Wow, Clive really is an scumbag! I don't usually play characters like that. It ultimately makes me depressed, because I just don't like them. The nearest I got was Lilith. She he was the daughter of Claudius Arcadia, and was raped and left for dead by Rufio. That is what led her father to try to hire the Dark Brotherhood. Consumed by the need for revenge, she became an assassin. Killing made her feel powerful, and the more she did it, the more she liked it.

Elenin sounds a whole lot more my speed. She's the kind of character I like, and whom I like playing.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Apr 17 2015, 06:26 PM

I remember Lilith well.

I created Clive years ago, but didn't play him much, largely because I just couldn't grasp his character. I was pretty clear on who and what he was generally, but I couldn't get inside his head and sort out his motivations. The thing that finally gave me a good insight was figuring out how to deal with side quests. My first inclination was that he just didn't care, so he'd tend to refuse quests. I can't remember now which one it was - one of the earliest ones - I had him refuse it, and the questgiver was visibly upset by that, and I realized that Clive couldn't have that. He has an appearance to maintain. That meant he had to accept the quest. But he sincerely doesn't care - if anything, he wants people to suffer. But he's backed into helping them. And that's when it all clicked. It grates on him that these grinning idiots beg for his help, but he's too conscious of his image to let it show, so it just festers. It's the conflict between the appearance he has to maintain and the fact that he's actually cruelly uncaring that drives him. Once I got that, it was easier to get inside his head - now I can feel it when he's starting to feel put-upon, and is going to have to relieve his stress.

It's still uncomfortable to play him, and I can only do it for a while, but it's been interesting now that I have some insight into what drives him, rather than him just being a two-dimensional "evil" character.

Clive's part of the reason too that my recent Argonian Mu-teel ended up the way she is. She's unapologetically vicious, but she's not cruel or heartless. She's just very practical and straightforward. She was sort of a counter to Clive's disturbing motivations - she feels clean by comparison.

But yeah - all in all, I'm more comfortable with "good" characters. Elenin's actually shaping up to be the best yet - she couldn't even bring herself to pick up any of the valuable stuff lying around the Chorrol mages guild hall - it obviously belongs to someone else.

And who knows - after playing her for a while, the goodness might get so cloying that I'll have to switch to Clive for a break from it all.

Lothran just took a trip back to Bleak Flats Cave. He hasn´t been there in years - literally! And wouldn´t you know it; Erthor had gone back. After all the whining about getting back to Skingrad...

Gpstr – Sounds like great fun as you move comfortably among your characters. And what a variety! I agree with you that Elenin is beautiful.

Mirocu – Sounds like Lothie needs to assign a keeper for Erthor. Maybe Thaurron over in Anvil can get him an imp familiar like Sparky. From what I’ve seen, Erthor seems to base himself at the guildhall, but visits Bleak Flats Cave on sort of a weekly schedule. When he’s not at the guild, I know he’s visiting his cave. I (and I think Renee) have actually found Erthor to be a pretty good follower using Companion Share and Recruit because he is a sorcerer (great class). Anyway, great to hear of Lothran’s warm season adventures.

Yes, now I agree. Clive is a scumbag. No need to convince me further on that! ... It's the way you said "Clive the scumbag" that made me blink. I've never heard anybody say something like that about their character so blatantly. And I've been gaming RPGs since the 1980s.



Crossbows of Cyrodiil works pretty good, and so does the chakram Renee Gade III uses. I want you to understand, I gamed on PS3 / Xbox for 5+ years, so on PC I have a tendency to look for anything new, just to see what's out there. Some of it is meh, but some of it great.


Keep an eye out for a vampire named Eradi~Kate. She's rumored to have lived in that cave.

This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 18 2015, 04:14 AM

I find Elenin pretty fascinating. I look forward to learning more about her.

I rather suspect that being Altmer, Elenin's family cut her off if she had a Redguard lover. Racial purity, and all that.

I have never seen him again in any guildhall, he must live in that cave.

In any case he´s now coronated...


Never saw even a rat or...

