Brotherhood: Visiting Dawnstar
As Amaryllis continued to follow the road that was in front of her, and put the decent sized bandit camp behind her, she had many things to think about, because while she was sure that she was never going to cross paths with the Dragonborn, who seemed to be a legendary hero for the people of Skyrim, she knew nothing about them and what made them hold such a sacred place in the hearts of the Nords. Then there were the Greybeards, who she had to assume were masters of the Thu'um, whatever that was, based on what the one guard said when he tried to explain what was going on, but all that did was leave her with more questions than answers, which was a little annoying if she was being honest, especially when she considered the fact that the Greybeards also called Tiber Septim to them at one point in time. The reason that part was even a tad bit confusing was because everything she had learned about Talos, which wasn't a whole lot since she had been focused on other things, lead her to believe the being in question was a god, not a nordic hero of old, though that did make her wonder if the Nords were revering him because he was a hero and was incorrectly thinking of him as a god, but that only made her determine that she would have to ask someone else what the truth of the matter was, when she had a chance to do that anyway. And then, to top all of this off, there was the matter of the Greybeards being able to shake the sky itself with their voices, or at least that was what the guard said and she could confirm thanks to the fact that she felt it happen, which meant she didn't want to bother them or even tick them off, as there was no telling what else they could do if that was a small sample of their power.
In the end Amaryllis found that she had learned nothing thanks to that experience, making her more confused as to what was going on in the rest of Skyrim, and she determined that trying to figure out what was going on would only make her even more confused, which was the reason why she was going to focus on walking to Dawnstar for the first side contract she had been given.
One thing she discovered as she followed the road was that whoever built the roads of Skyrim sure liked to build close to the rivers, as the stones that made up the path she was following were just a few steps from the water that was off on her left, and she knew that it would be easy for travelers to restock their water if they ran out, but even so it just seemed odd for it to be so close to the road. At least it was better than looking at what was on her right, as all there was in that area were rocks, grass, and weeds, with some flowers growing here and there, but for the most part there wasn't much to look at, hence the reason she focused on the area in front of her and occasionally looked at the river, just to see if there were any other routes that could be taken to reach this area, potential shortcuts and dangers that needed to be avoided in the future. The other thing she noticed was that she didn't seem to be making good time, as it seemed like it took her roughly an hour to reach this spot, meaning that, if the map of the land was to be believed, she would arrive in the city of Morthal just after noon, if her estimates were correct, meaning that she would likely arrive in Dawnstar sometime after eight. Of course that might work to her benefit, since some people would be heading home around that time of the night and some would be heading to the local inn to socialize for an hour, before turning in for the night, giving her the chance to study Beitild and the town, before deciding on how she was going to carry out this assassination and what escape routes she had. She was sure that if those guards had noticed that she was wearing the armor of the Dark Brotherhood they would have tried to stop her before she killed anyone, which would have been annoying since she didn't want to be cut down by anyone, but fortunately it appeared that her thoughts about Astrid and the others changing the armor every now and then seemed to be correct.
After some time walking, an hour by her estimates, Amaryllis found something that worried her, as some distance in front of her she found an overturned carriage that was resting near one of the short stone bridges of the land, where she spotted a pair of dead merchants, who happened to be on either side of the carriage, and a dead horse that was still tied to the front of the carriage. She paused for a moment and searched the area for any clues as to who had killed them and their horse, though all she found were some ugly looking arrows that seemed to have been dipped in some sort of liquid, before they had been used to hurt these people and kill them, but since she had no idea who could have made these ugly arrows it was hard to reach a decision on the culprit, so she decided to leave the mystery for the guards. One thing she did find out was that anything of value the merchants had on them had been stolen, as neither of them were carrying any gold pouches and the crates they had been carrying seemed to have been stolen in the last few days, making her wonder if the bandits at that camp were to blame or if there was another group of people in the area that needed to be taken out so the various travelers could feel safe again. Since it appeared that there wasn't much she could do, in terms of figuring out who was behind this and if she could avenge them, Amaryllis walked away from the carriage and continued down the road that she was following, knowing that someone would take the time to figure out what had happened and take out those responsible for the deed, so she focused on her current task once more. As she walked away from the river, by following the road in front of her, she spotted something interesting, and that was the fact that there must have been a split in the path that was on the other side of the bridge, as there was a fork in the road in front of her, only instead of her having to pick from two paths it appeared that two paths were merging into a single road, which made things must easier for her this time around.
