Today In Skyrim (Spoilerific), Like the other one, but with added spoilers!!! Options

[Rihanae]

So I'm back in Skyrim with Lissa and it's so fun. A spell from the future plucked her from her time in TES4 and she woke up in Skyrim 200 years I to the future! She ended up at the border and was picked up by Empire soldiers and taken to Helgen.

She's already progresses through the MQ. Turns out she was plucked out of her time as she is the last dragonborn and as she would have no heir, who everver brought her to the future knew she was needed. She came to this conclusion also.

After defeating alduin she expected to return to her time... but alas she remained in Skyrim.

After travelling and doing the odd do-gooder quest, she heard about the Dawnguard returning. She knew they were vampire hunters... and she loathes vampires (her father was killed by one).

She is now progressing through that storyline and almost finished.

I think after this, depending if it gets activated, she might do the Dragon born questline.

[Renee]

Sweet, I am glad to see Lissa again. Where do you go during your long absences from Chorrol, Rihanae?

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Morndas, late at night, Sun's Dusk 10

Bjorn spent most of this day being lazy around Riften, because it was another sunny day ha ha. One thing he did (on a more productive note) was he managed to find Maven Black-Briar, and actually he spent a couple hours searching for her, but later on while he was having supper at The Bee and Barb, Maven casually pulled up a seat at his very table (I was amazed...this part of the quest is optional, so if we didn't find Maven, we would have dropped this part).

Bjorn spoke to her about this guy named "Vald", who is supposed to live in Mercer Frey's estate 24/7. There is an option to just beat Vald up and get him out of the way, but an alternative to this would be to "pay Vald's debt to Maven." Doing this will cause Vald not to attack us (I'm assuming) but honestly Bjorn doesn't care about paying the guy's debt. He only wanted to talk to Maven so he could get as much information as possible.

Left Riften at about midnight and headed for Fort Greenwall for a good night's rest. Big day tomorrow.

Bjorn spent most of his gold during this session, taking lockpicking lessons from Vex. This was sorely needed. Because of the mod I use, he has only been able to pick Novice locks so far. Now he'll be able to go for Apprentice

[Rihanae]

Work 😂 I work in the healthcare industry which means long days and not a lot of downtime. But since I've got my PS4 I've been able to play again.

I love your character. I think I've gone through the thieves guild questline once, but I didn't enjoy it very much TBH. I felt it deviated from theiving quite a bit so I lost interest.. . But I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Lissa is currently doing the dragonborn questline. After the main quest I wanted to avoid doing any more 'main' questline... but Lissa couldn't ignore the events that take you into the Dragonborn questline. We are enjoying it though.

[Renee]

Wow, long hours as a medical person, yikes! Well that's good to know because sometimes I wonder where people go.

Bjorn update now. I think I have a half-dozen of these left. And yes, you are right Rihanae...the Thieves Guild does require somebody who is not a pure thief; they also have to be somewhat of a tough guy, a ruffian, a rogue. Once you're in the guild (and the bullying parts are done), you can then concentrate on being a thief-only, if this is what you want to do. There are thieving quests and "sneaky manipulative"-type quests. Bjorn sucks as a thief, so he tends to concentrate on the latter. He also is doing the main TG quest too.

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Tirdas, mid-afternoon, 11th of Sun's Dusk



Another sunny day in Riften. Seriously, I'm not kidding.

Bjorn found himself too impatient to deal with finding the secret, magical quill spoken of by Maven Black-Briar. This quill is supposed to be underwater somewhere, in Lake Honrich. As much as Bjorn loves to swim & dive, and the idea of spending the entire day swimming in warm water (for a change) is tempting. But he's too impatient to deal with helping Maven. In fact, it only takes an hour or so for him to find Riftweald Manor, the place Mercer Frey had been calling his home.

Outside of this manor though was Vald, the guy hired by Mercer to protect the place. On sight, Vald immediately began to attack Bjorn...

"Never should have come here!"

"Ooh a fight!"

But it did not last long. In fact, it only took a few head-butts from Bjorn to bring the guy down.

Riftweald Manor had a door located nearby, but this door appeared to be barred from the other side. He walked all around the place and even swam in Riften's water down below, in an effort to find a secret door. Luckily, he also remembered his notes, in which Brynjolf told him there's supposed to be some sort of mechanism Bjorn could "shoot", to lower some sort of ramp. After inspecting the rear of Riftweald Manor again, Bjorn could clearly see this ramp.

