Over the weekend, Gilda became Guildmaster of the Thieves, and collected the Stones of Barenziah, which meant buying Proudspire, which in turn meant doing the Potema quests.

I'm consistently getting a CTD when a character does the second one, after killing all the Draugr guarding her, when she retreats to her throne room. If I run back out of the section and wait, I can return after a few days, and find Potema's already dead. This has happened with the last three characters to do the quest, and I'm struggling to find what's causing it. It must be a mod, but all they're running with are the standard DLC's and a few outfits and textures which shouldn't(?) cause any issues. To make it worse, most are mine, and a different combination for each character, so it's hard to find anything in common.

Anyway, we got past that eventually, and she's done all the standard TG stuff, and can start testing my new ones. She's had a note from Karliah, telling her to go visit the Twilight Sepulchre, and has gone and had a chat with Nocturnal at her castle. Now it's time to start doing a few quests to bring down Maven. I'm having to re-load and re-test things a lot to make sure the quests trigger properly, and I'm concerned that the problem I'm having with Potema may infect my new stuff. Story Manager triggering is tricky anyway, and bugs makes it harder. More as I found out...

That is a weird bug with Potema. I have never had it happen with any of my characters, and I don't see any mention of it on the UESP Wiki.

Just a note about Hess; Hess doesn’t talk much and likes to stay to herself. Her typical reaction to someone is to just stare at them until they shut up or go away, or better yet both. Her main reaction to anger is clinching her teeth. For her to lose control and scream or yell, the situation has to be extreme.

Hess receives a shock,

It was the darkest hour of early morning and Hess was tired, having not slept for three days while she managed to take over the Thieves guild in Riften by solving a couple of problems that seemed to have been going on for some time. She wasn’t in her best form and walked into a group of bandits disguised as Imperial soldiers. When the Orc dressed in officer’s armor tried to coerce gold from Hess, she reacted in typical fashion and tried to cut his head off with her sword.

It turned out he was wearing enchanted armor and was carrying a very large enchanted axe, with which he proceeded to bat Hess around like some kind of melon until just before she passed out she screamed at him and was surprised when a loud roar sent the Orc flying. She tried to look around to see what caused the noise but everything went black.

Hess woke up with a headache that really throbbed when she jumped to her feet, ready for a fight. No one was around except a rabbit, which Hess skewered with her sword for tonight’s dinner. Circling the area revealed no other sign than hers and the bandits.

About this time another dragon descended through the trees right at her. Jumping behind the largest tree, Hess leaned from cover just long enough to let fly with a bolt whenever the dragon presented her with a target. After many bolts, and the dragon looked like it might succumb to its wounds, it turned up the mountain and departed.

Hess found a flat rock and sat down, this was the third time since Helgen a dragon attacked her. And what is with these dragons, and the damnable Nords calling her Dragon born. Hess stood up and looked all around her to make sure she was alone, then looking at a nearby bush yelled at it. What came out was a hoarse aaahhh! Embarrassing as usual and why when she went into battle to protect her father’s caravan she had always clinched her teeth.

These people in Skyrim are crazy with superstition. Dragonborn my…

After checking her gear was all there and in good shape, Hess took one step to follow the bandits to get even…and stopped. All her gear was here…but, they were bandits…why didn’t they? Hess went back to the rock and sat back down. Maybe the dragon scared them off…no…it would have eaten or attacked her. Hess got up and circled one more time to look for any sign of someone else. Hess knew she wasn’t the best, ok, not even a very good swordsman, but hunting and tracking, there weren’t many she’d met as good or better. No one other than her and the bandits, unless they flew, had been here.

Hess was so tired and distracted she never saw the bear until right before it pinned her to the ground. Oh great, killed by prey, one minute a hero, the next dinner. This is not going to happen. Hess managed to get both feet against the beast's chest and shoved with all her might, GET OFF…THOOMMM!…the bear flew through the air landing on its back a few spear lengths away, then got to its feet, turned tail and ran away. Hess stared at the departing bear her mind blank for a second then a thousand thoughts hit her at once.

Hess needed answers, ok she really need sleep…then answers.
First Riften, check in with the Guild, get some sleep, and then…I think it’s time to give those hermits on the mountain a visit.


Note; Hess is lvl 26 and is now Head of the Thieves Guild. It also seems her period of denial is coming to a conclusion, though I’m not sure how Skyrim is going to handle a Dragonborn that isn’t a hero and like Hess told Mercer, “She was only in it to get rich.” Hess had also thought briefly about making a deal with Mercer, but then realized she didn’t want to share…anything.
Yeah, this is who the gods chose to save the world…

I think I found one potential source of my problems. It seems that the CK has recompiled some of the quest script fragments etc. from the masters of my mods, and since the DLC source is in folders the CK isn't searching, it loses code when it does so. If I don't notice, and delete the .pex files that shouldn't have been created, those quests don't work properly any more. The originals are safely in the bsa's and can't get overlaid, but they do get overridden by the loose files.

Can't account for Potema that way, as that's not a DLC quest, but it's probably a clue as to how that happened.

Whoa, Hess killed the guy who says "I work for Belethor?" Mycharonna might wanna take some lessons!

Hess: Bandits and Dragons and Bears! Oh My!

Hess visits the Hermits and finds a family

Hess was in a good humor as she approached the doors of High Hrothgar carrying the horn of Jurgen Windcaller. The Greybeards had taught her more shouts on her last visit and sent her to retrieve the horn as a test before finishing her training. Hess couldn’t refuse the job after tasting the power of the voice, she just had to have more.

After fighting her way to where the horn was supposed to be- and found it taken by someone else- Hess was furious. It was lucky for Delphine that Hess had a chance to cool off during her journey to Riverwood or Hess would have killed her when it was revealed that she had been the one who had taken the horn. As it was the bitch gave her the horn right away, which further calmed her down.
Following Delphine into a secret room, Hess milked Delphine for all the information she could get out of her, during which time she came to the conclusion that Delphine was just shy of being completely crazy.

Hess eventually agreed to go with her to Kynesgrove to kill a dragon to prove Hess really was Dragonborn, (Hess regretted later that she didn’t use the voice on Delphine). Once Delphine left the room, Hess stole everything she could fit into her pack.

Just outside of Riverwood at the first turn in the road where the two were out of sight of each other, Hess bolted into the woods and headed back up to High Hrothgar. The thought of Delphine looking behind her and finding the road empty brought a smile to Hess’s lips

As Hess was thrown about by their shouts, she decided that she didn't care much for what the Greybeards referred to as a welcome, it felt more like a beating.
Afterwards Hess was standing on a high point of rock at the edge of the High Hrothgar courtyard surveying the world laid out below her and feeling very excited by her new found power. Hess was thinking that the gods were playing a nasty trick on the Nords by naming her the Dragonborn. She couldn’t imagine what the Nords could have done to deserve this, but she had confidence the gods wouldn’t be disappointed.

Earlier in Riften, Hess had heard a rumor that a boy named Aventus Aretino in Windhelm was trying to summon the Dark Brotherhood. Hess left High Hrothgar and headed for Windhelm, with the thought that this might lead to a way of contacting the Dark Brotherhood and finding out who was trying to have her assassinated.
A few days later having collected her fee from the boy for killing an old hag in Riften, Hess met Astrid, the leader of the Dark brotherhood, under very interesting conditions. When Hess was finally able to get some much needed sleep, Astrid had kidnaped her, and then transported her halfway across Skyrim to a dilapidated shack. Afterward the thought of this feat really impressed Hess.

While at the shack, Astrid had asked Hess to pick one of the three bound prisoners in the room with them, and kill them, as if the decision was a hard choice. Hess just smiled walked across the room and slit all three of the prisoner’s throats.

