Skyrim: Thalmor Agent Yyon

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

Did I mention Brhuce rides a train?

Because he does.

Finally I collect the Tankard of Why, get out of that place and hand it over to Sofia. Brhuce still doesn't want to go back to his dad though, intent on continuing his adventures. We don't get to argue much though as a panicked villager informs us of an attack on Riverwood. Heading there we find the guards being slaughtered by Thalmor Agent Yyon and his cronies! This guy is far worse than Zavakin, having the ability to summon a shade of one of the named dragons I had already slain. Fortunately we have reinforcements in the form of Bo, Twilight and Aurora, as well as Brhuce's summons: the steam shooting "Trainmen". 

As I said, Brhuce also shoots trains.

Yyon's henchies don't last long but he himself is adept at healing just at the verge of death, so this ranged battle (thanks to Brhuce's continued knock back attacks) takes really long. Alas, Brhuce's own combo of shooting knock back trains followed up by instant teleportation beside his target to attack with his swords proves to be his undoing when he attempts it on an airborne dragon - and misses. With a loud scream and a sickening crunching splat, the law of gravity proved to be his undoing.

Meanwhile, Yyon was setting everything on fire.

Yyon turned out to be quite the pyromaniac, but with so many targets for him to keep track of he left his back open for my +900 x6 sneak attack damage backstab which was far too much for him to heal from. With him finally dead, my old allies informed me that the Thalmor had sent an even bigger threat to Skyrim which is why Bo had returned from Elswyr and the sisters from their campaign in Summerset Isle. They had sent a Dragonlord!?

Skyrim: Secret Agent

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

After collecting the requested items for the Temple of Stendarr I am asked if I want to join their order. Given I've joined all the other groups so far I accept and am tasked with hunting an ex-member who turned into a werewolf as my "trial". We find him easy enough, and though he seems to be the amiable, loner sort I opt to kill the abomination anyway. For the greater good! The Stendarrites are pleased with this, and task me next with infiltrating the "Remnants of the Mythic Dawn" cult. Yep, the same ones that opened the Oblivion Gates.

Too bad he didn't beg for his miserable life. 

I would have killed him regardless.

To do this I'd need to leave all my gear, dress up like a warlock and make friends with a captive cultist they have in custody. Sure why not. Sofia also wants to do this, and cannot be talked out of it. Since being "imprisoned" with two bodyguards would probably be too much to believe, Bo leaves the party at this point and wishes us luck. She decides to head back to Elswyr to have adventures with Skullcat. I'm a little jealous.

Instead we get to crawl through this.

So, Sofia and I end up in prison with some random cultist guy. As planned we help him escape (through the shitter, literally) and since he is probably a moron, he decides to invite us to join his order. We accept! He then leads us on what appears to be a marathon across at least a fourth of the country and obviously we have to keep him alive in the process.

Iron knifing trolls. Ahh that takes me back.

There is a small benefit in that his path takes us near Riverwood, so I make a quick detour to recruit Bandit (Bo's battle sister) which seems natural to the cultist since she's basically just hired muscle.

Skyrim: The Ebony Warrior

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

Arriving at Windhelm I decided to check in with Njada but only got to the town center when a massive Ebony Warrior approached me and having "accomplished everything" wanted to duel me as his final challenge in life. I told him I'd think about it, and when he turned around I called the guards on him (by making him angry via pickpocket). I stood back as I watched the Ebony Warrior decimate the five guards that arrived, learning that he had decent restoration skills and that he too was dragonborn. That's not such a big deal these days.

I should really consider lighting a torch for screenies...

Not willing to risk the lives of any more citizens I let the giant of a man leave after he sheathed his weapon. I had hoped to track him outside but he simply vanished once he reached the gate! Concerned for her safety, I thought I'd advise Njada to move house but she adamantly refused since there were others in the city that required her protection.

My next stop was Riverwood where I recruited Bo after returning Marauder's body to the camp (it sort of got there on its own actually, kinda strange). She mentioned a possible lead in the local tavern and sure enough a dunmer named Mandryn was there asking for my help to track down a dangerous fugitive from Morrowind for a measly 500 gold reward. "Did this guy wear Ebony Armor?" I asked, "If so I think I've already run into him."

