Skyrim: Curiosity and the Karstaag

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Since the supplies Rayya had ordered had not yet arrived, Marauder and I manually dug up the stone required after discovering a nearby quarry. With all the necessary materials now, we managed to complete construction of Hjalmarch Hall. The next stage would be interior design which is something I'm not keen on so again I left the steward, Rayya, with bags of gold and instructions to furnish the whole place.

Looking good... on the outside at least!

During the process of loading and unloading supplies Marauder noticed an odd skull in my pack, one labelled "Karstaag" which I picked up from some frozen cave in Solstheim. Realizing there was another location that shared that name ("Castle Karstaag") we decided to check it out again since I had already previously cleared it with Sero awhile back. I noticed the skeleton on the giant throne was missing its head, so doing the logical thing I put the skull there and... BOOM! Magical energies sent me flying!

The spirit of Karstaag, who happens to be a frost giant, had been awakened and it began thrashing both Marauder and myself. I managed to subdue it through force, granting me the ability to summon Karstaag myself, but not fast enough to save Marauder who had been crushed underneath his giant foot. Giant spirit foot? Erm. Anyway, with that done it was time to take the ship back to Windhelm.

She enjoyed it so much that she died.

Skyrim: Hearthfire

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After painting Raven Rock red I returned to Falkreath and recruited Rayya who seemed knowledgable in all things housing. In fact, she advised that there was more land being sold at Morthal and Dawnstar which I did buy for 5,000 gold each. Each property (including the one I previously bought in Falkreath) came with enough supplies to build a small house on site, which I did. It's pretty cool to see it come up piece by piece.

Makes me wonder if Stonehenge was just an incomplete house...

With three unfurnished little houses and a lot of room for expansions and furnishings I decided I'd have to settle on one spot and focus all my efforts there. Since the Morthal property was too close for comfort to ruins and the Falkreath one was a stones throw away from a necromantic altar (and the disturbing cave) I decided on the Dawnstar location, which is actually quite far South of Dawnstar, near the plains of Whiterun was the obvious choice.

Before I'm able to get to work though another message from Ralis arrives, asking for more help. Sigh. We go, find more draugr which Rayya clears out while I donate another 5,000 gold for the "final push" of the excavation. A random high elf mercenary also attacks us along the Solstheim shore but Rayya handles him easily. It's good to have talented side-kicks.

Skyrim: Raven Rock Rumble

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Having finished our business on Solstheim, Valdimar and I headed back to Raven Rock where the resident orc jackass, Morgul, who previously had less than two sentences for me accosted us saying that I inherited a debt. Apparently the new steward I previously got for Neloth owed him 1,000 gold. That debt was now on me, and he threatened to send enforcers to remind me about it.

Thank you, whoever put that option! :P

Despite it being such a paltry amount, his tone really irked me so I threatened his life. He said that the guards would come and arrest me, not him - instantly revealing that they were corrupt and in his pocket too. I gave them the benefit of the doubt though by circling around to his body guard and slicing his neck from ear to ear then immediately stowing my weapons. No one saw me do it. Morgul instantly went on the attack though, and the town guards joined HIS side, proving they are corrupt.

While the orc died easy, guard captain Veleth delayed me somewhat with his decent parrying letting his men turn Valdimar into a pin cushion of arrows. After I finished with him, I went after all his men and executed them so that all - even chasing them into various buildings as they fled like the cowardly dunmer rats they were. A trio of Morag Tong assassins took advantage of the chaos and crept into town only to be slaughtered along side those they opposed. Based on the orders they were carrying, their target had changed to me. Good luck with that.

Skyrim: Worthless

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With Solitude on its last legs I made my way to nearby Morthal where the jarl had assigned Valdimar as my housecarl. Interesting since I don't have a house in Morthal, but anyway... Fortunately Valdimar was interested in visiting Solstheim, because that's where we were headed. After unloading the deliveries for Neloth we learn that someone's been sending ash spawn his way as of late. A cursory investigation leads us to suspect his ex-apprentice Ildari, whom he tried to make a zombie. Yeah that would do it.

I guess "n'wah" is Dunmer for turd, because Ildari just pooped her robes.

We track her down to an abandoned fort and I let Valdimar demonstrate his skill... and it is quite lacking when facing multiple opponents. So, instead I let him go after Ildari while I take care of her adds. This works out much better for him as he finds victory in that battle. Neloth rewards us with membership to House Telvanni, which means exactly ... nothing. Great.

We stop by Ralis' dig on the way to Raven Rock and find that the draugr have again caused grief. Valdimar has no issues clearing them out (I suppose he's more familiar with Draugr) while I count out 3000 gold to help fund not only more labor, but some mercs as well. Pity I can't actually hire a new dig master, one who has foresight.

Skyrim: The Fall of Solitude

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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: You aren't finished!

