Skyrim Assassins? Badger Laughs at Assassins!

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Badger

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If there's a Gaia alive and well in the world of Skyrim, then she's certainly protecting me from assassins!

My Wood Elf is getting to the point now where he can shoot off a Gnats wedding tackle at a thousand yards, but melee? Nah.. not so hot. So Assassins with their in yer face knifeyness, "should" be something of a concern, and yet......

I don't yet know why they're after me. I found a note on the body on one of them and it simply said "Assassinate Badger at all costs!" Now I ask you.. is that polite?

A friend of mine who is also immersed in Skyrim, reckons that we have both activated them on the completion of some quest or other, but I'm not so sure. I pointed out to him that the "Elder Scrolls" games have always sent out assassins to kill you. (In fact I think it might be a hallmark of all "Bethesda" games, though I stand to be corrected.)

In any event, a strange force seems determined to deny these nasty black pajama types a taste of your Badgers blood!

I've encountered three of the blood thirsty scoundrels in my travels. Always while I'm minding my own business en-route to somewhere else and always coming on me all unexpected like. Popping up from behind a bush (Would Russell be a good name for an assassin?) knife between teeth and all glarey like.

The first one was the toughest fight. I wasn't expecting company at all and he got a good couple of stabs in before I even managed to swap from a Bow to Mr Pointy!

Things weren't going well. I was doing some damage for sure, but I think I'd only just managed to eek his health down by about a third by the time he was clearly one or two blows from finishing me off. :-/

Then suddenly right out of the blue, I unknowingly (and completely unfairly let's be honest) managed to pull off some kind of critical hit and was treated to a slow motion death scene, which saw me run the blighter through and lift him right off his feet! Huzzah!

The second assassin was the master of the inconvenient moment. Yeah I know you're into the whole assassination thing, but would you mind awfully if we did it another time? I really have my hands full here!

At that moment my hands were full with an ongoing Dragon attack! The huge beast had landed right behind me and was aiming to misbehave.

In a truly Scooby Doo moment, I had heard the whoosh and beat of wings behind me, followed by the crash of the thing landing and the mighty roar as it said its hellos, but hadn't quite summoned up the courage yet to turn around and confirm that ... yes... it's a Dragon! (Also my first Dragon by the way. Well...first on my own anyway.)

So imagine my surprise when at that moment a bush in front of me started with the rustling and out popped a man sized Cat, swishing two evil looking daggers about and muttering "You can't hide from me!!" (erm...hide? oh well, never mind that now.)

I mean, where do these guys go to assassin school? The perfect time to attack the target is A/ When he is alone, or B/ when you will also be required to defend yourself against a huge hungry monster, who doesn't much care whether he is picking his teeth with Elf or Cat bones after his feast. Clearly option B was the way to go!

As the Dragon blasted fire, I opted to dash to the side and the assassin caught the blast full in the face. This understandably seemed to upset him and forgetting all about me, he charged screaming at the Dragon, who for his part just seemed rather pleased to have his meal delivered for a change.

As the fight progressed, I stood on a nearby rock and peppered the Dragon with arrows. It seems that a Dragons main thing is offense. get yourself some decent cover to avoid the firey blasts and you see his defense is considerably less impressive. Sadly it seemed that this was a lesson not included on the curriculum at Assassin school and my Feline foe elected instead for the toe to toe approach. Which saw him end up as a crispy critter, mere seconds before the big fella succumbed to the ongoing volley of arrows I was treating him to.

One Dragon soul absorbed, huge Dragon loot pocketed and the possessions of one roasted assassin now mine! An excellent days work! :lol:

Assassin number three came at me out of the darkness as I took a shortcut through some woods. This time I was surely done for. There would be no Dragon swooping in to save me and the running backward in order to shoot the fiend with as many arrows as possible before he reached me, was seeing me collide with tree after tree and only speeding the approach of my seemingly inevitable demise.

You'd think I'd have the advantage here wouldn't you? I mean "Wood Elf" and here we were in a wood? Well.. the clues in the name isn't it? But then I suppose that the highly honed skills attained through years of self denial and discipline at the assassins guild, go at least some way toward countering any native advantage I might have had.

Which I suppose makes it all the stranger that neither of us noticed the rather nasty Sabre Toothed Tiger charging in from one side!

It leaped right onto the assassin and shaking my head in disbelief I hid (in a very manly way) behind a large tree as the very noisy battle ensued. The would be Badger killer did very poorly against the pointy fanged big cat it has to be said. In fact the other guy did much better against the Dragon, albeit with a little help from me and my Bow I suppose.

