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Meeting Mother in the Fatherland (Kirstia's Story, Chapter 2)


gregaaz

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As the sounds of the rowboat faded behind me, I walked up the beach and into the treeline. Under the bright moon, I didn't have much trouble finding my way around, and soon the rasp of sand changed to the crunch of snow. It reminded me in a sense of Northpoint, another land blanketed by snow, but there was something different here from my old home. Northpoint had been... almost a wasteland. Even at the peak of summer, life struggled to persist, and as the lines of communication between the other kingdoms had shriveled in the years after the Great War, so Northpoint had withered away. 

 

But this... this land was locked in snow and ice, for certain, but it was a living land. As I passed between the trees, I heard whispers and hints of life. Rustling underbrush, beating feathers, buzzing insects. If Northpoint was a waste, conquered only by the tenacity of men, then Skyrim was a land of conquerors, from the smallest creature to the largest. I remembered my father's stories of giants and snow whales, and of the long-buried bones of dragons who once reigned over all mortals. Yes, Skyrim - the Fatherland - was a living, breathing, land. And that thrilled me and frightened me in equal measure.

 

Breaking from my reveille, I took in my surroundings once more. No signs of inhabitants - neither the smoke of fires or any footprints beyond those the shore party had left during our horker hunt. I knew I needed to be careful. Until I had a better feel for what I needed to do to blend in here, I couldn't risk falling under scrutiny. Too many questions, and my quest for the Lady might end before it even began. I heard another rustle then, and crouched down, looking left and right. Then I saw it - in the shadow of a tree, a small animal: a fox or wild dog perhaps. I quietly drew my bow - I figured, a hunter with pelt in hand might enter a settlement much easier than a penniless and unknown outsider. Before I could let fly, though, a biting wind blew over me, sending a shiver down my spine and ruining my aim. The little creature scurried away into the underbrush and I started to realize how cold I was.

 

It was still night-time, with no sign of dawn's approach, and I'd need to find shelter if this chill persisted. With a quiet curse, I realized I should have taken an axe from the ship's stores so I could gather firewood. I'm sure the sailors would have humored me. But it was too late for that - the rowboat was by now beyond the carry of my voice, so I was on my own. Shelter then, was my task. Seeking higher ground, I ascended the hill before me, and as I reached its crest I found myself greeted by a strange sight, but one that tickled at memories.

 

Standing stones, long weathered and clearly ancient in their origin, surrounded an earth-filled mound. Unlike the surrounding lands, no snow settled on the mound. As I approached, I could feel through my boots that the stone ring around the mound let of a mild but constant warmth. I wondered if this was one of the dragon burial mounds my father had spoken of. Before I could ponder this further, the grind of stones snapped me back to the present. For a moment, I stumbled to my hands and knees as the ground seemed to shift beneath me. Then, looking up, a ghostly presence greeted me. A dragon. 

 

Empty eye sockets appraised me from its skeletal visage, and I felt as if that gaze was penetrating me, looking into my very soul. Heat rose within me, first indistinct, but quickly growing into a hot, raging fire between my legs. I'd say it was like sitting on hot coals, but that wouldn't be right. Sitting on coals would be torture, but I could only feel pleasure and relief. I pushed my body down against the stone, trying to grind the heat deeper into me. With rising, hot breaths faster and faster I forgot about the chill wind and my surroundings. My world contracted down to the ghostly dragon and the burning desire overtaking my body.

 

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I shifted again, squatting and pressing hard against the stones, feeling a growing pressure beneath my belly and an overriding urge for more. Harder I pressed, urging on the fire to burn through every part of me. All this time, the dragon watched carefully, soundless, motionless. And then, in the space of three breaths, the pressure released in a wave of ecstasy. It was as if I'd been lifted from the ground, floating above the world, almost senseless. A tingling, pins-and-needles sensation, like what I'd feel at a warm fire after too long in the cold, started and my fingers and toes and worked its way towards my center. My body grew slick with sweat, and I felt a warm surge in my nethers not quite akin to anything I'd felt before. As the tingling crept steadily inward towards my heart, my vison swam and dimmed. I barely felt my body strike the dirt mound before darkness enveloped me.

