Acadian: You guys should have seen her swimming across the river near Anga's Mill. Now those were perks...

Grits: I did the alchemy tower for the north wing, and it gave me a fully stocked kitchen with it. Well, except for a cooking pot. Unless that came with the main hall? Since there is a pot in the main halls fireplace, I did not bother making a kitchen in for the east wing. Instead I went for the armory. I was a little disappointed that it did not have a smithy/anvil tanning rack. It would have been nice to have a place in the house to do all the smithing, without having to go through loading screens. *sigh* She will just have to stick with the basement for her serious metalworking.

I wish there was a clean version of the Hammerfell Garb. While it is not the most flattering attire, I too like the fact that it remains pants. It is so annoying that everything turns into a skirt once a girl puts it on. It would be nice to have more clothing with pants.

Aja briefly tried a new outfit

A long way down...

Aja's basement is now guarded by Sammy the Friendly Skeever

Aja stopped by Gerdur and Hod's house to visit an old acquaintance

Baking some crostatas

This frost troll used to be an adventurer like you, until he...

Into the heart of darkness

Stalking among the mushrooms

That is some waterfall

One of Aja's girls is a chip off the old block

@Acadian and Grits: I doubt we’ll be treated to such a view.

Sam’s glitched in my game too, he’s standing facing a wall in a way that looks like he has a sore rear.

Moon over Dawnstar is quite pretty.

Just seeing the Pale, Aravi chose her home location well.


Dammit! I just saw a mod that changed one of the women’s outfits to include pants! I doubt I’ll find it again, you know what hunting through the Nexus is like.

Aravi preferred the elven armor as well. It’s much slimmer than the glass is.

Is Sammy a Hearthfire addition, or a different mod?

Haven’t seen that stove before.

Woohoo Blackreach! Was the experience Septimus free?

How funny, she’s practicing! Those children always break Aravi’s heart when they ask ‘can you be my mommy?’

Aja’s new outfit looks great. Gosh, all the Skyrim armors look pretty good. I like that most of them are finished in a more subdued manner than OB armor generally is.

A long way down makes one’s head spin!

Sammy looks like Aja’s girl’s been practicing sword play on him when Aja hasn’t been looking.

Cooking! I love it! Oh, and the arrow to the troll’s knee =

I love those blue mushroomjellyfish and the blue light they put off. And you can never go wrong with a waterfall – even an underground one!

I do like the glass armor, although it is quite a bit bulkier. I think Aja just makes all of the armor look good!

Oh wow, what a view down the ruin! Thank you from the bottom of my console-playing heart. My characters can peak over the edge, but nothing like that!!

Sammy the Skeever! I love it. Long may he shed mangy bits of fur all over Aja’s basement.

OK, now is that oven on the wall of the Main Hall back room that has the fireplace on the other side?! I have never had that option. That’s a perfect use for that little room, and then you don’t need the separate kitchen! Also those ingredient jars look really neat. What a great house!

Beautiful views of Blackreach. Is that Sofie? I love when the kids play. Sammy better watch out if she gets a real dagger!

King Coin: Depending on what Sam got up to the night before, he might have a sore rear!

Sammy is a Hearthfire glitch. He can happen when you get the skeever infestation in your basement. Sometimes you will find one skeever that shows up as a red dot on the radar, but does not attack you. If you put your weapon away, the red dot will vanish. So you have to be careful not to kill all the skeevers, just the ones attacking you! After that he just walks around your basement, minding his own business. People on the Bethesda boards have taken to calling him Sammy the Friendly Skeever.

The stove is also a Hearthfire addition. I got it (I think) from putting the Alchemy tower in the north wing. But maybe it got put there as part of the main hall instead? I am not sure. I got it from a mod called Shezries Hearthfire Heljarchen Kitchen. You can use it to bake lots of new things, like apple dumplings (which heal you, and give you a +5% to archery damage).

Blackreach was a Daedric quest and elder scroll free experience. It was a rather simple mod to make. I was able to change the doors to Blackreach at Raldbthar and Mazeltov to take a gold piece instead of an attunement sphere. The door at Alftand just refused to do that, so instead I just left an attunement sphere sitting on top of it. Since the quest is not running, it is not a quest item, and you can put it back down again after you open the door.


Acadian: Most of the armors in Sky are less fantastical, and more gritty looking than in Oblivion. I find I rather like that.

It does look like Sammy has taken a beating doesn't it? The skeevers in this game must lead a much rougher lifestyle than the rats in the previous games. Probably partying too much with Sam (Sanguine).


