Cool! That getting trapped for 200 years opens all kinds of possibilities. I'm intrigued how players approach such things as, long ago Buffy mastered time travel as she learned to move from TES 4 to TES 5 to ESO.

Renee: Scuba diving in the coral reef of Valenwood Islands. The reef runs off the southern shore of the three islands. A lot of sunken treasure mostly gold trinkets can be found while diving there. Wish I could get a picture of the map but the way Oblivion Reloaded is setup it won’t do it.

Yes I can leave at this point when Archen gives me the key to the boat.

Yep, the bed in the house is a little undersized. Makes it a bit cozy for four. The catamaran Flounders Flourish on the other hand sleeps five and sits four for dinner.

Acadian: Did you run into this trap when you had Valenwood Islands installed?

My thinking is that when this mod was written it was assumed that the character’s dead body would be found by Lucy. Highly likely for non-mer races lacking high magic skills. My character on the other hand, has all kinds of magic tricks up his sleeve. He could have easily gotten himself out of this mess but now and then he likes let the Ladies think they are important. So he let Pym cast her Sleeping Beauty spell.

Funny thing is the 200 year duration. This mod was produced a couple years before Skyrim and the duration fits almost exactly. This current Oblivion game is now 3-years old and many of the included mods e.g. The Lost Spires, Hentai Mania II, and several of the Unique Landscapes have elements that fit my character’s story so well it’s simply amazing.
So, as for this particular Valenwood Island trap, when I’m done with this Oblivion story my companions’ curious nature (blame it on the Cute Elves) will bring us back to open this reliquary and that is how he gets to Skyrim.

Alas, the passage of time and short duration I had Valenwood mods installed combine to fade my memory. I can't remember the details of the quests.

20200212 Valenwood Islands, AvoidingTraps & PowerPlay
After placing the Wrecking-Stone on the altar we explored the Ayleid ruin as any archeologist would do, searching for anything that might lead us to a further understanding of my ancestry. Disappointedly the only thing we find is an Ayleid reliquary. My first impulse is to reach out to open it.

"Stop!” Kaleah screams as Pym points to a flier on the floor. In big bold letters it reads;

‘WARNING, DO NOT OPEN THE AYLEID CHEST’.

Oh, oh! I should’ve seen that. Thanks for the warning but why build a trap and then place a warning right in front of it? Kind of defeats the purpose. I guess it would catch the over anxious greedy adventurer who doesn’t look for signs first. But who would be that reckless?

Reporting back to Archen that the stone has been safely stored away, we announced our intention to take the Flounders Flourish and leave the islands. Archen had a request, please speak to Gildii before we go.

Sure we can do that.

Our visit with Gildii was interesting. Seems a long simmering power struggle has come out into the open. Gildii claims that Archen is unsuitable to lead the villages. She presents some good arguments and asks for our help.
Thinking of how eager Archen, the Shrike, and Uldib were to call for a feast with the dead pirates as the main entrée, we were getting rather queasy about the Boiche zealots too.

Kaleah interrupted my thoughts, “I know what you’re thinking, my little Feayche. Just remember I told you not to trust in these Boiche zealots.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Kaleah always adds that ‘my little’ when she want to get a jab in. Turning to Gildii I said, “Just tell me what to do.”

Gildii gives us a mysterious enchanted crystal ball to take to the Scamp Guardian. The crystal ball doesn’t look like much to me but I guess the scamp will know how to use it to banish Archen, the Shrike, and Uldib to Shrike’s Paradise.

He did and after the deed was done the Scamp Guardian handed me Shrike’s necklace. Not sure why but the scamp thought important to take it from the Shrike. Taking it with us, we informed Gildii that the three Boiche were now imprisoned.

Feeling a bit paranoid that the three might escape, Gildii now wants the Scamp Guardian to seal the portal forever. Returning to the Scamp Guardian, he destroyed the Shrike’s necklace thereby sealing the portal forever.

The portal that once was there is no more.

Say one thing about Shrike’s paradise, unless there’s more to it than what I saw those three are going to be very close for a long time. Dinner time might get a bit messy.

Gildii was happy upon hearing the news that the portal had been sealed. To celebrate she invited us to stay for dinner. I did but I insisted on grilling beef steaks from our stores. Not that I didn’t trust the meat in her larder mind you.

The next morning we left the Valenwood Islands. Gildii wished she could join us on adventure but word had gotten around about the change in leadership and she had been elected the new leader of the isles. Wishing her well in her new role my Ladies and I set sail for the mainland.

Whew, the whole crew escaped without being trapped (again) or being eaten.

Yeah, and good thing they have that sail boat.

Are you able to move that boat around manually, macole? Or is it just a teleport mechanic? Either way, wow. Somebody put a lot of work into that.

