Yay, Captain Stefan!! A warm welcome to Julian's azure-eyed Imperial! That’s a great picture of Do Raheita.

Jerric’s crew has gathered around the big guy in support as he focuses on making something out of his Warden build. For some (Sola) this means that they roll their eyes at his back instead of to his face for a while. He has a few frost abilities that he likes, but the rest is still too button-pushy. He is trying to recapture the visceral delight of shield magery in Skyrim. So far nothing has come close.

Welcome to Captain Stefan, the blue-eyed Blade.

And here's hoping that Warden Jerric finds his way.

Khajiit doesn’t recall meeting Do Raheita or Stefan before, but welcome to them all the same!

—————————————

Boy, oh boy! Khajiit’s crew finally found their assassination specialist, and her name is Geru Naboor. She finished the mission in Behtnik, and being the roguish lass that she is, decided to hand the relic over to the Covenant. Pissed Lambur off but everyone else who disagreed with the decision seems cool with her so, whatever. When she got to Daggerfall she headed straight for the outlaw’s refuge to sell off some stuff she found “just lying around”. While she was there, she met a woman named Amelie Crowe, who told her all about the Dark Brotherhood and how to get their attention in order to join them. Unfortunately, this meant heading to Anvil and killing an “innocent”. Geru took a ship to Anvil and found a target. He was an Altmer, well dressed, but he was sneaking around in a back alley, clearly up to no good. After killing him, she received a letter with nothing but a black handprint and verbal instructions from the courier to go to Anvil’s lighthouse. There she met Speaker Terenus, and her career with the Dark Brotherhood began.

She doesn’t really care for the religious mumbo jumbo about Sithis and the Night Mother, but so far the jobs have been lucrative enough for her to ignore all of that. She even changed her outfit colors from her usual moonstone white, bronze, and gold to Dark Brotherhood black and red (her Redguard costume is still white, bronze, and gold though).

I've known OF Do'Raheita, but never met him in person (?). I never did get an official assassination specialist, myself. Outside of the Crafting Monkey, of course. Also, hey, it's that guy, not-Jauffre. ngl I completely forgot Captain Steffan even existed, but then it's been a while since I played Oblivion

Anyway, got Lucius doing writs because he needs to level crafting anyways so he can harvest materials for everyone. He gets a decent amount of gold, too, much more than regular adventuring. He prefers the latter, but he did need to play Jo'zira back for what he borrowed. Now he's debt free, and able to explore Auridon worry-free. Not like Jo'zira was breathing down his neck about it, but that's just how he is. Took him a while to accept help from everyone, too. He had to gather quite a bit of excess materials before he was comfortable with it.

Today I try to put together a proper smithy for Eolan, and maybe add a few things to everyone's homes. All these furniture materials are just taking up space in my bank

Has anyone heard from mALX lately? Khajiit hasn’t noticed her being in game or commenting here at Chorrol in quite a few days.

She was on just now - my friend Bear got her attention and she told him she’d been really sick.

I don’t have much more than that to go on atm...

Oh ok. Thanks for the info Rider! Hope she’s ok

Yes, she got quite ill this week and her puter broke and she was too sick to fix it. She's still not doing great at the moment but she did get her puter working and was able to go into game enough to meet an auction commitment this evening with one of her merchant guilds. Yeah, I was getting pretty worried until I heard from her today as well.

I was able to speak with her briefly in the game — we are in the same trading guild. It was good to hear from her though I was quite dismayed to hear that she had been ill. I do hope she recovers soon — it’s just not the same without her.

On another note, I entered my Sleek Creek house in my housing guild’s first anniversary contest. Judging was last night and of course I didn’t win. But I’m very proud of Julian’s home. At the present time it is set as my primary so all of you are welcome to come see it. I probably will leave it up for another couple weeks before I start returning borrowed furnishings.

Yes, get well soon mALX!!


Lol, so basically you staged your home!

I may well come visit, and steal furnishing ideas.

We're just starting to get furnishings in our modest abodes, as Laurie has reached crafting levels that actually let her make things at last. My Khajiit Cat Man Dhou still doesn't have a bed, but he has carpets and drapes, so the bedroll doesn't seem so bad. Laurie's own Twin Arches now has a dining table, and one whole chair! (Oh, and the cat's already sitting on the table, ready to knock things off).

