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

[SubRosa]

I like voiding the Emperor from Tamriel. It goes so well with the idea of Sithis being the Void. Not to mention Titus Mede being cancelled like a bad check!

[haute ecole rider]

I like voiding the Emperor from Tamriel. It goes so well with the idea of Sithis being the Void. Not to mention Titus Mede being cancelled like a bad check!

Or the opposite of eating!

[Grits]

Acadian, I’m guessing that Winterhold kid was the Jarl’s brat. The innkeepers think he’s a bad influence on their daughter with his nasty game. I have to agree!

SubRosa, I would LOVE to have your Elemental Summoning mod!! The Frost Wyrms and Salamanders are very cool, plus it will be great to use the Elemental/atronachs for a character who wouldn’t mess around with daedra. The Salamander especially will give me good memories of Teresa’s scrolls and Aela’s adventurers in Cyrodiil. I created Jensa’s grown up kids Hroar (Bard) and Runa Fair-Shield (Battlemage) while I was supervising a teen date night at my house, and I’ve been struggling with how Runa is going to be different from the other sword and spell users. I had already decided that her real dad was Breton. Your elemental summonings are just perfect for her! Whee! Thank you!

When I made Ulfe the dog for Jerric I wanted her to be a real pet and not a fighting dog. Battle dogs and Destruction mages are a bad combination. I’m going to do the same thing when I make Darnand’s skeever pet.

Renee, that was a great update! I’ve occasionally wondered what the citizens must think about known murderers roaming the streets. “Void” him from Tamriel, well put!

The Girls of Whiterun explored a truly icky cave on the way home from the volcanic tundra. The poor dog got thoroughly venomed while running away and fell yelping off of a ledge. Luckily there was water below. Sofe needs to rememeber to leave the dog outside. Braith added vampires and giant spiders to the list of things she likes to fight. When they got back to Breezehome they learned that three dogs is too many for one tiny house. Pretty much everything that was placed on a surface is now on the floor. Sofe is ready for Alesan to move into his new shop! Oh, and in the cave Sofe found a pair of leather gauntlets that enhance her One-Handed damage by 20%. Well worth the sticky webs in the hair.

[SubRosa]

Hroar and Runa are looking hot. Especially Runa, wow! Is that the golden plate armor from Zzjay's Wardrobe that she's wearing?

No spiders for me thank you! Braith can keep them all to herself. 3 dogs? That sounds like my brother's house.

[Acadian]

I agree with SubRosa - those kids look great all grown up! Icky cave indeed! Don't you hate those giant spiders that drop out of the ceiling?

[Renee]

I created Jensa’s grown up kids Hroar (Bard) and Runa Fair-Shield (Battlemage) while I was supervising a teen date night at my house, and I’ve been struggling with how Runa is going to be different from the other sword and spell users. I had already decided that her real dad was Breton.

I don't know what's scarier: Skyrim or supervising a teen night. Kidding. Wow, you did a good job with them. Hroar looks like a movie star.

So the dog was okay? That musta been scary getting poisoned and then falling off a ledge!

[ghastley]

I've been playing Drelka in just her wings for a few days, but I've almost finished cloning her outfit from Oblivion. Since I made that, I'm allowed to convert it.

I'll be able to post a Skyrim screen-shot once she's got something to wear.

[Grits]

Thanks, folks! I really wanted Runa to look feminine and pretty, which is not my usual thing. I actually learned how to use a few of the new sliders in the Racemenu mod to refine her features a little. That is indeed the golden plate armor from Zzjay’s Wardrobe. I tried the steel version on Valdi and though she looked nicely knightly it didn’t suit her reformed bandit aesthetic. So then I tried the steel on Runa and she wanted the gold set instead. Since Stormblade’s daughter Runa spent her teens as essentially a princess in High King Ulfric’s court I don’t think anything will be too fine for her! This girl could be a handful.

