Awww. May (fill in the diety) be with Shuvesse. May she go to a place so perfect, skooma is never needed.

This will be the first entry of my new dark elf spellsword. He is a refugee from the fringes of Morrowind, and currently has arrived at Helgen.

I did a "pretend-mod" with his game. He never officially went thru the Tutorial (I basically ran thru the entire thing with the sound on my TV down), so that when I started his game up tonight, he's in the middle of nowhere.

Perfect!
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Morndas, 6:27 am, 18th of Last Seed. 4th Era, Year 201

The Mighty Khack~hayer emerges from the trees, and finally finds a sign of civilization: one of Skyrim's uneven stone-block roads.

He heaves a sigh of relief.

Khack~hayer is a dark elf, and had been managing to live on the fringes of Morrowind with a group of rogues, occasionally terrorizing the Cyrodiilians of Cheydinhal. He's been living this lifestyle for just a short time, perhaps a couple of months.

Somehow, he wound up in Skyrim. I think probably he had a bounty on him in Cyrodiil, and had to flee northwards. Probably...I don't know for sure, yet.

Anyways, at the moment Khahk~hayer has just made it to Helgen, although he has no idea where he is. The place looks as if it's recently been attacked. Charred wood, some of it freshly burning, is everywhere, and Khahk~hayer is grateful. He warms himself by a large fire, eventually falling asleep after eating some carrots and mountain flowers.

Whatever army attacked this place (or was it a huge group of bandits?) must have been fierce. Perhaps this is the remnants of a Stormcloak versus Imperials battle? Whoevr it was must have had some serious spells, though. Huge stones which had formerly been walls are tossed about everywhere. The dark elf is a little leary at first, but as he explores the town, he sees absolutley nobody. He decides to spend the night.

He checks his supplies: He's got an Imperial-style sword and an iron daggar for weapons. He is able to wield both of these at the same time. He's wearing a shoddy cloth tunic & breeches, and an Imperial's leather boots. Perhaps he killed an Imperial?


His repertoire of spells currently includes a basic healing spell, as well as lightning & flaming hand spells. With just these few tools to survive, he's apparently made it this far. He also has 3 carrots, 12 lockpicks, and just 20 gold.

After spending the night in Burning Ghost Town (this is what he's named Helgen), Khahk~hayer now travels down the road he came.

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Next Day @ 10 am :

A LOT happened in just short time

> Khahkhayer found a horse shortly after leaving Burning Ghost Town. Who does it belong to? Who cares. He now rides the horse.

> He comes to a cottage, which is locked. He thinks about breaking in, and then decides not to. Not until he knows this area a little better. ....As he turns around, he notices his new horse walking away. NO!

>he gets back on the horse, riding down a hill. Comes to a bandit stronghold with a high bridge just over the road. At this moment, he had also been getting chased by a wolf.

> He turns to swing his sword at the wolf, while on horseback but he isn't very good at mounted combat yet. It winds up being a series of misses, while his poor horse takes some wolf-damage.

> As he turns the horse under the bandit bridge, they release a group of bolders. Before he knows it, Khahk~hayrer's new horse is now dead.

> He runs from the bandit stronghold, as they get him with a couple arrows. Ouch!

> A couple of travelling mages approach, and while they try and figure what to do about the stronghold, Khahkhayer initially joins them, the realizes he's not really prepared for such a fight. He chickens out. Let the mages deal with them.


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Morndas, 12:43 pm, 18th of Last Seed

Khahk~hayer has arrived in a small town, which he eventually learns is Falkreath. First thing he does is find an open door on the second floor of a building, and sneaks in!

"If you're looking to buy something, see me."

comes a voice from downstairs. Dang.

He reluctantly goes downstairs. He's in some sort of shop, and the shopkeeper had just spotted him. Good thing he didn't steal anything.

He buys a loaf of bread, and heads across the street to an Inn, but once he's inside, he realizes his money supply is seriously low. He cannot even afford a bottle of mead. He does have enough for a bed, though, and once he's in his room, manages to steal a few coins (and a coinpurse) from a table, without getting caught.

He decides (after spending the night) he wants that cottage he passed by earlier. It's just a perfect spot, and as long as there aren't any patrols nearby, he will be fine. He wants it, and will murder its inhabitants, if need be, to get it.

Morndas. 5:50 PM, 1st of Heartfire

It is only Day 15, yet Khahkhayre is already well-established in Skyrim. Most of this is just luck.

He's already got a house (Pinewatch). He's already got a couple of decent weapons (Sword of Cold +5, Sword of Dismay {those under Level 5 flee}). He has some Novice Robes of Restoration + Novice hood, both of which he found in Embershard Mine. And he's got a library of potions and scrolls.

Some of those potions are stolen, though. OH yes...Khahkhayre is not just a spellsword, he is also a thief! He's cleaned out the alchemy shop in Whiterun, as well as the weapons shop. There was only gold in the weapon shop; the alchemy shop, on the other hand, now has mostly bare shelves and countertops, thaks to Khahkhayre!

He returned from Whiterun to Falkreath not long ago, walking the entire way, using his new-fangled Clairvoyance spell. He can also conjure a wolf, cast Oakflesh (40 pts. of armor), and raise some dead.

He is now scoping out what appears to be a fort, not far from Falkreath.

Aravi and Kharjo approached a camp where a notorious bandit was staying. The Jarl of Riften had placed a bounty on his head, and they were here to collect. The camp was situated on the crest of a hill, and sprawled over the sides so it was impossible to observe the whole camp at once. Thick tree cover kept them from taking shots with their bows when they spotted the sentry, so they were sneaking in close with swords and axes. Something had caught the sentry’s attention moments ago so they were moving quickly to get as close as they could while he was on the other side of the camp, out of sight.

The twang of a bow and the clash of weapons on armor reached the sensitive ears of the Khajiit. They waited until the sounds ceased, not wanting to get mixed up in whatever was going on. They’ll just finish off whoever is left.

They waited a little longer to make sure the fight was over and then moved through the camp. On the other side, they found every last bandit dead on the ground and an Imperial patrol forming up. They stayed hidden, not wanting the Imperials to think they were with the bandits.

When it was safe, they gathered the proof they needed for the Jarl to show the bandit was dead and left for Riften. The legion just did their work for them.

How funny !!! I've never had that happen, that is probably what had them so distracted. Nice bit of game AI there that I didn't expect! I'm glad you told (us) about that, I will look for that when I play the game next !!!

For a while I'be been thinking about bringing Lissa into Skyrim, but not in the traditional way.

I was thinking about ignoring the current timeline and playing Lissa in Skyrim as a sort of flashback to her time exploring Tamriel during her teens, as readers of her story will know.

I was thinking about doing this with Morrowind, too.

Once I decide whether it would be a good fit, i'm sure I'll have some cool stories to share with you guys.

I did something similar with my character Aravi. There was no 200 year jump when she went to Skyrim.

Yeah, I've seen some of your screens from the Aravi in Skyrim thread (very beautiful by the way )

I don't know when, or how I'll start. I'm thinking about ignoring the dragons completely and imagining she starts at the Cyrodiil gate other than how the game actually starts (with the use of fast travelling and imagination )

That's how Jerric and Darnand got to Skyrim. The only dragon was the first one, and I just ignored everything until he got out of Riverwood. I also pretend that it says "Darnand" instead of "Marcurio" on the screen. It's easy!

It's really fun to read about everyone's adventures. I've been roleplaying a bosmer for a few days now, and thought I'd contribute. She's staying away from the main quest, it's hard enough to stay alive without adding dragons into the mix thanks to the mods I recently added.

Journal of Caoilinn
Tirdas, 21st of Last Seed 4E 201

First thing that hit me when I woke up this morning, the cold. Having slept all night on one of the military issued bedrolls that the Stormcloaks use when in the field, my back was stiff as a plank. It was hard enough to persuade the soldiers to let me share their camp for the night, and then I had to share a bedroll with one of the men. I would have given anything to meet a cave bear last night. And then they wouldn't share any of their food either. Ate my last meat yesterday, so all I had this morning were some raw potatoes and stale fruit. I'm not eating that unless I starve. I had some ale to quench my thirst, allowed me to save my water and dulled the hunger a bit. Well, at least they're friendlier than the Imperials.

Snow was falling when I set out, made me glad I'd found the hood of bear-pelt, but I found a horse not more than half an hour after leaving the camp. Animal didn't like me much, but it's owner was nowhere near, and it didn't throw me of before we'd reached the border to the Rift and the snow had stopped.

Thank Kynareth for the wolves. Not long after entering the Rift I came across a pack that was out hunting, and after they realized I was a friend they allowed me to share their prey. I'll need a fire to cook the meat, but it's good to have none the less.

Caught some salmon in the river by Ivarstead. Innkeeper wouldn't let me cook it on his hearth-fire, so I had to buy some food, and then I helped some crazy guy living in a ruined house by the river. Didn't think he'd be able to give me much compensation, but I got a happy surprise. Having left the village, I came upon a fortress just as the sun had set. Camped outside of it was a man and his two bodyguards. He wants me to help take the fortress back, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow. It was tricky, convincing them that I should sleep on one of the bedrolls, but it worked. I really have to get new camping equipment, Imperials took my stuff when they arrested me near Helgen. Apparently travelling with a summoned wolf and arriving at an ambush just after the intended victims is a offense punishable by death. Well, who knew? Dragon showed up and put an end to the party, and I left for the Rift. You know the fun part? I was coming to Skyrim to help the Thalmor and their pawns. The soldiers can't have been more than in their 20s or 30s, the general maybe in his 50s judging from the grey hair, and they arrest me? I've been working for the Thalmor since before their parents were born!

