To add insult to injury, the guy used the same breaking neck finishing move on Zuuri that I had admired in the Helgen escape fight. It was brutal.

Poor Zuuri. This is why I do not play dead is dead.

Goodbye Zuuri. @-}---- Is Zuuri off to Sovengard, or some other location?

-----------------------------------------------------------------

My newest charcter, the dark elf spellsword, is turning out to be somewhat of a prick. Lol. I've never had a character who's a prick before. Oh, I've had evil characters, but not really rude ones. Khahk~Hayre is turning out to be a bit evil, maybe about half-evil and half kinda-good, but he's also just rude. I wouldn't be surprised if he's a distant nephew of Alval Uvani.

For instance, he has a habit of kicking over buckets and bowls and things, making NPCs go BE CAREFUL! He also will sleep in rooms he's not supposed to, and store his things in other people's chests. He steals from shopkeepers when they're not looking (or asleep). Overall, I wind up roleplaying his words, and sometimes his actions in a kind of mean, spiteful tone. He's got a chip on his shoulder.

He just took down the bandits of Mistwatch not long ago. He managed to do this by running in and out of the place, killing one bandit at a time if he had to. .... Mistwatch is the fort that has the guy looking for his wife (Fjola), but she has become a bandit leader. Once we meet her, we have a choice of killing her , letting her live, and/or taking the news of her new lifestyle to her husband.

When Crystal Beth met Fjola, she did everything she could to avoid confrontation. She knew Fjola would be tough, yet she also was not completely evil (Beth could sense this) so Beth let her live. Kahk~Hayre, on the other hand, initially walked away from Fjola, but then read a Summon Storm Atronach scroll before attacking the lady! Then, he swallowed an invisibility potion, so Fjola couldn't find him, letting the Storm Atronach do all the work!

Prick. He told Fjola's husband of his wife's demise, adding "oh....I took all her loot, too". Fjola's husband got really mad and attacked the dark elf. This time, Khahk~hayre cast a Fear spell on the husband, and left him cowering in a corner, saying "Go up and see your dead wife then! See what she had become!"

What a Total Prick. At least he let the man live, though.

He's now on his way towards Riften, using his Clairvoyance to figure out where he can get his mysterious Unusual Gem looked at.

This post has been edited by Lady Saga: Jun 25 2012, 02:53 AM

That's a beautiful shot.

New character: Achille the Breton. Conjurer, Illusionist, Alchemist. This is not Darnand’s brother, I just like the name.

It is known that during the Markarth Incident of 4E 176, Ulfric’s militia sacked the city. That day anyone strong enough to lift a sword lost their head not even for resisting them, but for failing to rise up and join their cause. The streets ran with innocent blood.

Some of the littlest survivors were taken in by the victors, but most were rounded up and sent away. Many cried out their fear and sorrow. Some were silent. One quiet boy’s bright red curls marked him as Achille, the baker’s youngest. Or at least he had been. Now Achille was son of no one.

How do some children emerge from trauma whole, while others shatter? Even then his empty eyes made his fellow orphans keep their distance. Achille would always find adequate space around him.

As he grew, he realized that he was different. Pain and pleasure he could understand, but joy and sadness were as unfathomable as dark water. Disconnection made him untouchable. The ghost of his family’s hound was the only friend he wanted.

When he came of age, they let him loose in the world. Here’s what’s happened with Achille so far.

First, we released the dragons. Achille is not the Dragonborn, but I want him to live in a dangerous world. I learned that it is possible for a bard and a summoned familiar to clear Bleak Falls Barrow while the conjurer hides. Just very nerve-wracking. It’s pretty neat when the summoned wolf comes romping back to tell you that the battle’s over. Also I completely forgot about Sneak. He’s going to need to put some perks there, especially Light Foot. He almost backed over that swing gate pressure plate. Turned around just in time. Achille got through the first dragon fight by hiding out in the tower and sending his wolf into the fray. Job done. Now his story can begin.

