Skyrim adventures #3

Part 1. Part 2.

Having done all of those things I decided to see how old Azura was. I had met a Dunmer on the road telling me to visit her shrine and marking it on my map. He said he was a pilgrim. I went there and was told indirectly, via a priestess of Azura, to find her lost Star. I did as she asked, defeated Malyn Varen, and was then finally allowed to speak directly to her. It felt so nostalgic! Afterwards I decided to make Aranea Ienith, her priestess, my new follower. I went on to meet Hermaeus Mora, and then went on to finding Boethiah's Shrine. I found it and was asked to sacrifice someone who trusted me. A steep price to earn a Daedra's favour, but since I had Aranea with me and I hadn't grown quite as fond of her as some of the others who'd followed me, I decided to use her. In the end her sacrifice was a success and I recieved Boethiah's Ebony Mail.

I felt like I was on a roll with the Daedra. Not long thereafter I was approached by Barbas; the dog of Clavicus Vile. He had had a falling out with Vile and wanted to be reunited. After we cleansed Vile's shrine he had a price for me to pay for him to take back Barbas of course. But in the end I helped Barbas. I think Vile needs Barbas by his side, although they rarely seem to get along. While I had been in Falkreath - before I met Barbas - I had heard of a person who had viciously killed a little girl. I decided to check it out once I was done with Clavicus Vile, and discovered that it had something to do with Hircine. Good old Hircine! Felt a little bad having to kill the person who'd asked me to help, but I'd rather have the Daedras' favour than a person's friendship. No offence.

Running around in the Rift I discovered an Orc stronghold beset by giants. Turned out they had been cursed by their Daedra Lord - Malacath - for having a weak and lazy chieftain. I helped them break the curse and get rid of their useless chief, and then I decided I'd investigate this pamphlet I had recieved by courier ages ago. A pamphlet about some museum opening in Dawnstar. Turned out it's a museum for the Mythic Dawn. Not sure how to feel about that, since that's the cult what killed the Emperor who was so nice to release me from prison twice. That's also the cult that tried to bring Mehrunes Dagon into Tamriel... Not sure if the guy opening the museum knows what happened... But I'll play along. Alright, he knows. But he called it their greatest accomplishment. If the job he's talking about ends up getting him killed, I'll have no regrets.

It did get him killed. Dagon wanted me to kill him and then he "gave" me his Razor. Although I suspect he didn't expect me to keep it for long. He sent two Dremora to deal with me as soon as he gave it to me. Two Dremora. He really thought just two Dremora could deal with me? I'm the friggin Champion of Cyrodiil! I've dealt with Dremora by the dozen! In his own realm of Oblivion!

I kept falling in with Daedra. Mephala, Meridia, Molag Bal, Namia, Peryite, Vaermina, dear old Sheogorath, and Sanguine. Sanguine was something special. I had no idea during the time that I was actually dealing with him. I met a guy named Sam at the tavern in Whiterun. He challenged me to a drinking contest and I accepted. I remembered nothing of that night. I woke up at the Temple to Dibella in Markarth. My trail followed me to Rorikstead where I helped get back a goat I had stolen to sell to a giant to pay a debt to Ysolda, whom I found in Whiterun. She wanted the wedding ring back that I had bought from her since the wedding wouldn't happen. What wedding? I was already married to sweet Brelyna! Apparantly I had met someone at Witchmist Grove. I went there and found out that I had gotten married to a Hagraven! When I told her I wanted the ring back she tried to kill me. But I got the ring back and handed it over to Ysolda who told me the ceremony would be at Morvunskar. I went there and found a portal that I went through. On the other side of the portal I found a cosy little place and at the end of the path was Sam with a party. Sam finally admitted that he was Sanguine and that the night I couldn't remember had been the most fun he'd had in 100 years. He gave me his staff. And I have to admit, in retrospect, it was hilarious.

After all that Daedra stuff I discovered Froki's Shack and the old man Froki inside it. He offered me a challenge and a chance to get the blessing of Kyne, or Kynareth, and I accepted. I managed the challenge quite easily, and Kynareth kept on my trail. I asked for rumours in Whiterun and heard about the Temple of Kynareth's troubles about the Gildergreen. I offered my help and ended up at the wonderfully beautiful Eldergleam Sanctum. The tree wasn't happy about me stealing its sap, but hey, what can you do.

Dinya at the Temple of Mara, in Riften asked me to go out in Mara's name and help some people with their love. Seeing Fastred with Bassianus was precious, helping Calcelmo (that sweet nerd) to get together with Faleen was great, and seeing Ruki reunited with Fenrig almost brought a tear to my eye. Then there was the Temple of Dibella in Markarth. I got in there, to begin with, to steal a statue for the beggar Degaine (which I did perfectly, by the way), but it was obvious they were in some kind of trouble. So I asked around and soon found myself battling Forsworn to find their new Sybil, a little girl named Fjotra. Her father came with me to rescue her from the Forsworn, but he didn't make it, an ill-timed trap and it was all over for him. But Fjotra got to Markarth safely and her new life could begin.

It was at this point that I realised that besides running in and out of towns and holds all the time since I got to Skyrim, I had never really stopped to get to know any place specially. So I decided to do just that. I started with Morthal, a quiet town in the marshes of Hjaalmarch. Or maybe not so quiet? Something is definitely going on here. Time for some investigative work! It was some ancient vampire. He was behind turning two of the women into vampires and setting the disastrous fire. Well, indirectly at least. There is something about Morthal that I like, though. I'll come back soon. Now I'm off to get to know Riften.

Riften it turns out was not that exciting. I helped someone steal a horse and then I helped return a Lexicon to a dwarven ruin nearby. If the ghostly memories that I saw there were any indication the Lexicon is now where it should be. Though, why the ruin thought it needed to fight me when I was there to return something is beyond me. Next up - Solitude!

I helped stop the Wolf Queen Potema from resurrecting - twice! On the downside I was fooled into helping a gang of marauders run a ship aground and steal all the stuff. Though their reward for me helping was to try to kill me. I got my vengeance in killing all of them and stealing every single piece of loot. I figured I'd try my luck in Windhelm after that.

In Windhelm I helped solve a series of murders and later bought and refurnished the murder house, where I had my family move afterwards. Brelyna, Runa and Sofie all seem very happy there :) I also helped an old Altmer fulfill his life's wish before he died, and I took care of some pirates and helped the East Empire Trading Company in Windhelm get back on its feet. Quite the success! I took a detour to Whiterun after that and helped the Redguard Saadia get rid of some annoying bounty hunters.

As for now, I'm on a tour of Skyrim's barrows. And while doing my run of Skyrim's barrows (they really have a lot of those) I ran into a witch named Illia. I helped her save (i.e. kill) her mother to stop her from becoming a Hagraven. Since then we've been running together and she's been quite helpful. After doing so many important things, though, I'm now mostly running around the province helping people with this or that. Feels nice to be helpful actually.