Since Darwen and Enilwen are preoccupied with the Bosmer Den mod construction, I've started a new Sword and Board Nord Broad, based on Freyadis Guthrun's Daughter, a.k.a. Bloodsong, from the Hel books, so I'll have a character to actually play. She needs a witch side-kick, so I'll probably add Huld, too. I've started another throw-away game to develop her, too. She seems to prefer shock spells so far.

Since the books are heavily based on Nordic mythology, and their pantheon, I have to work a bit to make her fit into TES, but a necromancer- and undead-hunter seems to fit well enough. The dead belong to Hel, not to these necro-dudes! She's sort of a Conan-style warrior, who wants to leave the magic to someone else, but she's aware of needing magical protection from magical attacks. That may require a mod to let Huld buff her. I just have to avoid starting another major mod before I finish off BHF.

I'm avoiding the MQ, but Bleak Falls Barrow is full of undead, and she'd really like to clear them out. I steered her to a few necro dens instead, like Ranveig's Fast, and that appears to be satisfying her so far. She's also busy smithing herself up some equipment, especially weapons, as she'll be light-armoured. So a visit to Markarth for early training, and Nchuand-zel for material has her doing Dwarven at the moment. Ebony is a target, because black suits her, but that's heavy, which doesn't. She'll need more custom armour to replace her black fur/hide mash-up with mail and light plate when she gets there. I'm unsure how she'd react to Daedric weapons, but we'll find out later.

Huld being a mage, can cast wearing whatever she likes, but will want fortifying enchantments on it, and jewellery with more enchantments for the extra slots. Her outfit will probably get skimpier as her confidence increases, replacing cloth with gems (for their magic-holding properties).

Grits: I was wondering where you were. Wow, computer problems? Well good that you beat 'em anyway. That is neat you can compare ESO's interpretation of Skyrim to what Beth created.

ghastley: Yeah I know what you mean. You get to the point that you just wanna play!

This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 22 2016, 10:41 PM

I just looked in my White Wizard folder, and was surprised to find three unpublished stories. What the hell, Renne?

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11:11 am, Turdas, Frostfall 7

Locations Discovered: 50
Dungeons Cleared: 14

Days Passed: 51
Hours Slept: 504
Hours Waited: 313

Gold Found: 7,944
Current Gold: 244



The orc sat at his desk, poring over the latest finds. Journals, books, notes. Most of it junk. Or copies of works he'd long had on his shelves. It had been awhile since any of his minions had managed to find something as worthy as the collection memoires brought in about a month ago, the ones detailing the adventures of a long-ago 3rd Era warrior who had helped end the Oblivion Crisis. Now that had been a day to remember.

But today, it was more junk. Scraps. At best, some had managed to find some books which could easily be placed on his shelves, but the orc known as Urag did not bother to take these in. If he bought them, they'd wind up sitting on his shelves for all eternity. Those who did manage to come to the College of Winterhold only did so for two reasons: to join, or to buy one of its fancy spells. Nobody came all the way here to purchase yet another copy of 'The Firmament', or one of the Barenziah editions.

But today, finally something else would come in; something worthy, almost priceless. Isaac had returned, the others were saying. And he had managed to find the writings Urag had requested.

"I don't think we should bother the Arch Mage about this, unless absolutely necessary."

"A beggar. A common beggar, managed to find that book," says Nirya.

The secret was out. Brelyna and a much more adventurous sort calling herself 'Crystal Beth' had leaked this secret, and now everybody knew it. This news had shocked the College. But if the rumor was true, if Isaac had procured the manuscript which nobody else could grasp ... well, that was something which could not be ignored.

"I don't want to see any of you mistreating that book, are we clear?"

"As a bell, Urag."

Urag sat back and smiled, knowing the rumor was true. And he'd soon have one of the most valuable tomes ever to grace the lands of Tamriel.

This post has been edited by Renee: May 1 2016, 01:07 PM

What a tease you are, Renee! Now we can't wait for your next installment to find out what WW has found. If Crystal Beth and Brylyna think it's a big deal, then it must be so!

Whoa, I'm curious too what Isaac had found.

Nice reference to Oberon.

Oh it was nothing. He found Shalidor's Insights, as per the main Mage Guild quest. I just found a more interesting way to write about this.

Yes, that was a reference to Oberon.

A rather rude and disconcerting early wake up for the Jarl!

BN is right though in questioning the Jarl’s security. Faleen’s probably off making dwemer poetry with Calcelmo, and I loved you pointing out the guards’ concern with everyone’s sweetroll as they guard that empty concrete chair at night.

