Woo hoo! *snow dances*

Over the holidays, I loaded up Oblivion/DLC's/CK and my mods onto a laptop, to take with me to England, while visiting my relatives. So that meant creating a new character, who was going to be Brenda the Breton, but ended up being an Imperial called Brenda instead, because Breton/mage is too cliche.

Since I installed from the Anthology disk, I included KotN for the first time, and the first quest line I played was that one. On being declared Divine Crusader, she immediately rushed off to the IC to join the Thieves Guild, as I needed her to test the new Evergloam stuff I was creating. "I used to consider you a hero" has become as annoying as "arrow in the knee" or "...mudcrab...".

She uses no weapons or armour, so leaving the Crusader set on its stand was no biggie. Brenda now has 100% chameleon when she needs it (like sneaking past Evangeline Beanique instead of getting into a fight, and out of the mages guild), can open hard locks by spell, and uses Absorb Health for offence.

Last seen wandering around a cave that is to become the Twilight Sepulchre, once it's cleared out and re-decorated. She got there via a portal from Nocturnal's Castle, so although it's somewhere near Falkreath, there's no way out to look around. Someone is digging a tunnel for the new entrance, but it's currently a dead end full of rubble.

Her next quest should be the one Clark's doing over in the FF thread.

This calls for celebration!! all around!!



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

Lothran has just finished his second guard shift this winter. Some bloody cold nights by the north gate it has been indeed, but now he can go back home to his warm fire. Think he´s gonna brew some potions when he gets back

It was dark when The Lady Eilidh inion Mhic Amhalghaidh stepped off of the boat and onto the docks at Anvil, it was also raining drearily from a miserable grey sky.
She looked up and, making a face, pulled the rather unsatisfactory commoner's shirt around her petite frame.

It wasn't all bad, at least, through prior arrangement with a contact she had secured some equipment from a nearby specialist emporium. After that it was up to her, but at least she'd be wearing something more... appropriate; the sword would be no bad thing either.
She trudged along the creaking boards of the dock, pondering her situation.
It was an honour that her father had chosen her for this task, she had worked very hard, Gods knew, to earn his respect and that hard work was now paying off with what, she felt, was to be her final test. But all the same a part of her wished she could skip all this drudgery in Gods-foresaken provinces far from home and move on to the good stuff straight away; it was... unbecoming for a woman of her station to be mucking about on the docks of some horrible little settlement full of humans and who knew what else.
It didn't help she'd have to mix with them as well.

Still, it was a task; it was her task, and she'd never failed yet.
Her immediate destination came into view.
And she'd be damned if she would fail now.

She'd never live it down at court, for one thing...

ghastley - Good to see you back in Cyrodiil!

mirocu - Aww, Lothie's so dedicated! I hope the resist cold boot socks help those long watches.

Phon - Welcome back. I see a new elf just got off the boat!


Buffy had something rare happen. She silenced a nether lich then sic'd a summon on him. The lich responded by firing his staff at Buffy - and her summon promptly evaporated. She managed to kill the lich of course, and discovered on his corpse a staff of dispelling. Much to Buffy's chagrin, I wish foes had better access to, and command of, some of the more Buffy-disruptive effects like dispel, silence, burden and detect life. Since she runs fairly close to her weight limit (due to a base strength of 30), she does get disrupted sometimes by burden spells, scrolls and staves that enemy mages sometimes use (immediate action = feather spell). Only once in awhile will she get zapped by a silence scroll or staff, although wraiths seem to use it as a power.

Brena, the Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild, stepped out of the headquarters building to go look for that Redguard she'd been told about. She found Haballa talking to Gudrun from the Rider's Lodge. Apparently the latter is in the city to look at a site for a new recruiting office. She still has to get the key to the place, so Brenda's going to Chorrol to follow up on a lead that Haballa gave her. She'll see what Gudrun's up to when she gets back.

It's interesting how a Nord from Skryrim and a Redguard from the Alik'r desert regard the climate of Cyrodiil. Too warm for one is too cool for the other.

Welcome back PhonAntiPhon. So Niamh's story is done, eh?



Heh yeah, I can see your thinking, too!

Thanks!

