The Jarl walks over to Farengar, with Irileth and I trailing behind. When we cross the thirty feet from the throne to the scroll Farengar is poring over, he looks to me and stands up. He wore an expression of scorn, as he haughtily speaks.
"So. The Jarl thinks you can be of use to me? Oh yes, he must be referring to my research into the dragons. Yes, I could use someone to fetch something for me."
He rubs his chin, eyeing me before continuing. "Well, when I say fetch, I really mean delve into a dangerous ruin in search of an ancient stone tablet that may or may not actually be there."
Farengar is a middle-aged man who usually wears blue robes with his hood up. I stand to Farengar's left, and look at his face. The Jarl and Irileth return to the dais.
"And in what way is this tablet related to dragons?" I ask, already knowing the answer. The Dragonstone is supposed to be a map of the locations of the places dragons are buried across Skyrim. Using this, we can predict Alduin's next point of resurrection, where he'll revive yet another one of his underlings.
"Ah, no mere brute mercenary, but a thinker - perhaps even a scholar?" His expression changes to a softer tone of consideration. "You see, when the stories of dragons began to circulate, many dismissed them as mere fantasies, rumors. Impossibilities. One sure mark of a fool is to dismiss anything that falls outside his experience as being impossible. But I began to search for information about dragons - where had they gone all those years ago? And where were they coming from?" He says, inquisitively.
"So what do you need me to do?"
"I ah, learned of a certain stone tablet said to be housed in Bleak Falls Barrow - a 'Dragonstone,' said to contain a map of dragon burial sites. Go to Bleak Falls Barrow, find this tablet - no doubt interred in the main chamber - and bring it to me. Simplicity itself."
"Alright." I say. "I'll get going, then."
Farengar nods, and returns to poring over the scroll. As I walk away I hear him mutter under his breath, "How strange... Felt like I've said that before."
I leave Dragonsreach, and head down to a blacksmith's shop by the gates of Whiterun called Warmaiden's. I make my way through the throngs of people and make my way across the city, before finally reaching it: a large store with a forge, a grindstone, a big iron workbench, a tanning rack, and a smelter. I head inside. Quite a few people are wandering around inside looking at goods, before talking to a small Imperial clerk that wasn't in the game.
I walk up to the counter and hear, "Welcome to Warmaiden's. Now, don't let the name worry ya, we got plenty of steel for fightin' men."
A tall, extremely buff man steps up to the counter from a room behind the counter. It's a Nord. He's got black hair, and a thick beard to go with it. He's wearing a full suit of iron armor, bar the helmet and pauldrons.
I walk up to him and place my old armor (a set of Imperial light armor) my old iron sword, two of my iron daggers, my old boots, and the Imperial Light helmet on the counter.
"I'd like to sell these to you." I say.
"Hmmm... Alright." the man says.
He first inspects the armor, the boots and helmet. He checks the armor for all it's pieces, and the amount of damage on all of the gear. The helmet's practically new, and the boots are in a relatively good condition in comparison to everything else. They're still usable for the next few years, to say the least.
"Okay, I'll give you 50 gold for the armor, 10 for the boots, and... 20 for the helmet."
"I'll take it." I say. I'm not going to haggle until I'm able to rake in tens to hundreds of gold higher at least. He takes them off the counter and sets them next to him on the floor.
He then inspects the sword and daggers. He checks it's weight and straightness, and swings it a couple times. He draws the blades across his hand and they all slide across like nothing happened. He sets them back down and says:
"Next time you go to sell a sword, sharpen your blades a little."
"Alright." I say. I mentally take a note of it.
"75 for the sword. 20 each for the daggers."
"Agreed."
"Your total is 195 Septims total."
He brings out a gold bar, and starts counting out gold before I stop him and set five gold coins on the counter.
"Just bring out another gold bar." I say, saving him the trouble.
"Thanks."
"No problem."
He brings out another gold bar, and puts the weapons and armor into two boxes behind him.
"Uhh, Could you teach me how to care for and repair my armor and weapons?" I ask. I'd rather get more money from weapons merchants over time, if I could.
"Sure. But it'll cost you a bar." the man said. While he helps me, a new clerk walks up to the counter to handle the shoppers inside. The man I was talking to shows me how to oil my helmet, boots, armor, and axe so that the steel parts didn't rust. He also refits my cuirass, fixes the aventail of the helm, padded it, and refit the boots, so they actually fit me better. He then shows me the difference in how you sharpen an axe like mine, with a small file versus a sword with a whetstone, and demonstrates the proper care of a bow. He showed me how to unstring and restring the bow in less than a few seconds.
