Skyrim - The Reluctant Dragonborn (Vol 2)
Content Warning
Again, this is Skyrim. It's a game about people who go around chopping each other's heads off.If you don't like that, stop reading now.
This is Volume 2 of the adventures of Fahdonmul, alias Corvo the Slayer.
Parts 1-3 are here:
The Reluctant Dragonborn Vol 1
...In which the dragonborn gets in touch with his inner dragon, and Alduin is thrown in the riverPart 5 - Why Dragons Aren't Welcome In Sovngarde
Part 6 - More Dragon Shenanigans
Part 4 - Fardonmullius
Skyhaven Temple has an open section on the mountain, and Fahdonmul can land on one of the buildings. This will generally cause Delphine to go crazy, which isn't unexpected for a dragon hunter. You may find it extremely satisfying to land and then bite her, before flying off again.
Delphine goes completely psycho. Again.
Violent tendencies aside, I would not recommend talking to Delphine since she'll just demand that you kill Mr. Paarthurnax. Esbern too, though to be honest, he's a bit more of a loss than a psycho innkeeper.
Fahdonmul tries to explain that dragons can be okay
Dragon-Porch World
Now it is necessary to convince Jarl B to let you use Dragonsreach to try and trap a dragon, although we don't yet know how to summon one.This proved even more difficult since Fahdonmul is wanted in Whiterun for killing Thalmor and driving while being a dragon. In any case, Jarl B tells you to get stuffed unless you can end the civil war or bring about a ceasefire.
At this, the Dragonborn walked past him, broke into the dragonsreach porch, turned back into a dragon and attempted to trap himself with the dragon bondage gear until the Jarl and his men found out and attempted to slay him.
Fahdonmul contemplates Jarl Balgruuf's dragon bondage dungeon
The dragon flew out of the porch, partly to evade the guards, but also to see whether Odahviing was lurking around offstage eating popcorn while waiting for his cue.
At this point, reality broke down completely and Fahdonmul found himself in a fractured land, devoid of all life except for dovahhe. Perhaps this is the world as Alduin would leave it.
Fahdonmul explores Dragon-Porch World
Fahdonmul discovers the Imperial City while trying to find Skuldafn
You can ignore politics, but politics won't ignore you
Rather than having to run a four-way peace conference where we have to keep not just the Imperials and the Stormcloaks from each others throats, but also stop the Blades and the Greybeards from killing each other over Mr. Paarthurnax, I figured I should probably just join the Imperials and end the civil war by brute force. As a cat-dragon with a body count in the thousands, I have plenty of brute force to offer the cause, after all.
While it would be fun to sign up in full dragon form, you will not fit in Tullius' office (or for that matter, Ulfric's hall). No, using setscale to make yourself into a minidrag does not help.
The solo mission to Hraggstad can be done at least partly as a dragon, but you'll probably have to go inside in cat form to mop up the remainder. Ulfric's proving mission should be possible to complete entirely in dragon mode since it's basically a snake-eating contest.
The Jagged Crown mission doesn't have much scope for draconic shenanigans apart from joining the company as a dragon and slaying the outdoor Stormcloaks by biting or incinerating them. Inside the barrow things are much too crowded and pokey for you to be able to change forms.
Visiting Jarl B and doing an axe delivery service will give you the chance to stretch your wings, though as mentioned it is unfortunately not possible to enter and leave the city via the Dragon Porch, something that would have been soo useful.
It is worth noting that my finger slipped and I accidentally turned into a dragon while in Ulfric's hall. This did not end well.
Dragons are not permitted inside the Palace of the Kings Upstairs
When the big fight starts you will have to confront multiple waves of enemy soldiers. Without the ability to roast the incoming troops in a vast sheet of flames, you're better off switching back to cat mode and assassinating anyone who gets close.
Dragons have pretty slow reaction times for turning and biting, and the fire attacks shout you do have will tend to burn people indiscriminately. Which is a shame as on paper it should be a crushing defeat.
You do at least have the satisfaction of turning into a dragon in front of Jarl B's eyes and flying away once he's given his victory speech and sent you back to Tullius.
Divided Loyalties
Once you've reported to General T, you'll be sent to The Pale. Rikke will have teleported from Dour Castle to the Pale and will be waiting for you. Inconveniently, the Pale camp is right next to a dragon grave and the legionaries will start attacking its former occupant.
"Whose side are you on, dammit?" "I... don't know...?"
The TCAI command may help here, since it will disable the combat AI and prevent the dragon and legionaries from fighting. However, it doesn't stop them wanting to fight, and this will leave Rikke mute with fury at the mere presence of the dragon. Toggling TCAI off and on quickly might give you enough of a window to get your orders, however.
Alteratively, if you select the dragon, you can fly off to some far region of Skyrim and moveto player. Then fast-travel back and you should be able to quickly talk to Rikke before the dragon returns and starts eating her men.
Your orders will be to impersonate a Stormcloak courier, so fly off to Nightgate Inn and talk to the innkeeper. Then you can switch back to dragon form and eat the Courier. Fly the orders back to Rikke (doing any neccessary chicanery to keep them apart from the dragon) and then you will be asked to deliver the amended orders to Dawnstar.