And I neglected to mention how much I'm look forward to hearing about your modded OB game! I'll bet you'll love it! We took about 30 seconds yesterday to fix the A-bomb in Buffy's game for about the umpteenth time - yeah, life is good playing on PC.

Thanks.
Yep, very much so, although I've a suspicion her ghost still haunts events and places around and about...
Eilidh may come across pieces of her legacy from time-to-time, who knows...?

Phon - Welcome, Ellie!

Renee - I´m also looking forward to your modded game

Acadian - Someone dispelled Buffy´s summon? How daaaare they!??

ghastley - An interesting observation about the temperature, isn´it?

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

Lothran went home to make a few potions and poisons and is now amongst his friend at the Mages Guild. He needs more ingredients but Selena didn´t have much at the moment. Guess we´ll have to wait.

Last Seed 30...

To break the boredom whilst waiting for Morvayne's to open - (she was cursing the tardiness of the local shopkeepers, her father would have had them flogged by now) - Eilidh took herself off out of the land gates to espy the landscape surrounding Anvil.
Leaving the gates she took a path up and off to the left, past the stables and rising up into the hills from where she paused to look back over the vista of the Abacean Sea and Anvil. The day was warm and sunny and a light breeze whispered in the lush grasses that covered the hills down to the sparkling water.

From the port came the sound of boats and business, the shouts of sailors and captains. For a moment she felt homesick, this place was so quiet and dull compared to her home and the few things that were familiar, the port being one of the them, just made it worse.
Whilst she understood the reason for the task her father had set her, she also hated him for it; had she not done enough to prove herself? Gods it was hard enough as it was rising above her peers' automatic assumption that, as a Princess, she could have anything she wanted - she did, it was true - but she wanted more than what she had, more life and less restriction and her father had in any case chosen another path for her; without a son and bereft of a wife to provide him with one, he had taken it upon himself to make a son of her - and with some success, although the result was that at 25 she was now some strange hybrid; neither a Lady nor a Soldier, but something in-between, distrusted by everyone despite her admitted talents as both royalty and warrior scout.
Almost everyone...
...but that was another story.

With a sigh and a curse under her breath that if the promised instructions did not arrive before the next day or the one after she would walk back across the ocean herself, kingdom or no - (except she would not, and her father knew it) - she turned her gaze away from the town and headed a little into the countryside.

Pausing on a hillock amidst the tall grasses, she looked out over the open ocean, as she did so, her gaze was drawn to a small dwelling further down-slope from her, looking out over the sea. Her curiosity piqued, and for want of anything better to do, she set off down the hill towards it.
The scent of flowers and herbs was strong in her nostrils and she regretted, not for the first time, that she had been unable to bring her alchemy books with her. Whilst she was not one for study, she enjoyed the creation of potions and the study of the melding of things together to produce elixirs and poisons, strange liquids that bubbled and frothed and could kill or cure with a single drop; send a lover to sleep for a thousand years or awaken her with a but sniff of vapour.
Ah well, she'd just have to use her nose and what knowledge she'd retained on the occasions she paid attention to her tutor...

She passed on down, to her right was some shrine or other, presumably to whatever Gods they had here. She paused a moment. The shrine, and the standing stones that dotted the area, seemed more preferable to her than the grandiose chapel that Anvil had - (although not so grand now, she had heard).
Presently she arrived at the dwelling, which turned out to be a small cottage. It looked once to have been rather sweet, covered as it was in now overgrown climbing plants and flowers. She walked around to the door, the place seemed reasonably whole still, although it had an abandoned air to it, a sad feel in a way.

Gingerly she prodded at the door, it opened slightly. Behind her the wind was picking up, ruffling through her thick coppery hair and the flowers she habitually tied in it - (an affectation from her teenage years she had not shaken off. She was a soldier, but she was also a Lady, a Princess even, and would wear pretty things if she wanted. many an adversary however, and comrade if truth be told, had discovered that she was perfectly capable of punching them in the face and putting on lip-paint at one and the same time...).
Looking back over her shoulder she saw the clouds coming in again. So much rain in this country!