Grits: That view down in Alftand is one of the coolest in the game.

Have you had Sammy in your games yet? He is one of the coolest bugs in the game.

That view of the kitchen is right behind the back wall of the main hall on the other side of the fireplace and cooking pot. I cannot remember if Flavia got it at Lakeview or not. I am still not sure if it came with the main hall, or the alchemy tower. Oops, it is from a mod. I downloaded it so long ago I forgot about it! It is nice to have it there, and not have to use the other wing for the kitchen. That let Aja build an armory there, which gives her an outside deck looking east. Hellajarchen has such great views!

That might be Sofie. Or it could be Lucia. Aja adopted them both. Since they both look alike, I cannot tell one from the other. Aja gave them both wooden swords, which they now walk around with on their hips all the time. Aja gave one of them an elven dagger too. It just happened to be in her inventory when she went to give the girl a gift, and I thought, why not? Thank goodness Aja never did the Mehrunes Dagon quest, otherwise one of the girls would probably end up with the Razor!


This was a weird weather glitch caused by going from Blackreach to Alftand, and then back to Blackreach. I guess the Alftand weather followed Aja back.

At home with her girls.

Last night Aja explored Arknthgard (or something), that is added by Dawnguard. It is the most amazing-looking Dwemer ruin I have seen in the game!

Aja teamed with a previous explorer, who had not fared so well..

Creeping over a pipe.

Can you find the Redguard?

Going out on a limb

Eating apple dumplings helps your bow? Buffy’s out shopping for some of those little damage boosters now!

Nice to see those gorgeous blue jellyfishmushroomtrees free of their caves.

At home with the girls is adorable.

That Dwemer ruin is pretty neat all right.

Who’s the shadow girl?

Sorry, I couldn’t find the Redguard. I was looking in the falls hoping to see some showering perks.

EDIT: (After KC's comment below.) So I think I found the (fully clothed ) Redguard by enlarging the screenshot and looking for the ghost. I think.

Slof retextured the skeevers if you are interested. They look much healthier.

Blackreach is quiet neat looking in daylight.

Both have little wooden swords! Aja has a little militia!

Love the ghostly adventurer. What a neat ruin that must be! I hope Aravi runs into that dungeon and decides to take a peek inside.

The ghost made the redguard easy to find.

We can only dream can't we?

The ghost is probably thinking the redguard is going to end up like her, sitting at the edge of that log.

How funny to see Blackreach all lit up. It looks light blue and quite reachable.

It looks like Aja’s girls are receiving their orders. Very cute with the swords!

I thought the same thing about that ruin. I also love the ghost story. Great pictures!

I see the ghost, but I still can’t spot the Redguard. I have to assume she’s not splashing around naked in the waterfalls. Because then the Nord would have found her for me.

Yay, Zephyr! That is Mikke’s very favorite bow. (She’s a combat archer and fletches her own arrows, so it’s perfect for her.) I just love that picture! Wow, really neat.

Acadian: The Hearthfire dlc adds those dumplings, and a lot of other new recipes that give you little bonuses to your skills and attributes. There are also some new drinks too, like Argonian Bloodwine, that gives you poison resistance and waterbreathing.

The ghost is a previous adventurer/archaeologist you find in the ruin. Her assistant stole the credit for her work, and now she is on a mission to reclaim her name, even beyond death. She is pretty helpful!


King Coin: Yep, the Redguard is just to the left of the ghost.

That ruin is added by Dawnguard. You will get pointed to it if you pick up the book about the Aetherium Wars, which appears in lots of places now. It is part of a larger quest that has broken runes scattered through a bunch of Dwemer ruins. Aja found one in Raldbathar, along with the book, and that is what kicked it off for her.

It was the ghost's idea to go out on that log to get her bow! Maybe she wants an undead companion?


Grits: I guess now we know why they made it all dark and gloomy in Blackreach. It looks too nice all lit up!

No naked splashing Redguard. She is not about to take her armor off in a Falmer ruin. Not to mention around a strange ghost... KC found her.

Is Zephyr enchantable? Aja uses a crossbow, so she will never use it. The faster firing speed does not seem like much to me. Not compared to bows that might do an extra 15 - 25 points of elemental damage.


I rolled a new toon a few days ago to beat the game with

Meet Le Chevalier D'Eon

Hanging out with Ralof. He really needs a bath!

