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Yes, Serana's presentation is what peeves me the most. She's too human for my tastes. I mentioned Carmilla off-handedly in my previous post; actually I'm rereading the novel now and think that Bethesda should have taken a clue from that book how to handle the relationship between Serana and the PC. I mean, Carmilla is at turns fiercely possessive of her "friend" (read: would-be victim), girlishly huggy-kissy, and creepily cold and aloof. Also, her every line seems to be a dark hint of her true nature. She comes across quite creepy, but at the same time the main character can't help being drawn to her.

Something of this pattern could have been used in Dawnguard, too, of course modified to suit the fact Serana is in the end a good guy. Maybe she could have shown some signs of an inner fight between her vampiric instincts towards making the PC a thrall and a vestige of her human side that yearns for true friendship? That kind of portrayal would have been far more interesting for me at least.

As for relationship stuff vs larger plot thing, I think Tolkien excelled at this. See e.g. how Sam and Frodo's friendship grows during the course of the novel Lord of the Rings. Mostly it gets implied by events and other dialogue and shown when relevant to the plot. There are only a few explicit conversations they have about the topic, and even those at points where the action needs a bit of breathing time before resuming. The need to destroy the Ring always remains the centrepiece of the story as it should. So it's possible to do both aspects in the same story, it just gets some balancing. But well, I'm the type of person who got immensely more excitement from, say, Eowyn's fight with the Witch-King than Frodo and Sam's little heart-to-hearts in Ithilien. Different folks, different strokes I guess.

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On topic, today Eryniel continued with Dawnguard's quests and finally infiltrated the Volkihar Castle with Serana. She was very impressed by the dark grandeur of the place and couldn't help wondering how the castle would look if renovated. She got annoyed and unnerved about Serana's habit of raising thralls and killed those every time. Eventually the dynamic duo made their way into Valerica's laboratory and entered the Soul Cairn. Horrified at the mere thought of becoming a vampire, Eryniel rather submitted to have a part of her soul being trapped. In the Soul Cairn they found Valerica, whom Eryniel actually found a quite imposing woman. Certainly she was more impressed by Valerica than by Serana. While running around to dispatch the Keepers, Eryniel also stumbled across a Dunmer's soul named Jiub and agreed to find the poor sod's papers.

As for dialogue choices, this far Eryniel has been civil, but not over-friendly towards Serana. This is because she's still wary of the vampire and doesn't want to wake up one morning sucked dry of blood, so she figures it's better to remain in Serana's good books for the time being, and also because she's a nice person who wouldn't be rude towards anyone if not absolutely necessary. She couldn't lie to Valerica for some reason, however, and flatly told her she just wanted the Elder Scroll. Because, well, that's why she was there and everybody could guess that.

Ugh. All this talk about Serana just reminds me how much I really don't like her. She's so damn annoying. Gets in my way constantly, won't shut up, and so on.
I did actually kill her once and it was more satisfying than I thought it would be. Fortunately for me, Vulom was never friendly with her. She only pretended to be to gain Serana's trust (as it would be easier to worm her way into the Volkihar with an ally). No doubt she one day turned upon both Valerica and Serana. Bring them both to Valerica's study, slit their throats, and then dump them into the sea from that conveniently located balcony. Hm. Probably something more devious. That was just the first thing to come to mind.

Kas'Lei wouldn't give a damn about Serana, though she would find her rather annoying. Narji... Isn't too fond of undead. She might prove slightly more understanding of Serana, but the whole vampire thing isn't something so easily dismissed.


Now... On topic:
Kas'Lei has been doing contracts for the Dark Brotherhood lately. She has just been revealed as Listener. Astrid, as usual, is opposed to that. Kas'Lei remained with Cicero after Astrid left and commented to the little madman, "Astrid does not wish to relinquish command. I am the leader of the Brotherhood. You see it, Cicero. You know it. Astrid will be the fall of the Dark Brotherhood if she does not step aside and let tradition return. She is merely... A pretender."

With that, she did a few more contracts, returned, got sent back out to Volunruud to speak to the Motierre fellow, and picked up the contract from him.
All of that done between being attacked by dragons and everything else in the wilds of Skyrim.

