6th of Heartfire 4E201

Last night wasn't the best sleep in the world, but it wasn't the worst either. At least we had somewhere safe to rest, and we didn't have to stay in that rude woman's inn. Ambarys served us a nice breakfast, then we got our gear together and made our plans for the day. I wanted to sell some of our stuff, talk to the boy summoning the Dark Brotherhood, and get the White Phial for Nurelion. I asked Ambarys about shops in town, and he suggested that we visit Sadri's Used Wares, right next door. I thanked him and we headed to the shop.

The shop was closed since it was still early in the morning, so I decided to explore the town. During our explorations, we passed a Dunmer woman and a young Nord boy, talking outside of a house. I slowed down to listen to what they were saying, and overheard them talking about a boy named Aventus Aretino.  So this was his house! I waited for them to leave, then decided to pay him a visit. His door was locked, but I managed to pick the lock easily, and we both went in quietly.

He didn't hear us come in, and we heard him chanting, over and over "sweet mother sweet mother send your child unto me for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear". I quietly got out the book about the Black Sacrament that I had found and looked through it. It was the same! He really was trying to get them to come here! I shut the book and ran over to the room he was in, then stopped with my mouth hanging open. There was a skeleton on the floor, surrounded by candles, and the boy was stabbing a heart and what looked like a chunk of human flesh while he was chanting. There was also a nightshade flower near him, and he would pick it up and rub  the petals onto the dagger in his hand before resuming his ritual. Behind me, Jenassa said "Oh my" which caused the boy to look up at us, as if he had just realized that we were there. He jumped up and exclaimed "You've come at last! I knew you would!" I asked him if he was alright, since he seemed exhausted and confused. Apparently, he thought we were from the Dark Brotherhood! I tried to tell him I wasn't, but he insisted that I was, and said that since I was there I could accept his contract. I asked him what he was talking about, and he told me about losing his mother, and being sent to an orphanage called Honorhall in the town of Riften. He said that the headmistress there, a woman named Grelod the Kind, was horrible, and abused and  mistreated the children there. Then he told of his escape and his plan to contact the Dark Brotherhood and have them kill Grelod for what she had done. I asked him if he was sure about this, since having someone murdered was a very big deal. He assured me that  he had never been more sure of anything in his life, because she was a monster and deserved to die. As we left, I asked Jenassa what we should do. She shook her head and said that I would have to make that decision on my own. Defending myself was one thing, but killing someone because a boy had asked me to? I wasn't sure what to do. Since she wasn't likely going anywhere, I decided to put it out of my mind for now. We didn't have time right now to make a trip to Riften anyways.

Sadri's Used Wares was open when we passed by it again, and I went inside to sell that orc's armor and weapons. The owner, Revyn Sadri  made an offhand remark about none of his goods being stolen, but I ignored it and bartered with him. I sold all of the orc's things, and a few other things we were carrying that we didn't need. As we left, he thanked us for our business and wished us a good day. Since my coinpurse was a little heavier I decided to go and find the jarl's palace, and see if the court wizard had any spells that I could buy from him.

The palace was easy to find, since it was the largest building in town. We went inside, and I overheard Ulfric talking to someone about Whiterun. I ignored them and went to find the court wizard.

It took a lot of exploring, but we managed to find him, tucked away in a room upstairs. Sadly, I already knew all of the spells that he was selling. I figured that I would have to go back to the College to get any more advanced ones. He wished us luck in an off hand manner, then went back to his alchemy. I saw a strange floating gem in a small golden box on a table near the door as we were leaving, and I quickly picked it up. I then hurried out before he noticed that it was gone. I had never seen anything like it. Jenassa asked why I had taken it, and I shrugged and said that I had felt like it. The truth was that I suspected that it had magickal properties, and that I wanted to take it back to the College to figure it out. We left the palace and decided to head out of the city to go and get the White Phial.

It took a few hours to get to the cave, though it was hard to tell what time it was since it was storming and snowing so badly. There was a white sabrecat sleeping outside of the entrance, but he let us pass without attacking us. I was thankful that the gods still pitied me and kept animals from attacking me, or whatever the case truly was. We made our way inside, our weapons out and ready in case of danger.