The dog is OK after the poisoning and surprise dive/swim because I made her immortal. Normally I’m all for consequences but not when it comes to pet endangerment!! I had never heard her yelp before because she always runs away. (Good girl!) Sofie learned her lesson and left the dog outside the next fort they raided. Then when she and Braith exited after delivering the Jarl’s justice and subsequently refreshing themselves with liberated mead, they heard battle cries. Seconds later the dog ran past pursued by two bandits that had (I’m guessing) somehow survived the earlier fight. After Sofe dealt with the bandits and the dog wandered back Sofie named her Trouble.

ghastley, I’m delighted that Drelka has made it to Skyrim! She has saved Kanet’s butt in Cyrodiil many times.

After two months I finally returned to Valdi where she was poised at the edge of the Soul Cairn trying to decide what to do. Unfortunately I lost the letter she wrote to Jerric in Cyrodiil, but the gist was that she was going to trade part of her soul for a ticket into the Cairn and don’t tell Darnand. Also if she doesn’t come back by Saturalia could he please come kill all of the vampires at this castle, here’s a map. And he should probably bring the Dawnguard with him. But give her some time to work first.

Part of Valdi’s issue was that she was sure Serana would need to feed on her while they were in the Soul Cairn since she would be the only mortal around, and it took some time to get OK with that. Also she needed to gather enough food, drink, and portable things to burn so that she could survive, since she assumed that there would not be firewood or taverns in an Oblivion realm. (Luckily it was not too cold so freezing wasn’t a huge danger.) (Also luckily she carries a fair supply of wine and mead so she didn’t need to go shopping.)

Valdi was all business once they got in there. Valerica reminded her a little of her own Ma. The fierce and driven parts, not the vampire part. After a while Valdi started talking to some of the lost souls that they passed. She is not a conjuration mage but now she knows how to summon the spectral horse Arvak and two of the souls that she met. (This is how we RP finding the spell tomes lying around in the Soul Cairn.)

They got the item they need from Serana’s mom, but the most exciting thing for Valdi was meeting a dragon! They had a great conversation, after she “killed” him of course. He taught her how to say his name in the dragon tongue so that she can call him to her side in Tamriel from the Soul Cairn. Now she’s headed back to Lakeview Manor in the hope that Jerric and the rest of the crew will have returned from Cyrodiil. She knows Darnand will not forgive her if she doesn’t let him examine the Elder Scroll before she gets on with her Dawnguard business.

After a drawn-out battle at Robber’s Gorge on the way home we had one of those series of events that falls together just right. Valdi saw some level ground and called for Durnehviir the dragon from the Soul Cairn. (We completely ignored the Insert Soul/Get Shout game mechanic. In her dragonless game I just added three souls with the console so she can call him.) Durnehviir had a quick chat with her and then took off into the sky. It was a gorgeous sunny day which is why Valdi thought of him in the first place.

Some traveling merchants (mod) passed on the road, so Valdi quickly gathered up some bandit junk and sold it to the traders. By the time she was ready to head across the bridge and up the road to Rorikstead something amazing happened.

Durnehviir was hovering way up over the tundra, Shouting! As long as Valdi doesn’t have too much time to think she charges in like any Nord, and this performance would have made Jerric proud. She scrambled up the cliffs in record time in defense of her new dragon friend! It was awesome and of course completely unnecessary. Durnehviir had used his Shout to bring up some undead from the Soul Cairn, and while they’re not good at climbing hills they’re excellent at smiting. After a brief search among the rocks Valdi finally found a nearly dead assassin with a contract for her murder in her pocket. And also some dead wolves and a very angry sabre cat. Business concluded, the undead returned to their realm leaving Valdi nowhere near where she started and wondering where her horse may have run off to.

So Valdi cut through the hills toward Rorikstead planning to backtrack down the road until she found Tage (her horse). I’ve been making a very small house mod for Erik the Slayer and hopefully Valdi, but I hadn’t planned how Valdi would learn of this situation in the game. Turns out she walked over the hill, looked straight across the village, and immediately noticed the new construction.

