[X] Let the guards handle any problems unless it looks like they're going to lose.
-[X] Deal with any problems subtly.
[X] See if you can pick up anything about their language with magic.
The caravan isn't much larger than the one that went north, which seems odd at first thought, but makes sense when you take into account the fact that you're moving across undeclared territory into the capital of one side of a civil war. Anyone going there is likely to be looked at by spies and the like, so the only people moving would be those without a choice - like you and your friends - and informants for one side or the other. With that in mind, you resolve to avoid fighting if possible, and to use subtlety if you do have to take matters into your own hands. You settle back and watch the clouds and the plants and all that
incredibly boring scenery and wish you enjoy it as much as Lutecia does. Of course, that boredom only lasts another half-hour.
"Uhh …." You snort at Agito's incredibly witty discourse on the rain that starts to fall and curl yourself up as much as you can, putting the hood up and drawing your cloak as tight around you as you can. It won't help, you know - a cloak will keep you from getting wet, but it won't shield you the same way a parasol would and that makes some kind of difference. It's so very incredibly unfair.
"Flan? Are you going to be okay?" Lutecia puts her hood up, too, along with Agito, and touches your shoulder. You flinch involuntarily, and she draws her hand back, and you shudder.
"Yeah. I won't be
happy about it, but as long as it stays like this and doesn't keep up for too long, I'll be fine." Though if it
does keep up, you might be better off holding onto the underside of the wagon and riding like that instead of using a parasol. One of the grey-skins, the woman across from you, chuckles and leans back, obviously enjoying the weather. The man, sitting to Agito's left, simply draws his own cloak around himself and sits stoically. Fortunately, the rain doesn't last too long, clearing up before you reach the crossroads where you spent the night before reaching Whiterun, and by the time the caravan has fully crossed the river, the sun is out and you're subjected to a different form of discomfort … though, at least the hood
does help with this one, a little. You relax a little and don't even fuss when Lutecia pulls you over to let you lean against her. You doze off a little, but you wake up when the carriage slows to a halt.
The lead wagon is halted at the base of a tower along the river, and it seems that two of the outriders had dismounted and entered the tower. A bridge extends from the midpoint to another tower on the other side … and there are several people hanging from the bridge, dead. Several of them have arrows in them, a few have injuries from melee, and two were actually hanged. You look around - you're not the only one to see the bodies, and some of the travelers are worried, including the grey-skinned woman. The man doesn't seem bothered by it, much as he didn't seem bothered by the weather, and the driver seems concerned but not worried.
"What do you think happened?" You shrug at Agito, still studying your surroundings.
"Someone attacked someone else and left their bodies here. The dead people don't seem to have any uniforms or other identifying marks, not that I can see from here, anyway, but …." Looking at the jagged rocks on the other side of the road, you see a remarkably well-camouflaged person sitting on a small ledge, a dull grey face-mask concealing what the slate-colored blanket or cloak doesn't. You nudge the driver and direct his attention at the watcher - he pales when he sees the cloak fall, revealing a figure in a blue cloak. The driver yells something to the rest of the group, and many of them relax. You poke Agito. "Hey, ask him what he said." She frowns at you, but leans over to tap the man's shoulder.
"He said something about the Storm-Cloaked," she says, shrugging. You tap your lips and glance at the man.
"Storm-cloaked?
Stormcloaks?" He blinks, and you gesture up at the blue-clad figure. "
Stormcloaks?" He nods slowly, then carefully turns back to his horses and prepares to give them the order to move again. The grey-skinned woman watches you as you repeat the word to yourself several more times. You sigh quietly and make yourself comfortable. "Wake me up if anything interesting happens, okay?"
You make camp at a sharp bend in the road - and the river it follows. Across the river, watching your encampment from the rocks, stand several huge humanoids dressed … a little … in furs and skins. Giants of some sort, more than twice the height of a human. They don't seem
hostile, precisely, and the locals seem to be doing their best to ignore them. You turn back as Agito holds a babbling conversation with the grey-skinned woman, Sedris Randas.
