The Mother of All Creation is based on Nir found in the book A Children's Anuad.

Yes, the Jandaga was stuck. Not thinking to look up, for hours I searched all over the grounds for that varla stone. I was at a loss when I happened to raise the view and there it was, shining brightly like a star in the night.

20240407 Vampire Hunting – Order of the Virtuous Blood, final chapter

Kaleah bent down to investigate the portal we uncovered on the upper floor of the Cheydinhall Mages Guild. After a few minutes she stood and said, “It belongs to the OVB. Where it goes, I can’t tell but it smells familiar.“

The Order of the Virtuous Blood? Roland never mentioned this. What is going on here?

“Could it be that the powerful vampires of the Vampire Crisis were using a Mind Shielding spell on their escape hatch?” Elenya speculated. “You know something like, if you’re not actually thinking of it, you’ll overlook it, like it’s not even there.”

So, vampires could have been using this to escape. Now that we’ve put an end to the vampire crisis the spell should be wearing off. I wonder.

Stepping on the portal, we find ourselves being greeted by guild guide Emelia Duronia.

Realizing we had arrived at the Caldera Guild of Mages, I held out my hand and said, “Dear Emelia, you look as lovely as ever. What’s it been, ten, fifteen years?”

“Thank you, Arch-Mage,” a blushing Emelia replied. “What brings you here to Caldera?”

“Vampires.”

“Shhh, not so loud. It’s bad luck to mention them.” Emelia recoiled. “We kill them when we find them.”

Just like the old days Emelia had something to say about everything. She brought me up to date on almost everything that was going in Caldera. Sounds like Skink-in-Tree's-Shade is running day-to-day guild operations out of the Mage's Guild at Wolverine Hall. I really do need to issue him a promotion.

Emelia Duronia wasn’t the only one still at the Caldera Guild of Mages. Folms Mirel was still the head of the Caldera Guild of Mages and Eraamion, Ernand Thierry, and Medila Indaren were still at their stations. It was like nothing had changed in the past 10-years. I talked to all of them before leaving the guild hall. They had nothing to say about vampires or the Hunter Kendrel other than what Emelia had already told me.

Once outside, except for the statue dedicated to Saint Jiub, the streets of Caldera brought back memories. Unlike Cyrodiil where people only have a few topics to discuss, here the people are talkative. Everyone has something to say about everything. Might not be useful information but they were willing to tell you what they thought and sometimes where to go.

Walking along the market street, we stopped when we passed Falanaamo’s shop. The High Elf clothier was still standing behind his counter touting his line of apparel just like he was the last time I saw him. Except his daughters were missing. (In Morrowind, I was using ‘Morrowind Comes Alive’ which added Falanaamo’s two daughters to his shop).

“Falanaamo, my friend, how are you doing?” I greeted Falanaamo. Not seeing his daughters, I asked, “Where are your daughters?”

“Doing well, doing well,” Falanaamo replied. “The girls, they were star struck by some dashing young adventurer (Falanaamo gave me wink) and decided run off to the mainland and seek their own adventure. They’re doing quite well in Tear selling ladies fashions.”

Back outside, it was nearing dinner time, Shenk’s Shovel came to mind as for a place to eat and spend the night. Turning south we went looking for hoping it was still there.

On the way to the Shovel we were approached by Nedhelas. Complaining about his house being beset with ghosts, he request help. Taking up the quest we enter Nedhelas’ house and head down to the basement. From the basement three flights of stairs take us down to a vault room where a very angry spirit is guarding a fine chest.

Kaleah flew into the ghost of Galos Heleran easily defeating the ghosts quieting the tomb.

“You know,” I said to the ladies. “This seems so very familiar.”

Back upstairs we found Nedhelas sitting at the dinner table. When we told Nedhelas that the ghost is gone he shouted, “You weren’t the first and you probably won’t be the last to kill it.”

“I don’t want to live here anymore,” Nedhelas said, tossing me the key to the house. “It’s yours, I’m off to Balmora.”

Nice, it’s not much but we got a free bed for the night. With a shrug of the shoulders I turned to the Ladies,

“Well, not quite like the last time.”

Balmora. Visions of Galbedir, prettiest Bosmer I’d ever seen until I met Constance, roamed across my dreams throughout the night. Early the next morning it was clear we were going to Balmora.

The road to Balmora was uneventful until a smoldering collapsed Oblivion Gate blocked our way. Unable to go any further south, with great disappointment we turned back to Caldera.

As we neared Caldera’s gates a small encampment could be seen to the left of the town. Indentured workers from the mine Forced to live outside the walls of the town, I assumed.

The famed ebony mines of Caldera, now that would be a site to see.

The weather was clear as we passed through Caldera’s north gate, but that didn’t stop the true nature of the West Gash rising up to show itself. We were just out of the gate when we were attacked by a nix-hound (how odd, it looked like a big grey wolf).

The further north we traveled the more the walls of the West Gash closed in. The claustrophobic cramped feeling of this portion of the W. Gash soon added suffocating to its repertoire. A dense mist had settled in upon us like a blanket making it not only hard to see but also to breathe.

A fork in the road opened up, we took the left fork. When the countryside became more barren grey bedrock, we knew we should be entering the ebony mine area. But, where was the mining operation? As far as we could see the, the site was empty. The mining operation was gone.

A surly stranger approached. Claiming to be a Redoran Agent he informed us that we didn’t belong here and ordered us to leave.

It was dusk and would soon be too dark to travel, we told him we were camping for the night and will leave in the morning. Keeping us in sight the surly stranger watched intently as we searched for a place to rest.

When we found the entrance to a small cave, the surly stranger made no effort to stop us from entering Ashanammu. We were searching for a spot, sheltered from the elements. What we found was a crew of Telvanni agents. They immediately attacked.

Now I know most Telvanni are not idiots, but what else can you call a Telvanni who cannot recognize me, the famed Archmagister emeritus? But then again, perhaps they did and thought they could make a big jump in rank by eliminating the only Archmagister emeritus. That mistake in judgment made them dead Telvanni idiots.

And for what? We found a few gold coins, and little else in Ashanammu.

“Did you notice that the Telvanni agents in here were all female?” Kaleah said to Elenya.

“Ooh wee,” Elenya whistled. “That little Bosmer guard they have stationed outside is going to be a trifle upset when he finds out his sweet gig has gone sour, no more designer sheets for him.”

Upset? That didn’t quite describe it. Night had fallen when we left Ashanammu and the surly stranger was fighting mad about the prospect of spending a lovely night under a blanket of stars, alone. After dealing with the guard’s temper tantrum, we explored the area that used to be the Caldera ebony mine. All we found was the Uveran Ancestral Tomb.

Finding a skeleton and little else of historical value in the well picked over tomb we left it and the deserted Caldera ebony mine. Returning to the main road, we turned north.

Continuing up through West Gash the road finally came to an end. The infernal mountain range seemed be forcing us east into the Ashlands. Wasn’t long before we found ourselves facing the Daedric ruin of Remimilk.

“Remimilk, the Shrine of Molag Bal,” Kaleah whispered with a shudder. Kaleah tried to shield Pym from the sight.

Pym gave her a ‘I’m not a child’ look and shook-off Kaleah’s protective wings.

Entering Remimilk confirmed this was the Daedric Shrine of Molag Bal. I can only guess what the current worshipers were doing but uh… they didn’t like us barging in on their party. In the end the worshipers were in no position to object when we decide to use their bedrolls for the night.

On the way east of Remimilk we met a Khajiit highwayman. “Well, well, if it isn’t the ‘Divine Crusader’ himself,” he said.

He let us pass, we let him live. Fair trade.

As we crested a small rise we could hear sounds of fighting. “N’wha!” “S’wit!”

Someone’s in trouble. We hurried over the hill to see the body of a dead Ashlander. A second Ashlander was in a duel to the death with a grey robed assailant. A body of a second grey robed assailant was lying, still on the ground near a camp fire.

We reached the campsite just as the Ashlander finished his grey robed assailant. Still in his blood lust the Ashlander didn’t ask ‘Friend or Foe’, he just attacked us. Sadly, we were forced to defend ourselves and he joined the other fallen.

The grey robed assailants turn out to be True Ayleid Descendant Cultists. What are they doing here?

“They’re looking for you,” Elenya warned.

Not far from the Ashlander camp we found Abaelun Diamond Mine. What a busy little mine this one is. Several miners tell us that they’re so happy to be here and not in an egg mine. Two Imperial guards make sure the miners didn’t get too happy and pocket a sparkle or two. Just looking at the diamonds will get you arrested. And the nearest prison? You guessed it… Bruma.

Feeling the temptation we left Abaelun before we succumbed.

Continuing on the path set before us we stood before the door of Shushishi. Can you believe it in this day and age the underground slave trade is still flourishing. Well, the slavers and their Khajiit overseer, Dro’Zhirr are no more. In the process we freed two Khajiit and two Argonians.

Well, we’ve seen much of Vvardenfell that is open to us. While I had hoped to hear word of Kendrel or find evidence of vampires, Kaleah and Elenya are right to be concerned about the presence of the True Ayleid Descendant Cultists. We must return to Cyrodiil.

Perhaps I should find a skilled techmage trainer and learn how to break these barriers. One would think that as Arch-Mage I could assign someone the task but it doesn’t often work that way.

Wow, what a trip down the memory lane, Macole! Is it a part of the Vampire mod? So all the vampires that you hadn't slain, escaped to Morrowind?

Oh, it's the final chapter of Order of Virtuous Blood! -- By the way I did start OVB all over again, this time with Joan of Arkay. Because of course, being associated with Arkay she's gonna want to eradicate these bloodsuckers. Originally when I did OVB it was with Renee Gade III, nearly 10 years ago.

Joan more 'serious' of a character than RG3. Chances are she'll actively hunt for the vampires when she's in the I.C. for instance, remaining suited in full armor and so on, whereas RG3 would often be wearing some stupid dress, taking on the town half-wasted, and then IF she noticed a vamp that's when she'd take action. It was always impromptu with her, always I'd need to improvise.

Have you ever read a book and then years later you read it again, gleaning insights and noticing things you maybe missed the first time? That's sort of what I'm hoping for, doing Order of Virtuous Blood a second time. See, I don't remember this portal in Cheydinhal at all, for instance.

Whoa, they're in Caldera. That isn't straight-up Morrowind though, right? Is that Morroblivion or Tam Rebuilt or some other?

PPl are more 'talkative' in MW, but 90% of them repeat the exact same lines as the others! At least the dialog in Cyrodiil is often unique!



Right? How dare they!

Is weird Jandaga had to go to MW to hear word from Kendrel.

No real answers it seems, but quite the tour of Morrowind. The Jandaga's little group probably needs a bath now to wash away the ash.

To clarify, the latest chapter is strictly an Oblivion mod. No Morroblivion or any other major overhaul.

An old 2009 mod, Caldera Expanded places the portal in Cheydinhall Mages Guild and creates the Morrowind world space. It was a buggy mess, from what I have read.

David Brasher cleaned-up Caldera Expanded and included it in Vampire Hunting – Order of the Virtuous Blood (I’m using VH-OVB version 3.2).

The original expectation was that the mod author was going to create new Kendrel the Vampire Huntress quests occurring in Morrowind around Caldera. Sadly, it never happened. If I want it, I’ll have to do it myself. I should have it ready by the next eclipse.

20240420 Vampire Hunting – Order of the Virtuous Blood, final chapter part 2
On the way back to Caldera from Shushishi, we took a slightly different rout trying to uncover as much of the area as we could. (Lena’s map works very well with Caldera Updated.) We by-passed the most northern sections of the Ashlands and the West Gash, and quickly found ourselves on the road just north of Caldera.

Nearing Caldera we strayed off the road to the east of Caldera. Passing by the Indalen Ancestral Tomb, I told the story how one of the first things I did after Caius Cosades told me to go get some experience was to explore this ancestral tomb on my own. The Ladies about fell over laughing as I described my reaction when lowly inexperienced me was chased out of the tomb by four powerful Daedra and one nasty lich.

Of course, they wanted to see the site of such an inglorious retreat. Entering the Indalen Ancestral Tomb proved entertaining. The Daedra threat had returned in full force. This time, with a little help from my friends it was so satisfying to eliminate the Daedra menace. With the Indalen Ancestral Tomb once again free of the Daedra invasion we left the tomb and walked over to Caldera.

We were on our way to the Mages Guild when we passed by Ghorak Manor. This time I didn’t have to reminisce about the Scamp vender inside Ghorak Manor. The scent of a shop hung around the manor and that was all it took for the Field Hippies to insist on dropping in to see if Creeper was still buying here. He was, and at prices other vendors could not match.

