Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[robdood]

Except for the fact that the imperials were going to kill you at the start, remember?

[Loki]

Aren't the dirty elves involved with the Imperial too?

(I actually chose Stormcloaks on first game; only to realise they were a bunch of massive racists and switched to Imperial)

[MrPogo]

. My bloody drawers in that house are over flowing with gems and jewelary. One thing you can say about Lydia, she is trustworthy, I pour all those lovely shiny things into a drawer right in front of her and never has she even taken a single amethyst!

I don't know about that. She always seems to have a bottle of mead in her hand, and I'm certainly not going out and buying it (or paying her, now that I think about it... Guess I can forgive the low level thefheld my possessions that she must be engaged in!).

[Loki]

I've still not spoken to her since I lined up all my spell tomes on the bench at the top of the stairs in a nice neat collection, only to come home one day and find that they were strewn across the landing.

"What can I do for you my thane?"

"CLEAN YOUR FUCKING MESS UP"

[Distinct muttering]

How do people do stuff like rearrange bodies into hilarious sexual positions and place objects on benches etc? am I missing something obvious or does it involve work arounds to try and get them in place?

[robdood]

Beyond pressing and holding A to move stuff its just a bit of patience and practice

[Graham S]

This story from one of the Idle Thumbs guys in their Game of the Year feature made me laugh.

http://goty.cx/gotythumbrunnersup.php

His name was Drelas. I stumbled upon his sleepy cottage, nestled into the foothills beneath a craggy backdrop of one of Skyrim’s seemingly never-ending collection of frigid mountainscapes, while on one of my directionless walkabouts.

“Oh man, Drelas?! Let’s see what this guy’s about,” I said aloud. I’d been tossing verbal updates to my roommate Adam as he went about his day. “This game is enormous. It gets lonely out there . I could use a pal.” I was, like many, dumbfounded by the game’s sheer acreage.

I approached his door.

“It’s not locked. The sun is out. Who keeps his door unlocked during the daytime and then attacks you without warning?”

Drelas does.

I’ve only heard Drelas speak two words. “Who’s there?” which I suppose is technically three. After that he let his fireballs do the talking; punishing me with devastating magicks for the better part of twenty minutes until, finally, I was able to escape his house, run around back and hide in the mountains, only to be beset upon by a dragon — the first I’d seen while adventuring on my own.

“Drelas is a dick,” I said, crouching behind a rock. “At least I’ve got this dragon to rumble with.”

Skyrim’s tutorial sections only appear as you mind the critical path. I did that for a little while, but when I was told to go kill my first dragon with a full army of warriors, it felt like those kids you see at Disneyland called up on stage to dual Darth Vadar in front of a crowd of parents. They wave their lightsabers like drunken fools, slay a Sith Lord, and are given a commemorative photograph. I didn’t want that. After putting a couple wild arrows into that puppet lizard, I left crit-path behind and never looked back.

Now, here I was, with my own real dragon to slay. There would be no commemorative photograph or awkwardly delivered line of dialogue (of which there are maybe millions) telling me how incredible and heroic I just was. This was my fight.

Here’s the thing about dragons in Skyrim and being level seven: they will set your ass on fire and you will die.

I ran screaming down the mountainside back past Drelas’s house, the dragon in hot pursuit. As I bounded through his cabbage patch (everyone has a cabbage patch), Drelas burst out of the front doors, saw the beast above my head, and redirected his previous ire.

And then something great happened. A magnificently programmed NPC and I—but a humble user—paired up to kill the dragon. It was a long and drawn-out fight—the fruit of a bunch of beautiful gameplay and AI systems working in concert to create this fitting third act of our relationship.

There is a thread in the Idle Thumbs forums entitled “Making the Game Your Own.” It’s inspired by moments from the podcast where we transfer the story in our head back into the game and out again. It’s not just about your gameplay experience being unique, but about it being yours—owned and named and cherished the way only a thing that is yours can be.

