I love Jensa's inner dialogue here - *snip*

Edited to remove spoilers. Very sorry about that. Info is in the spoiler section.

*snip* I'd love to hear it, I am really not into breaking into my neighbors houses - especially after I turned everyone in Riften against me, really sensitive about ticking off any more people than necessary, lol.

I put it in the spoiler thread.

Oh dear, what happened in Riften?

Everyone loved Maxical and was calling her a hero, etc. She collected a few debts for the TG and now she is hated by everyone in town (including the guards) and in spite of the fact that she is the Thane. Urk. I've all but decided to load a previous save and start over - NOT doing that quest or any part of it.

Yikes. It's hard to please anyone in Riften. Maybe that's why I like Balimund so much.

He is really nice, but...dirty. Filthy in fact. He was so nice to Maxical though, she liked him in spite of his dirt. Wonder if he'll still be nice to her now that she has become scata in Riften? Mercurio (spelling?) has asked her to marry him now, so he doesn't seem to care that the whole town hates her.

Maybe Mercurio is already a bad man. I haven't encountered him yet.

Mercurio is a not bad looking mage, he does freaking kick british boat lol

I do prefer Balimund though, but he is such a grouch, haha. and I prefer my men more romantic.

Nothing much in my end, still thinking on who I should marry myself of to.
Gilliam already got married though

That's what I heard on the internet. If you find a romantic man in the game that isn't a beggar, post it, ROFL !!!

OH !!! Who did Gilliam marry, and we want details !!! WOO HOO !!!

Haha xD, oh website censors they make me laugh xD.

And I shall tell you guys. TOMORROW Muahaha.

Actually that guy, whats his face, the imperial from the winking skeever, is romantic.

I'll go check it out. (the Winking Skeever). Isn't that a reference to a female body part?

Hahah xD, I remember him saying (when I test married him) "Me and you are the only people worth loving in Skyrim." Among other things, also he is clean! And not bad looking, He has my seal of approval. And that means allot because I like my men manly manly men men

Is it the bartender?

Think it is, he gives you a quest to deliver something to Falk Firebeard if I remember correctly.

This wasn't today, but it was rather interesting.

It all started when Melainoe came across her first giant. She thought she'd be friendly and say hello! Well, the giant didn't want to say hi. He got hostile real quick. So Melainoe ran away until he got tired of chasing her and walked off.

I say outloud, "Stupid #^$%!"

Right as I finished saying it, the giant turned and ran back to attack Melainoe! She ran away again. Once he was walking away, I said, "Wow what a #@)*#!"

Again, as if he could hear me through the tv, he chased Melainoe down again!

This time as he walked away, I kept my mouth shut. He kept walking.

Sometimes I find myself holding my breath when my character is sneaking. It works, you have the evidence!!

I'll go check it out next time I get a chance to play. With everyone suddenly hating my character in the game (seems they must have some sort of ESP about my character's nefarious doings in Riften) - I am seriously considering consoling everyone into liking her that I come across - getting sick of hearing the "Your type ain't welcome here" comments (while they are still mysteriously interested in my "Amulet of Mara"), lol.


@ Jacki - SPEW !!! ROFL !!! That is funny, were you playing on the 360 with the headset on? ROFL !!!

Let me guess, you have lockpick or sneak above 40-60ish? Around that stage, my girls keep getting rude 'warnings' from guards.

It's been happening since she joined the Thieves Guild. Like I guess the members of that "secret" organization are known all over Skyrim, and it doesn't matter that she is Thane of three major cities, lol.

J’Shanji gets those remarks, too. I wasn’t sure if it was because he’s Khajiit, or the lockpicking thing. He’s not in the TG.

Here’s a page from Jensa’s notebook:


Today I met an Altmer who didn’t try to kill me, but we still didn’t get along. Sven and I went into a shop to see about a trade, and the lady behind the counter started giving me a hard time about what I was wearing. I’ll admit that I don’t know much about city ways. Instead of giving her a smack I asked her what she meant. She said she had an outfit that would make me look less like a bandit. I noticed that she didn’t say much to Sven. Of course by then he was back in his bard clothes.