Party at the Sleeping Giant

Putting down a draugr

Watching the water go by

Anyone for barbecue troll burgers?

Moon over Ivarstead

Magic duel with a draugr

A companion mod perhaps?

Nice armor! And beautiful character. As always, you did a wonderful job with the character gen. She looks very young in that picture next to Ralof. That armor fits her perfectly though. What is her race? Breton?

I think a nice ebony sword would go nice with her armor, either the one hand or two hand version would work. The two handed sword is pretty enough that even Aravi was tempted by it.

A game-beating toon! For those who patrol the BethSoft forums, that’s priceless!

Do I take it from your comments elsewhere and the ‘Le’ preceding the very cool name, that the gender of your knight is somewhat. . . multiple choice?

A great looking character, with wonderful armor. Sword in one hand and spell in the other looks like a fun and effective style of fighting. The screens and scenery look fabulous!

She looks great! I read about her in the character profile thread, and that armor is perfect! In the party at the Sleeping Giant she really looks like a visitor from somewhere fine. I love the way you put a character’s look together.

I love the picture with Ralof. He is pretending not to notice that little peek of D’Eon’s thigh. Say, they both have braids!

Putting down a draugr is my favorite, though. The trail of bodies in the background is just awesome. Plus, that is a fabulous sword!



I don’t think Zephyr can be enchanted. I wasn’t impressed by the numbers either, so I was surprised when I tried it. It’s definitely one of those items that fills a specific need. Mikke pretty much always has a fast-moving target, and it lets her get a lot more of the long shots in hectic situations (like multiple frost trolls and dragon battles). It would be pretty useless to a stealth archer.

King Coin: No, the ghost is not a mod, she is part of the quest. I get the feeling she will turn up when you go into the other dungeons in the quest as well.

She looks very clean in that picture next to Ralof! I never realized how dirty he was until then. Yes, she is indeed a Breton. That is why she looks so tiny next to everyone else. I even set her weight slider to the middle, but she is still a wee little thing. Following Ralof back to Riverwood, she could not keep up with him! Even though they were both wearing light armor (I modded the Eisen Platte to be Light. It looks more like leather than metal plates to me).

I experimented a bit with an ebony sword when I first created her, but was not thrilled with the look. Same with the nightingale sword. I think she might stick with the ancient Nord sword throughout the game. She picked up Dawnbreaker, but I do not like the flame effect it puts on the people you hit. It makes it hard to see them, and does not look very good in the pics I take.


Acadian: I was hoping Renee might look in here sometime to see my new toon. I know she loves that kind of talk.

Like the RL D'Eon, mine's gender is definitely a multiple choice question. Or as Captain Jack said in the first episode of Torchwood "You people and your quaint little categories..."


Grits: You know what annoyed me about that putting down the draugr pic? None of the draugr set off the swinging gate trap, even though D'Eon lured more than one of them to step onto the trigger.

I noticed that both she and Ralof both have the same hairstyle when I first looked at that picture too! Does that say something about D'Eon, or about Ralof? Over on the Beth forums it was established (in large part by me), that men who have their hair braided swing both ways. That is why Ulfric says Ralof is a "Damned good man..."

I am glad D'Eon's look looks good. Did you notice I gave her a lantern jaw as a subtle reminder that she is not 100% girl? I spent two days working on what she would wear and use, experimenting and modding things. I had tried modding Auriel's Shield to make a black version for her to use, but I just could not get it looking right. So instead I took the ebony shield and made a modded version with the same stats as an elven one. The same with her armor, I spent a lot of time modding the Eisen Platte mod to reduce the stats to the equivalent of elven as well, and just plain remove all the lingere pieces.

Teresa would probably like Zephyr too. She is that kind of rapid fire archer. I find that in my old age, my FPS finger is not what it used to be. Shooting targets on the move does not come as easily to me as it used to back when Doom I first came out. So I tend to go the sneaky sniper route when I can instead.


D'Eon wants the shiny one

Unlocking ancient knowledge

Clearing out ColdKegger Mine

The break of dawn

Now just where is he going?

Sezrie's Kitchen mod also works on the Lakeview House

D'Eon takes some time to relax

Chateau D'Eon

I love that you invoked the image of Captain Jack and the relevance of his attitude! Dion D’Eon’s armor even looks stylish covered in fresh blood. The last two are fabulous shots of her relaxing and of the Chateau. What a beautiful setting!

I was meaning maybe you could turn her into a companion.

What a cute screen of her buying jewelry!

