Jerric had an interesting day with Darnand (aka “Mayhem” Marcurio). The only spoiler concerns J’zargo’s scrolls.
First thing I should mention, they walked from Whiterun to Riften without one single hostile animal encounter. This worries me. I wonder if something is amiss in their game. If animals don’t respawn, it’s going to be a very empty world.
Second, they found a stray dog! Ulfe!!
It is pretty much impossible to get a Nord, a dog, and an irritable mage to pose for a picture, but
here is my best effort. Now if only they could find a wood elf and a saucy healer, my Skyrim dreams would be complete!
Finally, there was an incident with an assassin. Jerric managed to kill him while putting only one ice spike through the dog (she is very forgiving). He picked up the fallen sword and dagger at the same moment that Darnand’s lightning bolt sent the body flying. Sigh. An instant later there was a huge ruckus from the bushes where Darnand had strategically positioned himself for the battle. Storm atronach, and it was right next to Darnand! And Jerric was now over encumbered and out of magicka! He immediately dumped a bunch of looted weapons in the road and raced to support Darnand with shield bash and blade. I have the HUD opacity turned way down, so between the bushes, the atronach smoke, someone’s exploding fire spell, searching for whatever astonishingly powerful enemy conjured the atronach, and trying not to stab the dog, I couldn’t read any of those messages that let you know what’s going on.
Like the message that probably said “Marcurio’s Storm Atronach” while Jerric was killing it. Yeah. After we figured out there were no more enemies and they regrouped back in the road, we began to get an idea what had happened. Jerric had given Darnand a bunch of stuff to carry, like their alchemy ingredients, soul gems, and all of their scrolls. Including J’zargo’s Flame Cloaks and their precious Summon Storm Atronach scroll. A glance into Darnand’s pack told the tale. He had used one of J’zargo’s scrolls. And the atronach one.
After the assassin was dead.
Also the explosion from J’zargo’s scroll blew the loot Jerric had dropped all over the place and into the bushes. He found one iron dagger. Dammit!
But at least this time no one killed the dog.