Seb’s Skyrim Journal, Part 4 – A Day of Firsts

The weekend saw me having several firsts in Skyrim. Some of them good and some of them bad. All I can really say though is that regardless of whether it was a good or bad first the overall experience of Skyrim has yet to pale and I think has shot to taking the pride of place of my favourite game of all time.

Sabor is turtling something awful in Skyrim at the moment. I haven’t even reached any of the other major cities yet. This is because what I’ve been doing is doing every single available quest in Whiterun and the surrounding areas. Be it a random bounty quest, a more major quest with it’s own name or simply just clearing dungeons and castles.

I’ve cleared quite a few dungeons and two forts now (although to my irritation it doesn’t tell you on the map whether the forts are cleared or not) and have built up a fairly large amount of gold. I have the house in Whiterun and 10,000 septims which means I am on my way to getting the 100,000 gold achievement.

My focus so far has been destruction magic, one handed combat and heavy armour. But I’ve also chucked in a few other perks in a few places to make life better like in blacksmithing, restoration and in speech (that one might come back to bite me on the ass at some point).

In wandering around I, over the weekend, killed both my 2nd and 3rd dragon. The 2nd Dragon is a first in it’s own right as it was the first Dragon I solo’d. Lydia helped me with the 3rd. I also encountered both my first Mammoth followed swiftly by my first Giant. Naturally, being a gamer, I saved and proceeded to attack them both! I actually did reasonably well against the Mammoth and took it down to about 2/5 health without using any potions. So I feel if I properly tried I could take it (with Lydia helping me out of course).

The giant was a whole different story. I managed to hit the bastard with a few fireballs before Lydia was crushed. I hit him with two more before I myself became the latest member of the Nord Space Program. It was hilarious and a completely worrying… To get to the stage where I will be able to kill a Giant is probably still a fair bit away and I do wonder if it will ever be easy…

The “more important” quests I’ve done recently include  Ancestral Worship (which basically involved clearing a dungeon called Hillgrund’s Tomb), the first quest given to you by The Companions (which involved clearing a different dungeon) and In My Time of Need which was a little more complex in that it involved helping a Redguard woman in Whiterun deal with some Alik’r Warriors that are after her.

In My Time of Need actually is a prime example of one of the few problems I have with Skyrim. The quest starts with the Alik’r asking you to find a woman, when found she tells you that they are assassins and have chased her all the way from her homeland. When you go after the Alik’r they in turn inform you that she is actually a traitor to her home nation and that they mean to take her back (unharmed) where she will then probably be put to death. The problem comes in as it is really difficult to tell who is in the right in this situation.

I chose to side with Kematu (the leader of the Alik’r) because not only was Hammerfell part of the Empire (which I generally associate with being the “good guys”) and so she had betrayed the “good guys” but also because she had lied to and manipulated me. That said, it would be very easy to argue that SHE is in the right here and that Kematu is the bad guy and as such there is no clear right or wrong decision.

As I’ve said before, this IS more realistic, but that’s not what I want from a game. I don’t want to have to puzzle through moral dilemmas. I mean, if we want realistic, all the people you kill could have wives and children who will now starve because you killed them. The bandits could have been forced to go into banditry due to being wrongly convicted of a crime. And I don’t want to have to think about that sort of thing.

Bandits ARE evil. And should be killed on sight and that should never change. And, by the same means, there ought to be a more obvious “good” side to these sort of things.

Speaking of problems I’ve also been having a few troubles with Lydia. She’s useful in combat because she distracts enemy attacks for a reasonable amount of time AND she makes an excellent pack mule. But she is always getting lost and is SO fucking slow. So it’s a bit of a tough decision to take her along sometimes.

There was one last “first” I experienced, just yesterday as a matter of fact. My first “Oh-FUCK-This” Moment in Skyrim. We’ve all had one of these moments in a game. You’ll be going through a dungeon. Getting loot and killing guys. It’s fun and while possibly challenging it’s never so difficult that you feel like you’re in any particular danger. And then… suddenly… After half an hour of exploring and killing… You get killed… And have to start ALL over again. And so you say “Oh! FUCK this!” and quit for the night. Raging…

 

 

But will he quit forever? Oh no! Our OP hero Sabor the Orc Battlemage will return soon in more adventures!