UESP Forums

Delia-Jessamine Maric, Breton stealth-mage, and her adviser Annekke Crag-Jumper, Nord Crag-Jumper, left Windhelm and spent the next couple of days traveling to the Whiterun Stormcloak camp. They were to help Galmar and his troops liberate Whiterun. Along the way, I think they had a conversation that went something like this:

Annekke: You mentioned there being a dragon that's loyal to you...
Jess: Yes. Odahviing, the dragon we trapped in Dragonsreach. He said he would be loyal. But Paarthy says never trust a dragon.
Annekke: Paarthy?
Jess: Paarthurnax.
Annekke: Do you think Odahviing would fight in the battle for us?
Jess: I haven't tested him, and I don't know what he would do if I called him back to Whiterun. He might turn against everybody.
Annekke: Nevermind, then. It's too risky.

They arrived at the camp, where Galmar was delivering a rousing speech (though a bit long-winded considering all the flaming projectiles falling around them). On Annekke's advice, Jess stood by Galmar's side during the speech, to further inspire the troops. But the speech inspired Jess, as well, and the instant Galmar finished, Jess called Odahviing.

Jess ran into battle near the forefront of the attack. My how a minor accomplishment like saving the world has helped her confidence. Odahviing flew over as they approached the barricades, landed amongst the defenders, and began burning and mauling them. One can imagine the effect on the defenders' morale to see that the Stormcloaks had, not only the Dragonborn, but also a dragon on their side. It took the pressure off the approaching Stormcloaks, and they easily made their way to the drawbridge. When Jess opened the drawbridge, Odahviing was already fighting on the other side. Jess saw him chomp an Imperial general as she ran to the city gate.

Inside the city, Jess and Annekke sniped Imperials and guards as the Stormcloaks made their way to Dragonsreach. Jess and the gang (long time no see, Ralof, though Jess left Helgen with Hadvar) entered Dragonsreach, beat Balgruuf and Irileth into submission, and the battle was over. Vignar soon entered, and assumed control.

Outside, the city was damaged but Jess saw that Jorrvaskr and the Temple of Kynareth were untouched. Jorrvaskr was locked, as was every other building she tried. No one was out and about - except Carlotta and Mila Valentia, oddly.

Jess and Annekke spent the next few days: Traveling back to Windhelm to report to Ulfric (who gave her a Daedric Sword of the Inferno to hang on her wall); fighting a dragon outside Windhelm; checking in at Darkwater Crossing; and making their way to the next objective, Falkreath. They spent the night at Nilheim before traveling to the Falkreath Stormcloak Camp to receive orders from Galmar.

Jess met Ralof near Fort Neugrad. He mentioned being haunted by those he had killed, and Jess reassured him that only a beast kills without feeling. Jess was supposed to sneak into the fort and release some prisoners before the assault, but ironically, failed the sneaking part miserably. Somehow, they saw her coming from a long way off. So it became a straight-up battle, not Jess's favorite thing, so she tried something new, the Slow Time shout. The shout helped her distinguish friend from foe as she sniped with the Gauldur Blackbow. They defeated the Imperials, released the prisoners, and didn't lose a single Stormcloak. While checking the Imperial bodies, Jess noted that some of them were wearing amulets of the Divines, including Dibella and Kynareth. She had not seen that on the Imperials that had fallen in previous battles. Such a shame.

Before reporting back to Ulfric, Jess detoured to Whiterun to check on her friends and on the condition of the city. There was still damage, but Vignar had been efficient about cleaning up most of the mess. She spoke with numerous citizens (almost everybody), some of whom had interesting things to say about the battle and its aftermath. She could not locate Severio Pelagia, however, and his house had been badly damaged. Heimskr's house had been destroyed, too, but he cared not, instead praising Talos and all the Divines for the liberation.

Jess and Annekke stayed the night at Breezehome, where Balgruuf's presence lingered in the form of his spy, Lydia.

Delia-Jessamine Maric, Breton stealth-mage, and her adviser Annekke Crag-Jumper left Whiterun for Windhelm in the wee hours. At the Weynon Stones, they prayed to Talos. They also heard a dragon roar but did not see it. Later, they killed a frost troll and then saw another one killed by Khajiit merchants. Otherwise, the trip was uneventful.

At the Palace of the Kings, Ulfric gave the petite Breton a new nickname: "Bone-Breaker." He also encouraged her to buy a house in Windhelm, but at the moment, Jess's only concern is winning the war as quickly as possible.

Ulfric told Jess to report to Galmar again, this time in Hjaalmarch. I wish he'd get around to liberating The Pale so Skald might stop insulting Jess for her treachery during Season Unending. Anyway, she and Annekke left immediately. They slept a while at the Nightgate Inn.

