I've been running into some
very persistent law enforcement.
Last week, I notched a small bounty for killing Thalmor on the roads of Whiterun Hold. Really, they should pay
me to clean up the roadside trash, but whatever. As usual, Shadowmere was my witness. She always rats me out.
Someone tries to arrest me when I enter Whiterun, so I just hightail it out of there, hop on my steed and head to my house to the north of the city. I had loot to drop off.
Loot dropped, I hit the crafting tables for a bit and then head for the exit. Which is when a Whiterun guard walked in. I reflexively used frost breath on him.
I didn't want a corpse in my house, so I used a dual-cast Calm spell and hoped he'd head for the exit. He did...sort of. Instead of going out the front door, he takes a tour of the house, heading upstairs.
I head outside to follow him, and find myself getting tagged by arrows from somewhere. After a moment of getting oriented, I find he's climbed onto the freaking roof to ambush me on the balcony. Clever guard is clever.
But at least I don't have a corpse
inside the house. I needed A Whiterun shield to add to my collection anyways.
######
Cue this evening.
I'm working on a lot of goals right now. The DB quest line is complete, I'm chipping away at restoring the Thieves Guild, firing up Dawnguard, working on Daedric quests, and inching toward level 70 and a Legendary Dragon. Just as importantly, collecting a shield from every guard in the hold, as a means to get the achievement for having a 1,000 gold bounty in every hold.
I have a mission to recruit some folks for the Dawnguard, so I head north and pass through Morthal on the way. Reflexively, I cut the throat of a guard in the middle of town. Sadly his corpse sinks into the ground a bit and I can't select him to pick up the shield, so I just high tail it out of town, a 1k bounty on my head. I'll take it.
Arriving in Solitude at night, I get a room at the inn and try to rest...but I can't because guards are following me. That's odd. I check and don't have a bounty in Solitude (yet). Still, I can't sleep. I dump my loot on the Guild contact at the inn, and head out of town.
Near Dragonbridge I notice a ghostly apparition on the highway. It's the Headless Horseman! I see him very, very rarely, and usually in just glimpses. I'm not Shadowmere, but I have an absurd amount of stamina and some potions, so I begin to follow him. I've wanted to see where he goes since Skyrim first came out.
It took a really long time, looping over near Markarth, down through Falkreath hold, but finally ending in
. I'm guessing that's who he actually is. Neat - this has been on my "Skyrim bucket list" for five years.
I hit the rest button to see what time it is real quick...but can't because I'm still being pursued by guards. WTF? Slightly annoyed, I head way up north, past Markarth, to find Sorine Jurard for the Dawnguard. While I'm talking to her - she needs a trinket some mudcrabs snagged - look who shows up, smack in the middle of our conversation:
A quick google tells me he's the head of the guard in Morthal. Dude has been on my tail ever since I whacked that guard in the middle of town, all through my pursuit the Horseman. Good heavens. He's three holds away from home!
I tag him with Calm, finish by business with Sorine, and then turn to find he's gone on his way. I head down the path and find Duilis fighting a couple of sabercats. I help him out, then tag him with Calm again. It's a long walk home, but at least now the game doesn't think guards are after me any longer....
####
So way
back when I started this character a month ago, my mantra was "play differently". I wanted to try and get out of habits and maybe find stuff I'd never found before. There's been a lot of that.
Little stuff like finding new perches with loot:
On the Gildergreen quest, I had someone follow me all the way to the cave, to use Nettlebane, where he stopped me from doing so. It led to an alternate ending to that quest I'd never seen.
I agreed to steal a statue of Dibella for a beggar in Markarth, only to get lured to a bookshelf and get busted in the inner sanctum. Rather than face repercussions, it lead to a full-blown quest I'd never run into.
I found there's a LOT of situational dialogue particular to being a Kajiit. Many of the vendors and shopkeepers are assholes to me (there's a steep overlap with them and Stormcloak sympathizers). I recall a dialogue option where I told someone they didn't look like they were from Skyrim. He said no, and that was something we probably had in common. That line didn't happen when I played a Nord. It's a small thing, but it's so pervasive it really helps provide a different perspective to the events of the game, when your are subject to the constant discrimination and harassment I previously only saw aimed at others.
I found a vampire lair where the master vampire had a shoe fetish, something shared with my character.
Some random dude's house I burgled in one of the towns had a creepy as hell set up in his living room, with chairs facing a small shrine with a mat and skulls. WTF?
I used Frenzy while assassinating the Emperor's cousin, and managed to get nearly a dozen characters at the wedding onto the balcony fighting each other.
After this character, I need another to do the werewolf and then vampire achievements, and then another to head to Solstheim. I might be done by the time Destiny 2 comes out.
I have a lot more to say about the game, but I'll hold it until I'm at least through this character as this is already a mega post.
A couple shots from my Untimely Demises collection:
Almost, but not quite, getting a chest with loot out of a cave before getting killed by bears:
Getting buried in a mine but still holding that lantern tall. You go guy/girl:
Everywhere I go, I'm still in love with how the game looks. Skyrim is just a great place to wander around.
