Those vampire hunters certainly are persistent if they follow you into the Soul Cairn! Maybe they are Necromancer Vampire Hunters?

It’s been a lot of fun to play Zanimal as a modded vampire with sun damage and the like. As hard as I tried to get him interested in the Dawnguard vampire questline, he just won’t go for it. He has only changed into a Vampire Lord once, and that was with Lord Harkon right after he got the pure-blood upgrade. I guess he has enough of his own business to attend to instead of running errands for some other boss.

When the Zanimal gets a clear night with full moons he’s going to go wreck diving in the Sea of Ghosts and visit the bones of his past friends and foes. Even with night vision it’s been a little too dark to see much under water at night.

Go into your SkyrimPrefs.ini and find this line:

bDoDepthOfField=

Set it to 0, and it should make things a lot easier to see underwater.

Yeah no doubt. Just when you think all you've got to deal with are soul cairn inhabitants.

I re-created Diablita as her own daughter Elys, to try an experiment. I'd run Diablita as a pure mage, as I didn't want to try making armour to fit her. But the pure mage build is what I'd just done with Vicuña, so it got a bit repetitive. Elys will attempt to combine Two-handed sword with mage armour (Alterations spells). Has anyone else done this and can offer any advice? So far she's done up to visiting High Hrothgar on the MQ, and it seems to work, but I'm concerned that she'll run out of defence at higher levels.

I'll post a picture or two once I've got the texture on her tail right. It took all weekend to get it rigged!

I don’t remember playing a two-handed fighter with Alteration armor, but I’ve played one-handed ones. I would think dual-casting armor with a two-handed weapon would be easier since just one hotkey will switch between the weapon and spells. It’s a lot of fun to play unencumbered by armor, but it’s a problem when you get surprised and don’t have time to cast it or run out of magicka and need to cast it during a long fight. One of mine died in a blade trap and another died when he walked into spikes. Also if memory serves another died when he couldn’t cast healing during a fight. He would have been better off using potions to heal.

Good luck with Elys! I can’t wait to see her tail.

This is the problem so far. The root of the tail where it blends with the buttocks is OK, but there's an obvious seam to the main part, which just doesn't light correctly. I've probably got an inverted normal map or something inherited from the Khajiit tail that provided the skeleton and animations. This is a screenshot, but it looks like it was painted into the picture badly.

Aha, I see. Well, the rest of her looks awesome! I hope the middle part cooperates for you.

Marius managed to pickpocket the Copper and Moonstone Circlet from NPC Jerric without getting his nose ring yanked out or otherwise being mangled by the Nord. He’s presently headed to Eastmarch in pursuit of another Stone of Barenziah. He has 17 so far. We’re using the uesp list as a page from Mercer’s Plan.

I have to wonder what NPC Jerric was doing with a Copper and Moonstone Circlet in his pocket. Was it supposed to be a gift for someone? I don’t recall Jerric ever wearing one. It gave me an idea for more loot for the Thieves Guild quests. “Pickpocket Ysolda’s Panties from Jerric of Kvatch in Whiterun.”

Now if it turns out that Jerric had that circlet with plans to have it enchanted with resist frost for Lil, Marius is gonna be in big trouble!

Marius had an exceptionally difficult day in Sunderstone Gorge. That place is full of oil traps and fire mages, and Marius has not focused on magical defense. At the beginning of the biggest fight one of the enemy mages lit the oil patch that Arissa and Rune were sneaking through. They both took a knee. Even with his resist fire potion Marius had a hell of a time. There was a lot of cover for the mages and he was pretty much blinded by fire so he couldn’t get a shot. Fortunately he could also use the cover to take them down one by one with his blades. He had pre-poisoned one with ravage magicka poison, but it didn’t seem to do much.

Now he’s back home in Riften. After he cashes out his latest haul he’s going to buy some more paralysis poison and then go pick some canis root. Hopefully Brand-Shei will have some netch jelly in stock. What a trip!

Oh, I remember those fire mages and oil traps! Buffy's Breton blood, Lord stone, Agent of Mara and a couple alteration perks max out her magic resist. And since her bow hits very hard, she can trade arrows for fireballs and win at range. That makes her pretty skilled vs mages (or dragons). Her nightmare (as ever) is big dudes with big weapons at melee range.

Anyway, glad Marius and his little gang made it through the fire.

