Thanks Acadian, one thing I really like about OB is how much control over leveling e.t.c. one has. Even with all the time spent so far Gilith is barely over 1/4 in level 1-not quit a third yet.

This post should catch Gilith up to where she is in the game (as usual got to having so much fun, just made outlines instead of keeping up).

The meeting

Gilith and Tasqmii turned north off the main road in Faregyl and made their way up the slope towards Hjsyer’s and Shjomii’s farm. Gilith had come to appreciate Tasqmii’s straight forwardness during her time with her while resting up at Tasqmii’s home and traveling here to Faregyl. Rjavyn had lots of good comments regarding her partners, so Gilith was curious to meet Shjomii.

Coming out from between a couple of boulders taller than most horses the view of the farm opened up before them. A hail towards the house from Tasqmii had Gilith look up and follow her gaze to spot a Khajiit female walking from the barn towards the house. Hearing the hail, and this must be Shjomii thought Gilith, the Khajiit turned to see Tasqmii and Gilith walking up the hill towards her, and then broke into a big smile coming down to meet them. After exchanging hugs with Tasqmii, Shjomii looked over at Gilith, “You wouldn’t happen to be Gilith would you?” “You fit Rjavyn’s description…we’ve heard a few stories about some of your and Rjavyn’s Skyrim adventures.”

Gilith smiled and said with a light laugh, “yes…and don’t believe everything told about me around the campfire…flames and shadow tend to lend itself to a bit of embellishing,” Shjomii smiled back liking this High elf at first meeting, “ahh…but the stories have to come from something, now don’t they.”

Shjomii had a big grin; showing a bit of fang that might put doubts in the heads of the uninitiated, but Gilith had much experience with Khajiits and took the smile as was intended. Shjomii’s grin widened after telling them to follow her and that she had something to show them.

Shjomii led Gilith and Tasqmii up the hill between the house and the barn, Tasqmii was walking besides Shjomii with Gilith a couple of steps behind by the time they were alongside the house. Gilith almost ran into Tasqmii’s back as they turned the corner when whatever Tasqmii spotted in the yard behind the house brought her to a stop with a gasp.

Rjavyn pulled the remaining arrows from the fence post she’d been shooting at and turned to find what the voices coming from around the house were about when she spotted Shjomii and Tasqmii turning the corner. Rjavyn smiled and in her husky Nord voice said, “I wondered when you’d show up.” Then took three large strides intending to give Tasqmii a big hug then stopped, staring at who came next around the corner, “Gilith!”…”And more calmly, “I see you got my letter,” giving Tasqmii a one arm hug still looking at Gilith. Rjavyn knew Gilith was not the hugging type, though there were a few times in Skyrim while trapped in a storm the two had cuddled up for warmth, Gilith always looked uncomfortable once they untangled and got ready to proceed once a storm ended, and Rjavyn was careful to act like they’d each slept in their own bedrolls instead of entwined in one.

Gilith closed her mouth which had fallen slightly open from shock at seeing Rjavyn, “well… I heard you had come up missing quite a while ago, what almost three months?” “What happened, and where have you been?” Then realizing how harsh she sounded Gilith smiled, “You were missed, Tasqmii and I were forming up a rescue party to look for you.”

Rjavyn was touched, Gilith was known for not showing a lot of emotion, the fact that she was willing to expose herself to danger just to find Rjavyn spoke volumes about how much she really cared.
“It’s a long story, let’s go inside, a Nord gets thirsty when telling tales.” Gilith chuckled softly and said, “Yes I heard you’ve been telling tales,” and smiled impishly when Rjavyn turn to her with a quizzical look. As they passed the barn Tasqmii noticed Windrider, saddled in the barn ready to travel, he was a beautiful roan stallion that had become more of a companion to the group than just a horse, and except for Gilith, had helped them all in some endeavor or other. Tasqmii drew the group over to say hello to Windrider and rub his nose while introducing him and Gilith. Tasqmii looked to Rjavyn and Shjomii,” going on a trip?”

Rjavyn exchanged a brief look with Tasqmii, and then turned towards Shjomii quietly waiting. Shjomii looked at the two then turned to Gilith, “yes…as much as I would enjoy a good drink, and good companions, I’m afraid I have to leave at dusk. There’s something I have to take care of, I might be gone for a while.” Gilith noticed Tasqmii dropped the subject and started telling about a small adventure she and Windrider shared north of Chorrol, while she led them towards the house. Gilith took the hint and said nothing. Tasqmii asked Shjomii as they walked towards the front of the house, “where is Hjylsyer?”
Shjomii looked north toward the trees at the edge of the farm, “A member of the guild came here and asked for his help acquiring something in Skingrad. “ Tasqmii snorted,”acquire?” “Tasqmii!” Rajvyn scolded. Tasqmii looked contrite, “sorry.” Shjomii acted like nothing had happened, so again Gilith kept quiet.

During dinner that consisted of roasted beef, braised buttered leeks, baked yams, and a variety of cheeses, wines, and fruit, Rjavyn began the story of what happened when she was separated from her partners. Shjomii cleared her throat and stood up, “as much as I would like to hear all the details, I have heard the short version, I’m afraid I must be on my way…no…stay seated…I’m sure I can find my own way to the barn.” Shjomii smiled, grabbed her kit by the door, and left.

Gilith looked back at Rjavyn and Tasqmii after watching Shjomii leave and found them looking at her expectantly. Gilith said nothing. The two women looked at each other then back at Gilith. Rjavyn spoke first. “Hjylsyer and Shjomii are members of the thieves’ guild, among other things.” Gilith figured since the subject was brought up, it must be ok to ask questions. “Among other things?” Gilith asked. Tasqmii cleared her throat then, “Hjylsyer is an initiate of the Dark Brotherhood, and Shjomii is a senior member, been at it most of her life.” Gilith was speechless for a couple of seconds, looking at the other two she realized they were waiting to see how she would react. Gilith forked a piece of beef into her mouth chewed and swallowed it with a sip of wine, looked at Rjavyn and Tasqmii and said, “Shjomii must be very good at what she does,” then proceeded to nibble on a piece of cheese.

The atmosphere in the room lightened as if the clouds on an overcast day suddenly parted and the sun shined through. Rjavyn looked at Tasqmii and quietly said, “I told you,” then louder, “ok, where was I, oh yes, it was very dark and out of the shadows a group of conjurers started…”

Rjavyn told how a conjurer had hit her with a spell that knock her backwards, and in the dark Rjavyn couldn’t see that the passage way ended abruptly, until she found herself falling in the darkness.
“It was such a long fall that I had time to think about the fact I would be dead when I hit the bottom so was surprised when I found myself deep under water, it was very cold.” Rjavyn gave a little shiver with that remembrance. She went on to tell how she had yelled for help only to realize the fight had drawn everyone out of hearing. “My torches were wet, and I don’t know any light spells like some people,” grinning at Gilith. Gilith smiled, “I’ve tried to teach you…” Rjavyn waved her hand lightly; I know…I just never figured it would help me in a fight so…”

Back to the story Rjavyn explained how she used her fireball spell for light but they seem to go on a long ways before falling into the water, so she picked a direction and started swimming; which helped keep her warm in that cold water. “Of course my biggest regret was losing my sword, bow, and having to dump my armor- I really loved that armor.” The two listeners smiled at that. “All I had left was two arrows still in the quiver, so I carried them in my mouth, a pitiful excuse for a weapon I know but it was all I had.” Gilith exchanged looks with Tasqmii, the thought they wouldn’t want to meet an enraged Nord even with only a couple of arrows for weapons had crossed both of their minds.

According to Rjavyn it seemed like the water and dark would go on forever and just when the cold was beginning to numb her naked body, one of her fire balls hit a wall next to an arch in the distance. Her memory of the last hours of her swim to the arch was a little fuzzy, and barely remembers climbing shivering out of the water up stone steps to a landing where she kept a section of the stone wall warm with her fire spell until thawed enough to fall asleep comfortably. Tasqmii thought, only a Nord, with a slight shake of her head.

Rjvyn took another sip from her mead and went on, “I wandered for what seemed like days in those ruins…naked…until finding a small group of conjurer’s camp.” Rjavyn told how she had to sneak up on a couple until she found a dagger on one of them, then how she killed the rest. Gilith nodded in admiration, wiping out a whole camp by oneself with only a dagger was no small feat.

The rest of Rjavyn’s tale spoke of wandering for days, always going up, until finally finding a door that led to the outside right above Haven. Also how she did odd jobs in Haven and South Point until having gathered enough equipment and gold to journey here. “And here I am, with my friends…and I want to go back.”

Gilith and Tasqmii gave little gasps, and Tasqmii said, “What…why?” Gilith started to argue with Rjavyn, but Rjavyn raised her hand for quiet and looked Gilith in the eye; “miles and miles of Ayleid ruins Gilith, what do you think we could find in there?” And then had to chuckle seeing the interested look on Gilith’s face.

Rjavyn stood up, “first it’s late and time for bed…second Shjomii asked if I’d help out with a little problem in the local mine, Hjylsyer was going to take care of it, but he was called off, then Shjomii, which leaves me or us if you’re interested.” Tasqmii stood up from her chair; “Oh no you don’t… you’re not getting lost again without our help!” Gilith chuckled, “I think what our excited Tasqmii is trying to say is that we’re coming along.” Rjavyn smiled and tried to look mildly surprised, she knew damn well they’d come but her Nord pride wouldn’t let her admit she really needed company after her ordeal in the underground ruins. “Well then, that’s settled, I’m going to bed.”

The next morning found Gilith, Rjavyn, and Tasqmii heading to Faregyl, to question the locals about what was going on in the mine.


Note: After copying Rjavyn's face to a CMpartner (the learning how to copy from a PC to an NPC was an adventure in itself for this noobe) I noticed that my character mod was making some changes...so I moved my cm mod after the character mod, and as you will see in future scrnies, Rjavyn looks like Rjavyn should(gives noobe self pat on back)

What level is Gilith? .. I just read the part about the giant. That's gotta be mod-related eh? .. Assuming Gilith is low in level. Oh never mind. Still Level 1, I see. Wow, your games must level upwards as slow as mine!

Where is the house? You mention a beach.

renee; yes it's from Maskers OB Overhaul, and yes my characters level real slow, which is nice. Gilith finally made it to level 2 on the way into Elsweyr, after the Faregyl mine incident.

The house is the one from the mod I made for Shara (Tasqmii's friend who has come up missing). In the vanilla game there is only a steep slope there to the lake below Aleswell and the mage's ruin (the one who turned everyone invisible).
==========================================
The Adjustments

It was a thought to cause pause to all three ladies as they stood at the entrance to the Mine at the edge of Faregyl; Rjavyn and Gilith had worked together, as had Rjavyn and Tasqmii, and on the trip from Tasqmii’s house to Faregyl, Gilith and Tasqmii had spent a little time fighting together- but not inside.

Now it was important to have an order of march that would use the various talents effectively and not hurt each other. Both Rjavyn and Tasqmii gave their support to the Idea that Gilith should be in the lead because her spells tended to encompass all in front. Gilith agreed about the spell casting but had reservations about going first, and voiced her opinion that she was not as good a fighter as her two companions.

The three came up with a plan, though they all agreed plans work great until they fell apart, which was pretty much right after the fight started. But at least they could start out with good intentions.

This is what they came up with; Gilith would lead the way, and the party could take advantage of her magical light spell, and if an enemy were encountered Gilith was to cast what spell thought appropriate and then jump to the side. Then Tasqmii would toss some of her deadly arrows until Rjavyn did her usual Nord charge into the fray at which time Tasqmii would change to her blade and jump in. Gilith was to hang back to handle any (and all) magical attacks and support while avoiding casting spells on her comrades. Rjavyn looked at Tasqmii,”remember…when I charge, down goes your bow, I still have a couple of arrow scars on my butt, and I don’t want anymore,” patting her posterior in emphasizes.
Tasqmii blushed, “ah…yeah…sorry, of course.” They both looked at Gilith, and she said, “Ok…so I’ll throw what’s necessary (she meant spells of course) and jump to the side, Tasqmii will shoot some arrows until Rjvyn engages and will then assist with her blade…umm…I have a sword too…”

Rjvyn and Tasqmii exchange glances both had thoughts about Gilith’s wicked magic sword, and who it was being wielded by, and not wanting to hurt Gilith’s feelings, it was Rjavyn who spoke up, “Yes…and a very powerful sword it is…I…we…were thinking that, it and you, would do us the honor of covering our backs, it is very important no-one gets behind us, or surprises us…” Gilith realized how Rjavyn was trying not to point out that Gilith, being not a combatant of great experience, would be of best use on the edge of battle where her unprofessional sword work was less likely to wound her companions. Gilith knew her limitations and it meant a lot that her two companions worried about her feelings. “Any one or thing tries to sneak in on either of you will have to get by me first,” Gilith said in a prideful way (at least that's what she tried to sound like, and by the relaxing look on their faces it seemed to come across that way).

In they went; everything went great until three zombies came from two directions, then Tasqmii shot Gilith and Rjavyn in the butt, Gilith lit up Rjaven with a fireball and Rjaven knocked poor Tasqmii flying on a backswing of her sword. If zombies would or could understand anything spoken they would have been confused with all the, “Sorry!”s and “woops…didn’t see you…Sorry!” being shouted about the tunnels.

