Wow, you weren't kidding! Lions and tigers and bears, Guards and dragons and vampires, oh my!

Zanimal sounds like a blast to play.

*

Buffy made it to Sostheim. They seem to call her Outlander there instead of Milk drinker or Little elf. So she figures those who live there must be Inlanders. Happily, Superian made the trip just fine as well.

She's still getting oriented. She found was seems like a fort guarded by hostile reavers. Funny, they walk like, talk like and die like bandits. Then she helped a temple clear things called ash spawn from their undercroft.

Wow, they don't say 'Little Elf' to Buffy? I would have expected they would say this all the time.



You know? .. I've had this thought too; some draugr especially must have been pretty fearsome while they were still human.

Why would they? Most folks (if not all) in Raven Rock are Dunmer - i.e. Elves themselves. It makes perfect sense to me that they would call Buffy "Outlander" while back in Skyrim the racist Skinheads in disguise would call her "Little Elf" or "Milkdrinker!"

Whoops I screwed up. I didn't realize they are mostly dark elves. Haven't even been to Solstheim yet.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Sep 21 2014, 01:38 AM

She's been there a few days now and all she's been called is Outlander by the Dunmer and Skaal.

In talking with the Skaal, she's completely fascinated by them. Their belief in the All-Maker almost perfectly mirrors what Master Daenlin in Bravil taught her as a child and how she has lived most all her life - respect the land and creatures, take only what you need to and be thankful to the creatures you must kill for the food and clothing they provide that sustains you. Her approach in this regard has always reminded me of some of the American Indian tribes. If I recall correctly, you have some of that in your blood as well?

Edit: Oops! I only just now saw/realized the both Rider and Renee were posting as I was leisurely composing this. Sorry, didn't mean to seem as if I was ignoring both of you. I agree with Rider on the 'Outlander' feeling very appropriate coming from Morrowindy Dunmers.

This post has been edited by Acadian: Sep 21 2014, 03:31 AM

Outlander is basically an insult among the Dunmer. The word in their language for it is N'wah, which means foreigner and/or slave, one often being the other. You get it a lot playing Morrowind, including if you are playing a Dunmer. They basically hate everyone who isn't a Dunmer, or is a Dunmer, but was born and raised outside of Morrowind. When it comes to racism, the Nordic skinheads have nothing on the Dark Elves.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Sep 21 2014, 04:34 AM

Correct. Some Cherokee. Also German / Irish and African. I look white though.

Well that's is cool about the Skaal and their beliefs. I assume Skaal are found in Morrowind, or one of the MW expansions? I'll be playing MW soon, and for the first time, this fall. I might also revive Lord Haaf-Mersey's game once I 'beat' Dark Brotherhood with Mych. Maybe LHM will go to Solstheim out of curiosity or something.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Middas, 9:11 PM, 12th of Last Seed, 4th Era 202

Mychaonna the Ice Witch is now in ... um .... White River Watch, where she has cleared it of bandits. WRW is a cakewalk for her now that she's Level 46 in a lair which she probably originally passed through at Level 4 or 5. She's just using WRW as a place to sleep during the day though.

She is on her way to Solitude once again, where she will see about finding the real Titus Mede. He's supposed to be on some ship. Once she finds him, she gets to rid him of his Nirnly existence.

I think there will be some sort of plot-twist though. Like she won't actually be able to kill Mede, or Mede is the Night Mother, or something like this. Something Bethesda-ish.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Sep 21 2014, 03:12 AM

It's interesting to follow Mycharonna because I'll probably never get to the Dark Brotherdude stuff in Skyrim.

Dark Brotherhood is more like a TES4 questline in the sense that it seems like it's longer than some other TES5 quests. Right now Mych is pretty much focused on following the DB, even in a RP sense she has little desire to explore, get rich, find rare items, etc. She often walks by chests and coin sacks without touching them. What's the point? She's got Eternal Life, there's no rush to have all this extra stuff in her life. So for this reason she's unlike some of my others.