 

For a time, I dreamt. I was sometimes walking, sometimes flying; treading over the frozen lands of Skyrim, crawling through dimly-lit caves. Each time, I heard a rhythmic chanting and a sizzling, ringing sound, but when I looked to it, I was somewhere else. At last, after many times repeating this cycle, I caught sight of the source - a towering wall, engraved with ancient and unreadable signs. Magical power crackled above it, and while I didn't know the name of the place, I felt like I knew the way. 

 

I woke on a warm stone floor. Taking a moment to catch my bearings, I found all my limbs intact, though they still ached from the deadly cold I must have succumbed to. Looking around, I found myself in a small room. Someone had laid down some straw like a poor man's mattress, and next to me there was a bundle of cloth which, on examination, I found contained my possessions. My possessions, and a note.

 

"We spotted you a ways off the road. Thought you were dead, but when we checked you were still barely alive. We decided to throw you in the back of our cart. We're on our way to Ivarstead, and when we get there we're going to drop you off at the inn. For what it's worth, I thought about relieving you of that pretty bow, but my friends convinced me otherwise. You're welcome - and you're someone else's problem now."

 

I shook my head slowly. Not really the friendliest letter I've ever read, but I was grateful they hadn't stooped to robbing me. I stood, stretching, feeling like I hadn't moved in a week. And who knows? Maybe I hadn't. 

 

"Well then," a gruff voice rumbled out, "she's alive after all." It had a foreign tone to it that reminded me of my father. So, perhaps, it wasn't so much a foreign accent as a native one. 

 

I came the rest of the way to stand across from him with the bar between us. Dark haired and impressively bearded, he clearly didn't cleave to the Breton fashion of clean-shaving or neat-trimming.

 

"Aye, I am indeed," I answered him. "I'm Kirsti, and you?"

 

"Wilhelm," he grumbled, "show respect while you're here and you and you'll be fine."

 

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I took that in for a moment. The inn was probably identical to a hundred others like it across all the lands of Tamriel. A sturdy wooden building, warmed by a large hearth, with plentiful food and drink for those who could afford it. That last part, of course, would probably make my time here more difficult.

 

"Then let me thank you first for letting me recover," I said. "I think the chill wind got the better of me." 

 

He laughed at that. "That it did. You've got the Nord blood, that's clear as day, but you're also not from here. You need to be more careful, next time someone might not find you in time. You need... a guide, I think."

 

I shrugged at that. "I believe you. Unfortunately, I'm a little light on coin right now."

 

He looked me up and down then. Probably more taking in my clothes than my body - a fact that I'm not sure whether to be happy or depressed about - before slowly nodding. "It's true, you look the sort whose met with ill luck. Though I see you've managed to hold onto that fine bow. Are you a hunter? I hear Temba is looking for a hunter."

 

I was about to ask him about this Temba when a hand came to rest lightly on my shoulder. I turned to find a red haired woman - a Nord like me - facing me. Elaborate face paint under her eyes distracted from a series of scars that cut deep in diagonal lines across her left cheek.

 

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"Excuse me," she said, "I couldn't help hearing... do you need a companion? My name's Edippa. I'm a healer, and I can stand up for myself in battle."

 

A moment later, she added with some relish: "Especially against undead."

 

I tried my best to give her a warm smile. "Well, like Wilhelm was just telling me, it seems I need a guide. But I can't afford to pay you. Maybe we can split the pay for this job that Temba has?"

 

Edippa let a grin creep across her face. "Don't worry about money. I'm sure we can work something out once you're back on your feet... well, maybe one thing. You're so young and pretty... I'd like to play, let's call it a little game. I'll call you my daughter, and you call me mother. What do you think?"

 

A almost frowned, but I caught myself and kept a neutral expression. I'd never known my mother - father wouldn't talk about it, but as far as I can imagine, either she left him when he sided with the Reachmen, or she perished when the armies of Ulfric Stormcloak retook Markarth. Either way, by the time I was old enough to really know my parents, it was just me an my father. 

 

While I wrestled with my thoughts, Edippa's grin faltered a little. I realized that she was misunderstanding my silence. Yes, it was a strange request, but if that was the price of having not just a guide, but a skilled healer at my side, I'd happily play along.

 

"Oh," I said before the woman could become completely dismayed, "I think it's a fine idea. I'm sorry, I was just remembering... I never knew my mother. I hope I can..."