It’s unfinished and kind of a mess outside, which was great since I hadn’t planned for her to see it yet and definably not without Erik. Valdi checked the tavern and fields for Greenthumb The Slayer (he wasn’t there) then walked up and took a look at the cottage. She hopes he’s also at Lakeview since he wasn’t in Rorikstead. She wants to tell him that someone is building a nice little house in that perfect spot above town.

Oh, and one thing that I like about Serana in Valdi’s game is that she’s always getting lost somewhere when they’re traveling so it seems as if she’s going about her vampire life and feeding or maybe getting out of the sun and catching up later. Valdi had never actually mounted Tage in Serana’s presence until today. Then she got a big surprise (Convenient Horses mod I’m guessing). I wondered what kind of horse would permit a vampire to ride her!

[Acadian]

ghastley - Get some clothes on that girl so we can see more of her! Oh, wait. . . you know what I mean.

Grits - Wow, Valdi's been busy! I like Serana a lot, but nearing the end of DG, all we wanted to do was be rid of her - too much of a good thing. Your idea about not worrying a bit about losing her is a great one!

I loved the essence of the letter that Valdi composed to Jerric and the nature of her concerns. Gosh, she could almost be the Big Guy's little sister!

What fun to summon Durnie out on the plains of Whiterun - I'll bet he was a happy dragon.

Gosh, Valdi and HoePusher's new home-in-progress looks wonderful - as in it looks like it fits so perfectly into Rorikstead.

[ghastley]

@Acadian: Right now I'm trying to script it so Drelka swaps her dress for her wings when she readies a spell, i.e. it will run off the ready/sheath key. I need the same mechanism for the seducer guards at Evergloam Castle when I get back to that mod, and it will be easier to test it this way.

[haute ecole rider]

@ Grits and Acadian: I enjoyed reading your comments about Durnie, he is one of my favorites in the game after we finished Soul Cairn.

In our first play through, after we had finished the DG quest line, Alise was making her lonely way home across the tundra toward Hjalmarch Hall (the one NW of Whiterun). She was looking forward to seeing Argis, the kids and Gregor the steward when she was attacked first by a dragon, then bandits. She called on Durnie so she could recoup and heal herself, and he handled things beautifully well. Then he flew overhead as she walked the remaining distance home, and when the kids ran out to greet her, they got to see him circling overhead. They were suitably awed, and Alesan even asked if they could keep him as a pet! Alise had to explain that dragons don't make good pets, just as Bosmer don't make good pets.

This post has been edited by haute ecole rider: Oct 23 2014, 07:30 PM

[Acadian]

... Alise had to explain that dragons don't make good pets, just as Bosmer don't make good pets.

Hee! Yes, it just doesn't work out well to try and hold onto a dragon, Bosmer or butterfly.

[ghastley]

Grits' image of Durnheviir in Tamriel reminded me that I've recently been revisiting old characters' games, and I just happened to catch this one. We'd just fast-travelled back to Hjaalmarch and this was what we found. It hovered there for several seconds, thinking we hadn't noticed, before it dropped.

In Tyra's game, I made a small adjustment to her scimitars, as I didn't like the hilts. What do you think?

And Drelka's become the new Arch-mage. She drained the magic from the Eye with the staff in one hand, while she drained the life from Ancano with a spell in the other. The Psijjics came and cleaned up the Eye, but I think she distracted Quaranir a little.

[Grits]

Grits - Wow, Valdi's been busy! I like Serana a lot, but nearing the end of DG, all we wanted to do was be rid of her - too much of a good thing. Your idea about not worrying a bit about losing her is a great one!

For me the key to enjoying Serana’s company is this mod: Serana SHUT UP. It removes her endlessly triggered proximity alarm (Yes? What did you need?) and in the version I chose also her idiotic battle alerts (Who’s there? and Where’d you come from?) Now when she talks Valdi is more inclined to listen. You’re exactly right about Jerric and Valdi. The Big Guy has taken her under his (substantial) wing, whether she likes it or not!

In Tyra's game, I made a small adjustment to her scimitars, as I didn't like the hilts. What do you think?

Very nice! I prefer your version. The regular one has too much round going on. (Which is never to be said of Tyra. ) Congrats to the new Arch Mage! Maybe Drelka can inject some fashion sense into that position. I’ve never cared for the College-issued poncho.

