Twilight Sparkle the Adventurer

Chapter 8 – Preparations for the Journey

Twilight left Dragon’s Reach with a mission. She had a ton of last-minute errands to do, promises to fulfill, and items to obtain for her journey to the barrow. This was going to take all day and then she’d probably have to stay at the Inn overnight and then go to barrow tomorrow.

What I wouldn’t give for an ordered checklist right now…

She walked right back down the stairs that she had come up from and towards the Whiterun markets. She waved at Carlotta before entering Arcadia’s Cauldron. Arcadia smiled when she closed the door.

“Welcome! I’ve been expecting you. Are you ready for your lessons?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes. I do have a delivery before we get started though.”

Twilight handed over the Frost Salts and Arcadia gushed. “Oh! The frost salts! They’re for a special love elixir like none other… maybe I’ll try it on Farengar first…”

Twilight grinned. “I hope for your sake that the potion works, but I found him to be an intolerable ass. Maybe being lovey-dovely will fix his personality.”

Arcadia blushed. “Maybe that’s part of his charm. Here, take these healing potions and let’s get started with your lessons. It’s been a slow morning, as all mornings are.”

Twilight joined Arcadia at the Alchemy table within her humble shop and the lessons started. The first five lessons were short, as expected. Alchemy 16 through 20 was literally the basics of mixing potions and how to make them slightly stronger. If Twilight had been paying closer attention to Zecora when she made the remedy for poison joke… Twilight might have had higher than 15 alchemy when she arrived in Skyrim. Potion making wasn’t one of her interests in Equestria, but it was clear that she was going to have to make her own potions if she didn’t want to pay out the tail to buy them or trust her luck in finding them or trusting her magic to simply heal herself.

Having finished five lessons in what would have had to of been record time, Twilight accessed her inner mind and leveled up to level 5. She decided to leave the perk point for later, opting to explore her options more completely before making a decision. She was shocked to see how close she actually was to level 6, but she did get quite a few skill points from finishing quests after already being eligible for level 5 from the earlier combat.

A couple of customers came in to disrupt the continuation of Twilight’s lessons and so she sat on a bench to bide her time, knowing that she had to be understanding in that Arcadia did have a business to run and 15 points of training was a generous reward for a quest that had been rather easy. Twilight couldn’t really afford to delay too long but neither did she want Arcadia to back out of the promised reward. She would have to occupy herself with something else.

Opening her bag, she pulled out the spell tome she had recovered from the Halted Stream Camp. It was an Alternation Spell… ‘Transmute.’ She opened the tome, and the knowledge flooded her mind with a magical rush that she wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to. Once the magic settled, Twilight reached within herself and came to a most startling realization.

Transmute would allow her to transform iron ore to silver ore and then again transform silver ore into gold ore. It wouldn’t work on refined ingots, but it did work on the ore… and she had 42 iron ores from the mining she did at Halted Stream Camp before returning to Whiterun yesterday. She would have plenty of iron ingots from melting down iron daggers and swords and probably plenty of corundum ingots from melting down Ancient Nord equipment. It took 2 ores to make an ingot since you were purifying the ore in the process, because some of it was lost in the refining process. That was probably why the spell only worked on raw ores and not refined ingots… there wasn’t enough raw material left to ‘transmute.’ And knowing that she needed 20 gold rings for Farengar… transmuting the ore was a good way to kill time.

Casting the transmute spell over and over again didn’t seem to bother Arcadia or her customers. Arcadia worked tirelessly making potions, custom to order, if she didn’t have the potion on hand and dealing with the wealthier citizens of Whiterun that had manners which made Spoiled Rich look like a Saint. The customers all seemed to come in at once and all seemed to leave at once after the conclusion of business. Meanwhile, Twilight had managed to cast her little spell 84 times, turning all 42 iron ores into gold ores. She was a little disappointed that her Alternation magic only went up 1 point, from 17 to 18, but then, transmute gave a lot less experience per cast than Oakflesh did before going into battle.

