My games (what I see, anyways) are Rated PG-13, so we'll have to leave that to imagination!

Whoa, we can jump off mountains with dragon shouts? Pretty cool.

I must say that I've grown more tolerant to heights within games over the years. Back when I first played Tomb Raider (way back in 2000) I used to get some wicked chills whenever Lara would have to deal with being on top of high areas. This doesn't happen to me so much anymore. I still have acrophobia (fear of heights) in real-life though. If the world were full of Renee Gades, no building would be more than two stories tall.

Bard's Leap was an awesome experience, I was there only once with one of my first characters. But I'll never forget it, probably my favorite event in the game.

Thanks! I already forgot there are vampires inside, not just Draugr and it wasn't a nice surprise.
Well you can jump off mountains without them too but I'm not sure how it would end.

Some screenies from a trip back to High Hrothgar and to the Throat of the World
Return to High Hrothgar
Over the bridge
Fallen hero that fancied Elven Shield
Still walking
Paarthurnax!
Let's have a talk
Meeting of the Dov
Until next time

Lopov, what a nice collection of epic-feeling shots! Meeting of the Dov is truly wallpaper-worthy. Wow.

Man, it seems like you have a lot of draggies in your gameworld. I'm such a wimp.

A dragon finally flew right over Claire yesterday, and she FREAKED OUT...ran all the way to Morthal. Ran inside the inn there, and took cover for awhile. Oddly, when she left the place, the returned to the road south of Morthal and the dragon had already been killed by somebody!

Renee, Claire is adorable! That’s a pretty picture at White River Watch. The one with Farkas on the box made me grin. He just looks funny standing up there, since he never has much to actually say. Great catch with the arrow and mace vs draugr! Claire on the enchanting table, lol. Farkas looks like he needs an instruction manual.

Lopov, I love Lucius’s jump from Shriekwind Overlook! The pictures made my stomach jump, too! Oh, I love the shots with Paarthurnax! The one with him in the air is just perfect! He looks so lonely in the last one as Lucius walks away.


Here are some random moments from Jerric’s and Lildereth’s games.

Jerric finally convinced Lil to wear hide armor. She doesn’t always wear it, but it’s in the warm-weather rotation.

Jerric brought Darnand and Lildereth with him to the Eldergleam Sanctuary. They don’t hunt dragons, but they sure don’t mind fighting the ones that hunt them.

One of the things I look for in these trips is my NPCs’ AI working as intended. I saw the arrow in the dragon’s wing and knew that follower Lil was in this fight, but it took me a while to find her.

Jerric getting his blessing. Sometimes they all just cooperate.

Here’s Lil chatting with Darnand right before they paid off Jerric’s fine.

Here’s a picture showing Darnand better, since I don’t seem to take many pictures of him.

Lil and Jerric at the Lord Stone. They both like to camp there.

Checking out the nearby daedric shrine. Lil is silently relieved that it looks deserted. (Lil must be standing in a hole. She’s not that tiny.)

Lil is looking great in that hide armor – of course she looks divine in anything (or probably nothing at all). I like how you said ‘warm-weather rotation’ – spoken like a true clothes horse!

A dragon fight for the gang! That’s one thing I do like about ‘Dragons Lite’ – they stay on or near their walls. Clearly, you’ve noticed that out in ‘hot springs flats’ there’s a dragon wall where the dragon considers the local mammoths and giants to be too near his wall.

Nice to see Lil wisely and safely engaging from a distant ‘shooting perch’.

Bless Jerric indeed!

Love the shots of the gang on horseback. Beautiful and, as ever, the animals steal the show when featured.

I know exactly what you mean about camping at the Lord Stone. That is Buffy’s stone, by the way. And what a beautiful sunset you captured in that shot!

I got a chuckle out of the last shot - specifically, the position of Dagon and where Lil and Jerric are standing. I hope the Daedric Lord of Destruction doesn’t pop off with a Jerric-style 'butt thu'um'.

Rotation? A truly true clothes horse never repeats!

Darnand must be great at barbecues too!

Wow, Lil really found an out of the way place to take a sniper shot from!

So now the new Jerric is a fully-fledged Astronaut sign? Is that light going up to the International Space Station to upload his data?

That look on Lil's face in the chatting with Darnand pic has me thinking "one more time I have to spring that Nord from jail..."

What a beautiful sunset at the Lord Stone!

I would be glad that shrine is deserted too. Though from the looks of how Dagon is sitting, I would be careful where I stand. It looks like he's about to drop a load of something...

