Today in Cyrodiil, spoilers version, TES: 4 Oblivion character accounts & stories Options

[macole]

*
The Breton rolled her eyes.
*
"Leyawiin is my first stop" - the Breton nodded and slid through the ice, disappearing into the dark waters below.

Acadian: Kind of fun isn’t it. Certainly, didn’t plan on it, it just kind of happened when I read the Jandaga mentioned in Lean Wolf’s story.

Lena: I put words in your Hauk's mouth if you disagree with anything make a suggestion and I can change, I think.
-----------------------------------------
Again he repeated his question.

“Where have you gone Ka-Ata-Killa? Oh, where have you gone my darling winged one?”

The flashing of pages stopped on a window with a sunny view of palm trees and sand.

“A window not a door, that’s good. At least she’s still on this world.”

With a fierce determination the Jandaga touched his right hand to his chest. Instantly he was encased in his ancient dragonspirit armor. The Dragonspirit roared as the Mystwalker stepped into the window.

It was a sunny afternoon as a cool ocean breeze blew lightly across the Lyithdonea (a Morrowind Mod) beach. Two obviously weary combatants sat several paces away from each other eyeing other warily. Exhausted, neither one wanted to move, both hoping the other wouldn’t.

Sipping on potent umbrella drinks from a nearby cabana. The sudden appearance of the silver armored figure startled them.

The big muscular Nord reacted quickly, reached for his sword. The succubus likewise sprung into the air and flew straight to the armored figure hovering in the air. Wrapping her arms and tail around him in a loving embrace Kaleah called out, “My Feache, you’ve come for me.”

Then pointing at Hauk she added, “He called me an old harpy!”

“Hey, that’s before I found out she’s you’re… I can’t believe it. No wonder she’s wanted by the Inquisitors.”

‘Good Goddess girl, how much did you tell the hulk?”

“Well, I didn’t mention Pym and the Mummigs.”

“It’s Hauk and what’s a mummig?” came from the beach.

Without taking his eye off Hauk the Jandaga asked, “Other than that did he fight with honor?”

“Yes, my Feache,” Kaleah replied, resting her head on the golden dragon embossed on his cuirass.

“Good.” And with that the Jandaga glided down to the beach and held out his hand. “The match has been declared a draw and by house rules the house wins the pot. Do you agree?”

Tentatively Hauk accepted the peace offering. ”Yes, fairly fought to no advantage, I agree.”

“You know, you don’t look anything like what I expected,” Hauk pointed out.

‘’Really, how so?”

“You’re barely as tall as the smallest Treehuggen elf I’ve seen,” Hauk stated. “By all the songs sung of the Psychedelic Warrior, Vampire Hunter, and Dragon Slayer I assumed you’d be somewhere between Orc and Xivilai in size. Why, it hurts my neck to look down at ya. ”

A little later after getting to know one another Hauk commented in somewhat disbelief, “That’s quite a list of titles you lay claim to; Arch-Mage Emeritus of Cyrodiil and Morrowind, and Archmagister Emeritus of House Telvanni. It’s the emeritus part I don’t get. Those groups aren’t known for their retirement packages.”

“I just simply posted public notice that if anyone wishes to challenge me step forward. Everyone took a step back. So, I said I’m done with the politics. Select someone to call your Arch-whatever and should they have a problem with me minding my own business they can come see me personally. It’s been 300-years or more and no one has paid me a visit.”

“Now tell me what went wrong? This was supposed to be a table game with AI controlled automatons fighting.”

Kaleah and Hauk gave each other a confused quizzical look before Kaleah offered, “We don’t know. I was outside looking at the elephants when suddenly I’m in the Arena fighting. I couldn’t control myself.”

“Same here,” Hauk answered. “For a fact, I certainly wouldn’t have fallen for that vanishing cuirass trick.”

“I don’t know. This doesn’t sound right. Well, we better get going before the Ladies get here. Never can tell how the witch will react. Hauk, I’ll send you back to your Wolf. Tell her to beware I feel a hard rain’s gonna fall...”

“Oh, and one last thing; stand up, tell her how you feel, and don’t take no for an answer.”

