Skyrim: Adventure Game (Board Game) - The Blades

[Part of the Party Time journal]

The "Blades", undercover special forces of the Emperor are present everywhere - even during the great war. In the Northern lands of Skyrim, mom (a sneaky Khajiit) eludes a mercenary squad sent after her while Rose (a magus Altmer) barely escapes arrest as DL (sword wielding Imperial) defeats the guardsmen that held her custody (in a really tough fight to solo). Yazish the orc helps them escape to Whiterun where Sky (Me, a sneaky Nord: because I play how I played in the PC game) is helping to defend against some wandering Dremora.  

While Yazish is slain in this battle, he asks Rose to help his clan mates near Riften so she and DL go there and free their camp form a Nordic siege but when they decline to assist in helping the Orsimer to attack Riften the pair are thrown into a pit leading to an underground Dwemer City! At the same time Mom and Sky are in a different Dwemer city, laying a trap for those mercenaries still on her tail. Using an unstable dwemer device, Sky explodes them all and they find clues on who is hunting them: a khajiit named Moivva Karnai.

M'aiq thinks you need some skooma.

When all four return top side they meet at their rally point and using the information gained raid Moivva's hideout at Dawnstar for hard evidence of a massive conspiracy which they take to Solitude to present to the High King. Alas, instead of listening to their case he instead delivers the bad news: the war is over. The White-Gold concordat is signed. He tosses them each a bag of gold and tells them to go into hiding.

Pretty cool start with varying degrees of difficulty, though it did take people awhile to get that magic armor only protects against magic, heavy armor only protects against heavy attacks, and light armor only protects against light attacks. Yes, so the little dagger that only does light attacks will cut right through your +5 magical heavy plate of bullshitery. While the higher level enemies stack armor of each type to make them "tough", the players will almost always have at least one weakness.

Skyrim: 30 Days of Skyrim

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Day Fifteen: Favorite in game book

This one from the Death Mountain Mod! :P

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Skyrim: Crazy Cats

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

There's no cat like Skullcat!

Turns out the Khajiit's of Elswyr also submitted to the Thalmor after the White Gold Concordat was signed, but this particular group were rebels which made me really happy. After clearing the woods of some mini dinosaurs and huge spiders, Bo, Sofia and I were given an airship whith Khulam the telepath khajiit navigator and Skull Cat the khajiit pirate to stop a small Thalmor incursion (with their Igma, monkey allies) into the jungle which culminates in airborne boarding! Sofia executes their commander in his quarters.

Airship boarding!

After beating up some argonian pirates we also handle their other problem in the form of a fat Sload who wants to eat everything. He's stupid enough to get us to find food for him though which gives an easy opportunity to poison and subsequently kill him while he is weakened. Oh, and he had some sort of viral bomb which we "disarmed" (by killing an infected dinosaur) too.

Fat bastard.

With that done and the rebellion trully underway here it's time to bid farewell to my new crazy cat friends and head back to Skyrim. I'm going to miss them.

Aww... I'm going to miss them a lot!

Our first stop upon getting back was my house where Rayya had made absolutely ZERO progress in decorating it. Where the hell is all my gold going you incompetent steward? Anyway, since that is going nowhere I decide to convert the alchemy lab in my Riften property into some children's bedrooms to adopt two little girls: Sofie the flower seller at Windhelm and Lucia the beggar Whiterun. I think Njada would have liked that. And at least here, they get to play with the other kids at the orphanage.

So strange. So strange.

Skyrim: Moonpath

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

After dropping off the Elder Scroll at Whiterun (which in hindsight is silly, I should leave it with the Dawnguard) the town once again came under a bandit attack, this time with Morag Tong in tow. I let Bo lead the guards while I observed from the parapets. The enemy had no chance, inflicting zero friendly casualties. While inspecting the battlefield I happened to come across an inebriated and almost naked lady asleep on the hay in the stables.

Lol!

Waking her up, she introduces herself as Sofia and pretty much insists on being my stalker joining the party. Bo has no issues with this so I give her some of my previously acquired gear and head out to Falkreath where I've been informed of a visiting Khajiit caravan. The cat couple who run it are about to head back to their home of Elswyr, and since I could use a vacation from the cold, we all tag along.

The resident beast of burden.

