Skyrim AAR: Jorunds Journal (AAR courtesy of Take Notes Mod)

[Spoonz]

Hey guys n girls,

I've decided to start posting my in-game journal entries for my current Skyrim character here. I have been using the mod Take Notes which allows you to write entries during play and to then export them into notepad. I have and will continue to post these under the 'forum' tab of the mods nexus section but since noticing the forum has jumbled them up out of order, I want a more reliable place to post. The AAR is of course going to be in the form of diary kept by my character who is a hunter that has returned to Whiterun to find a peaceful life. That is naturally proving to be a difficult achievement, partly do to mods I use and my own house-rules. So far there are no real spoilers, after one in-game month I have only done the first Companion quest. Yet if you want to avoid spoilers then please don't read as I will no doubt mention one, even in reference to previous TES games. Oh, and no pictures I'm afraid.

[Spoonz]

Well, it seems my posts keep getting denied now. I shall continue once I figure out why.

[Spoonz]

Jorunds Journal: Part 1


---Last Seed, 17Th, 4E 201---
Today I have decided it is now necessary to end my time camping beneath the moons and stars and finally head back towards the bustling city of Whiterun. This civil war raging between the Imperials and my Nord kin has grown ever deeper in these lands and the quiet stability that once held firm here is now worn and brittle. Too often I have been forced to abandon my hunting catch to encroaching bandits that are now common place. Even the wilderness itself has become blighted as the predators having been left unchecked now roam freely as daring wolf packs, hungry sabre cats or worse. I have even heard unsettling noises from the woods darker reaches and the foreboding cracks of the mountains foot. If the Empire cannot spare the manpower to protect the north I feel it to be very unwise to dwell here alone.


So it is I finally end my wandering nomad ways and head back to Whiterun, my childhood town.


---Last Seed, 17Th, 4E 201---
My journey continues without hindrance yet slower than I'd have liked. I was unsure of where in Skyrim I was exactly, having been wandering the deep woods for so long. Its seems however I am about a days travel to the village of Riverwood. I came across a cobbled road and followed it until reaching the three old Standing Stones which overlook Lake Ilinalta. If memories serves me right I must now head north east, following the river until I reach the remote village.
During my travels I was fortunate enough to catch a fox which came running out from beneath some bushes. When it was struck by my arrow it fell cliff side and as I chased its dead body I almost ran into a bandit camp. They drew their blades as a warning and I quickly withdrew back up to the slope. To see bandits making camp so close to the roads is disheartening. I fear the state of Skyrim maybe worse than I had first thought if they can be so bold as to camp so openly.


---Last Seed, 18Th, 4E 201---
I have made it to Riverwood but only just. I sit inside the warm inn named the Sleeping Giant nursing wounds inflicted by both bandits and wolves. As I walked down the old road I spied a pair of wolfs lurking upon the roads right embankment. I choose to take them for a kill and sell their meat and pelts at Riverwood but on slaying the first it was revealed the pack was of four not two. Quickly outnumbered I was forced to jump into the river and swim for the other side. Yet as I climbed out I was set upon by two bandits who must have been watching my debacle. I managed to kill them both and also a wolf still in pursuit. When I reached Riverwood I saw the corpse of a slain wolf laid bloodied at the village entrance. I felt it best to seek lodgings here but not to make it known that it was I who disturb the wolves causing one to attack the village.


---Last Seed, 21st, 4E 201---
A few days have passed since I arrived in Riverwood and I am yet to leave still. The day after my first night staying in the Sleeping Giant I came across two more wolves just beyond the village outskirts. They had taken down a large elk and a small rabbit. Once I slew them both I was now in possession of a large and lucrative horde of animal meats and pelts. It took myself the rest of the day and most of the following to skin and harvest their ingredients which I promptly sold at the Riverwood Trader store. I earned myself just over 900 septims from it all. I was quite pleased.


