We Charge the Castle

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

From my vantage point atop a nearby abandoned tower I confirm that Isran is an idiot. For whatever reason his group rushes the long stone bridge immediately meaning any dragon support I call down will most likely result in friendly fire. Worse, most of them bypass a pair of gargoyles and vamps who charge down the bridge to my team waiting in reserve. Still, they are outnumbered out here so I concentrate my sunhallowed fire onto the bridge proper where the Dawnguard group is getting thrashed and it seems to turn the tide for them somewhat, until I hear a large angry growl next to me.

Goliath? Is that you?

One of the gargoyles had made it up the tower and resisted my soul rend shout (thanks for nothing, Dummy) so I was forced into close quarters combat until I finally killed the sentinel. Once that was done I did a quick scan of the battle field: all the Dawnguard forces were either dead or kneeling over like bitches to the remaining two vamps on the bridge. Just outside, my group didn't fare much better - Cutter and Bane were lying dead on the sand along with one vampire and a death dog, Anni was floating face down near the jetty and I can only guess the various red smears around were what was left of Lynn. Jordis and Njada were still fighting off the remaining vamp and gargoyle but were not doing well so I prioritised them first and sniped off their adversaries before doing the same to the remaining enemies on the bridge.

Miraculously most of the Dawnguard team weren't dead (yet) and staggered to their feet to continue the charge into the castle proper where the vamps were waiting at good spots to blast us with their magic. I returned fire from the entry balcony while Jordis charged forward with the other brazed Dawnguard fools. A second wave of vamps from a different door appeared and rushed Njada and I, forcing us back to the entry way but we managed to down them on our own. When we did catch up with Jordis in the basement, she had bloodshot eyes and an extremely pale complexion. She lunged at us when she saw us but Serana shoved her aside with her magic and I could only stand dumbfounded as the two gals fought it out, at that moment unable to raise my weapon against one of my best followers.

The fight lasted a few minutes until finally Serana landed a direct hit with her lightning spell, throwing Jordis violently against a wall before her smouldering body crashed lifelessly to the floor. After making sure she was dead, we returned to the castle proper which seemed to have been fully cleaned out. Only one more opponent remained.

Fielding All Assets

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

After a quick stop at the lake to loot the broken king, my little band returned to Skyhaven Temple to swap out Bane for Anni the elven archer. For Bane's efforts I had promoted the khajiit to becoming a guard for Njada but understandably, he first wanted to see the current vampire threat ended. It was time to head back to Fort Dawnguard with Auriel's Bow but as usual we hit all sorts of side quests on the way: hunted a giant deer, two frost dragons, wiped out a bandit base, another master vampire and got Dummy to teach me the "Soul Rend" shout which seems pretty cool. He doesn't seem anywhere as useful as Odahviing though, so with our bargain done I think I'm going to let him rot in the Soul Cairn now.

We also stopped by the Mage's College to hand in some falmer tomes and it is becoming more and more apparent that other than Tolfdir, most of the other people there have a healthy hatred of me - and are becoming more open in their methods of disrespecting their "leader". I decide to let it slide for now since there are bigger fish to fry and we finally return to Fort Dawnguard, where we discover a small group of refugees(?) striking up camp right outside in hopes for protection. Isran isn't too thrilled about them, but his eyes light up when he sees the divine bow and after a stirring speech rallies most of his members for an all out assault on Volkihar Castle.

Agmaer and elf Beleval are to remain with the doggies and a few trolls to help the gate guard protect the refugees and base while we are gone. Knowing how strong the Volkihar clan is first hand I decided to field ALL my remaining resources for the upcoming battle: Anni, Lynn, Cutter, Bane and Jordis who was excited to get out to the front again. Even Njada, whom I would have preferred to stay safetly at home would have none of it after hearing what we were attempting, so she also came along. We met up with Isran's similarly sized group at the shore of the castle itself and when I asked what the exact plan was the crazy bastard just smiled devilishly, looked at me with excited eyes, and basically said "We charge the castle!"

This isn't going to end well, is it?

A Bloody Massacre

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

Solving the puzzle brought me another surprise, as it freed rather fetching, elder scroll carrying vampire girl named Serana. My first instinct was to kill her but since she seemed disoriented and non hostile I thought I'd question her first. Simply put, she wanted to go home, and wanted me to take her there. Since it was unlikely it was going to be a trap, I decided not to pass up the opportunity to get the location of a secret vampire base. Back topside I decided to swing by Solitude to rummage through more of my gear, and to check in with Jordis and Njada who were a little curious as to who my new raven-haired, red-eyed, friend was before pressing on.

