Stoic Person Eater

I thought the mid-season finale was great. It was what the series needed; just about every episode leading up to this one had been very, very slow. I hope the thrills keep coming.

As Psy said, there has been so much rimming - what to share? Right now, my guy is well on his way to becoming a powerful wizard; attending the College of Magic. I think I may have just stumbled on my first Daedra quest with Azura(?) and the disbanded wizard in the inn at Winterhold. I haven't pursued it too far yet, but I think it's the one Dupz was talking about. I've started the quests for the college so I can become a sexy magician. I've spent a lot of time exploring; more so than questing. I haven't been doing most of the main quests in the storyline, but I have been doing everyone's errands like retrieving magical staffs, rings, and other stuff from skeleton infested dungeons. I've also made a point of doing all the bounty missions - fuck the bandits. My guy is wearing magic regenerating elven armor, pickpocket enhanced elven gauntlets, sneaky elven boots and I switch between the Volkun mask and the Dwarven Helmet of Rebreathing depending on what the situation is. It's pretty nice to be able to swim without having to worry about surfacing. With my sneak skill as high as it is, I'm like a fucking navy seal. I focus on a lot of sneaky archery when not flaunting my magical skills. Right now I have a Glass Bow that burns and a Dwarf bow for capturing souls. I am still mostly using steel arrows, dwarf ones on dragons and bigger creatures. I try and leave the arrows in peoples faces if I kill them with a headshot. I am trying to get my conjuration boosted so I can add the Bound Bow to my arsenal. I have an elven sword that burns and an orchish battle axe that freezes. I just got the perk for decapitating people, so that's been my favorite method of dispatching an enemy. My main spells are as follows; Destruction: Flames (I want the fireball!), Sparks, Ice Spike (to the FACE!) ; Conjuration: Bound Bow, Flame Atronach, Raise Corpse; Restoration: Fast Healing; Lesser Ward and the Alteration one for turning iron ore to silver and then silver to gold. Any mission I get, I usually fast travel to a close location and then walk the rest of the way there; the most fun experiences for me are the random things you come across - yesterday, I did a "wait save" near the dragon burial place by Saarthal/Winterhold and came across a snow bear fighting a couple of Imperial guards who were escorting a Stormcloak prisoner. The bear royally fucked everyone and then came after me. I reloaded a few times and tried to save the Stormcloak prisoner (who was unarmed and bound); but it was to no avail. I couldn't kill the bear before he wrecked the prisoner; but it was a hell of time trying. Best I did was distract the bear enough to save two of the Imperial guards which I FUS-DO-RAH'd off the cliff and straight to hell. After completing a mission and/or clearing a dungeon; I have a pretty standard routine; I travel back to Whiterun and buy all the iron and silver ore possible - the rest of my time in Whiterun I am casting the alteration spell to change the iron to silver, and then silver to gold. I buy any ingots I will need for upgrading the weapons/armor I have looted/found in that dungeon. I then proceed to upgrade them at the grindstone/workbench. I sell anything magical right away; otherwise I take the recently upgraded equipment to Dragon's Reach to enchant it (anyone know of an enchanting table in lower Whiterun closer to the house?) and buy all the soul gems I can (I prefer buying the empties and filling them myself). I sell any magic related shit to the guy there; he'll take all my enchanted jewelry and armor/clothes. I sell off any additional weapons to the guy and girl at WarMaidens. I stock up on anything else I need supply wise, iron ingots and leather strips to craft some daggers. I smelt all the gold ore I have accumulated; then head to the forge and create any gold jewelry I can (going for value) but gold necklaces go for the most sans jewels and use the least amount of resources (the iron daggers of gold jewelry). Then I make a bunch of iron daggers. I don't bother enchanting them; that's a waste of soul gems for me. I sell them back for meager (or no) profits. I hang on to the jewelry for my next trip to the enchanting table. I then go back to my house and drop any loot I want to save; unique weapons (I have about 12 stolen staffs/swords chilling in the corner next to the broom); dragon scales (I sell the dragon bones; not planning on making the heavy armor) and ingredients for making potions (I don't really make potions other than the restore health. Anything else I make, I usually sell off. I steal all the potions I need; plus there are spells for healing). If the dungeon had a lot of equipment I couldn't carry, I go back with one of the mercenaries as a mule to carry shit back, then go back through the process. I've only had to return with a merc on some of the Dwemer Ruins where there is a lot of heavy ass scrap metal to bring back. Pretty fucking tedious, but I net a ton of gold each trip. I also do shit around the house IRL or do my Skyrim workout (more on that in a minute) while taking care of business around Whiterun. It's kind of my homebase and I haven't found another city with the same features as Whiterun (yet). Both Dawnstar and Winterhold are pretty small. I haven't really come to any other major cities other than that. I think I've been to Windhelm, but that was part of a quest and I didn't spend much time there. Riverwood is good too, but ever since the dragon killed the blacksmith there, it's been less of a hot spot for me to visit. The trader there gives me a good deal for the Dragon Bones and has a good variety of spells and miscellaneous wares (soul gems, ore and ingots). I had my first glitch yesterday - related to a dragon flying. I was up by the aforementioned Dragon Burial location near Winterhold where there is a Blood Dragon that perches over the ruins. I had tried fighting him a few times and got the shit kicked out of me each time. I was at the mission where I was supposed to meet the other mage students at Saarthal for the escavation; so I figured I might be able to lure the dragon over that way and have the other mages assist in killing it. I engaged the dragon with some arrows and started making my way down the cliff towards Saarthal, however the dragon didn't seem to follow, but I could see his red dot on my HUD. I went back up the hill, and came over a rock and saw him in the sky, going round and round, like he was going down a drain; right over his perch. He was flying, but his circles were very, very tight. It was pretty funny. I tried to get my cell phone out to film it; but he finally landed on the perch. I snuck up on him while he was perched, fired a few arrows and he disappeared. So I waited for a few hours just down from his spawn point on the perch and after the wait menu dropped, he was back on the perch. I was able to fight and kill him afterwards, it was just very weird. Game certainly isn't broken, but it was hella weird. Last thing, I spent a good amount of this weekend playing Skyrim and not doing much else, so I figured I would work a little real life exercise into the game. I got an exercise ball to sit on and I knock out crunches during loading screens. When I am in between quests, doing my "errands" in Whiterun, I knock out some pushups and curls during loading screens. Since there is no threat of being attacked within the city, I don't have to worry about entering a door and then getting killed. The extra time on the pushups or curls also gives me time to charge my magic back up for my alteration spells. I was getting a sore neck from sitting on my couch so long, but the Skyrim Workout has definitely made me feel better about sitting around all day. Your gamertag suggests you haven't even started on Skyrim. yah pal I haven't been online to play. Go troll your ass Is it because you're too poor to afford Gold Membership?

