Skyrim: The Student

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Less than a week had passed when Braga Clearwater of Adal Matar came knocking on my door. She sought me out to be her tutor in all things adventuring. Unlike her brother she had no combat experience so I thought we'd  start with simple things like recovering books for the College of Winterhold and hunting vampires for the Dawnguard.

Pierce the chest and remove the head.

I demonstrated how to sneak past giants, pickpocket vamps and obviously tested her combat ability against some Silverhand and Summerset Shadows gang members. She was also tested by the Augur of Dunlain beneath the College against some pretty tough ghosts, a test she passed easily and was rewarded with a powerful restoration ritual.

I then took her on patrol along the shoreline and found another gigantic enemy: the Kraken. Not what I was expecting though, as it was a giant dwemer spider bot! Fortunately the machination was malfunctioning and was easy for Braga and I to destroy. I did wonder where the heck this thing was built though, so I sent pieces I could salvage back to Njada to examine.

Not your typical kraken!

Skyrim: There can be more than One

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

After killing the boss early, I briefly stopped at Adal Matar to pick up Captain Ghoragdag (good work on guarding the two orcs btw lol), and informed Braga Clearwater of her brother's valiant death, inviting her to move anywhere else instead of living on a lonely frozen mountain. She refused. Respecting her choice, Ghoragdag and I headed right back up to Death Mountain to find ways into the many other chambers I didn't have access to yet.

This time I found a fence that I could whirlwind sprint over (with Ghoragdag being more practical just climbing over I guess), and found another key in a shrine that gave us access to "The step of giants" - an odd tunnel that housed giant spiders and three of the big guys who normally have mammoths. Sniped the lot of them and found a key... to the tower I broke into earlier? Lol.

We mangle giants.

Fortunately it also opened up a catacomb / prison area filled with draugr who for some reason had three hostages, a khajit, a nameless tortured lady and a chick named Nerelia who was the only one who wanted to get out of there so we took her along and soon discovered that she too was dragonborn!? She uses shouts. Well so do draugr, when you think about it but anyway...

Skyrim: Death Mountain

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Alas, there was no way to get to the floating fortress from that side of the mountain so Captain Gamli and I had to go under it, past a small Thalmor encampment that was busy under multiple dragon attack. The real threat came from the path leading up just on the other side in the form of... skeletons.

An army of them!

And if you thought my 900+ damage, upgraded oblivion sword was overpowered you would be DEAD WRONG. These skeletons could survive multiple hits of that weapon, and forced me to use more of those health pots I enjoy packing. Yes, they are ULTRA skeletons! It took awhile but eventually all of them (and the Thalmor) were destroyed. In the chaos I'm not sure what became of Gamli, but I was pretty certain he died as he was no longer following me.

Finally at the base of the long bone bridge near Kagrenzel, I found some remains and a cryptic note mentioning nine keys and some demon lord trapped in the mountain. At this point the adventurous Bagamul Clearwater, one of the orcs from Adal Matar, joined me - having shadowed me through the small war. I shrugged and figured he could handle himself so we crossed the bone bridge and found ourselves standing on... Death Mountain!

Skyrim: A Nice View

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

On the climb up, my group found a little cave guarded by some skeletons. Not willing to be flanked by enemies while exploring, the Hunter and I decided to clear it quickly and boy was he good with his bow. He was one-shotting everything. Unfortunately for him, he never saw the pressure plate that triggered the roof-spike-gate trap which returned the favor. I sequestered his bow as my own.

It was a standard fare tomb though, with one dragon priest at the end. Still a quick mission, and despite being one man down we continued up the mountain. Next was rich mine which Captain Gamli helped me clear, followed by a small orc outpost, Adal Matar, inhabited only by two friendly siblings of the Clearwater clan who sheltered us for the cold night.

The next morning I instructed Captain Ghoragdag to stay with her kin as protection from, whatever the UFO was, while Gamli and I reached the edge of the cliff where we could get a good look it.

Wonder what that looked like alive...

Though not in the picture, dragons circled the strange, floating citadel. Yes. I definitely wanted to get up there!