Thanks all.

Now let's see what Aard's been up to:

Antipathy at first sight
Keep your distance, jester

Ghunzul begs for mercy
But Aard knows he's just pretending

To Markarth
Fateful meeting
Beauty and the Beast

Sneaking
Aard and the Hag

Meeko's shack, one of Aard's places to rest when passing through that area
Necromancers attack

At Dagon's Shrine
"Nothing personal, Silus. I just want the Razor."
Reforging of the Razor
The Razor reforged
Skyrim beware!

Heh hah, Aard meets Mycharonna's favorite NPC!

I wish the Beauty and Beast pics were lighter. I can barely see them. I'm on my work computer though. They'd still be rather dark on my home comp though.

Necro's attack is cool! .. Aard fighting from horseback, eh?

Very

Lopov - Nice to see pix of Aard going through the DB dark side since Buffy’ll never see that aspect of the game. Same with the Razor.

Oh, it’s that nice young man with the funny hat whose wagon broke down near Whiterun. Yay for mounted combat!

Renee, it's not just you. These shots are kinda dark.

Muiri is indeed a beauty. I know she’s a popular wife, but I can’t imagine ever eating one of her home cooked meals.

I Just Want the Razor is my favorite from this group. What a great action shot!

Thanks all!

Really? Interesting, Beauty and the Beast are normally bright on my PC, the only one which is dark, is Against the Hag.

Yeah, Cicero is very different from most Skyrim's population. I find him interesting but he gets on Aards' nerves.

Thanks. I've never done this quest before so I didn't know what to expect. But when Aard had to made a choice, he found it wiser to obey Dagon than Silus.

Beauty and the Beast aren't as dark now that I'm at home, but they're still dark! Some candle light would be great with those faces. I like Aard's scowly face in Beast!

Claire and Hadvar

Adorable

What a charmer

...but not to be trifled with

Aela's back! (...har har)

Looks like Aard is about to give Skyrim a shave!

Claire looks sad. I think Aela's back could use a bar of soap!

How clever to make Hadvar a follower. I'll bet he and Aela make for some fun Clairventuring. Aela's back indeed.

Claireventuring! Yeah, Hadvar makes a great follower for her, since he's Imperial. His stats are also buffed enough to survive.

I will make sure to add a soap / bathing mod for Aela.

Lol, I needed some time to figure the humor behind this sentence, good one.

Clairvoyant Claire is a beauty, she looks somehow older in the first pic but very charming in the 2nd and 3rd pic. Are her robes added by some mod?

Hey, that woman on fire reminds me of Mycharonna!

Yes, her robes are added by .... hmm. I actually don't remember. I think it's Frostfall. Whatever mod it is, it also adds backpacks, which are nice to have for immmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmersion.

@ Lopov - When you showed "beauty," I thought the beast was going to be Lydia for some reason! Do you use a fighting mod? These are some really interesting screens of positions he is in while fighting, I've never seen them before - or was he still crouched down to sneak? Anyway, really great shots. I've been to that Shrine before and never got that blade or got to reforge it! Is it a quest?

@ Renee - What a charmer is my fave, and I agree with SubRosa - she looks sad, especially in that shot - it is endearing. Aela's back reminds me of my own photography, where no one has heads or bodies at the same time, lol.

@mALX - I don't use any fighting mod, I press "tfc 1" during battles which freezes time, then I move camera around. I guess I was lucky to capture Aard in that position. Regarding the blade - yes, it's one of Daedric quests, you can begin it in Dawnstar.

Time for Lucius screenies:

Exploring the Midden
Augur of Denlain (in person)
End of the Steam
"To Winterhold, please."
"Thank you. Stay somewhere close, preferably in the air."
Defending Winterhold from magic anomalies
"Good to see you stayed around. Now take me to Morthal."
Approaching the Labyrinthian

I know right? I've done the same things! This age of digital photography is awesome, if only for the fact that in the past with actual film, I had to be so careful with pictures I took. If somebody's head got cut off, well hey, I just wasted some money at the Foto Hut. XD

Lopov: Today's shots give me goosebumps. I'm afraid of heights IRL, and sometimes even in videogames I get acrophobia (fear of high places). So congratulations. I don't think I've ever gotten acrophobia when looking at pictures before, but dang, I really just did!

