On the Road to Riften (Skyrim Episode 2)

On the Road to Riften

Day 2

When the morning came, Liddie went off to the blacksmith to forge herself a new suit of leather armour from the pelts she, um, borrowed late last night. The road to Riften is fraught with danger, and a little protection can go a long way.

It was early in the morning when Liddie left Riverwood behind, heading North and passing the corpse of the snow fox she had hunted earlier along the way.

On the way there, Liddie stopped a moment to enjoy the view of the valley below.

As she made her way up the mountain, she reached the ruins of Helgen, lying on the road to Riften. Seeing the destroyed town, Liddie felt a pang of sorrow; she had seen death before, but never at this level.

Just past Helgen was a pass through the mountain, one I (the author) unofficially named Haemar's Pass after a vampire-filled cavern that can be found about midway through the mountains.

The pass is usually devoid of any kind of life, save for the occasional goat, but today Liddie met a nice hunter. The hunter felt the need to verbally defend his actions, claiming that his poaching didn't hurt anyone, and that the jarl could hardly eat all the deer. Our thief protagonist wondered what he was going on about, since she herself wasn't much of a law-abiding citizen.

Walking past the hunter, Liddie found what she assumed to be the hunter's horse.

Now, what kind of a thief would she be if she passed on this opportunity and kept on walking? Not a good one. With a horse now sworn to carry her burdens, Liddie made her way out of the pass in no time.

As she trotted along the road to Riften, she came across a rundown shack along the side of the road, filled with alchemical ingredients. She was going to be relying on her bow and daggers, and crafting poisons would certainly help with what I am assuming will be a fairly low damage output (compared to larger, more intimidating weapons).

The shack contained a small journal and some ingredients useful for poisons.

Heading out, I noticed something was off, missing. Indeed, the horse that Liddie stole seemed to have run off! (or got killed by wolves)

We were back to walking.

At about lunch time, the map indicated that we were about half-way there.

Figuring it would be about lunch time, Liddie set off to find some berries or a small animal to devour. She came across a small rabbit, which she caught and beat to death - why waste an arrow on something so small - before eating raw. After all, salmonella doesn't exist in Skyrim.

She stayed on the road as much as possible, and still encountered some hostile wildlife...

 ...which she discouraged from further attacking her.

A few hours later she came across two Alik'r warriors harassing a lone redguard woman. Since she had decided that their scimtars were pretty and worthy of being in her possession, she shot an arrow at the first man before quickly slashing down the other.

Of course, murder is kind of illegal in Skyrim, and the previously-harassed woman didn't seem to appreciate Liddie's... altruism. Sadly, she was cut down before she managed to reach a guard. With the last witness dead, the world moved on as though the crime never happened.

Finally, in the mid-afternoon hours, Liddie finally made it to Riften's backdoor... only to be denied access by a guard.

She attempted to intimidate the guard, but with no success.

With no other choice, Liddie circled around the town, wasting about a half-hour. Once she reached the North Gate, she entered the city... haha yeah no. Another guard harrassed her, demanding that she pay a visitor's tax.

Liddie, however, is no fool, and saw straight through the man's pathetic shakedown attempt.

After confronting the man, who is now drenched in sweat from all her death threats, she strolled into the city like she owns the damn place. And hey, who knows, maybe one day she will...

Liddie the Thief (Skyrim Episode 1)

Skyrim is the kind of game that gives a lot of freedom in how to play; almost any character archetype is viable. Last night, I started Skyrim up again, intending to continue exploring the world with my main character (since I haven't quite done everything yet), but thought of something else: what if I roleplayed a thief? I've played warriors, wizards, and warriwizards before, but I never explored the sneaky assassin character type.

In this Let's Play, I will be playing as the dark elf Liddie (based on an old character I used to write about), a thief-slash-assassin who came to Skyrim seeking to profit from the civil war.

Now, before we get started, I want to outline a few arbitrary rules I made for myself in order to either increase the challenge or enhance the roleplay. Or because I'm a masochist, I'll let you decide:

• Liddie can only wear light armours; can't have a thief sneaking around in chainmail.
• Liddie can only wield daggers and bows; no hammers, maces, swords, or even shields. (I break this rule in the beginning, but that's because I came up with this rule later in the playthrough.)
• Liddie must stop and eat at least one portion of food per day and must drink at least one non-potion liquid per day, preferably at least two. This can be broken a few times, as long as I realistically make up for it; she can't fast for a month and then binge on thirteen cheese wheels.
• I must never break character with Liddie, and she must act like the master thief that she aspires to be. That means taking the evil option whenever I think a narcissistic, greedy thief would take it.
• Liddie cannot fast travel, or use carriages. After all, there wouldn't really be anything to tell if she just zapped around from one place to the next.

Finally, the playthrough will end when one of the following occurs:

• I break any of the above rules (except for the weapon one in the first episode, as explained above).
• This series becomes stagnant, uninteresting, or downright boring. This is to keep me from hating this playthrough.
• Liddie has amassed 100'000 gold pieces, AND has a fully decked-out house.
• Liddie dies.

That last one might make this seem like this is another permadeath run, but in this case I allow myself to reload if Liddie dies due to incompetence (accidentally attacking a guard, falling off a cliff, etc.). However, if she dies in combat, that's it. Dead.

Without further ado, let's get to it!

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Skyrim: Liddie the Thief

Day 1

Luck had recently run out for Liddie the Thief, or so she thought. She had been caught crossing the Skyrim border illegally - lacking the required passports I assume - and was about to be executed along with a few Stormcloaks. Luckily for her, a dragon attack allowed her to escape custody. She was helped briefly by some imperial, but as soon as she was free she ditched him.

Having borrowed some weather-appropriate outfit from a friendly local (don't mind the arrow jutting from his mouth there), she made her way to lovely Riverwood.

Liddie realized that fur armour, while thematically appropriate, would not confer the protection she would require to reach Riften, the rumoured location of the local Thieves' Guild chapter. After crafting a pair of leather boots from the three wolves that attacked her earlier, she set out to find more pelts.

Walking along the rocky road North of Riverwood, she finds a snow fox simply minding its business. A single arrow was required to dispatch it.

It was getting dark, but Liddie was not done yet. As she walked further up the path, she found a small camp hidden along the cliff side. A man was waiting there, weapons drawn. "Probably a local," thought Liddie as she carefully approached.

The man, as it turns out, was a bandit, and had a friend along with him.

It didn't take much effort to dispatch the men.

Making her way back to Riverwood, Liddie realized that the snow wolf pelt she had skinned earlier would be far from enough to craft a whole set of leather armour. She would have to gather the rest of the materials the way she prefers: by taking it from others.

When walking into town, she noticed a wood elf by the name of Faendal. He was carrying a bow and some arrows; perhaps he was a hunter? If so, his house is bound to be filled with the much-needed pelts.

Liddie waited until deep into the night to infiltrate the wood elf's house. Once she picked the lock and walked in, she noticed the elf sleeping on a nearby bed.

The place was filled with useless junk, but her eye caught the real prize; two sets of saber cat pelts were sitting on a nearby shelf. Naturally, she snatched her loot and snuck out of there.

As it was getting late, she walked in the local tavern, the Sleeping Giant Inn. There, she rented a bed and bought some food both for the night and for the trip tomorrow. That evening she enjoyed a meal of cooked beef, and washed it down with a bottle of ale.

After eating, Liddie then retired for the night.

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Well, that's it for Episode 1. I wanted to make it longer, but it's already stretching out a little, so I'll stop here. As usual, please leave your comments in the comments section; let me know what you think, and criticism is appreciated. Thanks for reading!