"Those are giants, right? Giants. Giants?
Giants? Giants. Thank you." She preens a little - you're too temperamental, and Lutecia too shy, to try and learn words this way. And none of you are skilled or knowledgeable enough about magic to try and simply
learn the language. You're not really sure what Sedris is getting out of it, though; she apparently can't get anyone to hold a decent conversation with her, and the other Dunmer in the caravan is the 'wrong sort' or something. You smile and shake your head as Lutecia delightedly chomps on a honey-soaked piece of bread. You find it hard to believe she's never had it before.
The night passes uneventfully, though you keep a watch of your own, both on the giants and the local wood-youkai that peer out from the trees across the river. Neither group attacks or makes any other threatening movements, however. When the time to break camp comes, you switch places with Agito, placing you next to the silent Dunmer. He gives you one look, an assessment of some kind, then goes back to ignoring everything that doesn't affect him. The road is smoother than yesterday's, not as steep, or covering as much vertical distance, and its decent maintenance keeps the caravan rolling along at a steady pace. Lutecia seems even more excited than she was yesterday, and you're a little happier as well, thanks to the trees that give you some relief from the sun.
When you cross the river, however, the carriages close up and the outriders put their weapons down. An odd decision - even when leaving Whiterun they'd made it clear they were guarding the caravan. The group slows to a crawl as the road worsens, and when your carriage finally reaches the edge of the cleared zone, you see the reason for the caravan's attempts to appear harmless. A fort - a small castle, really - sits on a small rise, sprawling into the rocks overlooking the cliff and river. Scattered along the ground in front of the fort are the remains of several dozen Stormcloak soldiers and a smaller number of men in heavier armor, partially decayed and scavenger-eaten in most cases. Some bear the marks of having been burned, others have no easily-identified cause of death, others have holes that seem to have been blown through them, and yet others bear the wounds of weaponry. Leaning against the tower wall over is a black-robed figure, but apart from that you can't make anything out with certainty. The figure allows you to pass, but a rain of arrows from the branch of the road that leads to the gate sails toward it. Most of the arrows miss easily from such a long distance, but one hits the figure in the shoulder and it drops out of sight, shrieking. The caravan keeps moving, but you turn to see where the arrows had come from, and see nine soldiers in red and brown rushing toward the fortress … rather, toward the bodies in front of it. Two of the raiders begin searching the bodies, scrambling from corpse to corpse, while the others try to keep the defenders off-balance. It even works until one sorcerer ducks out of the gate and launches a small burst of flame that explodes violently, killing several of the attackers and scattering the bodies. At that point, however, the carriage takes you out of view of the battle, and you settle back down.
Once the caravan makes it past the poorly-maintained section of road and over the bridge, it picks up speed again until it reaches the next stop, a lumber mill smaller than the one in Riverwood, with only a few houses nearby. A woman comes out of the mill and seems almost pathetically grateful to have visitors; two of the outriders dismount and keep her safely entertained while the horses are seen to and everyone gets their things ready. You go along with Sedris as she and the quiet man head for the smallest building, but the mill-owner hurries over and starts babbling at you, something about the Dunmer. You frown at her, shrug at Agito and Lutecia, and keep moving. You frown at the hovel - dirty and ill-maintained, cramped and rank - but sigh and clear a small area for Agito and Lutecia. You won't be sleeping, of course. After a few minutes, the others walk in, and Sedris seems apologetic.
"So, uh, it seems this particular building is the one used for the … less well-liked people. The Dunmer, Khajiit, and … Orsimer?" Sedris nods at Agito as the fairy explains the situation. "It doesn't see much use, anyway, and since people around here don't seem to like those groups too much, well …." You shrug as she trails off.
"Are you two fine with being here?" Agito scowls as Lutecia nods determinedly, and you shrug again. "Then it doesn't matter. I've slept in worse, though I'm not going to be sleeping tonight anyway." They nod and start setting their things up as you slip back outside. You sniff the air and make a face. Fish,
again. It's almost enough to make you want to dam up the river, see if they can survive without all their stupid fish. The night is quiet as well, although you notice the quiet Dunmer notice you watching him slip off across the river. It starts snowing while he's gone, just a few centimeters. Still, he comes back before dawn and doesn't seem to have changed his manner, so you let him be.
