So is Rayn! She doesn't check in with them much anymore, but every now and again she goes back to spend some time with her brothers in the order. After all, they were the ones who helped her to buy her first house!
Her friend Roland Jenseric was kind enough to give her the key to his wilderness cabin, so she can stay there whenever she likes.

Hey hey! Ales are on me!! On a more serious note, I've heard that Barren Cave is repopulated. See you there!

My Imperial Serenus is in Leyawin and has decided to investigate the rumors about Rosentia Gallenus.

My Oblivion year ends on something of a sour note. My decrepit avatar and Vilja are about to exit Roxey Inn, where they had traveled to deliver supplies. Nothing amiss there. The sourness comes from needing to delete all saves associated with the cave crawl documented in my previous report. Something bad happened to my avatar while in that cave, though I didn't fully realize it until sometime later. In a nutshell, normally hostile creatures no longer were. He could walk right up to a lion or wolf or bear or spiggan and they'd ignore him. That obviously wasn't going to cut it. I deleted back to when my avatar and Vilja tethered their mounts at a riverside fortress ruin before walking to the cave. That fixed it. Hate losing one of my better recent crawls, but these things happen.

The bulk of my Oblivion day was spent with Decrepit1, now in the Kvatch Arena on break from administering trial-by-combat "justice" to Mythic Dawn agents captured at the end of the Crisis. I originally fired him to test the results of my ongoing piecemeal conversion of that old play-through from OMODs to BAIN packages. (My current play-through has been solidly BAIN from day one.) I also wanted to try-out Duke Patrick's "Melee Combat - NO RECOIL". Kvatch arena trials are taylor-made for that.

-Decrepit-

Today Baa went by Fort Telman and cleared it out - don’t know why she did that, but it must have been something important. She’s still a little ‘you know’ woozy from all that New Year stuff. Anyhow, she does remember going to Fort Scinia for some more Shadowbanish Wine. Maybe she thought that would be as good as the Champagne from New Year’s night. I will report that she didn’t find that to be true. Returning home to Skingrad, she tried to plan something more adventurous.

In the afternoon, she went climbing in the Valus Mountains working her way toward the north and the Jerald Range. Started at Hero Hill and went up. Very hard, if not impossible climbing, but she finally made her way to the ‘Turn around, you can not go any farther sign’. She kept sliding her way toward the NW. Her map indicated that she had been there before, but she had been coming down, not going up.

After a while, Baa made her way to the Jeralds up along the border with Skyrim. The weather was terrible, ice fog with occasional snow showers. Nothing up there but the snow, rocks, and the view, weather permitting.

At one point, she was high above Dive Rock and decided to make her way down there to check it out after several year’s time. Everything was the same as she had left it, but as she contemplated the body parts of Svenja that she had laid out by the fire, she noticed something amiss. There were two right legs and two right arms. Jeez, no wonder she got ett!

NIamh and Vilja passed back through the Silverpine portal and found, in the hills above Anvil, Bluemoon Cottage, into which they have now moved.
Lovely place.
After having sold off their ill-gotten gains from the the Silverpine expedition they are now moving roughly NE in the direction of Chorrol, since Niamh needs to perform "a bit of business" there. They'll likely move on to Cheydinhal after that since V is pressing her on getting the next stage of her dealings sorted out.

Pixel-o-graphs of their latest can be found http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1317602-more-oblivion-screenshots/page__view__findpost__p__19957812.

Very unfortunate my friend. These things shouldn′t happen but when they do they always happen to the best crawls or battles or just after a long nice hike without saving.

Etta has terrorized and slaughtered several people in a locked house in Skingrad, and has gone back to the Sanctuary for her reward. It appears that the Night Mother is pleased with Etta; she has had a blessing bestowed upon her.

Etta rather enjoyed the assignment. All of the victims were hacked to death in their beds, with her cutlass, with the exception of the Legion fool, who was stabbed, and the dagger left in his hand to make it look like suicide. All of the other victims' clothing was removed, and stashed in the Legion guy's chest.

The last one killed was the young rich kid. He begged for his life, and Etta let him run around gibbering for a while before she cut him down.

Then she ate the sweetrolls.

Evening Star 25 1931 - clearing Fort Carmala.
en route to Weatherleah, where apparently there are Trolls.

After breaking things off with Falanu, Teresa headed back to the house to stack up her books on her shelves. Then it was off the Imperial City to sell some of the loot she had picked up going to and from Skingrad. She got roped into spying on a merchant, found out he was fencing goods for a grave-robber, and killed the robber while his henchman looked on (if you attack Agarmir before he talks to you in the mausoleum, his bodyguard will not go hostile).

