Melchior pt. 15 Whiterun For Your Money

Now I had two tricky pieces of business for the Jarl who had graciously taken me as a thane, and granted my order a priory on his great city.

But first I wanted to report back to Isran, and see if I could unload some of these heavy-ass Scrolls.  I sent for Carcette, and she and I trekked back East.  But a couple of bandits tried to ambush us, then fled into Echo Deep Mine, near Riften.  We tracked them into the mine, but stumbled into some kind of crazy device and found ourselves teleported to the legendary isle of Falskaar!  A soldier on patrol found us and lead us out of some ruins, to the town of Amber Creek, where we had an audience with the Jarl, and learned of a way home by ship, if we would help the Jarl deal with some mercenaries one of his competitors had enlisted against him.  We agreed, and headed out to a monastery to ask his old cleric friend for aid or augury.

The monks didn't want to get involved in any potential conflicts, unless a full war broke out.  They were dealing with their own problems - one of their number had fallen in with some necromancers and disappeared.  In rummaging through his effects, Carcette found some notes indicating he was researching some "dream crystals" that could raise an army of zombies, and may have gone to a place called Volkrund Keep.  She became adamant that we must help the priory in this spiritual matter before we got involved in any political entanglements with the local jarls.

Melchior pt. 14 Interbellum

Intermission.

I returned home to Markarth to rest and plan.  For a time, I let the routine of city life and mundane chores and errands take me away, and I was nearly able to forget the troubles and stresses of my destined course.  It was nice being surrounded at home with brethren who would die for the cause and keep the Vigil strong.  I spent a few weeks with Gia who'd saved Emma and I from the Battleborn assassin's, Ulric, a stormcloak recruit cleric, Keeper Carcette of course, my old mentor Paladin,  beginning a worrying pivot to a darker side of vengeance with the Dawnguard but still a Vigilant ecclesiarch in good standing, and Britte, a braided neophyte tribute from rural Rorikstead.  We organized a considerable stockpile of equipment, spent some time on business of the Order, and visiting family and old friends. Feasted and drank nightly.   Finally thoughts of the dangers impending on Skyrim drew me back in, and we prepared for the next journey. 

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I guessed that before searching for the ancestor glade, I might have some luck going back to Paarthurnax at the Throat of the World to see if he could help read the Scrolls. 

Also went and did some Dawnguatd missions - tracking down a legendary rune hammer, and hunting a known vampire near Falkreath.

Finally took Serena to the ancestors grove. It worked! I was able to decipher the location of Auriel's Bow from the Scroll. Serena wanted to go immediately because it seemed Ienarath's minions are on our trail! We fought off a few before fleeing the cave.  

From there we followed the clues and found an old uncorrupted falmer, a snow elf, who guided us through a pilgrims path, and we did battle with a fallen vampire snow elf Lord to finally gain the bow.

Then back to Markarth again to recover.

But the civil war was encroaching!  Time to enter the banal fray of earthly politics and put the Vigil's thumb on the scales for the true sons and daughters of Skyrim.  Ulfric insisted on coming of course but Paladin Carcette doesn't think wet should be docking around in political affairs so we left her in charge of the ladies (Emma, Gia, and little Britte) to build down the fort while we went marchng of to war.  We decided to stop by the Breezehome priory to collect Lydia's boyfriend as well. 

Finally after a journey, we walked into the halls of High King Ulfric Stormcloak. He was in the middle of a philosophical debate with his general, Galmer.  The general sent us on a mission as a test to see if Ulfric would have us. We went to Serpentstone Island to face an ice wraith.  We prepared for a cold jouney North into the ice sheets. 

It was a bitter, miserable day but we tracked and slew the wraith. Then back to Whiterun for our formal induction. Galmer invited us on the next mission in a campaign to raid a tomb in imperial territory to recover the symbolically potent Jagged Crown for Ulfric Stormcloak to strategically don.

Off to it then!  We rondesvouzed at the Nightgale Inn, in the closest town to the imperial.

Then by night we ambushed the ruin, the tools had a hopelessly predictable sentry patrol pattern, and I used my Dragonborn shouts to become a fearsome blur in the battle, slaughtering a few imperial scouts as the other soldiers charged in.  We lost not a man.  Then were descended into the depths, carefully searched various chambers and halls for hours, and unfortunately lost a soldier when a draugr

Death Lord came alive and attacked. But we recovered the Jagged Crown!  

Back to Markarth to avoid being hunted down by Imperial squads looking for vengeance, and we laid low there for a good week to give the imperial patrols time to settle down. 

Then we traveled back to Windhelm and presented Ulfric with the Jagged Crown. We feasted, and he asked me to bring his axe to Jarl Balgruuf.  On the way though, I wanted to stop back at the Throat of the World to see about reading a Scroll at the Time Wound.

It worked! I saw visions of the past and learned Dragonrend. Alduin appeared, having sensed the scrolls magic, but my Stormcloaks and Parthurnax chased him off. Paarthurnax suggested I convince Balgruuf to use Dragonsreach as a trap for one of Alduin's lieutenants, to them interrogate about his plans and location so I cam go finish him off.

Melchior pt.13 - Scrolls at Dawn

We dropped off the Stormcloak soldier in Whiterun, then trekked east to Ft. Dawnguard.  It was a largely uneventful journey, although we encountered a couple of giant frostbite spiders and an angry spriggan mother in the countryside near Riften.  They were nothing Carcette and I couldn't handle.

We finally passed Riften and headed into Dayspring Canyon, where we unexpectedly came upon two vampire scouts lurking near the glacial run-off pond!  We took them unawares as they were focused on spying on the Fort, but they put up a vicious fight.  We barely managed to put them down, then hurried through the civilian refugee camp to warn Isran that we were finally under direct surveillance by Ienarath's forces.  We hypothesized that the dark queen had been disturbed by my recent appearance in Blackreach... the chess pieces were maneuvering.

