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

[Renee]

Wow, 309 locations! Good job, Persephone.

[Darkness Eternal]

Grits, Zanimal's adventures are insane and in a good way. I never figured you would do the Dawnguard questline. How do you like it so far?

[Grits]

It’s great to read Persephone’s continuing adventures! I love that walk up over the mountain above Ironbind Barrow. Persephone’s time at home sounds like a nice transition to her next stage of life. I can imagine clearing all of those locations gave her an impressive treasure chest! It will be neat to go to college at such a high level. I still haven’t done all of the master ritual quests because characters tend to expire or retire long before they get that skilled. Long may Persephone un-live!

DE, I love the Dawnguard questline. I find that Serana is easy to get along with even from differing perspectives. (If you can ignore the endless “yes, what did you need?”) Heroes want to save her, my jaded knight recognized that she was being manipulated by Serana and still kept her around, and my vampires have wanted to show her the world she missed by being locked up right after getting Molag Bal’ed. I would have liked Lord Harkon to be more interesting, though. But I do enjoy his voice.

Also the Dawnguard heavy armor is one of my favorites, and the sun spells make some interesting paladin-type characters possible. I think the locations are among the best in the game. Castle Volkihar could stand some cleanup, though.

The Zanimal is still hauling around that Bloodstone Chalice having been tasked with doing something with it. I don’t remember what, but he’s already been to the location prior to meeting Lord Harkon. He just followed the smell of addiction. His vampire mod prevents him from receiving any benefit from food, drink, or potions, but we RP that he still enjoys a smoke. Also he drinks a lot of wine, it just doesn’t do anything to him. I doubt if he’ll go far through the questline. He’s having too much fun pillaging.

Serafíne was a fun vampire to play infiltrating the Volkihar. She had a lot of internal conflict and the game’s content worked very well with it. Capt. Z is an enthusiastic vampire but not interested in the politics or religion. As a result he’s not much of a quest guy. If I ever get back into the vampire side it will probably be with a fallen hero character. Perhaps one that didn’t use magic in his mortal life so that the vampire gifts are more appealing. Anyway I can’t see Captain Zanimal running around doing Lord Harkon’s bidding.

Valdi is at the point where she needs to enter the Soul Cairn on behalf of Team Dawnguard. Her game has been paused there for quite a while. Her decision deserves more attention than I can give her right now. I’ve had two werewolves get this far and of course not give up their beast blood. I’m not sure what Valdi is (eventually) going to do.

[Grits]

I forgot to mention that Captain Zanimal found an interesting book in the first reaver fortress he hit. Now he and his raiders Stenvar and Asrael are on the hunt of a lifetime, or in the undead Captain’s case several lifetimes. They’re after the stash of the legendary pirate King of Ghosts, Haknir Death-Brand.

Also they’re hunting horkers to provision the galley. Capt. Z knows that his crew needs to eat. Plus he wonders how the ship’s healer will taste on a high-fat diet.

[Acadian]

... Plus he wonders how the ship’s healer will taste on a high-fat diet.

Buffy has whole passel of two leggers that she can travel with when she (or they) want/need. And she seems to like scouting/leading horse trains around Skyrim. Yet, she keeps going back to her need for just the outdoors, her mare and a four legger as companionship/protection. So she treats the followers as friends and acquaintances that are fun to sometimes travel with.

She's also made a significant move away from armor - going pure clothes and using the mage armor spells - as a trial, mind you. We can craft Triss stuff as either clothes or armor. I continue to love the College mage robes for their practical and neat look (helped even further by a mod). Also for the comments - just as Buffy is a Bosmer in order to get the 'elf' comments, she likes wearing College robes to get the 'wizard' comments. "What do you want, little elf?" and "Fancy robes. . . you some kind of wizard?" and "You must be one of those wizards from the College."

