Chapter 12: The Golden Claw
“We’re going to clear out Bleak Falls Barrow. Care to join us?”
Aela blinks at the invitation I give her the next morning. The Huntress’ eyes narrow and she has the audacity to flare her nostrils at me, even as Svanna watches her quietly. When I’d made it back to the room, I’d left the two of them in, Aela had been asleep… Svanna, not so much.
The Dragonborn truly didn’t seem to need slumber any longer, one of the only aspects of the game that had transferred over to her, from what I could tell. Well, that and the fact that this world, or at least the Province of Skyrim, narratively revolved around her and her actions. Regardless, with her awake, I had explained my intentions to her and gotten Svanna on board with my plans.
And while I didn’t intend to keep Aela at our side as we traveled all across the province, I didn’t quite want to let the female Nord go just yet.
“You should know that disturbing the ruins of our ancestors never ends well, Vayral. The Draugr do not take kindly to intruders.”
Grinning, I just cock an eyebrow at her.
“Scared?”
Aela bristles, not completely… enthralled by me just yet. And yet, this very morning, Svanna and I had woken her up with our hands on her body and enjoyed her for much of the morning hours before moving to the top floor of the Mead Hall to sit down and have the first meal of the day. I’d applied more of those fun little head pats while we were at it. It was tempting to do one now in a more public setting to see her reaction, but no… I would refrain for now.
“… Very well. I shall join you both, to make sure you don’t do too much damage. What even… what even draws you to the Barrow in the first place?”
I consider how best to answer for a moment, before deciding to be honest with her. It is, after all, the funniest way to respond. Leaning in close, lowering my voice to a whisper, I grin wickedly as Aela the Huntress instinctively leans in closer as well. Then, I tell her the absolute truth.
“Dragons!”
Aela blinks, and then furrows her brow as she deadpans my response right back to me.
“Dragons.”
Eyes twinkling, I just grin wider and nod.
“You’ll see.”
-x-X-x-
We leave Jorrvaskr and indeed Whiterun itself soon after. Once we’re on the road, I’m tempted to put Aela on a leash and collar, but I can tell she’s not quite there yet. Instead, I take every opportunity I can to place my hand atop her head as we travel, applying more ‘positive reinforcement’ in the form of continual head pats.
At first, no longer in a bedroom setting, Aela snarls and pulls away, much like a wild and untamed mutt would. But over time, as we continue on, the head pats begin to feel too good, and she gets used to my hand sliding through her hair, scratching into her scalp. By the time we reach Bleak Falls Barrow, she’s leaning into my touch and positively moaning her encouragement.
Honestly, I do it mostly for Svanna’s benefit than anything else. The lithe Nord watches as I continue my slow corruption of Aela, and from the small smiles she continually sends my way, she loves every last second of it.
When we reach the Barrow, bandits are in fact waiting for us. And so, we kill them. It’s really that simple. If I was alone, I would fall back on my Illusion Magic to either make them kill each other or pacify them so I could walk right on through. But since I’m not alone, and I have no desire to risk Svanna, I take a frontline position.
… Bleak Falls Barrow levels me up another fifty times, before we get to the final chamber, with the Draugr Overlord and the Word Wall. Not because the dungeon is scary or dangerous or anything like that. Indeed, I rush in with my swords and take all the attention upon myself, and with the health that over three hundred levels gives me, I have nothing to fear from neither the bandits nor the draugr that await us within.
The reason that I level up so many times is because I’ve found a little bit of what would have been called a ‘cheese strat’ in my human self’s former world. A minor interaction between the Ordinator Perk System and having the XP Spell times a thousand enabled made it ridiculously easy to level up multiple times in every single combat.
Basically, the very first Ordinator Perk for both the Heavy and Light Armor Skill Trees made it so that so long as you were wearing two pieces of Heavy or Light Armor, you would gain a small amount of Heavy or Light Armor experience while in combat, regardless of whether or not you were actually getting hit. And the best thing about that was, you could take the first perk in those skill trees while the skills themselves were still at fifteen.
