1. I need to get surround sound. I can do it, I have the technology.

2. Isn't it refreshing going back to a console game? .. I haven't done this with Skyrim yet, but in Oblivion I go back at least once a week. Something about the simplicity of going back to Xbox or PS3. It's pleasing, gives me perspective.

3. Yes, Marcurio's comments and constant chain lightning! He's so arrogant, but he does back up his words with action.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Jul 18 2014, 01:04 PM

Oh. My. Goodness.

So Jerric and Darnand(Marcurio) headed over the hills toward Ivarstead to answer the Greybeards’ call. They picked up some salvage on the way through Helgen so they stopped in at the nearby Legion camp to lighten their load since in this game Ivarstead has no traders.

Now, I know there’s a dragon up at Autumnwatch Tower, but Jerric has never been up there. It wasn’t difficult to nudge him in that direction. The local bandits got involved with Darnand and the Legion sentries and the resulting tussle drew him up the hill a bit. Jerric was in a standoff with a cave bear and I was thinking He can aaaalmost see the tower, when a dragon attacked! Woo hoo! Lots of running in that big open field, plenty of help from Legion archers, and Jerric’s biggest concern was that Darnand would accidentally declare war on the Imperial Legion since Chain Lightning knows not friend or foe.

Also I had just bumped the difficulty up so it was good to get a feel for that with allies to take off the pressure and give Jerric a chance to heal.

After the fight Jerric viewed the bones with awe and fascination. He did not loot the corpse for a cash reward. He did walk further up the hill to check out that cool-looking tower.

Much to my surprise, there was a dragon roosting there! What, I thought we just fought that guy? Nope, must have been a random attack. This fight was much harder with no support from archers. Jerric ended up chasing the dragon through the mountain pass where Darnand couldn’t refill his magicka for him. Frost trolls, draugr death overlords everywhere, and just when he got the Autumnwatch Tower dragon on the ground another one from the nearby ruins woke up! It was awesome!!

So now he’s ready for Solstheim whenever he gets the cue. Also after the third dragon he finally remembered that he was supposed to do something with it for Tolfdir, so now he’ll have something new to try whenever he makes it back to Winterhold. What a morning in the Rift!


Acadian, that is so sweet! A Resist Fire enchantment would also be a boon to the Nord’s companions. Even in Skyrim there is a fair amount of sweating. You are quite right about the fire/frost dragons. Now he’s battled both kinds! He has too much respect to go cause trouble at a dragon lair (on complete purpose), but fighting them makes his blood sing.

Renee, it’s worth it just for the subwoofer. Thunder! Plus when a dragon lands the floor shakes.

The sound on my setup is really annoying, and I've tried all the tweaks I know to fix it. It appears that Skyrim assumes a surround setup, and most dialog comes from the centre front speaker, which doesn't exist. My 2.1 arrangement dulls the dialog unless it's coming from off-center, so I'm always moving the mouse to hear better.

My current character Vicuña has no dragons, so no thunder there.

She's playing Destruction for offence and Alteration for defence - and using Restoration a lot! As a pure mage, she wears no armor, but she does have her Arch-mage robe's enchantments moved over to her preferred outfit. She wants to get Fortify Destruction enchanted onto ring/amulet/circlet so she can spam nastier spells, but right now she's running away to heal wherever she can. Her Ebonyflesh always seems to expire when she's low on Magicka, so she has little choice but to flee. She doesn't have a follower, and her conjuration is minimal, so they chase her!

I have her avoiding walled cities, except for Whiterun, where she's sneaked in a couple of times to complete quests from outside. The last time she went there, vampires killed Belethor before she could do any shopping. That's just confirmed her prejudice against the places. She usually shops in the smaller towns, and finds the lack of stores and smithies in Morthal and Winterhold annoying.

She lives in Windstad Manor (bedrooms/kitchen/alchemy tower) where she has a shrine to Dibella in the basement. All the smithing gear is outside, so she has an anvil, but no forge. Since she uses neither weapons nor armour, that fits well. She's made a lot of jewellery as well as nails, hinges etc. but hasn't reached Arcane Smithing level yet. She may want that perk so she can temper her backup blade that she pulls out in dire emergencies. That's currently Dawnbreaker, but she's had a few lesser enchanted blades before it.

