Nice that you mention several of your characters in this story! At first I thought that you created a new character, named Nelles, and that her backstory involves being kicked out of the AU.

The battle with rats is hilarous yet slightly creepy.

Poor Nelles...


But I agree with Lopov, interesting idea to incorporate your other characters like that. Imagine, it was Lady Saga who got her!

I thought the same thing at first, it must be raining and Renee spontaneously started a new mage! But the mention of Snaat (and a glance at the stats and date before I got very far) clued me in. This was great fun to read! I felt sorry for poor Sparkly as her lights went out. Swarm of rats, ugh. Love it!

I been reading too much Stephen King lately, ha ha.

Sundas, 12:48 pm Sun's Dusk 25

Renee Gade the third is rather depressed today. One of her crew has died, her Khajiit archer. And it was her (Renee's) fault.

It's tricky to explain, but she's had a very successful adventuring party over the last few weeks: a Nord warrior, an Altmer Mage, and the Khajiit archer. All females--not by choice, but it just turned out this way by happenstance (like a roll of the dice). The dynamics of this party are what made it work. Both Renee and the Nord are up-close melee fighters with BIG swords and mostly heavy armor, while the mage and the Khajiit do their thing from a distance.

The elf and the Khajiit haven't got much health, but this never really mattered before, because it was rare that they would have to engage in direct combat. The problem was Renee visited Broken Promises Cave, but decided to leave the Nord gal outside. The Nord is added by a different mod than the other two, she behaves differently. She's great at what she does (bashing things) but she doesn't sneak at all. So Renee decided to leave her behind. Renee also broke one of her cardinal rules which is: scout first, bring the party in second. The party (as a trio) was going in.

So without the Nord, what wound up happening is the Khajiiit wound up in some face-to-face with a bandit ringleader, with another bandit going at her from behind. The mage was mixed-up in there too. With all these bodies dancing around, Renee did not want to just go in with her giant sword, so she stood back and waited for an opportunity to swing.

So anyways, the Khajiit gal died in Broken Promises Cave. And for the last two days, Renee hasn't had much desire to just go out again. She's just sort of wandering around Chorrol, like she's dazed. It's Sundas, so she spent the morning at chapel. Then she went for a walk. Discovered that there are bath houses (Better Cities stuff), and so now she's taking it easy. Just soaking in warm water. She's not feeling too happy, but it's rather relaxing interesting for me.

I'm sorry to hear that her Khajiit archer died but on the other hand it makes for a very interesting roleplay, I think. It makes her (and you) realize how some characters are precious only when you lose them. It also makes sense that she didn't continue adventuring immediately yet she instead needs some time to get in better mood.

Yes exactly. It was really a shock to lose Cresha (that's her name). We've already become used to having her around. It was also pretty neat because CM Partners adds all these extra NPCs in-game, and some of them (like Cresha) are very specific and almost irreplaceable.
\
Cresha could also pick locks, you see, that was another cool feature about her. Renee technically can just bash any lock she finds with a weapon (I've got a lock-bashing mod) but it was better to just have the Khajiit pick them. Renee went on sort of a mad dash around Chorrol, trying to find another archer, and wound up joining the Ranger's Guild, but so far nobody.

She is now heading toward the Imperial City with Felrika (the Nord warrior) and Haili (the Altmer mage). She wound up spending four days in Chorrol, but wants to return to her new home on the Waterfront.

Renee, what a captivating adventure. So sorry you lost Cresha. I expect you'll live with the consequences, rather than calling upon Divine Intervention via the command console or reinstalling CM Partners.

Sorry to hear Renee losing her companion. Lothran doesn´t have one other than his horse and he´s very careful where he lets her go

Oh yeah, you know me. Consequences. CM Partners 2.0 does have Essential and non-Essential versions of the same NPCs, so technically I could probably add another Cresha and simply rename her when we find her.

