Darkest Dungeon: Casualties at Arrival

Reports from Darkest Dungeon - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

This place is cursed, and that's saying something given where we are. The gun slinger Isey and I were the first to arrive at this forsaken hamlet which seems to be run by a crazed caretaker named Penultimo. It's amazing the place still stands given the disrepair and the amount of horrors lurking in all the nearby areas.

At least the boss wasn't joking when he said that more help would arrive as soon allies and other adventurers just seeking gold or glory began to arrive just days behind us. I took the initiative to announce myself the leader of this little group and ordered everyone to focus their efforts on hunting the necromancer at the nearby ruins.

It is clear who is the leader!

The Khajiit pirate Skullcat, the ex-princess Dusk, Sultan of Swing and Gamesting were all victims of the bandits he had hired as security. Even Isey was fatally shot by one of their crossbows. Deeper in lay other problems in the form of cultists who slew Melentia and the Nerevarine Brutus. We even had one loss, Chara, to spider venom. 

This would not dissuade our attempts though, as with each successful expedition I knew we drew closer to his lair.

-Fawadin

Skyrim: 30 Days of Skyrim

Might as well be part of my Skyrim Adventure Journal! You can read the whole story here!

Turns out there's this "30 Days of Skyrim" challenge floating about, and since I've raked up hundreds upon hundreds of hours on the game I thought I'd give it a crack. Also rather than spread it out for 30 days I'm just going to hit them all at once. :)

Day One: Which race did you chose?
I always go with Nord. The natives of Skyrim. Which happens to be my character name.

Day Two: Mage, Warrior, Rogue or mixed class?
I always start with Rogue, then eventually mix into Warrior and only at the very end do I pick up magic skills. I don't mind worlds with magic, I just don't like being a magic user.

Day Three: Favorite Quest Line.
The Forgotten City Mod. It's fantastic.

Day Four: Favorite Quest Mission.
To Kill an Empire, and any others that involve directly slaying Thalmor or Imperial people.

Day Five: Favorite Faction.
Dawnguard. Definitely my type of crazies. :)

Day Six: Least Favorite Quest Line.
A Night to Remember (the one you get drunk). Did it for completion but it's ultimately stupid.

Day Seven: Least Favorite Quest.
No Stone Unturned. It's a collection quest. Blergh.
Also, Diplomatic Immunity because I'm not allowed to eradicate all the Thalmor in their estate.

Day Eight: Favourite Companion(s)
Serana from the Dawnguard DLC since she has the most backstory and is easy on the eyes. Brutus Brutalus [from the Summerset Isle Mod] was a real ass kicker though for whatever reason.

Day Nine: Favorite City
Whiterun, it's in the middle of everything and has a nice layout to the place.

Day Ten: Favorite Hold
Again Whiterun. I like the open, rolling, non-snowy plains. I also quite like the wandering giants and mammoths!

Day Eleven: Favorite antagonist.
Samel from the Inferno Mods. The guy just keeps coming back!

Day Twelve: Favorite Shout(s)
For a long time it was Dragonrend, but recent mods have me favoring Slow Time and Become Ethereal.

Day Thirteen: Favorite Spell(s)
None really, since I'm not a mage. I suppose the light ones are useful every now and then.

Day Fourteen: Favorite Weapon(s)
Paralyzing bows and paralyzing knives. Eventually graduated to dragon slaying katana and oblivion sword though (from the Death Mountain Mod).

Day Fifteen: Favorite in game book

This one from the Death Mountain Mod! :P

Day Sixteen: Least Favourite Creature
Slaughter fish, mainly because they are hard to target and pointless to fight.

Day Seventeen: Horder or no?
Not really items wise, but gold - wow I love gold. Despite having over a hundred thousand coins I still open baskets and nightstands to take all the coins I can find.

Day Eighteen: Favorite House.
Solitude. It's spacious and pretty functional.

Day Nineteen: Mods or no mods?
Definitely Mods. They add so much content to the game!

Day Twenty: What do hate most about Skyrim?
NPCs try to fight me when I'm clearly out of their league. They should either flee in terror at this point or simply surrender immediately.