I played for a few hours last night and didn't run into any of the errors that have been mentioned. I'm itching to go home and finish the quest I was on last night - I am trying to retrieve a scroll for some chick in the High Gate Ruins - she said there is a powerful priest named Vokun guarding it - I am pretty sure he is one of the dragon priests. I got hung up last night at a level puzzle and just decided to save and go to bed.

Has anybody ran the update and experienced issues?

I mainline opium into my penis.

Your gamertag suggests you haven't even started on Skyrim.

Hot sex.

Too much to type - I played all weekend. Finally beat the Dragon Lord that had been giving me shit, Kronis @ Shearpoint. All it took was one FUS DO RAH (which is Nord for SUCK MAH DICK) to blow him off the point. The fall did a bunch of damage to him and I was able to finish him off with a couple of well aimed arrows that do magic damage. Got his bad ass fireball staff. My rapping wizard is almost complete. Mask is cool, don't want to sell it or give it away!

The Dragon Priest I came across is Kronis - I looked him up on the wiki. He's at Shearpoint. I knew there was a dragon there, I found him earlier and left before he saw me - I came back later and had an all out battle with the dragon, losing all my health potions in the process; but alas, I prevailed and killed the dragon. I went closer to check out the stone he was sitting on and all of a sudden Kronis jumped out of his coffin and lit me up with a few fireballs. I couldn't even open my inventory before I was dead. I saved right before fighting the dragon, so I'll be going back to fuck them both up later tonight or early tomorrow - depending on my damn Thanksgiving plans.

Dragon Priest? I stumbled upon one accidentally. I got the shit fucked out of me very quickly.

I've been dreaming about my gold balance and other Skyrim related shit.

