The Dockworker 3: Oh, the Humanity

• Posted by Clement Bilhorn June 18, 2012 - 399 views

  I break my ankle descending from the precipice. Some wolves offer to help me fix it, but I respectfully decline, fending off their assistance with my arrows. Back below the tree line, I'm completely disoriented, having lost sight of the city I spotted earlier. But after a minute, I catch sight of the sun, re-orient myself, and am back on my way.

  A steep cliff overlooks a camp of bandits. They seem to be engaged in poaching, nothing else, but my previous experience with these types tells me they'll poach me too given the chance. I stop to pose before making my attack.
  
  The bandits outside don't put up too much of a fight, though a fire-crazy sorcerer forces me to seek cover at one point and take another potion before finishing her. My combined sneakiness and budding marksmanship come in handy inside the bandits' lair.
  A few more bandits fall easily to my arrows, but the bandits' leader gives me pause. I've never fought an orc before, and he shrugs off my arrows like it's nothing. I'm forced to go toe-to-toe with him, and use nearly all my health potions to stay alive.
  I clean the camp out, picking up some ore and a few spellbooks. I'm not terribly sure what to do with those, unsure if I even have any magical ability at all. Continuing south, I come across even more bandits, these ones engaged in clearly criminal activity. 
  
  My opinion of human beings has been dropping since I killed my first--they seem fairly barbaric on the whole. I extend the hand of diplomacy to these men, hoping they'll be different.
  They aren't. I'm forced to kill them both, along with the three others that showed up while I was looting the place. The bandits have some coin on them, four things of skooma, and most importantly, a good deal of arrows.

  A storm breaks as I head into Whiterun.

  

  The shops are all closed and I'm soaked, so I head inside what looks like a warm and friendly mead hall. Unfortunately, it looks like I've stumbled upon a dangerous cult, or some kind of fight club, so I head for the door. But not before lifting a shiny elven bow calling out to me from its case.
  
  Fortunately, the cats outside the city are open all hours.

  

  We do a bit of business, but while they're happy to buy the illegal drugs I'm carrying, they gently refuse any of the stolen goods. I continue on my way, but the rain is only getting worse, so I duck into a stable to wait it out. I watch the castle in the distance, wishing I was somewhere warmer. 

  I am a reptile, after all.
  The storm's cleared by morning, so I keep going south, up the hill. I'm not sure what I'm looking for, but I've pretty much forgotten about Orthus and the pirates at this point.
  
  On the way, I meet an insane wolf.
  Further up the hill, I'm shocked to discover a corpse, burnt to cinders. What could do this, I wonder.

  

  I don't wonder for long.

  

  Since we're both lizardy, I wonder instead if we can be friends.

  The corpse, meanwhile, yields something interesting--a journal, directing me up the path to a cave. I find this guy. He's dying, but he's not like the other Noses I've met (except that he's dying), so I use my last health potion to help him out.
  He's appropriately grateful, and invites me over for breakfast at the village I passed through on my way up the mountain. As we leave the cave together, I'm surprised at what I'm feeling--friendliness, toward a human.
  I'm plenty nice to Orthus, too, but that's just because he pays. Speaking of Orthus, I wonder how he's getting on?
  I put the trade officer out of my mind and head down the mountain to eat.