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Tyrion travels to Solstheim, Calder & Hermir have another near miss, and General Carius is relieved:

7th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - Tyrion's Journal
8th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - Tyrion's Journal
9th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - Tyrion's Journal

Eryniel got today finally to the College of Winterhold. En route she had again a hard dragon fight next to Stillborn Cave. In addition to the dragon, she had to battle four ice wraiths. Without fear spells she would have been utterly lost. Also, a Khajiit monk who happened to walk by helped with the last wraiths. Eryniel had a chat about theology with him and accompanied him to the Shrine of Azura, where she got the quest. The next morning she arrived at the college. She was very disappointed that there was only one Illusion spell for sale that was stronger than what she already had.

She went through Saarthal next. Then she met an Imperial Lady in the Arcaneum, named Olivia something, who gave her a quest to go looking for her missing Khajiit assistant somewhere near Solitude. Eryniel accepted, since she was planning to go to Solitude's bard college anyway. She journeyed there along the coast, and had her first vampire encounter on the way. When she got to Solitude, she went to Bards' College and bought a bunch of song books in order to broaden her repertoire. She performed one of the new songs in the Winking Skeever and got a room for the night as payment. Next morning she was up early, only to find Ahtar sitting in a chair in her room and staring at her. Quite creepy, especially as she had just the day before seen him lop Roggvir's head off. She exited the inn a bit unsettled and got out of the city, ready to begin the search for the Imperial mage lady's assistant.

I finally downloaded the Alternate Start mod which is awesome. Wish I would have done that ages ago. I reincarnated my Altmer, Sylmirie, for the task and played with most of the options. I really wanted the shipwreck one but she couldn't find her way out of the boat. So the final option was the "attacked and left for dead". She woke up with her horse dead and head spinning in the middle of some forest. She made it to Falkreath shortly thereafter. Without gold to spend on a room there, she wandered to Helgen (accidentally) and the rest is history...but at least I didn't have to sit through the opening scenes for the upteenth time so that's rad.

Playing through the Dark Brotherhood quest line for the first time ever, I thought I'd eliminate Gaius Maro by slipping him a Frenzy Potion while he was in Dragonsreach. Certainly mighty Irileth and the palace guards would be able to handle his temper tantrum easily.

As it turns out, Gaius' level is determined by the Player's Character, up to a level of 100, and my character is beyond that, thanks to Legendary Skill grinding. The moderately-strong Potion had no effect on him, and I had to shift to Plan B, which I had to make up on the spot. It's difficult to hide in the large airy barn that is Dragonsreach, but it turns out that the second floor balconies make a great spot for sniping people below. Nobody in the Jarl's court cared or even noticed that a member of the Emperor's elite Penitus Oculatus simply dropped dead on the spot with a Daedric arrow sticking out of his face.

Adapt, improvise, overcome.

Casandra likes her new bow, a Nordic quicksilver/steel weapon from Solsthiem she named Cloudless Sky. Cassie's last name, Serein, literally means "rain from a cloudless sky". The bow is a marked improvement over the Imperial Bow she's been using for quite some time, the change in ballistics akin to switching out a marshmallow gun for a battlefield laser rifle (arrows are supposed to drop under the influence of gravity, right?). Killing's easier now, which kind of makes it less fun since there's less shooting to be had.

The silvery white/brown look of the new bow meant using a new suit of guards' armor to match the colors. That meant going for the Winterhold Guard's Armor. And, in keeping with the rainy theme set down by her surname, I named the outfit Stormtrooper Armor.

And yes: Casandra's from Cyrodiil, so that makes her an...

Today Eryniel ran around to reduce her insanely swollen quest log. She decided to complete Olivia Meronin's quest to find five pages of Galerion's books (since their locations were all over the place), and after each objective also complete a quest or two nearest to that point. These included the book-fetching for the College, getting Azura's Star and getting King Olaf's verse from Dead Man's Respite. Also, she got attacked by a Thalmor patrol directly after exiting Fellglow Keep. They seemed to have gotten tougher since the war, since Eryniel was nearly killed. A Frenzy spell got a nearby group of Legionnaires to kill the grunts, but Eryniel still had a drawn-out fight with the mage, which she only won with the aid of her fear spells.