Unlocking ancient knowledge: I heard a rumor that it actually affects all armor, not just dwemer.

That is a very neat looking kitchen. I may just have to get that one.

Beautiful screen of her relaxing in one of her towers. Went with all three eh? I went with the green house on the side. Does she have a steward yet?

I love the shopping screen. That outfit looks great on her! Love the circlet.

What pretty touches in her very tidy kitchen. The vanilla one is homey but such a mess.

Chateau D’Eon looks great! I see two hawks, nice!

Has D’Eon met Erik the Slayer? He would make an amiable (although slightly scruffy) steward. Plus, braids.

Acadian: I think Lakeview is my favorite of the three houses you can build with Hearthfire. I love the nearby lake and all the hawks that fly around that area. Speaking of Captain Jack, your viewing figures just went up...


King Coin: Nah, companions never thrilled me. I have too many bad memories from Oblivion followers. So I won't be turning ghost girl into a mod.

Sadly, that glitch of the Ancient Knowledge working for all armors must have gotten fixed, because D'Eon's armor rating did not change after getting the power. Still, it is good for the faster blacksmithing.

That kitchen mod really is great. It saves you the trouble of building an entire wing just to get the oven, and it looks fantastic in that little back area. Plus, it seems to work on all the houses, not just the Pale one, as the mod name suggests.

I wanted to see what it would look like with all three towers. Plus, I wanted to try adopting kids without a bedroom wing. It is supposed to work. I will see. So far she does not have a Steward. Sooner or later she might get around to it.


Grits: DE'on tried on all the high class outfits in the game, including ones you normally cannot get. But in the end the Vampire Princess armor looked best. You were right when you said it before, that it makes a great outfit for walking around town in.

D'Eon did just meet Erik the Farmer today! She had a little chat with his dad, and who knows, the next time she passes through Rorikstead she recruit Erik The Slayer to help her around the house. After a bath of course. The braids are a bonus!


D'Eon is a hottie!

A spellcasting kill cam

Here it comes!

Rockin' the Silverblood Inn

D'Eon is convinced that if she picks this up, something bad will happen.

Something bad

I think the dwarves were overcompensating for certain, physical deficiencies...

Taking the shortcut

Hottie: And here I was hoping…
Wonderful shot, I think that one is my favorite of this bunch already. Is there an explosion behind her, or is it a flame cloak?

I can see why they left out the magic kill cams at first, but it’s still kind of nice to sit back and watch them burn.

I remember a skull like that. Aravi and Kharjo dealt with the surprise pretty easily. That’s a very nice shot of her face.

That’s quite a shortcut. She must be an adrenaline junkie. Aravi wouldn’t take a jump like that!

Lol, I never heard of that Captain Jack. I was thinking of the roguishly effeminate fellow in that Pirates of the Carribean movie.

You captured some great magical effects. D’Eon is the best dressed one in the tavern; that sort of looks like a rather easy feat in Skyrim though. I loved her contemplating the consequences of touching that skull! The giant leap looks very Araviesque.

Neat, is that a Flame Cloak?

How fun to see the Silverblood Inn so lively.

Otar the Mad, slayer of my sweet Shuvesse! Kill ‘im, D’Eon!!

Wow, that’s a heck of a shortcut. Nord approved.

My favorite is Something bad will happen. A great look at D’Eon’s face, and of course D’Eon is about to be proven right!

King Coin: Keep hoping! I like the magic and archery kill cams too. They can be a little annoying when you do not actually kill someone, but they play anyway and lock you out of doing anything. But they add a nice cinematic quality to the game, like VATS does in Fallout 3.

D'Eon was expecting trouble from that coffin, so she cast a flame rune on it. That turned loose the dragon priest before she even put the skulls in the slots! A few days later I read on the official forums that you can just skip most of the dungeon and use a rune to turn it loose. *doh*


Acadian: John Barrowman will always be my Captain Jack. He is from Dr. Who and Torchwood, some excellent British sci-fi.

Being best dressed is easy in Skyrim. They have fine clothes, but they really do not look like much to me. I vastly preferred Oblivion's dressy clothes. Sky does the middle-class clothing really well though.


Grits: I think it might have been a flame cloak. D'Eon started using that a lot to help against mobs of Falmer and Dwemer automatons. I had no idea how useful they are!

D'Eon loved that shortcut. As KC surmised, she is definitely an adrenaline junkie. Doing stupid things and nearly getting killed is her idea of fun!



