Skyrim: 30 Days of Skyrim

Might as well be part of my Skyrim Adventure Journal! You can read the whole story here!

Turns out there's this "30 Days of Skyrim" challenge floating about, and since I've raked up hundreds upon hundreds of hours on the game I thought I'd give it a crack. Also rather than spread it out for 30 days I'm just going to hit them all at once. :)

Day One: Which race did you chose?
I always go with Nord. The natives of Skyrim. Which happens to be my character name.

Day Two: Mage, Warrior, Rogue or mixed class?
I always start with Rogue, then eventually mix into Warrior and only at the very end do I pick up magic skills. I don't mind worlds with magic, I just don't like being a magic user.

Day Three: Favorite Quest Line.
The Forgotten City Mod. It's fantastic.

Day Four: Favorite Quest Mission.
To Kill an Empire, and any others that involve directly slaying Thalmor or Imperial people.

Day Five: Favorite Faction.
Dawnguard. Definitely my type of crazies. :)

Day Six: Least Favorite Quest Line.
A Night to Remember (the one you get drunk). Did it for completion but it's ultimately stupid.

Day Seven: Least Favorite Quest.
No Stone Unturned. It's a collection quest. Blergh.
Also, Diplomatic Immunity because I'm not allowed to eradicate all the Thalmor in their estate.

Day Eight: Favourite Companion(s)
Serana from the Dawnguard DLC since she has the most backstory and is easy on the eyes. Brutus Brutalus [from the Summerset Isle Mod] was a real ass kicker though for whatever reason.

Day Nine: Favorite City
Whiterun, it's in the middle of everything and has a nice layout to the place.

Day Ten: Favorite Hold
Again Whiterun. I like the open, rolling, non-snowy plains. I also quite like the wandering giants and mammoths!

Day Eleven: Favorite antagonist.
Samel from the Inferno Mods. The guy just keeps coming back!

Day Twelve: Favorite Shout(s)
For a long time it was Dragonrend, but recent mods have me favoring Slow Time and Become Ethereal.

Day Thirteen: Favorite Spell(s)
None really, since I'm not a mage. I suppose the light ones are useful every now and then.

Day Fourteen: Favorite Weapon(s)
Paralyzing bows and paralyzing knives. Eventually graduated to dragon slaying katana and oblivion sword though (from the Death Mountain Mod).

Day Fifteen: Favorite in game book

This one from the Death Mountain Mod! :P

Day Sixteen: Least Favourite Creature
Slaughter fish, mainly because they are hard to target and pointless to fight.

Day Seventeen: Horder or no?
Not really items wise, but gold - wow I love gold. Despite having over a hundred thousand coins I still open baskets and nightstands to take all the coins I can find.

Day Eighteen: Favorite House.
Solitude. It's spacious and pretty functional.

Day Nineteen: Mods or no mods?
Definitely Mods. They add so much content to the game!

Day Twenty: What do hate most about Skyrim?
NPCs try to fight me when I'm clearly out of their league. They should either flee in terror at this point or simply surrender immediately.

Day Twenty One: Funniest thing you’ve done.
Chain executed maybe 20-30 enemies from the Sinister Seven Mod as they chased me through a door to a new area.

Day Twenty Two: Funniest glitch you’ve encountered
Dead dragon in Riften. Respawns dead. :P

Day Twenty Three: Favorite Song.
The dragon fighting music!

Day Twenty Four: Stormcloak Rebel, Imperial Legionnaire or neither?
Stormcloaks forever. Imperials are pussies since they lost/had to make peace with a bunch of elves. HUMANS MUST REIGN SUPREME ABOVE ALL OTHERS!

Day Twenty Five: Vampire, Werewolf or Vigilant of Stendarr?
Vigilant of Stendarr I guess, though I never really wear that title. Guess it fits somewhat though. Dislike of magic, slayer of non-humans. *nods*

Day Twenty Six: Favorite Armor set
Mastermind's Armor from the Sinister Seven Mod. The darker it gets, the faster you can move ultimately twice or three times of someone on horseback. Especially useful in dungeons where you can sprint up to an enemy (from the front) in stealth and execute them before they can draw their weapons!

Day Twenty Seven: One thing you would change about Skyrim
Let the game handle thousands of combatants in combat without crashing.

Day Twenty Eight: Who did you marry in game?
Njada, because she's a human Nord. I quite like her scars too. For me they make her look better than the ones who have flawless skin.

Day Twenty Nine: Favourite Deadra
Sheogorath. I'm biased though, since I really liked him in Oblivion and the Shivering Isles too. Still disliked his quest here.