Turns out, if you don't let the arms of the bow rest while it's not being used, it'll eventually just snap. The string could rot, tear, or loosen unexpectedly and ruin the bow as well, or the curves in the wood might get wet, swell, and become useless as it rots. So constant dryness and taking the string off from constantly being taut will help the bow.
However, the bow being too dry was also a problem. If it gets too dry, then it might get brittle, and snap when I draw an arrow. After teaching me all this, he gives me a whetstone, a small ceramic jar of oil for my armor and weapons, and a long strip of cloth to wrap my bow in. The best thing against wind and rain, he said, was a special lacquer. He said that he didn't have the lacquer on hand, otherwise he'd lacquer the bow right then and there, but if I came back in a few days he should probably have it then.
I guess he took a liking to me or something. That, or his prices for maintenance stuff are cheap as shit.
I thank him and ask for his name.
"The name's Ulfberth War-Bear. Thank you for shopping here, come again."
I tell him I will, then leave.
I need to figure out what I should do. My current quest will have me fight various enemies including draugr, tough zombie-like undead, but can increase in strength depending on the level of the player. I don't think I can handle as many as there are inside Bleak Falls Barrow. So, since I don't want to test it out, I should get someone to go with me. There are a number of people I can take with me. There are at least two companions I can immediately think of here in Whiterun.
In the game, you're only allowed one companion that can be taken with you at a time. This rule cannot at all apply here, as this is reality. Or so I hope, anyways.
One I know of that I can get fairly easily is Uthgerd the Unbroken, a Nord woman who effectively lives at the Bannered Mare, the largest inn here in Whiterun. Another is Jenassa, a dark elf mercenary who I'll hire inside the Drunken Huntsman, a well-known tavern.
Since the Bannered Mare is closer, I head there. Upon entering, I immediately encounter a large group of people and push my way through to the counter, where the woman working at the counter finally shouts out in a shrill voice.
"UTHGERD! Show them what I pay you for!"
The lady at the counter leans forward smiling, covering one side of her face like she's telling me a secret, before saying, "I don't actually pay her, but I do waive her drinking fees."
A strongwoman in a full suit of steel plate armor minus the helm, bearing a greatsword, busts through and shoves everyone that was at the door either out, or to the ground.
Uthgerd clearly likes her job as she swings her greatsword off her back, still in it's sheath.
"Get out before I slash you out!" She yells, 'encouraging' the stragglers, still picking themselves off the floor.
Uthgerd returns to her seat, grumbling about wanting a fight, and the woman at the counter speaks to me again.
"What would you like, dear?"
"Her, actually," as I point to Uthgerd. The woman at the counter loudly gasps, smirking, as if I've revealed that I liked her or something. I kill her prospective joy when I continue with: "I need her help completing a quest I've been given by the Jarl."
The woman pouts for a second, laughs, then says, "Well, if you can convince her to go with you, you can take her, but I think she likes it too much here, what with her hopes for fights."
I walk over to Uthgerd, a Nord woman who arguably likes violence too much, and say, "You look strong. Are you strong?" I literally just use the dialogue that old Orcs that want to die use.
She responds with extreme passion in her voice.
"You think *you* can go blade to blade with *me*? Ha, you'd be dead in six seconds." She clearly is looking for a fight. Boy, do I intend on giving her one.
"Wanna bet?" I antagonize her further. My heart starts to pound, adrenaline kicking in. My body knows exactly what I'm doing. My body starts to heat up. The atmosphere changes.
People around us can feel the tension in the room. Everyone's holding their breath, bated on the next moment. Whatever she says next, and however I respond can change the situation drastically.
"HA!" She says. "I could beat anyone in this city bare-handed. A hundred gold says I knock your hide to the ground."
"A hundred gold says it's the other way around." I answer. I didn't want to fight Uthgerd at first, but I do now. In the game, her wanting a fight didn't feel like it meant much, but here... I feel pissed off. Like I just want to lash out in rage. And I feel good, too. Like I'm at the peak of my game. I'm ready to kick ass.
"Just fists. No weapons, no magic... No crying. Let's go." She confirms the brawl. We drop our weapons, and I quickly raise my arms, blocking, and back up. Now, Uthgerd doesn't know it, but I've been taking MMA and boxing classes for the last six years. It was at the same place me and my friends learned HEMA. She's fucked.