Turns out the "secret vampire base" is a bloody great castle just off the northern coast. How did anyone miss that? Anyway, we literally stroll inside (for some reason I can't go on a murderous rampage right now) and are welcomed by her father, Lord Harkon Volkihar and his court. As thanks he offers to make me a hideous monster (LOL). I politely decline and explain it was hard enough to cure my werecorginess so instead he banishes me back outside and warns me not to return. Naturally the first thing I try is to get back in there but I am defeated by their closed gate. With a sigh I decided to go to Skyhaven Temple to rummage for my things there and upon hearing of her friend Rayna's death, Alyssa asked to accompany me against this new threat.

Seems the vampires are on the ball though, because upon our return to the Dawnguard HQ we founnd it under attack by a small group of high level vampires. In a rage, Alyssa charged into the fray along with most of the other Dawnguard members (some new ones too). It was a massacre on all sides and in the end only the most powerful vamp, Isran and myself remained alive. I the chaos I didn't see what killed Alyssa the first time, but I certainly know what turned her into a pile of dust after she was raised as a familiar - Isran's gigantic warhammer. It was a long fight to defeat the last Volkihar vampire, and at the end Isran was in such a beserked state he kept trying to attack me too! I hid from him in his own fortress for a day (well, a cave behind the fortress to be exact) to let him cool off.

Dude was pissed.

Apart from Isran and myself, only the newbie Agmaer and the two war huskies survived (because they stayed in the keep). It was no surprise then that my next task was to recruit two "specialists", a tamer and artificer, because Isran knew his group just got pwned.

End of the Road

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! In this entry I am following my custom scenario "A Curse of Iron". You can follow the rest of the story here!

Asked around at the Winking Skeever for clues, getting an extra one from the kid Minnete who happened to be there too then began going door to door looking for the agent in this city, but finding none. Visited Proudspire Manor to let Njada and Jordis know I was ok (tested them and they weren't agents either) then went next door to the Bard's college where everyone seemed to check out until I got to the kitchen. It was the old cook! I simply waited for an opportune time and slit the old man's throat as he ate. With that easily accomplished I noticed more Pentius Occultus agents lurking about so with Kharjo we set to work eliminating all of them, where I managed to finishing stab one and throat slit another. A pair of guards got involved and they needed to die too, fortunately I managed to snarf a hunting bow from one of them. We then quickly shadowed our way back down the side entrance and began to hoof it to Morthal.

I knew this would be a harder task since I couldn't swim "up" waterfalls meaning I'd need to be on the road this time, and sure enough Dragonbridge proved a very tough place to pass with it's high volume of guardsmen (bad luck as a patrol was there too). Told Kharjo to just buy me time then escape so we split up, with the cat holding off a large portion of the guards while I high tailed it outta there. After what seemed to be a really long sprint across the mountains I was clear, and back on the road where I encountered a friendlier group of three Stormcloak soldiers who happened to be walking in the same direction I wanted to go. Figured it was safer to travel together so I just strolled with them down the road, and after a few minutes a familiar khajiit came running up - it was Kharjo! He somehow gave the Dragonbridge guards the slip and got ahead of us.

Even Chaos Knights go for strolls.

We were in high spirits as we neared Morthal when a group of forsworn raiders attacked. There were only three of them, but each of them managed to kill a guardsman before either myself or Kharjo could finish them off. I was so angry that I (finishing move) beheaded the last one. Finally we made it to the City of Stone and easilly found the last agent inside the Silverblood Inn itself. It was Muiri, who apparently would do anything for money. Despite the inn being crowded at the time I already knew how to take her out - hidden from a room with an arrow to the neck. Why would she turn on someone who helped her!? No matter, at least I'm closer to getting this curse removed.

Like a Fish in a Barrel

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! In this entry I am following my custom scenario "A Curse of Iron". You can follow the rest of the story here!

On my return to Solitude I ran into another Penticus Occultus agent on the street! After beheading him I retreated into my home where a pair of guards pursued me. Fortunately between myself, Jordis, Njada and the mage Wynna we managed to eliminate them quickly. Wynna was the last recruit going for her trials so we snuck out of there while the other two disposed of the bodies. Decided to check out the rumors at Markarth but found nothing interesting. Upon exiting the tavern though I suddenly began to feel ill and completely blacked out.

Woke up feeling very weak and lacking in voice at Vindrel Hall with Wynna watching over me. Using her magics she told me I had been cursed by powerful magic. I tried to get my gear but most of it burned to the touch. I couldn't even carry my amassed gold! She suggested we try get to the Mages College at Winterhold to try work out how unhex me but first I needed to find equipment! Being unable to drink potions was a bit of a worry, so I packed up all the food I could find and took a woodcutter's axe and an iron two handed sword from the wall. Wynna also pointed out I might want clothes which she found in a nearby wardrobe. After getting dressed we headed out, only to be stopped by a guard who recognized me.

Side Note: Thank you for not being in this game.