A day later Hess was standing in the Dark brotherhood’s sanctuary trying on different pieces of armor. Hess did get a few queer looks when she put on the assassin boots and gauntlets with her vampire armor, then stuffed the assassin’s cuirass and hood into her pack.
After acquiring a few jobs from Nazir, a fellow Redguard, Hess left for Ivarstead to kill her first mark and was actually enjoying the excitement of going on her first hunt for the Brotherhood.

Two days later Hess was feeling very satisfied with the way she handled her first assassination for the Brotherhood, and decided to treat herself to a sit-down meal at the Inn in Ivarstead. As usual the locals were exchanging all manner of gossip, some true but most just rumors, this was when Hess heard the mention of a library. Now Hess loves to read, especially about magic, which no matter how hard she tries, she is terrible at. A library full of books, by the gods she’d like to see that.

Idling carefully over to the group that were discussing the library so as not to scare them, Hess noticed that people tended to run away from her if she approached them directly, she learned that the library was in the College of Winterhold, and it was run by Mages!
Hess wasted no time gathering her gear and leaving the Inn. Alright…kill the next two marks to fulfill her contracts, pick up her pay, and she should be in Winterhold in about four days.

A Guard at the bridge leaving Ivarstead thought she saw a shadow pass across the water below the bridge. Not finding anything that would cause this, the guard just shook her head and thought that this was going to be a long night.


Note; Hess and I had a very busy holiday weekend, but everything is now back to a normal pace.

Renee; "Whoa, Hess killed the guy who says "I work for Belethor?" laugh.gif Mycharonna might wanna take some lessons! "
Yeah, and she all so slapped the Jarls kids around for bugging her, cost her a bounty, they seem to have forgotten the lesson of late, and Hess has had brief thoughts on how to make them disappear.



He He, these incidents actually happen, just embellished by the GOTC.

If we see an elf on a mare, we'll give a friendly wave and keep out of her way.


Edited by Acadian only to repair the quote indicators [].

runlykhel, Hess the antihero Dragonborn is great fun to read. When she tested her new blade on Sigurd I wondered how long it would take before she found her way to the Dark Brotherhood!


I gave NPC Darnand the same voice as Marcurio but he didn’t get all of the lines. Marcurio’s indignant response to being asked to carry things still makes me grin.

ghastley, congrats to Gilda the Guildmaster. How did she handle the Dark Brotherhood Stone of Barenziah? I ended up having Marius make contact with the DB as the traditional ally of the TG in his game. He hasn’t collected the Stone yet, though. Funnily enough Grelod did not count as a murder. I’ve never had that Potema problem either. Exciting to hear that Gilda has been to visit Nocturnal!


Lildereth and Jerric have returned to Cyrodiil leaving Gralnach under Valdi’s somewhat loose supervision. Gral has been very grateful and sweet to Lil. She has responded by giving him a toy sword and some new clothes, a place to stay when he wants one, and very few rules other than “Be kind to the trees.” Here she’s reading Gral a bedtime story, The Lorax. She’s not going to let him grow up to be a woodcutter without a fight!

Once Gral fell asleep Lil noticed another blond listening to the story. She privately admitted that giving her a Nord son was something only the gods could have done. She stopped short of pinning Grosta’s mysterious death on Mother Mara, but she will be more careful to hide her heart in the future.

Gilda punished Grelod for not being kind, of course, as the game gives you no choice if you want that quest to continue. She didn't take too kindly to Astrid's demands and got into a fight with her, and then let the intended victims go. Of course, that resulted in her being tasked to destroy the rest of the DB, which she thought was a good idea, as she was tired of their operatives attacking her on the road.

She wishes there was a way do the same about vampires, as they're responsible for the deaths of Balimund, Edda and Ungrien - all in one raid on Riften. She'd go and ask those Dawnguard folks to do something, but she's too busy to help them. Or would be if I wasn't working on the quests she needs to do, and creating the new NPC's for them.

I like to play the NPC's I create as player characters for a while to get a sense of personality, and I'm currently developing the Brothel Inspector for the Guild of Prostitutes. She'll be on her way to certify Riftweald Manor as a legitimate gentlemen's club when she gets kidnapped by bandits in the pay of Maven. I want her to refer back to Marghak (who had the job first, when the Guild became united across Tamriel) as her role-model in her dialog, but I'm building her as a very Dark Elf based on Viconia, with white hair and a lot of attitude.

runlykhel - If you see a little elf on a big mare race by - with blond ponytail streaming behind one and whilte mare's tail streaming behind the other, you'll know who it is.

Grits - Buffy understands perfectly the tug on Lil's heart while she reads aloud to the little sleeping Nord as the big one listens (and eats).

ghastley - I never had any doubt that you would develop the Guild of Prostitutes in Skyrim.

Morndas, 11:54 PM, 20th of Sun's Height, 4th Era 202

Hours: 213.27.58

Mycharonna the Ice Witch

Level: 44
Class: Frost Conjurer


The evening is typically cold when a white-haired, pale-skinned lady wearing black accented with red enters the Nightgale Inn. She pauses before the inn's enormous hearth, and begins an act of rubbing the cold out of her hands. In truth, she is not so cold. Her last meal was only a day ago, after all.

"Need a room? Or maybe just some mead?"

Inside the Nightgale Inn are a couple of patrons, well, two that the lady in black can see. One is the innkeeper himself, the other is a man. Probably Breton. The lady in black strolls casually towards the innkeeper, who is blissfully unaware that before him ... is a monster.

"Yes. I would like a room. And perhaps a bite to eat," she says in a low monotone.

"Take a look."

"Meat. I want some meat. And uncooked, if you do not bear minding."

Unfortunately, the lady in black is dismayed to find the innkeeper has just two slabs of meat: a horker loaf, and a salmon steak. Both of these have been cooked. The lady in black buys these two items, completely hiding the fact that she is upset. For her to survive days between feedings, uncooked meat provided so much more nourishment (and Nirnly essence) than cooked meat.

"I shall have that tub of butter, as well."

The lady in black would not actually eat the butter, she would smear it all over her hands and face. Better to hide her pallid skin with.

"I'll show you to your room. Right this way," says the innkeeper after the lady before him plunks down an extra 10 gold. "Let me know .. if there's anything else you need."

The lady in black goes into her rented room, and then tears rather ravenously into the horker loaf she's bought. At this moment, she loses composure, a rare moment indeed. She is much more like an animal, nothing like the femme who had walked into this place a half-hour ago. She is glad the Nightgale Inn does not feature a hoarde of patrons, the lady in black prefers to eat just like an animal. And this would draw stares in a crowded place with no doors.

An hour after her meal, the innkeeper is humming a toneless tune when he feels a shifting of air move past him. A slight creak of floorboards. He does not see the lady in black walk directly in front of his bar. He slows his him just for a moment or two, suddenly feeling unsure. And then picks up where he left off.


2:51 AM
Balagog gro-Nolob, the famous gourmet chef who had trained in High Rock, written a famous book called Uncommon Taste, and was under direct employ of Emperor Titus Mede II, is fast asleep during the last moments of his life. This orc had risen from slumitude, made a name for himself, and had (for some time) been living in Skyrim, hiding in an out-of-the-way inn, where he could escape his fame, trading it for many days of peace and solitude.

A slight shift (again) of air currents, and a figure slowly emerges in the air before him. Drawing her blade. Dipping it in poison crafted from deathbell and nightshade.

"Sinyeth oldavhi thinne fatsahi savi"

....says the last being to see The Gourmet alive. She speaks a tongue familiar to others in other realities. And the Gourmet is no more.

Her last meal was only a day ago, after all.

who is blissfully unaware that before him ... is a monster.



You are good at portraying Mycharonna as a monster, I love the vivid description of her eating like an animal. I get a feeling that she's more and more insane, I remember her beginning updates and she wasn't as mad as she's now.

