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

[mirocu]

Kahreem´s making progress!

[gpstr]

So, a bit burnt out on all the psychological complexities of playing Clive and all the fiddling about of trying to figure out my new character(s), I switched for a while to one of my favorite newer characters - Mu-teel the Argonian killer. That's exactly what she is - just that simply. She's not "evil" per se - in fact, if anything, she leans a bit toward "good" - she's just, more than anything else, let's call it "practical." If a thing needs killing, she kills it. Just like that.

And Mu-teel was in need of a new bow (she was using a fine steel one) and I had happened on a nice bow by Nicorishi that I thought would fit her. So she had to go loot a dungeon and find a bow. The bow was placed in Squandered Mine, south of Cheydinhal, so she heard a rumor of a great treasure in Squandered Mine, and off she went.

She got there in the evening and first found a safe place up the hill a ways to sleep, then went in the next morning. It's a pretty good dungeon all in all - bandits mostly (and I guess it's a part of the Vampirism Cure quest, but that's not pertinent to her game). She had a fairly easy time of it - she's a stealth fighter and freely switches between a bow, a short sword and destruction magic (whatever serves her purposes at the time) and the bandits just weren't ready to deal with somebody as efficient as she is. And the bow was... almost perfect.

I then spent about an hour fiddling with the textures - redoing the handgrip and the trim on it so it matched the rest of her gear better - then when I was satisfied, she made her way back to the IC. She intended to enchant it, but the best soul she had was a Common one, and it seemed a shame to waste that bow with an 800 point enchantment, so she set it aside for the moment, then cast about for something else to do. She's only level 7 so there's not a lot of chance of her finding a better soul, but it is at least possible. She was going to have to do some exploring and just hope. She had taken the quest to recover Garridan's Tears for S'drassa, and that seemed like a good opportunity to cover a lot of ground, since it would take her up by Bruma first, then all the way down to Leyawiin. So that was what she did next.

The trip up was pleasant enough and she arrived at the cave at midday. Getting through the cave was pretty easy - rats and wolves - but the guardian at the Glade itself was a definite challenge. She's fast, but since she uses a short sword, she had to get a bit too close to it for her own liking and it hurt her a lot the couple of times it hit her. But she eventually killed it, healed herself, then started hunting around for the Tears.

While she was recovering some health after her first attempt to find the tears, and thus her first exposure to that bitter cold, I remembered that she hadn't repaired her gear after the fight. That then led me to realize that she hadn't checked the charge on her enchantments either, and it was only THAT that led me to realize that she'd just killed a Frost Atronach with a weapon enchanted for Soul Trap. So I looked and, sure enough, she had a greater soul trapped in Azura's Star. So her hunt for a better soul was over just like that, and all that remained was to find the Tears and beat it back to the IC to warm up, and she's now parked in the Chironasium, while I figure out what she's going to name her new bow. Then she's going to head out to Leyawiin.

[Renee]

She's not "evil" per se - in fact, if anything, she leans a bit toward "good" - she's just, more than anything else, let's call it "practical." If a thing needs killing, she kills it. Just like that.

You always have some interesting twists with yours, like your orc who wants to be a magician. I'll never forget him from that Shirnk's Couch thread I started long ago.

I've done Garridan's Tears maybe 3x over the years. It's one of the only times I switch from 3rd person view to 1st person, while combat is going on. 1st makes it easier to find those tears.

I want to ask you (or anybody else) if you know of any good quest mods. I've already got David Brasher's FG Quests, D. Brasher's MG Quests, Repetition, Bounty Hunter, and a few others. Most of these are Fetch or "Go Kill" quests, but I'm always hungry for more, within reason, especially for RG3's game, because RG3 rarely does vanilla quests, most of hers are mod-added.

She also has some Kvatch Rising quest in her journal, but so far this particular one does not fit her RP.

