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

[SubRosa]

Morigu got her hands upon Red Eagle's sword, and upgraded it to Red Eagle's Vengeance thanks to how I modded it. It has come in handy, as today Morigu accompanied Vigilant Tyranus into the House of Horrors in Markarth. Needless to say, she was the only one to leave. Which of course means she was roped into Molag Bal's quest. That was the first time I ever did it. When all was said and done, she just left his mace on his altar. It is not like she has any real use for it anyway.

Along the way of doing Molag's business, she ran into three of the Companions out in the wilderness, who were killing a bear. They went hostile on her, so she killed them too.

Afterward she did go and pay a midnight visit to Thonar Silverblood. Red Eagle's Vengeance lived up to its name as it split Thonar's heart in two. Now with both Madanach and Thonar dead, Morigu feels that some measure of justice has been served to the Reach.

Afterward she took a carriage out of town. While no one saw her do the deed, getting out of Markarth and lying low for a while seemed wise. She went to Falkreath, as she is told it is warm there. From there she headed north to explore along the shores of Lake Ilinalta, and changed her Standing Stone power to the Lady. She came upon the three scavengers pretending to be Imperials. But when she saw them from a distance, she naturally thought they were Imperial soldiers. So naturally she ambushed them, one-shot killing one with a very long distance arrow. She was disappointed when she discovered that they were just bandits pretending to Imperials, and that the real Impies were already dead. I wrapped up with her at Riverwood.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 21 2014, 04:51 AM

[Acadian]

Morigu's been busy! I hope she enjoys Riverwood.

In her playthroughs so far, Buffy's been able to straddle neutrality betwixt the two side. As I've said, they both have valid points and big flaws. The Imps tried to cut her head off - nuff said. But she's seen how the Nords treat others when they're 'in charge' - eg: Gray quarter and docks at the Stormcloak seat of power in Whiterun.

[SubRosa]

Morigu's been busy! I hope she enjoys Riverwood.

In her playthroughs so far, Buffy's been able to straddle neutrality betwixt the two side. As I've said, they both have valid points and big flaws. The Imps tried to cut her head off - nuff said. But she's seen how the Nords treat others when they're 'in charge' - eg: Gray quarter and docks at the Stormcloak seat of power in Whiterun.

Tbh, the Stormcloaks are not quite as black hattish as they look on first glance. Once you actually dig in and start looking, you find that there is a lot more to the story. I think what it really comes down to is that Bethesda wanted people to be able to play as either side. So they did not do the usual thing most games do and make one side plain evil, like they do the Thalmor or Forsworn. The Imps look bad because they want to chop off the heads of everyone they meet, and because they are occupying another country. To keep them from looking like the Redcoats in the American Revolution, they need find some way for the people fighting for the freedom of their country to look bad too. Otherwise it is George Washington vs. King George III.

IMHO, I think it was a big mistake on Bethseda's part, as it just sparks lots of arguments. I think it would have been better to make the civil war one-sided, and make the bad guys as plain evil as they do the Thalmor. I think in the end it would have created a more satisfying game. It would also have made doing the civil war mean something, as in pure game terms, almost nothing actually changes no matter what side you pick. Basically it just changes the uniforms of the guards in half the holds, and if you do the Stormcloaks the Thalmor patrols stop, and the Talos shrine is restored in Solitude.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 21 2014, 06:28 PM

[SubRosa]

Morigu has been enjoying her vacation in Falkreath by explorating Embershard Mine and Bleak Falls Barrow. With all the ore she dug up between the two, and turned into armor, she was able to get her Smithing up high enough to finally start upgrading The Armor Of The Old Gods. If she can find an ebony ingot somewhere, she can do the same to Red Eagle's Vengeance.

She just received a message from her old pal the Courier, inviting her to a Museum up in Dawnstar. Since she is on vacation, she has decided to take a trip up to see the sights.

