Always sad to lose a friend Maybe if The Hero of Kvatch The Saviour of Bruma The Defeater of Umaril The Champion of Cyrodiil Renee goes a few rounds in the Arena she´ll get her mind off it, at least for awhile.


Heh, using a Charm spell on Palonirya, did she?

@Renee - those are some nice dresses.

I suspect they might've cost even more if not for that suspicious green glow Palonirya has...

-----

So I'm still jumping around, though not quite so hectically. I spent some more time with Ughoth first - he got a couple of missions for the Archmage, tracking down artifacts that had been taken from the AU by panicky and/or sinister mages, and he needed to get out and stretch his legs a bit (those teleport pads at Frostcrag have made him sort of lazy), so he did it all on foot - first up past Chorrol to check on Caranya (and that didn't surprise him a bit - he never did trust her), then back down by way of the IC to the Nibenay Valley to check in on Irlav, which didn't go so well (or at least didn't go so well for Irlav).

On the way out to Fort Teleman, he happened on Nocturnal's shrine, so when he was done there, he went down to Leyawiin to check into that. Immediately after arriving, he heard about an Orc at the castle who claimed she was a knight, and found his interest piqued by "Orc", "knight" and "she" - not necessarily in that order. But first he had to go find this Weebam-na and see what he could learn about the Eye. On his way out of town to go get the Eye, he swung by the castle, only to find out that this Orc so-called-knight - a pushy broad named Mazoga - wanted someone to track down Weebam-na. Seems to be involved in lots of stuff.

So Ughoth ended up going to Tidewater Cave, recovering the Eye, delivering it to Nocturnal, going back to Leyawiin, rousing Weebam-na, delivering him to Mazoga, then guiding Mazoga to Fisherman's Rock, all in one hectic day. Then he slept, loafed around most of the next day, and went that night with Mazoga to take care of Black Brugo.

Then after sleeping late the next day, he made the long trip back to the IC to report to the Archmage, and is currently parked outside the AU. He's going to take some time off and spend some time in... one of the cities. Not sure which yet.

Then I spent quite a while with an old character I'm newly playing (she was parked in the Market District on her first morning for a couple of years) - Lorl gra-Ornug the battlemage.

She came about when someone on the Beth forums asked for the best race for a battlemage. I did a bit of research and found that, by stats alone, the "best" is a female Orc - that's the only race/gender combination that gets no meaningful penalties - every other race/gender gets penalties to the "battle" part or to the "mage" part. So after a bit of thought, I created my own female Orc battlemage, but aside from a name I quite liked, she didn't have any particular identity, and ended up just parked.

When I created Ughoth, I revised my Orc textures, and I wanted to see what they looked like on a female Orc, and the only one I had was Lorl, so I loaded her up. I was impressed by how almost pleasant (at least by Orc standards) they made her look, and right there was my hook into the character. She's... imagine a sort of Dar-ma of an Orc. She's just a pleasant person. And an Orc.

As I've played her, I've come to realize that it makes more sense that it's not that she's just naturally pleasant - she's naturally smart, and she's cultivated being pleasant, because she recognizes that it's to her advantage.

She wears whatever armor suits her purposes, though she leans a bit toward heavy, and carries a warhammer. She uses destruction for ranged attacks and a fairly broad assortment of utility spells. And after all that introduction - she's still quite early in the game and is currently in Skingrad, on day 2 of dealing with Glarthir. She's already rescued Erthor, and cleaned out all the area dungeons, and is just killing time, then she'll set out for Anvil. And I have no idea what I'll do with her when she gets to Kvatch, but I suspect that she'll just ignore that turn-off.

Then I spent some time with Belladonna. She had been headed out to the West Weald to track down the Dwemer artifacts for Bothiel, but couldn't seem to make it out of Chorrol. First she got roped into helping the Jemanes reclaim Weatherleah, then on the way to the camp she had been told to check on, she happened on an entirely different one and ended up fighting a bunch of bandits and recovering one of the artifacts there. When she returned to Chorrol to offload loot, she found that Dar-ma had vanished, so she spent a day and most of a night tracking her down and rescuing her, then finally got back out into the West Weald and made it to Camp Ales. Then she spent three days traveling around the West Weald and tracking down the artifacts. That was a blast - she's very stealthy (without armor or melee skill, she doesn't have much choice) so when she knew she was getting close to one of the camps, she'd start sneaking - moving from one rock outcrop to another, always looking for a good vantage point, then spending some time scanning the countryside, looking for the camp. She took one set of bandits out when they were so far away that they were barely specks in the distance (seriously - I should've gotten screenshots of it, but I was too wrapped up in doing it and didn't think about it until it was too late. They were like flyspecks on the screen - easily some of the longest shots I've ever made in the game).

On the way back, heading toward Skingrad, she ran across the West Weald Brown Bears. She saw the first one as it was charging her and wisely climbed up on a nearby rock, because two more came right behind it. She could see a house in the distance, so once the bears were dealt with, she made her way cautiously over there and found that the owner claimed to have a bear problem. No kidding? She tracked down two more fairly quickly, but it took her a long time to find a sixth. She finally found one though, and claimed her reward, then finished up the trip to Skingrad and is currently parked near the east entrance, ready to continue on to the IC.

This made me smile.

I know what you mean about fly-specks in the distance, now that I'm on PC. Consoles barely give any draw-distance at all, but on PC, it's possible for NPCs to be doing their thing very far away. And sometimes my elf can actually hit one of 'em with an arrow, but this usually takes a few shots.

