Oh man. There was so much awesome shit that happened this session that my character didn't experience. Fangslayer is becoming more detrimental as we travel further east. Unfortunately, Faendal's legs are frail, and he can't exactly get around without her. The character flaw I chose is becoming less enjoyable... but I delight in the challenge which it presents. We (players, not characters) have briefly discussed some potential solutions. I may eventually craft a wagon and purchase a horse, then use my various ride training skills to drive the vehicle, and keep Fangslayer hidden in the back of the wagon while we enter and traverse through towns. I would still intend to have Faendal ride her at every given opportunity and let the characters without horses drive/ride in the wagon. This would take quite some time to complete, but I think I've got the supply cost saved up in order to make this happen. Two of the characters have horses already, so perhaps theirs could pull the wagon in the meantime. It wouldn't be ideal long-term, given that their mounts are combat trained, but it would be a viable solution until I am able to purchase (or otherwise acquire) horses of my own.

Shorter notes this time, given Faendal spent 2/3 of the session away from the party. It's okay... he still found a way to steal the show. And NONE of the other party members witnessed it. V'Zaren will end up having a vague idea... the wrong idea, at that, but he'll be the only one with an inkling unless he chooses to tell someone else -- or unless it comes up elsewhere down the line.

~

As the group travels onward toward Skingrad, each member spends his time honing various skills and learning new studies through the small library they had managed to amass. Faendal reads a pair of books on unusual species of animals native to the Cyrodiil region. Given his extensive knowledge of Skyrim wildlife, it was only natural that he begin to expand his knowledge to his current surroundings. Faendal's ability to work with hide and cloth also improved significantly after reading a book offering some new stitches.

After two and a half days of relatively uneventful travel, the group reaches the outer edge of Skingrad. The city, surrounded by walls, was relatively calm. The last time Faendal had entered the gates of the city was more than a year past, shortly after his initial journey into the lands of Cyrodiil. He expects to be welcomed openly, but as the sun sets, the guard begins to close the gate. Faendal explains that this is unusual, and Hawksley sends Lieutenant Alberick riding ahead to see if the group can secure safe passage into the city for the evening.

Alberick discusses the party's intentions, and the guard informs him to call the party forward quickly. The group rides up, but Faendal stays toward the back, worried that the unfamiliar faces may not react well to Fangslayer. Certainly enough, the guards refuse entry to Faendal, despite allowing the rest of the party into the city. As the group heads toward the inn, Mouse looks back apologetically, and Fangslayer begins a slow trot around the outer wall of the city.

Faendal knows the rest of the group may be lost without him, as he is the only one with any prior experience in Skingrad. He and Fangslayer scout the walls for a weakness, seeking a contingency plan for entry in case the rest of the group is unable to acquire the holy book from the temple. Would they even find the temple? Would they try at night? In the morning? Which inn will they seek refuge in? These questions raced through Faendal's mind as Fangslayer paced around the city in a clockwise manner.

During the first trip around the wall, the various guards posted at the towers along the wall begin heckling Faendal, each reacting in his or her own way. Some appear scared while others just point and laugh at the poor outside locked out of the city. Something aside from the sight of a wolf-riding wood elf clearly has the guards worried, and Faendal begins to wonder if he will be safe staying outside of the city overnight...

After completing his first lap and arriving at the western gate again, there was only one noteworthy weakness in the city's defenses, and even that may prove to be a challenge. To avoid suspicion, he continues along his clockwise path until arriving at the southern end of the city again. Behind him lay the castle of Skingrad, and before him lay the southern wall. There is no gate nearby, but there is a massive rock formation between the wall and the castle gate. This is where Faendal dismounts his trusty steed and leans for a night's rest. Against the wall in front of him is another, smaller rock formation, with the highest point roughly twelve feet up. The wall is nearly twenty feet - certainly not outside of Fangslayer's reach, but a difficult jump nonetheless.

Faendal looks up and sees the guard at either tower closest to him (there is a tower about 35 feet in either direction) watching him. With luck, he'll be safe for the evening if the guards do their job. Neither seem to care about the white wolf at this point. Faendal falls asleep.

