Elder Scrolls V

Skyrim has consumed my life.

And I love it.

Has anyone visited the Lighthouse on the mountaintop south of Winterhold? Classic Elder Scrolls Non-quest Quest (both poignant and eerie--and with a nice enough reward if you follow the old man's final wishes). Those are the grace notes I love.

And, um, everybody fails to get the Horn right? I didn't--er--just wait too long or something...?

LilliCray said:

GAH. I wish I had money.

The trailers look awesome, everything I've read about the skills seem awesome (although, why'd they take out Mysticism??? That was always my favorite magic skill... ), it just seems bloody AWESOME.

...I hate being poor. I don't waaaana wait for the price to go down... TT.TT

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Right there with you on being poor.

Mysticism spells got split between Conjuration and Alteration with the lion's share going to Alteration. You won't even notice, really.

Torgo said:

Yep! Just last night - a good quest. I met a little doggie on the road outside Falkreath...

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If a bloke in a pub in Riften challenges you to a drinking contest, take him up on it.

Priene said:

If a bloke in a pub in Riften challenges you to a drinking contest, take him up on it.

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Done!

JohnnyGottaKeyboard said:

Has anyone visited the Lighthouse on the mountaintop south of Winterhold? Classic Elder Scrolls Non-quest Quest (both poignant and eerie--and with a nice enough reward if you follow the old man's final wishes). Those are the grace notes I love.

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That was pretty damn cool. My problem was with my damn huscarl. I know she's in heavy plate. That doesn't mean she can't jump down about three feet. Ah well. She kind of gets in the way sometimes anyway, especially when there's ice storms to be hurled.

I have placed my house carl in my house, and there she stays. The Thane has enough problems with avoiding getting arrested for slaying villagers that rush in to fight the dragons that he's busy getting rid of for their benefit.

I wish they'd leave that sort of work to the professionals.

I haven't journeyed with any companions that were not hoisted upon me. Even during the return the stolen books quest, when that mage offered to help me for rescuing him, I sent him on his way. I was polite about it...

I haven't had any dragon attacks while in the cities. That could be fun. I did fight a dragon, knosos and some weird daedric worshipper all at once at one point. They completely ignored one another and all focused on me. That was NOT fun.

JohnnyGottaKeyboard said:

S'funny, I got nearly half way thru Oblivion before I even thought about archery, then I found it and discovered the sneak+archery perk and never looked back.

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I never did use archery in Oblivion. I prefer to charge into battle like a maniac, swinging my mace. But I did finally pick up a bow in Skyrim and tried sneaking and shooting, and holy crap, I may have found my new favorite combat style.

I do love playing a sniper sometimes.

Want a laugh? Wander over to Kagenzel (sp?), south-southeast of Windhelm. I assume the trick only works (or, er, doesn't work) when you are NOT working on the appropriate quest. I'm a wanderer and am paying very little attention to the main quest. This place offered a unique treasure-hunter's death.

Also, I've had the game exactly a week today but according to the file info I've logged 60+ hours! How is that possible?

Easy.

Doesn't your character sleep at all?

And time passes quicker than in real life.

Either that or you are glued to your PC.

JohnnyGottaKeyboard said:

....Also, I've had the game exactly a week today but according to the file info I've logged 60+ hours! How is that possible?

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Archery + duel handed lightning is fun!

JohnnyGottaKeyboard said:

Also, I've had the game exactly a week today but according to the file info I've logged 60+ hours! How is that possible?

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Steam info? Yeah, it's so inaccurate it's useless. I was told once I had spent 20 hrs playing Football Manager 2010, which was out by an order of magnitude.

Torgo said:

Steam info? Yeah, it's so inaccurate it's useless. I was told once I had spent 20 hrs playing Football Manager 2010, which was out by an order of magnitude.

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You'd actually played 200?

Priene said:

You'd actually played 200?

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Something like that. It was 2017 and Tottenham Hotspur had just completed their seventh consecutive League, FA Cup, League Cup and European Cup quadruple.

Torgo said:

Steam info? Yeah, it's so inaccurate it's useless. I was told once I had spent 20 hrs playing Football Manager 2010, which was out by an order of magnitude.