That is a great pic of Lucius on the dragon over Winterhold. It makes me think he is Santa Lucius, bringing presents to all the apprentices who have been nice...

Lopov – I see the Stalhrim Stallion is still taking care of College business. Good thing Buffy loves her mare so much. Otherwise she’d be jealous – Lucius has a DRAGON to ride! Woot!

Renee, it’s so neat to see Claire adventuring with Hadvar! She looks sweetly sad in the Mistveil Keep picture. Are you using the Common Clothes mod? That may be the source of her robes. Aela’s back, ha ha!

Lopov, Lucius is dragonriding!! Those pictures are my favorite, especially the one with Winterhold in the background. Looks like he got a pretty day to explore Labyrinthian. It always seems to be snowing when I go through there.


edit: link, d'oh!

MM hmm, I do have Common Clothes, but I know the robes & backpack are added by some other mod. Pretty sure it's Frostfall. I don't have a specific capes mod, so it's gotta be Frostfall.

It's good y'all think she look sad in that one pic; I think she's a little too 'peppy' in most pics. It's my subconscious reaction against all the scowly females I was forced to create with vanilla tools over these past few years.

Thanks all.


But how will your Dr4g0nb04n t00n rid3 dr4ag0n5 then?

I wonder what more will he become. First he was a Jedi knight, now he's Santa Lucius...

At least mares are more loyal than dragons and you don't need to tame them with shouts.

It didn't last long. As soon as he made it up the steps, it began snowing.

Let's see what's Aard been up to lately:
Nilsine's stalker
Nilsine's killer
Aard didn't enjoy killing Nilsine but business is business.
Dealing with Alain's bandits
The way is clear
Above Alain
Behind Alain
Too late for Alain
Night Rider
Back to Markarth
Time to pay me
Aard liberated the prisoner from the Thalmor
Coming home

I don't think Aard is going to be getting any presents from Santa Lucius this year!

Lopov - Aard continues to be a busy assassin! Nice shots, and I particularly liked the Back to Markarth one - very moody and ominous with the clouds and suits Aard well.

See, now how do you get a Windhelm with sunny days? Your Riften is often overcast / rainy, while mine is nearly-always sunny. Your Windhelm is sunny, while my Windhelm is always snowy / overcast!

The Above Alain pic is my fave this time! .. So creepy!

Thanks all. Now here comes a last package of Lucius' shots from his adventure in Labyrinthian:

New dweller in Labyrinthian
Skeletal dragon
Spectral Draugr

Disturbing Draugr's Peace
"Hello and Fus-Ro-Dah!"
Spectral vs Alive

SubRosa was right from the start - Lucius can walk in the sky.
Morokei vs Lucius
Dealing with Ancano

After the long and dangerous adventure, Lucius declined the position of the Arch-Mage and instead proposed it to Tolfdir, who didn't think twice before accepting. Dragonborn then went to get some rest and when I checked on him for the last them, he was still sleeping in his bed which probably means that I'll be more occupied with other characters for some time.

There goes Santa Lucius again, down the Draugr's chimney! I bet he didn't have any presents for that dragon priest, except perhaps 3 feet of cold steel!

More great Luciventure shots! Labyrinthian is a very neat dungeon with a cool story, plenty of interesting foes and a neat boss fight at the end. ‘Lucius can walk in the sky’ is a magnificent shot. 'Morokei vs Lucius' is neat because it let’s me see what Morokei looks like up close. Buffy doesn’t let him get anywhere near close to us enough during that fight to actually see what he looks like alive – er, undead. . . or whatever he is while he is still floating and wiggling around.

All that fuss with Ancano over a silly giant chaurus egg!

I can see why the DragonLuciusBorn would ask someone else to become Arch Mage. He's not really the academic type to stick around the College pushing parchment and worrying about apprentices incinerating themselves.

