Josée does Skyrim: Of Werewolves and Marriage (and Leaflets. Lots of Leaflets.)

[Part 1 of ???]

Okay, so those of you who have read this blog before (or who have taken a peek now because of that) will know that this is a bit of a jump from what I usually put up here. However, it is me, it is gaming, and it is going to be different to anyone else’s Skyrim stuff because that’s the joy of Skyrim being as big as it is: while the quests are the same for everyone, the order in which you meet them (if at all) is always going to be different. I should warn you now that spoilers will abound so please ignore this post if you intend to play Skyrim, or have begun to already. If you read on, it is completely and unequivocally at your own risk!

This particular post boasts spoilers for (not necessarily a conclusive list, as it is hard to know what is a spoiler and what isn’t in some cases…):
The Companions Questline

The Dark Brotherhood Questline (minor)

Mara’s Quests

Now that’s done, I present to you:

Josée does Skyrim: Of Werewolves and Marriage (and Leaflets. Lots of Leaflets.)

I first began to play Skyrim on my housemate’s Xbox while winding down as the University year drew to a close. I then struggled (for reasons unbeknownst to me) with the Steam version as it seemed far more difficult even when I dropped the difficulty to the lowest, and then two on my (not-so-shiny-but-still-playing-games) secondhand 360 I bought from my brother. One of those was on a non-live account, so was deleted just so I didn't keep accidentally logging into it and wondering why I was playing a level 10 Argonian rather than a level 2 Imperial, and now I have a shiny Xbox Live account with an (no longer level 2) Imperial player character.

I called my character Adraria Bӕnius (mainly because I wanted to see if Skyrim could cope with unusual symbols – and it does) and set out to make her look less terrifying than my original wood elf character (who, no word of a lie, looked more frightening with her helmet off than on). Having played three new-ish games of Skyrim in the past two weeks, I was getting a bit sick of running straight from Riverwood to Highrun and off to the Greybeards. So I decided that the main, Dragonborn, plotline would remain untouched for as long as I could.  I also decided not to remain impartial in the war this time (as I had always done previously) and decided instead to play a true Imperial, fighting for the Empire. Instead I set myself straight on to the Companions storyline. (I should say at this point, as if it wasn't already obvious, during the Helgen part, I followed Hadvar the Imperial Soldier rather than Ralof the Stormcloak.)

The Companions:

I had completed the Companion quests up until “The Silver Hand” in my original run, as I refused to drink the blood and become a werewolf, despite my housemate assuring me that it wouldn’t be permanent if I didn’t want it to be. This time I was determined to see the quest line through to the end.

I happened to come across the Companions while they were slaying the giant this time (I had always missed it until this playthrough) and though I only got one good hit in, it was enough for Farkas to comment on my sword prowess. This was nice! Aela was as indifferent as ever, and I made my way back to Whiterun with them all.

This was the first time I intended to spend any real time with the Companions, as I had found them a bit stuffy and unfriendly the first game I had played, but (I wonder if it was due to the one hit I got on the giant?) this time Farkas was super sweet to my character and only Aela and Njada were openly iffy with me. It was sad you don’t get much time with Kodlak – but due to what happens in later quests it makes sense, even if it was suckish – and I do kind of wish Kodlak was a marriable character. Out of all the Companions, he’s the only one who has faith in you to do what’s required (even if that is only due to dreams) and stands by you when the others doubt you. I hated finding and reading his journal, but there was an odd sense of karma, given that that kind of thing is exactly what I do as ST/GM.

I had often married NPCs on a whim in previous playthroughs (my first game I married Balimund (the Riften weaponsmith) as my housemate explained the marriage system in Skyrim while I was stood there talking to him and I wanted to take a look, and in my penultimate runthrough I had married Muiri (the woman who wants her Bandit ex-boyfriend murdered by the Dark Brotherhood] just because the “hired muscle marrying the hirer” trope totally hasn’t been overused [/sarcasm]) so it was strange to actually find myself focussing on a single NPC to marry this time through. Talking to the Companions, reading Kodlak’s journal and the dialogue from Farkas himself made him a really likable character and made me keen to actually focus on an NPC to marry this time, which I did…once the whole Companion questline was complete (aside from the recurring quests) and I had become the new Harbinger (and cured myself, Farkas and Vilkas of lycanthropy).

The Temple of Mara:
So…I headed off to Riften and bumped into Maramal decrying the error of everyone’s ways in the Bee and Barb, and took that opportunity to interrupt his sermonising and buy an Amulet of Mara from him. (As you do.) Back to Jorrvaskr it was, with the amulet around my neck to find Farkas…who wasn’t there. However…everyone else was…and suddenly I had made it clear that I was AVAILABLE!

Oh dear. I think, out of everyone in that hall I spoke to, there were only three who were uninterested. Torvar, the drunkard, just happened to be the first one I met who proudly, and very, very quickly proclaimed: “I’d marry you! I’d marry you twice!” which lead to me backing off very quickly and noting never to talk to him as an unmarried woman ever again. After skipping time for a couple of hours, Farkas arrived, was just as keen on me as everyone else (which in this case was a positive!) and the marriage was set. Back off to Riften and the marriage was on!