Between relying on spells for summons, bow and, now, armor, she's a busy caster! And she has some cool light effects going as well - muffle (just for looks as she's 'outgrown' the spell), mage armor and a mystic bow (or a spell waiting in each hand).

She recently spent a stint using an orcish bow - we tweaked and smithed it so it was not a step down from her mystic bow. It was fun, but ultimately confirmed that, in Skyrim, she is largely defined as a mystic archer by her mystic bow. I don't think we'll get her pretty blue flaming bow out of her hands again. One concern regarding her mystic bow is the light it puts out in dark dungeons; we are roleplaying that her quiet casting perk that renders casting noise audible only to her and I also renders her magey light effects visible only to her, I (and the camera). Lol.

This post has been edited by Acadian: Aug 30 2014, 03:44 PM

[SubRosa]

Grits: "yes, what did you need?" drove me crazy the last time I did the DG questline! Persephone really liked Serana, but that made Persephone want to stake her by the end!

Captain Z is having too much fun pillaging and contemplating a high fat diet to be a vampire soldier! How perfect. He is a pirate after all...

I still think you should do the vampire side with Njall the Unliving. Or as another Deadwalker type character. Unfortunately the questline still forces you to accept Harkon's 'gift'. But you would just have to pretend that never happened. You might have to use the console to change your race back afterward though...


Acadian: I like the recognition you get for wearing the college robes too. Though so far even when she is wearing her new college outfit Persephone is still getting the "You're and alchemist right? Why don't you brew me an ale?" and "Conjure me up a warm bed summoner." The Skyrim guards definitely have a greater sense of humor than those in Cyrodiil.

I discovered something interesting a few days ago when Persephone tried out the Mystic Bow. The mod I made to recolor the Daedric Bow and Arrows with more red changes the appearance of the Mystic Bow as well. I can see all those brighter red parts through the blue glow. It doesn't look very good, so Persephone stopped using it. So the Mystic Bow uses the standard Daedric Bow as a base, and just adds that blue effect on top of it. I thought it would have at least had its own separate texture. Now I see why the vanilla Daedric Bow is so colorless.



In other news Persephone did some puttering around The Rift a few days ago, knocking off a few locations that I had not discovered after all. She also wandered west, and thoroughly explored everything south of Fort Neugrad, all the way to Falkreath and Angi's Camp. Then she turned north, and found her last remaining unexplored place on the Tundra (Bloated Man's Grotto). Except for Giermund's Hall, she has now officially cleared out / explored every location east of Morthal / Falkreath. She has also gotten a lot of things here and there to the west of them as well.

While I was at it, I made her Smithing and Enchanting skills Legendary. Thanks her gigantic stash of ebony, gold, and silver, and flawless gems, her Smithing is already back up to 100, and her Enchanting up to around 75 or so. She still has a bunch of diamonds left over. Her Restoration hit 100 as well, and she has every perk in the tree except the Master Casting perk. I am not sure if there is even a Restoration spell at that level for her to learn. If there is, it is probably one of those anti-undead ones that would hurt her too!

Yesterday she made her way to Winterhold and joined the college. In spite of knowing a list of spells so long it runs down past the screen, she still did not know the one Faralda asked her to cast at the bridge. I swear they must have a script that checks what spells you don't know, and picks one of those. I don't think a single mage character of mine has ever known the spell she asks for.

She attended her first lecture with the Alteration teacher, and got to show off a spell she does know in front of the class. She has the strongest Ward, and with a Restoration of 100 she definitely knows how to use it! She stopped by to talk to the Conjuration teacher, and he immediately wanted her to summon an unbound Dremora. WTF? Why would she want to summon one of those? I had to back up to an earlier save to keep that out of her quest journal.