Now that is some forge

Cooking up dinner for Sofie

I have been experimenting with a vampire character, and trying Dawnguard from the vamp side.

I am not sure if they are fighting, or having sex

Helregin's last moments of humanity

The vampire is born

Time for a snack

Putting her foot down

Sophie looks like a natural supervisor!

A new character - a blonde with neat vampie eyes!

Time for a snack = Archers! They’re not just for breakfast anymore!

Putting her foot down - that black robed elf looks like he’s trying to verify Helregin’s natural hair color.

Forge: Wow…. I need to get Aravi in some more of those ruins!

Dinner: The child looks impatient!

Fighting or sex? Definitely some rough sex going on there.

Wow, that’s quite the transformation. That ‘last moments’ screen is kind of sad.

Those eyes in snack time are totally creepy.

Whoa, is that Ralof going hands-free with his fellow Stormcloak? I think that’s an Expert skill, at least.

Last moments has a nice wistful feeling with the sunset (I’m guessing?) sky. Her eyes look very cool in Time for a snack.

Is Helregin (I had to translate a page to look up this name!! ) using a battleaxe? Neat!

Acadian: Sophie really does look bossy in that pic!

That elf does look like he is making some inappropriate glances! I guess he learned to be a gentleman!


King Coin: That is the Aetherium Forge. You have to do the Aetherium questline from Dawnguard to get to it.

I am glad the snack time pic was creepy, that was exactly what I was hoping for, and why I framed it with the moon in the background.


Grits: I guess now we know why Ulfric says that Ralof is a "Damned good man!"

I was going for a haunted, forlorn look in "last moments". I wanted to record that last moment of humanity, before Helregin descended into a monster.

You looked up Helregin! I went deep for that name. I am not even sure what the actual gender of the RL Helregin was. I liked the name because it is similar to Hel (which I was originally looking at using), and it is the name of a Jotun - hence a monster, or at least one typically portrayed by the Aesir as a monster.

Helregin is using a war hammer though. She is my first character to do so. It took some getting used to the slow speed. But wow, she just murdulizes everything she hits with that thing! In the first few levels nothing can survive the first hit.

Down with the Dawnguard

Helregin is my first character that was able to follow the Headless Horseman back to his home

Helregin has made a friend

Her family are not much on housekeeping though...

The Soul Cairn was a very interesting place, I loved the idea

Helregin now has a horse, slightly the worse for wear...

Time to go back to Tamriel

Picking flowers

I’ve never been a big fan of the war hammers, though some of the axes look great. So where does the horseman go if you follow him? Ah yes, the pits below the castle. That was lovely to go through barefoot – not! Glad you got to see the Soul Cairn, it was a cool area to look around for a while. Picking flowers! Not what I see a couple of vampires doing!

I imagine that a war hammer would deliver a very satisfying sound upon impact.

I hope Helregin and Aravi don’t meet on the opposite side of the Dawnguard!

That looks like Serana. How neat is that?

Yikes, whatever you feed a dead horse, that one needs some.

Aww, just a pair of vampires out for a stroll, picking flowers. Poisonous ones, no doubt.

How fun to see an undead road race! Helregin’s Altmer legs look as long as the horse’s.

The Soul Cairn is really neat. Mikke learned Conjuration just so that she could give the lost souls a little time in the sun. And Arvak! Aaawwwww.

King Coin: It has taken me a while to get used to the slow speed of the hammers. But now I find I like it. Though not as much as the swords.

The Horseman goes to Hamvir's Rest, and then disappears. It was funny, because I first saw him on the road between Dragon Bridge and Morthal, and followed him all the way around the mountains to Fort Dunstad, then south to Whiterun, and then back west again to Hamvir's Rest. It was quite the merry go round!


Acadian: The hammers make a very satisfying hole where they strike! That is Serana alright. You get her as a companion no matter which side of the questline you do. The undead horse is interesting, because you summon him, rather than him being always around.


Grits: Helregin's legs are only Nord ones, but that was just enough to keep up with the Horseman. Poor D'Eon and her stubby Breton legs could not hope to follow him. I thought the Soul Cairn was a really neat idea, and high time that they explained to us that it was where the undead we summon come from. I expect I will be able to put it to use in the Aela fic.


Someone likes their shoes...

Watch your step!

In light and shadow

It is better than attracting flies...

Face off against the Dawnguard

Say hello to my little friend

Taking down a Forsworn

Helregin took a break from the DG questline, and joined the Rebellion against the Empire

D’Oh!! Not sure what I was thinking there with the Altmer business.

