Plundered Mine and the Jeralls were Lothran´s goal today. He took care of the goblins that posed an immediate threat to travelles and also a few bandtis on the road to Applewatch. When he later was about to enter Jerall View he saw someone come running and it was none other than Urjahbi! The Khajiit didn´t stay for very long and was soon out the East gate again, presumably heading back to the Imperial City.

And of course we had the usual shenanigans at Olav´s, courtesy of Ongar the World-Weary

I'm shocked to hear Urjahbi was out of the IC? Is that normal for him to travel to Bruma? I'm stunned by this, have never seen him out and about before!

In fact he does have an A.I package dictating that he travels to Bruma once a month I think. UESP has more info of course but it´s something like that. Lothran has encountered him several times in Bruma over the years

Well now I'm going to have to look for him there!

Nice to see Lothran settling in to his winter routine in Bruma. I'm sure the folks of that city feel safer with him on duty for the season!

The gang spent three nights in Leyawiin. The night of their arrival on patrol. The night following my avatar's cleansing of Rockmilk. The night of their trip to Corinthe Elsweyr and subsequent delivery of goat cheese to Border Watch. Business at last taken care of, they departed Leyawiin after breakfasting at Five Claws, crossed the Niben via bridge not far from the city, and traveled the Yellow toward home. I had intended to observe the entire trip today, but was so tired and groggy I had to abandon them at a priory along the route.

I'm sure there are details of their stay that deserve elaboration, but I'm too bloody muddleheaded to bring them to mind.

One thing. It turns out that my avatar DID split those Black Bows with Sir Mazoga. A previous post has been corrected to reflect this. (I ended up deleting two saves rather than one. This placed him in Rockmilk just prior to his return to Leyawiin.)

Short session tonight. Lothran made as many potions/poisons as he could from the recipes that he has developed over the years, once again proving his prowess as a Master Alchemist

mirocu, I noticed that your frequency of writing updates significantly increased now that Lothran is in Bruma. Guess you arrived "home" in a way as well.

Decrepit, your party was busy in Leyawiin and its surroundings.

Renee, soon you'll be able to post the trilogy of your mods at Nexus.

Nail on the head there, or perhaps head on the nail...

I truly love Bruma. As much as I´d like it to be more of a winter wonder land (without mods) I do feel it´s my home as well

This is so Awesome that you are making quests!!!! I remember when you first started toying in the CS, now making quests !!!!!


*mALX wipes sentimental tear from eye*


Awesome, Renee!

First raid of the Plundered Mine today. As usual Lothran stayed in the shadows and let his trusty Spriggan and her bear do most of the work. Sometimes he goes all in and uses a Light potion and plays with the AOE spells he has, but now was not such a moment.

Afterwards he took Aetherius out for a ride in the chilly mountain air

Those goblins never learn - Lothran has been successfully exterminating them for years but they still keep coming back.

My decrepit avatar, Vilja and Groucho are about exit Chorrol and return to Weye. They will spend the night at the Manor, then collect assignments for and execute a Bruma run.

The patrol itself was uneventful. Only one miscreant was seen, a bear who strayed too near the road. They didn't even have to deal with the bear, who was brought down by a merchant's body-guard traveling the road some distance ahead. Chorrol is somewhat unique in that Groucho usually accompanies them into the city. (Wolfgang remains at the stables with their mounts.) The normal procedure is to tether Groucho just outside their Second-Hand sales shoppe, deliver consignments to the Merchants Guild and Gold Horse Courier, return to the Shoppe, and transfer spoils from Groucho's packs to the shoppes coffers. I don't believe my avatar has ever before needed so many trips to offload Groucho. What's more, the vast majority of that loot was pilfered during one Rockmilk cleansing, a cleansing which saw him leave a solid load's worth of spoils untouched for Sir Mazoga. Be that as it may, the shoppe's manifest shows an adjusted sales value for the haul to be a solid 106586 septims. (I wrote it down.)

