Gamingheap Special: SKYRIM - Part 2

 Gamingheap Special: SKYRIM


Part 2

*** THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS! ***

Another dozen hours of gameplay has further revealed how awesome this game really is, and how much time and effort Bethesda have pumped into this masterpiece. I managed to wander my way over to the north-western hold of Skyrim: 'Solitude'. There are actually 9 holds in Skyrim, each a different part of the map - e.g. Whiterun, The Pale etc. Correspondingly named guards patrol these holds. Anyway, Solitude rests upon a massive sea arch looming over the north coast. There is a port just outside of Solitude where I found a door leading up to the top of the arch and into the town itself. 

I chatted with a few citizens which initiated a ton more quests - one about picking up a delivery, another about finding a sword... It seems that everyone has a quest tied to them in some way; this is what i meant by Bethesda's hard-work! One of the quests started by me talking to a self-proclaimed 'Apprentice' searching for his Master who had apparently gone to the 'Pelagius Wing' in the Blue Palace (The royal building of Solitude). He gave me 'The Key' which turned out to be Pelagius' Hip Bone which actually featured in Oblivion as a rare item to be sold to the rare items collector in the Shivering Isles expansion. I entered the palace and slipped into the Pelagius Wing... it was a large area filled with cobwebs and was seemingly abandoned. I began the search for the lunatic's master...

Eventually I walked down the corridor and then my character fell down something and the screen went black...

You'd never guess what i woke up to... Sheogorath! Sheogorath is the daedric prince of madness and dementia who was featured a lot in the Shivering Isles expansion with many a quest. The Wabbajack was also obtained in Oblivion by completing his statue quest in Cyrodiil. The Wabbajack is a staff that turns enemies into harmless animals! Sheogorath told me that we were in the mind of Pelagius the Third, great warrior and emperor (or something like that). He gave me the Wabbajack after a long-winded confusing speech containing something about sweetcakes and fishsticks and then I had to do 3 tasks to make Pelagius' mind sane. Long story short I used the Wabbajack against everything and then I was free to leave. The lunatic I talked to, to start the quest teleported into this strange world and recognized Sheogorath as his master. I was teleported back to Skyrim and was allowed to keep the Wabbajack... wow! What an adventure, haha!

Back in Skyrim I managed to reach Level 18 and raise my alchemy to Level 20, my Archery to 57, my Smithing to 41, my Heavy Armour to 39 and my Sneak to 25. Overall I spent my time mainly collecting ingredients for alchemy and smithing armour. 

I also managed to join the Thieves Guild after talking to a strange man in Riften and stealing some things from the market. It's actually really more fleshed out than Oblivion and everyone has a story to tell or some quest tied to them. You can opt to do many different types of smaller thieving quests instead of the main storyline for the guild. These can range from 'Sweep' tasks which see the player stealing scripted valuable objects from a household and returning them for some extra gold to pick-pocketing a scripted item on a certain character and returning it for yet more gold.

I also joined the Dark Brotherhood which saw me going to Windhelm (after paying a 2000 gold bounty after I didn't realise the guards had noticed me kill 2 'Witnesses of Stendarr' for their cool robes, haha!) and talking to an orphan who had run away from his orphanage because the orphanage keeper was an old lady who would beat the kids. Long story short... the kids actually cheered when I slew her with my dagger in front of them!

This game is, like its predecessor, is brilliant and so full of quests and countless things to do it will never get boring... I  hope! Now, off to level up my smithing skill!