Acadian, you’re right! The Hammerfell lizards look so much like our little bearded dragon Odahviing! (Odahviing was recently featured in a video on her vet’s web page along with (very briefly) a large insect demonstrating a predator response for some elementary school kids who were there on a field trip. She is a star. You should have heard the screams! ) I thought of you the moment that Jerric stepped out of the wayshrine into that gorgeous rocky desert. Jerric of course thought of Buffy since he could already see two waterfalls. Even tree-seeker Lil loves Hew’s Bane. She spent her whole few minutes there creeping around the rocks and splashing in warm water, with her head sensibly covered of course.

SubRosa, I thought the same thing when I got a look at the ESO Hammerfell critters. They are a great blend of magical, new, and recognizably desert-dwelling.

hazmick, you have done beautiful justice to Hew’s Bane with your screenshots. Haa-Rei looks quite stealthy in his new leather outfit, and I love the head covering with his shirtless one!

Here is a shot from a quest that seemed custom-made for Jerric. I mean, Poke the giant? The results did not disappoint!

Here is Lil taking in the sights after joining the Thieves Guild. (Shh! Don’t tell the Nord.)

Darnand still favors High Rock’s forgiving climate.

Here is our latest Tamriel-trotting friend, a magicka-Templar -Destruction staff wielding Altmer lass called Aninah. Aninah likes to heal folks, bash the bad guys with her staff, and blow things up with flashy Dawn’s Wrath spells. She is sweet and mostly innocent but prefers not to pay for things. So far the whole crew dotes on her.

I don't imagine any variation of poking a giant is going to end well...

Abba's Landing remains quite breathtaking (as does Lil's butt). Does the skull and crossbones map marker mean pirates?

Is that a purple Winged Twilight standing on top of a purple Clannfear? Who knew oblivion could be colorful!

Aninah has gorgeous eyes! And I love her crescent moon staff.

How neat that your little Odahviing is movie star now!

Well. . . if ‘poke the giant’ is an option, we know that Jerric’s gonna take it.

Great panoramic shot with Lil! I confess though that Buffy and I, like SubRosa, are admiring Lil’s butt. Looks like even her little jackal pal is thinking the same thing.

Darnand looks like he’s able to summon some high-priced help now!

Welcome to Aninah. Yup, she looks pretty dotable to me.

SubRosa, the skull and crossbones symbol marks a world boss. Maybe one in Hew’s Bane will actually be pirates! I think of the skull and crossbones markers as ‘Jerric bait.’ Darnand’s purple summoned winged twilight has an adorable habit of humming. I suspect they are purple so that they look different from the not-summoned clannfears and winged twilights, but when the spells start flying they all pretty much look the same. Aninah’s crescent moon staff is the Khajiit style. Most of the Khajiit motif stuff has a moon somewhere on it. Although I don’t have any Khajiit characters in ESO, pretty much every one of mine wears or carries a Khajiit styled item. Their stuff looks very cool.

Acadian, that jackal is hilarious. When idle it sometimes digs a hole causing a mouse to pop out, then it chases the mouse in a circle before gulping it down. I could not believe it the first time I witnessed it!

Thanks to the character creation’s waist, hip, butt, and leg sliders, Lil’s little bottom is accurately represented in ESO. Thank you for the kind words about both ladies.

That makes sense about the moons. As I now recall, the Khajiit's sub-race is dependent upon the phases of the moon under which they are born. So the moons doubtlessly very prominent in their minds.

Forgot to post this new hat the other day - The newly added reward for completing Cadwell's Gold. (Before the recent update the only reward was a sense of satisfaction.)


Grits - I'd give those skull n crossbones a wide berth if I were you. Unless there are other players in the area to help out (which there should be this soon after release).

Glad everyone's enjoying Hew's Bane as much as Haa-Rei and I.

hazmick, first may I express my delight in Haa-Rei’s farming screenie of the month! I keep forgetting to mention how much I like it.