Gotta sleep now, there's another day tomorrow.

Middas, 22nd of Last Seed

Set out early into the back entrance of the fortress. What can I say? Me and Faolán cut a lot of meat. Me using a bow, and he his fangs. It had been really bloody by the time I reached the kitchen, which was well stocked with food. So I took all the food I could find, cooked some over the burning fire to eat at the moment and later, and got the hell out of there. I know when I'm in above my head, and those bandits had several spell-casters.

I finally found a woodcutters axe as well, so when I got out I collected firewood for my own fires and set of again. I'm headed to Riften, hopefully the merchants there will buy some of my loot.

My, how far you've come, my dark elf spellsword. Over the last few weeks, Khahkhayre has become very powerful, and is somewhat arrogant about his power. He's at Level 41, Day 185. I never thought he would get this far, but part of the reason he's lasted so long is because I'm pretty selective about where he goes and dungeon-diving and whatnot.

He started out as sort of a petty thief. Always looking for easy things to grab and steal. I assumed he'd be interested in the Thief Guild quest, and worked him towards Riften. But over time, he's come to rely on his magic and sword skills, which means he's become more adept at dungeon-diving and adventuring. There's more money this way, so this has become about half of his game. He still occasionally steals and causes trouble, though.

He also met Jenassa at some point, although Khahkhayre calls her "Shadow" most of the time, since she always claims she is the "shadow at your back". har har...

Khahkhayre and "Shadow" have been all over Skyrim, but have concentrated mostly on Falkreath, Riften, Whiterun, Windhelm, and Winterhold (in that order). Falkreath is his home area, Riften is his favorite village, Whiterun and Windhelm are centrally-located (great for trading), and then there's Winterhold. Khahkhayre only goes to Winterhold to snag soul gems, buy new spells, and steal from the unsuspecting! He has hardly any interest in helping them with their needs.

Khahkhayre has tried to get Shadow/Jenaasa to move in with him at Pinewatch, but she doesn't much like the place!

She doesn't like the fact that Khahkhayre's "home" is really an elaborate bandit hideout, and not truely owned by her husband. She refuses to accept Pinewatch as her true home. The bed only fits one, etc.

Coming home to Pinewatch (as Khahkhayre and "Shadow" are doing tonight) is sort of like a Pink Panther movie. In these movies, Inspector Clouseau (sp?) comes to his home, and is always attacked by Kato, his man-servant. That's kiind of the vibe during my roleplays with my spellsword, whenever he returns to Pinewatch.

This time, he told Shadow to "wait outside". Then he snuck into the house, went invisible, opened a door which leads down into a cave. Since the bandit standing guard in the house did not hear Khahkhayre, my spelllsword was then able to cast a Fear spell on the lone bandit, who now ran into the cave!

Khahkhayre followed a bit, put a Lightning Ward spell on the ground, so when the bandit came back (Bandit Thug), she now took damage. Khahkhayre immediately put the fright back into the bandit, placed another ward on the ground. Waited,...ARRGH!

With the bandit now dead in the cave, instead of the house itself, Khahkhayre returns outside, and invites his wife inwards. He tries to claim the bandits "'ave not returned, see for yerself!" but she doesn't believe him. Yes, there are no bandits in the house, but she still doesn't much like the place.

Saga, I finally figured out Khahkhayre's name. That's funny about Kato. It reminds me what it was like to have a character living in Greyland in Oblivion.

Two (probably) unrelated glitches forced a reboot of a character type, and after the second one I rather lost interest in continuing her. As such, say hello to Shaharanna, a simple Dunmer girl of simple tastes. If it can't be blown up or burned down, it'll be chopped up. See? Simple.