A few minutes later she found herself stopping once more, though this time around it wasn't because of something that had been attacked or someone that was walking on the road with something she considered to be odd, like that one farmer with the painted cow. This time around she spotted a lone dog, whose fur was light brown, sitting off to the side of the road, almost like it was staring at the road for some reason, though when she stopped the dog turned towards her and barked for a moment, before getting up and heading into the trees that were nearby, where she spotted a shack off in the distance, just a minute or two from where she was standing. Since she knew time wasn't off the essence, due to the fact that none of her targets were actually going anywhere in the near future, other than the locations they called home, she decided to see what the dog wanted and followed him over to the shack in question, where she found some bread, apples, carrots, and a freshly caught rabbit hanging from one of the beams, before noticing the dead Nord that was resting in the bed on one side of the shack, with the dog sitting near him with a sad look in it's eyes. That was when she spotted a small journal resting near the dead Nord, which she picked up first, as she had the feeling that it could tell her what happened to the man, and found that he had contracted something called Rockjoint, a disease of some sort, something she guessed he had been unable to treat either earlier this morning or late last night, which caused his death by the looks of it. The journal also mentioned that the Nord had one last companion, a dog by the name of Meeko, who Amaryllis had to assume was the dog next to her, and that he was sure Meeko would be able to look after himself until death claimed him, something that wouldn't happen for a long time, as it seemed that the dog was in the middle of his natural lifespan and that it would be a number of years before he passed away, though once she stopped reading it she returned the journal to where it had been resting and considered what she had learned for a few moments.
Amaryllis knew that most people of the people in this land would probably leave Meeko alone and be on their way, due to the fact that they had satisfied their curiosity on what the dog wanted, but, since she wasn't like the people of Skyrim, she asked the dog if he wanted to come with her, instead of staying here for the rest of his days, even though she knew that he couldn't actually speak, and it didn't take long for Meeko to let out a happy bark to show he liked the idea, or at least that was what she assumed he was thinking. Since she now had a traveling companion, which she was going to have to tell all of her new Family members about when they got back to the Sanctuary, the first thing she did was gather the bits of food that hadn't spoiled yet, including the rabbit, as she was sure they could find an inn somewhere and cook some of the bits she had found. Once that was done, and she was sure that she wasn't leaving anything behind, she headed for the area of the shack that the front door would be in and headed outside, though she made sure to pick up the pricey looking book, chapter six of the A Dance In Fire series, and add it to her pack, as it was another thing she could sell off when she reached the next town. With that done, and the shack cleared of everything she could salvage, the last thing she thought about doing was burying the Nord, instead of leaving him resting on the bed like this, but Meeko seemed against the idea and growled whenever she tried to move his former master, so she dropped the idea and headed back to the road, this time with Meeko letting out a happy bark in the process, as if he liked being on the road. She was sure that she had spent at least ten minutes inside the small shack, trying to figure out what Meeko wanted from her and discovered that his former master was dead, but in the end she felt that this was a good thing, that the dog could see more of Skyrim and possibly have a good adventure, before she focused on the mission that was constantly getting interrupted and continued walking down the road that would take her to Dawnstar.
As it turned out there was another stone fortress about fifteen minutes down the road, off to her left to be exact, though what interested her was the fact that there were a number of skeletons scattered around the entrance area of the fort, all appearing to have been freshly killed, meaning that there must have been a necromancer or two who had been living in the fort. The reason she considered that was because there were two dead ladies laying on the ground near the entrance that would allow someone to enter the actual building of the fort, and the skulls on their black robes confirmed that they were necromancers, one of the worst kinds of magic users in her opinion since they were using their magic to constantly try and raise the dead for some odd purpose. Based on the fact that those guards had said they were from Morthal, the city that would be down a path on her left in the near future, she had to assume the necromancers had engaged some of the guards and had been beaten for their crimes of raising the dead, and possibly hindering the merchants that were on their way to one of the other Holds, which told her that they either cleared the entire area out or it was just the exterior of the fortress they had taken on, but, in all honesty, she wasn't about to mess with some mages that liked to raise the dead and kept moving down the road she was following. Amaryllis was sure that someone else would come along at some point in time and start looking at the recently slain undead, for anything of value, but she wasn't about to stick around and see if there were any other necromancers in the area, hence why she and Meeko were leaving this for someone else to bother with in the future, especially since she was more interested in aiding her new Family and proving herself as an assassin of the Dark Brotherhood. The only other thing that she noticed while she and Meeko followed the road, other than the rather decent stone bridge that allowed them to cross over the river that they eventually came to, were a group of robe wearing priests, who seemed to be wearing steel plate gloves and boots, walking in the direction of the fortress she had passed by earlier, either to put the undead back where they belonged, or they were heading elsewhere.
