Uukrul: Welcome to Eriosthe

Part of the Fate of Heroes series - spoilers ahead!

Despite his role in thwarting Molag Bal's schemes, Angoff still found himself shunned by almost everyone at Coldharbour due to his previous crimes as an ex-terrorist leader. Hoping to redeem himself, he asked Meridia for guidance. "To erase your sins, you must destroy someone far more terrible than you," said the daedric prince.

"Deep in the underground city of Eriosthe is a foe who poses so great a threat to the world that Mara, the divine, and her allies failed to subdue. He is known as Uukrul. Defeat him any you will find absolution."

Angoff thanked her and immediately set off on his journey. While Meridia did advise that he not try accomplish this task alone, no one was actually willing to accompany him. Only when he crossed the final desert to the great mountain that held Eriosthe did he find a group who were still very young in their careers as adventurers, and had no knowledge of his past.

Or his strange illness. Yep this is part of creating a character.

For the promise of gold and glory, they joined him in his quest: the not so timid priestess Anyolina, the aged paladin Toothless, and the too-smart to be a fighter Balthazarr. A long passage into the mountain led to a dead end to the untrained eye, but Angoff tapped his staff against the rock wall - causing the magical door to open. The four stepped through and now found themselves in the large, dust covered welcome hall of fabled city.

TESO: Forlorn Crags

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

Having defeated Molag Bal, I venture next to the vast expanse known as Craglorn where a lot of my crafted goods have been being sent. A new threat has arrived in this zone: Aliens Celestials. Namely the Celestial Serpent, who managed to corrupt the Celestial Mage and Celestial Warrior. A band known as the Star Gazers, asks that I help them put these things back in the sky where they belong.

Easier said than done though as this zone is intended for group content, excluding me from at least 70% of the area. Still, I do manage to cleanse the Warrior's Apex stone, and assist a time traveling soldier to destroy an ancient emperor who uses terracotta warriors.

I also slam the local Iron Orcs, who have a penchant for feeding victims to their troll pets. After slaying their entire leadership structure I mess with the Scaled Court's research in making new beasties (Mantikora) and atronarchs (six armed air elemental)! Ultimately I also save the Celestial Thief from the Serpent's grasp, forcing the Serpent celestial to withdraw.

Ugly beasties.

Alas the actual final fight against it is blocked behind a "Trial" gate (requires team) so I doubt I'll ever get to see that. Worth noting the ATITD Pilgrimage idea is alive here - in the form of visiting six delves within two hours. Pretty cool, and still easier than the ATITD version! 

Having done most of the available content (I don't have the DLCs) I think it's time I take a well earned break, and thanks to one merc band in this region being called the Greycloaks, I have a good idea of where I'm headed back to.

TESO: Molag Bal

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

Beyond the torture chamber is the path up to Molag Bal's fortress, and by powering up the magic amulet via absorbing the life of the prophet, I gain a temporary boost of super saiyan strength - literally one shotting the armies of dremora that try get in my way. Even flights of demon dragons and thick fortress walls are no match as I blast my way up the mountain to the towering daedric prince trying to throw down meteors at me.

I like how my pet monkey is just casually following me at this part.

I get up to him and blast him down to a more manageable size, fight him in a more standard fashion and ultimately chop off both his arms! This forces Molag Bal to flee and Meridia is kind enough to restore my missing soul as a reward.

Winning pose!

With that victory, Lyris and Sai head off to the sunset together and Abnur, who is missing, is reported (by Meridia no less) to have taken the cheat amulet with him to Cyrodiil for his own use - though he won't be able to do anything with it for a few generations. Now re-souled I am free to do whatever I want, and I get a nice cauldron hat for my trouble. I suppose chasing Tharn into Cyrodiil is an idea, but that's all PvP land. Regardless, main quest complete!

TESO: Writhing Worms

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With all the alliance zones mostly done now (still missing some group content and a few bits and pieces) I return to the Prophet's cave to find he and Lyris haven't done a damn thing since I last saw them ages ago. Since my GFX settings are better now, I reattempt that rescue mission they wanted to do... to rescue Abnur Tharn, and then a Redguard sword master named Sai Sahan, and then a magic deus ex machina amulet to use against Molag Bal.

Wouldn't be a magic duel without at least one beam contest.