Eryniel went today to fetch the Elder Scroll needed both to Dawnguard's and the main quest line. It was quite a trek through that ruin. Her magelight trick served well against the Falmer, too, and she found it very convenient she could use her lantern around them, since they're blind. Serana didn't approve of her sneaky ways, it seems, since she always rushed guns blazing towards anything that seemed to have the slightest hint the duo was there. Eryniel even accidentally shot her once in the back when she leaped in her line of fire.

When they reached the Alftand Cathedral, Serana surpised Eryniel pleasantly by saying: "Wow, do you see this? Makes everything else worth it." That was the first unambiguously positive comment Eryniel had heard from Serana, and she also had for once to completely agree. The place indeed was impressive. In the room next to the lift the duo encountered the last two survivors of the archeological expedition fighting each other. Serana started to fling fireballs at them but Eryniel disapproved and pacified the two combatants with a spell. She almost regretted it, however, when the other one of them, an Imperial named Sulla, scoffed: "Mages. Should be a law against them." I imagined her saying: "Oh, I'm so sorry I interrupted your senseless fight. Should have let you kill each other, then, if that would have made you happier."

Then the mismatched duo got through Blackreach without serious incident. Eryniel was so intrigued by the place that she plans to make a new visit there when she has spare time. She seems to have conceived something of a fascination towards the Dwemer. For instance, she has replaced her cooking utensils with Dwemer equivalents and was very happy to find a spoon in Alftand to complete her set.

After returning to Fort Dawnguard Eryniel was disappointed to find Dexion blinded. So she set out again with Serana towards the Ancestor Glade. She's not at all pleased at the prospect of having to read the Elder Scrolls (and one of them again at the Time Wound, in addition). After seeing what a wreck Septimus is and reading Effects of the Elder Scrolls she's pretty worried that she'll either gets blinded or goes stark raving mad. But well, if saving the world demands it, she'll risk it (even though she sometimes wonders why it's always she who must risk something. Couldn't someone else be a hero for a change?).

That is so true! Especially horkers. Gotta confess there've been times I've wondered whether Molag Bal took the form of a horker when he made Serana her a Daughter of Coldharbour, for she seems to hate the poor beasts with a vengeance. I remember a journey from Solitude to Winterhold where one solitary horker looked at us the wrong way and she went out of her way to aggro and obliterate what must have been every single horker on the north coast. She was gone for hours. Fortunately I've got a mod (AFT) that let's me tell her to stay in stealth mode until we're attacked; she'll even make herself invisible, it's quite nice.

OT, Marilyn (II) and Serana, travelling northward through Solstheim in search of the last cache of Deathbrand's treasure, stumbled across a Riekling-infested Dwemer ruin named Flabdth... Frablth... you know which one I mean, the one with F. They investigated but thought it better to retreat after a couple of encounters with still functional Dwemer hardware because Mari had left her anti-construct gear (shock-enchanted crossbow and Blade of Markarth) back in their house in Raven Rock; they'll return later with better equipment. Farther north, beyond the watershed, they discovered an ancient Nord ruin populated by dead bandits and a strange kind of spiders, and they're still in there.

^LOL at the horker story, Finn! Yeah, Serana can be rather murderous at times. But now I have to slap myself for my stupidity; I also use AFT, but never realized I could command my followers stay hidden like that. Have to try it out next time.

On-topic: Today Eryniel traveled to Ancestor Glade. Near Pinewatch she and Serana got into one of the most ridiculously protracted fights Eryniel had ever experienced. First they got attacked by a cave bear. Well, that was easy enough. But at the instant the killing arrow struck it, a frost dragon attacked. That was killed, too, but as Eryniel stepped to absorb the dragon's soul, an arrow struck her. Two nearby bandits had spotted her and let their bows sing. Majorly peeved, the dame duo attacked and wiped the bandits out. But directly after that was done, three vampires showed up (in full daylight, no less!) and had to be killed in a rather hard fight. Nobody said Skyrim would be the safest of places, but that was a but overblown.

After that our heroines got to Ancestor Glade, which Eryniel found enchantingly beautiful. The moths, too, were cute in her opinion, even though she otherwise doesn't like bugs. Well, she gathered the moths around her and read the Elder Scrolls. She couldn't enjoy her relief of not having gone mad or blind for long, though, since a bunch of vampires with their thrall retinue showed up. They were killed rather quickly. Then Eryniel left the place with Serana in tow, saddened that such a lovely place was sullied with blood.

