Bab 49: The March to Jorrvaskr
It took us three days to march up to Helgan, the fortress town that controlled the major passage of southern Skyrim through the Jerall Mountains. The town had just over five hundred residents minus the garrisoned legionnaires. I joined these guys in Morrowind, fought beside them during the Oblivion Crisis, these are the soldiers that put all of Tamriel under their heel and declared their founding leader a god. They fought off the invasions of Akavir.
And now they couldn't beat the high elves and were forced to renounce their god. They even struggled to put down a provincial rebellion that half the people didn't support. It felt like looking at your grandfather in his eighties and remembering how he was still strong and crafty enough to kick your ass thirty years ago.
We stayed at the local inn again, once more going through song and dance of convincing people I am not a monster who ate an argonian.
It hurt my heart to lie to all these simple folk.
The Thane arm rings certainly helped calm people down as they believed no Jarl would elevate an actual cannibal to such a respected title.
It was only a day's walk down to Riverrun and along the way we stopped at the standing stones of the the Warrior, the Thief, and the Mage.
"I remember coming here. Praying that the Mage Stone would allow me to follow my dream." Jack mused as she ran her hand over the familiar stone.
Poor kid should have sought out the Atronach Stone, it would have given him just enough magicka to work the lesser magics.
Both of us activated the Warrior Stone and the power of the stars entered us, increasing our talents for the martial skills of this world. The stars were hugely important in this verse, the various constellations providing power in the form of birthsigns, standing stones, and perks for those skilled enough to meditate on the specific stars in various formations.
Jar-Shak had only learned the stars for the magical skills, and he new them by heart from boyhood, but I had been able to purchase a few texts and manuals on the other two primary disciplines and Jack and I had been spending a few hours each evening focusing our minds on the stars.
It revealed that our decade of sword instruction in Star Wars hadn't gone to waste as we were experts in single handed weaponry and adepts at blocking. I was also adept in the ways of smithing, but had mastered heavy armor entirely and could meditate on the full constellation at my leisure. Jack had some skills in picking locks, sneaking, and pickpocketing from her time as rogue traveling the galaxy, but she had chosen not to pursue those constellations until we knew we had enough accumulated power to connect with all the stars we wanted in the warrior signs.
Overall it kind of felt like we'd entered a cultivation novel and were gaining new abilities as we furthered our understanding of the great Daos, but when the sun and stars are windows into a plane of unlimited power, who am I to complain?
I liked Riverwood a lot once they stopped screaming about me being a monster. God deliver me, that shit was getting old fast. We got to see Sven trying to woo Camilla Valerius when she arrived at the inn, while Feindal glared daggers at the confident and almost suave bard. I enjoyed both of them looking like they'd eaten shit when the lovely little imperial (assume people aren't the hideous vanilla versions) swooned so hard she had to fan herself when the missus and I made our pass at her. She didn't join us, but that is her loss, not ours.
We even met the annoying bitch herself, Delphine. What a square.
After departing Riverwood the next morning we travelled the road and heard the sounds of shouting and the growling of wolves. Following the sounds at a quick jog we found a large pack of wolves engaged in combat with a pair of nords and a dark elf.
"Incoming!" I yelled an pounced at a wolf while bringing The Mule down axe first on its neck. Jack darted in without the use of her biotics and stabbed another next to me.
"There's more than enough here for the lot of us!" Cheerfully greeted the dark haired nord thick boy, his muscles bulging as he swung his greatsword around with ease.
"What an axe!" Shouted the second nord, a skinnier blonde with lesser hygiene and sloppier movements of his own greataxe.
"Why is everyone in this province so in love with huge weapons?" Shouted the frustrated dark elf as he dispatched another wolf with his short sword and offhand dagger.
I sent a wolf flying with a backswing of my hammer that shot past the dark elves face before I stabbed an oncoming wolf in the mouth.
"That's why!" laughed the big nord as he finished the last wolf off by splitting its skull cleanly.
"Listen, my new big best friend." The slovenly nord greeted, "I need to know who made you that beastly union of hammer, axe, and stabby bit. It speaks to me in ways I don't understand. Entices me like no woman ever has. I think I love it."
"Made it myself." I told him.