Sorry I haven't been gaming lately, I've been having some real-life things going on, plus the old Beth forums are closing on Monday (for good) so I've been copy-pasting all sorts of momentos, mostly private messages I want to keep & treasure in the future. Hopefully this weekend I'll get around to Joanie again.

Some Answers and Thoughts on Valenwood Islands;

• Overall, I really enjoyed the Valenwood Islands even though some parts of it felt unfinished or lacking a little polish. The one ending where I got trapped for 200-years brought up all kinds of RP possibilities. Love that kind of stuff.
• The islands are beautiful. The offshore coral reef is littered with sunken ships, treasure chests, and grottos providing ample reason to explore the sea floor.
• Southern half of the big island has couple of inactive cave entrances. Probably left unfinished when original project was abandoned. Ideal for your own cave mod, hmmm?
• Looking for choices with consequences? Valenwood Islands has them by the bucketful. Feels like every choice even to down dealing with a sheep or opening a reliquary has a consequence.
• Would‘ve liked to have explored the Shrike’s Paradise. The Shrike’s necklace wouldn’t work for me so if there was one to explore I missed it this time around.
• There is an option to report Gildii’s rebellion to Archen. Just to see what happened I did it onetime. The result was Archen becomes ruler of all three isles, Gildii is banished, and later as we leave the isles an aftermath message is received stating that Archen’s rule ends when the village revolts.
• The ships only operate by teleportation mechanic. No, we didn’t actually get to sail the sea. That would have been too cool. Where’s Abot (still modding Morrwind, (thanks and praises)) when you need him?
• There is only one port of destination for Flounders Flourish (geez what a name). Wouldn’t it be nice to have the option to dock in one of the coastal harbors e.g. Anvil, Leyawiin, Falinesti, Southpoint, or Torval?
• Found a Tin Key, didn’t find what it opens. Found a chest requiring a Pewter Key, didn’t find the Pewter Key.
• There still is the Pirate’s path yet to play. Depending on choices it looks like there is at least three ways for it to end and a chance to see two more dream worlds. I think I’ll save that for another time.

Glad that, on balance, you enjoyed that mod.

It was a fun one. Trying to decide which side to support really did add to the mood of the story.

I'm hoping that the Elsweyr sand issues you mentioned are not too severe. I haven't seen any yet.

Have you ever been to Adense Epic Dungeon? Tax time is coming and playtime is limited so I thought I might post that adventure here if interested.

Not familiar with that mod.

I'm what Renee would call 'monogamous' - I only play one game at a time. Oblivion was 2007-2014, Skyrim was 2014-2016, ESO 2016-present. Same one and only character though (thank Mara for time travel).

Monogamous gamer, your not alone there. I used to date um play Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion at the same time on alternating days. Been a long time since I did that though. As for my character his story began in Daggerfall and has grown with each new game. Time travel is a nifty way to do continuation. I went for a more some would call lore breaking character of the long lived Fay race.

20200217 Valenwood, Falinesti
The catamaran Flounders Flourish is a nice comfy little ship. It sleeps five comfortably and sits four for dinner.

Well, who’s going to pull the lever?

With a pull of the lever we set sail, sort of. It was just pull the lever and poof step outside to find we were back where we started from. Off the coast of Valenwood we could see Anvil across the bay and when the light is just right the top of Stirk can be seen on the horizen.

Reaching the mainland we received a message that the South Seas Company had gone into liquidation due to the events in the Valenwood Isles. Strange, my Ladies and I don’t remember seeing a Black Horse Courier reporter anywhere on the isles. How do they know these things?

I was getting ready to cast a teleportation spell to take us back to Merendin when Kaleah exclaims, “Look over there! There’s a town or city. We’ve never been there before.”

“But we got business to attend to back at Merendin.”

“We’re not just pack mules, you know!” Maeva not so gently reminds me. “My feet are sore and back is killing me. Let’s get rid of the loot we’re hauling. A little food and drink at an inn would be nice too.”

Facing a minor rebellion, I relent and lead the way to the town ahead.

By the time we reached Port Falinesti the weather had changed. Port Falinesti turns out to such dreary place I don’t know if better weather would help at all. The outdoor market was empty of vendors and customers, only guards on patrol. There’s an inn, the Tree Sap Inn but it looks abandoned. We did find a used merchandise shop, Namino’s Secondhand Goods. Only issue is that Namino has nothing to sell and financially unable to buy anything. He has no money.

Searching the empty houses we find one where a dwemer sword has been driven through the center of a table top. Wonder what that’s about?

Leaving Port Falinesti we take the road up the hill to the city of Falinesti. By the time we reach the Western Gates of Falinesti the sun had come out. The light of Magnus bathed everything in a warm promising glow.

