Lothran has now quit his shift and has enjoyed a day in Plundered Mine. Not sure the inhabitants of the mine thought it was much fun though

Whoa what do you mean he "quit?" He quit for good? Or just for the season?

Neither; just for this time around. He may do more shifts later this season



Isn't it a bummer not remembering you have killed someone, especially when you really never did it? Good that Renee only needs to collect some bear pelts instead of spending 2 lifetimes in prison

Something quite cool happened today when Lothran was on his way to Silver Tooth Cave.

When he approached the bandits at the camp on the road east of Dragonclaw Rock he summoned his spriggan as usual which also brought up his Daedric shield (combo spell). As they were fighting the spriggan and her bear, one of them took a shot with his bow but missed and the arrow flew right over Lothran's raised shield to the right. I almost ducked in my seat! It was so cool!

I love when that kind of thing happens and just for a split second you are reacting instinctively! They had a ride at Universal Studios Florida that made you feel like that, you saw it coming at you and the whole audience ducked.

Ha ha yeah, I do this all the time as I'm gaming. I constantly swerve and squirm around on my bed , avoiding blows and missiles and what not.


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


Middas, Rain's Hand 3

Cool but pleasant weather. Party heads toward Hackdirt, starting about mid-morning.

Renee and Jada met a new follower for the party, named Arraya. Arraya is a very rare type of person, ghostly in appearance, though she is not really a ghost. I'm not sure if she's supposed to be undead. Anyway, she was met in Chorrol's chapel. It is unclear whether a Party of Five will be good or not. Maybe having two casters around (since Haili is also magically-trained) might be too much. But RG3 reasoned it would be good once she's luring vampires out of Fort Carmala.

Arrived to Hackdirt about mid-day, and stopped in Moslin's Inn to chat about any vampire menace which might be occurring. Everyone in Hackdirt was acting strange though; nobody would speak to Renee at all.

After being attacked by three separate people in Hackdirt (killing all three, don't worry, all of these were hostile Brethren, not named NPCs) Renee decided to just head back to Chorrol. The party would need to take down Carmala without advice from those who live in Hackdirt. As it turns out, the day was getting too late for an effective vampire attack, and it had been foggy all day anyway.

We really have the place to ourselves again, mirocu. I wonder where everybody goes?

I might start posting these RG3 snippets over at Beth too, just 'cause. I want to wait until a clear moment shows up though that I can introduce her over there.

--------------------------------------------------
Turdas, Rain's Hand 4,

Days Passed: 221

Ah much better. Full sunlight today. Look out vampires!

Renee gathered the entire party, and headed straight for Fort Carmala.



Almost as if on cue though, as soon as the party began to fall into the valley in which Carmala lay, it became progressively foggier. Renee left the party in front of Carmala, and headed back to Hackdirt, to see if anybody wanted to talk about what's supposedly going on there.

Nobody would speak to her though.* Renee decided everybody in town is simply nuts. Maybe something is wrong with their water supply.

Headed back to Carmala to begin the proper vampire hunt, which went very well. Four of them were found this time, along with a few skeletons and rabid rats. By the time Renee lured the first vampire out, the day had become full sunlight again, meaning that the vampires would not have a chance at all, once greeted by the entire rest of Renee's party, along with the sun itself.

By the time it was all over, and the entire party searched through Carmala's locked treasure chests, it was now nighttime. Renee made one last effort to speak to people in Hackdirt, only to find locked doors, and the Moslin Inn's owner simply missing from his desk.

An odd fact about the Party of Five: they get along fabulously. Nobody has been snapping at one another, which makes everyday life for Renee Gade III so much easier. Of course, things may change when the party meets jealous and petty Gabrielle, Renee's friend.

*Even though Gabs is also a CM Partners follower, for some reason she and the others eventually wind up fighting if they spend too much time together. Next thing I know, I have to console tcai, and RP that RG3 has gotten everybody to chill.

Maybe they know the last one gets the tab?


How good of ms Gade the Third to keep hunting vampies now that Buffy is in ESO. Well, I guess she could be in Cyrodiil as well, after all...


As for Lothran, he has just returned home from another goblin hunt in Silver Tooth Cave and staying the night at Azura's shrine. Usual shenanigans at Olav's in the evening so everything is as it should

Renee - sounds like a great tactic, luring those vamps out into the waiting sunlit party. Hope everyone keeps getting along.

mirocu - Azura's Shrine is a wonderful place to camp for the night! Nice to see Lothie enjoying his winter in Bruma.

@Renee - did Renee Gade III run into any special vampire in Fort Carmala? The one with a magical broom perhaps?

@mirocu - Lothran spent the night between the dusk and dawn.

No magical broom-lady. Luckily, RG3's tale runs roughly 15 years after Sarah's and it's a good thing they'll never meet.

Acadian: NPC vampires take sun damage in the vanilla game, but this effect moves way too slow, much slower than it does for us. Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul has a setting which makes NPC vampires take the same damage as we do, if one of ours becomes a vamp. So what RG3 does is gets them riled up in their lair, and then lures them outside!

mirocu: See it's good that Lothran hunts goblins, because that is one thing Renee never does, she never goes into goblin lairs. Very rarely.

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

First Seed 5

Cays Passed: 222

Slept 6 hours, and then woke to a fabulously warm day. Visited the Imperial Requisition Agent, And finally, Renee had an item he wanted: an ancient vampire stone....500 gold right there, meaning Renee now had enough money to get the party's gear repaired. A good bulk of this day was spent doing so. It wasn't til late afternoon that the party began to head out of Chorrol.


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


First Seed 6

Warm, lazy day around the Imperial City. Went to get lunch with Gabrielle, bought & sold, and got RG3's claymore of fire repaired, then headed toward the spa for a couple hours.

