I think I had 40 hours in Oblivion within the first two days



Joanie needs to be careful if she´s gonna last through two counter resets, but at least she got a little something with which to buy Strong Restore Health potions with

Paladin Joan of Arkay, Order of the Quick Feet.

Today Lothran decided to have some fun with the vampies at Bloodcrust Cavern. Usually he sneaks through the cave and lets his Spriggan deal with them in there but today he ran inside, threw his Scout spell (AoE) and then ran outside again to let his Spriggan deal with them there instead. In the sunshine...

"Hey, brother vampire! Don't bite that spriggan on the neck! We're not sapsuckers you know!"

"Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Damn sun!"

Lothran is now traveling the Colovian Highlands. He has visited (but not re-explored) Infested Mine, Fort Ondo, Fort Dirich and other places on his way to Chorrol which he just entered.

He has enjoyed his latest hobby of entering caves etc, throwing his Scout spell to attract the "companions of fun" inside and then run out again where he summons his Spriggan and enjoys the show from a safe location

It is fun the games we sometimes invent within our games. When Buffy encounters a Legion Rider, she slows Superian to match the speed of his horse and rides along, helping, healing and repairing gear for the soldier as he makes his rounds.

I always liked that part of her stories. A clever way to show her kindness and support to those who need and deserve it

Did they actually chase him outside? What spell is that?

They sure do. The spell is an electric one that does 10pts of damage over 70ft. It´s not designed to be a heavy hitter but rather, as the name suggests, to scout and get the attention of enemies

Went for a wander with Severan near Skingrad, he had to get his recommendation after all.

I'm noticing more and more differences between this Severan and his previous incarnation. This time around he's not bothering with nighteye, at least he isn't yet, and I think he's favouring his bow a little more than he did before. Fighting those deranged zombies he'd open with a sneak attack, then follow it with a weak fireball, then two arrows, then another fireball(by that point the effect had worn off). Made a real mess of those things.

That is so cool! One of the things I've always enjoyed so much in Oblivion (and actually in Fallout 3 too) - is the ability to gather stalkers who will hound you wherever you go to kill you - the Bleak Mine Guards; that IC Guard Captain; the Khajiit (though I never double-crossed him, so never had him stalk me); Umbra; the King of Miscarand; Sithis; etc.

I wish the Talon Company and/or the Regulators in FO3 would follow you inside like the Oblivion stalkers do. I think in FO3 the only stalkers who follow you inside are (that ghoul and those Brotherhood of Steel guys).

But I really enjoy when that happens, they suddenly wake you from a sound sleep to attack and have you surrounded in your bed, etc. If I know it is coming, I like to plan ahead to make the most of it - like keeping the three Oblivion gates outside Skingrad open or Aarkved's Tower - great places to lure them into tough battles with enemies to make their stalking of me make their lives miserable first, lol.

Severan got a little restless on his way back from Skingrad.

He started at the Ayleid well, and spotted a ruined fort a little way off, Fort Vlastarus, and decided to poke around. He ended up killing off a few rats, wolves, and vampires without any real trouble, except for one rat that charged as his detect life spell ran out, and disappeared in the dark. Not only did it get him, but it infected him with Blood Lung.

After that he got curious about Ceyatatar, and went Conjurer hunting. The scamps proved more dangerous than the Conjurers were, since most of them died to a single arrow from the shadows. The adept right at the bottom was more difficult to kill, because she kept hiding behind tables and stuff. Unfortunately there were no spell tomes to be had, which he'd been hoping for, but he did find some enchanted items, including two sets of fortify fatigue trousers.

And finally, on his way back to the Imperial City, he stopped off to plunder Fort Virtue. Which wasn't really worth the effort.

He's currently in the Imperial City, level 4, with a little over 3,000 septims. And even better, since he stopped off at the Tower Stone, he's got a couple of new and very useful powers to lay with. He even found The Master's Hand useful, since with it's bonus to armorer he was able to repair his bow when it was pretty worn down. He was able to fully repair it without breaking the one hammer he owns, so he thinks it's a very useful power to have.

