Yeah this one always hated that.

@Renee - the guards were indeed popping out from everywhere. Until then I didn't realize how well protected Windhelm is.

@Acadian - no ring of resist cold yet but he always has his magical fur.

__

Mixwater Mill, Eastmarch, 4€201

“Bock bock bock bock bock,” said the first chicken.

“Bock bock!” agreed the second one.

“Meow meow, girls,” Sheshko returned the greeting.

Chickens let out a few more bocks before each of them went their own way, still distrustful of the furry being that walked among them. It could be a disguised fox walking on two legs after all.

Sheshko stretched his arms and yawned. He slept like a king. Not that he knew how kings sleep but still. He imagined them sleeping in spacious double beds, wearing silk pajamas, rolls of fat bunched under their chins, royally snoring.

Sheshko’s bed wasn’t spacious and it wasn’t double either, it was a standard stiff nordic bed but it felt like a royal one. Dust and bedbugs? He didn’t mind them at all. He didn’t wear silk pajamas either, instead he was still wearing Belyn Hlaalu’s blue-yellow clothes.

Sheshko liked places with cobwebs because it meant that nobody frequents them and the house which he spent the night in, was just perfect. It was weeks since anyone set a foot inside and that was just how he liked it.

The owner of the mill, a middle-aged Imperial lady called Gilfre, didn’t mind him staying there though she was a bit too insistent on chopping wood. Sure, this one could chop some wood, why not, maybe earn a few honest septims for a change.

But Sheshko knew he won’t stay at the mill for long. Gilfre was kind so Sheshko decided not to rob her but he preferred places with many pockets. Camps, villages, towns,…anything as long as there were pockets to pick and pranks to pull.

“Bock bock bock bock!” alarmingly crowed the first chicken as Sheshko picked up a chopping axe.

“Bock bock bock!” the second chicken calmed down the first one.

“No worries, girls, this one won’t chop you, this one is just after some wood.”

Relaxed, chickens went their own ways. Perhaps the furry being wasn’t harmful after all.

Sheshko is so neat! He is truly one with the chickens - even though they don't have pockets to pick.

"bock bock bock"... So chickens speak normally in your gameworld. I wonder what sheep say?

Interesting that you imagine kings sleeping in silk pajamas too. In fact, I imagine even tax collectors might do this at times.

Wonder if this one's going to join Thieves Guild. Perhaps not though, huh?

@Acadian - you read Sheshko's thoughts, he indeed sneaked up on a chicken and wanted to check if some eggs can be stolen.

@Renee - at least for now TG is out of question, especially because of beginning quests where you have to bully people. I could see him doing later quests but he's definitely not "tough" enough to bully anyone, neither it's something what he'd do.

__

“Riften? Why not? To Riften this one goes!”

Sheshko’s journey to Riften was far from uneventful. First he lost his clothes. Well, not his, they belonged to Belyn Hlaalu but still, he considered them as his own. Tossing them aside, Sheshko refreshed himself in clear water of Clearspring Tarn but when he wanted to get dressed again, clothes were gone! This one had no idea where did his clothes go. But why would he worry because of such bagatelle? Surely he would find some clothes on way to Riften.

As it happened, he indeed found some clothes though not on way to Riften but in the exterior part of Riften. It didn’t feel right to steal from another beast but surely Wujeeta from Riften’s fishery didn’t need two tunics at once. Besides, he paid off his debt by giving her a healing potion to help with her skooma addiction.

But as Sheshko actually wanted to enter Riften, a muscular youth stopped him.

“Hold on. Riff raff like you isn’t allowed in Riften,” he announced.

“Oh? Then why is this town called Riften if riff raff isn’t allowed?” grinned Sheshko.

“Very funny. My job is to tell your kind to turn around and leave. You aren’t welcome in Riften or in any other place in Skyrim. Now get lost.”

“Just please permit this Khajiit one more question before he departs? If someone commits a crime in your hold, where do you take them?”

“To prison of course. What a silly question.”

“And the prison is inside the town’s walls?” enquired Sheshko.

“Of course. Where else would it be?” The guard was getting annoyed of the Khajiit.

“Oh. That’s good. Yes, that’s good. In this case…”

Sheshko picked up a broom leaning against Riften’s fishery. The broom wasn’t his and guards knew perfectly well that if this particular broom gets stolen by any chance, the bounty of four septims is implied upon the criminal.

“You have committed crimes against Skyrim and her people. What say you in your defense?” the guard nearest to the scene of crime approached Sheshko.

“This one submits, this one submits immediately. Will you now take this one to the prison?”

“You’re smarter than you look. Follow me. And no sudden moves.”

And so Sheshko entered Riften.

In nothing but the fur he was born with, Sheshko sweeps into Riften on a stolen broom! Before long, all the guards will know him and he will have his own jail cell in every hold - much like Renee's Kahreem of Weet!

This part...





I know you're switching to Rattler pretty soon, but I hope Shesko and even Lucius Caro make a return as well.

@Acadian - what a team Sheshko and Kahreem would make if they were born in about the same time.

@Renee - if Sheshko was like Sarah Phimm, he could fly to Riften on a broom. No worries, though, Sheshko's not going anywhere, in fact I think that he won't leave Riften for a long time so there will be more stories and pics of his catscapades.

I will recreate Lucius at some point, that is when I'll feel like playing Skyrim's MQ again. Probably not this winter, though.

And I will rarely post about Rattler because I know that his stories & pics were too much for some to bear. Not sure why, though.

__


Today's short story for the time being concludes Forrah's and Mjoll's adventures.

Lambert De Orayana smiled. He was reading another letter from his daughter Forrah, this one made from proper paper and written with a black instead of a magical ink. She wrote about her adventures on Solstheim and how she revealed a scheme of Morag Tong assassins against the Councilor of Raven Rock. In return, she was granted a citizenship on the island and a manor to own. He was proud on her, but the following words made him even more pleased….

“…I have lots of chores to do around my new manor so I will put my mace down for a while. I know you will be pleased to hear this. I think I am going to just relax for some time. Raven Rock has changed for good but I think we can make it an even more prosperous place. I have amassed quite a fortune on my travels and I intend to share it with the community. In the end you were right – there’s a tiny bit of politician in your daughter too. I hope you will visit me one day, father.”

Forrah didn’t forget to mention her friend Mjoll the Lioness either…

“…I don’t live entirely alone on Solstheim, there’s a friend from Riften with me – Mjoll the Lioness. She is a seasoned adventurer and has survived many battles. But I can sense that Mjoll is beginning to miss Skyrim, it is her homeland after all and I cannot blame her. I think she will return to Riften soon. But me – I intend to stay up here for a while.”