I’d already transferred so much into Drelas. I was looking for a friend and he was a curmudgeonly old fuck who’d rather set me on fire. But now he was making sure I didn’t get killed by this devil in the sky. Maybe he was like the misunderstood Clint Eastwood character from Gran Turino and I was one of those kids on his block. Maybe I’d read it wrong. Then again, I stopped watching Gran Turino thirty minutes in.

With the dragon dead at his feet and me about a hundred yards away, Drelas just stood on the crest of a hill. Why wasn’t he going inside? He just stood there looking confused, like he lost his keys. Oh! He’s hurt, I thought. Holy shit, he’s injured. His magicka is empty. And he’s just…standing there.

I drew my bow.

And yeah, I killed him. I put two arrows in him and he fell face down into a shrub.

Adam came into the office. I was standing over Drelas’s dead, half-naked body. He’d been wearing a neat pair of robes I later discovered I could disenchant in his house.

“What the fuck happened?”

“The dragon, it—no,” I said. “I killed him. He saved me from a dragon and I killed his ass.”

“JESUS DUDE! What are you going to do now?”

“I’m taking his house. Yeah. That’s mine now. I think I saw some cool stuff in there,”

“Why, man? That’s ice cold. Why are you doing this?”

I thought about it and couldn’t answer. But now, after some time has passed and I’ve got over the shame of it all, I know why I took Drelas’s house. Because Skyrim let me. I took that house because just like the game itself, I could make it mine.

[gospvg]

I've still not spoken to her since I lined up all my spell tomes on the bench at the top of the stairs in a nice neat collection, only to come home one day and find that they were strewn across the landing.

"What can I do for you my thane?"

"CLEAN YOUR FUCKING MESS UP"

I just giggled to myself in the office

Have a +1

[Stig]

If you reload your save & your chest was there - can you not go and take your bones & scales & stash somewhere else?

I did reload and when I went back it was still gone. I have a feeling that the "clean up the murderous mess" option was what did it. Really annoyed tbh but nothing I can do. May see of the Dawnbreaker is back at the shrine of of my stuff been moved to a chest at the castle when they cleaned (unlikeley)

[gospvg]

I did reload and when I went back it was still gone. I have a feeling that the "clean up the murderous mess" option was what did it. Really annoyed tbh but nothing I can do. May see of the Dawnbreaker is back at the shrine of of my stuff been moved to a chest at the castle when they cleaned (unlikeley)

In that case then equip your strongest sword & go kill yourself some DRAGONS !!

There be bones to collect AArrgh !!

[Distinct muttering]

Beyond pressing and holding A to move stuff its just a bit of patience and practice

So you can press and hold A to move stuff around?

[gospvg]

So you can press and hold A to move stuff around?

It's too fiddly & I don't bother.

[hercules]

Spent the last few nights doing the thiefs guild storyline and I love it ???? I think I will do the companions after.

[Distinct muttering]

I really enjoyed the couple of thieves guild quests I did, but the objectives are so far flung across the map it made it too tricky to concentrate on them for me. I might head back down South East to check in and drop off my loot and get my next quest tonight.

[MardiganX]

Absolute stand out moment of my overall quest so far...

Right in about The Companion stuff just now and took a quest from The Dark Elf woman, Aelis I think her name is. She wanted me to clear a mountain passage so I ride up there, take out the Ice Wraiths and just as I am about to turn and head home I decide to see what lies at the other end of the mountain pass. A short walk later I am back outside and I come across with a huge Dragon throne looking thing. Excellent I think, another Dragon shout to master, woohoo. So I head towards the throne all happy with my discovery before it starts to move and it becomes worryingly clear that it isn’t actually a throne... it’s a fucking Ice Dragon guarding the shrine

At this stage I have 3 options. One, turn tail and run like fuck because I have never faced a Dragon on my own and this one looks seriously pissed off. Two, do nothing but stand there mortified by the sheer size and power of this beast that will surely kill me. Or Three, stand my ground, fulfil my destiny and give this big prick his dinner. So many thoughts running through my head, what weapons and powers will work here? What terrain can I use for cover? Do I have my helmet on? Too much to process and so little time. Fuck it, I am going in. I have to take this fucker down or I will forever fear his kind. Sword drawn, magic at the ready, here we go. This is for Redguard kind everywhere, all the terrified people of Skyrim, this is for you, let epic battle commence, CHAAAARRRRGE.....