Her fancy gown might be something that a Jarl would wear, but I didn’t care for it. The damn thing itched my skin, weighed a ton, and the color was straight out of a diaper. I asked Sven if it made my backside look big. Poor man looked like he had half swallowed a bee and didn’t know whether to choke it down or cough it up. I took that as a yes.

The Altmer lady started to give me a hard time again, but then I told her I had some Thalmor robes to trade. Those elves have been busy trying to Justiciate me. When I heaved the stack up onto the counter her eyes got big and her mouth got quiet. She made a good trade and didn’t even mention the blood. Now I have a new dress, a lot like the blue one Auntie Dorka made for my thirteenth spring. It’s soft, and it makes me feel pretty. I can tell that Sven likes it. Maybe it reminds him of Camilla. He’s getting that mopey look again. Tonight I’ll latch the door and give him something else to think about.

Yeah, that would do it too. My mage has been getting people complain about the ruin we first entered even though it's been a month since then. My TG get comments about recognizing TG armor as well so.. yeah. There must be a broadsheet of all guild members/activities sent out every other day to all holds.

Here in Tennessee we get a weekly paper called "Busted." It is broken down into the numerous counties it covers and has sections like "This Week in the Drunk Tank!" and "Sticky Fingers! This Week's Theft Arrests!"

For Assault and Battery the section is entitled, "Ready 2 Rumble." Anyone caught drug trafficking is on the page titled "Weekly Traffic Report."

I guess Skyrim has the same thing, but it is updated every second and you don't have to be arrested (or even seen) to be put in it.

From Jensa, who will soon be decapitating people with her greatsword. I'm pretty sure the mystic archer plan is not going to happen with this one.


Dammit, now my book is missing the last chapter! I should have known something was up when Sven took it into the bushes after he ate all of those snowberries. For a bard, that man is not much of a reader. Everyone knows you start pulling out the pages that folk have already read. I’m pretty sure I can guess how it ends, though. They weren’t really talking about bread.

It wasn’t because of the book, but Sven and I have parted ways. He was watching the sky all day on the road, and then a dragon attacked while we were in the middle of Rorikstead. We put it down with the guards’ help. That means they saw what happened after. I still don’t want to think about it. Now there are a bunch more folk telling me to climb the Steps. I guess it all got to be too much for Sven, and he left me. That's all right. There’s a fellow at the inn who wants to go adventuring. I suppose that’s what I’m doing. He handled himself pretty well against the dragon, so I’ll walk with him for awhile. Tonight I’m staying at the inn. It’s late because there was a lot of mead to drink. Erik told some regular-folk stories, and they were all funnier than Sven’s bard tales. Maybe we’ll make some new stories out on the road.

Wait, this story is missing some details !!! What book, and what did the guards see????? ROFL !!!

Maxical walked into Riverwood her first day in Skyrim and heard Sven telling his own mother to shut up - that was his last opportunity to go walk about with her. She would have warned Jensa, but it was too late.

All I'll say is that when you find the book, you will definitely know it!!

It was hearing Sven's chat with his mom in Aravi's video that inspired his less than honorable discharge from Jensa's company. My characters have always been running after someone and never heard that whole dialog.

Maxical heard it as she was following the Imperial home. As soon as she left the Imperial's house, she went over to Hilde and confirmed that a dragon had attacked that fort. That made both Hilde and Maxical feel a bit better. But Sven was in her bad books from that point on.

An update from Jensa:


Erik and I have gotten better at fighting together. With his battleaxe and my greatsword, we need some room to work. I guess his farm gets a lot of attention from bandits. Just like our camp back home. It seems like no matter how little you have, there’s always someone who’s willing to take it.

I’ve been meaning to tell Erik about my little Thalmor problem, but the moment never seemed right. Now there’s no need. Here’s what happened.