Day Thirty:  What do you love most about Skyrim?
The dragons!

Skyrim: Dragon God Mode

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

Before hunting the next dragon I made sure to pick up the final surviving follower from Death Mountain: Zuna. She was terrified to come with me knowing the fate that had befallen all the others that did, but she agreed provided I'd help her look for her brother Xuru at some point. I agreed and so, we confronted Ziisizaan the stamina eater. Because he'd literally sap all my stamina away just by flying over head. This was only part of the problem though. The other problem was he was invincible. Yep! Nothing could hurt him!

My training was useless!

It took a long while before finding out that his invincibility was some sort of shield. When he shimmered white, he was on god mode. The trick was getting him to land where I wanted when the shield was off. This is more challenging than it sounds since it's like he's invincible 90% of the time and prefers to be airborne. It also doesn't help that at half health he flies off out of sight and returns fully healed. 

The silvery glow is actually his shield.

This made for a very long and annoying battle. Finally I just had to resort to convincing him to land without using "dragonrend" (by running around like a fool) so I could instead "Slow Time" and power strike him, drinking a gallon worth of stamina pots to actually deal enough damage to kill the scum before he flew off to regen to full health. Phew, obviously the enemies were learning to cheat too!

Skyrim: Where one List ends, another begins

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

Kneel before me, servant.

To replace Perdida (after she got eaten by the Storm Dragon) I recruited the orc dovahkiin, Tharas Gull, at Death Mountain to continue the dragon hunting quest. Thankfully, the next few are nowhere near as bad as Zuvulom. One just spits tar. The next, a dragon of madness doesn't really have any effective attacks which makes him easy prey. Then a "death dragon" only has a "machine gun" bite going for it but has a terrible hit rate and couldn't even survive one of my regular combos. The third was a holy dragon, who shone beams of orbital bombardment instead of breathing directly.

This was pretty cool since the light negated my "moves faster in darkness" armor, but the stupid thing left itself vulnerable when it landed to munch on some wandering forsworn. At last we came upon the final dragon, a flaming beast who only looked menacing. Slaying him revealed the true enemy though: the flame dragon was just a summon of Gorel, another ascended mage.

You missed.

This necromancer had some nasty spells but since the ruins he stood in offered lots of cover it was easy to dash around to his flank and hack him to death. It became clear that these ascended bastards were behind the dragons re-emergence - I mean, it's almost like I hunted them to extinction before these wizards showed up, so Tharas and I agreed that it was now time to hunt the ascended mages and give them what they deserve.

Skyrim: Impressive Abilities

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

Our next target was a dragon in the marsh, one who could turn invisible! It also liked to stay airborne which made this prolonged fight an annoying one. It did give me the opportunity to learn about Perdida's secret ability though: she had explosive arrows! Turns out it's not so much an ability but just the special arrows from Death Mountain, of which I was carrying a few hundred myself.

Can you spot it? Use the radar up top for a clue. :P

Eventually I managed to shout down the bastard and with Red Shadow tanking I could finish it off from the back. A similar strategy was used against Nahlotnah, the sonic dragon who was attacking a Stormcloak camp. Half the soldiers died during the battle since they kept walking into its very large attack cone in which the closer you are the more damage you took. Perdida with the panzer shield could tank it a little though, just enough for me to do my thing. I had to slay the other half of the Stormcloak soldiers afterwards when they tried to arrest me though. Morons.

That sonic scream was very effective though.

No such strategy existed for the next dragon though, one that was literally on fire and enjoyed explosive bombardment. Just being near this one burned my health bar away, but there was no helping it as Perdida and Red Shadow got tied up fighting a second elder dragon (of the normal variety) at the same time. I had to resort to using the Arbiter's Decree to confuse the beast and simply brute forced him during the opening, consuming a lot of health items to survive the experience.

He died with an artistic finish!

Perdida finished the other dragon around the same time, just like a true Dragonborn.

Skyrim: Unremarkable

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

My next task for the Dawnguard was to retrieve some sort of axe relic, and Agmaer rejoined me for this quest. He was clearly no Brutus though, nearly dying to some random night lord vampires near Deepwater Crossing. Fortunately I had his back.

I also had the vampires' back.

It's always good to follow through.

We stopped by Whiterun where I was made aware (as the acting Jarl) of some weapon the Thalmor were interested in an unremarkable cave to the South, so our mission quickly diverted to check it out. Bodies of adventurers paid by Thalmor gold lay near the entrance, and what seemed to be an ordinary bear in the first chamber turned out to be of the "killer" variety, slaying Agmaer in one strike!