After that first battle and while Gilith was lending her magic to patch everybody up, and while Rjavyn was rubbing her sore behind giving Tasqmii a not very pleasant look, Gilith started to chuckle and said, “well I think the plan worked very well.” At that the other two looked at her quickly, and then broke into laughter at the sight of her smile.

“Yes…well if some people wouldn’t get so excited and watched where they were shooting…” said Rjavyn smiling to take some of the sting out of her words. Tasqmii smiled back, “yes and if some people wouldn’t charge in without warning…” So it was agreed that Rjavyn would give a battle cry before charging so Tasqmii could stop or move the aim of her next arrow, and Gilith would try to do the same with her spells. The battle cry idea ended up having some positive side effects on certain enemies, some actually fled at the sound and sight of a charging, screaming Nord bearing down on them waving a great sword.

By the time Gilith, Tasqmii, and Rjavyn finished with the mine in Faregyl they had a fair battle dance going greatly reducing arrows in the butt, burnt hair, and nicks from friendly swords.
Feeling tired but happy with the way things turned out with the mine the three celebrated with a good meal, drinks, and then a good night’s sleep.

The morning sun peaked over the hills trying to burn off the heavy fog that had moved in the evening before. Three figures could dimly be seen moving up the road through the fog towards Elsweyr.

The fog, finally burned away by the heat of the sun, revealed two figures standing on the side of the road watching a third giving little sounds of joy going from plant to plant gathering bits and pieces. Tasqmii leaned over to Rjavyn standing next to her and quietly said, “she does this all the time.” Rjavyn with a little exasperation in her voice, “yes…I know…” while listening to another tiny exclamation coming from Gilith as she ran to another new plant.

The three finally passed into the deserts of Elsweyr, where to the relief of Rjavyn and Tasqmii, there wasn’t as many things for Gilith to pick, so their travels moved along a little faster.

Glad that Gilith found her mising Nordic pal. I chuckled over the learning curve and growing pains of the little gang all fighting together inside that mine.

I like the part when the zombies can't understand what the ladies are saying. Sorry! Oopps! That's good stuff! I also like slow-leveling games too. I'm in no hurry.

So my daughter dragged me to Centennial park today to meet some of her friends. Centennial Park is a HUGE deal in central Maryland, and the weather was perfect, which means the place was packed. So I'm pretty bushed right now, and this means no Kahreem tonight. So here's a tale from somebody else instead.

Recap and known backstory: Renee Gade the third is a recent Imperial immigrant from Skyrim. She was raised in Riften as an orphan, and moved to Cyrodiil recently. She somehow learned that her mother and grandmother were both famous warriors who lived in the 3rd Era, and since she knows her mother lived solely in Cyrodiil, she and a friend (Gabrielle) both moved south.

Renee took a Sewer Patrol job, but making just a few gold for hours of dirty, smelly work is not her thing. She knows her mother fought in the Arena long ago, and decided she'd try following in her footsteps.

Turdas, 11:21 am, Heartfire 6, 4th Era 20

As she makes her way to the top of the Red Room, Reene Gade III finds a door, and hears the sound of stormy weather outside.

"Great."

She grew up in Skyrim, and was therefore well-trained to fight in rainy weather. But it had been sunny just an hour ago. She'd been picturing an easier fight in full sunshine, her feet making better contact with the ground. She then changes the subject in her mind. She tries to imagine what her mother must have been like at this moment, so long ago, standing before the final door that leads to the Arena itself. Had she been terrified? ... Over-excited? Renee finds that she is surprised; she doesn't feel much just yet. Only curiosity. What would her opponent be wielding? .. Would he or she be any good with his/her weapon?

Renee's distracted thoughts quickly change once she's passed through the final door, and can hear the sounds of the crowd up above. Suddenly, her pusle rises. Her belief in the Nine kicks in. And then there it is. The final gate which looks out into the Arena's pit.

"Wel... sssss ... to ....sssss .... ena"....

She hears the big voice she had heard the day before, announcing a fight is about to commence. Unfortunately the storm is so loud, she can barely hear the man's booming voice. She prepares her chakram and waits for the gate to rise. Suddenly, it does!

She can barely see her rival across the pit, there is so much rain. Renee throws her chakram, and is suddenly too busy to notice whether it hit her opponent (a woman) or not. This woman wields a standard sword + shield combination, and rushes Renee quickly. Renee fumbles with her sword in the rain a couple times, and is slammed by the Yellow Team Pit Dog she's up against.

"ARGH!"

Renee barely hears some sort of reaction from the crowd. Cheering. But were they cheeering for her, or for her Yellow Team opponent? .. With the rain falling so hard, it's difficult to tell the tone of their cheers. Finally, Renee grasps her giant sword firmly with BOTH hands, and makes her way into the middle of the Arena's circular pit, so all the world can see her. For a split second, she tries to imagine her mother doing the same thing, so long ago. What had she been like? -- She chooses to see her mother grinning idiotically, raining blows upon her enemy. She had certainly survived her first fight.

Having been trained with a sword from a young age up in Riften, Lady Gade's reflexes are honed and automatic. She blocks a couple of swings from the dog she's up against before finally returning her own, but by this time she feels her health has lowered quite a bit. She wavers slightly on her feet upon the slippery stone ground.

"WHY ... WON'T ... YOU ... DIE?" screams Renee's sword 'n' board opponent.

"'Tis not in my plans for the day, sorry cheese-scum!!"

Renee swings her weapon with all her strength, finds herself slipping on the wet ground and, missing! "Spizdi!" But her second swing (another full-torso movement) does make its connection, and the immigrant from Riften finds her rival is obliterated .... with just one blow.



"WE .... WINNER! .... UE ... EAM...." shouts the voice from above. The rain still drowns this man's voice out, so Renee can't hear him. But it doesn't matter. She's won the match, the crowd is cheering like mad! .. So now it's time for a little chat with Owyn, down below in the Bloodworks. She puts her sword back upon her back, gives a curtsey to the crowd, and walks off to find that foul-mouthed Redguard.

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"Eviscerated, huh? .... 'My entrails will wind up decorating your Red Room, huh?'"

"By the Nine Divines you did it! You actually won! You ain't so bad after all, Pit Dog. You may even survive enough matches to advance in rank."

"And? What am I missing in my hand?"

"Here kid, this is your payout for the victory. There's more where that came from if you can keep winning. Now go unwind before you next fight."

With this, Owyn Junior hands Renee a measly 50 gold. *clink!*

"This is it? 50 gold? I made more than this killing crabs and goblins the other day."

Although Owyn told Renee it's okay if she 'unwinds' before her next match, she finds herself too impatient to do anything such. She would participate in two more matches on this day before finally calling it quits, victorious before all.

I love the 2nd shot, it's like a postcard from the Arena!

I need to learn how to do Lopov's trick, taking screenies with the game paused via console. I get all excited for the fight though, so I'll have to train myself to do this.

Renee Gade the Pit Dog's moving up! I think OB did a great job with Owyn and the whole Arena experience - especially Wes Johnson's booming announcing voice. Yay for the Xena Chakram!

runlykhel, congratulations on getting Rjavyn’s look the way you want it. Their first fight together made me smile.

Renee, I really enjoy Renee’s attitude. I felt the same way after my first character’s fight in the Arena. All of that for 50 gold?!

Her chakram can do some major damage, assuming it hits its target. She (and I) are getting better at using it. It's a thin, frisbee-sized object, so it's best to use it while sneaking. But sometimes she tries to get a good slice during combat, which is either hit or miss (usually miss).

Grits: I added a mod called 24 Hour Arena that makes money go much higher. We did the fourth fight on Saturday night and she earned 800 gold for that one. That seems more like it! Granted, in the 3rd Era, it's possible to RP that money is much lower because of the Oblivion crisis, lack of population (and therefore spectators), lack of immigration into Cyrodiil, etc.

12:02 AM, Turdas, 12:02 AM, Evening Star 13, 3rd Era 433

Location: Skingrad
Pertinent Quests: Lost Histories (TG), Paranoia

Days Passed: 109

Bounty: 0
Fame: 0
Infamy: 12

Several hours later, Kahreem awakes in his rented room at the Two Sisters Lodge. It is dark outside. At first, he feels reluctant to rise from his comfy tavern bed. So soft. So luxurious. But he manages to force himself, after just a momentary thought about Glarthir.

"Glarthir. Gold. The man promised me some gold."

Never one to pass up such an easy opportunity, Kahreem groggily gets himself up, and has a bottle of Cheap Wine as he walks outside the Two Sisters. He goes up the causeway, makes a left, and walks toward the chapel. The man, the elf, of the hour is now here, standing alone in darkness. Good thing it's not a rainy night.

As he stands in shadow himself, Kahreem wonders what he's going to say. Evidence that Tootilius Sexyus has been spying on Glarthir? .. Absolutely none. So what the fokke is he going to say? .. I'll think of something. Some bull's crappe, he tells himself. Remember, the man has GOLD, and lots of it. If you need to bullcrappe your way, make up some kind of story to get some gold, you are going to do it. Ya hear?

"Yeah. I hear. Loud and clear," he answers himself.

12:08 AM



"Tell me what you learned about Toutius Sextius," Glarthir the Paranoid calmly demands a few minutes later. Glarthir seems perky and eager, Karheem notices.

"Oh ...... PHEW! Glarthir! So glad you're here! I ... I didn't know if you'd still be alive! .. I had no idea if your earlier ramblings were true or not, so I took your advice, and followed that man all over town. Toutius Sexius.... I mean Sextius .... has been following you everywhere. Like I said, I am just glad you're here. You're alive, and you're well. But this 'Toutius' fellow is dangerous. Good thing you've avoided capture by him. I've heard he has a dungeon in his basement, you know."

The Redguard says this, then tries his best not to take his hands out of his pockets, cupping them for the gold that's about to cometh. Gold. So shiny and cold. Golllld.

"So! .. I was right all along!" the elf gushes. "You're doing excellent work, my friend."

"Uh.... I am doing excellent work, yes this is true." He hesitates. "And considering my contract between Bravil and Skingrad has expired, I have gone above and beyond to protect the likes of you, elf. Yes that's right, I only was supposed to be here, representing the Count of Bravil, and wearing my Bravil guard's armor, for a week. The business between the Counts is done. Therefore, I am no longer needed."

Glarthir says nothing to this, only stares.

"What I mean to say is uh... no contract, no gold. I'm working overtime for you, fellow. And no longer making my usual Septim per day, not until I return safely back to Bravil. Sooooo..."

"Yes, of course. Here is your precious gold." Glarthir the Paranoid then plops a sack the size of an apple into Kahreem's waiting hand. The sack feels plump and burgeoning, like it would make a nice pillow for him to lie his head upon. Or a weapon to throw at some unlucky fellow. "Now I need you to investigate one more person for me."

"Huh? Gold? Person? What?"

"Do you know Davide Surilie?"

Kahreem shakes his head, trying to think of something other than gold. "Yes, of the famous Surilie Vineyards," he finally says. He says this after thinking of wine. If there's one thing that will distract his mind from gold, it's wine.

...Surilie. Now he knows. Kahreem knows the man well. Davide is his first name, eh? He's never met this 'Davide', but he knows the man's wines. Nasty stuff. Awful! "I know that fop. He resides here in Skingrad, has a bunch of migrant, low-paid, low-intelligence people working for him, and charges way too much for that ridiculous swill he calls wine. Yeah, whatcha want with Davide Surilie, elf?"

"Pillar of the community, et cetera," Glarthir continues. "Who would ever suspect him? Perfect cover for the ringleader of the whole conspiracy!" .. Glarthir's voice gets high and squeaky as he says this. He's really getting worked up. "He watches my house constantly. You'll see!"

"That I will, I am sure! ... I'll bet both he AND Toutious Sextius are in on it together! The thought of it! .. A loner Imperial and a wine-distributor. Perfect covers to hide behind. Who would ever think?"

"He leaves his house early each morning," the elf continues. "Watch him and report back to me here, at midnight as usual. Make sure he doesn't notice you."

"Oh you can count on me, sir." says the Redguard, thinking of little else than another humongous sack of gold. If he keeps this up, he's going to leave Skingrad a very wealthy man, he realizes. He may even be able to buy a horse, instead of steal one. "So ... what of Toutius Sextius? Are you convinced that he's one of 'them'?"

"Thanks to you, his sinister plans have now been revealed to me!"

Kahreem smiles at this, and could care less what sort of fate (if any) shall befall this 'Toutius Sextius', a man Kahreem has never met, and never even seen.

"Be careful," Glarthir warns in finality. "Davide Surilie is the ringleadah. You must NOT let him catch you watching him."

"Yes it is him! I knew it all along elf! Don't worry. Davide Surilie shall PAY for this!" Kahreem says as Glarthir walks away. "And his wine is awful!" he adds a moment later.

I love how Kahreem says and does everything for a little gold, not even caring if others get hurt in the process

I wonder what he´ll say about mr Surilie?

Renee; Really enjoyed reading those two lives, the Princess's and the thief's. Great imagination Kahreem and Glarthir; OMG, will Skingrade survive.

