It has been long time since I
played The Elder Scroll V: Skyrim and i didn’t finish it back
then because of bug on the main quest. So, I’m back to it. But this time, i
play Bethesda’s The Elder Scroll V: Skyrim Special Edition
(2016) and I’m curious what’s the special edition is all about. Hopefully, they
fix the bug.
Ok. There’s Skyrim updates note right away in the main menu screen. The most noticeable note is they add fishing! I remember picking up fish on river is quite frustrating so supposedly fishing can make gathering fish easier. Take aside of Special Edition (to celebrate Skyrim’s 10th anniversary), i don’t use any modification while playing this as Bethesda’s intended. The title screen is quite bland. There’s only imperial symbol: Diamond shape with dragon inside of it. The dragon is Nafaalilargas, who was a pet of Emperor Tiber Septim. Anyway, let’s hit new game ASAP!
The game starts with rather uneasy cutscene where me, a thief, and Stormcloak rebels being carried in a convoy of carriage. Our hands are tied but not our leg though and the carriage has open end. I think we can escape. Wait! There’s a horseman escort in the back, nevermind.
We arrive at a village where we’re about to be executed. We’re called one by one according to Imperial blacklist. The thief is surprised that his name is on it and attempt a daring escape. However, an arrow from archer prevents him from escape and also to live longer. Even the thief somehow dodges archer’s assault, he has to go through gate that most likely locked and guarded so he will fail nonetheless. He will die either by archer or executioner. What’s that? You want to know my name. No. You tell me from that goddamn list, bastard!
After pretty brief character creation…
I don’t want to bore you with the character creation but I will show you the result later, I promise. But as you can hear from the imperial captain, my character right here is Orc. Back then I also play as Orc. Heck! Even in previous Elder Scrolls game: Oblivion, I play as Orc. I remember that day when Emperor Uriel Septim VII visits me in a prison. He’s well-mannered person and despite his very high position as ruler of Tamriel. Unlike this racist imperial dog, rudely yell at me. Even though I’m not in the black list, this imperial git decides to execute me with no reason. Uriel Septim VII wouldn’t approve this cruelty. They’re not even clear the dead body of previous execution.
It's not in the clouds, idiot. The dragon is clearly perched on tower! Luckily this dragon make chaos and destruction in this village so we can escape. I hope the dragon eats the executioner and end up being dragon drooping. He deserves that because he’s about to chop my head!
You wanted me dead and now you want me to follow you? I’m not buying it. But since the game marks you with objective marker. I suppose i can tag along a bit.
There’s option to enter the keep with either Ralof from Stormcloak rebel or Hadvar from Imperial. My trust to Imperial is -50% besides there’s a chance that Hadvar wants me to survive only to bring me to another chopping block. So, I stick with Ralof and he cut my bind after long time! So I can do anything including looting. He allows me to wield equipment from his dead friend. By pressing “F” key (default), I can switch the perspective between first person and third person view. So, here’s my Orc character: Gargaz from Warhammer 40,000 Shootas, Blood & Teef. There’s one and only head’s hair selection which is ponytail that luckily similar to the hair squig. The rest of hair selection is beard or sideburns which is kind of pity that Orc aren’t allowed to have other form of hair head. Either ponytail or bald.
Aha! What a lucky coincidence. I get to krump the very bastard who give me the death sentence! Like in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, i can execute standard attack by pressing left mouse button, holding it to perform strong attack that cost stamina bar, and holding right mouse button to block.
Killing her is not enough. I can also steal her belongings (not her underwear though). This item browse menu is pretty neat. I can see various stats of the highlighted item. The most important stats that you need to know regarding trade is: the weight and the rough value. The higher the value, the bigger money you get when the item sold however you have to mind about the weight limit. Carrying items over your capability is bit detrimental. I will tell you more later about it.
Deeper on the keep, we arrive at torture chamber and I get lockpicking tutorial on this cage. The way how it works like this. I can rotate pick within 180o arc and attempt to open the lock by holding either “A” or “D” button. To open the lock, I have to make the lock turn 90o left or right. Less than that, the lockpick breaks. Easier lock has bigger correct arc of lockpick position. Conversely, harder lock has smaller correct thus easier to break my lockpick. Trials and error is the way.