Due to her curiosity Amaryllis stopped them for a few seconds and asked them who they were, since this was the first time she had seen people like them, where she quickly discovered that the three Nords in question weren't wandering priests, which was what she originally thought the moment she spotted them, rather they were Vigilants of Stendarr, servants of the Divine that was known as the God of Mercy and Compassion, and that the three of them were in the middle of a very important mission. That important mission, according to the leader of their group, a female Nord who was accompanied by two male Nords as she found that they carried maces, was that they had heard rumors of a vampire residing in a fort near Morthal and were on their way to cleanse the area of its filth, as in a pack of blood suckers and not just a single one, meaning that they happened to be ready for battle and wouldn't stop until all of the vampires were dead. Amaryllis took a moment to think about what they had said, where she considered telling them that it might be possible that the guards of Morthal had already taken on whatever dangers were inside the fort and cleared it out, but, due to the fact that she didn't check the inside of the fort herself, she wasn't about to lie to the group, so she wished them luck and moved out of their way, allowing her and Meeko to watch as the Vigilants continued on their way to the fortress they had walked by about five to ten minutes ago, before she sighed as she continued walking. She knew that she had encountered some rather strange and odd people since her arrival in this land, but she wasn't expecting to meet so many odd characters on the roads of Skyrim, even though they were nothing compared to the ponies back home, with the exception of a few she had seen so far, though she hoped that no one else attempted to stop her and speak with her, otherwise she had the feeling she would never make it to Dawnstar.
It was a little after noon by the time Amaryllis turned to the left and descended into Morthal, with Meeko keeping up with her, though from what she could tell, as she walked down the hill that lead into the city, she had been wrong to call Morthal a city, as it was a small town that seemed to rest of the edge of a marsh. The first building on her left seemed to be the most important, as there were several citizens of the town trying to get the man that was standing in front of the front door to the building to do something, with one of them mentioning the Jarl and something about a wizard, so she had to assume the man on the stairs was the steward. From the looks of it the townspeople were afraid of something and were trying to get the Jarl to help them, where the tone of their voices indicated they couldn't believe they had a terrible person ruling over them since she continued to reside in her house and do nothing to aid them, but in the end Amaryllis ignored the crowd and walked around them, where Meeko followed her as she made her way to the Moorside Inn, where she could have them cook up the rabbit and a few of the items she picked up from the shack, so they could replenish their energy for the second half of their walk. As it turned out the Moorside Inn was nothing like the inns she had been in so far, save for the shape of the building, as there was almost no one inside it, save for the female Reguard innkeeper and a male Orc that was sitting in a chair on the right side of the room, who seemed to be in the middle of fiddling with some of the instruments that the bards of Skyrim used when they were preforming. Jonna, the Redguard that owned the inn, was more than happy to have a customer and got to work preparing the bits of food that Amaryllis handed her, along with fifty coins for her services and some water, though all that happened the Orc got up from where he was sitting and started to sing a song he had been taught, likely at a school or something, though what she discovered was that his singing was horrid and that it was nothing like what she heard from the other inns, which kind of make her wish Lurbuk, which was what the Orc was called, was one of her contracts, just to rid the world of his terrible singing.
