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Thoryn Battlemaiden, nord shieldmaid:

-Cleared Halted Stream Camp while looking for Amren's sword. After delivering the sword, she had to do second trip to get all the loot back home. She crafted and sold stuff and spent little time at home in Breezehome. Them she headed out to Riverwood.

Killed the Ebony Warrior in a number of different ways, just to test if they would work. My aim was to kill him as a werewolf, and over the course of several attempts, I discovered some new strategies and some weird game behavior.

* Although he has a perk that makes it harder to pickpocket him, you can still steal every last piece of equipment off him if you have a maxed out skill, four pieces of Fortify Pickpocket apparel, and a potion of the same. I stripped him down to his underwear in the streets of Riften. His arrows, potions, and jewelry are the easiest, followed by his weapons and shield, his helmet and gauntlets, and then his boots and armor.
* That being said, he will still spawn at the Last Vigil with a new set of his armor, but no weapons. He may also spawn a new set of armor if you pick him clean, save, reload, and turn him hostile in the city. On the plus side, you can get a second set of his armor after killing him at the Last Vigil.
* Removing a single piece of his body armor will take away his Reflect Blows perk. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to do this at the Last Vigil; he was already hostile due to a frost troll attacking him, and I couldn't sneak up and pickpocket him. I ended up killing myself repeatedly when he reflected my werewolf power attacks.
* He can be ragdolled by a werewolf's moving or sprinting power attacks. This is a good way to keep him from hitting you, and can also be used to knock him off the cliff. However, it seems the bug is still present where, if the fall isn't sufficient to kill him, he'll stand back up at full health.

In the end, I killed him on the city streets by picking him naked, activating Beast Form out of sight, running up and slashing him, and then getting the hell out of dodge so I wouldn't have to murder the guards.

Jurie gra-Morq, orc smith and Ghorbash Iron-Hand:
- inspected forsworn conspiracy for Eltrys
- then Jurie was thrown to Cidna Mine. to mine silver ore.
Roleplay-wise, she first seduced (persuade-check successful) Borkul the Beast (hey, Jurie is fine looking orcress)
"My, Borkul, what big tusks you are. Do you know what they say about orc with big tusks?" Then she taught Madanach not to let an orc with pair of pick-axes too close. Then she walked out. Her pair of pick axes even took care of dwemer sphere.
- After this, she's officially visited and mined all the mines in Skyrim.
- She left Markath (after receiving her reward) and spent some time crafting. Then she and Ghorbash just wandered around Whiterun's plains, looking for ore veins. They ended up exploring Volunruud and Bloated Man's Grotto. Jurie got few more unique weapons to add to her collection.

Mariette Pelerin, breton priestess:
- Delivered Berit's Ashes to Runil and then Runil asked her to fetch his journal.
- Mariette got thaned and took Rayya with her.
- They headed to Darkshade -cave. On they way they stopped to kill bandits on Valtheim Towers.


In Darkshade they had trolls to take care. They found the journal and returned it to Runil.

Lygia, with Aela in tow, cleared out Broken Helm Hollow of bandits, and collected the bounty from Anuriel. From there she journeyed north to Azura's shrine. While she didn't worship the Daedric Prince, Azura isn't one of the bad ones, and Lygia dislikes the idea of a necromancer using the artifact in such a way. Better she has it than to let it remain as it is. After that, she retrieved a toem of Hircine from Movarth's lair, rather irked at the renewed forces of her enemy. A dragon needed slaying up in Eldersblood Peak, and she's always eager for a good fight. She took Aela and the totem back to the Underforge, said her condolences to Ulfberth War-Bear for his loss, and turned her sights back towards Riften.

The vampire menace needs attention, and that means seeking out the Dawnguard.

Attia Nikovius, imperial paladin:
- Back in Whiterun, she sold loot, crafted a little bit and bought new restoration-spells from Farengar.
- Then she paid visit to Hall of the Dead, helped Andurs by finding his amulet and tested her new turn lesser undead-spell on skeletons.
- She visited Danica and this pilgrim named Maurice joined her to her trip to Eldergleam Sanctuary. Maurice didn't last long though...they ran into a dragon. Took the better part of the playing session for Attia to kill the pesky thing. It was a dodge fight: dragon attacks, Attia shoots arrows, retreats to cover to heal, dragon flies off to distance, comes back and attacks...rinse and repeat. Enough times to get the dragons health down to force it to land. After that Attia had no troubles. Archery isn't her strongest fighting skills.

Yesterday I started a brand new game with an Argonian names Brelan. He completed the first quest to get out of Helgen alive and made my way to river wood before I started explorer.