It's a decent journey, with stops to clear a bandit blockade (Khajiit bandits ofcouse) South of Riverhold and a detour around a broken bridge at the edge of the woods but soon we reach the Heart of the Tenmar Forest where the Pahmar (talking tigers) welcome us and give us a cool canopy home, complete with talking tiger guards! Of course they had problems of their own and were counting on us to help them.

She asks the important questions... :P

Skyrim: Minecraft

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

Since Rayya has a head for all things housing, and is decent enough in a scrap, I assigned her to be the steward of Hjalmarch Hall - the Dawnstar property, and instructed her to buy a whole bunch of supplies and furnishings. While she did that, I returned to Riverwood to recruit B.T.'s sister in arms, Marauder, to loot my stash of ingots at Whiterun and the stash at Ravensburg castle.

Supplies!

With those we are able to construct the main hall which connects to the small house (now the foyer) and acts as the central hub to which other house "wings" can be attached. I start work on constructing the bedrooms but run out of quarried stone to finish the job. A courier finds me here, telling me that Ralis again wants my help at the dig so I instruct Rayya to put a whole bunch of construction items on the list of things to get too.

Two handy fast travels later and Marauder and I are at Ralis' site. This time -everyone- is dead, and based on his scattered journals, Ralis has been a servant of Azhidal this whole time, "feeding" people to him. Marauder easily clears out the risen draugr only needing my help in the final chamber where Ralis successfully awakens his dragon priest master, killing himself in the process.

Apart from all the draugr and the zombies Azhidal is raising, the dragon priest has an interesting shout that simply removes 25% of your total life. If only he used it more often. Upon his destruction, all the zombies and draugr "died" once more which happened to just save Marauder from being undead chow. After looting the place and collecting the black book at the end I am now at level 75, and it was time to head back and finish that house!

Yeah, house building sounds better than staying here with Shub-Niggurath.

Skyrim: Hearthfire

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

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: 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: About Jarling Time

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

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

Skyrim: Non-Starters

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

Riften turned out to be a very short stop on my equally short bandit hunting quest. The trail of pushover brigands, some of whom fought each other because one was a werewolf (lol, what was going on there?) I finally found their boss, Fin, beneath the College of Winterhold. It was a short duel, and while he had decent speed I was simply too agile for him.

The surviving mages then told me of the return of the Master Dragons, Alduin's liutenants (who by this tale are a few years too late). Alas compared to the monstrous dragons I've already fought they are but a footnote and were easily hunted and executed. Finally I could get back to Jarling - but upon return to Whiterun I found it under attack by a group of bandits who were soundly being defeated by the guards. I watched with pride as my guardsmen sent them packing. I tailed a few of the good looking survivors back to Riverwood where they agreed to work for me instead of being executed. I got B.T. to join the party while her compatriots Bandit, Marauder and Bo guarded the small village.

It seems dragons come in all colors now...

Back at Whiterun the guards informed me of some Oblivion Gate opening nearby, but when I went to the spot there was nothing there. Looks like once again, they had everything under control! Finally back in town, Belethor let me take a look a new book in his shop - one that transported me to a modern motel with a horror motif. This asylum was indeed quite creepy, complete with mute people blankly staring into space, but with all the locked doors it soon became boring and I teleported my self back to Whiterun to do some actual work.

Why anyone would want a painting of that hanging around is a mystery.

Skyrim: The Bold and the Clueless

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

Having survived the ascended shrine I returned to Whiterun for some restful Jarling but that wasn't to be as my old student, Braga Clearwater, met with me just inside the gates. She was investigating a recent spike in banditry and asked if I could help. Of course I said yes! Her clues had led her to the local hall of the dead where indeed we found some strange folk hanging around like "Naura the Clueless" and "Manrik the Bold". I let Braga do her thing and we found further correspondence pointing to the Riften Ratway.

By coincidence a courier found us before we left town with a message from the Jarl of Riften, to investigate the (not so) abandoned Ravensburg Castle as bandits have been kidnapping people around it as of late. Since it's on the way we decide "Sure why not". It's pretty hard to miss, and quite devoid of life. The man we meet in the courtyard sets the tone of the place with just his name: Nikolai Van Hellsing. He's been investigating the castle too but has terrible direction sense and hasn't been able to get anywhere. LOL.

Nothing says sneaking like playing the organ at full blast!

