Where Are You Today? Options

[Acadian]

Oh I remember Kyla! So nice to see her back in action!

[SubRosa]

Kyla returns! She was always my favorite of your old characters.

The whole glass cannon claymore character is a lot of fun in Oblivion. It is a lot harder to master that style in Skyrim, though it is doable there.

And you watched Claymore! I have just started re-watching it for my tenth time or so, and just got to the Teresa of the Faint Smile episodes. While my character Teresa has no similarities with the anime character (other than the faint smile of course), Persephone OTOH, is heavily inspired by the anime.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jan 29 2017, 05:13 AM

[gpstr]

I sort of wondered about the Teresas.

I knew that you were a fan of Claymore - I've seen you mention that in the past - but I didn't know that it was the source for the name Teresa of the Faint Smile until I saw that that was the name of one of the episodes.

When I got to the point at which the character's introduced, I was looking for other correspondences, but was sort of surprised to not see as much as I'd sort of expected. There's a basic, underlying "tone" to the characters that's similar, but arguably only to the extent that the Claymore Teresa softened after meeting Clare.

As I think about it, your Teresa might actually remind me more of Clare than of Teresa. It's been quite a while since I read any of her adventures though, so I can't be sure.

I wouldn't have known it last week, but now I can see right up front how Persephone is obviously influenced by the Claymores.

And a last, entirely peripheral, note on Claymore - the only problem I really had with it was Raki. It seemed like all he ever did was blubber and scream Clare's name (or Priscilla's name), and it just made me want to punch him. Hard.

I had a lot of choices when I got inspired to play a claymore fighter, just because I enjoy them so much that I've made a bunch of them. But Kyla was the first, and still has a special place in my heart, and not just as a claymore fighter, but as a decent and honorable person. I had thought that she was pretty much entirely retired, but I guess that's not the case after all. And it's been a joy to travel with her again, just because she's so straightforward, and so worthy of respect.

As for the details - all of the following took place over the course of about two weeks her time:

First, she swung down from Bruma and across the Orange Road, then up to Moranda, since she'd learned from Umbacano that that was one of the ruins that likely held a statue, and it did. Then she made her way down toward Chorrol, planning just to spend the night there before going to the IC the next day, but she found a messenger waiting for her, and a request from Bothiel at the AU to investigate the theft of some Dwemer artifacts, so she instead headed out into the West Weald. She fell into something of a routine doing that - she'd arrive at a camp site sometime in the afternoon or evening and scout it out. She tried to find the courier so she could focus on it and be sure to recover the artifact, then she just dealt with whatever other bandits might be there as necessary. Then she'd spend the night at that camp, and set out the next morning for the nearest town, to sell loot and restock any supplies she might need, then it was on to the next camp to do it again. Other than that, she dealt with a lot of Minotaurs and Minotaur Lords, a few Ogres and a handful of other creatures, and spent a couple of days just exploring and taking in the sights.

On the way south from the last camp, she happened on an isolated farm and ended up battling some enormous and powerful brown bears of the behalf of the farmer.

Then, by way of Skingrad, she made her way back to the Imperial City. Currently, she just left Umbacano's and encounted Claude Maric (who she can tell is plainly not to be trusted), then swung by Rindir's to sell the loot she'd accumulated on the last leg of the trip, and is now on her way to the AU to deliver the Dwemer artifacts.

[haute ecole rider]

Ahh, that brings back memories.

After playing Skyrim and now ESO for the past couple years, my memories of Cyrodiil in TES IV are quite idyllic. The cool shade of the West Weald. The open rolling hills between Kvatch and Chorrol. The humid moodiness of Blackwood. The golden sun on the golden grass of the Gold Coast. The crystal clear air of the Jeralls. And above it all, the view of the White Gold Tower from nearly anywhere in Cyrodill.

I know what you mean about a noble, decent character. Julian of Anvil was that for me, and remains so in her ESO incarnation. I too, have a particular fondness for playing her. It's good that you have such characters that you truly enjoy playing. It's like old friends . . .

[SubRosa]

It was the anime Claymore that got me into playing Oblivion. The first time I tried the game it would not run on my computer. I would literally move the mouse, and five minutes later the cursor would move. I never even managed to create a character. Then years later after watching Claymore I was scouring the web for goodies related to it. I found an Oblivion mod that adds Claymore swords and armor.

