Now To The Dark Brotherhood

 After visiting with the little boy to tell him that the job was done there was still plenty of daylight left, yet not enough to set out into the wilderness so I decided to spend the rest of the day wandering around town. I came across the butcher's murder. With the help of the town guards I was able to figure out that it was most probably the castle's mage, a necromancer, who had been butchering the women in search for body parts. I informed the guards and they swarmed the castle for the mage.

The investigation took all night, much to my dismay, so I actually ended up spending two days in Windhelm when I only intended a quick one.

The mages room was suspiciously very necromancer-like and all evidence pointed to him being guilty..

However the more he talked to defend himself the more innocent he sounded. In the end he was hauled away to prison and I was left wondering if we had the right man.

That night I went to sleep in the Windhelm inn. I woke up the next morning in the familiar abandoned shack with Astrid greeting me.

I was asked, as usual, to kill one of the three hooded victims posed near by on their knees. One was khajiit so I spared his life, just for being khajiit. I respect khajiits, I have khajiit blood in me myself. The other two were killed.

With that job done Astrid accepted me into the dark brotherhood and left. I peeked outside to find it was in the middle of the night, not even early morning so I tucked myself into the near by dirty bed and slept until dawn.

The air was cool and crisp, I was as far north as I could possibly be. I happily spent a few moments exploring around the abandoned shack picking deathbell and nightshade flowers, and harvesting some slaughterfish eggs and what not. I was chased back to the shack twice by near by animals. I was beginning to wonder if I could make it away from the shack alive. By the time I was able to sneak away from the shack and begin my treck to the nearest town, Morthal, it was already mid afternoon.

I spent some time in the little town of Morthal collecting the town flowers and plants, selling some loot. By the time I was finished it was dusk and so I retired at the local inn.

The next morning I was energized and ready to head south toward the dark brotherhood sanctuary that Astrid had told me to find! I was in a happy mood and stepped outside... almost bumping into about four men! They just looked at me and said in a gruff voice "we're here to teach you a lesson!" wha?... Suddenly they began attacking! I ran for my life!

 I streaked accross town nearly knocking people over. None of the guards defended me! Just barely dodging hits from an axe I ducked into the nearest building in search for shelter! They appeared inside behind me! Shoot! They can come into buildings too! I hastily streaked out after making a short mess of the local alchemy shop and ran around town like a chicken with my head cut off! I had no idea where to go, what to do.. my health by now was getting dangerously low from axe swings as the men chased me! The lower my health bar got the more my heart beat and I thought I was a goner!

Then I saw it, a cart on the other side of town! I didn't know where it was going and didn't care, I ran up to the driver, payed him some gold and told him to take me to the nearest town! I then hopped into the back and just barely made it out alive! The cart saved my life.

 You can see the men down there just at the nearest steps staring at my getaway.

When the town and the men were out of sight and I was far enough away that they couldn't come chasing after me I tapped on the shoulder of my driver and asked him to stop the cart because I wanted to get out here. He just shrugged, thinking i'm a bit crazy and stopped the cart. I hopped out, feeling much better now, and got my stuff in order before setting off through the woods.

I found the trail south through the Hjaalmarch mountains and ste down the road, but it wasn't long before I was confronted by two sabrecats and a spider. I began to rethink my glorious decision to hop out and hoof it alone! Knowing i'm in no current condition to try and take on three creatures by myself I streaked off down the road at high gear! I was chased for quite a while before the giant ruins of the labyrinthian came into view! Thankfully the creatures had stopped chasing me up to here.. but forward is the only direction I could go now and I gulped, knowing how dangerous the Labyrinthian is. Several giant frost strolls dwell in there.. and I had to make it through somehow and out the other side.

I crouched down low and prepared myself for the best sneaking I could possibly do. I snuck, snuck, snuck.. almost halfway through.. i'm doing good.. then suddenly from nowhere a huge lumbering frost troll starts comming at me! My eyes grow wide and I gasp, immediately whirling around to run the opposite direction! Desperate for any kind of shelter or protection I immediately veer toward the walls of the Labyrinthian and find a door. These doors lead into the much more dangerous insides of the labyrinthian so I knew making this decision may be the last bad decision I ever make.. but I had no choice. I dove in and slammed the door shut behind me!

I waited for a long time, over 5 real life minutes for my health to come back up from a dangerously low level and my stamina to regenerate. I also needed a lot of time to wait for the frost troll outside to forget about me..When I eventually did cautiously tiptoe back outside I was happy to find that he had indeed. I successfully snuck further through the labyrinthian, sticking close to the stone walls and fallen pillars of the ruins until the exit was in sight! I nearly leapt for joy when I saw it! Then.. there in front of me were two more frost trolls blocking the way. There was nothing to hide me in sight, I knew the only way past would be through them. I took a deep breath, braced myself on my toes, then darted forward, sprinting as fast as possible past the two frost trolls!

Happily, my stamina held out just long enough for me to escape them, and come out on the other side of the retched ruins. I nearly fell to the ground and kissed it in relief. That was a nightmare.

After a little bit of walking I was finally descending out of the mountains and the snow was disappearing. The icy climate gave way to the warm, hospitable warmer ones and the sun was setting. I was over half way to my destination with not far to go, but it was already getting night and there's no way I could travel at night, not being able to see the dangerous monsters that wanted to eat me. (I could barely escape them during the day.. let alone at night!) I stopped to set up camp and activated my sleeping roll only to have a message tell me I can't sleep when there are creatures near by. Wha? I looked around and didn't see anything, so I tried again. Still, can't sleep with creatures near by.. I was beginning to wonder if my game was just being testy when suddenly I was attacked by two skamps! I was taken by surprise and furiously swung my warhammer at them! My health was over half gone by the time I finally got them both killed and I was spent and breathing heavily. Geeze game.. all I wanted to do was sleep for the night!

Eventually I did get to sleep and the next morning I continued my way mostly unhindered to the sanctuary.

My new "armor". Hopefully it'll keep me hidden easier.

 I got my next contracts, who to kill and spent the night in the sanctuary, the first place I felt safe in a long time. I was so cozy in there it was hard to get myself the courage to leave the safety and warmth of the sanctuary, but, I must do it.

My next destination is Ivarstead. I snuck the whole way as usual, to avoid as many creatures as possible.

 When I arrived in Falkreath on the way, just to have a quick rest and sell my old armor I still hadn't gotten used to my new dragon shoutting ability that I picked up in the sanctuary and accidentally used my shout on three innocent people in their graveyard. Oops n.n; But don't worry, I revived them after they died. I then got this letter though... totally unexpected!

Eh? probably directions to some big dragon to kill or something..