Skyrim: Minecraft

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

Since Rayya has a head for all things housing, and is decent enough in a scrap, I assigned her to be the steward of Hjalmarch Hall - the Dawnstar property, and instructed her to buy a whole bunch of supplies and furnishings. While she did that, I returned to Riverwood to recruit B.T.'s sister in arms, Marauder, to loot my stash of ingots at Whiterun and the stash at Ravensburg castle.

Supplies!

With those we are able to construct the main hall which connects to the small house (now the foyer) and acts as the central hub to which other house "wings" can be attached. I start work on constructing the bedrooms but run out of quarried stone to finish the job. A courier finds me here, telling me that Ralis again wants my help at the dig so I instruct Rayya to put a whole bunch of construction items on the list of things to get too.

Two handy fast travels later and Marauder and I are at Ralis' site. This time -everyone- is dead, and based on his scattered journals, Ralis has been a servant of Azhidal this whole time, "feeding" people to him. Marauder easily clears out the risen draugr only needing my help in the final chamber where Ralis successfully awakens his dragon priest master, killing himself in the process.

Apart from all the draugr and the zombies Azhidal is raising, the dragon priest has an interesting shout that simply removes 25% of your total life. If only he used it more often. Upon his destruction, all the zombies and draugr "died" once more which happened to just save Marauder from being undead chow. After looting the place and collecting the black book at the end I am now at level 75, and it was time to head back and finish that house!

Yeah, house building sounds better than staying here with Shub-Niggurath.

Skyrim: Non-Starters

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

Riften turned out to be a very short stop on my equally short bandit hunting quest. The trail of pushover brigands, some of whom fought each other because one was a werewolf (lol, what was going on there?) I finally found their boss, Fin, beneath the College of Winterhold. It was a short duel, and while he had decent speed I was simply too agile for him.

The surviving mages then told me of the return of the Master Dragons, Alduin's liutenants (who by this tale are a few years too late). Alas compared to the monstrous dragons I've already fought they are but a footnote and were easily hunted and executed. Finally I could get back to Jarling - but upon return to Whiterun I found it under attack by a group of bandits who were soundly being defeated by the guards. I watched with pride as my guardsmen sent them packing. I tailed a few of the good looking survivors back to Riverwood where they agreed to work for me instead of being executed. I got B.T. to join the party while her compatriots Bandit, Marauder and Bo guarded the small village.

It seems dragons come in all colors now...

Back at Whiterun the guards informed me of some Oblivion Gate opening nearby, but when I went to the spot there was nothing there. Looks like once again, they had everything under control! Finally back in town, Belethor let me take a look a new book in his shop - one that transported me to a modern motel with a horror motif. This asylum was indeed quite creepy, complete with mute people blankly staring into space, but with all the locked doors it soon became boring and I teleported my self back to Whiterun to do some actual work.

Why anyone would want a painting of that hanging around is a mystery.

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.

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.

Swan Song at Falkreath

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!

After getting out of the lake I continued West, finding a pair of orc hunters taking down a bear. One of them was killed in the process so I took his arrows and the bear's hide and followed his friend from a distance. The poor sap walked right into a bandit ambush and died from arrow to the head syndrome, while I carefully evaded the scum - reaching another empty imperial camp where I could cook up all the food I had looted from the docks. Salt is an important commodity! Continuing into the mountain pass I was escorted briefly by a mounted hunter for most of it before he turned back. On the road I found one of the Khajiit caravans I had been hunting, only they were already dead - another elaborate and large scale bandit ambush that I avoided. Probably a subgroup from the ones camped at Helgen which I steered clear of.

Eventually I reached Falkreath and the whole way I was wondering how I was going to break into town without getting spotted by the guards. Turns out I just needed to jump the fence, then using a new found skill thanks to the challenge blog - rode up the waterwheel to the roof of the timber house and quietly made my way to Dead Man's Drink to get some clues as to who the Thalmor agent was here. The tavern was packed so I made sure to interview everyone, highly suspecting a random orc who was present. As it turns out the person I was after was the young bard named Delacourt who seemed extremely worried to see me. I needed a way to kill him in a crowded room without everyone alerting the guards... then it occured to me.

