DiD competition Round XII- Dawnguard : V - Skyrim

» Wed May 11, 2016 6:58 pm

Sah's video unwatchable here too. Content by SME which blocked it in my country on copyright grounds.

» Wed May 11, 2016 4:09 pm

Lolly Gaggin is alive and well, at level 9, and just over 9 hours of play. She has just received a letter from the Jarl of Falkreath, and is on her way from Winterhold (having bought Destruction training there) to see what he might need. I expect that she will probably meet a certain "orc recruiter" on the way.

» Wed May 11, 2016 9:58 pm

This is looking to be the biggest competition we have has in a long time! I'm so happy Grits is here and I love the letter. A Vigilant playthrough is perfect for this round. A big welcome to all the new players, as well. I'm very happy you guys are jumping in!

Ignatius is knocking on Level 16. He has just sent Faendal home and has taken Lydia into his service. Here is what he had been up to.

Spoiler

Ignatius has been very busy since my last update. He was asked by the Windhelm smith to recover Queen Freydis' sword from a troll infested cave. It was on the way to Whiterun, so Ignatius and Faendal thought it would be good to grab the sword and then finish some jobs for the citizens of Whiterun.

Arriving at the cave, it was littered with fresh blood and piles of human remains. The first two trolls went down with some effort, but things went downhill fast.

Faendal had decided it was a good idea to use a 2 handed frost hammer against the trolls. This was not ideal. Iggy's shield was not nearly effective enough so he was rapidly depleting his supply of health potions. His meager restoration skills couldn't heal him fast enough. He had to run out of the cave and talk strategy with Faendal. He took away the elf's hammer of frost leaving him with a fire based hammer. This was much more effective. At the end, the sword was recovered and Skyrim had fewer trolls to worry about. Iggy was out of health potions, however.

The next task was to retrieve another sword. This time for Amren, in Halted Stream Camp. While Iggy did not know what awaited him inside, I did. I have lost multiple characters in HSC, including my first competition character who fell into the spike pit. Iade sure Iggy visited Arcadia, Belethor and (luckily) the Khajit caravan to buy up all the health potions for sale in Whiterun. Then it was off to HSC.

The bandits outside went down very quickly. So did the first one inside, as well. Iggy took the bow off a bandit from outside and triggered a clay pot fire trap on the bandits remaining. It did a little damage but not enough.

The mage came up first throwing frostbite at him. Iggy laughed (Atronach stone) and cut her down immediately. She was followed by two orcs swinging one handed weapons. The chief's greatsword was enchanted with fire. Good news: Iggy has necklace of fire resistance (15%). Bad news: it was in his pack.

Iggy hit the lower level bandit with a fear spell leaving just the chief. It was a tough fight and cost Iggy half his stock of health potions, but he prevailed. Together, he and Faendal finished of the last bandit. He recovered Amren's sword and left an very interesting spell book untouched.

Next stop: Silent Moons Camp for a bounty. More of the same: wimpy bandits and a nasty two handed chief. Iggy is now out of health potions again, but has finished up many jobs. After returning to Whiterun, Faendal decided he had been away from home long enough, so He and Iggy parted ways.

At some point during all of this, Iggy was attacked by multiple thieves, an assassin, roadside vampires and Whiterun was also attacked by vampires. Iggy feels that he really ought to look into these attacks, but is not quite ready. Perhaps after he visits the Greybeards.

I'm having to reacquaint myself with the vanilla block mechanics, or lack thereof. I've used so many combat mods that change the mechanics that just holding up the shield and having them beat on me is strange. The mods I typically play with use timed blocking, which if done correctly mitigates a lot more damage and will stagger opponents. I'll be dumping more perks into shield wall shortly. Destruction is still unperked and dangerously low. I'm hoping to avoid dragon attacks for the time being and any unexpected incidences will require running away!

» Wed May 11, 2016 9:09 pm

Gabriel update:

level 10 and 4 hours 58 in

Gabriel has cleaned out both Dawnstar mines, then returned to Fort Dunstad to kill off the remaining bandits and continuing on to windhelm to sell off the loot, craft some arrows and pay for some destruction training from Wuunferth. Immediately after, he took a carriage to Riften and made a start on the "Book of Love" quests. En route to Ivarstead Gabriel diverted via Angarvunde and cleared through the entire ruin with little difficulty. He progressed through the quest (also assisting and murdering a vigilant in markarth along the way) and saved time on return trips to the local carriage by getting a lift from the local guards in exchange for a knuckle sandwich.

