(sorry Pevil, had to steal your title)

So, I'm a Nord... big white guy with one handed axes. I've decided to go with light armor and one handed with some smithing. No magic at all... that'll be next run. It's going quite well so far.



After escaping the area, I headed toward whiterun or whatever (same area as Pevil). I have not really done any quests.. just exploring, killing, and looting. With my hard-won loot monies, I purchased a big, black, shaggy-footed horse I call Fluffy. Fluffy and I have had many adventures. Fluffy likes to stomp on wolves. We make a good pair.

The game is amazing so far. All of the things that made Oblivion awesome are here, but oh so much more has been added... and a lot of the crappy stuff seems to have been removed. Since I'm only a few hours in (level 7 now), I can't say for sure, but it's lovely. I've had a few CTDs... two, I think. Also, the game freaks if I alt-tab out... so none of that allowed. I also have had issues with audio... I get a lot of static, and sometimes when people are talking to me, they go all Donnie Darko. However, I made some changes that should hopefully eliminate those problems.

Anyway, now the pics.

Haha I was figuring you'd steal the title, pretty sure we all had the same titles for Oblivion too Loving the screenies so far, what settings you running it on?

Oh yea, guess I didn't say. The game recommended medium, so I started off at that. I switched to high and it's running fine, so I may kick things up a notch.

Lol @ the horse shots. I think you like Fluffy a little too much if you catch my drift.

I continue my quest to just randomly kill bad guys and find stuff. I've taken on a handful of quests now, but since they all seem fairly unimportant, I'm not really actively following them.

I have found a bunch of cool stuff though. I found a cave that holds the burial mound of some ancient king. His story is that he united the tribes of Skyrim until the Imperials showed up. He then fought a guerrilla war as everyone betrayed him for coin or power. Eventually he sold his soul for the power to beat his foes and ended up single-handedly killing 1,000 Imperials, but died himself. His last words said to return his sword to him to wake him up and he would lead skyrim again. In the cave is a rock with a hole to put a sword into. I also got a quest to find his sword. Where the hell it is, though... no idea.

My companion has become quite useful. I decked him out in heavy armor and gave him a nice battleaxe and a decent bow. I also smith his armor and weapons to improve it. He's very useful and hasn't died at all yet. Together we've cleaned up a ton of bandits and some faction. I forget their name, but they live like savages. No dragons, though. I found some sort of ancient ruins that required some puzzle solving to open bridges and get past traps. I got to the main room and there's this huge head staring at me. There're also some button and something that really looks like it would sink into the ground and lead onward. However, I was unable to figure out the secret. I'll need to come back to it later.

In a completely different direction, I discovered some shimmering caverns with some pretty dangerous subterranean folk. With sufficient sneaking, beating, and occasional chugging of my few health potions, I was able to beat my way through their little underground village. Past their area, I found what has to be Dwemer ruins... where I was immediately annihilated by a giant automaton. I'll need to come back to it later.

Meanwhile, I refuse to sell any books until I've read them... which means I'm not hauling around like 60lbs of books in addition to my other gear. Having a companion to carry crap definitely helps, but I really need a home. Some guard muttered something about the steward being able to sell me a house, but the steward wasn't interested in talking about anything like that. It's unfortunate. So I guess I'll keep hauling around my books, selling off duplicates, and slowly reading them when I have time.

@ox.. leaves Fluffy alone!

lol @ Imp stool. I love hearing about you venturing into dungeons and then getting stuck because of some sort of mechanism and/or massive monster. It's that kind of shit that adds to the feeling of being in a world that doesn't (only) revolve around you.

On a side note; I feel the same about the books. I try to read them, since I got the feeling that (like in Daggerfall) they may contain hints and interesting background lore for many things in the game. This was much less the case in Oblivion, but given the sheer variety of books I've picked up so far already I think Bethesda may have made an effort to bring this back a little.

Also, to that end (plenty of books, no house) I'm planning to take up the advice of someone I met and join the Legion. They must have a barracks of some sort that I can use until I get a more permanent place.

lol at the books, that's exactly what Niall (bf) is doing; he's ended up storing them all in a barrel in Solitude though until he gets a house.

I just found a book with that tale of the king (Legend of Red Eagle I think it was called) and now have a quest to find his sword (and I assume return it to him)

Yea, I found that book in his burial cave. Still need to find the sword, though. I'm very interested in seeing what happens.