While it would be a beautiful thing to hand over the orders in full dragon form (wearing the Stormcloak outfit, naturally), the recipent of the orders will be inside a building and Skyrim has a raft of accessibility issues where the dov are concerned. For that matter, Jarl Fuckface has a tiny hovel anyway, so you won't fit if you attempt to transform on entry.
However, you can still perch on one of the buildings and loom ominously for a bit before turning cat and handing over the letters.
Fardonmullius lurks menacingly before handing over the forged letters
Dunsinane
Fort Dunsinane has a few good venues for landing as a dragon and chewing up the enemies of the Empire, though it is difficult to fly to the fort from Solitude without accidentally starting the battle prematurely.While there are two open courtyards to attack people, your vast bulk makes it difficult to tell which of the tiny figures running past you is a Stormcloak and who is an Imperial - especially during a night-time raid when everything is dark. So while you can munch on a few to begin with, your real combat effectiveness will come from transforming to cat mode and going on a beheading spree.
Once you have sacrificed enough Stormcloaks to Alduin as a peace offering, fly back to Solitude and General Tullius will send you on to The Rift.
Around this time the camp will be relocated away from the dragon grave and there will not be further risk of the legion shooting down its former occupant.
Alduin joins the Legion
At The Rift, your first task will be to try and compromise Anuriel at Riften. This isn't particularly interesting, though you could go on a rampage against the guards and Thieves Guild members, telling anyone who asks that "someone performed the Black Sacrement against the entire city".
If you go in at night you can sneak past (or assassinate) the guards and simply grab the incriminating letter and wake up the steward to get concessions out of her before she's fully awake.
Once this is done, you can fly back to Rikke at the camp and the fun really begins as you are sent to capture the wagon.
The wagon is currently being shadowed by Hadvar, the Imperial you can escape from Helgen with. Things get particularly warped if you approach him in the guise of Alduin, the World-Eater:
"I remember you from Helgen!" "SO DO I"
After that, you will discuss plans for capturing the wagon.
"I HAVE A BETTER PLAN. I DEVOUR THE FABRIC OF REALITY AROUND THE WAGON,
FEASTING UPON THE SOULS OF THE REBEL SCUM IN SOVNGARDE.
THEN YOU TAKE THE WAGON BACK TO LEGATE RIKKE."
...While this is an option, maybe we should try this again with a less sadistic dragon.
Dragon vs Wagon
If Fahdonmul arrives in his true form, Hadvar will still be somewhat oblivious and dare I say, rude, with lines like "Dragonborn, huh? Was it your ma or pa who was the dragon?" Those familiar with the lore will know it was definitely the father - Father Akatosh, the dragon god.Anyway, we have a wagon to attack:
"See, Hadvar? It can be useful to have a dragon on your side!"
Of course, then Hadvar has to open his big mouth...
"Let's talk about the demographics of your team, Hadvar."
While it would be easier to switch into cat mode and stealth-decapitate the lot of them, it is far more fun and shocking to the Stormcloaks to lumber down the hill and start biting them, or shouting flames at them.
By this time I had figured out how to enable true dragon-fire shouts, and torched the lot of them, somehow avoiding setting the wagon itself on fire.
"I'll vaporise your blood!"
After that, Hadvar will say he thought you were dead and send you back to Rikke with the good news.
...as an aside, I really want to know where Alduin goes to get his claws done. They look fabulous.
His talons shine like daggers, on the wings of revolution
Greenwall is a viable target for capturing the castle as a dragon. If you land on the Northern end of the castle you'll get a lot of Stormcloaks spawning around there whom you can bite or burn as you see fit. Normally I'd suggest Frost-Breath might be a more humane option as the corpses tend to be rather less charred. Unfortunately, it turns out that Frost-Breath is a lot slower at killing people. So it's six of one and half a dozen of the other.
"Yes, yes. Surprise!"
The Final Frame
After the Rift, you'll be sent to Winterhold. The main play here is to take over Fort Kastav by sneaking in and releasing the prisoners for a surprise attack.Obviously the sneaking-and-releasing-prisoners part cannot be done in Fahdonmul's full glory so you'll have to be a cat for that part. The battle in the courtyard will be more precise and have less casualties if you do that as a cat too, but since the stormcloaks often bunch together it does make them a good target for breath attacks if you are that way inclined.
Either way, once that's done you'll need to touch base with Hadvar before flying back to General Tullius at Solitude.
The attack on Fort Amol works reasonably well as a dragon, again, assuming it is day and you can tell the colour of the puny humans apart.
It is possible that the violence will attract the curiosity of the local dragon from Bonestrewn Crest*, who will join in to defend his thuri from the Stormcloaks, picking them off as they flee. This does not necessarily go down well with the legionaries.
That is a dragon... You know, the big winged thing that symbolises our glorious Empire... And you are not to attack it.
Anyone caught shooting the dragon will receive summary execution.