Thanks for all the comments. (Life got in the way of game time for a bit, a curse that befalls all at certain times )

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After the mine in Faregyl Rjavyn traded part of her share of the loot for a new set of armor. Rjavyn complained of the color, black and gold, but it was all that was available in Faregyl. Gilith thought it looked stunning on the Nord; and as usual discarded the thought of getting her own. Gilith had visions of her tall skinny self rattling around in armor like a skeleton in a barrel. She settled instead on the usual female thing to up her spirits and bought more clothes.


Dune the hero’s welcome

What appeared to be a bandit ran up to Gilith from his hide alongside the road, “this is a holdup give me 400 septims!” Gilith heard Rjavyn and Tasqmii ready their weapons behind her, “no,” she said quietly. Surprise turned to resignation as the bandit looked at the ground at his feet and slowly turned away, “um, are you sure? It’s only 400. Oh well, um, never mind.” Gilith looked at her two companions who were putting up their weapons, “now that’s…” She didn’t finish and turned to walk over to the bandit.

Rjavyn turned to Tasqmii, “that has to be the worst bandit I’ve ever come across in all my days,” and shook her head slightly. Tasqmii gave Rjavyn a glance then watched Gilith walking towards the bandit, “what’s she doing?” Rjavyn looked up from fiddling with her sword belt to Tasqmii and then to Gilith- she then rolled her eyes, looked down at the ground, lightly kicked a small rock with her toe, and gave a long sigh, ”something else she does…”

Tasqmii looked over at Rjavyn, “what…” and followed Rjavyn’s gaze back to Gilith. Gilith was talking to the bandit, or better yet scolding, because he looked like child who just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and was suffering through a parental lecture; then Gilith reached into her coin pouch and handed him some coins. Tasqmii croaked out, caught completely by surprise, “did she just,” and then looked up at Rjavyn. Rjavyn shot Tasqmii a glance, looked at Gilith coming up the hill towards them, then turned and walked on up the road. Gilith smiled at Tasqmii as she passed, and Tasqmii quietly fell in behind her wondering what other surprises her new Altmer friend has in store.

The party left the road in the direction Rjavyn indicated. The plant life was thinning rapidly and the soil was turning sandier as they climbed a small roll in the land crossing their path, not big enough to be called a ridge, but was high enough to block their view ahead. Gilith was in the lead, and as she topped out, came to a stop with a small exclamation.

Gilith pointed slightly below them and to their right, “Elephants?” Rjavyn looked where Gilith was pointing; there was a small pond, water hole, with a few palm trees scattered around, and amongst them were three elephants. Gilith started to walk quickly towards them.

“Gilith…wait!” called Rjavyn, and hurried to catch up, with Tasqmii following behind. Tasqmii heard Rjavyn telling Gilith, “these are wild elephants, they can be a little unpredictable and dangerous, you must be careful.” So Gilith stopped a respectable distance from the waterhole and watched the elephants feeding. The baby elephant’s curiousity got the better of it and came ambling towards Gilith; who was a few paces closer to the elephants than Rjavyn and Tasqmii, the little critter was about waist high to an Altmer, greyish brown, big ears, long nose, and tiny tail. It came right up to Gilith and began sniffing at her with its long nose (trunk, as Rjavyn called it). Gilith reached out slowly and began scratching it behind the ear just at the top of its head,

About that time Gilith heard Rjavyn softly saying, “Gilith, you need to come away from him…now.” Gilith looked where Rjavyn was looking and spotted a very unhappy looking elephant walking toward her quickly. “Ah,oh…mom” Said Gilith, and backed up the hill to where Rjavyn stood with Tasqmii. “I think it’s time to leave…come on,” said Rjavyn and led the way towards Dune leaving mom and son behind.

The desert they were crossing was made of golden sand accented by dark red and black rock outcroppings. As they came around one of the larger outcroppings Rjavyn said, “Dune.” Gilith could see the shiny spires and domes of the city shining in the sun. As they walked towards the front entrance Rjavyn explained to Gilith that on her last visit to Dune Rjavyn had broken the stalemate between the two princes, quite by accident actually, when Rjavyn, Tasqmii and Shomii had entered the Palace grounds with the objective to speak to whoever was in charge about work, the guards attacked them. Of course all the guards were killed, leaving the palace to the Prince who still had enough guards to take over. Tasqmii spoke from behind, “Yes they should be happy to see us, maybe we’ll have a feast with lots of mead.” Gilith glanced back at Tasqmii giving her a- is that all you think about- look and smiled. Rjavyn said, “Maybe.”

Passing through the market place Gilith met her first Khajiit that walked on fours, looking more like a tame tiger than an actual person. Rjavyn explained that the Khajiit could all understand each other, but she had never met anyone else that could talk to the four legged version. The three travelers finally arrived at the large gates to the Palace grounds. “Maybe I’d better go first, they don’t know you Gilith, we don’t want any misunderstandings,” as Rjavyn opened the gate and stepped through.

As Gilith stepped through the gate behind Rjavyn and Tasqmii, an arrow magically appeared embedded it the gates frame just about shoulder level. Looking from the arrow towards where Rjavyn and Tasqmii should have been standing Gilith was instead looking at a full on battle. Their little band was out numbered eight to three. Rjavyn was charging around screaming, Gilith was pretty sure most were obscenities, and swinging that great sword of hers cutting down guards like she was harvesting hay, while Tasqmii with her back to a wall was donating arrows to whatever guards that were stupid enough to get close.

Gilith flanked a group of guards running towards Tasqmii and as soon as they were in the open where Gilith wouldn’t hit ether of her two friends Gilith cast her spells and was rewarded by three of the guards collapsing into the dirt. Gilith saw Tasqmii put an arrow into the last guard attacking her, so Gilith ran up behind one of the two guards foolish enough to try and get inside of Rjavyn’s swing and swung her sword as hard as she could, the force and magic of the blow tossed the guard a few feet to the left just as Rjavyn connected with the other guard who flew off to her right, the two flaming bodies arching through the air with Rjavyn standing in the middle was a sight Gilith wouldn’t soon forget.

It was suddenly quiet in the courtyard, Rjavyn Tasqmii and Gilith standing with weapons drawn a few paces apart formed the corners of a triangle with bodies scattered around them. Gilith said as she put up her sword, “Somehow I don’t think a feast is in the making,” and smiled. Tasqmii gave a quick laugh but Gilith could see that Rjavyn was livid. “Well, we’ll just see what this was all about and stamped off towards the palace entrance. Tasqmii and Gilith exchanged looks that said, ah oh, and ran after their friend.

Rjavyn kicked open the palace doors and stode through with Tasqmii and Gilith right behind ready to stop Rjavyn before she did something they all would regret, although neither were sure how they were to accomplish that. Luckily that throne room was empty and access to the rest of the palace was locked. Rjavyn stood in the middle of the room in front of the throne and loudly said, “Cowards.”

The three women went back to the court yard and collected loot from the corpse. Afterward when they were walking down the ramp from the palace gates toward town, Rjavyn said, “I think it might be best if we headed to Corinth to barter, between this and the last visit we’ve managed to kill a lot of the town folk’s relatives, husbands, and wives, and they will hear about it soon enough. I’d rather not have to fight our way out of town.” Gilith and Tasqmii agreed. The three women hurried through town and didn’t relax their pace until Dune was once again a small vision in the distance.

Whoa, that bandit wanted 400 septims?? Let me guess: Maskars? .... Ha ha the bandit walked away. What a chump!

That sounds cool, a Khajiit who walks on all fours. That thought crossed my mind not long ago: beastfolk are quadrupeds, why don't they ever use all four of their feet? .. Come and think of it, lizardmen from the tablegames also stood upright. *shrugs*

Anyways, bravo. Nice to see Gilith living on another day.

Now Kahreem can get back to relaxing before he has to report in again. Now we’ve seen where his loyalty lies. The man loves his Cheap Wine!

runlykhel, sounds like an unpleasant time in Dune.

Today while Darnand was conducting mage business in Bruma he got a note from Savlian Matius!! This is from the Kvatch Rebuilt mod. It’s what we’ve been waiting for while assisting the good folk of Bruma in various ways.

He and Jerric will head south in the morning. Darnand is performing a trial run of the mod in his game, then if all is well we’ll do it again in Jerric’s. I’m super excited!

Lol at Kahreem's adventures in Skingrad with Glarthir!

Welcome to Elsweyr, Runlykhel! I love that highwaycat you encounter that will back down. Later you might meet his sister who mentions him and her hope that no one kills him.

Grits, I hope Darnie and Jerric enjoy Kvatch Rebuilt!

Onto the next portion of Kahreem's saga.

As we last saw, the Redguard of West Weald had managed to gain some headway into the disappearance of Theranis, who is another Thieves Guild member apparently. Theranis went to Skingrad some weeks earlier to steal a book called Lost Histories from the Count of Skingrad's court wizard. He managed this task, but had become too much of a braggart about it, and found himself thrown into jail. Kahreem managed to also get thrown in jail (much less intentionally than Theranis) after one of Skingrad's Finest recognized the Weet Bandit, since Kahreem was wanted for horse theft back in Bravil.

After spending time in the clinker, Kahreem learned about a mysterious person called the Pale Lady, who comes to take too-wayward prisoners away. And now the Weet Bandit seems to be following in her footsteps. Let's take a look.

Turdas, Evening Star 13, 11:56 AM

The next morning back at Two Sisters Inn, Karheem sleeps late. Although Glarthir the Paranoid had given the Redguard a job: follow Davide Surilie to see if he's spying on Glarthir, Kahreem doesn't bother. What's the point, really? .. The man would not be following Glarthir; Kahreem already knows this. Why waste some perfectly good sleepy-time to go stand around in Skingrad's streets, walking around in circles, looking for something which would not ever happen?

So instead he decides to go to the castle, to do his actual job. The job he'd been hired to do. He has no idea if Skingrad's sole inmate at the moment, Larthjar the Laggard, has been fed any slop for breakfast. If not, lunch will have to do instead.

Kahreem gets about halfway to the castle, then comes up with a plan.


3:45 PM

"What do you want, slop drudge!?"

"Now sir, you must begin to treat me, your new slop drudge, with some better respect," Kahreem answers the jailor in charge of opening the dungeon's door. "I may be just a slop drudge, this is true, but I'm a good slop drudge. A proud slop drudge. A slop drudge who, as you shall soon see, is simply going to excel in the world of slop-drudgery. When they speak of slop drudges 100 years from now, nobody will remember any of us, but they will remember me. To say it safely, I am the best fokkinge slop drudge you ever saw."

The guard says nothing.

"Now ... may I?" Kahreem says, motioning toward the door.

But the guard does nothing.

"Do your job, and open that door, so I can do my job, or I will go straight to the count, and make a formal complaint. Would you like that to happen sir?"

"They oughta just give you guys a key, but no! I gotta keep locking and unlocking the door."

The jailor trudges off, and opens the door to the jail cells. Kahreem follows. And then waits until the door is open, and the jailor back behind his desk. The Weet Bandit's plan now in full effect. In Kahreem's hands are two buckets, buckets which appear to be full of slop. .... But inside and underneath of this slop are some other, hidden items.

"How do, sir. I am Glarthir, your new slop drudge. Remember me? .. I fed you last night?"

Larthjar the Laggard only stares.



"Wow, was it really that awful?" Kahreem says cheerily. "Now look here, Nord. Look at this fine cuisine. Grapes harvested just hours ago from Skingrad's sun and rain-soaked vines. Carrots, imported specially from Hammerfell. I think I see some corn and ... uhh ... looks like some apple. Maybe. And boar's meat! sliced from our top swine, butchered just this morning."

Larthjar only stares.

"If you look closely, you can see that this time nothing is swimming in today's slop! They actually musta cooked it!"

"Hey! You said you would unlock the door!" Larthjar finally answers. He seems angry, and no wonder. Who would fokkinge want to be cooped up in here, listening to the ramblings of some stupid Redguard?

"Okay listen. I'm not really a slop drudge, I am an agent from Bravil, under direct orders of Count Caro himself. You are to tell nobody. Ya hear?"

"Yes."

"Good. Now eat your slop. I have only got eight lockpicks, and I need to do some important work over in the next cell. Who knows if I'll wind up getting locked in by mistake, and THEN what happens? Why... I'll wind up needing my eight lockpicks to break back out, that's what. Anyway, they're going to be renovating it for the Skingrad Count's mistress to hide in. Say nothing to nobody."

"Don't let the guards catch you," Larthjar answers. He then grabs a bowl of slop, and begins to chow down.

Kahreem begins Step Two of his latest scheme.


5:01 PM
He walks over to one of the empty cells, dumps the remaining slop all over the floor, and removes several items from his buckets. It's his Bravil guard's armor. Covered in slimy slop, but it'll have to do. The Redguard thief removes the armor, does his best to clean it off with the green woolen shirt he had worn into the dungeon, and quickly changes from ordinary citizen clothes to Bravil guard's armor.



He then walks over to the secret candleabra he had found the day before. Pulls it, and the secret door opens.



Behind this door, a passageway coils downwards. The area is well-lit at least; this is no cave full of imps or ogres, but the Redguard shudders anyway. He crouches, and begins to follow the passage. Slowly. Listening with every step. He's a thief, not a warrior, so he's nervous as can be. Underneath his feet, bloody red footprints had previously walked before him. How long ago? Who fokkinge knows. They aren't wet footprints, but they appear somewhat fresh.

He doesn't like where this is going.