So I gave Oblivion another try, and thankfully it worked on the computer I had by that time. My first character was Clare, who used the Claymore armor and sword. I just sort of wandered around bashing things for about a month with her. I realized that Oblivion was a lot of fun, and decided to try again with a more serious character. Teresa of the Faint Smile was born.

Back then I always had trouble coming up with names for characters in games. I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to naming. So they had to be just right. I tended to reuse them from game to game, and generally got them from anime, books, or movies. Hence taking the names of Clare and Teresa. Since then I came upon the idea of using the names of goddesses for characters, or people from legends, myths, and real life history. Hence Persephone, Hecate, Hera, Banba, Tomoe Gozen, Oda Hidetaka, Le Chevalier D'Eon, Loviatar, Holland Smith, etc... I used to hate coming up with names for characters. Now it is one of the most fun parts of creating a character.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jan 30 2017, 11:32 PM

[gpstr]

@haute ecole rider - it's sort of an odd thing - I'd forgotten how pleasant it is to travel with someone that noble. I have other generally decent characters - the majority of them easily - but somehow it's just not the same. I think it's that they generally have their own quirks - their own rough edges and biases and odd motivations and such - that make them a bit murkier. I have other clear-thinking and straightforward characters too, but they tend more toward a sort of neutrality, if not a true clinical amorality. So I spend so much time playing murky, complex characters with motivations and attitudes I might not share or respect, and it's interesting and fun and all, but there's just something about a pure and straightforward and noble character. It's as if I'm bathed in the light that's shining off of her.

@SubRosa - that's an interesting connection - that it was Claymore specifically that got you into Oblivion. I'd be wiling to bet that there's noone else who could say that.

I browsed the Claymore mods, and considered at least trying out the swords, but I haven't had much luck with that sort of thing. Pretty much every time I've tried to make a character into some specific thing, s/he's insisted on becoming some other thing instead.

I used to have a hard time with names too - that's why so many of my early characters have relatively plain names. In part, it amused me to name a Breton mage Bob or a Dunmer assassin Dave, but partly too it was just that I didn't trust myself to come up with an interesting and lore-friendly name for them.

Over time though, I've started to get a handle on just experimenting with combinations of letters and essentially sounding out names. Playing so many Orc characters helped with that.

Kyla...

She delivered the artifacts to Bothiel, then knocked around town for a bit and spent the night at the Tiber Septim, enjoying the creature comforts after a couple of weeks on the road. The next morning, she swung by to see the Orrery in action (and loved it), then she set out for the Roxey Inn. She'd heard that there was a master trainer there, and while she wasn't that interested in further training - she feels confident enough already - she was very interested in meeting a master of heavy armor, and she knew the Roxey was nearby. She was impressed by him - he was just the sort of person she likes most - nice and quiet and even a bit meek on the surface, but with a strong and solid core.

She also picked up a quest from the innkeeper there - to clear out a cave of necromancers back in the hills behind the inn. She hadn't really been intending on fighting again so soon, but it was for a good cause.

She spent that night at the Roxey, then made the trip back up to Bruma the following day, just to drop off a few items she'd picked up and wanted to keep and to sort of check in.

The next day, she set out for Cheydinhal. One of the Ayleid ruins Umbacano had directed her to was nearby.

I haven't quite sorted out how Kyla feels about Cheydinhal. It's where she was raised, and her childhood was a bit rough. She actually ended up in the IC in the first place because she'd come there ostensibly to fight in the Arena, but primarily just to get out of Cheydinhal - fighting in the Arena was just what she believed to be her ticket out.

She doesn't actively dislike Cheydinhal, but it just has a lot of emotional weight for her, and she's not really comfortable there.

So anyway - she actually camped for the night, short of Cheydinhal, and didn't spend long there. She did wander the town a bit, and especially spent some time down by the river, but she was gone and heading for Fanacas by midday. Oh, and while she was there, she ran into Burz gro-Khash. She joined the Fighters Guild a long time ago, but was a bit put off by them and had stopped doing jobs for them after that whole thing with those drunken louts in Leyawiin. But she'd been sort of considering maybe doing some more work for them, so she stopped to talk to Burz. As soon as he called her "meat," she was immediately reminded of why she'd stopped working for them in the first place, so she just walked away.

The ruin was fairly straightforward - overrun by vampires, but set up so that she had a pretty easy time getting through it. She found the statue and swung back by Cheydinhal to offload some loot, and it's now early evening and she's on the road, heading toward the IC.

