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Guess Who Has Come Out of Retirement
If out of all the infinite number of possible answers to this question, you guess my Skyrim character Tannenbaum, then gold star for you!
Tannenbaum the Orc, the warrior poet who retired after defeating the dragonlord and saving all of Skyrim, has once again donned his legendary armor and picked up his ax to join the Dawnguard, and destroy the accursed vampire race! Behold, your champion!
That’s him on the left, the sexy one
In all seriousness, though, I’m talking about the new DLC for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which just came out for the PC. It’s called Dawnguard, named after an ancient order of warriors who have dedicated themselves to killing vampires across Skyrim. I was a huge Skyrim fan back when it came out, logging in more than 140 hours across three different characters, mostly focusing on my warrior orc Tannenbaum. I made a few posts about him, sharing his adventures with all of you, but then I never got around to writing a full review. Probably because Skyrim is just so undefinable as a game. There’s just so much to encompass, and all of it so good.
Unfortunately, I lost all interest in the game after beating the final boss, and I moved on to other games. So Tannenbaum went into retirement. He never got married, but he is the richest orc in all the land. He bought the mansion in Solitude, while keeping the house in Whiterun to store all his junk. He’s a master blacksmith and a graduate of the Bard’s College. Plus there’s that whole saving the world thing, that’s pretty impressive. He’s an ally of the Blades and never gave in to the Thieves Guild, the Dark Brotherhood or the werewolves of the Companions.
And in the new DLC, I’m playing Tannenbaum as accepting the Dawnguard quests, instead of joining the vampire lords. I’ll maybe keep you all updated with how this works out. I’m also very interested in hearing about your own Skyrim experiences, if you’d like to share in the comments.
And the greatest thing about the DLC? We can finally make dragon bone weapons! I spent more than an hour last night crafting a new bow, a new short sword and a new ax for my hero. All evil beware the mighty Axannenbaum!
Truly fearsome.
Skyrim to Feature Vampires, Vampire-Killers
Looks like I’ll soon have to break out my old Skyrim game again for some sweet DLC. Don’t game makers know that I’m already pretty swamped when it comes to video games? Why do they have to release this amazing trailer for the upcoming Dawnguard expansion pack?
Boy howdy, that looks like fun! What my intrepid mind can piece together is that the new story mission is going to involve some kind of pack of super vampires who can transform into some kind of winged beast monster. Vampirism is already a thing in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, as it has been in most Elder Scrolls games. Basically your character can contract vampirism the same way normal people can, by being infected by a vampire. I haven’t experienced it myself with my characters, but you basically get hurt by sunlight and have a few other vampire-esque traits. Likewise, Skyrim also introduced werewolfism, which allows your character to become a werewolf and transform into a monster!
It was pretty sweet.
So I hope this new vampire transformation is equally sweet. Though I think my valiant orc warrior Tannenbum is going to join the titular Dawnguard, who seem to be the people who hunt and kill the vampires. Though that doesn’t necessarily make them good guys, mind you. I don’t know this for sure, but it seems like the DLC is going to be based around choosing either the Dawnguard or the vampires. I look forward to the excitement.
When I play these role-playing games, I really get into the storyline of my character. And for the same reason Tannenbaum never became a werewolf, I doubt I’ll have him become a super vampire. It’s just not who he is. That’s why I created a second character who could complete the Companion/werewolf storyline. Because becoming a werewolf (or vampire) is akin to picking an entirely different race. I didn’t want to get werewolf in my orc, if that makes any sense.
Either way, it looks like Tannenbaum is soon going to have to come out of retirement. And here I’d had him living in a nice mansion in Solitude, living off his great wealth and his membership in the Bard College.
The Skyrim Dragonborn Rap
With many geeks the world over absolutely in love with playing Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, it’s only natural that some of them would be creative. And while the most I’ve managed to do is write up some semi-witty blog entries about the game and my accomplishments, other people, like Dan Bull, have created an epic Skyrim rap!
So overall, I’m not yet sure if I’ll be writing a Skyrim review. The game has been out for about a month, and I haven’t beaten it yet. There’s just so much to do in the open worldness of it. The main storyline is the least exciting draw. My orc, Tannenbaum the Warrior Poet, has done so much else on the side. He trained at the Bard College, he crafted a full set of armor out of dead dragons, he slew the head of a museum dedicated to the bad guys from Elder Scrolls IV, and he did that under command of a demon. The demon gave Tannenbaum a knife in return, told him to spread carnage in his demon name. But Tannenbaum just threw the knife into his trunk back home.
I took a few more pictures, if you like. This one shows the epic scale of the game world.
A nice view
I can literally travel to anywhere I see, and that’s just a fraction of the world of Skyrim. There’s so much to do and see. For example, here’s Tannebaum slaying a dragon. It’s hard to see, but that’s him on the dragon’s head. Tannenbaum jumped on top and smashed his deadly axe into the dragon’s head.
An axe he forged out of pure ebony metal and a demon’s heart. The axe is imbued with fire, and it is name is ‘Demon’s Run’. Some of you will get that reference.
‘Demon’s run when a good man goes to war’
The graphics, especially of the dragons, are spectacular.
But it’s not just dragon-slaying and axe-making in Skyrim, no sir! There’s a lot of fun to be had as well. Just this weekend, Tannenbaum was walking a road to get to a nearby township when he was suddenly passed by the ghost of the headless horseman.
Somehow he’d fallen off his ghost horse. You can see it in the distance
Tannenbaum chased him halfway across the world map before finding a headless body…and looting it for a bit of coin.
So yeah, with so much going on and so very late since the game’s release, I haven’t decided if I’ll write a full review or not. Let me know in the comments.
General Skyrimming
So the other day I introduced everyone to my Skyrim character: Tannenbaum the orc warrior. I trust many of my readers are playing Skyrim as well, and I thought perhaps they’d be interested in seeing what Tannenbaum has been up to. I know I’d be interested in hearing about your characters or your Skyrim adventures. Post some in the comments!
Anyway, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is much like any other massive role-playing game. I travel the countryside slaying trolls and zombies, I visit towns with NPCs who have fetch quests, and trust me, a random stranger, to deliver letters are parcels for them on the other side of the country. Some quests are fun. Some are gruesome. A lot of them involve sieging dungeons and tombs. I’m having a blast. At one point I used a wicked dagger to cut through the roots of the world’s oldest tree, which lived in a hidden grove. I then used the dagger to collect some sap from the tree, only for the tree to get pissed and create a bunch of wood monsters to come at me. I slew them all…but not before the wood monsters shamelessly slaughtered the peace-loving hippies who were visiting the hidden grove.
And the hippies had warned me against messing with the tree. Oh well.
One of the coolest parts is killing dragons.
Here is Tannenbaum, standing before his latest kill
You’d think dragons would be a pretty big deal, and they are. They’re part of the storyline. But at the same time, dragons are randomly spawning creatures. Just as if you were wandering in the woods and came upon a wolf or a bear, you can randomly come upon a dragon. Tannenbaum slayed this one with his mighty axe.
But the game isn’t all questing and slaying monsters. There’s also a hobby portion. Tannenbaum has taken up blacksmithing, where he can make his own armor and weaponry, either for use or for sale.
Here, Tannenbaum made his trust sidekick, Lydia, some matching golden armor.
Can you say Christmas card picture?
Until next time Tannenbaum does something worth sharing, everybody have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Henchman-4-Hire 