Jensa met the fake soldiers who attempt to shake you down for 100 Septims in a random encounter. Long ago my Imperial officer Rowan was pleased to inform them, “I’m with the Imperial Legion and I’m damned sure you’re not!” Jensa had the new for me reply, “There’s only three of you Legionaries versus one Stormcloak? Hardly seems fair.”

Hod to vampire Zanimal: “A new face. And a right ugly one at that. No offense.”

Simple things for simple elves. . .

For some time, Buffy's used the magelight spell for its intended purpose as well as other creative things. She sets off wards with it and sometimes lights up a friend or foe (it sticks to living things and it not an assault). Today, she cast it on a bear trap. To our delight, it set off the trap from a nice remote distance!

Oh, and she has not to long ago figured out that using detect dead is a great way to locate the corpses of her victims, since she tends to fight from long distances. Although she loots/picks up almost nothing from her victims and has no need to recover (bound) arrows, curious elf insists on trying to search all her victims. We sort of considered that spell obsolete since we modded 'detect life' into 'detect anything that can move', so I'm glad she's found a 'utility' use for detect dead.

I never thought about using Detect Dead for that! I thought it only detected undead, not all dead things.

Heh, yes it detects corpses too. That's one reason I use a mod that greatly expands the detect life spell to detect anything BUT corpses. Normally, detecting corpses is simply a distraction when there are foes about. But using it to find corpses after the dust settles has turned out to be kind of helpful. I guess we got used to having to hunt for corpses after shooting from long range in OB - it was the toggle grass off command that really helped outdoors there.

I used to use the TG command in Oblivion a lot to find bodies and spent arrows as well. Even when I was fighting them in melee it could sometimes be hard to find where they all fell!

Having spent quite some time in the Reach hunting forsworn and living off the land, Buffy made it to Dragon Bridge and was met by a courier. He gave Buffy a 'Letter of Inheritance'. The letter relayed the condolences of Jarl Igmund to Buffy on the loss of her close friend 'Forsworn Forager'. This 'friend' left Buffy 300 gold which the courier also gave to Buffy (minus a 30 gold cut for taxes).

Since Buffy considers any and all forsworn to be nothing more than targets, she was completely mystified. The UESP wiki says this can happen when an NPC that you have befriended is killed. The only thing we can think of is that the 'befriending' may have been the result of one of Buffy's illusion spells and the forager was either killed by one of his own kind or perhaps one of Buffy's arrows.

Quite the unexpected surprise!

And Buffy's sure gonna miss her pal, 'Forsworn Forager'.

Whoa I didn't know we could use Magelight to deactivate bear traps!

Buffy's got some secret admirers! Even her enemies can sometimes admire her.

Maybe it was a Forsworn Forger, rather than a Forager? The will might be a phoney!

*Destri takes frantic notes*

'Magelight to set off runes (I assume you meant that rather than 'wards')'

'Detect Dead to locate corpses.'

- Funny, one reason I never bothered with Magelight was because I couldn't really think of a practical use (other than putting a minute long tracker on a deer while night hunting… but who ever needs a minute to kill a deer?).

- Chalk another up for the Illusion school. If Acadians experience is the norm, then maybe casting Rally or Call to Arms on an Npc you have Pacified results in that NPC being 'befriended.' This needs testing! The bandits in Embershard could net the enterprising adventurer 2400 gold! Might be a great source of income for those who don't want to exploit alchemy, enchanting, or smithing.

My Crusader guy who fought for the Dawnguard would sometimes throw some Magelight into a lair; an attempt to piss its inhabitants off. Ya know, here are a group of vampires or bandits living in their dark, cozy cave, living their life in the dark, and some paladin comes along and all the sudden they've got this annoying bright light illuminating their darkness! I imagine this would make them pretty mad!

Buffy makes friends so quickly! Like between the time she shoots and when the arrow finds its mark. Maybe Buffy can use her inheritance to buy more arrows. Then she can “gift” them one at a time to Forsworn Forager’s other friends.

I ran a quick test in the hope that alternating or combining Calm and Rally would produce a friend/command effect, but no. Great idea, though, Destri. Back to wrestling with that issue (learning about scripts).

Outstanding tip for using Detect Dead to locate corpses. Captain Zanimal is a compulsive looter, and with his night vision it’s often hard for me to track down the bodies he’s exploded all over the place.

I like that, it has subtlety. Usually my crusader just throws on Stendarr's Aura and walks through the lair bold-as-you-please. It's like some kind of demented wake up call! Not very subtle.


So now this leads us back to speculation over how Buffy and 'Forager' got so friendly!

I spent a lot of this weekend revisiting my old characters and cleaning up their unfinished quests. Genevieve, the Hulking Arch-mage, had one of the Black Books, Untold Legends, from Dragonborn to do, so we went back to Severin Manor for a day trip.

