Skyrim: Crazy Cats

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

There's no cat like Skullcat!

Turns out the Khajiit's of Elswyr also submitted to the Thalmor after the White Gold Concordat was signed, but this particular group were rebels which made me really happy. After clearing the woods of some mini dinosaurs and huge spiders, Bo, Sofia and I were given an airship whith Khulam the telepath khajiit navigator and Skull Cat the khajiit pirate to stop a small Thalmor incursion (with their Igma, monkey allies) into the jungle which culminates in airborne boarding! Sofia executes their commander in his quarters.

Airship boarding!

After beating up some argonian pirates we also handle their other problem in the form of a fat Sload who wants to eat everything. He's stupid enough to get us to find food for him though which gives an easy opportunity to poison and subsequently kill him while he is weakened. Oh, and he had some sort of viral bomb which we "disarmed" (by killing an infected dinosaur) too.

Fat bastard.

With that done and the rebellion trully underway here it's time to bid farewell to my new crazy cat friends and head back to Skyrim. I'm going to miss them.

Aww... I'm going to miss them a lot!

Our first stop upon getting back was my house where Rayya had made absolutely ZERO progress in decorating it. Where the hell is all my gold going you incompetent steward? Anyway, since that is going nowhere I decide to convert the alchemy lab in my Riften property into some children's bedrooms to adopt two little girls: Sofie the flower seller at Windhelm and Lucia the beggar Whiterun. I think Njada would have liked that. And at least here, they get to play with the other kids at the orphanage.

So strange. So strange.

Aspects of Fun

Part of my Explorer of Tyria journal - you can find the rest here!

After a nice break where in I got to do other stuff (including exploring a vertically challenging aetherblade base within a holographic mountain) while the rest of the populace helped capture Aetherblade Captain Mai Trin in her dungeon, I returned to news that a bunch of flying merchants had docked at some difficult to reach cliffs to display their wares. I like exploring places so I headed on down via ship to visit the spectacularly beautiful (yet deviously deadly) Labyrinthine Cliffs where these Zephyrites had parked. Not only do they have interesting goods (most of which are dangerous - where do they get this stuff and more importantly why are they selling them to unsuspecting folk?), they also have developed a form of travel using aspect crystals to either dash quickly, jump high, or jump far and pray to god you don't end up as a splat on the ground as you climb higher up the dizzying heights. Being sadistic bastards they also setup a scavenger hunt for sky crystals in the zone to encourage self-termination via gravity.

Insane and Insanely Pretty!

High atop their anchored sky ship (which have diving goggles on the prow... as I said, these people are psycho) you can participate in their "aspect training" which comes in the form of a race. A very fun yet very annoying race. Took me 28 tries before coming first, mainly due to aspect lag (a skill ANet didn't forsee nor cater for). I did come up with a short list to help others overcome it though. The Zephyrites were also victims of robbery, not just from random Aetherblade raiders but from skritt running off with a bunch of their kites. The bastard rats even took the time to hide in various jumping puzzles, one within a fractal and one in the PVP Obsidian Sanctum.

Ofcourse I did all the above and kind of regret not chasing down the Aetherblade Caches in the other JP's and mini dungeons previously because I forgot how much fun they were. My favourite was the final kite at Obsidian Sanctum. Upon entering the Eternal Battlegrounds to find that an enemy server, Drakkar Lake, had complete dominion over it (them Germans are good at war). I had to aid my Gunnar's Hold compatriots in violently capturing our low lands corner including three nearby towers and the keep before making my way into the puzzle proper itself, solo. Inside I encountered maybe ten more Drakkar Lake players (in various small groups), any of whom could have really ruined my day but through salute/dance truce (opposing servers cannot hear chat; you can only communicate through action) I freely passed all of them without any aggression whatsoever.

With a boost in achievement points which will help my later achievement unlocks I also was rewarded a permanent quartz node as a symbol of my awesome ambassadorial skills (I don't recall doing any ambassadoring though). Plotwise the newly appointed Captain and ineffective ex-Lionguard Investigator/Policewoman Ellen Kiel is going head to head with Black Lion Company founder Evon Gnashblade. Both trying to secure a trade agreement with the flying salesmen to help their claim to the vacant council seat, made that way from the events last month. I didn't really pay attention to the politics. There were cliffs to be climbed! :P