Achille has taken over a recently abandoned cabin just outside Riverwood. He appreciates the solitude, and the view of the lake is to kill for. He is doing some Alchemy for an income, and to give various sweaty Nords a reason to bring him along on their raids. He did a few jobs with Lydia. He keeps her supplied with healing potions and provides backup with his ghost hound Kenjo. Also he’s getting pretty good at stirring up trouble with a Fury spell. Then he hides until it’s over. Lydia is usually good for some sarcasm afterward, but that doesn’t bother Achille. He’s used to people crapping on him.

One recent event stands out as particularly entertaining. A dragon attacked as Achille, Lydia, and Kenjo were walking up the road between the Honningbrew Meadery and Riverwood. A Thalmor patrol was passing at the same time. It took forever to kill that thing! Achille carries no weapons and can only attack through a summoning, so he had to hide in the rocks and then time it so that Kenjo could get some biting done while the dragon was on the ground. Then he had to peek and see when to re-summon the hound, because it was too noisy to hear his death crackle. The dragon flushed him out a few times, and one breath is almost enough to kill him. After the Thalmor were dead and Lydia was nowhere to be seen, he baited the downed dragon all the way to the road junction so that the guards would finally get off their tails and do something. Hide-and-seek was played under rocks, around trees, and behind the Meadery building. At one point, two mud crabs marched up the road and joined the fight.

I’ve tried to have summoner/illusionists before, but they ended up developing a weapon skill because they simply could not stand by while their companion did the fighting. Achille does not have this problem. Even when he thought that Lydia might have died, it was just an observation to weigh in his escape plan. He didn’t feel good or bad about it. If the fight had been anywhere else, he would have just run away. The damn thing was between him and his cabin. Something had to be done about it.

*

Elana dragged Achille up the stairs and pushed him into the only room in their house that had a real bed. She pulled out the trundle while he stood frozen. Smoke was in his nose. A stone house can’t burn, Papa had said. Then the noise reached their street, and now Papa was gone.

“Come on!” hissed Elana, grabbing his chubby hands in hers. “Under, hide!”

There was a splintering crash from below. Mama’s pleading ended in a shriek. He heard Davide screaming.

Achille turned and wiggled into the space beside the wall.

“Stay down! Don’t make a sound, Achille!”

Boots on the stairs. Elana’s bare feet backed into the corner.

Achille closed his eyes.

Achille woke in a sweat, disoriented and uncomfortable. The smell of smoke was just the inn’s fire. He looked around the stone chamber while his heartbeat returned to normal. Perhaps it had been a mistake to return to Markarth.

Out in the common room Achille ate apple pie for breakfast beside the fireplace. A gigantic Nord took the seat across from him.

“I’m what you’d call a soldier of fortune,” said the man. He tore off a chunk of bread with teeth the size of a horse’s. “Make me an offer, and I just might fight at your side.”

Or two nights away from city walls, you just might decide to use me like a woman, thought Achille. He shook his head no.

“Watch your back, friend,” said the man. “Or better yet, pay me to watch it for you.”

Achille went about his city errands in an expedient manner. He returned to the stables in the golden light of afternoon. His horse Queen Allie was waiting there for him. Just yesterday she had carried him past a bandit ambush, two groups of Forsworn, more wolves than he bothered to count, a dragon attack, and one very angry Argonian. Achille had stopped to let Kenjo kill the Argonian. He looked like he might have some skooma.

Achille glanced over at Vigilance the War Dog as he rubbed Allie’s neck. “What do you think, girl?”

Queen Allie snorted.

“You’re right. Let’s ask Kenjo.”

Five hundred Septims later, and the three plus one ghost were on the road headed hopefully toward Morthal. Achille had heard about the Lord Stone. He thought he might go ask for a blessing.