This post has been edited by gpstr: Jan 31 2017, 03:33 AM

[Renee]

Well.... since I appear to have killed the thread....

ha, welcome back to Chorrol! Things tend to fluctuate here, so no worries about that. Personally I haven't been online or gaming these last few days, I'm looking forward to getting back into it all soon.

Love reading about Kyla, I remember her from the past too.

[gpstr]

Well.... I knew I hadn't really killed the thread. It was just a good lead-in to another post.

I hit an odd sort of a wall with Kyla today. She carries a bow, but she only uses it occasionally to draw off opponents. She's not really interested in fighting with a bow - she didn't learn swordsmanship for nothing.

The bow she's currently carrying is Ebony, and it's enchanted to do minor amounts of elemental damage over 5 seconds of duration, along with some attribute drains - speed, strength and agility - also for 5 seconds. I know what I was thinking when I made that bow - it's designed to set opponents up for a subsequent swordfight - but the more I thought about it, the less I liked the idea. I don't think Kyla would want to gain a somewhat "unfair" advantage over an opponent by draining their attributes. That implies that she couldn't handle them at full power.

She picked up another Ebony bow in a chest in Fanacas, and encountered a Minotaur Lord on the way back, so had a Grand soul in Azura's Star, so it seemed a good time to enchant a new bow. She'd just made the trip from the IC to Cheydinhal, so the road was clear, so she could just keep the Grand soul until she got back to the AU, then do the new bow.

And now she's saved in front of an altar in the Chironasium, and I have no idea what to do with her bow. I just can't come up with enchantments that make sense for her character.

We'll see...

[ghastley]

Perhaps something to keep the target out of the way of her fighting someone else, such as Paralyze? Long enough to have a sword fight with whoever else is present. Then they have their own battle once the first one's over.

[Renee]

Have you tried the old roleplayer's trick though, "ask your character what she wants?"

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Turdas, Rain's Hand 11

Rainy and cold again the next morning. Party gets an early start. Renee decides it's time for some raiding, and decides to stop at Ceyatatar, just to see if any new band of rogue mages has invaded the place, and surely they have.

The rain eventually clears up, while the party (except for Gabrielle, who stays behind with the horse) takes down Ceyatatar. By the time they get done and are back at the horse, it is getting dark. They decide to head back to Oranstad. On the way back, they are attacked by three vampires.

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Fredas, Rain's Hand 12

Spent the first half of this day getting stuff repaired; once Oranstad's smithy is finally open. By the time this is done, Renee had just 33 gold, and it got cold & rainy outside, once again. Must be why they call this month "Rain's Hand". And once again, the rain stopped about mid-day.

Got to Weye just as sun was going down, had dinner. On the way into the Imperial City (back home to Maple Cottage) Renee had a thought that perhaps she should look beneath the Imperial City, in its sewers, for this vampire menace. She decided she should speak to Kendrel in the Tiber Septim Hotel again for more info.

First thing party did was to visit Roland Jenseric though, so they could get some money for several vampire dusts they'd collected.


This post has been edited by Renee: Feb 2 2017, 11:03 PM

[gpstr]

Mmm... I hadn't considered Paralyze (or anything similar) since the intent is to use the bow to draw off enemies - the ones she hits are the ones she's preparing to fight, and she attacks from sneak so the others aren't alerted.

That's an interesting idea though.

And yeah - I asked her. That's how I do pretty much everything. It was getting inside her head that initially led me to realize that she was uncomfortable with the notion of draining her opponents' attributes - it seems dishonorable.

The only thing I knew she wanted was something that would make mages easier to deal with. Since she doesn't have (or particularly want) enough marksman skill to one-shot them, and since they run as soon as they're alerted, and since she fights with a claymore, they're a hassle to deal with. I ended up going with Drain Magicka 100 for 6 seconds plus 5 points of Fire damage for 6 seconds (so it'll be easy to keep track of them, and of whether or not the drain is still in effect). It won't have a whole lot of effect on fighters, which is fine anyway, and it'll at least hamstring mages a bit - hopefully make them a bit more likely to draw a weapon and engage. We'll see how it works out - she's at a point at which Ebony bows are fairly common, and grand souls are very common, and money's no problem, so if that doesn't do, she can always do another one.

Didn't do much with her beyond that though. She was done in the IC, so she hiked back up to Bruma and home. I think she's going to stay around there for a few days, then maybe head south to investigate the last two Ayleid ruins Umbacano mentioned.

