There is an aggression/disposition system in both Skyrim and Oblivion, I think Morrowind too. Spells like Calm and Fury just raise or lower the target's aggression. Remember back in Oblivion you had a character Renee Gade II or your paladin I think? who had such a high fame that bandits no longer attacked her? That is because in OB your Fame influenced people's disposition. That is all factions do too. If you are in the same faction as someone else, you get an automatic disposition boost. If you are in an enemy faction, you get a big minus, enough to make them hostile automatically.

When I did my Animal Friend mods, I did it by creating a new faction that I placed the character in, and then made all the animals allies with. That way the PC gets a huge disposition boost with those critters.

Arduina found another new thing for me today. While clearing out Druadach Redoubt to retrieve Lisbet's shipment, she found a Reachmen Map. It showed Forsworn camps throughout the Reach. I am not sure if it is all of them or not. When she clicked on it, it added the camps to her map.

If anyone has not noticed yet, but you can do the same with the maps of Skyrim you can find in most of the Jarl's Halls. The flags show where the forts are, and if you click on each, it adds it to your map.

That's neat! I knew about the maps in some of the Jarl Longhouses updating your map if you clicked on the places. I didn't know about the Forsworn camps though.

Whoa, that's almost like an Easter Egg, SubRosa, about the Forsworn maps. Good find. Post a pic, if you can, we'd like to see it.

And I knew about the maps of the Jarl's holds, but had no idea we could click on them. I wonder if that's a PC-only thing, though. I'll have to try on Xbox.

Here is a pic of that Reachmen Map in Druadach Redoubt. It is easier to see on the wiki though. It adds more locations than you actually see stars for on the picture. But it doesn't add Fort Sunguard. I guess because it turns into an Imperial/Stormcloak fort if you do the civil war.

WOW that's neat.

New M'aiq quote (for me, anyways):

Much snow in Skyrim, enough snow! .. M'aiq does not want any more snow.

SubRosa - Buffy just found that neato map yesterday and we thought of you!

Renee - I'm really glad they kept M'aiq for Skyrim.

That is so Buffy!

Glad you enjoy this, Acadian

Aww, thanks, mirocu.

The mudcrabs in Skyrim are a little bigger than Buffy. Yesterday, however, she found a dead one that was probably ten times her size!

All the Skyrim mudcrabs are the size of the giant one from Oblivion?

This is a first..in over 2k hrs in Skyrim, this is the first time I've ever seen Lydia actually doing something out of her normal irritating routine.

I think the mudcrabs are a little bigger than the ones in OB (which I think are pretty big. The static body of the giant one Buffy found was maybe ten times as big as either - probably a little bigger than the giant mudcrab in OB.

Don´t wanna go off-topic or anything, but do you have a pixie?

Nah, sorry. Here's some SkyCrab info though (with a pic and some notes about the giant ones): http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Mudcrab

He's used to what happens in Vegas, staying in Vegas. So no pictures exist of the event.

Here’s something new for me: the tunnels under Fort Greenwall. I’ve poked around down there with some of my insatiably curious characters, but no one (as far as I remember) has found the passage that goes almost all the way to Riften until Zanimal. Excellent find for a vampire!

OHHHHH wow, I looked the place up on UESP, and you are right. There is an underground passage. I've always assumed it went to a spider's lair. There's a bunch of spider webs down there right? .. So my characters are usually like "ah, just some giant spiders. Why bother?" ..

So it's nice to know ... wow... that tunnel goes all the way out to Riften.

Do you mean the area under the well? It has been a long time since any of my characters have gone down there. Maybe whenever I get back to Tuonetar's Skyrim game she will check it out.

OK, false alarm. Last night it occurred to me that I’m using a mod that adds sewers to some cities. There is a tunnel from the Greenwall well to the outside in the vanilla game, but the “new” one that Zanimal found running almost all the way to Riften is from Skyrim Sewers 4. Sorry about that!

And here I got all excited!

Thanks for the update precluding wild goose chases, Grits. Sounds like several of us were about ready to head that way and check it out.

So is that a recommendation for the mod?

Yeah, I would have been mortified if someone had wasted their time checking it out!

ghastley, I’d say that modded tunnel was indistinguishable from the vanilla game.

Marius uses the sewers to exit cities with his ill-gotten goods more than to sneak in. He likes to stroll in through the gates with a smile wearing his Guildmaster gear since the guards can’t touch him unless someone catches him being naughty. He hasn’t been caught in a while. Of course after the crime he doesn’t like to be seen at all, so he sneaks out.

Sunlight diminishes the Stamina of vampires to 0. I had no idea. My vampire never goes outside when it's sunny, but now that she's been forced to do so for a few hours during To Kill an Empire, I am just realizing her Stamina bar is nil.

OK, I checked the uesp this time to make sure this wasn’t from a mod!

Marius found himself sneaking about in Whiterun’s Catacombs. On the way out he spoke with the priest in the Hall of the Dead and got a small quest from him! I’d never even seen that guy.


I didn’t realize that either, Renee. Neat.

Whoa, Whiterun has catacombs? .. what was the small quest?

Yep, it really does, I promise! Though the route Marius took out of the Dragonsreach dungeon to get there is part of the Skyrim Sewers mod. He’s escaped from Dragonsreach before and ended up somewhere with guards, not with surprise skeletons. Marius popped up through a loading screen from that hatch in the floor.

The quest was to go find the priest Andurs’s lost Amulet of Arkay. Andurs says he’d go look for it himself but he’s heard scary noises coming from the catacombs. Marius is not an overly helpful fellow, but he felt responsible for waking up the skeletons that were scaring Andurs when he slipped through there with the circlet he had just stolen from NPC Jerric (for real) in Dragonsreach.