Uthgerd stands up, and gets into a wider stance than me. She swings a wild right haymaker. I roll left (not literally, it's boxing terminology), and make a clean right hook into her stomach. I'm faster than I used to be, and a hell of a lot stronger, but her armor is superior to mine by a good bit, so while my punch did some damage, it's clearly not enough. She tries to elbow me while I'm in front of her, but by the time she takes her shot, I'm already to her right, punching a left hook directly into her back. She stumbles forward, off-balance, and I sprint to her side, lift her up a bit by the collar of her steel plate armor, before slamming her onto my raised knee, causing a shit ton of damage. Spit flies out of her mouth. I drop her to the ground.
She's clearly more than out of breath, while my new body is ready to kill. Uthgerd gets to her feet, weakened. She turns around, before coughing. I don't think she was ready for a fighter of my caliber to take her on. That's not even arrogance talking, that's just facts.
All around us, everyone is yelling "Fight, Fight!" and "You can take him!", and more. Uthgerd looks at me, her hair a bit more than messed up. She takes a deep breath and smiles. I think I just made her day. She raises her fists, and throws a right hook similar to mine. 'Damn, she learns fast!' I roll to the right under it, close in, and throw an uppercut with my right. Her head goes back, and soon follows the rest of her body, as she falls backwards. I drop low, and catch her before I set her on the ground gently. She rolls to the side, retching and coughing. Tears fall down the side of her face. I think I might have hurt her pride.
I'm not surprised. If everyone here fights like Uthgerd just fought, I wouldn't need to get anyone else to help me to defeat the draugr. I'd be able to dance around them without having to do anything. I let Uthgerd sit up, and get back to her feet, get ready to try and punch me, and just let it happen. She doesn't even finish the swing before falling over, too exhausted and injured to continue. Her armor doesn't do much when it's physical force and blunt trauma that's hitting her. Armor like steel plate works best against bladed weapons like swords and daggers, mediocre against blunt force, and terrible against piercing weapons. The speed and strength of my punches meant that my hits were doing a lot of damage to her, while doing much less to me. However, by using such a fleshy object, (my fist), as a weapon, damage to me as well was inevitable.
Speaking of, ow, fuck! Shit! Goddamn it! My hands feel like when you accidentally slam a door with your hand in between it and the frame with your knuckles, but way worse, like I used a hammer to add some fun to the mix. My knuckles feel like they're broken. My armor activates and slowly heals my hands, and I let out a quiet gasp of relief while turning away from Uthgerd. My hands are gonna be throbbing for the rest of the day at least.
I gingerly re-equip my weapons, my hand stinging the entire time, and set my backpack down next to Uthgerd's empty chair. I help her to her seat. Uthgerd takes a few seconds to breathe and rest before gasping out, "Now that's what I call a punch. You got me."
I didn't notice it immediately but when I won the fight, everybody got really quiet. After all, nobody here's seen Uthgerd lose to anyone in a brawl, and with a fighting style like mine, literally hundreds of years more advanced than theirs, my movements must've looked insane to them.
"All I did was earn my money." I respond.
"You're no liar. Best fight I've had in years. There you are." She says as she hands me a gold bar. I drop it to lie with the rest of my gold in my bag.
"You ever need another blade at your side, just ask. Wouldn't mind seeing how you handle a few trolls." She smirks a little, then her face returns to her resting face.
She's still breathing heavily. Her eyes fall a little, and tears form as she frowns. I crouch in front of her chair.
"Hey, you alright? 'Cause I actually do need another blade at my side. That's literally the entire reason I fought you."
"I'm fine. Not your business, anyhow. Normally, I don't fight like that though... That's the thing. It felt like the way I fought was... forced at first, and some of the things I said before our fight... It felt like I *had* to say them and that that was just another time saying it out of a thousand. But that's the thing. I don't remember *ever* saying it."
Why would she tell me it's not my business, then tell me anyways? Weird. But her experience pretty much details the experiences of everyone I've met. I stand back up.
"Alright. I believe you. The feeling goes away, so I hear. It seems it's been happening to a lot of people lately." I swing my backpack on. I think it might be, at best, a lingering effect from the game. But at worst... Something might be wrong with the people. Could it be the Benefactor, trying to maintain the facade that this is a game?
"Oh. Hmmm. The name's Uthgerd. You said you needed my help. So, where're we going?" Her mood brightens up a little.
"Nice to meet you. My name's Drake. And my first objective is to eat. Haven't had lunch, yet. Then, we head to Belethor's. We need to prepare you for an adventure. Do you have a backpack of your own?" I say, thinking that she's not yet prepared to go and climb a mountain. I grab a loaf of bread from my pack and split it between us. I also give her an apple.
"Unfortunately, I sold mine a long time ago. I haven't adventured in at least couple years. Mostly been doing odd jobs and the like since." Uthgerd answers out after taking a few bites of her bread. She's looking much better now. She stands up. In this body I stand taller than her by about four inches. The top of her head reaches the bottom of my nose.