Later in the day I had set off to finally leave but on crossing the bridge that leads to Whiterun I was assaulted by a rogue mage, a specialist in frost magic's. I only survived by managing to get enough distance from him so that I could safely deliver a series of arrows putting an end to his attack and life. Now I prepare to leave once again having rested through out the night, hoping to have a trouble free journey.


---Last Seed, 21st, 4E 201---
So it is I eventually arrive at my childhood town of Whiterun. The journey was not one of difficulty as I saw no beast or bandit. Should I have I would have been quite safe as I was accompanied by several pilgrims who themselves travelled with an armed guard.


Old memories washed in as I passed through Whiteruns sturdy oaken gates, passing beside the architecture so distinctive to this city. Yet the place seemed different. It is far busier than when I was a boy. The streets teem with travelling merchants, bounty hunters, mercenaries, beggars and urchins. I have found my way to the Bannered Mare Inn where I have been speaking to the kind landlady named Hulda. She tells me that since the outbreak of the war many people have sought the safety offered behind the stone walls. In turn those who require its leave are after sellswords and mages to protect them whilst outside. She warned me to expect higher prices as well now. She is right, she just charged me 200 septims for a room.


---Last Seed, 22nd, 4E 201---
I have woken today from a long sleep in a bed so soft I began to doubt I'd ever leave it. Yet despite this warm waking inside the Bannered Mare I write with little joy. I have spent my morning in search of work and to enquire about finding residency once again in Whiterun. Unfortunately there is little available beside tedious wood chopping. I had hoped to find work at the local smithy but the owner told me that whilst she is more than happy to sell my goods I will need to source the materials required myself. This is also what the alchemist had to say when I asked there. Failing to find any work I am now told by an inn patron named Jon Battle-Born that the city has no more room for residents. If I wish to stay I must either camp outside or continue to pay the high cost of the inns room rental. Now it is I buy another bottle of Honeybrew Mead before heading beyond the walls to find what I can in order to sell and continue the use of my room. So much for my adventures ending. With all the dangers lurking outside, one may say they are about to begin.

[Spoonz]

Jorund's Journal: Part 2


---Last Seed, 23rd, 4E 201---
Today has been a long one. Unable to find work I have been forced to return to my hunting profession. I awoke just before dawn and set off into the tundra in search of deer and elk. With both the Imperial and Stormcloak armies offering a recurring wage many former hunters have joined up leaving the tundra mostly free of competition. I managed to kill and harvest two elk before nightfall, selling the meat and antlers to a Khajit merchant stationed outside the walls. The pelt I shall skin and craft into a leather cloak that I can sell to the smithy. I approximate one deer or elk will earn myself about 150 septims once harvested. With the cost of my room at 200 per night and the requirement of food and drink at around 100 septims each day I will clearly need to kill and slaughter at least two per day. The problem is not so much finding and killing an animal, more the time it takes to process it all into sellable cuts and ingredients. One final note, of course I was attacked by bandits again, a swordsmen and an archer. Off one of the corpses I found a valuable circlet. Extra income is welcome.


---Last Seed, 26Th, 4E 201---
It is early evening and I sit down in front of the open fire in the Bannered Mare completely exhausted. Yesterday whilst hunting I witnessed a most astonishing and unfair fight, slightly engineered by myself. I saw a group of poachers trying to take down a mammoth but were set upon by not one but two very upset Giants. Sure enough the poachers were soon dispatched having been squashed or thrown so far into the sky I almost lost sight of them. Nearby is a bandit camp, used to slaughter mammoths with a pit trap. Firing off an arrow into one of the Giants behind I coxed him towards the camp. Soon enough I was safely hidden and able to enjoy the bashing and defeat of an entire bandit camp from beneath a bush. Once the frenzy was finished and the Giants had departed I then worked furiously through the night hauling goods to and from the fallen bandits and their now vacant camp, back to my chest in the Bannered Mare. Now I rest lazily. With all the gold I've earned I shall take tomorrow off and practice my alchemy or tease some mudcrabs.