Later…
Somehow, the keep’s underground connected to a cave full of spiders! I don’t have plan to use combat magic for Gargaz. But this flame magic is pretty good against bunch of spiders. Magic casting is no longer in dedicated button like in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I have to assign magic in either hand. It’s quite tedious process and it adds variety on combat. Because I assign flame magic on right hand, I can no longer block with my axe. Instead, holding right mouse button allow me to spray magic flame. According to description, flame will do more damage to burning target. Investing skill on combat magic is not bad idea but I stick with usual “Heavy Warrior” build type.
Next, we’re into stealth tutorial section. By pressing left control button, I can toggle sneak. While in sneak mode, the crosshair become eyelid as stealth indicator. Ralof gave me bow and some arrow if I feel like to execute stealth shot that deals double damage but I choose sneak pass the bear. Although the indicator said I’m detected, the bear doesn’t proceed to claw me to death. Maybe they’re too sleepy to fight.
Finally, we’re out of the cavern. Suddenly, the game throws me about Survival mode! I agree with the need to eat and sleep because they’re underutilized in the original version. But inability to fast travel and reduced carry weight is too much! I can understand fast travel can be considered broken (in easy way). But if you don’t like it, you can just manually travel all the time. No one will judge you if you don’t want to use fast travel. By the way if I carry items more than my weight limit, I will not be able to run, sprint or fast travel. Throughout my gameplay, I’m quite often overburdened because either I’m overstocking potion or I carry loot as many as my greed allows. Mostly the latter. Leveling up occurred when sleep is legacy from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, I believe.
Fairly far from the cave’s exit, I find this sign stones. They’re Mage, Thief, and Warrior sign. Activating them will give me certain permanent benefit but I can only have 1 at the time. Without hesitation I pick Warrior sign’s blessing which makes me learn combat skill 20% faster. Mage and Thief will boost magic and sneak learning rate respectively.
Speaking of sign, the birth sign from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is nowhere to be found here replaced by this stone sign. Birth sign is character’s class that determine starting skill level. Also, usual RPG stats like Strength, Intelligence, etc. also gone. I say it’s good change because skill and stats system in Oblivion is quite complicated and not friendly.
Finally, we arrived at Riverwood where Ralof’s sister live. Main quest says that I should meet her but I choose to visit this blacksmith instead. Alvor is kindly enough to give me smithing tutorial: how to make iron dagger and hide helmet also improve their attack/defense value. I don’t get money for this tutorial but he let me keep the dagger and helmet. Naturally, my made is not as strong as professional’s made but my smithing skill can be improved (through making more dozens scrap items). I will get there.
Not only the blacksmith gives me smithing tutorial but also he can trade with me. There’s thin line between buy and sell, quite literally. See that line on left menu. It separates between blacksmith’s goods and mine. Besides your gold, you are also need to watch the trader’s gold. Both yours and their gold change for each transaction. You can’t buy item with price exceed your gold and also they can’t sell your item in full prize if they have less gold. I miss the simpler barter system in Oblivion where the trader only has constant maximum selling price instead of dynamic barter system like this. It’s more realistic, I know. But I still don’t like it.
Oh. I meet Ralof’s sister on the street besides the blacksmith. How convenience! She’s voluntarily gives me these items. There’s bit randomness on what item she give you. On my test run, she gives me ring that enchant my magic skill. But this time, she gives me ring that boost my Heavy Armor skill. What a lucky coincidence as I want to build Heavy Armor skill as heavy warrior. She also gives me key to her house and I’m allowed to get more item on her house and sleep there.
On the other side of blacksmith, there’s trader of general items. There’s some argue between the shopkeeper and his sister regarding golden claw artifact that stolen last night. I agree to retrieve it for some gold reward but I won’t do that just yet.
Here’s stuff getting dirty in my playthrough. I steal some items in blacksmith’s while he’s gone to tavern in evening. Riverwood is not big village so there’s only like 2 guards. When they’re not looking at me crouching, I can safely steal items. Make sure the stealth indicator is in completely “hidden” status so you don’t get caught red handed. If the guard find out you’re stealing you will get fine or thrown to jail. Spending time in jail will decrease your experience on random skill thus making you harder to level up.
I can’t judge you if you are playing Skyrim in pure honest way, not steal items. The thing is people sell items at you in increased price and they will buy your loot at roughly half price from written in item’s stats when you find it. Long story short, honest trading sucks at least with your current low level of Speechcraft. If you pick Imperial race, you can have little better speechcraft. But that doesn’t mean you can steal items randomly. Most merchant in Skyrim don’t want to buy stolen items except the one in thief guild on Riften city which is very far from Riverwood.
