Amra's Pierce Lacrosse, Battlemage in Skyrim

I left the dog behind, it would be enough trouble keeping the tree-hugger alive. Our journey east was uneventful most of the way, but when we'd nearly reached the cave where the ancient tree was, a dragon came down to bother us. Of course that fool we escorted didn't stay behind and in cover, oh no. Once the dragon landed to fight us on foot, he ran to attack it with his bare hands! By the time I was close enough to try and shield the tree-hugger from the dragon's ice blasts he was already dead. Useless. Well, at least I was able to get my own business with the tree done.

On the way back there was only a bear to contend with; all this fighting had tired me out and we stayed the rest of the night in a nearby shelter which happened to be abandoned (probably emptied by that same bear, by the looks of it. Back in Whiterun I couldn't find Barbas the dog anymore; I suspect he went back to Clavicus Vile's hiding place, because I couldn't imagine he would go ahead to fetch the axe on his own, all the way past Solitude. So, change of plans. I would go to Markarth first.

I'd never been to Markarth before, but I had picked up a book about the place and it seemed interesting, at least from a sellsword's perspective. I still had that dwemer axe to deliver, so that was my excuse to finally go there. Right out of town I thought I saw Barbas coming towards us, but apparently this specific dog race is very common in this province. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen any other kind! Confusing, that. Near the western end of the valley a dragon was making a lot of noise, maybe attacking someone? An Imperial nobleman on horseback was lucky to have escaped its attention. However I hurried towards the scene, after all I'm supposed to slay them. Am I not the Dragonborn?

It turned out the dragon was resurrecting another one from the circular pit it was, er, circling. I don't know which dragon did the job because it flew away afterward, but the new one was called Vuljotnaak and it attacked me right away! I simply kept healing the fire damage it did to me until it was tired of flying around and stayed on the ground; as Karla continued to fire her bow at it I finished it off with my mace. A dragon never had a shorter life.

With no more dragons in sight we proceeded towards Markarth. There where several crossroads in this area so we had to pay close attention; fortunately most of them had signposts to keep us from going astray. We weren't the only ones to travel after dark, though. We had to dispatch a bunch of oddly-dressed bandits calling themselves Forsworn; close on their heels were a couple of Imperial legionnaires who told us in no uncertain terms to mind our own business; then there was this lone battlemage who after some persuasion donated her dwemer cuirass to me. Karla looked rather jealous and even angry, although she didn't say a word... If she hadn't sworn an oath to protect me, she might have pushed me off a bridge or something! Our relationship was strictly business, maybe I should change that a little? But not on the road, since more Forsworn kept us busy.

Markarth looked quite impressive when we arrived at its gates. Apparently it had been built by the Dwemer before they disappeared from the world. The room I rented for the night looked equally impressive for its small size. Unfortunately for Karla it had only one single bed... The next morning I was quickly drawn into a local dispute, or should I say, revolution? It was a mess and I wasn't careful enough; I ended up going to jail, in the silver mines.

Mining silver was not going to be healthy in the long run. But I managed to get on the good side of the head honcho among the prisoners, who was also the king of the Forsworn who had attacked me multiple times. My appearance was the catalyst for a big change in their lives, because they finally decided to arrange a breakout (why did they need me for that?) and we all got out. The Forsworn and their king killed a lot of guards before they fled the city, but my name had been cleared in the eyes of the law, even though it was suspect to some that I'd been seen getting out of prison along with the gang of Forsworn. Next thing I knew, I stumbled upon another shady matter in a haunted house. Deep down in its basement, or rather the cave below, I met yet another Daedric Prince: Molag Bal. This was a nasty one, but also vaguely familiar to my bloodline... Something to do with vampires having to go to him to get rid of their condition, once it had progressed too far to solve with a simple potion. What could I do? I simply had to go follow his orders.

