[Part of the Party Time journal]
Twenty five years have passed with DL becoming a blacksmith in Markarth, Sky becoming a fixer in Rifter, Rose becoming an apothecary in Falkreath and mom taking up a courier job in Hjaalmarch. Now weaker than ever (pretty cool mechanic), they must be extra cautious to avoid the Thalmor patrols on the roads (lousy mechanic) as once again their cover lives are examined by the authorities. Sky gets info from the thieves guild that this round of inquisition is stemming from the unhappy Dunmer refugees from Morrowind who have even concocted a plot to assassinate High King Torygg! Alas, they are too late to warn the king who is slain by Ulfric Stormcloak at Solitude's Blue Palace and instead are drafted into opposing sides of the quickly brewing civil war: DL and Sky for the Stormcloaks, mom and Rose for the Imperials.
When Ulfric's execution is prevented by the arrival of a dragon, each side is tasked with trying to slay the great wyrms but while DL and Sky do that to collect lots of powerful dragon bone artifacts, Rose and mom assist the Imperials in gaining dominance over the province and gaining a windfall in wealth. Despite the head to head, they collectively discover it is actually a cult to Boethiah that is behind the latest events and access their hidden temple through a series of skill checks (super cool) and learn of the cults Dunmer master, Oviron.
While mom is tricked by the daedric prince Sanguine to ransack Windhelm, DL recruits deranged crusader Giara to the cause while Rose and Sky battle the entire graveyard of Morthal where Rose becomes a Thane and makes friends with "Edward" the vampire (we just call him that, but he makes an amazing summon in battle). Their new allies tell them of Oviron's location at Hrothgar, and so the entire team heads there beating down cultists on the way (need to keep their numbers down) and face Oviron and his cronies. Giara dies in battle but Oviron escapes through an oblivion gate. Not willing to let their prey escape, the team jump in to pursue him just as the gate closes in on itself... which is the end of the campaign.
An excellent finale with some great fights. I'm not convinced by the cultists you have to kill / Thalmor you have to evade mechanic though because they always move towards the active player, which means most of the time they're just walking in circles. The random monsters that just show up and go for cities are more fun, and don't hang around like a bad smell like those guys do.
Showing posts with label Markarth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Markarth. Show all posts
Wednesday, 28 June 2023
Skyrim: Adventure Game (Board Game) - The Cult
Wednesday, 20 July 2016
Skyrim: Simple Clarity
Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!
Brutus stayed outside while I went into the dwemer tunnels, finding it haunted by ghosts and ghosts in armor? They were led by someone named Kenneth and apparently were not aware they were already dead. I simplified this for them the best way I knew how. I gave his unique "panzer" shield to Brutus afterwards.
Since we were near Markarth we decided to make a detour there to pick up more of Shalidor's writings only to find they were hiding a small group of Thalmor in the palace!? Brutus and I lost oursh!t composure and so commenced the murder of those worms and any one else who decided that killing Thalmor is a crime (because it isn't). In record time Brutus and I had free run of the city and left with what we came for.
After dropping off the loot, Mellori dispatched us to some frozen ruins to collect a lock box. Brutus waited outside again while I navigated the traps and skeletons to find a portal back in time. This again? At least it was more straight forward this time, the khajiit thief who had the box got stuck in here and gone mad. I offered her clarity with my tried and true method: Death.
Brutus stayed outside while I went into the dwemer tunnels, finding it haunted by ghosts and ghosts in armor? They were led by someone named Kenneth and apparently were not aware they were already dead. I simplified this for them the best way I knew how. I gave his unique "panzer" shield to Brutus afterwards.
Since we were near Markarth we decided to make a detour there to pick up more of Shalidor's writings only to find they were hiding a small group of Thalmor in the palace!? Brutus and I lost our
He's learning a thing or two from me. :P
After dropping off the loot, Mellori dispatched us to some frozen ruins to collect a lock box. Brutus waited outside again while I navigated the traps and skeletons to find a portal back in time. This again? At least it was more straight forward this time, the khajiit thief who had the box got stuck in here and gone mad. I offered her clarity with my tried and true method: Death.
Some of those traps were a little nuts.
Friday, 17 June 2016
Skyrim: Out of the Ordinary
Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!
Our trip to Markarth was cut short by the fact that all the guards still were after me for slaying that wandering vamp in the streets (whose body was still lying there I might add, all these years later). Fortunately the Arbiter's helm also came with a special ability: Megaphoning his deep decree and scaring everyone away for a good amount of time. I used this to collect all the stuff in my home in that city and with Guomundr and Red Shadow's help (horsey), transported it all to Solitude.
In hind sight I should really just pay off the guards. That's what all this gold is for right? Anyway, once there I again studiously worked on blacksmithing, finding I could craft a most powerful weapon...
I soon received word from Njada that strange things were being seen on the Eastern border of the region, so I left Captain Guomundr there to watch over my stash in Solitude (the guy earned a break), and instead recruited Captain Gamli, Captain Ghoragdag and the Hunter to scout out the snowy, mountainous area. And boy did we find something out of the ordinary.
Our trip to Markarth was cut short by the fact that all the guards still were after me for slaying that wandering vamp in the streets (whose body was still lying there I might add, all these years later). Fortunately the Arbiter's helm also came with a special ability: Megaphoning his deep decree and scaring everyone away for a good amount of time. I used this to collect all the stuff in my home in that city and with Guomundr and Red Shadow's help (horsey), transported it all to Solitude.
In hind sight I should really just pay off the guards. That's what all this gold is for right? Anyway, once there I again studiously worked on blacksmithing, finding I could craft a most powerful weapon...
Totally not overpowered...
I soon received word from Njada that strange things were being seen on the Eastern border of the region, so I left Captain Guomundr there to watch over my stash in Solitude (the guy earned a break), and instead recruited Captain Gamli, Captain Ghoragdag and the Hunter to scout out the snowy, mountainous area. And boy did we find something out of the ordinary.
Friday, 11 January 2013
Girl Power!
Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!
On the way into Markarth (to try find more adventurers) I got a letter from Gunmar saying that there was a vamp parading around in plain sight in the city that needed slaying. Guess he magically knew I was headed this way? We find the red eyed bastard easy enough so I tell Sparrow to use his "master wizardry" to kill the dude in one shot. Sparrow refuses because he's really just a whiny little brat. Fine, I instead tell him to lay low while I snipe the mark. My arrow lands right into the vamp's face but he is still standing, dazed and not quite sure what hit him since we are stealthed quite a ways away. Then my genious hireling decides to charge, yelling and casting the brightest spells known to man attracting the attention of I'm guessing every single guard in the city. Moral of the story: SPARROW IS AN IDIOT. I let the guards gang rape him while I finished off the vamp at which point the "master wizard" (who I think got confused between wizard and wanker) was eviscerated at the meat stand and all the guards turned their attention to me.
With them swarming I was pushed back into the tavern where as luck would have it an adventuring party of five bosmer gals were present - and I learned later that they too had felt the not-so-gentle touch of the guards during their stay here. They decided to help me outright (way better than my previous companion) and the tavern erupted into battle, arrows and blood flying everywhere. Some of the civilians also became casualties in the mayhem and in the end every single guard was dead (and stripped - I do that to all my enemies) as well as all but one of the bosmer gals named Maeci. We got out of that city quicksmart and pushed on to Falkreath where the guards were again very welcoming (ie. not). A young archer named Chelsea was here but she was just old enough not to be called a kid so I told her to stay put while I went and talked to the Jarl about his guards.
Surprisingly the Jarl is very pleased with me, so why the hostility? Turns out his number one guardsman is an Imperial supporter, based on his armor. The burly man actually tries to fight me - laughable. Knowing he's not worth my time I let Maeci, who is half his weight and a head shorter, duel him. She guts that loser easily, right infront of a smirking Jarl. I kinda like the old guy now. Anyway we continue on to Riverwood where the guards are even MORE aggressive (they don't ask for my surrender now) and again we're forced to permanently subdue them. A Vigilant of Stendarr named Aluna helps us do this, and afterwards says that the Jarl of Whiterun has been hiring kidnappers to get girls from neighbouring towns for his own pleasure and must be stopped. WHAT? Looks like he is to be my next target... Jarl Bossman, This time fate will not protect you!
However at the tavern my plans are altered when I meet another adventurer, a pink haired she-knight named Lighting (yes that's how it was spelled) killing a random Orc in the tavern. She says she has been tracking a large group of daedric worshiping orsimer from the southern regions - probably the same bunch I heard about before - somewhere on the plains around Whiterun. They ravaged her village and she's out for revenge. Must be a small army to be able to just chaotically march through the lands though - especially Thalmor controlled lands. Must be something else behind their sudden appearance.
On the way into Markarth (to try find more adventurers) I got a letter from Gunmar saying that there was a vamp parading around in plain sight in the city that needed slaying. Guess he magically knew I was headed this way? We find the red eyed bastard easy enough so I tell Sparrow to use his "master wizardry" to kill the dude in one shot. Sparrow refuses because he's really just a whiny little brat. Fine, I instead tell him to lay low while I snipe the mark. My arrow lands right into the vamp's face but he is still standing, dazed and not quite sure what hit him since we are stealthed quite a ways away. Then my genious hireling decides to charge, yelling and casting the brightest spells known to man attracting the attention of I'm guessing every single guard in the city. Moral of the story: SPARROW IS AN IDIOT. I let the guards gang rape him while I finished off the vamp at which point the "master wizard" (who I think got confused between wizard and wanker) was eviscerated at the meat stand and all the guards turned their attention to me.
With them swarming I was pushed back into the tavern where as luck would have it an adventuring party of five bosmer gals were present - and I learned later that they too had felt the not-so-gentle touch of the guards during their stay here. They decided to help me outright (way better than my previous companion) and the tavern erupted into battle, arrows and blood flying everywhere. Some of the civilians also became casualties in the mayhem and in the end every single guard was dead (and stripped - I do that to all my enemies) as well as all but one of the bosmer gals named Maeci. We got out of that city quicksmart and pushed on to Falkreath where the guards were again very welcoming (ie. not). A young archer named Chelsea was here but she was just old enough not to be called a kid so I told her to stay put while I went and talked to the Jarl about his guards.
Girl Groups - always a good distraction.
Surprisingly the Jarl is very pleased with me, so why the hostility? Turns out his number one guardsman is an Imperial supporter, based on his armor. The burly man actually tries to fight me - laughable. Knowing he's not worth my time I let Maeci, who is half his weight and a head shorter, duel him. She guts that loser easily, right infront of a smirking Jarl. I kinda like the old guy now. Anyway we continue on to Riverwood where the guards are even MORE aggressive (they don't ask for my surrender now) and again we're forced to permanently subdue them. A Vigilant of Stendarr named Aluna helps us do this, and afterwards says that the Jarl of Whiterun has been hiring kidnappers to get girls from neighbouring towns for his own pleasure and must be stopped. WHAT? Looks like he is to be my next target... Jarl Bossman, This time fate will not protect you!
