This is some gameplay fiction courtesy of Enderal: Forgotten Stories -- a standalone game modded from The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.

You can find it at the Steam Store HERE for free if you have a legitimate copy of the original Oldrim-Skyrim. It's also so much better than Skyrim and I highly recommend you give it a try!!

When we left off in the last post Kaelyra's childhood friend had been murdered, she had washed ashore this strange new land after being thrown off a boat, then, surprised to still be alive, snapped out of her grief and started adventuring. During a relentless attack by a bazillion spiders a wild magic awakened from within and now she's in awe of this new power she can summon from her fingertips. She was just on her way to steal a feed from some random campfire.

Onward! 😁

Kaelyra approached the campfire and was immediately greeted by a pair of uneasy men who identified themselves as apothecaries. She raised an eyebrow. Right. Apothecaries. Out here in the wilds and nowhere near a village or town. Like that made sense.

"Got any food?" she asked. "I'm starving! I just got attacked by a bazillion spiders. I could really settle by that fire there and relax for a bit."

"We've got none. Now kindly be on your way."

She was about to plead with them when a wave of fatigue washed over her and she nearly fainted.

Shocked, the apothecary dragged her towards the fire and began preparing a potion.

"There's no food, but here, drink this. It'll make you feel better."

She drank it and within seconds of the disgusting elixir touching her stomach everything exploded. Voices shouted. Fiery embers flew. An arrow pierced through the man by her side, and all went black.

When she came to, Kaelyra found a handsome stranger watching over her.

"Oh good, you're awake."

"Oh good, another person. Do you have any food? Oh, wait," she scratched her head. "Where am I? What happened to the apothecaries?"

"Yeah, some bandits attacked. You fell into a bush and remained hidden. Lucky, lucky! Then I dragged you up here. Nice view, huh?"

"Sure, and just who are you?"

"I am Jespar!" he bowed. "And you... you look absolutely terrible. That'll happen when you come into your magic for the first time."

He knew about her magic! How did he know about her magic? She only just knew about her magic. Casting a suspicious eye over him, she demanded answers.

After a lengthy chat, Kaelyra discovered that Jespar was a sellsword who worked for the religious order and he was out investigating a strange murder case.

He asked for her help so he could get back to the city tavern quicker, but she didn't quite trust him.

"I'll think about it," she said. "First I need to go back to that camp and see how the apothecaries fared."

Jespar shrugged.

"Do as you will."

Waltzing around the corner and down the trail, Kaelyra found the campsite she had visited earlier. The apothecaries had definitely died, and there wasn't even anything left on their corpses. The bandits had been thorough.

Turning around, she cast a glance over their house. Maybe they had something in there. And food. She bet they had been lying when they said there had been no food -- it was all stashed in there!

Creeping through the house, all she discovered was a potion brewing table, a lot of dust, and a bunch of spider web.

"By the Gods," she groaned. "Not MORE spiders."

Yesssssss, more spiders.

She readied her glowing red hand and leapt back in surprise as a burst of fire came out instead.

"Woah," she muttered. "Crispy."

After exploring a bit she came across a small treasure hidden by a giant mass of spiderweb she gleefully burnt down.

Was this what the apothecaries had been hiding? A weird red floating thing?

She approached it... and winced as it exploded in her presence. It didn't hurt or harm her, but, hell, that was weird. And not ominous. Not at all.

There was definitely no food though.

With fire in one hand and sword in the other, Kaelyra snuck past Jespar's camp so he wouldn't see her and explored the region a little bit.

The apothecaries had no food, Jespar hadn't offered any either, but a shrieking bandit that tried to kill her had some food -- huzzah!

She quickly devoured the loaf of bread and pillaged the camp, finding a lovely silver necklace and a ring in a tiny jewellery box. Her treasure hunting spree was looking up! Sirius would be proud, were he still alive.

After taking a quick nap in the bandit's sleeping roll, Kaelyra crept further along the coast and found a shipwreck.

"Ooooh," she grinned. "I bet there's loads of treasure on that!"

While hunting for treasure, the very dead came to life and tried to bring her into their fold!

"Eeek," she screamed, brandishing her flaming hand.

She burned them all to ash. Then more came. And more. And soon she was all out of magic!

Flailing around with the sword, she at last cut them all down then huddled in a little ball and cried for a bit. This beautiful new land wasn't quite as beautiful anymore.

After barely surviving her encounter with the living skeletons, Kaelyra decided that it might actually be best to have a travelling companion and sullenly made her way back to Jespar's camp. Besides, a warm tavern and some ale sounded good too.

On the way back to his camp, she found a small money bag placed casually beside a skull. She'd take that.

At last she climbed the winding path and made it back to Jespar's camp.

"I've decided that I'll help you," she said, tottering on her tired feet. "But first... a sleep. This magic stuff really takes it out of you."

"I bet it does. Take my sleeping roll, I'm following a lead over yonder."

She narrowed her eyes at him, waited for him to leave, then tucked herself in for the night.

When she awoke the next morning Jespar was still gone, but a hastily scrawled map and note had been wrapped around her face, telling her where he expected her to investigate.

And it was raining.

Great.