On the test run I had to discipline a few men, but in the main playthrough the dragon stayed well enough away and there was no trouble.
*It is unclear why it is still called "Bonestrewn Crest" in the present day if the dragons have been MIA for thousands of years. Unless this is where Mr. Paarthurnax was getting his meals from, of course...
The final stage is to storm Windhelm and kill Ulfric. To frustrate this, the city has been barricaded to prevent direct passage to the Palace of the Kings Upstairs. Fortunately, because we're a dragon, we can fly right over them and reach the palace gates in seconds flat.
Weren't expecting that, were you?
Facing the end, Ulfric wants the Dragonborn in particular to kill him so his death makes for a good song. I don't know what kind of songs he's been listening to, because "He was stabbed by a knock-off Dark Brotherhood assassin" sounds a distinctly tacky way to go. Have a little imagination, man! If he wanted a truly epic and spectacular death, he could have had his head bitten off by a literal dragon. Still, if it's his last request, we should probably honour it it.
Note that Ulfric likes to use the Unrelenting Force shout. If you do this to him instead, Tullius may get caught in the blast and will start gibbering and babbling and saying his lines out of order. Once Ulfric is dead he should say "Must've run off" and becomes sane again.
Finally, there is the obligatory congratulatory speech, and the rebellion is over.
Part 5 - Why Dragons Aren't Welcome In Sovngarde
Praise Be!
At this point you might want to pray to Father Akatosh. Either to give thanks for your recent victory, or to solicit His aid against Alduin.
Originally there was a shrine to Bormahu on Skyborn Altar. However, once Mirmulnir has been slain, the altar will disappear - either because mighty Akatosh is displeased with the killing of His children, or because the newly-arrived resident dragon has moved it to some kind of private chapel.
This is unfortunate as it would have been perfect for Fahdonmul and other dragons to pay their respects to the Dragon Father.
There is sometimes a shrine to Akatosh in Sungard, but since that's inside the building it is impossible to pray at without transforming, and doing so would be a betrayal of the gift he has bestowed upon us.
Likewise, the shrine near Twilight Sepulchre might have been perfect except it's been stuck inside a stone archway, making it impossible for you to reach the shrine itself in your Akatosh-given form.
One of the better locations is the shrine near Rorikstead, which is directly north of the inn. Bizarrely it has dragonscales as an offering, even at the very start of the game, before the dragons start returning. It is open to conjecture exactly whose scales these are, whether they're from Mirmulnir or one of the other survivors, left there by the Greybeards as an offering from Paarthurnax himself, or looted from an ancient dragon cult temple. (Though I would have thought that any looters would have sold them to alchemists for an astronomical sum). You cannot leave any of your own scales as an offering, however.
I did manage to get the Rorikstead shrine to work - but only once as it's very difficult to move into a position where you can trigger the shrine itself.
Probably your best bet is the shrine in the volcanic regions of The Rift, just northeast of the Atronach Stone.
This, in yet another example of Skyrim's accessibility/racism problems, has been surrounded with bollards to try and stop you from getting to it. Fortunately, as a dragon, you can just fly over them and land directly on the shrine. It is likely that the offerings will spray everywhere as your dragon bulk knocks things flying, but you will at least be able to give thanks to your creator.
Anyway, once we've received His blessing, we should get back to work.
Dragons and Dungeons
Now that peace has been declared, Jarl Bogroll has run out of excuses to let us use his city as a prison for wayward dragons. However, we have a slight problem. Because we skipped the peace conference and unilaterally broke off negotiations with the Blades to dodge the issue of murdering Mr. Paarthurnax, we don't actually know which dragon to summon, or how.This makes for a slightly awkward chat with Jarl B because he will ask how you're actually going to summon the dragon and you have to admit you have no idea. Annoyingly we cannot get the information ahead of schedule because nobody will offer this information.
Only at this point will the game prompt you to ask Esbern, or Mr. Paarthurnax himself, and you cannot broach the subject before this. The first option is definitely out, which leaves Mr. Paarthurnax.
This conversation is slightly cringy because he'll have to explain to you like a child that dragon names work as shouts, something which you should already know, being a temporarily embarrassed dovah (plus Mr. Durnehviir telling us this earlier). It may have been less awkward to have Arngeir tell us, but alas, he doesn't know anything about this either.
Now it's time to go back to Whiterun, ideally killing a few Thalmor on the way since a high bounty will make trapping Odahviing a lot more exciting.
Once at the porch, turn into a dragon and shout Odahviing's name. He'll turn up and kill a guard or two. You can rake him with your claws to bring him down, bite him when he lands or turn back into a cat and do things in a more conventional fashion.
Once he has been trapped, Mr. Odahviing will try to cut a deal - being released in exchange for information on Alduin's whereabouts. You cannot just agree straight off, since the game wants to railroad you into having to be flown there on his back.
Yeah, about that...
That Mr. Odahviing doesn't notice your wings is excusable since you're behind him and he can't be sure who's interrogating him. However, even if we were just Corvo the Cat, his bargaining position is a lot more fragile than he would like to think.
