It must have been a ninja dragon, silent as the wind.

Or maybe it just ate beans before doing in the giant. Silent But Deadly.

OMG, I need a new Shout. BEANS ROH DAH ! !

(Skyrim theme plays in the background)

*Dragon bone clad nordic warrior approaches ancient dragon*

Dragon: You stand no chance against me, mortal.

Nord: Your arrogance will be your downfall dragon, for I have a weapon unlike anything else...

*Unbuttons sword belt and pulls down greaves, turns back to dragon and bends over*

(Whispers) fus... ro... beans...

*dragon is sent flying backwards, shattering the word wall. The mountain begins to shake and an avalanche begins]

[Cut to High Hrothgar]

Arngier: By Kyne, he has done it.

Another Greybeard: Dovahbeans....

[Cut to Whiterun]

*Men, women, guards and children are all running and screaming as the city is enveloped by snow*

[Briefly cut to Winterhold where the college crumbles and falls into the sea]

[Cut to Vvardenfell]

*The sky turns black as the Red Mountain begins to spew ash, dust and even lava*

[Cut to Imperial City]

*More civilians and soldiers running and screaming. This time they are running from the White-Gold Tower as it collapses*

[Cut to Alinor]

*Thalmor officials are seen at a dinner party when all their glasses are tipped as the table begins to shake*

[Cut back to the nordic warrior as he slides down with the avalanche, staying on his feet]

*Close-up of his face as he pulls out sunglasses from a satchel*

"Dovahbeans b*****s!"

[scene fades to black]

-coming to taverns Last Seed, 4e 204-

-A bard college production-

New fanfic episode: "Riverwood: Recovery, Larellee Muses"

Ravos left Rorikstead feeling rather... apprehensive. He was glad that he had been able to return Erik to Rorikstead in one piece, not everyone returns home after following Ravos on his adventures. However he was headed into the Reach where he had a bounty of 3015 gold on his head. He was hoping to pay the price and resolve the situation civilly. He knew he needed only to walk into a settlement and lift his hood and the guards would be all over him, so that was what he planned to do. He'd left nearly everything of value on Whiterun in case the guards wanted more than just his gold, he'd even left behind his horse and his good bow.

Ravos left Rorikstead and headed towards Old Hroldan via Serpenstone Bluff Redoubt. He took some 'souvenirs' from the deceased Forsworn hoping to prove his goodwill to the Markarth Hold Guards. He knew Old Hroldan was guarded by a single soldier; enough to arrest him and organise his transport to Markarth but one man wouldn't be likely to treat him badly or 'withhold' any of his goods.

Sure enough, upon arrival at Old Hroldan the settlement's lone guard apprehended him and took him to Markarth. He payed off his bounty and left Silver Blood Mine that same day with his inventory untouched. He was now where he wanted to be and a day earlier than he would've been had he had walked. He went to see Calcemo to deliver a dwarven arrow he was after and also solved the Hall of the Dead's cannibal problem.

He's now working to get his smithing up to level 100. Markarth is a great place to do this because of the endless heap of scrap metal in Nchaund-Zel that can be smelted into dwarven ingots. He hired Volstag to help him haul all the metal out of the ruin and currently they've been on two trips and gathered about 180 ingots worth of metal, and they're only about halfway through the dungeon. Ravos has used these ingots to spam-smith dwarven bows and currently his smithing is level 96 with 60 ingots left plus whatever else is in the ruin.

It's very tedious but I want him to wear dragonscale armour for the last few quests of the MQ. Then he'll probably never use it again

-----


Mycharonna the Ice Witch's mind is not always 'all there', as we can see from her latest journal entry. It's been ages since she's written one. Anyways, she has returned to Anise's Cabin, her first and favorite home. She has brought Shadowmere with her, but has no desire to have this horse around 24/7, so she's going to leave him at Anise's Cabin.

Well, Mrs Acadian got me 'Skyrim Legendary Edition' recently so, with some help from friend KC, I got it installed and running. It took some getting used to - especially the magic system - but the more I play it the more I'm getting to quite like it. Been playing it for about 30 hours now and think I'll keep it, along side Oblivion.

I'm playing a 'test' character right now - a Breton ranger named Khan. Just learning how the vanilla game (with all 3 DLC) and command console work at this point. I'm in no hurry to mod it until I get a much better feel for it.

Archery is working well as a primary killing skill but, at this stage, I'm keeping the flexibility and safety of switching to shield plus sword/spell on occasion.

