Day 1 - A Cold Start

Raatul in her grace

    So, tonight, I got started with our character, the female Bosmer archer with Legolas style. Now, to say the least, the Bosmer people are wood elves, relative of the Altmer, high elves. They came from Valenwood, somewhere west? I don't really know but they are the wood people of Tamriel. Now, as I go along I would explain what mod I'm using and so on. The picture of Raatul above is far from the vanilla one. I used CBBE - Caliente's Big Bottom Edition mod. A body mod for female and I chose the Curvy set. Because who doesn't like boobs? Anyways, I also installed Sporty Sexy Sweat body texture, providing a sexy glisten on Raatul's body... currently unseen because she's wearing clothes. I assure you, when I unequip them, you will definitely see the sweat... You may also notice the hair mod, ApachiiSkyHair. Because females need to look fabulous. As for the face, I go for Bella's Beauty mod that makes the whole feminine face. Trust me, the vanilla female either look like guys or old women. Another mod in the pic is also FNIS - Fores' New Idles, which gives her the pose there, like a model. I like short women but to be more lore friendly, Bosmer are generally high, like the other elves, so I gave her the vanilla height. One last mod in the pic is the Alternate Start - Live Another Life mod that gives you options other than the vanilla one for you to start your adventure.

If you see the statue there, you've a good eye. That's the Temple of Azura.

  

    I sort of chose the "I was attacked and left for dead" option, and I got this place. Snowy... way north and between two cities, Dawnstar and Winterhold. But I'm not going there. The main storyline starts when you go to Helgen, a village wayyyy south of here. By the way, in the picture above, I used Climates of Tamriel, because I love how the author makes the sky looks so wonderful. I tried Realistic Lighting Overhaul but since the new update, everything was either too bright or too dark. Talking about snow, I also installed Frostfall, a survival mod that I love. I mean, Skyrim is a snowy region of Tamriel and well... let's say you're supposed to die if you don't have much protection and preparation to face the cold climate.  Another mod, also running in the background is Realistic Needs and Diseases, which makes you EAT and DRINK and SLEEP like a normal human being. Right now, I have to get out of this cold, before I freeze to death.

Frickin mammoth... almost killed me

    I walked around towards South and found some dead adventurer's bones. There were some armors there, so I took them. But on my way down, there was this one huge mammoth blocking the only way. In order to get south, I have to either a) scale the mountain or b) use a huge cleavage between the mountains. I chose b) and there it was... the mammoth, blocking the way. I had no choice but to just charge through and hopefully outrun the mammoth. It got me once but thanks to the bit pieces of armor I found, I survived. Clothing isn't much of a protection against a mammoth. In this picture, I used several other mods. First, it's the Cloaks of Skyrim mod that gives Skyrim some much needed cloaks and capes in order to survive Skyrim, works great with Frostfall. Another one is the Dual Sheath Redux, which places the shield on my back instead of me holding it. It also makes the left handed weapon appear on your body, useful for dual bladers out there. I prefer Sword & Shield myself but for this run, I'll have to use dual sabers.

Nightgate Inn - a place of warmth

    Luckily, I found an inn called the Nightgate Inn. With this, I can finally increase my Exposure Resistance, so I don't die from cold. Nothing much to say about this inn, there's this drunk guy always there and the innkeeper, some bald old guy who inherited the inn from his predecessors. Anyway, there's not much to say about mods in the pic but it is safe to say that I am using Immersive HUD, IHUD that lets me control what to display on my HUD. Currently for a more realistic experience, I disabled the crosshair. So, using my bows are going to be harder......

    Yup. A jester, transporting his sweet dead mother to a new crypt. I found him when I entered the Southern region of Skyrim, as you can see with the green and warm climate. Let's just say, I helped him with his broken cart, getting help from a farm nearby, and he paid me 250 gold just for that. Wow. Anyways, I quickly got out of there because who knows what's in that big box of his. For all you know, he's transporting contraband. Weapons. Skooma (read: drugs). I stumbled into the Eastern fort of Whiterun, on the way and I saw some bandits patrolling that area. Since, I am still level 1 and only have like 60 HP, I quickly decided to let the guards handle them. The fort had 3 men stationed there, so I had to lure the bandits close to the fort and WHAM, guards with their crossbows quickly killed the 3 bandits with ease. I looted all three of the bandits and got new gears; fur armors, and a broadsword. At last, a weapon. I made my way onward to my first waypoint, Whiterun, city of trade and the center of Skyrim.

Dragonreach - Jarl of Whiterun's palace

       That's Raatul in fur armor and broadsword on her back. I am using Immersive Animations mod to go along with Dual Sheath Redux and also XP32 Maximum Skeleton, so I can get the swords to be on my back. The Dragonreach is in Whiterun, by looking at it I have to circle around the hill to get to the entrance.

Katixas' Cider House

    So on the way to Whiterun, I found another great mod. Katixas' Cider House provides the player, i.e. you, to run a cider house. It provides apple trees, cider press, a restaurant, a house, and waitresses for you. It can also generate extra income and you don't even have to be there to get money! A great mod for those who wants to be more of a businessman in Skryim than an adventurer. I quickly got in and get ahold of the house, plucked some apples from the apple trees there, and pop them into the machine.

Cider Press

    The cider house would give me some initial income, in case I want to wait for a whole week to get the cider prepared but who knows. I may need some money to buy equipments. Anyways, it's 3:05 A.M. and I need to get to sleep. We'll continue this tomorrow and see what happens to Raatul, the Bosmer archer.

    Now, after this, I will start writing the adventure in a first person mode. Meaning, it will be a story based on Raatul's perspectives, with her own characteristics, preferences and attributes. I will try to get Raatul to become one full fledged character and somehow get you to know about Skyrim and modding more...

P.S. I had to restart once because there was something wrong with a save and I quickly found out that you do NOT push the Grass fade too high because laptops aren't supposed to handle such high processing. Oh, and for those who are wondering... Raatul's name came from a certain... person that has a special place in my heart. It also means queen (Ratu), in malay.