Nord Refugee Character Diary - Hrisskar III

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z0mbieslayer012

Let my arrows speak for me.
quick question since the HUD is off how do you determine when you have reached the intended target? Ive tried to play this style but have had a hard time finding places without pulling up the map out on a hunt.
 

BIGwooly

Well-Known Member
Any time I am at a 'known location' I can check the map. So in other words, any time I'm at a named location that shows up on the map I can check the map. If I've been there before then I know it's on the map. If it's a new location I come across I will hear a 'ba-dump' sound that signals I've found a new place, and I can check the map at that point. Make sense?
 

BIGwooly

Well-Known Member
- Middas, 24th of Morning Star, 4E 201 -

I had planned to be back in Solitude by nightfall, but instead it's after midnight and I just took a room at the inn in Dragon Bridge.

This morning I headed out to the swamps. I wanted to harvest some ingredients for paralyze potions and health poisons. I was planning for a fairly uneventful day. It was just that, up until I set on my way back to Solitude in the late afternoon.

I happened across another imperial noble with a guard. Given my exploits the other day, I couldn't pass on the opportunity to give the legion another black eye.

I set about my endeavor with essentially the same plan. Poisoned weapons and a vantage point overlooking the road. This time, however, I decided to hit the guard first. He was going to be the tougher opponent, so it made sense to spring my attack on him.

To my surprise the poisoned arrow knocked the legion soldier flat on his face. A single arrow and he was dead! My skill with my bow is improving more than I anticipated. The only problem was that the noble had now turned his horse around and was fleeing. I quickly set another arrow and sent it flying.

The arrow hit the noble's horse, and it bucked him off. The noble drew a dagger as I closed in with my mace. He rushed at me .. and likewise to his end. Out of the corner of my eye, though, I noticed the horse was running right towards me as well.

A single swing of my poisoned mace sent the noble to oblivion with a satisfying sound. At that moment the horse clubbed me with it's hooves, drawing blood. I swiveled and fought back with my mace and shield in a furious combination. But the horse was stronger than I anticipated, and soon I was having to use the terrain to buy some time.

For several hours I fought with this horse. I was quite impressed at how worthy an adversary it made. Definitely more trouble than the soldier had been. I finally killed the stallion but not until after the sun had set. I was exhausted from the battle.

Tonight I'll stay in Dragon Bridge, and in the morning I'll head up to the stormcloak camp near Solitude. I'm hoping they will buy the imperial gear from me. Surely they could use it in for infiltration or some such trickery. All I know is I can't ride into Solitude and try to sell the stuff. I'd find my head on the chopping block for sure.
 

BIGwooly

Well-Known Member
- Turdas, 24th of Morning Star, 4E 201 -

It takes a lot of arrows to kill a bear. I fully expected that. What I didn't expect is for it to take all day.

After selling the imperial weaponry to the stormcloaks, I headed off to the cave that was up the trail from the camp I discovered. I knew from my previous scouting excursion that a bear was hanging out at the entrance to the cave. So I decided to climb Kili up the mountain behind the trail.

After some careful horsemanship I made it to the top. It was a great vantage point and I could see the bear clearly in the mid-morning sun. It was soaking up the sun and slumbering the day away. I left Kili in a safe spot and climbed a bit down the cliff, making sure I found a spot that would conceal me well. It was also important to find a spot that the bear couldn't reach if it did spot me. After having a brutal battle with a horse I wasn't feeling up to taking on a bear face-to-face.

The disadvantage of my position was the height. It was going to be a really long shot to the bear. Certainly not as difficult as some other shots I've had, but challenging to be sure. And after purchasing some arrows today I was left with barely fifty gold pieces. So I had to make my shots count.

I decided to poison my first shot. With the arrow set I steadied my hand and controlled my breath. I needed this shot to hit. I couldn't be wasting poison AND an arrow. With the slightest of movement of adjusted my aim and relaxed my fingers. The string slid past my fingertips and pulled the arrow away.

It was beautiful to watch it's flight, arcing slowly through the air, falling through the crisp morning air with increasing momentum. And then it struck home, catching the bear on fire thanks to the magic in my bow. The bear started to it's feet, searching for the source of it's agony. But I had already backed away from the cliff edge to hide myself. I could hear it grunting and snorting with contempt.

After a minute or so I crept back to the cliff edge and found the bear standing in a new spot. It seemed to have given up finding me, so I notched another arrow in the bow. My aim was just slightly off on this one, though, and the struck the ground just under the bear's belly. Again he lumbered around, trying to figure out what was happening. Again I remained hidden.