Unna has completed her Faction quest-line, and is going back and completing some of the achievements she bypassed. She's at level 47, and wondering about when to do the last part of the MQ. Her next Coldharbour quest is Crossing the Chasm, and she can't decide whether to do that next, or keep clearing delves and grabbing the missed skyshards.

Getting close to that Champion level!

Frustratingly close! She's now at level 49 1/2. She has defeated Molag Bal, achieved Ebonheart Master Explorer, and still not reached 50. I guess we need to do some Mages Guild, Fighter's Guild, etc. before starting on Cadwell's Silver.

And on that score, several of my characters have visited the starter zones of the other alliances, using the in-game boat transport. The houses have also given them access to each other's home zone, and some of those are close to zone borders. I've used that to send the appropriate level of character to a survey when needing that level of materials (right now we're running low on jute!). So Unna's got little to do but follow the main quest line in Pact country once she goes there.

Pop an experience scroll (if you have one) and do the little side quests in your alliance zones. My characters flew through levels fairly quick doing those side quests. And you’ll get a color achievement for getting a certain number of quests done in all of your alliance’s zones. (Hero of the Pact, etc)

That roughly matches my existing plan, except for the experience scroll part. I think she does have one, but was saving it for "when it does most good", without any understanding of how to measure that. Maybe we just found out.

And it was "before doing the final quest of the MQ, which awards huge XP" - she went up two levels last night, from 47 to 49, and that could have been more with some foresight.

A further annoyance is that the character who has a bunch of those scrolls is my lowest-level one. I let her open the crates from the last event, just to give her first choice of the spoils, not realising that some stuff gets character bound. Pets and mounts are account-wide, and a lot of stuff is expected to be converted to gems anyway. Murphy gave her scrolls.

Yep. Also when events are going, make sure to take advantage of any xp bonus offerings they give. Not sure what the next one is. Maybe Jester’s Festival?

Today the Squad became Master Crafters, aside from motifs anyway. I don't feel the need to grind for vouchers but if I ever do, they are fully prepared for it. I would have been done with research had I not gotten Lucius started with it, too.

As you recall, I got to get a peek at your Sleek Creek home a couple days before the contest. Then just today, popped in to marvel at the final result. Amazing work you did and it looks beautiful! Some really attractive and creative touches!

Nice!

The other day Mira got a sealed writ for 47 vouchers, twice more than we’ve currently got saved in the bank. Unfortunately, it requires a piece from the Soul Shriven motif, so we had to put it in the bank until someone completes Silver.

Unna used her XP scroll, and went round finishing off all the side-quests she'd started and not completed (as you get all the XP at the end) and finally hit that magic 50. Since that's the first one on the account, it's extra-significant. She got a Clown Crate as part of the level-up reward, but can't open it until she empties her inventory (and the storage coffer, as she dumped into that the last time she overflowed). No rush, as it won't provide a white bear anyway.

Laurie got a few new furniture plans from it, too, as we didn't skip the foraging along the way. But then she ran out of hides for her writs, and had to go get a level up herself in the process of collecting more. And she ran into a quest boss that she couldn't handle without upgrading her own armour. It was all at half her level, and had been completely overlooked while she was kitting out the others.

We discovered, too, that a foraging run that specifically needs Fell Hides will gather regular hides, cotton, spidersilk, beech, yew, more runes than will fit on a truck, and even Luminous Russula, but nothing will drop a Fell Hide at all. That all wolves will drop nothing at all. That around every corner is a bandit or zombie that does not drop hides. That Laurie will start two new quests unintentionally by picking up notes.

Congrats!! Now there’s the fun climb to CP160! Now all of your other characters will jump to whatever the highest CP level character is.

I'm still trying to figure that part out. Especially what it means in terms of equipment. We understand the "all characters use the CP points", but only up to a point. Each one gets the same points to distribute for skill buffs, and can do so independently, but who's earning them? Is it just the L50 character, or do they all contribute? And who gets Enlightened when you have characters above and below 50?