After that unpleasant encounter I finally found the guy who wanted my dwemer axe. He rewarded me nicely, so when he asked me to do a quick job from him, just nearby in the same ruin, I wasn't inclined to refuse. I had to exterminate a little nuisance affectionately called Nimhe... which of course turned out to be a big old nasty spider! A few blows from its many legs were almost fatal, so I kept my distance and burned the bastard.

There was still more to explore in the city below the city of Markarth, but it was not exactly without danger, rather the opposite. The place was crawling with Falmer, some degenerate elven race; they were quite tough and especially lethal in larger numbers. My newly acquired summonable fire atronach was more than useful to keep them at bay. Everyone else we found was dead, including many Legion soldiers and the mages I was asked to search for. All I could do was recover their diaries. Once I'd found the last one and activated the security system of this dwemer underground city, lots of mechanical guardians were added to the mix, but they weren't as tough as the Falmer they went up against. At least they cancelled each other out for the most part, and we got out of there scot-free. The head researcher paid me handsomely for the diaries, and I left the city to tend to my other tasks.

The Reach, the region of which Markarth is the capital, was larger than I'd thought. Instead of just a minor-sized southwest corner of Skyrim, it extended almost all the way north to the coast. The Forsworn king and his followers who I'd joined in their prison outbreak had found their home up there; I was free to use their facilities and take what I wanted, although other Forsworn would still attack me on sight. In the same area I also found another dragon "incubator" as I call those circular artificial mounds, but nothing was happening there.

I did find a dragon almost around the corner, so to speak. Its lair was surrounded by scorched dead bodies, and if I hadn't become so proficient in handling those monsters I'd have been among them now. I was left with a new shout to add to my draconic vocabulary, and left its bones where they fell. Down the road I was more surprised by a wolf that attacked my nether regions, but Karla and I dispatched it quickly before it could do any harm. A bear across a river was more dangerous to us. Karla jumped in the water to pursue it, but the current was so strong it took her and the bear down a small but very vigorous waterfall, and she almost drowned. Spells were not accurate enough, they might have hit her too, so I made rare use of my bow to wear the bear down. Karla prevailed but it had been close!

We then proceeded to the coast, finding an Elven outpost in the middle of nowhere. I didn't expect to see a full-blown fortress out there, but I couldn't explore it further. The Elves weren't very friendly and told us to take a hike. So hiking we did, in this harsh but scenic coastal region. I even discovered the cave that Clavicus Vile had sent me to, but Barbas of course hadn't gone ahead to meet me there, so I just marked it on my map and left. I needed to go back to Markarth to finish my business there.

Imo, it would look better if you disbled the HUD for your screenshots.

Wotan wrote:Imo, it would look better if you disbled the HUD for your screenshots.

Sure, that would make them cleaner. But it's not like I sit back and have time to disable it before taking a posed shot most of the time; many of my shots are action shots. The most intrusive thing on the HUD is the black compass bar, and I used to have a little mod to get rid of it, leaving only the symbols that appear on it. I simply haven't taken the time yet to go looking for it again, but I will. Otherwise I'll need the HUD for my gameplay, of course, so I can't remove it permanently. I'll write down the key combination for disabling it and hope I remember to use it whenever I think of taking a screenshot, but don't count on it.

I use the console to pause the game and remove the HUD. 
It's "tfc 1" to freeze the game and freely move the camera. Make sure you're in 3rd person view if you want your character to appear in the shot, otherwise, he/she will be invisible. Use "tfc" to return the camera and start the game again. 
To toggle the HUD, use "tm"

Yeah I'm aware of those console commands. It's just that I don't think of them when I'm doing stuff, especially during combat. I hit PrintScreen (and/or F12, they're side by side of course) in a split-second without looking; having to open the console slows down the action which I really don't want to do. So instead I've disabled the compass bar entirely in the prefs.ini (this is not the full filename) and I'll see where this goes. The downside is not being forewarned as much about the presence of enemies (the red dots on the compass bar) or nearby locations like caves, but I don't really want to install the script extender that's required for most mods just for this one thing. 