After that they traveled to Darkfall Cave and stumbled their way through it until meeting Gelebor. By now Eryniel had even begun liking Serana a bit, but the vampire's rather rude manner towards the Knight-Paladin made her somewhat annoyed. She, on her part, felt immense sympathy and pity towards him. Then followed the Darkfalls Tunnel. After that ordeal Eryniel will be a happy woman indeed if she never sees another Chaurus. Those disgusting monsters seemed to be everywhere, as well as Falmer. Eryniel has now seen enough of the latter to loathe and despise them. Everything about those disfigured mock-elves seems to be dirty, cruel and/or evil.

Then Eryniel and Serana completed the pilgrimage to the five wayshrines, in the process wiping out what must have been the entire Falmer population of the Forgotten Valley. Also, they had quite a scuffle with two dragons that attacked from under ice in a frozen lake. At the long last, when Eryniel was already starting to despair if those awful Falmer caves and villages would never end, they reached the last wayshrine. Prelate Edhelbor's ghost's words of blessing still echoed in her mind, when she beheld the temple in the light of flickering auroras.

The atmosphere in the Forgotten Vale deeply imprinted itself into Eryniel's memory. She can only imagine how serenely, coolly peaceful the place must have been when the Snow Elves were still at the height of their culture. Even in ruins the valley was full of cold beauty of a melancholic kind, and if not for the Falmer, might have been the most soothing place Eryniel has seen in whole Skyrim. It seems to be her fate, though, to visit every place only long after its heyday has passed. She's beginning to wonder if there's any location in Skyrim that isn't in one way or the other in ruins or decay.

Today Eryniel killed Arch-Curate Vyrthur and retrieved Auriel's Bow. The she went to Castle Volkihar with the rest of the Dawnguard to spread some carnage. She frenzied some of the vampires to fight among themselves (thanks to Master of Mind perk), and the battle was won without a single Dawnguard casualty. Harkon was a tough opponent, however, and it took a while to kill him even with Auriel's Bow. Truth be told, Eryniel had a much more powerful enchanted dragonbone bow with her, but she preferred to use Auriel's just to spite Harkon that little bit more.

When the fight was over, Eryniel had chat with Serana. To the elf's surprise, Serana actually consented to cure herself of vampirism. Then Eryniel looted some interesting books from the castle and headed for the ruined part of it. That was because she wanted to inform Valerica about Harkon's fate. She liked the vampire matron for some reason, and because Valerica had given her the Elder Scroll she figured one good turn deserved another. Strangely enough, the castle was actually scarier for Eryniel now that it was empty and silent. It might have been because this time she was alone.

In any case, she reached Soul Cairn and paid a visit to Valerica. On the return trip she made a detour to say hello to Jiub and exited the Soul Cairn, hopefully for the last time. The place gives her the chills. After having a bit of a friendly conversation with Valerica in the latter's laboratory, Eryniel got out of the castle and rowed to the Icewater Jetty, ready for new adventures.

After being engaged to Aicantar for months, Sylmirie finally decided to tie the knot when she awoke to him sweeping her bedroom in Breezehome. Truth be told that she enjoyed having him in the palm of her hand, continually asking her to set up their ceremony. But when she saw him sweeping, a romantic spark went off in her and they married two days later.

Their honeymoon was spent adventuring through the Rift and clearing it of bandits, bears, and vampires.

Tyrion is reunited with Pyra, Sinderion fixes up a mess o' Be-Bop-A-Re-Bop Nirnroot Pie, and Talvas and Brelyna find themselves bumping atronachs:

14th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - The Evocations of Talvas Fathryon
15th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - Brelyna's Notebook
16th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - The Evocations of Talvas Fathryon
16th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - Brelyna's Notebook
17th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - Ysolda's Diary
17th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - The Evocations of Talvas Fathryon
17th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - Tyrion's Journal

Dohva: That was sweet! *applauds and throws mountain flowers at the bride and groom* (on second thought, make that dragon's tongues and deathbells)

Gbaji: Nice romance between Talvas and Brelyna! She's much better served with a real mer than fantasizing about HLA. I was very happy about that intimate moment between Tyrion and Ysolda which shows her affection to him in spite of cheating on him with half of Whiterun, and Brelyna's dressing-down (pun intended) was hilarious. Also thanks for broadening my vocabulary with the word recalcitrance!