Falinesti is a very nice looking city but where is everyone? Except for the guard patrols there are very few Bosmer walking about. The market place is a,,, well not quite a ghost town. It's just a slow day. We did find an insulting Redguard gal willing to buy our stuff at a lowball price.

The armorer we found wasn’t any nicer to deal with. Even though she bought everything we offered, Sunni Doettner kept yelling at us, “Get Out!”

Morndas 4:38 pm, Second Seed 27, Third Era Year 435:

Days Passed: 276

Joan of Arkay heads to Bravil, the next destination on her itinerary. Wenyandawik, an Ayelid ruin which is supposed to contain the fifth statue, lies in a northwest-westerly direction. In general, Joan is keen to explore this portion of Cyrodiil, anyways. She's heard vampires can be found somewhere in the region! Rawr!!

A gallant knight in shining armor. She walks in steel armor, and not very happily. Nobody had an iron cuirass for sale in the Imperial City as she shopped, unfortunately. Steel might be alright up in the colder regions near Bruma, perhaps. But here in the south, Second Seed grows warmer and warmer.

She adopts a new look once she arrives the town of Bravil. I am not sure why she's chosen such a look, but I do like it



Those pics are fun to look at, macole.

Love that first pic in the twilight!

Joan's new look is very nice.

macole – That catamaran in beautiful. I always loved that area along the gold coast south of Anvil where the Strid River empties into the Abecean Sea. Falinesti – looks like the modder moved on before flushing things out.


Renee – The steel armor does look good – and protective. Joan’s new look is more colorful and comfy though I should think.

Acadian -- Valenwood Improved is or was a German community project with a lot of potential sometime around 2010. As it stand right now it is primarily a land modification, not all interiors are finished. Unfortunately VI is just one of many big mods with huge upside that languished and fell abandoned after Skyrim was released. Beautiful walk about so far.

When I was running it, I had some extras I'd created, and I can't recall all the details.

Eldarie has Shezrie's Towns listed as an incompatibility, but I recall creating a compatibility patch and sending it to both authors. At the time I was making some of the content for Shezrie (along with a lot of other mod-makers), so it might have been incorporated on that side. That mod has been uploaded and deleted again multiple times on Nexus, and I don't know if it's available any more.

I had a map mod that expanded on a couple of others, for colored maps, and roads and trails that weren't on the base one. My in-game map showed Valenwood, Elsweyr Anequina, and the rebuilt Leyawiin of Open Cities Reborn. What I don't remember is if that was one map mod, or overlays in multiple ones. I suspect I used GIMP to amalgamate all the maps into one for efficient loading, but may have enhanced pieces if I look deeper.

I'm a pack rat, so all those pieces are still somewhere on my system, or at least on backup disks. But again, they might have been incorporated into my personal custom mod that had bits for everything else I ran. E.g. Wobbly Goblet/Lucky Mudcrab add-ons.

That is a really cool looking ship.

Falinesti is indeed dark and dreary looking, especially all that smoke.

Namino is not a very good merchant. He has no goods, or money!

Next time I get back on PC / Oblivion I am going to have a character head to Valenwood, so that'll be fun. I was wanting to do this with Renee Gade III but it looks like one of the mods she's got in her game (Elder Council) conflicts with Valenwood Improved. I'm so glad I read this before having her head in that direction!

I am wondering if all the PC gamers are having any enlightenment about Joanie's Xbox pictures. Because all these years, all you've seen from console games are blurry cellphone pics, right? It's something I actually am realizing myself.

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

Second Seed 22, Third Era 435

Joan spends some time taking in the sunlight in Bravil. Time for reflection, and time for some direction, from the Nine. She spends most of the day moseying around town, shopping for ingredients, getting gear repaired. Unfortunately, nobody sells an iron cuirass, and the Fighters Guild hasn't got a spare set lying around.

She suits up the next morning in her solitary Fighters Guild room, ready for Wenyandawik, which she hopes isn't too difficult to find.

In the absence of steel or iron, I'll hope Joan has a bit of protective enchantment on that nice red velvet blouse.

Renee - I remember the days when I would set-up my tri-pod and camera to take "real" screenshots. The TV broadcast banding was horrid.
IMO, Joanie is too cute. Kaleah's intense scowl is burning holes in my back.



Ghastley - I have a copy of Shezrie's Towns v1.1 I don't use. There were later versions 1.3 IIRC. I know that I've seen a Valenwood patch for Shezrie's Towns before but can't find it now. Can't find anything for Shezrie's Towns anymore.

20200220 Valenwood, The Road South, Level 32

By the gods, the gal’s face ain’t much but the plunging neckline and sheer skirt is sure to catch a Bosmer boy.
After a day of walking around browsing the temping wares we left Falinesti by the Eastern Gate.

