- 31st of Sun's Height, 4E 202 -
By the gods .. my head hurts this morning. It's like I have a thunderstorm inside my skull. My stomach feels awful as well. Not even a sweetroll sounds good. I'm not even going to ask the innkeep how many bottles of ale I went through last night.
Infiltrating the thalmor party was an interesting affair. Delphine had me meet a contact of hers named Malborn here at the Winking Skeever in Solitude, and I gave him a few items to sneak inside for me. Given that he was going to have to sneak them in, I couldn't give him very much. So I gave him my mace, my enchanted gauntlets, my enchanted necklace and ring, and a handful of potions .. including a potion of invisibility that I purchased that day, just in case I needed it.
We parted ways and I went to find Delphine. I had also purchased a pair of nice shoes, to go with my clothes for the party. Delphine was going to hang on to the rest of my gear, and when I showed up she did not approve of my attire. Leave it to a female to find something wrong with an outfit. Instead, she gave me a different set of clothes and shoes, which I will admit were nicer and probably more fitting for the coming event.
She had arranged for a cart to give me a ride to the embassy, which was nice. I'd rather not having to walk the road up there wearing nothing but some dainty clothes with not even a dagger in my pocket.
My invitation passed inspection and the next thing I knew I was inside and having a conversation with the resident ambassador from the Aldmeri Dominion. She was flooding me with questions and I didn't want to blow my cover so I did my best to turn her questions back around on her. She was called away by the bartender, who turned out to be my contact that had smuggled my gear in.
I wandered the party, making conversation here and there and stuffing my face with sweetrolls and honeynut treats. After a bit I needed a drink so I wandered over to my inside man and had him get me a drink. He tried to talk to me about creating a distraction so he could sneak me inside, but I brushed him off as I was enjoying myself in a nice peaceful way for the first time in a long time.
I walked away with my drink and began chatting with a fellow who had already had a few too many. He was a nice enough fellow though, and I humored him for a bit, even giving him my drink to save him a trip back to the bar .. not that his legs would have carried him there. He thanked me and swore he would do anything for me if I ever needed anything. I wasn't sure if he said that because he meant it or because he was drunk, but it didn't matter either way. I had an idea and I knew he would help me follow through with it.
I got another drink and downed this one while hanging out with my new friend, who was seeping further and further into the land of less than sober. It was a fun party, and I was beginning to see why the rich threw these all the time. I had never been to a party before, not like this. I even spotted a woman who caught my eye and maybe a piece of my heart.
My bottle and my throat ran dry, so I headed back to get another bottle. Delphine's man made a big show about how they were out and he would need to go to the cellar to get some more. Then, under his breath, he chided at me to hurry up and cause a distraction. Under my own breath I cursed him for his impatience, but visibly acknowledged that I would take care of things.
A few minutes later my drinking buddy was on his feet and stealing all the eyes in the room. The last thing I heard was him letting an insult to the ambassador slip past his lips, and then Malborn closed the door and hurried me through the kitchen to collect my meager supplies. Then he pushed me through a door and mumbled something about locking it behind me .. and that I was on my own.
The frivolity of the party evaporated quickly as I overheard two thalmor guards talking in the next room. I waited patiently, and they returned to their rounds. But a brief survey of the hall I was in revealed I would have to pass through the room with the guards.
So I waited .. and watched. For quite some time I studied the pattern of the two guards. I needed to have a precise plan or I would be dead. I had no armor, other than my gauntlets. I didn't even have my shield. Truth be told, I may as well have been naked as that was exactly how I felt.
But eventually I had the pattern down and I moved into position. One of the few potions I had brought was a paralyze potion. I applied it to my mace and waited for one of the guards to return to a spot where he liked to lean against a wall. My breath held tight, he sauntered over and leaned back into the wall with a sigh. My mace flew at the back of his head with all my strength, and the connection was so loud I was sure the other guard would hear. But he didn't, and this guard fell dead with the single strike.
I dragged his body out of sight and hid in a pantry to take care of the other guard. With both guards dead and their bodies concealed, I moved upstairs. I left their armor on their bodies as I felt it more important to be quick and quiet right now. It wasn't easy to leave perfectly good elven armor behind when all I was wearing was fine cloth.
One more guard down I proceeded outside. It was fully night now, and the fresh fallen snow glittered with the waves of light that fluttered across the heavens. I snuck forward two steps on the snow and then I was spotted. Two thalmor guards came at me as well as a thalmor mage. Knowing that I was outnumbered and thus likely outmatched, especially since I had lost the element of surprise, I let loose a shout against and knocked all but one of them on their backs.
I went after the standing guard, and after a brief fight I took on the other two. They fell as well, and I moved into the next building, but not until after I took an elven helmet and an elven breastplate to wear. If I got surprised again I wanted to at least have some decent protection. I decided to take a bow and a quiver of arrows as well.