I returned the favor to the beast then opted to go recruit more suitable assistance back at Death Mountain. The place was really running low on Daedric guards now, a fact a wandering ancient dragon was using to its advantage. With the other dovahkiin's Perdida, Zuna, and Tharas Gull we took it down after it landed and asked which of them was hungry for more adventure. Perdida jumped at the opportunity, and so with her in tow we returned to the unremarkable cave.

I always wonder how large caverns don't just naturally collapse.

Skyrim: Return to Nirn

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

And you thought Death Mountain was weird!

After eight or so maps of falling I finally ended up... on a UFO? What? Someone call XCOM! Haha! The view was amazing though. There were also some really cool shoes that negate falling damage just sitting there, which I figured I'd need - on the way down! LOL! Definitely one of the strangest adventures I've come across so far.

Prepare for re-entry!

It was back to business when I was back on Nirn, as Brutus told me Njada had been kidnapped (again) by a vampire and his bandit cronies. We made a beeline for the shipwreck that served as their base, and Brutus showed off his talent by killing everything himself. All I did was free Njada. Why do I even give her weapons? *sigh*

Decided to head to Riften to see if there were any rumors about where those bandits came from, and instead I find a more disturbing encounter, a dunmer "dreamer" who keeps talking about his resurrected lord who speaks to him in his dreams: Dagoth Ur.

Not you guys again!

Skyrim: And then I died?

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

The daedric prince is teaching me how to power up. :P

Sanguine was overjoyed to have me back at Morvunskar where he once again began helping me improve my magical abilities in the absence of the ever hounding assassins. Like all disciples though, I got bored after awhile and opted instead to turn the tables and try go after them. They had to be coming from somewhere, right? Sanguine advised against this, but Drania and I were already out the door.

We checked the most obvious places: the Dawnstar Sanctuary, Nightcaller Temple, Forgotten Vale, Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, and even checked for rumors at Fort Dawnguard. Nothing. Nothing but mooks chasing us that is. Finally it looked like we were getting somewhere at Falkreath where assassins began inexplicably popping out of the woodwork in numbers so great it would cause my game to crash due to the body count.

Now that's a tavern brawl!

That forced me to leave Drania to be arrested or executed by the local guards while I retreated back to Death Mountain, but even there the powerful mooks started killing everything with their numbers, the dragons too! I was pushed back into the shrine of Azura and finally one of them managed to power smash a war hammer into my face, killing me instantly.

Had to get my comeuppance eventually!

Then I blinked and I was standing in front of Sanguine again. "Are you sure you want to leave now?" he asked with a wry grin. What an asshole. (And yes I had to reload from a no-win situation: Die or Crash the Game :P)

Skyrim: Blood Bath

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

My new ally, Aeariel, did not last long at all as a new wave of bounty hunters, this time led by the nearly invisible archer, Flidais the Northwind, attacked. She wasn't the problem though as she opted to attack the exterior of Death Mountain, basically offering herself to be dragonchow four ways. It was the regular mooks who were starting to overwhelm the daedric guardians, with Aeariel being among the casualties.

Good to see some of the guards taking my magic stuff from display cases.

During the wave I retreated into the bath house to recruit Drania and exposed the resident staffer Saerven as a traitor. Despite being in swim wear, Drania managed to kill her and be effective against the invading bounty hunters. Once the combat lulled I got her proper gear (lots of it lying around) and decided to make a break for the College of Winterhold to let the daedric guards recover their losses.

Let me heat up that sauna for you...

There we came under attack by a dragon and another wave of assassins, this one led by Ladon the Volcano who was ridiculously weak considering his name. Still the battle carried on into the school grounds itself, where the other mages came to help. Tolfdir, Arniel Gane, and all the Winterhold guards were among the casualties. It was clear this place didn't have the man power to hold back the enemy, so we decided to go to where no one else would be put in danger: Morvunskar.

Bring it on!!! 
Yes, the pile of corpses is half a door high!

Skyrim: The Steady Tide

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

Einer and I had made our way to Solitude where I continued improving some of my sorely lacking "mage" skills. After what seemed to be days of quiet study in the now mostly empty Blue Palace, the assassins found me again forcing us to fight our way out of the city.

Where do they all come from?

The flood of bounty hunters led by a frost themed mage was intense, and it seemed to me they were slowly getting better gear? Einer was finally surrounded near the market place and was hacked to pieces. I only survived thanks to all those new health potions I picked up. Hurting and alone, I quickly made my way back to Death Mountain and recruited the next dragonborn: Obli Thessan.

Conan, is that you?

