Let's Get The Party Started

I hopped on my tricorn outside of the imperial city and rode accross the bridge to the tiny town on the other side. Here the road splits in to two, left to go to Bruma and right to go to Bravil. I had business on my mind when I hopped on my tricorn so without stopping I rode through the little town and turned right at a gallop ... for a few feet then stopped. I looked over my shoulder to the road to Bravil, turned around and started walking that direction, passing the fork and heading down the road .. for a few feet then stopped. "no, I want to go on with the mages quest" and turned around sharply, galloping back past the fork again to the left .... for a few feet then dead stop... turned around and walked back right. I just couldn't seem to make it a few feet left of the fork. Each time I reached the few feet mark a voice in the back of my mind would say something like "You're low on skooma" "you only have 12 skooma" "you know that's not going to last you the whole time you're up there.." "you'll probably run out in a dungeon" (each sentence representing an attempt to gallop left down the road). Poor Val must have been mighty confused seeing me go back and forth so many times.

Eventually with a reluctant growl I sharply turned my steed down the road toward Bravil sharp enough that if the game had allowed it he probly would have reared up on his hind legs to turn... and we began galloping at full speed to the swampy south.
(I added some new mods to expand the town so I spent quite some time exploring the new parts of the town of Bravil)
I arrived to find that Bravil had grown while I was gone, and was even dingier than I remembered, home sweet home! With a satisfied sigh and a merry smile Val and I entered past the town gates and down the road. My destination was the skooma shop, but I decided to do some city sight seeing first. The new homes wearn't much to look at and I chatted with and became friends with some of the new people.
Inside my skooma shop I found I had enough ingredients collected during my time in Cyrodiil to make my own skooma so I spent quite some time in the den chatting to the good folk there while making my own skooma from the brewer. My dealer wasn't as chatty and warm as he usually seemed, perhaps the new residents in the town are presenting some sort of difficulty for him.


By the time I had finished making skooma and bought some from my dealer (in an attempt to cheer him up, I think it just barely worked but not enough to really make it worth my money) it had already grown dark outside so I decided to rest upstairs in one of the beds.

The next morning Val and I headed out of town. Immediately outside the gates on the way across the bridge A guard whooshed past me to the other side, nearly stumbling me backward! And believe me, this rickety old bridge is not one you want to be stumbling on! "What the..." I looked on and took a few jogging steps forward to get a better look at the reason the guards were suddenly rushing up front and found my tricorn in battle with a big troll. A second guard was with a second troll, too. Yay! Where's my popcorn?

Of course when I got close enough Val had to run up and join the fun. I gave him credit, though, for helping protect my tricorn.

Time to get the party started! It's off to Bruma now and down to business! I put my game face on and got serious (in a fun way) as I hopped on the tricorn and rode off into the sunset! Ok.. there was no sunset, but I still rode off equally as dramatically. (In fact it was like 6 in the morning)...

On the way to Bruma I was approached by a kajiit bandit, my good ol' buddy who always mistakes me for a blades member! I told him to give me some money or else and he did, before running away scared. "Muahahaha" Continuing on my way and past him I came upon a mass fight on the road! This fight was chaotic! I mean I couldn't even make heads or tails of who was fighting who, who started it or who the bandits were! Is that heavily armored person a bandit, traveler or blades guard? :o

I just waited until everything died down then looted what corpses were left. Luckily my bandit friend who always tries to rob me was walking by but didn't get caught up in the fray and killed. I stopped to chat with him a little and he mentioned some herb giving good luck if you eat it.. a kahjiit home remedy. We parted good friends.

In Bruma Val (who was at the time carrying some of the loot for me since it was too heavy for me) and I stopped at the local inn for the night because all the shops and things were closed due to it being late. The next day we headed out to sell our loot for some profit, gaining a good amount of gold but by no means being rich (thanks to me and my skooma addiction). On our way to the mages guild I was approached by a man comming from the local castle.

This picture is unnecessary but meh. He said the countess wants to talk with me, gave me some gold as a bribe or something, then said to come right away. I  stopped and thought for a moment..looking in the direction of the mages guild.. eventually decided "it can wait a little longer.." and proceeded to the castle.