Roughly 6 seconds later I am crouched in a bloody, battered heap trying desperately to heal while the big guy flies around deciding what garnish to lay on me before he polishes me off. Thankfully he gives me enough time to re-group and pull myself together. Bow drawn I start firing away while he swoops around, chipping away at his health. It doesn’t take long for him to realise things were better when he was on the ground but the time he lands I have my health recharged, a full blown Force shout ready for his face and I have already marked the place on the screen I will be running to once I get a few melee attacks in. GO. The Level 3 force shout does more damage than I could have hoped, the big man is stunned so I get a good few hits in before I have to deflect his ice breath. 2 more normal sword wings and a then a power swing take him down to about a third of his health. COVER. He thrashes an attack at me just about nailing me to a tree but I get enough out of range to heal again before he takes off. Now, we both know we aint got much juice left in the tank. The only potions I have left are for increasing magicka, recovering stamina and curing chicken pox so my next throw down will be my last. He took a pasting in the last encounter and he knows I have the force shout in my locker but have another 30 seconds to wait before it recharges. We both know the next time we clash only one of us is walking away and for a moment we have a mutual respect for each other. It doesn’t last long. Fully healed I consider switching to my bow but stop short as the big man makes his final play. Swooping down past me and turning to fire his breath at me I sprint away, losing a quarter of my health as my back gets nailed by it. I turn, sword drawn as he lands and goes for me. My shout isn’t recharged so I have to go old school. Block his first attack, swing swing, he recoils and breaths ice again. FUCK. A quarter tank left in my health, no time for a healing session, AAHHHHHHHHH. I sprint round to the right, turn and lunge for his neck just as he throws his jaw at my head. He is too slow. My sword meets him first, activating a glorious death animation. WIN.

It’s taken me while to get into Skyrim. At first there was just far too much choice, too many options for advancing skills and the weapon / magic management just seemed crazy. But by focussing on the Companion missions so much of the game has came together. I can now hold my own in a fight by switching between weapons and powers to either attack or defend. I am focussed on a specific path of missions that I am loving and it all came together perfectly when I met this Ice dragon. Some people may never meet him when they play Skyrim, he may still be alive in another version of Skyrim but in my world his head now rests on my mantelpiece More. Now!!

[Cheyenne]

Last night I had a Dragon attack me as I was ascending the Throat Of The World on my way to High Hrothgar. In fact it was right outside the fucking place, you'd think those Greybearded bastards would help out.

Mardigan, getting those kill animations is all kinds of sweet (had my first Warhammer one on the Dragon I just mentioned ) but it's piss annoying when enemies land them, the amount of times a Dragon or levelled enemy has sparked me out is increasingly annoying as the game doesn't take into account that I'm about to raise my shield, which would have offset enough damage for me to survive the attack. But because it launches into the animation I'm helpless.

[Guest]

Spent the last few nights doing the thiefs guild storyline and I love it I think I will do the companions after.

I really enjoyed the couple of thieves guild quests I did, but the objectives are so far flung across the map it made it too tricky to concentrate on them for me. I might head back down South East to check in and drop off my loot and get my next quest tonight.

Which Thieves Guild quests have you been doing?

Since originally getting down with them and doing a couple of quests I left them for a while. Now when I go back all they want to give me are repetitive Burglary/Fishing/Fiddling the books/etc quests, that are pretty boring. I thought there may only be a few of each to do to get me back to the good stuff, but I've done around 10 burglary jobs now and there are still more.