For a change, she let me off the hook to be someone else's problem and we made our way on foot out of town following the path North. Wasn't long before we came across another guard under attack by a trio of forsworn. Since his compatriot just helped me out I thought I'd return the favor and join the fight - each of us now fighting one forsworn. While Wynna killed hers the guard lost his battle and his opponent continued battle against the sexy mage. Meanwhile I'm trying to kill a dude with a woodcutter's axe since the big sword was too tiring for me to swing around (I'm better at single handed anyway). After a LONG fight I finally kill the bastard and take his bow (no arrows). Alas, I cannot touch the rest of their gear so we just leave them there and continue on our way. After that hectic battle I realize it would be best to avoid as many opponents as possible so we head into the nearby river to swim our way North East.

The plan works pretty well, and I manage to even use my new found "challenge" skill of salmon catching on the way as we swim down rapids and remain undetected by a dragon circling overhead. What I didn't count on was running into a giant mudcrab near some waterfalls. There was no way I could beat the hard shelled thing on my own, but thankfully Wynna swam in and zapped it to death just in time.

Training Surprise

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

Set my new recruits to train under the experienced and watchful eyes of Jordis and Njada, however since I was still quite rusty too I decided to do some training myself and came across these "challenges" on the Skyrim Blog which I thought I'd try out. For obvious reasons, some of these had to be reloaded either because I died, killed someone I didn't want to, or temporarily paid my bounty to run the challenge.

Challenge: Target Practice (success)
At Solitude, stand on the level of Beirand's smithy and shoot five shop signs without moving.
With my archery skill, this was easy. Even bagged two more penticus occultus fools on guard duty without being detected while I was at it.

Challenge: Solitude Tourist (timed)
Starting at the gates, do a set of six tasks in the city and return to the gates.
Pretty poor run I think, finishing only at 6 minutes 02 seconds.

Challenge: Bird Sniping (success)
At Solitude docks, shoot down 5 birds using a maximum of seven arrows.
This one was a little tough but I got lucky and on my 3rd load of 7 arrows killed a 5th bird with my last shot.

Challenge: Arrow Catch (fail)
Fire arrows into the air at any speed. Catch three in a row.
For the life of me I couldn't even catch a single arrow, and I was pretty much standing right underneath them as they fell. Must be doing something wrong. :(

I had as much luck as Adam from Mythbusters.

Challenge: Yelling at Jovasskr (success)
Using one level one "Unrelenting Force", yell everything off a long table.
Needed a few tries at this since those plates were bastards to move. Eventually got it though!

Draugr Interruption:
After that last challenge the old lady who minded the place mentioned something about keeping secrets and with a sly, wrinkled grin descended to the living quarters. Suspicious, I followed her and used Aura Whisper to find that two other people were down here! I went to investigate and found that both Skjor and Aela had come back from the grave! Damn, would-be-draugr! I couldn't let them live. When I asked Skjor how he was still alive (after I saw him butchered by the Silver dudes) he simply said "You've yet to prove yourself, whelp" and tossed me a steel two handed sword.

I punched him a bit to accept his duel and given my unfamiliarity with 2-handers this became a cool and somewhat long fight. Aela kept cheering her wolf-buddy on from the side lines with chants like "kill him!", but it was Skjor who eventually found himself run through as he tried to flee like the coward he was. I tossed the sword aside and then set my sights on the bitch Aela, punching her repeatedly while yelling for her to show her true form. Either she couldn't or wouldn't, but she couldn't even fire an arrow in retaliation and eventually I grappled her and in a wrestling move finish knocked her lights out. Or killed her. Not sure, but if she could no longer wolf out then maybe stabbing her at Boethiah's pillar before actually did something.

I now knew the old maid had known this whole time that she was assisting werewolves and so I had no choice but to beat her to death with my bare hands - smashing her head down on a chair to finish her off. After picking up Skjor's steel two hander again I stalked up to the forge where the smith continued his business. I questioned him and reading between the lines could tell that he had known of the wolf threat the whole time. For his insolence I challenged him to a duel, and much like Skjor - he was cut down where he stood. Then I tossed his worthless carcass into the fire before sneaking out of town.

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.

The Lioness

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

Before reaching Mjoll I stopped at the tavern I had dismissed Rayna at and to my surprise she was still there! Got me thinking that I could/should start building up an army for the impending war against the Thalmor and/or the falmer so I took her to my house in Solitude where she was happy to keep Njada and Jordis company. Anni the elf archer and Wynna the mage soon followed suit, though Wynna helped me retrieve a number of dwemer cogs for a dude at the mage academy first, and slay the thief-allied mage there while we were at it.

At Skyhaven Temple Mjoll agreed to join me but there was something she had to do first (she wasn't following me) so I watched as she and spy-gal Delphine went to the outer courtyard, saluted and began to spar. At least I thought it was sparring - until Mjoll sliced Delphine's throat with her axe! With Delphine dead on the ground we were off next to fight an ancient dragon for Esbern. This one was particularly nasty but Athis, Mjoll and I took it down all the same. Ofcourse now that I knew Athis was turning into a draugr I couldn't let him live and yelled him off the mountain.