Arcadia sighed. “And that’s the daily rush. I probably won’t have a customer for the rest of the day unless someone gets sick or has an accident. I’m sorry it interrupted your training for so long…”

Twilight waved it off. “I know you have a business to run. Me getting the mammoth tusks for you doesn’t help you if I prevent you from making money by serving your customers. We will continue with my training when you’re ready.”

Arcadia smiled, grateful for the chance to rest. Twilight sensed an opportunity to get rid of some of her food.

“I have a few Salmon Steaks if you’re hungry?”

Twilight gave Arcadia a salmon steak and sat down with one of her own, suddenly hungry from all the spell casting. Twilight managed to eat the steak, another small piece of bread, and drink a bottle of ale. Arcadia supplied her own bread and ale, which was kinda good because while Twilight had a lot of meat to get rid of, she didn’t have a lot of cheese, bread, or beverages.

Refreshed from the meal, they both continued Twilight’s training. Alchemy was easier than Archery, at least in the sense that alchemy required the same level of focus as spell casting, which was something that Twilight was already good at. As a result, Twilight gained five more points of Alchemy, leveled up to level 6 and then knocked out five more points of alchemy, leveling her up to level 7, all by early-afternoon. Twilight was a little surprised to find herself only about half way to level 8. She would need to find another skill trainer before she leveled up again. Unless it would be impossible to find someone else that needed something that was willing to trade the training for goods or services.

Arcadia smiled warmly. “You’re a wonderful student. That might be the fastest I’ve ever done 15 lessons, especially since we stopped to both help customers and eat.”

Twilight turned back to Arcadia and returned the smile. “That’s high praise. I believe that concludes our business. If you need any more mammoth tusks, or any other reagents, I hope that you’ll ask.”

Arcadia nodded, more serious. “I hear that you got those tusks by wiping out the Halted Stream Bandit Camp. I know you probably recovered more tusks than just the four you’ve already traded. Unless you’re ready to take on a mammoth, I would hold onto the ones you have left to trade at a later time. I know they are heavy in the backpack but please try not to sell them to a random merchant if you can avoid it.”

Twilight shrugged. “I don’t own a house to store them. Unless I can rapidly expand my backpack space… I may need to get rid of them.”

Arcadia spoke up. “If you have any leather or hides to turn into leather… you can craft additional backpacks. The four main options are: Adventurer… which increases stamina, Hunter… which increases bow damage, Mage… which increases available magicka or Thief… which increases lockpicking success. And all four gives you 75 extra carry weight. Unfortunately… you can only equip one at a time, but they do help. There are also Hold Backpacks and Faction Backpacks which give a boon and 25 extra carry weight. It may be hard to narrow it down which ones you need the most, but you can have one of each type equipped at the same time.”

Twilight pondered that.

I wonder if my magical storage portals will increase their carry capacity also by equipping a backpack? Or three backpacks? Would I have to keep them equipped at all times to avoid losing the bonus granted by them? I suppose I would have no reason to unequip them.

Twilight was non-committal but replied honestly. “I guess I’ll visit the forge and see what I can make. Who knows… maybe making a few backpacks and getting rid of the materials used to make them will free up enough space to not sell the remaining tusks to someone else. Of course you could commit to a payment in advance, and I could give you the tusks now and you can store them until you need them… your choice…”

Arcadia chewed her lip nervously. “I really can’t afford to do that. The prices and values of everything changes based off of need. If the war ended tomorrow, I would end up with less than a quarter of the orders I have now for stamina potions. So… as much as I need you to hold onto those tusks until I need them… I also can’t justify buying them right now. I could maybe let you trade one with me in exchange for a certain reagent of similar value… if you needed something.”

Twilight smiled, happy with the compromise. “I’ll try to hold onto them as long as I can but once again, I make no promises.”

With that, she left the shop and headed for Warmaidens. It was a short walk from the markets to the blacksmith shop and Twilight was pleased to see the owner outside working.

“Excuse me? May I use your forge and tanning racks?”

The tall Imperial woman looked Twilight over with a critical eye. “I don’t have a problem with it as long as you have the skill. However… you use the equipment at your own risk. I won’t pay for any healing you need from accidents.”

