New Things, post something you've never seen before in Skyrim. Options

[Lopov]

I forgot about this cave until now, even forgot its name but when you mentioned its location, I remembered that Corcaigh discovered a small unmarked cave when exploring the canyon. Nice find!

[Acadian]

Inspired by Jerric’s love of fishing and a taste (shared with Kitsune) for smoked salmon, Buffy has taken up salmon fishing. Once finding a likely spot, she drops her clothes and casts her ‘barkskin’ spell. The spell is designed to augment her combat defense but serves quite nicely at ‘defending’ against cold water as well. She follows that with her waterbreathing spell and dives in. She has gotten quite good at catching salmon by hand this way.

Anyway, so on to the ‘new discovery’ for her. Noticing how sometimes salmon can be seen trying to jump up waterfalls, she positioned herself on some rocks and managed (after several tries) to grab one in mid jump. She was surprised and delighted! She waited patiently for another but after a few minutes concluded that the ‘ones’ she saw jumping were simply the same one jumping over and over – well, until caught that is. Catching salmon under water was no surprise but to be able to catch the jumping ones at waterfalls was quite the discovery for us. Not sure why we got kind of excited by that. . . but we did.

Anyway, once she and her vixen enjoy their fill of fresh salmon, Buffy bags it up with some ice wraith teeth to keep it cold and fresh until she can get to a cookpot. Then, with some salt, makes her 'smoked salmon' that keeps almost as well as her similar recipe for venison jerky. I suppose one reason she is a bit excited by her one or two simple cooking recipes is that such is pretty much the limit of her 'crafting'. She is too weak to mine ore, chop wood or use a forge. She is too focused on her bow, sneak and casting to learn enchanting. And her lack of potion making skill in Cyrodiil has deteriorated to include a complete lack of poison making aptitude as well. Again, the price of 'specialization' I suppose.

[ghastley]

The leaping Salmon are the source of Salmon Roe, if you have Hearthfires installed, but I think they're already there (just providing meat) in the base game.

One thing that UESP tells me is that some other Salmon can provide it, in particular one farmed at Windstad Manor, but I've never managed to harvest it there. Maybe I should ask Buffy to assist, especially if she takes her clothes off.

[Acadian]

This one she caught did yield meat but I did notice that she got salmon roe from it as well. She assessed the roe as one of those mysterious alchemy things and sold that.

[ghastley]

It is indeed an alchemical ingredient, and without patching, makes the highest value potions (of water-breathing) you can make, so it's good for advancing the alchemy skill quickly. My characters rarely want the gold, and don't try to sell them - I don't think Arcadia can afford one anyway - but the skill levels are what they want.

[Grits]

Oh how fun to imagine Buffy all Barkskinned up and perched on a rock in the middle of the falls! Great catch, Buffy! I’m delighted by Buffy’s fishing methods. I’m sure that spell protects tender toes from river rocks as well as from the chill.

Jerric suggests that the next time Buffy finds salmon roe, she tries rinsing it in some salted water and eating it raw on some fire-toasted bread. Or she could go Jerric-style and eat it from a knife point while still standing in the river. No cookpot required. Let the alchemists catch their own fish!

Thank you for sharing Buffy’s fishing adventure! Buffy is always inspiring. I think I hear Jerric packing up some salt for an impromptu trip to the falls.

[Lopov]

I love tiny details that you add to Buffy's game, like casting barkskin before going into cold water and having ice wraith in her inventory to keep it fresh. And catching salmon in mid jump sounds like quite a feat.

[Renee]

That does sound like fun, Acadian! I've never had anybody who likes to fish, but I think my new Bjorn guy will do this because he's my only real swimmer in Skyrim, other than another Nod I had long ago on PS3.

Are you using any fishing mods?

My New Thing of the day: I've never had an archer, except for a few dabblers here and there. Acadian, this is probably old news for you, but I Had no idea spellcasters apparently think bows are magic. They often try using wards to block arrows!



This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 16 2016, 12:22 AM

[Tellie]

So I found this the other day...



Look closely. There's a dead dragonfly (dartwing I think they're called) in that spider web. Kinda neat.

I don't like spiders anymore...they like me unfortunately.

