The Cursed: A Horrible Death

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

Alleon's troop finds the old man at the standing stones who welcomes them openly. He says "The bonded serve one more master," and then grins as he turns into a demon. "Me! You want your freedom? Come find me at Myth Drannor."

"Detect Evil" totally failed I guess.

With that the man vanishes, and Alleon decides to march on to said location in the middle of the forest reaching the outskirts which looks to be an overgrown cemetery. Thrikeen patrol the place but apart from dealing with a few grave robbing insects they generally stay away from the explorers.

Elven spirits are also present and generally help the team with information and equipment. Everything is looking up, until Gavion accidentally steps into a sink hole sending the entire party into a nest of giant spiders!

Spells are let loose and steel hacks into chitin as the squad attempts to escape. Aika is the first that gets bitten, and is immediately slain by the toxin. Meanwhile Olive is jumped and dragged away screaming to be used to feed the young. They are almost out when Alleon is also bitten on the ankle, and vomiting into his helmet, dies a horrible death.

The Cursed: Full Circle

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

With Moander defeated, all the monsters including swarms of vegepygmies that had skulked away earlier came on the offensive and the party had to fight their way tooth and nail out of that pit but followed Dragonbait's nose to finally reach daylight.

Tiny plant men. Ridiculous.

Once there Alleon's contingent headed to the river to meet up with Ragner and Rollo and their stolen ferry which they used to escape upstream to Daggerfall (wait what?). Reinforcements in the form of Faeris, Kelaide, Shelumu and Gavion joined the squad here and a visit to the magic shop saw them loading up with expensive gear to hunt down the last curse master.

Before they could depart, alarm bells rang throughout the town as a mob of ettins had descended from the nearby hills to attack! The party leaped into action, driving them back but Mercedes was brutally squashed by a giant club in the encounter.

Alias and Dragonbait opted to remain to hunt down the troublesome ettin tribe, leaving the rest to board the ferry once more and sail down the river fork, almost back to Tilverton. From there Alleon instructed Ragner and Rollo to go find reinforcements while the remainder began the march up to the standing stones that Siegfried heard Dynrigg speak of back at Hap.

TESO: The Secret Fire

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

It wasn't long till I met King Casimir of Daggerfall thanks to a Bloodthorn plot to assassinate him. After personally saving him, he then tasked me with securing the rest of his region from more Bloodthorn corruption in the forests, their bandit allies in the countryside, and most predominantly from werewolves who had taken over the Northern cities led by a supposedly unkillable, undead werewolf named Falchou. There's a pretty lengthy process where the Mage guild learns (through time travel no less) that Falchou's weakness is fire.

Like how the very first werewolf I encountered here is weak to fire? You don't say!

You'd think in a fantasy realm such as this one where some people can shoot fire from their hands that might actually not be such a secret but anyway... As per normal I opt for the better safe than sorry route of killing any and all infected people and then slay Falchou and Angoff, his Bloodthorn master in unmemorable combats. Ironically in a side quest, I also have to help the now struggling Daggers (a branch of the Covenant military) gain finances to continue to exist.

With King Casimir's thanks, my work here is done - and despite rumors of darker tidings further in land I convince Kaleen to sail me to Khenarthi's Roost instead to start working on a peace treaty with the Dominion.

TESO: The Recruiter

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

Following King Jorunn's orders used a wayshrine to get to Daggerfall and was surprised how accommodating they were for foreigners during war time. Have to mention it's a little odd you can warp right into or beside cities who are meant to be at war with each other, but maybe players are just special snowflakes in that regard. Unfortunately the Daggerfall-ians didn't really give me any quests, in fact a small group tried to sacrifice me to a tree dremora. Purified the lot of them with fire.

Deciding I'd need to do gain some positive Covenant reputation first, I took a small skiff out to the isle of Stros M'kai where Redguard Captain Kaleen was recruiting people for a heist and the role of recruiter went to me! After assembling an array of personalities the theft went off without a hitch, and as a bonus was actually done for the King since in proved that the headman on the island was anything but loyal. Kaleen's next stop was the orc outpost of Betnikh, where we convinced them to join the Covenant by aiding them against invading Bloodthorn cultists (who basically are necros with a green thumb twist).

Stros M'Kai is a really pretty place!

The Bloodthorn had been after a powerful and destructive relic and Kaleen's crew was divided on either retaining it for Covenant use, or destroying it. I opted for the former, causing half of my recruited people to leave. Se la vie. Kaleen then sailed us back to Daggerfall where finally the officials were starting to recognize my efforts, giving me hope for this peace accord for King Jorunn.

Riva: Effing Elves

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

Turns out that stay at the elf village wasn't as relaxing as previously hoped, since the party awakens from their drunken stupor at the port city of Riva in much the same state they were in after slaying surviving the dragon Arkandor. Thanks for kicking us out without patching us up elf king! At least they still carry the small fortune in ducats they had earned. Also gone is the square by square movement, having been replaced with a more Daggerfall type feel.

So future. Wow.

The first order of business is to refit the team into adventuring shape, and that involves visiting the central market to buy new gear, resting up one entire week at an inn, and recruiting new members to fill the empty party slots including an adventure hungry dwarf NPC named Thorgrim (and his axe), as well as replacing Shintar's bones with Darth Targetter. His arrival prompts a most interesting message.

Start at level 6? Sure!

While this doesn't bother Wolfy Eyes who is currently level 8, nor the level 12 NPC Thorgrim, it doesn't bode well for the rest of the party: Cooper Mantly (level 5), Dalian Tanker, Braxwolf Storm and Allison Nexus (all level 4). This disparity is what happens when veterans get killed! :P