The point of this topic is tell some cool stories -- and promote the mods that made it cool. This is pretty much meant to be action experience stories, not fan faction about your characters. What I would really like to get across is something like "I had a particularly cool and surprising experience with this mod (or better, this set of mods), here's what it was like.

Again, no fan fiction, no internal life of your character!!! I.e. NOT something like "Ayesha wiped sweat off her dusky brow, then sniffed and looked around the gritty landscape of West Weald. Her thoughts flashed back to..." Uh uh.

Topic Rules/Requests/Notes:
* No Fan Fiction! Some state of mind is going to come into most stories, but it definitely should be more like watching an action movie then reading a book. (Nothing against fanfic, I would just like this topic to focus mostly on action, rather then on something that's more like a book.)
* Please post links to mods that you describe. This topic provides really nice adverts for mods.
* Try to keep thread pvssyr down. Some is good, but too much drowns out the stories.
* Avoid Spoilers! Not much good telling what an awesome mod something is and then blowing the big surprise at the end! Use spoiler tags if need be. Like . BB code for spoilers is the word "spoiler" in [] and [/] as usual. You can get them from "Insert Special Item" in full editor.

Notes:
* Lost in Acronyms? WTF is AEVWD? See http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tes4Mod:Acronyms
* Mod Links: If you're using Bain (part of Wrye Bash), and the mod package was downloaded from Tesnexus, you can usually get the source page by right clicking on mod package in Bain and selecting "Open at TesNexus". (Command works by trying to read part of package name as a mod id number.)

Good Stories: There's a lot of good gameplay that just doesn't make a good story. Most good stories have some sort of catch or surprise. Often it's some http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?s=&showtopic=961013&view=findpost&p=13899552, but sometimes it just an http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?s=&showtopic=961013&view=findpost&p=13950153moment. So... Use your best judgment -- if it happened last week and you're still remembering it vividly, it's probably a good story.

I originally posted this on Wrye Morph, and it deals partly with that, but it's more a mash up of four/five mods...

Living the Morphing Life:
Since I've actually found some time to play recently, a quick report. I mainly use Morph for switching between a few characters. My main character is a level 39 Sheo-gal. I've also got a doppelganged version of Merina from the companion mod of the same time -- she's cool but a little uber. (Level 39 mage and pretty healthy.) I've also got a 33ish clone of my first character -- mostly blade with some destruction and a little illusion. She gets the "Light of Dawn" and will inherit the mage quests when I get back to that. Other character is a level 22 thief -- she's the one who's getting more of workout since I never completed thief quests before.

So... After a minor install session, I get a spiffy new "summon steed" spell that I want to try. Mark my horse outside the IC stables, and then figure that I'll troop on out to the countryside and try "summon". But I'm not keen on fast travel, and oh look! There's an Ayleid step! I haven't gotten far in that mod, but I know that they're only semi random, but I'm under the impression that that it will port me semi-randomly off to the southeast countryside. I think briefly about stocking up a bit (I'm in street clothes), but don't. Click. Oops. I'm in a cave. Somewhere.

Okay, I'll roleplay this a bit. No calling up the map, no summoning up my portable cellar (which has a health hit anyway). I'll just try to figure my way out of here. I WILL put on my armor though. I'm not TOTALLY crazy. Hmm... Did I mention that this thiefly character has marksman 75 and goodish stealth, but no blade no magic powers to speak of??

Anyway, so I troop around a bit, take out some annoying rats, deal with some slimes (which are new to me since I've recently upgraded MMM), then run into a gargoyle. Okay, plink him a few times. Hit x 4. Hmm... No hit damage at all -- I'm not even seeing the hit bar SHOW UP on this guy. Uh oh. Drop like twenty arrows into the guy and the only reason I'm still alive is that it's dark and I'm able to hide along narrow corridors.

Okay, my pragmatic character admits she's bitten off a bit too much. So, call in my high level mage, and she's able to take it out. Hmm... "Ancient gargoyle"? That's new. And big. But still... Switch back to thiefly. But shortly... Whoahh, those are some BIG flame atronachs! So, back up to my level 39ish mage, who manages to make it outside.