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 29 2015, 02:10 PM

[gpstr]

Unfortunately, I don't know of any good quest mods per se, but I haven't really looked for any, so that doesn't mean much. The only one I've tried out is Kragenir's Death Quest, and much though I loved the peripheral stuff (especially the new rumors for lots of otherwise meaningless NPCs), I just couldn't stand the fetch quests.

The best mod quests I have in my game are things that are included with landscape or village mods. For instance, UL Eastern Peaks adds a few good quests, UL Brena River Ravine has one truly excellent one and Arthmoor's Vergayun village adds a couple of good ones.

And yeah, I guess my characters tend to be quirky. That's what keeps me interested. I can't really get into a character until I figure out some "hook" into their personality. When I'm just starting one out, I'm watching closely for what makes them different - what stands out about them. And since I'm constantly watching for things like that, I pick up oddities along the way.

For instance, Mu-teel is pious. I still don't know which deity she worships, or if she's just sort of broadly reverent or what. It's just that, early on, she walked past a wayshrine and I did a quick mental check to see what she thought about it and decided that she felt something - that wayshrines/shrines/gods/whatever are important to her. Over time, I'll sort out how, and maybe even some amount of why, but for now, that's just a part of her personality that I've come to know. And that's the whole process for me - just building them up little bits at a time like that, until I "get to know" the character. And since it's a sort of organic and haphazard process, I tend to end up with characters who are odd and complex, but make some sort of internal sense.

And speaking of Mu-teel... She enchanted her new bow with the soul from the Frost Atronach from the Glade - 12 points of Frost, 11 points of Shock and 10 points of Fire, so it uses the Frost shaders, plus Soul Trap. She named it Palam-ji (just a word that I made up - her sword is named Otum-va).

Mu-teel trying out the new bow.

Heading out toward Leyawiin, before she even got to the turnoff for the Yellow Road, she found a 40th nirnroot, so had enough for the last and strongest elixir. So she made a detour to Skingrad instead. She fully explored the area while she was killing time dealing with Glarthir, so she just loafed around the Two Sisters Lodge until the elixir was ready, then left town back to the east, heading toward the low road that comes out near the Inn of Ill Omen. She encountered a Troll at the top of the hill, just above Derelict Mine (I was surprised to see one there), but other than that, the trip was uneventful. She spent the night at the Halfway Inn (the road and the inn are from Roads of Cyrodiil), then continued on the next day. When she came out on the Green Road, she went south a ways until she came to the turnoff for the lower Niben bridge (Roads of Cyrodiil as well), then she cut across there to get to the Yellow Road. That took her through the bare beginnings of the Cropsford settlement, and she discovered Crestbridge Camp and the settlers, and agreed to deal with the Goblins for them. That went incredibly easy - she chose to start at the lair in the closest cave and luckily enough, the stolen Totem head was in that cave. She continued on after she recovered it and almost immediately encountered that tribe's shaman and killed her, and that was that. She didn't even bother with the rest of the goblins - they just milled around aimlessly after the shaman was dead, so there was no point. She just left and gave the good news to the settlers. The only problem was that she then had to travel all the way back to the IC to offload loot. So it was now three days since she'd left the IC to go to Leyawiin, and here she was, in the IC.

So the next morning, she set out for Leyawiin again. This time is was straightforward - she left the Imperial Isle by the south bridge, went east to the Yellow Road, then turned off south and just walked (and fought bandits and wolves and the occasional boar). She stopped early that day so she could explore the rivers a bit, and spent the night at the Imperial Bridge Inn. She made it into Leyawiin the next afternoon, after discovering and stopping by Nocturnal's Shrine. She delivered the Tears, then tracked down the Eye and delivered it to Nocturnal and collected her reward, and is now parked on the road nearby. I haven't sorted out yet if she's going to head back north or go back to Leyawiin and look into this Orc who thinks she's a knight she heard about.

