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

[SubRosa]

He lost a lot of his personality when she married him on the Xbox and PS3.

Perhaps that is a matter of art imitating life?

[Grits]

It's so "immersive."

[haute ecole rider]

haute, I gave NPC Jerric the same voice that Argis has, and NPC Lildereth has the same voice as Jordis. It’s made for some pretty funny moments when they’re both hanging out inside Lakeview Manor in the evenings. My favorite interaction between them:

Lil: Got any sausages?

Jerric: *laughs*

I haven't heard that line yet from Jordie! I'll have to listen for that. But I totally can hear Lil and Jerric in my head the way you describe it!

Alise is slowly leaning toward marrying Argis, but he doesn't quite seem the marrying type. So Alise hasn't yet brought the subject up with him. She keeps the Amulet of Mara tucked away in her saddlebags for when she does work up the courage . . . Though I have to wonder, is Argis as -- *ahem* "windy" *cough-cough* -- as Jerric? The idea of him flapping the blankets and saying "Whoops, there goes another one!" makes me wince.

[ghastley]

That's the reason all TES characters sleep on top of the blankets.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Sep 3 2014, 08:22 PM

[SubRosa]

Sofie returned to Alftand, and found that she had nearly cleaned it out. The final Cathedral level was not very large, though it did present a challenging fight with a giant Dwemer space robot. But as Mother says, the bigger they are, the easier they are to hit. (every time I write Mother like that, it makes me think of Sephiroth).

Afterward she loaded up on Dwemer metal again, and hauled off all she could to smelt down back in Winterhold. She even made a few trips back to gather up more metal. By the time she was finished, she had sharpened her forge skills to the point where she can temper even enchanted gear. Not that she has any yet!

She went off to do some exploring along the Sea of Ghosts, both east and west of Winterhold. She met her first bandits at the Wreck of the Pride of Tel Vos, apparently an old Dark Elf vessel. Sofie found that they were much easier to deal with than the Falmer and Dwemer machines which she had cut her adventuring teeth upon. The Frost Trolls in Bleakcoast Cave were another matter entirely , and Sofie was forced to call upon aid from her Skeleton Larry, who in turn can summon up one of his brother Darryls. They were also very handy later on in a battle against ice wraiths.

I left off with Sofie at the docks of Windhelm. She was supposed to be journeying west toward Solitude! But perhaps it was the ghosts of the past who drew Sofie's feet there. For it was Windhelm where she had eked out a living selling flowers after her father had died fighting for the Stormcloaks. Her real mother - Sofie could not remember at all - given how young Sofie had been when she had died.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Sep 4 2014, 12:23 AM

[Grits]

It’s the cabbage-rich diet! Argis seems to possess the kind of stoic reserve that would allow him to hold it in as long as necessary, though. How sweet that Alise keeps her Amulet handy. Jensa came close to chucking hers into the sea on several occasions, since her crush Erik the Slayer never responded to her overtures.

That’s a great picture with the ice wraiths! Aw, Sofie revisited her flower-selling days. Cutting her adventuring teeth on Falmer and Dwemer centurions, yikes! She does not frighten easily.

News flash from Jensa’s third honeymoon – Stenvar is still his old self! Someone must have fixed the dialog for married followers. Hooray! They were riding through Fort Dunstad and he commented about his Ma scolding him good for poking around in old forts.

[SubRosa]

Given that he is married to Jensa now, it sounds like he will be poking around in young forts now...

[haute ecole rider]

In our first play through, Alise married Argis pretty quickly, and they went through Dawnguard and Dragonborn together. I can vouch for the fact that Argis kept his personality throughout those quests with the same comments he had before (unmodified before FCO). We were both busy checking stuff out and deciding what we liked and what we didn't like.

On this second play through we're much more focused. For starters, Alise and I decided that Dawnguard didn't really fit her style. She also did not pursue the Thane quest in Dawnstar, Riften nor Windhelm - only in Markarth (so we could have Argis watching our backs, though hers is more shapely than mine), and Falkreath, just for Lakeview Manor. So we're hewing more closely to Alise's backstory and her philosophy, and will take longer to make that fateful trip to the Temple of Mara.

Alise adopted all four of the adoptable kids from the cities. Lucia was the first because she had the audacity (foolishness?) of asking this strange outlander if she would be her mom on their first meeting. At the time Alise was just starting out and had no place to live - and a tent in the cold wilderness is no place to raise a child. But Alise promised herself that once she had a decent abode, that kid was going to live there!

Then she met Blaise in Solitude, and that only fueled her determination. Shortly after that she finished Lakeview Manor (with Multiple Adoptions and Remodeled Homes she can have more than just two). Guess what was the first thing she did! Yup, went back and got those two!

Then she ran into Alesan. Well, maybe I'm biased because of my experience with Julian, but I found him irresistible. How delighted I was when Alise sent him on to Lakeview as well.

