I'm doing a replay of the entirety of Serana with the SDA add on. This add on is incredibly expansive and well done, even having context sensitive comments in the Solstheim DLC. In depth, competitive with the Vilja mod. Be all that as it may, I'll be doing some screenshots but the effort I've been putting into them, up to 20 minutes or more framing, lighting and so forth per, has little returns. I may consider some specific requests.
The Dragonborn toys with a little creative insanity.
Hey guy, let's digress for just a moment. We're missing a few mammoths in the room it seems.
Alduin, big bad world eater. Raises dead dragon buddies. Will pay Sovengard a visit and eat the souls of the dead. So we're talking about what; several million folks and by all accounts 20,000, maybe 50,000 Nord berserkers, many mighty heros, who are going to kick it back and put up with poo poo head and allow themselves to become snacks?
Care to clue me here? The same dragon who got his butt kicked a few minutes ago by a hormone fueled vampiress, a Bosmer pacifist, a confused misbegotten misunderstood dov blooded Nord gal and their faithful undead cow?
Okay, cool, I got it. They need a supershout. Whoopee doo. You teach shouts. The old fogeys down the hill a ways teach shouts. And I'm not seeing anything in the shouts rule book that says I can't teach shouts, especially under the tutelage of you, the master of shouts.
So instead of some impending confront and epic battle, we just teach a select group of several thousand folks that shout then got a pesky dragon in the cabbage patch? Call your neighbors, give a few shouts and then pile on the overgrown lizard. You know, the neighborhood watch and shouts program.
Meanwhile, over in Sovengard, suppose I teach those folks the shout too? How's that sound for a plan B? Just trying to be practical here. Am I missing something?
Pardon me for calling a conference, but a few more mammoths, and another dragon in the room, for a little more insight. Now it's well known the Elder Scribbles are indestructible. And we have a time warp right behind me in which some dude used an Elder Scroll to give Alduin a serious temporal enema. No brainer that the Elder Scribble they used is around somewhere. And being ultra practical, if anybody could find that scroll it's us, the brain trust gathered here.
So we have a plan C. A last resort, or a hefty weapon that can be used to intimidate dragons. You know, play nice and practice a good neighbor policy or we're going to send the lot of you ahead in time. What's so bad about that you say? Check out the state of the world we have at present. Welcome to your future, a smoldering trash pile devoid of life, men and mer having killed each other off an eon or two ago. You dragons can spend an eternity in a blighted disaster area chomping on each other. Or you can wise up like Durn and Paarth here. Comments? Suggestions?
As an aside, a tasty thought. Just deserts plus. Alduin summons you drags back from the dead, one by one we send you ahead in time along with Alduin, and you dragons can express your sentiments to him for all eternity, as in thanks for the sour persimmons cuz.
And by the way... Durn, do you think an Elder Scroll would work in the soul Cairn? Just a possibility we could give those Ideal Masters a serious ration of temporal poop. Would you still be stuck in that place? Or even, without them there running the show, maybe some renovation? I'm thinking at least a nice flower garden................
A: "Well that was an interesting little gathering, to put it mildly. What's your thoughts Serana?"
S: "Only thing in my mind is how badly I'm breaking the rule of never sleeping with anyone crazier than yourself. And how much I'd just love to have a bowl of noodles right now, with a little soy sauce."
A: "Seems like it's a dead heat in the crazy department."
Had an experience playing Rigmor a couple years ago: We had to meet up with the Big Stormcloak Doofus, but he couldn't be found. Then I noticed his quest marker moving rapidly from one side to the other. Apparently, he'd run afoul of a giant who wanted to test out his new sand wedge. After waiting a while, BSD reappeared, having received a bird's eye view of the province.
Rigmor, stop and reload earlier saves. You must follow the quest hints and directions precisely and the actors do not compensate for their environments. Finding the Big Stormcloak Doofus a prime example. He wasn't there twice. I finally loaded a save from when i left Riften, my other followers parked at home, then slow walked to the camp and he appeared. Clearing out an entire cell of enemies before a quest encounter is strongly advised.
BTW, the great final battle with Rigmor. Stand PC on promontory with extra lethal bow, shoot everyone (friendlies are all set essential), move to second promontory and repeat. Battle done <1 minute. Like.... that's it? The battle to save all of Skyrim?
