Chaos In The Force

Ok guys, so my game kind of got really sick and almost died. I had to uninstall and reinstall the whole thing. Luckily I was able to save my save game files so no data was lost, but I then had to reinstall every single mod I have, which took two days. Yes, I have that many mods. Then my game decided to have a problem with save game bloat, which is very problematic. If left untreated it eventually means the end of my game. Luckily for me I only had to deactivate half of the mods (which is still a ton, but not nearly as much as it would have been otherwise) before the bloat went away. My next few days will be spent playing with fewer mods than usual, as I slowly introduce them back into the game to find out which mod is causing the bloat. Pray for the survival of my game. I also lost my companion Kat because the download link for his mod was unavailable, until it becomes available i'm afraid i'll have to be partnering with Cicero again.
 Now, let's get to the story.

I've decided to make my way up the east side of Skyrim. I found myself soon in the Velothi mountains. These are the mountains that separates Skyrim from Morrowind. My last adventure took place in a very large cave which provided me no bed to sleep in so when I exited and found it to be dusk I had a choice to spend the night in the cold where creatures could happen upon me, or keep going. I decided it would be safer to keep going through the mountains and risk sleep deprivation. I was rewarded with a breath taking sight of the aurora!

I found another cave set in the side of the mountain range and curiously entered. I found inside the welcome of a warm fire sorrounded by beds! Hallelujah! I took advantage of the warmth of the fire and read a diary left behind by it's light. The diary told a very sad story, well, you can read it here. I then took advantage of the beds and caught up on my sleep before deciding to explore further into the cave the next day.

What beast were they trailing? What treasure were they after? What became of them?

Refreshed I awakened and decided to figure out the answer to these questions the next morning. I advanced deeper into the cave only to become surprised at dwemer architecture! The cave leads into some dwemer ruins?

Approaching I was attacked, no, ambushed by two Falmer! Oh no, don't tell me they are also here.

I took advantage of the abundance of mushrooms and other alchemy ingredients during my adventure, stuffing my pack full! The falmer were also kind enough to provide me with an alchemy table where I made some potions now and then. Of course I had to fight them first.

I came upon a room filled with falmer, and it was soon recognised that this place was populated with them. There were dead adventurers, I can only assume the journal I read yesterday belonged to them.

I was saddened to see a moment's blink of the ghosts of the dead. At each skeleton was a ghost that disappeared as soon as I approached, and a journal by it's bones.

It tells a gruesome, horrible story that sent me into a sadness that caused me to hesitate before continuing. I wanted desperately to be able to do something to help these people, yet, they were already gone. How I loved Morrowind, only to learn it's continent that I once knew so well is most likely gone..

The Cave

On my explorations I found another dragon wall!

A beautiful view in the early morning at the top of one of Skyrim's many mountains.

While enjoying the view I noticed a bird steering my way. I've always seen many birds in the sky, but this one was coming right toward me! I was shocked to watch it stop and land on a nest right at my feet. So this is what they look like close up! I'm surprised Skyrim's graphics aren't better.

I saw this in the distance, how interesting! This is my next destination.

On the way I became sidetracked by an old, abandoned mine. I entered out of curiosity and found noone inside. I did find a journal. Story goes some miners came into this cave looking for gold, but didn't find any. They began to disappear mysteriously one at a time though. I couldn't see anything dangerous in the cave at all, but I did hear some strange, monster breathing coming from behind a stone wall. There was no way to get to it though.

A beautiful cave.

In the mine I found a Dwarven helmet mysteriously placed. This doesn't belong here at all.

I cheated my way through the wall toward the sound of the breathing and found this fellow just standing there. He was harmless, but I killed  him anyway. Around him was a ton of gold ore just waiting to be mined!

Accidental Adventures

 I decided to just wander around for a while before getting bored with that idea, so I opened my map and looked at all of the unknown places that I haven't been. I spotted near by in the moutains south of Riften a stone named the shadow stone! Yeah! I wanna go there! I figured since I am a DB listener now that I should go touch that stone and receive whatever powers it offers me!

When I arrived I was met with resistance from a wizard person! It was tough and I spent a lot of time retreating and hiding to recover from wounds before setting out again.  Kat wasn't really much help and Shadowmere wasn't around because I was exploring on foot. Eventually I got her killed and touched the stone to receive it's powers.