And when combined with me increasing my experience gain from skills by a thousand times, well, that small amount of Heavy and Light Armor experience became a lot more than it should have been.
Basically, for Aela and Svanna, our journey through Bleak Falls Barrow was one of me cutting a bloody swathe of destruction through our foes, with the both of them getting a handful of shots in here and there. For me, however, it was a notification every five seconds telling me that I had just gotten both Heavy and Light Armor to Skill Level One Hundred again, which usually meant I gained two new levels at the same time.
And so, I was forced to ‘pause’ the world around me, enter my Skill Menu, prestige both Light and Heavy Armor, reapply the one perk point to both skill trees, and then leave the Menu and go right back to fighting.
Tedious, perhaps, but also incredibly worth it. By the time we made it to the Word Wall, and I slew the Draugr Overlord with contemptuous ease, I had made my Heavy and Light Armor Skills Legendary over twenty times apiece.
And so there we were, in that final chamber… and to my complete lack of surprise, Svanna found herself entranced by the first Word Wall I’d let her see. I watch in amusement as the Dragonborn slowly walks towards it. I can’t hear anything, I’m not getting the wild effect that you get in the game… but I’m certainly imagining the noises that usually accompany the discovery of a new Word Wall, and easily able to picture what Svanna is experiencing right now.
However, even after I retrieve the Dragonstone from the Draugr Overlord’s body, Svanna hasn’t stopped staring at the wall. As seconds drag into minutes, Aela comes over to me, her pretty face twisted into consternation.
“Well, given she’s the Dragonborn, I assume she’s assimilating the knowledge that the Word Wall has to offer her.”
My offhanded, nonchalant claim makes Aela’s mouth drop open in disbelief.
“W-What?”
I grin, holding up the Dragonstone.
“Meanwhile, this map of Dragon Burial Mounds should be very helpful, now that the dragons are returning. If Svanna there is going to consume as many Dragon Souls as she possibly can and get strong enough to defeat the World-Eater, they’ll prove VERY necessary.”
“I-!”
Aela’s wide eyes make it clear that she actually believes me… and yet, I’m turning her whole world on its head with these rapid bombshells. Needless to say, I’m doing so on purpose, for my own amusement. Just as, glancing over at Svanna to make sure she’s still busy, I do what I do next for my own amusement. Reaching up and placing my palm on top of Aela’s head, I grin as she shudders, her eyes nearly rolling back in her skull from the pleasure of a simple head pat.
This time however, I don’t pat. I grip… and begin to push down. The Huntress descends to her knees with little protest, letting out an uncharacteristic mewl unbecoming of a woman who was supposed to be a wolf, not a cat. Still, I don’t really care. All I care about is that when my golden cock flops out onto the Nord’s face, she does as is expected of her and obediently opens her mouth, beginning to suck.
-x-X-x-
Aela is still sucking my cock when Svanna comes out of her trance. Walking over to my side, the little Dragonborn doesn’t stop what’s happening. In fact, she barely pays Aela any mind at all. Instead, she looks at me and says it in the quietest voice, the word she’s learned.
“… Fus…”
I just chuckle. Really, the lithe Nord had no business being so cute. In the end, we make our way out of the Barrow, once I’ve coated Aela’s face in her cum. When Svanna, adorable as she is, orders Aela to keep my seed upon her face and not clean it off, I’m surprised but also amused to see the Huntress obey. Whether that’s because she’s falling further and further under our sway, or because she now knows Svanna is the Dragonborn… it doesn’t really matter, in the end.
