25 Alchemical questions

When Brom woke up in the morning, he looked over and saw that Erin was already in her new armor.

"Well, how does it feel?" He inquired.

"Like a second skin. It is so light and fits perfectly!"

"Good, cmere for a second."

Walking forward Erin stopped in front of the now standing Brom.

"What is it?"

Quickly casting Iron Fist and striking, Brom punched Erin in the chest. She skid back some and the air got knocked out of her.

"What was that for!"

Panting, her eyes glared daggers at him.

"Wanted to see how well it protected you. Considering you are still standing I'd say it worked rather well."

"Well warn me next time!"

Chuckling, Brom replied. "Where would the fun in that be?"

He got up and started putting on his own armor. Slipping into the tri-weave and then strapping the plating on top; then attaching the cape and putting on his helmet. Turning back towards Erin he asked.

"Well, how do I look?"

"Like a wannabe knight with a squirrel around his neck,"

"Such harsh words for your Thur. I know you love it." He gave a snarky grin.

Erin could not see his grin through the small slits in the helmet, but she heard it in his voice. Grinning she asked Brom to turn around.

"Alright, why? You want to see if my butt looks good?"

"Yeah, something like that."

Casting a Fire Bolt spell, she shot it at Brom's behind. Surprisingly, such an advanced spell only made him stumble before he turned and glared at her.

"That is payback!"

"Fine, enough playing around. The armors obviously work, now we need to head to Whiterun."

Smirking at her victory, Erin pulled up her hood and grabbed her bow. Following Brom out as he headed towards their horse.

"When am I going to get my own horse?" Erin asked.

"When you buy it and convince me you need it."

"How am I supposed to buy it? You horde all of the money we make."

Mounting the horse, he held out his hand and said.

"Guess you'll have to rely on me then."

Grabbing his hand, she let herself be hoisted up. The pair headed out now equipped with their new armor and weapons. Both of them were secretly hoping to run into trouble along the way; they wanted to test their toys out properly.

A couple of hours passed and the two saw a merchant's carriage on the road up ahead. Thinking about seeing what they were transporting, Brom trotted towards them. Before he got close a small group of bandits jumped out and attacked the carriage. There were only seven attackers, two mages and five footmen.

"Time for some fun!" Brom said.

He and Erin hopped off the horse and ran at the bandits. By now the bandits had taken out the two guards for the carriage and were killing the passengers. Brom may have been too late to save them, but he could still avenge them. Testing out his sword and armor was a definite bonus though.

His superior speed quickly showed as he raced past Erin and arrived at the footmen first. This was slightly offset by Erin only needing to get in bow range. As Brom met the first bandit he saw them stumble back as they saw him.

"Always look both ways before robbing on a street!" Brom yelled as he cut down the confused bandit.

Looking over he saw a mage shooting an Ice Spike at him. Instead of dodging he let it hit him. It hit his armor and he felt the spell get weakened then the ice shattered as soon as it hit him. 'This armor is really good.' Brom thought to himself.

While Brom was distracted by his thoughts and the earlier bandit. Erin had shot and killed 4 others, including one of the mages. The new bow was powering through the leather armor and her arrows even went through the mages Ward unhindered. Erin guessed this was due to one of the enchants Brom Shouted into her weapon. Lowering her bow, she let Brom have his fun on the remaining two bandits.

Charging forward Brom easily sliced the mage in half, his sword unaffected by its magic. Then spinning around, he paused. The other four bandits were already dead with arrows sticking out of their chests, including the other mage. Looking over at Erin, he wasn't sure whether to be happy that she was so fast or mad that she took his kills.

She lowered her bow, and Brom realized she was letting him deal with the remaining two. Sighing, he walked towards the frightened men.

"Get back demon!" One of them shouted while holding his sword in front of him.

"Yeah, no man could move like that! Spells didn't seem to bother him either!" The other piped in.

Brom smiled under his mask. Letting his sword drag beside him, he slowly walked towards the bandits. Seeing how confident their attacker was, one of the bandits charged and swung a wild overhead strike at Brom. Not even bothering to lift his sword, Brom grabbed the man by his neck and lifted him off the ground. Then bandit's sword struck his armor, and it only bounced off. The cheap iron sword could not even scratch his armor.

Turning and staring into the other bandit's eyes, Brom twisted his wrist and snapped the bandit's neck. Then letting the body fall to the ground, he started slowly walking towards him. Seeing how outmatched he was, the bandit turned and ran. Brom quickly signaled Erin to lower her bow before he shot him. 'Maybe one survivor will help spread my reputation around' Brom thought to himself.