Buffy's experimenting with followers too. Anduniel, Inigo and, now thanks to Grits, Arissa. There's something fantastic about the sounds and animations of having three or four of those big horses around.

AFT + CH is magnificent.

Edit: AFT = Amazing Follower Tweaks / CH = Convenient Horses.

I remember that place too. It is a death trap. Not an easy dungeon for Persephone, with her 50% Weakness to Fire.

Acadian, I’m so glad you’re having fun with Arissa! Marius seems to have lost her. Valdi had Inigo in her first game. I really liked that guy. BTW, I did a little test with Convenient Horses and was able to bring a horse to Solstheim using the horn. Yay! (Though the Zanimal and crew are on foot until I come up with a good reason why a horse would let a vampire ride it. )

SubRosa, that would also be a bad place for a vampire. I was thinking of Capt. Z while Marius was dancing around on fire. Also his bunny Shadow had a bad time. I don’t think he takes damage but the little guy was hopping very fast through the flames. I was shrieking too much to take a screen shot!

It took some doing but Capt. Z was able to sail his ship to Raven Rock. He is presently standing in the ash next to the Earth Stone wondering what the heck is going on. Due to a mod conflict he will be unable to pursue the Dragonborn main quest, so things could get quickly fatal for him. But he wanted to go here. Fingers crossed that he does not go wandering in daylight. One of his mods gives him sun damage.

He plans to take Stenvar and Asrael up the coast hunting for reavers. Eventually he may check in with the authorities in town. He’s in no hurry to receive a blessing on his activities from House Redoran, or as he puts it, “that stuck-up cluster of pricks.”

I’m pretty nervous about the next adventure.

Good luck to the Z-man. Hope he doesn't get kilt - oh. . . wait. . . undead. . . . Well, I hope he doesn't get dusted or sunburned.

Methinks an undead horse like Avrak would not be too picky about a bloodsucker rider.



There is a way to get around doing the Dragonborn MQ, and sort of set things to normal on Solstheim. Open the console and enter these lines. Or better yet, save it as a text file in your Skyrim\Data\ folder. Then open the console and run it by typing bat {Filename}



This will advance the game through all the stages of the Dragonborn MQ, without having to actually do any of it. Since I never play dragonborn characters, I do this with everyone who goes to Solstheim. That way I can sleep in the beds. The downside is that a few MQ dungeons will be blocked off, like the Temple of Miraak and Nchardak. Freia and her dad will be missing from the game as well. There are a few bugs you might encounter because of it however.

If the combat music won't stop playing after finishing the Dragonborn Main Quest, open the console and enter the following:



The appearance of the All-Maker Stones is not changed however (they still have the partially built Miraak buildings around them), and activating one will start the Miraak-worshiper building animation. The only way to change them back to normal is through the Bend Will Shout. You can use the console to gain the shout with the following commands:



I have found I enjoy cleansing the stones. I just roleplay that instead of a Dragon Shout, it is a regular spell. The fights with the Creepy-Crawly guys it spawns are a lot of fun.



Neloth might walk into Nchardak and remain there for the rest of the game. To fix this use the following console command to bring him to you:

xx is the prefix id of Dragonborn. You will have to use TES Mod Manager or Wyre Bash to find out what that is.

This will move him to you. Now open the console again, click on him, and type in:


This will remove him from the game. Now add him once more with the following command:


This should put him back in the game with him following his normal routines.

Somebody needs an Arvak! Or a whole bunch of Arvak clones, so the whole crew can have one each!

And there are mods for various other rideables; my bears were derived from the ones in Like a Boss.

Dusted, lol Acadian. When he dies the mod Better Vampires will actually turn him to dust!

Thank you so much, SubRosa! I ran the file this morning for Zanimal. That will also open up Solstheim for my non-heros. I love the Dragonborn main quest for a very few characters, but it was a huge mistake for the game to start it (by screwing up Solstheim) without the character’s input. I got the battle music and resolved it immediately with your info. I appreciate your help so much!

ghastley, now I want a chaurus mount! If I make a Falmer character it will be your fault!! I think the giant ice wraith would be a good mount for the Zanimal, if perhaps a bit conspicuous. He doesn’t need to worry about chilling his delicates.


In character news I popped into Marius’s world this morning to test a mod, and Arissa showed up. She has an urgent personal matter she needs help with. She sweetened her words with a nice pile of coins first. This is not her first day as a rogue.

