Kothet's Story, A dremora in Skyrim, and his housecarl. Options

[ghastley]

Kothet was a (dead) character in the Gweden Brothel mod. He was the Dremora Valkynaz who owned Prizna, before she killed him and escaped. I resurrected him to be the test character for the Dremora Hearthfires mod for Skyrim, and he hung around a bit longer than expected.

Since a Dremora in Skyrim normally only wears a special version of Daedric armour (with reduced stats) he can't use most regular armour, so his story reflects that limitation, and the gear he does use is the same as the houscarl can use in my mod, which was of course added to the game as wearable by a Dremora.

The housecarl's combat style and equipment are set by the mod to complement the abilities of the player character, so a mage, defined as a player who has higher magicka than health or stamina, wil get an archer housecarl. An archer ( a non-mage with Marksman skill above one- or two-handed) gets a melee housecarl, and others get a mage. Kothet's preference is two-handed, although he starts off using a one-handed weapon with a spell in the other. The spell-book offers three choices of housecarl - male, regular female, and sexy female. The last of those wears skimpier outfits, and has the sultry voice rather than the commander voice.

Kothet's story is already well under way, and I'll start to post more episodes here once I finish posting Clark's. There's a link at the top for those who've forgotten about Prizna's interview with Clark. I linked to the copy here, not the one on my site with the nude picture of her.

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1 - Helgen

I can understand the Stormcloaks deciding to hide in my cave. The entrance is well-concealed, which is why I chose it. And it stays that way, if I'm careful how I enter, and don't leave obvious footprints outside.

I can understand how the pursuing Imperials found them, too. What I can't understand is why the Imperials think I'm one of them. Seriously, how many Stormcloaks have horns?

I'm not talking about helmets here. My horns are on my head, just like any of the Kyn. But we are few in Tamriel, so maybe they've never seen a Dremora before.

Whatever they were thinking, we all ended up on the same cart headed for Helgen. I presume I was vocal about the Imperials' incompetence in including me, because I don't remember much about the journey, just waking with a sore head as we approached the town. By that time, I'd given up trying to make our captors actually think. They were military, which would generally mean that thinking was for officers only.

---

I know this because once, I was an officer. In Mehrunes Dagon's forces, I led the attack that took Ganonah, the city the locals call Kvatch. Which is why I got the blame when it was taken back, even though I wasn't there at the time. I was the officer, so I should have forseen the possibility, and not left the place under the command of a subordinate . Even though Dagon himself had sent me elsewhere, on an assignment beneath my station.

To make matters worse, the woman I'd been given as a reward for my success at Ganonah had turned on me. Admittedly, I'd probably been unfair in the way I treated her. Anger at Dagon can't be directed towards him, and she probably got the worst of my frustration. I was on guard duty - me, a Valkynaz, on guard duty! - inside the gate we'd opened near Bravil. That's where she killed me. A mere woman struck me down, with shock spells to weaken me, and a final blow from a mace! I was so proud of the way she did it, but of course, unable to tell her until I was restored.

And then, equally, I was in no position to do so, because I was somewhere else in Tamriel. I have no idea how long I was in the heatless flames of Oblivion waiting for restoration, but I expected to be restored in the Deadlands, in familiar territory. Clearly I'd lost even more of Dagon's regard by being slain by my own woman, and he'd sent me to guard another gate, this time from the outside.

I'd only been there a few hours, when the fire in the gate suddenly ceased, meaning the gate was closed, and I was stuck in the mortal world until Dagon decided to recall me. Given his recent actions, I did not imagine that happening soon.

---

Two centuries later, I'm still here. Each time I die, I'm restored to Tamriel, not the Deadlands. So stripping off my armour and wrestling a bear wasn't as much use as I thought it would be. It just lost me some useful equipment, and I had to replace it with lesser things that mortals had made. Since then, I've learned to make my own.

When these Imperial clowns have finished with me, I'll need to make some more, as they took everything when they put us on the carts. Since I'd just crawled out of my bedroll when the Stormcloaks arrived, I wasn't even wearing my armour, and they gave me some crude sack-cloth things to cover myself.

I can see Helgen gates now, so it looks like we'll be there in a few minutes. Hopefully there will be a competent officer in charge, and I'll be released.

---

The horse-thief the soldiers had rounded up with us didn't have any confidence in officers, and tried to run as soon as we got off the carts. He died in a volley of arrows.

There was a legionary calling the roll of prisoners, and lining us up for the General. I'd heard of this Tullius, and he seemed like a man who could think. I was confident that their mistake would soon be rectified.

