My steel is warm, my face is stained with blood.
I'll try not to spoil too much!
So, at the end tally i'm totally in love with Gormlaith Golden-Hilt Hermir Strong-Heart this game. It's so great in so many ways, but there are just so many little things that stop it from being super amazing. The length of the main quest is an annoyance, since even having spent 100+ hours with the game i can't help but feel that when it came to brass tacks shit just kinda flew by on dragonwing. On the other hand, most of the MQ was really tremendous, especially the final missions. Fuck, i had chills visiting "that place" and even though a buddy of mine had kind of spoiled it for me it was everything i hoped for and more. Somewhat relatedly, it really makes me want to open a restaurant in a similar vein; brew my own mead and ale, grow some crops to use in our recipes.
I pumped Smithing and Enchanting up to 100. Absurdly, i chose not to fully utilize those abilities and craft Dragon or Daedric equipment because... i don't like the way it looks! That counts for a lot, to me. So yes, even though i'm probably missing out on the 1200 or so extra armor rating i'd get from a fully upgraded/enchanted Daedric suit, i'm sticking with a nicely decked out Ancient Nord set, heavy Dragon shield and a well-crafted Skyforge steel sword. Surprisingly, the sword is kind of incredible, which surprised me. Since i did a woeful job of roleplaying this playthrough, i figured that once his troubles were over and the struggles were through, Alfyn set aside those magic items of legend and took up instead the old baresark of his reaving days; the simple steel and fur, the well-honed blade ("This you can trust!") and disappeared into the wilds of Skyrim without so much as a farewell. Until the next time...
In all honesty, i'm not really happy with the way i comported myself this playthrough. My desires and my need to questquestquest and complete my missions outstanding pretty much prevented me from any proper roleplaying (yes, i know, roleplaying in a singleplayer game of this sort of scope) and after 100 hours it's daunting to consider another run. I'm not disappointed with the game - far from it! But after finishing it and finding out that, yes, you could have approached that quest differently, or that yes, those confrontations could've been settled in some alternate way sort of make me a little unhappy that i'd been so impatient and untrue to the idea i'd crafted for my character. Oh, well!
So, while i still fuck around a lot with Alfyn and will primarily use him for any upcoming DLC i decided i might throw together a new dude to toss about with: Celegth, a Bosmer! I hate that name, but fuck it. A member of a fringe extremist group, the Blue Hand - a group of wood elves who refused to join the Aldmeri Dominion and the Empire both, rejecting anything but the Valenwood - Celegth led a scouting mission into Skyrim to gather intelligence regarding the civil war and stength of the Thalmor presence before being unceremoniously captured. On the other hand, since he hates the Dominion and the Empire i'll end up joining Stormcloaks again, i might try for an Altmer instead. So many difficult choices...
So, basically i've been sleeping on floors and pooping in toilets. I've actually felt so great sleeping on the floor for the past week or two that spending the night on a couch has totally fucked me up. I don't want to sleep on things anymore! Wrap me in furs and give me a good solid plank.
I have a little bit of money and it's really hard not to spend it. I'd like to snag the second season of Bored to Death, but i need to be a real hero (and a real human being). So, cash is reserved for emergencies.
Maybe i'll move to Alaska and become a private investigator!