This cat and mouse game went on for hours .. literally. All told I fired nine arrows at the beast, missing twice. So seven arrows to kill a bear. Now I know.

I rode Kili down to the fallen animal and stripped it's hide and claws. I managed to recover a pair of arrows from it's body as well. I then began searching ... in the dark ... for the arrows I had missed with. It was a bit unnerving being near the bear while the sun was down. Even with it dead I felt uncomfortable. On top of that, I had no idea what was in the cave, or what might come out of it. The men from the camp I found seemed to think whatever killed the travelers came from this cave. And for that matter, it seemed the men from the camp might now be missing as well.

Luckily I found my two arrows and quickly mounted Kili and headed off. I considered traveling back to Dragon Bridge, but it was already dark and I was hungry and tired. I could tell Kili was too. So we stopped at the camp and I found some apples for her and some salmon steak for myself. I will repay the men from the camp when I have the chance, assuming they are still alive, of course.

Now it's off to bed on a well-worn bedroll. A bed at the inn would have been much nicer, but this will save me some coin and travel time as well. Although I have a feeling the rocky ground and my thoughts of the trail leading to the cave may keep me up tonight.
 

BIGwooly

Well-Known Member
- Fredas, 25th of Morning Star, 4E 201 -

Fifty gold pieces. That's all I have left at the end of today. This is after making a trip to Solitude to sell some things too. At least yesterday I headed to bed with fifty-three pieces of gold in my pocket. Owning a horse is expensive.

This morning I woke early and got ready to head into the cave. To be honest, I didn't sleep that well, just as I expected. The same bedroll that made my back ache last night is going to be my bed again in a few moments. If I had more gold I'd stay at the Four Shields Inn, but I need to conserve what I have at the moment.

My first steps into the cave this morning brought me to a pile of skulls. That's never a good sign. The cave walls were covered in spider web as well. Also not a good sign. I tightened my grip on my mace and continued.

Just ahead of me I could see a man sleeping on a bedroll. I approached quietly, unsure if this man was a bandit or one of the men from the camp I was using. As I reached his side and tried to wake him I realized he was dead. And to my dismay, he was indeed one of the men from the camp.

I left him behind and moved further into the cave. The tunnel smelled musty, and there was ankle-deep standing water covering my boots. I took careful steps. The water was making it more difficult to move quietly, and I definitely didn't want to alert anything in the cave ahead of me.

Spider! To my right, up a narrow passage, I spotted it. It was a tiny one, and I considered using my mace, but I couldn't see beyond it. It was possible there were more spiders, and if I went in with my mace I could be quickly overwhelmed. I chose an arrow instead and ended it's life. There were no other spiders beyond it, but I did find a chamber with several decomposed bodies. I can't tell if any of them were men from the camp.

The chamber was a dead-end, so I moved back out into the main tunnel. Forging ahead in the water I spotted another small spider in a large room. He was skittering back and forth and appeared to be an easy target. Again I chose an arrow, just to be sure I didn't walk into a trap.

Just as I was about to step into the chamber I froze. I remember one of my grandfather's adventure stories. A story where he and a band of three other imperial soldiers entered a cave, much like this one. They had come to a large room, and in the center were the bodies of the thieves they were sent to retrieve. Before my grandfather could stop him, one of the soldiers ran out to examine the bodies of the fallen bandits. Three very large spiders dropped on him from the ceiling above, and he perished before my grandfather could reach him.

Slowly .. I raised my eyes to the ceiling. It was white with spiderwebs. Not one bit of rock was visible. What was visible were two very large frostbite spiders. Their bodies contrasted harshly with the white webbing. They hadn't seen me yet, and I surely owe my life to that.

ceilingspider.jpg

A slew of arrows and a flurry of swings with my mace rid the room of the fiends, but not until after I had used my voice against one of them.

I was already feeling very uncomfortable in the cave, and fighting giant spiders didn't help that, but especially it didn't help to no longer have my life-saving ability. To build on my feeling of discomfort I found another one of the men from the camp ... deceased.

I decided to call it a day.

Now I lay my head to the ground and pray Mara have mercy on my soul tonight and keep all of the monsters inside the cave. In the morning I will try and finish them off.
 

Dasma

The Thane of Whiterun
Hey there, I really am enjoying the story! You inspired me to try this myself, and I felt it right to let you know. The only thing im worried about is that I will be playing a mage, and although I wont be using all your restrictions, I want to stay true to most of them. With destruction being a bit 'nerrfed' to say the least, I don't think that master difficulty would be fun at all for a "Pure Mage".

Thanks again for doing this, and I look forward to more of it!
 

z0mbieslayer012

Let my arrows speak for me.
Another quick question. Do you actually walk when you are traveling? Like really walk, slow walk? I did that when i first started playing the game. It was fun for a while but eventually took too long to get anything done in a day.