Then the important stuff. Went to visit the Order to sell vampire dust for good coin, but first they went to Tiber Septim Hotel, where a dark elf woman named Kendrel Vando told Renee about her father, who she claims is the 'best vampire hunter in all Tamriel, no offence". But this man has gone missing due to vampires (as Kendrel herself explained), somewhere near Skingrad, so he can't really be 'best', can he?

Kendrel told Renee where to go, to possibly meet this man.

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


First Seed 7

Location: Goddess Store

Renee got her Claymore of Burning recharged (300 gold), and also a Staff of Silence (800). This staff never gets used by her personally; instead one of her followers often carry it. She then couldn't resist a splurge on a complete set of Athena Silver Chainmail` (nearly 900 more) leaving her with just 66.

Time to get out of the Imperial City!

Gabrielle really wanted to come this time, but the party would be too big if everybody was present. First things first: Fel and Jada would be absolutely necessary. But what about the mages? Renee had trouble picking between Haili and Arraya (her new, magical ghostly companion). In the end, she left both of them behind to protect Maple Cottage. So now this trip to Skingrad would comprise of RG3, Gabrielle, Felrika, and Jada. A foursome. Good to go.

As usual, they didn't get very far though. Spent the night in Wawnet Inn, matter of fact. It wasn't actually night when party got there, but a thick fog had rolled in...yeah, that's a good enough excuse.

Morndas, Rain's Hand 8

Days Passed: 225

Just when it seems the rain might not return, it's torrential outside. Party begins to head to Skingrad though, bad weather is never an excuse for no travel.

The weather cleared up as they climbed the hill into the Great Forest though. There were some enemies in there: mostly trolls, and one will 'o wisp. The party stopped in Oranstad Township, and had to spend the night sleeping outside, because this town's inn is still under construction (I mean, c'mon mod-maker, no inn? I'll have to add this myself, I guess).

Do you use a mod that advances time while repairing gear or do you fast forward the time yourself?

Oh, I forward time myself. In some cases, the smith does all the work, in other cases, Renee herself grabs a repair hammer (along with Felrika her Nord companion) and if this is so, it doesn't take as much time as when the smith works alone.

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

Turdas, Rain's Hand 9

Location: Oranstad Township

Quest: Find Vendrel the famous vampire hunter (or any trace of him) in a "secret" manor outside of Skingrad.

Amazingly, Renee did not get sick, even though the party slept outside, and it had been raining coldly all night.

And this rain continues on into the morning. She changes into her new Athena armor, which is really not warm enough for this cold, wintery weather, but it turns out her legion armor suit is not being carried by the horse. Uh oh, where did it go?

The rain clears up as the party heads toward Skingrad. They get there around mid-day. Renee didn't have enough money for anything (not even renting a room or buying a requisition) so she sold one of her bandit rings to Colovian Traders. This gave her 63 more gold, which was enough to buy a bandit death requisition, which meant 524 more gold. (Requisition agents pay more, you see).

Rain falls outside, as Renee & Gabrielle get cozy in West Weald Inn. Renee has not been able to find anyone who knows about vampires, or Ano or Kendrell or any vampire hunters. Time for a trip into the CS to make a map-marker for this quest, since no NPCs in Skingrad offer any advice where the dang place is located.

*Restoration advanced to Journeyman level during this session.

Just spent a few busy hours with Elenin the Altmer.

I created her a year or so ago - I think I posted about it on another thread here. I wanted to play a female Altmer and had already come up with the name, but that was about it. I had a notion of someone who looked relatively normal most of the time, but fought in really over-the-top bound armor, but when I finally found a good face, she took off on her own.

Elenin has some tragedy that I'm still not clear about in her relatively recent past. As near as I've worked out so far, she had a lover who was killed - I think by a vampire (which opens up the tantalizing possibility that he's not actually dead, but is himself now a vampire). She carries a keepsake from him - an enormous claymore with a cross-shaped hilt. She doesn't use it though - she's very much a pure mage. She just can't part with it.

I use Pimpskinny's awesome Paladin Mod with her - it's a great fit, since her history has made her hostile to undead and particularly to vampires, but underneath it all, she's very compassionate. So she gets to hunt down and kill undead of all sorts, then release them from their curse.

So... it'd been months since the last time I played her, and I'd left her with nothing really pressing to do. But I was in the mood to spend some time with her, so I started her up. In browsing through her journal, I saw that she hadn't yet returned to Chorrol to check in on the presumably reunited Jemane brothers, and that seemed like the sort of good-hearted thing she'd do, so off she went to Chorrol.

She got in relatively late and just got a room at the Oak and Crosier. Then she got up the next morning and tracked down the Jemanes, and found that they wanted her to investigate their family home, Weatherleah. AND she found out that apparently Seed-neus' daughter Dar-ma was missing. After asking around a bit, she was told that Sabine Laul at the Fighters Guild would most likely know where Weatherleah was, so she swung by the Guild and talked to her, then went by Northern Goods and Trade and talked to Seed-neus.

She decided that Dar-ma was the more pressing problem, so she went by Hackdirt first, only to get the brush off from the whole town. She finally met one guy who was willing to talk to her, but he wanted her to come by his house after dark. It was about 2 in the afternoon then, so since she had some time to kill, she hiked the rest of the way up to Weatherleah and found three ogres there. She dispatched them fairly easily (they're big and slow and she's a pure mage), then hiked back down to Hackdirt and got there just in time to meet with Jiv and find out about Dar-ma.

She happened on one of the Brethren in Hackdirt caverns (he wandered out of a side cave right after she came down the ladder and saw her and charged her), but he went down with a single shot of her multi-element touch destruction spell. Then she got Dar-ma out, led her to her horse and followed her back to town to make sure she arrived safely. And she qualified for a level up along the way, so that night went to level 5 (at 65 hours playing time, which is actually a bit slower than I prefer, but much better too slow than too fast).

