That is interesting, did you play dead is dead?

I don't remember ever going inside Sercen, though I clear out the bandits and dog every time I pass the area! I'll have to check it out and see what you have seen there!

Yup. And I tend to play more recklessly than I should, resulting in a high character turnover rate. If you were to mod in a gravemarker for every character I've lost in Oblivion, they'd outnumber the npcs

...




And there's not much to see in Sercen, it's a pretty dull place. Has a rather amusing glitch involving a tripwire though, makes clearing it out a cakewalk.


On another note, Orvas made his way to Bruma, checked out Frostcrag Spire, and is pissed off by the fact he now has to go back to the Imperial City to get everything out of storage. He'll be even more annoyed once he sees the price list

I've never been able to play dead is dead unless I just was really tired of a character and wanted rid of it. I guess because the creation of them takes so long and is so intricate - hate to waste all that time usually; and then there are some I just love the character too much to let go ( like Maxical or Shivani ).

That Frostcrag Spire is kind of on and off for me. In the beginning of the game I used to stand inside it and delete it (console game) to see the Testinghalll area; just because it was there, and usually to grab the "Mace of Doom" and/or some sigil stones to enchant weapons and armor to sell.

But after that I'd re-install it and buy all the goods for it, grab all the wine and plants out - then never go there except to enchant stuff or get the Atranoch. Sometimes if my house in Skingrad was getting too full and stuttering the screen I'd move some stuff up there to the basement.

I thought it was so well done, but just couldn't love the place for some reason - I don't know why. I loved the Jeralls, and used to stay up there in camps and tents rather than sleep in the Spire.

I think the first time I played in it, my son killed Lucien Lachance in there and I had to see his dead body in there for a long time - in fact that is how I first learned about the glitch, Googling how to get his body out of Frostcrag Spire and came across the glitch. It worked, his body was deleted with the tower, lol.

I got into the habit when I was playing X3: Terran Conflict. I was a member of the official forums, started reading the fanfic section, one guy in particular was doing his Dead is Dead, three of them actually, which got me playing Dead is Dead. It's also where I made my first forays into writing fanfiction. They went about as well as anyone who's seen my attempts here would expect

I've been playing that way that my characters just seem too contrived and gamey if I don't play them Dead is Dead. Too much of the "Hero with a thousand extra lives" about them(1,000 points to anyone who gets the reference )



Frostcrag Spire is literally my favourite place in the entirety of Oblivion. It's beautifully designed, allows you to sidestep those awful recommendation quests(love the concept, hate the execution), the alchemy garden is wonderful, and the Atronach Altar, Alchemy lab, and teleport pads give it a proper "Wizard's Tower" feel, as well as being awesome and unique(well, only the first two of those, but what self-respecting wizard would build a tower with stairs? )

I've never tried the glitch, I just couldn't bring myself to delete it

This post has been edited by Callidus Thorn: Jun 22 2015, 09:59 PM

Nice to meet Orvas, he looks good, especially by candlelight. So he came to Cyrodiil to claim his heritage. I like his backstory, particularly that he had to fake his death and get himself arrested to make sure not to be pursued by House Telvanni.


The word "stolen" is completely unnecessary in this sentence, I just wasted a second of my life by reading it

Yes. CT means this. Every word.

Yesterday as Lothran went the Gold from Anvil to Skingrad he got from Journeyman to Master in the Blunt arts! Actually this is the second time this happens. During a long period he only used swords and thus his skills with maces and axes faded a bit. It was quite fun to see a skill message again!


So he´s in Skingrad now, on his way to Bravil and possibly Shivering Isles even though he sworn never to return. I think he needs a real adventure again

CT - Looks like a new lord of Frostcrag Spire! Congrats to Orvas.

Mirocu - Fun to hear that the old warlock bashed his way to a rare (these days) new level of skill mastery. Anvil to Skingrad to Bravil to the SI - sounds like a good plan.

I looked at my last save and I noticed I haven´t played in a month!


Weather is bleak today so we´re gonna skip the old car gathering stuff again, meaning another ´blivion session!

Your writing is wonderful! Don't ever let self doubt in, it creates those writer's blocks that kills your inspirations. It will block you from seeing how good you really are; and will keep you from becoming how good you can be.


I agree about the Wizard's Tower Alchemy garden, that is the best one I've seen in any game. I could never find anything I disliked about that tower; everything about it was so well done! And I loved the entry foyer and how that wall moved - like I said, everything about it was so well done!

I could never figure out what it was that kept me from loving it; because I liked everything about it. Maybe it was that first Oblivion game I played when my son left Lucien Lachance's body in there. That may have tainted me liking it, lol.

That incident it what caused me to buy my own 360 and my own Oblivion game, because my son and I were playing on the same game back then. I started playing and found that dead body in the bedroom, it was awful! I couldn't sleep in there, or get him out through a door. His body did not spawn out of the game, either.

At first I sat him up against the dresser on the other side of the room and covered him with stuff; but that looked awful and I couldn't sleep in the same room with his body. Then I dragged it into the alchemy garden and stuffed it down into the lava in the Oblivion part of the garden.