I hadn’t realized it, but the only other two characters I’ve had who could summon Durnie could also summon Odahviing, so Durnie never got much play. I think the old guy is going to have some fun with Valdi.

Jerric’s crew is preparing for the seasonal migration to Skyrim. Due to mod and patch issues with Oblivion (I’m waiting for an update) I’m going to pick them up at the Pale Pass border gate into Skyrim this year.

[Lopov]

Nice screenshots and stories, all of you. I read only some of the last pages because now I have to go and entertain my son, but I'll read more when there's time. Not being a regular reader here, so now I have a lot to catch up.

I like this "family stuff" which some of you implement, grown-up kids and such, it's something I've never read about before.

[Renee]

I've fallen behind on this thread, so WOW that's one sweet set of threads there on Drelka!

Trouble's a great name for an animal. And some humans. But animals sometimes are always getting into trouble, right? ... Wow, Valdi looks amazing. Cool. It's good to know we can get away from that 'scowly' look females have in the vanilla game. And good job with that house. I would love to see that entire area (Rorikstead) get larger with mods some day; it's just kinda got that feeling in which it wouldn't hurt to see it expand, especially being a common travel-through destination.

Oh, and one thing that I like about Serana in Valdi’s game is that she’s always getting lost somewhere when they’re traveling so it seems as if she’s going about her vampire life and feeding or maybe getting out of the sun and catching up later

I like this too. Serana is the most random NPC follower; she's always up to something. I have noticed this with other followers too (vanilla or mods) in both OB and Sky. Some of them do nothing but follow our characters, others will wander off, get into conversations and whatnot.


This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Oct 25 2014, 09:28 PM

[Renee]

I am going to post my next and probably final Mycharonna tale now. I am shivering as I do so; my palms are a little sweaty. Ahhgh. She 'beat' Dark Brotherhood, in a way.

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Loredas, 6:34 PM, 15th of Last Seed, 4th Era 202


cuff.....cough....

A child coughs, and an eternal force emerges. The soulless spirit of Mycharonna the Ice Witch, her body standing lifelessly unseen in the cellar of The Winking Skeever, coalesces from the timeless, demonic plane she had been inhabiting, into the plane of Nirnly things. The transition between planes is one which any mortal would not be able to comprehend. From timelessness, a complete expansive freedom, to hours on a clock. A transition from an enormous lack of bounds to exercise one's will in many ways, to three-dimensional shapes and two-dimensional shadows.

Coufh ... cough....

The child coughs again upstairs, somewhere above the Icy Witch's head. A door slams. Footsteps pace across the stone floor. A man clears his throat. Somebody sips through a foamy drink.

Unaware they all are.

"Bring up some more mead, my boy," Mycharonna hears as her form solidifies more definitely. "This cask's nearly tapped!"

"Okay, father. Uh...which cask should we open?"

"Just bring any of them, lad! Can't risk thirsty customers without mead to drink, even for a second!"

"Bring the Blackbriar Mead Berry-Blend," a girl-child says, taunting. "It should be at its peak right now, and if it doesn't get served soon, it'll only go bad."

"Good idea, sis. Maybe you ought to be in charge!" her father (apparently) answers.

"Yes, yes, fine. Just hurry! Mustn't keep the customers thirsty!"

...."Thirsty".... the Icy Witch mumbles, beginning to walk upstairs. She likes that word, thirsty. She muses and mulls this word in her multi-dimensional mind. "But not now. Now is time for greater things than the sate-ment of my thirst."

She reaches into a nearby cabinet, and eats some raw beef instead.

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Sundas, 2:45 AM
Boarding the Katariah (the ship which is supposed to house the Emperor) is not as easy as the witch had thought it might be. The ship is not moored nicely at the Solitude East Company Warehouse docks; it is instead anchored off-shore. This causes a small amount of consternation, there is no clear way to get on board.

