Spoiler Hired Muscle... Proving Honor?

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sticky runes

Well-Known Member
With my latest character, I started following the companions quest line. I take my time interacting with each member, then have a scuffle with Vilkas in the training yard and hand his sword to the blacksmith, then deliver the shield to Aela. Then after Farkas shows me to the sleeping quarters, he gives me a 'Muscle for Hire' quest that involves beating up... Arcadia. :confused:

So I shrug my shoulders and go along with it. Arcadia takes the beating and goes back to smiling sweetly behind her counter and trying to convince me that I'm riddled with diseases so she can sell me her potions. I return to Jorvaskr, and Farkas tells me that Skjor has a special mission for me - it's time to go after the fragment of Wuthraad.

So that's all it took to prove myself worthy of stepping up in the companions - a couple of delivery tasks for warriors who can't be bothered to walk up a flight of stairs to collect their weapons, and beating up the local medicine woman. Not killing any bandits or monsters that threaten the safety of farmers and travelers out in the countryside, I proved myself worthy by standing up to the wrath of the almighty Arcadia.o_O

I mean, really? OK, Arcadia's a bit of a chatter box and she can be a tad annoying, but she's not exactly Uthgerd the Unbroken who drinks like a sailor and challenges blokes to a fistfight, or Maven Blackbriar who's a fricking mob boss that owns half the Rift. Who was it that decided Arcadia was such a problem that they needed to seek the services of a specialist band of fighters to take care of her? Lars Battleborn? Or did Idalof get upset when Arcadia misdiagnosed him with a case of the rattles? Why not just have me beat up Carlotta for not wanting to shag the local lute player?

And at what point did the Companions think that would make me worthy to go on a mission for a rare artifact that's part of their long standing culture? Was it like "OK, this guy stood up to Vikas, so he's kinda tough, but I'm not sure he's quite ready yet. Let's give him a slightly more challenging role like punching an unarmed shopkeeper in the mouth - that will definitely determine how capable he is."

So anyway, I couldn't accept that as part of my initiation. I'm gonna go back to an earlier save and see if I can get a different quest put in its place.
 
So, you have never asked her for some of the 'special' stuff? Behind that kindly, gabby, exterior is a character that makes Maven and Grelod look like saints.
 

Black Orchid

Death Incarnate
I think 'Proving Dishonor' would have been a more appropriate title...

Adrianne Avenicci, without a doubt in mind, deserved the beat-down I gave her the other day after f'ing up the Jarl's sword (I honestly think it was her worm of a father that put the hit out on her to begin with). :rolleyes:
 
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sticky runes

Well-Known Member
Way to screw up my role-play. I'm playing a character who feels that dragons are not the only threat to the people of Skyrim and he wants to join the Companions to help make the country safer from bandits, falmer, undead things and the odd wild animal. He doesn't want to dirty his fists on a lady who sells mushrooms and tonics for a living.

You're with the Companions? What do you do, serve them mead? No, I help them beat up herbalists instead, much more honorable.:rolleyes:
 

Bipolar Nord

Just another fanatical gamer
You're with the Companions? What do you do, serve them mead? No, I help them beat up herbalists instead, much more honorable.:rolleyes:

Part of my plan for this playthrough is to get the "Master Criminal" achievement. I've never really pursued it in past playthroughs, I've had bounties on me, but never all nine at one time. The last I checked, I have two more achievements to acquire and I'll have all of them.

Anyway, I was going to wait until way later in the game to start my crime spree in Skyrim, because I wanted to get all quests for certain cities out of the way to keep from battling guards. That was my plan until a smart mouth Whiterun Guard walked by me and said....

"You're with the Companions? What do you do, serve them mead?"

I went berserk and ended up killing half the city. Was going to roll it back to a previous save, but said screw it! So much for my plan.
 