(There are two Creepers in the pic, one is invisible. Can you see him?)

Leaving Ghorak Manor we’re thinking since it was so late in the day that we would spend the night at our newly acquired house. We have the key to Nedhelas’ house and the thought of a bath, dinner and a good night’s sleep sounded oh so good. Yes, a relaxing night and get an early start in the morning.

Before we could get to the house, we were approached by Elmussa Dameri. Introducing herself as a businesswoman, she invites us to discuss some business over lunch. Elmussa could use some help with a business transaction, or so she says. Hungry we accept the offer of a free meal.

Elmussa Dameri is looking for someone who is not too well known in town, to help her acquire an item for a client, the Paragon of Rubies, from a supplier who did not wish to sell.

What? Has Elmussa been living under a rock to think of me as not well known? Ha!

I listen to her proposition. Ah, yes, it sounds like she’s a thief. When I mentioned thief, Elmussa becomes highly insulted. How dare I compare her to a common thief, she’s a businesswoman with standards. She shows us to the door and will not speak of the job again. As we leave Elmussa warns that we had I better not mention this to anyone else if I know what’s good for me.

Halfway to the Mages Guild we’re once again stopped, this time by an attractive Nord woman pleading for help. The thief Dro’ Zhirr robbed Aetna Wave-Breaker of her family heirlooms; a ruby ring and an amulet, both inscribed with the family crest.

“He is a horrible Khajiit bandit that leads a gang of thieves in terrorizing the West Gash,” Aetna tells me. “The authorities can't seem to find him or his hide-out, but I suspect that is because he pays them off.”

I try to explain that I’m rather busy at the moment and really need to get back to Cyrodiil.

Aetna starts crying, “I thought you were supposed to be a famous hero! My cousin Helga Open-legs, from Stirk, told me that you were a true hero and one who wouldn’t hesitate to help a lady undress err, in distress.”

Oh, I remember Helga! How can you forget a name like that? We’ll do it. We know where the slave overseer Dro’ Zhirr is. We left him in Shushishi. Quickly Kaleah flies us over the mountains to Shushishi.

“Heirlooms? Ha! Dro' Zhirr has found plenty of heirlooms.” Dro’ Zhirr bragged. “They just seem to fall into his pockets! In fact, Dro' Zhirr just found a few new pieces earlier today. Took them from some Nord woman. Cried like a baby she did. "Oh, my precious jewelry!"”

Alone with his slave gang gone, Dro’ Zhirr saw the odds stacked against him and proposed a compromise. He’ll give back the Wave-Breaker heirlooms if I give him half the reward. I agree and Dro’ Zhirr hands over the Wave-Breaker heirlooms.

Flying back to Caldera, I delivered the jewels to Aetna Wave-Breaker. Aetna smiled and gave me the promised reward, 300 gold coins and… um, just like what happened with Helga Open-legs, my overly protective Ladies whisked me away from danger. Deciding that it was getting too late, and we needed to get some sleep, the Field Hippies dragged me away to the house Nedhelas gave us.

Rising early the morning of 8th of Sun’s Height, 3E435, we had barely finished breakfast when a courier arrived with a message. The mushroom city of Mir Corrup is complete and Shenara Hleras wishes to see us. We immediately packed and once again make our way to the Caldera Guild of Mages.

Is that a True Descendant Cultist we see entering the guild hall? We rush inside trying to confront the cultist. Perhaps, the dim early morning haze played tricks on our eyes for once we’re inside the hall we find no sign of the cultist. We head upstairs to the portal still no sign of the cultist.

We must have been mistaken; the hall is empty. Seeing no sign of the cultist, we use the transport portal to return to Cheydinhall’s Mages Guild.

Surprise, surprise there’s not one but two True Descendant cultists waiting to use the Cheydinhall to Caldera Transport Pad.

The cultist with the tattooed face scornfully addressed us, “Why do you bother me, go away.”

The hooded one looked down her long nose and said, “You creatures are all the same.”

The appearance of the cultists raises some concerns with this transport pad. We just can’t have unauthorized cultists, vampires and who knows what else popping in and out whenever they please. We need some control.

(I read that there was a bug in the original Caldera Updated mod that allowed NPCs to use the portal. (I kind of like it that they do) Supposedly that was fixed but it looks like the True Descendant Cultist didn’t get the memo.)

Ignoring the cultists we went downstairs to the main floor to find Deetsan. I instructed Deetsan to closely monitor its use and send the findings to the Captain Tertia Aurum of the Imperial Watch on a regular basis.

Deetsan was also given authorization to assist in any way possible, the Caldera Guild of Mages with their Oblivion Crisis Recovery projects. I left it up to Deetsan to determine feasibility of all Caldera project requests.

Using a recall spell, we arrived at Shenara Hleras’ hut in a blink of an eye.

Shenara was sitting at her vanity dresser when we arrived. She had great news for us. The city had been built and we are to contact Ranis Avani for status updates; what’s done, what needs to be done or if everything if going to collapse in a puddle of mud.

A half a day’s walk found us standing at the gates of the new Mir Corrup.

The Jandaga was rather charitable to the jewelry-grabbing thief. As was his Arch Mageness to those unauthorized telepad using cultists.

So Mir Corrup is is completed! It'll be fun to learn how it turned out.

Cool, maybe I'll add that expansion into Joan's game. She's doing OVB as well.

Yeah, those Ancestral Tombs can be nasty. Really, really dangerous. They're laughing at Jandaga because he went into one with low experience? Well, Joan is leveled somewhere in the teens in MW, and there are times she nearly gets downed by some enemies in those. She's entirely confident on land, even when facing Golden Saints and other advanced enemies, but there are times in tombs she's nothing but a n00b.



I cannot! Even with glasses on! It's hard though with Imgur these days > which won't let me expand the pic to full screen like it used to.

The dialog between Jandaga and Aetna is funny! She starts crying because your guy is too busy with other quests!



Me too. I like when NPCs do stuff which they aren't supposed to, within reason. Makes them seem more like real people with their own minds.

Wow, so the city-growing project worked! That must be exciting.

Before you add anything, go to the top floor of the Cheydinhal Mages Guild. If you are using version Vampire Hunting-Order of the Virtuous Blood v3.2 you will find the portal there.

Okay, thanks.

202405xx I-SL Mir Corrup re-grown

We could hardly believe our eyes as we stood at the gates of the newly grown Mir Corrup. Standing there amazed at the sight, I said quietly, “Wow! I may learn to like being a Count.”

In unison with greatly exaggerated curtsies, the Ladies said, “Yes, m’lord.”

“He won’t last a year before he’s back on the road,” Kaleah whispered to the other two. Elenya and Pym nodded in agreement.

As the Count of Mir Corrup it would be wise to get to know Mir Corrup and its citizens. Starting with the Fighters Guild, we took a tour of the ten Telvanni mushroom buildings nestled within the walls of the ancient city of Mir Corrup.

Fighters Guild: S’keshad hails from Rimmen where he once considered joining the Mane’s Guard. A cat of action, S’keshad also likes to have fun which he feels the Fighters Guild provides more opportunity.

Surya Farys, a Dunmer from Morrowind declares that she was once a member of House Telvanni. Poor mage skills and a preference for fighting presented her with a limited career path leading her to seek her fortune elsewhere.

Stranded Light Outpost; A teleport Pad next to Chimney Dreams takes us inside the outpost, a tall ugly fungi building. An observation deck with a grand view of the city and lake is its redeeming feature.

A female Xivilai named Beramkne is the Guild Guide in charge of the outpost. Beramkne finds Mir Corrup to be dull, dull, dull after spending most of her service in the richly colored realm of Moonshadow.
Mattias Curio is her Imperial assistant.

Chimney Dreams: a bookstore operated by married couple Jorn (Breton) and M’kendri (Ohmes-Raht). M’kendri has a quest to find a missing book or pamphlet titled “Love Letter from the 5th Era”.
The southeastern corner of Mir Corrup.

The Boiling Cauldron, alchemy shop: The Orc alchemist Maya gra-Orag operates the shop. Jarvio, a male Aureal bound to Maya keeps the shop tidy and cares for the plants.

Guard’s Quarters: Therian an Ohmes-Raht from Corinth is the quartermaster for the city guard. The Valus climate is too cold for his liking, so he took the position of quartermaster, thinking that he could stay indoors most of the time.

Lalatia Laecinnius, a redheaded Imperial woman wearing amber armor, requested transfer to Mir Corrup after growing tired of the loneliness of the Morrowind Border Patrol. “Too much for one person,” she said.

Larrius Pullia, a twenty year legionnaire veteran felt he was being snubbed by the Legion before he was transferred to Mir Corrup. Now he’s sure of it. He had always thought of retiring to place like Mir Corrup, only not for many years yet. Maybe the Legion was trying to tell him something.

The two Seducers; Priennta a Mazken, and Teledri an Aureal do not have authority to arrest citizens. Their primarily duty is to negotiate disputes to a peaceful conclusion.

The Red Navel: a strange inn a place to eat, drink, dance, meet people, and to just get away from the cold. The innkeeper is Valeria, a Daedra seducer whose wings have been torn from her back. Just what she did to deserve that punishment, Kaleah says I really don’t want to know.

“Back in my days of yore I could have been described as a... companion.” Veleria said. Today I'm running the Red Navel, finest inn in Mir Corrup! For you the bed is always free.”

The Lightning Bolt: Proprietors Hides His Scales is the smith in charge of the forge. Untyrrien, a Hidden Elf aka Ayleid, applies enchantments and does the fine metal work.

The Sunken Treasure: clothier: The Maormer, Rheed and Duygu from the Sea of Ghost, tell me they can keep their cost to minimum by acquiring high quality goods from sunken cargo ships sitting on the sea floor. Amazing!
Dune Walkers Chapterhouse: A safe house for Dune Walker agents in need of R&R and further training, operated by Dar’aquenia

Mages Guild: Mages Natheile of Alinor and Jo’desrevi from Elsweyr near the Valenwood border have been assigned to the Mir Corrup chapterhouse. Without a clearly designated chapter head the two are constantly fighting over who is in charge.

There are a few other landmarks of note; an inactive shine to an unknown goddess, and a broken Ayleid well, a lake which was once the site of the famed Mir Corrup Spas, a small picnic area alongside the north end of the lake, and a large gathering deck in the center of the city.

We also met a few citizens of Mir Corrup;

Krazzt, a Dremora, was bound for an eternity serving of the living "gods" of Vvardenfell. Krazzt was the one who greeted pilgrims in the Puzzle Canal under Vivec's palace, receiving silver sword after silver sword. This task played tricks on his mind. By the time the ALMSIVI sect collapsed, Krazzt had developed a certain obsession with silver swords. Now he is tries to rid himself of the avalanche of silver that buries him in his dreams, by attempting to sell a silver sword to everyone he meets.

Setuva, a female Dremora who is nothing like Markie that answers my summons eager to fight no matter the odds. No, Setuva was lost in Vaemina’s Quagmire for a long time. Constant nightmares changed her. Now, here in Mir Corrup she teaches Daedric reading and writing. Setuva gave me a book on Daedric letters for my first lesson.

But, where is Ranis Avani? Sherana told me to check-in with Ranis Avani. But after spending the day visiting all ten buildings and talking to everyone we met, Ranis was nowhere to be seen.

We headed over to the Red Navel, found unused beds, and retired for the night.

edit: correct missing text in Guard 's Quarter.

Looks like Mir Corrup has been fleshed into a thriving town.

Love letter from the 5th Era? Wow, even time traveling Buffy has not been there. Yet.

A Mages Guildhall with no magister in charge? Hmm, the Arch Mage will have to remedy that.

Wonder where this Ranis Avani is?


’ Lalatia Laecinnius a redheaded Imperial woman wearing amber armor requested transfer to Mir Corrup after a tour of Morrowind border patrol. He had always thought of retiring to place like Mir Corrup, only not for many years yet. Maybe the Legion was trying to tell him something. ‘
- - So. . . is Lalatia a man or a woman?

Jandaga likes the idea of becoming a count. Wonder what such a thing might entail (if anything)? My very own Renee Gade III technically is count of Kvatch in her Fourth Era world, but this doesn't actually mean anything in-game. Then again, I think there are quests associated with Kvatch Rising which she never finished.

Anyway, Mir Corrup looks fantastic.

Neat that you posted replies from all the new residents Jandaga speaks to.