You better get Severan a Cure Disease spell if he´s gonna keep spelunking, Thorn

He actually found a couple of potions, but prefers to keep a couple of pieces of mandrake root handy.

Just cleared out Barren Cave on the road to Cheydinhal for the first time. Imagine, two caves just beside a major road and Lothran has not searched them until now

O-ho-ho yes! Barren Cave is intense. Vampires, right? That is some of my characters' favorite places to clear.


Ha ha this sounds fun!

It´s fun indeed


After a short visit to Cheydinhal Lothran is now back in the Imperial City. He has just made a new spell called Firestorm after finally realizing he didn´t have a good AoE fire spell. Well, now he does

It´s not as costly as his other AoE spells and frankly I´ve thought about deleting one or two. Decided against it though for reasons I don´t understand. Lothran rarely uses them anyway.

CT, how's Severan coming along?

mirocu, does Lothie lower his spell cost by lower damage over longer time instead of big quick damage?

Yes, that is usually the preferred method. However that is not always the case.


He has one spell called Massive Blizzard which does 50pts over 50ft for one second and was made as a dash-and-run kind of spell and Frost was chosen for its lingering effect.

Firestorm does 40pts over 20ft for 2 secs. It could have been made doing less damage over a longer period of time, I know, but we didn´t want to make it 1pt over 120 secs either and had to draw the line somewhere


Edit: As I will move to the cottage next week I have parked Lothran at Silverhome-on-the-Water for the time being. I most likely will return once in awhile and roam the countryside with him but it will be much less frequent now.

Well, Lothran has worked hard all winter keeping Bruma safe. He deserves a bit of a rest/break and Silverhome is a nice place for that.

Severan's back in limbo for the time being. The atronach just isn't the right sign for him. I can see the benefits for a non-caster or a heavy magic user, but a hybrid character just doesn't get the spikes of magicka usage that require a large magicka pool. When a stealthy magic user is choosing not to cast detect life or nighteye to conserve magicka for a fight in the near future, they simply aren't set up right.

While it did let me find a better balance between bow and destruction magic, neither I nor Severan was happy with the setup. So he's taking a break from Cyrodiil, and I'm going to roll up a Mercenary Spellsword; because it's been too long since I played a character that could really go toe-to-toe with the enemy.

Edit: Yeah, right. As if I could keep this guy alive for more than a couple of days

Baurus always guesses your class wrong! It is a rite of passage, like the bath in the lake after leaving the sewer. I recall there was even a topic at the old Beth forums about how Barurus guessed your class wrong.

Don´t blame Baurus. He only works with what we give him




#DoNotScornBaurus


Edit: Lothran has left Silverhome and is currently dungeon diving in the eastern area along Panther River. He has done a cave not previously done and re-done another one. He´s on a necro/vampire hunt

Well, following a pm about the rate I go through characters in this thread, I've decided, as you can see, to scrap Caliban. An unarmourd magic/melee character in my hands isn't going to last any time at all, so there's no point writing about him here. Or playing him at all really, for that matter. So instead I set out trying to make a more unkillable character, one that might be able to survive not only Cyrodiil, but myself as well

The end result?

Baltis Drethan; a Dunmer War Wizard. He's heavily armoured, fights with a two-handed sword, and primarily employs destruction, conjuration, alteration and restoration.

Thus far he's been carving himself a reputation in the Arena with a steel claymore, and a surprising lack of difficulty. I actually checked the gameplay options to make sure the difficulty was set to default.

The really surprising thing is that the vague idea I'd had for the Mercenary Spellsword crept into this guy, giving him plenty of character. I'm actually contemplating turning his story into a fanfic while Severan's on a break.

Well, you can´t go wrong with a Dunmer.



At least that´s what Lothran tells me

Heh, I'm similarly biased when it comes to Dunmer

Baltis has now won six fights in the Arena, the sixth being against a particularly dangerous Khajiit with a silver battleaxe. That was a close fight that Baltis barely survived, and victory secured his promotion to the rank of Bloodletter. It also left him so tired that he put off departing the Imperial City for the day, and slept for most of it instead.

