Those Anvil dock bars host a rough crowd!

Wow, travel by steps sure is confusing – sort of like opening a box of chocolates, you never know what yer gonna get. Oh, that wasn’t too bad – looted Ontobel and made it back to grass and sky.

Clever to assign puzzle solving to the rear party – delegate and disappear off looking for Qualum. Harder than Ontobel but done and done. The pair even make it to Gottshaw Inn. There are worse places to spend the night.

Acadian: If i'd only turned around to look we could've stayed in Kvatch.

20220908 The Ayleid Steps, Retracing the Steps - grading papers – MOO Fort Strand

Leaving Gottsaw Inn after breakfast Kaleah and I tried to get a better idea of where the Ayleid stepstone that we arrived on was located. Looking back toward the top of the hill where we had arrived we came to the startling realization that we had been just outside the western wall of Kvatch. Dang, if I had turned around I probably would’ve broke my nose on the wall.

We should have stopped by to see how things were going. Oh well, next time.

Clouds were moving in by the time we left Gottsaw Inn so we thought we’d save some time by cutting cross country to Anvil. It was working out fine until we ran into some bandits near Fort Strand. Not liking their attitude we decided to serve eviction notice to whoever remained in the ruins of Fort Strand.

A group of MOO Valenwood Rangers had set up camp in Fort Strand. Turning right at the first junction after entering Fort Strand we fought through a few of the Valenwood Rangers that included archers, Beatmasters and a Druid. It was when we entered the Fort Strand Dome that the fight became more intense.

Almost immediately after entering the Dome we crossed paths with two unexpected invaders. In the darkness Duvianus Hateria (MOO), a member of the Dark Brotherhood and the vampire Carnius Maro (MOO) caught us by surprise.

Shrouded in darkness by his DB leather armor Duvianus Hateria attacked Kaleah. Not knowing whom he was dealing with Duvianus used a destructive touch spell on Kaleah. It didn’t work. He would’ve been better off using the soul trap enchanted Elven long sword he carried. It wouldn’t have worked any better but at least we wouldn’t have lost his hand when Kaleah struck him with her fiery blade.

While Kaleah entertained Duvianus I buried Light of Dawn in his back. In less than a minute the dark shrouded Duvianus Hateria succumbed to our fiery blades.

“I told him, don't touch me there!” Kaleah spat angrily.

Turning away from the corpse of Duvianus Hateria, Kaleah pointed down the hall and said, “Can you smell the vampire down there.”

Sure enough screams of “Blood, I smell blood” could be heard coming toward us. Soon the vampire Carnius Maro came into view. Seeing what was left of his comrade Carnius with complete confidence in his prowess attacked.

It’s been a long time since we dealt with a vampire and as eager Carnius was to drink our blood Light of Dawn was eager to taste Carnius. The bane of the vampires shone exceedingly bright as it struck the vampire Carnius. Screaming wildly for our blood until the end, the Light of Dawn feasted and put a permanent end to Carnius’ hunger.

What were these two doing imbedded with the Valenwood Ranger company? A possible clue was the Dead Drop order we found on Duvianus Hateria. Others have told us that vampires make excellent assassins. They often align themselves with the Dark Brotherhood so Carnius Maro traveling with Duvianus makes sense. Could it be that they hired the Valenwood Rangers to help find their quarry?

(Here’s the thing about MOO, there’s no real quest but MOO adds dark Brotherhood NPCs that carry assassination orders. I’ve collected a few but not being a DB follower I’ve never acted upon them.)

By the time we eliminated the evil resurgence in Fort Strand it was pouring rain. We found a couple bedrolls and made do until the next morning.

The rain had stopped sometime during the night making for a pleasant, if not for the mud, walk to Anvil. Arriving at Benirus Manor expecting to see the smiling faces of 5 field hippies I was rather surprised to see Vilja here with them. What I wasn’t expecting was a house in turmoil.

Everyone was yelling and screaming or as in Pym’s case demonstrative signing and wild facial expressions, at one and other. Even Rosalind, my 15-year old ward and house maid was acting out. What happened while I was gone?

"I’ve never seen them as a group to be so argumentative toward each other. “Where’s the Love, Peace and Happiness?”

“My naïve little Feache, you just haven’t been paying attention,” Kaleah replied.

“Ladies, please!” I shouted. “What is going on here?”

That was a mistake. Their attention turned towards me and suddenly a sea of paper was waving in front of my face with cries of foul play. Oh, I get it. They turned a simple request into some sort of competition and now I have to play teacher and grade papers.

“While I’m grading papers I’ll assign traveling companion according to correct answers. Not feeling confident the steps will handle multiple companions well I’ll limit the number of companions to one or two. Hope this makes everyone happy.”

Here goes "May The Mother of All Creation guide my choices" (Actually for the most part I rolled dice to make assignments):

1. "In line with colored drink and wolfsound caves between them and east of the towers..." Done, Kaleah and self. Done
2. "iadnilfohtronagnafotsew" Maeva
3. "It is well north of Arrius, the midday step". Pym
4. "Reed this: from the tower to the east, below the left slingshot arm, 3 steps." Elenya and Maeva
5. "is tan dat awel land be hin data tarism or a ham eisvaht ace nand then or thayle ids te pism yen trance." Pym and Yesmin
6. "jo uif csbwjm gjhiufst hvjme cbtfnfou". Fiona
7. "thron fo wryesel bredor, hebdin ailodest lingibud, no poles." Elenya
8. "The house above this basement faces two guild halls behind a tree." Kaleah and self. done
9. "This is easy: remember this cavern?" Vilja, the only one she got right.
10. "A door, not blessed, not yours; somewhere behind it is a stone." Claire
11. "The golden tree, the dead tree, the tower burnt..." Yesmin
12. "Flanked by waterfalls, where unlit areas remain." Claire and Fiona

(What you expected the answers too?)

Amusingly but not surprisingly, Rosalind was declared winner with a perfect score of 12 out 12. It’s a shame she’s only 15, a year too young to go adventuring. Everyone else got at least one wrong.

That taken care of I left Benirus Manor to trade-in the recently acquired loot. Feeling a need to get away for awhile, I thought haggling with Varel and Norbert would be preferable to listening to the Ladies discussing who the best riddle solver was.

So all things considered the day went well. I made a lot of gold (really need to visit the Bank of Cyrodiil in the Imperial City), riddles were solved and assignments made with minimum fuss, and now it is late and time to sleep.

It’s dawn and feels like I had just lain down when someone shook me awake. An eager Maeva said, “Come on, wake up. I’m packed and ready. Come on let’s go.”

Bandits and vampires and assassins! Oh my! Rather a buffed up crowd in Fort Strand.

I laughed at what the ladies did with their puzzle solving assignment.

Only one night of rest for the weary before he is off again. This time with Maeva.

20220914 The Ayleid Steps, Retracing the Steps #2- Lost Eutivyle

Iadnilfohtronagnafotsew, according to Maeva the answer is to write it backwards and add spaces, “west of Anga, north of Lindai”.

Where do we start? Maeva suggested starting at Lindai. From there comb the country northward, if we don’t find it then we zigzag our way south then north as we work our way east toward Anga.

Taking out my map I explained my thought. “We know where Lindai is, it’s marked on our map. Draw a line north from Lindai and then draw a line west from Anga. Where the two lines cross will be the…”

That’s when I realized we don’t know where Anga is. It’s not marked on our map.

“We need to go to the Imperial City. You can do some shopping at the Goddess Store while I stop at the bank and then research the location of Anga at the library.”

“Like I said start at Lindai and…,” Maeva was about to argue until she heard the word “shopping”. Her stern look turned into a bright smile, Maeva curtsied and said, “The Jandaga’s wisdom is unerring,”

Using the stepstone in the corner of the study we left Benirus Manor. Instantly we stood in the Imperial City’s Market District. As Maeva headed off to the Goddess Store I could hear her say, “I do need a new pair of shoes.”

After a day in the Imperial City, most of it spent sampling brews in nearly every inn in the city while waiting for a certain little someone to finish her shopping, we left for Lindai. Proceeding north from Lindai we traveled north through the Great Forest. Such an idyllic setting with golden leaves falling ever so gently to the forest floor. It truly is beautiful this time of the year.

Crossing the Orange Road we knew we were close to the intersection point. Somewhere along this seldom used path lies hidden the stepstone we seek.

Three days or was it four, of frustrating searching goes by. Up one side down the other crisscrossing back and forth we covered every inch of ground we thought the stepstone would most likely be. On the fourth day

“Well my cute nisse what do we do now?” I asked. Although this is not Maeva’s forte Cute Elves’ affinity with nature could be helpful in finding things hidden in the brush.