Inside the fort, we came to find out that our Moth Priest ally, Dexion, had lost his sight and could no longer read the Scrolls!  What were we to do now, after all that work collecting them?  He suggested I seek out an "ancestor glade" somewhere in the pine forests, where I could perform a special ritual using canticle tree bark and ancestor moths to read the Scroll myself.  I agreed, hoping I wouldn't go blind or mad.  We were also asked by the Dawnguard to keep an eye out for any more dwemer crossbow or firebolt schematics.

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Melchior pt. 12 - Blackreach Expedition

Woo-hoo!  Back in Markarth, uncle Throngvir convinced the jarl to let me have a place!  Vlindrel Hall would be the new seat of the Vigil and my private residential quarters would be there. We'd take on an altar girl and a housecarl, Gia.  I also invited Vigilant Ulric from Winterhold.  Spent a couple weeks getting the place up and running, then headed back to the college to continue researching the scrolls.

Turns out a brilliant but mad scholar sequestered up in the northern ice fields knew more. He agreed to help, provided I got a dwemer artifact for home.  From Blackreach.  That meant Ienarath.  This would be a perilous undertaking!

I stopped off at the Breezehome Priory for Carcette, and we recruited Lydia's Stormcloak soldier boyfriend too as we might have need of some serious muscle. Then we hiked north to the Aftland ruins and delved in!  There were frightening dwemer constructs in the ruins but we managed to subdue them.  Further in were some khajit junkies in hiding... I tried to Calm them down but they were too junked up, perhaps possessed by daedra, and attacked us in a frenzy. Sadly we had to put them out of their misery.

Finally we delved through some falmer territory and gained entrance to the legendary, sinister subterranean kingdom of Blackreach.  We took refuge in an abandoned research station for some much needed rest.  Next "morning" we began to explore the largely uncharted territory, very cautious to avoid any undead patrols of Ienarath. But we did skirmish with several falmer parties, and an odd dwemer automaton here and there.  The dark, spooky, eerily-lit-by-fungi expanse revealed many wonders.

Finally we discovered the Tower of Mzark, and unlocked the Animunculous as the mad scholar had instructed. Inside was an Elder Scroll!  We carefully retraced our steps and emerged triumphant back to the surface world. I could now return to Ft. Dawnguard to debrief them on Ienarath, and go back to Paarthurnax to read the Scroll at the Time Wound and help the Blades deal with Alduin. 

We emerged and got our bearings - just a couple leagues north of Whiterun! Not far from the old Hall of the Vigilant.  And look and behold, Stendarr had seem for to lead a pretty young Vigilant up to meet us in on the mountainside!  She joined our party and we returned to the Breezehome Priory to recuperate and plan, and sell our spoils to fundraise for the Order.

Melchior pt. 11 - Blades against Akatosh

In light of the unhospitable welcome (read: attack) Emma and I received at the temple of Akatosh, Carcette and I agreed that our Reformation of the Vigil should ally with the Blades as well as the Dawnguard.  So she and I set forth to visit the Graybeards once more, as Esbern had entreated me to back in the Hall of the Blades he and Delphine were restoring.  We stopped at the Eldergleam Sanctuary on behalf of the Temple in Kynareth along the way, and got some sap to help restore the Gildergleam tree in Whiterun, then continued on to the Throat of the World.

Arngeir bade me meet Paarthurnax who turned out to be a dragon! He was Alduin's younger brother, and had been waiting for Alduin to re-emerge from the time wound for generations, to kill him.  He wanted me to go learn Dragonrend.  i would have to return yo yhe college in Winterhold to inquire further.

But first I needed to perform a task I had been neglecting for too long.  Isran wanted more help from the Vigil so Carcette and I went in search of Florentius by way of Forrt Greenwall, where we got drawn into a massive battle over Shor's Stone by the Imperials and Stormcloaks!  We put our thumb on the scale for our fellow Nords, and after a long and bloody afternoon, chased the Imperials back eastward. We then tracked our brother to an excavation site the Vigil had recently discovered... Runvaald.  We headed in. There were several vigilants in there but they seemed... charmed somehow. Creepy.  We pressed through and they became hostile!  Stendarr's gifts helped me calm some of them into a befuddled reverie but a few of them had to be put down, sorry wretches, along with the guards and a megalomaniacal sorceress who held them in thrall.  Finally, we found Florentius and convinced him to help the Dawnguard.  Now Carcette and I needed more absolution for killing or brethren... a few more bodies amongst the foundation of our reformed Vigil.

Back to the college then.  Urag found some info for us, I would evidently need to figure out how to discern the transmundane.  Wat.  Saving that for later.   Thought I'd instead take a vacation back home to Markarth to gather my thoughts and retreat from the constant horrors of the last few months.

Melchior pt.10 Mage's College

Back to reality, we stopped back in Riverwood to check up on Delphine, and tell her what we found in the Thalmor embassy.  She asked us to help find Esbern in Riften, which probably meant dealing with the Thieves' Guild or the Blackbriars.  Unpleasant propects.  I returned to the Breezehome Priory to prepare, and recruited Lydia and her Stormcloak boyfriend to accompany me.  I figured we might have to kill some lowlifes, a distasteful task that would be hard on the stomach, but it had to be done for the greater good, and more importantly I didn't want that blood on the hands of my fellow Vigilants if it could be avoided.

So we headed out, I made contact with Brynjolf from the guild in Riften, and indeed he confirmed that someone matching Esbern's description had been living in the sewer warrens.  We headed down, fighting off a couple ruffians, and found Esbern's secret lair.  We convinced him to come back with us to Delphine, and work on re-forming the Blades, but our discussion was interrupted by Thalmor agents!  They'd tracked us down and found him!  We barely managed to escape with our lives, and fled back to Delphine, who then also fled her home in Riverwood (reasoning that if she stayed, the Thalmor would torch the town to get at her) and we headed out to seek the ruins of the Blades' ancient base in the Reach.

We had to fight off some savage Forsworn along the way, but finally found it!  An interesting fort, with lots of fantastic stone carvings inside.  They tried to recruit me to their quest for a draconic exterminatus, but I didn't know how I felt about that. Stendarr was silent at my augers.  So I resolved to pay a visit to the temple of Akatosh to learn more about the Alduin-Akatosh dichotomy.  Were the dragons more daedric, or more divine?  I needed to know to decide whether the Blades' cause was as just as the Dawnguard and the Vigil.