Wow, good job with the backstory, there. For Achille The Breton

Turdas, 6:04 pm, 16th of Frostall

Khahk~hayre the dark elf spellsword from 'Morrowind' has just made his way from Riften to Windhelm. Just as he was about to enter the city, an orc approached and offered Khahkhayre a job. Has to do with vampires at a place called "Dawn's Guard" or something, somewhere outside of Riften. Although Khahkhayre was not planning on going back that way, the offer sounds intriguing.

"Kill vampires? Oy, why not? As long as it pays me, I'm in."

He's becoming more and more adept at his profession, learning spells, and using a variety of weapons for his right hand, not just swords. Right now he's got an axe that does 18 points of shock damage. It's the strongest weapon he's ever owned. He found a Staff of Firebolts (25 pts.) as well.

So the axe is obviously better for up-close & personal fighting (esp. indoors), while the staff comes in handy for long-range.

Lately he's also been wearing a Riften Guard's outfit, thinking it would be a clever way to outsmart the peoples of Riften into thinking he's law enforcement. So far, it hasn't worked that way (probably due to the fact that guards are always Nords, ha ha). He found this guard gear somewhere, and enchanted it with a Grand soul gem. It was his second major enchantment, so it's not that strong. Its stats look like this

Magika recharges 10% faster

Restoration spells 7% less to cast

He had to destroy a set of Novice robes to learn these enchantments, too. Giving up a 50% regen rate was difficult, but he's commited to learning the ways of Enchantments. Although the magic regeneration is slow, he would rather wear armor a set of "natty robes".

The mighty Khahkhayre enters Windhelm, eager to trade and plan. He's not sure if he wants to go to Winterhold and join up with the College, or go to Solitude to learn what this odd Unusual Gem is supposed to be.

This post has been edited by Lady Saga: Jul 1 2012, 09:11 PM

So you did get Dawnguard after all. How long did it take to download? I am interested to hear what it adds to the game. Mainly because I am looking for a reason to buy it when it eventually becomes available for PC. So far I do not see anything about it that interests me much.

Here are some updates from Achille. It's long because I got behind on posting them.


The last time Achille returned to his cabin by the lake, he surprised me by packing up his alchemy ingredients and heading over to Whiterun. He rented the spare room at the Bannered Mare from Hulda. Not the one she offers to regular guests, the small room over the kitchen that has been empty since one of the tavern wenches disappeared. He pays his rent by putting the coins in Hulda’s night stand. She seems a little unnerved by him, so he uses the side entrance. Achille likes this arrangement. He’s still alone, but there are people around. I think the dragon attacks are getting to him.

Whiterun is a good base of operations for now. Achille has been honing his Illusion skills on bandits, and his summoning is coming along nicely. Pretty soon he’s going to have to choose between Atromancy and Necromancy. He often amuses himself with dead bodies, but making a naked bandit chief follow you home does not really help in a desperate fight. He’s probably going to go for Atromancy so that he can place his allies right where they need to be.

Achille is also considering a trip to Winterhold. He has purchased an Apprentice robe, but he would really like an Adept one and a better hood. I thought he would want to wear black robes like the other alienated mages, but no. He doesn’t need to fit in with the regular folk, but he really needs to blend in. Achille has been quietly interesting.

*

Achille was right to be concerned about the trip to Winterhold. Ice wolves and ice wraiths live in the north, and when they finally reached the pass through the mountains it was blocked by two angry giants and a mammoth.

They decided to call it a day and warm up at the nearby inn. Next morning the pass was clear.

When they reached the downward slope that Achille was sure would take them to the road outside Winterhold, he stopped to re-summon his flame atronach. That got the attention of the nearby wildlife. Vigilance and Lydia’s summoned wolf charged in. Lydia and the atronach held back firing projectiles. Achille crouched down and readied his spells, hoping that the snowy sabre cat wouldn’t smell him.

Since he had dismounted, Queen Allie the horse joined the fight. She did not survive.