Gíslaug the Grim, nord dark paladin:
- After years of absence, Gislaug returned to Skyrim, and found herself waiting for executioner's axe.
- She escaped Helgen and made it to Riverwood. Then she found herself from Bleak Falls Barrow, resurrecting bandits to fight draugar with her.

Spike, argonian wanna-be-shadowscale:
- travelled to Falkreath hold around-about-route: via Brittleshin Pass. Then he had some fun with the slaughterfishes in Lake Illinata. Eventually he made it to the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary and got to know his new family. He didn't really like Asbjörn but he was delighted to find a real shadowscale.
- Then he made it to actual town of Falkreanth.


My bosmer hunter just wandered around killing things.

Lygia joined the Dawnguard, with Marcurio in tow, sought out Dimhollow Crypt, and met Serana. Perhaps because she's a werewolf, or perhaps because of Serana's biting personality, but the two did not hit it off. Then again, she's not getting along with Marcurio and his arrogance, either. She escorted the vampire home, and refused Harkon's offer before returning to Isran. She agreed to go seek out new members for the Dawnguard to deal with the menace, but stopped in Riften to deal with a skooma problem after meeting Weejeeba, and while she was in Falkreath, dealt with a local dragon problem. She also stopped in Whiterun for a night, met Uthgerd the Unbroken (who she had somehow not met before), and decided to have a nice brawl, and made a new friend.

Back at the Fort, she was reintroduced to Serana. More biting comments were shared, and Lygia begrudgingly allowed the vampire to tag along on the search for the Moth Priest while she also hunted down a vampire for Gunmar and a design for Sorine Jurard. Since one quest took her near her home in Windhelm, she paid a visit to her husband and daughters, and even welcomed Serana into her home. After, she hunted down some bandits and killed a pesky giant, as well as found a new word wall on her journey, before rescuing the priest and returning to Fort Dawnguard.

There is a dawning respect growing for Serana over the course of the journeying, but it's begrudging at best. And she thinks the next time she sees Delphine, she might at Uthgerd and Marcurio as new Blades.

^Interesting dynamics between Lygia and Serana, I'm curious how their relationship will continue. Marilyn's first reaction to Serana was like, "Your people just killed my dog, the heck I'm going to take you home!" Little did she know...

Lygia was definitely "who are you and why are you sniping at me when I just helped you?" Shes not used to quite this level of snark, and her usually good natured self is fading as the beast within is snarling right back. Ive been meaning to force her to confront her werewolf self, and this may just be the oppprtunity.

Sounds interesting, keep us posted!

I've been playing Marilyn a bit for the first time in months. Together with Serana and her Dark Brotherhood bodyguard Styr the Hunter (from JDgenerate's awesome Dawnstar Sanctuary mod), she's travelling from Dawnstar to Markarth to meet a client there. After a little incident in Morthal (which is told on the Roleplayers Thread) they took a shortcut through Cold Rock Pass and thus descended on Rannveig's Fast, which they explored. They fell through Sild's trapdoor (or rather, Serana did and Mari had to jump after her), but the lock of his cage was no match for Mari's skill, and he died with an arrow in whatever bodypart it was.

Next day they had lunch in Rorikstead but pressed on westwards across the highlands instead of following the road (which Mari has travelled so often she knows every cobblestone on a first name basis). They spent the night at Serpent's Bluff Redoubt (after clearing it of Forsworn), then sought for a way down into the Karth Valley. At Moldering Ruins they were attacked by a Deathhound and two thralled bandits, whom they slew. They debated whether to enter the ruins - there was bound to be some treasure there - but agreed in the end to leave the vampires alone because, as Serana said, "we were once like them" [/RP]. As long as the vamps stayed underground they weren't hurting anyone, and if they grew thirsty they were welcome to snack on some Forsworn.

In the end they found a way down and found themselves just above the rear end of Karthspire Camp. The Hagraven was felled by an arrow from above, and after a short drop they dealt with the rest of the Forsworn. Sniping them as they came running from all parts of the camp was quite satisfying, and Styr and Serana saw some action too. After the fight they investigated the cave in the mountain and were excited to find some Akaviri ruins, hoping for (you guessed it) treasure. Marilyn solved the pillar puzzle by trial and error, and after that the safe way across the floor tiles wasn't hard to guess. The great hall with Reman's likeness carved in stone proved a dead end though, as none of them has dragon blood, and they returned with empty hands.

The other night I spent about an hour trying to get on the roof of the tower at Gallows Rock, to no avail. I get the feeling it was a waisted effort regardless, but find it curious that a search here found nothing about the place I didn't already know. Has anyone been up there?

