Turning Casual

 Some dragons in the distance. Oh no, I don't want to have to contend with them! Luckily I didn't.


On my way from Dawnstar to Riften the scenery dazzled me! It was early morning just as the sun had risen and the snow everywhere.. sparkled!

 Really, this is worth clicking for a closer look!


Apparently entering the city of Riften increased my sneak skill for some reason..

The business I had in Riften was to meet up with a man that was in the thieves guild. I was to talk to him about getting expansions for the sanctuary.

 I've got -a lot-.


He was also kind enough to increase my sneak skill! Yay!

After I was done with business I moseyed around, taking my time. I didn't really have an interest in talking to anyone but a near by khajiit struck my interest. I paused to have a little chat, which turned into a whole story telling. It was interesting though!

I haven't quite decided what i'm going to do now that the whole brotherhood story is out of the way. I'll just wander around until something grabs me.

Cicero Joins Me

 I met Amaund back in Whiterun and spoke with him. He was overjoyed to learn that the contract has been successfully completed!

 He told me the dead drop to get the reward was back in the ruins place that I met him originally. So off I headed!


On the way out of the city I spotted and oddly placed dead bandit. I searched him for some loot and found a note. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with his death, but interesting nonetheless!

I got back to the Dawnstar sanctuary and met up with Cicero whom I asked to join me. He happily agreed! ...After a little practical joke of course.

 The first time he pulled this on me I was devistated! But this time I knew it was comming and had the heart to laugh with him. Unfortunately it was in the middle of the night and too dark to even see him.


The reward:

Death To The Emperor

The nightmother has told me to meet Amaund again to see where the real location of the emperor is. I did so and he was very surprised to see me! Yet he was also very happy to hear that the DB would still be willing to carry out the contract after it's near extinction. I consider this a level of professionalism because.. this is what we do! Turns out the real location is on a ship parked right outside of Solitude.

I just had to share the view on the way to Solitude. The beautiful sky, I just couldn't resist the little group of clouds on the horizon like fluffs of whipped cream. I chose to take a cart to Solitude to enjoy such beautiful views and it pays off! I sometimes wonder if Shadowmere gets jealous though.

Amaund also gave me the option of killing the soldier that had ambushed me, I didn't really want to, after all he was just avenging his son... however I followed the cursor that I thought was taking me to the emperor and found myself smack dab face to face with Maro! "Shoot!" I cursed to myself and my first choice was to turn and run, but he had me! I couldn't get away! It was either his life or mine, and I valued mine too much. So here's an upskirt shot of maro.

Another scenic shot of the sky on the way to the ship:

There it is... I saw the great ship in the distance. Well, only thing left to do here is to take a deep breath and dive in.

Unfortunately a game bug reared it's ugly head and prevented me from taking any screen shots or even playing the fun "sneaking around" part I was really looking forward to! As soon as I entered the ship the whole screen went black, and I couldn't see anything except the cursor. I would have been stuck if I weren't able to TCL and cheat my way through walls and who knows what else I was walking through to get to the emperor's chamber doors. But, luckily I was able, and I did.

 He was not surprised to see me... and after killing him I learned why:

Apparently he had been doing some research on the DB because there on his desk lies a book all about us. I was very tempted to keep it, but thought I would never read it or anything anyway so I left it be.

Only 3 soldiers got killed during the whole thing which is a record for me. I was able to escape silently into the night ocean.

Traitor

 When I entered Solitude I saw an old beggar leaning against one of the buildings there. He caught my eye for no apparent reason so I curiously went over to him and spoke to him. He told me of a helmet he had lost and I felt bad for him, so I agreed to get him his helmet.... eventually.


I handed over the writ of passage to the guard stationed outside of the castle and gained entrance.

Once inside in the kitchen I donned a chef's hat and got to work telling the local chef how to cook the dish.

 Once I told her I was the Gormet she immediately believed me. That's right, the most popular chef in all of Tamriel, the Gormet, dresses in daedric armor. :)


And here go the ingredients.

Once that was done I had the pleasure of watching it be served. I was supposed to stand in the main room with everyone, but I knew what was going to happen and wanted to be out of sight when it did! Sure enough, as soon as the fake Emperor ate it, he died and all heck broke loose! I was nowhere to be found. Considering my only escape of the castle was via the door on the other side of that room by the time I went in everyone was gone, and I had easy access to the exit!

I would have made it, if I hadn't been ambushed!