Aw, is that the end of Forrah's tale? That's cool. I am not too saddened, it's got a good ending.

I wonder if Mjoll also wrote a letter though? I'm sure it would have plenty of recycled topics on it, if so.



Dang! ... just kidding. I know where you stay though. I had all these plans for my Skyrim Season this winter, including the conclusion of Bjorn's tale, getting back to Lord Haaf-Mersey for awhile (just for some Xbox fun), reintroducing Mycharonna, and starting a brand-new guy (a Nord) who would do the Main Quest & Civil War, but from the Stormcloak side.

I am confident I'll get to some sort of conclusion with Bjorn. Head of Thieves Guild, most likely. Mycharonna's birthday is in two or three days (I think) so she'll be coming back for that. Haaf-Mersey can be gamed with at any time... but my Nord Storncloak guy might still have to sit out until this upcoming fall. Or maybe I'll be able to just create the guy at the end of April, or in May sometime, before summer begins to kick in.

It's not a definite end but it's definitely the end for this winter. When I'll continue her tale, I'll advance time ahead for a few months, maybe even years, to make it look like she's been on Solstheim for a while.

So Mycharonna is this time coming back on PC?

I'm so glad that Forrah is settling in Raven Rock for now. I was hoping she'd get that manor, and she seems quite happy there!

@Acadian - thank you! Forrah is indeed happy at the manor. She'd prefer it with some windows, though.

__

Sheshko managed to escape out of Riften jail and evaded all guards that were after him! Screenies can be seen in the Screenshot thread but I didn't expect that he'll be successful. Although he only wanted to meet other prisoners and return to his cell later on, the patrolling guard didn't have mercy when she saw spotted him out of his cell! After making it to Riften streets, Sheshko jumped down to the canal and correctly assumed that guards won't jump after him. He found a safe shelter in the Beggar's Row and surprisingly the guards didn't come after him. After getting drunk with some local addict, Sheshko is currently sleeping like a king on a hay pile in the Beggar's row.

*Almost each time he leveled up, I increased his stamina so now he can outsprint guards with ease.

**I use Crime Decay mod which gradually lowers your bounty if you escape from prison. Still, because Sheshko acquired a large bounty, he would need to spend a lot of time hiding down in the Beggar's row to clear his name and I doubt he'll be able to stay in one place for so long. But let's wait and see.

Fabulous shots on the other thread. Sheshko is certainly learning his way around and making himself at home in Riften.

He's doing it the hard way too!

I keep thinking of that show which was on when I was a kid. I coulda swore there was a TV show called That Darn Cat. No, it was a movie!. Heh. That's what Shesko is .. That Darn Khajiit!

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

Turdas, 9:38 AM, 3rd of Evening Star

Days Passed: 473

Lord Haaf-Mersey returns to Lakeview Manor, stays the night, and then decides to head back to Castle Dawnguard, where he'll get paid for ridding a vampire menace in Brittleshin Pass, and pick up some new job, no doubt. Before leaving his home, he dismisses Erandur, and can't decide if he wants to bring Mjoll the Lioness, or Rayya the Overkiller with him.

He finally decides on Mjoll, his faithful wife. It's been ages since she's been anywhere other than the Falkreath area. Lucia will be sad to miss her "mom", but she'll get over it.

Once Haaf-Mersey and his wife are outside though, she starts doing her "moonwalk" thing (glitch), and so it's obvious she won't make a good traveling partner. Upon going back inside to dismiss Mjoll, Rayya was right there. "I AM YOUR SWORD AND YOUR SHIELD, THANE!" she virtually shouted. Okay, okay, damn... sure you can come along instead.

@Acadian - one has to get familiar with the town he's going to spend his time in. Knowing its streets, narrows alleyways and possible hideouts might come in handy for someone like Sheshko.

@Renee - I imagine that citizens of Riften will often call him that darn Khajiit.

Lol, Haaf-Mersey wanted to take Mjoll on a journey but changed his mind as soon as they stepped outside. Fortunately, Rayya is more willing.

__

In Skyrim not even for one full day, yet Rattler already left behind a blood trail. First he slaughtered soldiers of the Morrowind-Skyrim border outpost - he might have spared them but one of them called him "an immigrant" and then suddenly all of them wanted his head. Then again, perhaps he might not spare them even if they didn't call him "an immigrant". All this battling made him hungry so he had a few bites of some soldier's leg.

His next victim was some High Elf, traveling on a fine horse. After Rattler was done with the elf, he wanted to grab his horse but the stupid beast already ran away. Not a big problem, he was used to walking anyway.

His last victims were bandits of the Broken Helm Hollow and just like soldiers, they brought it on themselves. Rattler was enjoying some wolf's intestines underneath the bridge east of Riften when two Broken Helm archers attacked him from far above. In return he paid them a visit and finished them off. One of them, some young woman, tasted quite fine.

Renee – Nice to see LHM out and about. Mjoll the Motormouth? – yes. Mjoll the Moonwalker? – Haven’t seen that glitch (happily). Mjoll is strong and can carry a good deal; hopefully, Rayya will be able to carry his burdens.

Lopov – Eeep! Rattler’s bringing his bloody buffet style to Skyrim!

Cripes. Yuck. I guess Mych is no better really. Something about a human doing this though, instead of a vampire.



GOOD for that horse.


Okay, I'm done. That's enough. Phew. Now for the pics (be brave, Reneegator).

A character roaming Skyrim killing and cannibalizing people left and right like they're walking, defenseless buffets?????? Hoo boy, that takes me back to Ye Olde Days, when I RP'd a similar guy. I wonder what he would think if he meets that delightful little dragoness in Markarth's crypts. Would Rattler strike an alliance of appetites with her and her ... patron, I wonder? My cannibal sure did.

So... here I am.

I'm not sure how many of the readers here saw any of my posts on the Beth forums about this game - I was very active, and very critical, through the development phase, and it all culminated in my decision, in about August of '11, to simply not give Beth my money in exchange for what I was certain was going to be an unsatisfactory product. So, at least up until last week, I hadn't played this at all.

The problem - my brother loves this game, and kept on me to play it. I kept telling him that I had taken a stance - Beth released a product that did not satisfy my desires, therefore I was not going to give them my money in exchange for that product. That's the way the system is supposed to work. He kept offering to buy a copy himself, but I refused that too, since it would amount to the same thing - Beth profiting from offering a product that wasn't satisfactory to me. So, this last Christmas, he gave me his copy of the Legendary Edition, since he's playing the Special Edition. His reasoning was that it was either that or his copy of the Legendary Edition just sat on a shelf collecting dust, and I couldn't object, right? And he was right - I couldn't object.