I should point out that between Leyawiin and Chorrol the gang made a Cheydinal patrol with the usual delivery commissions tacked on. They ate several formal meals in the Imperial City, and if memory serves had a nice evening swim in Lake Rumare following dinner at Wawnet Inn.

Felt the itch to get back into Oblivion, but didn't want to dust off Severan because I'd end up writing about him again and I'm working on something else at the moment, so I decided to create a character. I was going to go with an Argonian; Nightblade, Mystic Archer, something along those lines. But that, of course, didn't happen.

Instead I'll be creating Treyphus later this evening: an Argonian Sorcerer born under the Atronach. Because he's the one who answered the call. I've got no idea what he's doing in the Imperial City prison, but I'm sure he'll let me know when the time comes.

Awesome. Beautiful. I'll be returning to Oblivion shortly too, once I finish my quest-making tutorials. It's been odd, taking a break from TES4. I think this is the longest time I've spent away from actually playing this game since 2009.

As it turned out, Treyphus wasn't actually in prison.

As his ship approached the Imperial City, Treyphus was experiencing a particularly vivid dream. There was an old man, someone important, and guards defending him, and Treyphus was there along with someone else, someone Treyphus spoke to a lot but never saw. Much of the detail was lost to him as he woke, but he had the strange impression that the dream had changed him somehow...

So he's gotten off the boat around midmorning, Last Seed 29. He's got about 450 gold, some armour, some spells, and a steel shortsword(As it turns out, he was a lot more at ease with a weapon by his side, and after much discussion about the various weapons he settled on that). He had a weird moment just after he got off the ship though. Another who'd booked passage got into a heated argument with the crew, which quickly turned into a fight, started by the mage. A Legionnaire got involved, and the crew and the mage were all killed, leaving Treyphus glad he'd left the ship before the fighting started.

The gang arrived home from Chorrol early afternoon. Leaving Vilja to her own devices, my avatar changed into comfortable attire and harvested alchemical ingredients from the Manor garden. Gathered ingredients were then transferred to storage containers in the basement alchemy closet. That done, he asked Vil to read aloud from A Less Rude Song while he rested his decrepit knees in front fireplace. Vil, as she herself readily admits, is not, Nine bless her, a professional poetry reader. Neither my avatar nor I, not being professional poetry listeners, mind in the least.

They dined at Wawnet Inn. The meal was, alas, a bit of a letdown. For whatever reason the Wawnet tends to carry limited food options. On this particular evening it offered only one type of bread, a choice between mutton and crab meat, no cheese, no vegetable aside from lettuce, and no dessert beyond sweetrolls. My avatar chose mutton, making a sandwich of it, bread and lettuce. Drink selection was equally limited, but his favorite imported mead was in stock, as was the common mead Vil prefers. Yes, he ate the sweetroll.

Following the meal they went for an evening swim in Lake Rumare. The sky was crystal clear. Nebula, moon and stars were clearly visible. What's more, they were privileged to witness a rare meteor shower. So idyllic was the swim my avatar allowed them an extra lap.

Back at the Manor my avatar dried himself at the fireplace, bid Vil goodnight, walked to his third-floor private balcony, drank milk to calm his stomach while watching more of the meteor shower, and at last called it a day.

He woke not long past 0600, changed into travel gear, and woke Vilja. They are now about to depart the Manor to gather commissions for their patrol of the Silver to Bruma.

Ahhh, so nice to have Decrepit and Vilja on patrol keeping most of Cyridiil safe and ensuring all manner of official and mercantile business is being conducted. Just as it is comforting to know that Lothran is settled in on duty up in the Bruma area.

And CT, best of luck to the new arrival, Treyphus. Any relation to treydog?

Not related, but looks like him in the face maybe? (Trey-pus)? (Trey-phiz)? Eh, you probably had to be there,

While all that is going on down south, Lothran made an expedition to Rielle last night, or early morning as it was in his world. Not much in terms of treasure was found, but he made good use out of his trusty Spriggan and her bear. However when all was said and done there were still two skeletons left, one on each side of the bridge corridor, and he took them out himself with his Bow of Frost.


