Some guilds have their own separate rooms, which (depending on character) mine will stay in. Some characters are more social than others, and don't mind all that banging around the FG members do.

Anyway, the other day, Wednesday, it snowed where I live, and it was also Renee Gade III's birthday. So I got to do some gaming with her while it was snowing outside. I think she is headed toward Skingrad next.

Happy b-day to Ms Gade the Third!




And I see she's heading to Skingrad. If she lingers for awhile, she might encounter a Dunmer with hair as white as that snow you got, Renee. As Easter is coming up he's supposed to be there as well. But honsetly, I'm not sure he'll make it in time this year as he has stayed well beyond the point where he normally leaves Bruma, and he wants to do other things first and not go straight to Skingrad. Time will tell

Funny thing; the winter season in Bruma always seems to start with a visit from Salomon Geonette. And it seems to end with his visit too. In fact, Lothran saw him this very evening at Olav's. Tomorrow will be the last chug-a-lug at said establishment and on Sunday morning the Dunmer will head for Chorrol.

I always have mixed feelings about this. A part of me wants Lothran to forever stay in Bruma and the Jerall Mountains and another part wants him to re-explore Cyrodiil. Of course, I can't deny him the pleasure of all the green and the ambient sounds of The Great Forest so re-exploring it is.


After all, we can't return to Bruma if we don't leave it first

Oh absolutely not, are you kidding? Well what would the rest of Cyrodiil be like without your platinum-haired elf walking around? I mean, Bruma might be at a loss, but the rest of Cyrodiil needs his help!

The Decrepit Avatar, after all, sometimes takes long periods of inactivity, leaving it all up to us. We never hear from Buffy anymore (she apparently travels the entire continent nowadays). RG3 and Saga do a pretty good job of getting around, but it's not like the old days, when there were dozens of us sharing the burden.


Phew. Yeah, stop with that crazy-talk man! No leaving Bruma? Bah.

I know I can't have Lothran to stay only in Bruma. It is crazy-talk and we would both miss the rest of Cyrodiil enormously. So don't you worry; tomorrow morning Lothran will exit the gates of Bruma for the last time this season, and head for Chorrol!

Yesterday was Lothran's last day in Bruma for the season. It was spent inside the walls, visiting people one last time and simply enjoying the beautiful town. And yes, as day turned into evening it was time to head to Olav's for one final get-together. Everyone showed up, and with the addition of mr Geonette it really felt like a special occasion.


Early morning, and it's right up from bed to get going. No turning back now. Fireplace got put out, travel chest cleaned, and with one last look at the place Lothran was out the door. And for the first time since he got to Bruma last November, it had stopped snowing. The air was clear and the only snow showing was on the ground.
Moving up towards the North gate, Lothran took in the sight of a non-snowing Bruma. It was weird to see it all clear like that. He bade farewell to his guard buddy at the gate and then it was out into the mountains.

As he moved westward, enjoying the cleared up landscape, Lothran felt the old sense of adventure creeping up on him again. For so long he has been stagnant in Bruma and while it is nice and he loves the town to bits, going back to his adventureous roots and be on the move again is an amazing feeling!

After some time he got to the Great Forest and much like in 2016, he is now resting by Shadowcrest Cavern by the Orange Road. It is so nice to see all the green again, and he hasn't even truly gotten into the real woods yet.



The season of 2018 has begun!

Yay, Spring is coming!

Sure is! I just hope Renee brews enough tea to make it all through my post

*Renee's head explodes*

Oh, dear. Now look at all this mess I created. Tsk tsk.




Well, Lothran just did a get-to-the-Imperial-City-and-get-back-to-Chorrol dash. Had to offload some stuff in the ole house and put on the official 'sploring attire. On the way to I.C he met a Khajiit banditess who was friendly from an encounter last year. Surprised she's stayed alive considering she lingers on a patrolled road.

Stranger things happened yesterday inside the walls of Chorrol. Someone spoke to a guard about possibly joining the Fighters Guild - something I swear I haven't heard in years ever since Lothie joined up! Had to check and see if he had been expelled without getting a message biut it doesn't seem like it. Wierd.