It's been the most boring bunch of quests I've played in the whole game so far, so I'd like to know if it does pick up once I've got through all these monotonous quests (there must be at least 60 of them, going on what I've done so far), or should I just fuck them off and go for another quest line somewhere else.

[Cheyenne]

The Burglary/Fishing/Heist/etc have an infinite number (you'll likely repeat the same task at some point). The point of them is after doing five in one city you'll get a special job that will open up a new fence in that area as well as increase the amount of dosh that the fences carry oh, and a new merchant will appear in The Ragged Flagon). There are special jobs in Whiterun, Markarth, Windhelm and Solitude. Doing all four also leads to the Achievement/Trophy for restoring the Thieves Guild to its former glory, plus I believe it's a required task in order to get the Guild Master Armour (which is basically a better version of your ordinary Thieves Guild gear).

Annoyingly, you can't choose where a job will be set, so if you need Markarth-based stuff, you're looking at reloading saves/quitting and starting a new mission until you get the desired location.

[Teeohbee]

Which Thieves Guild quests have you been doing?

Since originally getting down with them and doing a couple of quests I left them for a while. Now when I go back all they want to give me are repetitive Burglary/Fishing/Fiddling the books/etc quests, that are pretty boring. I thought there may only be a few of each to do to get me back to the good stuff, but I've done around 10 burglary jobs now and there are still more.

It's been the most boring bunch of quests I've played in the whole game so far, so I'd like to know if it does pick up once I've got through all these monotonous quests (there must be at least 60 of them, going on what I've done so far), or should I just fuck them off and go for another quest line somewhere else.

Those are miscellaneous thieves guild quests that are infinite.

Speak to Brynolf or Mercer for the main thief guild contracts. Check your quest log again to see if you have anything from them.

What was the last major quest you did?

[Guest]

Ah, I'm up to Scoundrel's Folly, but it's broken. When I had to shadow Gullum-Ei from The Winking Skeever, he disappeared and no the quest marker points outside Solitude, but when I go there it points me back inside.

I tried it again last night after doing a few other quests, but it's still broken. Does anyone know how to fix it?

[Teeohbee]

Ah, I'm up to Scoundrel's Folly, but it's broken. When I had to shadow Gullum-Ei from The Winking Skeever, he disappeared and no the quest marker points outside Solitude, but when I go there it points me back inside.

I tried it again last night after doing a few other quests, but it's still broken. Does anyone know how to fix it?

I know he ends up at the east Tamriel trading company just outside of Solitude, you could try sneaking in there to see if that starts the quest up again for you

[Guest]

I know he ends up at the east Tamriel trading company just outside of Solitude, you could try sneaking in there to see if that starts the quest up again for you

Do you mean The East Empire Trading Company warehouse, down by the docks where the boats are? I went in there after activating the quest again last night, but he's nowhere to be seen. The marker still continues to point back in Solitude any time I'm outside.

I had a quick look through the fixes coming in the patch and it isn't even mentioned.

[Loki]

Do you mean The East Empire Trading Company warehouse, down by the docks where the boats are? I went in there after activating the quest again last night, but he's nowhere to be seen. The marker still continues to point back in Solitude any time I'm outside.

I had a quick look through the fixes coming in the patch and it isn't even mentioned.

This is posted on the Wiki in the bugs section for that quest:

(PC) If this happens on PC, one option is to switch to 'no clip' (~tcl) mode and find Gulum-Ei located on the side of the mountain in continuous mid-fall. Kill him, and then return to Solitude and turn 'no clip' back on. The quest should now say that you need to find another source of information. Continue to the quest marker as normal. The only downside is that the rewards of keeping Gulum-Ei alive are forfeited. If however he is standing and can be spoken to then proceed with the quest and after clearing the Brinewater Grotto go into no clip and speak to him, this should finish the quest.

