TESO: Dangerous Celebration

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

With the battle won, Meridia tells me of some, god-forsaken hamlet that even she fears to tread in need of holy cleansing in one corner of this daedric realm. I decide to give that a miss, sending allies to check it out instead while I return to Mournhold and the search for Lucia and Sofie.

I don't get very far before Naryu tells me that the bio-terrorist group I thought I had beaten prior to gallivanting in Coldharbour was still around, and plotting to attack the city. Obviously I'd have none of that, and the two of us hunted down all the remaining members still hiding in the Deshann area - including their leader, a traitorous magistrate.

Did I mention one of the "living gods" is in this area? Cause she is.

She also hates bio-terrorists. :P

With the zone under control I then ventured further South into the Shadowfen where one of the first things I do is attend a crazy, endless and dangerous party held by party demon Sanguine to retrieve an "Eidar" scroll for Sheogorath. Him and his cheese huh? Fortunately most delves are open to everyone which makes things easier and far more enjoyable (for me) than instanced garbage.

Scroll in hand, I also retrieve the Wabbajack and Fork of Horripilation then participate in his "Circus of Cheerful Slaughter" which sees me fighting each of the pact forces and their leaders in one messed up play. All this earns me two more tomes for Shalidor.

TESO: Attack on Coldharbour

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

My first task from Hollow City is to refill it by saving as many people as I can from the various torturous dremora in Coldharbour, most of whom are Fighter and Mages guild members. There are others here too whom I ally with, such as elf-eating Lamias, Argonians who have sold the soul of their Hist tree to Molag Bal, and a repentant Angoff (the druid terrorist leader from before).

Once the force is assembled it's simply a matter of pushing forward and upward in Coldharbour, slaying the armies of vampires, dremora, and daedra in the way. Molag Bal shows up in person to try stop us but as expected Meridia reveals herself to duel with him while the rest of us continue with the mission of destroying the Planemeld - aka the doohickey that Molag Bal requires for his grand plan.

 Whatever you say, boss!

Many / most of my allies die in the experience, but we are ultimately victorious in "planting the bombs and blowing things up" which pretty much puts a stop on Molag Bal's world-killing plan. Meridia takes us survivors back to the Hollow City for celebrations. Wish they made it more clear who made it and who didn't though. What is this, the Deathly Hallows or something?

TESO: Nothing goes to Plan

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

With Queen Ayrenn on board, I figured it was time to report to King Jorunn about my progress and Wayshrined back to Davon's Watch. Jorunn said he'd be at Mournhold which is to the South in Deshann, so that's the road I took. I had to deal with a minor terrorist group spreading chemical weapons to turn people into zombie things on the way and ended them via the "backfire" method with the help of Naryu, a Dunmer assassin. We were getting pretty friendly until she revealed she was Morag Tong. Now she's on my "to kill" list (also I'm pretty sure this is her in the Morrowind trailer).

Anyway, bigger fish to fry first. At the Capital one of the mages from the mage's guild acts as my transport in organizing the three leaders (of whom King Casimir isn't one, oops) to meet at a summit on a neutral isle. Fortunately the Covenant High King Emeric must have heard good things about me as he agrees to attend. The talks don't go well at first, with no lead willing to redirect their troops from the Cyrodil war into Coldharbour. A short visit from Molag Bal and his minions does make them agree to send the war-neutral Fighters and Mages guild though - with me in the lead.

Spoiler: They don't.

Not that it matters because in our hasty and unplanned counter-attack I arrive alone in Coldharbour, at least this time in the open world version of it. I soon find the Hollow City, a town sent here and protected by Meridia (also possibly a Dark Souls reference). It suits its name in that it is almost completely deserted. The local grounds keeper, who I suspect is Meridia herself, offers me to use the city as my base to build up an army. Meridia really dislikes Molag Bal. First things first - I find a cooking fire and make an armies worth of food (which I sell because, shineys are shiney)! Provisioning is seriously the easiest craft skill to level. With my pack lightened and my belly full, it's time to go exploring.

TESO: Elf Nazis

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

It is with good fortune that we arrive at the Khajiit isle of Khenarthi's Roost right after an unnatural hurricane destroyed most of the Dominion ships in the harbor. While helping out the survivors it is made clear that the local Sea Elf pirates are behind the magical storm and thus forfeit their residency when a Dominion envoy arrives. The pirates continue to be a nuisance on the larger isle of Auridon, which is my next stop where I am surprised to already run into Queen Ayrenn while saving her from an assassination attempt and am recruited as one of her spies.