“Wish Elenya was here. She’s better at this than I,” Maeva said. Taking a deep breath Maeva added, “I will do what I can.”
On moss covered ground, Maeva sat cross-legged raised her arms high and entered a trance like state (to consult the Xedit codex. Hours later she awoke. Staggering as she tried to stand, I manage to catch her before she fell. Looking up to me, she breathlessly whispered, “Northwestern end of the ravine just before Moranda, high on the hill between a large rock and a tree hidden by bushes.”

We spent the night that way. I sitting on the soft moss covered ground rocking gently as my brave little Maeva gently slept. Early the next morning with everyone recharged and ready to go we searched for the stepstone. Late in the day, in the pouring rain we finally found it.

“You got to be kidding, I’m standing on the stepstone and I still can’t see it!”

“Well,” Maeva chided. “Did you expect the stone to jump up and say, here I am?”

Unable to answer I activated the stepstone and away we went to… the FREEZING Jerall Mountains near the Hermaeus Mora’s Shrine. A blizzard was blowing in and we activated the stepstone to get out of there as quick as we could.

The next stop was no better. It took us just a few mountain peaks away near Sky’s Edge Cave.

(Notice that< as sometimes it happen, Maeva didn’t follow properly and I have to call her to me)

Using another welkynd stone we activated the stepstone. This time we found what we were looking for, the ruins of Lost Eutivyle.

Skeleton warriors and lich of various ranks greeted us in the usual way. To which we responded in kind. We recovered a real nice Runeskull of Hellfire from one lich.

Lost Eutivyle contains the small room we arrived in and, a much larger room comprised of a balcony surrounding a lower floor. Along one wall of the balcony are several push blocks that open hidden rooms. Once the 4 or 5 lich and the skeletons are taken care of the place is a virtual treasure chest.

One hallway led to a door that opened to the Cave of Lost Eutivyle. The music, stepping across the threshold into the Cave of Lost Eutivyle started the music playing again.

I want you;
(Boom, Boom, Boom)
I want you so bad,
(Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom)
I want youuu,
(Boom, Boom, Boom)
I want you so bad,
It's driving me mad, it's driving me mad

Vampires! For a brief moment my whole body stiffened. Then like ripples of water gently undulating outwards from a pebble tossed into a pond, a shiver washed through me. An old feeling of excitement had returned. Light of Dawn hummed as I gave the blade a quick honing. Then with a wink to Maeva we were ready to meet the challenge.

“Come on,” I shouted into the dark. “Come, let’s have some fun!”

We didn’t have to wait long. A pack of bloodsuckers led by Kurt the Squeezer came out of the darkness to be cure of their affliction. The deniers, we chased down and taught them the error of their ways.

Fourteen bags of vampire dust later Maeva and I stood at the end of the Cave of Lost Eutivyle.

“A pretty nice haul,” I said to Maeva pointing to the stack of enchanted armor and weapons. “Especially that sword we took off of the Squeezer. And 32 welkynd stones to boot.”

“Yep,” Maeva replied. “And the way we’re using up the welkynds on the steps we’re going to need all that we can find.”

Having done all that we could in Lost Eutivyle we activated the stepstone to leave Eutivyle. To our surprise we were returned to Lost Eutivyle’s entrance stepstone.

The entrance stepstone took us to the sun drenched Colovian Highlands near Cloud Top.

What was the story with the “standing on it and can’t see it” one? UL or something change the landscape? I don’t recall similar problems in my Ayleid Steps run.

Oh, there's lots of things. One being it was higher up on the hill than i assumed it would be. Another is Unique Landscapes and possibly the grass mods I use nearly covered the the step with vegetation. Also, UL uses small boulders of a very similae coloration making for some confusion. I passed by it a couple of times thinking it was just another small white rock.

an alternatet storytime:

On the fourth day, the day after Maeva used her talents to help pinpoint the step's location, we resumed our search for the stepstone. Given a idea of where it was we climbed higher and further north than we had before. Tt had begun to rain when we found a large boulder in front of a tree. Using the boulder as a perch I surveyed the surrounding area.

"I am at a complete loss. I don't see anything," I told Maeva.

"Oh, my Jandaga, “ Maeva said excitedly. "What's this here, right behind you under this bush?"

The pouring rain had caused the bush to droop revealing white stone.

"Well, I'll be!" I exclaimed. "It's a stepstone! Maeva my sweet nisse, you did it!”

It's either that or as Maeva likes to think, I was too distracted watching her run around and wasn't paying attention to my surroundings.

Maeva is a clever one. She got a shoppping spree while making the Jandaga think it was his idea. The pair of Rockhoppers Stepstoners really got around. Plenty of loot, welkynd stones and vampire dust for their troubles though.

'Truly Beautiful' really is an aptly named screenshot.

20220925 The Ayleid Steps, Unknown Cave, Anutwyll Inner Chambers

After giving thanks for being allowed to see the beauty given to us by the Mother of All Creation we used the step to leave Cloud Top. In less than a second we found ourselves at the bottom of the Unknown Cave, a deep dark trench with no way out other than the way we came in.

“What is this place?”

“The realm of a fallen lesser Daedric prince?” Maeva surmised. Then with a laugh she added, “A duke perhaps?”

“Yes, very well could be. Started by an upstart, got squashed by a better, and never finished. Think there’s anything up top.”

“You could use the Wings of an Angel spell to fly up to the top and find out,” Maeva suggested. “But no, I don’t think there’s anything up there.”

There wasn’t. Surprisingly though, we did find some things hidden away in this dark little trench; a welkynd stone and a chest holding a couple of interesting enchanted items.

Using a welkynd stone to leave this Unknown Cave, the step took us an Ayleid Well just outside Sardavar Leed. A conjurer attacked us as soon as we appeared on the well. Maeva made sure that he didn’t bother us for very long.

“Conjurers,” Maeva spat, “Do you want to test your skill against theirs, my Jandaga?”

Entering Sardavar, a long staircase took us down to a four way intersection. Straight ahead of us, a staircase led down to the floor below. To the right the hallway led to a bedroom. The hall to the left led to a locked door. Above us an open cross walks passed overhead. As we entered the intersection the trap was sprung. Armed and armored with bound daedric gear Guardians of Oblivion, conjurers of immense power, attacked.

Summoning all sorts of Daedra and Atronachs they came at us. Two came at us from down the stairs ahead of us, another from the hallway to the right, and one on the walk walkway above us dropped atronachs on us from above. They clogged the narrow halls with atronachs as I summoned my most dependable warriors. It became a slugfest.

It was difficult getting to them but one by one the Guardians of Oblivion fell taking their summon creatures with them. A lucky shot with a fireball knocked the Guardian of Oblivion off the overhead crosswalk. He quickly became a pincushion. The entrance to Sardavar was now quiet.

The initial onslaught over Maeva and I descended the staircase to the balcony below. Sardavar Leed is vast. Seeing it could take days to clear we decided to leave Sardavar Leed. Weary, we collected what loot we could, several welkynd stones and some enchanted items, and headed for the exit.

Back outside we activated one of the steps located on the Ayleid well. The one we chose took us to the Inner Chambers of Anutwyll. An ogre was pawing at a reliquary set upon a large stone catafalque. Still wound up from Sardavar, the impetuous redhead, Maeva attacked. While Maeva took care of the Ogre I called fprth the Sisters of Insanity as backup, just in case some hidden monster appeared from the shadows.

Exploring the now quiet Inner Chamber revealed a door to Anutwyll Erfinsel. Anutwyll Erfinsel turned out to be another step stone hub containing eight Ayleid Steps arranged in a circle. Strange Ayleid tablets hung on the wall in front of each step. Unable to decipher the tablets we left this room as we found it.

There was little resistance as we explored the rest of Anutwyll. When we found the exit it was dark and pouring rain. Ducking back in Anutwyll to get out of the rain we decided to go back to the inner Chamber to spend the night. Next morning, we used the step stone in the Inner Chamber to leave Anutwyll.

It’s a pleasant morning and the view from high in the Valus Mountains, southeast of Lake Canulus, of the Nibenay Basin is spectacular. The question still remains unanswered, why would Ayleids place steps in such a remote places as this?

To avoid a nasty fall down the mountain we took our chance with the step stone instead.

Thinking back on it, climbing down the mountain may have been the safer route. The stone we landed on put me in a most precarious situation in Wenderbek Cave. The step stone was hanging by a thread at the edge of a bottomless chasm. One false step and it’s all over. To make matters worse we were fronted by a pack of hostile Goblins.

Thinking it wise, we stepped out of Wenderbek Cave.

We may be further north but here we were again standing high up in the Valus Mountains near the Morrowind border. This time we were further north. Looking down the mountain something odd was peeking through the trees.

