They all say hi back..!

I´ve been playing Oblivion for seven and a half years now. I have over 2000 hours on the same character and not until just now did I meet the skooma-sucking son to the count of Bravil!

Wow. Just wow

Having met him myself, I cannot say you have missed much!

Still, it goes to show there´s always something to discover in Oblivion!

Renee Gade III is on her way to Bravil, after asking her companions where they'd like to go. I've been keeping quiet about RG3, but for the past couple weeks I've been gaming with her, and so far she's spent all her time up in the I.C., or around the Niben area.

She has two companions at the moment: Gabrielle and Mimi. So she asked her companions (Gabrielle, actually) where shey'd like to go, and I rolled a 10-sided die to get Gab's answer. Bruma was 1, Cheydinhal was 2, Leyawiin was 3, etc. #4 came up, which is Bravil. So they're on their way there now.

I've written a bunch of RG3's tales, was thinking I'd finally make a fanfic, but I don't know what to do. It's not really 'complete'. I'll probably just post 'em in the Today threads. That's what I'm good at.

Upon getting to Bravil, she finds she has no gold. Or at least, not enough to enter town with. And she's got nothing to sell. She got a tip from one of Bravil's guards that there's a nearby Ayleid ruin called Anutwyl, and Renee checked this place out but unfortunately the first door she came to was locked with a 3-tumbler, and she only had 3 lockpicks. HAD. That's the word. She broke all 3 of them, dangit.

So now she's traveling north through the woods with her two friends, just looking for a place to plunder.

So now you´re incorporating some pen and paper stuff into your gaming sessions? Nice

Yes, I've always mixed some old pen 'n' paper stuff in these modern times. Plus, in this instance I wanted them to go somewhere, but I'm notoriously bad with decisions sometimes. I have no idea which direction to go, so I ... pretended Gabrielle made the decision instead. Ha ha.

Don't you ever have a hard time making decisions, in game or not? .. Or I guess Lothran simply has a routine he sticks to?

He pretty much has his routines now, that is true. But that only dictates what towns he visits at what time of the year. Aside from that he basically just wanders the wilderness and roads with the occasional dungeon in between

Renee, I love the way you incorporate the old ways into your games. You are an inspiration! I’m glad you’re writing RG3’s tales in any kind of form. I know she’s an important character, and I look forward to reading about her whenever you’re ready.

It is cool to know that the Renee Gades are still roaming Tamriel. With Gabrielle and full Xena gear this time no less!

Renee, that's a great way to sort out 'where to go next'.

Buffy's early game is generally objective driven to get this or that. Her mid game expeditions are generally planned by looking for any suspiciously blank areas of the map, then plotting a course to cross them, looking for new locations. Her late game expeditions are usually circuits that are planned around the types of foes she wants to hunt in dungeons. So generally a route from dungeon to dungeon for 5-10 dungeons ending in one town or another where she visits friends/guild mates and does some shopping.

Lothran is again in Bravil and has just added some Necro robes to his collection. Not sure but I think his next step is Chorrol to check up on things. The nearby Colovians might also get a visit from the white-haired Dunmer

The time has come for me to FINALLY restart Lissa. My friend gave me his old portable hardrive to keep some backups of her saves so this time I won't have the same trouble as last time. I played a variety of games in between but I now feel ready, although this time a couple of things will be different, just to avoid the repetitiveness of re-playing her story.

She, as a person will be the same, as will her background, but I think I'm going to set her on a new path this time around. In this time line she never went to prison, so her game will start in a Fighting Chance, her aunt Rhosaan's weapon store. She has returned to Cyrodiil after three years adventuring, meaning she has actually been back for a full year; so no family reunions. She also starts the game aged 20 instead of 19. I'm trying to avoid starting storylines that the Lissa 2.0 went through.

I don't know if she will keep her old friends or make new ones, I guess I will just have to see where our journey takes us. It will be sad to (possibly) say goodbye to the likes of Jessie and Anyanka, but it's a risk I am going to take.

It's exciting and scary at the same time, but it is the right decision i think.

I will post her updates quite fully and narratively, but saying that I also plan to return to her fanfic very, very soon. I had bad writers block, you see. I did do the whole book, but had to re-write a majority of it as I realised I wasn't pleased with the final product .

So, yeah, Lissa is back! Woohoo!

mirocu - Nice to hear that Lothran is back visiting Bravil.

Rinhanae - I'm so pleased to hear that Lissa is getting a new start. Sometimes, taking a little break is a good thing. I hope you really enjoy playing her through again with the changes you've made.