It's a growing epidemic!

I asked him to perform Ragnar the Red which he did, and while everyone stood around watching him I hid in one of the rooms and sent an iron arrow into his mouth near the end of the song. The audience was shocked, but had no idea who did it. I'd like to say now that I wanted to do some cool exit strategy to ghost myself out of there but the minute I stepped out I was sighted by the guards and had to simply run for the hills (well, the mountain) literally. Once on the otherside I just jumped in the lake and followed the river (fighting off slaughterfish) while carefully avoiding Riverwood - breaking a few wolf necks in the process. In no time at all I was approaching my next target city... Whiterun.

Doing the Hard Yards

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

Decided to continue 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.

Challenge: Salmon Catching (success I think)
Go to where the river has rapids near Whiterun. You have two minutes to catch as many salmon as possible.
On my best attempt (3rd try) I got 12. First one was 4. :P

Challenge: Wheel Riding (success)
Ride a paddlewheel up from the water and get off on the landing above.
Went to Riverwood for this one, and it was not as easy as I had thought. Still managed to get up there on my 4th attempt though.

Challenge: Chicken Cart (success)
Your goal is to kill a chicken using only a wooden cart.
Took a moment before I realized I had to jump at the cart rather than walking into it. Dead chicken indeed. :)

Challenge: Giant Boxing (death! Lots of it! :P)
Go to Talking Stone Camp and find a lone giant. With no armor or weapons your goal is to punch it as many times as you can. You are not allowed to leave the camp's perimitter.
Best run I punched the guy 4 times. He kept sending me flying though!

Challenge: Torch Run (success)
With no armor and only carrying a torch - run on foot from the gates of whiterun to the Jarl's house in Morthal in under 5 minutes.
After death by sabrecat and death by bandit arrow, I managed to reach the dang place with a time of 4:53.4.

Challenge: Dovah-Sprint (fail)
Run from the gates of Whiterun to the chest outside High Hrothgar in under 7 minutes.
Massive fail for me here - only reached it at 9:42.8.

I lose stamina just looking at the picture. :(

Challenge: Dovah-Descent (success)
Get from High Hrothgar to Riverwood in 2 minutes or less without using Become Ethereal or dying.
After one horrific fall, I managed to get down there in one piece (more or less) in 1:51.9.

Challenge: Cliffside Retreat Archery Test (success)
Put a bucket on the hunter's head. Shoot from 3 marked positions.
Again, archery is my forte. Won on arrow 4.

Challenge: Waterfalling (timed)
Get a corpse from Nilheim Tower down to the shore of Darkwater Crossing as fast as possible.
Using a bandit who "volunteered" this turned out to be really difficult for me, requiring many retries to get her to the bottom lake. Only made it to shore at 6:46.3.

Challenge: Dragon Catching (timed)
Catch as many dartwings as you can, as fast as you can.
Starting near where the hunters are bathing near Darkwater Crossing, I got 10 (and almost killed by a bear) in 5:02.2.

Challenge: Logging Wine (timed)
Drag (not pick up) as many bottles of wine from one end of a fallen log to the other in 2 minutes. The fallen log is West of Knifepoint Lookout.
After running into a hagraven fighting a spriggan (pretty even) and clearing a pair of bandits I tried this and only managed to get 4 across (dropped 1 too). :/

Challenge: Mistwatch Catapult (fail)
Setup some containers at the tower door and use the drawbridge to catapult stuff into them.
Used two small baskets and one large one and for ammo had 12 mugs, 2 slices of cheese, 14 pieces of salmon and some wine. Score - ZERO. Good thing I've never needed to man a catapult! :P

Southern Patrol

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

Took a break from the cloak and dagger of the thieves guild to patrol the Southern border of this fantastic land. Most of it I'd mapped already, but there were some fun parts including revisiting Helgen and eradicating the bandit scum that had taken residence in the ruins. Ren became frost troll chow a few caves later and I met an isolated archer girl called Angi who I wish I met earlier in the game. Pity she didn't want to join my team. I easily won her fun archery practice game and was glad that there was another imperial hating awesome archer in the land. Since I was in the area I decided to revisit the Falkreath Sanctuary and using my weeeeak magic decided to bring zombie-Astrid with me to Riverwood to see if anyone wanted to join my travels.

