Journey to Darkwater

Allysian Liore - Imperial

Barring any unexpected trouble, Ally figured her trip to Darkwater Crossing shouldn't take more than a few hours. She trusted the map that Sylgja had drawn her and set off to deliver the bundle of letters to Verner and Anneke, Sylgja's parents.

After about 30 minutes of uneventful walking, Allysian spotted a guardtower. Perhaps I'll stop in and ask them about any possible trouble along the way, I'd like to avoid those Black-Toe bandits as much as possible, she thought, reliving her encounter from early this morning. As she approached the watch tower, something felt amiss. Looking at the tower, she saw no sentries observing the roads and saw no guards muddling about near the road itself. She decided to examine the situation further.

She saw one guard slouched against the tower, there was no stench of death, but the flies around his body were already in a frenzy. Another guard lay face down near the fire pit. She continued inside the tower.

Just inside the tower, she noticed a rack of weapons, they were basic iron, but provided a bit more attacking power than her simple steel daggers. She decided on the iron mace after a few swings. She'd never wielded a mace before, but the heft felt good in her hand. Against more heavily armored foes, I needn't be so precise compare to a blade, she considered. She strapped the mace to her hip and tossed one of her daggers on the ground. Her pack was already pretty full.

Ally continued up the stairs to the observation deck of the tower. She found two more dead guards. She slung the quiver of iron arrows sitting on the table over her shoulder, but refused to take the bow that the dead guard still firmly grasped. She opened the chest, reached in and retrieved the iron battleaxe down at the bottom. Hmm.. interesting, Allysian mused. Beneath the axe were a few septims which she gladly pocketed. She descended the stairs quickly, fearing that she be implicated in this attack should someone else show up.

Once outside and further down the path, she examined the battle axe. She swung it a bit, it was quite heavy for her and awkward to swing. She noticed a felled tree and took some huge swings at it, burying the axe head deep into the tree bark. It was simply too much for her meager frame, but she liked the idea of such a large weapon. Perhaps Balimund could fashion something for me that I could actually wield with some confidence, she mused. She left the axe blade buried in the tree and continued on her way to Darkwater.

Just as Sylgja had promised, she discovered Clearspring Tarn. She sat for a moment, retrieving the bread and bit of dried beef that Talen-Jei had given her. She treated herself to an apple and stepped down to the pool to take a drink when some noise from below the tarn put her on alert. Ally scrambled back behind some bushes, as a deer came charging up the path towards the pool. Arrows flew above the buck's head as it ran past her deeper into the autumn-hued forest.

Two men ran up to the pond searching for the deer, Ally remained hidden as best she could. The men whispered something to each other and continued tracking the deer, not noticing Ally motionless in the bush. She assumed they were simple hunters, but she stayed hidden just in case. Once she was sure they were gone, she hurried back over to the pool, grabbed a quick drink and continued on her way.

Ally remembered Slygja telling her about a cave located below the pond. Being the curious sort, she decided to give it a look. She located the unassuming cave and ventured inside.

The cave was fairly large, water dripped from the ceiling of the cave to a pool below. It appeared as if Clearspring Tarn above fed water into this cave. She picked up a small mossy rock, about the size of her hand and examined it. Nope, not a rock, it was a skull. Fox skull, she concluded. She quietly stepped foot over foot further into the cave. Holes in the roof of the cave provided some lighting so she left her torch strapped to her satchel as she continued further in. From a distance she noticed what looked like a bow placed on a pedestal deep in the cave. Obviously intrigued, Ally continued to approach not noticing any danger then suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks. A Troll. New mace or not, she was not about to fight a Troll. She could hear the Troll's breathing, the labored intake of air and the wet exhale. Suddenly the Troll stopped its breathing. There were a couple of loud, quick sniffs as the Troll examined the air.

The Troll wheeled around and charged at Ally. In a panic, Ally threw the skull at the Troll and ran towards the exit. The skull simply bounced off the Troll's thick hide as he continued his charge.

Ally sprinted out of the cave and down the path not looking back. She heard the Troll roar, but it seemed quite some distance from where she was. She turned around and spotted the cave entrance and the Troll standing there. The Troll turned and returned to his cave. Ally afforded herself a laugh and figured this would be a great story to tell Sylgja should their paths cross again.

Following the position of the sun and Sylgja's map, Ally located Snapleg Cave. Taking Sylgja's advice to heart this time, she avoided the cave completely and headed north. Along the way, Ally picked a few more flowers and mushrooms and deftly pocketed a few more butterfly wings.