Damn, they stole away that Seducer's wings. Guess things could be worse. She's lucky to be running her own shop.

Lots of Daedrics in this town. Hmm... I dunno about that. Then again, some of the Field Hippies fit right in.

Strangely the half of the description of Legion veteran Larrius Pullia was deleted. I hope I clarified that error; Lala is a woman.

20240503 I-SL Mir Corrup Tower – TAS Mapping Mayhem

The next morning was spent searching for Ranis Avani.

There’s something we noticed about the city. There are no private homes. While most citizens are associated with a shop and they do tend to spend most of their time in their shop, nothing stops them from visiting other shops in the city. Ranis could be anywhere. I just haven’t been in the right place at the right time.

It was nearing noon when as I was thinking about being in the right place at the right time, I saw a woman climbing out of the water at the far northern banks of the lake. Not recognizing the dress we deduced that she must be Ranis. Running along the banks of the lake we kept an eye Ranis as she entered the Dune Walkers house.

Because of the way the citizens roam around visiting each we weren’t surprised to find Ranis in the Dune Walker. What surprised us was Ranis Avani was a House Telvanni diplomat assigned to Elsweyr who had joined the Dune Walkers.

Oh, Ranis gave the usual cock and bull story of how joining the Dune Walkers caused many Telvanni to question her loyalties. Things got so bad for that when Do’leandra mentioned Mir Corrup Ranis volunteered.

While many would consider joining the Dune Walkers a rejection of House Telvanni, I know diplomat is just another word for “spy’. My question becomes; who is she spying on; the Dune Walkers, the Stranded Light, or me? Leaves me wondering, what has happened to House Telvanni since my departure?

Ranis Avani informed me that everything is fine with the city growth. She realizes that the population is limited to shop owners and she is trying to contact a few more people to expand the city. What is missing though is a place fit for the city's nominal ruler - in her opinion a nice little Telvanni Tower!

I tend to agree. I miss that little tower back in Tel Uvirith. Yes, the Count of Mir Corrup needs his own room. And what do I have to do to get it? Go talk to Shenara, of course.

Half a day later, Shenara greets me, “What is it, muthsera?”

When I told her I had another request, she seemed to know that Ranis had sent me to acquire spores to grow a tower.

“Oh please, a Telvanni tower,” Shenara replied sarcastically. “You need real power to fulfill this task and from what I see, any Telvanni master would fry you for breakfast. You need some real good genuine spirit energy for a tower. You need the big catch, the one fish that’s likely to eat you instead. Think you can capture a spirit strong enough to bend the flow of magicka around it, a soul so strong that no normal soul gem can hold it? Yes, we will soon see how much power you really have.”

My first thought was of the colossal black soul gem that I had given to Karashivuel. It held the soul of Ulasza, the Xivilai I defeated in the Grey Maybe. My second thought was, what rock has Shenara been hiding under for the past 30 years? Of course I have the power. I just don’t go around shouting it and pointing my sword the up to the firmament. Beside I’ve already captured a suitable soul. Call me a s’wit will she, well we’ll see who’s the s’wit.

Not wasting any time, we traveled to Merendin to ask Karashivuel for the Ulasza soul gem so Shenara can grow a tower in Mir Corrup.

“What?” Karashivuel questioned. “You would do what? You’d be willing to tear her soul into pieces? And here I thought I am the monster. When her spirits strength is used, then she won’t ascend to her last heights of power for a very, very long time. Eons. But, maybe it will also rid her of the Order Taint. We have to try and see don’t we. Alright, take the soul gem.”

Returning to Shenara Hleras’ hut, it was so satisfying to see the surprised and shocked expression on her face as I held out the filled colossal soul gem.

“Oh! You… did?” Shenara asked in dismay. Hungrily she snatched the colossal soul gem from my hands. “Let me see it! Alright, perfect! This will do nicely. How did you… who are you?”

When I told her she fell to the floor in a faint. She didn’t apologize for not recognizing me or beg forgiveness for her rude behavior, what Telvanni would, she just meekly said, “It will be ready in ten days. Come see me then.”

Well Ladies looks like we have some time on our hands. Any suggestions?” I asked with a smile, already knowing the answer. Within minutes we were on the way to the Imperial City.

We had just crossed the Bridge of Magi and entered the Imperial City Arboretum gates. It wasn’t 5 minutes later when guard Jannus Mercium approached us. Expecting a message from Captain Aurum, we were somewhat surprised when his message was from Councilor Osciuro.

Councilor Osciuro wishes an audience with us as soon as possible. He is available in the Arboretum any day between the hours of 10am and 4pm.

Since we’re here in the Arboretum we might as well speak to Councilor Osciuro now before the shopping spree begins.

After congratulating us on helping Captain Aurum, explains that the Empire considers the Ayleid Stepstones having a strategic value but first the network between cities needs to be mapped. Councilor Osciuro then reveal his project to map the stepsons’ connecting the Imperial City to each city; Anvil, Bravil, Bruma, Cheydinhal, Chorrol, Leyawiin, and Skingrad. He gives us a task sheet and offers 1000 septims per completed task.

An offer we could not refuse. We accepted after giving the task list a quick review.

Before starting the assignments on the task sheet Councilor Osciuro wants us to deliver a message to Calindil at the Mystic Emporium. I admit I read the message or I at least tried to read it. It was a coded page of numbers. What it means I have no idea.

We were about to enter the Mystic Emporium when one of the many beggars on the street approached begging for money. As I dug in my pockets for a coin, this beggar warned me when it comes to the stepstones, do not trust anyone. Everyone has their own agenda; they all want to control the key. The beggar left without taking coin.

“Trust no one,” he said. “Not Captain Aurum, not Councilor Osciuro, not the grey-robed cultist, and well, just keep in mind that everyone involved has his own agenda. Trust nobody. Absolutely nobody!”

The strange unknown 'beggar' left me wondering how many factions are involved in this.

The awaked feeling of distrust showed itself when I delivered Osciuro’s coded message to Calindil. He’s an Altmer, the councilor is an Altmer, a curious coincidence or something else altogether? Remember what the beggar said, “Trust no one, elves in particular”.

Shaking off the nagging question of trust, we returned to the Arboretum to tell Councilor Osciuro we were ready to begin mapping the network.

Ranis has been found. Uh-oh, she wants a Telvanni tower. I see Shenara indeed underestimates with whom she is dealing as the Jandaga easily delivers the potent soul of one s’wit to another s’wit.

Then it’s off to the Goddess Shoppe. And (of course) another task – a whole sheet of them in fact. Along with a cryptic warning from a mysterious beggar. Hmm.

Funny how in Mir Corrup, seems there's plenty of proprietors but not so many ordinary dwellers? In Skyrim it's the opposite. I've got Helgen Reborn, which has a bunch of new NPCs walking around, but most of the shops haven't got any shopkeepers. Yet, at least.

What's Dune Walker, or a Dune Walker? Why would a House Telvanni not want to go in that house?



That's a great thought.

"Call me a s'wit will she? We'll see who's the s'wit!" --

We've got some downtime field hippies. Any suggestions?

Starts with an S and ends with a G, pretty sure they're gonna be HOPPIN in between. Better break out the Tamriel Express card, sounds like.

The end (with the beggar) how ominous.

The Dune Walkers is an Elsweyr faction whose function would be similar to that of the Blades, protect and defend the Mane and Elsweyr.
Integration – The Stranded Light has two competing Elsweyr factions; the bad guys the Renrijra Krin and the good guys the Dune Walkers. As agents of the Mane, the Dune Walkers of Elsweyr are accepting of Imperial rule. Their mortal enemy, the Renrijra Krin is a group of thieves, drug smugglers, and assassins hiding behind claims of being Elsweyr freedom fighters.
Each faction has its own quest arc where you can side with either one. Siding with the Renrijra Kirn has a negative impact with Stranded Light relations and locks you out of many quests.


I’m guessing that it’s a race thing. Even though anyone can join the House Telvanni, you don’t see many, if any, non-Dunmer in high-ranking positions. For Rani Avani, a Telvanni diplomat to Elsweyr, to go and enlist into a Khajiit military organization it would at the least be considered a social indiscretion of the highest order, treason at the most. Unless of course, she's a “spy”. Maybe she still is. Should the Stranded Light be warned?

20240511 TAS Mapping Mayhem

Councilor Osciuro was still in the Arboretum with his guard, Watchman Jannus Mercium. As we approached him the sight of that golden face the feeling of unease crept back into my mind.

“Have you noticed,” I mentioned to my Ladies. “Councilor Oscuiro doesn’t seem to recognize the Arch-Mage of Cyrodiil and his guard, Watchman Jannus Mercium, is the same one that’s been delivering Captain Aurum’s messages? Hmm.”

Could it be that the mage Captain Aurum met in Cheydinhal was Councilor Oscuiro?

Call it paranoia but that beggar’s warning has gotten to me. As a precaution I instructed the Ladies to stay here and keep an eye on Oscuiro while I attend to this mapping task. Of course they objected, saying that it was too dangerous for me to go alone. But I assured them that I could handle Watchman Jannus Mercium and anything else that came along the way. And that was that.

When I notified Councilor Oscuiro that I was ready to begin mapping, he asked which one. The first on his list was Anvil, I took it. Councilor Oscuiro then informed me that Watchman Jannus Mercium will go along to record the stepstones taken and to time the trip.

“Time?” I questioned.

“Yes,” replied councilor Oscuiro. “We want the shortest route possible. We have a time limit in mind for each city. Take too long and you’ll have to return here and try again. Furthermore, should you lose Watchman Mercium during the mapping, you are required to return here and start over. One other thing, deliver this letter to Carahil at the Mages Guild Hall for me.”

Watchman Jannus Mercium approaches and says “Right sir, I’m with you. Timing starts now. Let’s go to the Imperial Palace.”

So here I am, map maker and postman. Glorified errand boy if you ask me.

Here I am
On the road again
There I am
On the stage
Here I go
Playin' star again
There I go
Turn the page

In the Imperial Palace there are seven stepstones, of which two are broken. Is there one stepstone for each city? Let’s hope so otherwise this is going to be really messy.

Still, assuming that each stepstone leads to one of the seven cities, there is nothing here that I could see that tells me which one is for which city. The watchman offers no clue on which one to take other than how many stepstones it should take and how much time is allowed to complete the task.

A bandit suddenly appeared at one of the stepstones. The palace guards and Watchman Mercium raced to eliminate the intruder. I ran after Mercium but the fight was over before I got there. Watchman walked over to me and I activated the closest stepstone.

Randomly selecting a stepstone was the wrong thing to do. We search for the city for the longest time before the watchman Mercium declared I had taken too long and that we would have go back to the Arboretum.

After speaking to councilor Oscuiro I made a second attempt and a third. Each attempt ended in failure for various reasons e.g. losing the watchman or waiting as the watchman takes a timeout in the bushes or gets himself stuck in a boulder. But the most likely reason probably was that I was using the wrong Palace stepstone as the starting point.

Realizing that this is not working, I decided to step back and think a moment.

“How am I supposed to follow the task assignments if I don’t know which stepstone to start on,” I complain to Councilor Oscuiro.

“That’s why we’re paying you the big coin to map the system,” was his answer.

Then there was the issue with how easily the watchman can get lost. Complaining to Councilor Oscuiro didn’t help with that either. He merely reminded me that he told me to keep the watchman close.

So, I thought why not activate the palace stepstones without taking a task from Oscuiro. While it sounded like a good idea, I spent too many frustrating hours and a lot of welkynd stones stepping through the route of each city. But it was worth it. I now have a city destination for each of the working stepstones.

Except for Bruma and Skingrad, they were still without a starting point. They must be associated with the broken stepstones. How will I be able to travel to those two cities without a starting stepstone in the Imperial Palace?

One thing I noticed while activating the five working stepstones was that their very first destination was to a specific Imperial City guard tower. With five stepstone/tower associations already known I figured that the broken stepstones must be aligned with the two remaining towers e.g. Market District North Tower and Arboretum South Tower.

A slow methodical dry run from each of the towers proved my deduction correct. The North Tower stepstone leads to Bruma. The South tower begins the journey to Skingrad.

Now I just need to go back to Councilor Oscuiro and make official mapping runs. Since we’re already in the Arboretum I selected Skingrad as my first task. Councilor Oscuiro handed me a letter to be delivered to Tumindil and once Watchman Mercium said he was ready we left for the South Watchtower.

Several steps after activating the South Watchtower stepstone we arrived near Skingrad’s West city gate. Watchman Mercium congratulated me on successfully completing the mission before he returned to the Arboretum leaving me to deliver the letter to Tumindil.