They left again in the wee hours, Jess wearing her furs because she isn't as cold-tolerant as these Nords. They came across a group of Imperials leading a prisoner. The last time they encountered such a group, they were constrained by politics and did nothing. This time, however, they could take action. They passed the group and waited for them to approach. Jess summoned the duo responsible for most of her bone-breaking, her Dremora Lords, then readied her rarely-used Paralyze spell.

"You're interfering with Imperial business. Move along," said the lead soldier, who mistakenly thought his uniform gave him authority in this situation. Jess ran to the prisoner, cut his bindings with a tempered-steel dagger (she always carries one for freeing prisoners from Thalmor), gave him the dagger and a healing potion (she's quick), and the fight was on. Jess paralyzed the nearest soldier, and drew her elven dagger. Her daedra were already cutting down two of the soldiers while Annekke fired arrows into the paralyzed one from her standpoint on a small knoll. The fight was brief and Jess did not bloody her dagger. The freed prisoner ran off without saying "thanks". Jess took the weapons from the dead soldiers but left them in their armor. She did not want to leave them naked and undignified.

They passed Mzinchaleft, which Jess and Annekke had explored together in a previous adventure. Further along, they heard the sound of a dragon. This one had no regard for the Way of the Voice, so they had to kill it.

At the Stormcloak camp, Jess traded with the Quartermaster, an attractive Nord woman. She tempered two more steel daggers, for future prisoner-freeing. Then she got her new mission from Galmar: Steal some documents from an Imperial courier and return them to him. She could potentially find the courier in Dragon Bridge or Rorikstead. Hmmm. Dragon Bridge would be quicker. They left, traveling through a part of Hjaalmarch Jess had never been in, and discovering a village called Stonehills. They spent the night in Morthal and left again in the wee hours.

Along the way to Dragon Bridge, they heard a dragon roar and saw it circling Eldersblood Peak. It was quite beautiful to see it silhouetted against the blue-green aurora. Later, they sneaked past the now-Imperial controlled Fort Snowhawk (at least they kicked out the necromancers), and decided against killing an Imperial nobleman and his guard. Annekke thought it best to keep a low profile during this mission.

It was dawn when they arrived at the Four Shields Inn. Jess bribed the innkeep Faida for information on the courier. Faida said they might find the courier somewhere on the road to Rorikstead, or they could wait for his return. Jess didn't want to wait, so they left. They might as well have waited though, because he ran by them soon after. They went back to the Four Shields. Annekke waited outside.

Inside, Jess wandered around a bit, then sneaked behind the courier when nobody was looking and pickpocketed the documents off of him. All those thousands of septims paid to Silda the Unseen had bought the courier his life. Along the way to the Stormcloak camp, they saved a Dunmer farmer from a mudcrab. Ironically, he then said he was going to Solitude to join the Legion. They spared him. If a mudcrab was giving him problems...

More interestingly, Jess saw a familiar shack in the woods off of the road. She had been there once long ago, and wondered about something... yes, Meeko was still living there, but he was glowing green as if under a spriggan's spell. The dog didn't attack them, though. The two women looked around outside, but could not find a spriggan. When they returned, the spell had worn off, anyway.

Though she had previously left Meeko to his own devices, Jess now wanted to keep him. Annekke had no opinion on the matter. Jess asked the dog to come with them, and he followed.

Back at the camp, Galmar altered the documents, and asked Jess to deliver them to the Legate in Morthal. So back to Morthal. Jess had never been in Highmoon Hall, though she had met Idgrod Ravencrone at a Thalmor party. Very awkward, and Jess worried Idgrod might recognize her. She asked Annekke to watch Meeko by the door and she quickly found the legate. The gullible legate believed Jess was an Imperial soldier traveling incognito, and gave her 5 septims to buy a drink at the Moorside Inn. Jess said thanks and left quickly.

Jess had never seen Imperials hanging out in the Moorside Inn, so she, Annekke, and Meeko went for that drink.

Found a sunken shipwreck deep underwater. Was too deep and dark to find with holding the breath, but I remembered that I had a water breathing spell, so I used that. Managed to get inside the ship, but could hardly see a thing, so got stuck in there. Left the wreck alone in the end, might go back if I come across a 'see in the dark' spell or something. (Plus it was damn scary swimming about in the pitch black).

Bought a bunch of new spells at the CoW, my new additions being: blizzard, lightning storm, ebonyflesh, detect dead and close wounds.