Decrepit, I always think of that video you made whenever you mention taking a patrol assignment to Bruma

I do too! I love those vids !!!

A trip west past the shrine to Hermaeus Mora was today´s quest for Lothran. The plan was to eridicate the road of all the ogres that usually threaten passersby there. However today was quite different. Instead of ogres, Lothran only found bears. Well, he did find one or two ogres but that was it. Highly unusual.

Beyond the shrine he also took care of a Daedroth with the help of his Spriggan and a poisoned arrow. Upon returning to Bruma he opted out of the standard night at Olav´s and instead enjoyed a quiet evening at home

That's a beautiful trip west from Bruma to the HM shrine. I hope Lothie enjoyed the views!

Well, I was forced to abandon Treyphus. He was my first Argonian character who wore heavy armour, and as it turns out, I really don't like the way Argonians look in it. Since he had no interest in ditching the armour, we went our separate ways. The thought later occurred that diving into an Atronach character after a lengthy break wasn't a particularly good idea either.

So, since I wanted to play a magic/stealth character in the first place, I moved Severan's saves back onto the 360 and fired up his game. He's just joined the Mages Guild in Chorrol, but can't buy any spells because he arrived as they went on their lunch breaks.

I like the setup he's got now. He got a silver bow off one of the dueling foresters near Bruma, and when travelling wears a quilted doublet, huntsman leather pants and huntsman moccasins. Looks pretty good. Of course, when he's not heading out he wears much higher quality clothing.


Edit: Might as well avoid double posting.

Severan has now joined the Mages Guild, though it took a little fiddling for him to do, since his record's against him. He spent nearly all of his gold buying spells in the Chorrol guildhall, then headed out to get his recommendation from Teekeeus. Severan's no expert on Argonian facial expressions, but he was pretty sure Teekeeus was annoyed with him. Nothing compared to Earana of course, but he figures that she should have seen it coming.

Heading out of Chorrol he got distracted by Crumbling Mine, which I think is the first time I've actually managed to find the entrance Dealing with the bandits was no real challenge, except for the two occasions where he got cornered by axe-wielding Redguards who just wouldn't die quickly enough. What really annoyed him were the two locked chests. He's no good with lockpicks, since House Telvanni frowned upon such mundane means of opening locks, and he didn't have enough gold left to buy the open spell from Alberic Litte.

He did

And now he has gone to the east, not a bad trip either. Snow is falling but gosh darnit, much as there were only bears to the west, now there´s only deer! Well, he did meet one ogre on the stretch of road to Azura´s shrine. But up to Silver Tooth Mine, which he btw cleared out, there were none. I´m beginning to think they heard Lothran was coming and decided it wasn´t worth hanging around the Jeralls...

So bears replaced Ogres and deers replaced bears - I hope he doesn't run into mudcrabs in Pale Pass.

Perhaps all the ogres go south for the winter - that is giant potato season down in Colovia after all. Or they've learned the hard way that, with Lothran in the Jeralls for the winter, staying north is unhealthy.

Today(or for the past few days for Severan), Severan(level 2.9 at the moment) has been dungeon diving. So far he's explored Sercen, Moss Rock Cavern, and Fort Empire, looking for loot that he can sell to refurnish Frostcrag Spire.

He's doing quite well so far. He decided to ignore all the weapons and armour, instead gathering up some alchemical equipment, magical scrolls and tomes, and potions and poisons. But in Fort Empire he did really well. He found a blue and green outfit with a speechcraft enchantment, which was great, until he found a Robe of Glib Tongues. While it may be worth a lot of gold, he's much rather keep it, replacing his black and burgundy outfit as his first choice of citywear.

So, after a magically assisted selling spree, he's got about two thousand gold, and is considering heading over to the Mystic Emporium to see about getting the living quarters of Frosstcrag Spire refurnished. OR he might head straight back out to get the other recommendations for the Mages Guild, since he's only got two and until he's a full member he can't buy Magetallow candles.