Oooh..

gpstr, I’d love to see some pictures of Shetcombe farm when Tina is ready for guests. My Bosmer Lildereth lived there for a long time, and it’s a favorite spot of mine. Lil dragged over a couple of dead slaughterfish from the nearby ruin and used them as safe storage.

It’s interesting to read about Clive the Scumbag’s creative killing. I remember my DB character getting really involved with her fellow assassins, but she was never very good at murder. There was usually a fight.

Elenin sounds like she is revealing herself to you at a pace one might expect from her, as she is locked inside herself so much. She is already a fascinating character. I think she’s beautiful, too.

mirocu, it’s nice to hear that Erthor is up to his same routine. I’m a big Erthor fan. I love to hear his battle taunts after he was so fearful in that cave.

I love Shetcombe Farm, for new Player Characters it is almost the only really workable option till they get enough money up to buy a house of their own.

I also redecorated Shetcombe Farm for my new characters - but did it right there inside the original house. I just moved the clue the Player finds to a side table; and I've played through the quest many games with the set up, it hasn't hurt the quest at all - and is lore friendly.


According to the quest, the owner just left the house after Kvatch was attacked, so it made no sense the house was in such disarray. I straightened it up and decorated it to suit all the uppity High Elves in game; the furniture is all still the lower class (just retextured); added respawning food to the table and a lot of safe storage for the new Player. The quest is not interfered with at all by my mod:



(not sure why this photo is not showing up, I can see it on the Photobucket! Oh well, lol.)



Here is a top view looking down on the whole house as it is in my game now. Everything you see is safe storage except the food, it respawns so the Player will never go hungry (if you roleplay) or the Player can sell off the food for money:







View from another angle:








Added a custom horse for the new Player they can choose to use or not (just leave in the stables). It has speed just over the mounted Legion horse; fighting ability just over Shadowmere (but less than the Unicorn); and is essential like Shadowmere:







Added feed and water for horse; a bed for followers on the right; and in the center a small still operation where the new player can create some income other than from the garden

(Shetcombe Farm has a huge respawning garden; the early Player can make money either selling off the produce or making healing potions from the garden and selling them - the still just supplements that income, or gives the Player some fun side effects from drinking the "Kvatch Kickapoo Sloe White Lightning") :








Close-up of still making set up; note the bedroll for followers on the right:







Added exterior basement door and basement:







Peek at the basement:








*

This post has been edited by mALX: Apr 18 2015, 08:21 PM

Wow, that’s beautiful mALX! Kvatch White Lightning, nice. How fun that the player can actually make it!

It has some pretty wild side effects if the player drinks it instead of selling it; and there is a small mini-quest added where the Player can find the previous owner's former clients to sell it to, but truthfully any vendor will buy it from the Player.



This post has been edited by mALX: Apr 18 2015, 08:37 PM

Wow, that is beautiful! And corn whiskey!

Or as they say in ETN, "corn squeezins'"

@Renee - that was part of my conception of Clive right from the beginning - that and that he only uses magic, and (as much as possible) only manipulative magic - conjuration and illusion. I didn't want him to be just a superficially contrarian "evil" character - I wanted him to be thoroughly despicable, all the way to the core.

@haute ecole rider - that was exactly my first inclination - that her lover was a Redguard and her family has cut her off over it. It would likely fit, and would provide some context for her discomfort with absorbing magic and conjuration and necromancy and the like (though I'm tending to think that she already had that attitude, which is part of what put her in the position where she met this unknown sword-wielding Redguard, and part of what made her receptive to him). I'm not ready to commit to that yet though, since it's also possible that her lover, like her, was sort of an outsider, and that's part of why they bonded. For that matter, he might even have been an Altmer, and just a fairly unusual one. And she must be cut off one way or another from her family - she's too lost and too lonely and too poorly equipped for this life, and if she could run to the safety of home, I'm certain she would have. It's not that she's so determined that she simply won't - she's more fragile than that. It can only be that she can't. I don't know whether they're alive or dead though.