[Renee]

Over time, I'll sort out how, and maybe even some amount of why, but for now, that's just a part of her personality that I've come to know. And that's the whole process for me - just building them up little bits at a time like that, until I "get to know" the character. And since it's a sort of organic and haphazard process, I tend to end up with characters who are odd and complex, but make some sort of internal sense.

I call this the 'snowball' effect. For me, it's like rolling a snowball through powdery snow. As it rolls along, it keeps collecting more snow over time. I roll slowly. But Not too slowly. If I go too slow, I might forget some of the ideas I've come up with (the snow melts).

I like having at least some ideas going. I don't need pages of backstory, but I do need to have some ideas. Never been able to just create a new character with absolutely no idea of what they're about.

That is neat though. I've done the stereotypical thing plenty of times (Nord warrior, or Altmer mage, for instance) because my games are mostly dead-is-dead, and I want to see them survive, of course.

Mu-teel's tail is incredibly thick. Holy [censored]! .... I enjoy reading her tales.

I've got Cropsford Revival in Renee & Saga's game (because some of my others did this quest long ago on PS3), but I haven't seen the results of this mod yet.

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 30 2015, 02:27 PM

[Grits]

Oh my gosh Renee, I love the way Kahreem finally “found” The Stranger!

gpstr, Clive’s Purification of the sanctuary was an entertaining read. I know what you mean about Ughoth being wholly and entirely a mage. That frost atronach soul was an excellent score for Mu-teel. I love how her armor protects her tail!

[gpstr]

That tail armor is one of the reasons I created Mu-teel. That's one of Andragorn's armors (his original Sotonhorian). He's done three or four now that include Argonian tail armor, which I always thought was a great idea, but I hadn't played an armor-wearing Argonian before.

I didn't spend a whole lot of time with Mu-teel last night - I was mostly fiddling with Elenin and trying to sort out her game. I did take Mu-teel back to Leyawiin, where she did go talk to the Count and agree to sort out the business with Mazoga. She really liked Mazoga - they've got similar attitudes And she's now parked at White Stallion Lodge, and... I'm not sure what she's going to do next. I think she's going to just explore a bit and see what's out in the swamp.

[Grits]

I was coaxed back to Cheydinhal today to wrap things up there and move on toward Bravil. I’m in Darnand’s game slowly finishing his Mages Guild recommendations with NPC Jerric carrying the loot and luggage. I always forget how young and shiny Jerric looks in Cyrodiil.

They cut across a meadow out of sheer enjoyment of the spring day, and they walked straight into an Ayleid ruin. I left them at the door. Darnand is rubbing his hands together over the artifacts he imagines might be inside. Jerric is probably thinking about the boar meat in his pack, still warm from Darnand’s fire spell. I suspect they will have a picnic before they go inside.

[Grits]

Darnand rolled up his enchanted map, almost smiling in anticipation. Down slope he could see white arches and columns winking at him through the trees. Deer grazed in the far meadow. He trusted their calm almost as much as he would a life detection spell. The spring sun had warmed his head all morning, but now he wanted his hood. Its enchantment would sharpen his mind, which had the effect of fortifying his magicka.

Jerric clanked up beside him and dropped his pack on the ground. “This is an excellent skitting opportunity,” declared the Nord. “Keep watch or summon something, will ya?” He strode into the bushes without awaiting a reply, unbuckling as he went.

Darnand snorted. As if I would become distracted by… Say, I thought that statue depicted an Aedric spirit. Could it in fact be a warrior queen? He headed down the hill, hastily summoning a skeleton to watch Jerric’s back.

A few hours later when Darnand’s bowels turned to water he regretted missing his turn in the bushes. Deep in the Ayleid ruin he had darted down a corridor to escape a horde of zombies, skeletons, and mummies, when he discovered the resident lich.

Battle raged at his back as Jerric and Jerric’s frost atronach Ishckrihk defended Darnand’s position where they thought he remained in the corridor. Before his eyes in the room beyond, the lich turned and smiled.

Darnand flung his hand forward and tore a hole into the Void. As he drew his daedroth through it his magicka joined its animus, giving it form and substance. The lich summoned some sort of wraith.

