ELDER SCROLLS OMNIBUS THREAD

[J.T.]

God, I forgot that your first Thieves' Guild assignment is extortion of local merchants.  I had to go retrieve three flawless amethysts from my private stash in Whiterun and give them to Talen-Jai to set in the wedding ring he's having made for Keerava so I wouldn't feel totally scummy.

[Ramo2653]

13 hours ago, J.T. said:

It is hard not to choose the Forsworn if your thinking is strictly meta.  The set or Light Armor you receive as a reward for backing Madanach is pretty awesome and the Silver-blood ring that Thonar gives you for assassinating Madanach and breaking out of the Cidna Mines prison is a piece of junk.

Or you can be extra greedy and kill Madanach before he exits so you get the gear and then the ring from Thonar (which the real reward is that you can disenchant it for the fortify smithing enchantment so you make make some dope gear later).

12 hours ago, J.T. said:

The thing that made me decide to go back and get the third word for Unrelenting Force was the fight at Nepos the Nose's house. I used my two word shout during the ambush and blew everything off of his dining room table as I pushed the enemies back. 

That was fun. 

Then I started to wonder if I could wreck his entire house with one shout if I had all three words.

There's a perk in the Dragonborn DLC that allows the Unrelenting Force shout to turn enemies into ash if they're at low health. Pretty cool.

7 hours ago, J.T. said:

As soon as I finish helping Delphine kill this fucking dragon, I need to do as much of the Thieves Guild questline as I can until I have access to a fence.  There is a shit ton of decent junk I have stuffed in a cupboard in Breezehome that i cannot sell to normal vendors because it is all stolen.

I would install the mod that makes Khajiit merchants act as fences without having to do the Thieves Guild quests, but then I wouldn't be able to earn achievements.

Tonilia is available right away and the more fence quests you do, the higher all of their gold totals are. 

And don't sleep on that merchant perk in the Speech skill tree, allows you to sell anything (not stolen) to any vendor. 

[Eivion]

@J.T.I'm surprised you didn't wait to kill that first dragon. Could have avoided many a random dragon attacks.

[J.T.]

11 hours ago, Eivion said:

@J.T.I'm surprised you didn't wait to kill that first dragon. Could have avoided many a random dragon attacks.

I only did it because I need more souls to unlock my advanced shouts and I didn't want Delphine waiting out in the woods for me for like fifty game hours while I handled business in Riften.

I have Become Ethereal now and I will go get Kyne's Peace very soon.  If random dragon attacks go down near a village or a camp, it won't really bother me if a couple of guards go down so long as they help me kill the dragon.   If a guard dies, I'll just say a prayer and sell his weapons to a vendor after I improve them and upgrade my Smithing skill.  When I hit 60, I can unlock Arcane Smithing so that I can improve magical gear like the Nightingale Armor and the Bow of Shadows.

I save pretty often so if a civilian dies, I'll just revert to my latest save and try again for a no innocents perish run.

If shit goes down too often out in the wild, I'll have to consider taking Uthgerd with me as a traveling companion.  Lydia's job is to stay at Breezehome and keep an eye on Lucia.

Most of the random dragons flying about have ignored me for the most part.  When I hear a roar, I just equip the Bow of Shadows and BOOM~!  30 seconds of free invisibility.  It is actually pretty annoying when dragons just circle overhead and don't attack when I am near a watchtower full of friendly guards or a giant camp where a mammoth or two can help me kill it.  Then I can bow snipe the injured mammoths and sell the tusks and roast the snouts for dinner after they are dead.

A dragon actually helped me clear the Silent Moons camp of bandits which made completing the Bow of Shadows quest a lot easier.

Well, I'm a member of the Thieves' Guild.  I am glad that there's nothing stupid in the game where people react to me harshly if I wear the armor in public.  I've got that stupid Grey Fox hood quest in my queue and I know that the hood probably works the same way as the one in Oblivion where guards are automatically hostile to you if you have the hood on.  I will complete the quest and only wear the hood in dungeons since an always on Detect Life spell is a good thing.

Edited February 15, 2022 by J.T.

[J.T.]

10 hours ago, Ramo2653 said:

ol.Tonilia is available right away and the more fence quests you do, the higher all of their gold totals are. 

And don't sleep on that merchant perk in the Speech skill tree, allows you to sell anything (not stolen) to any vendor. 

Tonilla is a bit of an asshole when you first meet her, but I am sure she will come around once I am in charge.

[J.T.]

Oh, and the update also put the quest for Dawnfang / Duskfang in the game. It is called A Soul Divided and takes place in the Riften Ratway.  

I tried to do the quest cold and got my ass kicked.

