It is all so weird to me; being in Bruma in April? Good to know someone is keeping those goblins at bay, though!


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

Lothran has just visited Ethrol in Bleak Flats Cave. It must have been years since they last spoke, but he was still there alright. Happy as a clam in the dark cave.

I know I've been considerably quiet recently. Life and other things have gotten in the way. But after getting burned out on replaying Morrowind, I had the itch to play Oblivion again. And so when I have had the time to game, that's what I did. (By the way, I am playing a female Breton yet again as a second playthrough. Playing a male Argonian followed by a female Breton in TES games seems to be my thing. You'll never guess what I named her...it's only what I have named every female Breton in a TES game that I have played.)

And guess what? I MODDED IT.

That's right. I, Raderofthelostark, have finally added mods to an Elder Scrolls game. It was a bit frustrating at first figuring things out. Perhaps I was just too impatient and didn't really understand the tutorials I found, but after several boot-ups of Oblivion I finally got the mods working. And now I more or less know how to mod Morrowind and Skyrim as well, since the Oblivion Mod Manager has setups for them too.

There was so much of Cyrodiil I had not explored and a bunch of mechanics and skills I never really tried, so I really wanted to play Oblivion again. But I just could not bear the potato faces again, nor the atrocious level scaling. I had to change them.



Here are the mods I have so far, with some extra notes if necessary.

• Blockhead
• Enhanced Water v20 - I don't remember vanilla Oblivion having water reflections, so it must be the work of this mod. It's pretty nice.
• Improved Trees and Flora 2 - There's another mod I forgot to add where the alchemical plants visually change when you pick them. (Why Bethesda did not implement that before is beyond me.)
• Natural Environments
• Oblivion Character Overhaul v2 - Not only are the faces bearable; they're actually pretty nice! Some of the female characters are actually attractive. I need to still add the body replacer mod and get rid of the neck seams--the faces have often changed color shades, so there is a noticeable disconnect between face color and body color. But the facial overhauls are such a vast improvement that I can easily tolerate what those things.
• Oblivion Graphics Extender
• OBSE
• Realistic Leveling - There are several ways you can mess with this one. The way I have it set up, your attributes naturally level up with your skill increases instead of you having to meta-game with the garbage-ass "efficient leveling." And you level up automatically. It has not fully fixed the level scaling, but it is a vast improvement.
• Smarter Mercantile Leveling - Until I read the mod notes, I had no idea how unbelievably idiotic the Mercantile leveling is in vanilla Oblivion. It might be the worst designed system for leveling a skill in the entire game. It's incredibly slow and based on individual sales regardless of value or number of items. You sell 1 arrow or 100 arrows at the same time? Vanilla Oblivion gives those the SAME skill increases, and pathetically tiny ones at that. This mod lets you tweak a few things, but it changes the system so that it is based on the value of the items you sell. And what a difference it makes. I actually notice my Mercantile skill increasing!

It's been incredibly fun to play. There are a whole lot of new things that I learned as well. I'll go into more detail later if I need to, but I want to get out what I can now before I forget too much of it. Evelona is sort of a Mystic Archer build, but I made my own class. I'm not good with coming up with class names, so I just went with "trailblazer" because it sounds cool.

• I actually tried haggling, so there is that. With that and a self-made 50-point charm spell, and the sheer amount of good loot I am hauling back, I'm making a STUPIDLY HIGH amount of gold, lol.
• Somehow, when I killed one of those Mythic Dawn spies nearly Cloud Ruler Temple, it counted as a murder. It did it twice in a row, so I just said to hell (oblivion?) with it. Let's just prepare for Lucien Lachance to come. I wanted to test something out. And test it out I did. I found out that you CAN kill him if you attack him before he goes out the door, and the A Knife in the Dark quest completes a totally different way. Even though I was technically the aggressor, THAT somehow did not count as a murder. Guess it doesn't matter if it is a Dark Brotherhood member. Well worth it, in any case.
• It is quite viable to bait enemies into close range attacks for the most part so you can use touch spells. And I've made some seriously potent elemental spells with the Frostcrag Spire spellmaker. In many cases, apparently you will knock down the enemy as if they are already dead IF the attack is damage over time and it is going to kill them. Kind of funny to see them ragdoll then make a death sound and cease the battle music.
• IMO, Light Armor + Magicka with some good doses of Marksman = WAY more fun and potent than the primarily melee + heavy armor build I did the first time I played Oblivion.
• The third-person camera is far worse than I remember. It is just not playable in combat from that perspective. Which is kind of annoying since I like to see my character since...you know...I took the time to MAKE the character.
• It took me far too long to truly understand how the lockpicking minigame works, but now that I have in this second playthrough it's actually pretty fun. I even passed through two Very Hard difficulty locks in a row without breaking a lockpick.
• Similarly, it took me far too long to understand the persuasion minigame for Speechcraft. It wasn't until I read up on it on UESP that I fully understood it. In hindsight, I should figured it out in my first playthrough after messing around with it. In any case, Speechcraft is by far the most useless skill in the game. And I was dumb enough to make it one of my major skills. Oh well.
• For some reason, I remembered Leyawiin being a crappy town. Some of you have heard me talk about returning to that "dump" in ESO's Blackwood chapter. But now I remember that it is actually a nice town after going to it for the Mages Guild recommendation quest there. Now BRAVIL, on the other hand, I know is a complete dump. That's the only city I haven't visited yet on this playthrough, lol.
• Custom-made Fortify Strength spells + self-made Feather 100 pts spell + fast travel = hauling an entire dungeon's worth of loot back to town to sell. It's so overpowered and I love it. It has made me SO MUCH MORE gold since I have been able to do that.
• I remember that fast-traveling to an Oblivion gate does not immediately change the weather and sky to red like it normally would be walking up to one. But what I found out THIS time is, if you go through the Oblivion gate before the weather and sky correct themselves, the Deadlands will have the same weather that you were just in. One of my forays into Dagon's crib was cloudy and raining the entire time.

