My Name is Jarl: Cross-Country (19 work-safe images, yowza!)
Well, journal, those slaves were frustrating. They wouldn't work for me, wouldn't follow me, and I wouldn't even know where to sell them. So I took the only valuable things they had on them...
...their magic slave bracers. I'm really not sure how to feel about this. Oh, well. Warriors don't stand and wonder how they feel, they go fight battles and then have whatever feelings didn't get hacked off in the fight.
OH! Good news, magic journal, I found us a map! Now we'll always know where we are! We're down near the bottom, now, by Seyda Neen.
So, it looks like we can take the coast road to that river, and then follow it up to Balmora and get this job over with. Bye-bye, Stinka Neen, you won't be missed. Hee, Stinka Neen. Aren't I clever, magic journal? I'd write that down, but you already did.
Okay, walking the road. This is really more swamp than coast--I should go back and complain to the tourism board, but that would mean going back to Seyda Neen, and we've just covered that. Hey, what's that?
Up in the sky?
Is it a bird?
Some weird kind of rain?
It's a dead elf!
HOLY IMPACT TRAUMA, magic journal, they've got elves falling out of the sky here! And I thought there were too many on the ground!
Elves with nice clothes, stupid hats, and valuable scrolls. I could sell these, or keep them for when I need a little magic of my own... what do you think, journal?
I look pretty good in a dead man's clothes, don't you think? I'm really making friends with a lot of dead people. Huh. I should try to meet more.
Traveling on. That's not ominous at all. Don't worry, journal, we've got each other. And--ooh, what's this?
[[SCENE MISSSING]]
((NOT PICTURED: A brief and unsuccessful sojurn into a smuggler's cave, where Jarl managed to kill Morgan Freeman and a random dunmer before dying four times to a little wood elf girl with a big axe; I need to work on light sources, I couldn't clean any of the shots from the cave up enough to use.))
Say, there's the river! Okay, let's head north and hope it's the right one. But how many rivers could there be, right?
Passed another door, and a couple guys camping out. Nothing worth mentioning, they said they were "egg miners." I'm pretty sure that means I don't want to be camping with them, at least not until I remember which way my axe swings. It's not like there are eggs in the ground, right?
Anyway, we're here!
Aw, darn it, bugzilla beat me here! Oh, well, time to find this guy so I can get my job over with.
Asking around a little gets me his address, on the poor side of the river. Great. I just left a dump. And inside?
Woof. Dump is right. This is how you answer the door? Really? For chopping's sake, put a shirt on, man!
Okay, the long and the short of it is, this package I carried here? It's orders for him to make me join something called the Blades. He wants to know if I'll take orders from him. I tell him I'll think about it--doesn't look like he likes that. I don't know if I like getting roped into something like this, although I am looking for a job.
I decide to take a walk, get a feel for the town, check out my options.
Hmm, looks like a good place to get a drink. I'll keep it in mind.
Ha! Not likely to be much work for me there! Although you never know, spindly little mages might need someone who can cleave a few heads.
Ah, the Imperial Fighter's Guild. Wherever you've got the Empire, you've got them. Bringing the axe-swingers and the, um, job-payers(?) together. I'll, uh, have to work on that line. And keep them in mind.
Hmm, temples usually have jobs. I wonder if they'd care I don't know anything about the local gods?
I have no idea what this is, but it looks like it belongs to somebody rich, and rich people always have someone they need hurt. Always. It's like a rule.
Oh, hey! This orc has pigtails of power almost as magnificent as mine!
Looking at the map, I think there's also a fort for the Imperial legion around here somewhere, so I could also sign up with them, if I want.
So that's the big question, magic journal: what do I want?
((This is the point where the game really opens up. We've reached the end of the rails for the first main story quest, which is "go meet the guy who'll be giving you main story quests for a while." From this point forward, the game is totally open-ended, and we can go in any direction we want. We can join multiple organizations, but some of them are in conflict, and we'll need to choose sides down the road.
To reprise the options:
A: Start taking orders from Caius
B: Join the Mages' Guild
C: Join the Fighers' Guild
D: Join the Dunmer Temple
E: Join the Imperial Legion
F: Join the Thieves' Guild
G: Go to [this place on the map].