"Name's Torvar, Companion of Jorrvaskr, and slayer of whatever you tell me to convince you to make me one like yours." the slovenly nord introduced himself while his companions took off the right ears of all the wolves we killed."
"That's convenient." Jack spoke, "We are traveling to Whiterun to join the Companions."
"Hominahominahomina." The bleary eyed Torvar gurgled as he saw the warrior goddess I am married to.
"Down boy." I told him, "Before the wife puts a world of hurt on ya."
"You are married to that avatar of Dibella!" Torvar cried, "It's true what they say. Some guys really do have all the luck. You are a specimen and a half, can make superweapons of awesome badassery, and you get to cuddle up to her every night! Teach me your ways!"
"You can't handle my ways." I denied him and watched the soul leave his body in pure despair.
"He is telling the truth, Torvar." the dark elf in a hide harness approached after filling his sack of ears, "Even if you weren't such a lazy lout, you wouldn't be able to keep up with one of the giant argonians of the deep swamps. You saw that speed and strength first hand."
"Greetings ashlander." I extended my hand to the dark elf, "I am Grunt Bearsbane and this is my wife Jack."
"Quite strange for an argonian to extend his hand to a dunmer." he referenced the long history of the dark elves enslaving the beast folk, but shook my hand all the same.
"Your people have never enslaved a lizard like me." I chuckled.
"Damn straight." the big nord stated as he walked over, "You can't enslave muscles like that. I am Farkas, the leader of this trio. You have my thanks for joining the fight and I hope that you are accepted at Jorrvaskr."
"Got a letter of recommendation from the Jarl of Falkreath." Jack told him, "Did some bounty work there and even got made Thanes." she took out the gold arm ring from a pouch on her belt.
"Then I doubt anyone will deny you both." Farkas grinned.
It took us a further three days to get to Whiterun, the biggest city in Skyrim with close to thirty thousand residents. We spent a fair bit of time talking to our Companions companions about our understanding of the martial skills and Farkas and I bonded quickly over our love of heavy armor.
I was able to connect to the Tower of Strength star after a conversation with him, proving his skill as a teacher.
The stench of cow shit hung heavy in the air around Whiterun as the great plains around the city were used as pasture for many herds of cattle. The city itself was very well defended with three sets of walls and watchtowers ready to light signal fires to alert from danger from both the north and the south.
We didn't actually enter the city that evening as our detour to the Honningbrew Meadery lasted several hours and resulted in us striking up camp one final time.
Whiterun felt more like a Viking themed Novigrad than the city I remembered, but that just made me more excited to explore it. The city was built on a bluff in three distinct districts each contained within a wide stone wall. The majority of the city bound citizens worked in the Plains district that was encircled by the outermost wall, this is where I saw most of the familiar sights I remembered from the game, such as Warmaiden's and the Drunken Huntsman. We made our way through the busy streets to the Wind District, where most of the people lived and where Jeek of the River upturned his longboat and built the legendary meadhall, Jorrvasker.
Jeek's crew only consisted of twenty two men, so the dwelling they built was quite cozy for the nine current members of the premier mercenary company of Skyrim. We arrived during breakfast, and Farkas shouted our introduction as we entered.
"I left to hunt wolves and returned with new friends!"
"Farkas!" his brother called from his place at the table, "While it is nice that you have found someone you can lift weights with, that doesn't mean they are Companions material."
"Ha!" Farkas barked as he sat down next to Vilkas, "From what I have seen, I'd be safer working out with the wife. The lizard half of the Bearsbane couple is even stronger than he looks, and he looks like he can run with a pair of horses on his shoulders."
"Lighten up Vilkas." Torvar stated, "We know them and fought with them. Plus they got a letter of recommendation from a Jarl. You know, those nine guys who hire us to take care of all sorts of business."
"Having your approval doesn't pass for much." Vilkas spat.
"Peace Vilkas." spoke Kodlack the Harbinger, "I like the way they walk."
The elder warrior rose up and greeted us warmly, "Welcome to Jorrvaskr, friends. You have already proven yourself to three of our number, and in the coming days I have no doubt you will do so for the rest of us as well. Come and eat with us, for the days training will need fuel."