As Erin walked up bringing the horse, Brom was going through all of the carriages stuff.

"Shouldn't let any of this go to waste. They won't be needing it anyway." Brom called over his shoulder.

"Well, find anything interesting at least?"

"Yeah, one thing. There is a box of rare herbs, and the woman's necklace seems to be enchanted with a weak Fortify Alchemy enchant."

"So, an alchemist then, not too many of those wandering around. Shame that Whiterun lost out on the chance for a new alchemist."

"Actually, these ingredients look like they are more geared towards poisons. Sadly these are the poisons that affect your abilities and not knock you out. It seems we aren't that lucky."

"Too bad, well I think we should get moving."

Brom glanced up at Erin, he faked an innocent voice.

"Oh? Should we get moving? Is there anything else you would like to tell me to do?"

Seeing through the obvious act, Erin realized she overstepped the boundaries placed by Brom.

"Sorry, I was just trying to suggest something." She lowered her head as she muttered this.

"Well next time suggest and don't act like you are the one making the decisions. You are my shadow Erin, not my leader." Brom scolded.

"Yes, Thur." She said meekly.

Satisfied she had been put back in her place, Brom got up on the horse and told her.

"Put the herbs and necklace in our bags and then let's go."

Erin did as she was told, then hopped up on the horse. Once she was sitting behind Brom and he had turned to look ahead. Erin quickly stuck out her tongue at him. 'He could have at least been nice about it.' She thought to herself. While she did feel a strong connection to Brom and liked him as a person; he could sometimes be just rude.

The two rode in silence to Whiterun and left their horse at the stables per usual. Heading into the inner city Brom went to the marketplace and searched around for Arcadia's Cauldron. Finding it relatively close to its position in the game, Brom entered with Erin.

"I offer remedies for ailments both common and rare. Do let me know if I can be of service." Arcadia said her usual line of dialog as they entered her store.

The store was a bit bigger than in the game, now hosting three different alchemy stations instead of just one. Rows of shelves with ingredients both common and rare could be seen on the far wall. And at the back wall, there was the counter that Arcadia stood behind.

"Hey, we were actually needing something a little different than your usual customers," Brom replied.

"Oh, and what might that be?"

"We need to identify the ingredients in this potion and figure out what it is."

"Hmm, it is out of the ordinary. But nothing I shouldn't be able to do."

Walking over Arcadia took the vile holding the poison found in the mugs. Looking at curiously, she shook it around then walked to one of the alchemy stations. Brom leaned over and whispered in Erin's ear.

"Go watch her, learn how to do this so we won't have to rely on anyone next time."

Nodding her head Erin went over and started innocently asking questions. While she was busy with that, Brom walked over to the many shelves' of ingredients and took a certain three. Troll fat, dragons tongue, and fly amanita. This would allow him to have Erin make a high quality Fortify Two-Handed potion. This potion has the effect of making users of two-handed weapons have greatly increased damage and skill with their weapons. 'Definitely useful if I end up having to take on an entire group of the Silver Hand' Brom thought.

"Okay, I think I have it. This is a mixture of a paralysis potion and a simple, but strong, sleeping potion. You usually only find this fed to large mammals for taming or just to make killing them easier as it will keep them paralyzed while the sleeping effect takes place. Then they would be knocked out for several hours." Arcadia shot out a stream of information about the effects of this potion.

"Wow, thank you. Do you know how to make it?" Erin asked.

"Of course, but the ingredients are a little rare and can be quite expensive."

"Okay, well what are the ingredients then?"

"Well, you need canis root, deathbell, sleeping tree sap, and a spider egg. But the hardest part is getting the mixture just right, otherwise, it would only make the target drowsy as the effects cancel out if one is too strong."

'She is like an alchemy encyclopedia' Brom thought.

"Well thank you so much for your help. How much will this have cost us?" Erin asked.

"Oh, well it wasn't too much trouble, and it did not cost any resources so I say 5 septims would do it."

Walking over and handing her the money, plus a tip of 2 septims Brom smiled and said.

"Thank you for the information Arcadia. I will be sure to remember how helpful you were."

After saying that the two left the store and the slightly confused Arcadia behind. 'What a weird pair, dressed as warriors, polite like a diplomat, yet interested in alchemy. Oh well, at least I got a tip.' Arcadia thought to herself as the pair left her store.

Walking back into the market, Brom cringed as he heard a familiar line of dialogue from a nearby guard.

"Stop! You have committed crimes against Skyrim and her people, what say you in your defense?"