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Still Terrible at Finding Places[/url]


Welp, time to go to High Hrothgar and see about shouting harder.


Riiiiiight after I pick this place


clean


of


the


neat


things.


All of them.


That's enough larceny for now.


Just a few more things to take care of around here.


Consider yourself hired, Jenassa.
You have chosen wisely. Lead on and I shall follow.


Meet Jenassa! She's a little better with bows than one-handed weapons, but if I had to judge by her health, she's definitely more of a close-combat kinda gal, which covers one of my weaknesses. Notably, she's one of the only followers in the game that will dual-wield, though I think Ultimate Follower Overhaul lets all followers do that. It also lets us see her stats! Thanks, Ultimate Follower Overhaul. Thultimate Follower Overhaul.


Whoa whoa whoa, what's this? No follower of mine is using crummy-ass iron weapons.


You roll with me, you get magical fineries.


Now for a bit of a pit stop to offload these hefty dragon bones and other worthless valuables.


Whoops! I got caught up in selling gems and he ran out of gold.


Let's see what we got in the attic.


Stupid lock.
Breaking lockpicks counts towards lockpicking skill progress, so there's no need to feel bad about it!


Whoops! I got caught up in burglarizing and he ran out of gold.


Here's your first job, Jenassa! Hold all this crap.



Just in case I break some more.




And last but most certainly not least, some new spells.
I bought Lightning Bolt, not Lightning Rune. Silly fingers!


Huh. Wonder what a familiar is.


Only the one way to find out!


...well. That certainly is a ghost wolf.


Welp I've got things to do. Bye, ghost wolf!


So, Jenassa, do you know the way to High Hrothgar?
I'm not that good with directions. Let's see...around the northern side of the mountain, then south, and southwest after...a river, I believe.


The village of Ivarstead is just by the monastery of High Hrothgar, so we should look for th-


...are you fighting a pack of wolves while I give you directions.
Well yeah. Don't worry, I got it.


Now let's see here...first we go nnnnnnwho are those dudes in the river?


That explains very little!


Well, can't worry about every cultist in waist-high water. Gotta get a move on!


Thaaaaaaaat's a giant.


Remember, kids - go AROUND giants, not through.


Man, I hate traveling at night. Anything could jump out at me.


Such as GIANTS.


That's better.


Aha! My arch-nemesis!



Truly, the apprentice has surpassed the antlers.


Waaaaait a minute.


...Jenassa, do you see what I see?
Yes. Riverwood.
...right then, let's check the map.


Let's see here. It looks like we're gonna want to use Valtheim Towers as a waypoint.
And when did you become so familiar with Skyrim?
It's a special kind of wizardry called a gameplay concession. Anyway, let's get moving.


Hey, more elk!


And wolves, too! Puny wildlife abounds on this trail.


Let's try out this Ice Spike thingy.





Now who's that up there?


Ah. Another poacher.


Well, Mister Poacher...


Your career...


...was BOUND to catch up with you at some point!


Sorry, Rover. No witnesses.


Good job, Jenassa!


Hold still, Mister Poacher!


No healing, now.


Man, I love poacher-poaching.


So many elk to slay in these mountains.


So many elk.


I mean goats.


And a cute little foxie!


Sorry, foxie.


Oh god, is that what I think it is?


Yyyyyyup. That's a Spriggan.


I am SO not taking any chances with this tree-bitch. Fortunately, it seems the Skyrim variety doesn't BRING ITSELF BACK TO LIFE.


Oh, hello there, innocent and legitimate hunter! How are you


BURN FOR YOUR CRIMES


For fuck's sake. What is this, Mount Poacher?


Well, at least they're good killing.


Whoopsie! Somehow I zoned out and failed to spend a perk last level. Since I've got two saved up, I take Novice Conjuration, along with its Illusion counterpart. Bound Swords for everyone!


Ugh, finally at the top of the mountain. Let's check the view, shall we?


Egad! A bandit stronghold!


Looked like a loooot of bandits up there. Better be quiet.


And in case being quiet doesn't work, I've got two sword-shaped Daedra that I forcibly yanked from the planes of Oblivion.



Attack now with all the weapons at the same time!


Okay, THESE guys are sorta tough. They went down eventually, though.
If I'm being honest, this place gave me a shitload of trouble. See how one of those guys is name Bandit Chief? What you can't see from the screenshot is that the OTHER guy is named Bandit Chief. Now, I'm pretty sure a bandit group isn't supposed to have more than one Bandit Chief just from the title, so I'm guessing I have ASIS to thank for this. That said, Bandit Chiefs have a whopping 500 HP. Imagine a screen in Double Dragon where you have to fight TWO ABOBOS and a bunch of regular guys. That's what this bandit stronghold was like.


All that's left is to clean up the stragglers.


Ooh, an ore vein. I'll make a note of that.


Good hustle, Jenassa.


Now, you go clear out the rest of them on that bridge while I- you're already on that bridge aren't you.


How are you UP THERE already?!


Oh god, they've learned mitosis!


PLEASEDON'THURTME!
This seems like a good time to talk about our first shout, Unrelenting Force. We learned the vocal component of it in Bleak Falls Barrow, and activated the ability to perform it by absorbing a dragon's soul. Just think of this version as FUS, since that's what we bark when we use it.


Those of you who are the least bit familiar with Skyrim may notice it's missing a RO DAH. For some reason, it's just FUS at the moment, and I assume we're going to get the rest of it very soon. That means please don't start a spoilerific discussion of shout mechanics.


As you can see, FUS staggers the shoutee for a moment. It's also good for asshole physics.


It's got a cooldown of maybe fifteen seconds and does just the tiniest amount of damage, so it's not really a staple of combat. Though it can be useful at times, I'll be dealing damage with other methods, like letting Jenassa save our ass.


Well, that's over and done with. And to the victor go the spoils.



And the mineral rights.


And the ability to knock out a few magicka potions real quick-like for the road ahead.


And a bow with what seems to be a magicka diminishing enchantment. I know a certain follower who's getting new gear!


You've earned your keepcape well this day, Jenassa.


What's this? A fork in the road!


O, all-knowing wizard eyes, which way should I go?


Thataway!


Plenty of wolves to fight. Divination would never steer me wrong.


Wait, are those...?


You're supposed to stay in spooky caves and whatnot.


Just cut it out, guys.


Man, I hope that's not, like, an undead abandoned village across that bridge.


I'm keeping my hellsword out, just in case.


Huh. I didn't know there was another Honningbrew Meadery.



I'll just make sure to double-check my route with the ol' divination.


Hey, it's those guys from before.


I guess it KINDA makes sense to get a close look at every redguard lady they find.


They determine that she's not the chick they're looking for. But they do have nice swords.


It'd sure be a shame if they wandered into the forest and got murdered!



Oh no what a shame.


And the moral of today's story is: don't go walking around carrying stuff I want.


I'll just be taking these!


Now, onward! To...


To...


Okay, lemme check my map.