At some point, she'll need to learn more Enchanting, so she can add Fortify Destruction to things. So far she hasn't found more than one item with that, a ring, and she's wearing it. The only thing she's made were her mage boots with extra carrying strength, so she wouldn't need to add points to Stamina. She has recharged her blades as she's used them, and a few staves, so her skill is creeping up, but she may want to buy some training soon. So she's dungeon diving at random right now, collecting things to sell in Falkreath and Riverwood, or to the Khajiit caravans. (Why are those cats never there when she is?)

She's made a few trips to Solstheim, to study with Master Neloth, but was a bit low-level when she first went (16) and couldn't cope with the ash spawn. She returned later and did the rest of his quests, so he's finally acknowledging her as a member of House Telvanni. She may go back there and make staffs to get her enchanting up. However, the unenchanted ones are a bit pricy, so it needs some thought. At level 26, she's still a bit dubious about clearing the ebony mine, and her next trip may be after a few more levels.

Edit: Of course, writing this post had her attacked by a Thalmor patrol, and she discovered that their robes have Fortify Destruction. How convenient!

This post has been edited by ghastley: Jul 19 2014, 02:30 AM

That was a well-timed encounter for Vicuña. Fortify Destruction is my favorite enchantment.

Serafíne Serrano, unarmored Imperial spellsword, Knight of the Order of the Lily, and Volkihar vampire has fallen in battle. She successfully infiltrated the Volkihar clan, retrieved two Elder Scrolls, and uncovered Lord Harkon’s Nefarious Plan. She and her companions Sir Vorstag (posing as her thrall) and Serana the Complainer were on their way to the Ancestor Glade when they became separated in a bandit ambush. Dame Serafíne acquitted herself admirably, but her blood lust got the best of her. As she attempted to end the life of an orc bandit chief with a combat bite, he caved her head in. The lovely Serafíne fell apart into a pile of ash.

So, Better Vampires adds some neat stuff including the ash part. I’m definitely going to use it again the next time I create a vamp.

ghastley - Vicuña sounds fun. Destruction and alteration should go well. I imagine the fortify destruction gear would really help crank out those fireballs at a high rate.

Grits - RIP to Dame Serafine. Having a follower pose as your thrall is a great idea! I had to laugh at 'Serana the Complainer'. I've seen plenty of her in KC's wonderful vids.


Speaking of Serana, Buffy has joined the Dawnguard and just met Serana. So far, she likes the 'feel' of the Dawnguard. She's applying sprinkles of vampire dust when needed so they won't detect a Slayer in their midst, and she's having to carry a good supply of potions for cramps. She's abandoned alchemy, as far as crafting her own elixers. She finds with the mystic bow, that poisoning in advance just doesn't work; when Buffy forsakes other spells to conjure the bow, she needs to shoot it right away. So she actually finds more poisons than she uses. And she's always been poor enough at crafting potions that she relies of found/bought ones. Happily, any alchemist can make her anti-cramping potions to make being around vampires more comfortable.

Goodbye Serafine. You had a really neat concept for her.

Acadian: Nice! I'm glad she joined Dawnguard, I think this will be good for her.

Grits: Yeah, Serana the Complainer! I know what you mean. "Oh my, it's so bright out here, how do you stand it?" The 3 dragon fights must have been intense!

ghastley : My Mycharonna would be in the same situation as Vicuña if it weren't for her love of Conjuration. Mycharonna also runs a lot. It's hard to avoid conjuring things with a mage character. One thing which helps is to find higher ground to jump up to, this way they can maybe still get you with an arrow or spell, but not do face-to-face attacks. NPCs can't jump, or at least not as cleverly as we can.


That's one thing I miss. My old TV was one of those enormous CRTs that weighed 50 pounds (maybe more) and it had this great bass to it. BOOM. My new TV is a flatscreen. Picture is better, but the sound is pretty weeny. I bought a couple speakers from Micro Center to try to fatten this up, but I need to go all the way I think.

Grits; those cultists are always poppimg up on Hess... their time is coming. And I know what you mean about ignoring dragon lairs, took a while for Hess to figure em out on her own (while the GOTC was sitting in his chair going "look there's one, go get em" and Hess just totally ignores him)

ghastley; damn vampires. That mine can get a little rough. Yeah those Thalmor carry some interesting stuff.

