Intro.

Skyrim is still pretty great so far, it's still keeping me on the edge with some sometimes tough combat and a ton of things to do. I decided to finally go back to Winterhold and get some progress with the quest I started and left hanging, I cleared another Dwemer ruin, I joined the Dark Brotherhood, killed more dragons, contracted more diseases, fought a tree, found Mzulft, joined the bards college and I still haven't found Dawnstar, Morthal or Markath, maybe that'll change? Or maybe my memory will get a little better so locations and NPCs are left nameless?

The Eye of Magnus

I returned, eventually to Winterhold to check where I had left the quest. I was supposed to meet Tolfdir outside the ruin of Saarthol. I checked the map and the closest location to it was Winterhold, and still it was a hike and a half. On the way I met ice wraiths, a dragon, some bandits, some necromancers and a couple of sabrecats. When I got to the ruin, severely bloodied, I saw Tolfdir and the other three recruits waiting outside with him. As I approached Tolfdir walked towards me and spoke. He told me they were all ready, and just waiting for me. I told him I was ready and we entered the ancient Nordic burial grounds of Saarthol. We entered a fairly large room with a staircase leading down. After a few minutes of hearing Tolfdir speak, he told me to go and find three magical items. I found two of the items, a couple of rings, but the third item was an amulet. It was hanging on the wall of a small alcove, there was only one way out of it. When I grabbed the necklace a portcullis like gate dropped down, blocking my exit. Tolfdir ran to me and asked what had happened. I told him and he continued on to say the amulet seemed to increase my magical power. He then told me to hit the wall I got the amulet off with a magical attack, I did so and the wall crumbled. I continued through the wall into a room with several standing coffins. A Draughr fight was imminent. When Tolfdir entered the small room, time froze. A new NPC appeared, Quaranir. He spoke to me and said I was the only one capable of stopping the ensuing events, cataclysmic or otherwise. He was a Psijic monk, an ancient and possibly rogue order of wizards who followed their own rules in isolation. Time then geared back into motion and Tolfdir said he felt strange, I told him I saw a Psijic monk and he seemed shocked, and secretive. The Draughrs began to break out of their coffins. It was an easy fight, but one that revealed the path forwards. One of the coffins lead into a tunnel. After some Darughrs, a couple skeletons and a Wight, Tolfdir and I eventually stumbled upon a massive glowing orb covered in runes. But a haze covered it, a wall of magic protected it. A coffin burst open and a Draughr, Jyrik Gauldruson, stepped forward. It was an extremely powerful Draughr, and immune to all types of damage. After a few minutes Tolfdir began to drain energy from the orb and then Jyrik began to burn with a black flame. Jyrik was vulnerable and I began to hack at him with my Skyforge Steel. After a cinematic finisher, I learnt a new word for a Thu'um and a chest full of valuables. Tolfdir told me to go report this to the Arch-Mage. I quickly left the ruins and fast traveled to the . I sprinted to the Arch-Mage's quarters and told him about Saarthol. I was then told to go to Urag gro-Shub, an Orsimer library keeper for the College.

I went down to the Arcanaeum and found Urag. He was the first orc I had ever seen that didn't want to kill me. When I spoke to him he said someone had stolen some books and that one of them had information on the Eye of Magnus. He said an apprentice had impressed some mages, who had recently inhabited a fort, and that he stole some books to give to the mages. I had to go to the fort and get the books back. When I approached the exerior of the fought I was instantly attacked by novice conjurers. I quickly killed them and their atronachs. I entered the fort and cut through a bulk of the mage group, and after a couple of deaths I made it further into the dungeon. The mage that had stolen the books was locked in a cell, Orthorn. I let him out, after getting killed a couple times by some mages. He said he wanted to come with me and my options were (pretty much) 'Get Lost' and 'No'. Orthorn still persisted and then began to follow me. After passing through a library like area I eventually reached the final room of the dungeon. Orthorn had mentioned that the leader of the mages was very powerful, I bricked it and ran into the room she was in. The fight itself was not as hard as it I thought, past encounters with wizards have been frustrating and Super Meat Boy level difficulty, the thing that was hard was she teleported around the room and every time she did, she summoned a fire atronach. After I finally hit the mage's legs and head with a glass mace (finisher'd), I picked up the books that were on pedestals. Orthorn told me he would wait until things cooled down since Urag was a very 'passionate' librarian... I went back to the College and gave the books back to Urag and he gave me five skill books.

I went back to Tolfdir and he said the orb's markings were neither elven nor daedric. Ancano butted in saying a member of the Psijic order was inquiring about me. I followed Anacano and spoke with Quaranir, and again he froze time. I spoke to him and he said the only way to see through the Eye of Magnus without being blinded was to use the Staff of Magnus. Time started again and Ancano started questioning Quaranir, but the Psijic only replied 'Sorry, I shouldn't be here.'. I asked the Arch-Mage, Savos Aren about the Staff of Magnus. He spoke about the Augur of Dulain, an extremely powerful mage who had been around for centuries. He was located in 'The Midden', a supposedly dangerous, but magicka rich area. I went through a trap door to get into the midden, and to my 'surprise' the area only had a couple skeletons and draughr, and then I found the Augur after a navigating a maze like cavern. The Augur was a massive ball of light, and spoke as if it already knew the future. It told me that it was pretty much useless trying to stop the power of the Eye of Magnus and that I need the Eye of Magnus. After leaving the cavern, I spoke to the arch-mage who told me that Mirabelle had recently talked about the Staff. When I went to her, she told me to find Mzulft, a Dwemer ruin. I quickly made my way to the ruin and then left the quest hanging.