I then continued exploring only to see this. A burned up cart! I knew, a dragon had done it!

The sun was setting and still I was alone. I began to worry about Kat, that I had lost him again. I turned to look out over the hill the way I came and finally saw his tiny figure hoofing it up toward me. There you are! We then spent the night there.

The next morning my attention was drawn to a cave placed suspiciously in the side of the hill I had slept against. It was near the burned cart. I entered to find a curious sight, lots and lots of animals! They didn't attack me until I entered though and I fought them all off. Once the animals were no longer a distraction I noticed a dead person on the large rock in the middle. There was nothing of value on him. Further exploring of the small cave showed this was a shrine to Kynerith apparently! Too bad there wasn't really anything valuable inside.

I exited the cave then and looked to a trail that I had been eyeing ever since yesterday, that heads up the mountain. My curiosity was too great and I supposed it was time to head up that trail and see what was at the top. When I finally reached the top the sight of a huge dragon perched on a pedistal greeted me, it had not yet seen me, and I cursed myself for being so stupid! How could I not see this comming?! The burned cart down below, how the trail was so much like the others i've previously experienced leading to dragons! I was so dumb! Now I have to fight the dragon, simply leaving wasn't an option for me.

 I snuck carefily up to the dragon and had planned to sneak up to the steps and get a surprise blow in. I knew it wouldn't kill him but it'd deal him more damage than a regular blow and i'll take any damage I can get! I was again egotistical to think I could do that though, for the dragon saw me as soon as I reached the steps. What's worse is it began to rain as well! With a squeal I turned and bolted down the stone stairs leading down the hill the same way i'd come!


 I was using a series of leech life shouts to kill it, which would take FOREVER I knew! But it was a lot safer than risking my life by trying to get slices in with my swords. I was chased by the dragon to a near by farm and while I was dodging fireballs, seeking windows to leech life him again, and making sure the dragon didn't kill my Kat a courier suddenly appeared and demanded my attention!

What? NOW?! I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF A DRAGON FIGHT!!
It was just a stupid invitation to the newly opened museum in Dawnstar. I SWEAR if this invitation gets me killed by this dragon i'm going to go there and DESTROY the whole place!

Try as I might the dragon was just too good of aim and kept hitting me with flame after flame. I watched my health repeatedly dwindle lower and lower. The rain continued to pound around me making this whole ordeal VERY uncomfortable and difficult to fight in! I hate the rain!

After all of my health potions were gone and all of my food was gone I had no choice but to retreat! I spotted the inside of the mill at the farm and quickly ducked inside like a dog with it's tail between it's legs! The dragon's flames followed me the whole way and blocked the door after I entered. I could feel my tail scorched behind me, but luckily I was still alive!

As soon as my breathing calmed and I stopped panicking from the fear I was about to die I realized that I had just cornered myself in the BEST POSSIBLE WAY ever!! Now I had unlimited protection, like a turtle's shell, and darted out when the dragon was distracted and close enough to leech life him! Meanwhile the farmer's guards and Kat continued to distract and fight the dragon outside! This was great!!
As you can see it eventually lead to the dragon's defeat!

With the dragon's soul under my belt I let out a sigh of relief at still being alive, gathered Kat, and began the trek back up the mountain to the dragon's perch to collect my rewards. A shout and some loot. What made it even better was on the way up the sky cleared and the sun came out, shining brighter than ever! It was as if the game knew that I had just won a glorious battle.

After collecting my loot I took the time to get a little zen and look out at the sorrounding mountain tops. I was up really high. I spotted a strange structure on the nearest mountain top and wondered what it was. Well! That'll be my next destination!

I left the mountain and descended into a valley between the two. I'd have to cross the valley to get to the other mountain. I was met by a few dead people and one living. I went over to see what happened when I was attacked! Apparently this scavenger killed them to scavenge their loot or something. Poor guy had to die by my blade.

Then I saw this.. 

 At first I thought it was just another thing the dragon that I'd just killed attacked.. but then I went inside.

I found a burnt person with this scroll by his body. Apparently a conjured flame atronach got angry.

Eventually I made it to the second mountain top and approached the structure. It looked like some kind of fort and nobody was around. I found some dead bodies, like this, inside some of the open areas. Finding these people only created a mystery, why were they dead and who or what killed them?

