Instead of riding immediately back to Falkreath, I went south to Morthal instead of into Solitude itself. Hjaalmarch is much more interesting in terms of flora and fauna than Falkreath. There are Swamp Fungal Pods, Slaughterfish Eggs and Slaughterfish in the numerous marshes, Spiky Grass, and a decent number of vampires and skeletons.
 |
| Morvath's infamous boot collection. |
Immediately on entering Morthal, I found myself engaged in the Laid to Rest quest, where I routed out a vampiric plot. Unfortunately, just as I closed in on the head vampire, Movarth, I myself completed my transformation-- whoops. I finished the quest regardless and headed back to town, only to be met by a member of the Dawnguard, telling me that they were attempting to put together a force to combat the vampire menace. Serendipitous timing much? In Movarth's lair were several
iron deposits
 |
| Lovely grotto beset with trolls. |
Seeing as how the Dawnguard is out of Riften and I would like to go north, it will probably be some time before I can head that way, but it's good to keep in mind. I headed back to the Whiterun and Falkreath areas so that I could clear some of the quests out of my log, heading to Darkshade to retrieve Runil's Journal. Darkshade had once been a bandit camp, but was overtaken with five trolls. The area is a gorgeous underground grotto, made grotesque by all of the bloody corpses due to the troll infestation. There are also
two gold veins. It could be a decent place to harvest troll fat and gold ores once it recovers from being cleared. I immediately headed back to Falkreath, where the guard asked, the moment I entered town, if I had seen a dog. I said no, but headed to the blacksmith Lod, who had originally put out the request for someone to find the dog. He gave me some gold and fresh meat to look into it for him, and I dropped the journal off with Runil. Now, to head out of Falkreath, find the dog, and hopefully finish up in southern Skyrim for a while!
