Grits: Illia's fire is coming from The Staff of Hag's Wrath. Illia gave it to Scylla for helping kill her mother, and Scylla gave it back to Illia because as a mage, it is more up her alley. It creates a really nasty wall of fire, that hangs around for a long time. The only downside is that I often can't see the bad guys in the flames.

I also disabled friendly fire, so Scylla does not get killed by it. Or that Illia does not get her head lopped off by Scylla's axe.

Lately Illia uses her own magic more. She's a really amazing ice mage. She tends to literally send people flying! She is the perfect complement to Scylla's axe.


Acadian: That was one of the more difficult fights I have had. Which is why Scylla could not resist the teabagging dancing on the dead guy's corpse.


King Coin: I have found that a lot of the bad guys in this game hit you once, and there goes 80% of your health. It makes the game a lot more nail-biting, because you never know when you are going to run into a wuss you can kill without breaking a sweat, or if you are going to be dead two seconds after first cross axes.


As King Coin noticed, Scylla is now decked out in Orcish armor that she made herself. I really like the look of the all the orcish gear.

Part of a big fight in the bowels of one of the forts.

Scylla goes berserk and kills everything.

A very short vid of my favorite trap in the game

The ancient Klingon orcish armor looks great on Scylla, as does Illia by her side. And *WooHoo* - is that Button in the background hooked up to a wagon?

I really liked the second (Through the Flames) screen.

Berserking comes naturally to Scylla I presume?

Heh, I can see why you like that trap so much. That was both effective and hilarious!

Holy crap!! That flame thrower is impressive!!
Kharjo would love to get his paws on one. Even though he’s not a mage, he loves using staffs.

Those traps are awesome! Aravi’s used them to her advantage too. I’ve busted out laughing when an enemy charges right into one.

Orcish is my favorite heavy armor. It looks perfect on Scylla, and somehow also suits my petite Imperial. Very cool that Scylla made it herself.

I did wonder how Scylla was not getting crispy in that fire. Neat that it won’t hurt her. It is, after all, magic fire!

That trap video made me laugh. Bandit: Gah… Fun!

Acadian: That is indeed Button. Her wagon will take you to any of the major cities in Skyrim, for a modest fee. I thought that was an excellent addition to the game. So far Riften is the only city I have found with such a service though.

The Orc Berserk power is much better done in Skyrim then in the previous games. It doubles the damage your character does for 60 seconds, and halves the damage they receive. It turns them into walking wrecking balls. My only problem is I never think to use it.


King Coin: That staff is impressive. Head down to the southern edge of the Rift. It is in a tower down there.


Grits: I still have not seen many of the armors, but of what I have the Orcish and Elven are my favorites. Scylla had to make it herself, and her axe, because she could not find the pieces for sale. They did have plenty of the other Orc gear for sale though of course...

The bandits in Skyrim are just as fun to kill as those in Oblivion. I just love how they taunt you right before you kill them with one of those special moves: "Is that all you got?" Speckt!


Scylla and Illia encounter some strange flying lights along the coast, east of Winterhold

Scylla looked for Luke's ligthsaber, but it was nowhere to be found.

One angry bear

Meet the Falmers

The Shrine of Azura

Inside Azura's Star

Those Wisp Mothers are really nasty for a melee fighter aren't they? Once Scylla got in range though, she took it down pretty fast.

I see you found Luke! He should have brought his lightsaber instead of that metal weapon lying on the ground.

Wonderful screenshots, Azura's quest was very cool wasn't it?

Those wispies are initially beautiful!

That bear does not look like our dear friend Barenziah! Yikes, Toto, we’re not in the Niben Valley any more!

Ice mer! What would one expect?

I see our Lady Azura has not overly changed her depiction.

This looks like such a dangerous land. I’m glad that Scylla is. . . sturdy.

Neat to see a wispmother in a video instead of yelling aaaaaaaaaargh while fighting one. They really are beautiful.

Excellent ice circle against the Falmer. Looks like good teamwork.