However at the tavern my plans are altered when I meet another adventurer, a pink haired she-knight named Lighting (yes that's how it was spelled) killing a random Orc in the tavern. She says she has been tracking a large group of daedric worshiping orsimer from the southern regions - probably the same bunch I heard about before - somewhere on the plains around Whiterun. They ravaged her village and she's out for revenge. Must be a small army to be able to just chaotically march through the lands though - especially Thalmor controlled lands. Must be something else behind their sudden appearance.
Monday, 7 January 2013
Immortal Blood
Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!
While Njada and the rest of the Dawnguard secured the castle, Serana and I headed up the last tower to the cathedral where we found Lord Harkon waiting for us. He has a few choice words for his daughter and she for him which distracts him long enough to not notice me sneaking behind his back. When he finally realizes I'm missing, I hit him with a sunhallowed arrow and commence the battle. He manages to survive for awhile, prolonging the fight with summoned scum but in the end, he is turned into a pile or red dirt on the floor.
Now if -this- was the boss I think we would all be dead. :P
Once he is dead Njada and Isran enter, the latter thanking Serana for her help and the former just happy to see me ok. As we are leaving, I convinced Serana to find a cure for her vampirism and after thanking me she headed off on her own to pursue that personal goal. Provided she is successful this would just left one more vampire in her house, her mother. After making a quick trip into the Soul Cairn once again I found Valerica at the boneyard and executed her on the spot. Rather, I would have liked to if she wasn't protected by threads of fate (DAMN GAME).
Instead I tell her Harkon is gone and she returns to the castle to pursue her studies. In necromancy. As a vampire. This riles me up pretty bad, but there's not much I can do about it right now so I make like the Terminator and tell her "I'll be back". After a quick stop to Markarth to sell Calcemo an exploding dwarven bolt, I take Njada to visit Fort Dawnguard since she wanted to have a look before heading off to her new residence at Windhelm. While there I agree to help out with a few loose ends - more vamps on the loose whose locations were found from the castle tomes. The elf Beleval is assigned this patrol with me and her skills are tested early as we ran into (and slew) a pair of vampire scouts just outside Fort Dawnguard's walls.
While Njada and the rest of the Dawnguard secured the castle, Serana and I headed up the last tower to the cathedral where we found Lord Harkon waiting for us. He has a few choice words for his daughter and she for him which distracts him long enough to not notice me sneaking behind his back. When he finally realizes I'm missing, I hit him with a sunhallowed arrow and commence the battle. He manages to survive for awhile, prolonging the fight with summoned scum but in the end, he is turned into a pile or red dirt on the floor.
Now if -this- was the boss I think we would all be dead. :P
Once he is dead Njada and Isran enter, the latter thanking Serana for her help and the former just happy to see me ok. As we are leaving, I convinced Serana to find a cure for her vampirism and after thanking me she headed off on her own to pursue that personal goal. Provided she is successful this would just left one more vampire in her house, her mother. After making a quick trip into the Soul Cairn once again I found Valerica at the boneyard and executed her on the spot. Rather, I would have liked to if she wasn't protected by threads of fate (DAMN GAME).
Instead I tell her Harkon is gone and she returns to the castle to pursue her studies. In necromancy. As a vampire. This riles me up pretty bad, but there's not much I can do about it right now so I make like the Terminator and tell her "I'll be back". After a quick stop to Markarth to sell Calcemo an exploding dwarven bolt, I take Njada to visit Fort Dawnguard since she wanted to have a look before heading off to her new residence at Windhelm. While there I agree to help out with a few loose ends - more vamps on the loose whose locations were found from the castle tomes. The elf Beleval is assigned this patrol with me and her skills are tested early as we ran into (and slew) a pair of vampire scouts just outside Fort Dawnguard's walls.
Wednesday, 26 December 2012
Scavenging Spirit
Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!
Located Valerica, Serana's mother who sheds some light on the history of vampires and the kinky nature of Molag Bal which may explain why she has such a fascination for boners *cough* skeletons. Anyway she's trapped in the boneyard (rofl) and needs us to go slay the keepers that are powering the force field. These three headless bosses are impressive in their dragonbone gear but not really difficult to defeat. The last one was the easiest, I threw him from his floating tower and took his bow.
With the shield down we finally claim the elder scroll from Valerica - after easily beating up a dragon that lurks down here. The draggy is surprisingly resilient to death though, and we have a chat later where we exchange names: he calls me Vanquisher, I call him Dummy. We're cool. Though Serana wants to leave now that we got what we came for, I decide to finish off this zone thoroughly so I won't have to come back which means spending hours looking for pages of "Saint" Jiub's book. Goddamn.
I found the skull of a dead horse (who I can't summon due to lack of magicka), the shards required to awaken the reaper (total pushover), and the gem with part of my own soul before I found all ten pages for the fool. Fortunately his reward for it is a really awesome amulet which almost makes it all worthwhile. We then hoofed it back to the land of the living and instead of heading back to Dawnguard HQ decided to do some quick quest detours on the way back starting with stealing some schematics from the falmer beneath Markarth.
Using Whirlwind Sprint made this an incredibly quick task for me since I could jump across an inconceivably large gap to the main control chest right away. Serana on the other hand seemed content jumping off the highest ledge into the falmer infested ruins and zapping her way out. I didn't really concern myself since she was evidently very capable in combat. She also has more personality than most of the NPCs, making me kinda wish Bethesda had a few more people with this much depth (and it's not super deep at all).
Located Valerica, Serana's mother who sheds some light on the history of vampires and the kinky nature of Molag Bal which may explain why she has such a fascination for boners *cough* skeletons. Anyway she's trapped in the boneyard (rofl) and needs us to go slay the keepers that are powering the force field. These three headless bosses are impressive in their dragonbone gear but not really difficult to defeat. The last one was the easiest, I threw him from his floating tower and took his bow.
With the shield down we finally claim the elder scroll from Valerica - after easily beating up a dragon that lurks down here. The draggy is surprisingly resilient to death though, and we have a chat later where we exchange names: he calls me Vanquisher, I call him Dummy. We're cool. Though Serana wants to leave now that we got what we came for, I decide to finish off this zone thoroughly so I won't have to come back which means spending hours looking for pages of "Saint" Jiub's book. Goddamn.
I found the skull of a dead horse (who I can't summon due to lack of magicka), the shards required to awaken the reaper (total pushover), and the gem with part of my own soul before I found all ten pages for the fool. Fortunately his reward for it is a really awesome amulet which almost makes it all worthwhile. We then hoofed it back to the land of the living and instead of heading back to Dawnguard HQ decided to do some quick quest detours on the way back starting with stealing some schematics from the falmer beneath Markarth.
Why don't you obey me?
Using Whirlwind Sprint made this an incredibly quick task for me since I could jump across an inconceivably large gap to the main control chest right away. Serana on the other hand seemed content jumping off the highest ledge into the falmer infested ruins and zapping her way out. I didn't really concern myself since she was evidently very capable in combat. She also has more personality than most of the NPCs, making me kinda wish Bethesda had a few more people with this much depth (and it's not super deep at all).
Wednesday, 19 December 2012
Two for Two
Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!
The first person I went to recruit was the tamer Gunmar who I found outside a nearby cave. Seems he was being tracked too, by a bounty hunter! After bonding through shared manslaughter he agrees to join after I help him kill a murderous bear. Aren't all the bears here murderous anyway? Once that easy task was done I trekked back to Skyhaven Temple to get Wynd, the transgendered elf, for patrol next - starting at Markarth (where I finally found my 100k gold - yay) and then went to find the artificer at her remote campsite beside a river.
I guess some bears are more murderous than others.
Once we got there we were met by the strangest sight - a thalmor soldier fighting a giant crab fighting a frost dragon in the river itself, and to make matters worse Sorine the artificer suddenly charges into the fray. Knowing we kinda need her alive we engaged all the opponents, drawing their ire. Wynd made the mistake of getting too close though, and there was little I could do as the giant crab grabbed him in its giant pincer and then have the dragon ice them both. His body was swept down with the current by the time I killed the dragon. Sorine wasn't even thankful, but at least she agreed to join the Dawnguard after I returned her bag of gyros to her.
While there I spotted a cave I hadn't been in before and marked it on my map, then returned to Skyhaven Temple for reinforcements and found Vilkas alive and well again, waiting for me at the entrance with his wolfish. I seriously have lost count how many times I have killed this were-draugr. He asked if I wanted a lesson in two handed weapons, so I requested a duel the traditional way - I punched him in the face three times. In the course of our battle I sliced him, hacked him, and pushed him down a small rocky cliff (with me in pursuit) and when he was on his knees saying "Enough! I am no ma..." I stopped him right there by grabbing his hair and slicing through his neck with Rayna's daedric blade, beheading the ugly bastard. Let's see if he can regenerate from that.
The first person I went to recruit was the tamer Gunmar who I found outside a nearby cave. Seems he was being tracked too, by a bounty hunter! After bonding through shared manslaughter he agrees to join after I help him kill a murderous bear. Aren't all the bears here murderous anyway? Once that easy task was done I trekked back to Skyhaven Temple to get Wynd, the transgendered elf, for patrol next - starting at Markarth (where I finally found my 100k gold - yay) and then went to find the artificer at her remote campsite beside a river.
I guess some bears are more murderous than others.
Once we got there we were met by the strangest sight - a thalmor soldier fighting a giant crab fighting a frost dragon in the river itself, and to make matters worse Sorine the artificer suddenly charges into the fray. Knowing we kinda need her alive we engaged all the opponents, drawing their ire. Wynd made the mistake of getting too close though, and there was little I could do as the giant crab grabbed him in its giant pincer and then have the dragon ice them both. His body was swept down with the current by the time I killed the dragon. Sorine wasn't even thankful, but at least she agreed to join the Dawnguard after I returned her bag of gyros to her.
While there I spotted a cave I hadn't been in before and marked it on my map, then returned to Skyhaven Temple for reinforcements and found Vilkas alive and well again, waiting for me at the entrance with his wolfish. I seriously have lost count how many times I have killed this were-draugr. He asked if I wanted a lesson in two handed weapons, so I requested a duel the traditional way - I punched him in the face three times. In the course of our battle I sliced him, hacked him, and pushed him down a small rocky cliff (with me in pursuit) and when he was on his knees saying "Enough! I am no ma..." I stopped him right there by grabbing his hair and slicing through his neck with Rayna's daedric blade, beheading the ugly bastard. Let's see if he can regenerate from that.
Sunday, 16 September 2012
Fighting the Forsworn Army
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!
Received a letter from Tolfdir via courier today, while he hasn't found a cure for my condition yet he has learned that the spell cast upon me has a limited range and must be done from a pretty high altitude. Given I was in Markarth the best spot would be from the city itself, but since that's too obvious the second best spot would be at Dead Crone Rock which is where I needed to head next. First I managed to finally upgrade all my gear again then with Kharjo in tow we followed the path, right into a wandering bandit chief party. What the hell. There were four of them! All chiefs, no indians. After that fight we ran into a witch and a Shadow Nightingale!? Seems like something really wants to keep me away from this place.