I knew I shouldn’t, but I gave it a quick read as I walked to the temple to meet Tumindil. It was another page filled with numbers. A coded message, and it’s not standard Mages Guild code. Something is going on here and I’m beginning to get annoyed.

Casting RECALL, I quickly returned to the Arboretum to collect the payment from Councilor Oscuiro. For my second task, I chose Bruma as the target city. As before, Councilor Oscuiro handed me a letter to be delivered to Suurootan when we arrive in Bruma.

With Watchman Mercium at my heels, I activated the North Watchtower stepstone. Just a few steps and Mercium and I were standing near the Bear Riders’ Lodge just outside Bruma.

After receiving Watchman Mercium’s congratulations, I delivered another coded message to Suurootan.
Task completed I spent the evening at my Bruma house going over expense receipts with Kiyana, my house sitter (time to reimburse her expenses for house sitting). The next morning, I recalled back to the Arboretum.

Meeting up with Councilor Oscuiro in the Arboretum, I selected Cheydinhal as my third task. With a letter addressed to Orintur in hand, Watchman Mercium and I hurried over to the Palace to the stepstone I knew would lead us to Cheydinhal.

Six jumps later found us standing in a servant’s bedroom located somewhere in Castel Cheydinhal’s private quarters.

Watchman Mercium declared the trip a success and left for the Arboretum while I went to the Mages Guild to deliver Oscuiro’s coded message to Orintur. With that taken care of I returned to the Arboretum to meet with Councilor Oscuiro.

Councilor Oscuiro thanked me for my service and paid me my fee. When I told him that I was ready to do another mapping task, Councilor Oscuiro informed me that he had an important engagement to attend. He was going to be out of town for some time and I should contact him when he gets back.

Ok by me. I’ll gather my lovely flowers and we’ll paint the town red.

The Jandaga has a lot of patience to put up with that councilor's bs + attitude. And what is with the coded letters? Is someone trying to undermine the Mages Guild and using the Arch Mage to do it?

20240521 TAS The Ingred Inauguration

Actually, I was rather relieved when Councilor Oscuiro informed me that he was going to an out-of-town meeting. I haven’t had a relaxing dinner with my Ladies in a long time.

Surprisingly, the Ladies were still in the Arboretum when I found then. Smiling wildly, I ran to greet them with news of a few days of leisure time.

The Ladies were excited to see me, too. Um, it seems I had forgotten to inform the Bank to increase their credit limit while I was away. Now I was about to hear, non-stop for the rest of the afternoon, exactly how they felt about that mistake.

A romantic dinner on the Bloated Float, under moonlit starry skies, serenaded by the sound of waves lapping against the piers, will go far in solving that misunderstanding. Why, we could even take in the theater after dinner.

Oh, I forgot there is no theater in the Imperial City or in the whole of Cyrodiil for that matter. And no, the Arena is not the sort of entertainment my Ladies should be seeing at this time. They might get the wrong idea. The plan is to soothe their fractured egos, not inflame them further.

The whole afternoon spent in the Goddess Store and the only thing bought was a new pair of shoes for Kaleah. At least there’s a nice bar down in the lower level.

It was pouring rain when we, Kaleah, Elenya, Pym, and I left the Goddess Store. Thankfully the Bloated Float is only a short walk, err run down the wharf street. After a mad dash to the Bloated Float, we stumbled thoroughly soaked into the dining room, laughing like a bunch of school kids at recess. Pouring ourselves into the chairs at the nearest table we shouted for drinks and plates of whatever was in the hot pot.

Recognizing his friends, Orvil brought out his best wines and liqueurs to go with large steaming platters of crab legs and lobsters and baked fish with a lemon butter and caper sauce. Pity, we weren’t able to enjoy the dinner on the top deck under the moons and stars but the Bloated Float was dry on the inside.

It was late and the storm had not subsided, we weren’t the only ones who decided to spend the night aboard the Bloated Float. Party till the clouds run dry, someone shouted. With Orvil setting-up temporary sleeping mats for those who needed, the party continued well into the wee hours.

The morning came and with it came the end of the storm. We left the Bloated Float to get cleaned up at the Arch-Mage’s quarters.

Passing through the Arboretum, we were stopped by an elder lady, Elsabeth Selatus. Claiming to have been sent by someone she won’t name, she warns us that we are in great danger. “They” are watching and “They” are out to kill me, she warns.

Who are “they” that she’s warning about and who is it that sent her?

They, I suspect are the True Descendants cultists. The cultists have been very visible lately. They seem to be everywhere the Ladies and I go. There were at least four running around inside Mir Corrup last time we were there. They even followed us to Caldera.

No, it’s not the True Descendants, but certain others, Elsabeth claims. Well known rich people, people with power. Elsabeth offers to direct me to certain secrets that if used wisely will protect me from these “others”. She will say no more on who these others are.

To uncover these secrets, I must seek out Ingred the Sturdy, a Nord traveling merchant. She should be staying at the Imperial Bridge Inn this coming Tirdas. Giving the password Wingless Bird, Ingred will reveal to me the location where I will find important secrets about the Steps.

Why should I trust some old woman with an oddball conspiracy theory when she won’t tell me who sent her or why? I guess it’s because of the way the grey robed cultists are constantly hovering around that I think we should look into this.

Turning to my Ladies I suggested that since it is now Morndas, we should leave immediately. After being schooled on how bad an idea that was, we decide that we would spend the night in the Arch-Mage’s quarters and leave for the Imperial Bridge Inn at the first light of dawn.

How could I stand against such convincing arguments? Bubble baths, shampooing hair and doing nails are after
all basic needs that should not be ignored. And don’t forget dinner. Oh, that first light of dawn thing, better make that after the morning meditation and most importantly breakfast. Oh well, if we run we should make the Imperial Bridge Inn by early Tirdas evening.

Leaving the Mages Guild, we walked across Lake Rumar to the Ring Road. Turning south we come across another traveler as we passed the burned-out husk of the original All Things Alchemical.

She was alone and going in our direction, so I politely ask if she’d like to journey with us for protection. She gave us stern look over and said something to the effect that she’d have to have a long talk with a barkeep before talking to me.

Ouch, that stung. It’s been quite awhile since I was considered a ‘closing time desperation date’. Well, if she wants to be left alone then we’ll just keep on going.

When we came to the Yellow Road intersection, we turned south toward Leyawiin. Here’s where we began to really notice how many True Descendant cultists were reacting to us. They were constantly running past us. One or two at a time they’d pass us by going south. A short time one to four more would run by us going north. It was getting rather unsettling.

Near the area of Fort Sejanus and the Wayshrine of Julianos, we passed by a half buried Ayleid stepstone. As we did a bandit appeared on the stepstone. He took one look at us and swung his big hammer. Pym and Elenya reacted instantly, and the big bandit would no longer threaten anyone in such a manner. The bandit was holding 56 Welkynd stones.

Concentrating on counting Welkynd stones, we were caught by a poisonous cloud. Led by the wanted criminal Nephethys Adlbruk (MOO Mythic Dawn faction), a band of Morrowind Raiders ambushed us. There was a brief struggle.

Collecting Adlbruk’s helmet as proof of her demise, and 307 gold coins from her pocket, we continued on. The rest of the journey to the Imperial Bridge Inn was uneventful.

It was just before 5:00 pm and knowing how busy this place gets at dinner time, the first thing we did was pay for a bed for the night. After a quick change to get rid of some of the road grim, we ordered some dinner and sat down to wait for Ingred the Sturdy to arrive.

A refreshing pause in the IC, followed by another cryptic warning from a stranger. Off to the Imperial Bridge Inn. A couple of attacks and a good supply of welkynd stones later, they arrive to await their study target and ponder why those cultists seem to be breeding like bunnies.

Ah man, fallen behind on the Jandaga tales. Thanks for explaining about Dune Walkers and the Renrija Krin. I've heard about the Krin countless times since the NPCs frequently yap about them, but didn't really know what they are.

The part when Jandaga goes on his own: that is always a great dynamic, when a character you've been gaming with who is part of a group leaves the group behind. I get this perspective with Xena Gade. Sometimes she goes on missions alone, or does a portion of a dungeon by herself. Different perspective. Much easier to Sneak, for one thing.

Today's song is Willie Nelson, final answer! ,,,, NO!!! That's Bob Seger.

Whoa, enemies can use stepstones too!

Picking the wrong stepstone sounds frustrating. OH I get it. So once they're all mapped, then going to the correct destination is easy.



Ha ha ha!

Fact: Bloated Float is one of the only interiors in which food and (I think) some beverages can be picked up, and it's not a crime in the base game. 🍷

Ouch, shot down by a mod-added Traveller. I know the feeling.

Why are cultists keep running past?

20240603 TAS The Ingred Inauguration – OOO Shadows in the Struggle for Power

A Nord woman arrived a few hours later. By the Mother of All Creation, it was the rude traveler who had spurned our offer to join company had met earlier in the day. She came in ordered a plate and with no place to sit she took it upstairs to eat. Thinking that her earlier snarky attitude would soften after a bit of food and ale to wash it down, I waited a bit. Half an hour later I introduced myself to Ingred the Sturdy.

“Excuse me, I don’t mean to interrupt but…” I began.

“What?” snapped Ingred the Sturdy. “Why are you bothering me? Who are you?”

Using the password I was given, I said, “I am a Wingless Bird,”

“By the Nine Divines, a real poet!” Ingred exclaimed. “Come with me. I need some fresh air.”

With the inn crowded with Imperial legionaries, Ingred put on a distracting show of familiarity as she led me outside to a secluded spot by the dock. My ladies followed closely behind to make sure we were not disturbed.

****************

The Imperial Bridge Inn was packed. In addition to the usual crowd, a squad of legionaries (mod VOILA - Voices Of Imperial Legion Amalgamated) had just arrived for dinner. It is lonely business patrolling the Morrowind border and the Imperial Bridge Inn is the one place guards can gather when they get off duty to enjoy the camaraderie their fellow officers.

Upon seeing the four women escorting the Jandaga out the door one of the legionnaires shouted out. ”Don’t bruise him too badly.”

“And mind the stinging nettles,” added the squad captain standing at the door.

The inn nearly lost is roof due to the uproarious laughter hooting and hollering that followed.

“Who is that guy that just walked out with four women?” inquired a marine, on leave from the southern fleet.

“The Nord gal called him a poet.”

“Man, you’ve been out to sea too long,” corrected Davela Hlargen, the proprietor of the inn. “He’s the Champion of Cyrodiil, probably the richest person in the whole empire.

“He’s always willing to go dungeon diving to help those in need,” chirped Lithnilian. “Pretty good at it, too. Saved my research, that he did.”

“Dungeon Diving,” snickered a Bosmer legionnaire sharpshooter sitting at the bar. “Yeah, I bet.”

“Pah,” spat the marine. “He’s just another xōchipepe.”

“A what?” inquired the squad captain.

“Pyandonean,” the marine explained. “Means ‘flower gatherer’.”

“That could be,” pondered an Imperial archer. “He did just walk out with a pretty sweet bouquet.”

****************

After a brief interrogation to confirm that I was who I said I was, Ingred the Sturdy gave me these instructions.

“Okay, having heard your poetry, I am supposed to give you a few instructions.”

“Before I do so, I must warn you. First, I will do this only once, and nothing of what I say is ever to be repeated. Right. If you ever talk about it, or about me, I will find you and kill you. This is no threat. It's just a fact.”

“Listen very closely. Go to Gottshaw Inn, to the west of Kvatch. If you don't know where that is, I'll mark it on your map. Search the immediate surroundings. Do it well. An Ayleid Step is hidden there somewhere. I guess you are experienced in using the Ayleid Steps. We would not have this talk if you were not. Just activate that Step and you'll land in some long-forgotten tomb. Oh, and watch out for those pesky cultists. Make very sure no one sees you.”

“Understood,” I confirmed.

“Good.” Ingred the Sturdy continued. “If you follow my instructions, you will find a letter and eight copies. You may read them, but not take them with you. Not even one. If you take one, I will find out and you will die.”

Kaleah laughed; she had had enough of the Ingred’s talk of killing. Shaking her bow at Ingred, with a deathly serious emphasis on each word, Kaleah sneered, “You may try. You will fail.”

At that moment from out of the darkness several true Descendant cultists came charging down the riverbank. With my Ladies’ attention focused on Ingred’s threats, the cultists broke through their defensive line, centering their attack on me. That really was an error on their part. Kaleah, Elenya, and Pym recovered quickly, and the cultists were quickly put down. Those that were not lying dead on the ground, fled up the hill into the dark forest.