He is now standing outside of the Temple of Mara with 77% resist magic (breton/lord stone/agent of mara/12% resist magic ring) and debating whether he should investigate this "Dawnguard" the Riften guards have mentioned.

» Wed May 11, 2016 6:43 am

Tal, Breton, Male, Level 25, Game Time Elapsed 010.25.49

Difficulty: Legendary

Skillz

Spoiler

Illusion 100 fully perked

Destruction 25 Novice and Apprentice perks

Restoration 20 Novice and Regeneration perks

Smithing 78, Steel, Dwarven, Orcish, Arcane perks

Heavy Armor 20 1/5 Juggernaut

Block 30 Shield Wall 1/5

One-handed 33 1/5 Armsman

Lockpick 18 no perks

Speechcraft 37 no perks

All other perks at their base level no perks.

What have you been up to?

Spoiler

Ralof and I arrived at Riverwood. His sister, Gerdur, was surprised to

see him. Both Gerdur and her husband Hod had a hard time believing the

dragon story, but in the end they were convinced. So much so that

Gerdur asked me to inform the Jarl of Whiterun and see if he would

send some troops.

I assisted Faendal, who was working at the mill when I arrived, with a

small matter regarding the obnoxious bard (should've been pummeled for

talking to his mother that way) and a one Camilla Valerius at the

local trade shoppe.

I decided to head to Whiterun while there was still daylight. The

journey was quick as I ran past a couple wolves, mudcrabs, a group of

Imperials escorting a Stormcloak prisoner and a Giant of all things

being taken down by three warriors. I stopped for none of it and

arrived safely at the gate only to be accosted by the guard. He let me

in when I told him I had news of the Dragon attack. Apparently

everyone was already talking about it.

The Jarl was most interested in my news, but then began arguing with

his Steward about his concern regarding provoking another Jarl. I

slipped away and paid a visit to the court Wizard. I had just enough

gold to purchase a new spell, Courage, from him and agreed to run an

errand.

The week to come was full training. Faentor, my mentor, had always

taught me to combine physical activity with any mental/magical study.

And so I decided my best option was to cast my new spell at the

vendors near the Inn in Whiterun and chop wood. Chop, cast, chop,

cast, on and on I went. Eventually the spell casting got easier and I

didn't really learn much from it, so I paid ol' Farenfluff a visit and

purchased a more difficult spell called Muffle.

I wasn't much good at sneaking and I thought that the muffle spell

would be a good way to keep the noise down from my heavy armor (still

wearing that captain's gear, going to have to sell it, except the helm

I'll keep that as a reminder of how satisfying it was when I was

bashing her on the head with Gunjar's axe!).

I spent some time outside the walls, mainly playing with mudcrabs and

finding ore veins around the city that I could mine. Even found a

locked box or two that didn't prove too difficult to open. Not much

loot in either. A few septims in one and the other also had a plain

iron dagger, meh!

With money from chopping wood, ore that I'd mined and ore that I

bought I began training up my smithing skill. Adrianne showed me the

ropes at the forge and from there I began to learn. I would forge one

day and hunt ore the next, often having to defend myself against the

wilds. The wilds, necromancers, bandits, sabre cats; avoided the cats

if I could and if not, I hit them with a calm spell and then ran like

Oblivion!

I have learned that there are vampires brazenly attacking towns from

one of the local guards. Now my training progress has slowed

considerably. I remain indoors until the sun is fully up and I have to

return to the city if at all possible well before the sun goes down!

Soon, however, I will need to begin venturing out when I have a chance

of surviving such creatures and see if I can't figure out what is

driving them to attack. They are, after all, interfering with my goal

to track down and exact vengenance on the Thalmor that murdered my

parents...

» Wed May 11, 2016 3:15 pm

Bram, got your character up on the board....

Please y'all let me know if I miss something...

» Wed May 11, 2016 12:00 pm

Aerial, you be workin' overtime! Bram was already on the board in BRIGHT GREEN So if you were checkin' from your phone you probably missed him in your list! :teehee:

» Wed May 11, 2016 3:28 pm

AH...crude... Ummm well... put it down to working waaaaaaay to much... I'll get it fixed.

Tyler update... he's been sitting in Whiterun waiting .... soon to head to BFB... lvl 2 2.5 hr's played

» Wed May 11, 2016 10:06 pm

Little late to the discussion but I like the re-roll before lvl 10 idea. I almost needed that myself a few times ready lol.

