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: 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: Sanguine's Apprentice

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

I decided to make a detour to Fort Dawnguard to let them know of Strogan's fate. While Einer tagged along, the sisters went off to seek out the next Dragonslayer. Would be a while before I rejoined them though, for at Fort Dawnguard I was informed that Njada was captured by vampires!? Vampires likely allied with the Dragonslayers methinks.

Not wasting any time Einer and I headed to Morvunskar to deal with the scum, easily annihilating the exterior guards. Someone had beaten us inside though, and was happily killing all the vampires and arch-death-omancers within, named... Sanguine. Wait. What? Yes, the Daedric Prince Sanguine was there killing stuff in person. Apparently it was his way of apologizing for that drinking prank so long ago, as he genuinely wanted to try increase my skills. That doesn't stop me from trying to punch him but he's immortal (as if striking air) as usual.

In the depths of the place we find Njada, tied up. I hesitate trying to free her since she might secretly already be a vampire. While deciding, Sanguine quietly mentions "this would be a great opportunity to practice your destruction magic!" He has a point. Especially since the Arbiter's Helm lets me cast shock indefinitely, and I have a target who can both take the punishment and won't fight back... so...

Time to level up! (Lev 57)!

(Sanguine is super effective!)

Parting Ways

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

The patrol run was going well, Beleval and I easily wiped out a medium sized bandit encampment to retrieve another set of dwemer schematics for Sorine, then proceeded into a cave to eliminate a master vampire before he could turn the many resident conjurers into allies. While the mission was a success, Beleval's inexperience was her undoing - slaying a flame atronarch at close range. The explosion knocked her off her feet and she screamed in agony as she burned to death.

Swung by Windhelm to make sure Njada was settling in ok before heading back to Fort Dawnguard to report in. She had taken a strange liking to "the butcher's" hidden room which was funny. Back at Dawnguard HQ I picked up Agmaer again to finish off the last part of our patrol - retrieving a shield relic from more vampires. Since it was on the way, I decided to swing by Morthal to check on Serana. I was getting worried since there was no sighting of her for awhile.

The guards didn't take kindly to my arrival as always, so I called Odahviing to help them understand to get out of my way. The battle was prolonged somewhat when a thalmor soldier brought an Elder Dragon into town. After eliminating all the enemies I scoured the town for Serana but to no avail. Failon was of no help either, too absorbed by the dead dragon to talk to me. This incident makes me wonder if there are actually other Dragonborn out there?

Super unlikely I think to myself.

Anyway we pushed on to the location and massacred the small vamp coven to retrieve the shield, which I gave Agmaer since it seemed it would be more use to him and checked in back at Dawnguard HQ. There, to my surprise was Serena, waiting for me and now fully human. With all that's happened I offered her to come stay with Njada but she declined, saying that she would be more useful to the Dawnguard. So with that I gave her a big hug and waved goodbye to the others. Isran knew I couldn't carry them forever. It would be up to them now to continue the fight on their own, and you know what? I think they'll do alright.

Immortal Blood

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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

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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?

Reading is Bad for You

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

Our next stop was to retrieve a holy warhammer for the guy who hears voices in his head at a bandit cave near Whiterun. The first thing I encounter when I get there is an angry face of a guard who attacks me out right (kinda wanted here too). He's soon joined by another, and then by a pair of bandits. Then out of the blue, a familiar cat figure appears - Bane who had been tailing us decided to come out of the shadows to assist. "Khajiit guards your back," he says smugly. With now three of us, there was little danger as we raided the cave and then a second location for more schematics before returning to Dawnguard HQ.

Alas, it turns out the moth priest had been blinded by his own folly and now I have to go do a ritual to read them. The place was easy enough to find, a well hidden and very pretty glade. After attracting some bugs to me (yuck) I managed to read all three elder scrolls in succession (I think purely to make use of the open scroll animation) and got a vision of a map before snapping out of it. At least I'm not blind!

Alternative Solution: Elder Braile Scrolls.

