I am finally going to try the Valenwood Improved mod after all these years. Lady Saga is from Valenwood, which means she's already familiar with the province of the Bosmer. But I am not. So the idea is I want to send some other character down to Valenwood first. This other character will explore the place for awhile. This way, when Saga heads down there, it'll be like I already know where she lives. Her family will already have been created, and so on.

Question is, who should go?

Balztu Dahwalz -- this will be either an orc or a wood elf. I'm not entirely decided yet. But I'm leaning toward orc because I've never had an orc. Balztu will be pretty much an Adventurer, just like the orc adventurers we see occasionally in TES 4. He's wanting to get rich!

Snaat Rayag (pic) was my first active PC character, who started way back in 2014. He is a skooma dealer. I haven't gamed with him for several years. He'll go down to Valenwood mostly in search of new, illicit substances, which he'll then import back into Cyrodiil.

Come one, come all! Cast your vote today!

Either, but it would be best not to send a wood elf, so it's all pure exploration.

I'll dig around and see what related mods I used. I'm sure I had some integrated map mods, and some VI/Anequina patches etc. that may be of my own making. The South-Eastern end of the map was a problem, where the two mods disagreed on the topology, and I think I rebuild the land a bit. Macole can probably vouch for the need for patches.

There were a few independent add-ons to both, if I recall. Extra quest, NPC's in the empty buildings, that sort of thing. VI was a bit unfinished, if you don't add to it.

You may also want to search this ite for the old accounts of others trying it. I remeber issues with unkillable spriggans, and a "world boss" set to level PC+20, instead of just 20, making her a bit tricky. I may have fixes for those, if still needed.

I'd send Balz the orc!

Balztu all the way!

I vote for Snaat.


For no reason at all. Nope. No one I know is holding a mace to my face. Honest

I saw Balztu, so that way you can play this song as you explore

The Orc shall be the one; sent by Gortwog to seek treasure for the glory of Orsinium! Gortwog demands riches, so all of Tamriel will respect Orsinium.

Oh this is great! Thanks for voting everybody! Have some cake. I forgot about the cake. Anyway, Balztu it is! Next time it rains. I am actually kind of excited about this. I'll use TU Starting Options to put him in some random location.

Ha ha thanks for the video, Rosa! Oh my gosh, so terrible!

ghastley, thanks for the advice. Yes, I'll do some research, because I know Valenwood requires some extras for the best experience.

No love for the Dunmer. I am disappointed

I am gaming with Snaaty this weekend (got the itch to be with a skooma-dealing thug after talking about him), so no worries. I'll post pics, even. He's just not the one going to Valenwood.

Thanks for caring.

Just be careful in the no-man's land just north of Haven. One false step and the land caves in.
I'm using the 2014 version with the 2014 patch and still there are issues up and down the border of Valenwood and Elswyer.

Yikes! That sounds scary! Hey, thanks for any notes or links to mod additions you can provide. I'll be needing some help.

It was raining last night and in the middle of the night I got up with my new housemate and made some waffles. She's never had homemade waffles before! I was thinking I'd roll my orc after our meal, but I merely went back to bed.

Thing is, to make a character on Xbox is so easy. You just make the character. If you have a sewer exit save, you can use that instead of doing the tutorial over again. Since Balztu'll be a PC character I'm going to need to consider his actions which mods will go in his game, and for sure he'll have TU Starting Options. But some mods are specific to Snaat Rayag's game, which I have all set up, meaning I'll have to go through and decide which ones to keep and remove.

So.... as cool as PC gaming can be, it's more complicated as well. And it'll take over an hour just to get to the character creation part! Once it's all set up though, it should be really fun.

I might start him as a prisoner of bandits or something. TU allows these sort of ideas. He'll fight his way to freedom, and decide he's had enough of Cyrodiil. Maybe Valenwood will yield easier adventures, since he's a BIG strong orc in a land of scrawny (err, sorry, Acadian) wood elves.

That's what I got so far.

Yeah, I can see the downside of PC gaming as well as the flipside to console gaming. Not being able to make a choice makes life easier