The night lengthens, and dawn will soon approach. Mycharonna decides to fly towards the infamous shack (now abandoned) where she had first met Astrid many months ago. Here she will lie for the rest of Sundas, but before she does, she calls upon Shadowmare, the horse Astrid had given the witch before her death, to join her.

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Sundas, 6:24 PM
Again, the witch returns to Nirn from her extra-dimensional travels. The shack she inhabits is cold; the icy bodies of two former mortals lie in a corner. Mycharonna walks over to a chest located inside the shack, opens it, and finds the mysterious note Astrid had sent to the Ice Witch so long ago. She reads it, feels nothing, tosses it back inside its chest.

Outside, she finds her horse had arrived sometime during the day, and now stands ready. She mounts Shadowmare, rides toward the Katariah, and then employs stage two of her plan. She cannot swim, and so there's no way for her to get close to the ship itself, so she uses the horse to swim toward it. Once she has gotten near enough, she knows she can now find a way to get aboard. She can sense this way inside.

She swims the horse around the ship, and then swims him back to shore. His legs and lower body are frosty with cold, but Shadowmare doesn't seem to mind. The witch dismounts the horse, closes her eyes, and calls upon one of her great, magical powers. In a moment, she is lifted into the air, where she flies almost instantly towards the Katariah itself. She does not flap her arms, like a mortal would while pretending to fly; she merely lifts off the ground and then flies much faster than any bird could. *

May it be your bane to witness she thinks as she lands, and then turns to vapor.

1:28 AM

"Someone there?"

Some sort of guard, or perhaps a simple sailor, draws his blade.

"Hmm. Nothing here after all."

But he feels uneasy. He could have sworn he had heard something, and seen some sort of shadowy shape flit past him, here among the crates and barrels deep inside the Katariah. As he walks away out of the ship's storage area, thinking of his next bottle of Honningbrew, a vaporish shadow does indeed form into pale flesh and dark robes. Smells like an ancient tomb. The shadow crouches down behind a wooden box, and casts a spell. The man reacts, and renews his search, forgetting all about Honningbrew mead.

"What was that?"

He draws his blade again, and rounds a corner, standing right in front of the witch who has just made herself invisible. As the man stares straight through her, his nervousness doubles. He walks forward, and then walks into her.

"I knew I heard something!"

It's the last phrase he shall ever emit. Mycharonna draws her Blade of Woe, which is laced with some sort of poison, and with just one swipe, the man, whoever he was, is now fallen. The witch casts another spell, one which will quiet her footsteps, and then decides to try casting her vampiric draining ability, for no particular reason. It's not like there's an enemy before her, she just casts this spell.

"Never should have come here!"

It's not long before the sound of this spell attracts another man. Probably another sailor. He's certainly not very well-armed, so he cannot be a guard. The witch easily drains the man's health with her left hand, and then touches him with a frosty spell as he makes his attack. Again, he is no match for her. Within four seconds, he is dead. As he lies before her, the witch hears the sound of a smith at work. ...tok...tok....tok... goes his hammer. She paces forward into some sort of living quarters, ducks behind a door, closes it, and casts yet another spell.

One by one, the men fall. A couple of more heavily-armed men are included now. They come to realize that there is somebody else aboard the Katariah, and that she's somehow slipped past them all. One by one, they fall. At most, their lives last another thirty seconds or so, if they are so lucky.

Mycharonna the Ice Witch climbs a final staircase, draws her blade (poisoned once again) and nears the sound of the metal-smith. tok....tok....tok.... but before she can prepare some sort of offensive, she hears an Imperial's voice.

"Well, it's all over now. I can see the smoke rising from Whiterun."

"Yeah, I'm glad we can stand down," somebody seems to answer. Are there two of them? ... "Getting tired of looking over my shoulder all the time. Nothing to do now but sit back, relax, and enjoy the trip home."

Mycharonna is not being particularly quiet at this point. She stands straight and tall as she rounds the stair's banister, where another man (a guard, this time) sees her. Within a flash, she is back down the stairs, and the man draws a large sword. She attempts to drain the man's health, and strikes him with the Blade of Woe, but this one does not falter. He keeps coming! .. And there are more behind him. She uses her ability to move at super-human speeds, and rushes back to the storage room. Once there, she summons up a dremoric lord to do her fighting.

