A DATE WITH A GHOST
When I returned to Laurenna, and told her what Fjorngrin had said, she agreed that I would need some token of proof that I was not the enemy. "Go into my cabin," giving me a key, "and behind a tapestry on my wall, you'll see a door hidden there. Go in, and follow the corrider to the end.On my father's gave, you'll find an amulet.Snorri gave it to Gunna (my mother). Take it with you, and Snorri
will know I have sent you. Take whatever shield and weapons you need. It is dangerous here, and I don't want anything to happen to you." She seemed genuinly concerned for my health and well-being.
I headed through the secret door that she had mentioned and went down a long corrider, just as she said it would be.
I entered the burial chamber, and saw the crypt of Wulfgar the White's body. I saw the amulet that Laurenna mentioned. As I reached for it, I felt a cold chill in the air, as if someone opened a window. Then I remembered it was a closed room. I turned to my left, and there was the ghost of Wulfgar himself. He said he was not here to harm me. "My son, Wulfren is innocent
of my death. T'was Ragnar himself drove the sword through me." I asked if Wulfren was dead. "No, he is not, or I would
have him here with me. He still be alive, though I know not where."
Always ready to right a wrong, I asked him directly: "What can I do?"
"Seek out Snorri." he said. "He may know what to do. Take the amulet, and any weapons here you may need. I know they'll be in good hands." "What is to be done?" I asked. "Wulfren must challange Ragnar, and prove himself innocent of these false charges against him. He must show all that it was Ragnar that did the evil deed." The ghost squinted at me, and continued, "Wulfren will need the Warhammer from the tomb of Thorjan Bjorg in order to defeat Ragnar. However, to lift it will require a magickal thing: Thorjan's Magical Gauntlets. The hammer is too heavy for any ordinary man to lift, much less wield."
I asked the ghost if he knew where Thorjan's gauntlets might be. He did not know.
As quickly as he appeared, he vanished. I gathered up the amulet only. I had my daedric warhammer, and my strength was not fully restored yet, so I couldn't carry much more than I already had.
I wandered around the eastern side of the island for close to 3 hours. While doing so, I was attacked by yet another lunatic, totally unclothed, and very hard to kill. I examined him and found that he had dried blood all over his chin and fingers, as if he had been clawing at things with his bare hands. It didn't make sense - why would he be out here in the freezing cold like this?
I also encountered a most unusual creature, a horker. It didn't attack, but it had very long tusks, and looked like they were used to keep other males away during mating season.
Near the horker, I found a huntsman with a freshly killed horker. I didn't want to give away that I was looking for Snorri, so I just complimented him on his prize, and continued on my way.
Not more than 10 minutes later I was attached by a large grizzly bear. It reared up on it's hind legs, and swung at me with his huge paws. Lucky for me, I was able to dodge the attack. I used one of my special "paralyzing daedric arrows", froze it in it's tracks, then hit it with 5 more silver arrows.
I was so proud of my kill that I didn't notice the bear's mate coming to avenge my attack. I didn't have time to switch arrows, so I kept hitting it with one silver arrow after another. Each hit caused the bear to back up, but then it would lunge forward again. It took a total of 12 arrows to kill the beast.
After taking the bear pelts, I noticed something odd. There was a berry bush the bears had been eating, and behind it was a dark spot, behind two rocks. Could this be the very cave I was searching for, or were there more bears in there? I had to check.
I ventured inside. Sure enough, it was Snorri's cave. I found him a short walk inside the cave. Snorri confirmed what I had been told, once I showed him the amulet that Laurenna told me to bring. It was true that the white wolf was there, and it was true that it had been stuck by poison arrows.
The wolf was dying.
Snorri told me that he knew of only one person with the formula to cure such poisons. Granny. She'd be in a small cabin not far from Fjorngrin's.
I found the cabin in 45 minutes. I was amazed that I was even able to find it at all. It was snowing so hard that it was hard to see very far in front of you. Granny said that she could make the formula, but she was missing one ingredient. She needed two wolfskins. I had only one with me, as I had sold the others. "It's ok," she said, "there are plenty of wolves around here. I'm
sure you'll find one."
Well, they weren't around where I could find them. Apparently they were all on a break.