On the way into the Imperial City (back home to Maple Cottage) Renee had a thought that perhaps she should look beneath the Imperial City, in its sewers, for this vampire menace.

Something tells me that that's going to pay off.

[SubRosa]

You could go with a Drain Speed instead. That will make it harder for the enemy mages to run away. Or a Silence, whose use against mages is self-explanatory!

[Renee]

where is "home" for Kyla?

Incidentally, I was reading some old posts over at Beth and came across one in which we were all talking about our guys & gals homes. And you (gpster) told us that you made a home for one of your guys on some island. You spent all this time making a home for the guy. Once you were done, you were surprised to find that the guy didn't want to go adventuring anymore! He'd become too comfy just where he was; why should he go down in some holes, to kill some monsters?

[Renee]

Sundas, Rain's Hand 14

Foggy and cool. Renee Gade III puts her Xena armor on.

Today shall be the day. Renee gathers up the entire party, and even hires a new follower (Mimi, who she'd worked with long ago), but tells Gabrielle to stay behind. Gabrielle has no business for what's to come. The idea is to traverse the entire Imperial City area, and wind up at one of the sewer exists, where Renee will slowly lure all the vampires she can out into sunlight, and several eager warriors and mages!

But the day grew long, and pretty soon it was mid-afternoon. The sky had cleared, bright and sunny. Spur of the moment, the party decided to surround a grate in the Elven Gardens District. But there was nothing down there except rats and mudcrabs. Renee did not want to waste any of the fire enchantments on her two swords on such nuisances.

She remembered Kendrel, the vampire hunter she'd met in Tiber Septim Hotel. Maybe it would be a good idea to find her, and tell her that her father (Ano Vando) was not in his secret manor home.

But Kendrel had nothing to say.* Since it was beginning to get dark, the party decided to stay in the Market District's Merchant Inn for the night. Next morning, they would begin looking for other sewer grates to explore.




--------------------


Morndas, Rain's Hand 15

Days Passed: 231

New Level: 13 ... added +3 to IQ, +2 to AG, and +2 to End

Cold and rainy in the early morning again, unfortunately. This will make it difficult, even just getting around the Imperial City's exterior can be tougher with bad weather. But it turns out, most of this day got wasted, until we figured out that Kendrel needs to SEE her father's journal in order for this quest to advance (the journal is not a Quest Item, meaning she won't have anything to say if it's not brought to her).

In other words, the quest is not broken! My fault entirely for missing a few details.

After speaking to Kendrel, she finally tells us she thinks there is some sort of chapel, outside the Imperial City (so it's a good thing those sewers weren't searched, can you imagine?), in which some powerful vampire or vampires are hiding. Since it was now getting too late to really make an effective attack, and the rain would make it difficult anyway, Renee & party decide to search the Imperial Isle, to at least try and find the place. The party currently includes Haili, Mimi, Arraya, and Felrika. Jada has gone off disappeared again. She didn't show up until the party was already halfway headed toward the Imperial Prison sewer gate.

Soon it was nightfall though, still raining. Visibility cut back quite a lot. Renee hadn't eaten much and was getting exhausted, but would not give up her search. Not until rounding the bottom end of the Imperial City isle, and heading back toward Maple Cottage, that is. Next day, hopefully it would be sunny, and RG3 will ride her horse, without the party, which will make finding the place go quicker.

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Tirdas, Rain's Hand 16

Morning is cool and cloudy. Again, no sun. Renee got on her horse, took her warriors (Fel and Mimi) to her Waterfront property. Then she began her search. Where can this vampire holdout be?

The entire isle was criss-crossed, which took all day of course. The broken-down chapel where they've been hiding was finally located though, just north of Fort Nikel. By then it was dark outside, and the cave's initial guard was the only one Renee had time to take down. But this guy was smart--he refused to run outside at all, after Renee Gade tried to lure him, meaning that it might not make any difference whether the place was sieged during daytime or not.


This post has been edited by Renee: Feb 8 2017, 10:28 PM

[Renee]

Middas, Rain's Hand 17

Days Passed: 234

A mixed day, it rained for part of the morning, but this blew over to complete sunlight by noon. The party today included everyone except Felrika, who Renee gave the 'day off', without telling her why*

The siege into the vampire's hideout was difficult, but in all, eight more vampires have been slain, and Roland gladly rewarded 100 gold for each of these. The plan these vamps had was to apparently summon an Oblivion gate into the Imperial City, right near the White Gold Tower. Yeah, can you imagine? Good thing this was stopped. Unfortunately, Kendrel's father was killed by these vampires, she learned this by reading some note one of the vampires had.