Marius is fresh from the victory of restoring the Crown of Barenziah so he was more than happy to offer his help. And Rune’s help of course. Rune is just so nice it’s hard to leave him behind. Marius has occasionally freaked out a little after a particularly close call, and Rune always has a quiet word in those situations. Actually Rune is pretty steady at all times. Anyway as soon as they re-provision they’re off to kick the tail of someone who seems to deserve it. At least that’s how Arissa made it sound. She could certainly be lying, but that would not be much of a problem for Marius. He is also a fan of not telling the truth.

Nice to hear that you're not neglecting Marius. How neat that Arissa had a quest for him!

Buffy's making lots of friends. She ran across a Nordic Spellsword named Sofia who seems a great complement to Buffy's skillset so the two are traveling together at the moment. They ran across Arissa and Inigo in Riverwood and, like Marius' game, Arissa had a quest she wanted help with.

It involves traveling to the Solitude area so Buffy and Sofia said sure. Buffy's gotten very good at escorting horse-mounted parties all over Skyrim. Sometimes those groups have gotten as large as half a dozen two-leggers - all with horses - and at least one or two other critters. Anyway, while in Solitude, she hopes to see Jordis and Anduniel again somewhere between Proudspire and Winking Skeever we figure.

A few nights ago I picked up Persephone's game. She had just finished clearing out Forsaken Cave, except for the bears at the beginning, which she left alone.

Along with my Animal Friend mod, and Kyne's Peace spells, I also created a mod that adds a Standing Stone power called The Wildling that makes animals friendly, the same with Amulets of Kynareth. Given that Persephone is undead, she cannot wear Amulets of the Divines. I roleplay that they burn her, especially Arkay's. So she uses the Wildling to avoid having to kill every animal she comes across. She also has a Kyne's Peace spell to make them play nice with one another, and other travelers.

Persephone made her way back toward Helajarchen Hall, and stopped off at Ironbind Barrow along the way. It is the one with the young Redguard wannabe adventurer and her traitorous Argonian mage mentor. Persephone got the Redguard through it alive. But the Argonian lost his head.

Afterward she found a stair in the back of the barrow that took her up on top of the mountain east of the barrow, overlooking Wayward Pass. From there she headed east along the mountain top, and eventually down to the Word Wall at Mount Anthor. She found a couple of folks there who needed killing.

Afterward she spent the night visiting an old friend whose bier sits over the Sightless Pit. At dawn she headed to Winterhold to sell off some of her loot. While she was there she made her Enchanting and Smithing Skills to Legendary. Afterward she finally headed back toward Helajarchen Hall again, stopping off to clear out Duskglow Crevice along the way.

With that was done, Persephone has now cleared out all of the northern half of the map east of Morthal. That includes all of Whiterun's Hold. She has done all of Eastmarch as well. Only Geirmund's Hall remains in the Rift. I have held off on that because I am not sure if I want to do the Mages College with Persephone. I think she might be doing that soon though. Going to college might be just the thing for this next phase in her life.

She has also explored almost all of Solitude's Hold, but has never been in the city itself. That, and some parts of The Reach and Falkreath Hold are all that is left for her to explore. There is also Solstheim, which she has yet to venture to. I checked her stats, and it says she has discovered 309 locations, and killed more people than small pox. I have been playing her for so long that many of the locations she has explored have respawned more than once. For me that is a record. She is Level 59, which is another record for me.

Anyways, after returning to Helajarchen Hall she spent a few days with the Sofia and Lucia, got her hair done, and puttered around in the garden. She went down in basement where she stores her horde of gold, silver, and jewels and started smithing. In no time at all she got her skill back up into the 90s. Even after all that, she still has a pile of gems. Her stash of Filled Grand Soul Gems also went to training her Enchanting skill back up as well, though it is only up to around 50 or 60.

SubRosa, great shots and explanations. I enjoy that Ironbind Barrow quest as well. Top of the mountain is a pretty spectacular shot!

Wow, 309 locations! Good job, Persephone.

Grits, Zanimal's adventures are insane and in a good way. I never figured you would do the Dawnguard questline. How do you like it so far?

It’s great to read Persephone’s continuing adventures! I love that walk up over the mountain above Ironbind Barrow. Persephone’s time at home sounds like a nice transition to her next stage of life. I can imagine clearing all of those locations gave her an impressive treasure chest! It will be neat to go to college at such a high level. I still haven’t done all of the master ritual quests because characters tend to expire or retire long before they get that skilled. Long may Persephone un-live!