Twilight nodded. “That’s fair. My name is Twilight.”

The blacksmith nodded. “My name is Adrianne. My husband, inside the shop, is Ulfberth. I do sell leather and ingots of all kinds if you run low of a material that you need to finish whatever project that you’re about to be working on.”

As Twilight went to the tanning racks first, since Adrianne wasn’t using it at the moment, she was reminded of what Alvor had taught her. Blacksmithing and tanning required skill but also seemed to use something of a physical magic that allowed weapons, armor, ingots, or leather to be produced much faster than realistically should be possible.

However, taking advantage of that magic also led to wasted supplies.

A single piece of leather could be magically finished into four leather strips. But, if you took your time and used actual skill, you could produce ten leather strips from the same piece of leather. Same thing with silver or gold jewelry. One silver or gold ingot could make two rings, two earrings or one necklace. However, by being extra careful, you could make three rings, three earrings or two necklaces with a single ingot. It just took longer.

Using the tanning rack, Twilight turned all four wolf pelts into one leather each, followed by the sabercat pelt which also became four leathers. Adrianne’s eyes got big when Twilight pulled the massive mammoth pelt out of her bags but said nothing about it.

The mammoth pelt became something of an unexpected treat.

Although it had been a pain in the flank to skin, an adolescent mammoth was 8 times larger than a bear or sabercat and a full adult mammoth was 16 times larger. The bandits did manage to lure and kill an adolescent mammoth, which probably would have fed them for months, but it would have also allowed them to make better heavy leather armor had they been given the chance. The adolescent mammoth pelt became 32 pieces of leather… which was unheard of. It may have very well been the first time Adrianne had seen a mammoth pelt turned into leather like that,

Adrianne eyed Twilight’s bounty of leather with a sour expression… as if knowing that she wouldn’t be selling Twilight much, if anything, today. To prove the point, Twilight began to make some leather strips, but she used Alvor’s technique which let her make 30 leather strips from just three of the pieces of leather.

Adrianne couldn’t even comment as Twilight moved from the leather rack to the smelter for other crafting. Twilight proceeded to turn her 42 gold ores into 21 gold ingots, which was worth its weight in gold, literally.

In no time at all, Twilight moved to the main forge. Pulling out some of the fur armor she had taken from the bandits as battle spoils, she measured it all closely and then used a total of 9 leathers and 8 leather strips to forge a Leather Armor, Leather Helm, Leather Bracers and Leather Boots that encased the existing Fur armor, and in effect, created a ‘Fur lined Leather Armor matching set.’ Twilight looked at the new armor closely.

The Fur Lined Leather Armor set doubled the warmth rating of either set individually and took half the armor rating from the basic fur armor and added it to the Leather Armor… in effect creating a leather armor set that had better damage protection than Orcish Heavy Armor but maintained the reasonable weight and maneuverability of light armor.

Adrianne cleared her throat. “That is most impressive for someone with Apprentice level skill. If you keep that up… you may be better than Eorlund Grey-Mane someday. And certainly better than me.”

Twilight acknowledged the compliment with grace. “I’m not trying to be better than anyone… I just want to survive and not freeze to death. Skyrim is colder than I’m used to, and the bandits are problematic. Blacksmithing is a… hobby… not my trade.”

Adrianne nodded. “I’m grateful for that… I’m not sure I could stay in business with the type of competition that you could bring if you put your mind to it.”

Twilight resumed her work and found the four backpack options exactly as outlined by Arcadia. The Mage Backpack made the most sense… increasing her magicka by 20 points would make it easy to cast spells in spite of being on the thief path. The Hunter Backpack came in a close second… 10% extra bow damage would aid sneak attack damage which would make it easier to clear a ruin, especially since she’d be ‘sneaking’ anyways to avoid waking the draugr. She honestly didn’t think she’d need the Adventurer Backpack… a basic increase of 20 stamina didn’t do much for her given that she wasn’t planning on doing a lot of melee combat. The Thief Backpack helped with lockpicking while sneaking so… it was ideal for opening treasure chests in the ruins she would be exploring.