He comes to an intersection after a few paces. He can go left, or he can go straight. Before him is a door, and to his left, an alcove with a single, battered old stool for somebody to sit upon. Why? he wonders. Why would anybody want to sit here? Oh, I think I'd like to read a fokkinge book, and I've got JUST THE PLACE to sit! ... Kahreem almost dismisses this alcove with its lone, battered stool, but then he notices something.

"Lockpicks?"

Yes, lockpicks. Three of them, right on the old, battered stool. He wastes no time, grabs them up. Steps forward again. Tries the door, and steps in. Before him, another passageway, this time coiling upward. Kahreem moves forward, slowly. The passage is dark. He can hear nothing or nobody. Every time he passes by a wall sconce (holding a candle) he tries wiggling it, just to see if there are any other secret doors. So far, there aren't. He winds up walking towards another small intersection, but this one hasn't got an alcove full of lockpicks, so he goes left. Clambers forward on the dark stone floor.

10:50 pm
The area above dead-ends, and he still doesn't hear anybody, so he risks lighting his torch. whooosh! To his left is a large lever, inserted into the stone wall. He turns it, and another 'secret' door opens, although this one isn't so secret. The door opens into a nice, finished hallway, and he guesses he is now somewhere in the castle itself, which makes him smile. He notices another unlit candelabra on the wall to his left. Funny place for an unlit set of candles. He wiggles this device. The door reopens. Good. If he needs some form of escape he's got one, just like he had back in Leyawiin.



There are several directions to go now: left, right or straight, so the Redguard simply follows the bloodtrail, sidetracking only when he sees a loaf of bread and several bottles of Cheap Wine on a nearby table. Funny thing. Here he is in the bowels of one of the wealthiest castles in Nirn, home to some of Cyrodiil's finest wines, and somebody's choosing to stock the cheap stuff down here.

After finishing his meal he continues. Leaves the room he is in and walks down a rampart. Before him are huge casks of wine. He can smell it all around, and Kahreem guesses that they're not aging the 'cheap stuff' down here. He creeps into the room with the casks. Following the blood trail. Nobody is here. He skirts the edge of the wine aging room, which is full of Tamika's, full of Surilie's, but also full of Cheap Wine.

"Fokke!"



There's a lot of Cheap Wine here too. First thing he's going to do once he figures out what happened to Theranis, he decides, is come back into this fokkinge room, and steal as much wine as he can. But for now, he skirts the room; stays in its shadows. He searches several crates and barrels too, and finds another lockpick. And another. At first, he doesn't see which way to possibly go, but then he notices the blood. It leads INTO one of the large casks on the bottom right of the aging room.

"A-ha!'

Again, there is another unlit candleabra, this time subtly hidden on a column. He wiggles it, and the room's middle cask opens.



Another secret door. Kahreem is sweating, and cannot help but risk another sip (....gulp .... actually make that several gulps) of wine. Why not? The stuff's all over the place down here.

He walks into the cask, warm and a bit woozy from the wine. The blood-trail continues downward, into gloomy darkness. Great. But he continues on, and not just because he knows he's going to make even more gold for doing so. There's an excitement about all this. If my bandit buddies on the West Weald could see me now.

He sneaks forward at a slow, then slower, pace. And sees a pale lady in the room before him.

Aah!! The Plae Lady!! I mean the Pale Lady!!


Batter up, Kahreem!


I just wonder, what are those yellow squiggles on Kahreem´s guard outfit (second pic)?

mirocu, I believe the yellow goo is slop from the bucket Kahreem carried his guard uniform in.

This is my favorite Kahreem adventure yet! His thoughts are hilarious. I was giggling like a fiend over his description of the slop, as if he was a waiter in a fine restaurant.

How funny that he finally saw Tootius.

Thanks Grits & Crow. I don't know where Kahreem comes up with his thoughts, I'm certainly not so 'quick' in real-life! ... Did anybody notice I tried using the paintbrush tool in Photobucket to add some gold-colored 'slop' to his armor in that first pic?

whoops, Ninja'd!

I noticed the slop on the Wheet Bandit's disguise too! As ever Kahreem's adventures are priceless!

Nice touch with the slop, Renee! I´m afraid I was eating while reading and I guess I read the part with his guard outfit in the bucket too.... sloppy

Renee; hilarious, and this:"Now sir, you must begin to treat me, your new slop drudge, with some better respect," Kahreem answers the jailor in charge of opening the dungeon's door. "I may be just a slop drudge, this is true, but I'm a good slop drudge. A proud slop drudge. A slop drudge who, as you shall soon see, is simply going to excel in the world of slop-drudgery. When they speak of slop drudges 100 years from now, nobody will remember any of us, but they will remember me. To say it safely, I am the best fokkinge slop drudge you ever saw." just had me in stitches.

Acadian; Gilith's a softy at times, never met the sister with the brother still alive before, should be interesting.

Grits; yeah- it was a quick-kill everybody in the courtyard and get out of town. got lots of loot.

============================================================
Going into business

After their visit to Dune Gilith, Rjavyn and Tasqmii stayed overnight in Orcrest. Rjavyn and Tasqmii went in search of a tavern promising to be back at a reasonable hour. While Gilith, thinking their idea of a reasonable hour and her’s was probably quit different, spent the last of the daylight hours bartering loot for supplies.

Gilith was awakened in the early hours of morning by what sounded like cats yowling. As soon as she recognized her two cohorts voices Gilith gave a sigh, and thinking some people should not be allowed to sing, covered her head with her pillow and slowly fell back to sleep.

The next day Gilith, Rjavyn and Tasqmii came over the last hill on the road between Orcrest and Corinth, and could see the white walls of Corinth across the valley from them, when a tiger leaped at Rjavyn from behind a large outcropping on the right side of the road. Soon after the tiger landed on the road silver arrows began to rain upon its back and its intended target turned into a screaming battle crazed female swinging a very large and wicked looking stick.
The tiger, starting to feel more like prey than predator, decided retreat might be in order and ran back into the rugged terrain where it came from seeking a way to distance itself from these two legged pain givers. What the tiger didn’t count on was the screamer with the big biting stick and the littler prey with its many stingers giving chase halfway across the valley.
One too many silver arrows from Tasqmii’s bow finally slowed the poor cat down enough to get caught by a powerful swing of Rjavyn’s blade and the chase was over.

Gilith walked up to the dead cat lying between Rjavyn and Tasqmii, and then looked towards Corinth, “well-- that got us halfway.” Gilith’s two friends looked at each other and shrugged; Tasqmii said, “come- cold mead awaits,” turned and started toward the city. Rjavyn and Gilith exchanged amused looks and fell in behind Tasqmii. The three women skirted a couple of villages as they trekked across the desert to avoid conflicts, and eventually came out onto the road a couple of turns, and just below Corinth’s main entrance. The walls surrounding the city glowed a bright, almost blinding, white in the mid-day sun.

Coming around the last bend, the road now running in a gentle slope towards the city’s entrance, a scamp appeared from behind a large rock and began throwing fire balls at the trio. Gilith being in the lead engulfed the scampering little devil with one of her magic spells killing it instantly; even as it was falling to the ground, Gilith felt sharp pains in her hip and ankle.
Rjavyn had just turned from making sure the scamp was dead and was staring at Gilith with a concerned look. Gilith looked down and two silver arrows, one in her hip and the other in her ankle were sparkling in the sun. Gilith immediately cast a spell to stop the pain, bleeding, and to begin dissolving the arrows.

After which Gilith looked up at Tasqmii, “I thought we discussed this?” Tasqmii, looking very contrite, rubbed her right toe in the dirt and said, “Sorry Gilith.”
It seem to Gilith that Tasqmii looked more twelve years old than twenty. Gilith said, “Please try a little harder, this is really inconvenient.” Tasqmii quietly responded, “ok-- really sorry Gilith.”

Gilith glanced over at Rjavyn who appeared to be studying a rock on the side of the road as if it contained some mystery. Gilith seeing the distracted, far-away look on her Nord friend’s face said, “Rjavyn?” Rjavyn looked up quickly giving Tasqmii a stern look, “um, yeah, Tasqmii be more careful.” Gilith shook her head and walked up the road toward Corinth, her two friends following behind. Gilith could hear whispering as Tasqmii received a heated scolding from Rjavyn.
Gilith suspected Rjavyn thought Gilith was a little too forgiving, especially for an Altmer, but Rjavyn always supported her.
Still, Gilith felt something was bothering Rjavin, but Rjavyn’s stubborn Nord pride wouldn’t let her talk about it. The silver arrows kept flipping about as she walked, trying not to trip on the one in her ankle distracted her thoughts, there was no pain just inconvenience.

Later in the Corinth market area and after dividing the profits from loot bartered in Orcrest, Tasqmii and Rjavyn went off to explore Corinth together. Gilith would have bet on finding them later in one of the city’s taverns telling stories and swilling mead.

Gilith checked in at the local mages guild hall and finding nothing new there went to the office of commerce to see what Corinth had available to purchase or what was bringing top dollar at the markets. While there the Commerce clerk, also head of the Elsweyr merchant guild, seeing how astute Gilith was regarding trade, suggested Gilith join the merchants guild.

The clerk also mentioned that If Gilith would take care of a problem bandit for the merchants, the clerk would waive the normal six month waiting period and would issue Gilith a trade license right away.
Gilith accepted the offer and then left the office in search of Rjavyn and Tasqmii, to ask if they would help her hunt down the bandit.

Gilith would have won her bet about where Rjavyn and Tasqmii would end up- if anyone could have been found stupid enough to take it.
Opening the second tavern door in her search for her friends, Gilith was engulfed by the sound of loud singing, and heard above all the other voices was Rjavyn’s husky Nord voice.

Rjavyn was sitting at a back table singing a Nord marching song accompanied by a couple of imperials at the next table while a bored bar-keep looked on. Several local Khajiit sat around the tavern drinking and looking a little nervous. Tasqmii was standing next to Rjavyn’s chair, even sitting the top of Rjavyn’s head came just above Tasqmii’s little Breton chin. Gilith smiled at the sight and thought, “what a pair”.

Rjavyn spotted Gilith by the door and waved her over. Gilith crossed the loud room and slid onto the bench across from Rjavyn. The barkeep looked at Gilith questioningly; Gilith mouthed the word “wine,” the barkeep must get a lot of practice reading lips, for he held up two different types of wine for Gilith to choose from, and then brought her a cup of the one she indicated. When Gilith started to reach for her coin pouch the barkeep shook his head, pointed at Rjavyn, and shouted trying to be heard above the singing, “tab, paid up front!”

It was a long night, Gilith didn’t even bring up the bandit situation, instead sipped her glass of wine slowly, she disliked the fuzzy feeling the following morning after too much drink.
After a few hours Rjavyn and Tasqmii had cornered a Breton in armor at the bar and all three were arguing the pros and cons of various sword lengths. To Gilith it seemed silly, all of their justifications for each length made sense, but they still argued, even when they agreed. Gilith took advantage of their distraction and slipped out of the tavern and went back to their tents to sleep the remainder of the night in peace.

The next morning Gilith slipped into Rjavyn’s tent fully expecting to find them still asleep. To her surprise, Tasqmii was practicing her dagger moves and Rjavyn was sitting at the table munching on an apple and sharpening her sword. “Good morning” Gilith said quietly. “Good morning”- “Good morning” they each said looking up at Gilith. Ah, thought Gilith, her two friends walked and talked fine, but Gods, were their eyes red.

Gilith helped herself to a wedge of cheese and an apple, sat down at the table, and explained about the merchant guild and the bandit. Tasqmii looked at her queerly, “why would you join the merchant’s guild?” Rjavyn answered before Gilith could explain, “profit.” This seemed the right answer for Tasqmii, as a look of understanding passed over her face, or so Gilith assumed. “Tasqmii, you feel like killing a bandit?” Rjavyn said loudly. Tasqmii stopped her practice, smiled, “sure let’s go.”

That evening around the table, all their pouches a little heavier by a few septims from selling the loot from the bandit and her hideout, and Gilith with a brand new license to trade in Elsweyr folded inside a waterproof wrapping and tucked away, were discussing if the morning would be a good time to leave for Valenwood. Tasqmii’s usual “I’m ready let’s go” and Rjavyn’s “as good a time as ever” agreed with Gilith’s mood to see more new country.

Walking down the road towards the village situated a few hours away on the coast, they passed a pineapple plantation, and Gilith led Rjavyn and Tasqmii up to the main house where Gilith purchased two barrels of pineapples and arranged for their storage in Corinth.
Tasqmii, getting a serious look from the plantation owner, had sliced up one of the pineapples and was munching away, the juice running down her chin, “these are good, I’d buy em,” she said. The plantation owner raised an eyebrow at her with a look as if to say- and where’s your gold? - Tasqmii was immune to the look, or seem so. Gilith smiled and said goodbye, leading Tasqmii away before she could slice up another pineapple. Gilith was always impressed at how much the little Breton could eat and drink, it must be all that energy Tasqmii seemed to have that needed so much fuel, that and taking almost two steps for every one of Rjavyn’s and Gilith’s.

The trio arrived at the little village on the coast late in the evening and decided to make camp for the night. To Gilith’s relief there were no Inns open and Gilith was able to retire to her tent at a normal hour leaving Rjavyn and Tasqmii sipping mead in Rjavyn’s tent- talking quietly.

