First thing to do in Julia's game, since she's still around, is get her RefID, to see if it's still the "00" one. Even if the UKSP fixed anything, they normally don't put in a whole new character. If it's another number, you'll know which mod to blame/thank.

OK, Julia couldn’t find her again, so I went to the CK. That spriggan is the dunSnaplegSpriggan, and she has the dunSnaplegSprigganTravel AI package. She is in the DunPlayerAlly faction. I may have misspelled some things, but I think that tells us that she could under the conditions of not being imprisoned and not being dead follow her travel package. I couldn’t confirm what that travel package specifically is, though. Now I wonder why she usually disappears instead of doing these things in most games?

That's strange. The other way round, NPC's will follow the player through doors and continue conversations, so you'd expect to be able to follow her out of the cave.

But the game often uses fast travel for others. For me, Barbas usually disappears between Falkreath and Haemar's Shame, turning up in the last part of the cave, unless I keep him in sight all the way there. It must have something to do with LOS, and the timing of your exit. You probably have to leave the cave at the same time as the spriggan for her not to take a short-cut, and spare her legs.

Aha, and also Esbern and Delphine are notorious for disappearing on the way to the Karthspire only to show up during the fight. From now on I’m going be doing the spriggan sprint every time I go in Snapleg Cave!

I came across Vilkas standing near Bleakwind Basin, the Giant camp just outside Whiterun. He was on his own, and there were no sabre cats around. Jo'Bashi has not witnessed the giant fight at Pelagia Farm, so it's reasonable that Vilkas and Ria would be out hunting together, but he's on his own.

I'm starting to wonder if the giants have sent Ria into orbit, and she's come down out of sight. I believe she's marked at least protected by her alias for the encounter quest.

Bold:


I've seen a mammoth fy up int orbit, and I didn't kill it, I don't know what did. Skyrim's havoc is on steroids compared to Oblivion's (imho),

Poor lonely Vilkas! Ria tends to run her mouth. Maybe Vilkas killed her.

Do dead spriggans have a glowing, yellowish-green pulse to their bodies after they die? I just noticed this in Claire's game. I don't know if they do this on Xbox. Probably not, I think I would have noticed at some point.

Yes the spriggan glow takes a while to fade out. But it does fade, and the corpses can be hard to find once it does. I think that's why they made it linger a bit.

Another first: approaching Largashbur after level 9, so the giant is there. Atub and Ugor come out to attack it, as usual, but this time the giant whacks someone and sends him/her into orbit. After we kill the giant, Ugor goes back on watch, but Atub is missing in action. She's essential, so I assume the flying person couldn't have been her, or could it? Might she be stuck up in the hills trying to walk back?

Fortunately I'm not running Orc Hearthfires in this game.

Edit: checked the wiki, and she's only protected, but if the player kills her, she won't go flying, and if not killed by the player, then the giant can't, I think. Or is there a timing window where the giant has started his swing when she dies?

You could find her Ref id and do a player.moveto RefID to find out where she is.

If she was the flyer she still may have survived. Dead or alive, I’m curious where she landed.

I found Atub eventually at the gate at the top of Darklight Tower. She'd landed up in the hills and couldn't open the gate to get back down.

Ma'Lishus found this on her way to Karthwasten. I have no idea where the rider went.

Aha, thanks for the Atub report. I’m still missing Erik the Slayer on a PS3 game. It’s been almost four years. Maybe he’s still standing behind some gate.

A horsemanless horse? There wasn’t a giant nearby, was there?

Whoa, a riderless ghost horse. Neat.

A spooky ghost horse? Is there supposed to be one anywhere in the game? Wasn't there supposed to be one in Coldharbour that the Player can get?

MALX, there is a ghostly headless horseman who makes the nightly rounds of Skyrim on his ghostly horse. The picture looks exactly like his horse without the rider. In the Soul Cairn is a blue flaming skeletal horse called Arvak that you can solve a minor quest to own. Arvak is summonable.

So the mystery here really is likely what happened to the headless rider that is probably supposed to be on that horse? Lol.

How funny! Hey, I never saw that headless horseman! Does his name happen to be Ichabod Crane? (what an in depth quest that would be! )

So I'm running around with my Thalmor posse tonight. They just got done with Fort Fellhammer, where Baytor & his crew successfully downed the bandit leader here, and all of his minions. Score.