Pushing open the door, she headed into the darkened interior and away from the approaching storm, just noticing the little engraved wooden sign on the door-frame: "Blue Moon Cottage".

-x-

-Some days later-

Eilidh was lying in the bed in the basement of Blue Moon Cottage when the messenger arrived.

It was around 6 of the clock and still dark in the basement, Eilidh had taken to sleeping in what she assumed was the spare bed following that first terrible night's sleep in the main one. She had awoken several times with the distinct impresson she was being watched.

The Elf was staring at the ceiling, the musty covers pulled up over her shoulders, her coppery hair spread out over the pillow. Sleep was yet to arrive, and instead she lay and fulminated, her luminous eyes sparkling greenly in the dark.
She was, and not for the first time, running through the many points of resentment that she had against her father for marooning her here in this Gods-foresaken backwater. It was pointless to be sure but it made her feel better.

During the time she had been in Anvil she had, with a total lack of success, attempted to probe its population for news that might help her work out why she was in Cyrodiil and further, might just help her to pinpoint when her contact, whom she had been advised was to make an appearance with further instructions was, in fact, to appear.
It had all ultimately been to no avail, partly due to her inability to speak anything more than rudimentary Tamrielic and conversely the inability of any of those she spoke to to speak her language at all; and partly due to the fact that it had become increasingly clear that none of the humans, pond-life, or the sadly repressed Elvenkind who hung around the place had any more idea what was going on than she did.
If she were honest, she knew that already, but the first rule was you had to try every avenue.

In the end, for want of anything better to do, and short of cash - (not a natural state of affairs for a Princess, even one who was a warrior in her father's army) - she had joined the "Fighter's Guild".
Over the last week or so she had been tasked with killing rats and rescuing incompetant shopkeepers. The most interesting diversion had been that group of women in the farm who were hussling married men. She would have joined up with them just to alleivate the boredom if they had not suddenly got suspicious of her motives and she'd been forced to kill them all.

Other than that? Waiting, and more waiting.
It was frustrating to be honest. Eilidh, Daughter of Mac Auley, was not a woman for whom waiting for things came naturally, add to that her military service - (she shared with all warriors a natural resentment of "hanging about") - and she had been nearly ready to tear off her face after several days of running errands for these bumpkins and sitting on her butt waiting for further orders that she was increasingly sure would never come.
What was her father playing at?

++++

The knife was in her hand was in her hand and she was crouched on the rough wooden floor in front of the basement door almost before she was consciously aware of being there....

Samara found herself in Chorrol, being spat on by a drunk as he talked. Eventually, he got around to asking her to find out who was "besmirching his good name" in Cheydinhal. She ended up reuniting two brothers and...now they want her to face trolls.

Nope. On her way to Weatherleah, it began raining, and she sought refuge in Fort Carmala. Slipping on the wet stone stairs,, she nearly slid face-first into the body of a bandit. Had the rain not been so thick, she would've seen the town in front of the abandoned fort. Instead, she came across her first vampire nest.

Welcome back, Phon, and welcome to Ellie.

Liz, it looks like Samara's been busy! Drunks and (almost) trolls and vampires, oh my!

Thank you Acadian.
And Liz, that was a great and concise update - something that I am sadly incapable of doing!!

Good to see you writing again PhonAntiPhon. *claps* I shall read it later, I'm about to start up my own game.

Snaat Rayag is in jail. Literally Day 1. I know nothing about him, but will be doing some experiments with modding in his game.

One thing right off the bat: there was some discussion over at Beth about the darkness of dungeons from consoles to PC. I can definitely say consoles are darker. I'll post a couple screenies later to show proof. So therefore, I've got 2 mods in his game so far (Natural Hunger and See You Sleep) but I'm going to try Darker Dungeons as well.

To me, the console's dungeons are also too bright, which caused me to create my Darker Dungeons Pretend Mod for PS3 and Xbox. This means I basically darken my TV screen whenever going in a lair. So maybe with the actual PC mod I won't have to do this anymore.

@Phon - Hopefully Princess Grumpy won´t be so grumpy and restless much longer...

@Liz - A vampire nest! Don´t bring up that subject with Buffy, she´ll cringe!