We Know

After killing Grelod the Kind, I had no idea what to do next. There seemed to be no possible way to get into the Dark Brotherhood. I began to think of what I hadn't done... Sleep. I ran to the closest I could find and rented a room. I slept in the bed and after a loading screen awoke in a small, messy cabin. A woman named Astrid spoke to me. She told me I had answered the Black Sacrament and in turn stolen a contract and that I must pay the Dark Brotherhood back. I said I wanted to leave the shack and she replied that I wasn't going to leave unless somebody died and that three people were behind me. One was a mercenary, who may have done a few dirty deeds in his time, one was a noble woman, she had children and was very angry (that's all I could tell) and finally a Khajiit. He was calm with the situation, I asked him why someone would want him dead and he quoted his nicknames, notably 'Defiler of Daughters'. He seemed the most likely, but I just went and blasted all of them with a fireball. I spoke to Astrid and she was very happy about my choice, saying 'Three possibilities, one of them has to be the contract. Why take a chance?'. I was able to leave the cabin and shown the location of the last Dark Brotherhood sanctuary in all of Tamriel. But unfortunately I left it hanging there. Until Part 4.

The Bards College

One particular time in Solitude I decided to progress in my Misc. Objective 'Investigate the ' so I did. I went towards the College, walked around it atleast three times trying to find the door, and once I found it I spoke to an Altmer. I asked to join and he replied with, 'many people ask to join, but not many get in'. I didn't really care, it wasn't an important guild anyway. But he then started talking about the burning of king olaf event that took place every year, but the High Queen thought it distasteful due to current affairs. She didn't allow it, and so I was tasked with finding King Olaf's Verse. But, alas, I left it hanging. Yet again, part 4!

The Gildergreen

Within the first ten hours of the game, I was told about asking a Priestess, Danica, about the recently destroyed Gildergreen. The Gildergreen was apparently a magical tree that could never stop growing and even the smallest cutting could turn into a massive tree (like the one in Whiterun). The tree in Whiterun had been hit by lighting, but apparently/according to Danica, it wasn't dead and that if I go and get some sap from the original tree I could restore Whiterun's tree to its former glory. First things first, I had to go to Orphan's Rock to collect a curious weapon called Nettlebane. The closest location to Orphan's Rock was... was Helgen (dramatic pause). I appeared outside the village's gates and didn't see any of the ruins at all. I soon made it to Orphan's Rock and made my way under a fallen tree. Suddenly an explosion of frost decimated (by decimated I mean absolutely destroyed) my health. It was some sort of frost rune and it killed me. I was loaded back at the last autosave, back at Helgen. I made my way over to Orphan's Rock, killing a couple bears in the process, and went a different path. I encountered a few witches, easy stuff, and then my worst nightmares appeared. A Hagraven. Half bird, half witch. She began spamming lighting, that halved my health and my magicka, and ice spells, that destroyed my stamina. I eventually sprinted towards her and began to hack away with my Epic Glass Mace/Sword combo. I eventually killed her and got pretty close to death myself, but I found the Nettlebane. A pretty poor weapon, plus it was a dagger and I've never used daggers in a TES game at all. I returned to Danica, who was being told the Gildergreen was in a terrible state by Maurice Jondrelle and that he had come to Whiterun to pray at that tree. I told her I had retrieved the Nettlebane and she told me the location of the original tree. Maurice overheard me and asked if he could come along, I said yes, despite the fact I didn't really need him. I went to Eldergleam, fought through some caves and made it into a wonderous grassy, forest like area within a cavern. It reminded me a lot of Oasis from Fallout 3, a high vegetation area in the middle of a wasteland. I made my way round the cavern and ran into some giant roots. I got out the nettlebane and hit a root. The dagger caused the root to shrink back, I had hurt a tree that wasn't an ent, or a treent, or treant, or tree spirit or whatever you want to call it. I got up to the tree itself, a large tree with pinky-violet leaves and an ambient glow around it. Maurice said he wanted to pray at/to the tree. After praying, Maurice then gave me a sapling of the original tree. I quickly left and returned to Whiterun, gave the sapling to Danica and got my reward.

Stats So Far...

Companions joined: Yay

Thives Guild joined: Yay

Dark Brotherhood joined: Yay

Dwarven ruins cleared: 3

Dragons killed:14

Diseases contracted: 4 (the same 4 diseases)

Time so far: 30 hours

Until next time, an arrow to the knee puts you into an early retirement