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After getting bored of my nightblade Mirisa (the whole point was for her to be a Volkihar, and after getting halfway through the quest the rest was predictable; I don't much love vampires anyway, so no real loss) I replaced her with a new character. The new character is an Altmer archer/light warrior and noble of Alinor named Aranalda. She came to Skyrim in search of glory -- respect that she has actually earned, rather than what was afforded to her in Alinor because of her birth. She is very interested in joining the Companions despite not being their target demographic. All I've done with her so far is build a small tent, get her a backpack and smith some hide armor, a steel sword and a brown cloak. She still needs a woodcutter's axe, bow and arrow, etc. but she's off to a good start.

There is a woodcutters axe on a table in Riverwood. Or there are two on a barrel and one being used by a bandit in Halted Stream Camp. (where transmute spell tome is)

Thank you! She'll just do without a fire until she passes through Riverwood.

Pretty much just explored & increased my wealth

In a fit of excitement, I finally got around to creating my character from Oblivion and Morrowind after downloading a mod that makes Dunmer look waaay nicer. I am excite! :3

Today i left Riverwood, and begin the road to Whiterun with Sven.
On the way we have killed a giant, with the Companions. They have invited me to join the Companions, but i'm a mage and i'm not interested in joining a Fighters Guild.
Then we arrived in Whiterun, and visited the Drunken Huntsman. Afther that i have listened to Heimskr, visited Dragonsrach end buyed some spells from the court-wizard, Farengar.

Ahh...FF, Skyrim is now a deeper experience thanks to you. No fast travel= more gaming time of trying to reach a certain place but having all these crazy experiences along the way. It makes being outside and reaching destinations much more meaningful, not to mention I think between all 3 of my characters only one quest has been completed for anyone


In trying out the new skooma addiction mod, I played Felina for a bit. In 2 hrs of gametime, she traveled from Windhelm to Ivarstead, stopping at night to camp once. She had one bottle of skooma when she left Windhelm, remembering that Redwater Den had some of the best stuff around. She and Serana headed south for Riften and nearly froze from the blizzard conditions.

Felina was thinking of purchasing Hjerim...but that won't be happening now. :/

The dynamic duo stopped off at the hot springs to sun bathe/relax with some random hunters near Mistwatch. They weren't so keen on a nude Felina sitting next to them, but she hung out there for a while until it was nearly nightfall. Adventurous as these bffs are, they decided to check out Darkwater Cave and found themselves battling for their lives against some tough Falmer. The experience got even lamer as they happened across Deerkethus, who attacked Felina when he accidentally stepped on one of her runes.

Felina and Serana's trip continued, stopping briefly near Ivarstead to camp for the night. Shaky and moody from withdrawal symptoms taking over, Felina had some strong ales at the inn to fend off her sickness. She doesn't remember exactly where Redwater Den is...so now she need to travel to Riften the long way around without any skooma. Maybe she will find a dealer on the road there, otherwise Serana could have a crazy on her hands.

I started a Bosmer huntress, Cirwen:



She isn't quite as pretty as Jennifere though.

That reminds me of the Bosmer character I had meant to do... I can't even remember her name anymore. It's probably written down somewhere. Somewhere.
I just don't know where.

Over the past couple of days, I've continued leveling Vulom. Spawned myself two Daedric Daggers of Damnation to level one-handed, and spawned myself a Daedric Greatsword of Damnation (there seems to be a pattern here) to level two-handed. I've got one-handed to 100, and two-handed in the 80's. Once I've got that done, I'll switch to archery. Then it's destruction. I should have lockpicking done that that point since I was thinking about going to Windhelm (plenty of master locks there) and robbing some of the houses. Might raid some houses in other towns, too.

That'll just leave me with exploration and dungeon diving. I've covered just under half of Skyrim. If I use Liivrah, it'll go a little faster. He's got a speed of around 120 compared to the 100 of regular horses. Liivrah runs circles around them.

Mauin, curious why all your characters are "be all do all"? Not dissing, just wondering why you choose to play that way because I find it interesting. And I'm still waiting for Vulom's return to the bloodsucking darkside. Muaha.

Months after Annekke's death via bandits, Felina finally made it to Darkwater Crossing to inform Verner that his wife was no longer. But Felina couldn't find him anywhere, so instead she and Serana headed to Riften. A solid night of ale and skooma taking had her making some poor choices....and she sent Serana back to Fort Dawnguard and hired her former boyfriend Marcurio instead. Even though she left him at the altar and he hates her, he still agreed to follow her. It must have been for the gold...

But she snapped to her senses and sent him back to Riften once they reached Shor's Stone. Felina was able to visit with Annekke's daughter and feels much better she was able to get her former nanny's death off her chest. She stooped off at Cragswallow Cave to grab a sword for the blacksmith in Windhelm and is currently roaming the forests of the Rift with Shadowmere. Felina misses home and can't wait to see her husband, kids, and finally get some decent rest.

Not to mention she must redo her inventory, its a confusing cluster [&@%!] of a mess.

Uh... Probably because I'm a half-mad completionist.
I only seem to have fun with level 81 characters who can, and will, do anything. I've tried others who stayed at a lower level and did fewer questlines and I usually wind up abandoning them because I get bored.

Besides, for characters like Vulom, it's the easiest way for them to remain "under cover." It helps hide who they really are from the rest of Skyrim.
Nobody needs to know that Vulom is a murdering maniac hell-bent on controlling Tamriel. Things like the Companions and the College of Winterhold help her maintain a "good" image in the public eye while simultaneously bringing her closer to being the most powerful Vampire in existence. Roleplay wise she once gave up Vampirism to try out being a Werewolf (curiosity, I guess), but she was unable to adjust to mortality, so she shed the beast blood and returned to her former undead existence.