The next morning, she tracked the Jemanes down again, then left for Weatherleah, then went back to the Gray Mare when she discovered that Reynald hadn't actually followed them, then left for Weatherleah again. The trip was sort of eventful, just because she hadn't taken the direct route from Chorrol to Weatherleah when she went on her own, so they ran into a few wolves, a boar and an Imp along the way. The brothers, in spite of Guilbert's insistence that they weren't fighters and Reynald's alcoholic stupor, handled themselves quite well, and they arrived at Weatherleah at about noon.

I played it that in the course of asking around about Weatherleah, which is "south of Fort Carmala," she learned that Fort Carmala was home to some vampires, so she swung back around and up the road past Hackdirt and to the fort, then went in and cleaned the place out, redeeming each of the vampires along the way.

And she's currently parked outside the door to Fort Carmala. She's going back to Chorrol for the night, but I'm not sure what'll be next.

Elenin sounds like an interesting and fun character to play. Her backstory strikes a chord with my own little elf - a love stolen by evil forces. Enjoy your time with Elenin!

Good to have Elenin around, we can never have enough undead-hunters, imo.

I know what you mean about "leveling too slow". I can remember Luci Pheria, my dark elf witch who actually lived at Weatherleah (pre-quest) because it suited the image of the 'storybook witch who lives in the woods' I was going for. Anyway, I believe I put all her Majors so that none of them were things she'd regularly use, except maybe Restoration. So she became perpetually stuck at Level 3. This seemed cool at first, but eventually I wanted to see some more enemies in her game, other than rats and ordinary wolves and such.

Rain's Hand 10

Days Passed: 227


Renee Gade III sleeps a lot, gets party together, and then decides to just go exploring. *

It didn't take long to find the place, the so-called "secret" manor, but Vendrel the famous vampire hunter was not there. Renee managed to find his book though, in which he described having to leave his manor because somebody found out about it, and also he wrote about some sort of vampire cult hidden somewhere near or even IN the Imperial City. This makes sense too--all the vampires attacking the I.C. lately...where did they all come from?

Although the party was looking forward to a leisurely walk toward Kvatch, it looks as though this will have to wait. They must head back to the Imperial City, at once!

They got back to Oranstad Township by the time night was falling, and spent the night in the place's new Oranstad Inn, which is open for business on its very first day (thanks to me, yah!).

*I have a feeling this "manor" is located just west of Skingrad, because we did this quest before.

@Renee - good job on the inn.

More and more, that's what I love about this game. I get an idea for something or see something that I think should be there or shouldn't be there or should look like this or whatever, so I just do it. In part I do like the feeling of accomplishment from doing those things, but more it's just that it makes it more satisfying to play the game when the world is the way I think it should be.

On that note, I didn't actually play Elenin today. After the events from yesterday, she went back to Chorrol, then I fast-traveled her over temporarily to Maigrets' Maple Leaf Cottage.

I've had that house in my games for years now, but nobody's ever actually used it. It's something I consider, at least briefly, for most characters, but it just hasn't been right for any of them.

I started thinking about it while I was playing yesterday though, and I think it could work really well for Elenin. It wouldn't be her current home - it'd be the home she shared with her now dead (or possibly undead) lover. It's quaint and cozy and, maybe more to the point, it's right down the (Roads of Cyrodiil) road from Fort Vlastarus, which is a vampire dungeon.

So I took Elenin over there to check it out, but I didn't bother playing it, since she didn't really go there, and probably isn't going to go there at least for quite a while - it's just too painful. I'm tentatively thinking that the climax of her story is going to be her return - possibly to a showdown at Fort Vlastarus. But for the time being, I knew that the house wasn't quite right for what I was envisioning, so I moved her over there so she could check stuff out in-game. I finished that up earlier today, but then I wasn't quite sure what Elenin would want to actually do next, and I feel like she's at an important point in her story, so I need to be sure that I get it right, so I decided to just let her percolate in Chorrol for a while. I'm pretty sure at least that the house is going to be the house she shared with her lover, and that Fort Vlastarus is going to figure into things, but I feel like I still need to work out some details before I continue with her story. When I come up against something like this, I find that the best thing to do is just set the character aside. It'll wander through my head off and on while I'm doing other stuff, and sooner or later, an idea will come to me.

Since I had so much fun with Elenin's pure magery, I decided to switch to another pure mage I haven't visited in quite a while - Ughoth gro-Sharam, who's my arrogant and powerful Orc mage (as opposed to Bogmok gro-Lob, the morose and cowardly Orc mage). He's just killing time waiting for his next quest for the Mages Guild, in pursuit of his single-minded goal of becoming arch-mage, so we just went out and did some dungeon diving. I figure I'm going to give him another week or two in-game before I play it that he got word to report back to Traven for his next quest. He's not doing much other than the Mages Guild, and I don't want him to finish the quest line too soon.

Since he lives in Frostcrag, so has access to the teleporters, he could go pretty much anywhere to dungeon dive. He's been doing some work for Umbacano, and hadn't yet visited all of the sites he discovered, so, since it was convenient to Bravil, he teleported down there, then hiked up to Wenyandawik. That was pretty easy, and when he was done, he teleported (custom spell) back up to Frostcrag for the night. It's now the next morning and he's going to port down to the IC to sell loot, then look into maybe doing another Ayleid statue dungeon.

Well.... since I appear to have killed the thread....

I'm doing something lately that'll likely be of interest to exactly one person here.

I finally got around to tracking down and getting and watching the complete run of the anime Claymore - the origin of the character Teresa of the Faint Smile. And probably not surprisingly, watching it made me want to spend time with one of my claymore-wielding characters. But not just any claymore-wielding character - it really needed to not only be a female character, but a particularly noble, honorable and strong female character.