Next stop was the Nightingale Sanctuary where I let Mjoll duel Karliah (a battle she won easily) before storming the Ragged Flagon in Riften itself. In the bloody combat that followed, every single thieves guild member save for Brynjolf (protected by threads of fate) were slain and looted, but our task wasn't done. It was evening time when we returned to the surface and we found the imperial-loving, thieves guild supporting Lady Black-Briar at the tavern. I used a mayhem scroll to make the fight seem natural and managed to kill her and her husband in the melee. Somewhere during this Mjoll ran outside the door for some reason and that was the last I saw of her. She was gone without a trace.

The guards of Riften were mainly in the Black-briar pockets so I did not hesitate in slaying every single one that dared get in my way, as well as a bunch that wanted to hide in the barracks and castle. I made sure to visit just to check who would and who wouldn't attack. Now I know which are my friends, since all my enemies are dead.

Or so I thought.

I completely forgot about the god-damn Batman.
Good thing he's not in this game. :P

They know what I did last Blogger

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

Picked up Raven, a pretty blades archer (because she had their armor) near Windhelm to clear the nearby lowlands and she was put to work early with a blood dragon and a Shadow Nightingale coming out of nowhere to attack us! The Nightingale was damned tough and when we finally killed her she vanished into a puff of black smoke. I'm beginning to think the thieves guild is on to me if they're sending assassins now, so I went directly to them while playing "dumb" to see if anything was amiss and sure enough there were strange things afoot. Brynjolf was too busy to talk to me, Delvin began talking about a contract at Solitude mentioning the name "Erikur" as the contact but the quest never generated, nor did he ever speak of it again, and the task I did get was to chase a khajit caravan far away. Sure felt like they didn't want me around.

I let it slide for now and decided to clear out another cave full of conjurers I stumbled across. Seemed like the whole conclave came at us at once, and a master wizard zapped Raven to death in the battle. Decided to pick up my Windhelm housecarl Calder who was getting bored of sitting at home and growing his enormous sideburns. First stop was a dwemer ruin high in the Eastern mountains. The initial, empty hall turned out to be an elaborate pit trap that nearly killed Calder in the fall. Couldn't help but wonder if the nightingales were behind it as we fought our way out of the falmer infested caves back up.

Hoofed it across the map and finally cought up with the khajit caravan I was tasked to deliver drugs to. Seems that for a small amount of catnip these furry traders were willing to smuggle stuff for the guild, and not just this caravan - all of them! Damnit, I like the khajits - but criminals do not deserve jail; they deserve death. And that is exactly what I gave him and his friends.

Obey or die.

After fighting a giant we stopped by Morthal since I was in the area and the entire guard contigent decided to fight me for killing their previous leader. Idiots. The ancient dragon that showed up midway through actually helped me out quite a bit. When the streets were littered with the dead and dragon bones we pushed on to Solitude where I found out from Njada and Jordis that "Erikur" was a thane of the local court. They had also been doing research on a bunch of stones Vex was looking for and gave me a list of where I could possibly find them. The only catch was I had most of them already (missing only 4) and I had forgotten where I got them.

This meant I simply had to visit each and every spot on the list, the first being the Blue Palace itself, so we marched straight back in there and slaughtered this Erikur person. No upstanding citizen would contact the thieves guild anyway, and the guy was a bit of a douche. Nice to see all the dead bodies still in the basement where I left them too - but the stone here was already gone (in my pack). More disturbing, Jarl Bossman who was one of the survivors from my previous rampage here, was nowhere to be found.

Wizards and Warriors

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

Bree the blade joined next and she was a powerhouse! She helped defeat the guardian mudcrab, skeever and bear, 2 ancient dragons, a frost dragon, laid waste to an imperial camp, single handedly killed a warlock and his assistant who were turning people into ghosts (after she fell into his trap while I didn't), and stood up to multiple draugr death overlords. She even won an archery duel against the hunter in Whiterun, and melee duels against a random Alik'r redguard and a bodyguard to the Jarl of Falkreath. She also killed an old maid targetted by the brotherhood with no remorse (though I had to pay a fee for that, I guess they were pissed -I- wasn't killing the marks so I personally one-shotted the next marked criminal mage hiding in some dwemer ruins).

There seems to be a steady stream of unsigned letters being delivered to me too, sending me to word walls in dangerous spots. Either my incognito friend(s) travelled to these places themselves or they are trying their best to kill me. One such spot during our exploration of the South turned out to be a wizard coven and with their combined spells finally managed to explode Bree into little pieces. Cat the ranger filled her shoes nicely though, especially when I gave her twin mage staves, it was she who was tossing the wizards around!

