Duelling the Dead

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

En garde!

Took the Knight Alyssa for her tests next, starting with the forsworn just outside my new base. We then moved on to colder regions where she handled multiple draugr deathlords just fine and survived an ancient dragon - however this winged beast got away! Checked in with Esbern who thought he had a lead where it may have gone so I left Alyssa there (her finishers on the overlords were impressive) and took her friend Rayna instead, who had already previously proven her skills. Once we reached the spot, Mjoll was there too and so was... Athis!? How many times did I have to kill this soon-to-be-draugr!?

No time to worry about that though as we came under attack by the -wrong- dragon. This one was just an elder one and we slaughtered it just fine. I then asked Athis about his state and he was very dismissive, continously walking away so I used this as a good test of Rayna's skills - telling her to duel the freak dunmer while Mjoll and I just stood back and watched. It was a long fight but Athis was just outclassed and once again was run through. Mjoll then promised to find whoever did this (I assume whoever brought Athis to back life, again). Hopefully this time he stays dead as a courier came by to deliver his inheritance?

After leaving Rayna at the Temple, I took the brash knight Cutter next as he was getting bored in Solitude. For as much as I dislike him he still proved himself, managing to help me clear an unfinished dwemer ruin (despite his fear of such places), defeating a wisp mother on his own, and surviving a big mammoth and two troll combo. Having passed, I sent him off to the temple too and took the lizardman archer Anu next. After surviving an easy frost dragon and a few bandits I decided to revisit the Dawnstar sanctuary to make sure the brotherhood (that is down to one little girl and a corpse) was in check. Sure enough when I got there I found they had recruited a new male initiate! Figured this would be a good test of Anu's skills and got him to duel the new guy in a knife fight. This time, the fight was not in my favour though - and the lizardman was gutted from navel to neck before falling lifelessly to the ground. Just as the initiate breathed a sigh of relief I appeared from the shadows and slit his throat.

Returned to Solitude where Njada wanted to give me some tips on blocking. After that I brought Alle the high elf for her trials next. Esbern had found another dragon to slay, and my little band had also researched a second one to be hunted down deep underground! After warming up on an easy Blood Dragon (where Mjoll was late to arrive on the scene) we descended into Blackreach to hunt Vulthyrol. I needed to get close enough to yell at the giant "sun" which meant a quick covert run through the Silent City via the tunnels, silently sniping the patrolling falmer. Eventually I did manage to summon the dragon, and Alle was too hasty in charging it as a shadow master and his pet dwarven centurion arrived on the scene. The dragon was caned quickly but then while I handled the giant centurion, I lost track of Alle and her pursuing falmer. Eventually I found her corpse behind some buildings with the shadowmaster doing some obscene things to her face. After extracting revenge it was time to get out of there.

Recruitment Drive

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

Vacations at home are so relaxing, and memories of the civil war and defeating the soul-eating dragon are so distant now I'd almost forgotten them. My lizard buddy Derkeethus decided to leave us though, to investigate a rumor about vampires or some such becoming more and more prevalent in the region. Wished him the best of luck as I figured it was time other heroes picked up the slack while I enjoyed my R&R. However one night a visiting bard, Judith De Los Santos (aka Makulah/Malufenix), inspired me with her renditions of familiar songs to get my level 48 butt back out there and righting the wrongs of the world. First up was a session in the basement to simply re-learn my higher motor skills, and then I decided to send my little band out to recruit more adventurers and return them to our base of operations at Solitude.

If only I had a huge mustache I'd get more people too!

While Njada stayed home to mind the fort and her shop - Wynna and Anni travelled the snowy mountains and recruited Mia, the dark-elf blade at Dawnstar as well as Alle, an elf blade and Ono the orc at Nightgate Inn. Rayna went to pick up her "knight" friend Alyssa at Old Hroldan while Jordis accompanied me to Morthal where, using an attack my an ancient dragon as a distraction, we snuck past the guards and found Lynn, another blades girl and Wynd, a gay (male with female voice?) dark elf willing to join up. Sent them back with Jordis while I pushed on into the plains. Didn't want to risk Whiterun itself so instead I found the khajit named Bane at the Honningbrew Meadery and after getting him to murder his Black Briar employer sent him off to Solitude.

At Riverwood all I found were angry guards but my old pal Ralof was there to help fight them off. He didn't want to join my army though so I proceeded to Riften where again the guards gave me a merry chase. Another shady character called Maul tried to fight them off when we entered the docks area but they ran him through pretty quick. Did manage to get Anu the lizardman archer at the Meadery there though and between the two of us, killed all the guards on the way back out. He mentioned an associate of his at Ivarstead on the road so we stopped there to pick up the arrogant knight named Cutter. He sat idly by as we killed the pursuing guards and seemed very up himself when asked to join. When we returned to Solitude, he even went out of his way to attack another ancient dragon beseiging the city - at the guard barracks (the guards who wanted to arrest/kill me). He managed to somehow survive all that, and scared a penticus occultus agent (imperial scum) out of hiding for summary execution by yours truly.

I thought I had wiped out all the Imperial agents running about, but I suspect they are being shipped in to investige -me- and the small army I'm building. Glad the guards don't have the cahones to just barge in and arrest everyone, it probably means I've cut their numbers down so much that they only have enough people to patrol the inner keep. Speaking of which my house is getting kinda full now, with fifteen (myself included) people sharing the place. Njada isn't saying anything but I can tell she's annoyed.