And who better than Kyla?

I just now realized that I didn't take any screenshots of her. I've got a bunch from the old days, but I'd have to track them down. Or take some new ones.

Anyway - some of the Beth old-timers should remember Kyla. She's a Dunmer who grew up in Cheydinhal, daughter of a formerly wealthy and influential family fallen on hard times. She went to the IC to fight in the Arena, but had something of a crisis of conscience when she realized that the combatants she was killing were people more or less just like her. She quit the Arena and started traveling the land, using her strength and her skill to help people in need. She's easily the most noble and honorable character I've played, and the one for whom I have the most respect. And she's smoking hot too.

In setting it up, I discovered that it had been almost three years since I'd spent any time with Kyla, so I had to play with her mod setup a bit first, but then off we went, and it was so nice to be with her again.

First I got her house organized and spiffed up a bit (since I know much more about modding now than I did at the time I parked her), then we did a quick warm-up run through Capstone Cave, then we set out just to see what she could find.

She's done a couple of the Ayleid ruins she heard about from Umbacano, and a couple of other dungeons that just piqued her interest, and is sort of considering doing some more work for the Fighters Guild. That was a thing she started fairly late in her career, but she found she really didn't like the FG much. Modryn's a good guy, but she just didn't like most of the guild members. She doesn't know yet that she's soon going to get a note from Bothiel at the AU, asking her to track down some parts for the Imperial Orrery that were stolen.

Mostly it's just been a ball traveling with her - getting back into the swing of a pure claymore fighter - standing until the last second then unleashing a power attack, or dodging a swing then stepping in just far enough to hit the opponent with the tip of her blade. And just as it was back in the day, it's just so pleasant to see the world through her eyes. She's just such a fine person.

Oh I remember Kyla! So nice to see her back in action!

Kyla returns! She was always my favorite of your old characters.

The whole glass cannon claymore character is a lot of fun in Oblivion. It is a lot harder to master that style in Skyrim, though it is doable there.

And you watched Claymore! I have just started re-watching it for my tenth time or so, and just got to the Teresa of the Faint Smile episodes. While my character Teresa has no similarities with the anime character (other than the faint smile of course), Persephone OTOH, is heavily inspired by the anime.

I sort of wondered about the Teresas.

I knew that you were a fan of Claymore - I've seen you mention that in the past - but I didn't know that it was the source for the name Teresa of the Faint Smile until I saw that that was the name of one of the episodes.

When I got to the point at which the character's introduced, I was looking for other correspondences, but was sort of surprised to not see as much as I'd sort of expected. There's a basic, underlying "tone" to the characters that's similar, but arguably only to the extent that the Claymore Teresa softened after meeting Clare.

As I think about it, your Teresa might actually remind me more of Clare than of Teresa. It's been quite a while since I read any of her adventures though, so I can't be sure.

I wouldn't have known it last week, but now I can see right up front how Persephone is obviously influenced by the Claymores.

And a last, entirely peripheral, note on Claymore - the only problem I really had with it was Raki. It seemed like all he ever did was blubber and scream Clare's name (or Priscilla's name), and it just made me want to punch him. Hard.

I had a lot of choices when I got inspired to play a claymore fighter, just because I enjoy them so much that I've made a bunch of them. But Kyla was the first, and still has a special place in my heart, and not just as a claymore fighter, but as a decent and honorable person. I had thought that she was pretty much entirely retired, but I guess that's not the case after all. And it's been a joy to travel with her again, just because she's so straightforward, and so worthy of respect.

As for the details - all of the following took place over the course of about two weeks her time:

First, she swung down from Bruma and across the Orange Road, then up to Moranda, since she'd learned from Umbacano that that was one of the ruins that likely held a statue, and it did. Then she made her way down toward Chorrol, planning just to spend the night there before going to the IC the next day, but she found a messenger waiting for her, and a request from Bothiel at the AU to investigate the theft of some Dwemer artifacts, so she instead headed out into the West Weald. She fell into something of a routine doing that - she'd arrive at a camp site sometime in the afternoon or evening and scout it out. She tried to find the courier so she could focus on it and be sure to recover the artifact, then she just dealt with whatever other bandits might be there as necessary. Then she'd spend the night at that camp, and set out the next morning for the nearest town, to sell loot and restock any supplies she might need, then it was on to the next camp to do it again. Other than that, she dealt with a lot of Minotaurs and Minotaur Lords, a few Ogres and a handful of other creatures, and spent a couple of days just exploring and taking in the sights.

On the way south from the last camp, she happened on an isolated farm and ended up battling some enormous and powerful brown bears of the behalf of the farmer.

Then, by way of Skingrad, she made her way back to the Imperial City. Currently, she just left Umbacano's and encounted Claude Maric (who she can tell is plainly not to be trusted), then swung by Rindir's to sell the loot she'd accumulated on the last leg of the trip, and is now on her way to the AU to deliver the Dwemer artifacts.

Ahh, that brings back memories.

After playing Skyrim and now ESO for the past couple years, my memories of Cyrodiil in TES IV are quite idyllic. The cool shade of the West Weald. The open rolling hills between Kvatch and Chorrol. The humid moodiness of Blackwood. The golden sun on the golden grass of the Gold Coast. The crystal clear air of the Jeralls. And above it all, the view of the White Gold Tower from nearly anywhere in Cyrodill.

I know what you mean about a noble, decent character. Julian of Anvil was that for me, and remains so in her ESO incarnation. I too, have a particular fondness for playing her. It's good that you have such characters that you truly enjoy playing. It's like old friends . . .