The ancestor moth picture is my favorite. I really liked that part. I love Hel’s new pet! Makes me want to try the vampire side.

Shoes: that vamp likes his trophies. I imagine that he didn’t take kindly to Helregin in his lair. I used his fire traps against him!

Serana looks like she disapproves Helregin’s seating choice.

Moths: Love that part!

The gargoyles look menacing, no matter which side they are on.

Last pic:

Shoes – Buffy’s jealous!
Watch your step – Wow, what a light show!
Light and shadow - A very neat capture.
Flies – Awww.
Face off = Hammer down!
Little friend – neat. What kind of critter is that? Oh, based on KC's comment I guess it's a gargoyle.
Forsworn = Crunch. I can hear the bones breaking and that's definitely gonna leave a mark.
Joining the Rebellion -

Grits: I thought the ancestor moths were neat too. It was nice to actually see why those monks got their name too!

The vampire side of the DG questline makes a lot more sense. At least you have a good reason to not kill Serana at first or second sight. Granted, you have the stupidity of it forcing your vampire to join the Dawnguard first (and them not recognizing that you are vamp, kind of obvious with those bright glowing eyes!). I got around the latter by going straight to Dimhollow Crypt and using the console to start the second quest. That way Helregin never had to join the Dawnguard. It also had an unforeseen side effect of the Vigilants Hall not being destroyed. That surprised me!


King Coin: I think that is the vampire version of Imelda Marcos in Shriekwind Bastion! Serana is always complaining about the sun. But it does not do anything to her. She's a Nord! I looked her up in the CK, she is not a vampire, but from the Nord race, with some of the vampire powers. That is why she is not ugly like the others.


Acadian: Just wait until Buffy visits that particular vampire lair! I imagine she will take every single pair of shoes for her own collection!

That summoned critter was indeed a gargoyle. Along with the huskies, they are one of the best things DG adds to the game. They look really neat, and add a new dimension to vampire lairs.

Helregin meets her first frost giant (looks like a troll with minotaur horns to me...)

Frozen Falmer

Facing off with Vyrthur

A quiet moment as the sun sets

The Bow of Auriel

Hammer time!

The end of Harkon

Well, that finishes out the DG questline, and with it, Helregin. I cannot see playing her anymore beyond this point. After all, what is she going to do, find that dog for the blacksmith of Falkreath? I liked the DG questline from the vampire side. The Forgotten Vale was just fantastic. But I do not see myself ever playing a vampire again. I did not like being a vamp, even with using the Better Vampire mod to make it less bleh. If I ever try it again from the hunter side, it would have to be with a character who is not driven to destroy vampires, but rather with a more laid-back, "let's just walk the Nirn and get into adventures" kind of character.

Vyrthur looks very creepy in that picture!

A lovely moment with Serana in the sunset. The Forgotten Vale is so awesome, and then the view from that balcony still makes my jaw drop.

I love that picture with the bow. Hammer time, lol. That one is my favorite!

In the last one Serana looks like she is saying, “What next?” while the Dunmer guy cuddles with the gargoyle.

So I guess Helregin does not want to go to Falkreath, build a manor, get the dog, and adopt a couple of kids? Then she could awaken feeling a Mother’s Love and a Surge of Vampiric Power!

The ends of your characters’ stories are always a little exciting, because I wonder who will climb out of that cart next!

-Oh, that frost giant does indeed look like a pale horny troll!

-Frozen Falmer is so cool. It would be neat to be able to freeze foes like that (I know you remember frost maidens in Diablo II).

-A quiet moment. Is Helregin making all glowy eyes at Serana?

-Bow of Auriel. A bow with its own sparkly bling! What’s not to like?!?

-End of Harkon. I like how this ‘feels’ like a real glimpse into Helregins little party of adventurers.

I really have no idea who might climb out of that cart either! Maybe I will do some more of D'Eon. She is not the kind of character who would want to kill Serana at first sight. So she could probably do the "good" side of the DG questline. Then again, I am not sure I would want to do it all over again right away.

I recently found this mod, and it just screams to me "Redguard". So maybe I will do another Redguard. Or maybe I will try a snow elf using that old mod I modded to make Revansch. Or one of the other new elf races from that mod.

Oh, that’s beautiful! I could go Dunmer with that, too. It reminds me a little of the fancier robes from Morrowind.


I had hoped that D'Eon might return some day.