Morndas, 9:43 am, Morning Star 7, 3rd Era 434

Gameplay: 171 hours, 7 minutes, 53 seconds

*click* ... *pick*

Kahreem of Weet wanders all around Anvil, looking for things he can easily pick and sell. An onion here, a thatch of aloe vera leaves there. He hopes it will all add up to 500 gold. This task would not be so much of a task if he had a fence, somebody to sell stolen things to, here in Anvil itself.

"How goes it?"

"What's going on, man of cat-fur?"

"S'shani. The old sea captainnnnn and rover .. now a shipowner and fatcat. Please to meet you."

Kahreem returns to the Count's Arms, where (unfortunately) his 24-hour room rental has ended. Not wanting to blow another 25 gold for this room, he simply walks upstairs, and picks its lock. Chances are nobody else would rent it, and then find somebody illegally squatting in there.

"So, how's a man like me, a simple out-of-work Redguard merchant, supposed to make a living in this town?"

"Take some advice? Go down to the seeeea, stand a while. Watch the sun rise and set. Think on the distant lands across the water."

"That it? That all? Well, you've been ... quite helpful there, Khajiit. Very insightful advice you've given. How's that supposed to make me some Septims? Hmmph."

"'bye!"

"Sure. 'bye. Think I'll go stare at the sunset awhile. I heard it can make me mad amounts of gold. Hmph."

Once inside 'his' room, the Redguard is glad to see that the legionnaire's armor he had scavenged some days before is still here. He has a good night's rest in his un-rented room, and wakes next morning to sell the things he picked. The morning air is crisp and clear on his walk to Lelle's Quality Merchandise. Once inside, Kahreem manages to sell the following: One pair of doeskin shoes, and some coarse brown trousers, a pair of rough leather shoes, and some tan linens...

"That's a good deal."

"It is?"

He also sells a weak fire-resisting potion, three aloe vera leaves, a wedge of cheese...

"You've made a good bit of gold... You drive a hahd baagain."

"I do? How about 100 gold for this ear of corn. NO? Well give my my one fokkinge Septim, then. Sheesh."

...an ear of corn, a small bit of foxglove nectar, three vines of purple grapes (Kahreem has a hard time letting those go), a leek stalk, a yellowing head of lettuce...

"You got a great deal there."

"Great deal? It's ..... a head ...of ... lettuce...for another lousy gold piece."

... an onion, a pear, four rotten potatoes, two strawberries, two tomatoes, a clay pitcher (Norbert refuses to part with any gold for this, even though he just dropped some Septims on some rotten food), four cloth swatches, and two repair hammers.

"That's a fair deal."

Altogether, the Redguard earns 56 gold, and now carries 529 in total. Not bad for some honest scavenging.

"Tell your friends about me!"

Kahreem decides this might be an unusual idea, since he hasn't got any friends.


10:40 am
He follows the same procedure from the day before: having a look over his shoulder before entering The Stranger's house. Looks okay. No curious guard, stalking him on the street. The one guard who recognized him a day or two ago must not be on duty, out here. Nobody is inside the abandoned house which the Stranger lives in, so Kahreem has a seat, eats some stolen bread ...... and then waits. For hours. In his manpurse is a single bottle of skooma, and it takes all his willpower not to just down this bottle, and then fall into a wasted stupor. As he waits hour after hour, getting bored, and getting sleepy, he actually picks up a book which the Stranger has brought up here, and does some reading.

"Hmm. Myth? or Men ... ace?" says its cover. "Many invesss ... in ... in .. ves ..ti ...gators ... investigators have attempted to solve the riddle of the Thieves Guild. Despite repeated proofs that no vi--- vi-a viable Thieves Guild exists, the rumors persist. Whenever historians search for evidence of this shadowy organization, nothing is found. Witnesses know nothing *HA!* and nothing is found. Safe houses are empty. Fences turn out to be simple businessman...."

It takes him a couple hours of reading, for there are some words which he does not know, before he finally comes to this book's conclusion.

"...By nature, a thief is a rule-breaker. Therefore an organization that has rules would fail if all its members were thieves. *HA!* For these reasons, I dis-- dis-pu-te the exist-ence of a modern day Thieves Guild in Cyrodiil. Ha! Well that's a laugh. I might have to write a book of my own someday. Tell them my story, or the story of my many stor--"



"Don't interrupt me."

"Ah, finally, you're back, forger. So how goes it? You going to give me my fokkinge letter, or what?"

"You're bothering me."

"Good. If it makes you feel any better, let's get this business out of the way. Because your attitude is worse than the hockings of a beggar downing Cheap Wine for days on end. I am about to give you five-hundred fokkinge gold pieces for your .... 'work'. You'd better be happy about it."

"Do you have my fee?"

Kahreem does not answer. Instead, he simply plops the man's fat bag of gold, right on the table. 500 gold. Gone. Just like that. "I'm in the wrong business. If all I had to do to make that much money was write a few words on a piece of paper..."

"Here is the List of Candidates. Hieronymus Lex has a glowing recommendation."

Kahreem notes the forger is finally smiling. Obviously, why would he not? "That's my money you've got there. Many pockets picked, and many items stolen. Have fun renovating this old dump of a home."

"Hmmph."

As Kahreem leaves The Stranger's home, he also smiles. 500 gold is a lot to lose, and he feels like he's just taken a hammer in his stomach.

"So let's fill that gaping wound in my tummy, eh?"

But he smiles because he knows it's finally time to move into Stage Two of his .. uh ... two-stage plan.





4:55 PM
clank clank clank clank ...

