Old Habits Die Hard Part Six, some old habits never die Options

[haute ecole rider]

Hello all, and welcome to the final thread of Old Habits Die Hard. Those of you who are familiar with the Main Quest know that we are fast approaching the end game. Only three more artifacts to obtain, then we can recover the Amulet of Kings and light those Dragonfires and see Martin to the Dragon Throne at last. Right?

For those who are coming late to the party, here are the links to the other five threads:

Chapters 1 − 7: From the Prison to finding the Path of Dawn.
Chapters 8 − 13: From Dagon’s Shrine to Bravil.
Chapters 14 − 18: From Sheogorath’s Shrine to the start of the Grand Tour of Cyrodiil.
Chapters 19 − 22: From Leyawiin to Skingrad.
Chapters 23 − 25: From returning home to Anvil to the final Mages Guild recommendation.

Here in this last thread we will see the Main Quest through to its tragic conclusion. Some questions will be answered, including who is the man Julian loves? Other questions will be raised, including what’s next for Julian? Those of you who have suspected a second story in the making, you are correct.

After a year and a half of writing this story, I am happy to bring this to a close, yet I am sad to bid it adieu. Hopefully I won’t let any and all of you down as we wrap up.

This post has been edited by haute ecole rider: Jun 26 2011, 01:10 AM

[SubRosa]

The problem with the dual-wielding is that it is just not built into the game engine itself, so as you saw most just use the second weapon in place of a shield. I used Nicro's Dreadweave Axes for my spellsword Morrigan. I wanted to use a weapon and fight in melee sometimes, but did not want a shield. I found the offhand axe worked quite well to parry with for her.

The ones that try to use it as an actual weapon are causing the game to do some serious acrobatics that it was not intended for. So crashes are not at all surprising.

Very nice work with Julian's reflections on strategy, and making herself appear to be a novice in order to deceive her opponent into making a reckless move. Here you do not just tell us that she is an experienced fighter but show us. Too bad he survived her one good shot before figuring it out. Likewise, you continued to show it in the following battle, with her use of the Sunbird Dance and sudden reversal of momentum, and finally with her recognizing the amulet as something important, and using a bit of wrestling (if it can be called that) to ultimately remove it from him. Even if the latter was not planned, it was still pulled of wonderfully.

I managed to stand my ground and hold my bladder tight


“I’m no hero,”
Sounds like a certain red-haired Bosmer.

Yes, I am a Blade sister, and yes, he can ask a favor of me.
This was the strongest part of the episode for me. Here the weight of Julian's becoming a Blade really comes down. She is not just someone doing a favor for the Emp and his spymaster. She really is a Blade, and this is what it means.


nits:
Cursed. He was cursed. But who is he? I glanced at the pile of bones and Blades armor behind him. “Who are you?”
The bolded parts feel redundant. I think you can delete the leading But who is he? without losing anything.


“My three companions and I were sent here by the Emperor Tiber Septim to discover what evil had defiled the holy catacombs of Sancre Tor.” The phantom shook his head. “We did not know that the Underking, who once was Zurin Arctus, had risen to take his first revenge upon his former lord. The Underking defeated us and ensnared us in evil enchantment. He bound us here to guard forever the desecrated Shrine of Tiber Septim.”
There seems to be a continuity issue here. If Tiber Septim sent them, then that would mean he was still alive. But if they were defeated by Arctus and used to guard the place, how did it become a shrine where Tiber Septim was later buried? Rielus and the others would have killed everyone who entered to try to create a shrine, not to mention entomb Talos. I do not recall if it was like that in the game, but you might consider changing it to them being sent by Tiber Septim's successor.

Edit: Reads Captain Hammer's post. Ahh, never mind. Now it all makes sense.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: May 28 2011, 03:27 AM