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R.I.P. neildarkstar. Haven will miss you dearly.
| Gremlaith Ulfricsdottar and the Lay of the Black Mask | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 17 2017, 12:03 AM (625 Views) | |
| Areial | Feb 19 2018, 10:41 PM Post #81 |
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Et'Ada
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True that! |
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| neildarkstar | Feb 20 2018, 04:13 AM Post #82 |
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Overlord
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Good read indeed! I always just think of myself as setting booby traps. that would ake me up if anything a came near. Since I so often play mages, runes work well for that sort of thing. You've no idea how often in RL I've wished I had a fire rune spell... |
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| Serethil | Feb 20 2018, 09:57 AM Post #83 |
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Et'Ada
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Yep, the rune spells are something I would really LOVE to have available IRL right now - for the turkeys.... |
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| Areial | Feb 20 2018, 10:19 AM Post #84 |
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Et'Ada
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flash frozen turkey.... |
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| Serethil | Feb 20 2018, 10:24 AM Post #85 |
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Et'Ada
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Heh. I wish. Actually, I'd probably have to use a shock rune and "turn it down" so I wouldn't get in too much trouble with DNR.... |
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| Kane | Feb 20 2018, 11:02 AM Post #86 |
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Overlord
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Avanchnzel is one of my favorite dungeons. Grem is keeping busy! |
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| Serethil | Feb 20 2018, 11:05 AM Post #87 |
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Et'Ada
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Yep, and I hadn't done it for a while for some reason, so it was a good time for Ashlin to go run it! |
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| Serethil | Mar 1 2018, 07:17 PM Post #88 |
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Et'Ada
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Chapter 14: I hope this is the last Dwemer ruin I EVER have to enter! This is running through my mind like a prayer - while I wait for a potion to take effect on several wounds from those damn spiders and sphere-things. This part of the ruin seems to have more of the automatons about, and I made a little too much noise unfortunately. It’s damned hard to sneak-crouch for hours though, and since I hadn’t heard any of the noises they make, I walked straight into a pack of various ones in a huge room with even larger things lying on table- like stones. At least those weren’t “alive”.... I don’t know how you’d kill something that large. I managed eventually to kill the spiders, then started on the spheres. This is did by dropping down from the top of a rack into a corner, where it was narrow enough that only one at a time could come at me. I was damn near out of arrows by the time they were all dead.... I spent a fair amount of time gathering the arrows back up - they’d flown all over the room. I hoped I’d collected enough to get me the rest of the way through this place! I headed up the set of stairs, and into a corridor - to find the body of the human male, Drennan. And as I crept around the next corner, there were the orange apparitions again - with Drennan running toward me at the corner. I couldn’t tell what might have killed him. Reaching the door at the end of that passage, I opened it carefully, sneak-crouching and with bow at the ready. The three remaining ghosts were discussing “hearing” the Lexicon, and that they must be close. As they disappeared, I heard the sounds ahead that meant one of the Dwemer machines was near, so I slithered carefully down the sloped hallway to the corner, waited until it headed away, then nocked an arrow and moved out so I could get a shot at it. From behind, it only took one - and the arrow bounced back toward me, so I grabbed it up. In the next room, the ghosts were having another conversation. The human female, Breya, was saying something didn’t feel right about it before they disappeared through the door ahead. I followed, and stopped the minute I opened the door. Trap plates! I wondered what sort of machinery they’d set off - but chose to edge my way carefully to just shy of them then stood and jumped over them. There was a long trough-like runway from top to bottom of the downsloping passage - no doubt something deadly would run along it. But I wasn’t about to stick around to find out. As I reached the bottom, the body of Watches-the-Roots lay beside the channel - sliced badly. So whatever sort of trap it was, it was certainly deadly. I slipped through the door, hoping I was going to be luckier than Drennan and the Argonian - that is, that I’d make it out of this damned ruin alive! I went back into a crouch and eeled around the corner to the left - and stopped. There was one of those huge Dwemer things like on the tables in the earlier room - and I thought it was “alive”, because it was standing in some sort of framed area, and seemed to be breathing out steam. I had one chance, I figured. One only. I had to get close enough to send as many arrows into it as I could before it knew I was here. I had no doubt that it could easily kill me if I failed to injure it sufficiently and quickly. So I dropped to my belly and began to slither as much like a snake as I could. And I tried very hard not to make much noise. I managed to get almost to the end of the hall, then got to my knees, limbered my bow, nocked an arrow, put an arrow behind each ear, and held two in my teeth. And hoped they’d be enough. I aimed carefully - since I really had no idea what this particular automaton’s most vulnerable spot might be, I chose to aim for the head with the first arrow. The damn things were made of armor as it was; even the spiders and spheres usually needed more than one arrow.... So I loosed the first arrow, got another arrow nocked and on its way, just in time to see the thing walk out of the frame and start for me! I scrambled backward, sending two more arrows at it, and the last one just as it reached the hallway. I dropped the bow and grabbed my daggers, running past it and slicing at it as I went. Damn it was fast! I hurtled across the room with it in close pursuit, ran up the set of stairs at the end, and jumped off the platform as it lumbered up the steps. I ran back up behind it and used both daggers - one on each knee joint. At that point it all but tumbled over on top of me. I jumped out