In today's tear-jerking and slightly spoilery edition of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter Firescorpio tells us about a special relationship he formed in Skyrim, and how he wound up ruining it.
Today I think Skyrim for the first time made me care in a very strange way for an NPC, not even a very important one at that.
This is my third character Ulfr Jormungand a pure blood Nord, he is into the Stormcloak rebellion and he is the only one of my characters to do the Companion quest line as it seems fitting for the warrior-bred dumb Nord Ulfr is.
For some reason every time I end up choosing Whiterun as my central city. I just like it. More specifically I choose Warmaiden's forge as my forge of choice. There is a somewhat homey charm to it and the couple that runs it. Ulfberth War-Bear and Adrianne Avenicci.
Somehow Adrianne became a welcoming site to any and all of my endeavors I got accustomed to her sight as I entered the city. I got used to her working next to me in the forge whenever I crafted something.
You might even say she became the reason I kept coming back to Whiterun, even if she had nothing new to say I enjoyed bartering with her, forging and just having her around felt natural.
It felt like home....
After going through some quests in the Companions I had my first bestial rampage that fatal night. I was running low on health. The screen was turning completely black. I could barely see anything, anything but a red dot that ran towards me. I assumed it was a guard... I assumed killing it was ok....
The next morning after continuing the quest line I finally came back to Whiterun, triumphantly carrying loot I knew Adrianne would be interested in buying. Upon my entrance at 11:00 PM I waited 10 hours for her shop to open and have her as always working hard on her forge.
10:00 A.M and no signs of Adrianne so far. I told myself silly Adrianne had gotten stuck perhaps waiting one more hour would have her pop in the forge.
And so I waited one, two, three hours more and yet no sign of Adrianne. I figured sometimes she is sitting next to Ulfberth inside Warmaiden's but to no avail; I couldn't find Adrianne anywhere.
It was only when with some reluctance I made my way to the Skyforge to sell stuff to Eorlund Gray-Mane, as I walked up to the market a cold shiver ran on my back. There were three people laying down on the floor, these NPCs were asking themselves what was going on.
As I walked closer I recognized the name on my screen and the cold dead face on the ground.
It was Adrianne, my character had killed her... the one NPC I had grown attached to in the game. During my rampage I had entirely obliterated her happy existence on Skyrim.
I tried loading a previous save, but to my dismay I had nothing prior to her death. I had overwritten my save and the auto saves no longer worked thanks to my waiting.
I muttered under my breath *fuck* and eventually made my way to our kitchen where my girlfriend asked me what had happened, I probably had a big frown all over my face.
I told her about my vile deed, she just laughed and told me "Don't worry baby, you probably can bring her back to life with one of your spells, oh remember we have to be at your mom's at 10."
I ran back to Warmaiden, my character running out of breath entered the shop and tried to talk to Ulfberth, only two dialogue's where highlighted, my character asked "Who Makes your Armor and Weapons?"
Ulfberth answered "Since.. Since Adrianne's death I bring weapons from the Khajiit caravans... Ii tried making them myself but I'm no good, Adrianne was the best."
And so Adrianne Avenicci the Master Blacksmith, a hard working woman from Whiterun, the reason this player so often visited the city was no more.
Now I don't visit Whiterun at all. The rare occasion my travels lead me back to Whiterun I always end up staring at the now empty forge, hoping Adrianne will walk from behind the house and start smithing as she always did.
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