Before Hauk could answer the Jandaga waved his hand and Hauk was returned to Lena the Wolf.

“Do you think he will, tell her I mean?” Kaleah asked.

“Oh, probably not. You know how Nords are.”

The sun was setting, the cabana closed, and all the tourists had left the beach for the day. The Jandaga look his Lady K by the hand. “It’s a shame to waste such a beautiful sunset, don’t you think?”

“Hmmmmm,” was all Kaleah said as she began to unbuckle the straps to his armor…

Just at that moment a blue portal opened up on the beach. Out stepped Elenya the Cute-elf druid and Fiona the Moonshadow witch. Next came two unexpected companions from Skyrim; M’rissi an Ohmes-raht kitten, and Auri a Bosmer. Lastly, Pym strode through the portal.

Acting as spokesperson for the rescue party Fiona suppressed the giggles the other four of the rescue party had suddenly acquired and announced, “We heard there may be some sort of trouble here but by the looks of it Kaleah has the situation well under control.”

“We’ll just hang around in case someone requires assistance,” snickered Elenya.

The two moons were shining their magic invitingly over the tropical waters when someone yelled, “Surfs up! Last one in the water buys the chips and sodas!”

Are you ready? (Yes, I'm ready)
Gonna be sunshine again (Yes, I'm ready)
And the flowers growing (Yes, I'm ready)
Children playing (Yes, I'm ready)
Gonna be all right (Yes, I'm ready)
You've got to be ready (Yes, I'm ready)
I know you're ready (Yes, I'm ready)
Say it loud one more time (Yes, yes, I'm ready)
Oh, yeah (Yes, yes, I'm ready)
PG&E

This post has been edited by macole: Jan 28 2022, 08:35 AM

[Lena Wolf]

Acadian: Kind of fun isn’t it. Certainly, didn’t plan on it, it just kind of happened when I read the Jandaga mentioned in Lean Wolf’s story.

Lena: I put words in your Hauk's mouth if you disagree with anything make a suggestion and I can change, I think.

It is a lot of fun! A joint writing project. We should make it into a book, I can put it into one of my mods, if you agree. Then people can buy it at the First Edition.

Hauk fits great here, thanks Macole! Yeah, I can just picture him saying those things... "old harpy"... and yeah, he'd never fall for the vanishing cuirass trick, oh no sir, not him... Just one word: Reesa.

Sorry for getting Kaleah's fighting technique wrong - I wasn't sure what that'd be, I went by regular Seducer skills. Plus, a bow doesn't really fit in the arena. I figured everyone knew some basic destruction magic, and her being a Seducer, a Hunger would come naturally, even if she wasn't particularly proficient in Conjuration. A high level Hunger can easily take down a Xivilai, talking from my own experience. They suck the life out of their victims... charming creatures all 'round.

I'll write the ending from our end a little later - got to think it up first. In my main story Lena hasn't gone to see the Volkihar yet, that happens a few years down the line, after she has another child... Which she will. To me, this is like a glimpse into the future - two years or so from that evening when Lena and Hauk were sitting in that caravanserai with the two Khajiits and a Dunmer talking about informing the Jandaga and the Spy Master. And yeah, Hauk never insisted on anything, you know what Nords are like, all that squishy emotional stuff... Nords just don't do that.

[Lena Wolf]

The waters of Topal Bay were covered in ice. The slaughterfish were bumping into it, but all they could ever achieve was break their teeth.

"What on Nirn..?" - a fisherman looked bewildered as his boat was frozen solid in open water. "Sirens?" He saw a shape of a slender woman under the ice, quite close to the surface. "Sirens? Here? Under the ice?" The female shape was moving towards the shore and the fisherman followed her with his gaze. Then she emerged, rising right through the ice. "Impossible!" - the fisherman rubbed his eyes. "Should cut down on the ale, start seeing things, I am." He shook himself, nearly toppling over his boat. The ice had melted. He rowed to the shore where the woman had appeared - there were footprints in the sand. Female footprints... leading to... "Impossible!" - the fisherman exclaimed again. "A trapdoor? Since when?" He pulled on the ring, but it was locked. "Smugglers" - he decided. "Must be." In which case it was best to leave them alone. He got into his boat and rowed away.

