balgruuf wouldn't do something like that, collaborating with bandits, right?"

Lydia took that:

"No, my Thane, as far as I know, he wouldn't and he doesn't. Jarl Balgruuf the Greater is a real good Jarl, and I am glad to serve under him."

"And not all of the Jarls are like him, I guess."

"Power easily leads to corruption" I stated, "and some people just cannot resist, I guess."

All three housecarls nodded, and Fiona asked for more details on the related situation in this hold. Iona replied:

"My Thane, I am not familiar enough with the current politics in the hold to know if the bandits in the area are just tolerated because there are more important issues to handle of if some people even have a deal with them."

The Bosmer nodded, and after a few minutes of pondering the response, she suggested:

"Well, let's set off, shall we? And if we encounter bandits, we can deal with them either way, I guess."

That found general agreement, and a few minutes later we grabbed our packs and headed north, back to the main road.

For a change, it was nice to be out in sunshine on a proper road again. Birds were singing and calling all around us, there was the occasional stirring of branches and rustling on the ground from smaller animals, and I could hear distant growling, likely from a bear or two. Of course, there were the beautiful colors of the Riften forest, which indeed looked like eternal autumn; together with variations of other colors provided by other flora species, they provided a nice background for the eyes to rest on. So far, we had been very much focused on our goals, but now we were more at leisure, and I enjoyed being able to take my time and look around and listen; last not least, the smells were also quite enticing, probably because I had always liked to be in a forest. I recalled when I had first enjoyed a similar environment, after getting out of Helgen underground, and yes, this was remotely similar, even more colorful. Soon my companions noticed that I was looking around a lot and sniffing the air repeatedly, and Jordis asked:

"Is everything all right, my Thane?"

Contrary to Antonius, my other housecarl, she had not quite been willing to just call me by my name, like my Imperial housecarl did, but she would also eventually learn that, I hoped. Smiling, I told her:

"Of course, Jordis, I'm just enjoying being here in the wonderful forest."

"It may be wonderful indeed, but I'm afraid that the bandits ahead seem to believe that as well."

I had not paid much attention to potential threats, knowing that my companions and specifically the housecarls would not neglect that duty, but indeed, a group of people who could not really be anything else but bandits approached us, and most them had an evil smirk on their faces. From a distance, they might have mistaken us for mostly defenseless travelers, although few people on the roads in Skyrim were really anything like defenseless. They had two archers, who were raising their bows now, but Hanni and Nanni, who had noticed my sudden change of mood, were already jumping ahead, and Nymeria even passed them with a deep growl coming from her throat. Two bandits in heavy armor managed to get close to us with their swords ready to swing, but our three housecarl warriors stopped them and kept them busy. Another bandit had somehow managed to get behind us and suddenly had a dagger next to Fiona's throat, but before that got out of control he suddenly yelped and dropped the weapon; almost faster than I was able to see the tiny Bosmer had evaded and kicked him in a very sensitive area, and when I raised a brow, indicating my surprise, she smirked and told me, looking kind of smug:

"My housecarls taught me a few tricks!"

Another bandit, a tall and sturdy one, got next to me and made a big mistake by trying to kick me into the chest with one of his feet. A normal person might have been on the ground after that, but I just smirked and shrugged it off, grabbed the extended leg and pushed the enemy down instead. After a quick look around I thought that we were about to have the situation under control now, but I had relaxed too early; all of a sudden a huge atronach stomped on the road; as it was neither on fire nor ice blue, it looked like a storm atronach, although I had never seen one in reality yet – no, this was not true; we'd had to fight against one conjured by Thalmor close to Rorikstead, and one of the mage brothers had been able to conjure such an atronach. But here and now, where had this elemental come from? Was there a Thalmor patrol close by? I did not get the time to follow this thought and had to evade first, and not far from me I heard Fiona shouting something new: 'RAAN!'.

What was that? Wait, was that the shout she had learned very recently, down in Angarvunde? If yes, what was it good for? I was going to learn about that, as a couple of bears now showed up and trotted closer to us. The Bosmer pointed towards the atronach, and the bears bravely attacked it. I quickly got my crossbow ready for action and released bolts as quickly as I could. Nymeria and our housecarls were still busy with the bandits, and I saw that Hanni, Nanni and Spirit had started to search the bushes nearby. Soon I heard shouts from somebody not far away; they had managed to ferret out a person in mage robes, likely the one who had conjured the atronach. I jumped over there as well, and with my dagger at his throat, the mage canceled the conjuration spell and the storm atronach vanished accordingly. The two bears seemed to be happy about that, and they trotted off again, going wherever there was less excitement, I guessed.

Fiona smirked and announced:

"Now I know what 'Animal Allegiance' is good for, at least."