DE, I love the Dawnguard questline. I find that Serana is easy to get along with even from differing perspectives. (If you can ignore the endless “yes, what did you need?”) Heroes want to save her, my jaded knight recognized that she was being manipulated by Serana and still kept her around, and my vampires have wanted to show her the world she missed by being locked up right after getting Molag Bal’ed. I would have liked Lord Harkon to be more interesting, though. But I do enjoy his voice.

Also the Dawnguard heavy armor is one of my favorites, and the sun spells make some interesting paladin-type characters possible. I think the locations are among the best in the game. Castle Volkihar could stand some cleanup, though.

The Zanimal is still hauling around that Bloodstone Chalice having been tasked with doing something with it. I don’t remember what, but he’s already been to the location prior to meeting Lord Harkon. He just followed the smell of addiction. His vampire mod prevents him from receiving any benefit from food, drink, or potions, but we RP that he still enjoys a smoke. Also he drinks a lot of wine, it just doesn’t do anything to him. I doubt if he’ll go far through the questline. He’s having too much fun pillaging.

Serafíne was a fun vampire to play infiltrating the Volkihar. She had a lot of internal conflict and the game’s content worked very well with it. Capt. Z is an enthusiastic vampire but not interested in the politics or religion. As a result he’s not much of a quest guy. If I ever get back into the vampire side it will probably be with a fallen hero character. Perhaps one that didn’t use magic in his mortal life so that the vampire gifts are more appealing. Anyway I can’t see Captain Zanimal running around doing Lord Harkon’s bidding.

Valdi is at the point where she needs to enter the Soul Cairn on behalf of Team Dawnguard. Her game has been paused there for quite a while. Her decision deserves more attention than I can give her right now. I’ve had two werewolves get this far and of course not give up their beast blood. I’m not sure what Valdi is (eventually) going to do.

I forgot to mention that Captain Zanimal found an interesting book in the first reaver fortress he hit. Now he and his raiders Stenvar and Asrael are on the hunt of a lifetime, or in the undead Captain’s case several lifetimes. They’re after the stash of the legendary pirate King of Ghosts, Haknir Death-Brand.

Also they’re hunting horkers to provision the galley. Capt. Z knows that his crew needs to eat. Plus he wonders how the ship’s healer will taste on a high-fat diet.

Buffy has whole passel of two leggers that she can travel with when she (or they) want/need. And she seems to like scouting/leading horse trains around Skyrim. Yet, she keeps going back to her need for just the outdoors, her mare and a four legger as companionship/protection. So she treats the followers as friends and acquaintances that are fun to sometimes travel with.

She's also made a significant move away from armor - going pure clothes and using the mage armor spells - as a trial, mind you. We can craft Triss stuff as either clothes or armor. I continue to love the College mage robes for their practical and neat look (helped even further by a mod). Also for the comments - just as Buffy is a Bosmer in order to get the 'elf' comments, she likes wearing College robes to get the 'wizard' comments. "What do you want, little elf?" and "Fancy robes. . . you some kind of wizard?" and "You must be one of those wizards from the College."

Between relying on spells for summons, bow and, now, armor, she's a busy caster! And she has some cool light effects going as well - muffle (just for looks as she's 'outgrown' the spell), mage armor and a mystic bow (or a spell waiting in each hand).

She recently spent a stint using an orcish bow - we tweaked and smithed it so it was not a step down from her mystic bow. It was fun, but ultimately confirmed that, in Skyrim, she is largely defined as a mystic archer by her mystic bow. I don't think we'll get her pretty blue flaming bow out of her hands again. One concern regarding her mystic bow is the light it puts out in dark dungeons; we are roleplaying that her quiet casting perk that renders casting noise audible only to her and I also renders her magey light effects visible only to her, I (and the camera). Lol.

Grits: "yes, what did you need?" drove me crazy the last time I did the DG questline! Persephone really liked Serana, but that made Persephone want to stake her by the end!

Captain Z is having too much fun pillaging and contemplating a high fat diet to be a vampire soldier! How perfect. He is a pirate after all...

I still think you should do the vampire side with Njall the Unliving. Or as another Deadwalker type character. Unfortunately the questline still forces you to accept Harkon's 'gift'. But you would just have to pretend that never happened. You might have to use the console to change your race back afterward though...