We could, for instance, ask Mr. Paarthurnax to drop us off close to the site and walk the rest of the way, or hypnotise one of the pretty white frost dragons into taking us there via the Bend Will shout.
That said, if Mr. Odahviing is left in Whiterun without the Dragonborn's watchful eye, the Jarl might get the idea of adding him to his dragon skull collection. The resemblance to a guillotine has not gone unnoticed, and Mr. O did throw one of the guards off the Dragon Porch after all. And that's not even counting what will happen if Delphine finds out.
"Off with his head!" "No! He could still be useful!"
So, as insulting as it is for the both of us, we have no choice but to climb on his back and soar off into the distance, taking Odahviing far from the reaches of the Jarl's justice. A situation the Dragonborn is very familiar with.
The Fractured Lands
Once you have ridden Mr. Odahviing to the dimensionally-isolated realm of Skuldafn, revert back to dragon mode in a defiant gesture of "I could have flown there myself". Still, this way ensures Mr. Odahviing gets to keep his head on, something which cannot be guaranteed if he was left in the Hofkahsejun.Still, if we fly over the mountains we can break out of the map and go exploring the otherworld. There's a neat monolith which we can check out, from the air this time.
The Monolith of Skuldafn
It may amuse you to follow Mr. Odahviing to wherever he goes. This gets pretty weird, since he will fly far, far away, to where a second Odahviing is curled up in the sky.
Flying off with Odahviing to meet... Odahviing
Shortly afterwards I accidentally bumped into Mr. Paarthurnax who hailed me for some tinvaak.
Fancy meeting you here
This confused me until I checked that map and realised that Mr. O had actually flown to the Monahven, and was not actually levitating, but sitting on the mountainside. At that point things started making sense. The dragons seen flying around over the ocean, who I had originally assumed were Alduin's reserves intended to fight you at Skuldafn, actually correspond to dragon lairs on the main map, and this includes Mr. Paarthurnax. Like with the Dragon Porch World, the dovah exist in multiple dimensions, and this means that Mr. Odahviing has literally flown to the Throat of the World.
It would make sense if this was to move him there for the celebration of Alduin's death, but since his twin brother is already there and waiting, the whole thing starts to get a little confusing. Still, it's nice to see so much confidence and faith placed in your ability to destroy the World-Eater. (Either that, or he's hoping Mr. Paarhurnax can protect him from Alduin's wrath)
Fahdonmul will just fall down if he attempts this
Reach heaven by violence, then
Anyway, once you're done exploring the Fractured Lands, we should probably get back to the task of hunting down Alduin.
Skuldafn is not a good neighbourhood
Being one of the endgame locations, Skuldafn is fairly big. In the normal run of things we'd be dashing around all over the place to climb up to the portal, fighting undead hordes and Alduin's dragon buddies. It is worth pointing out that there are four dragons in the complex, of which, only two of them are honest-to-Akatosh diehards and will attack you yelling "Skuldafn fen kos dinok", defying the 'Friendly Dragon NPCs' setting. It is possible to stealth past them, especially given that we have The Precious.
The other two are chilling on the tops of the towers by the portal to Sovngarde and unless you actively attack them, they will just sit and pretend not to see you while you go after their ex-boss. This is a smart move, and they will be unaggressive even in the base game - presumably they're the technical staff monitoring the portal or something.
So, guys... How much is Alduin paying you...?
Note that Mr. Odahviing earlier pointed out that the World-Eater has mustered his remaining forces there. If the best he can manage is exactly two dragons willing to die in his name, then it really is all over for Alduin.
As I said, in the normal run of things, this would be quite a slog. However, this is not the normal run of things so we don't have to bother with any of this. Unless you particularly want the Storm Call word, you can - like the alleged Battle of Windhelm - skip basically the whole thing by simply flying up to the portal and landing before the Two Angry Dragons can cause any real bother. Then we just have to chomp Alduin's high priest, loot him for the mask and staff, reopen the portal and go through.
If you don't even care about the mask, it is entirely possible to do the whole Skuldafn run in 9 seconds flat from your transformation, by taking off and dive-bombing into the portal before the Dragon Priest can close it.
Turns out, we never did set foot in Skuldafn
This may result in the game glitching out and dumping you in some random part of Sovngarde, but fortunately you can just fly back over the mountains and take the rest of it from there.
Terror awaits you in Sovngarde
The eye dilates, the air gyrates A gate in the sky - a portal to die A shriek from space, a mangled yell Dragon descends Welcome to Hell--King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (Dragon/Swan Song extended mix)
Okay, so we're a stray dragon lost in the realm of the dead. This does open up an interesting can of worms.
Ethical horrors aside, could Fahdonmul also chow down on the souls of the dead and use their energy to resurrect more dovahhe? Could another dragon do this? Odahviing, the dragons patrolling the Skuldafn facility and probably a bunch of other high-ranking Alduin fans, all know how to to access the site and could potentially re-open the portal. Can they also go around soul-nomming or is that an innate ability of Alduin (being the World-Eater and all)?