Marilyn (II) and Serana solved the mystery of the Albino Spiders and also found the Deathbrand Gauntlets, then returned to White Ridge Barrow for the night. On the next morning they continued their exploration of the north of Solstheim to Saering's Watch where they battled a few draugr. Nearby they encountered a mysterious bear in spirit form (from the Requiem Dragonborn patch, in memory of Bloodmoon) who was a pain to kill but yielded lots of rare and valuable loot.

In other news I've taught Serana to summon a Boneman whenever combat begins, which Marilyn learned in the Soul Cairn but doesn't have enough magicka to use anyway. Very useful.

Yes, lovely. Pics or it didn't happen!


I can't remember if in the lore mer are supposed to be naturally more long-lived than men, but I always wonder with these long-lived species if they mature slower, too. Obviously, I've been writing Brelyna as if she were a teenager, but seeing as Talvas has been an apprentice for "decades," he might not be considered a full adult by Dunmer standards, either.


Always works on me (sorry ).

Yes they are, but exactly how much more long-lived is up for debate, and statements in lore vary IIRC (I distinctly remember there was a thread* about the subject in the Lore section). There may be a gradation in longevity between the various elven races as well, with Altmer living longest, Bosmer shortest and Dunmer somewhere in the middle (except for rare top-notch mages like Divaith Fyr).

As for maturing, my personal headcanon is that they start out developing at more or less the same pace as human children but start slowing down during or after puberty (I think I got this idea from some essay by Tolkien, applying it to TES elves is, like I said, pure headcanon). E.g. Marilyn is currently 26 years old (she was 24 when the game started), she has slowed down but not a lot yet, if she were human she'd be, I dunno, about 20 or 21 I guess.

*ETA: found it! Lifespans of all Races in TES

I finished the Dawnguard questline for the first time on either side (Volkihar this time), although I've omitted destroying the Dawnguard because that's where another character comes in.

Today Rufus killed Mirmulnir and got to High Hrothgar with Lydia in tow. The journey was fairly uneventful, except for the usual scuffles with animals and bandits. After conversing with the Greybeards and returning to Ivarstead some loopy cultists in masks tried to kill Rufus, but he dispatched them with ease, assisted by the guards and Lydia.

Then Rufus cleared out the Bleak Falls Barrow. After that he practically rubbed his hands in glee; moving to Skyrim seems to be a justified choice, after all. He's already amassed the price of a house in a few short days. So the loot is much better than home in Cyrodiil, at least. After leaving the village Rufus and Lydia had to kill a dragon which was attacking everything in sight.

As for Lydia, Rufus wonders if she's smitten with him or something. Namely, only after a few hours' acquaintance she already said that she was happy to be his friend and gave him a set of merchant clothes as a gift [has never happened to me with Lydia before this]. But that might also just be some strange Nord custom. After all, Rufus thinks, what she could see in him? He's not that handsome and she's half a foot taller than him to boot, as illustrated here:


On the other hand, a woman's heart is a strange and unknown thing. At the moment all Rufus cares about is that Lydia is an efficient sister-in-arms and carries his burdens when needed.

Rufus also considers whether he should change his fighting style to one-handed weapons and shields. Sure, battleaxes deal serious damage and feel manly [plus the killcams are awesome] but by the time he has got one strike in, the enemy has already dealt him two. If Skyrim is more lucrative than Cyrodiil, the opposition seems also be on wholly another level. Besides, he needs something to block dragon bites. The last one almost killed him with one bite, and blocking with the axe-shaft was practically useless. Or maybe he just does something wrong, who knows?

Today Rufus fetched the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, or rather tried to fetch. He was pretty peeved to find out someone had beaten him to it. On the return trip he found the Lord Stone and switched his sign to it. He also found Skyborn Altar and as a result had a near-fatal fight with the resident dragon. All his potions were exhausted and he was only saved by running all the way to the mammoth graveyard near Whiterun, where the three bandits distracted the dragon just long enough for Rufus to inflict so much damage to it with his bow that it couldn't fly anymore. Then Rufus could kill the dragon easily enough from distance. Back in Whiterun he joined the Companions, figuring that to be the best way to get some quality training and money. He wasn't that phased by the gruff welcome. Actually, he expected some hazing as he remembered his novice days in the Fighters Guild back in Cyrodiil and was surprised when it all amounted to a little name-calling and belittling. "A few succesful contracts, and they'll change their tune", Rufus thought and let it be. Despite of that, he couldn't resist a small feeling of satisfaction when he brought Vilkas nearly to his knees during the sparring session.