Inside the spacious and dark interior we keep hearing a disembodied voice taunting us. It's also a non-standard map in that the doors teleport you around making the place slightly challenging to navigate and giving Van Hellsing's excuse some weight. Fortunately it isn't very well defended. In the basement we find some giant spiders, skeletons and hell hounds who are all bark and no bite. It's the number of key requiring locked doors that really block our path.

Hell hounds: the original hot dogs.

Skyrim: No Ascension

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After slaying a large, magic spamming charrus who was literally in a pitch black chamber (lol fun), I then encountered an enemy who was my equal: the soul of Samel. Yep, him again! Basically a small puff of smoke in a very dark room, he was very hard to see. He also moved FASTER than I could, easily outrunning me in my speed armor. On top of that he was a HP sponge, with no "weak spot". Oh also, he cast rapid, explosive orbital bombardments that chased after me wherever I went.

Holy sh*t!

Took a lot of dexterity and a lot of slow time shouts to finally destroy his soul. Past him though was the main boss of the place: the vessel of the ascendant that looked pretty much like an angry, living Stargate that had some interesting abilities up close.

Cannot tell you how many potions were needed to survive this.

It looks so angry, for a machine.

I worked out its weakness straight away though: it was big. Too big to fit through the door to its chamber, which made sniping it with explosive arrows the way to go, even if it did take over 200 shots. It took awhile, but in the end...

It went boom!

And that's what it looked like underneath the machinery.

I suppose it was some sort of beholder... or mutated mud crab.

With it dead, I had finally cleared all traces of "the ascended" in Skyrim and was glad to be back out in the cold, crisp air. As I headed back to Whiterun I was a little sad that there was so little monetary reward in my accomplishment.

On the flip side, I could now summon most of all the creatures I had defeated up to this point, including the special dragons, to serve me. Theoretically anyway, since the mana requirements to conjure them were absurd.

Skyrim: The Quick and the Dead

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

Samel's journal leads us straight to Parna the Flame, who unfortunately can't keep up with my healing potions so she is an easy face tank. Notes on her then lead to the spell sword brothers Gaern and Ramel. We manage to catch them unaware, with my opening move slitting Ramel's throat for the insta kill. Gaern goes berserk with his dual wielding and actually starts winning against Tharas Gull, but I've fought speedsters before. With the "Slow Time" shout it's like he's moving in slow motion and easily dealt with.

Head-splosion!

Correspondence on them leads to the next guy, a water mage attacking Whiterun. It's pretty cool to watch him toss people about with magical waves then seeing him turn into water when hit only to reform elsewhere. He couldn't defend against what he's not looking at though which made him another easy victim. The next one, Lana the Blood was even easier. I don't know what her powers are. Didn't care. One hit back-stab assassination is fantastic.

You snooze, you lose.

At least the next guy, a mage of stone was more alert and actually put up a fight - magically throwing obscenely large boulders at great speed that hit with extreeme knockback and decent damage. As you might suspect with that element he was more defensive than the others, but that strategy gave me time to think. Using "Slow Time" I just did a direct charge at his position, easily avoiding his projectiles and cut him down. These so called "ascended" wizards were falling like flies.

Skyrim: Dolan

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

After retrieving the relic axe for the Dawnguard (a joke of a mission if there ever was one as it was guarded by only four forsworn), they sent me to another crypt in the North called Heimfeigr. It's an atmospheric place but with very few draugr and only one dragon priest it's more like a mission they would have gotten a weakling like Agmaer to do. Guess they're running out of folks to send?

All show, no substance.

Having decided to take a break from the Dawnguard missions for a bit I returned to Whiterun for Jarl-y duties for a short time. I mean really short, as one of the children who play in the palace discovered a disturbing note: someone named Dolan was trying to recruit court magician Farengar (who I killed long ago) into their new order - and they wanted Dovahkiin's eliminated. Perdida and I took offense to this so we went to hunt the fool at Labyrinthian. He wasn't hiding.

Well... that's new.

Dolan had powers I hadn't encountered before. Explosive lightning knock back ones he could chain which made it challenging to get up to him. With Perdida tied up fighting some nearby frost trolls I had to move from cover to cover. This must have freaked Dolan out as he panicked and ran into a hut, which was his last mistake. With no where to run in there he felt the full force of my stabby-stabby swords.

In his possessions was a map and instructions to kill some sage. That meant there were more like him lurking around...

Skyrim: Unremarkable

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

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

I also had the vampires' back.