Wasn't to last long however as on our return trip to Whiterun for more thiefing jobs one of the guards attempted to arrest me. This led to a pretty large scale battle in the city streets and out of nowhere Vilkas, in full blades attire, appeared to assist the guards, forcing me to kill him (again?). During this, Cat took an arrow to the head so I quickly ducked in the tavern and found Lea the knight to continue the melee. Also went into the Jorrvaskr and inexplicably found both Torvar and Farkas alive once more, and hostile! Its almost like all the companions are destined to be draugr. After killing them we completed our remaining task and left the city. Hopefully they stay dead this time as I got their inheritance letters!

Came across another falmer cave in the Northern mountains which was easily cleared, then pushed forward to the next brotherhood contract - a pirate named Safia. I hate pirates. Found her ship and killed her quickly as she ate a leek. Her crew put up a better fight though, and Lea was beheaded by a daedric axe. The lady wielding this weapon was the last alive and when I accidentally put my weapon away, she did the same willing to call it a draw. I took the opportunity to slit her throat when the idiot turned around. It's a good trick though, wonder if I can use it on more people? Anyway, since I was nearby I decided to drop into my Solitude estate to drop off gear and visit Njada and Jordis for a well earned massage. ;)

That's a pretty lousy last meal.

New Bad Guys and Allies

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

Cleared a few more caves, ruins and groves of various scum (including a spectre, which I haven't encountered before) in the region before finding the heavily fortified Fort Greenwall. Even with Odahviing's support, the bandits there were so numerous that Anneke's archery skills couldn't save her when we got separated from each other. I tried, but was too just too far and could only watch as they butchered her before I reached them. This angered me somewhat and I figured it was time to make use of all those 40 dragon souls I had stored up, learning all the shouts I had in reserve with a few more souls to spare. After dealing with them I pushed North to Kynesgrove and picked up Roggi Knot-beard who owed me for retrieving his shield much earlier on and after a brief stop over at Windhelm for a thief mission we proceeded to Dawnstar for a letter delivery run, taking out large snow cats, more bandits and a revenant(!?) on the way. Also ran into my other cat friend Kharjo on the road ("This one says Hey.") and noticed that since the war was over, there were awhole new bunch of mercs waiting around taverns looking for adventure (thanks to the "CM New Companions Mod").

The new Dark Brotherhood sanctuary is looking pretty spiffy too and already there are two new nameless assassins on the payroll. Seems they also kidnapped a bunch of prisoners while I was away, each of whom eagerly told me of a treasure in hopes for freedom. Alas, I can't free them yet or it may blow my secret plan. The redguard also asked me to kill a few more people so I tested Roggi's loyalty with the nearest target, an argonian vulture who if you read between the lines, may actually be causing ships to crash (remember someone actually goes through a pretty intense ritual to mark all these guys). Anyway, Roggi had no problem murdering the scum in his sleep.

With a two handed sword.

Also decided to hit three of the nearby imperial camps, slaughtering all the imperial allied losers we found. Just so happened I also had a task in Dragonbridge to talk to an imperial agent about brotherhood business. After he gave me his gold I promptly eliminated him and all of his compatriots, lessening the imperial taint on this glorious land. Soon after we came across a shack with a shaggy dog named Meeko who was looking for a new home. Given my track record for "surviving npc helpers", I decided to adopt the fellow to my house in Solitude. Njada always had wanted a dog, and I think she is safer now with both Jordis and Meeko looking after the place.

Back in the Saddle

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

After my much needed R&R, I decided to continue my adventures after feeling a strange shift in the air. Why were Jordis and Brelyna now wearing strange face paint? Why does Njada look more plain than usual? Oh that's right - because I am fooling around with a few of the many, many available mods for the game, the main ones being "Deadly Combat" and "Wars in Skyrim 4". After ditching some excess gear Brelyna and I head out to the city where I immediately notice some evil, pixelated fog. Turns out this was due to a driver update for NVidia rather than my custom mods so I fixed that by turning of FXAA (anti-ailiasing).

Decided to go for a ride out at the Whiterun plains and warmed up my killing skills on a bandit fighting a wolf, followed by battling a peculiarly named ice-breathing dragon who had great difficulty damaging me (I think this was due to "Deadly Dragons Lite" being incompatible with other stuff so I removed it). We then came across a shallow cave and proceeded to empty it of its undead inhabitants, led by a Volhikar master vampire. He put up a good fight but since he refused to follow me into the sunlight he became easy pickings for my bow (which now features more regular "slow mo kill shots"; sweet).

Confident in my abilities I then added the "Intense Difficulty x32" mod and promptly ran into a thief wearing full daedric gear whom I couldn't hurt (with a x16 backstab) and with one swing of her dagger sent me flying across the landscape (yeah that required a reload). Undeterred I then checked my journal and found we had an outstanding quest to find some writings for the mages guild. Brelyna's pointy ears perked up when she heard that. So off to another dank cave we went and the first critter we encounter is a Giant Frost Bear. The fight lasted for 30 minutes and took over 400 arrows. That was so ridiculous that right after, I removed the x32 difficulty mod.