If you agree with stealing, here my tips: 1) Steal gold coin. Merchants don’t care where you get the coin to buy their item. 2) Steal something that you can use for yourself such as: stronger equipment that you have right now, potions (preferably restore health), or food. 3) Lastly and this is my favorite kind of stealing: steal material for your smithing and chemistry. Like these metal ingots. Most merchants don’t buy them directly. But if you make equipment or potion of them, merchants will gladly buy them. They can’t tell if materials of your commodity are stolen or not. Besides the crafting will add value to the original price of stolen material items. Not only you can have more commodity to sell but also you level up your smithing/alchemist skill from crafting.
Speaking of alchemist, there’s alchemist table inside of Sleeping Giant Inn so I can concoct some potion from material that I gathered. Here’s how the chemistry work: each ingredient contain 4 effect. You can only make potion successfully if you mix 2 ingredients with at least 1 same effect. The thing is: at the start of the game your character doesn’t know any effect on ingredients. So you have to discover the effects through trial and error. Dozen times, at least. Here’s some sneak peek in this screenshot. Mixing bone meal (that I got from dead skeleton in torture chamber) with blue butterfly wing discovers “Fortify Conjuration” and “Damage Stamina” effect. You can find chemistry material literally everywhere and most of them are legal to take (not considered stealing). Because I’m basically generous person I tell you about my main concoction: Mix of Blue Mountain Flower and Wheat will result in Potion that both restore health and increase maximum health. Try it! :)
Gerdur, Ralof’s sister wants
me to inform about the dragon to da boss Jarl in Whiterun and also ask
for reinforcement because Riverwood has barely wall to protect citizens. Whiterun
is quite far from Riverwood, which indicated by the village icon in the south.
Meanwhile my position (and also my facing direction) is indicated by that white
arrow mark not far from Riverwood. I said that there’s Fast Travel but I can’t
use it just yet because Fast Travel can only be executed to the place that I
have gone before. So on we go with manual travel. It will be fun.
Hark! There's deer in my sight. I can snipe them with my bow. Stealth shot deal twice damage. But just to be sure, I imbue my bow with poison that I got from the dead spiders. 5 damage per second on health and stamina for 4 seconds, is pretty good. From the door, I get some hide and venison. Sniper_mvm_loot_common03.wav
Son of a git! When I thought I won’t have problem with wild wolves. I get this disease from their bite. It’s kind of weird to see your current passive effects under magic menu in “Active Effects”, including disease. Disease won’t come out by sleeping. I need certain potion for that.
After more steps…
Oh sog! I witness someone fighting a giant in the middle of a farm! If I remember correctly, giants tend to chill in their camp in wilderness and not running amok in human settlement like this. The giant is dead but I can’t loot anything from him. This event is the introduction of The Companion which is the equivalent of Tamriel’s Fighter Guild. I will join them once I’m much stronger.
Not far from Whiterun’s entrance gate, there Khajit’s camp. One of them sell various items including peculiar chemistry material! I’m sold!
Another one offer me training on sneak skill. But I don’t have the gold for it because of last shopping. Besides I want Gargaz become heavy warrior, not petty thief. But I already commit thievery, nevermind. Each skill in Skyrim, can be leveled up with related action. For example: Heavy armor levels up as you take damage while you wear Heavy Armor type equipment, One-handed levels up as you hit someone with one-handed weapon, or Speechcraft levels up as you trade item (or upon successful persuasion or intimidation dialogue choice). If you feel like lazy to level up your skill or just generally want some boost on it, you can simply ask training to trainer NPC. With gold cost, obviously.
Finally, we’re at the gate of Whiterun! However, a guard stops me from getting in because the situation is getting antsy. Here’s an introduction to various speechcraft option. I can persuade, bribe, or intimidate him. Or I can be fair person by picking the first option and the guard is satisfied enough with that response thus allows me to enter the city. If I choose one of the speechcraft option and successful with it, my speechcraft can level up. I think in Oblivion, intimidation success rate is determined by Strength stats which befitting to my Orc character back then. But it seems in Skyrim it’s determined by speechcraft skill which is a pity. Because I can no longer win argument with brawn anymore.
Speaking of brawn, I forget to tell you that Orc character has special power “Berserker Rage” that makes me deal double damage and take half damage which is minor WAAAAGH!. I guess. But I assume it only affects physical combat and not magical combat. It has cooldown of an entire day so I can’t just spam the power randomly. I should save this for boss fight or something.