Also, I'm glad to announce that the chaps who keep the grass neatly mowed throughout Cyrodiil have not been slacking on the job. Not a single long straw anywhere

Oh, so he is part of the Fighters Guild, and the Thieves Guild. But not the Mages Guild, right? And not the Dark Brotherhood?

Middas, Evening Star 18, Year 21: Renee Gade III has a lazy day in Sutch, wandiing around, listening to weird, random conversations, and discovering new sights and sounds. She got attacked by a strange creature, and instead of fighting it herself, she chose to run back into town and allow the guards to handle it.

Because it's her day off. She needs a day off, sometimes.

Anyways, tomorrow she and her group head to Fort Crowhaven to investigate and see if the vampire menace has returned. Well of course it has. It always does.

Ding! Ding! Bzzzz! Ding!

He sure is part of the Guild of Mages


Lothran is already in Skingrad now. Blimey. From Bruma to Chorrol to the Imperial City to Skingrad in less than one month. Well, that's what happens when winter lingers and Easter comes early

Elise found quite a bit to do in Leyawiin, more than I expected her to. While on an errand for Sheogorath she ended up being saddled with the task of finding a tax collector that went missing on the other side of the Niben. On her way up she not only got a tip to the location of a powerful Aedric artifact, but she also found Nocturnal's shrine for another shot at a magical trinket.

She's somewhat amused at how easy it is to get the attention of a Prince in Cyrodiil compared to High Rock, where you have to track down a conjurer during the right summoning conditions. She figures Cyrodiil must not have many upstart Bretons to worry about so they're more likely to hand out the better treasures.

Anyway, long story short, she's well on her way to having a place of her own. Aside from Auriel's Shield, she doesn't have much use for the artifacts she's acquired over the past 2 weeks. But then, it's more about having them to begin with.

Now she's mainly concerned with tracking down the Khajiit that hired her to find the missing tax collector. She found the tax collector and 500 gold in taxes near the Mouth of the Panther, but she discovered that he was killed by an unbound Golden Saint, which then decided to turn on her. Suspicious. Maybe she should have waited until she was done with this before she terrorized the Khajiit of Border Watch.

(Also, in spite of her being well over 5 years old, part of me wants to rename her Alise. I was leaning toward her name being short for "Elisheba", but "Alise" sounds closer to what a Breton would be named, if not Lisbet. It wouldn't be the first time I renamed an enduring character.)

Lothran has now started to clear out Fort Linchal. It's a really nice walk to it from Skingrad and we enjoyed it quite a bit. On this occasion the purple beam emitted from the altar, something we usually don't see when we visit this particular fort.


Random randomness: Karinnarre in Bruma always reminds me of Renee. For some reason that's how I picture how she looks and sounds

That is interesting monkey, I've never changed a character's name. I've come up with nicknames, but never a full name change. Huh.

Karianne is not really that far off. I don't look as haughty as she does but I do have some wrinkles. You shall see me soon enough.

Sun's Dawn 3, 3rd Era Year 435: Joan of Arkay is in Anvil. She's collected all the things she needs to repair the Orrery, so after a good night's rest, she'll be headed back to the Arcane University.

I have this really cool idea for Joan's game, by the way. Since she's my longest-lasting character (besides Kahreem), and her game is on Xbox, what I'll do is whenever the A-bomb finally strikes her world, I'm going to transfer it to PC! Man, that's going to be a blast. Come on, hurry up A-bomb, lol. I never thought I'd be psyched to have that glitch strike any of my games, ha ha ...

Transfer xbox to PC? Man, Renee just keeps on hacking!



Funny thing happened when Lothran cleared out For Linchal. He ran inside, cast his Scout spell to get attention, but when he ran outside the necrodude came out in front of him! Teleportation ftw I guess

Ha! I did some gaming with RG3 and she is right near Fort Linchal. She passed by there earlier. Right now she's at Fort Hastrel though, which is pretty close to where Lothran is at. In general, she and a couple of her gang have been trudging back and forth to Kvatch and back into the Linchal / Hastrel area, trying to find Camp Ales.