Renee – I see Karheem rising to the top in the competitive career field of slop drudgery – yep, pride in his work! Then into his next disguise and on to the Pale Lady!

Runlykhel – Yeah, Orcrest is a tough town. Glad they moved on. I smiled to read Gilith treating her arrow wounds with magic; Buffy uses disintegrate weapon magic on imbedded arrows to dissolve them before healing folks who need arrow wounds tended to. Corinthe is a beautiful city – and the shopping is wonderful! Then down to the coast!

That made me lol. And also t the part where it says 'two legged pain givers'.

I know what you mean about NPCs shooting arrows into our characters. I've been getting in the habit of avoiding this whenever I can. With Renee (who wields a 2-handed sword mostly) she'll run up to her enemy, then sidestep, so whoever is throwing spells or shooting arrows now has a direct line to the enemy, without shooting Renee in the back. Saga herself is an archer, so mostly it is she who must try to avoid shooting Maglir, or any other melee-wielder she's got with her.

Anyways, thanks for adding that. What companion mod are you using (I'm assuming you've got one going, right?). I will add another Renee story later. I've got a bunch of 'em written up. And probably add another Kahreem tomorrow as well.

Now it is time for the next bit of Renee Gade III's saga.

We last saw her in the Arena, doing her first match, and winning a little too easily. Before this match, she and her best friend Gabrielle had come to Cyrodiil from Riften (Skyrim), and Renee got a job doing Sewer Patrol; basically going into the Imperial City's sewers and killing baddies, proving to Vinicia Melissia that these baddies had actually been killed, and finally getting paid (literally peanuts) for all this dirty work. Renee decided to try the Arena instead. Won her first match, won her second and third matches. It all happened too easily.

So now she is outside the Imperial City itself, doing some adventuring.

In this next piece, she is now in Vilverin with Gabrielle and Winden (Winden is a Nord fighter added by CM Partners 2.0). Renee and her partners had decided to go to Vilverin, since this is the first place Renee & Gabs dungeon-dove, yet they never explored the entire ruins.

Renee got about half-way through Vilverin, then got stuck behind a portal which would not let her return to her friends. So that's where this story picks up.



Morndas 4:13 am
Heartfire 10, 4th Era 20

"WINSON! ... GABRIELLE! ... CAN YOU HEAR ME?" ... Me? .... Me?

.... Renee calls this out deep inside the Ayleid ruins known as Vilverin, which is located just northeast of the Imperial City, across the Niben. Things had been going along fine, just fine, and now this. 'This' being an unexpected twist which had not been foreseen.

The trio of adventurers (Renee, Winden, and Gabrielle) had been on an extended journey through a few of Cyrodiil's more popular Niben Bay locations for outlaws and rogues to inhabit. Vinicia had given Renee and her posse just one task: clear the monsters at Fort Empire. They would be paid just 50 gold for this task. Imagine that? ... 50 gold ... for dealing with the imps, rats, and giant spiders found inside the fort. That had been fine actually, dealing with these nuisances. Ridding them (and therefore keeping the road outside of Empire safer than usual) had been all too easy.

Although not excited about the lack of Septims granted for this task, it only took a few hours of their time, leaving Renee, Winden, and Gabrielle hungry for more.

After travelling north and then east, they had stopped at Aleswell (a small hamlet north of the Imperial City) later on, and stayed the night in this town's inn. Long ago, it was rumored that Aleswell's residents had been made invisible by some sort of mad wizard. The dark elves who still lived here confirmed this to be true, but they recited this tale with a bit of rolled eyes, and by rote. Like: Oh, here we go again; another traveler who wants to hear about things which happened 25-odd years ago. An embarrassment to us, and nothing more.

Other than this, Aleswell proved to be of little excitement.

The next morning Renee and her followers had left the Aleswell Inn early. It was raining hard outside. By the time they made it to Sercen however the rain had stopped, and the sky had cleared into a beautiful morning. Sercen (with its gang of marauding outlaws) itself had been a bit more difficult than Fort Empire; there was one moment when Renee had been ganged-upon by a couple of armored rogues, and things were looking grim, her health was beginning to fail. But this is why she had brought Winden and Gabrielle of course, to help her at moments like these. Other than this, Renee and her followers were now past 300 gold in their earnings.

"Spizdi, Vinicia ... spizdi."

The next step was to go to Vilverin. Renee and Gabrielle (her blond partner from Skyrim) had been in Vilverin before, but only the initial sections of it. Renee knew the place was much larger than she initially thought, but back then she wasn't so confident with delving. But now? With Winson her knight-for-hire in tow? ... Renee thought she could take Vilverin.

"Argh.... Kurba!" she says in her native secret dialect; a dialect she had been taught by a couple elders starting from childhood. These elders had belonged to some sort of convent, near the boardinghouse where Renee had been raised. They had taught her many things, and many ways to say them.

She used some of these words at times like these. Stuck in some bizarre situation, and with (what seems to be) no way out.

"But there is always a way out."

The goings in Vilverin had been rough at times. Renee, Winden and Gabrielle had met undead, bandits, and diseased rats. These enemies had been trying, but had all been overcome. So far / so good.

But now this...




Renee left her companions behind, while she had forged ahead. If she needed their help, she'd simply run back to where she had left them. This was an old adventurer's technique pioneered long ago by the great paladin Dyan phor a'Cauz, who had defeated Umaril the Unfeathered in the year 434 of the 3rd Era. Dyan had taken the Jemane brothers, a couple of Breton foresters, all over Cyrodiil, and managed to use them for her survival. Texts and tomes often mentioned Dyan, defeater of Umaril the Unfeathered, but nowadays few could tell the names of the brothers who had accompanied her. Arguably, the importance of Dyan's followers had been downplayed. They only remember the ones who do great things, not those who follow.

But what had Dyan done at moments like these? ... What would she do if she had crossed an iron-gated portal which closed behind her, and locked her on one side, while the Jemanes were on another?

..."CAN YOU HEAR ME???" Renee calls, knowing they cannot.

She panics for a moment, stops thinking of Dyan, begins to brainstorm, and comes up with an idea.




-------------------

"Winden .... Where do you think she is?" asks Gabrielle, clearly worried.

"How should I know? She seems very non-predictable to me." Winden the Nordic knight says this, and then adds. "Saaaaay, don't you think it's strange she's always leaving us behind? ... I mean, I am glad she hired me, it'd been weeks since I had a job, and that was to kills some lowly rats. Hah! So this lady adventurer in the purple armor comes along and offers me a job. 'Sounds good,' I say. 'It'll beat loitering around the Market District,' I say. But now look at us. Bored out of our minds in some Ayleid ruin, and not even paid!"

"To answer your question," Gabrielle replies, "I have known her a long time. Years. We came from Riften, up north. She'll be back. She always comes back."

"Huh," Winden grunts. Gabrielle thinks he's going to say something else, but he does not.

"And besides, Renee is one great warrior. A survivor! Why .... there was this one time when we were both surrounded by three angry giants. One had me by the hair, another was going for my leg. I was done, you know.... ready to be giant-food, and I had no idea where Renee had gone. Well, let me tell you when she--"

.... "When she what?"

Renee appears from the gloom with a smirk.

"Uhh. Hey Renee! Good to see you. Where have you been, it's been hours."

"Gabrielle, are you telling tall tales again? Don't listen to her Winson. She dramatizes. Over-the top. Three giants, yeah, that's me ... defeating three giants to save the pretty blond-haired princess. Over-the-top. You need to work on your bard's tales, Gabrielle."

"Yeah, well you have saved me, saved my golden hide plenty of times. I should know. And I'm not afraid to say so. You are better than me, much better than I ever will be, and I am not afraid to say so."

"So what happened?" Winden decides to interject, bored with the cattiness before him.

"What happened was I got stuck behind some sort of mechanical portal. Got stuck, but figured my way out. Like I always do. And met some sort of mad wizard hidden deep within these catacombs, but he was no match for my THIS," she says, referring to the giant great-sword upon her back. "Man got all wound up to cast his spells, and he got me with one or two, and managed to summon some being to his aid. But he perished. Like they all do eventually."

Winden listens to this tale, shrugs, and decides it sounds fair enough. As long as he gets paid eventually, lots and lots of gold, it'll all be fair enough. Better than standing around the Merchants Inn anyways, waiting to be picked for hire.

Renee is pretty, her face is determined, like she knows exactly what she wants. You use a completely different narrating style with Renee than with Saga or especially Kahreem, but it fits her, it's more serious, so to speak. It focuses more on Renee's adventures, her friends, her past and your fomer heroes.

Aww she's pretty. When I was creating her I asked her if she would consider her looks, and I think she actually did.

Anyways now it is time for some Kahreem of Weet. As we last saw, he was headed deep into Castle Skingrad, on a quest to figure out what happened to Theranis of the Thieves Guild. He encountered a lady who we're assuming is the actual Pale Lady.


1:44 AM, Evening Star 14, 3rd Era 433

Days Passed: 110
Level: 6


"Ahhh man, where in Oblivion am I now? I think I may have gotten lost. Found some sort of door in a wine cask I was supposed to inspect, and here I am. Sorry. I am Glarthir by the way, knight from Bravil, here to inspect some wine for Count Caro. Pleased to meet you, Dunmer. Plenty of wine down here, as you can see I have taken a sample for myself."

His mind a bit woozy from the wine he'd just been drinking, Kahreem had decided to stand fully (rather than sneak) before the pale lady he had found standing all alone in her hidden room. This room had been hidden behind a sercret door located inside a phony wine-aging cask, accessible only to those who found a nearby candleabra which could be tweaked.

"AM I SUPPPOSED TO BE IMPRESSED?"

"I don't know, are you? I'm not sure if Count Caro will be, that's for damn sure. Look at all this Cheap Wine Skingrad has stashed just over in the next room! .. Who keeps such wine amongst the actual good stuff? And who would drink such crappe wine??! .. It's a disgrace!"

The pale lady, who is apparently The Pale Lady, doesn't respond to this diatribe, instead she quickly makes herself invisible. Shhh! She draws a daggar, and comes straight for Kahreem. "Hey ... HEY!" The Redguard is slow to react, but this is okay. As soon as the Pale Lady takes her first swing, she loses her invisible status. She slashes and stabs at the Redguard wearing Bravil armor who's just appeared in her hiding place, but her daggar hardly damages the Weet Bandit. Good thing he's wearing some actual armor.



"Hey, you know, let's talk about this," he says, trying to reason with her. "Really, I wasn't in any mood for a fight."

"YEEAAGGGGHH!"

That does it. This lady is insane, or something. Kahreem rushes into the next room (the wine-aging room) which is better-lit than the room the lady had been hiding in. He attempts to grasp hold of his Redguard heritage. Raises his arm to the ceiling, but falters at gaining any sort of extra power. * He tries again, and this time he succeeds. wonnnn The lady slashes and spins, seems to lose her weapon, so she switches to fists.

"EEE-AHHH-YEEE!"

But her pummels are just about useless. She's trying, but her fists wind up banging Kahreem's Bravil Shield. She uppercuts and slams, but does hardly any damage. Kahreem's Redguard heritage powers make this even harder for the Pale Lady.

He decides to go for the death. Begins slashing with his cutlass, a weapon which had formerly belonged to a Marie Elena pirate. He slashes, she bangs. He steadies his shield arm, she connects with her left. bang! ... but he barely takes any damage. The fight itself is ridiculously easy, and Kahreem knows he's going to win. ... Until something happens.

"I've fought mudcrabs more fearsome than you!" says a deep male voice.

It's an orc. Some sort of orc castle-worker, and he's also swinging with his fists, but he's going after The Pale Lady, not Kahreem. Hee-yah! The orc (whoever he is) begins placing blows on the Pale Lady's back, while Kahreem continues to block her punches, occasionally getting in a swing of his own. Realizing this fight could be attracting the wrong sort of attention, the Weet Bandit decides to run back into the room the lady had been hiding in. The Pale Lady follows, wihile the orc castle-worker guy attacks her from behind.

"Fall before me, Dunmer!"

The actual moment when the Pale Lady falls to her death is a blur, but fall she does. Was it due to Kahreem's pirate cutlass? Or was it due to the orc, and his un-blocked attacks from behind? Either way, Kahreem still decides it's best to try a peaceful resolution to all this.

"Hey orc, she's dead. Calm yourself down! She's dead!"

But it doesn't work, and now the orc is attacking HIM! "DIE DAMN YOU!" The orc's fists (and his overall stamina) are much more effective than those of the Pale Lady. Kahreem can see this for sure. Kahreem slashes, but slips a bit on the floor, which is streaked with blood. The orc somehow gets behind the Weet Bandit, and manages a blow on the Redguard's left shoulder. But again, it's not a whole lot of damage. Because of Kahreem's Redguard heritage matched with light (but well-crafted) guard's armor, the orc can't really get Kahreem where he wants him. Not with just one blow, anyways.

Kahreem manages a few more swings, and does a semi-circle in the Pale Lady's former hideout. Mostly, he misses. But so does the orc. It's a messy brawl on a floor streaked with bloody footprints, so this is not surprising. During the match Kahreem notices there is some sort of jail cell located nearby, and a man inside it. Could be Theranis! He swings a few more times at the orc, but doesn't have to worry about him anymore...

"Run away!"

