Skyrim: Mission Log - Bragor

Patriot

Active Member
I was inspired by reading a couple journals a fellow did for his characters in Skyrim. Figured I would give it a go and see where it ended up. Rather than journaling I've decided to take a little more of a militaristic route and have it be a mission log. I'm not much on remembering dates, so I plan to just number the entries. I've come up with a list of restrictions/rules that I will be using to make the game a bit more difficult/realistic (but not too much).

Character - Bragor
Race - Wood Elf (Bosmer)
Sneak/Archer/Illusionist

  • Bow limited to Long Bow
  • Arrows limited to 45 in inventory at any one time
  • Knife allowed (any type that isn’t too large)
  • No swords, axes, maces, or hammers
  • Light armor only - limited to mobile types (leathers and furs)
  • Magic limited to Illusion and Alteration schools
  • Smithing - only steel perk allowed
  • Smithing takes time (varies based upon item)
  • Enchanting allowed - but no absurd enchantments (i.e. zero cost magic casting)
  • Disenchantment requires 4 hours
  • Enchantment requires 2 hours (reverse engineering takes longer)
  • Alchemy unrestricted
  • No HUD (no crosshair, no health, no updates)
  • Spell tome reading requires a bed and sleep for 12 hours afterward
  • No restriction on reading leveling books (don’t know how to pick them up without reading them)
  • No power leveling
  • Sleep is prefered (in a bed) but exceptions can be made
  • Timescale is slowed to a more realistic level (5 vs default of 20)
  • No need to eat food (far too tedious for me)
  • No unrealistic perks (i.e. zooming with bow slows time)
  • No shouts (not starting main quest so dragons will not spawn)
  • No wearing armor from killed enemies (custom fitted - my armor must be bought or created - sell and buyback is allowed to represent the cost of custom fitting)
  • Carry weight limited to 110 (could do percentage but I don’t like doing the math - Mods I tested were glitchy at best and I don’t like spending 20 minutes unloading and reloading to figure out why I am over encumbered)

- I reserve the right to change these rules at any time.
 
I
Faldil, I regret to inform you that my previous mission log was destroyed. It chronicled my entire journey across Cyrodiil. Its loss was painful but the method was even more so. It is to my shame that I must report that I celebrated a bit too heavily upon reaching the border of Skyrim. In my stupor I forgot about the protection enchantments and the log was dust before I knew what I had done. Although it won’t make it right, I have vowed to avoid all strong drink until my mission is complete.

I crossed the border yesterday and made my way to Helgen where I was to meet my contact. Only Helgen was gone. Smoldering ruins greeted me instead of the town I expected. I don’t know where my contact is or even if he survived. If they are burning their own cities my mission may be easier than we had hoped, but without my contact I will have to glean information directed from the Nords. I plan to head west from here to see if I can find another town.
 
II
This land is saturated with criminals and brigands! On my way to the river I encountered no less than four which I was forced to dispatch. One was a mage performing some kind of dark ritual. I would have attempted a dialog with them, but all of them attacked on sight. I’m writing from a small shack across the river. It appears a fledgling witch had owned it. I brushed past her as I examined the structure and she didn’t protest. However, after slipping into her cellar I discovered a note indicating her allegiance. I slipped back up the ladder with my bow in hand, preparing to put down the foul creature. She was no longer at her seat by the door. In fact, I had trouble finding her. When I was about to give up, I discovered her body lying some distance from the shack. She was quite dead. I looked about for whomever might have killed her but I didn’t see a soul. I quickly stripped her of any valuables and pulled her body some distance from the shack. It would make a good hideout as there were both an enchanter’s table and an alchemy table in the cellar. Having marked the location in my mind I followed the river a short distance and found a small village: Riverwood.

I didn’t want to make a show of my presence but most of the people didn’t seem to care. There was already a Bosmer roaming around the village, and I wondered if he might have been my contact from Helgen. Unfortunately, he didn’t acknowledge any of my passphrases. I headed to the smithy and bartered with him. He agreed to pay me a small amount of coin for the set of armor I had taken from one of the bandits as well as show me how to use the forge. I spent the rest of the afternoon learning the basics and managed to improve my armor some. I also used a bit of their wood to laminate my bow, giving it a bit more draw strength. I hurried across the street to sell off the rest of my goods before the shops closed for the night and was able to procure an interesting spellbook. I have not seen its type before and it seems to exude a magical energy. The shopkeeper had assured me that the book would instruct me on how to infuriate my enemies so much that they would attack anything. It sounds powerful and, considering my mission, rather appropriate. I’m planning to start reading it as soon as I finish this journal entry. With a base of operations established and a small amount of coin in my pocket, I feel the mission should be able to proceed without issue despite the disappearance of my contact.
 