Renee Gade III also is my second character to ever Master a skill. She just got 100 in Blade. Kahreem is my other Master; he got Master in Sneak towards the end.

I had several characters that mastered Sneak but none ever made it very high in Blade, not even in the vanilla game. It levels up really slowly so Renee has to swing her blade a lot obviously.

Yeah, Sneak moves upward really fast, especially in vanilla. In my PC games I've got it configured to move slower.

Same goes with Alchemy. Lady Saga should be an Expert in that skill with all the potion-making she does, but I've got it configured so that for somebody to make high numbers, they'd literally have to BE an alchemist, like Sinderion, and stand around all day doing nothing but making potions.

Lothran's Blade skill is 103 because he got The Grey Prince's training after reaching 100


He's now btw about to raid the Isolated House SE of Skingrad. We do suspect however it will be anything but empty

Blossom the Orc was created specifically to do that. I'd noticed that the lowest starting stat for anyone in Oblivion was a Female Orc's Personality (25), so I created her to max that out. There was a lot of grinding the persuasion mini-game involved - both up and down, as they both add to the score, and often consecutively on the same NPC, leaving them where they started! She hit Master in Speechcraft, and Illusion (Charm spells) but not Mercantile.

The rest of her build was pretty conventional axe-murderer. I don't recall if she mastered Blunt, or not.

She was re-created in Daggerfall, Skyrim and ESO, too, so her powers of persuasion really worked.

Breaking free

What's this? A headline? Why, yes indeed! For today, just now in fact, I did something I haven't done in a long time. You see, over the years I have come to treat Lothran's adventures around Cyrodiil pretty much how I treat Bruma and the Jeralls. But while I do want to feel isolated and stay in one place in the snowy mountains during the winter season, that shouldn't be the case with the other cities and areas during the rest of the year. I guess I projected my winter habits there as well and only strengthened that behaviour as years went by.


But no more! I think early Easter forced me to break free from that because even though I still follow what cities I visit and in what order, I no longer linger for weeks as I used to. No longer do I "wait for the right moment" to move on, instead I just move on and do what I used to do in my early years; roam free to my heart's content!

Staying in one place is nice in the cold months but now it should be all about moving around, covering great distances, which is what I did just now. Lothran was by the Isolated House but instead of going back to Skingrad as has come to be expected of him, he went N-NW and visited Brindle Home and Weatherleah before -gasp!- going back up into the Colovian Highlands! He went just north of Sanguine's shrine and then southwards toward Ales Camp, where he now has spent the night in his tent. Next session will probably be spent with more trekking whilst moving slowly towards Anvil County.


Funny moment: While trekking through the Highlands, Lothran spotted a deer being chased - by a ghost!

ghastley: Wow, Master of Speechcraft. You must have loads of patience!


mirocu: Breaking FREE? Oooh how intriguing! So does this mean you're finally rolling a new one?

Oh.. oh wait. Oh, my bad. No, you're not rolling a new character. Ooops.



Holy [censored]. Okay, I think hell just froze over. I mean, the shock of this all! Lothran is becoming .. more spontaneous? Sat it aint so!

Well, he used to be more spontaneous in his youth so he's basically just going back to his roots. At least now in spring/summer. I do reckon fall/winter will stay a bit more traditional, but that's why this spontaneousness is so important; to counterbalance

May dear Lothie find green grasses and cool waters along his path. And let no moss grow under his feet!

Okay, that's interesting. So he goes through periods of spontaneity and predictability. What's Lothran's birthday? Do you know it? You can also look at his very first save (if you still have it) and tell me what time it was.


Fredas, 9:38 am Sun's Dawn 8 Joan of Arkay begins her journey back to the Imperial City, eager to see what all the dwarven cogs she's dredged up will fit in this so-called Orrery.

Moss collecting season is over!


I still have his first save but I have to dig out my flashdrive in order to get it, and I can't be arsed I do know though it's some time in February.



