Enemy Number One

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

Marne and I found another falmer cave after dispatching a wandering blood dragon. Once inside I was hit by a new spell that took me (or should I say, my power supply) out of commision for a bit, but once I recovered it became pretty straight forward to clean out - I even jumped across to the opening that led to the "end" of the cave and cleared from there while Marne fought her way through forward. Once cleared we made our way to Whiterun for a few more misc thiefing tasks and to their credit, the guards again tried to arrest me.

They managed to slay Marne on the streets and chased me into the pub where they and the bartender inexplicably began attacking the new (companion mod) patrons there. With their help all my pursuers were slain and I decided to take a large barbarian dude called Cleve with me. After completing the thief tasks without incident I decided to stop by the Companion's hall to see if there were any more draugr to be lurking around. Farkas and Torvar were still dead and naked on the fire where I left them, but downstairs I found Ria who had revived from being crushed by a giant. I immediately set Cleave on her as a test and he easily ended her undeath with his heavy axe.

We then headed up to Dragonsreach to collect a bounty where again more guards got in our way. I left Cleave to distract them while I snuck to the castelan who was happy to pay the gold. Used the balcony exit to escape and fast travelled to hand in tasks at the mage guild, the "guardian" hunter" and Riften. I was a bit surprised when I noticed Cleave was no longer with me. I figured the guards got the better of him but then out of nowhere a thin lanky guy runs up to me - someone I recognize. The dark brotherhood initiate!? Is he a draugr too? Can't be sure as it may just be his twin brother...

Because everyone has an evil twin.
Got a special task from the thieves guild up next, again in Whiterun so we quickly made out way there and managed to return before the guards could replace most of their numbers. Seems that a clan of self confessed imperial lovers needed help in falsifying some records for one of their wanted kin. I begrudginlgy accepted and made my way back up to the Jarl's place where suddenly Cleve rejoined my group! He was also being chased by a small army of guards but between the three of us, they were all taken out. We fought our way up the castle again and since it worked well last time, I let my followers handle the defenses while I snuck around to complete the task.

Turns out I missed quite a battle as when I returned only Cleve and one guard was left standing, everyone else including the assassin, the new jarl and most of his court were all dead. To balance this out, after completing the task for the imperial loving Battle-born clan I decided to wipe them out as well in their own house. Conniving bastards didn't deserve to live in the first place. Will be interesting to see if Whiterun can still grow and function in its current state, but as of now I think I'm enemy number one.

Palace Guardians

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

I learned some disturbing rumors at my stay in Solitude. Both the girls thought that the local reagent, Jarl Elisif the Fair, was housing all the deposed leaders who had allied with imperial scum during the war. This was unacceptable to me, as every single imperial loyalist must be executed. With that thought in mind I told them to sit tight as I didn't want them involved with what was to happen. Found my executioner friend Ahtar who owed me for killing a bandit he had a grudge against and took him to the palace basement where we did indeed find a -lot- of people, all of whom were unhappy to see me. Ahtar was steadfast in his imperial ways though and refused to execute them in cold blood, so I started things off myself with a backstab or three and it became a pretty big battle as Elisif, the members of her court and the palace guards all joined in the blood-letting.

"We heard you were having a party downstairs."
At the end only Falk Firebeard the slayer of Ahtar, Jarl Bossman, some kid (all of whom somehow -still- had threads of fate protecting them) along with two of Elisif's lowly servants were left. Having made my point I snuck out of town and went to the Dawnstar sanctuary where I picked up a dark brotherhood initiate guy. Continued East into the frost to hunt the guardian sabre cat but first ran into a group of hired thugs gunning for me. The initiate proved his skills with an awesome finisher in that fight, but when I asked him to then kill a lone bandit he was absolutely owned and she put him down like the dog he was. After avenging him, I backtracked a little to recruit the "hot" fire mage Selina. She made short work of a wisp mother while I took out the guardian kitty and was awesome in defeating a giant frost atronarch duo attacking a follower of Stendar. Then we found a falmer cave and things didn't end very well for her when the scum and their charrus pets managed to close the distance.