Twilight was weighing the pros and cons of each backpack when Adrianne asked her about it.

“Can’t decide what to forge?”

The question snapped Twilight out of her indecision, and she swallowed her pride and decided to explain her choices to Adrianne. She patiently listened to Twilight’s analysis of the pros and cons of each backpack while Adrianne herself was sharpening a sword on the grinding wheel.

In the end, Adrianne just shrugged. “There are 4 main types of backpacks in 16 styles, 9 hold backpacks and 4 faction backpacks. Realistically, you’re not going to be able to just pick one from each category and move on. Just like you can switch from spells to bows to melee weapons of all types to prepare for a fight… you could probably also change the backpack you’ll wearing to match your situation too. For all the materials that the backpacks require to make… the backpacks themselves only weigh 1 unit of weight. With all the extra leather you have… it might be smarter to forge a variety of them and just equip the ones you need the most for whatever situation you find yourself in.”

Twilight facepalmed at the obvious solution. Adrianne was right. Twilight sighed and got back to work. She forged one of each main backpack, which required a total of 19 leather and 4 corundum ingots, and then returned to the tanning racks for the other backpack options.

Adrianne was pleased with the solution herself and took advantage of Twilight no longer using the forge to continue with her own work. Twilight mused to herself.

I’m lucky I still had some corundum ingots that I didn’t turn into steel with Alvor’s technique. But then… I did melt down enough iron, Ancient Nord and steel weapons from Helgen Keep to give me more than enough iron, corundum and steel ingots to last for a while.

She checked the faction backpacks and found that she was largely out of luck. The Dark Brotherhood backpack required a human skull to forge. The College of Winterhold backpack required void salts. The Companions Warrior Guild required a wolf skin… which she no longer had because she turned them all into leather.

She could make a Thief’s Guild Faction backpack given that it only required 2 leather, 1 leather strip and 1 gold ingot. So she did… though she wasn’t happy about it being her only choice.

The Hold backpacks were largely easier, although a handful required a rare material. Twilight was forced to remember that she only had 9 pieces of leather left and she would need 4 leather to tempter the leather armor for an even higher armor rating… which meant that she could only really hope to make one or two… and even then, she should save some leather in case she needed it for something unexpected.

Weighing her options yet again from the list of Nine different Hold backpacks, she decided to make the Dawnstar Hold Backpack for the Frost Resistance that it offered. If draugr could use frost magic, as Andurs had suggested, then having a resistance to Frost would be important for her exploration of Bleak Falls Barrow.

Having completed that set of difficult decisions, she actually equipped the Thief Guild Faction, Dawnstar and Mage Backpacks, giving her an extra 125 total carry weight. She risked freaking out the local population by opening her magical storage portals to see if their carry weight increased also. After only a moment of double checking, she was able to verify that all 5 storage portals did indeed increase in their carry weight so long as the backpacks were equipped.

Huh. So… between the normal backpack space and the magic storage portals… these backpacks increase my total carry weight by 750, more or less. I can’t control what types of loot I will find in the caves and ruins I explore but this greatly reduces the odds of me having to leave something behind… or worse… taking it and being overburdened. I could buy a horse… but I’m still not completely comfortable with the idea…

Finally done at the leather tanning racks, Twilight moved on to the Armor Station so Adrianne could use the tanning rack next. Using a total of four pieces of leather, Twilight tempered all 4 pieces of her fur-lined leather armor, increasing it’s rating to ‘Fine.’ It raised the Body’s armor rating by two points and the other three pieces went up by one point each. Twilight had to wonder if five points of armor rating would save her life in a real fight, but she also had to suppose that every point counted, or it wouldn’t be measurable.

It did make her wonder what the armor rating of pony brass armor was… given that brass was weaker than Skyrim Iron… let alone steel.

Done at the armor table faster than she had planned on, she made her way to the grinding wheel. She had no clue how to ‘sharpen’ an Imperial Bow with a steel ingot… but it was apparently possible… somehow.

Skyrim magic is weird.

