Port Hunding

It wasn't too hard to find a ship going to Port Hunding. Nobody was sailing to Saintsport, because that's where all the pirates were. It appeared that the cleanup had started, but was only half-complete. Rumour had it that Headman Bhosek was a "reformed" pirate, but there were enough of the King's agents present to keep him reasonably honest.

Aurelia had been staying at the Screaming Mermaid, not too surprisingly, as it was the only inn in town. We met outside, and she had another familiar (to Isobel) face with her. "That's Captain Marso. He works for my parents," Isobel told me.

What had happened was that Aurelia had let her guard down, and a thief named Kiv had got enough information from her to let him get access to her room, and steal several of her possessions, including the ring.

"It looks like he ran off this way, dropping things as he sorted through his haul," Isobel exclaimed, picking up a jar of something smelly, and dropping it again, with a disgusted look on her face.

We took a guess at which direction he'd headed, and soon found an engraved arm band of no particular value. So we continued in the same direction, and found he'd dropped his journal, which suggested he knew he was being persued, and couldn't spare the time to pick it back up. It also confirmed that he was heading for the docks.

He'd dropped a sweetroll on the docks, but I steered Isobel past picking it up, and rushed to ask the shipping agents if thay'd seen him, or knew what ship he was on. We'd just missed the boat he'd taken, which was headed for Seyda Neen.

We didn't need to follow on a ship, as I knew the wayshrines on Vvardenfell. So we talked a bit more with Aurelia and Marso.

Coming to Stros M'kai had been Marso's idea. Aurelia had wanted an adventure, and this seemed to him like the right place. Port Hunding was pretty safe, (Kiv excepted) but the island provided opportunities for exploration and adventure that were not too scary for a beginner. And he could do some trade to justify the trip, as Dwemer artifacts were starting to emerge from the newly opened ruins of Bthzark.

Aurelia thought it would be best if Isobel kept the ring if we got it back. Now that she understood what it could be used for in the wrong hands, she didn't want to risk this happening again. She had ideas on how she could limit the damage, and she and Marso would go back to High Isle and work on those.

On our way to the Port Hunding wayshrine, to get to Seyda Neen, Isobel explained that Marso was an old family friend, as well as an employee of her parents. They always took his ship when they went on family trips, and on many of those they took Aurelia with them, as she and Isobel were such close friends. So they'd known him since they were teens. He wasn't a lot older, as he'd been quick to rise to Captain. Her parents promoted on ability, not seniority.

As we reached the wayshrine, I remarked "I'm glad we're picking up this wayshrine, as I wouldn't mind coming back here to look around. I like the exotic architecture, and the dry climate."

"Me too," Isobel replied. "Maybe it's because of growing up on one, but I like islands. You're never far from the beach."

"And we know what you do on beaches, don't we?"

Of course, Vvardenfel is an island, but a much bigger one. And Seyda Neen doesn't have a beach, so much as mud flats and swamps. We headed for the tavern, as that's usually a good place to start making inquiries. Before going in, we asked the woman standing outside if she knew anything about Kiv Lindres.

Galedra Athram not only knew about him, she was looking for him herself. He'd got her fired from her job at the inn, because she'd vouched for him, and then he'd pulled the same kind of stunt he had in Port Hunding, and robbed one of the patrons. He'd left a bag behind in his rush to escape, and we were welcome to look through it.

The only clue that gave us was that a man named Julles Laurdon was another likely victim, and he was in Wayrest.

"I know the wayshrine there," Isobel announced. "Another family business trip when I was younger. I can get us to quite a few of the major cities around Tamriel. If they have a port, it's likely Veloise Mercantile has an interest."

"I should go check at the bank while I'm here," Isobel remarked. "If Kiv Lindres has tried to use the ring as proof of identity, that's the first place he'd try, and I want to make sure he fails."

As luck would have it, we ran into Julles Laurdon outside the temple on our way there. He was about to go looking for Kiv, too, as several items of value had gone missing, and he knew Kiv had at least one of them, because he'd handed it over himself. He had found a note from someone called Goldleaf, and he thought Kiv had gone to Belkarth to meet with him. He suggested we all go there, too, and try and warn this Goldleaf about Lindres.

With four of us, there was little problem using the wayshrine to reach Belkarth, and we were soon walking up to the local inn, to go find this Goldleaf fellow.

We found him in the upper lounge, and for once we'd got there first. He'd received a letter from Kiv Lindres, telling him that Kiv was now working with Veloise Mercantile, and so he could put a lot more business his way. They were due to meet in the basement later.

"Why the basement?" Galedra asked.

"Kiv presumably needs the storage space, now he's trading on a bigger scale," Goldleaf suggested. "Seemed legitimate to me."

We told him about the stolen ring, and that we believed the basement was probably a trap. The four of us would go in his place, just in case.

We weren't wrong, Lindres had a couple of mercenaries with him, but they were bright enough to be able to count. They didn't like being outnumbered and promptly quit, leaving Lindres alone. He still drew a sword on us, but was quickly subdued.

He didn't have the ring on his person; he didn't trust Goldleaf enough for that. He told us where he'd buried it, and we'd just have to trust that he wasn't lying. We could, however, make sure that he couldn't just go fetch it from any other place he'd hidden it. Both Galedra and Julles had idea on what to do with Kiv.

Galedra would like to try an alchemical experiment. She had a potion she'd made, that should turn Kiv into a skeever for a time. Long enough for us to go dig up the ring, at least.

Julles wanted to send Kiv to a monastery, where they'd reform him. He'd be there for a year, or more, he told us.

Isobel and I were of the opinion that Kiv would just talk his way out of Julles' monastery, so we let Galedra have her way. She poured a bottle of something over Kiv, and he turned into a spider.

"Not a skeever? I must have used too much spider silk in the mixture," Galedra exclaimed.

She reassured us that the transformation should last as long as she'd told us, even if the form wasn't right. We'd have time to find the ring before the spider turned back.

Surprisingly, the ring was where Kiv had told us it would be. Perhaps he wanted to be sure nobody else found it, and he'd know where it was if he got the chance to go looking for it again. Isobel felt that the only safe place was with her parents.

As we walked back to the wayshrine in Gonfalon Bay, after leaving the ring with the Veloises, I asked Isobel what other places she could take us. I knew that Azura wanted me to travel, so perhaps I should indulge her, and see a bit more of Tamriel.

"Just port cities, as I mentioned before, and we've already seen most of them. We haven't been to Sentinel, though, want to go there?"