Soon we came upon a bridge crossing a small creek. At the far end of the bridge stood a tall tower (MOO) nearly blocking the way across the bridge. Very strange way to construct a bridge, I thought.

Entering the Outpost of Horrors we were soon lost in a maze of corridors filled with traps and teleportation gates. Fighting all sorts of undead it took forever to make our way back to the exit.

Don’t you just hate it when you enter a room and a gate slams down behind you before the Ladies can enter? Up pop a bunch of drauger and skeletons (look closely, one’s got a tail, it’s a Khajiit (Creature Diversity)). Better call the Sisters of Insanity. Let them do what they do best.

Leaving the Outpost of Horrors with some unique runeskulls we continued east until we came to a junction in the road. Time to make a decision continue on to Arenthia or head south.

Someone asked, “When’s the last time you spent any time in Valenwood?”

“Oh it was back when I was searching for pieces of the Staff of Chaos. I remember buying the Ebony Tower Shield of Endurance at The Basic Accouterments in Tarlain Heights, the Adamantium Greaves of Intelligence at The Practical Sundries in Haven, and the Dwarven Helm of Invisibility at The Practical Gear Store also in Haven. Wonder if those places are still there? Let’s go find out.”

“You must have looked like a court jester walking down the street,” Kaleah laughed as we turned south.

“Kind of I guess. I was young, just a teenager in man terms and didn’t pay attention to fashion.”

Maeva snicker and under her breath whispered, “Still don’t.”

We were all still laughing and joking as we passed Forest View Farm. Good companions and a nice walk on the road under the warm gaze of Magnus will do that. Saw a small flock of sheep but no shepards.

The road took us past a shrine dedicated to Arkay. The Old One stared silently down on us as we passed by.

It may have just been the way the sun shone on the statue and loose planks creaking on the wooden bridge but I swear the Old One was hiding his eyes, shaking his head and muttering, “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” as we crossed the bridge.

Que ‘The Road Most Traveled’.

A fun tour of some of the quirks of Valenwood Improved it seems. That is actually a lovely little black dress were it not for the overly plunging neckline and sheer skirt you pointed out. Looks like that tower bridge was a 'lowest contractor bid' job.

Yes does don't it. Goes to prove you get what you pay for. But then the constricted access point could prove useful for crowd and migration control.

What I found interesting was that the outpost is dynamically added by Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul (MOO). MOO couples well with Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul and Realistic Leveling. The combination is... I don't know how to describe it the game is just so much better, more fun.

20200225 Valenwood, Moonmont
The road south is proves to be dangerous as we climbed into the mountainous region. The dense forest on either side of the road provided perfect cover for well concealed in bandits lay in wait for the unwary traveler. Today they chose the wrong quarry.

Rebels attacked us near the ruins of Alderin’s Watch. After defeating one we looked for others. Not finding any more rebels in the vicinity we checked the ruins of Alderins Watch. The door to the ruins was shut so tight we couldn’t open it. Perhaps we should inform the Imperial Council that central Valenwood is becoming a powder keg for rebellion? Naw, what do I owe those fools.

It wasn’t long before we reached Southwatch. The view from that vantage point is impressive. From Meadow Run and Eldan Root clear down to the Abecean Sea we could see all of the coastal forest of Southern Valenwood.

The road down through the mountain forest to the coastal plain below led us past the Ayleid ruins of Avar Lidh. We could see the ruins to our right. As we searched for an easy access to the ruins we somehow got ourselves lost traipsing through the countryside. Instead of the Ayleid ruins we found ourselves staring at another strange outpost on the outskirts of Moonmont.

At the same time we were staring at the Scavenger Outpost we were being eyed by two very angry spriggans. These poor creatures were not friendly like the ones we rescued in Vaermina’s testing grounds. Centuries of persecution by man and mer have warped my cousins’ senses. They attacked us on sight.

It took three of us to take one spriggan down. Only these Valenwood Spiggans don’t stay down. It rises from death to fight on. Really wanted to scream at it, “Why won’t you die?”

Reinforcements were called on to defeat two spriggans.

The Scavenger Outpost (MOO) is similar to the previous Outpost of Horrors only smaller. Maybe less than a dozen trap rooms filled with bats, cougars, wild boars, and some of the biggest meanest looking mud crabs I’ve ever seen. All this work and no exotic loot.

Leaving Scavenger Outpost we enter the town of Moonmont hoping to find a place to spend the night. Moonmont does have an inn, the Tipsy Elve but that’s about it. With an attitude we’ve come to expect from Valenwood Bosmer the publican informed us that we don’t belong here.

After some coaxing, for 10 gold the inn keeper let us a room for the night. With a wink and a nod to my Ladies he tossed me the key to a room upstairs, “Last door on the right.”

I knew there was something wrong when the entrance to the room was double-doored.