Sofie had the saddest story of all - Alise kept buying all of her flowers so she could have enough gold to feed herself for a few days. So when she could, Alise adopted her as well.

It kind of bugs me that all the kids look like each other. I can't really tell them apart without the help of those little subtitles that tell us who we're about to interact with. Thinking maybe it's time I learned how to tinker with the CK!

[Acadian]

Rider, how nurturing of Alise to adopt all those children! I’m glad she was able to make the modifications necessary to her home at Lakeview to accommodate them all. Hopefully, changing those kids a bit (such as hairstyles) in the CK will not prove too hard. I also think it's just fabulous that she’s smitten with Argis.

Buffy likes playing tag with the kids, but realizes that living out of Superian’s saddlebags with only a dorm room at the College is no life or place for kids. Besides, Buffy's height is much closer to those Nordic kids than to an adult. Most of the kids she knows are around twelve – and they tease Buffy that they’ll be taller than her by age fourteen. That’s life in the northern land of giant folk though. I’m surprised more of those Nords have not assumed Buffy to be an orphaned child and tried to adopt her.

[SubRosa]

There was a mod out there that changed the four adoptable kids provided by Hearthfire, giving you several different alternative looks for each. I wish I could find it, but I cannot. I have the .esps for the Sofie and Lucia options that I use. Of course there was no readme, and the author doesn't leave their name in the .esp either.

[SubRosa]

Sofie learned that there was an Alteration teacher down in Kynesgrove, so she made her way down there to sharpen her skills a bit. She promised Dravya Stoneweaver that she would bring back some frost salts for her. Though the ice knows where she will find those! She made her way back north from there, exploring the east back of the river.

Along the way she discovered Yngol's Barrow, and could not resist poking her nose inside. Some glowy balls kept her company. But it was Sofie and Larry who finished off Yngol's ghost. Now Sofie has something to sing about!

Today I did some tinkering on her sister. Here is a sneak peek of Lucia, all grown up.

[haute ecole rider]

Yup, Alise loves coming home to a house full of kids. Kind of reminds her of her young years growing up in a Cyrod orphanage. In fact, she spent a couple of days recuperating from Sovngarde (and the hard-earned victory over Alduin) playing tag and hide-and-seek while Argis got his nerves back after being separated from her at such a crucial time (followers are not permitted for the last three stages of the main quest, so Alise was entirely on her own).

Your description of Buffy among the Nord kids reminds me of my fifth grade teacher Ms. D! She is a very petite lady (yup, still alive and kicking, though she taught me forty years ago - she was quite young when I had her for homeroom/fifth grade, and she just retired two years ago) and hard to pick out from a gaggle of fifth graders. But she always got the best out of us! Fantastic woman in so many ways.

[Acadian]

Rider, aww, thanks for that story about Mrs D. Just the spot of inspiration my short elf needs in the land of giants.

[SubRosa]

Sofie spent the day journeying west, stopping off at Dawnstar to put an end to people's nigthmares. While she was there everyone's old friend The Courier found her, and gave her a letter about a new museum opening up in Dawnstar! That was a first. Sofie is not the museuming kind though, and did not pay much attention to it.

Instead she was off to the west again, exploring the coast of the Sea of Ghosts all the way to Solitude. She made a few stops at High Gate Ruins and Ustengrav for good measure, and had plenty of loot to sell of once she finally reached the big city.

After arriving she found no shortage of things to do. She started by delivering a book to the Bard's College, that she had with her ever since talking to its author in Windhelm. They immediately gave her a quest to undertake to find the lost verses about King Olaf.

But she also learned of trouble in Wolfskull Cave. Since that seemed more immediate, she decided to poke her nose in there first. Sofie put her bow to good use in the big open spaces of the cave, and sharpened her sword on necromancer's bones. When all was said and done she found herself barely loaded down with loot (since robes and soul gems are light), so she did some exploring and found Fort Fragglerock nearby. Well no one needs to tell Sofie twice that bandits need killing, so she went to it.

After a stop at Dragon Bridge to sell off some of her loot, and to find the treasure from a map she had discovered a long time ago, she made her way back to Solitude to unload the remainder of her hard won gains. Now she is ready to go looking for that lost bard's tomb, and discover the truth about King Olaf.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Sep 7 2014, 03:48 AM

[Renee]

Sofie's been busy, that's good. And that's hilarious about the Courier. So he just shows up in the middle of that spooky quest .. "E e e excuse me, important delivery to make, your eyes only. Let's see here...." How bizarre.

[Renee]

Sundas, 11:44 AM, 9th of Last Seed, 4E 202

I have listened to her words, she has spoken I have heard.

The Night Mother calls, I Listen. For I am the Listener.

Traipse indeed, while raidens and shellnyce feed

I heed her words. I follow, and Astrid has passed. Astrid has lost her ways. Il

Like she said, Mycharonna has become The Listener. Whoo spooky.