[Acadian]

Thanks, folks. Buffy is awash in smoked salmon now. Enough to feed her and the little vixen for a long time methinks.

Renee, no fishing mods. Just by hand. Salmon in calm waters are easy. The ones jumping upstream are quite the challenge though. The water rushes so fast that if little Buffy takes a wrong step the river grabs her and sends her head over heels downstream.

Oh, Buffy loves fighting mages. They pop up that archery target (ward spell) to even help mark her target!

Her conjured bow cannot be disarmed, so it is nearly as fun to watch Druglords wasting their 'disarm' shouts on her.

Best of luck with your archery, Renee!

[Renee]

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Best of luck with your archery, Renee!

Thank you. Yup, we're getting the hang of it. I prefer archery in 3rd person without any crosshair, so it took a while to figure out how to aim under these conditions, but a few moments ago Bjorn saw a wolf standing many yards away from him, hiding in some grass. Bjorn merely nocked, aimed, and shot, got the wolf in one shot.

I've been doing this in TES4 for years, but Bjorn seems to be the first one to be getting good at it in Skyrim.

New thing of the Day: Bjorn is aligned with the Bandit Faction, so he's able to walk up to the bandits at Robber's Gorge. I had no idea there's a guy who wants us to pay a toll here! There's a toll at Valtheim Bridge, and I've known about this since my PS3 days, but not the one at Robber's Gorge. This seems to be happening because normally these bandits would just attack all my other characters. The guy enforcing the toll would never get his chance to ask us for money.


Edit: Bjorn also tried Skyrim skooma for the first time, and right in the middle of his "high" or whatever, Robber's Gorge gets attacked by some Thalmor guys! Now THAT was really cool, being on the "other side" of an attack, from a bandit's point of view. The Thalmor killed every single bandit too, except the Chief lady. And Bjorn, of course. Bjron and the Chief took care of them

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 20 2016, 12:40 AM

[Lopov]

Did Thalmor automatically attack Bjorn too because he's aligned with the bandit faction?

[ghastley]

Darwen visited the Rift Stormcloak Camp yesterday, before doing anything that affects the Civil War, and found nothing there but two wounded Stormcloaks lying on the ground and moaning. I assume they were supposed to only appear if Riften has changed hands, and the full camp is enabled.

Anyone else seen this happen?

[SubRosa]

Darwen visited the Rift Stormcloak Camp yesterday, before doing anything that affects the Civil War, and found nothing there but two wounded Stormcloaks lying on the ground and moaning. I assume they were supposed to only appear if Riften has changed hands, and the full camp is enabled.

Anyone else seen this happen?

I have come across the same bug several times. It is like the Imperial Legate you can find in the Imperial Camp in Whiterun Hold. I always see him standing out there alone on the tundra even though none of the Civil War has been done, and Whiterun is still Imperial.

[ghastley]

I think I've seen him once, too. Since there are Imperial couriers crossing that space, I didn't pay him much attention.

[ghastley]

Munchkin has recruited Illia, and as an experiment, I gave her a pair of the Spiked Brawlers that enhance Unarmed, plus the perks to use them, and set her Combat Style to match.

On the way back towards Whiterun, a DB assassin came up behind us, and I let Illia deal with her. I was amazed to see the "pick up and head-slam" kill-move done by one NPC on another. I'd only ever seen those animations with the player involved.

[Grits]

Oh my gosh, I didn't know they could do that! Neat!

[ghastley]

Had a new encounter last night. Two sabre cats and an Orc.

This time, however, the Orc was a dead bandit, and the two sabre cats were alive and nasty! Presumably the dead Orc wasn't old enough.

Another new one: Vampire with resurrected Vigilant of Stendarr. Usually the vampire is running away from two Vigilants. This one had presumably killed both and res'ed one. I'm starting to wonder if she got Vampi's drain, instead of her usual one.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Aug 31 2016, 07:11 PM

[Renee]

I just saw two wolves fighting each other, sort of like the way those Imperial Foresters go at it in Oblivion! Probably happened between those wolves due to friendly biting gone awry.

[Renee]

There is a storage cabinet down in the Ragged Flagon which is actually a secret door. Just discovered that it's possible to close ourselves into this cabinet!