(Hmm... Okay, I'm off to the southwest (not southeast) near a distant bend in the panther river. Mentally, increase the ratio of "randomly" in "semi-randomly" porting of Ayleid steps.) Anyway... Try the summon steed spell. Hmm... Doesn't work. Try again. Still doesn't work. Damn. Maybe I need to wait a bit? Like in the cave with all those tough guys? But back with my thiefly character? Of course!

This time I do okay. I'm learning to do the stealth for critical hit, then go hide until I'm stealthed again, and then do another critical hit. Manage to take out flame atronachs and some big mud golems, but then I run into those Ancient Gargoyles again. Okay, (reluctantly) swap to 33ish blade/destruction gal. Let's see how they like a bite of the Light of Dawn!!! Hah! Eh, heh, heh, heh... Run! And throw some frost spells. Frost takes them out (slowly), but magicka doesn't refresh as quickly with this character, so I gotta retreat. Except, oops. About three of those ancient gargoyles are following me. Out of the cave. Still following. Run/jump down the hill and dive in the river. Yep -- Gargoyles don't swim! Unfortunately, this character doesn't know any water breathing spells or have any water breathing equip items. Annoying...

But, I've got a decent frost touch spell, and gargoyles keep trying to get me, so I just look for them dipping their feet, then swim up and frost them. Well... Not as easily done as said -- I get belted pretty bad a couple of times -- but I manage to terminate them.

Cool. But my thiefly char still wants to finish the cave. Hmm... Okay... Swap to mage gal. Summon Salan's Cellar. Go to alchemy sorter in it and pull Frost Damage item (and some cure disease stuff too -- thiefly gal is pretty weak on that stuff). Brew up a decent batch of frost spells. Even get some minor paralysis and health damage in it too. Still... Only 10 points of frost damage? Doesn't seem that much. But gotta give it a try! (Getting a little bit stubborn here.)

Swap back to thiefly character, re-climb hole to get to ancient gargoyle infested cave (there's still four or so of them left). Poison strongest bow/arrow combo and stealth plink him. Well, that hurt him at least. But now he's a little miffed. Turn around and run back out the door. He follows. Jump down the hole and... Combat music off. Hmm? Climb back up hole... He's dead Jim. Odd. Open inventory, re-examine potion mixture. Ohhh... 10 points frost damage for forty seconds. And it was a stealth times four hit. Shortly thereafter the remaining gargoyles are one shot (and wait) dispatched and I'm able to lockpick my way past the hard door in the toughest part of the cave.

And what do I get? A dead drunk goblin and a "treasure loot" of beer bottles!

And my horse never shows up.

-----------------------------------
Mod Credits:
* Sotobrastos, etc. for http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/OOO/, Ancient Gargoyles, etc.
* Ervvyn for http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=884361
* Martigen, CorePC for http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=17784
* Daleth, Haama for http://wrye.ufrealms.net/Cobl.html
* Wrye (me!) for http://wrye.ufrealms.net/#OblivionMods

PS:
* The problem with Summon Steed was that it was an old mod and didn't work on DLC armored horses.

Fun story, fun topic.

In a non-fan fic way:

I was running LAME, Set Essential Actors and Talkie Toaster's Companion Share and Recruit. I'm a big fan of LAME because it works so well with Supreme Magicka and Midas Magic at filling the holes in the magic system without serious balance issues, and CS&R because it lets low level characters survive in an overhauled world without strictly sticking to "safe" areas. While still fairly low level for the mod combo I was playing, I decided to do the Daedric Prince quests, hoping for some fairly specific loot (for spell crafting purposes).

LAME introduces some very cool custom merchants, most notably J'Shivra, a Khajiit in the Skingrad mages guild. Her spells were out of my character's price range at that point, and I liked her as a character, so I used SEA and CSR to recruit J'Shiv as a companion. I figured I'd take her along (I had a party of 3-4 companions at that point) until I could afford her spells. Meanwhile, I'd have another higher level character to hide behind. It took some bribery, but I got her to join me.

It turns out that a recruited LAME mage will use the spells she stocks in battle. I got to see Frost Geysers used repeatedly, Meteor Swarm used on trivial enemies in the road, bomb runts released right in the middle of my party, all sorts of bizare over the top combinations of attack spells and summons. My party was set to essential, and I was magic resistant and hanging far back (low level, remember), but the result was often hilarious chaos.