As it turned out Jonna knew that Lurbuk's singing was bad and would have thrown him out a long time ago, if she had any paying customers to speak of, since there was little reason for one to stop in Morthal and with the war going on it had less travelers than before, but the Orc was paying for one of the rooms and she wasn't about to get rid of someone who was actually a paying customer, even if she disliked how he sang and whatnot. Amaryllis guessed that she couldn't fault that logic, as having money to pay her rent was a good thing and it didn't make sense to chase away the only person that was giving her payment for one of the rooms, but, at the same time, she suspected that Lurkuk might have some stuff inside his room, items that could be sold off at some point, if he was lacking funds, so maybe putting him out of his misery would help Jonna with her business, in some way. Of course she didn't want to cause a disturbance by killing Lurbuk, especially since he wasn't one of the contracts she had to fulfill, even though he sure seemed to be the type that someone might call on the Dark Brotherhood to deal with, so she decided to just ignore him for the time being and focused on her meal, but she did make sure to take a moment to make sure Meeko had something to eat as well, that way they were both ready for when she decided to leave the inn and continue on the road to Dawnstar. Despite ignoring Lurbuk, by not turning to look at him, the Orc insisted on coming over to the counter she was sitting at to talk with Jonna, where he mentioned that he was thinking of composing a song about her and wanted her opinion on which attribute of hers he should focus on, as if he was proposing to her or something, which caused Jonna to inform him that she wasn't at all interested in the thought of being immortalized in song, causing him to inform her that she would regret this, like she was missing out on letting the next generations know of her beauty, as he went back to what he had been doing earlier.
By the time Amaryllis was ready to leave Morthal, where she and Meeko left the building and started to depart from this small city, part of her wished she hadn't stopped in the first place, as Lurbuk had no skill in the art of being a bard and didn't seem to notice it, and that part of her really wanted to head back into the inn and put her dagger in his head, but instead of doing that she just sighed and continued along the path that was in front of her, making sure to keep this place in mind for later, in case a contract for Lurbuk appeared in the future.
As she walked down the road, however, one of the things she found to be interesting was all the snow that rested in the area around her, especially since they were so close to a swamp, but at the very least it didn't appear to be the colder months of the year, so she and Meeko were just fine and didn't have to worry about the cold claiming them, even though she knew that winter in this land had to be harsh on everyone. At the same time she glanced at the sky and noticed that it was around one o'clock in the afternoon, meaning she must have stayed inside the inn for about thirty minutes, given the time it had been when she arrived in Morthal, though this did tell her that her earlier thoughts on the time might be more accurate, that it would definitely be close to eight o'clock by the time she reached her destination, meaning she might not have time to see what Beitild was up to before she returned to her house, which would force her to wait until morning, as she didn't want to risk being seen entering her target's home, but it would give her some time to get the layout of the city so she could plan out her first true assassination. After about fifteen to thirty minutes later she found another carriage that seemed to be under attack, though this time around it appeared that a pair of mages were in the middle of dueling a pair of bandits, but instead of fighting near the carriage, which had a dead horse, the small group moved into the wilds as she heard the sound of them fighting each other, only to hear the sounds of wolves joining in as they tore into the people that were apparently invading the area they called home, something that caused her to raise an eyebrow as she waited to see the outcome of this skirmish. As it turned out neither the mages or the bandits were the winners of the battle, as the group of wolves, while sustaining injuries that would heal in time, ended up taking out both of their foes and wandered back to where their home rested, to which Amaryllis decided not to bother the wolves and returned to the road that she and Meeko were following, though she was happy to see that her new companion didn't want to tangle with the wolves either, especially after hearing what they were able to do.
Some time passed before she came across something else, which was off to the right this time around, where she found a small mining town by the name of Stonehill, as that was what the sign said, which had one actual building on one side of the road leading into it, a road that happened to lead straight to the opening of the mine, something that must make the lives of the miners that much easier when people come for their shipments. On the other side of the road she spotted a number of tents that were wrapped around a campfire, which she suspected was where all the workers gathered when they weren't working in the mornings and evenings, as in before and after their hard day of mining, so the fact that she didn't see anyone outside, save for a lone guard, meant that everyone was inside the mine and that they were mining for whatever ore happened to be inside the mine, like iron or silver. As such she decided to keep moving, as she was burning daylight and there was no telling when she was going to arrive outside her destination, especially since there seemed to be too many distractions happening in the areas that she was walking through, meaning this part of Skyrim seemed to be much more violent than the other parts she had walked through over the last couple of days, something that had to be far more annoying to the merchants who traveled through this part of Slyrim. That thought was proven true about an hour later, as Amaryllis had to stop walking the moment she found a large group of Imperial soldiers battling a large group of Stormcloaks, with neither side actually killing the other or cutting off their limps, rather when someone went down they were ignored for the most part, unless they used a healing potion for a spell to heal themselves, but in her eyes it seemed like they were almost having a mock battle and not engaging in a war to decide the fate of this land, like she had heard that one Imperial Captain in Helgen mention during her short time there.