Those magic storms are cool though!

With the help of a most humorous khajit named Raz, we protect the newly crowned Queen and her retinue as they tour the island from the Veiled Heritance, who are basically High Elf Nazis. It's strange that there are worse elves than Thalmor huh? Most of the Veils turn out to be turncoats from Ayrenn's own court with their "Veiled Queen" being Ayrenn's demonized sister in law, who coincidentally worships Mehrunes Dagon and allies with Mannimarco too. After most violently dealing with the Nazis and their dremora I feel optimistic about the Queen's outlook for the peace truce.

Worth noting that the side-quests here strangely are all heavily focused on "mages who screwed up". One who petrified a town to cover up his experiments, one who feeds people to his vampire son, and so on and so forth. Trust the Altmer to try fix what ain't broken.

TESO: The Secret Fire

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

It wasn't long till I met King Casimir of Daggerfall thanks to a Bloodthorn plot to assassinate him. After personally saving him, he then tasked me with securing the rest of his region from more Bloodthorn corruption in the forests, their bandit allies in the countryside, and most predominantly from werewolves who had taken over the Northern cities led by a supposedly unkillable, undead werewolf named Falchou. There's a pretty lengthy process where the Mage guild learns (through time travel no less) that Falchou's weakness is fire.

Like how the very first werewolf I encountered here is weak to fire? You don't say!

You'd think in a fantasy realm such as this one where some people can shoot fire from their hands that might actually not be such a secret but anyway... As per normal I opt for the better safe than sorry route of killing any and all infected people and then slay Falchou and Angoff, his Bloodthorn master in unmemorable combats. Ironically in a side quest, I also have to help the now struggling Daggers (a branch of the Covenant military) gain finances to continue to exist.

With King Casimir's thanks, my work here is done - and despite rumors of darker tidings further in land I convince Kaleen to sail me to Khenarthi's Roost instead to start working on a peace treaty with the Dominion.

TESO: The Recruiter

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

Following King Jorunn's orders used a wayshrine to get to Daggerfall and was surprised how accommodating they were for foreigners during war time. Have to mention it's a little odd you can warp right into or beside cities who are meant to be at war with each other, but maybe players are just special snowflakes in that regard. Unfortunately the Daggerfall-ians didn't really give me any quests, in fact a small group tried to sacrifice me to a tree dremora. Purified the lot of them with fire.

Deciding I'd need to do gain some positive Covenant reputation first, I took a small skiff out to the isle of Stros M'kai where Redguard Captain Kaleen was recruiting people for a heist and the role of recruiter went to me! After assembling an array of personalities the theft went off without a hitch, and as a bonus was actually done for the King since in proved that the headman on the island was anything but loyal. Kaleen's next stop was the orc outpost of Betnikh, where we convinced them to join the Covenant by aiding them against invading Bloodthorn cultists (who basically are necros with a green thumb twist).

Stros M'Kai is a really pretty place!

The Bloodthorn had been after a powerful and destructive relic and Kaleen's crew was divided on either retaining it for Covenant use, or destroying it. I opted for the former, causing half of my recruited people to leave. Se la vie. Kaleen then sailed us back to Daggerfall where finally the officials were starting to recognize my efforts, giving me hope for this peace accord for King Jorunn.

TESO: A Giant Problem

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

Despite looking familiar, Riften had definitely changed. Quite possibly due to the recent attack from giants that leveled an entire corner that contained my house! There was no sign of Lucia or Sofie anywhere and the orphanage had been turned into a craft workshop, which as a silver lining sells increased bag space for gold! All the banks do the same too. Good design TESO!

With no leads on the girls I decide to just work on the problems at hand, helping the city put out fires and rebuild then dealing with Mannimarco's Worm Cultists prevalent in the surrounding area. This leads me to slaying a lich, putting pieces of Ysgrammor's axe together and meeting the Jarl King Jorunn, the leader ofthe Ebonheart Pact, laying seige to a Worm Cult stronghold - specifically the one where they raise dead giants! Yes, they were behind the attack on Riften.

I'm in the right spot, if only I can pull my sword out of my shoulder!

I lead the charge and smash our way up to the final giant boss who is an absolute pain to fight, mainly because I've been forgetting to distribute my skill points. Fortunately, Jorunn is a cheater on god mode and with enough shenanigans the giant finally falls. The King, impressed with my skills, then charges me to get the leaders of the other factions to agree to a ceasefire so that we can all team up and attack their main base in Coldharbour. That sounds like a good plan!