Wow, you mean you make an NPC and add it to the game and like add it to the College of Winterhold or Dawnguard, etc - and they can become the subject of random quests? How cool is that !!!!!!! That is so exciting !!!!

Jerric completed his Master Conjuration Ritual. I was a little concerned how it would go since it involved summoning a being from Dagon’s realm, but Jerric really got a kick out of it. For one he got a rare chance to personally annoy the Daedric Prince, plus he enjoyed crossing blades with the dremora. After the dremora did Jerric’s bidding they stood and talked for a few minutes. Jerric agreed to summon him more often.

So now Jerric can summon his frost atronach Ishckrihk as a thrall. This is not Darnand’s favorite thing, but he puts up with it. At least he has so far. They haven’t done much other than make the rounds of friends and colleagues at the college and then stroll through town. The Winterhold guards are not fans of frost atronachs roaming around. They all had some words for Jerric on the subject.

It was fun to see how Ishckrihk gets through low doorways. He sort of disappears and then materializes on the other side, leaving a mist cloud as he goes.

Izzy can get through doors? That is neat. I thought he would just be perpetually stuck inside the first room he was conjured in!

I thought the same thing, that he would get stuck somewhere and hundreds of hours later we’d find him still standing around in some barrow.

I’ve also noticed a small visual effect on Jerric that might be related to perma-Izzy. It looks like little magical motes floating around. If it persists I’ll take a screenshot once they get somewhere dark.

Jerric looks like he is walking the runway in this shot!

@Grits - very creative to make a quest specifically to rescue Darnand.



I was just thinking about this because he's really big, it looks like he might get some troubles getting over the Winterhold bridge as well but if he can materialize on the other side, then it's not a problem.

Congratulations to Jerric for completing the master ritual.

That master conjuration test is perfect for Jerric, and I can imagine how much fun he had with it.

So now that Itchy has some staying power, I can certainly see Jerric tasking him with keeping the mead cold!

Lopov, that fun surprise rescue quest was a radiant quest from the game. I’m afraid I’m not knowledgeable enough to write quests (yet).

Some old and new business from newlyweds Valdi and Erik: The pair along with their fellow vampire hunters and the newly mortal Serana finished fixing up Castle Volkihar and established a Dawnguard presence there. Serana had been more grumpy than usual toward Valdi. The question of what to do about Valerica weighed on both of their minds. It was decided (not by Valdi, thank goodness they did not put her in charge) to allow Valerica to return to her study at the castle where she could watch the portal to the Soul Cairn and in turn be watched by the Dawnguard.

So Valdi and Serana returned to the Soul Cairn where they caused a bit of trouble before giving Valerica the good news. Valdi thinks this was possibly a big mistake.

Serana decided not to move home, at least for now. The three (Valdi, Erik, Serana) rode back to Riften to check in with the boss before heading to Windhelm and then on to Solstheim. The trip was to report that Darnand had been rescued unharmed from the vampires, but also Valdi wanted to test out a theory on the way before she had to make another decision. She does not complain and neither does Erik, but they heard a lot of Let’s get inside, no I’m sick of caves, now the weather is bad, now it’s too sunny, let’s get inside, not here I’m sick of caves all the damn time. To Valdi’s dismay she discovered her hunch was true. In Serana’s new life she had become an even bigger nag.

Valdi knows what it feels like to be pushed aside. Though she and her sweet warrior honey are discreet (ha ha, or so they think), Serana must often feel that three is a crowd. Perhaps her unbearable complaining is Valdi and Erik’s fault. So they parted company for a time, with Serana returning to Fort Dawnguard and Valdi and Erik riding on toward Windhelm in the rain.

A dragon attacked as they passed through Shor’s Stone. What a rush. Valdi is not going to go dragon hunting, but her marksmanship has really come a long way and she was fearless. It’s their custom to walk down the hills to the edge of the tundra since that area is prone to ambush by predators. Valdi led the way as usual. Most of the time Erik’s crossbow stayed on his back.

Serana's face is so appropriate regarding to what she says.

Their Soul Cairn horses look great, a good contrast between blue and flaming red.

I think that all newlyweds deserve some privacy.

So it's Valdi which does the hard work in their relationship.

Nice story, I'm looking forward to their trip to Solstheim.

Serana looks really ticked off!