Nice find with the arrows. I'm guessing they're iron arrows? Perhaps at some elven places there are archers practicing with glass arrows or something nice like that. If I get in a shootout with another archer, I try to back up to a wall and when he misses a shot, the arrow will hit the wall and fall at your feet. I found this early when I ran out of arrows. I collected enough arrows from an archer that had me pinned down to take them out and recover their quiver.

This is one game I am not worried about the exploits or cheats or farming or achievement whoring. I am in no rush to beat this game or get to a certain point or anything like that. I'll level up as I play the game, by doing the things as my character would do them. If you could level up for catching butterflies or fish, I would be maxed out. If there was a level up for hopping instead of walking (didn't Oblivion have acrobatics or something?) I would - again, be maxed out. My guy is getting good at archery, sneaking and one handed weapons. I intend to start focusing more on magic use (other than destruction). I've been making a lot of money by using the spell that turns iron ore into gold ore; using the gold ore to smelt into ingots and making jewelry or whatever. My hero will never be a whore.

I have a shitton of soul gems, a shitton of weapons, but where do I get enchantments? I know how to use the Alchemy tablet, I broke down some pickpocket braces and now I have an enchantment I can use that has something to do with pickpocketing. Once I get the enchantment, can I use it multiple times? Also, I lost my Lydia a few days ago. She could be dead or I could have accidentally told her to wait somewhere - I don't remember. She had a shitton of Orchish weapons on her and a few other things I didn't want to carry. I haven't really missed her, she caused a lot more problems that help. She got me killed a few times by pissing off the giants as we went by. Bitch always wanted to fight. In the spirit of not needing her:

This thread sucks. I have so many great stories, but this thread is dead. I imagine you slouches get to play all day long and only get on the computer to watch porn and spam the asylum. Luckily, my job affords me the time to post about my adventures and get excited about playing after work. I'm really enjoying this game, more than I have any other game in a long time. It's almost been two years since I first got into Fallout 3; which I thought was incredible. Even with the frustrating sewer/tunnel system, I really enjoyed the new approach to a role playing game - but it was NOTHING compared to what I am experiencing with Skyrim. I haven't even thought about playing another game since I received it in the mail. Anyway, enough gushing about the game. Here's some light griping and fun shit that I experienced this weekend. I finally got my first house in Whiterun. I have it all decked out with all the furniture purchases - what a shithole it was before I invested in it. I can't believe I paid $5000 for that piece of shit. Atleast it looks nice now. I sold all the bowls, plates, cups and shit that come with the decorations and spent some time decorating with the random human and troll skulls I've picked up on my adventures. I tried piling them all up in the fire pit, but it appears to be a deep hole that items fall into. They're retrievable - but my hopes for a skull bbq is denied. I stashed a ton of pelts; wolf; snow wolf; snow fox; and sabretooth in a corner too. I tried to lay them out, but I keep kicking them around. I also put on display the different useless musical instruments I have found. It kills me that they can't be played. I know it's not pertinent to the story, but I really wanted to become a lute playing drunkard in a Nordish Screamo group... Aside from the rhythm based minigames associated with playing musical instruments, the other glaring omission I noticed in the game was the ability to craft arrows. Fucking serious? I can make armor, weapons, jewelry, potions, magical weapons, BUT NO FUCKING ARROWS. I'm not having a shortage of arrows - I'm an incredible archer and usually retrieve my arrow from a kill if possible (I hate when I can see the arrow sticking out of their face, but it says there isn't one on their person and I can't just pick it up). Anyway, the fact that I can't craft an arrow blows my mind. I suppose Fallout 3 didn't incorporate ammo creation until The Pitt. Perhaps it will be in the DLC, but I'll probably have a million arrows by then. I guess it encourages using other weapons or magic, but what if you just wanted to be Robin Hood and shoot everything? My first TRAGIC event happened this week. I was playing cleanup of my Miscellaneous tasks - random shit people have asked me to do. One of the first quests I was given was to bring Alvor in Riverwood an Iron Dagger. I've been playing for a while now and I don't even bother picking up weapons that aren't steel or better, so I sure as shit didn't have an iron dagger, but I figured I would go ahead and find one and bring it to Alvor to see what the hell he wanted. I found an Iron Dagger in his house, stole it and gave it to him. This opened up a series of tasks he asked me to do which basically served as a tutorial to sharpening weapons, crafting leather and creating armor; basically everything you need to know to become a blacksmith. I already knew how to do this - but I had missed this tutorial and it probably would have been really helpful at the beginning of my game. I finished creating some leather and went to give it to Alvor and my controller starts rumbling like crazy and the dramatic music kicks in... A FUCKING DRAGON! I leave Alvor behind at his house and run out into a field where a couple of the guards are already shooting at the dragon. I join the fight and get to work giving this dragon the business. The dragon is almost dead when he takes off again. I chase him across town where he lands - right next to Alvor's house. I'm running across the town and I see Alvor squaring off with the dragon - the dragon is lighting him up with some serious flames. I'm so close. I fall into the stream and get stuck under the bridge. I get out of the stream and hit the dragon with some flames of my own and a whack from my sword and he's dead. But it's too late - Alvor's dead too. The whole town comes over to look at him and his daughter is standing over her dad, crying. I try to talk to her and she says she'd rather not - too emotional. I got the pop-up that the quest I was on failed; but the biggest loss was Alvor - who just wanted to mentor me to become a better blacksmith. I'll continue to use his smithing equipment and probably check in on his wife and daughter from time to time (I looted his housekey off his body). I'm just glad that Stump the Dog is okay. Another cool thing - I was walking along the river bank by Riverwood hunting deer or whatever (just trying to boost up my sneaking and archery) and I saw a Sabretooth across the river, I took a shot at him and he decided he was going to come across and get me. He hit the water close to where the waterfalls start and the current picks up and immediately was taken to the edge of the waterfall where he was wedged against the rock, but he was still trying to get at me. I came down close to the edge of the river and hopped over to a rock close to the one he was stuck on, but still across the main current of the waterfall. I lined up my next arrow right between his eyes and dropped him. The river snatched his body over the falls. Sabre cat eyes are important for any enchanter, so I followed his corpse over the falls. The current took his body much faster than I was going, but I still went after it. Over some more falls, and some more, I lost sight of the body. More falls. The current finally died down and I had gone quite a ways looking for this body; the trips over the falls was worth it. It was like the coolest lazy river. Anyway, the river started getting shallow and there by the side of the river was the corpse of the sabretooth. Motherfucker didn't even have an eye to loot. I've also been in the river and seen random corpses (foxes) go floating by. Someone upstream must have had a fox problem. I've got tons more, but I've got to do some work - I'll talk later about my first glitch; the treatment of black people in America vs. the treatment of catmen in Skyrim; and those motherfucking WispMotherFuckers.