Acadian; hey Buffy welcome to the Dawnguard. (and fire is your friend.)

Renee; oh yeah, surround is great, I love it as the sound travels from left to right(or vise/versa) across the room the same direction as what's on the screen, and hearing someone behind you can tell if they're back left or right. or foot steps coming from behind. oh the list goes on.


Hess the Warrior-witch goes Vampire hunting


Until now Hess has chosen to ignore the vampires in Skyrim. Their attacks on her were mostly a slight bother and netted her some nice loot until…

Walking down the steet in Winterhold towards Birna’s shop, Birna’s Oddments, Hess and Birna were discussing prices for the loot Hess has brought to sell her when three Vampires attacked them. Hess and the guards made short work of the vampires, but when Hess looked around for Birna all she found was a pile of ashes with some of Birna’s belongs.

This really pissed Hess off- now she would have to carry all this loot to one of the other towns to sell, not to mention Birna had mentioned something about a special item and Hess will never know what that item was now.

Having heard of a group of vampire hunters called The DawnGuard, and hoping to learn more about vampires, Hess followed the rumors she heard, until she located their headquarters. The amount of knowledge the members of the Dawnguard had to share with Hess was disappointing to say the least, their weapons and armor, to Hess’s professional eye, could be called weak at best, so Hess refused all of it.

The only thing Hess was impressed with was the fact The Dawnguard had a working forge in their keep, which Hess thought could save her some travel if she needed to do repairs and she was in the area.

A few days later and a few more dead vampires, Hess figured out a puzzle found deep underground that resulted in a meeting with a vampire that she didn’t kill on sight, although it was her first thought. This vampire’s name was Serana and she carried an Elder Scroll, Hess’s first reason for not killing her. Hess second reason for not killing Serana, was the thought that this vampire could lead her to their main lair.

Later, stopping at her home in Whiterun to drop off some loot and adjust some of her equipment to be more effective for hunting vampires, Hess left Serana in Breezehome while Hess walked to the forge next door, gods she was tired of Serana’s whining about the sun all the time. Hess figured they would just have to travel at night just to shut the bitch up.
Afterwards, when Hess opens the door to her house she finds Serana has just helped herself to Hess’s food and was busy cooking away. Hess’s immediate reaction was to strike out at Serana, but…then caught a whiff of what was cooking, and it smelled delicious, so she stayed her hand.

“I thought Vampires only drank blood and ate raw human flesh?”

Serana looked up at Hess and smiled, “It depends upon our form and personal preference. Yes I need to feed on fresh blood at times, and to vampires humans are prey, but I do enjoy cooking.”

Hess noticed that Serana evaded parts of her question tactfully, and decided that if all Serana’s cooking smelled this good, that Hess would let her do most of the cooking. At least until it was time for Hess to kill her.

The women (can’t call them girls, Hess was fast approaching middle age, though she wouldn’t admit it, and Serana was immortal for however many years), traveled across Skyrim mostly at night and Hess noticed that even Shadowmere seemed to enjoy the night travel more.

When they finally arrived at Serana’s home and the main lair of the vampires, Hess was greeted by Serana’s father who offered Hess the chance to become immortal as a vampire. Hess who has a strong desire for power fantasized for a moment about being a vampire, or even a vampire lord and then refused Lord Harkon’s offer.

It was days later when offered to again be a vampire by Serana as one of the ways to enter the Soul Cairn that Hess imagined herself again as a vampire, but chose to be soul trapped instead.

One of the reasons Hess has never had children is how much invasion they make into your personal world, and having Serana around gives Hess a sample of what that’s like. For one, Serana whines about the sun even when she knows there’s nothing Hess can do about it, and Serana is always getting lost causing Hess to have to wait for, or go back and find her, and let’s not forget what a horrible fighter she is, Hess shakes her head remembering how often she has to use her healing spells on Serana.

As Hess is sitting on a rock watching Serana run up to her after being lost, again, Hess thinks, Gods I can’t wait to get this stone from around my neck.



Then, and not the first time since arriving in Skyrim, Hess was surprised. Apparently Serana; having watched Hess gather hides, materials, and ores for her blacksmithing, managed to find a pick. Hess had been chipping away at a moonstone deposit when she heard the sound of another pick at work, she looked up and saw Serana swinging away at another lode a few feet away.