...

"Mistress!" - a Dunmer kneeled before a young woman who just descended through the trapdoor. "Oh!" She was naked.

"Never mind that - I had to swim here" - she explained the lack of attire. "We've got to go."

But before the Dunmer could say anything, there was a faint pop, a flash of light and a rather confused Nord appeared in the room.

"Whaaa--" - he started, then a broad grin spread across his face. "Well, look at that!"

"Hauk!" - Lena ran towards him, completely ignoring Fenris. "Where have you been? What are you doing here? Weren't you--" The rest of her questions were swallowed in a kiss.

"Well, you won't believe what just happened to me" - Hauk started, but Lena looked at him sternly.

"Oh yes, I think I will believe it! Dylan warned me about it! I only came here to pick up Fenris to go searching for you! I was worried sick! What were you thinking!! ..." A tight embrace and another kiss from Hauk stopped that flood.

"And I love you too" - he grinned. "Especially when you are dressed like this."

"Oh you..." - Lena's tone softened. "I swam under the ice. I had to transform. I have to feed now."

She turned and marched off down the stairs towards the thrall's cell, with the two men's eyes glued to her slender figure.

"Does she often let you see her like that?" - Hauk asked Fenris without taking his eyes off Lena.

"Sometimes" - Fenris nodded. "The best Mistress ever."

"Yeah... The Prettiest Vampire You've Ever Seen is right here" - Hauk said firmly.

[macole]

It is a lot of fun! A joint writing project. We should make it into a book, I can put it into one of my mods, if you agree. Then people can buy it at the First Edition.

That I can agree to but we would need to agree on which dictionary and grammar book to use; UK or US, big difference.
The there’s the fact that I’ve made many addendums to my copy trying to fill it out a bit. Like when Hauk and the Jandaga meet for example;

Then pointing at Hauk she added, “He called me an old harpy!”
“Hey, that’s before I found out she’s you’re… wife? I can’t believe it. No wonder she’s been branded an apostate and being hunted by the Inquisitors.”
‘Good Goddess girl, how much did you tell the hulk?” The Jandaga intentionally mispronounced Hauk’s name as a test of character.
“Well, he was very persuasive but I didn’t mention Pym and the Mummigs.”
“It’s Hauk and what’s a mummig?” Hauk shouted from the beach.
A bold tourist from a small island off the coast of eastern High Rock with an odd Manx accent shouted for all to hear, ”Mommy!”
Without taking his eye off Hauk the Jandaga asked Kaleah, “Other than that did he fight with honor?”
“Yes, my Feache,” Kaleah cooed. Resting her head on golden dragon embossed on the Jandaga’s cuirass she curled her tail tighter around his waist.
“Good.” And with that the Jandaga glided down to the beach. Tension was near unbearable as the Jandaga held out his hand. Had his demonstration of power been enough to bluff his way to a peaceful conclusion? On the outside the Jandaga was cool, calm, and collected but on the inside he felt like a beehive with a bear on the doorstep.
He held his composure, “Optio, the match has been declared a draw and by house rules the house wins the pot. Do you agree?”
The moment of truth had come at last. The Jandaga tensed hoping for the right answer.
Tentatively Hauk mulled over the options before extending his hand to accept the peace offering.”Yes, fairly fought to no advantage, I agree.”
The sudden release of tension caused Hauk to say the first thing that came to mind, “You know, you don’t look anything like what I expected.”

Hauk fits great here, thanks Macole! Yeah, I can just picture him saying those things... "old harpy"... and yeah, he'd never fall for the vanishing cuirass trick, oh no sir, not him... Just one word: Reesa.

Yes he did fit. I should be thanking you for the inspiration. That trick, it’s a maneuver that Kaleah (I) would call Dear Deer in the Headlights. Works to a degree against all males except for Argonians. That’s probably the reason I can’t say no when we go shopping at the Goddess store.

Sorry for getting Kaleah's fighting technique wrong - I wasn't sure what that'd be, I went by regular Seducer skills.