---

I sat in the back of the wagon with several other unwashed Nords and resolutely told myself I wasn't pouting. Really, Imperials get upset over the smallest things! I had the fire totally under control! I can't be blamed if some useless forest critter stepped on one of the fire runes I had around my camp. Nor should I take any blame for the kickback from it igniting the other ones. It was a boring valley anyways. I helped! At least they gave me some clothes, sort of. This is the worst day ever!

~~~

Oh.. WOW! That.... was... AMAZING! A Dragon! A real, fire-breathing, explosion-making, town-wrecking, chomp-em-down and toss-em-around dragon! <sigh> This is the best day ever.

I managed to get some mostly decent armor off that snooty Imperial Captain. Che, just arbitrarily order my death with she? I sure showed her not to make snap judgements. Following that smelly Nord... Oh what am I saying? They're all smelly! Anyways, I followed that other Nord guy, Maylox or... something... through the keep and out the back of the fort, with plenty of fires and booms to keep me entertained. Alas, the fun looked to have ended when we hit the outside again. Hayloft was babbling something but it wasn't important. No, what was important was I found some bandits! Well... at least I think they were bandits... hmm... oh well. They were very accommodating in providing entertainment and appropriate mood lighting for that gloomy mine. I even found some jewels! Oh I should sell those... maybe the store will have some good tomes! Oh yeah, I should look into a new tent and sleep roll too...

Cough-Off is clearly stalking me! Why else would he be in the first village I found outside of that cave? I'm keeping my eye on you, you smelly Nord...

Wait, Murder (what kind of parents name a girl that? Nords are so weird!) said something about Whiterun, I remember hearing about something cool being there. I think I'll go there... Oh sweet! The blonde just shoved a pack at me filled with stuff! She not bad, despite her unfortunate name. Off to Whiterun! My noble destination... uh... it started with a J... there was alcohol there too... oh what ever, I'll find it even if I have to burn every building that stands in my way! For the Mead!

Shah is a hottie. What face mods are you using?

That's true. Greyland is the classic Pink Panther home-return in Cyrodiil. Very true! I had a paladin character who dealt with the marauder who lives in Greyland, at least a dozen times or more.

Yea...Khahkhayre. I suppose it can be pronounced several different ways. Some are naughtier than others, of course.



.

double post

SPEW !!! Er...uh...well, I know how I pronounce it !!!! I'll have to name one of my characters "Harry Ballsitch" or "Chode Lickenstitch" - or "Grundle Aiken"

Edit: "Barry Sunday" or "Red or Mrs. Spoultry" "Aunt Flo Nicely"

Edit2: "Miles O'Hymen"


*

Bella's Better Females, CBBE v3, Oblivion hair, and Covereyes v4 would be the ones affecting Shah. Still hoping for a mod to widen skin tone for the Oblivion blueberry I used with Myrin.

She's wearing Severus' jewelery and Imperial Hero Armor with Insanity's Celtic Katana over her shoulder.

I was guessing it was Bella's from the lips. Thanks!

Morndas, 8:06 AM, 11th of Second Seed, Year 202

On the way to hunt down a group of bandits, The Mighty Khahkhayre has made a gratuitous stop at a place called Sarethi Farm. Here a couple other dark elves live, growing potatoes and gourds. They also have a rare garden full of Nirnroots, several of them singing at once!

Khahkhayre has been on his best behavior. One of them (the older one) is from Morrowind, and can remember moving to Skyrim long ago to escape the Red Volcano. Khahkhayre is not old enough to remember those days, when almost the entire province was lost, so he's always longing to meet others who were there.

Unfortunately, the dark elf ladies haven't taken keenly to Khahkhayre. They won't allow Khahkhayre inside their house, and so far both ladies have told him to "leave" as he tried to engage in conversation with them. They do allow his wife inside, however. Apparently, this is a female-only house, he thinks.

The women don't like Khahkhayre in their home.

Khahkhayre was a bit upset by this initially, but truth is Sarethi Farm is dead in the center of The Rift, which is easy-going country in comparison to some other portions of Skyrim. The air is relatively warm and mild, the sun often shines. Khahkhayre had no problem getting some good sleep on the porch, while Shadow (his wife) got some "girl time" inside the house itself.

The next morning, The Mighty Khahkhayre decides he'll just leave Shadow with the ladies. Why not? Even if he were to bring her along, he wouldn't really have much use for her. Unlike some of my other characters, he prefers to do most of his hunting and adventuring alone, and will frequently tell his wife to "wait" while he goes ahead in the lair or whatever. He's somewhat territorial about his adventuring.

"Youu stay behind woman! Stay with these laydees here! Oy? What say you?"

"I'll be right here then"

"Such a good wife! Make me a good Homecooked Meal, eh? Now I'm gone.." he says, leaving the farmhouse.

Shadow (Jenassa) is used to this. Getting bossed around by her husband, that is. She merely takes his commands, and rarely voices complaints. They are married, Khahkhayre and Shadow, but it's a marriage of convenience and survival, not romance or longings. Other than an assortment of magical staves, Khahhayre has yet to buy his wife a proper home, or even a bouquet of flowers!

However, he did miss his wife when he was tagging along with that vampiress he met. What's her name? Oy! Already fo'got her name! He missed his wife, but has not told her that he missed her.

After a morning feast on one of the garden gourds, The Mighty Khahkhayre is now on his way to the Rift Watchtower.


.

Lol...I just saw one of those male Redguards ATTACKING Mai'q the Liar! I am talking about the Redguards who say "now move along before that mouth of yours gets you into trouble..." one of them was kicking M'aiq's tail!!!! And M'aiq was running away going "ENOUGH!"

Middas, 9:19 AM, 20th of Second Seed, 4th Era Year 202

"Eh! COME ON WOMAN, WE MUST BE OFF!!"

The Mighty Khahkhayre has just returned to Sarethi Farm, after several days of adventuring and exploring. While he was gone, he managed to take down some bandits at the Rift Watchtower, as well as re-invading Treva's Watch. He will be paid by the Jarl of Riften for the Watchtower plunder.

"WHAT'S TAKING SO LONG?"

It is early morning and the sky is only partly cloudy. Shadow (his wife) is inside the farmhouse. The two other dark elf females are already awake, running this way and that as they start their day's work.

Khahkhayre is getting impatient. Last time he checked, the farmhouse was locked. Since there is a guard standing out by the windmill outside, this means if Khahkhayre wants to get inside, he will be noticed. He doesn't care.

Hunching down, he stands by the door, trying not to breathe. He listens to the air, takes a gander over his shoulder, and sees the guard is pre-occupied with the beautiful morning sunlight. GOOD!

The lock is an easy one to pick, its tumblers worn and almost useless. Before he knows it, The Mighty Khahkhayre is inside, undetected.

"There ya are!"

"You're not supposed to be in here!!!" says his wife.



"What are ye saying, woman! It's me! Khahkhayre!"

"You're not supposed to be in here!" she repeats. Apparently she's serious.

What a conundrum, a Khahkhayre-conundrum.

"Stop this! Stop being silly! You are comin' with me woman, and that's final".

But his wife is furious, standing before him in her glass armor. Glass armor that he found for her. Found and then enchanted for her! The Mighty Khahkhayre is not pleased by this. But Shadow refuses to even consider the presence of Khahkhayre.

"SO what're ye saying, woman? You want to stay here! FINE! STay here with these other wretched fahm-girls! Have your keep and I shall take my leave!"

But he doesn't go. Instead, The Mighty Khahkhayre RAINS upon her a series of blows from his fists. Shadow is initially stunned, but then attacks him back. Only difference is, she's summoned up her staves, which means she intends to now fight to the death!

Khahkhayre did not intend for this! He runs outside. As he does so, Shadow follows him out there. Good. Maybe if the guard sees what's going on, he will break this up. It wasn't the intention of Khahkhayre to go this far.

But the guard does nothing. "Look! A fight!" he says, clearly enjoying his morning now more than ever.

Shadow fights The Khahkhayre, and initially he fights back. But this is his wife. He can't kill her, and does not really want to fight her. The blows he rained on her in the house were merely to 'teach her a lesson'. But Shadow is not an ordinary wife; she is a trained mercenary killer.

Khakhayre knows this, and decides to leave. "Stay here, then, woman!" Fine. He has no idea what she's been up to while he was gone, but if this is how it is now, he wants no part of it or her, anymore. Perhaps she has taken keen interest in the other dark elf females? Khahkhayre doesn't know and doesn't care. There are things to be done and places to go.

The Mighty Khahkhayre now leaves the farm, and heads to Riften. Alone.



And a weird thing happened just as he found the proper road to Riften. He wound up encountering one of my Xbox glitches: a cooking pot was floating in the middle of the road. This is a glitch, but in a RP sense, it's symbolic. I'm pretty sure Khahkhayre's last words to his wife before going of adventuring on his own were "make me some food, woman".

You have the weirdest games Renee!

Ah come on? You've never seen a cooking pot floating in the middle of a road before?

I've seen dead bodies floating in Skyrim. No to mention floating arrows back in Oblivion

Floating dead bodies???? Wow. That pic is creepy!

Can't say I've seen that one before. But in Oblivion, I've seen dead NPCs standing up in the middle of the road and stuff. They'll be standing there like with their arms straight out, as if they've been crucified. That can give me the shivers sometimes.

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Sundas, 2:51 AM, 24th of Second Seed, 4th Era Year 202

The Mighty Khahkhayre has now returned to Riften, gathered all his things from the Inn there (mostly an assortment of fancy gems) and is now heading off to Falkreath on his new horse. His wife apparently does not want him anymore, she's taken residence with a bunch of dark elf females. Hmmm... Khahkhayre thought he might miss his wife, but the truth is so far he's been okay.

He went to visit the Dawnguard Castle again, where Islan told him about a couple of mercenaries he wants Khahkhayre to join up with, but my spellsword isn't really interested*. He just wants to return "home", to Pinewatch.

*Besides, I think the pro-Dawnguard questline would better fit a character who's more of a Lawful Good; a paladin or a crusader, perhaps. And I'm developing an idea for this!

But before leaving Riften, The Mighty Khahkhayre just couldn't help casting a Frenzy spell on that annoying woman in the Bee and Barb...the one who always says "I don't want anything to do with you, so get out of my face!". He cast his spell successfully without detection (somehow), and the entire place attacked her! She's apparently an Essential.... and can't be killed, dammit. Nice try, though.


===========================================

Sundas, 7:49 PM, 24th of Second Seed

The Mighty Khahkhayre took a carriage to Falkreath, returned to Pinewatch, and has decided he's going to settle down for awhile, until he knows his next step.

What is interesting is his wife Shadow did not automatically appear after the carriage ride made it to Falkreath. Guess it's really over then.