Ultimate ragdoll is a giant scoring a solid hit with it's club. Saw one hit a kitty yesterday around Gjukar's monument. Near went into orbit and vanished upon entering the Whiterun cell.
S: "Present for you, girl of dragon. A new steed."
Right. An elf, a vampire, a misfit human dov and their loyal cow. Truly a legendary epic in the making. Pardon me, and not wanting to sound ungrateful Serana dear, but I think your battle rabbit would be more useful, and certainly much faster.
(I'm amazed at the LOD. High Hrothgar is clearly visible.)
I intensely dislike this part of the main quest. If DB has learned anything it's knowledge is power. And here she finds herself encountering the oldest, wisest being in all of Tamriel and he would very much like to have a long chat. And what does she do? Plonky brains: Kill the dragon, kill the dragon. Tell me the shout and hurry up about it. Paarth thinking .oO(Oh great, average Monday Night ball game fan for brains to save the world. Why do I even bother?)
What is even sadder is in all the games I've encountered, Paarthurnax is by far the best voiced. One could take most of the lore of the entire Elder Scrolls series and pack it in a menu of Q and A. A mod.
Alduin, are you a clompete idiot?? One shout, a brief skirmish and you're going to be spending weeks pulling arrows out. Arrows made of the bones of your cult worshipers no less. And wash, rinse and repeat while I use the shout to convince your loyal followers they are in the wrong camp.
Strolling and reflection. Harkon... his demise was inevitable. Letting the scenic expanses of Skyrim to tell them why that was so.
Serana did her best to be stoic but the tales of her and the dragonborn are still being written. On the distant horizon, the throat of the world and the duty to reveal to the graybeards what they learned from Alduin's wall.
Sniffles: That bow does sound pretty awesome, even if it does ragdoll enemies a bit too far away! Just rolled my first archer not long ago, never played an archer before in Skyrim (have in earlier games, though).
In the falmer city on those slopes and cliffs the ragdoll got utterly ridiculous. Much too fast to grab sceenshots, sometimes blasting the victim right out of the cell to vanish in mid air.
One nice dork of mine in missing a screenshot was sending a troll sailing into Serana who was standing next to a wall. She was staring at the PC with that accusing scowl, wearing a troll skirt. "Smooth move, dipstick. Point that blasted bow somewhere else!"
Daddy: Really like that pic of them in the Bannered Mare loft. That was always such an epic feeling in the early days, renting that room and then being above the rest of the tavern-goers.
So your PC's a self-portrait then (except for the hair)?
Of my partner. In RL our jobs were taking us in divergent directions locations wise so I used Skyrim, so much like our home in the mountains, as the backdrop, and her as the protagonist. Pure sentimentality and the main reason I started playing the game.
A little tongue in cheek aside humor, she has numerous female admirers and gets laughs at my playing her being promiscuous. I send her screenshots and saved games. In reality her mood and seriousness is much like in that image. Deadly serious her major character trait. So her being flighty and ahem, available, is very sarcastic.
This is with my old video card, unprocessed. Every picture tells a story? Shortly after we met Squishy had taken me for a hike in the Tetons. We made our way down to the river. On the river bank we stopped to talk. Then this random screen shot that startled me it was so real. Instantly draws me back to that precious moment. (Just swap the bow for Kitten, her rifle)
I spent hours learning how to adjust and fix the appearance of the PC down to matching her skin tone and every nuance of her face and expression. Total fail with the hair but same color anyway.
Thanks. Hours of tweaking and fussing just about every graphics setting on the computer and in programs. So much fussing and settings I've made a System Restore Point just for the graphics. I still can't get the LOD Sky to not look like ugly fractals sometimes. And the posted shots are only shadows of the images, reduced to 72 dpi 1024 pixel or less. All the pics I've posted recently are just over 10 MB on the hosting site. I'm doing my best to be polite in appreciation for the free hosting.
My present theme; taking advantage of beating my video card into submission somewhat for scenery. Then entirely random situations that deserve some sort of title that could explain what might be going on. And stupid moves like trying to travel at night with realistic darkness. We did travel from Lakeside to that tavern trying to follow the road to stay in Falkreath for the night. Could not find it. Found Lake Inalta and followed it's shore instead. All night trek. Then the Chancery isn't effected by the Springtime mod thus the snow.