Managed to kill them too then had a bit of peace and quiet until we reached the forsworn camp at the base of Dead Crone Rock. Despite killing the sentries quietly and smoothly the sheer number of opponents here was problematic, but Kharjo and I persevered (mainly using lots of food) and slaying them all. We were in for a surprise at the higher level though, where my missing horse Shadowmere was fighting the Briarheart and his pet troll! WTF. No Idea how the hell that happened, but I'll take any help I can get! After we cleared out the outside we assaulted the tower itself, easily clearing out the few remaining forsworn and reaching the highest point with the Word wall. There I found the tome that had been stolen from the mages college, and after browsing some pages found what was afflicting me. More importantly I found what I needed to cure myself.
Other than a skilled mage (which I'm not), I was going to need bear claws, taproot and a giant's toe - and I already had all except the last. However I knew exactly where to get one - slightly annoyed I had to leave Shadowmere again though, due to the non-iron metals in his saddle (or being, what the heck type of horse is he anyway). We returned back down the road where we were ambushed by a lone wood elf (stupid girl) and then ran into Maiq the Liar. Chatted for a bit then moved on to Karthspire. I knew there was a dead giant there that would be easy pickings. What I didn't know was that all the forsworn had returned to the area, making it a hell of a task getting to it given I was out of arrows. In the end we just had to bolt, grabbing the toe while evading spells and arrows of the defenders then running quickly up into Sky Haven Temple where they refused to follow.
All that's missing is a Scorpion King.
Received a letter from Tolfdir via courier today, while he hasn't found a cure for my condition yet he has learned that the spell cast upon me has a limited range and must be done from a pretty high altitude. Given I was in Markarth the best spot would be from the city itself, but since that's too obvious the second best spot would be at Dead Crone Rock which is where I needed to head next. First I managed to finally upgrade all my gear again then with Kharjo in tow we followed the path, right into a wandering bandit chief party. What the hell. There were four of them! All chiefs, no indians. After that fight we ran into a witch and a Shadow Nightingale!? Seems like something really wants to keep me away from this place.
Managed to kill them too then had a bit of peace and quiet until we reached the forsworn camp at the base of Dead Crone Rock. Despite killing the sentries quietly and smoothly the sheer number of opponents here was problematic, but Kharjo and I persevered (mainly using lots of food) and slaying them all. We were in for a surprise at the higher level though, where my missing horse Shadowmere was fighting the Briarheart and his pet troll! WTF. No Idea how the hell that happened, but I'll take any help I can get! After we cleared out the outside we assaulted the tower itself, easily clearing out the few remaining forsworn and reaching the highest point with the Word wall. There I found the tome that had been stolen from the mages college, and after browsing some pages found what was afflicting me. More importantly I found what I needed to cure myself.
Other than a skilled mage (which I'm not), I was going to need bear claws, taproot and a giant's toe - and I already had all except the last. However I knew exactly where to get one - slightly annoyed I had to leave Shadowmere again though, due to the non-iron metals in his saddle (or being, what the heck type of horse is he anyway). We returned back down the road where we were ambushed by a lone wood elf (stupid girl) and then ran into Maiq the Liar. Chatted for a bit then moved on to Karthspire. I knew there was a dead giant there that would be easy pickings. What I didn't know was that all the forsworn had returned to the area, making it a hell of a task getting to it given I was out of arrows. In the end we just had to bolt, grabbing the toe while evading spells and arrows of the defenders then running quickly up into Sky Haven Temple where they refused to follow.
All that's missing is a Scorpion King.
Thursday, 13 September 2012
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.
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.
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Skyrim Scenario: A Curse of Iron
Not really part of my "adventures" per se, but it's Skyrim related! :P
Preface:
Inspired by the challenge section of the Skyrim Blog, I made this for Skyrim fans such as myself who wanted another adventure to run, either out of fandom, boredom or just more roleplaying story material. It can be done by anyone, but is more geared towards people who have already finished the civil war and Alduin storylines. Since the difficulty level is more or less self-imposed, feel free to tailor and adjust it to your play style. After all, there's no point in slugging it out with this just to be hardcore if you're not having fun. You can also post copies of it elsewhere as long as you are nice enough to give a link back to here! :)
Introduction:
After completing a task or visiting a friend in the Reach, you decide to spend the night in the mountain side city of Markarth. It is a restless sleep, plagued by strange nightmares and you awake with a cold sweat and a minor headache. Somehow you feel weaker and can sense the lingering taste of magicka all around you. Deciding to investigate you grab your gear but suddenly let go with a small yelp. Almost all your items now burn you when you touch them... except those made of iron, cloth, hide and leather. The same goes for any enchanted equipment of any kind, and when you uncork a healing potion to remedy your burn the mere smell of it makes you dizzy and nauseus - as if it was poison! You try to curse out loud but all you can manage is a soft whisper.
Setup (do all of this first):
You'll need a standard six-sided dice (1d6).
Make a Clean Save - one you won't overwrite so you can undo everything here if need be.
Probably want to make a subset of saves while doing this.
The No Essential NPCs mod will make this more fun, but not necessary.
Get a follower, preferably one you met later in the game who matches your build - ie. mages get a mage, fighters get a fighter etc.
Test off a save to make sure that if you punch them enough, they will aggro and fight you.
*In some follower mods they never fight back
Give this follower ALL your current/best stuff and dismiss them. Remember who they are and where they stay though as you'll need them again later.
Anything they cannot carry, just store in your house.
You cannot use this follower for the duration of this quest arc until specified, at which point they MUST be used.
Fast Travel to Markarth to begin.
Rules (for the duration of this Scenario):
Must start naked at either the inn or your house with no gear in your pack (some quest stuff will be stuck in there, ignore those).
You can only use weapons (and arrows) made of wood or iron. Crossbows have steel, so you cannot use those either.
You cannot use any magically enchanted items regardless of base material.
You cannot consume any type of potion. Food is ok.
You cannot use Dragon Shouts. Racial abilities and other powers are ok (even the ones that require vocalisasion, somehow :P).
You cannot wear any anything on your head (the sickness makes it too hot).
Being weakened, you can only use Hide shields, no other type.
You can only carry three "weapons" (arrows excluded) at a time, with a shield counting as one.
Being weakened, you can only wear one armor part made of iron. The rest -have- to be hide, fur, non-studded leather or clothes.
Studded-leather counts as being partly iron (of which you can only wear one armor part).
You cannot wear Banded-Iron (despite the name) because it is made with a non Iron Ingot.
To keep it simple, you cannot wear/use faction, falmer or forsworn items either (alternatively use best judgement).
The idea is to keep you stuck with basic gear so dragonbone, glass, ancient nord stuff etc is out of bounds.
Assume horse shoes and saddle parts have steel. You must be on foot.
Carraiges also have steel. No fast travelling (by carraige or by auto-map)
You cannot use any spells from your best 3 schools of magic.
From your worst 2 schools you can only use Novice level spells.
If all your magic schools are even, assign each a number and roll the dice to determine which two you can use.
Don't prepare any "usable" stuff or buy any before beginning, there's enough lying about.
You are deathly allergic to gold too. Don't carry any (no shopping).
You cannot pick up any ore/ingots or jewelry other than Iron.
Use of followers is up to you. If they are also affected by the spell is your choice. May need to "console" gear off them though.
You must do the Objectives in order.
Finding People:
In parts of this quest you need to find specific people based on clues. How this works is easy. Everytime you begin dialouge with someone (who is not a child or your "contact") roll the dice. If you roll equal or below the number of clues you have for that city, then that is the person you were looking for. If you roll above, then it is either not the person or you failed to recognize them and must continue the search. Try not to talk to the same person continously though.
Getting Clues:
Mainly used for Finding People (above). You start with 0 clues (no clue whatsoever, you clueless fool :P).
You gain +1 clue (once) for talking to someone in a bar or tavern.
Once you have, cannot gain further clues from anyone else in that particular bar or tavern.
You gain +1 clue (once) for talking to kids in the city.
Once you have, you cannot gain further clues from talking to any other kids in that city.
You can also gain clues from Objectives and they will be noted.
THE QUEST:
Objective 1: Cross-Country Trek
It is clear that this is no ordinary sickness so who best to determine how to nullify your condition than the people at the Mages College at Winterhold? Make your way there and talk to Tolfdir (or whoever you want your contact to be).
Objective 2: Chasing a Shadow
Your contact is intrigued to hear of your predicament. While they look into a cure, they tell you that someone has also been messing with the library a few days ago in the section of banned magicka, yet somehow they have managed to remain undetected by spells. Your task is to ask around and figure out who was snooping about. Given that no one has come nor gone your contact hopes this thief is still in town, hiding in plain sight. Fortunately your contact has given you some idea of who it might be (+1 Clue).
Once you find this person (see "Finding People") above, you are to confront them and they let slip that they are guilty of stealing something from the library. You must either kill or beat this person down (to kneeling) to make them spill the beans. Once this is done, return to your contact to hand over a coded letter you found on that person. Also reset your clues to 0.
Objective 3: Agents of the Thalmor
Your contact is surprised to hear of this turn of events and after decoding the letter informs you that the person you beat/killed is working for the Thalmor! It seems the Thalmor have taken a direct interest in you, Dragonborn. Having an individual with such powers that surpass even the non-threatening Greybeards, (even if you are a thalmor supporter) isn't in the Dominion's greater interests and as such have sent agents to weaken this abomination of nature (that's you) and more firmly take the rebellious region into their elvish grasp.
It seems there are more "agents" around and each of them participated in the ritual that has weakened you. Based on the note it sounds like they are hiding in each of the main cities in the realm. If you want the spell to be broken, you must find them all and either eliminate their life force (kill them) or break their will (beat them down). These spies could be anyone (though due to the game, kids are safetly ruled out). Remember, each time you reach a new city/region reset your clues to 0.
Just to confirm, the cities you need to visit are:
Riften, Solitude, Whiterun, Windhelm, Dawnstar, Falkreath, Morthal, Markarth
You can visit the cities in any order BUT you must leave Markarth for LAST.
You already beat/killed the person in Winterhold. :P
Objective 4: Forsaken Climb
After escaping from Markarth you'll receive a letter from your contact at the Mage's College. While they have had no luck with a cure, they've found that the spell cast upon you has a maximum range and requires high altitude. Given that you were cursed at Markarth the most logical place that the Thalmor agents could have cast the spell is at Dead Crone Rock (since they weren't in the city itself - too obvious). Your task is to get up to the Word-wall there to look for anything they left behind.
Objective 5: The Hunter's Way
Once you've reached the chest at the word-wall you find a heavy tome, one obviously belonging to the Mages Library. You manage to find the curse placed on you and though you don't quite understand it, you can tell that you will need the same ingredients they used to cast it in the first place. Roll the dice three times to determine what you need to find and collect them in any order! :)
Roll #1:
1-2 Frostbite Venom
3-4 Sabrecat Eye
5-6 Bear Claws
Roll #2:
1-2 Falmer Ear
3-4 Vampire Dust
5-6 Spriggan Taproot
Roll #3:
1-2 Mammoth Tusk
3-4 Giant's Toe
5-6 Dragon Bone (yeah not sure why you can't wear the armor if you're picking up their bones? Design flaw! :P)
Just 1 of each will do. Once you have all three of them, proceed to Objective 6.