Naturally the worm cult leader, Mannimarco tries and fails to stop us at each step of the way - ultimately fighting for real to try take the amulet for himself because he wants to replace Molag Bal. He really shouldn't have said that because after I beat him down, Molag Bal's giant hand comes through a gate and whisks Mannimarco away to Coldharbour.

His mistake was not taking the amulet instead, because we follow close behind and sneak through the very same torture chamber where Mannimarco and other familiar villains are getting their comeuppance, a few of whom are of the Tharn bloodline (not that Abnur minds since they are all douche bags like that). Most of the prisoners beg to be freed from their torment, but I ignore all of them because that's what they all deserve.

TESO: All these People Suck

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While King Emeric recovers from his death in Bangkorai (lol) I head to Rivenspire next where there is a civil war afoot. Normally I'd let these people just kill each other but when it becomes clear the dominant Montclair faction is composed of vampires I definitely have to intervene. Just to semi complicate matters there are three "good" vampires too, but its because of their leader and an Ayelid doohickey atop Mount Doom "the Doomcrag" that this whole thing started. I am also annoyed to learn that this vampire is one of Emeric's closest friends. What sort of King lets vampires wander around? What a douche.

It comes complete with aircraft warning lights!

Ultimately I kill all the bad vampires and the lead "good" one sacrifices himself to remove the ayelid relic (that can just change people into vamps via gas) from the Doomcrag. How? By giving himself and the WMD to Molag Bal, who takes it into Coldharbour. WHAT? That's not a F*ING SOLUTION! Emeric himself shows up after the fact and then asks me to choose from the remaining surviving candidates on who should become overlord of this region, because having many equal people didn't work. I pick the devout and peace loving Baroness as to weaken the Covenant as much as possible.

In the process I also beat up a cave full of orcs (a rarity here) and prove to Malacath, the daedric prince they worship, that all orcs are worthless pieces of shit. In town I also am  surprised to find Captain Kaleen, stripped and tortured in a basement no less. Seems like the kinky Redguard spy she was hunting turned the tables on her. After helping her kill the bastard I take her back to the docks. I was headed there anyway to gain passage to the Alik'r Desert anyway. During this I notice that in all the scuffles with those vampires, one managed to get me good on my arm.

I'm sure it's nothing.

TESO: Daedric Tharn

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With Stormhaven mostly freed from Vaermina's manipulation I rode on into Bangkorai, a region under attack by talking crows - and more reachmen. Where the heck do all these guys come from? After convincing the local Queen to do her job I am sent to stop this threat and quite humorously succeed in doing so by accident. You see I was racing towards a distant Dolmen which I ended up missing entirely as other heroes shut it down - and found myself near the main reachman camp. A little stealth and snooping about led me to their hagraven leader who I had no trouble in slaying.

That force turned out to just be the appetizer though, as the main threat soon revealed itself to be the Imperial army led by one Septima Tharn who are all allied with Molag Bal (of course). With the help of King Emeric and his timely army, we pushed them back into the Southern Desert region of this huge zone. Then I got side tracked in rescuing elf maidens from a Troll den and helping a nereid eliminate a bunch of Hermaeus Mora's followers. Take that you kill stealer. In the region I also have to outhunt Hircine's chosen hunter and defeat an avatar of Mephala - guess the Daedric princes really like this zone!

Explosions are effective against ghosts!

By the time I catch up with Septima Tharn after all those distractions, she has already defeated Emeric's army and killed the arrogant king. I sneak into her camp and have an epic duel against her, one of the best fights in the game so far - ultimately I slay the sorceress and have the Queen's forces wipe out the remaining Imperial douches. Through convoluted events I end up with King Emeric's soul in my backpack and have the option of resurrecting him. I am soooo tempted not to, but ultimately give in and revive him. In exchange I tell him to withdraw all his forces from the war. He says he'll think about it.

TESO: Beyond Reach

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I came to as Orla shook me awake at the entrance of some crypt with a squad of pact soldiers behind her. Disoriented, she advised that during a skirmish against Reachmen I had fallen down the short pit which is serves as the standard foyer to most of the burial mounds here in the Rift. Whoever designed it must love flooding tombs. After clearing my head of that vivid experience, I assisted her in eliminating the local Reachman boss within, though all her soldiers died in the effort.