“What are you doing?”

Serana stops and smiles at Hess, “Helping.” Hess stares at her for a few seconds then walks away. Ok…maybe she’s not all that bad, at least she’s willing to get dirty. Hess glances back to make sure Serana’s following, then turns back to the trail, shaking her head slightly.

After a rather tough battle in a very dark cavern where it took both women working together to survive, Hess lights a torch, casts a healing spell on herself, then Serana, and asks, “is that your only weapon?” indicating the dagger at Serana’s side. Serana puts her hand to the dagger, “yes…why?” Hess shakes her head, “we are not sneaking in the night and stabbing someone while they sleep…this is face to face…and I’m wearing myself out healing you after every battle.”

And then Hess did something she’s never done before, she gave Serana her hand crafted, self-enchanted, with frost and shock, silver, back up scimitar. Hess thought of the gold that sword could bring at the market, and had brief second thoughts, hesitating her hand as she passed the blade to Serana. “Don’t lose it…and I want it back when we’re done.”

Serana took the blade and gave it a few swings, and then looked up at Hess with admiration, for she knew Hess made all of her own weapons, and this sword was not only beautiful, it fit a woman’s hand perfectly. “Thank you.”

Hess turned away muttering, “just a loan…want it back.”

As the end of their journey was getting closer, Hess and Serana found themselves trudging in broad daylight, Serana strangely quiet for a change, across a frozen lake when out through the ice burst a Dragon. Hess pulls her crossbow forward and sends a bolt at the dragon making a lucky hit. Running for cover toward an island of rocks, Hess hears another crash of ice and looks over her shoulder to see another dragon bursting forth from the lake through the ice. Cold water and shards of broken ice shower Hess as she speeds up to get to the rocks ahead.

The first dragon hovers and sends a gout of flames at Hess just as she was taking cover. “So…a fire breather are you…’ with that Hess drinks a couple of fire protection potions, and then begins the usual popping out of cover just long enough to send a bolt into the dragon, while getting her hair singed a bit in the process, at least the robes she wore were somewhat fire proof.

As the dragon made a turn to come back for another attack, Hess looked to see where the second dragon had gone, in time to see it roar over Serana engulfing her in flames. It didn’t look good, Serana was on her hands and knees on fire. Hess aimed at the second dragon while it was turning to make another pass over Serana. Hess’s bolt by chance caught the dragon in its eye, resulting in the dragon turning straight up instead of flaming Serana.

It was about this time Hess was brought back to her own problems with the first dragon as it unleashed a long breath of flames toward her. Hess squeezed deeper into her cover but the flames still hurt. As the dragon passed overhead Hess turn to see what the other dragon was up to in time to see it plummeting straight down…at Serana.

Hess feeling panic, an unusual feeling for Hess regarding someone else, jumped up, sent another bolt at the diving dragon and missed. Before Hess had a chance to reload the dragon hit next to Serana and they both disappeared into the cold water below the ice.

For a second Hess was stunned, then the sound of the first dragon rushing in for another attack brought her around. Hess felt frustration which turned into anger, Hess did not like feelings of weakness, she reached behind her and brought to bear her short bow and more potions, Hess then stood her ground amidst spouted flames and sent arrow after arrow as fast as she could shoot into the oncoming Dragon. The dragon didn’t swerve and Hess wouldn’t stop shooting even as the dragon hit the ice and slid by so close to Hess she could have stabbed it with an arrow as easy as shooting it.

Hess ran to the now dead dragon and began pulling much needed arrows from its pincushion resembling head before the usual accompanying fire from the dragon destroyed them. Hess managed to recover quite a few before they were destroyed by the fire that resulted during the transferring of souls from the dragons to her. The rush of incoming power energized Hess better than any potion could have.

Hess began walking toward the hole in the ice the dragon and Serana had disappeared into, her bow ready, when the ice below her begin to bulge. Up through the hole came the dragon sucking water along with it. A body came up with the water to fall in a small arc and land like a limp rag doll. “Serana!” shouted Hess with a rush of emotions Hess hadn’t felt in a long time.