The last thing she did today was to deliver the King Olaf's verse to Viarmo. After listening Viarmo reciting the verse in the court, she to her delight found she finally would be named a proper bard. After the festival she might spend a day or two in Solitude or at home in Whiterun recuperating before tackling any more quests. There were so many close calls lately that she still wonders she's in one piece.

The autumn leaves rustled in the branches above the caravan camp. Casandra leaned against a tree as she watched the Khajiit work at the firewood pile.

"Bandits harass us at every turn. A few days ago, one of them stole my Moon Amulet. It was given to me by my mother when I was just but a cub."

"Well," Casandra said, "I could try to find it for you."

"You are too kind. If you do, I will be sure to reward you. But, be careful: I miss my amulet, but a life is not so easily replaced."

"Don't worry. Just tell me where it is."

"It's in Hrodulf's House."

Cassie froze, then her eyes narrowed. "Seriously?"

"Yes." Kharjo replied.

"You're telling me that a bandit stole your amulet, high-tailed it out of the Rift, made his way across the mineral geysers of Eastmarch, crossed the Sea of Ghosts and then stashed it on the isle of Solstheim?"

Kharjo shifted his eyes. "Well, a dragon may have helped."

"Oh. That explains it, then."

Drovas avoids having to take work as a milkmaid, Neloth turns out to have quite the browser history, and Stan is again The Man:

10th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - The Evocations of Talvas Fathryon
10th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - Tyrion's Journal
11th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - Tyrion's Journal

So, Olava the Leaky, or whatever her name is, sent me off to Hag's End to pick some old clothes off some DB assassin's long-dead corpse.

To get to Hag's End, you first have to make your way through out-of-the-way Deepwood Redoubt. Exiting Deepwood Redoubt, you find yourself in Deepwood Vale, a multi-level party palace packed with Forsworn aggression. After clearing out this particular club house of fur bikini-clad biker wannabes, you finally set foot in Hag's End, featuring a Boss Hagraven who teleports to safety after every hit.

All in all, a drawn-out magnificent time-waster of a Quest, (Miscellaneous Category to boot), all for the sake of collecting a handful of old rags. Deepwood Vale was really weird, though. It's a snow zone, but I was greeted with incessant rain and rolling thunder.

In deciding that the "noble" warriors of Jorrvaskr were too unrefined for her tastes, Altmer conjurer Sylmirie, instead followed up on a lead that the College of Winterhold was looking for new recruits. Fact is that she needed gold, and lots of it since she just purchased a new home. So she instructed Lydia to only feed Meeko the finest venison cuts and made the long trek up north by herself.

Many adventures and treasures later, she found herself yawning in Tolfdir's class, wondering how in Oblivion she kept making such poor employment choices.

Today Eryniel continued to unravel her tangle of quests. In particular she did a quest, where she was supposed to help some Talos worshippers. She jumped at the opportunity, not out of any particularly devout attachment to Talos, but out of spite for the Thalmor. Also, a group of them attacked her somewhere in the Reach as she was traveling to Markarth to fulfil the quest. She killed them with some difficulty (mages are still pretty hard opponents for her, as they deflect her illusion spells), and the encounter finally consolidated her resolve: Every Thalmor she comes across shall die. She's fought them in the Great War - a part of her backstory - ,so why couldn't she fight them again? No more running, then, but some Punisher-like action instead.

In Markath she got embroiled into the Forsworn Conspiracy and finished that quest along with the Talos one. She was so ticked off at the Forsworn and, well, everybody at that point that she didn't bother asking any questions in jail but straight-up massacred Madanach with a fear spell and bound sword combo. Then she left the city in disgust at all the inrigue and murder, and went back to Haafingar for the final phases of the Talos quest.

