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A (modded) Skyrim Adventure! [Image Heavy]

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forsaken1111:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Journal Entry - Date Unknown

It has been a week since I last ate, and the guards no longer respond to my shouting. If not for the slow seep of the leaking stonework on the wall, I would be dead of dehydration by now. The bones of this cell's previous occupant do nothing to ease my mind. I have lost all count of the months and seasons, I may have been here for years. I don't even remember my own name... Isaac. I think it was Isaac. I hear a distant sound and rush to bang on the door, hoping it is a guard bringing food. I must eat...

The sound comes again, almost a roar. I back away from the door, frightened. What is it? I hear something roar again, and a great flapping of wings. The sound is deafening, but in a way it is something I recognize. Something deep down in my bones responds to the sound, I feel a great heat in my chest. I awaken with a start to realize it was a dream.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I climb out of my bedroll and look around my camp. I escaped from that cell two days ago, but the experience still haunts me. If the quake hadn't shifted the rock and shattered the door, allowing me to escape, I would have been another pile of bones in a bandit's prison. They caught me while I was out hunting and wanted to ransom me for gold. They were angry when they found out I lived alone, and had no one willing to pay them. I never did find them, or any bodies, but I didn't search long. Once free, I left the camp and began running. Now here I am, the only belongings I have are what I could pilfer from the camp before leaving. A longbow, a handful of arrows, and some stinking fur armor one of the bandits left out in the cold to delouse. Judging by the itching, it wasn't quite free of stowaways when I stole it. At least the bow is decent, probably locally made in one of the towns nearby. The arrows are a good find, straight shafts and good fletching with steel heads.

Another roar makes me look up. I wasn't dreaming that? I hear the heavy beating of wings again as it becomes more distant. I can smell something now as well, something burning.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Following the smell leads me to a small stone marker, it looks like this poor soul tried to use it as cover but a mage fried him. The body is burnt to a crisp, and falls away in ash. The only thing that survived whatever happened to him was a journal, which the person must have dropped prior to being incinerated.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)




What is this nonsense? The journal is quite a tale, claiming a dragon swooped in and destroyed Helgen to free Ulfric Stormcloak, whoever that is. I've been in prison for a long time, and I never did keep up on current events, but I doubt I could have missed the fact that dragons now roam the countryside. At least now I know the year... 201. I was imprisoned for over a year in that stinking hole! If I ever find those bandits... I'd better get back to my home and see if I can get a good change of clothes and a good meal. First though, I'm curious about this dragon business. If there's any truth to it, I will need to be very very careful, the Imperials always get riled up when unexpected events start upsetting their perfect order, and I look enough like a bandit to be attacked on sight, or at least imprisoned without much cause. The man who died was no ranger, and left an obvious trail back to the mouth of a cave.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)



The cave is pleasant enough. It looks old... I wonder why he was in here. After a ways, I enter a large cavern. There is a cart here filled with wine... strange. A few bones about the place and a lot of shed fur leads me to believe this is the den of a Black Bear, and I probably shouldn't stay long.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)




Deeper into the cave I find a web-covered cave with several frostbite spiders. They're not much of a threat to a bow, and a few well-placed arrows kills them. I take a moment to harvest some of their venom, it could come in handy. Unfortunately the way further was blocked by a cave-in, but from the angle I think it connected to somewhere in Helgen. Maybe the dead guy really did come from there? If there was an attack though, there will be Imperials as well and I shouldn't investigate just yet.

Heading back out of the cave, I continue on the road to a small town I remember, Riverwood.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)




The people of Riverwood mostly ignore me. Hunters are common enough in the area, and I try to look as innocent as possible. A few people nod to me, and nobody mentions any dragon attack. Helgen isn't far away, you would think they'd be bubbling with news about it if it were true. Regardless, I'm not sure what to do now.

Should I head back to Helgen to determine the truth of all this? Stay here in Riverwood for a bit? Or should I head back home, away from this nonsense? If I remember right, the bridge here would take me out to Whiterun, which is a larger city and the capital of the Hold here. I've been there a few times to sell pelts and trade for supplies, but I didn't really like the place.


Spoiler: Author's Note (click to show/hide)I decided to do a Skyrim LP in a similar style to my Minecraft LP. I couldn't find a good in-game journal mod, so text posts will have to suffice. We are a Nord, born and raised in Skyrim. I'll be sticking to a ranger skillset, using stealth and light armor with archery and quick one-handed weapons as our main offensive. Its likely I will not touch magic much, at least for now. The skyrim storyline makes it more or less impossible to completely ignore magic. It will be a while before I can do another update, I'm at work right now.

micelus:
>Ask villager folk for details on current events. Ask if anyone has heard of a dragonborn recently. See if anyone saw any large creatures in the sky recently.

killerhellhound:
if they say yes or ask why show the jornal and tell them where we found it as well as tell about the cave

forsaken1111:
Just a quick few things.

