» Sat Dec 10, 2011 9:41 am I had been doing mostly local quests in the Whiterun area, with one sojourn to meet the Greybeards and learn about shouts (also did a dungeon in that area.) But for the most part I had been fighting bandits on the plains around Whiterun. I started the game on adept, but at level 7 I raised it to expert because all the combats were trivial. Most combats still, I just mashed the L mouse button. Sometimes I would underestimate how hard a boss hit and die once, but for the most part, combats were easy. Until I ran into a particularly nasty Bandit lair (this is just a small side quest I got from the barkeep.)
The boss fight has killed me many times. There are 3 strong warriors and an ice wizard. They can usually kill me and Lydia in 5 seconds. Sometimes I have made it about 20 seconds before dying, taking down two of them, and I have tried a bunch of strategies. I am a 1h+shield, heavy armor, restoration build. After dying about ten times, I went away did some more quests, raised my level up to 12, and tried again. Same thing. They destroyed me and Lydia. Looking into my skill tree, I realized I had around 40 points in restoration (with the first perk), but was still using the same dinky healing spell. I did some research and learned about wards and higher level spells and resolved to go to the wizard school for some training!
It turns out the college is in the far corner of the mapt. On the way there, I met a failed wizard, and another low level wizard animating skeletons. No match for Lydia and me. Then we get to the Valtheim(sp?)Towers spanning the river on the north side. There is a lone bandit asking for 200gold for passage. I tell her I dont have the money. She rushes, we take her down, but it turns out the towers are teaming with archers. Lydia and I run up the towers into the fray, and begin one of the most epic, scenic fights so far in the game. Arrows are whizzing by our heads, I charge down the narrow bridge to meet a group of fighting bandits, and here we are 500 feet above the river, bashing at each other on this tiny 5' wide bridge, while being fired upon by archers. And these bandits arent weak! (They are taking a bunch of hits without faltering and doing strong damage.) So I'm sprinting to avoid arrows, fighting melee in the middle of the bridge, potting health, and trying not to get knocked off, and then dodging behind ramparts, exhausted and nearly dead. I pot my stamina, restore my health, and charge up the tower for another round of fighting.
Then I notice there is a lone archer on the top of the far platform taking pot shots at us. So I charge across the span again, run up the tower, swing my power shot at his head, MISS, and go flying over the edge, to be crushed by the fall 500 feet below! This was an epic fight, and showed me just what kind of diversity the game has in store.
So Lydia and I give it another try, sadly this time the bandits are arrayed differently (no one met us on the road), they just started firing from the toweres, we rushed up and got overwhelmed my melee in the tower! The third time, we were able to do it. Much like the first time, except I was very careful fighting on the tip top of the tower.
After the fight was over, we scoured the area for loot, and these bandits were apparently doing well for themselves. We picked the corpses clean, looted the towers, and then started to explore the ledge on the far side of the river. Did these bandits have a hidden chest somewhere in the hills? Lydia and I had already had much more fighting than expected today, and probably wouldn't make it to the college before nightfall, so we decided to explore a bit in the hills, planning to sleep in the bandits former quarters for the night. We climbed the hills and soon found ourselves in moutainous terrain, with sweeping, frosty plains, and huge snow drifts. We keep climbing and find ourselves at the precipice, with a wide, sloping field of ice. Nearly snow blind, I see some ruins on the far side of the hill and what is that I spy? Getting closer to the ruins, I see a giant blue dragon draqed over the ruins! Lydia and I confer for a moment and decide this might be a difficult but manageable fight for us, like the two prior dragon ambushes in the plains around Whiterun. Getting our arrows ready we slink into range and let loose. This beast appeared to be ready for us, he launched off the ruins, circling high in the air. Chaos and terror set in! Was this beast twice as large as the other dragons we had met?
He circled, turned around and then strafed me with an deep ice blast! It was then I suspected he was a step above the other dragons. He circled and strafed again. I restored my health while Lydia kept busy with her bow. When would this damn thing land? Finally it circles down and I sprint to meet it on the ground, charge forward with an overhand power stroke from my war axe. It bouced off his scales and does pitiful damage. Then I KNEW this was going to be a long fight! I followed up with some quick shots, while being mauled by his claws. He leaps again into the air to strafe again while I am able to save myself from the brink of death with some health pots. This time I am hiding behind rocks and trying to predict where he will attack to avoid getting the brunt of his ice breath. We have a few more exchanges on the ground, but once we got his timing down, were able to maximize damage done while he was on the ground. With one last stroke, I sink my axe into his neck and he falls, wheezing his last breath. Lydia pretended not to be impressed when I absorbed the dragon soul, and I admit I'm still not used to that sensation.
After looting the dragon for its scales, we searched the ruins. Ah, I've seen that before, a WALL with runes. A word of power! I start to think that if I can defeat an instanced ice dragon at level 13, I will soon have all the words, quickly actualizing my dragon-born powers. I boldly walk to the center of the semi-circle to read the entire passage. It is then that I hear the sound of stone grating on stone, and the lid of a nearby sarcophagous falls to the ice. What is this? We defeated the wall guardian, what can this be? Rising above his tomb is an undead horror. Something out of a nightmare floats above the tomb and readies a spell. A lich? NO, this is not just any lich, but a NAMED lich. I read above his health bar; "Krosis".
No time to ponder Nord history at this moment as a huge fireball is bearing down on me and explodes upon hitting my armor. I pick myself up from the snow and charge forward with half of my life gone. My axe meets air as I stumble forward and am only able to connect with a small back stroke that grabs at his tattered robes. I make another tentative swing and am surprised he has already conjured another fireball! I am knocked back into the snow under the fiery explosion, my life nearly gone. Fear and panic pick me up, I am running, looking for cover as I begin the apprentice incantation for healing. Lydia, brave soul, is firing arrows from the edge of a cliff, and is able to get his attention. He quickly shift his focus to her and in a flash of light, Lydia is struck with fire and pushed over the cliff. Lydia!
The lich disappears over the cliff as I run forward to see what has happened to them. I reach the edge and look down to find them piled on top of each other, fighting on a tiny ledge above a steep wall of ice. Another fireblast knocks the disoriented Lydia from her feet, and her charred body tumbles down the cliff, and slides to a stop a thousand feet below. Heart in my throat, I leap down to the small ledge hoping to knock the lich to a similar fate, but my shield strikes at air as I see him winding up for another fireball. Blasted from the tiny ledge, I fall and slide down, nearly dead. When my feet regain purchase, I sprint away, tumbling forward through the deep snow. A fireball rages over my head and consumes a small pine to my left. I keep sprinting and dive behind a rock ledge on the side of the chasm. I am nearly dead, exerted beyond belief, my magic is spent, my potions are gone, and that demon is hurtling a limitless stream of fireballs, all the while smiling at me from beyond death. I see Lydia's motionless body in the distance and realize that my travels would not be the same without her. I unfurl my standard issue Imperial bow, and knock an Iron tipped arrow. I step forward take aim and let lose that single shaft. I am then consumed in a roaring fire, never knowing if my arrow would reach its mark.