Lastly she went to Windhelm to investigate the Butcherer mystery and got Wuunferth locked up. Pleased at herself she then went to the inn, where she met Froa, an acquaintance from the afore-said quest. Then she accidentally played the "Age of Aggression", stupidly not remembering that wasn't very wise in that particular locale. She corrected herself, and played the "Age of Oppression" directly afterwards. Then she met Rolff in the bar and promptly gave the a-hole a good serving of the knuckle-pie.

----

As an aside, I have to say I now regard the Interesting NPCs- mod as indispensable. The afore-mentioned quest was from that mod, and it was excellent. I'm not going to spoil it, but I'll say this: The quest used the lore nicely, used an otherwise unremarkable vanilla locale, had interesting characters and just enough turns and twists so as to find the sweet spot between too complicated and too simple. Also, until the very end I couldn't be sure of one character's real intentions and role, but that was cleared up not by explicit exposition, but simply observing the outcome. Also, there was an option to switch to Thalmor side if one so desired (I didn't). In a word, very good design.

I have yet to found the majority of the quests and NPCs of the mod, but I'm still awe-struck at its quality. I simply wish most of the vanilla quests could be as well-conceived. Only the voice-acting is sometimes sub-par, but for the most part it's good enough or even at near-professional quality. On top of that, I like how seamlessly most of the characters seem to fit to the game. No wonder the modding capability is one of the main reasons I play Elder Scrolls RPGs.

Today Eryniel nudged the main quest forwards by infiltrating the Thalmor Embassy. Elisif the Fair obliged her by creating the needed diversion. She quietly dispatched the guards in the first rooms after the kitchen, then disguised herself and gained entry into the Solar that way. After grabbing the documents she entered the dungeon and killed the Thalmor there. She even managed to save Malborn. Her Illusion skill came handy in the cave, where she was able to pacify the ice troll.

She made a detour to Morthal to sell off the captured armour and weapons, but a dragon attacked just as she arrived. She killed it and went on to Riverwood. Then she got the quest to go to Riften in search of Esbern. En route she killed three or four bears and bandits. She also found the Rift Imperial Camp, where she had a brief chat with the legate Fasendil. After that, and reading the Thalmor dossiers, she's starting to re-evaluate her decision not to meddle with the civil war. Maybe it's time for her to abandon her grudge towards the Legion and do battle for her country once again. Her main reason for coming to Skyrim, that is to remain anonymous and to avoid the Thalmor, has been blown to bits already, so she hasn't anything to lose anyway.

After the long trek Eryniel finally entered Riften just as dusk was falling. She got the necessary info from Keerava, and entered the Ratway.

----

BTW, anyone else bothered by the fact that the Embassy party invitation is written for the player character's real name? That's just stupid IMO, since one would imagine the Thalmor would try to hunt the player down after the quest. It would've been a lot more plausible, if the invitation was for a false name (e.g. taken randomly from a few options per race and gender), and Delphine would explain that and tell the player character not to divulge his real name under any circumstances. A minor thing, I know, but it just feels so jarring.

Today Eryniel ran around to complete her accumulated quests again. For instance, she played for Layla Law-Giver at Viarmo's request. The Jarl wasn't too impressed, however, but when asked how she liked the music, her only comment was "not bad". Eryniel left a bit huffed, but soon had something else to think of. Namely, en route from Riften to investigate a dragon lair, she stumbled upon Anganvur (sp?), where a rather unpleasant Dunmer treasure-hunter woman hired her to clear the dungeon of Draugr. Eryniel did that and the two got to the treasure room. In her haste the Dunmer got killed by a trap, though, so Eryniel got to keep the whole loot.

After that Eryniel came to the Rift Imperial camp, where she spent the night. When she played the Age of Aggression for the soldiers and watching them leisurely doing camp chores, she finally realized what she has to do: She will join the Legion. But that has to wait until she has cleared the most urgent tasks she has from the way.