“Could that be city walls? Maeva asked. “My map doesn’t show any walled city here.”

“This requires investigation,” I said and started down the mountainside.

As we made our way down the mountainside Maeva said, “My Jandaga, you know we could have gotten a Goblin Totem back there in Wenderbek,”.

“Yeah and be chased by Goblins for the rest of our lives,” I replied. “No thanks.”

“But it is so much fun to plant a couple totems in the Temple District,” Maeva said with a sly, wicked little grin.

I think I'm going to try Ayleid Steps. These latest stories have gotten me interested. Any advice?

Avoid planting goblin totems in the Temple District. The guards get their knickers in a twist over them.

Wow, really getting around this episode! Too bad they couldn't figure those runes out; perhaps some sort of code for where those steps go? Heh, fun with goblin totems!

Carry plenty of welkynd stones.. They fail about 10% of the time. So if you find yourself in a place like the Unknown Cave, where the only way out is via the step stone, if your last welkynd fails then you’re stuck. A good teleportation spell would be a handy thing to have. Midas Magic has a good one.

Be prepared for anything. For most Ayleid steps the location you are sent to is random. You just never know if you’re going to wind up looking at a beautiful landscape or fighting for your life in the depths of Lipsand Tarn, Nornalhorst or worse,

Thanks, macole & Lena. I just read the latest episode, Acadian is right! It seems rather confusing, getting sent around by all these teleports!

Guess I'll give Ayleid Steps a try at some point. Until then, looking forward to Jandaga's next story.

It is confusing mainly because I haven't learned how to read the stone properly, I do try not to read the included spoilers html but you know how that goes. The surface patterns tellyou different things about the stones. Some
work properly and send you to the same place every time. One pattern sends you to "lost" areas. Broken stones could send you anywhere.

From what little I know, I am still in a side quest, improtant only in getting you familiar with how the steps work. After making a certain amount of jumps the real quest begins, that could some time soon.

Oh I see, so Steps is pretty new for you, eh?

Yes, it's one of a group of mods that I always load, since 2013, but never have touched during a play session. My goal since 2017 has been to play them through or at least play a significant part befor this game crashes and burns. The mods are:

Adense_Epic_Dungeon, complete
the lost spires, complete
Vampire Hunting – Order of the Virtuous Blood, complete, kind of,
The Ayleid Steps, in progress,
Midas_Magic_Spells_Of_Aurum, in progress
Hentai Mania2, complete
Integration - The Stranded Light, in progress
Rumple, in progress
and Gweden Brothel, in progress

All have been worth keeping, providing many hours of enjoyment. I will say that the first three are very good. Midas Magic has some interesting, must have spells. Hentai Mania 2 is a personal favorite many may not care for.

20221002 Stranded Light Integration – Mir Corrup, The Ayleid Steps

Yes, something odd was going and it got even stranger the closer we got to the city walls. There, guarding the entrance stood a Dark Seducer and a Golden Saint. With a stern look upon her face the Mazken approached.

“Oh, it’s a good thing Kaleah isn’t here,” Maeva whispered. “Please be careful, my Jandaga.”

“Halt!”

For a moment I thought I was back in Daggerfall.

“Why do you approach the city of Mir Corrup?” the Mazken demanded.

“Mir Corrup, I’ve heard that name before,” I began. “As headmaster of the Archeology Guild, my lovely assistant and I have been…”

Maeva gave me a soft warning tap on the pauldron.

“…um, Looking for a quiet out of the way spot for a bit of…”

A harder rap made my pauldron ring like a bell, warned me of impending doom.

“…err; We are investigating the Ayleid Step system. Anyways, one step stone took us to a step higher up this mountain. From there we saw the walls of this city. Of course we had to come down and take a look,”

The stoic Dark Seducer Guardian almost broke a smile, shook her head and mumbled, ”Sylphim Fey and their games, they’ll never change.”

Once loosened up the Mazken Guardian became rather talkative, for a Dark Seducer that is, She revealed that during a time of trouble, a general evacuation had been called and as the city’s population fled to the yellow road tunnels everything disappeared. Why, she could not say.

The Golden Saint Guardian had a similar story to tell. The buildings and citizens of Mir Corrup were "gone”, undone by the Jills, the tainted lesser et'ada in servitude of a tainted greater et'ada. The Golden Saint then gave us two reason for why they still remain guarding the abandoned city. First, mages had bound them to guard the city entrance and secondly, Jills have no power over them. So, they remain and will so until released from their binding.

“Interesting,” I said to Maeva. “Let’s look around and see what we can see.”

A tour inside the city walls confirmed what the Golden Saint and Dark Seducer Guardians had said. All that was left was the ruined chantry and shine, the rest was gone.

With time left in the day we surveyed the outer grounds. Just a short distance from Mir Corrup’s main gate we found a large stone gate. Certain that it led to the yellow road tunnels the Guardians talked about, we entered the gate.

Deep in the tunnel, we found a lone Ayleid female living in a small side room. Her name is Datye Endago. She too couldn’t tell us much as to what had happened to Mir Corrup. “One day you’ve got a life, a home, a living. Then you’re living in a cave, still not sure what happened.”

Datye added that, though most did not make it to the tunnel, some of those that did escape re-appeared in Cheydinhal, Chorrol, and the Imperial City.

“Clues,” Maeva exclaimed excitedly. “If we ask around, think we can figure out the mystery of what happened to Mir Corrup?”

Leaving Datye we continued through the tunnel to the exit. As Twinkle guided us along the way we passed by another Twinkle. It appeared to be lost. My Twinkle and the Lost Twinkle had a nice little chat, about what I have no idea. After they traded gossip the Lost Twinkle went on its way and we continued on ours.

Continuing on toward the exit, I wondered what we would encounter next. The answer came quickly, The snap, crackle, and pop of a great bonfire could be heard up ahead and it was getting closer by the minute. A Lost Fiery Guardian, it would have singed my beard if I had one, blazed its way passed us.

Finally we reached the exit and stepped out into Magnus’ warm embrace. Ah, to feel the light of Magnus pouring magika down upon me, it’s like having one’s life force renewed. Oh, so much better than drinking a potion.

Traveling down the Lost Road we could see something dark crisscrossing the road further down the slope. As we got closer the somethings got bigger and bigger. Shadow Dragons! A family of four, two adults and two juveniles, black as the night on cloudy day, Shadow Dragons. Taking on one dragon maybe but four; we may be fearless adventurers but there are lines we prefer not to cross and this is one. There must be a safer way down the mountain.

“Isn’t that Hame over there?” I asked pointing to the Ayleid ruins to our left. “Surely there’s an Ayleid Step in there.”

“If nothing else we can wait in there until the dragons to move on,” Maeva said. With an odd kind of giggle she added, “It’ll be dark and secluded, I’m sure we can find something to do while we wait.”

“Huh?”

Maeva gave me a look, stuck her lower lip out, and marched off toward Hame. I watched her walk away for a moment, wondering what that was all about.

“Oh!” It dawned on me and I hurried on to catch up. “She’ll need my help fighting whatever is in there.”

A mystery!

Datye the Ayleid is interesting looking. Impressive ears and height.

Woot! A mate for Twinkle. Maybe?

Acadian: There is a lot more to Integration - The Stranded Light than I had imagined.

I know they are old and I'm just curious, has anyone played with Integration - The Stranded Light or The Ayleid Steps before?

20221007 The Ayleid Steps, Hame Erfinsel Hub - Integration-The Stranded Light, Great Welkynd
“Help I'm steppin' into the Twilight Zone
Place is a madhouse
Feels like being stoned
My beacons been moved
Under moon and star
Where am I to go Now that I've gone too far?”

“You think there will be necromancers in there?” Maeva asked, hopping from foot to foot in anticipation.

“If there is an Ayleid Step in Hame we’ll find it,” I told her. “Even if we have to fight through an army of necromancers and the legion of undead that they drag along with them to get to it.”

Maeva was correct in her necromancer assumption. In the very first room, sleeping quarters furnished with a bed and three bedrolls, an OOO Putrid Hand Initiate necromancer summoned spectral wolves to attack us. The relative inexperience of the initiate showed.

A second initiate was found in a room through the northeast hallway. After looting the chests we returned to the bedroom and took a hallway leading southeast. That path led to a room with two floor traps: a spiked pit trap, and a spiked ceiling/rising floor trap. The markings on the floor were obvious and we easily worked our way around them. The Putrid Hand Initiate in the room didn’t fare as well. He got squished by the rising floor trap.

Once past the traps we exited at the far western side of the room. This hall took us to a crossroad. To the right was a stone Ayleid door to Hame Wendesel, to the left we could see an iron gate. Trying the gate first we found it to be locked, requiring a key. Unable to open the gate, we left the closed off section to turn our attention to the Wendesel gate.

