Skyrim - Up into the mountains

A Companion named Vilkas meets Farkas and I outside the meeting hall. He leads as around the back of the building - I guess he doesn't want us traipsing our muddy boots through the hall. In fact, I am inducted into the Companions, and all because I brought back the Fragment of Wuuthrad.

Filled with hubris, I listen to my next assignment, but choose to not understand - I'll come back to them later. For now, I'm quite happy to walk around Whiterun with the town knowing that I am a Thane as well as a Companion.

 I deposit some items back at Breezehome, and get Lydia back on board. She seems keen for some adventure - so would I if I'd been stuck in this boring home of mine for days. No wonder I spend all of my time out in the country, battling bandits and dragons alike.

We exit the town, and I choose to lead Lydia on a quest to retrieve a magical blade for the priestess of Kynareth. It's right there on my "list of things to do" labeled "fix dead tree." Of course, it isn't a simple case of walking out of Whiterun and tripping over the blade, so I begin our rather circular trek into the mountains. Discovery is still very much the buzz word.

Lydia keeps the pace well, already I am impressed with her zeal. I enter the the village of Riverwood, where a lot of my old friends no longer seem to recognise me. Has my face become swollen with endless bashes from the denizens of Skyrim? Has my voice changed because I've been breathing strange fumes in mines? Where once they claimed that it everyday was a good day with me around, now they only grunt in acknowledgment.

Maybe its Lydia. Maybe Faedal has returned to Riverwood and spread bad word about her. We left on such good terms. I banish the thought from my head. I sell some gear, and we move on.

The road out of Riverwood snakes up into the mountains, and a bandit encampment comes into view. They don't seem to have notice us approaching, so giving Lydia a quick wink (I know she sees it, regardless of the heavy armour obscurring my eyes) we sneak towards them. When I'm in range, I stand up, and they are taken by surprise.

"Get out of here" one says, another growls "You'll do what's best for you." Which I do. We unsheathe our swords and remove the bandits from their mortal coils. Lydia seems to be relishing the attack, it breathes life into her.

I have a look around the camp and nab what I can carry. Spying a table and chair at the edge of camp, I sit down and take in the view of the valley. Birds sing, and I can barely hear the gurgle from cut-bandit throats over the gurgle of the river.

Skyrim - Fun on the road to Dustman's Cairn

Farkas and I go our separate ways once we leave the gates to Whiterun. "Meet me at Dustman's Cairn" he says, and runs off into the wild. Why do people do this to me, after all the good I've done for this world?

Knowing that Farkas won't enter the cairn without me being there (it's my trial to join the Companions afterall), I take the less than direct route there. I marvel at the wonders of nature - I shoot arrows through the hearts of wolves, I pick wild flowers for future use in my alchemical potions, I snatch butterflies out of the air, and I watch a herd of mammoths amble by.

So preoccupied am I by these displays, that I only notice a dragon is on me when it hits the ground in a great gust of wind, dust and bad breath. As with my previous altercations with the winged beasts, I am as far away from civilisation as I can get - and without Lydia, it really is just me versus the beast.

Or at least I think that's the case, as rather than coming to bite my head off, the dragon turns its attention to the mammoths. Regardless of the volume of poisoned dwarven arrows I pump into its leathery hide, the dragon maintains the viscous battle of winged-reptile versus furry-mammal. It manages to bring down on of the tusked leviathans, but I get the final word in with a swift arrow to the neck.

It collapses to the ground, and begins to burn to ash. I take what I can from the battlefield - dragon scales, some of its bones, a few of the arrows I'd loosed, and of course some bits from the mammoth.

I think about lugging these animal parts all through the cairn I'm heading to, and decide that these items would work better placed in a chest in my home. So I return briefly to Whiterun, and dump a large amount of my booty into Breezehome. I'll return at a later date and decide what to do with it all.

The killing of the dragon seems to have awakened the hunter in me, and when I leave Whiterun's gates once more, I set out to hunt a few wolves and elk. Their skins will be used to assist me with my smithing techniques through the future production of leather items.

I reach the outskirts of Dustman's Cairn after passing the remnants of the dragon battle, and am immediately ambushed by skeletons - if Farkas is already here, he's either a very bad scout or set this up as an initiation for me. It seems as though the skeletons are coming out of the very stonework itself. They are ineffective against my warrior instinct - not one makes it within a distance to inflict harm on me, as I pick them off in turn with simple iron arrow efficiency.

In finally make it to the entrance to the cairn. Farkas is there, but says nothing about the skeletons. I begin to doubt his competency. With a simple nod to each other, I crack open the iron doors and we enter the mound to begin my trial.

Skyrim - Smithing in Whiterun

It turns out that the magic blade I took from the bandit chief in the fort earlier in the day is actually the family heirloom of an Amren in Whiterun. Returning to Whiterun from our recent reconnoiter, I instantly begin my search for the Redguard.

Amren is very grateful for the return of this sacred sword, and gives me lessons in one-handed combat techniques, free of charge. Of course, future ones will cost me gold, but his tutelage is excellent. I'll be going back for more when my coin stretches that far.