Obviously, my name wasn't on their list. They didn't even know it yet, because I hadn't told them. The unthinking grunts hadn't asked; it wasn't their job. The legionary asked his commander, a woman, what he should do. This was as it should be, pass the decision-making up the chain, and do not take responsibility on yourself. I expected her in turn to ask Tullius, but she decided that she didn't need to bother him with this level of decision, and arbitrarily condemned me to join the others in line for the block.

Part of me admired her confidence in her own decisions, but most of me just wanted to kill her. I stared at the Captain, learning her features so I would know her if we met again. No, when we met again. Even if I had to return from the dead to kill her, and of course I would do so.

I was the second to the block. It had me thinking that I might even be returned before all the executions were complete, and how beautiful would be the justice if I could place her head on this very block in my next life. But then the dragon came, and everything was confusion.

---

I found myself running into a tower with one of the Stormcloaks. My hands were still bound, and he had nothing to cut the ropes. How he'd got his own free, I wasn't sure. We went looking for weapons, and eventually found some. With my hands loose, and an axe in one of them, I could determine my own fate.

And fate led my nemesis to me. The same Captain led a small group of Imperials into the chamber, and my Stormcloak allies helped me deliver justice. I took her armour, adjusted the straps to suit my very different shape, and put it on. Her ample chest meant that she wore a size large enough to protect a male, but it wasn't quite the right shape. I discarded the top half, even though it was plate that might have melted down. There was no smelter or forge here.

Ralof laughed when I tried it on. "We'll no doubt find you some more as we go further in," he predicted. "Probably not plate, but the regular Imperial armour isn't too bad. Of course, I can understand you not wanting to be mistaken for one of them. Especially not for a woman!"

I felt the thought he hadn't expressed. The hope that I wouldn't get the chance to take any Stormcloak amour. He didn't want to find any fallen comrades on our way out.

---

Some did fall, but they were crushed by the collapse of part of the buildings just after we passed, and out of our reach. I managed to add a basic long bow and some iron arrows, from an Imperial archer, but didn't bother to trade any armour. His covered more, but was thinner. We both picked up some potions, lockpicks and minor items as we passed through the cave beyond the dungeons. Some of those arrows went into fighting spiders and a bear.

Ralof and I parted company at the exit to the cave. He was going to head for another small town called Riverwood, where his sister lived. I was more inclined to try and head back towards my cave. I'd survived well enough in Tamriel by keeping away from the people, so going into town wasn't my first choice.

But I wasn't familiar with this part of Skyrim, so I ended up finding myself in the same town I was trying to avoid. It seemed that all the trails on this side of Helgen lead to the same place.

---

I went into the general store, hoping to trade some of the Imperial military junk I'd picked up for something a bit less tied to one side of the Civil War. I walked into the middle of an argument betwen the shopkeeper and his sister about something that had been stolen. Since he didn't seem to want to discuss trade until that subject was dealt with, I found myself agreeing to look for the missing item. I really had no intention of going to look for it, but his description intrigued me. It seemed to resemble a Clannfear Claw, something I hadn't seen for decades. I wondered if it actually was one that had been gilded as a trophy.

I got a decent trade for my goods, so apparently my agreement had put him in a good mood. His sister pointed out Bleak Falls Barrow on the hills at the other side of the valley as the likely place it had been taken. The map I'd bought put it on one of the trails that crossed the hills towards Whiterun, and I had to pass near that city to get back to the Rift and my cave. It was a bit longer that way, but why not take a look?

I suppose I was also looking forward to the prospect of some combat. There would be bandits this way, the ones that had stolen the claw at least, and the other route was a well-used road that would be relatively boring. I headed for the hills.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Jul 18 2016, 06:07 PM

[ghastley]

Aacadian: Not fear, disgust.

Renee:

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Previously Kothet and Jane the Jiggly Zahra visited High Hrothgar and were sent to Ustengrav.

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21 - Ustengrav

We had to cross the hills to get to Morthal, and at the top of one of them, we found a dragon, roosting on another of those word walls with the dragon writing. He shouted frost at us, but I fired arrows back, and Zahra threw fireballs, until we brought him down. Then my war-hammer proved mightier than his jaws.

The wall taught me "Zun", which means weapon, so now I had two words that I could unlock with the dragon's knowledge. Neither really called me to turn them into a shout right away. "Yol" would not give me any more fire damage than Zahra could produce, and one of the Kyn would not be happy taking advantage of his opponent by disarming him with a shout. Besides, the dragons are the strongest foes, and they carry no weapons.

I knew that I could wait, and use this later. There might be another word wall where we were heading, and I'd have yet another option.

---

We met the road between Morthal and Dawnstar, and it looked like we could follow it for a while before we need to cut off towards Ustengrav. We'd met frostbite spiders on this road before, but it seemed to me likely that we'd see more going through the swamps.