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Sadly I was referring to the ingame clock. Whish now reads 77.4 hours. Jeez.

Had a random encounter pileup yesterday that was worth recounting.

I was headed to Labrythian and used a nearby bandit camp to fast travel to. The camp had respawned, so I appear about ten feet from a bandit. No big deal. Got my ironflesh up, set him on fire, and all was well. Or so I thought.

I take about half my health in a hit from behind as someone yells 'Finally a real challenge!' I whip around to see a 'Boetith Cultist' (I think) wearing nothing but a loincloth wielding a glass warhammer. Must have spent his wardrobe budget on the hammer. Anyway, fireball, fireball, and he's only lost an eighth of his health. Tough guy. If ironflesh hadn't been up (and amped up on mage armor perks) he'd have probably offed me in the first hit.

I begin the kite-n'-fight and notice a pair of mammoths moving in. I'm like 'How the hell did I piss those off??' Answer: I didn't. They were after the guy. Along with their giant shepherd. Oh. Good. Because they'll totally leave me alone after they squish the cultist, right? Yeah, I wasn't buying it either.

So I'm training a cultist, two mammoths, and a giant across Whiterun plain when a roar shakes the ground from above. A Picard-style facepalm was in order as I say 'Not another one of these fucking things.' A blood dragon swoops down for a strafing run, starting with me and hitting everything following.

So I went with the flow. If it was gonna be chaos, let it be chaos. Refresh ironflesh, fury a mammoth, fire wall in front of me, and then it's fireballs for everyone!

I'm not entirely sure how the next two minutes unfolded, but it was fireballs, charging mammoths, strafing dragons, and golf-playing giants. One clear moment was the cultist getting sent orbital. Friggin' hilarious. For those that don't know what that is, go piss off a giant and let it hit you. Save the game first. ;-)

Discovered that if you don't get the killing blow (or are too far away) you can't absorb a dragon soul. Pity, but no big. And as I was striking the killing blow on the last mammoth, I saw the cultist drop to earth far, far away. Tracking down the body was a pain, but totally worth it as he had a quest book on him and the warhammer. I have no idea where the actual warhammer ended up, but thankfully looting a corpse lets you loot the attached weapon, no matter where it might be.

I'd also trained everyone almost all the way back to Whiterun. That'll teach me to use fast-travel.

Character builder:

http://www.ign.com/builds/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim

efkelley said:

I whip around to see a 'Boetith Cultist' (I think) wearing nothing but a loincloth wielding a glass warhammer.

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That's the same guy that jumped into my fight with the dragon and Krosis. I thought that was a painting he was carrying! I didn't realize it was a book!

So has anyone managed to kill Grelod quietly? Even if I backstab her, she wails like a banshee and brings the entire orphange running.
One of the kids said something about how they go out at noon when she takes her nap, but i arrived at 11:30 and hid in the corner til about 2 and they all stood around like empty puppets. (It was funny listening to Grelod harrangue poor Constance, however--they actually recorded quite a bit of dialogue there that I imagine most players will never hear.)

JohnnyGottaKeyboard said:

So has anyone managed to kill Grelod quietly? Even if I backstab her, she wails like a banshee and brings the entire orphange running.
One of the kids said something about how they go out at noon when she takes her nap, but i arrived at 11:30 and hid in the corner til about 2 and they all stood around like empty puppets. (It was funny listening to Grelod harrangue poor Constance, however--they actually recorded quite a bit of dialogue there that I imagine most players will never hear.)

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Nope. I reloaded my game three times during that quest, and each and every time Constance started running around yelling the moment Grelod was dead. I never got a bounty, however. I don't think you can kill Grelod without Constance noticing.

Arianna Sterling said:

Really? I shot her in the back--with all of the kids standing right there, mind, though none of them detected me--and no one reacted. Heck, Constance was just over in the other room (the entrance hall) and she didn't react either.

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I've tried everything (shooting with a fire bow and poison arrow, powerstriking her while she's asleep, backstabbing) and was never detected myself. But no matter what, Grelod screams and Constance goes berserk. But I did also notice that there was no bounty.