Achille stood in the snow looking down at Allie while Lydia took the sabre cat’s pelt. When it was time to go, he tried to resurrect her. It didn’t work. They left her by the road for the scavengers. Achille doubted that even a trace of her would remain when they passed that way again.

The College of Winterhold was happy to welcome a mage with Achille’s skills. The Conjuration master taught him how to summon a frost atronach, for a steep fee of course. Achille also bought an Adept hood, but the Adept Conjuration robe was not available to him. He even went along with the college’s plan to investigate an ancient ruin, hoping that when he returned someone would sell him an Adept robe. Nope.

A funny thing happened inside the ruin. That place has been a glitch-fest for many of my characters, so I expected some trouble. Made it through the broken pillars by going back out and then in again, and the second time they worked. It was the boss fight that I had my eyes open for. That guy does crazy things when he re-dies, and Achille really needs the sweet reward that he carries.

So all went well during the fight. I saw that the special staff was present, and Achille jumped at the body as it fell to make sure it didn’t disappear before he could loot it. Great. Then when he investigated the rest of the chamber, the staff was gone. Searched everywhere in case it fell off/went down through the table/turned invisible/ got FUS’d into a corner by the boss/floated up to the ceiling, nothing. I didn’t reload since it wasn’t a game-ending glitch, just an annoyance.

Soon after there was a dragon attack in the streets of Winterhold. Achille worked the edges of the buildings, hiding just out of sight so that he could summon Frosty when the dragon landed and Flicker when it took off again. Then it crashed in the street and Achille saw something amazing.

Someone was shooting shock energy at the dragon! It couldn’t be one of the college mages. Achille had hidden behind the legs of everyone in the fight, and they were all guards apart from his group. He took another peek. Holy crap, it was Lydia! She must have picked up some new tricks at the college, too.

While they were prying scales off the dead dragon, Achille had a thought. He asked her if he could trade some things with her, since this dragon gunk was heavy. She gave him a snort and an eyeroll, but she let him check her inventory.

She had the damned staff!! She must have scooped it up during the fight while Achille was cowering strategizing. Of course he can’t really ask her for it, but at least it’s not lost. I love this game!

Next up Achille and company are going on a bandit raid. He used all of his robe fund on new spells, and he hasn’t even checked to see what the Illusion master might have to offer yet. It looks like they might stay in the north for a little while, earning. And Achille already checked. Windhelm is the closest place to buy a horse.

*

Achille made his way from Winterhold to Windhelm. The path behind him is soaked with blood. Nine ice wraiths. Nine! Also too many snowy sabre cats to mention. He is reconsidering the necromancy perk. Now he dreams of striding through the wilderness with two sabre cats at his side.

He ran into a big problem on an icy rock pile out on the coast. He had Calmed two horkers and was sneaking up on a snowy sabre cat, intending to vanquish it with his frost atronach and followers then bring it along as a pet. Summoning the atronach woke the cat. And its mate. TWO of them, and the frost atronach got hung up on some rocks, and Lydia and Vigilance were nowhere to be found. He had gotten overconfident.

That little game of tag cost him just about all of his health, magicka, and stamina (run away) potions. He learned that when really pressed it’s better to summon an ally in front of you as you’re running and then duck behind it rather than try to turn and summon it to the rear. Also frost atronachs can get hung up on terrain. That was very, very close.

When Vigilance and Lydia finally showed up, he backtracked to figure out what they had been up to. Fighting the horkers. The Calm must have worn off before they got past. Careless.

Lydia ditched him when they got to Windhelm. It might have been the last bandit that he resurrected for company. She followed them a good distance wearing only fur shoes, war paint, and an iron sword. Lydia doesn't seem to like Achille’s little games.

