5th of Last Seed
We're back in Riften at the Bee. Brynjolf was loitering around there yet again and wanted to complain about what happened in the Ragged Flagon last time I was there. Namely the swift kick I delivered to his dangly bits. I told him that if he'd like to step outside the city, I'd be more than happy to entertain his complaints with Wuuthrad. All that did was get him to hit on me again. For the love of Talos, what is wrong with that man? I've made it plain enough that I'm not interested in him. The first time a dragon came at him, Brynjolf would run screaming. Sophie is braver than that man and I think Lucia's a better fighter. While I'm rolling my eyes and grinding my teeth, Kaidan jumped in between us and started reaching for his sword. Kaidan was a bit frothy over the whole thing and wanted to take Brynjolf to task over it, right there in the tap room.
I settled for kicking him in the dangly bits again. Maul tried to intervene, so I punched him a few times, which left him reeling. Laughing, Jenassa opened the door, so I carted him outside and threw him into the sloshing pit of a sewer that runs through the middle of town. He was sputtering and cursing and bobbing around with the rest of the turds. Maven looked like she wanted to say something but swallowed it when I swung around to face her. Whatever look I had on my face right then was enough to persuade her to shut up and stay out of it. It's a good thing, too. Otherwise, she'd have ended up in the drink, next to Maul. One of these days that whole nasty little nest of skeevers is going to draw my ire and I'll clean up the Ratway for good. I don't think that they understand that they're on borrowed time. They're on my to-do list just not at the top of it yet, Maven included.
Keerava laughed so hard I thought she was going to split a scale. We're apparently allowed to stay at the Bee for free any time we're in Riften. Talen-Jei says that the Thieves' Guild has been extorting money from Keerava for "protection" for a long time. They'd like to save up so that they can sell the Bee and clear out. Maven keeps raising the prices on Black-Briar mead and won't allow Keerava to sell anything else. I asked if any this applied to any of the other merchants and Talen-Jei told me he's sure that it does but most are too ashamed to admit it. That moved this bunch of skeevers a bit higher up my list.
Now that Ulfric is High King in all but name, it's probably safe enough to challenge Maven to a duel and make Ulfric replace her that way. That twat's only loyalty is to whatever puts coin in her pocket. I have no illusions about her selling us out to the Empire or the Thalmor if she thinks she'll get something out of it. I'm not one of Maven's supporters. Hemming is a pompous toady who couldn't find his own arse unless his mother Maven told him where to look. Ingun is a poisoner who relishes killing with her poisons and watching her victims die. Sibbi's in jail for attempting to kill his betrothed. I'm certain that she got a good look at the family and tried to call the whole thing off. The whole family is a s rotten as a venom fang skeever bite. Taking all of them out will make taking out the Thieves' Guild a lot easier.
7th of Last Seed
We're back in Bruma and Adius, the guard captain, has asked for my help. It seems that there's a particularly nasty bunch of bandits here called Thorina's Cutters. I developed an intense distaste for bandits after listening to Erik and seeing what they put Rorikstead through on a regular basis. I've been clearing them out but the steady supply of good for nothings keeps repopulating the old keeps and towers almost as fast as we can clear them. It seems that the good captain has had a personal run in with this bunch and they killed some of his people. He hasn't been bold enough to go back so we'll take it on and see what we can do about getting rid of them.
Even those idiots from the Thieves' Guild are smart enough to avoid dangerous places and people. I picked up a book when we hauled the Face Sculptor out of the Ragged Tavern that explains what the marks mean. There's even one on Jorrvaskr that says danger. I'll be sanding that off when I get a moment the next time I'm at Jorrvaskr. I know that these Cutters, as they like to call themselves, have attacked us several times. Why do bandits keep attacking us? Will there ever be a point when we have to chase them? It seems not. These Cutters are no different. They've got better gear than most bandits. Most of it looks to be old Imperial Army issue and quite a bit heavier than the stuff that the current Imperial Army hands out. It's still not as good as what I make. All of us wear my creations and they're all enchanted. I guess those fire and frost spells work on most people but I bathe in dragon breath on regular basis. We all do so I made sure that we can withstand that, much less some puling mageling who wants to fling a few trifling fire spells. The worst part of their spells is having my vision blocked so I can't always tell what I'm hitting. Fortunately, the Black Book keeps my friends from being injured.
Adius marked my map with their head quarters and we're off to put an end to the Cutters. I've had enough of them and Adius doesn't deserve to be carrying around all this guilt. We'll go see if we can't do something about this. For now, we're off to the local inn. I cheekily asked Kaidan if he wanted to go pay his respects to the Temple of St. Martin which got me a look. Talesin was practically chortling because we've all heard the story about Kaidan ending up tied to a pew in the church wearing nothing but a copy of the Lusty Argonian Maid. Rayya and Jenassa decided that they'd like to go visit the scene of the crime, so to speak, so they went off to visit the Temple while I got us room at the inn. The inn here is rather nice and even has its own bath house. I offered to scrub his back and that was enough to send any thoughts of St Martin and the Lusty Argonian Maid right out of his head. Rayya and Jenassa came back with quite the tale. It turns out that the local priest remembered the incident and asked them to bring Kaidan back so he can try to talk him out of his dark and dangerous ways. Apparently, the priest tried before and failed miserably. Now that he knows Kaidan's back in Bruma, he wants to have another crack at him. This should be amusing so I'll have to think up a reason to go visit.