Finally, hunting necromancers for Meridia's quest, J'Shiv managed to blow at least one Necromancer into The Void, forcing me to toggle collision to go out, find the necromancer, and kill her to complete the quest. Meanwhile, my party had been repeatedly blown apart to the point that they were all either wandering off or attacking J'Shiv.

Despite the vast humor value, I took J'Shiv back to the Skingrad mages guild and left her there. Enough was enough.

Anyway, I strongly recommend the combination of Set Essential Actors and Companion Share & Recruit for people playing through FCOM. It makes adventures in dangerous areas possible at lower levels, and the increased challenge really makes playing as part of an Adventuring Party much less unbalancing.

I started a new stealthy mage type character (Nightelf Min mod, she is perfect for an evil beauty) level 4,and decided to investgate these Alyied steps I have heard so much about.(fantastic quest mod once one finds the first key ) The first few steps took me to the Imperial city , the wilderness ,and one underwater stop, hehe my mage panics under water. Then into an Ayleid dungeon. I had no idea where I was or what I might come up against (once again Ayleid steps) so I summoned my friend Stoker Wolff. (a companion mod ). We walk through the dungeon chatting with each other. Surprisingly no other beings are around. It is very quiet and peaceful. Until walking onto a balcony area we spot a lone human pacing down below us. We circle around to the lower area where I ask Stoker to stay and watch my back while I check this out. The edges of the large room are quit dark (darker dungeons and caves mod) so I decide to try out my stealth ability ( proximity alert. Theives arsenal, new nighteye). To my surprise I am able to sneak up behind her. Close enough to take her out with my sneak lunge attack ( deadly reflex , dukepatricks geometry combat and momentum combat makes attacking from behind very deadly). I get close enough and lunge AAAHHHAAA,,, I hit her square in the back,,WHAT THE, to my great surprise she whips around only partly damaged and kills me with one swing of her large two handed sword.

Arrrggg Lets try that again only with Stoker beside me this time, we attack. She carves up Stoker like he doesn't now which end his sword to use and my magic is useless. My character laughs( pcsoundsets voice mod Calisto) as she proceeds to kill us both with out breaking a sweat. I wonder, Who is this warrior?

Ok back to stealth tactic. I stealth and Min says "They'll never see me coming".( pcsoundsets voice mod Calisto) I close in from the dark again, closer,,, closer, (Deadly reflex lets me know im not close enough). NOW ...I Lunge but before I can finish my AAAHHAAaaa. She does a round house kick and her foot contacts me right in the chest and sends me flying though the air UUUFFFhhh my back slams into a piller. I hit the floor with a sickening Thud. Shaken and flat on my back I look up only to see her standing over me saying. " Now Umbra shall feed on your soul" As she raises the mighty sword my final thought is, AH Now I know where I am*smiles*. She jabs the sword down though my gut (deadly reflex move) and all fades into darkness.

Well im not about to let that stand. I try it one more time. Sneaking I find very dark corner and wait. Her pacing I see will bring her very near with her back to me. The darkness brings me hope. I wait,, time passes. Ah almost into position,,wait for it...waaaittt. NOW I lunge,,, In slow motion, No yell of surprise this time only the sound of my heart pounding in my ears. A smile crosses my lips as I know what is coming,, my blade swings out of the night and makes a clean stroke slicing her head clean off. The pounding in my head stops and the only sound I here is her death gurgle and Umbra clanging onto the cold stone floor next to her decapitated corpse. ( once again deadly reflex cant play with out it). UMBRA IS MINE.
.

mine's not nearly as long as the ones above me but here goes:
I was in the arena, and just installed Deadly Reflex for the 1st time (yeah, this happened a while ago). Anyway, the guy was shootin arrows at me so i hit the dodge button, ducked under the incoming arrow, and took 1 steps and swung my sword. It went into slomo, i heard my heart beat, and i slowly decapitated the guy. My jaw dropped and literally said out loud, "that was [censored] awesome". The moment felt so cinematic to me, and i have been a hardcoe DR fan since :goodjob:

Very nice folks! Old Book, that sounds hillarious. VirtuousMeta -- great story! Bad Company... Gotta work on your storytelling skills! (But it does get the point across.)

Hmm... sounds like I need to try Deadly Reflex.

*too fanfic-ish, removed*

Closest to how it happened -

I jumped off my Sticks and Stones platform, ran along the paths of Thieves Highway, found a target, jumped off the roof, and used Deadly Reflex to cut her throat.

