The Dragon Feed [Updated: 11/24/11]

For an introduction to what we're doing here, check this out!

~~~Character Introductions~~~

Knight: Like I did with Oblivion, I chose the male dark elf route with the intention of eventually joining the Dark Brotherhood. I tried to make him look as young as possible, but they all seemed to have this grizzled look about them. Also, I gave him a beard, so he kinda looks like a mix between a Grey and Tom Hanks from Cast Away.

In terms of his backstory, I've been operating under the assumption that he's a descendant of my last dark elf from Oblivion, so he has a political leaning toward the Empire, but not to a fault. The opening events of the game definitely pushed him closer to the center of the aisle than he would've been otherwise. He's not gung-ho about killing at random, so I have no idea how I'm going to get him into the Dark Brotherhood like I'd originally planned. He's not all that thrilled about this Dragonborn business either, but he's seen the destruction an out-of-control dragon can cause, and is willing to at least go that extra step to see if he can help in some small part.

He's also not all that fond of spiders.

For now, he's dual-wielding daggers that he partially forged himself, and frequently tries in vain to kill large beasts. He has died many, many times, and it's my opinion that his powers as a Dragonborn pale in comparison to his ability to resurrect himself at a previous point in time.

--

Buch: My character is actualy pretty similar: grizzled and bearded and a (wood) elf rogue! He has a scar, dirt on his face (why is that an option?), a bunch of muscles and a flat nose, as if it got punched too many times. The idea was to make an elf who would pass for a Nord at a glance, so that he would suit Skyrim better as its saviour but still seem alien.

I don't have much of a backstory yet, but I have it in my head that he's a self-hating elf with a very shady past, who has now fled Dominion-occupied Valenwood and Cyrodiil for a more lonely, human land. He has no particular leaning toward either Ulric or the Legion -- and neither do I, honestly. But both he and I constantly find ourselves accidentally supporting one side and feeling really bad about the repercussions. We'll see how this plays out. But he does enjoy fighting dragons. But not wolves. He is fracking sick of wolves.

~~~Skyrim Status Updates~~~

November 24th:

Buch:

- I'm concerned about spoiling the main plot, but I recruited J'zargo and Lydia - the ultimate team, surely - into Delphine's secret club. Seriously though, they both kick ass on the field. I figure now I should get either a tank or some kind of archer as the third member! In a oerfect world, a dwarf. Then we'd have a fighter, a wizard and a dwarf. Ahhh. Perfect Gauntlet Team.

- Killed about a thousand dragons now. It's starting to get old. I can't believe I'm criticising this game, but maybe a few less dragons? Everywhere I go I find one. J'zargo has now helped me kill two. Even he is sick of them.

- I'm so engrossed and enchanted by this world, that today I found myself dragging the body of a tortured man out of the chamber and into a respectful position by the cave door -- just so that whoever goes to pick the body up for burial doesn't have to see what happened to him. None of these people really exist. I just couldn't leave him there in a bloodied chair.

Knight:

- Joined the Daaaaaark Brotherhood! Just like in Oblivion, the quality of the writing suddenly skyrockets the second you enter their sanctuary.

- Killed a blood dragon like it was a regular dragon! Getting a lot of mileage out of these daggers!

-Okay. So, one of the perks of the Dark Brotherhood outfit is that it doubles the damage of sneak attacks. With Assassin's Blade already in place, I do 30x damage when I do sneak attacks now. GG, Skyrim, GG.

November 23rd:

Buch:

- Infiltrated the Thalmor Embassay and thought maybe it would help if I stole a uniform from one of the few guards I killed. I saved, thinking, 'This will never work - the game isn't that adaptive... and besides, I'm a wood-elf, not a high-elf: I'll look too short, even with the hood up. Might as well give it a try...'
The next guard I saw asked me to come closer, and when I changed direction to avoid him I heard him mutter, "Must be the new arrival. He seems a bit short." Awesome, Skyrim. Just awesome.

- Found an Orcish hunter wandering around, who yelled, 'WE HAVE BEEN HUNTING' at me. I asked him what he had for sale. "MEAT. FROM FRESH KILLS!" Looked in his inventory and found a single pheasant breast. Well done, mate. I bet it put up a hell of a fight.

- Was walking down the road with Delphine and THE FUCKING HEADLESS HORSEMAN comes riding past. No joke. The headless. Horseman. I clicked on him. You know what the description said? 'Headless Horseman'. What the hell was that, Skyrim?!