Darnand did not cast a shield spell, hoping that his defensive spells already in effect would hold through the fight. Instead he cast Weakness to Magicka at the lich, following it rapidly with Weakness to Fire. As his daedroth closed with the wraith, the lich lowered her staff at Darnand.

He gambled again, casting fire at the lich instead of dodging. His spell blossomed into a glorious blaze around her. The blast from her staff sank over him like the burden of all the ground overhead, rooting his feet to the floor. His arm dropped to his side under its own weight. Stendarr, no. A weakness curse!

A cry sounded at his back, accompanied by the sound of shattering ice. Has he fallen? The skin crawled over Darnand’s unprotected back. Something big charged down the corridor toward him from the rear, but Darnand couldn’t wrench his feet up to turn around and look. The lich raised her withered claw and cast at him.

Shock energy deafened and half-blinded him, and the pain was too great to ignore. Something shoved him to the left hard enough to slide his feet across the stone and wedge him into the corner. The air ripped open with another summoning. Then Darnand’s view was filled with ice and Jerric.

He isn’t wearing his helmet, thought Darnand. I wonder…He shook himself. By the Nine, shock spells render one stupid.

Darnand readied his staff and sent fire blasts at the lich whenever he could get a clear shot. He spent his magicka casting healing spells at Jerric’s back. The Nord stayed right in front of him even after their summonings fell, casting shock spells rather than charging at the lich. Darnand lost track of the course of events in the hurricane of magicka.

Finally the lich fell. Her staff clattered to the floor.

Darnand and Jerric stood where they had fought, weapons still at the ready. Darnand thought that dripping sound might be their blood.

“My friend,” Darnand said to Jerric’s back, “once again your steadfast defense has saved my life. Though you must have wished to charge forward and shatter the lich with your blade, instead you demonstrated restraint and held by my side. Er, that is you held your position in front of me. The many times I have accused you of reckless impulse pluck at my conscience. Forgive me, my friend. I have misjudged you.”

“Uh,” Jerric said over his shoulder. He still faced into the room. “Yeah. About that… I, uh, can’t move my feet.”

[Acadian]

Renee – Another adventure with the Wine Weet Bandit as he tries to get his forgery done while drinking Anvil dry.

Gpstr – Love the new bow! Any bow mod by the master Nicoroshi is a keeper.

Grits – How delightful to read another Darnand and Jerric adventure. I certainly remember Jerric’s frosty pal Itchicreek. Hmm, Darnand really needs to name that Daedroth – perhaps Daedalus? Darn, sounds like that lich was able to whack Jerric with a ‘concrete’s got your boot’ spell.

[Lopov]

@gpstr - Mu-Teel chose very good names for her weapons, they fit the Argonian.

@Grits - great description of the battle with the lich. Jerric appeared just in time but the side effect of the fight seem to be that his foot got stuck.

[ghastley]

Don't you just hate the Staff of Burden? It gets you just about every time, and it's useless as loot, because your enemies are never even close to being encumbered. Still, it's probably one of the least painful offensive spells anyone can cast at you.

Wasn't sure if the "something big" was Jerric or his cool friend, but since they both turned up, it didn't matter in the end.

[Grits]

I wasn’t sure what was coming up behind Darnand when it happened! That was as scared as I’ve ever been in a video game. I really thought Darnand was going to die, and while I would certainly reload, such an event is not without consequences. He was born under the Apprentice so it doesn’t take many shock spells to end him.

I was astonished when it seemed that follower Jerric had also been pinned in place by the lich’s staff, since I’ve found Burden to be pretty useless against NPCs. After the fight it made more sense. It was the rare version of the Staff of Weakness, which I’ve never seen before and had to look up to make sure some mod wasn’t adding enchanted loot to my game.