I now get a chance to get a good look at her. Uthgerd has blonde hair, blue eyes, and a stiff, yet strong frame. Even through her armor, it was obvious she was toned. Through the gaps in it, I could see her muscles stretching her tunic taut.
We then exit to the city streets and turn left. We head to the well, in the marketplace. Then we enter the General goods store. When we walk inside, I start creating a mental list of things we need to get.
"Everything's for sale, here!" Belethor says, proudly. He stretches out his arms, and says, "What would you like?"
"You might want to grab a sheet of paper for this. I need rope, a backpack, a tent, two lanterns, two waterskins, torches, a pan, two metal bowls, and two winter cloaks."
Belethor, a Breton with a fervor for gold worthy of the likes of demons, immediately gets to work. He reaches under his counter, pulls out a sheet of paper and starts writing things as I list them off.
As soon as I finish speaking, Belethor calls out for a man named Sigurd to assist with gathering things. A man appears from a room off to the left and listens to Belethor as he tells him to grab the small stuff, then leaves. Belethor, meanwhile, quickly walks to the back and comes back, carrying a rolled up tent over his shoulder, a large coil of rope on his other shoulder, and a small frying pan deep enough to cook liquids in as well. Sigurd comes back carrying two lanterns, sets them on the counter, and helps Belethor set the rope and tent down. After he finishes, Sigurd runs back to the room on the side, and Belethor returns to the back. Belethor comes back this time with cloaks, bowls, and waterskins. Sigurd comes back with a stack of six torches, and two waterskins. Both of them set the things they were carrying on the counter.
Belethor dismisses Sigurd, and Sigurd walks outside. Belethor reaches under the counter and pulls out a backpack. He coolly sets it on the counter, and says, "That'll be 232 Septims."
I pull out 2 gold bars and my sack of gold. I count out 32 gold coins and place them on the counter. I put a cloak in my backpack, and give Uthgerd the other. I pass her a lantern, a waterskin, three torches, a bowl, and a cloak.
I take the tent, the rope, and the torches and strap them to the outside of my bag. The tent I slide next to my bedroll, and I hook the rope onto one of the extra straps. I slide the pan directly inside the bag, next to the food I still had left. The torches I set on the left side of the backpack, so that they're in easy reach inside the Barrow.
When both of us are finished, I take Uthgerd down to Warmaiden's. When we get there, we go inside to see Ulfberth kissing a tanned Imperial woman, who happens to be covered in ash and soot. She's wearing the clothes of a blacksmith, a ruddy tunic with a dark brown leather apron, with a steel mace on her belt. A variety of tools hang inside her apron's pockets.
Uthgerd and I were not prepared to see them like this, and they haven't noticed us yet. Uthgerd clears her throat loudly, and Ulfberth and the woman quickly break apart.
I hear Ulfberth spit out a "Shit." as he turns to face us, definitely not at us, but at the situation in general. The woman walks past us, smelling of smoke and the forge, and we step to the counter. Ulfberth takes a defensive posture as she's leaving.
"I assure you, that was my wife, Adrianne."
Uthgerd and I both cut in, with "I believe you," from me, and "I'm sure," from Uthgerd. I try to smile amiably. I know it really was his wife, but who says I can't mess with him?
"Hmmmm.... Weren't you here this morn'n? Ehh, doesn't matter. How can I help you?" Ulfberth asks.
"Uthgerd here needs a new weapon preferably one-handed, and I'll need a new shield and a couple daggers." I say, as I gesture to her.
"Wait, what?" Uthgerd interrupted, grabbing my shoulder. "Why am I getting new arms?"
"I just want to check something out." I look at her. She doesn't know it, but she's better with one-handed weapons than she is with two-handed ones.
"Alright, but this better not be a waste of time." Uthgerd grumbles.
Ulfberth continues on, trying to break the awkward atmosphere. "Riiiight. I've a few swords, maces, axes 'round the shop. Look around, get a feel for whatever you'd like."
I didn't really look around last time I was here, but it appears that the stores here are designed in some relative capacity to the games', but they aren't especially similar. Like the sizing of the store, for example. This one was several times larger than the games', with a lot more weapons and armor, to boot.
Unlike the games', there's a series of weapon racks along the wall on the right hand side that contain a variety of weapons that span from crossbows to polearms, and from daggers to shurikens. Flails, morningstars, and more, line a length of shelves above the weapon racks. Bows, swords, axes, and various styles of shields are above the shelves on display boards for decoration. There's a large decorated fireplace on the left side of the room, with a cheerfully blazing pile of logs inside. Armors and shields were on the sides of the fireplace, on tables standing about waist height, roughly three to four feet tall.
