Traveling through The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

"Can you be more ambitious? Do you have to be greedy for cat urine? I never thought you liked drinking so much before."

I sat opposite Rigel, rubbing my temples, listening to her rambling. Of course, she knew that I had returned to Helgen. I had planned to go and say hello to her first, but who knew that Lund kidnapped me on the way with Eric's letter. As for being drunk, it was even more difficult to explain. What can I say? I can't say that I made a lot of money from your father, so I was in a good mood, right?

In fact, I quite enjoyed Rigel's scolding, just like a wife who couldn't sleep well all night complaining about her husband who drank all night with his friends. Look, although her tone was unfriendly, she casually pushed a cup of steaming pine needle tea in front of me.

"Hurry up and drink a couple of sips to sober up. I..."

Rigel walked to the door, looked outside, and carefully locked the door. Then he came back to me and lowered his voice.

"I contacted the Dark Brotherhood."

The hot tea didn't go to waste at all, it all went into my trachea, choking me and making me cough non-stop. I was ready to unbutton my clothes, why are you telling me this? Rigel ignored my fiery gaze and introduced her contact with the Dark Brotherhood.

The summoning ritual requires human hearts, human flesh, and a human skeleton. These things are too scary, and they are not meant to do good things. So Rigel spent some time thinking about it, and finally got in touch with Annis through Winnie. The old lady disguised herself as harmless and lived in seclusion in the forest, but she did not completely abandon the traditional arts of the Rich people. Over the past few decades, there have been a few unlucky people, some of whom came to rob, and some to stay, and finally disappeared silently. Annis's IQ is always online when dealing with women. She knows Rigel's position in Falkreath very well, and even guessed her influence on me to some extent. Therefore, she not only enthusiastically returned to the cabin to get the necessary items, but also took the initiative to help hold the dark ceremony.

According to legend, the dark ritual will be sensed by a spirit corpse called the Night Mother, and only the listener of the Dark Brotherhood can hear the whispers of the Night Mother, and then sign an assassination contract with the person who performed the dark ritual. However, the previous listener had been killed in the war, and all the sanctuaries in Cyrodiil were destroyed. The Night Mother completely turned into a silent corpse and was escorted to Skyrim by the clown Cicero who served as the guardian. Whether it was the remaining Dark Brotherhood assassins or Cicero who was loyal to the Night Mother, they all despaired that there would be no more listeners. Of course, apart from the members of the Brotherhood, only I, a time traveler, knew these inside stories.

Even without the guidance of the Night Mother and the Listener, the Dark Brotherhood still insisted on operating. As the leader, Astrid made friends and inquired about the news of the dark rituals. Troubled times are the best time for the rise of dark forces. Her small team is still thriving in Skyrim. This woman is very charming. I'm not talking about the kind of charm that can arouse primitive male desires, but a kind of leadership ability, just like the gangster boss in the movie "The Godfather", who can attract a group of desperate people to work for her wholeheartedly.

Of course, she is also a charming Nord girl, but Rigel's evaluation of this blonde beauty is far inferior to Angie. If Angie is a snowy mountain, crystal clear, and smart, then Astrid is a cave, insidious and deep, exuding a dangerous atmosphere, ready to devour others' lives at any time. She obviously understood our intentions very well. Instead of looking for Annis who had performed the dark ceremony, she came directly to Rigel's room and said that her family was willing to maintain a long-term cooperative relationship with the lord's wife of Falkreath, and was willing to appoint Cindy as the contact person.

"She said Cindy is on a mission in the Rift Valley Territory and will come to see me in a week. She will contact me once a month. I need to pay 500 Septim every month, but if there is an assassination mission, she can give me a discount."

Astrid's offer was more than that. The Dark Brotherhood had its own channels and could provide Rigael with some information that she was interested in, for a fee. If Rigael was on someone else's hit list, she would get the news as soon as possible. I guess Marven Blackthorn in Riften also had a similar agreement with the Dark Brotherhood, which was equivalent to becoming a VIP customer. Astrid was disdainful of bragging to Rigael about the Dark Brotherhood's business capabilities. Her two entries into the fortress were very convincing in themselves.

"Rigel, I will probably have to go out on a mission next. If you see Cindy, be sure to tell her not to let Astrid know that she has any connection with the vampire family. You should also keep your distance from her. At least on the surface, you can only maintain a business relationship with her. And as for that clown, tell Cindy not to get too close to him. The people in the Dark Brotherhood are all murderers. She is alone, so she must be careful about everything."

Astrid is a typical gangster boss. This kind of person seems to be very loyal and treats his brothers very well, but in fact, it is not the case at all. She gathered this group of brothers in order to make them work for her at any time, so she attaches great importance to their blind loyalty to her. And her method of ensuring the loyalty of her subordinates is also very simple, that is, to make these people have only one way to go. Werewolves, vampires, shadow scales, dark wizards, these are people who are not accepted by normal society, just like the gangs in the previous life would only recruit those social scums such as ruffians and gangsters. Once these people leave Astrid, they are nothing, so they can only be loyal to this woman.