Still… with the perk point in Steel smithing… the Imperial Bow upgraded to ‘Superior’ with much better damage that would be further increased with sneak attacks. She also took the opportunity to sharpen a steel dagger… hoping that making it ‘superior’ would make it both faster and more meaningful to harvest meat from hunting kills. In Twilight’s mind… the only thing worse than killing an animal… was wasting anything from it. If the kill was to have any meaning… she needed the most she could get from each one, if only to minimize how often she had to hunt.

I wonder how long the meat on that mammoth in the Halted Stream Camp will stay good for? It’s weird to admit that I like the taste of mammoth meat, but I’d rather not have to hunt a mammoth if I can avoid it and I don’t want the rest of it that I couldn’t get the first time to go bad.

To her displeasure, she lacked the required perk point to sharpen the Steel Sword of Soul Trap that she recovered. Upon further investigation, she learned that she had to have 60 smithing skill and the ‘Arcane Blacksmith’ perk to improve anything that possessed an enchantment. So… if she was going to enchant something herself… she would need to improve the equipment to the best of her ability before the enchantment is added… at least until 60 smithing skill.

She sighed. “Blacksmithing is hard work… even when you’re only doing it for yourself.”

Adrianne nodded. “It’s an honorable way to make a living though. I don’t have a lot of customers… gold being hard to earn with the ongoing unrest, but I only need to make 2 or 3 sales a week to feed my family. Sometimes only one sale if it’s a big-ticket item… like something enchanted. Me and my husband don’t have any debt and we don’t have any children, so our weekly expenses are low.”

Twilight agreed with the sentiment. “Well. I only have two final things to make now. Farengar needs 20 gold rings for enchantments. And then I need to make some extra lockpicks. If I can use the forge one final time, I’ll be done for the night.”

Adrianne returned to the grinding wheel while Twilight returned to the forge. The steel ingots were weighing her down some. She had 58 steel ingots left after having used two to sharpen the dagger and reinforce the bow.

Looking at her options, she could see that one iron ingot could make three regular lockpicks or one steel ingot could make three steel lockpicks. For reasons that couldn’t be explained, the lockpicks weighed nothing so it didn’t matter if she had 10 or 100, except that making them lowered her carry weight by getting rid of ingots that she didn’t need.

Erring on the side of caution, given her low lockpicking skill, she decided to forge 90 lockpicks consuming 30 steel ingots. It may have been excessive, but she knew 90 lockpicks would last a fair amount of time even in her clumsy hands and it left enough more than enough steel ingots for other projects while also getting rid of the excess quantity that she had.

Going back to the gold ingots, using Alvor’s technique again, she managed to use 7 gold ingots to make 21 gold rings. Only needing 20 for the wizard, she equipped the extra ring as a placeholder for a better ring later.

However… she did have 13 gold ingots left and she saw the option for gold earrings. She decided to repay Adrianne and Arcadia in a more compete way.

Using two more gold ingots, Twilight forged six gold earrings. She equipped two earrings for herself and gave two earrings to Adrianne.

“Here, a gift for you in thanks of letting me use your forge and the sincere hope that you will continue to let me use your forge.”

Adrianne nearly blushed at the expensive gift. “It cost me nothing to let you use it, but I will accept your gift in the spirit in which it was given. If you are heading back to the castle to give Farengar those rings, maybe you could do me a favor?”

Twilight smiled. “Sure. What do you need?”

Adrianne sounded nervous. “I just finished my best work ever. It’s a sword for the Jarl. I would deliver it myself to present it to him… but he’s been so busy lately that I don’t want to give the perception of wasting his time. My father serves as the Jarl’s Stewart. Could you give the sword to my father so he can present it to the Jarl at an appropriate time?”

Twilight nodded. “Of course. It’s an easy errand.”

Twilight placed the heavy steel great sword into her bags and continued back up the road towards the markets. She returned to Arcadia first and was welcomed back into the shop with a smile.

“So… how did it go at the blacksmiths?”