The next day at sunset Eryniel got near Pinewatch, where she encountered a rather curious sight: Three skeletons standing docilely around and staring at a Redguard woman. Turned out the woman was an artist and the skeletons were an installation. "The art has really gone downhill since the Great War", Eryniel thought as she left the spot and set up her camp for the night. After playing a few ditties under a wonderfully clear and starry sky, she slept the night away.

The next day she finally got to Ancient's Ascent, where she had to fight both a dragon and a snow bear at the same time. Fortunately she had fortify marksman and resist frost potions. She wasn't that pleased when she saw that the word of power she had struggled so much to obtain was Animal Allegiance. Yep, those deer and rabbits will be a huge help in a fight.

After that she got home to Whiterun, brewed some potions and smithed and enchanted some new gear. After spending the night for once under a roof she was up and about early, ready for more adventures.

Talvas is smitten with Ulfric, a fellow scholar is avenged, and Tyrion has quite a pair of stones:

12th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - Calder's Log
12th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - STAN SMELLS SHORTNESS!
12th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - The Evocations of Talvas Fathryon
13th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - Brelyna's Notebook

Casandra paid a visit to Ashfallow Citadel today, and I'm pretty sure you know what sort of business she was on...

...shooting up and cleaving through the force within was easy enough. Cassie dispatched the entire 'family' within (she previously made it through the manor unmolested) and it all came down to the last assassin standing. Cassie was positioned at the far end of the spike-trap gauntlet and watched the last survivor make it through. She nocked an arrow and let fly. The arrow hit, and the Dunmer froze in place— a paralyzing poison had taken effect.

The stiffened figure fell back slightly, and leaned motionless against the spike grate of a trap. Casandra paused, then took the arrow she had ready off the bowstring. She grinned at her victim, then stomped down on the trigger on the floor. With a metallic clang, the assassin was flung from one grate to another, his passge across the floor triggering the trap his helpless body had just been flung into. Again, another metallic clang and a final cry of pain.

Casandra took note that the Ulens were pretty much foisted on their own petard when they set up such an insane number of traps in the hallway.

^ I've always wondered how they managed to even wander around the place with all of those traps. What does one do when you need to use the bucket but there's a spiked gate in the hallway? Lucky for Cassie that she made it out alive to continue serving the Night Mother.

Sylmirie and J'Zhargo have been traveling across Skyrim, currently on their way to Markarth. They have some business to do for Urag but keep getting distracted by all of the caves and lairs holding treasure within. She's discovered that she enjoys the kitty's company...and at night she wishes to cuddle up next to him and stroke his soft fur. -_- However, ladies don't do those things and instead she continues being short with him. Liking your adventure partners only brings heartache in time, and her heart isn't given away easily.

"That was no lady, that was my Archmage!"

^Gbaji, the first time I read your entry from Brelyna's Notebook I thought the last letter in "MLA" stood for something different, no less affectionate but a lot less respectful which would be censored if I wrote it out here. Then I went to read her previous entries in Tyrion's journal and was corrected about the nature of their relationship. Her adoration of him is very sweet (if a bit daft)!

Great idea btw to play a half-sized character! Does the world look a lot different in first person? My Marilyn is a bit on the short side as well (as Bosmer tend to be), and if I have her and Serana embrace via AFT it's a bit awkward because it looks like she's kissing Serana's bosom rather than her mouth... but then that sort of makes sense as well.

Dohva, considering that Altmer tend to consider even their Bosmer cousins as racially degenerated I dare not imagine how they'd view an Altmer/Khajiit romance - by which I mean, go for it! But look up the uncensored version of "The Real Barenziah" first (available somewhere on UESP if you haven't read it yet) so you'll know what Sylmirie would be getting into.

No, no, no. She's not wanting to be romantic with him. Its admiration because he saved her life in a vampire den. Romance to Sylmirie= no. Just no.