We stop by Riverwood on our way back to Whiterun, given that the town is much closer to Bleak Falls Barrow than the city is. Having retrieved the Golden Claw from the Dunmer Thief trapped in the webs back in the dungeon, I go ahead and give it to Lucius in exchange for the gold I was promised. In truth, at this point, his gold is meaningless… but its nice to see Camilla again. So nice, in fact, that we stay the night and after making sure Lucius won’t wake up once more, I get to enjoy Camilla’s delightful, soft body along with Aela’s hard, chiseled form, all while Svanna helps out.
Its only the day after that, that we make our way back to Whiterun. And never do we hear a single word of any dragon attacks. All things considered, I head towards Dragonsreach with Svanna and Aela at my back around midday. As we enter the Jarl’s Palace, I can’t help but be a little… cautious. I’m not afraid, necessarily, not as I was when I first rushed my way through Riverwood. However, there was a reason I’d done things the way I’d done them.
In the game, if you did things in the proper order, you actually got an early encounter with Delphine. Namely, she could be found conversing with Farengar Secret-Fire in his study whenever you returned with the Dragonstone, he’d tasked you with getting.
However, this ONLY happened if you did things in what the game considered the ‘proper’ order. That is, going to Whiterun first, talking to the Jarl, being sent on Farengar’s fetch quest, and then returning. Meanwhile, if you went to Bleak Falls Barrow first, you bypassed the entire early encounter with Delphine, making the Riverwood Innkeeper’s surprise reveal later all the more of a shock.
Which always seemed odd to me. Because really, Bleak Falls Barrow was one the way to Whiterun. One of the easiest quests to run across in the game, The Golden Claw, sent you there straight from Riverwood. If I had to guess, I would say the VAST majority of players went from Riverwood to Bleak Falls to Whiterun without ever doing things the ‘right’ way, resulting in pretty much all of them missing that hidden Delphine-Farengar interaction.
Of course, that was my entire goal. I still had absolutely zero intention of interacting with Delphine for as long as I could help it. And so, I’d done things in this order specifically to avoid that ‘scripted event’. And… it seemed to have worked? As we move up towards where Jarl Balgruuf is holding court, I glance over into the side room where Farengar is doing his thing and see the court wizard… but no sign of the blonde woman in there with him.
Perfect.
“Halt! What business have you with the Jarl?”
Ah, Irileth. A very sexy, smoking hot Irileth at that. The Dunmer Housecarl steps forward, moving between us and the seated Jarl with her eyes narrowed in suspicion. I give her a grin and am glad to see my auras having some effect on her when her face flickers for a moment, but true to her loyalty, she doesn’t let my… majesty keep her from doing her duty.
“We come with news for the Jarl. News of dragons… of the attack on Helgen.”
“Let them past, Irileth. I would hear their words.”
Glaring us down, Jarl Balgruuf’s Dunmer bodyguard nevertheless steps aside, giving us room to speak with him. The seated Jarl’s eyes flicker across all three of us assessingly, though he seems most surprised to see Aela among us.
“A Companion. These two are with you, then?”
Back straight, Aela shakes her head.
“I am traveling with them… but they know more than me about what’s going on.”
Deciding that’s as good a place as any to interject, I clear my throat and draw the Jarl’s eye.
“We have needs from Helgen. A dragon attack during Ulfrida Stormcloak’s execution. In the chaos, Helgen was burnt to the ground, Ulfrida escaped, and the dragon is in the wind.”
Balgruuf’s eyes widen at that, before narrowing.
“Tch, I should have known Ulfrida was mixed up in all of this. Still… this seems utterly fantastical.”
I just grin and throw my thumb over to Svanna.
“If our story is so hard to believe, you’re never going to believe that SHE’S the Last Dragonborn, and that the dragon we saw at Helgen was Alduin the World-Eater himself.”
That silences the hall. Perhaps its because of my Illusion Auras, combined with my maxed out Speech Skill and the handful of perks I’ve taken from that. All I know is, no one tries to gainsay me immediately. After a moment of silence though, of course…
“S-Surely you can’t be serious!”
