Skyrim: Now you see Me

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

A letter on Brutus mentioned where Roiseadh "the mother", (aka the main boss) of the Sinister Seven would be waiting, up on the mountains just South of Falkreath. Deciding it was time to end this, Drania and I swung past Whiterun to pick up Twilight and Aurora and in no time at all, we were climbing up the slopes to meet her. Obviously she was a gimmicky boss too.

Party assembled!

Other than summoning the usual horde of assassins which I let my companions take care of, the witch enjoyed use of mirror images and the fact that hitting her in melee caused her to go completely invisible (unlike the "predator invisible" of her mooks) and teleport in a random direction. Took awhile for me to cotton on to what she was doing, but when I did aura whisper was the correct tool to bring her down.

Must be a three eyed raven...

With her dead, I mopped up the remaining bounty hunters. Yes, while I was busy dueling their boss they had downed the sisters and gutted Drania like a fish. It was over now though, and no more bounty hunters would come. I was the last one standing, and at level 70 to boot! With the threat passed I returned to Morvunskar and finally set Njada free. After waving good bye to Sanguine, the two of us headed back home to Windhelm for some much needed R&R.

Homeward bound. ^_^

Skyrim: The Flash

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

Magic training is BORING, but I persevered - content in the fact that the assassin's must be going mad looking for me. After a few days they did start investigating the ruins though. A smaller group than usual. Sanguine looked to me and smiled. I was ready. Instead of taking them head on, I let them go past and exploded the area.

It didn't kill any of them but it sure caught them off guard. Quickly vanishing, I left Drania and Sanguine to handle them while I looked for their leader. I found him outside, a black - fleeting shadow.

Not quite!

Brutus, "the Father" was definitely a speedster but unfortunately for him, dragon shouts trump speed force in this game and with a slow time yell it looked like he was moving in slow motion making it easy to end him and loot his amazing armor. Why is it amazing? Because in in a dark area or night time, you move faster than if you were on a horse! And that's just jogging. When you sprint... WHOA!

The one glowing blue eye (gained by joining Dawnguard I think) makes it even cooler.

With my new found super speed I raced back into Morvunskar and cleaned up shop, happy to see Drania was ok. And Njada. She's still safely bound in her cell. Sanguine has god mode on so I knew he'd be fine. :P

Assassin's Creed: Rogue

It counts on your kleptomania.

Since I'm currently dealing with assassins in my Skyrim adventure I thought it would be a good time to review this game!

In this outing of Assassin's Creed you get to play as Shay Cormac, who enjoys the maps, systems and side characters from AC3 and Black Flag. This is good, because Cormac himself is not a very compelling character - not even compared to Connor (who I didn't like). The method they tell his tale via "glitched memories" is a silly one, and it also doesn't help that he seems to be deaf in his left ear as the "hearing based on which direction you are looking" idea is a bit broken - and honestly, stupid. I hear better than that in real life. :P

Not that it matters though, since he's pretty much a walking machine of destruction just like any other Assassin's Creed hero, complete with the insane number of weapons (this time including a grenade launcher) while parkouring about in New York or the little ports in the Frontier and North Atlantic. Those three big maps are mainly navigated by sailing, which is fine, but you will probably miss the horse riding at some point because most of the maps are empty space and some wandering NPCs. Indeed, the only purpose to venture out into most spots is to acquire collectibles of which there are GAZILLIONS.

Of course I went and got them all.

Also back is the hunting and crafting parts where you can take a break from murdering people to murdering animals (some of which are not so defenseless). For resource sinks you can upgrade your ship, your gear, and renovate structures all over the place. Perhaps the best addition for me though are the assassin enemies. Since Shay gets hunted later on in the game, it's fun to have the tables turned where sly bastards are waiting for you in the bushes, tree tops or haystacks and can only be detected via eagle vision (because that's a teachable skill apparently).

Ridiculous hiding techniques deserve bullets to the head.

It doesn't help that the hidden people whisper gibberish pretty loudly as you get closer though. I'm beginning to question the intelligence of these "assassins". Even their "Everything is permitted," motto is sort of the anarchist/terrorists go to line. On the seas the epic battles also make a return, and the last one is a real fun challenge. On land you may never see the strongest enemies in the game: the bounty hunters. While their naval counterparts are pushovers, the ones on foot can easily stand toe to toe with Shay. I suppose they are only there to dissuade you from killing innocents.

Also returning in this installment is the silly management/idle game game, this time in the form of the Naval Campaign. To be fair, this is the best version of it I've seen and it actually ties back to your fleet of captured ships etc. Unfortunately many missions are behind time block bullshit (wait 2+ hours for this mission to finish) which means only the most tenacious (or most casual) of players will see it to its 33 mission completion.