Glad to hear you are enjoying it!

Oh my gosh Acadian, that’s GREAT! Yay for Mrs. Acadian! I’m so glad it seems like a keeper so far.

Welcome to Skyland! Glad you are having fun with the toon you rolled. Hope you beat the game soon.

Welcome to Skyrim Acadian!! I trust your journey north was pleasant enough

The magic system can certainly take some getting used to, glad to see you're getting the hang of it.

The mountains west and north of Markarth...

In Dawnstar.

Hiking from Falkreath to Morkarth.

Whaat? Hold everything!

You got Skyrim? When? .. O h wait, is this Buffy going through a modder's version of Skyrim (not the game that Bethesda made, but one that some modders made, like the Elsweyr mod?

Look back at the last page Renee. Acadian has joined us in the frozen northlands, and even now the toon he rolled is beating the game like a red-haired stepchild.

And I must say I am delighted he's joined us.

Aravi is up on the Throat of the World. I restarted her game recently because I could not remember where she was or what she was doing when I last played several months ago. Plus the early levels are my favorite.

Holy [censored] crap. Holy [censored] god [censored].

Sorry. But wow. I had no idea! ]... Wecome amongst us, Acadian. It is Acadian right, and not Buffy?

Lol. Thanks, Renee! Yes, he's a Breton ranger with rather dispersed skills to check everything out. And he's doing well at level 13 now.

Renee, I got a glimpse of your post before editing and nearly choked to death laughing. I had to explain “Someone is being funny on the Internet” to the family. My response to the news was very similar!!

Acadian, congrats on lucky level 13!

New episode up: Eilidh's story - Fanfic Thread

Did you experiment with different Acadian races? .. I think you said you did this for Oblivion, right? .. What do you think of Steam? .. What do you think of the waterfalls and water in general? .... and and and the dungeons packed with more 'stuff'? .. What quests have you tried? .. And smithing? Isn't smithing fun? .. Sorry but I always knew if you'd try TES 5 I'd have dozens of questions for you.

Ah so you're at level 13; still kind of a newbie, then. One of the things I like about Skyrim is the leveling system isn't so jarring, so far as the way creatures & enemies show up. I mean, stronger enemies sometimes do show up according to level, but Skyrim seems to make this happen more subtly. In my opinion.

Anyways, I'll shush now. So glad you have joined us.


Oopsie!

Renee, thanks for your enthusiastic welcome and questions. So here are some quick-draw observations from this humble Skyrim newb -

I’m playing on PC (of course – I don’t even know how to spell ExBox or PeeS3). No mods at this point however. I’m just working with vanilla and the command console at this point. The version I got starts with all three DLC active.

So, as I said, my character is a Breton ranger. The bow is his main weapon. His back ups are pretty thinly spread so I can experiment with 1H+shield and magic. I remember it took me about a year of heavy play in OB before I really settled into bringing Buffy there. I expect that may occur faster here, but it will take some time and likely some changes to how she does business. Acadian’s job (as ever) is to be the ‘crash dummy’, learn the ropes and, when ready, announce the game ‘fit for elven consumption’. So, at about 50 hours, here’s some of my observations:

The outdoors areas are beautiful, in a gritty but majestic way. And the water & waterfalls are spectacular. On its own, the music is not as impressive as OB’s, but it does fit Skyrim very well. The dungeons are simply magnificent in their attention to detail.

Archery and sneak work great. 1H melee is fine (have not tried dual weapons or 2H). I simply love blocking, and shield bashing is very neat. In fact, I also love bow bashing when it becomes required in a pinch. Because I am experimenting with lots of skills, leveling is quite a bit faster than I’d like. The perk system seems okay so far.

Magic is very showy but (and I knew this going in) I certainly miss the ability to combine and make custom spells to suit the nature of a particular character. Equipping and casting is quite cumbersome – in fact that’s the reason I’m using sword & board as backup to the bow; I can tell it will take loads of time and practice for my old fingers to get comfortable enough with how the spells work to rely on them when things get hectic.

Although I’m not impressed with the idea of fighting dragons, I realize that some sort of epic save the world main quest is probably necessary to sell games. That said, it seems no better nor worse than the daedra invasion main quest in OB. That said, I have the main quest on hold for now.

As I gain knowledge and comfort with the game, I’m sure there will be some mods that I’ll want to look into. KC was really my coach to get things going and has helped answer plenty of questions. I’ve not had any problems with Steam.