Scylla looks ready to take on whatever she finds inside Azura’s star!

King Coin: Azura's Quest was very well done. It started out seeming like your standard dungeon crawl to get the mcguffin quest, but the second part inside the star was pure genius! So too was the choice the game gives you on whether it will be a regular or black soul gem.


Acadian: I really liked the Wisp Mother too. Well, in appearance that is! I am going to have to get to work on a friendly animals mod soon. However, I have noticed that the normal animals like bears and wolves have a proximity threshold, and will only attack you if you get too close to them. So you can often make your way around them. If you see them first that is.


Grits: Scylla and Illia make a perfect team (maybe because they both have two ll's in their names?). Scylla crushes anything that gets near, and Illia either roasts or freezes whatever tries to keep away. Scylla really missed Illia inside Azura's Star! That was a really brutal fight without her.


I started a new character a few days ago. I wanted to see what it was like playing a pure mage, so I created Aradia, an Altmer magician.


Aradia shortly after being rescued by the dragon, not far from Riverwood.

Trying out the Jarl's throne.

I found a mod that removes the tinting and desaturation, so you can see Skyrim in its true colors. It is nice to see a sky that is blue again, rather than battleship grey.

Outside of Solitude

Aradia with her new pet, a Flame Atronach.

Aradia stumbled upon Meridia's Shrine. I think you need to have a filled soul gem to activate it.

Aradia and the Sea of Ghosts

Here is a vid of two of the fights in Broken Oar Grotto.

You did a nice job with Aradia. If you jumble the letters around some, you could almost call her Acadian.

That vid was fun! A pure mage looks pretty neat in action! Love her hot partner.

Pure mage was/is pretty mean in several cases. Cameron could rip things apart. Even more so when she went out with her wife. Two mages, a flame and a frost Atronach could put a respectable about of hurt out.

Should get my high elf Aquila (conjuring focused battlemage) dusted off.

I was wondering when you were going to post her!

Aradia looks natural in that throne. Not getting too comfortable is she?

It’s definitely brighter. I’d prefer a mod that changes the saturation based on weather.

The Sea of Ghosts one is my favorite. I haven’t found that shrine yet!

The video:
that oil is effective!

She’s really thrashing those bandits! I kind of lost interest in my mage character, but now I’m wanting to either get him out again, or start a new character!

Wow, Aradia is amazing! She never runs out of blue! What a fight in one of my very favorite lairs.

I agree with KC, Aradia looks like a throne is her natural environment.

Acadian: I think you would like the Ascadian Isles region in Morrowind as well! I actually got the name Aradia from the book by Charles Leland.

The Flame Atronachs got a really huge makeover in Skyrim. They seem to fly around on invisible rollerskates, do somersaults while standing still, and are just generally a lot weirder and more entertaining then in Oblivion.


liliandra nadiar: I had a lot of trouble with Aradia in the first few levels. But after a while she has really gotten quite powerful.


King Coin: Aradia is a high elf, of course she feels comfortable on a throne! The oil is something I have been trying to take advantage of, when I see it. I think you can even knock over lanterns and spill oil out of them. But I have not tried it yet.


Grits: She used to run out of blue a lot. But I found out that Skyrim reduces the magicka regeneration rate to 33% of normal when in combat, and completely turns it off while you are casting a spell. So I made a mod that puts the regen rate back to full all the time, and now she almost never gets down to empty.


A vid of Aradia's rescue of Thorald Grey-Mane from the Thalmor's clutches.

The streets of Solitude

Dusk along the northern coast

I've got a bad feeling about this...

This guy is a liar.

I used a mod to craft a new outfit for Aradia.

The eagle's view of Riverwood.

I’m surprised an Altmer would deign to sneak anywhere. My mage never did. Lol.

I really like the fire atronachs in this game. The little flips and twirls are entertaining.