With just 29 gold in his pocket and nothing to lose, the Weet Bandit decides he's had enough of Anvil.

clank clank clank clank...

He had spent the last hour or so donning his tin Legionnaire's suit; hefting this heavy gear around, trying to make sure everything was properly fastened, and fitted just so, for he has a definite goal in mind. Some of his armor pieces are pretty beat-up, but still, armor is always better than no armor. As he got his suit together, he smiled and pondered and wanted.

"Here I come. Come to rescue my five fair maidens from this decrepit place of business."

Wilbur stares and glares, as the Redguard who had been staying in his establishment comes down his stairs one final time. Instead of walking down the stairs and leaving outright, the Redguard hooks around the end of the staircase, angling himself before Wilbur's Cheapest of Wines.



"Hello Wilbur. And hello lovelies. I'm Kellsgard, the Dragon-slayer, though you might also call me the Bottle-Slayer as well. *clink*

"You treacherous little filcher, HOW DARE you steal from me!"

"Oh that's not all, Wilbur. These poor lovelies deserve a better home than this hodge of a hovel you call an inn." *clink*

"Somebody help! Come quickly, we've got a burglar!"

"I promise to give these lovelies the best of care. Do not fret or worry, Wilbur. It's been a pleasant stay, here at the Count's Arms." *clink!* "I'm going to make sure to tell all my friends about you."

"Break the law on MY WATCH, will ya? I'll be confiscating your stolen goods," says a poorly-paid representation of Cyrodiil. "Oh, and no gold to pay your fine, hmmm? It's off to the lockup then."

"In your dreams, Imperial."

"Then PAY WITH YOUR BLOOD!"

From that moment on, it's all a blur. Kahreem grabs one final bottle, then dashes out of the inn. Several patrons grab their weapons, and turn to the Redguard who just stole five bottles of Cheap Wine, but it's to no avail. By the time they react, he is already out the door.

"Stay away!"

He makes a dash for it, straight across the causeway, and winds up leaving Anvil from its western entrance. He hears some other guards mobilizing as he runs up Anvil's dock. Bows being nocked, arrows being shot. But he takes not one lick of damage. He borders the town's outskirts, and finds a short set of stairs to run up. Stops, to get his breath. Apparently, nobody is coming for him, or at least, they have no idea where he went. Good! ... He turns around, and casually walks against the sunset.


8:06 pm

"Greetings to you."

"What's new with you?"

"Maenlorn and his brother there have a nice establishment at the flowing bowl."

"I've eaten many meals there, and I've always been satisfied."

An elf and Anvil's sole stablehand, a Redguard, have a pleasant conversation, as the sun sets behind them. The Morningstar air around them is crisp and cool. But nowhere near as cool as what might be found up north.

"Have you heard any word about the other provinces?"

"They say that--"

"Somebody help.." "Somebody come quick, we've got a burglar!..." The Weet Bandit strikes again, this time managing to mount the same bay he rode in on. The same bay which he had stolen long ago, from Skingrad's stables. Kahreem smiles as the wood elf below him grabs some sort of knife, and begins to charge the stolen steed. His bounty must be through the roof.



"Well now, what do we have here?" asks one of Anvil's Finest casually. "Caught in the act and no gold to pay your fine," he says in an overhanded way, knowing he's about to maybe make the up-for-grabs title of Watch Captain, or so he hopes. "I'm confiscating your stolen goods."

"Ha! Okay. You can have this loaf of bread I filched earlier this evening. Have it! It's yours."

"Now it's off to jail with ya!"

"Sure. But not now. Mmm....must be somewhere, you know, must deliver someth--"

"Then PAY WITH YOUR BLOOD!"

The Redguard decides he'd rather not do this. Who wants to pay with his blood, anyways? So instead of paying with his blood, he rides off into the night, with a very angry set of people clamoring after him, and bottles of Cheap Wine clinking in his night-sack.



This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 31 2023, 06:26 PM

Awesome, I love this story! Firstly, it because it's long and secondly, because it has many funny events.

The part about "five fair maidens" is my favorite as is the description of a guard - a poorly paid representative of Cyrodiil.

Talk about an epic departure! Kahreem strikes again and finally he has the forged letter in his hand!

Acadian, how nice to see Buffy with her friend Lenwin!

gpstr, you really have been jumping around lately. It’s fun to have so many different characters to read about.

Renee, nice modesty top on Felrika! It sounds like she and Renee get along well. Nice to see Renee in a pretty dress. I really laughed at her assessment that it had no protective properties and might be a burden in combat. Sorry to hear about Cresha and Miss Gade’s resulting funk. (Had to be careful that I spelled that correctly.)

But he smiles because he knows it's finally time to move into Stage Two of his .. uh ... two-stage plan.

I lol-ed. The daring liberation of Wilbur’s cheap wines! And so my favorite bandit rides off into the dark on his stolen horse.


Darnand had a small incident with a billy inside an Ayleid ruin the other day. Jerric had charged off to parts unknown as usual during a big fight, and Darnand couldn’t even hear battle sounds any more. Their best-friend almost psychic connection kept warning him that Jerric was still under attack somewhere and repeatedly falling unconscious. Darnand had to scoot through a room with poison gas while searching for him. There was a land dreugh on the other side.

Darnand had been using a nighteye spell because he hasn’t found an enchanted item or bothered to get into the AU yet, and torches are for Nords. His Shield spell was still up, but it’s not a very good one. He had enough magicka to attack by himself or summon something and then run off healing himself of the wounds he had already received, but not both. Darnand being Darnand, he chose to attack.