Twiffle

Well-Known Member
You can pick and choose which initial quest to do by just refusing in the dialogue box and go talk to the others until you get the one you want, usually skjol has a retrieve amulet and vilkas mostly has rescue a citizen,
 

Bipolar Nord

Just another fanatical gamer
I always went to Vilkas for jobs when I needed to prove my honor in the early stages of their questline. He'll either give you a rescue mission or hunt down a criminal.
 

sticky runes

Well-Known Member
You can pick and choose which initial quest to do by just refusing in the dialogue box and go talk to the others until you get the one you want, usually skjol has a retrieve amulet and vilkas mostly has rescue a citizen,

I did that when I reloaded. As soon as Farkas offered me the hired muscle job, i declined, then went to Vilkas. He gave me a rescue mission which was to rescue Heimskr from Valtheim Keep. Which would have been ok, except Heimskr wasn't actually kidnapped (Valtheim doesn't even have a dungeon to keep captives in) and the mission couldn't even be completed because I had to escort Heimskr to the entrance of Whiterun and he would not move from his preaching spot. So that was a big f#ck up and I had to reload again.

The third time, I went to Aelo, and she gave me an extermination mission to Graywinter Watch, which was pretty dull (I didn't even have to clear the cave, there were two trolls in there and the mission completed when I killed one) but I went along with it because I was getting sick of reloading. It was also my new character's first encounter with trolls, so it seemed good enough.
 

Ayumii

Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing On Rainbows!
I remember getting a quest to beat up Nazeem lol. I think I was happy since I always wanted to smack some sense into him! And I shall send him into the REAL cloud district soon enough! [emoji2]
 

LotusEater

I brake for blue butterflies
So the OP wants to join The Companions and get treated like a big dog on day one. Doesn't work like that if you join any respectable organization, even in the real world. That stuff you do in the beginning is called b*tch work because that is all you are until you prove yourself. Fetching shields is nothing, we used to send out hapless newbie apprentices in the carpenters union asking around for a chest punch... I got mine when I started, they hurt. Boot camp and the military was ten times worse.

The point of those seemingly useless tasks in the beginning is just to see if you will follow orders, no matter how inane.
 

conchvegas

Aravis, deadly archer
So the OP wants to join The Companions and get treated like a big dog on day one. Doesn't work like that if you join any respectable organization, even in the real world. That stuff you do in the beginning is called b*tch work because that is all you are until you prove yourself. Fetching shields is nothing, we used to send out hapless newbie apprentices in the carpenters union asking around for a chest punch... I got mine when I started, they hurt. Boot camp and the military was ten times worse.

The point of those seemingly useless tasks in the beginning is just to see if you will follow orders, no matter how inane.
Totally on the ball. Hazing is never fun.
 

Bipolar Nord

Just another fanatical gamer
"You might just make it. But for now, you're still a whelp to us, new blood. So you do what we tell you. Here's my sword. Go take it up to Eorlund to have it sharpened. And be careful, it's probably worth more than you are."
 

sticky runes

Well-Known Member
So the OP wants to join The Companions and get treated like a big dog on day one. Doesn't work like that if you join any respectable organization, even in the real world. That stuff you do in the beginning is called b*tch work because that is all you are until you prove yourself. Fetching shields is nothing, we used to send out hapless newbie apprentices in the carpenters union asking around for a chest punch... I got mine when I started, they hurt. Boot camp and the military was ten times worse.

The point of those seemingly useless tasks in the beginning is just to see if you will follow orders, no matter how inane.

Uh - You're missing the point. That little bitch task of beating up the medicine woman is basically all that was required to prove myself worthy of going on the mission to collect the fragment of wuuthrad. It's hardly unreasonable to expect being given a few more challenging tasks before receiving the first mission accompanying a shield brother. Then after that I just got one task to kill a witch, and then the Circle decides I'm worthy of sharing their werewolf blood. Bear in mind that other Companions like Athis and Njada haven't become full circle members even though they've been members longer than the playable character and are likely to be more skilled fighters as they provide training sessions, so what missions have they been receiving that they can't move up in the Companions?