Inside the next building I heard some men talking .. rather, arguing. The topic of their discussion was of a man they had in a prison cell in a lower level, as well as another mysterious older man. The argument ended, and a nord man appeared. He was visibly upset over not getting paid for his cooperation. I held still in the shadows as he walked past and stormed out the door.
Realizing this might be a golden opportunity to gain an ally in my current situation, I slipped back outside to try and talk to the man. But that was a mistake. The moment he saw me he drew a dagger and came after me. All it took was a few strikes from my mace to down him, and I carefully tucked his body out of sight under a nearby tree.
I snuck back inside, and after clearing the first and second floor of the building, I proceeded down some stairs and came to a locked door. Neither the guard or the other man that I had killed had possessed a key, so I decided to perform a more thorough search of the building. While doing this I found a chest with not only a key, but with several notebooks filled with information. I took the key and all of the notes and headed downstairs.
A thalmor was busy interrogating and torturing the prisoner I had overheard the conversation about. Another thalmor sat at a table taking notes. There was plenty of candlelight flickering in the room and I knew I had no chance of sneaking in close to either of the thalmor. So I pulled out the bow I had recently picked up and notched an arrow as quietly as I could, setting my aim on the thalmor taking notes.
The taught string of the bow slipped through my fingers and my arrow found its mark. Both thalmor rushed to confront me and we fought for some time before I subdued both of them with my mace. The prisoner was moaning still, which meant he was alive, so I hurried to the cell to free him.
I had just done this when I heard a familiar voice followed by the voices of more thalmor. Malborn was headed into the prison area with some thalmor guards. I wasn't sure if he was betraying me or if he had been compromised, but I was ready for the guards either way. A blast from my voice stunned them and the prisoner and I .. and thankfully Malborn .. worked together to end their lives.
Malborn and the prisoner were adamant that it was time to leave, and I agreed. But first I grabbed the notes that the thalmor had been taking. And then we were off, through a trap door and into a cave of sorts .. where we encountered a giant frost troll.
Malborn must have lost his mind because he jumped from the ledge and attacked the troll with a dagger in hand. I began firing arrows into the troll as quickly as I could to try and assist Malborn, but it was a lost cause. As the freed prisoner ran past the troll and to a passage ahead, Malborn fell to one of the monster's mighty swipes.
The troll stepped over Malborn's dead body and chased after the prisoner. I kept firing arrows into it's back, certain that I was having minimal effect on the three-eye fiend. Trolls regenerate health rather quickly after all. I had only two arrows left anyways as the troll disappeared into the passage and I feared the worst for the poor tortured soul I had set free.
As it seemed to be the only way out I decided to make a run for the passage as well. With any luck I could maybe shout the troll down and finish it off with my mace. But when I came around the corner the troll was waiting for me, and one swipe of it's massive hand left me weak in the knees. Without my usual protection I wasn't going to survive more than another slash or two from this creature. So I shouted it down, which revealed salvation behind it ... a tunnel out of the cave.
I didn't even hesitate and just sprinted into the tunnel without looking back.
The tunnel eventually opened up and I stepped out onto the snow of Skyrim with a relieved smile spreading across my face. A giant shadow passed overhead and took my smile with it, however. Another dragon! These creatures were becoming a plague on the land. I had overheard a conversation at the party that the mages guild in Winterhold suspected at least a dozen dragons were now ravaging Skyrim. How could the gods allow this?
Luckily for me the dragon only circled back once, and didn't spot me hiding in the bushes. So I headed down a narrow trail away from the cave, lest the troll figure out what had happened and find me again.
As relieved as I was to be back out in the light of day, I still felt naked without my usual gear. And to make matters worse, I had literally no idea where I was at. Nothing looked familiar, just trees and snow and mountains .. which I suppose is familiar in a way, but not specific. I was lost, without a guide, without my armor, and my mace's magic had been drained completely.
The trail led to a road, which was a good sign. If nothing else, a road would likely lead to a town or a city. But this road led me to a skirmish between a snowy sabre cat and some imperial soldiers. I crouched and awaited the outcome of the battle, not interested in helping any of the empire's thugs save their skins.
The cat eventually killed all three, but I knew it was hurting. So I stepped from the bushes and prepared to use my shout of force to throw it over the cliff that lay behind it. The great cat turned to face me, imperial blood still dripping fresh from it's jaws. The sight made me smile just a bit. And then it charged me and I shouted it over the cliff and into oblivion.
After trading my nice shoes for some leather boots from one of the imperial soldiers, I headed down the road .. looking for any sort of landmark I could use as guidance. But instead the road switchbacked down the mountain and finally opened to a beautiful vista that instantly told me I was going the wrong way. Instead of seeing a vast expanse of mountain and forest before me, I saw a sea dotted with islands. If my memory was serving me correctly, I was on the wrong side of the mountain range.
I turned and backtracked up the road, and several hours later I saw the expanse of land I was looking for. Skyrim lay ahead, and not far up the road .. Solitude.