Skyrim: Vikings vs. Dragons Part 3 – “Are you my daddy?”

Here it is boys and girls, the illustrious Third Act of the Skyrim Six’s violently idiotic rampage across all of Northern Tamriel.  If you have no clue what I’m talking about, go back and read Part I and Part II before venturing forward into the epic conclusion of our Gateway 2012 quest for vengeance, lost parents, and a little sumthin-sumthin’ from those ever elusive girl dragons.  So, without further adieu, the finale of Kimi’s Skyrim: Vikings vs. Dragons!

Where to now?? – ACT III

The six brothers flew off from The Throat of The World, Santa and his Greybeard brethren undoubtedly cursing their chosen path and faith, and headed west in search of answers and boo-tay.  As we flew, every so often we saw below us hundreds of those crunchy Mudcrab Knights fighting one another, for reasons we didn’t really concern ourselves with.  Occasionally, one of us would dive down, braving the arrows, to Thu’um the hapless humans, because we’re dragons and that’s how we roll!  For the most part, however, we maintained our daunting flight formation – Fendufyn in the lead; Qorohgol and Haslovaas slightly behind to the left and right, respectively; and Yolvolun in the back completing a diamond formation.

Myself, Lizinjot, continued to be distressed at the unrequited love from my surrogate-stone parent, so I lagged behind being all Emo and mopey… completely the opposite of Strunduving.  “Baby Brother” as we took to calling him flew almost continuous figure-8′s around the formation – side-to-side, front-to-back-, upside-down and right-side up, you name it – all the time asking “Are we there yest?  Are we there yet?”

Don’t you make me turn this formation around!

It wasn’t long until we reached the mountains of western Skyrim when my keen senses noticed a poorly disguised cave entrance in the rocky cliff-side.  A very, very, VERY large opening and, based on the junk and detritus on the surrounding mountainside, we were sure we had discovered the Blades’ hideout. While MOST of us began circling to develop a strategy, Strunduving and myself landed near the cave entrance.  I perched above it, looking down, thinking this to be a perfect spot to tactically use my icy Thu’um.  Strunduving, however, peered into the darkness of the cave and shouted some blessing the Greybeards had taught him.  Much to all of our surprise, his call was answered by a deep, resonate roar from something very large and obviously dragon.  Immediately, Strunduving cried out “Dad!?!” and charged headlong into the cave.  I followed immediately after, my heart-strings tugged by the threatening and fatherly voice, but thankfully, my tactically sense stopped me short when I realized something wasn’t right.  I backed out slowly, only to have the other four brothers charge past, chasing down the over-eager Strunduving.

Magic?  Nah, that’s not Magic… Now this!  This is Magic!

We found ourselves in a large, two-chamber cave.  Strunduving took the mages and knights within completely by surprise, but he sped right past them into the larger chamber beyond.  After surviving some initial blasts of fire from the mages, Yolvulun and I began to show them what being a dragon was all about, blasting them with Thu’ums and using our tales to play some wizard ping-pong.  Meanwhile Fendufyn used his Thu’um to turn to stone and served as a blocker up the middle, soaking magic damage and allowing us to do what we do best.  Haslovaas’ effort at stealth, by going ethereal and standing in the same physical space as Fendufyn while matching him stride for stride, allowed him to get in position to heal Yolvulun and I, as we had just learned that fire and lightning hurt!

Qoroghol, figuring the magic-users were well in hand, turned his attention and lightining Thu’um toward the heavily armed and armored knights.  That’s right… Metal and Steel clad warriors vs. a dragon wielding electricity!  Here’s the thing about science, boys and girls, and how Wild Talents got it right.  Electricity needs to ground itself, and in a game with a damage mechanic based on hit location, that dragon holding the knight in his mouth my his breastplate does a WHOLE LOTTA DAMAGE when he decides to start zapping like a stun-gun on crack cocaine!  Seeing as things were in hand, Haslovaas charged ahead to retrieve Strunduving while we finished mopping up, and then, things. Got. AWESOME!

Oh, and this is pretty much how this battle played out… only smaller… and in a cave…

Hey!  You’re not Dad! – The Finale

So… Here was the scene that Fendufyn, Qorohgol, Yolvolun, and I happened upon when entering the back chamber of the cave.  Before us stood a huge Elder dragon, bigger than anything we had ever seen and surrounded by treasures and weapons galore.  The Elder Dragon had his wings spread wide and was drawing in a large an powerful breath.  However, there was Strunduving, jaws clamped around his ankle, gnawing furiously, while Haslovaas’ ethereal tale protruded from the chest of the giant beast.  Not knowing quite what to make of the scene, we did what we do best… wreck sh*t!

Now, what had happened in the interim period between Strunduving charging into the Elder Dragon’s lair and Haslovaas’ arrival went sort of like this:

• The Elder Dragon was NOT our Dad but had been looking for us.
• He HAD been keeping the Blades as his slaves and charging them with hunting out and killing all other Dragons… He was like Highlander that way – “There can only be one!”
• Haslovaas may or may not have tried to negotiate with him… I don’t remember though, as I was busy slapping mages around a cave and knocking their legs off…

Being the smart on of the group and knowing the six of us were surely outmatched, I witnessed one of the greatest moments in role-playing ever to fall before my eyes.  Haslovaas made the decision to sacrifice himself by 1st) charging at the Elder Dragon and quickly turning ethereal to enter his chest cavity, and 2nd) use the next turn to become corporeal within the Elder Dragon and burst his heart, killing himself in the process.  When the rest of us went on the attack, we had no idea this was the plan.

It’s time for a “Rumble in the Jungle!” only without the jungle… and it’s 1 vs. 6…

Much to our surprise, and thanks to the mechanics of Wild Talents, the final battle quickly and savagely went our way.  When the Elder Dragon saw Haslovaas’ charge, he attempted to rise up and fly out of the cave (this would have made combat infinitely more complicated and deadly for us).  However, the fact that Strunduving happened to latch onto his ankle, for minimal damage but quick enough to interrupt the attempt at flight, the Elder Dragon quickly found himself at the receiving end of our pent-up teenage dragon hormonal rage!  Yolvulun attacked with his mighty jaws, rendering the Elder Dragon’s right wing useless, while Fendufyn mirrored the attack on the left.  When Qoroghol latched onto the left wing, we all saw how truly deadly electricity in Wild Talents is.

Apparently, if a successful hit lands on a fully damaged limb, the damage immediately transfers to the torso, and then ground through the leg.  Seeing as the damage roll was ridiculously high, the surge of lightning raced throughout our giant foe, and almost finished him off, but, as luck would have it, the final blow fell to me.  I had rolled a single matching pair of 10′s (a single success of the highest efficiency but with the slowest speed).  At the beginning of the round I had declared my intent to “Thu’um him in the face!” and as the dice would have it, I had just enough success and produced just enough damage that my Icy Breath straight into the face of the Elder Dragon proved to be the fatal blow.  Our foe fell over, dead and defeated, Haslovaas’ ethereal form still inside.  We had simultaneously OBLITERATED the enemy AND ruined Kurt’s attempt at a heroic sacrifice!  However, seeing as we still hadn’t found mom and dad and there definitely weren’t girl dragons, we were left with one conclusion:  Those Greybeards totally sold us out and now vengeance would be ours… but that’ll have to wait for another Con!

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