Today Eryniel completed Lost to the Ages. While she certainly was pleased to have the Aetherial Crown, she also was sad that there couldn't be more adventures with Katria. Eryniel had grown fond of her, regardless of her status as a ghost. But she certainly understands it was time for Katria to go to rest after her greatest wish had been fulfilled.

After that Eryniel went to Castle Dawnguard, after hearing for the millionth time the guards mentioning the group. So, she joined up and went to Dimhollow Crypt. And dim it was indeed. Without a lantern and magelight spells the vamps would have gotten her more than once. She also invented a tactics to fight them: Crouch in shadows and cast magelight on the far opposite wall. The vampires' outlines could then be seen against the light and she could snipe them with her crossbow. After uncovering Serana she led her first to Isran for instructions, then went to Castle Volkihar. She denied the dubious gift of vampirism, and returned to Isran for more orders.

----

BTW, anyone else who doesn't like Serana all that much? This is the second time I'm doing Dawnguard, and now I certainly remember why I wasn't so smitten with her the first time around. First off, she complains about weather all the time. Secondly, I don't really like all her dialogue. For instance, in the sequence where the PC and her meet Gelebor, she almost ruins the mood. There is a really tragic figure - the last of his kind - speaking with her, and what does she? She insults the spiritual beliefs and traditions of Gelebor's people by calling them 'nonsense'. In this scene and a few others Serana just comes across as bratty and unpleasant. I don't hate her, but to me she's just a very uninteresting character. Last time I was done with the questline I was glad to be rid of her.

Thankfully, the questline is otherwise very good.

What a pity. I could imagine a jealous Aicantar totally freaking out: "You did WHAT? You cheated on me - with a CAT?!?"
But yeah, you're probably right, there has to be something else in our characters' lives as well... if only from time to time.

OT, Marilyn (II) and Serana have been adventuring all over Solstheim, searching for Deathbrand's treasure and hoping they'll bump into that thief who stole Glover Mallory's bonemold formula somewhere by pure chance since they haven't a clue where to look for him. And running away like little girls from any Lurkers they see. They can deal with pretty much anything else Solstheim throws at them, but these Lurkers seem invulnerable to anything but frost damage... meaning a lot of frost damage. Serana's spells hurt them, but she runs out of magicka too soon and they regenerate if you don't keep hurting them constantly. Fortunately both Glover and the smith at Thirsk sell Ebony Arrows of Frost, and Stalhrim arrows seem to have some effect as well, but it takes quite a few arrows to bring a Lurker down.

ETA @Nord85: I've got to confess Serana is one of my favourite characters in Skyrim and its DLCs because of her complexity, but I'll concede she's not that easy to like (and all the people who want her made marriable kind of miss a point IMHO). The way I take it she's unable to feel empathy towards Gelebor because until she meets the player nobody ever showed her empathy. All she knows of "spiritual beliefs and tradition" is being given to Molag Bal to amuse himself with. And then Gelebor worships a god of Light, an element naturally hostile to her kind. I'd be surprised if she were anything but bratty and unpleasant to him.

The [&@%!] about the weather is another thing, and here I'd say Bethesda rather screwed up and spoiled a lot of the good work they did with Serana. Fortunately there's a very good mod (Serana Dialogue Edit) which greatly reduces that; it also makes her use dialogue lines which were recorded but never used in the game, or use lines she said but once in vanilla in other situations where they're appropriate. I've got to say it's made my second playthrough of Dawnguard on the vampire side much more varied, enjoyable and immersive.

(Btw kudos for the method Eryniel used to fight the vampires in Dimhollow! That was very inventive.)

Okay, I'm curious now. What did you think it stood for before? PM me if you have to.


The CoW has implemented strict guidelines regarding instructor-student relationships, but seeing as students are supposed to take any grievances to Tolfdir, enforcement is a bit lax.


Very:

Careful, lass, that's a pretty cold harbour...