"I ... smell .... weakness!" the lord calls, giant flaming sword at the ready.

"Hah, found you!"

If Mycharonna has been doing well against the occupants of the Katariah, the dremoric lord does even better. Within a minute, all of her remaining enemies (of the moment, anyways) are dead. The ship smells coppery, like a bloodbath. One of the persons she felled happened to be carrying a key, and this key might be able to unlock any locked doors upon the ship, leading her to Titus Mede the second.

"But where is the Emperor?"

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Morndas, 4:24 AM

"You can't hide from me!"

The key does indeed unlock one of the ship's doors, and behind this door are two more sailors. One of them pursues, but his life is abruptly ended when he runs across the icy ward spell Mycharonna had left on the ship's lower floor. The other sailor meets a similar fate, as the witch casts a ward into the room he hides in from a distance. Mycharonna walks now boldly into the ship's living quarters. As she does so, she can feel her vampiric essence quadrupling in power. **

The ship's lower quarters are a mess; bodies and dishes and items strewn everywhere, yet it seems the Emperor, if he is here, does not notice. Where could he be? .. Mycharonna climbs a second set of stairs, and boards the ship's third deck. This area is obviously nicer than the rest of the ship, so she prepares her blade once again, and poisons it. There are two doors up here. One of them leads outside, and she knows this because she can sense the sun's power out there. Not an option. The second door...is locked. The Ice Witch opens it with the captain's key...



6:39 AM
....and finds her self face-to-face with the most powerful man (arguably) in all Tamriel. Multidimensional vampiric being or not, the Ice Witch freezes in place, literally. The man before her is well-dressed in ultimate finery. He definitely has the look of an Emperor. She can feel his presence.

"And so it comes, the hour of fate," Mycharonna tells him.

Without answering her, the well-dressed man rushes to an armoire, and finds a weapon. He comes towards the Ice Witch. His weapon is a hand-axe, but one which looks enchanted somehow.

"Nyah! Neeh!"

The man hacks twice upon the Ice Witch, but she resists these attacks with barely a scratch. She does not draw her own blade.

"Come now, don't be shy!" the well-dressed man says casually. "You haven't come this far only to behave."

He strikes and strikes his enchanted axe upon the Ice Witch, and still she does not draw her own weapon. Does not cast a spell. Makes no move toward the offensive or defensive.

"Hah ha ha ha ha .... you move just like a pregnant ... horker!" he jokes, seeming to understand the reality of his current situation. Long ago in the 3rd Era, it was a popular taunt, telling somebody they moved like a pregnant cow. Such a taunt might have intimidated an enemy long ago. He gazes into the witch's eyes, not fully understanding who she is, but he seems to know why she is here.

He strikes and strikes, until the Ice Witch sees red. She stumbles, and regains her strength.

"The time of passing has come."

As he rips into her with a series of awesome blows, the last image Mycharonna sees as she falls before him are his hungry eyes, his Imperial strength, and an incredibly devout belief in The Eight.

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THE AFTERMATH
Later on, hours later when Emperor Titus Mede II found himself safely before the nobles of the Blue Palace, describing the death of the darkened soul who had invaded his ship, he would remember his confusion; a certain jealousy, actually, about how easy it had all seemed to ruin the witch who had supposedly claimed Eternal Life.

This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Oct 25 2014, 09:31 PM

[SubRosa]

Oh noes! Could this be the end for our Ice Witch Vampire? Tell me it isn't so!

[Grits]

OH MY GOSH WHAT?!

That was a stunning end for Mycharonna the Ice Witch! It was her hour of fate! The time of passing, indeed. Renee, you have blown me away with this!

[SubRosa]

But Mycharonna's loyal servant *brumppsuley* will recover her body, and raise her from the undead (on the PC perhaps?) after practicing the dark ritual of *hrmpuh, erm humpph* right? That is how it works in all the old Hammer films.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Oct 25 2014, 09:44 PM