fh_trips | Rorikstead, Skyrim, Tuesday Afternoon/Evening

Entry tags:

fall break 2014: skyrim

Rorikstead, Skyrim, Tuesday Afternoon/Evening

As work wrapped up in the afternoon, the guides showed up to the village again to take whoever wanted to along on their excursions to various parts of northwestern Skyrim. The temperatures were on 'cold-ish' - about as warm as this corner of Skyrim would get this time of year - and the sun hung high in the sky.

[ frostfruit rooms | bathing | common room | bard | rorikstead salesman | take a torch | beyond rorikstead solitude | understone keep | adventuring | ooc ]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

The rooms of Frostfruit Inn are sparse, containing twin beds for the students and queen-sized beds for the adults who requested them, a table and a dresser. Each room also contains a bowl of local fruits and vegetables, and is lit by wall sconces made of goat horn. Thanks to Barry, there are porta potties and heated baths for all, though there's always that hole in the ground if you'd like to give it a shot.

[ check here for your room assignments! if threads threaten to go NSFW, please move them to a post in your personal journal. ]

The tubs aren't set up strictly within the inn, but right outside, at the back, where weaved dividers shield them from outside view. There's five of them, and Mralki is doing his best to keep each one filled with hot water for another hour after work ceases outside.

Thanks to Barry, he doesn't have to work hard, though. The baths are now heated through solar power and should remain warm for quite a bit after Mralki leaves.

The large common room is the heart of Frostfruit Inn. On one side sits a bar, where you can order drinks and local delicacies from Mralki. There is a large fireplace at the center of the common room to keep everyone warm, while tables and chairs line the walls of the remaining real estate.

A bard roams the common room, strumming her lute as she sings various traditional songs of Skyrim. Dance, or request a song!

You could go shopping. This travelling salesman offers the finest of Nord fashions, at least in Whiterun Hold, if that's more to your liking.

Well, finest. Don't expect fine fabrics here, but it's decent craftsmanship.

There's a beautiful patch of tundra stretching out past Rorikstead. Not that you'll be able to see much of it, considering how dark it is. But hey, is there any kind of getaway more romantic than nighttime stargazing in a realm without light pollution?

Skyrim's sky is somewhat different than the one back home - it has two moons, for a start, and occasionally a beautiful aurora shows, painting green across the sky.

In exchange for your help, several local adventurers have volunteered to host daily field trips for the students.

Today's longer trip takes you all the way up north to the Imperial capital of Solitude, a true marvel of architecture. The entire city has been built on top of a land bridge that towers above the Karth River. Solitude is a powerful stronghold with high walls, seating the local chapter of the Imperial Legion as well as Skyrim's government. It's also a bustling merchant town, hosting everything from Radiant Raiment to a famed blacksmith, a potion shop and a store for a whole host of odds and ends. You could also visit the Bard's College, the beautiful Blue Palace or, of course, The Winking Skeever Inn.

[[ please specify your location in Solitude in the subject. ]]

Edited 2014-10-07 13:45 (UTC)

Students wishing to stay a little closer to Rorikstead may travel to the city of Markarth to explore the ancient Understone Keep, a gigantic castle built by the long-dead Dwemer. Now in use as Markarth's seat of government, the Keep also hosts the Dwemer Museum, a repository of Dwemer artifacts and machinery to which the class has been granted entry.

Of course, you could just forgo all the fancy cultural stuff and hang out in the kitchen, where Voada will be happy to supply you with food and drink. Or you could wander outside and marvel at Markarth itself, the City of Stone, hewn into the very mountain itself and home to some gorgeous waterfalls.

There's plenty out there for you to poke at with sticks. You could pick a fight with the Forsworn at Serpent's Bluff Redoubt, or attempt to avoid being used as a baseball by the giants of Talking Stone Camp. And then there's that dragon in the neighborhood*...

* the management advises against going after the dragon. even if you kill it, since you are not the dragonborn, it will return to life the next day.