On the positive side, CMP has a virtually endless amount of NPCs that can be added, way beyond the original mod itself. I found a wood elf archer who is really neat, from the sound of her. I forget the name of the mod, but she gets added to the camp just outside of Kvatch, and Renee will eventually be heading that way. This wood elf is supposed to be more experienced, and she's supposed to have some sort of custom armor, so that'll work out just fine.

mirocu: yeah, horses make good companions for some. Renee doesn't seem to be much of a horse-rider, but Saga is.

Lothran rarely rides but he sometimes takes her out for some exercise in the Jeralls

What kind of horse does Lothie prefer?

He´s only ever had one kind; a Paint, sold by The Wildeye Stable in Bruma

Aetherius is his second one. His first got slain by an ogre on the way down from the mountains in the spring while Lothran was occupied fighting a bandit

Wow, so his first horse died. Interesting.

I took Acadian's advice about boosting horse-health, so now all of Saga's horses have at least 500 HP at the least. Paints have 500, Bays have 650, something like this.

"Rain, rain and more rain. Yep, I´m in Blackwood, alright."

Lothran has arrived in Leyawiin and is trying to get dry at the Fighters Guild after his walk from Water´s Edge. As always, he visits the southernmost town before going to the northenmost one. This habit is just one of his many traditions and he eagerly makes sure to upkeep them

Yeah, that's certainly true, he's all about tradition. Lothie is not near any of mine at the moment. I think Saga is in (um....) Cheydinal, and Snaat Rayag is in Skingrad, though I haven't gamed with either of them for a few weeks.

Renee Gade the third is in Skingrad right now, about to sell some loot, get her brand-new enchanted claymore recharged and repaired, and other mundane things.

You what's funny? Arena actually winds up being more of an 'Action RPG' (the way I play) than Oblivion does. In Oblivion, combat is rather rare, the way I game. It might happen 5 to 10% of the overall time. In Arena, combat is much more constant, despite what some people say about older games having less action. Seems Renee 1 is often getting attacked, trying to cast spells, dealing with baddies, etc.

On the other hand, Arena has more non-violent quests than Oblivion does. Arena has all those 'hey, can you get this for me?' random quests.

Aww, nice to hear of Lothie visiting the Blackwood/Leyawiin area. Simply beautiful with all the ferns and weeping willows.

Yes, Lothran is back full force now!


@Renee - My Arena game is also much more of an action RPG than Oblivion

It's because of two reasons: (1) I rarely use the fast-travel function, and even though I've got MMM, it is set on vanilla spawning rates, and the vanilla game doesn't just slam the world with monsters. (2) We usually take our time shopping and moseying aroung. Mods only add to the number of non-violent, non-action things we can do.

In Arena on the other hand, there isn't as much to do, unless we don't mind doing random town-fetch quests over and over. I wind up looking forward to night time, or finding some lair to dive into.

Methinks ye is korrekt


Lothran is about to re-explore Darkphantom Cave southeast of Leyawiin. He will just do a quick sweep and then he´ll head back into town and ponder about which road to take when it´s time to travel up to Imperial City

Darkfathom, that's a name I don't remember. Is that goblins? Or wait... trolls?

-----------------------------------------
3:39 pm, Loredas, Evening Star 8 4th Era 20

Renee Gade III and her roaming posse has arrived at Kvatch. Renee's newest follower (a Bosmer named Bree) knows this area well, so she is guiding Renee. Renee, Gabrielle, and Felrika have never been to the West Weald or Gold Coast, so Bree has been telling them where to go. So far, the party has found a place to stay (Shetcombe Farm) a place to raid (Fort Linchal), and finally, Kvatch itself.

Although Bree has never been inside Kvatch, she explains that she has heard the place is thriving, 20 years after the Oblivion Crisis. As they approach Kvatch from the lower hillside, they come upon a campsite full of others. Even after the Oblivion Crisis is long over, a core group of people have chosen to spend some time outside of Kvatch, in memory of those terrible days.

Daedra. It´s actually the cave where you leave the Everscamps

You're probably thinking of Tidewater Cave, the next one to the south. That's where you get the Eye of Nocturnal. The two caves are quite close.

Today Lothran cleared out most of Rockmilk Cave on his way up to Border Watch. It was rather fun to watch the Black Bow bandits fight the marauders

Does he still sell black bows to the Count?

