Tales of Warrog: Chapter 5

Adventures continue as Warrog finds some permanence... and more wolves.

Day 14
A courier approached me while in Whiterun. A dark figure with a hood wanted me to have a letter. It was a hand print with the inscription: "We know." I guess those kids at the orphanage really do care. They were nice enough to send me a thank you note.

In the Inn, I found my contact, Mallus. My job I found out was to poison the mead using rat poison I would get from the owner because he had a rat problem. After some convincing, I got half of my pay up front. Down in the cellar, I found some rats, and the passageway open to a tunnel that leads to the factory. These rats must be drinking the mead, because they're a lot tougher than your typical giant rat. The infestation is pretty bad, having to utilize my patented wait-around-the-corner-and-attack-one-at-a-time technique, and I have had to resort to using most of my food to replenish my failing health. There's even an infestation of spiders. This guy's got all sorts of problems... not counting the poison.

I found out why there were so many rats. Some mad man was camping out down here creating his own rat army. He was some sort of mage and a tough one at that. Even my poisoned blade wasn't enough to kill him outright. Still, no body can handle the repeated gouges my axe makes, along with the burning. I was able to replenish my poison stores from the spiders.

After that, I laid rat poison in the nest, and entered the factory where I poisoned his supply of mead. The door was locked even from the inside, so I had to walk all the way back. I suppose it would have been suspicious if I walked downstairs and came back through the front door.

The guy was having a mead tasting event with the captain of the guard. He said he'd pay me after. I waited around until he was arrested. Good thing I got half my pay up front. The captain of the guard had a nice looking sword. I'm more of a two-handed guy myself, but if I could find a bigger version of that, I'd take it. Mallus was put in charge, and he gave me a key to find documents of who was the partner of the previous owner. Since he was out of business and I had the documents, there was no rush get back to Riften. I made a quick stop at Whiterun to sell my loot before I caught a carriage to Falkreath

Day 15
I have arrived in Falkreath. As soon as I try to enter, the guards stop me. This is getting old. They're looking for a dog. Which reminds me, I've heard two guards talking about this Dawnguard place, and both were thinking of joining. Now I can see why. When all you do is stand around looking for dogs, I'd want to do something better too.

The blacksmith is the one with the lost dog, and he was on the way to the Jarl, so I paid him a visit. In return, I convinced him to pay me early to find his dog, and he gave me some meat to lure him. I'm getting pretty good at this. Easiest money I ever made.

Sadly, the Jarl was sitting on his throne, so that was out of the question. He didn't even recognize me at first. You'd think "Burly Orc with a huge axe on his back" is a good enough description that he would recognize me, but no. He says he has work for me. Some bandits he's had dealings with have outlived their usefulness, so I'm to go kill them. I'm more than willing to kill for money, but when you're killing someone who was hired on the down low in the first place worries me. Note to Warrog: Kill Jarl of Falkreath if he tries to have me killed. Bonus: Get to sit on his throne.

The bandits are hiding out in an iron mine that I passed outside of Riverwood. A couple hours walk and I was there. I tried sneaking above the mine and surprising the guard outside, but he heard me coming. Good thing for me, he was stupid enough to chase me around and jump off a ledge, hurting himself. One swing of my axe finished the job.

Inside, I found two more who were agitated. I further agitated them with arrows and my axe through his chest. There was a drawbridge that separated the rest of the mine from my location. As soon as I lowered it, two more bandits investigated. Two arrows quickly silenced them.

After looting the bodies, I entered further into the mines. One guy was guarding a room full of goodies. Sometimes, cutting people up with my axe can get old. I tried something new and using the handle of my axe, I pulled him by the neck into my knee until he died. You learn something new every day. He had the key to the room which I took everything of value including a new spell. I've been slowly growing my spell abilities, though I have found little use for them when my arrows and axe work so well.

Further in, I found two more bandits. They tried teaming up on me, but both were cut down. I found the leader who was too far away to hear the death and carnage. One shot of my arrow to his heart did the trick.

I'm carrying around too much stuff. I could barely walk after taking everything of value from the mine and bandits, even after I made a few silver jeweled rings. I slowly made my way outside where I drank a potion of strength and ran all the way to Whiterun. After smelting the ore I found, and selling some of the loot, I headed back south to Falkreath.

Day 16
The Jarl was happy to see the job done, and said I could buy some property if I liked. With all of this stuff weighing me down, it seems like a good time to at least buy a house. I talked to the Steward, and she told me there were no houses to buy. Why am I surrounded by idiots? They did some have property to sell where I could build a house. I gave her 5,000 gold, leaving me with nearly 3,000 left. I left for the Lakeview Manor only to find it infested with wolves. I might as well stop them from breeding now.

Day 17
My small house has been built. I'd like to add a large hall to it, but I need a corundum ingot to finish making a lock to the door. I guess with all of this money, I can go buy materials for making this house bigger. By the time I arrived in Riverwood, it was late. The lumber guy was around so I bought almost 1,000 gold worth of lumber. That should tide me over. I rested near the forge for warmth until the morning. Checking with the blacksmith, he didn't have any ingots to sell of what I needed. Maybe Riften would have some.

Day 18
I made it in town just in time to check with the merchants and blacksmith. No one has these ingots. On the plus side, I was able to stow away my dragon bones and scales, that Necromancer's amulet since no one has enough money to buy it from me, and my Golden Claw. Now the guards can't take that away from me.

I found the Black-Briar lady and told her the news. Some strange symbol is all we have to go on as who the partner is. To be honest, I forgot all about the symbol. She paid me with an enchanted dagger worth 500 gold. I guess it's better than the 100 gold I typically get from the thieves guild, but knowing these merchants, that's about all I'll get for selling it.

With no more leads except for the old guys on the mountain, the vampire hunters to the south, I guess I'll go back to the thieves guild. They're like an abusive partner. You know they'll treat you like shit, but you keep going back.