I'm pretty much never getting Sovngarde Song unstuck from my head.

Rapunzel was cold, but coldness didn't stop real adventurers and she knew it. She grabbed a torch, tucked her sketchbook under her arm and set out towards the tundra, and didn't go very far (she wasn't that brave.)

She eventually found a spot and made herself a comfortable little seat in her hair, drawing her cloak tightly around herself as she started to sketch the night sky.

Something this beautiful needed to be committed to paper. It was begging for a painting when she was home.

Atton was becoming a regular fixture of the inn lately. Admittedly, he felt better after talking to Anakin yesterday - not that he'd admit it - if not by that much, but at least he wasn't repressing the urge to curl up in his room and pretend the hot brunette wasn't there as much.

He sipped from his ale, instead, and tried not to hum along with the 15th iteration of 'The Dragonborn Comes'.

Okay, so Joker had to know. He stood out in the middle of the field, a decent hike away from any sources of light, fired up his omnitool, and methodically moved it in arcs, getting a good three-dimensional rendering of the entire dome of the sky. He knew the address of a navigational computer, and he submitted the final image for it to churn on so it could tell him where he was. The verdict? It had no idea. They probably weren't in the Milky Way.

And then Joker realized he'd been standing in the dark of night waving his glowing hand around like an idiot, and who knew what kind of attention that might have attracted? He hurried back to the inn before he got eaten by wolves or giants or something.

Four was Dauntless. Of course he was picking a fight with the Forsworn for the experience.

ONSEN! Which Minako totally needed after ~~playing~~ working in the dirt all day. A good soak was good for the muscles!

She'd be here for a bit, until she needed to get ready for her field trip.

Kitty spent a while wandering around, because everything looked pretty cool and there were souvenirs to pick up, and then she ended up at the Bard's College, where there were so many books.

She might only leave when someone said she had to.

Kitty had been busy all day, right up until the trip to Solitude got back, so she didn't get a chance to try the tub till then. And as it turned out, she maybe waited a little too long, because the water was not still warm by that time.

But, she decided, it couldn't be worse than getting drenched with ice water for a week, so she got in anyway, got out as quickly as possible, got dressed as quickly as possible, and if you heard the "Coldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcold..." coming from that direction, yep, that'd be Kitty.

Alex decided to spend some time out watching the night sky and grabbed a torch to see how far she could get out.

After she found a spot that she could do some stargazing, she sat back and looked up.

Travis wasn't typically the museum type (unless it was art then he could go for it) but the Dwemer museum seemed too good to pass up. And as soon as he stepped in and got a look around, he knew he hadn't been wrong.

"Wow." When he stepped in front of a Dwarven centurion, he almost felt like cowering.

Flick flopped down on one of the chairs with more wine and some pie tonight. The wine last night had been good and it had led to good things so he was going to drink more of it and relax.

She'd had fun exploring earlier in the day, but Cosette wanted to see what the night sky here looked like too. (Two moons!) After some food and a little time by the fire in the common room to warm up, she took a torch and trekked out into the tundra where she could sit and be utterly enthralled for hours.

Johnny had waited two whole days now. So he was checking out the dragon. No, he wasn't going to fight it. He wasn't dumb. He was keeping his distance as he trailed it through the air.

Of course, it was a dark night and Johnny was A FLAMING BALL OF HUMAN, so it turned into a tactical retreat quickly. That dragon was way faster than Johnny expected, too.

Having not been able to go earlier, Barry arranged for a private tour of the underground cavern for him and Elsa. And while part of Barry's brain was working out the exact bio-chemical compound that caused those giant mushrooms to glow, there was a good part that could appreciate the beauty of it all.

"You won't find Alice sitting on that toadstool," he murmured to himself.

After a fun game of dragon tag, Johnny came back to the Inn, grabbed some ale from the bar, and settled in for a nice night by the fire that wasn't nearly as warm as he was.

Never mind that he had ash on him.