Fucking awesome:

Yeah, I read about the vampirism - I'd like to stay away from that as much as possible. I spent a good 7 hours playing last night. Still epic.

Everyone hating on the wizards. C'mon. Last night, I slayed my first dragon. The one outside of Whiterun. I also achieved 50000 (50006, actually) gamerscore with the achievement associated with slaying your first dragon. It's a huge milestone in meaningless gaming achievements, but I'll never forget reaching it in such a dramatic fashion. It was a battle was pretty intense - not sure if the soldiers helped at all, other than providing a distraction and a last meal for the dragon. I lit him up with arrows, then came in swinging with my sword and flamethower hand. I went right up to his head and hacked him right in the fucking head. After celebrating by hopping all the way back to town, I got totally Skyrim'd by everyone in town while I was on my way to tell the Jarl the dragon was dead. When I got back to town, it was night - so instead of just waiting until morning I went to the bar and got in a few scuffles - on in the name of a lady; one against a lady. I won both and now the chick who wanted to fight me wants to partner up. Not so fast, sister. I hung around the bar a little more, putting shit on people's heads. I was also given a dozen and half missions in the process. I started getting sleepy and realized I was not paying attention to the old guy on the screen was telling me, so I saved and went to bed. Wizards never die.

Seriously, I haven't done shit other than work, eat, shit, sleep and Skyrim. I did bathe my dogs at some point in between. I've been dreaming about Skyrim.

Yeah, I played a few hours last night and the quests started really stacking up. "You're done with that quest? HERE'S SOME MORE!" I might just stick to farming and let the dragons rule this shit. They're not really bothering me and I could give two shits about everyone else.

Yeah, I think I am going to clean out my backlog for now, I am going to be knee deep in this for a long, long time. I'm very excited to take my time and just play it out - no achievement whoring, level glitching - I'm going for the fucking experience.

This. I just "waited" on the peak and it autosaved the game. I'm not positive, but it looks like I can go back to different autosaves... is that correct? That would be beneficial if I make a series of shitty decisions.