Congrats, and a great beginning story there. Lots of backstory on this one. Acadian's head must be spinning with all these new Skyrim characters, they sure showed up all at once, right?

What difficulty is his game? Pretty neat that he's able to take on 4 NPCs at such low level. Then again, they're just Bandits. Not Highwaymen or anything really tough.

LOL he'd rather spend his money on skooma than a place to sleep!

No, no and no. Thanks for a welcome.

I guess it must be Apprentice but I'd need to check it to be sure because I haven't changed any settings since I started Lucius' game, which means since November.

I suspect Aard might be headed for Riften eventually. I hear there are like-minded people living under the streets there...

Indeed.

Or he might overhear rumors about a certain boy in Windhelm.

Or both.

Lopov - Lucius and Aard sound kind of like the light and dark sides of the Force.

*

Buffy and Superian were riding along the road this morning near Nightgate Inn when they encountered a pair of Vigilants of Stendarr. The roving crusaders gave their stock spiel on how evil consorting with daedra or trafficking in their trinkets is. Buffy, with Azura’s Star sitting quietly in her pack, just smiled politely.

After watering her mare at the pond by the inn, Buffy continued her travels. Soon she encountered the same Vigilants engaged in a pitched battle with a pair of ice wraiths – and not faring very well. Knowing the hazards and futility of trying to shoot her arrows into the dancing ice wraiths with Vigilants so close, she dismounted - allowing her to cast spells without restriction.

The elf conjured a flame atronach named Cindar. Given the ice wraiths’ weakness to flames, Cindar’s fire missiles quickly turned the tide of the battle - likely saving the Vigilants from icy deaths.

Cindar did a graceful victory pirouette over the wraiths' remains as the two Vigilants healed each other of frost wounds. Buffy smiled impishly, then approached and spoke. “Could you tell me again how dangerous it is to consort with daedra?”

The vigilants do seem to be rather weak when you encounter them fighting. I followed a pair past Broken Tower and the one forager outside killed both of them.

I think they might responsible for my finding a single non-hostile vampire on the road near Rorikstead. There's a standard encounter of a pair chasing a vamp, but if she's cornered, she'll fight, and possibly win!

Buffy just had to rub their noses in it, didn't she!

One thing that's really weird about this Vigilants is if you try to heal them up, they get mad and start attacking. I've had this happen on console and PC. Kind of bizarre. Only THEY get to heal, not us.

Lopov, Aard sounds like he will be a fun change from Lucius. I enjoyed his first story. Now I need to go look for Aard screenshots!

Acadian, that is hilarious! I love Cindar’s name.

Buffy has the last word - I'll never forget her dumping out a Bag of Holding full of Daedric artifacts in front of Raminus Polus!

Indeed, if I have one character on the bright side, then it's only fair to have one on the dark side.

What a great short story about Buffy, Vigilants and Cindar, maybe they learned a lesson now that Daedra saved their lives. And Cindar is a good name indeed!

Thank you.

Took my latest archer to Meridia's temple to get a better sword for Derkeethus. Not much problem wading through the corrupted shades on the way through, but she was down to her last three arrows when we got to Malkoran, as they didn't have any for her to collect along the way. I'm also playing her without Dawnguard (or Dragonborn) so she can't make her own.

So she's pretty much restricted to casting her flame atronach in his chamber, running back out and closing the door. Derkeethus is still in there, down on one knee permanently, but it appears that friendly fire from the flamer doesn't kill him, so that's OK.

I have to reload a couple of times when Malkoran manages to kill her through the closed door! His frost attacks are way above her level, and she has no resistance at all.

Eventually Malkoran is down to his last breaths, and she goes in and finishes him off with her bow. Then she has to run back out and repeat for his shade. Finally that dies, too.

At the end of all that, she hands the Dawnbreaker to Derkeethus, but he doesn't use it, because his current unenchanted sword has the same base damage, and he doesn't notice the rest. Derkeethus was a poor choice for an archer, anyway, as he prefers his bow, too. We're off to Riften to recruit Mjoll. She may be a dumb blonde, but she will use Grimsever, once we get it back.

All that to get a sword for Derk and he won't use it! Yay for Mjoll!

IIRC, it was in battle with Malkoran that I canceled Lucius' DiD status and reloaded. His frost spells were insanely powerful, capable of killing Lucius in a few seconds and he wasn't at low level.

--

Lucius was holding precious Miraak's equipment in his hands; his slimy sword, his heavy mask, his ornate robes - he could see himself wearing the first Dragonborn's clothes and wielding his sword in the name of power.

Power?

Did he need any more power? He almost touched the book to leave Apocrypha but then stopped and turned around, looking at a skeleton that was once the first Dragonborn.

