Darkest Dungeon: A Town in Flames

Reports from Darkest Dungeon - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Today is a day of loss. As if it wasn't bad enough for Melisandre and Sima Yi to have been taken by the shroom men in the Weald and to have the young Da Qiao get her heart exploded by a ghoul - a large band of bandits attacked the town, no doubt after all the riches our delves have been bringing back from the cursed places. Many of my comrades fell to their blades and bullets, including Abbess Feeva who led the defense.

Those are strong guns!

Along with her we buried Hunter O'Harrah, Redbeard, Mogg, Katunga, Derkeethus, Don Pez and Alpha. Their tenacity made the bandits retreat... for now, but they will surely return once their numbers and courage are replenished. Elizabeth and I are doing the best we can in reorganizing the remaining survivors and getting them the help they need - be it physical, mental or spiritual.

I have also begun to formulate plans for a specific defense should the bandits return. A man named Big Mike, who supposedly is used to leading troops in similar situations (some of whom are present), has volunteered his services to assist in that matter. I believe it would be prudent to accept his aid.

-Catharina

Skyrim: Opportunity

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

Making bling makes heroes.

It was only on my way back out of the mine that I noticed how rich it was in gold ore. I made the most of it and of all the precious gems lying around to improve my blacksmithing and reach level 53 while I was at it. Outside I found that Derkeethus had just been waiting there the whole time, having fallen to a spot out of the nav mesh I guess.

Not a bad spot to retire, really.

Since he refused to move (I assume he wanted time alone to loot the remaining valuables) I parted ways with him there. He did mention that the Aldmeri Dominion was strengthening their position in the mountains near Solitude though, at their Embassy I'd previously been to before.

Deciding not to be hasty, I took a careful look around Dragon's Bridge and discovered the new Dragonmourne Inn which housed a lot of folk who were mistreated during the Thalmor occupation and wanted a bit of payback. I offered them the chance they were waiting for.

Skyrim: The True Hero

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

Over three years have passed since the orcish invaders were defeated. Three years since I became the Jarl of Whiterun, and while some folk have moved on the place remains the same. I guess my skills as El Presidente were pretty good! The peace was soon to be broken when a familiar face arrived in town, my old Argonian buddy Derkeethus who brought news of Thalmor incursions in the region, as well as a letter requesting my help in finding someone's missing brother at some forgotten ruins.

My cold-blooded ally.

I barely glanced at the letter, furious at the mere mention of the Thalmor. Without hesitation Derkeethus and I headed off towards Dragon's Bridge, finding a quaint little cottage called Nerelia house on the way that wasn't there before. A cursory examination showed the place was uninhabited apart from the red-eyed black horse named Red Shadow, whom I took as my own. I am the Jarl after all.

And who are you?

Soon after we arrived at the Dragon's Bridge hamlet and sure enough, a contingent of Thalmor had set up shop in the town. Unaware of who I was, they let me scout their positions out easily which made it all the easier to violently shank them all in the back, like a true hero.

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.

Leftovers

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

Revisited Red Belly mine and found spiders respawned in the now "safe" mine - attacking the workers within. I managed to save all except for a young lady who became spider chow. I then pushed on to Darkwater Crossing to pickup my old dragon buddy Derkeethus. Three hired goons showed up as well, but they didn't attack me - they just followed me like puppies and helped me collect some Jazbay grapes and defeat a blood dragon. I was beginning to take a liking to the three stooges but I knew that they had been sent by daughter Black-Briar (since I managed to pickpocket a contract from them).

Decided to hand in the grapes at the Sarethi farm first - took awhile to find the damn things, I had this quest before I fought Alduin (like 10+ chapters ago). Unfortunately the dunmer lady would not be able to make use of them as she and her daughter rushed to the aid of a wandering nameless khajit under attack by... the three stooges. Having forced my hand, I aided the farmers but could not kill the heavily armored warriors in time to prevent them doing painful looking finishing moves on them. Derkeethus did one of his own with his daedric axe as the finishing blow.

Marched straight back to Riften to confront the alchemist daughter about this and she feigned ignorance. However she let slip again that she wanted to become a necromancer and practice dark arts so without further hesitation I put an arrow into her face and tossed her body down one of the murky canals leading into the sewers. With that done we revisited Esbern, the last remaining blade as Mjoll was still MIA. He had no more dragons to hunt so Derkeethus and I returned to my Solitude home to rest up with the others: Njada, Jordis, Wynna, Rayna and Anni for whatever next adventures lie ahead.

There were still khajit caravans to stop, places to clear, and plenty of falmer to slay but they could wait for another day. With that I am taking another break from Skyrim - for how long? Who knows.

When the time comes, we'll be ready.