The annoying thing was that the two groups were covering a large section of the road and that meant it was going to be a pain to get around them, especially since there was a good chance that one of the soldiers could see her if she decided to transform back into her natural form and fly over them, meaning she had to find a way to get around this mock battle, all without getting caught up in whatever they were doing. A few moments later Amaryllis came to a decision, where she just turned around and headed back down her side of the road, as she was retracing her steps, before she turned and headed around the rocky area that was to the right of the path she had been following, as she was sure that she could cut across to another road and bypass the mock battle that was going on right now. It took her some time to get to the area that she had been thinking about, only to find that there was a second mock battle going on in the area, which made her pause for a moment as she considered her options, as she was sure that if she went around the mountain that was to the left of the road she would find yet another mock battle taking place, given that they seemed to be infesting this section of Skyrim, so her only options were to either climb on the rocks near the first battle, and hope she didn't get pulled into whatever the Imperials and Stormcloaks were doing, or simply wait them out, which could take forever since she had no idea how long they would be doing this before they finally stopped. Since it appeared that this was going to go on for a time, and would end with no clear winner, Amaryllis decided just to climb the rocks to the right side of the road she was following, where she made her way around the first mock battle she had discovered, and then drop down behind the soldiers so both she and Meeko could continue on their way to Dawnstar.
As she did that, however, she was forced to waste even more time getting back to where she had stopped the first time around, even though that allowed her to climb up on the various rocks and make her way around the battle, but that also allowed her to see that there was another dwarven ruin just over the hill the rocks were on, one that seemed to be home to a number of bandits that were hoping to be ignored by the two armies, though for the time being she decided to ignore them and found that, since she didn't get near their sentry, they didn't bother her either.
It took her a couple of minutes to do that, while avoiding either side focusing on her and Meeko, but in the end the two of them reached the other side of the road that was behind the first mock battle, where she faced the road that she had been trying to get to and started walking once more, as she was ready to put this experience behind her and focus on the reason she had come all the way out here. As she walked down the road the only interesting thing she spotted, while not counting the area that the dwarven ruin was located in, was another one of those odd circular mounds that seemed to be scattered across the land, though what they were used for she really had no idea, even though she could ask someone if they knew what the mounds were supposed to be, just to have that information herself. Sometime after that a pair of wolves, with white fur to show they lived in the snowy part of Skyrim, decided to attack them and make a meal out of her and Meeko, to which Amaryllis defended herself by using her sword as she dodged the incoming attacks, while at the same time her new companion growled and bit one of the snow wolves, causing it to yelp in pain for a moment. She could see that these snow wolves were used to the harsher climates of the land and that they were able to take a bit more damage than the wolves she had seen in Whiterun, but even then neither of them really stood that much of a chance and soon she and Meeko were standing victorious over them, allowing her to clean her weapon and be sure Meeko hadn't been hurt during the battle. Once she was sure that neither of them had been injured, where she found that both of them had been lucky this time around, Amaryllis continued walking down the road and Meeko followed after her, though she was eager to get to Dawnstar so she could rest and take some time to figure out where her first target was located, if Beitild happened to be outside anyway. After that, and the mock battles they had left behind, the only other interesting thing on the road was off to their left, which was a ruin that had a pair of skeevers calling it home, a ruin that was a good distance from where the mock battles and the dwarven ruin rested, so Amaryllis was sure she had spent a great deal of time trying to travel from Morthal to Dawnstar, and that the entire trip from Rorikstead was almost an entire day.
Eventually she and Meeko came to a stop as they reached the area that would allow them to gaze upon Dawnstar, the first location Amaryllis needed to visit, where she found that the town she had been walking to was more of a fishing town, with a single ship by the looks of it, along with being a mining town, due to the fact that Beitild owned a mine in this area and provided work for some people. There were a fair amount of houses, enough for this to be significantly larger than Morthal, meaning there had to be a decent number of people living in this town, while at the same time there seemed to be a good number of guards wandering around the town, each wearing a dark grey version of the armor the guards of the other Holds wore. Of course, thanks to those mock battles, she had lost a good amount of time and it was well into the evening when she arrived outside the town, at least between six to six-thirty, or seven at the latest if her thoughts about the time were wrong, which she felt made sense due to the fact that she had started her journey close to the lower half of Skyrim and had gone to the upper half of the province, something she knew should have taken at least a day to do, maybe two depending on how long it took someone to get from place to place. As she walked along the upper walkway of the town, where the Jarl's residence and the inn rested, she discovered three interesting things that she felt she could check out, even if they had nothing to do with her current mission and were more of a distraction as she carefully looked for the person she had come to kill. The first thing was that there were two mines in this town, one happened to be at the end of the path she was walking on and the other happened to be near the dock, the second thing was that there seemed to be an argument going on in front of the Jarl's residence, with someone that had to be the Jarl talking to two citizens, and the third was that another building had two other people, a lady and a man in some odd crimson robes, who also appeared to be having an argument at the edge of town.