[Grits]

Jerric’s response to getting roped into Molag Bal’s business was to go murder the priest of Boethiah. The Oblivion crisis definitely left its mark on him.

It sounds like Morigu is having a Daedric vacation. How did she like the museum?

[Acadian]

When Morigu goes up north, does she have a long-sleeve version of her forsworn furkini?

[Grits]

I loaded Jensa’s game this morning so she could try out a new hairstyle (really), and while we were there she decided to liberate The Reach. The current mission calls for subterfuge, so Stenvar got left behind at the Stormcloak camp with their horses while Jensa walked to Markarth in a dress.

On the way she got involved in a battle. Blood Dragon plus Elder Dragon vs Karthwasten. One fire, one frost. She had to keep her distance and shoot at them since she wasn’t wearing any armor. Thanks to the many ridges and rooftops she got to Shout a lot without fear of freezing or roasting her allies. There were inevitably some casualties. However no one seemed sorry about the Silver-Blood mercenaries scattered all over the ground.

Some folks may recall the adventures of Denelle “Dragonbait” Jeline from the game’s first years. Her class could best be described as Archer-Librarian. I recreated her as an NPC merchant in Karthwasten. It was fun to see her also wearing a dress and shooting the heck out of two dragons while trash-talking in her sweet voice.

[SubRosa]

Acadian: Morigu has appropriated some long-sleeved furs from a bandit for the trip up north. She does not like the snow!

Grits: Morigu thought the whole Mythic Dawn thing was pretty neat. Though she thinks destroying the world is overdoing things a bit. Destroying everything but The Reach would suit her just fine though. She doesn't have any use for a dagger, but she's doing the Mehrunes Razor quest anyway, since she thinks Dagon is a pretty cool dude. Anyone who is into revolution and destruction cannot be all bad after all...

Oh noes, poor Ainethatch! He is one of the few decent people in the entire Reach. You just gave me another reason to never play a game with dragons in it. I do have to admit that the Silverblood mercenaries being killed by the dragons seems like poetic justice though.

I remember Denelle, her whose name is only two letters different from my own. I love that Breton girl-next-door look. It is fun to hear that she made a return, trash-talk and all!

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 23 2014, 09:08 PM

[Grits]

Fortunately the dead guy is one of the miners. Jensa plans to look for Ainethach after she checks out the lower part of town. The last she saw Ainethach he was charging up the hill toward the other dragon wearing his fine clothing and armed with a dagger. Fingers crossed for his native magic resistance or possibly being protected until the mine quest is over. We’ll see. I’m using a mod that makes Karthwasten a little bigger and more populated, so there are plenty of bodies to check. Hats off to those miners. Some of them ran, but the dead guy was wielding his pickaxe when he got chomped.

I’m actually considering releasing dragons into the Jerric crew’s games, even though the Dragonborn business won’t be a part of his future stories. I find that I miss them when they’re not around.

Morigu is fascinating. Her world view is so different from many characters, and it comes across even in your comments about her.


Lildereth surprised me by slipping up to Skyrim with Jerric in tow. Darnand and Abiene are both occupied in their Oblivion games. I guess she felt left out. Also she was very stressed and somewhat disappointed by their Falkreath Hold vacation a little while ago. That’s when they ended up with a body pile at the campsite including the one guy who wandered by after Jerric went to sleep and stayed there cooking at their fire until a troll came over and killed him. That was a strange trip.

Anyway Lil has a few things in her quest log that she wants to finish. They’re on a path that will take them pretty much the whole way around the province with the exception of the far Reach. If they stick to the plan. So far they have sneaked in to just about every cave they have passed.

One was Snapleg Cave. That’s got to be one of my favorite spots. I had forgotten the fun ending to that little adventure. Spriggans are awesome. And Darkwater Pass. After they freed Derkeethus he told Lil that she reminded him of the Shadowscales of legend. She was of course sneaking at the time. Rather than hissing at him to hush she felt quite flattered.