Unsurprisingly, the Whiterun allied guards there along with a few townsfolk I had -thought- were my friends all came to attack me. Zombie-Astrid did pretty well but was turned to ash by the mill-woman's rusty knife. After killing all those who opposed me I found the bard Sven who for some reason wanted to come along with me - most likely in hopes to have some of my fame rub off on him. He was a good guy, refusing to attack anyone (bandits) I asked him to. Alas the guards at the next town of Falkreath where I was to collect a bounty (from a friendly maid turned town steward! Awesome!) thought differently and ripped the aspiring bard a new one... With a war axe.

Apparently, it makes you sing better.

Found an ex-imperial named Conner to take his place at the Old Hroldan inn. Stayed the night too as I don't remember the last time my character slept. Woke up due to some screaming and a ghost looking for a sword. Finally I could get that thing out of my inventory. Continued exploration/clearing and after killing a Blood Horker pair I revisited the cave where the Redguard Alik'r Kematu was camped out. I asked him what he was still doing there having captured the girl he was looking for much earlier, and of the recent wandering Alik'r that attacked me. He offered no reply, and given that his men had unsheathed their weapons I figured the answer was clear.

After wiping him and his team out Conner and I found a bandit hideout near Whiterun I had completely missed. While he dueled a skilled blind bandit at the entrance I handled the rest of the scum and finished first before he finally ran the blind guy through. At the top of the summit was the bandit leader and Conner wanted to duel the guy so I let him. Conner was terribly outclassed but pulled off a fantastic last move - as the leader shoved his two handed sword through him, Conner somehow managed to push the guy off the platform sending both of them to a very messy and crunchy death on the jagged rocks below. I really wish I managed to video it.

The Long and Winding Road

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

Belrand and I made a stop at Riverwood to find the owner of a mysterious note. Upon finding this secret agent, she insisted I prove my dragon soul consuming ability by going to where she thinks a dragon is going to appear. This happens to be a -very- long way away but I decide to jog along with her the whole way there, marking out new land marks as we pass them. Finally we reach the site and the big black dragon who I saw at the start is here. Not missing a beat I engage it in combat and seem to irritate it. Without missing a beat it summons another dragon (who I know as "Sucker") from the ground before flying off. I call it that because as soon as it came out we just beat it back down to death and I ate its soul. Big black draggy has flown off, possibly because it saw how poor Sucker fared.

Secret agent girl is impressed and leaves to do some planning, so Belrand and I do the nearby tasks I have in the area, as well as for the people in a small settlement nearby. One of them is to find out what the hell I did when Lydia and I had that drinking contest awhile back. I've been slowly tracking down where I needed to go and it's led me to a fortress filled with magic users, including one psychotic pyromancer. Anyway, after dealing with him we find a portal to misty realm where I find the guy who issued the drinking challenge in the first place. He turns out to be the daedra Sanguine playing a prank.

I don't like pranks OR pranksters and immediately go on the offensive. Fighting an actual Daedra is quite tough though, as all my attacks seem to go right through him as if he wasn't there at all. The fight goes on for at least a day, and Belrand meets his fate at the hands of the bastard daedra. Finally Sanguine tires of all of this and teleports me back to Whiterun. Damn it. At least I got some good block and light armor training from that. Since I had a few more tasks to hand in back at Solitude I headed back that way, picking up Benor the coward as my pack mule from Morthal. I also was proclaimed thane in both Morthal (by idiot Jarl) and Solitude (by widow Jarl) and was assigned a new housecarl in the latter. I left her to watch the new house I bought in Solitude while Benor and I continued on to Dawnstar.

On the way we came across an Imperial encampment where I killed the lone lookouts, then came across a volkihar vampire which led to an epic battle that lasted all the way to the port city. True to form Benor spent most of his time cowering or running away. It took a bunch of brave travelling khajit and a number of town guards to help take down this foe but finally it was dead and I was at my destination.