Twilight giggled. “It went well. I crafted better armor for myself, made at least one each of the three different backpack types, and I forged the gold rings I needed for Farengar. Between the extra carry weight afforded from the backpacks and using materials to make everything, I should be able to hold on to those remaining mammoth tusks for you.”

Arcadia released a breath and seemed to say a silent prayer to the Gods. “That’s the best news I’ve had in weeks. I’m glad that my advice seemed to help us both. Was there anything else you needed while you’ll here?”

Twilight nodded, “Actually, yes. I will need one unit of ‘Void Salts’ to craft a College of Winterhold faction Backpack. I was wondering if you had any or could arrange to get some for me?”

Arcadia looked under the counter and pulled out one unit of void salts. “Void Salts are hard to get. This one unit would normally sell for 400 gold but I know you don’t have that much yet. I would be willing to trade the one Void Salt for one mammoth tusk.”

Twilight pulled out a mammoth tusk and nodded. “Deal.”

Once Twilight had the void salts safely in her reagent storage portal, she pulled out the gold earrings for Arcadia. “Also, I’d like to give you this gift for all the help you’ve given me.”

Arcadia was speechless as she put the earrings on. “They’re lovely, thank you.”

Twilight smiled. “Well. I have to finish my errands and I’ll probably be leaving town to go to Bleak Falls Burrow tomorrow. So, I guess I’ll see you when I see you.”

Arcadia’s good cheer seemed to leave her. “Good luck in your journey. May the Gods watch over your battles, friend.”

Twilight was mindful of the time… she’d have to go straight to the castle to avoid having to wait until tomorrow. Fortunately, none of the townspeople seemed overly interested in talking to her. Twilight entered Dragons Reach Castle and went straight to Farengar.

“I have your rings, Farengar.”

Farengar was startled, yet pleased, by the announcement. “Truly? Well… if you were able to secure such a large order so fast then maybe you really can handle Bleak Falls Barrow. Now. I told you I’d pay you twice what they were worth and that equals 3,000 gold. Do you want the gold, or do you want to trade the rings for spell tomes and other items that I sell?”

Twilight answered without having to put any thought into it. “I need soul gems and some spell tomes. I know a few spells… but not enough to really increase my odds of success in the barrow. What would you personally recommend?”

Farengar hummed to himself. “That depends. If you want to master a specific school of magic, then you should get all the spells for that one school and other spell tomes as needed. If you want to be a magical generalist, then I would recommend getting at least all the novice level spells for every school to start with. Only the best of the best ever come close to knowing every spell or succeed in making their own spells. Every mage knows at least some destruction magic for self-defense. I will tell you that 3,000 gold is not enough to buy all the spell tomes I sell, even without buying the soul gems, and I don’t extend credit. Robes and spell tomes are cheaper than armor in the long run but being a mage is an expensive venture to get started with.”

Twilight grunted at that. What should she do?

I don’t need every spell just yet. I need to focus on survival. And I need to fulfill my promises. So what do I need? Alternation for protection. Maybe Soul Trap from conjuration. Apprentice level destruction magic sounded nice. A few restoration spells for sure.

Twilight looked at his inventory of spell tomes. “I’ll take Candlelight, Mage Light, Stoneflesh, Bound Dagger, Bound Sword, Soul Trap, Muffle, Fast Healing, Healing Hands and Lesser Ward. Then I’ll take 5 empty lesser soul gems and 10 empty petty soul gems.”

Farengar gave her the requested items and whistled softly in amazement. “That’s exactly 3,000 gold worth of my inventory. Conjuration, Alternation and Restoration is an interesting combination of magical efforts. It will allow you to attack, defend and heal yourself though I worry about the lack of destruction magic. Will you be okay in the barrow with what you chose?”

Twilight shrugged. “I do know Flames, Frost and Sparks already but if you’re worried, you could always give me a ‘gift’ to help me on my journey.”

