Lormak "The Bear" goes beyond level 5.

Lormak “The Bear” is free from the Imperials and now has a purpose in life. He will join the cause of the Storm Cloaks.

First things first though, he is only a young man and has only limited skills. Clearly, if he was to wage bloody war and vengeance on the Imperials he needs to be much better prepared than this else he’d just be one of the many young men that perish during their first real battle.

While on his way to Riverwood he was ambushed by some wolves. A bandit also joined the fight against the wolves and Lormak made short work of him too by ranging him down with a well placed shot from his long bow. Embershard mine was very close, so it’s likely the bandit was from there guarding the doorway. Hmmmm what to do.....go to Riverwood where it’s safe, or got into Embershard mine and bust some heads and get some good loot. The choice was simple, Embershard mine it is.

Lormak is wearing the vile Imperial armour out of necessity. Wearing lesser armour is just out of the question. This is permadeath, he simply must survive, and is going into a dangerous mine at level 2. Difficulty is master and it’s entirely possible to get one massive hit which will take out 100% of his health in one go. Lormak needs to be very careful.

The mine proved to be a non-event really. Lormak easily defeated all foes within the mine through a combination of bow shots from stealth and hand to hand combat where the heavy armour really paid for itself by soaking up a lot of the damage. With all the bad guys out of the mine, the entire mine site is free to plunder, which will have to wait as Lormak is carrying too much stuff, so it’s onto Riverwood now.

In Riverwood, Lormak discovered that there is a very nice looking minor ring of the archer which will grant a 15% bow damage bonus. Price at the Riverwood Trade was just over 1500 gold which is a kings ransom at this point in the game. This is a must have item though, bow attacks are going to be the main form of attack, they do massive damage and can be done out of stealth. Lormak then spends the remainder of the session improving armour then selling it off, robbing peoples homes of their gold, and making potions to then sell off for cash. The big score was stealing a potion of haggling which meant that he finally could get enough to buy the ring, and have tiny amount of gold left over. All the smithing, alchemy and trading meant that he gained a significant amount of points, enough to level to level 5.

On each level so far Lormak has invested in health. The great fear is being one shotted by something. More health means more buffer to that happening.

Next session will be more of a grind to find more crafting materials, more gold, and better armour items. There is the small problem of the inn keeper in Riverwood catching me steal something from him. It was accidental as well, Lormak went to talk to him, but he is hidden behind so much clutter on the desk that Lormak accidently stole an item right in front of him. I now have the Inn Keeper and his wife chopping into me whenever I get near. I have a 7 gold bounty, the next session should see me quickly getting rid of that.