Awesome hat! I saw one on someone in a bank and guessed it must be from Cadwell. Great to know it’s a costume so no matter who gets it, they’ll be able to wear it. Congrats to Haa-Rei on the achievement! And I love him in the hat!

You’re right, without the multitude of other players the Hew’s Bane world bosses would be a very short trip back to the Wayshrine. Jerric is an absolute maniac and cannot resist them. After those fights I have to wipe my hand sweat off the controller. He has a cheering emote on his quick wheel just for post-battle celebrating. My stomach is all nervous just thinking about it!!

Oh, and speaking of emotes – he put the water bucket animation on his quick wheel so he can retaliate against the camels! (Players can make their camel mounts spit on other players!!)

Thanks! Haa-Rei enjoys dressing up, and it's nice when other people enjoy it too. I think Silver-Claw says it best.

Speaking of which, here's another new outfit. Personally I think the gold trim is a little excessive, but Haa-Rei thinks it's the gloves. Either way, he'll just stick with his Thieves Guild gear for now.


When I forgot about the Cadwell's Gold reward the other day I also forgot about the newly added Silver reward - the Soul Shriven crafting style. The armour is the same as what soul shriven wear in the game, but the weapons are new and really cool:

Soul Shriven greatsword.

Soul Shriven battleaxe.

Heh, I like Silver Claw's thinking!

Absolutely love 'another new outfit'! It looks so perfect for where he is.

Wow, those look like some wicked weapons.

Looks like Haa-Rei has definitely gone native in Hammerfell! The gold is a bit much in that outfit. But they probably want to make sure people notice it from farther away in the game.

Neat Dai Katana! And big spiky thing...

New addition to the Crown Store - The Moonlight Senche-Tiger pet.

Haa-Rei finds his true calling as a Guar farmer.

Celebrating ESO's 2nd anniversary with some Jubilee Cake. Now if only there was some jubilee tea to wash it down with...

The Moonlight big cat is gorgeous! Pet? That means it runs from combat like a big pu fraidy cat and comes back to be petted after the fightin's done?

Guar farming.

Happy Jubilee, Haa-Rei!

Wow, does this mean Haa-Rei has finished the TG questline? Nice outfit! Very fancy.

The Soul Shriven gear looks very cool and very Coldharbour.

I can’t remember if I said it yet, but I love Haa-Rei’s very appropriate new life picture for spring.

Gaur farming made me smile. I love seeing Haa-Rei just doing simple things.

Haa-Rei finished the Thieves Guild questline so we've just been wandering around and haven't encountered anything new and exciting for screenies.

That said, here's Haa-Rei and Thiazzi. Shocking.

Stormy has some neat spiral tattoos. He reminds me of a Daedric Kokopelli.

Rocky the astronaut looks pretty cool! And so does see-through Haa-Rei.

Couple of random shots we grabbed when exploring yesterday:

Seaside sunset.

Dungeon delving.

hazmick, that’s a great display of Haa-Rei’s Sorcery! Gosh, the light in that dungeon and on the water is just gorgeous.


I have a bunch saved up, yikes. Here’s a random assortment:

A heron in Hew’s Bane (Hammerfell). Jerric loves to look at birds, even the ones who eat his fish.

Here’s someone’s moonlight tiger pet in Vulkhel Guard (Summerset Isles). It’s standing on a raised thing, so they’re not quite as tall as this one looks.

Aninah also likes to fish. She is not concerned about having a weapon equipped while she enjoys the water.

The white tiger senche who Darnand admires in Evermore (Daggerfall).

NPCs are often hilarious.

A super-cute guar Comes-When-Called that helped Lil with a quest. “Hunt down and kill” quests are Lil’s favorite.

Darnand’s pet dragon frog jumped up on a crate, so I had to take a picture. This frog sometimes flies up into the air and burps out a cloud of flames (harmless). When you run or ride it flaps its wings and makes huge flying leaps to keep up. It is adorable and hilarious. Darnand named her Anastasia. Jerric calls her Belchy.

Aninah talking to a ghost in Coldharbour. She was oddly not cold. I suspect she carries a bit of the Stros M’kai sun with her wherever she goes.