I decided to head to the Temple of the Divines in Solitude and maybe then the Mages' College's legendary library in Winterhold. I took Emma by carriage to Windhelm and we hiked north. It was a mistake to leave in the afternoon - it quickly grew cold and I collapsed from hypothermia before we could set up camp for the night!  Luckily Emma was able to drag me to a sheltered area build a fire set up camp and saved my life.  Next day we continued on more cautiously and reached the small town.

Upon gaining entrance to the college, we were roped in to some of their business. We had to explore some ruins as a condition of acceptance in their intro course, and somehow awoke a draugr behemoth which all the freshman students felled together. Then we found some kind of artifact - the Eye of Magnus they called it.

Next we were sent on an errand by their librarian, Gorbash, who said if we helped him recover some stolen books from a rogue cell of sorcerers, he'd help is track down the Dragon Elder Scroll for Serana.  So we headed off to Fellglow Keep northeast of Whiterun.

Upon nearing the keep, a dark shadow passed over us. It was an adult blood dragon circling overhead, slowly descending!  We began to sprint towards the keep's outbuildings, hoping to hide from the hunting wyrm... but as we approached we came upon the scene of a melee!  A dozen draugr pressed in on a few beleaguered mages - had one of their fell, unsanctioned experiments backfired?   They fought valiantly, but could be seen to pale when they noticed a couple of paladins sprinting their way with a dragon in tow!

We hammered the draugr into the anvil of the sorcerers then fled as the dragon thundered down into the fray. It worked!  The villains and abominations sapped each other's strength, and we had but to wait, then sweep in and mop up the survivors.

Finally we delved into the keep.  The college mages were foolhardy enough with their research, but this rogue cell was downright explicit in its intentions to cavort with daedra and raise the dead!  We penetrated to the dungeons, slew some captive vampires they were experimenting on, rescued the misguided mage who'd stolen the books (he'd have to repent later) and slew a few necromancers and elementalists on our way to secure the contraband tomes.

Stopped by the temple of Akatosh on the way back to the college. They were hostile zealots!  Guess I could help the Blades in good conscience!

Melchior pt.9 Supressing Morthal's Monsters

Emma and I headed up to the Jarl's court the next morning.  Lurking around throughout the day's bustling business and social events, we surveilled the court and settled on a likely suspect: a mysterious dark-eyed "foreign advisor." Sure enough, Emma searched his room and found damning evidence - a coded note with orders from Harkkon!  We confided in the Jarl and he authorized us to solve the problem... we ambushed and slew the vile creature in the dinner hall.  A glorious moment for the Vigil, in full public view.

After a day of R&R, it was time to start thinking about helping Serena. She needed a Moth Priest, so Giathianniaoles and I headed to Dragonbridge where one was rumored to be.  We made our way northeast through the snowy foothills, putting down a frost troll in a strange ruin where we then stopped to camp.  The next day we continued our frigid soujourn, and finally reached Morthal the following evening.  There, we decided to stay a couple days to thaw our bones, and recuperate from the fright of our troll encounter.  We met some of the locals, and learned of a ghost girl who's family perished in a fire, and of another possible vampire menace... this one ancient and not necessarily connected to Harkkon nor Ienarath.

Investigating the haunted house that evening,  I bumped into a fellow Vigilant of Stendarr, Thrayn!  He was investigating the ghost too. Together we canvassed the town, determined how to find the little girl's ghost, and found here.  In dealing with her, we discovered that a lower vampire was behind the arson, tracked her and put her down, and solved the case!  Jarl Idgrod was pleased.

While walking through town the next day we covertly noticed that we were being stalked by another low vampire, but we boldly confronted him.  He attacked, we fought him, and the town guard arrived to help slay him.  Evidently there were crosshairs on our backs now!  It was time to strike before any more assassins came after us.  

With the jarl's blessing, we gathered up a small angry mob, and at their head we tracked down Movarth, battered our way into his lair at noon, and butchered him and his brood and thralls!  Idgrod was so happy, she awarded our order a property in town.  We had now expanded to a second priory, known as Whitehowl Retreat.  Our rebuilding after the Hall incident was starting to pick up stream.  

I left Thrayn and Gia to set up the new priory, and Serena and I continued over the next few days to Dragonbridge.  We got there, and a little kid confirmed seeing someone who matched the description of a Moth Priest just south of the bridge. We tracked him but just found a broken wagon, a dead guard, and a dead vampire... clues suggested the priest had been abducted by Serana's father's men. We went to the cave we thought they had retreated to, and slew a vampire guarding the priest!  He was possessed by some fell power, but we slapped him out of it and he agreed to to to Ft. Dawnguard with us and read Serana's Scroll. So we hiked back to Dragonbridge, took a carriage to Riften, and made our way back to Isran to confer.

The Dawnguard blacksmith lady wanted us to go recruiting again, this time for an eccentric priest of Arkay.  I convinced Isran this was a good idea, as the Moth Priest read the Scroll.  He concluded that we needed more scrolls, as this one just talks of Auriel's bow.  But then Serena asks for help visiting her mom in the Soul Cairn, so she and I and Keeper Carcette headed to Serana's family home, she snuck us into the castle, we found her mom's secret lab, traveled to the Soul Cairn, got her mom to help us and give us the next scroll, defeated an undead dragon, and returned.  All in a day's work!

Slel part 1

S'lel was an evil philosopher-priest who used his dark powers to be reincarnated in Tamriel from the Forgotten Realms, where he had collaborated with a vampire, a lycanthrope, and an anti-paladin to wreak havoc and rule an army of zombies until his untimely death at the hands of an adventurer wielding his own cursed fairy-hilt dagger.

He largely raised himself in a cave outside of Rorikstead, approaching and learning from a coven of necromancers.  As an adolescent, he taught himself various powers of illusion, and enthralled a couple of local farm-steaders, taking up residence in their hovel and gradually expanding it as he convinced them he was their master.

Finally he decided it was time to start rebuilding his dark powers.  He took up a wood axe and began making my way north to Morthal, killing a wolf and scaring off a sabre-cat with conjured flames.