Stepping inside we found Jayna Madlem passed out on the bed. Oh, it’s one of those kinds of places.

Funny how at times like this I can clearly hear exactly what My Ladies are thinking. Yes, I’m pretty sure we had better leave.

When I first downloaded VI, the spriggans had a bad script attached. The intent was that you had to kill them three times before they remained dead. Unfortunately, the resurrected spriggan had a fresh copy of the script, so it counted, 1, 1, 1, 1, ... I fixed my copy and sent in the correction. Did you get the update, or the original?

I also recall a boss somewhere that had a level of PC+20 instead of just 20. That was a tough one!

Depends on my character, but generally YES.

Hey, it's a teenaged Jandaga in Daggerfall! Well, not Jandaga, but one of your others, I assume.

I like Maskar's a lot myself. I was wary of it way back in 2014, but once I learned everything can be toggled on or off, that made it seem a lot safer.



Totally, Acadian.

Jandaga gets a bargain for 10 gold. Time to get out of that heavy armor suit.

Not sure how to check the script but I believe I have the updated one as they did eventually die. The Daughters of Nir do take a beating though. Thanks for the warning. I will make sure Pym carries her Hentai Mania Assassin's Blade with its 210 damage.

I am wondering if I have the same script in one of my MMM esps. Because there's a plug-in called No_Undead_Rise.esp in my game, and it's supposed to cause undead not to return to their unlife. By default, MMM makes zombies especially come back to life. It used to work but over time it stopped. So whenever I encounter a zombie, chances are I'll need to use a console command to remove it from the game.


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

Second Seed 22, Third Era 435

Joanie suits up in her solitary Fighters Guild chamber, says her prayers to the Creators, then heads out to find Wenyandawik. Hopefully it will not be too hard to find. During her days in Bravil, she'd spent time looking for reflection, and time seeking some direction from the Nine. The Nine can intervene in small ways for most folk, but when looking for obscure Ayleid ruins, most of these small ways were merely counted as inspirations. Therefore, Wenyandawik might still be difficult to find.


She seems rather unprepared in her attire. Unfortunately, nobody sells an iron cuirass, and the Fighters Guild hasn't got a spare set lying around. So she leaves Bravil wearing an ordinary middle-class blouse.

Since her Battlehorn knight companion seems to have left Bravil altogether* Joan of Arkay leaves alone. Her mithril-plated horse stayed tethered back at Battlehorn, meaning she must rely upon Detect Life spells to navigate her way through those dangerous forests. Mostly, this method works.

Eventually, after hours of searching, and a night spent at the top of a hill, she finds a strange, isolated house in the middle of nowhere. She hates to admit, but for all her contemplation, and all her "guidance" from the Nine, she must admit that once again, she is lost.

Such is the life of a frequent adventurer.


-------

* (seriously, we couldn't find this guy anywhere)

Note: I totally forgot about the Isolated House. When we found it I was wondering (at first) which mod could have added it. But she's got no mods in her game!

macole- More VI exploration. Though imperfect, the place certainly is interesting to explore. Saw a mudcrab the other day? Gee, can’t even find a hospitable inn.

Renee- Joan’s quest to find those elusive Ayleid statues for Umbacano leads her in search of Wenyandawik - in her casual attire.

Jandaga, oh that’s a long story. The teenage picture is Jandaga in TES I Arena. When Bethesda announced Skyrim quite a few people declared they were going to do a run of all games; I, II, II, and IV. Sounded like fun. All ways thought of my character in II, III, & IV as the same long lived elf so a series progression seemed like a natural. Long has that been? And this is how far I’ve gotten. I admit I did take a break and did a quick run of Skyrim just before SE came out. The way things are going I might just be finished when VI comes out.


Yeah, Maskar’s is pretty good. It adds more than what I expected and it runs well with Oscuro’s and MMM.


Ummm, turn out the lights! Kaleah grabs me by the collar and drags me out the doors. She mumbles something vaguely familiar,
"This ain't no party, this ain't no disco,
This ain't no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey,
You ain't got time for that now."

Acadian - What I could do with this VI, if only I had the skill and vision.

20200229 Valenwood, This ain’t no party, Elden Root
“Poor little hot patootie. You look so uncomfortable laying there. Let me help you out of those things.”

Hands grab me by the back of the collar and I’m dragged out the doors of the Tipsy Elve. Once outside Kaleah wags a talon in front of my face and reminds me of our mission,

"This ain't no party, this ain't no disco,
This ain't no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey,
You ain't got time for that now."

Sometimes the Ladies can be such party poopers.

Dragged, rather reluctantly I might add, from the Tipsy Elve we left Moonmont at a quick pace intent on making Elden Root before nightfall. Large red capped mushrooms lined the road between Moonmont and Meadow Run. Having made good time we stopped in Meadow Run for lunch.