1. As I said I will not be able to update until after work, so keep making suggestions if you like, don't wait for the update before suggesting something else.
2. As you can already see, I will not be strictly following the Skyrim storyline, main quest, or even scripted conversations. The purpose of this is to entertain you, the reader, and allow you to suggest some actions. Things wildly out of character will be ignored (e.g. "Murder everyone in riverwood lololol") but most suggestions will be considered or attempted.
3. I do have some mods active which make things much much harder. For starters, you cannot just walk around outside in a blizzard. I have a mod installed which keeps track of your core temperature, exposure to the elements, etc taking into account what you are wearing and where you are.

Some areas of Skyrim are warm enough to walk around unprotected, some require you to bundle up a bit. I may be forced, at times, to switch to more protective clothing vice better armor depending on just how cold it is. To help with this, I also have a few camping mods installed. We can create bedrolls, tents, fire kits, etc. We can also craft heavy cloaks out of various pelts and leather strips which provide good exposure protection. I'll give a full list of mods later on.

In addition, I have a survival mod which introduces complex needs. We must eat, drink, and sleep in regular realistic intervals. Heavy activity and severe exposure to the elements drain our needs faster, etc. Carrying a ridiculous amount of crap also drains our needs faster, so we're best off traveling light. Fast travel is disabled as well, so horses will be our best friend.

To compensate, wildlife have realistic drops. No more killing an elk and getting 2 cuts of meat. No killing a goat and getting one or no legs. The last elk I killed in testing this gave 48 pieces of meat, each of which weighed 5.5lbs. Wolves drop teeth and eyes and wolf meat in addition to their pelt. Animals no longer have rings or gold or other silly things. Should be fun!

forsaken1111:
Journal Entry - 17th of Last Seed 4E 201

Before heading off anywhere I decided to ask a few people around town about the dragon sighting.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
An old woman named Hilde apparently saw the dragon, and said it flew directly over the village and then off to the west. I spoke to a few other townspeople as well.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)


A woman named Gerdur apparently runs most things in town, and owns the sawmill which is the primary source of income for the town. She hadn't heard of any dragons, and called Hilde a 'crazy old bat'. She was too busy to talk for long, but she mentioned I could make some coin working the sawmill or bringing her cut wood. I'll keep that in mind, I may need some money soon.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)





Lucan Valerius owns the Riverwood Trader, the only general store in this sleepy little town. The only other shop is the blacksmith, but I couldn't find the smithy. Someone mentioned he had gone to Whiterun to fetch more materials. Lucan was too upset over a recent robbery to talk about the 'dragon nonsense' as he called it. It seems that several bandits broke into his shop and stole a solid gold ornament shaped like a dragon's claw. Why would he have such a thing? Why would they want it? I counted half a dozen things in the shop more valuable than the claw would be, but he said nothing else was touched. My curiosity was piqued, so I offered to look into it if I should happen to go that way. He seemed grateful and offered me a reward, hinting that it could be quite substantial. His sister Camilla offered to show me to the bridge. I accepted politely as she was being kind, and was quite pretty.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)







It was getting late so I went to the little inn, I forget the name now... sleeping giant or somesuch. It is run by a couple named Delphine and Orgnar. Delphine thought the dragon story was ridiculous, even after I showed her the journal. Orgnar just shrugged and told me about a rumor up in Windhelm, and showed me a bounty posted by the Jarl. I bought some refreshments and rented a room (10 gold) to sleep the night. The next morning I decided to scout the approach to Bleak Falls Barrow, to see if I could spot these bandits. Along the way I saw a deer eating at the side of the road. My arrow flew true and I took its meat and hide. I won't go hungry today!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)


Further up the path I ran into a wolf which was similarly dispatched. I took its teeth and hide as my trophy and moved on, I'm not about to eat wolf meat when I have plenty of fine venison! A few more hides and I could make myself a nice cloak and hood to warm me against this cold weather, or I could tan them and make some better armor than these lice-infested bandit rags.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)



Ahead along the road I heard voices and saw a small ruined tower. There were three distinct voices, all arguing about someone else who 'went ahead' and 'took the claw' without them knowing. These are the bandits all right. They haven't seen me, so I backed away. I didn't get a good look at them.

At this point I figure I have 6 options.

1. Continue to Whiterun and warn the Jarl about the dragon attack. Perhaps it is nothing, but if true it could be very important.
2. Explore Bleak Falls Barrow. This would mean slaying the bandits... I have never killed another man before and my hands shake just contemplating taking on three armed bandits with nothing but a bow and a dagger.
3. I could pursue the bounty from the Jarl's men... but the same apprehension applies as option 2.
4. Stick around Riverwood a while, hunt a few more animals and build up a small stash of gold. Perhaps even cut and tan some leather for a new set of armor.
5. Head back to Helgen and see if anyone survived, and corroborate the story in the journal.
6. Ignore all of this and head home. My house will be in sorry state after a year of no attention but it is my land and my home.

Spoiler: Author's Note (click to show/hide)I made the pictures slightly (25%) larger so the text is legible.

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