I thought the same thing on the frost giants. They sure are odd looking.

Oh that part with the frozen Falmer was fun. So was the battle with Vyrthur. Helregin likes that thinking pose. Just looking at those frozen guys, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out what was going to happen. Aravi tried smashing them, didn’t work.

The view is quite spectacular from that balcony. I’ll have to add a cottage or something to the Vale, I really liked that area.

That screen of Helregin with her hammer is so cool!

Harkon sure made a mess!

Grits: Vyrthur always looks creepy! I love that vista from the balcony too. I got lucky that the sun happened to be setting at just that moment. The Dunmer guy cuddles the gargoyle! I did not notice that until I was looking through the pics after I was done playing. Mother's Love and Vampiric Power. Now there is a combination!


Acadian: I forgot all about the frost maidens! It has been a long time since I played Diablo 1 or 2. Helgren was indeed making glowy eyes at Serana. Bethesda really went all out when they made her. She is without a doubt the best follower in the game. Not necessarily stat-wise, but in terms of her backstory, personality, and how she interacts with you and the environment. I am not surprised by all the people who are upset that you cannot marry her.


King Coin: I think Beth just took the easy way with the Frost Giants, and enlarged a troll, then added a few things like the horns. Probably because another time crunch, as they did give us other all-new creatures like the gargoyles and huskies. The Vale really is a very cool place. It is one of the neatest locations in the game. It is too bad the only way to get there is by doing the DG main quest though. That is not something many of my characters would want to do.


I snapped this pic of Ralof brooding. I keep imaging captions to it like: "Did I leave the oven on?"

In my last few characters, I have noticed these two in the background walking to Helgen at the same time the prison wagons arrive. The man is carrying wood, and the woman has a bucket. I never noticed them before.

Ereshkigal has stepped off the prison cart.

I am using a new mod for the male face textures

Ereshkigal in the dark

She is an archer/assassin

Shootout

Poor Ralof! To me it looks like Don’t think of waterfalls, streams or rivers!

I haven’t seen those two either. Huh. I haven’t made nearly as many characters as you though. I’m surprised you don’t use one of those alternate start mods.

Hello Ereshkigal! That’s quite the set of armor!

The bound weapons are so cool! Did you see the bound armor mod? I didn’t like that it stacks on whatever your character is wearing, but then again the alternative is to have them naked. Lol.

Another character! A Dunmer this time. I love how E-9’s eyes match the tunic under her armor! I hadn’t seen Skyrim’s bound bow before. I like the color and etherealness it projects but they surely went overboard on the wings and frills. It looks like it also comes with bound arrows (what a massive oversight that was in OB!).

Ralof is looking extra hot with the new face textures. I’m with Acadian on Ereshkigal’s eye and tunic color. Very nice! Her hair, skin and armor look great together, too.

Shootout is my favorite!

I had a similar thought to KC on the caption. Ralof looks like he might be struggling with his functions. I could go behind that tree… or that tree… or that one over there… Ulfric was right. Should have gone at Darkwater Crossing.

King Coin: Poor Ralof. When you gotta go you gotta go!

I have an alternate start mod. I have barely used it though. I like the tutorial, I think it is great way for me to get to know my characters. I was the same way in Oblivion.

Ereshkigal is wearing Drow Armor Set with the red variant from here. I have been wanting to use it for a while now.

That bound armor mod did not do much for me, because of how transparent it was. I found another one though that is based on Daedric, which I will probably try out sooner or later.


Acadian: E-9? Does that mean she is at the top end of the enlisted pay grade? The Skyrim bound bow does come with bound arrows, which is really nice. An interesting thing about them is that the arrows you have shot do not disappear when the spell's duration expires. They stick around until the cell resets. But you cannot pick them up or interact with them.


Grits: I am liking the new men's face texture. It stops all the men from having that dried up, weathered, prematurely aged look they have in the vanilla game. Now the young men in the game have almost an anime look to them. The giant schlong on the mod's front page made me ignore it for a while. But I found out that there is an underwear version, so gave it a try.

Shootout was my favorite of that too. It is hard to snap good archery killcam pics. That is probably the only good one I have taken out of dozens of attempts.


Shadow dancing

Skeever pile

Twilight

Ereshkigal has found her true calling

She also found a little friend

Out of curiosity, I tried out the toggleborders command. The colored lines show the boundaries of the game cells. They are a lot smaller than I had expected them to be.

