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| Sleeping Giant Inn |
After spending the night in the Sleeping Dragon Inn, the next morning I awoke to a niggling tap, tap, tap. Slowly gaining focus, I raised my head, peering over Lydia's shoulder to see
Delphine standing there in her armor tapping her foot. I remember a time when she never wore her armor. Now I think she sleeps in it.
"Ok, I'll get up", I muttered. Lydia murmured something and turned over oblivious to scheming. Stretching, I arose, slipped on some clothes, and followed her to the Inn's basement strategy room.
"How would you like to attend a party?" she asked. I looked at her with a
please-continue stare.
"I've got a friend over in Solitude who has connections and can get you an invite to a party at the Thalmor Embassy."
"And?" I yawned.
"Once your in, I'm sure you'll find an opportunity to sneak away and rifle through their offices searching for evidence the Thalmor are behind the Skyrim dragon problem."
Always up for a challenge, I said
"Sure why not. Let me take care of my loot and we'll be on our way to Solitude."
That might have been a white lie from a timing standpoint. The party was several days off. In Whiterun, while selling loot, I picked up another Companion, Silver Hand Quest, a return to
Ft. Fellhammer. On the road north west of Whiterun, we we met an interesting
Jester fellow named Cicero on the road with a broken down wagon carrying a giant crate which he referred to as his deceased Mom. I ended up twisting the arm of a local farmer to help him, although I left the scene wondering if I was a sucker? The farmer was worried that the guy was a nut or smuggling weapons. Hmmm.
Although we had all ready cleaned out bandits, Ft. Fellhammer had reinfested with
Silver Hands, and we ran there to take care of an important leader. They must have thought this was a safe house, because there were only 4 of them there. The boss went down easily.
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| Kodlak Whitemane |
Back at Whiterun and the
Companions Guild, I was invited to a sit-down with the oldest member of the Companions,
Kodlak Whitemane who after soul searching, told me that the Companions had been in existence for 4000 years, but the werewolf curse had only been with them for a couple hundred years. He strongly urged me to wipe out the
Glenmoril Witches, whom the Companions had bargained with to receive the gift of lycanthropy. Although I am a werewolf, I've never used the "gift" in combat, and started thinking about the future and maybe getting married. From a spouses persecutive it would be MUCH better if I did not have this hanging over me, although I admit I did not understand how bringing a witch head back to Kodlak would cleanse us.
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| Llianalta's Deep on Lake Llianalta |
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| Half Moon Inn- Lake Llianalta |
Before heading to Solitude and taking on the Thalmor problem, I decided to explore new territory, heading south and sneaking past Riverwood (so Delphine would not notice), then west to
Lake Llinalta, a large pretty lake ringed by rock and pines and inhabited by large aggressive
Slaughter Fish, (which you may remember from Cryodiil), always fun! We strolled west along the north shore until coming across the tops of several towers sunk into the lake,
Llinalta's Deep what was left of a castle. This is where we should find
Azura's Star, a quest I received from a Daedric Priestess.
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| Welcome to Llinalta's Deep! |
Llinalta's Deep was pretty cool. Locating an entrance on top of a tower, we descended into a damp and partially flooded space. I did not understand why it was not completely flooded, but I was feeling uneasy because Lydia and I were both short on water breathing potions and this space could flood quickly. Was some kind of magic at work, keeping the place semi-dry?
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| Remains of Malyn |
We worked our way through tunnels and living quarters, fighting necromancer mages until we finally came to a chamber where I found Azura's Star and the skeleton of
Malyn Varen, the Winterhold mage who had brought the Star here for experimentation outside the realm of College authorities. What had happened to him? And more importantly who should I give the Star to, the
Aranea Lenith, a Daedric Priestess or
Nelacar a Mage from Winterhold who had quit the College and warned me specifically not to give the Star to Aranea? I had some time to think on that.
Escaping Llinalta's Deep, I reviewed my map and decided swimming across was the fastest way to reach the
Glenmoril Witches. I thought I felt the snapping of teeth while swimming and sure enough, after stepping out of the lake dripping, I had a 3' fish hanging on, trying to gnaw though my armor. After shaking the pesky fish off, Lydia noticed a school of Slaughter Fish waiting along the water's edge like hungry piranhas who'd missed a scrumptious meal. I'm always game to collecting potion ingredients. While dangerous in the water, they did not hold up to well against arrows and lightning spells. After collecting scales and eggs, we left the lake shore behind us, hiking over hill and dale while drying off in the welcome sunshine.
Up a hill and around a bend a large hole in the side of a mountain like an evil orifice came into view. The trees looked dead in the immediate vicinity and inside, this cave was a spooky place. I felt a bit like Gimli, following Aragorn into the haunted caverns (
Lord of the Rings reference), but it wasn't so bad. After being greeted by and killing a large spider, we slowly searched a multitude of tunnels to private witch living chambers.
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| The Ugly Side of Hocus Pocus |
Living in isolation, immersed in dark magic, had turned them into something intelligent, but less than human. The quest called for me to bring back a witch's head, but if I was going to do this, might as well wipe out the coven to prevent surprise retaliation at an inopportune time. No big challenges here. We left with a bag of heads and headed back to Whiterun via Riverwood.
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