“See,” Ingred said. “They were after you. Be careful, follow my instructions and we may meet again.”

“We’ll be careful,” I agreed. “We’ll leave for Gottshaw Inn right after breakfast tomorrow morning.”

The next morning, Elenya pointed out that traveling by road up and around the Niben and Lake Rumare would take us twice as long than if we walk across the Niben and straight across country to Gottshaw.

Walking across the Niben I overheard Elenya say to Kaleah that she had noticed Kaleah had changed clothes.

Kaleah responded that the Mina skirt shows off her new thigh high boots. I can’t argue with that.

(Once again Oscuro’s Oblivion Overhaul surprises me. This time by loosely tying its many factions into a single quest, 'Shadows in a Struggle for Power'.)

The trip across the southern border of Cyrodiil went without serious incident. It was time for dinner when we reached the ruins of Fort Dasek Moor. The protected courtyard of Dasek Moor’s door invited us to stop and to make camp.

Later with dinner done, we sat relaxing under the star filled sky unaware of the danger that was approaching from the darkness just outside the glow of the ebbing campfire. With a blood curdling scream marauders sprung their attack.

Even though we successfully repelled the attack we were driven into the dark, toothy maw of Dasek Moor. Twinkle came at my call to chase away the darkness revealing the teeth of Dasek Moor. From the far end of the corridor someone called out, “Who’s there?”

This was the beginning of a long night

Before I could call out, “Friend, just looking for a place to spend the night”, nine OOO Raider faction marauders attacked us from two directions. We repulsed the raiders, killing five. Four marauders fled down the long corridor to our right. The chase was on. One by one we picked them off.

The last of the raiders, wielding an enchanted warhammer, stood resolute before an iron gate.

“Oh no, he’s going to shout, ‘Thou shall not pass!’” I whispered to Kaleah.

“More like, Horatius Cocles,” Elenya added. “There’s always a Captain of the Gate.”

Turned out the raider didn’t shout, he just charged us with his big hammer. He also didn’t have anything on him to identify him by name. He was just a simple MOO Marauder with an enchanted warhammer.

No one had an answer when I asked, “What is an unnamed MOO Marauder doing with Armand Cristophe’s Warhammer and why do I get a message informing me that I recovered it?”

Continuing on, I unlocked iron gate only to be obstructed by a large wooden double door. The doors opened to the Dasek Moor Tombs. We had barely taken a step inside the Tombs when two very skilled wanted criminals (MOO wanted faction), assaulted us.

The Altmer swordmaster, Mortha Caemius and her Bosmer bow girl Cylsandra Nightthorn fought hard but fell in the end. We claimed Mortha’s mithril helmet and Cyslandra’s enchanted longsword as proof to claim of bounty.

Unbelievable, that silly Bosmer enchanted her sword with a -2 personality on strike. What a waste.

Returning to Dasek Moor’s exit we passed a door we hadn’t opened. Of course we just had to go inside and see what Dasek Moor Malebolge had to offer. What we found was the main force of the Raiders.

Down a flight of stairs, five raiders of lesser rank were having dinner in the room to the left of the staircase. A conference between Hlofor the Arctic Bear the leader of the OOO Raiders and his subordinates, the beautiful lieutenant Vistilia and three Raid Commanders was in progress in the room to the right of the staircase.
Gathered around a table the Arctic Bear and his subordinates were studying a map as they went over Hlofor’s notes. This little Raider convention made for one heck of a fight. In the end Hlofor the Arctic Bear and Vistilia lay quietly at our feet.

When the fight was over, we took a look at Hlofor’s battle plans (notes and a map) found on the desk.

Hlofor’s battle plans tells us that Hlofor was aware that several factions (the Bosmer Rangers, the Sylvan Rangers (led by Eregor), the Putrid Hand (led by Master Lien Valeth), necromancers (led by Fayth Noor), the Mages Guild, and the daedric prince Molag Bal) are after an artifact referred to as "Graithlan's Vessel" or “The Dread Armor”. This set of armor, rumored to be infused with Graithlan’s soul, is said to grant great power whosoever wears the armor.

Hlofor the Arctic Bear thinks, er, thought that he could leverage his Raiders against the other factions and beat them to finding Graithlan’s Vessel. He is only waiting for his captains Sheil and Faran to return from the forts Facian and Flecia to strike. The locations of these two forts are marked on Hlofor’s map.

The seductive call of obtaining great power took hold of Kaleah and Elenya. They argued that we should investigate the two forts Facian and Flecia right away. Even gentle Pym was nodding excitedly in agreement. But,
I knew better. Taking action against the Shadows in their struggle for power will have to wait. We have more pressing matters to attend to.

What could be more important at the moment than looting Dasek Moor? That got the Ladies’ minds off of Forts Facian and Flecia. We recovered some pretty nice stuff e.g. Hlofor the Arctic Bear’s sliver claymore, Silvery Falls and his armor.

Oh, and let’s not forget the chest hidden behind the statue.

Now that the important business has been taken care of let’s get some sleep. I know I saw a bedroll somewhere near the tombs. We’ll leave for Gottshaw Inn in the morning.

Nice, look at those golden gauntlets & boots set! Jandaga is a wingless bird.

It is lonely business patrolling the Morrowind border and the Imperial Bridge Inn is the one place guards

Very true, it's quite a long road, not many safe places to stay.

I like how they recognize him, then start gossiping about him after he skedaddles. "He's the Champion of Cyrodiil..."

Looking at the outfits, someone's been to the Goddess Store again.

Methinks Ingred the Study’s been hit by Cylsandra Nightthorn’s longsword of damage personality a few times.

Some pretty heavy duty fighting to get through Dasek Moor.

20240611 TAS, The Ingred Inauguration

Magnus had risen and had been shining his light on the land for hours by the time we left Dasek Moor. Heading north from the ruined fort took us to the Gold Road. From there we turned westward, taking the Gold Road until we came to the Kvatch intersection. Here we decided to pay Kvatch a visit and see how the city was coming along.

A quick tour showed us that the city was coming along nicely. Construction on the arena has begun. Although the interiors were unfinished, the Fighters Guild and the Mages Guild were open for limited business.

Making my first official visit as Archmage to the Kvatch Mages Guild, I found Gaban Sele and Danielle Ancois busily unpacking and furnishing a rather empty guild hall. While talking to Gaban the subject of the arena came up. He is glad that Procis changed his mind about rebuilding the arena and that he has some ideas for beast matches.

Being very busy getting the guild hall opened, Gaban asks if I could help collect the souls of beasts for an idea that he had. By summoning wild beasts and exotic creature for the contests instead of holding them in cages the Arena would save a lot of gold.

Gaban needed the souls of a Rat, Mudcrab, Wolf, Imp, Troll, Boar, Bear and Mountain Lion, as well as three Daedra Hearts for his idea to work. With setting-up the new Kvatch Mages Guild consuming all his time, he asked if I would collect the souls. Gaban gave me two unique items he had created; a soul gem he called ‘Soul Cage’ and a special spell he named ‘Sanguine Howl of the Arena’.

Although I’m not really thrilled by the prospect of running around collecting animal souls, I accepted the soul cage and spell, and told Gaban that I would look into the matter.

We left Kvatch and continued west on the Gold Road to Gottshaw Inn. In time for lunch we went inside and ordered something to eat. After a few pints to wet our parched throats we began our search for the stepstone Ingred the Sturdy told us about.

A thorough search of Gottshaw Inn, inside and out revealed nothing. Then Kaleah spoke up reminding me of the odd way Ingred the Sturdy instructed us when she said ‘Do it well’. Did she put a little added emphasis on the word ‘well’? I wasn’t sure but whatever it was it made me think of diving into the well.

Casting a water breathing spell and a starlight spell to be able to see in the dark water we jumped down into the well. Sure enough there half buried in the muck at the bottom of the well was a stepstone. The skeletons lying next to it spoke of unsolved murders (Ooh, ooh, Could this be where the Rogue Mage Caminalda’s tossed her victims?).

The stepstone took us to an unnamed tomb. Not much of value and definitely nothing of mind altering experience to be found here. Searching along a tunnel we came to a hole in the floor. Stones jutted out from the sides of the shaft making for a rough stairway down to a lower level. Shimmying down the shaft we found ourselves in a rock walled tunnel which led us to chamber of familiar Alyeid design.

The Ladies shouted out their battle cries and began attacking the southern wall in an effort to break in down. Something for sure is there, I thought as the wail of a living skeleton could be heard behind the wall. But, no matter how hard the Ladies beat that stone wall or how many unladylike oaths they screamed, the wall would not open.

I’ve seen those sliding wall doors before. Rubbing my scorched ears, I begin searching the room for a push switch that would open it. Finding none, I stopped for a moment and leaned against a catacomb wall. As I stood there thinking the floor began to vibrate and the sound of stone moving rumbled throughout… oh forget that. I could barely hear the stone grating as it moved with all the curses coming from the far end of the small room.

As the panels of the wall shifted a hidden closet room came to view revealing a chest, a brightly glowing welkynd stone, and a brass brazier holding several letters. Picking up one to read, I was interrupted by the sound of heavy stone moving. Dropping he letter I ran back to where the Ladies were attacking the wall. As I expected the door was opening and my ladies were gleefully breaking the bones of a skeleton warrior.

Elenya and Pym made quick work of the skeleton. They found some nice loot in a chest then turned on me demanding to know where I was while they broke into this treasure room.

“Oh, just finding proof of the Ayleids activities,” I said. “Come and read these letters I found.”

The letters tell a strange story of how the Ayleids have transcended physical existence to become beings of pure spiritual energy. To achieve the spiritual state, the Ayleids used a rare energy that is by their analysis, emitted by every conscious being in the world.

So, this is the purpose of the Ayleid Stepstones. They’re not just teleportation platforms; they are very sensitive collectors as well. The stepstones pick-up this unknown energy from the atmosphere and transmit it to a secret location named Fefandor. There the energy is somehow transformed, amplified, and then beamed to the magical plane where the Ayleids dwell. From what I could determine, their goal is to store enough of this rare energy to move beyond this planet to other worlds in the firmament.

It is a slow process and the Ayleids are not content to just quietly collect this random energy. Their agents are everywhere secretly holding high ranking positions on the council and guilds. From ranking positions they use their authoritative power to manipulate us thereby adjusting the quality and quantity of the spiritual energies emitted by the population.”

“Fools!” exclaimed Kaleah. ‘They have no idea what they are dealing with!”

“They’ll end up just like the Dwemer!” cried Elenya. “Lost in the aether of the great void for all eternity.”

After placing the letters on the brazier there wasn’t anything else left to do here, so we activated the only available stepstone and left the unnamed tomb. The stepstone delivered us to a mountainside high above Cloud Top.

I turned to my three Ladies and said, “Well, I guess the road leads us east from here.”

Nice to check in on progress at Kvatch.

Well, well, well! Very interesting stuff on what the Ayleids are doing and how that explains the stepping stone system. And Ayleid spies hard at work - uh oh.

Oh nice, the Arena in Kvatch got built. Wonder if Jandaga's gonna fight?

Although I’m not really thrilled by the prospect of running around collecting animal souls

I totally get it. Fighting animals in the arena... it's just not the same as fighting a 'traitor', or someone who wants to best us. All those taunts & silly things they say.

That's neat. The part when she leaves a clue "do it well."

But, no matter how hard the Ladies beat that stone wall or how many unladylike oaths they screamed

omg...

So the Ayleids still exist, except on some other plane of existence. 🧝

Renee: Oh nice, the Arena in Kvatch got built. Wonder if Jandaga's gonna fight?

The Kvatch Arena was preparing for its grand re-opening. Gladiators from all over the empire had come to seek fame and fortune.

“Did you hear,” one grizzled fighter announced to a group of veteran gladiators. “The Psychedelic Warrior is on the card, willing to take on all comers.”

The tent went quiet. Slowly with grim determination one heavily muscled gladiator, champion of many tournaments stood, beat his fist on his broad chest and roared, “NOT ME!”

“Have you seen the way the Field Hippies tease and torment him, constantly bouncing rocks off his backside? He’s ready to explode and I don’t want to be standing on Krakatau when it calls its doom.”

The other fighters in the tent shied away murmuring in agreement and the Psychedelic Warrior’s dance card went unsigned.

20240624 I-SL Mir Corrup Rebuilt & Tower Complete

As we were walking down the mountain from the stepstone near Cloud Top, Elenya spoke up and asked the question we were all thinking.