I need to brew a lot more health potions and resist fire potions if I am going to survive the beating you take in that quest.  An Undead Bane scroll or two is also a good idea.

Skyrim:A Soul Divided - The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP)

There is no way I am going to do that Alchemy fetchit for Igun Black-Briar.  She wants 20 Nirnroots in addition to a bunch of other shit.  Nirnroot is an ingredient in Invisibility potions and it doesn't grow back once it's picked.  That Nirnroot is better used keeping me out of sight.

Edited February 16, 2022 by J.T.

[J.T.]

I've finished the first two major jobs for the Thieves' Guild.  I was happy with how I did during the Goldenglow Estates heist.  Aside from some Skeevers in the sewers, I didn't draw my weapon once.  Burned down the three beehives, pickpocketed the owner's keys, and cleaned out the safe all without being detected.  I did the job at night so Khajiit darkvision came in real handy.  I almost fucked up and forgot to switch from Shouts to Powers.  I was upset that I forgot to bring a torch to burn down the beehives, but then I remembered that one of your starter magics is a fire spell.  Whew.

The Honeybrew Meadery job I pulled for Maven Black-Briar was a different story.  Venomfang Skeevers, Frostbite Spiders, and some insane Imperial mage exiled from the Circle hiding out underneath the building in the catacombs like some psycho hermit.  He went down fairly easy after I hit him with weapons coated with generous applications of Magicka Damage poison and Frostbite Venom.  It was awesome to watch the douchebag owner of Honeybrew Meadery get taken down.  What a snooty bastard.

Before leaving for Solitude on the next job, I handled some horse theft caper for Maven's son, Sibbi Black-Briar (who is serving a mere eight months for murder in the Mistwall Keep dungeon) and then he sent me to hunt down his adulterous fiancée.  Imagine my horror when Sibbi's runaway bride, Svidi, turned out to be Lynly Star-Sung. the awesome lute playing Nord homegirl at the inn in Ivarstead.  I believed her story that Sibbi killed her brother out of spite and that Sibbi was the adulterous one in the relationship.  When I got back to Riften, I told Sibbi that Svidi was last seen heading to Morrowind. 

I didn't mind lying to Sibbi since he is a real prick, but I told Maven the truth about her son's involvement in the horse theft and that his "business partner" contracted me for the job.  Maven may be a ruthless bitch that deserves bad things to happen to her, but she's joined at the hip with the Thieves' Guild and I am just a lowly cutpurse for the time being.  Best not to incur her wrath.

Tonilla was able to launder a mammoth tusk I stole from Black-Briar stables during the horse theft job.  Once I locate another Flawless Sapphire, I can complete the fetchit for the Argoninan jeweler at the Riften market.

The Nord Pawnbroker definitely remembers me from the Thieves' Guild shakedown quest.  I caught a five septim fine after entering his shop thinking I could sell off some excess gear.  I paid the fine to avoid complications with the guards.   Lesson learned.   I will return at night when he is asleep, rob him blind, and sell his crap to Tonilla.

Edited February 16, 2022 by J.T.

[Contentious C]

What is all this talk about invisibility potions?

Magic is free. No, really. Exploit the Fortify Restoration glitch to make +300% Fortify Enchant potions. Max Enchanting and take all the perks at the bottom as well as Twin Souls or whatever 100 is. Since all those perks make magic enchants 25% cheaper, the potions give you +100% cheaper when you craft.

One can go on your helmet (I usually do Alteration since it's not good anyway), then the other 4 split between ring and necklace. 

The only potions I ever make are Creep Cluster/Mora Tapinella/Scaly Pholiota since they're the highest sellers. CC is just a bitch to pick, though, since the hit box is wonky. 

[J.T.]

Oh, and in order to get Lynly to tell me the truth about her identity, I had to threaten to hit her since I failed my Persuade check and had to make an Intimidate check in order to get a response.

Not my proudest moment as an RPG player.  I felt so bad I bought Lucia a new dress rather than steal one.

Keep it classy, Bethesda.

Speaking of class, I stole a copy of The Lusty Argonian Maid, V2 from the Black-Briar stables during the horse theft.  I hid it in the end table in my bedroom at Breezehome.  No way was that going on the bookshelf.  Hopefully Lucia does not rifle through my stuff like every other child in the world does when their parent is not at home.  And Lydia had also better keep her hands off of my adult reading materiel.

As far as Books go, I need to find a copy of Warrior to finish Reven's saga that starts with the books, Beggar and Thief.  Chance's Folly is a book whose story still freaks me out to this very day.  Lucia will be able to keep up with her studies since I have a full set of A Brief History of the Empire.

Edited February 16, 2022 by J.T.

[J.T.]

9 hours ago, Contentious C said:

What is all this talk about invisibility potions?