So...

I kept putting it off, but finally installed it last week.

Short version - on topic for this thread - I'm actually (already) juggling two characters - a Breton spellsword named Simon and a Redguard greatsword fighter named Kazir. I started Simon first, and I expected him to be a throwaway character, and I'm still not sure if he's going to last. He is starting to actually demonstrate at least a bit of personality, but mostly he's just an empty shell that ran around and did stuff while I got some sort of grip on the game mechanics. He's the one I played most recently though. He's level 18 at the moment, IIRC, and he just returned to Whiterun after a really hairy battle with Red Eagle. Simon's not much of a fighter really, and Red Eagle is. Luckily enough though, he's currently traveling with Annekke (one of the things that does impress me in this game is the follower mechanics - I've never liked followers in any of the others, since they're so often more trouble than they're worth, but I've really come to appreciate them), so while Simon focused on Red Eagle, she handled the skeletons. Even with that, and with an Elven shield with a resist fire enchantment, it was a helluva fight.

He was actually on his way to Markarth, but he got sidetracked looking for Hjalti's sword, which led him to Red Eagle's sword (he had that quest but wasn't actively pursuing it), which led him to Red Eagle himself.

Ah - he also recently finished Sanguine's quest, which was amusing. I didn't see that coming, but in hindsight I should have.

Kazir is just knocking around the area around Whiterun so far. He's... I don't remember right off - about level 8 or so - and is already a much better fighter than Simon. I have no idea how many times Simon has died now, but I'd guess at least a couple of dozen. Kazir, on the other hand, hasn't died at all.

And I'm already toying with the idea of a pure mage, but I haven't worked out any of the details yet.

And I'm going to drone on for a bit about my impressions of the game in general, but since it's off topic and I've already droned on long enough for most people, I'll spoiler all that.

Yes, Skyrim lacks some common RPG elements found in earlier games, and yes, you were right to protest this, gpster. That being said though, Skyrim is far from unsatisfactory, in my opinion, and that's without mods. WITH mods, you can basically add all the things that are missing from earlier games, so you really have no more excuse, sir.

Me personally, I find that I can RP males more effectively in Skyrim than I can in Oblivion. And it mostly comes down to facial hair. It's because I can create the exact guy I'm looking for in Skyrim, including some manly-looking men. My crusader guy has huge muttonchop sideburns, for instance, my evil-ish spellsword has one of those sadistic-looking mini-beards, my ruffian who did Thieves Guild has a huge, Hells' Angels looking beard. And so on.

Sounds like you are enjoying it in your own way though, gpster. : There you go.

Welcome to Skyland. I noticed many of the same things you did when going from Oblivion to Skyrim. Especially the muted color palette. I find I like the system of sliders they used for making faces better than the wild free-for-all of Oblivion. It is a lot easier to make a good looking character. While in Oblivion it was darn right difficult to do so. Given what a perfectionist I am, I appreciated it a lot.

Skyrim also gave me Persephone, who is probably the character nearest and dearest my heart. I have replayed her multiple times in her home game, and she has migrated to Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Neverwinter Nights, Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, and even Links386.

I agree, and I think that not including a face randomizer was a bad idea. Though faces generated in Oblivion weren't always pretty, they could even be horrible at times, but with time you were given a good template that was easy to work on. I also don't like working with forced presets (like forced eyes, noses, mouths...) - I prefer to edit these things on my own. TBH I find most vanilla mouths and noses horrible. I found some mods with time that make creating a distinctive character easier, though. What I wrote, mostly holds true for men IMO - women are easier to create for me, not that I had many women in Skyrim.


In Rattler's opinion, snow looks much better in white & red color.


Hey, he didn't intend to eat it, he just wanted a transportation to Riften. At least he didn't intend to eat it right away.


Hard to say. Chaotic evil by alignment, Rattler doesn't perform well in any kind of groups. His 'projection' in the Capital Wasteland worked with slavers but even they got afraid of him after a while and betrayed him.

__

I The beast comes to town

Rattler said “Stand aside!” but guards at Riften south gate laughed at him.

Rattler said “I’ll be back. And you won’t like it when I’ll be back,” but Riften guards dismissed his threats as hollow.

Guards didn’t know that when Rattler threats, you better run and hide. Because now both guards were dead, their arrow-pierced bodies hidden behind Riften walls. And Rattler was the first man after a long time to enter Riften through the south gate which was normally locked for travelers.

Now there's Rattler just doing his civic duty of helping to open a long closed gate so the fine folks of Riften can come and go more easily - free from the hindering of corrupt guards. How kind!

Guess those two guards will never comment about Rattler crying about "stolen sweet rolls," eh?

Just now got back online after two days of spotty weather and a spotty satellite connection...

So, why do all men in Skyrim have stumpy legs?

It's not that bad with Nords or Redguards or some of the others, but it looks really out of place on my new Altmer mage.

Oh yeah - I have a new Altmer mage - Hestil. I also have a new Dunmer spellsword - Satra Zoval. Simon the Breton was supposed to be a spellsword, but since I didn't have a good enough grasp on how combat works, he ended up more of a pure melee fighter, of necessity.

Combat's sort of odd in this game. I can see how it appeals to some people much more than Oblivion's. I'm sort of surprised though that I haven't seen more people make a point of their preference for Oblivion's.

Combat in Skyrim is much more visceral, but it's also much easier. Timing and range aren't as important as they are in Oblivion, since so much of combat is just doing a power attack and watching the kill shot animation play out. I finally figured out that that's why I was having such a hard time keeping Simon alive, and I figured it out by playing Kazir for a while. With Simon, I'd been trying to fight basically the same way I would in Oblivion - moving around, swinging, dodging, blocking, looking for an opening, swinging... And he kept dying.

I tried fighting with Kazir the way I would normally with a claymore fighter in Oblivion, but that even more obviously didn't work. He couldn't even move fast enough to get in and out of range, so all the rest of it was hopeless. So, pretty much because there was nothing else he could do (and because there was a hint in the fact that greatswords in Skyrim do much more base damage than claymores in Obivion), I started doing power attacks, and he turned into a beast. So then I went back to Simon, gave him an off-hand sword to match the one he was already using and started doing power attacks with him, and he turned into even more of a beast.