“My Jandaga, Nature’s balance is under siege,” Elenya declared. “What are we going to do to heal Nature’s wound?”

As we began our hike down the mountain trail, a message was delivered informing us we needed to see Shenara; our Mir Corrup tower was completed.

Many beasts on our soul capture list; timber wolves, black bears, and brown bears crossed our path that day. I tried to use the touch spell ‘Sanguine Howl of the Arena’ to capture their souls but my Ladies killed the beast before I could touch them. Filling the Soul Cage isn’t going to be easy.

Chasing wolves, bears, and boars took us further south through the forest than I had anticipated. We had stumbled upon the shine of Molar Bal. Thank the Goddess it wasn’t Hircine’s. As hunters he would have laughed us out of Cyrodiil. Out of the multitude of beasts we saw that day, I had managed to capture only one boar soul.

Kaleah warned me not to take up his quest. As Kaleah explains Molag Bal wants someone to force Melius Petilius to break his sworn oath and damn himself forever.

“Melius Petilius is a good man, an honorable man,” pleaded Elenya. “There is much evil in the world, pass Molag Bal by.”

“Let’s poke a stick in Molag Bal’s eye,” Kaleah said with a wicked laugh. “We know where the parts of Melius Petilius’ armor ‘Heaven's Fury’ can be found. Collect Heaven’s Fury and restore it to Melius Petilius.”

Before I had a chance to answer, Pym grabbed me by the arm and dragged me away from Molag Bal’s shrine and its evil influence.

Arriving at the Imperial City, we learned that Councilor Osciuro had not yet returned to the Arboretum. Left with nothing to do in the Imperial City we left to check with Shenara about the new Mir Corrup tower.

With a wave of a hand I cast the recall spell and in an instant we stood at the doorstep of Shenara Hleras’ mushroom hut high in the Valus Mountains.

When ask for an update on the tower’s status, in a typical Telvanni condescending manner, Shenara said,
“Congratulations to your own Telvanni Tower. You clearly proved worthy of it. Enjoy.”

“Was there any doubt?” I replied. With that the Ladies and I left Shenara Hleras’ hut.

Mir Corrup was just a short walk east from Shenara‘s. Two ridges over and we were looking at the gates of Mir Corrup. It’s been awhile but the place looks cleaner, brighter with tall white columns marking the path from the Lost Road entrance to the gates of Mir Corrup. New banners hung on the either side of the gate proudly displaying the city’s symbol.

Stepping inside the gates, along with the newly grown tower rising up from the little island in the lake there is an overall feeling of newness in the air. Maybe it’s the bright sunny day that makes the city sparkle like freshly washed crystal. Whatever it is, Mir Corrup is abuzz with activity.

Before examining our new tower, we decide to take a walk around Mir Corrup to get a feeling on how the new tower has affected the city. Many new faces can be seen walking around Mir Corrup. We also found two new shops: Beyond the Veil, and the Happy Wog.

Beyond the Veil, is an art studio and gallery operated by Girovve and her female Ohmes apprentice student, M’lilea. Girovve, a Moamer, paints and sells Stranded Light inspired paintings that I can purchase to decorate my homes. Girovve boasts that she redesigned and painted Mir Corrup’s storefront signage to help beautify the city.

The Happy Wog is a questionable deli operated by Hadejya, an Argonian, featuring the house specialty, smoked balliwog leg. The only other menu item, which never seems to be in stock, is the “C-M-O-T Sausage-Inna-Bun” imported from The Big Wahoonie, Ankh-Morpork.

“Do you know what they call a sausage-in-a-bun in Quirm?” said Mr. Pin, as the two walked by. “No?” said Mr. Tulip. “They call it le-sausage-in-le-bun.”

One of the new faces we met while walking around Mir Corrup was a Nord woman outfitted in Daedric armor. Liranne the Blossom introduces herself as the Hero of Solitude and proudly claims to have closed an Oblivion Gate in Skyrim.

It’s late and we head to our new tower to find a bed.

The main entrance opens to a spacious great hall. It has a bi-color scheme, blue carpet to the right and red carpet on the left. A long table down the center of the room with six braziers hanging from the ceiling provided light for the great hall. Three braziers to the left of the table burned with smokeless red magicka energy and the three braziers on the right were ablaze with blue smokeless magicka energy.

This bi-color scheme gave me an eerie feeling. Has Shenara Hleras been to the Shivering Isles?

Taking a tour of the tower we find the tower is arranged into three floors.

The Great Hall is considered part of the lower level. A double staircase leads down from the Great Hall to a large open room. Access to the lower-level bedchamber and the bathing-pool is from this area.

Lower-level bedchamber

There is a second double staircase located in the Great Hall. The west staircase takes you up to the Middle Level. The east staircase takes you to a teleportation room. This teleportation pad sends you to the upper-level Teleportation Room.

There are three doors on the Middle Area. One door opens to an arboretum filled with plants and an alchemical station. The second door opens to a brightly lit, yet sparsely decorated room. I take it to be a trophy room where I can display some of the more exotic items that I have collected over the years. The third door opens to the north observation platform on the north side of the tower.

Taking the hallway up through Middle Level we come to a door to the Upper Level. There are two rooms on the Upper level. One room is the aforementioned teleportation room. It contains one teleport pad that will take you to the upper area of the mushroom tower.

The Upper Area holds your private suite and a teleportation room. The teleportation room holds two teleport pads. One sends you to the lower area and the other sends you to Merendin.

The private suite is comprised of a sitting area, a library, and a bedroom on the second-floor loft. Finely decorated in a Tevanni style… uh oh, something is wrong here. We’re going to have to have a talk with Shenara Hleras. The two of the three statues that adorn the upper-level private suite are not suitable for a Telvanni. Images of Nocturnal and Sheogorath simply will not do.

The library holds only one book on its shelves, ’Mir Corrup: Artbook’. The Artbook is a interesting little book showing how beautiful the new city is. (The title is a bit deceiving. The book does contain some concept art but it is mainly a list of credits for the mod "Integration: The Stranded Light", and a thank you for playing by the author: bg2408.)

Upstairs, the Ladies drooled at the sight of a real bed. Pym began smoothing out comforter and testing the softness of the mattress. Kaleah took one look at the fancy bed and from behind her hand whispered to Elenya, "I don't think it's sturdy enough."

Elenya matter-of-factly replied, "If it breaks, it's nature's way of telling you get a new one."

Upper-level private suite

Dinning in the upper-level private suite

Heh, no one wants to fight the Jandaga in the Arena.

A beautiful shot of their new tower home under that magnificent night sky.

A FIGHT! ... well, maybe. Acadian says nobody wants to take on the Jandaga, the Psychedelic Warrior's too good.

Wow, is that for real? I've seen some folks complain about this in the forums: "My character's the Champion of Cyrodiil, Arch Mage, and Grey Fox; people should be running from him/her instead of trying to fight!" they'd say. Is this something similar? Or maybe that scene is imaginative.





That must be fun to see the town grow over time. Since Mir Corrup is supposed to be Telvanni-influenced are there any areas which cannot be accessed without Levitation? This spell would need to be mod-added, of course, if so.

Purely imaginative, it's what I thought should happen.


NO, security is quite lax here. There are no areas accessible only by levitation. That would have been too good. there is a teleport pad to get to the upper level, but it is not needed to do so.

20240707 I-SL a walk around Mir Corrup

Ah, morning has brought a beautiful day to Mir Corrup and to celebrate a leisurely stroll around the city as Count of Mir Corrup seemed in order. I know I should get back to the Imperial City and the task of Ayleid Stepstone mapping, but I find letting my Ladies lead me around town is more enjoyable.

Being the daylight hours, Teledri, the Aureal attached to the City Watch was out on patrol. She approached to give us a message from Tesserayiel in Merendin.

“In the Shivering Isles it is customary for the ruler of a city to have a staff of office,” she explained. “Tesserayiel has the Staff of Daylight, the pinnacle of Aureal enchantments, crafted by Kanaane for you. There is another staff made by a Dark Seducer, it’s a useless toy. Don’t bother with it.”

Well, if we’re going to have to travel, we better get prepared. Our first stop was to stock up on potions at the Boiling Cauldron.

“You’ve arrived, Malacath has answered my prayer!” Maya gra-Orag exclaimed when we walked through the door.
Maya gra-Orag was overly anxious about something. If Maya wasn’t an Orc, I’d say she was frightened out of her wits. Calming her down took some doing but eventually she was able to explain the situation.

Looking to expand her business by adding room for an arboretum and herbarium, Maya was excavating a new cellar underneath her shop. During the excavation she broke into a cavern holding a dreadful monster. Why, I don’t know but Maya got the notion in her head that the beast was the fictional monster Palla.

“It exists, it exists,” she screamed over and over as she pleaded with me to dispatch the monster before it breaks free and destroys the city.

Surely, she must be exaggerating I thought as I assured her that the beast would be taken care of.

“No problem,” I said. “It’s what we do.”

Still, an unnatural fear consumed Maya gra-Orag. Obsessed with the monster Palla, Maya insisted on quizzing me on the book Palla. I’ve read the book and was able to answer all her questions. Assured that we knew what we were dealing with, Maya directed us to ther newly excavated cellar.

The Ladies and I laughed, joking that Maya’s been sampling too many raw ingredients. But deep down inside we were thinking what did the Orc Maya gra-Orag see down there and that put us on our guard when we stepped through the cellar door.

The cellar door had barely closed behind us when a creature straight from some forbidden planet, attacked.

With Pym close on her heels, Kaleah leapt to the fore screaming, “Die Uderfrykte!”

Even though we could barely see it and some of our strikes were wildly off mark, suffice it to say the aethereal-troll didn’t stand long against the four of us.

With Maya’s thanks, we left the Boiling Cauldron.

S’ariana, the Ohmes-rant from the Dune Walkers lodge was passing by as we left the Boiling Cauldron. Seeing us, S’ariana came closer and sweetly pleaded for our help in finding her lost teddy bear. I agreed to help and after taking S’ariana’s scrying ball, set off to find a pink teddy with a heart on its chest.

From observing Mir Corrup’s population for the past couple days I noticed that S’ariana liked to sit on the tree shaded islands of the lake. I would bet S’ariana left her teddy on one of those islands. The scrying ball agreed by indicating ‘warmer’ as we turned toward the islands. Sure enough, we found S’ariana’s teddy on one of the lake’s islands.

Our success in dispatching the Basement Monster and helping S’ariana find her terry spread like wild fire.
Suddenly the figurehead title of Count Mir Corrup had taken on a new meaning. Now everyone is seeking me out to exert my newly assumed authority as official problem solver.

Stopping by Dune Walkers lodge, Dar’aquenia the publican confided to me that there are more Elsweyr Agents that need to be brought to a secure place. Fearing that bringing so many more Khajiit to Mir Corrup would mark the city as a prime target for the Renrijra Krin, Dar'aquenia asked me to speak with Do'leandra about finding a second safe house.

Jo’desrevi of the Mages Guild was at Dune Walkers at the time. He too had a request for me. He asked me to deliver a possible cure to Arriashe, who lives in Bliss. It should restore her sanity for a while, hopefully long enough to bring her out of the Shivering Isles.

Feeling besieged with requests for service, we left Dune Walkers seeking a less taxing place to relax. We made a quick stop at the Stranded Light Outpost to ask Beramkne heard anything of a honorary staff. Well Beramkne didn’t know anything about a staff but she did petition me to try to resolve the friction between Karashivuel and Jo’beala.

At the bookstore Chimney Dreams, M'krendri asked for help recovering a rare book titled "Loveletter", that a group of Maormer were to deliver to her. Unfortunately the ship never arrived at Elsweyr's shores. Having heard of a lost Pyandonean ship I told her there might be a chance in recovering the lost book.

Our next stop was Beyond the Veil to buy paintings to decorate the barren walls of my new tower. While purchasing paintings, Girovve cautioned that the Turumerin painting could not finished. To complete it a particular red found only in the blood of a Daedra Seducer was needed. Girovve then gave me a dagger to draw at least five doses of blood of any Daedra Seducer I should meet. She then instructed me that Velerya of the Red Navel is not suitable.

I could turn to Kaleah, she’d do almost anything I ask. Then I realized that she is in a similar situation as Velerya and would also be not suitable.

It was late afternoon, around 3:00 pm, when we arrived at the Red Navel. Velerya was sleeping. She woke up when we entered and told us she was having a nightmare of sorts. I imagine dreams of a foreign concept like ‘lost love’ would be nightmarish for a Daedra Seducer.