Turns out the Reachmen have some giant allies.

From there I continued pushing back the Reachmen and their Worm cult allies all the way past Ivarstead. I also execute a survivor from the Bleakrock invasion so long ago, since she had fallen under the sway of Molag Bal's promises to restore her fallen family members. For a change of pace, I also have to rescue a school of skalds who inadvertently got Vaermina's attention, unleashing nightmare forces on their little island.

With that done I earn the "Hero of the Pact" title, despite not being able to stop one particular threat in the region - a neighboring valley filled with an army of Lionguard troops! There are far too many for me to handle alone (group dungeon). Fortunately they don't seem to be going anywhere so I figure I might be able to talk King Emeric into standing down. Unlikely, but it's worth a try! One short Wayshrine trip later and I find myself back in the Covenant controlled land of Glenumbra.

TESO: A Boon for my Servant

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Having been sent back to the Rift to deal with the problematic Reachmen who are allied with the Worm Cult, I make a detour to Riften (one of many to unload gear) and while there complete both Mages and Fighter's guild quest lines. For the Mages one, Shalidor uses the tomes to transport us to his missing island of Eyevea which Sheogorath has left littered with dremora. After cleaning those up we get to keep the island though Sheogorath does take the now insane tome decypherer, Valaste, with him back to the Shivering Isles. Shalidor still rewards me with a "library" type function (recall all books / papers through a menu).

Afterwards, I went to track down the murderous Argonian fighters guild master with the Fighters Guild to Coldharbour, where she openly admits to the murder of the previous leader - all because Meridia demanded to get the Fighter's Guild involved against Molag Bal. Conveniently, his "back up" weapon is here and I end up assisting her in destroying it along with a traitorous khajiit who Molag Bal transforms into a Demon Dragon thing.

Molag Bal should hand out boons more often - that looks cool!

The murderous Argonian is spared, but stripped of the guild master title which goes to Mr. replacement guy. I'm just happy that's all done and I can go back to exploring!

TESO: The Alchemy of Graphics Cards

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With the Mages Guild quest line coming along nicely, I also help the Fighters Guild  do some research on a secondary weapon of Molag Bal and begin the process to craft countermeasures to it. Bal must be really weak since he could only muster a few skeletons led by a weak lich to try stop that. On a side note: The Ghosts in TESO really need some better/more obvious lore. Not only do they have ghost clothes but they also hit me with ghost arrows from their ghost bows... what? Is there ghost gold where they buy ghost equipment from a ghost shop?

It is then time to get the rest of the Shadowfen back under control, and while the Worm Cult has a small presence here the main enemy are Dominion troops - soldiers of Queen Ayrenn! The Thalmor scum are causing all sorts of problems in the swamp, though truthfully it would help if the Argonians stopped leaving their powerful relics lying around.

Ooh, can I tame one as my steed?

There are awesome lightning dragon things in this region too, who look really cool. Alas, the biggest problem I have in this zone is the "blue hue" that enjoys crashing my graphics card making it a real pain to traverse! Fortunately following this forum post alleviates the problem, enabling me to not crash during dolmen invasions (because Molag Bal hasn't given up) and slaying the Dominion leader and alchemist Ruuvitar in the region. As if hearing my advice, the lizardmen then send their relics by ship up to Windhelm for safe keeping. Since my work here is done I decide to tag along.

TESO: Attack on Coldharbour

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

My first task from Hollow City is to refill it by saving as many people as I can from the various torturous dremora in Coldharbour, most of whom are Fighter and Mages guild members. There are others here too whom I ally with, such as elf-eating Lamias, Argonians who have sold the soul of their Hist tree to Molag Bal, and a repentant Angoff (the druid terrorist leader from before).

Once the force is assembled it's simply a matter of pushing forward and upward in Coldharbour, slaying the armies of vampires, dremora, and daedra in the way. Molag Bal shows up in person to try stop us but as expected Meridia reveals herself to duel with him while the rest of us continue with the mission of destroying the Planemeld - aka the doohickey that Molag Bal requires for his grand plan.

 Whatever you say, boss!