“Something is odd here, my Jandaga,” Maeva mentioned. “All these initiates and only one master, could Hame be a school for the Putrid Hand?”

The first thing we saw when we entered Hame Wendesel was a varla stone cage standing in the center of a 4-way intersection. Taking the hallway on the left we ran into a locked iron gate. Requiring a key to unlock, the gate prevented us from continuing further.

Returning to the varla stone cage intersection, down the dark hallway straight ahead of us we could see the dim flicker of a familiar blue light.

“Kmart!” I exclaimed and ran down the hallway to press the switch. As expected we could hear the cage being lifted exposing the varla stone.

Just passed the wall switch was a closed gate with a floor pressure plate in front of it. Stepping on the floor plate opened the gate allowing us to continue down the hallway. Not far down the hallway we stepped into a good sized room where a Putrid Hand Initiate, who apparently had been paying attention to his studies, summoned a couple of spectral knights. Those frozen ghosts gave us a terrible time until I was able to neutralize the necromancer.

Continuing on we came to the stone gate of Hame Silasel. Maeva was having so much fun playing with the necromancers that she encouraged me to keep exploring Hame Wendesel, leaving Silasel for later. Sounded good, so back to the varla stone intersection we went.

There was only one other hallway left to explore, before taking the remaining path we snatched the varla stone, can’t leave that stuff behind. As fortune would have it, this hallway turned out to be a gold mine. There in the center of the hallway, all by itself sat an Ayleid Step stone.

Having found what we came for, we could have used the step and left but I had caught Maeva’s fever and wanted to continue exploring Hame. I couldn’t put my finger on it but there was something about this place.

A little further down the hallway we stepped through an open doorway we entered Hame Wendesel’s necromancer theater, or as Maeva theorizes, class room. She could be right, for in the center of this the large hall, bent over a bloody torso on a lab table, a comely initiate was being instructed on the finer points of corpse dissection by the MOO Putrid Hand Master, Helpar Enaken.

Wasting no time Maeva drew her sword and charged. Helpar Enaken and the student responded by summoning Daedra. I countered with Angel and my favorite Sisters of Insanity. Outnumbered and out classed the initiate fell quickly.

Helpar Enaken, with his wicked Staff of Greater Ice Storm posed a great threat. Still with a little help from my friends he succumbed to our power. Helpar Enaken’s Staff of Greater Ice Storm is now mine.

Now that we’ve investigated all the accessible areas of Wendesel, we left the study hall, returning to the stone Hame Silasel gate.

Passing through the stone gate the hallway took us the entrance of a room even larger than the lab room in Wendesel. As soon as we stepped through the doorway an iron gate closed shut behind us locking us in. only thing we could do was to search the apparently empty exhibition hall.

It was deathly quiet until I found a wall push block switch. Pushing the block caused a portion of the stone wall to shift revealing a hidden small chamber. Sensing fresh air and meat, undead trapped in that small chamber rushed out to attack. We’ve seen this kind of trap before and were prepared. The starving zombies were toast.

Pressing the block switch at the far end of the small chamber, we awaited the revealing of the next chamber. This time it wasn’t the usual zombies that greeted us. Oh no, we got a hideous looking Argonian zombie, an ancient wraith, and a female lich, just for good measure. Lady, help us.

When we were finally able to press the third block switch, got an unexpected surprise, there was no small chamber with treasure. Instead the hidden door opened up to a short tunnel with a well lighted room at the far end.

“Who’s there?” the OOO Putrid Hand Head Master called out.

(In game he is called master, since he has his own private room where the key is located I called him Head Master)

Announcing ourselves we stepped into the room,. The Head Master voiced his objection. Instantly, he blended so well into the background that he became near impossible to see. Only a shimmering reflection told us where he stood, that and the effects of the magic when he cast a spell. With an angel on our side we cornered the Head Master and informed him that school was out for at least the semester.

On his makeshift box of a desk we found a key, the Hame Dungeon Key. We should now be able to area behind the locked gate in the first. Using the newly acquired key, we exited Silasel through the northwest exit.

Not far into the hallway we came across a stone gate leading to Erfinsel. The Ancient Ayleid key opened the gate to Erfinsel telling us that this had something to do with the Ayleid Steps. Brushing away the cobwebs we gazws upon the Hame Erfinsel Step Hub.

From here we made our way back to the locked gate on the first level. Unlocking the gate we entered a room where we were attacked by the MOO Putrid Hand Master, Judonia Caemean. The Argonian won’t make that mistake again.

Looting this room revealed another major find, The Great Welkynd Stone of Hame (Part of the mod Integration Integrated-Stranded Light. I have no idea what it is used for other than to kill you if you touch it.).

“My Jandaga, don’t touch it!” Maeva shouted. “It looks dirty.”

Maeva’s warning came too late, I reached out to take it. The shock nearly killed me. Drinking potions and casting healing spells as fast as could I managed to survive. Lesson learned, I left the stone alone. (Actually I did try it again, the shock was stronger than the first and I died.)

It’s been a long day of fighting and looting. Tired, Maeva and I returned to the sleeping quarters near the entrance to get some rest.

Oh yes, I remember Hame! What a nightmare, even in vanilla. That self-locking gate shut immediately behind Lena, so her companions were left outside and she had to battle all the undead on her own. Then finally reunited, they too spent the night in the bedroom at the front, and Lena was having bad nightmares... Not surprising, really! She sleepwalked almost right into that double trap, too! Very dangerous to sleepwalk in a place like that.

Good to hear the Jandaga and Maeve managed to get through without sleepwalking into any Ayleid traps (except for that Welkynd stone in the end, that is ).

Buffy and I played Oblivion from 2009 – 2014 but never tried Integration or Ayleid Steps.

Another large and complex Ayleid ruin with the expected hidden rooms and traps. Only this one is a pit of necromancers. I share Maeva’s joyful abandon at killing necromancers and their foul creations.

Uh oh, the Jandaga needs to listen when Maeva warns him about dirty welkynd stones. . . though he’ll probably remember this one for a long time.

Twinkle surely earns its keep when trying to see in those dark rooms!

I player Ayleid Steps, but so long ago, I've forgotten anything useful. I liked it enough to request permission to include a step in the Rumple Mod, which is not part of the network, but possibly was at one time. You'll know it when you see it.

Oooh, how far did you get? As far as Jakben at least?

Yeah, Lost Spires, I also want to try that one too. Truthfully though, I think my days playing Oblivion are pretty much done for a while. It's like a mental block, or something. Not really a huge issue; I feel like I've played this game so much over the past decade+.

Well anyway, yeah, soon as he says "HALT" I thought of ES2! What are Jills?

Uh oh, shadow dragons.

I know that song, the "Stepping into the Twilight Zone" one. Golden Earring, right?

Wow, look at that magical staff. This is a creepy second story. Sheesh, the Jandaga nearly got pwned.

Edit: Never played anything on your list except Vampire Hunting, which Renee Gade III and I completed in 2016, I think.

All of the main quests have been completed. What’s left? Well, there’s a portal in the Cheydinhall Mages Guild Hall that takes you to Morrowind. I haven’t used it yet.

Yeah, you'll like it. Lived up to the reputation as one of the best.

Correct

Oh, there'll come a day when the urge to save some rats will drag you back Anvil.

Jills, from what I know, are dragon like Deadra whose function is to fix time after Dragon Breaks. Personally, I don’t think they do a very good job.
They first appear pretty much exclusively in Michael Kirkbride's not-necessarily-canon ramblings; Nu-Mantia Intercept, Nu-Hatta & the Sphnixmoth Inquiry Tree, and the like. C0DA fandom made them lore friendly.

20221014 Ayleid Steps, Rumple

The next morning came way too soon. After the morning devotions and a bite to eat we went back down to the lone Ayleid Step in the Wendesel zone. This step took us far to the south in the Blackwood.

“Well, now that we’re away from Hame and the dragons,” I told Maeva. “I think we should inform the Stranded Light of finding Mir Corrup before we return to Anvil.”

“My Jandaga, could we please go to market and sell some of this stuff, first,” Maeva pleaded.

Good idea. Using the Midas Astral Gate we traveled to the Universitum Arcanorum where we began a day of shopping at Midas’ Magic - Spells and Sundries. After trading with Midas it was on to the Market District, where we ran nearly every shop in the district out of funds. Then after giving Maeva her share and depositing the rest in the bank it was off to the Goddess Store. There’s a nice little bar there were I can while away the time.

As we were entering The Goddess Store, we ran into Elenya who was just leaving.

“Elenya,” I greeted her. "What an pleasant if not unexpected surprise to see you here."