I found a new mod for face normalmaps, Women of Skyrim

Lol. Yes, E-9 does have a couple meanings. In this case coincidental. It is simply the convention we used with Marines that were cursed with a last name whose length matched or exceeded our number of fingers. We simply called them by the first letter of their name followed by the number of remaining letters. Although most of us had the digits to count to up to 21, we used 10 as the cutoff to gift someone with such a nickname.

What a neat shadow coming up those stairs!

Skeevers! Not just for breakfast anymore!

Twilight is just a beautiful shot.

I’m still liking E-9’s outfit. The red accents and circlet are wonderful. Are those nightshade flowers that are calling to her?

A gargoyle (I guess?). Very cool.

I'm glad you're finding mods that you're enjoying and have such fluency with the command console.

Shadow: Awesome! Love the character, the pose, the shadow, everything!

Skeevers: That is quite a pile, though for some reason I was thinking you’d found some little rat nuggets. I like Sammy better. He actually is kind of cute.

Twilight: Pretty!

Calling: Ah an assassin. I have yet to have a character get involved with them.

Friend: She doesn’t look like a vampire, so I’m guessing this was a SubRosa adjustment! Acadian: It's a gargoyle!

Borders: Interesting. Looks like the same size as Oblivion’s.

I like the new Normals too!

Aventus Arentino’s house! That’s a great spot for pictures. I love the light and shadows.

Wow. Was that skeever pile the spiders’ work, or Erishk… E-9’s?

E-9’s new vocation suits her look. I especially love the daedric bow (I think, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen one) with her outfit.

Love, love, love the gargoyle!! I am so envious. The vanilla one is tied to the VL form, as far as I can tell. Awesome!!

So that’s what those sparkly lines are. I sometimes get a glimpse of them when I’m playing.

Her face is lovely. I'm afraid my Dunmer all still look like they just survived something, lol.

I'm so jealous of PC players right now, lol

Everything looks so gorgeous!

Acadian: As soon as I saw E-9's shadow on the wall, I knew I had to stop and take a picture. It is amazing just how much better Skyrim does shadows than Oblivion.

I picked E-9's outfit very carefully to get all the colors to go with one another. I have even added a matching bow as well.

That was a gargoyle alright. It is one of the better summons. I was trying summoning a troll, but it was pretty useless. It just stood around half the time jumping up and down and beating on its chest. The gargoyle OTOH, is sort of like the Clannfear of Oblivion. It is a missile that homes in on the nearest enemy and destroys it.


King Coin: Ereshkigal is my first character to ever join the Dark Brotherhood. She is about halfway through its questline. I am not sure when I will get around to finishing it though.

I made the gargoyles summonable via a regular spell, same with the bonemen and trolls.

Those new normal maps added a lot more detail to the faces, especially the lips. They work really well with Realistic Female Face Skin HD


Grits: The lighting in the Aretino house is really bright and harsh, but like you said, that causes it to spit out some really detailed shadows.

That skeever pile was all Ereshkigal's work. It is the product of my mod that removes spiders and replaces them with other critters. That was from a spider den, that is now a skeever den.

So you can see those cell lines sometimes then? Wow, I bet that is not supposed to happen!


Elisabeth Hollow: Put Skyrim on your PC and join in the fun! You do not need an uber computer to run it. The X-box and PS3 are just 6-7 year old computers after all. If it will run on those, it will run on just about anything newer. Just as long as you do not have an integrated graphics card.


Since Photobucket has been getting annoying, I am trying out a new image hosting site.

Here is another pic just dying for a caption. The first that pops to my mind is: "Hadvar was right, these silk panties really do make me feel like a new man!"

Ereshkigal now has a bow to match her armor, with a retexture to bring out the red parts

Ereshkigal at work

Shi is now roaming the Mojave Wasteland

Ralof: He totally just farted. Just look at his face. He’s waiting for the rest of the house to take note of a foul stench and throw open the windows.

Daedric bow: that has to be a Daedric bow. I have never actually seen Daedric anything (except arrows) in the game, only screen shots.

At Work: …I think Aravi’s been there before… What is the place?

FONV: Been a while since I’ve played that game. Caravan shotty?

Also, I think Elisabeth has a netbook.

The gargoyle sounds like a handy summon!

After I stopped laughing, I realized I could never top the captions for that fellow already offered by you and KC.

The new bow continue’s E-9’s impeccable fashion statement!

E-9 at work: That’s gonna leave a mark!

The Mojave Wasteland looks like where I live, only with the dirt and plants of Bruma in the summer.