Wow, lots of blood in that second screen! Is that modded or vanilla? The third shot is my absolute favorite hands down, in fact it goes up on my list of top favorites - absolutely LOVED that screen !!!

Sounds like the battle music is getting stuck on that vid, it kept playing twice after combat ended!

I wasn't sure if there was a reason Aravi was noticing how many guards stood at each gate or the accesses in the walkways (hadn't played this questline) - but it was a bit of camera jerking in it - may be better to have her slowly scan in places like that so the camera doesn't jerk so fast from side to side (at least for people like me who get motion sickness with fast camera spins like that). She did it again inside Ulfric's palace.

That Windhelm is about the ugliest city in Skyrim,

Doesn't sound like Ulfric gets the gist of "Peace treaty negotiations," ROFL !!

Great vid, and great update !!!

That horse at the beginning looks gigantic compared to Aravi! It has a lovely cream color through.

I see Aravi is back with Kharjo, and they are trying out their crossbows.

I like how Aravi stops to talk to everyone.

I have never understood the reasoning behind the Jarl of Whiterun (whoever that happens to be at the time) insisting on a truce between Imps and Cloaks before trapping the dragon. I mean, who is going to attack a city that has a dragon in it? That would be mad. It seems like a clumsy way of pushing your character toward doing the civil war questline, even if you do not want to do it. Bethesda seems to want to force your character into doing everything in the game.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 23 2013, 05:21 PM

Vid: Horse! A & K worked really well together against that frost troll; with Kharjo there, Aravi could keep on firing, knowing she was safe to do so. I’m glad you showed us so much of the Jarl’s conversation before Aravi hit him up with the truce request.

What a nice collection of screens – thank you! The midnight ride one is simply stunning!

I thought her skin was a bit lighter. But that could've been just me.

Sneaky Aravi is sneaky. She doesn't look like she's wearing enough clothes to even make a sound!

The result of her light steps? A bloody throat slash!

A quick ride is a wonderful pic. The weather, the moon and just the look of it looks somewhat different than the usual. A bit unique. I like it!

The child's face behind Aravi is priceless. Haha. "Aravi! Tell me more stories please!"

That is one big horse! Goodness! Just look at dat . . . um, saddle!

Team Kharjo and Aravi= 1, team troll= 0.

Crossbow hunting the frosties. The team up with the two crossbows shooting at one troll while a summoned familiar goes to munch on the beast was too good. Just like those good old fox hunting days. Except there's two felines with a spirit dog rather than a bunch of Englishmen on horses

Aravi must feel happy to see more of her own kind. I know she's seen the caravans before, that's how she met Kharjo, but seeing a friendly face is always good. Too bad they can't go in the cities.

So she meets Ulfric, leader of the rebellion. That was a good speech. And a truce! Aravi finds herself as a messanger in politics. This will be good.

@Grits: There are fur cloaks, but the one Aravi is wearing in the ‘what she does best’ screen is linen. She doesn’t have Kharjo yet in her new game.

Interesting, the way I took it was that she didn’t say that this was going to be a one way trip for the willing subject

The horse in ‘short ride’ she found out in the wilderness next to a dead bandit. She took it for a ride, but it wandered off when she dismounted.

You haven’t figured out the other Khajiit? Well this next video will enlighten you.

I think the Dawnguard armor was good for this one as well. Ulfric is just obnoxious in my opinion. Thanks Grits!

@mALX: Blood is modded. It makes the textures better, and it also adds more to bodies and weapons after a fight. If you notice pools of blood under dead bodies, that’s the mod as well.

Aravi was just looking at the guards, didn’t mean to jerk the camera. Windhelm is definitely one of the more rundown cities. It doesn’t really speak well of Ulfric. Thanks mALX!

@SubRosa: That might be why Aravi doesn’t ride them very much! I kind of get why Whiterun wants it. He’s assuming he’s going to lose a lot of troops when the dragon comes. Aravi’s still not doing the civil war though. I’ve only heard that it is boring. There’s a mod out that’s supposed to make it more interesting, but I’m going to wait a while before downloading it. Right now it sounds pretty buggy.

@Acadian: I think I put the short horse video in for you. I thought about cutting the conversation but I thought it might be interesting for you to hear it as well. Thanks Acadian!

@DE: I guess that’s somewhat true. Your armor can’t give you away if you aren’t wearing any.
Englishmen!

In Cyrodiil she didn’t much care if she saw a Khajiit somewhere, now in Skyrim though, she’s always happy to see them. Thanks DE!

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Aravi looks around Windhelm before moving on.