Lucius is Skywalking! That’s my favorite shot of this group. I think the Labyrinthian adventure is my favorite Lucius series, these are great! Spectral vs Alive is a great catch with the draugr’s axe falling out of her hand. Good call to offer Tolfdir the Arch-Mage’s position. I’m sure Lydia would like for Lucius to wake up and come home!

Nicely done my man, Thor & Jaeger shots for all!

Hey, what's the name of that mod again? The one which does not put the PC as Arch Mage?

It is Archmage Tolfdir. Be sure you turn it on before you finish the mages guild quest.

Also, to make people stop calling you the Archmage run the following console commands:

player.removefromfaction 103372
player.addtofaction 1F259 4

Thanks all!

@SubRosa - Morokei was so surprised when he saw Lucius attacking from the sky, that he glitched and didn't fight back at all but he was also invulnerable. Disabling and enabling him fixed it.

@Acadian - I don't see Lucius as the Arch-Mage either, besides he's only interested and skilled in Restoration. Buffy and Lucius could tell plenty of tales to each other, mostly about how enemies look from the distance and how from up close.

@Grits - Lydia will have to wait a little more but maybe then Lucius will take her for a walk in the sky or for a ride with a dragon.

@Renee - how about mead & skooma?


Lurbuk and his assassin

Aard the invisible

End of the green bard

On the road

Stalking the vampires

"Is someone there?"

Against the vampiric widow

"Shouldn't have followed me."

Getting rid of corpses - first Hert, then Hern.

Cold and proud

Lopov – Oh noes! I had no idea that singing poorly could result in a DB contract! Gulp. Buffy will certainly ensure she does not slack off at practicing her singing. Okay, taking out a couple vampires is sort of. . . a public service? Nice shots all around!

Wow, that is tough audience, that kills the singer!

That wasn't a singer, that was Lurbuk.

Ba Dum Tsss!

Master Baytor at your service. (r0ll3d a nu t00n 2 b3at d@ ga3m with)

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

Poor Claire Voyance in the slammer

And for what? Why?

Such a long time... days and weeks and months...

By the Eight, this wall seems loose...

Oh my, can this be happening?

...............

This doesn't feel safe. But I need to see where this goes.

...........

There it is. A way out of here. But....

I can't do it. It wouldn't be right.

My faith in Akatosh shall guide me. For Akatosh shows guidance through time.

Of course, a little gold might also help.

Freedom. Glorious freedom

A new toon! Awesome to see Master B again!

Don't tell me, beyond the crumbling wall is the Emperor, and three of his Blades, and there are a bunch of guys in red robes attacking him?

By the Nine! If Mastor Baytor thought Cyrodiilians were uncouth, I can't wait to hear his opinions of the large furry two leggers that inhabit the northern province!

Thanks for the nice collection of screenies as Claire the Cleric served her time - sort of. I know you have some mods at work there, but it was still enlightening. You see, I've never seen the inside of a TES jail in either OB or Skyrim. Not sure if that is testimony to Buffy's goodness or perhaps her stealth.

Great shots of Claire behind the bars, but I'm pretty sure that the crumbling mortar is vanilla, it's not added by Life in Prison.

It is indeed vanilla.

Did the guard leave Claire's door open after investigating? Or did she do her time?

Thanks you all. Claire's time behind bars was rather interesting to me. Something different, and unexpected. If I ever RP a hardcore criminal, it's possible to see this person actually live in jail, and do stuff other than sleep. But Claire was pretty mousy about it. Keep your head low, don't cause trouble, etc.



It got complicated. Initially she was just serving her time in 1-week increments, but then a guard came in and attacked her for no reason at one point. That's where I drew the line. So what I had to do was ...

(1) use the console to make her bounty go away. She spent 6 months in jail at this point. Technically she should have been in there for a couple years.

(2) Turn Life in Prison off temporarily. I did this so it would automatically put her outside jail, once she slept, because with the mod on it wouldn't let her out of the jail officially, and I wasn't sure what would happen if she simply walked out, even without a bounty.