November 22nd:

Buch:

- Actually finished the Mages' College questline. It's pretty short, but I liked it a lot. Also learned some great spells.

- Whilst at the college, killed a dragon in the courtyard after rounding up my fellow apprentices to help me. Harry Potter joke!

- Contracted something called bone-break fever. Laughed my head off. xD

Knight:

- EMPEROR! PELAGIUS! THE THIRD!

- Decided I was gonna walk to Riften to buy a wedding necklace (Necklace of Mara, methinks). Discovered a small town on the way, cleared out some spiders for 'em (*shiver*), and killed a bunch of bandits in a nearby fort. Two hours later, I had hardly progressed at all, according to the map.

- Went to marry Ysolda and the event glitched twice. Guess I'm a single Dovahkiin for now.

November 21st:

Buch: I've not been updating so here are a few for the last few days!

- Explored Windhelm some more and solved the murder. A few bugs on that quest. I really am conflicted about Ulfric now - hate him and admire him at the same time. But I love the way the character is written and played. This kind of complexity in characters and plot is a real step forward for Bethesda, if you ask me.

- Joined the Mages' College (I've abandoned the Companions - they are idiots), got some training and learned a few destruction spells. So now I major in archery, one-handed and spells. I am the ultimate RPG hero!

- Got a new, darker-coloured, hood. This is a big deal for me.

- Explored an underwater shipwreck at the edge of the map whilst my favourite background music played and a spell made my vision all green - at night, as the Northern Lights were starting up. I can't tell you how good that felt.

- Bought a horse. Found it a bit awkward to use, since the roads are so thin and meandering, and don't appear on the in-game map.

- Lost the horse almost immediately. I guess it died when I was exploring? A bit like that bit in The Neverending Story, except that I was like 'eh'.

- Read a book about the non-existence of Talos. The title - The Talos Mistake. Brilliant little dig at / reference to my beloved Dawkins book. :D

November 20th:

Knight:

- I've discovered there's no point in even attempting to go mine your own ore unless you're training smelting. Warmaiden's has pretty much every ore under the sun for sale for the lazy miner.

- Completed a quest for a statue, and she pulled me up into the sky to talk to me about my next task. When some kind of deity yanks you off the ground and holds you so far up there that it would take a few long moments to even hit High Hrothgar on the way down... you don't refuse.

- Still wondering whom I should marry. Ysolda has job security, since she might be buying that inn pretty soon. Lydia, however, has no job security, since she'll be fighting dragons with me. These are the tough choices Dovahkiin make on the daily.

- Finally got two elven daggers to match my elven armor. I look like an idiot, but the health bonus is to die for - or not to die for. There's a joke there...

November 18th:

Knight:

- I was making my way back to the Riverside Shack, a little place that I've claimed as my home away from home, when there came a loud roar that, at first, I mistook for the wind. Continuing on, a mist fell upon the forest. The roar came again, louder this time. I drew my daggers, expecting the worst, and scanned my surroundings in a panic. Just beyond the treeline, a massive shadow swooped down and then disappeared back into the mist. I started running, dodging trees and sliding down cliffs, just as fast as my feet could take me.

Another terrible roar. It seemed right there next to me that time. I waded through a hot spring and hopped over a sulfur-encrusted fissure. With the sound of the river in my ears, I looked over my shoulder just in time to see something emerge from the mistBLAGHSDFJIOJFS! Blood Dragon.

Buch: I really thought you were going to say a bear. xD

November 17th:

Buch:

- Went adventuring with Lydia the housecarl and outfitted her with all-new weapons and armour. Killed monsters, hunted vampires, spoke to a dog with a silly East Coast accent. Must go adventuring with Lydia again some time. xD

- Met the hidden Blade and returned to High Hrothgar to finish my training with the Greybeards. I've never felt so much like Luke Skywalker. I even took off my armour and wore a tattered brown shirt for the occasion - such is the power of this game over my emotions. Stood at the top of the tower and gave my first complete Shout. 'Reluctant hero act' indeed! Beware, beware, the Dragonborn comes. :D

- Finally travelled East and met Ulfric Stormcloak. My heart actually sank when I found out he wasn't the honour-bound idealist I had imagined and (kind of) hoped for. Brilliant speaker though - even at this moment he made me think twice.