Along the way I came across a couple of red-guard hassling a sassy woman, but it was a case of mistaken identity and they let her go.  I traveled with them the rest of the way to Solitude, and we got there at sundown, just in time to witness a public execution!  I headed to the inn to rest, where I heard a rumor of a fine young man in Windhelp who was apparently performing the Black Rite in hopes of summoning the apparently defunct Dark Brotherhood.  He might make a worthy apprentice!  So in the morning I purchased a new outfit more befitting of a daedric priest at the local clothier, then went off to commission a carriage ride to Windhelm.

Once there, I quickly found the boy's residence, glided into his home to find him, indeed, chanting the rite.  I posed as his contact, and agreed to his contract to murder the wench who ran his old orphanage.  Back to the carriage, this time to Riften.  I chop up Grelod, which apparently gets the attention of the Brotherhood because they hall me in the next day and make me perform an initiation ritual, killing Vasha the conniving khajit.  I'm in!

Heading out of their creepy cabin in the marshes, I come across a nearby shanty. A khajit child was they complaining about not having parents anymore... had I just killed daddy? I adopted my first orphan for my new children's army.

Then I traveled south to their Sanctuary to meet the rest of the Family".  Great folks!  Now back to Riften and I decided to also adopt the young Aretino boy, to see if I can raise him to follow in my footsteps. 

Back home to rest. Then I go do all the Helgen stuff.

Back to the Sanctuary, stopped in at Falkreath for a bite to eat in the Dead Man's Drink. Very gloomy here, a real dark forest feel with a massive beautiful cemetary. Caught a funeral for a 10-year-old girl who's been ripped apart as if by a wild beast, by some guy they captured... when a dragon attacked!  With the guards I slaughtered the fiend then a man gave me his friends ashes to take to the priest of Arkay... ha!  Did some business with some local merchants,  picked up a nice poisonable dagger.

Now heading North from Whiterun to Dawnstar for my 2nd assassination contract. Almost froze to death on the trip but stopped at the milquetoast Hall of the Vigilant for the night. Even got their Keeper to share some restoration tips with me. Ha!

Next day made it to Dawnstar, but got roped in to a situation where Vaermina was causing nightmares for the people. A priest of Mara recruited me to help... but I betrayed and murdered him, taking Vaermina's Staff of Curruption for myself.  Had to show little Sissel whats what... shes always whining about her father and sister beating her and wanting to be an adventurer like me.  Then it was time for the assassination. We stalked the smelter worker to her home in the evening... in a snowstorm.  Broke in, enthralled her, then took my time with a ritualistic killing. Building up dark mana for a black soul gem.

Then I heard about the attack on the Hall of the Vigilant, and increasing vampire activity. Went to scout out the Dawnguard, and made the acquaintance of Serena. Met her family and joined their sect of Molag Bal - became a vampire lord, then hunted down a vampire for the dark brotherhood and Movarth for Jarl Idgrod - she gave me Whitehowl Retreat as a reward. Now off to please Molag Bal further by hunting down that priest of Boethiah who's been desecration the House of Horrors in Markarth.

That done, I got embroiled in a murder mystery in Windhelm, was recruited by the Blades to help set up their new temple and exterminate some Forsworn, joined the Thieves guild to find a missing Blade, met an elder wyrm behind the Grey Beards, began to search for another elder scroll (maybe Serena can help with that?) to fight Alduin in the time stream, signed up to help Peryite spread a plague in exchange for a boon that might protect me in the seemingly increasingly high stakes situations forthcoming.  

I now had a farm, a Manor in Whiterun, and a residence in Morthal, where I stopped off to pick up a squire, young Joric Ravencrone, on my way to assassinate Peryites rogue priest. Supposedly Joric is a "bad" kid. I made him into a vampire on the first night away from town. 

We start searching the Affilcted's dwarven ruin hideout... and Idgrod the Younger, Joric's mom, falls out of a vent! She'd been following us! Did she know about her sons transformation??  She would have to be turned as well, mother and son would be thralls both. Joric and I ritualistically shared the gift with her.

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Reboot, turned to a vampire in Morthal.  Set up a lair in an abandoned crypt, and began abducting victims to become cattle or thralls from Morthal and Riften.  Found a young assassin protege named Willow to help me hunt, if she's a good thrall may eventually turn her.  One of the Blackbriar sisters is into alchemy and doing demented experiments on people, will bring her into my nascent coven too.  Revealed the serial killer in Windhelm and took over his old lair as a secondary front.  Now to go investigate that Dawnguard group I've been hearing about to find out if they're a threat to my kind.

Melchior part 8, Ienarath's Machinations

Debriefing at Ft. Dawnguard once again, Isran revealed more intel: that there was a Dunmer vampire queen out of Blackreach named Ienarath, who was trying to enslave all the local necromancers (and was probably behind the Rorikstead incident), was known for worshiping Mehrunes Dagon and summoning dremora to do her bidding, and may be trying to gain influence with the Jarls of eastern Skyrim.  Auguries revealed that she may be building a subterranean army and plotting an invasion of the surface world!  

One of her minions was believed to be infiltrating the court of Jarl Balgruuf of Whiterun, and since Carcette and I knew the area, Isran dispatched us to investigate and hopefully prevent Balgruuf from being manipulated by this rising force of darkness in the world.  So we headed back to the priory to regroup and reconnoiter the Jarl's court.

On the way we stopped in Riverwood, and were recruited into a clandestine group known as the Blades by Delphine the innkeeper.  She seemed to know I was Dragonborn, and plead for some help infiltrating the Thalmor to figure out why they were trying to resurrect dragons, and wanted me to go to an aristocratic party to find out.  It struck Carcette that members of Balgruuf's court might be there too, so this could be a good opportunity to investigate.  She decided to promote me so I could attend in my new role as an ecclesiarch of the Vigil!  And father would be proud that I'd be hobnobbing with the big shots.  Of course, the current Jarl of Markarth was a douchey Imperial puppet, but if I could somehow help my family overthrow him, again that might incline uncle Thongvor to give me a place of my own in Markarthian society.  

