Skyrim: Adventure Game (Board Game) - The Cult

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Twenty five years have passed with DL becoming a blacksmith in Markarth, Sky becoming a fixer in Rifter, Rose becoming an apothecary in Falkreath and mom taking up a courier job in Hjaalmarch. Now weaker than ever (pretty cool mechanic), they must be extra cautious to avoid the Thalmor patrols on the roads (lousy mechanic) as once again their cover lives are examined by the authorities. Sky gets info from the thieves guild that this round of inquisition is stemming from the unhappy Dunmer refugees from Morrowind who have even concocted a plot to assassinate High King Torygg! Alas, they are too late to warn the king who is slain by Ulfric Stormcloak at Solitude's Blue Palace and instead are drafted into opposing sides of the quickly brewing civil war: DL and Sky for the Stormcloaks, mom and Rose for the Imperials.

When Ulfric's execution is prevented by the arrival of a dragon, each side is tasked with trying to slay the great wyrms but while DL and Sky do that to collect lots of powerful dragon bone artifacts, Rose and mom assist the Imperials in gaining dominance over the province and gaining a windfall in wealth. Despite the head to head, they collectively discover it is actually a cult to Boethiah that is behind the latest events and access their hidden temple through a series of skill checks (super cool) and learn of the cults Dunmer master, Oviron.

While mom is tricked by the daedric prince Sanguine to ransack Windhelm, DL recruits deranged crusader Giara to the cause while Rose and Sky battle the entire graveyard of Morthal where Rose becomes a Thane and makes friends with "Edward" the vampire (we just call him that, but he makes an amazing summon in battle). Their new allies tell them of Oviron's location at Hrothgar, and so the entire team heads there beating down cultists on the way (need to keep their numbers down) and face Oviron and his cronies. Giara dies in battle but Oviron escapes through an oblivion gate. Not willing to let their prey escape, the team jump in to pursue him just as the gate closes in on itself... which is the end of the campaign.

An excellent finale with some great fights. I'm not convinced by the cultists you have to kill / Thalmor you have to evade mechanic though because they always move towards the active player, which means most of the time they're just walking in circles. The random monsters that just show up and go for cities are more fun, and don't hang around like a bad smell like those guys do.

TESO: Unfriendly Terrain

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

Malabal Tor is perhaps my least favorite zone in the game so far. The cliffs and forest make the zone bloody annoying to navigate, exacerbated with the amount of back and forth travel required by the local quests. While there was a Redguard incursion, the main foes along the shore consist of pirates, some of whom are in talks of alliance with the Worm Cult and the Imperial Empire.

Which also includes bad breath Daedroths.

More troublesome are the orcs already in league with the Worm Cult, who are trying to summon Malacath to Nirn - a plan I obviously put to an end with some assistance from Malacath's nemesis, Boethiah. The overall bad dude here is "the hound", and his houndsmen of Hircine.

If you thought "werewolves" then you are right. Lots of them. Of course it is more difficult chasing the scum down than it actually is killing him, but I am elated regardless afterwards because it means I can finally leave this annoyingly designed zone. Side note: How is it that giant wasps make zero noise despite constantly flying? Stealth magic?

Training Surprise

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

Set my new recruits to train under the experienced and watchful eyes of Jordis and Njada, however since I was still quite rusty too I decided to do some training myself and came across these "challenges" on the Skyrim Blog which I thought I'd try out. For obvious reasons, some of these had to be reloaded either because I died, killed someone I didn't want to, or temporarily paid my bounty to run the challenge.

Challenge: Target Practice (success)
At Solitude, stand on the level of Beirand's smithy and shoot five shop signs without moving.
With my archery skill, this was easy. Even bagged two more penticus occultus fools on guard duty without being detected while I was at it.

Challenge: Solitude Tourist (timed)
Starting at the gates, do a set of six tasks in the city and return to the gates.
Pretty poor run I think, finishing only at 6 minutes 02 seconds.

Challenge: Bird Sniping (success)
At Solitude docks, shoot down 5 birds using a maximum of seven arrows.
This one was a little tough but I got lucky and on my 3rd load of 7 arrows killed a 5th bird with my last shot.

