7th of Evening Star
We went to the Dwermer ruin and the first order of business was to get rid of the bandits and reavers that taken over the outside. Master Neloth had locked the entrance after his last visit. He's hoping that I can deal with some of the more material dangers while he figures out the control panels. We went scrounging around the ruins looking for these control cubes. Placing them or removing them turns the pumps and other things on and off. I came out with some nice loot and a black book. Neloth wants the book once I'm done with it. He says you have to read it to the end. I tried to read it a few times but haven't made it to the end yet. I'm missing home so I'm headed back to Skyrim.
8th of Evening Star
I got a ear full from Urag gro-Shub about these Black Books. I stopped in to tell him thank you for his help in finding the elder scroll and I think he saw one of them peeking out of my pack. I have two of them now. Apparently, they're quite dangerous and they're also artifacts of Hermaeus Mora. That fits with the Lurkers showing up in Solstheim since Lurkers are his creatures and with the Seekers I saw around Miraak. If I had to guess, when the dragons attacked Miraak's temple, Miraak made some kind of a deal with Hermaeus Mora to move to Apocrypha, his plane of Oblivion. He's apparently been hiding there ever since. Why does he want to come back now? From what Urag says, Mora would never willingly let go of one of his servants. That's disturbing. I still owe a visit to the mad mage but I've been delaying it because it never seems to quite make it to the top of my list. Maybe I'll just send a courier.
I got a letter from the fellow excavating the barrow asking me to come back, so I guess we'll stop in there when I get back to Solstheim.
10th of Evening Star
Eric and I are back home. I've got a ton of things to sell off and it's good to see the girls again. Jenassa says its been quiet and that Rayya and Lydia have been taking turns patrolling around the house but not seen anything. I'm a little surprised that the Thalmor haven't paid me a visit. I'm still expecting retribution for that mess at the embassy. I know we killed a lot of Thalmor there but surely at least one made it past us. I'm not so worried for myself but if they should do anything to the girls, I'd make a mother bear look cuddly. I might not have given birth to those two but they are my children in every other sense of the word. The cash supplies are replenished after the weregild to Karthwasten. I'll go deliver that in person wearing the wolf armor that Eorlund made me. I'm not about to blindly hand over that much gold to the Imperials. If I did, maybe a 10th of it would go the people who are supposed to get it. Rather than let a bunch of fat bureaucrats skim it down to nothing, I'll go hand it out myself. I'm taking Aela, Hadvar, and Ralof as witnesses. I've already warned Hadvar and Ralof that if they start arguing with each other that I might just be tempted to brain them both so I can try to knock some sense into them. They're going along as witness to verify that I distribute the full sum. Nothing more and nothing less. I rather suspect that Tullius and his puppet masters are going to be rather unhappy that the money has gone directly to Karthwasten's residents instead of letting the Empire get their hands on it but they should have negotiated for that. Since nothing in the truce treaty says who it gets paid to, I'll be delivering it in person to Karthwasten.
As for Hadvar and Ralof, those two ice-brains. They're childhood friends and really ought to try to let go of some of the bitterness. Hadvar seems better than the run of the mill Imperial, but he was still willing to let them send me to the block knowing full well I'd done nothing to deserve it. He's too conditioned to obeying orders, but still a decent person. What neither Hadvar or Ralof seem to understand, is that there's really only two sides in this fight. Skyrim and everybody else. Tullius is right in that much but the Empire has become so corrupted by the White-Gold Concordant that it might as well be Thalmor. I bet the Emperor can't fart without a Thalmor dossier hitting someone's desk. I wouldn't exactly include the Empire as "us" these days, especially after finding that torture chamber in the bottom of Helgen keep when we were running from that dragon. It was bit too reminiscent of Elenwen's personal torture chamber in the bottom of her personal residence at the embassy.
14th of Evening Star
We're back from Karthwasten. My heart weeps for those people. So many families destroyed and more orphans. I can't take them all but I have to do something about that. I've sent couriers with the statements from Aela, Hadvar and Ralof to Tullius and Ulfric stating that the weregild has been paid along with a copy of my accounting which Aela, Hadvar and Ralof have signed as being true and accurate. We'll see how much squealing there is from the ones who thought they might be allowed to skim some of it. That will tell me who's corrupt and will need to be replaced. I might also have hinted to folks in Karthwasten that it was all a Thalmor trick to make them beleive it was the Storm Cloaks. That's something I'll need to get to the bottom of, one of these days. I can't send these newly orphaned children to Riften to the orphanage there. I need to see if the Arentino boy was successful and the Black Hand has finally done something about Grelod or not. If not, I may just challenge her to a duel. Her death brings me no honor but it will bring those children some peace. If I felt like being Jarl of Riften, I'd have challenged Laila Law-Giver for failing to do her duty by those children and protect them from that monster Grelod who tortures and abuses them. If Ulfric hadn't killed Torryg in a duel, I'd challenge the new Jarl for not protecting those children from Grelod and we'd settle this the old way. As things sit now, doing that would be tantamount to declaring for Ulfric,so that's not really an option either.