Also, here are Evelona's major skills. I took most of the magic schools. Some of them I pretty much never touched in my first playthrough, but it is so much fun to utilize ALL of the magic schools together. (Intelligence and Agility Speed are my two primary attributes.) I remembered there being major and minor skills, so I guess this was a change by the Realistic Leveling mod. (Or maybe I am just mixing the system up with Morrowind's.)

• Alchemy - The amount of money and the potency of potions you can make when you get a good skill (which, with Frostcrag Spire's garden and Alchemy Station buff, goes up very quickly) is absurd. The number of potions I have stashed in my Spire's chest is obscene.
• Destruction
• Mysticism - There has been a lot of Detect Life casting especially.
• Illusion
• Marksman - Yes, I do sometimes go the stealth archer route, lol. I never played one in TES before, crazy enough, and I know that is the meta for many people. Enchantments from sigil stones have made my bows pretty good, but with my magic attack capabilities I have been able to conserve my soul gems very well. Perhaps a little too well, since they are stockpiling like crazy, lol.
• Conjuration
• Speechcraft - *sigh*

This was far more writing than I anticipated. Time for bed, but I've been excited to get this out here. Might expound more on this later.

You named her Mariah? Lucky guess.

Ah, congrats Rader. My advice: Just go SLOW. Add those in one at a time, do some gaming, forget you've added any mods, go in different cells, speak to different NPCs, travel outdoors by foot, and so on. Note if anything is going wrong, and so on. If you dump a bunch of content into her game and something's going wrong, whether it's odd colors or frequent CTDs or whatever, you won't know what causing the problem(s). And now you have to work backwards, disabling stuff until you find the culprit.

As you've already noticed as you tried to get your stuff working right, troubleshooting is NOT fun. So don't rush. Stuff can go wrong if you do.

I also recommend installing your game outside of any Program Files folders. In fact, make two folders, and put both of them outside of Program Files. In one folder, put only the vanilla files which came with the game. In the second folder this is where you'll do your modding. All the Vanilla files are in this folder too, only difference is you're modding in this second folder. The reason to make two different folders. There are times when stuff goes wrong, and nothing seems to work as you try to find the culprit. Sometimes, simply copy/pasting the files from your Vanilla folder into your Modded folder can solve the problem. Somehow, one of those vanilla files went missing (it happens!). I've had to do this twice over the years (thanks Rosa, for teaching me this).

Of course, if you got your game from Steam, chances are it's already outside of Program Files. In this case I'd still create a second folder, which contains only the game's native files.

Another thing, modding Skyrim is not the same as modding Oblivion, or any of the earlier games. You really have to be careful with Skyrim. Because everything gets baked into the Skyrim save more permanently, and removing stuff can be more of a pain. But I'll wait until you start posting in the Skyrim section for that advice. In fact I would not even bother using the same manager for Skyrim. I can teach you how to use Wrye Smash instead. Some day.


I remember really having a blast when i first started modding Oblivion in 2013. First mod I added disabled the Points of Interest on my compass, which meant no more electrical tape on my TV to cover up that blasted compass! I also added my first character directly into the Bandit Faction via console commands. That blew my mind, to be able to walk into bandit locations, and nobody attacked my Dunmer.

Rader, so glad you're enjoying Oblivion! It really is a great game, and a few mods can really help the fact that it is a bit dated now.

