Valeria Arquebus - Mission Statement

Mission Statement:

For Valeria Arquebus the same rules of permadeath will apply as stated in Lormak’s mission statement. Please see “What are the rules of Permadeath in Skyrim?” on the link below.

http://lormakthebear.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/lormak-mission-statement.html

Details on “What is Permadeath” and “Spoilers” are also on the link. Yes, this blog will contain spoilers. This is not a guide but a log of events in my permadeath playthough.


Who is Valeria Arquebus?

Valeria the daughter of an Imperial merchant that has travelled to Skyrim to sell wares. It was a risky enterprise, with the war unfolding, but it was a calculated risk her father was willing to take. “With high risk, comes high rewards” he used to say to her.

They sold all their assets back home and pooled their wealth. The idea was that they would bring supplies, weapons, armour and luxury’s to one of the Imperial camps deep in Skyrim.  No doubt, these items would be in high demand they could command a high price. Better still, they hoped they could trade warm blankets and jackets for captured treasures. “What good are baubles and gems when you are freezing to death”, her father told her.

Valeria helped plan out the trip meticulously. At first she thought this trip was too dangerous and argued with her father. Overtime, he won her over to the idea. It did indeed have it’s merits, by modest calculations they could get 3 or 4 years worth of profit out of this one trip alone. At best case, they would have several years worth of profit which would set them all up for life. Valeria was under no illusions though. She made sure a large caravan guard was hired. This cut into the profits but it was foolish not to have, they’d be a prime target for any Stormcloaks or bandits.

The journey was going smoothly, they were very close to their final destination, an Imperial camp outside of Helgen. They’d offloaded a large amount of cargo through the Imperial controlled towns and fortress’s they’d passed on the way, each step deeper into Skyrim meant that their profit margins shot upwards, higher and higher. This last camp was full of front line troops and they would pay handsomely for the remaining items available for trade.

As the day drew to an end, they could see the camp fires in the distance to their final destination. Her father leaned over to her and gave Valeria a big hug and said “Well done Valeria, we’ve made it”. He had a proud look in his eyes and looked incredibly happy. All of a sudden, his body jolted, his eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped forwards. Valeria caught him and felt warm blood run down her hands as they locked around his back. An arrow was sticking out of this back, it had gone in deeply and pierced his heart!

In horror she saw Stormcloak warriors leap from the bushes alongside the road and start to cut through the guards. These looked to be hardened crazed fighters. One was foaming at the mouth as he hacked off the head of one of the guards and let loose a blood curdling cry as the blood sprayed up over him.

Valeria didn’t have time to mourn, she knew it was all over. The caravan was being overwhelmed all she could think about was to save herself. She leapt into the bushes on the side of the road and started to yell. Somehow, nobody seemed to notice and she ran and ran. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity she slowed down and stopped and started to cry as the horrors of what just happened started to sink in. Her father was dead, she was lost in a foreign land, it was freezing cold and she had lost everything. The situation was utterly hopeless and she sunk to her knees with her over her eyes sobbing.

She didn’t hear anybody approach, but she did feel the cold steel blade on her throat and she certainly felt being lifted up by her hair. A couple of Stormcloaks had followed her after all! They turned her around and she could see in their eyes what they were thinking. One of them threw down his cloak on the snow, and then they threw her down onto it and told her to take off her pants. She froze, and they stepped closer ready to strike her when a noise of armour clanking could be heard approaching. In the darkness the Stormcloaks must have thought these were more of their friends but they were wrong. These were Imperial Legionnaires.

There were many of them too. They told the Stormcloaks to surrender, which they did. Unfortunately the Legionnaires also captured Valeria. They’d assumed that she was with the other two and was settling in for the night. She was after all found lying on a Stormcloak. Her pleas fell on deaf ears and the other prisoners seeing what was happening played along with her being with them. She started to argue and struggle and that’s when an officer struck her with the pommel of his sword and knocked her out.

Next thing she knew, she woke up on a cart heading into Helgen. Thankfully, it looked like those other prisoners hadn’t had their way with her, they were nowhere to be seen and she was with a new group of prisoners. One apparently was Ulfric Stormcloak himself. She kept silent, she hated him bitterly, and hated his army and everything he stood for. It’s due to him that all her dreams were ruined and her father was dead. As she stared at him, she knew that one day she would get revenge on this man personally.

As she was unloaded into Helgen, she had to give her name and found out unbelievably that she was to be executed. Nobody would listen to her, and as she put her head onto the chopping block it looked like this would be it....but then the dragon attacked.........this is where Valeria’s permadeath adventure begins.


Valeria’s Skyrim Strategy:

The stealth archer way technique is definitely the right combat style for permadeath. No doubt about it. This will continue to be used with Valeria.

Patch 1.5 of Skyrim introduced changes to the way Smithing worked. In my opinion, this is an improvement. Smithing is vitally important but the level rate will be slowed down. Being able to make good items and armour is critical. However, as it was much easier to level this with Lormak I feel that I became too craft heavy in my character without enough fighting. More combat experience will be needed to improve Heavy armour, weapon skills and Block.

Valeria will favour one handed combat and specialise in bladed weapons this time. Lormak’s love of the mace was good but it is a slower weapon. I’ll experiment between dagger and sword. Dagger should be much quicker but do less damage. The thing is, with each hit you can coat the blade with poison, so you can hit more poisoned attacks with a dagger v’s a sword or mace.

I’ll use the Warrior stone rather than the Thief stone at the beginning. This should make combat skills level faster. Picking locks, stealth will level slower.

Alchemy wasn’t particularly strong with Lormak. I see this as the weakness it is. Being able to make strong and deadly potions will give me a big edge. Poisons in particular were underutilised. The ones I did make were weak. I need to improve these and make strong ones and they will do big damage. Paralysis and invisibility potions are a must as well.

Valeria’s goal will be to always get 5 ranks of trained every level. This is going to require a lot of money. Valeria will be money focused, picking up everything she can and selling it. She can raise huge amounts of funds by doing this. Additionally, there are a lot of the miscellaneous quests that Lormak neglected that do pay out good coin. These are easy wins. She will focus on doing these easier quests to get income up to hit her 5 ranks trained per level requirement. She also has the “Voice of the Emperor” racial skill which I understand also gives a +30 in Speech which is handy for doing trades.

Housing – Lormak was hopeless, he owned only one house in Whiterun. Valeria seeks to rebuild her wealth as well as seek revenge on the Stormcloaks. Owning property and business’s will help her fund her revenge.

Main quest line for Dragon born. This is not a priority for Valeria. She will be unaware she is Dragon born until much later in the game than Lormak. While dragon’s aren’t really a big issue for permadeath on master difficulty level, Valeria’s objectives are to re-establish herself in Skyrim and build herself up for the revenge on the Stormcloaks. Only after this objective is complete will she take stock of the other opportunities she will have in this new land.

Weak in magic, very strong for health, moderate for Stamina. First 10 levels will put ranks in health only. More hit points, mean more protection from one shot kills.

Keep well clear of one shot foes. Anybody with two handed weapons, especially orcs with two hander weapons in heavy armour. A cut scene can trigger on these attacks even with health being near full. This foes are incredibly dangerous. With patch 1.5 there may also be the risk of cut scene triggering on ranged attacks. Best insurance is to always have high health, good items, and enchantments that protect you. Early levels in the game carry the greatest risk but clearly, it’s a risk at any level.

Slow and steady. No need to rush through levels. Take your time, enjoy the game. Level carefully.