I see you’ve got your hotkeys figured out well. I’m still working on getting mine straight.

~~~

Solitude is a pretty town. Aravi feels more at home in Whiterun though.

Holy crap! That’s a heck of a pile of draugr!

That outfit looks familiar…

Aradia sneaks because it gives her time to decide what spells to use. I like the fire atronachs too, they are very entertaining. But it seems that Oblivia wanders away a lot. Half the time it seems she is nowhere to be found when an ice troll is bearing down upon me.

The hotkeys are what make this game playable for me. Thanks to them I rarely have to deal with the menus.

I have been working on the outfit. I did a retexture, renamed it Snow Hawk, made robe and armor version, and put it all in the world in a couple different places.

I like the white better

But I still prefer it without the cowl.

I quite enjoyed the vid. Pure magery looks fun. Given how quickly a spell can be loosed and its speed of flight in Skyrim, trading fire with an archer seems to favor the mage. What a pair of force multiplying factors! Since I don’t play the game, I have no interest in getting lost in its menus; it is therefore neat how Aradia has sorted out how to change spells without rooting around in her menus. I had to laugh at the fellow talking like Ahnold at the very end.

Great screens. Since I am no fan of scenery shots without characters in them, I like how you almost always retain your character in screens. On the armor, I prefer the stuff she is wearing in the vid.

Thanks for sharing!

Oblivia’s fire and Aradia’s ice make for fun fights. I am not even going to try a pure mage without hotkeys, but I sure enjoy watching how Aradia gets the job done.

I like the Thalmor robes on her, but I’m sure Thorald did not!



Oh, I forgot to say... Whitengale armor.

The white armor is very nice!

Acadian: A pure mage is definitely a different experience from two-handed axe-wielding orc! There are some downsides to trading fire with an archer. Mainly it is when you are a low level mage. The starting destruction spells have a short range. So often you cannot hit them, but they have no trouble hitting you. Aradia was using a second-tier ice spell there, which has a long range. The other thing is of course the archer never runs out of ammo (at least the NPCs), while the mage has to watch that blue bar. Before I modded the game to make magicka regenerate normally in combat, Aradia was running out of blue all the time. Even now in big fights with multiple opponents, she has to watch her blue.


Grits: The hotkeys are what make this game playable for me. Otherwise the terrible UI would just make it impossible. Thankfully I rarely have to look at the interface though. One quirk of the hotkeys though, is that one press loads the spell into your left hand. Then a second key press puts it in your right at well. But it is always in your left hand first. I cannot figure out why that is.

I like the look of the Thalmor Robes too. Aradia was thinking she might try to blend in and pretend to be part of the garrison. But of course by then she had killed them all!

You know, I am tempted to call the mod Whitengale Armor now!


King Coin: I think of the white armor as snow camo. I like it much better then the default nightingale color.


I restarted Aradia to play with my new Main Quest Disabler mod. She is currently 3rd level again and exploring around Riverwood. Though she will eventually get up the gumption to head up to Whiterun and tell the Jarl about the dragon that rescued her and the Stormcloaks destroyed Helgen.

A vid of Aradia before the restart. I saw some good opportunities for using spilled lamp oil, and could not resist recording them.

A short vid showing the range issues of a starting mage.

A new Aradia escaped from Helgen with Ralof.

She found some new furs to wear...

...and even did a little work in the forge.

Fun vids! I still really enjoy the pure magic approach. I also really liked her clothy caped outfit in the first vid.

And a new Acadia Aradia! I see the lady’s boots in Skyrim still look like Oblivion tree trunks.

Now. . . we just need to see if we can coax a smile – even a faint one – from the stern-faced high elf.

I don't know, she comes off pretty cold to most people she meets. Looks down on most of them too.

On neat, I didn’t know those hanging pots would explode. Fun! Good to know about the range issue. That's another thing I was doing wrong.

Wow. Aradia is tall. I think she looks especially great in the forge one.