Nope, Mariah is reserved for Fallout. I name all my female Bretons Evelona. In ESO's case, I added "Mathieu" at the end since Bretons often French-sounding names.

Yeah, I don't play on going all-in on these mods. I mostly just wanted to get integrated back into Oblivion with as close to a vanilla experience as I can while still tweaking some major sticking points. The ones I listed are the only ones I am going with for now, since I'm really enjoying it. Might add a few small ones as well, but someday I'd like to try that huge mod that adds Elsweyr.

I indeed have Steam installed on a different drive. C: has the Program Files and Program Files x86, while D: has all my game downloads. (My C: drive is the SSD for faster and more efficient speeds while my D: drive is the HDD for storage.) I also have my a copy of my mods in a separate "Elder Scrolls Mod Repository -> Oblivion" folder in case there are any issues.

That compass mod sounds interesting, actually. Maybe I'll try that someday in the future too, but I want to make sure I explore every location on the map that I can. I pretty much did on my first playthrough, but there were a lot of dungeons I did not explore. And since Oblivion doesn't tell you which ones you have cleared like Skyrim does (at least, before the enemies respawn in Skyrim), I couldn't remember all of the ones I hadn't gone into. Now every time I discover a fort/Ayleid ruin/cave/etc., I fully go through it. There was only one time I didn't do that, and I just went back to it yesterday because I knew which one it was.

And yes, this means that I am going to close EVERY damn Oblivion gate. Which reminds me of another little thing I discovered, mentioned at the end of this post.




The last time I seriously played Oblivion was...probably 2016. It's been some time, and I first beat the main quest and the expansions back in 2014/2015. Skyrim was my first TES game, back in 2013. Back then, I didn't realize how differently each TES title played from each other, so I was admittedly taken aback by Oblivion. I decided to keep playing with an open mind, and I enjoyed it. Honestly, when it comes to unmodded experience, I still prefer Skyrim and Morrowind over Oblivion.

BUT I also think Oblivion blows both of those games out of the water when it comes to the side quests. Skyrim and Morrowind are by no means bad about them, but Oblivion really showcased a height of creativity and memorability with them. Things like the ship that doubles as a hotel getting captured by pirates while you are asleep there, going into the Argonian mage's (or was that the one who assisted you?) dream, going to that island to supposedly help pay off that one guy's debt, Hackdirt, Glarthir, to count a few examples.

I rarely have replayed games in more recent years, even TES and Fallout titles. But I have substantially played a second run-through with Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, Morrowind, and now Oblivion over the past year and a half or so. For all their flaws, Bethesda games really know how to scratch particular itches.





A couple of other new things I discovered that I forgot to mention:

• As I was going through an Oblivion gate the other day, I found a Deadlands map that actually had TWO portals going into it. That was neat. I reloaded after I went out that gate because I didn't feel like messing around with the enemies on the other side (which was at least one goblin), but looking back on it I should've just dealt with it. Still, I wonder if that other gate will be destroyed, too, when I find it again, or if it'll go back into that same exact dungeon or another one.
• Another thing that took me way too long to figure out and that I only realized this playthrough (and which I probably shouldn't admit openly): Those tabs' symbols in the magic spells inventory section of the UI indicate Target, Touch, and Self spells. The All spells and the Current Effects tabs were pretty obvious, but it only just clicked a couple days ago what those other symbols were. Kind of sad, really.
• I'm breaking into the houses of people I think deserve it or that pissed me off in some way. There is that Khajiit, whose name I forget, in Leyawiin who is racist against Argonians, and that [censored] does not fly with me whether I am playing an Argonian or not. Only thing is that I haven't really had a long opportunity where she is not there, but one time she came in through the door and just looked at me. Kind of hilarious that you don't get a bounty for that as long as you don't steal something in front of her.
  
  In Skingrad I also broke into Glarthir's home. He didn't have a whole lot that I could do something with, but I did snag some gold and a few food items for alchemy. Of course, that will probably make him even crazier and think that it is more evidence that other citizens are spying on him, but *shrug* whatever.
  
  The last one I did this to was Alval Uvani, just yesterday. I don't remember him from my first playthrough, and I probably would if I encountered him because he is a particularly douche-y Dunmer. I have only encountered him in Skingrad so far, but I looked up some info on him and he apparently travels around. Anyway, I pickpocketed his key with ease (he noticed when I took his gold every damn time), but kind of annoyingly there would be no message that I got a bounty even though I did. I also learned from looking him up that his house is in Leyawiin. So, I went there and stole some things, but this time I took it one step further and grabbed any objects I could and threw them all over the place. (I'll post a screenshot of that later one). Maybe you won't be so stuck up next time, Alval.
• I don't remember Else God-Hater and Cingor revealing themselves to be Mythic Dawn agents in my first playthrough of Oblivion, but they did this time. But I don't think I remember any specific names from before, so technically every one of them revealing themselves will be new to me. Let's see if I can find all of them...