Oh, you crazy PC modder, you!

LOL Princess Grumpy...!
Yeah I think she will be ok.

Lothran is just back from an excursion in the mountains where he´s been visiting the shrine to Azura and Silver Tooth cave. A few ogres were slain along the way and the snow never stopped falling. Of course

oops. wrong thread!

A nice walk in the Jeralls was Lothran´s goal for today. In the mountains he sought peace and milk thistle seeds for his potions and I can happily report that he got both

Renee, sounds like you are having a blast with your PC game! Like a kid thief in a candy mod store!

mirocu, ahah! I see now that Lothie's winter range extends west and east to the shrines of Mora and Azura, and north to Pale Pass. I imagine his southern limit is the snow line? It is so nice to hear him settled into his winter routine of guarding Bruma, smashing ogres and picking flowers. I understand the hidden fortress of the Blades remains shrouded in frozen mist from him. What of the equally secretive Frostcrag Spire, rumored to be home to a reclusive mage? Has its shroud of frozen clouds been lifted for Lothran?

*

Buffy has fairly recently traveled (clearing dungeons all along the way) from the University to Skingrad, Kvatch, Anvil, Dune, Riverhold, and is now soaking in a hot bath in her guild hall at Bravil.

Her coin purse is quite flush after selling the scrolls, flawless gems, greater and grand soul gems that she filled, and the various daedra-derived alchemical ingredients such as hearts of dremora, silk of spider daedra and salts from differing types of atronachs.

Although she also gathered a great deal of nightshade and ectoplasm, she'll keep those ingredients for her own poison crafting. She's always been able to pick nightshade from the saddle, but I recently gifted her with a bit more 'touch' range so she is delighted to now be able to pick low growing mushrooms, collect loose arrows up off the ground and even check corpses from her saddle!

She's decided she needs some more black tar and blister pods. . . .

Telindil is currently in Chorrol, well in and around Chorrol.

He's waiting for his background checks from the guilds to come through, so in the meantime he's basically working freelance for the mages guild, collecting ingredients for the alchemist. Particularly viper's bugloss at the moment, the fighters guild put in a fairly large order for them.

The southern limit is where the road goes around Bruma´s southern wall, more or less. We want to see as little green as possible before spring and I really wish they had placed Bruma a little bit further up, we need marginals

The Blade place and the spire are both off-limits to him. One because he has no business there and the other because it doesn´t even exist in his version of Cyrodiil

Tallei Luia spent the day yesterday in the hills west of Leyawiin with Margarte learning which alchemical plants are the best to pick this time of year. It was a rare sunny day after a week of dreary, rainy weather. Tallei spent much of that time in the Mages Guild studying with Alves Uvenim and ducking Kalthar's unsavory advances (obviously this is before Julian arrived and closed those two Gates), so the chance to get outside of Leyawiin was an opportunity she jumped at.

Tallei is trying to come up with the cash to pay the tax bill that is due in a few months. It's not much, but Tallei's father disappeared a year ago, and she only has the monthly income her brother sends her. It is just enough to cover living expenses. On his last visit home, Tywin Vareaux suggested that she join the Mages Guild, since she has plenty of talent in that area (unlike him). He has offered to pay for her University education should she get herself accepted. As of yet, Tallei has not pursued the recommendations required, as she is still not entirely convinced that the Mages Guild is the path for her.

Phon: Where is Eilidh from? Anvil or somewhere else?

Eilidh is from a kingdom beyond the ocean; her father, Connor Mac Auley, is the King there. She is a genuine warrior princess, although at 25 she still has a lot to learn about both.
This is partly the reason why her father has sent her to Cyrodiil...
...but not the only reason
++++
A fairly chunky update is on the way, and yes I know it's not *exactly* lore, but then I never played by the rules last time!

For a brief moment, the scene was frozen.
Eilidh crouching, naked and knife in hand on the floor in the darkness of the cellar, the tall, unnaturally slender, new arrival standing in the doorway silhouetted again the dull grey of early dawn that filtered down through the dusty air from the room above.