Does Lothie ever run into Sir Mazoga down there in Rockmilk? I'm sure that Mazoga likely sports a crown of immortality in Lothie's game.

Great fun though, hiding in the corners as the baddies kill themselves off. Then taking out the wounded survivors.

Does Lothran ever run into any blond Wood Elves with somewhat tempermental attitudes?

Yup, it's Tidewater I am thinking of, ghastley got it.

Evening Star 11, 4E 20
Renee Gade III is headed to Anvil for the first time. She is about to raid the fort that's just east of Anvil.

It's rather funny because when she went to Kvatch a couple days ago (GIskard's Kvatch Rising mod, set on its final {completely built} stage) she and I were all excited about it, but she wound up leaving the place in a rather nonplussed manner. It's a pretty place to go, and Giskard's team did an amazing job, but (RP-wise) she got rather impatient with the place.

She couldn't find anywhere to sleep. If there are any inns in Kvatch, we have yet to find them. This made her quite annoyed. Just think of the last time you went on a vacation, and wound up very tired in some town you've never been in, and could not find a motel to stay at. That's how Renee was.

Thank goodness she's a Fighters Guild member. There is a FG in Kvatch, so she wound up just sleeping there.

Oh, noes. He keeps them in his Black Bow collection of course!


My answer will sadden you, but she actually lay dead in Telepe. She hasn´t been resurrected because Lothran never had that special bond with Mazoga as Buffy did. Please don´t think less of my character now, I know what she means to Buffy


Yup, it sure is. And it saves arrows too


If he does he doesn´t tell me about it


Proper jealous about all your restored Kvatch

In my games, I don't allow myself to coronate Mazoga until she's proved herself in Telepe, but I do reload there if she's not standing at the end. Having an essential follower before that point biases the combat.

I usually do the SetRefEssential at the White Stallion Lodge, the first time I find her there, and I won't go into Rockmilk until I've done that.

I've still found her by the river (or even in it) as a Will-o-the-Wisp victim on her way to the lodge. She's usually got a "useless" glass sword at that point.

Aww, no worries, mirocu. As long as dear 'Zoga - the Champion of Cyrodiil - is alive and well in Buffy's game. And she is. The beautiful big orc and her beautiful big white horse are happily telling tales and enjoying the roaring fire at Cloud Ruler Temple. The White Stallion Lodge is still very much alive and well, but the half dozen knights there are all new since 'Zoga moved on.

Renee and her posse are back in Kvatch. They spent 3 days in a row adventuring in the wild, and when Renee wanted them to go to yet another location, her friends saw the dark walls of Kvatch in the distance and voted her down.

Renee, could you post pixies from Kvatch? I´ve seen one from Acadian but I wanna see one or two from you as well

Renee's followers are taking over! I love when that happens.

I often get the sense (and so do you, from what I have read) that those followers have their own minds. Some of them seem tougher than others, some of them seem more ... civilized. Others just want to return to civilization because that's where the ale's the coldest, the food the warmest.

Anyways, Renee wasn't so upset about Kvatch this time, she's enjoying her stay this time. There's an arena inside Kvatch, and since Renee has that sort of blood in her, she's going to be a combatant in Giskard's arena, which I'm really psyched about. But I am taking a break from her game, and moving on to Snaaty again. It'll be fun trying to evade the law while making skooma deals.

Snaat Rayag's game is very simple. There's no Better Cities (it's 3rd Era after all, lol), no Settlements of Cyrodiil, no crossbows, not as many MMM creatures, etc. I want to do some mod-testing, so his game is perfect. Snaaty also has some sort of girlfriend, a dark elf who lives in Skingrad somewhere. I found a mod called "Locked doors and Knocking" which is incompatible with Better Cities, but since there's no BC in his game, the mod works. Anyways, if Snaaty's girlfriend has her door locked (or any NPC), he can try opening the door, and instead of the typical lock cross-section, there is a knocking sound, like somebody knocking on a door. IF the NPC's disposition is high enough, the door will actually be unlocked next time we try to knock on the door. Way cool!