15th of Evening Star
Riften was still the same sinkhole. Grelod is still there. I went to seek the council of the Circle to see how to resolve this in a way that befits the Harbinger. Vilkas says that challenging an old woman brings no one honor. There is too much truth in that. When I described the conditions there, the Circle sees what I want to do and understands why, but they suggest that I find another way to reach the same goal. I see it as defending the less war-gifted which goes back to the very foundations of the Companions but I'm willing to be guided by the Circle in this. Instead I'll try my other plan. I've already spoken to Balgruuf and he doesn't have the resources or the staff to handle such a thing but he's granted me permission to do this, provided I can get the thing built and staffed. I have land for it now, at least. I want to see it become something self-supporting, so I don't have to constantly dump gold into it. After speaking with the Merry Band, Rayya made a suggestion from her homeland. She says that there are schools there where the children live there full time while they're being educated and trained. Some parents pay to send their children there but many of ours will be orphans. This is best idea that anyone's put forward. They can be educated, learn a trade and be ready to make their way in the world when they become adults. The paying parents will be funding the orphans.
16th of Evening Star
I've been busy sending couriers to see who else I can interest in my little scheme. There's a mage that I met in Winterhold living at the inn and I'll see if he's willing to come and demystify magic so that these children don't fear it so much. It does have it's uses. One of the mages from college is a specialist on Restoration spells and I think she'd make a fine addition here, too. Restoration is generally a school of magic that no one can object to. There's a smith I met in the wilds who's agreed to teach smithing during the colder months when he'd rather not be sleeping outside. I've written to Shadr to see if he'd be willing to come here and oversee the stables and teach riding. I've sent a courier to the Bards College asking if they can have some of their students rotate through here, teaching music and history. I can toss some gold both to the bard's college and the students who come here. We still have to reach a formal agreement but Viarmo wrote back to say that he's shared my plans with Elisif and Elisif wants to help. Viarmo says that she'll help me find instructors for things like court etiquette, dancing, and some of the other things that paying parents will want the school to provide.
18th of Evening Star
I've handed the school over to Esbern with instructions that we'll need to house at least twenty children and given him the authority to do as he sees fit. It seems that Esbern was the perfect choice, even though this drags him away from his dusty troves of books. He's got a spark I haven't seen in him before. I'm just a bank account and a figure head at the moment so that I can go deal with the damnable cultists. I'm going back to Solstheim and we're going to be there for a while. I need to be faster, stronger, able to take more damage and deal more damage if I'm to get to the end of this book. Eric and I are going to delve into every crypt, barrow and dragon temple we can find to see what I can make use of to put an end to these nutters before one of the girls gets hurt. They attacked me right on my doorstep in Whiterun. They had to have been waiting around for me to show up since we don't live in that house. The guards saw and came running but Eric and I had already put them down. Thank the gods neither of the girls was with us.
20th of Evening Star
We got back to Raven Rock without any incidents. I noticed that something seemed to be going on in the old ebony mine so I went in to poke around. I found an old man who proved to me that the mine isn't out of ebony. He kept insisting that something was found there that scared the East Empire Company away. He wasn't up for delving into whatever it is. Eric and I looked at each other and he nodded. Maybe there's an artifact or something I can use. He's given us an old journal, keys, some maps and suggested that we see what's there after the maps end. We got in there and it turns out that the miners broke through into an old crypt. We battled through the draugr and I noticed that Eric's gotten quite a bit better at this. The old man at the entrance was right. We finally came upon his grandfather's remains outside of one of the most unusual barrows I've ever encountered. There was a sword there that sent out a stream of energy when you simulated an attack with it. You had to use the energy streams to line up the locking pillars to get the gate to open. Inside was another Black Book. I read it, much to Eric's dismay. After the lecture I got from Urag, these books upset Eric but I need to see if they hold any clues that will let me finish the first one. Neloth is certain that they're all linked to each other in various ways and has been using the one he carries around to find others. I have to defeat Miraak, not because I want to, but because he's forcing me to defend myself and my family. Left to my own devices, I might try to learn from him. Together, we might be able to battle through whatever it is that he seeks to free himself from. Instead, he has pitted us against each other, foolishly spending both his strength and mine in battling an equal when we should be turning our combined might on the true foe.
I made it to the end of this book and it granted me a boon that protects my companions from my attacks, even my shouts. That's useful but not really what I was looking for. We'll try another crypt tomorrow. We still had some time so I went to see what was going on the barrow that needed my attention. Seems that the diggers broke though something and got swarmed by draugr. Eric and I went in and cleared them out. I gave Railis a stern talking to and more gold this time with orders to hire some guards who can protect the workers.