Oh, Lissa´s back now! I really think you have the right approach here, Rihanae. Keeping her as herself but not doing the exact same thing as before will keep her return fresh and fun!

Welcome back, Rihanae. *claps* I would put some super-duper quadruple passwords on your PC if I were you. That's clever starting Lissa at a different age, it explains the gap of time when we last saw her. My Lady Saga character has seen two major jumps in age.

Everyone else: Yeah I still have all my old dice, books, all that stuff from the old days. Every now and then I roll some dice. Doesn't everyone?

Right now, Renee Gade III, Mimi, and Gabrielle are in the middle of frickin' nowhere. They are on a quest to find an important pickaxe for one of the merchants in Bravil, however this pickaxe could be in three different caves, according to the merchant, and these caves are in the Nibenay Basin area, which I'm not too familiar with. In the process of looking for these caves, I've seen several places I'm sure I've never been in.

Does anyone know of a mod that allows the player to get rid of the GPS pointer on the map? .... I don't use the in-game map at all unless one of mine is in a town. I've looked at several map mods over at Nexus, but can't find anything which specifically gets rid of this pointer.

Last night Lothran decided to go back to his roots as a master thief. And what better goal to aim for in Bravil than the castle? If only he´d known that place had already been visited on several occasions by the Weet bandit. There was barely anything left!

Though he did manage to find a gem; the book called The Importance of Where. Close to eight years of gaming and over 2000 hours and this is the first time we both see this book! Needless to say, it´s now in his possession and on its way to his book collection in Bruma.

It was a very nice experience to sneak through a castle again and as it turned out, the first time through Bravil´s. Is there perhaps other castles we´ve forgotten about? I think Lothran has gotten himself a new quest...

Hey, it's very nice reading about Lothran's thieving exploits!

It's a bit different, you know, Lothran's stories most of the time don't revolve around such things and it's good to see the thief back in action.

The lack of things in Bravil's castle can't be due to Kahreem. He's invaded this place twice, always gets caught. One of my others, like Eradi~Kate, probably decimated the place at some point. Kate used a lot of magic, you see.

I've never heard of that book either. The Importance of Where. Wow.

Thank you! Yeah, he doesn´t have any need for stealing no more so he rarely does these things. But he does have a need for excitement and exploration and I think we will hear more about this


They probably moved the goodies to even more secret places after Kahreem´s visits


I´ve heard about it long ago so I knew it existed. Though I haven´t thought about it in a long while so it was a nice surprise anyway

I don't recall seeing that book either.

Hey, it wasn't Buffy who looted Castle Bravil. Although welcome in several courts, the court of Bravil is not one of them. Buffy avoids that castle, along with Count Pompousness and his skooma-head kid.

All the more reason for her to loot it...

Lothran is now in his home at the Waterfront. Stuff needs to be offloaded and the city needs to be visited before heading out again. After all, our princess is in another castle...

I think Buffy would be a miserable thief. Knowing her, she'd steal the stuff she needed to fence for the quests while leaving bags of gold in place of the stolen stuff to compensate the owners.

Isn´t that adorable?

I don't rule that out. If she had any idea how the TG questline helps her friend Countess Anvil, she'd undertake it in a heartbeat. She has a soft spot for love stories, matchmaking and such.

That's a line from the Mario Brothers games. You played?


Middas, 10:54 am Frost Fall 3, 4th Era 20

Renee Gade III and her two companions are in the middle of nowhere, looking for a family heirloom which was stolen from one of the merchants in Bravil. There are three possible places (all of them caves) that this heirloom can be. This particular quest requires some roughing it in the Niben Valley, since the last civilization they saw was two days ago: an inn somewhere back on the Silverfish River.

The Renee Power Trio just raided Nayon Camp, had to fight four outlaw bandits, and (of course) they won the skirmish. Nayon Camp is GREAT. It has a couple bedrolls and some food. This will allow the party to keep going. The last cave where the heirloom could possibly be is somewhere nearby to the east.

Cheydinhal castle, after visiting hours...


Last night Lothran raided the easternmost castle of Cyrodiil. Not much fun was found except for a bottle of Cyrodilic Brandy in the Count´s quarters which he took as his only spoil. Count Indarys won´t get his early bottle of the day this morning...

Hah, I really like reading about Lothran the thief. First it was Castle Bravil, now Castle Cheydinhal, looking forward for more.

Renee Gade III is headed into the Imperial City, where I believe she's about to buy the Waterfront Shack. Pretty sure she's got the money all saved up in the bank after all the running around she's been doing.