Is someone else going to take Alduin's place...?
Either way, these questions are a little premature since Alduin is still kicking around. So best we focus on kicking him in.
...But maybe we shouldn't get too focused.
With this character's death, the threads of prophecy are severed
Once you have breached the afterworld, Alduin will be happily sitting on his word-wall in the centre of the map without a care in the world.
Alduin's Other Wall
You can, at this point, fly straight up and rip him apart with your claws before he even realises what's happening.
Alduin... My teeth to your neck!
...This is a Very Bad Thing. Alduin may have exploded and been left very dead, but the game doesn't know that. It wants its big battle, and you're not leaving Sovngarde until that's happened.
So, you'll have to go into Shor's Hall, get the three legendary heroes to come out, clear the mist away and wait for... Well, Alduin to arrive.
At this point everything had gone horribly wrong.
I thought I was supposed to be the nice dragon, but somehow - within minutes of arriving - I had murdered the World-Eater, chewed up a couple of lost souls and looted them for their armour, knocked High King Torygg off a hill, turned the water brown and allowed an undead dragon with a penchant for necromancy to roam Sovngarde. Which on reflection was a terrible idea but in my defence, I needed someone to talk to.
Durnehviir's dead anyway, he'll fit right in
Remarkably, things managed to get even worse than that.
While the Three Hereoes were waiting for Alduin to return from the grave, I noticed there was a quest marker. This led me to a small spot called "Search Alduin" where he had fallen. Via the console, I was able to highlight it, resurrect Alduin and kill him again, thereby completing the quest. Since he's already exploded once, his second death just means writhing around a bit and going limp. But it does count as a kill.
Alduin dies. Again.
While trying to lug his body back to the others as proof, a bunch of dead folks turned up. I "accidentally" ate Galmar, assuming he was unkillable and learning my mistake the hard way. As more dead people started crowding around, I did a tail bash in frustration. This staggered them and may have pushed them into hostility. The next thing I knew, Felldew, Gormless and Haken had gone into a killing frenzy and were slaughtering a bunch of Imperial soldier souls.
Shit, I've just started a fight in Heaven
Actually, scratch that. Let's try again.
Okay, let's try and do this properly, following Mr. Paarthurnax' example by denying our baser instincts, and definitely not starting a war in Heaven.Once you arrive in Sovngarde, you can easily fly over the mist and make your way to Shor's Hall. You will have to fight Tsun to be let in since even a mighty dragon can be killed by the death-field protecting the front door of the building.
Fortunately, being a mighty dragon, it only takes one bite for Tsun to see things your way.
I'm a dragon, I don't have time for this shit
Once he's curled up like Alduin was at the Monahven, you can fly to the castle without divine retribution, but sadly dragons are not permitted inside the Hall of Valor - Nords being notoriously racist and all. You'll have to go in as a cat, and upon entering the hall, the game takes away your weapons and powers so you cannot revert to dragon mode inside it.
Once you've filched a few sweetrolls from the Eternal Buffet Table, find the Three Heroes. Or just go around talking to other people until they get bored and leave. I turned around just at the door to go back and grab an apple.
Once back outside, Fahdonmul can switch back to full form and fly over the whalebone bridge. You have to start on a very specific spot to advance the quest with all three heroes present, and that marker disappears as you get close so it can be awkward to find. Hovering over it may help.
Be careful as it is sometimes possible to turn and accidentally knock Haken or Golden Gormolino into the abyss and it will take them quite some time to reappear. As mentioned, the final battle will not start until all four of you are standing where you should be.
Fahdonmul struggles to get into position.
It may be easier to fly over them all, wait on Alduin's perch for them to get in position and then approach from the front, as if you were trying to get back into the hall. Frankly, getting into the correct position to trigger the quest is the most frustrating part of the whole endeavour.
Then you have the shouting match. (Note that Alduin is still able to renew the fog even if you snapped his neck earlier - which again, is very ill-advised). Fahdonmul might have his head pointing away from the fog by now, but it seems to work nonetheless.
Rawr
Note that Alduin is still MIA at this point - he's not on his perch, in the mists or obviously around the mountainside, so unfortunately you can't just burst out of the castle and kill him immediately.
Once the fog is dispersed, he will finally show up, and now you can safely knock him out of the sky with your talons, dragon-rend not required.
Now you may as well sit on Alduin's perch, since he's not going to be needing it anymore.
I live here now.
It is an interesting aside that Alduin is really, really not supposed to be killable at this point. You can shoot him with a crossbow that does a billion damage points and it'll bounce straight off his hide. Clawing him up is an instant-kill, although it does seem require the Dragon Gloves of +180 million unarmed combat, so there's some strange combination of factors going on here.
Anyway, however it worked, it did. Alduin is dead, and once you're done messing around in the afterlife, you can go back to Tsun and get him to yell at you until you reappear in the Mundus.
Interestingly, although Odahviing implied he was going to pick you back up from Skuldafn, you materialise on the Throat of the World, where a large crowd of dragons celebrate the death of their former thuri.