But I already sort of miss Oblivion's combat. I miss having more control of the character. I miss that dance with a claymore - moving in and out and around, keeping just outside of the opponent's range and stepping in just long enough to get off a swing, then ducking back out before the counterattack. Yeah, there's something viscerally appealing about Kazir cutting the legs out from under an opponent, but I didn't do that - I just held down the mouse button and watched as it happened on its own, and that's just sort of disappointing.

That's sort of an odd thing too, and always has been. In pursuit of roleplaying, I'm very conscious of the fact that I'm not the character - that I'm just an observer and the character is the one living a life in Tamriel. But at the same time, I really enjoy the combat - the test of my skills that it provides. And I'm sort of disappointed that Skyrim doesn't test my skills anywhere near as much. But at the same time, from a pure roleplaying perspective, shouldn't that actually be better? It should be more of a test of the character's skills than my own. But somehow it's just not as satisfying.

Anyway...

Simon (who's grown a last name now - Duchesne), is in Markarth, returning, for the first time since his escape from the mines, after tying up some loose ends in Whiterun. He's still traveling with Annekke, and I still love it when a fight's over and he looks at her and she's got that bemused half smile on her face.

Kazir is also in Markarth, though he's not clear on that right at the moment, since he just stepped out the door of the Temple of Dibella after waking up there with a hangover and no memory. He's also a recent addition to the Companions, which seems to suit him well.

Hestil - the Altmer mage - is in Whiterun, but about ready to do something else. I parked him when I wasn't quite sure what that something else was - I just know he's itching to get moving.

Magic's interesting in this game. It's really not like "magic" per se - it's more like another weapon type. It plays pretty much the same way - point the character at the enemy and hold down one (or both) attack buttons and watch as the game does whatever it does. The lack of armor doesn't appear to be as much of an issue as it was in Oblivion, or at least as far as melee fighters go. They can't even really get close enough to Hestil to do any damage. Archers are another story though.

Satra the new Dunmer came about because I still wanted to play a battlemage, but Simon had turned into a dual-wielding dervish. It's really the same playstyle I had in mind for Simon - soften 'em up with spells and finish 'em off with a blade - but I didn't know enough about how combat works then to keep Simon alive that way. I'm not sure that I do now, but I'll find out. At least he hasn't died yet, which already puts him way ahead of Simon.

He just arrived in Whiterun and hasn't even met the Jarl yet.

And I'm already planning a pure stealth character who'll dual wield daggers - Bosmer maybe. And at least one heavy armor character - all three of my fighters so far are light armor. And I want to see dual wielded war axes. And I need to experiment with warhammers. And I haven't done any thievery, other than the missive at the Battle-Born's. I don't even have any female characters yet - I don't feel like I have a good enough grip on the roleplaying ins and outs yet.

Oh, and I turned off the music. That's something I did a long time ago in Oblivion, at first mostly to get rid of the battle music radar, but I found it really helped me stay immersed in Tamriel to not have any sounds that didn't actually exist there. I wanted to spend at least a while listening to Skyrim's music, but I lost interest. There was one pretty good theme that I heard mostly in inns, but the rest of it was pretty forgettable. Well - except for one standout outdoor theme that sounded truly great - in Morrowind.



I'm still pretty much unmodded, though most of that's because I haven't even been online in almost three days. Now that I'm back, I'm not quite sure where I'm going to go first. Maybe see if I can set it up so that Hestil at least doesn't walk like a gorilla.



The facial hair is nice - it really made the difference with Satra in particular - that sparse, mustache-less goatee adds just enough scruff to him to really drive home his personality.




Every time I come out of the game, everything looks greenish, since my eyes have grown so accustomed to not seeing that part of the spectrum.

I haven't decided how I feel about the sliders and relatively narrow range of adjustments yet. It is nice to be able to make a good-looking character without having to spend a half hour (or more) randomizing faces, but I already miss happening on some really fascinating face through randomization. I would've never gotten Elenin, for instance, if it wasn't for Oblivion's facegen.



Mouths in particular. I've already discovered that that pretty much comes down to picking the mouth that's least objectionable - I rarely see one on a character that actually looks good. Noses don't seem quite so bad - so far at least I've been able to find one that actually looked about right for each of my characters. I'd like to be able to tweak them a bit, but at least they're close enough to what I'd prefer. So far.

Boy I love the absence of neck seams though.

They do? I haven't noticed. Uh oh.... hope this doesn't ruin the game for me now... I'm really enjoying gaming with my crusader guy on Xbox lately. He's a Breton though, and you specified Altmer. The only Altmer male I've ever gamed with mostly wore robes, so problem solved.

I've actually found combat in Oblivion to be easier overall, so go figure. *shrugs* And this is with default difficulty in both games. I used to think this was because I had a habit of nerfing the way the game levels upwards (on consoles, I would choose Majors so that the game levels up slowly), but even on PC, in a game in which my main character uses her Majors more often, I find Skyrim's combat more difficult.

And if we compare vanilla Skyrim (on Xbox 360 / no mods) to modded Skyrim, I find vanilla Skyrim more difficult, although I admit this is because on PC I often put my characters into enemy Factions, or give them extra followers, etc. On Xbox, we can only have one follower at a time, and there's no console to AddFactionRank with.



Me personally, I don't have a preference.


Finally, something we can all agree on.

You can still dance in and out of range with a claymore in Skyrim. I do it all the time with Persephone. Watch her first fight here. She never gets touched. The secret in Skyrim is not to power attack. It is to use the bash. You can bash even without a shield. If you time it right, it will stop your opponent's attack, with you taking no damage. Then you can follow up with a strike while they are open. It is all about finding the timing to not only move into striking range and back out again, but also to move in closer to bash. Just practice more.

There is also a perk in the Block tree at a skill level of 30. I forget what it is called, but it slows down time whenever your opponent tries to make a power attack. This is one of the most powerful perks in the game. It completely changes melee combat. You can see Persephone making use of it in the vid above.

Cooool that was fun to watch, SR! I'm going to watch that a few times over, I like seeing how others (whom I know) like to approach their gaming.

-----------

Sundas, 6:22 PM, Evening Star 13, 4th Era 202

Lord Haaf-Mersey and his current follower, a female elf named Belevar, just got to Valtheim Towers. No enemies are here; they've been taken care of days ago. So there was no huge, epic fight, but the lord and his follower had a bit of disagreement. Haaf-Mersey wants to stay here, because he just read The Firmament. This book describes how it's possible to see which Starsign each month pertains to, as such...

When the sun rises near one of the constellations, it is that constellation's season.

As the pair walked by Valtheim, with Whiterun in the distance, Haaf-Mersey noticed the sun was going down exactly where Dragonsreach is. Which means Dragonsreach is exactly to the west, from the vantage point that he had on the road, anway. Is there a way to tell which constellation lies exactly to the east?