Just one arrow was all it took. Mercer wasn't in there, but from the sound of it, several other dudes were. From the sound of it though, all these 'other dudes' were also in the Bandit Faction, for they were all talking about "pulling that ace out of my boot", and wondering "which college he meant". Normally all these guys would be attacking Bjorn, but it's almost like they already know who he is, and left him alone as he searched the place.

He managed to find a wardrobe with a suspicious-looking inner panel, and it turns out this panel led into a sub-cellar down below, full of Mercer's treasure, a few books & notes, and a map which looked as though it might give a hint as to where Mercer had gone to. This map was difficult to decipher for Bjorn though, so he brought it back to the Ratway for Brynjolf to get a look at.

"Shor's beard, he's going for the Eyes of the Falmer? That was Gallus's project. If he gets his hands on that you can bet he'll be set up for good. Set up for life," Brynjolf replied.

There was some discussion between Karliah and Brynjolf then, after which is was decided to meet near "The Standing Stone," but Karliah is so soft-spoken that it was impossible to know where the heck she meant.

Time to cheat a little, I guess. Turns out, this stone is located directly south of Riften, so that should be easy.

But Bjorn was tired by this point, after hours of skulking around, trying to find secret doors and dealing with traps. Time for some deep sleep. Good thing Bjorn has his own bed down here, this way he won't have to walk all the way back to Fort Greenwall.

This post has been edited by Renee: May 26 2017, 06:22 PM

[Vital]

So my brother brought home a copy of skyrim special edition a couple of weeks ago and I finally got a whole weekend of no work or anything so I started a new character and, well, I'm hooked again.

So I'm rolling with a nord bard/cyromancer/necromancer named Eldys. I'll hopefully upload a few pics of her soon. Anyways, her adventure started in Falkreath (thanks to live another life), where she had recently arrived from Cyrodil. Since then she's been very busy, completing quests to revive the Gildergreen in Whiterun and retrieving the 'legendary' white phial for a grumpy old alchemist in Windhelm. Along the way she performed at every tavern she passed, and continued to grow her magical talents. Being a cryomancer in skyrim kinda sucks, as practically everything seems to have some kind of frost resistance so combat has been a struggle, but its been a blast regardless.

She's recently joined up with the College of Winterhold and, in keeping with the College's policy of independent research, has raised herself a permanent skeleton minion (added by the ordinator perks mod, which really helps make necromancy more viable). After proving herself to the College with this experiment, and her help in retrieving a rare book for Urag, she's been invited to participate in the research at Saarthal. Some interesting discoveries were made, although Eldys herself was less interested in the giant magical orb with absolutely no lore or context surrounding it and more intrigued by the strange amulet she recovered from a draugr, which seems to have some connection to the legends of the archmage Gauldr she's read about. Perhaps a new quest....

--

Anyway, its been fun catching up on all your adventures in Skyrim, and I'm glad to be back playing. The limited access to mods for console has really increased my enjoyment of the game, making it feel like a genuinely updated and improved version of Skyrim, and not just a next-gen port. I think I'm gonna have a heap of fun with Eldys' adventure

[Renee]

Glad to have you back, Vital. Sounds like you're really getting into it, after being away for so long. I know the feeling. Are you on Xbox or PC? .. I know the Playstation can't handle Live Another Life, unfortunately.

[Acadian]

Renee, nice to see B2BW still skulksmashing his way around Skyrim.

Vital, welcome back to you and welcome to Eldys.

[Vital]

Cheers for the welcome back guys

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Middas, 10th of Heartfire, 4e 201

A dreadful shriek pierced the silence of the ancient chamber. More Draugr. Eldys tucked the ivory claw into her pack and refocused. A cool pulse of magicka ran down her forearm as she painted a rune onto the wooden bridge ahead. The pair of axe wielding undead charged dutifully into her trap, triggering an explosion of frost which sent the first flying into the lower levels of the room and left the second weakened, stumbling, and easily dispatched by a thrust of Eldys’ sword.

With the danger gone the young Nord paused for a moment. Her legs felt heavy from the journey behind her. Acting only on the rumours inscribed within a single chapter of the book 'Lost Legends, Eldys had travelled across half of Skyrim to uncover Folgunthur. Within she hoped to uncover the final resting place of Mikrul Gauldurson and retrieve his fragment of the fabled ‘Gauldur Amulet’.