EDIT: And I've done a grand switch from Renee back to Saga. Renee was fun to be with over the last few weeks, but I'm finally needing a change. IT sounds funny that here I am playing the same exact game, but a simple switch in characters has refreshed my enthusiasm. lol.

Saga is in Leyawiin, taking it easy, getting equipment repaired, etc. She needs food. The Three Sisters only has a loaf of ham for sale, and Aerin is basically vegetarian. Vegan, actually. So she's headed to the Mage's Guild to do some mooching because she's going to need something to eat. She, Maglir, and Modryn are headed to the Imperial City tomorrow, where Saga will bring the carving she found to Umbacano.

Compared to Renee, Saga has a grander depth with magic (she's part of the Aracane Uni), is stealthier, and can subsist on ingredients (like mushrooms and flowers) for days. But Renee is ultimately tougher.

Lady Saga had a rather epic moment today. I added a Settlements of Cyrodiil mod, which put a small hamlet in the woods south of Gottlesfont Priory. The hamlet is populated by about a dozen simple farmers, smiths, etc. Somehow, a ghost showed up in the middle of the place, so the entire village starts attacking it. Problem is, they've all got iron & steel weapons, most likely.

Thinking quick, my elf grabbed a silver arrow, then managed to somehow hit the ghost, rather than one of the villagers. The ghost now started coming for Saga, so it was easier for her to hit it two more times, finishing it off.

That was pretty neat. These simpletons deal with a crisis, and the day is saved by an elf just passing through.

Aww, how nice of Saga! Perhaps with CSR, she can issue the new villagers a few silver daggers. I know Buffy carries several just for that purpose.

I am the same way. That is one reason I go through so many characters. Playing someone new always reinvigorates me. It may still be the same old game. But a new character is a new story to tell.

Neat Is it fully voice acted?

mirocu: No it's not voice acted. The NPCs speak generally (It's you...hi... ) but if you try to speak directly to them it's all text. I got a Kvatch mod which I haven't experienced yet that's supposed to be fully voice-acted though.

Acadian: wow, what a good idea with the silver daggars.

[u]SubRosa[u]: Yeah, isn't it nice? All 3 of my PC characters have a small variance of mods in their games (Renee has CM Partners 2.0, Saga has CSR for instance) so that's another thing which alters their worlds a little bit.

Renee, I've found also that if you hang on to scrolls you find and give them to NPCs (yay again for CSR), even the dumbest farmboy will readily use the scrolls. My preference for this is summon scrolls. When Buffy meets a wandering ill-eqipped NPC on the roads, she normally issues them a couple healing potions, a summon scroll and a silver dagger.

(And just to be on the safe side, I always ensure any non-respawning NPC we meet outside of towns gets made essential - OBSE makes the console command for that ever so much simpler.)

Yes, I have noticed that NPCs will also learn from scrolls if you tell them to do so. That's a nice touch. It's why Maglir is so kick-axe in Saga's game. He's got the capacity to learn Destruction spells, so Saga just hands him any Destruction scrolls that she finds.

Speaking of, Saga just hired Parwen from the Skingrad Fighters Guild. This is going to be fun. Her first female employee. I'm excited. Saga, Parwen and Maglir are going to head towards Anvil, making a stop to see the ruins of Kvatch, which (if everything goes right) will be much different from what I've ever seen in the vanilla game.

Renee, Do you remember when we talked some time ago about a girl that Loypuur wanted to travel with but was rejected? Well, this was Parwen. She's cute, isn't she?

Wow on Maglir learning destruction spells. I thought CSR-recruited could only exercise that option (if requested by you) if the school of the spell was a major skill for them. That's why I liked Erthor; as a sorcerer, he has destruction and conjuration as majors.

Saga, Parwen, and Maglir should make a fun team! How exciting to see a different Kvatch.

Acadian, I love Buffy’s care package for travelers. She brings kindness to a dangerous world.

Lopov: Funny you should say that. Parwen is VERY cute. She's adorable. That's the first thing I thought of after getting a good look at her. She is also like Saga's long lost sister or friend or cousin. They'll become pals for sure.

And lol @ poor Loypuur. I can see why he fell for her.

Acadian: Correct, there was an option for Maglir to learn from scrolls. We chose that awhile back. I'm pretty sure you make this choice just once, and from then on they just automatically learn new spells.

