» Thu May 03, 2012 11:51 am
R'esh-ha hails from Cyrodiil, and she is an accomplished alchemist. She wants to become an apprentice to the legendary Grandmaster Sinderion. R'esh was told that Sinderion was last seen north of Bruma, heading to Skyrim. And so she secured a few bottles of rare vintages of Skindgrad's vinyards (not an easy task, what with the recent Great War) for Grand Master, and embarked on a journey to Riften. R'esh must have strayed off the road too far admiring the local flora when suddenly she got caught up in the middle of some kind of skirmish. The rest seemed like a horrible nightmare, and it only got worse as she watched the first chopped off head tumbling on the ground.
After escape from Helgen (during which she didn't even touch any of encountered foes, allowing the chatty Stormcloaks man to clear the way), R'esh dropped off the Helgen tunnels' loot at Riverwood's trader, changed into clean clothes, took a little rest and then hit the road to Riften once again. Only now she was so frightened, she was crouching, almost crawling, but not even that helped her as she was attacked by wolves all the time. Dogs, hordes of rabid dogs from Necrom to Daggerfall all must have been been preying on her. Good thing, R'esh could finish them off with just one scratch of her claw, but still she left a trail of dead dogs behind her almost like what she recalled reading in an old Black Horse Courier article about a rain of burning dogs in a remote Khajiit village. Exhausted and scared, R'esh found a deserted alchemist's shack - very likely Sinderion's place, she thought excited, suddenly envigoured again to carry on.
Fighting off all the stupid rabid dogs on the road, R'esh finally saw Riften's city walls from afar, and a farm nearby. She headed to the farm, to ask for city directions and perhaps about Sinderion's whearabouts, as well as to find out more about that fatal skirmish she got mixed into, dragon attack in Helgen and to see whether she's still wanted by authorities or something. She needed to know where she stands. And THAT she found out very soon. As R'esh headed towards a man in uniform, before she even managed to politely greet him, the guard yelled at her: "HANDS TO YOURSELF, SNEAK THIEF!!!"
Startled and shocked, R'esh-ha the accomplished alchemist jumped back. Sneak WHAT?! Sneak THIEF?! Then she realized: Helgen wasn't just a misunderstanding, the entire province of Skyrim and its people is but a huge Helgen. And her thoughts began to race in rage. R'esh-ha sure is not a thief, but she could become one, she's talented and persevere and already skilled in alchemy - she could become not just one thief, she could become the grandest, the most notorious thief this gods-forsaken-for-their-own-doing land has ever seen and, most importantly, deserve, and then she'll come back to this very rude guard, and strip him down to his presumably very ugly underwear in less than an eyeblink, yes, she will. And then she was at Riften's gate, only to be yelled at by another guard and in a very rude way sent to the other gate, and in order to reach the other gate, she'd have to embark on another frightening journey arount the lake. Or jump in very cold water. R'esh took a deep breath and jumped in the freezing water, thinking about an Argonian in Leyawiin who was rumoured to be a genious prankster. Yes, Future R'esh-ha The Most Notorious Thief will prank these rude savage so called city guards just Otumeel-style: she'd strip them off their equipments and possessions and put all their items in barrels right there at their barraks.
Still savouring the image of stupid, embarrased city guards, running around naked looking for their stuff, R'esh strode into Riften's marketplace, and there she was immediatelly approached by a suspicious man, as though he was reading her thoughts. Suprise, surprise - he, too saw a thief in R'esh, only this time it was sort of a good thing. A little cooled off and back to her senses, R'esh didn't accept the man's shady offer, but promissed to consider it. And proceeded to the local alchemist to inquire about Sinderion. There she was told that an elderly Altmer runs an alchemy shop in Windhelm, so she hired a carriage and set out to Windhelm. The Altmer alchemist turned out to be some very grumpy man named Nurelion, so R'esh-ha's next hired carriage took her to Whiterun where an Imperial alchemist from Cyrodiil resides - she of all people must know something about Great Sinderion's whereabouts... but not before she tried her hand at her new-found trade, and R'esh discovered how good at it she was, and what a strange satisfaction it gave her.