Welp, now it was time to meet Delphine to prepare.  Carcette went back to the priory, and I headed off to the big capitol city of Solitude!  I took a carriage from Whiterun, arrived at night, and... holy Divines, a huge mob of draugr were assaulting the city's front gates!  There was even a draugr behemoth swinging around a massive ebony hammer, knocking chunks out of the walls.  Luckily the city was well-fortified on a huge rocky outcropping.  I ran up to help, unleashed a a scroll of Tornado that ripped the mob apart, then felled the behemoth with Stendarr's might and the help of a squad of guardsmen.  This undead platoon could only be working for Ienarath.  She had to be stopped.

Finally I got into the Thalmor party with Delphine's contact's help (a guy named Malborn).  Balgruuf's toady Proventus Avenicci was there, but he wasn't a vampire and no one else from Whiterun made an appearance.  So I snuck off to get Delphine's intel.  I also managed to rescued a prisoner and had to put down a couple of vile interrogators with a Static Dome in their chamber.  Finally, I escaped with the prisoner and Malborn (who's cover was now blown) and headed back to Whiterun to finish purifying Balgruuf's court of the vampire infiltration.

Melchior part 7, a Vampire's NecRomance

We broke north for Rorikstead after meeting the Jarl of Falkreath and doing him a favor. The town could be seen from the mountain peak near the cave we went into, to deliver his message to the local bandit chief.  

We hiked down the mountain into the plains... but drawing near the town, we began to hear sounds of fighting and crying, and saw a scene of chaos - the town was beset by a dozen draugr!  Children screamed and ran helter-skelter as a few guardsmen tried to hold off the shambling horde.  Carcette and I began sprinting toward the action, and made it in time to help.  We took the heat off the beleaguered guards and double-teamed the zombies, putting them down one after the other.  Whew! The townies were grateful and let us rest the night.  Next morning we hitched a ride on a produce wagon back to Riften, on our way back to Isran.

Finally back at Castle Dawnguard several days later, we conferred with our comrades.  Gunmar and I discussed intel we'd received of a group of necromancers that had found a vampire to lead them and turn them into a brood.  This wasn't far from Rorikstead... had this "murder" of necromancers had something to do with the zombie plague?  Time was of the essence. We hurried back Rorikstead to  spend the night since it was close to their den (and we didn't want to attack at night), and decided to set out early the next morning. But, as soon as I set foot outside the Inn, we were ambushed by murderous vampire thralls! We vanquished them, but this was bad news: they were on to us and knew we were coming.

No use giving them more time to prepare.  We found the cave and peeked inside. By the Eight, they were just all right fucking there in a big group glowering at us!  A vampire and about ten assorted necromancer cultists wielding magic staffs and wicked daggers broke into a charge at us, and I had to use my new Dragonborn gift Fus Ro Dah to fend off the attack, and then we retaliated and finished them off.  But the master vampire fled further into the cave.  I whirlwind-sprinted and caught up with him, to his surprise, but he wheeled on me in a fury and began viciously clawing, rending my Shield of Stendarr and drawing blood!  I back-pedaled and began a hasty retreat as he pressed the attack... right into the loving embrace of Keeper Carcette's special vampire-killing Dawnguard axe.  Victory!

Melchior part 6, Penance

Finally, we made it back to the Hall and I arranged to meet the wise paladin Keeper Carcette for confessional. She administered the rites to absolve me and took me through therapy for several weeks.  As part of it, we went on a walkabout to reintroduce me to the world. We got in a tiff with some bandits, scared them off, and patrolled all around the valley.

Eventually, Carcette decided she ought to keep mentoring me, and we headed out for a spiritual retreat at a recovery center in Helgen.  But as we approached the town, a Dragon flew out overhead, having just leveled the town!  Crazy times indeed.  We headed back to Whiterun to warn the Jarl, but it was being attacked by the dragon!  I and my fellow Vigilants bravely helped the Town Guard slay it, and the Jarl rewarded the Order of Stendarr with a property in town!  We would use it as a satellite priory.  Oh, also I was apparently something called... Dragonborn?

I took Carcette down to check out the priory. A Dawnguard recruiter was there; we made friends and decided to go check out their movement.  There have been reports of an uptick in vampire attacks lately after all.  Getting involved would be a good way to honor Tyranus.  We took a carriage to Riften, spent a couple days there preparing for a hike, met a nice lady trying to reign in the thieves' guild named Mjoll, and headed out East.

Through the rocky passes, almost at the edge of Skyrim itself, we came to the sheltered valley containing Fort Dawnguard!  Outside, an orc named Duran practiced with a crossbow... he looked alarmed to see us, saying the Hall of the Vigilant had been attacked.  What?!?  We turned around and rushed back home at a breakneck pace for two days. It was true! The place had been laid to waste, our brethren lay slaughtered in the snow along with a couple vampire fledglings. 'Noooooo!' we howled.  We held each other and mourned; Carcette was broken up over not having been there to protect her flock. We then gave them a proper burial and returned to Ft. Dawnguard with grim determination. We were both on a mission of absolution now.

It turned out some Dawnguard were former Vigilants who wanted to pursue more radical methods than the Order countenanced, so needless to say after our horrifying experience, we fell in with them. Vigilant Tolan was there leading that contingent. Isran, the Dawnguard leader, was bitter that Carcette had once told him the fort was too broken down and it wasn't worth the effort to reform the Dawnguard.  Now she had changed her mind of course, so they came to an uneasy truce. Tolan wanted us to help investigate Dimhollow Crypt to uncover why the vampires attacked our Hall of the Vigilant in the first place, so we geared up with crossbows and headed out after him.

At the crypt, it appeared Tolan had gotten there before us and impetuously went in!  He must've been ambushed by vampires who we overheard talking about him, still snacking on his blood. We charged in, in a fury! We staked and hacked apart two vampires on Tolan's body, issuing a benediction for his soul, then headed deeper in.  We managed to solve a srange puzzle chamber, unearthing an ancient vampire. Somehow she seemed confused, and I sensed Stendarr willing me to spare her.  I let her go back to her family castle, then went back to report to Isran about it. He said we needed to build up our forces, and sent me out to recruit a hunter and an engineer. Carcette went back to the priory to organize the remnants of our personnel, and sent Emma out to join me in recruiting around Skyrim.