No problem. Kaleah is stuck with the AI package her mod creator gave her, no spells, just a fire weakness enchanted Daedric bow and fire damage enchanted arrows. So I RP around that as best I can.
That gambling table was rigged! Real combatants shouldn’t have been involved and Kaleah was handicapped with faulty AI. Who would do such a thing and why? could it be the Feyfolken try to stop us from finding the truth? Stay tuned.

And yeah, Hauk never insisted on anything, you know what Nords are like, all that squishy emotional stuff... Nords just don't do that.

But he did try. Lena just had to do something first. it might come back to him later, not.
So I made another change to when Hauk is sent back.

“Oh, and one last thing;” Again the Jandaga walked in the myst. Everything around him slowed to a near stop. Pressing his left thumb against Hauk’s forehead he said “Stand up, tell her how you feel, and don’t take no for an answer.”
Hauk tried in vain to grab Jandaga’s hand and pull that burning thumb away but his arm had only moved scant inches by the time the Jandaga removed his touch and stepped out of the myst. Then before Hauk could confront him the Jandaga waved a hand and Hauk vanished; returned to Lena the Wolf.
“Do you think he will, tell her I mean?” Kaleah asked.
“Oh, probably not. The compulsion spell is strong but limited and well, you know how Nords are.”

Now before you say this is over the top magic, it is pretty much how I play considering all the levitation and walking through walls he does. Besides his custom class is named Mystwalker

[Lena Wolf]

Great stuff! I've collated all the pieces and inserted your changes, I think they do improve the story. Only I wasn't sure where you wanted that bit about the game being rigged? Let's continue this on PM. Making the text suitable for an in-game book will also bring limitations, such as we can't really use italics in the text, but we can put in pictures. Got to stick to plain ASCII too (no curly quotes) because not everyone in the world has the same language and font settings... But these are all technicalities, it can be sorted during editing. And US spelling, I think, since that's what Bethesda is using in their books (I wonder why? ).

As for magic being over the top... no, not really. The Telvanni had all sorts of weird spells, and of course the Command spell is also available in Oblivion. So it's all good. The lore is written by people like us!

A propos spells: have you seen this mod?

This post has been edited by Lena Wolf: Jan 30 2022, 01:20 PM

[Renee]

I agree, this is pretty fun to read.

[macole]

20220131 Lipsand Tarn VH-OVB, I-SL, OOO, MOO

Entering Lipsand Tarn we suddenly became aware that this is the place we were looking for. Sugar Moth an Ohmes-raht vampire (Integration) declared that we should not have come here and attacked.

He was right you know. It would have been much safer for him had we not shown up. During the fight Sugar Moth dropped a small chest. It requires a key to open so we left it alone. We made a note to report this to the Stranded Light.

“Well there’s vampires here that’s for sure but is the Night Lord here?”

Elenya took out a blood red candle and lit it. Watching the smoke intently Elenya, as she was taught by Fiona the witch, attempted to read its pattern as it swirled its way up to the ceiling. The smoke pooled on the ceiling before branching out in three fingers that flowed deep into the darkness of Lipsand Tarn.

“I’m not certain on the Night Lord,” Elenya admitted. “Stone doesn’t speak the same language as the forest flora, but Nature is disturbed by three very powerful somethings down there.”

The entrance hall turned out to be a death trap, not for us though. We used the two rising floor traps to our advantage. By enticing n overly eager vampire onto one of the traps we let the floor smash him to a pulp.

Things began to get really interesting when we entered the second room. We came to the end of the walkway. A long drop loomed before us. As we contemplated how to get across the divide a staircase rose up to greet us. Still there was no staircase going up to the other side. We descended the steps hoping to find another way up the other side to continue.

We could see vampires on the floor below and we were ready for the fight. Two of the vampires went full on chameleon. My Ladies took on the chameleons for themselves to play with.

After summoning an angel to take care of the obsidian armored weed whacker, with Twinkle’s guiding light, I turned my attention to a very pesky vampire archer.