..says the orc. He literally gives up. And it's a good thing. It seemed the orc's strength would keep him up-and-ready during this fight, and this time Kahreem could lose some serious health. But the orc runs away.

"Good."

2:42 AMk
Kahreem thinks fast, follows the winding hallway which the orc had just chickened up, and finds himself back at the door hidden within the wine-aging cask. The pale lady's body is there, on the floor. Too bad for her. Kahreem lights a torch, steps gingerly into the wine-aging room, and searches the fallen witch. He senses there is nobody nearby, but extinguishes his torch anyways.



The pale lady, a Dunmer, has several possessions on her person: a steel daggar, some middle-class clothing, and (best of all) a couple of keys. One of these keys is obviously a castle key. Kahreem has seen plenty of others like it; it's sort of a 'skeleton key' which allows somebody access into many different areas of a castle. The other key is unmarked, but Kahreem assumes it will open up the jail cell he had just seen. He takes both keys.

He goes back inside the phony wine cask, and then moves a wall-switch which will close its door. As he does so, he thinks he hears footsteps coming from somewhere. ** "Hah, let's see them get through that door!" The door swings shut, and the Redguard creeps back down the passageway. As he approaches the room with the prisoner inside he stops sneaking, opens a bottle of Cheap Wine, and has a few gulps. He feels safe now.

He's intent on saving the prisoner he had just seen, but finds something else of interest instead. "Fokke!" It's a dead body, located in an alcove opposite the jail cell. This dead body is suited in leathered armor, and looks as if he had been here for some time. Could be Imperial, could be Breton. Could be Theranis. Kahreem places a quick glance back to the prisoner, and sees this prisoner is an Argonian.

"We need to get to sssafetyyyy."

"Who are you? Are you that same lizard who was taken from the jails last week?"

"Huh huh.... that would be me. I am sso glad yoo are here to save me from the vampyar!" answers Amusei, the Pale Lady's former Argonian prisoner. "Thosse cretin Skingrad guards caught me sstealing a fish and locked me up."

"Sstealing a fish? .. I thought you lizards could fokkinge breathe underwater."

"Yoo have saved my life, again."

Again? thinks Kahreem. Suddenly it dawns on him; he is speaking to the same Argonian he 'rescued' from Leyawiin's jail weeks ago. The Argonian who'd stolen a ring from the Countess, or something.

"Yoo are a true friennnnd. I will not forget this. I've decided I am going to join the Thieves Guild. No more jails for me!"

"Yeah, well listen lizard-lips, I haven't 'saved' you yet. You are still locked up in a jail, and maybe I aim to keep you in there. First, some answers. There's a man lying over there on the floor. Dead. I'm sure you know all about it, because you've been locked up in here, right? I am thinking it's Theranis, of the Thieves Guild."

"Theranis? How did you know about himmm? .. He wass my cellmate. At least huntil the Pale Lady took him awayyy."

"I know about him because I am part of the fokkinge Thieves Guild, scaly one. And so is he. Or he was, or whatever."

"No. But he did give me a message about a treyzure to deliver to the Thievess Guild if I was ever to get out. "

"Go on."

"After tha firsst time Theranis was taken by the Pale Lady, he knew he was going to diiiiie. Get me out of thie castle and I'll give you his messsage."

Kahreem thinks about this. Save the Argonian. "Okay, I will let you out. Just remember I've got a big fat cutlass, and a shield of steel to protect me, if you decide to try anything funny."

Kahreem unlocks the door, and the Argonian doesn't attack; instead he crouches down to soften the sound of his footsteps. Good. That's the smart thing to do if you're going to be a Thieves Guild member.

"Let's go...." says Amusei.

"Yeah, let's," Kahreem replies, guping down the rest of his Cheap Wine, already thinking about grabbing and gulping some more.

Don't forget the cheap wine!

Renee: "...he stops sneaking, opens a bottle of Cheap Wine, and has a few gulps. He feels safe now."-- "Courage in a bottle"
"So what happened?" Winden decides to interject, bored with the cattiness before him."--Poor Winden; I grew up with four younger sisters--I know how he feels. Great stories as usual Renee.
I'm using cm partners mod I learned about from tmar (Tasqmii is a modified CM, since I made her from scratch, than added the CM script to her).

Acadian; Gilith is only lvl4 (almost5) she is still building her spell making talents, so it's rub rub thump thump with arrows sticking out for now. I just rp that she slowly disintegrates them for now.

====================================================
A moment

It was the day after Tasqmii’s twenty-first birthday, and she was sitting at the end of the table in Rjavyn’s tent observing her two friends, Rjavyn and Gilith, while they ate breakfast and discussed plans for the day. Tasqmii didn’t feel any resentment about not being part of the discussion, she knew they would willingly include her; the problem was she really didn’t have any ideas on what to do besides helping her friends in whatever they decide.
Gilith seemed the one to always come up with things to do, and Rjavyn was looked to for finding the best way to accomplish any travel or exploring without getting maimed or killed. Tasqmii thought about their three way relationship; Rjavyn and Tasqmii had worked quite a bit together, as had Rjavyn and Gilith. Rjavyn seemed to be the trio’s anchor, and being a couple of years older Tasqmii looked to her almost as an older sister- even though Rjavyn was a Nord and Tasqmii was a Breton.

Tasqmii had come to trust Gilith’s simple, honest way of thinking and was developing a great affection for the Altmer. Tasqmii could tell Gilith liked her by the almost motherly way Gilith dealt with her; Tasqmii, blushed thinking, “Even while pulling one of my arrows from her bum.” Gilith was the senior member of their trio, being an Altmer there was no telling how old she was, and it just seemed natural to defer to her as the thinker in the group.

Yesterday, for Tasqmii’s birthday, Gilith had given her a very valuable dagger: its name was,”Witsplinter”. Tasqmii put her hand to the dagger’s hilt protruding from the scabbard on her hip, and could feel the power of the enchantment pulsing there. Tasqmii was touched by the greatness of the gift- it could bring hundreds of septims in any market- but Gilith had given it to her. Rjavyn had taken Tasqmii out on the town to celebrate her “turning of age”, not that Tasqmii understood what she meant, if you could walk, talk, and fight, you were of age in Tasqmii’s world. Hell, Tasqmii remembered that she was only twelve when the band of mercenaries found her wandering down a road in Skyrim- and they had been her surrogate family until she met Shara.

Tasqmii took a swig from her morning cup of mead to wash down a sudden lump in her throat. “Ah…Shara,“ she thought, “I’m so sorry.” Tasqmii remembered the sisterly things the two had done, and how Shara looked up to her as much an older sister as a friend, and how she had stood, with barely concealed tears, in the middle of the road watching Tasqmii run off with a group of mercenaries- even higher up when Wye appeared to be a miniature town, Tasqmii could see a small figure in the middle of the road staring at the mountain- the memory was heart wrenching, and Tasqmii had to wash down another lump.

The young man that caught her eye and the reason she had run off, had run off with another young woman a couple of weeks later. Tasqmii had returned to where she had left Shara, but, even after weeks of searching, never found her. Tasqmii still lives in the house the two had shared in hopes one day Shara would show up- the hope is slowly turning to guilt-ridden sadness.

Gilith and Rjavyn were talking about the best route into Valenwood. Gilith kept glancing at Tasqmii with a concerned look. Catching Gilith in the act of one of those looks, Tasqmii smiled and said, “I’m ready, when do we go?” Gilith smiled back, “How about tomorrow morning?” In answer Tasqmii grinned. Tasqmii thought, “Anyone tries to hurt either of these two--- “

Tasqmii was an easy read for Gilith; her emotions ran across her face in obvious waves. Tasqmii may have been brought up by not the best examples of morality, but somehow she had never absorbed any of the dishonest or mean traits. Something was bothering Tasqmii enough at one point that Gilith was sure Tasqmii was on the brink of tears; Gilith suppressed the impulse to ask what was troubling her. Even as outspoken as she was Tasqmii was a very private person, and Gilith would respect that privacy.

“…we could swim from there to Haven—it would feel good to wash off the desert dust.” Gilith heard Rjavyn say. Gilith nodded, “sounds good.” After Tasqmii voiced her readiness to continue to Valenwood in the morning; Gilith thought, “If only Rjavyn would be more open- maybe I could help with whatever is bothering her.” Gilith knew Rjavyn, and her stubborn Nord pride, wouldn’t admit a weakness to anyone. Rjavyn’s eyes told a different story than her mouth; gone was the wide eyed confident look Gilith normally saw. Instead Rjavyn’s eyes had the look of an eagle on the hunt- though they did soften when looking at Tasqmii or Gilith- it was something new since Rjavyn’s time spent lost underground, and Gilith worried for her friend. Actually, Gilith had to admit that these two young women brought forth motherly feelings, if she had ever found a mate and had children, in herself. At their age Rjavyn and Tasqmii could have been her daughters age- ok… granddaughters age- gods… sometimes she felt ancient.

The early morning sun lit the jungle with a tawny haze; three figures could be seen moving west carefully through the thick boulder strewn foliage.


Finally

Standing at the top of a long steep ridge face, the kind where you can turn sideways put out an arm and lean without bending over, Gilith, Rjavyn, and Tasqmii could look down on the coastal town of Haven, its harbor, and ships at birth- or anchored in the bay. They could see coast line extend west until it was obscured by distant fog. The roofs and towers of South Point could be seen an hour or so walk west of Haven. The faint silhouettes of islands interrupted the ocean’s surface as the seemingly endless blue disappeared over the horizon.

Looking north of Haven were tall peaks; from this view, they looked like cones with giant boulders stacked on top, sprouted from the edge of town going high enough that the trio had to look up to see the tops. It was to the north east of the foremost peak four fifths of the way up, probably a half day or more climb, that the gate Rjavyn had exited the deep Alyaid ruins she’d been lost in was located.

A giant spider came running at the trio, its legs shuffling sand and dust; it raised jaws dripping with poison and aimed at poor Tasqmii. Gilith thought, “poor Tasqmii—smallest seems the easiest prey— bad mistake.” The fight was over before the spider had a chance to bite anyone. A couple of silver arrows, a large burnt gash, and a red glow about the spider’s carcass, showed that all three women had attacked without hesitation. And the amazing part was no-one had any nicks, or silver arrows sticking out of their bums.

It was a long climb to the water’s edge, and it felt good to submerge their sweaty, dusty bodies into the water and swim across to the wharf.
According to Rjavyn there wasn’t much of a market here, so the three decided to make their way to a small lake and Inn that Rjavyn knew further west. Rjavyn indicated it was a good place to camp and begin their climb.
Tasqmii brighten, “small Inn, do they have mead?” Rjavyn and Gilith rolled their eyes and almost simultaneously said, “Yes Tasqmii…” They all looked around at each other and burst out laughing. It was good to see Rjavyn laugh Gilith thought, it dosen’t happen as often as it used to. Looking at Rjavyn, walking in front of her still showing a slight grin, Gilith had a sudden insight and turned to look at Tasqmii as they all walked along. Gilith was just in time to catch a glimpse of a satisfied smile on Tasqmii’s face before it was replaced with Tasqmii’s usual grin. Hmmm…Gilith thought, that girl is full of surprises.

The next morning before the sun breached the horizon the trio were working their way up the left side of the mountain- the right side was too steep to climb. Rjavyn found the small ridge she’d had followed down the day of her exit from the ruins. The ridge weaved slightly east and west as they climbed; finally evening out close to the summit of the peak they were climbing. There was no path, just a saddle between two giant rock out-croppings. Since they were so close to the peak a climb to the top was too hard to resist. Rain hampered their view, but it was still a humbling sight.

Rjavyn guided Tasqmii and Gilith back down to the saddle and east passing through to an outcropping that overlooked a collection of ancient ruins, bone white and almost glowing where not covered by a heavy growth of vines. Rjavyn pointed to the ruins, “There it is…” Gilith noticed none of Rjavyn’s old excitement at discovery showed in her voice- and it worried Gilith that it might be a little soon for Rjavyn to plunge into those depths again- of course Gilith could think of no way to tell her friend this without hurting her pride.

Again Tasqmii showed more thought than she gets credited for, except maybe now from Gilith, as Tasqmii started down the hill first saying, “come on, me first!” Gilith thought a brief look of relief passed over Rjavyn’s face. The three stopped near the entrance to rest a bit and have a snack. Gilith took Tasqmii’s lead and said, “I think I’d better go first so my spells don’t hit you guys, what do you think? Tasqmii jumped in, “well I better go next, if you’re too far in front you have time to jump in front of my arrows.” Gilith stood up and rubbed her butt, “yeah we don’t want that do we.” Looking at Rjavyn, “what do you think?” At which time both Gilith and Tasqmii held their breath. Rjavyn was poking at the ground with a short stick, looked up and smiled at her two friends, “ok…but we trade off lead every so often.” The two women let out their breath, at which Rjavyn chuckled, “you two…”

Gilith lead the way into the ruin followed by Tasqmii and then Rjavyn. As with all plans they tend to last only until things happen.

Hey man, good stuff. Vibrant imagination. Too bad Tasqmil couldn't sell that daggar!