Bottom line: She's very focused on seeing what the Night Mother wants for her to become, so she's pretty much focused on the DB quests, and not much else. Despite this, it seems like it's taking forever to get to the conclusion of DB, whatever it may be. This is a good thing, though.

During both DBs (in 4 and 5) the Dark Brotherhood loses most of its members. In TES4, it's the character who is commanded (by Lucien) to kill them all. In TES5, they also mostly die, but it's because the Sanctuary gets raided. I don't think I've mentioned this before but when Mych returned to the Sanctuary near Falkreath the place was in ruins. There were a few stray soldier NPCs who had apparently just torn the DB to shreds, so Mych had to deal with these guys. After this, she found only two of the former DB members: a Redguard guy who gives out radiant quests and a child vampire.

This part of Dark Brotherhood was extremely bizarre. It featured a cut-scene during which the character (Mycharonna) stepped into the Night Mother's coffin and hid inside it. The screen went dark for a very long time after she did this. There was nothing but my dark TV screen, and the sound of water, so I assumed she was supposed to be in this coffin, floating away on some water. I also thought my Xbox was glitching perhaps! I'd never seen anything like this in a game, unless it was glitching. I was thinking maybe I should turn the game off and start this part of the DB all over again, but then I thought this might be bad, since starting over would mean starting the entire Sanctuary raid sequence all over again.

So I just waited. Eventually we heard the sounds of those two NPCs (the child vamp and the Redguard) here and there. They were saying something like "Hmm, what is this here?" as if they were looking at the Night Mother's coffin, wondering what's inside.

At some point the Night Mother herself spoke to Mycharonna, then Mych somehow gets out of the coffin and tells Babette (child vamp) and the Redguard what just happened. Like I said, it was one of the weirdest videogame sequences I've ever seen, and I'm not entirely sure it wasn't partially some sort of glitch.

@Renee: It's okay, I forget sometimes that Solstheim was given to the Dark Elves after the Big Blow as a place to call home. I'm so used to the Solstheim of Treydog's fiction (and yes, the Skaal is present in one of the MW expansions - Blood on the Moon), where Nords and Imperials predominate.

I've never played anything earlier than TES IV, so what I know of MW is through the excellent writing of folks like Treydog and quite a few others.

@SubRosa: I am aware that in MW "Outlander" is an insult; however it somehow doesn't feel quite like that in TES V's Solstheim. And I agree, the Dunmer of Vvardenfell are just as racist/bigoted as the Nords of Skyrim. But as I see it, the Dunmer come to that from a persecution complex, while the Nords just think they're better than everybody else.

Back to Renee regarding Mych's experience in -- umm -- the NM's coffin. If it's a game glitch, roll with it! I love the challenges of including glitches into my RP/fan fictions - it makes things more fun and lively. One famous glitch I recall is mALX's Maxical glitching on the XBox, which led to some pretty wild stuff with Count Hassildor and Fathis Aren!

Yep, I did roll with it. It was so strange though. The Xbox started making some weird sounds, I think the disc drive actually kicked on during that cut-scene, and its fan kicked into high-speed. Usually the disc drive is off at all times, except during game startup. I wonder if that part of the quest happens the same on PC. I kinda doubt it.

I think anybody who saw what I saw would start to get nervous, especially in today's climate of instant gratification, it just seems like most people would freak. I know I did.

Okay, I found an example of what I am talking about here, and it's from a PC game. And it's from an earlier part of DB than Mych encountered. See what I mean? It's rather bizarre. I almost think Beth should have put a 'do not turn your game off' message here.



Awesome! I agree some glitches can be cool, and you can work them into stories. Like there was one time my Crusader Knight guy went into a fort full of bandits, and none of them attacked him. It's like the attack script did not kick-in or something. I just RP'd that "finally" those heathenish bandits have seen the errors of their ways.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Sep 21 2014, 07:09 PM

Renee, I’ve found the Night Mother’s coffin parts of the DB quests to be very glitchy. My first assassin Allek was on the PS3 during all of the early patch madness, and he got stuck in there several times (reloads) before the next part finally kicked in and got him through it. My assassin Neph on the PC experienced a long enough delay in there to make me really wonder what was going to happen, which was great because I’d been through the quests a year or so before. I think the water sounds are from the pool in the sanctuary where the coffin lands after getting thrown through the fancy window in the explosions. Congrats to Mycharonna on surviving that attack! That fire must have been upsetting for a vampire.

