Atreyu’s Photo Diary – Skyrim Part 6

WARNING: ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM SPOILERS!

No Rest For The Reincarnated

So I headed down to the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary. The gang waited outside while I went in to find out what the situation was.
Astrid told me to speak to Nazir to get some contracts to be getting on with. The Brotherhood seemed to be enjoying themselves so I waited for things to quiten before talking to the guy.

I took the contracts with little intention of completing them. But at this stage it was better than annoying them further.

As I travelled towards Falkreath a guard told me that a guy named Lod had lost his dog and was offering a reward to anyone who found it. I spoke to Lod who told me where he last saw his dog and for some reason I agreed to have a look.
I got more than I bargained for.

Barbas turned out to be some kind of talking dog who told me that he really worked for Clavicus Vile and was hoping to be taken back into his good graces.
So forsaking Lod, I followed Barbas as he led me to Clavicus Viles shrine.

The Daedric Prince told me he would take Barbas back if I could bring him the Rueful Axe.
So for the meantime it looked as though I had another companion in tow.

The team and I retrieved Azuras Star, which was something I had put off for far too long and returned it to Aranea Ienith at Azuras shrine.

I was told by Azura that I must enter the Star in order to cleanse it by defeating Malyn Varen, a mage who had trapped himself inside.
This seemed like an odd request, but when a god asks you to do something, you probably should go ahead.

Inside I got more than I bargained for. Daedra attacked, seemingly guarding Varen. I took the opportunity to fight back with my own Daedric artifacts, using the Sanguine Rose to summon Kenny and my Wabbajack to do whatever it felt like.

Like turn the Daedra into sweetrolls…

Inside the Star was a strange but beautiful place.

But it was a tough battle. After the Daedra came Varen himself. I summoned Arniel to help, but he was quickly overpowered.

It was enough though. I came out victorious and was given the Star as reward. Aranea, now with nothing else to do at the shrine, was keen to join me on my quest, but reconsidered after seeing the size of my troupe.

In the meantime I have been practising my skills at smithing. I’m quite happy with this.

EPIC WOLF HELMET!!

The group carried on journeying and completing epic adventures in the style we had become accustomed to. Such as retrieving the Gauldur Amulet from the ghosts of the Gaulderson brothers.

We found time in between to kill some more dragons too.

One night we stopped over at an Inn that claimed to be the place that Tiber Septim slept during the battle of Old Hroldan. I apparently slept in the very same bed. When I woke an ancient ghost appeared and mistook me for friend of his.

Apparently he fought in that battle and was waiting for his friend (who he thought I was) to bring him his sword so that they could be sworn as brothers.
I agreed to have a look for it if I had time.

In the next place we stopped we fought an epic battle. Some necromancers were attempting to resurrect Queen Potema. Seeing as we were there, it was up to us to stop this from happening.

It was a strange underground fort. I led the charge, Barbas followed me as I dived off a ledge to fight some Draugr, while the rest of the team tried to find a safer way down.
I fought through them and looked around to see where my allies were. They all seemed to be dotted around in various places all fighting individual battles.

I took a wrong turn and found Mercer, who joined me heading upwards towards the top of the fort where the ritual was taking place.

A Draugr Death Overlord stepped into position to challenge us. Unfortunately for him, the position he chose was just in front of a high cliff edge. A swift shout of Unrelenting Force blew him from the edge and to his death.

Around another corner, two Deathlords attacked. I summoned Kenny, and left him with Mercer and Barbas to battle them while I headed on alone to the top.

Barely a moment later I was faced with three Draugr warriors. I dispatched them with an Ice Form shout, freezing them in blocks of ice while I ran on to stop the ritual.

I reached the top where I fought off a number of necromancers and finally decapitated the lead mage who was performing the resurrection.

It was over and my team caught up with me.

We journeyed the short distance back to Solitude where I was to report the event. While there I further practised my smithing.
Kharjo seemed impatient at waiting around and began to play around.

FOr successfully bringing back the book for the Bards, I was invited to become a member of the College and helped convince the Jarl to allow the ritual of the burning of King Olaf by writing a poem about how the treacherous king was really a dragon in disguise.
Everything went well and we enjoyed the ceremony.

The group continued adventuring a short while, tying up various loose ends and so on.

Finally I was able to buy a new home in Solitude, called Proudspire Manor, though getting into a livable state almost completely drained me of my well earned loot.

I was also presented a new housecarl, Jordis.

She seems the most agreeable of my housecarls so far. Not grumpy at all. Though she does seem little forgetful. A few times I have come home and she has warned me not to make trouble, as though I don’t live there.

More adventures and more cleared out caves and forts followed.
Here’s Mercer posing in his battle stance. He thinks he looks great.

An interesting thing happened on our travels. We again saw that dragon that attacked Helgen. Again it was in the process of resurrecting an ally.

I took aim with my bow and shot him. The coward fled rather than face us, but he had successfully brought the dragon from the ground.

We fought the dragon Nahagliiv and defeated him with relative ease.

From there we went back to the Old Hroldan Ghost and returned his sword.

He was nice enough to teach me a couple of moves before disappearing.

I decided that our next stop would be to find the woman who thought I was a cannibal. We did so and she enlisted our help in clearing out the Draugr from a cave sacred to her people.

Once that was done, she asked me to fetch the keeper of Markarths Hall of the Dead to be used as a sacrifice.
I smiled, nodded and went off with no intention of doing so.

Again we saw Alduin in the distance and we went for him.

Too late though, he had fled once more and left his friend Vuljotnaak to face us instead.

Fighting Vuljotnaak was simple enough except that I was interrupted by a thief who wanted to make off with my things…

..which I got rid of by telling them I was a member of the guild and nodded towards Mercer. Then some soldiers arrived and helped me defeat the dragon.

But of course as it turned out, they were not really soldiers, but bandits who had stolen some uniforms. Once the dragon lay dead, they turned on me and my team.

I recieved word that the ritual do resurrect Potema had been partly successful and it was my duty to destroy what had been awoken.
My group were sent into catacombs beneath Solitude to find the awakened spirit and stop it.
All sorts of horrible things seemed to be happening down there.