---Last Seed, 31st, 4E 201---
Right now as I scribble in my journal I have my legs stretched so far out my toes are nearly touching the flames of the open fire inside the Bannered Mare. Having returned to my hunting profession I have been living quite comfortably. I have saved up just a little more than 3000 septims. With any spare gold I treat myself to expensive food and wine or buying additional ingredients for my alchemy studies. However, whilst I live comfortably on my earnings I cannot say I earn enough to prosper. If I wish to achieve more I will need to earn more. Yesterday I snuck into the rear of an old fort now occupied by bandits in an attempt to find some valuable loot but for the risks involved it was not worth it. I took down two bandits and grabbed what I could but I dared not venture too far inside. Whilst hunting brings in the septims I am restricted by what I can carry back and forth which means I cannot hunt too far from Whiterun. If I am to obtain more loot and pelts I must buy a horse to carry the load. Having asked at the Stables I will need to raise 10000 septims to buy a horse. No small sum.


---Heartfire, 3rd, 4E 201---
My pockets, I am happy to record are now weighing even heavier with gold septims as I carry nearly 4500 with me. However I write today mainly with concerns regarding my continued hunting around Whiterun. Yesterday I found no dear or elk but had to settle on catching skeevers and mudcrabs instead. Whilst I know there is game to be caught if I would venture a little further it is becoming too impractical without a horse to carry the load. Now I spoke to a lady named Carlotta today who said she was being harassed by the inns bard Mikhail. After having a word he agreed to cease his pestering, Carlotta rewarded me with 400 septims. For such a small task this was a nice gain and has me thinking about additional work until I can afford a horse. On a side note, there is growing talk of vampires within the town. I have seen no such thing myself but the roads are becoming increasingly patrolled by a new organization named the Dawnguard. One member even offered a position to myself. I declined of course, I have returned to Whiterun for peace and quite. It is a warm home I want not cold caves with screaming monsters.


---Heartfire, 4Th, 4E 201---
Having sought out a secondary means of income I am somewhat unhappy to write I am a new member of the Companions Guild. I say unhappy because my first assignment is not where I first thought it to be when I accepted it. Farkas, my kind but incredibly boring superior offered work "in Whiterun." I thought he meant the city itself but instead he means the Whiterun Hold. Having checked my map I'd argue that the destination is actually in Hjalmark, Morfal territory. Either way as I have accepted already so I will have to carry out the task regardless. I need to eliminate a troublesome mage. He leads a small gang so there will be additional opposition but if I can isolate him and catch him unawares I'm confident this troublemaker will be slain without issues. In regards to payment I shall have to report on my success first to know what it is. If I'm lucky I will find some light weight trinkets to sell at Belethors store also. I can't stand that man but he will buy anything.

I am now due to depart. I have my camp gear and supplies ready together along with some dwarven arrows I mean to poison for an extra kick.

[Spoonz]

Jorund's Journal: Part 3


---Heartfire, 5Th, 4E 201---
Today was perhaps my most eventful but completely unproductive day I've ever had to date. I left Whiterun late last night with the idea of finding these mages, scouting them out undercover of darkness and making camp for the following day until nightfall arrived when I would then strike. Instead I have failed to locate these mages at all. I have probed three areas of this mountain range they are meant to be at but I've been instead chased off by either sabre cats, bandits, apologetic ghosts or frost trolls. Having given up and near freezing to death after having jumped into a river whilst fleeing one of many aggressors I eventually returned to my camp only to find a traveling bard under attack from bandits, right on my camp site. With the advantage of surprise however, I slew the two bandits and I now stand around my campfire listening to Taslar the Wanderer sing.
Tomorrow I aim to find these mages and be done with this quest. I will add that this region is full of elk and deer. If only I had a horse I could camp out here whilst collecting a very large stockpile of goods. An exciting prospect, although at the moment a distant one.




---Heartfire, 6Th, 4E 201---
My hand trembles and makes a mess of this writing but I must write briefly. I found the mages, or mage as it turnt out to be. He captured me as I fell into his pit trap, deep inside a dark ruin where I write this now. With fortune I got out and defeated him. In my panic I beat him to death with my walking stick, not my axe. No matter. I shall hope to write again under the warm sun.