I was waaay underleveled. Level 10, maybe, and I went to fight Umbra, who was jacked as hell especially because of OOO. In full fledged Ebody and everything. I'm also magic based, so it was ugly: 2 hits and I was a goner. I didn't know bout no pillar bug or anything at the time, but I needed that sword.

I took a whack at her and had her chase me all the way to the entrance of the dungeon. I waited, for her to pop out the door, and I started running again. I kept running. Running, running, running. There was a point where she got stuck in the road for some reason and started spinning around uncontrollably. I ran back to her and whacked her a few times. Did virtually no damage. She followed again, and I ran all the way to the entrance to the Imperial City.

The guys at Weye, dressed in regular clothes with no weapons, put up their dukes and started punching her. She was still following me, so I went up the bridge and into Talos Plaza. I hid by the dragon statue, where she couldn't reach me, and I watched and at least 4 guards, 4 civilians and 1 Draconis family guy jumped her at once. It was a massacre.

And it wasn't over, just then, a squad of Mythic dawn assassins decided to attack me. They were caught up in the little Cyrodiil-vs-Umbra civil war goin' on at the moment, and a few extra guards joined in the party. Oh jeez, it went on for at least 15 minutes. The Dawn agents were long dead, and everyone was ganging up on Umbra, who finally decided to stop running into the raised pedestal under the statue to kill me, and fought back the guards and citizens.

All the civilians involved lay dead after the battle, 3 or more Imperial Guards, 1 Ityus Hayn or whatever his name was, and the Draconis guy. Talos Plaza was a war-torn battlefield. I didn't know how many quests were involved with the Watch Captain, so I resurrected him with the console. I looted all the bodies, which took me several back and forth trips to the Market District. During that time, some of the later passersby there were like "OH MY GOD, HE's DEAD!!" or "ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?" to the dead bodies. Finally, I got the sword and Umbra's armor. Phew.

Not long ago, my rogue blunt/archer (static level 15) was running around near Bruma with Ruin, Ivan (adorable skeletal buddy), and Sher Ja (mountain lion), searching for some misbehaving Skyrim bandits.
Rounding a bend in the road, she spotted what she believed to be a gargoyle. She sneak-attacked the thing, and realized all too quickly that he was rather old. Too late now, she was in it.
Sher Ja ran at the beast, mawing its face. Ivan pulled out his trusty axe and began smashing the thing. Ruin was yelling obscenities and blasting it with lightning. My char kept filling the beast full of arrows at every opportunity. It's health was still mainly full. Realizing the living pincushion was going to need persuasion to get dead, my char pulled out her Blessed Halberd and started beating it.
The sounds of battle attracted a pack of prowler wolves, who quickly set about attempting to maim all of them. Ruin (he's so easily distracted )and Ivan quickly made wolf meat out of them and returned to the main fight.
By now, my char is doing a dance of drink, drink; smack, smack, smack. All of them are going after it, and the nasty ancient gargoyle is finally showing signs of wear. Then, who should show up but two Imperial guards who were busy trying to kill one another. They made several passes around the group, apparently forgetting their manners. Luckily for everyone, a Frost Minotaur, apparently chasing the guards, was not about to let the fight go on without him.
Ruin and Ivan started in on the Frost Minotaur. My char and Sher Ja worked to finish off the gargoyle, Sher Ja going all out with her claws and my char using subterfuge archery, weaving around rocks, with poisoned arrows, while carefully avoiding the minotaur.
By the time they were done there, the minotaur was nearly done and my char jumped him from behind with her trusty halberd. Victory!
Good times. I highly recommend all of these mods.

Mod credits:
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3027 by Simyaz
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=18063 by Maigrets
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13714 (Halberd and Ivan) by L@zarus
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15256 (Ancient Gargoyle, Frost Minotaur,etc) by Sotobrastos and dev_akm
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2443 (subterfuge!!) by Talonhoff
http://wrye.ufrealms.net/Wrye%20Leveling.html (level when I want to!!) by Wrye

