Skyrim: The One that Got Away

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

Since the basement was a dead end, we decide to try the upper floors of Ravensburg Castle next - finding living mannequins dressed as bandits guarding the floor along with a good number of vampire mistresses and a lich!  We also learn the place is owned by the ridiculously named Count Bran von Lurk who makes his vampirism no secret, given the decor. While raiding his treasury we are jumped by three "devourer of souls" who are surprisingly deadly, managing to behead Braga before they are destroyed.

Excuse me sir, did you know you are on fire?

Finding the basement key, Van Helsing and I return there and find the path guarded by a gigantic skeleton. Van Helsing's magics and his summoned daedra are crushed like ants beneath this behemoth but it proves no match for me. After more vampire mistresses (von Lurk must be a real fox) I stumble upon the most unique companion I've had so far... a headless, tormented soul!

Had to give him a mask so he'd stop freaking me out.

For someone without a head he's pretty efficient at dispatching the wraiths lingering in the underground graveyard nearby (because some things can't be buried deep enough? lol) culminating in a showdown with the Count and his coffin buddy, Lestat. Both are easily slain, but after shanking von Lurk he just laughs an disappears as a fine mist. Damn!

Still, that seems to have banished him from the castle as the once dark and cobwebbed walls are now well lit and shiny! This also ended the torment of "tormented soul" and set him free. With Ravensburg Castle cleared it was time to continue to Riften to finish Braga's bandit hunting quest. I owed her that much at least.

Skyrim: The Bold and the Clueless

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

Having survived the ascended shrine I returned to Whiterun for some restful Jarling but that wasn't to be as my old student, Braga Clearwater, met with me just inside the gates. She was investigating a recent spike in banditry and asked if I could help. Of course I said yes! Her clues had led her to the local hall of the dead where indeed we found some strange folk hanging around like "Naura the Clueless" and "Manrik the Bold". I let Braga do her thing and we found further correspondence pointing to the Riften Ratway.

By coincidence a courier found us before we left town with a message from the Jarl of Riften, to investigate the (not so) abandoned Ravensburg Castle as bandits have been kidnapping people around it as of late. Since it's on the way we decide "Sure why not". It's pretty hard to miss, and quite devoid of life. The man we meet in the courtyard sets the tone of the place with just his name: Nikolai Van Hellsing. He's been investigating the castle too but has terrible direction sense and hasn't been able to get anywhere. LOL.

Nothing says sneaking like playing the organ at full blast!

Inside the spacious and dark interior we keep hearing a disembodied voice taunting us. It's also a non-standard map in that the doors teleport you around making the place slightly challenging to navigate and giving Van Hellsing's excuse some weight. Fortunately it isn't very well defended. In the basement we find some giant spiders, skeletons and hell hounds who are all bark and no bite. It's the number of key requiring locked doors that really block our path.

Hell hounds: the original hot dogs.

Skyrim: Middle of Nowhere

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

Gotta dodge the laser beams!

In one of the deeper vaults on the island I found an army of dwemer spheres busy at work and proof of the Kraken's origin. I mean who else would construct a giant mecha right? After destroying Mazinger Z, I cleared as many more enemies as I could but then had to return, leaving the rest of Summerset Isle's conquest in the capable hands of the sisters and their soldiers.

This is because the mod is unfinished, and I ran into the speedforce.

Upon returning to Skyrim, Brutus told me that during his incarceration he learned of a secret Thalmor under the ocean. The best way there would be via rowboat, and would need to be a solo mission as to keep it low key. Because I like surprising people. This was fine since Braga Clearwater basically "graduated" and was now a competent adventurer. I gave her a big hug and sent her on her way, then found myself a boat.

Well, that's specific...

At the coordinates Brutus gave I found an unguarded tiny island and a fisherman's shack. Under the bed was a trap door that led to a huge cave system though, guarded by a ghost and his ghost dog. Yeeeah ok. After splattering their ectoplasm all over the walls I found stairs leading even deeper.

Skyrim: Summerset Isle

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

The soldiers of Skyrim were doing a pretty good job slaying the Thalmor defenders, despite taking losses of their own. I was pleased to see Aurora and Twilight with them in the fray, but I could not let them have all the fun. Using my super speed I made sure to get ahead of the main pack and slaughter as many of the enemy as I could, personally.

Though it was nice to watch the two NPC forces clash too.

During my rampage I came across a prison with a familiar face being slowly executed by a fiery boss Thalmor. After slaying the incinerator I freed Brutus Brutalus, the assassin who obviously survived my final attack last time and whose armor I now wore. Apparently he managed to crawl away, only to be taken hostage by the elves and tortured for information. He did manage to escape and cause some chaos though.

The very definition of a hero!

Since he now owed me (a lot) he offered his aid against our common enemy. I told him to go recover first while I thought about it, instructing Braga to take him back to the ships while I forged ahead deeper inland where more Thalmor, including one of their "master wizards", met their ends at my blade. Their paralyzing archer squads came close to putting me down though. Close but not enough.

For glory!

Skyrim: Plotting the Course

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

Braga's training continued as we hunted more master vampires and bandit bosses together. At Falkreath we received a strange request via courier: a local hunter wanted us to hunt down a monster in town. I let Braga take the lead on the investigation, which led us to finding the body of one female victim and ultimately into the "hunters'" house.

The price of guilt.

Turns out he was the monster too, but ultimately we didn't have to fight him since he took himself out with a dagger. After that slightly depressing mission we finally got word from Njada about the source of "the Kraken" from last time - Summerset Isle, home of the Thalmor. She had already arranged a fleet and loyalist troops to go and eliminate all the scum there. I was only too happy to join.

No place to run, assassin!

During the voyage I was attacked by a left over bounty hunter who had snuck aboard, but Braga and the nearby soldiers took care of him. Soon enough we reached the shores of the Thalmor controlled island, and charged onto the beach under enemy fire. The elf scum were waiting.

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: 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!