Emma and I rounded up a couple of likely candidates, and being near Ivarsted, decided to climb up for a visit to the Gray Beards.  But in town preparing for the climb, I overheard the innkeeper complaining of the nearby barrow being haunted... a good job for Emma and I, only this time we'd be more prepared!  Turned out to be just a rogue robber, cleverly using a potion to fake seeming "spectral" to scare off the local townies.  We got rid of him, which was good for the Vigil's cred with the locals.

Then we headed up the mountain, climbing for two days and enduring a bitter cold camp-out over night.  Reaching the top though, the Gray-Beards explained some things about being Dragonborn and helped me harness my thu'um.  So then we went back down, back to Ft. Dawnguard, and were sent out on a couple more missions, to find some Dwemer crossbow schematics and hunt down a couple known vampires.  Finally we finished our errands, I returned Emma to the Breezehome priory and Carcette wanted to accompany me back to Ft. Dawnguard.  Once we got back there, we discovered Serana (the ancient vampire) had come forward to ally with the Dawnguard!  Isran was skeptical, but we might need her help, plus she had an Elder Scroll so we went with it.  Strange times indeed.

Melchior part 5, Thwarting the Lord of Domination

We hiked up through the mountains, passing through Karthwasten.  My family's mercenaries were there to protect them against Forsworn attacks, but the villagers didn't seem very grateful.  I guess the mine had to be temporarily closed to fend off an attack, and they resented it.  So, I privately conferred with the land-owner Ainathatch, and convinced him to just sell the holding to the Silverbloods to make it easier on everyone.  I offered to facilitate the transaction directly, and he bit!  Deal done, father would be proud.  Maybe now he'd help me get a place to live in Markarth.

Next, it was time to deal with those Forsworn.  We came to their redoubt, a fully outfitted cave.  We snuck in, I knocked out a female guard, we got in position, then we charged in and just wiped out the other few savages.  We found the Boethiah priest, and executed him mercifully.  He would not help further Molag Bal's plans in any way now, nor even the plans of his vile matron.  Phew.

We made our way past a couple other redoubts, taking out a few more Forsworn as we went, and realized we had happened to end up in the neighborhood of that prison the Gray-Mane guy from Whiterun was supposed to be being held in!  Sure enough, the brother was there waiting with his men for us to rendezvous.  We joined their camp to warm up for a bit, then prepared for a frontal assault.  It was a pitched battle but we succesfully plunged into the fortress's bowels and liberated the prisoner, slaying several Thalmor guards, then beat a hasty retreat.  We traveled back to Whiterun to break the good news to the fugitive's mother, though he couldn't stay out of fear of endangering them.  But she was extremely grateful.

Finally, I hiked back north to the Hall of the Vigilant, for some therapy and absolution from the wise Keeper Carcette.

Melchior part 4, Unavoidable Fratricide

We were now ready to investigate the haunted house.  We sent for an Inquisitor, Brother Tyranus, to assist us, then headed out to meet him at the abandoned building.

We all went in to poke around, and Tyranus found clues that evil rites had indeed been performed in worship of daedra!  After a while, Tyranus and Emma become agitated, and I start hearing voices telling me to... kill them.  Gradually, the whole house started shaking!  This was no ordinary daedra.  Tyranus snapped at one point, came at me murderously, and I had no choice but to defend myself - my mace clubbed his head, and I'm afraid I... he wasn't getting up... had I cracked his skull?  I killed a fellow Vigilant!  Immediately my perceptions went back to normal, and I collapsed in a sobbing heap as the weight of the realization of what had happened fell upon me.  Emma dragged me back out into the street and I passed out.

This was incredibly traumatic.  I woke up being ministered to at the Temple of Dibella.  Emma convinced me that I needed to retreat back to the Hall of the Vigilant for counseling, to beg Stendarr's forgiveness, and to memorialize poor Tyranus.  But Molag Bal was now whispering in my mind... that must've been the voice from earlier too.  He wanted vengeance on a priest of a rival daedra - Boethia, the deceiver and assassin.  I had to resolve this before I could seek closure, and told Emma as much.  But just as we left town, suddenly Emma and were set upon by a trio of hired thugs!  They claim Idolaf Battleborn wanted to teach me a lesson.  Those were the pricks hassling that old lady back in Whiterun.  They were about to defeat us when suddenly another Vigilant charged up out of nowhere - Giatheneoles - and turned the tide!  Together, we fended them off, and I invited her to join us in thwarting Molag Bal.  It seemed serendipitous that she just happened to be there to save us.  Was this a sign from Stendarr?

Melchior part 3, Hometown Terror Plot

We arrived in Markarth in the evening.  Just as we walked in the front gates, a Forsworn terrorist murdered a lady at the market!  I related my eye-witness report to the guards, then felt the need to head in to my family's tavern for a drink after that rude homecoming.  I made friends with a few barflys, and one guy mentioned my family's smelter foreman, Mulush, was overly harsh on the workers.  'Maybe I can have a few words with him,' I thought.  I slept off the wine, picked up some cash from the family coffers, and headed out the next day.  I did get Mulush to lay off, then walked around town enjoying the sights, until this guy Eltrys began chatting me up about the previous night's murder.  He talked me into helping him figure out what was with what, to him, appeared to be a pattern of Forsworn murders... I spent the next few days re-acquainting myself with the streets, and asking around.