It doesn't make everyone L50, so they still need to grow into higher equipment - Laurie can make stuff she can't use, yet. I assume that will change when she gets to L50 herself, as she'll suddenly be able to use whatever CP level the account has reached. So she'll likely skip a couple of grades of material on her own gear in doing so. She's now at character level 28 - so wearing Leather, but crafting level 5 stuff, as her Blacksmithing/Clothier/Woodworking were just about on the same pace as Unna's needs.

Unna can now wear level 6 and so Laurie has to catch up, but that shouldn't be long. And Unna will maintain her own smith skills, just in case. She doesn't worry about cloth/wood, as she's a heavy metal babe using two-handed swords only. She often has to deconstruct things she'd rather have passed down to Laurie, just to clear inventory. I may get her some more bag space, as she's training her riding for speed, and everyone else is doing capacity. If Laurie gets more things to take apart, she'll advance better, which will help her furnishing, too.

---

On the housing front, the empty homes are starting to look a bit less bare. Wizwen has a couple of chairs and some shelves at Snugpod, and Cat Man Dhou has drapes and carpet at Moonmirth. Unna's Autumn's Gate is still a bit bare, as the Nord stuff Laurie can make is clutter, rather than things she can put it on.

The Inn rooms can't take much anyway, but they have beds and chairs (Imperial or Breton stuff that doesn't belong anywhere else). There's Altmer bunks in one, but Taminwe doesn't have a house of her own yet. She'll probably want a large place to entertain in.

Any characters you have that are +50 can earn cp points. As you know, all your chars can use any you have earned (account wide). The first L50 char will have to continue slogging through new gear (CP10 - CP150) but once she hits 160 you are forever done with CP10-150 stuff since all subsequent chars will automatically go to your full CP once they hit 50. So CP160 on that first char is a big deal.

Only your characters over Lvl50 earn champion points, and yes, any new lvl50 person will immediately rise to the gear level of your other champion characters.

So 50+ earns points which everyone can use. Does that make it better to try and pull multiple characters up to 50, so they can all contribute, or let one do all the work? It seems to me that once you have multiple characters at 50, it doesn't matter which Champion character you're playing, so you'd do that for variety.

The confusing thing is Enlightenment. It looks like I'd want to play Champion character(s) until that is exhausted, and then do anything the lower ranks need to do. Bringing others up to 50 would give more flexibility in who gets played, as we'll still need to grind up other stats, such as crafting levels.

Well, we found that champion levels flew by very quickly (due to enlightenment; it times out too so don’t feel obligated to only play your champion characters). Mira was our first champion and she reached CP160 (CP160 marks the maximum armor level in the game. After CP160 you will only be able to wear CP160 gear) before any of the others. Brenna was next and since Mira was already there, Brenna got immediate access to CP160 gear. Of course, the amount of material needed for CP160 gear is almost 10 times what you need for CP150 stuff so all of our high level characters are currently running around in CP150 gear until we get a decent surplus of rubedite, rubedo leather, and ancestor silk.

My current logic is that Unna will now be getting level 6 mats, so Laurie needs to catch her crafting skill up to that to use them, and furnishings for which she has plans already exceed that. If Unna's own crafting level matches Laurie's character level, then each finds the same mats (half their own, half the other's level). Laurie can make gear for both of them, and gets enough supplies from their foraging. While Unna is doing quests in the lower zones of her second alliance, she'll get a decent amount of nodes to harvest, even though the per-item needs have increased.

Early on, the craft levelling issue was skill points, but now it seems to be inspiration. Laurie needs to deconstruct more stuff, and get enough mats to do her writs each day. I've been hoarding set items too much. I need to decide which sets just aren't going to be used, and use the pieces up. Skyshards can keep her points going, if she doesn't have to spend too many on staying alive, and the CP system helps a bit there.

The shipments from writs feed the lower-level characters needs for their own writs, (except for the fibre/hide imbalance throwing things off a bit). Those are being done, and mat refining by the same characters, to bring in the tempers/tannins etc. needed by furnishing.

Everyone has to at least get their Riding upgrade daily, too. I've been upgrading capacity first on the alts, so they can hold items longer before needing to bank them. However, a weekend blitz on the excess set items should reduce that backlog, and flush out the inventories.

Now I just need to decide who's representing the crew tomorrow at the Guild meet. Unna was there last time (in casual pants!), so it's someone else's turn.