Evelona's a pretty name. Hope we get a picture soon. You're in luck if you want to try Elsweyr, as macole knows all about how to get it running.

Well good luck with your quest to visit every location in Cyrodiil. My Lady Saga's (elf archer) original goal was to do this, and I've been keeping a Notepad page on my computer which shows every location she's visited. Speaking of Saga, last I saw her she has left Bruma, and is headed to Chorrol. I'll make a full update later.

YAY, another returning Oblivion player. Sometimes that ‘got to save rats’ feeling just overwhelms me. Enjoy.

Nice set of initial mods you have there. I could suggest a few more must haves if you’d like. I’m currently using 296 mods so I do know a little bit. Well enough to say if you add OOO, MMM, and MOO be prepared to fight for your life. Maskar’s Oblivion Overhaul is very good by the way.

OBSE and Realistic Leveling I’ve used for years. They are on my must have list.

OCOv2 is good. It does make some very pretty faces. It even vastly improved the faces for the Integration-The Stranded Light mod which has the most horrid looking faces you’ll ever see. OCOv2 does have its issues though. My biggest complaint is with the Orcs.

Trailblazer is a good class name, every bit as good as Mystwalker which I’ve used for some 20-years. For a Trailblazer I would like to suggest The Ayleid Steps. It will have you blazing a trail across Cyrodiil taking you places you never thought you’d go otherwise.

The skill-set looks great. I agree with doing away with a dedicated armor skill. It gives a feeling of versatility to the character.

Glad to see you getting a renewed interest in Oblivion, Rader!


And Saga has left Bruma for Chorrol? Sounds like someone is doing the Lothie run

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

-For a really good sword, try "A Fighting Chance" in the Imperial City.

Fadus Calidius' words surprised Lothran a bit; he was just about to say goodbye to his fellow Guild members and then head to the capital to offload all the stuff he's collected whilst staying in Skingrad county. So that advice couldn't have come better. Not that the elf needs a really good sword, but still.

The road back to the City was mostly clear, only a couple of ogres and a Willow Wisp gained the attention of Lothran's Spriggan and her pet. Now to rest in the shack for a bit and then it's time to go to the market district, and perhaps bet on a fight?

Lothran still returns to his Waterfront Shack after all this time, how charming.

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

Turdas, Heartfire 19, Year 1, late evening



The trio of figures left Bruma some time earlier in the morning: Aerin, bosmer archer from Valenwood, followed by a pair of Imperial soldiers. One of these soldiers was a typical tin-suit, wearing heavy gray armor. He had been on patrol somewhere along Red Ring Road when Aerin the elf had found him. The other soldier was a Forester. His area of garrison had been just north of Bruma. Again, she had spoken to him, and persuaded him to leave his low-paid foresting job. Riches and adventure were promised, and that's all it took to get him to come along with her.

The elf had a bay horse which she never rode; instead, she used it as a pack mule. This horse had no name, and was loaded down with at least a dozen bows, two crossbows, and all sorts of assorted supplies and arrows. On this horse's massive carrying satchel was a sword of silver which Aerin had no use for. She gave this sword to the Imperial forester. Now he'd have a second weapon for close combat.

But now, the three travelers came to a stop. They had made it to the first ridge south of Bruma, where greener forest became the dominant landscape. The elf motioned for her horse (and the soldiers) to stay put a few moments, while she stalked off.

"That Honditar really knows his way around this area," said the forester to the tin-suited soldier. "Have you ever spoken to him?"

"I've spoken to him," answered the soldier. "He really knows his way around. Every tree, rock, and cave in the area."

"Hmm."

By now, the elf was many yards away. The forester noticed she often would stop, stoop, and rummage through plants by the side of the road.

"What's she doing anyway?" asked the forester.

"Looking for any useful plant life she can find. Saga likes picking up every herb, mushroom, flower, frond, you name it. All so she can build up a good stock of ingredients. She uses some of those to make potions, some to make poisons, and others she simply subsists upon."

The forester pondered a moment. "Wait, you mentioned her as 'Saga'. Do you mean to say she is the Lady Saga I've heard so much about?"

"Yes."

"By the Gods!"

The forester smiled. He had had no idea who she was when they'd met, but the reputation of this 'little elf' had preceded her.