A little further into the structure I was surprised to find a single living soul. I approached to talk but he wanted to fight!

On his body after I killed him was this note. Apparently someone sent him and his men to this structure to retrieve a mask. Uh oh, sounds like a quest to me... I'm not really in the mood to do an official quest right now, but I can't just turn around and leave! I feel like I have no choice.

A little ways inside the fort I found this journal left by somebody. There were ghosts roaming about that I had to kill but they are relatively easy. I found the journal very enlightening! Apparently the ghosts I was killing were once men of the dragon cult! A group of heroes came here to kill the dragon cult men, but were killed themselves, and when there were only a few of the heroes left the dragon cult men began committing suicide by poison!

Here are some of the dragon cult men in the same room the died. Their skeletons were still in the beds in some cases. It's actually a little bit of a sad story.

 Kat fighting a dragon cult man.


I was met with that throughout the whole fort... except at the very end. I began comming upon what looked like burnt corpses.. Uh oh.. I smell a dragon in my immediate future.. which is a HORRIBLEthing! There is no way I can fight one and survive by myself. Each step from then on was met with extreme caution and apprehension... and anxiety.

I gulped and held my breath when I entered the next room... and gasped with shock to find a beautiful garden! Not a dragon! I happily and quickly harvested what I could from it!

The next room brought back the anxiety and caution. It was one of those rooms. There are always super hard boss dragurs on the other side.

Like I thought, there was a super hard boss on the other side, but it wasn't a dragur. It was a Gloom Wraith! I have never fought one of these before! He turned out to be extremely tough. I didn't die, but almost! JUUUUUST when one last hit would have killed me and the wraith's arm was lowering to bestow upon me that hit, my own hit struck first and he was down!

 I took from his body a mask, and realized this must be what the guy outside was after. I wondered what was so great about it, it's ugly. It does give me stamina.. I guess i'll keep it.

I certainly am not going to win any fashion shows though...

Kat Gets Lost

 I just wanted to show you this. I found a really cool place around The Rift area of a very large giant camp site. The giants were distracted by some beasties so I took the opportunity to ride into their camp and have a look around. Along with a lot of mammoth cheese that I stole I found a cave. Entering, I found the cave was their home! It had a lot of mammoth cheeses as well as artwork and other things giants keep around. Neat!


I've decided to ride around randomly and just take a break from quests for a short while. In doing so, I discovered, as Cicero always did, Kat got lost. Apparently I rode faster than he can keep up. Unlike Cicero, Kat never returned to me, not even after spending the night in an inn. I spent five minutes looking for him in the wild until finally remembering that I could summon him back to me with a fast travel, which I did. I seriously need to find a way to teleport him to me!


In the distance I spotted a VERY unusual sighting of a pair of dragons. What was unusual was how they looked! I watched them land not far ahead, and as I approached they weren't moving, but just sitting there together. Alot of questions raised in my mind as I cautiously approached, but none of them were answered. The closer I got and the more I learned, the more questions there were! Were they going to attack me? Were they even hostile at all? Why were there two of them? Why are they colored that way? Why are they just sitting there? And perhaps the most curious of all, as I came right up to them off my horse... Why can I just walk right through them?

 So, just before I lost interest and turned to leave I swung my sword at the pink one dismissively... and actually did some damage! (Though barely enough to even be noticeable.) The pink dragon whom i'd hit stirred and I was startled with a gasp, I took off toward my horse! "Oh no!" I cursed to myself silently and I hastily hopped on Shadowmere then streaked off into the distance with the dragon in the air hot on my tail!


Normally when I ride on Shadowmere away from dragons i'm safe as a cucumber on a carnivores plate. Dragons can't aim worth crap and give up pretty quickly when they don't hit anything. However, I was shocked to find I was actually needing to DODGE the fire balls from the pink dragon! It seemed to have aiming skills far superior to any dragon i've met yet! It's a smart dragon! It kept firing at the path just ahead of me!

 And it chased me for a long time! But eventually it did give up... thank god!


 I decided to stop for a rest at my beloved alchemists shack. I don't know why i'm so fond of this place. I was surprised to actually see someone there!

He turned out to be a nice fellow. He doesn't actually live there, but like me, uses the place. I thought it was nice to have someone to share the place with. It's so lonely here usually. He does seem a bit cracked in the head though.