Fur armor on Lil is HAWT! ... I want a close-up. And that dragon battle is epic, big time

Hey, how do you get NPCs to ride horses along with the PC?

Renee, the way I get followers to ride horses is with the fantastic mod Convenient Horses.

I consider that mod a must for SkyHorse fanciers, and companion support is only one part of its goodness. Followers can summon/unsummon their horses to your specifications and even perform mounted melee combat.

A couple teasers –
Arissa, Sofia, Buffy, Inigo.
Mjoll, Buffy, Jordis. (Superian's blue glowing eyes in that shot are not from Convenient Horses)

Thanks.

Oh, don't feel bad now. But really, how is possible that you don't have any dragons in your game?

Indeed, imagine how it must living for hundreds of years all alone. It's good that he didn't go insane.

Good that Jerric convinced Lil to wear hide armor, it suits her perfectly.

Fire against frost works well, great shot!

I think that seeing Jerric's Kvatch Shield is always my favorite thing in your screenies. After Lil.

Nice pics of the party traveling in Whiterun's direction.

The final two shots are fabulous, the first one is so warm, not just because of the campfire but because of the beautiful sunset too. The second one is more threatening but very good nonetheless. Both are a mystery to me, I've never been to any of these two locations yet.

Girls and their horses! Great shot, all horses are looking in the same direction.

--

Early guest
Against the machines
Master awakened
To Apocrypha
Mora's Realm
Through chapters
The end of the book

Ahah! Somebody's back in Soltheim. Lucius leaping into the den of automatons is an epic action shot! Well done! Ugh, I get the creeps and Buffy feels like she needs a bath just thinking about that Jabba the Hutt and his books of 'knowledge'.

Lucius in mid-leap in "Against the Machines" is fantastic!

I am thinking that awakened master was full of hot air!

I have heard of being drawn in by a good book, but that is taking it too far!

Acadian: Thanks for the mod! I'll be sure to use this. Now ... gotta figure a way for Claire to make some money. She doesn't go dungeon-diving much... maybe she can work for awhile. Chopping wood or whatever.

Lopov: Can't see your screenies on my old XP-based work computer. I try later at home!

Thanks! I guess that Neloth is harder to notice than Lucius in the pic.

Lol! Regarding books in Apocrypha - Lucius takes almost every rare book that he comes across as long as its theme is not too evil and it's not a skill book of some skill he doesn't use. He found some very rare books in Apocrypha.

Sure, I get it!

Krosulhah above Nchardak
Not-too-intelligent-looking dragon
Lucius is ready
Krosulhah stuck between trees
Yol!
Krosulhah joins his relatives

That dragon has an underbite, and from his eyes, I think he's been hitting the skooma!

Lucius conquering Solstheim! Do I take it that he is solo there? Yup, that is one fugly looking dragon.

Correct, he's single on Solstheim.

The battle with that ugly dragon lasted for many in-game hours because the ugly creature didn't land at all until it was very wounded so Lucius was forced to hit it with his arrows but the dragon had thick skin and was constantly attacking Lucius with frost breath, blinding him, so he couldn't aim properly. And even when he couldn't fly anymore, his melee attacks did a considerable damage so in the end it felt like a really well-deserved victory.

Waiting...
"Remember me, Captain?"
Nords against Imperials
Hajvarr Iron-Hand
End of Hajvarr's reign
Inside White River Watch

Apology accepted, Captain Needa...

Fun in Helgen! So nice that you can take that captain out so early - she sooo deserves it!

White River Watch is a great dungeon to go early on. Good job, Aard - and nice to see pictures of him and his game.

All of those early lairs (White River Watch, Embershard, Fort Greymoor, Silent Moons Camp) are very interesting, especially the first times you visit them, and the NPC dialog is all fresh. Then after you visit them, they're still fun because they all require different sorts of strategy, in a way.

Aard looks like a tough guy. I like tough guys...

Renee, like Acadian I use Convenient Horses to get my followers to ride. I have used other mods, but CH is my favorite. I had some trouble with the other ones.

Oh my gosh, Lopov, that is one ugly dragon! Yikes! What a fantastic picture above Nchardak.

Lucius looks really mad in the Ready picture. I think that’s one of my favorites of him.

Aard! He looks great! Like Renee said, very tough.


Here’s one of mine that made me laugh. This is Jensa at the Burning of King Olaf Festival. She had been in Solitude on business, which is always stressful for her. (She is Stormblade, High King Ulfic’s left-hand woman. They still haven’t fixed some of the walls in Solitude that she Shouted down during the last battle.) So she did not need much of an excuse to hit the bar on the way in. Anyway what made me laugh is the active effects on the right of the screen, which I didn’t notice until after I took a picture of the priest’s comment. The effects are from all of the alcohol she drank.