I loved the blue and red flaming horses too. V&S do not need to carry a lantern, their horses provide all the illumination they might need!

So Valdi needs to fix up Serana with someone to improve her disposition?

Grits, how neat that the Valdi and Erik are doing dawnguard! The couple that slays together, stays together.

Hmm, SubRosa has a good point about Serana. For at least 1000 years, she’s had no. . . warm companionship. Now all of a sudden she’s human again with all those neglected human needs like eating, sleeping, humping, drinking. . . . No wonder she’s cranky!

Returning to the Soul Cairn to notify Valerica was a nice touch and I’m glad she returned to her laboratory at the castle.

Valdi and Serana on their multicolored flaming steeds make for a magnificent screenshot! As you know, the flaming steed for Serana is added by Convenient Horses. I knew that if you asked her to change to a normal horse, Serana told you pretty much to mind your own business. What I very recently learned is that after the DG main questline is completed, she will then honor a request to use any normal horse and tack that you ask her to.

Then some dragonslaying for V&E. Valdi doing the shooting and Erik lighting the way from the rear with his torch. Erik looks great in DG armor and that’s quite a snazzy bow that Valdi’s using!

I can imagine Serana hitting on someone she fancies in a tavern. “Good evening. You have a delightfully fragrant neck. Not long ago I would have torn – Where are you going?”

Valdi covered Taking Care Of Your Living Body: The Basics with Serana, but romance (and birth control, yikes) was too awkward to be mentioned at the time. Valdi can’t imagine how Serana deals with being the ex of Molag Bal. This might be a job for Abiene! That woman will say anything if she thinks it needs to be said.

Acadian, thank you ever so much for the tip about Serana’s Convenient horse! Serana told Valdi off a long time ago when Valdi pointed out the danger, so she would never have thought to bring the subject up again. The exploding horse has been a sore point on their travels.

Hopefully the wisdom of her elders will trickle through to young Valdi and she will realize that Serana needs something warm and alive between her legs. A real horse!


(Valdi’s bow is the Forsworn bow from Real Bows. I use the version that is not a replacer, so my characters are the only ones who get the awesomest bows.)

Chases-the-Fish had an adventure on the return trip to Whiterun that unsurprisingly landed him in prison again. First he tried to rob a couple who were on foot, but they gave him a sob story and he ended up giving them five Septims. Some Nord ran up and gave him a pair of steel Nordic gauntlets with an alchemy enchantment, score! He said he would be back to get them, but Chases plans to tell him that another guy robbed him and took the gauntlets. This is a bold move since Chases immediately put them on.

Anyway then there were some butterflies to catch and then a rich noble to rob. The noble’s bodyguard was frightened enough to give up his weapons, which made it easier to kill him when he had a change of heart and came back with his fists. Chases also had to kill the noble. So now he has a slightly soiled but very fine set of clothing.

The noble’s horse tried to fight for him, but somehow in the scuffle Chases managed to mount the horse, which calmed him down. They proceeded on to Whiterun at a brisk pace. Chases willingly gave up the alchemy ingredients along the road in exchange for not having to walk this way yet again.

Until a bounty hunter ran up and attacked. Chases dismounted and tried to fight back but the guy clobbered him a couple of times very, very hard. The horse was disappearing in the opposite direction. Chases ran him down, mounted up, and led the bounty hunter to his death at the nearby giant camp. Then he was pursued by a mammoth and a giant most of the way to Whiterun, where a guard ran up to him and demanded his surrender.

Chases willingly accepted the armed escort back to the Dragonsreach dungeon. Where he broke out through the sewers, collected his things, emerged in the Jorrvaskr living quarters, strolled nonchalantly out the door unchallenged by the Companions, and was arrested again on the steps this time with 100 more Septims tacked on to his bounty.

He served his time puzzling the whole while on how these events might have come to pass.

Upon release Chases bought three water destruction spells (mod) from Farengar. He had pretty much forgotten why he was returning to Whiterun. (To rat out Saadia.) Right now he’s splashing around in the Dragonsreach pools practicing his new spells.

The madcap adventures of Chases the Fish are great fun to read because he does just about everything radically differently than Buffy (who's never seen the inside of a jail or had a bounty). I hope he's enjoying playing with his new water magic.