He's now in Skingrad, having hacked his way through a dozen stunted scamps and conjurers in a brief detour through Ceyatatar, hitting level two in the process, and has joined the Mages Guild.

He arrived in Skingrad as a storm was beginning, meaning he had the fantastically appropriate experience of his first sight of Skingrad Castle being accompanied by dark stormclouds and a roll of thunder

Wow, Baltis' arrival at Skingrad sure sounds appropriately spooky!

Oooh, this is the perfect way to reach Skingrad

Heh, it really was.

And to follow it up? A day of zombie fighting! They took a surprising amount of killing, since he was only using his sword(he thinks he's a little out of practice), but only took a single hit from them. Erthor was duly grateful, and inevitably annoying, though only briefly.

There was also one really cool moment on the way to Bleak Flats Cave when Baltis side-stepped a leaping rat as he drew his sword, turned, and slashed it out of the air. So if nothing else, this guy's got some style

I think a two handed sword can be great fun when used nimbly and maneuvering right at the sweet spot where you can reach foes but they can't reach you.

Very early on, Acadian 'tested' Oblivion before allowing Buffy to play. I recall backing up while swinging continuously with that two hander as zombies advanced. Killed 'em all and they never laid a rotting finger on Acadian.

I love two handed swords because of how you get in that sweet spot of having your enemy in range of your sword, but being out of range of their own weapon. Like Acadian, it takes a lot of backing up, but once you get the hang of it you don't need armor, because you will never be hit. The addition of bashing in Skyrim just makes it even more effective, since you can bash to break up your opponent's attacks.

Varla and the sweet spot

Persephone in Skyrim

The really odd thing to me about these two vids is that the sword action in the Oblivion vid looked more realistic (to me) than the swordplay in the Skyrim vid!

Sundas, 1:21 pm, Frost Fall 14, 3rd Era 434

Joan of Arkay is Level 4, and in the Office of Imperial Commerce right now. Since she's devoted to Arkay, and Arkay is all about death, rebirth, etc. Joan has been devoted to the banishing of undead. She's in Vinicia's office because I'm RP'ing that Vinicia has some sort of library, which is already extant due to my other characters' involvement at mapping various areas. Lady Saga was especially involved with mapping stuff, since she visited more caves, forts, ruins (etc.) than my others.

What Joanie is doing is trying to find areas near Battlehorn Castle, which is west of Chorrol, where undead lie. She already has been to Wendir and Fort Carmala, but what other places are there near Battlehorn? This is where I get my excuse to go on UESP and look them up, pretending that Joan is raising Vinicia's library for answers!

The original reason Joan went to the I.C. was to find the guy who sells upgrades for Battlehorn Castle, but unfortunately each upgrade costs 2,300 gold! Joan had maybe 600 on her person after selling some loot. But the trip wasn't entirely wasted--the Starlight spell she bought at the Discount Spells place is already coming in handy.

Edit: she is now in ... um... Elenglynn, taking down the necromancers who live there.

Happy undead hunting to Joanie as she quests for cash to upgrade Battlehorn!

Good thing Saga has mapped out those places for Joanie (and Chachi?) to go investigate. I did much the same thing thing in my last playthrough of Teresa, when she explored every Ayleid Ruin in the game. I used the UESP Wiki to make a list of every one, and crossed them off one by one as she went around Cyrodiil cleaning them out.

Baltis has finished making his way to Anvil, and has traded in his shiny steel claymore for an even shinier silver one.

Of course, he's practically broke as a result, but at least he had do some jobs for the Fighters Guild.

So, how´s it going for Joan and her castle upgrades?



He´s going thee way of silver. Smart move I´d say

If there are two experiences I hate above all, they are;

Going into battle without my weapon or armour,

And walking into an ambush that I know is there,

And here I am, doing both.