My digging into the lives of the assassin and the dead lady revealed a strange conspiratorial web involving m uncle Thronar, and our accountant Nepo the Nose.  But I'd delayed long enough, it was time to pay a visit to Understone Keep.  There, uncle Thongvor embraced me warmly and was glad to see me, but he was in the middle of an argument with an Imperial priest who had just closed down the Halls of the Dead for some reason... his name was Brother Veralus, a monk of Arkay.  He complained of a discovery that some of the dead had been... eaten!  Veralus seemed like a decent sort, and we chatted for a bit.  When he realized Emma and I were Vigilants, he suggested that we might be rewarded if we could stop whatever was going on.  Sure sounded like a job for a pair of wandering acolytes!  Emma and I could barely hide our excitement.  He gave me the key to the Hall of the Dead.
Before embarking on this quest though, I went to meet the Jarl, but a dickish Thalmor bigot named Ondolemar was there lording over everything, manspreading and boasting about how he'd root out all Talos worship.  The Jarl seemed anxious about that, but mainly was concerned about the murders and the Forsworn attacks outside of town on trade caravans, local mining villages, etc.  I began hoping that if I could do something about that, my family would be able to pull some strings with him and get me my own bachelor pad here in town.  So I buttered him up pretty good, and implied that I'd get my Order to look in to helping out with these primitive heathens, who let's be honest, probably worship daedra anyway because they don't know any better.

Then if was off to see about this invasion of the body-snackers.  Emma and I secured our gear and cleaned our weapons at the Jarl's smithy, then headed to the Hall of the Dead.  Inside, we poked around until we found a strange cannibal lady who spoke in an unholy, blasphenously reverberating tone, and could only have been under the influence of a daedric power!  She tried and failed to seduce us with her words because of our indomitable faith, then summoned a fire spirit to chase us off, but we slew them both!  Brother Verelus thanked us profusely, then suggested that if this was our line of work, we might investigate a haunted house on the other side of town.  We agreed, but first we wanted to finish investigating the Forsworn murders.

We went to pay a visit to The Nose - turns out he was Forsworn, and had been secretly working against my family and the Jarl!  He and his house servants attacked us!  Emma and I had no choice but to kill them all.  Emma found an old wood axe, and was covered in blood by the end of all her hacking, and I saw a wild look in her eye.  It made me feel all sorts of funny.

Then we went back to find Eltrys and tell him what we'd learned about Nepo... but he had just been murdered by the Town Guard!  Emma managed to run off, but they arrested me and planned to pin all the recent murders on me!  In their custody I gleaned that they had been playing the Forsworn and the Jarl off against one another, taking payments from both sides.  They and the Nose knew the Forsworn King, Madanach, was imprisoned in Cidhna mine (which belongs to my family) but was secretly still ruling his subjects, sending missives out with his instructions to continue waging a war of terrorism on the Nords.

They threw me in prison, and I resolved to see if I could find this monster.  I spent several weeks infiltrating his trust, subverted his messaging system to get a letter out to Emma to meet me in the Dwemer ruins connected to the mine (that I knew of from my family's blueprints), then I had to execute Madanach and escape out his secret tunnel before the other prisoners knew what happened.  After getting through some spider-infested tunnels, sure enough good old Emma appeared, thank Stendarr, and helped me get past some nasty Dwemer constructs.  When we got out, I found uncle Thronar right away and explained everything.  He was super thankful, and said he'd get the Jarl to pardon me for my arrest and punish the corrupt guardsmen.  Phew!  Now onto the real business of the Vigil.

Melchior part 2, Big City Initiation

We were now traveling, seeing the wide world!  Towards the end of the first day, we saw a fort in the distance, and as we approached there was a skirmish happening between Imperials and Stormcloaks!  The civil war I had only every heard rumors of was unfolding before our very eyes.  Emma and I saw an Imperial soldier monitoring the action from a hill top, and we snuck up behind him and knocked him out, taking his armor and weapons.  Then, a bit spooked, we skirted the battle, spending an extra day climbing over a steep mountain instead of walking through the pass containing the fort.  It was tough climbing, but we could see Whiterun in the distance from the peak!  We guessed we'd get there tomorrow.

We picked our way down the mountain the next morning, and come to the main road towards the city in the afternoon.  But it drew dark as we approached the outlying farms, and we encountered a strange clownish man with a broken-down cart, apparently trying to take his dead mother to her burial... but he complained that the local farmer won't help him fix his wheel.  I went to the farm and convinced the dullard to do the right thing and help someone in need.  Then we moved on to Whiterun, destroying a pair of wandering skeletons in the moonlight.  Odd that they should be just loitering in the tubdra so close to civilization... anyways, we entered town just as the next morning was dawning.

An Imperial soldier was hassling some poor blacksmith woman, trying to get her to make weapons for the Legion.  I interrupted and got him to leave, then did some business with the flustered smith.  I sold her some stuff, then wandered around the market district and sold more junk to a friendly Breton named Belethor.  Taking a lunch break after than, I overheard an old woman being harassed by some Imperials calling themselves Battleborn.  She was evidently distraught about her missing son, so I offered to help the poor crone find out what happened to him.  Fralia Gray-Mane was her name, and she introduced me to her other son who recruited Emma and I to go spring the missing son from a Thalmor interrogator, (those vile elves, working with the Empire of course).  The prison was waaaay northwest though, so I explained that I would need to stop home first and see my folks for the first time in years.  After planning to meet up with this Gray-Mane guy later, Emma and I hired a carriage and set out for my hometown of Markarth.  We would catch up on sleep during the ride.

Melchior Silverblood Origins

Melchior grew up as the youngest of the Silverblood brood in Markarth.  He was a problem child, didn't get along with his siblings, and didn't have much of a head for business.  So, the family patriarch arranged to have him sent to the Vigilants of Stendarr for boarding school in preparation for a monastic life of tribute to the Divines, and in this way he could still bring some honor to the family.

He is now an adult, and has spent years studying and training at a monastery in Hjaalmarch.  He is about to start his acolyte training as a journeyman daedra-hunter, and embarks on a trip back home to Markarth to celebrate his graduation with his family.  Little does he know, Stendarr has chosen him as a holy champion, and made him Dragonborn in order to fulfill that destiny.