I think that was Maven Black-Briar that the Mighty Khak frenzied! They had to set her to essential, otherwise everyone would kill her in their games. My previous character Shakti wiped the floor with her last week. Multiple times.

Yea, I frickin' hate her! I hate her more than I hated Aval Uvani from Cyrodiil. YOU GET ANY CLOSER AND i'LL TURN YOUR BONES TO ASH, BACK OFF!

I've been wanting to attack that umbrella seller for awhile, now. At least Uvani went places, and you never knew where you would see him next in Cyrodiil.

The Mighty Khahkhayre is going to be retiring for awhile, at Pinewatch, by the way. He made it to Level 47, and to be honest his game is kinda stagnating. He's got plenty of gold, well over 30k by now. Unlike Gunter, Son of Talos, who somehow always manages to blow all of it every time he makes it into town!

Speaking of.....

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Fredas, 12:51 PM, 28th of Sun's Dusk

Gunter return Wihterun with Vilkas. Carry shiney silver peeces from Silver Hands!

Gunter want go Whiterun! Gunter hunger much. MUST EAT FOOD.

Gunter no like vilkas friend. Vilkas no listen Gunter, und Gunter no make enemy dead easy, with Vilkas around. Gunter want find friend Nord!


it's been so long, really is refreshing to return to the sword & board, with absolutely no magic to speak of! I've been in the habit of calling up Khahkhayre's spells the entire summer now, which means not having ANY spells is something I'm still getting used to!

I"ve forgotten what a kick-boat PC Gunter is. Stay tuned for more...

I finally got the mounted combat and archery kill cams working! It turns out it was the simplest thing. I did not have Update.esm checked in my load order. My understanding was that it loaded regardless of whether you checked it or not, so I always left it blank by default. Just for shits and giggles I tried it a few minutes ago, and it works. I stole a horse outside of solitude and much slayage of the guards ensued.

Wow, it is really hard to hit anything with a melee weapon from horseback. Even swinging a battle axe, I could not even hit air. The mounted archery was much easier. I hit every time. It is too bad you cannot do a Parthian Shot though (firing completely backward as your horse rides away). Since I know they never enabled magic from horseback, Hesperia cannot use her bound bow on the horse. So she had to get a regular bow and some arrows from a guard. I even got an archery kill cam after dismounting to do that.

I have not had a chance to try, but I am guessing the magic kill cams are going to work now too.

So good news. Those were the biggest glitches I have had with the game, and it turns out they really were not glitches at all. Just me being a poopyhead.

woo mounted combat rocks! Although as you said, using melee weapons is difficult, it involves lots of running away and slowly turning your horse around for another attack.
I wish I could use magic on horseback though, being able to summon Narya (Haa-Rei's flame atronach) or do some healing spells would be really handy.

@SubRosa: Woohoo! You got them all working!
@Both: Really? I found the melee not particularly difficult (you just ride past and whack 'em, then circle around for another go), and the archery almost impossible unless you sit still.

Gunter Son of Talos died a couple weeks ago, and I started a Gunter II, but he has also died. It happened at a bandit hold called Nilheim I think. Something like that. He fell from a large distance; had been fighting a fierce orc bandit leader on some sort of tower before he fell. He had actually positioned himself so that the orc was the one who should have fallen, but as Gunter performed a power-strike with his Blade of Falkreath and missed the orc, he had over-stepped and fell right off the wooden rampart. Goodbye Gunter II.

I might do a Gunter III, because for some reason I love playing a dumb oaf fighter, and I also enjoyed the very end of Companions when we are able to have any follower we want. But for now, Gunter's day is at rest. Time for the next character I've got in mind.

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Name: Skankee Krahk-ho

Sex: Female

Race: Dark Elf

Class: Nightblade

Alignment: chaotic Evil

Skills: sword, knife, silent movement, thief, alertness, acrobatics, alchemy, enchanting

Spells: fire 8 pts./second

Sundas, 4:30 pm, 17th of last Seed, 4th Era Year 201


As she hid underneath what appeared to be a small bridge, Skankee Krahk-ho heard feet running overhead. Commotion. And finally silence. After a few moments, what sounded like a large animal (tiger? a bear?) roared from what seemed to be not far away, and she shivered. Dressed in rags and carrying a couple daggars for protection, her only item of wealth at the moment happened to be a magical hood which increases her magic pool. IT was a present given to her after her initiation into the Necromancy some days earlier.

I started Krahk-ho's game on 8/26 by creating her, and then rushing through the tutorial (not paying much attention to it) with the volume turned down low. I placed her somewhere in Helgen Keep, underneath a small bridge with a waterfall nearby.

This is one of my "pretend alternate-start" mods. I am on Xbox, I can only pretend.

As I begin her game tonight, it feels as though she starts in Helgen Keep instead of as a prisoner about to be executed. The above scene (with the footsteps running overhead) were caused by a different character of mine: Thor a'Zaene, as he followed Ralof out of Helgen Keep. HE is the one who was about to be killed at the chopping block in Skankee's universe, you see.

Skankee or "Skank" as her friends called her, had crawled into what looked to be a cave, aiming to get some sleep. She had gotten seperated from her roving band of Necromancers after a couple holy knights located their stronghold, and quickly decimated their population. Skank had run off, not really sure where in Oblivion she was going.

Well she certainly would not return to see if any of her Necromancer friends had survived. But she was now in a serious bind. She could not go back there, and she had not even been taught her first summons or undead spells, yet. She was vulnerable. She was in some sort of underground dwellnig. But where was she?

Emerging from her hiding place, she spied a couple figures several yards away. Two men. She snuck up upon them for a few minutes and was not sure if she had been spotted or not. A former native of Cyrodiil, Skank was not familiar with the way things were done here in Skyrim. Would every person she met up here attack? Or would they let her pass?

The bear (or whatever it was) roared again and again from someplace unseen. Well, it was nowhere near at least, that fearsome roar. Skank decided it might be okay to stop sneaking towards the men, but it didn't matter. As she approached them (standing fully upright now) they saw her, but did not draw their weapons.

Figures were also everywhere on the ground! Dead soldiers: both Imperials and Stormcloaks. There had been some sort of melee apparently. As she searched them, she was dismayed to find nothing of interest.

"Dammit to Oblivion. A torch or some food might be nice".

"Come on, this way", one of the men said to her. A Nordic voice. The man seemed friendly, so Skank decided to follow them. Why not? She could not survive in here for long, especially with a fearsome bear somewhere deep in this cave.

Skank walked with the two men, both of them Nords. One was named Ralof, another Thor a'Zaene. Both seemed tense and intent to get out of whatever this place was. Good. Skankee Krahk-ho agreed on this point, completely.

After a few minutes of walking along, the group was attacked by several giant spiders! Skank had no intention of getting near any of these, but at that moment she readied her fire spell, and was able to help the men take the spiders down.

"I hate those damn things", said Ralof. "Too many damn eyes!"

Skank bent down low to one of the spiders. If her training was correct, venom could be collected from their mandibles, and later used as as as a potent poisonous venom upon her two daggars. She found this to be so, and collected several samples from the dead spiders.

Ralof, Thor, and Skank eventually came to a bear, which was sleeping. Yet the roar continued. It apparently was not a bear, this roar.

"That looks like the way out! Are you with me?" Ralof yelled from ahead. Skankee Krahk-ho followed Ralof and Thor, to whatever lay outside in the big world of Skyrim.

5:24 am:
Ralof and the Nord named Thor ran off after leaving Helgen Keep. They invited Skankee Krahk-ho to join, but she had absolutely NO intention of doing so. Something loud and very large seemed to have flown ahead at that moment, but she could not see what it was, as it had been a moonless night once she and the men found thier way out of the Keep. She wanted to get the Oblivion AWAY from wherever it was they were going, and find somewhere safer.

She spied some sort of fortress up the hill, climbed up, and discovered the place had been abandoned. Large fires burned everywhere, and the village was a wreck. There appeared to be no people, enemies or friendly, so Skank took opportunity to fall asleep once she found a bed in a deserted home.

7:25 am:
Skank fell asleep for a few short hours, and upon waking found a tower. She climbed the stairs and found they had been blocked by rubble about half way up.

interesing how Helgen eventually gets cleared of rubble in this area. Later on when bandits inhabit the place, it is possible to climb all the way up this tower, apparently the bandits are the ones who clean up this mess.

11:01 am:
Skank leaves the burned-out village she found. There's nobody here and nothing to eat. Beginning to truely know what hunger feels like, she starts to walk north, in search of some safer civilization. On her walk, she spies what appears to be a GIANT establishment of some sort in the distance. She decides whatever the cost, she will try to make it that far.


The place she has found is not easy to get though, though. She must first cross a valley to get there. Skank sees a rabbit at some point, triest to roast it with her Fire spell, but a nearby hunter eventually kills the rabbit instead.

She thinks she might like to take this hunter, problem is he's got a large bow, and she doesn't feel like getting into a tangle with the man. So she spends some of the few gold she has on a couple of pheasant breasts. Good. Now she ha something to eat, even if it is un-cooked.

2:37 PM
After clambering down a sheer face of rock, Skankee Krahk-ho manages to sneak past a pack of wolves, and eventually sees a small village off to her right. She decides she will head this way. Maybe wait until nightfall so she can break into some houses, and find more food and possibly some items she can use.

But first she finds a cave.

3:26 PM
She sneaks in, attacks a nearby bandit with her Fire spell again, but it doesn't take long before Skankee Krahkho is attacked by not one but three bandits. She cannot handle all three, so she retreats, hoping she can return later and somehow lure one bandit at a time into her trap.

She later found that somehow she had killed off one of the bandits, after re-entering the cave.

I am liking this character a lot. Her early combat moves involve throwing some Fire at an enemy with her left hand, and then switching to a torch once that enemy gets close. She uses a daggar to stab and slice the bandits, and blocks with the torch. She can also do a power-bash with the torch, catching her enemy on fire!

4:47 PM
Another bandit has been slain, this one carrying a greatsword! Her killl second so far. A third is off across a wooden bridge. A female with a bow. This is the last bandit, and Skank is not sure how she will attack this one.