Stays-Up-Late begins his perilous trek through the Rift to deliver supplies to Windhelm. He was level 13. He made it by sneaking most of the way. He had the sense to dismiss his clannfear to help avoid detection. The clannfear gets him in trouble a lot.

Jerric enjoying the sun at Faldar’s Tooth (in the Rift).

Hew’s Bane (Hammerfell) scenery:

Some ruins

Big statue

Typical interior waterway

Herons! Neat. I saw a blue heron at the river near my home once.

That is a big kitty cat! I see that guy has Ragnar Lothbrok's hair too.

I wouldn't mind reeling in Aninah! Does she have a bear cub pet?

Evermore? Is there a battle there?

Doesn't-Come-When-Called would be a great name for a cat... Lil has a really cool green outfit in that one.

The dragon frog is awesome!

It is always cool to see more pics of Aninah. She is so statuesque, she is like a model.

I just noticed that Stays' clannfear has a big flange on the end. Is that so he can swing it around by the tail, and it won't slip out of his hands?

The Rift is perilous? I think I saw someone mention that before as well. It didn't seem that bad in Skyrim. It was just the blasted spiders that annoyed me all the time. Until I modded them out at least.

Hammerfell looks amazing in this game! It makes me hope the next TES game is set there. Very cool Babylonian guy statue with the dragon. Is that Akatosh?

Hazmick – Very nice sunset! Wow, that dungeon looks huge. I’ve sometimes wondered if the big dungeon scaling is to help support parties of adventures. It looks like could have quite the posse go through that one!

Grits - Gosh, so much goodness! I love the critters and your characters. Given that Buffy has a secret crush on Jerric means that seeing him fishing is always a treat. And I simply adore the dovahfroggie!

So how can you tell the difference between the Moonlight Tiger Pet and the White Tiger Senche? They look the same to me.

Hazmick: I didn't see your pics before! It looks like Haa-Rei is pondering whether or not he feels like plundering a fat Spanish merchantman in his pirate shirt. Is he wearing Imperial Armor in that second pic? I agree with Acadian that the huge cavern looks fantastic.

Herons are pretty awesome. We have a lot of them where I live and often see them at dawn and dusk flying low to and from their roosting and hunting spots. They are huge! The ones in ESO occasionally catch fish and gulp them down. The wildlife is fun to watch.


Aww, thanks! Aninah is a joy to travel with. That is a bear cub pet with her. The bear cub has an idle animation where a butterfly comes along and he tries to catch it. I took a look at the cub in Aninah’s game (he came with the Orsinium pack I bought) just to check him out, and Aninah kept him. Her personal history makes her a sucker for the orphaned and lost. She catches fresh fish for him. When she does the fish-cleaning animation we pretend she’s feeding her bear.


Also a great name for an alfiq! Lil made every bit of that green outfit she’s wearing and dyed it to her favorite color scheme. It’s very easy to customize your character’s look once you get some crafting savvy. Aninah likes the same Bosmer-style cropped top that Lil wears, so her look is similar to Lil’s only in different colors. And with more leg and less butt, lol. You can also dye the non-armor clothing that you find. Yesterday Aninah changed her pink tops and dresses to grey and blue.


In ESO there are some places that are set to your level when you enter, but the world is leveled by zones within the faction areas. Stays-Up-Late is in the Ebonheart Pact whose territory covers seven zones in eastern Skyrim, Morrowind, and Black Marsh plus some of Cyrodiil. The Rift is the highest level zone in that territory, and if you have a reason to go to Windhelm before your quest progress gives you a free ride to the docks, you have to walk through the Rift. After the first time you can get back through the Wayshrines (fast travel). Stays’s level puts him comfortably in the third zone (Stonefalls in Morrowind), and the Rift is the seventh. Once you complete your home zones you move on to the rest of the world. Jerric is adventuring in the Rift now, so soon he will find out what happens next.