Land dreughs move forward slowly and predictably, so Darnand stood his ground. Also the poison gas room made him not want to move back, and the minotaur lords they had fought previously made him not want to run forward and past the billy into enemies unknown. So he cast weakness to magicka while the dreugh marched toward him, then weakness to fire while the dreugh marched toward him some more. Then his nighteye spell expired.

No time to renew it or use a detect life spell. He cast a ball of fire straight into the dark, and it lit up the land dreugh much closer to him than a second ago. While I panicked a little Darnand cast fire again. The dreugh appeared by the light of his spell now very close indeed. Then it fell down covered in flames.

Whew.

A second later Jerric charged in grinning with a torch in his hand. I’m not sure which of his cheerful greetings he offered. At that moment Darnand’s internal monologue would have drowned out an Oblivion Gate opening. But he was happy to see that torch light!

Ah Kareem... such noble deeds should not go unrewarded.

@Grits - I like that scene - that moment when the fireball goes billowing into the dark and is just going to hit something or not, and that's just the way it is. It feels so nice when something like that works out.

Yikes, that sounds positively frightening about Darnand. Especially the part when the fireball lit up the land dreugh, which was now much closer than you thought. Sheesh.

Oh, but Jerrric did return, and with a torch. PHEW is right. Oh my gosh. Funny thing though, but as scary as all that sounds, it just made me really psyched to play some Oblivion tonight.

There we go. Xbox on. Kahreem is making his way slowly from Anvil to Skingrad. Not really much to write about as he journeys in all the Xbox'x 30 fps glory, so I'll post an old RG3 story instead. I'm running out of RG3 stuff... oh no!



Loredas, 7:58 am Evening Star 1, 4th Era 20

"Ahhh, sorry friend. It would appear that the opponent you bet on lost the last fight. Better luck next time."

Renee looks to Hundolin, the Bosmer who runs the gambling portion of the Arena. At first she forgets that she had bet on a match. She had done so the previous day.....she had bet 100 gold on this match, and lost. Not a huge problem; she still had thousands in Cyrodiil's bank. But she silently hopes that her poor luck with gambling won't translate to poor luck overall.

"Oh that money?" Renee shrugs, "It is no matter, elf. Win some, lose some. No, I am here for a different reason. I have come to compete in another fight."

"Ahh sorry. I just assumed. Well, if you would like to participate in a match, please head down the stairs and--"

"--speak to Owyn, that annoyingly pesky Redguard who runs the Bloodworks. Believe me, I cannot wait to hear his latest taunts."

But then Renee changes her mind. She has arrived here at the Arena with her entire gang of adventurers, all four of them: Gabrielle (her Imperial friend from Skyrim), Felrika (ale-drinking Nord warrior, also from Skyrim), Haili (an altmer magic-user from Cheydinhal), and the newest addition to her posse: Bree (wood elf archer from Valenwood, said to have studied under the tutelage of the great Lady Saga herself). With all these extra people along, Renee realizes she cannot just bring them all with her for the fight. Not only is this probably not allowed, but all the gamblers and spectators might have trouble seeing who would be the actual winner. Would it be Renee? Or one of her followers?

She counts her gold, and realizes she's got 160 on her person. Plenty to bet on a match. Again, she bets 100 gold, this time on the Blue Team.

"All right, my friend. You've got 100 gold down on the Blue Team. Good luck, and enjoy the match! Oh, and if you win, come see me for your payout!"

"You can bet I will."

"'Bye!"

With this out of the way, Renee now brings her entire gang up to watch the fight, and tells them all she's going to have them stay up here. This way, she has her own little cheering section, not that she needs such a thing.

"Good luck... Champion!" Felrika the Nord says sarcastically.

"Hey, you better hope this 'Champion' wins her next match, otherwise you are all out of a job."




10:53 am

"I'm a busy man, what is it?"

"Oh? You are busy? .. Doing what, exactly? You know, every time I have ever seen you, you have been standing here by that wall. Standing around, making your snippy little comments, trying to insult true bravehearts like myself."

"Don't talk such rot."

"Come with me, Redguard, I will show you what 'busy' really means. When was the last time you traversed from Bruma to Leyawiin in less than a week? Bravil to Anvil? Uhh-huh, I will show you busy."

"I don't like your attitude, Pit Dog."

Wearing her most precious new dress, a rose-colored set of exotic threads, which she had paid way too much for at Divine Elegance, Renee hopes to shock Owyn the Redguard. Every time he has seen her so far, which has been three times in total, she's been less than fashionable. Way less.

"That dress is getting a little tight on you, Brawler! I think you need some exercise! What do you say? Ready for a match?"

"Getting a little tight on me? Are you saying I'm fat?"

"I heard a rumor that you're an idiot. Any truth to that?"

Renee now fumes and pouts. Furious she is. How dare he? ... but she holds it all in, and saves face. "If an idiot can go up against the best the Yellow Team has to offer and win, then so be it. I am an idiot. An idiot who is getting rich off the likes of you, though. And I am much more busy, too."

With that, Renee does a turnabout. Stalks toward the raiment cabinet, and goes to get suited, before the rudest Redguard in all Cyrodiil can follow up with another insult.



11:06 am
Walking back to Owyn while wearing a light battle raiment feels a little like the ultimate walk of shame to Renee, which puzzles her. It's like the times when she was younger back in her Skyrim days, and she had angered one of the teachers at the Riften orphanage where she was raised. But she knows what to do. She knows how to handle this. Rather than direct her anger at the Redguard, Renee Gade the third decides to direct it in another fashion.

