Skyrim: The Chronicles of Syl

21

2012-02-11T10:29:00.001-08:00

TO THE NOBLE GOAT…

…that threw itself between the Dovahkiin and an Ancient Dragon during a battle outside Karthwasten…and then furiously headbutted the Ancient Dragon for ten seconds until the Dragon obliterated it with a blast of fire…

…I salute you.

20

2012-02-06T10:03:00.000-08:00

Mjoll the Lioness, I pretty much love you but by the Eight...SHUT UP A MINUTE

If the pic won't embiggen enough, it will over here.

19

2012-01-30T09:28:00.001-08:00

Every time I’m in Riften, I wait until the wee hours of the morning…then I go into Haelga’s Bunkhouse and pickpocket whatever I can from Grelka. Then I head out to her stall and steal something. Then I throw some garbage around in front of it. I just like to piss her off however I can.

That’s what happens when you’re rude to the Dragonborn. (if the Dragonborn doesn’t just kill you outright.)

18

2012-01-27T13:12:00.000-08:00

Oh Vex, won't you ever let me into your stone-cold heart?

17

2012-01-25T08:41:00.001-08:00

Most horrifying glitch so far:

Walking along the road west of Whiterun, I found a horse...err, impaled, I guess, through a small section of wall. It was frozen- or dead, or taxidermied- like an art installation or something, its tail sticking straight out behind it...

...and it was smiling.

16

2012-01-24T10:08:00.001-08:00

R.I.P. Borgakh the Steel Heart! I convinced you to leave your people and a looming arranged marriage to come along and adventure with me. You kicked much ass, complimenting my archer assassin self with your bludgeony prowess. That is, until we found Sunderstone Gorge. We rounded a corner and took a face full of inferno from, like, 6 high-level wizards. I retreated, healed, and picked them off one by one...when they were all dispatched and I came back to the spot where the fracas began, you were dead. Dead!

It felt a bit disrespectful to leave you lying there in your undies, but the dragonplate armor you were wearing was enchanted, so, you know.

NEVER FORGET

15

2012-01-13T09:08:00.001-08:00

So Birna in Winterhold is totally a prostitute, right? I’m not judging! Times is tight. IN THIS ECONOMY you do what you have to.

14

2012-01-12T10:13:00.001-08:00

So who's this, now? This is Aerie, my new character, who resides on the opposite end of the spectrum from Syl. Syl was a bit of a goody-goody who wouldn't do Thieves Guild quests or Dark Brotherhood quests or many Daedric quests because she enjoyed being the hero and being nice to people.

But not Aerie! This Bosmer does not care. She will kill anyone and steal anything. She does nice things for people, too- yes, Temba Wide-Arms, here is a shit ton of bear pelts for you- but really only if there's coin to be had.

She's way more fun to play.

And I'm trying to play differently this time as well; Syl was a bruiser, decked out in heavy armor and one-hand-meleeing shit to a pulp. Aerie sneaks around and hangs back, shooting arrows, trying not to be detected. She brings along followers that are melee heavy-hitters.

I've also imposed a few rules on myself, which is making the game more challenging and fun.

- no use of quest arrows, if it can be helped

- no fast travel, if it can be helped (I only fast travel to, say, Whiterun to dump loot). It's a pain sometimes, but it's also making the game more engrossing. I've had several encounters and witnessed a few things that I missed in my first go-round with all the zapping across the map.

- no reloading if someone dies. On our first adventure together, Lydia and I headed up a mountain and fought a dragon. I killed it and then realize that Lydia died at some point during the battle. I dragged her under a tree (RESPECT, right?) and split. It's added a touch of finality to everything that I quite enjoy. The stakes are raised, I guess.

13

2012-01-06T10:32:00.001-08:00

Despite having more money than she could ever hope to spend, Syl decided to go through the pockets of the still-warm corpse of Nurelion and keep the change she found.

12

2012-01-05T12:43:00.000-08:00

Aela the Huntress! From the moment we met (when she yelled at me) I was in lurrrrrve. When she was all “You should be a werewolf” I was all “Okay Aela, whatever you want”. Then after I got my Do You Like Me Yes or No Necklace, we got married and she stood there, arms crossed and looking sullen, only to leave without a word. She cooked me some food and gave me money from her store and said it was nice to see me, but oh! Sometimes I would come home from adventuring with Lydia or J’zargo or Jordis and I’d see Aela sitting and staring at nothing with an empty look in her eyes, or mechanically stirring some stew, or even DRINKING! And I felt bad! So I was all “Wife, do you want to adventure?” and she was all “FUCK YES” so now that’s what we do.

11

2012-01-04T08:51:00.000-08:00

POTEMA THE WOLF QUEEN

As a big ol' real-life and in-game book nerd, I was perhaps a little too excited about the whole Potema quest line. I devoured every volume of The Wolf Queen biography in Oblivion and found her (along with Barenziah) to be a fascinating character from the history of Tamriel. Seriously, her (condensed) bio is worth a read.

Then WHAT! In Skyrim she's resurrected and I can head into the catacombs and fight her? An "unambiguously evil", psychopathic, power-mad necromancer surrounded by an army of the undead? Unbelievable. I took my time and savored these quests, the very idea of them made them my favorite in the game.

Ultimately, though, it was a bit of a disappointment in the end. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but it felt much like any other battle in the game: a few draugr deathlords and Potema herself, who remained in blue, glowy spectral form. She talked more smack than most enemies, but that was about it. But no matter! I haven't dorked out on any other quest quite so much, so that made the experience memorable regardless.

10

2012-01-03T07:37:00.001-08:00

click to embiggen.

09

2012-01-02T06:33:00.001-08:00

Currently, Illia is doing this to me, but they've ALL done it.

08

2012-01-01T06:37:00.000-08:00

I bet it smells so bad in there.

07

2011-12-30T11:06:00.000-08:00

To be fair, it's not just Lydia. But I love her most.

I don't know if the full-size will show, so click here to embiggen.

06

2011-12-29T09:29:00.000-08:00

I love ridiculous glitches and bugs.

05

2011-12-27T09:00:00.001-08:00

04

2011-12-20T10:12:00.001-08:00

Every Elder Scrolls character I play ends up with a huge boner for books. I look at every book on every shelf and surface. I won't hesitate to steal a book I don't have. I get obsessed with tracking down missing volumes in serieseseses. What's my problem? It's like my ES characters are big comic book nerds who scrounge through long boxes and...oh.

Anyway, this is also a different style of art because I felt like it, and it's also the first thing I've done digitally, ever ever. It looks only a little bit of a notch above MS Paint, I know! I hate learning curves. I'd love to do more digitally because it would ultimately be faster, but right now it's 10x slower and much less...umm, good than drawing it in pencil, inking it, and scanning it. And working on a tablet feels like I'm working with disembodied hands or something. Sigh.

But! It was fun to try and I feel weird posting up something so wonky and new, but hey. LIVE A LITTLE, amirite?

03

2011-12-16T09:59:00.000-08:00

I just realized it kind of looks like Lydia is doing a Mulholland Dr-style angrymasturbation. She is not! Although maybe she is, since I guess I don’t know what she does when I’m asleep.

NO LYDIA WOULD NEVER

02

2011-12-14T09:26:00.001-08:00

01

2011-11-29T12:27:00.000-08:00