That statue is of Prince Hubalajad, the Prince “Hew” that Hew’s Bane is named for. As you can guess things did not turn out well for him there. The statue is on a point called Hubalajad’s Reflection. I’m not sure if that’s Akatosh or one of the many winged-snake type creatures that inhabit the area. It looks like a big version of one of the non-hostile animals whose name I can’t remember right now. Argh! I would love TES VI Hammerfell! Darnand has been to Sentinel a few times but there are always sand storms when he’s there. I’m sure I will go crazy with screenshots if the weather ever clears up.


I realized when I was checking my links that I had chosen two screenshots that do not represent relative size very well, sorry. Unfortunately on the PS4 I can’t free the camera, so sometimes things look weirdly scaled. In-game the two are very different sizes. The Moonlight Senche-Tiger pet is about the same size as a dog, while the white tiger with the fishing Khajiit is tiger-sized, almost as big as a horse but shorter. They foolishly used the word “senche” for various big cats who are not supposed to have any connection to the Senche and Senche-Raht Khajiit. My crew has decided that Lil’s clouded leopard mount Hassim and their white housecat pet Sugar Paws are both Khajiit, because that’s more fun than what the game says.

I took some more screenshots to show the sizes better, but that introduced a new variable. Hassim is a trim and compact mount for Lil, but under leggy Aninah he’s oddly huge. Mounts scale to their riders. Jerric always looks like he’s riding a warhorse, while next to other mounted players Lil looks like she’s on a pony. When Aninah is mounted on a horse standing next to one of the horses that are just out in the world, her horse is noticeably taller.


Acadian, thank you! That barefoot fishing outfit is a major boon for Jerric. The chest strap holds his shield when he needs it (RP-wise, it actually sticks to his back no matter what he’s wearing), and his armor is invisibly equipped. Combat mechanics make it unwise to unequip things in dangerous places where all kinds of nasties can spawn right underfoot. Jerric is a big admirer of Buffy. He has been known to unnecessarily flex when approaching waterfalls on the tiny chance that she might be there.

Completed a difficult achievement in Wrothgar today, and was rewarded with some new outfits. It's really just 3 variations of 1 outfit but they all look good.

Black

White

The third set has a brown bear and gold armour, but I haven't got a screenie. I also finally managed to craft a full set of Dwemer gear - I'll get a shot of that tomorrow.

Very cool, hazmick!

I love Haa-Rei and his white bear all rigged to match each other so well!

Neat bear outfit. I think the white one looks best, at least when riding the polar bear!

Very neat-looking bear hat outfits. The white one looks especially cool with Haa-Rei’s white bear. Congratulations on earning them!

I love the flowering tree picture for Second Seed! Haa-Rei looks relaxed and casual in his loose-fitting outfit. What a gorgeous angle with that tree branch.

Here are a few shots that demonstrate scale.

Ragnar Lothbrok next to a mounted Bosmer.

Aninah on Hassim with a player-character and their white tiger pet in front of her.

Aninah on Hassim next to a regular-sized horse.

A better look at Darnand and the regular-sized white tiger senche in Evermoor.


And here are two of Daedric realms:

Cheesemonger’s Hollow reflects Sheogorath’s dual nature.

Darnand enters Quagmire.

Ragnar looks like he could eat the Bosmer, and have plenty of room to spare!

It is always nice to see more of Annie. That guy in the blue helmet looks like he is from Shogun 2

Wow, Hassim is as big as the horse, and looks heavier!

This is definitely a cat-friendly game!

I hope Annie gets her cheese from the right side of the monger's hollow, and not the shriveled up and dead side...

Talk to Vaermina? That sounds like a bad idea. How about we just turn around and go back?

Wow, what a contrast between that mounted Nord and Bosmer! It really showcases the ‘horse scaling’.

Love Aninah with her critters and mage staff on her back!

As great as Dear Darnand looks, that white tiger really steals the shot!

Oh is there cheese in that land? My eyes couldn’t get beyond Aninah’s adorable little rump.