So, I continued my random wandering, then decided to pick up some actual quests. A guard walking by me mentioned something about being bale to buy a house, so I talked to the steward (same city as you, Pevil). But he didn't offer anything. I ended up getting sucked into some quests, eventually going to get the dragon tablet from that mountaintop. That was great, and I love how the word goes all freaky and stuff.

I then ended up doing the scripted dragon battle and dying several times, though I eventually beat it. I thus became a Thane, bought the house, got my housecarl, etc. I spoke with the steward again and decorated my house... it was pretty cheap, and it's much, much nicer. The house only has 1 bookshelf, but I was able to unload 36 of my books into it. Very handy, that. I also put my pretty glass weapon in its display rack.

BTW, in case you haven't done, book shelves (and weapon display racks) allow you to interact with them and basically just transfer over your books/weapons. The game then automatically arranges them. So awesome! No more wasting hours manually stacking books into a book shelf. Yay Bethesda!

I'm now around level 11. I'm one-handed axe with no shield, which is probably wasteful, but that's ok. I'm also using light armor and I'm making more and more use of sneak and sneak attacks. I was able to wipe out a cave of bandits with sneak attacks except for the bandit leader. Very handy. During my quests in the mountains, I found some elven armor and boots to compliment my elven hand axe. I need to practice smithing more so I can unlock some of the more advanced weapon and armor crafting.

Meanwhile, my helper is awesome. He's using steel armor I built and improved as well as a big orcish battleax. I can usually distract creatures while he hacks them in half. I watched him single-handedly slaughter 3 draugr. He wasn't very helpful against the dragon, though... I left him behind so he wouldn't die for that particular fight.

And now my pics.

Nice pics, I just decorated that house too, haven't put anything on display yet though.

Only played for a little bit during lunch. Stupid work and school and shit.

Anyway, I think the quest markers on maps may be a bit buggy, because suddenly a bunch showed up for me. I chose to kill some bandits.. one of the procedurally generated quests handed out by the steward in my home city. It ended up taking me to a camp of bandits that were poaching mammoths (if you can poach them). So lots of tusks and snouts, of all things.

It ended up being an interesting little fort with cave system. The caves were full of mineables, mainly iron but some corundum. I also found how they killed the mammoths.. not through any acts of valor, but by digging a pit with spikes and letting them fall into it. They also got an elf that way, apparently. Regardless, a fun little diversion with a great deal of loot. I managed to recover an elven shield to compliment the rest of my set, but since I don't actually use a shield, I just dropped it on a table in my house.

I did that same dungeon today, not for the poacher quest though. I think I got sent there to recover some guys family sword. I also found that pit with the poor elf though. That'll teach him to look where he's going. Got tons of ore from that place; came out with 37 iron ore, a few corundum and assorted gems.

Looking at those houses, I feel it's time I become a Thane somewhere...

Also, anyone know where I can buy enchantments? I have soul gems and an enchanting table, but no 'echantments' to pick from. I'd like to enchant my armor to increase my weight allowance haha! I'm guessing I should stop by the mage academy everyone keeps telling me about in the game?

To be honest I haven't seen any for sale, you learn them by disenchanting items you pick up/buy. I did read something that you can pay people to enchant for you (so I assume they would have their own list of enchantments) but not sure if that's true, or where these people are.

Aha, thanks for the tip! Make me regret I didn't buy that item that upped weight allowance now tho, I could have ripped the enchantment.

Yea, Pevil's got it... just destroy an existing item to learn the enchantment. It would be nice to have a full set of armor enchanted to carry more crap.

So, I went to Solitude and, after doing some quests, bought my second house. I thought I was rolling in the cash, but the house cost me 25,000 with about another 12,000 for furnishings. So I was left with about 1,000 gold. But I have another house. I also bought a second house... I now have Fluffy the black/brown horse and a white horse I call Cracker. Unfortunately, you can only have one with you at a time. your companion is still expected to run behind you.

I did a bunch of exploring too. I ended up finding a Daedric quest. Ended up with a really nice one-handed sword I gave to me companion. That also got me another shout or word or whatever. My list is expanding. I'm not sure what to pick... I never use them in fights or anything. I killed 2 more dragons, so now I have like 4 or 5 unclaimed shouts and 2 souls. *shrug*

BTW, in this game, your companions don't die. If they get knocked down to no health, they just sort of go to one knee and "yield" for a bit. Yay! No roasted buddies!

Some pics.