Here is another comment that she heard at the Bards College. She was indeed looking pretty sturdy at the time.

If Jensa will lay off the Johnnie Walker, she can fix up Solitude with this mod! The same modder has fixer-uppers for Whiterun and Windhelm as well.

I am surprised that the chef was not looking down when he made the sturdy comment!

What mods are you using to have such a good face on a Skyrim male? The chin and mouth are much better than vanilla!

Thanks for all tough kind comments about Aard.

@mALX: I use Xenius Character Enhancement and Final Younger Characters. FYC mostly removes wrinkles so as the name suggests, characters look younger but changes are subtle. XCE alters many things, like making faces less blocky, more detailed but neither of these mods heavily alters chins or mouths, so that's mostly vanilla.

I spent a lot of time creating him, playing with different possibilities but it helps if I know how I want my characters to look like because I want to make them almost exactly as desired. Changing mouth & nose height for instance can make a great difference in how a character looks like. I also learned that changing nose affects a facial expression, some noses can create a threatening look while some make our characters look like milk drinkers. So I always choose the nose at the end when I have everything else set up.

@Grits: lol at the comments directed at Jensa, how appropriate. I've never seen that old cook, is he vanilla? A lot of active effects indeed.

Grits - Holy Cyridiilic Brandy! That's alota booze inside Jensa! I'm usre she could drink Sanguine under the table. . . .

Hey! Buffy's a proud member of the Popinjays! And Snowberries. And Milk Drinkers.

Thank you for that link, SubRosa! I will check it out ASAP. I’m not using any Solitude overhaul mod, so I’m hopeful that it will do the trick. I really like Solitude, but that stupid broken well ruins it for Jensa.

That old cook is vanilla. He pretty much always stays in the Bards College kitchen except for the festival. He is so grumpy! I’m sure he was worried that Jensa would hug him and accidentally crush his head like a walnut. She was still wearing her warm weather ranger getup, so there were boobs flying all over the place.

Acadian, Jensa’s big tough Stenvar named his horse Snowberry. Sanguine is definitely a fan of Jensa!

These are some great tips, Thank you! I am Facegen challenged, lol. The male mouths and chins in Skyrim are awful; and there are a lot fewer mods for males. I was trying to make a male follower and couldn't make a good face to save my life, lol.

Thanks, Lopov!

You're welcome.

And now time for some Lucius' shots from his visit to Apocrypha which ended with Miraak's defeat.

Hermaeus "arrives"
Storn's Sacrifice
Back to Apocrypha
Below Miraak's Tower
Books, books and more books
Sahrotaar tamed
Dragon riding
Fly, Dov, Fly!
To the Meeting
The First and the Last
The battle of Apocrypha
Sword Vs Sword
Final swings
Miraak impaled
End of the Soul Stealer

Yay for Lucius! I’m glad you shared these, for they show stuff I’ll never see. That looked like it was an epic battle vs Miraak!

That is stuff I probably won't see either, like Miraak and his end. It is neat how Luke Skyrimmer and Miraak seem to glow. I definitely like Lucius' lightsaber sword better.

OMG, these are some of the most exciting scenes I've seen in Skyrim so far! What an enemy/what a battle! Were you able to loot his body/skeleton? What kind of loot did he drop? Holy Cow !!! Awesome screens, Lopov !!!

It was indeed though it glitched on me for the first time and I had to reload. I encountered a fairly common bug where Miraak gets invincible and at first I thought that I have to do something else to fight him, like find some means to cancel his invincibility. But it was a bug.

It's because both covered themselves with the Dragon Aspect shout which gives you the look like wearing additional armor plus the glowing effect which resists magic to some extent IIRC.

Yes, you can take his mask, robes, gloves, boots, sword and a staff and while at first Lucius took it all, he later returned it to the skeleton because he felt that these items should stay in Apocrypha and have no place in Tamriel. So I guess that Miraak's mask will be missing from his collection of dragon priest masks.

Skaal-Friend
Black Book in the sea (Lucius followed Frea's advice)
Another Black Book sailing
Gift for Skaal-Friend (thanks to this mod)

Instead of killing it, Lucius tamed the dragon
"Take me to Brodir's Grove!"
"Almost there. Find a place to land."
"Dismissed."