Seems our next task is to retrieve some bow of a god, which is also what Lord Harkon wants apparently. Just as we were on our way out a large mob of vampires and a pair of gargoyles show up! How did they know we were here? We are forced back by the overwhelming numbers and I lose track of both Bane and Serana. I opt to take the high ground on the opposite bank and setup a firing position from there. The exploding bolts and fast reloading crossbow sure come in handy here. One of the thralls actually makes it up to my position but I just shout him off the cliff to certain death.

Eventually I spot Bane far below fighting like a wild cat, even though he is knocked down again and again. It's still enough to keep the enemies in the open though and eventually I snipe the last one with a slow motion headshot. With the last enemy defeated I regrouped with both Bane who had survived the ordeal, and Serana who seemed to be badly wounded (crawling). Got her to feed on an enemy thrall (possibly the one that went sky diving) and upon leaving she was back to her usual self.

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.

Angry Fangs

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

Outside the ruins there was still no sign of my buddy Ono, so I headed back towards the orc settlement and quickened the pace as I saw spell-cast lightning arc in the darkness up ahead. On the road I passed a pair of the charred vigilant remains and was correct in guessing what was attacking the settlement. Another Volkihar vampire. Ono was here, aiding his kinsmen in the battle but after a long struggle only he and I remained. The rest of the orcs here were now either rotting corpses or ashes blowing away in the wind.

We decided to get out of there ASAP and tracked down the second part of the forge key in an easily accessible shrine. The third piece was much harder, being in the depths of Radthalbar. On our descent through there we got attacked by a pair of dwarven spheres right in a hallway with helicopter blades. Being fleet of foot I dodged out of there easily, but the spheres and Ono were shredded into pieces.

This was all that's left of them.

Found the key part past more falmer scum then decided to head to Fort Dawnguard to hand in stuff since I was in the area. There the newbie Agmaer asked if he could come along to get some experience since Isran didn't seem to be sending his troops anywhere. With Ono's fresh demise in my head I reluctantly said yes. The final 4th piece of the key was fortunately easy to reach but the "lock" itself was in some ruins guarded by bandits. The poor guy got thrashed pretty badly and it was soon evident it would be up to me to take them down.

Suddenly the bandits turned their attention to new opponents behind us, a pair of Volkihar vamps with an undead legate in tow (in broad daylight). THE HELL? Grabbed Agmaer and hauled him to cover while the vampires ate the bandits (I assume, because I didn't see them anymore) and soon enough they were coming for us. Katria then suddenly appeared with her ghostly bow and drew their spell fire. She could surprisingly take their hits while I sniped them off from a safe distance. I guess ghosts beat vampires then?

Quakey Shakey Heart

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The elder scroll is read back at Fort Dawnguard but apparently it is missing two more pieces. One being one I already had, and the other Serana believes is with her mother who is hiding somewhere, which we deduce is probably in the castle - the same one that the person she is hiding from has lived in for centuries. Ironic, but it does make sense. Serana doesn't want me to bring anyone with me when we do infiltrate it - she has understandable trust issues. She goes to wait at the dock till I'm ready which means it is sidequest time! :P

She wants some alone time with me. ;P

With Lynn in tow I bought back the elder scroll from Urog (get a discount for being archmage lol), defeated another master vamp, rescued a crazy guy from yet another vamp who has charmed a small army of vigilants which we are forced to literally cut through, and finally launched an attack on a major bandit outpost for more schematics. We got separated in the melee and I was beginning to fear the worst until I saw she was comically running after fleeing enemies every which way once I got closer. With that done she had completed her patrol and we returned to Skyhaven Temple where I got Ono the orc next to explore some dwemer ruins I read about in a random book.

Our nearest waypoint was a small orc settlement which pleased him somewhat. From them we heard rumors about a large band of warlike orsimer heading into the region soon too before we continued to the site. The rumbling ruins seemed to have stolen Ono's courage with him vanishing a short way in. Didn't matter though as inside I met a new strange ally: the spirit Katria whose body was also still here. Apparently she was looking for an ancient dwaven forge, and after navigating through annoying falmer and their new "flying" charrus as well as dwemer traps we found one piece of the "key". Oh goodie. Fortunately she had done her research and the remaining spots were marked in her journal meaning they should be easy to find. She was going to go spirit on ahead while I had to trek like a sucker.