I once again continued magic practice, as the assassin army arrived once more this time led by Nandi the Steady Tide. She was a tough customer, almost slaying Obli Thessan if it wasn't for my backstabbing intervention (obviously not as tough as the paladin though). At the end of her "wave" I noted that the daedric guards were actually taking losses now, confirming my theory that the bounty hunters were improving.

While I was mulling over that thought, a near invisible assassin slit Obli Thessan's throat. Yep, they were using invisibility pots too. Beheaded that scum bag and headed next door to get a new bodyguard.

Skyrim: No Interuptions... Almost

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

The downside of slaying all the Dragonslayers was that a new master dragon took the opportunity to show up and terrorize ... Labyrinthian. The ruins high up in the frozen mountains where no one goes. Lol. Anyway, since dragons are sort of our job, my team got there - avoided the meteor shower and killed the silly thing without batting an eye (twin katanas of dragon death helped).

"Dragon shmagon, I'll make boots out of you."

I sent the sisters back to Whiterun at this point, for their own safety, since I knew the forces of the Sinister Seven wouldn't rest while I was still alive. I opted to go to the safest place I knew: Death Mountain, and there I continued my self-studies in schools of alchemy and enchanting.

Sure enough an army of assassins led by the giant orc, Temujin the Thunderer, came barging in and were dealt with splendidly by Einer and the daedric guards. They didn't even interrupt my work! Alas, running out of ingredients did though, so during a lull in the fighting, Einer and I snuck off pick up supplies.

Fortunately there were none as talented as Ezio.

Skyrim: Dragonborn "D"

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

High in the mountains, at the shrine of Azura, we encounter the Dragonslayer and dragonborn, Dragur the Devourer. Was that enough "D"s for you? He is the easiest of the targets thus far since basically Einer and I out shouted him off a cliff. You'd think the bounty hunter army would have heard that but nope. They were nowhere to be seen.

FUS RO DAHHHH!

That's because they were gathering at Bleakfalls Temple, knowing we'd be there to hunt the next guy - Deyravale the Paladin. Once again I left Einer and the sisters to handle the assassins while I forged ahead through the regular dungeon spawn. It didn't matter since they all caught up to me by the time I reach Deyravale at the end of the cavern though. This guy was an absolute tank, and required a significant number of backstabs (with a 900 damage weapon) to finally be put to rest.

I guess this is my favorite position. ;P

Next was Endur the Acceptable who came a close second for easiest target since he was so... accepting of his fate. He had a nice mask which Einer took for his own. The last Dragonslayer, Harrian Burndar, a flame based dragonborn, hid in Moss Mother Cavern. Due to the difficult and bugged environment which sent into "swimming mode" 90% of the time, it was up to my allies to deal with him. He downed the girls again and came close to slaying Einar but was beaten to the punch as Einar ran him through. It's the Death Mountain training man. I bet he never experienced ultra skeletons. :P

These two have a low survival rating...

Skyrim: The Dragonslayers

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

Since my band was near Hollow Tooth ruins, I decided to revisit the ghost, Ilfhild Merilion and got her to join the party. She advised us that enemies of the Blades, known as "the Dragonslayers", have begun showing up to hunt dragons and tasks me with slaying them to find their secret agenda. What? There's really nothing to say these guys are evil, so I'll just assume that they work for the Imperials. Yeah. That'll do. Time to hunt! 

First up is Golothan Holyfist, peacefully mining away in a remote hole in the ground. When confronted he proves to be a very troublesome foe, downing both Aurora and Twilight before I can behead him. Next is Darkeye, a marksman exploring some ruins. This guy is -really- tough, primarily due to his freeze shot ability.

Thirty seconds on ice - not fun!

The sisters are downed again, and Ilfhild is destroyed before I can thaw out and stun lock the bastard. After running him through I decide to return to Death Mountain and recruit Einer the warrior before hunting the next target: Cerion Drainfang. This adversary has absolutely no chance since it turns out Einer is dragonborn too. As it turns out, all the followers available at Death Mountain are.

Skyrim: Zombie Horde

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

It so happened that the ruins where I executed the Thalmor convict stood over an underground castle. A haunted one with a friendly ghost, Ilfhild Merilion (not Casper). She informed me the dead stirred once more at Death Mountain so I raced back there and took the first available companion I could find in the local inn, a warrior named Tenshi.

And then... the draugr invasion began! This is nowhere near as scary as it should have been though, mainly because of where I was. As soon as the ever growing horde would spawn, all the daedric guards and dragons would leap into action. I just took a back seat during the whole thing and enjoyed the fireworks!

 

Those flames are so pretty!