I have a TON of screenies, mirocu. Literally, back when I was playing on consoles I had no idea how easy it is to take screenshots. So I've got a lot of them. I need to sit down one day and pick the better, or more interesting ones.

I have returned to Lady Saga's game, and I have no idea where she is. Somewhere in the Valus mountains, at the base of these mountains where the trees end and the stone ground begins. There's nothing here. No ruins, no forts, nowhere to plunder. Hardly any animals or enemies. It's almost kind of bizarre. This is definitely a place we've never been, wherever the heck we are.

There's certainly a lot of available space in the Valus foothills. I have the Valus Cottage mod, which is nice because your only neighbours are the few at the Boethiah shrine, and I added Valus Passage as a location for the Bear Riders higher up. I was going to put a patrol in that region, but there aren't any trails to follow.

There's an unmarked and broken wayshrine up there somewhere. Are you near that?

No, no wayshrines. I used the tfc command and flew around to try to get some idea where she is, how far away from Cheydinhal, anyways. Once I was flying around, I realized she was near some sort of weird area where there suddenly wasn't any worldspace around. In other words, the mountain she was on... if she had kept walking she would have fallen off (what looks to be) nothingness. So we turned around.

Maybe I disabled Cyrodiil's invisible borders using the console, because we never got that "You must turn around" message. I think she must have gone past that limit.

Where is Valus Cottage mod to be found? Not seeing it on Nexus.

Lothran can now be found in The Merchant´s Inn, Imperial City. It´s very early in the morning and he´s currently waiting for the stores to open up, it´s time to do some business

One way you can tell that you have gone beyond the map edge is that the hand-placed items stop. Things like plants you can pick for alchemy ingredients. The same with monster encounters. If you have not seen any pickable plants in a while, and haven't seen any animals, you are probably off the map.

Valus Cottage is not on Nexus, but it's a link in my prior post. I think it was on Nexus at the time I got it, but quite a few house mods moved off at the same time, as one of the authors had a falling-out with the site, and word got around.

Lady Saga is also in the Imperial City. I did some gaming with her last night after my birthday party. She's pretty ecstatic because she managed to find the 8th Ayleid statue. I am particularly proud of this because we didn't get UESP involved. I think for the 6th and 7th statues I cheated a little bit by going on UESP to get a general idea where a couple statues are located, and then RP'd that an NPC told her "I heard a rumor of rare items to be found in X location...."

Anyways, she's got #8, a varla stone or two, and the usual assortment of decent loot to sell. Maybe she will run into Lothran in the Market District.



This sounds about right. There were no ingredients to be found, and no creatures or NPCs. It felt a little like a no man's land.



Awesome thanks. I'm gonna grab that one if I can. I like packing my gameworld with some little new places here and there.

Maybe she will but she won´t do what Buffy does when she visits Lothran in Bruma; throw a snowball in his neck!

She'll shove one down Lothran's pants!

Everyone's in the IC!

Buffy would never stick a snowball in Lothie's pants. She knows he's lots bigger and stronger than she is and that he knows she's ticklish. Payback and all, you know. . . .

Buffy's north of the border still, but she knows what time of year this is getting to be for Lothran. Perhaps a trip to Bruma may be in order. . . .

12:04 PM, Second Seed 10, 4th Era 5

Lady Saga stifles the urge to roll her eyes. "Might you be so fortuitious as to consider your actions, please?"

The group of others look to one another and shrug.



Tasked with a new quest from the Mage's Guild the day before, she had been 'assigned' a group of companions to travel with. Their destination? ... Elenglynn, an Ayleid ruin right near Fort Carmala and Hackdirt. Their goal was to rid a group of necromancers who had been dwelling there. Rumor had it that these necromancers had made some sort of threat against the town of Chorrol, so Saga (who was known to be a competent adventurer for years) had immediately been contacted upon her arrival at Chorrol's Mage's Guild.

But things had started off rocky, and could possibly get worse.

"Be of minding please, as to the sounds your footfalls shall make as you travel through these ruins."

Again, the group doesn't seem to understand her words. They all stare around doubtfully, looking at their feet instead of nodding in agreement. They apparently do not know the concept of stealth, which could be bad for them more than her.

