Moving on, we reach another race to have been given a bit of a more dramatic overhaul in Skyrim. The Argonians - the Natives Race of Black Marsh.
Argonians are one of the two 'Beast Races' of the Elder Scrolls world, along with the cat-like Khajiits. As I mentioned in my Khajiit Thief piece a lot of long term Elder Scrolls players felt that both races really got short changed in Oblivion. The Argonians probably moreso, in fact. At least with the Khajiits there was a clearer ( Well slightly more obvious, anyway ) distinction between Male and Female faces... :)
The Argonians in Oblivion really were pretty limited, with a very small selection of Horns to differentiate one from another. Which didn't really work. Because there were so few. For example, really the only clear distinctions between, say, Teekeeus the Head of the Chorrol Mages Guild, one of the Pirates on The Marie Elena, Amusei of the Thieves Guild or even Mach-Na of Mach-Na's books in Cheydinhal were their clothing and/or noticing that one of them was actually female...
There are a lot more options in Skyrim, varying from a number of different scale colours as a base, using faders normally reserved for things like eye shadow or cheek blush adding highlight scale colours and markings, and to adding spikes and ridges to a face instead of hair or facial hair.
There's a lot you can do.
Here's what I achieved:
This is J'Ram-Dar. My rather complicated Argonian Thief. A little disappointing that there are no red Argonian eyes types on Skyrim (The ONLY option available in Oblivion I believe) but as you can see I've gone to the greatest effort to get MAXIMUM horn/spike coverage on his head. :)
Argonian's are MADE for sneaking so I would be rather daft not to make use of that. I say 'complicated thief' because what I intend to do with him is concentrate not only on Sneaking skills, but also Illusion Magic. This will allow me to make regular use of spells like Invisibility and Muffle to hide his presence, while sneaking up to back-stab the enemy or attack at range with a well-aimed bow or projectile spell.
This will, of course, take quite a lot of work...
J'Ram-Dar departed Helgen with the help of Ralof, and upon leaving the exit cave looked a little like this...
I was originally going to stick him in light armour, but when I reached the Torturer's Room I picked up these Novice Mage Robes. Usually they're not of a lot of use to me (But raise a fair bit of early gold in their selling) but I thought I'd give them a try. The Robes help regenerate Magicka quicker, which in turn could aid my speedy use of Illusion Spells to level up. And if I'm going sneak around, what better way to do so than in a robe with such a small weight. I won't make a sound... :)
I also made use of the Novice mage Hood, which provides an extra 30 Magicka points.
But... well...
It looks a little daft on an Argonian.
See. :)
Although, I had to wonder if I was already using some kind of Illusion magic, passively, with that Hood. It's the only way I could explain as to where all the frickin' Horns disappeared to...
Well, at least they don't clip through, I suppose.
Anyway... the predictable bit. Bleak Falls Barrow. And differing weather conditions...
Talk to Faendal? I can barely bloody SEE him in THIS!
As you can see, I opted to take Faendal with J'Ram-Dar - as the stealthier option of the two first followers. In Leather Armour. The majority of money from my Helgen loot was held in reserve for better Robes from The Riverwood Trader, but Leather is cheap and quiet. Pure Leather Armour is also the hardiest for this point in the game. So, wins all around.
As you can see J'Ram-Dar does had an Imperial Sword on hand. I also had a Huntsman Bow in reserve. Having purchased a Spell Tome of 'Clairvoyance' in town, I used that wherever I could in order to raise my Illusion score, before switching into stealth whenever I knew I was approaching the enemy. And now having done this area of the game SO many times I pretty much know every place to sneak for maximum effect. :)
I found myself alternating quite a bit between Swords and Archery throughout Bleak Falls, although I found it much easier to switch to using the 'Flames' spell when encountering Draugrs. I did have J'Ram-Dar wearing Leather gauntlets and boots to add SOME kind of armour value, but if the Draugrs got too close they could do me so serious damage. Flames seemed to take them down fairly quickly, with either a sword slash to finish them off, or wait for Faendal to shoot them down with his bow. And of course the Mage Robes helped regenerate the Magicka back a little quicker afterwards. It all fitted together pretty well. :)
Job done.
On the way back from the Barrow we had our first random on road encounter.
J'Ram-Dar and Faendal were stopped by a man who rather gave away his role in the world somewhat, by being named 'Fugitive'.
Fugitive didn't really stick around to chat for long. Instead he just shoved this shield into J'Ram-Dar's
hands, and insisted we held on to it, or so help him, he'd hunt us down! (Be afraid. Or something).
After which he made a pretty quick exit, insisting he'd come back for it.
I took a look over it. It was a Hide Shield of Waning Shock - defence against electrical damage. Not really of any use to J'Ram-Dar or Faendal though, as neither were using shields. But either way this was clearly a
little bit dodgy. Sure enough, further down the road, a Nord Hunter ran up behind us, asking if we'd seen a Fugitive who'd run off with his Shield.
Now what do you do in that situation? Frankly the Shield is worth more than any reward he'd be
likely to give us. Odds on the Hunter would catch up with the Fugitive, and kill him, anyway. But on the off-chance he lived we might be able to barter a higher price with him, or, you know, kill him and keep it?
I had J'Ram-Dar lie to the Hunter, and keep the shield. We'll see how that pans out in time, I guess. :)
This playthrough was a bit of strange one, really. The first thing I bought when I traded in my loot I back in Riverwood was a Novice Robe of Illusion. Much the same as what I had previously been wearing, but with a secondary enchantment making Illusion spells cost less... But up to this point I wasn't really in place to make the best of that Illusion bonus. Because aside from Clairvoyance I had no illusion Spells. I picked up an Oakflesh Spell Tome while I was there, to add a little protection to my armour-less robes, but when it came to Spells there wasn't much on sale. Maybe there'd be more down the road, in Whiterun?
J'Ram-Dar's best bet though, remained in a pretty unusual place for a Thief to be going. The Mage College up in Winterhold. He'd already had it mentioned to him by owner of the Riverwood Trader, and it would give access to training and spells for illusion magic. Oddly J'Ram-Dar could well be a the character I've created with the most potential factions to join. He wouldn't really fit in with The Companions but I think the
Thieves Guild is a given. I wouldn't write off The Dark Brotherhood either.
And yet despite all this potential, and oddly actually having made a bit more cash than my other characters by this point in the game, I think he may well be the least well-formed in terms of long-term plans.
That said, if I can get him where he needs to be he could be pretty awesome.
Next Time: I try to make a High Elf Pure Mage. No armour. No weapons. Just magic. Come back and see how it goes...
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