Objective 6: Spell-Jammer
With all the ingredients collected and heavy tome in hand, you are now ready to return to Winterhold - however you receive a letter from your follower who has all your gear (from the setup section). Apparently they have information about another Thalmor agent still at large. You need to go to wherever they are and pick them up. Once you do, they are very apologetic about interrupting your trip to Winterhold and insist you do that first before tracking down their lead. May want to save it here to revert your next action.
Turns out your follower -is- the last Thalmor agent / hired merc. At any location you see fit where it's just the two of you, they turn on you. You need to dismiss them and then punch them a bit until they aggro you. Once they pull out their weapons you can begin your duel properly. This should mean you are basically fighting your doppleganger who has all your good gear. You must either kill them, or beat them down (then surrender - stupid AI) to win. If they are at Winterhold itself, just fight in the courtyard or on the roof.
With that out of the way, continue back to your contact at Winterhold who tells you the ritual to cure yourself is actually pretty easy since you are dragonborn. Just head to the roof, eat the edible reagents and drop all the remaining ones on the floor and then use any Dragon shout. Once you've done that - the curse is broken! Congratulations and hope you had fun! :)
Shackles - how every Elder Scrolls game begins! :P
Preface:
Inspired by the challenge section of the Skyrim Blog, I made this for Skyrim fans such as myself who wanted another adventure to run, either out of fandom, boredom or just more roleplaying story material. It can be done by anyone, but is more geared towards people who have already finished the civil war and Alduin storylines. Since the difficulty level is more or less self-imposed, feel free to tailor and adjust it to your play style. After all, there's no point in slugging it out with this just to be hardcore if you're not having fun. You can also post copies of it elsewhere as long as you are nice enough to give a link back to here! :)
Introduction:
After completing a task or visiting a friend in the Reach, you decide to spend the night in the mountain side city of Markarth. It is a restless sleep, plagued by strange nightmares and you awake with a cold sweat and a minor headache. Somehow you feel weaker and can sense the lingering taste of magicka all around you. Deciding to investigate you grab your gear but suddenly let go with a small yelp. Almost all your items now burn you when you touch them... except those made of iron, cloth, hide and leather. The same goes for any enchanted equipment of any kind, and when you uncork a healing potion to remedy your burn the mere smell of it makes you dizzy and nauseus - as if it was poison! You try to curse out loud but all you can manage is a soft whisper.
Setup (do all of this first):
You'll need a standard six-sided dice (1d6).
Make a Clean Save - one you won't overwrite so you can undo everything here if need be.
Probably want to make a subset of saves while doing this.
The No Essential NPCs mod will make this more fun, but not necessary.
Get a follower, preferably one you met later in the game who matches your build - ie. mages get a mage, fighters get a fighter etc.
Test off a save to make sure that if you punch them enough, they will aggro and fight you.
*In some follower mods they never fight back
Give this follower ALL your current/best stuff and dismiss them. Remember who they are and where they stay though as you'll need them again later.
Anything they cannot carry, just store in your house.
You cannot use this follower for the duration of this quest arc until specified, at which point they MUST be used.
Fast Travel to Markarth to begin.
Rules (for the duration of this Scenario):
Must start naked at either the inn or your house with no gear in your pack (some quest stuff will be stuck in there, ignore those).
You can only use weapons (and arrows) made of wood or iron. Crossbows have steel, so you cannot use those either.
You cannot use any magically enchanted items regardless of base material.
You cannot consume any type of potion. Food is ok.
You cannot use Dragon Shouts. Racial abilities and other powers are ok (even the ones that require vocalisasion, somehow :P).
You cannot wear any anything on your head (the sickness makes it too hot).
Being weakened, you can only use Hide shields, no other type.
You can only carry three "weapons" (arrows excluded) at a time, with a shield counting as one.
Being weakened, you can only wear one armor part made of iron. The rest -have- to be hide, fur, non-studded leather or clothes.
Studded-leather counts as being partly iron (of which you can only wear one armor part).
You cannot wear Banded-Iron (despite the name) because it is made with a non Iron Ingot.
To keep it simple, you cannot wear/use faction, falmer or forsworn items either (alternatively use best judgement).
The idea is to keep you stuck with basic gear so dragonbone, glass, ancient nord stuff etc is out of bounds.
Assume horse shoes and saddle parts have steel. You must be on foot.
Carraiges also have steel. No fast travelling (by carraige or by auto-map)
You cannot use any spells from your best 3 schools of magic.
From your worst 2 schools you can only use Novice level spells.
If all your magic schools are even, assign each a number and roll the dice to determine which two you can use.
Don't prepare any "usable" stuff or buy any before beginning, there's enough lying about.
You are deathly allergic to gold too. Don't carry any (no shopping).
You cannot pick up any ore/ingots or jewelry other than Iron.
Use of followers is up to you. If they are also affected by the spell is your choice. May need to "console" gear off them though.
You must do the Objectives in order.
Finding People:
In parts of this quest you need to find specific people based on clues. How this works is easy. Everytime you begin dialouge with someone (who is not a child or your "contact") roll the dice. If you roll equal or below the number of clues you have for that city, then that is the person you were looking for. If you roll above, then it is either not the person or you failed to recognize them and must continue the search. Try not to talk to the same person continously though.
Getting Clues:
Mainly used for Finding People (above). You start with 0 clues (no clue whatsoever, you clueless fool :P).
You gain +1 clue (once) for talking to someone in a bar or tavern.
Once you have, cannot gain further clues from anyone else in that particular bar or tavern.
You gain +1 clue (once) for talking to kids in the city.
Once you have, you cannot gain further clues from talking to any other kids in that city.
You can also gain clues from Objectives and they will be noted.
THE QUEST:
Objective 1: Cross-Country Trek
It is clear that this is no ordinary sickness so who best to determine how to nullify your condition than the people at the Mages College at Winterhold? Make your way there and talk to Tolfdir (or whoever you want your contact to be).
Objective 2: Chasing a Shadow
Your contact is intrigued to hear of your predicament. While they look into a cure, they tell you that someone has also been messing with the library a few days ago in the section of banned magicka, yet somehow they have managed to remain undetected by spells. Your task is to ask around and figure out who was snooping about. Given that no one has come nor gone your contact hopes this thief is still in town, hiding in plain sight. Fortunately your contact has given you some idea of who it might be (+1 Clue).
Once you find this person (see "Finding People") above, you are to confront them and they let slip that they are guilty of stealing something from the library. You must either kill or beat this person down (to kneeling) to make them spill the beans. Once this is done, return to your contact to hand over a coded letter you found on that person. Also reset your clues to 0.
Objective 3: Agents of the Thalmor
Your contact is surprised to hear of this turn of events and after decoding the letter informs you that the person you beat/killed is working for the Thalmor! It seems the Thalmor have taken a direct interest in you, Dragonborn. Having an individual with such powers that surpass even the non-threatening Greybeards, (even if you are a thalmor supporter) isn't in the Dominion's greater interests and as such have sent agents to weaken this abomination of nature (that's you) and more firmly take the rebellious region into their elvish grasp.
It seems there are more "agents" around and each of them participated in the ritual that has weakened you. Based on the note it sounds like they are hiding in each of the main cities in the realm. If you want the spell to be broken, you must find them all and either eliminate their life force (kill them) or break their will (beat them down). These spies could be anyone (though due to the game, kids are safetly ruled out). Remember, each time you reach a new city/region reset your clues to 0.
Just to confirm, the cities you need to visit are:
Riften, Solitude, Whiterun, Windhelm, Dawnstar, Falkreath, Morthal, Markarth
You can visit the cities in any order BUT you must leave Markarth for LAST.
You already beat/killed the person in Winterhold. :P
Objective 4: Forsaken Climb
After escaping from Markarth you'll receive a letter from your contact at the Mage's College. While they have had no luck with a cure, they've found that the spell cast upon you has a maximum range and requires high altitude. Given that you were cursed at Markarth the most logical place that the Thalmor agents could have cast the spell is at Dead Crone Rock (since they weren't in the city itself - too obvious). Your task is to get up to the Word-wall there to look for anything they left behind.
Objective 5: The Hunter's Way
Once you've reached the chest at the word-wall you find a heavy tome, one obviously belonging to the Mages Library. You manage to find the curse placed on you and though you don't quite understand it, you can tell that you will need the same ingredients they used to cast it in the first place. Roll the dice three times to determine what you need to find and collect them in any order! :)
Roll #1:
1-2 Frostbite Venom
3-4 Sabrecat Eye
5-6 Bear Claws
Roll #2:
1-2 Falmer Ear
3-4 Vampire Dust
5-6 Spriggan Taproot
Roll #3:
1-2 Mammoth Tusk
3-4 Giant's Toe
5-6 Dragon Bone (yeah not sure why you can't wear the armor if you're picking up their bones? Design flaw! :P)
Just 1 of each will do. Once you have all three of them, proceed to Objective 6.
Objective 6: Spell-Jammer
With all the ingredients collected and heavy tome in hand, you are now ready to return to Winterhold - however you receive a letter from your follower who has all your gear (from the setup section). Apparently they have information about another Thalmor agent still at large. You need to go to wherever they are and pick them up. Once you do, they are very apologetic about interrupting your trip to Winterhold and insist you do that first before tracking down their lead. May want to save it here to revert your next action.
Turns out your follower -is- the last Thalmor agent / hired merc. At any location you see fit where it's just the two of you, they turn on you. You need to dismiss them and then punch them a bit until they aggro you. Once they pull out their weapons you can begin your duel properly. This should mean you are basically fighting your doppleganger who has all your good gear. You must either kill them, or beat them down (then surrender - stupid AI) to win. If they are at Winterhold itself, just fight in the courtyard or on the roof.
With that out of the way, continue back to your contact at Winterhold who tells you the ritual to cure yourself is actually pretty easy since you are dragonborn. Just head to the roof, eat the edible reagents and drop all the remaining ones on the floor and then use any Dragon shout. Once you've done that - the curse is broken! Congratulations and hope you had fun! :)
Friday, 31 August 2012
A Test of Skill
Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!
Moved on to the last bit of training using some of the challenges found on the Skyrim Blog. 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. Also it seems some of the towns have also been reading the blog, since they were hiring skilled unscroupulous people to test the defenses and skills of their guardsmen! Since I fit the bill, they granted me a short truce to put them to the test. ;)
Challenge: Whiterun Crime Caper
5 minutes to cause chaos and rack up the highest bounty you can! No shouts, no potions, no switching of weapons and no surrender!
Lvl 49 using Daedric Bow of Freezing - Best score: 8401. Terrain was favourable for my bow here and got this first go.
Challenge: Windhelm Crime Caper
5 minutes to cause chaos and rack up the highest bounty you can! No shouts, no potions, no switching of weapons and no surrender!
Lvl 49 using Blade of Woe and Superior Ebony Dagger - Best score: 7281. This was nightmarishly tough for me as the guards constantly killed me in the tight confines of the tavern.
