Shipwrecked

  • I’m drowning! I scream out and immediately regret it when I choke on icy seawater. Spluttering, I frantically search for the surface. It’s dark, the water clouds my vision, and I can’t tell up from down. I find a wood axe slowly sinking up and clutch on to it then swim down. My head hits wood and I look closer, it’s a ceiling. Good I found up, still no air, bad. I scramble along the ceiling desperately looking for an exit. I lost most of my air yelling earlier and now my lungs were burning like fire, demanding I should breathe in again. Shut up body! Still a bad idea. My hand brushes an opening, freedom!? It’s a porthole, oh yeah I’m on a ship, wreckage blocks the opening. Damn it!  I try to chop through it with the axe, but it is a useless fight against the water resistance. My vision is starting to blackout and my body convulses, forcing me to swallow in another breath of seawater. You traitorous body… I only have one attempt left, I brace myself against the wall and kick off with all my might to the other end of the room.

     

    I collide head first into another wood thing, stairs! I climb up the stairs and finally break the surface! I celebrate by puking my guts out. Of course, it’s the underside of the stairs and the only options from the air pocket involved diving back into the water. A loud creak tears through the air and the boat lurches underneath me. Time to go water, or no.

     

    A brisk swim leads me to a dry corridor with belongings and shelves strewn about. I riffle through the items and side rooms like a drunkard; my limb are starting to feel numb and the ship is at an odd angle. No not an odd angle, upside down. How did I sleep through that? Well at least I didn’t feel hung over. Apparently ice bathes and fear for your life are the best cure. I didn’t find any dry clothes, but I did find some Nord mead, now I can be a proper drunkard! Ah, the beverage warms me from the inside. Otherwise there isn’t much that will help, a health potion, some gold, a scroll, and a cold baked potato.

     

    On the next level up, down into the storage of the ship, it looks like the Redguard I was sailing with met an unfortunate end. His face was smashed in and blood covered a nearby box, mystery solved. I felt bad about stripping his armor, gold from him, and another mead. He was a good guy, but he wouldn’t need them anymore and I needed dry clothes.

     

    Not that they would stay dry, the only way out was a breach in the hull were water was pouring in. Well no way around it, I chug another mead and dive. Oh, the mead and numbing limbs did not reduce the shock at all. I manage to swim out and climb on top of the hull despite this, because I’m awesome.

     

    Someone else escaped! I rush over to the person, never mind she died. The mystery was greater with this one though, she was a Thalmor and I found no injuries while I was looting her corpse. The Thalmor loaded with some fancy magical gear, but no water breathing, water walking, or cold resistance potions sadly. I didn’t feel bad about looting her corpse or kicking her off the boat, the Thalmor are pricks. I shiver in a stalwart pose as I scan the horizon. I wonder were all the crew is. Was there a storm? I don’t remember one, but then again I passed out fairly early. How on Nirn did they manage to flip a sailboat completely upside down? Where am I? This definitely isn’t Cyrodiil, Cyrodiil does NOT have Icebergs! How’d they screw up navigation that badly?

     

    Well I’m not going to die sitting on this wreck crying to myself, that’s probably how the Thalmor died. I can see a tower to the West of a giant Azzura statue and I’m a great swimmer, on par with an Argonian I dare say. I can swim from iceberg to iceberg till I reach the coast, then demand the first person I see give me fire. I can do this, I bellow out a warcry and dive in.

     

    I’m going to die! The water pieces me like a million daggers. Somehow I manage to keep moving and reach the first iceberg. I reach some ice flows next and find a dead orc from ship. Well, he made it farther than the rest, and I’m going to make it farther than him! I take some lock picks and torches he was carrying, I don’t know why they are soaked and useless. I fall back into the water and push on. I make it halfway to the shore before my arms stop working right; I have to start flailing my body like a dolphin to keep moving. I can’t think, just move that is all there is. After a short eternity, I see the land before me, in a last bust of energy I struggle on and ride the breaking waves to shore.

     

    I beach myself with the grace of a Horker on the shore, sweet precious land at last! I look up from the dirt and see a tent set up just a short distance away, my salvation! I laugh through numb lips, not believing I made it. I push myself to my feet and run… for one whole step before face planting. I repeat the process a few more time before giving up and just start flopping side over side towards the camp.

     

    I roll up on to my knees as I finally reach the camp. There are no people. There is no fire. There is a pit. There is wood, but the wood is cold. I drop my pack on the ground, spilling the torches on the ground. The torches are cold. The torches are wet. The torches can make no fire. I will die. I go to move towards the sleep roll in the tent, but only manage to face plant again next to the tent. The last of the feeling leaves my numb body and my vision fade to a warm fuzzy black, at least I made it further than the Orc. I succumb to exposure.

     

     

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Comments

5 Comments   |   Felkros likes this.
  • The Long-Chapper
    The Long-Chapper   ·  June 28, 2015
    I play with the Requiem overhaul, iNeed, and iHud, no compass, though granted, I know where everything is. LOL. I like my Skyrim bitter, unfair, and bleak.
  • Exuro
    Exuro   ·  June 28, 2015
    Lissette: COT is great, although last time I tried to install it, it conflicted with my RCRN nights mod and I like needing to use a light source in the dark.  Have you tried playing with the compass disabled? Then the the freezing messages really add some...  more
  • Sotek
    Sotek   ·  June 28, 2015
    So close and yet so far. In some ways it's a shame they die as this would make a great start to a story. Hours later they awake with the warmth of a fire nearby from the Stormcloak scout/Imperial scout/ hell even a demented Cicero who thought you killed t...  more
  • The Long-Chapper
    The Long-Chapper   ·  June 28, 2015
    haha, good old frostfall. Oh boy, has Albee nearly died a bunch of times. No worse warning is the one that says.
    "you're freezing to death!" And then you hear the breathing. It really adds tension to the game and you can definitely feel it. Nothing ...  more
  • Exuro
    Exuro   ·  June 28, 2015
    I wont have time to finish my main story's chapter this week, so I wrote up this quick story as a tribute to my shortest play through in Skyrim. The main mods used are Alternate Start - Live Another Life, and Frostfall.