Oh, nice, my semi-annual stuffing of the Craft Bag, dyeing of the costumes, and furnishing of the houses is back! Maybe I'll even make time to grab some more DLC dungeon gear for the stickerbook.

With the free trial, I started the Markarth DLC on my main Vestige, Varanis Arano.

Boy was that first conversation with Verandas Ravenwatch a disappointment. Well, maybe it satisfied players who liked him the first time, but I did not. I hated the little Gary Stu who's actually to blame for most of what goes wrong during the questline and never faces any justice for it.

"Its good to see you again, Verandis."

Haha, haha, no. How I figure it actually went down:

"Verandis."
"Varanis! Its great to see you again, since we've got another vampire mess on our hands and the ard caddach of the reach is about as prickly on his best day as Baron Dorell is on his worst. You'll be a great assistant!"
"Last time I helped you with a vampire mess in Rivenspire, it was one that you started, and you ended it by leading our allies into a trap I tried to warn you about and then topped it all off by handing a powerful artifact directly over to Molag Bal."

*awkward silence*

"How'd you get out of Coldharbor anyway?"
"Its a long and complicated tale. Gwendis helped."
"You realize that answer gives me no reason to trust you, right?"

*awkward silence part 2*

"Fine, I'll help the Ravenwatch again."
"Great! But...why?"
"Remember Crestshade, that village below your castle? While you were nurturing baby vampires, they suffered and died under the blood curse. I was the one to free their souls from unimaginable torments. Someone's got to look out for the mortals, Verandis. Since you've proven that you'll always look out for vampires first, it's going to have to be me."