On a side note i actually walked the 7k steps it took me around 2 hours to get to the top but it was worth it. lots of fun gave a really feel to someone walking around in heavy armor.
 

z0mbieslayer012

Let my arrows speak for me.
Any time I am at a 'known location' I can check the map. So in other words, any time I'm at a named location that shows up on the map I can check the map. If I've been there before then I know it's on the map. If it's a new location I come across I will hear a 'ba-dump' sound that signals I've found a new place, and I can check the map at that point. Make sense?

Yeah that makes perfect sense. It was confusing for me because I started a character using your restrictions and got confused when i thought it would be okay to use the map. its a lot of fun playing this way. I have my own back story as well it has really brought the game to life for me. I thank you for the renewed excitement to my game.
 

BIGwooly

Well-Known Member
Hey there, I really am enjoying the story! You inspired me to try this myself, and I felt it right to let you know. The only thing im worried about is that I will be playing a mage, and although I wont be using all your restrictions, I want to stay true to most of them. With destruction being a bit 'nerrfed' to say the least, I don't think that master difficulty would be fun at all for a "Pure Mage".

Thanks again for doing this, and I look forward to more of it!

Seriously, thank you for the kind words. Really appreciate hearing it. Props for giving the playstyle a try. It's not easy, but (in my opinion) it really adds a ton of 'experience' and 'fun' back into the game.

As for playing a mage, if I were doing it (and I will) I would do a 10% carry limit. As for difficulty, I would probably recommend expert. I'm kind of wishing I had started this character on expert, but I'm just going to stick it out now. d;-)
 

BIGwooly

Well-Known Member
Another quick question. Do you actually walk when you are traveling? Like really walk, slow walk? I did that when i first started playing the game. It was fun for a while but eventually took too long to get anything done in a day.

On a side note i actually walked the 7k steps it took me around 2 hours to get to the top but it was worth it. lots of fun gave a really feel to someone walking around in heavy armor.

I've considered it but that's one element of realism that doesn't appeal to me. d;-) I do tend to walk (the faster version) and then slow walk in bits to help make up for it. I never sprint unless I'm fleeing or chasing something.

Kudos for going up the 7k steps walking. Wow.
 

Dasma

The Thane of Whiterun
Seriously, thank you for the kind words. Really appreciate hearing it. Props for giving the playstyle a try. It's not easy, but (in my opinion) it really adds a ton of 'experience' and 'fun' back into the game.

As for playing a mage, if I were doing it (and I will) I would do a 10% carry limit. As for difficulty, I would probably recommend expert. I'm kind of wishing I had started this character on expert, but I'm just going to stick it out now. d;-)

Thanks for the quick reply, and you deserve all the love you get. I think you have started a new way how to play, and people are exited. I decided that I will even keep a journal, so I can get the most out of playing this character. Here is the link if you want to read.
http://skyrimforum.com/threads/dasma-trias-journal.5087/

Thanks again!
 

Leigull

Member
Another message of thanks, really enjoying reading the journal and as with others, it has inspired me to play the game in completely different way to what I'm currently doing. I've got a bit further to go with my first character but it won't be long until I restart. Your writing is really detailed and I can picture all that you're describing.

I was really excited when I was playing the other day and came across the small island with the fisherwoman on that you encountered at the start of your adventure, made me think about Hrisskar III, haha.

Have a good week and look forward to the next updates!
 

z0mbieslayer012

Let my arrows speak for me.
I have actually just started my own journal using all your restrictions with one or 2 tweaks, but for the most part it to the letter. my story is like your in how the legion has killed someone close to me and i seek vengeance. I have been play through about a week (in game time) and just started the journal today. I not sure how to sent a link but if you could look at it and tell me what you think that could help it become more of my own.
The Title of it is called : Journal of Nord Masrik IV
 

forhorsmn

Member
It's fun reading someone's experiences at places that I've been in my game. It takes me back to the good old days when I was a young adventurer. Then I took an... oh, nevermind.
 

BIGwooly

Well-Known Member
Another message of thanks, really enjoying reading the journal and as with others, it has inspired me to play the game in completely different way to what I'm currently doing. I've got a bit further to go with my first character but it won't be long until I restart. Your writing is really detailed and I can picture all that you're describing.

I was really excited when I was playing the other day and came across the small island with the fisherwoman on that you encountered at the start of your adventure, made me think about Hrisskar III, haha.

Have a good week and look forward to the next updates!

Right on, bro. That's so cool you're enjoying this so much. Appreciate the comments!
 

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