Sorry, but that is mostly fan fiction, and not actual game experience. :-/

On topic...
Something I really enjoyed was my first encounter with "Muel" NPCs. At first, I didn't know where those came from - they had crates on their back and could be seen in several places in the Imperial City, mostly in the Waterfront. They seemed to deliver goods from the Waterfront to the other districts. Anyway, I wanted to see where they were going, so I cast a Follow spell on one of them (Stalk 'Em) and leaned back, because the Follow spell controls my character, I don't have to do anything (apart from activating doors).
I was in the Waterfront, and the Muel NPC (I actually think that's a typo and their real name is "Mule", as in pack-mule) was heading to the Waterfront Tunnel. Of course, we didn't just get teleported to the Temple District; thanks to Better Cities, we walked through the whole tunnel, passed a couple of merchants and other NPCs, and eventually reached the Temple District gate.
Then came a surprise: The Muel NPC didn't just walk to another district or something, he walked to the little ponds near the gate leading to the Green Emperor Way. "Where the heck is he going?", I thought. But then I saw the small entrance next to the pond, and I realized: He is heading for the Temple District Lower Level (IC Expanded)! I've never seen an NPC do that before - that's when I realized that IC Expanded obviously adds these Muel NPCs to deliver goods to its new locations. If I remember correctly, the Muel NPC eventually entered a tavern.
This is of course not an "exciting" story, but it is something I thought was awesome, and exactly the kind of thing I want to experience in a big city like the IC. And yes, in my game it IS a big city, thanks to Better Cities and IC Expanded!

Mod credits:
Stalk 'Em - adds the Follow spell
Better Cities - adds the Waterfront Tunnel interior, plus made the journey through the IC much more beautiful than it would've been without it
IC Expanded - adds the lower levels of the IC districts and, apparently, the Muel NPCs that carry crates from the Waterfront to IC Expanded's interiors

I use nGCD, and had turned on Immediate Character Generation, because it kinda breaks roleplaying that you can't do a lot of stuff before someone asks if you can :S

Anyway, I'd kiiiinda skimmed over the readme for http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14671, I knew it would give me penalties, but I didn't want to know what. Anyway, I decided to have a stab at being a pure mage, with as few "traditional" combat skills as possible.
The jail shackles impose silence on you. Together with OOO, Deadly Reflex, Real Injuries, and survival mods (food/water/sleep), hardest starting dungeon ever. I've had an easier time in high-level dungeons.

Phoshi: Short but sweet. Hadn't heard of Jail Shackled before -- that sounds cool.
Fearabbit: Nice! A cool non-combat story.
Vaisellias: Very cool.
cakeofages: :rofl:
Ashven: Too much fanfic!

No Fanfic Rule: Some state of mind is going to come into most stories, but it definitely should be more like watching an action movie then reading a book. (Nothing against fanfic, I would just like this topic to focus mostly on action, rather then on something that's more like a book.)

Combat Fumbling Promo: Forgot to mention it before, but if you're looking for something to keep the adrenaline flowing in the middle of battle, my http://wrye.ufrealms.net/Combat%20Fumbling.html can help. Spend more than a second or so in your inventory or spell list and you'll find yourself frozen in place for a corresponding period of time.

Aaaaand...you have just sold me on IC Expanded. Thanks.

Reminds me of Fable (the first one), what with those guys that carry crates from shop to shop.

Hehe, great! Yes IC Expanded is really a mod worth checking out.

And man, Ayleid Steps really seems to make for some cool stories. I think I'll have to give it a try. I hope some more mods that I haven't tried out yet will be mentioned here.

I guess my best expierence by far , and it's probably a shared one , is having the music off.

My charecter was level 4 and quite weak in the world of FCOM so I approached a Fort with bandits outside quite carefully and through stealth and a bit of luck manged to assasinate them one by one. Quite pleased with my efforts I looted the first corspe, then the 2nd...3rd and as I was turning to my right to loot the last dead nord , All I seen was a rather unique looking two handed hammer( loths blunt weapons) becoming my full and only view . After words thanks to after death cam , I wacthed yet another nord , whom I missed , make some rather disperaging comments about my lineage

Playing with FCOM, Set Essential Actors, The Elder Council, Companion Share and Recruit, Tamriel Travellers and Rhianna Redux.

This was about four months ago, maybe more, before I understood just how much tougher FCOM makes the game.