Meadow Run is a friendly little town. While there we spent some time chatting with the locals.

It was very late in the day and darkness was fast approaching by the time we reached Elden Root. Surely there will be an inn in this great stone city.

Nope, this once great city is nearly deserted. Asking one of the few residents we encounter for directions to an inn gets us nowhere. They really know nothing. I have to ask myself, is this general collapse of civilization in Valenwood the result of the Oblivion Crisis?

The house on the corner appears to be abandoned. It was unlocked so we just walked right on in. An impressive three story corner house with six rooms was sparsely furnished. Except for one double bed on the second floor it was completely empty.

There was a single spacious open room on both the 1st and 2nd floors. The 3rd floor was not well lit and very dark but there were four empty rooms up there. Thinking there was a room for everyone I declared it time to get some sleep. My thinking was faulty.

Well Pym, I guess it’s you and me on the floor tonight. You know I never can tell what she’s thinking behind those vacant eyes but that grin of hers is disturbing.

It was overcast and rainy the next morning when we awoke. Ignoring the rain, we took a tour of the city anyways. We noted several shops during our tour of the city. The Weapons of All Kinds, the Bread and Co., Chaya’s Alchemy Shop, and Tavern to Eagle’s Nest were all empty store fronts. I don't remember any of these shops from the Arena days, so very long ago.

The rain had stopped by the time we left the cemetery. We were contemplated exploring the Ayleid crypt we found when Kaleah pointed out two great statues towering over the city’s skyline. Overlooking the city, flanking the waterfalls that feed the river flowing through Elden Root were two great birdman guardians. That settled that.

Hours later we were standing at the foot of one of the guardians.

A strange ancient feeling emanates from this place. Pym begins tracing glyphs at the base of the guardian. A ward against something very powerful is all I can make out. We will have to come back some other time to investigate this further. If it’s safe I may assign an Archeologist Guild associate to the task. For now, the day is almost done, let’s go to Tavern To Eagle’s Nest where there’s a bed for everyone.

Next morning we left Elden Root to continue our trek south to the sea.

Beautiful terrain. Again, it becomes a shame that the mod author never fleshed out the settlements with functional shops and quests. Still, a beautiful tour and fun place to explore.

I imagine your crew would quite enjoy how ESO has presented Elden Root.

It is a beautiful tour. I'm kicking myself for not exploring VI years ago. The forest is nearly everything you could expect. Only missing great tree cities walking about. Sometimes I wish they hadn't written that into the Pocket Guide 1st Edition. It's become near impossible to achieve in game and therefore disappoints many.

As it is, I walk through the forest and the cities thinking this is how close it is to how I imagined Valenwood to be TES-I Arena.

20200304 Valenwood, Avar Lidh
Remembering the Ayleid ruins we saw right near Southwatch we decided to go investigate them before heading south.

The ruins of Avar Lidh sat on the banks of a small lake. Someone has been here recently. An encampment of four tents has been set up in a small clearing just outside the stone walls of the ruins. A table and chair are set between the tents, can’t tell what is sitting on top of the table. Curiosity calls us down to find out.

Sitting on the table are two of the Ayleid statues that Umbacano in the Imperial City likes to collect. Wonder if he’ll pay for these? My Ladies take a nap while I study one of the statues. You know sometime it was very difficult concentrating on the task at hand. Found myself counting tents; tent #1, tent #2, or tent #3.

Searching around we find an entrance to the upper level of Avar Lidh. The corridor leads us downward until we’re stopped by a locked gate. There should be a remote switch to open this gate. After much searching we were unable to find it.

With a lich and who knows what other undead creatures, stalking the stairway on the other side being unable to find the remote switch may be a good thing

Leaving Avar Lidh we can see a half sunken ship on the far side of the small lake. The thought of such a large ship on such a small lake spiked our curiosity to go and have a look see.

As we got closer we could see some kind of activity going on near the sunken ship. A lone adventurer was fighting a spriggan. Thinking that guy is in some serious trouble we rush to his aid. Our combined effort eliminated the spriggan threat.

Imagine our surprise to find Sayjid from Better Cities Bravil. How did you get here? We haven’t seen you since we left you chasing wenches at the Black Arrow Tavern in Bravil

Sayjid’s obnoxious self-grandiosing attitude hasn’t changed much since our last meeting. We might have been able to ignore him acting like he’s doing us a favor by gracing us with his presence, but when he implied my Ladies weren’t very feminine that changed everything. My Ladies may be fierce, hard as nails battle maidens (?maidens?) when on adventure but when it comes to comments about their feminine charms they are very sensitive. They know an insult when they hear one.