We’d been climbing over hot rocks for hours, trying to keep between the giants and the sabre cats without either one taking notice. Erik is no hunter. That man has some heavy feet. We finally came out on the top of a waterfall with the road down right on the other side. The sun was up and we could see clear across the valley. The river sang in our ears and rumbled our bones. Even the mud smelled clean.

“By the Nine,” Erik says. Then he gives me a quick look like he’s not sure what I’ll do.

Before I can say a word there’s a flash of light off of that gold colored Elven armor. It’s Justiciars on the road, and they have a prisoner. I don’t need to ask what Erik wants to do. He just admitted he’s a Talos worshiper. “I've got your back,” I told him, and I found us a quick way across the river. The next thing I know there’s angry words and weapons drawn.

I got the prisoner free and gave him my dagger. He couldn’t do much with it except die pretty well. He was glad for the chance, though, I could see it in his face. I’m going to pick up a couple of spare axes in case this happens again. No one should end their days in a Thalmor prison.

Has anyone confirmed that Erik's voice is done by Todd Howard himself? It sure sounds like him, and I think Todd would have done something like that as a tribute to Immok. I was terrified at the thought of getting Erik as a follower unless I was sure he could be made essential, just in case the game did not set him up as essential.

I think Erik has the same voice as Sven, but I don't know. They both say some of the same things.

Erik will be immortal in my game through reloading. If he dies I'll reload and tell him to go his own way so that Jensa will have to deal with the consequences, but I'm not going to leave him on the ground.

I didn't think he sounded anything like Sven, but I didn't hear Sven talk as much as I heard him ... "sing."

For anyone who is wondering, the "Erik the Slayer" NPC was created in memory of Erik West, or as he was known on the Bethesda Forums, "Immok the Slayer" - who passed away last May 11 at the age of just 19 from cancer.

Erik was a visitor to Bethesda's HQ when Skyrim was in development through the "Make a Wish" foundation. They picked him up from Washington DC in a stretch Limo and drove him up to Bethesda. The Devs were so impressed with his knowledge of Oblivion that they gave him an in depth tour of Bethesda studios and decided to create a character in his honor that he could see in Skyrim.

Erik's own words expressing his excitement about meeting everyone at Bethesda can be found here:


http://scrollstudio.com/forum/Thread-Immok-goes-to-Bethesda


He was as tight-lipped as any of the Dev's about the secrets revealed to him, as you can see by his responses.


Sadly, Erik died in May 2011 from his long battle with cancer and never got to see the release of Skyrim.










Here is an article about Erik:


http://www.salemnews.com/local/x1934377780...stopped-smiling



** I am almost 97-99% positive that Todd Howard did the voice acting for the "Erik the Slayer" character in tribute, if anyone can confirm that, please post it.


*

Thanks for sharing mALX!

Indeed, thank you mALX! And thank you, Bethesda, for honoring Erik West's memory.

Now, to business: the journeys of Veritas Marcellius can be found here.

I know, lots of text in the first post, but that's simply the introduction and backstory.

mALX, thank you for posting that. It's great to know the real story behind such a delightful character.

I don't know if they made Erik the Slayer essential, but he is extremely tough. Yesterday I saw him get hit by frost and flame attacks while he was already on his knees from a swinging gate trap. I guess the mages must have already started their attacks when he took a knee, because normally they would stop attacking at that point. Anyway, he got back up while still on fire. I was not expecting that.


*
Jensa is in a bit of a pickle:


It’s been a rough day. I drank too much last night and woke up far from where I started. I’m sore in places I won’t admit to, half the city is mad at me, and the other half just smiles and winks. And where the hell is Erik? I don’t know whether to look for him or stay put and hope he finds me. Or maybe pray that he doesn’t, depending on what he might have witnessed. The details are just starting to surface, and so far they are not good. I’ve got a mess on my hands here. Maybe he’ll show up while I’m dealing with it.

Jensa keeps me laughing with her antics and inner thoughts !! I wonder what she did do? ROFL !!!