The day before, Saga had been given four others to travel with, but this number had already fallen to three. Originally, the group had been a Breton Battlemage, Breton Illusionist, a Dunmer Summoner (this one looked rather like a necromancer himself), and an Argonian Mage. The Argonian had gotten into some sort of fight back in the Oak and Crossier, and had been killed, after killing one of the inn's patrons.**

Discretion? Did her assigned companions even know the meaning of this word? Apparently not. Apparently they had been trained to spar one another with fastidiousness (as many guild members do), but had never been out in the lands of Cyrodiil itself.

So to confront this problem, Saga had decided they should go through a different set of ruins (Wendir) first, so she could maybe get a feel for how these guys and one gal handled themselves while on an actual adventure. She wanted to see what sort of strategy she should employ before getting on with the necros. So far, this was a good decision, because at the very notion of an enemy being within range, her assigned group would immediately go into action. Even if the situation called for stealth and discretion, they would be running amock, and making lots of noise, even if the enemy was located safely behind some wall. For this reason, Aerin from Valenwood decides it's best to just let them waste their efforts, which might allow her to focus on positioning herself in some sort of ideal location.

The party makes their way down a passage, where Saga notices (through use of her life-detection spells) that somebody is nearby. She crouches down, and readies her silver crossbow.

The crossbow was rather new technology here in Cyrodiil. In the years following the Oblivion Crisis, and before the end of Vvrardenfell, crossbows had made their way from Morrowind into the the heart of the Empire. They were slow to load, more difficult to aim, but packed a meaner punch if one got things situated right. Saga readies her crossbow by using her not-so-considerable might to pull its bowstring taught, and then carries it around the corner where she had seen a figure up above.

But as she aims, she immediately puts her weapon down. The man before her is an orc, and brandishes only a torch. He does not raise his own weapon.

"Apologies, and good day to you, orc! How fares thee in thine sodden adventures?" ***

"I scour the land, seeking fortune for Gortwog and Orsinium. Someday all will recognize the true wealth of the Orcs!"

"Well, if I could be of wishing, I would have you for a partner, over these nittly-wits."

"Well met, traveler. Are you seeking treasure as well? Gortwog demands riches, so all of Tamriel will respect Orsinium."

Apparently, this orc was one of the few who did not seem to know who she is, and of her fame at dungeoneering. "I am of seeking wealth orc, this is of truth, but it 'tis the excitement of discovering, the passions of ridding evils, which calls upon me to situatings such as. Gold is only of secondary concern."

"Farewell!" the orc says, satisfied with her answer.

The orc stands before a gate, puzzled at how to get through it. Aerin tries this gate, and finds it is locked, and that her magic is not strong enough to open it. Perhaps, she thinks, she will open it for him later on, assuming those around her might survive the depts of Wendir.

"I'M JUST WORMING UP, YOU PATHETIC WURRRM!" cries the dark elf from behind, as he tries to figure out some sort of way he can get his magic through the nearest wall.

This time, Lady Saga allows herself to roll her eyes, in full witness of the orc.

Crossbows! I love crossbows!

Is that Orc's dialogue vanilla? I've never heard it before.

I hope for Saga's sake that her companions will consider their actions in the future...

Yes, that particular orc is vanilla. He's one of the Adventurers we can read about over at UESP.



Ha ha well they actually didn't consider their actions, which is why all of them died except the Breton Illusionist (who I named Sharonne with the console). Sharonne has a very unique talent: she can cast a spell that makes two extra copies of herself. It is actually a Conjuration spell, not Illusion, but the idea behind this spell (in table-game terms) was originally Illusion. Anyways, with three Sharonnes running around, the enemy gets ultra-confused. It's pretty funny to watch!

Lothran has been spending some time in the Imperial City, visiting stores and buying things he´s gonna take with him to Bruma by the end of the month. He´s also recharged his weapons at The Mystic Emporium, that took away quite a bit of gold. Good thing there´s goblins to hunt up north too...

I was talking about Lady Saga, lol.

On his way to Bravil.