"All hail Lord Fahdonmul! Please don't kill us too"
In an ideal world, they would pledge their undying allegiance to you and/or Mr. Paarthurnax and the dragon attacks would cease throughout Skyrim, just like how the Stormcloak arrests immediately halt under Ulfric's rule. Heck, there is even still scope for hunting down renegade dragons or unrepentant Alduin fanatics via bounties if you really want to go around de-souling members of an ancient and distinguished (plus highly endangered) race.
Low-level pacify enchantments or potions could help cure the dragons of their violent impulses, tempering these urges just enough that they can function in society and use their knowledge and power for the benefit of all.
Of course, that would be sensible, so it doesn't happen.
Once their performance is over, the dragon choir fly off, leaving you alone with Mr. Paarthurnax, Mr. Odahviing and the Veteran of the Dragon Wars.
Mr. Paarthurnax
It has been suggested that Mr. Paarthurnax is waiting for the Dragonborn to die so that he will be free to take Alduin's place, ruling Skyrim unopposed until the World-Eater's return, since the Last Dragonborn is able to devour his precious soul and destroy him forever, which Delphine cannot do. He is still calling himself Ambition-Overlord-Cruelty, after all, and maybe he does need some kind of leash just in case he has a relapse and runs rampant. He can rally the survivors and make a dragon army of his own if he's able to make them a suitable offer.There are two issues with this theory, however. Firstly, Mr. Paarthurnax is very understanding if you explain that the Blades want you to kill him, and even justifies their reasoning for it. In addition, he doesn't put up much of a fight if you try. Heck, he's so otherworldly that he even plays devil's advocate against saving the world, which is not what you'd do if you have some big master plan for conquering it.
Secondly, the Last Dragonborn's soul-eating power is derived from the draconic side of his nature, not the fact that he's supposedly some dragon-human hybrid. So if Mr. Paarthurnax somehow turns into Supreme World Dictator Paarthurnax, slaying him in the presence of his fellow dragons will have the same effect. (Note, Delphine, that this only works if you've left other dragons alive, hint hint)
Finally, we don't actually know how many people Paarthurnax killed, or even what he's accused of. Esbern - the Blades Archivist, no less - only speaks in nebulous terms of "atrocities", but he won't elaborate on what they actually were, which would be thrown out as insufficient evidence in a court of law. It is also worth noting that during the time of the Alduin Dominion, the dragons tended to be pretty hands-off and it was their Dragon Priests who the people were rebelling against, so it is plausible that the alleged atrocities were carried out by his underlings. The Dragonborn himself may have a higher body count for all we know (it's not hard to get into kilodeaths in Skyrim) and there is the big, big question of whether soul-executing him is in any way a proportionate response.
It is also worth remembering that the Dragon War took place 4-5 thousand years ago and any mortal whom Paarthurnax had dealings with would have been dead for multiple eras irrespective of his actions. Barring some mass soul-stealing thing (which only Durnehviir seems to have been into) they've had plenty of time in Aetherius to come to terms with it.
Sadly it is not possible to give Mr. Paarthurnax a token beat-down and go back to the Blades saying "He was too tough" or "I half-killed him... Can I be half a Blade?", after all, it's probably wise to keep an eye on the Blades in case they start targetting your friends (and that kind of thing requires an informant on the inside).
Note that it will take Mr. P a few days to calm down if you do punch him in the face. Not only that but it also feels like you've just broken up like your only friend in the entire world, and only goes to prove his point about dovah being untrustworthy.
In real-world conflicts, peace is the result of a compromise. With a sufficiently brutal or long-running conflict, both sides will rack up a considerable tally of atrocities. And so, these are set aside in the name of a more peaceful future, because the alternative is genocide - which is itself an atrocity. Nothing is ever said about taking down Mr. Odahviing, who has - after all - been committing atrocities for Alduin a heck of a lot more recently than the Merethic Era.
I like to believe in redemption. Runil the ex-Thalmor in Falkreath found redemption through Arkay, and Paarthurnax found his through Kynareth. In both cases, I'd say that the only time to think about executing them is if they start committing new atrocities, not a pre-emptive strike "just in case".
I'll be back
One last note. It is possible to drag Alduin from Sovngarde by a similar means to Refugee Dragon. If you leave him dead, Fahdonmul will have brought a corpse back as proof.
Fahdonmul brings proof of his mighty deed
Since nobody outside the Greybeards has seen Paarthurnax within living memory, it might be possible to cut a horn off the corpse, dump it at Sky Haven Temple and tell them it's Paarthuranx.
Note that it is equally possible to resurrect him again, causing him to sit and watch his own funeral in confusion.
"Guys... Wait! I'm not dead!"
I'm not sure how log Alduin crouches in bewilderment for, but if you go away and come back, he will have escaped and started circling the mountains near Frostflow lighthouse.
I do not recommend doing this as it strictly speaking means we've lost the game. The dragons as a whole will be better off with a less violent thuri.