Yes, I can well imagine the Jarl not getting back to sleep after that! I bet he’s hoping to soon run out of Forsworn so he no longer needs BN.

I've been playing a couple more potential NPC's for Bloodsong's game. Freyadis has Huld as follower already, and I'll add these two (via AFT) when I get them the way I want them.

Ulfhilde is a big nordic shape-shifter i.e. werewolf, who runs around without a lot of clothing because the transformation tends to rip things up. She's a redhead, and her werewolf fur matches (custom race, with new texture, so it doesn't affect the others). When not wolfing, she uses twin war-axes. Since I don't have Dawnguard turned on in her game, so no perks, the war-axes are a stronger offence than the beast form at present. The balance may change at higher levels, hard to tell yet.

Guthrun is Freyadis' teen daughter, and so she's a smaller version of Ma, with the age dial at zero. In the books, she's 15, but mine is a few years older. Unlike her mother, she does use magic, and I'm playing a "right-hand sword and left-hand spell" style with her. I'm looking for a mail-over-leather suit for her, may have to make one.

There are several other characters in the books that might make good NPC's, but these are the ones that travel with the protagonist.

More interesting characters from the mind of ghastley! A lycanthropic lass! And it makes total sense that she would dress skimpily given how hard the transformations must be on her wardrobe. Oh, and I’m so glad that you ensured her carpet matches her drapes – again, I can see the importance of this in her ww form.

SPEW !!!!

Not my inventions. C Dean Andersson was a colleague until he retired recently, and became a full-time part-time writer.

Renee, it was fun to read about Isaac’s book quest from the librarian. Woo, Oberon reference!

Lopov, maybe that early morning visit will get the Jarl to lock his door. Yikes, no wonder he couldn’t sleep after that!

ghastley, have you tried the AFT follower transformation features? I haven’t, but I think it will be a lot of fun to have your own werewolf pack.

I have AFT, but I may need to tweak it a bit for Ulfhilde. I've been using a custom power/race so she can transform to a red werewolf. That probably won't be supported without an edit.

The red is very important. Must keep her matching!

At present, I have Ulfhilde doing the transform the way I want by editing the WerewolfBeastRace to use her skin as the female one. However, that means that any female werewolf would look the same, so I'm still fiddling.

Ultimately, I'd want my personal mod to take over from AFT, so that I can more easily tweak things. For example, there aren't really enough choices for when Ulfhilde transforms, and i'm using the 50% health one as an interim solution. I'd really prefer something like "when enemies are undead" if I could do that.

This is all too custom to ever be a published mod, but I want to separate it from everyone else's so I can confine it to the one game. I may do the Grits model of having a collection of games where each of the party is the player character, and the others are NPC's, so it could become four different mods with shared assets.

ghastley, that sounds like tremendous fun. I love the chaos that happens with a group of followers, and I can only imagine how having one transform without being told by the player would add to the fun.

Chaos it is, especially when the "ignore friendly fire" setting isn't working properly, and there is argument in the ranks. Essential companions take a lot of effort to make them calm down.

And whenever there are one or more mages in the party, they will prefer to use AoE spells for maximum chaos. Especially if that means that the player character can't see what she's doing. Staves that create flame and shock walls everywhere add even more fun. I think Huld has one of each at present.

This post has been edited by ghastley: May 12 2016, 08:28 PM

Oh that’s awesome. Dual-wielding staves of mayhem. Throw in a Flame Atronach staff to really annoy the melee fighters.

NPC Jerric regularly got into fights with NPC Darnand before I worked out the friendly fire issue, and of course I’ll never forget NPC Jerric chasing NPC Lil into the woods near Morthal while she backed up still shooting at him. When he came out his shield was bristling with arrows.

I got out Jerric’s original Skyrim game on the PS3 today, with Marcurio in the role of Darnand. It was fun to see Jerric in his steel plate and Adept hood with a silver sword on his hip. It was less fun to remember that Lil and Abiene are completely absent, and then to try to figure out where he ‘lives.’ Not at Breezehome, though that’s where he left a bunch of food. Not at Lakeview, though that’s where he planted his garden and left his flour supply. Eventually we remembered that he and Darnand had rented the cottage from Uthgerd.

Now, on the console we don’t have a headtracking mod, but I’d swear he turned around and gave me a look. I think tomorrow we’ll ignore today’s saves and just start over where I found him this morning.