I decided to do the Mages Guild quests and the main quest at the same time; I didn't want to use fast travel, and was passing through Choral and Skingrad anyway. So, Rhianna and I made our way to Choral, using CS&R to convince an Imperial Guardsman who was heading that way anyway to ride along with us. We needed him, too; at level 2, I had no chance of making it to Choral alone, or even with just Rhianna for backup. (I later changed my FCOM setup for safer roads, but this was the first time I'd played it). The Guardsman was ripped to pieces by wolves just before we got to Choral, Rhianna was "killed" trying to save him, and I just barely got through it thanks to potions of Shield and Restore Health backed up by free use of Summon Scamp (then my strongest spell). I revived Rhianna (who comes back when touched after combat), and the two of us staggered into the Priory. I felt a little bad about the guardsman.

After taking care of basic business in town, I decided to try to make it through the recomendation quest. Rhianna and I went out on our way to retrieve Fingers of the Mountain, only to be attacked (level 2, mind you) by a Spriggan and her pet bear. Rhianna was killed again, and I had no choice but to flee (thank Magnus for the Invisibility spell). This was bad. I needed to retrieve her body if I was going to revive her. So, I tried to talk a guard into joining me.

I couldn't. He was too high level, and my speechcraft just wasn't up to it. I finally ended up using speechcraft to max his disposition with my weapon drawn, putting away the weapon (which ups disposition by 10), giving him pretty much every septim I had, and then giving him all of my potions before he'd agree to help me.

Once I had him, I headed out again to get Rhianna. He held off the Spriggan long enough for me and my scamps to kill it. I revived Rhianna, and the three of us went on to Cloud Top.

After turning in the book, we proceeded on to Kvatch, picking up a mage (from Tamriel Travellers) and another guardsman on the way. The five of us managed to close the Kvatch gate, but only Rhianna and I made it out alive. I felt guilty about the number of guards I'd gotten killed, and joined the Legion (Elder Council Mod) as a way to pay it back. Still, I made sure to take other legionaires with me on my patrols.

I always felt bad being called the Hero of Kvatch. I'd been the leader, but there were five heroes.

It was very challenging, and taught me some things about FCOM and my playing style. Most importantly, it showed me that a good overhaul mod makes Companions and party play much more useful (and more entertaining) at the start of the game. There's plenty of time after you get your skills up to solo.

It also taught me to choose all the "Reduced Spawns" and "Safer Roads" options in FCOM, if I didn't want to hire guards just to go out and pick some graqes.

Long-time lurker, never felt the need to post until seeing this thread...

So I've just installed 8-10 more mods over the last few days, picking Oblivion back up after a couple weeks off for school purposes. I'm playtesting each with my level 42 Shadow Ranger character, because most of what I'm getting is updated UL mods and the like that fit the character. I've had Ayleid Steps sitting in my mod zip-file storage folder for a while but never installed it, so I figure no time like the present to grab the latest patch and go to town. It has easily become my favorite quest mod, but this is what happened during my first playthrough:

After activating the Steps, I jump on a random one and pop out in an unidentified Ayleid ruin. I decide not to check the map and try to figure out where I am just based on enemies/layout and other things I might recognize from past experience. I sneak around one corner and see a door into the main chamber of Ceyatatar...question answered. I know to be expecting lots of Conjurers from OOO (first mod I ever installed...wow, almost three years ago) so I'm treading pretty lightly. I come into the main room with crazy amounts of daedra, a couple Plane Summoners, and I think two Astral Lords. I've got my panther companion stealthed, and I'm just plinking all the scamps and clannfears to cut down the odds before isolating these conjurers for backstabs. Just as I snipe the last clannfear, a magma golem steps in front of the arrow and lets everyone in the room know I'm there. Crap. I have to hightail it back the way I came and jump on the step I came in on to live to fight another day. I pop out at a wilderness step in the Jerall Mountains and see an undiscovered landmark on the compass. I love finding new locations (just installed Landmarks w/ Wells), so I run on down to find an Ayleid Well. As my panther and I run up, I casually activate one of the steps around the well and BAM! I barely see a thunderbolt and a warhammer converging in my screen before I get insta-killed. As I watch the death-cam it becomes apparent that I teleported into the same room in Ceyatatar I had just left, in the middle of a bunch of very pissed-off Conjurers.

Needless to say, I was instantly hooked, but I did learn one very important lesson that day: ALWAYS be sneaking when you activate an Ayleid Step.

Relevant Mods: OOO, Ayleid Steps, Shadow Ranger

Great story, Vatari.