I break into alchemist shop because I’m not honest person. It’s closing hour anyway. I read a book on the table and my alchemy skill levels up! Some book will increase particular skill’s level when read but not all book. Only book with value 50 or more that can give your skill level up. Then I steal potions and alchemist materials. Well, it’s the shopkeeper’s fault that I can’t get the items on display via honest trade. So, I steal them.
I pay a visit on temple of Kynareth and steal some juicy potions while at it. If you activate the shrine on it, you get Kynareth’s blessing that increase my maximum stamina and remove all of disease. Kynareth is one of the divines. Sort of God or Goddess in Tamriel. I can only remember few: Akatosh (the father of divines), Talos, Kynareth, Mara, and that’s it!
Now, I’m at Dragon’s reach where the Jarl dwells. But before meeting him, I like to check the court wizard first and steal his stuff stealthily. If you toggle sneak and interact with people, you will initiate pickpocketing. I seldom pick someone’s pocket because not only I need to be undetectable but also there’s chance I will be found out by the victim themselves when taking their item. Taking coins and lockpick have roughly 50% chance to remain undetected but other more expensive item have less success chance than that. I prefer taking items on spot than inside of someone’s pocket. Pickpocketing is too much of hassle than worth. Note that: NPC’s inventory in the pocket is not the same than in trading menu.
After borrowing the court wizard’s chemist table and make some more failure potions, I get a level up! The way the character’s level up is pretty simple. When you manage to level up some skill, a portion of your experience bar will be filled partially. Once the experience bar is fully filled, you get a level up where you can increase Health, Magicka, or Stamina bar. Also, you get 1 skill point that you can spend to get perk on the skill’s branch which looks like astronomical sign. I decide to spend the skill point on One-handed perk that increase one-handed weapon attack by 20%. I reckon that helps me in combat.
I report the dragon’s attack on Jarl and give me steel armor. This guy is bloody generous! Now I can replace this stupid imperial armor which is weaker and also very itchy to wear. Then he introduces me to his court wizard that I remind you who I have met and stolen his stuff before. His table is noticeably cleared from items because I stole them. Anyway, the court wizard wants me to retrieve a dragonstone that contains ancient information about dragon. The stone is in place called Bleak Falls Barrow which is fairly near to Riverwood.
But before going to Bleak Falls Barrow, I check the kitchen’s storage for any good item. Oh my God! There’s quite rare chemistry material: honeycomb! I take it. Because of the simple service of telling Jarl about the dragon’s attack, I’m allowed to take any gold coin in every spot of this palace. But taking fine cloth (which is useless compared to coins) will be considered stealing. Funny that.
You can cook food (or poison apple) in cooking pot everywhere in Skyrim. Every food cooking requires salt pile. But it can also be used in chemistry so there’s some clash of need here. I think it’s best used to cook rather than for making potion because I rate salt pile 3/10 as chemistry material. It only has 1 good useful effect.
Here’s rule of thumb in cooking: any animal meat (e.g., venison, beef, crab leg, leg of goat) can be cooked to produce food with double effect on health restoration than the raw meat. That kind of cooking, only need salt pile and related meat. Cooking potato soup also simple. It requires only potato and salt pile. Somehow it has the same healing effect as cabbage potato soup that requires even more ingredient. So, it’s more efficient to cook cabbage soup. Besides, that cabbage potato soup looks unappetizing. Looks very muddy. Disgusting. Apple Cabbage stew has little stronger healing effect: Restore 15 points of health and 10 points of stamina. It requires apple, cabbage, and salt pile.
Cooking food sounds good and all. But I notice that the maximum amount of healing is 15 points. Even healing potion that’s created by player with low alchemist skill, can heal 20 points. So, I think cooking is not worth to do often unless you have gathered (or even stolen) lots of cooking ingredients and you want to reduce inventory’s weight. However, beef, venison, and crab stew have minor health and stamina restoration per second for 720 seconds. They’re useful to get some extra health and stamina over time for quite long time. I reckon it’s useful in situation where you’re about to begin exploration and obviously not when in immediate critical situation. To cook those food, you need raw beef, venison, or crab meat along with potato, carrot, leek, garlic, and salt pile. Vegetable soup also has same minor healing over time effect but it requires cabbage instead of meat.
Later...
Following quest marker on map, I travel to Bleak Falls Barrow from Riverwood. Then I accidentally find abandoned tower inhabited by bandits. This is my first fight against human enemy and it goes quite well because bandit is the lowest tier of human enemy.