Challenge: Markarth Crime Caper
5 minutes to cause chaos and rack up the highest bounty you can! No shouts, no potions, no switching of weapons and no surrender!
Lvl 49 using Blade of Woe, Superior Ebony Dagger - Best score: 11520. My experience fighting the bastards of Markarth paid off here, since I already knew how to make them run in circles. They still killed me a few times though.
Challenge: Solitude Crime Caper
5 minutes to cause chaos and rack up the highest bounty you can! No shouts, no potions, no switching of weapons and no surrender!
Lvl 49 using Blade of Woe, Superior Ebony Dagger - Best score: 9285. Needed so many retries here for a totally different reason - I kept killing my witnesses and reducing my own bounty! Doh! :P
Challenge: Crimson Nirnroot Hunting (timed)
Starting at the Alchemist's Shack in Blackreach (near the Afland Lift) how long does it take you to get 10 crimson nirnroots?
After angering the guards in all those places I figured I needed to lay low for awhile, and there's not much lower a place than Blackreach! This took me 10:53.2. :P
Now that I'm feeling back in shape it was time to test out how my soldiers were doing and since Anni the elven archer was the longest "untested" one there she was up first. We went to visit Esbern at Sky Haven temple and to my surprise Mjoll had returned from being AWOL! She was very evasive when I asked where she ran off to before though. Disturbingly the bodies of the other two blades members were there too. Eww. Anyway, first up was a dragon hunt, and Anni had no problems taking down the blood dragon we were sent up against. After reporting our victory we headed to Rorikstead, where during my training I discovered some places I had "missed".
Before we got very far though we were attacked by a guard who had brought with him a mercenary in full ebony plate! Anni again proved herself here and was given that armor as a reward. She continued to impress in the Falmer cave of Gloomreach, though a shadow master did manage to hurt her leg at one point. After clearing the place I figured she had passed the test and was about to return her to the home base in Solitude when I realised I already had a -secret- base elsewhere. *facepalm* With secret agent girl having been killed by Mjoll awhile back, I figured it was up to me to rebuild the blades now and left Anni in the much more spacious fortress of Sky Haven Temple.
Moved on to the last bit of training using some of the challenges found on the Skyrim Blog. 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. Also it seems some of the towns have also been reading the blog, since they were hiring skilled unscroupulous people to test the defenses and skills of their guardsmen! Since I fit the bill, they granted me a short truce to put them to the test. ;)
A bit like this!
Challenge: Whiterun Crime Caper
5 minutes to cause chaos and rack up the highest bounty you can! No shouts, no potions, no switching of weapons and no surrender!
Lvl 49 using Daedric Bow of Freezing - Best score: 8401. Terrain was favourable for my bow here and got this first go.
Challenge: Windhelm Crime Caper
5 minutes to cause chaos and rack up the highest bounty you can! No shouts, no potions, no switching of weapons and no surrender!
Lvl 49 using Blade of Woe and Superior Ebony Dagger - Best score: 7281. This was nightmarishly tough for me as the guards constantly killed me in the tight confines of the tavern.
Challenge: Markarth Crime Caper
5 minutes to cause chaos and rack up the highest bounty you can! No shouts, no potions, no switching of weapons and no surrender!
Lvl 49 using Blade of Woe, Superior Ebony Dagger - Best score: 11520. My experience fighting the bastards of Markarth paid off here, since I already knew how to make them run in circles. They still killed me a few times though.
Challenge: Solitude Crime Caper
5 minutes to cause chaos and rack up the highest bounty you can! No shouts, no potions, no switching of weapons and no surrender!
Lvl 49 using Blade of Woe, Superior Ebony Dagger - Best score: 9285. Needed so many retries here for a totally different reason - I kept killing my witnesses and reducing my own bounty! Doh! :P
Challenge: Crimson Nirnroot Hunting (timed)
Starting at the Alchemist's Shack in Blackreach (near the Afland Lift) how long does it take you to get 10 crimson nirnroots?
After angering the guards in all those places I figured I needed to lay low for awhile, and there's not much lower a place than Blackreach! This took me 10:53.2. :P
Now that I'm feeling back in shape it was time to test out how my soldiers were doing and since Anni the elven archer was the longest "untested" one there she was up first. We went to visit Esbern at Sky Haven temple and to my surprise Mjoll had returned from being AWOL! She was very evasive when I asked where she ran off to before though. Disturbingly the bodies of the other two blades members were there too. Eww. Anyway, first up was a dragon hunt, and Anni had no problems taking down the blood dragon we were sent up against. After reporting our victory we headed to Rorikstead, where during my training I discovered some places I had "missed".
Before we got very far though we were attacked by a guard who had brought with him a mercenary in full ebony plate! Anni again proved herself here and was given that armor as a reward. She continued to impress in the Falmer cave of Gloomreach, though a shadow master did manage to hurt her leg at one point. After clearing the place I figured she had passed the test and was about to return her to the home base in Solitude when I realised I already had a -secret- base elsewhere. *facepalm* With secret agent girl having been killed by Mjoll awhile back, I figured it was up to me to rebuild the blades now and left Anni in the much more spacious fortress of Sky Haven Temple.
Sunday, 29 April 2012
Gyromancing the Stones
Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the whole story here!
Calder and I continued the hunt for the stones, looking through the Markarth and Falkreath areas with no luck. At the Pinewatch bandit place where Dex was previously arrowed to death, Calder also died after being hacked, stabbed, and taking two arrows to the face. Unfortunately the stone there was already gone too so he died for nothing. It was around this point that I noticed Shadowmere was no longer following me, probably due to its old master turning into dust before its eyes.
No matter, next stop was Whiterun where I knew the guards wanted my head. Nice of them to still ask if I'd like to surrender though, and one of them was even so nice as to ask me to stop all the yelling as it was frightening people (i agreed) - just before trying to kill me. Got into the local pub which was quickly being emptied of inhabitants but found Rayna an ex-imperial soldier willing to follow me into battle. She probably was impressed by my Stormcloak killing ability.
After clearing the streets we checked the crypts where we didn't find a stone but instead found fresh coffins for a whole group of familiar names. Always wondered what happened to Uthgerd - turns out she was moved down here awhile ago. Next stop was Dragonsreach itself, so after fighting through more guards we made our way past the slain Jarl Vignar (from my last visit) to his quarters and there waiting for us is Jarl Bossman! He had returned from his exile in Solitude and seemed to now be running the show again, and he was still pissed off from our last meeting. Fought our way past him (a few times) but alas, there was no stone to be found up here either.
Luckily the next spot, a keep full of necromancers did have one. Decided to dismiss Rayna back to Whiterun since she was a handy asset to have in that location when I picked up the mage Ralan. Unfortunately he was a complete loser who wouldn't want to go past the entry points of the next few places I explored (including a charrus infested lighthouse) and soon met his end (via friendly fire arrow) against some conjurers in a cave where again - there was no stone.
Replaced him with a barbarian lady named Sunni who showed off her skills by slaying a brash redguard right in the tavern I found her in. With her I found the last two remaining stones and was tasked to retrieve the crown they sat on from a falmer infested cave. The crown was retrieved but Sunni was left floating face down in a pool of water after getting eviscerated by the falmer bastards. Having completed the "end game" for the thieves guild I figured it was time to go get the person who most wanted them dead - Mjoll the Lioness who now resided at Skyhaven Temple.
Calder and I continued the hunt for the stones, looking through the Markarth and Falkreath areas with no luck. At the Pinewatch bandit place where Dex was previously arrowed to death, Calder also died after being hacked, stabbed, and taking two arrows to the face. Unfortunately the stone there was already gone too so he died for nothing. It was around this point that I noticed Shadowmere was no longer following me, probably due to its old master turning into dust before its eyes.
No matter, next stop was Whiterun where I knew the guards wanted my head. Nice of them to still ask if I'd like to surrender though, and one of them was even so nice as to ask me to stop all the yelling as it was frightening people (i agreed) - just before trying to kill me. Got into the local pub which was quickly being emptied of inhabitants but found Rayna an ex-imperial soldier willing to follow me into battle. She probably was impressed by my Stormcloak killing ability.
After clearing the streets we checked the crypts where we didn't find a stone but instead found fresh coffins for a whole group of familiar names. Always wondered what happened to Uthgerd - turns out she was moved down here awhile ago. Next stop was Dragonsreach itself, so after fighting through more guards we made our way past the slain Jarl Vignar (from my last visit) to his quarters and there waiting for us is Jarl Bossman! He had returned from his exile in Solitude and seemed to now be running the show again, and he was still pissed off from our last meeting. Fought our way past him (a few times) but alas, there was no stone to be found up here either.
A true nord never backs down. Just like Aerys Targaryen?
(art by GoranGligovic)
(art by GoranGligovic)
Luckily the next spot, a keep full of necromancers did have one. Decided to dismiss Rayna back to Whiterun since she was a handy asset to have in that location when I picked up the mage Ralan. Unfortunately he was a complete loser who wouldn't want to go past the entry points of the next few places I explored (including a charrus infested lighthouse) and soon met his end (via friendly fire arrow) against some conjurers in a cave where again - there was no stone.
Replaced him with a barbarian lady named Sunni who showed off her skills by slaying a brash redguard right in the tavern I found her in. With her I found the last two remaining stones and was tasked to retrieve the crown they sat on from a falmer infested cave. The crown was retrieved but Sunni was left floating face down in a pool of water after getting eviscerated by the falmer bastards. Having completed the "end game" for the thieves guild I figured it was time to go get the person who most wanted them dead - Mjoll the Lioness who now resided at Skyhaven Temple.
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Unsupported Preparation
Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the whole story here!
Not that she will talk much though.
Slew a named dragon (something like Nasalgift?) and cleared out a mine that dug too deep to draugr territory, then decided to visit the Dawnstar Sanctuary again since the quests for the Brotherhood seem to have dried up. When we arrived the redguard and the female initiate were busily torturing the prisoners. Having had enough of these posers, Cleve and I wiped them out and freed the captives from their bondage. Alas the vampiric child was still protected by threads of fate so we instead just buried her alive with the talking corpse. Hey, at least she has company.
Ran some more thief jobs in Solitude which is costing me some money (each time I do a job I leave gold to compensate the target, after all I don't really want to support the thieves guild). Also protip for the silly guards: if I save you from an ancient dragon, do not try to arrest me right after. Found an imperial supporting ex-Jarl that escaped the palace butchering at the tavern and got Cleve to eliminate her bodyguard while my daggers found her back. Also revisited Jzargo's cave -again- to retrieve a stolen necklace. I am beginning to suspect the dead khajit is actually leading these respawning bandits somehow.
After helping the Blades (Athis & Mjoll) hunt another dragon we were tasked to find and eliminate a rival thieves guild - the Summerset Shadows. Found their lair easily enough since I had been there previously, and managed to slow mo one-shot all of them save their leader who was an absolute tank. His daedric arrows were too much for Cleve (in full ebony armor) who ended up as a broken pincushion. After eliminating them I returned to Windhelm where Torsten Cruelsea and a fence named Niranye offered to support the Riften thieves. Needless to say they too felt my daggers sting, having outed themselves as criminal supporters. There was no one to witness their deaths.