As Amaryllis took all of that in, and noticed that some of the people seemed exhausted, far more than what a normal work day might inflict upon a group of people, she came to a stop on a rock that allowed her to look out over the port city, due to the fact that there was a ship in the middle of the water that was some distance in front of her, though as she did that, and considered how she was going to find Beitild, she noticed a guard was walking in her direction and based on what she was seeing it sure looked like he wanted to talk to her.
"Now, I know who you are. And... and I know your business..." the guard softly said, waiting until the moment that he was standing near Amaryllis and Meeko to talk, though she figured out that he didn't want anyone else to hear what they were talking about, just in case the Jarl decided to punish him for not doing his job or something, or maybe there was another reason that would become clear to her as she listened to what he had to say, "Just, please... these are good folk we got here. Mostly..."
"And here I was thinking the brotherhood had changed their armor recently, to prevent the guards of the Holds from discovering who we were," Amaryllis commented, keeping her voice low as well, to respect what the lone guard was doing at the moment, before she sighed and considered what she was going to do now, especially since someone knew that she was here to kill someone and would likely arrest her the moment she made her move, "So, whose disturbing the peace of your town at the moment?"
"Beitild and her husband, Leigelf, have been fighting frequently, about which of the two mines are the best and which of them owns the most profitable one," the guard replied, though as he said that he beckoned to the mine that was at the end of the path Amaryllis had been following, where she found a lady shouting at her workers and threatening them that she would fire them if they didn't do as she said, something that told her that she might have found her target and didn't have to waste time tracking her down, "Beitild owns Iron-Breaker Mine and her husband owns Quicksilver Mine, though right now they're sleeping in two different houses until they resolve their argument... which I have to assume is the reason that you're here, to resolve the issue in it's entirety, either because they've grown tired of their game or someone wants the argument to disappear."
"I guess so." Amaryllis said, because originally she really had no idea why Beitild had a contract on her, but after taking a moment to observe her from afar, and take a few moments to hear what she was saying, she had to assume that one of the citizens of this town had grown tired of the arguments she had with her husband and wanted it to end, before visitors got the bad idea about Dawnstar, before she addressed the pressing issue that was worrying her, "So, are you going to arrest me and throw me in jail?"
"No. This is the first time you've been to this town, and, as far as I know, you have committed no crimes," the guard quickly replied, which surprised Amaryllis for a few moments, since she was so sure that he was going to arrest her before she even had a chance to fulfill the contract that she had come to complete, though as the guard shifted his stance, like he was about to walk away from her, she could tell he had one last thing to say, "as long as no one sees you commit a crime, such as stealing something, breaking into a house, or assaulting someone, no bounty will be placed on your head, meaning the guards of that Hold won't come after you."
Amaryllis nodded her head for a moment as the guard walked away from where she was standing, as it appeared that he got the idea that she might be new to being an assassin and he was offering her a reason why someone would want the pair to stop their arguments, almost like he was silently asking her to do what she came to do and then disappear before someone noticed her, so she focused on her mission and what she had been told. What she ended up doing was walking down the path like she was just visiting the town and taking in the sights, despite the fact that the guards were no doubt keeping an eye on the residents that were still outside their houses, but so far it appeared that Beitild was too busy to pay attention to what was happening around her at the moment. One thing that worked in her favor was that the man that Beitild had been shouting at, and seemed to be pushing him to work until he dropped, stopped working as soon as eight o'clock was upon them and headed for the inn, where Beitild mentioned something about the Nord being a drunk and, in her eyes, that he was unreliable, before heading inside the mine, which seemed to be the perfect place to do the deed if the other workers weren't aware of the fact that their boss was entering the mine. Amaryllis followed Beitild into the mine, after making sure that Meeko stayed outside until she returned, and quickly discovered that there was no one around the entrance, before hearing the the sound of someone swinging a pickaxe at one of the walls, though her target showed no sign of knowing she had been followed and even came to a stop at the bottom of the path she had been following, where she seemed to be thinking about something, no doubt what sort of harmful words she would shout at the other miners that worked under her.