The countess was very pretty and kind. As I approached her throne where she sits I couldn't help but notice all of the very.. priceless... articfacts displayed around. I couldn't help but salivate at the idea of stealing them all and getting either rich or priceless artifacts for myself! The queen said she was a collector and looking for a new one called the Draconian Madstone. Sound's intrigueing..

The more she spoke the more bored I got. I eventually told her it was boring.. so she annoyedly cut to the chase. "protect from poisons eh...?" Sounds like something I might want for myself.. Then she said if I returned it to her she would give me a second Akaviri artifact to keep for myself.. "Hmm... I do love Akaviri things very much.. but this mad stone sounds very nice! But what if the second artifact she would reward me with is something i'd rather have instead? If she's giving it up in return for the mad stone then the mad stone must be better... " I just told her I would think about it and left. On the way from her throne to the door/exit I took one last look around at all the display cases and their contents and let out a shiver thinking to myself "I would so love to come in here and go on a theiving spree!" On my way out of the castle ideas of breaking in and going on a theiving spree gradually replace those of obtaining Akaviri artifacts. I think i've got thief fever!

Well I made my way to the Bruma mages guild.. the one I have such fond memories of. Of playing games with the fun guild members, playing jokes with them on each other, and finding the invisible kahjiit that was hiding from the guild head. That was great fun! The guild had a warm and homey feel to it, everyone was friendly.. and they all had a welcoming fun loving way to them! But when I opened the door while reminiscing..

Oh no! I couldn't help but stare in horror at the sight before me. Everyone, dead (probly, I couldn't see all of the bodies but there was a mages guild member right there on the floor!) Skeletons and ghosts all around! What happened here?!

The further into the guild building we went the more memories I remembered of what used to be. That was the desk the head mage always stood at while everyone snuck around the guild laughing and giggling at her. That was the storage room I once checked to see if I could loot anything and found nothing of value... Those were the steps I ran up and down and this is the hallway I ran through on my way to other guild members while forming plans to play jokes on the head guild mage! Now it's nothing but a firey, misty mess.. and very creepy looking. I couldn't help but feel really creeped out and disturbed by the whole thing and as Val and I fought our way through the skeletons and ghosts I got a bit jumpy. While Val streaked around the corner to kill some, I slipped into one of the many damaged bedrooms, remembering the friends who had once slept there, and looked through some drawers. I hear a sound behind me and turn, suddenly to find right in my face is a skeleton! It made me jump out of my skin nearly! And jump in my chair! I immediately panicked and began firing bolt after bolt repeatedly from my staff at the angry skeleton! Val streaked in just when the skeleton crumpled to the ground and I was still firing wild eyed! Accidentally hitting Val! He fell to the ground gasping and unconcious.

I gasped and immediately stopped firing, horrified at what i'd just done! I covered my mouth with my hand and gasped "Oh Val! I'm so sorry!" (as if he can hear me when he's not conscious) I stood by him and watched over him until he recovered, hoping to god that he didn't take offense at such a horrible accident. Eventually, slowly, he regained himself and stood up, still panting but still rearing to go and streaked off for the next bad guy, a bit shaken but seemingly not mad at me.. thank gawd.

I continued inspecting the rooms until I was approached, finally by my best friend from this mages guild, the kahjiit who could become invisible.

 "Oh you poor thing!" I felt so sorry for him.

 How disturbing.. I felt so sad. I had passed Volanaro's body on the way down stairs..

Then he warned that I should leave as soon as possible before the king of worms returns. He sounded extremely terrified and was erratic with his eye movements while he spoke, as if worried that he might reappear any moment! I felt so bad for him, but his actions also made me paranoid and so Val and I both ran out the way we came as fast as we could... even though we'd killed all of the enemies. The kahjiit's talk of the king of worms made him sound like some sort of evil devil. I could only imagine what he might have seen when he saw the king of worms face... How horrible. I mean, with the title like "king of worms" how handsome can you look?
I left the guild building feeling disturbed and very saddened.

Now let's play, what is Val saying!
Val turned to me and chuckled while he said "I ran in to one of those guards once." Then continued..:

I couldn't help but laugh! He then added "but it was worth it to see the look on his face" XD I would have loved to see that too!