Picked up the dark-elf archer Fynn at the run down pub then proceeded to Markarth for another "special" thieves task. On the way Fynn got himself eaten by the first normal dragon we came across so I got the barbarian Ren to join me once I reached the city tavern. Our contact, a local silversmith wanted to get his silver mold back - an item which I already had. He was so overjoyed he made the mistake of offering to support the thieves. So unfortunate that this otherwise good man would be so easily corrupted. Ren didn't hesitate when I asked him to bury his axe into the smith's skull right in the middle of the tavern's happy hour. Strangely, no one saw it happen. I suppose that is what happens when you drink to much mead.
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Preparing for the End
Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the whole story here!
Back at the Dark Brotherhood HQ (sounds like a racist group huh), the little jester guy I helped previously is here with the coffin of his mother. The Night Mother. I find it quite funny that this bunch of killers have the most personality among the dozens of other NPCs in the world. Distubingly, the dead lady in the coffin decides to talk to me. The Jester Cicero claims I am the new "listener". The current leader is unsure and instead sends me to off a couple of vampires and the orc coward in Morthal, both of which I have no problems with. While I'm out, I decide to have another try at getting the Elder Scroll at Blackreach as well as another collection quest down in its depths. While my expedition this time is successful, Borgath is slain by the falmer "king" at Silent City and his servants. I decide to bring her kinsman Ogol with me next (seems most of that village is willing to follow me after their chief was killed).
Turns out the contract for the Brotherhood is the Emperor himself! This is excellent news, because he's the one who bent the entire empire over to the Thalmor's whims in the first place. There will be things to setup first though, and step one is the bait. Murdering his cousin on her wedding day. I did feel guilty for this one as she was trying to unite the Empire and Stormcloaks, but when it comes down to it - why would I want to ally with a nation full of losers? Caused quite a commotion when I crushed her with that statue, and now the guards in Solitude are after my hide too. Fortunately both Ogol and I got out in one piece and decided to lay low at the top of the world.
It's a pretty good hiding place actually.
While up there I decided to read that Elder Scroll and after a nifty blinding flashback, Alduin himself appears for battle! Optimus Pri... I mean Paarthumax and Ogol the orc help me out too and we defeat him! But in traditional main bad guy fashion, he laughs at us as he runs away. Ermmm ok. Apparently he powers up by eating people in the world, then going to the afterlife and eating them again. Did that make sense? Yeah it sounded a bit wierd to me too. To chase him I needed to catch another dragon first, and needed the already built facilities at Whiterun to do so. Jarl Bossman there wasn't stupid enough to let a dragon in while he was playing the neutral card between two armies though so with the Grey Beards help I called a truce meeting between Ulfric Stormcloak and general stupid skirt, the representative leader of the empire.
How much fun I had when they decided I could call the terms of the treaty. Naturally I sided with Ulfric with everything, and most importantly gave Markarth from the imperials to the stormcloaks in exchange for the measly small port of Dawnstar, already weakening their hold in my land. I mean... this land. *Cough cough*. Also, this switches all the guards in the city of stone to Stormcloak soldiers who don't attack me everytime I visit! Woohoo! :)
Back at the Dark Brotherhood HQ (sounds like a racist group huh), the little jester guy I helped previously is here with the coffin of his mother. The Night Mother. I find it quite funny that this bunch of killers have the most personality among the dozens of other NPCs in the world. Distubingly, the dead lady in the coffin decides to talk to me. The Jester Cicero claims I am the new "listener". The current leader is unsure and instead sends me to off a couple of vampires and the orc coward in Morthal, both of which I have no problems with. While I'm out, I decide to have another try at getting the Elder Scroll at Blackreach as well as another collection quest down in its depths. While my expedition this time is successful, Borgath is slain by the falmer "king" at Silent City and his servants. I decide to bring her kinsman Ogol with me next (seems most of that village is willing to follow me after their chief was killed).
Turns out the contract for the Brotherhood is the Emperor himself! This is excellent news, because he's the one who bent the entire empire over to the Thalmor's whims in the first place. There will be things to setup first though, and step one is the bait. Murdering his cousin on her wedding day. I did feel guilty for this one as she was trying to unite the Empire and Stormcloaks, but when it comes down to it - why would I want to ally with a nation full of losers? Caused quite a commotion when I crushed her with that statue, and now the guards in Solitude are after my hide too. Fortunately both Ogol and I got out in one piece and decided to lay low at the top of the world.
While up there I decided to read that Elder Scroll and after a nifty blinding flashback, Alduin himself appears for battle! Optimus Pri... I mean Paarthumax and Ogol the orc help me out too and we defeat him! But in traditional main bad guy fashion, he laughs at us as he runs away. Ermmm ok. Apparently he powers up by eating people in the world, then going to the afterlife and eating them again. Did that make sense? Yeah it sounded a bit wierd to me too. To chase him I needed to catch another dragon first, and needed the already built facilities at Whiterun to do so. Jarl Bossman there wasn't stupid enough to let a dragon in while he was playing the neutral card between two armies though so with the Grey Beards help I called a truce meeting between Ulfric Stormcloak and general stupid skirt, the representative leader of the empire.
How much fun I had when they decided I could call the terms of the treaty. Naturally I sided with Ulfric with everything, and most importantly gave Markarth from the imperials to the stormcloaks in exchange for the measly small port of Dawnstar, already weakening their hold in my land. I mean... this land. *Cough cough*. Also, this switches all the guards in the city of stone to Stormcloak soldiers who don't attack me everytime I visit! Woohoo! :)
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
The Bastardly Guards of Markarth
Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the whole story here!
After closing a magical rupture and a short visit to Markarth which involved the usual guards attacking me throughout the city, Esbern, Athis, spy chick and I all decide to go locate Sky Haven Temple. What an awesome name. Doing so involves fighting through a large Forsworn camp and just for added fun a blood dragon attacks at the same time too. Somehow we all survive despite me clearly seeing spy girl and Athis being "killed". No matter. The two blades decide to chillax there while Athis and I return to Whiterun. Since he survived this rotation I let him take a break and continue adventuring with Ria the not so rookie now.
Up at the Throat of the World we meet the Grey Beard's leader Paarthumax who sounds a bit like Optimus Prime. His appearance also startles me and I accidentally shoot him a bit before he introduces himself. Fortunately he ignores my earlier attacks. After a nice chat involving plotting the downfall of the main bad dragon, I return to Riften with all my collection tasks complete and immediately become Thane there. My new housecarl Iona is stuck with guard duty for now since the place is crawling with theives. Ria and I also go to help an orc chief slay a giant leader in the name of Malacath. On the way we find a stray dog fighting a dragon, and after slaying the winged serpent the mutt decides to tag along. Turns out that it was a very bad decision on it's part as it, the orc chief and Ria were all smashed to pieces in the giant's lair.
Back in Riften I hire the spellsword Marcurio who thinks he is the bomb. He has some talents to back up this claim as he single handedly defeated a skeever army and crazy skeever man, survived an attack from THREE dragons simultaneously (we could only kill the frost dragon before the other two fled), helped defeat the funny named lich "Otar the Mad", and helped save the city of Markarth from an elder dragon that attacked it while we were there. Our reward for doing so? The guards attacked us again, and they killed Marcurio via arrow pincushion method.
Poor Marcurio, we hardly knew thee.
I hoofed it up to my house in the stone city when I could shake them off me. I wonder if the idiots ever thought of looking for me in here? Anyway I figured my odds of escaping would be better during nightfall (can't fast travel out of the city) so I took a nap to wait for dusk. Seems someone had other ideas though, because when I woke up I was no longer in the city but in a shack with three hostages and one representative from the Dark Brotherhood. She wants me to kill one of them. I wasn't going to, but the Khajit turned out to be a prick and in my mind had it coming anyway. Looks like I've made a new friend and she invited me into her little murderous clan. Once I got into their HQ I proved I really belong by trying to murder every single one of them. Alas they were ALL protected by threads of fate. Damn cheaters.
After closing a magical rupture and a short visit to Markarth which involved the usual guards attacking me throughout the city, Esbern, Athis, spy chick and I all decide to go locate Sky Haven Temple. What an awesome name. Doing so involves fighting through a large Forsworn camp and just for added fun a blood dragon attacks at the same time too. Somehow we all survive despite me clearly seeing spy girl and Athis being "killed". No matter. The two blades decide to chillax there while Athis and I return to Whiterun. Since he survived this rotation I let him take a break and continue adventuring with Ria the not so rookie now.
Up at the Throat of the World we meet the Grey Beard's leader Paarthumax who sounds a bit like Optimus Prime. His appearance also startles me and I accidentally shoot him a bit before he introduces himself. Fortunately he ignores my earlier attacks. After a nice chat involving plotting the downfall of the main bad dragon, I return to Riften with all my collection tasks complete and immediately become Thane there. My new housecarl Iona is stuck with guard duty for now since the place is crawling with theives. Ria and I also go to help an orc chief slay a giant leader in the name of Malacath. On the way we find a stray dog fighting a dragon, and after slaying the winged serpent the mutt decides to tag along. Turns out that it was a very bad decision on it's part as it, the orc chief and Ria were all smashed to pieces in the giant's lair.
Back in Riften I hire the spellsword Marcurio who thinks he is the bomb. He has some talents to back up this claim as he single handedly defeated a skeever army and crazy skeever man, survived an attack from THREE dragons simultaneously (we could only kill the frost dragon before the other two fled), helped defeat the funny named lich "Otar the Mad", and helped save the city of Markarth from an elder dragon that attacked it while we were there. Our reward for doing so? The guards attacked us again, and they killed Marcurio via arrow pincushion method.
I hoofed it up to my house in the stone city when I could shake them off me. I wonder if the idiots ever thought of looking for me in here? Anyway I figured my odds of escaping would be better during nightfall (can't fast travel out of the city) so I took a nap to wait for dusk. Seems someone had other ideas though, because when I woke up I was no longer in the city but in a shack with three hostages and one representative from the Dark Brotherhood. She wants me to kill one of them. I wasn't going to, but the Khajit turned out to be a prick and in my mind had it coming anyway. Looks like I've made a new friend and she invited me into her little murderous clan. Once I got into their HQ I proved I really belong by trying to murder every single one of them. Alas they were ALL protected by threads of fate. Damn cheaters.
Sunday, 1 January 2012
Ashes to Ashes
Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the whole story here!
On the road to Markarth we came across a Thalmor unit with a prisoner. After getting into a theological argument with them, they attacked (as planned) and I tested Erandur's will to kill his own kind (elves), which he passed with flying colours. He is quite a violent priest. After freeing the captive we continued to the City of Stone for what was meant to be a simple pickup job for the mages college and a bounty retrieval from the Jarl's steward. This was not to be. One of the guardsmen at the main hall wanted to arrest me: on charges of treason for "aiding" the forsworn. I aided them by killing their leader? I knew quickly that the local Thalmor bastard (who was standing there at the time with his usual smug grin) had organized this. I told the guard "fuck you", and began a long fight back out to the city gates, but not before I made sure the Thalmor asswipe and his two lackeys were lying lifeless in pools of their own blood. Between Erandur and I we must have slaughtered half the guardsmen at Markarth before reaching the gates. Alas in the final melee, the priest was cut down and his body lay in a pile of other soldiers he killed.