Three hours later, there is some indistinguishable yelling above. As he regains consciousness, Faendal makes out the screaming - the guard in one of the towers is attempting to warn him of the wolf on the ground next to him. Great, the changing of the guard... Faendal yells back up, claiming the wolf as his own. The guard shifts uneasily, but resumes watch and Faendal falls back asleep, this time leaning against Fangslayer's chest instead of the massive rocks behind him. Roughly another four hours later, the guard changes again. There is panicked screaming from the opposite tower this time, and as Faendal awakens, he hears screams about a giant wolf eating a little man. Looking upward, Faendal shouts back, again claiming her as his own. He rolls back over again, attempting to sleep a little longer.

Shortly before dawn, Haru begins circling overhead, and Fangslayer stands up, dropping Faendal's head to the ground with a decisive thump. Something is happening in town, and the guards in the towers are both staring intently at something happening inside the town. With opportunity present, Faendal gathers his wits, mounts Fangslayer, and pulls her back. Haru races into the city overhead, and with a running start, Fangslayer bounds up the lower rocks at the wall's edge, leaping to the narrow piece atop the formation, and vaulting up to the top of the wall as it crumbles beneath her. Both of the guards in the towers hear the commotion as Fangslayer lands atop the wall. Across town, there is some commotion... and smoke in what looks like the direction of one of the inns. Faendal looks left and right, and as the guards and just beginning to react to the sound, commands Fangslayer off the wall to the courtyard below.

She stumbles slightly upon hitting the ground, and Faendal is slightly shaken as well. She breaks into a full sprint, reaching the temple nearly a hundred yards away in well under ten seconds. The guards pull their bows, yelling for attention, and each loose an arrow, missing entirely. Upon the step of the temple, Faendal finds himself facing a locked door. In the low lighting, he manages to utilize his bone knife and a long splinter of bone from his supply kit in unlocking all but the final latching mechanism of the lock. Panicked and under duress, he forces the knife into the lock, breaking the final latch, and forces his way inside.

The temple is silent. Inside, there is a groundskeeper sweeping the floors, preparing the building for the day's mass. He does not even look up as Faendal enters on wolfback, despite being within a few yards of the doorway. Perhaps he is deaf? There is also another man in the temple, sitting in the front pew, hunched over focusing on something else entirely. Normally Faendal would dismount while indoors, using his bow as a crutch as he typically does, but the pressure of the situation forces him to ride up full speed. He stops next to the man in the first pew. The man, wearing a collar, is the priest of the temple. He is also very old... and very startled by looking up at the eyes of a wolf. His panic quickly turns to a heart attack. Faendal tries to calm him down, but is unsuccessful.

"Forgive me father, for I have sinned. Rest. It's over now."

Faendal brushes the priest's shoulder, grasping him for a brief moment before turning to the altar and stuffing the holy book in Fangslayer's saddlebag. As the priest takes his last breath, Fangslayer sprints for the door. Faendal opens the door, expecting to be fired upon. He maneuvers Fangslayer through the incoming arrows, avoiding any damage. They turn northward, sprinting to the only place Faendal thinks he can exit the town -- the third gate, adjacent to the guard house.

As the pair crosses the bridge into the other half of town, there is much muffled shouting and screaming about fire and prisoners and something about a fire wolf. Taking note of this, they hit the main road and bolt eastward to the guard house gate. V'Zaren is standing at the edge of the road as Faendal streaks by, and he steps back, confused.

"Hail, guard, for I have doused the fire wolf and need to release it outdoors!"

The guards look back at Faendal in amazement, partially shocked by a man riding a wolf, and otherwise still confused by all of the commotion on the other end of the road. Unable to argue the logic of a man riding a wild beast, they begin opening the gate. As the gate opens, V'Zaren and Alberick find themselves with an opportunity to escape. Once the gate is wide enough for Fangslayer to exit without damaging the goods in her saddlebags, she runs forward. Faendal shouts back, "thank you, gentlemen!" and rides Fangslayer off into the brush in the distance. V'Zaren and Alberick give chase, and the guards shut the gates behind them.

Alberick informs Faendal and V'Zaren of his contingency plan with Hawksley in case the two of them are ever separated. The goal is to meet at the northernmost point of the closest town or settlement. Not knowing what's further east, Alberick suggests moving back west, to the last settlement the group traveled through. The three return without incident, and find themselves with Hawksley and the Nameless Man in due time. Mouse is nowhere to be found.

Obviously worried of something, Hawksley refuses to enter the settlement, instead camping in the wooded area to the north. The Nameless Man stays outside with him, and Alberick opts to stay with them. Faendal wonders what happened inside the walls of Skingrad that has everyone so nervous... this is twice now the group has been forced to run away from town while he has been outside of the wall. What is Hawksley's problem?