And so began the disagreement. Because he wants to stay in Valtheim all night, stargazing, while Belevar is eager to just get to Whiterun, where it's warm and comfortable. It's her first time away from Castle Dawnguard in a long time, so she's eager to see Whiterun's nightlife.

In the end, Haaf-Mersey got his way. He's giving Belevar plenty of gold to come along with him, and he's just too curious about this stupid starsign thing.

I can't say which one I find harder or easier at the moment, since I'm still getting a feel for Skyrim's combat. Early on, when I knew nothing about how it worked, I found Skyrim's to be almost impossibly hard - Simon was dying on a regular basis, even after I turned the difficulty down (something I never did with Oblivion). But now that I've started to get the hang of it, he's rarely even threatened, and that's even after I turned the difficulty back up again. We'll see...




Mm... I'll likely work on the timing a bit more - I gave up on even finding it with Kazir. Moving backwards like he's wading through molasses was most of the problem to me. I'll take your word on it being possible though and keep trying.

I'm not so hot on bashing. I might play with it a bit, but I dunno...


Game gimmicks like that just don't appeal to me at all. I appreciate the suggestion, and who knows? I might even end up using it, but the whole idea of slowing down time just seems like cheating to me. I saw that there's a perk sort of like that in the archery skill tree too.

---

So I installed two more mods - for the two things that I most wanted to fix soonest. A Quality World Map (why in the world are there no roads on the vanilla map? That's just stupid) and a little tweak to get rid of that dumb blood splatter on the screen.

I spent the afternoon with Simon and Annekke. They wandered out west from Whiterun, just exploring, and happened on Bloated Man's Grotto, which is a really nice place all in all. Except for the bears of course.

The bears were sort of a good thing though, since it gave them a purpose. Added to the ones they'd already collected, it was more than enough pelts to satisfy the innkeeper in Ivarstead, so they headed back to Whiterun to offload loot, pick up the bear hides they had stored there, then head to Ivarstead.

I got to thinking about it on the way back, and decided I wanted to enchant some swords for Simon. He was using a mismatched pair - an Elven sword enchanted for shock and a Honed Ancient Nord Sword enchanted for fire - but he had a pair of unenchanted glass swords he'd really prefer to use. So the obvious thing to do was to enchant them. But since I didn't have much of an idea of how it all worked (not the basic mechanics of it, but details like how many charges were optimal), I wanted to be able to experiment a bit.

So they went back to Whiterun and dealt with everything, dropped off the old swords and got the glass ones out of storage, then trooped up the hill to use the enchanter. I considered buying some filled soul gems, since the best he had were common, but I figured I'd just see what could be done with those - there'll be plenty of time to do better ones later on. I did one of the swords with a 10 point fire enchantment and the other with soul trap. Then, since I wanted to test them out without wasting a lot of time walking to and from somewhere, I gritted my teeth and fast traveled them to Ivarstead. They gave the bear hides to the innkeeper, then went across to the barrow behind town (Simon hadn't investigated that one the first time he was there, since he was already loaded down with loot from the trip out). The enchantments worked out fine - they burn through charges a bit faster than I'd prefer, but not so fast that it's an actual problem. And Simon demonstrated his combat proficiency by curbstomping the whole room full of draugr at the end, by himself (Annekke was trapped on the other side of the gate) AND with a 25% penalty to melee case of Rockjoint.

Then they left town by the southern route and spent the night at the Alchemist's Shack, then offloaded some loot at the Imperial camp nearby, then made the hike through the southern pass and up around through Helgen and back to Whiterun, where they are right now.

"gritted my teeth while fast-traveling"

Don't worry about running out of charges on your swords, re-enchanting them is much easier in this game. You don't have to find one of those rare Varla stones, nor do you have to stand around some Mage's Guild, waiting for the enchanter to get off his/her damn 2-hour lunch break, or waiting for them to show up at all...

Maybe I shouldn't spoil for you though how it works, in case you don't already know.

Indeed. Skyrim needs more people like Rattler.


They will when they respawn.

@gpstr - it took me a while to notice that followers smile at our characters and that our characters smile back.

I have troubles with combat in Skyrim when not playing it for long time, then it's always very hard to me but as I play, I get used to it.

@Renee - Haaf-Mersey the astrologer. I'm glad Mjoll's not with him else she'd totally ruin his stargazing.

__

II Craven

The arrogant and influential matron of the Black-Briar clan, Maven Black-Briar, was scared to death. Never before has she been so terrified. She thought that her life is over, that she is going to be Rattler’s next victim…

***

A few minutes ago she entered her manor, accompanied by her faithful bodyguard and her son Hemming. She was coming straight from the Bee and Barb, where she used to spend most of her evenings. Her servant immediately notified her of some Redguard savage that barged in the manor about an hour ago and claimed to have a meeting with her. This same savage emptied a few bottles of their fine mead (and brake them afterwards), ate some of their fine food (without cutlery), and made obscene jokes about Maven’s granddaughter Ingun (particularly about her breasts).

Maven immediately knew that the savage in question can only be Rattler, the mercenary from Morrowind, sent to her aid on behalf of her Telvanni acquaintance. They were supposed to meet in the inn and now it was time to show the barbarian that nobody’s going to behave like that in her own manor. It was time to set clear rules for the savage. Oh how much she’s going to enjoy showing him who’s the most important person in Riften.

Rattler was waiting in Maven’s luxurious bedroom, standing by the fireplace.

“You Maven?” he snarled as soon as she stepped in the bedroom, followed by her bodyguard.
“For you I’m Madam Maven Black-Briar, barbarian,” curtly answered Maven. ”And you are…Rattler, I assume? What kind of a name is that…anyway, let us make some things clear. You were NEVER invited to my manor! In the letter I wrote, I mentioned that you’re going to find me in the INN! Perhaps you don’t know about me but my name, the name of MAVEN BLACK-BRIAR, carries some weight in Riften! Nothing gets done without my approval in this city. I have the Jarl's ear, and the guards in my pocket. Anyone makes trouble for me and I pay a visit to the Thieves Guild. Make me angry and I contact the Dark Brotherhood. You'd do well to remember that the next time you act like you did tonight, barbarian. Now get out and meet me tomorrow in the inn. I'll be upstairs. That’s when we’ll discuss business.”

