Luftrausers and Rival Stars Horse Racing

Games that start strong.

Luftrausers

In this beautiful artistic sepia arcade bullet hell shooter, you fly your plane on a 2D plane to blast enemy air and sea craft to smithereens while also trying to evade their fire ALL to some super epic music which really gets the blood pumping. This is very much an achievement based game, as getting those goals unlocks more plane parts that give more goals - and despite the seemingly simplistic three part modular plane chassis,  you can get a ton of variety from the bits available. Very cool, but even with the epic handling and music the gameplay loop gets repetitive a few hours in. Still one of the better bullet hell things I've played for a while.

Rival Stars Horse Racing

After inheriting a run down homestead it's up to you to restore it and regain its status by winning horse races! This super chillaxing game has two main sections - the racing and the upgrading bit. Racing is simpler so we'll start there: with minimalistic controls of left, right and sprint you really are at the mercy of your horses stats as an untrained one will simply have no chance on the harder tracks. Sprint is interesting in how it recharges: your horse has a preferred position and to regain sprint power faster you need to stay in that position - which can be a tricky proposition!

Upgrading the homestead simply requires resources you win or buy from gold (and also costs gold on top) which can let you keep more horses, foal more horses (breed champions bro), and improve training facilities to let you improve your animals even more. The part I don't like is that participating in races costs money, and if you are out of it you need to wait for your timed income to drop. Yep, its the "waiting to have fun" section of the game and that's what kills it for me. A simple fix is letting you race for free but alas, that was a lost opportunity. Otherwise, a pretty decent game for city bound horse lovers. You can even do free rides around your ranch just for fun.

The Last Cowboy (TV Series)

A Taylor Sheridan reality series about reining!

This documentary-competition which currently spans six seasons showcases the lives of various horse reiners as they prepare and compete in the Taylor Sheridan created "Run For a Million" tournament. What is horse reining? It's being able to ride your horse out into an empty arena and then doing a set pattern with it involving spins both ways, circles of various speeds, and the sliding stop signature move where the faster you go the harder it is to be accurate where to stop but the more points you might get. Much like figure skating, judges then give a score and whoever has the highest wins! If you watched Yellowstone you would have seen some of this as some of the reiners make an appearance there!

It's nice to see the tournament evolve in later seasons as it gets more popular to also include cow-horse (now you do that pattern on your horse while forcing an often non-compliant cow to also do it with you), cutting (there's a herd of cattle in the arena, separate one out and keep it from returning to the herd for as long as you can), and bareback (get on a wild horse and hang on for 8 seconds).

We do like the people the show focuses on too, as its great to see them evolve as people not just competitors. It's not a plot related thing, that's just life. The producers also use a good technique of rotating focus of riders per season, because all these people keep showing up again which means in later seasons even if a rider isn't heavily featured, you know exactly who it is when they get called into the arena. Awesome show and one I hope to see more of! Recommended!

Yellowstone and Territory

TV Series that depict cattle wrangling as a tough business.

Yellowstone

The original series from which the shows 1883 and 1923 spun off from, again the focus of this drama is on the Dutton family and their controlling patriarch (played by Kevin Costner) who fiercely fights off any and all challengers to his substantial property (in the modern day, just to be clear). Through its five seasons we get to see a tiny bit of character growth from a just a few of the characters but the plot, acting and scenery is good enough to command attention anyway. I quite liked all the cowboy parts which really didn't need to have such a focus, but it was something different and really cool. It also helps that I do like horses. :P Anyway, big thumbs up for this one and an easy one to recommend.

Territory

This currently one season show feels like the Australian copy of Yellowstone. A family who owns the largest cattle station led by an angry patriarch (played by Robert Taylor but the main protagonist is his daughter in law, played by Anna Torv) has to fight off competitors and companies trying to carve parts of their land away. While the stakes feel much lower and there are far fewer horses (most rustling is done with dogs and buggies) its still an alright watch. Especially as there are only six episodes (so far).

Those about to Die, 1883 and 1923

TV dramas set during historical periods.

