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.

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: 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

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: Moving Target

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

My training is interrupted when a bunch of bounty hunters come wandering into Morvunskar, and while Einer easily dispatches them the notes in their packs clearly illustrate that I'm now the target of the Sinister Seven (Prepare to Die), a band of deadly assassins who again I assume work for either the Empire, the Dragonslayers or both. This prompts me to continue my own assassination missions, leaving Njada under Sanguine's protective care.

Einer and I rejoin Aurora and Twilight at a small inn where they tracked down the next Dragonslayer, a khajiit named Rolan Nightkiller. The extremely agile, life stealing bastard manages to down Twilight before being Einer kills him via shouting him through a wall. From his correspondence we learn the location of another target, hiding in a tomb where we travel to post haste.

Khajiit's all share the same weakness... their tail! :P

There we are met by more assassins and a dragon! While my comrades deal with those I head on inside to face Arvale Staggerlow who turns out to be an easy opponent. The fight outside is not going well however as both girls are being downed multiple times to what seems to be an endless stream of assassins. Fortunately there is a small gap mid wave where we manage to escape into the mountains.

Also made gaps between some heads and shoulders.

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!)

The Long and Winding Road

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

Belrand and I made a stop at Riverwood to find the owner of a mysterious note. Upon finding this secret agent, she insisted I prove my dragon soul consuming ability by going to where she thinks a dragon is going to appear. This happens to be a -very- long way away but I decide to jog along with her the whole way there, marking out new land marks as we pass them. Finally we reach the site and the big black dragon who I saw at the start is here. Not missing a beat I engage it in combat and seem to irritate it. Without missing a beat it summons another dragon (who I know as "Sucker") from the ground before flying off. I call it that because as soon as it came out we just beat it back down to death and I ate its soul. Big black draggy has flown off, possibly because it saw how poor Sucker fared.

Secret agent girl is impressed and leaves to do some planning, so Belrand and I do the nearby tasks I have in the area, as well as for the people in a small settlement nearby. One of them is to find out what the hell I did when Lydia and I had that drinking contest awhile back. I've been slowly tracking down where I needed to go and it's led me to a fortress filled with magic users, including one psychotic pyromancer. Anyway, after dealing with him we find a portal to misty realm where I find the guy who issued the drinking challenge in the first place. He turns out to be the daedra Sanguine playing a prank.

I don't like pranks OR pranksters and immediately go on the offensive. Fighting an actual Daedra is quite tough though, as all my attacks seem to go right through him as if he wasn't there at all. The fight goes on for at least a day, and Belrand meets his fate at the hands of the bastard daedra. Finally Sanguine tires of all of this and teleports me back to Whiterun. Damn it. At least I got some good block and light armor training from that. Since I had a few more tasks to hand in back at Solitude I headed back that way, picking up Benor the coward as my pack mule from Morthal. I also was proclaimed thane in both Morthal (by idiot Jarl) and Solitude (by widow Jarl) and was assigned a new housecarl in the latter. I left her to watch the new house I bought in Solitude while Benor and I continued on to Dawnstar.

On the way we came across an Imperial encampment where I killed the lone lookouts, then came across a volkihar vampire which led to an epic battle that lasted all the way to the port city. True to form Benor spent most of his time cowering or running away. It took a bunch of brave travelling khajit and a number of town guards to help take down this foe but finally it was dead and I was at my destination.

Beware Benor's wrath! :P