The road west of the Brina Cross Inn was quieter than it had any right to be. No birdsong, no sound of animals scampering through the undergrowth, it was like the whole damn county was holding its breath, waiting for what was about to happen.

To me.

I can't even hear those damn Battlemages anymore. They'd better've stayed close, if they've gotten too far ahead of me then it's my arse that'll pay for it. The closest I plan to get to the fighting is to summon a scamp and head the other direction. This isn't my fight.

Traps within traps can go either way. The bait walks a knife edge, and right now, I've got one foot either side of the knife, and I'm praying to every one of the anticipations that nothing makes me slip.

"Stop right there, traveller!" The voice burst from behind a tree to my left, followed by the speaker. The female Altmer from the bar, the one with something to hide. I wasn't expecting to see her out here. I'd barely recognised her before she started hurling balls of frost my way, their edges nipping at my skin through the thin grey robe I was wearing. I called my scamp forth from Oblivion, the ugly creature hurling itself towards the Altmer, only to be blocked as she summoned a skeleton.

"Battlemages!" I bellowed as I backed away from our proxy fight, as the Altmer woman stepped around the fight and resumed her assault. Gods! I know that it wouldn't be much use against magic, but I'd feel so much better if I were armoured. And this fight would be over by now if I had my claymore.

I hurled a few fireballs her way, not willing to turn my back on the murderous Altmer, which meant I was able to see the Battlemages burst onto the road from opposite sides.

What took them so long?

As my scamp shattered the Altmer's skeleton, and I hurled another fireball, the Battlemages closed in on her, axes swinging. That Altmer might have been experienced killing unarmed merchants, but those Battlemages hacked her apart in moments, despite her attempts to defend herself with magic. The Battlemages barely stopped to make sure that she was dead, leaving me to loot the body. She hadn't been carrying much in the way of coin, surprisingly, but she had a quartet of powerful potions that were certainly worth hanging onto.

I've had worse days. Not many, but some.




Yeah, that kinda ran away with me, I'll be honest

Totally unrealistic. Those two battlemages are never that useful in the real game.

Caminalda always seem to summon a ghost in my games, and the two battlemages then flail at it ineffectively with non-silver weapons, while my character has to do all the work. They never seem to remember they can use spells against a ghost.

This is spectacular! You brought that moment to life - that first time doing that quest, not knowing where the enemy might/would spring from or if you would survive it - trusting your life in the hands of those two unknown mages. You did an amazing write here!

Yes, great job, CT. That is a neat quest and truly rich hunting ground for fiction opportunities.

Yeah, that's awesome CT. I have to read it again.

mirocu: Joan is coming along slowly. There wasn't much in Elenglyn, unfortunately. I believe she is going to be the one who looks for Umbacano's statures, since Saga had some complications.

Moving slowly upwards through the Nibenay Basin, Lothran has just cleared out Fort Cedrian and again we were surprised finding out we had not done this before. Especially noteworthy since the fort is just by the road. Oh, well. Now we have

Neat, mirocu! I know how nice it is to go though an undiscovered dungeon - as well as rare for those of us who play looonnnggg games. Like you, I'm surprised Lothie had not cleared it before. Buffy would clear it routinely when in the Cropsford area.

HOLY COW! A place in Cyrodiil you've never cleared in all these years you've been playing? That is kind of cool that you are still able to find new things in the game, though. But WOW! Still kind of shocking!

I gotta ask: how do you know you've never cleared Cedrian before? Is your memory that good? My memory is terrible. That's why when Lady Saga was hard-core exploring Cyrodiil over these last few years, I began keeping a Notepad page of all the places she'd been.

I can remember every dungeon and every game that I went in it; everything that happened in the playthrough. I can remember stuff that doesn't matter like that for decades; but can't remember that I have a battery charger and extension cord that I bought three months ago when my car battery goes dead,

They way I can tell is by bringing up the local map when I enter a place. If you have explored it before it will be filled in. If it is blank, you know its that character's first time there.

Same here.