For the first time in any of their encounters, Farengar looked truly apologetic. “I’m afraid that I have no gifts to give. I don’t know if you’ve realized this yet, but Mages aren’t well liked in Skyrim. The Jarl does not fully fund all of my research, although he should, given that I serve him and Whiterun Hold as a whole. Half the reason I keep an inventory of spell tomes and other enchanting supplies is to sell to adventurers that need magical aide is to earn enough coin to fund the research that the Jarl won’t pay for. I do apologize if I come off sounding irritated. It’s just that most Jarls agree to fund their court wizard’s experiments separate from normal pay as part of the contract we sign to give our magical counsel. I know the civil war isn’t Balgruuf’s fault, but it has left him financially unable to uphold his end of the bargain. There are days that I’m not sure why I stay.”

Twilight could feel at least a little pity for him. “I hope the 20 rings helps you in your research then. And I can make more for you if you need more. If I can sell them to you cheaper than a normal merchant and still get something I need in return… then maybe, we can have a most enjoyable business partnership.”

Farengar actually smiled. “I will probably need 20 more rings in about a week. I’ll be sure to seek out your services when the time comes.”

Twilight took the time to read all 7 spell tomes, learning the spells instantly. She took a moment to consider the fact that she no longer needed the Steel Sword of Soul Trap now that she knew the spell, so she went to the Arcane Enchanting Table and learned Soul Trap by destroying the sword and absorbing the knowledge of how to imbue the spell into another weapon. It barely nudged her enchanting skill, but she wasn’t worried about trying to level up again just yet.

She returned to the main hall part of the castle near the throne itself and found the Jarl’s steward eating dinner. It was clear that normal court hours were over, but it wasn’t uncommon for important citizens to have a meal with the Jarl and his family.

Twilight leaned in to whisper to Proventus. “I have a delivery for you. From Adrianne.”

Proventus opened his eyes wide. “Oh. This must be that sword for the Jarl that she was talking about. Poor girl tries so hard… I’ll present it to him when his mood is more agreeable. Here… take these coins for services rendered.”

Twilight accepted 10 gold from the steward and then cleared her throat. “Also… the bandit chief and all the bandits of Halted Stream Camp have been killed, per the bounty letter left at The Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood. I have proof of the deaths of the chief plus 6 other bandits.”

Proventus verified the ‘proof’ and paid Twilight another 250 gold. He chuckled lightly. “Don’t spend it all in one place.”

Twilight walked away a little discontent. She knew it was a simple errand and yet 10 gold seemed like a poor reward. Barely enough to buy a room for the night, had she not already secured one. At least she was able to make good time in cashing in the bounty.

She then had one final errand for the day.

Going to the Temple of Arkay and Whiterun’s catacombs was only slightly creepy. Andurs was waiting for her.

“I was starting to lose hope that you’d show up today. The catacombs are right through those doors. Be careful.”

Twilight harnessed Soul Trap in her left hand and Flames in her right hand. She walked through the door and was almost immediately attacked by a skeleton holding an Ancient Nord sword. She cast soul trap and waited just a second for the skeleton to grow an eerie purple before blasting it with flames.

The skeleton’s soul seems to rush towards her and was captured within a petty soul gem without her having to do anything else.

Unfortunately, the sounds of combat and spells being cast alerted two other skeletons to her presence and they both came around the corner to attack her. She rapidly cast soul trap two more times and finished them both with a bout of flames. The other two souls joined the first and left Twilight a little puzzled as what to do.

So casting these spells are going to give me away to other lurking enemies, at least if they are too close. That’s going to make the trip a lot more dangerous. I guess that’s why Adventurers use enchanted weapons… no casting noise. I’m glad I learned that here… where it wasn’t as dangerous.

With the room cleared, she started to search for Andurs’ Amulet of Arkay. It was a small catacomb, all considering, but then… a lot of warriors dying on the battlefield or adventurers dying in caves probably never have the chance to have their remains returned to their hometown for burial. Or perhaps there was an even better or more honored place to be laid to rest.

She searched every corner of the catacomb and spotted the amulet on a table in the very last room. Grateful for an easy and otherwise uneventful end to the quest, she turned to leave… when she saw something strange.

In the opposite corner of the same room, was a pink to purple-ish gem floating and spinning within a golden case. She picked it up to examine it closer and saw that it was marked simply as an ‘Unusual Gem.’ She tried to return it to its rightful place and found that she couldn’t discard it.