I used to have CompassBeGone (or whatever it was called exactly) which was actually a simple retexture that removed the black bar, without disabling the rest of the compass. A simple solution that I liked a lot. But it was no longer supported even before the Enhanced Edition came out, and I don't have it anymore, sadly, unless the texture file is still hidden among my old Skyrim files maybe.

One other thing: I can switch off my crosshair. I rarely use a bow anyway so I don't really need it. The need for precision when spellcasting is not that high, if it is aimed at all.

It's great to see you sharing your games here, Amra!

Saturn Celeste wrote:It's great to see you sharing your games here, Amra!

Well, enjoy! I will continue to share! Ooh, we have fancy smileys now... 

Back to Markarth then. On the way south I had to pick up some priest or something for Molag Bal, he's a Boethiah worshipper. I was able to enjoy the sights for a while, but I couldn't avoid having to fight more of those Forsworn. First it was just a stronghold on the side of the road that was more or less blocking a mountain pass; I could have left most of them alone once the road itself was clear, but I thought I might as well make it safe for future travel and clear the entire stronghold out. I found a statue of Dibella inside, with some offerings displayed in front of it. It turned out those Forsworn were into human sacrifice, with human hearts and all, and not just human because they'd even managed to take a giant down. His body was on a table in the process of being taken apart.

Forsworn in other locations in the neighbourhood were eager to turn me and Karla into human sacrifices, but of course we resisted them fiercely and their nefarious plans came to naught. On the top of a mountain was a throne, oddly enough. I tried it for size but it wasn't comfortable. I half expected a dragon to turn up there but no such luck.

Soon after, after fighting my way through hordes of Forsworn, I found the priest of Boethiah. The Forsworn had captured him and he was all bound up. I set him free on the condition that he would go to Markarth to pay my employer Molag Bal a visit. I was quite honest about it but in his zeal he was more than eager to go, fully convinced that he and his Daedric Prince Boethiah would prevail. He ran away so fast that I quickly lost sight of him. Well, so much the better, I hate escorting missions. The Forsworn we would surely encounter on our way to Markarth would have made it difficult to keep him alive.

And there were many. One group had built an entire base right on top of a river, adjoining a ruin. I avoided the base since I felt I had no time to waste, but when I went upstairs on the other side of the river I came upon this old place of worship, Sky Haven Temple. Apparently this had attracted the Forsworn enough to build a base nearby, but I couldn't find out why. So I continued on my way to Markarth and went to the abandoned house that was now Molag Bal's residence right away. The priest was waiting for me inside, and together we hurried downstairs to meet the Prince.

The priest was forced to denounce Boethiah and submit to Molag Bal, even commit his soul; and once his new master was satisfied that he had him, he ordered me to kill him. I could see in Karla's eyes that she didn't approve; I didn't like it myself but you don't mess with those Daedric Princes! Most of them are spiteful and they're all very powerful, so better do as they say! As a consolation prize the Prince gave me a nice mace, at least. It was enchanted to absorb souls upon killing - typical Molag Bal.

With my business in Markarth finally finished I left the city, I didn't even wait until the next morning. It had been interesting but I had no desire to return there: the business had been unsavory and the atmosphere not exactly welcoming, to say it mildly. On the road east I noticed a cave that seemed inviting for a short rest, and once inside it turned out to be quite interesting. A dead adventurer was holding a claw-shaped artifact which fit the lock on the nearby door. I had some experience with this so I managed to open it; actually an entire array of doors opened up. But the last one wouldn't open since it needed another key, a different claw. The dead adventurer's notes told me where I might find it so I marked it on my map, for future reference.