» Wed May 11, 2016 12:17 pm

LEVEL 13 (10 hours of 100)

No penalties recived

No Quests Completed except Unbound

Mace 30pts Damage

Steel Armor Set 141 pts

Cash: 3680 (who wants to go shopping?)

hello every one

all points where made from Riverwood / Whiterun & surrounding suburbs..........this one just arrived in Riften where she will grab Marchisio as her follower & slave, sorry meant to say carry mule ...............giggles

will be heading off to join the Dawnguard today ........

Wont be engaging in any Dawnguard Quests until at least level +40, this one is executing her Battle Plan to the letter adapting it it to include Illusion combat techniques, so far no major dangers except the first vampire attack in Whiterun at level 8, the guards took care of him, so that just leaves the three "we are hear to teach you a lesson" thugs guys..........wonders if the can teach this one how to do some knitting or sowing ?

Spoiler

Smithing 37

H Armor 19

Block 26

2 x Hand 25

1 x Hand 40

Archery 15

L Armor 20

Sneak 15

Lockpicking 29

Pickpocket 15

Speech 36

Alchemy 15

Illusion 42

Conger 15

Destruction 15

Restoration 20

Alteration 15

Enchanting 15

the skill most missed is the archery / sneaking combination ............can this one Buy a Alteration Sill Tree? ...........Areial how much for you to look the other way? ........giggles ....would exchange 3 Skill trees Destruction /Restoration/ Illusion for Alteration Sill Tree .......ahhh it was worth a try

PS sorry about the video, will make a new one tonight I did not realize I used the Live music version of the song .........again sorry

am running at 60fps ...........the only frame rate drop (-5) is around Riverwood and in citys (JK's mod)..............the card has at no point gone above 55% utilization and drops to around 45-50% everywhere else

» Wed May 11, 2016 7:11 pm

Lolly is at 11 hours, 9 minutes. Level 10.

Skill stats:

Spoiler

Smithing 25

Block 19

1-Hand 28

Light Armor 22

Illusion 29

Destruction 41

Restoration 23

No penalties

Dungeons Cleared (in no particular order):

Spoiler

Saarthal

Embershard

Stony Creek Cave (Queen Freydis' Sword)

Forsaken Cave (White Phial)

Valtheim Towers (Amren's Sword)

Halted Stream (Bounty)

Moss Mother (just happens to be on the way to...)

Sunderstone Gorge (Runil's Journal)

No DG quests finished (Aetherium Forge started)

» Wed May 11, 2016 10:22 am

Must be nice Sah lol.

My card maxes a lot, and I'll drop to 30fps while trying to record. I'm sad.

» Wed May 11, 2016 3:49 pm

RIP Ignatius

Level 19, killed in Avunchenzel by Lydia. That's right, Lydia. Zero points earned, zero penalties incurred.

Spoiler

Iggy went to Riften to seek the favor of Mara. While there he met a distraught Argonian who gave him a "lexicon" and needed it returned to Avunchenzel. It was on the way to Ivarsted so no problem!

Inside were many nasty dwemer constructs, but Iggy and Lydia handled them, gaining many levels in block, heavy armor and one handed while doing so. Deep into the city, they came upon a vicious spinning blade trap. Lydia could not manage to safely navigate the trap so Iggy advised her to stay put while he scouted ahead.

After disarming the trap Iggy moved ahead and came upon a massive dwemer construct. Iggy hit it with Marked For Death (one word) and ran back toward Lydia. Haha! Iggy planned to get up the ramp and use the trap on the construct! As Iggy ran up the ramp, Lydiot charged down and activated the trap. Iggy was killed instantly.

This is by far the worst death I've had in DiD. I am considering continuing to play Ignatius to get the third word of unrelenting force just to shout Lydia off the throat of the world and then deleting him. I'm not sure if I'll play a reroll this round. Expert is not particularly challenging, but probably once the bitterness subsides, I'll jump back in. We'll see.

» Wed May 11, 2016 11:33 am

The Dread Zombie Brand - update

5/21 4:20pm 16 hours 20 minutes (Previous time 11 hours 30 minutes) total time 27 hours 50minutes

Spoiler

Vampires killed................................three

Dungeons cleared:..............................ten

Embershard Mine

Bleak Falls Barrow

White River Watch

Autumnwatch Tower

Forsaken Cave

Silent Moons

Ustengrav

Weynon Stones

South Skybound Watch

Skybound Altar

---Heartfire, 4th, 4E 201---

Skills:

Illusion.................... 44

Destruction..............34

Restoration...............32

Smithing..................27

Hvy Armor...............27

Block........................43

1 hand.......................54

Lt Armor...................16

lockpicking...............23

Speech.......................32

It's a bit interesting. I'm finding playing on unmodded Master to be deceptively easy. That is everything seems easy... until all of a sudden it's not. I get lulled into a false sense of security, and then I'm surprised when opponents turn tough.