I love the rainy pic, and the one right after it (from a distance). Keep it up, runlykhel

3:30 am, Evening Star 14, 3rd Era 433


Kahreem and Amusei sneak together, attempting to leave the Pale Lady's hiding place. The Argonian's sense of smell is spectacular, but his hearing isn't so good. Kahreem moves slowly, training his ears. He knows somebody could be coming. With all the racket which had just ensued as he and an orc castle worker fought and killed the dark elf vampire known as the Pale Lady he is pretty sure he heard some footsteps. The Pale Lady had apparently been using prisoners for fodder; drinking blood from those she could get away with.

"If only the count had known that one of his very own employees was a vampire. Who woulda thought?"

Kahreem creeps forward with Amusei the Argonian because there's no other direction to go. Once he is back before the wine cask door he stands still, not making a sound. Training his ears, like any good prowler would. Then he whispers: "You want to be a part of Thieves Guild? Gotta learn not just to creep, but also listen. Listen for THEM, whoever they are. Always somebody though. Know what I mean? ... know what I'm saying? ... Like there was this one time I was breaking into a crypt over in Cheydinhal, okay? And ...."

It's the wine, thinks Amusei as he listens to Kahreem ramble--telling him things he already knows, lettting his mouth run. Thisss Redgaaahd is half-drunk on it, and de jahhhb as welll. Amusei says nothing though. His hearing may not be so good, but with his reptilian nose he could pick out the Cheap Wine on Kahreem's person from a hundred feet away.

"TO ARMS .... TO ARMMMS!"

.... a voice calls from the wine-aging room. "Fokke!" At first Kahreem thinks it's an Imperial guard, but then he notices a certain timbre in the voice. "It's that orc, the one I was just fighting. Apparently he wants more."

"Yoo thiiink?"

"Gonna have to take that fokkinge orc down, lizard-lips. Mind if I call you that? Lizard Lips? ... Anyway, gonna have to take the orc down. Here is what we'll do. I will open this door, let him in, close it, and then we kill him. Okay? Sorry if that's not part of whatever you had planned this evening, like if you had planned to just relax in that jail cell, that's not what is going to fokkinge happen. See? We're taking him down. Gotta do what has to be done."

Kahreem opens the door, but first allows himself some time for natural healing of his body's health to take place *. His plan (however) does not go as planned.

"Well well, escaping prisoners," says the orc. The big, brawny orc has suddenly turned into a big sissy. "Escaping prisoners!" he hisses. He does not attack, instead he stands at the far end of the aging room, calling out so any nearby guards might hear him.

"Fokke!"

But nobody hears the orc. Kahreem had wanted the orc to follow him into the phony wine cask, into the Pale Lady's lair, and fight. But since the orc stays in the wine-aging room, it'll be hard to fight him and not make too much noise. Some guards could show up. Fokke, indeed. The orc doesn't continue with his calling though, instead he walks calmly away. Kahreem sees his silhouette walk out of the aging room, up the room's rampart, and at the top of this rampart he makes a left.

"He's headed back for the jail cells where I fed the prisoner his slop!"

"Whaaat?"

"I'm a slop drudge, Lizard. That's my job. My real I feel slop to prisoners. That is how I managed to get in here and rescue you."

Amusei says nothing, but wonders why the same Redguard who rescued him in Leyawiin is now wearing Bravil guard's armor, while claiming to be a low-paid slop drudge.

Kahreem and Amusei leave the phony wine cask slowly, in case this is some sort of trap. Maybe the orc is luring them into a trap. At the top of the rampart they can possibly turn right or left. The Redguard decides to go left, which means following the orc. He has to go this direction, he hasn't much other choice. Going right would probably put him inside the castle's private quarters, which means he would get lost, caught by someone, and then arrested once again. He's never been in this area before. So he goes left, with his sword and shield readied.

Kahreem doesn't see the orc, and Amusei can't smell him. There is an empty room to his right, and a door further down on the left. The door is locked with a 1-tumbler, and Kahreem opens this easily, wondering if the orc is inside. The orc is not.

"FOKKE!"

Only one direction left to go, and that's back to the jail cells where Kahreem drudged that Nord some slop long ago. Kahreem decides this is too risky. If he follows the orc back to those jail cells and has some sort of confrontation there, he'll be surrounded by guards in no time. But 'back toward the jail cells' seems to be the only possible direction the orc had taken. So Kahreem decides to turn around, walk back up the hallway. There are two additional doors (which he hadn't opened) here. There's a door to his left now, and one going straight ahead. The left-facing door leads to a small room, probably the room in which whoever aged all that wine must sleep.

The door going straight ahead has a placard on it which says it enters the castle's dining room. Good. He is pretty sure the dining room in any castle is okay for public use. The door is only locked by a twin-tumbler.

"First lesson in thievery, Lizard Lips, is to learn to pick locks. I'm going to pick this one. click!And hope we don't get fokkinge clobbered by guards on the other side."

The door opens easily....




9:32 AM
He and Amusei now find themselves at the bottom of a stairway. In here, the castle's magical musical system begins to pipe soft tones, which means they must be in the castle's proper area (rather than its worker's area). The top of the stairs are is semi-lit by one candle, so it is easy to see that nobody is here. Unfortunately, it does not look like a dining room they are in. Kahreem is not sure if he and Amusei would be considered trespassers or not, so both of them keep their crouched position as they move up the stairs.

There are some sacks located on the floor once they get to the top, and Amusei is surprised to see Kahreem loot through them before moving on. All that speaking about being quiet, and the Redgahhd is noisier than I am! ... Kahreem finds nothing in the sacks. There is a sort of hallway (Kahreem thinks) in front of them, and Kahreem waits a long time, listening once again.

"Fokkinge music!" the Redguard rants. "Makes it hard to hear!"

Nobody seems to be here though. Kahreem and Amusei sneak forward once again, and are now in a sort of storage area full of more sacks and barrels. A couple of shelves on their left. The pleasant sounds of harps plucking plays from overhead, maddening the Redguard. There is a hallway with red carpeting to their right, and the Redguard decides to walk this way. Harps pluck, and some sort of wind-instrument moans. Maybe this is one of the perks of royalty Kahreem thinks, but if I ever become a noble, I am not fokkinge having this music play around my ears all damn day.

The hallway with the red carpet goes two different directions: left and right. Nobody here, but the place is very well lit. Dozens of candles. The pair of rogues cannot afford to be seen in all this light, it would be all too easy for them to get caught. But nobody is here.

Kahreem notices the Argonian's clothes. He is dressed in rags, just like a prisoner would be.

"Listen Llizard."

"What should I dooooo?"

"Chances are nobody, none of the Imperials or Bretons or whoever, is going to know who you are, but you look like you just escaped from jail. You see? .. You look like an escaped convict, and that is not good. So next lesson here: always come up with a story. Some bull's crappe. I am a Bravil guard, for instance, as you can see from my Bravil-armor. Now you...... let us say you are my slave. My servant. No ... my slave. You are my slave. I captured you in Blackwood, and discovered you were carrying a ring belonging to the Count of Skingrad, so I personally brought you here. Agreed?"

"Okay!"

"We get caught, and by Sithis make sure you stick to that story. The story is important. Helps you get out of situations sometimes."

"We shall be stealthy," Amusei answers.

The Redguard realizes he might have trouble trying to explain why he and his 'slave' are crouching and creeping through the bowels of Castle Skingrad, instead of standing and walking more proudly. But that is one of those problems which he hopefully won't have to deal with.



11:25 am
Strings and flutes sing from all around. Maddening. To their right, the hallway dead-ends quickly to a door, and Kahreem decides to go this way. He has no idea where he is, no idea at all, so it's best to try to limit their exposure. They come to the door and read its placard.

"Castle Skingrad Living Quarters FOKKE!!!!"

"Whaat is it?"

"Living Quarters, Lizard Lips, are where the people of the castle live. We'd be considered trespassers if they saw us. Must find some other way."

To their left is an opening which leads to another staircase, and this staircase goes upward. The pair decide to go this direction. The Argonian scuffles a bit too loudly, and Kahreem freezes. Waits a moment, then moves on. The music around them seems to blare. The staircase makes a U-turn, climbs another seven feet (or so) and ends at a door at the top/right of the stairs. Amazingly, nobody has caught them yet. Kahreem skulks to the door and reads the placard beside it.

"Castle Skingrad's Lord's Manor."

Normally, such a discovery might be a delight for the Weet Bandit. The Lord's Manor--the place where Count Janus Hassildor lives. But now, with a noisy Argonian on his tail, music screaming all around, and too many candles lighting their every move, Kahreem decides not to go this way. The Lord's Manor is locked by a 4-tumbler anyways. Yes, he checked.

"Alright, that is no good."

Finally, they find the way. Back downstairs they go, back into the hall with the plush red carpet, sneaking all the while. About three-quarters of the way down the hall is a second hall which runs perpendicular to the first. Dead-ends to another door. The pair sneak toward this door.

"County Skingrad County Hall. At last."





12:59 PM
Confident that he is now in an area of the castle which would be considered 'public', the Weet Bandit now stands fully, but Amusei keeps his crouched position.

"Stand up lizard lips, we're okay now."

But Amusei, terrified of getting caught, does not obey. They walk forward and find themselves in a large chamber; obviously the Count's court. The music is still loud, louder than what might be heard in other castles, but it doesn't seem so annoying to the Redguard anymore. In celebration, he removes one of the bottles of Cheap Wine he stole, drinks it down, while Amusei makes a face.

Below Kahreem and his 'slave' are a couple of folks, dressed in pleasant upper-class clothing.

"I suppose Count Hassildor keeps Skingrad running smoothly, but you hardly ever see the man," says a Breton man below.

"I have hearrrd some strange stories about Count Hassildor," an Argonian replies." I'm sure they couldn't be true, though."

The Weet Bandit and his pretend-slave walk boldly into the castle's court area.

Our regularly scheduled program, "Adventures of The Weet Bandit", will not air this particular week. We apologize for any inconvenience.

The following is a journal entry made by an NPC follower named Mimi. What has happened up to this point: Renee won her first three Arena matches, and after this decided to head south. Gabrielle really wanted to see Bravil (I rolled a 10-sided die to come to this decision from her), so there was a trio at this point: Renee, Gabby, and Mimi.

Mimi is the one bitching below. Not my best work, but it's kind of funny.

Interesting NPC behaviour. Think it´s safe to say you enjoy that mod, right?

Oh yes. CM Partners is pretty neat; and quite different from Companion Share & Recruit. CMP adds extra NPCs to the game, while CSR does not. CSR merely allows us to hook up with NPCs who already exist in the vanilla game. I use CMP for Renee's game, but CSR for Snaat Rayag's and Saga's games. I like the variety, you know?

Yeah sold on cmp myself; love how you can make your owm cmpartner as well as convert old ones to the cmp format (like Tasqmii).

(Been over at eso lately- got it for free- it's not typical mmo (cut my teeth on COD,BF, and Halo) and am having fun with it. Don't understand all the negative posts- maybe they just want everyone to stay away so they can have it to themselves.)

Or maybe Zenimax managed to work out a lot of early bugs?

Renee, how funny to hear about Renee from the disillusioned Mimi!

After major technical issues Darnand and NPC Jerric finally made it to Kvatch. They’re taking care of some business for Savlian Matius, acting Steward of the city. I expect they will head to Cheydinhal afterward assuming things go smoothly. They’ll probably walk down to Anvil first. Darnand’s pack is loaded with flax seeds for potions and he prefers to work at home. Mostly though he’s missing the company of his female (also non-Nord and less flatulent) friends.

OH no, what technical issues? .. My PS3 that I've had for nearly 6 years is finally YLODing. It's happened to everyone else, yet I assumed that it would never happen to me. Well, it has. I actually wound up buying a new PS3. I don't game on it much, but I don't want to lose all my classic saves from over the years: Dyan, Eradi~Kate, etc. I am lucky because I've managed to transfer some of this material from old to new, but it's been a slow process. The old PS3 keeps freezing and stuff.

Good luck in Anvil. I actually often hotkey flax seeds, assuming somebody like Saga goes around collecting them. She'll wind up with so many of these, you know? It's easy to hotkey this item, and then wind up relying on boosted Magicka regen rates for a good long while.

Now it is time for some Kahreem of Weet. Everybody ready? I am. We last saw him in Castle Skingrad's Great Hall, sneaking along with Amusei.


Fredas, 1:09 pm
Evening Star 14, 3rd Era 433

Days Passed: 110
Days Jailed: 24
Bounty: 500

Standing in the Great Hall of Skingrad's castle, Kahreem of Weet and his new partner Amusei seem an odd pair. A Redguard dressed in the armor suit typically worn by Bravil's Finest, and an Argonian dressed in rags. The Redguard stinks of sweat and Cheap Wine, while the Argonian smells like he's been in jail for several days. Which, in fact, he has. This unlikely pair now stalks into the Great Hall, while a Breton male and Argonian female converse from below.

"Escaping prisoner!"

The castle's music drones bucolically on from above and all around. Below Kahreem and Amusei, a black-haired Imperial seems to recognize something is wrong, and calls out to anybody who might possibly be of assistance.


"Help! Come quick!" he calls out, but to no immediate response from the guards, or anybody else.

"Don't you worry Imperial, I am here to escort this prisoner back to Bravil, where he is wanted for horse theft, of all things. Horse theft, skooma trade, and storing Cheap Wine in the cellars of Skingrad's castle, too. Right alongside of Surilie's and Tamika's. Imagine the hypocrisy!"