Velerya was dreaming of a mortal, a former Daedra worshiper who was once very, very precious to her. She told me of her sacrifice to be at his side and to save his life. Having learned of his death Velerya would like for me to place a bouquet of flowers where he died.

There is only one former Daedra worshiper that I know of that has died recently. I told Velerya I’d deliver the bouquet.

Later, as we were leaving the Red Navel, in the darkness of night, we were approached by Priennta, the Mazken of the City Night Watch. She told us pretty much the same thing as Teledri. It is customary for the ruler of a city to have a staff of office and that Tesserayiel has one, the Staff of Midnight, waiting for me in Merendin.

“The Staff of Midnight,” exclaimed Priennta. “Infused with the strengths of our majics, by none other than Zerreshju, it is a powerful and terrible weapon. There’s another staff made by some Golden Saint. Pass that useless piece of glitter by.”

Muttering to myself as we walked back to Mir Corrup Tower, I wondered, "The day started off so carefree. what happened to the “it’s only a figurehead position"?"

“What did you expect, my Feache?” Kaleah reprimanded. “That the people here would bow down and say “yes lord, yes lord” while you walk around enjoying your title.”

“Jandaga, the people here honor you,” Elenya added. “Mir Corrup needs someone it can depend on in hard times. The citizens have chosen you to be that someone. They are placing their faith and trust in you, that you will aid them when in need.”

Sigh, it’s that old curse all over again. “From this day forth, thou art named the eternal champion. From thy hand shall be dealt the needs of the Empire.”

“But my name is not Talin.” I whispered as I closed my eyes for the night.

No rest for the weary as the troll-killing teddy-finding Jandaga and his crew suffer from quest overload. Clearly Mir Corrup needs a town constable!

Sounds like they're heading off to the SI to, among other things, check out those staves. Hmm, the useless toy or the useless piece of glitter?

I notice the play on "staff". "In the Shivering Isles it is customary to have a staff of office." So I'm thinking this means staff, as in employees. Very clever. Maybe unintentional.

Lost teddy bear? Uh oh. And then a lost book.... Jandaga's getting hammered with quests during this chapter.



Ha ha ha1!!!!!


Can I make a request, macole? Post something from your very earliest days of writing. Doesn't have to be Jandaga's tale. I notice with writing, the way we wrote in the beginning can sometimes be waaaaay different to where we're at now. IF this is possible, of course.

Hope that's not out of line.

A request? I'm flattered. I'll see if I can find something suitable.

20240717 I-SL Mir Corrup quests

A new morning in Mir Corrup brings a new attitude. Kaleah and Elenya were down stairs at the table when I awoke. As I put on my robe Pym listened attentively as I tried to explain how I felt. Yesterday I may have felt put upon but this morning I realized that my Ladies were right. It is a much better feeling to know you are needed rather than standing on the sidelines watching life go by.

After breakfast we used the teleport pad located on the upper level of the tower to travel to Merendin. The teleport pad delivers us the northern end of Merendin’s East Wing near Teshekru’s cabaret and Dar’que the Ohmes’ trading post.

Kaleah is holding a few hot items so our first stop is to visit Dar’que the Ohmes fence. We asked if she had any suggestions for Jo’beala’s gift hamper but all Dar’que would say is don’t pick anything that she would not like or would find offensive.

Color of Sanguine:

On the opposite side of the East Wing the Daedra Seducer Teshekru runs a cabaret. Perhaps she can help with Girovve’s request. Well, it can’t hurt to ask.

Um, yes it can. I got a long lecture on the meaning of friendship and the cruelty of making her wait for more than a month for my return.

“You shouldn’t push me out just because I can’t follow you around,” Teshekru chastised.

That was followed by another lecture on the sanctity of giving of blood.

“I’d deny any such request immediately, but for you?” a conflicted Teshekru debated with herself. “Oh dear, oh dear, dear, dear, I just hope that one day you’d ask me another question. Until then have six drops of my blood.”

As we left Teshekru with the Daedra Seducer blood, Kaleah and Elenya started making comments about having another Vilja on my hands. Silent Pym didn’t have to say anything. She got her point across by all the finger pointing and exaggerated belly clutching laughs.

Missing Love Letter:

From Teshekru’s cabaret we pass by Ahtize’s station at the south end of the east wing. Asking the Maormer if she knew anything of the Love Letter, Ahtize told us that she doesn’t have it, but thinks Sirelle (that name sounds familiar) had the letter in his possession when the ship sank. The last Ahtize saw of Sirelle he was being rescued by a Dark Elf female on a strange island. The Dunmer then sent Sirelle through a portal. From there Ahtize can’t say where Sirelle went.

We’ve met Sirelle before and are certain that we know where to find him. I thanked Ahtize for the information and left.

Safe Haven:

Over in the west wing we found Do’leandra at the sword practice dummy. After explaining the need for an additional safe house for endangered Dune Walker agents, she agreed that over saturating any one location could pose a danger. Knowing that I’m well-traveled, Do’Leandra asked if we knew of any suitable locations.

Several locations came to mind. Do’Leandra said no to Shetland Farm and any one of the Stranded Light Outposts.

Mentioning The 19Voids in the Shivering Isles brought an instant reaction. Do’leandra shouted, “And get eaten? NO!”

The suggestion of Shenara Hleras’ Hut brought a similar reaction, “With a crazed Telvanni wizard? NO!”

I had to agree both assessments. I mean Shenara Hleras couldn’t even grow a properly secured Telvanni tower complete with a levitation required entrance. And Turumerin at The 19Voids? The way that Daedra Seducer licks her dark ruby red lips when she’s looking at you, gives me the creeps.

Do’leandra thought Fort Oceanmoth sounded interesting. “Fort Oceanmoth, a remote island with only a Maormer living there? Yes, as long as she agrees.”

One other thing was needed. Do’Leandra wants 15 bottles of Strong Potion of the Sea to aid in getting the Dune Walker agents across the sea from Leyawiin to Fort Oceanmoth Isle in secrecy.

I’m sure that Tiridar will agree to the arrangement getting the 15 bottles of Strong Potion of the Sea might take some time.

Tiridar, she’s the Maormer living in the ruins of Fort Oceanmoth. I may need a bribe to pull this off. If I remember correctly, she likes pumpkins or was it watermelons? No matter, I’ll take some of each.

Hushing an Anxious Kitten:

The big Xivilai, Karashivuel was in dancing in the reception hall when we found her. After the greeting pleasantries I, delicately as possible (I am dealing with a Xivilai you know), eased into the subject of Karashivuel’s relationship with Jo’beala. Karashivuel was naturally embarrassed, called herself the “Big fluffy land Xivilai”, before confiding that she wanted to give a Jo’beala a gift hamper, filled with items to show that we are all friends here. Karash had some ideas of what to include and wanted my advice.

Oh my, a memory test. Got to be careful, don’t want to get anything that Jo’beala doesn’t like or would find offensive. I may need to pause and think a bit.

Wanting to give Jo’beala something to remind her of home, Karashivuel's first question was simple enough. Jo'beala came from Sentinel in Hammerfell.

Knowing that Jo’beala is a young mage, Karashivuel thought a book on magic would be good. Of the four Kara proposed I think Jo’beala, being an illusionist, would like ‘Response to Bero's Speech’.

Karashivuel also wants to put in a book about Khajiit. A young, fragile Ohmes-raht girl would find solace in the book ‘Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi to her Favored Daughter’.

Next Karashivuel suggests an autograph from a famous Ohmes-raht, but whose name? Looking over the names
Karash provided Kaleah suggested that Revendri is the best choice.

Wanting to show that Jo’beala’s well being is of a high concern, Karashivuel also wants to give Jo'beala an amulet protecting her from harm. She has four very good amulets to choose from. Elenya points out that Khajiit’s sensitivity to poisons. We select the Amulet of the Viper.

Karashivuel said that she would acquire the items for the gift hamper then asked one more thing from me. She wanted me to go pick out a toy, a teddy bear for Jo’beala. Any color would do. I know just the vendor, S’ariana in Mir Corrup. She sells a wide variety of teddies.

Well, that’s three locations we need to visit. Wonder what Tesserayiel will ask me to do before she gives me the promised staff?

Absolutely nothing! After heaping much praise on our accomplishments, Tesserayiel offer me my choice of staffs either the much maligned useless toy Staff of Midnight or the so called useless piece of glitter Staff of Daylight. Pick one and the other will be stored to be used in defense of Mir Corrup should the need arise.

Both offer an AOE of 25feet, fire damage weakness to magic, and soul trap. The Staff of Daylight adds shock damage as opposed to the Staff of Midnight’s inclusion of frost damage. But, what’s really fun to see is how they do it.

The Staff of Daylight throws everyone affected high into the air and let’s them drop. Ouch!

The Staff of Midnights pins everyone in the zone to the floor for a couple of seconds. Quick, kick ‘em while they’re down.

I chose the Staff of Daylight. I hope the Mazken is not offended. Oh, and I paid for all the damage, apologized to everyone, and returned everything back to normal. But, as Kaleah would say, “Oh, but as always there’s a price.”

The unknown is when and how high the price.

The constable and finder of lost kittens seems well-occupied at Mir Corrup. Fortunately (I think), his duties look like they will include significant travel. Useless is not too far off the mark for those staves. I would have chosen the daylight one as well.

20240723 I-SL Mir Corrup quests

After spending the night at Merendin, we decided to return to Mir Corrup, deliver the Daedra seducer blood to Girovve, and purchase a teddy bear from S’ariana. As we were preparing to leave, Zerreshju stopped us to ask that we investigate an Imperial City book merchant who is researching the Stranded Light. Zerreshju wants to know his motives and if we can, ensure that his research puts the Stranded light in the “right” light.

Well, I have to go to the Imperial City soon enough so I assured Zerreshju that I’d look into the matter.

First thing we did after arriving in Mir Corrup was visit the Beyond the Vei. Girovve was excited to receive the seducer blood and was eager to finish her “Turumerin” painting.

The Boiling Cauldron was close by, so we paid a visit to inquire about the availability of Strong Potion of the Sea. Maya gra-Orag gave me a free sample and had six for sale. I’m just shy of halfway there.

The only other vendor in Mir Corrup that I could think of that might have Strong Potion of the Sea was Velerya, at the Red Navel. She had two bottles for sale. Now I only need six more bottles of the stuff.

Now we began looking for S’ariana. She was sitting under the pavilion on the northern side of the lake when we found her.

“I like teddies,” she said when we asked if she had any for sale.

Yes, S’ariana did have teddy bears for sale. In fact, she had seven different colors of teddies: blue, purple, brown, light brown, white, a frowning pink one with a big red heart, and a black and white panda teddy bear.

“Get the light brown one,” Elenya suggested. “It’s a near a match for Jo’beala’s fur.”

That may be true, but I was still unsure which color Jo’beala would like best, so I bought one of each.

Well, we’ve done all we can here in Mir Corrup so it’s time to head on down to the island south of Leyawiin and speak to Tiridar. But before we leave there’s a small garden behind the Boiling Cauldron. I’m sure no one will mind if we stop and pick a pumpkin and a watermelon, just in case Tiridar needs a little incentive.

Merendin is on the way to Leyawiin so we made a stop to inform Karashivuel that we have the toy she wanted to put in the gift hamper. Karashivuel is happy that the gift hamper is ready, but she is afraid to deliver it in person to Jo’beala. Aware that her presence makes Jo’beala cringe in fear of being eaten, Karashivuel asked me to deliver the gift to Jo’beala.

Jo’beala really liked the gifts, especially the light brown teddy bear.

“The same color as my fur, wheee! How cute and nice!” Jo’beala exclaimed when she saw it. “And maybe, just maybe, this one has misjudged Karashivuel. The Xivilai seems to care. Strange. Something that needs to be thought about.”

Wanting to see Jo’beala’s reaction to the other colors, I offered the all the teddies to her. Most of the colors Jo’beala thought were cute but she reacted badly to two colors. The panda bear was so strangely colored that Jo’beala thought it looked Akaviri.

“Jo'beala doesn't want any Akaviri colored things.” Jo’beala said as she pushed the panda away.

The pink teddy with the heart brought a similar reaction. Jo’beala felt it was too overly cute and that she is too old for such childish toys.

“Hearts and pinks and everything, ugh,” she said.

Karashivuel was relieved to hear of Jo’beala’s reaction after receiving a basket of such thoughtful gifts. With

Jo’beala rethinking her reaction to everyone in Merendin, Karashivuel is hopeful that relations between the two will improve.