So Joan is fixing the Orrery? That's cool, I don't think I've heard anyone actually finishing it before.

Take your time, crow, no rush.

I switched to Renee Gade III, like I usually do. See, if I have a lot of time, I'll usually start on Xbox, and then go to PC, ha ha. Anyway, Renee is headed back to the Imperial City to rehire her longest-lasting companion and friend, Felrika Stormskudder.

Felrika is a rambunctious sort of person, a true overeager Nord. She has a temper. She doesn't always get along with the rest of Renee's party. Her disposition toward Renee sometimes goes through huge swings. Some days she'll get along fine with my character, other times she'll start getting really snarky, and bickers a lot. Money usually picks Fel's mood right up, of course. But she still has adverse reactions to others, sometimes.

Usually, Fel will pick a fight due to friendly fire you see, but it's interesting because none of RG3's other friends will do this. They always seem to shrug off friendly fire mistakes.

So RG3 began to get sick of Fel picking fights, and left her behind in her Imperial City Waterfront Shack.

The truth is: Fel is the best, when it comes to melee combat. Fel is what the WoW crowd would call a "tank" I guess. Very good at what she does. I saw her go up against a giant once, all by herself, and eventually win.

The latest endeavor Gade has had to embark upon is yet another vampire raid, this time in Fort Hastrel. But the thing is, this time there's like ... a dozen vampires and undead to conquer, which is way more than Gade and her party have ever been up against! They're all in one room too, meaning that it would be tough to lure them out one-by-one. If she tries to lure one out of Hastrel, there's a chance ALL of them could follow Renee outside. Even if the rest of her party waits outside, and it's full sunlight out there, all dozen of those vampires + undead would still be way too difficult to take on at once!

So, her best warrior is needed, and like a true strategist, Renee Gade III decides to go all the way back to get her.

Your Girl Gang makes me think of tmar and his crew. Wonder what they arew up to these days?

---------------------------------

Lothran had a bit of fun at Mortal Camp today. He ran in to get the bandits' attention and while they fought his Spriggan, he turned around on the rock he was standing on and spotted a troll some distance away. Being the fun-loving kind of elf that he is, he decided to invite the troll to the party via his Scout spell.

Surprisingly, the one bandit that was left at the end has serious trouble dealing with the troll. He won eventually but it did take him awhile. Of course, his victory was short-lived

@Renee - The game can be a lot more fun when you have someone along to keep the currently controlled character company. Aside from that, it definitely sounds like the best plan based on what's ahead of her.

Part of me wants start up Yannick and Guadalupe again alongside Elise, but track record shows that the saves will either corrupt, I will let one fall to the wayside, or both. :v

Anyways, last time I was in Oblivion, Elise finally tracked down the Khajiit from Border Watch. It turned out that she just wandered off somewhere and was found at the inn on the second visit. She had no idea what the Golden Saint was about, so that thread will be set aside for now, it seems.

In the meantime, Elise went out and searched for nearby buried treasure. She always seems to find treasure maps but this would be the first time she actually finds the location illustrated on them. After a bit of digging near White Stallion Lodge and fending off a Dwemer spider, she's several thousand gold richer and much closer to owning the nice manor in Skingrad.

Personally I think it'd be better if she bought a home in Nibenay since that's where she'll be operating most of the time (Riverview, maybe?) but she's set on Rosethorn Hall. Eh, I guess it keeps her motivated while she searches for more Daedra shrines.

Hard to say where she'll head to next. Bravil is closer, but it's filthy and she prefers to avoid it, while the road to Cheydinhal is much longer and practically devoid of civilization, but there are plenty of Ayleid ruins to plunder along the way.

Riverview would make a nice home! Cool to see you're doing daedra shrine quests, monkey. None of mine have ever done those. Renee Gade III is level 27, so she is certainly high enough to get one of these quests, but she's not the type that's interested. I have a future character idea who'd get into those more likely.