Day Twenty One: Funniest thing you’ve done.
Chain executed maybe 20-30 enemies from the Sinister Seven Mod as they chased me through a door to a new area.

Day Twenty Two: Funniest glitch you’ve encountered
Dead dragon in Riften. Respawns dead. :P

Day Twenty Three: Favorite Song.
The dragon fighting music!

Day Twenty Four: Stormcloak Rebel, Imperial Legionnaire or neither?
Stormcloaks forever. Imperials are pussies since they lost/had to make peace with a bunch of elves. HUMANS MUST REIGN SUPREME ABOVE ALL OTHERS!

Day Twenty Five: Vampire, Werewolf or Vigilant of Stendarr?
Vigilant of Stendarr I guess, though I never really wear that title. Guess it fits somewhat though. Dislike of magic, slayer of non-humans. *nods*

Day Twenty Six: Favorite Armor set
Mastermind's Armor from the Sinister Seven Mod. The darker it gets, the faster you can move ultimately twice or three times of someone on horseback. Especially useful in dungeons where you can sprint up to an enemy (from the front) in stealth and execute them before they can draw their weapons!

Day Twenty Seven: One thing you would change about Skyrim
Let the game handle thousands of combatants in combat without crashing.

Day Twenty Eight: Who did you marry in game?
Njada, because she's a human Nord. I quite like her scars too. For me they make her look better than the ones who have flawless skin.

Day Twenty Nine: Favourite Deadra
Sheogorath. I'm biased though, since I really liked him in Oblivion and the Shivering Isles too. Still disliked his quest here.

Day Thirty:  What do you love most about Skyrim?
The dragons!

Skyrim: Even in Death

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

Well, that's an ominous looking robot...

The Nerevarine was hunting down some giant robotic WMD, and it was really difficult to miss when we found entered its room! All of us were having trouble damaging it though since it seemed to repair itself incredibly quickly. A series of levers around the chamber seemed to be the tacticians way of working out how to defeat the robot but I chose a different path: Slow time. Under the effects of that shout, the mechas regeneration could not keep up with my damage output and I sent him flying.

Literally.

After thanking us for our assistance, the Nerevarine said his goodbyes and headed off to wherever Azura guided him next but not before telling us that he sighted the strange Ebony Warrior camped nearby. Before we could investigate Mandryn showed up though and he was not pleased with us letting the Nerevarine go, so much so that he attacked tried to attack. Bo gave him a few new windpipes. A letter on his person revealed him to be a member of the Morag Tong.

Guess he wasn't expecting that!

With a shrug it was time to deal with the Ebony Warrior, but I wanted to make a pit stop first: at a dragon roost to tame a reverend dragon! Challenge accepted Ebony Warrior! With Bo, Red Shadow and myself atop this beast the Ebony Warrior was torn limb from limb, though to his credit it did take longer than I expected. Sure hope he wasn't expecting a fair duel! After he was dragon poop I decided to report back to Njada in Windhelm about our success, only to find Morag Tong assassins already defiling her corpse when we arrived.

And so, even in death the Ebony Warrior defeated me. :/

Skyrim: A Criminal from Morrowind

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

In search of the Morrowind criminal, Bo and I headed to the foundling little hamlet of Little Vivec as suggested by Mandryn (who claimed to be following other leads but I suspect he was just drinking all the ale in that tavern). The new community was made up of Dunmer who had fled from the racism of Windhelm and they had a fair amount of courier work to hand out. None of them wanted to talk about the strange warrior who had come through a few days before.

I figured taking out some local bandits for the community might loosen their tongues but they were all dead when we arrived at their camp, apparently beaten to it by the mysterious stranger. Finally one of the dunmer admitted that this stranger was seeking some nearby dwemer ruins so Bo and I hoofed it over there and followed the trail of dead bodies and broken robots deep into the small facility.

A trio of riddles also blocked the path but they were easily solved once I worked out the cool mechanic. Basically the answer to each was an item, and so if the answer was "time" for example, I'd need to put a watch into a nearby box to unlock the door. Good design work there I thought. :) Finally we caught up to this mysterious warrior, and he asked for our help. I immediately said yes.

Brutus!?

