[quote=@MacabreFox]
[@gcold] Good news, I actually won't be going out of town.
[/quote]

Take-out and TV beats traveling vacation, eh?

[quote=@Monochromatic Rainbow]
Any thoughts for how an oddball Dunmer battlemage might conceivably make her debut?
[/quote]

Our group won't be staying in Windhelm forever, and they certainly will perform tasks outside of their contract. Your character doesn't have to sign up as a mercenary, or even meet with the rest of us in Windhelm. Here's some suggestions for getting yourself in with the group. Of course, that's assuming she has reasons to travel to Skyrim in the first place.

[list]
[*]Being wealthy, she might be looking to hire contractors for purposes such as protection, manual labor, getting even with rivals or going after artifacts she doesn't trust standard hirelings to handle. 

[*]She accidentally runs into the company, and decide to stick with them for safety (more armed guys = less robbery %) and/or companionship.

[*]She has a friend or rival working as a mercenary, and for whatever reason, wants to find them. [@Hank]'s character was a Redoran battlemage, and [@Peik]'s dude did slave raiding in northern Black Marsh. You can even make your own NPC. 

[*]Malevolent intents. For example, your character needs [s]lab rats[/s] "volunteers" for experiments, or perhaps she wants use the mercenaries as scapegoats for her own crimes. For the sake of balance, something like that won't act out quickly or smoothly. Your character could start by gaining the company's trust, then have second thoughts betraying them once she got to know them.[/list]

Edit: Certified spoiler free.