Kaleah was just about ready to show Sayjid what it meant to be a succubus when I decided it was my turn to drag her away. It took awhile until she finally calmed down.

Pym on the other hand was silently fuming and went looking for a fight. When she found a poor unfortunate assassin, well we couldn’t let her have all the fun. Poor thing was very reluctant to give up such good looking armor.

With their frustrations taken out on the late imposter we continued southward toward the sea.

More fun adventure in Valenwood. How curious that an NPC from another mod made it into VI land. I think you have the right approach from what I recall. Just explore, adventure, look around, laugh a bit and enjoy the good stuff that is in VI without sweating the details, almost empty towns and dead ends.

Wow, that's really great! I did the same thing when I got my gaming PC in 2014, sort of. I wanted to start at the very beginning with Arena, then move on to Daggerfall. Haven't had the same character progress to and from each game though.

Whoa, how did you get three tents set up for each follower? Or were they already pitched?

Uh oh. Don't get on that ship. (At least don't fall asleep below deck!)

I gotta say macole, that is the prettiest fight I have ever seen. So much color in their outfits, on this brilliant sunny day.

Renee - The tents with bedrolls were already pitched. Look closely at the first picture and you can see four tents. With CM Partners you can give the party a command to sleep. Your companions will then search out nearby available beds. The trick was to get them to use the desired tents to be in the screenshot. It just so happened that my Jandaga was blocking the entrance to the fourth tent and forcing my ladies to choose the tents as seen. You should have seen them running around bumping into one another as they played musical tent. My intention was to take a shot of Jandaga sitting down at the table studying the Ayleid statues. Then when I saw I could get everyone in the shot I knew that was the one to take.

Ha that sounds funny, "Go to sleep!" and they start scrambling. Yes I have CM Partners in Renee Gade III's game. Haven't been with her for a few months though.

One of these days I'm going to deliver a fuller Joan of Arkay story-styled update. I've been incredibly lazy for several months now. Goblin Lady really wore my creative side out!

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Second Seed 23, 3rd Era 435

Joan finds some sort of priory building as she searches for Wenyandawik. It takes her a few minutes to realize where she is: Priory of the Nine. It's a place she's only heard of, but has never seen. Rumor has it, a red-headed Nord named Dyan phor a'Cauz had taken up the cause to restructure the Pilgrim's Path within the past year or so. It's a task Joan herself might have taken up, had she been in the right place at the right time.

She explores the place, hoping to find others. Even though the place seems abandoned, she is glad to have somewhere safe to stay for a day.

I enjoyed the Knights of the Nine DLC. My only problem was how it ruined a couple chapels for long term play (Anvil especially and, to a lesser extent, Bravil).

Knights of the Nine is good to play through once. After that I found it doesn't fit my character's story (my vision) well. I too don't like what it does to the temples. I'd force it complete but I've had bad things happen when I do that.

20200309 VI, Southpoint, the road to Haven
Coming to a bridge that spanned a small lake and river we could see the spires of Southpoint towering above the tree tops. The spectacular falls of Southpoint roared in approval as we crossed the bridge. Its cooling mist was a welcome relief in the afternoon heat.

Through the boundary markers the road leads us past lush green pastures of the Duchy of Southpoint. The sheep didn’t seem to mind us passing by but the horses began jumping the fences and running all over place. At one time unicorn ran by. We tried to catch the unicorn but it happened so quickly we couldn’t capture it. That excited Maeva the CuteElf. She went on and on about how she missed visiting the CuteElf Retreat.

To our right across the bay lay Southpoint. We’ll make a stop there for the night.

Southpoint, a large bustling port city feels like a ghost town. Is everyone away on holiday? Searching for a place to spend the night became an ordeal. Cassandra and Envya, the only residents of Southpoint that we could find that still owned houses in town, objected to sharing their beds with us.

You know, I really need to look into getting bedrolls for everyone.

Without guild halls present in Southpoint the best option we could think of was to spend the night sitting on the pews of the city’s temple to Stendarr. It was already dark by the time we crossed over the bridge.

Morning came and we took a tour of the docks before leaving Southpoint.

Heading east toward Haven we came upon a roadside inn, The Eagle Valley Tavern, that was open for business. Road weary and thirsty we stopped in. Vaeli the publican unlike many Valenwood proprietors actually had food and drink for sale. Unfortunately the three beds upstairs were all rented out, so after dinner we continued on to Haven.

The city of Haven is built on the side of a mountain. The main walkway winds its self down several levels to the docks. Though there are a couple of inns in Haven; Inn of the Snowy Owl and the Stairway to Haven that have useable beds, they are not really for rent. Just walk on in and flop.

I don’t know why but I think Lidowen of the Stairway to Haven is overly concerned with security. The bedroom has three doors! Curiously none are locked.