Anyway, it was after that incident that I stopped living in the tower in game, I even lived in the IC Waterfront shack or the outside cave of the Thieves Den rather than live in the tower, so I think it tainted it for me.

But I very much like the tower itself, the thought behind everything they put into that tower. I just stopped liking living in it, lol.

I always level up sneak doing the Nirnroot quest, lol.

Heh, dead assassins are terrible for the decor That'd definitely put me off a place.



Whereas I have to stop myself setting up every character I create in it



Anyway, Orvas has been busy. He harvested everything he could in the alchemy garden at Frostcrag Spire, then teleported to the Imperial City, glaring at the mages standing around in the atrium of the Arcane University as he left. Now he's wondering how he's going to get together the 15,000 septims he's going to need to restore the Spire, especially since he spent most of what he'd gathered together on some necessary shopping. He did a little exploring of the Imperial City isle, after hearing a couple of merchants talking about "outlaws, highwaymen, and mercenary bands who've decided that robbing caravans pays better than guarding them", which led him to Dzonot cave.

Which he ended up leaving in disgust, because the residents were able to afford locks beyond his ability to open. While he'd been picking up some new spells in the Imperial City he'd been given the rundown on how the Mages Guild handles the sale of spells, so he set off for Cheydinhal. He stopped off at Fort Empire, where an imp attacked him, so he cleared the place out. He didn't get much in the way of loot, the only noteworthy item was a spell tome for a novice level absorb magic spell. He's not sure yet if he'll learn it or not.

Orvas hated the fort, it made his skin crawl. Back in Vvardenfell, he'd been inside an Ancestral Tomb once, and this fort had the same feel. Despite the creatures that now lived in it, the building itself was dead, a dusty tomb. Orvas could taste it on the stale air, feel it in the gritty dust that clung to the walls, and hear it in the echoes of leathery wings flapping in the dark, dull and flat.

The darkness was total, too much for his novice level light spell to have any real effect on. A torch would serve no better, not in this oppressive gloom. Hearing was of more use to Orvas than sight, but though he heard the sounds of wings moving closer, the direction was lost among the echoes.

A lightning bolt burst from the blackness, striking Orvas in the right side of his chest, staggering him, the brightness of it driving needles into his eyes, now used to the prevalent gloom. Fighting to keep his iron armour from toppling him, he closed his eyes, of no use in the darkness, now overlaid with random splotches of colour. He cast a spell of detect life, and a vibrant silhouette of an imp coalesced in his mind's eye. He oriented on it, and hurled three flares in quick succession, causing the imp's wings to flap spastically as it panicked in the grip of the magical flames for the brief moments before it expired.

One down, who knew how many to go...

Once he got to Cheydinhal he bought some more spells, leaving him flat broke. He barely had enough for a room and a meal that night. On the way back he cleared out a vampire nest that he'd been pointed to by the Cheydinhal guildhall's alchemist. Not much in the way of loot, but he got a steel cuirass out of it, and a couple more black and burgundy outfits, so important for someone living at Frostcrag Spire.

This post has been edited by Callidus Thorn: Jun 26 2015, 09:30 PM

The adventures of Orvas continue. It was dear friend Leydenne over at the BethSoft forums who years ago offered to me her favorite money maker for mages: Soul trap rats and crabs, get some junk apparel and enchant away with crap enchantments to sell.

I think Frostcrag is a wonderful place and DLC, but it has always been too lonely for my elf who'd rather hang out in the girls' dorm of the University. That said, we normally work it in as the home of a reclusive wizard friend of some sort - then visit when in the area.

Good to see you enjoying Orvas' game.

You aren't kidding! I had a pile of junk on top of him, and would come back in the room and his foot would be sticking out, or the pile of stuff would be strewn around him - like he had moved around while I was gone - freaked me completely out! And it was my very first game ever in the Elder Scrolls, I had no idea what might happen - had never seen a game even close to it before, lol.

There ya go, Callidus, flat broke in Cyrodiil. Nothing could be finer, or funner, in my opinion.




His Blunt skill went down? I bet you don't have a mod to make this happen (right?) so is this yet another vanilla mechanic I'm not familiar with?

Yeah, the vanilla mechanic called console use to manually alter the skill

Makes sense. We had this in our tablegames long ago. Characters who didn't use certain skills for a long time would not be as good at those skills. They could even get to the point that they completely unlearned stuff.

On the 360 or Playstation you can make a spell that damages a skill temporarily targeting yourself - cast it right before talking to a trainer in that skill and you can boost your training in that skill quicker. It is kind of like an accelerated form of grinding.






This post has been edited by mALX: Jun 28 2015, 07:22 PM

"I promised myself never to return. I swore! And yet... here I am once again..."



The white-haired Dunmer had been all the way down in Anvil, but the Isles had found him. And it called for him. Last time he was there was several years ago and upon coming back to Cyrodiil he knew he never wanted to return. Well, turns out even a Warlock can be wrong.

As he stands on the shore to one of the many lakes in Dementia, the desire to adventure has filled his entire body, mind and soul. Once again he´s out to explore. Once again he´s in the Shivering Isles!

Yay for Lothie in the SI! It is indeed great fun to adventure there. Dementia is so foggy and mysterious and Mania has such beautiful night skies!