So Gourmet is gone...and a new gourmet takes his place.

Ha ha yeah, a new Gourmet is in the building. Right about that. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Grits: I like that storybook picture! That's cute.

runlykhel: Oh yeah, Hess has been busy. I think between the two of them, Hess is more ruthless than Mych is. Mych is calculating and cold, and sometimes spontaneous, but not really ruthless. She won't chop an innocent's head off for no reason.

Grits; Ahh...the family life

Renee; Mycharonna is one scary (hungry) lady.

Acadian; Hess has been warned, Buffy is off limits. (I had to instill in Hess that though she can ignore most of what the GOTC says, he still has the ultimate power of restart.)

Hess and the college
Hess could see the entrance to the college as she walked down the main street of Winterhold and was feeling a little excited about what might await her in the upcoming future, by the gods a library full of books, and mages…maybe now she will learn some magic that was a little more useful than just for lighting campfires and patching up her minor wounds.

The sound of heavy wings in the air behind her and the roar of breath that could only come from a dragon caused Hess to quickly run under the cover of the decking of the nearest building, receiving only a little damage from what turned out to be a frost dragon.

Hess brought out her heavy long bow and between dodging around buildings and peppering the dragon with arrows, and eventually brought the beast down on top of one of the towers in the college. Hess ran through the entrance passing an Altmer-mage that yelled out to Hess “You’ll not be able to get in…the gates are locked”. Hess returned to the mage pointing to the dragon, “I need to go now before it heals and flies away!”

Where upon the Altmer-mage began a rehearsed lecture about the requirements to get into the college grounds and that Hess would have to demonstrate that she could actually perform magic. The whole time during this lecture Hess kept looking from the mage to the dragon trying to interrupt the lecture, and pointing repeatedly at the dragon. All this to no avail, the mage had her speech and was determined to give it. Looking back at the dragon Hess noticed someone had begun to attack the dragon with an ice shard spell. Really? Hess dropped her arm to her side and quit trying to talk to this mage that wouldn’t let her in. Finally a short time later, and minus thirty gold from Hess’s pouch, the gates to the college opened and Hess ran in and took the first door she found and made her way to the tower. A couple of arrows finished off the dragon and Hess was rewarded with the euphoric sensation of absorbing the dragon’s soul, Hess thought briefly that she might be getting addicted to these feelings, but dismissed the thought. After slitting open the dragon to retrieve whatever loot it had swallowed and picking through the offal for gold and sellables, Hess returned to the Alt-mage by the entrance.

After giving a sniff in disgust the mage sent Hess inside to see the master wizard “Mirabelle”. Hess found Mirabelle in the courtyard and introduced herself. As Mirabelle was explaining about the college…a Thalmor came through the door into the courtyard.

Hess cast her armor spell and drew her sword and moved to within striking distance. The Thalmore made no move for a weapon and Mirabelle kept droning on with her lecture. Hess and the Thalmor, Mirabelle called him Ancano, stood staring eye to eye, the racial hatred intense between them. That was when Hess started thinking that maybe starting a blood bath and being thrown out of the college the first day wasn’t the best Idea, and sheathed her sword. “I’ll deal with you later scum” Hess said between clenched teeth, and turned to follow Mirabelle.

Mirabelle left Hess in the room she would use while at the college. Hess found someone else’s belongings in the cupboards. Hess gathered them up, and threw them into the common area of the hall, declaring to those in hearing distance that she wasn’t about to share a room with anyone. Hess then made her way to the Hall of Elements for her first class in magic and met an old mage by the name of Tolfdir, who taught her a warding spell, her first spell learned from the college. Tolfdir indicated the class was to take a trip to a ruin called Saarthal as part of their education, Hess, bubbling with excitement, ran back to her room and changed into the mages robes she‘d brought with her and threw the novice robes given her into a drawer. Novice she might be but Hess had learned the value of having the right equipment and her “acquired” adapt-robes had far better enchantments.

Following the directions given her Hess was made her way toward Saarthal while another Skyrim blizzard descended upon the area making the trail ahead hard to see. Three figures were silhouetted through the thick snow fall, and Hess thinking it was some of the students hurried forward only to find out they were more of the cultists that kept randomly attacking her. Hess did an about face and ran to the nearest outcropping while casting her shield spell and barely found cover in time to prevent being severely hurt. Gulping a couple of health potions Hess looks around trying to figure her best options when she spots two trolls on the flats immediately below her. Hess stands up to let the cultists see her and manages to wound one with an arrow resulting in getting all three to run toward her.

Hess leaped from her rock perch and landed next to one of the trolls. Putting on a burst of speed, helped along with a little fear adrenalin, Hess makes it to another outcropping for cover, and looking back sees that her plan is working as the trolls kill the three cultists. Hess sneaked up on the weaken trolls, and killed them with a few shots from her bow, and then collected some of their troll fat for her alchemy lab.

Finally arriving on a platform overlooking the entrance to Saarthal, Hess sees the other students and Tolfdir waiting below by the door. Hess hears one of the students muttering something about her getting lost and says loudly, “I was not lost”, and stares at the group until they all look away.

Inside Hess was assigned to help another mage working deeper in the excavation and found an amulet hanging upon what might be door, and after exhausting all her ideas to try and open it, got mad and hit it with a shock spell. To Hess’s surprise the door disintegrated revealing access to more ruins.

Tolfdor was excited and entered the new ruins. Hess followed him, and together they worked their way deeper into the ruins fighting draugr as they went. At one point a ghost appeared in front of Hess who swung her sword through the apparition with no effect. The ghost then revealed that he was called “Quaranir”, and that he was from the Pisijic order. While he was talking Hess would idly swing her sword though his apparition thinking most ghosts would be taking damage, but this was different. Tolfdir seemed a little sceptic when Hess told him about the visit. Hess just shrugged and continued deeper into the ruin.

Hess was impressed with Tolfdir, the old mage could hold his own in battle, and made Hess long for the day she could wield magic like he could.

Eventually they discovered a large glowing orb, and Tolfdir seemed it important enough to guard it sending Hess back to the college to inform the arch-mage of what they had found.

The Arch-mage, Savoz Aren by name, sent Hess to the arcanaeum (what the mages called the library) to see if there was any information that could be used about this discovery. It was Hess’s first time in the arcanaeum, and seeing the thousands of books when she entered, stopped her in her tracks muttering, “By the Gods.” Hess went to the first pile and ran her fingers gently across the warm leather cover, then picked up the book to look what secrets it contain inside. That’s when a voice brought Hess back to her mission, “…any of these books and I will have you torn apart by…” Hess had no intention of damaging any book, and feeling a bit like a child caught with their hand in a jar of sweets, quickly put the book down.

After getting instructions from the librarian on where to recover the only books he was aware of that might be of use, Hess went back to the Hall of Elements on her way to her room to make ready for her trip, and met Ancano.

The Thalmor question her with distain in his voice, enraging Hess. Hess followed Ancano into the stairwell and once out of sight of anyone else drew her sword and beat him to the ground while burning him with her fire spell. Satisfied with her work, Hess smiled and stepped over the body, but stopped after a couple of steps at the sound of movement behind her.

Hess watched as Ancano slowly healed, stood up, and walked down the stairs. Hess stared at the empty stairwell for a second, and then looked at the ancient walls around her. There was something more going on in this college, something magical and mysterious. Hess shook her head and continued on her way.

Hess was getting tired; first fighting her way through The Midden under the college, then into another ruin to acquire the books, then sent to another ruin to find a group of mages from the Synod. After fighting her way to, what the surviving Synod mage referred to as an Oculory, Hess learned that the Staff of Magnus, what Quaranir on one of his visits said is to be used with the Eye of Magnus (the name of the orb Hess and Tolfdir found), might be located in another ruin called Labrynthian.