It was the anime Claymore that got me into playing Oblivion. The first time I tried the game it would not run on my computer. I would literally move the mouse, and five minutes later the cursor would move. I never even managed to create a character. Then years later after watching Claymore I was scouring the web for goodies related to it. I found an Oblivion mod that adds Claymore swords and armor.

So I gave Oblivion another try, and thankfully it worked on the computer I had by that time. My first character was Clare, who used the Claymore armor and sword. I just sort of wandered around bashing things for about a month with her. I realized that Oblivion was a lot of fun, and decided to try again with a more serious character. Teresa of the Faint Smile was born.

Back then I always had trouble coming up with names for characters in games. I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to naming. So they had to be just right. I tended to reuse them from game to game, and generally got them from anime, books, or movies. Hence taking the names of Clare and Teresa. Since then I came upon the idea of using the names of goddesses for characters, or people from legends, myths, and real life history. Hence Persephone, Hecate, Hera, Banba, Tomoe Gozen, Oda Hidetaka, Le Chevalier D'Eon, Loviatar, Holland Smith, etc... I used to hate coming up with names for characters. Now it is one of the most fun parts of creating a character.

@haute ecole rider - it's sort of an odd thing - I'd forgotten how pleasant it is to travel with someone that noble. I have other generally decent characters - the majority of them easily - but somehow it's just not the same. I think it's that they generally have their own quirks - their own rough edges and biases and odd motivations and such - that make them a bit murkier. I have other clear-thinking and straightforward characters too, but they tend more toward a sort of neutrality, if not a true clinical amorality. So I spend so much time playing murky, complex characters with motivations and attitudes I might not share or respect, and it's interesting and fun and all, but there's just something about a pure and straightforward and noble character. It's as if I'm bathed in the light that's shining off of her.

@SubRosa - that's an interesting connection - that it was Claymore specifically that got you into Oblivion. I'd be wiling to bet that there's noone else who could say that.

I browsed the Claymore mods, and considered at least trying out the swords, but I haven't had much luck with that sort of thing. Pretty much every time I've tried to make a character into some specific thing, s/he's insisted on becoming some other thing instead.

I used to have a hard time with names too - that's why so many of my early characters have relatively plain names. In part, it amused me to name a Breton mage Bob or a Dunmer assassin Dave, but partly too it was just that I didn't trust myself to come up with an interesting and lore-friendly name for them.

Over time though, I've started to get a handle on just experimenting with combinations of letters and essentially sounding out names. Playing so many Orc characters helped with that.

Kyla...

She delivered the artifacts to Bothiel, then knocked around town for a bit and spent the night at the Tiber Septim, enjoying the creature comforts after a couple of weeks on the road. The next morning, she swung by to see the Orrery in action (and loved it), then she set out for the Roxey Inn. She'd heard that there was a master trainer there, and while she wasn't that interested in further training - she feels confident enough already - she was very interested in meeting a master of heavy armor, and she knew the Roxey was nearby. She was impressed by him - he was just the sort of person she likes most - nice and quiet and even a bit meek on the surface, but with a strong and solid core.

She also picked up a quest from the innkeeper there - to clear out a cave of necromancers back in the hills behind the inn. She hadn't really been intending on fighting again so soon, but it was for a good cause.

She spent that night at the Roxey, then made the trip back up to Bruma the following day, just to drop off a few items she'd picked up and wanted to keep and to sort of check in.

The next day, she set out for Cheydinhal. One of the Ayleid ruins Umbacano had directed her to was nearby.

I haven't quite sorted out how Kyla feels about Cheydinhal. It's where she was raised, and her childhood was a bit rough. She actually ended up in the IC in the first place because she'd come there ostensibly to fight in the Arena, but primarily just to get out of Cheydinhal - fighting in the Arena was just what she believed to be her ticket out.

She doesn't actively dislike Cheydinhal, but it just has a lot of emotional weight for her, and she's not really comfortable there.

So anyway - she actually camped for the night, short of Cheydinhal, and didn't spend long there. She did wander the town a bit, and especially spent some time down by the river, but she was gone and heading for Fanacas by midday. Oh, and while she was there, she ran into Burz gro-Khash. She joined the Fighters Guild a long time ago, but was a bit put off by them and had stopped doing jobs for them after that whole thing with those drunken louts in Leyawiin. But she'd been sort of considering maybe doing some more work for them, so she stopped to talk to Burz. As soon as he called her "meat," she was immediately reminded of why she'd stopped working for them in the first place, so she just walked away.

The ruin was fairly straightforward - overrun by vampires, but set up so that she had a pretty easy time getting through it. She found the statue and swung back by Cheydinhal to offload some loot, and it's now early evening and she's on the road, heading toward the IC.

ha, welcome back to Chorrol! Things tend to fluctuate here, so no worries about that. Personally I haven't been online or gaming these last few days, I'm looking forward to getting back into it all soon.

Love reading about Kyla, I remember her from the past too.

Well.... I knew I hadn't really killed the thread. It was just a good lead-in to another post.

I hit an odd sort of a wall with Kyla today. She carries a bow, but she only uses it occasionally to draw off opponents. She's not really interested in fighting with a bow - she didn't learn swordsmanship for nothing.

The bow she's currently carrying is Ebony, and it's enchanted to do minor amounts of elemental damage over 5 seconds of duration, along with some attribute drains - speed, strength and agility - also for 5 seconds. I know what I was thinking when I made that bow - it's designed to set opponents up for a subsequent swordfight - but the more I thought about it, the less I liked the idea. I don't think Kyla would want to gain a somewhat "unfair" advantage over an opponent by draining their attributes. That implies that she couldn't handle them at full power.

She picked up another Ebony bow in a chest in Fanacas, and encountered a Minotaur Lord on the way back, so had a Grand soul in Azura's Star, so it seemed a good time to enchant a new bow. She'd just made the trip from the IC to Cheydinhal, so the road was clear, so she could just keep the Grand soul until she got back to the AU, then do the new bow.