This had taken her several days. For the dead dunmer from whom she had retrieved the ivory claw — the key to this ancient tomb — the Gauldur legend had been an obsession of eighty years. A life’s work now in the hands of another, more capable and perhaps more fortunate adventurer. Eldys looked back to the corpse of the old fool. She mustered just enough pity to return the amethyst encrusted ring she pried of his fingers a few moments ago before she pushed on.

As she moved deeper and deeper into the barrow, Eldys could feel the fragment hung around her neck begin to pulse. A network of passages blurred into one as she forged ahead. Caution subsided as the lure of ancient power took hold of her. The undead guardians of the tomb fell easily to her combination of magic and blade and the skeletal minion which sured up her rear saw little action as Eldys moved swiftly through the ruins.

Arriving in the hall of stories, Eldys took a brief pause to admire the intricate handicraft of her ancestors. Using the ivory claw she opened the door at the end of the chamber to reveal the final crypt; a tremendous chamber seemingly walled not by stone but by shadows. In its centre lay a single sarcophagus on an elevated platform. Hanging above it were two immense braziers adorned by roaring flames.

Eldys released an of orb pale light which surged forward to reveal a score of draugr amongst the darkness. As her frost atronach charged ahead the ground shook. Debris fell from the ceiling as Mikrul Gauldurson emerged. Beneath a menacing blue stare, Mikrul’s fragment of the amulet glowed fiercely on his neck. Eldys gripped her sword firmly, and gathered a ball of chilling magicka in her other hand.

The amulet would be hers.

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Excuse my poor writing, just an attempt to breath some life into Eldys adventures. So she did successfully retrieved the second fragment of the Gauldur amulet in Folgunthur. From there she travelled back to the College, opting to pass through the Pale. This turned out to be quite a difficult journey, involving numerous stops along the way to fight off the cold. She almost froze to death about halfway there but luckily stumbled across an encampment of imperial soldiers who let her share their fire after she performed a rather unenthusiastic rendition of 'The Age of Agression' for them. Later she took shelter at Frostflow Lighthouse, where she cleared out a nest of chaurus. She did eventually make it back to the college, where is she is spending a few days to rest up and do some study (aka buy some new spells), before she sets out for more adventure.

[Renee]

Heh ha, that's not poor writing, Vital, that is very detailed writing. You're getting into your character's story, that's all. I can show you some examples of poor writing if you'd like!

I keep going back to the Frostfall thing. Because the base mod is waaaay too harsh, imo. I figure even the worst of Skyrim's weather is just below freezing, otherwise how would bandits and guards be able to walk around so casually in it all day? So I don't feel bad turning on FF's Lite setting, and dialing those settings even easier.

Well anyway, here is the continuation of a Nord man's tale who barely, if ever, feels the cold. Last we saw, he was doing some quest for the Thieves Guild. I remember it was rather extensive, though the details have slipped my mind a bit, since I wrote this probably back in January.




Turdas, mid-morning, Sun's Dusk 13

Days Passed: 88

Bjorn awoke after 11 hours of sleep, and headed to the Ragged Flagon for breakfast: salted meat, a carrot, and some Honningbrew Mead. Yuck.

He quickly found Tonilia though, the main merchant down here. Bjorn has never been wowed by shiny gems & trinkets, so he sold most of the loot he'd found from Mercer's place. Ironically, some of this loot (or all of it) was probably Thieves Guild property in the first place. Either way, Bjorn woke up that morning nearly broke, but left the Ratway with just over 1,500 gold.

Karliah and the Standing Stone were easy to find, and now that she and Brynjolf are both outside (rather than down in the noisy Ratway Cistern) everything she said can now be heard. ha ha. * I have never heard such a soft-spoken NPC before! Anyway, she explained that the cave nearby the Standing Stone is actually the Nightingale headquarters, and the place is heavily associated with the daedric goddess Nocturnal.

Just before going in the "Nightingale Hall," Bjorn turned to speak to Brynjolf, who explained "I'm just as puzzled as you are, lad."