Good luck as Severan gets Frostcrag up and running! I always figured the septim scrounging you had to do to get it going was an equivalent trade (time/effort wise) for the University recommendation quests. Gregarious Buffy joined the MG of course, but Frostcrag is wonderful for a more reclusive mage.

After staying one night at Azura´s shrine, Lothran is now back in Bruma. It´s mid-day and he´s currently resting at Jerall View. Soon he´s off to sell a few bits and bobs and just relax

If he does Bruma, he'll get an open spell and can go back for the chests he couldn't open, too. My characters tend to use my meta-knowledge and not bother buying the equivalent one. Then they make their own at all the higher levels, as it's a little cheaper that way. I think the standard spells have more range than you'd ever use.

Bruma's the second recommendation he got. None of my character bother buying an open easy lock spell, just because of that, unless they're the type not to play along with Volanaro.

Anyway, Severan's now level 4, having cleared out Vilverin. That was an interesting experience. Severan was using detect life a lot, paired with night eye when underground. Mysticism is now his highest skill, with destruction just behind it thanks to Dunmeri natural affinity for it. His marksman skill's coming up nicely too, with all the practice he's been getting with his bow. But, beyond more welkynd stones and a varla stone, now safely stored in his chest back in Frostcrag, he didn't find anything of note.

Edit: On a not-really-in-game kind of note, for the first time in years I turned the volume for the music back up earlier. I found that otherwise when it's quiet I can actually hear the hum of my tv, which is surprisingly distracting.

Damn the fireballs, I'm double-posting.

Severan's now reached level five, having been diving into just about ever cave or fort that he comes across, looking for loot to sell. He's cleared out forts Magia and Urasek, as well as Barren Cave, without finding anything really worth noting. What he did find in Fort Urasek was an adventurer, under rather unfortunate circumstances, for the adventurer at least. Severan was sneaking around, using detect life to scout for goblins to kill, and saw a pink shadow at the top of a staircase. So he put an arrow in it, and it fell with a rather un-goblin like cry.

Yup, he killed an unsuspecting adventurer. But at least the guy had a mace of embers, which turned out to be the most valuable item he found in any of those places. The gold he got for his loot gave him enough to buy the alchemy lab for Frostcrag Spire, and still have the best part of a thousand septims left.

So, he got an invitation to join the Dark Brotherhood, and as a result will sleep with his silver dagger close at hand from now on.

It certainly is easy to kill one of those adventurers in a dungeon - especially for a range attacker. Oh well. . . it's a dangerous business.

Mmm hmm, Acadian is right; it's hard not to hit one of those Adventurers. For one thing, they show up so rarely. For another, as soon as we see them, sometimes it just makes such an easy target to just go for hit. Hit 'em with an arrow or a spell.

On the other hand, I've had times in the past when we've caught ourselves, and managed not to down the Adventurer guy when we find him. Something about the way they just stand around. They move differently than enemies, or something.

I agree, Renee. Buffy makes her living extinguishing pink glows from the maximum possible range. And she's gotten fairly good at target identification based on the things you mentioned. How they move, their shape. And she also sometimes arms up her telekinesis spell to use for target ID. She normally can avoid taking out those adventurers in goblin, spellcaster or critter lairs. Unfortunately, when they roam around in a marauder lair, their chances of Buffy killing them are much higher as there there is so much less to distinguish them from the other occupants. Still makes one feel badly though - and it is pretty neat to properly ID them from a distance, then go up and talk with them.

A neat little idea from Buffy, Lothran made his own ID spell from that. However he doesn´t use it as much as she does, he normally just summons his Spriggan while staying in the shadows with a bag of popcorn

Yup, summons can be very clever at picking friends from foes.

My avatar prefers a relaxed, genital way of life. Neither of us appreciates being rushed. Bearing this in mind, is it any wonder the gang's just concluded patrol of the Silver to Bruma proved so vexing?