I'm kinda curious how spirits work in this world. She can kill stuff with physical arrows... yet I'm carrying her bow and her armor (she makes a funny comment about that), and she can also just appear and disappear seemingly at will wherever she likes but can't take her own journal... thinking about it too much makes my head hurt.

A Bloody Massacre

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

Solving the puzzle brought me another surprise, as it freed rather fetching, elder scroll carrying vampire girl named Serana. My first instinct was to kill her but since she seemed disoriented and non hostile I thought I'd question her first. Simply put, she wanted to go home, and wanted me to take her there. Since it was unlikely it was going to be a trap, I decided not to pass up the opportunity to get the location of a secret vampire base. Back topside I decided to swing by Solitude to rummage through more of my gear, and to check in with Jordis and Njada who were a little curious as to who my new raven-haired, red-eyed, friend was before pressing on.

Turns out the "secret vampire base" is a bloody great castle just off the northern coast. How did anyone miss that? Anyway, we literally stroll inside (for some reason I can't go on a murderous rampage right now) and are welcomed by her father, Lord Harkon Volkihar and his court. As thanks he offers to make me a hideous monster (LOL). I politely decline and explain it was hard enough to cure my werecorginess so instead he banishes me back outside and warns me not to return. Naturally the first thing I try is to get back in there but I am defeated by their closed gate. With a sigh I decided to go to Skyhaven Temple to rummage for my things there and upon hearing of her friend Rayna's death, Alyssa asked to accompany me against this new threat.

Seems the vampires are on the ball though, because upon our return to the Dawnguard HQ we founnd it under attack by a small group of high level vampires. In a rage, Alyssa charged into the fray along with most of the other Dawnguard members (some new ones too). It was a massacre on all sides and in the end only the most powerful vamp, Isran and myself remained alive. I the chaos I didn't see what killed Alyssa the first time, but I certainly know what turned her into a pile of dust after she was raised as a familiar - Isran's gigantic warhammer. It was a long fight to defeat the last Volkihar vampire, and at the end Isran was in such a beserked state he kept trying to attack me too! I hid from him in his own fortress for a day (well, a cave behind the fortress to be exact) to let him cool off.

Dude was pissed.

Apart from Isran and myself, only the newbie Agmaer and the two war huskies survived (because they stayed in the keep). It was no surprise then that my next task was to recruit two "specialists", a tamer and artificer, because Isran knew his group just got pwned.

The New Order

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

With the arrival of Dawnguard as an early Christmas present I have returned to continue the story here for a bit! :)

The winds seemed colder as Rayna and I reached the final strech to Winterhold, having navigated past many dangers mostly in the form of witches and infected people for some reason. Once there I finally performed the final ritual to rid myself of that curse placed on me and paid off my dues to the college so that they would stop treating me like a leper. I sort of forgot where I left all my gear though, so after rummaging around the archmage's quarters we continued on to Windhelm again to look for stuff and crafted some gear while I was at it, reaching level 50. I ended up having to still raid my house and the castle kitchens for food due to my low supply of potions (and gold) before continuing south to Riften to do the same.

Seems a new person is inhabiting the Ragged Flagon, but since she isn't really allied with the thieves guild I let her be again heading South to try find this new band of vampire hunters we had heard about from a guardswoman at some remote mine. It took a little while before Rayna found the crack in the mountain leading to their base, a large but dilapidated castle manned only by a handful of people. There was an orc wielding a new weapon on the outskirts too - a crossbow! I let out an audible "ooooh" as he handed me a spare to try out, then continued into the structure with another newbie named Agmaer where we met their slightly psycho redguard leader, Isran.

Because insane people make the best leaders right?

I get my first task almost immediately, to go check out some crypt that has the vampire's attention for some reason. Wasn't hard to find since I had passed it earlier (though I couldn't reach it initially)and once inside Rayna and I were quickly introduced to the Dawnguard's main adversaries - vampires, and their pets. They weren't much of a problem until my companion got jumped by a more powerful one, her risen spider and her death hounds. Rayna fought fiercely but finally had her life drained out of her by the vampiress before I could reach her. With no choice but to leave the pale, cold corpse of my companion behind I continued deeper underground felling more undead scum that stood in my way until finally, I reached a strange circular puzzle that pierced my hand unexpectedly. Ouch!