Just when Hess was getting ready to leave for Labrynthian, Quaranir appeared again and told Hess to get back to the college immediately.

A very tired Hess arrived at the college to find Ancona had put up a magical barrier isolating him in with the Eye of Magnus. Hess lent her little magic spell to that of Savoz and Mirabelle’s to bring down the barrier. Hess attacked Ancano with all she knew to no avail, then suddenly there was a magical explosion and Hess awoke to Mirabelle telling her to go find the arch-mage. Hess found him with Tolfdir and some of the other mages…Savoz was dead.

Two days later Hess was running up the ramp to the college and found Tolfdir and some of the others outside of the college on the causeway. Tolfdir told Hess that Mirabelle was dead and to use the staff of Magnus to stop Ancano.

Hess had no idea how to use the staff, so she pointed it at the growing barrier and watched as energy flash from its head and brought down the barrier. Hess gave a brief laugh than ran into the Hall of Elements.

There was Ancano connected to the Eye by some arcane magic. Hess first tried to attack Ancano with the staff, but it did nothing. Things then went from bad to worse the Eye opened and Ancano used the power to blast Tolfdir to the ground, and then turned to blast Hess. Hess ran to the other side of the Eye and heard Tolfdir’s feeble voice, “use the staff on the orb”, then Ancano began beating Tolfdir with waves of magic. Hess turned the Staff of Magnus towards the eye. A brilliant bolt connected the Eye of Magnus with the Staff of Magnus in her hands, and the eye began to close.

When the Eye was finally fully closed, Hess saw Ancano beating Tolfdir with his fists. Hess slipped quietly around behind Ancano and brought her flame sword around and drove it into his heart. Pulling her sword from the body and watching it slide limp to the floor, gave Hess a great deal of satisfaction, yet it was an awful quick death for such a scum of a Thalmor.

Later after Quaranir and his fellow mages took the Eye of Magnus away for safe keeping, and Hess was alone in the Hall, She levitated Ancano’s body over the magic flames of the cauldron in the middle of the hall and seared the body to a nice dark pink before her weak spell exhausted her magic and the body fell into the cauldron. As she passed through the doors into the courtyard the smell of roasted meat wafted past her.

Tolfdir was waiting for her and wanted her to become the new arch-mage of the college. At first she was going to refuse, then Tolfdir mentioned that all Savoz’s belongings and his quarters would now belong to her. So Hess accepted.

Standing in her new arch-mage quarters, Hess gazed around at all the wonderful things contained in the room, “Yes this well do nicely.”
Hess then laid down for some much needed sleep, for tomorrow she picks up her first big contract for the Dark Brotherhood.

Oh these were exciting times. Yet in the back of her thoughts Hess was still waiting for the gods to drop the sword of humor.

So this dragon attacks attacks, right when you're trying to get into the College of Mages? Damn. I agree about Ancano. Hate that guy.

When Crystal Beth (my Arch Mage on PS3) did Mage's College the game glitched during the final Boss fight. Ancano could not move from one spot, and he could not cast his magic, either. Made for an extremely easy finale. >

Darn that Ancano. I guess, during the middle of the questline, he knows an 'Essential' spell or something.

Thanks for the comments, writing stuff makes you really appreciate how much work everyone puts into their stories you read on these forums...it's not a ten minute blurp, it took longer for me to write the above, then it did to do the whole C.O.W.



Yeah...all of the things that I write that happens to or with Hess actually happens in game, I just embellish (a lot). It was really cool and lucky I got that shot. With the mods I have, under certain conditions Hess will pull a DB move, including; slitting throats, beheading (she's lost hers a couple of times, no DID here it takes too long to make a new character), and what you see is the arm wrap chest stab. Doesn't happen every time. kind of random, which is cool too. I never realized how much freedom in the game an evil character can give you. After over 2k hrs in SR this is the longest I've been able to play since I discovered OB.




Yeah...Hess beat him down every time they were alone, she really hates Thalmor. Which brings up a point I discovered, Hess has avoided the MQ (definitely not interested in saving the world), but when she learned that Delphine (the crazy bitch to Hess) could get her into the Thalmor's headquarters, she insisted on going, I'm stalling as long as She'll let me but...Hess is about to take over the DB and I won't be able to stop her then. I have a feeling gathering intel is not what's on her mind...I just hope we both survive.

Yikes, Mycharonna gives me the chills. The image of her calmly walking to the room and then tearing through the meat in private… *shiver*

runleykhel, what a funny situation with the Winterhold dragon. I had to laugh when Hess flung the clothes out of her wardrobes. It must have been very satisfying to put Ancano down for good!


I made a hardware repair and got surround sound back for my PS3, so I’ve spent a little time with Jerric in his original game. Encouraged by Acadian and Buffy’s experience we let the dragons out to play. Jerric got the kill-cam on Mirmulnir with his ice spike. He will soon head back up to High Hrothgar to chat with the Greybeards. He’s made pilgrimage before (and delivered the groceries) but of course then they didn’t let him inside. It will be interesting to see what he makes of their remarks.

There are some things I really missed about Jerric’s no mods/no Dawnguard game. Marcurio is with him as Darnand, so the air is constantly full of snappy remarks and Chain Lightning. He has the Quick Reflexes and Juggernaut perks which I don’t take any more unless I want to turn up the difficulty, so he’s dancing around in robes with his shield and casting lots of slo-mo Frost Runes. I love the look of his steel plate armor (with helm! ) when he goes into ruins. Plus, Wall of Frost!! He’s nearly ready for Master rituals in Destruction and Restoration, and now he can finally work on Tolfdir’s ritual for Alteration. High level mages are so much fun!

I need to plan his moves between now and A Blade In the Dark carefully, though. I expect that he’ll want to address the Miraak issue as soon as he meets his first cultists. I don’t want him to get stuck without enough dragon souls to advance that questline.

Jerric the Dragonslayer! I'd imagine he'd have great defense but poor offense vs frost dragons, and the reverse vs fire dragons. Hmm, Buffy'll have to see if he can find and enchant a toe ring with resist fire for Jerric. She figures if it fits her as a bracelet, it ought to fit one of Jerric's toes well enough.

1. I need to get surround sound. I can do it, I have the technology.

2. Isn't it refreshing going back to a console game? .. I haven't done this with Skyrim yet, but in Oblivion I go back at least once a week. Something about the simplicity of going back to Xbox or PS3. It's pleasing, gives me perspective.

3. Yes, Marcurio's comments and constant chain lightning! He's so arrogant, but he does back up his words with action.

Oh. My. Goodness.

So Jerric and Darnand(Marcurio) headed over the hills toward Ivarstead to answer the Greybeards’ call. They picked up some salvage on the way through Helgen so they stopped in at the nearby Legion camp to lighten their load since in this game Ivarstead has no traders.

Now, I know there’s a dragon up at Autumnwatch Tower, but Jerric has never been up there. It wasn’t difficult to nudge him in that direction. The local bandits got involved with Darnand and the Legion sentries and the resulting tussle drew him up the hill a bit. Jerric was in a standoff with a cave bear and I was thinking He can aaaalmost see the tower, when a dragon attacked! Woo hoo! Lots of running in that big open field, plenty of help from Legion archers, and Jerric’s biggest concern was that Darnand would accidentally declare war on the Imperial Legion since Chain Lightning knows not friend or foe.

Also I had just bumped the difficulty up so it was good to get a feel for that with allies to take off the pressure and give Jerric a chance to heal.

After the fight Jerric viewed the bones with awe and fascination. He did not loot the corpse for a cash reward. He did walk further up the hill to check out that cool-looking tower.