“Well, what did you expect?” Elenya exclaimed. “it was boring sitting around waiting for you to get back, Besides, my outfit seems to have shrunk a bit so I brought it in for some adjustments.“

Elenya may have been leaving when Maeva and I arrived but that didn’t stop her from turning tight around to accompany Maeva in another excursion of the premises. In the meantime, I went down to the bar for a drink and to settle the account. By the size of the tab Elenya wasn’t the only one that needed armor adjustments.

Shopping all done the three of us retired to the Archmage’s quarters for the night. The next morning we left the Imperial City in search of the Ayleid Step that solves the riddle:

"Reed this: from the tower to the east, below the left slingshot arm, 3 steps."

“You know where we are going?” I asked Elenya and Maeva.

“Yes,” they answered in unison. “It’s along the Reed River, somewhere near Arkved’s Tower.”

Finding Elenya at the Goddess Store wasn’t really that unexpected but the real shock was when we were leaving the Goddess Store. Out of habit, taking a wary glance up and down the docks I happened to spot… the unmistakable uniform of a Bear Rider.

Oh boy, it’s going to be one of those days.

“Gudrun what are you doing here?”

Business, it turns out. In a dispute with Chancellor Ocato, Gudrun requested office space in the Imperial City thinking that Ocato would refuse and give up on his demand for the Riders to patrol the Valus Mountains. Chancellor Ocato called Gudrun’s bluff by finding space on the Waterfront. Now, Gudrun had come to inspect her new office. She asked if I’d like to go along, of course I followed.

Gudrun led us to her new Imperial City office, which turned out to be nothing more than an abandoned cellar. What a mess, cobwebs stretched across every inch of the hallway and dust deep enough to leave footprints, told us no one had occupied this space for a long time. And to top it off, it’s haunted.

The ghostly figure of an Argonian stood in the far dark corner of the cellar. A sordid tale of treachery and madness the Argonian ghost told us. A successful trade business ruined when the Argonian was betrayed, murdered by his business partner. The partner, Jim from Skingrad, had suddenly gone mad. Believing that he was a Goblin, Jim killed the Argonian and then disappeared.

Now to clean up the new office we’ll have to start with exorcising the ghost. That will require extracting revenge on Goblin Jim. That presents a dilemma, a question in ethics.

Jim from Skingrad, could that be Goblin Jim? It’s been a long time since we first heard about Goblin Jim from Fadus Calidius of the Skingrad Fighters Guild. Fadus boasted about hunting goblins in the area around Skingrad. Finding nothing sporting in the wanton killing of so called semi-intelligent beings, we at the time had declined hunting Goblin Jim. Now it appears that Goblin Jim is not so innocent.

“It’s an affront to Nature!” Elenya cried upon hearing of the man who claimed to be a Goblin.

“Sister, it’s foul murder,” declared Maeva. “Righteous vengeance is ours.”

While I don’t know about their reasoning, it is necessary to deal with Goblin Jim. To begin our search for Goblin Jim’s cave, I cast the Take Me Home spell to send us to Rosethorn Hall. There we spent the night and left Skingrad the following morning.

Heading north, we took our time through the Skingrad outskirts (Better Cities is a bit jaggy here, stutters badly and crashes at times. I think a later version has improved this). By mid-day we spotted Goblin Jim’s Cave.

The still warm body of a knight of the Order of the Dragonborne (OOO) lay in front of the entrance to the cave, warning us the dangers within.

Searching the first level of the cave we found a skill book and encountered a few White Skin Tribe Goblins but no sign of Goblin Jim.

The next level, Whiteskin City was interesting. If it hadn’t been for Twinkle lighting the way, we surely would have walked off the rocky shelf and fallen to the chasm floor below.

It was in Goblin Jim’s Panty that things really got hairy. Here in the tight corridors the White Skin Goblins sprung their ambush, attacking from all directions. Goblin Jim summoned a spider Daedra and the corridor became a crowded melee. While I took on Goblin Jim my companions raced to engage the Daedra and Goblin force. It wasn’t easy but they quickly fell to our power,

With Goblin Jim out of the way, we found some acceptable beds to use for the night. Next morning we hurriedly traveled back to the abandoned Imperial Trade Company cellar on the Waterfront.

What’s puzzling is why were there so few goblins in Goblin Jim’s Cave? The cave system is large enough hold three times as many goblins then what we encountered. The answer may be that the White Skin Totem is missing. Could the main White Skin raiding party is out hunting for it?

When informed of Goblin Jim’s demise the Argonian ghost thanked us and politely left. Arms akimbo, Gudrun stared intently at the filthy cellar.

“Well I guess I better get to work,” she said. Then suddenly, as if she just realized what was next door, she beamed, “But, first I’m going shopping. Who’s with me?”

I tried to object but the three ladies were out the door in a flash.

“Wake me when you get back,” I shouted as the door slammed shut. Weakly, knowing it wouldn’t be heard, I added, “We do need to find the next Lost Ayleid Ruin.”

Gudrun is hard to miss. At first thought, it might seem the Goddess Store would find her a real challenge to outfit. But then I remember one of the Goddess' profit tenants: 'The less fabric in the attire, the higher the price'.

Goblin Jim is no more. Is that snus touches I see in his dungeon? Never had the mod but I've seen pics.

It's been so long that I've seen a vanilla cave I wanted to check some form IDs first. Yes, primarily this is Snus and Better Dungeons working together. Most of cave structural changes from original Goblin Jim’s Cave is Snus. For instance, in the first level picture, the central stone pillar and much of the greenery is touched by Snus.

Again in the Pantry nearly all the clutter is added by Snus with a few items added by Better Dungeons.

Better Dungeons also adds some of the plants under the skylight. I’m not sure what adds the the skylight above the plants. It is kind of neat to look up and see sky. It was a starry night when I looked.

Better Dungeons also adds several bedrolls in the Whiteskin City level.

Using these two dungeon revisionist mods has worked nicely for me since I didn’t remember the vanilla layouts at all when I put this run together. There have been a few mod conflict issues though, where a mod’s quest item has been buried by boulders and walls; three times with Snus, and at least once with Better Dungeons, Better Cities and Unique Landscapes.

The great work by those dungeon modders like Snus did not go unnoticed by the developers of ESO. In this dungeon, you can clearly see the influence.

Wow, that is magical.

It says "after the morning devotions we had a bite to eat". What would be their meal? Strange question I know, but I'm sort of curious. I'd imagine Jandaga would have a different palatte than Kahleah or especially Pym.





Damn, Goblin Jim is involved in this quest somehow? How peculiar.

It's always funny to me that they place those rickety planks of wood over chasms! And then when our heavy characters walk over these planks there's that *CRICK* sound. Spend too much time walking across, and we fall. Move too fast, and there's a chance we could accidentally fall.

Of course, most of the time when NPCs try to go across they just step right into mid-air, like when coyote chases roadrunner. Oops.

Great, psychedelic action shot. Look at those colors, man.

Edit: nice ghost staff Buffy's got there!

Renee: You know I've never given much thought about what's on the menu. We''l have to think a bit on that.

20221025 Ayleid Steps – Lost Heorcinde, Black Heart - Upgraded and Relocated

A short nap and a couple of boring hours later, the ladies still weren’t back from their shopping trip. How they can spend hours looking over the same old stuff is beyond me. Not having anything else to do I went down to the other end of the Waterfront to browse around the Learned Warlock, a Better Cities magic shop.

Couple more hours gone by and still no word from the ladies, I returned to the cellar.

“Where have you been?” greeted me as I walked down the stairs. “We’ve been waiting! Weren’t you the one who was all so fired up to get going?”

Sometimes it’s just not worth trying to explain.

Traveling to Arkved’s Tower was uneventful. Deciding against entering the tower, the place is just too creepy; we gave the riddle a quick review before heading due east toward the western fork of the Reed River.

"Reed this: from the tower to the east, below the left slingshot arm, 3 steps."

The rest of the day was spent searching for the step stone. Disappointed in not finding the step we made camp for the night. During camp dinner we all agreed that finding these steps in the wilderness is not as easy as it sounds.

The next morning…

“Buttermilk biscuits with butter, brandied cherries, and orange marmalade for breakfast again? Can’t you at least conjure up sausage and eggs to go with it now and then?” the field hippies sang in unison.

“Sorry!” Oh well, there’s no accounting for söpökeiju tastes. It’s hard to whip up tasty meals that please everyone.

“Here,” I said, setting out a platter of sweet salsiccia, poached eggs, and cottage cheese sprinkled with black pepper. I’m just glad Kaleah wasn’t here it‘d be a whole ham otherwise. Whoever said “Daedra don’t eat”, well they never saw Kaleah devour a steer. “Enjoy.”

