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Finished decorating Windstad Manor. It now has a nice enchanting tower (minus the obtrusive enchanting table - there's one on the landing anyway, so don't need another one), armoury - which is cool because i've started to arrange my things in the display cases, as most of the time (touch wood) the items stay where i put them and aren't all strewn about when i re-enter, and lastly the trophy room at the back.

I have a dragon head in pride of place right at the doorway (the dragonborn must have that right there!) and then a mudcrab, wolf and a cow, the latter of which has the pelt of my bandit-killed cow from Heljarchen Hall - he shall be remembered.

Got attacked by a dragon whilst riding Arvak through the icy waters near Solitude. By the time i reached the shore, the dragon had already turned its attention to the Emperor's ship, The Katariah, and was blasting it with fire. I couldn't see anyone on deck, so they were either oblivious or weren't fussed.

Got slightly bugged by Faendal continually talking about Riverwood, despite now living in Windstad Manor. It's alright though, nice to see my old buddy - first follower- back in the days when Aarah was low level and they would frequent the Nordic ruins together.

Killed a Stormcloak camp, minus the pesky essential leader. Decided to not use any melee weapons for a change and go pure magic for the fight. Got a few with Frenzy (never use it normally), a few more with lightning from the Storm Call shout, tried Mass Paralysis but it didn't work on anyone. Not sure about that spell - the only person it's taken down in the few times i've tried it is Onmund who, as a follower, was not an intended target.

Finally finished building all the divine shrines in Heljarchen Hall cellar! Got the last three amulets i needed at Radiant Raiments. Was having trouble finding silver ingots and even more finding gold but was excited when i noticed that i knew the transmute spell, so BAM! iron ore into silver and silver into gold, add the smelter and Bob's your Uncle! We have the ingots!

The twin vampire brothers hiding at the New Gnisis Cornerclub had been killed, but there was still the matter of the girl Rinori who had been turned by them against her will and was despairing of her fate. Among-the-Hist believed she was still redeemable because she had never fed and had already spoken to Falion about a cure for her condition. (Marilyn could have told him that having fed need be no impediment to the cure, but she and Serana thought it most prudent to keep mum about Mari's vampiric intermezzo.) They spoke to Rinori in Windhelm's Hall of the Dead where she was hiding during daylight, and she accepted Hist's offer to accompany her to Morthal and assist her in the ritual. As the girl was too weak to walk all the way Mari paid for a carriage to take Hist and Rinori while she herself and Serana followed on their horses [/in my head].

They managed to time the journey so that they departed and arrived in darkness to minimize the sunlight stress on Rinori. As they approached the summoning circle Mari noticed that Hist wasn't quite his usual self. She knew he blamed himself for killing his former partner who had been infected with vampirism, and learning that vampirism was a curable disease and his partner might have been saved had aggravated his feelings of guilt; but he seemed to have come to some grim resolve now. Only when they met Falion did he reveal that he was determined to sacrifice his own life for Falion to use instead of a soul gem to revive Rinori. Mari tried to stop him, but he had already taken poison, and so the ritual was completed. Rinori was devastated because her life had been restored at such a price, but Mari told her to make sure it wasn't wasted; her usual snarkiness had all left her as she was holding the dead body of a noble lizard who had for a while been a friend to her. She had no idea how Argonians buried their dead, but giving his body to the waterways of Hjaalmarch felt about right.

Within 48 hours from their arrival in Solstheim they

- found their Thieves Guild contact, but it turned out he couldn't tell them any more about Morag Tong activities on the island than they already knew but rather required their help against a freelance thief;

- met a very rude Orc with a bodyguard who had "competing crime boss" written all over him and would have to be brought to heel or disposed of, depending on which would prove more feasible;

- identified the wealthiest family in Ravenrock and Marilyn vowed to break into their home and clear out all valuables ASAP;

- found the corpse of a Dunmer wearing an armour that looked vaguely Daedric but wasn't and seemed to be cursed to kill its wearer with headaches (a Requiem thing);