She decides to hunker down and hide. Wait for the bandit to put her guard down, and then sneaks up with more Fire thrown into this bandit's face. Then she switches her left hand to the torch, and power-bashes (again) this final bandit.

5:42 pm:
And this is where it gets weird, folks. I am a little embarassed to explain what happened next. After this third bandit died, she somehow managed to fall sideways off the bridge, except the rope caught her, and she hung suspended instead of falling into the water below. It was at the moment that Skankee Krahk-ho did something I was not expecting at all. She bent down and kissed the bandit's corpse. Kissed her, and tasted her blood.

And she liked it.

So it must be raining in Maryland tonight...

I really do love your names. Skank, and I saw Khareem over on the other forum. I don't know how you do it.

Yea, it was raining a few weeks ago. I created Skank at the end of August, but only last night did I start her actual game. But it did rain last night here. How's it in Michigan? You're in Michigan, right?

On the name thing: I pretty much obsess on names. I'm always listening for names that crack me up, or I'll sit there and run lots of random names through my head until the right one "clicks". Sometimes I will think of a name in that weird stage where you're half-asleep/half-awake.

I am going to be making a Crusader type character, for both Oblivion and Skyrim. Everything is in place (playstyle, weaponry, questlines, backstory) except his or her name. I am stuck on this and have been for nearly a week now. The best thing I have come up with is "Sir Vayor" (surveyor). That might be a great name for a noble, but doesn't sound dashing enough for my upcoming crusaders.

Then again, nobles could certainly participate in the Crusades here on Earth. Ah ... I don't know....!

Sir Vivor
Sir E. S. (serious) uh, Something
Ugh, I am terrible at this!! Good luck, Saga!

Sir Prized
Sir Feit (preferably of Lampreys)
Sir Cular
Sir Tainly
And there was a character in a another game I play called Vix, who should probably not be knighted.

He'll need Pages too (Up and Down?)

Sir Cuss?

. ha ha thank you all! You all are awesome. I especially like Sir Tainly. That might work. Sir Tainly Meelohd (certainly me lord). Hee hee I gotta sleep on it!

I took 3 pictures last nite of Krahk-ho's first day with me, but they are cheap cell phone pics, so I have to email them to myself and then get on a real computer to save them to Photobucket. One of these days I'm gonna get a digicam. That might be a good Craig's list shopping expedition, actually.

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Tirdas, 7:09 PM, 19th of Last Seed...

Day 2:
Skankee Krahk-ho couldn't believe it. She had managed to kill all the bandits hiding up in this cozy mineshaft! It was done and the place was now entirely hers. She realized very quickly that she could use this place as a hiding spot. A home. This was good.

After lowering a wooden bridge (operated by a lever) a few hours ago, she had found two more bandits in an area below: one had been cooking dinner. Skank had thrown some FIRE at one of them after sneaking up on him. As he cursed and drew his weapon, she managed to summon her torch (I am considering this to be a summon) and used this to bash each bandit in his face, while simultaneously keeping them occupied with one of her simple iron daggars.

She had felled them both! And now... this place was HERS! All hers!

She had fallen asleep for many hours, and upon waking realized there might be an even better way to place her feet on the ground during future exploits, as she stalked her prey. She realized if she rolled her feet a certain way as she moved, the chances of surprising any potential enemies would increase.

I still level characters up only after they sleep most of the time, just as we did it in Oblivion. She leveled up to 2, and I chose Stealth (20% harder to detect) to be her first perk.

After waking, Skank had done some searching about and came across some sort of journal left by a previous occupant. The journal described how this place indeed had been a mine. The author of the journal (a Nord, apparently) missed his mead, and was getting spooked by the shifting sounds of Nirn coming from above. He worried that a shaft might cave-in, if they were not digging with more care

Skank read this with interest, and then tossed it on the ground. ...Then she went back to the dead bandit female, the one that had been hanging off the rope-bridge. This corpse was by far Skankee Krahk-ho's favorite of all.

But as she approached the fallen woman, Skank did not see her initially. "Ahhh, there you are, my pretty!" the bandit had fallen off the bridge at some point, and was now in the underground pool of water. "come hither!"

Skank walked into the water. Cold, but not too cold. She grabbed her favorite victim, and pulled her ashore, drying her near a smith's forge.

"Wouldst thou now prefer to fornicate? Or to copulate, my dear? We have all the time in the world..."

For hours this is just what Skankee Krahk-ho did. Caressed and prodded. Poked, grinned, and nodded. Held her new lover tight, and spoke softly into her unhearing ears. I'll leave the story here, folks....I think you get the point. Suffice it to say, this is um...not something I was expecting.

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10:47 PM:

Satisfied with her new toy almost to the point of boredom, Skankee Krahk-ho pushed her aside, and left the security of her elaborate cave to seek what ever there might be outside. She had no idea what time it was.

First thing she noticed: it was deep night. Second thing: the large, hypnotic greenish-blue lights moving in waves across the sky!

"What in Azura's name?" Skank had never seen these before. She gazed up and watched them, wondering if she could harvest whatever awesome magic was creating them. "Speak to me, oh magic lightings of the night", she called at one one point.

But that would never work. She had only started her training in magical things just a year before, silly of her to think she could now possibly harness the energies of nature! "One thing is for sure, though. Better not mess with me if you are a bandit. I will roast you alive!"

After viewing these mysterious lights for an hour, she decided she'd like to venture over to the see if she could locate the village she had seen. It didn't take long to get there. The place was right outside her cave-home. Less than a hundred steps. Perfect!

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2:59 am:
Skank snuck on a chicken idling the middle of the village's road. Thought about roasting it with fire, and decided she'd better not do so until she was absolutely sure there was no one about to witness. It was dark, and Skank had not yet learned the magic of Detecting Life or enemies yet.

I consider "detect enemies" to be for more powerful magic characters. I'll turn up the compass to half-way, and use the red dots on the compass as a kind of pretend-spell when enemies are about. Started this one with Khahkhayre's game Lol.

The chicken would be for later, then.

She found a small cottage off to her right, its lock a simple 1-tumbler model. Easy to break into! Within seconds, Skank was inside, where she found a sleeping male on the cot, and an older grey-haired female on the right. Probably Nords. As these Nords lay there sleeping, Skank made off with lots of things! Finally some new clothes. And ingredients, and of course, gold. She found several bottles of "Honningbrew Mead", a brand she had never heard of before. Tasting it was like tasting the purity of life itself!

Skank thought of pickpocketing the old woman, but she had never done such a thing before. She would get caught, and right now, she just wanted to take these items, make her way back to the cave, and stash them safely until morning. But before she could leave, she heard a noise! The old lady was humming!

Skank turned around, expecting the game was all over, but she was safe.

apparently, NPCs can hum in their sleep? I did not know this, and it did give me shivers to hear it....

Skank decided this would be enough for one night. She'd better make her way back to the cave. She wanted to do some legitimate trading with whatever sort of shop or shops this place might have in the morning.

So to recap: my newest character, Skankee Krahk-ho had been travelling into Skyrim with a bunch of Cyrodiilic necromancers. She had just joined them recently, and had only learned a few basic-level spells before their camp was invaded by a couple of knightly crusaders. "Skank" had run and run, and had wound up taking shelter in some sort of cave (Helgen Keep).

She later met a couple of Nord fighters, managed to get out of Helgen Keep with them, spent a night in a burnt-out village (Helgen), wound up finding a cave full of bandits (Embershard Mine), decimated their population to zero, and then cuddled with a dead bandit. She then visited a small hamlet (Riverwood) where she did her first bit of thievery.

Now, she has awoken in Embershard, and has decided to go to Riverwood for her first bit of legitimate trading.
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Middas, 5:15 PM, 20th of Last Seed

As Skankee Krahk-ho enters the village's single goods store, its two occupants are in an argument of some sort.

"Damn thieves! As if things weren't bad enough!"

"Thieves? You speak of theives?"

"Uh ah yea....we did have a bit of a break-in", said the man carefully. "But we still have plenty to sell...the robbers were only after one thing. A golden dragon's foot, in the shape of a claw".

"A dragon's claw, eh? And where might this claw lie, then?"

Apparently, the large establishment Skank had seen off in the distance a few days earlier would be her destination, should she choose to accept it. The place was called Bleak Flats Barrow, and it housed mostly undead, and apparently a few robbers, as well. The shopkeeper offered to give Skank some gold, should she manage to retrieve the golden claw or whatever it was. And gold was something Skank could use.

Speaking of gold, Skank had somewhere north of 600 of them, after selling off a variety of items from the bandit's cave. "Have you any spells for sale, sir?" Skank asked in a sultry lowered voice.

"I'm sure I've got a few old spell book lying around. Take a look!"

Skank decided she'd like to have a couple of these spell books: one called "Oakflesh", and another which promised her the ability to re-animate dead bodies. Ooh! She couldn't wait to learn these spells, and bring some hurt on to some of Skyrim's beings.

This was the advantage to being on one's own, then. If she had stayed with the necromancers, who knows if she'd ever get to learn this stuff? The leader of the group was typically stingy; he only allowed Skank to be taught the art of fire, lightning, and cold at entry levels, but had balked when she explained she really wanted to learn the re-animation of the dead. Well, no more of this nonsense!

After the lady of the shop showed Skank how to get to Bleak Flat's Barrow, Skank went to the local tavern, known as the Sleeping Giant Inn, encountering her first alchemy table. Although she knew a thing or two about Cyrodiilic alchemy, up here in Skyrim they did things differently. A lot of ingredients, flowers, roots, herbs, and leaves were different than those found in Cyrodiil. The barkeep advised Skank that mixing "wheat and blisterwort mushrooms can create a healing potion", so this is where Skank started on what she hoped would be a lot of alchemy-making in the future..
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2:27 am