Magic is free. No, really. Exploit the Fortify Restoration glitch to make +300% Fortify Enchant potions. Max Enchanting and take all the perks at the bottom as well as Twin Souls or whatever 100 is. Since all those perks make magic enchants 25% cheaper, the potions give you +100% cheaper when you craft.

I'm not really a glitch exploitation guy.  It's bad enough that I look up stuff on the internet to cheat.

Edited February 16, 2022 by J.T.

[Contentious C]

I happen to know you're a Morrowind fan, so any time the game glitched its way to working correctly for more than an hour without crashing and losing your progress, you were exploiting a glitch.  C'mon.

[J.T.]

35 minutes ago, Contentious C said:

I happen to know you're a Morrowind fan, so any time the game glitched its way to working correctly for more than an hour without crashing and losing your progress, you were exploiting a glitch.  C'mon.

I would laugh if that weren't true.  Saving often saved me a lot of grief during the Threads of the Webspinner mega quest.  Mephala's Skill was too good of a spell to pass on despite daring your system to crash to desktop while traveling the far reaches of the continent.

Edited February 16, 2022 by J.T.

[Contentious C]

Ah yes, the greatest item in the history of the Elder Scrolls and perhaps all of Bethesda games: The Glove of Sanguine Horny Fist.

[Eivion]

I used the fortify glitch for weapons/armor. Auriel's Bow is a frightening thing that seems to have no actual limit on upgrading. I was going to use the hell out of the Bow of Shadows only for it to be weaker than Auriel's because that shit won't stop being upgradable.

[J.T.]

Haven't done much of anything the last couple of days.  Mostly crafting to get Alchemy and Smithing up to 30.  Going full bore into Thieves' Guild quests and Riften chicanery is getting my stealth skills sharp, but my crafting fell behind.

The HQ of the brigands that stole Kharjo's moon amulet is in the middle of fucking nowhere, but I have to do a solid by my fellow Khajiit.

Edited February 18, 2022 by J.T.

[Ramo2653]

If you combine Garlic, Nordic Barnacle and Salmon Roe (gotta kill the salmon in the water to get the roe) you get a potion that will level up your alchemy super quick.

[Contentious C]

Yeah, but the roe can't be bought from vendors or all that reliably harvested (the fish hatchery in your Morthal-area house is kind of a scam).  The potion I mentioned is the highest-value one that can be legit farmed at will.  Lots of trips to see Enthir at Winterhold to sell the fuckers at a massive loss, only to watch my Speech level back to 50 and then clean out every other vendor in the nation.  Speech is usually my 3rd- or 4th-most Legendary'd skill, after Alchemy, Enchanting, and sometimes Sneak.

So J.T., are you only playing like a little at a time?  This seems like slow progress to me, but I'm also a total addict who loses track of time while playing Skyrim and suddenly it's 10 hours later and I was supposed to go in to work.  As you can guess from my Movie & Fitness posts, I have not played Skyrim in literally months.

[J.T.]

5 hours ago, Contentious C said:

So J.T., are you only playing like a little at a time?  This seems like slow progress to me, but I'm also a total addict who loses track of time while playing Skyrim and suddenly it's 10 hours later and I was supposed to go in to work.  As you can guess from my Movie & Fitness posts, I have not played Skyrim in literally months.

I am not trying to destroy my life by playing six hour blocks every day and it seems like slow progress because I do tons of stuff on the side and it takes me forever to get through the main quests of any RPG.

As for what I have done recently, I followed the guide and completed the Dawnfang / Duskfang quest and it segued into the quest for another sword.  There were lots of interesting bits of lore in that quest.  I trivialized some of the boss fight by using Guardian Circle scrolls to scare away the Skeletons until I had bow sniped them all and then I went in for my duel with the Guardian and killed him.  The ending of the quest was bittersweet.  

Now that the Ratway is truly clear, I can get on with more thievery.

[J.T.]

Hey, now I have a trained Skeever thanks to Pets of Skyrim.  Found him in the Ratway after I came back from my Dawnfang / Dustfang save in the Guardian Chamber.

I do not trust this ugly little bastard in Breezehome around my adopted daughter and my pet rabbit, so I suppose he's coming with me for the time being.  Fitted him with a collar and an animal pack so that he can carry some of my shit.

If it gets to the point where I can't sneak around because he's getting noticed, I'll park him in the Cistern of the Ragged Flagon until I buy a new house.

Edited February 19, 2022 by J.T.

[J.T.]