Gritsy: I chose Giskard's mod. Um... Kvatch Rising. Pseron told me about it (otherwise I would have never discovered this mod). The thing I like about KR is there are supposed to be several stages we can witness Kvatch going through. One is the regular vanilla stage (with the gate, either active or destroyed, depending), and there is a stage where the entire place is in ruins, but without any fires. There's a stage where weeds are overtaking the place, a stage where settlers are just returning, and a stage where the place is fully on its feet again.

I'm going to choose the weed-infested one for Saga's game, since that makes sense because after 5 years this is how the place would look. And for Renee's (which is 20 years after the Crisis) I'm going to choose the 'settlers just returning' stage. Should be fun.

My elf got to Kvatch but it's weird. I see that some elements of Kvatch Rising are in place, but it's not what I expected. So I decided I am going to switch to my very first character, who was a test in many ways. I want to have him go there and I'll see how this mod is supposed to work. "cause I want this to be perfect!

Kvatch is rebuilt in stages, I believe. Maybe if you wait and more things will be built

Yup, you are right. And I didn't realize these stages correspond to different stages of the Main Quest. I watched a video made by GIskard to learn how it works.

Anyways, it is Sun's Dusk 5 during the 3rd Era in the year 433. I rejoined with Snaat Rayag, my first PC character, for the first time since March. I intended to use him as a test for Kvatch Rising, but (of course) I can't help getting sidetracked into a full RP.

So right now, he and an orc conjurer are headed south towards Leyawiin. For those who have forgotten, Snaaty is a skooma dealer, and his main supplier is in the Greyland house next to Leyawiin. He buys bottles of skooma there, and then travels all up and down the Niben area, selling his wares to bandits and conjurers for a profit. He can also sell in Bravil, but this assumes he doesn't have a bounty, so he'll probably skip Bravil on his way back from Greyland. What drug dealer would want to ruin his own profit, after all?

Oh. I simulate skooma sales by rolling dice.

I'm going to RP that he wants to 'broaden his horizons', and include the Colovian Highlands in his skooma sales. Eventually he will get to Kvatch, and that's where the fun will begin.

My game has Kvatch Rebuilt instead of Rising but I want to say that I remember when looking into Giskard's Kvatch Rising that there was a Khajiit character hanging around Kvatch that you could talk to to move rebuilding from its default stages to any of the stages you wanted whenever you wanted. I may be mistaken though.

Yes, we spoke to the Khajiit and chose an option, but what I didn't realize is the Main quest has to be at a certain stage for Kvatch Rising's stage to kick in. In other words, when we get to the part where there are lots of Oblivion gates in the world, that is when the No Fires stage is happening in Kvatch itself. Something like this.

Anyways, I'm having fun tagging along with Snaaty. I found a couple of skooma mods for his game: Skooma Deals V.1 is one of them. I'm not sure how it works yet, but it seems to make the entire process of buying & selling skooma an actual game feature. Snaaty also likes hand-to-hand combat.

Fredas, 6:38 pm, Sun's Dawn 15, 4th Era 5

Days Passed: 173

Lady Saga has just discovered Sutch, a village which has reclaimed itself after the end of the Oblivion Crisis. Sutch is right next to Lord & Lady Drad's Estate. Since Saga has been 'renting' one of the slave houses since my PS3 days, Sutch was not here before, but now it is. So she and Parwen are spending the evening exploring the place.

Long time since a Lothie update, eh? Well, now is the time for one!



I´m the only one excited about it? Very well, then...


Last night he did something he hasn´t done in ages; pulled some strings and had Armand take away some fines for him. What´s funny is he got them when assisting a Legion rider fighting off two bandits at the junction of the Red Ring and the one leading down to Cropsford. He accidently hit the Legion horse and got a 40 gold fine for it. Thankfully though, Lothran´s reputation let him avoid a confrontation/arrest* then and there, so when he got back to the Waterfront he took care of business, just like in the old days

And now is the time to re-explore the big City again! And maybe, just maybe, the White-Gold Tower will get a late-night visit...


*As long as I didn´t started a conversation with the Legionnaire, he just rode off and didn´t chase Lothran.

Lothran's back!

He was lucky that the legionnaire didn't arrest him immediately if he saw him hitting a horse. Was he ever arrested at all?

No, he didn´t encounter any guard at all from that point until the Waterfront but I guess that even if he had, they wouldn´t have tried to arrest him

No, I meant in the past - if he was ever in prison at all or did he always successfuly evade the authorities?

He has been in jail but mostly because a quest required it. Though one time in Cheydinhal I think it was warranted...

Thanks btw for following Lothran in his adventures