Much to my surprise, there was a dragon roosting there! What, I thought we just fought that guy? Nope, must have been a random attack. This fight was much harder with no support from archers. Jerric ended up chasing the dragon through the mountain pass where Darnand couldn’t refill his magicka for him. Frost trolls, draugr death overlords everywhere, and just when he got the Autumnwatch Tower dragon on the ground another one from the nearby ruins woke up! It was awesome!!

So now he’s ready for Solstheim whenever he gets the cue. Also after the third dragon he finally remembered that he was supposed to do something with it for Tolfdir, so now he’ll have something new to try whenever he makes it back to Winterhold. What a morning in the Rift!


Acadian, that is so sweet! A Resist Fire enchantment would also be a boon to the Nord’s companions. Even in Skyrim there is a fair amount of sweating. You are quite right about the fire/frost dragons. Now he’s battled both kinds! He has too much respect to go cause trouble at a dragon lair (on complete purpose), but fighting them makes his blood sing.

Renee, it’s worth it just for the subwoofer. Thunder! Plus when a dragon lands the floor shakes.

The sound on my setup is really annoying, and I've tried all the tweaks I know to fix it. It appears that Skyrim assumes a surround setup, and most dialog comes from the centre front speaker, which doesn't exist. My 2.1 arrangement dulls the dialog unless it's coming from off-center, so I'm always moving the mouse to hear better.

My current character Vicuña has no dragons, so no thunder there.

She's playing Destruction for offence and Alteration for defence - and using Restoration a lot! As a pure mage, she wears no armor, but she does have her Arch-mage robe's enchantments moved over to her preferred outfit. She wants to get Fortify Destruction enchanted onto ring/amulet/circlet so she can spam nastier spells, but right now she's running away to heal wherever she can. Her Ebonyflesh always seems to expire when she's low on Magicka, so she has little choice but to flee. She doesn't have a follower, and her conjuration is minimal, so they chase her!

I have her avoiding walled cities, except for Whiterun, where she's sneaked in a couple of times to complete quests from outside. The last time she went there, vampires killed Belethor before she could do any shopping. That's just confirmed her prejudice against the places. She usually shops in the smaller towns, and finds the lack of stores and smithies in Morthal and Winterhold annoying.

She lives in Windstad Manor (bedrooms/kitchen/alchemy tower) where she has a shrine to Dibella in the basement. All the smithing gear is outside, so she has an anvil, but no forge. Since she uses neither weapons nor armour, that fits well. She's made a lot of jewellery as well as nails, hinges etc. but hasn't reached Arcane Smithing level yet. She may want that perk so she can temper her backup blade that she pulls out in dire emergencies. That's currently Dawnbreaker, but she's had a few lesser enchanted blades before it.

At some point, she'll need to learn more Enchanting, so she can add Fortify Destruction to things. So far she hasn't found more than one item with that, a ring, and she's wearing it. The only thing she's made were her mage boots with extra carrying strength, so she wouldn't need to add points to Stamina. She has recharged her blades as she's used them, and a few staves, so her skill is creeping up, but she may want to buy some training soon. So she's dungeon diving at random right now, collecting things to sell in Falkreath and Riverwood, or to the Khajiit caravans. (Why are those cats never there when she is?)

She's made a few trips to Solstheim, to study with Master Neloth, but was a bit low-level when she first went (16) and couldn't cope with the ash spawn. She returned later and did the rest of his quests, so he's finally acknowledging her as a member of House Telvanni. She may go back there and make staffs to get her enchanting up. However, the unenchanted ones are a bit pricy, so it needs some thought. At level 26, she's still a bit dubious about clearing the ebony mine, and her next trip may be after a few more levels.

Edit: Of course, writing this post had her attacked by a Thalmor patrol, and she discovered that their robes have Fortify Destruction. How convenient!

That was a well-timed encounter for Vicuña. Fortify Destruction is my favorite enchantment.

Serafíne Serrano, unarmored Imperial spellsword, Knight of the Order of the Lily, and Volkihar vampire has fallen in battle. She successfully infiltrated the Volkihar clan, retrieved two Elder Scrolls, and uncovered Lord Harkon’s Nefarious Plan. She and her companions Sir Vorstag (posing as her thrall) and Serana the Complainer were on their way to the Ancestor Glade when they became separated in a bandit ambush. Dame Serafíne acquitted herself admirably, but her blood lust got the best of her. As she attempted to end the life of an orc bandit chief with a combat bite, he caved her head in. The lovely Serafíne fell apart into a pile of ash.

So, Better Vampires adds some neat stuff including the ash part. I’m definitely going to use it again the next time I create a vamp.

ghastley - Vicuña sounds fun. Destruction and alteration should go well. I imagine the fortify destruction gear would really help crank out those fireballs at a high rate.

Grits - RIP to Dame Serafine. Having a follower pose as your thrall is a great idea! I had to laugh at 'Serana the Complainer'. I've seen plenty of her in KC's wonderful vids.


Speaking of Serana, Buffy has joined the Dawnguard and just met Serana. So far, she likes the 'feel' of the Dawnguard. She's applying sprinkles of vampire dust when needed so they won't detect a Slayer in their midst, and she's having to carry a good supply of potions for cramps. She's abandoned alchemy, as far as crafting her own elixers. She finds with the mystic bow, that poisoning in advance just doesn't work; when Buffy forsakes other spells to conjure the bow, she needs to shoot it right away. So she actually finds more poisons than she uses. And she's always been poor enough at crafting potions that she relies of found/bought ones. Happily, any alchemist can make her anti-cramping potions to make being around vampires more comfortable.

Goodbye Serafine. You had a really neat concept for her.

Acadian: Nice! I'm glad she joined Dawnguard, I think this will be good for her.

Grits: Yeah, Serana the Complainer! I know what you mean. "Oh my, it's so bright out here, how do you stand it?" The 3 dragon fights must have been intense!

ghastley : My Mycharonna would be in the same situation as Vicuña if it weren't for her love of Conjuration. Mycharonna also runs a lot. It's hard to avoid conjuring things with a mage character. One thing which helps is to find higher ground to jump up to, this way they can maybe still get you with an arrow or spell, but not do face-to-face attacks. NPCs can't jump, or at least not as cleverly as we can.


That's one thing I miss. My old TV was one of those enormous CRTs that weighed 50 pounds (maybe more) and it had this great bass to it. BOOM. My new TV is a flatscreen. Picture is better, but the sound is pretty weeny. I bought a couple speakers from Micro Center to try to fatten this up, but I need to go all the way I think.

Grits; those cultists are always poppimg up on Hess... their time is coming. And I know what you mean about ignoring dragon lairs, took a while for Hess to figure em out on her own (while the GOTC was sitting in his chair going "look there's one, go get em" and Hess just totally ignores him)

ghastley; damn vampires. That mine can get a little rough. Yeah those Thalmor carry some interesting stuff.

Acadian; hey Buffy welcome to the Dawnguard. (and fire is your friend.)

Renee; oh yeah, surround is great, I love it as the sound travels from left to right(or vise/versa) across the room the same direction as what's on the screen, and hearing someone behind you can tell if they're back left or right. or foot steps coming from behind. oh the list goes on.


Hess the Warrior-witch goes Vampire hunting


Until now Hess has chosen to ignore the vampires in Skyrim. Their attacks on her were mostly a slight bother and netted her some nice loot until…

Walking down the steet in Winterhold towards Birna’s shop, Birna’s Oddments, Hess and Birna were discussing prices for the loot Hess has brought to sell her when three Vampires attacked them. Hess and the guards made short work of the vampires, but when Hess looked around for Birna all she found was a pile of ashes with some of Birna’s belongs.

This really pissed Hess off- now she would have to carry all this loot to one of the other towns to sell, not to mention Birna had mentioned something about a special item and Hess will never know what that item was now.