---Heartfire, 7Th, 4E 201---
I am back beneath the great timbers of the Bannered Mare, the noise is loud as usual but homely. My adventure into the far tundra is over and despite its difficulties I am now richer by another 1000 coins, making my saving a total of nearly 5500 septims. I do feel as tho I made a lucky escape from that ruin however. I was meant to kill a mage, a very simple task. Instead I found myself trapped inside a dark ruin, guarded by ghosts which were immune to my chopping axe and very nearly becoming a grisly experiment to a robed fanatic. And this gold was earnt mostly from carrying back items of value. Farkas knew of my success before I re-entered the Companions Hall and had ready my reward. A 100 septims. If I was not so tired I would have laughed out loudly, thankfully I did not as it was no joke. It seems your payment is expected to be what ever loot you can afford to haul back. That said, they do offer free accommodation and food, regardless of how active a member you are. I would like the next few days to be far less adventurous and so I shall return to hunting deer, if I can find any.




---Heartfire, 8Th, 4E 201---
He stares intently at me without releasing his gaze. Two great antlers symbolize his grandeur as a beast of the wild, proud, old and aware. But this mighty elk does not move and nor do I for he is but a head on a wall and I am a bloated patron of the Bannered Mare, sat as if a king of gluttony for having eaten far more than my belly can hold. It is with celebration that I sit so fat and full here on my rented rooms inner balcony. Yesterday after having initially lost two slain sabre cats to some thief or hungry predator whilst hunting, I managed to turn around my misfortune with the unexpected aid from a couple of feral wolves. There is a smugglers den that operates from a shallow cave hidden beneath the walls of Whiterun. These two wolves chased a fox into this camp and mauled two hapless guards to death instead of the fleeing fox. With the camp ripe for plundering I took my chance but it is not the trinkets or potions I acquired that I celebrate, rather a horse. Now as much as I wish to write that I tamed the animal and rode it proudly home, I did not. Rather I butchered it and sold its vast quantity of meat to Belethor. Indeed I hesitated at killing such a beloved animal but I freely admit that these feelings have been washed away by the influx of septims gained from selling it off. I now own just over 8000 septims. Just a couple more thousand and I will be able to acquire a horse of my own. One that I will not butcher for Belethor.

[Spoonz]

Jorund's Journal: Part 4


---Heartfire, 11Th, 4E 201---
Today I had the most peculiar encounter. Whilst failing to find anything to hunt and having to resort to mining ore instead for income I was attacked by two Thalmor, an archer and a mage. I have seen these high elves marching prisoners across the tundra, yet I've never had an issue with them myself. I have no idea why they attacked, perhaps they mistook me as a no-good vagrant but I fear they were likely over zealous hard-liners. Either way, as I fled they begun fighting each other. I can only assume the archer miss-fired an arrow catching the mage instead of me. Seeing this squabble breakout between the two I readied a poisoned arrow and waited in aim to strike the victor dead, that was the archer. I looted some coin from them but they had little else of value that I could carry away.

Since this encounter I have been considering the current politics of Skyrim, something I had little interest in before. Perhaps the Stormcloaks are just in their rebellion? The Empire has long offered security for us small folk of Tamriel but if these Thalmor can now harass us with impunity then would it be misguided to assume that security still exists?


---Heartfire, 12Th, 4E 201---
The air is cool but the sun shines warmly on top of my furs as I sit here admiring the view. It is past midday but the sun still remains high in the cloudless sky. This makes a change from writing when back resting inside the smoke filled Bannered Mare. I have travelled the furthest I have been since returning to Whiterun, further than the destination for the Companions assignment. I sit on a stony embankment watching the Giants tend to their herd of Mammoths around a most beautiful blue tree. I can only wonder at what magical properties make it shine so vividly. I dare not approach too close as the Giants I imagine regard it as sacred.