"That's exactly what Mora would want. That I'd take these artifacts and use them. But by using them, I'd be no better than Miraak. I might even fall under Mora's influence..."

Another powerful vision struck his head and he saw himself fighting a dragon while wielding Miraak's sword and shouting words, still unknown to him. Visions of the battle filled him with dark confidence and he almost touched the book that would teleport him back to Solstheim but stopped in the last second.

"You have no control over me, Mora."

Having said that, he turned around and tossed Miraak's equipment on the ground. Once again a vision struck his mind but this time he closed his eyes and concentrated on Solstheim, on the peaceful village of Skaal. He could feel his mind fighting a battle with Hermaeus Mora who tried to portray him another scene, where Lucius would reign over Skyrim. He heard the disgusting deep voice in his head...continue to serve me and you will be richly rewarded...

"I don't need your rewards, stinking Demon."

Before he would begin doubting his decision again, Lucius quickly touched the black book and left Apocrypha.

Solstheim was liberated.

Yay for Lucius!!! Jabba the Hutt's a disgusting pig!

I didn't look Derkeethus up on the UESP wiki before letting him follow. Doing his rescue quest was a result of her going to Darkwater Crossing for the Corundum she needed to make locks in the Orc Stronghold construction. She talked to the Dunmer miner, and got two quests - the Derkeethus one, and a fetch quest to Quintus Navale in Windhelm for lung medicine. That was the first time I'd ever done that one.

She failed badly in her first attempt to rescue Derkeethus, as she couldn't summon any decent allies, and the Chaurus were too tough for a familiar and just a Fine Hunting Bow. She came back later with a Superior Dwarven Bow, and a Flame Atronach and did much better. That quest doesn't have a minimum level on the wiki, but I suspect it's about 10-12, and she went in at 6 the first time. Should have read the omens.

---

I always take Miraak's stuff back to Severin Manor and park it permanently on a dummy there. I wish there were a place to leave it in the Skall village as a monument to Storn.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Feb 24 2015, 10:18 PM

Darn Vigilants, always getting themselves in trouble. People would be more inclined to help them if they didn't hate pretty much every aspect of Tamriel. They always tell Haa-Rei about werewolves being evil and bad which is just downright rude, and untrue.

Gotta say that i'm a big fan of Derkeethus. I always upgrade gear for him with blacksmithing skills and pop some enchantments on it just to make him a decent follower. Though he is immortal so I never have to worry much.

Miraak's mask goes with the other dragon priest masks in our collection whilst his weapons are on display in Lakeview Manor. Haa-Rei gets on quite well with old Mora but he's still wary of Daedra (even the nicer ones are still dangerous).

My archer Willatu went and got the spell tome from Fort Amol as soon as she had the Magicka to cast Bound Bow. The experience from using it is nicely increasing her Conjuration as well as her Archery skills, and she's just put her final point in Stealth for the x3 damage. Undecided about continuing with Smithing, as only her follower would benefit, now her bow is the bound one.

That follower is still Derkeethus, although we keep threatening to get Mjoll instead. Tempering his glass sword has weaned him off the bow, and if we find an ebony ingot, we might get him to use the Dawnbreaker.

She may also go solo, once she gets past Conjuration 50 (half cost for the bow), as she should then have enough magicka to summon an ally/distraction as well as the bow.

We're dividing points between magicka and health, as she uses no armor or defensive spells. Only bosses like Malkoran should be able to one-shot her, and he's dead now. All others should be amenable to distract-and-withdraw tactics.

Increasing Archery skill should keep the bound bow damage increasing, but I'm not sue how that will keep up with levels if she diversifies. With no points going into armor, or other magic schools, we're probably OK until Conjuration and/or Archery cap out.

Time for a weekly update on Aard...

I

"Would you like to buy some flowers? Please?" Sofie politely asked the gray-haired stranger. He stopped and looked at her and Sofie thought that this man has the coldest eyes she ever saw. But then he smiled and his face seemed a lot less threatening.

“Why not. What do you have, little one?”

“Not much. But I hope you like them!” She showed her collection of flowers which she picked by herself close to Windhelm.

“Nice. I’ll have this one,” said Aard and pointed at the red flower.

“Of course, mister. That will be six septims.”

“Six? I will give you twelve if you tell me something…” Aard bent closer and Sofie felt a sudden urge to step backwards. But surely he won’t harm her, will he? She just gave him a flower. Besides, there was a guard behind a corner and if something went wrong like the other day when some drunk molested her, she would shout for help.

“Is Aventus your friend?” That was not the kind of question she expected.