She's on a real quest, poor girl, but the details have been redacted to protect the innocent. I know that Trey has been there!!

Last night I decided to start a new character. Fire Walker is an Argonian battle mage with an affinity for fire magic and necromancy. He's a good guy in general, but definitely has a looser set of morals than Aravi has. He doesn't do any of that sneaking crap either.

~~~

The smell of burned flesh is heavy in the air of the crypt as Fire Walker checks if anything is salvageable from the corpses. A few coins from each one makes him grunt in disapproval. No bother. Their deaths will profit him when he returns to Whiterun. The Nord with the big rusty axe had a bounty on his head.

The groan of his zombie gets his attention. It is unusual that this zombie survived the fight with the two bandits he just searched. He looks at the zombie and grips his mace. The zombie is no longer useful now that the crypt is empty of the living, save himself. With that in mind, he dismisses the zombie with a casually brutal strike to the temple. As the zombie falls away, he is disturbed by what he hears… a quiet whisper from his former tool.

“Thank you…”

That freaked me out to know the zombies would say that. URK !! I may never use that spell !!! Great story, KC !!!

I had no idea. That is disturbing. Fire Walker sounds like he's going to be a lot of fun, and very different from Aravi! I look forward to hearing about his adventures!


*
Rowan has been unable to purchase a house in Solitude despite her hounding Falk Firebeard to tell him about her tireless commitment to the people of the Hold. She discovered the impediment buried deep in the Miscellaneous Quests list: Talk To Elisif. D’oh!!


*
In other news, things have improved for Jensa:


Erik found me at the temple. He had a look on his face that said I should apologize and not offer any details. So that’s what I did.

“And I’m still in a heap of trouble,” I finished up.

“No problem,” he says with one of his quick little grins. “How can I help?”

This fellow is all right.

Grits: Lemme guess, met Sam in a pub?

Yeah, today was my last day on Skyrim. My copy is now getting re-gifted for my bro, who only plays X-Box, so I can wait for the debugged PC version to exist.

Anyways, today in Skyrim...

Ragnall woke up with a headache the equivalent of getting hit in the head by Stendarr's Hammer. And he had no idea where he was.

For the record, the night before, Ragnall decided to go see a guy named Sam, who was hanging out in a bar in Markath. Figures. Hopefully what happens in Markath stays in Markath...

Anyways, Ragnall had lots o' cleaning up to do. I won't get into specifics, but apparently it involved a spur-of-the-moment marriage (and not even to a, ah, that is, an...exotic dancer, which at least speaks to my awesome virility), a goat (not a tiger, which would have been awesome) a giant (not a famous competitive boxer, albeit one with a certain reputation), some upset guards (probably because of the embarrassment I caused them), and a minor injury that's left my throat hoarse and shout-less.

The worst part? My fellow Companions weren't with me. I was a one-man wolf pack that night...

Quick Addendum: Also, apparently there was massive gambling with a guy whose descent is from an eastern province, bandits, and apparently I owe him 10 grand...

Holy Cow, Capt !! Obviously you don't need the Stallion's potion !! Raerek must be green with envy !!

My favorite quest so far.

Jensa and Erik the Slayer have been adventuring. Here's a page from her journal:


Today was a big day for dragons.

The first one attacked us on the road. We had no cover, no help, and our arrows didn’t hurt it. Good thing it was spitting frost, or we would have been dead. Even so we were a mess by the time we got to a narrow place between some rocks.

That made it mad. It had to land so it could snap at us.

Erik gave me a look that said he was ready. I got out in front and he put his axe through its wing, right at the joint. I don’t remember much except teeth and screaming after that, but we killed it.

Then I was in the middle of another storm, with lights and wind and a song in my blood. There’s no feeling in this world or the next as good as that, I’ll wager. Afterwards there was Erik standing by the dragon bones with that look on his face. The same one the guards had.