It was fun giving Lydia’s mostly pleasant dialog a sarcastic twist. Since I’m on a PS3, it required some pretending. Achille is not really the Dragonborn or the Thane of Whiterun, no matter what the game says. So Lydia can’t be his Housecarl. She’s a mercenary who brings Achille along for magical backup, and she doesn’t like him. Pretty much everything she says means the opposite. Here’s how she sounds to Achille:

Honor to you, my Thane. = You are a sniveling milk-drinker.
I am your sword and your shield. = You can’t even defend yourself. Kitten.
A healing spell? Are you a priest? = What are you, some kind of priest?
Long life to you, Thane. = I should leave you here to die.

So now Achille is in Windhelm considering his next move. He would like to get back where it’s warmer, away from ice wraiths and snowy sabre cats. They found a beautiful grey horse that died almost immediately, but while it was dying it gave him time to get away. He asked about bounties at the inn, but the only job was to go kill some dragon. That is not going to happen. He doesn’t know how to approach another mercenary without a job to offer them. So it looks like he might need another horse.

Let's not forget Lydia's classic "I am sworn to carry your burdens." Which is of course meant for Achille with exactly the same sarcastic venom that is directed at every other thane of hers...

As it wasn't the right time to bring Lissa into Skyrim I have been travelling with another character of mine.

She is a red headed nord called Valentine. Valentine is her surname, as she prefers to be known by that alone.

She used to be Captain of the Riften guard, but she uncovered a conspiracy led my Maven Black-Brair to kill her for falling in love with a stormcloak.

Maven had her sent to an old fort with Valentines love to rid it of bandits, but instead Valentine found a dozen assassins. Sadly only Valentine survived (the battle leaving her with a scar on her face)

Once she confronted Maven and told the Jarl of what happened she was fired from her position for slander and expelled from Riften.

I love playing this character as with most of my characters they have a set story I intend for them to follow, but Valentine does not. I travel with her as she explores freely without a set path and it's amazing to see where it takes us.

it's so much fun!

This post has been edited by Rihanae: Jul 6 2012, 10:41 PM

What we learned on the way back to Whiterun: Achille’s atronach, dog, and horse team cannot deal damage to a troll fast enough to make a measureable change in its red bar. Possibly because this horse (called Blaze, Achille’s background does not lend itself to creative naming) is much smarter than the previous horses. It runs away. So now there’s an angry troll somewhere on the road.

It’s also frustrating to be an alchemist on horseback. At one point Achille was hopping off and on every few feet. They were on the edge of the volcanic area, and a dragon was circling over in the fairly near distance. The ground was covered with stuff Achille needs for magicka potions. Hop off, pick plant. Dragon howls. Leap on, run a little way. Spot creep cluster. Repeat.

Now Achille has sold his extra junk, brewed a new batch of potions, and carefully arranged his recently acquired embalming tools in his room. He also brought home three skulls to play with. Thankfully he shuts the door with Vigilance in the hall before he starts his weirdness. Achille takes good care of his war dog. He’s taken some risks using Healing Hands during fights, and he carries an extra wooden bowl around with him for Vigilance.

Achille is saving up perks for the three he can get when he hits 50 in Illusion. He’s pretty bold about going into caves and mines, but no way is he going near undead at this point. There’s really nothing he wants in a tomb anyway. He does like to watch bandits die. Up on the coast he and Lydia found a dead woman locked in a bandits’ cage. It was one of those times when he knew he was supposed to feel something.

Back in Whiterun, Achille and Vigilance spent several days out on the plains collecting alchemy ingredients and improving Achille’s reflexes. He believed that he had the right skills to avoid some conflicts, he just needed to learn how to stand his ground. He practiced Calming wolves until he could do it almost naturally. Then most of the way to Rorikstead, it happened. Ambushed by a sabre cat.

He Calmed it. He and Vigilance went on their way.

That was a pretty big moment for Achille. It was also a good lesson in keeping something summoned when he’s going to be fiddling around with butterflies and flowers. On the way back to Whiterun he had Frosty at his heels. Oh, and a thief tried to rob him. He Calmed the guy. Then from a safe distance he let Frosty and Vigilance rip him to shreds.