OMG; these screens of Serana's britchiness are hysterical !!! You had me rolling with these !!!! SPEW !!!!!

Your stories are making me laugh tonight, Gritsy! ... and those Serana faces are priceless.

I've been playing Prizna, my female Dremora character from Oblivion, by making the Dremora race playable in Skyrim. I had to fix a few things in the CK (like making the horns playable, and increasing her carry weight to match other races), and I added some glowing red eyes to match the Oblivion norm. RaceMenu helped change her skin tone and facial shape to look different from a Dunmer. The vanilla race is basically a clone with a face tattoo.

She can't wear man/mer clothing or armour, but Prizna didn't before. I did have to give her something to count as body wear to eliminate the comments, so the carpet matches the drapes. Her armour is all Alteration magic for now, but she will be able to don Daedric armour once she can Smith that. None is lootable until way too far into the game, so so she's Smithing up Lydia's gear to raise her skill level as fast as possible. She's grinding out jewelry and Dwarven bows, too. It's also helping to provide her backup weapon (two-handed axe) enough clout to keep up with her main offensive skill, which is Shock spells (Destruction). Without any Fortify Destruction enchantments on her non-existent outfit, she needs a Plan B for when she runs out of Magicka.

She's done the College of Winterhold quests, and now has the Archmage's Amulet. I had to fix that to let a Dremora wear it. It provides enough magicka regeneration to make her using the axe quite rare now. Two-handed skill is falling behind.

She doesn't have the DLC's in her game, and she's not going to High Hrothgar. How can she be Dragonborn, when she wasn't even born? Though that dragon soul thing does happen ... We couldn't avoid some MQ overlap with the quests she is doing, and she does encounter dragons at their walls.

Prizna wearing nothing but a little piece of . . . carpet.

But does the carpet match the drapes? BWAAHAA!!! ... Oh wait, Ghastley already confirmed that they did ... OOPS !!!

To be fair to her, she is wearing the Archmage's Amulet, and possibly a ring.

Is that Lydia looking jealous in the background?

Looks to me like Lydia is checking out Prizzie's assets...

Has anyone been doing significant fishing in Skyrim?

During my testing of Ilinalta Den (the Argonian Hearthfires home) I've noticed that the fish and dragonflies seem to spawn very rapidly near the entrance. The pair of Slaughterfish that guard it don't come back unless you've been away for a long time, but the regular fish must be on a daily respawn or something. I'm wondering if they do that everywhere. I didn't notice if the ones near Greenspring Stronghold did that, but they were swimming around the door there.

Dar-Ma has shown me Bleak Falls Barrow in a way I haven’t quite seen before.

First she sneaked in to check out the situation and listened to the bandits talking about Arvel, so she knew that a dark elf had the claw. She kept walking up to the bandits to reason with them even after the first ones were not nice people. Dar-Ma will never let herself be taken captive again after her Hackdirt experience, so when she’s attacked, it’s on.

She thought Arvel might have stashed the claw somewhere, so she peeked into all of the containers as she went along but didn’t take anything. Then she courageously defended Arvel from the spider even though she was reasonably certain he was the claw thief. And then she chased after him through the barrow to tell him it was dangerous to run in there! Even when he woke up the draugr she tried to defend him from them.

Putting draugr down was not an issue for her. She believes that dead things should stay dead. (Of course she hasn’t met Persephone. ) Also their dead-dust when she shoots them is gross. Dar-Ma is going to be bathing a lot.

Not wielding a weapon in melee makes her quick. Dar-Ma kept her cool in the main burial chamber and managed to dodge all of the draugr’s Shouts. She did peek into the boss chest, but she didn’t take anything. After all, that stuff belongs to someone else.

It was very dark when she left the barrow. She spent the night with Lucan and Camilla and swam down some of the falls toward Whiterun in the morning, but she chickened out at the big one. I have no idea what she’s going to do for money. Bounty quests are not her thing. She may spend a lot of time chopping wood!

Oooh, Dar-Ma has pretty red eyeshadow eyescales.

Awww that is Dar-Ma, chasing Arvel to tell him it is dangerous to run with scissors!

Given how nice she is, I don't think Dar-Ma has anything to worry about from Persephone. It's people with big mouths like Maul who end up headless within seconds of meeting the Living Dead Girl.