The wagons move more quickly today, and you're excited to finally be most of the way to your goal of the College of Magic. The badlands across the river aren't particularly exciting, although you ask Sedris why everyone keeps looking over there. Apparently a dragon lives around there and frequently makes a nuisance of himself - several groups of hunters have tried to claim the Jarl's bounty, but none of them came back. You keep a grudging eye out as well, as best you can, but nothing comes of it, and eventually you leave the badlands behind as the road rises ever higher. You hit a small snowstorm as the caravan moves through a pass, and you clap your hands delightedly even as everyone else bundles up. Snow isn't running water, though - neither is ice - and you're mostly free of the sun, too! You almost feel normal, and you try to gather enough snow to make a snowball. Unfortunately, the storm doesn't last that long, and you're back in the sun and as miserable as everyone else is.
Shortly before leaving the pass, the caravan grinds to a halt, and you scowl at the delay. After several long and frustrating minutes, a pair of dark-skinned men come up to your carriage and glance at you all before growling something. As they walk away, Sedris smiles and holds a finger to her lips, then says something loudly enough for the two men to hear, something about their swords. They spin, hands dropping to their hilts as they glare at your carriage, but after a few moments they angrily stalk back to the front of the group, and you start moving again a few minutes later. Finally free of distractions, the caravan follows the snow-covered road east, and after you cross a bridge you can finally see your destination, a squat brick of a city nestled against the mountains across the river. The carriages roll up to a stableyard and the passengers begin to dismount. A man comes out of the office and makes an announcement, and you turn to Agito for a translation, although the general demeanor of the group indicates that it's
not good news. She talks with Sedris some more, then sighs dejectedly and turns to you and Lutecia.
"So, the
good news is we got here on time. The
bad news is that there's some kind of nasty storm coming down, so no one's going to be leaving the city. That also means that we'll be put up
in the city," she gestures at the building with the office, "because normally they'd put us in there and spare us the bridge." You scowl, then shrug, as Lutecia slumps a little. You give her a hug.
"We're almost there. Don't worry." She tries to smile, mostly fails, and you make your way across the bridge. You admire the fortifications, then admire them again as you realize they protect you from the winds that give the city its name. A glance out toward the river shows you a rather impressive dock with several good-sized ships anchored. Before you reach the massive gates to the city itself, however, you see one more interesting sight - on one side of the gate, hanging from the wall, are two figures dressed in messy dark robes, and on the other side is a cage holding a third, still-living individual. Many of the travelers, or others entering the city, pay one or another of the merchants managing stalls for a rotten fruit or something else repulsive and sling it toward the cage. Occasionally one hits, and the crowd cheers. After a particularly good throw, the caged individual calls something back - you understand the word for 'food,' and something that
sounds like 'shelter,' and the man gestures at his cage almost proudly and laughs. You glance at Agito, but you can hear some of what the crowd is saying, and one of the few words you recognize gives you a rather large hint.
"So, uh … I guess that's one of the 'Thalmor' things we heard about," Agito says, and Lutecia frowns up at the cage. You chuckle and shake your head, and they stare at you, shocked.
"They're giving him 'food' and 'protection,' aren't they? But they aren't going to do a thing to save him from the storm. I wonder if he even knows it's coming." You shrug and pull your friends along with you toward the city gates. Not your business.
What do you do?
[ ] Explore the city.
- [ ] Day.
- [ ] Night.
[ ] Find out if there are any interesting places to visit.
[ ] Try to find Ralof.
[ ] Other?
DM Note: It's afternoon, getting on to evening. You'll be stuck in the city tomorrow, too. Flan has the best pronunciation of the three, but none of them have much of a vocabulary, basically just survival basics. ... And ... oh, right. Yeah, you got the non-combat random encounters
Lucky you.