Part 6 - More Dragon Shenanigans
Slen Tiid Vo
Now, let's look at reviving Miraak's jilted dragon buddies. I feel particularly sorry for these three because not only were they brainwashed but Miraak ate them like snacks. Causality be damned, we're bringing them back.You can, of course, resurrect them in Apocrypha, but then they'll be trapped forever in the realm of Hermaeus Mora.
They will absolutely be safe from the Blades there, but they would also be good hostages for Mora if the relationship breaks down. We should instead head to the mainland and do the deed there.
As before, the leading 04 was the code for Dragonborn on my installation. Yours may vary.
prid 0401d572 enable resurrect moveto player prid 0401d573 enable resurrect moveto player setessential 0403d5b5 1Note that Relonikiv and Kruziikrel share the same baseid, so you only need one command to make both invulnerable.
I released Rel and Kruz on the shore near Winterhold. Left to their own devices, they flew around a bit and then eventually disappeared. This confused and demoralised me at first. I relocated them to the Monahven and this time, I was able to watch them fly away. Following them, they made their way to a particular spot, circling the sky high in the air roughly above Silent Moons Camp.
Relocating them to Labyrinthian - which seemed a good spot to have dragons - did not last. Wherever you release them, they will make their way to the skies near Silent Moons Camp. In some ways this makes the Essential flag a little redundant because they're going to be staying out the reach of trouble anyway, but better to be safe than sorry.
Relonikiv and Kruziikrel adapt to life in Skyrim
You may be wondering about Sahrotaar. Unfortunately he's a special case. Rel and Kruz seem to be accessible via PRID from anywhere, including mainland Skyrim. However, Sahrotaar only seems to be available in Apocrypha itself. This might be because he's a serpentine dragon instead of a normal one - and as a result looks like a buck-toothed fish with wings... Or it may be some kind of safety interlock to prevent you bringing him to the Throat of the World and then asking him to fly you to Miraak. Either way, the best we can do is revive him in Apocrypha, and like K9 in Warrior's Gate, there he must stay.
Sahrotaar's codes are:
prid 04031834 enable resurrect moveto player setessential 04031CA5...Again, I could only get this to work within Apocrypha itself.
Dances with Dragons
We can also hang out with Mr. Ancient Dragon in Solstheim. Previously this was a bad idea because he would try to eat us, but now he will recognise us as a fellow dovah and so we can just chill with him.
Since a dragon is much, much larger than a man, I began to wonder at this point whether their natural voices were subsonic and that all dragons have to make high-pitched squeaky voices in order for the other races to hear what they're saying.
Neloth loses his mind
Sometime around this point, something bad happened and the entire island of Solstheim was after my blood. I am not even sure why because I had no bounty. But suddenly, everyone wanted a piece out of me.This made things especially awkward becase I wanted Enchanting training from Neloth and he had gone just as crazy as everyone else.
Out of frustration I went dragon in his tower. Fahdonmul does in fact fit, but Neloth will go for him.
An interesting point about Neloth is that he is able to push people aside and knock them down. This also works on dragons:
Dragon K.O.
After that, I had to transform to cat mode and flee quickly before Neloth attempted to do any experiments with a dragon test subject.
Fortunately, even though every elf in Solstheim wanted me dead, Krosulhah was still my friend.
Fahdonmul seeks solace in the company of Krosulhah
Horker-Throwing Contest
Dragons thrive on domination, as Paarthurnax mentions at one point. Fahdonmul isn't very good at it so to give him some practice, I've been dominating the horkers off Solstheim, much to the disgust of the pretty white frost dragon who lives on that island.
"Oh no... Not again"
I can see his point - you're sunning yourself on your favourite rock, minding your own business, when some young punk shows up and starts throwing walruses everywhere.
"Quit it, kid. That thing nearly hit me!"
This is the trick. You find an island with horkers on it, swoop down and thanks to the magic of the game being a bit ropey, you can usually clip through the ground and scoop the horker up on your back.
Are you ready to see the world as only a dovah can?
Horkers fear me
Then, you can carry the horker up into the air and at some point, they will fall off into the sea.
Note that the horkers will slide across the surface of the ocean until they hit an island.
I think this one's gonna land on the mountains
Disappointing fact: From level 54 onwards, the pretty white frost dragon will switch to their brown summer coat and lose the spikes. (But they are the same dragon - I've checked.)
Saving Private Dragon
Mr. Dragon is in for a big surprise
While discussing the possibility of setting the dragons to be globally essential, I pointed out that it would royally mess up the Elder Scroll vision where Mr. Dragon gets stabbed in the head. Right now I don't have a working code to make generic dragons like him essential, but I can grant them temporary invulnerability via the SETGHOST command.
Unfortunately this didn't work against Gormless doing a kill-move, presumably because it's a scripted death. But then I had another idea. And this one worked.
Just as Gormless ran up to stab Mr. Dragon, I used the MOVETO PLAYER command to pull him out of the way. This worked, but had an interesting side effect as the physics engine wrestled with the problem of two dragons occupying the same space. The end result was that Mr. Dragon and Fahdonmul were catapulted across the Monahven, with myself landing some way down the slope, and Mr. Dragon hanging off the cliff by his tail.