V'Zaren joins Faendal in the settlement. While the occupants are a bit weary of the wolf, nobody runs in fright or otherwise pays special note of her. Upon reaching a small market with a variety of stalls and traders, Faendal dismounts Fangslayer and ties her to a tree outside for the sake of appearance. V'Zaren and Faendal seek out their respective needs. Faendal places an order for a tailor's kit so that he can more appropriately make use of all pieces of anything he has to kill. V'Zaren finds a glass-blower and commissions a chemist's kit. Both of the vendors tell them that their orders will be available in two days' time.

V'Zaren heads straight for the tavern while Faendal returns outside and visits Hawksley. They agree to camp outside for two nights, despite the information that the settlement has no guard. Alberick goes into the town for a handful of supplies, and Faendal returns to V'Zaren. The two of them are soon joined at their table by a man and a woman carrying ale.

"Hello, Boss," Faendal firmly states. The man ignores him entirely, and offers the drinks more directly. He tells them that they seem like a pair of fellows who would probably be good at acquiring various goods. The woman sits quietly, observing the reactions of Faendal and V'Zaren. The man prods further, offering the pair a job. Upon asking what type of job this would be, the man tells V'Zaren that this would be a job acquiring a book. Faendal is immediately skeptical. If this isn't the Boss, who is he? What does he want?

Faendal asks what kind of book they're looking for, and the man states the title of the holy book Faendal had just taken from the temple. As calmly as possible, Faendal asks where he should be able to find the book. If this isn't the Boss, perhaps he wouldn't know that the book was already in his possession.

The woman walks back in -- despite nobody noticing that she ever left -- with the holy book in hand. Startled that she was able to slip that out of Fangslayer's saddlebags without drawing attention to herself, Faendal realizes he is definitely in the company of the Boss.

"Perhaps, maybe, you two should join us upstairs?" asks the man.

Faendal looks up at V'Zaren with a slight panic in his eyes and a quiver in his voice. "Maybe... maybe we should join them. I mean, she took that book out of my saddlebag without drawing the smallest hint of attention to herself... I don't think we're in a place to say no."

The four all move upstairs together. As the door shuts, the first thing the man does is ask for a little more discretion in the future. Relieved, Faendal repeats himself: "Hello, Boss."

The three of the men converse while the woman keeps an eye on both the door and the window. Before rewarding the pair for a job well done, Boss slaps Faendal. "Father Gregory was a close friend of mine. Okay, not really close... but he was a friend. And you killed my friend."

"What?! I didn't kill anybody. He had a heart attack; that's not my fault!"

"You killed my friend. You did half a job, you get half a reward. So... half the information, yes? What would you like to know?"

V'Zaren glares at Faendal, and then asks some questions about the whereabouts of their elusive alchemist friend.

Faendal and V'Zaren are given three locations of dwellings identical to the one crushed by the adamantoise, and are instructed to retrieve the texts from each of them, but under a stipulation... no burning down buildings and no killing innocent bystanders. Faendal looks wildly at V'Zaren, confused about the burning, and then defends his own standing regarding the death of the priest.

As the conversation draws to a close, Faendal asks if there is a timeline for completion of their new task. Fortunately, there is not. V'Zaren asks if he is allowed to read any of the texts they recover before returning them to Boss, and to his delight, Boss gives permission. Boss walks out the door, and the woman leaps out the window. The pair turn to each other, and decide to fill in the rest of the group.

As each have another day and a half to kill before they can collect their respective crafting kits, they pass the time visiting the other shops and bartering for goods. Faendal finds a pair of interested parties in the ring he has, and listens to offers from each of them as they attempt to win his favor. Ultimately, the man who offers no silver but a full set of leather armor is the one who receives the ring. In exchange, Faendal also receives a stock of various flowers. Uncertain of what to do with them, he opts to hang on to them in case they can be of use to V'Zaren's potions later.

Faendal spends his second day altering the armor he received to better fit his body. Having his new leatherworking tools would simplify the task, but he is still able to finish the alterations before nightfall. The following morning, he returns to the tailor to pick up his new tools, and pays off the balance owed for the kit. Thanking the tailor for his services, Faendal returns to the wooded area north of the town, rejoining his companions.


END OF SESSION 003.

SESSION REWARDS:
None;
Items obtained from purchase/barter:
Tailor's Kit - clothcraft/leatherwork
Full Leather Armor
Assorted flowers
* Silver Ring removed from inventory