Afterwards we tried searching again this time concentrating on the southern end of the West Reed River. As we approached the confluence a flash of sunlight reflecting off a sliver of white stone that caught our eye. Is that it, we questioned.

Yes it is! Confident we had the right Ayleid Step we used a welkynd stone to activate the stone. Two steps later we found ourselves in Lost Heorcinde.

On the small side there wasn’t much to Lost Heorcinde. A few skeletons and ghouls and a series of falling blade traps to contend with and that was it. As expected, looting Lost Heorcinde yielded some pretty nice stuff. Most importantly, we recovered 10 welkynd stones and one varla stone.

When it came time to leave Heorcinde we had a choice between two stepstones. One had unusual turquoise speckles imbedded on the surface. We’ve noticed the turquoise chips on other steps before. Bringing back memories of the speckled spire, we activated the speckled step to find ourselves standing on an Ayleid Well near Ondo on the Silver River.

The Ayleid, Serevie has a camp nearby if I remember correctly. Perhaps she could provide some clues to the Mir Corrup mystery. It was late when we reached Serevie’s camp. It was a nice visit but Serevie didn’t know anything about Mir Corrup. The only rumor Serevie heard of lately was of a great change in the east. One of her distant relatives was about to fall. I have no idea who or what Serevie is talking about.

“What should we do next?” I wondered out loud as we walked back to the Ondo Ayleid well.

Ever willing to offer her instructions, Elenya spoke up, “As ranking diplomat of the Stranded Light, it would be prudent to report finding Mir Corrup and Serevie’s rumor to Tesserayiel. Wise is the Archeology Guild Headmaster who informs his Ayleid historian, Sova that we found another Lost Ayleid ruin. It’s your duty to do so.”

We had reached the well. Standing there thoroughly admonished, looking down at the stepstones that ring the Ayleid Well, I knew Elenya was right. I’ve been neglecting my official duties. Just one more step and I’ll get started on the paper work, promise.

Several beautifully scenic steps later we found ourselves standing in the darkness of Talwinque Aransel. Something moved in the darkness at the far end of the room (mod: Black Heart - Upgraded and Relocated).
An Imperial or Yokudan female, hard to tell in the darkness, stood by a campfire at the far side of the room. I was mesmerized. Something in the way she moved attracted me like no other...

Elenya screamed something that echoed faintly through my mind breaking the spell that had enthralled me. Maeva was already charging across the dark room as I began to realize how close I had come to falling to the black hearted siren’s seductive song. That glowing black sword in her hand was not an invitation for a date. Well maybe but it certainly would not be any fun on my part.

Unencumbered by restrictive armor, she was fast and furious. With an evil red glow, her black blade shrieked as it sliced through the dank stale air of Talwinque Aransel, sending Maeva flying across the room. With equal ease Elenya was incapacitated leaving me alone to deal with Black Heart.

Had she propositioned I may have succumbed to her charms but her only offer was the edge of her black blade arcing toward me. The black blade deflected harmlessly off the Dragon Spirit shield as I back pedaled away from her whirling dervish attack. Gaining some distance between us I hit her with a Midas Prism Ray spell. It took a couple of shots before she slowly fell paralyzed to the ground. Taking advantage of Black Heart’s limp state, her reign of terror was soon ended.

The battle over I immediately applied healing spells to my two valiant söpökeiju. Healing Cloud, ranged convalescences, or a hands on spell; which type of spell to use is always a difficult decision? Short moments later,
I could tell Elenya and Maeva were fully recovered by the way the two Cute Elves ransacked Black Heart’s wardrobe.

“Kaleah is going to like these. Which do you like better the light armor or the heavy?” they asked, wanting me to guess who is wearing which.

“Um," A klaxon sounded in my head. It's a trap. Really all I want is the sword. "I have no idea. To me, they both look like flyweight.”

That seemed to satisfy them and we continued on our way.

By the time we fought our way to the Talwinque’s exit we had vanquished 24 MOO mercenaries, collected a dozen welkynd stones and two varla stones, and discovered another Step Hub.

Leaving Talwinque it felt good to have the magicka rich gaze of Magnus on my face. Contented, I realized it was time to face the responsibilities of the offices given to me. I was about to open the Midas Astral Gate when we were approached by the Kvatch courier, Ignus. He had come to deliver a letter from Savlian Matius. Reading it I thought a quick stop by Kvatch wouldn’t hurt.

That Ayleid Step hunting requires a hearty breakfast I see!

Uh oh, a reminder from Elenya for the Jandaga to attend his guild duties.

Talwinque seemed a dangerous place with that potent and bladed siren.

’Something in the way she moved attracted me like no other...’
- - Familiar lyrics!

Black Heart did have a nice looking wardrobe though which did not go unnoticed.

20221030 Kvatch Rebuilt - Ayleid Steps, Lost Morra

It was getting dark and the air definitely had a chill to it when we exited Talwinque. It would be safer to travel to Kvatch in the morning. Couple of issues, There’s only one tent at the Talwinque camp and little wood to feed the fire. We’re going to have to have to share the tent.

Ah, the thought of the three of us huddled together in the single tent to keep warm against the chilly Colovian Highland night air, dance like a graceful ballet through my mind. I should have known better, real life seldom lives up to the fantasy. I’ll tell you, a night of elbows to the ribs and chin and a knee to the… Um, will make anyone eager to get up early and hit the road to Kvatch.

Half a day travel and we were at the great city’s silver gates.

Walking the streets of Kvatch, though there is still much to do it’s amazing to see how much progress has been made its rebuilding. People walking along the main street going about their business or just stopping to chat, showed the resilience of the Kvatch citizenry. The city is well on its way to recovery.

Savlian Matius is found sitting in The Wolf’s Head with Procis Douarus. Pulling up a chair and a mug of golden ale I sat down to find out what Savlian’s letter what was all about. Turns out, while cleaning out a pile of rubble Savlian found a note stuck inside the book, 'The Trials of Ilnori'. The note indicated that Count Goldwine has a surviving lost child, possibly living near Cheydinhall. Savlian hopes that I will track down this missing heir.

Illegitimate, maybe but the child is now the sole known heir and, most importantly, no one else in Kvatch wants the job. With so much to do at the moment I tried to get out of it with an indefinite response of we’d look into it the next time we’re in Cheydinhall. Savlian took that as a definite yes and I left it at that.

After a night of celebration we left Kvatch. On the road heading east to Merendin, Maeva asked, “Why don’t you take the Kvatch title? After all you’ve done for Kvatch you deserve it more than anyone. Especially over someone who has never even seen the inside of the castle.”

“Me, a count?” I laughed. “I have a hard enough time running the Mages Guild, the Archeology Guild, and two vineyards. I can barely take care of seven ladies, how can I possibly take care of a whole city? No way! Not me! Let someone else have all the pain.”

Arriving at Skingred we spent the night at Rosethorn Hall. The next day we tracked down certain vendors to trade in our growing pile of loot for what we considered to be, necessary supplies.

The morning after shopping Elenya that the route we’re taking to Merendin will take us past near where she thinks the answer to one of the riddles is located.

“It’s really close to Shadowcrest Vineyard,” Elenya said eagerly.

With Fiona away, I think Elenya was anticipating sampling the Witch’s special vintage with a plate of cheese and sausage for dinner. To tell the truth so was I and by the way Maeva’s eyes widened she had the same idea. And, so it was on an idyllic moonlit evening we had dinner on the veranda with a few bottles of a very special wine.

The tenants were enjoying the evening as well. The smell of lamb shawarma turning on the spit filled the air. A short time later one of the vineyard’s tenants began strumming a tune on his fat lute. As the romantic melodies drifted across the vineyard the notes lifted our cares and worries, and carried them away. Ah, simply magical.

Much later, thinking it was time to go inside; I don’t remember a thing after standing up. Until…

“Come on, party pooper. Wake up,” Elenya was shaking me and quietly urging me to get up. “Come on let’s go find that Ayleid stepstone before Maeva wakes up. Come on, get up!”

“Stop yelling. I’m up already.”

"thron fo wryesel bredor, hebdin ailodest lingibud, no poles." Elenya shouted as she dragged me out the door face the glaring light of Magnus. “It’s this way.”

It took us about an hour to find it but sure enough there it was just as the riddle said, “North of Elswyer border, behind isolated building, on slope.”

Like times before the step was half buried in the ground making it hard to find. Unlike times before, when we activated the stepstone, instead of a hop, skip, and a jump to the location this step took us directly to Lost Morra.

Sensing enemies Elenya immediately attacked the wall behind us. Bummer, Elenya’s reaction was strange for right in front of us was a zombie. With Elenya guarding the rear I took care of the zombie, avoided the falling floor trap, and pressed forward confident that she will eventually catch up. Luckily this was a small Ayleid ruin. On the bad side it was filled with zombies, lots of zombies!

