(30) - Searching in Vain - Journal entry -

Sundas 13th of Hearthfire 4E201

I woke up early this morning, so I took the time to make a fresh apple pie. Beats horker meat for breakfast. I left at dawn with Lydia on my side. It's good to have her with me, and though she is vastly different, it reminded me of my time with Leanawen. I miss her.


I wanted to go North-East from Whiterun, as I wanted to look for that cave the guard had mentioned. Last time we ended up at Fellglow Keep, which I guess was to far to the East, so this time I took a more Northern direction. I decided on jumping off the Western wall of Whiterun, to track around it. We took a bit lower route as normally, and we came across a camp which had previously been out of sight because it was under an overhanging rock. There were a cart and a horse standing at the camp, and I could just see the camp's occupants run off chasing a wolf.

Outlaw camp at Whiterun

Lydia and I waited at the camp for their return, our bows ready. Good we did so, because they turned out to be two outlaws attacking us without warning. Both never managed to get close as we riddled them with arrows. We were just looting their camp, holding not much more then food, a book and a bit of gold, as three additional outlaws surprised us sneaking up on us from behind. Luckily they were far from the most skilled outlaws I had fought so far, so they were no match for our axes. As soon as we had left the wolves were already fighting over their corpses.


We headed for Whitewatch tower, then turned to the North East, killing a wolf at the foothills of the North-Eastern mountain range. It started to rain, badly reducing visibility and turning the now snowy underground into an unpleasant mush. Through the thickening pine tree forest I descried a stone structure, with stairs leading downwards into a large rift in the ground. Lydia and I snuck closer, and we could hear people talk. Judging from their conversation they were definitely thieves, and the place was called Korvanjund. Never heard of it before.

Korvanjund

We managed to kill two thieves with a ranged surprise attack, and a third one who had ran up to us died at our axes as soon as he cornered around a nearby boulder. After descending the stairs we found a closed gate at the lowest point, but it had a very complex lock, and I gave up on unlocking it after breaking 5 lockpicks in a row. Above it was a regular unlocked door, granting access to an entrance hall, with bedrolls and a fire with cooking pots, but a hallway in the back had been blocked by a cave in. We used the occasion to warm up some grilled chicken breasts I had taken, and finished lunch with a few apples.


Heading out again I decided to head East a bit, with two rows of mountains at each side, searching both sides for a cave entrance. Not to far in we got attacked by two frostbite spiders, I'm happy to say. I took my time filling a few empty vials with their venom, as my homebrewn poisons left much to be desired. We soon came across another giant camp, which I gave a wide berth. Not much later an ice wraith attacked us. I remembered seeing one in my youth in the distance but never fought one before. It would make freezing attacks, causing spikes of ice to form on the ground. Nothing we couldn't handle though.

Snow sabre cat

The snow sabre cat we stumbled upon later was a different  story. It was powerful, agile and aggressive. It was a good thing it was distracted by a horker when we came across it, so I could weaken it with a poisoned arrow before it managed to get close to us. Alone I would have had a hard time fighting this magnificent creature, but with the two of us we managed to kill it fairly quickly, and without getting a scratch ourselves. I skinned the sabre cat, and also cut some meat from the already dead horker.


Failing to find the cave, and with the sun already going down, I decided to go back to the bandit hideout at Korvanjund. As we retraced our steps an icewolf attacked us. You could tell the animals here in the snow were more hardened then the ones on the tundra, but again, with the two of us we managed alright. I had just finished skinning the wolf when a spriggan jumped us. I knew this creature only from stories and tales, but once getting attacked by a walking tree, it was quite obvious that it indeed was one. Luckily this one was particularly weak, leaving me wondering why it had attacked us in the first place.

Spriggan attack

I could not find a camp or lair where the spriggan had come from, so we continued heading back to Korvanjund, where I made some apple cabbage stew on the fire. With still some time left I decided on reading a book I had taken from the outlaw camp near Whiterun called Aevar Stone-Singer. It was a tale about an ordinary young Nord doing extraordinary things, and it made me think of my own fate. For the past days I had been thinking a lot about what I should do. Find the Greybeards? Search for the place mentioned in that mysterious letter from 'a friend'? Or just continue to build on supplies and gold before undertaking any long trips?

Apple cabbage stew anyone?

Anyway, non of that really matters right now. I'm getting frustrated by not being able to find Shimmermist cave. I feel I'm too far North now, while I was too far East earlier. The cave must be somewhere in between where I traveled today, and where we went yesterday. Tomorrow I'll go find out if I'm right.