The bloodshed which followed, happened in less than a minute. Without saying a word, Rattler unsheathed the silver nodachi from his back, jumped over Maven’s bed, pushed her aside, and attacked her bodyguard like a feral sabre cat. Paralyzed with horror, Maven couldn’t even move and though her bodyguard tried to fight back for a while, the barbarian from Morrowind within seconds shredded him through and through.

Done with the bodyguard, Rattler stepped towards Maven and pressed his bloody nodachi against her fur scarf and that was when Maven was convinced that her life is over.

“Craven Black-Briarrr!” grinned Rattler. ”That’s how I call you! What now? What now, eh? Whore! Not feeling powerful anymore, Craven?”

“D-don’t….” stuttered Maven, feeling drips of her bodyguard’s blood on her neck.

“Craven stutters?” shouted Rattler. “I KILL people who stutter!”

Maven stepped back and fell on her bed. She never felt so powerless before. It was becoming obvious, though, that Rattler won’t kill her, he was just playing with her. What infuriated her the most is that she allowed him to see fear in her eyes. But maybe if she quickly changes the subject…

“Stop! Have it your way then! Let’s discuss business! I want some people dead!” she yelled but then lowered her voice. “Obviously you…you have way with that. The first man I want dead is Thomm. He lives in a fort called Faldar’s Tooth, west of Riften, right by the lake. Kill him…and you will be rewarded.”

“See how easy it is?” Rattler put the greatsword back on his back and headed for the balcony. “Until next time, Craven,” he said as he jumped from the balcony.

As Maven was again getting control of herself, and heard her children running up the stairs to see what had just happened, her mind already sentenced Rattler to death.

Cripes. Criminy. Sheesh.


He woulda told Mjoll to go to bed. As it is, his current follower Belevar is a little too quiet.

Haaf-Mersey wound up staying up until about midnight, but then got up 5 hours later, so he could see which constellation was on the horizon (where the sun would come up). Indeed, The Thief is the set of stars which lined up, and this makes sense since it's Evening Star in his game right now.

Renee - Glad that LHM is enjoying his stargazing!

Gpstr - Also glad that you are enjoying Skyrim. I enjoyed the game very much. My biggest gripe was the excessive 'hand micromanagement' required to use skills/spells.

Lopov - Oh my! Seems like Maven's more than met her match!

Not sure if that'd help. I bet she talks while sleeping.


It was about time!

__

By the canal

Sheshko liked it in the Beggar's Row. He stayed inside during days but when shadows fell over Riften, he sneaked out. This one had to eat too and water skeevers were his favorite prey. Occasionally Madesi or Violet would bring him apples and Sheshko was very grateful to eat something healthy but nothing could compare to the joy which skeevers made in his tummy.

Down by the canal lurked some suspicious man and after Sheshko took a peek in his pockets, he found the man to be a skooma dealer!

"Oh, oh, oh,
sweet skooma o' mine!"

Sheshko sang as he emptied the man's pockets for five flasks of this most precious fluid. He was becoming really good at sneaking and could slip past people without being detected if it was only dark enough.

Guards probably still didn't forget about him so he needed to be careful not to be seen, even more so because they used to carry torches in nighttime. But even if they'd catch him, he hid skooma and other goodies in a sack in the Beggar's Row so nothing would be confiscated. Nothing at all. Sheshko was clean. Legit.

Shesko is awesome. I wonder if he's still wearing that silly hat!

Despite his unassuming nature, Sheshko is certainly taking ownership of Riften's nights.

@Renee - I'd already discovered that recharging was pretty easy, but I wasn't sure about the balance of charges and power and such - how quickly I'd burn through how many charges and how much recharge I could get out of the souls I trapped. As it turns out though... yeah. It's very generous.

@Acadian - thanks and yeah - the hand micromanagement irritates me too, and that's even without trying to play an illusionist/archer.

---

So I installed one more mod - Immersive Saturation Boost, to get rid of that sepia/grey tone to everything. The game's much more pleasant to look at now. Other than that (and the other minor things I'd already done), I think I'm going to just let it go and see what vanilla's like. Unless I come across some other thing that I just can't tolerate.

And I created yet another character - that makes five now - but I'm planning on staying with this one as much as possible. It's a female Nord named Valri and she was created with three ideas in mind (other than female Nord) - heavy armor, two-handed weapon and Stormcloak sympathizer. She's fiercely proud and determined, and thus the perfect character for playing out the main quest, which I really want to do just so I can see how things work, so I'll know how to approach it with my other characters, who are likely going to be at least somewhat less interested in all that.

Other than dragons and civil war and suchlike, she's joined the Companions (and loves her new Wolf Armor) and is dealing with a handful of side quests. In fact, I left her in Eldergleam Sanctuary just now. She's likely heading back to Whiterun to deliver the sapling to Danica, then... I'm not sure what she's going to do next. Maybe go look for that Horn the Greybeards want...

Interesting. I find the game's look to be not as vibrant as Cyrodiil, but this has never bothered me. Then again, making the jump from Xbox to PC was enough of a graphics boost to keep my eyes awed.

You should try Alternate Start: Live Another Life? if you haven't already. Since you're up to 5 characters within a short time, hopefully you haven't done the Tutorial all 5 of those times. Alt Start mods can help us with starting characters in remote locations, for those who want to RP absolutely no involvement with the Main Quest, or beginning parts at all.

The problem I had with Skyrim's colors is that sepia/grey shader that the entire world is run through. It not only looked unnatural - it actually made my eyes hurt to spend too much time looking at it.


I've looked at it and considered it, but I don't trust it. I used Arthmoor's Alternative Start mod for Oblivion with Lemdel the Altmer barbarian and it infuriated me.

The problem is that he set it up so that with his mod running, it's actually even MORE difficult to realistically avoid doing the main quest. I've seen that with some of his other mods too (notably Vergayun and Open Cities Reborn's version of Chorrol) - he seems to just presume that everybody is going to do the main quest, and he actually goes out of his way to make it even more in-your-face. It's bad enough having Beth try to force the main quest on me - I'm sure as hell not going to let Arthmoor force it on me.

It's possible that he did a better job of it with Skyrim, but I just can't be sure of that, and since it's impossible to revert an alternate start mod without literally starting the character all over again, I'm just not willing to experiment with it. Or at least not yet.

And actually, I've already done the tutorial many more than five times - those five are just the characters I've kept. I've started, and at least gotten out of Helgen if not all the way to Riverwood, at least a dozen of them. What I finally did though was to make two hard saves - one with Ralof and one with Hadvar - immediately after he frees the character, before they make their escape from Helgen. Since the character has no experience at that point, it's possible to use ShowRaceMenu to change them into whatever I want. It still means they have to do the actual escape, but that's fine - I don't mind that part, and it gives me a good chance to test the character in easy combat.