Those about to Die (Season 1)

Ancient Rome is cruel to everyone from its Emperors to its slaves, and underworld figure Tenax (Iwan Rheon) deals with both as he navigates the ladder of improving his own position. While there are gladiators its worth pointing out they aren't the main focus (at least in season 1) as the Coliseum is still under construction. Instead there are a lot of chariot races with budget CGI and maybe a few too many characters but at least the death count cleans them out a bit. Definitely one we enjoyed for the spectacle rather than for the plot, but we'll definitely watch a season two of it if it comes around.

1883

This Western focuses on an expedition from Texas to Oregon led by an old veteran (Sam Elliot), is filled with beautiful cinematography, and almost all the main actors are mounted on horses for most of the time. Story wise it drags a little at the start but picks up rather quickly along with the death count when we witness just how unprepared most of the settlers are as they go through very dangerous territories whose "laws" don't really protect anyone and just give people an extra reason to kill. There's so much killing, it's great! Recommended.  

1923 (Season 1)

The continuation of 1883 which focuses on the Dutton family led by an elderly but grizzled patriarch (Harrison Ford) as a locust plague causes violent clashes between his cattle herd crew and a neighboring sheep herd gang. That sounds really tame how I wrote that, but while the death count so far is lower than 1883 there's still a good amount of shooting with a side of lynching. Strangely, there are three plot threads going on here and one that starts in Africa certainly gets the "adventure" segment of the show and feels like its the main story. As such while we did enjoy it, it sure feels like season 1 was just setting up the characters with no resolution. We'll need to wait for season two to see how everything ties together.

Pathfinder: The Haunted Manor

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

While turning in the Sanitorium owner a ragged farmer arrives at the Sandpoint garrison asking for help at the outlying farms where scarecrows have started attacking the inhabitants. The party turns down the Sheriff's offer of two extra constables and riding quickly reach the farms at night where indeed, the scarecrows (or rather, ghouls dressed up as scarecrows) are hopping off their stands and lurking in the tall maize. They can't ambush the team though, not with Ezren's owl Stolas on recon. Valeros makes good use of his shield here, and while Merisiel's anti-undead rapier and Kyra's channeled energy naturally wreck these things, so does Kyra's warhorse Shadowmist who quickly proves to be the MVP in this outdoor setting.

A pair of not-yet ghouls are rescued and returned to town where they (along with Ezren and Kyra) are cured of ghoul fever disease by local priest, Father Zanthus whom Valeros buys a bunch of cure disease and holy water from, as well as a good number of oil flasks just for kicks. Discussing the evidence found at the farm with the Sheriff next leads them to the Foxglove manor, home of that noble Aldern who was saved during the goblin raid and was crushing hard on Merisiel. Isolated on a distant cliff face, the house is both rotten and haunted with numerous ghostly BS events kicking (mainly Valeros') ass while depicting what happened to the murderous family that lived here. After Kyra holy nukes a bunch of undead crows and Ezren eliminates a joke-boss battle blind, diseased rat in a tub, the next creature they find is a female revenant locked in the attic seeking revenge on Aldern (again good knowledge checks from Ezren and Kyra).

The team get out of her way and follow her back downstairs where she smashes open a secret staircase that leads below the basement and into a really foul smelling cave system where the squad beats even more ghouls and a giant ghoul bat (who is "holy eagled"). In a back room they find a badly beaten undead Aldern, finishing off the female revenant before Merisel one shots him with Kaydara (the holy rapier). This time the team are pretty sure they got the murderer, but correspondence found on him indicates that his ritualistic killings were at the behest of someone else at the next city of Magnimar.

Before doing anything else, Valeros douses a patch of evil fungi with holy water to turn "off" the haunts of the mansion then the team return to Sandpoint to update the authorities and borrow a monk priest to take back with them to the mansion for a more permanent cleansing (apparently all the other priests are busy healing wounded from a recent ghoul attack from the ocean).

Warframe: Dagath

Blueprints for this headless horsewoman warframe are acquired from a room that must be added to your clan dojo called "Dagath's Hollow" and to build her you'll need a bunch of new things called vainthorns which only drop from the "locked" abyssal zone in Ceres, a place you might not even see unless you have the keys to access it. Each run through that zone needs you to use a key which you can buy from one of the "big 6" syndicates (Arbiters, Meridian, Suda, Perrin, Loka or Red Veil) for 5000 standing, and only if you are at rank 2 or above with them.