"Yes, there's one more. You." (a quick look at Skyrim's demographics tells that Lucius and the old miner are in fact only Imperials on Solstheim)
Stalhrim & Scaled
Against the traitor
Sharp battle
Threat no more

Thanks for pointing out that mod, I’m sure I will use it when Jensa goes to Solstheim. It’s great that Lucius has a place of his own among the Skaal. I love how he looks in his Skaal furs. He tossed the Black Books into the sea! Well done.

Dragon riding, yay! Take Me To Brodir’s Grove is my favorite. What a great shot!

Ooo, Stahlrim, very nice. I like how it looks with the scaled boots and gauntlets. I don’t recognize that Altmer, but I enjoyed the shots of their fight. I like how the healing spell in Lucius’s hand lights up his face.

I think it's Vendil Ulen, who's a Dunmer. The lighting is a bit candle-yellow in there.

I'd like to know why he's not wearing his helmet. No wonder he's losing, if he doesn't look after his head! At least Lucius has a circlet, and we can assume it offers some protection.

I'm guessing that this is post-Miraak, so the dragon was an anonymous spawn, not a named one?

Ah, that would explain the chitin armor. It has been a very long time since I saw that guy!

I’ve always liked Lucius, and it is no surprise that he and the Skaal would befriend each other.

Magnificent shots of Lucius flying around with a dragon pal!

Those scaled boots go pretty darn well with stalhrim armor. I like both scaled and stalhrim armors so naturally it looks good to me!

That Dragon Aspect sounds very intriguing. I will have to look into possibly making the a spell, and possibly using it as a form of bound armor...

Props to Lucius from casting off those black books! But where will they wash up... Dum-Dum-Duuum!

And Luke got to fly in an X-Wing dragon again too! Now he just needs to take on the Empire, face down Darth Tullius, and blow up the Imperial City...

Is dragon flying controllable by us? Or is that just like a cut-scene or something?

Thanks all.

There are other Skaal shacks available but I like this one because it's not too fancy and shining and doesn't give you three hundred manequins, a super-size armory, two forges, a master bedroom and so on... It's very simple just like a Skaal shack should be.

Yes, the tamed dragon was one of random dragons. That is indeed Vendil Ulen, known as Vendil Severin before the quest.

Indeed, they make good friends once they get to know you better.

I'd think he sooner attack Darth Stormcloak than Tullius, he still prefers the Empire over Ulfric's forces.

No, it's not really controllable unless you use mods. You can direct a dragon to attack and to land or use the map to fast-travel which we did to get to Brodir's Grove.

GAAAAAAAAH !!!! Lucius put them all back? *mALX's head explodes*


Urk!


I really like that little house for the Player idea. I've been in love with the Skaal since reading Treydog's accounts of his visits there.

These are some really great shots! Riding the dragon in the second screen - looks like Lucius is about to fall off, how do you get a screen of that? Does it automatically go to 3rd person or is it a scripted thing so you can just hit "Print screen" or something?

Really Awesome shots, all of them!

Thanks. You can turn the camera around while flying but it's better to freeze time with "tfc 1" and move camera around then to get better shots.

To Windhelm
Boy on a dark path
Man with a dark past
Leaving Windhelm
Unfortunate merchant

To Riften
Looking for some fun
In Ratway
Happy audience
Leaving Riften

Nice! You caught the entire story! Some really good colors in these ones, lots of variety too

Looking for some fun made me LOL--Look at him trying to get some.

Hey, did you get a shot of Grelod? Especially one in which she's been offed by Aard?

Nice work in Riften! I see that Aard has met the Flower Girls.

I like the ‘Dark Past’ picture the best of this group. The lighting looks neat, and you captured the conversation with Aventus perfectly.


I haven’t played much lately, but here’s a shot of Jensa and her man Stenvar enjoying a stroll through Riften.

Lopov - 'To Windhelm' is ominous for what we know is coming, and beautiful for the night lighting. And of course luvs the shots with his horse.

Grits - Yay for Jensa and her big Nord with with the cool voice out on the town! I see she's sporting a Talos amulet. I imagine if questioned about it by the Thalmor, she can refer them to Stenvar!

Thanks all.
It's possible to have fun with those girls if you pay them which Aard did. The screen goes black for a few seconds. They're part of some mod, I think it's either Inconsequential NPCs or Interesting NPCs.

I took a shot where he kills Grelod but it was nothing special so I deleted it. He killed her in her sleep, he didn't want to wake up kids but looks like they are scripted to wake up after Grelod dies and they all came rushing to the room, clapping and thanking Aard for saving them.
They look really good together, I think that men don't dare to flirt with Jensa when Stenvar's around, he looks tough.
It's nice to ride for a change.

Love Aard's looming presence in Aventus' red room.

Awww.