Even the bear found it stupid.
Proceeding deeper we fought past some frost trolls and came upon a chest that just screamed "I'm a trap". As predicted upon touching it, two side doors opened and in came those bastard white elves, the falmer. Brelyna and I were doing a good job hiding in the shadows though as they seemingly patrolled past us. After a little while of patiently waiting and watching one of the scum I managed to slit his throat silently - then noticed Brelyna was gone! Greeeeat. Then I get a message that I've been expelled from the Mages College (magically I suppose)! What the heck is going on?

Continued backstabbing and archering the falmers and their pets to death as I proceeded down what turned out to be a pretty big cave. Further along I eventually did find Brelyna's body, planted face first on a mound of charrus eggs with her blue posterior presented invitingly between her spread legs. Not sure how the she got there (and in that position) but it looks like the falmer and/or the charrus had their way with her. Eventually found the item I came for and managed to exit via the neat little "shortcut" that's been designed into pretty much all the dungeons in the game - a feature I think that is really neat!

Gotta Catch them All

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

With the major crisis(es) averted, my vacation was cut short when I learned that the lich guys (dragon priests) are actually finite. Should have guessed with them all having names and all. Seems I missed something when I was last at Labyrinthian, and with Iona in tow we revisited the cold ruins and I found the wooden mask that when worn transports me to some sort of chapel for these -eight- dudes. I know I've killed a few of them already so it was a small adventure in itself returning to all my houses and storage areas to try find where I left them lying around. This involved thwarting an attack by an ancient dragon on the mage school and killing a pirate dremora (arr?) in its basement. Yeah that was strange. Anyway after much searching I already had five of the masks.

I recalled that I encountered one of these freaks beside a dragon roost previously so I decided to take up the Blades' offer on a wyrm hunt. One gutsy frost dragon decided to attack right at Sky Haven Temple's courtyard while I was there and after dispatching him met the Blade recruits, Mjoll, Vilkas and Athis to take down an elder dragon roosting at the top of some mountain. Alas, no lich guy here. Next stage of the plan was to take a game designer's view on the matter and if I was them I'd scatter them to the four winds (the edges of the map). Keeping an eye out for ancient nordic temples preferably high up in mountains I finally came across Forelhost where a dude pretending to be a Stormcloak officer (I knew he was shifty after pickpocketing his orders) tasked me to get the staff of the resident lich within. Turns out the old temple is home to a veritable army of Deathlords and Deathoverlords. Around midway Iona dies to their onslaught on one of those reverse spike trap pillar things.

Didn't matter as I backstabbed the rest of them and the lich face too. Couldn't kill him outright though, but Meridia's gift was sure handy in taking him out. Outside I find the traitor trying to get an imperial guy to scout the ruins out too and he rightly deduces that mr quest giver is a thalmor scum. After killing them both I picked up Brelyna the apprentice mage as my new escort as she owed me for that time she turned me green, and into a few animals. Turns out she's a very capable wizard, blasting things to hell and atronarch summoning left and right. After a few days of searching for the next target I get quite frustrated and run into Mister Wiki in a tavern who gives me directions on when to find the remaining two priest guys.

The next one we visit is royally screwed as another wizard named Anska joins the team to clear out his lair. I didn't have to do much at all in there, and the last lich didn't fare much better as he had a longer dungeon thus I was more annoyed when I reached him. :P Finally with all eight masks in hand I returned to their temple of masks and put all of theirs up on display... Seems there is a ninth mask as a reward. Slightly disappointed there was no super powerful foe wearing it though. No matter. After reclaiming all of those Brelyna and I headed back to Solitude to chillax for a bit with Jordis and Njada.

Mission complete.
I know that I'm only level 45 and I haven't cleared -all- the areas (haven't even found some either) but these adventures, despite being highly entertaining, have been causing some real life fatigue. With all the major quest lines out of the way I think its time for a break, especially with some big real life adventures coming up for me. Thanks for reading up to this point! Maybe this will be continued with a future DLC? Only time will tell. :)

The War that Waited for Me

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

At last, we get to the "great" war that has been the backdrop of this epic setting from the very first scene. It's kind of disappointing to report that the enemy troops barely scratch me at this stage (a level 45 thief), but it puts a good conclusion to the tale.

Jarl Bossman of Whiterun decided to side with the legion and is the first to fall to the Stormcloak army. Stupid man. The game also prevents me from executing him and his housecarl after defeating him as is what should have happened. Anyway, this is followed by the Stormcloaks attacking many forts scattered throughout the map. The last one even had a pseudo-hero in a high level bounty hunter who was there to hunt me down, but none were a match for the army that had a dragon providing air support. Hell, they had trouble fighting my horse!