“Aventus, mister? Well…yes. He came back to Windhelm a few weeks ago, he’s been in an orphanage. There’s a horrible orphanage down in Riften. But I haven’t seen him much. He…well, he locked himself in his house and…”

“And is doing something dark, right?”

“That’s…that’s what I hear, mister. But I don’t know if this is true, mister. He’s a nice kid.”

“I’m sure he is. We said twelve septims, right? Here you go. Find me the next time I come to Windhelm and I will give you twenty.”

“Thanks, mister... And thanks for talking to me.”

“Bye,” said Aard and winked at Sofie.

“Bye, mister!” Sofie no longer feared the stranger, now he seemed like a kind man. She hoped to see him again.

II

“Hey.”

*chop chop chop*

“Hey!”

*chop chop chop*

“Hey! Are you deaf?”

“Oh, pardon me. Was I in your way?” Ulundil was chopping wood so eagerly that he neither saw nor heard the stranger standing next to him.

“I’d like a horse.”

“Marvelous, sir. I have a strong mare ready to…”

“How much?”

“Straight to the point, eh? Well, by orders of our Jarls prices for horses are the same all over Skyrim…”

“How. Much?”

“One thousand septims, sir. I assure you that…”

“Here you go. Saddle her.”

“Of course, of course. Just a few minutes and your mare will be ready.”

III

Aventus was impatiently waiting for the stranger’s return. Ever since he promised him to kill Grelod, he couldn’t sleep because of excitement. The old hag will finally get what she deserves! And when he grows up, he’ll be an assassin too and will kill all sadists like her!

He heard a sound of door opening below the stairs and he hurried to see if the assassin returned. And there he was indeed, walking up the stairs, looking at Aventus with an expressionless face.

“Well? Grelod the Kind. Is she…you know?” Aventus asked, afraid that the stranger changed his mind and Grelod convinced him to bring him back to the orphanage.

“Grelod…” said Aard with a deep voice,” I hear she has a new name.”

“Huh? Sorry…I don’t get it, sir.”

“I hear…that everyone calls her Grelod the Dead these days.”

Having said that, Aard burst into a loud laughter that echoed all over the Aretino house. The laughter was so intense that Aventus scared at first but when he realized the meaning behind stranger’s words, he began laughing as well.

“Aha! I knew you could do it! I just knew it! I knew the Dark Brotherhood would save me. Here, just like I promised. This should fetch you a nice price,” he said and took the large silver platter from a wardrobe. “And thank you! Thank you again!”

“Not so fast, Aventus,” said Aard and grabbed the boy’s shoulder as he wanted to pack his things to return to the orphanage. “What am I supposed to do with this worthless platter?”

Aventus suddenly felt a lump in his throat. He was sweating from fear as Grelod’s killer was holding his small shoulder.

“I…I think it’s valuable, mister. It’s…it’s a heirloom of our family, it dates back to…”

“LIKE I CARE TO WHERE IT DATES!”

“I’m sorry, mister, please, please, don’t hurt me!”

“Relax, kid,” said Aard and released Aventus, now a smile on his scarred face. ”I’m just fooling with you. I knew beforehand that a kid like you can’t afford to pay me…to pay the Dark Brotherhood. I only regret that you hadn’t given me the platter before…for I could bring you Grelod’s head on it. Ha ha ha! Here, take this,” said Aard and gave the boy fifty septims. “For a carriage to Riften.”

Aventus sighed with relief and smiled in return. “Thank you, sir!” As he packed his stuff and left the residence, hoping to catch a late carriage, Aard sat on what was once Aventus’ mother’s bed. The house was now officially abandoned so probably it wouldn’t bother anyone if he used it for sleeping. He didn’t really enrich himself by killing Grelod but he didn’t even expect to. The Dark Brotherhood probably won’t notice that she was killed if they ignored Aventus before. After drinking a bottle of wine and eating some moon sugar, stoned Aard fell asleep in his armor.

Ghastley – Congrats to Willatu and her new bound bow! Good luck as she sorts out the best tools to support it. Putting points into health is probably good advice – more hp is unique defense in that it is equally effective against every single possible type of damage known to men and mer. Arrows, spells, swords, teeth – more hp is equally effective against them all.

Lopov – Sofie really tugs at one’s heartstrings, trying to get by selling her flowers. I’ve found her before dawn sleeping outside on the ground. In the snow. No idea what/how she eats. . . . I’m glad that Aard was kind to her.

The Aventus boy is poignant in his own right as well. So young. . . and yet so screwed up in so many ways. He's clearly given to a . . . fragile disposition, and his time in that foul orphanage finished the job. Thankfully, Aard purged that orphanage of 'The Kind'.

Fell asleep stoned in his armor in a dead woman’s house. Somehow that seems appropriate for Aard.