Cindy is different. She has two escape routes: Rigel in the white world and the vampire family in the underworld. This means that Astrid will never truly trust her. By the same token, it is only a matter of time before Cicero, who is only loyal to the Night Mother, and Astrid fall out. Before Cindy can gain a firm foothold and have enough ability to protect herself, she should try to keep a low profile and not arouse Astrid's suspicion. Rigel is not a naive and kind person. Having been a bandit leader for several years, how could he not know the key points of this? No matter what kind of team, Cindy, who is a servant of multiple masters, is the least trustworthy. This is why Danger insisted on giving me the status of a knight and separating me from Rigel.

Imperfect loyalty is absolute disloyalty.

After being disturbed by Cindy's matter, I was no longer in the mood to be intimate with Rigel. After telling her to take care of herself, I went to discuss the hot pot with Eddie. Dad got the money from me and Danger, and returned all the cash that Lund had extorted. As a result, the image of the Baron became more and more majestic, and the cruel official Lund became more and more hateful. Eddie, who had suffered a series of misfortunes, became very cautious. The hotel was previously requisitioned to accommodate refugees and could not operate normally. At this moment, it was already in deficit, so he blackmailed me, his partner, and forced me to agree to additional investment. Fortunately, his juniper series of liquors were well received, and he had already received orders from the court of the Lord of Falkreath and the Dead Man's Wine Inn. It should only be a matter of time before he recovers.

After finishing all the affairs, Annis and I set out to meet Moira. This crow hag lived in Annis's hut with her three apprentices. She complained about my delay, but the situation was stronger than people, so she finally put down her attitude and asked us to help attack the Sunshine Garden Fortress.

"Respected Lady Blackwing Witch, as you know, I am only a knight under Lord Falkreath. If I want to attack a well-defended stronghold like Sunny Garden Fortress, I must get the Lord's permission to dispatch a large force to be sure of success. However, the Lord is not satisfied with a simple cooperation. He hopes to establish a long-term friendship and close relationship with the Snake Cliff Ridge Tribe, and authorized me to handle this matter with full authority."

Moira and Annis have lived in the Nord territory for more than ten years. Although they have been in seclusion, they are not completely isolated from the news. Especially Moira, she has learned a lot of things that are different from the traditional knowledge of the Reach through her apprentices. In addition, both of them are relatively smart people, so they are not very stubborn. We have a common enemy, and this enemy is very powerful. The existence of the Imperial Legion is the basis of our cooperation.

Ever since the failed attempt to take over Sunny Gardens, Moira has been gathering information from all sides, and all of it points to the same conclusion: times have changed, my lord.

She already had a clearer understanding of the military strength of the Empire and the Nords. Even with the Blackwing Witch and the Heart of Thorns, the Reach Tribe alone could not compete with the Legion. There were factors of weapons and equipment, as well as tactical training. The strength displayed by those who had received formal military training on the battlefield was not comparable to that of a mob of fishermen and hunters. One or two high-level fighters, with tacit cooperation, had no power to turn the tide. As a "wild" crow hag, Moira knew very well how powerful Chief Xinanmon, who enjoyed the resources of the entire tribe, would be. If such a person was killed, how could she fight the enemy alone?

The situation of the Snake Cliff Ridge tribe, which currently occupies the Sunshine Garden Fortress, is not as good as imagined. Although the area of ​​this castle is much larger than my fiefdom, the Bloody Throne Fortress, it is isolated on the top of the mountain and is a purely military stronghold. Due to the lack of arable land and hunting grounds nearby, the garrison here is extremely dependent on supplies from other areas. Stella and Zoltan gathered the remnants of the Snake Cliff Ridge and the fleeing Rich people, and the number of people reached as many as 300, which seriously exceeded the upper limit that the castle could bear. In order to deal with the food crisis, the two began to eliminate dissidents and massacre opponents, and even after Helgi escaped, they became more suspicious and acted almost crazy. If the two cannot be eradicated as soon as possible, the entire tribe will suffer a catastrophe.

It was not difficult for someone as perceptive as Moira to draw a conclusion: the dilemma that Stella and Zoltan were facing now would be what she would face soon. The Reachmen originally lived in the mountains and valleys, fishing and hunting as the main means of obtaining food, and did not engage in farming. This tradition led to an extremely unstable supply of living materials, and the population size of a single tribe always remained between 200 and 300. A tribe that was too small could not survive, and a tribe that was too large would inevitably split. And a group of fragmented small tribes were vulnerable to the regular army assembled by the Nords. If the Reachmen did not want the entire nation to be wiped out in the current chaotic world, they must unite, and unity means more food.

For Moira, how to get a lot of food in a short period of time is a problem. And there is only one answer to this problem, that is Falkreath.