All went smoothly until the final chapter, where she was confronted with a Lurker Guardian behind a door. It was able to attack her from the other side, but she couldn't hit it. After a lot of trial and error with her spells, she discovered that only Flames, the Novice level spell, would damage it, but at such a slow rate that she ran out of magicka before doing a significant amount of harm. There were a few other ways to hurt it, but they all meant getting close enough to get the worst of the exchange.

After drinking all her magicka potions, it still wasn't dead, so she ran back to a fountain for more. She returned to find it had regenerated back to full health. Eventually she tried Hulking, and discovered that she couldn't touch it, and dropped back out of the book.

On re-reading, and running through the empty chapters, she found the door open and the creature gone, and was able to open the final book and leave. She still hasn't used the butler, though. Once we got the reward, we remembered why we'd left this one unfinished.

Persephone had something new happen to her tonight. After returning home from the College, Sofie exclaimed that she didn't know Persephone had a dog, and asked if she could keep it. I didn't read it too carefully, and immediately said yes, thinking she had brought home a dog for a pet. I was a little surprised when a dog did not appear. That is when I realized that for some reason Sofie thought Persephone already had a dog companion, and wanted to keep it. But Persephone has never had a dog. Hmmm...

Buffy spends very little time inside Windhelm, but she just spent the evening and night at the tavern there. She met the old cook, Nils. He looked her up and down, then said with a kindly manner, "Can't just throw the big logs on the fire. Got to have the little bits, too."

Rather fitting comments to a tiny woodster!

Nils says that to Alise too!

That must mean Buffy and Alise are both special.

Oh, I was thinking of you in that tavern. Buffy met Stenvar there for the first time. I see why you like his voice so much!

Stenvar sounds like Argis? Oooh, I'm gonna have to go find him! *looks him up on the UESP wiki* Oh, I think I left Alise and Co. in Dawnstar . . . Drat! Have to hike all the way over to Windhelm in that cold?

Have I mentioned that Alise hates cold? That's why she loved Falskaar - cool and even temperate, but not cold (except on rainy nights)!

Big logs and little bits… was that Nord hitting on Buffy?!

I found a note I made of a new thing from when Jensa was in Solitude a little while ago and spoke to Elisif the Fair. She expected Jarl Elisif to have some harsh words for her since when they last spoke Jensa was soaked in Legion blood and Solitude was burning. Instead she complimented Jensa’s outfit. Then she said, “We have the utmost confidence in you and Ulfric’s guiding hands.” I guess there’s something to be said for diplomacy.

If you’ve never traveled with Stenvar, I’d recommend spending the 500 Septims on him. He is a hoot.

That is what I thought too!

Lol. Buffy's too naive to think that I guess (note I did not say she's too blond. . . nope, not going there - ). She figured he was talking about big Nords and little woodsters.

How neat about Elisef! As I've said, Elisef and Buffy get on famously. Two young widows, I guess.

Buffy just met Stenvar not too long ago (she doesn't go inside Windhelm very often). We'll have to try recruiting him next time she's up that way.

Today in Helgen, when Lokir tries to escape and the captain yells "Archers!", the archers were hitting Hadvar's horse instead of Lokir. The horse got hit twice and it neighed when hit. Lokir actually got pretty far, but then he eventually fell down, whether it was a scripted death or archers finally hit him, I don't know. Still, it would be funny if he managed to get away at least once. It never happened to me before.

Lopov, wow, I've never seen that either! The poor little Breton always seems to get pretty precisely shot in the back. . . .

I am calling the SPCA and reporting Bethedsa right now!

I have never seen that either. Like Acadian, the Imperial Stormtroopers Archers in my games have always had pinpoint accuracy. Much too accurate for Sandpeople at least...

Gosh, Lokir almost made it! Hadvar’s poor horse!!

Another weird occurrence at Lakeview Manor. Jerric and Darnand exited the house to find a dead girl on the ground.

A Worshiper? Was she worshiping the yellow halo above the horse's heads?

Seriously though, I wonder if she was from the Talos Shrine to the west, and somehow got teleported to Aravi Manor?

I think you're right. I can't imagine how she got there from the shrine, though. It was Lil's game that brought that guy from the Reach into Lakeview, but the same mod profile. I'd bet one or a combination of my Lakeview mods is having some fun with me. (Possibly a screwup in the one that I made! )

I still see the occasional levitating mammoth in their games, too. The last one did not survive the landing.

Oooh, free mammoth steak! Yum!

Don't all the Hearthfires homes have the same dead visitor issues? I'm always finding dead draugr outside Windstad Manor.

Talking of which, Drelka was chopping wood there, and I noticed her bear sliding and leaping sideways like a mudcrab on acid. By the the time she finished splitting her three logs, he'd climbed a tree, and there he remained. I think I took a screenshot; I'll have to check my Fraps folder.

Drelka might have a bad aim with that axe - but how funny the bear did that!!!