After clearing the rest of it I passed by Windhelm and picked up the lady knight Marne at the tavern before continuing on to Riften to hand in and complete more thiefy tasks. Headed back towards Whiterun where surprisingly, I had missed a lot of locations including the cave containing the guardian troll which we dispatched easily.

Wizards and Warriors

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

Bree the blade joined next and she was a powerhouse! She helped defeat the guardian mudcrab, skeever and bear, 2 ancient dragons, a frost dragon, laid waste to an imperial camp, single handedly killed a warlock and his assistant who were turning people into ghosts (after she fell into his trap while I didn't), and stood up to multiple draugr death overlords. She even won an archery duel against the hunter in Whiterun, and melee duels against a random Alik'r redguard and a bodyguard to the Jarl of Falkreath. She also killed an old maid targetted by the brotherhood with no remorse (though I had to pay a fee for that, I guess they were pissed -I- wasn't killing the marks so I personally one-shotted the next marked criminal mage hiding in some dwemer ruins).

There seems to be a steady stream of unsigned letters being delivered to me too, sending me to word walls in dangerous spots. Either my incognito friend(s) travelled to these places themselves or they are trying their best to kill me. One such spot during our exploration of the South turned out to be a wizard coven and with their combined spells finally managed to explode Bree into little pieces. Cat the ranger filled her shoes nicely though, especially when I gave her twin mage staves, it was she who was tossing the wizards around!

Wasn't to last long however as on our return trip to Whiterun for more thiefing jobs one of the guards attempted to arrest me. This led to a pretty large scale battle in the city streets and out of nowhere Vilkas, in full blades attire, appeared to assist the guards, forcing me to kill him (again?). During this, Cat took an arrow to the head so I quickly ducked in the tavern and found Lea the knight to continue the melee. Also went into the Jorrvaskr and inexplicably found both Torvar and Farkas alive once more, and hostile! Its almost like all the companions are destined to be draugr. After killing them we completed our remaining task and left the city. Hopefully they stay dead this time as I got their inheritance letters!

Came across another falmer cave in the Northern mountains which was easily cleared, then pushed forward to the next brotherhood contract - a pirate named Safia. I hate pirates. Found her ship and killed her quickly as she ate a leek. Her crew put up a better fight though, and Lea was beheaded by a daedric axe. The lady wielding this weapon was the last alive and when I accidentally put my weapon away, she did the same willing to call it a draw. I took the opportunity to slit her throat when the idiot turned around. It's a good trick though, wonder if I can use it on more people? Anyway, since I was nearby I decided to drop into my Solitude estate to drop off gear and visit Njada and Jordis for a well earned massage. ;)

That's a pretty lousy last meal.

Team Wipe

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

Roggi was soon gutted by a backstabbing falmer, and his replacement Thea the ex-imperial lost to the first falmer scum she met. Fortunately her compatriot Leif lasted longer, past a giant frost atronarch, a handful of corsairs, hagravens and some strange magic spiders before also being slain by the falmer. Recruited Tish the miner/knight next who seemed to do better against the falmer scum. We then came across a dumb khajit who was marked by the brotherhood and simply egged him on to fight us - he obliged and was promptly killed by a patrolling stormcloak guard. Since Tish wanted to fight a dragon we stopped by with Esbern and got the blades into action. I had also learned Meeko wasn't obedient and left my Solitude house so I decided to bring him too. The ancient dragon managed to roast Mjoll's boyfriend Aerin to crispy pata but it soon was dead.

Meeko claims he was delicious.
I had intended to travel with the blades members (Mjoll, Vilkas, and Athis) back to Sky Haven Temple but for some reason they all seemed to pick different paths so instead I explored around that area and found some dude in a hut who tasked me with hunting various "guardian" critters. Also came across another imperial camp which we wiped out. Meeko was slain in the battle. After killing an alpha sabrecat that ripped apart a stray dog Tish and I made it to arc wind point and fought past another ancient plus death overlords. It is a pity that she died against simple bandits at the next ruin we visited, having her jugular slashed open.