Whiterun Hold is a good place to be an alchemist. Achille had to head up to Riverwood to unload some potions, because the Whiterun merchants all ran out of gold. Sweet! He is going to look boss in his new robe. Then on the way out of Riverwood, a dragon attacked. Achille did what even Allek couldn't manage once the dragons finally entered his game: he slipped away and left Riverwood’s citizens dealing with the dragon.

Achille still has some pretty big issues, mostly with people. One night the bard Mikael showed up in his room (upon reflection, it might actually be Mikael’s room, oops), and Achille could do exactly nothing about it. Thankfully Mikael went away. That was an uncomfortable moment.

In other news, Achille has added a saw to his tool collection.

What's with your crazy Bretons? Wasn't Allek a Breton too?

Thats one of the only problems I have with Skyrim is Alchemy. I don't really like that fact that potion making isn't portable. There should definitely be a perk or something which makes this possible (unless there already is and I've not seen it!)

Today Valentine visited Shor's Stone to try and make some money. She learned that the mine there had been infested with spiders, so for a reward she offered to help.

She took out the spiders with ease and was rewarded with 500 gold.

Not only that but she was offered a position as a Shor's Stone guard*. Although it was a BIG step down from what she was used to, she couldn't pass up the opportunity to be back in Riften guard armor

*This is all imagination. All I did was head down to Shor's Watchtower and collect the RIften guard armor from one of the dead soldiers.

From Valentine's Memoirs


*Valentines game starts outside Riften. She has absoloutly nothing on her apart from a dress and boots.

I can't believe that evil shrew, Maven, had me fired! SLANDER! WHAT? The woman tried to kill me and she killed Arthur! She's lucky that I don't waste time grieving, or we would have sufford much worse than a threat.

The Jarl is incompetant for believeing Maven in the first place. I can't believe she didn't believe me! Where did she think the sudden injury on my face came from? Maven may as well be Jarl for all the good she's doing for the city!

I cannot believe I've been exiled from Riften. I've lost everything; my job, my friends, Honeyside, EVERYTHING!

All I was left with was a dress given to me by Haelga; that's it. A nasty, horrible, unflattering dress. Disgusting.

I figured that my friend Sylja would have better apparel for me, so I headed to Shor's Stone to see her. Luckily it wasn't far from Riften.

Whilst walking I saw Khajit caravaners. They seemed nice, but not nice enough to donate anything to me to defend myself with. When I was captain I was so used to getting what I wanted out of sheer respect. It's funny how uickly a reputation can go downstream.

I encountered a few wolves on my journey to Syljas', and with me being unarmed I did the sensible thing and ran. If the soldiers in my faction could have seen me they would have laughed.

I made it to Shor's Stone and found Sylja in her house. She seemed pleased to see me, but she explained to me that she had injured her leg in the mine so she wasn't feeling very hospitable.

She also told me that she could't return to work even if she wanted to due to the fact that Frostbite Spiders had infested the place*.

I decided there and then that I would help out my friend and rid the mine of the spiders; luckily I still had my Flames spell handy, although I was awful at it.

***

It didn't take me too long for me to clear the mines, but on my way to tell Sylja the good news I was stopped by a Shor's Stone guard captain. She told me she was inpressed with what I had done and offered me a job as one of her guards.

Despite the fact that it was a HUGE downgrade from what I was used to, I decided to accept the position. She gave me Shor's Stone guard armour, which I spruced up by adding steel boots and gauntlets. The smith also made me two steel swords, as I am an expert at dual weilding in combat**.

*As I knew of the quest beforehand, I didn't go to the quest giver, but simply pretended Sylja told Valentine of the quest.

**Near Shor's Stone there is a guard tower full of dead Riften guards. Once I completed the mission I went there and took a corpses armour and found some weapons.

Things are looking up for Valentine!