@Acadian & Grits re: beautiful - it's sort of odd really. My characters all tend to be attractive, and particularly the female ones. I'm just that shallow. But there's something about Elenin that goes far beyond most of the others. The others might be cute or pretty or charming or attractive or whatever, but Elenin really strikes me as beautiful, in the fullest sense of the word.

And she appreciates your kind words.

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

Elenin is currently in Skingrad.

The way it played out - she spent a few more days knocking around the Imperial Isle, then went to sleep one night and inexplicably woke up in the Imperial Prison, then all of that happened and she ended up with the Amulet and a mission to accomplish - to deliver it to Jauffre. So she set out for Chorrol - her first time past the Ring Road (in-universe, she came to the IC by ship). The trip was relatively uneventful, which was a welcome relief - she was terrified. And in-universe, Jauffre just accepted the Amulet and thanked her for her service to the Empire and that was that. And the turn-off to Kvatch just won't exist in her world.

With nothing else much to do, she went into town. She felt a bit let down by it all - she'd actually met the emperor and seen him die and heard all that stuff about her destiny, then she dropped off the amulet with some old guy and that was that. She wasn't sure what all this destiny business was about.

She went to the mages guild to join up - she needs access to their resources. She considered the fighters guild, but the whole place just seemed rough and violent and the Dunmer in the lobby scared the hell out of her, and she scuttled back out of there. She's just going to have to sort out this swordfighting stuff on her own. She couldn't find this Earana anywhere, so following a lead from one of the locals, she went to the Gray Mare to see if she was there. And she not only found Earana, but ended up running into two different people who both needed her help. And she started to realize what her destiny might be. Granted, the Amulet certainly needed to make it safely out of the sewers, but anyone could've done that. But left to her own devices, she might never have gotten off the Imperial Isle - she might never have made that terrifying trip to Chorrol, or more accurately, would've continued to believe it was rightly terrifying and never discovered that it wasn't really all that bad. And most notably, she would've never found these people who need her. She would've just stayed locked inside her own unhappiness. Now, thanks to that bizarre chain of events, she's out in the world, where people need her. Maybe that was the point.

After a night at the Oak and Crosier, she made her way up to Cloudtop, entirely uneventfully. She was on edge all the way up, but more relaxed coming back down and took her time. Nature is a bit foreign to her, but she loved the peace and quiet and the sun slanting through the leaves.

She spent the rest of that day and that night at the guild hall, learning spells and reading, then sleeping soundly.

The next morning, she helped the Odiil boys with the goblins on their farm. She was scared stiff. She's fought more in the past few weeks than she ever dreamed she would, but she's not at all comfortable with it. And usually it just happens, and all she has time to do is react. This was the first time that she consciously set out to fight. That walk down the hill to the farm was an eternity and she had to fight the urge to run away every step of the way.

The battle itself though went just like the others. After all that strain, when it finally started, it just happened and she reacted and it was all a blur, and the next thing she knew it was over and they were all still alive.

She was really touched by Valus Odiil and gratefully accepted his reward. She has no use for the blade - no use for any blade but her own - but she'll cherish it anyway. And with that, she set off for the Imperial City, just to find a place to keep it safe. And so that I could do some stuff.

Meta note: I've finally been learning to get around in Blender, so now I'm fiddling with meshes too. I didn't really care for the enormous H-cups (or whatever they are) on her robe (she's a C), so I redid the mesh last night, and while I was at it, I added a bunch of polys so I could smooth it out a bit, and shifted things around so the seams lined up better and so on.

I was pretty pleased with the results.

Then, after a night's sleep at Luther's, she set out for Skingrad. She ran into four Imps along the way, but other than that, it was a safe and scenic journey.

And she qualified for her first level up along the way. She's just past 16 hours in, which is great. Her build is a bit different than what I normally use, since she relies on a fairly disparate set of skills, few of which come naturally to her. I normally use Kobu's 1.5x skill slowing mod, just because I'm familiar with the rates of everything with that and know how to work around things. But she needed more used majors than I'd normally prefer, so needed to be slowed down more, so I switched to the one that's included with Fundament, which scales from 3x to 6x through the course of the game. I was afraid it might be too slow, but she's advanced about right (it likely would be too slow for another character, but her lack of skill is part of her characterization). She eagerly took a +5 to strength, had to settle for a +3 to endurance (I don't think she'll gain a whole lot of endurance, and that's as it should be) and then took a +5 to intelligence.