Skyrim: Unremarkable

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

My next task for the Dawnguard was to retrieve some sort of axe relic, and Agmaer rejoined me for this quest. He was clearly no Brutus though, nearly dying to some random night lord vampires near Deepwater Crossing. Fortunately I had his back.

I also had the vampires' back.

It's always good to follow through.

We stopped by Whiterun where I was made aware (as the acting Jarl) of some weapon the Thalmor were interested in an unremarkable cave to the South, so our mission quickly diverted to check it out. Bodies of adventurers paid by Thalmor gold lay near the entrance, and what seemed to be an ordinary bear in the first chamber turned out to be of the "killer" variety, slaying Agmaer in one strike!

I returned the favor to the beast then opted to go recruit more suitable assistance back at Death Mountain. The place was really running low on Daedric guards now, a fact a wandering ancient dragon was using to its advantage. With the other dovahkiin's Perdida, Zuna, and Tharas Gull we took it down after it landed and asked which of them was hungry for more adventure. Perdida jumped at the opportunity, and so with her in tow we returned to the unremarkable cave.

I always wonder how large caverns don't just naturally collapse.

Skyrim: Tusaron

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

Do your curved swords do 900+ damage? Didn't think so.

Adventuring with Brutus is fun, as he is almost as good as me when it comes to killing things! Dovahkiin and Nerevarine high five! We wandered around the roads for a bit, taking turns dueling the many wandering challengers and even had a dragon slaying competition!

Brutus: "Jump on the head because then it is at your mercy!"

Me: "Just like handling an alligator then?"

Our journeys led us to some vampire nest at the request of the Dawnguard, and while exterminating them was easy it turned out that their master - an ancient thalmor bloodsucker, was away - journeying to Castle Volkihar to meet his buddy Lord Harkon. We caught up with him just south of Helgen... the Vampire Dread Lord Tusaron. I knew right away that this was a danger unlike we had previously faced so I opened with my paralyzing arrows which knocked him down.

Not one to waste an opening, Brutus charged in and wailed on the undead thalmor for a bit... until he finally resisted my paralyzing shots. On his feet, Tusaron was a whirlwind of death - agile and unrelenting. In just a second after slicing Brutus into tiny Nerevarine pieces he was already almost upon me at my sniper spot. The Arbiter's Decree made the ancient vampire hesitate though, and that was all I needed to get a number of power attacks to finish off the fiend.

Lived up to his name.

After paying respects to my fallen companion I began the cold trek back to Fort Dawnguard.

Skyrim: Ur Dead

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

Iverelle had mentioned reports of a disturbing cave to the South so Brutus and I made our way there for recon and clearing, and encountered corpus walkers, skinned hounds, and cultists of the sixth house before encountering Dagoth Vanis - who basically acted as the mouth of Dagoth Ur, challenging us to enter his fortress here in Skyrim and face him in combat.

Brutus (backstabbing him): "I got tired of his talking."

With that invitation Brutus and I moved quickly to get to the dwemer ruin where we fought more of Dagoth's minions, now including Ash servants, who didn't really stand a chance against the two of us. Their traps were more dangerous.

Nice to see his choice of head gear hasn't changed much.

Finally in the bowels of that place awaited Dagoth Ur. After a nice chat, where he explains his plan of enacting vengeance upon the only one who can stop him (the reincarnated Nerevarine) we get down to the business/fighty end. Or we would have. The idiot was so focused on me he didn't realize that I wasn't the reincarnated Nerevarine. It was the guy beside me.

He got brutalized!

Brutus exploited his moment of indecision and brutalized the poor bastard. After claiming the loot, which rightfully went to Brutus, we made our way around the holds executing any and all dreamers left. The corpus meat found on their persons proves this is the righteous and lawful thing to do.

No more dreams for you!

Skyrim: Reincarnated

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

Azura imparted some really obscure information to me which I didn't fully understand, but she did say I was free to take Sunder and so I did. For a "legendary" weapon it didn't come close to any of my current equipment. Before leaving I did have to ask Azura one thing... "Is your kung fu stronger than my kung fu!?"  I'm pleased she was game enough to actually participate, unlike that cheater Sanguine.

She'll be alright.