I really like the environmental things that Bethesda put in. Aravi always notices those lamp AFTER she’s killed someone with her swords or arrows. A little frustrating. Lol.

Exiting the game to mod the range of those spells eh?

Aravi found a variant of the furs that have long sleeves. She’s never going to get rid of them.

Acadian: Her snow white clothes will make a reappearance soon. As well as a new pair of boots. I would not expect even a faint smile from Aradia though. She is a High Elf after all, and above such things.

liliandra nadiar: Of course she looks down on everyone. She's about a foot taller then them!

Grits: Funny thing is, when I switch to 1st person, Aradia is shorter then everyone else. There is at least a foot difference between the two povs. I usually forget about those pots, and the oil on the floor. I think I actually read about them in the game manual.

King Coin: It is amazing to compare one of the ES games to Bioware games like the Kotor and Mass Effect serieses. Even as far back as Morrowind, the ES games had lots of clutter in them, that made the world seem so much more alive. The Bioware games are all stark and empty, and none of them seem like real places where people live.


Aradia gets a good view of Helgen's ruins.

Beyond those mountains lies Cyrodiil.

Aradia was nice enough to help me test a mod, by summoning Bone Jovi.

At the dock of Fort Neugard

A close up

Aradia found those long-sleeved furs, and I made them into regular clothing (rather than light armor) for her.

Finally, in the Galactica White Warrior clothes.

A short vid of Aradia at Valtheim Towers

Thanks for the screens!

Nice view toward *sigh* Cyrodiil. Somewhere over the rainbow mountains, it is green. And warm.
Love the name Bone Jovi! Shot through the heart!
Aradia looks a bit severe from a distance, but in the close up, I quite like her features.
I very much like that clothing she made from furs! It looks great on Aradia.

Edit: And you added a vid! Fun to watch our spell slinger in action. And Aradia's Familiar - a ghost wolf of course. That way she can cast over his head!

I added in a short vid as well.

Those screens looking over the mountains are beautiful!

I have to agree with Acadian, up close she has very nice features.

Beautiful retexture.

Aradia’s just blowing them off the towers!
I like the little howl at the end. The ‘discovery’ sound effect is something I like to hear too.

I like your summonings far better than the vanilla ones, of course. Bone Jovi looks great!

Aradia has a much softer look in her close-up, very nice. I especially like her eye color.

Oh, great idea to make her furs an outfit! Excellent snow camo armor. It makes me wonder about using white furs in an outfit. Aradia would look quite regal decked out in snowy sabre cat fur!

Very fun video. I see that range is no longer an issue!! It gives my own budding destructionist hope. Aradia’s familiar is awesome. Nice to see her still there at the end of the battle. (Girl wolf? Just guessing.)

Acadian: It is strange how Aradia looks more severe from a distance then she does up close. I have no idea why that is.


King Coin: Once you take out all of the greyness, Skyrim can be a pretty place to look at, especially the mountains.

I just love blasting baddies off of things and watching them fall. Bridges, cliffs, you name it. The Ice Spike spell is good for that, as it has a lot of knockback.


Grits: There are not very many vanilla summonings! Aradia's familiar was still around because I am using my Improved Familiars mod, that beefs them up to make them useful. I have spent the weekend working on mods to change that. The next one will be my animal summoning mod, that still needs a number of finishing touches, like a new perk tree for summoning them.

White furs would be a neat idea for a mod. If I can find a way to do it without editing the .nif files I might do it. Right now I cannot do anything more than look at the meshes with nifskope.


Aradia met an elk after coming down from the towers.

A waterfall in the Rift

Eldergleam

A flying saucer!

Aradia wonders how those Bretons can wear this stuff without getting frostbite?

The elk is beautiful! Of course, ALL waterfalls are beautiful. I expect those are tree roots in the Eldergleam screen, but I want to think of them as the bones of mammoths – like a sacred burial ground for the giant pachyderms. And a bard with a lute! I quite like the bits of fur armor, but agree with Aradia that they belong only in a warmer clime!

