---Heartfire,
27th, 4E 201---
On
the morning of the twenty-fifth of Hearthfire, forty-eight hours ago
now, I handed over all essential gear to the Bosmer, Melbourne, and
then met with Delphine at the Solitude stables outside of the farm
down the hill from the city. She provided me with clothes and an
invitation for the party, and took the rest of my gear with her back
to the Sleeping Giant in Riverwood. I boarded a cart, and in less
than two hours I was outside the Thalmor embassy. There were several
Jarls there, most of them basking in Thalmor "hospitality",
except my friend from Morthal, Idgrod Ravencrone, who used her "mad
old woman" act to cause a diversion during which Melbourne and I
were able to slip into the Embassy proper.
The
infiltration went as well as could be expected. I was made within
minutes, but I made short work of the Thalmor who spotted me and
moved on. Unable to find any documents in the main Embassy building,
I decided to make my way across the courtyard to the interior
building where the quarters are housed. Betti, Luci and I battled
several Thalmor Wizards outside, and defeated three Thalmor agents
inside, the second building. It was a hard fight. Each Wizard could
also conjure a creature. Eventually, however, I was able to move
freely through the second building. I discovered two Dossiers which
were quite interesting.
One
was on Delphine. It turns out that she was one of the top Blades
agents in Thalmor-controlled regions before the War, and has avoided
assassination more than once, killing an entire squad on one
occasion. I should remind myself to never get on her bad side. The
second dossier was on Ulfric. It calls him a dormant, uncooperative
Thalmor asset and goes into detail regarding the Thalmor's hopes that
they can soon reestablish direct contact with him, and how they wish
for the civil war to continue. The dossier called the Great War the
First War with the Empire, confirming my belief that the Thalmor plan
to resume hostilities. It also mentioned that the Thalmor presense at
Helgen on the night of the dragon attack was to prevent Ulfric's
execution, not to witness it. At first I thought that this would lead
to confirmation of the Thalmor involvement with the return of the
dragons, but it went on to say that the appearence of the dragon was
a coincidence.
From
there I began to search for a way out of the Embassy. My search led
me to a torture chamber below the living quarters. There I found
another dossier on a man named Esbern, another escaped Blades agent
who was well known as an expert on dragon lore. It would seem that
the Thalmor suspect that the Blades are behind the dragon. Ironic.
From a prisoner freed from one of the cells, I learned that the
Thalmor believe Esbern to be in Riften. Having learned all that I
could the prisoner, Melbourne (now actively on the run from the
Thalmor as well) and I dropped through a trap door in the torture
room into a reeking cave that led onto a road north of the Embassy
itself.
From
there the three of us went our separate ways. I met up with Mjoll,
Odvar, Barbas and Meeko, who had heard my struggle in the courtyard
and stormed the Embassy. Thankfully they all survived with only minor
wounds. Quickly we ran down the road to Dragonbridge.
Yesterday
the five of us took a carriage to Riverwood. We arrived very early
this morning and found Delphine waiting up for us. I told her
everything that I'd learned, and she was shocked to learn that Esbern
still lives. She asked me to meet with a man named Brynjolf in
Riften, a member of the Thieves Guild, who can direct me to where
Esbern might be hiding in the Ratway beneath the city. She gave me a
phrase to speak to Esbern to earn his trust. I am to bring him back
to Riverwood so that he and Delphine can pool their knowledge and
figure out where to go from here.
I'm
intrigued by this old Blade, who Delphine calls a crazy old man, and
despite the fact that seeking him out takes me back to Riften, before
I have completed my latest task for Mara, I look forward to finding
him. Mjoll agrees. She finds the intrigue of the Blades appealing.
Odvar and Barbas, predictably, don't seem to care much one way or
another.
I
have also finally replied to a letter I recieved via courier nearly a
week ago now regarding a Dunmer fugitive on the run in Skyrim. I met
with a representative of what remains of the old Dark Elf clan of
House Hlaalu. He's asked me to visit Little Vivec a little ways west
of here and see if I can turn up any leads. Perhaps on my way to
Riften I will circle around to the small Dunmer settlement and see
what I can find.
---Heartfire,
28th, 4E 201---
Yesterday
the five of us took a carriage to Riverwood. We arrived early this
morning and found Delphine waiting up for us. I told her everything
that I'd learned, and she was shocked to learn that Esbern still
lives. She asked me to meet with a man named Brynjolf in Riften, a
member of the Thieves Guild, who can direct me to where Esbern might
be hiding in the Ratway. She gave me a phrase to speak to Esbern to
earn his trust. I am to bring him back to Riverwood so that he and
Delphine can pool their knowledge and figure out where to go from
here.
I'm intrigued by this old Blade, who Delphine calls a crazy old
man, and despite the fact that seeking him out takes me back to
Riften, before I have completed my latest task for Mara, I look
forward to finding him. Mjoll agrees. She finds the intrigue of the
Blades apealing. Odvar and Barbas, predictably, don't seem to care
much one way or another.
I have also finally replied to a letter I recieved via courier
nearly a week ago now regarding a Dunmer fugitive on the run in
Skyrim. I met with a representative of what remains of the old House
Hlaalu. He's asked me to visit Little Vivec a little ways west of
here and see if I can turn up any leads. Perhaps on my way to Riften
I will circle around to the small Dunmer settlement and see what I
can find.
---Heartfire,
29th, 4E 201---
This
morning I made my way out of Riverwood, deciding to head to Little
Vivec and investigate the claims of a dangerous fugitive in Skyrin. I
spoke first to Selyse, the owner of the only shop in the small Dunmer
town on the water. She refused to give me information, choosing to
respect the privacy of her customers (an honorable, if frustrating,
attribute), but she did indicate that a powerful man had come through
recently. She directed me to the unofficial leader of the comunity,
the hunter Bel-Ran.
Bel-Ran also revealed nothing, but he
did ask me to look into a Bandit tribe holed up nearby at Moss Creek
Camp which had been giving the town trouble. I agreed to defeat these
Bandits in the hopes that Bel-Ran would, upon my return, be more
forthcoming. After trekking across Falkreath Hold to the camp,
however, I found my job already done. After ducking out of site of a
disembarking dragon, my party and I made our way into the camp and
found all of the Bandits dead. I expected that they had been killed
by the dragon, as their deaths had seemingly come swiftly, and their
treasure had been left behind, but only three of them seemed to have
succumbed to dragon attack, while the rest had clearly been struck
down by weapons.
