Giant makes me less than 100%…

This guy:

...this guy, or at least one of his brethen, has cost me my 50 out of 50 gamer achievements in Skyrim. After 180+ hours of hard graft in Northern Tamriel, well actually I  just wander about a lot and get distracted by a lot of shiny things, I finally decided to get my arse in gear and finish off the 15 Deadric Artifact quests thus earning me one of the rarest achievements in the game ( less then 8% of skyrim players on Raptr have got this ).

It was all going swimmingly, I was tripping about the land from Markarth to Winterhold questing, killing and collecting until...I came to the Orc stronghold Largashbur. Now my task here was simple. These poor Orcs, bless their wee souls, were being bullied by some big nasty giants and it was my task to go and help them out - as any good Nordic Dovahkiin would.

As I approach the walled fort the giant was attacking the fortifications with much vigour and quite oblivious to my approach, or his pending doom. I leapt off my trusty fiery-eyed steed Shadowmere, drew both my swords and ran in for the attack.

"FUS RO DAH!" Unrelenting Force - a solid starting Dragon Shout, designed to knock the giant back and senseless for a time while I laid about his person with deadly buffed up sword play.

That was what was suppose to happen.

What actually happened was that Unrelenting Force knocked the Giant up into the air...over the wall designed to keep him out, and in the amongst a very suprised and now completely unprotected troop of Orcs. Oh. That's not good.

Sounds of desperate battle ensued from behind the great wooden wall as I ran to the fort gate. Locked. Dumbfounded I stood there listening to the orchestra of destruction that was wiping away my chances of making any friends amongst this clan. After a time, four or five minutes, the Orcs overcame the giant and by this time I had steered Shadowmere up the hill behind the stronghold to boldly jump into the middle of the camp.

That they were less than pleased to see me, would be an understatement. They attacked. I was trapped inside a locked fort with a dozen angry Orcs. Leaping from my mount I hit the ground fighting like a fleet-footed Nightingale, a whispering death among a horde of the Greenskins.

As the dust settled, the dead lay about my feet. The Orc I really needed to talk to to start my quest for the final Daedric Artifact. The Orc I needed to be pals with to get that elusive achievement wasn't, let's say, in the best of shape. Hmmm. Finding some steps up to the wall I leapt over onto the ground outside, and not looking back, walked back to Riften pondering my fate.

A wise man once said ""With all three words together, this Shout is much more powerful. Use it wisely." He got that right...

[A lot of people have asked me "why didn't you just load a previous game?" and believe me I thought about it, but really, sometimes, that's the way the cookie crumbles. It's just they way it played. This is my Skyrim adventure.]