With the archer out of the way, there was a long enough pause in the fighting that I noticed a decorative iron gate. Cautiously Twinkle opened the creaky gate and I descended down two flights of stairs to find ourselves in a cluttered laboratory of sorts. The noisy gate must have given us away. A shimmering visage was ready to attack as soon as we stepped off the stairs and into a ransacked laboratory.

I was sweeping up the dust when my Ladies showed up to help loot the laboratory. On an ornately carved stone catafalque we found two very interesting items. A Fine Warden Longblade from Addonay’s Elven Weaponry shop was one. Just goes to show if you don’t know how to use it even the best won’t do. The other item one the catafalque was an elder elven helmet (OOO). Both items should bring a pretty penny in the shops.

Sitting on a pedestal in the center of the room sat a push block switch. Pushing it caused a huge rumbling noise from above. Running back upstairs we found a second set of stairs rising to allow us access the far side of the room. With the staircase now complete we’ll be able to continue forward.

At the top of the stairs we found a varla stone on display. Taking it alerted two vampires of our presence. They were easy to deal with but we found ourselves once again blocked by a locked gate that is opened remotely.
Retracing our steps we found a push block switch in a room off to the side.

The push block sat in front of a decorative window grate through which we could see the gate that blocked our access to Lorsel’s door. This had to be the switch so we gave it a push. As expected we watched the decorative gate open. Access to Lipsand Tarn Lorsel was now to be had.

Rushing to get to the door leading to Lipsand Tarn Lorsel we were shocked to find our exit from this small room to be blocked. Apparently in our excitement watching the gate opening we had failed to hear the stone wall shifting to trap us.

Trapped we set about looking for a way out. The entrance closing wasn’t the only part of the wall that changed. A corner in the back had opened up to reveal a small alcove with a push block switch. Unfortunately it was guarded by two stone gargoyles. Knowing that the switch would open the door we approached.

Mudcrabs! Don’t these Ayleid things ever fail? As soon as we got close the stone gargoyles came to life and another fight was on.

Eventually we were able to push the switch and reopen the room’s entrance. Once the door was open we didn't waitaround to find out whatever else would pop- up to slow us down we ran to the Lipsand Tarn Lorsel door and rushed through to the other side.

Perhaps we should have taken our time though? Lorsel is brutal.

[Acadian]

“I’m not certain on the Night Lord,” Elenya admitted. “Stone doesn’t speak the same language as the forest flora, but Nature is disturbed by three very powerful somethings down there.”
- - Very cool!

Not only fighting vampires and gargoyles, but the dungeon's obtuse traps and staircases as well. Glad Twinkle's along.

[Lena Wolf]

Mudcrabs! Don’t these Ayleid things ever fail? As soon as we got close the stone gargoyles came to life and another fight was on.

Mudcrabs? The most elegant swear ever.

[macole]

This one was very, very difficult. The number of vampires encountered in Lipsand Tarn Lorsel was near overwhelming.

20220213 VH-OVB Lorsel Lipsand Tarn – the Demon
Entering Lipsand Tarn Lorsel we were detected right away by at least ten vampires. How do they know? I did take a shower this morning, didn’t I?

Other than the two archers the vampires attacked in a near invisible form. All I could see was the shimmering figures of three vampires.

BANG – The room turned into a gallery of shooting stars as a mace or hammer came crashing down on my helm. A vision of a match in a caravanserai took hold of me and I remember very little after that.

“Ever since I was a young boy I've played the silver ball” – FLASH –

With the burning light of the rising sun, Light of Dawn exercised the darkness of Lipsand Tarn Lorsel as a vampire fell to its sharp edge.

“But I ain't seen nothing like him in any amusement hall.” – FLASH –

“Kaleah!” Elenya shouted as she ran a vampire through the heart. “There must be at least 30 vampires of every faction; OOO, MOO VH-OVB, and I-SL gathered down here and he’s singing.”

“Feeling all the bumpers, always playing clean.” – FLASH – the dust of another vampire became a neat little pile on the floor.

“No worries,” Kaleah answered while raining fiery arrows onto the shimmering foes. “It doesn’t happen often but every now and then the song in his head takes over. When he’s like this, I’ve never seen him fall.”