Eventually all ten waves of zombies were slain without my active participation, and there was only one friendly lost in the whole thing: Tenshi, who got Fus Ro Dah-ed by a draugr deathlord off the side of the flying mountain. It was ridiculous but very entertaining.

Skyrim: Southern Justice

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

I was surprised as I watched the giant man, Captain Guomundr, come across the bone bridge up to Death Mountain. Apparently he had news dire enough to come seek me out: the Thalmor had a new base at the Southern border, and had begun killing mead merchants crossing the border. Knowing how much Nords like their drink, I was determined to put an end to them. Not because I like mead. I just like killing Thalmor.

Right in the... kidney?

A snow storm concealed our approach to the large camp, giving me the opportunity to pick off a few strays before rushing into melee. They were not as tough as the ultra skeletons and were cut down with ease. There were lots of them though, and mostly archers. Guomundr took on the Thalmor commander while I handled the rest. In the end I had to handle him too as he had electrocuted Guomundr to death!

I found a note indicating that the Thalmor were actually after a criminal in the nearby Hollow Tooth ruins. Usually this would make him my ally, but he opts for "it's complicated" and attacks out right. It's probably better this way as this was the sure method to not let more Thalmor troops come traipsing into the region on the pretense of justice.

Justice is absolute.

Skyrim: The First Key

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

Our exploration escape route led to a tower full of forsworn led by a hagraven, and due to some bad timing with a closing portcullis Captain Ghoragdag was impaled to death by the closing gate. The remaining foes weren't a match for Nerelia and myself though. We even cleared another tunnel with a large (ultra) skeleton contigent, where Nerelia survived by using her summoned frost atronarch as a shield. Clever girl.

"Yes I am."

Soon we were back at the exterior of Death Mountain and new areas were open to me now, a tavern, an inn, and a bath house, full of new potential followers but I still couldn't open the very first door of the quest due to not having the first key. Eventually I gave up and looked on the map where I should go next, when I happened to hover over "Nerelia House", where I got the horse Red Shadow. Oh! That's where you live.

Deciding that someone should survive this tale I opted to take Nerelia home and released her from my service. She said I could keep the horse though. Also in her basement I found key #1. LOL! I raced back to Death Mountain and opened the mysterious chamber only to find a smallish zone with some left over undead and the next key which opened that gate I had jumped over previously.

No matter, Death Mountain was now cleared!

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: Going Down

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

Behind that army was a passage which led to a large arena lined with 50 or so skeleton archers. Too bad for them I was a better sniper and they all died without ever detecting me. Then came a lair of charrus, followed by an army of Falmer led by dragon priests. The carnage was beautiful.

Die you mutated elves!

Finally I found the lair of the boss guy: Lord Garnad. His chamber was full of things that hurt a lot! Draugr amazon archers, dragon priests, whirly blade traps... I still out-potioned them all. Even Garnad himself who I happily executed while he begged for his life. He put up a decent fight though for someone being hit by a 900+ damage weapon. You didn't think I'd leave that behind in the bone dragon's chamber did you? :P

Dead like the dog he is.

Anyway, the final key was in a chest behind Garnad, and that led to a reward in the form of an Oblivion Sword and an Oblivion Crosier Staff. Pretty cool! The nearby exit put me at the very base of the floating mountain that happened to overlook a deep lake. I took the fastest way down. :)

Try this in real and it would probably be fatal.

Skyrim: Key to the Underworld

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

Death Mountain was guarded by lots of Daedric guards (guys in Daedric armor, not Dremora), some with sabercat pets, and four dragons. All of whom were friendly. What? Yes I was surprised at this too. Unfortunately all points of access to the little town were locked, needing keys (my 100 lockpick skill is useless!). I couldn't make heads or tails of the clues for the first key so instead Bagamul and I just parkoured around a bit until we found a tower with an unlocked door. Finally we were getting somewhere!

There were hostile draugr inside but they were nowhere as tough as the skeletons outside, so my sword cut through them like butter. Higher up I found two more OP weapons, twin katanas of dragon slaying (base 600 damage), a "sexy" book and finally, a flaming urn with a key. Key #8? LOL.

I like books with big ... pictures!

The key gave us access to "the underworld" which for some reason was guarded by a handful of frost trolls (disappointing if you were expecting the sexy vampire version). Past them was a huge chamber, with a skeleton army AND a dracolich / bone dragon whose first move was to disarm my 900+ damage sword! >_<

Dealt with it first (with the twin katanas) and then used the Arbiter's Helm to terrify the undead army, earning Bagamul and I some free kills. Once the effect passed however, they all swarmed in and slew my orc ally viciously. Obviously, he was avenged mere minutes later.

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!