I took the time between arranging the marriage and the marriage occurring (all of four in-game hours) to talk to the people in the Temple I wouldn’t have usually spoken to. Suddenly I have a quest to deliver a High Priest’s knife to his tomb from his daughter, and a quest from Mara herself (well…through one of the priests) to go and matchmake a couple in Ivarstead. Lovely.

Oh, here come the wedding guests, all 7 of them (mostly Companions themselves). Quick as a flash the wedding is done and I…realise that usually I would have a house in Whiterun by now. Instead, I have done no quests for anyone else and so Farkas and I begin our married life much as we had begun our friendship; living with about eight other people, some of whom are wolves in disguise. Yay! Marital bliss!

Mara’s Quests:

I leave my new husband to sit and drink mead and reminisce about his “wolfy days” with his friends, and go off to meet this star-crossed pair in Ivarstead. He wants to elope with her, she wants to elope with him, her mother wants her daughter to be happy but her father thinks she’s being flighty and doesn’t mean it. Words in ears happen and suddenly her lover whisks her away to…Riften. Really? From what I’ve seen of Riften, it’s pretty much BUILT on top of the Thieves Guild. Who would ask their partner to move away from a cosy little hamlet to a den of thievery and vagabondery (almost said vagabondage, but I think that’s something else entirely *AHEM!*) unless…oh, Bassianus, you double-edged sword!

I run back to Riften (after Fastred’s parents wistfully wondered how their daughter was getting on in Riften…while she was sat opposite them. (Wishing her away were we?)) and speak to the Priestess again and get told there’s ANOTHER matter of the heart to deal with…in Markarth. Off I run, subject to any and every whim of Mara, and find that it’s the Court Conjurer, who has a sweet spot for the Jarl’s Housecarl. Aww. So I run around to find the one person who knows anything about her interests (as the conjurer is apparently too shy to ever converse with her for more than a nanosecond…) and get told “while she looks tough, she loves poetry”. How stereotypically sweet. (Says the girl who wrote poetry for years and years…) He even offers to rejig an old poem of his to make it about her! (Which doesn’t suggest his poem was generic at all…) So I run back and hand her the poem telling  her it’s from him, and then get given a letter to give to him from her…by which point I feel like poor Errol from Harry Potter, ready to throw myself at the next window I come across… and then YAY! They talk, it’s all cute and he walks off happy, knowing he is wuvved.

Back to Riften I go, and already Mara has a new challenge. Oh yay! This time, I get to reunite two ghosts who both seem to think they’re alive although they are apparently in two slightly different timelines. She thinks she’s come to the monument that marks where his unit fell in battle (and tells me there are bodies and blood everywhere…as I look at lush green fields) and he thinks he’s got two days until the battle and is complaining about his commander’s campsite. I walk across a not insignificant space to pick him up, walk him back (though I could never see him following me. Was he matching my footsteps exactly, walking in me, rather than behind? Or was he able to truly turn incorporeal? We will never know…) There’s a really sweet reunion (Okay, I admit, there was *almost* a tear. Not quite, but almost.) and they rise into the sky together, neither of them quite sure what’s happening as they’re both obviously still alive, right, even with their wibbly-wobbly timelines.

I walk back to Riften and get blessed as a reward (apparently you have to work for blessings in Skyrim…) and then, shock horror, a new quest!

“Okay, who am I reuniting now?”

“You’re reuniting people with LEAFLETS!”

“Awh, that sounds charming. Wait…WHAT?!”

“Yep, go give people (who aren’t guards, obviously, duh!) leaflets talking about our lady and saviour, Mara!”

“But…but…I’m the Harbinger of the Companions… I’m the Dragonborn but I don’t realise it yet…and you’re making me hand out…leaflets?”

“Yep, twenty leaflets, to the general population, don’t worry about the slammed doors or snide remarks, it happens to the best of us.”

Wow Skyrim…I didn’t realise you were going to be *this* realistic. I’m literally a door-to-door evangelist. So off I go, getting a range of responses from joyful: “Thank you! I will [read it]!” to guilty: “I probably should go [to temple] more often.” to sarcastic: “Thank you! I needed some more kindling for my fireplace.”

But I did it. Right, Priestess of Mara, you better reward me well. 20 pieces of paper delivered to twenty not-always-grateful recipients. I’m going to get a holy symbol, or religious trinket or…

A potion of healing?

Really?

I know I’m an adventurer who wanders through crypts for a living, stealing things off the dead to get by and battling trolls and sabre cats day-in, day-out…but…I can afford healing potions. I’m not getting that 10 minutes of wandering around streets aimlessly, back, you know.

Bu...ut they are quite useful…and I wander around aimlessly most of the time. Usually for more than ten minutes.

Oh sod it, I guess it’s not too bad a reward. Just don’t do it again!

[Next episode: Forgetful Wizards, Skooma and the Imperial Legion. No, this isn't the start of a joke.]