(3) Borrowed 5,000 gold from Solitudes bank (yet another mod), but then removed this gold via console to simulate her paying the balance of her fine.

(4). So now she has a month to pay 5,000 gold back to Solitude's bank. Shouldn't really be a prob, now that she's doing more adventuring.

Nazir, the guy who handles contracts for the DB, says:

"He is, by all accounts, the worst bard in all of Skyrim. Apparently so many people sought his death, Astrid had to hold a lottery to determine the client."

Since I have no new Lucius' pics too show, let's continue with Aard.

New hairstyle, new beard

Death comes for Ma'randru-jo
Aard had some business to do in Whiterun and by the time he returned, Khajiits already departed. He quickly jumped on Loyal and ran into them close to the Whiterun Watchtower. But it wasn't easy to kill Ma'randru-jo because he traveled in group, so Aard had to think of something else. He rode ahead of the caravan and ran into a generic bandit which he lured back to the Khajiits but the bandit was interested only in Aard so in the end he had to finish her off by himself. The 2nd plan (of which none pics were taken) was to provoke bandits from Fort Greymoor but they ignored the Khajiits too and instead focused on Aard. So Aard decided to take extreme measures and provoked a nearby giant and lured him back to the Khajiits. In fear the Khajiits scattered and Aard followed Ma'randru-jo until he got stuck behind some rock and thus stayed far behind the caravan. He quickly dismounted, ran up to him and stabbed him in the back. Another interesting thing in the last pic is "fire in the sky" which I don't know what it is.

A lottery for the contract on that poor orc bard!

Wow, Aard must have gone to Lucius' barber?

Luring attackers into the Khajiit was very clever. Buffy loves to do that, only with baddies vs Thalmor patrols. In fact, she'll follow a Thalmor patrol, just so that baddies will spawn along their path.

Great shots as Aard is going about his work of making Skyrim a . . . less populated place.

Have you got a shooting star mod like I do? .. Or something which adds shooting stars, or comets? This could be what we're seeing in the final pic.

Those poor cat-people!

Wow, the trials and travails of an assassin. Nothing would go right until the cat-man got stuck in the rock!

I have never seen a comet like that. Or shooting star, or whatever it is.

These are all great screens, but this last one is my favorite - Awesome shot!







GAAAAH! He killed that poor girl? Urk!

Night Rider is stunning! What a gorgeous shot!







I remember this dungeon, scared the living heck out of me when those dragon bones came to life!


Awesome shots!








Stalking the vampires is my fave of this group, for two very obvious reasons, BWAAHAA!






I have to quote this whole thing, what an awesome little mini story you made here! I love this!

Holy Crap, why didn't she just take the tunnel?







Holy Cow, all this going wrong; lol. I love the story behind this, even though I'm not happy with the Khajiit caravans getting killed. Great story! I don't know about the fire in the sky, could it be a comet or falling star?

Yes, they were both served by the only barber in Skyrim, except that Lucius hair was longer for a few mm while Aard's head is now completely shaved.

I use Climates of Tamriel and though its readme is pretty long, I didn't find any references to comets or falling stars. If I didn't turn the camera around, I wouldn't even notice the fire in the sky.

Fortunately the giant calmed down, so Aard didn't need to deal with him as well.

Hey, at least Aard killed only the one which he was paid for, he could have killed all of them. He's a softie, I'd say.

Climates of Tamriel must have created that comet, gotta be. Another possibility is that it's a firebolt which got fired by some other NPC in another cell, but if this is true, the angle is all wrong. That comet is obviously flying horizontally, not on an upward angle.



Roleplaying. She felt it would be morally-wrong to leave before her sentence is over, even though she disagrees with why she got arrested.

I love the roleplay, but can't help but count how many scripts you are yanking in and out of a Skyrim game - Skyrim doesn't play well with scripts being enabled and disabled. But as far as the roleplay goes - very cool!

I'll keep this in mind, thanks. Claire's game in particular isn't going to last a long time, though. Chances are when she gets to the end of Civil War (whatever end that may be), I'll simply move on to somebody else. I have lots of other character ideas for Skyrim especially.