That is an ominous shot of Darnand entering Vaermina’s realm. In Oblivion, Buffy and I assessed Vaermina as fine. In Skyrim, we changed our opinion of her to pretty evil. How is she in ESO?

SubRosa, it was indeed a bad idea to go talk to Vaermina, though (big surprise) in the end Darnand prevailed. The cats are awesome in this game. The Rift is covered up with sabre cats, and where Lil is now has lots of gorgeous tigers. Unfortunately most of them want to kill and eat her, so she sneaks around a lot.

Acadian, in ESO Vaermina is not quite as bad as Molag “The skins of those you love will fly as my banners” Bal, but she is definitely evil. She creates havoc by trapping some important folks in nightmares, plus her cult the Supernal Dreamers causes quite a lot of trouble in Stormhaven. Azura and her Spirit Warden monks help out in the quests to foil Vaermina’s evil plan.

Thanks for the kind words about our leggy Altmer lass! She is a sweetie. This one is a keeper, lol.

In honor of Buffy’s current short story adventure, here’s a look at Broken Helm Hollow ESO-style. Jerric went there planning to jump down the waterfall (again), but it was a little too frozen even for him.

Jerric will fish anywhere, including inside a cave and in the plasm pools of Coldharbour.

And because I always have a new one, here’s Lil and Hassim in Valenwood (in the Grahtwood region).

Broken Helm Hollow is still broken? When are they going to fix that thing?

He's fishin' at the entrance of the Lions Den? Smelling like fish around giant cats does not sound like the best plan to me!

Those plasm pools look neat, like ice that hasn't hardened.

Lil is looking graht! I wish I had a tummy like that...

Gosh Broken Helm Hollow looks ever so recognizable. What a wonderful job they did! Eeep! Except for the snow at the base of the waterfall!

I think it is fabulous that Jerric has such an unquenchable thirst for fishing – it helps bring the larger than life Nord even more to life. Love his dovahfrog.

What a *groan* graht shot of Lil and Hassim in V-wood. She looks ever so much like she belongs there.

Lakeside

That looks wonderfully all mysterious in the fog with Haa-Rei staring at that sky thing. Is that one of those sky anchors? Something to do with Malog Bal and the MQ?

Tbh, that pic reminds me of a diaphragm hovering over a giant... Better not go there...

Actually, I like Haa-Rei's outfit best of all in that pic, and his double dragon head bow.

It's a dark anchor over the Imperial City. Haa-Rei is standing on the shore of Lake Rumare, dressed in a full set of medium Dwemer armour (aside from the hood, which is Altmer) with his Ebonheart Pact bow.

That particular dark anchor is one of two in Cyrodiil that can't be closed. The other is over Cloud Ruler Temple.

So does that mean he'll fish for Daedric plasma fishes?

SubRosa, those azure pools don’t always look so inviting. I am impressed by Coldharbour in this game. I expected it to be all dark and e-vil, but there’s some interesting stuff to see. The Lion’s Den turned out to be a beautiful valley in the Rift, absolutely packed with Lion Guard soldiers (who wanted to kill Jerric). Jerric needed some help to get through it. Maybe he would have been fine on his own if he hadn’t smelled like fish!

Acadian, it’s nice that this game gives us non-combatant pets for company. Despite it being a multi-player game, the world can feel very big and lonely. (But not in the evenings or on weekends, lol.)

hazmick, I love Haa-Rei’s armor and very cool looking bow! What an ominous sight. I have not ventured far into Cyrodiil yet, it’s neat to see the IC even with a huge ring above it.

DE, he is indeed catching daedric fish! Also some stray Tamrielic fish that one way or another made their way to Coldharbour. Molag Bal liked to drag bits of Nirn into his realm even before the plane meld idea, apparently.

Here’s a peaceful spot in the Rift with some really big trees. Also giants nearby. And mammoths. I guess the small trees don’t have much of a chance!

Those Guar are really fast! And the bear looks small zoomed out like that, but they are really huge!

Did you spend crowns to buy these, or get them through quests? I've seen some gorgeous horses I would love to have more than my white horse, but was saving my crowns for the DLC, lol.