After several hours of mixing potions (or attempting to), and learning her new spells, Skankee decided she'd like to break into another of Riverwood's cottages.

But once inside, she realized she would not be able to do anything. "I told you this sister would be able to help us out", said a Nord. Dang. No theivery would happen here, then. But the man seemed okay that she had broken into his home. He did not call the guards or anything like that.

The man turned out to be Ralof, the Nord she had followed out of Helgen Keep. The other Nord (Thor a'Zaene) had left a day earlier to go to a place called "Whiterun". Ralof mentioned that she should "head to Windhelm to help the Stormcloaks" but Skank had no intention of doing so.

"How do I get to Whiterun, then?"

"Just head north. Can't miss it. It's the capital of Whiterun hold...." he had said.

Skankee Krahk-ho returned to her cave, where she then planned what to do next. Riverwood did not have very many places to loot; Skank had looked and found only 2 more potential cottages to invade. And nobody here in this small village was rich, apparently, but Skank did find few useful things in the empty cottage next to Ralofs: including some potions and a book called "Killing -- Before you're Killed"

Skank looked forward to readng that one.

Fredas, 10:42 PM, 22nd of Last Seed

Days Passed: 5

"Is that you Heartfield? Yorul? Tulene?"

Skankee Krahk-ho creeps up slowly upon a voice she hears somewhere ahead. She is in Bleak Flats Temple, a place which is supposed to house plenty of undead, but so far she has only found rats and bandits.

"I know that I've been ??? before" the man says. .....Skank cannot hear some of what he had said, and she approaches with caution. Apparently, this man thought his bandit friends were here.

11:10 pm
She makes a left and approaches a room that's been blocked off with heavy webbing of some sort.

"Ahhh hah!" Skank says quietly. "A giant spider. " She encountered a group of these with Thor and Ralof in that place called Helgen's Keep.

Knowing what's up ahead, she decides to run back to the bandit which had died as he had tried to open a secret puzzle-door, re-animate him from death, and now she'll have somebody to help her, in case there is in fact a spider here.

Aaaaaaaa-uuuuuuuunh!

This sound gives Skank the shivers, until she realizes it's merely the dead man she just 'brought back'.

As she rushes back to the spider's web (where is the man I heard? she wonders), she throws a blast of Fire upon the spider's thick doorway-web, breaking it immediately. Then she waits for the zombie to join her side. When he finally does so, she rushes into the room, where a spider does indeed fall from the ceiling.

"No! Not again!" says the man she had heard.

She fumbles to ready her Fire spell, and gets splashed by a sick glob of spider-venom!

"GEt it away from me! Get it away!!!"

The zombie follows into the chamber and gets a couple of axe-wacks in as Skank finally manages some fire upon the spider. But her vision is green and blurry. She is temporarily sick. And the zombie she created dies after one or two wacks from the spider's 8 legs.

"AAAH!!! AHHHH!" it's the unseen man again. Maybe he is in the spider's belly?

She rushes out the room, and the spider is too big to follow. Good. She blasts it again with fire.

"Keep it away form me! Ahhh! Kill him! Kill him!"

"I am TRYING. Be patient!" Skank yells, truely annoyed. She is truely incapable of empathy for the man, whoever the Oblivion he is.



As has happened several times now, Skankee Krahk-ho eventually runs out of Magicka, and must wait in the next room for it to recharge.

Skank is at Level 4 now, I dumped some Perks into Destruction and Conjuration, yet the magicka still goes way too fast

She knows of 'enchanted suits' and items which can help a mage (or an aspiring necromancer like her) recharge this force or substance faster. She will have to find one of such items as soon as possible, if she wants to do more dungeoneering like this. At present, Skank merely wears a simple suit of clothes, fur boots, and her magic Novice Mage's Hood.

The battle lasts a minute or so, and finally the spider dies.

"Help! ....cut me out of here! Help!"

It takes several moments, but finally Skank sees the man. He is wrapped up in a thick wool of spider's web. Apparently he was the spider's next meal.

"Don't leave me for Arkay's sake!"

"I am here. I will free you. Calm down!"

Using her daggar, she swiftly cut at the spider's entombment. The man could see she was definitely not one of his bandit friends, yet he seemed not to care. But he didn't exactly stick around, either.

"You fool... Why should I share the treasure with anyone?" he said and ran off.

Skank followed him cautiously, smiling as she does so.

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2:00 am
One of the first things she had learned from her group of Cyrodiilic necromancers is it's always a bad idea to just rush off into a lair, especially if one was alone. And so if anybody was a "fool", it certainly was not Skank.

But she encounters her first undead being, anyways, despite her sneaking. As she crept along from catacomb to catacomb, looting whatever gold she could find from the ancient dead bodies occasionally placed into each, she eventually found one body which...wasn't quite so dead.

"ARRAKAH!!!!!"

The 'dead' body started to move! And Skank immediately stepped back, blasting it with fire. But the damn zombie kept coming, forcing Skank to run. As she looked back, she saw that another zombie had joined the fray.

Rushing ahead, she was now back in the room where the giant spider was located. Good. She tried her Magic, and the spider revived. Attacked the zombies, and now she was okay.

"'Tis good to know, this vari'ty of magics", Skank admits to herself.
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3:37 am
Not before long, Skank finds the man who rushed ahead; apparently his name is Arvel the Swift. He is very dead. She smiles again. She loots his body, finds the Golden Claw the shopkeeper spoke of in Riverwood, and is on her way, deeper into the Barrows itself.

She also finds (and puts on) a suit of light studded armor, as well as another spell tome: this one promises she'll be able to summon a sword. This sounds good to her. She takes the tome, but must wait until later to study it.

Some of your color code got frelled up, probably starting at the gob of spider venom...

Here is a little trick I read about for making the most of fire spells. Instead of laying on that starter flames spell like a firehouse, give them a spurt, then lay off for a second. Then give them another brief spurt. The reason is the flames keep burning even after you stop. So you can keep doing damage that way, with only half the magicka.

So how did Arvel die? Was it the Draugr, or the swinging door trap? Usually the trap gets him in my games.

Yeeks! There....all fixed. Thanks, hon, about the Fire spell advice, too. You are right...an enemy on fire is going to take some damage. Skank really needs an enchanted magic-regeneration robe, though, big time. I was hoping she'd find one in Bleak Flats (and not have to buy it), but so far....nothing of the sort.

She's wearing some studded armor, hide bracers, and fur boots ATM.



In some of my past games, he got caught by the giant door trap, but in Skank's for some reason I found him kind of randomly dead nowhere near the trap! Must have been killed by some draugr, then.

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Loredas, 8:49 PM

Moving ever further into Bleak Flats,Skankee Krahk-ho realized she must now be deep within the mountain that she had climbed. How long ago was it? Had to have been more than a day. Good thing she brought along a few salted meats, some fruit, and plenty of ingredients (leaves, flowers, etc.) to munch on.

The undead seemed to get stronger as she made her way deeper and deeper. She eventually had to resort to plenty of running around, just to evade their weapons. And then finally she came to a rather large cavern with water rushing through it. It had what looked to be an altar in its center, as well as a large chest. But no undead.

Strangest thing was: off to the right she could hear singing. The ancient singing of the Nords, perhaps. They sang, yet were unseen

Hofff! Hero!!! Hey!! Hoff !! Hero! Hey!!!

There was also something glowing blueish within the wall itself. Skank approached the wall, and got a bit of a magical feeling pass through her body. Then it was over.

"What ... what was that?"

Before she could think further, a loud POP emitted to her right. A zombie crawled out of a sort of slab-coffin, but this zombie was not like the others. It could call upon some sort of "voice", which rendered Skankee Krahk-ho temporarily stunned.

This one really put her through the paces. Skank had to run all over the large cavern, throwing Fire at it if she could, before running again! She knew she would eventually run out of Magicka, and started to panic, for her only other option to fight with were her cheap iron daggars.

Then she remembered the scrolls.

This lair was packed full of things to loot: potions, magical weapons, and scrolls. Skank could not carry off any weapons, but she did now have plenty of other useful items.

She readied the scroll, and the powerful zombie BLASTED her with his voice, again. Stunned! It took Skankee Krahk-ho several minutes to finally get the effect going from parchment, and finally the powerful zombie started to falter!

"There! Take that!"

She also had a couple scrolls which allowed very powerful Fireball spells, much more powerful than anything she could have cast at present. One of these missed, the other was a direct hit.

It took maybe just a minute more, but finally the zombie fell. It had been a frightening ordeal, yet Skank felt exhilierated as well!

She found her first Wizard's staff, as well. Grasping along the long shaft (...hee hee....), she felt the magic within. But she was not trained enough to identify it, yet (yea, I am pretending that part).

Perhaps the man back in Riverwood, the one who had sent her off to find the Golden Claw, would be able to help her.

I'm back. I'm going to start calling this the Renee Gade thread instead of Today in Skyrim. Lol.

Sundas, 6:59 AM, 24th of Last Seed

Days Passed: 7

Emerging from a cave high up above the valley, Skankee Krahk-ho is momentarily stunned by the awesomeness of Skyrim.

It is actually sunny outside. Lol.

The morning is bright, with very few clouds in the sky. Perhaps not everyday here in this province would be a dreary one, then, as Skank had heard previously from somebody.

She spent awhile making her way back to Riverwood. She did not know exactly how much gold she would earn after selling off the variety of things she had, but she knew it would be a lot.
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8:55 Am

"Hello. I am Skankee Krahk-ho, and who might you be?"

She had arrived at the cottage of an old woman dressed in elaborately magical robes. Skank could feel the magic emiting from these robes. The old woman's cottage was off the beaten path, near to civiliaztion (Riverwood) but also not visible from it.

I'm just a poor old woman, dear. No need to trouble yourself with me." she had answered.

This old woman reminded Skank of somebody from her past.

"It's so nice to have a visitor" the lady also said.

"Is it?"

I know what happens if I were to put Skank into woman's cellar, and I don't want this to happen to the old woman or Skank. I am RPing it that she becomes a friend to Skank, in other words

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10:54 am:
Miss Skank spends an hour with the old woman, and then heads north. She spies a figure up ahead, and crouches down, in case it is an enemy. Casts a spell which hardens her skin, making it less susceptible to attacks.