I think the tower serves as introductory dungeon/maze/lair. The layout is short and simple. Then there’s chest at the top of tower. The tower is there to prepare you for the real first mandatory dungeon/maze/lair: Bleak Falls Barrow.
Now, we’re on the entrance of Bleak Falls Barrow. There’s dead skeevers and bandits. These bandits are pathetic, killed by oversized rats. Not even killed by town guard or soldier. From all part of Skeever, I can only take their tail. But I can’t complaint because it’s chemistry material.
As I mentioned before that to level up Heavy Armor skill I have to take damage from enemy while wearing Heavy Armor equipment, preferably all of them (head, torso, leg and arm) to earn experience 4 times faster. So, here’s what I’m doing. I kill one of two bandits at the dungeon’s entrance with stealth shot and I let the other survive so I can grind some experience. By some, I mean quite a lot. I let her hit me with arrow shot so I can level up either my Heavy Armor or Block skill if I raise my shield and it catches her arrows. Moreover, I can mend my wound with my sub-par healing magic. Hopefully I can get some Restoration skill level up.
After that intense experience grinding, I move further into the tomb. I don’t need to kill this stupid git. He kill himself by pulling the lever and activate bunch of arrow traps. I wish I have deadly arrow trap like that in Kagero- Deception II. The only way to progress is through that portcullis and to open it I have to pull the lever…but in correct way. Do you see face statues on top of the portcullis, except the one dropped in the middle? That’s the code required to set the lever correctly. There are 3 rotatable pillars on the left where I stand. You have to match them into the correct code there. Reminder that the middle pillar should be with Snake symbol as hinted with the fallen face statue.
Now we’re into first mandatory boss: Wounded giant spider. I can’t see any visual indication of wounded from the spider. But the game says it’s wounded so I better believe it. You can poke the boss with stealth shot and hiding numerous time (like what I did when I play as Breton character). But Gargaz doesn’t like that! He wants to get up close and krump the boss. It’s not hard boss fight even if you do it frontally. Just remember to heal every so often when in critical moment.
After killing the boss, the bandit’s leader over there asks me to release him from his web prison and promise to tell the secret of the golden claw that he stole from Riverwood Trader. Remember the quest about retrieving the golden claw? That optional quest is related to this main quest.
I release the git but he runs ahead of me because he doesn’t want to share the treasure within. Now I have to deal with this ancient Nordic zombie called Draugr. My health is low but don’t worry. I have healthy stock of my special concoction made from Blue Mountain Flower and Wheat. Luckily, during item menu the game pauses so you can have some advantage against enemy especially in critical moment.
Demoman_laughevil02.wav. Look at that stupid bandit leader! He stepped the pressure plate and activating the spike wall instantly killed him. I take the Golden Claw and also all of his equipment as compensation for the betrayal.
The wall of spikes is not the only deadly trap in this tomb. There’s also this pendulum blades swinging left and right. You can bide your time and move carefully between safe gaps. Or if you’re durable enough like Gargaz here, you can just run pass those swinging blades and take considerably small damage in process.
Eventually, I’m at the door that need Golden Claw to unlock. But using it alone won’t open the door. I need correct code on these 3 layers of circle. I remember this puzzle is elaborately wonderful but I forgot the solution. I back track to the face statues area and look for hint to no avail. But then I notice something on the golden claw itself! I figure I can rotate it and take zoom in look on it. Do you see 3 symbols on the golden claw? That’s the code. So I have to put the symbols from top to bottom: Bear, wings, and owl.
Behind the door is this massive stone. As I approach it, the writing is absorbed to me and I learn Word of Power Unrelenting Force. It all happens while the screen turn dark and whispers can be heard. I hate the dark effect. I barely can see anything right now.
Oh, this guy awakes from his dead because of commotion I made. I believe an apology won’t calm him so we fight. I know that I must return the golden claw to the shopkeeper, game. But there’s more pressing matters here.
Draugr Overlord is much stronger than Draugr I fought before. But what really troublesome is loots on him. My carry is almost at my limit and I have to carry at least this Dragonstone because Farengar the court wizard wants me to retrieve it. Regretfully, I have to discard some of loot in my inventory. Now that I have the mandatory quest item I should return to Whiterun…in the next part.
I don’t know if you notice it or not that once again I finish the article pretty late. That’s because Skyrim distracts me for very long time, ironically. Heh! *shrug*
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