After a short period of rest and healing, we first searched for anything we could retrieve. The housecarls looted the bandits and bound those were still alive and had surrendered, while Fiona and I reclaimed used arrows and bolts, respectively. Once this was done, we looked around again and soon found the bandit hideout, which was actually pretty close to the road. We searched the bandit lair together, and as usual, we claimed some of the generic loot, specifically septims and gems, for ourselves.

Right at this time a Stormcloak patrol came along from the west. To our surprise the group turned out to be Gonnar Oath-Giver, the Rift military commander, together with his large detachment of Stormcloaks and a number of bound Imperial soldiers and even a few equally bound Thalmor. We had met them on the road south of Ivarstead and located and overrun the Rift Imperial Camp together, and I had assumed that they should be back in Riften by now, as we had been on a few detours. Gonnar was happy to see us again and explained:

"Sure, we should have been back in Riften by now, but when we were close to Heartwood Mill, we came upon a group of Thalmor harassing the good people there, and we had to intervene, of course. Some of us got injured by those blasted high elves, and we stayed a couple of days. How have you been?"

Fiona took that and provided a summary of what we had done, and after some more small talk, we pointed out the location of the bandit lair, which was not far from the road; some of the Stormcloaks helped themselves to the weapons, armor and other items which were still there. Once this was done, we all started to walk towards Riften, with the captured soldiers, bandits, and Thalmor between us.

The soldiers knew that the Dragonborn was with us and treated her with much respect, and we had some nice conversations while we proceeded in the direction of Riften, following the main road. I considered resuming my magic practice, but decided against it to not confuse the Stormcloaks.

Close to Riften, there was a bridge leading north towards an island with some houses, and I guessed that this was likely the Golden something estate, which was a location related to the Thieves Guild quests. The soldier next to me saw my looks and told me:

"Ah yes, Goldenglow Estate. This used to be a booming business, but recently the owner must have had some bad luck; just a few days ago he got robbed and some of the beehives burned down; can you imagine?"

"Have they found who was responsible for that?"

"No, not really. I mean, everybody knows that we have the Thieves Guild in Riften, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they were somehow involved."

"How many beehives were burned? All of them, or just a few, like three?"

"Not all of them, no, not even three, just two, I think. It was strange, as nobody was getting killed and not much of value stolen; the guards don't really know what the burglar had been after."

Was it possible that the quest related to Goldenglow Estate had just happened? Maybe I would never learn about it, but I was curious. Also, a few weeks or so ago, when I had returned from Loreius Farm, I had observed events which appeared to be related to another Thieves Guild quest, but wasn't the Honningbrew Meadery quest supposed to happen some time after the Goldenglow Estate quest? Maybe so, but there was no law stating that everything here needed to be exactly like in the game. With two beehives on fire rather than the three in the game, this was either a sign that there was a deviation from the game, or maybe the culprit messed up and had to run before getting to number three. And, of course, it was also possible that one or even both of the events weren't related to the Thieves Guild at all. In theory, I could join the guild and find out more, but I really did not want to. Also, if Brynjolf wanted me to steal Madesi's ring or so, I did not think that I could do something like this successfully in bright daylight; I knew that I was terrible in lockpicking, and I was just too big for that, too; probably I'd do something wrong and everybody would see me – this was not a game where you could reload if you messed up after all!

Instead of staying on the main road, the soldiers turned right now, towards a windmill which was visible ahead, indicating a nearby farm; the troop leader explained that a quick pass around the farm was part of their normal patrol scheme. We met a male Nord and a female Imperial who tended the fields, and when they saw strangers with the Stormcloaks, the Nord came over to the fence for a greeting, specifically directed at me:

"Hello there; I recognize Iona, but I haven't see you and the others around, I think."

"No, it's my first time here" I responded, and I introduced our group. I also asked:

"Is this your farm here?"

"Oh no, the farm and surrounding land is owned by the Snow-Shod family. They reside in the city, and they are very trusting to let me run this place without their supervision. I am Addvild, by the way. I also get Peragorn to help; he's working over there."

He pointed towards a male Nord who was working the adjacent field.

"Is it safe around here? I mean, do you sometimes have trouble with bandits or wild animals?"

"Fortunately, hold guards patrol the area quite frequently; I don't think that we could defend the farm on our own. We are close enough to the city to be somewhat protected, but otherwise it's pretty quiet out here – my wife and I kind of like the solitude."

I was almost about to respond something about moving to the city of Solitude if you liked solitude, but I did not know the farmer well enough; he might misunderstand a joke for an offense. The farmer noticed my eyes looking around, and he added:

"If you're looking to purchase produce, I have none to sell at this time; you should head into Riften instead."