Over the next handful of days Jack and I were the first onto the training yard and the last to leave. With the power of the Warrior Stone and some of the best training partners in the world, our abilities grew quickly and we built our connection to the various stars we wanted to add to our build. Fortunately none of the perks were traps, as the Bladesman star increased the damage of attacks to critical areas and the Bonebreaker star applied to natural armor as well as armor worn. Such quality of life improvements existed throughout all the skill constellations.
By the end of the week of training we had added a fair bit of raw skill to our portfolio and five additional connections to the stars (as they can only form one connection a night). I picked up armsman, fighting stance, and savage strike from the One Handed constellation, and shield wall and quick reflexes from the Block constellation. Jack took up the same as they are all core abilities to our favored gear set up.
At dinner the fifth night of our stay with companions Kodlak called us up and asked if their were any who opposed our membership to the companions. When none spoke up he explained that the final step for us joining the team was to undergo a proving consisting of a mission undertaken with a member of the Circle. After dinner we met with Kodlak and Skjor, the man who would accompany us and it was explained that we would be handling two bounties for the Jarl of Whiterun in a single day by clearing out the bandits encamped at the Halted Stream and those who had taken over the Lunar Forge.
The first had started causing unrest in the local giant population and the second was a sister camp who operated hand in hand with the former.
In all it sounded like a fun day killing folks with a dour old man tagging along.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
JManM
JManM Two large chapters today and I am very tired for it. I have taken the liberty of giving the Companions the equipment you hear them talk about and the skills they look like they should have.
I hope I have been doing a good job blending how Skyrim felt in the game with how large it should have been. I won't be making a bunch of OC's to interact with Jack and Grunt, and will only do conversations with the cast from the game, but the world should feel far larger and more lived in.
I think I nailed the tone for each of the Companions.
If you want to support me and my family, you can do so at
ko - fi . com / jmanm
Bab 50: The Dragonborn Comes
"Your lust for loot is unseemly." Skjor whinged as I securely tied down the last of my loot to my enormous homemade loot sled.
In a pile on the loot sled lay all the weapons and armor from the bandits we'd hunted down earlier in the day, their valuables, and a bunch of mammoth tusks they'd been stockpiling. It was a killer haul.
"You are going to want to climb on." Jack told him as she stood at the top of Mt. Murderhobo, "Grunt's going to want to get back before dinner time and he won't wait for your old wrinkly ass if you fall behind."
"If you think I will be outrun by a lizard hauling all of that," He indicated to me tying myself into a harness to pull the loot sled, "then you have lost your mind."
Two Hours Later
Skjor had fallen to his knees in front of the south gate into Whiterun as he struggled to both catch his breath and keep from puking after the pace I set on our return trip.
"Next time…" he gasped, "I ride the loot sled."
"Told you so." Jack mocked as she dropped down from Mt. Murderhobo like the queen of the world.
Despite having to navigate the streets of Whiterun at a sedate pace, we still made it back in time for dinner, and afterwards were inducted into the Companions in a ceremony I'd give a five out of ten. I'd been declared the Overlord of the Krogan and the Archon of the Hutts. Unless I get crowned the King of Asgard, I don't think I'll be attending any ceremonies that stick out.
The next morning I took up an apprenticeship under Eorlund, melting down the gear we took from the bandits into fresh bar stock and then beginning the laborious process of transforming regular steel into Skyforged Steel. Each bar needed to undergo one hundred folds using the heat of the magic forge to reach the quality expected in weapons made for the Companions and their associates.
While this process could be continued in perpetuity, each fold resulted in diminished returns. Hundred fold Skyforge Steel swords are comparable to elven swords, while thousand fold Skyforge Steel swords are comparable to glass swords. While the effort wasn't near worth the pay off, I did find that my prowess as a smith improved far faster in the last ten folds of a Skyforge bar that in the first ten.
It became apparent to me that Eorlund, despite his many years of experience, wasn't very smart. He basically grinded out his levels in blacksmithing forging iron daggers. Over his long career he had never thought to use fire salts to cut down on heating time, never experimented with alchemical quenches. It literally took me three weeks to dial in the right amount of fire salts to increase the forge efficiency without risking ruining the product and that using even the cheapest resist fire potion for quenching reduced the risk of stress failure to zero and hardened the metal even more than an ice water quench.
Unfortunately, some intelligent being has patched out the fortify skill potions and enchantments, so I couldn't just exploit the shit out the crafting system to produce the Iron Sword of OP Brokenness with world ending enchantments. Feels bad, man.