Many / most of my allies die in the experience, but we are ultimately victorious in "planting the bombs and blowing things up" which pretty much puts a stop on Molag Bal's world-killing plan. Meridia takes us survivors back to the Hollow City for celebrations. Wish they made it more clear who made it and who didn't though. What is this, the Deathly Hallows or something?

TESO: Nothing goes to Plan

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With Queen Ayrenn on board, I figured it was time to report to King Jorunn about my progress and Wayshrined back to Davon's Watch. Jorunn said he'd be at Mournhold which is to the South in Deshann, so that's the road I took. I had to deal with a minor terrorist group spreading chemical weapons to turn people into zombie things on the way and ended them via the "backfire" method with the help of Naryu, a Dunmer assassin. We were getting pretty friendly until she revealed she was Morag Tong. Now she's on my "to kill" list (also I'm pretty sure this is her in the Morrowind trailer).

Anyway, bigger fish to fry first. At the Capital one of the mages from the mage's guild acts as my transport in organizing the three leaders (of whom King Casimir isn't one, oops) to meet at a summit on a neutral isle. Fortunately the Covenant High King Emeric must have heard good things about me as he agrees to attend. The talks don't go well at first, with no lead willing to redirect their troops from the Cyrodil war into Coldharbour. A short visit from Molag Bal and his minions does make them agree to send the war-neutral Fighters and Mages guild though - with me in the lead.

Spoiler: They don't.

Not that it matters because in our hasty and unplanned counter-attack I arrive alone in Coldharbour, at least this time in the open world version of it. I soon find the Hollow City, a town sent here and protected by Meridia (also possibly a Dark Souls reference). It suits its name in that it is almost completely deserted. The local grounds keeper, who I suspect is Meridia herself, offers me to use the city as my base to build up an army. Meridia really dislikes Molag Bal. First things first - I find a cooking fire and make an armies worth of food (which I sell because, shineys are shiney)! Provisioning is seriously the easiest craft skill to level. With my pack lightened and my belly full, it's time to go exploring.

TESO: Old Friends

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With the Covenant halted, I managed to get in touch with the Prophet again. After finding him hiding in a not so nearby cave/hovel, he tells me that Molag Bal's plan to take over Tamriel must be stopped. Well, duh... some mages have low INT I guess? I need allies first though, which makes sense since the local war mage committed semi-suicide, and the first one that pops into his mind is Lyris so once more he opens a portal to Coldharbour and I'm tasked with putting her back together (figuratively, since dremora enjoy mindbending torture). Somehow this involves much slaying of dremora but we escape just fine this time.

Alas, almost as soon as we return the Prophet wants us to go back to rescue someone else! Sigh. Unfortunately this time the region he sends us to keeps crashing me to the desktop so much (GFX overheat?) that I end up abandoning that game-breaking piece of shit mission, telling him to let Lyris handle it. Not happy TESO. Instead I decide to explore a dwemer ruin to look for some lost books for the Mages Guild. I guess it's like working for a library? Anyway, one such book spawns the spirit of Archmage Shalidor who asks my help in retrieving... more lost books. And an island. From Sheogorath.

Seems they have a long standing feud.

I found Shalidor's four tomes really easily once I stepped through the gate he opened to the Shivering Isles. The guardian clanfear was really troublesome though, forcing me to learn how to quickslot potions. Of course Sheogorath wasn't going to just let me take all five tomes, instead he let me take one - offering the rest when I earned them. After taking the book back to the Mages guild for decyphering (Sheo cursed the books so that Shalidor couldn't do that), I was free to decide which way to travel so I hopped on my horse and headed North West to Riften! Because I needed to check on my daughters. o_o

TESO: New Life Unlock

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For some reason Friede's words "Thy place of belonging" kept ringing in my mind and with the Fire Keeper's help I used my significant soul fire to teleport me somewhere closer to home.

I awoke in a very weakened state in the familiar landscape of Coldharbour. Lucky for me not five minutes goes by before a towering Nord lady named Lyris frees me from my cell, informing me that my current undeath condition was caused by some scum named Mannimarco. With no intention of keeping the silence this time, I took great pleasure in eviscerating all the dremora in the way to our escape route: another prisoner called "the Prophet".

I can still backstab with a two handed sword!