“Plays by intuition, the vampire counters fall” – FLASH – the Demon (VH-OVB) fell conveniently near the Board of Elevation (PTArtifacts). Something told the Jandaga and his Ladies that this was the vampire that the Order of Virtuous Blood had sent us to eliminate.

“Always gets a replay, too,” Elenya said wistfully while with grace and precision she cut out the heart of another vampire.

Up the stairs to another large room where the fight continued. The OOO faction emissary to Lipsand Tarn, Patriarch Sorceress Ederiath Vrastal and her MOO lieutenant Mordister Woodston put up a desperate last stand.

“That deaf, dumb, and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball. “ – FLASH –– Ederiath Vrastal lost her head to the Light of Dawn. The Ladies laughed as it rolled along the balcony floor draining to the floor below. From her dust we obtained the sword Edge of Ages, the Hood of Shifting Visage, and the Gown of Power. All nice stuff

Mordister Woodston, apparently was not one of the powerful evils Elenya had discerned when we first entered Lipsand Tarn. He became confused by the pressures of combat when the Ladies attacked. Instead of using the power of the Eldar Staff of Paralyzing Burst that he carried, Mordister summoned ghouls and zombies. Maybe he thought the Ladies were a bunch of valley girls who’d run away screaming at the sight of such ugliness. It didn’t take long for him to realize his final mistake.

“His disciples lead him in and he just does the rest.”

With two of the powers in Lipsand Tarn taken care of the search was on for the third. The Ladies found the entrance to the Sacred Hall (OOO). There, guarding the Cuirass of Melius Petlius (OOO Path of Iron) was the Lich of Faernel Tulwë. Pym led Jandaga in and he just did the rest.

With crazy flipper fingers and a flick of his supple wrist, the bones of the Lich Faernel Tulwë (OOO) soon littered the Sacred Hall floor. The Jandaga recovered the Cuirass of Melius Petlius (OOO Path of Iron) leaving it to his Ladies to chase down the puppets of the Lich of Faernel Tulwë.

Lipsand Tarn Lorsel was quiet, the song had stopped and the Jandaga slowly returned to his self.

Kaleah and Elenya watched as the Jandaga and Pym began sweeping up vampire dust,

“And he tells me he can’t sing or dance,” Kaleah mused while she and Elenya looted the far end of Lorsel where they could talk more privately

“I know,” Elenya said. “The way he’s always singing and loves to dance, he could have been a Bard.”

“If it hadn’t been for that Jagar Tharn catastrophe and Uriel cursing him with that Eternal Champion thing forcing him to find other talents, who knows what he would have become?” Kaleah added.

“Don’t even think it, Kaleah!” warned Elenya. “He may not have found us otherwise.”

My head finally clear I took time to review a book and a handwritten note that Pym handed me. The note, On My Behalf written by the Demon is his attempt to justify his existence. In it he claims to be the Lord of Lipsand Tarn who protects Chorrol from invaders, from feral vampires and from the Dark Brotherhood. Does he or does he claim Chorrol as his own private stock?

Ederiath Vrastal’s book, Arcana Restored proposes the hypothesis that there is a way to recharge enchanted items without using soul gems. The spells to do so were not in the book. For some reason I have the sneaking suspicion that the blood of vampire thralls is involved.

Tired, we took advantage of the many stone sleeping slabs we found scattered throughout Lipsand Tarn. The stone beds were cold and hard. Our comfort came from knowing that the people of Chorrol should be able to sleep more soundly tonight.

[Acadian]

The Pinball Wizard of Lipsand Tarn and his disciples did a wonderfully entertaining job of clearing the place of its formidable collection of foes!

While in the Third Era, Buffy was always jealous of the few mages stationed at guildhalls who could recharge weapons without soul gems. For our canon, we wrote that those mages paid the very high price of forsaking all other spellcasting to master the talent. Impressive but a price too high for Buffy. Looking back, I suppose an equally valid explanation would have been to simply assume they had a stockpile of full soul gems and used them.