This post has been edited by Renee Gade IV: Sep 8 2014, 09:58 PM

[Acadian]

SubRosa - I very much like that Mara / Vaermina quest at Dawnstar. I'm sure it suited Sofie to a tee as well.

Renee - With Mycharonna in charge, the DB will never be the same!

*

Buffy was skulking around a fort (Gallows Rock). Her detect life showed the guardians to be humanoid and hostile. Sure enough, one of them spotted her and charged. She had the room and range to take him down just fine, then sneaked and sniped down the other three. She discovered they were something new to her – Silver Hands. And there were werewolf heads on the door to the fort. Curious Elf went inside.

Not surprisingly she found more of these Silver Hand bandit-like fellows and killed them all. She also found a Savage Werewolf locked up in a prison cell. Her detect life spell said he was not hostile – she knows that can change in a heartbeat though. She uncrouched so he could see her outside the bars and he still was not hostile. Dumb Elf unlocked the cell door with a spell (mod) to free the poor wolf creature.

Things then happened very quickly: The Savage Werewolf attacked. Buffy peed her greaves, turned and ran – summoning a flame atronach and her bow. As soon as Cinder the atronach had the beast’s full attention, Buffy whirled around and took out the animal with her bow. Then she sat down and cried for a time.

She was not at all happy about her panic response in this situation. So I asked her what she might have done better. She clung to her decision to at least try and free the beast – she is a forest predator herself and could not imagine being caged. I suggested that the problem was perhaps that she did not develop a plan for the rather distinct possibility that the beast might attack when freed. She agreed and decided her response should have been to dual cast a calm spell if he went hostile. Then conjure her bow and nail the ungrateful son of a skeever.

[Renee]

Really interesting you have that 2-way relationship going where you can ask her stuff. I'm not like that at all with any of my characters. I think me & mine sometimes meet in dream states, but the relationship we have is pretty vague.

Isn't it cool how Detect Life can differentiate between friends, foes, and dead? ~

[Grits]

Alise has a full house! The kids must have a lot of fun with a lake in their back yard. I saw a fairly new children overhaul out on the Nexus, RSkyrim Children or something like that, but I haven’t tried it. The kids look quite different from one another in the screenshots.

Sofie has gone to college! I love the Bard’s College quests. I think she is just the warrior bard they have been looking for.

Renee, congrats to the new Listener. And also… *shiver*

Acadian, what a charming mental image of petite Buffy playing with those sturdy northern kids. Jerric offers a shoulder squeeze of sympathy to Buffy on the unpleasant werewolf surprise. Thick Nord also opened that door with a spell.

[Grits]

Jensa has been checking things off of her to-do list between Riften and home (Windhelm). She cleaned out her packs looking for fire salts for Balimund and sold off a bunch of junk she’s been hauling around. Jensa has a lot of stamina and a horse mod, so she had accumulated quite a bit of stuff. After the clearout she still had a coral dragon claw and a bunch of scrolls from J’zargo. (As Dragonborn Jensa was invited to join the College of Winterhold without any silliness from Faralda.) So anyway she figured she would test the cat’s scrolls in the barrow while figuring out what Birna’s claw does.

The barrow is practically at Jensa’s front door, she couldn’t believe that she’d never investigated it before. She had a good time inside playing with what she took to be sea-ghosts. Jensa does not dwell much on history. She figured it was none of her business what happened with Yngol and his clan, and since the ghosts didn’t attack her they could be friends. Still she sneaked the whole way through chanting her Aura Whisper Shout so that she and Stenvar wouldn’t add their bones to the collection. Increasing her difficulty has helped her return to her cautious hunter roots.

They got all the way to the big door lock without opposition. The sea-ghosts bounced all around clearly excited to finally get through that door. Then Jensa who is kind of a dingbat realized that she didn’t have the claw. Stenvar turned out his pockets and he didn’t have the claw either. It was in her horse Brise’s saddlebag. That’s when I saw something new. The bouncy lights accompanied her all the way back to the door! They didn’t go outside, though. After Jensa and Stenvar fought the only undead creature in the barrow Jensa realized that she did not test one of J’zargo’s scrolls on it. In fact she did not actually have one of J’zargo’s scrolls in her inventory. They were still in the saddlebag.

Jensa took the back door out of the barrow and found herself in unexplored territory. She experienced one of those moments of manifest destiny that must have driven her forbearers to leave Atmora. In her case it led to a jog across ice fields and then snow fields and eventually she realized that it was getting cold and she was in the Velothi Mountains. She found the Dunmeth Pass from the Morrowind side.

Once she got back into Skyrim Stenvar found her, and surprisingly he had both horses with him. And then two dragons attacked while they were passing the farms outside Windhelm! It was an awesome fight. At the end a Dawnguard patrol (mod) joined in. After the second dragon went down they gathered around with the local farmers to view the bones. I hoped they would break into a kick line. It had been that kind of Jensa morning.