In that moment Amaryllis discovered the perfect opportunity to do what she had come to do, where she crouched and walked down to where her target was standing, where she pulled her dagger out and quickly did what she came to do, which was the moment that she pulled Beitild's head back and sliced open her neck, just like she did to some of her earlier enemies. Once the deed was done, and she was sure her first target was dead, she quietly laid the body on the ground, so she didn't alert the miners by letting a body crash to the ground, even though she was sure the sound of them hitting the walls would prevent them from hearing anything else, before sheathing her blade, shifting back into a standing position, and then turned around so she could head outside. It took her a few moments to return to the surface, where she was able to return to Meeko without delay, and took a moment to wonder what she should do next, as in should she leave the town now, before Beitild's body was discovered, or should she could rent a room at the inn to rest for the next leg of her journey, since she was heading back to Windhelm, which was half a day's walk from where Dawnstar rested. Resting here would allow her to check out the other argument she had seen earlier, one that didn't seem to be on the level of what Beitild and her husband had been doing lately, but based on what that guard had told her she actually did the residents of this town a service by ending the feud between the two. A few seconds later she decided to spend a few more moments in Dawnstar as she walked down the path and headed towards the building the oddly dressed man was standing in front of, where it looked like he might be waiting for someone to come and talk to him before he turned in for the night, though as she walked down there she walked by a guard, who gave her a slight nod, indicating that he had to have been the one she talked to earlier and that they were happy that peace was returning to their town, meaning he must have seen her enter the mine and come out not a few seconds later, before she focused on what she was going to be doing next.
"And here comes my first visitor." the red robbed man said, speaking the moment that Amaryllis and Meeko came to a stop in front of what Amaryllis had to assume was his house, though at the same time the lady he had been arguing with was long gone, meaning she didn't have to deal with her before she left Dawnstar and started on her trek to the area her next target was located in, "My friend, the Museum of the Mythic Dawn is open!"
"Museum of the Mythic Dawn?" Amaryllis asked, because the way the man said the name of the group it felt like those that heard it would instantly know who he was talking about, despite the fact that she really had no idea who the group had been or why someone would do something like this, though at the same time it seemed like the man wasn't annoyed at all by the fact that she said that.
"Yes. My collection of artifacts from a group that toppled an Empire." the man replied, though his tone turned to one that had a bit of excitement to it, indicating that he was happy that someone had come to his museum and was showing some interest in what he had collected over the years, before he looked over her for a few seconds, "Why don't you come in? You can browse the displays, and then, once you've had a chance to do that, we can talk about a particular job that you seem perfect for."
Amaryllis had no idea what the man was talking about, as she only came down here to see what was going on and not get dragged into a museum, but, at the same time, she had to admit that she was a little interested in a group that had, at one point in time, brought about the downfall of an empire, no doubt the one that came before the one that the Imperial soldiers worked for. As such she followed the man into his house and found that it was divided into two halves, one that looked like a place that someone would sleep in and the other seemed to be the actual museum, which consisted of four display tables that were no doubt locked, to keep the artifacts inside them safe in case someone came looking to steal what the man had collected. While she looked at the various items he had collected the man explained that the tapestries that were both inside and outside his house, which she was only now noticing and spotted a dawn shaped marking on the items in question, had been hung outside the hideouts of the Mythic Dawn, and that he had gone to a lot of effort to find any that had survived after the cult's destruction. The thing that weirded her out was the fact that the robes that were inside one of the display tables, which the man happened to be wearing, were made out of yarn that had been dyed in sacrificial blood, giving the robes the color they had, making her wonder why anyone would want to wear something that had been dyed in such a manner. The only other things of interest were the four tomes that were in one of the displays, the Commentaries of the Mysterium Xarxes as they were called, which happened to be linked to the blasphemous book written by Mehrunes Dagon himself, which the man explained had been destroyed after the Oblivion Crisis, except for a burned page that he had in his collection.