Acadian, I’m delighted that Buffy has found some friends in the Skaal. I personally love that village and the people there. (Though I’m not a big fan of their horker fashion sense. )

SubRosa, your idea of playing the grown-up kids has taken a turn in my (Mikke’s daughter’s) Sofie game. I took her on a walk to Riften to see what she was like, and I had a lot of things wrong. She does not want to go adventuring with her boring brother Alesan. She wants her Whiterun BFF, miss “there's nobody I won't fight” Braith. I figure they may have eventually befriended each other since they both have distracted or absent mothers and both like to fight. I made teen Braith as an NPC and stuck her inside Amren’s house. Sofie will have to do Amren’s favor quest in order to get in to recruit teen Braith. (I’m going to re-name child Braith and then ignore her.)

Sofie does not want to live with her brother in their childhood home. She wants a little cabin out somewhere in the woods. Maybe Lakeview as just the cabin. We’ll have to see. All I know is that after sleeping on the street in Windhelm out of necessity she is done with cities and done with snow.

Also Dante the husky is Alesan’s dog. The next time Sof passes through Whiterun he’s going to get left behind to chill out with his master in Breezehome.

Teen Braith looks amazing! Brilliant of Sofie to hook up with her to form the Dynamic Girl Duo. Now I am wondering what other kids are going to grow up to become adventurers?

Thank you! I usually don’t go for beautiful, but I wanted Braith to look gorgeous as well as tough. I personally think that Redguards are the best looking Skyrim race, and damn I sure like the way Braith turned out. I’m excited for Sofe to go on the road with her. I’ve been trying to remember my last female duo. Valdi and Serana are not going to be long-term pals, so they don’t really count. It might have been Zuuri and Uthgerd. They were awesome together.

Now I’m tempted to make a smokin’ hot Lars Battle-Born and take him to the Bards College. Lol. Of course he may move in with Alesan at Breezehome instead. Whiterun Grows Up, the series.

I wonder which of the other Skyrim kids will grow up and adventure like their parents, too! This has been way more fun than I would have imagined.

Yeah you know? .. Something odd about the way that one was coded or something.

Teen Braith looks kinda like Michonne from Walking Dead.

Grits, I'm so glad you're enjoying SubRosa's great idea of 'kids in Skyrim gotta grow up'. Braith looks fantastic!

Thanks, guys!

Captain Zanimal is headed to the Rift to do that thing he was supposed to do for Lord Harkon. Zanimal can no longer raise fallen enemies with his now weak spell so he needs a better one. He thought it unwise to show up back at the castle with an empty Chalice. Lord Harkon is not the sort of guy he wants to piss off. At least not without more backup.

He’s holed up for the day in an old fort. The first fort he found was full of mortal necromancers. Captain Z hates necromancers. He is admittedly an enthusiastic necromancer himself, but that’s different. He has the courtesy to also be undead.

An ancient dragon attacked on the road near Morthal before he reached the second fort. It was a frost dragon so Zanimal enjoyed the fight quite a bit. His fireballs lit up the dragon’s underbelly beautifully when it hovered overhead. If it had been using fire Shouts it would have been a different story.

The second fort provided a feast for Captain Z. Now he remembers what he likes so much about the landlocked Holds. The blood of Nords with very little fish in their diet.

Also he was attacked by a Dawnguard/Vigilant patrol (mod) when he exited the fort for some pre-dawn stargazing right before bed. They provided him with some more expensive weapons and another near-death experience. It was a good reminder of why he keeps Sheena around. He finds her chatter annoying, but she can really throw down in a fight.