Having heard of a group of vampire hunters called The DawnGuard, and hoping to learn more about vampires, Hess followed the rumors she heard, until she located their headquarters. The amount of knowledge the members of the Dawnguard had to share with Hess was disappointing to say the least, their weapons and armor, to Hess’s professional eye, could be called weak at best, so Hess refused all of it.

The only thing Hess was impressed with was the fact The Dawnguard had a working forge in their keep, which Hess thought could save her some travel if she needed to do repairs and she was in the area.

A few days later and a few more dead vampires, Hess figured out a puzzle found deep underground that resulted in a meeting with a vampire that she didn’t kill on sight, although it was her first thought. This vampire’s name was Serana and she carried an Elder Scroll, Hess’s first reason for not killing her. Hess second reason for not killing Serana, was the thought that this vampire could lead her to their main lair.

Later, stopping at her home in Whiterun to drop off some loot and adjust some of her equipment to be more effective for hunting vampires, Hess left Serana in Breezehome while Hess walked to the forge next door, gods she was tired of Serana’s whining about the sun all the time. Hess figured they would just have to travel at night just to shut the bitch up.
Afterwards, when Hess opens the door to her house she finds Serana has just helped herself to Hess’s food and was busy cooking away. Hess’s immediate reaction was to strike out at Serana, but…then caught a whiff of what was cooking, and it smelled delicious, so she stayed her hand.

“I thought Vampires only drank blood and ate raw human flesh?”

Serana looked up at Hess and smiled, “It depends upon our form and personal preference. Yes I need to feed on fresh blood at times, and to vampires humans are prey, but I do enjoy cooking.”

Hess noticed that Serana evaded parts of her question tactfully, and decided that if all Serana’s cooking smelled this good, that Hess would let her do most of the cooking. At least until it was time for Hess to kill her.

The women (can’t call them girls, Hess was fast approaching middle age, though she wouldn’t admit it, and Serana was immortal for however many years), traveled across Skyrim mostly at night and Hess noticed that even Shadowmere seemed to enjoy the night travel more.

When they finally arrived at Serana’s home and the main lair of the vampires, Hess was greeted by Serana’s father who offered Hess the chance to become immortal as a vampire. Hess who has a strong desire for power fantasized for a moment about being a vampire, or even a vampire lord and then refused Lord Harkon’s offer.

It was days later when offered to again be a vampire by Serana as one of the ways to enter the Soul Cairn that Hess imagined herself again as a vampire, but chose to be soul trapped instead.

One of the reasons Hess has never had children is how much invasion they make into your personal world, and having Serana around gives Hess a sample of what that’s like. For one, Serana whines about the sun even when she knows there’s nothing Hess can do about it, and Serana is always getting lost causing Hess to have to wait for, or go back and find her, and let’s not forget what a horrible fighter she is, Hess shakes her head remembering how often she has to use her healing spells on Serana.

As Hess is sitting on a rock watching Serana run up to her after being lost, again, Hess thinks, Gods I can’t wait to get this stone from around my neck.



Then, and not the first time since arriving in Skyrim, Hess was surprised. Apparently Serana; having watched Hess gather hides, materials, and ores for her blacksmithing, managed to find a pick. Hess had been chipping away at a moonstone deposit when she heard the sound of another pick at work, she looked up and saw Serana swinging away at another lode a few feet away.

“What are you doing?”

Serana stops and smiles at Hess, “Helping.” Hess stares at her for a few seconds then walks away. Ok…maybe she’s not all that bad, at least she’s willing to get dirty. Hess glances back to make sure Serana’s following, then turns back to the trail, shaking her head slightly.

After a rather tough battle in a very dark cavern where it took both women working together to survive, Hess lights a torch, casts a healing spell on herself, then Serana, and asks, “is that your only weapon?” indicating the dagger at Serana’s side. Serana puts her hand to the dagger, “yes…why?” Hess shakes her head, “we are not sneaking in the night and stabbing someone while they sleep…this is face to face…and I’m wearing myself out healing you after every battle.”

And then Hess did something she’s never done before, she gave Serana her hand crafted, self-enchanted, with frost and shock, silver, back up scimitar. Hess thought of the gold that sword could bring at the market, and had brief second thoughts, hesitating her hand as she passed the blade to Serana. “Don’t lose it…and I want it back when we’re done.”

Serana took the blade and gave it a few swings, and then looked up at Hess with admiration, for she knew Hess made all of her own weapons, and this sword was not only beautiful, it fit a woman’s hand perfectly. “Thank you.”

Hess turned away muttering, “just a loan…want it back.”

As the end of their journey was getting closer, Hess and Serana found themselves trudging in broad daylight, Serana strangely quiet for a change, across a frozen lake when out through the ice burst a Dragon. Hess pulls her crossbow forward and sends a bolt at the dragon making a lucky hit. Running for cover toward an island of rocks, Hess hears another crash of ice and looks over her shoulder to see another dragon bursting forth from the lake through the ice. Cold water and shards of broken ice shower Hess as she speeds up to get to the rocks ahead.

The first dragon hovers and sends a gout of flames at Hess just as she was taking cover. “So…a fire breather are you…’ with that Hess drinks a couple of fire protection potions, and then begins the usual popping out of cover just long enough to send a bolt into the dragon, while getting her hair singed a bit in the process, at least the robes she wore were somewhat fire proof.

As the dragon made a turn to come back for another attack, Hess looked to see where the second dragon had gone, in time to see it roar over Serana engulfing her in flames. It didn’t look good, Serana was on her hands and knees on fire. Hess aimed at the second dragon while it was turning to make another pass over Serana. Hess’s bolt by chance caught the dragon in its eye, resulting in the dragon turning straight up instead of flaming Serana.

It was about this time Hess was brought back to her own problems with the first dragon as it unleashed a long breath of flames toward her. Hess squeezed deeper into her cover but the flames still hurt. As the dragon passed overhead Hess turn to see what the other dragon was up to in time to see it plummeting straight down…at Serana.

Hess feeling panic, an unusual feeling for Hess regarding someone else, jumped up, sent another bolt at the diving dragon and missed. Before Hess had a chance to reload the dragon hit next to Serana and they both disappeared into the cold water below the ice.

For a second Hess was stunned, then the sound of the first dragon rushing in for another attack brought her around. Hess felt frustration which turned into anger, Hess did not like feelings of weakness, she reached behind her and brought to bear her short bow and more potions, Hess then stood her ground amidst spouted flames and sent arrow after arrow as fast as she could shoot into the oncoming Dragon. The dragon didn’t swerve and Hess wouldn’t stop shooting even as the dragon hit the ice and slid by so close to Hess she could have stabbed it with an arrow as easy as shooting it.

Hess ran to the now dead dragon and began pulling much needed arrows from its pincushion resembling head before the usual accompanying fire from the dragon destroyed them. Hess managed to recover quite a few before they were destroyed by the fire that resulted during the transferring of souls from the dragons to her. The rush of incoming power energized Hess better than any potion could have.

Hess began walking toward the hole in the ice the dragon and Serana had disappeared into, her bow ready, when the ice below her begin to bulge. Up through the hole came the dragon sucking water along with it. A body came up with the water to fall in a small arc and land like a limp rag doll. “Serana!” shouted Hess with a rush of emotions Hess hadn’t felt in a long time.

Hess readied her bow and a hand full of arrows for quicker reloading as the dragon reached the top of its dive, turned and came right at Hess. The dragon flew into a barrage of arrows as again Hess shot as fast as she could until running out of arrows. Dropping her bow, Hess pulled her crossbow and managed to get one bolt into the dragon’s chest before Hess ran out from under the dragon’s path. At the last minute the dragon swerved to fly across the ice only a few feet above and right over Serana. Hess held her breath, but the dragon ignored Serana’s inert form and instead flew over the edge of the ice field, a frozen waterfall, and disappeared.