Ever since the end of the Oblivion Crisis some months before, rumors of a blonde elf (who was not as loquacious or charming as that other blonde elf, the one who'd actually assisted at Kvatch and Bruma) had been spreading, especially amongst the Legionaries of Cyrodiil. Whether they were road patrols or foresters, these soldiers were slated to spend a lot of time outdoors. And it was outdoors that Lady Saga often spent days at a time, surviving from the land. The elf preferred having soldiers travel with her instead of townspeople, which is where all the rumors about her had sprouted.

Soldiers of Cyrodiil were already living outdoors for much of their life. Fighters Guild and Mages Guild members also occasionally traveled with her. But it was the soldiers who were already toughened by the land, its weather, and its creatures. So went Saga's logic, anyways.

As the elf returned to the pair of soldiers, the forester gagged when he noticed she was eating some sort of green mushroom. Certainly, such a cap would be ... quite bitter, right out of the ground?

"She often does that," said the tin-suit. "I'd get used to it, if I were you."

"Take care," said the forester, who was thinking he'd just stick to his usual diet of mutton and ale.


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

Adventuring Party

"Grraaak!"

Forrrr the Empire!

Renee, how neat traveling with those two soldiers. Buffy used to do the same, repairing their gear, keeping them healed up. I remember when traveling with mounted soldiers that we'd use the command console to adjust Superian's speed from 'Oh Wow' (50) down to the much more leisurely pace of a Legion bay (26).

Moar updates. I'll put up some screenshots later--and speaking of screenshots, how do you get the game to freeze like you would in Skyrim and Fallout 3/NV/4? The "tfc 1" command doesn't pause in Oblivion, so I can't get cool action scenes like I want, and Evelona's poses are pretty much all the same 2 or 3 kinds.

Anyway, like I said, moar updates. Mostly observations, really.

• Martin and Jauffre are going to be furious when they realize how much I have been screwing around. I haven't even completed the Blood of the Daedra quest because of all the exploring I'm doing. And I also want to make sure I get every Oblivion Gate before the main quest finishes. Actually, I want to have them all taken out by the Battle for Bruma so I can have as many participants as I can.
• Last night, I had a 40 gold bounty...and I HAVE NO IDEA HOW. I found out after the Mythic Dawn sleeper agent in Castle Bravil revealed himself, upon whose death the guard confronted me with the infamous "Stop right there, criminal scum!" quote. I thought the game idiotically bugged out again and counted that MD agent's death as a murder like Jearl's, even though both were in self-defense and against bad people. Nope. I reloaded and I had 40 bounty before that. And guess what else? TWO MURDERS! That is inexplicable. I have absolutely no idea how I got those. (I do have loads of assaults because of all the pre-emptive strikes against enemies though, lol.) This is incredibly annoying, perhaps more than it should be. This ****ing game, I tell you...
• I don't know what's funnier: One-shoting enemies with a potent target spell to send them flying, or sneaking up behind them and sending them flying with a potent touch spell. Both are certainly hilarious though.
• Speaking of which, I have A LOT of self-made spells. I'll have to post them here sometime. I even named a few of them in reference to ESO classes (Dragonknight's Fury, Sorceror's Overload, and Warden's Brumal Missile, with each doing 100 pts damage for 4 seconds on target by fire, shock, and frost, respectively).
• Bravil is a total dump, but at least I now have the least dumpy place in the city. Actually, it probably isn't, lol. But I'm gunning for owning every house in the game. I have bought (or received, in the case of plug-ins) and fully furnished Frostcrag Spire, Battlehorn Castle, the house in Skingrad (Rosethorn Hall, IIRC), the house in Bruma, the house in Cheydinhal, and the house in Chorrol (Arborwatch, IIRC). I have no intention of doing anything with Deepscorn Hollow. I remembered there being an assassin there you could send out but I wanted to kill the assassin instead, thought I apparently forgot that you have to buy his services from the guy who sells you the furnishings. I may do that just so I can kill the assassin.
• The ragdoll physics are even funnier than I remember. It's best with a bow, which I barely used in my first playthrough. More times than I can count, they jump limply into the air or even go flying backward while doing a couple flips in the air.
• I enchanted a huntsman's vest for Evelona with 20% shield from a sigil stone and named it "Totally Protective Bra," since that is what it appears as for a female character. Because as we all know, the more scantily clad a woman in an RPG is, the better her defensive rating, as makes logical sense. I have my Glass Cuirass (also enchanted with 20% shield from a sigil stone) in my Frostcrag Vault for now. I have a total of 60% shield from other enchantments, and being quick enough to evade a lot of attacks or heal from them has made the defensive rating loss from switching from the cuirass not a big deal.
• I am such a stingy douche when it comes to gold, lol. As of this writing, I have about 350K gold, yet I still have the habit of picking up so much valuable loot and using self-made Feather and Fortify Strength spells to carry it all. And I still sometimes mess with the Haggle function and try to go to the merchants that can give you the most money as much as I can. I also have an obscene number of Welkynd Stones in my Frostcrag Vault too, with about 115 there and about another 10 in my inventory. And don't even get me started on how many various potions I have made (and the 120+ Strong Potions of Healing and Strong Potions of Magicka) or the ingredients I have stashed, with my Alchemy already at level 100. My hoarding problem has reared its ugly head again.