Hess readied her bow and a hand full of arrows for quicker reloading as the dragon reached the top of its dive, turned and came right at Hess. The dragon flew into a barrage of arrows as again Hess shot as fast as she could until running out of arrows. Dropping her bow, Hess pulled her crossbow and managed to get one bolt into the dragon’s chest before Hess ran out from under the dragon’s path. At the last minute the dragon swerved to fly across the ice only a few feet above and right over Serana. Hess held her breath, but the dragon ignored Serana’s inert form and instead flew over the edge of the ice field, a frozen waterfall, and disappeared.

Hess ran to the edge and spotted the dragon making a turn, and when it saw Hess came up straight at her. Hess waited until the last second, then shot another bolt into its chest then dived flat on the ground just as flames passed through the air where Hess had been standing. As the dragon passed Hess put bolt after bolt into its backside thinking, why won’t you die!

The dragon made another turn to head again at Hess when it suddenly fell out of the sky. It landed on the ice and slid stopping next to the first dragon.

Hess ran over to Serana and used all her magica reserves casting a healing spell on Serana. Then as Serana moaned and began standing up Hess felt a great relief flowing through her. This was very confusing and made Hess feel very uncomfortable.

Serana was trying to see or feel anything in this black void, something was wrong, she was immortal why was everything gone, and where was she… What’s that! A small area in the distance began to glow a feint red and began to come towards her in ever increasing speed until it engulfed her entirely bringing glare and pain all at once. She moaned and felt her body arch than relax, and then the memories came flooding in, a dragon!

Serana slowly got to her feet, she could feel someone helping her up. When her vision finally cleared enough she could see Hess holding her up. “Hess…what happened…where are the…” Serana stopped talking when she saw both dragons dead and lying almost side by side. Serana looked back at Hess who was staring at her with her usual stony expression and before Serana could say anything Hess grumbled a hoarse “come on”.

Serana followed Hess to the dragons and watched as Hess gutted them as usual and rummage around their offal for loot.

Finished Hess walked by Serana mumbling, “Let’s go”. The fumes as Hess got up wind of Serana almost made her gag, and inspired hope that they would make a water crossing soon…very soon.

The adventures of Hess and Serana! Wow, two dragons at once.

Neat how Hess' slowly growing comfort and affection for Serana is a foreign feeling to her.

Arcadian; Yes Hess is a hard one to read, even I don't know what she's thinking most of the time. And Serana really did disappear when the dragon hit the ice next to her, but the game re-spawned her on the ice next to the hole.
I thought I was going to have to reload a save, but then she showed up.

Hess the Warriorwitch, one chapter ends another begins.

The many faces of Serana

The pest; “When is he coming back?” “Be quiet.” “Alright.”

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

Hess stepped into Breezehome and was hit by the quiet emptiness of the house- the only sound was the crackling from the fire.

After helping the Dawnguard put down Lord Harkon and his followers, Hess had escorted Serana back to the Dawnguard’s headquarters. Serana followed her around the fort like a puppy looking at her as if expecting something. Then Hess decided…”My sword…” and held out her hand. Serana looked disappointed. “I decided to give you this”…and handed Serana an Ebony Mace of fire Hess had taken from a bandit. Hess also handed Serana a couple dozen soul gems to keep the weapon charged. Hess then turned away without another word, and left for home.

Still standing by the fire in the empty house, Hess adjusted her sword to a more comfortable position on her hip, and again, did something unusual…a small smile flitted briefly across her face, “yes it’s good to have everything back to normal.”

Hess decided it’s time to deal with the cultist, and see some warm sands in the process, Gods she was tired of snow.

First thing was to trade her heavy Arch mage robes for a lighter set, then she crafted a new pair of boots and gauntlets.

Hess had worked long and hard to learn to forge Ebony, and now it paid off, the first thing crafted was a new shortbow, then a small war axe. Hess worked over the bow and sword received when she was a nightingale until satisfied nothing more could be done with them, after all ebony wasn’t free.

When Hess was satisfied with her weapons’ balance, she then went up to Dragonsreach and enchanted everything. Once back at the house, Hess then packed everything she thought useful for her trip.
Gathering Shadowmere from the Whiterun stables, the two headed for Windhelm.

The only sad part of their journey was when Hess had to leave Shadowmere at the stables outside of Windhelm. Between Hess’s stare, gold, and Shadowmere’s countenance, there was little doubt the stable hand would take good care of the horse.