Acadian: I like the recognition you get for wearing the college robes too. Though so far even when she is wearing her new college outfit Persephone is still getting the "You're and alchemist right? Why don't you brew me an ale?" and "Conjure me up a warm bed summoner." The Skyrim guards definitely have a greater sense of humor than those in Cyrodiil.

I discovered something interesting a few days ago when Persephone tried out the Mystic Bow. The mod I made to recolor the Daedric Bow and Arrows with more red changes the appearance of the Mystic Bow as well. I can see all those brighter red parts through the blue glow. It doesn't look very good, so Persephone stopped using it. So the Mystic Bow uses the standard Daedric Bow as a base, and just adds that blue effect on top of it. I thought it would have at least had its own separate texture. Now I see why the vanilla Daedric Bow is so colorless.



In other news Persephone did some puttering around The Rift a few days ago, knocking off a few locations that I had not discovered after all. She also wandered west, and thoroughly explored everything south of Fort Neugrad, all the way to Falkreath and Angi's Camp. Then she turned north, and found her last remaining unexplored place on the Tundra (Bloated Man's Grotto). Except for Giermund's Hall, she has now officially cleared out / explored every location east of Morthal / Falkreath. She has also gotten a lot of things here and there to the west of them as well.

While I was at it, I made her Smithing and Enchanting skills Legendary. Thanks her gigantic stash of ebony, gold, and silver, and flawless gems, her Smithing is already back up to 100, and her Enchanting up to around 75 or so. She still has a bunch of diamonds left over. Her Restoration hit 100 as well, and she has every perk in the tree except the Master Casting perk. I am not sure if there is even a Restoration spell at that level for her to learn. If there is, it is probably one of those anti-undead ones that would hurt her too!

Yesterday she made her way to Winterhold and joined the college. In spite of knowing a list of spells so long it runs down past the screen, she still did not know the one Faralda asked her to cast at the bridge. I swear they must have a script that checks what spells you don't know, and picks one of those. I don't think a single mage character of mine has ever known the spell she asks for.

She attended her first lecture with the Alteration teacher, and got to show off a spell she does know in front of the class. She has the strongest Ward, and with a Restoration of 100 she definitely knows how to use it! She stopped by to talk to the Conjuration teacher, and he immediately wanted her to summon an unbound Dremora. WTF? Why would she want to summon one of those? I had to back up to an earlier save to keep that out of her quest journal.

Finally she went off on the field trip to Saarthal with the rest of the class. She cleared the way of Frost Trolls for them, using only her spells this time. She was at home inside. One thing she knows is graves! Though the big glowy ball thing at the end did surprise even her. She has just made her way back to the college to tell the Arch-Mage what they found.

Neat to follow a high-level Persephone through the College quests. I'll bet she sure can use the ward. I'm surprised Tolfdir didn't ask her to teach the class. Of course, no one's the skilled mage that J'Zargo is. . . just ask him.

Mycharonna is headed back to the Sanctuary, but taking her sweet time getting there. She's had a sudden bout to explore a bit, and (unlike some of my others) she's actually not much of an explorer. She likes messing with the minds of NPCs mostly, so if she finds a cave full of wolves or other such creatures, she usually moves on.

Last I saw her she was in some mill (forget its name) that's right on Lake Ilinata. There's an unoccupied house on the mill's property (because Mych killed its owner) so she's using this house to wait in until it's nighttime.


Never fails, does it? Mycharonna was the same way. She's got all these Conjuration, Destruction, Illusion spells mostly, so Faralda asks her to cast something from the Restoration school. Which Mych never uses.

With Lord Haaf-Mersey, it was Destruction. He never uses Destruction, so that's what she asked from him. At least he didn't have to conjure anything.

No, there's a sure-fire way to get Faralda to demand one you know. Go there specifically to get a cheap spell. Since she sells it for only 30 gold, you stand a good chance of a real bargain. If that's your aim, she'll ask you to cast flames.

Ha ha okay. I'll try that next time if I ever have another who goes to visit Mage's College

I finally (well almost) finished working up the mod's I'll need to play Persephone's grown up children - Sofie and Lucia. Persephemom's Winterhold house Snowhome is finished, except for the navmesh. I also added Persephemom into my Deadwalker mod, along with a sandbox AI package. That way I can use the console to bring her into the game. Tonight I finished creating Sofie, and brought her into the world.

Persephone's daughter Sofie has grown up, and is ready to go out into the world

Sofie is ready for adventure

Great pix! Snowhome looks great and I love Sophie pointing to the map with Persephenom in the background. Sofie looks very nice indeed - the braid and practical armor suit her as a novice adventurer.