"Who are you, and what in Alduin's name have you done?!"
This left him where Gormless couldn't reach. I don't know whether she just froze up and stood on the mountain like a lemon, or whether the three ancient heroes were desperately trying to reach him but got stuck on a rock. Either way, we just stood there for a few minutes, staring at each other while my vision got blurrier and blurrier as the cutscene headed towards its conclusion.
Since the cutscene prevents you from moving, I was kind of stuck looking around at the mountain until I realised that I could do the same trick again.
"Let go! Let go!"
By forcing Mr. Dragon to occupy my space, the physics system wigged out again and by looking around I could get brief moments of control, pushing us further and further down the mountain, down past the 7000 steps and towards Whiterun.
At some point the Elder Scroll overlay disappeared, though everything remained blurry and red.
"This is not how I thought today would go."
RG: Mr. Dragon looks confused.
JM: He thought he was going to kill some uppity humans and see Alduin's lordship restored.
JM: Instead he's been grabbed by some strange, immobile dovah from the future
and used as a battering ram against the laws of reality itself. "Confused" isn't quite the word for it.
At length, we tumbled down the slopes of the mountain together on a strange adventure until we fell into a Stormcloak camp, thus proving conclusively that under normal circumstances, the player has basically dropped acid and really is standing on top of the mountain wide-eyed and convinced they're in the distant past, like Raoul Duke in the depths of an adrenochrome binge.
Uh oh
This was not good. Two dragons rolling down a mountain like a cheese wheel is bad enough, but having them both suddenly land in your camp did not sit well with the Stormcloaks and they immediately started to attack Mr. Dragon. Because he's supposed to be cannon-fodder for a scripted death sequence, he can't fight back.
Had I been thinking more clearly I would have used TCAI to hard shut down the fighting, but instead I kept pumping up his HP and attempted to move us out of the camp by abusing the physics engine.
Leave him alone, he's not attacking you!
Finally, we bounced across the road and fell into the river, downstream from where Alduin was dunked earlier in the anti-walkthrough. Unfortunately, the Whiterun guards had spotted us by now and were also trying very hard to kill Mr. Dragon.
We got within sight of Whiterun, but at that point I really had to call it a night, and you can't save because it's supposed to be a cutscene.
We didn't quite make it to Whiterun
I want to add that the soundtrack to this whole misadventure was basically the sound of two dragons breathing heavily like some twisted version of 2001, A Space Odyssey.
...This definitely merits further exploration, so there may be further updates in the near future.
Fahdonmul's photo album
Sometimes Fahdonmul will crane his neck when perching. Occasionally he will stretch his neck so far that he's looking between his legs. I do not know why he does this.
At one point, Fahdonmul was approached by a rather insensitive Courier.
How many hands do you see here, buddy?
I like this one. Took me hours to remember where the tree was, though.
Don't ask me how he's able to balance
Landing on things can be harder than it looks.
Oh no, not again
Admittedly this was before I figured out the shift-to-perch system
Krosulhah laughs at how bad Fahdonmul is at being a dragon
A rather brave adventurer hailed down a dragon to cadge potions off him.
Giving him the potion wasn't a problem, but I couldn't fit in the cave to clear out the monsters.
I also ran into a fisherman. He didn't seem to mind the large dragon landing in front of him, though the sight of a fish did make him scream for help. I bit it for him and he calmed down after that. See? Some dragons are nice.
This was almost as good as the necromancer who said "Aaah! A dead body! How terrible!"
As mentioned, Skyrim has more than a few accessibility problems.
Dragon has coin, if Khajiit has bigger tent
It had to happen eventually. (Art by Ren Gaulen)
It was actually 3160 gold coins, but I'm hoping he'll remember that after I've been released
The Further Adventures of Fahdonmul
Screenshots only take you so far. If you want to see Fahdonmul in action, I did make a short video of his antics here, and more should follow:
Fahdonmul living his best life
...With apologies to Omega.
Alduin's Bad Day
Fahdonmul rescues Mr. Dragon and humiliates Alduin. With apologies to Mike Batt and Steeleye Span.
The Death of Alduin
Fahdonmul slays Alduin ahead of schedule.
"A rival dragon turned up and killed him" was not quite the epic struggle the poets of Sovngarde had been hoping for.
Saving Private Dragon
Fahdonmul breaks the physics engine and uses this to break himself and Mr. Dragon out of the Elder Scroll cutscene.
Flight of the Walrus
Fahdonmul goes hunting horkers, much to the chagrin of the Pretty White Frost Dragon Who Lives On The Island.
Fahdonmul's Destiny - A Dragon Adventure
Fahdonmul realises that with the Dragonborn executed in Helgen, it's down to him to slay Alduin. But how will the other dragons react to that?
Fahdonmul's Lament - A music video
Fahdonmul gives his own account of the Dragon Wars in a prog-industrial-synthpop lament for the dragon race, prior to Alduin's return.
That's all... for now
Thanks for reading!
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