Middas, 1st of Heartsfire, 4E 201

Well, THAT could have gone better.

I’m getting ready to bed down in…

Northwatch Keep.

No, I’m not in the dungeon. I think this is the… Head Justicar’s room? (I have no idea how they rank people) Doesn’t really matter to me; it’s a real bed in a warm room.

The important thing is they’re all dead, and we’re not. Thorald’s on his way to officially join the Stormcloaks, and to take his brother Avulstein with him.

We also killed a dragon.

The day started out normally. We got up, had some breakfast, then broke camp. I found a safe path down the mountainside, and while it was a bit steep, it was easy enough to follow and we were able to wind our way down to the seaside with little trouble.

I noticed a shipwreck not too far off from where the path ended, and a spooky-looking castle on a small, rocky island in the distance. It was hard not to investigate the shipwreck. There could be all kinds of salvageable goods in there!

Lydia caught me looking, and said she could hear me thinking.

Damn, it’s not even been two weeks according to this thing, and she can already hear the gears turning.

It’s been just over two weeks since I got here. I was on that one ship for… A week, was it? I’m not exactly sure. I think it took two weeks to get to Skyrim from Cyrodiil.

I’ve been away from home the Capitol for a month.

A month ago I didn’t know how to swing an axe, or put on armor. I only knew two spells. I didn’t have a place to live aside from whatever room I could rent for the night.

Now I have a home! A home and a title with offers for more. I have more gold than I’ve ever seen.

And I have Lydia, and some sort of big, important destiny that I should probably take care of sooner rather than later.

So much has happened. Part of me wants to spend a week doing nothing once we get back, but I know me. I’ll relax for one day and then get antsy and want to go out and do… Things. A heist, or run a con or something. At least here I can clear out bandit dens and not worry about the guards coming after me.

Anyway - We passed a few horkers as we walked along the shoreline. Those things are HUGE! However big you think they are, you need to double it, at least. Lydia said that so long as we don’t bother them, they won’t bother us. We gave them a wide berth and kept walking. Luckily, the dog listens and didn’t go after them.

The wind coming off the sea is bitterly cold, and it wasn’t long before we were shivering again. We were also right near the Keep, so I built a fire behind a big rock that kept us reasonably out of sight of the guards so we could warm up, first.

Once I could feel my hands again, I told the dog to stay there, and Lydia and I walked up to the main gate.

The first guard wouldn’t even let me talk to anyone else! I decided to walk right past him, you know, maybe get someone’s attention, and we were attacked!

No weapons out, I just wanted to talk, and they decided that we had to die.

Not today.

We ran back out so we weren’t surrounded, and I started throwing fireballs at the archers while Lydia hacked her way through the foot guards. The one with the warhammer got raised as a zombie.

I’m pretty sure I saw the other Thalmor recoil when they realized their comrade with the really big weapon was coming after them. They shifted their attention from me to him right away.

It took a while, but we did manage to get rid of all the Thalmor outside the Keep. I made sure we had plenty of food and potions before we went inside to find Thorald.

Fighting inside the keep wasn’t that terrible, thankfully. We were able to draw them into hallways to fight, and that kept things even between Lydia and the zombies I summoned. There were several mages, though, but I was able to take care of them with Sparks and my enchanted axe.

I guess the Thalmor don’t train their mages to fight hand-to-hand. They fold like a bad hand as soon as you hit them.

We eventually found our way down into the prison level, and I saw a bank of levers to the right. I pulled them, figuring they would open the doors, and I was right. A bunch of prisoners ran out and past me, eager to escape. To my left was a wide archway, and it led to a torture chamber, with Thorald and a Thalmor Inquisitor.

He was a hard mage to fight, but I had quite a few magicka poisons and my Sparks to help me. He was able to use a Ward against some of my magic, but Wards can’t stop an axe to the face!

We freed Thorald, and he said that they were just trying to get him to confess to anything. Anything they could use against him or his family. Probably so they could go after his brother, too.

Figures. Someone makes trouble they don’t like, so they’ll lock them up first, then find a reason later.

Well, their tactic backfired, sort of. Thorald reasoned that since he was already accused of helping the rebellion, he might as well join the Stormcloaks. He couldn’t go back, because Whiterun is the first place they’d look for him, but it wouldn't be safe for Avulstein, either. He asked me to speak with his mother when I got back, and tell her, “To suffer the winter's cold wind, for it bears aloft next summer's seeds.”

He said that she’d know what it meant.

We left the Keep, and were immediately set upon by a dragon! Lydia and I jumped back inside, and peeked our heads out a minute later. Still there, but no Thorald. I didn’t see a body, so he probably ran the other way.

Smart man.

Remember when I said I was stupid?

Yeah, I’m still stupid.

I blame the rush of taking out a keep full of Thalmor, but I decided to go and fight the dragon. Lydia came with me, and we fought it in the shallows, nearly freezing to death as we did so. It was so hard to do – I almost died several times! We won in the end, and Lydia got to see firsthand what happened at the watchtower outside Whiterun.

That same strange light surrounded me, and while I didn’t get that Knowing that I did before, I did feel stronger, and more energized.

Lydia was definitely… Unnerved by it. She wanted to know what that was, and I explained that I absorbed the soul? At least, that’s what I had been told, and she sort of shrugged because honestly, it was the best explanation.

It was getting late and we were tired from all the fighting, so we decided to come back here to rest for the night. I went to get the dog, but it was nowhere to be found. I didn’t see any evidence that the dragon got him, so he probably ran off.

He was friendly enough. He probably followed one of the prisoners we freed, or Thorald. Dogs are smart like that, so I’m not worried.

So, we came back in here, and we’re getting ready to sleep. Maybe we can make it to Solitude before nightfall tomorrow.