After a decent sparring session, I said thank you by knocking her out with an uppercut and took my leave. Mellori finally came clean when I gave her the hammer, saying she was doing all of this to try forge a weapon capable of killing the person who slew her dad. Someone really bad. She refused to name drop though, and said she'd send us a note when she was ready, since all her previous attempts at forging whatever she was making didn't turn out right.

There was one really bad dude who came to mind though, so Brutus and I headed to Whiterun to see if we could learn more about him. I'm talking of Dagoth Ur of course, whose Dreamers are becoming more frequent in each town. At the tavern, a traveling dunmer named Iverelle Savidri confirms my suspicions and what the dreamers have been trying to preach: Dagoth Ur has fully revived from his defeat at Red Mountain, and is reforming the Sixth House cult here in Skyrim.

Coinciding with an eclipse eh...

It is up to the reincarnation of the Nerevarine to stop him...

And his lackeys!

Skyrim: Tomb of the Nerevarine

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

Mellori was happy with all the trinkets I've been retrieving for her, and the next one was a doozy: a little hammer called Sunder. Supposedly it was buried with the Nerevarine centuries ago, the hero of Morrowind who slew Dagoth Ur in the Red Mountain. It certainly wasn't me because a) I'm still alive and b) I didn't kill Dagoth Ur with a hammer. I just pushed him into a volcano (which was awesome btw :P).

Anyway, Brutus would have to stay behind again because he had to help clean up the town after being caught littering.

"But it doesn't fit in any of the bins..."

The ship to Morrowind was really fast. Pretty much instantaneous even. If I wasn't reading carefully I'd even think the Nerevarine's tomb was IN the ship. A small Imperial party was idling in the tomb when I got there. Apparently they all tried to take the hammer and were deemed unworthy - turning into Hollows (someone certainly watches Bleach) who forever were trapped in the tomb.

While not openly aggressive immediately, I obviously had a conflicting opinion with their captain and ... well. I set them free. Finally I reached the burial chamber myself and who do I find waiting there?

Azura, the Daedric Prince(ss) of Dusk and Dawn

Skyrim: Flames of Oblivion

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

Upon easily returning to my own time (I'm an expert now I guess) and exiting the ruins, Brutus reported finding a nearby crashed ship high up on the frozen cliffs. We went to check it out to find it's a gold transport, still with safes and loot intact.

A redguard named Burgundy was already there and had claimed it as her inheritance though, and since gold is something I have lots of I left her and her guard, Fawadin, there to handle it while we returned to Mellori. Her next task was very fun: to collect a weapon from an oblivion realm! The portal to this was near the Thalmor Embassy so Brutus entertained himself while I went into the red realms of the dremora - who are still susceptible to good ol fashioned throat slitting.

Very, very red.

Their boss, Graff Von what's his face, was the only one to insta-detect me. He also offered a trade for what I was after: either I gave him my first born infant or duel to the death right now. Is that even a choice? To his credit, the dremora lord put up a decent fight and could take my hits - but was simply too slow with his two hander to hit me in return.

Too much sitting on your ass and not enough training!

After doing the classic samurai dash-finisher, I collected the broken artifact weapon and made my way out. Oh, and I finally found a fireball tome! Yep, I only learned that spell now.

He also had some funny books.

Skyrim: Simple Clarity

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

Brutus stayed outside while I went into the dwemer tunnels, finding it haunted by ghosts and ghosts in armor? They were led by someone named Kenneth and apparently were not aware they were already dead. I simplified this for them the best way I knew how. I gave his unique "panzer" shield to Brutus afterwards.

Since we were near Markarth we decided to make a detour there to pick up more of Shalidor's writings only to find they were hiding a small group of Thalmor in the palace!? Brutus and I lost our sh!t composure and so commenced the murder of those worms and any one else who decided that killing Thalmor is a crime (because it isn't). In record time Brutus and I had free run of the city and left with what we came for.

He's learning a thing or two from me. :P

After dropping off the loot, Mellori dispatched us to some frozen ruins to collect a lock box. Brutus waited outside again while I navigated the traps and skeletons to find a portal back in time. This again? At least it was more straight forward this time, the khajiit thief who had the box got stuck in here and gone mad. I offered her clarity with my tried and true method: Death.