What sort of money does Elise have, that she can afford a place like Rosethorn? RG3 has a few thousand in the bank, but she herself is perpetually fluctuating in cash. One day she might have over a thousand, the next, she'll be practically broke, especially after getting everybody's gear repaired / recharged.

mirocu: What does his Scout spell do?

Oh, and RG3 sometimes has male followers. Not very often though. tmar and his girlz are still in action, over in the new Beth forums. Why don't you pay them a visit?

It's an AoE spell. While not strong, it has a big range and Lothran uses it to find out if anything squishy is nearby


Simple; I can't stand Bethnet

Lothran is now enjoying the seaside beauty that is Anvil town. He has already played with the bandits in the nearby fort and next session will see him having some fun with the undead at Crowhaven.


Now why do I like that name...?

Oh, Buffy remembers spending a couple days in Anvil with Lothie. Didn't we go boar hunting to feed the Mages Guild. I mean before playing with horses on the beach and watching sunsets and stuffs.

Crowhaven. . .

One of Lothran's fondest memories, aside from Buffy coming to Bruma of course


Off-topic: I suggest changing name on this forum to this

Again, RG3 and her gang were just there, in Crowhaven that is. This was maybe a week ago. They are headed back into the Anvil / Kvatch / Sutch area again this weekend (if it's not sunny where I live) so there's a chance we could all finally meet. In theory.

This is kinda cool; we're both in the same area at the same time


By the by; do you have a Sutch mod that adds a village etc? I looked into it but decided against it.

In RG3's game I have two Sutch mods, patched together. I've got Arthmoor's version, which adds most of the town's outer buildings like farms and an inn, shops, etc. And I've got a second Sutch mod which adds a walled inner town area. I like 'em both.

Let's see, it is Sundas, 4:50 pm. Renee Gade and her party are invading Cursed Mine, outside of Skingrad. So they're not in the Sutch / Fort Hastrel area yet. They'll probably make it there in another two or three days.

They are getting quite rich by the way, by my standards. I checked her bank account and she's got over 10,000 gold in there!

Ms Gade is smiling all the way to the bank


------------------


Lothran is currently roaming the Colovian Highlands again. Yesterday he explored Telwinque for the first time (yes, first time evah) with little to report and today has seen trekking to Infested Mine to play with the marauders, though just a few ones. Didn't want to go through the whole thing as the weather was nice and shiny.

Today Lothran made his way to the Imperial City. He first offloaded some things in his shack, some of which will be transported to Bruma and some to Bravil, and then he decided to visit the Arcane University. Sadly, Buffy's old apartment now had a new occupant so she was not there.

The university visit had one goal in mind; upgrading the old Scout spell from 10pts/70ft to 5pts/100ft. Lothran often found that the old version was a bit short-ranged and for what it was meant to be; too powerful. So this change was much needed. He also took the opportunity to delete a few spells he has never used and only took up room in his spellbook.

The night was spent at the Tiber Septim hotel. Now it is morning and I think the wilderness is calling again.

Where is her apartment? Wait, is it the Abandoned Shack (which is not really abandoned?)

Interesting that you use the word apartment. I thought people in Europe always used the word "flat" instead.

In theory, a flat is an apartment on a single floor, so a subset of apartments. I have lived in an apartment on two floors of a narrow building, which I would not call a flat. Basements (garden flat if it has access to rear) and garrets (a.k.a lofts) which are just under the roof, are also eligible to be called flats (or apartments). The Mansard roof in French architecture is good for garrets.

You could argue that a garret becomes a loft if it has skylights, rather than just vertical windows. Or if the starving artist living there is a painter, rather than a poet, or author.

It's in the Arcane University.


Well, I'm an Americanized Scandinavian, so...

In Oblivion, Buffy had an apartment that she shared with Boderi Farano. It was a mod made by King Coin just for Buffy and the room itself was upstairs in the Mystic Archives.

I assume the apartment was a rebuild of the existing upper floor, not an extra floor?

I've always thought it odd that the Mages' Quarters was the only one with a basement level. I added one to the Practise Rooms for my mod, but that still leaves four more opportunities for extra space. Each unit has basically the same layout, so the same interior would work for any of them.

