It happened long ago, in April of 2024. That's as far as the real world is concerned. In the distant land of Skyrim on the other side of my PC screen, it was another time, an extremely ancient one probably, and it was another season too.
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In this opening picture, you can see a scarecrow-like thing burning in the freezing night. The ritual looks a lot like what regurarely happens in my hometown at the end of winter, during carnival time.
The burning happened at the end of the quest that ended up in today's post.
It all started ...
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... a few in-game days before in the Bards College. The Bards College is this weird place where all kinds of people from noblemen to rogues learn how to sing, tell stories, and other seemingly useless Bard stuff. I mean, you can probably earn a coin or two with those skills here in Skyrim but you'll need much more to stay alive.
By the way, I forgot to tell you that the first screenshot also shows Bards College, its large terrace with a beautiful view of the northeast coast, to be exact.
The next screenshot shows a small part of the large library. It looks like I was waiting for some information, or instructions of sorts, maybe. I don't remember.
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In this picture that shows the scene from my in-game point of view, you can see me talking with some experienced bard-dudes. I was probably asking for advice or, I don't know - money perhaps? Who knows? I, most certainly don't.
To be honest, I don't remember a shit about this mission. After taking a few screenshots and finishing the thing, I completely forgot about it for almost a year.
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I probably fought my way through many dangers to get things done but all that bloody stuff is erased from my memory, which is more than probably for the good, those sword & sorcery battles can traumatize, or even damage beyond repair a sensitive 21st-century dude like me.
In the above picture, you can see me standing in the snowy northern landscape not far from another college, the College of Winterhold, a place for magical research and practices, an arcane, pseudoscientific university of sorts.
What was I doing there at that point in my Skyrim existence? Who knows? I don't - that's for sure.
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Whatever I had to do back then for Bards College, certainly included a certain dose of illegality, as you can see in this screenshot. I love to play as a thief in video games. I Love to sneak around and kill like a lethal shadow. It's a great way to compensate for my real-life lack of hitman/burglar talents.
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Here you can see a view from one of the terraces of the magnificent Castle Dour in the beautiful city of Solitude, the capital of Skyrim. It's a terrace that looks toward the inner yard, so you can't see the city at all in this screenshot, unfortunately.
Don't ask me what the hell was I doing there, on that terrace.
Anyway, I recommend Solitude to any tourist who has already seen Paris, Rome, Prague, and such and is now looking for something more.
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In this screenshot, you can see me standing crouched in front of the door of the house I planned to burglarize.
You can see a bit of the city here as well. The ancient buildings made of stone are bating in the golden light of the late afternoon.
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Here you can see me in the library again. The screenshot was taken near the end of the adventure.
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In the end, I was able to salvage a few relatively clear memories from the massive pile of stuff I completely forgot about this quest.
First of all, the scarecrow-like thing was meant to represent a dude called King Olaf. I mean, it's not just a regular Olaf dude that people for whatever reason call
king. Olaf isn't a king in the same way that Elvis is a king, you know. Olaf was a real, old-school fantasy king, with an invented kingdom and all that crazy stuff. But all that was a long time ago if I remember even remotely correctly.
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Anyway, there was a lost poem hidden in some godforsaken cave filled with monsters, and I found it, and then there was this silly burning ritual and then I became a bard - mission accomplished.
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Yep, I'm a bard now, believe it or not.
Let me entertain you with a song!
Lalal la la la There was a warrior silly but strong .... lala la la lalala
... He could dance, and sing, and do no wrong la lalalal lallala ....
.... and so on ... have a great day ...or night, in whatever game you currently are.
AS ALWAYS ON HIVE, EVERYTHING HERE IS MY WORK. I MEAN, I PLAYED THE GAME, I TOOK THE SCREENSHOTS AND CREATED THE GIFs IN THE ADOBE PREMIERE PRO 2020 AND THE MOST IMPORTANT THING - I WROTE THE STORY THAT COMPLEMENTS THE PICTURES. NO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WAS INVOLVED IN THE CREATION OF THE POST.