Some of those traps were a little nuts.

Skyrim: Mellori's Minions

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

The dreamer wasn't doing anything criminal (I think) so we left him and headed down to the ratway. Fortunately all the thieves I previously killed were still dead, only Galathil the face changer was there. Unfortunately she admitted to having Imperial and Dominion clients which led me to punching her in the face, followed by Brutus running her through.

There was a new weapon shop in town too, "The Iron Lass" run by Mellori who had some tasks for us. First was to help her friend Old Jako clear out a draugr tomb. The veteran didn't have it in him to do in his old comrades so I let Brutus watch over him while I did the deed.

The Iron Lass needs to make more light sources in her store.

Next we were sent to find a clockwork heart in a dwemer ruin, near Nerelia's house. After briefly dropping in to check that she was ok, we continued on and found a bandit running from a pair of angry giants and their mammoths. We watched as the bandit we splattered, and then one of the mammoths attacked Brutus. Big mistake.

One hit KO, but not the way you'd think.

I simply sat back and watched him demolish all the enemies with ease, single handedly.

Skyrim: Return to Nirn

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

And you thought Death Mountain was weird!

After eight or so maps of falling I finally ended up... on a UFO? What? Someone call XCOM! Haha! The view was amazing though. There were also some really cool shoes that negate falling damage just sitting there, which I figured I'd need - on the way down! LOL! Definitely one of the strangest adventures I've come across so far.

Prepare for re-entry!

It was back to business when I was back on Nirn, as Brutus told me Njada had been kidnapped (again) by a vampire and his bandit cronies. We made a beeline for the shipwreck that served as their base, and Brutus showed off his talent by killing everything himself. All I did was free Njada. Why do I even give her weapons? *sigh*

Decided to head to Riften to see if there were any rumors about where those bandits came from, and instead I find a more disturbing encounter, a dunmer "dreamer" who keeps talking about his resurrected lord who speaks to him in his dreams: Dagoth Ur.

Not you guys again!

Skyrim: Middle of Nowhere

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

Gotta dodge the laser beams!

In one of the deeper vaults on the island I found an army of dwemer spheres busy at work and proof of the Kraken's origin. I mean who else would construct a giant mecha right? After destroying Mazinger Z, I cleared as many more enemies as I could but then had to return, leaving the rest of Summerset Isle's conquest in the capable hands of the sisters and their soldiers.

This is because the mod is unfinished, and I ran into the speedforce.

Upon returning to Skyrim, Brutus told me that during his incarceration he learned of a secret Thalmor under the ocean. The best way there would be via rowboat, and would need to be a solo mission as to keep it low key. Because I like surprising people. This was fine since Braga Clearwater basically "graduated" and was now a competent adventurer. I gave her a big hug and sent her on her way, then found myself a boat.

Well, that's specific...

At the coordinates Brutus gave I found an unguarded tiny island and a fisherman's shack. Under the bed was a trap door that led to a huge cave system though, guarded by a ghost and his ghost dog. Yeeeah ok. After splattering their ectoplasm all over the walls I found stairs leading even deeper.

Skyrim: Summerset Isle

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

The soldiers of Skyrim were doing a pretty good job slaying the Thalmor defenders, despite taking losses of their own. I was pleased to see Aurora and Twilight with them in the fray, but I could not let them have all the fun. Using my super speed I made sure to get ahead of the main pack and slaughter as many of the enemy as I could, personally.

Though it was nice to watch the two NPC forces clash too.

During my rampage I came across a prison with a familiar face being slowly executed by a fiery boss Thalmor. After slaying the incinerator I freed Brutus Brutalus, the assassin who obviously survived my final attack last time and whose armor I now wore. Apparently he managed to crawl away, only to be taken hostage by the elves and tortured for information. He did manage to escape and cause some chaos though.

The very definition of a hero!

Since he now owed me (a lot) he offered his aid against our common enemy. I told him to go recover first while I thought about it, instructing Braga to take him back to the ships while I forged ahead deeper inland where more Thalmor, including one of their "master wizards", met their ends at my blade. Their paralyzing archer squads came close to putting me down though. Close but not enough.

For glory!

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