Skyrim: You aren't finished!

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

After finishing up some loose ends at Raven Rock, such as finding a new steward for Neloth and executing an thieves' guild member in his sleep (because you can't outrun justice), I thought I was done with the little island of Solstheim. Turns out I was very wrong as Neloth still had a laundry list of ingredients for me to fetch and sent his bumbling apprentice Talvas with me to do so.

Not enough of these in the base game.

Unfortunately for Talvas, we stumbled upon a polite group of loners who I figured to be werewolves. Freaking abominations. I beheaded the first one to prevent her turning but the other three opened with their shape shifting and tore Talvas apart, his bits showering down on the mountainside. Needless to say, I then did the same to them. Curious actually, Sero and I had previously also eradicated a small enclave of werebears (impressive transformation), yet there are no wolves or bears on the island. :P

Since the ingredients were going to be easier to find on mainland Skyrim, I checked in with Frea first to see if she wanted to come along since she wasn't so subtle about not wanting to be like shaman dad and instead be an adventurer, barring any unfortunate arrows finding her knees. She was easily persuaded to leave her people and come with me. Too bad she'd never see her home again.

Skyrim: The Settling Dust

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

With Miraak gone, Frea would now fill her dead shaman dad's shoes and protect her village. Sero and I also informed Neloth of what transpired and like any decent wizard, he already knew. His apprentice Talvas was up to shenanigans though, having summoned an uncontrollable ash atronarch which slew Neloth's steward before we could intervene. The wizard tasked us with hiring a replacement.

On our way back to Raven Rock we stopped by Ralis' dig to find that progress has been impeded by draugr. Typical. While Sero went in to clear it out, I gave another 2000 gold for him to find replacement labor. We then did a much bigger detour as I remembered we had a key to some long lost pirate treasure and found the burial site of Deathbrand. This guy was buried in style, with piles of gold and treasure in the antechamber.

Now that's more like it!

Apart from the expected draugr we also had to deal with Deathbrand's angry ghost (because, why not). I wish I could say he was a decent fighter, but apparently you can slice the necks of ghosts? We cleared out that lair and returned to Raven Rock. For his services and for surviving the majority of Solstheim, I split the treasure with Teldryn Sero - giving him all of Deathbrand's gear too. I felt he was skilled enough now to be an adventuring hero in his own right, something that is rare for an NPC to attain if you've been following this journal from the start. :P

So many things wrong with this picture.

Skyrim: Miraak

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

Why read books when you can do this?

To keep my end of the deal with Hermaeus Mora, Sero and I returned to Frea's village where I rather easily convinced her shaman dad to surrender his secret knowledge of horkers (walruses). The daedric prince took it in a most violent fashion (involving tentacle insertion) and then kept his end of the deal, giving me a dragon shout that could counter Miraak. Humorously enough, to reach this final mission I simply had to read a black book in my backpack, which transported me near Miraak's temple in Apocrypha.

After the usual shenanigans with the resident abominations, I finally got to use my fully powered Bend Will shout on one of Miraak's dragons which let me mount it for some pretty cool (and quite uncontrolled) dragon flight. After a short jaunt, it set me down at the temple's summit to face his old master who was nice enough to talk first before starting the duel.

So shiny it hurts my eyes...

Miraak's use of dragon shouts was indeed impressive. He even had one which absorbed his remaining minion dragons to fully heal himself which was pretty cool. He was actually dangerous enough to convince me to use my swords too (I started by using fists, just to savour the combat). Ultimately though, Hermaeus Mora stole my kill and ended Miraak once and for all. Death by tentacle insertion. 

Miraak got raped. :P

The only worse fate is for your enemy to then make a stuffed figure out of you.

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Skyrim: Off to see the Wizard

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

Our reward for protecting the councilman from his enemies was citizenship and a house in Raven Rock! This is great as it provides a spot to unload all the junk I've been collecting. Since the quests in town have dried up, Sero and I head off to visit the wizard Neloth who literally lives in a giant shroom while his servants live in smaller shrooms. These dunmer are funny.

Kill... all... organics!

Neloth is the local guru of Black Books it seems and agrees to help me stop Miraak if I help him get his hands on the book at a nearby dwemer ruin, which also holds the new ballista bot enemies which are pretty cool. The whole steam powered place is sinking into the ocean, and getting power to open the book case from the lower levels involves a bit of swimming and water puzzles. The hunters necklace of water breathing is really useful here!

Hate to be the one to put those pages back where they belong!

With the target book finally in our hands, Neloth lets me read it first leading to the longest and coolest map of Apocrypha so far. Hermaeus Mora (who seems to come right out of the HP Lovecraft mythos) chats to me at the summit, revealing that he has been training Miraak all this time but now that Miraak is abandoning him, he will help me instead - if I give him access to some secret knowledge Frea's shaman dad was hiding from him. I don't really have much choice in the matter it seems.

Mr. Know it all.

After sending me back to Solstheim my little group is attacked by one of Miraak's dragons who was sent to assassinate me. Hah, an assassin dragon! As you might have guessed, it stood no chance.

Skyrim: First Encounter

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

Miraak's Temple was near those Nords Sero and I assisted last time. It too had a mind-control stone and a lot more people working on it than in other places. The warrioress Frea was also here, trying to wake up her people to no avail. In true Nord fashion she then turned to me and asked for my help in killing everyone responsible. Hell yes! We go down into the depths of the temple underground, easily dealing with Miraak's cultists (side note: he has the smallest cult ever).

Pendulums, why is it always pendulums?

Near the base is another black book which I use to warp to Apocrypha but this time get stunned by Miraak's magic cutscene! Apparently the ex-dragon priest and self proclaimed "first dragonborn" now resides in this realm and has not only a few dragons under his command but all the horrible fish men too. Then he does the traditional bad guy mistake of letting me go. Guess he hasn't read the tomes on being a genre savvy villain!

I made friends with Cthulhu.

Back at Solstheim, Frea takes Sero and I to her village which her shaman dad protects with magic, just not very good magic since half his villagers are working on a nearby obelisk. Shaman dad tells me that I might be able to free those stones from their corruption with a new shout. Finally, a way to get back at Miraak - by yelling at his stones! That sounds like a job for a hero... :P