Once inside, Karliah explained that she wanted Bjorn to don some Nightingale armor, meaning that he'd have to remove the magical Armor of the Squire he'd been wearing the entire time he's been in Riften. Well, this might be okay. This armor is just magical hide, and was beginning to stink after several days of running around Riften.

But Bjorn was also concerned about 'playing with the Gods". Although aligned with evil, he'd never had the desire to follow any of the daedra. Such things are just not what he aspires toward. But Karliah explained that Bjorn putting this armor on would be nothing more than a "business transaction", and that in the future, Bjorn would have the potential to become wealthy.

Well that's all he needs to hear. More gold? Pass the coinpurse, please. ... He throws aside his magical hide armor, and follows Karliah and Brynjolf once again.

Bjorn felt silly wearing this armor though, like some sort of evil sissy mage. But Karliah would not speak to Bjorn any further until he donned it all. She explained that to "defeat Mercer, we must have Nocturnal at our back." Brynjolf seemed doubtful, but at this point, both he and Bjorn agreed that getting rid of Mercer Frey would only be a good thing.



After Nocturnal spoke to Karliah from the planes of the Daedra, Karliah explained that she has two new initiates to complete the 'Trinity'. Finally. Nocturnal was displeased about this, but in the end allowed the Nightingale trio to flourish. Now everybody is supposed to go to a placed called Irkngthand, a vast dwarven ruin, where they hope to stop Mercer Frey from "stealing the Eyes, and escaping from Skyrim with Nocturnal's Skeleton Key.

Finally, Brynjolf spoke to Bjorn just as the trio was about to leave the Nightingale cave, and told him that there's a chance Bjorn will become the next leader of the guild. Bjorn tried to turn this down, but Brynjolf wouldn't hear his protests.

A perpetual litterbug, Bjorn finished his business in Nightngale Hall by drinking some Nord Mead, and dropping the empty bottle right on the ground where Nocturnal spoke. Road Trip #1,043, here we come!

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Bjorn wearing some "sissy" Nightingale armor

Bjorn, Brynjolf, and Karlilah

Finally Bjorn can't stand it. As soon as the meeting with Nocturnal is over, he removes his Nightingale helmet! I'm not sure if he kept it, or simply dropped it on-the-spot. Probably the latter.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jun 10 2017, 03:59 AM

[Vital]

that's not poor writing, Vital, that is very detailed writing.

Ha, thanks Renee. The more storytelling oriented updates that the likes of yourself, Lopov, etc do, as well as the stuff on the fan-fic subforum have definitely inspired me to try some writing like this. As for frostfall, I am beginning to find it a little excessive, especially as the cold only seems to punish you and not any of the NPCs, so have already given all Eldys' armour 'excellent' coverage and warmth ratings.

It's been a while since I've done the TG quest, but I seem to remember it as one of my fav Skyrim quest lines, although this is a very different TG from that of Oblivion. I think the Nightingale armour is quite cool! Although I can see why Bjorn may feel a little dorky in it - it's seems more suited for a slender figure, rather than a bulky Nordic build.

--

I have some updates on Eldys' story to catch up on which hopefully I can post in the next couple of days, although my attention has been diverted by a few other projects

[ghastley]

I'm never sure with a lot of the quest lines, if there wasn't a deliberate attempt to make them greyer than usual. Things like there being no clear choice between Stormcloaks and Legion. The Thieves Guild questline is full of that. Are you saving it from Mercer, and Maven, and were those two even on the same side? Is Nocturnal testing you with the ritual stuff, and are you supposed to rebel at least a bit?

I tend to play TG as a continuation of Oblivion's in the sense that Nocturnal is basically well-intentioned, but her methods are highly suspect.

---

I've been test-playing my own Conina mod, but the Nijel the Destroyer and Rincewind player characters are deviating badly from their archetypes. Both are become quite competent without Conina's help!

[Renee]

That'd be cool if you can post some more, Vital. I am not playing Skyrim until September or October, yet I have a few more Bjorns I can share over the summer.

Yes, Thieves Guild is supposed to be grayer. For sure, both Bjorn and I were confused about who was doing what to whom during the main parts of the questline.

Unlike the Oblivion TG, in my opinion Skyrim's version really does demand that the player-character be a specific type of guy or gal who is more of a rogue than a straight-up thief. I had a spellsword a few years ago who was mildly evil for instance, and he was looking forward to doing some sneaky/thievery kind of stuff, but the shopkeeper bullying totally turned him off. He couldn't do it. Of course, with Bjorn, he has no problem bullying people around; it's a good thing somebody made a Be a Highwayman mod for him, so he can bully people on the road, too!