9th of Last Seed
It's taken us an extra day to pack all the gear back out of that place and sell it off. It was a trove of goodies and now the local smithy, Northern Arms, is swimming in gear that Hulgard didn't have to make himself. He says he's going to go fishing for a couple of days and let his daughter run the store. Adius arranged for the local Count to give us a reward and to allow me to purchase property in the city. I won't be bending the knee or taking any oaths to this Count since I'd have to break them all when we come howling through that gate at Pale Pass. I'll go talk to the Count's steward and buy the house. It would be nice not to have to stay at an inn every time we're here and have a place to leave a few things that I'd like to cart back to Frostfall instead of lugging them around everywhere we go.
I'm certain that the Thalmor will pick through all of it the moment we're out of sight, so I'll leave a few things just for them. I think some of the "special" items from the Synod Conclave might be most appropriate. The Synod seems to make most of its money selling adult items as a side business. That's some magic I wouldn't mind learning for my own use. I'll have to have a chat with the College next time I'm in Winterhold. That might become an extremely profitable side business and let the college repair all those buildings. It might also get the average Nord to loosen up about magic a bit.
In other news, the Synod is having issues with random Ayelid artifacts showing up in their Conclave house in Bruma. They're too pathetic to even investigate for themselves and want to hire us to do it for them. I've boxed up the things that appeared so far and paid couriers to take them to Winterhold to Tolfdir to see what they can tell me about the magic used to make them appear in the Conclave house.
10th of Last Seed
While we were wandering around outside Bruma, we found the refugee camp. A few of them claim to come from Karthwasten so I got to hear some first hand stories about "The Karthwasten Massacre" from those that fled. After talking to them, I'm even more certain that this was something the Thalmor cooked up. Stormcloaks don't tend to charge straight at the Imperials when the Imperials are massed up in a battle formation. They circle around come at them from behind and the sides. No one is stupid enough to run headlong into teeth of their formation, but if that formation breaks up then they're very vulnerable. The rear and sides are pretty vulnerable. There's so much about this whole incident that just doesn't add up.
I told all the families there that if they wanted to return to Karthwasten that I'd take them back and give them their weregild payment. I've been to Karthwasten a few times and the place is a flyspeck, if that, on the map. This "refugee camp" is bigger than the whole city of Karthwasten ever was. Oddly enough, none of them took me up on the offer. There's one old man and little boy who I actually believe when they say that they were there. The rest of them, maybe 30 families or so, I don't buy. They don't look like they've ever set foot in The Reach in their life. Most of them wouldn't know a mud crab from a skeever. For a fly speck of a mining town with no walls, that just smells like a lie.
When we got back to Bruma, Adius asked if I'd mind helping him with a problem he's unable to solve for himself. There's a bunch of Talos worshippers hiding out in the woods and the Thalmor have gotten wind of it. He thinks he knows where they might be and asked if I'd go see if I could get them to break up, leave off and go home. I said that I would so we're off to see if we can find them before the Thalmor do. If we do, I'll see if they'd like to come to Skyrim and worship Talos. Otherwise, they'll have to put their heads down and keep their mouths shut about what they believe.
14th of Last Seed
When Adius said out in the woods, he wasn't joking. It took us two and half days to hike out to the remote location where they were camping. Its so far out in the woods that this likely the only reason that the Justicars haven't shown up already. It's taken some convincing to get them to agree to leave off for now. A couple of them are coming back with us to Skyrim. One of them is a smith who wants to start making arms for the Stormcloaks, so I'll take him on to Castle Dour. I'm certain that Beirand won't mind having a third pair of hands at the forge. The rest have agreed to be quiet about what they believe and go home. It took us another two days to get back to Bruma. I've put up the two that are going back with us at the inn and cautioned them to be very quiet because the Justicars here roam freely and snitches are everywhere. I've told the inn keeper that I've hired them to come and work in Skyrim.
We'll head back to Skyrim in the morning. I'll back back to Bruma and check on the others later. If I catch the Thalmor sniffing around them, we'll just cart the whole family back to Skyrim and resettle them. Winterhold needs some new population. We'll see if Korik's taken my advice or not. If he has, they might be able to settle there. If he hasn't, there are plenty of other underpopulated holds like Falkreath or Markarth where I'm a Thane. I'm allowed to build additional houses on my steadings there so if all else fails, we'll just do that.