Then he got to Riverwood and accompanied Delphine to Kynesgrove, where they fought Sahlokniir. That fight was easier than the previous one, but still demanded some very careful combining of melee and archery. Rufus had swapped his battleaxe for a sword and shield, and his choice was vindicated by the fight. By blocking Sahlokniir's attacks he actually was able to survive coming to melee distance [it tells something about the power of the dragons' bite attacks that every successful block advanced that skill by nearly one full point]. Also, Rufus is facing many more and tougher human opponents than during his Fighters Guild days in Cyrodiil, so being able to effectively block is a huge boon. At last the dragon was dead and Rufus headed out from Kynesgrove.

^Nord, would those hazing rituals of the Fighters Guild which Rufus remembers include sending novices to kill some rats as their first job?

Marilyn (II), Bosmeri archer, and Serana, Nord adventurer, explored the Castle Karstaag Caves where they battled (or rather obliterated) quite a number of Rieklings and by pure happenstance ran into whatsisname, the guy who stole Glover Mallory's bonemold formula, or rather his corpse; and by ran into him I mean literally ran into him, because Serana raised him en passant but when he came running up to us the fight was already over. Mari asked Serana for permission to kill him again so she could filch his pockets, and Serana grudgingly allowed it [/roleplay]. It was all quite hilarious.

Back in Raven Rock they talked to Glover and restored his property to him, for which they were rewarded richly (the requiemified Blackguards armour is easily the best light armour in the game). They also found a letter in his basement which Marilyn instantly recognized would be of the greatest interest to a certain ex-lover of hers in Riften: one more good reason to return to Skyrim soon. Solstheim so far hasn't agreed very well with either of the two: Serana doesn't like the weather, and Marilyn longs for being able to sleep in a bed again without being shanghaied for some creepy shrine-building project. (Speaking of which, they discovered another of these sites and were attacked by a cultist with a strange mask, which made Mari rethink her conviction that the eskimo-Nords in their village were behind all this.)

Their last trip on Solstheim (for now) led them to the last resting place of ol' Haknir himself, who (unsurprisingly) turned out to be not quite as dead as reported. The dread pirate and his crew vs Mari + Lucien Lachance and Serana + Boney was a fair fight. The couple returned to Raven Rock laden with piles of gold, but the most valuable part of the treasure were Haknir's twin scimitars (which, after updating Better Shaped Weapons, are now sleek enough for Mari to actually use; she's a bit of an aesthete as regards the shape of her weapons, and the vanilla scimitar mesh is an abomination). On their way back to RR they had two memorable encounters: they observed the Ghost of Xarrian (the original creator of Requiem) walking the earth of Solstheim in the shape of a spectral frost giant , and Marilyn adopted another stray dog; she named him Arnbjorn in memory of a deceased Family member she wasn't on the best of terms with, so when people call him "stupid dog" she'll be amused rather than irate.

Yep, the job was to exterminate some rats in the basement of a kooky Dunmer lady. Also, he had to put up with an irate Orc Guild chapter head, compared to whose tirades the Companions are very gentle-spoken.

As for Serana, she must have some fetish to zombies. I mean, she raises literally anything. With one of my characters she seemed to delight in raising bunnies, of all things. Every time she came across a bear or a wolf who had just killed a bunny, her first action was to make it a thrall. Well, maybe those are the vampire equivalent of stuffed toys. Even undead monsters need to cuddle something sometimes.

So, restarted with Rufus from scratch, this time with the combo waraxe+shield as the primary combat means. At first I did a bit of adventuring around Falkreath to get money for materials to craft some armor. When that was accomplished, I went to Helgen to start the main quest (want to use Shouts as early as possible). At least replaying the start quests is fast now that I don't need to skulk around.