I watch as Uthgerd picks a sword from one of the racks, and swings it around. It's a steel sword designed in the same style as the Imperial's during the Oblivion Crisis. It's very simple broadsword design atop a barely existent cross guard shows it's use in the Legion. The Legions' gauntlets had phenomenal knuckle protection, which, combined with their strategies and training, emphasized the swords' use for stabbing through their turtle formations, and only very rarely crossing blades.
As Uthgerd chooses a new sword, Ulfberth brings me a series of daggers and a variety of shields for me to pick from. The daggers range from tantos to wakizashi, to different styles of stilettos and shivs. The shields range in variety just as much, with round shields, crescent shields, heater shields, bucklers, tower shields, kite shields, and more. All were made of iron or steel.
I thoroughly look through all of the daggers he's brought me, before asking if he has any made of quicksilver, like a modern Nordic dagger. He brings out a tray of different daggers, all in different styles. I pick out five designed for throwing, and a couple Nordic-styled daggers.
I pay 75 gold for the daggers, and wait for her to come back to pick them up.
Uthgerd comes back to the counter holding a sword made of malachite: a straight blade set atop an intricate crossguard that flowed nicely into a curve, with a malachite pommel as well. The hilt and the majority of the crossguard is made of an alloy of bronze and zinc. Malachite is a forest-green to sea-green colored volcanic glass, with uncommon colors being closer to blue ice, as seen in the sword Chillrend.
Speaking of, I should retrieve that weapon soon. Riften will be my 3rd priority after ending the Civil War, anyways. I need to make contact with the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieve's Guild and seize control of them. Once I can hold power over the dark market and the criminal underworld, I can take effective control of Skyrim much more quickly, and guide it to a better path than the one it fell to in the game.
Uthgerd sets her new sword on the counter, and starts looking at the shields with me. I decide to sell my iron shield, and buy a custom buckler, one that can be attachd to my vambrace, so that it can use both hands while still carrying a shield. Since mine is a custom shield, it won't be ready for a bit, as Adrianne will have to take some time to draw up a simple design and make it accordingly. It'll take a few hours at the least, as she'll be removing the handle for the buckler, and replacing it with two leather straps and a couple hooks at the sides, so that I could strap it over my vambrace and it be stable. In the meantime, Uthgerd decides to take a heater shield, designed in the same style as an Imperial shield. When he comes back with it, I pay at the counter.
"Right. Your iron shield is in a fairly good condition, so I'll trade it in, and lower the price of the new one. That heater would normally cost 'bout 200 septims, but it'll cost only 40. Your custom work, however, is full cost at 100. It should be ready, b'fore the end o' the day. Thank you, and come again."
I pull a bar of gold and a sack containing 40 septims out and hand them over.
"Where to now, Drake?" Uthgerd says to me, as we leave Warmaiden's.
"We'll get one more person, then we leave. We're heading to the Drunken Huntsman." I answer. We still have yet to get Jenassa. I try thinking of any more mercenaries or hirelings I know of that might be in Whiterun, besides these two, but I draw a blank on any others. I suppose I could just ask Uthgerd if she knows any mercenaries, but I'd rather just get Bleak Falls Barrow out of the way. Besides, hopefully Hadvar is still in Riverwood.
We make our way through the city to the Drunken Huntsman.
-------------------
Funds: 390 septims
Weapons:
💠 - Fine Steel War Axe
💠 - Nordic Daggers
💠 - Quicksilver Throwing Knives (x5)
- Hunting Bow, Unstring/Wrapped (x25 arrows)
Apparel:
💠 - Refurbished Steel Helm (15% more armor)
💠 - Steel Armor (HP Regen. Injury Heal Rate 25%↑, Light Wound Heal 50%↑)
💠 - Spiked Iron Gauntlets (+15 extra H2H damage)
💠 - Refitted Steel Boots (15% more armor)
- Winter Cloak (20% Cold Resistance)
Food:
- Basket of Fruits and Vegetables; (onions x3, apples x5, leeks x3, potatoes x5, head of cabbage, carrots x4, loaves of bread x1)
Ingredients:
- Giant's Toes (x10)
Books:
- Stack of Stormcloak notes and letters to family (x15)
- Letter to Thrynn & Torturer's Ring
- Spell Tome: Sparks
Supplies:
- Backpack
- Bedroll
- 50 feet of hemp rope
- Cooking pan
- Waterskins
- Metal Bowl
- Torches x3
- Tent
Miscellaneous:
- Lockpicks