I asked the Ladies if they if they’d like to go to heaven tonight. They grinned. Then Kaleah gave my cheek a hard pinch and said, “Oh, you think you’re so smart.”

Southpoint looks very nice. That is a great shot of the chapel at night. And what an adorable little inn on the way to Haven!

This made me laugh. Yeah, this area of the map is incredibly stunning at times.

20200316 VI, Haven, finding Noutar Emero
We awoke early the next morning to a bright sunny day. Lidowen had set out a nice buffet. While my Ladies ate breakfast I talked with Lidowen. Running through my best lines that never seem to work, I casually mentioned that I was the newly appointed Headmaster of the Cyrodiil Archeology Guild. Well I thought she might be the intellectual type.

Anyways, she deflected and countered by saying she had come across something that I might find interesting. She pulled a crumpled up piece of paper from under the bar and handed it to me.

“This was left behind by a party of adventurers after a night of carousing.” Pointing to one of the names on the note, Lidowen continued, “This one, Noutar Emero is close by. It lies just above the falls to the east of Haven. You can see it from the Eastern Tower.”

Written on the crumpled note paper was a list of what appeared to be names of Ayleid ruins with obscure notes alongside each. The curious part was the directional lines running to and from the names. What could it mean?

Later after the ladies had finished their breakfast I shared the note with them. we said good-bye to Lidowen and went looking for the Eastern Tower.

Lidowen was right, you can see the Ayleid ruin above the falls, barely. Now how do we get up there is the question.

“You can walk on the air while I fly, carrying Pym and Maeva with me,” Kaleah offered.

“We could do that but I think I’d like to first try approaching Noutar Emero by land. Let’s walk across the water over to Quin’raw Peninsula Point. From there it looks like we can travel along the ridgeline until we reach Noutar Emero.”

The plan was working fine until we approached the point of the Quin’raw Peninsula. Could this gaping hole in the sea just off the point be the result of Archen using the Wrecking Stone on the Valenwood Islands? Wonder how many ships have been lost here?

With care to avoid the hole in the sea we managed to walk onto the shore. From there it became relatively easy to make our way along the ridge separating Valenwood on our left from Elswyer to the right. Gorgeous.

We could see Noutar Emero but a deep gorge blocks our path. The river forming the falls flowed swiftly through the gorge. If we could get higher and find the head waters of the falls we could shoot the rapids down the gorge to Noutar Emero. We continued our climb.

Eventually we found ourselves high above Noutar Emero overlooking a small crystal clear lake, the headwaters of the falls. There’s a small tent village on the far side of the lake. Circling the lake we approached Leafblood camp hoping to find a welcoming reception. That bubble burst when a satyr suddenly attacked.

Take it easy cousin we don’t mean any harm. Pretty thing wouldn’t relent and suffered for it.

After defeating the satyress attacker we found the remains of four others. All female. Something strange has happened here. Perhaps they all went insane without a shepherd to pipe them to sleep?

Not wanting to stay at the cursed satyr campsite we searched for mouth of the gorge. Using the water smoothed dolerite gorge like a slide we shot the rapids down the gorge all the way to Noutar Emero. We managed to scramble out of the water just before the spill.

Kind of reminds us of the Johnson Shut-ins, only steeper.

Evening had arrived and we made camp in front of the entrance of Noutar Emero.

Wow, given that list of Ayleid ruins, it looks like the crew has plenty more to explore.

Oh my – Buffy remembers encountering a few of those magic gaping holes as well.

Gorgeous is right, regarding the screenshot straddling the ridge between elvenland and kittysand.

Smart to climb above the ruin and ride the falls to it. Quite a busy day!

Acadian Thanks for the comments.

A friend in the Beth forums who's girl gang travels through Valenwood often shared with me some points of interest. Not wanting to just runoff and start exploring for reasons unknown, I thought bar talk was a good way to put it my adventure.

My game is heavily modded. Even with available patches sometimes land tear oddities occur. If I had the skill I'd try to fix the bugs I've found. But to acquire the skill, I'd have to quit playing. So if I can't find a workable patch and they're not too disruptive I ignore them for the moment.

Yikes! I've seen glitches like that happen in my games occasionally too! Did you try simply reloading? That always seems to fix. Then again, my game is probably only halfway as modded as yours.

That's how I incorporate advice and spoilers into my game, too. If somebody in these forums (or at Beth) mentions something which my character has not discovered yet, there's always a way to say "well, Sir Vyvoor heard this info from some guy in a bar who was over-talking to the bar's publican because of all the patrons said bar attracts..." That always works for me.

Renee; I've tried reordering and reloading, and searching for more updated patches but somethings just aren't meant to be. Say lobby.

Yep, when having a sip in the bar it is best to keep your eyes and ears open. Never know what you might come across.