While the abyss mission itself is just a visually darker exterminate with eximus (strong guys) stronghold  activating about 2/3rds of the way through and an extra pick up and deliver a cursed lantern to extraction tacked on, you'll need to do this a decent number of times to get enough vainthorns to build her and even more if you want her pure slash whip-sword weapon.

Sounds like a pain to build her and it is, especially if you don't yet have a strong frame to grind out those components but she is very rewarding and a fun close combat frame to play as her abilities of spinning scythes (Yareli's only good move), adding viral, adding crits (+possible ghost form) and summoning a charge of ghost cavalry that absolutely wreck everything in a straight line all work very well together, with survivability coming directly from her passive that makes every 3rd health or energy orb 300% more effective. You'll want to be right in the thick of things to make the most of that. Dagath definitely gets my tick of approval.

Peaky Blinders

"Intelligence is a very valuable thing, innit, my friend? And usually it comes far too fucking late."

This six season gangster series is set in England and begins soon after the First World War and follows mastermind Thomas Shelby (Cillian Murphy) and the rest of his family in their unending quest for power and riches through almost whatever means necessary. Gorgeous cinematography and a good story help it along, and it is rare that an episode ends without you wanting to start the next one.

There always seem to be horses around.

My main gripes with it are minor. At the start I had a hard time understanding the accent, and this might be the only English language show that I needed to turn subtitles on, but after a few episodes I was alright. The second gripe is that, especially in later seasons, there are lots of walking, or standing while the camera pans around shots which seem do be designed purely to let you hear a song / no dialogue or plot advancement. I don't mind if there's some heavy acting taking place while these shots happen, but simply walking or "look menacing for thirty seconds"... eh? All up though it's still a good series and one I recommend.

MGSV: Sahelanthropus

[Part of the MGS Diary]

With his Skulls defeated, Quiet and I systematically fight our way against his more mundane troops into the ruined castle that is Skull Face's base. Unfortunately he apprehends me at the helipad and forces me to listen to his evil villain monologue about releasing an English strain of the virus while riding a jeep to his virus deployment platform: the metal gear Sahelanthropus.

For a nice change of pace, the main villain gives us a life to the next boss fight. :P

Unfortunately for him, the giant robot goes crazy - killing his men and his fire monster. It is up to me and D-Horse, and a few Diamond Dog helicopters to bring it down using as many rockets as is needed. I also make use of the many abandoned tanks and APCs but Sahelanthropus simply uses his rust gas attack to nullify those. D-Horse is also killed in the battle.

Once we bring down the metal giant, Miller and I find Skull Face pinned by debris. After destroying his vials of disease, we take turns to dismember him slowly as revenge for what he did nine years ago. We then return to base victorious, with Sahelanthropus in tow - much to Dr. Emmerich's delight.

Insight: Call for air support if/when your chopper gets carved out of the sky. Also I chose D-Horse for this fight for mobility purposes. Unlike last time, Sahelanthropus is super agile now - running and jumping after you.

MGSV: Reconstruction

[Part of the MGS Diary]

Afghanistan is the first stop to rebuilding my crew - starting with rescuing Miller, one of my top ranking guys who now is missing an arm and a leg. Lucky D-Horse, the mount Ocelot gave me, is capable of carrying both of us - even while being pursued by strange, teleporting Skull soldiers.

We finally then head to our base, a lonely oil rig platform in the middle of the ocean and home to "the Diamond Dogs". It's what Miller calls this rag tag group of peons he had assembled during my absence. They're not much to look at.

Clearly its up to me to bring in the big bucks by completing more mercenary work in Afghanistan's mostly claustrophobic valleys while at the same time recruiting soldiers (specifically interpreters to start with) by knocking them out and then abducting them by attaching them to a fulton balloon. It is so ridiculous to watch (but also a real thing).

Have a nice flight!

Almost as ridiculous as ballooning wild life out. Apparently Miller has a deal with an NGO that pays money for that as well. What they do with the animals? Who knows.

Insight: D-Horse makes for an effective if temporary vehicle road block. Baddies won't shoot him or run him down, and instead attempt to "shoo" the obstacle away - much like if they encounter goats or other wild life.

KCD: Ninja Horse

[Part of the Kingdom Come: Deliverance journal.]