- discovered that everybody in the settlement was engaged in the construction of a mysterious building similar to a shrine which they denied all knowledge of when queried. Marilyn first thought of a mass conspiracy but changed her mind when she fell asleep in the Retching Netch and awoke a few hours later to find herself working on the very same building; it now appears that the citizens are under the influence of some supernatural agency - presumably Daedric, maybe connected to the strange armour or maybe not, but certainly not to be trifled with;

- did an old miner a favour and found out that Ravenrock's exhausted mine was connected to an ancient Nord burial site containing the submerged tomb of a dragon priest. It also contained an ominous black book which turned out to be a portal into the realm of Marilyn's benefactor Herma-Mora, but she barely escaped alive from her first encounter with His servants. She wouldn't put it past old Mora to be behind this shrine-building in Ravenrock, and in this case she's not going to meddle with Him as long as He stops recruiting her as an involuntary builder. (It's not like she'll be able to do anything against it anyway, not being Dragonborn and having no talent for Thu'um, but there's enough other stuff for her to do on Solstheim, and reading a few Black Books won't hurt her... at least not much.)

Nazir's next task would take Larawen, Bosmeri assassin, back to Solitude to kill the captain of a pirate ship, the Red Wave. She hadn't been to that city since she preserved Asgeir's bachelorhood. After a layover in Whiterun to see the wife, Larawen rode for Solitude on Shadowmere early the next morning. The trip was unremarkable. Larawen stabled Shadowmere at Katla's Farm and waited until after midnight before sneaking onto the ship.

No official lore records what happened aboard the Red Wave that night, but I imagine it became the subject of much talk and speculation among pirates of the time. Most would say that the crew mutinied and killed their captain. However, the crew members told a different story: They say their captain flew into a frenzy and began attacking everybody on the ship, so they had to kill the captain in self-defense.

I happen to know that the crew's tale is mostly true, even though it doesn't mention the mysterious Bosmer in a simple black dress that they caught sneaking into the ship, and that they foolishly allowed to go below deck. Larawen had, of course, cast Frenzy on Safia and then let the crew kill their captain for her.

As soon as Safia was dead, Larawen slipped off the ship and went to the Winking Skeever for some much-needed rest.

Returning to Ravenrock after leaving Blodskaal Barrow through the back door they were looking forward to a nice dinner at the Netch, a night's sleep and a day of trading, crafting and relaxation; but after only a few hours of sleep they awoke to find themselves spirited away once more to another shrine construction site, this time in the middle of cold snowy nowhere. Their entranced fellow workers looked like Nords but wore thick clothes of hide and fur of a make they had never seen before (Mari envied them, for the stuff looked warm and comfy although not as protective as the chitin set she took from a female Reaver the day before). Not far from the building site they found a whole village of that strange people, but none of them deigned to speak to them; the few they saw were busy conducting some magic ritual. Maybe they were the ones hypnotising everybody else and making them build these shrines? Marilyn neither liked nor trusted them.

So there they were, leagues away from Ravenrock and with no idea how to get there except by following the coast line which would sooner or later take them to the harbour. They were still carrying all the loot from Blodskaal Barrow which they had hoped to sell and regretted deeply that they had been unable to bring their horses to carry all that stuff for them. Fortunately they ran into a band of Nord warriors who had been driven from their meadhall by a tribe of pig-riding blue-skinned munchkins and were looking for help to retake it. Marilyn, who isn't that fond of Nords in general, briefly considered siding with the Rieklings, but Serana clearly favoured her own people; what made the decision was that the Rieklings had neither money nor valuable goods to offer, whereas the Thirsk folk had a veritable blacksmith! After Mari had picked off the sentinels outside the hall with her arrows the battle inside was brief and one-sided.