I have done that little quest before. There are some small catacomb area under the Hall of the Dead. Most people enter through the front door though, and the priest hits them up to go downstairs to find his lost amulet. Marius just had to be different though...

Whiterun is such an. . . uninviting city for elves that I'm afraid Buffy has spent very little time there.

Something we say for the first time ever today: Buffy was sneaking in a Nordic ruin and encountered a draugr that somehow had a clue she was around. He issued a challenge to her by clanking his sword against his shield several times! Never seen that before and there was no doubt he was trying to taunt her into revealing herself. Buffy answered with a mystic arrow that he never saw.

Yes, that's a cool animation, when they beat their weapon against their sword! bang bang! bang! Nice little touch there.

And OH I know the catacombs now. Don't think I've ever gotten a quest down there. It's been a while.

Thanks, Renee, for confirming I wasn't just seeing/hearing things.

Whoa, Mycharonna walked up on a couple of sabercats lying down. Lying on their sides, like they're relaxing. Never seen that before. I wasn't quick enough with my camera, because they got spooked and eventually stood up > Really wanted that shot, dangit.

I think the draugr are really neat. I also love the way they swing their two-handed weapons in the one hand. They have a lot of personality!

Renee, how fun to see the big cats napping! Mudcrabs are fun to watch, too. They’re so busy.

The bears will also lay down and sleep too. As long as you don't get to close.

Shades of Rielus!

Yay, Buffy!


I agree that it's cool to see the animals lying down. I've seen the goats do the same as well. My Sabrecat summons (thanks, Subrosa!) does it all the time, whenever the fighting's done. That's how I know the area's clear. Sometimes he'll lay on top of one of the corpses!

They're inordinately fond of doing that. For my Bear Riders, I had to update the bear behaviour files, or the bear would lie down as soon as the rider dismounted. That made mounting a process of "click to wake the bear up, click again to mount." If you weren't fast enough, repeat step one a lot of times, as they didn't respond during an animation, and going back to sleep started immediately after waking up!

IIRC, their default if not actually threatened, or in combat, is sleeping. I don't remember what the conditions were for just standing and doing nothing, but they never seemed to be true. I made my ridable bears a separate creature, so that the behaviours could be distinct.

Marius gave me another first. A paralyzed draugr! My characters have always assumed that draugr are immune to poison (and I think they actually are), and none of my mages would have a reason to cast Paralysis rather than fire or a turn spell at one. Marius hotkeyed Chillrend as his primary melee weapon once he checked out the situation in Ansilvund. I was palming my face since he would obviously be fighting draugr who are resistant to its frost enchantment. Marius must have known better. The special powers that be in that dungeon took away most of his stealth advantage so he really had to fight. Much to my surprise a draugr fell over stiff as a board long enough for Marius to kill the other one and get back where he could maneuver. It was neat!

I have always thought it best to let sleeping bears lie...

I can still remember back when I was gaming with Eradi~Kate a couple years ago, or wait three years ago> when somebody (Acadian or glargg I think) taught me that zombies can be affected by poison. I had no idea! .. Just assumed that they're undead ....

SubRosa:

Oh yes, Renee. I think we're talking OB, and zombies there do indeed have 100% resist poison. What Buffy did to poison them was whack 'em with a combo prep spell that included effects of weakness to poison 100% (to bust that immunity) and drain speed 100 (to make them forget they just got hit by a spell). Then she immediately chased that with a poisoned arrow from stealth.

Buffy's changed her tactics and skillset usage for Skyrim and rarely uses poison at all there.

I saw a location I have never seen before. Tolvald’s Cave. It really looked like the events had happened there. It’s one of my favorite locations I’ve seen in the game. The journal fragments and remains make a sad story.

I just discovered that it's not just the player that can be sent flying by a giant. I was on the way to get the books for Urag, when a bandit landed dead a short way ahead. Then I noticed another figure go flying into the air. Just over the rise was a pair of giants fighting the third bandit, who died without leaving the ground.

The giants ambled off after their mammoths, and we continued to Fellglow Keep.

Fraps wasn't started, of course, so no screenshot of flying bandit.

I love this game.

It's a pity that place is only part of the Stones of Barenziah quest. I've only done that a couple of times, as you have to go to so many quest-locked locations to get them all.

Quest-locked locations really annoy me. Marius is my first character who has been willing to do what it takes to increase his Guild’s influence by currying favor in court, joining factions where he doesn’t belong, buying houses he doesn’t want, and the like. Of course by the time he got the damn crown he didn’t need the bonus. Oh well. The man loves shinies so gem-hunting we will go.

I really like the Thieves Guild. The characters all have a lot to say, but then in the vanilla game they sit around all day in the sewer not stealing anything.

Oh, and seeing the restored Crown of Barenziah was another first for me. And I’m sure it will be the last time I see it!

You can get into Tolvald's Cave. Several of my characters have been in there without doing the TG questline, including Persephone. I have never seen the Crown of Barenziah in there, so there are probably just a few things left out unless you are doing the TG quests.

I didn't mean to imply that Tolvald's Cave itself was quest-locked, just that the lead-up to going there passes through a lot of places that are. DB sanctuary, Arch-mage's quarters, Proudspire Manor, and maybe others. There's not much to go in there for, unless you're collecting the crown.

Ha that sounds funny ghastle.y. Flying bandits, oh no!

My new thing: Mycharonna just entered Rorik's house in Rorikstead, looking for somebody to feast upon. Little girl sees Mych and says "GO AWAY!" while running for safety.

It was only after reviewing the past few posts on this thread today that I made the connection. Buffy just cleared Tolvald's Cave earlier today (solo). She didn't know (or care) 'bout no quests and had no trouble getting around. It did get pretty difficult at one point however with falmer and big flying bugs deciding that wood elves were either not welcome or perhaps on the menu.