Sorry to hear it, Rafer. Lydia is good at getting characters killed, and she practices it at every opportunity. She's killed at least a couple of mine by setting off traps or pushing me off cliffs.

» Wed May 11, 2016 9:34 pm

Sorry to hear it Rafer, another one of my essential mods to simulate followers having even a single brain cell is follower trap safety....for my safety, not theirs....

Hopefully we'll see you on a re-roll

Edit: playing almost vanilla makes me miss many of my mods....convenient horses, etc....

» Wed May 11, 2016 11:03 am

Adella is with me, but we are at a showground 150 miles from home, watching banger racing (like a demolition derby). Should get her likeness off the blocks Tuesday :

I always assume followers will set the trap so I play with that precaution. I instruct Lyds to go first or I sprint through well in front. Plus don't stand at edges when Lyds is catching up.

» Wed May 11, 2016 1:41 pm

I used follower trap safety for a long time. It made me complacent in terms of follower management.

» Wed May 11, 2016 4:35 pm

Sorry to hear that Rafer.... I'll get the stat's up, please do rejoin... and you might be surprised at Expert in some of the areas...

Way to go Neil...

» Wed May 11, 2016 6:17 pm

DAWNGUARD

The Daughter of Coldharbour

https://youtu.be/h0ivwFFSAVU

The Daughter of Coldharbour is a female individual who is granted vampirism via a ritual with the creator and patron deity of Vampires, Molag Bal

The first Daughter of Coldharbour can be roughly dated back to at least the early First Era. Lamae Beolfag was a Nedic virgin who was [censored] by Molag Bal.

It is recorded that after the ordeal, Molag Bal shed a droplet of blood on her brow and left her to die.

During the night she passed into death, but as her funeral pyre was still burning she emerged as the first pure-blood vampire.

A prophecy written in the First Era by a Snow Elf named Arch-Curate Vyrthur foretold that

"The Blood of Coldharbor's Daughter will blind the eye of the Dragon".

Starring Sah Vulon

YOU PLAYED THE QUESTS

NOW YOU CAN WATCH THEM TOO!

JUNE 2016

Spoiler

Nedes, also known as Nedic people, were a race of men who existed throughout Cyrodiil, Hammerfell, Skyrim, and Morrowind during the First Era.

All information is from The Elder Scrolls - Wiki

Music is by Juno Reactor - Immaculate Crucifixion

» Wed May 11, 2016 8:52 pm

OMG

Bite me :woot:

» Wed May 11, 2016 7:51 pm

Bite you :hubbahubba: ................OK ..............uhmmm where :blush: ?

» Wed May 11, 2016 10:47 pm

Ιgn?tiu? ...........ohhhhh noooooooooooooooo :cry:

» Wed May 11, 2016 6:41 pm

Yikes, a couple zombies already?! :nope: This is going to be one tough competition! :gun:

» Wed May 11, 2016 9:48 pm

Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere :devil:

» Wed May 11, 2016 5:57 pm

DAWNGUARD

The Daughter of Coldharbour

https://youtu.be/h0ivwFFSAVU

The Daughter of Coldharbour is a female individual who is granted vampirism via a ritual with the creator and patron deity of Vampires, Molag Bal

The first Daughter of Coldharbour can be roughly dated back to at least the early First Era. Lamae Beolfag was a Nedic virgin who was [censored] by Molag Bal.

It is recorded that after the ordeal, Molag Bal shed a droplet of blood on her brow and left her to die.

During the night she passed into death, but as her funeral pyre was still burning she emerged as the first pure-blood vampire.

A prophecy written in the First Era by a Snow Elf named Arch-Curate Vyrthur foretold that

"The Blood of Coldharbor's Daughter will blind the eye of the Dragon".

Starring Sah Vulon

YOU PLAYED THE QUESTS

NOW YOU CAN WATCH THEM TOO!

JUNE 2016

Spoiler

Nedes, also known as Nedic people, were a race of men who existed throughout Cyrodiil, Hammerfell, Skyrim, and Morrowind during the First Era.

All information is from The Elder Scrolls - Wiki

Music is by Juno Reactor - Immaculate Crucifixion