I remember being quite put off by ‘Morrowind Elitism’ when I began playing OB and vowed to never become an ‘Oblviion Elitist’. I tried very hard to approach Skyrim with an open mind and embrace change. The game clearly ‘passes the test’ and is welcome on my puter alongside OB. I’m inspired by Grits’ example of treating the two games as simply exploring differing provinces.

Yep yeup very good. Smart. Take it slow.



Ha ha big surprise! .. Funny thing is, as much as I love bowplay with Saga down in Cyrodiil, I haven't had a character that's really embraced this so far in Skyrim. My characters (so far) have mostly been choosing an NPC follower who's good with Archery.



I figured you'd like this. Although I've only had one 'swimmer' in Sky ( a cold-water loving Nord, of course) whenever one of mine walks through some water I can't help but put the camera under the surface, just to see the ripples & reflections.



Mods.



I didn't even touch the Main Quest until a few months ago. So don't feel any rush to get on it, there's plenty else to do. I also have a prob with dragons. It's not the dragons themselves, it's the fact that in the vanilla game they show up so damn often. I've got a guy doing the MQ on Xbox (it's spelled Xbox ) but I abandoned his game back in February after one particularly annoying dragon attack.

Somebody here recently pointed out why the drag attacks are so frequent; it's due to Shouts. On consoles especially, most gamers are in a hurry to get the most Shouts (and therefore the most Trophies or Achievements) as possible, and so this means dragons need to show up more than it seems they should. This offends an old-skool gamer like myself, though. In the table-games, dragons rarely showed up; maybe a 1 in a 100 chance on most dice-rolling charts.


Heh, I'm actually doing the same with Elder Scrolls Online. I have heard so many bad things about it, but I don't want to pass judgement because I'm not actually playing it. Well anyways, thanks for your assessment, and happy gaming Acadian.

Tirdas, 4:26 AM, 23rd of Mid Year

Mycharonna has just arrived in Winterhold, and has found the Frozen Hearth Inn. She will be staying here, playing the part of a studious & curious mage from Cyrodiil, come to Skyrim to sharpen her skills in magic.

Who knows what mayhem she'll cause while she's here? .. I don't. There's a chance she might just fly under the radar, feed on nobody, and leave this hamlet unscathed. Then again....
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Middas, 7:29 PM, 24th of Mid Year

Lol moment: When Mych approached the college she met Faralda, of course. Faralda gives her little test, and I'm thinking this'll be a snap. Mycharonna is definitely my most powerful magic-user to ever approach the college. I'm thinking 'Destruction spell? Sure! Conjuration? We can do that..."

So what does Faralda want my vamp to cast: a frigging Restoration spell! Healing Hands! Mycharonna never uses Restoration!

Well, she did it. Cast her first and only Restoration spell, just to get in the College. This is important. She's got over 20,000 golds, so she's easily going to walk out of this place with a fattened spell book.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1:53 AM

She did it! Bought the following spells: Summon Dremora, Summon Storm Atronach, Expel Daedra, Dread Zombie, Invisibility (yes!), Frenzy, Wall of Frost, and Ice Spear. NOW let's see who's the boss of Mych. Another funny: now that she's got the spells she needs, she's literally going to leave. No Mage's College quests at all. Even Skankee Krahk-ho did a few of the early College quests. Then again, Skank was more interested in stealing and snooping around than Mycharonna.
-----------------------------------------------------
Fredas, 7:07 PM, 25th of Mid Year

She left the College but couldn't leave the village itself, due to sunlight. So she spent the day in the Frozen Hearth, nothing she could do about this. By the time she awoke she gained Stage 4, so all the innsfolk were freaking out! .. Thankfully Winterhold is such a small place. It was easy for her to escape, as guards and citizens now tried their best to burrrn the vampire!

I wonder what Mycharonna's gonna get up to now she's upgraded her arsenal...

Yeah Vital I can't wait. Mych tends to 'come out and play' only on really gloomy days (here on Earth) so next time it's like this, I'll be able to tell her tales. I'm pretty psyched. Some of the mage's she's been encountering lately have been pretty pwnish, she often winds up running away. Well no more of that nonsense.

Well, it's been almost two weeks of pretty intense Skyrim play. My first ranger guy made it to level 19 before I decided to let Buffy have a try. She's taken about 4-5 iterations of herself up to level 7-8 using bow + differing options of support skills. Each time, we start off from Riverhold in a different direction on the map as well, so we are learning quite about about this frozen land and how to optimize the skills needed to survive. Learning a lot and, overall, liking it quite a bit. Still playing pure vanilla.