Cali the archer was next to join and while she had an early victory against a blood dragon, a strange encounter with a banshee, bear, tiger and mage left her charred corpse in the middle of nowhere. Recruited a khajit thief named Dex at the ragged flaggon for my next job of scouting out Pinewatch lodge - which turned out to be a huge bandit base. Dex was arrowed to death early, and his replacement Jala the elf archer was axe-murdered in her first fight by the same gang further in.

Found the guardian wolf nearby after that. Or rather, it's location. There was a troll party happening in that forest when I arrived and after a few minutes I got the message that the wolf had been killed. Mission accomplished despite me never seeing it. :/

New Bad Guys and Allies

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

Cleared a few more caves, ruins and groves of various scum (including a spectre, which I haven't encountered before) in the region before finding the heavily fortified Fort Greenwall. Even with Odahviing's support, the bandits there were so numerous that Anneke's archery skills couldn't save her when we got separated from each other. I tried, but was too just too far and could only watch as they butchered her before I reached them. This angered me somewhat and I figured it was time to make use of all those 40 dragon souls I had stored up, learning all the shouts I had in reserve with a few more souls to spare. After dealing with them I pushed North to Kynesgrove and picked up Roggi Knot-beard who owed me for retrieving his shield much earlier on and after a brief stop over at Windhelm for a thief mission we proceeded to Dawnstar for a letter delivery run, taking out large snow cats, more bandits and a revenant(!?) on the way. Also ran into my other cat friend Kharjo on the road ("This one says Hey.") and noticed that since the war was over, there were awhole new bunch of mercs waiting around taverns looking for adventure (thanks to the "CM New Companions Mod").

The new Dark Brotherhood sanctuary is looking pretty spiffy too and already there are two new nameless assassins on the payroll. Seems they also kidnapped a bunch of prisoners while I was away, each of whom eagerly told me of a treasure in hopes for freedom. Alas, I can't free them yet or it may blow my secret plan. The redguard also asked me to kill a few more people so I tested Roggi's loyalty with the nearest target, an argonian vulture who if you read between the lines, may actually be causing ships to crash (remember someone actually goes through a pretty intense ritual to mark all these guys). Anyway, Roggi had no problem murdering the scum in his sleep.

With a two handed sword.

Also decided to hit three of the nearby imperial camps, slaughtering all the imperial allied losers we found. Just so happened I also had a task in Dragonbridge to talk to an imperial agent about brotherhood business. After he gave me his gold I promptly eliminated him and all of his compatriots, lessening the imperial taint on this glorious land. Soon after we came across a shack with a shaggy dog named Meeko who was looking for a new home. Given my track record for "surviving npc helpers", I decided to adopt the fellow to my house in Solitude. Njada always had wanted a dog, and I think she is safer now with both Jordis and Meeko looking after the place.

Heroes of Darkwater

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

Decided to return some books to the Mage's college and promptly found that no one would talk to me because I had been expelled (from the last entry). Ironically the reasoning for this was not because I am an arch-mage with no magic, but because I got one of their own killed while hunting down said books. Talked to Tolfdir regarding this and apparently the going price for life here is 250 gold, which I reluctantly paid just so I could get rid of these tomes. I was almost tempted to leave the ancient dragon attacking the place out of disgust but I figured I shouldn't let such a thing roam around freely. Afterwards I decided to get the hell out of there and back to the warmer climates of the South.

With a new personal goal of finding and clearing all the areas in the land of those that oppose me, I found myself in Darkwater Crossing again and remembered something about one of their number missing upstream. Found a cave pretty high up near the waterfall inhabited by even more falmer, and during my cleansing of the place came across captured lizardman Deerkeethus who decided to tag along with me after I set him free. Turns out he must have dragon blood or something, as he survived numerous bandit camps, burial cairns, caves with alpha sabrecats, big mammoths, and my becoming Thane (finally) in Windhelm - no wonder the falmer just imprisoned him. During our travels we also found a tower full of witches and tried to help one of them (Illia) stop the others. Alas half way up Illia was eaten by a troll but we continued her task and slew her mother. Afterwards we revisited a cave I had already been in to eliminate another bandit crew that had taken up residence. The battle was somewhat made more complicated when we were knocked down into a lower cavern and had to fight our way back out. Was good to see J'zargo again - even though he was dead.