And there goes Proventus, Dragonsreach’s great skeptic. He lets out a nervous laugh, as if he expects me to exclaim that all I have said was in jest at any moment. But I don’t. Instead, I offer him a sharp smile, before sweeping my gaze back to the Jarl.
“I’m deadly serious. Alduin has returned, and the Last Dragonborn stands before you. I, her humble companion, merely seek to streamline this whole experience. We have a tablet that your court wizard will find very interesting, I assure you.”
THAT gets Jarl Balgruuf’s attention, and he actually sits up in surprise.
“… My court wizard has in fact been looking into matters related to these dragons and the rumors of dragons. How did you know?”
Shrugging, I just smile.
“It is the Dragonborn’s destiny to defeat Alduin. How could she not know what she needs to know?”
And funnily enough… that actually works. Heh, we’re sent to see Farengar shortly after. I can’t help but stare greedily at his Enchanter, feeling the metaphorical weight of the necessary tools I’ve been lugging around in my inventory. Knowing that we won’t have much time, and not wanting to send Svanna into battle against a dragon without the best gear I can make her, I pull the Dragonstone out for Farengar.
“The Dragonstone. If you please, I have need of your Enchanter for the battle ahead.”
He blinks, and then his eyes widen in glee at the Dragonstone. As I’d hoped, he waves me off towards his Enchanter without questioning what I’m on about, too excited for his shiny new toy to care what I’m doing. Which is good, because as I begin the Fortify Loop, I’m sure I look rather… ridiculous. Still, I’ve got everything I need to make a basic set of broken gear for Svanna.
Nothing that insane, nothing in the hundreds of thousands of percent, but certainly, I could make it, so Svanna’s health and stamina regenerated a thousand times quicker, effectively making her tireless and unkillable. And for good measure, I added both base health and stamina enchants to those pieces as well with the perk that let me enchant each item with two enchants.
Well aware of my time limit, expecting Irileth to run into the room and interrupt at any moment, I also enchanted the other two pieces of Svanna’s new gear set with broken Sneak Enchantments measuring in the hundreds of percentages.
I could have given her Fortify Archery instead, but I was leery of doing so. Perhaps it was the Thalmor in me but giving anyone the ability to kill me when I was otherwise invincible in this world… didn’t sit well. Especially since Svanna didn’t have an inventory like me, meaning anything I gave her COULD technically be stolen from her.
Gear that made her shots thousands of ‘points’ of damage, effectively killing anything in one hit, would certainly help against the dragons… but it was too much power to put in anyone’s hands, even Svanna’s. Better to make her immortal and untouchable, than give her the equivalent of a magical nuke in the form of every arrow that left her bowstring, I figured.
“Farengar! Farengar, you need to come at once! A dragon’s been sighted nearby!”
And there it is. I turn back from the Enchanter just after finishing with my work to see Irileth arriving to interrupt Farengar’s inspection of the Dragonstone. She turns to me, Svanna, and Aela a moment later.
“… You three should come to.”
Here it was. As we follow Farengar out of his study and into the throne room once more, I pull Svanna back and hand her the newly enchanted gear. To her credit, she doesn’t say a word, simply taking what I give her and putting it on without an ounce of hesitation.
“A dragon! How exciting, Where was it seen? What was it doing?!”
“I’d take this a bit more seriously, if I were you. If a dragon decides to attack Whiterun, I don’t know if we can stop it. Now come on!”
I grin at the wide-eyed expression on Svanna’s face as she feels the new enchants on her gear wash over her. Staring down at herself, from the bracers to the leather armor, to the helm and boots, I can tell she’s amazed, to say the least. With her base health and stamina boosted, and her regen so insanely high, I imagine she’ll never actually feel tired again, heh.
Offering her my hand, I grin when she beams at me and takes it, and the two of us walk out of the room as well, to join the Jarl and his War Council as they begin conversing about what to do with the Dragon sighted near the Western Watchtower.
-x-X-x-
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