Before finding myself perched here my day was a little less relaxing. Increasingly desperate to find animals to hunt I ventured into a cave where I was promptly chased back out of by an unhappy bear. I have so far only caught two foxes and butchered the remains of a skeever that wondered too close to a Giant. Since my lucrative earnings from the slain horse I have made little financial progress. I am so close to affording a horse but I'm stuck around 8500 septims. Continuing the use of my room at the Bannered Mare instead of taking up my free accommodation within the Companions Hall could be considered an ill decision but I do prefer the company of Hulda and patrons like Jon Battleborn to those at the Hall. Besides, there is an odd atmosphere in the Companions Hall. I could almost say they harbour one too many secrets there but it would be unfair of me to make judgements over feelings. No matter, if I keep persevering I will buy that horse soon enough.

Additional Note. Whilst admiring the view in one direction I was oblivious to a raging battle in the other. I count around 20 - 25 men, Imperials and Stormcloaks. Now I see with my own eyes the warring factions that cause the land to crack and splinter.

A Concerned Note. I am making my way home having seen the Imperials defeat the Stormcloaks in battle not long ago. What I see that causes me to pause and write is a true horror. At the base of the solitary mountain that stands in the tundras centre is a formidable spider, twice my size. It stands eerily without motion above another of its kind just as large yet dead. I see also the entwined corpse of an unfortunate adventure that they have fought over. I can only look on uneasily as I now realize the cost of this civil war. Without the protection of men-at-arms, whether Imperial or Independents, monstrosities such as these can freely breach the depths to crawl and squirm into the light. I feel anxious at the sight of this frightful vermin. I am reminded only of the old tales of the Oblivion Crisis and the darkness it spewed forth. When I return to Whiterun I shall offer my days catch to the Nines in hope of protection from these creeping shadows.


---Heartfire, 15Th, 4E 201---
Warm is the Bannered Mares open fire upon my delighted smile. In one hand I hold a bowl of hot venison stew and in the other a jug of intoxicating wine. These two tasty treats are the remainder of all my savings for I have raised and spent the entire sum of 10000 septims. My investment of course is a broad Nordic horse I have chosen to name Bucephalus, which will allow me to expand my hunting ventures far across the tundra and beyond. Finally with this beast of burden I can raise even more septims as no longer will I be restricted to what I alone can carry. Today is a good day.

Whilst my ability to horde more goods to and fro has increased, so I might add has my hunting prowess. I have been making a determined effort to focus my learnings on mastering the needs of such a wayfaring lifestyle by studying much and often. I am confident I understand the beasts I hunt such as the sabre cat or elk, well enough to track them without first making sight. This has given me a great advantage and has allowed me to better deliver deeper and deadlier wounds with my longbow. But if I become bolder and more ambitious I can evolve these skills to slay bears and trolls or even Mammoths.

Mastering these skills will take time. I will need to hunt further away, in harsher climates and by taking more risks. It seems ironic that in my pursuit to find a peaceful home within Whiteruns walls I must venture further away into the hostile wilds.

[Spoonz]

So that's everything so far. As I have just registered I am unable to edit my posts for a week, so if I need to run the hoover over any of it I shall do so as soon as I can.

[Dance]

Great work! I have a soft spot for Skyrim tales (or any medieval fantasy!)

Keep the updates coming, brother.

[Spoonz]

Hey, glad you like it.

I have decided to end this little AAR in favour of starting another 'proper' AAR. Also my mod list is not as stable as I had hoped and so I want to ensure that's fixed before getting too invested in a game. If you fancy reading a short story though, I wrote one a few months back set in the Brytenwalda mod for the Mount and Blade game. Its called Jorviks Return.

[sbroadbent]

As someone who has done 'journal' style AARs in the past, I appreciate them when I see them. The only suggestion I might make is to include pictures with some or most entries that represent what the entry was about. An entry that was about hunting an Elk might feature a picture of the chase, whether or not you were successful in taking it.

Any reason you can't include pictures?