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After getting the quest to fetch the Dragonstone, Rufus deemed that his gear was still unsatisfactory. He had fought zombies in Cyrodiil, so at the mention of undead he instantly imagined something needing a hundred blows to keel over. So he went to raid a bandit camp, where he found a lot of iron deposits, mammoth tusks, and a Transmute spell tome. So it was mining time after clearing the cave. Due to his pitiful magicka reserves, it took him the whole night to transmute the iron into gold. In the end it paid off, however, since he got a fair bit of septims from the jewelry he made out of the gold. With that money he bought enough raw materials to make a nice hauberk and a war axe.

Then it was time to depart for Belak Falls Barrow. Rufus was pretty surprised to see that the draugr died very easily. Maybe it's because they seem to be much drier than zombies back home and so can't absorb as much damage. Basically he stormed the place with little difficulty. Even the so-called Draugr Overlord fell after a short exchange of blows. After delivering the dragonstone Rufus learned to his chagrin that he had to fight a dragon! Well, there was nothing to do but comply, and so he soon found himself facing Mirmulnir. Rather foolhardily he engaged the dragon every time it landed, but it paid off; Mirmulnir was finished pretty quickly, although Rufus needed half of his potions for that.

Then he got Lydia as a follower [she didn't appear this time either, so I had to use the moveto command for her to appear; hopefully this time there's not a copy of her running around somewhere] and got told to visit the Greybeards. Rufus intends to do just that, since it doesn't seem wise to refuse an invitation from people who can call you across half the province. What else they are capable of? So, off to High Hrothgar it is.

Today Rufus did the Clavicus Vile Quest. It was quite a trek from the shrine to Grimerock Burrow. Especially as Rufus stupidly chose the wrong road near Rorikstead and so had to slog through the Reach only to find himself in nearly the same place he had started from the same morning. He then visited Rorikstead to sell off excess loot acuired en route from a dragon, a few Forsworn and some bandits.

When he entered the village, it turned out it was under Stormcloak attack. A group of them was just finishing slaughtering the guards, and after doing that they spread out, weapons still in hand. As Rufus was the Thane of Whiterun and liked the hold's guards, he got very angry. Also, it looked like the Stormcloaks were about to do something violent for the civilians, too. So Rufus charged in and with Barbas' help killed them all. This far he hasn't intervened in the battles between Legionnaires and Stormcloaks he has witnessed, but he sure as Oblivion won't let the latter to massacre people in a hold he's a Thane of.

The next morning Rufus left Rorikstead and reached his destination via Dragon Bridge. A little before his goal he found a tower inhabited by a solitary witch and a lot of dead bodies. Turned out the witch was the only survivor of a bandit attack. While Rufus doesn't like witches or necromances, he let the poor woman live, since she was more laughably inept than dangerous. He also turned down her request of gathering some human organs for her. Mercenary as he is, even he has standards.

A bit before this he had killed a bunch of Justiciars. They were fighting some bandits, and Rufus at first only watched to see which side would win. Then the badly wounded Justiciar wizard tried to run away - straight towards Rufus. He swiped at the mage with his axe as he ran past, which killed the Thalmor instantly. Then Rufus killed the remaining Justiciars who were weakened by the bandits. Just as the last one fell, Rufus saw a troop of Legion soldiers and realized they had seen all. "You saw they attacked me first!" he protested, but might have saved his breath. The Legionnaires only marched by, only casting a few careless glances at the bodies.

Then Rufus at last fetched the Rueful Axe and returned it to Clavicus. He opted for the Mask, since he had no reason to kill Barbas who had been rather helpful during the fights.

Finally getting around to doing Boethiah's Calling for the first time ever. Combed through the Wiki info on Followers, weighed many pros and cons, and decided the cannibal Eola is the most suitable Follower for the sacrifice. There's a certain poetic justice in sacrificing a minion of one Daedric Lord to another. (Wondering if I'll be able to feed off her corpse when she's stuck to the pillar.) Escorted and dismissed Annekke at her home, picked up Eola, and now we're traveling towards B's Sacellum.

Once I'm rid of Eola, I guess I'll round up three suitable candidates for initiation to the Blades. Once that map-crossing chore is struck off the list, it's back to Darkwater Crossing to link up with Annekke again. I'm beginning to miss her already.

Today Rufus ran around doing Companions odd jobs, in hopes he'll get something bigger and better soon (I have a mod that imposes some requirements for advancement). In the process he also killed three or four dragons and agreed to help find a publisher for an agsty author in Dawnstar.