As she got closer, she could see it was a man. Casually dressed in towns-clothings. She could tell he was not an enemy.

"How fares thee?"

"Yes?" said the man.

"I am Skank. Traveller from Morrowind (she lied). And who are you?"

"I'm collecting ingredients to bring to The Gourmet", he rambled on for a few moments. Then he asked: "You have heard of the Gourmet, right?

"No. Who is that, sire?"

"Ah" the man rolled his eyes. ..."You've not heard of the Gourmet? Author of Uncommon Taste?" the man (an Alchemist of some sort, she could see) now began to boast. "I've heard The Gourmet is in Skyrim right now!"

"You, sir, are a dandy! A fop! A common man-trollop." she said, attempting an insult, but it went right over the alchemist's head.

"Need something?" he asked calmly.

The two of them (Skank and the alchemist) were up here completely alone. With nobody to witness any wrong-doings, if Skank decided to see what sort of "ingredients" this "alchemist" was carrying. She had been trained from youth for survival. Part of survial was to take from those who had, if it were possible to do. Could Skank take this man? This single, defenseless man?

Of course, the thing is one never knew what sort of magics a man might know. He may be unarmored, but that did not mean he couldn't summon up a daedra or some such creature.

Skank decided she just wasn't ready, yet. She needed to get back into Riverwood, unload and organize all her goods, and return to Embershard Mine.

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11:50 am:
She neared Riverwood and spied an elk. Crouched down, and slowly approached it. Everytime the elk bent its neck down to eat some grass, Skankee Krahk-ho would creep just a little more towards it. She wasn't going to kill the Alchemist, but she sure wanted to kill something! At least this elk would not be able to perform any magic.

hmm. so my new character is a hunter, too. Haven't had a character who hunts in a long time....

She stalked her prey, fired upon it, and then had to chase the elk almost into Riverwood itself before she felled it. (kill-cam moment, too).

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12:34 pm
She found a few small fishies swimming in the river as she crossed to Riverwood. Skank knows fishies such as these can be used as ingredients, and grabs them out of the water.

All 3 fish happen to be different from one another in color, she notices.

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12:48 pm

"The sooner you find the Claaww, the sooner our lives can get back to normal." said the owner of the Riverwood Trader.

"You mean this?"

"Show those thieves not to steal from Lucan Valerus", he said, apparently not hearing Skank the first time.

Now she handed him his stupid Golden Claw.

"Ye .....you found it? Is that it? Straaange. It seems smaller than I remember. Funny thing, huh? I'm going to put this back where it belongs. You've done a great thing for me and my sister!!"

Skankee Krahk-ho shrugged, and noticed all the potions on one of the shelves. She would return later at night for those.

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Morndas, 1:30 am:
She awoke in her bedroll, located deep in Embershard Mine. And she remembered having the most vivid of dreams during her sleep.

In this one, a black-hooded, faceless (but kind) figure had taught her how to better swing her daggar in combat (One-handed perk) to affect more damange. He also taught her how it is possible to cast spells from the Alteration school with both hands, therby doubling the spell's effect. Skank tried this as soon as she awoke, and found it to be true. This worked, but it also sapped almost all of her magical energy, as well.

I like how you handle game mechanics, Renee. Also, great insight into why Skank steals. I’m not playing Skyrim at the moment, but I’m still reading these adventures!

That is good to know, Sir Grits. I will keep writing. I am rather addicted to writing while gaming, it's something I've only started doing this year. But don't worry, I will chill on it eventually. I've been writing her story fervently these past few days because I wanted to establish her as a character, and I also wanted to document her early roleplay... So every little thing she does gets written, mostly because inspiration keeps striking! But after awhile, I will probably just do sparser updates on her.

Bethsoft's Character Updates have a constant momentum going, with lots of folks writing (but not too many), and lots of comments and interactions between forumites, which is something I really wish would happen here. I've PMed several people (Skyrim gamers) over at Bethsoft to come write their mini-stories here, but they seem content with posting in threads that constantly get knocked off the front page, and then must be dragged out of necro-mode.... :shrug:

Anyways....speaking of necros. ..

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Fredas, 4:12 AM, 29th of Last Seed

Days Passed: : 12

The Jarl of Whiterun had wanted a group of bandits dead, and now his wish had come true.

Standing in the midst of fallen bandit enemies, Miss Skank savored the scene before her. At the moment, she got the sense that she was now surrounded by angry spirits. Ghosts. They were angry at her. They were angry because she had robbed them of their bodies, and now they were helplessly in a state of limbo, while she had the freedom to do whatever she wished.

She spent some time just walking around, looking at all the bodies, seeking to select one for "play time", while these spirts looked on helplessly.

"Whooo wants to play?"

.....All of this happened in Halted Stream Camp. Miss Skank does not like this place as much as she likes Embershard. Embershard Mine is full of waterfalls, bridges, and hiding places. This place (Halted Stream) is rather straightforward in comparison. Dirty and damp. And there's a giant mammoth in the middle of the floor! Who could live like this?

The Jarl of Whiterun had offered a reward for killing these bandits, but Skank has no intention of collecting it. She has no intention of performing for the Jarls, as other adventurers (my other characters) in Skyrim had currently begun doing. She only took the job so she would be directed to a convenient place to loot. Let the others collect the Jarl's gold...

By Day 12, pretty much all my other characters so far (Thor a'Zaene, Claire Voyance, Crystal Beth, etc..) would already be doing some adventuring, so I like to think that "news spreads", and Miss Skank would have heard of these others by now.

I am relieved, actually, that Skank does not want to be a bounty hunter, and rid bandits for gold. This is one major difference between her and all my other characters so far. Skank has no desire for fame, or to do "good works" for others, even if there's gold involved. Go Skank!

This was not to be her day, unfortunately. The only dead bandits left were both big, nasty orcs. Miss Skank prefers to "play" with more pliable bodies and softer skins.

yuck!
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6:25 am

As Skank left Halted Stream's mineshaft, she immediatly hunkered down. It was rainy and gray out here, a typical Skyrim day. A group of 3 men were walking in a row slowly towards her. Miss Skank readied her fire spell, and drew her daggar.

She did find a set of Novice mage's robes, by the way. But to wear them, she had to ditch her studded leather armor, which means she's feeling rather defenseless atm.

These men were heavily armored and heavily armed, she could see. She guessed they might be soldiers. Taking a chance, she had stood out of hiding. The men kept walking towards her, but did not draw their weapons.

She came up with a plan. Instead of Fire, she would use Fury, if it came to that.

Skank calmly walked forward, and at first the "soldiers" did nothing.

"NEVER SHOULD HAVE COME HERE!!"

Immediately Skank broke into a run, while the men drew their weapons! She spied a ramp, and ran up to it, climbing as she readied her Fury spell. The men followed. She made a left and ran to the end of the rampart! Just as one of the men swung his blade at her, Skank blast him with FURY!! >>>>>>>>>>>>> ... and jumped over the side of the rampart!

She wasn't sure if her spell worked or not. The enemy was supposed to engage in combat with whoever was closest to him, that was how the spell took effect. ...At first, she did not hear (and could not see) if this had happened. So she summoned a spirit wolf into action!

7:09 am
The wolf had run into the camp while Skank hunkered down to hide. Apparently her spell had not worked because she could see all 3 men were attacking the poor spirit wolf. Eventually they killed it, and came after her again.

"PREPARE TO DIE!!!!"

Skank ran up the hillside, while the enemies closed in fast! A Flame Atronach was off in the distance, and as Skank readied her Fury spell again, the Atronach threw a great fireball! =============== O and hit one of the men. Skank had simultaneously also hit one of them too, with another Fury spell, and this time it worked.

Skank ran back down the hill, and jumped back into Halted Stream Camp, looking for a place to hide. As she did so, she could hear the men were now fighting each other, while the Atronach began to pummel them with fire from afar!

This really happend, folks...all of it, and it gets better

"Take this and hold onto it. Don't lose it."

Skank had been momentarily surprised by this man, who ran up from nowhere. He was dressed in furs, had an axe on his side, and so she initially mistook him for a bandit. But as she tried to ready a spell (she couldn't hit him with Fury after all), he had simply given her a set of enchanted gauntlets.

"Uhh uhh. Who are you?"

"No time to talk! Snitch or double cross me and I'll kill you! I mean it!"

The hunched down to sneak away, as if he he too was being wary of all the commotion on top of the hill. Skank might have taken this man down, but she needed to conserve her Magicka. Attacking him would be like adding another enemy; something she might not be able to handle.

7:49 am
The hill was now silent, and Skank cautioned a sneak towards the camp's exit.

"Did you see someone run past here just now?" another man had come running up. Skank could see he was not a bandit or an enemy.

"Yeah. The man you seek went hither!" she said and pointed up the road. Who cares what happens between them? Not her. Let them fight it out.

She still had the gauntlets the thief had given her, but had no intention of giving them back. Instead, she planned on selling them, and making even more gold...

"Thanks! I'm off to find that thieving honoured user now!"

7:56 am

"There you are!"

"YOU THINK YOU CAN TAKE MEEEEE???"

Now the man was in an archery fight with the thief! Skank merely watched them from afar, enjoying the spectacle of this otherwise dreary morning!

"I'll carve you into pieces!"

8:09 am:
Skank turned around, and saw the fire elemental, far off in the distance.

I love the draw distance in this game

It was standing still out in the middle of the plain. Since it was just standing there, Skank figured the 3 men must be dead, then. She would go back later to collect any loot from them, if she could.

But for now, she turned around to watch the archery fight, while eating a carrot and some raw salmon meat!

"You won't leave Skyrim alive!"

The two adversaries switched positions, so that the thief was now behind Halted Stream's walls, and the other man was now on the outside. For no reason in particular, Miss Skank ran up to the thief, and presented his back with a blast of FIRE! >>>>>>*>*>*>*>*>#

"Is that your best???? Is that all you uuuughhh!!!"
