15 Readiness

I had decided to go back to Falkreath. I needed supplies, and as my stomach growled. I needed to eat as well. I checked my quests, I had Hircine's quest. However it was not the normal quest. It could be simplified to, I picked up a cursed ring. I need to appease Hircine. This will fix the ring. Three simple steps was the quest.

I knew where I could appease Hircine as well. However I planned on cutting through some other quests along the way. Aka Azura's star. I just required some supplies. I would need to travel there while also preparing a sleeping bag, food, and perhaps a pickaxe.

I needed better armor and weapons. So I had a few mines to visit during my travels across skyrim. With the knowledge I now had. I knew I had to visit certain locations as soon as possible. One of those would be Arkngthamz. A dwarven ruin that was falling apart. I had no idea if that place was on a timer.

As with the Hircine's quest. I knew I was on a timer. The quest log mentioned needing to find away to appease Hircine before a week has passed. Otherwise I would be forever cursed. I breathed in, I needed to settle my panic. I was feeling rushed.

The main characters in novels always were so calm. That was not easy, however efficiency was easy. Following a plan would settle my nerves. I entered Falkreath's Inn the Dead man's drink. The owner smile as I walked up. I believe her name was Valga?'

"Howdy, Can I get a meal? Also do you sell sleeping bags here? I need some supplies for traveling."

She nodded and looked me up and down. "What meal can I make for ya? Also we don't sell sleeping bags, so you need to check the general store. however if you want, I have jerky, cheeses, and some bottled meads for traveling."

I placed the half the septims I had on me down. "As much as that can buy along with the cheapest meal."

She nodded, "That Valdr's dagger?"

I pulled it out of the sheathe, "Uh, yeah. I wanted to ask about that. Has Valdr showed up in Falkreath yet?"

She shook her head, "No, sorry. Why are you asking."

It wouldn't be a shocker that the guy killed Valdr. If quests items could be obtained out of order. Why fight the spriggans, bears and wolves that killed Valdr's friends in order to get the dagger. When killing the man was easier. 

I shook my head, "You might want to send a search party out to Moss Mother Cavern. I got this dagger from a man I killed near Helgen. I have a feeling Valdr is dead. Either by spriggans, or the man I killed."

I mean that was a lie, however in combination with my other lies I told to Falkreath citizens. I doubted they would question it. Valga sighed, "I figured as much. I assume you killed a redguard?"

So she knew who I was talking about. "Yeah, how'd you know."

She shook her head, "The man was strange. Muttered to himself, had this weird stare. He only stayed the night, but I almost kicked him out. Don't know what he was looking for, but he tore up one of my rooms I rent."

"I see." I nodded, she got my attention though. Why would he search on of the rooms? My eyes narrowed, he couldn't have thought that... 

I turned to Valga, "Do you have a book called on the bittercup or something like that?"

She scratched her head. "Oh! Hold on a second. I'll also grab your food from the kitchen."

She left and I had to breath in. It seemed Morth had been looking for creation club content. That stuff wasn't directly cannon. The quest a dying wish was the creation content I believed Morth was looking for. The quest sent you to the roadside ruins to fill one of three bowls. The reward I believe was the bittercup and random acquired loot. I knew the quest was added by the creation club though. If that content was canon in this game. It meant I would be less knowledgeable.

Valga came back. "Here you are, just some simple salted chicken. Also here is that book you asked about."

I smiled, "Thank you so much." I looked down at the book she brought me. It wasn't what I thought. However it did seem related. I paged through it as I ate my food. When I finished it I got a quest and a better understanding. The quest was outside of Skyrim. Meaning any creation club content that wasn't lore friendly, but still cannon were possible to obtain. The catch was, the quest would send you outside of Skyrim. 

I closed the book, if he did find this book he likely realized the same thing. This meant theoretically one could obtain something like umbra. However it would send you to where actual umbra is. Not some half baked location. That made sense, this was all of Nirn. We only started in Skyrim because its the beta.

I sighed, that was at least one weight off my shoulders I didn't even know existed. I raised a hand, downed the rest of my chicken and Valga handed over the traveling food. Checking it over she had given me jerky, cheese and some mead. Exactly as promised. 

I waved and headed toward the general store. I had never been in the general goods store. I mean, why would you? They kind of sucked most of the time. I walked in and I had no idea the store clerks name. "Can I buy a sleeping bag, a pickaxe, and some unlit torches." I paused, "If you have any oil i'll take that too."

The guy nodded, "Aye, I got oil. You want the kind that burns easy, or the long lasting stuff."

Oh, made that idea easier. "I'll take the easy to burn." With some torches and oil I could clear most caves without entering them. It was a tad time extensive, but fire and smoke kills most things.

He gathered up the goods from his shop. "Need anything else?"

I rubbed my chin, "If you got some rope, 5 braided, that be great."

He nodded, and looked underneath a shelf. "I got 4 braid and 6 braid."

I sighed "Do you think 4 braid can hold a persons weight?"

He shrugged, "Don't know... Hmm, it can hold a log. The mills use 4 braid to transport the logs around."

Falkreath was known for their wood. It was literally all they did. I rubbed my beard. "Sure, 4 braid."

I put a bundle of rope with the rest of my order. He smiled, "That's 830 septims."

I counted my gold out and passed it over. "Keep the change." He looked it over, "Good enough, good luck on y'er travels."

I put most of the items in my inventory. The sleeping bag, couldn't go into my inventory though. So I strapped it to my back and started moving. My first stop was Ilinalta's Deep. I'd grab the Azure's star. After that I'll climb the mountain with the pick and rope. Should be easier then climbing by hand. 

Bloated man's grotto the place Sinding runs to is just behind Ilinalta's Deep. From there I'd have to travel on foot to either Whiterun or up to Morthal or Solitude. If I go to Whiterun I can grab a carriage to solitude for the Hidden Instincts quest.

I shook my head, no the quest has some time. I can head to Morthal if I can do Ilinalta's Deep and fix the cursed ring in a single day. Ilinalta's Deep should be easy, I didn't have to clear the dungeon. I only had to travel through the main hall to where Malyn's corpse was.

Helping Sinding would be harder, as I had to convince him I wouldn't fight him. As well as killing all Hircine's hunters to overturn the hunt on Sinding. I opened my map and looked at it carefully. Across a lake, over a mountain, then to Morthal which was a challenge on its own.

Call me crazy, but just maybe I could stop by the Sleeping Tree camp. That weird magic tree was there. I was 90% it was a sleeping Hist. From there I can travel up the road on the river. As long as dragons weren't along the way I think it would lead me straight to Morthal. I don't want to climb any extra mountains after all. Unless I wanted to take Cold Rock Pass.

I sighed, I was pretty sure quicksilver was there. I'd need to mind the stuff. I wanted three types of ore, Ebony, Quicksilver and Stalhrim. The last ore was not in Skyrim, so that was a no. Ebony ore was mostly near Windhelm and Riften. I wanted some ebony armor, however I was gonna settle for some silver armor. Silver was easy to afford and get. I just need some quick silver to use as chain link.

I would need to pay for the cost of the armor though. Meaning I really did need to stop at Morthal to handle a few quests. Morthal is a dog shit city, worse than Falkreath. I highly doubted any players went there. So My path should be clean cut. I drew the path I would take and out my map away.

Time to start traveling. I don't think I ever did something like this before. So I had my work cut out for me.

----Edit: i made a mistake in this, I've fixed it.-----