Haha will do Peltz

What's this talking ...in my face?! I'll have you know that I played as a sword-and-shield Argonian in my first run as Skyrim, not as some sort of dim brute...well actually I barely knew how to cast spells, but still!!

Pevil's adventures #2... or many more...

I've tried playing Skyrim again a few times over the years but never gotten very far with any of the characters. I've just started again though and was already considering chronicling it just to give us all something to take our minds off the massive shit that is Covid and it has just proved to me I should. So here goes. (I did spend about 2 hours last night reading all of our previous exploits which made me realise how little of this game I even remember.)

My favourite book of all time in Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake and my favourite character in it is Steerpike; he's the villain but he's a villain like Thanos in End Game. You can sympathetise with him. I've planned a character who is all about power before now so decided to use Steerpike as the basis for it. In the books he kills many people, sneaks around into places he shouldn't get, smooth talks his way up from kitchen boy to practically in charge of the whole place and even teaches himself pharmaceuticals. He's a smart guy but always looked down on for his kitchen boy beginnings. So I've gone for a Dark Elf (looked down on for being a dark elf) who will be part of the Dark Brotherhood, wants power and fine things and will do anything and kill anyone to get it. He's going to take all the magic schools, will carry a dagger and be well versed in alchemy, speechcraft and sneaking.

I started it last night and followed the Imperial soldier. When we got out he said we should split up but I ended up following him quite closely, something I've never done before, so I ended up going back to his family house and having a conversation with him about joining the Imperials in Solitude. He suggested going to Whiterun and taking the coach there, he would make his own way in a few days. I figured I'd do that anyway and get the dragons unlocked.

It was as I neared Whiterun that the game made me decide to post about it again. As I was approaching, a giant was attacking the farms just outside the town. I wandered up and watched for 30s before they killed it. Then one of the women comes up to me and starts a conversation up. I said something like "Well done" and she replied "Yeah, well, no thanks to you." Bitch! I fed a line about "You didn't look like you needed help" and she made some snide comment about real warriors. She's one of the companions so started telling me about them. I replied with "Sounds like a waste of time" and she once again made me laugh with her "Well no one asked you!" reply.

I was going to go install some mods but saw it stops you getting achievements. Since this is my first proper run through on special edition I wouldn't mind getting them all again so I'll hold off for now. Fuck me I'd forgotten how bad the sodding menu is though. Character creation, you can click some things but can you click the sliders? Can you bollocks. You have to use left and right (or maybe A and D) to move it

I'm continuing my Elder Scrolls tradition. Within less than an hour I have a disease. Seriously. I don't even know when it happened, but I was getting the "Are you ok dear? You look a little ill." comments from random NPCs and went to look at active effects, there it is, Rockjoint.

Lol, damn Pevil, your chronicle is very inspiring. "I started a new game. People told me I suck. Then I got Covid". Please continue logging your adventures, though. It's actually really amusing. I haven't played Skyrim in so long it's like a journey of rediscovery.

Damn, makes me want to fire that game up again. Got sidetracked too much at one point in the game and never looked back.

hahah thanks Satis, didn't even think of it that way! They'll rue the day they laughed at me and coughed on me though!

I will continue updating. It was reading through all our threads that made me realise how little I actually remember. Not surprising as other than a few false starts of characters, it's nearly 10 years since my 1 playthrough. I was wandering around doing mage quest stuff the other day and found a dungeon I don't even remember clearing. I probably won't go into huge detail with chronicling it but I'll definitely post the highlights! You should all start again. I'm sure it said Ox has played it in the last 30 days.

Last session I didn't get a huge amount done. I travelled over to Winterhold to join the Mages after stealing everything of value from the Jarl of Whiterun. I also remembered Steerpike in the books ends up scared of fire due to a big fire he planned going wrong and causing him to be half burned. Which accidentally works for a Dark Elf as they have fire resistance so I'm saying to myself that's why he survived the fire but he now won't use any fire spells. Which sucks at the start as you begin with 1 fire and 1 lightning spell. I survived the first dungeon for the mages quite well though with just using the lightning then headed up to the dragon wall near Aszura's shrine to finish the night with a fight.