The old guy manages to open a portal back to Tamriel for us, but thanks to Molag Bal's interference Lyris doesn't escape. Just want to note that it is fortunate the Prophet's portal opened over the sea because it was pretty high up! I washed ashore on a snowy little island called Bleakrock and was soon conscripted by the local Dunmer She-Captain into gathering all the townsfolk for an emergency evacuation since Covenant warships were spotted headed this way.

Despite the "rush" I happen to come across a friendly Argonian He Alve who teaches me the art of lock picking, which is now a simple mini game. Simple when someone explains it anyway! Just push down on each tumbler and let go when it starts to shake. More importantly just -remember- when it starts to shake so your second attempt will always work. After this two minute crash course, I've not failed any. Thank you He Alve!

Skyrim: Far Traveled

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Not sure how this is a stealth test...

Teleporting through testing areas is a bit sudden. After a brief stint at the arena where I find the sword, Umbra, I am soon back to solving odd puzzles with candles and traveling back and forth through long dungeon corridors to find hidden switches. Whoever designed these tests really made it annoying. For a change of pace the next portal tosses me into Molag Bal's slice of Oblivion known as Coldharbour.

Ooh, an Elder Scrolls Online tie in!

While most of the huge area is devoid of life, the few patrolling guards have fantastic eyesight making this a truly challenging sneak experience since I wanted to prove to Molag Bal that I could escape the place without killing anyone. That last guard really required an invisibility potion though, he was just too good. Or I needed to lure him out or something. Hindsight right?

Master Thief thumbs up!

After even more tests of wit, patience and eyesight I finally emerge out of some mountain temple and into a very humid desert. A sole Redguard is camped nearby and is quite excited to meet me, insisting I follow him to his village. He even knows I am the dragonborn? I ask him just where the heck I am. The answer? An isolated valley of the Alik'r Desert... in Hammerfell!

Kinda reminds me of Al-Khazneh.

Where is Doctor Jones?

Scavenging Spirit

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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).

King and Queen

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Found a Thalmor patrol in the mountains today and after killing them located their embassy high in the mountains. Unfortunately we could not break in. Continued onto the Imperial Stronghold of Solitude since it was nearby, and it must be a contender for the worst place to put a city. After overhearing general Tullius I knew for certain that the Empire and all who supported them were a bunch of sissies that loved bending over for the elves. At least the Widow Jarl there seems to be on the fence still. Helped out the people in town including my old buddy Sheogorath and a sneaksie Argonian Egyptian (Jaree-Ra?) which resulted in the death of some imperial fools, followed by a very obvious betrayal and the death of Mr. Ra and his marauder buddies. That actually worked out quite nicely for me as I left no witnesses alive.

Argis and I proceeded to clear out tombs of the dead men, including one King Olaf (a task which the bard's college threw a festival in my honor - very awesome) and for a change also some disease carrying Peryite worshippers (which, ironically was a task set by Peryite itself). Back outside we encountered a courier delivering a letter for me asking me to return to the Blue Palace where Widow Jarl is (good to see I'm not the only one delivering stuff). Once there we learn that old queen Potato who dabbled in necromancy was rising from the dead. We couldn't have that, so we charged into her quite deep burial chamber slaying all her minions until we reached her council chamber. There a large amount of dead men supported by the spirit of Queen Potato shooting lightning all over the place made for a good battle. All her minions were slain, but so was the Champion of Molag Bal. With only Potato left on her throne I decided not to use my 100 stealth or archery (which I reached sometime in this post) and instead challenged her head on with a glass dagger and Meridia's Dawnbreaker (very useful against the undead). It was a short battle because really, the Queen was no better than a Potato and my sword cooked her to non-existence.

The end of Queen Potato.
Back in Solitude I hired the crazy drunk spellsword Belrand to help carry my gear and we proceeded to the small town of Morthal which is run by a soothsaying, imperial supporting Jarl. My suspicions of her actually just being an idiot were confirmed when she said she assembled some fighting men to help me eliminate a nearby vampire nest. Instead of having well armed guards, she sends torch bearing townsfolk - most of whom lose their nerve once we reach the lair. Even Benor, the braggart who thought he was the "best fighter" in town until I punched his face in shat his pants and ran home. Whatever, this town seems to just be full of losers. After dealing with their problems I decided to head back to Whiterun to stow gear.

The Legend and the Champion

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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

Joe to the Rescue

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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. :)