7:12

If you don’t remember the elf, here’s where we saw him last.



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Screens

Backstab

Draugr

Shadowed moon

Leap!

My fave vids of Aravi’s are the ones like this, where she just shows us her world.

I quite enjoyed listening to the ‘cheerful’ Argonian as she was tanning that hide.

Oh my, the interaction with little Eliza Dolittle Sofie was wonderful! Your mastery of this medium really shines here as the flower girl tugged at Aravi’s heart, then Aravi looked at. . . her mate. Just a glance that so wistfully said, ‘Maybe someday’. Wonderful.

*

Backstab is Aravi doing what she does best!

Then, neat magical effects as Aravi shoots old blue-eyes.

I know Shadowed Moon doesn’t have a horse in it for me, but I honestly can’t imagine a more spectacular shot. Wow!!!

Leap is such a beautiful shot of that gorgeous waterfall and the tiny naked Khajiit!

That's what I thought when I saw it! I think I stopped mid-thought on my comment, but meant to say that, lol.

OMG, I started to pick Draugr as my favorite till I saw "Leap" - WHAT AN AWESOME SHOT! How on Nirn did you catch that? Totally Awesome, my top favorite shot - goes to the top of the top-favorites in my book! Loved that shot!


Vid: What a great character Shawee is! I loved her, and was touched by all the waterfront people of Windhelm. They were all pretty awesome characters, and suffering under a lot of prejudice - one of the reasons I found for not siding with Ulfric, being a beast race and seeing how he really felt about them. (and the reason I did the quests for them, champion the underdogs). I was surprised Aravi didn't take the quest!

GAAAAAH! What happened to the end of the vid? Urk, kind of broke off mid sentence, lol. Okay wait, something happened. The vid ended mid sentence in the shipping office, but when I went back it picked back up and there is a whole lot more to it!

Aah, now I get to see the scene Acadian was talking about with Sofie! Awesome! I can def understand why Aravi didn't offer to adopt her, not while she is gone all the time adventuring (and turning into a werewolf, lol).

This vid is one of my favorites, really showing a side of Skyrim that is such a small segment of it, genuinely likable characters! I loved this whole vid! Awesome update!

Your Windhelm sure looks cold and forbidding. I modded the weather so the days are sunnier. It makes the whole city look so different.

Aravi should have poked around some more in the Clan Shatter-Shield office. Suvaris' journal is an interesting read.

Poor Sofie, she's one that I can just never keep from adopting.

And there is our old friend Malboran. Since I never do the main quest, I never meet him.

That guy sweeping up the Cornerclub needs to do a better job. That place is a disaster!

Wow, I had no idea you could jump up over those barrels. Is Aravi going to get stuck in there? Good thing there is a way out.

Backstab is really visceral, with all that blood squirting out!

Shadowed Moon is my favorite though. Such brilliant colors!

Oh, that explains the Khajiit. Malborn has a low survival rate in my games, and my ex-Legion Imperial Dovahkiin who saved him isn’t very welcome at the cornerclub. Or in Windhelm at all, for that matter.

Windhelm looks pretty grim. It was neat to see it through Aravi’s eyes. Even the guards seem big and dangerous. (Jensa lives there, and her view of Windhelm is very different though it looks the same.)

I just love Shahvee. It looked like Aravi really wanted to help her out, but she has other concerns right now.

Oh, poor little Sofie was all snowy! That was a touching scene with Aravi’s wish to help her and that little look back at Kharjo. Beautifully done.

I was chuckling over Aravi’s opinion of the cornerclub’s cleanliness. No surprise that she didn’t order a meal there. The barrels!! Rofl. That was adorable.

Screens: I like the hilt on the sword that back-stabbed guy is holding. Or maybe that’s the Nord talking.

Wow, draugr is neat! You caught the moment of impact on both of them. It’s fun to guess where new Aravi is and what she’s doing.

That’s such a gorgeous sky (and Khajiit ).

Woo hoo, leap is my favorite! What a joyful picture. I love it!

Forgot to add. The civil war is pretty dull. It is mostly a bunch of 'take the fort' quests that get very repetitive, before the first one is even finished! That's because instead of clearing them out like a regular dungeon, you have to kill x amount of enemy soldiers to win. But the game cannot render anywhere near the full amount of enemies. So as you kill them, more spawn, and more and more. So you just keep running around willy-nilly until you get to the limit.

The Battle for Whiterun is probably the most interesting, at least from the Stormcloak side, because you actually do have to fight your way through the city in stages. Its nothing special from the Imp side, because you just fight a battle outside the gates and that is it. The final battles of Solitude/Wihdhelm are alright, because again you have to fight your way through the cities. But you still get the magically spawning enemies until you enter Castle Dour or the Palace of Kings.