I hit him with a healing spell before he could say anything. That always makes him kind of bashful. And it gave me time to quiet my mind. I heard the dragon’s voice when we were fighting, and I remember one of the words. I know it’s a Thu’um. It could tear me to pieces if I try to Shout, I don’t have any training. I do have a new feeling in my guts. I think I might be afraid.

We didn’t get far before another dragon spotted us. This one didn’t roar, we just heard its wings. We had time to get under a ledge and drink some potions against its magic. The dragon had to angle low so it could reach us. We had a few seconds to shoot before the world turned to fire. One of us put an arrow in its eye. Then we had our chance to get out there and fight.

“You’re one of them,” Erik says when it’s all over. “Dragonborn. You absorbed its soul.”

This is not the time to start lying, so I just gave a nod.

“Maybe they’re hunting you,” he says.

Whether or not it’s true, I can tell he believes it. There are all kinds of adventures he talks about having. Getting burned alive isn’t one of them. This is the part where he leaves me, I thought. He’s going to tell me to go my own way.

Instead he lit up with one of those smiles. “You know, at first I thought I’d miss farming,” he says. “But I guess I’ve had my fill of it, because I don’t miss it at all.”

Went back on it...For...Nostalgia...Wish I hadn't bothered...*Shrug*...The Blades are ar$es and the conversation options haven't updated to account for the finishing of the MQ...Then as befits my story, I went to join Ulfric Stormcloak, only for him to have forgotten that during the MQ I essentially gave him most of Skyrim...

Bethesda are ar$es...The fact that Ulfric Knows I'm the Dragonborn should be enough for me to simply walk into the Stormcloaks...No, I have to go off and kill and Ice Wraith in order for me to "Prove myself"...There should be some updates to the surrounding questlines if you've done the MQ and are obviously the hardest man/woman in Skyrim...

Yeah, right...So I walked through the next quest, then did the battle that I was kinda dreading, but with less loss of life than I suspect it was supposed to have...(Killed the Legion, not the Guards)...Finished that but gave it to th'boy to save and switch off when the Jarl finished witterring and just went off to cook Chrimby dinner...Which was infinately more fun...

So...Giving up again...

@ Grits - that story reminds me exactly why I was hesitant to start the dragons in this game, lol. That is so dear about Erik, though !!! Awesome !!

J'Shanji the Khajiit warrior and his pal J'Zargo spent Saturalia outdoors.


Skeletal remains, a broken wheel, and an overturned cart told their own story. This trader had no more use for his merchandise. Much of it had been spoiled by weather and animals, but there was still more than two Khajiit could carry. Each item they salvaged would help Birna restock her shelves. J’Shanji held a rolled hide in his hands. “One more,” he told J’Zargo.

“J’Zargo only has so much room to carry things,” the mage objected.

J’Shanji eyed his friend’s slender frame. “J’Zargo is not encumbered by a warrior’s build. His steps might break the snow, with enough in his pack.”

J’Zargo glanced down at himself and up again. “J’Shanji cannot know the weight this one carries. How fortunate that J’Shanji is not so burdened.”

Resorting to violence is admitting defeat with that one, thought J’Shanji. Make the most of it. J’Shanji leaped onto his friend, pushing him face-first into a snow drift. The two of them wrestled like kittens.

Scent warned them an instant before the sabre cat pounced. J’Shanji rolled to his feet, blades flashing in the sun. Lightning cracked and flickered over the sabre cat. J’Zargo must be under it, thought J’Shanji.

He leaped onto the cat’s broad back. As his blades opened its throat, J’Zargo’s spell flung the sabre cat backward. J’Shanji sprang free. J’Zargo lay still and silent.

J’Shanji knelt in the red snow, reaching out a tentative hand. “Zargo-jo?” he whispered.

His friend’s ear twitched. Healing light began to circle and glitter.

J’Shanji rose to his feet, grinning his relief. He reached for his skinning knife. “Now J’Zargo will have two hides to carry.”

GAAAAH !!! Scared me to death !!! I thought J'Zargo was lost !!! WHEW !!

Oh good! I was worried there for J'Zargo.

Great ending!