Use Console Commands. *DING!* It has a command called tfc2 (no spaces) which does exactly what you want.

40 gold is the amount allotted for Assaults I think, so that would be my guess. Your character assaulted the wrong NPC at the wrong time. And there is a bug in this game which causes bounties to appear even without any crime, I seem to remember.

Shesus, Evalona already has 350k??? Even some of my longest-lasting characters never gained more then 50k at one time, and that's in TES I: Arena, not TES IV: Oblivion.

Lothran only spent a small amount of time in the Imperial City, just one night in fact. Come early morning he set off back to Skingrad where he is right now, but he's not stopping there. Because now it's time to go to the wonderful coastal town of Anvil!

-------

Shetcombe Farm.

On his way to Anvil, Lothran always stops by here. It's a very nice place and it's a shame its owner is long since gone. Crops still look fine though!

Lothran has now installed himself in Anvil county! He went directly to the Fighters Guild to patch up his gear and then to the Mages Guild to rest in the fine library, reading up on the town in the official guidebook.


On the way to Anvil he luckily ran into, or rather was run into by, M'aiq. This elusive Khajiit is rarely seen by Lothran but today was the day. He stopped briefly to talk to the Dunmer about where wolves and men are, and then proceeded to sprint off to Leyawiin.

Don't forget to savor some of those beautiful Anvil sunsets over the Abecean.

Of course! Lothran got the same advice from one of the friendly Khajiit in the city, and he'll be sure to follow it


Yes; Lothran is now stationed in Anvil where I foresee his nearest future for quite some time. Anvil and Anvil county is wonderful and we wouldn't want to miss out on it

Middas, early morning, Sun's Height 10, 4th Era, Year 1



Joan of Arkay awakens inside her rented room, here in Pell's Gate. The air is warm. And it sounds like nobody is in the dining room below her. Which is good. A quick meal then, before she goes outside once again, to brave the world and all its wanton miscreants.

She walks downstairs. "Morning," she says to Candice Corgine, the inn's publican. A quick meal, that's all she needs before she's off to brave the world.

"I need to thank you again for including me in your travails," Candice starts. "You have done so many great things for us in the past, and the brilliant blue dress you retrieved from Horn Cave has been stored away from the moths."

"Oh, kindness, milady," Joan is hungry. She spies Candice's fruit section. "'Tis my calling, which is of no matter, at all."

"There is somebody else here in Pell's Gate who needs your assistance," Candice continues.

"Is there?"

"You are the one who's rid us of those marauders across the way so many times in the past," Candice smiles. "Fort Homestead, blasted place! Oooh I wish I could just burn it all to the ground!" she growls. "Can't do this though, place is made of stone."

"Perhaps I can assist," Joan starts. "Right after I--"

"Go speak to Irroke the Wide, the Nord man who frequents our little hamlet. Just outside, eh? He can tell you more perhaps."

"I shall do so," Joan of Arkay affirms. The Gods have called down to me, once again. "Just after I break previous night's fast..."

"Great," Candice's face beams. "Now, would you like a room, or perhaps a bit of wine?" she winks. "Heh, just a little joke there. We're not in Weye, are we?"

Joan of Arkay starts her day with a carrot, a blackberry, and two pears. The Gods have called down, indeed.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

10:43 am
Outside, the weather is warm. Completely pleasant. Joan quickly finds Irroke the Wide, who's in the midst of conversing with Shafaye. "What's your story?" Shafaye, Pell's Gate's resident hunter greets Joan, as Joan draws near.

"Morning," Joan says to the Redguard. "And Irroke, I shall need to converse with you."

"What is it?" Irroke returns to the crusader before him. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Candice mentioned I should speak with you? Might I be so bold as to inquire as for why?"

"Hm," the gray-haired Nord rubs his chin. "Candice running her mouth, letting the whole world know about my little problem. Well, I guess it's not so little."

"I see. Please go on."

"You look familiar," starts the Nord. "But I don't really know who you are." His chin gets another rub again before he continues. "You have the look of an adventurer, but why should I tell you anything?"

"Apologies, sire. Joan of Battlehorn, at your beckoning. Worldly agent of Arkay, at your whim."