All up it's pretty fun for kleptomaniacs and good to get more screen time for characters from the other games, but is just one of those games that doesn't really have any substance to it that will be missed. I score it two out of tune sea shanties out of five.

Skyrim: And then I died?

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

The daedric prince is teaching me how to power up. :P

Sanguine was overjoyed to have me back at Morvunskar where he once again began helping me improve my magical abilities in the absence of the ever hounding assassins. Like all disciples though, I got bored after awhile and opted instead to turn the tables and try go after them. They had to be coming from somewhere, right? Sanguine advised against this, but Drania and I were already out the door.

We checked the most obvious places: the Dawnstar Sanctuary, Nightcaller Temple, Forgotten Vale, Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, and even checked for rumors at Fort Dawnguard. Nothing. Nothing but mooks chasing us that is. Finally it looked like we were getting somewhere at Falkreath where assassins began inexplicably popping out of the woodwork in numbers so great it would cause my game to crash due to the body count.

Now that's a tavern brawl!

That forced me to leave Drania to be arrested or executed by the local guards while I retreated back to Death Mountain, but even there the powerful mooks started killing everything with their numbers, the dragons too! I was pushed back into the shrine of Azura and finally one of them managed to power smash a war hammer into my face, killing me instantly.

Had to get my comeuppance eventually!

Then I blinked and I was standing in front of Sanguine again. "Are you sure you want to leave now?" he asked with a wry grin. What an asshole. (And yes I had to reload from a no-win situation: Die or Crash the Game :P)

Skyrim: Blood Bath

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

My new ally, Aeariel, did not last long at all as a new wave of bounty hunters, this time led by the nearly invisible archer, Flidais the Northwind, attacked. She wasn't the problem though as she opted to attack the exterior of Death Mountain, basically offering herself to be dragonchow four ways. It was the regular mooks who were starting to overwhelm the daedric guardians, with Aeariel being among the casualties.

Good to see some of the guards taking my magic stuff from display cases.

During the wave I retreated into the bath house to recruit Drania and exposed the resident staffer Saerven as a traitor. Despite being in swim wear, Drania managed to kill her and be effective against the invading bounty hunters. Once the combat lulled I got her proper gear (lots of it lying around) and decided to make a break for the College of Winterhold to let the daedric guards recover their losses.

Let me heat up that sauna for you...

There we came under attack by a dragon and another wave of assassins, this one led by Ladon the Volcano who was ridiculously weak considering his name. Still the battle carried on into the school grounds itself, where the other mages came to help. Tolfdir, Arniel Gane, and all the Winterhold guards were among the casualties. It was clear this place didn't have the man power to hold back the enemy, so we decided to go to where no one else would be put in danger: Morvunskar.

Bring it on!!! 
Yes, the pile of corpses is half a door high!

Skyrim: The Steady Tide

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

Einer and I had made our way to Solitude where I continued improving some of my sorely lacking "mage" skills. After what seemed to be days of quiet study in the now mostly empty Blue Palace, the assassins found me again forcing us to fight our way out of the city.

Where do they all come from?

The flood of bounty hunters led by a frost themed mage was intense, and it seemed to me they were slowly getting better gear? Einer was finally surrounded near the market place and was hacked to pieces. I only survived thanks to all those new health potions I picked up. Hurting and alone, I quickly made my way back to Death Mountain and recruited the next dragonborn: Obli Thessan.

Conan, is that you?

I once again continued magic practice, as the assassin army arrived once more this time led by Nandi the Steady Tide. She was a tough customer, almost slaying Obli Thessan if it wasn't for my backstabbing intervention (obviously not as tough as the paladin though). At the end of her "wave" I noted that the daedric guards were actually taking losses now, confirming my theory that the bounty hunters were improving.

While I was mulling over that thought, a near invisible assassin slit Obli Thessan's throat. Yep, they were using invisibility pots too. Beheaded that scum bag and headed next door to get a new bodyguard.

Skyrim: No Interuptions... Almost

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

The downside of slaying all the Dragonslayers was that a new master dragon took the opportunity to show up and terrorize ... Labyrinthian. The ruins high up in the frozen mountains where no one goes. Lol. Anyway, since dragons are sort of our job, my team got there - avoided the meteor shower and killed the silly thing without batting an eye (twin katanas of dragon death helped).

"Dragon shmagon, I'll make boots out of you."

I sent the sisters back to Whiterun at this point, for their own safety, since I knew the forces of the Sinister Seven wouldn't rest while I was still alive. I opted to go to the safest place I knew: Death Mountain, and there I continued my self-studies in schools of alchemy and enchanting.

Sure enough an army of assassins led by the giant orc, Temujin the Thunderer, came barging in and were dealt with splendidly by Einer and the daedric guards. They didn't even interrupt my work! Alas, running out of ingredients did though, so during a lull in the fighting, Einer and I snuck off pick up supplies.

Fortunately there were none as talented as Ezio.