Good to know, and good to have you up north.

Mycharonna was successful with taking down Fort Kostav, this is one of those tougher mage-forts where they throw chain lightning in droves. My vamp managed to take them all down by casting Dremora Lords. The mages were able to defeat one of these, but what about another? And another? ... Eventually, they all fell, those dreadful mages.

She's also been having a blast with Invisibility. I gave her the Expert Illusion perk, so she can cast this spell as easily as I can microwave popcorn.

Wow, I am delighted and impressed that Buffy has crossed the mountains! Acadian must be very good at his scouting missions.

Renee, the thought of Mycharonna with all of those powerful spells in her arsenal is terrifying. All of those levels of skulking and scheming have really paid off for her!

It's awesome, Gritsy! It's totally opened some new doors for my vamp. :evil:

Sundas, 11:27 PM, 28th of Mid Year, 4th Era 202

Mycharonna the Ice Witch is traveling northwards to Dawnstar, to try and take on the Dawnstar Sanctuary's guardian spirits a second time.



She is taking a different route than normal though. She usually either flies, or walks the roads to get to wherever she's going, but tonight she's purposely gone and walked across some grassland. "Roughing it". She's trying to find a lair or two she's never been in before, so she can get accustomed to all her brand-new spells.

First place she comes across is not a new lair, it is Silent Moons Camp, a place she hasn't been since she was new to Skyrim. She's approaching the bandits who dwell outside the place muffled and invisible, and they don't have a clue what they're in for. I expect it'll be a pwnfest.

She looks really creepy in that pic!

Aww, see that's the greatest of compliments! That's like saying "Buffy is beautiful" or "Jerric looks hot".

Buffy spent much of her day yesterday out on the 'Whiterun plains' completely in awe of the majestic mammoths. She even got brave enough to go right up to one when there were no giants around! It just gently nudged her out of the way and continued down to the river.

Later, she was backing up while shooting at a saber cat. Just as she fired the killing arrow, she bumped into something which was pushing her around. Turned out to be a mammoth that she was in the path of.

A few minutes later, she got jumped by three bandits. That same mammoth charged in and squished one of them while Buffy was shooting the other two.

Mammoths.


She's pretty much settled into her skill set and it feels very much like a mystic archer: Bow, sneak, illusion, conjuration, alteration.

Do NOT mess with mammoths!

Yeah, Mammoths. I am so glad they're not hostile to us, that would suck if they were. It's funny to watch bandits try to attack them, too. The bandits always lose, lol.

I had a Cleric named Claire Voyance back in 2012, she somehow came across a hostile mammoth who followed her for about a quarter mile all the way to Windhelm. This mammoth is very rare, of course, maybe even a game glitch. I am just glad Claire was riding a horse at the time, she woulda been crushed by that thing if she weren't

I think what triggers the giant/mammoth hostility is if you are in one of their camps or not. Outside of the giant camps they are both friendly. But if you try to walk into a camp, they both get aggressive. Once they go completely hostile, they will chase you a long way before giving up and going back to the camp.

Mammoths!

My first character Rowan often got into trouble with mammoths due to her man Vorstag’s Nord death wish. He probably got fixed over the many patches, but early on he was an absolute maniac. The dragon out on the volcanic tundra was a great source of mayhem. Vorstag usually took on both giant camps by the time the dragon was down. (Those were the days when dragons sometimes flew backwards. Ah, sweet memories. )

Buffy’s skill set sounds like a winner. Both a powerful archer and an accomplished mage.

This current/trial version of vanilla Buffy in Skyrim is now level 29 and still doing well. She's pretty much relegated destruction to the occasional ward/trap, relying on bow, sneak, illusion and summons.

She's switching up between real/bound bow and no armor/light armor. Although it takes a bit more management, she's quite liking the mage's outfits (the 'mantled' ones with pants) and bound (mystic) bow. This route really makes her feel like a mystic archer.

No dragons this playthrough. Buffy's met lots of factions that she doesn't really care for. She has also found a couple places/niches where she really feels comfortable. One is the College - she very much likes that they pretty much stay out of the very convoluted Skyrimese political morass - I use the word morass as a compliment to the designers for creating factions that each have some validity to their points, and each have dramatic flaws. The other place she feels comfortable is Solitude - great shopping, and the Jarl and Buffy took to each other right away - both being young widows.

As you recall, exploring the wilderness and dungeon diving are tops on Buffy's fun list - and Skyrim did a great job with both.