After being promoted a few times I reached a rank that let me purchase property in Windhelm which I did, and had another fun battle on my way to the rallying point for the final siege where I was beset by a dragon and an Ancient Dragon at the same time! That was great! Though I think I should really rebuild those Blades to put these critters down before they get out of control.

The final domino of this one sided war was Solitude where General Tullius soiled himself just before Ulfric chopped his head off. I made sure to strip and pose the corpse of the traitorous whore Rikke on the table too as a message to anyone who joins the empire. They get f... killed. At last, the war was over (and all my bounties expunged... muahahaha).

With the empire now mostly driven out of Skyrim and the world eater disintegrated in heaven (lol what?) I decided to rebuild the Blades to handle the dragon slaying for awhile. First I took Mjoll the lioness who was accompanied by her puppy dog follower guy. I was going to take Lob the last orc next, but he was killed by a giant upon my arrival so I decided to look in Whiterun instead. To my surprise now Vilkas had come back to life (after I killed him at Boethiah's pillar?)! Well if the Blades need anything it certainly is people who don't know how to die so I brought both him and Athis to sign up at which point spy girl said they had enough people to start handling the dragons on their own.

This is excellent news as it means I can enjoy some well earned R&R for a while, so I decide to empty out the hall at Jovaskar by marrying Njada who has really grown on me. I tell her to go live in my house at Solitude with Jordis, then get Iona to follow me and meet up with them there for some fun times... maybe playing Dungeon Defenders or something. :P

Because going to the beach was not an option.

Alduin is a Punk

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

After a quick trip to a frozen island to open a giant metal box, Jordis and I finally signed up to aid Ulfric's rebellion. I was hoping that this would progress on it's own as I did forged my own path but it seems nothing gets done without my intervention. The first major strike was a seemingly pointless objective of retrieving an old crown which saw both stormcloaks and imperial scouts lose men for no good reason. After that Ulfric wanted me to deliver a message to Jarl Bossman of Whiterun to see which side of the fence he really was on, but Jarl Bossman would not accept the letter until I got rid of the dragon trapped in his castle. Damnit.

Forced to accept Odahviing's bargain, he flew me to Alduin's hideout where I backstabbed all his minions, including perhaps the easiest lich to defeat in one hit. Also defeated two guard dragons that challenged me on the way up. There were two more at the very top but they were too sleepy to fight so I jumped into Alduin's magic portal into the afterlife. Wait, did I just kill myself? Couldn't I have gotten here by jumping onto a bed of spikes? What's going on man.

I found a shortcut to Alduin's hiding place!
Sovngarde is a pretty boring place. There's a mead hall where you can sing and fight which is great. And ofcourse drink. But I don't drink. Ever. At least the sky is reeeeeally pretty here. There's supposedly mist too, created by Alduin himself as he chomps through spirits to be all spooky like, but my graphics card doesn't support the mist so I see everything clear as day and watch as the big dragon humorously chomps down on spawning spirits at random. It's especially funny when he does it just as they are mid sentence talking to me. :D

Anyway, after showing the dead champions who is boss, a trio of them come with me for the final showdown with Alduin and in Juris' words - "he's a punk". No challenge whatsoever, disappointing. After getting him out of the way and literally being yelled back to life, I find a bunch of dragons waiting for me at the top of the world. Finally a good fight! But I'm wrong. They're just there to worship me and fly off. Odahviing stays to offer his services whenever I need, and boy is that going to come in handy. *evil grin*

Once a Traitor, always a Traitor

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

Right after the truce meeting I headed up to Paarthumax with Ogol and we put and end to the traitorous worm, and while that upset the Greybeards a fair bit (well at least one of them, the others don't really talk much), my two blades friends were overjoyed. They also asked that I help rebuild their order so they can begin to hunt down the flying lizards once more. However I had other things to take care of when I returned to the Dark Brotherhood HQ to find that Cicero has gone beserk. I was tasked to find the fool and given the nightmare Shadowmere (very awesome horse) to catch him with. We tracked him back to another sanctuary inhabited by murderous spirits, and a named troll. Ogol met his end there and with a sorrowful heart also killed the happy jester. I was starting to like that guy.

Next orc from the village to join me was Ugor, and she quickly proved her skill by surviving an elder dragon and blood dragon simultaneous attack. That was a fun battle! After killing off another imperial fool I was tasked with eliminating a reknowned chef who would be cooking for the emperor. Up near where he was hiding we also helped Salma and Beemja with a cairn they wanted to clear before a quick trip back to Whiterun to trap the dragon Odahviing. After a relatively easy fight he was caught and spills the beans on his master's hideout. He also holds the bargaining chip of me needing him to fly there as it is inaccessible by foot. That's a shame, I remember wandering up the red mountain past all those cliff racers and tossing Dagoth Ur into the lava before even doing the main quest in Morrowind (didn't kill him, but I think that was a technical victory :P) however I guess Alduin has more smarts.

