(27) - A Day Off - Journal entry -

Turdas 10th of Hearthfire 4E201

I woke up late again this morning, not surprising I guess after yesterday's hectic day. After breakfast I told Lydia to do whatever she wanted today, as I wasn't planning on leaving town. I think she went straight for the inn.
Being alone I wanted to give the alchemy table a try. I had a few ingredients for the poison recipe I had bought recently. Unfortunately I don't seem to have a natural talent for alchemy, it took me a long while to grind up the skeever tail and small antlers, and it was quite messy. Eventually I managed to refine some sort of poison from it, but its color seemed bland, and the smell wasn't nearly as strong as I had been expecting. I'm afraid the poison isn't very potent, but I hope the result will improve with practice.

A bit frustrated I decided to go sell yesterday's loot instead, and I actually made some good gold, both Arcadia and Belethor ran out of gold because of the large quantity of things I had for sale. After that I walked towards Dragonsreach to go collect the reward for killing the bandits at Silent Moons Camp.  On my way I got talking with a guard, who told me he had seen some strange small creatures at a cave to the North-East, called Shimmermist cave. I might go and investigate one of these days.


After entering Dragonsreach I quickly found Proventus Avenicci and asked for my reward, showing the bounty letter I obtained in Riverwood. He gave me 100 gold. That seemed like typical Imperial cheapness to me again, considering I fought a sabrecat, a dragon as well as a black bear in order to fulfill the task. So I asked for more, but Proventus wouldn't budge, saying he might as well have done it himself if the reward had been higher.

Proventus Avenicci

I must admit I was kind of upset. Being a thane and all I was allowed to wander the Reach freely, so I decided on upping the reward a bit myself. Careful to stay out of sight, I managed to find some more 'reward gold', and I also slipped a few seemingly interesting books in my knapsack. In my attempts to stay out of sight of the guards I ended up on a balcony, which granted me an especially stunning view of Whiterun. I exited Dragonsreach through the basement which had a separate door for guards to use in order to avoid any questions about my prolonged walk through the Jarl's place.

Whiterun seen from the Jarl's balcony

Satisfied about my reward now, I went back to Breezehome to put away my books, and had a very nice venison stew. At least I'm better at cooking then at alchemy. I spent the majority of the afternoon on sharpening my axes, and cutting firewood. I got a bit carried away with the woodcutting, so I sold some surplus firewood to Hulda at the Bannered Mare. She actually paid me a good price for it too. Lydia was at the inn too, and she seemed to be having a great time, so I just let her be.


Back at home I ate some vegetable soup and salmon steak, and decided on spending the evening on reading some books; 'Lost Legends', which was quite intriguing, and 'The Woodcutter's wife', which was kind of good too, though it had a bit of a sad ending. The last book I read was 'A Minor maze', but I didn't really understand the riddles inside. I guess mazes aren't my thing. I just heard Lydia stumble upstairs, I guess it's bedtime. I hope she won't have a hangover tomorrow. Oh well, at least she had fun.