Hess found the boat she was told about but then had to convince the captain to take her to Solstrum. Arriving at the docks in Raven rock, the capital of the island, and after an unpleasant conversation with the assistant councilman worried about any trouble an outsider might cause (if he only knew) Hess walked to the main street. Hess thought it strange that the three people she asked about this Miraak, knew him and didn’t know him at the same time, acting very confused.

Authors note: I thought for sure Hess was going to take Serana with her, I guess the GOTC isn't as omnipotent as he thought.

Hess always carries two bows and melee weapons, the damn draugr like to disarm her now and then, so a backup, also one is fire + something and the other is frost + something, she also likes to switch between her long bow or the crossbow depending on the circumstances. Her long bow went with her to Solstrum, her choice.

This post has been edited by runlykhel: Jul 22 2014, 03:55 AM

You've done a nice job at understating the fact that Hess misses Serana just a little bit. . . .

Wow, done with DG already. Buffy has so much left to do. I'm very interested in Hess' adventures in Solstheim. Part of the reason is that for DG, the place Sorine asked Buffy to go for some dwemer plans is a dungeon in Solstheim!

Would the game not allow Serana to travel to Solstheim with Hess?

Buffy's mare is fully summonable and quite magic so I don't expect a problem in that regard. Having to leave the horse in Skyrim would be a no-go for Solstheim. Lol.

Anyway, great pics and story-telling!

Vicuña decided she couldn't avoid going into the cities, as she kept getting quests that needed her to go there, and a lot of them blocked her from getting other quests that didn't. So she relented and finally entered Markarth, (which is where she'll be living once she's an NPC). She immediately saw someone with a knife creeping towards an unsuspecting woman, so she shot him in the back with a thunderbolt. She found out later that he might have been one of those Forsworn she'd had so much problems with in Kolskeggr Mine. She ignored the man who claimed she dropped a note. If he lied about that, what else could she believe?

After finding a book for the smith, and recovering a statue for the merchant at the general store, she went and asked the Jarl if he had any work for her, and ended up in two more of the Forsworn's camps killing Briarhearts. She'd had enough of those when she did the Necropsy quest for Neloth.

Anyhow, she ended up buying Vlindrel Hall, and it came with some Nord bruiser called Alvin the Bullfrog, or something. She gave him some decent armor (Nordic Carved, that she'd taken off a bandit chief), hoping he'd tank for her, but in the first cave she tried him out in, he just took a knee and blocked the corridor. Since he was difficult to hurl fireballs past, she had to retreat and wait for him to get up again. She'll be leaving him behind on her next expedition.

She still hasn't been into Windhelm or Solitude, but she did visit Riften to fulfill a minor quest. Stinky place, she thought, and hopes she doesn't need to go there again. She's also been to Whiterun again, and while she was there, a child begged a gold coin from her. So she's adopted an orphan, who's currently staying at Windstad Hall alone. Next step will be to add the children's room at Vlindrel Hall, so that Alvin the Bullfrog can be useful for something - babysitting.

Vicuña also has a place in Solstheim, but you can't move your kids there. She's not all that fond of the place, anyway, as she hasn't dealt with Miraak yet, and he's made the whole island a bit creepy. She may go back later, but needs to figure out her dragon strategy first. Delphine is patiently waiting for her at Kynesgrove, and is likely to be waiting a long time. But she'll need some dragon souls banked for the Miraak campaign, so she may need to hunt a few down.

Alvin the Bullfrog!

Congrats on getting the symbol above the letter n to work.

It works here, but not in Skyrim.

ALT+164 (numbers on the numeric pad only) will enter it in most places, but the race menu screen ignores ALT or CTRL modifiers, so she'd be Vicu164a (or Vicuva if I tried to paste it). I still have to determine if she can have her proper name as an NPC, as the CK seems to allow entry, but I just haven't loaded her into the game yet. I wouldn't want her meet herself and get confused.

Wow, some really cool stories being told

I've been playing Sahar a fair bit recently but haven't got around to writing any updates so I'll just recap what she's been up to. Hopefully after this I'll get around go posting some more frequent updates and start commenting in all the other stories.