THOSE DARN RICKLINGS
I was looking slowly behind a group of trees, hoping to find a wolf, when I heard something running up to me from behind. It was a rickling warrior, on the back of a bristleback boar. I quickly shot it with a paralyzing arrow, and found out just how dangerous ricklings are: the effect came back to ME! I couldn't move for 5 seconds, while the rickling continued it's charge. As soon as the spell wore
off, I grabbed the warhammer and swung it at the boar. The beast squeeled in pain, but the ricking on it's back
struck me with his lance. I struck at him, and this time the boar struck at me with his tusks. Neither one of these guys were going to give me much of a chance. I couldn't use spells on it, or it would reflect on to me. This would be a job for the Mr. Warhammer.
It took a number of hits, but I managed to win the battle. I would have to remember that for rickings, no enchanted items and no direct hitting spells should be used, or they'd reflect back. These were most dangerous creatures indeed.
KIDS DO THE DARNDEST THINGS
While searching for wolves, I came across a lady in front of a tomb. She was very upset, and said that her young daughter had heard a noise, like a bear, and ran inside the tomb for protection. Now, she didn't know what to do. She had no weapons, but was worried sick about her daughter.
Rule #1: When in danger, do NOT run into the nearest tomb.
I said I would help find her daughter. I pulled out the warhammer, knowing full well that I'd better have it at the ready, and went inside.
Good thing I had the warhammer out. Six different creatures attacked, including a bonewolf and several creatures called a "Draugr" (a Nordic zombie). I had to use one of my restore health potions, or I would have joined them in eternal slumber.
I continued down the corriders, and turned to my left. I saw a box there, it looked like torches were in it. I decided I didn't need them, since there was enough light to see. As I turned to my right, I was struck in the face by a yet another draugr! It was dark and had red glowing eyes. My Ring of Leaches absorbed nearly all of it's life into myself, but I had to hit it with the ring again in order to finish it off. Obviously, it this type of creature had a very powerful soul.
I saw more of these draugrs at the distant end of a long corrider. Rather than fight it out, I decided to fight with magic. I summoned a winged twilight. I had to do it twice, since it didn't work the first time. Practice, practice, practice. As soon as the twilight appeared, I used a single arrow and hit the draugr in the distance. The twilight got the idea and flew off to do battle for me. Those
twilights have very long, sharp talons, as well as a very sharp tail.
I added a flame and storm antronch to the mixture, and let them all play with this nasty creature. I felt it was safer to watch from a distance. I was right.
The draugr was finally killed, and my summonings vanished back into Oblivion. I continued walking the corriders, when I heard quiet sobbing from one of the dark corners of the tomb. It was the missing child. I had to fight my way back here using sword and magic, and here she was with not a scratch on her. Either she was too small for the creatures of the dead to notice, or she had the luck of every god
in the universe in her pockets.
"Are you here to take me to my mommy?" she said, wiping a tear from her eye. "Of course, child." I replied. "Follow me, and stay close." She didn't need much coaxing from me. It was an easy departure, as I had already killed just about every moving thing in the place already.
I managed to get her out the front door and back in her mom's arms. She was most grateful for rescuing her daughter, and gave me a shirt that was enchanted to increase my personality with others.
Still looking for one more wolf. I found another rickling instead. I tried an experiment: I summoned a winged twilight and a flame antroch. I then hit the rickling with a soul-trap spell (which caused the rickling to attack), and let my two summonings do battle for me. Ricklings are pretty tough customers. I had to call up a storm antronch to help out after the rickling defeated my winged twilight.
I finally found another wolf! Killed it, skinned it, and made my way back to Granny's house. It was getting late, nearly 6:30PM. Granny's daughter had to go to the castle kitchen for her night shift, and asked if I would escort her. I had the cure poison potion, but figured I could get her to the castle in just a short while. I wanted to make sure she was there before dark.
Seems that she was always attracting wolves.
She was right. This girl was like a virtual wolf magnet. I saw more wolves on the way to the castle than during my entire stay here.
We finally made it to the castle, found the kitchen, dropped her off, and said my goodbyes. "I'm off to make cookies now." she said.
Now, I had to make my way back to Snorri's cave. It was getting dark, and I had a white wolf to save.
Somehow, I managed to make it all the way back to Snorri's cave without so much as a bunny crossing my path. What was disturbing were the strange wolf howls that I could hear. They didn't sound like normal wolves, but something ... different. I dismissed it after a while as my imagination playing tricks on me.
Snorri was waiting by his campfire and eagerly took the cure from me as soon as I arrived. "There is magic I must perform now, and it will not be safe for you to be here. This must be done alone." I would have offered my assistance as a mage, but I could see he had everything under control, now that he had a cure for the poison.
I headed back to the castle. Once again, it started to snow. It was coming down so thick that I could barely see ahead of me. Snorri suggested that I check in with Laurenna once arriving back in the village.