Decided to steal a horse and make my way to a nearby orc camp which I was turned away from earlier. The blacksmith lady (orc) in town had told me I would be welcome now after helping her which I was. Upon arrival I did what is customary I assume. I challenged their chief to a fist fight and publicly humiliated him by knocking his lights out. Then I got his brother Ghorbash to join me on my next tasks which involved killing hagravens and as luck would have it, a great number of orc bandits. The stalwart warrior was not in my company long though when he met his end to a master necromancer who then raised his body to fight against me. Upon killing the wizard with my arrows the once mighty Ghorbash disintegrated into a pile of ash.
How many people end up when Necromancy or Fire is involved.
Back at Whiterun I found that the Silverhand had been busy and managed to actually kill the old leader guy. YES! One less werewolf. Vilkas, one of the twins, wants vengeance and demands to come with me. Ofcourse his vengeance can wait. First we go back up to High Hrothgar where I finish my training and can finally use the shout that all these dead men have been using against me (Fus ro dah!), then we go kill a troublesome giant, fight an elder dragon and the lich Krosis at the same time (that was tough), and find Azura's star. Also became Thane of both Winterhold and Dawnstar, and retrieved missing books and rescued the stupid student Orthorn for the mages college from a sorceress who calls herself "The Caller". When she saw me she instantly panicked and let me take whatever I wanted. Silly for her at that point I wanted her life for making me go through all her minions. Dagger to the back resulted in her instant death and prevented any stupid boss fight that may have happened.
Finally we get to Vilkas' revenge. The Silverhand stronghold is expansive, but generally they are no match for us. Also decided to free a captive werewolf who turned out to be wild (as I predicted). I let Vilkas deal with it to see if he had the cahones to murder his own kind. He did. I grinned and laughed. That should be the fate of all stupid werewolves (I'm a werecorgi, I'm not included in that generalization :P). I was tempted to backstab Vilkas right now but I knew from the fight with Krosis earlier that he was immune to death (damn game). Back at Whiterun we attended the funeral of the old leader guy where Aela burned his corpse on the pyre. I also learn that there's a cure for this lycanthropy, so with the twins Farkas and Vilkas and Aela we begin our run North to find it.
On the road to Markarth we came across a Thalmor unit with a prisoner. After getting into a theological argument with them, they attacked (as planned) and I tested Erandur's will to kill his own kind (elves), which he passed with flying colours. He is quite a violent priest. After freeing the captive we continued to the City of Stone for what was meant to be a simple pickup job for the mages college and a bounty retrieval from the Jarl's steward. This was not to be. One of the guardsmen at the main hall wanted to arrest me: on charges of treason for "aiding" the forsworn. I aided them by killing their leader? I knew quickly that the local Thalmor bastard (who was standing there at the time with his usual smug grin) had organized this. I told the guard "fuck you", and began a long fight back out to the city gates, but not before I made sure the Thalmor asswipe and his two lackeys were lying lifeless in pools of their own blood. Between Erandur and I we must have slaughtered half the guardsmen at Markarth before reaching the gates. Alas in the final melee, the priest was cut down and his body lay in a pile of other soldiers he killed.
Decided to steal a horse and make my way to a nearby orc camp which I was turned away from earlier. The blacksmith lady (orc) in town had told me I would be welcome now after helping her which I was. Upon arrival I did what is customary I assume. I challenged their chief to a fist fight and publicly humiliated him by knocking his lights out. Then I got his brother Ghorbash to join me on my next tasks which involved killing hagravens and as luck would have it, a great number of orc bandits. The stalwart warrior was not in my company long though when he met his end to a master necromancer who then raised his body to fight against me. Upon killing the wizard with my arrows the once mighty Ghorbash disintegrated into a pile of ash.
Back at Whiterun I found that the Silverhand had been busy and managed to actually kill the old leader guy. YES! One less werewolf. Vilkas, one of the twins, wants vengeance and demands to come with me. Ofcourse his vengeance can wait. First we go back up to High Hrothgar where I finish my training and can finally use the shout that all these dead men have been using against me (Fus ro dah!), then we go kill a troublesome giant, fight an elder dragon and the lich Krosis at the same time (that was tough), and find Azura's star. Also became Thane of both Winterhold and Dawnstar, and retrieved missing books and rescued the stupid student Orthorn for the mages college from a sorceress who calls herself "The Caller". When she saw me she instantly panicked and let me take whatever I wanted. Silly for her at that point I wanted her life for making me go through all her minions. Dagger to the back resulted in her instant death and prevented any stupid boss fight that may have happened.
Finally we get to Vilkas' revenge. The Silverhand stronghold is expansive, but generally they are no match for us. Also decided to free a captive werewolf who turned out to be wild (as I predicted). I let Vilkas deal with it to see if he had the cahones to murder his own kind. He did. I grinned and laughed. That should be the fate of all stupid werewolves (I'm a werecorgi, I'm not included in that generalization :P). I was tempted to backstab Vilkas right now but I knew from the fight with Krosis earlier that he was immune to death (damn game). Back at Whiterun we attended the funeral of the old leader guy where Aela burned his corpse on the pyre. I also learn that there's a cure for this lycanthropy, so with the twins Farkas and Vilkas and Aela we begin our run North to find it.
Monday, 26 December 2011
The Legend and the Champion
Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the whole story here!
Found ourselves out at Rorikstead today where I recruited Erik "the Slayer" (after convincing his father that he should be allowed to go adventuring). The lad showed promise despite lack of experience, helping me retrieve a goat I sold to a giant (ehhh?), and a whole bunch of retrieval tasks involving more killing of forsworn. While helping the cannibal Eola clear a nearby cave of living dead (who she says tastes terrible) he stood up to another death overlord and survived. The kid, still travelling with me, seems to like him too and her ears perked up each time he told us stories of his favourite hero Red Eagle. It so happens I was investigating that partirular legend and we found his burial cairn atop a tall mountain. He also wasn't quite so dead. It was a drawn out battle, with the kid pitching in by throwing rocks and distracing the legendary dead man every now and then. By the end of it I finally struck down the ancient warrior, ending his unlife. We found Erik crumpled beside the sarcophagus, still and unmoving. He had been slain by his hero.
Overburdened with gear and a crying child I returned to Markarth to lighten the load. Decided to purchase property there as well and for my recent actions was proclaimed Thane of this region. Met my new housecarl Argis in my new home too and he agreed to join me on my travels. We also hired the priest -whatshisname- since Eola asked for one for some ceremony at the cave we cleared earlier. Wasn't quite paying attention again. Decided to first revisit the not so abandoned house to find the stupid Boethian I rescued earlier trapped by the altar I explicitly told him was going to trap him. -.-
The altar then proclaimed that it would win their duel of wills this time as it had a champion. Hah I think not stupid altar. Except it wasn't talking about me. Argis, influenced by the daedra, killed the idiot. The altar proclaimed him champion of Molag Bal and granted him an evil looking mace. Between myself, the kid and -whatshisname- we dragged him out of there before he was turned any further into a daedra's bitch. After dropping the kid off at her temple and a quick goodbye we went to Eola's cave and found a whole bunch of people waiting here, some I recognize from the city. Turns out they're all people eaters and -whatshisname- is for lunch. He's already mesmerized by Eola's voice. I have nothing against cannibals, but murdering some innocent dude whose name I don't even know for your happy meal is just not on. As she sashayed towards the altar I snuck behind her and in one awesome finishing move, slit her throat and tossed her body down the stairs. Her guests met equally bloody and violent ends and -whatshisname- returned to the city alive.
Argis and I then beat up some giants, delivered some items, and reunited a dog with its master before returning an artifact to the shrine of Meridia. She wanted us to clean out her temple from some defiling evil which turned out to be quite easy as the shades were no match against the champion of Molag Bal and his shadow. Indeed the most challenging part was talking to her statue which had a bad habit of bringing me high into the sky then dropping me to my death. With enough retries, I finally got through those sections without breaking every single bone in my body. :P
Found ourselves out at Rorikstead today where I recruited Erik "the Slayer" (after convincing his father that he should be allowed to go adventuring). The lad showed promise despite lack of experience, helping me retrieve a goat I sold to a giant (ehhh?), and a whole bunch of retrieval tasks involving more killing of forsworn. While helping the cannibal Eola clear a nearby cave of living dead (who she says tastes terrible) he stood up to another death overlord and survived. The kid, still travelling with me, seems to like him too and her ears perked up each time he told us stories of his favourite hero Red Eagle. It so happens I was investigating that partirular legend and we found his burial cairn atop a tall mountain. He also wasn't quite so dead. It was a drawn out battle, with the kid pitching in by throwing rocks and distracing the legendary dead man every now and then. By the end of it I finally struck down the ancient warrior, ending his unlife. We found Erik crumpled beside the sarcophagus, still and unmoving. He had been slain by his hero.
Overburdened with gear and a crying child I returned to Markarth to lighten the load. Decided to purchase property there as well and for my recent actions was proclaimed Thane of this region. Met my new housecarl Argis in my new home too and he agreed to join me on my travels. We also hired the priest -whatshisname- since Eola asked for one for some ceremony at the cave we cleared earlier. Wasn't quite paying attention again. Decided to first revisit the not so abandoned house to find the stupid Boethian I rescued earlier trapped by the altar I explicitly told him was going to trap him. -.-
The altar then proclaimed that it would win their duel of wills this time as it had a champion. Hah I think not stupid altar. Except it wasn't talking about me. Argis, influenced by the daedra, killed the idiot. The altar proclaimed him champion of Molag Bal and granted him an evil looking mace. Between myself, the kid and -whatshisname- we dragged him out of there before he was turned any further into a daedra's bitch. After dropping the kid off at her temple and a quick goodbye we went to Eola's cave and found a whole bunch of people waiting here, some I recognize from the city. Turns out they're all people eaters and -whatshisname- is for lunch. He's already mesmerized by Eola's voice. I have nothing against cannibals, but murdering some innocent dude whose name I don't even know for your happy meal is just not on. As she sashayed towards the altar I snuck behind her and in one awesome finishing move, slit her throat and tossed her body down the stairs. Her guests met equally bloody and violent ends and -whatshisname- returned to the city alive.
Argis and I then beat up some giants, delivered some items, and reunited a dog with its master before returning an artifact to the shrine of Meridia. She wanted us to clean out her temple from some defiling evil which turned out to be quite easy as the shades were no match against the champion of Molag Bal and his shadow. Indeed the most challenging part was talking to her statue which had a bad habit of bringing me high into the sky then dropping me to my death. With enough retries, I finally got through those sections without breaking every single bone in my body. :P
Wednesday, 21 December 2011
Joe to the Rescue
Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the whole story here!