Despite Eorlund being a complete square, he was handy for helping me increase the grind speed on my smithing skill and connecting to the Smithing Stars. I found that the final quality of the Skyforge Steel also drew on the smiths metal lore, so I connected to the entire constellation and discovered that my hundred fold steel was now of the level of Eorlund's thousand fold steel, and I found it far more responsive to my shaping.
This discovery along with the love my fellow Companions now held for the loot sled and its more professionally crafted descendants made me the most popular member of our group. Not that it was hard as my only competition was Farkas, Kodlak, and Jack.
Who could have guessed that making badass weapons of badassery and increasing the profitability of our battles would make a band of mercenaries like me?
I made new suits of armor for Jack and myself as well as updated our weapons to use my new super alloy. Given our raw strength and the intense difficulty involved in killing us, I may have gone above and beyond in making the armor scary as fuck. When I was done with mine it looked like General Raam and Garrosh Hellscream had pulled off the fusion dance and become a heavy metal hell lizard.
I'd worked the skull of the mega bear into a workable visor for my helmet and armored my arms asymmetrically as the left arm would operate a brutal spiked pavis and wouldn't need any further protection. Then I studded the right arm with the mega bear's brutal claws like a prehistoric Shredder.
I covered all the darkened steel with nordic scrollwork in honor of the setting and The Mule 2.0 gave Torvar an erection that lasted longer than four hours.
Jack got similar upgrade and especially liked the hagraven feather mohawk crest I put on her helmet.
The coup de grace came in the form of the Skyforge Steel bows I made. Mine was more akin to a one man ballista and I carried a bag of javelins shaped like arrows for it, while Jack's was a more toned down reflex bow that could launch the heavy bodkin arrows I made her over 300 meters.
When Aela asked me if I was planning to takedown a dragon while we practiced our archery I told her, "Absolutely."
"Well, you will have to go a long way to Akavir to accomplish that." she nodded and continued her practice.
I chose to ignore her accusatory glare when one of the Jarl's soldiers ran into Jorrvaskr shouting about a dragon attacking the Western Watchtower.
The morale of the guard force improved greatly when we arrived at the rally point with Aela, Kodlak, and Athis. Mine; however, dropped significantly. I didn't see the horned badass from the video game trailer anywhere, and instead the only person who stood out did so for the wrong reasons.
I spotted a nord girl with straw colored hair hanging out of a homemade hide helmet, clutching a self forged iron dagger to her chest in a blood stained too big Stormcloak uniform. She looked sixteen and terrified, and I realized that Skyrim wasn't going to be saved by some unstoppable epic hero powered by the gamer's insatiable desire for loot and adventure. The fate of the world was in the hands of a modern hero. A scared teenager with no business being a hero.
Ah shit.
"With Bearsbane here we won't need to do anything!" Shouted someone who was much happier than I was right now, "He'll just pin the damn thing down and fuck it to death!"
I see that Whiterun's epidemic of limping females had only improved the mood of these former adventurers.
"I'll be remembering your mother the whole time, Mika." I told the chatty guard.
"She has been pestering me to get you back in her bed lately." the man admitted without shame, "I am glad the memory is so strong, makes my job convincing you all the easier."
What the fuck is wrong with these people.
"And don't forget my sister!" Shouted Sturn, "And we can get a drink when you're done at the Bannered Mare!"
Don't these people realize that fucking their mothers and sisters is supposed to be the end of our friendships. We aren't supposed to go out for a night on the town after I have plowed your sister into a blissful stupor, Sturn. You are supposed to fight me.
The emboldened guards followed Balgruuf's housecarl Irileth out to the Western Watchtower and we followed them with a shaking teenager trudging along with us.
"What's your name, kid?" I asked her.
"Brienne." quavered the young nord woman.
"Brienne." I repeated, "Nice name. I see you too cannot contain your excitement about the coming battle. I am also shaking in joy, you just can't tell because of all my neat armor."
"Shouldn't the armor make the shaking more noticeable?" she asked in confusion.
"You would think that..." I shook my head, "Do you think that some dragon bones will look good with all the others, or will it be too much? Maybe swap out the mammoth tusks for a pair of dragon horns? Change out the leather for some dragonhide."