The dragon didn't hurt too much with his fire breath due to the 50% fire resistance and I kept my distance whenever he landed so his tail and claws didn't get me. Lightning does less damage than fire but drains magicka. Playing as a sword and shield before I didn't realise dragons use magicka for their shouts even though we don't. So after I'd zapped the dragon for a few seconds he couldn't shout! He kept making the motion and the subtitle "Yol..." kept coming up but it did nothing. So easy kill there for me.

Well last session I didn't do much. I fought another dragon, this one seemed to have more magika so I didn't get it coughing quite so much. I had to heal quite a few times but still did ok. I got the second word for Ice Form and spent the soul on that. Ran the hell away from some trolls on the way to it though, one of the bastards got close and almost killed me with 1 hit. I also murderised a few bandits but I'd basically managed to wander in a big half circle from the Mages College almost back to Whiterun whilst making my way towards a dungeon about halfway between the two for the next mage quest. So I stopped.

My playthrough today started out in a "fuck you" sort of way. I left Whiterun and headed towards the dungeon and it seemed like I couldn't go more than 3 feet without something else attacking me. First a wolf that I swear was sat at the side of the road waiting for me. Kill it, loot it, get on horse, take about 3 steps and bam, a bandit appears out of nowhere. Kill it (after running back whilst shooting lightning until I was back behind where the wolf corpse was), jump on my horse, ride around the corner, bloody necromancer. That was it though thankfully and I made it to my dungeon without any further issues.

Outside in the ruins was a novice fire mage and his fire atronach who didn't last long at all. As I was killing the mage a mammoth came over a rise in the ground behind him which looked pretty majestic in my kill cam! I couldn't resist climbing up on the ruins and zapping it until it died. It was half dead anyway for some reason so now I'm a fearless mammoth killer! Provided I have a tall tower to hide on. The dungeon was filled with novice and apprentice mages of all sorts; fire, ice, storm and necromancer. I had to find someone who'd run off with some of the college's books. On my way to him I passed through a holding dungeon with 4 cells. I didn't even think about it and opened the doors. Out came vampires! Thankfully they were civil to me (well, if saying "Get out of the way, meat." can be considered civil) and helped kill off a few of the nearer mages before they left. My progress through this dungeon was very much sneak around, get spotted, zap someone until the mana ran out/they'd nearly killed me, then run as far away as I needed to before they stopped following, heal up and go again. I am not built to survive yet. I think I'm only about level 9 still.

I decided to finish my run for tonight when I finished the dungeon as it took a couple of hours. I get to the end and it's a circular room with a mage called The Caller in the middle and the 3 books I need on pedestals. Boss fight! We have our little "Gimme the books! No! Gimme!" back and forth and the fight starts. She summons a fire atronach, I pretty much run around this very small room like a headless chicken and die horribly (and amusingly by being blasted at high speed by her fire spell across the room). Luckily I'd saved just outside.

This time I prepared. Chug a fire resist potion, equip an ice spell I'd just acquired and headed in there. Went straight for the atronach as she summoned it but to keep her off my back I'd remembered my ice form shout. Shouted at her, she fell to the floor all frozen. Killed the atronach just as she was recovering. I shouted at her again just as she was about to teleport as I'd noticed she liked to do every few seconds. She fell over frozen but the teleport graphic still came up. By this time I had no magicka so I ran while she teleported and hid in one of the alcoves, hoping to get a little back or find a recovery potion in my inventory. She never came for me so I waited for full magicka then poked my head out. Can't see her. Red dot on the minimap suggests she's in the next alcove. Head over there, nothing, just a body on the floor that I can't loot. Ok. Go check the other alcoves. Nope, she's not there. Grab the 3 books I need, try the door... I need a key to get out. Obviously going to be on the boss. Dammit, did my game just glitch? It did but not in the way I thought it had! I thought somehow she'd teleported out of the room. Nope. The unlootable corpse was her! It must've gotten confused that she was frozen as she teleported so she was still curled up on the floor. I zapped her... and she teleported again. Still curled up! So my tough boss fight ended up with me just chasing a body around, zapping it for a few seconds then chasing it down again!