Who says they don't? Bretons do have a bonus toward Restoration after all. Azula recommends dressing warmer like she and Jenassa do. No point in become brain frozen like the rest of the barbarians in the land do after all.

Nice catch on the elk superhighway! That’s a great shot!

Looks like Aradia found Jensa’s favorite outfit. It’s good for soaking up the sun. With vanilla skies she has to be careful not to develop a vitamin D deficiency.

Eldergleam is a beautiful place.

Those Bretons must be part Nord!

Acadian: Funny thing is, that elk pic was taken without using an animal friend mod. Usually the elk and other prey animals flee your character. This fella just stood there and stared at Aradia.

Those were indeed roots in the Eldergleam pics. There are places with large piles of mammoth bones however, just like you imagined. It always makes me wonder what killed them.


liliandra nadiar: Aradia put that Forsworn stuff away almost as soon as she put it on, and got back into her furs. She might like that top the one in the left in your pic is wearing though.


Grits: Jensa can wear that because she has a 50% Frost Resistance! Sometimes I wonder if the developers thought they were making a game set in a jungle, rather than icy mountains.


King Coin: I like Eldergleam's cave too. I just wish it was bit better lit.


Primrose has taken her first (barefoot) steps into Tamriel

A close up

Being a wood elf, the wolves and other animals like her (and also thanks to a mod I am working on )

Framed against the moon

She found a horse whose bandit owner was dead

Primrose wonders why the water disappeared in a prefectly square-shaped area?

Because of some issues with the Animal Friend mod, I had to recreate Primrose

Primrose looks great! She's my favorite so far.

I love the picture of Primrose and her horse.

A wood elf with a horse! Can't beat that. 'Sides, it gets her poor bare feet up off that cold Skyrim ground!

When is she gonna put that henna dye that is on her face into her hair, move to Cyrodiil and start writing? You know, maybe join the Fighters Guild and settle down with a nice Dunmeri lass and learn how to summon bears and ravens.

Both outfits were actually part of the same progression path for this. Azula was in the base level, Jenassa was in the final version (without the optional backpack). If it wasn't for Azula being a full on Destruction mage, it'd be her outfit of choice. It's between Elven and Glass in AR. There's also a version for Oblivion too if Teresa wants a casual(ish) look.

Primrose looks ready to turn large, aggressive lizard-like creatures into free roaming quivers.

Woah! She’s heavy on the paint! I like her still. You did a wonderful job on the face. Barefoot too! I suppose Aravi couldn’t be the only one forever.

Grits: Primrose is my favorite so far as well. The most difficult character as well, since archery at low levels is not very effective.


Acadian: Primrose came from Cyrodiil. She learned the henna in the hair trick from her mother, who also taught her to shoot the bow, mix potions, and summon animals.


liliandra nadiar: I tried the Roadstoker outfit. It causes a CTD on startup, like every other mod packaged in a .bsa does to me. I have it for Oblivion, and it works fine there.

Primrose has not met any large lizard like creatures, nor will she ever thanks to my dragon disabler mod. There are still Argonians though...


King Coin: The face paint makes me think of Primrose as my Japanese elf. She has finally taken to wearing shoes however. It gets too cold walking barefoot in the snow.


Primrose has been making friends with the bears

...and the wolves

Like her second mother, she is handy in the forge as well.

Against the mountains

The obligatory aurora pic

Primrose likes it around Falkreath, so I made her a little camp outside of town

She found that forsworn 'armor'. She thinks it is ridiculous

Primrose forged herself a real suit of armor instead

Wow, those auroras are beautiful! Excellent shot!

That's a nice little camp. There's a portable campsite mod out just to let you know though.

I like the elven armor but furs, leather, or hide armor seems to be more suitable for a woodsy character. I still like the forsworn 'armor' even though it is ridiculous.

Aravi's foot wraps are enchanted with resist frost. That, and her own fur keeps her warm.

I love Primrose's campsite!! Her background sounds fascinating, I hope we get to hear some more of it.