Finally she went off on the field trip to Saarthal with the rest of the class. She cleared the way of Frost Trolls for them, using only her spells this time. She was at home inside. One thing she knows is graves! Though the big glowy ball thing at the end did surprise even her. She has just made her way back to the college to tell the Arch-Mage what they found.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Aug 30 2014, 05:52 PM

[Acadian]

Neat to follow a high-level Persephone through the College quests. I'll bet she sure can use the ward. I'm surprised Tolfdir didn't ask her to teach the class. Of course, no one's the skilled mage that J'Zargo is. . . just ask him.

[Renee]

Mycharonna is headed back to the Sanctuary, but taking her sweet time getting there. She's had a sudden bout to explore a bit, and (unlike some of my others) she's actually not much of an explorer. She likes messing with the minds of NPCs mostly, so if she finds a cave full of wolves or other such creatures, she usually moves on.

Last I saw her she was in some mill (forget its name) that's right on Lake Ilinata. There's an unoccupied house on the mill's property (because Mych killed its owner) so she's using this house to wait in until it's nighttime.

In spite of knowing a list of spells so long it runs down past the screen, she still did not know the one Faralda asked her to cast at the bridge. I swear they must have a script that checks what spells you don't know, and picks one of those. I don't think a single mage character of mine has ever known the spell she asks for.

Never fails, does it? Mycharonna was the same way. She's got all these Conjuration, Destruction, Illusion spells mostly, so Faralda asks her to cast something from the Restoration school. Which Mych never uses.

With Lord Haaf-Mersey, it was Destruction. He never uses Destruction, so that's what she asked from him. At least he didn't have to conjure anything.

[ghastley]

No, there's a sure-fire way to get Faralda to demand one you know. Go there specifically to get a cheap spell. Since she sells it for only 30 gold, you stand a good chance of a real bargain. If that's your aim, she'll ask you to cast flames.

[Renee]

Ha ha okay. I'll try that next time if I ever have another who goes to visit Mage's College

[SubRosa]

I finally (well almost) finished working up the mod's I'll need to play Persephone's grown up children - Sofie and Lucia. Persephemom's Winterhold house Snowhome is finished, except for the navmesh. I also added Persephemom into my Deadwalker mod, along with a sandbox AI package. That way I can use the console to bring her into the game. Tonight I finished creating Sofie, and brought her into the world.

Persephone's daughter Sofie has grown up, and is ready to go out into the world

Sofie is ready for adventure

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Sep 1 2014, 05:15 AM

[Acadian]

Great pix! Snowhome looks great and I love Sophie pointing to the map with Persephenom in the background. Sofie looks very nice indeed - the braid and practical armor suit her as a novice adventurer.

[Renee]

What is that on her armor in the second pic? Is that color? Goodness. Are you sure you've got the Skyrim section?

Jk. That is a pretty cool idea, making NPC children into full-grown adults. I'll bet the roleplay must be pretty interesting too.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Sep 1 2014, 01:32 PM

[haute ecole rider]

What a great mod idea! I love Persephemom in the first picture - looks like she has mixed feelings about her daughter heading out into the cold, cruel world. But Sofie looks so ready!

Love the armor. Is that from Immersive Armors? I thought I saw something similar there.

[SubRosa]

Sofie's armor is from two mods. The cuirass, gauntlets, and boots are from Berserk Sonia Armor, and the helmet is from one of the plate armors in zzjay's wardrobe. I thought they looked good together.

Sofie took her first step on the road to what she hopes will be a greater destiny. She dreams of becoming a bard. But not some slovenly singer in a tavern. No, she will go out into the world and experience life and adventure. For how can she sing about heroes, triumphs, tragedies, love, and hate, if she knows none of it herself?

So she made her way west from Winterhold, traveling up and down the icy wastes. Thanks to her mother, Sofie knows a spell to calm the savage beasts. So she had no trouble from the wolves that prowl the land. In time she came upon the mysterious Dwemer ruin of Alftand, and decided to explore its depths. She soon found herself in way over her head. But once again, her mother did not send Sofie out without a little assistance, and her friend Larry the Skeleton was always there at a moment notice to help against the blasphemous Dwemer machines, and twisted Falmer.