They get outside, and I'm like WOW. Look at the colors! The trees are actually green. The snow is bluish-white. Even the short stubs of grass & thatch seem to have more color than usual. I recently installed ENB in my game, finally I can see the difference!

Then I realized why everything looks so different: The sun is out ... The sun, yes, that blinding disc of white up in the sky. The sky itself is actually blue too. I don't think I've ever seen this area of the game, The Pale I think, looking so darn spectacular and lovely. Pics soon, I promise.

That northern area - between Morthal and Winterhold - is now my favorite in the game. I love the snow-swept hills, bright ice fields, creaking glaciers, and icebergs floating out in the sea.

Kids can sneak? I just saw a boy crouched down and sneaking in Morthal.

Neat! I bet he was playing Hide and Seek.

How cute! I saw something similar. In one of my earlier playthroughs I accidently gifted Runa with a sword... she then decided to find a ragdoll target and attack the HELL out of it. Was majorly disturbing!

I have only heard Tale of the Tongues sung once by Luaffyn the female bard at Candlehearth Hall. Now I have heard Delacourt of the Dead Man’s Drink sing it. Definitely Jensa’s favorite song.

Grits, I had no idea that song was even in Skyrim! I have enjoyed it from TES related stuff on You Tube and like it also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDbVEkXY5i8

Ya know, it occurs the reason that, after nearly 3000 hours in Skyrim, Buffy has never heard that song in game is perhaps the fact that she has never taken the main quest beyond 'dragons lite'. Since the song celebrates the defeat of Alduin it makes sense that if her heroic hero of Helgen is alive, the song would not be heard. That's my guess anyway.

You’re right, Acadian. That song is played for the Dragonborn after the main quest is finished, which is why I’ve only heard it twice now. Rowan and Mikke retired soon after their MQ-ending battles. Jensa is the only one of mine who has gotten through it and still been in the mood to hang around in taverns.

I have never heard that song either. Given the name, I just assume it must be about lesbians though...

(As sung "to Azura, the Rim of all Holes")



* (from the 16 Acceptable Blasphemes)

Whoa.

I just discovered that if we click on the little flags (blue or red) which are on one of those Civil War maps, it updates our map. Had no idea.

That is really cool, I didn't know that either.

My White Wizard character dropped an iron daggar on the ground, because I hit the wrong button while I was in his inventory. I picked it up, tried to equip it again, but I hit the same key. So he drops the weapon again, and picks it up. Finally I got it right.

A guard saw White Wizard drop his daggar twice and he says "You shouldn't drop weapons around, someone could pick it up, and get hurt. If I see you do it again, that someone will be you."

Had an interesting glitch on my last visit to Pinewatch. There's a bandit who's sat at a grindstone with his back to you, just begging for an archer to sneak attack for triple damage. He fell dead so quick that the grindstone didn't notice, and kept going round and sending up sparks, even though the blade was gone!

I think I caught a screenshot. Here it is.

Ghost at the Grindstone.

Another first, although this one can only happen in a modded game.

My current character is a Dremora, only playable if modded, but the game knows that she's a Daedra. So when she passed Fort Kastav on the way to Winterhold, the conjurers occupying the place came out to welcome her.
There was an Ascendant Conjurer among them (who should not have been there, as he was too high a level, but that's not the point). He cast something at her that enveloped her in a purple swirl and knocked her back a bit. It took me a while to figure out that it was probably Expel Daedra, which didn't quite work as expected on the player.

I'd played a Dremora before, but didn't encounter this last time. But Prizna didn't do the MQ, as she thought that Dragonborn couldn't apply to someone who wasn't born at all.

Zara misheard it as Dagonborn, so she's doing the MQ under false colours.

Wow, ghastley, that is pretty neat about getting whacked with an expel daedra spell! That restores my confidence in the game AI after Buffy routinely laughs at Druglords wasting shouts trying to disarm her mystic bow.

Dagonborn indeed!

The disarming druglords keep trying it after you've passed the level where it's ineffective, so I think it's just driven by the player having a weapon. I don't think they use it on a pure mage (unless they have a staff to disarm).

The spell didn't appear to do any damage to Zara, but it staggered her, and left her open to Ice Spikes/Storm, so she ended up sneaking past, and just taking out the skellies.

Buffy discovered a new unmarked cave today - Mossy Glen Cave. It is a fairly small creature cave with two entrances. She found it by exploring around in Day Springs Canyon (where Ft Dawnguard is). At this stage, finding a 'new' location is pretty rare.