Examining it magically within her inventory, she now saw that it was marked as a ‘quest item.’

Huh. A quest item for a quest I haven’t apparently started yet. The first of many, I suppose. Not being able to put in down or in a chest is going to be problematic. I already feel like I have too much inventory.

She made her way out of the catacombs and returned the amulet to the waiting Andurs.

“Thank Arkay! Here. Take this gold as a reward.”

He handed Twilight ten gold and she sighed. He frowned. “Something wrong?”

Twilight didn’t want to complain but she really needed to vent and who better to vent to than a priest?

“I’ve been getting some really inconsistent rewards from the ‘quests’ I’ve done in this city. Carlotta gave me 200 gold for helping her with her problem involving the town’s bard and maybe as thanks for free flour and some mammoth stew… but you gave me only 10 gold to kill three skeletons and retrieve your amulet and Adrianne had me deliver a sword to the castle in which the person I delivered it to also only gave me 10 gold. Meanwhile… I received 3,000-gold worth of free alchemy training for 3 mammoth tusks and another 3,000-gold worth of spells and items for 20 gold rings. Others in the city have given me almost random skill training that while I wasn’t opposed to receive… they don’t seem to be a skill trainer to teach me further. While I’m happy to help, it all just seems so random.”

Andurs looked apologetic. “Skyrim isn’t a wealthy place so people will pay what they can… even if all it is turns out to be a simple lesson. Farmers earn more than most people would believe because food is hard to get up here. Nobles collect taxes from the people in their domain. And believe it or not… the average adventurer can be wealthier than most shop owners from the sheer number of items they sell after a successful adventure. As for myself… I don’t have a lot of gold to give. Most priests live on the generosity of the town they serve in the form of donations. I knew I didn’t have a lot of gold to give as a reward and that’s why I suggested you soul trap the skeletons. Using the soul gems to enchant some armor or a weapon will improve its value which I hope you can sell for a more appropriate reward for your efforts.”

Twilight sighed and nodded. “I suppose all the information you gave me about the different types of undead could be considered a form of payment as well. It will help me with my trip to the barrow. I just don’t feel all that prepared for the trip even though I’ve spent all day preparing for it. I’m not sure what to do!”

Andurs smiled. “I would venture to say that the fact that you’re worried about it proves that you have a better chance of survival than the average person. Just take your time and be cautious. The ruin isn’t going anywhere.”

Twilight shrugged. “Well… I made myself better armor and I stocked up on some supplies. I collected the bounty from the Halted Stream Camp and I obtained some potions. I guess I’m as ready as I’ll be. But… first… I want one final good night’s sleep.”

Andurs smiled. “Then rest well, friend.”

Twilight returned to the Bannered Mare Inn and cooked another batch of 7 servings of mammoth stew. Lucia eagerly awaited her return which made Twilight’s heart both dance and sag with the weight of responsibility. They ate with Lucia telling Twilight about her day. Once they were finished eating, Twilight gave Lucia the 10 gold she had gotten from Proventus for the sword errand and the other 5 servings of mammoth stew.

“Okay. That gold will pay for at least one night at the Inn… I’ll pay for tomorrow’s room myself before I leave town, and those five servings of stew should last you at least 2 days. With luck… I’ll be back from my errand to Riverwood before you run out of food and gold.”

Lucia nodded slowly. “I can stretch the stew up to 5 days by only eating once per day. Trust me… it’s better than going hungry. Please… promise me you’ll be careful?”

Twilight smiled at the child. “Of course… I take my own safety very seriously. Now. Its bed time.”

Twilight and Lucia returned to their room at the Inn and settled in for a good night’s sleep.

Twilight yawned as she held the child close again. “Good night, Lucia.”

Lucia was already half asleep and nodded into the warmth of Twilight’s neck. “Good night, mommy.”

This time… she didn’t try to correct herself and Twilight was left wondering what she should do.

I need to buy a house… even if I can’t enjoy it while I’m travelling… at least Lucia could live there while I’m gone…