Then the shadowy figure spoke;
"Dea-a fheiceáil go bhfuil tú ar do bharraicíní, ar a laghad, Eilidh Iníon Mhic Amhalghadha." - [Good to see you [are] on your toes, at least, Eilidh inion Mhic Amhalghaidh.]
It's voice was lanquid and thoughtfully slow, a deep baritone that rose up from some deep and resonant well within it's chest.

Eilidh made a face and rolled her eyes.
Standing up, she placed the knife on the pillow and pulling the sheet off the bed, wrapped it modestly around her body.
"Níl gá a ghléasadh le haghaidh dom." - [No need to dress for me.]
The figure had crossed the room in two long silent strides and was lighting a lamp on the table, as the cellar was flooded with flickering yellow light, it turned it's long narrow head to her and raised a perfectly shaped black eyebrow, looking at her appraisingly from sparkling blue eyes, from the sides of its head extended two long ears, bedecked with rings and tokens of seniority and courtly standing.

Eilidh shook her head her thick coppery hair, trailing over the smooth bluish skin of her shoulders, rustled gently. Whatever else it was, He was no creature of the night.
Well, mostly not.
"Ba mhaith leat mar sin, ba mhaith leat nach bhfuil?" - [You'd like that, would you not?] - She replied, her lip curled in a sneer, large green eyes flashing.
The male Elf laughed, a short and mirthless bark.
"Níos mó ná d'fhéadfadh a fhios agat." - [More than you could know] - He waved a long-fingered hand dismissively, the fingernails on his hand were long, filed to points and painted a deep, silky black. His skin was of a similar bluish hue to Eilidh's but older, lined and scarred. "Ach níl mé anseo as sin." - [But I'm not here for that.]

"Juist as wull, ye arrogant Goat." Thought Eilidh to herself. "Ye'd be out o' luck an' missin' whut ye cam in wuth."
To the new arrival's face, she said; "Mar sin, Dónal, tá tú ag an teachtaire ansin? Cad mo athair tar éis dom a dhéanamh as a chuid 'Tástáil'?" - [So, Donal, you are the messenger then? What [would] my father [have me do] for his 'Test'?]

Donal beamed wickedly at her and folding his gangly frame into a chair, pulled out a parchment scroll from the pack he had brought with him. Leaning forward and holding out the scroll for her, he waited for her to take it, the lamplight glinting off his white tombstone teeth.

-[the rest of this will be in the fanfic bit, when I've written it...]-

How did you come up with that language?

Heh, it's Irish.
Gach Sidhe labhairt na hÉireann. Ní raibh a fhios agat go bhfuil?

CT, good to see Telindil’s doing well in the Chorrol area. I love ‘self-generated’ quests – like Telindil gathering ingredients for the guilds.

Rider, a warm welcome to Tallei. Yes, a sunny day in Leyawiin is simply beautiful for alchemical endeavors!

Phon, looks like King Daddy’s sent someone to check up on Grumpy Princess. . . complete with subtitles!

*

Buffy’s been busy in Dementia. In between clearing three dungeons, she managed to gather perhaps a score of blister pod samples (her primary reason for this trip to the SI) and harvest the black tar from nearly twice that number of mushroom tree saplings. The Golden Saint escort that Lord Henantier (the new Madgod) provides whenever Buffy is in the Isles is very helpful. Buffy has asked the Aureal to focus primarily on protecting Superian, to include guarding the mare while Buffy is inside dungeons.

Tried with google translate but that site leaved something to be desired


So whilst Lothran takes care of business in the north, Buffy runs around in the realm formerly ruled by Sheo? I must say I´m a little surprised by her frequent visiting of that place nowadays even though it has a new ruler now. I know how much she hates Sheo...

Is she in need of the ingredients that much?

Yes indeed, although it's not *quite* as simple as that.
(It never is)...

Buffy thinks the SI is beautiful. You know, as a place to visit, not to live. I don’t know exactly why she loves the deserts of Anequina – perhaps that comes from the Acadian part of her. But I’m not surprised that, given her race, she loves the jungles of Blackwood, Senche, Tenmar, Valenwood and, yes, Dementia. The fact that the pretty colors and bright/shiny bling of Mania attracts her should be no surprise at all.