This post has been edited by Renee: Jun 30 2017, 01:34 PM

[Renee]

Morndas, Sun's Dusk 17, late afternoon.

Days Passed: 92

Current Quest: Blightsighted

After three days of lollygagging, traveling slowly from Riften to Nightgale Inn (and staying at two different bandit locations: Fort Valtheim and Silent Moons Camp along the way), Bjorn finally got deep enough into Irkngthand to find Karliah and Brynjolf, but before he found these two, he was glad he still had his Staff of Flame Atronach. As a man who can't even cast his own healing spell, having this magical staff could be a life-saver at times. By the time he found his friends though, he was getting tired, especially after fighting several dwarven spiders and spheres.

Bjorn told the others to "stay where you are", while he headed back to an earlier part of the ruins where he saw some bedrolls. After sleeping for 6 hours and having some goat-meat and ale, he was ready for action again.

[ghastley]

I don't think I've ever gone back and slept in a dungeon. I've left completely and camped outside, but that's a bit different.

I rolled up a new Dremora babe to play through building my Hearthfires tower as a hand-to-hand specialist. I discovered that the mod treats her as an archer, as she doesn't use magic much, and her one- and two-handed skills don't advance using her fists. That gives her a melee housecarl at present. I may artificially tweak her stats to make it an archer instead.

I'm also trying to create Smurfette, just because. Blue skin, blond hair, and a garden gnome hat. The hat's the hard part, as nothing in the game looks similar.

Dee Dee the Dremora has just made her spiked gauntlets, and taken some training to reach the Fists of Steel perk in Heavy Armour. That gets her extra damage to pile onto the Brawler ability, and the mage armour boost to hand-to-hand. She bought the gloves from Belethor that have the Fortify H2H enchantment, but doesn't have the Enchant skill to make much use of it.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Jul 11 2017, 02:36 PM

[Renee]

It all depends which character of course, but most of mine have no problem sleeping in dungeons. As long as they get cleared first, of course. I've had some characters who are sort of germ-phobic (meaning they don't want to sleep in some crummy bedroll) but Bjorn has no sort of problem like this. From what I remember of this dwarven ruin he is in, it also wasn't so bad of a place. Clean, lots of metal everywhere. Warm, even, from what I remember.

I wanna see Smurfette and your new dremora gal!

[ghastley]

Smufette is ready for her close-up, but Dee Dee isn't showing until she's made her Daedric outfit. It wouldn't be proper to wear anything else!

Smurfette in Solitude

She's child-sized and proportioned to about six heads tall, instead of the usual eight. She wears Spiked Brawlers and iron boots, as she's using the Unarmed Helper mod, which expands on the Fist of Steel perk from Heavy Armour, and boosts it with help from Mage Armour spells, and enchanting tweaks.

She's already punched two dragons to death, (not Murmulnir, she needed to use a bow for him) and reached level 17.

[Renee]

Whoa, holy [censored], she really is a smurf ... ette! That is amazing.

[Acadian]

Smurfette!

[SubRosa]

She looks like she's feeling kind of blue...

[ghastley]

SubRosa: ... and it's Chorrol Blue!

She's taking over my game. Since getting the Fists of Steel perk, she can stop wearing the clunky boots, so she wanted new shoes. She's also learned Enchanting so she can add Fortify Unarmored on a few things.

Then she started throwing the Orcs at Bilegulch Mine around. Orc1 Orc2 Orc3

Then, after clearing the nearby Cracked Tusk Keep, Roadside Ruins, Falkreath Watchtower, and Evergreen Grove, she pointed to a location where she wanted me to build her a house.

You don't argue with Smurfette.

Smurfette's house

Smurfy interior - there's an anvil next to the fire, and the shelves are becoming bookshelves.

If I can find suitable intermediate stages for growing the house, it may become a Hearthfires mod later. I reduced the height of several items of furniture, so it suited Smurfette, but may not work for full-sized players, so maybe not. I still have ground meshes to do for the hat, dress, and her shoes (which are just barkeeper's re-textured), so she can have spares lying around at the house.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Jul 17 2017, 02:14 PM