Went with Onmund to Dead Man's Respite to find King Olaf's Verse for the Bard's College. Lots of different level draugr in there, aswell as King Olaf deathlord who was high level. He was being attacked by a ghost (Svaknir), Onmund with chain lightning and me with an icy spear staff and his health was still going down really slowly. I ran out of charge on my staff so decided to try out my new lightning storm spell. Wow, that spell is cool! He went down really quickly after that. It does feel like you've just opened bottled lightning though, as it has an 'out of control' giant beam element to it.
Got the Verse that I went for, aswell as learning the second word for the whirlwind sprint shout. There was also some end loot where I snagged a snazzy Elven helmet that decreases destruction spell cost by 20%. This means that I now have enough magicka for the fire storm and blizzard spells that were previously too costly to cast (unless I wore my other enchanted helmet, which wasnt as good).

Returned to the Bard's college and helped Viarmo with the verse to perform to the Jarl. She liked it and so allowed the ritual of burning the King's effigy to take place. Jorn decided to have the cermony there and then, so everyone got up at 2 in the morning to come outside to the courtyard to watch the burning. There were treats laid on, so I had an apple pie, a sweetroll and some spiced wine. The guy from the winking skeever said I could have a meat pie he'd made, but disappointingly he then gave me an apple pie instead. Tut! I still ate it anyway.

After the ceremony (where I became a proper member of the college) I went next door to Proudspire Manor, dumped some stuff, said hello to hubby Marcurio and the went to have some sleep.

Delia-Jessamine Maric, Breton stealth-mage, her adviser Annekke Crag-Jumper, and Meeko hung out at the Moorside Inn for a while, then left for the Hjaalmarch Stormcloak camp. It was already after dark and snowing heavily. When they arrived, they spoke with the troops by the fire for a while, then slept in a puptent.

They awoke before dawn, ate breakfast, and got new orders from Galmar: Help take Fort Snowhawk. "It's as good as ours," Jess responded.

Jess told Meeko to wait at the camp until they returned. Along the way, Jess and Annekke had to fight a Khajiit mage that attacked them for no apparent reason.

Approaching Fort Snowhawk, Jess summoned her Dremora. During the battle, she focused on sniping the Imperial archers, using Slow Time to help her aim, and also healed a couple of wounded Stormcloak soldiers. After the battle, Jess gathered weapons from the dead Imperials, and then she and Annekke left.

They returned to the Stormcloak camp, freeing another prisoner from Imperials along the way. The camp had been abandoned, but Meeko had waited dutifully. Unfortunately, he was no help in figuring out where Galmar and the rest had gone to, so they decided to return to Windhelm.

First, Jess wanted to take a detour to see what it's like in Dawnstar under Imperial control. Annekke cautioned against it, but Jess explained that she has friends there, and the townsfolk would not betray her. So they left for Dawnstar. The trip was uneventful.

At Dawnstar, even the Imperial soldiers did not give Jess any trouble. Of course, they may not have known who she was, and she was wearing her furs instead of her Stormcloak curasse. They traded a bit with Rustleif and Seren, but kept the Imperial weaponry they carried, for obvious reasons.

Two ice wraiths showed up in town, and everybody wanted to be a hero, making it impossible for Jess to assist without risk of hitting somebody with her firebolt spell. It didn't stop Annekke from firing arrows into the crowd, though - fortunately, her aim was true and she only hit the ice wraiths.

They went to the Jarl's Longhouse and spoke with Brina and Horik. They know Jess, but acted as if they weren't aware that the Dragonborn had sided with the Stormcloaks, even discussing battle strategy in her presence. Interestingly, Brina sounded as if her loyalty to the Empire was fueled more by habit than by conviction, and Jess overheard Horik speaking to Madena as if he suspects she is a Stormcloak. None of that will matter soon enough.

They spent the night at the Windpeak Inn, where Jess requested that her favorite bard, Karita, sing "Tale of the Tongues". Her rendition was beautiful.

They left Dawnstar the next morning, stopping at the Dibellan shrine south of the town. It had been too long since Jess had been prayed at a shrine of Dibella. After Jess prayed, Annekke, being an adventurer at heart, suggested they take a remote route to Windhelm, through western Winterhold and Wayward Pass (/roleplay - I just wanted to avoid Fort Dunstad).

So they did. Along the way, Meeko saw an ice wraith and killed it by himself. Good dog!

Later, a familiar Argonian ran up to Jess asking for money. Deep-In-His-Cups. Jess partied one night with Sanguine, but pays for it the rest of her life. She paid him 750 septims to leave her alone again for a while. He gave her a hat. He ran off, but later they saw him again near Anga's Mill, where he killed a mudcrab before running off again.

At Windhelm, Jess changed into her black dress and boots, and put on the hat she got from Deep-In-His-Cups to keep the wind off. They went to the market, traded the Imperial weapons to Oengul so he can melt them down for steel, and then had lunch at the Candlehearth.