Darnand and Jerric have just left Winterhold. They have business in Riften with Brand-Shei and with Vex. I know Vex, but Jerric does not. I wonder if the Riften Guard will get involved if you kill someone in the Ragged Flagon.

After Riften they plan to return the Lexicon to Avanchnzel. That’s why Darnand is along on this trip. He can’t resist a Dwemer mystery.


I’m still pondering what I can do for Dar-Ma. Maybe some kind of made-up trade or delivery quest. I probably shouldn’t worry about it. There are a lot of help quests in Skyrim, and she will want to do every one.

The Riften Guard did get involved when Persephone killed Maul and half the Thieves Guild in the middle of Riften. But she only received a 40 gold fine. So even the guard does step in, it might not cost much...

Dar-Ma's ma is a trader back in Cyrodiil, so it would make sense to me that she might be a chip off the old block scale off her mother's tail. Maybe she could go into the traveling merchant business, buying and selling, or turning ore into jewelry for sale. Trade Routes looks like an interesting mod that says you can buy low in one place and sell high in others. It might be perfect.

Oh yes, isn't he an "expert" on subterrenean dwellings? Something like that.

SubRosa, thank you for that mod link! It does look perfect for her. I’d like to keep her as a trader like you suggested since it fits well with her Oblivion story, and that’s a way to make it work even at low levels. Plus it would get her traveling where she will meet other Argonians.

Renee, that’s right, Darnand is an ‘expert’ in a lot of things. Mostly he knows just enough to get him in trouble. Someday he will realize he has to focus his study if he wants to master anything!

Dar-Ma has some more business to take care of getting her world set up (Jerric’s crew installed in Breezehome, picking Blossom up in Markarth), and then she has a bunch of Whiterun’s citizens awaiting her help. She wasted no time introducing herself to the locals. She looks cute in her outfit (Ciri’s getup from The Witcher 3 plus hide boots and bracers). Her water spells are pretty neat. It’s not a surprise, Dar-Ma is a pure delight to spend time with.

Dar-Ma was always one of my all time favorite Oblivion characters, and boy does she look cute in these pics! And getting Blossom too, this is Awesome!

You should make a mod of this, everyone would love to see Dar-Ma in Skyrim !!!! And you have made her so cute!!!

I am glad to hear you are having such fun with Dar-Ma. She is one of my favorite npcs from Oblivion. Ciri's outfit looks neat on her.

Yay for Dar-Ma! Her Ciri's outfit looks very nice. And, as mALX said, it is great that she picked up Blossom from Markarth!

Yah actually she does look cute in that new outfit, Dar-ma does.

I'll be playing Skyrim again soon. Keep getting the itch to fire TES V up again, and if you keep posting pics, maybe that'll happen sooner than later!

Thanks, you guys! I’ll link my Dar-Ma NPC whenever I make her in case anyone wants to have a nightshade tea party with her. Renee, I can never stay away from Skyrim for long. But SubRosa, hautee, and Lopov are seriously tempting me to try something new with their Pillars of Eternity adventures!


When Dar-Ma passed through Rorikstead she asked Valdi if she would like to come along to pick up Blossom from the stables. Valdi was game. Dar-Ma was very kind to young Valdi when Valdi wandered into Chorrol after her skooma smuggling family was killed, so Valdi will do just about anything for Dar-Ma, even leave her honey Erik behind in Rorikstead for a time.

Dar-Ma led the way with Valdi’s powerful bow backing her up. (Valdi still wields Auriel’s Bow. Some day she will realize that she should lock it up somewhere safe and dust off her trusty old longbow, but it takes her a while to figure things out sometimes.) They ran into some trouble along the road, but it was nothing that the two of them couldn’t handle. Then they reached a bridge with some shady-looking characters on the other side. Here Dar-Ma is saying, “Let’s go around.”

After they went around Dar-Ma saw a road sign and realized that she was leading them to Solitude, not to Markarth where Blossom is waiting. It seems that sweet Dar-Ma is not so great with directions. Here she is about to say, “Let’s go around again.”

Dar-Ma is pretty good at sneaking to get around aggressive things so she won’t have to kill them, and pretty bad at guessing which two-legged things fall into that category. Since she likes to introduce herself to new people, she has to defend herself more often than she’d like.

Grits, you should join Lopov, h.e.r., and I and become a Pillar of the community.