Beware Benor's wrath! :P

Full Moon Tango

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

Having completed my shout training I found myself back in Riverwood and found my old buddy Faendal who made it back from the Barrow place on his own. He seemed keen on returning to the adventuring life so off we went defeating a witch circle led by a hagraven, hunting down a troublesome giant, clearing a skeleton-filled bastian out along with their (quite tough) vampire master, helping a hunter against some spriggans, and near Falkreath even had a run in with a talking dog who followed us around for a time untill he decided to go run off somewhere.

We also tracked down a werewolf who had killed a little girl in town. He claimed to be under the influence of magic at the time, which to me is no excuse at all. The beast was tough, and had killed many other hunters prior to our arrival. It tore Faendal into pieces with its teeth and claws but was far too slow to even be a threat to me. I laughed as I fired the last arrow right into the beast's face then as it lay near death, I skinned it alive (well, it was alive when I started). It will make a nice addition to my trophy room.

The next task on the list was to eliminate another vampire high up yet another mountain in a place called the Bloodlet Throne. Ran into Golldir who I had helped previously and he decided to come with me on this task. The trek up the mountain was again a long one, going through other caves to reach higher ground. Little did I realize that guarding the place was a large blood dragon. We engaged the beast in combat and early in the piece the monster grabbed the hapless Golldir in its maw, chomped down hard, then tossed him off the mountain cliff to certain death.

I avenged him, eating the dragon's soul then continued alone to the vampire's lair. Fortunately, despite the numerous blood suckers present none of them even saw me coming. My primary target had it worst as I plunged both my daggers into his back, breaking his spine into three with one hit. After looting the place dry I headed back down to warmer climates. Never did find where Golldir landed though.

Was disappointed this wasn't at the Bloodlet Throne. :P

Another Noob in Riverwood

Hi all! Decided to record my thoughts and experiences while playing Skyrim, so while not being proper updates, I thought they could be an entertaining read for anyone that actually stumbles in here. ;p Possible spoilers ahead! You can also follow the whole story here!

Woke up and was about to be executed. Bad start to any day. Got away thanks to some winged intervention and extra pleased I got to stab the female empire officer who had me lined up to die (for no good reason other than my name being the same as this region I might add) during the escape. Fellow escapee Ralof led me to Riverwood and after a day of talking to the townsfolk I decided to hike up to the scary Barrow place to kill some bandits with Faendal the elf. He owed me for helping him score and showed me a thing or two about marksmanship on the way. Apparently he also likes dressing up. None of the dungeon denizens proved to be challenging (even on master level), and both of us made it out just fine. Well, at least I did. Faendal didn't want to exit with me so we split up to find our own ways back. Didn't see him back in Riverwood, either I beat him there or he has run off with half the loot from the expedition. Either way people seem to want me to head to Whiterun next.

Encountered my first giants and mammoths after journeying North past the mountain. Managed to swipe some of their stuff too while they weren't looking. They seem docile enough though... why would anyone want to fight them? Seems my answer was at a nearby farm. Three hooligans were trying to take one down, and were successful too. They're mercs apparently. Famed in these parts? Followed them back to Whiterun which really IS quite hard to miss. Lots of people and things to see. Found the merc's base and they seem friendly enough for the kill for money type. They are accepting recruits so I signed up to see what makes em tick. If they're evil scum it's always easier to stab them in the back anyway. Afterall, in my perfect world the only -evil- thing that should exist is me.

First assignment is to beat up the nice female blacksmith. They're paid to hit women? I'm disliking them even more now. Snuck into her house in the dead of night to try sort things out. Seems she wants to fist fight. Her husband/partner just stands by and cheers. Too bad for her I'm simply more skilled in the dance. She's learned her lesson and my non-respect for her "friend", the one that stood by and cheered as I smacked her around, has turned to disgust instead.

Anyway, went and talked to the Jarl bossman who wanted me to get some sort of stone from that Barrow place. You mean this stone? He and his wizard are impressed. Speaking of Dragons, one's been sighted nearby and he has asked me to go assist his troops recon the site. Should be an interesting expedition I think.