It need not have been so. He and his companion exited White-Gold Tower that morning, assignments in hand, to an idyllic sunny sky for which Cyrodiil is justly renown, perfect weather for travel. The ride along Perimeter Road was as tranquil as one might expect. The rise immediately north of North Bridge was threatened by nothing more menacing than roving deer. A small contingent of scum lurked amongst the ruins of Sercen it's true . . . anticipated and easily dealt with. Only after joining the Silver proper did complications set in.

Not far along the way my avatar spied three citizens dead ahead. Two seemed content to converse at roadside. The third trudged resolutely onward toward Bruma. Sensing impending misfortune, my avatar spurred Arrowspeed to a gallop, soon passing the unarmed wanderer. Not far beyond that point they encountered a minotaur. Spotted at distance, my avatar was able to dismount the patrol, tether Groucho and fell the beast with a few well aimed arrows. Task accomplished, he reclaimed an arrow, untethered Groucho and remounted the patrol . . . to find the traveler once again scaling the Silver ahead of them.

There was nothing for it but to gallop past the fellow and hope to put some distance between themselves and he. Alas. A short way ahead they encountered a bear. Too short. They could not dismount and tether Groucho fast enough to keep the traveler from joining the fray. Still, a bear is only a bear after all. What great harm could it do ere succumbing? This bear did none. Groucho was untethered. The patrol remounted . . . to find the traveler scaling the Silver ahead of them.

Off they went at a gallop, passing the traveler, to run smack into an ogre. So near was the traveler there was no time to tether Groucho, only to dismount and rush the foe, my avatar swinging his blade rapidly to keep the beast's attention. It was a messy fight, all speed and brute force with no thought for tactics. As expected the ogre proved no match for the gang, nor did it harm the traveler. As expected, said traveler ended up ahead.

The rest of the patrol is something of a blur, a steady stream of gallop, dismount, fight, mount, gallop, dismount, fight, mount, rinse and repeat. Not once was there time to tether Groucho until clearing the last known ambush point not far shy of Bruma. Securing their beasts at the stables, my avatar entered the city flustered, nerves on edge. He and Vil marched straight to the Gold Horse Courier, handing their package to the clerk on duty. They should have continued on to Jerall View. Instead, my avatar led them to the Fighters Guild basement, left Vilja to her own devices, shed his battle regalia, donned a robe and napped for a solid hour, an all but unheard of occurrence. Waking reasonably refreshed, they walked to Jerall View and delivered the last of their two packages. Here I left them. It's still some time til supper, they having arrived earlier than expected thanks to all that galloping. They will likely while away the time strolling the city, maybe visit my avatar's statue.


The evening prior saw them dine at the Wawnet, followed by a swim in Lake Rumare under an idyllic night sky. Moon, nebula and stars shown like jewels. So clear was the night they witness an all too rare meteor shower, so invigorating my avatar allowed them an extra lap. Back at the Manor my avatar dried himself at the foyer fireplace, bid Vil goodnight, walked to his private third-floor balcony, drank a container of milk to settle his stomach while watching more stars whiz across the sky, and at last called it a day.

….......................................................................

As to murder, I believe my avatar's count stands at five, as it has for quite some time. None were intentional. I no longer recall the circumstances under which they occurred, if I ever did. Some years ago, when it was all fresher in my mind, I wrote something of them in an official forum thread. With that forum's search engine the shambles it currently is, I doubt I'll ever see that post again. I believe the first occurred during the crisis, and that my avatar was unaware of it until being wakened by an unwelcome visitor. He did not heed that call, nor did he harm the visitor.

I'll bet he does!

A very nice read, Decrepit. You often make mention of your "muddleheadedness", but it seems to have deserted you as I could follow along the story quite easily


I see no special mention of goblins so I trust Lothran´s efforts were not in vain

One of Maxical's favorite pieces of clothing!