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After finishing up some loose ends at Raven Rock, such as finding a new steward for Neloth and executing an thieves' guild member in his sleep (because you can't outrun justice), I thought I was done with the little island of Solstheim. Turns out I was very wrong as Neloth still had a laundry list of ingredients for me to fetch and sent his bumbling apprentice Talvas with me to do so.

Not enough of these in the base game.

Unfortunately for Talvas, we stumbled upon a polite group of loners who I figured to be werewolves. Freaking abominations. I beheaded the first one to prevent her turning but the other three opened with their shape shifting and tore Talvas apart, his bits showering down on the mountainside. Needless to say, I then did the same to them. Curious actually, Sero and I had previously also eradicated a small enclave of werebears (impressive transformation), yet there are no wolves or bears on the island. :P

Since the ingredients were going to be easier to find on mainland Skyrim, I checked in with Frea first to see if she wanted to come along since she wasn't so subtle about not wanting to be like shaman dad and instead be an adventurer, barring any unfortunate arrows finding her knees. She was easily persuaded to leave her people and come with me. Too bad she'd never see her home again.

Skyrim: The Settling Dust

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With Miraak gone, Frea would now fill her dead shaman dad's shoes and protect her village. Sero and I also informed Neloth of what transpired and like any decent wizard, he already knew. His apprentice Talvas was up to shenanigans though, having summoned an uncontrollable ash atronarch which slew Neloth's steward before we could intervene. The wizard tasked us with hiring a replacement.

On our way back to Raven Rock we stopped by Ralis' dig to find that progress has been impeded by draugr. Typical. While Sero went in to clear it out, I gave another 2000 gold for him to find replacement labor. We then did a much bigger detour as I remembered we had a key to some long lost pirate treasure and found the burial site of Deathbrand. This guy was buried in style, with piles of gold and treasure in the antechamber.

Now that's more like it!

Apart from the expected draugr we also had to deal with Deathbrand's angry ghost (because, why not). I wish I could say he was a decent fighter, but apparently you can slice the necks of ghosts? We cleared out that lair and returned to Raven Rock. For his services and for surviving the majority of Solstheim, I split the treasure with Teldryn Sero - giving him all of Deathbrand's gear too. I felt he was skilled enough now to be an adventuring hero in his own right, something that is rare for an NPC to attain if you've been following this journal from the start. :P

So many things wrong with this picture.

Skyrim: Off to see the Wizard

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Our reward for protecting the councilman from his enemies was citizenship and a house in Raven Rock! This is great as it provides a spot to unload all the junk I've been collecting. Since the quests in town have dried up, Sero and I head off to visit the wizard Neloth who literally lives in a giant shroom while his servants live in smaller shrooms. These dunmer are funny.

Kill... all... organics!

Neloth is the local guru of Black Books it seems and agrees to help me stop Miraak if I help him get his hands on the book at a nearby dwemer ruin, which also holds the new ballista bot enemies which are pretty cool. The whole steam powered place is sinking into the ocean, and getting power to open the book case from the lower levels involves a bit of swimming and water puzzles. The hunters necklace of water breathing is really useful here!

Hate to be the one to put those pages back where they belong!

With the target book finally in our hands, Neloth lets me read it first leading to the longest and coolest map of Apocrypha so far. Hermaeus Mora (who seems to come right out of the HP Lovecraft mythos) chats to me at the summit, revealing that he has been training Miraak all this time but now that Miraak is abandoning him, he will help me instead - if I give him access to some secret knowledge Frea's shaman dad was hiding from him. I don't really have much choice in the matter it seems.

Mr. Know it all.

After sending me back to Solstheim my little group is attacked by one of Miraak's dragons who was sent to assassinate me. Hah, an assassin dragon! As you might have guessed, it stood no chance.

Skyrim: After the Fact

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Continuing East, Sero and I came across an archeologist named Ralis who believed he had found the tomb of Ahzidal, but since it was covered in ash was looking for a financial backer to help him dig it up. Since gold is not something I'm short of, I gave him the 1,000 pieces he needed to get started then continued on the hunt for the source of ash spawn.

Apparently they were coming from some run down fort, and their general had some foreign ore keeping him alive (much like a briar heart). A few backstabs later and we were reporting our success back at Raven Rock, but our task wasn't finished. The guard captain suspected that a rival house had spies in town and so I got to teach Sero about breaking, entering and snooping. Or at least tried to.

He just couldn't control himself.

A mother, daughter pair were the prime suspects so while I cautiously snuck into their house like a shadow, Sero pulled out his sword and gutted them both. Fortunately we found proof that they were indeed guilty after the fact, as well as a location where their main force was waiting. The local councilman was nice enough to sent two guardsmen ahead but by the time we got there they had already been killed by the inhabitants of the place: Morag Tong assassins. They had some interesting traps in there, but nothing that posed any trouble for me or my bodyguard and soon they were the ones either getting backstabbed or ragdolled across the halls.

And you call yourselves assassins...

Back outside, we noticed the sun stone nearby we decided to free that too. Again Sero almost died but was ultimately successful against the lurker, saving one of the enthralled people. I think he's getting the hang of this.