Challenge: Arrow Catch (fail)
Fire arrows into the air at any speed. Catch three in a row.
For the life of me I couldn't even catch a single arrow, and I was pretty much standing right underneath them as they fell. Must be doing something wrong. :(

I had as much luck as Adam from Mythbusters.

Challenge: Yelling at Jovasskr (success)
Using one level one "Unrelenting Force", yell everything off a long table.
Needed a few tries at this since those plates were bastards to move. Eventually got it though!

Draugr Interruption:
After that last challenge the old lady who minded the place mentioned something about keeping secrets and with a sly, wrinkled grin descended to the living quarters. Suspicious, I followed her and used Aura Whisper to find that two other people were down here! I went to investigate and found that both Skjor and Aela had come back from the grave! Damn, would-be-draugr! I couldn't let them live. When I asked Skjor how he was still alive (after I saw him butchered by the Silver dudes) he simply said "You've yet to prove yourself, whelp" and tossed me a steel two handed sword.

I punched him a bit to accept his duel and given my unfamiliarity with 2-handers this became a cool and somewhat long fight. Aela kept cheering her wolf-buddy on from the side lines with chants like "kill him!", but it was Skjor who eventually found himself run through as he tried to flee like the coward he was. I tossed the sword aside and then set my sights on the bitch Aela, punching her repeatedly while yelling for her to show her true form. Either she couldn't or wouldn't, but she couldn't even fire an arrow in retaliation and eventually I grappled her and in a wrestling move finish knocked her lights out. Or killed her. Not sure, but if she could no longer wolf out then maybe stabbing her at Boethiah's pillar before actually did something.

I now knew the old maid had known this whole time that she was assisting werewolves and so I had no choice but to beat her to death with my bare hands - smashing her head down on a chair to finish her off. After picking up Skjor's steel two hander again I stalked up to the forge where the smith continued his business. I questioned him and reading between the lines could tell that he had known of the wolf threat the whole time. For his insolence I challenged him to a duel, and much like Skjor - he was cut down where he stood. Then I tossed his worthless carcass into the fire before sneaking out of town.

Last City on the Right

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

It was Njada's turn for evaluation and I must admit, I do not really like this scarred chick. She talks back and is quite angry all the time. However I could not deny her talents after seeing her in action, seemingly pulling off finishing move after finishing move, including brutally murdering a champion of Boethiah. She also assisted in slaying an Elder Dragon and eliminating some (skilled) bandits disguised as soldiers. After a long walk filled with bears we finally reached Riften, the city of thieves. As usual there's a lot to do since it's my first visit, one of which is finding Esbern, a Blade in hiding. I locate the old guy just as he is located by Thalmor scum and find it fitting that I leave these "high elves" dead in the sewers where they belong. Lotsa crazy people down here too.

During all this I manage to infiltrate the so called thieves guild by doing some menial tasks and low level strong-arming. As I suspected they're just a bunch of bastards who deserve nothing more than beheading. When they allow me into their secret club quarters Njada, Esbern and I begin eliminating as many of the idiots as possible. Turns out I can only kill 7 of them, the remaining 4, their fence and their barkeep are all protected by what I call "threads of fate" (god mode). Being the losers that they are, they negotiate a truce and will forget that I killed over half their number for a mere 1000 gold. And they wonder why their guild is doing poorly.

I also learn that they are being backed by the Black-Briar family so at every opportunity I can I bungle their missions, stealing the family's prized horse, burning too many beehives, and generally trying to destroy them indirectly. My team also wipes out a druggie den, a spider filled mine, another deep dwemer dungeon with a centurion master, as well as help an orc village being attacked by a giant. At the end of all that we find ourselves back at Whiterun to unload loot. I have grown to like Njada quite a bit during our travels. Since she survived this rotation I let her take a breather and pick up Athis (the somehow still alive again) for the next trip out which I like to call the great collection expedition. For some reason Riften's quests have a hell of a lot of collecting various herbs and semi-rare reagents which takes me more than a few hours. Urgh.

It's a bit like that.