My latest play session ran like this:

I loaded the savegame and found myself at the gates of Whiterun. A TG Numbers mission lay in Markarth, and the MQ was currently "Alduin's Wall". My destination lay west into the sunset.

I first came up to Fort Greymoor. At the spawn point on the bridge between it and Redoran's Retreat, a Frost Dragon took flight while a Giant waggled his club. I stood by and watched as the dragon quickly killed off the giant. I pulled the trigger for the first time the moment the giant dropped. The fight eventually carried over to Bleakwind Basin, where the dragon landed among the mammoths and giants to hash it out. A misfortunate arrow aimed at the dragon riled up the others, but I went into sneak mode and watched as the others eventually kill the dragon. I crept up the the body, claimed the soul, and skedaddled when the mammoths and giants saw me and went hostile.

Making my way west to Swindler's Den, I was buzzed by a new dragon, a Blood Dragon this time. The fight came to close when the dragon snapped at a lonely giant, then landed by me. I finished the dragon off in melee and had to run once more because the giant didn't take too kindly to another arrow I had sent their way earlier. I fled west.

At the crossroads south of Rorikstead, the named dragon I missed from an earlier stage in the Main Quest was flying around. I attracted his attention. The fight was quicker than the first two. I then went north to Rorikstead. Alduin was raising yet another named dragon there. Having slain three dragons in the previous ten minutes, I wasn't going to dally— I began attacking soon as he crawled out of the pit. He took flight already gravely wounded, landed once more and never took off again. With the fourth dragon out of the way, I ran into the hills towards Karthspire by way of Soljnir's Sinkhole. While I was still in the hills, I was attacked by a fifth dragon, an Elder this time. The fight drained a few Healing potions, to say the least, but I prevailed.

Taking Karthspire from the Forsworn, after having killed five dragons in twenty minutes, seemed almost like childs' play. I snuck in against the Hagraven first while Delphine and Esbern started a ruckus at the opposite end of the camp. I landed sneak-kills on the Hagraven and the Forsworn Ravager manning the forge so, with the camp's two most powerful denizens felled in the first minute, the rest of the camp was cleared with ease.

I haven't played that much, but then, I haven't posted about it either.

Rácamil, bosmer shamanic hunter (hmm, not sure if I've introduced him or not)
- wandered around killing things until he ran into not-so-lucky Lucky Lorenz and then he explored the Abandoned Prison.
- He made it to Windhelm, sold loot.
- Fetched Queen Freydis's sword from Cragswallow Slope. But before he made it there, he visited Kynesgrove, mined ore and found an orc stronghold.
- Rácamil found some frost salts from the necromancers which he delivered to Danica before bringing the sword to Windhelm's smith.
- Next he headed to Falkreath to see what the Jarl wanted. Some bandits killed, got it, but it has to wait.
- Rácamil returned to Eastmarch and emptied Cronvangr Cave, found Forgemaster's Fingers for the orcs.

Aloyse Navarro, imperial death knight:
- After two Cave Bears, two trolls and bone break fever later, he made it to Riften and got his hands on cure disease-potion. Spent a night in the Inn and then visited the Thieves Guild to fence some stuff.
- Then he headed out to Yngvild, to fetch four journals to Vekel. After he got those, he returned to Riften and the Guild. Vekel's reward was...well, disappointment for Aloyse. Bloody useless iron war axe with fire enchantment. He sold it to Tonalia.

That's cool, I had such a one once upon a time. Used the Gauldur Blackbow, conjuration, alteration + restoration, was last seen running around in nothing but ragged trousers, a cloak and a mask. Fun build. What are you planning to do with yours, questline-wise?

Marilyn (II), stout supporter of the Aldmeri Dominion, daughter of Dominion agents, her mother martyred by the Imperials, killed a Thalmor justiciar on the road a few days ago . She was just trying to make polite conversation when that black-robed [&@%!] suspected her of heresy out of the blue and, taking Mari's puzzled silence as proof of guilt, attacked her. That did it for Mari, she went at the justiciar yelling something like, "You idiots, I'm on your side, have been so all my life, my parents served you all their lives, but did you ever do anything for them, no, you LET THEM DIE, and now you accuse ME of being so stupid to worship a glorified human general? I'M SICK OF YOU!" and cut her to pieces. Phew.

Lygia let Uthgerd leave her service, since the group was crowded, and while she dislikes Marcurio's supposed wit, he has his uses. She tracked down Florentius Baenius, sought out a vampire masquerading as a traveler, and dealt with more dragon problems. She also explored a few more dungeons seeking out more sources of power, and found a schematic for Sorine. Since Jester's Day was approaching, and she always tries to visit home during any holidays, she headed for Windhelm. There, she presented her daughters with new wooden swords, and spent the day fooling around. Of course, tag isn't fair when she can just Whirlwind Sprint out of the way, but fun was had.