The only problem with the SI was Sheo and, in her mind, Lord Henantier banished him. So her natural curiosity, wanderlust and hunting kicks in now, and carries her there with some regularity. Besides, Henantier is a member of the MG and the guild would like to keep tabs on the unusual SI magicks that defy some of Tamriel’s magical principles. It was Henantier and Kud-Ei that agreed upon Buffy as the MG’s emissary to the SI whenever guild business with Henantier was necessary. Because Henantier has chosen to retain his ties to the MG, Buffy feels right at home in the Isles.

For his part, the eccentric Henantier simply loves the Isles, where he is free to experiment with areas of magic that proved problematic for him in Cyrodiil. Such things as intervention, mark & recall, permanent summons, levitation, ward spells and such. For example, he is currently working on a spell called Dimension Door. It is an elaborate illusion where the caster summons a glowing door and escapes through it, with the door disappearing behind them. In truth, it is simply an invisibility spell, but the attendant 'door' illusion is often enough to convince foes that the caster has actually left for another plane and dispelled the door behind them.

Although Buffy can craft poisons as deadly as any on Nirn (not surprising for a mystic archer), that skill does not extend to potions. In fact, her potions are rather poor and she relies on better alchemists than her to brew the few potions that she requires. She does often gather the necessary ingredients though. Ardaline (Bravil MG alchemist) believes she can craft a very powerful ‘panic’ potion for Buffy that combines the effects of invisibility, restore health and restore magicka – but, you guessed it, Ardaline thinks she needs blister pods to do so. Buffy’s current ‘panic’ potion combines shield as it restores both health and magicka. This new potion might be better for her though as Buffy is a firm believer in the saying: “Sometimes, best defense is no be there.”

Tallei Luia spent the day in the other direction from Leyawiin -- out past Darkfathom Cave and the Ayleid Well in Blackwood. Accompanied by her summoned scamp and skeleton, she gathered green stain caps and a few other miscellaneous ingredients as she headed south toward the coastline.

A Coast Guard station caught her eye as she drew near the coast. She had never wandered this far from Leyawiin before, but there was something familiar about the place.

First Glimpse

As she walked closer, the feeling of dejá vu grew stronger.

Dejá Vu

Soon long-buried memories began to surface--

And it was time to leave.

Neat Coast Guard station. Looks half sunken. Is that added by a mod? The only thing I can think of on the coast down there is the Vile Lair.

I like Tallei's outfit. That is one of my favorite ones in the game.

Yes, that is added by a mod. I'm not sure yet which one--Reclaiming Sancre Tor or TIE.

I don't have much loaded in the way of landscape changes, except for what those two mods and Kvatch Rebuilt adds. Oh, and I also loaded Arthmoor's villages as well as TK's Brina Cross. As Tallei Luia's hometown is Leyawiin, she is familiar with the immediate neighborhood and is establishing friendships with the Khajiiti and Argonians of Molapi.

Now that Kalthar is gone (thanks, Julian!), Tallei is spending more time at the Mages Guild. She is quite fond of Dagail and spent a lot of time sitting with the old lady during her times of mental fog, just watching out for her. As a junior member of the Leyawiin chapter she couldn't do much else.

Of course, she gets out daily on her father's horse, Casey. He is the only thing she has left of Dad. Casey doesn't seem to mind the frequent rain. After all, it's not cold!

Lothran enjoyed a slow day in Bruma which he spent visiting shops and inns. He got ingredients for a Burden poison and a Damage Speed poison, but they turned out to be ridiculously tame so in the end he didn´t bother and cancelled the experiments.

Some commotion at Olav´s as per usual, but a lot of the time the guards engaged Ongar in conversation rather than fight. He must have charmed them or something!

Good capture.

Rider, I just love the marshes, ferns, cattails, weeping willows and warm rains around Leyawiin. Both Tallei and Casey look great! And I'm with SubRosa - that peasant blouse with the quilted lacing is also one of my faves.

Mirocu, good to see Lothie taking a well-deserved day of rest, taverning and SHOPPING! I just hope he doesn't give all his coin away (again).