I was still in a mood to explore, though. Another reference I'd picked up before led me back to where I'd found the priest, because there was a loose end out there. A couple of Forsworn were guarding a cave that led down to a platform that was so nicely circular that it could hardly be natural. All this time I'd been carrying this old sword around, Red Eagle's Fury. I'd almost sold it when I was in Markarth but it was a good thing I hadn't because it served as the key to a tomb that suddenly opened up when I put the sword in its place. It was the burial place of Red Eagle himself, the legendary leader of the people of the Reach when the Empire came to conquer it. He rose up along with some skeleton guards when I entered, and he was as powerful in death as he must have been in life, so I quickly got the hell out of there. I would have to leave him be until I was strong enough myself to defeat him.

As Karla and I descended from the mountains on the east side, we happened upon the village of my rescuer back when I was about to lose my head on an Imperial chopping block. And of course, just when I arrived, a dragon turned up. Why at this village? Did they know I would be there somehow? It was a blood dragon, not one I'd seen before, and it had a really bad breath. Fortunately it didn't linger in the air for long, it went to ground quickly so I was able to attack it hard with my new mace. The whole village pitched in and we managed to defeat it quickly. The villagers were in awe, of course, both of the dragon itself as of the fact that they'd seen me absorb its soul, or whatever they thought they'd seen. I didn't ask them and I didn't clarify. The guards didn't like the look of my mace, somehow they were aware that it was related to one of those vile Daedric Princes that nobody liked, so I quickly went on my way. It would be my second night on the road in a row.

The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful, aside from the roadside thief who thought he could intimidate me (and Karla) into giving up my possessions, and the vampire chased by a vampire hunter crossing the road right in front of us, just outside Whiterun. I conjured up a flame atronach to deal with the disturbance (I was getting better and better at this) and we soon were able to book a room in Whiterun and rest. Although Karla never seems to rest, she always keeps an eye on me. It's quite awkward really but I'm used to it now, I usually manage to ignore it. I'll never get used to dealing with Daedric Princes, though. In my short time in Skyrim I'd already met several of them, one of which was still waiting for me to finish a job. It's enough to keep you awake at night!

I was just about to turn in and get some rest when the Redguard servant girl showed up. A while ago (it seems like ages) a bunch of Alik'r had shown up in Whiterun to search for a certain escaped young lady, and apparently she was the one they'd been looking for. She told me those guys were mercenaries who were out to kill her, and she'd be grateful if I would "take care" of it. Now, I'm not a contract killer but the whole thing made me curious. In the morning, after finally getting my much-needed rest, I went to the prison where one of the Alik'r was being held. He seemed like the honorable sort, so I paid the fee to release him and got the location info I needed.

The journey through the valley west of Whiterun is not quite without danger, because the giants use it as their home and herding area. Even the roads are not entirely safe because they need to cross it sometimes, you have to keep an eye out. Of course they're not hard to spot and I was able to avoid them, but it was a close call once because I went off-road and came across one of their camps while they were out herding. I saw the strangest tree there, full of... soul? Perhaps it was related to the languishing tree in the center of Whiterun. I had to run out of there to avoid a returning giant, and soon after I found the cave where the Alik'r were hiding out.

The bandit at the entrance didn't pose much of a threat, although they were more difficult to deal with inside, because of their numbers and the lack of room to maneuver in those narrow corridors. It's a good thing the leader of the Alik'r wanted to talk, I don't know if I could have bested those well-trained sword fighters with their weird crooked swords...

He convinced me their objective wasn't to kill the young lady but to bring her to justice in her homeland, for crimes she had committed against her people by helping the Thalmor. So basically we were on the same side then, I concluded. I agreed to his plan to lure her out of the city, and it all worked perfectly. It would still be a long journey back to Hammerfell, but I was sure the Alik'r would keep her safe until justice could be served.