III
What a headache! I can barely write my head is throbbing so bad, but I must report this phenomenon. The spellbook I had purchased must have been enchanted. I had barely cracked the cover open before I was waking up this morning. I must have been out for at least 12 hours. Unless it magically sustained me, I am pretty sure I was only out for the night as I am not famished. Even more curious, I have an innate knowledge of the spell. Whatever happened last night ended up transferring the knowledge from the book to myself. The book itself appears to have dissolved. If I can find someone to inform me where these books are made I may seek it out as we could outfit each Bosmer with incredible power in a matter of hours.

The spell itself turned out to be less grand than the shopkeeper made out. It appears to cast at a single opponent rather than causing an army to fight amongst themselves. I’m sure it will be useful in the proper situation, but I was hoping for something a little easier. I plan to head out this morning to gather ingredients for mixing up some potions and poisons. Most of the plants are unrecognizable so I will probably be working blind initially. I hope to find a bandit group that may be willing to exchange information rather than blindly attacking everyone who stumbles near them.
 
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IV
I won’t bore you with the details of the last couple days. Most of it has been fruitless searching out of potential allies. I tried another bandit camp with the same result as the last. I accidently stumbled into a vampire’s lair. Turns out they are even more unreasonable than the bandits. I even found a large fortress on a hill swarming with men and women wearing animal skins and bones. I found it hard to have a conversation when I had to keep dodging arrows. I feel like I’m failing two-fold in my mission. Not only have I not found allies but I’m forced to put down the very influences in this land that I wish to bolster. I am seeking another way to solve the problem. In Whiterun I learned that the anti-imperial faction called Stormcloaks are headquartered in Windhelm. So I made the treacherous journey this afternoon.

What vile creatures they have here! They openly wander the roads and kill unprepared travelers. Spiders as big as a bear and just as deadly if not more so. They shoot poison a considerable distance at their prey. I nearly lost my life to one and was forced to jump down some rocks to escape. Another took no less than 8 arrows to bring down. I was one bite away from succumbing to my wounds. I saw giants for the first time. As tall as two men and carrying clubs that might as well be tree trunks. They seem fairly docile and not real bright. I plundered one of their stashes without them realizing it. Found a nice pair of Orcish gauntlets which fetched a nice price here in Windhelm. I also put down a bear. That brute nearly used up my arrows. The only thing that kept me alive while attacking him was the fact that I was across the river that he seemed loath to cross. I suppose the good news is that the country is so embroiled in the war that they can't even patrol the roads properly. So now that I am here in the Stormcloak headquarters I plan to head to the local inn to listen to the latest gossip. People are always looser with their tongues after a bottle or two of mead. Perhaps there is something here I can use to further the mission.
 
V
I made and interesting discovery yesterday. I was wandering around Windhelm in search of gossip and as luck would have it everyone was very tight-lipped about everything other than some local murders. I have no interest in policing their city for them so I wandered the streets in search of anything useful. While wandering, I happened to overhear a conversation about a young boy who was attempting to contact a group of assassins. They could be the catalyst I have been looking for. Organized and operating in the shadows. I entered the boy's house to inquire about the process for contacting this group. Unfortunately, the naive youngster mistook me for one of assassins and charged me with killing his mark. I have no interest in the boy's petty squabbles and could get no other word out of him. I almost had half a mind to drag the young man by his ear all the way to the orphanage in Riften where he had run away from. Then another thought occurred to me. If I shadow the mark there is potential that one of these assassins will show up to complete the job and I can hopefully make contact. I headed back to the inn and bought a bed for the night.