And now she's saved in front of an altar in the Chironasium, and I have no idea what to do with her bow. I just can't come up with enchantments that make sense for her character.

We'll see...

Perhaps something to keep the target out of the way of her fighting someone else, such as Paralyze? Long enough to have a sword fight with whoever else is present. Then they have their own battle once the first one's over.

Have you tried the old roleplayer's trick though, "ask your character what she wants?"

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Turdas, Rain's Hand 11

Rainy and cold again the next morning. Party gets an early start. Renee decides it's time for some raiding, and decides to stop at Ceyatatar, just to see if any new band of rogue mages has invaded the place, and surely they have.

The rain eventually clears up, while the party (except for Gabrielle, who stays behind with the horse) takes down Ceyatatar. By the time they get done and are back at the horse, it is getting dark. They decide to head back to Oranstad. On the way back, they are attacked by three vampires.

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Fredas, Rain's Hand 12

Spent the first half of this day getting stuff repaired; once Oranstad's smithy is finally open. By the time this is done, Renee had just 33 gold, and it got cold & rainy outside, once again. Must be why they call this month "Rain's Hand". And once again, the rain stopped about mid-day.

Got to Weye just as sun was going down, had dinner. On the way into the Imperial City (back home to Maple Cottage) Renee had a thought that perhaps she should look beneath the Imperial City, in its sewers, for this vampire menace. She decided she should speak to Kendrel in the Tiber Septim Hotel again for more info.

First thing party did was to visit Roland Jenseric though, so they could get some money for several vampire dusts they'd collected.

Mmm... I hadn't considered Paralyze (or anything similar) since the intent is to use the bow to draw off enemies - the ones she hits are the ones she's preparing to fight, and she attacks from sneak so the others aren't alerted.

That's an interesting idea though.

And yeah - I asked her. That's how I do pretty much everything. It was getting inside her head that initially led me to realize that she was uncomfortable with the notion of draining her opponents' attributes - it seems dishonorable.

The only thing I knew she wanted was something that would make mages easier to deal with. Since she doesn't have (or particularly want) enough marksman skill to one-shot them, and since they run as soon as they're alerted, and since she fights with a claymore, they're a hassle to deal with. I ended up going with Drain Magicka 100 for 6 seconds plus 5 points of Fire damage for 6 seconds (so it'll be easy to keep track of them, and of whether or not the drain is still in effect). It won't have a whole lot of effect on fighters, which is fine anyway, and it'll at least hamstring mages a bit - hopefully make them a bit more likely to draw a weapon and engage. We'll see how it works out - she's at a point at which Ebony bows are fairly common, and grand souls are very common, and money's no problem, so if that doesn't do, she can always do another one.

Didn't do much with her beyond that though. She was done in the IC, so she hiked back up to Bruma and home. I think she's going to stay around there for a few days, then maybe head south to investigate the last two Ayleid ruins Umbacano mentioned.

Something tells me that that's going to pay off.

You could go with a Drain Speed instead. That will make it harder for the enemy mages to run away. Or a Silence, whose use against mages is self-explanatory!

where is "home" for Kyla?

Incidentally, I was reading some old posts over at Beth and came across one in which we were all talking about our guys & gals homes. And you (gpster) told us that you made a home for one of your guys on some island. You spent all this time making a home for the guy. Once you were done, you were surprised to find that the guy didn't want to go adventuring anymore! He'd become too comfy just where he was; why should he go down in some holes, to kill some monsters?

Sundas, Rain's Hand 14

Foggy and cool. Renee Gade III puts her Xena armor on.

Today shall be the day. Renee gathers up the entire party, and even hires a new follower (Mimi, who she'd worked with long ago), but tells Gabrielle to stay behind. Gabrielle has no business for what's to come. The idea is to traverse the entire Imperial City area, and wind up at one of the sewer exists, where Renee will slowly lure all the vampires she can out into sunlight, and several eager warriors and mages!

But the day grew long, and pretty soon it was mid-afternoon. The sky had cleared, bright and sunny. Spur of the moment, the party decided to surround a grate in the Elven Gardens District. But there was nothing down there except rats and mudcrabs. Renee did not want to waste any of the fire enchantments on her two swords on such nuisances.

She remembered Kendrel, the vampire hunter she'd met in Tiber Septim Hotel. Maybe it would be a good idea to find her, and tell her that her father (Ano Vando) was not in his secret manor home.

But Kendrel had nothing to say.* Since it was beginning to get dark, the party decided to stay in the Market District's Merchant Inn for the night. Next morning, they would begin looking for other sewer grates to explore.




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Morndas, Rain's Hand 15

Days Passed: 231

New Level: 13 ... added +3 to IQ, +2 to AG, and +2 to End

Cold and rainy in the early morning again, unfortunately. This will make it difficult, even just getting around the Imperial City's exterior can be tougher with bad weather. But it turns out, most of this day got wasted, until we figured out that Kendrel needs to SEE her father's journal in order for this quest to advance (the journal is not a Quest Item, meaning she won't have anything to say if it's not brought to her).

In other words, the quest is not broken! My fault entirely for missing a few details.

After speaking to Kendrel, she finally tells us she thinks there is some sort of chapel, outside the Imperial City (so it's a good thing those sewers weren't searched, can you imagine?), in which some powerful vampire or vampires are hiding. Since it was now getting too late to really make an effective attack, and the rain would make it difficult anyway, Renee & party decide to search the Imperial Isle, to at least try and find the place. The party currently includes Haili, Mimi, Arraya, and Felrika. Jada has gone off disappeared again. She didn't show up until the party was already halfway headed toward the Imperial Prison sewer gate.