After the revelation awhile back, those days are over

Yesterday said elf took a stroll in the eastern part of the mountains where he practiced archery on some long-distanced bandits. The first one was easy but the second just couldn´t stop moving around so eventually he switched to Targetfinder and simply charged.

Thanks Acadian. All the greenery is the only thing Tallei Luia knows.

Today was a beautiful day in Leyawiin from start to finish.

The dawn came just as the night's rain was clearing. Tallei was able to head down to Topal Bay to catch it. She couldn't resist and went in the water. Of course, being out in the wilderness so far from the city walls, she didn't forget to keep company around.

Before the sun went much higher, she returned to Leyawiin and took Casey out for an early morning ride. They went up to Molapi, a little village just north of Leyawiin. Here she enjoyed the view from the dock.

Then it was time to head back to Leyawiin and dinner at the Mages Guild. With a full stomach, she stepped out to see a lovely sight. It was the Golden Hour, that hour right before sunset when the light is just amazing. She tried to picture what the birds saw in that magical time. At times like this, she envies their ability to soar above the streets among the spires of the Chapel.

Beautiful pics there, HER. Love the one with the skeleton in the background especially.


Huh. Interesting. She makes strong poisons but not potions.

That's one thing I've seen with several of my past characters: they might start off with Alchemy, start to get really good at it, but after awhile their magic starts getting so strong, they won't actually need their Alchemy skills anymore. Eradi~Kate is an example. I don't know if this is what happened with Buffy, but that seems to be the case with some of mine.

One of the mods I want to get someday is something which slows magic down. Restoration is a slow-moving skill, it would be ideal to have all the other magic skills level upwards just as slowly.

Wonderful lighting in those pics. I especially liked seeing the Secunda in the sky.

Buffy's limitations on potions are pure RP of course, but it does seem to flow naturally that she pays a price for the time and devotion she puts into the 'archer' of being a mystic archer. There is only so much she can be highly proficient with.

As an archer, she is a world class sniper, but she cannot really shoot on the move and is poor at hitting a moving target. She also aims carefully and shoots slowly; that is emphasized by her sniper bow. It is very powerful, but slow to fully draw, aim and fire.

Although she's a master of destruction, that was achieved by specializing in only a few destructive effects. Her skill with the elements is really only good enough to light fires, cooking or chilling an ale for a friend. The destruction effects she has skill with are few, and well suited to who she is -
-Weakness to poison - obvious for an archer.
-Drain speed - we treat this as an illusion effect, for what we are after is the ability to briefly bring a foe's mind to a stop (which drain speed can do). So it is simply another illusion-type command type effect for her.
-Disintegrate weapons and armor. Buffy's primary arcane specialty is illusion, but her secondary is restoration. She is very much a healer. As such, she finds it (pure RP here) very helpful, in the case of grave wounds, to simply disintegrate the patient's armor away from the wounded area before healing the flesh beneath. Clearly, she doesn't do this (damage a patient's armor) for minor wounds. And disintegrating an embedded arrow is absolutely the definitive and least traumatic way to remove the missile before healing the wound itself.

In the case of conjuration, she is actually quite handy at summoning simple bound utility items like repair hammers, towels, a hunting knife for skinning game or cutting her arrows free. Even handkerchiefs. However, summoning a daedric cuirass, lich or storm atronach is way beyond her ability - even though she actually is a master of conjuration. Again, she's sort of specialized within the magic schools.

When it comes to restoration, she is a superb empathic healer and diagnostician, but that comes with two prices: She can only heal by touch (laying on of hands) and she must absorb some of her patient's pain unto herself (empathic).

And i have returned to my darling redguard achress, Lissa! After some time away it's been wonderful returning to her.

This morning she went for her usual early morning jog in her hometown, Anvil, inadvertedly finding herself beeing leered at by a guard on watch. She wasn't best pleased as she suddenly felt awkward bathing in the lake. Such grossness, as she would say. She must now stink for the rest of the day.

The rest of her day had her visiting her friends at the fighters guild and the mages guild (althougj she causef some upset by eating poor sparky's sweetroll. Imp's can get so emotional

Her evening was spent walking the Gold Coast enjoying the evenung breeze. Tomorrow she plans to get back to work clearing a local cave, but for now she will enjoy the peace and quiet.