The only thing that seemed out of place was the scabbard that rested in one of the displays, alone she noticed, and it appeared that it was big enough for a dagger to fit in, but what sort of dagger it was connected to she had no idea and had a feeling this job the man wanted her to do was linked with the missing weapon, the last piece he needed to complete the museum he had been working on.
"Okay, what's this job you want me to do?" Amaryllis asked, because she knew it had to be about the missing dagger and the fact that having it would allow the man to complete his collection at long last, as there were collectors back home that would do the same thing, hire ponies to find missing relics for their museum collections, which would no doubt bring more people running once he had everything he needed.
"A little history, first." the man replied, which was actually fine with Amaryllis, because it might give her an idea as to whether or not she should help him find the missing weapon and add it to his collection, especially since she wasn't all that familiar with this land and the strange things she was discovering with each passing day, "After the Oblivion Crisis, a number of groups cropped up, all of them dedicated to wiping out remained of the Mythic Dawn, as there were a few safe hideouts that the Champion of Cyrodiil hadn't found, hideouts that these groups came across later. One of these groups ended up finding Mehrunes' Razor, the personal artifact of Dagon, and, seeing how they couldn't destroy the artifact of a Daedric Prince, the members of that group decided to split it into three fragments and pledged to keep them apart from each other, forever if need be. That was almost one hundred and fifty years ago, and, to the best of my knowledge, the pieces of the Razor are still being held by the descendants of the group.... and, as it so happens, those descendants are right here, in Skyrim."
"I take it you want me to hunt down the remaining descendants and claim the fragments?" Amaryllis inquired, though at the same time it sounded like a simple job to do, just locate the people in question, find a way to take the fragments from them, and then return the pieces to the man in front of her, all while maybe picking up some gold for her efforts and a few pieces that she could sell off.
"Indeed I do." the man answered, to which he turned towards a pack that was laying on the floor and opened it for a few seconds, where he withdrew a journal of some kind and handed it out for her to take, which Amaryllis did so, as she had the feeling it would tell her more about the people in question, or at least where the man was able to track the various fragments to, before losing them, "That journal contains all the notes I have on the three people that, to the best of my knowledge, are the current holders of the Razor's fragments, though two of them, Ghunzul and Drascua, are supposedly dangerous marauders, while Jorgen lives somewhere in Morthal. I'll also gladly pay you for the fragments of the Razor, and I won't ask you any questions when you return with them."
Amaryllis suspected that the payment part had been added in at the last second, to catch her attention and make sure she helped the man get what he wanted, to which she nodded her head and headed outside, as this time around she was going to rent a room at the inn, get some dinner, and then get a good nights sleep before morning arrived, that way she could be ready for whatever she and Meeko might find on their journey to where her second target was resting.
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the Razor huh. Any true dagger build in Skyrim WANTS this weapon as their main. Even I go out of my way to make it my secondary for bow users. Me feels that the bug is gunna keep this one.
10928836
considering how annoying the guy is before u kill him to get Dagons favour? yeah, shes gonna want it...if for no other reason than its an assassins wet dream...
A good night's rest in Dawnstar pre quest for Skull of Corruption, yeah right.
10929142 Actually, some of the people in Dawnstar report that the nightmares only effect those who call Dawnstar home, while visitors aren't bothered by the nightmares at all.
10929167
I forgot about that.
10929174 Perfectly fine. Even I forget certain things about the game from time to time... like I have no idea who says that line, but I do know that someone in Dawnstar says it.
10929187
I think it might have been that priest who gives you the quest. Or at least someone from the inn.
10929222 Yeah, Erandur might have said it, given his knowledge on the matter.
ok, something is very wrong here, ive been playing a run of Skyrim in parallel with this story, and there is no way that Pieces of the Past should be active now...even doing a few things and quests that arnt in story, the best i managed by the time i got to Dawnstar was Lvl 17, Pieces of the Past requires the PC to be at least Lvl 20...
10929291 One thing you have to remember is that this isn't the game. Yes, in game it requires you to be Lv 20 for the quest to become active, but in a story we don't have to follow those restrictions, which is also why Amaryllis found Meridia's Beacon, which requires you to be Lv 12 before the beacon drops.
10929332
eh, thats fair. on a slightly related note, what would Amaryllis stat spread be like? i'm working on a 2/3/5 spread myself. 2 Magicka, 3 Health, 5 Stamina. standard Archery build really, but it works...
10929368 I'm not really following any particular stat spread, but that sounds like a good spread to me.