---

So... Valri.

She ended up making the trip all the way up to Northwatch Keep to rescue Thorald. That seemed to be the most pressing thing on her list.

That was a terrific trip.

The first day was just a pretty uneventful trip to Rorikstead - a few bandits and wolves and such along the way, but nothing really unusual. She met a would-be adventurer named Erik in Rorikstead and gave him some money to buy some armor. She liked Erik, and left town the next morning planning on swinging back by after she was done to check in on him.

The second day was a sharp contrast to the first - LOTS of interesting and dangerous stuff.

The first notable thing was a bandit fort that actually straddled the road. She refused to pay their "toll" and ended up having to fight the lot of them. Which she did. (Note - she died for the first time there, and no, I don't play dead-is-dead, and no, I won't - I need to be able to take my characters into danger without having to worry about them dying because I did something stupid. And she died because I did something stupid - I thought the place was empty and was running her around, collecting loot, and she barged into the main building, only to find the bandit leader still there and still very much alive. She didn't even have enough time to draw her battleaxe. After the reload, she moved more cautiously and was fine.)

The second notable thing was Meridia's shrine. She actually had it marked on her map, but I wasn't looking at the map - she just saw what looked like a temple up a ways from the road and went to investigate it, then found out what it was. Since she already had the Beacon, she explored more, and it just went from there. Most of it was pretty easy, but the last fight was brutal - mages really challenge her. She was badly wounded a couple of times, but managed to pull through.

The Dragon Bridge was awesome, though the village seems a bit unsettling.

She ended up far north by nightfall and kept looking for a place to stop, but didn't find one. She made it to Northwatch Keep at about midnight (encountered a hostile werewolf along the way too) and met Avulstein and a couple of other fighters he'd picked up along the way, and figured there was no time like the present. She scouted around a bit, but the others were very aggressive and there didn't look to be a lot of resistance, so in the end, they just barged in and started killing Thalmor. It was really sort of anticlimactic - the trip up turned out to be much more dangerous than the fight against the vaunted Thalmor.

Once Thorald was free, the brothers took off and Valri crashed for the night, then set off the next morning.

She got into Rorikstead late in the evening and found Erik sporting a set of (shabby) iron armor and, feeling a bit responsible for him, as well as a bit... well... interested, she hired him to join her. They went on to Whiterun the next day, where Valri sold all of the Elven armor she'd gotten at Northwatch and got Erik a set of steel armor and some better weapons.

They're heading north next - up to Morthal first, then out into the marshes to look for the Horn for the Greybeards.

Damn. Shot down, lol. Sorry gpster, only trying to help.

I like alternate start mods (especially for Skyrim) because there is no option for an exit-save in this game (at least not on consoles), like there is for Oblivion. In other words, to start a new character, one has to go through the entire tutorial scene, and for someone like me who did this scene over a dozen times on consoles, I like that finally I have the option to start at some campfire, or on some dock, or whatever options the mod provides.

Your method works though too, the showracemenu deal. I've never tried that.



Oh yeah. Your brother was right about this game, right? I'm glad he convinced you to try it.

Sorry - I tend to sound abrupt sometimes. I don't mean it.

If it helps any, I'm even more awkward in real life.

I do appreciate the suggestion - I just really hated Arthmoor's alternate start mod for Oblivion and don't want to risk having a similar bad experience with his Skyrim one.

I actually will likely use some sort of alternate start mod sooner or later. I use one for Oblivion - not often, but sometimes, when I want to start a character some other specific place. I don't know enough about Skyrim yet to know if or when I'd want to do that anyway though.

Yeah - the trip up to Northwatch Keep was pretty impressive. That bandit fort straddling the road was an especially nice touch, and the bit of background with the threatened mutiny and the hidden treasure was a good detail.

Broadly, one of the things that does impress me about this game is the sheer number of interesting things stuck all over the place. I love finding the little out-of-the-way shacks and hunting camps and things like that, and there were a bunch of things like that along that trip.

---

So I'm taking a break from a sort of irritating situation with Valri and Erik right at the moment.

They went to Morthal and poked around and got sucked into the scandal there, so they ended up going up to the target dungeon with a mob of villagers.

Oh... wait - on the way to Morthal, they went through the pass near Dustman's Cairn, so discovered Labrinthian, which I can only hope is going to be as interesting to explore as it looks like it should be. That was more than they wanted to get into right at the moment though.

So anyway - Morthal - tragedy - scandal - angry villagers.

The first time through was a rough fight, but Valri came out of it all right. Erik died along the way though. I considered just letting it go, but I just couldn't - he deserves better than that. So I reloaded and tried it again, and that time Valri died. So I reloaded and tried it again and they both made it through, but then when they went outside, the villagers were still there and still on alert and wouldn't leave. I looked it up and discovered that if you don't talk to them after arriving at the dungeon, that's what they do, and there's at least a chance that they'll eventually respawn en masse at Fort Greymoor. So I reloaded yet again, talked to the villagers so that the one joined Valri and Erik and the rest dispersed, then went back in yet again. And Valri died, yet again. And I turned it off then and decided I'd do something else for a while, so here I am.

The biggest problem is that she's not really prepared - not enough healing potions to get through a fight with tough magic-users. And magic users in general are a problem, which is a new thing for me. The only problem with them in Oblivion is that it was irritating when they ran away and you had to chase them down, but in Skyrim, they can kill a warrior before she even gets close enough to take a swing at them. It's really sort of fascinating and exciting - it's been a while since I've had to actually consider and work out new strategies. I'm sure the time will come when I've figured out how to deal with them and they'll potentially even be sort of dull, but for the time being...

But after four times through the same fight, they were just irritating.

You can make your own Alternate Start. It is not difficult at all. Though it does come with some unique 'Features', thanks to the way Bethesda makes many trivial things dependent upon the main quest. I created This topic with all the details. It really is extremely easy. I have been doing it with all my characters for years now.

Mmm... yeah. That's a lot of "features." That might be the best approach though, rather than submitting to somebody else's "features" instead of or even in addition to Beth's. Thanks.

Still traveling with Valri, and starting to get into the meat of things.

Let's see... they dealt with the rest of the stuff in Morthal, then took a radiant quest that took them high into the mountains to a bandit den, where Valri scored a full set of plate steel from the boss. While they were up in the mountains, they ran into a couple of gargoyles - that was a surprise for all of us. We also (Valri and I) got tired of dealing with Erik. He's a good guy and a competent if unexceptional fighter, but he doesn't keep up well while traveling and then he's overeager and always jumping out in front of her in combat. When they came down out of the mountains (following an easier route than the one they took on the way up), they came out almost due west of Rorikstead, so Valri sent him on his way and hiked back to Whiterun to drop off her Wolf armor and replenish supplies. Then she went back up past Morthal and out into the marshes to recover the Horn.

