Good Help is Hard to Find

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

Having lost the last of my army to the vampires I decided it was time to look for additional aid again since there should be new adventurers in the region since my last recruitment drive (added more mods). To start with I just wanted an extra guard for Njada at our new "Butcher's" house in Windhelm. As an aside, she had found out how "the Butcher" severed the threads of fate on his victims. Turned out it was pretty simple really - a simple incantation (ini file change) that banished the fates from your actions temporarily. Needless to say, I used it because there were quite a few people left alive that really, should not be. 

Back to hiring people, I had a quick sneaky look in Riften and Windhelm itself only to find no one. Managed to hire a "master mage" named Sparrow at Winterhold but he was not interested at all in guard duty. Actually the douchebag didn't seem interested in following any of my orders anyway but I took him along anyway. Paid a visit to the newly reopened Sanctuary at Dawnstar. Seems Babette managed to claw her way out of there afterall AND hire a new initiate while she was at it. Sparrow outright refused to kill either of them (what the hell am I paying this LOSER for) so I did it myself - beheading the idiotic initiate and then shoving my flaming daedric blade down that bloodsucking "child's" throat, and now without fate protecting her she died screaming in agony - as she deserved.

Unfortunately there were no new adventurers at the inn there or at Morthal (where the dumb guards had to be slain again since they attacked me). There was a new, pretty girl at Solitude named Jessica though - but she too wasn't interested in guard duty. In fact she was looking for adventure headed out of the region since she had just escaped from some rogueish slavers at Whiterun. Slightly curious when I heard that but I had one more person that needed immediate killing first. Sparrow and I headed up to the Valerica's tower (though Sparrow stayed outside since he's obviously a coward) at the Volkihar Castle and once I got there I wanted to ask her one more time if she wanted to cure herself, to be rid of the disease but she gave me no option, indicating that she would continue her evil vampiric, necromantic ways for all eternity. Not without the threads of fate, bitch! Ran that abomination through, ending her miserable un-life then tossed her corpse back down into the Soul Cairn to be devoured.

Hey guys! Lunch time!

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. 

Fielding All Assets

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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).

Did I just Die Again?

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

Katria, Agmaer and myself rode the lift far down into the depths where we finally found the Aetherium Forge our spirit guide was looking for. She then told me to turn off the steam. Are you nuts? That generally makes things explode! Anyway, after a mandatory fight with its guardians (where I turn the steam back on) I use the rare ore of the key itself to make a crown for Katria. She is happy and finally goes off to Sovngarde (I guess). I run one more rescue mission with Agmaer wherein we slay another master vamp and free a bearded male orc civilian who calls Agmaer "my love". Uhhh, awkward.

With a lot of experience now under his belt I bring Agmaer back to Dawnguard HQ then proceed to meet Serana where she is waiting for me  - but not before I instruct one of my people, Bane the khajiit, to tail us covertly from a good distance. I'm not dumb enough to wander around with a bunch of elder scrolls and have no backup, and I figure if anyone can sneak up on a vamp it would be a cat. So into the castle we go via a side entrance. Skeletons and gargoyles seem to be the main guards here, but are generally no match for Serana's magic anyway. A feral vamp and her doggies are the only fangs I get to slay on this excursion.

We finally reach the tower of her mom and find a portal to the Soul Cairn, the only catch being I have to be partially "dead" to enter. Serana offers again to vamp me out or alternatively partially soul trap me which will weaken me somewhat. I obviously  choose the soul trap option (because vampires suck!) and then descend into the realm of not quite death, but more like used black soul-trap land? It is a bizzare and somewhat large place, but thankfully it is not as huge nor as darkly foreboding as Blackreach. Oddly the skeleton theme continues here, with bonemen being my primary adversaries. Pity for them my aura whisper removes any surprise attacks they have, since I can pinpoint them, bash them through the sand to make them climb out, and finish off with a sneak attack when they are defenseless.

Lots of non-hostile souls here too, the funniest being "Saint" Jiub, the slayer of Cliffracers! Unfortunately he also has a damned collection quest in here too. Blaaaargh! x_x

Whoa that takes me back.