Loyalty: High to Vigilants & Silverbloods, medium to Nords & other Divine-worshippers
Sanity: Low (hears voices of the Divines, and Daedric princes, may be hallucinations?)
Cruelty: Medium (will mercilessly purge/purify sinners and abominations)
Piety: Very high, can be self-righteous, scrupulously (naively?) lawful
Passion: Hates daedra, undead, and abominations
Selfishness: Low (except, selfish desires may masquerade as hallucinatory divine commands)

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Well, as a new Vigilant, it was time to pay a visit to my folks back in Markarth and share the good news that I'd graduated from being a neophyte and was ready to start adventuring!  They'd be proud of how much more mature and responsible I've become, I thought, thanks to my training at the Hall (and being away from their well-intended but suffocating presence).  I gathered up some supplies and headed out on the path to the Reach.  My comrades gifted me a Shield of Stendarr and a sturdy mace, and my friend Emma even agreed to accompany me (I half think she may have a cougar crush on me...).  We bade farewell to the faithful and our Stormcloak guests, and headed out South, hoping to make Whiterun in a couple days.

Thrakka's Big Journey

I headed out from home on a mission for the first time today. Sire wants me to contact the Northern Reach stronghold of Mor Khazgur and renew our relationship. I convinced him to let me take Uncle Ghorbash, who was getting restless anyway and spends all his time hacking up training dummies with his bizarre steel axe. So finally the morning arrived and we headed out through the gates.

We traveled the winding mountain passes for a few hours, passing a squad of Imperials escorting a Nord prisoner. Uncle exchanged a gruff greeting with them, saluted, and we moved on to continue following the river North. That afternoon, we came to a large settlement straddling the river, and swarming with Forsworn. I saw it first, and guided Ghorbash around it to avoid him feeling honorbound to just start massacring the villagers. I may be strong, but I'm still largely untested in battle and it would be foolish to just dive in and attack such a huge group. So we continued on with a slight detour. Not a mile down the river though, we were set upon by a Forsworn scouting party! One pounced on me from a rocky overhang above, but his "sword" as just a glorified stick with some kind of teeth glued onto it, and it just bounced off my orcish armor barely leaving a scratch. I hacked him apart with my battle axe, then Ghorbash and I finished off the other two

We paused to catch our breath and check our equipment at a nearby mining camp on the road to Karthwasten, where a group of friendly humans gave us some sweet mead, perhaps just because they were intimidated and didn't want trouble. It was starting to get late, and slightly inebriated we decided to sleep there.

In the morning, we continued on our path until we reached the mining town of Karthwasten in the afternoon. Arriving there, we saw a dispute unfolding between the miners and some mercenaries who apparently worked for a family called the Silverbloods. The mercs were protecting the mine from those lunatic Forsworn... but the miners didn't see it that way. They complained that their options were to either be attacked by the feral Bretons, or be pushed off their own property by the greedy Nord family of thieves who were scheming for a land grab.

One miner was a fetching orc lass who I vaguely remembered from home... Lash gra-Dushnikh. Had she run away when we were welps? I caught up with her to chat, and she had indeed left the stronghold years ago and was told by her mother, our smith, not to come home. Why not? She seemed strong and capable to me... I decided to try and convince her to join my orcish horde. After all, I needed more than one follower to make a horde! But how could I impress her?

I asked around the town for more details on what was going on, and that evening I went into the mines and confronted the mercenary leader. I made him an offer he couldn't refuse. He gathered up his cowardly men and they slunk away back home to their Silverblood masters. The folks of Karthwasten didn't think they had heard the last of the unscrupulous Nord family, but they were pleased they could get back to work, and rewarded me with a few ingots of pure silver. Best of all, Lash was so impressed that I had helped her friends, that she agreed to accompany me to Mor Khazgur! She went to grab her mother's old iron sword, we all got a good night's rest, and prepared to continue our journey on the morrow.

Next day we continued North on the road along the river, until eventually we had to cross the water at the base of a large waterfall... this took us too close to a Forsworn redoubt, and two of the primitive Bretons began shooting at us! Their flimsy arrows either missed or bounced off our armor, and we all charged in to butcher them. Lash got her first kill, and rewarded herself by stripping the revealing hide armor off of her foe, and putting it on instead of her frumpy miner's outfit. We then continued up the mountainside unscathed. Another couple of hours travel later, we approached the wooden fortifications of Mor Khazgur! But there was a group of humans before us, hunting sabrecats. They weren't Forsworn judging by their iron armor, but as we approached to greet them they turned and attacked, brandishing wicked steel! I was angered by their dishonorable conduct, plus they were poaching on Orsimer territory... and I felt myself slipping into a blind fury like nothing I had ever felt before. It was my first Berserker Rage! When I came to a moment later, all four bandits lay dismembered, I was covered in blood, and Ghorbash and Lash were staring at me with mouths agape.

I wiped myself down a bit, and we continued the trek across the rocky field to the stronghold gates. They let me right in, cheering, as their guards must have witnessed the glorious slaughter from atop the walls. We were welcomed as blood-kin and feasted well with our allies that night, and their bare-chested Chief Larak even honored me with a challenge of unarmed combat. I waited until he was a little drunk, then we brawled and I gave a good account of myself in front of the whole tribe! He was impressed, and offered me any of his warriors to add to my horde if I wished, or even his favorite daughter if I paid off her dowry (which I could afford with all that silver). Things were going well on my first adventure, and I decided to stay awhile and enjoy Larak's hospitality while I considered my next move.

Thrakka U'ruk: Origins

Thrakka was born as son of Chief Burguk of Dushnikh Yal, from one of his lesser wives.

As he grew into an adolescent, Thrakka manifested extraordinary strength even for an Orsimer.  His mother fostered in him a cunning disposition as he grew, teaching him the Art of War in hopes that he would one day come to challenge his father for rule of the clan.

Unbeknownst to even his parents, Thrakka was chosen by Malacath for a great destiny, and was infused with draconic essence - he was Dragonborn.

When he finally came of age, Thrakka was to be sent as an envoy to the northern stronghold of Mor Khazgur.  This would shore up relations between the chiefs, increase trade and prosperity, and give young Thrakka some much-needed world experience as he traversed the rocky and treacherous lands of The Reach (an Imperial hold in Western Skyrim).  He donned his name-day present, a full set of orcish armor crafted by another of his father's wives.  Then he convinced his father to let him take one of the rangers - his uncle Ghorbash the Iron Hand - who had recently returned from serving for several years in the Imperial Legion and was already growing restless.

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