I'm sure that Primrose's animal friends also prefer her in the Elven armor. My big, sweaty Nord still loves her Forsworn bikini, but even she won't wear the matching silly hat.


I love the way you composed the aurora shot with the trees and moons.

Thanks for the great screens! She looks quite at home with the critters and at her campsite. My fave shot is definitely ‘Against the Mountains’. I like the up close look at Primrose, as well as her armor. That fur ‘kini is too skimpy and the metal stuff is too, well, metal.

King Coin: I tried that portable campsite mod, but it did not do much for me.


Grits: Those skyline shots are always difficult, because getting in the sky often means losing everything else. Especially when I try to get the moons in.

Acadian: Primrose decided to pack away the elven armor in her tree stump and has gone back to wearing the furs.


Primrose paid a visit to Whiterun.

She had the chance to see some pretty lights.

Primrose's first vid, putting her archery and sneaking skills to the test.

That long-sleeved fur outfit looks like a keeper.

Wow, Primrose is an impressive archer!! I remember Rowan and Vorstag’s trip through Darkshade. It was a bloodbath. Mostly theirs.

Love the auroras in that second screen.

I remember that place. Ugh, Aravi did not enjoy her first encounter with trolls.

Wow! Nice shooting on that first one! Never got to see that perk used before.

Two arrows each! I don't think archery is as weak as people on the forums have been complaining.

Great screens, war paint and all!

In the first few moments of the vid a butterfly zips right in front of the camera, so I was happy. Then, even happier when PrimRosa found an underground waterfall! Woot! Certainly worth killin’ a few trolls for. Just a touch of that troll fat is wonderful in your hair conditioner (but don't tell anyone). Very elegant dungeon crawl – that’s the way to do it - - no one even knew she was there.

Grits: The long-sleeved furs suit Primrose to a tee. I tried the elven armor for a while, but it was just too fancy.

It took her a long time to get that good with archery, and with stealth. She has the triple sneaking damage with bows perk now, which helps a lot. Her current bow is also smithed up to nearly twice the base damage, plus an extra 17 points of fire.


King Coin: It is extremely weak when you start out. You do not do much damage, and you move slower then a pregnant cow I rearranged the perks so that you get the Ranger perk a lot earlier, so you can move normally with a drawn bow. That makes a huge difference. In the early days, it was Primrose's summoned Familiar that kept her alive, not her bow.

Primrose is about 20th level or so in that vid, and has concentrated on archery, and taking its perks. She also has a number of magic items that increase her bow damage. Between them and her Overdraw perks, she doubles her damage with a bow. Plus the chance to critical and do extra damage. Then she also has all those things I mentioned to Grits above. Now she can one-shot a lot of bad guys. But it took a long time and a lot of specialization to get here.


Acadian: That was a dungeon crawl where everything went right. She did not even need to summon her sabre cat to protect her. I assure you, it often does not go so well!

You can actually rip the wings off the butterflies and use them in alchemy. Not that any of my characters would ever do that. Troll fat for hair conditioner? Primrose has been using it to shave her legs with (animal fat was one of the original shaving creams)


Primrose did some mountain climbing.

Quite a view from up here.

Looks like that mask did not save Jim Carrey this time...

I am sure Aravi recognizes this scene

I think someone likes Primrose...

A close up indoors.

Primrose met a familiar Khajiit caravan guard outside of Dawnstar

FO3 had Deathclaws, Skyrim has these instead.

Standing atop Mazeltov (I cannot remember that crazy Dwemer name)

Pulling the wings off butterflies? That cuts it. No Skyrim for me!

Fun screens! I love that fur armor she wears now! It is perfect for her and I really like the detail of how you see where it is sewn together. That is a great shot of the smith giving PrimRosa the eye. Yay, Kharjo! Yikes, I can smell the breath from that bear!

Oh I love that mountain picture. Very pretty, seeing the land stretched out like that.

The Skull! I don’t see a weapon in hand, so I assume that it got banished to Oblivion as well in Primrose’s story.

Kharjo!

I think Aravi passed that Dwemer ruin. She bypassed it because at the time she didn’t want to get in any fights.