Soon it was nightfall though, still raining. Visibility cut back quite a lot. Renee hadn't eaten much and was getting exhausted, but would not give up her search. Not until rounding the bottom end of the Imperial City isle, and heading back toward Maple Cottage, that is. Next day, hopefully it would be sunny, and RG3 will ride her horse, without the party, which will make finding the place go quicker.

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Tirdas, Rain's Hand 16

Morning is cool and cloudy. Again, no sun. Renee got on her horse, took her warriors (Fel and Mimi) to her Waterfront property. Then she began her search. Where can this vampire holdout be?

The entire isle was criss-crossed, which took all day of course. The broken-down chapel where they've been hiding was finally located though, just north of Fort Nikel. By then it was dark outside, and the cave's initial guard was the only one Renee had time to take down. But this guy was smart--he refused to run outside at all, after Renee Gade tried to lure him, meaning that it might not make any difference whether the place was sieged during daytime or not.

Middas, Rain's Hand 17

Days Passed: 234

A mixed day, it rained for part of the morning, but this blew over to complete sunlight by noon. The party today included everyone except Felrika, who Renee gave the 'day off', without telling her why*

The siege into the vampire's hideout was difficult, but in all, eight more vampires have been slain, and Roland gladly rewarded 100 gold for each of these. The plan these vamps had was to apparently summon an Oblivion gate into the Imperial City, right near the White Gold Tower. Yeah, can you imagine? Good thing this was stopped. Unfortunately, Kendrel's father was killed by these vampires, she learned this by reading some note one of the vampires had.

After it was all done, Renee Gade III brought the party to Maple Cottage, but had Mimi follow her to the Temple District, where she was paid, then dismissed.

By the time Renee got back to the Tiber Septim Hotel, it was rainy, cold, and completely the dead of night. She found Kendrel in the lobby (she's been staying here for days), where she gave her the bad news about her father. This news saddened Kendrel, but it also enraged her. She began talking of 'avenging her father's death', and then asked Renee if she could accompany her to find more vampire lairs.

But RG3 had different ideas in mind. She thinks it might be best if everyone takes a break from vampire hunting, especially after the ordeal they'd all gone through. There may be some other things they need to take care of, like finding that fine Ayleid Carafe which had gotten stolen from a merchant haul, and could be in any of 4 locations.



Sneaking on hillside

Dreary weather as RG/Xena leaves Gabbie home and does some vampire hunting!

And Lothran just keeps on truckin' in the Jeralls. Just cleared out Silver Tooth Cave and the road to Azura's shrine. The day before the road west was cleared along with Capstone Cave.



Nothing out of the ordinary, business as usual

Whoa, Lothran has a truck? Are you playing Big Rigs now? Kidding. Sounds good that Lothran is keeping the northern reaches nice and clear. Kahreem will be up there soon.

Acadian: The Gabrielle NPC is a pain to have around. I'm not sure what her mod author was thinking. The real Gabrielle (on the show) doesn't always fight, in fact she often gets between fights, since she's a witty bard, she tries to talk people out of stuff sometimes. This works on the show, in the game though...

I have a couple updates to post, they're both shorties.


Fredas, Rain's Hand 19

Days Passed: 236

Finally, sunlight! Cyrodiil's landscape erupts with color!

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Loredas Rain's Hand 20 and Sundas, Rain's Hand 21

Two relaxing days in Chorrol. Renee and two of her friends spent most of Loredas at the bathhouse, and most of Sundas in the chapel.


Headed to Chorrol

One with Stendarr

Bathhouse Fun (notice Renee Gade's main follower in the background never undresses fully).

Such a shame.

Yeah it is rather weird, Lopov. All the CM Partners take off all their clothes, but that NPC (Felrika) is from a different mod, and so I like to RP that's she's just "modest." Fel also refuses to sneak, which is cool because not all of our characters do this.


Morndas, Rain's Hand 22

Day's Past: 238

Back to work on this beautifully warm day. Renee gathers her party together, then heads north to Black Rock Caverns to deal with the bandits who live there. Thoronir had mentioned that some sort of powerful, magical relic (a ring? ... a helmet? ) would be found here. This was also one of the places Seed-Neeus had mentioned might have her stolen vase.

The bandits in here were average, though they used a bit more magic than usual. A couple of them had chameleon items, somehow.

We got really lucky with our questing though. Not only were a couple of gauntlets found which provide detect life for free, but the Ayleid carafe Seed-Neeus was looking for was also in this first cave. Now we don't have to trek to the other three. Good job, girls.

Spent night at Oak & Crosier.


*note: I think I added those "detect life" items as one of my made-up quests, though I can't remember because all these RG3 updates happened several months ago! The Ayleid vase was part of an Enhanced Economy quest.

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Tirdas, Rain's Hand 23

Pleasant weather today. Renee Gade III returned the stolen Ayleid carafe back to Seed-Neeus, and was rewarded a whopping 64 gold for this*. She also bought two bear pelts, because several months ago she'd been accused of killing one of her Fighters Guildmates, so she got kicked out of the guild. After visiting the guild's official leader in Chorrol, she learned she'd have to collect and hand over 20 bear pelts if she wants to rejoin. Right now, she's up to 12.

Afterwards dealing in Seed-Neeus's shop, Renee and Felrika went to the spa for a quick soak (quick, as in 3 or 4 hours), and then the entire party began heading back toward the Imperial City, where Roland might have more vampire-hunting things for RG3 and her party to do.

*I was laughing about this 64 gold payment.

Renee probably spent more gold on bear pelts than she was rewarded for returning the carafe.

Lothran raided Rielle today and surprisingly he found two items to his Winter collection that he didn't already have; a daedric dagger and a scroll. Snazzy

That makes me happy, that you're still discovering little things like this.