H: Screw everything! Go find some random caves and kill stuff for loot!
Remember, we can do any or all of these, you guys make the call.))
...their magic slave bracers. I'm really not sure how to feel about this. Oh, well. Warriors don't stand and wonder how they feel, they go fight battles and then have whatever feelings didn't get hacked off in the fight.
OH! Good news, magic journal, I found us a map! Now we'll always know where we are! We're down near the bottom, now, by Seyda Neen.
So, it looks like we can take the coast road to that river, and then follow it up to Balmora and get this job over with. Bye-bye, Stinka Neen, you won't be missed. Hee, Stinka Neen. Aren't I clever, magic journal? I'd write that down, but you already did.
Okay, walking the road. This is really more swamp than coast--I should go back and complain to the tourism board, but that would mean going back to Seyda Neen, and we've just covered that. Hey, what's that?
Up in the sky?
Is it a bird?
Some weird kind of rain?
It's a dead elf!
HOLY IMPACT TRAUMA, magic journal, they've got elves falling out of the sky here! And I thought there were too many on the ground!
Elves with nice clothes, stupid hats, and valuable scrolls. I could sell these, or keep them for when I need a little magic of my own... what do you think, journal?
I look pretty good in a dead man's clothes, don't you think? I'm really making friends with a lot of dead people. Huh. I should try to meet more.
Traveling on. That's not ominous at all. Don't worry, journal, we've got each other. And--ooh, what's this?
[[SCENE MISSSING]]
((NOT PICTURED: A brief and unsuccessful sojurn into a smuggler's cave, where Jarl managed to kill Morgan Freeman and a random dunmer before dying four times to a little wood elf girl with a big axe; I need to work on light sources, I couldn't clean any of the shots from the cave up enough to use.))
Say, there's the river! Okay, let's head north and hope it's the right one. But how many rivers could there be, right?
Passed another door, and a couple guys camping out. Nothing worth mentioning, they said they were "egg miners." I'm pretty sure that means I don't want to be camping with them, at least not until I remember which way my axe swings. It's not like there are eggs in the ground, right?
Anyway, we're here!
Aw, darn it, bugzilla beat me here! Oh, well, time to find this guy so I can get my job over with.
Asking around a little gets me his address, on the poor side of the river. Great. I just left a dump. And inside?
Woof. Dump is right. This is how you answer the door? Really? For chopping's sake, put a shirt on, man!
Okay, the long and the short of it is, this package I carried here? It's orders for him to make me join something called the Blades. He wants to know if I'll take orders from him. I tell him I'll think about it--doesn't look like he likes that. I don't know if I like getting roped into something like this, although I am looking for a job.
I decide to take a walk, get a feel for the town, check out my options.
Hmm, looks like a good place to get a drink. I'll keep it in mind.
Ha! Not likely to be much work for me there! Although you never know, spindly little mages might need someone who can cleave a few heads.
Ah, the Imperial Fighter's Guild. Wherever you've got the Empire, you've got them. Bringing the axe-swingers and the, um, job-payers(?) together. I'll, uh, have to work on that line. And keep them in mind.
Hmm, temples usually have jobs. I wonder if they'd care I don't know anything about the local gods?
I have no idea what this is, but it looks like it belongs to somebody rich, and rich people always have someone they need hurt. Always. It's like a rule.
Oh, hey! This orc has pigtails of power almost as magnificent as mine!
Looking at the map, I think there's also a fort for the Imperial legion around here somewhere, so I could also sign up with them, if I want.
So that's the big question, magic journal: what do I want?
((This is the point where the game really opens up. We've reached the end of the rails for the first main story quest, which is "go meet the guy who'll be giving you main story quests for a while." From this point forward, the game is totally open-ended, and we can go in any direction we want. We can join multiple organizations, but some of them are in conflict, and we'll need to choose sides down the road.
To reprise the options:
A: Start taking orders from Caius
B: Join the Mages' Guild
C: Join the Fighers' Guild
D: Join the Dunmer Temple
E: Join the Imperial Legion
F: Join the Thieves' Guild
G: Go to [this place on the map].
H: Screw everything! Go find some random caves and kill stuff for loot!
Remember, we can do any or all of these, you guys make the call.))