"Well. I am back," she greets, wearing blue-colored armor and brandishing a giant silver sword upon her back. This sword had been previously sharpened by Rohssan, over at The Best Defense. "What comes next?"

"All right, Brawler, this next match is going to be a challenge."

"It is?" Renee asks, pretending to stifle a yawn.

"Turns out there are TWO Wood Elf sisters who always fight together."

"Two wood elf sisters?" she says, now fully engaged. "Two of them, eh? Go on."

"They're twins, actually. You got to take 'em both out! Now get in there, and show those tree-climbers who's boss!"

"Those two twins will wish they never climbed out of their tree," she promises. "They'll wish they could run all the way back to Valenwood, I can guarantee this."

As Renee turns to walk towards the Bloodworks, her heart-rate doubles, and her adrenaline surges. Two against one? .. It seems like an unfair match, a bit of unexpected trickery to throw her off game. Was this Owyn's idea? Or somebody unseen? As Renee looks back, she notices Owyn is smiling.





11:27 AM

"Good people of the Imperial City....WELCOME TO THE ARENA! Youuu came to watch a fight, and a fight you shall have..."

Today, unlike the first three times Renee fought here, it is finally sunny. She remembers back to her first fights, during which it was so rainy, she feared the crowd might not even see her. Well, this would not be a problem today.

"...can the Blue Team's Brawler possibly hope to defeat the Yellow Team's dual elf archers? Let's find out. LOWERRRR THE GATES!"

And the gates are lowered. Heart hammering in chest. But oh, the rush of energy, to be seen and watched by all. To be recognized for her greatness with a sword. Usually, she fought scummy enemies located far away from civilization, but HERE she would be fighting them before the masses. Such a forum for enticement. ... Renee decides she won't even bother throwing her chakram this time. These elves (like many elves) would be all flash and no fury, or so she hopes. As archers, they might expect some sort of distance-wielded object to come flying their way, for perhaps they had heard about her odd, circular weapon. They would expect her to throw this weapon, and then stand by helplessly, waiting for it to come back, and (all the while) needing to dodge twin arrows.

So Renee decides to cast a spell instead; a spell which will shield her body from extra attacks.

A couple arrows fly toward her indeed, both of them miss as she dodges. "YOU ELVES ARE ALL THE SAME, ALL FLASH AND NO FURY!" she cries the popular taunt at them. She dodges left and right, looking for cover, as some arrows fly. The Arena features several stone columns she can hide behind, while gaining on her opponents step by step. The trick would be to engage one of them, and then try to keep this one between herself and the other twin. Do it right, and the second elf just might fire an arrow straight into her twin sister.

"Let's get this over with!"

"I am ready, elves, and am in agreement! And it is just me! I was not born with a twin to watch my back!"

Renee doesn't have to worry about trying to engage one of them; surprisingly, one of the Yellow Team twins rushes towards her, wielding a large steel claymore. Renee goes for the defensive, and holds her own sword in a blocking stance, trying to keep watch of where the other twin is. The elf with the sword swings! .. and Renee is caught off-guard. The elf forces the Imperial to misstep, and as Renee falters, the other elf gets her with a silver arrow, while the first elf dances behind, trying to get another swing. "Ohhhh" goes the crowd from above.

"Lucky, that one was!" Renee now blocks another swing, and then triple-thrusts with her own sword WHAM SLAM WHAM, causing the sword-swinging sister to back off a bit, stunned. The archer gets another shot in, slamming Renee's shoulder "ARRGH!" but she survives. And gulps down one of the two healing potions she's brought along.

"Hah!"

The sword-wielder attempts to recover, while Renee cleverly keeps one of the Arena's columns between herself and the archer. Seeing an advantage, the Imperial thrusts a final couple of swings, and amazingly, the golden-haired elf with the sword is down!



"I'm just warming up, you pathetic Imperial!" cries the archer, which Renee can barely hear over the shouting of the crowd! .. As the archer dances left to right, trying to get one of her arrows into her opponent's body, Renee does a similar dance behind the stone column, which the first elf had died beside. While she does so, she realizes her health is lower than she thought. She can feel this. All of this (gate rising, elves rushing, one dying, and Renee feeling a bit faint) takes place in the course of about half-a-minute.

Renee begins to heal herself up, casts another shielding spell, and then dashes towards the second elf, running from column to column, evading all her arrows. As she nears the opposite side of the Arena, she sees that the elf (who must now realize she's lost her twin forever) has run down the Yellow Team's ramp, and is cowering back at the Yellow Team entrance.

"Come out from there, coward!" Renee taunts. "Face your fate. You stepped up to this, and assumed victory through trickery. Not very fair, if I were to opine."

The archer doesn't come, and Renee fears she'll have to finish off the elf down by the Yellow Team entrance, where nobody can see what's going on. So she dashes back a bit, and waits to see if the archer will follow. She does not. Renee shanks up her silver sword, and begins throwing her chakram instead, but this is impossible. The archer keeps herself well-hidden down the Yellow Team's stairway entrance, meaning that it's impossible for the Imperial to cause any damage from a distance.

"You think you're so smart? You think you can hide from ME? Now's the time to face thy fate!"

Renee re-brandishes her sword, and rushes towards the elf, hoping not to get stung by some more of her arrows. The archer manages to get another arrow out which stuns Renee, but it's the last arrow she shall ever shoot. Twins from Blackwood, Leyde and Meyde, who had longed and longed for the chance here in the Imperial City, are felled one-by-one by the Imperial brunette with the giant silver sword.