Two bowgirls on the way to Robber's Gorge. They are going to put those bows to use if they cross that bridge!

I use this High Res Roadsign mod you might want to try out. It makes reading those signs a lot easier. I don't think it would be that big a hit on the performance.

I guess that Orc didn't like being introduced at! At least Dar-Ma is giving him a bath!

How fun to see more adventures of Dar-Ma! Her water magic looks to be great fun. I can imagine the jokes and taunts. . . "Don't piss on my head and tell me it's raining!"

If someone tells Dar-Ma to go soak her head, she just might do it...

D'Aaaaw, she has cute little ears! Or are they horns? Either way, they are cute!

SubRosa, thank you for that link! Dar-Ma would take 'Go soak your head' as a sweet suggestion and probably hug the person! There has been a lot of mist and soaking rain in her game so far. Everyone else puts on hoods, but of course she loves it.

Acadian, the water magic has water sounds, too, so there have been more player comfort breaks in Dar-Ma's game than ever before! I can't wait to see how the water rune works. (And Lil would like a harmless water spell, Scrub Other. She's not naming names. )

mALX, those are Dar-Ma’s horns. She wears gold rings on them with little pieces of fabric dangling down. She also has little spines over her eyes that look a bit like long eyelashes. Dar-Ma is a very girly lizard-girl.


The Reach showed Dar-Ma just how dangerous Skyrim can be. She was chased by a bear, attacked by Forsworn, chased by a mudcrab, attacked by a random wood elf, and chased by three sabre cats all in one morning. Turns out that sabre cats are good swimmers. Now we know why most of the trade caravans we see on the road are dead.

A Khajiit caravan was camped outside Markarth when she and Valdi arrived. Dar-Ma made a small trade to check out their prices and take a look at their operation. Valdi is great help and good company, but Dar-Ma needs some employees. Like some guards.

While Dar-Ma was in Markarth she hired a Breton porter out from under Lisbet of Arnleif and Sons. Cosnach was in the pub complaining that there was never any work, so Dar-Ma brought him on board for the price of one bottle of Honningbrew Mead. And of course the promise of more when they pass through Whiterun, plus some Black-Briar Mead when they reach Riften. Dar-Ma likes to please people, and this deal was a win-win.

She took some odd jobs around the city while she was there, because she fell in love with the dog at the Markarth stables and needed more coin to bring him along. Blossom likes him, too. For the same gold she could have hired one of the mercenaries she met at the Silver-Blood Inn, but there was no contest. Now Dar-Ma and Blossom have a war dog in the family.

One of the guards told her about an orc stronghold in the area, so after a false start where she had to run back into the city to make a delivery she had forgotten about, they headed into the hills. The orcs wanted nothing to do with her. But she kept talking, and the gate orc finally gave her a job to do for them. Go into some ruin and get their special gloves.

Dar-Ma agreed. Valdi suggested that they go get Erik first. He is not far away from where they are going, and she knows he wouldn’t want to miss this. Besides, Cosnach may be good at putting packs on the horses, but Valdi is not so sure how he will be in a fight.

When they got to the ruin they agreed that Valdi had the right idea to get Erik for more backup. Those orcs are smarter than they look. Dar-Ma had to get a sword back from a bunch of Forsworn before she could unlock the door to get at the orcs’ special gauntlets.

Once she figured out what needed to happen next, Dar-Ma led her gang back to Rorikstead yet again to trade for some more healing potions. She has recently taken up alchemy and has never and will never brew a poison, but she’s reluctant to hand out her newbie potions to her friends. Then a careful ride over the hills brought them to the Forsworn stronghold. The Forsworn did not give Dar-Ma a chance to negotiate. They started shooting while Dar-Ma’s group was still up on the hill.

By the time Dar-Ma got the orcs’ gauntlets she had seen Cosnach in dual-wielding badassery against some fellow Bretons, Valdi living up to the ‘Sun-Storm’ in her name against some crusty undead, and Erik on his knees nearly slain by the legendary Red Eagle. She has resolved to get everyone better armor, plus Erik needs a big axe. And a lot more healing potions.

Also she learned not to ask Vigilance to stay and guard the horses when he is in tall grass. Once they got back outside it took a long time to find him.

Can you get a picture of her cute girly lizard face? And her outfit is very apropos for Dar-Ma, is that vanilla?