Hess ran to the edge and spotted the dragon making a turn, and when it saw Hess came up straight at her. Hess waited until the last second, then shot another bolt into its chest then dived flat on the ground just as flames passed through the air where Hess had been standing. As the dragon passed Hess put bolt after bolt into its backside thinking, why won’t you die!

The dragon made another turn to head again at Hess when it suddenly fell out of the sky. It landed on the ice and slid stopping next to the first dragon.

Hess ran over to Serana and used all her magica reserves casting a healing spell on Serana. Then as Serana moaned and began standing up Hess felt a great relief flowing through her. This was very confusing and made Hess feel very uncomfortable.

Serana was trying to see or feel anything in this black void, something was wrong, she was immortal why was everything gone, and where was she… What’s that! A small area in the distance began to glow a feint red and began to come towards her in ever increasing speed until it engulfed her entirely bringing glare and pain all at once. She moaned and felt her body arch than relax, and then the memories came flooding in, a dragon!

Serana slowly got to her feet, she could feel someone helping her up. When her vision finally cleared enough she could see Hess holding her up. “Hess…what happened…where are the…” Serana stopped talking when she saw both dragons dead and lying almost side by side. Serana looked back at Hess who was staring at her with her usual stony expression and before Serana could say anything Hess grumbled a hoarse “come on”.

Serana followed Hess to the dragons and watched as Hess gutted them as usual and rummage around their offal for loot.

Finished Hess walked by Serana mumbling, “Let’s go”. The fumes as Hess got up wind of Serana almost made her gag, and inspired hope that they would make a water crossing soon…very soon.

The adventures of Hess and Serana! Wow, two dragons at once.

Neat how Hess' slowly growing comfort and affection for Serana is a foreign feeling to her.

Arcadian; Yes Hess is a hard one to read, even I don't know what she's thinking most of the time. And Serana really did disappear when the dragon hit the ice next to her, but the game re-spawned her on the ice next to the hole.
I thought I was going to have to reload a save, but then she showed up.

Hess the Warriorwitch, one chapter ends another begins.

The many faces of Serana

The pest; “When is he coming back?” “Be quiet.” “Alright.”

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

Hess stepped into Breezehome and was hit by the quiet emptiness of the house- the only sound was the crackling from the fire.

After helping the Dawnguard put down Lord Harkon and his followers, Hess had escorted Serana back to the Dawnguard’s headquarters. Serana followed her around the fort like a puppy looking at her as if expecting something. Then Hess decided…”My sword…” and held out her hand. Serana looked disappointed. “I decided to give you this”…and handed Serana an Ebony Mace of fire Hess had taken from a bandit. Hess also handed Serana a couple dozen soul gems to keep the weapon charged. Hess then turned away without another word, and left for home.

Still standing by the fire in the empty house, Hess adjusted her sword to a more comfortable position on her hip, and again, did something unusual…a small smile flitted briefly across her face, “yes it’s good to have everything back to normal.”

Hess decided it’s time to deal with the cultist, and see some warm sands in the process, Gods she was tired of snow.

First thing was to trade her heavy Arch mage robes for a lighter set, then she crafted a new pair of boots and gauntlets.

Hess had worked long and hard to learn to forge Ebony, and now it paid off, the first thing crafted was a new shortbow, then a small war axe. Hess worked over the bow and sword received when she was a nightingale until satisfied nothing more could be done with them, after all ebony wasn’t free.

When Hess was satisfied with her weapons’ balance, she then went up to Dragonsreach and enchanted everything. Once back at the house, Hess then packed everything she thought useful for her trip.
Gathering Shadowmere from the Whiterun stables, the two headed for Windhelm.

The only sad part of their journey was when Hess had to leave Shadowmere at the stables outside of Windhelm. Between Hess’s stare, gold, and Shadowmere’s countenance, there was little doubt the stable hand would take good care of the horse.

Hess found the boat she was told about but then had to convince the captain to take her to Solstrum. Arriving at the docks in Raven rock, the capital of the island, and after an unpleasant conversation with the assistant councilman worried about any trouble an outsider might cause (if he only knew) Hess walked to the main street. Hess thought it strange that the three people she asked about this Miraak, knew him and didn’t know him at the same time, acting very confused.

Authors note: I thought for sure Hess was going to take Serana with her, I guess the GOTC isn't as omnipotent as he thought.

Hess always carries two bows and melee weapons, the damn draugr like to disarm her now and then, so a backup, also one is fire + something and the other is frost + something, she also likes to switch between her long bow or the crossbow depending on the circumstances. Her long bow went with her to Solstrum, her choice.

You've done a nice job at understating the fact that Hess misses Serana just a little bit. . . .

Wow, done with DG already. Buffy has so much left to do. I'm very interested in Hess' adventures in Solstheim. Part of the reason is that for DG, the place Sorine asked Buffy to go for some dwemer plans is a dungeon in Solstheim!

Would the game not allow Serana to travel to Solstheim with Hess?

Buffy's mare is fully summonable and quite magic so I don't expect a problem in that regard. Having to leave the horse in Skyrim would be a no-go for Solstheim. Lol.

Anyway, great pics and story-telling!

Vicuña decided she couldn't avoid going into the cities, as she kept getting quests that needed her to go there, and a lot of them blocked her from getting other quests that didn't. So she relented and finally entered Markarth, (which is where she'll be living once she's an NPC). She immediately saw someone with a knife creeping towards an unsuspecting woman, so she shot him in the back with a thunderbolt. She found out later that he might have been one of those Forsworn she'd had so much problems with in Kolskeggr Mine. She ignored the man who claimed she dropped a note. If he lied about that, what else could she believe?

After finding a book for the smith, and recovering a statue for the merchant at the general store, she went and asked the Jarl if he had any work for her, and ended up in two more of the Forsworn's camps killing Briarhearts. She'd had enough of those when she did the Necropsy quest for Neloth.

Anyhow, she ended up buying Vlindrel Hall, and it came with some Nord bruiser called Alvin the Bullfrog, or something. She gave him some decent armor (Nordic Carved, that she'd taken off a bandit chief), hoping he'd tank for her, but in the first cave she tried him out in, he just took a knee and blocked the corridor. Since he was difficult to hurl fireballs past, she had to retreat and wait for him to get up again. She'll be leaving him behind on her next expedition.

She still hasn't been into Windhelm or Solitude, but she did visit Riften to fulfill a minor quest. Stinky place, she thought, and hopes she doesn't need to go there again. She's also been to Whiterun again, and while she was there, a child begged a gold coin from her. So she's adopted an orphan, who's currently staying at Windstad Hall alone. Next step will be to add the children's room at Vlindrel Hall, so that Alvin the Bullfrog can be useful for something - babysitting.

Vicuña also has a place in Solstheim, but you can't move your kids there. She's not all that fond of the place, anyway, as she hasn't dealt with Miraak yet, and he's made the whole island a bit creepy. She may go back later, but needs to figure out her dragon strategy first. Delphine is patiently waiting for her at Kynesgrove, and is likely to be waiting a long time. But she'll need some dragon souls banked for the Miraak campaign, so she may need to hunt a few down.

Alvin the Bullfrog!

Congrats on getting the symbol above the letter n to work.

It works here, but not in Skyrim.

ALT+164 (numbers on the numeric pad only) will enter it in most places, but the race menu screen ignores ALT or CTRL modifiers, so she'd be Vicu164a (or Vicuva if I tried to paste it). I still have to determine if she can have her proper name as an NPC, as the CK seems to allow entry, but I just haven't loaded her into the game yet. I wouldn't want her meet herself and get confused.

Wow, some really cool stories being told

I've been playing Sahar a fair bit recently but haven't got around to writing any updates so I'll just recap what she's been up to. Hopefully after this I'll get around go posting some more frequent updates and start commenting in all the other stories.