"That we will do, actually; we are right on our way there, and just kept the Stormcloaks company."

"Well, if that's all, I'll need to get back to my work; don't want Vulwulf to hear that I'm chatting all day long."

We nodded and turned around, and when passing his wife, she looked up for a moment to say:

"Did you see by chance see the fires from Goldenglow Estate, a few days ago? I was afraid the whole place was going to burn to the ground!"

"No, we were not around here a few days ago. Do people know what caused the fire?"

"I don't think so; maybe the owner wasn't careful enough with open fire around the beehives."

Of course, such a cause for the fire was also conceivable. By now, the soldiers had done their patrolling around the farm. We waved to the farmers and headed back towards the main road. While doing that, we came close to the farm hand Addvild had mentioned, and he mumbled something like:

"So I can't pick a cabbage from the garden, but if a Nord picks that same cabbage and sells it to me to eat, it's okay? The whole concept seems a little silly to me."

I was getting curious and asked:

"How is farming working for you?"

His response was quick and clear:

"Good. The climate here in Riften is ideal for the crops we grow. I've got a bad back, though, and I have to spend half of my earnings at Elgrim's Elixirs. I have no complaints, though. If I had more money, I'm not sure what to spend it on."

I nodded towards him, and we moved on, soon finding ourselves on the main road again. His final statement had sounded reasonable, but his first one had been weird. Had this been a reference to the concept of the player in the game being allowed to harvest plants almost everywhere for free? But that was not possible, was it?

On the shore side of the road we saw a couple of people working on something, and Iona explained, distracting me from my musing:

"There are a few clay deposits at the shore, and workers come here a lot to get material for house repairs and such."

"Aren't most buildings in the city made of stone?"

"Some of them yes, but only the ones owned by rich people. Lots of houses are more simple, and besides, there are farmhouses as well."

As the events at the estate had been mentioned, I did not talk much for the remainder of our trip to Riften, but thought a lot. It was quite obvious that the major questlines in the game did not all happen in parallel here, and specifically they weren't all centered around me. I roughly knew about the status of the 'main quest', and now I had a vague idea about the Thieves Guild. In the Companions, Skjor and Kodlak were still alive, but I wasn't sure what kind of indication that was. Would Skjor die only once a new member of the Circle was selected? At this time, I wasn't even aware of a suitable candidate, but maybe those events, culminating in Kodlak's death, the reforging of Wuuthrad, and the selection of a new Harbinger by Kodlak's ghost, were 'scheduled' for a time ten or twenty years in the future?

Except for the one event with Cicero, I had no clue about the Dark Brotherhood. I knew that the Dawnguard was hiring, but not if Serana had already been found. Miraak was sending out cultists to find the 'wrong Dragonborn', and finally there was the College of Winterhold in a state totally unknown to me. Specifically about the last one I'd love to find out more, and traveling to Winterhold was definitely something I wanted to do. Maybe when Fiona had met Paarthurnax and knew that she'd have to find an Elder Scroll, I could arrange to go there with her, followed by a journey to Blackreach? Would I be able to find out about the state of all major 'questlines', and also, were the events in all of the various guilds and such even going to be similar to the game?

Before we got close to the city, I saw one of the soldiers pointing to the right, and I got out of my thoughts and started to listen to what he mentioned:

"… Forelhost. This is a weird place, as they say. Some claim that a group of people calling themselves 'Dragon Cultists' reside deep inside the ruin. I do not know if this is true or not, but few who have gone there to adventure inside have come back to tell about it."

"Dragon Cultists? Really?" Fiona got curious.

"There is a legend about Nords in the First Era exploring the place and coming upon Dragon Cultists" Iona told us.

"Aye" the soldier nodded. "Besides, people who have gone up recently tell about a powerful ghost guarding the courtyard, and nobody had dared to go further as far as I heard. From a strategic point of view, the place is not important, and nothing up there threatens the city or the road towards Morrowind."

That was interesting. The name of the ruin, Forelhost, sounded remotely familiar, but of course I could not remember what had been around there and in there in the game. With a proper team, it might be a worthy place to explore, but probably not today or anytime soon; for now, we had other plans, and we had visited plenty of interesting and dangerous locations in the last few days.

Eventually we got close to the city, and the city walls loomed ahead. A narrow path led east, hugging the walls, likely to get to the road further east, and the Stormcloaks took their leave now, wishing us a good time in Riften.

After the soldiers we passed the southern city gate. There was nobody asking for a visitor's tax, but that would have been at the northern gate only anyway. In addition to that, I seriously doubt that any guard would had dared to ask for payment with two adolescent saber cats and one big wolf growling at them.

[Author's Notes: Lots of thoughts and questions here.]