After loading up on loot, and discovering an elevator back to the surface near the end of the Animoculory, Sofie left the ruin and returned to Winterhold. But she came back a seasoned warrior. She went from 1st level to 7th, and didn't even explore the entire place! Back home she rested up, sold off her loot, and melted down all the Dwemer metal she had found and smithed it up into jewelry.

She took some time to read up on the Dwemer in Persephemom's library. The next day she set off for Alftand once more, to finish what she started.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Sep 2 2014, 12:58 AM

[haute ecole rider]

So that's where I saw the armor! Looks really cool on Sofie!

Larry the Skelly? I want pics!

I did not know you could smith jewelry from dwemer metal! Or is that from a mod?

[Renee]

That's really wonderful how rich the roleplay is. Yes, Skyrim can use some new bards. I'm sure she'll be the first to sing something other than what all the others sing, too.

fter loading up on loot, and discovering an elevator back to the surface near the end of the Animoculory, Sofie left the ruin and returned to Winterhold. But she came back a seasoned warrior.

Love that part.

[SubRosa]

So that's where I saw the armor! Looks really cool on Sofie!

Larry the Skelly? I want pics!

I did not know you could smith jewelry from dwemer metal! Or is that from a mod?

A long time ago I made a mod that makes circlets craftable. Since there isn't any copper ore in the game, I used Dwarven ingots for all the copper circlets.

That's really wonderful how rich the roleplay is. Yes, Skyrim can use some new bards. I'm sure she'll be the first to sing something other than what all the others sing, too.

fter loading up on loot, and discovering an elevator back to the surface near the end of the Animoculory, Sofie left the ruin and returned to Winterhold. But she came back a seasoned warrior.

Love that part.

I am of course inspired by one of my favorite NPCs in Skyrim, Talsgar the Wanderer. "One itinerant minstrel and wandering wastrel, at your service."

[haute ecole rider]

I think Sofie would love to have Jordis the Sword Maiden (Proudspire housecarl) as a companion, if she were to ever get one.

Why? Because of something Jordis has said on more than one occasion: "Why do we always focus on retelling the old stories? There are so many new ones being made, right now!"

I've been taking her out on a spin alongside Argis and it's funny to hear them together. Once I heard her say "Luckily for you I possess a forgiving nature . . and I'm not easily insulted." Argis just laughed that wonderful masculine laugh that makes me smile every time I hear it. We were riding through the backcountry of northwestern Reach between Druadach Redoubt and Bthardamz/Reach Imperial Camp.

Jordis is a little scatterbrained, but she is less annoying than whiny Lydia and supercilious Raaya (Hearthfire's Lakeside Manor), so Alise and Argis are keeping her on a bit longer.

[Grits]

Acadian, how fun that Buffy has adventuring friends! Lil made the switch to cloth once she got enough perks in Alteration. She’s pleased with the change, though I can’t tell much of a difference. I enjoy the evolution of a stealthy archer who uses Illusion. There are different ways to reach the same goal.

Renee, Mycharonna is holed up in my favorite spot on the lake. If I ever get around to building a cabin with the CK, it will be right around there. Despite the somewhat scary neighbors.

SubRosa, Sofie looks wonderful all grown up! Her look is a great mix of badass and feminine. I admire that brown outfit on women. Persephemom’s house looks awesome. She picked a great spot for it. I love knowing where Sofie learned some of her spells.

haute, I gave NPC Jerric the same voice that Argis has, and NPC Lildereth has the same voice as Jordis. It’s made for some pretty funny moments when they’re both hanging out inside Lakeview Manor in the evenings. My favorite interaction between them:

Lil: Got any sausages?

Jerric: *laughs*

In Grits character news Jensa has finally made an honest man of Stenvar on the PC. I’m interested to see if he keeps his pre-wedding chatter. He lost a lot of his personality when she married him on the Xbox and PS3.