Welcome back, Rihanae and Lissa

Rihanae! Mirocu's right - a warm welcome back to you and Lissa!

Eating Sparky's sweetroll! Try making up with him by offering him some crab meat.

Eilidh had to backtrack a touch, so we are back in the vicinity of Anvil once again, seems to her like she's not going to get away from the port city. It's particularly frustrating being there because the ship she came in on is still docked, much to her chagrin, and the ship's master's amusement...

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Couple of things I am learning about this young lady...
- She's surprisingly religious, and even though her Gods are different she does appreciate the worship in Cyrodiil - (if nothing else) - as far as she has seen it and seems at least genuinely aggrieved that the chapel in Anvil was done over. Attacking members of the religious orders in her country is punishable by instant death with no trial.
- She's more "modest" in the sense that she's rather less inclined to get her kit off at any opportunity, don't get me wrong, she's got no problems displaying a bit of skin and she knows how many beans make five but unlike Niamh you're not going to be getting photos of her running around the landscape in her underwear, she was brought up to demand and respect privacy - (sleeping in the Fighter's Guild dormitory is unpleasant. Even in her military career she has always had separate quarters and a maid).
- She has high expectations and is undoubtedly offhanded and spoilt, but she can also handle herself and she's not afraid to get her hands dirty when it suits her. Although she is a princess she's also aware that respect must be earned and so has mucked in with both the best and worst of her father's army - (although she is bathed by a servant afterwards and has several people to mend her armour and weapons for her).
- Aside from that saving grace though she's pretty much got no real feel for the common elf and no real sense of where and how she stands in society - how she should and must behave - nor does she care how she is viewed. These are but some of the reasons why her father has sent her to Cyrodiil - (but more on that later)
- She's actually a Very Good scout - (which is another reason) - and a natural with blades. Swordplay is held in great esteem, worthwhile swordplay that is; not that fencing rubbish.
- Eilidh is very much more down to earth - (refreshingly so) - and much more pragmatic and less "metaphysical". She doesn't carry deep-seated feelings of misery and despair and tends to leave her baggage at home - (what little she has). I'm not suggesting she's shallow, but she is not the deep pool of dark mystery that her predecessor was.
- She loves clothes and shopping. Niamh only did towards the end but that was... abnormal, and partly due to Looch's influence. Eilidh loves her clothes and has looted almost as much clothing as she has armour and weaponry.
- She, unlike Niamh, is a lover of both "Apples and Oranges" - not unusual in her society - although from a marriage point of view any male - (or female) - characters out there are out of luck unless they are from a high standing family from her country, and even then they should be prepared to wait for quite a while until both she, and court protocol, says that it's time - oh and it's pretty much expected that there will be affairs - particularly if the begetting of a royal heir/ess is deemed necessary - so don't bother applying if you're the jealous and possessive type...
- Oh yeah, a word on her attitude to other races: She's an Elf - (Ailph) - and staunchly Pro-Elf. One of the first things that struck her about Cyrodiil is how the Elfs there have no more social standing than common humans. This strikes her as a sad state of affairs, but more surprising is the fact that Orcs - (thyrs, in her tongue) - are actually allowed out in public without a master or a mistress and appear to be able to act independently and have weapons and property! To her it isn't right, after all she owns four of them, and yes they are ok once they're trained up but she personally wouldn't trust them with anything sharper than a fork...
There are no talking lizards in her country, nor are there Kats. She doesn't know what to make of them but they aren't like her and so consequently she can't help feeling they are a bit... strange, and therefore clearly inferior. She's not racist as such, but she has been brought up in a very specific way and is <ahem> more than a little close-minded and set in her opinions, but then she's never known another way and she is a product of her culture - (although her father... well, he has "plans" in that respect).
Oh yeah, and humans? They have them too and whilst they aren't treated as servants they aren't exactly appreciated. Tolerated is a reasonable description.

Will she change...?
We shall see...

There's more to her, and as we travel I'm sure I'll learn it.

++++

So now we learn what was in the scroll that Donal gave to Eilidh:

Eilidh's Fanfic page

No wonder she's cross all the time!