The war itself does not really change much at all. Most npcs do not even acknowledge that the war is over, or that there even was one. It is like it never happened. The biggest change is that if you go Cloak the Thalmor is thrown out of Skyrim. Which is to say the Thalmor patrols stop. Because they still have to keep The Thalmor Embassy and Northwatch Keep, otherwise it would break the quests associated with them.

The only other real difference is that the guard uniforms change in half the cities. To Stormcloak uniforms if you go Cloak, or to Legion if you go Imp. I like the variation between each city's uniform, so that right there is enough to keep almost all of my characters from doing the war.

I think the mod you mentioned is War Zones? It never looked that interesting to me. It just seems to add more pointless battles with way more opponents than most people's computers can handle.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jul 1 2013, 07:46 PM

Windhelm looks depressing, especially with all the racism going on against Argonians and the Dunmers(take that ya bunch of slavers!). Even so, Shavee isn't too let down. She's certainly happier than the non-humans who live there.

That orange sky is wonderful! Love this shot!

Backstab . . . ouch. Violent and bloody and so Aravi!

Helluva shot, Ara! Helluva shot! Draugr down!

Haha! She sure is brave and adventurous, jumping in naked like that. Epic picture!

Da'www! Poor Sofie! Cmon Aravi! Adopt her! Do it!! It would be nice to have a kid around, especially with Aravi's condition that prevents her to have children. But her choice is her choice. I wonder if she'll entertain the idea of adoption. Someday, perhaps.

@Acadian: You don’t seem to be alone in preferring these videos.

It’s really difficult to not take in those children when they are so sweet like that. She is in no position to take in a child though.

Some scenes just demand a screen shot, and Shadowed moon was one. Loved the sliver of silver at the bottom.

Does Buffy enter water the same way Aravi does? Thanks Acadian!

@mALX: Glad you liked the jumping one, it was a fun one to take. Look at her tail!

Aravi has a lot going on right now, and she would have been happy to get them a new necklace if they wanted one. Finding a stolen one in the city somewhere did not seem like a task she could do at the moment. (Even though I know a marker would have appeared somewhere and made it easy, I am pretending it wouldn’t have been.)

Being involved with dragons, werewolves, and vampires does not make a good environment for a child. Plus Aravi could be killed. Orphaned again? Thanks mALX!

@SubRosa: I like it looking cold, makes the inns a little more cozier.

She did poke around a little more than what I showed in the office, but she didn’t do more than peek inside a few containers.

Sofie and that girl in Whiterun are both difficult to resist. Sofie is adorable with her little flowers for sale. Aravi always buys every flower she has when she sees her.

Only a Khajiit would want to jump on the barrels.

I heard from a friend that the civil war is bland so I have no real intention to complete it. So far none of my characters have felt strongly for either side. I suppose that could change, but by then I hope to have a mod to make is a real conflict. The mod is called Civil War Overhaul.

I am glad you liked the screen shots. Thanks SubRosa!

@Grits: Interesting about Malborn. He’s survived all of my games without any special effort on my part. When does he die?

Windhelm is an interesting city, especially how rough everything looks. It definitely feels like the focus of the ruler is elsewhere. Jensa’s opinion is interesting to hear. I love how different everything can be with just a different perspective.


Those barrels looked like a stairway to her.

Leap is my favorite too, Aravi having some fun! Thanks Grits!

@DE: Aravi’s definitely had some mixed feelings about the Dunmer in Windhelm. Shavee is one tough Argonian. Not many can share her outlook with that kind of treatment.

Aravi would love to adopt, but the time just isn’t right. Maybe when her life settles down some.

Aravi isn’t about to jump in wearing her armor! That’s a good way to drown! There were no fishies looking to take a bite, and even if there were, she would have taken them out of the water. Thanks DE!

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Kharjo takes care of Malborn’s problem, and then they leave for High Hrothgar.

4:44

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Screens!

Necromancer joins the dead

Shopping

Camp

I LOVE the snowflakes on their clothes!!

If you mean nekkid and often from height, the answer is yes! Well, long as the water doesn’t have ice in it!

Speaking of ice, brrrr! This vid made me break out my furs. Happily I got my horse (with wagon) fix at 34 seconds into the vid. Uh oh, a dragon. Whew, flew on by. A&K and spirit wolf made quick work of that Thalmer. Then back to the horse (with wagon). Woot, travel by open carriage to Whiterun. Ahh, someplace warm by the fire, with Kharjo, a dog and Lydia. Time for Aravi to go to bed. Thanks for sharing her day!