"Who?" Elsa's own voice was soft, her eyes wide and staring up at the mushrooms reaching up before them. She was pretty firmly standing in camp 'in awe,' here. "Have you ever seen anything like these before?"

She hadn't. She had very much never seen anything like this before.

"Jeremy once drank one of my bio-fuel agents and glowed like that for a day," Barry commented as he tilted his head at the mushrooms. "These are much more attractive."

"They're quieter, too," Elsa laughed, glancing at Barry before leaning toward him slightly. "Though they're not half as friendly."

The glow was nice. It was soothing. Elsa could always use a little soothing, she certainly wasn't going to complain now.

"Remind me to not just up and randomly drink whatever I find in the warehouse, though."

As if she ever would.

"Well you listen to me," Barry said attempting to slip his arm around her back. "So I doubt that will ever happen. Jeremy just did whatever the fuck he wanted and caused me all sorts of fucking trouble."

He tilted his head. "I think the mushrooms might be as smart as Jeremy though."

"They've got much better manners," Elsa replied, looking up at them thoughtfully as she leaned a little closer against him. The mushrooms were calming, and Barry was calming, and she certainly wouldn't turn down that little bit of closeness, no. Barry was safe. "But of course I listen to you. And not just because I don't want to find myself spitting up rainbows every time you say a swear word."

Teasing! Teasing alert!

"Okay, first of all that serum was untested," Barry said good-humor as he rubbed her back with his hand. "And you'd be safe because it would only happen if you swore. So really that would never happen anyway."

"And we know that isn't going to ever happen," Elsa agreed, laughing a little. "Try though you might, I am never going to say that word."

Ever. Everrrr.

Probably.

"Oh you're too regal to ever let that happen," Barry teased. "Someday though. Some day it's just going to sneak up on you and it'll be out there. Much like a certain finger someone let fly the other day."

"I could blame the testosterone for that one," Elsa replied, grinning impishly. "All of that 'being a boy' compromised my self-control, and I had no choice but to give in to the impulse. But that would make me a liar. I did it entirely to see your reaction."

And she looked proud of herself as she said that, too.

"You didn't disappoint, by the way."

"Hmm. I'm just a bad influence on you aren't I?" Barry said with smirk as he leaned in to give her a peck on the cheek. "Maybe I'm wrong and a couple of months from now you'll be dropping more f-bombs than a rapper."

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Rorikstead, Skyrim, Tuesday Afternoon/Evening

Frostfruit Inn

Frostfruit Inn - Rooms

Frostfruit Inn - Bathing

Frostfruit Inn Common Room

Frostfruit Inn - Bard

Rorikstead

Rorikstead - Wandering Salesman

Rorikstead - Take a Torch

Beyond Rorikstead

Beyond Rorikstead - Solitude

Beyond Rorikstead - Understone Keep

Beyond Rorikstead - Adventuring

OOC

Re: Rorikstead - Take a Torch

Re: Frostfruit Inn Common Room

Re: Rorikstead - Take a Torch

Re: Beyond Rorikstead - Adventuring

Re: Frostfruit Inn - Bathing

Re: Beyond Rorikstead - Bard's College

Re: Frostfruit Inn - Bathing

Re: Rorikstead - Take a Torch

Re: Beyond Rorikstead - Understone Keep

Re: Frostfruit Inn Common Room

Re: Rorikstead - Take a Torch

Re: Beyond Rorikstead - Adventuring

Beyond Rorikstead - Blackreach

Re: Frostfruit Inn Common Room

Re: Beyond Rorikstead - Blackreach

Re: Beyond Rorikstead - Blackreach

Re: Beyond Rorikstead - Blackreach

Re: Beyond Rorikstead - Blackreach

Re: Beyond Rorikstead - Blackreach

Re: Beyond Rorikstead - Blackreach

Re: Beyond Rorikstead - Blackreach

Re: Beyond Rorikstead - Blackreach

Re: Beyond Rorikstead - Blackreach

Re: Beyond Rorikstead - Blackreach