Here’s a screenshot from the dragon battle when a second dragon flew overhead. Rather oddly it didn’t attack. And here’s one of the Zanimal executing a Vigilant vampire hunter with a "force feeding" combat bite. Note the flame cloak. That’s the Vigilant’s. The Zanimal goes all-in when it comes to a fight. Oh, and the innocent looking Imperial bow? Damn thing is an enchanted ‘silver’ somethingorother bow from the vampire mod. It hits hard. The Z had to scuttle like a cockroach to reach her between shots without dying. Very satisfying kill.

I love the wintery forest with the burning dragon, it is a wonderful contrast of color!

So Captain Z takes to the land. With Sheena Easton backing him up. At least he has those sugar walls to come home to...

I agree with SubRosa - that's a magnificent night shot of the dragon on fire, with the snow on the ground and trees contrasting against the starry night sky and another dragon above. And wow - those VigiVampire Hunters sound like they mean business and are very well equipped for their task!

I’ve really enjoyed experiencing Skyrim’s nights with vampire Zanimal. His predator vision makes a lot of contrast and brightens the colors a bit. Age has not diminished his sense of wonder, which makes him fun. In Solstheim he spent a lot of time watching the glowing netches float around through falling ash. He’s always looking up when he walks. Maybe staying in the moment is his way of not letting immortality overwhelm him.

It turns out that Captain Zanimal was right to avoid Lord Harkon’s court. His brother (Feran Sadri was Zanimal’s brother in life, and it was Feran who convinced him to become a member of the Volkihar clan) didn’t have any paralysis poison for sale, and his brother’s assistant didn’t have the Revenant spell tome that Zanimal is looking for. The assistant did have some other interesting spells, however. I had forgotten I have Daedra of Coldharbor active in the Zanimal’s game. I doubt if he will use the summoned daedra, though. The Zanimal loves to reanimate and hates reminders that when he goes to dust he will be Molag Bal’s bitch.

While Zanimal was “home” at the keep Lord Harkon revealed his plan to the clan. Captain Zanimal thinks he’s nuts. Also while he was at court Vingalmo tasked him with some business and that kid Serana announced that she was going to tag along. Great.

The Zanimal did have a brief chat with Serana before he took a nap in a real coffin for once. It sounds like she went through quite the ordeal on behalf of her parents. Zanimal does not really remember his parents, but he’s pretty sure they wouldn’t have offered him and Feran to the Prince of Rape in exchange for any kind of power. No wonder Serana is messed up. Now Zanimal might put up with a little more of her whining. This was funny to me because the Z is not very paternal, even for a vampire. I guess Serana is just that good at manipulating people.

It looks like Capt. Z might leave without even feeding on the thralls. He must really be disgusted with the current situation.

In old news while passing through Eastmarch Captain Z paid off a guard for killing Raven Rock (How did they know? Why do they care?! Or did Z eat some Eastmarch guards and I don’t remember ? ) and recruited the Argonian Crook Tooth (one of my former character NPCs) to replace Stenvar. It’s a good idea to have an Argonian on the crew. Sheena and her sugar walls get to stay on board for a while. The captain took Crook Tooth dragon hunting on the way back to the ship, and the non-winged lizard passed the test. Also Crook Tooth laughs at Asrael’s constant bragging (conversations thanks to Follower Commentary mod), which is a major plus. The Zanimal likes his raiders to have a sense of humor.

So next the Bloodrunner will head to Dawnstar since Winterhold still hasn’t gotten their docks situated after the Great Collapse. The Zanimal wants his Revenant spell, and Julianos help the Conjuration trainer there if they don’t have it for sale. Serana can come along and ask her questions if she likes. Maybe some more idiots from Harkon’s court will try to ambush him like those two at the Redwater Spring. The Zanimal likes killing rival vampires as much as he likes killing necromancers. So that’s something to look forward to.

Here’s a screenshot from outside the skooma den they visited in the Rift. The Zanimal bought some quality skooma and watched over his raiders while they got baked. The next evening he missed his guess for the time and walked out into sunset. Thankfully he has the power to Invoke Fog for a few minutes, which in this case was long enough for him to stroll along under the trees while the sun went down. Being a higher-level modded vampire is pretty neat.