They’re in Windhelm now, which is not Lil’s favorite city. She got stopped at the gate by a guard (mod) who called her “elf” in a tone that meant “scum” and warned her that she was in Stormcloak territory. She needs to upgrade a few spells so they went in anyway. I have no idea if she’ll be challenged when she goes into the Palace of the Kings. They also need to find a daedra heart to help out some orcs. That means shopping since she doesn’t know where to find a live daedra.

NPC Jerric has done some typically Jerric things like hitting a cave bear that was above them with a paralysis staff causing it to fall down right on top of Lil and wake up angry just as she recovered from being staggered by the stupid staff going off. Also when she starts a fight from a sneaky spot on a ledge or in a doorway he tends to immediately leap up and charge into the fray rather than sitting back with her and watching the fun. And he set off a trap that hit Derkeethus and made him stay down so long Lil thought he must have broken something. The whole time Derkeethus was crawling around in his bleedout state Jerric stood there calmly turning his head to watch him.

Of course he also hauls all of their gear including the tent, chops the wood when it’s too cold for her to look for dead branches (mod), saves her from the sabrecats that still completely terrify her (she turns and runs every time, she can’t help it), and riddles most of the roadside ambushers with ice spikes before they can reach her. Also he knocked a troll over the waterfall near Ivarstead with a firebolt. Lil thought that was cool.

There is one thing that she has to change, though. Ishckrihk has made his appearance in Lil’s game now. She is going to take a tip from Buffy and learn to banish him with her summoned bow as soon as she possibly can!

[SubRosa]

including the one guy who wandered by after Jerric went to sleep and stayed there cooking at their fire until a troll came over and killed him. That was a strange trip.

That is one of the things I love about Bethesda's open world games and their character ai. You never know what might happen next!

That pic of Izzycrick really illustrates the problem that some summons can bring. Morigu has been sticking with her Flame Astronaut, even though it does not survive very long any more. That Frost Astronaut is just too big.

[ghastley]

My experience is that frosties like Itchy only appear where there are narrow passages to get stuck in. It's the nature of the spell that it removes common sense from the caster, perhaps as a way of increasing its power? Of course Jerric would know that one!

I'm just glad that Serana can't summon a frostie at the same time as resurrecting goats and mudcrabs.

[SubRosa]

Morigu has been slowly but surely working on gathering up the pieces of Mehrunes Razor. She already had the pommel from the dungeon where I started her. So she only had to make her way to Morthal to get the crossbar, which was simple enough. Now she is slowly but surely making her way down towards Cracked Tusk Keep, where the final piece awaits.

Along the way she came across the patrol of Imperials with a Stormcloak prisoner. She killed them all. I have played a lot of characters who would kill the Imperials, but never anyone who would kill both. But Morigu is an equal opportunity slayer.

[Acadian]

I chuckled over Morigu being equal opportunity - Imperial soldiers, Stormcloakers, Forsworn, probably Thalmor?

Buffy's still treading the line of neutrality. When she encounters just blue or redcoats, she makes nice to them. When she encounters a skirmish between them, she skirts it with a wide berth. She's been trying to ignore the Thalmor as well, but they have sent a couple assassination teams after her - complete with a note naming her as a foe. Same with the DB - no idea who wants her dead.

It seems the foes she hates most are (no surprise) mammoth poachers. She's joined the mammoth faction and now considers the big bonfires of the mammoth/giant camps as safe havens.

[SubRosa]

The Thalmor and DB assassin teams seem to be random. I have had brand new characters who had literally done nothing but leave Helgen get the Dark Brotherhood assassin with the named death warrant on them.

There are encounters with Thugs who are indeed sent by specific people that you crossed. I believe you can usually find a contract on them saying who hired them. I only had that happen once though, with my thief character. So I cannot remember the specifics.


