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Posted by
Paul M June 14, 2014 -
501 views
It's amazing what lack of sleep will do to a man. Take Yuri Woodcutter for instance: A typical student in his first semester at college, he's gotten lost in a storm and is now questioning all the choices he's ever made. All he wanted to do was live a life that capitalised on his talents. His only dream: to make something more of himself than all the Woodcutters before him. Does he deserve to be chased by a dragon the first time he decides to make an important life choice while drowsy, leaving him out on a remote mountainside at 4:30 on a chilly Sundas morning? I think not. But here he is, running desperately for his life in a generally northern direction.
It's past five when I make it to the Frozen Hearth in Winterhold. I decide not to try to sneak back onto campus, as I don't fancy having to talk to any of the other students until I've had chance to warm up and recover. The inn is dreadful, there isn't even a door on the room, but I sleep till afternoon anyway, and then buy some food off Dagur before heading back to college.
Outside it's snowing again, and it's hard to believe the sun has even risen, let alone reached its zenith. I head to the lecture hall and talk to Savos about the great collapse. Then I go speak to the other lecturers, and get some training from Faralda in destruction magic. Doing so bumps me up to level 13 overall, and makes the prospect of getting out of here past the murderous fauna somewhat more of a realistic prospect.
By the time I'm done it's 5:30pm, and like any bored student who's spent all his money on tuition fees and food, it's time to do some wine sweeping, uniting any unclaimed drinks with a grateful recipient. There's loads of stuff just lying around the common areas, and if I can pinch even a fraction of it I should be able to put all my worries behind me before bedtime. I cruise the dorms, and by the time I'm done I've got 20 bottles of wine and 11 of mead. Being a responsible drinker, I drink half of each, and then have some cheese and bread to keep it all down. Ah college living; the best days of your life.
I awake on Morndas morning and step outside into yet another snowstorm. I take a moment to recall all the requests for help or action that I have agreed to over the last week or so, and try to make a plan for what to do next. The expedition into Saarthal has hit the buffers because of the puzzle I can't solve. In this vicinity is a mission to recover a helmet from a ship wreck in the ice to the east. That's achievable I guess, but if I head out that way I think I'll be tempted to turn south and back to Windhelm instead of coming back to college. The other nearby option is retrieving some horn for the greybeards, but I've a sneaking suspicion that is going to involve a battle with a dragon, either on the way there or as part of the quest.
I decide the ship wreck will be my focus for now, and maybe also the downs I saw over to the east from the top of the college. I head out of town and turn instantly off the path and head east over the mountain tops. The going is surprisingly good and I'm soon reunited with the two skeleton corpses I met on the way here. I try to stick to dry land as much as possible, though I'm mindful that there was a murderous snow sabre cat around these parts previously. I meet two wolves just before they die, and use my new stone flesh spell to good effect.
I turn east to cross a chain of islands, which brings me to the snow sabre cat's attention. Backing off I somehow manage to confuse it, and it starts running in the opposite direction to try and get to me. Sure enough, as I advance I find that taking a dive into the frozen water throws the monster off my trail, and I'm able to head over to the boat without any terminal drama.
Where the boat is "parked" there is a burning camp fire and some salvage from the ship piled up. There's no sign of anyone outside but heading aboard and I find a posse of not unexpected bandits. I give the flame atronach a spin, but the bandits are too fleet footed for anything like that. Eventually I resort to the tried and tested flame spell while circling around out of reach of the bandit chief's great sword. After a bit of an interlude I take them down and get back to searching the boat. I grab the helmet, and a hefty wedge of gold which will help towards my education. I climb the rocks behind the bandits' main camp, and take in the scene created by the other fractured islands between here and Winterhold. The furthest one north appears to be the one with the downs, and one in between here and there is the island of the snow sabre cats. That island still looks to be worth a careful visit, as there is something on the top plateau of the rocks that looks like a magical shrine of some sort.
I crouch and work my way down the northern face of the rocks I am on, and doing so bumps my sneak skill up. That means there is something around here, and after a little looking I see some wolves on snowcat island. I can handle wolves, so I decide to head over, but before I do so I have a flash of inspiration: I equip my hunting bow with poisoned steel arrows and while still hidden snipe the two wolves I can see. As the second one dies it's almost like I'm one with the arrow, which acts as a handy scout of the area I'll be going to. It all looks clear, but I switch back to my enchanted mace, which I have named knee-wobbler, just to be safe.
Turns out what I thought was a monument is actually a dead tree with no branches. I can definitely see the downs now though, so I continue island and iceberg hopping in that direction. There's a snow sabre cat on the downs island when I get there, and I make a quick dash and splash back to the frozen seas. The rest of my evening will no doubt be a game of cat and mouse as I circle the island to find the entrance to the downs without having Chairman Meow rip me to pieces.