While she had been following Agarmir around, she met a weird Imperial named Trenus Duronius. She picked his pocket for kicks and took his house key. After Agarmir was finished, she paid a visit to Trenus while he slept. He had an entire brewery in his house, not to mention tons of skooma. Varla was happy to steal everything that was not nailed down to the floor. The next night Varla followed up the rumors she keeps hearing about the Grey Fox, and joined the Thieves Guild. Now she is headed to Bruma, where she is told a really tired Nord will buy her stolen loot.

Loving your work here, Niamh's met that Nord, yes he is ALWAYS tired - but he gives a good price...

Evening Star 27 - 1328
Niamh and V continue with the second of a few Chorrol-based quests picked up whilst Niamh was "completing business" in that fair town.
The rescue of a certain Argonian and her safe return to her mother from the clutches of the fanatics in the beknighted town of Hackdirt kicked things off, followed by the return of the Jemane brothers to Weatherleah after their reunion:
http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/yy265/bassmunkee/Oblivion/oblivion_030112/Oblivion_2012_01_03_06_52_02_084.jpg
http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/yy265/bassmunkee/Oblivion/oblivion_030112/Oblivion_2012_01_03_06_55_59_046.jpg

It's a funny thing, just as V is thanking NIamh for introducing her to adventuring and for giving her a different outlook on both life and Cyrodiil, Niamh is starting feel rather more... well-disposed to those around her and the world she finds herself in. She's certainly a different woman from the pre-V Niamh.
She's currently unsure how she feels about that, particularly given her chosen profession...
Sooner or later she's going to have to tell V exactly what it is that she does when she disappears off into the night, and where once she wouldn't have given a septim for what anybody thought, now she's not so sure. Still, a job is a job and she's never been one to quit. One thing she has retained is her enduring sense of fatalism; she is where she is and for the moment, that's enough.

And he won′t ask too many questions

Indeed, and fortunately he appears to have an insatiable appetite for silver plates...

My decrept avatar and Vilja have just entered their Weye abode upon return from Chorrol.

Their adventures between reports are rather ho-hum and predictable. They consist of:

• Roxey (where they had ventured to gather taxes) to Weye (where they spend the night).
  
• Weye to IC to gather assignments.
  
• IC to Cheydinhal on patrol and delivery commissions.
  
• Cheydinhal to Lord Rugdumph's Estate to delivery wines for Tamika.
  
• Lord Rugdumph's Estate to Bruma (where they spend the night) via mountain trails to fulfill mercantile delivery contracts.
  
• Bruma to IC to gather more assignments.
  
• IC to Chorrol on patrol and delivery commissions, and to restock their sales shoppe.
  
• Cheydinhal to Weye for a bit of R&R.

On a perverse note, it looks as if my deletion of their recent adventures inside a cave northeast of the Yellow (as reported in another thread) was both needless and in vain. Doing so did not correct certain beasts' sudden non-aggression toward my avatar, as was originally thought. Pondering the matter at some length, I now think the situation had existed for some good while before I noticed it, covered up my avatar almost always traveling in the company of companions who are still aggro with those same beasts. What made non-aggression more noticeable was likely my implementing a Bashed Patch tweak to try and solve a totally separate issue between legionnaires and isolated wandering NPCs. I've now back out of that tweak (it didn't fix the other issue in any case) but as yet have not been able to test the result. As to the non-aggression itself, I suppose it is something we'll have to live with for the remainder of this play-through.

-Decrepit-

Today Baa started out at Applewatch near Bruma. Checked out the dead Oblivion Gate there then proceeded to climb that mountain. She killed some Ogre and other stuff but was mainly just watching her ‘zoomed in’ map for areas she had not been through before. And guess what, on her way down on the south side she spotted a hidden waterfall and pond she had never found before. It was well hidden unless you approach from above. There were a lot of plants scattered around the pond, even had a Nirnroot - number 202 if I had picked it, but I didn’t, I left it alone - probably the last wild Nirnroot in my game. This is a different waterfall than the one near Shadow’s Rest. Also found another Rune Stone in the same area.

Rodrigo decided to help out Ursanne Loche. Dealing with the crew, was pretty easy. Kurdan however did something I've never seen before. He was in full chameleon, so I detected life to negate that, then I screwed up with a hot key selection, and as I was fumbling around with the hot keys, I saw him wind up for a power attack with his claymore. I stopped the hot key frenzy, and raised my staff above me to block the blow...... he cleaved through my staff, which disappeared from my hands, leaving me absolutely defenseless. We played climb the stairs several times before I was able to kill him, while avoiding the claymore swing. I couldn't find the staff anywhere. Damn. Lesser Staff of Stopping, Paralyze in 10 ft for one second.
I didn't know that was possible.