I would happily accept a bunch of small tasks before being given a promotion and moving on to more challenging missions, but promotions in The Companions come way too easily for the player - you can literally enroll in the Companions in the morning then become a member of the circle that very night, so your attempt at comparing it to a real world organization is quite laughable.
 

LotusEater

I brake for blue butterflies
Why is comparing an organization in Skyrim to a real world one laughable? You don't seem to have a problem applying your real world standards in your complaint. Am I not allowed to do the same?
 

sticky runes

Well-Known Member
I wasn't applying my real world standards, i was talking about my made-up character and how i wanted his story to play out. Being given the quest to beat up Arcadia as part of my initiation was not a desirable outcome.

you seem to have read my snarky comments about weapon collecting tasks and taken that as my main complaint, but that's not the case.
I appreciate what you're saying about giving the newby a bunch of menial tasks to start off with, but we are talking about a faction where you go from being a lowly whelp to the worthy Harbinger in just a few hours of gameplay. It doesn't really take that much effort to move up through the ranks, so that makes the Companions' high and mighty attitudes when we first meet them seem quite redundant. I go from being Aelo's shield collector to her shield brother and fellow werewolf overnight. o_O

If the Companions storyline was more slow paced and required more quests to move up through the ranks, then that would be great.
 

Pete

Well-Known Member
You can pick and choose which initial quest to do by just refusing in the dialogue box and go talk to the others until you get the one you want, usually skjol has a retrieve amulet and vilkas mostly has rescue a citizen,

I definitely do that when I'm low level and get the kill falmer as my first task
 

LotusEater

I brake for blue butterflies
I wasn't applying my real world standards, i was talking about my made-up character and how i wanted his story to play out. Being given the quest to beat up Arcadia as part of my initiation was not a desirable outcome.

you seem to have read my snarky comments about weapon collecting tasks and taken that as my main complaint, but that's not the case.
I appreciate what you're saying about giving the newby a bunch of menial tasks to start off with, but we are talking about a faction where you go from being a lowly whelp to the worthy Harbinger in just a few hours of gameplay. It doesn't really take that much effort to move up through the ranks, so that makes the Companions' high and mighty attitudes when we first meet them seem quite redundant. I go from being Aelo's shield collector to her shield brother and fellow werewolf overnight. o_O

If the Companions storyline was more slow paced and required more quests to move up through the ranks, then that would be great.

I see. So your main complaint is that the overall questline was too short and easy. That pretty much goes with all of them. Look how easy it is to become mage of the College. I believe that is why there are so many side missions available for each guild/faction, to give some flexibility in case you want to drag the questlines out. All of them are stupid short if you just run though them.
 

sticky runes

Well-Known Member
Yeah, Mage college is similar with how you become arch mage without even having to use much magic, but at least we get side missions to help drag it out like those book finding quests and the quests we do for the three students.

Companions is really bad because of how they tell you to "Go and speak to Skjor before doing anything else" so other quests become locked until you've progressed the story. We also don't get to use Companions as followers until we've become the Harbinger, which seems dumb. Why can't we go out on quests together, like the Companions are doing when we meet them out in the wilds?

Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood seem better paced. And as much as I hate Dawnguard, I think it's actually a good thing that the Dawnguard didn't give you a rise to power and Isran remains the leader. It seemed to play out better that way.
 

Felidae

The White Wanderer
So far I've been given two different Proving Honour quests: one was for my main character and another was for a roleplaying character I created solely for the Companions questline. The latter received the Hired Muscle quest and was instructed to beat up the bartender of the Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood. No biggie, but at least it required him to actually leave the city.

Now, I don't know whether it was because my other character is a Khajiit and Farkas was just being a racist ar*ehole, but he decided to give her the Trouble In Skyrim quest to kill the Falmer leader in Shimmermist Cave. At the time I was still quite a low level (no higher than five) and didn't know what I was getting myself into.

Somehow I managed to finish the quest without having to leave the cave or lower the difficulty, but the experience still scarred me and to this day I refuse to cure Farkas's lycanthropy out of revenge. So while Proving Honour can be stupidly easy, it can also be stupidly hard as well.
 

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