In my last Skyrim post, Iselia had bought a small cozy home behind Riverwood. It was nice and was a good place to store her stuff, but she wanted more. She wanted to build a great manor! And one of the finer locations for such a thing was in Falkreath.
The Jarl there wanted her to kill some bandits who hadn't paid the tithe in quite some time, and with that she would gain his favour.
Sounded good enough for her!
When she was halfway to the location, a storm began to approach.
Not wanting to get stuck in the storm, she quickly looked for the closest area she could take shelter in.
That turned out to be a broken ruin of a fort, surrounded by bloodthirsty orcs eager to protect their camp.
All she wanted was a warm, dry place to stay, but they didn't stop to chat. She was an interloper. An intruder. And they fought her without waiting to hear how she just wanted shelter from the storm.
In response, she killed every one of them.
Inside the fort was warm and she soon dried up, no longer saturated from the pouring rain.
There were more orcs inside, all of them angry that she had dared stepped foot into their camp, and these ones didn't stop to listen either. Not that it mattered. She had killed all their friends after all.
Finally the leader of the orcs showed himself. He yelled something about a dagger and how he would protect it from the likes of her.
That just made Iselia more curious. She thought these orcs were just camping here, but no, they were protecting something. It must be valuable! She would claim whatever this special dagger was for her very own!
When the orc leader at last fell, she rummaged through his pockets and found a key to a vault.
Inside the vault, past a bunch of traps and protections, were the shards of a broken dagger.
Was this really what they had been protecting? This broken, useless thing?
Whatever. She gathered the shards and threw them in her bag. They had to be worth something to someone. Especially if these orcs had tried to protect it so valiantly.
It was still raining outside so she decided to just sleep in the fort for the night and hope that the storm was gone in the morning.
And it was!
Iselia continued on her way to where the bandits were supposedly hold up, and the appearance of a carriage complete with dead horses, burnt bodies, and looted crates proved that she was getting closer to them.
She soon found the cave the bandits had made their lair and swiftly dispatched of them.
Done and dusted. She had proven her worth, her discretion, and would surely be granted the Jarl's favour.
Racing back to Falkreath, she found the Jarl in talks with an Imperial guard. He didn't seem to mind the intrusion though. Iselia informed him that his bandit problem was gone and he happily rewarded her.
Even better, his reward was just as she thought it would be - property in the realm!
Handing over the 5000 golden coins necessary to secure the plot of land, a wave of determination washed over her. She had arrived in this land, half drowned and freezing in the icy waters to the north, and was now going to be a rich landowner.
Eager to stand on her own land where one day a great manor would be built, she followed the Steward's instructions on how to get there and soon looked out over the tracts that were now hers.
There were construction tables at the ready, plenty of stone and clay to mine, and a few iron veins nearby. The Steward had thoughtfully had delivered some materials, including great wooden logs, and Iselia could begin building the basics of her future manor.
It was going to be glorious!
Until next time! 😊⚔️❄️
All images in this post are courtesy of me, @kaelci, and are from the game: The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim. 