Cripes. Well I had no idea there were such definite definitions for flat, apartment, and various variations of the ilk. All I know is in America, very generally, an apartment is a subdivision of a bigger building which is rented, while a condominium (condo) is either leased, or bought outright.

Well, this being the Oblivion "where are you today?" section, I think I'd better post a character update. Unfortunately, it's been several days since I've played the game so (gulp) I have no specific idea where Joan of Arkay is. Renee Gade III is somewhere near Kvatch though. Lady Saga? I haven't gamed with her for months, so your guess is as good as mine.

Well then, I can say that Lothran is on his way to Cropsford, having had some fun along the way

Turdas, late morning Morning Star 9, 4th Era Year 421

Level: 22

Days Passed: 501

Cold, rainy day. Renee Gade III arrives to Shetcombe Farm, where two of her followers have waited over the past few days.

She managed to recruit two extra followers down in Anvil, so now she's got five followers in total. Two males, three females. One male is a Redguard, the other one is a Bosmer knight. These two guys join alongside RG3's usual Nord warrior, Dunmer archer, and "ghost companion' spellsword. Hopefully, everyone will fight the vampires of Fort Hastrel, and conquer the place without too much infighting. With all these different personalities, it's a given there will be some agro going on between them. RG3 has spent weeks gathering up this assemblage; quantity over quality basically. Once the deal at Hastrel is over, the two males will be dismissed.

It's still rainy when everybody gets to Hastrel. Not good, since it's best to lure vampires out of their lairs on sunny days, but it's going to take about a day to get into the heart of Hastrel (where that conglomerate of vamps are hidden) anyway. Hopefully they'll make it that far. For now though, everybody builds camp, while RG3 begins luring out those stray undead who populate the upper portions of Hastrel.

Lothran has not visited Hastrel in a long time, but he did just visit Belda, the large ruin in the Heartlands sort of on the way to Cheydinhal. Or to the Imperial City I guess, depending on where you're coming from.

Strange thing, as visible and central as it is, Lothran has never been inside before. It's never been the right time. But now we had some time after having visited Morcant and also it was raining so the circumstances were perfect

Oh, Elise tends to see large amounts of money come and go, as well. Since she's a mage that's constantly improving and seeing stronger and stronger enemies, she needs to keep her spellbook updated. Lately she's reached a point where it isn't that big of a priority, so she's had quite a few drakes to spare.

As to where she gets it from, she's become one hell of a grave robber. Or whatever purpose Ayleid ruins serve.

Which brings me to her recent adventures. I haven't played much so she's just started getting through Nibenay in search of ruins. Her first stop so far has been Welke, just on banks of the Panther River. For the first time in a while she was put to work in clearing out the inhabitants, and had to actually flee the ruin on more than one occasion.

Some particularly nasty Skeletons had taken up residence, and the worst ones had a habit of summoning an army of Liches. Not a problem for her, since she can just absorb their spells, but they kept her twin Dremora busy and banished them before they could properly deal with the Skeleton boss itself. Thankfully, Skeletons can't climb or jump. It took nearly three days but she cleared the entire ruin of undead and left with a few valuable trinkets to show for it, even a strange statue.

In some ways, she envies Renee Glade III and her posse. But she's too proud to ask for help from the wandering adventurers.

mirocu: one of these days ours are going to cross paths. We'll be in the same place at the same time, I just know it.


That's the thing about RG3 though--she's well-suited to fighting with a group, but her main drawback is if she decides to go on her own. Then, she's the one who might wind up fleeing, especially if she meets up against more than two at a time. So she's much better with her group. It's like a pack of dogs, coordinating spontaneously to take down enemies as they constantly move about! Some of my others prefer to go at it alone though, so being with RG3 is a rather unique experience.

That sounds downright scary, Elisa going up against all those daedra and high-leveled skeletons, and other advanced undead! What level is she? Are you using anything like Realistic Leveling or FCOM? Stuff which influences how leveling / loot / monsters show up and operate?