Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Part 2: A Hunter Turns Hunted

I'm well rested and ready for the day! I take my fine axe and hit the road, hoping to get some pelts and meat to sell or craft things out of.



And then, of course, I run into this guy. I swear, I didn't talk to him multiple times to get this line, it was the very first thing he said to me:



This view is quite fantastic, I must say. The clouds rolling in, just....so majestic. Never really get tired of views like that.



So after strolling around a bit, I finally spot my first prey! He's a little hard to see, but he's right in the middle of the screen where the crosshairs are.



I crouch down, ready to take it on, sneaking up ever so slowly...and it runs away. I can't chase it, as it'll only continue to run. I really need arrows, and for that, I need wood and iron ingots. So, I need to chop wood, and no one wants to lend me their woodcutter's axe.

I've heard that Riverwood has a saw mill though, so I'll head south towards there and hopefully meet up with some game on the way.

Suddenly wolf attack!



Markus actually manages to take it out in one hit, and I happily scrape the pelt off and stuff the bloody thing into my pants. Not much else happens on the way to Riverwood other than a penetrating fog that somewhat obscures the view.


Finally, Riverwood comes into view and I start looking for the sawmill in hopes of buying some firewood or an axe.

Oh-ho? What do we have here? Just a little 'ol axe just waiting to be used. Now, Markus isn't really a thief, he doesn't take things that are in people's houses. But, if it's outside, not being used, and doesn't have "steal" under it, it's pretty much common property at this point. Hey, that's life in Skyrim as a guy trying to scrape his way through life.


Also, surprisingly, despite the way the weather looks, my status is looking pretty good:


You would think that heavy mist like this would start to have some sort of effect on the weather, but who am I to argue with Kyne? As long as she sends weather like this, it'll be fantastic.

After the exciting woodcutter's axe find, there really isn't too much going on in Riverwood. I stop by the trader shop to see if they have anything, and I stumble across an argument.


This guy's name is Lucan Valerius, and he runs the Riverwood Trader with his sister, Camilla. I think something was stolen, but I'm not getting in the middle of that. It sounds suspiciously like a quest, and Markus isn't much into helping at the moment. Maybe later. Frankly, Lucan sounds a bit whiny, constantly sighing and moaning about how something was stolen.

Pfft, as if he's going to guilt trip me into taking a quest. I think not! I just ask what he's got for sale, as the rest is none of my business.

He doesn't have too much in the way of goods, but he does have something that was somewhat cheap, and I was excited to get.


Yep! A cloak! Yeah, it's just a drab burlap cloak, but hey, it'll help against harsher climates if I don't find anything better before I need to travel back north. I speak around with the locals, and everyone seems pretty stuffy, not really wanting to talk to me much. I give a guy a piece of gold, because, face it, at this point, I need all the help I can get.

Aha! More prey for my axe!


Um, no, just a chicken. And I can't kill it, as it belongs to somebody, I'm sure.

With not much left to do, I start heading back to Whiterun, as it'll be getting dinner time pretty soon, and I want to be near a city so I can rent a room. I run across the dead wolf that I strategically killed earlier (as in, shrieked and flailed wildly as it attacked).

And then, I run across THESE guys:


Me, and my awesome superior curiosity, thought that it would be a good idea to chat these guys up and see what they were doing. They stand out from others in the area, and Markus wanted to be friendly. Unfortunately, I got roped into a conversation about religion, which is never a good thing. This guy asks if I believe in Talos, and I honestly answered that I could believe in whatever I wanted to, Talos or no.

He....didn't quite agree with that.


And just like an internet forum explodes with the mention of any sort of religion, all three of them START ATTACKING ME!

I, in my wisdom as a first level character, turn heel and RUN. I run, stumbling down the mountain side, not even bothering with roads. I clambor over large rocks, and turn around to see if they were still following me:


Yep, still there. Still shouting for blood. At this point, I had to concentrate on trying to lose them or find a guard that would help me, so I wasn't really able to get any clear screenshots of the actual fight.

I end up running up to Whiterun, thankfully which isn't that far. But the useless guards just sort of got out of my attacker's way and completely left me to my own devices! Hey! I'm a semi-citizen here! And I got attacked for no good reason! It's not like I called elves stupid dumbells who are all hoity-toity about themselves!

Running into Whiterun, I manage to turn around and hold my own against the mage, and somehow (after eating all the food I had on me), manage to kill the other lady attacking me. The other guy, hilariously, stops fighting and says "Oh, I've had enough of this." And then two seconds later:


"I'm going to find whoever did this."

Um, standing right here. With my health still lowish and my stamina almost gone. Also, I wasn't using any magic, so I'm not sure why that's drained. Perhaps the mage did that.