But the Nord is unimpressed. "How about a few gollld from you? Times are tough, ya know? So let's say ... five gold pieces in my pocket. Just to loosen my lips."

The request seems strange, but Joan plays along. She's got well over a thousand pieces hidden in one of her horse's satchels. *clink!*

"See, now was that so hard? You might be surprised at how frew adventuring types pass through here nowadays that the Oblivion Crisis has ended."

Joan waits patiently.

"Well let me get to the point," he stares at her seriously. "Good thing we have Shafaye, the Redguard woman I was just speaking to. She's good with a bow... But she's not so good with Fort Homestead, she's only good at hunting deer. And rabbits."

Joan says nothing. Does this man wish me to rid the inhabitants of Homestead? thinks she.

"Therefore yes, I can use your help," Irroke finally admits. "See, those beasts across the way stoled my hand-axe! It's an axe of silver, and very, very valuable. If you can go in there and find it for me, I'd gladly reward for your troubles. What do you say?"

Joan begins to speak, but Irroke interrupts fist.

"Hmm. Doesn't matter now, does it?" he says. "You're involved, either way. I wish you luck in there. You have the right look, that's for sure."

Joan nods, taking the compliment without gloating, or fanfare.

"Now what was I up to?" the Nord walks away. "Oh yeah, gotta wander around and ramble a bit. Heh."


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

Joan consults with Candice

Irroke the Wide

Fort Homestead, blasted place!

Storming Fort Homestead

Fall for me, Breton!

'Tis not within mine guidance, miscreant!

May Arkay guide thine path!

Pells Gate and nearby Fort Homestead bring back many fond memories as a routine stop on Buffy's many trips between Bravil and the Arcane University.

You really do a nice job giving Joan a quirky but so very appropriate manner of speech.

Happy hunting, Joan!

Renee - Joan has the patience of a saint! Is it Arkay that she serves? So does Lena, but not in the same way... "The god of death? I know him well." That Nord should be careful whose patience he's trying. It is not a threat - it's a warning.

PS. Lena is still in Skyrim, but she is dreaming of Cyrodiil.

Yes, Arkay is Joanie's #1 patron saint I guess. She does subscribe to others of the Nine, although I'd have to really get back into her roleplay again to discover which of them she dotes toward more than others. Good to know Lena also associates with the Nine. Does she also do so with any daedric lords (it's okay with me if she does).

Joan is also going to be featured in Morrowind and I just wrote the opening stories for that last week. She may even become Nerevarine. Whatever she did in Vvardenfell, it was grand. I like to think this is how she got Battlehorn Castle for "free" in Cyrodiil.

That story fits Joan to the tee. Looking forward to it - and I haven't played enough Morrowind to know too much.

Lena has had... err... relationships with daedric lords - Sheogorath, Sanguine, Hircine, may be some others... She might even tell about some, and some might even pop up in her stories... (hint - see one of the latest episodes). She doesn't serve any of them though.

Hee hee I can see her dealing with them occasionally, at least. There are times even goody characters have to do so, here and there.

Joan of Arkay went from Pell's Gate to the Imperial City after dealing with the marauders of Homestead. Needs to buy & sell, and also get her gear repaired. Hopefully she's got enough gold now to afford an upgrade to Battlehorn. That place is a money-sink!

Loredas, early afternoon, Sun's Height 13, Year 435 -- As the Elder Council convenes towards the decisions which will change Third Era to Fourth Era, Joan of Arkay clanks her way out of the Imperial City. She just spent a lot of gold on a suit of classic-styled iron armor, trading away the steel she's been wearing for months. Temperatures rise as summer begins, and her steel suit has become too oppressive.

"How do you do?" greets a pleasant, gray-haired Altmer`.

"Blessed," Joan answers.

Did Joan happen upon a certain Redguard carrying some cheap wine?

Joan of Arkay has just ascended to Level 11! I dumped +5 into Ingelligence, +5 into Willpower, and +4 to Agility. That's right, a genuine +5 +5 +4. Starting to get the hang of this game, lol.

That sounds like "levelling up". Think I remember that concept...

Guess it's been awhile, huh?

(that did not come out sounding right...)

Lothran has been taking it slow a couple of weeks but yesterday he was out and about again and visited Lord Drad's Estate and Malacath's shrine. He's currently by the shipwreck to the south and is next up for some vamp hunting at Crowhaven.


Wonder why that place rings a bell to me...

Sun's Height 28, 4th Era Year 1, mid-afternoon -- It's a rather chilly day (for summer), when Joan of Arkay finally returns to Battlehorn Castle. She's been away from the place for awhile now, maybe over a month. An Imperial Road Patrol has been stationed right outside her castle. Oh my, how Cyrodiil has changed!