Screens: No warning or quarter for that Necrodude! Neat snowflakes effect in shopping – who’s her Khajiit gf? What an inviting campfire in the last shot!

Oh look, another cliffracer! How many has that been so far?

"I think we understand each other." Then he attacks! As I expected, that was pretty stupid!

Missing Name? I wonder what that was?

I stole a lot from the Thalmor over the years!" I love it!

I see Lydia is busy staring at the wall!

Looks like that necromancer is getting one right in the noggin! That's got to leave a mark!

Shopping looked delightful. Who is the happy Khajiit behind Aravi?

I see she turned up at the campsite too. I must have forgotten who that is.

The two Thalmor tend to kill him when they come to the top of the stairs in the torture part of Elenwen’s office building. They say something like ‘we’ve got your friend here’ followed by a death gurgle from Malborn. If memory serves they come in when my characters are checking the trap door, but it might be after that. Either way it’s a long sprint to get to them while they’re killing the wood elf. I’ll pay attention the next time a character gets that far. It could easily be a spawn point issue that’s been fixed.


Kharjo certainly got the assassin’s message. That was quite a pool of blood!

Good grief, there was a bucket right next to where Malborn was eating! I guess he really was nervous. “I stole a lot from the Thalmor over the years,” lol. That’s hilarious.

Starting off from Whiterun has a nice symmetry.


Screens: Yikes, the sword down the neck always makes me shiver.

Shopping is my favorite. Aravi and her friend look charming in the snowy market. That’s also an angle I’ve never seen before from inside Niranye’s stall.

That’s a nice camp, I’m guessing on the volcanic tundra? It looks like Aravi’s friend has not caught on that one should wear less in the rain.

Shopping is my favorite screen, I love whatever that is she is wearing! The camping one is great too, but hard to beat the shopping, lol.

What was that "Missing Name" item? I was dying to know, lol.

I remembered after the vid started that you'd warned me about the camera movements, and stood way back, lol. LOVED Lydia bumping her face into the wall, ROFL !!! "Let me look very closely at these wall hangings..."

Awesome update!

@Elisabeth: Mods are great! Thanks!

@Acadian: The Khajiit with Aravi is a character added by a mod. She’s kind of over powered and gets in the way much more often than Kharjo does. I was really wishing for him last night. She’ll be the steward of Aravi’s home when she gets around to building it again. Thanks Acadian!

@SubRosa: I read that ‘Missing Name’ was a bug. It’s an object with no purpose. Luckily I didn’t take it because I don’t think you can drop it either.

The Khajiit is a mod, I’ll use her until Aravi returns Kharjo’s amulet. That should be pretty soon. Lydia made me laugh. A year or so ago mALX linked me a pic of a Bethesda developer staring at a wall like that, it was so funny. Thanks SubRosa!

@Grits: The Thalmor whack Malborn at least once at the top of the stairs, but it has never killed him. Then they lead him down the stairs where Aravi ambushes them. I think it might have been something that has been fixed.

I thought that was an odd spot for a bucket. That didn’t occur to me though!

Aravi’s friend has a different approach to dealing with the rain. Thanks Grits!

@mALX: Shopping was my favorite too.

The item was a bug. I believe when I checked it out, it turned out it was something you couldn’t drop either, so it is a good thing I didn’t have her pick it up.

At least Lydia wasn’t sitting in Aravi’s room! Thanks mALX!

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Aravi arrives to the council. Let negotiations begin!

5:18

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I really hate…

SPIDERS

Just a love tap

More sneaking

Vid-
That looked like a very chilly walk to the council building! What a wonderfully Buffy moment as Aravi runs to a private area and tries on a couple outfits, searching for one to have the desired impact! I agree with her choice. Armor was the right choice for this meeting of warriors in order to reinforce her credibility among those attending.

Screens-
With those webs, I know what’s coming next!
Yikes! A great action shot, albeit rather blurry.
Whap! Right in the mohawk!
Oh, I adore the sneaking one! Reminds me of the several times posted vid, Khajiit like to sneak.

I see it is time for that long climb up to High Hrothstone again. I have never done this in the game, but I have seen enough other vids to know how things work out. Speaking of working out, there is the first difficulty. Delphine. Taking credit for Aravi's actions, when she did all of jack and shat.

I won't be expecting much wisdom from those warriors of skyrim!

And the eternal question. What to wear!

Love the sneaking pic. The spider ones, unfortunately, have spiders. Ick.

Looks like Aravi is straightening out that guy's mohawk!