"You definitely look like you have tried very hard with your look." Brienne stated with a bit more ease in her tone, "But I definitely think you should swap up to dragon parts after you finish fucking it to death."
"Don't let these foulmouthed barbarians taint you, kid." I chided her.
"Did you really lay with Mika's mom and Sturn's sister?" She asked.
"Yeah." I answered.
"Why?" her virginal question made me chuckle.
"Cause it felt good… and apparently didn't bother anyone." I told her, "Do they respond so well to this kind of thing where you are from?"
"No." she shook her head, "I had a friend Tifa who took up with a man and her family disowned her. I was her only friend left after the rumors got out. They called her all sorts of terrible things, but I couldn't believe that about my friend… but I should have. Tifa ruined everything for me back home."
"I am sorry to hear that, kid." I sympathized with her, "The last guy who betrayed me got cut into three pieces. I tried for four, but I didn't get all the way through both arms in one swing and taking another would be unsportsman like."
A few smoking corpses lay about the Western Watchtower as we approached, but no dragon. I kept my eyes on the sky while everyone else spread out looking for survivors. In preparation I stabbed a handful of my big boy arrows into the ground and strung my humongous Skyforge Steel bow.
Jack and Aela did similarly at other positions and we waited calmly.
"Hurry up and get in here!" A man called from the tower, "That thing is still out their.
A roar echoed off the nearby mountains and a green dragon came bearing down on us from above.
When I say dragon, that is only in the Elder Scrolls sense of the word. Physically he is a wyvern, as he lacks the forelimbs of a proper dragon.
I sent up an arrow that tore through his wing membrane, but did not seem to cause him any trouble flying, and soon the other archers began firing upon the approaching beast, many missing, and others bouncing off his scales.
I missed my next two shots while the beast rained fire down on us in passing, but a third landed in the beast's side and caused it to cry out. It controlled its descent and upon landing used a clawed foot to pull the arrow out.
With the beast on the ground I sprinted over to it with my shield raised and the new and improved Mule in my hand. The beast's deadly fire was reduced in power by my connection to the Block Stars, allowing me to close distance without too much damage and smack the damn thing in the face with my hammer. As it reeled from the blow I circled around it and slammed my axe down in near the joint were its wings unfold and I yanked the scythe like axe underjaw down, splitting the wing and ensuring the beast couldn't take off again.
The maneuver put me in perfect position for the retaliatory tail strike that sent me flying. Thank God I broke my fall with my neck, otherwise I could have really been hurt.
The dragon didn't get the chance to admire his terrific golf swing as Jack hit him in the face with a Warp attack, the grinding sphere causing him to scream until she detonated it with a Shockwave that lifted the dragon slightly and primed it again for the detonation she caused with her biotic Charge. Jack arrived at the dragon in an instant and buried her sword in its chest before twisting it and walking the weakened beast down while our friends harried it from the sides.
After I collected my scattered thoughts off the ground, I ran at the big bastard and executed a Critical Charge attack that bit deeply into the dragon's neck. A trio of Savage Strikes later and the beast's head came away clean.
I took off my helmet and licked the tasty blood off my axe while the dead dragon lit up like the northern lights and the beast's soul was sucked into Brienne. While most people gaped at the girl, I grinned at the dead beast who had not turned into a pile of bones.
"Mika, Sturn." I yelled at the stunned guards, "Run back and have them send down some carts full of mead. As for the rest of you, get a bonfire going. The enemy brought the victory feast with him!"
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA
JManM
JManM
Big chapter, both in word count and importance. Once again, Grunt's expectation was subverted and the Dragonborn he was hoping would roll Alduin like a joint and smoke him is a modern style hero rather than the traditional type.
While she is more a Frodo than the whiny whingy protagonists who just need to accept thier role to be great enough to overcome the big bad (Looking at you Gohan), she is definately not the epic style hero the Dragonborn is from the game.
Characters like Beowulf and Achilles epitomise the values of their cultures and are hard men who go out and face their hard fates head on. You don't get many tales like those any more and I hope that Grunt is the kind of protagonist that they are.
If you want to see a modern version of this kind of hero in film go watch the movie Extraction. Hemsworth's character Rake is the kind of unapologetic bad ass you don't often see in good movies anymore.
You can support me and my family at
ko - fi . com / jmanm
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