That's one loose end tied up. Another was my business with Clavicus Vile. His talking dog Barbas had of course returned to his master instead of staying in Whiterun. I picked him up from the cave and took him all the way to the other end of the province, beyond Solitude, to fetch the axe that his master wanted returned. I wanted none of it, I already had a good mace from another Daedric Prince and the axe was a two-hander anyway. Clavicus Vile offered the axe to me if I'd only kill the dog! Well, he's called Vile for a reason, I suppose. I refused to kill the dog for an axe I didn't even want, and the dog stayed. Clavicus, however, did not: acceptance of the dog released him from being stuck in the cave. At least he was courteous enough to give me a reward before he left. It didn't seem as useful as an axe, until I put it on and felt its effect on me. It was the famous Mask of Clavicus Vile, which not only provides decent armor but also improves your ability to speak and haggle. I'm not lacking in those departments so I put it in my bag. My own face looks better and I prefer the magicka bonus from my hoodie.

That's one less Daedric Prince to deal with. You don't want to keep them waiting, trust me. From the cave I went east, towards Riften, to find the Blades guy who would help me along with my quest to fulfill my destiny as Dragonborn, before he got caught by the Thalmor. I stayed the night in Ivarstead which was on the way, where they told me about a bear problem. Can't these people do anything on their own? First it was ghosts, now bears. It was another burden to carry, literally, because those bear pelts are heavy! But I promised them anyway.

And sure enough, once I got on the road again the next morning, without even looking for them plenty of bears turned up! A bear problem indeed. I also saw yet another group of Imperials escorting a prisoner along - if it's not Imperials it's Thalmor. They sure go through a lot of trouble capturing unruly Nords and hauling them across the province! They might as well put the entire province on lockdown, because I've seen plenty of lone travellers who were on their way to join either the Legion or the Stormcloaks, especially the latter. All that travel back and forth seems like a waste of effort because their little war was going nowhere. Maybe I should join in and help decide the matter... Nah, I have no time for that crap, not yet. I wouldn't let me be distracted by any camps or even dwemer fortresses I spotted on the way, either. To Riften!

I was having a bear of a time getting to Riften, and when we finally arrived at the south gate they told us we couldn't enter there! Instead we should go around and go through the north gate. The logic of this measure completely eluded me, but so be it. We had to swim across the river to save us another long walk. Karla was even more annoyed than I was, probably because I had refused to bribe the guards and save us the swim. Oh well.

My contact in the city demanded that I do some shady task before he would even consider helping me, making a big deal of it with his distraction effort. Not being a thief I had no clue what he wanted me to do. Couldn't he see I was wearing heavy armor, totally unsuitable for any sneaky underhanded tasks? I didn't even know what house I was supposed to break into, until after the distraction had ended and the occupant had long since returned. The door was open for business and we had a nice talk, she even gave me some work involving hunting ice wraiths (I would encounter those during my travels anyway so it was hardly extra effort), but when she saw me eyeing her chest a bit too long (not her physique but the storage chest in the corner) she kicked me out. Nope, this is definitely not my kind of work.

Regardless of my failure, my contact still told me what he could and directed me towards the underground areas of the city, which Riften has a lot of. Even above ground it's not much to look at, but the lower areas are pretty much sewers, if they aren't literally. The Blades guy Delphine had asked me to find - called Esbern - was of course hidden in the worst part of it all; he had locked himself in so well that it took quite a while to simply unlock the door.

The picture he painted was grim. He was not exactly upbeat about our chances to save the world, even doubting that it was possible at all; my revelation as Dragonborn didn't seem to change that much. But somehow he bucked himself up and got ready to leave and let us escort him to Riverwood. Perhaps the prospect of meeting his old acquaintance (or whatever she had been of him) Delphine changed his mind?

It was a long walk but we let nothing distract us; we only dealt with the obstacles we found on our way, like more bears, spiders, and even a fortress we had to pass through, although we only took care of the bandits outside without clearing the place entirely. Some places I'd cleared before were starting to be inhabited by bandits again, I noticed. Annoying, but no more than a minor nuisance really. After a full day's walk (although we did get some sleep on the way, in an empty outpost) we arrived in Riverwood, and Esbern was a lot happier than he was in Riften.