The guard up at the top was the one speaking to me, and stated revenge for killing his son! I'm sure you remember that, the guy who would not stop wandering aimlessly in the Haafingar mountains. He told me that the sanctuary was being ransacked by his guards as we speak! I have to get back there! Lucien, beside me, urged me to continue the whole way there, that the sanctuary needed me!

My plan was to bolt through the town and hop on my horse, then make my way to the sanctuary, but it was foiled when I was caught by a guard. Shockingly, the price for attempting to kill the emperor of Tamriel is only 1500 gold. XD
I paid it and people stopped chasing me.

I rode without stopping once, as fast as I could back to the sanctuary! Once I arrived I burst in past the guards and began fighting my way to see if I could save any of my brothers and sisters! Sadly, they were already gone.

 Don't let this photo fool you. Lucien is actually winning, in fact this picture was taken seconds before an epic final move!


Epic pic taken during the heat of battle:

Babette and the other man survived with me and as we were escaping the sanctuary, suddenly, the nightmother called out to me!

Who knows how long later.. I burst out of the nightmother's coffin and meet Nazir and Babette.

We ran to see Astrid, who had made herself into a DB offering.

Becomming The Gormet

 I have to kill the emperor and in order to do that I have to poison him. In order to poison him I have to take the place of the Gormet. In order to take his place I have to kill him. I tracked him down to a small inn south of Winterhold. He was standing outside on the dock staring out across a very beautiful lake. I couldn't blame him. It was early morning and a thick, heavenly mist drifted across the lake's surface and I couldn't help but stand there and admire it for a little while too. My goal was to kill the Gormet and then hide his body so no one would know he was gone.

Eventually I brought myself to approach him with a "let's get this over with" attitude. I didn't talk when he greeted me and it understandably unnerved him a little bit. I really had nothing to say to him though.

It's no wonder i'm starting to frighten you. I'm here to kill you, but then again you don't know that, because I didn't tell you.

When he turned around next to continue his peaceful moment I killed him with one swift slit of his throat. He then crumpled lifelessly. Another job done. It's back to the sanctuary to report it.

 I took the time, before leaving, to take a look around at the inn and maybe refresh myself with a drink. I explored a little bit, and found a really strange door! I'll show you it in a second. The door lead me to a room down below filled with all kinds of people! None of them had a thing to say to me though.

 This is the door that lead me there. The way out was different all together.


On my way back to the sanctuary it began to grow dark so I decided to stop at the city of Whiterun, which is about halfway there, and spend the night in the local inn. I entered the city gates only to suddenly be greeted with this:

 Woah! What the?!
Needless to say I searched the dragon and took it's scales and dragon bones. Odd, how there's a dead dragon inside the city.. but i'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth! Killing them myself is still extremely difficult for me so whenever there's one already dead it's cause for celebration!

 As soon as I took it's soul people began to gather from all around. I didn't know why they were walking past me with such a mesmerized look on their faces for at first, but when I turned around I was amused to see they were in awe over the dragon.

Coincidentally, inside one of the shops in Whiterun I found laying on the counter a book. It's a book about the Gormet! Hehehehe.

 Hmm.... Interesting.

 Anyone want to know a Gormet recipe you can try at home?


I exited the inn the next morning to see this:

 What?! Another dragon?? Where are they comming from?! I was surprised to see it was the exact same dragon that I had taken the soul from last night. Apparently it had glitched back to a fleshy state in the marketplace. Nobody seemed to mind that it's there.


I moseyed around the marketplace for a little while, trying to find someone to buy my dragon bones when I found a fellow named Anoraith. It turns out he was on my kill list from a DB contract earlier that I had forgotten about. The marketplace was very populated and I didn't want to make a scene by suddenly drawing my blades and slashing his throat in front of everybody, so I stood back and just nonchalantly shouted my leech life shout at him, which would slowly drain his life! It's my favorite one!

Sorry. It won't happen again officer.
XD


I don't need it to happen again. Anoraith is a goner.

 He is glowing purple because he is still under the influence of the shout. Eventually he crumpled lifelessly and my contract was completed.


I decided to be on my way, my contract isn't going to complete itself, and headed out of the city. I found this sight just outside:

 GOOD LORD! What is with all of the dragons?!
This one was also dead, but it didn't give me a soul either. Oh well.


Eventually I arrived after a long ride back at the sanctuary:

 Oops.... I guess I forgot to do that X3

 Guess i'm not that professional of an assassin after all. I'm more of a goof.