Skyrim: Shouting at Stones

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With my new dragon shout prepared, Sero and I headed for the nearest obelisk: the wind stone. Just like shaman dad said, a single yell was enough to destroy the corruption from it - freeing the enthralled people. It also freed a lurker (fishman) from the dark world of Apocrypha though which succeeded in killing all but one of them. I probably could have saved more but I wanted Sero to learn how to fight these things.

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Ftagn!

The beast stone was next, and was a lot easier for Sero since the enthralled reiklings nearly killed the lurker themselves! At the water stone Sero is lucky to survive, saving only one person and needed saving himself at the end especially since a wandering dragon joined in the fight. I killed it easily once I could get up to it, but Miraak absorb-blocked my devouring of it's soul. That's ok, I have 60+ spare.

The earth stone, back at Raven Rock summons two lurkers but Sero finally gets the hang of things and saves everybody! Good job henchman. It's time to go exploring Eastwards and we don't get far when we run into the guard captain fighting off ash spawn near a dilapidated farm. After assisting him, he asks us to find the source of these creatures and end them. I love a good extermination!

Because Veleth can't win against three of them apparently.

Skyrim: First Encounter

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Miraak's Temple was near those Nords Sero and I assisted last time. It too had a mind-control stone and a lot more people working on it than in other places. The warrioress Frea was also here, trying to wake up her people to no avail. In true Nord fashion she then turned to me and asked for my help in killing everyone responsible. Hell yes! We go down into the depths of the temple underground, easily dealing with Miraak's cultists (side note: he has the smallest cult ever).

Pendulums, why is it always pendulums?

Near the base is another black book which I use to warp to Apocrypha but this time get stunned by Miraak's magic cutscene! Apparently the ex-dragon priest and self proclaimed "first dragonborn" now resides in this realm and has not only a few dragons under his command but all the horrible fish men too. Then he does the traditional bad guy mistake of letting me go. Guess he hasn't read the tomes on being a genre savvy villain!

I made friends with Cthulhu.

Back at Solstheim, Frea takes Sero and I to her village which her shaman dad protects with magic, just not very good magic since half his villagers are working on a nearby obelisk. Shaman dad tells me that I might be able to free those stones from their corruption with a new shout. Finally, a way to get back at Miraak - by yelling at his stones! That sounds like a job for a hero... :P

Skyrim: Ewok Slayer

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After inadvertently reopening the local mine, much to Raven Rock's benefit, I decided to hire a local sellsword named Teldryn Sero for the low price of 500 gold and began exploring the island - discovering more of those strange mind-controlling obelisks, hostile blue ewok goblins called reiklings, and that bandits here prefered to be called reavers, because it sounds cooler. We also take down a local serpentine dragon, massacre the reikling ice castle, and find hints of some pirate treasure.

Zeeg teeket!

We also help some reiklings whose chief can speak broken English. At least up to the point where he asks us to kill Nords, the same "weak ones" that ran from their own meadhall. We instead ally with said Nords to slaughter the blue dwarves and given that there was only one friendly casualty in the encounter - and that Sero and I hung back and watched - I'm wondering how the they lost to the reiklings in the first place. Getting their leader banished afterwards is a step in the right direction I think.

Dutak jadgreh!

Obviously I'm also collecting a bunch of new shouts and boosts from the ever entertaining black books. The ones where its really dark and that "the darkness hurts you" are my favorite ones. Also all the moving corridors are great, but the collision detection sucks balls requiring me to learn the power-hack tcl (no clipping mode) to get through those areas without falling through the floor into the acid muck below.

Ehda graks!

Before I knew it we had explored around 75% of Solstheim!

Skyrim: About Jarling Time

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After but a few days of Jarling Whiterun (Jarling: Sitting on the throne and pretending to be important), a courier came with interesting news of land being sold at Falkreath that I couldn't pass up, because property is always a good investment! One short trip and 5,000 gold later I had the deed to the land in my hand. B.T. and I also met Rayya, a Redguard housecarl gifted to me by Falkreath's Jarl. She was totally jealous of B.T. though and refused to join.

 

How can they even see?

Before we could even step out of town we were set upon by a pair of odd looking cultists, and after suffering a swift end I discovered that they were sent by something named Miraak from someplace called Solstheim. Probably need to think through what you write down on paper, bad guys! I opted to take a look at my new land first though and found... nothing. I'd have to -construct- a house! Whaaaat?

Instead of doing that I decided to visit Riften first, as I'd also received a letter recommending I try adoption. It was immediately clear that I wasn't a suitable candidate. Fortunately my trip wasn't wasted, as the town came under bandit attack just as we were leaving. Rallying almost the entire town into the battle, the bandits (who were led by two imperial soldiers), were cut down to the last man.

To battle!

At that point I decided it was time to see where those cultists came from, and hopped on a boat to Solstheim. Guess I should mention that due to my continued absence, the people of Whiterun elected a new Jarl on their own. :P