How neat! I had no idea that was there. Great find!

I forgot about this cave until now, even forgot its name but when you mentioned its location, I remembered that Corcaigh discovered a small unmarked cave when exploring the canyon. Nice find!

Inspired by Jerric’s love of fishing and a taste (shared with Kitsune) for smoked salmon, Buffy has taken up salmon fishing. Once finding a likely spot, she drops her clothes and casts her ‘barkskin’ spell. The spell is designed to augment her combat defense but serves quite nicely at ‘defending’ against cold water as well. She follows that with her waterbreathing spell and dives in. She has gotten quite good at catching salmon by hand this way.

Anyway, so on to the ‘new discovery’ for her. Noticing how sometimes salmon can be seen trying to jump up waterfalls, she positioned herself on some rocks and managed (after several tries) to grab one in mid jump. She was surprised and delighted! She waited patiently for another but after a few minutes concluded that the ‘ones’ she saw jumping were simply the same one jumping over and over – well, until caught that is. Catching salmon under water was no surprise but to be able to catch the jumping ones at waterfalls was quite the discovery for us. Not sure why we got kind of excited by that. . . but we did.

Anyway, once she and her vixen enjoy their fill of fresh salmon, Buffy bags it up with some ice wraith teeth to keep it cold and fresh until she can get to a cookpot. Then, with some salt, makes her 'smoked salmon' that keeps almost as well as her similar recipe for venison jerky. I suppose one reason she is a bit excited by her one or two simple cooking recipes is that such is pretty much the limit of her 'crafting'. She is too weak to mine ore, chop wood or use a forge. She is too focused on her bow, sneak and casting to learn enchanting. And her lack of potion making skill in Cyrodiil has deteriorated to include a complete lack of poison making aptitude as well. Again, the price of 'specialization' I suppose.

The leaping Salmon are the source of Salmon Roe, if you have Hearthfires installed, but I think they're already there (just providing meat) in the base game.

One thing that UESP tells me is that some other Salmon can provide it, in particular one farmed at Windstad Manor, but I've never managed to harvest it there. Maybe I should ask Buffy to assist, especially if she takes her clothes off.

This one she caught did yield meat but I did notice that she got salmon roe from it as well. She assessed the roe as one of those mysterious alchemy things and sold that.

It is indeed an alchemical ingredient, and without patching, makes the highest value potions (of water-breathing) you can make, so it's good for advancing the alchemy skill quickly. My characters rarely want the gold, and don't try to sell them - I don't think Arcadia can afford one anyway - but the skill levels are what they want.

Oh how fun to imagine Buffy all Barkskinned up and perched on a rock in the middle of the falls! Great catch, Buffy! I’m delighted by Buffy’s fishing methods. I’m sure that spell protects tender toes from river rocks as well as from the chill.

Jerric suggests that the next time Buffy finds salmon roe, she tries rinsing it in some salted water and eating it raw on some fire-toasted bread. Or she could go Jerric-style and eat it from a knife point while still standing in the river. No cookpot required. Let the alchemists catch their own fish!

Thank you for sharing Buffy’s fishing adventure! Buffy is always inspiring. I think I hear Jerric packing up some salt for an impromptu trip to the falls.

I love tiny details that you add to Buffy's game, like casting barkskin before going into cold water and having ice wraith in her inventory to keep it fresh. And catching salmon in mid jump sounds like quite a feat.

That does sound like fun, Acadian! I've never had anybody who likes to fish, but I think my new Bjorn guy will do this because he's my only real swimmer in Skyrim, other than another Nod I had long ago on PS3.

Are you using any fishing mods?

My New Thing of the day: I've never had an archer, except for a few dabblers here and there. Acadian, this is probably old news for you, but I Had no idea spellcasters apparently think bows are magic. They often try using wards to block arrows!

I don't like spiders anymore...they like me unfortunately.

Thanks, folks. Buffy is awash in smoked salmon now. Enough to feed her and the little vixen for a long time methinks.

Renee, no fishing mods. Just by hand. Salmon in calm waters are easy. The ones jumping upstream are quite the challenge though. The water rushes so fast that if little Buffy takes a wrong step the river grabs her and sends her head over heels downstream.

Oh, Buffy loves fighting mages. They pop up that archery target (ward spell) to even help mark her target!

Her conjured bow cannot be disarmed, so it is nearly as fun to watch Druglords wasting their 'disarm' shouts on her.

Best of luck with your archery, Renee!