November 16th:

Knight:

- Tried to enroll in the Bards College at Solitude. The headmaster-or-whatever said that before I would be accepted, I had to take a perilous journey across the plains of Skyrim and find a place long forgotten called Dead Man's Respite. There, deep within that dark and deathly dungeon, I would find a tome of great importance to the bards. When I returned alive with that tome then, and only then, would I be allowed into the college... Luckily! I had already been to that dungeon.

- I'm a bard now.

- In a panic, I Shouted a sabertooth cat off of a cliff. It did a stiff 180 degree spin and disappeared over the edge. I've killed my share of dragons, but that was the first time in the game I've felt truly badass.

- Climbed the Seven Thousand Steps and met that silly frost troll. Died three or four times before I remembered Assassin's Blade. Took some stupid path up the side of the mountain, dropped down a cliff and landed directly behind the troll. Killed him in one shot. Neeeeeeiccee!

- Discovered the site of an ambush. A note revealed that the two victims (a Redguard and Nord) lying dead in the road were husband and wife - married for twenty years and deeply in love. I dragged them to the side of the road, arranged them in a respectful position next to each other, and set off to find their killers.

Buch:

- Refused a creepy and out-of-nowhere invitation to join Team Jacob and go murder people for no particular reason. Walked away slowly.

- Yo dawg, we heard you like dragons, so we sent the dragonborn and the housecarl from Dragon's Reach to fight a dragon in Dragons Bridge, right next to the dragon bridge.

November 15th:

Buch:

- Took a carriage to see Solitude for the first time. Got out, looked around and saw the city. It literally took my breath away.

- Climbed up the 'Seven Thousand Steps'.

- Joined the 'Companions'. I can't take it seriously because I keep thinking about 'Firefly'. Whoring, is what it means to be a Companion. Whoring is what it is.

November 14th:

Knight:

- This woman in Whiterun was pretty insistent that I get her a mammoth's tusk, but I really didn't want to kill one of the things to get it. Randomly climbed a mountain and found this hunter living in a small shack. One of the three things she happened to be selling was a tusk. Righteous...

- The "Assassin's Blade" perk give 16x damage for sneak attacks with daggers. Game over, Skyrim. Those dragons better watch their backs... Get it?

- This guy in Whiterun followed me through three different stores, all the while talking up how well off he is. Incidentally, I've figured out how I'm going to join the Dark Brotherhood.

Buch:

- Killed my first dragon too! I used the clever, roguish tactic of missing with about ten arrows, then hacking at its face with an axe whilst taking all my potions. Not exactly Legolas.

- Decided to take on a battalion of Thalmor guards who were way, way too hard for me. Died hundreds of times, but I hate the Thalmor.

- Betrayed a gorgeous Redguard woman who approached me for help. Not sure if she was lying. I felt like such a bad guy I had to buy a new outfit with the reward money. :(

November 13th:

Buch:

- Got lost in the tutorial mission, spent ten minutes trying to climb things and get through walls while a dragon swooped overhead, trying to sustain tension and looking embarrassed for me.

- Killed a lot of zombie-things and (eventually) worked out the secret of the golden claw. My first dungeon, and a fittingly entertaining one. Really enjoyed cutting through cobwebs. Nice touch, Bethesda.

- Entered a small settlement, shot a chicken on the street, the townspeople rioted and killed me en mass. I guess that chicken was popular. Reminds me of the chickens in Zelda, but more hardcore!

- Seen the Northern Lights at the start of my second day. Beautiful, Bethesda.

- Fell down a waterfall by accident, but caught a salmon with my hands on the way down!

- Found a nirnroot. Bloody hell, not this again...

Knight:

- Got an unusual amount of enjoyment from riding that wagon in the intro. For a man supposedly showing up for his own funeral, I sure was giggling a lot.

- Approached one of the giants all curious-like and received a swift kick to the crotch for my troubles. That was my first death in the game.

- Did you know the guy who did the music for Skyrim also did Knights of the Old Republic? Does BioWare just hate talented musicians these days?

- Took my first trip to a merchant to unload some loot. Accidentally sold off all the armor I was wearing and the bastard sold it all back to me at quadruple the price. He told me to show some decency and put on some clothes once I backed out of the menu. Damn it.

- Retrieved this guy's family sword, and he returned the favor by teaching me, a rouge, a sword and shield technique. Thaaaaanks!

- KILLED MY FIRST DRAGON! And with my wimpy daggers, no less. He must have been an old one.