(I'm going to have some real fun with Battlehorn now that her game is on PC.... omg. )

Careful it is easy to go mod crazy.

I probably won't touch any official mods, instead I'll add my own ideas. I already added a couple wenches, for instance. Females who do the grunt work. Place needs more women. I also (finally) was able to make those wimpy Battlehorn Men-At-Arms more durable, so they'll actually last for awhile longer than they did on Xbox. Some of those guys... one encounter with a couple goblins might finish them.

I also added a script to Rona which makes her 'attend' to Joan in a more immediate way, according to if Joan sits in a particular chair. Sort of like in Skyrim. If we sit down in some inns, this cases Saadia (or whomever) to come and try to serve us.

...I did all that in a mad flurry last night. Took about 20 minutes or so.

That is a great addition, something I certainly wouldn't have thought of. I wouldn't even know how to begin such a script.

It's summertime for realz and Lothran is relaxing in Anvil county. This time last year we were in Shivering Isles and plans were to return there this year. But things turned out differently and we're quite happy about it. The Gold Coast is very nice and we don't need the adventures of the Isles again.


It's vacation time

Have you heard of that ancient sea battle near Anvil? Apparently, someone dug up Dunbarrow Cove - and there's a cave inside! A cave, I tell you! Aren't you itching to go in? Animals or bandits inside, no doubt.

"Dunbarrow Cove?"sez you.
"Been thar," sez I.
"What you find thar?" sez you.
"Hehe, I know but I ain't gonna tell you," sez I.

Lothran has now left Anvil to go to the Imperial City. There he's gonna offload many things that has been collected since Easter (mainly ingredients) and then it's off to Bravil. He's not going to spend a lot of time in the City at this point.

The sands of Anvil County will change for the swamps of Blackwood

Lothran is now in Bravil and after conducting a few business deals he will head out into the wilderness again. Blackwood and Leyawiin will soon get a visit too.

Say hi to Daenlin! And Nilawen. Oh, and Kud-Ei. And Ardaline too please.

Say "hi" also to Lady Saga! And Chainsaw Lollipop!

(Oops, wrong game)

Skooma? You've got Skooma? Friend? Pal? To share? Oh pass the Skooma already!

Lothran is currently at the Fighters Guild in Leyawiin county.

Does Lothie ever run into Buffy's dear friend Sir Mazoga while visiting the Leyawiin area?

No. Much like Dr Betruger at the end of Doom 3 she's nowhere to be found.

Well, I'm sure the valiant Knight of the White Stallion died valiantly defending Leyawiin from Black Bow Bandits.

Whoops!

Welcome back, Phon! Although I don't quite remember those cities from Oblivion...

Ha ha!
It's good to be back!

Just realised what I've done there!

Sundas, Heartfire 29, 4th Era Year 1 -- Lady Saga is in Chorrol, where she just finished getting paid by County Chorrol to rid the scum of Black Rock Caverns. She can do more work like this, but right now she has over 5,000 gold stored away in her horse's bags. This money needs to go to Valenwood, for she does not trust Cyrodiil's new banks.

Saga is a wanderer though. She won't go straight to Valenwood. Right now she's thinking about heading southwest toward Sutch and Anvil. Cutting straight through forest and grassland. Seeing if she can find anywhere new to explore. Because that's what Lady Saga does best. Explores for new places, while living off the land for sustenance.

Sundas, Heartfire 29, 4th Era Year 1 -- Lady Saga is in Broken Promises Cave. Didn't I just say she would get distracted? Overall, she's headed to Valenwood, but -- as usual -- she will take the long way home.

Broken Promises is full of bandits, slayers, ringleaders, and so on. Saga these days often uses a combination of tactics to defeat them. Like this....

1). Shoot enemy with bow or crossbow.
2). Summon a bear, or 10 rats, if enemy is not pwned instantly.
3). Go invisible, as a last resort. Sneak away.
4). Find a safe place to set up, aim, and take fire.

I got some great pictures, I will post them tomorrow.

Sundas, Frost Fall 4, 4th Era Year 1 -- Lady Saga discovered Wind Cave, which is somewhere in the Colovian grasslands.

Wind Cave is new for her! I've been keeping track of every location she visits, putting them all on a Notepad page over the past 7 years or something. So I know she hasn't been to Wind yet. She did not stay long, though. Had a peek inside, saw a land dreugh fighting a glass golem, and decided not to explore that one. She's not a big fan of monster hideouts.

Now she is in Fort Ditrich, which contains undead and... some sort of NPC. Probably magical. My elf has poisoned her bow with a silence dose, just to be sure.