PS: I had no idea you weren't able to buy the Magetallow candles unless you were a full member of the Mages guild! How did I not know that? I've always bought them for Frostcraig Spire, that is so strange - I guess I must have already been a mage every time or something!





I'm not sure if I should applaud him or blush!

That's just something I threw in, part of Severan's backstory. The Mages Guild has reasons not to trust him.

Edit: Because an update is all but necessary.

After gaining his recommendation from Cheydinhal, Severan made his way to Bravil, planning to head from there to Leyawiin afterwards. But, heading back to the Imperial City to fetch a staff, he ventured into Charcoal Cave. He's not sure how long he was stalking through there, slaying bandits and the creatures they'd somehow tamed; imps and timber wolves, but he knew it was worth the trip.

Not only did he get an immense amount of archery practice, but an equally immense value of loot. The ringleader of the bandits of Charcoal Cave carried two highly valuable enchanted items: a Weaponward Cuirass, and an Eagle Feather Shield, with a combined value of just under six thousand gold! From the various chests he acquired more enchanted items; two base rings of shock shield(one of which he's wearing), Speechcraft Green Brocade(unfortunately inferior to the Robe of Glib Tongues, he does like the look), a base ring of light that he 's going to keep to use for reading, and , best of all, a base Amulet of Absorption! That alone's worth more than five and a half thousand gold! Of course, he knows he won't get anything like that much, but he figures he's probably got enough to cover the remaining costs of refurbishing Frostcrag Spire, even if he can't get it completed yet.

The only problem was that he got caught by wolves so often that his brown outfit has been all but shredded, so he's had to switch to a dark shirt and blacksmith's trousers for traveling.

I've had a couple characters find such items. Useless for adventuring, because they don't project enough light, and there are better magical items that can be worn while out in the world. But a lesser item like this is great for just sitting around, reading a book.

Especially for a magic wielding character. So much more appropriate than a torch.


Anyway, Severan's still out and about in Cyrodiil. He's wrapped up his Leyawiin recommendation(he got the staff then used Frostcrag to teleport down to Leyawiin, and will stop off in Bravil on the way back.

One thing I've noticed about Severan is his changing technique. He's not once used the blade, and has stopped carrying a shortsword, now only carrying a silver dagger for alcehmical use. He rarely uses destruction, relies heavily on his bow and poison for damage, and uses mysticism and illusion more than anything else. Now that the enemies are getting tougher, he's started using conjuration more, though the scamp he can summon is getting pretty badly outmatched at this point.

I imagine once he can make his own spells he'll make some on touch destruction spells, to complement his bow, and go looking for the coveted drain attribute and weakness to poison effects.

I think he's actually shifted from a Morrowind-style Nightblade to a Mystic Archer, albeit a more Dunmer appropriate take on it.

Decrepit - Sounds like the recent patrol was a bit busier than normal. So glad your old avatar is still on the job!

CT - Nice to see Severan progressing through his game and developing his skills. Of the vanilla summons, Buffy simply adores the aggressive foe-seeking clannfear. When crafted into a custom spell with a few seconds of invisibility on self, it guarantees attackers shift their attention to the summon.

Ah, okay!

Lothran is now in Pale Pass!


Details and elaboration in the fanfic thread in my sig

Right, Severan now only has the Anvil and Skingrad recomendations left to do, and he can finally see about getting his spellmaking and enchanting altars up and running.

He's now level 12, a journeyman of all the skills that he uses(except alchemy, but since he only brews up at home, it works out the same thanks to the Alchemy Bench's effect), is using a dwarven bow and has had to upgrade to steel arrows for the extra damage over iron.

He's just cleared out Fort Nikel again(I love that place. One shot in the dark, and I can sit back and watch the bandits and marauders kill each other) and got another base amulet of absorption. He's got more than 12,000 gold at this point, so he's not in any hurry to sell it right now, but probably will sooner or later. He's about to head up to Chorrol to get a new summon, then to Cheydinhal for some new alteration spells, before heading south for his remaining recommendations.

You are making me want to play Oblivion again