Oh and, when she got into Skingrad, she sold the bow and arrows she'd been carrying since she got them out of Jauffre's supply chest. She's still sort of interested in the whole concept, but she never actually used them.

This post has been edited by gpstr: Apr 18 2015, 10:56 PM

Looks pretty neat, mALX. Nice job I like Shetcombe Farm too and if Lothran needed a new place in the summertime that would be perfect. Not sure I´d let him drink from the still though...


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


Lothran has explored yet another previously unexplored location; Trumbe. He really makes an effort this year, it has been long since he explored this many new locations, and he even re-explores some. Like Brittlerock Cave, he went through it tonight as well. He actually found a custom-named silver axe with no enchantment. I seem to recall it from long ago, have to look it up. It´s not a quest item anyway.


Now he´s heading over to Fort Sutch and then it´s on to Anvil again


Edit: War Axe of Depletion is the weapon´s name and the wiki says it´s supposed to be enchanted but isn´t.

This post has been edited by mirocu: Apr 18 2015, 10:28 PM

MALX - Nice job with Shetcombe. I agree that it is a very nice little farm with a nice pond and stable.

Gpstr - I think it makes wonderful sense that Jauffre takes the amulet from you, then thanks you and sends you on your way. He has Blades to take it from there after all. So Elenin seems to be gravitating toward magic - not surprising I think. And it seems like her calling might be helping those in need! How nice.

Mirocu - Great to hear of Lothies 'ventures. Ask him to say hi to Sparky the imp in Anvil. Buffy still fondly recalls the time she and Lothie spent hunting there and sharing sunset on the beach.

mALX: is that Shetcombe available on Nexus or somewhere else? I am interested. Some of mine stay at Shetcombe on occasion, would be nice to sort of RP that at least one of them has done the place up.

gpster: Now, thanks to that bizarre chain of events, she's out in the world, where people need her. Maybe that was the point. -- Sure, very much so.

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

Tirdas, 7:59 am, Morning Star 8, 3rd Era 434

Bounty: 778

Kahreem is still running from the law. He found a small camp where he had once habituated with bandits long ago, but did not recognize anybody, and the people who were staying at this place weren't too keen on seeing a Redguard show up wearing legionnaire's armor. So he could not stay there.

He needed a place to stay the night before, but the Gottshaw is constantly staffed by a guard, so my Redguard had to leave. He'd been up for hours. Finally he found a small encampment of people near Kvatch. They seemed distracted about something, and some of them were initially rude to him, but he talked his way into getting a place to sleep. Good thing, because it rained all night.

In the morning, an elf came running up to him, claiming that Kvatch was under some sort of attack. This elf told Kahreem that "daedra were coming", and advised everyone to run, but nobody did so, so neither did Kahreem. The elf did mention that a horde of guards were up the hill though, and since he is wanted by the law, he did not want to stay too long with the refugees. Besides, they had also echoed the elf in their own ways; something had happened up at Kvatch. Not a place to be right now, by the sound of it.

As Kahreem mounted "his" horse, he was forced to suddenly leave at a much quicker pace. The locals had determined that this horse was not owned by him, and a few of them even made their attacks as Kahreem fled, once again.


This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 19 2015, 08:13 AM

Couldn´t Kahreem have helped out at Kvatch and maybe redeemed himself?

Ha ha ha noooo. I don't get this sense. He doesn't want to help anybody but himself. He hears the word "GUARDs" and thinks he'd rather be somewhere else.

Good question though, and thanks for asking.

Urgh. found an old magazine I picked up years ago, because it had a review of Oblivion in it. The reviewer basically tells a few short stories of his characters adventures in Cyrodiil. He played as an Argonian character, and after reading the review, an old friend of mine decided to make an appearance.

So later today, Sal the Argonian's going to find his way back to Cyrodiil again, this time as a Mystic Archer.