On the Road to Riften (Skyrim Episode 2)

On the Road to Riften

Day 2

When the morning came, Liddie went off to the blacksmith to forge herself a new suit of leather armour from the pelts she, um, borrowed late last night. The road to Riften is fraught with danger, and a little protection can go a long way.

It was early in the morning when Liddie left Riverwood behind, heading North and passing the corpse of the snow fox she had hunted earlier along the way.

On the way there, Liddie stopped a moment to enjoy the view of the valley below.

As she made her way up the mountain, she reached the ruins of Helgen, lying on the road to Riften. Seeing the destroyed town, Liddie felt a pang of sorrow; she had seen death before, but never at this level.

Just past Helgen was a pass through the mountain, one I (the author) unofficially named Haemar's Pass after a vampire-filled cavern that can be found about midway through the mountains.

The pass is usually devoid of any kind of life, save for the occasional goat, but today Liddie met a nice hunter. The hunter felt the need to verbally defend his actions, claiming that his poaching didn't hurt anyone, and that the jarl could hardly eat all the deer. Our thief protagonist wondered what he was going on about, since she herself wasn't much of a law-abiding citizen.

Walking past the hunter, Liddie found what she assumed to be the hunter's horse.

Now, what kind of a thief would she be if she passed on this opportunity and kept on walking? Not a good one. With a horse now sworn to carry her burdens, Liddie made her way out of the pass in no time.

As she trotted along the road to Riften, she came across a rundown shack along the side of the road, filled with alchemical ingredients. She was going to be relying on her bow and daggers, and crafting poisons would certainly help with what I am assuming will be a fairly low damage output (compared to larger, more intimidating weapons).

The shack contained a small journal and some ingredients useful for poisons.

Heading out, I noticed something was off, missing. Indeed, the horse that Liddie stole seemed to have run off! (or got killed by wolves)

We were back to walking.

At about lunch time, the map indicated that we were about half-way there.

Figuring it would be about lunch time, Liddie set off to find some berries or a small animal to devour. She came across a small rabbit, which she caught and beat to death - why waste an arrow on something so small - before eating raw. After all, salmonella doesn't exist in Skyrim.

She stayed on the road as much as possible, and still encountered some hostile wildlife...

 ...which she discouraged from further attacking her.

A few hours later she came across two Alik'r warriors harassing a lone redguard woman. Since she had decided that their scimtars were pretty and worthy of being in her possession, she shot an arrow at the first man before quickly slashing down the other.

Of course, murder is kind of illegal in Skyrim, and the previously-harassed woman didn't seem to appreciate Liddie's... altruism. Sadly, she was cut down before she managed to reach a guard. With the last witness dead, the world moved on as though the crime never happened.

Finally, in the mid-afternoon hours, Liddie finally made it to Riften's backdoor... only to be denied access by a guard.

She attempted to intimidate the guard, but with no success.

With no other choice, Liddie circled around the town, wasting about a half-hour. Once she reached the North Gate, she entered the city... haha yeah no. Another guard harrassed her, demanding that she pay a visitor's tax.

Liddie, however, is no fool, and saw straight through the man's pathetic shakedown attempt.

After confronting the man, who is now drenched in sweat from all her death threats, she strolled into the city like she owns the damn place. And hey, who knows, maybe one day she will...