The other jobs were quite easy, but the last one where he had to track down an escaped criminal got Rufus almost killed. First he met a Dunmer woman at the Talos shrine near Cradlerush Rock. The chick seemed to hate dragons, so Rufus agreed to accompany her to wait for one to arrive at the giant camp. The Dunmeress was a bit hasty, though; as a dragon didn't instantly appear, she decided to attack the giants. Needless to say, she was knocked out pretty quickly and Rufus had to fight two angry giants at once.

When he had finished that and agreed to meet up with the Dunmer some other time, he went on in search of the escapee. He traversed the Eastmarch volcanic area and then had a nasty fight with bandits inhabiting Fort Greenwall. The escaped criminal happened to stumble onto the scene just after the last bandit was dead. He was a nasty customer, a Khajiit dual-wielding some pretty good swords. Rufus survived only by a hair's breadth. Luckily he got a moment to tend to his wounds, since two bears attacked him directly afterwards. When that scuffle was over, Rufus dragged himself to the nearby Riften.

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I also installed SKSE and some mods. I have to say I'm a bit ambivalent about SkyUI. On the other hand it might be technically better than the vanilla interface (which I never really hated anyway), but it also seemed a bit confusing with all those icons and small font. It might be that I'll get used to it soon, though. The Lock Overhaul and Honed Metal mods, however, seem to work perfectly. Now I wish I had installed SKSE sooner just for those ones.

Stan misses a meal, Tyrion splurges on Faralda & Tolfdir, and Talvas discovers Neloth's job-placement program:

17th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - STAN WILL FEAST ON YOUR BRIARHEART!
17th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - The Evocations of Talvas Fathryon
19th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - The Evocations of Talvas Fathryon
20th of Morning Star, 4E 202 - Tyrion's Journal
21st of Morning Star, 4E 202 - The Evocations of Talvas Fathryon

^^Nord, you can adjust SkyUI's font size to your liking in its MCM (=Mod Configuration Menu).
^Gbaji, I love Stan!

Marilyn (II), Bosmeri archer, and Serana, Nord adventurer, turned their backs to Solstheim for the time being and embarked on the Northern Maiden bound back to Windhelm. Unfortunately they had to leave Arnbjorn behind because Captain Gjalund adamantly refused to take a dog on board, but Glover promised to take good care of Arnie until their return (which may be a while).

Back in Skyrim, they sold a load of loot to Niranye, then took a boat to Dawnstar because Mari hadn't been to the Sanctuary in a while (she still has a contract to fulfill from before the trip to Solstheim ); she did some brewing and crafting and enchanted Serana's sword and bow for her. Furthermore she figured it's her responsibility as the Listener to give new Family members some on-the-job-training, therefore when Mari and Serana left the Sanctuary again they were accompanied by Arlus the Gravedigger (another follower from the Dawnstar Sanctuary expansion mod which I've already mentioned a few times). So far he's proved himself to be a very capable spellsword and necromancer, definitely an asset to the Brotherhood. His first fight at his Listener's side was against a group of Dawnguard who ambushed them right outside the Sanctuary, and he now sports a cool Dawnguard waraxe. Marilyn was deeply worried by this attack which seems to prove that the Dawnguard have somehow found out about her connection to the Dark Brotherhood and are apparently ready to extend their personal vendetta against her into a crusade against her Family, which is not to be tolerated. Drastic measures may be necessary.

Bretav (Imperial), A man condemned to death, was awaiting execution along with a few unsavory folks. When it came his time to leave this world, it seemed as if the fates had another plan. A dragon interupted the execution with impeccable timing, allowing him and an Imperial soldier by the name of Hadvar to slip into the keep. Upon exiting the keep, They sought out Hadvar's uncle. Upon arrival in riverwood, he was tasked with informing the jarl, and so he did.

After informing the jarl, Bretav then ventured on his own quest, Vengeance. You see he left his life as a soldier in Cyrodiil, to hunt down a man by the name of Movarth. MMovarth is the vampire that took the life of Artemis, Bretav's wife.