Lost Spires, Hoarfrost Castle

The final Lost Spires battle with the Avatar, and it's going pretty well. My character has enough potions, enchanted gear and skill that the Avatar is no match for him, and he dispatches the enemy pretty quickly. So, I start the Long Run. Everything is colapsing around my character, the flame wall is approaching. Even with 100%+ resistance to everything, I know that the wall is scripted to kill me unless I dive into a pool, and I can't find it.

I have one rule on every play through. When a character dies, he dies. I don't reload. I'm willing to use mods to come back (Wrye's Shivering Death is awesome), but if I'm not yet Sheogorath, dead is dead.

And I can't find the pool. My character is about to die.

So I use the Hoarfrost Conduit, and teleport back to the safety of the castle.

I fast travel back to the Archeology guild and find everyone gathered in the main room. No one will talk to me. The quest is broken. I go back to the castle, go back through the portal (which returns you to the place you were when you used the conduit), and walk out of the dungeon. Now the quest updates correctly. I'm given my promotion to head of the guild, and all is well.

Of course, as with most guilds, once you're the guild leader there's absolutely nothing to do.

Lessons learned:
1) Don't be too quick to use teleportation to avoid traps. It may make sense in the situation, but it breaks many quests.

2) If I ever make a Guild or House mod, remember to include something for the player to do after the quests are over. Whether it's hunting Black Bows, taking your farm's goods to market, collecting your weekly take and cheering up your workers, or just gathering ingredients from your garden, there has to be some reason to go back after the quests end, or the home / shop / guild hall will never be used again.

3) I will avoid using scripted death traps in a mod. Lost Spires is one of the absolute best mods out there, but the "No matter what your protections, you die if you don't do X" moments break immersion. The player should be thinking "what should I do", not "what does the mod maker think I should do".

Great thread! What fun!

:foodndrink:

I love this thread! What an excellent idea!

I am finally getting my game off the ground, I think I have settled on my load list, and will just swap out some quests in later stages.

Anywho... I am getting started on my Sylvan ranger (Mystic elf) and am just beginning the venture out into the world, and am tackling the lairs around IC, and love the fact that they are full of gangs of mobs. No more sharpshooting everything in sight and looting, rinse and repeat. Now I have to be wary of getting gang-banged by groups (FCOM). Clear out a couple of the easier ones, trying to get A level :toughninja: and run into my first ringleader, and have to kite for like 5 minutes to wear this guy down, and damned if he isnt potting and moving pretty fast with that warhammer. Did I mention that those things really hurt? Finally get him down, and he looks like a porcupine! Way to go! I am loving this! Off to find another lair.

Wandering around outside to locate new entrances since all are hidden, and I have forgotten where most things are (just had to set TMM = 0, didn't ya 'smart guy' :toughninja: ) and I am awed by the look of everything. I can see ruins off in the distance, castles, runestones, etc. (RAEVWD) I am just itching to get out there and check these things out. Stumble across a sewer entrance near the SE side of the isle, and wander in, thinking of more bandit slaughter, and experience (these first levels go slow) and sneak on in, find the Bloodworks gate, and hear a couple talking and can see them because of LifeDetect, so sneak up and let fly. Uhhh, he didnt even get hurt much, and now they are both after me. Go into inventory to poison up, and 'BAM', I'm stuck in place, and here they come! Oh! Combat Fumbling, who made that?!? One hit, game over, and the last thing I saw was Vampire Spellsword, not good at level 2. Reload and go find another lair.

Vilverin, I remember that place! Should be good so long as I don't go too deep yet. Need the XP, and some more loot to sell. Get in, sneak, run, dodge, cast calm a lot, and work my way down. Every ruin like this now has me looking in every corner and jumping everywhere to see into and on top of things looking for Aylied clutter, I just know I will spot some sooner or later! Get down to the zombies and skels (loving those little flayers, but they tend to sneak up on a guy), and my belly is grumbling again (Real Hunger) Something new I have been learning to watch, got surprised a few times already because some bandit heard my belly talking! So, I'm in my dinner plate, and watching to see if I ate enough for a bit, and all the sudden I hear a zombie again! I just killed all these things! But, nope 2 have just gotten up and are pounding on me, run like hell for the entrance. I have no cure disease, and now am afflicted. Best to make sure I either buy some or find the ingredients to make it for the next run in. Will try this again tomorrow, it's late now, and I have had enough surprises and lessons for one night.