Travel is always better by horse and not long into the game you get old "Pebbles" to ride on, unless you are overburdened in which case no riding for you! While Pebbles is a fantastic upgrade from walking and also helps by being able to carry around three dead bodies worth of loot, you should seriously consider upgrading your steed when you can.

You can dress your horses up too!

My preference is Bucephalus from the Neuhof stables. He's not much faster than Pebbles but can go much further due to his larger stamina pool and can get you across the entire map in under a day (of manual cross country gallop). Remember to also buy saddlebags upgrades when you can. With the noble four pack saddle, he can carry around nine dead bodies worth of loot!

It's also worth mentioning Pebbles will throw you at the first sign of trouble (melee enemy) which is another negative. Fortunately all your horses are of a ninja class though. Whistle for them and they shall appear from thin air, behind you!

Skyrim: The Dragonlord

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

Getting artsy with my screencaps! :P

Xuru. I knew that name. The brother of Zuna who I completely forgot to look for after her death. I guess the Thalmor got his hands on him and swayed him to their side. There would be no talking him out of it though, so Twilight, Sofia, Bo, Aurora and I went to face him at his mountainous retreat. He was easy to find with his two dragon allies slaughtering everything in sight. Fireballs began to rain from the sky as I went after the named dragon first. It died pretty quick after I confused it with a Bend Will shout. At the same time  Aurora got blown to smitherines right beside me from a falling fireball.

In the distance I saw a chain of lighting strikes from the sky electrocuting Bo. There was nothing I could do for her but run past to the second dragon and slam it with a one hit kill, before turning to face Xuru. He had just finished running through Twilight with his two handed sword, and then with a small wrist gesture - summoned a brand new dragon instantaneously. Sofia leapt at it to keep it off me while I faced off against the knight landing a number of solid hits. He returned some too, and I needed heal pots after each one I didn't evade.

The showdown!

With perma dragon-aspect active, Xuru managed to fus roh dah me away a good distance. I landed on the corpse of my horse - the one that I thought couldn't die. I got back on my feet to see Xuru facing away from me. At his feet, Sofia's mangled body. She had managed to slay the dragon, but it didn't matter. As he turned to face me simply summoned another one. In a rage I charged twin blades flashing but he parried and disarmed my 900+ damage sword which was subsequently thrown to who knows where with all the explosions and lightning.

He's definitely the toughest non-scripted enemy I've faced!

Against a single blade he was pretty good at parrying, but I knew exactly how to make him drop his guard. I rolled past him and slew the dragon. As expected he did that wrist thing to summon another but by doing so left himself open to the final blow. The next dragon never did arrive. Xuru fell to his knees and collapsed onto the ground, dead. Exhausted, I surveyed the battlefield as the rain stopped.

I was the only one left standing.

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: The Fall of Solitude

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

Wish I knew how to pilot this beast...

Frea was having fun traipsing around the mainland with me, collecting taproots from spriggans, briarheart hearts, and random grapes from the local stores. My horse Red Shadow, who isn't allowed on boats due to too much pooping and thus never made it to Solstheim, took a liking to her too. They'd ride around while I'd fly up above on my tamed ancient dragon. Bend will is pretty cool. Pity the dragon goes hostile again after a bit, so that didn't end well for the flying lizard. :P

Gimme your grapes!

It was while heading out from Solitude that we chanced upon a huge bandit force coming to attack the town. As in Whiterun and Riften before it, I went to rally all the people in the city but could only muster less than a handful of willing warriors. Since I've been taking a "if they survive on their own, they deserve to live" stance lately I watched the battle play out as townsfolk and guards alike were slaughtered. Frea did her best to rally the defenders but when her allies fell she was surrounded and was pounded to death.

The bandit mage is right for once!

The bandits then stormed the city, slaughtering all in their path. Even the Penitus Occultus losers got taken down more easily than the bards in their college. With total chaos across the city I waited on the throne of the Blue Palace (because that's where the boss would be) and sure enough the bandits came to try take it for themselves. They failed.

Despite their defeat, the number of citizens remaining now could be counted on one hand. The days of Solitude were at an end.

Skyrim: Monsters Sighted!

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

Reports from the College of Winterhold claimed more beasts had been sighted in the Northern Sea so Tharas and I quickly went to investigate. Are we seriously the -only- adventurers in the whole of this region? Anyway. We come across: a giant charrus! Yep, it's one of those giant sea monsters. Fortunately it doesn't take too many explosive arrows to take down.