Entirely natural occurrences and underlying super stupid blunders. For example, that Serana naked in Lakeside. I had collected all my resources from all the houses - two hours of game play trekking. Went through the huge list of items I could make going entirely by appearance, made and remade Serana's gorgeous outfit, another hour, searched out the best lighting, indoors, lots of indirect light from multiple directions. Then clicked the wrong menu selection on Serana, had the perfect stately casual pose, and FLUG! Then my usual stupid move I saved over a save instead of loading a save and all that effort went poof. Completely fed up I just wanted to travel, as it happened, in the pitch black night.
As for gear, hours upon hours of smithing with a rigid criteria. The most smithing improved to Legendary of the mod outfits, ultra weapons from mods also smithed to the max while skimpy attractive, (A major headache) but for a specific purpose. Anduniel and Serana 2000 armor rating and ultra lethal, and Dragonborn a series of compromise after thoughts. Crappy armor rating with everything poured into bow to cope with dragons. Then glitch time, she developed advanced vampirism for no reason in certain locations, repeatedly. I had to check every few minutes. Used the console to remove it and console said she didn't have the condition! So I swapped out smithing and armor gear for gear that resisted disease which seems to help But left her even more wuss.
The whole plan being the followers cope with any and all enemies affording me the opportunity to take screenshots.
This is that pitch black pic with post processing brightness cranked through the roof. Just a taste of the insanity I undertake getting nice shots. I knew there were nice flowers there, but I had blown all the daylight doing smithing. Guessing in the dark.
Of course I've taken dozens of art pics reminiscent of many of the great masters but NSFW+++ that I can't bring myself to censor. One of Serana in bed that looked a living so perfect revisiting of a Modigliani that merits printing and framing. (Since when is playing ANY game suitable for work?)
(Dragonborn proves she has some human failings and frailties.)
Onward we plod. The mages college failed to go to hell in a bucket but made up for it by installing the least competent or interested person in all of Tamriel to be the new arch mage. May it slide gracefully into the sea of ghosts.
And then the intrepid misfits finally visited Dexy to get the scrolls read. No luck there and the fate of the world is now depending on how well Girl des Dragon is able to attract moths. In actuality, she is much better suited to this job description as she has been attracting things, foul and fair, for most of her life.
Post Lepidoptera communion the major plan is to find their way out of a cave and go to Andi's tavern for a most welcome break. As daylight waned, the girl of reptiilian pollution stops enroute at Lakeview to further refine her bow fueled by the elixir she recently found. Okay okay. Maybe we should have stayed the night at Lakeview, but do any of us want to take the chance of waking snuggled up to Sofia? Damp yellow sheets anyone?
Entirely missing Falkreath we managed to find Andi's tavern by the simple method of walking north until our feet got wet then walking westish until we stumbled across the place around abouts dawn.
Alive if not exactly rested up the alleged supposed hero out of legends explains her brilliant threefold strategy. Okey dokey, Meets up with what's left of the Blades and check out Alduin's demise as carved into a wall. Akaviri wishful thinking and we're screwed so keep a positive attitude. Next we swim up a few miles of river and pay our disrespects to Darkfall cave to find the end all be all bow Serana's daddy has been having wet dreams about. And best of all, we take time out to try out my new spiffed bow with some light dragon hunting.
Serana is less than enthusiastic. (A pose similar to the one I botched)
We set out, saying hello to the weakest kidneys in Skyrim. This guy has been taking a potty break for over three months.
Then it was a absolutely beautiful day for a stroll through foresworn infested canyons.
To at last arrive in a falmer housing development during a blizzard.
A: "Bubbles for brains my dear, that bow utterly sucks. How are we supposed to loot the corpses when it keeps sending them off cliffs or sailing over the horizon? And by the way, since we are on yet another save the world from the vile and contemptuous quest, how exactly does the great hore... err hero fit in with all the moral fiber of a very limp noodle. As in wife, two sisters in law and two kids in home B, roughly eight girlfriends in homes A, C and several taverns, and you're combining world rescuing having a fling with an undead strumpet."
S: "HEY! She just added some class to her.... umm, forget it."