What is that on her armor in the second pic? Is that color? Goodness. Are you sure you've got the Skyrim section?

Jk. That is a pretty cool idea, making NPC children into full-grown adults. I'll bet the roleplay must be pretty interesting too.

What a great mod idea! I love Persephemom in the first picture - looks like she has mixed feelings about her daughter heading out into the cold, cruel world. But Sofie looks so ready!

Love the armor. Is that from Immersive Armors? I thought I saw something similar there.

Sofie's armor is from two mods. The cuirass, gauntlets, and boots are from Berserk Sonia Armor, and the helmet is from one of the plate armors in zzjay's wardrobe. I thought they looked good together.

Sofie took her first step on the road to what she hopes will be a greater destiny. She dreams of becoming a bard. But not some slovenly singer in a tavern. No, she will go out into the world and experience life and adventure. For how can she sing about heroes, triumphs, tragedies, love, and hate, if she knows none of it herself?

So she made her way west from Winterhold, traveling up and down the icy wastes. Thanks to her mother, Sofie knows a spell to calm the savage beasts. So she had no trouble from the wolves that prowl the land. In time she came upon the mysterious Dwemer ruin of Alftand, and decided to explore its depths. She soon found herself in way over her head. But once again, her mother did not send Sofie out without a little assistance, and her friend Larry the Skeleton was always there at a moment notice to help against the blasphemous Dwemer machines, and twisted Falmer.

After loading up on loot, and discovering an elevator back to the surface near the end of the Animoculory, Sofie left the ruin and returned to Winterhold. But she came back a seasoned warrior. She went from 1st level to 7th, and didn't even explore the entire place! Back home she rested up, sold off her loot, and melted down all the Dwemer metal she had found and smithed it up into jewelry.

She took some time to read up on the Dwemer in Persephemom's library. The next day she set off for Alftand once more, to finish what she started.

So that's where I saw the armor! Looks really cool on Sofie!

Larry the Skelly? I want pics!

I did not know you could smith jewelry from dwemer metal! Or is that from a mod?

That's really wonderful how rich the roleplay is. Yes, Skyrim can use some new bards. I'm sure she'll be the first to sing something other than what all the others sing, too.



Love that part.

A long time ago I made a mod that makes circlets craftable. Since there isn't any copper ore in the game, I used Dwarven ingots for all the copper circlets.


I am of course inspired by one of my favorite NPCs in Skyrim, Talsgar the Wanderer. "One itinerant minstrel and wandering wastrel, at your service."

I think Sofie would love to have Jordis the Sword Maiden (Proudspire housecarl) as a companion, if she were to ever get one.

Why? Because of something Jordis has said on more than one occasion: "Why do we always focus on retelling the old stories? There are so many new ones being made, right now!"

I've been taking her out on a spin alongside Argis and it's funny to hear them together. Once I heard her say "Luckily for you I possess a forgiving nature . . and I'm not easily insulted." Argis just laughed that wonderful masculine laugh that makes me smile every time I hear it. We were riding through the backcountry of northwestern Reach between Druadach Redoubt and Bthardamz/Reach Imperial Camp.

Jordis is a little scatterbrained, but she is less annoying than whiny Lydia and supercilious Raaya (Hearthfire's Lakeside Manor), so Alise and Argis are keeping her on a bit longer.

Acadian, how fun that Buffy has adventuring friends! Lil made the switch to cloth once she got enough perks in Alteration. She’s pleased with the change, though I can’t tell much of a difference. I enjoy the evolution of a stealthy archer who uses Illusion. There are different ways to reach the same goal.

Renee, Mycharonna is holed up in my favorite spot on the lake. If I ever get around to building a cabin with the CK, it will be right around there. Despite the somewhat scary neighbors.

SubRosa, Sofie looks wonderful all grown up! Her look is a great mix of badass and feminine. I admire that brown outfit on women. Persephemom’s house looks awesome. She picked a great spot for it. I love knowing where Sofie learned some of her spells.

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

Lil: Got any sausages?

Jerric: *laughs*

In Grits character news Jensa has finally made an honest man of Stenvar on the PC. I’m interested to see if he keeps his pre-wedding chatter. He lost a lot of his personality when she married him on the Xbox and PS3.

Perhaps that is a matter of art imitating life?

It's so "immersive."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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