However, I have werewolf mods installed, and Lygia doesn't always have control over her transformations. Usually, though, she's out in the wilds during that particular period and isn't a danger to anyone. During a bit of play, she felt the change start to come, and felt the horror of reaching out to 'tag' her daughters and feeling the desire to rip and shred. Luckily she was able to flee Windhelm before she completed her transformation.

She recalls chasing trolls, and taking on a dragon. She fought vampires and Vigilantes of Stendarr, and came to her senses when she heard Marcurio's cry of pain from her claws. Still, he and Serana stayed by her side (as best they could, since she was kind of all over the map in her bloodlust). She limped home, because she'd left the majority of her belongings there, and collapsed into bed. This time when the change came over her, she tried locking herself in what used to be the Butcher's ritual room. Unfortunately, her howling frightened the girls, and when she heard their screams, she once again lost it and ran from the city, this time only Serana in tow. A giant was challenged, as was a bear, and this time Lygia woke in an abandoned shack alongside the river.

Serana and Lygia spoke, of life before the change, of parenthood, and of possible cures. She returned home once more to collect Marcurio, but left before her girls could see her again - or before she could see whether fear still haunted them.

- Companions to make him werewolf but I haven't actually gotten around to visit Jorvaskarr yet.



Rácamil, shamanic bosmer hunter:
- Left the cave, wandered around in the dark until he found the Riverside Shack. He dealt it's bear occupation and then well, shacked there rest of the night.
- He returned to Narzulbur with the Forgemaster's Fingers and made friends with the orcs. Then he spent some time mining in Gloombound Mine (and I spent time with battling the aging xbox).

Gíslaug the Grim, nord dark paladin:
- finished with Bleak Falls Barrow, defeated the draugr-boss. She returned to Riverwood before heading out to Whiterun.
- Helped the Companions to deal with the Giant, then reported to Jarl.

Drofn gra-Wrothgar, orc shaman:
- joined Dawnguard and got her first assignment.
- Visited Riften to get rid of the loot. She then delivered Grosta the sad news about her husband's fate.
- She attacked Faldar's Tooth. (and then I was dragged to play Minecraft).

Thoryn Battlemaiden, nord shieldmaid:
- Made it to Falkreath despite wolves, imperial patrols and scavangers. (interesting trip)
- Met the Jarl
- When to kill bandits at Embershard Mine.

My Nord spent a profitable hour or so mining Kolskeggr mine, smelting the gold ore into ingots, and stashing the resulting bullion in my house in Markarth. He spent the rest of the day in the Silver Blood inn, feeling wealthier and increasingly merry...

Gíslaug the Grim, nord dark paladin:

- Dealt with the dragon Mirmulnir...erh...at least she was there to absorb it's power.
- After reporting to Jarl, again, she headed out to Winterhold.
- Gíslaug joined the College of Winterhold and took a long route to Saarthaal (doing some mining on the way)

Zafirah of Elinhir, redguard spellblade:
- Travelled to Dawnstar, battling bandits along the way. She adopted Alesan.
- Helped Erandur to end Vaermina's threat to Dawnstar.
- Then she wandered the icy north and find some interesting places. Returned to Whiterun to sell loot and organize her inventory (and check the kids). She's heading for Frostflow Lighthouse next.


Scathach, orc sorceress:
- Was also heading to Winterhold, but she kept getting lost. Defeated Krosis. Spent a night in Nightgate Inn. Cast Fury spell on imperial Courier near Alftand ruins, instead of battling, he just ran off and she followed him. All they way to Saarthaal where she lost track of him. But there was plenty of wolves for her to practise.
-She eventually reached the town, sold stuff to Birna and entered College. After the first lesson, she spent time at the alchemy table and enchanting table, not to mention buying spells. She's out of money again.

I had already tried, and failed twice, to play as a shield-bash build. I found that it's just not viable on Legendary, since even with the Spellbreaker, a maxed out Block skill, and all the perks, it does a pitiful amount of damage. Specifically (38 / 8 ) * 15 = 71.25 for a power bash, which becomes 17.8 on Legendary. Marked for Death helped a little, as did investing in Conjuration and having a competent follower. However, it took forever to kill anything this way, didn't always stunlock enemies, and was useless when facing more than one enemy at a time. Out of all the builds I tried, I died the most with this one.