[Lena Wolf]

While in the Third Era, Buffy was always jealous of the few mages stationed at guildhalls who could recharge weapons without soul gems. <...> Looking back, I suppose an equally valid explanation would have been to simply assume they had a stockpile of full soul gems and used them.

I always assumed they had their pockets stuffed with soul gems. And also had a crate full of them somewhere under the floor boards.

Macole - good job clearing all those vampires! Phew! I wonder how long Lipsand Tarn will remain quiet though. Do these vampires respawn? Err... rise again? It would be pretty hard if you burn them to ashes, I should imagine.

[macole]

Acadian and Lena: A mage specializing in recharging really does make sense. Varla Stones, one Varla Stone will recharge every item in your inventory. The Ayleid Steps mod has a spell to recharge a special Welkynd Stone at a hefty magika price.
FYI, I play the music while I game.
The OOO and Integration vampire will not respawn, they are quest driven. Vanila vampires will, so I just assume that a new clan has moved in. As what happened in Caramel err, I mean Carmala.

20220221 I-SL White Shadow

It was a pleasant journey traveling the West Roads south to Chorrol. It was getting dark as we neared Chorrol. Chandra the Bloodthirsty should be out and about, and we do need to talk to her about a couple of things. One is her request to the Stranded Light for assistance. The second is find out what she knows about that Khajiit vampire Moth Sugar we ran into in Lipsand Tarn.

Chandra has nothing to say about Moth Sugar. When asked about her request for aid she hands us a book and titled “Trap” and suggests we read it first. It’s a strange tale about vampires keeping people as cattle. The book ends with the thought; there is something worse than being hungry, being food.

After reading the book, Chandra told me that she became associated with a clan of vampires, due to the leader having a striking resemblance to her. The evil actions of this particular vampire are giving Chandra a bad name and Chandra wants it dealt with, dead preferably. The rumors say it resides in a Fort not far from Chorrol, "named after a color, or a fictional character".

Doppelganger came to mind as Chandra talked. After our discussion with Chandra we retired to Arborwatch for the night.

“Do you know what she is?” Kaleah asked.

“Chandra? Oh, a vampire I suspect.”

"Then why help her?” Kaleah pressed. “Why do you let her walk around freely?”

“It’s her attitude. She’s not ambitious. Unlike the Demon we encountered in Lipsand Tarn she’s not hell bent on killing everyone. Besides, she’s helped us in the past and doppelgangers are just plain nasty.”

The following morning we mine the Chorrol rumor mill to learn what we can about vampires in the area. While most had no idea, we did get some ideas. Estelle Renoit suggested it could be some kind of altered or misspelled name, like Maglia could be mistaken for magenta or Magus.

Honditar gave us a couple Ayleid ruins he suspects as vampire lairs. The Ladies stifled snickers when he called one "Nine and Dave". When reminded that we were looking for forts not Ayleid ruins, Honditar mentioned that something odd is going on around Hackdirt, but he don't know any details.

Elenya consulted her map and after a brief study of the area around Hackdirt we decided Fort Carmala, I keep wanting to say caramel, was a good place to investigate.

Arriving at Carmala, Kaleah wrinkled her nose and sneezed. We had cleaned out Carmala some time ago but Kaleah’s reaction points to some new arrivals.

After killing the few vampires we encountered in Carmala, we found the Chandra Doppelganger or should I say she found us. Walked right on up pretty as you please and said, ”Hello there, nice to see you again.”

Something strange is going on here. This Chandra claims that she is the real Chandra and that she lured us here to eliminate the threat that we represent.

“You're a threat,” she says. “Someone who's able to close Oblivion Gates, get Daedra to be accepted into Tamriel's society, can become too dangerous. I like to interfere before it comes to that. And make a treat out of you.”
To deflect our attention the Carmala Chandra shows us a Black Soul Gem in which is trapped the soul of a Daedra Seducer Doppelganger called "Vrjekka". She gives it to us. Then she attacked.

Well, real Chandra or not we met her attack. When the Carmala Chandra was dead, we were approached by the ghostly apparition of a Daedra Seducer Doppelganger.