... Or asleep. Hard to tell with cats.
Back at Darkwater Crossing, Anneke Crag-jumper was so amazed by my skills that she wanted to leave her miner husband and come adventuring with me. I figured Deerkeethus was due for some rest so I agreed to take her along in his place. Wiped out -all- the slavers at Mistwatch tower and an elder dragon with her before heading to Riften (due to a questmarker regarding the Dark Brotherhood) where I formulated a plan. With the "No essential NPCs" mod I knew the thieves guild and brotherhood scum that had survived so far were no longer protected by their threads of fate, however I wouldn't kill them just yet. I figured if they actually became successful then perhaps I could attract all the scum to the one area and kill most of them in one fell swoop - or at least learn of who the scum are hiding in other cities, so with an evil grin I decided to buy all the upgrades for the Dawnstar Sanctuary and began picking up little thieving tasks to do at a later stage.

For now, I think there are still lots of areas here in the Southeast section of the map to find and clear out.

*As an unrelated aside, two of my favourite webcomics have combined powers this week with "Axecop and Lolbat"! Funny to see what Malachai does to Scott Kurtz's character. :D

Back in the Saddle

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

After my much needed R&R, I decided to continue my adventures after feeling a strange shift in the air. Why were Jordis and Brelyna now wearing strange face paint? Why does Njada look more plain than usual? Oh that's right - because I am fooling around with a few of the many, many available mods for the game, the main ones being "Deadly Combat" and "Wars in Skyrim 4". After ditching some excess gear Brelyna and I head out to the city where I immediately notice some evil, pixelated fog. Turns out this was due to a driver update for NVidia rather than my custom mods so I fixed that by turning of FXAA (anti-ailiasing).

Decided to go for a ride out at the Whiterun plains and warmed up my killing skills on a bandit fighting a wolf, followed by battling a peculiarly named ice-breathing dragon who had great difficulty damaging me (I think this was due to "Deadly Dragons Lite" being incompatible with other stuff so I removed it). We then came across a shallow cave and proceeded to empty it of its undead inhabitants, led by a Volhikar master vampire. He put up a good fight but since he refused to follow me into the sunlight he became easy pickings for my bow (which now features more regular "slow mo kill shots"; sweet).

Confident in my abilities I then added the "Intense Difficulty x32" mod and promptly ran into a thief wearing full daedric gear whom I couldn't hurt (with a x16 backstab) and with one swing of her dagger sent me flying across the landscape (yeah that required a reload). Undeterred I then checked my journal and found we had an outstanding quest to find some writings for the mages guild. Brelyna's pointy ears perked up when she heard that. So off to another dank cave we went and the first critter we encounter is a Giant Frost Bear. The fight lasted for 30 minutes and took over 400 arrows. That was so ridiculous that right after, I removed the x32 difficulty mod.

Even the bear found it stupid.
Proceeding deeper we fought past some frost trolls and came upon a chest that just screamed "I'm a trap". As predicted upon touching it, two side doors opened and in came those bastard white elves, the falmer. Brelyna and I were doing a good job hiding in the shadows though as they seemingly patrolled past us. After a little while of patiently waiting and watching one of the scum I managed to slit his throat silently - then noticed Brelyna was gone! Greeeeat. Then I get a message that I've been expelled from the Mages College (magically I suppose)! What the heck is going on?

Continued backstabbing and archering the falmers and their pets to death as I proceeded down what turned out to be a pretty big cave. Further along I eventually did find Brelyna's body, planted face first on a mound of charrus eggs with her blue posterior presented invitingly between her spread legs. Not sure how the she got there (and in that position) but it looks like the falmer and/or the charrus had their way with her. Eventually found the item I came for and managed to exit via the neat little "shortcut" that's been designed into pretty much all the dungeons in the game - a feature I think that is really neat!