Darnand had been considering letting Jerric go back to Skyrim while he finished his Mages Guild business, since Jerric has been spending his days in the guild halls while Darnand does his quests. Now he’s definitely staying. They’re headed to Leyawiin, but it’s taking a long time since Darnand can’t resist poking around in the Ayleid ruins they pass.

[Acadian]

Ahah! So it was a pesky staff, not the Ayleid Concrete monster.

I too have found burden and drain strength pretty useless against NPCs because they carry so little. One of Buffy’s fun things is to save the game, then pop into Umbra’s dungeon to try differing ways to take her sword without hurting her. We figured with all that heavy armor that rooting her in place via burden or drain strength might work. But nooooo as Buffy painfully found out. Umbra’s a master of heavy armor so it weighs nothing on her and her blade weighs nothing since it’s considered a quest item. We’ve found over the years that the very best way to ‘screw’ with an NPC without hurting them is drain speed. Buffy thinks of it as slowing their mind down to that of an empty soul gem, which explains why it ‘resets’ their AI and makes them forget they were just ‘attacked’. But our homemade quest of ‘take Umbra’s sword without hurting her’ is so much fun that we always reload the save from before entering the dungeon so we can do it again. And again.

Now, the times we have played it a little beyond that, we pretend that removing the sword from Umbra lifts the ‘curse’ and returns her to being nice Lenwin from Pells Gate. Buffy then deposits the sword in some Daedric lava somewhere to destroy it. Oh, here’s an ancient screenshot showing Umbra Lenwin without her helm.

[mirocu]

Oooh!! That´s the beautiful and wonderful Buffy as I remember her!

Thanks for posting it, Acadian!

[gpstr]

Jumping around a bit lately.

Mu-teel spent a while wandering Blackwood and dungeon-diving. A lot of necromancers out there, which really doesn't mean anything to her either way, except that they're easy to sneak kill and don't have much for loot. Now she's back in Leyawiin and at loose ends. She might go a bit further north and investigate some of the ruins up there.

Then I spent some time with Belladonna (and posted some pics from that on the screenshots thread). She was on her way out to recover the Dwemer artifacts for Bothiel, but went by way of Chorrol and got caught up in reclaiming Weatherleah for the Jemanes. Once that was dealt with, she continued out into the West Weald and is currently out there in the middle of nowhere.

Then I spent a little while with my new-ish Khajiit, C'mala. I haven't really gotten to know her yet, so we just wandered around the Imperial Isle. She's looking to be some sort of stealth spellsword, and she seems a bit quiet. She might have a dark secret.

Then I spent some time with Ughoth the Orc mage. He had recently been to Bruma to try to find out why Jeanne had fallen out of contact with the AU, and was pretty shaken up by that. The Archmage told him they needed a few days to sort things out, which was fine with him, since he could use a few days himself. He went back to Frostcrag, then teleported down to Bravil to look into some rumors he'd heard there. First he talked to Ursanne Loche and set about trying to track down her husband Aleron, which didn't work out so well, though at least he did settle the matter, and most decisively. Then he checked into the ghost that was rumored to appear at Bawmwatch Camp and that went quite well - he was relieved to be able to accomplish some unquestionable good. Then he spent a while exploring the river valleys, and is making his way back, on foot, to the IC, to check in at the AU and see what they've decided to do next.

And then I spent a while with Elenin the new Altmer, in the testinghall, just trying on stuff and thinking. I think I"m starting to get an idea for her.

[Renee]

Yes, you have been jumping around. That's quite a lot of jumping, in fact. I used to jump around like this with characters when I was on PS3, especially. I am curious about Elenin, too.

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

Wowwwww crazy story there about Darnand & Jerric! Yeesh! I don't see any lichs in any of my games, (knock on plastic). Chances are RG3 will get there first, since her game uses all 7 Majors.

Anyways, that was a thrill to read

This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 2 2015, 10:12 PM

[Lopov]

Good to see Buffy and Lenwin friendly and on the road. How very creative about "lifting her curse" and freeing her from hiding in Vindasel until her death.