As Renee does a sort of victory dance, she gazes up to the crowds and spots her followers. She sees Bree, her new wood elf archer from Valenwood. Renee hopes that Bree understands the death of two fair elves. No hard feelings, and all of that. All of this fighting was voluntary, and that she herself could have been the one to fall, not the twin elves.



12:18 PM

"Haaa those girls didn't stand a chance! Good job, Brawler."

"Good job?" Renee asks in surprise. "You are complimenting me?"

"Here is your take," the Redguard says, giving Renee ten 100-gold coins, a thousand gold in all. "One more match and you'll advance again."

"You bet I will, and oh, next time, try to pick some opponents I can actually take my time with, eh? Now, I hope nobody befouled my pretty new pink dress. Time for a night on the town."

Renee says this, then she walks back to her gang of followers, bruised, bleeding, but bolder than before. She looks forward to yet another nice, long soak in the Market District's bathhouse, among other things.



This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 31 2023, 06:44 PM

That was a nice little read, I liked it. And Renee did indeed do a good job




"Busy man"... Yeah, right

That was a fun arena match! I love Renee’s sass. I couldn’t wait for her to get down there and match wits with Owyn. Your screenshots make the perfect illustrations for her story.

I also enjoyed examining your HUD. (That sounds naughty, lol.) What’s the orange bar above health?

Aww shucks. Thanks ya'll.

Funny thing is I don't like the idea of constrained combat at all. So claustrophobic and forced. That story was hard for me to edit & read in a way, isn't that odd?

OTOH, yeah, I do love all her 'comebacks' and banters with Owyn, especially. If you've ever watched Xena, you'll know that Xena always has the perfect Hollyweird thing to say in reply, especially when talking to enemies and scumbags, so that's what I try to do with RG3.

This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 19 2015, 08:20 AM

@Grits - that story is quite thrilling, especially the part where Darnand cast his light spell and the dreugh was closer, it feels almost like from some horror movie when a villain is closer each time the light appears. I laughed at the part "torches are for Nords".

@Renee - good job with writing that match, you even gave names to the twin sisters! Very creative that she bet on herself and brought her posse to watch the match. I like Renee's attitude and her battle screams.

Oh and looks like Gabrielle likes to sunbathe her legs only and have the rest of her body covered.

Nice story Renee. As always, I'm impressed by the way you build off of vanilla content.

This made me think of my early and wonderful Dunmer, Kyla. I originally envisioned her as just a female Dunmer with a claymore who came to the IC to fight in the Arena. Her character took over and established herself when it suddenly struck her, at the end of one of the Arena matches, that this now-dead person on the ground was in a lot of ways probably just like her - some actual, complex human being with hopes and dreams and desires and goals, who'd dedicated some portion of their life to gaining enough skill to fight in the Arena. And now all they were was dead. She never fought another match.

'course, on the other hand, Mu-teel the Argonian killer sees them as people in a lot of ways probably just like her - ready, willing and able to kill another with no compunction and fully aware that they put their lives on the line every time they try, and that's just the way it is. She never has a second thought.

On the spoilers thread because I spent most of my time over the last few days with Clive. I'll tie up a few other loose ends first though.

I finished up Shetcombe and Tina moved in there. In-universe, the original owner sat in there and slowly went crazy, before he finally went off to the dungeon down the hill, so the place, on the inside, was originally the wreck you find it in in vanilla, and was in fact the exact same cell. But the vanilla exterior is quaint and picturesque, which is exactly what attracted Tina to it in the first place. So the exterior is untouched and the interior is updated, with mostly middle class furniture, a few of Stroti's, Meo's and Lady N's meshes (crockery, cookware, paper goods and the like) and a couple of little gimmick touches (the fireplaces switch on and off, as does the candle by the bed). In-universe, Tina just hired some people to deliver some basic furniture and she cleaned out most of the old stuff and replaced it and that was that. It's plain and simple but she likes it and it's nice to just have a quiet spot to stop for a while.

Then I spent quite a while fiddling with Dawn's hair. She's the Breton "Princess" - a battlemage in light armor with a very nice family heirloom claymore. She uses a Corean hair - #12, which is a simple ponytail, all pulled back. The mesh has never quite fit the skull correctly and has always bothered me. Now that I've started to figure out how to get around in Blender, I decided to do something about it, which was when I discovered that hair meshes are just... bizarre. I still don't really understand how it all works, but I figured out enough of it to sort it out, so she finally has hair that actually fits on her head rather than floating a half inch outside of it.

Then it was on to Clive. He had just finished up with the Draconis family and picked up his reward and his next mission from the well in the Skingrad Castle courtyard, and needed to go to Bruma next to kill a Khajiit named J'ghasta, who apparently knew someone was coming for him.

That was a bit stressful for Clive. He's pretty much a coward, so he's most comfortable catching people off guard. That and he's sadistic and enjoys the look of shock on their faces. But this time he was going to have to be particularly careful and he didn't much relish it. But, entirely in desperation, he'd hit on a strategy with that retired watch officer in Leyawiin way back when, and knew that if all else failed, he could fall back on his mage's staff. He'd thought Paralysis was a good choice, but it'd taken that terrifying fight to show him just how good a choice it was.

He got into Bruma in the late afternoon and decided there was no reason to wait. He tracked down J'ghasta's house and broke in and... there was nobody there.

He left and scoured the city and didn't find him anywhere. So he made his way back to the house and broke in again, then settled down to wait.