Come to think of it, one of my characters did find a dead draugr outside one of the HF houses. I forget which one.

And on Solstheim there have been several occasions when I found dead bodies in front of the Ash Yam merchant's stall in Raven Rock. I just put it down to Dunmer cooking...

Mielikki found a dead Dunmer there once

and later a dead Mora Monster (which must have been from the nearby Nature Stone)

It's possible to survive a fall off of the bridge at Valtheim Towers, assuming you fall in the water, of course. Lord Haaf-Mersey was trying to push a bandit into the river below, but wound up slipping!

I always assumed the water is not deep enough, you see.

Oh, Renee, that's good to know! Buffy clears that place routinely. She hasn't fallen off the bridge, but I can certainly imagine how easy it is to do.

It's fun to see that BethSoft hasn't lost their sense of humor. I mean things like finding a goblin passed out dead in a barrel with a bottle of beer in his hand in Oblivion kinda things. Well, I found a fun one today in Solstheim. A reikling tent that had about 20 books on the floor - all of them were either Vol 1 or Vol 2 of The Lusty Argonian Maid. Who knew?

I think the Skyrim Reiklings in general are rather fun. I am always expecting one to say "Mogwai!" It has been a while, but the Reiklings in Morrowind seemed a lot less cute.

Renee, I’m glad to hear that LHM survived his fall! In a Dead Is Dead game that must have been a heart-stopping moment.

Two of mine to take a header off that bridge, Jerric and Jensa, would have been reloaded had they died but they both made it. It will not come as a big surprise when I reveal that in Jerric’s fall he managed to miss the water. When he hit the ground his health bar just melted away. He had just taken the Cushioned perk in Heavy Armor in preparation for later getting Conditioning, and I remember thinking that it was a wasted perk. Um, not. Even with half damage I could barely see his remaining sliver of red.

Buffy found a Riekling library! What a fun find.


ETA: Oh, and Jensa was high as a kite when she fell off. She had some tough times after the war and did some pretty stupid things. She thought those roadside dealers were her best friends.

Reikling? That's a new term for me. Oh I see, that is from Dragonborn. Haven't been to the island yet. Maybe LHM will go there.



Heh, you got that right!

Rieklings were also in Morrowind, on Solstheim of course. I've never encountered them myself because I wasn't on Solstheim, neither in Morrowind nor in Skyrim.

I think that if you travel to Solstheim in Skyrim, the DLC's MQ kicks in automatically. But I bet there are mods which prevent this from happening.

It doesn't so much kick in automatically, as Solstheim is created with the effects of the Dragonborn main quest already underway. What I mean is you cannot sleep anywhere on the island, the Nature Stones all have scaffolds around them and construction going on, regular NPCs are doing all the work, etc... That is just the default state of the island. You have to do the DB main quest to get things back to normal. It is like how in Oblivion Kvatch starts the game in ruins.

I get around the DB mq by using a batch file that automatically runs through all of its stages. That gets the island mostly back to normal. Mostly.

I didn't know that there are stairs a little south of the bandit-infested tower on the path from Riverwood to Bleak Falls Barrow. Until today I thought that there's only one way to reach that tower, and that is by following the Riverwood-BFB road.

I've always approached that tower from the east as well, but I just looked and you're right - a neat little path to the south with steps.

There are even a few iron deposits you can mine just below it, along the back entrance.

I didn't know about those steps either until Mycharonna moved into Anise's Cabin. She spent lot of time there, got to know the area well.

Buffy just discovered something new. In the Solitude open market area of town there is a large well. On the rim of the well is a fishing pole. You can't interact with the fishing pole at all, but I've just never seen one in Skyrim before.

They're rare, I know only of another one, located in the hunter's camp below the Guardian Stones.

Speaking of new things, Lucius and Lydia found a burnt house east of Ustengrav, it looks like it was attacked by a dragon.

There are a lot of fishing poles around. If you buy Honeyside, you get two of your own. I forget if they're on the balcony or down on the dock. Quite a few of the riverside camps have them. I'll check in the CK later, and find out how many.

As you noted, they're statics that you can't activate. I don't know if anyone has made a mod to let you use one, and I'll be resisting the temptation until I get the kids done.

Edit: Oh good! Someone else has done it.

17 individual fishing poles in the vanilla game: 2 are enabled when you buy Honeyside's balcony content, so that only leaves 15 at the start of the game. There are also 15 more in clumps of five on a boat in Riften dock outside the fishery, where it's less obvious what they are until you get closer - i.e onto the boat.

Oh, thanks for that info, both of you. Just never noticed before I guess. Lopov, Buffy's found a couple burned out cabins - but not the one you mentioned yet. Thanks! I was able to find it on the UESP interactive map - east northeast of Ustengrav as you say.

Good job ghastley, I'm definitely adding that one when I start on PC.