(PC + PS3) You can also first go to Brinewater Grotto without seeing him. Once you are there, you will receive the instructions to confront him and you can come back to Solitude and perform the previous trick to confront him. (Xbox and PS3) This quest is currently bugged on Xbox. When you are supposed to shadow Gulum-Ei, after he leaves the Winking Skeever, he disappears from the game. Looking at the map shows you he is in the Solitude game cell, yet it shows him outside the city walls. If this happens, the quest cannot be completed unless reverting to a previous save.

(Xbox) Possible fix for the Xbox 360 bug: If you lose track of Gulum-Ei after he leaves the Winking Skeever, and his quest marker shows that he is in Solitude, you may be able to reach him by activating a texture glitch in Solitude that allows you to drop down onto the terrain that the city is generated on. To do this, start by going outside the Fletcher shop, from the door looking southwest, and jump over the small wall to land on the roof of Angeline's Aromatics. Jumpclimb to the small ledge on the south side of the roof, and face south. Use Whirlwind Sprint to cross the street onto the roof of Bits and Pieces. Go west to the edge of the roof, and look south to the roof of Raidiant Raiment. Walk onto the section of roof where Bits and Pieces and Raidiant Raiment meet (facing south), and you will drop down below the city. Gulum-Ei has been reported to be in many different places under the city, but you should be able to walk to his location following his quest marker. However, if you do find him under the city, he will not be able to move, so your only solution at this point is to kill him or so that you may finish the quest. alternatively, if you want to keep Gulum-Ei alive you should go to the East Empire company wharehouse and find the enterance to Brinewater Grotto (BEFORE using the glitch) this will activate the 'Confront Gulum-Ei' part of the quest you can then leave the grotto and use the glitch to reach Gulum-Ei. (EDIT) - This worked for me! Thanks a hell of a lot! Really was bugging me. (Climbing the tower by Radiant Raiment and using Whirlwind Shout is much easier!)

[Teeohbee]

If this happens, the quest cannot be completed unless reverting to a previous save.

Wow...

So that's the whole thieves guild quest line ruined for some people.

[Sidewaysbob]

follow the path all the way round untill you find a bunch of barrels on a jetty then look for the entrance behind the barrels and you're off. It's a little tricky to find but trust me he's in there.

[Teeohbee]

Yeah I'd still try and follow the quest through anyway, to see if at any points it gets back on track. Follow the wiki if you have to.

Hope it sorts itself out!

[Guest]

follow the path all the way round untill you find a bunch of barrels on a jetty then look for the entrance behind the barrels and you're off. It's a little tricky to find but trust me he's in there.

I take it you're talking about the entrance to Brinewater Cave that's mentioned on the wiki?

Are you talking about inside the warehouse? I had a good look around in there but couldn't find any cave entrances.

[davejm]

Wow, the 1.4 BETA patch makes a massive difference. Sorry to bore you lot with stats/spec gumpf, but I urge those on PC to try it.

I've got a Core2Duo, so despite having a decent GPU I've always struggled to run the game without massive dips in framerate or stuttering in certain areas - Whiterun being particularly bad.

Anyway, here are the FRAPS stats (min / max / average) over a 30 second period walking down from the top of Whiterun around by the tree.

Pre-patch: 9 / 34 / 21

Pre-patch with Skyboost: 13 / 36 / 25

1.4 Beta: 25 / 63 / 45

It's like a different game. Well pleased.

[Loki]

Jon:

From reading through the Wiki, you need to:

Go in to the Warehouse. Find the entrance to the grotto and see if he is in there.

If he isn't, you need to go to Solitude and go through the glitching of the texture so you drop below solitude (the third quote I posted). Where you can kill him to complete the quest and then progress with the quest chain.

[DjSatansfur3h]

Any ETA on this 1.4 patch?