After it was all done, Renee Gade III brought the party to Maple Cottage, but had Mimi follow her to the Temple District, where she was paid, then dismissed.

By the time Renee got back to the Tiber Septim Hotel, it was rainy, cold, and completely the dead of night. She found Kendrel in the lobby (she's been staying here for days), where she gave her the bad news about her father. This news saddened Kendrel, but it also enraged her. She began talking of 'avenging her father's death', and then asked Renee if she could accompany her to find more vampire lairs.

But RG3 had different ideas in mind. She thinks it might be best if everyone takes a break from vampire hunting, especially after the ordeal they'd all gone through. There may be some other things they need to take care of, like finding that fine Ayleid Carafe which had gotten stolen from a merchant haul, and could be in any of 4 locations.



Sneaking on hillside

This post has been edited by Renee: Feb 10 2017, 02:41 AM

[Acadian]

Dreary weather as RG/Xena leaves Gabbie home and does some vampire hunting!

[mirocu]

And Lothran just keeps on truckin' in the Jeralls. Just cleared out Silver Tooth Cave and the road to Azura's shrine. The day before the road west was cleared along with Capstone Cave.



Nothing out of the ordinary, business as usual

[Renee]

Whoa, Lothran has a truck? Are you playing Big Rigs now? Kidding. Sounds good that Lothran is keeping the northern reaches nice and clear. Kahreem will be up there soon.

Acadian: The Gabrielle NPC is a pain to have around. I'm not sure what her mod author was thinking. The real Gabrielle (on the show) doesn't always fight, in fact she often gets between fights, since she's a witty bard, she tries to talk people out of stuff sometimes. This works on the show, in the game though...

I have a couple updates to post, they're both shorties.


Fredas, Rain's Hand 19

Days Passed: 236

Finally, sunlight! Cyrodiil's landscape erupts with color!

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Loredas Rain's Hand 20 and Sundas, Rain's Hand 21

Two relaxing days in Chorrol. Renee and two of her friends spent most of Loredas at the bathhouse, and most of Sundas in the chapel.


Headed to Chorrol

One with Stendarr

Bathhouse Fun (notice Renee Gade's main follower in the background never undresses fully).

This post has been edited by Renee: Feb 11 2017, 09:23 PM

[Lopov]

(notice Renee Gade's main follower in the background never undresses fully).

Such a shame.

[Renee]

Yeah it is rather weird, Lopov. All the CM Partners take off all their clothes, but that NPC (Felrika) is from a different mod, and so I like to RP that's she's just "modest." Fel also refuses to sneak, which is cool because not all of our characters do this.


Morndas, Rain's Hand 22

Day's Past: 238

Back to work on this beautifully warm day. Renee gathers her party together, then heads north to Black Rock Caverns to deal with the bandits who live there. Thoronir had mentioned that some sort of powerful, magical relic (a ring? ... a helmet? ) would be found here. This was also one of the places Seed-Neeus had mentioned might have her stolen vase.

The bandits in here were average, though they used a bit more magic than usual. A couple of them had chameleon items, somehow.

We got really lucky with our questing though. Not only were a couple of gauntlets found which provide detect life for free, but the Ayleid carafe Seed-Neeus was looking for was also in this first cave. Now we don't have to trek to the other three. Good job, girls.

Spent night at Oak & Crosier.


*note: I think I added those "detect life" items as one of my made-up quests, though I can't remember because all these RG3 updates happened several months ago! The Ayleid vase was part of an Enhanced Economy quest.

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Tirdas, Rain's Hand 23

Pleasant weather today. Renee Gade III returned the stolen Ayleid carafe back to Seed-Neeus, and was rewarded a whopping 64 gold for this*. She also bought two bear pelts, because several months ago she'd been accused of killing one of her Fighters Guildmates, so she got kicked out of the guild. After visiting the guild's official leader in Chorrol, she learned she'd have to collect and hand over 20 bear pelts if she wants to rejoin. Right now, she's up to 12.

Afterwards dealing in Seed-Neeus's shop, Renee and Felrika went to the spa for a quick soak (quick, as in 3 or 4 hours), and then the entire party began heading back toward the Imperial City, where Roland might have more vampire-hunting things for RG3 and her party to do.

*I was laughing about this 64 gold payment.

This post has been edited by Renee: Feb 17 2017, 10:52 PM