Finn Wolfshorn: Yes, I can see how so many would like Serana. She indeed is the most developed NPC in the game personality-wise. I think my dislike just comes down to personal taste. I never liked much what I call "angsty with underlying family-issues"- character type. Relationship focuses in stories mainly bore me, if they get in the way of the larger plot. Here I am trying to save the world from a devilish vampiric plot, but at the same time I'm also supposed to care about Serana's issues with her daddy? Please, Serana, I don't want to hear about that now, I just want to hear more about this plot and how to stop it.

Also, in a story about fighting vampires I was mentally oriented so that vampires are simply the bad guys, all of them. That goes for other stories, too. Vampires for me are more like Stoker's Dracula in the original novel or Carmilla, than the more sympathetic Twilight brand. So, with that mindset I found it rather hard to empathize with Serana. Lord Harkon, on the other hand, is an excellent villain in this regard. True Dracula-type, all about power and sating his thirst for blood as the archetypal vampire should be. Basically, vampires shouldn't be just people with red eyes and long fangs. They should be a terrifying and at the same time partly alluring Other, monsters in partly human guise that have distinctly un-human motivations. That's where their original appeal lies IMO: They are symbols for man's own hidden animalistic and dark impulses and that's what makes them horrifying.

Lastly, I didn't like how the game forced Serana on the PC, and seemed rather smugly to expect that the player would like her. I, on the contrary, like mostly adventuring alone and only taking followers along when it suits me. Having Serana forcibly tagging along for long stretches didn't make me exactly enamoured for her.

So, it's a combination of many factors. With slightly different handling of the character my opinion could be a lot more positive.

^I'm totally with you on everything you said. The only one of my characters that actually ended up tolerating Serana was my assassin, but she has jacked up family issues as well. Roleplaying my elves (Altmer and Bosmer) they were disgusted and my Altmer spared no harsh words on her. Personally, I detest vampires so...*shrug*

I didn't like her being forced on the player character for the very reason that not everyone would feel safe traveling with a vampire. None of my characters went home during the questline because they were terrified of bringing Serana around their families. She's inconvenient, expects to be liked, and is basically needy. My Altmer also found her disrespectful when speaking with Gelebor and that didn't go so well for the vampire afterward. Best moment of the questline? Setting flame to Harkon while Serana watched.

When my husband did his Dawnguard playthrough, he hated Serana because he said he didn't have time for her emo-issues. He took a screenshot of her in Valerica's garden with her head down, all creepy and sad. It was hilarious because he used it as the desktop background for a while and we would laugh about it.

Not anymore: she's cured herself and is all warm and cuddly now... well, make that "warm and emotionally awkward".

I understand resenting to have Serana forced on you as a constant follower, especially if you're siding with the Dawnguard; my Argonian vampire hunter Comes-Up-Last missed no chance to be rude to her (of which there are quite a lot, let's be fair to Bethesda) and told her to get lost as soon as Harkon was dead. Marilyn (II) violently disliked her at first and had a Dark Brotherhood follower with her as bodyguard on the whole journey from Dimhollow to Fort Dawnguard, they'd sleep in turns and the follower had orders to kill Serana if she tried anything funny. The change came when Mari decided to explore Forelhost while she was in the neighbourhood and figured that since they couldn't get rid of the vampire and she had proved herself a capable mage she might as well come along; then the follower died in the boss fight and Serana saved Mari's life, and when they exited Forelhost they looked into each other's eyes and thought, "This could be the beginning of a wonderful friendship." It was on the way back to Castle V that it turned into more than friendship.

As for family issues vs saving the world I for my part find relationship stuff more interesting than saving the world anytime, but that's just me. I agree however on how vampires should
be presented, and Serana could have improved if Beth had made her a little creepier and more vampiric, thus making it harder for the player to overcome their prejudice; having her use her Vampire Lord power would have been great, and even more having her actually feed. (There's a little-used random dialogue line where she says, "I'm feeling... hungry", it sounds quite scary.)