The next morning I headed out for Riften. Everything was going normal. . .kill a couple wolves, give giants wide berth, kill more wolves (these Nords really should patrol their roads better) when a man dashed toward me and began attacking. I dodged his blades the best I could and dropped him after a number of arrows were protruding from his body. That was when I discovered my plan may not be so flawless after all. The man had a note on his identifying myself as a mark for assassination. This man was a member of this group of assassins. If they had a contract on me they were more likely to kill me on sight rather than letting me do any talking. I decided I would head to Riften regardless, as I was more than halfway there. I would just have to keep a low profile.

I ran into another oddity on the road. I was coming up on an old fort in the middle of the road and saw a fellow walking out. My curiosity got the better of me and I walked over to meet him. That was when a pack of wolves attacked. The man must have been a mage as he took a fighting stance, but rather than swinging his sword he shouted. But the shout carried an awesome force with it and the wolves hurled backward (1 killed outright). He performed this shout at least a half dozen times and each time the wolves would fly backward as a leaf on the wind. I have never seen magic like that. Once the wolves were dead I attempted to ask him about this power but he seemed annoyed that I would stop him from his journey. We parted ways and I made my way to Riften. Perhaps I could seek out knowledge of this magic? It would certainly sway things in our favor.
 
Modifying restrictions:
  • Enchanting is limited to character schools of magic (illusion & alteration)
  • Time scale bumped up to 10 (5 is a bit too slow)
  • No looting unrealistic items (i.e. gemstones from Elk)
  • No map (I've been playing without it - but forgot to include this above)
  • No fast travel or carriages (I'd miss fantastic stuff like random NPCs using shouts against wolves)
 
It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that all communication with Bragor has ceased. His mission to prolong the unrest in Skyrim to force the Thalmor to commit more troops appears to have failed. In fact, it is entirely possible the "World Eater" himself may have taken a bite of Bragor.

Or, in other words, I couldn't leave well enough alone. I was checking out the GEMs site and noticed a complete overhaul mod "SkyRe". Intrigued by the idea of better balance and potentially an entirely different gaming experience I dumped about 2/3 of my mods and picked up this one. I also switched all of my remaining mods to the Nexus Mod Manager vice Steam Workshop to keep things more consolidated (NMM has more mods available). Unfortunately, this overhaul does not play well with existing saved games. So I dumped all of my saved games including Bragor (not a big deal - I had dumped the vast majority of them recently and only had 3 characters saved). So now I have a new character, once again a Khajiit, by the name of Grr'Mer. I've noticed my longest play-throughs have been with the beast races (Khajiit & Argonian), for some reason I can't stick with humans or Elves.

The only issue is that the latest version of SkyRe needs DawnGuard which I don't have. So I am forced to run an older, less feature-rich version. If anyone has an unused copy of DawnGuard that they don't want I'd be willing to take it off your hands. I don't have much to offer in trade but I do have some TF2 stuff I'd be willing to part with (a couple hats). If not, I'll just wait till it drops in price as I don't see a point in paying $20 when it has been as low as $10.
 
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Well, I'm thinking about doing it with a different character - but it would have to be after I get Dawnguard as I will probably have to restart at that time. I'm considering using the Frostfall mod - but it may be a bit too extreme for my tastes. Not sure yet and can't test until I have Dawnguard.
 
Ha! Just traded a number of TF2 items (which mean very little to me - not a hat collector) for keys and then the keys for Dawnguard. As far as I am concerned, all it cost me was the time needed to perform the trading. Time to update to the latest version of SkyRe (and a couple other things).

Already have the character in mind for the journal/log as I created him yesterday (although I will need to recreate him again). Won't be able to play much today as it is Easter and I've used what little time I had to trade but should have him up and running tomorrow or the next day.
 
Hooray for getting Dawnguard at no out of pocket expense. Looking forward to the next character's journals. :D
 
Spent the play time I had last night installing Dawnguard, updating SkyRe (oops - not to latest version which requires Dragonborn DLC - I'll have to live in the past for now as I still don't want to pony up $20), adding Frostfall (survival mod) and troubleshooting errors. I managed to get it all fixed and working and had just enough time to create a High Elf (Altmer) and work through most of the tutorial/intro. I wonder if I should download the "Live Another life" mod to avoid the annoying intro for any future characters. . .I'm not sure if it is compatible with SkyRe. Anyway, my wife is heading out with friends tonight which means I should have something tomorrow.
 
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