There was a skeleton just inside of the cave, and a cart with a chest in it was behind him. I peeked into the chest, and found some nice things to sell, and a few septims. Maybe he was a treasure hunter? I wondered what happened to him as we continued further into the cave. In the next open area, there were half broken coffins, burial urns, and snow and ice everywhere. And there were two more sabrecats. They didn't attack us either, they just watched us curiously as I walked around peeking into urns and fishing out their contents. When I'd first looted burial urns, I felt a bit bad. But then I thought about it, and realized that no matter what I did, the draugr in these places would attack me anyways, so why not make some coin? Its not like they were going out in droves to the towns to use it anyways. We went through what felt like a maze after the first cave area, with draugr and traps everywhere. More draugr than traps though. There was also plenty of gold and loot to be found. After what seemed like an eternity, we finally made it to what seemed to by Curalmil's crypt. I was looking up at the wall in the back of the room when suddenly the coffin in the middle of the room, and the four near the sides of the room popped open. Four draugr came out, as well as a mean looking one that I assumed was Curalmil. The regular draugr weren't much of a threat, but Curalmil nearly killed us both. I kept having to resummon my atronach while drinking potions to stay alive. At last though, we defeated him, and I went up to look at the wall more closely. It was another of the chanting ones. As the words glowed and came out of the wall surrounding me, I felt a chill. It wasn't like a chill from the cold, but one when you feel when something bad is coming after you. It felt very sinister, and full of malice. I didn't know what it meant, since I didn't understand the dragon language, but I used one of the souls from a dragon I had slain to learn its power anyways. I would test it out on the next enemy that crossed my path. I was looting the chest that was against the wall when Jenassa called up to me, telling me that she'd found something. I grabbed all of the treasure and hopped down to see what she was talking about. She had found what looked like a dead end in a passageway that ran beneath the chanting wall. There was a stone basin nearby, on a pedestal. Since we hadn't found the Phial we came for yet, I suspected that this basin had something to do with it. I took out the potion that Nurelion had given me and uncorked it, then poured in into the bowl. It glowed bright green, then a section of the wall behind us broke loose and slid into the floor. A secret room! We went inside, and it was amazing! There were alchemical ingredients everywhere, and potions. I started gathering them all up, thankful that they had been preserved for so long down here in this  sealed room. I was nearly done grabbing everything when Jenassa cleared her throat and pointed at the back of the room. On a small column was a white bottle. It was the Phial! I went over to it, then frowned. It was cracked. I sighed and carefully wrapped it in a cloth from my bag, then put it in the middle of my spare clothing to keep it from breaking further. Nurelion wasn't going to be happy about this. I gathered up the rest of everything in the room, and we headed out, taking a side door to see if it would lead us any closer to the exit. It did, thank the gods, it led right into the cave with the sabrecats. They still ignored us, and we climbed back out of the cave. It was dark outside, and storming badly. The white sabrecat was still there too, very warm in his  fur coat. I knew we wouldn't make it back to town in this storm, so we went the other way along the road, hoping to find a camp or cave to take shelter in.

We found something better than a cave! An actual inn!! I didn't see it through the storm, but thankfully Jenassa did. We hurried over to it and went in to get out of the cold. The innkeeper, a man named Hadring, greeted us warmly and welcomed us to his inn. I ordered us some food and mead, and we had a delicious dinner and talked to Hadring. He told us  about his inn, and about how it had been in his family for generations. I asked if he got much business, and he said not really. Usually only stray travelers like us, with the exception of two regulars. One, a man named Fultheim, apparently came here to drink away his troubles. The other was an orc, but Hadring couldn't remember his name. He said he spoke very well for an orc though, and was paid up for weeks. I was surprised that he could afford that, and Hadring said he was a writer, and apparently made a lot of money. Hadring even let him go wherever he wanted to in the inn, since he was paying so much to stay there. I noticed Fultheim at one of the tables in the main room, but he looked like he didn't want to be bothered. I didn't see the orc anywhere. I thanked Hadring for dinner, and asked if we could rent a room for the night. He showed us to our room, and we got ready for bed, thankful that we'd found this nice place full of friendly people. Well, one friendly person at least. I wasn't sure about the other two. Tomorrow if the storm wasn't so terrible, we could take the road back to Windhelm and give Nurelion the bad news.