It's always good to follow through.

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

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

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

Skyrim: 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: No Interuptions... Almost

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

The downside of slaying all the Dragonslayers was that a new master dragon took the opportunity to show up and terrorize ... Labyrinthian. The ruins high up in the frozen mountains where no one goes. Lol. Anyway, since dragons are sort of our job, my team got there - avoided the meteor shower and killed the silly thing without batting an eye (twin katanas of dragon death helped).

"Dragon shmagon, I'll make boots out of you."

I sent the sisters back to Whiterun at this point, for their own safety, since I knew the forces of the Sinister Seven wouldn't rest while I was still alive. I opted to go to the safest place I knew: Death Mountain, and there I continued my self-studies in schools of alchemy and enchanting.

Sure enough an army of assassins led by the giant orc, Temujin the Thunderer, came barging in and were dealt with splendidly by Einer and the daedric guards. They didn't even interrupt my work! Alas, running out of ingredients did though, so during a lull in the fighting, Einer and I snuck off pick up supplies.

Fortunately there were none as talented as Ezio.

Skyrim: Nine Lives

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

I had returned to Whiterun to unload loot from the undead invasion and to check on the town when I met the Khajiit jester, Strogan, who wanted assistance in hunting a vampire. Seems like the Dawnguard accept just about anyone these days. Also found two gorgeous Blades members, Aurora and Twilight (guess I'm not the last one of those either) who asked my help in finding their dad at Helgen. Obviously I chose to help them first.

Whatever you say, blondie.

Helgen's never really been the same since my first visit, the ruins only inhabited by random bandits these days. One of them managed to plant an axe into Aurora's face which killed her instantly. More interesting is that because of their "system" I found I could actually respawn her, albeit a little differently. While an exact clone of the one that died is still dead, this actually increases both the girls longevity by literally having nine lives (more like 16 I think). For the purposes of this journal I'll just say they are "downed" instead of killed, until they actually are.

Finding their father's corpse completed the quest, and so we moved on to vampire hunting for Strogan. The silly cat stepped on a trip wire at the entrance of the lair and died from a simple rock foll trap. A large stash of skooma on his person probably hinted as to why that was. Unlike the Blades sisters though, he wasn't coming back and we had to execute the vampire ourselves.

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.

Whiterun turned Red

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

With Torvar in tow and me riding my new horse we travelled back across the plains to the orc camp (they had walked back) and found only a handful of adversaries left. Ofcourse I made the mistake of turning my back on my draugr companion and in a flash he had vanished - fled to who knows where. Damnit, I'd have to hunt down the coward later. First I had to deal with these orcs. I opened fire from horseback to lure them after me and I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere because suddenly I was in their MAIN CAMP which has around twice the number of orcs than the first, as well as a towering commander who kept yelling stuff about eating my heart. Worse, nearby I found the corpse of Odahviing - he had been slain by these bastards, no wonder he no longer responded to my call. After eating his soul I continued leading them back to Whiterun and despite getting knocked off my horse a few times I killed a few more and managed to get the commander with five of his soldiers isolated from the rest of them.

Guess the others went off to chase misbehaving little kids?

This time the guards fought back, but they were cut down and I was pushed back into the city proper. Guards and random adventurers began engaging in combat now and I'm pretty sure one of the orcs got felled at that point. The remaining enemies though carved their way through the defenses so I fell back to Jovasskr where draugr Ria was supposed to help me. Instead she just smiled and let the enemies through - TRAITOROUS SCUM! Didn't have time to deal with her right there so I pulled back to Dragonsreach where the fighting continued and dead bodies were left in the wake of the orc threat. I led them all the way out to the top balcony and with a well timed FUS ROH DAH! sent two of the goons flying over the railing to their instant deaths. No such luck for the commander since he was too heavy so I lured him and his remaining two guards down into the dungeons where even more guards died fighting them.

Once it was just me I dropped down a little hole in one of the cells which was too small for the big orcs to follow, then made my way to the exit. To my surprise the trio appeared there behind a barred gate. A locked gate. That I could shoot through. They were screwed. Iced the two extras and hurt the commander terribly so that he fled. I went after him up into the guards barracks and got the last four guards in the city to smash him down, making him kneel before me for a few moments before one of them with a heavy warhammer smashed it down upon the commander's ugly face, killing the enemy leader right there.