So, in honor of my first battle, and in classic Tamriel fashion, I immediately strip the bodies bare, because I'm a poor sunovabitch who needs some gold.


After my magnificent battle (ok, yeah, I cowardly ran away), I speak to a few locals in the street and run across Ysolda. She is rather a nice person to talk to. Her big dream is to buy the Bannered Mare (the local tavern) from Hulda. She told her parents that she would one day become the best trader in Skyrim, and also mentions that she needs a Mammoth Tusk to give to a Khajiit trader.

I'm sorry, a MAMMOTH TUSK?

This is a quest that Markus can do! A hunting quest! I'm built for hunting, speed, stealth (okay, maybe not stealth), ingenuity!

But, I can't do it right now. I at least want to level up a few times before I go off into the wild to find a mammoth.

I walk around the town a bit more, waiting for it to become a bit later so I can hunt at night. I'm hoping the animals will be more prone to run around. I find myself in the merchant area, which is a busy little area bustling with people more often than not.



I need to sell the extra armour I "found" to Belethor, and I am now sporting a fancy Elven Armour set. Though, I'm not the one to usually wear this sort of thing, and being a hunter and all that, quiet is a good thing. I'll eventually trade it out for some fur armour if I can manage to come across it.

I walk out of the General Goods store (nothing really worth buying), and hear the sounds of arguing.


Another fight. This time between a soldier and an old woman. Markus, being a man who doesn't really like old ladies to be beat up on, decides to investigate. They're arguing about the poor woman's son, who has disappeared, and she believes that this man called Olfrid has him locked away. Her son's name I think is Thorald.


Olfrid tells her that he's dead, but she believes he is alive somewhere. The man says that he died for the Stormcloak cause, which, from what I've gathered is to not be "oppressed" or ruled by the Imperials.

Hmm. Not really my problem, again, at this point in time.

Now that I have my axe, I chop some wood and then buy Iron Ore off of Adrianne at Warmaiden's. This appears to be the best way of doing things, as she has a smelter in the back and I can just convert my ore into ingots. The ingots themselves are 21 gold apiece, but the ore is only 6. So, I assume there's nothing wrong going with the cheaper option.

Finally, it's starting to get dark and I head out towards the outskirts of the farms to see if I can pick off any deer or wolves. I have 94 arrows from my crafting them, and I'm ready to sneak up on all the prey.

After wandering around, I decide to help out the farmers by harvesting what they have in their fields and selling it back to them. They even say thank you for the honest work! So, I feel rather proud I didn't just steal the food. I did come across this in one of the fields, though:


Alas, though, the corpse was empty.

And then, after all that, I spot it! My second prey! I instantly crouch, hoping I haven't been seen, and let loose a couple arrows. Spot on!


A grand haul, an Elk! I harvest the antlers, hide, and meat from it and prepare to look for more victims around the area, though, it seems bare. I spot an outcropping of trees just across and up the road though, so I head towards that area.

Without any sort of warning, I am accosted by two bandits! I flail back a bit, struggling to reach my axe and pull it out.


We exchange heavy blows, and they go down without too much trouble:


And again, I strip them of their belongings, very pleased to find some fur items among them, though. Once I get the full set, I will be switching to that. I feel very out of place in this Elven Armour.

Just up the road, I come across a sad sight. Looks like the bandits were busy just before I came across them:


A young woman has been killed, and out of respect, I do not strip the body down, but merely take a note the corpse had on it (click  on the picture to make it bigger):


It's a little sad, to be honest. And I feel really bad that I wasn't able to help her. I don't know if I was earlier, I could have maybe helped her. She was very brave, I guess, to go after the thieves that stole her family's heirloom, and it had huge sentimental value to her, as most of her family is dead.

Markus sends a prayer up to Arkay to guide the poor woman's soul. He's not a huge believer in all of the Nine Divines, but he does try to show respect to a few of the gods and goddesses. Mainly Mara, Arkay, and Zenithar. He outright believes in Kynareth, called Kyne by him (and the Nords), as she's the Goddess of Nature, and he makes his living on that, plus, he swears he feels like his stamina is stronger after praying to Kyne.

And so, on that note, Markus heads back to the Bannered Mare for a good night's sleep, and listens to one last song before drifting off:


Tomorrow, we do some more hunting, and perhaps visit the nearby towns and villages to see what they have to offer a hunter in the way of work or houses.

Part One ----- Part Three



2 comments:

  1. Good thing you didn't kill that chicken, or else this story would turn into the adventures of Markus the fugitive.

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    Replies
    1. That would make for some interesting stuff to happen, but hopefully Markus won't be too stupid. :D

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