Speaking of murdering, I forgot that Vulom murdered Angi completely out of spite. Didn't even speak to her. Just snuck right up behind the woman and ran her blade across her throat. I should add that to the NPC memorial thread before I forget again.
Of course, Vulom looted the little home Angi had. I didn't realize there was a treasure map in there... Then again, I never pay attention to them.

My character Spider, a simple Nord female assassin replaced her Hide helmet, with a rather fetching Fur Helmet. I feel like she should go digging for termites!

I became stuck in a quest with my Orc. I finished the Waking Nightmare quest out of Dawnstar, but couldn't leave the tower or save without the game freezing. I tried several times with no luck. Figured I'd just go back to a previous save, but the idea hit me to make a new character so I could have my thief again that was lost when the old x-box went skadoosh!

So I created a dark elf thief and headed straight for Riften to begin my rise in the Guild. So far, so good.

Thanks, I shall try it. I've never encountered it on probably 4 previous characters.

I still needed to make that thief, though. I like my Orc barbarian, but I'm a sneak thief at heart.

Jabberdave, that is a quest that freezes up...like you can't save at all past the point where you come back from drinking the night potion. Which is why I won't touch that quest ever again because it took me forever to get Sylmirie out of that stupid tower.




Hm, interesting. I suppose I really enjoy my characters getting their asses kicked on a regular basis...must be some secret masochism I'm not aware of. I can't have fun unless the battle is challenging.

Topic: Haven't played just yet...I'm starting to break away from my traditional habit of playing one character for several weeks, leveling her up, then moving on to the next in a strict rotation. Its been Sylmirie's turn for ages and I only played her for a week straight before getting distracted by Felina's new skooma mod. This is serious, she simply cannot battle without it in her system or else her stamina completely drains. Taking stamina potions doesn't help either. I still haven't figured out the proper level of skooma/moon sugar mix to keep her good all day. Poor girl. Some day detox will be a [&@%!] for her.

Good to know. The most recent save is right before I drink the potion. I didn't bother to not drink the potion and try to get out. I'll try the suggestion above, but if that doesn't work, I'll just go back to a save right outside of the tower and leave it. It isn't a critical quest for me.....just a bumbling Orc trying to do some good for these silly humans and their fancy religions.

Last night I leveled my Illusion to 100 and also happened to bring my Speech to 100. Just three more skills to go - Alchemy, Destruction, and Restoration.

EDIT: Illusion, not Invisibility. I used the Invisibility spell to level it.

Jabberdave: what I ended up doing was not saving at all past the point of coming back from the potion. I took me several times of the game going out before realizing it. I'm a saving freak, so I save all the time in a dungeon. I think my mage died once and I had to start back to where she took the potion but she made it through. That's the only way I figured out how to complete the quest and get her out of there.

Alarra, whoohoo! Almost there! I don't think any of my characters will ever make it to level 81. I just don't see the point personally, I enjoy playing them as individuals much more. To each their own and that is the beauty of a game like Skyrim. Btw, Alarra's new picture is lovely.

Those are straight forward to level:
Alchemy is insanely quick if you do the fortify restoration glitch - levels up based on potion value, which is fairly easy to do, since 20 potions maximum goes from level 15 to level 100.

Then you can just sell the potions to max out speech in one hit, but you've already done speech. (just sell at a loss, doesn't matter)


Restoration and destruction are fairly straight forward to level together - find a mammoth, stand somewhere where it can't hit you, cast heal other and any expert level destruction spell. 100% spell cost reduction is very useful...

The mammoth is used because they just stand there taking it and have high health...

Alchemy goes up ridiculously quickly when you combine Giant Toes, Creep Clusters, and Wheat.
Failing that, I spawn myself a bunch of Jarrin Root, Crimson Nirnroot, and Nightshade. That's pretty potent, too.

Anyway, I finished leveling Vulom's Two-Handed and Archery today. Took a fair bit of dungeon diving, but it's no problem. That means I'm getting closer to finishing my exploration as well, and I've gained a few more Words... Not that I have any Souls to unlock them with. I'm not starting the Main Quest until after I'm done the Companions, Dark Brotherhood, College of Winterhold, and Thieves Guild. That way I'll have as few interruptions as possible.
I might do Dawnguard before the Main Quest, too. At least, before visiting the Greybeards anyway. I don't want to meet the Cultists too early.


Vulom only has two more skills left to level: Destruction, and Lockpicking.
Destruction is sitting at 87 and will be finished in a few more dungeon dives.
Lockpicking? Well, that might go up by a few more levels from dungeon diving, but I think I'll be raiding some of the homes in Windhelm and looting all the shops across Skyrim. That ought to work.

After that, I finish exploration and dungeon diving, then start all the questlines.

Thanks for the mammoth tip, CBR! I ended up doing something similar to that.
So today Alarra reached level 81. My only remaining skills are Destruction (99) and Alchemy (90). I harvested a ton of giant's toes, so I'll use those to make some expensive Fortify Health potions, as well as some salmon roe I collected the other day.

After I reach 100 on the other two, I'll continue the Dragonborn main questline and defeat Miraak. Then I'll do my third Hearthfire house, and after that I'll take on the Ebony Warrior. It just seems right - I've completed everything I can, and he is the last challenge.

It's kind of bittersweet being so close to the end. I'll keep my save file of course, but playing it won't be quite the same after I'm done with everything, because there's nothing else for her to do, no more levels for her to gain or anything to save money for, no more room (or need) for her to grow. But her story does at last feel nearly complete, so I'm happy about that. After I "retire" her, I'll play Oblivion a lot more and start a second Skyrim character (and he and any other characters will be more about their personalities and doing specific questlines and such, rather than doing everything like Alarra. I'm certain I won't get to 81 with any others, at least not naturally like I did with her.)