That's an awesome dungeon. That's another thing I'll credit this game for - I love the dungeons with enormous, multi-leveled chambers.

Of course, the horn wasn't there, so she had to set out for Riverwood. Since she was out on the eastern edge of the marshes, she first went further east to pick up the road there, then south toward Whiterun. It was a bit easier than going back through the marshes would've been, and more to the point, it was a road she hadn't traveled before.

Found a couple of interesting things - what appeared to be an Orc stronghold (she didn't get close enough to be certain, since the guards looked like they were spoiling for a fight and she had no cause to fight them) and an interesting, and annoying, self-styled jester, broken down by the side of the road. She got some help for him from a nearby farmer, then continued on her way.

Things are starting to look sketchy around Whiterun. She ran into a fair number of soldiers - both Imperial and Stormcloak. It looks like things are coming to a head soon.

While she was in Whiterun, she spent a bit of time doing some enchanting. There were two downsides to her new plate steel armor - she had to give up the awesome enchanted nordic steel gauntlets she'd been using (+15% to two-handed) and the set weighed much more than her wolf armor. So she bought a couple of filled grand soul gems, sacrificed the gauntlets and a charmed necklace she'd picked up along the way, then spent a while enchanting a bunch of trinkets with simple and cheap effects to get some experience with it, then enchanted her new gauntlets with a two-handed bonus and her new boots with the increase carry weight effect she learned from the charmed necklace.

Then she set out for Riverwood.

That was... interesting.

And it strikes me here that I should move this to the spoilers section, so I don't have to be careful about what I post.

Suffice to say - Valri found the whole situation to be odd, but completed the quest surprisingly easily. And learned a few things she'd been wondering about.

Then, since she was in the area, she hiked the rest of the way up to Windhelm to unload loot and replenish supplies, and that was interesting too. Bluntly, that place is a dump. Say what you like about Balgruuf - at least he runs a clean and prosperous city. The legendary Ulfric Stormcloak, on the other hand, squats in the middle of a broken-down slum. Valri was quite a bit less than impressed. She still opposes the Empire, and even more so the Thalmor, but she's backed off of her plan to actually cast her lot with the Stormcloaks. While something certainly needs to be done about the Empire, she can't believe that any good would come from helping that self-absorbed and neglectful tyrant rise to power.

Right at the moment though, she's gotten roped into a murder investigation...

If you want them, I will email you the mods I made to fix all those 'features' caused by doing your own alternate start.

Besides knocking out the main quest, what I really love about doing your own start is that I can tailor it specifically to every character I play. The last time I played Persephone in Skyrim it was after she did Morrowind. So I created a start with her at the Eastmarch-Morrowind border. Le Chevalier D'Eon came to Skyrim via a ship. So she started her game on the Solitude docks.

Sorry - I moved Valri's story over to the spoilers forum and just happened back by here.

I'll let you know. I'm not sure yet if I'll even do alternate starts, much less how I'll do it if I do. In all my years and all my characters in Oblivion, I've only done alternate starts with I think three of them, and I've never liked doing it - given the choice, I'd rather work around things in-game than try to alter the way the game works and invite unforeseen complications. But I appreciate the offer, and if I decide to do it, I'll know where to find you.

Grelod the Vile

On one of his night adventures Sheshko was spotted by a patrolling guard. Only for a second, though, because the Khajiit immediately rolled in the nearest house which turned out to be the orphanage.

“Must have been my imagination”, the guard outside muttered but the Khajiit no longer heard him.

Once inside, Sheshko quickly realized that children are tormented by their cruel headmistress Grelod the Kind. Conveniently, this one just snatched two valuable rings from Marise Aravel down by the canal so why not give them to children as gifts?

As Grelod went to her room, Sheshko entered the main bedroom where orphans were sleeping. “For you, missy, this shining ring of sneaking,” Sheshko whispered to Runa Fair Shield, waking her up. “Shhh, don’t talk too loud or the old hag will wake up. Beautiful ring, isn’t it? Wearing it will make you hard to see so if your mistress is after you, put it on and hide, then the old hag will have hard time finding you. But don’t be stingy, missy – share the ring with others because you might all need it.”

“Wow, it’s beautiful, Khajiit,” said Runa, the smile on her face made Sheshko happy. “Who are you? I’ve never seen you before..”

“That’s because this one is hard to see. Maybe one day, if you sneak around a lot like this one does, you’ll be hard to see as well, missy. Good night.”

Moving on to the next bed Sheshko gave the ring of alteration to Samuel. “Maybe you won’t find much use of it now but this one sees that you’ll be a great mage once and that alteration is the path you will follow. Or…if you feel like you won’t be a mage, sell it. It’s worth a lot, this one knows.”

“Thanks, Khajiit. I’ll keep it. I…I rarely get any gifts here.”

“Don’t worry, mister. This one was an orphan too. But life turns for good at some point. Look at this one now – it lives like a king! Tell others that Sheshko will bring them more gifts as he finds…buys them! And now… time to give a gift to your mistress.”

“You brought Grelod a gift too?” was surprised Samuel.

“Oh, indeed. But she’s not going to like it.”

A minute later a sweetroll was thrown straight to Grelod’s face. Shocked, she sat up in her bed and removed cream for her eyes, only to see the grinning Khajiit, jumping on her bed like mad.

“Blasted cat!” By the time Grelod got up from the bed, Sheshko was already out of the orphanage.

"this one lives like king!" .... yet he doesn't even have his own hay pile! I get it though. He means he lives like a king because he is rich on the inside...

I like when he says "good night" to the girl. It seems so unnecessary; that little detail made me smile though. I hope she doesn't lose her ring, or have it taken away by Grelod.

Grelod meets her match! I should think that Grelod could be an endless source of pranks for Sheshko!

Had a bit of a laugh today with my Morrowind-style Dunmer Battlemage, Endar Verano.

Riverwood was the site of his first vampire attack; One Vampire Master and two Death Hounds. The tally of the fallen, in order of death:

Stump
A cow
A chicken
A Whiterun Guard

I'm still not sure if it was an actual attack, or if the Vampire Master just needed to feed his pets.

Yay! Khajiit likes Sheshko!

They just wanted to hang out with you guys but everybody started attacking them!