The longer he waited, the more uncomfortable he got. This J'ghasta was supposed to be ready for him, so why would he not even be there? He got to wondering if maybe he was there after all, and thought he'd better look around the house more closely. After making a couple of laps through the house without finding even a hint, he sort of bemusedly thought maybe he should look for a secret passage (ooooh! a secret passage!!) Imagine his surprise when he actually found one. He snuck down the ladder and found J'ghasta in a secret training room, beating the bloody hell out of a punching bag. This wasn't looking good.

Clive steeled himself and hit him with a combo spell - Drain Speed plus Summon Flame Atronach. It's his spell of choice for surprise assassinations, but it did damned near nothing to that Khajiit. He bypassed the Atronach entirely and came straight for Clive, threw a few dismissive words at him, then started beating the hell out of him. And it was a good thing that he had already formed his backup plan, because he sure needed it. He reeled back under the blows, then turned and ran for the ladder and escaped upstairs. He found a clear spot, then turned back around and pulled out his staff just as J'ghasta came out of the trap door. And he let him have it with 7 seconds of paralysis, then summoned another Flame Atronach to attack him. And that then became the pattern - every time the Khajiit started to stir, Clive let him have it with the staff, and when the first Atronach faded, he summoned another. When that one faded, he summoned another. Finally, after seemingly forever, the Khajiit lie dead.

And Clive knew something wasn't right about this. This was not just an assassination target - J'ghasta was no ordinary bloke, but he wasn't a soldier or anything like that either. He seemed more like some sort of mercenary. Clive decided to search the house and see what he could learn (That's unusual for Clive. Though he has no particular morals to speak of, he's not a thief - he generally just leaves after he's done, without so much as touching any of the victim's stuff. I think he considers it beneath his station to actually rummage around in someone else's belongings). He wasn't all that surprised when he found a copy of The Brothers of Darkness in the hidden room, and by the time he found the Black Hand robe and hood, it just confirmed what he'd started to suspect. J'ghasta was DB, and furthermore, part of the Black Hand. What did that mean? Was Lucien making some sort of power play? It doesn't really matter much to Clive one way or another - he has absolutely no loyalty at all, to anyone or anything. But he's sure as hell not going to get himself involved in something where someone might decide to come kill him. He likes being able to sleep at night. He's going to have to keep a close eye on developments and be ready to cut and run if things start to go sour.

With that thought, he went on his way. First a night at the Jerall View, then the long trip down to the IC and a leisurely evening in the King and Queen, just enjoying the peace and quiet. Then, after a welcome night's sleep in his own bed, he made his way down to the Old Bridge to pick up his reward and his next contract, and that's where he's parked right now, ready to continue the trip down to Flooded Mine. He's already got some pretty strong suspicions about just what sort of "psychopathic killer" this is, and why she's "hiding out." He just hopes Lucien knows what he's doing.

Oh my gosh yes! This is exactly what I'm going through with RG3 as she competes in the Arena. It's somewhat more personal than when I did the Arena questline years ago on PS3, because back in those days I wasn't writing a story, nor was I considering the actions and feelings of any opponents that are faced.

I agree that the exterior of Shetcombe is gorgeous. Several of mine have stayed there throughout the years. This makes two people whom I know personally, here at Chorrol, who have changed the interior of this cottage. Man I'd like to see some pics.

Interesting that Clive is a scumbag, a torturer, but also a coward. Yeah, his 'Drain Speed / Summon Atronach' spell is pretty cowardly.

Well *wow* what a thrilling encounter with that K'hajiit. Pretty cool how he had to search the house to figure out where the target cat-guy was, and then also searched the premises (which he wouldn't normally do). Very cool.

This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 24 2015, 05:02 PM

Turdas, 10:13 am, Morning Star 10, 3rd Era 434

Bounty: 778



The Redguard awakes. Wonders where he is. Oh yes, he's in Pell's Gate, in the Sleeping Mare Inn. Wanted by the law. Hunted by the Legion. It all comes back to him now.

"Wine. Where's my wine?"

He finds it, two bottles of the cheap stuff, located safely in one of the sacks in his room. He is unsure how long this wine has been here though, for he also finds some armor he'd left behind several weeks ago. Bravil guard's armor, which he had stashed here after being wanted down in Bravil. But now, he's wanted in Anvil. And Skingrad. And possibly everywhere else. When they had last seen him, he had been wearing some Imperial legion armor, the heavy stuff.

"Time to swap that out for some new metal."

And he does so. In his now-clouding mind, he thinks he might just get away with it, if he's seen wearing a different set of armor. Getting dressed takes about half-an-hour this time. He winds up wearing a mixture of Bravil armor on his upper body, but heavy legion armor on his legs and feet.

"Where now? Where am I to be now?"

He checks his manpurse, which has a sheaf of paper full of random scribbles. If anybody else tried to read this, they'd get nowhere fast, and with a headache. But Kahreem manages to find where he is go be next.

"Imperial City. Fokke!"

*clank clank clank* go the heavy iron boots on his feet. After getting a mutton sandwich from Candice, the lady who runs the Sleeping Mare, the Redguard is dismayed to find he's only got ...

... "FIVE GOLD?" ...

... left on his person. This makes him furious for a moment, but the moment passes, and his anger slips away within seconds. One thing he had learned from his days as a bandit was that it wasn't prudent to stay angry for long. Anger causes mistakes & foolishness, in the long run. So he fixes a neutral expression on his face, and leaves the inn with a half-smile. He's still got one more bottle of Cheap Wine, after all.




11:16 am

"Today's your lucky day. So let's hear it!" says the Nord known as Irroke the Wide.

"What's new with you?" Schlera Sestius greets back on this fine but slightly chilly day.