After another hour of hiking, Ally came upon an overlook. Stepping to the edge, she could see a settlement down below, a small farmhouse and several tents. She assumed this was Darkwater Crossing so she continued following the path down the hill.

Darkwater Crossing was even smaller than Shor's Stone. Not so much a mining town as it was just a settlement. There was only one permanent structure, the farmhouse. As she approached, a guard stopped her.

"What business do you have in Darkwater Crossing, miss?" the guard asked.

"I'm just passing through, delivering a stack of letters to Verner or Anneke from Shor's Stone," Ally responded.

"Well they're both in the mine. I wouldn't advise you to go in there. You're welcome to wait out here until they're done." The guard pointed over to the firepit where a young girl sat. Ally approached the girl and sat near her smiling. The girl introduced herself as Hrefna and was exceptionally friendly.

Ally and Hrefna sat by the warm fire exchanging stories. Hrefna described how she loved swimming in the lake with Derkeethus, an Argonian miner that had recently gone missing. She also shared her opinions on the war currently raging across Skyrim. Apparently, the girl had no love for this Ulfric Stormcloak person. Ally related her own experiences growing up in Cyrodiil and told Hrefna of her recent adventures. The sun had set by the time Verner had emerged from the mine.

"Guard says you have something for me? Funny, you don't look like a courier," Verner asked, wiping the sweat and dirt off his forehead with his sleeve.

Ally dug into her satchel and retrieve the bundle of letters, handing them to Verner. "These are from Sylgja. She said she's doing better, but is still not able to travel. She asked me to bring these to you."

"Oh, why thank you. Thank you! We hadn't heard from her in weeks since that accident in the mine. My wife Anneke travelled over there to check on her right after it happened, but came back when that Priest of Mara assured her that Syl would recover. Are you planning to go back there?" he inquired.

"Not at the moment, I wasn't, it's getting awfully late and I'm far from Riften."

"I was hoping you'd be able to send a care package back to my daughter. I know she misses her mother's baking, it would certainly lift her spirits. You could stay here for the night, the package would be ready to go in the morning."

"I suppose I could do that."

"Well I'll have Anneke make up a bed for you inside," Verner motioned over to the farmhouse.

"No, that's okay, I think I'll camp under the starts with Hrefna tonight," Ally smiled and gave Hrefna a wink. Hrefna gleefully returned the smile.

As the rest of the camp emerged from the mine, Ally met Tormir (Hrefna's mother) and Sondas a Dunmer miner. Sondas lamented over Derkeethus going missing, saying it was foolish of him to go looking for more fish. They all worried over thier missing friend and had to work twice as hard with a man missing. Anneke was the last person out of the mine, introducing herself to Ally. Anneke excused herself to get cleaned up and start on her baking. While her treats were baking, Anneke rejoined the group at the fire. Anneke shared some of her stories when she spent time out in the wild. Ally got the impression that Anneke truly missed the life of an adventurer. Hrefna, Tormir, Sondas and Verner all took their leave and went to bed, leaving Ally and Anneke alone by the fire.

"Why don't you come with me to see your daughter Anneke?" Ally asked.

"I can't right now, there's a bandit camp that's been threatening our mine. We need every available blade, I need to stay here until that threat is taken care of," Anneke sighed.

"Black-Toes?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"I had a run-in with one of them this morning near Shor's Stone."

"Near Shor-- oh no, I hope they're not planning a raid on Shor's Stone too..."

"A Riften guard told me that the Bandits had taken Fort Greenwall and that some wandering Khajiit have gone missing. I also came across a guard tower, all four guards were dead," said Ally.

"Then they're expanding. This is not good. Someone has to do something. I heard they're headquartered at ____________, would it be possible for you to alert the Jarl and ask her to assemble a party to take them out?" Anneke asked, desperation in her voice.

"I'll go back to Riften immediately after Shor's Stone."

"Thank you, we may have to move fast on this especially if the Black-Toes are expanding and recruiting."

Anneke returned to her baking and Ally crawled into a tent to get some sleep. In what seemed like a blink of an eye, Anneke was waking her up, it was still dark out.

"You should get going Ally, we need to move swiftly. Thank you for everything you're doing for us."

Ally packed up her things, accepting the care package from Anneke and retraced her steps back to Shor's Stone, the warmth of a freshly baked sweetroll filling her stomach.