Don’t bother saving sets below CP160

We ended up going with two sets for Maz but crafted for all my other toons, even the CP160 ones. We just can’t find the dropped sets to suit our needs the way those two do for Maz. However, we have some CWC pieces that Do Rah might try when he hits CP levels, so we’re holding on to that. As for the others, nothing really appeals to them so atm we’re not holding any sets other than the CWC pieces. As it happens, we get plenty of chances to obtain the sets working through the Silver and Gold with the senior toons . . .

Today Fjotreid purchased Autum's-Gate, and tbh it should have been done sooner. Rooming with Ruben had its ups and downs.

He doesn't know whether he has any living relatives, but there's definitely something comforting about being back in his "homeland". Even if he might be seen as a weirdo for preferring Jhunal's guidance over the three Hearth Goddesses'. He's also eyeing the house in Windhelm for something a bit more urban/convenient, and he is pretty close to being able to afford it even after his recent purchase.

Autumn’s Gate is a cool little property! The house itself is fairly spacious, and the outdoor space is suitable for most needs.

I'm finding it hard to believe how quickly. It's three days since Unna hit it, and she's already at CP50! And that's with me playing Laurie a lot, so she can try and keep pace with the crafting.

I think keeping pace is a losing battle, as Unna had moved on to Galatite before Laurie completed her first Calcinium writ.

Yeah that could be difficult. Mira was our first character to reach lvl50, CP160, and she is also our gear crafter so Khajiit doesn’t really have any experience with the issue you are having.

Today I bought Snugpod for Lucius because I was sick of swapping around storage chests since he's now exploring Grahtwood. I also learned that Steel Imperial armor is pretty great compared to the overly-fancy styles of the high-tier materials and I might have him wear that for a while because Outfits.

I'm still not sure what direction I wanna go with him in terms of aesthetic, tbh. When he was conceived he was supposed to be a fusion of Eolan and Hates' playstyle, which would mean maybe gladiator-eque, but he's edging closer and closer to paladin.

Oh hell yeah it is! Mira is actually wearing Imperial iron in her Auxilia Vexillarius outfit. The upper tier stuff is just too ornate for our taste. We just got Minotaur chests from the Looming Shadows quest and we may switch over to that. Mira looks good in that style.

Taminwe came across Mathiisen Manor, and decided she'd work towards acquiring it. She's done the Auridon Adventurer achievement, so now it's just a case of saving up the gold. Only 900,000 to go!

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Blossom needed some more spidersilk for her writ, and since nobody else is finding it, she had to go and look for her own.

Several hours, five quests, and two level-ups later, she finally found enough. Early on, we'd spent a point on Clothier Keen-eye, although she does well enough finding ore and timber without. We found more cotton than the whole crew can use along the way. 50/50 seemed more like 30/70, especially as we already had a lot before she started. I think she was also getting more High Iron than Orichalcum. Can't tell on timber, as that's Oak or Oak.

When we got back and completed her construction, we also used one of the skill points she'd earned upping her woodworking, as we have more Beech than anything else, and she's got through almost all the Oak. Wizwen will probably move up a notch to use that, but later.

---

Prior to that, Unna added half-a-dozen more Champion points, and Laurie got another level from her harvesting run.

So the dailies in the Gold Coast are super easy to do right now with the huge crowds of people getting the double reward drops. It’s a very good time to try and get Minotaur and Order of the Hour motifs. Probably Dark Brotherhood too.

Got Lucius to level 20 last night. When I got to pick the costumes, I decided to go with the Mages Guild one since it's the only one I'd actually use. Never mind that all 3 could be easily replicated with crafted armor or an Outfit. Then I got to the free crate that comes with the level up and what do I get? The Mages Guild outfit that has pants instead of a robe. :v Variety.

Ooh, probably should’ve just waited on the crates till next Thursday. New season drops then.

I'm starting to wonder if that's what treydog is thinking. "Trey of High Rock" has been stuck at level 49 for a while, as if he's avoiding that level-up until the new season stuff is available. Perhaps he'll confirm my theory?

Laurie may just buy a camel from the store while they're still there. It's the plain one, not any silly skeletal, mechanical, or wooden/flame/neon version. Unna is keeping quiet about white bears, as her brown one might be listening.