With the Nords back in Thirsk their leader, Bujold, felt she had one more thing to do and asked Marilyn & Serana to accompany her to Hrothmund's Barrow where she meant to seek the blessing of the first chieftain. In Mari's eyes that was primitive superstition, but she could tell that Serana sympathized with Bujold, and it wouldn't hurt to get on good terms with the Thirsk folk. So off they went on a march through the snowy wasteland, farther away from Ravenrock instead of closer. Bujold got a chance to show her mettle when they were attacked by a dragon on the icy plateau outside the barrow and acquitted herself admirably. Marilyn therefore understood her disappointment when Hrothmund's ghostly voice declared her unworthy of his blessing, and supported her decision to sweep the matter under the carpet; by Mari's book any woman who walks away from a dragon fight without even licking her wounds is more than qualified to lead a tribe of warriors.

After selling their spare loot to Halbarn the blacksmith the couple continued south along the coast, passing what looked like a complex of Dwemer ruins and the mushroom tower of a Telvanni mage on the way. They had a first run-in with the ash spawn bred from the ashes of Red Mountain and some more Reavers before they reached Ravenrock at last. They also discovered that they could sleep undisturbed in Thirsk as well as in the basement of an abandoned shack they found - everywhere but in the Retching Netch, it seems. So what exactly does this barkeep put into that sujamma which he's so eager to sell to everyone? Is he in league with the furhat Nords and/or Herma-Mora, and what the heck is going on here anyway?

Larawen, Bosmeri assassin, stayed the night at the Winking Skeever. She had another item on her Haafingar itinerary, to follow Olava's vision to Deepwood Reboubt and Hag's End. Forsworn territory. She wanted someone to watch her back, so the next morning she hired Belrand, a mercenary with miserably bad equipment - she would have to do something about that.

I doubt that Larawen told Belrand much about herself or her mission, so Belrand may have wondered if the plain-dressed Bosmer hired him just to go shopping. It probably became clear to Belrand that they were going somewhere very dangerous when Larawen gave him the products of her day of shopping and crafting: New leather armor and a tempered steel sword, some custom-crafted healing potions, and some enchanted jewelry.

"Do I get to keep it?" Belrand asked of his new equipment. "Ha, just kidding."

Yes, you do get to keep it. No kidding.

They went back to the Winking Skeever for the night and left before dawn. Larawen stepped into the guard tower outside Solitude for a bit of privacy while she changed clothes. She came out wearing the Savior's Hide and her furs, an enchanted circlet, and with an enchanted ebony bow and a quiver of ebony arrows slung across her back. Let's go.

The trek was uneventful. It was beautiful hunting land, and they saw some Companions out hunting. Of course, approaching their destination, they had to pay attention to more than just the scenery.

They fought their way into and through the Forsworn-infested Deepwood Redoubt and Deepwood Vale. Belrand proved to be an able fighter, and Larawen enjoyed having the Nord s(p)ellsword along. No doubt that Belrand enjoyed watching the Bosmer's back(side) as she sneaked along in her unusual revealing armor. Just don't get too distracted, buddy - we need you to stay focused.

Hag's End had been taken over by vile witches, hags, and a hagraven, and Belrand commented on their desecration of the tomb and that some of his ancestors might be entombed there. I'm sure that Larawen didn't mind letting him think that was why they were there - to clear the tomb of the desecrators.

They found a word wall and Larawen learned the word of power, a very useful one for the Bosmer archer. "This is to help you forget what you just saw", she said as she handed Belrand a ruby.

Eventually, they found the inspiration for Olava's prophecy, the dead assassin with the Ancient Shrouded Armor. "Here's something else to help you forget what you saw today," she said as she tipped Belrand an emerald.

It was nearly dawn, but they slept a couple hours in the Forsworn camp before returning to Solitude. Larawen dismissed the now wealthier and better-equipped Belrand.

Larawen hurried back to Whiterun and arrived in the wee hours. Ysolda was sound asleep.

It did leave her feeling oddly empty. Maybe it was Paarthurnax's response when she returned or having to leave Sovngarde so soon, but the triumph she'd hoped to feel stayed out for some reason.
It got better however, when she reached High Hrothgar again and Lydia emerged, running straight toward her. They really had become close over the months.