He journeyed north From white run en route to Solitude. Along the road he came across a group of vigilants that had just slain a vampire. He spoke to them searching for information. All he got was the location of the Hall of Vigilant. Upon arrival he was greeted with welcoming arms. The vigilants and Bretav are working towards similar goals, however they chose two different paths. The vigilants "walk with the light, or be drug to it" mentallity wasnt for a man who has sworn against weaponry. This led to a conflict inside the hall where the vigilants now lie dead. However it wasnt in vain. A book , Immortal Blood, spoke of Movarth. With this he decided to rest a while in the once lively hall.

Isn't that a somewhat extreme outcome for a dispute on methods, especially if one of the disputing parties "has sworn against weaponry" (but not magic, I presume)? Also this is the first I heard of the Vigilants using drugs to convert people to the light. (sorry, couldn't resist)

Marilyn (II), Bosmeri archer, and Serana, Nord adventurer, currently accompanied by Arlus, Breton gravedigger, travelled from Windhelm to Riften. While traversing Eastmarch they noticed that the dragon lair on Bonestrewn Crest had been reoccupied during their sojourn on Solstheim and dealt with the wyrm. When the fight was over and they had rounded up their horses again it was late afternoon; looking for a shelter to spend the night Marilyn remembered the ancient Nord tower of Ansilvund where she had camped before. By the time they arrived there they had two hours or so of daylight left which they chose to spend in a stroll through the snowy mountains behind the ruin. High up they discovered a Dwarven ruin which at first sight didn't seem to amount to much but had a surprise up its sleeve (if ruins have sleeves).- OoC: this was the first time I've visited Kagrenzel since my first playthrough three years ago, and the weirdness of it all came back to me - that small square room with its round platform, some dead bandits and this strange orb of light, making you wonder what the heck had happened here; the irresistible urge to touch the orb, and then -

Nice little dungeon. -

After snatching a few hours of sleep and retrieving their horses they continued their journey south. On their way they met with two Vigilants of Stendarr whose order had until recently attacked Mari and Serana on sight (and vice versa), but the Vigil seems to be willing to let bygones be bygones and accept that once a vampire isn't always a vampire - unlike the Dawnguard who assaulted them (again!) at the stables of Riften. This happened within eyesight of Ahkari and her fellow caravan members who were camping outside the gate and came to our heroines' help, led by Mari's old friend Kharjo; Ahkari herself was severely wounded in the fight, and Marilyn, realizing that this feud was going too far and endangering third parties, gave herself a contract to end it by assassinating the leaders of the Dawnguard.

Before that, however, they went to the Ragged Flagon and gave a certain letter to a certain jewel of the Thieves Guild. I was happy to thus achieve some kind of closure and reconciliation between Marilyn and Sapphire who had been lovers once before Mari's steep career in the Guild got in the way and Sapphire distanced herself, presumably because she didn't want to be seen as seeking to improve her standing in the Guild by sleeping with the new boss. Mari will cherish the costly gem Sapphire gave her in gratitude as a keepsake from a truly Exquisite Sapphire and a reminder of a love that might have been.

The first person to discover Kagrenzel must have had one hell of a shock.
"What is going on here... Oh, [&@%!]."

Anyway, Fears-The-Light (temporary Dawnguard test character) has gone though the Soul Cairn and emerged. This is normally where the problems would begin. As usual, she ignored Jiub, but instead I used the console to complete his quest. It's listed as a solution on the wiki and I'm hoping it'll stop the damn bug from triggering constant C++ errors if I use it to skip the quest.

She has retrieved the Elder Scroll from Blackreach and is about to do the other stuff in the questline. At least I remember what I'm doing... It's been ages since I last did Dawnguard. Doing it with an unfamiliar keyboard, though... Eh. Would've been nice if my original (which was honestly just the old Microsoft keyboard that came with this PC) hadn't gone wonky, but I suppose it was only a matter of time. The W key wasn't working properly. At least this one does.
I should have a better keyboard (this one is a Dell that came with my grandfather's computer) by the weekend.

Er... Assuming Fears-The-Light makes it through the rest of Dawnguard with no issues, I'll probably take her over to Solstheim for a while. I've only been there on PS3 and, with my dinosaur of a TV, I can't really see much of what's going on. There are a few places I'd like to check out on my PC before I delete this character and return to Kas'Lei (who is doing Thieves Guild stuff). Especially that one cave by the Bulwark. I can't remember what it's called.