- She worked in Mixwater Mill for about a week before running off in the middle of the night (not before breaking into the owners house and relieving her of anything valuable and/or useful).
- Ran into the hired thugs while on the way to Windhelm. After a very lengthy chase she managed to lose them. She hasn't seen them since. (Phew!)
- Arrived in Windhelm and spent the next few days thieving/working in Candlehearth Hall. While in Wjndhelm Sahar learnt of Riften and even heard some rumours of the thieves guild. Eventually was caught pickpocketing and spent a few nights in jail.
- After losing most of 'her' belongings and gaining a bad reputation Sahar decided to head south to Riften, supposedly a haven for miscreants like herself. Took a carriage, the wilderness ain't her thing.
- Arrived in Riften and, despite spending nearly all her gold to get into the city, found it to be exactly what she wanted.
- Layed low for a few days, found some honest work in the farms outside the city and kept thieving to a minimum. Managed to find some less 'legit' work for a man in the market. Completed the job with ease and walked away with a thick coinpurse and the promise of more work, if she could navigate the ill-reputed Ratway.
- Eager to investigate more work with what she suspected to be the legendary (although maybe not so great now, based on the reports of the local residents) thieves guild, Sahar headed in the Ratways.
- Managed to sneak her way through the Ratway (just) and found the Ragged Flagon. She was rather unimpressed by the state of the guild's base of operations but nonetheless spoke with Brynjolf.
- Sahar reluctantly took up Brynjolf's dirty work, which involved getting a few merchants to pay their debts go the guild. Used her wit and thieving abilities as much as possible to get the results she needed and ultimately succeeded.
- Returned to the Flagon and reported her success. Accepted Brynjolf's offer to join the guild and went through the whole initiation process (the TG armour is pretty cool!). Now they want her to take on a job that stumped their greatest infiltrator. Baptism by fire I suppose...

Welcome back Vital. Yeah, those Hired Thugs really get you, don't they? Always seems like they show up at lower levels too, then you gotta employ every available technique to survive.

I like how she found some legitimate work on a farm! Sahar is doing well. I am going to start modding Skyrim this winter (seems appropriate, eh?) but there's a chance I might have one more Xbox character start Thieves Guild. As long as there's no draggies in this game, I'm cool.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Jul 28 2014, 02:49 PM

The "hired thugs" are one of the weirdest parts of the game. Vicuña had a bunch attack when she was buying logs from Hert at Half-moon Mill, and it took me three reloads before I could save her (Hert) from being killed in the fray. I finally managed it by engaging them far enough from the mill that she didn't see it and run to help.

It turned out that Vicuña had picked up something - most likely Blood Potions, which are very unique and decorative - when she cleared Castle Volkihar, and one of the dead vampires had sent them, according to the contract. Ironic as Hert is also a vampire, and we'd done the Dawnguard quests specifically to stop the random vampire attacks.

I haven't dived into the CK to determine the parameters, but I suspect the random encounters get more likely to kill the innocent bystanders as the game progresses. The attackers are freshly spawned at appropriate levels for the player, but the named NPC's are static from the start of the game, and thus relatively weak. I note that there are a few mods to make NPC's run and hide when hostilities break out, and I'm considering installing some.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Jul 28 2014, 03:18 PM

I remember in Mycharonna's early game, just after she gained Anise's Cabin. At one point she was standing outside, looking across the river to where the 3 standing stones are. She's just standing there, I'm just gazing at the scenery, and all a sudden we notice there were some guys in heavy armor on the other side of the river.

I thought they were Companions maybe, or perhaps some marauders. Then I remembered. Because I've seen them before with other characters .. they were hired thugs!

I think they vanished for awhile, so we thought everything was cool. Mycharonna was not a vampire yet, so she went to sleep, and woke up the next morning and BAM there they were. Right outside her cabin, waiting for her. She managed to run away, and kept running. I think in those days she could only cast Flames, Reanimate Dead (the weakest version) and a couple other beginner spells. She managed to get all 3 of them though.

I found those hired thugs pretty intimidating as well. My first time playing (with Acadian), he must have picked up something by mistake to trigger them. It took two or three reloads to survive and the episode made Buffy petrified to touch anything that doesn't belong to her!

There's enough black pajama dudes, vampires, thieves and such trying to kill her without adding 'hired thugs'.