Yuck!

A roar from a nearby island gets our attention though and sure enough there's a named dragon in the skies, and an unknown ascended mage controlling it. Tharas opted to take the wizard while I handled the dragon which was a good call since I have this technique down pat now. Slow time, hack hack hack. Dead dragon. Trouble is the mage was actually the bigger threat: throwing walls of fire every which way and incinerating any who came to close.

Getting really good at using the speed force.

I was too late to save Tharas Gull, he was already screaming in immolating flames when I finished off the dragon so it came down to me (the horse dislikes swimming) and having used my shout against the dragon I couldn't use it now. Even with the shadow armor it was tough avoiding the flames so I opted to do the next best thing. Drink an invis pot. As I thought, with no target the fool didn't know what to do. Even his flaming shield couldn't save him from the fatal one hit back stab he had coming.

Totally extinguished his life.

As I looted his body on the shore of the little island I could see yet another dragon circling on the next isle over. My task wasn't over.

Skyrim: The Storm Dragon

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

After the last fire dragon this next target was a disappointment. The forest dragon chose to stay on the ground and breathed... low damaging thorn brambles? While it did hinder movement it didn't do much if I was already standing next to it, so I just face tanked the silly thing and slew it in one combo. More interestingly there was a small shack nearby I hadn't visited before... some skooma den run by vampires. While I couldn't cleanse the filthy blood pool at the bottom of the place, I did make sure no one other than my team left there alive.

The guard dog looked happy to greet Perdida.

One of the bloodsuckers must have gotten a lucky hit in too since I had contracted Sanguinare Vampiris upon leaving the place. Using the shadow armor I sprinted to the nearest shrine in record time to cure the malady instantly since shrines cure "all diseases". Who needs science when faith and magic is this tangible? :P

With that little side track out of the way we then returned to the snowy North to face Zuvulom, the storm dragon. Holy hell. This thing was worse than Aaldu! Even with the help of the nearby giants, their mammoths and Magala the giant lover, this turned out to be a fight of epic proportions. Not only was he an HP Sponge but being hit direclty by his "machine gun" lightning breath was near death. Also, standing next to him was pretty much ALSO death because he radiates lightning.

Getting close is not a good idea.

My allies began dropping like flies. Even Perdida eventually could no longer tank the insane damage and met her demise. It was up to me and my "newly" discovered explosive arrows (got a lot more from Perdida's corpse) to take him down. Good thing there was good amount of cover in the way but it was still very tense. When it was weakened enough I used the "Become Ethereal" shout which is like temporary god mode (I learned to use this at the Bottomless Pit) combined with a unique deadly poison I looted from one of the Dragonslayers, and a jump finisher to finally put Zuvulom down.

You had this coming, dragon!

At the end of it only my horse (who is immune to death somehow) and I survived.

Skyrim: Impressive Abilities

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

Our next target was a dragon in the marsh, one who could turn invisible! It also liked to stay airborne which made this prolonged fight an annoying one. It did give me the opportunity to learn about Perdida's secret ability though: she had explosive arrows! Turns out it's not so much an ability but just the special arrows from Death Mountain, of which I was carrying a few hundred myself.

Can you spot it? Use the radar up top for a clue. :P

Eventually I managed to shout down the bastard and with Red Shadow tanking I could finish it off from the back. A similar strategy was used against Nahlotnah, the sonic dragon who was attacking a Stormcloak camp. Half the soldiers died during the battle since they kept walking into its very large attack cone in which the closer you are the more damage you took. Perdida with the panzer shield could tank it a little though, just enough for me to do my thing. I had to slay the other half of the Stormcloak soldiers afterwards when they tried to arrest me though. Morons.

That sonic scream was very effective though.

No such strategy existed for the next dragon though, one that was literally on fire and enjoyed explosive bombardment. Just being near this one burned my health bar away, but there was no helping it as Perdida and Red Shadow got tied up fighting a second elder dragon (of the normal variety) at the same time. I had to resort to using the Arbiter's Decree to confuse the beast and simply brute forced him during the opening, consuming a lot of health items to survive the experience.

He died with an artistic finish!