of the way, ran back and scooped up my bow, and stood there pouring arrow after arrow into it. Finally it slumped into whatever sort of death these things found. I fell to the floor, my heart beating so fast I thought I was probably going to die myself. I sat, head hanging and hands shaking, for a while. Then I got up to look around - I needed to find where the Lexicon was supposed to go. As I neared the steps at the end of the room again, I realized that Breya had died there - and that there was a second one of the huge machines nearby, dead. So yes, only From-Deepest-Fathoms had lived to return to Riften. Shaking my head, I looked around and realized there was only one place to put the Lexicon: a pedestal at the top of the stairs. I took the damned thing out of my pack and set it into the top of the pedestal. It whirred and rotated. The door behind it clicked, rather as if a lock had been unlocked. I went through the door to find a lever which I hoped would help me get out of this place. Pulling it caused a lot of noise as the floor on which I stood rose up a shaft-like contrivance. From the top, there was a door with a bar across, which I raised out of the way, and then pushed my way through the door and out of that ghost-ridden ruin. I could hardly wait to get back to talk to Hides-in-Weeds. |
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| neildarkstar | Mar 1 2018, 07:53 PM Post #89 |
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Overlord
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What fun! :D |
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| Serethil | Mar 1 2018, 08:28 PM Post #90 |
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Et'Ada
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It was, rather! Thanks! |
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| Areial | Mar 2 2018, 08:46 AM Post #91 |
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Et'Ada
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That was a ...Trip.. a scary trip! |
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| Kane | Mar 2 2018, 09:07 AM Post #92 |
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Overlord
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No small feat, but always worth the blacksmithing boon! :clap: |
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| Serethil | Mar 2 2018, 10:06 AM Post #93 |
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Et'Ada
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Yep - it's really not fun for a stealth character unless she is decent with a bow. And you really almost always have to get up close and personal with the Centurion.... Thanks Sis! Yes, but not story-wise - at least not for Grem. Thanks Kane! |
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| neildarkstar | Mar 2 2018, 04:00 PM Post #94 |
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Overlord
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Eh, for stealth characters I just let the Centurion chase me til I catch him... (in that Dwemer floor trap). |
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| Serethil | Mar 2 2018, 07:11 PM Post #95 |
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Et'Ada
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Hmm. I never thought about doing that.... I'll have to try that next time! |
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| Lapuaboy | Mar 7 2018, 09:12 PM Post #96 |
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Thane
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Just now catching up on my reading; I wasn't ignoring Grem! I was wondering how Grem would fare in there, and she did good :) Nice job Sere :thumb: |
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| Serethil | Mar 7 2018, 09:18 PM Post #97 |
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Et'Ada
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Thank you Lap!
Edited by Serethil, Mar 7 2018, 09:18 PM.
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| Serethil | Mar 11 2018, 07:50 PM Post #98 |
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Et'Ada
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Chapter 15: Hides-in-Weeds gives me the information - but I’m not sure what to make of it! The Black Mask lays off of the ice north of Winterhold near The Chill, which the Argonian marked on my worn and torn map. I didn’t have a clue that a ship of any draft at all could get so far north in the Sea of Ghosts. Damn. That was going to mean a LOT more clothes than I’m happy wearing. And a long trek, across the ice on foot. I couldn’t possibly consider a horse out there - nothing to eat for one thing - and as for a small boat.... well, I could barely manage to row one on a very calm stretch of water. As for doing so on a huge reach of open sea, with a wind fetch of many leagues most like - no, not going to happen. So I thanked the Argonian, took my leave, and stopped by the market before I headed for my hide. I bought used clothing, heavier than I generally wore; and a newer tent, with fewer holes. I grudgingly paid for a well-made, really heavy fur cloak. Then I stocked up on meats and bread, butter, and some onions and potatoes. And healing potions, among other things like really good arrows - yes, that trek through the Dwemer ruin (may there never be another!) had given me much in the way of coin, and I’d stashed some of the more salable items for later. Now, in Windhelm, no one thinks twice that the tent one buys is white since that’s really all they have - but I knew it was going to likely be my only refuge on the ice floes, and it needed to not be obviously a tent. White snow bear and snowy sabre cat fur should - I hoped! - blend in enough to keep me from being stalked by those aboard the ship. Adding to that, I expected snow out there, which with the tent pitched and staked firmly into the ice should make it look more like a natural snow-covered ice berm than anything man-made. I planned to find the Black Mask, then choose a hide - pitching the tent with the opening on the side away from the ship. Now, I wasn’t sanguine about these measures I was taking, or the plans I was laying to. But I had to have some of each, and that night I went to my rude not particularly comfortable bed and fell into - thank Talos - dreamless sleep. |
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| Areial | Mar 11 2018, 08:54 PM Post #99 |
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Et'Ada
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good woman.. planning for flexibility! |
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| Serethil | Mar 11 2018, 09:01 PM Post #100 |
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Et'Ada
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Yup. Since she's had no one to depend on her entire life really (leaving Talos out of it for now), the only person she can depend on IS herself. Thanks Sis! Edited by Serethil, Mar 11 2018, 09:01 PM.
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