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Grim Tales - College Days - Fenrir Unbound Book III - Chapter 2
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35 comments
SUMMARY:
Grim and Erik arrive in Winterhold and pick up new armor from Enthir and a dragon claw from Birna. Later they catch up news and spend some quality time together. The next day Grim confronts Faralda and, after some debate, passes the test to join the college, although Erik and Wolfgar are left behind - where they will seek work from the Jarl while Grim studies for three months at the college.
Meanwhile the Mistress and Lieutenant Avrein Kalanar discuss plans against Grim with one of their agents at the college. The Mistress leads the Thalmor Inner Council and the Lieutenant works for her ... although he doesn't always agree with her methods or those of the council.
Nice bits with Dagur and family, and Enthir, and Birna. Grim always has been a friendly and generous one. And I can definitely understand Grim and Erik getting in as much quality time together as possible before .
Nice bit, too, with Grim showing off his fire skills. I can see how that would be more satisfying than an easy shout. Looks like he and Faralda will get along well, even with her comment ("Why the arch-mage would love a chance to exper … interview … a real dragonborn.").
Well done as always, both pics and story! (Now on to the next...)
Also, thanks for introducing us to the Five O'Clock Shadow mod! I've been trying it out on a test character, and I think I may using it with my regular characters. I was planning on growing Andil's beard out more, anyway.
Grim prefers to earn any rewards so he would never take the easy path unless it was to benefit someone else. Also the faculty are all wanting to dissect Grim - they see him as a novelty worth running tests on ...
The mod is fun although it uses mainly standard beards. The author said he might get it to work with BEARDS mod but I will be surprised if he does. Still I love using it and I can still use the default beards redone by BEARDS if not the custom ones.
Great to see Teyla in the set!
Faralda somewhat wrote herself. However the fact that she is an Altmer is important as I am showing how Grim is changing over time in some of his views, becoming more accepting of other races, as this will be important at the end.
Glad you liked Avrein and the Mistress, both of whom are original characters not in the game.
I appreciate Grim`s reaction on her fearless behavior. In my eyes it was a very wise and emancipated reaction. He has shown strenght without any demonstrations of power.
Both will be comfortable with each other.
Greatly written Jon!
Erik, three month alone with a dragon claw?
This could be trouble.
I hope Grim has taken it to the Academy, and outside of Erik`s range.
Tobi`s ENB looks incredible. I like the dark shots of Avrain Kalanar.
Looking forward for the next chapter.
Erik is going to get some work from the Jarl to keep him busy ... although I doubt it will keep him and Wolfgar out of trouble! However Grim has kept the claw himself so that won't be a temptation for Erik most likely.
I have one more chapter with Tobi's ENB which will be chapter 3 and I started it last night so going to publish it this weekend. Also started a profile post for the Mistress.
Then chapter 4 is going to either be all about Erik or split focus on Erik doing his stuff and Grim doing his ... not sure yet. Somewhere in there I also will have a story with Hircine soon
I really liked Grim's interaction with Faralda. When they first met and she was her typical rude self I thought "this isn't going to end well" but instead of shouting her off the cliff, grim handled himself with aplomb and showed off his destruction skills beautifully. An interesting budding friendship between them. Our lad sure has a way with people.
The ending was most intriguing. Those Thalmor certainly have grim in their sights. This Mitress character is as intriguing as she is unsettling. I feel a bad sense of foreboding for Grim's future. With so much going on I hope he's able to keep focus on why he's at the college in the first place... because I sense things are going to get a whole lot more difficult for the big guy.
I have the Mistress's personality and core plot pretty laid out already. I keep a skeleton plotline for Grim's entire story and then flesh it out over time. I also knew she would have a "minion" or "sidekick" as it were but hadn't locked that down until recently - often my plot line is kept to concepts and then locked down when I get to the actual writing. Avrein just happened to come along thanks to Bandezzz and he fit in perfect as he is a Thalmor (comes with his own robes) yet also has a rather interesting past which will come out later.
Hopefully Grim will remain focused - while he only has one semester (3 months) to get some initial information, before meeting Delphine, if I can work out the time table right he will return and have another semester there (2-3 would be best but wouldn't work with his time plan) which will then move into his show down with the Thalmor and Fenrir.
Plus some some side stories I am sure :-)
Looks like Dagur has to be a little careful where his eyes wander, Haran certainly seemed to notice where they went when he saw Teyla, a bit of a dangerous thing ;-) Unfortunate that Grim and Erik did not get much rest before Wolfgar signalled them of Enthir's arrival, those mental warning sure are a useful thing as ever, makes them all the more alert. Was nice to see them get along so well with Enthir, he is an interesting one, good that he was able to get some good warm gear for Erik. That little conversation between Grim and Erik about the use of his coin in Birna's Oddments was interesting, Grim not minding being a bit overly generous with the coin he has since he prefers to live humbly, Erik having that Frugal nature from his upbringing. Their parting was quite touching sharing a big hug among the cold but a bit sad too with Erik's dark mood.
I like how you depicted Faralda, she can be a little arrogant when meeting a visitor to the college for the first time, especially one as unusual as Grim it seems. Interesting how his intimidating stature did not work for him there, Faralda countering him with her own words, not showing even a little bit of fear, seems Grim could respect that. Wolfgar's insight about Grim's magical display was interesting, knowing the effort he put in to those fire spells that pain him, his mental images so accurate to that feeling. It is great that connection that started between Grim and Faralda as they talked, there is something about her sarcastic nature that is oddly endearing, that sarcasm amusing. Interesting how she returned a certain respect for him too.
That glimpse of the machinations of Grim's foes was quite mysterious, was great how you described the voice of the Mistress, danger weaved among a certain seductive softness. Odd that she would want Grim alive, seems she wants to learn more of her foe with those accidents she wants arranged, seems Grim will have some troubles to deal with. Curious how the lieutenant feels there is something off about their plan though the reason why eludes him, such things are dangerous in a world of subterfuge. Fantastic work, Jonathan, really enjoyed it
I am glad you enjoyed the Inn scene - I like to think there are good people and decent times even in Skyrim and this Inn in particular always seemed very friendly. I also used the shopping at Birna's as a chance to get a little more into personalities - which can be hard in this style of writing. It was a contrast between Grim and Erik's upbringing in some ways.
Also Grim likes to give the illusion that he is slow in thought as it really tends to misdirect people which usually works to his advantage. In many ways he is probably better educated than most of the people at the college. Having Fenrir and Marissa as tutors gave him a distinct advantage in many ways.
Hopefully I did an ok job of laying some of the ground work for his introduction to the college and what his experience might be like there. The next chapter will finish that up as he meets the faculty and students. I have some time constraints as I would have preferred him spending at least a year there ... but for now aiming for one semester (the typical 3 month type). Plus he also has to meet Delphine in three months so I had most of this all planned out in advance.
Glad you enjoyed my introduction of the Mistress and Avrien Kalanar (the Lieutenant from the previous chapter). I hope I will have the time needed to properly work them into the story, especially Avrein.
Thanks again for the comment, it is very much appreciated!
And thank you for the summary Jonathan