Due to my recent mining, I have a large haul of iron ore sitting in my pack. It weighs heavily on my mind, and my back. On previous visits to Whiterun, I've done some smithing at Warmaiden's, the armoury shop run by Adrianne Avenicci. She is appreciative of my skills, my yearning for further knowledge of the smithing art. She lets me use her equipment pro bono.

First, the smelter. This melts down the chunks of iron ore into iron ingots. All I have to do is shovel enough coal in to keep the fire hot enough to melt the raw ore. With these new ingots, I walk over to the smith and start to hammer out some iron helmets and iron daggers. The daggers only need iron ingots, but the helmets require some leather straps to keep them on heads. I've already got some leather, I just need to cut it into strips at the tanning frame.

I could sell my newly-built battle equipment now, but I'll make more money by improving my already excellent work. I sharpen the daggers, and improve the helmets further on the workbench before walking into Warmaiden's.

I buy some more arrows and other bits from the humourously named Ulfberth War-Bear. He is somewhat bearish in build, and sports the best beard I've seen in Whiterun. He doesn't seem to mind at all that I've used his tools to make the very items I'm selling to him.

Leaving Warmaiden's, I walk up to the Companion's headquarters of Jorrvaskr. I speak with a variety of people in there. In all honesty, they're all quite similar. Maybe I should learn their names if I want to join them, which I do. They accept me on board, despite my badness with faces.

I'm told that my first quest for them is to travel to Dustman's Cairn, a lovely pit of undeath located near to Whiterun, and retrieve the "Fragment of Wuuthrad." I don't really know what I'm looking for, but luckily another Companion called Farkas is assigned as my "Shield Brother." I'm trying to take all this information in, its all a bit cliquey.

Of course, with Farkas as my new battle-brother, I am forced to leave Lydia back at Breezehome. She's doesn't seem too bothered by this, just goes to sit in her room and have a sleep. With that, Farkas and I turn for the door, and head for Dustman's Cairn.

Skyrim - Join the Companions

My arrival in Ivarstead doesn't seem to surprise any of the inhabitants; only Klimmek pays me any heed. What is surprising is that he pays me money for the free delivery to the mountain - I'm not sure what his basis of economics is, but I'm not complaining. We exchange a few pleasantries, but neither of us are into it and we go our separate ways.

I head north, towards Whiterun. Nothing much occurs - I stick to the river, a leisurely stroll that takes in the sights of salmon leaping and elk roaming. I pick various flowers and fungi along the way, ingredients which can be used in alchemy.

Upon my arrival in Whiterun, I make my way to the Companion lodging of Jorrvaskr. This is a round building, seemingly bedecked in animal skins. From this alone, I already have a measure of those inside. I speak with a warrior called Kodiak, who says he sees promise in me - he allows me to join the Companions. Why they call themselves this is beyond me - they seem like any other fighter's guild to me.

My first task is given to me by another warrior, by the name of Farkas. I am simply to go to a local inn and beat up a man. This should be simple enough, after all I've spent the last few days neck deep in blood and guts. What could a drunk in a pub do to a towering adventure such as myself in full heavy armour?

I enter the pub and spot my target from across the room. He is a bard, and has apparently been annoying the women of Whiterum with his inappropriate and very forward manner. I make my way over to him and tell him to stop bothering people. He tells me that he left his previous town for the very same reason and wouldn't be moved again. And so I lay down the law, Companion-style.

My orders are simple - just beat him up, no dying should occur. And that's just what I do, but by the nine he makes a mess of my face in the process. I walk away from the pub with the chap promising me that he would be less uncouth in future. I smile back at him through a split lip.

I return to Farkas to inform him of a job well done. He just shrugs, speaks a barely-audible thanks, and walks off. Frankly, I feel disheartened.

I choose to leave Whiterum for a couple of days, get some exercise and see some of the local sights.  I check my map,  and see that there is large area just north of Ivarstead where I haven't set foot yet. Perfect, I think, and head for the treeline next to the river.

Things take a turn for the worse when I am at my furthest point from Whiterun - the sound of beating wings, a cry from reptilian throat, and the heat of fire instantly tell me that there's a dragon about. The first thought that springs to mind is "Run!", and looking down at my legs I'm doing just that. Whiterun is visibly in the distance, but still quite some way away.

I instead aim for the Honningbrew Meadery just south of the town, my theory being that I can bravely hide in one of the buildings while the giant winged beast bothers someone else. However, I see to my luck that there are two guards from Whiterun patrolling the road nearby. A new plan forms, one in which I am seen to take all the glory yet do less than half the work.

The guards turn to see me running in my heavy metal armour, then look beyond and see winged death behind me. They both begin to fire arrows at the dragon, which decides to make them its meal for the day. With some relief, I also join in with the archery display, and after some minutes have passed, the dragon collapses in a heap. Of course, I undergo the absorption of the dragon's soul - cos, you known that's what us Dragonborn do.