"I hear that the Nords of Skyrim have been warring with the Redoran of Morrowind," Irroke lays out the latest news he had heard from some Imperial patrol. Life moves slowly here in Pell's Gate. News like this could take weeks to hear from anybody else, but the patrols, with their innate sense of knowledge about such things, always were up-to-date with this sort of information.

"More fighting for the Nords?" asks Schlera, suddenly wondering why they call Irroke 'Wide'. "This is sad news."

"So long."

"Good --"

"SOMEBODY HELP! COME QUICKLY! WE'VE GOT A BURGLAR!"

"Aww come on, I'm not a burglar people. See? I am a Bravil guard, returning to--"

... but it does no good to reason with these small-minded people. Schlera readies her fists, and gets a good pummel into the horse which Kahreem manages to mount. Somebody nocks a bow. And Irroke the Wide finds the small daggar located within his breeches, and begins to swing. Kahreem decides it's probably best not to extend his formerly pleasant stay, here in Pell's Gate. Instead, he rides north, passing by the fort located just paces away from this hamlet. Here, he is attacked by a bandit, a Redguard, at that. Another soon joins in the offense, another Redguard, that is.


Kahreem tries and tries, and even manages to call upon his Reguard heritage for Adrenaline Assistance, but he's simply not very skilled with a cutlass, which keeps slipping in his hands (downplaying damage). He's much better with blunt weapons, but he hasn't got one right now.



"Haaa!"

To make matters worse, Schlera the Redguard shows up to join the fight. She initially goes after the Redguard who just stole a horse right in front of her, but winds up fighting the two other Redguard men, instead. Weapons slash, fists pummel, cries call out. Unfortunately for Kahreem, his health begins to fail, and when he sees Schlera fall before him, he knows it's simply time to get out of here, for good.



He mounts his stolen horse for the second time, and decides to ride across the water, instead of taking the road. The bandits try to follow him, swimming somehow with their heavy weapons, but eventually they cannot keep up, and possibly drown. Kahreem rides on, and does not look back. He makes it to shore, and rushes around the Waterfront shacks, just in case the bandits had managed to follow. His health is a sliver; he knows this. Finally, he slows pace, and has a look behind himself. The bandits are nowhere to be seen. GOOD. Chances are, they certainly had--



..."Well now LOOK WHO WE HAVE HERE," says an Imperial legion known as Davide Baggius. "Caught in the act, and no goolllld to pay your fine hmm?" he asks. "It's off to the lockup, then."

Knowing he is done, and knowing he has (once again) outwitted himself, and stands outmatched, The Weet Bandit decides to simply give in.

"Shhh can you keep it down?" Kahreem whispers. "People know me here. .... HEY," he now speaks more loudly "Good thing you're here, guard. I'm Edvin the Solvulent, from Bravil! Been travelling with a merchant clan, but we got attacked and scattered, and now there's some angry bandits chasing after me!" ..."Okay, just pretend to arrest me. They won't be able to attack me if I'm in custody, right?"

"Hope you rot, criminal scum."

"Good job, Imperial. We can drop the act now, you know, I think the bandits won't be following me now. You can see all these cuts and bruises on my person, right?"

"'Drop the act?' Not a chance. I know your face, and you're wanted for horse theft, among many other things. Kellsgard the Goblin Slayer heh heh heh. I got you now."

"FOKKE!"


4:20 PM
Just like that, back behind bars. As Kahreem settles in for what could turn out to be a longer stay than usual, he hopes that the guards won't notice the letter he's carrying, the one which will hopefully place the Imperial City's most notorious Watch Captain somewhere far away from the city itself. After all, he recently paid a LOT for this piece of parchment, way too much.

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 31 2023, 07:00 PM

@Renee: So Kareem's back in his home away from home... free food and no bandits at least, hmm?

Clive's cowardice is really central to his character - that's where much of the rest of it springs from. He's vicious and self-involved, but he doesn't have the courage to just go his own way - he's too self-conscious and too worried about what other people will think of him. Where someone like Mu-teel would just do whatever she thought was best in a given situation and to hell with what anyone else thinks about it, Clive is very conscious of what other people might think. But it's not that he actually cares about people - he has absolutely no empathy at all. His interest in people is limited only to what they can do for him. He's concerned about what they think of him, but not because he cares about them - I don't think he's even capable of sincerely caring about anyone. He's concerned about what they think of him because what they think of him has an effect on his life. If they think he's a good person, then that's to his benefit and if they think he's a bad person, then that's to his detriment. And he resents the fact that their opinion of him has an impact on his life, even as he's too cowardly to just say the hell with them and do as he pleases anyway. That combination of resentment and fear eats at him until he can't take it any more, then manifests in sadism. Carefully hidden sadism though, because, again, he's afraid of what other people might think of him. And 'round and 'round it goes.

Tina's Shetcombe is really sort of embarrassingly dull. Since you asked though - from right to left around the room - 1, 2, 3, 4

I haven't actually been playing at all for a couple of days now - when I haven't been fiddling around in Blender, I've been playing Freelancer. I'm sort of itching to get back to Elenin though, so I might do that tonight.

I was wondering when Kahreem would be behind bars again..



@gipster - Ooh, nice to see Shetcombe lit up and in order

Yeah "Home away from home", that's a good way to put it! At least the Imperial jail serves better food than some others.

Her Shetcombe isn't dull, it looks quite comfy, actually.

This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 26 2015, 02:28 PM

Davide Baggius vs Edvin the Solvulent!

Another great Kahreem's story!