Middas, Rain's Hand 24

Days Passed: 241

Active Quests: 32
Qusts Compltd: 67

Fame: 18
Infamy: 5
Days Jailed: 0



A relaxing day which started out sunny, but turned into a torrential downpour. Once again, Renee Gade III is nearly out of money. Her financial state always bounces back and forth. One day, she might have over a thousand gold on her person. The next day, she might barely have enough to feed herself. Though she's got thousands saved in the Bank of Cyrodiil, banks are not always easy to get to.

She is in luck though, her horse carries an enchanted set of fur greaves in its inventory, and these are items she'd never wear. Thoronir happily buys these for just over 300 gold, and a variety of rings Renee's looted from various enemies earns her roughly another 100.

Finally, the three of them go to Cylben Dolovas's house, to sell three vampire dusts to Roland Jenseric. "Excellent. Another vampire has been slain. Here's your reward," he says. "Excellent. Another vampire has been slain. Here's your reward," he says. "Excellent. Another vampire has been slain. Here's your reward," he says. My gosh. Three times in a row. Another 300 gold in that coinpurse.

Time to visit Goddess Store, one of Renee's favorite new places. Not because of all its fabulous clothes and armor sets, but but because one of the 'goddesses' there will recharge any item, at any time the store is open. And she doesn't go on ridiculous extended lunch breaks.

Yeah, it took me by surprise when I actually found two items he didn't already have



Methinks maybe Renee should have a few more gold on her person or stashed away somewhere else. Remember, banks can't be trusted

Yes, in a bear market with subprime mortgages it might be prudent to ignore banks. But this is Cyrodiil my friend. You can't get any more bullish than to invest and save. Or try to. Something like that.


Turdas, Rain's Hand 25

Days Passed: 242

Blustery day, but at least it's not raining. Renee decides to head toward the markets to sell a couple enchanted weapons she's never used, so she can make enough money to get her Bane of Kvatch sword enchanted. This sword is most important for vampire-fighting since it is fire-based in magic, and also carries a lot of magical charges. Otherwise she wouldn't be fussing over it so much.

Later on as night began, Roland Jenseric informed that Skingrad has been reporting vampires in its locale too. There is supposed to be three places to find them: a fort, a cave, and an Ayleid ruin. Each one has its own leader, and each leader has his own signet ring. The party is to collect all three rings, and then return to Roland.

Vampire Huntress' work is never done it seems. Good hunting!

I suppose there is some sort of "end" to Renee's vampire questing....most of the vampire stuff is coming from the Vampire Hunting mod, which has (I think) 28 quests associated with it. Surely, these quests go on for awhile. Important for RG3, since all quests she does (except Arena stuff) is mod-added. She likes to stay busy, so this creates a demand for me to look for stuff for her to do, and write my own stuff into her game.

Not that I'm complaining or anything.


Fredas, Rain's Hand 26

Days Passed: 243

Very foggy, but rather warm. Renee finally gets her Bane of Kvatch sword enchanted, and then gathers up her party to head toward Skingrad. Arrived at the village of Oranstad by nightfall.

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Loredas, Rain's Hand 27



Pleasant day, sunny weather. Arrive to Skingrad just after mid-day, and then spent the rest of the day doing usual townie things.

Miss Gade has an idea: there's a cave she's heard about that might be one of the three locations; matter of fact, Bloodcrust Cavern just has that sort of sound to its name. She will get up before daybreak, after sleeping at West Weald Inn, and then head straight for this cave.

Since she'll be busy tomorrow, which is Sundas, and Sundas is a day she prefers to rest, she spends a lot of time in the Chapel of Julianos with Jada and Felrika (who aren't devout, but tolerate Renee Gade III's devotion toward the Nine).

As for Lothran, he's in his final Bruma hibernation days. Come Sunday he will pack his things, say farewell to his beloved hometown and head for Chorrol. This year he will take the full Orange road route from the crossroads Orange/Silver instead of hiking a bit through the Jeralls and connect with it further west, or bypass it fully and approach Chorrol from the Highlands.


Blimey, this season went by too fast for me!


And now it's time for a re-count!

Checked Honmund's inventory today and he had a total of 357 Clouded Funnel caps which means - *brings out calculator machine* - that he has collected 35 samples this season. Marvelous. Now I have to figure out if it means something

Hey wow, he's already done his season eh? Yea that did go rather quick. I'm a little shocked, honestly. Damn. Maybe it's because we've had a lot of warm weather where I live, and it barely feels like winter half the time in Maryland this year, that winter in general seems really short this year. Still though. He's already going to Chorrol?

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Sundas, Rain's Hand 28

The big day. And there's perfect, sunny weather, just what those vampires hate!

Things went extremely well. Bloodcrust Cavern was easy enough to find, and Renee Gade III lured them out of there one-by-one (sometimes two-by-two) into the full sunlight. Many of these vampires were powerful enough that they could possibly stay outside for awhile, and if she had been alone, there's a chance two vamps at once could especially kill her.

But what they didn't know is Renee's entire party was waiting just outside the cave: Felrika (Nord warrior), Haili (Altmer mage), Jada (Dunmer archer), and the newest addition to the party, Arraya (weird ghostly-looking race. She seems to be a battlemage most of all). With all these others ready for action, the vampires wouldn't last long--maybe a minute in real-time, at the most.

And indeed, one of these vampires was their leader, and carried a special signet ring. As the sun went down, everybody headed back to Skingrad, already wanting to get back to the chapel ASAP. RG3 in particular had been infected with polyporic hemophilia, once again.

Renee - Yay for RG3 and her vamp hunting. Clever tactics, using sun + gang FTW.

mirocu - Wow, it does seem like a fast winter but the fact that Lothie is making preparations to leave Bruma is the surest sign of spring I can imagine. Here's hoping he enjoys a rich warm season of adventuring!