Now zombies aren’t all that difficult. One good strike and the bandages the hold them together is in tatters. The only problem is they keep getting back up. So it’s best to out run them. Knock them down and keep moving.

I kept moving forward until I reached an apparent dead end. Spotting a push block on the wall I gave it a push. Pushing the block caused a section of the wall to slowly slide down opening the way to the room in which I had first arrived. Elenya was so overjoyed to see it was me stepping out from opening or was it that her sword missed me by inches that cause her jump on me with a ferocious hug?

Finding couple of bedrolls we spent the night and left Lost Morra the next morning via the way we came. The Ayleid step took us to a beautiful spot in the West Weald near Fat Ramp Camp overlooking the Strid River.

Whooooa look at your sky!!! Look at all those colors. Galaxies, man. Dig it. Seriously, it looks like your Cyrodiil night sky is permanently viewed through Hubble.

I have trouble thinking of Jandaga spooning with his mates. All that pointy armor (or lack of, in the case of his ladies). I hope he dressed down for the event!

Kvatch Rising does the same thing; it allows us to become Count (or Countess, in the case of my Renee Gade III). RG3 took the title, but as Jandaga intuited, she's rarely in town.

Ah, a puzzle! Nice.



Turn that [censored] OFF!!! 🧟

Fortunately, Bosmer are small so sharing a tent with one is easy. Of course the Jandaga’s companions are a bit larger with bony elbows. . . . Renee’s right – beautiful sky there outside TelWinkie.

Wonderful progress being made in Kvatch it seems. Just need to find a suitable count/countess now.

Another beautiful screenshot overlooking FatRumpCamp.

Fantasy Nightsky #1 replaces the skynebula01.dds and Skystars.dds files with Hi-rez pictures taken with the Hubble telescope. The Nebula used it the Crab Nebula and the Star field is Star Cluster NGC 290. I’ve been using this ever since I saw it back in 2008 or 2009. It may be the oldest mod in my list.

EDIT: I changed from "Fantasy NightSky Number 1" to "Fantasy NightSky Number 1 largest stars removed" in 2010.

The See You Sleep mod, another oldie, removes all outer clothing down to his underwear when sleeping. You can set options for favoite jammies. So there is no concern about spiky armor and the ladies all have their best nighties.

Nice, so that sky is made with Hubble, that's incredible.

The Jandaga learned quite some time ago while exploring Fatback Cave not to go around singing a cetain Qneen song when Ladies are present. It was not easy getting the dent out of his armor.

2022106 The Ayleid Steps – Lost Sutch Arena, Integration Stranded Light – Mir Corrup Mystery

The Ayleid step took us to a beautiful spot in the West Weald near Fat Ramp Camp overlooking the Strid River. How long we stood there transfixed by the view of the Strid I cannot say. It seemed like hours went by before Elenya’s hand touched mine.

Looking me in the eye she said, “I’m tired of fighting. I need to rest awhile.”

“Do you need to recharge your spirit at the Cute Elf Retreat or will some time at Benirus Manor do?” I asked.

“Some time communing with the Unicorn at Benirus should work,” Elenya said weakly.

“Then Benirus it shall be,” I said as I prepared to cast Transport Home.

Returning to Benirus Manor with all the Ladies present was heartwarming. Hugs all around, dinner was served, and bottles of wine from our Sutch vineyard kept us up to the wee hours.

The next day started well with Elenya down in the basement relaxing in tranquil meditation as she recharged her spirit. I knew she’d be right as rain in a week or two. That‘ll give me some time to organize my collection of Rune Skulls.

I had just begun cataloging the Rune Skulls by their enchantment potential, when Fiona the witch and the young sorceress, Claire approached. They stood watching silently for some minutes. It was shortly after the toe tapping started when Claire in an accusatory voice firmly declared, “Well, are you going to take us out or do we go alone?”

Taken aback, I asked warily, “Where do you want to go?”

“Here, Shadows Rest Cave.” Fiona cooed ever so sweetly.

Distracted by the seductive voice, like the fly succumbing to the spiders call, the trap was sprung. A paper was thrust in front of my face. So close I could see nothing else but a map marked with an X. Emblazoned across the bottom of the page was the riddle "Flanked by waterfalls, where unlit areas remain."

“Oh, let me get my armor and we’ll leave right away,” I said.

“What?” Claire and Fiona cried in unison. “You can’t just pop in whenever you feel like it and say come on let’s go. We have to get our things together first.”

As they sashayed away I could hear them going on about nail polish, hairstyle, and what eye shadow color goes best with which robe. It’s going to be one of those days. I went back to the Rune Skulls. At least they can hold a polite conversation.

It was the fallowing morning by the time we left Anvil. Heading north our first destination was Sutch. It was late when we arrived in Sutch. Weary from the journey we headed straight to our Silver Star Manor where we spent the night.

Gil, who with his wife manages the Silver Star Winery for me, was excited to see me. Gil insisted on a glass of wine before we retired for the night. Pretty good stuff. As we sipped our nightcap Gil produce a chest full of gold coins. It’s been a good year for Silver Star Winery. The nest morning, after going over the books with Gil we left for Chorrol.

“My Shadowcrest wine is better,” Fiona insisted as we passed through the gates of Silver Star Vineyard and Winery.

Parched and hungry, our first stop when we arrived at Chorrol was to The Oak and Crosier for an early dinner. We were standing around talking to Valeria, a Cute Elf cousin to Elenya and Maeva, when I noticed Chandra the Bloodthirsty had arrived. She might know something about Mir Corrup.

Mentioning Mir Corrup to her, Chandra the Bloodthirsty told us that she had intended to live in Mir Corrup, with its great night life, when she first arrive in Cyrodiil close to 30-years ago. But, suddenly it just wasn’t there. That’s why she moved to Chorrol which she considers to be her personal hunting ground. Err, I’m sure she meant to say playground.

Thirty years ago. Hmmm, makes me wonder. The thought takes me back to roaming the countryside surrounding the Iliac Bay. Ah, those were great times.

Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose

Those were the days, oh yes those were the days.

After spending a restful night at Arborwatch, if you can call spending most the night listening to a sorceress and a witch comparing techniques on turning a rival into a toad restful, we left to find Shadows Rest Cave.

We’ve or at least I’ve been there before, so we know where we are going. North along the Orange Road we journeyed until we came to the Shadows Rest Cave area. Just passed the cave, a wood plank bridge crossed a mountain stream at a point where it was flanked by two waterfalls. This had to be the place.

A small herd of Minotaur thundered past as my Ladies ran to and fro peering over the edge of the bridge, searching a sign of the stepstone. While I, fearing that we were going to be thrown off into the stream as the bridge bucked and twisted like a bull, hung on for dear life. Once the Minotaur had passed and the bridge become stable again Fiona pointed down to the stream below and declared, “There it is! I win pay up.”

Claire handed over a small purse while muttering something like, “Next time”.

Three stepstones later we stood in the darkness of a “Lost” ruin. Before we left Chorrol I placed the vampire bane Light of Dawn in the Midas Astral Chest and equipped the Nikos matched set. Thought I’d impress my two lovely Moonshadow elves by dual wielding with the flashy scimitars. I regretted that as we were greeted by hungry vampires.

Half dozen of the bloodsuckers later, the most fearsome one being Rokun gro-Chamock, we stood in the center of a large rotunda.

“What is this place?” we asked each other.

“I don’t know much about the history of Sutch,” I said. “But, by all indications this is the Lost Sutch Arena. If Sutch had one this would be it. How it came to be buried here is beyond me.”

“Maybe the same thing happened here that happened to Mir Corrup?” Claire suggested.

After a thorough inspection and looting of the area we left Lost Sutch Arena by means of the entrance stepstone.

Nail polish is extremely important when going into battle. In particular diamond finish with retractable blades. A personal favourite.

Most views overlooking the Strid River are breathtaking. Uh oh, Elenya’s gotta recharge her Cute Elven batteries.

Back to Benirus Manor to accommodate Elenya. And a crew-change later it’s off hunting for more stepping stones until the intrepid party ends this episode getting a vampire-hunting fix.

@Lena -

The Ladies willlike that, for sure. I'll keep an eye out for it.

There was a small issue with Lost Sutch Arena. Enemies were spawning behind an invisible barrier on the upper balcony of the arena. They just stood there running in place trying to attack. I couldn’t get to them either. Ranged spells and weapons worked to kill the enemies Kind of messed up.

While searching the internet for a solution I realized that my copy of The Ayleid Steps, V3.6.9, 2017, is several versions behind the current V3.8.3. Tweaks have been made, fixes applied, and an Ayleid Ruin has been added to the Lost Sutch Arena.