[Renee]

double-post

This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 5 2015, 02:58 AM

[Renee]

Arrgh! Sorry!

I wrote this back in October. There is no in-game date on it, very unusual for me to slack on this info. Oh well. I am guessing this would be some time in Frostfall or Sun's Dusk of the 4th Era / Year 20, in RG3's world.

Anyways, this story is called The Bathhouse. It takes place inside the spa which gets added to the Market District by Better Cities.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

"What do you need ... Champion?" .... "How can I assist you ... Champion?"

"Ugh. Spare it, I cannot take any more," says Renee Gade III to her Nord friend Felrika. "I mean, can you believe it? The way they carry on? .. You'd think I was the Hero of Kvatch, Savior of Bruma, defeater of Umaril, and Champion of Cyrodiil, all rolled into one. All I have done is won a few fights in the Arena, and they hail me like I am virtually the Tenth Divine."

Felrika the Nord has a laugh at that one. "So tell me... Champion....what are your plans for today?"

The two ladies, Renee and Felrika, had decided to spend some time relaxing, for a change. While adventuring, they had found themselves in a sort of niche when compared to others. They both love alcohol, and both love beating enemies with their giant weapons, but here in town, they are now exploring some other avenues of behavior. Life isn't all about gore, gold, and glory after all.

They had visited Palonira's place, where Renee bought herself an expensive new dress, a first for her. Not buying a dress, but spending so much gold on one.* She had never paid so much for an article of clothing, which has no protective properties, and might even be a burden during any sort of combat. But being in Cyrodiil these past three months? She was earning more gold than she had ever seen up in Skyrim.

And now they are here, located in the Market District, where they've decided to go for a warm soak in the Market's bath house. Bathing is a new thing for Renee, something she had become somewhat obsessed with, if she could spare the time. Not only does she find this activity relaxing, Haili (her elven mage follower) had explained to her that bathing is a good way to avoid disease. And during her last few weeks here in Cyrodiil, Renee had indeed become quite sick a few times, as she and her posse adventured around.

"I have been thinking, Fel."

"What's that?"

"I am thinking of doing another fight. In the Arena." Renee shrugs. "Not to increase my newfound 'fame', but for the thrill of it. You know, to really test my skills of combat, in a fixed and standard setting."

"My adventures pale in comparison to yours. So what's next, Conquestor of Skyrim? .. Or how about Usurper of all Tamriel? "

"Mmm kay, just keep carrying on like that, Felrika. Keep it up. Really a funny one, you are."

It is good to be here, Renee thinks, here in the safest town of all. Losing one of her companions (Cresha, a Khajiiti archer) had not been very fun. The moment had taken Renee by surprise; because after having Cresha around for just a few weeks, she had already found herself getting used to the fur-licker. Renee thinks back to when she had first hired Cresha. Had it been in Cheydinhal? ... she thinks so. Cresha and Haili had been hired on the same day, she thinks, but it's hard to be sure. It's all a big blur of alcohol, questing, delving, and more alcohol. Renee's initial thoughts on Cresha had been bland. She wanted an archer to help assist during battle from longer distances, but she had no idea how truly good the Khajiit would turn out to be. And she could pick locks, which saved Renee from bashing up her precious weapons on stubborn chests.

Sadly though, Cresha had fallen. And with her falling, Renee had gone into a funk. She couldn't go back to delving, not just now, anyways. She needed some time to get away from all that, or so she thought.

Now, soaking in warm water, Gabrielle nowhere to be seen, and Felrka teasing her on, Miss Gade begins to feel that old stirring again. Like she cannot wait to grab her sword of silver, and right some wrongs. The Arena seems the perfect place to do this. One against another, to the death. Zero chance of losing one of her friends in there, right?

"Alright Fel, soaking time is over. Come on. Let us go."

"It's ... it's YOU! ... the Hero of--"

"Oh SHUT UP."




This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 5 2015, 02:58 AM