The ghost, Vrjekka tells us a story of how she impersonated Chandra until she met the great vampire Chandra #2 here in Fort Carmala. Chandra #2 prevailed and Vrjekka’s body was obliterated, her soul trapped in a black soul gem. Vrjekka mentioned Tanaark, who resides hidden in the mountains somewhere east of Cloud Ruler that may or may not be able to free her.

What is going on here? Who is the doppelganger; Chorrol Chandra, Carmala Chandra, the ghostly Daedra Seducer Vrjekka, or all of them? What do we do with the Vrjekka Black Soul Gem? While we pondered over these loose ends we traveled back to Chorrol to recover.

We were surprised but it really wasn’t unexpected to see Chandra sitting under the great oak.

Chandra of Chorrol may be alive and well, but her explanation didn't make much sense. She told us something about being caught in a Dragon Break. Imagine that, the dragon broke, again. That explains why there are multiple "versions" of her all over the place, I think. It was one of these other "Chandra versions" not a Doppelganger that obliterated and trapped the soul of the real Doppelganger Vrjekka.

This is all too confusing. I was just beginning to understand the complexities of muti-dimensional existence and now this. The only logical conclusion is that Doppelgangers and Dragon Breaks are a couple of buggered up plot devices.

“We could have told you that!” Elenya and Kaleah said in unison while Pym looked on sternly.

Oh well, let’s get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow we can head south to the Imperial City and Merendin and turn our reports on these quests.

This post has been edited by macole: Feb 20 2022, 09:17 AM

[Renee]

Yeah that does sound like a confusing quest.

I like the part when Kaleah sneezed.

[Acadian]

What a beautiful night sky nearing Chorrol. With Twinkle lighting the way up close.

And Twinkle continues to light the way inside Fort Carmala.

Renee is right. This does sound like it was a confusing quest. I'm afraid my approach after about the second twist/turn might have been to kill anything that looks, sounds or smells like a Chandra.

[macole]

Past couple of weeks I’ve been experiencing issues with my game e.g., invisible water, wild texture colorations, flashing red and yellow blotches, a rash of corrupt saves. It left me feeling that the game would not continue.

Pym wearing golden saint armor. She looks so sad.

Chandra in bound golden saint armor

Lake Rumare

Topal Bay in the background

So the past couple weeks I spent most of my time trying to figure out what happened and how to fix it, if I could. Several things happened close to the same time; power outage, Windows 10 update, kids messing with the PC settings and downloading from questionable sites. I hate to say it but more than likely was my error in not exercising my own best practice methods of installing and removing a couple of new mods. Well I’m happy to say I managed to straighten out the game settings. The mode Oblivion Reloaded didn’t make it easy, that’s for sure. Till next time.

[Lena Wolf]

Past couple of weeks I’ve been experiencing issues with my game e.g., invisible water, wild texture colorations, flashing red and yellow blotches, a rash of corrupt saves. It left me feeling that the game would not continue.

So the past couple weeks I spent most of my time trying to figure out what happened and how to fix it, if I could. Several things happened close to the same time; power outage, Windows 10 update, kids messing with the PC settings and downloading from questionable sites. I hate to say it but more than likely was my error in not exercising my own best practice methods of installing and removing a couple of new mods. Well I’m happy to say I managed to straighten out the game settings. The mode Oblivion Reloaded didn’t make it easy, that’s for sure. Till next time.

I am glad you managed to fix it, Macole! Those dry river beds don't look all that inviting... It's like Fallout for Tamriel! But if anything, I'd blame the kids.

[Acadian]

Like Lena said, glad you got it sorted out!

[Renee]

Some glitches are welcome, in my eyes. Pym's armor in that first shot looks pretty cool (to me).

I have seen water disappear, especially from the Waterfront area, but nothing as drastic as that! I usually just pretend I didn't see it! It always sorts itself out.

Windows 10 update,

Mm hmm...

[macole]

Some glitches are welcome, in my eyes. Pym's armor in that first shot looks pretty cool (to me).

Me too. Was Pym the Psychadelic Sword-maiden trying out an experimental camo armor?

This post has been edited by macole: Feb 21 2022, 05:17 PM