Lothran and Buffy are enjoying Bruma and its surroundings. When Buffy saw Dragonclaw Rock she was amazed by it but Lothran thought nothing of it. That′s usually what happens, you rarely see the stuff that′s close to you and your hometown.

Later that same evening they stopped by Olav′s to talk to the friendly clientele and to Buffy′s surprise they all remembered her! To her surprise, and to her delight

Well, no-one's going to forget a little blonde Bravilian bosmer bowgirl in a hurry, are they? (I hope I got all the B's there!)

Yeah, a weapon (or staff) can fly pretty far when an enemy manages to disarm you. One of my characters lost Chillrend to the bandits just west of Skingrad. I even tried toggling the grass off (PC console command) but I never found it.

I have been disarmed by opponents before as well, but thankfully it only happened indoors, so I was able to find my weapons again.

Not really. In my head the whole thing goes: Busy Buffy the Beautiful Blond Bosmeri Bravillian Bowgirl

So afterwards, I went back. I wanted my damn staff back. My Mage's Staff, at two seconds of silence, is pretty much worthless. I finally found it. It got knocked around pretty far. It was at zero health. Zero.... so he disarmed me and broke a 100 Health Staff. I know about disarmament, but when he hit me, it didn't feel like a disarming move, you know, like the Knights of Pure Order, they are all masters at the disarming move. Glad he's dead. Phew.

EDIT: But now that I see it is utterly broken. I will not repair it, but move on til I find another staff.

First was to Cheydinhal, to report back to the DB and find the Hlaalu female for Vilja. The latter was done before the former and with much rolling of eyes at the Dunmer's price for information.

Having ensconced V in one of the more salubrious inns in the town Niamh went to http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/yy265/bassmunkee/Oblivion/oblivion_040112/niamhs_little_secret.jpg at the DB's office. Vicente was really very pleased and even offered to make Namh one with him - so to speak - the offer was politely, but firmly, declined. She was directed then to Ocheeva and undertook another quest, or at least was given one.
Niamh met V back at the inn and a plan was drawn up to http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/yy265/bassmunkee/Oblivion/oblivion_040112/landscapes.jpg south and west first to Bravil via the Archaeologists' Guild camp south of Imperial City and then on to Leyawiin - a place to which Niamh has never been before.
Following a side trip to http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/yy265/bassmunkee/Oblivion/oblivion_040112/exploring.jpg, a fight with a couple of trolls under a bridge - (apparently it was theirs) - and an ultimately http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/yy265/bassmunkee/Oblivion/oblivion_040112/vanua.jpg and frustrating http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/yy265/bassmunkee/Oblivion/oblivion_040112/in_vanua.jpg into http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/yy265/bassmunkee/Oblivion/oblivion_040112/in_vanua_2.jpg, our heroine and her erstwhile companion finally arrived at their first (scheduled) stop - the http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/yy265/bassmunkee/Oblivion/oblivion_040112/the_archaeologists_camp.jpg...
--
The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed something rather different about our heroine in some of these pixel-o-graphs - her ears.
Niamh has over the time since Vilja and her first met come to have, shall we say, a growing appreciation for her younger companion. Evidence of this can be seen in these snaps. Niamh has carried a secret with her, a legacy from one of her parents although she knows not which, and the truth you may recall from a previous chapter was never revealed by her foster parents.
One of her parents was an elf, a wood elf - although Niamh can't be sure from where - she feels it, and has done with increasing strength over the passage of years. Abuse at the hands of her peers - (you may remember) - made her learn to keep this a secret, hence the long hair and meticulous attention to covering her ears.
She has come to feel a level of trust with Vilja unlike any she has experienced before, and so after http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/yy265/bassmunkee/Oblivion/oblivion_040112/Niamh_thinks_she_needs_to_tell_V.jpg, when they were in the Imperial City, she left Vilja in the Merchant's Quarter for a time and returned to her with her hair cut short and her secret revealed. Vilja's reaction strengthened her belief she had done the right thing. Although she was a little cross at first that Niamh hadn't felt she could tell her sooner, she understood and respected Niamh for what she had done.
It was Vilja who put the rings in.
"You should be proud of who you are." She said...
...It seems that just as Vilja appreciates Niamh for providing her with companionship and aid during her quest so too Niamh is beginning to live again, or for the first time, as a result of Vilja's influence...

Lady Mara and mirocu, thanks for all those beautiful B words!

Buffy's having a wonderful time in Bruma, thanks to the kindness of her friend, Lothran!