Easiest fight ever. I did find a shrine whilst I was wandering around there so I'm currently disease free. I saved and quit as soon as I finished that fight and exited the dungeon so bets are open: how long until I pick up another disease?

I forgot to say, I read one book as well last night about Sheogorath inventing music. In the early days he was bored so went wandering Tamriel in a mortal guise. After 11 days he decided it was really boring. As he decided that a nearby woman said "The bird song is so lovely." He agreed but as it's not his realm, he can't change the people of Tamriel and their awful noises. So instead, in true Sheogorath style, he ripped the woman asunder and used her tendons and bones to make musical instruments.

Funny coincidence: i just ran into him in a pretty weird quest unknowingly. Like Alice in Wonderland weird. Ended up with a special wand (Wabbajack).

Always forget about the shouts and special abilities myself. Will try to ice shout (think i have it, but haven't used any dragon souls to unlock new powers) as well, sounds pretty cool. Pun intended.

I very, very vaguely remember doing his quest back in my first run.

I also always forget the shouts until something kicks my ass and I start desperately looking around every menu and in every pocket for something to give me an edge. My boyfriend used to have loads of fun 'fus-ro-dahing' enemies off every ledge available, I probably used it 3 times total. I think there are 2 shouts, 1 better than the other for ice. The one I have is ice form I think which actually freezes them solid. Could be totally wrong!

Heh i have no clue about the shouts. I just played for an hour or so, already had forgotten i was going to unlock other shouts. Ah well ...

I got a couple of hours done today. I finished off one of the quests for the Mages guild which then led to an Assassin... sorry, someone from the Psijiic order turning up to talk to me. We had a private conversation by him basically stopping time for everyone else then he just made like he'd got the wrong person and left. So everyone bar me was very confused. I have to go search for some powerful staff and spoke to the...person? Entity? that caused the magical explosion that has destroyed most of Winterhold.

After that I decided to get rid of the unusual gem as it sitting around along with the quest for it can get annoying. So off to Riften I head. I've been stealing things anyway so I might as well head to thief town and help myself to their hospitality. As soon as I set foot out of the college I was approached by vampire hunters saying I should check out the dawnguard. Ok, well it's south of Riften so that's handy.

I began the process of joining the Thieves Guild, though not very successfully. It's a little trial to steal a ring from one market stall and plant it on someone else whilst they're all being distracted. I stole it just fine but got noticed whilst planting it. They still let me in though, provided I could navigate the tunnels to get to their hideaway. So my current quest for them now is to "persuade" 3 debtors to pay up.

Time to join the dawnguard. I haven't fully made up my mind yet but considering Steerpike in the books is sort of a social vampire I was leaning towards vampirism with him. As soon as I set foot outside of Riften a fledgling vampire and a normal vampire attacked me and I instantly caught vampirism. Of course, because this is me and I attract diseases in Elder Scrolls games like Pigpen attracts dirt (I haven't in my Oblivion re-run but mainly due to the fact I'm argonian so they have some stupidly high disease resistance, if not immunity). So I'm going with it for now. I joined the dawnguard and no one spotted I have the beginnings of the disease so I have to go do the first quest for them now. From what little I remember back when it first released and I did it before, I think at some point you can choose to join the vampires rather than fight them anyway so if I'm getting that right I know what I'll be doing. Pevil before just slaughtered the evil vampires as she was going for the morally good choices most of the time.

Yea, I'd totally be pro-vampire right now. Who doesn't love a good blood-sucker, right? Go Pev, wreck those Dawnguard pansies!

hehe vamp it is! I don't think I've ever played one properly so it'll be interesting to give it a go. Pev was a werewolf way back in 2011.