We passed the point where we'd previously turned off to Labyrinthian, and the pass, and instead found the small mining community of Stonehills. I had no need to stop, so we continued northward up the road. Not much further, we came across a couple of conjurers being ambushed by bandits. They were dead before we reached them, and the bandits turned on us. Stupid mortals!

We didn't find much worth taking on the bandits, and the conjurers didn't have anything better. A few ingredients, and some potions was about all. I'd expected more, as they had a horse (dead now) and a wagon, and could have been carrying quite a load.

This was about where we'd need to turn off west towards Ustengrav. I looked for a trail, but didn't find much, so I was quite surprised to find us approaching a Stormcloak camp. The guard eyed me suspiciously, but said nothing as we passed.

At the foot of the rise, I could see the ring of a nordic barrow. There was a campfire nearby, and a crude shelter, suggesting a bandit camp. Why they didn't just use the ruin itself was puzzling, but perhaps they didn't have the place to themselves. There might well be draugr inside.

The bandits, as ever, were hostile, but not for long. I noticed that Zahra was sporting a cloak of flames as she ran down the hill to engage them. That should keep the spiders away!

---

Inside, steps led down to a larger chamber under the hill, where some more of the bandits had fallen into the clutches of necromancers, who had raised them as thralls. One of the necromancers was complaining about their sluggishness as we approached. Zahra gave them more to complain about with a fireball in their midst, and I charged in with my warhammer.

We picked up a few useful potions and things, and then looked around for a way to go farther into the tomb. A side passage echoed with the sounds of fighting, so we followed it to find out what was going on.

The draugr I'd been expecting were doing battle with more of the necromancers. We let them thin each others' ranks before joining the side that was winning. Naturally the draugr were ungrateful, and we had to finish them as well.

They weren't the last of them, of course, but we didn't encounter another group of that size again. Ones and twos weren't a problem to us. Eventually we emerged into a large grotto, on a ledge overlooking the main chamber. The passage we had to follow had a fire trap, but that doesn't mean much to Dremora.

The skeletons we encountered next were a nuisance, as there were quite a few of them, all armed with bows, and they all seemed to notice us at once. After running around and eliminating them, we headed down the ramp to a word wall at the bottom, by a small pool.

The word I learned this time was "Feim", part of "Become Ethereal". I thought about this one for a while, and decided to unlock it with my dragon knowledge. I could use this to pass through traps and turn them off for Zahra. She didn't seem to be able to dodge them as well as I do, perhaps because she's a mage, rather than a fighter.

This area appeared to be a dead end, with no way to progress, so we walked back up to the middle level to look around more. There was a bridge over to another area we hadn't explored, so we crossed it, only to come under fire from another skeleton archer. His bones flew apart as one of Zahra's fireballs found its mark.

There were three small pillars rising from the floor. As I approached one, it started to glow and a gate at the end opened. I walked on to the next one, and it, too, started glowing. A second gate, behind the first, opened up. But when I continued to the third, the first gate closed again, just as the third one opened.

I backed up until the first gate opened again, but by then the third one had dropped again. It appeared that I couldn't open all three gates at once, because I couldn't stand near all three pillars. Zahra's presence didn't affect them. This was my trial, so it was all tuned to me. At least that's what I imagined. She's as real as I am, so there can't be any other explanation for it.

Walking up and down, I noticed a slight delay between the pillars' glow ceasing, and the gate closing. I might be able to run past all the pillars, and get through the gates, if I used that Whirlwind Sprint shout the Greybeards had taught me.

Of course I ran into the gates at full speed a couple of times before I got the timing right. Zahra was trying so hard not to laugh, as she sauntered through after me. Of course the gates stayed open for her after I'd done all the work.

Then we came to a large area of fire traps, the kind that blast flames up from the floor. While we resist fire well, there were just too many of these to ignore. But I noticed that they were not all a uniform shade. A quick experiment showed that the darker ones produced flames, but the paler ones didn't. I told Zahra what I'd discovered and instructed her to follow in my footsteps. Without pushing, please!

There had to be spiders, didn't there? Fortunately, she just stopped and turned on her fire cloak, instead of trying to run back. Then she hurled fireballs, even after they were dead. She's getting more composed when it's spiders, but we still have a way to go.

Naturally, she let me clear the webs off the door ahead before she was prepared to pass through it. It led into a large flooded chamber, with a path up the middle. As we entered, dragon head statues rose out of the water, with a lot of noisy grinding of stone on stone. Nothing else, though. No draugr popping out of coffins, or any of the usual stuff.

At the top of the coffin at the end of the path was a stone hand, holding up a note, rather than the horn I was expecting to find. It was addressed to me, or at least "Dragonborn", and told me to rent the attic room at the inn in Riverwood. I presumed whoever left the note had the horn now, so I had little choice but to do as it requested.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Jan 23 2017, 11:20 PM