While I’m tempted to follow the update procedure in the readme, my old game is getting a bit fragile. It crashes when saving, a lot. Changes worries me. Thinking I'll bypass the riddles for now until I feel bolder.

This problem sounds like the area is not correctly path grid. Spawned creatures are always placed on path grid nodes, so if those nodes do not exist or are in the wrong place, effects like these would happen. Might be an easy fix to do yourself, without upgrading everything else.

Firstly, congrats on finally attaining the Mouth (posts) status.

Sutch is such a great mod. Oh no, Jandaga, don't be distracted by Fiona the Floozie! (Is she a floozie? Sorry if she's not. I just have a feeling...)

As usual, today's song is ringing a bell. Hmm.

I agree. How did Sutch's arena get all the way up there???




I have a friend whose van's windshield got a chip in it. The repair would have been expensive of course, and she needed to get it fixed. She actually had the thought to use nail polish. I laughed, but it worked!

Thanks

Fiona the Floozy, err, Witch, is the girl with a short skirt and a long jacket.

She’s got a mind like a diamond
She knows what's best
She’s got shoes that cut
And eyes that burn like cigarettes

She’s got the right allocations
with smooth liquidation and good dividends
With fingernails that shine like justice
And a voice that is dark like tinted glass.

Fiona knows what she wants, has all the tools to get it, and knows to turn the heat down when around Kaleah (theme song One Night in Bangkok).


Mary Hopkin, 'Those Were The Days'

20221015 The Ayleid Steps – Welkynd Worries, Integration Stranded Light - Mysteries of Mir Corrup

This time the stepstone deposited us at the bottom of the Niben near Bawnwatch Camp. Soaking wet and sputtering water, it was well after midnight when we crawled up onto the little island. With thanks to the Mother of All Creation and to whoever set Bawnwatch Camp, we settled down around the fire to dry off.

“In the arena, why couldn’t those vampires get down from the balcony?” Claire asked. “It was like they were running into an invisible wall.”

“Yeah, it was messed up alright,” I replied. “But, a few fireballs took ‘em out quite nicely.”

“I don’t know,” the witch Fiona responded. “It felt like something was missing in the Lost Sutch Arena. You should go back.”

“Maybe someday if I need to.”

It was close to midday when we woke the next day. Been long on the trail eating conjured dinners we looked forward to some real cooking so we struck off to the nearest city, Bravil.

There’s nothing better than an early lunch at the Bravil Bayside Inn (Better Cities) when you’re hungry. To tell the truth it was the first inn we saw and we weren’t being choosey. Anyway, having never eaten at the Bayside before, we were impressed by the mid-day feast they laid down.

Leaving the Bravil docks after our lunch, we entered the city. Our first stop was the Mages Guild. I’ve been neglecting my personal training and need to catch up on my Mysticism classes.

The lax demeanor of the hall changed instantly when the guild members noticed the Psychedelic Warrior and his two adepts of the magical arts had entered the hall. Everyone suddenly thought of nothing else but to drop what they were doing and attend to the Arch-Mage’s needs.

That meant each department head brought stacks of requisition forms for the Arch-Mage to sign. It was an hour of torture before I could seek out Ita Rienus for a session. It only took a few short sessions before Ita stopped to tell me that there is nothing more that she can teach me. For more I will have to speak to Dagail in Leyawiin.

“Don’t you think it strange that a trainer in advance mysticism only offers one mysticism spell for sale?” Claire asked.

“Strange? Yes. It seems to me that all arcane trainers are like that. They train you in one school of magic and sell spells in another.

While conducting business with Ardaline we weren’t as much surprised that she had a Welkynd stone for sale as we were shocked by the outrageous sale price of 495 Septims. That’s more than quadruple what I last paid for one. The bargaining tactic of mentioning going down to The Fair Deal to check Nilawen’s prices only brought laughter from Ardaline.

“Go ahead,” Ardaline challenged.

Ardaline got the last laugh on this one; The Fair Deal was completely out of welkynd stones. Nilawen acted worried as he suggested we should try Ungarion over at the Warlock’s Luck.

Over at the Warlock’s Luck Ungarion didn’t have any stones for sale either but he did offer us some information. Being a little less cautious than Nilawen, Ungarion told us that there has been a huge run on welkynd stones. As the supply has dwindled the demand for the stones has become more aggressive. This has many of the vendors worried for their safety.

”In fact,” Ungarion told me. “Gundalas, down in Leyawiin, has received threats of violence against, his self, his shop, and his family.”

Somebody has got to do something! If speaking to Dagail wasn’t reason enough, this certainly warrants a trip to Leyawiin. We caught the next barge traveling down the river.

Leyawiin, home to the best gumbo in the Empire. The intoxicating aroma of Leyawiin’s unique blend of Blackwood and Elsweyr spices picks you up and hugs you like an old girl friend as you step onto the dock. There’ll be time enough later to savor the local cuisine right now we need to see Gundalas.

“Someone dressed in a grey robe comes every Sundas around 2:00 pm demanding a lot of welkynd stones at a low ball price,” Gundalas said, “Now that the supply of welkynds had dried up, these mysterious people have become very aggressive, threatening to burn down my sop if I don’t supply them with welkynd stones. Please help me get rid of them.”

Claire and Fiona both agreed we need to help in any way we can. It’s only Turdas; we might as well go to the Mages Guild and waste our time there while we wait. So we spent our days at the Mages Guild Hall signing requisitions and performing other official guild business, while spending our night at my Leyawiin home and OVB chapter house. Thankfully, J’Dato didn’t have much to report other than rumors of some adventurer encountering a vicious vampire in some lost arena.

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that would you?” J’Dato asked quizzically.

The time at the Mages Guild was well spent in mysticism training with Dagail. As a bonus Dagail supplied a clue to the Mir Corrup Mystery when she told me what the Jills were and how they supposedly mended time.

I breezed through Dagail’s training sessions taking in everything she taught until my mind just couldn’t absorb anymore.

“Patience, child. There is more to learn but you must practice what you have learned today before you can train again,” Dagail told me.

Noon Sundas has come and we walked over to wait outside the Best Goods and Guarantees.

“Jandaga,” Claire said. “Don't you think a change to something a little less conspicuous would be wise.”

“Here dear one, let me help you with those pesky buckles,” Fiona the Floozy… (Ooops! A thought struck me like a slap upside the head) er, Fiona the Witch cooed in a silky voice, while Claire stood arms akimbo, fuming because she hadn’t thought of it first.

Once changed I wondered had the ladies not considered their own apparel.

It wasn’t long before we noticed a tall figure in a grey robe strolling down the street toward us. He or was it a she, entered Best Goods and Guarantees. A short time later the mysterious figure came out and headed north toward the city gate. We followed.

‘It’s a she,” Claire whispered curtly as the mysterious figure walk by. Am I seeing things or did Claire’s golden mane stand on end for a fraction of a second.

We followed the mysterious figure as she led us out of the city into the dense jungle north of Bravil. Her trail led us to a spot in the jungle where stood some ancient Ayleid in nature ruins. There the gal in the grey robe suddenly disappeared. Searching the area we found an Ayleid stepstone.

We better prepare ourselves before activating this stepstone. Who knows what’s on the other side.

The life of an Arch-Mage is full of excitement, I see. Requisition forms galore... Can't you just magic them away?

And a run on Welkynd stones... Ugh-oh. I'll pass the message to the Welkynd Stone Masons Guild in Winterhold - they've got to up the output!

That inn at Bravil does indeed look inviting – especially after conjured meals heated in the magicwave.

Hmm, someone’s trying to manipulate the welkynd stone market, so off to Leyawiin on a lead and for more training.

The Jandaga is right – putting him in ‘subtle’ attire doesn’t do much - considering his escorts. I wonder where gray-robe lady’s stepping stone will lead?

I've always loved that little camp by Bawn. Perfect for those times when you don't want to go all the way into Bravil, yet need a place to get some rest.

Is there an official reason why the Sutch Arena is located so far away?

Hey, all the attention he's getting from others (administrative stuff, from the sound of it) once he's back as Arch Mage sounds more interesting than having Apprentices and other mages constantly greet as as the "Arcane University's newest member." Or even worse, not recognize us as Arch Mage at all.

Hmm. I mean, I guess technically we are the AU's newest member.

Claire asks Jandaga to dress "less conspiculously" yet look how eye-catching her outfit is!

The Jandaga looks a little bit like Indiana Jones with his new, less conspicuous outfit ('specially the hat). Heh, Jandaga Jones.

Neat quest. Yes, I wonder where she'll lead them. Almost afraid to find out!