Also, last night Morigu made it to Cracked Tusk keep and cracked it even more. She now has the final piece of Mehrunes Razor, and is standing in front of the Mythic Dawn Museum in Dawnstar.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 26 2014, 05:41 PM

[Grits]

Team Jerric has also stayed neutral with the exception of Thalmor prisoner transfers. Jerric and the Bretons would support the Legion if required to take a stand. Lil would not be present for questioning. None of them are politically inclined so it’s not hard to just step around the military messes.

We had a Hired Thug encounter this morning. This ran a little long so I put it in spoiler tags for scrolling convenience, so the pictures are in the Jerric’s World thread.

[Darkness Eternal]

You just can't go wrong with a productive hunt, can you. Quite an adventure Jerric and Lildereth had and they make an escellent tag-team. I would've loved to see them fight those Draugr Death Lords and the thugs. But thankfully we have screenshots.

[ghastley]

I hope Lil will stop once she gets the Quick Shot perk and forget about Bullseye. I made the mistake of taking that with one character and spent the next few hours cursing as the paralysis effect saved everyone from certain death. She'd been one-shotting just about everything up to that point using perk multipliers from archery and stealth on top of a Legendary Daedric bow and arrows. After taking the perk she couldn't kill anything, just stun them.

What are the thugs wearing? I know you have a lot of mod armor for the team, but does everyone get some?

[SubRosa]

That is quite the romp through the Reach. When Arduina did the Karthspire a few weeks ago she did use frenzy from a distance, multiple times. That got all but two of the Forsworn to kill each other. The last two (Hagraven included), she cleaned up with long range shooting. Morigu, OTOH, did it all with long range sniper shots, like Lil.

So Silas' ghost hired those thugs! I guess Morigu better watch out, cause she might want to appropriate some of that Mythic Dawn stuff after she is finished with the Dagon quest.

[Acadian]

Wow, I'm so glad Lil's got Jerric along! Sounds like they sure had an exciting day.

Buffy's happy enough with the challenge of having to 'actively' use detect life instead of her passive Oblivion rings, but she drew the line at the fact that one spell cannot detect everything that can hurt her. So. . . I changed that and her spell is now 'detect anything that can hurt her' (live, undead, atronach, automatons). Much better.

Sorry Lil's still having probs with the cold. I guess the toe ring of resist frost that dear Jerric gave Buffy a couple birthday's ago really makes the difference. That and a nice circlet of resist cold as well.

[Grits]

Good tip about skipping Bullseye. I’ve never had it but I’ve heard lots of negative things about it. Besides, Lil hates anything that has a “chance of.” She does not like chances! The thugs are wearing heavy armor from Immersive Armors. The guy in white and the last guy had Falkreath armor and the woman in the middle had Nord mail something. Even a few of the Forsworn had shirtless/bikini Barbarian armor instead of the Forsworn uniform, though most were wearing the Forsworn armor. I’m using versions of Immersive Armors and two clothing mods (Common Clothes and Peasant Fashion) that put mod attire in loot, in shops, and on NPCs.

I’m considering using Aura Whisper as a spell if Lil finds a Word after her Alteration is high enough that she could use Detect Life. She’s never seen a Detect anything tome yet. I’m much more in favor of a Shout/spell that detects all energy as the same the way Aura Whisper does rather than the specific type or hostile/non-hostile of the vanilla spells. Changing the spell is a great idea.

Lil wears an amulet from Jerric that has a Resist Frost charm, but since she’s not an enchanter it’s only 15% in her game. I think I have a way to make her a better one with some console magic. She used to wear a standard Necklace of Dwindling Frost (40%) until they found an amulet that looks a bit like the one he gave her in Oblivion. She can be every bit as stubborn as the Nord. I’m using a mod that takes climate and weather into account for exposure (Frostfall), and it was windy and snowy the whole time they were on the north coast. Most of their fights there occurred because they had to find shelter. Jerric is delighted that Buffy’s toe ring brings her some comfort in the cold! He’s always on the lookout for a refreshing waterfall.