We leave Merendin and travel to Fort Oceanmoth to petition Tiridar to allow Khajiit Dune Walker agents share her island. For three days we argued with Tiridar as we tried to persuade the reluctant Maormer female to accepting the Dune Walker agents. She rejected all our arguments for one reason or another, until we mentioned that they would bring more food.

“You really got me where it hurts,” Tiridar relented. “I’m sick of fishes and crab meat. If they’re supplied with some other food and some crops here, well, alright. They can come.”

For the price of a pumpkin Tiridar gave me another clue on finding the missing love letter. She tells us that she can’t say for sure that Sirelle has the letter she does know that Sirelle was able to carry quite a bit with him.

We left Fort Oceanmoth, walking across the sea looking to get a decent dinner in Leyawiin.

Oh GOOD. Such a relief. Not only did they deliver the daedra blood, but they made sure to buy a Teddy bear, phew! .... These are the things which keep me awake at night...

Sheesh, he's halfway toward his goal for Strong Potions of the Sea tally. See, those are the sort of quests, the "fetch X amount of X" quests, which can clutter up our roster. Easy to miss (for me, at least). Which is why I keep Notepad pages for all my characters, which are better for me than the in-game quest journals.

Anyway, How many quests does Jandaga currently have to keep track of?

Jo'beala loves her teddy bears. 🧸 But not ALL of them. Not the pink one, for instnace. Yeah, totally get it. I am very discerning, when it comes to stuffed animals toys.

The end is so wonderful. They walk across the water, off into the sunset. ☀

Nothing that the right teddy bear can't fix and, thanks to Elenya, the right one was indeed chosen.

I have 52 open quest of which I'm actively tracking seven. Six for Integration - The Stranded Light and one for The Ayleid Steps.

20240730 I-SL Mir Corrup quest, Safe Haven

I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watchin' the tide roll away, ooh
I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time

Nowhere else in Cyrodiil can you get a plate of baked fish with vegetable stuff bread as good as the plate served at the Mermaid Inn at the docks of Leyawiin. With outdoor seating, one could enjoy dinner while listening to the gentle sound of the waves lapping against the piers and watching the occasional ship coming into port.

Dinner was long over and we had tired of watching the ships (the bar closed), we walked over to our Leyawiin house. Small and cramped, the Leyawiin house really wasn’t suited for sleeping four. Fortunately for us or unfortunately depending on your point of view, J’Dato came upstairs from the Order of the Virtuous Blood chapter house office to see what all the commotion was about.

“Got plenty of room downstairs, Vampire Hunter,” J’Dato said. “Come on down and make yourselves comfortable.”

That sounded good, so we followed J’Dato downstairs to the OVB Chapter House rooms. After J’Dato gave brief update on vampire activity in the area (hard to believe that it’s been so quiet) we settled down for the night.

The next morning after a brief visit to the Mages Guild we cast spell to takes to Merendin. Tesserayiel is there to greet us when we appear in the Reception Hall. She has noticed a changed in Jo’beala’s attitude and is glad that Jo’beala is beginning to feel safe living in Merendin. Only good things can come from this.

After talking to Tesserayiel, we were on the way to inform Do’leandra that Tiridar had agreed to with sharing the little island when I realized that we didn’t have enough bottles of Strong Potion of the Sea.

What to do, what to do? I panicked for a moment then remembered Teshekru sold potions at the Merendin Cabaret. Stopping at the cabaret hoping to buy the necessary number of potions, I asked Teshekru if she had any for sale. She did and offered to give me 5 bottles at no charge.

Such a dear friend.

Armed with 15 bottles of Strong Potion of the Sea, we found Do’leandra and told her of Tiridar’s decision and to give her the bottles of Strong Potion of the Sea. Upon hearing the good news, Do’leandra said the outed agents are ready and can move in immediately. She will contact them right away.

Ah, another completed task for the Stranded Light. That had a good feeling to it. Then Do’leandra made another request. She asked that I go back to Fort Oceanmoth and make sure that all goes well.

“Um, sure,” I said. “Why not come along? We could check it out together.”

Demurely she declined. “Maybe some other time when all this trouble is over.”

I laughed. At least she didn’t say she had to wash her hair. The Ladies and I spent the rest of the day relaxing and early the following morning we once again left for Fort Oceanmoth.

Back on Fort Oceanmoth isle the change was immediately noticeable. Three stilt buildings now sat on the northern side of island, housing five Ohmes and Ohmes-raht Khajiit, 2-male 3-female, Dune Walker agents. On the eastern side of the island, was a start of a small garden that the Khajiit took turns tending.

“I’ve lost my quietness,” Tiridar said when I ask how things were going. “But they brought a rich assortment of food.”

Tiridar’s last statement was a good indication the transition was going well. With that information we were confident that Do’leandra would be pleased at the progress.

Kaleah, Elenya, and Pym are growing tired of all this running back and forth, so we planned to spend a few days relaxing on the beach as while we determined how well Fort Oceanmoth’s new arrivals adjusted to their new life.

Without camping gear and no spare bed on the island we made do sleeping on the beach. Lucky for us the sea was calm, the weather was mild, and at night the clear sky was ablaze with stars. We sat there on the beach watching the lights of Leyawiin twinkling on the horizon until we fell asleep.

Peace never lasts long. The morning of the second day our idyllic working vacation was disturbed by Ayleid True Descendant cultists. Now the Ladies are itching to see some real action. Fearing an open revolt I yield to their wishes and we head north to the Imperial City shops.

Today's song is by Otis Redding, final answer. Hmm. Maybe Otis didn't originally write the song, but he's a singer who made it popular. Monterrey Pop Festival.

I like how J'Dato refers to your guy as Vampire Hunter. That shows some history. Fame, as well.

Uh oh, they haven't got enough potions. Okay, phew. What a relief. :sweat: I know the feeling. The lady in Pell's Gate is often good for these lifesaving moments assuming no mods; she's got a huge selection of potions & ingredients.

Sleep on the beach.

No rest for the weary! Though sometimes it is two quests completed for every one quest gained; other times it is one quest completed for every two gained. . . .

20240809 I-SL - Inquiring the Light, TAS – Mapping Mayhem

The fog was so thick the morning we left Leyawiin that we could hardly see the road we were walking on. But, that wasn’t the reason it took three days to reach the Imperial City. No, the real reason was that we may several stops along the way, visiting our many friends.

White Stallion Lodge to see our friend Mazoga.

Silver Sky Temple, the island floating high above the Niben, spent a day and night here visiting with our friend Clan Master Kikyo and her contingent of Akavir Battle Dancers as we waited out the storm.

Bravil wasn’t on our list of destinations in the beginning but it’s been awhile since I made an official Arch-Mage visit to the Mages Guild. With all the fanfare involved the brief visit turned into an overnight stay.

The Archeology Guild Hall, another day and night spent with Sova, Norlene, and Domitian Verus discussing future operations of the Archeology Guild.

That was as far as we got by road. As soon as we stepped out of the Archeology Guild doors all thoughts of with any semblance of decorum vanished in an instant. At the sight of the docks’ outer walls standing across the water, entering the, my Ladies made a mad dash across Lake Rumare to invade the Goddess Store.

Well, with the writing on the wall I thought it best to visit the Bank of Cyrodiil office located in the Market District and set-up line of credit for the Ladies.

On the way to the bank, as I passed through the Temple District, I placed Velerya’s bouquet of flowers intended for the man Velerya could not name at the Shrine of Akatosh. The devotion was accepted, and I continued on to the Market District.

After stopping by the bank, I spent the afternoon doing some trading on my own. Once I had replenished the inventory of nearly every shop in the market District I stopped by the first Edition.

Phintias beamed with anticipation as I walk through the door, and it wasn’t over the prospect of increased sales.

Phintias has a problem. He feels that a major chapter of history is being written and that he is unable to go out and watch it unfold. So, he asked if I would help in gathering the information he needs to write an article on the members of the Stranded Light.

This must be the book vendor that Zerreshju asked us to investigate a few days ago. Well, there is me, I started with but that didn’t satisfy him. Phintias wants to get to know the Daedra members on a more personal level. He wants me to interview at least ten or more daedric members of the Stranded Light.

“Please visit interview the daedric members of your guild,” Phintias asked. “I’d like to know some interesting tidbits about them. What little secrets do they have? First and foremost, it should be interesting for the average citizen, nothing about daedric lore or any of the usual propaganda stuff. I want other people to get to know them on a more personal level.”

The success of Phintias' project depends on my ability to choose the right question. All I need to do is walk around and talk to Stranded Light members, sounds easy enough.

It was getting late in the afternoon when I left the First Edition. Passing through the Arboretum on my way to the Arch-Mage quarters I spotted Councilor Osciuro. Flagging him down, I told him that I was ready to map another route.

Smiling faces sometimes
Pretend to be your friend
Smiling faces show no traces
Of the evil that lurks within (can you dig it?)
Smiling faces, smiling faces, sometimes
They don't tell the truth
Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies and I got proof

Phintias smiled and asked which one.

Choosing Leyawiin, Councilor Osciuro called for Watchman Jannus Mercium to accompany me and record the steps. Councilor Osciuro then handed me a coded letter to be delivered to Hlidara Mothril when I reach Leyawiin. Given a target time of 2-hours and 7-steps, Watchman Mercium and I left immediately for the Imperial Palace.

Standing at the 4th Stepstone to the left of the entrance, with a deep breath I used a welkynd stone and stepping into the unknown. Sure enough I remembered the way, and 6 steps later I stood on a boulder near the city of Leyawiin. There was precious little of the stepstone visible, just a couple white chips jutting out of the rock that I’m surprised that the stepstone worked at all.

It was so foggy; I couldn’t see the city at first but there it was down the hill a bit from where I stood. Watchman Mercium congratulated me on successfully completing the mission and returned to the Imperial City. I, in turn, walked down to Leyawiin to deliver the letter to Hlidara Mothril.

Hlidara Mothril, another High Elf, close companion and advisor to Countess Alessia Caro, took the coded letter and told me to give Councilor Osciuro her regards. I can’t shake the feeling that something is rotten in the state of Danmork.

With the route to Leyawiin recorded and the letter delivered it’s now time to return to the Imperial City. The recall spell still works and I’m soon standing in the Arboretum.

It’s late, around 9:00PM; Councilor Osciuro had left the Arboretum for the day. Too tired to go searching for my darling ladies I decide to spend the night at the Arboretum Hotel (Better Cities v6.0.8 addition).

A strange little glitch happened with the desk clerk, Suranie Marelle. Seranie has a bedroom in the servants’ quarters but I’ve since found that she likes to sleep in the guest bedroom when not rented by the player. If you ask Suranie Marelle for a bed at the right time (somewhere between 9-10 PM) and the right place (second floor hallway leading to the guests room), Suranie will respond in the usual manner and for 40 gold she will direct you to the room “upstairs, through the dining room to the far door. Your room is the middle on the right.” She will then lead you to the room and climb into the bed. Made for some interesting RP.

The desk clerk, Suranie Marelle, a Briton, was not at the desk when I entered the hotel. I know it’s late in the day but I didn’t think it was that late. Oh well, there’s usually someone at the dining room and bar upstairs. Perhaps I’ll be able to get a room, there.

No one was at the counter on the second floor either. I was about to leave when Suranie walked by. She entered the doorway just to the left of the bar. Catching up to her in the hallway, I asked about a room.

“For you?” Suranie asked. Then she gave me a look that said, “It’s after hours, why are you bothering?” or so I thought.

After a brief pause Suranie continued, “I have a lovely room you can rent for the night, for a mere 40 gold. Just go upstairs, through the dining room to the far door. Your room is the middle on the right.”

Strange that she would say that considering we were standing right in front of the room’s door. Plus, the price was little high but I agree to the price. Suranie then unlocked the door to show me the room. Entering the room she climbed into bed.

Well, with service like this no wonder the exorbitant high price for a room. Perhaps she wants to audition for a position at Gweden. Best practice is to interview the candidate before the giving the exam.

Touching Suranie on the shoulder, I said, “Excuse me.”

Suranie Marelle jumped up and stormed off mumbling something that sounded like “some Witcher he is!”

What’s a Witcher? Well, this lowly vampire hunter may have misjudged this encounter. Perhaps I should have just laid down and gone to sleep.

edit used wrong NPC name

A busy day! Numerous stops between Leyawiin and the Goddess Store, then stepstoning back to Leyawiin and returning to the IC.

No wonder the Jandaga's tired. Hey 40 gold for nice room with a free desk clerk is a good deal!