All kudos to the modders, Oblivion has really changed in a few years, and is 100x more exciting now! Will be back for further tales of adventures, yours and mine, as I venture further into this new land.

More good stories! Please link to the mods if you have time. (PS: If you're using bain and downloaded mod came from TesNexus, you can use the "Open at TesNexus..." command (usually) to find the source page there.)

Great idea for a thread! Now, this is going to sound like a shameless plug, but I swear it's not meant as one! :rofl: And, as pointed out, I should spoiler this for anyone who's not yet played our mod. Though really, do those people exist? LOL

Mage and I were working on the most recent update to our mod, http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20184, tweaking a few things, adding more to the end of the quest, etc... Now, I'd play tested several versions already. He sent me the next and said he'd 'added a few surprises'. Uh huh. I should know by now to quake in fear and turn on god mode when Mage says things like that. Needless to say, I didn't, after a couple girly giggles and updating the files, I ran in game to head through the quest again.



It was a race to see who'd die first. LOL And it was me one more time. It was an epic battle that made me truly appreciate Mage's love of making our players cuss and jump!

I'm a big fan of the amazing Heart of the Dead mod, and recently re-ran through version 5.0, finishing up with Kate (a thief/archer) as a companion. I decided to take Kate along with a few other companions (I like to run a party, and balance it with a dead-is-dead rule) into the Shivering Isles. Mainly I wanted to try out Wrye's Shivering and Shivering Death (mods that give you and other changes) and the upgraded MMM (which adds monster types to SI). I'm also running Integration, which adds some SI content, and Tamriel Travellers + Shivering Travellers (for travelling merchants), so this was looking up as a trip into the isles.

The first thing I noticed through the gate was that all of my companions with the exceptions of Kate and a custom companion recruited using Talkie Toaster's Companion Share and Recruit had lost their greetings. This didn't happen the last few times I played SI, and I assume it's an artifact of my recent re-install. I left the isles again, dismissed the companions who had the No Greeting error (they were fine back in Cyrodiil), and headed back through the door.

SI is more fun when modded, and I look forward to seeing more done there. Particularly good were the rat-men and dementia Flesh Attranauchs, creatures that really fit the theme of the Isles.

I decided to bring up my character's Destruction skill, and made a point of getting up close and personal with touch attack spells, after instructing my companions to stay back and attack at range. I like touch attack spells when working with companions; they cost less magicka for the effects you can get, and you're less likely to zap a companion.

"Less likely" doesn't mean it won't happen.

Unfortunately, in the middle of a nest of Elytria (giant ant-like things), while my character was suffering from Felldew withdrawl and would die if he didn't get through the dungeon quickly, Kate decided to forget the order to stay back and use her bow. She repeatedly jumped between my character and the enemy I was targetting. Every time, she got zapped.

After the third or fourth time, she started attacking me. "No problem," I figured, "I'll just yield".

Problem was, I couldn't remember how to yield.

I was blocking. She was hacking away, and even with my block I was taking damage. The Felldew withdrawl was getting worse. And yet, for roleplaying reasons (to my shame, I am a roleplayer), I felt really bad about zapping her.

I didn't need to. Between the stacked reflect damage from my items and my other companion deciding to attack her, she knocked herself unconscious.

I went on and finished the dungeon, then summoned her. She greeted me with a cheerful "Morning, love." She was happy again.

That's when I realized my character was in an abusive virtual relationship.

There needs to be a 12 step program mod.

When I finally finished the main SI quest and

Final note; noticed some slowdowns when I returned to Cyrodiil but still had Wrye Shivering's "New Sheogorath" quest marked active. Just choosing a new active quest fixed that.

Cool, but NO SPOILERS!!! (Or at least try to keep them small.) No good telling us about a cool quest mod and then telling us what happens at the end! Try to put it indirectly. Or use spoiler markers. E.g. that's why I say to indicate a character who completed the SI MQ.

Post-SI Main Quest: Yep, those are from http://wrye.ufrealms.net/#OblivionMods. (Well, you haven't gotten the Shivering Death part yet. Don't worry -- next time you can let your companion slice and dice you to her hearts content.)

Heh oops. Didn't even think. Fixed and spoilered. :facepalm: