Skyrim: When Good Guys Go Bad! Pt.1

   As Valerius (my character in Skyrim) stood there staring at the entrance to what could possibly be the final step of my current quest in Markarth, I pondered for a while just exactly what I should do. Should I head in directly, and possibly finish off this quest, or should I save it until later, just in case I get caught up in something unexpected. After all, this entire quest was just something that fell in my lap, a tiny thread that I couldn't quit pulling at from the time I walked through the front gates.

You see, I wasn't supposed to be in Markarth this long at all, I had other things I was currently interested in completing and was meticulously trying to finish off certain miscellaneous quests and have them under my belt and done with! But that's where I had been hooked. I don't consider myself a super completionist by any means. But there was just something about seeing my completed quests below that little line in the menu that makes me happy!

I had innocently walked in the front gates of this city to deliver something, and was greeted with a mystery that I couldn't ignore. I thought to myself  "How long can this possibly take? It's just a little mini quest… It'll be fun!" And off I went, deeper into the rabbit hole. Bouncing around Markarth from person to person, getting shanghaied to fight evil in houses that surprised me greatly, to offering myself all geared up, sword and magic flaring, to march into burial chambers and smite whatever evil might be present and being even more surprised.

So far though, nothing had quite turned out the way I'd expected! And I mean that in a very, very GOOD way! So there I was, up to this point I'd persuaded, bribed, intimidated and bare-knuckle brawled. I'd picked locks, followed leads, and slaughtered the heck out of real jerks who'd thought they had me tricked, surrounded and beat. I'd won the day. I'd survived everything they'd thrown at me, and laughed at their pathetic attempts to best me! But now I could tell I was near the end of this cool quest, or at least nearing it, and was at a crossroads. I didn't think about it for too long though, I HAD to see what happened next. But first, save, and save again!

(Possible Spoilers!! I'll be careful though!!) So I saved and headed through the doors! Let me just say that what I was afraid would happen to someone in the story line, actually had. No biggie, but how exactly do I handle this situation now, especially with the choices I'm now forced to make. I had two choices, neither one sounded very good at all, so I chose the path of 'freedom at all costs!', and hoped and wondered at what the game was going to offer me with the choice I'd made. I fought and won again, with a little help from a conjured Flame Atronach! (Thanks Flamey little buddy!! You helped a lot!) So with the battle won, I checked my 'crimes' in the menu, and found that I had indeed incurred a rather sizeable, and by that I mean, Freakin' HUGE never-gonna-pay-it-off-in-like-forever bounty!

Now what do I do? I stood there at the exit after having looted everything in the area and recalled something about bounties only holding up in the Holds where you incurred them. That sounded, well, "okay", but I still had to get the hell out of the city alive, and without having to fight every single jerk guard in the city. I had my previous save though, so I thought I'd might as well go with it. Let's see where this new evil badass persona would take me! If I was going to be wrongfully accused of being bad when I knew I was doing good, I'd show them just what my Barbarian with a beard like shredded wheat was capable of! No more Mr. Nice citizen. Out I went, and didn't get two steps before I was accosted by angry city guards. I tried to talk my way out of it, but they'd have none of it. I managed to find a way to close the dialogue and run a few steps before being caught in another dialogue tree again, but my trick of avoiding arrest and closing the dialogue got me far enough away to run up some steps to a tower and leap onto an outcropping that surrounded the lip of the tower. I circled around to where I hoped they couldn't catch me up, even though I could hear them shouting insults and clanking around like a bunch of blood thirsty wolves!

It was morning by this time, and I turned around on my precarious perch to look out into the amazing morning glow of the western Skyrim sky. I had to pause and admire the scenery, what an amazing  view!! I was well above the entrance & fortified wall of the city, and of course way to high to survive the direct fall, this wasn't like the mountainsides I'd often just sprinted and zig-zagged up & down! I speculated that if I could just make the leap over to a lip of one of the rooftops I could see, I would take damage but I would probably survive. I judged, and then I skeptically leapt! …To my death… with the guards taunting me all the way, even after I was very rag-dollishly dead.

I don't care, I'm hooked now, time to reload the auto-save I had from exiting the doorway and find my way back up onto the small ledge and figure this escape out! There had to be a way, and there was! But I'll get to it in Part 2 of my soon to begin unholy terror of the western reaches of Skyrim! Until next time! Once again thanks for your time, and thanks for reading!