At any rate is was a hugely one sided fight and considering how little damage was done to the Sabre Tooth, I decided to stay hidden until it wandered off. At which point naturally I looted the assassins corpse. Hell... I earned it no?!

Truly Skyrim seems determined to keep me safe for something else which she has in mind for me. But I'll not question fate or go looking gift Horses in their mouths. What goes around comes around and I'm sure that there'll be a hefty bill to pay for this protection at some point. In the meantime though, assassins beware! You mess with Badger? You mess with Skyrim's Gaia!

Badger Out.
 
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What an enjoyable tale, I wish Badger best of luck and hope to hear more of his exploits with or without assassin involvement! :)

Daniel.
 
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Those assassins popping up every so often keep me thoroughly amused. Overall, they've contributed to my soul collection more than any other encouters, so far. Pretty sure my kiting skills have improved since they first started showing up, because they just get easier and easier to snuff.


-Carn
 
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Have you impersonated Dark Brotherhood assassin when talking to Aventus Aretino (Innocence Lost quest)? This might be the reason why those guys started popping up. Or, as you have said, Bethesda simply like to keep us on our toes :)
 
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I pointed out to him that the "Elder Scrolls" games have always sent out assassins to kill you. (In fact I think it might be a hallmark of all "Bethesda" games, though I stand to be corrected.)
I don't remember any assassins going after me in Oblivion.
 
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They certainly were after you in Morrowind. Oblivion wasn't memorable enough for me to recall.
 
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This is starting to get spooky! :lol:

I set out on a quest with Vilkas of the Companions and as we trekked across country I spotted a howling Wolf a ways ahead and as has become my habit, I put an arrow in him before he became a pest.

As he hit the ground I heard a ruckus behind me and I assumed that he'd had a furry friend who had circled around behind us ("clever girl" no? oh ok :lol:) and that my over muscled comrade was putting it to the sword.

I turned around and ....... yep you guessed it.... Vilkas was kicking the c**p out of my forth Assassin!!!

Seriously, is it just me? Or is Skyrim saving me from Assassins?

Badger
 
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I don't remember any assassins going after me in Oblivion.

Wasn't there Mythic Dawn assassins going after you after you advanced in the main quest? At least, there was some at the start, but they were more interested in the Emperor.
 
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Or is Skyrim saving me from Assassins?
I wish Morrowind had been so kind. If you start a new game with the expansion Tribunal installed, you have to face those Dark Brotherhood assassins waaay too early at very low levels (it was irritating as hell!). Help? No such luck. I remember once, I even had an assassin attack me inside the Mages Guild in Balmora with five (or so) mages - my very own guild-mates and the very souls I'd been helping in so many ways, who I considered to be my friends by now - standing right there in the same room, watching, not one of them lifting a finger to help me while I was very nearly beaten to death. "You want to kill one of our guildmembers? Oh, welcome, step right in. He's downstairs, help yourself! Please, try not to make a mess, the cleaner lady doesn't come until day after tomorrow and blood stains are so untidy. And welcome to Morrowind!"

I consider this to be a bug, in fact. The attacks shouldn't happen on new/low level characters, it makes no in-game sense. Plus it totally breaks the balance as the DB armor sells for several thousand, IIRC, and the assassins get progressively harder (again, IIRC), so by c. the third attack you're facing an assassin you (almost) cannot defeat. You can avoid the attacks by not sleeping, but in order to level up, you need to sleep, so…

Vilkas was kicking the c**p out of my forth Assassin!!!
Random fact: Vilkas means lively in Finnish. True dat.
 
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I wish Morrowind had been so kind. If you start a new game with the expansion Tribunal installed, you have to face those Dark Brotherhood assassins waaay too early at very low levels (it was irritating as hell!).
*snip*
I consider this to be a bug, in fact. The attacks shouldn't happen on new/low level characters, it makes no in-game sense. Plus it totally breaks the balance as the DB armor sells for several thousand, IIRC, and the assassins get progressively harder (again, IIRC), so by c. the third attack you're facing an assassin you (almost) cannot defeat. You can avoid the attacks by not sleeping, but in order to level up, you need to sleep, so….

Next time you play Morrowind, give this mod a try. :)
 
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Next time you play Morrowind, give this mod a try. :)
Yeah, that would have been heaven sent back then. Even if I was pretty wary of mods back in the day, I did mod it eventually with a similar mod to the one you linked.
 
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