OMG, you were behind the enemy lines while they attacked your keep? I have always wanted to see a battle for a keep, (hopefully against one of the other Alliances, ) - but have always gotten there too late. So far I've only done the scouting missions and all the local town quests (like for Cropsford; Chedinhal; Bruma; Chorrol; Weynon Priory; etc.

Note to self, don't go swimming in the pool full of dead people. Loviatar would like it though. It would be like bobbing for apples, but with tasty human flesh instead...

So the ESO Rift is always locked in Autumn as well! It looks like Aspen trees in the fishing pic.

The Lion Guard cannot be too bad. They have never been to the Superbowl, and now they don't even have Megatron anymore.

I see a bunch of healing going on among the fleeing enemy, lol! Great action shot, and amazing to have seen all that from above that way! I have been wanting to hide on a hill and watch a battle in action so much; just haven't made it to one in time yet, lol.

I do love the familiar feel of Cyrodiil too; even if a few eras earlier and some things are bigger, etc. Cropsford really surprised me, it was thriving! And some of the Ayleid ruins - it still had the feel of Cyrodiil, which I loved!

Great shots!






I am loving these shots of the actual Alliance war, it is the first time I've seen anything of the war other than being killed by other Players in Cyrodiil, lol.

So far, all I have done is the scouting missions.

That armor on the Guar is fantastic!

Coldharbour is a great area to explore, there's an Argonian settlement somewhere in there which is pretty cool. Those Azure Pools always look quite inviting, but I'd rather not dip my toes into suspicious Daedric mush. Did you know that that plasma is what Daedra are made from?


The Lion's Den is a public dungeon. A pretty fun one at that, and you get a cool collectible once you clear it.



mALX - Yep I purchased them from the Crown Store. As far as I'm aware there are no quests which reward you with a mount.

Grits, it is so nice that Jerric has a four legged fishing buddy to keep him company. I can imagine Jerric’s response to most quests that ask him to go somewhere dangerous is typically, “Uh, what’s the fishing like there?”

Great screenshots and thanks for sharing Jerric’s ESO adventures.

Gone fishing.

Dark skies.

New clothing dyes.

I think Haa-Rei looks much better in the green outfit in the last pic. His arms look super skinny in the silver armor!

Wow, Haa-Rei looks great in his green and bronze armor. I’m not up on the dyes, did he just get a new color? I love that green.

I also love how he looks in that treasure hunter (I think?) armor. I like the green outfit better, but shiny is always a favorite for me.

Great to see a fellow fisher-folk!


EDIT: I don’t think I ever said how much I like The Steed picture with Haa-Rei’s guar friend and the waterfall. Very nice!

Rosa - Yeah the Dwemer armour looks a lot comfier. Though he is very skinny

Grits - We just unlocked the Automaton Bronze and Hunter Green dyes (Finally did all of the Slayer achievements and got the Monster Hunter title). I like the Treasure Hunter outfit a lot, it's just so nicely designed. Thanks!

Ooo, congratulations! That is my favorite green and metallic gold that I've seen so far. We have some work to do!


Jerric learning new sword tricks in Coldharbour.

A really neat place in Coldharbour where a bunch of ships fell out of Mundus or something. Jerric is not clear on the details. But he had a nice time with the skeleton.

Jerric took this as the truth.

Gaaah, what the hells is thaaat?!

Glenumbra. He was so happy to get to the water, he didn’t even take time to strip off his shirt.

Lil finds a shadow in Abah’s Landing.

Lil relaxing in the sun because there is a huge Nord guy sitting out of sight up on the rocks behind her. She likes to have a fallback position.

The achievements aren't too difficult, on the whole. You have to kill 1000 Dwemer machines for the Dwemer Slayer. At Vet 16 it only takes Haa-Rei 1 shot to kill a Dwemer spider in the Deshaan ruins, but that's still 1000 arrows.


Aaah that creepy zombie horse mount thing! I saw one the other day, but I have no idea what it is or how people get them.