Perdida finished the other dragon around the same time, just like a true Dragonborn.

Skyrim: Equivalent Exchange

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

"Dracarys!" :P

The third "level" of the orb is Vokulvokun's prison. A place of eternal burning fire, which is fitting since the dragon breathes it non-stop. Dropping comets down onto the arena with no cover and staying airborne make him an annoying foe but as soon as he lands I'm immediately disappointed that I slaughter him with no issues. With no deeper orbs to jump in, I make my way back out to Perdida and decide to move on to the second map.

Sparkly!

Here we find an alchemic dragon terrorizing some imperials, so I'm not too hasty to help. With Red Shadow and Perdida it isn't much of a match though. Nearby we find a strange ritual setup with a dead caster (probably killed by the dragon) and a dead little girl. Turns out the caster sacrificed his daughter to create that beast. Guess someone's been watching Full Metal Alchemist.

That's some strong ice magic.

The caster did have a letter indicating he was being paid for this experiment though, and we tracked down his employer to be another ascended: Ferna the Frost. Who obviously uses strong ice magic. Perdida can tank her spells, which gives me the perfect opportunity to sneak up from behind and ... well, you know.

Skyrim: The First Key

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

Our exploration escape route led to a tower full of forsworn led by a hagraven, and due to some bad timing with a closing portcullis Captain Ghoragdag was impaled to death by the closing gate. The remaining foes weren't a match for Nerelia and myself though. We even cleared another tunnel with a large (ultra) skeleton contigent, where Nerelia survived by using her summoned frost atronarch as a shield. Clever girl.

"Yes I am."

Soon we were back at the exterior of Death Mountain and new areas were open to me now, a tavern, an inn, and a bath house, full of new potential followers but I still couldn't open the very first door of the quest due to not having the first key. Eventually I gave up and looked on the map where I should go next, when I happened to hover over "Nerelia House", where I got the horse Red Shadow. Oh! That's where you live.

Deciding that someone should survive this tale I opted to take Nerelia home and released her from my service. She said I could keep the horse though. Also in her basement I found key #1. LOL! I raced back to Death Mountain and opened the mysterious chamber only to find a smallish zone with some left over undead and the next key which opened that gate I had jumped over previously.

No matter, Death Mountain was now cleared!

Skyrim: Out of the Ordinary

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

Our trip to Markarth was cut short by the fact that all the guards still were after me for slaying that wandering vamp in the streets (whose body was still lying there I might add, all these years later). Fortunately the Arbiter's helm also came with a special ability: Megaphoning his deep decree and scaring everyone away for a good amount of time. I used this to collect all the stuff in my home in that city and with Guomundr and Red Shadow's help (horsey), transported it all to Solitude.

In hind sight I should really just pay off the guards. That's what all this gold is for right? Anyway, once there I again studiously worked on blacksmithing, finding I could craft a most powerful weapon...

Totally not overpowered...

I soon received word from Njada that strange things were being seen on the Eastern border of the region, so I left Captain Guomundr there to watch over my stash in Solitude (the guy earned a break), and instead recruited Captain Gamli, Captain Ghoragdag and the Hunter to scout out the snowy, mountainous area. And boy did we find something out of the ordinary.

A UFO!?!

Skyrim: The True Hero

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

Over three years have passed since the orcish invaders were defeated. Three years since I became the Jarl of Whiterun, and while some folk have moved on the place remains the same. I guess my skills as El Presidente were pretty good! The peace was soon to be broken when a familiar face arrived in town, my old Argonian buddy Derkeethus who brought news of Thalmor incursions in the region, as well as a letter requesting my help in finding someone's missing brother at some forgotten ruins.

My cold-blooded ally.

I barely glanced at the letter, furious at the mere mention of the Thalmor. Without hesitation Derkeethus and I headed off towards Dragon's Bridge, finding a quaint little cottage called Nerelia house on the way that wasn't there before. A cursory examination showed the place was uninhabited apart from the red-eyed black horse named Red Shadow, whom I took as my own. I am the Jarl after all.

And who are you?

Soon after we arrived at the Dragon's Bridge hamlet and sure enough, a contingent of Thalmor had set up shop in the town. Unaware of who I was, they let me scout their positions out easily which made it all the easier to violently shank them all in the back, like a true hero.