- She worked in Mixwater Mill for about a week before running off in the middle of the night (not before breaking into the owners house and relieving her of anything valuable and/or useful).
- Ran into the hired thugs while on the way to Windhelm. After a very lengthy chase she managed to lose them. She hasn't seen them since. (Phew!)
- Arrived in Windhelm and spent the next few days thieving/working in Candlehearth Hall. While in Wjndhelm Sahar learnt of Riften and even heard some rumours of the thieves guild. Eventually was caught pickpocketing and spent a few nights in jail.
- After losing most of 'her' belongings and gaining a bad reputation Sahar decided to head south to Riften, supposedly a haven for miscreants like herself. Took a carriage, the wilderness ain't her thing.
- Arrived in Riften and, despite spending nearly all her gold to get into the city, found it to be exactly what she wanted.
- Layed low for a few days, found some honest work in the farms outside the city and kept thieving to a minimum. Managed to find some less 'legit' work for a man in the market. Completed the job with ease and walked away with a thick coinpurse and the promise of more work, if she could navigate the ill-reputed Ratway.
- Eager to investigate more work with what she suspected to be the legendary (although maybe not so great now, based on the reports of the local residents) thieves guild, Sahar headed in the Ratways.
- Managed to sneak her way through the Ratway (just) and found the Ragged Flagon. She was rather unimpressed by the state of the guild's base of operations but nonetheless spoke with Brynjolf.
- Sahar reluctantly took up Brynjolf's dirty work, which involved getting a few merchants to pay their debts go the guild. Used her wit and thieving abilities as much as possible to get the results she needed and ultimately succeeded.
- Returned to the Flagon and reported her success. Accepted Brynjolf's offer to join the guild and went through the whole initiation process (the TG armour is pretty cool!). Now they want her to take on a job that stumped their greatest infiltrator. Baptism by fire I suppose...

Welcome back Vital. Yeah, those Hired Thugs really get you, don't they? Always seems like they show up at lower levels too, then you gotta employ every available technique to survive.

I like how she found some legitimate work on a farm! Sahar is doing well. I am going to start modding Skyrim this winter (seems appropriate, eh?) but there's a chance I might have one more Xbox character start Thieves Guild. As long as there's no draggies in this game, I'm cool.

The "hired thugs" are one of the weirdest parts of the game. Vicuña had a bunch attack when she was buying logs from Hert at Half-moon Mill, and it took me three reloads before I could save her (Hert) from being killed in the fray. I finally managed it by engaging them far enough from the mill that she didn't see it and run to help.

It turned out that Vicuña had picked up something - most likely Blood Potions, which are very unique and decorative - when she cleared Castle Volkihar, and one of the dead vampires had sent them, according to the contract. Ironic as Hert is also a vampire, and we'd done the Dawnguard quests specifically to stop the random vampire attacks.

I haven't dived into the CK to determine the parameters, but I suspect the random encounters get more likely to kill the innocent bystanders as the game progresses. The attackers are freshly spawned at appropriate levels for the player, but the named NPC's are static from the start of the game, and thus relatively weak. I note that there are a few mods to make NPC's run and hide when hostilities break out, and I'm considering installing some.

I remember in Mycharonna's early game, just after she gained Anise's Cabin. At one point she was standing outside, looking across the river to where the 3 standing stones are. She's just standing there, I'm just gazing at the scenery, and all a sudden we notice there were some guys in heavy armor on the other side of the river.

I thought they were Companions maybe, or perhaps some marauders. Then I remembered. Because I've seen them before with other characters .. they were hired thugs!

I think they vanished for awhile, so we thought everything was cool. Mycharonna was not a vampire yet, so she went to sleep, and woke up the next morning and BAM there they were. Right outside her cabin, waiting for her. She managed to run away, and kept running. I think in those days she could only cast Flames, Reanimate Dead (the weakest version) and a couple other beginner spells. She managed to get all 3 of them though.

I found those hired thugs pretty intimidating as well. My first time playing (with Acadian), he must have picked up something by mistake to trigger them. It took two or three reloads to survive and the episode made Buffy petrified to touch anything that doesn't belong to her!

There's enough black pajama dudes, vampires, thieves and such trying to kill her without adding 'hired thugs'.

Yes. You're seeing it all. aren't you? And since you've got Dawnguard activated, this DLC can throw an encounter of enemies at any time, in almost any cell. You never know when they'll show up.

Renee, yes! We just restarted Buffy; in our last playthrough, we paused the MQ telling Delphine we couldn't be bothered. That meant dragons only on their walls. But it also meant cultist attacks from Dragonborne DLC. This time, we have the MQ paused after getting Riverwood reinforced but not going into the barrow for the Dragonstone - so no dragons or cultists at this point.

Our focus this time is more on the College. Trouble is, only the first two quests of that questline are all we're going to do. We simply want a stable College with nobody dead. So we're making up our own quests investigating magical problems all over Skyrim.

I keep saying 'we' and 'our'. . . . By that I mean Buffy, Acadian, Superian of course. They also have a critter, follower, horse for the follower. . . .

Are you using a vampire attack eliminator, or mod to keep the townsfolk safe? I'm dithering between those two possibilities.

There's Random Vampire Attacks in Towns Disabled which presumably does what it says, or When Vampires Attack which makes them run and hide. Any other recommendations considered.

I'm not using any mods to deal with the DG vamp attacks. I'd be interested to see how you go with mods that affect that though.

I use Dawnguard Delayed Start, with the 999 version. It prevents the DG questline from starting until you go to Fort Dawnguard and join up. After I start the questline, I do still get the stranger in town who turns out to be a vampire random encounter, as well as the vampire attacks in the wilderness. But the mod prevents them from happening until you choose to start the Dawnguard questline.

I like it because it allows me to always keep the Dawnguard.esm turned on. That way I can use its resources for all my characters, be they vampire outfits, the new huskies, spells, etc... But at the same time I never get pushed into doing the DG questline because of vampire attacks, and my towns don't become empty because all the outdoor people have been killed.

I also use Anti Vampire Attacks Dawnguard. This mod completely disables the vampire attacks on towns, regardless of whether the DG questline is active or not. So my cities don't turn into ghost towns where everybody is dead.

Oh, thanks, SubRosa! I just restarted Buffy after completing DG and have no intent on starting DG again in the near term. This sounds perfect!

Forgot to mention, I also use Anti Vampire Attacks Dawnguard. This is the mod that completely disables the vampire attacks on towns, regardless of whether the DG questline is active or not.

Thanks for not only editing, but posting again - I probably would have missed the edit.

The hired thugs have made some of my most memorable encounters. My light-fingered types who meet them the most have the hardest time dealing with them. I remember Shuvesse dancing around with them right outside the Riften gate, trying to get little dagger hits in without getting flattened in full view of the guards, the stable guys, and the Khajiit caravan. They used up all of her poisons and no one would help her. The same thing happened to Allek outside Whiterun. It was humiliating. Those thugs bring real fear to the thieving life!

I’ve been testing some mods lately rather than playing since Serafíne died. As always there are a few characters waiting in the wings. A Forsworn squad leader, a hold guard who will get an unlife after the game kills him (Njall the Unliving revisited), a vampire sorcerer pirate captain (lol), a feral werewolf, and an Aetherial fire knight with some personal issues. Hmm.

The in-town vampire attacks eventually stop, just so ya know Acadian. I'm not sure how this works, but I noticed in the vaniilla game that they were frequent for awhile in two different games of mine, and the forums over at Beth were complaining that they never stop, but they eventually do stop. The ones out in the wilds do not stop, though..

It's funny 'cause I don't mind the random vamp attacks, but I DO mind random dragon attacks. I'm gonna mod the heck out of dragons when I get my game on PC.