Today we opened our crates. Only got one thing worth a mention, a Dragon Priest costume. Which we’ll probably never use, lol. Oh well!

Kinda the same on the crates here. Buffy's happy though. She traded in everything she could and her crown gems grew from 44 to 72.

They told us about the Frostbane Horse, and Camel, and Bear, but they didn't mention the Guar.

Apart from that, a few things that became gems, a couple of Mimic Stones, and an experience scroll.

You got a mount?! Congrats!

Got mostly garbage, too. What wasn't given to Lucius was ground into gems. I did get a balaclava and the Line in the Sand emote and I think a tiara? tbh Lucius could have used that Wrestler's Buzz Cut from the first season of crates...

Unna's flying past the CP levels, and just got into triple digits. So now she's in the penultimate level of materials, and Laurie's still making levels 6 or 7 (and using stuff a couple lower). Unna's putting skill points into Blacksmithing when she can, and doing the writs/deconstructing for the inspiration/levels, but is still reliant on drops for upgrade. Laurie's been to all levels of zone, so she knows where to make crafted sets without going to the guild hall, but hasn't finished the research and levels to make what Unna would like. Hunding's is close, but could only be Galatite right now, anyway.

The current strategy is that Unna deconstructs/researches anything heavy above Galatite, but passes down the rest to Laurie. The hope was for her to keep up with her own needs, but that's failed. We may decide to have Unna quit crafting completely, so that Laurie gets all the drops to learn from. Laurie is also adventuring to raise her playing level, as L50 will make a huge difference for her as the second Champion, because she'll gather at Unna's level instantly, skipping the ones in between.

Laurie keeps finding she's short of fibre mats, as the writs use more than pelts, but reward more the other way round. There's also an annoying tendency to provide mats nobody is using up. We've abandoned a couple of clothier writs (and a woodworking one) because she's not had the mats, and only she is at the level to find them.

If the choice is between levelling up and never being able to get the mats again, or completing one first, she needs the level more. That's for two reasons: she wants to make sets for Unna, and she wants to make furnishings for everyone, some of which have silly high level requirements. She hopes to catch up on crafting levels at about the same time she hits Champion.

Unna is just about keeping level with Laurie on Blacksmithing, so they each gather 50% at that same crafting level, and Laurie gets first dibs on that. But for other crafts, Unna's gathering above and below Laurie's needs, so she has to gather her own. E.g. Unna finds Nightwood and Beech. Laurie crafts Birch, and uses Hickory. Which reminds me that she needs a re-equip soon, as she's ten levels above some pieces.

The lower-level alts all struggle with clothier, as they compete for Jute. Rawhide is in abundance, mainly from writ returns. Each only gathers 50% Jute, and a mix of Flax and Cotton between them. Blossom gets Spidersilk, and uses all she finds.

Crown Crate haul, 3 crates each on two platforms:

PS4 – three Scholar personalities (already purchased) + consumables. So a few free gems.

PC – body tattoo, balaclava, and the house cat that is offered as a level-up reward (already purchased) + consumables. So, a few free gems and some junk.

ghastley, congrats on the frost guar! I saw one today and it was breathing out frosty breath. Neat! Jerric’s crew is usually short on fiber for writs and heartwood for furnishings. They take the woodworking writ first, and if it’s for bows they go ahead and take the clothier one as it will be for the medium armors.

Now that's useful information! I didn't know the rotations were that closely linked.

What I have noticed is that the writs will always require exactly one more piece of the material than exists in the craft bag, and more often than not, there will be 9 pieces unrefined. Well not always, because once we go gather the one we need, the next character will have nothing in the bag at all.

The guar was double-lucky. It was on the fifth card, too.

As previous- opening one crate per day. Today's reveal:

Pellitine Mustang- woo hoo!

Mimic stone- meh

Trapping Potions- soon to become gems

Tri-restoration Potions- gems or used when I get in over my head... again.

With the new horse, a very good crate overall.

Nice score!

I didn't realize Khajiit rode horses.

Anyways, my usual levelling method for Lucius made him come up 2.5 levels short for moving on to Greenshade so now I gotta catch up. Guess I gotta go collect some Oak for tomorrow's writs lol