The reason it didn't work is because on higher difficulties, attempting to tank or block enemy attacks is a very stupid strategy in the early game. You're better off avoiding damage altogether, while focusing on maximizing your own damage output so that you can kill enemies before they can kill you. Until you have at least 300 HP and 433 armor (with shield) you can't expect to withstand the most powerful enemy attacks.

So I scrapped that character and started over, this time trying a new build that's geared towards survival. This one looked appealing:
http://tamrielvault.com/group/character ... -the-hydra

My new character has been working pretty well so far. Dual power attacks can give you a huge advantage, since they're more likely to stagger enemies, have a higher damage output than other configurations, and allow you to poison an enemy several times in quick succession. In keeping with the focus on Alchemy and poisons, my first priority was to acquire all 3 Hearthfire homes so that I could plant a wide variety of ingredients in the garden and greenhouse. I also picked up all 3 words of Marked for Death ASAP, and have been using Paralysis poisons and enchantments every chance I get. I have a stockpile of healing potions (too many to carry all at once) plenty of cooked food at any given time, and armor of Fortify Restoration.

The only times I died with this character were when enemies got in a cheap shot with a power attack and the game went straight to the death cam, even though the blow should not have killed me.

Zafirah of Elinhir, redguard:

- After shopping round in Whiterun, she returned to Frostflow Lighthouse and started exploring. After discovering what she was up against (read: died in cellar right away), she briefly visited Nightcaller Temple and recruited Erandur's help.
- The two of them are now battling chaurus and falmer.


Scathach, orc sorceress:
- After visiting Whistling Mine and Azura's Shrine, Scathach made it to the Saarthaal. And through the Saarthaal (summoning fire atronachs and bound sword. She tested bound battle-axe but didn't like it, she needs the other hand free for spells). Tolfdir sent her to report to Arch-Mage, which she did.

Racamil, bosmer shaman-hunter:
- Finally went to Jorvaskarr and was accepted to the ranks on Companions (after a brief test). Then Aela sent him to kill a wolf (actually at first, Farkas sent him to kill already dead bandit leader. I checked, and the quest pointer was above the dead, undressed body. Reload, try again) which he did. Now Skjor wants to see him.

Finally started building my house, several months after acquiring the land. Had a fun time collecting iron, wood, clay and stone, and the results are looking promising already. Also began planting some vegetables, and am looking forward to having my own fresh veg on site.

Zafi and Erandur are still under Frostflow Lighthouse, those chauruses are pesky to kill.


Gíslaug the Grim, nord dark paladin:
- After returning from Saarthaal she hang around the College, enchanted, got to know people, got some new spells and was being helpful (read: picked up some quests.)
- Then she headed from Winterhold to Windhelm and had lot of bad luck.. (read: she kept dying)...Had to defend Winterhold from a dragon, then there was some necromancers at Fort something (and vampire-attacks but those led to reloading). Plenty of hungry wolves and sabrecats and assassin. Eventually she arrived to Windhelm and went to Inn for a rest.

Ragna Eorlene, nord Bard
- Arrived to Skyrim and did all the begining of the game stuff (Riverwood, Whiterun, Bleak Falls Barrow, The Western Watchtower). At some point she brawled with Uthgerd Unbroken and took her with her.
- After being Thaned in Whiterun, Ragna and Uthgerd took a carriage to Solitude. First thing she did after witnessing the execution was go to join the Bards' College.
- She and Uthgerd got sent to Dead Men's Respite to fetch some old poem. On the way there, they ran into Meeko (but the dog run off before Ragna could recruit him), some bandits, necromancers and angry bear. After surviving Fort Sungard's wizards, they stopped over in Morthal and spent a night in the Inn. Then they delved into a dangerous ruin full of draugr and emerged victorious (and loaded with loot).
- Back in Solitude, Ragna Eorlene helped to present the now restored poem to Jarl Elisif. Then she went to shops and is just hanging around the town, waiting for evening.

I got all the Restoration spells. All of them; even the ones from DB and DG. It would have been easier if I had joined the Dawnguard, but no, I wanted The Ring of The Erudite, so I had to do the entire questline just to get 3 spells. Now I'm an undead-killing machine, and an undead killing-machine.

More than a year removed from the last time I entered Tamriel, I finally went back to Skyrim today. I started a new character, an Orc named Melvin (in reference to one of my old characters in the Roleplays subforum), and I plan to complete the entire main questline and play through the civil war on the Empire's side.

I played for a couple of hours today, taking it slow in my best effort to recapture the feel of playing for the first time (you can never truly regain that feeling, but I came close enough), and just finished Bleak Falls Barrow. Wrecked some bandits and Draugr with my combo of one-handed, shield, and heavy armour, and reached level 4.

...Ah, it's good to be back.