God, this game works you up over nothing.  I went to pick up some ore sample at Shor's Stone for the Alchemist's wife in Riften and then the local blacksmith started raving on about spiders infesting Redbelly Mine.  I brewed up like seven Resist Poison potions expecting fucking Shelob or something and there are only normal Frostbite Spiders in the mine.  Not even a giant one like the critter that nearly ate me in Ustengrav.  At least RNG was kind and I got three Flawless Amethysts from the Ebony mineral veins plus 1000 coins for my work.

And now I appear to be on my Riften goodwill tour repaying some of the people I wronged by doing their personal quests.  I gave Talen-Jei the three Flawless Amethysts from Redbelly Mine so that he can propose to Keerava  and then I visited Brand-Shei in the Riften hoosegow and got the quest to look for a wrecked ship that has some record of his ancestry.  Dude is a Dunmer raised by Argonians.  I am taking care of an orphan myself, so I may put Brand-Shei's side gig closer to the front burner.  It will not get him out of prison, but maybe I can make things a little better for him after the frame job I put on his ass.

Skritch, my trained Skeever, is a walking barrel.  He carries so much of my stuff it's not funny. Plus he occasionally steals food for me.  I am beginning to like this dumb Pets of Skyrim content

My Miscellaneous queue is exploding now, so I will deliver this satchel of mail to the female miner's father in Darkwater Crossing and then investigate Falder's Tooth.  The Jarl of Riften is ready to make me Thane, but I need a few more gold to afford the house.  I keep giving my adopted daughter tons of gold when she asks for her allowance.   At least she does her chores with no backtalk after I give her the money.

 

Edited February 20, 2022 by J.T.

[J.T.]

22 hours ago, Ramo2653 said:

If you combine Garlic, Nordic Barnacle and Salmon Roe (gotta kill the salmon in the water to get the roe) you get a potion that will level up your alchemy super quick.

Sweet!  I actually have a couple of Waterbreathing potions handy for harvesting Nordic Barnacles.  I hate it that you cannot defend yourself while you are swimming.  You attract a lot of attention from Slaughterfish when you are diving near any sunken Nord ships in search of Nordic Barnacles.

[Ramo2653]

11 hours ago, Contentious C said:

Yeah, but the roe can't be bought from vendors or all that reliably harvested (the fish hatchery in your Morthal-area house is kind of a scam).  The potion I mentioned is the highest-value one that can be legit farmed at will.  Lots of trips to see Enthir at Winterhold to sell the fuckers at a massive loss, only to watch my Speech level back to 50 and then clean out every other vendor in the nation.  Speech is usually my 3rd- or 4th-most Legendary'd skill, after Alchemy, Enchanting, and sometimes Sneak.

So J.T., are you only playing like a little at a time?  This seems like slow progress to me, but I'm also a total addict who loses track of time while playing Skyrim and suddenly it's 10 hours later and I was supposed to go in to work.  As you can guess from my Movie & Fitness posts, I have not played Skyrim in literally months.

Not saying it'd be your number one potion but it levels up alchemy so fast it's worth farming the ingredients. You can use the flames spell at waterfalls where they jump or Unrelenting Force or the Animal Allegiance shouts which ends up being like using dynamite to fish.

[Contentious C]

I always treated shouts like Animal Allegiance - really, every found-in-game shout but Aura Whisper and Become Ethereal - like, "aw, shit, this was a crappy word wall, I will keep my dragon souls, thanks."  I didn't know that one did a single thing worth doing.

[J.T.]

Holy shit.  It took FOREVER to clear the Faldar's Tooth bandit fortress, but I am now one more step closer to claiming the sword, Bloodthirst.  I don't really need the sword as I am dual wielding a Superior quality Blade's sword (a katana) and a Superior quality Elven dagger and my Sneak Attack crit perks are through the roof.  I tend not to use most magical weapons because I don't want to lug around a million Soul Gems to keep the weapons charged.

I scraped together enough money to buy the house in Riften and Skritch can mind the place while I am gone.  I will get an Enchantment Table and an Alchemist Lab for the Riften Crib.  Lucia will remain in Whiterun along with Lydia and Thistle.  Lucia brought home a bunny that I allowed her to keep, so now I have two rabbits in my house.

I will press on with the next Thieves' Guild quest, Scoundrel's Folly, tomorrow if I don't go to a matinee of Uncharted.

Edited February 20, 2022 by J.T.

[J.T.]

So far, the only thing I hate about this game is the way the new Creators Club quests are introduced.  Couriers just magically finding and passing missives onto me that are stuck in my inventory until I complete the quest is kinda lazy.  It was better when I just discovered this stuff on my own. 

If you want to give me hints about new quest content, toss me a marker in Miscellaneous until I go talk to the targeted quest giver.  Don't jam up my main quest queue with a bunch of crazy shit.

Edited February 20, 2022 by J.T.