Yep, Allek is also a Breton. BUT, I should mention that Denelle is a Breton, too, and everyone thinks that she is a very sweet girl even though Erik the Slayer does not want to marry her.

Didn't take long to download. It took longer for ME to figure out how to get Xbox Live actuated on my console, actually.

I haven't started any Dawnguard stuff, have not officially been to see the vampire hunters or whatever, but here are a few pros and cons I've noticed after starting the game. Some of these may be spoilers, so read at your own risk.

Pros:

1. New spells, including a spell that can make a summoned creature turn back against the one who originally summoned. This one can be annoying if it happened to be ME who cast the original summon, but the enemy triggers the reciprocating spell, turning my summon against ME.

2. Crossbows. Haven't seen one yet, but they are in the game.

3. Some really COOL vampire fights have shown up randomly in-game, and they seem to only happen at night! I love random stuff. On the second night my spellsword was in Solitude, for instance, all a sudden the entire street was in chaos. A vampire made its way into town, and was discovered by the guards. I didn't have to do anything that time...the guards handled it all. The vampire was felled and was wearing some new "vampire armor".
...This particular random encounter was almost at the caliber of when an NPC in Oblivion is caught doing something wrong (like City Swimmer in Bravil) and the entire scene goes nuts. Only difference is City Swimmer is a named NPC, and the vampire in Skyrim is definitely random.

4. Darkness Eternal really seems to dig the NPC follower from DG, and I trust his word that she rocks.

5. There's supposed to be a "beautician" in Riften who can change our looks. Haven't visited this place yet, though, but I promise I will.

Cons:

1. I was hoping DG would add some new dialog to townie conversations. It does. Unfortunately, it's all "have you heard? They're reforming the Dawnguard..." bla bla bla. I was hoping for some more random conversation (Hi! ... How are you! ... What is it?) instead of more specific PC-triggered walk-by comments.

...that's something that is wearing thin for me personally. I find myself actively walking around certain NPCs sometimes, just cuz I know they're gonna spout one of those flat, repetitive comments at my character. Oblivion's random conversations have an edge over Skyrim or Dawnguard here, imo.

Summary: the pros outweigh the cons for me. But I dunno about you, SubRosa. Perhaps you don't want random vampires, more stilted conversation, etc.

This post has been edited by Lady Saga: Jul 9 2012, 07:29 PM

I've played a little Dawnguard, and I'm seriously thinking I won't buy it for the PS3 where my long-term characters live. Although I did spend some time this morning wondering why I couldn't smith arrows. Wrong machine. (And pre-coffee. It was really early.) D'oh!

Here's the latest from Achille:

Twice more out on the road he has been pinned down by a dragon and had to endure the long battle until his Storm Atronach could finally bring it down. Then both times Vigilance and his Dremora Lord finished it. Achille has advanced significantly in Conjuration. What happened to him is in the past. He no longer thinks of himself as that helpless person.

It would be an exaggeration to say that Achille has made friends, but Urag gro-Shub and Phinis Gestor at the College of Winterhold can both look him in the eye without obvious signs of unease. Perhaps they are as strange as Achille, but he is in no position to make that judgment. In any case, Achille has undertaken jobs for both mages. Events at the college have taken a turn. Achille sought Master Phinis’ help getting himself ready for his next dangerous task.

Phinis prepared the ritual. Achille went to the appointed place. He Rallied Vigilance and summoned his Dremora Lord. He Muffled himself and readied Invisibility in case he needed to hide in plain sight. Then he stood inside the circle and cast Phinis’ spell.

Achille was instantly slain by the unbound Dremora. Sigh.

Sorry Grits. None of my DiD characters get much past level 10 so getting that far seems like a feat to me.

Sorry to hear that Grits.

That's always been a sore point for me, some spawn'ed being(s) are specifically scripted to attack the PC, so hidden/muffle/invis/what-not are totally irrelevant. >.<

Also a reason I tend to avoid DiD runs.