Sounds like Dar-Ma has become the CEO of Skyrim's newest startup - Scales and Tails Incorporated!

What a wonderful little snip from Dar-Ma's adventures. Her nature shines through loud and clear. I'm glad she's got a good crew to help her out. It's especially nice that she gathered up Erik - I'm sure Valdi appreciates that!

Sure: link. Dar-Ma’s face is one of the presets with some custom colors added with RaceMenu. None of the vanilla colors were bright enough. Her ‘hair’ is the two horns with rings and fabric on them, and her ‘eyebrows’ are the spines. You can’t see it very well in this picture, but she has some periwinkle color behind her jaw and on her chin as well.

Dar-Ma’s outfit with the white shirt is Ciri's Outfit (The Witcher) UNP-CBBE-Bodyslide by Oaristys, and the brown shirt version uses Ciri's Outfit Recolors by Mur4s4me textures over it. I used the Valenwood Brown cleaner version textures from the Recolors mod. Evidently there is also a no-bra patch out there made by someone, but I haven’t looked for it so Dar-Ma has her bra peeking out at the front. It kind of suits her, I think. She’s a bit scatterbrained in her game, and I can see her buttoning her shirt wrong.


SubRosa, Scales and Tails!!

Acadian, she even bought Erik and Valdi their own couples tent. That means she is tent mates with boozy Cosnach instead of better-smelling Valdi, but of course she is sweet about it.

Oh, I understand the spine brows now! She is very cute! (and colorful!). Thank you for the link on her clothing, I loved that outfit in her screens!

I also have that Ciri outfit on my grown-up Braith follower in Sofie's game. Dar-Ma looks cute in it, but Braith looks hot! The blue version is also very pretty. I have the textures ready to overwrite whenever they want to change their shirts.

Here are the girls of Whiterun (Sof and Braith) heading out on adventure. You can see the Ciri outfit's heeled boots and gloves on Braith on the right. Dar-Ma's clawed feet and heeled boots do not work together RP-wise, so Dar wears hide or buckled boots with hers.

Thank you for the kind words about sweet Dar-Ma, mALX!

Oh my, it is so nice to watch those girls walk away!

That is Braith on the right with the long dark hair? She most def grew up nicely, and with a great butt!

There may be a lot more screenshots of those two, now that they have new clothes. Those butts!! And the front view isn't bad, either.


Dar-Ma has secured a trade agreement with the tribal orcs by becoming their blood-kin. She is not entirely comfortable with the ‘blood’ part of that, but she’s very flattered by their acceptance of her, scales and all. Valdi and Erik have returned home to Rorikstead, and Dar-Ma has hired Ghorbash the Iron Hand as a guard. He is ex-Legion and seemed pretty bored at the stronghold. Dar-Ma’s porter Cosnach has a new pair of gauntlets, so maybe he will step up a little more when the group is under attack.

Valdi and Erik will be missed. Dar-Ma feels very alone all of a sudden in this strange land with two strangers. She doesn’t doubt their loyalty, it’s just that they are both so grim.

They are presently headed to Karthwasten on an errand for an orc. Dar-Ma has some orc-forged goods in her pack to trade when she gets there. She earned a good deal of gold trading her potions with the tribe’s wise-woman. Dar-Ma will only use plant materials in her own work. She may be the sole source of vegan potions in Skyrim.

Dear Dar continues to have navigation issues. She started through a mountain pass pretty much straight toward Karthwasten, but when Ghorbash suggested that she wait at the bridge while he battled the Forsworn who live in that valley, she turned them uphill to avoid the bloodbath. Even sunny Dar-Ma has realized that some people in the Reach just like daedra from the Deadlands are never going to like her.

The non-path took them over a mountain and then around it, ending up right by the bridge they started on. Right by as in right in the river. Dar-Ma made sure that everyone had survived the plunge (oops) and then nonchalantly strolled up the bank to a tree and began picking hanging moss, sort of I meant to do that.

Of course she meant to do that. Where else would an Argonian end up but in the river!

The adventures of Dear Dar continue. Ghorbash should make for an excellent body guard I would think. Ever so much better to take him along rather than letting him just become another 'Old Orc' waiting for a good death. Nice to see Dar-Ma still enjoying her water sports.