As Kahreem and Amusei walk by the castle's resident Argonian, she actually hunches down in fright. "Escaping prisoners!" she says.

"Hey, I am not a prisoner. Let's get one thing clear. I am under strict orders from Count Caro of Bravil. I am to escort this prisoner personally into the arms of Bravil's patrols. Any problems with this, and you'll have to have words with one of the fokkinge counts. Clear? .. Now I am going to walk through this door, after which I hope to never return to this uppity town again!"

And with this, Kahreem stalks off, through the doors. ...,.


.....and out into the courtyard of Skingrad's castle. Once out here, he suddenly wonders if the Argonian was serious. She had said 'escaping prisonerS'. Plural, not singular.

"Why the fokke would she say that?"

And Kahreem quickly realizes why, through his somewhat drunken haze. Amusei, the lizard who has now joined alongside of him, actually is a prisoner, and Kahreem has chosen to let him free, probably earlier than he should have been freed. He has no idea what the lizard had been in jail for, but certainly his sentence had not ended when he had shown up. Which means both he and his new partner are now wanted men. Somehow the people in the castle already know this.

How do they know? .. Who fokkinge knows. Perhaps the orc who had witnessed the fight between Kahreem and the Pale Lady might have alerted people to a Redguard wearing guard's armor paired-up with a jail-freed Argonian.

"Listen lizard lips."

"Questions??"

"No, not questions, answers. We must get out of Skingrad safely. There is no other way. We'll have to be careful, though. I have a plan. Ready?"

"Whaat should I doo?"

"RUN, that's what. If we run into trouble, we'll just fokkinge run. Get the Oblivion out of Skingrad. We'll run all the way back to the Imperial City if we have to."

"Let's be ssstealty."

"No, you misunderstand my words, lizard. You can't fokkinge run and be stealthy at the same time. But that is okay. You'll know what to do when the time comes."

Kahreem has a look around the castle's outer courtyard, and decides it's best to keep moving. This area is a major thoroughfare for guards and citizens alike, who constantly walk in and out of this area. Right now, they are lucky nobody is here.

"Let's go."


2:03 pm
The two now leave the courtyard, and out onto Skingrad's giant overheard bridge. The sky is blue, the air is fair. Way in the distance, Kahreem can see the Imperial City's White Gold Tower. That is where I am headed, he thinks. He comes up with yet another plan.

"You know what lizard?"

"Whaaat?"

"I think maybe I will jump off this bridge."

"You tiiink?"

"Well, not jump off it, but get off of it. Somewhere down there is a stable where I put my horse. I bet if we slide down that hill we can find ourselves with some easy transport."

"Okay!"

He gets on the side of the bridge. The jump below is about ten or fifteen feet. He thinks he can survive this. As he looks below, he sees a sight which makes him giggle: a pair of jail-issue sack cloth pants lying on the ground. Chances are, he is the one who threw these pants off just a few days before, after leaving jail for horse theft.

He changes his mind. It seems foolish to run and hide like this; jump off a bridge, hoping not to get caught. He's dressed as a guard, why not act like one? The people inside the castle may have called his bluff, but that does not mean those who might see him outside will do so.

He decides to cross the bridge instead of jumping off it. Amusei follows. As they make their way down the hill on the opposite side, Kahreem sees the orc who is his boss, the one who hired him to be a slop drudge a couple days earlier. He says nothing to the orc, and this is fine. The orc says nothing as well. He seems to have no idea that the Bravil guard he's just seen is the same Redguard he had hired to slop drudge to prisoners.

"Ha haaaa!"

Once the orc has passed, Amusei pulls Kahreem aside. "Anything for my savior!" he says.



"What?"

"He told me to give this message to any member of the Thieves Guild that asked about him or a booook."

"Who, Theranis? ... What else did he say?"

"'Look under de bush near de well, behind Nerastarel's house.' I was going to take it for myself, but I owe you a great debt. Yoo should take it."

"How about we both take it, lizard? And where is this Nestrabetel or whoever the fokke's house?"

Amusei tells Kahreem: Nerastarel lives in a manor somewhere in Skingrad.* And then, he turns to leave.

"Safe journey too yoo," Amusei says, leaving Kahreem to figure the rest for himself.

Nice story, so they finally made it out of the castle!

It's convenient that the Orc attacked him in the cellar earlier, because it 'explains' why Kahreem was also regarded as an escaped prisoner.

These Kahreem updates make me feel like I´m watching episodes of Prison Break which, well... This was a prison break, wasn´t it?

Too bad about your PS, Renee But I´m glad you got a new one. Wasn´t too expensive, right?

I think I got a bad spawn. It was scary. I’m using a mod before the patches are finished, so I’m really asking for trouble. Sorry about your old PS3. I’m glad you’re able to rescue your characters. All but one of my original ones are on the same old machine. Yikes.

Hotkeying flax seeds is a great idea! Jerric in particular tends to snack on them with his Atronach-cursed magicka. I'd guess they're also good for digestion, lol.

Kahreem’s Bravil guard disguise was perfect for this caper! The discarded pants made me laugh. Nice work!

@ Lopov: exactly. How would those NPCs know who Kahreem (in guard's armor) and some crappy-dressed Argonian are? .. Makes sense that the orc somehow spread the word.

@ mirocu: Yes, PS3s are soooo cheap right now. That's the only good thing. I [censored] lost my saves though. They're all on my old PS3, and right in the middle of transferring info from old to new the old one froze. I tried reviving it several times, to no avail. What this means is all my old saves (Dyan, Ann Thraxx, Blue Wizard, etc.) are locked on there. I'm saving the old PS3 anyways. Maybe someday somebody will figure out how to get into locked-up hard drives or something.

@ Grits: ohh, it was a PC issue. I'll remember that then. No playing with beta mods. And yeah, Kahreem has a habit of immediately disrobing just after getting out of jail, so there's often some discarded jail clothes right near the exit of where the game puts him after his sentence is served.

I fired up Oblivion last night and this afternoon, and spent some time with my Ayleid Queen Astarte. Astarte has been doing the main quest. She has made a pact with Martin Septim. She will see him on the Imperial Throne, and he will in turn recognize her as the rightful Queen of Silorn.

The Dawn is broken, and Astarte has taught Captain Burd and his guardsmen how to close Oblivion Gates. She has even given Martin the Ring of Khajiti. Next up, the blood of Tiber Septim, and Allies for Bruma.

Yesss I remember Astarte from the Hot / Not contest. Good luck with her exploits.

Evening Star 14, 3rd Era 433

Days Passed: 110

Quests: Lost Histories, Paranoia

Where we left off: Amusei, an Argonian who seems to wish he were Thieves Guild, has told Kahreem of Weet where to find a book called 'Lost Histories of Tamriel', a book which is being requested by the Thieves Guild for some reason. In return, Kahreem has freed this Argonian for the second time. Kahreem is eager to return to Bravil, where he will meet S'krivva and will no-doubt collect hundreds of gold, but first, he has some busniess in Skingrad to attend to.



"What is it?"



...asks one of Skingrad's guards on this oh-so-fine Fredas. The guard had been looking forward to soaking up some sun on his daily afternoon shift, and what a glorious day to earn a Septim on.

"They call me Bargo the Redguard, sir. I am new in town, here to assist the Count of Skingrad with an assistance of winery shipments."

'Bargo' wonders if this makes any sense. He wonders if the guard he speaks to will try to arrest or accost him in some way. If the guard asks, he has no idea what to say about this so-called 'winery shipment'; nor does 'Bargo' know the difference between Tamika's and Surilies. They both taste like toe-cheese to him. Not only that, but Bargo also has no idea whether he's wanted by the law or not. After all, he had just managed to ...

(1) break into the Castle's private regions
(2) assault an orc,
(3) kill a dark elf vampire, who apparently was a trusted employee of Skingrad, and
(4) assist a prisoner to safety.

So Kahreem / Bargo is surprised when the guard speaks to him freely. "Afternoon, sir." The guard bares his teeth while he says this, but this is all he says. It's the many things he doesn't say (... like 'IT'S ALL OVER LAWBREAKER...) that has the Redguard doing a double-take.

"I do thank you kindly, sir," the Redguard says in a foppish, high-pitched tone of voice. "Might I beg of ye a question? I need to find a particular home located in this fine town of Skingrad."

"What are you looking for?" the guard asks, still baring teeth. Bargo / Kahreem notices these bared teeth.

"Oh come now, we are both of the same ilk, are we not?" Bargo / Kahreem asks, while pointing to his guard's armor. "We both protect and serve, it's what we do, we both offer travellers to 'come find me' when they are in danger, and we both earn a single Septim a day."

"This had better be good."

"I am looking for a house owned by a certain 'Nerasteral'. This 'Nerasteral' is wanted by the Count of Bravil you see, and I am of partaking to locate the fellow. Or madam. As it were. Now if you will kindly...."

But after several minutes of small-talk and flattery ( "What a great story!" ), as well as some parted gold ( "For me? You shouldn't have." ), the guard is no closer to revealing the location of Nerasteral's house than he was before the Redguard guard had started his conversation. And it's no matter...

"Goodbye".

... it's no matter because it is now mid-afternoon, and Bargo ... err Kahreem ... is exhausted, especially after spending so much time sneaking around. Looking for hidden doors. Being attacked by, and then killing a vampire, and so on. He is pretty sure an entire day has passed since he last served some slop to the Nord inside Skingrad's jail. An entire day of no sleep. He needs to rest. The hidden book can wait.

He heads straight to Two Sisters Lodge, a place which apparently only has one sister in attendance at its sales desk.

10:15 PM
The Redguard awakes, has a meal of stolen shephard's pie, corn, and a couple beers, then gets dressed in ordinary town clothes. He thinks about retrieving the book he's been assigned to retrieve, but then comes up with another plan.

10:53 PM



"So, what did you discover at about the upstanding Davide Surilie?"

Kahreem thinks back a couple days. Was it two days ago? Or just one. Does it matter? ... Searching through his beer-fogged mind, at first he cannot even remember what his conclusion about Davide actually was. But then, it comes back to him. Davide Surilie. Kahreem had not even bothered to stalk the man! .. What would the point have been? Glarthir is crazy, paranoid as can be. Everybody told him so, and Kahreem can only conclude that what they say is true. He hadn't even bothered to see if Davide was following Glarthir or not; instead, he had simply gone to serve the Nord his slop, up in the castle's jail.

"You were exactly right, Glarthir; Davide Surilie has been following you! He is one of THEM."

"And so it all falls into place.. yes, yes, it all makes sense now."

"It does? .. I mean YES, it does!"

Glarthir takes a moment to scribble something on a piece of paper, which he hands to the Redguard. "This is your last task," he says.

"Okay. Sure it is. And I shall get right on it, sir. But I think you might be forgetting something. You know.... something shiny and...."

"Ahh yes. Here's the gold, as promised!"

"Gaaah -- gaah -- gooah -- !"

"I always pay my debts, and then some. Do the last .. task .. in that note, and I will pay you much much more!"

"Maah -- maah -- MORE???!?!"

...Glarthir then hands so much gold to Kahreem, the Redguard can barely breathe, let alone speak. How can a man possibly have so much gold on his person, and be so willing to part with it, for things which do not even exist? Kahreem feels he's now a rich man. There's no other way to put it. He's not sure how much gold he has been given overall, he has actually lost count, but he feels as if he can now comfortably walk around in an upper-class black and gold outfit, while also having the clout to back this sort of outfit up.


Loredas, 1:09 AM, Evening Star 15

"Four-hundred eighty-one ... four-hundred eighty-two..."

Two hours later, the Weet Bandit is still located behind Skingrad's Chapel of Julianos. Counting his gold.

"Four-hundred eighty-six..."

He hasn't even bothred to read the note which Glarthir has given him..

"Four-hundred eighty-seven gold. I am rich. I have four-hundred eighty-seven gold in my man-purse."

.. nor has he bothered to try to locate the mysterious book, Lost Histories of Tamriel, which everybody has been so mad to possess.

"Hello, who are you?" he asks himself. "Why, my name is Kahreem of Weet," he answers himself. "What do you do, Kahreem of Weet, for a living?" "Well, I am many things to many people." "Such as?" "Such as ... a berry picker. An art dealer. A spice merchant. A re-locater of busts. And, of course, most proudly, a slop drudge." "My my, you must have a lot of gold, with all those jobs you have!" "Why yes. Matter of fact I do, now that you mention! I have lots of gold, indeed!"

.. he speaks to himself in a manner which amuses only him. In a good mood he is, celebrating his many different selves, of which many around him see many different sides. He thinks back to his banditry days, so long ago they seemed, when he had scrounged around for nothing. Living on Cheap Wine, yes, and a decent amount of gold, yes, but also having to share it with others in his clan. Well those days are long-gone. Say hello to the new Kahreem of Weet, man of newfound wealth and pleasantries.

When he finally reads Glarthir's note, the chapel's bell tolls.

So the bust-hunting slop drudge is dealing with Glarthir now.

Heh, he even avoided the 'It's all over, lawbreaker!' speech from the guards.

I love the part where Kahrem talks to himself!

Kahreem has indeed come a long way since his skooma-sucking days in Bravil!

Yeh the guy has come a long way, that's true!

It's weird to think that we've been at Thieves Guild for over two years, and just 3 months have passed in-game, ya know?