With most of my tasks now lying on the outskirts of Markarth, I hired the mercenary Vorstag and bought the war dog Vigilance to tag along finding them useful against the pockets of forsworn we kept running into. The first major task was to pickup a "marked" child for the temple of Dibella, but it turned out she had been captured by a large band of those forsworn scum. Joined by her father we assaulted the ruined tower they were holed up in but alas during the opening assault he was stabbed to death and Vigilance was roasted alive. Vorstag and I massacred the remaining defenders and secured the girl whose name I cannot pronounce. I just call her 'the kid'.
It seems the kid didn't want to just trade one prison for another straight away and pleaded to come with me. After getting her old man killed how could I refuse? On the road we'd play hide and seek, and she looked like she was able to take care of herself; making herself scarce during combat and pointing out dead bodies for me to loot afterwards. Apart from that one time where Vorstag and I had to rescue her from a rampaging ice bear.
Speaking of Vorstag he was really beginning to show his powers, using all sorts of weapon combinations and being a general kickass, even summoning flame atronarchs every now and then. He even stood toe to toe against a zombie death overlord as well as a lich living at the top of Volkswagen tomb (or something similar).
It's a scary place!
Also came across a captured priest of Boetheia and freed him too, warning him that an altar of Molag Bal back in the city intended to do nasty things to him. The first thing the idiot does is head straight there. Well, he has it coming. Pushed on to the next major rescue for folks from Whiterun. The three of them had been camping out in the snowy mountains for weeks waiting for me to show up. Whoops. The hostage is being kept prisoner by a large group of well armed Thalmer (elf) bastards. I try to convince the barbarians that a sneaky approach is best, but before I can even finish sniping the first guard with my bow they all charge head on. It is a bloody skirmish, and while all the elves were killed we lost two of the three plainsmen as well as the mighty Vorstag (again in the opening assault). The remaining survivor and his brother (the prisoner we released) head off into hiding and it's now just me and the kid on the road.
After backstabbing a sleeping blood dragon that was full from eating imperial soldiers at a nearby outpost (quickest dragon kill thus far - under 10 seconds!), I helped a captured hagraven reclaim her tower from another witch allied with more forsworn. These guys seem to be everywhere in these parts. Well, the hagraven proved to be very helpful, had a good sense of humor and since she didn't try to kill me I left her in peace. If only more monsters were like that. :)
As an aside: Photo above is courtesy of AndreaS, who has more pics of abandoned and ruined places which is also an interest of mine. :)
With most of my tasks now lying on the outskirts of Markarth, I hired the mercenary Vorstag and bought the war dog Vigilance to tag along finding them useful against the pockets of forsworn we kept running into. The first major task was to pickup a "marked" child for the temple of Dibella, but it turned out she had been captured by a large band of those forsworn scum. Joined by her father we assaulted the ruined tower they were holed up in but alas during the opening assault he was stabbed to death and Vigilance was roasted alive. Vorstag and I massacred the remaining defenders and secured the girl whose name I cannot pronounce. I just call her 'the kid'.
It seems the kid didn't want to just trade one prison for another straight away and pleaded to come with me. After getting her old man killed how could I refuse? On the road we'd play hide and seek, and she looked like she was able to take care of herself; making herself scarce during combat and pointing out dead bodies for me to loot afterwards. Apart from that one time where Vorstag and I had to rescue her from a rampaging ice bear.
Speaking of Vorstag he was really beginning to show his powers, using all sorts of weapon combinations and being a general kickass, even summoning flame atronarchs every now and then. He even stood toe to toe against a zombie death overlord as well as a lich living at the top of Volkswagen tomb (or something similar).
Also came across a captured priest of Boetheia and freed him too, warning him that an altar of Molag Bal back in the city intended to do nasty things to him. The first thing the idiot does is head straight there. Well, he has it coming. Pushed on to the next major rescue for folks from Whiterun. The three of them had been camping out in the snowy mountains for weeks waiting for me to show up. Whoops. The hostage is being kept prisoner by a large group of well armed Thalmer (elf) bastards. I try to convince the barbarians that a sneaky approach is best, but before I can even finish sniping the first guard with my bow they all charge head on. It is a bloody skirmish, and while all the elves were killed we lost two of the three plainsmen as well as the mighty Vorstag (again in the opening assault). The remaining survivor and his brother (the prisoner we released) head off into hiding and it's now just me and the kid on the road.
After backstabbing a sleeping blood dragon that was full from eating imperial soldiers at a nearby outpost (quickest dragon kill thus far - under 10 seconds!), I helped a captured hagraven reclaim her tower from another witch allied with more forsworn. These guys seem to be everywhere in these parts. Well, the hagraven proved to be very helpful, had a good sense of humor and since she didn't try to kill me I left her in peace. If only more monsters were like that. :)
As an aside: Photo above is courtesy of AndreaS, who has more pics of abandoned and ruined places which is also an interest of mine. :)
Tuesday, 20 December 2011
Digging too Deep
Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the whole story here!
Woke up in a Temple of Dibella, with a very irate priestess telling us to get out. Lydia is here too, passed out beside me. We get our things and find ourselves in... Markarth? What the hell happened? Seems there are many things afoot in this city built into the mountain. I also find it funny that their Jarl lives in a hole. Seems fitting for someone being bossed around by snooty elves. Our first major task lead us to the depths of a halted excavation. After dealing with the delay-causing giant spider we proceeded further into the expansive dwemer city infested by goblin-like creatures. They are individually weak but in numbers are fatal as Lydia found out when she was overrun by a group of them wielding their wicked blades. Continued through alone and finally reach the "Control Room" where I activated all the automated security. As I made my way out I wondered what sort of technology these dwarves (who haven't been seen in years) possessed to make such things. I also have a theory as to where they went...
Afterwards I began investigating a conspiracy involving the forsworn (who really sound like fancy bandits), and it seemed the more I found out, the more I was warned to back off. Recruited the brawler Cosnach at the tavern after defeating him in unarmed combat to add some muscle to my side and discovered that the forsworn leader is running the show from within the city prison itself. I know the guards there told me to go away but I might just have to break in now. During the search I also came across a not so abandoned house where I was forced to kill a fellow investigator in self defense after he was possessed by the daedric presence within. For all his might the dark lord still had to ask for outside help to get things done, because his power is limited to the house? What a tool. If he wasn't hiding inside that altar I'd stab his face right now.
Discovered quite a bit about how Markarth was being run and when I returned to the small shrine of Talos to report my findings, I found my contact dead with a trio of guards waiting to arrest me. To hell with that I said and drew my weapons. Fighting in such tight quarters was disadvantageous to me and more and more guards seemed to keep pouring in, but not fast enough to replace the ones I killed. Even my newest "ally" Cosnach turned out to be on their payroll as he attacked me with the sword of Falkreath I had given him earlier, but much like our previous duel it was I that remained standing in the end. The Shrine was littered with bodies when I was done, and after healing up I headed towards the prison mine only to be attacked by even more guardsmen. I lost track of how many I managed to kill but eventually they just managed to swarm me, knocking me into one of the waterways running through the city. Surrounded, low on resources and almost dead I finally surrendered. [Hero fail. :(]
Found myself tossed into the prison mine with no gear. Saves me from having to break in at least. Seems the majority of the forced labour here are forsworn, each with sappy stories and a pure hatred for the Nords (which I am). Protip: If you want me to feel sorry for you, don't insult / express a desire to kill me or my people right after. The mine was smaller than I thought and I found the forsworn king guy easy enough. He wanted me to help him escape. So I did, by cutting his throat from ear to ear. Used his escape plan to sneak out through some conveniently connected ruins and found the Silver-Hand responsible for the whole mess waiting for me. Having sorted out his problems he paid off my debts, cleared my name and returned my gear. With an aboutface I marched right back where I came, slaughtering my way through the tunnel to kill all the forsworn scum imprisoned in the mine. Unfortunately the guards were way ahead of me, and all the prisoners were all dead by the time I got there. Satisfied by this turn of events I made my way back to the surface.
Woke up in a Temple of Dibella, with a very irate priestess telling us to get out. Lydia is here too, passed out beside me. We get our things and find ourselves in... Markarth? What the hell happened? Seems there are many things afoot in this city built into the mountain. I also find it funny that their Jarl lives in a hole. Seems fitting for someone being bossed around by snooty elves. Our first major task lead us to the depths of a halted excavation. After dealing with the delay-causing giant spider we proceeded further into the expansive dwemer city infested by goblin-like creatures. They are individually weak but in numbers are fatal as Lydia found out when she was overrun by a group of them wielding their wicked blades. Continued through alone and finally reach the "Control Room" where I activated all the automated security. As I made my way out I wondered what sort of technology these dwarves (who haven't been seen in years) possessed to make such things. I also have a theory as to where they went...
Afterwards I began investigating a conspiracy involving the forsworn (who really sound like fancy bandits), and it seemed the more I found out, the more I was warned to back off. Recruited the brawler Cosnach at the tavern after defeating him in unarmed combat to add some muscle to my side and discovered that the forsworn leader is running the show from within the city prison itself. I know the guards there told me to go away but I might just have to break in now. During the search I also came across a not so abandoned house where I was forced to kill a fellow investigator in self defense after he was possessed by the daedric presence within. For all his might the dark lord still had to ask for outside help to get things done, because his power is limited to the house? What a tool. If he wasn't hiding inside that altar I'd stab his face right now.
Discovered quite a bit about how Markarth was being run and when I returned to the small shrine of Talos to report my findings, I found my contact dead with a trio of guards waiting to arrest me. To hell with that I said and drew my weapons. Fighting in such tight quarters was disadvantageous to me and more and more guards seemed to keep pouring in, but not fast enough to replace the ones I killed. Even my newest "ally" Cosnach turned out to be on their payroll as he attacked me with the sword of Falkreath I had given him earlier, but much like our previous duel it was I that remained standing in the end. The Shrine was littered with bodies when I was done, and after healing up I headed towards the prison mine only to be attacked by even more guardsmen. I lost track of how many I managed to kill but eventually they just managed to swarm me, knocking me into one of the waterways running through the city. Surrounded, low on resources and almost dead I finally surrendered. [Hero fail. :(]
Found myself tossed into the prison mine with no gear. Saves me from having to break in at least. Seems the majority of the forced labour here are forsworn, each with sappy stories and a pure hatred for the Nords (which I am). Protip: If you want me to feel sorry for you, don't insult / express a desire to kill me or my people right after. The mine was smaller than I thought and I found the forsworn king guy easy enough. He wanted me to help him escape. So I did, by cutting his throat from ear to ear. Used his escape plan to sneak out through some conveniently connected ruins and found the Silver-Hand responsible for the whole mess waiting for me. Having sorted out his problems he paid off my debts, cleared my name and returned my gear. With an aboutface I marched right back where I came, slaughtering my way through the tunnel to kill all the forsworn scum imprisoned in the mine. Unfortunately the guards were way ahead of me, and all the prisoners were all dead by the time I got there. Satisfied by this turn of events I made my way back to the surface.
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