While I contemplated this offer it was back up to Solitude again to cook for the emperor. How the heck does anyone NOT suspect me of being an assassin while wearing complete nightingale armor, bristling with weapons, travelling with an orc body guard escapes me. Instead they accept I am a chef. Just more proof that the empire is filled with morons. The poison dish is served, the emperor is killed and I make my escape - or so I thought! Looks like I've been sold out, and the guy that just died was a body double (you think the emperor would have lots of that with there being magic in this world). After fighting my way to freedom I quickly returned to the Brotherhood sanctuary which was being successfully assaulted by imperial forces. Most of them were already horribly dead by the time I arrived which was awesome. I would have liked to do that myself but apparently missed my opportunity to do so (as Juris informed me later on). Anyway I "save" two of them and the corpse who tells me to continue to hunt the real emperor down.

I think he's a chef, or possibly a monk.
First I deal with the guard commander at Solitude docks, a short and sharp skirmish that resulted in their deaths and Ugor's. Afterwards I quickly snuck into Solitude (I'm a wanted man) to get Jordis from my house before we swam out to board the real Emperor's boat. There we hack, stab and shoot our way through all of it, leaving the ship devoid of life and the empire devoid of a leader. I also decide to take out the turncoat who ordered the hit, since he sits on the imperial council. The payment of 20,000 gold is nice, and the remaining Dark Brotherhood people request I use it to rebuild their guild and recognize me as leader. What idiots. How about I turn them in instead? Again not an option, so I leave them to rot with the corpse of their Night Mother and ignore her whispers in my head. They and the thieves guild can and should fade into oblivion for all I care.

One a side note, one guild that I felt was very under utilised was the Bard's College so it's good to see that the true bards like Malufenix didn't let that get in the way of them sharing their talents with the rest of us plebs. :D

Skyrim covers by Malufenix:
Dragonborn Comes
Age of Aggression

A whole lot of killing

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

Thanks to being interrupted by a Jester with a broken down carraige, I was left to catch up with the three fools at the dungeon itself where really only one of them was of any use. The first twin was too sad and the second was afraid of spiders (what? lol) so it was up to Aela and I to reach the deep crypt past all the warriors of old. Once there the ritual for the cure simply involved tossing a severed head into a flame. Easy enough. Since I brought extra, I decided to cure myself too. By strange coincidence I find myself now the leader of this Companions guild that has a few too many members that I dislike. The three amigos stay for awhile to worship the dead while I head on back to Solitude to infiltrate a Thalmor party at their embassy. I like this mission already.

After slipping away from the guests I make sure to assassinate every single Thalmor guard, assistant, official, or general supporter I find. Backstabbing and throat slitting has never felt so rewarding. Those I could not reach I had to kill using arrows through a fence, but I made sure none remained alive. With the information I needed in hand I was assisted by my housecarl Jordis to escape using a one-way underground tunnel (which leads me to question as to how she got in there in the first place). She also is a good fighter assisting me in defeating another Forsworn stronghold, a blood dragon, two elder dragons, and vasals of Mehrunes Dagon. Phew! That's a lot of killing.

Back in Winterhold the Mages College has tasked me with gathering more intel on this giant floaty orb thing as well, so I decide that it would probably be prudent to bring a mage on this task and with the novice Onmund offering to help after I retrieved his family necklace I told Jordis to take a break and meet me back at the house in Solitude. She was happy to do so, but first she pulled out her axe and began an uprovoked chopping on the Thalmor agent Ancano. Before I can do anything, Onmund is shooting lightning at her, defending the Thalmor scum! What the hell man. ANY SUPPORTER OF THE THALMOR MUST DIE. With daggers in hand I tore Onmund into tiny little pieces, leaving what was left of his corpse lying on display at the center of the hall. Ancano unfortunately is immortal (I did try killing him on our first meeting, stupid game), so eventually I managed to calm Jordis down enough to get her outside and on her way home. By luck and skill, no one actually saw me killing my fellow student, so I waltzed onto choice number two - the khajit J'zargo who had in a very sly way tried to kill me earlier I think.

This one thinks that it is you who is the fool.
Then it was off to Windhelm, a city of snow, racism and murder. By sheer first impression I already had an idea of who was the murderer anyway but no one was asking me to help solve the crime so I did the usual "talk to everyone and punch a few people in the face" routine. Finally also "properly" met Ulfric Stormcloak, leader of the rebellion. He has spirit and I am inclined to join his cause, but not yet - there still be the dragon mystery to solve. Apparently he's also quite racist (so am I, I hate all races that don't bow down to me) so it is a minor flaw compared to the many that plague the defunct empire.