I'm not in a hurry, but I know there will come a time when we will begin looking at mods. A race mod for Buffy to help tone down the . . . rather severe vanilla Bosmer look for starters.

Glad Buffy is having fun. I like the mantled robes too. They are one of the better things clothing-wise in Skyrim. The Bound Bow can be really powerful, especially at low levels. But at the higher levels it starts to feel limited because you cannot put an enchantment on it.

They definitely went out of their way to give the various sides good and bad points. These days my characters simply ignore the Civil War altogether. I have done it from each side in the past though. TBH, I found it to be rather repetitive. I cannot say I really have any desire to do it again.

Oh yeah I know what you mean. This look blankets all the human/elf races, actually. I don't mind it on males, but I'm also going to get a face mod for females to soften their look when I finally start Skyrim on PC.

Sounds like you're having fun, Acadian.

I'm finally back playing Skyrim after a long break and, in typical fashion, I've started a new character

Her name's Sahar and she's a redguard thief who will eventually join the thieves guild (not that she knows this yet). Currently she's working in Mixwater Mill having escaped from the Dragonsreach Dungeon after being caught pickpocketing.

There's also a group of hired thugs on her trail. I'm not sure which victim of her thefts sent them but it was probably someone from Riverwood. She last saw them on the road to Windhelm when fleeing Whiterun.

Anyway, that was a bit brief but I'll post something about her on the characters thread later..

On the run already, what a fun start for a thief! Those hired thugs chill my blood when I see them coming.

Welcome back, Vital! Nice to see a new character - and running from the law already.

Buffy's taking her duties as a Thane of Haafingar very seriously. Unlike the other thanes, Buffy's style is not lounging around court all day, but out doing knightly things. Right now, she's mapping every bit of her hold. Happily, there's an Orc Stronghold at the west end of the hold which provides a welcome respite.

Yeah, welcome back Vital. Was wondering where you went.

Acadian: I love those orc strongholds, and this is coming from a gamer who (in the past) didn't think orcs should be included in civilized society in Cyrodiil. But I do like how some orcs keep to themselves in Skyrim. Nice feature. There were quite a few orc-related quests planned that never got finished. Apparently if you look in the game's coding (or something like this) you'll be able to see some of the scripts for these quests hidden in the game.


Mycharonna the Ice Witch is on her way to the Nightengale Inn to do some quest-related things. She walked from the Markath area, and encountered a Khajiit wearing some thick armor (got rid of him with a summoned Dremora), a pack of Imperial soldiers (one of them told her "Imperial business, be gone!", so she Frenzied him from a safe distance, and then went invisible so the surviving soldiers could not find her).

She also encountered a Thief, and this fool met his fate by one of Mych's favorite old ice-tricks: summon a frost atronach, and then cast ice storms at the son of a [censored] over and over. Since the Frost Atronach is immune to icy attacks, Mych doesn't have to be too careful where she aims.

She finally made her way into Whiterun, just as the sun was rising. Stayed in the Drunken Huntsman, and met Jenassa. Mych likes Jenassa. She almost hired her. But she doesn't want to give up her solitude. She stayed in the Drunken Huntsman (this name, Drunken Huntsman, is like something straight out of TES 1: Arena, by the way) and left the next evening. She found a home she could break into, made her way upstairs, and fed.

Just after she feeds, she always casts an Imperial Voice power, but I RP this as a high-powered hypnotism. Usually, most NPCs will go right back to sleep, but in this case, the lady who Mych fed from put away her daggar, but then started threatening to call the guards. There was a child in this home, and actually it was the child who called the guards first.

So my vamp had to flee Whiterun. She doesn't have to actually return to Whiterun, so when a guard got in her face, she refused to go to jail or pay a fine. Once again, Mych is on the run. I got about halfway around the exterior of Whiterun when the Xbox froze, dammit.

It froze because Mych casts too many ice spells.

Love the story, BTW.

hA HA you might be right!

Renee, that's cool, summoning an ice astronaut, then calling ice down into the mix.

Buffy's not averse to simultaneously casting a fire rune and flame astronaut onto the same spot among a group of foes.

Turdas, 1:02 PM, 23rd of Sun's Height



Mycharonna has vowed to MURDER Festus Krex of the Dark Brotherhood. She wanted to do it right after he insulted her, telling her the way she killed the Gourmet was sloppy, but unfortunately there are too many others around. But she will not forget the way he spoke to her.