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9:19 am:
Skank managed to sneak back up the hill, the flame elemental now a mere orange sliver in the distance. She probably did not need to sneak, but better safe than sorry. She did not want to face that dreaded atronach alone, even if Dunmer did possess a great resistance to fire.

She searched around and found one of the men. He did not have much on him, but she did find one item of interest. It was a contract..

here is the agreed upon amount. I expect you to faithfully carry out my request to teach a lesson to that thief, Skankee Krahk-ho. You need not kill her, but I have no qualms about it if you deem it necessary.

--Arcadia

"I am a hunted woman now? Oh reallly?" Skankee Krahk-ho smiled and placed the contract in her pocket.


What is interesting is that Skank had robbed Arcadia's store a few nights before of dozens of potions and ingredients, but Arcadia never caught Skank in the act (it was late night). How did she know that Skank was the one who stole the potions?

When Skank returned to the Alchemy shop to do some potion-making, I did not know Arcadia is the owner of the shop. She made no mention of Skank's presence, did not ask for the potions back, and no guards have been pressing Skankee Krahk-ho with "Wait. I know you" nonsense.

Middas, 9:25 AM, 10th of Heartfire

Days Passed: : 24

The air is packed with cold winds and snow once again. Skankee Krahk-ho is ready to get the Oblivion out of Winterhold to head back south. She's looking forward to the warmer weather there.

She has been spending her time at The College. She arrived with not much coin (she thought) yet managed to buy a few very important spells: she can now summon a flame elemental, cause Fear in the eyes of her enemies, muffle the sound of her feet as she sneaks, throw ice spikes at her enemies, and turn away the weakest of undead with just a word.

She also stole a magical staff for somebody in the Jarl's court, but at present she cannot return this staff. Here's why.

A couple days earlier, Skank had gone to Sarthaal with a group of other mages, and an uppity cleric named Claire Voyance who annoyed the heck out of Skankee. They had managed to find a sort of giant blue globe in the ruins, and Skank, Crystal Beth, and Claire all were given the assignment to give word to Savos Aren about this globe. Claire and Crystal would wind up doing so, but Skank just wanted to get out of Winterhold.

Crystal Beth and Claire Voyance the Cleric are a couple of my other characters. Both joined the College at around the same time as Skank, so I like to think they all travelled to Sarthaal together.

On the way back from Sarthaal, the three had been attacked, and then followed into town by a couple of very strong saber snow-cats. These cats were hard to take down, and Skank wound up hitting one of the town's men with some of her magic apparently, as she fought them off. After the sabercats had died, this man attacked Skank on the spot, and would not give up, even as he himself was also attacked by a Winterhold guard!

the man, whoever it is, is an essential NPC. Dangit.

Skank tried to go into the Jarl's court, but as she stepped inside, another guard had taken the man's side (apparently) and attacked her instead of the man. She could not return the staff. Not that it's a problem; the thing held plenty of charge, and has the power to make enemies flee, as long as she wields the thing properly.

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2:44 pm
Skank arrives back at Fort Kastav. This is a fort that's about mid-way between Windhelm and Winterhold.

The wizards here were powerful, Skank remembers, but now she's got an entirely different litany of spells than she did just a few days before. She doesn't think she can necessarily kill them outright, but she is hoping to outsmart them, perhaps.

my adrenaline is pumping at this time, folks!!

While still on the road, sneaking and using her new Muffle spell, she managed to get an ice spike into the skeleton guard up on Kastav's tower. She then snuck up onto the platform where the skeleton lay, and readied her Fury spell.

As she looked down into the fort's main area, she could see a dark-robed figure from far away.

"These are necromancers, perhaps?" Skank whispered.

2:54 pm:
She fired a Fury towards the figure she had seen, and missed. Threw another one. It missed.

"Fokke!" Skank yelled in her native tongue.

The dark robed figure was now on alert, and a second figure also joined. She couldn't risk it alone, Skank decided to summon a Flame Atronach. {-!-}

She waited a minute more, and dashed off back into a small wooded area. Let them deal with the atronach. She needed to sneak back and hide again. She's gotta hit them with her Fury spell. That's the way to do this, Skank decides.

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6:14
Light is starting to fade, and Skank is now on her 5th try at the evil mages. She finally gets it right. Sneaks up while using her muffle spell + a bottle of Invisibility. She was able to get closer to one of the mages with all these effects going at once, and this time did not miss when she threw her Fury spell.

The nearest mage initially threw an Ice Spike at her ---------------> but as Skank ran quickly off, that mage got confused, and now was attacking his friend instead!

The battle between them lasted a short while while Skank hid to the side. Suddenly one of the mages fell! Yes!

7:00 pm
Skank tried to sneak up on the second mage, who was doing some potion-making, completely blocking out the fact that he just killed his friend.

Skank was going to try to backstab this wizard (who must be weakened from the fight just now) with her poisoned daggar, yet somehow he knew she was there. Dang! She wound up running from the wizard, while he summoned up one of thone of those ice giants! The thing moved quite quickly, Skank noticed as she ran.

9:44 pm
Hours later, and the battle ended (or so she thought). Finally Skank has the outside secure.

"Why in Oblivion would they be brewing thier potions out here in this drasticly cold?" she wondered.

Just as she found the dead wizard, took his Necromancer's robe (75% magic regen) for her own, and re-animated the man, the second wizard attacked. The fight between these two lasted for hours, until Skank finally gave up. She wanted to keep heading south. She would be back for the final mage ... at Fort Kastav!

Days Passed: 26

The skies are fair, and Skankee Krahk-ho arrives back to Whiterun.

Along the way, she discovered a draugr barrow to plunder (Silverdrift Lair) and successfully used her new spells to keep good distance from the enemies (mostly draugr-zombies) which inhabited the place. Even the most powerful of them all, a zombie which could perform one of those shout magics, wound up falling victim to The Skank, as she was able to keep him occupied with various magics of hers, while also keeping distance away from his dreadful-looking Battleaxe of Cold.

As Skank arrives in Whiterun, it is broad daylight. She was torn about what she should do with her day. It would either involve (A) going into Whiterun at night instead of day, ( Going to Riverwood instead of Whiterun, or © just going into Whiterun during the day. She chose C, only because she does have some things she needs to sell.

As Skank walked into town, I found myself disappointed. She's wearing her Necromancer Robes, yet there is no reaction at all from townspeople about this. I am so bummed.
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2:43 PM

"Let me know if you see anything you like".

Skank is in Belathor's General Store. She cannot stand this man. She hates him. She wants to roast him alive.

"Everything's for sale, my friend, Everything!"

"I am not your friend".

"If I had a sister, I'd sell her in a second!" the man says.

Miss Skank is really annoyed by this comment. She really wants to just roast the man on the spot. Fire some Ice Spikes into his arrogant head! --------------------> # ... but she cannot. She has to deal with this boatmaster because he buys and sells a broad selection of goods.

"Should have travelled on to Riverwood", she says as she does business.

She only wanted to stay in Whiterun because she's curious about what she can find in this village ..... behind locked doors.

"Do come baaack", says Belethor.

Skank makes sure to knock over a vase on the low table in the middle of the shop.

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3:16 PM
Now she makes her way over to Arcadia's Cauldron. This is the lady who presumably wanted Skankee dead a few weeks ago. But Arcadia does nothing but show concern as Skank walks in.

"Youuu look rather pale. Could me ataxia. It's rather common these days back home in Cyrodiil. "

Skank spent the next 12 hours brewing up potions and poisons. It is possible to wait inside Arcadia's Cauldron ... wait until after hours, that is.

I like to think Skank can wait here legitimately, in the back room. Skank would rather do this than stay in an inn or tavern full of strangers.

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4:48 am

"Stop right there by order of the Jarl!"

Skank had been caught by a Whiterun guard after breaking into a man's house. She winds up paying him off. A measly 5 gold, and the fine is paid.

"Now come along with us. We'll take any stolen goods, and you'll be free to go, after you pay the fine".

4:56 am:
She is brouht up to the very place she's been curious about over the past couple hours: Dragonsreach.

I've had several Oblivion characters who've reveled in breaking & entering into castles. I love the suspense of trying to get deeper and deeper, past NPCs and guards and stuff! Let's see if it's any fun in Skyrim.

Skank walked into Dragon'sreach, and noticed court was in attendance, even at this late hour. I never start the Main Quest, lol. Good! Perhaps they would be too distracted to notice as she walked down a set of stairs to attempt a plunder!

Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see. Skank got bored after a few minutes, and decided to head up to Riverwood, to her real home: Embershard Mine.

Note: I am very psyched to get into Hearthfire, but Miss Skank has no intention of doing anything for the Jarls of Skyrim, and therefore will not go to Falkreath. When she got the note from the Courier weeks ago, she simply dropped it on the ground!
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Day 27, 11:43 PM
Skank breaks into Belethor's shop, and has a look around. There's some gold in a strongbox, but otherwise not much to find.

Middas, 3:03 PM, 1st of Frstfall, 4th Era 201

Skankee Krahsk-ho still travels on. Lately she has been to Falkreath, has been shunned in Riverwood (NPCs will attack her on sight there), still lives in the Embershard mine (the bandits never get a chance to respawn), and found a nest of vampires somewhere near Falkreath. She now has some Vampire armor that lets her cast Conjuration at 12% less cost, and provides a 50% magic regeneration rate. She also found some leather boots (30% shock resistance) and bought a ring that gives her a 20% better health regeneration rate.

While she was in the vamp's den, she obviously got attacked, but did not contract their disease. For once, I actually wanted one of my characters to spontaneously become a vampire, roleplaying the moment instead of forcing it. I don't know how she does it; she has not picked up ANY diseases, even though she is now up to Level 20. Dark elves don't have a disease resistance, right? *checks Active Effects in magic area* Nope.

I've been putting most of her perks into Sneak, Illusion, Alchemy, Conjuration, Alteration, and Destruction. Now, she is heading back up to Winterhold, to see about improving her spell book.