 

She didn't let me finish. "You poor thing," she cooed, "no wonder I gave you pause. Well, I haven't seen my own children in a long time, and I do miss them. I think we can each give the other something that we're missing."
 

"I hope you're right... mother," I answered.

 

The joy on Edippa's face was hard to mistake as she hugged me rather suddenly. As she pulled us together, she whispered to me, "you won't regret this, daughter."

 

I turned back to the bar, but I found Wilhelm had moved on to serve another customer. Returning my eyes to Edippa, I asked her, "Wilhelm mentioned that someone named Temba was looking for hunters. Do you know who she is?"

 

"Ah, Temba Wide-Arm. I know her. She owns the sawmill, just down the main street from here. I've never seen her frequent the Vilemyr though - she's probably sound asleep right now. If you ask me, we might as well enjoy some dinner and then rest up. She's always out bright and early in the morning."

 

"Well," I said, "I like that idea, but..."

 

"...you don't have any money. I heard. Here," she said, handing me a small purse, "consider it a loan. Buy us something nice to share, and rent the room for the night."

 

"Alright," I said with a nod and a little smile, "thank you."

 

As it turned out, the purse didn't get me very far. I got the room, and some mead, and a plate of cheese. But I found an apple in my pack - apparently the chill air had kept it preserved through my misadventures - and with some careful slicing the two of us managed to put together an acceptable meal. Edippa tried to make a little small talk as we ate, but I don't think I did a very good job keeping pace with her. After a while, we settled into quiet eating and, more exhausted than sated, I soon excused myself the bed. It didn't take long for me to find I wasn't alone.

 

"I hope you don't mind, daughter," Edippa whispered, "but we've only the one bed. Come on, shift over a little so we can both fit."

 

I didn't have the strength to protest, and to be completely fair, the bedroom was a little drafty, so the added warmth helped. As I felt my eyes drooping more and more, I thought for a moment about what the day ahead would bring. Helping Temba, hopefully earning a little gold, but then what? And how to get to Markarth? And then, how to avoid my family's infamy catching up with me? Before I could settle on answers to any of those questions, however, I slipped into deep and restful sleep.

 

Troubleshooting & Conflict Resolution

 

 

Frostfall Teleportation Weirdness

I encountered an interesting glitch when Kirstia passed out from the cold during her dragon mound encounter. Rather than appearing in an inn or at a campsite as expected, she appeared falling through a void. When I opened the console shortly after the teleport completed, I observed I was at coordinates 4000, 97500 (!), -10000 and continuing to fall. 

 

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We aren't the only ones encountering this issue; the Skyrim Survival website contains the following FAQ item:

 

Quote

 

I have “Rescue” enabled, and when succumbing to exposure, I was teleported to a featureless, blank void and became stuck.

Ensure that Frostfall.esp is loaded before (higher in the load order) mods that make edits to inns and taverns.

 

 

This isn't the most technically in-depth FAQ, but it sounds like Frostfall is depending on vanilla markers to position the character. To fix this, we need to first identify which cell she's getting sent to. From the music in the background and my character's comment about being at an inn, it looks like we're at an interior cell somewhere. Parsing the save file reveals that we're at the Four Shields Tavern (!). While the location is a bit of a surprise, the glitchiness makes sense as that location is heavily revised by Rodryk's Dragon Bridge

 

Next, let's see how FF is supposed to be depositing me at the inn. 


 

    elseif i == 4            ;VILLAGE Dragon Bridge
        RescueMovePlayerAndFollowers(_Frost_MarkerDragonbridge)
        rescueDestinationIndex = 404



    elseif rescueDestinationIndex == 404                                                            ;VILLAGE Dragon Bridge
        RescueMovePlayerAndFollowers(_Frost_MarkerDragonbridge)

 

This script property, _Frost_MarkerDragonbridge is definitely relevant to our interests, so let's see what this maps to in xEdit.

 

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Here's the script prop and as expected it maps to an X-Marker. Rodyryk's moves it, but not to the coordinates my character ended up at. I'm wondering if the issue is that Kirstia succumbed to the cold before the sex animation had finished playing and Toys didn't allow her to have her coordinates changed as a precaution against other mods bouncing the player around. So let's check something in-game; specifically, my coordinates in the Tamriel cell before I got teleported. Now it's worth noting at this point that we now have a usable workaround, albeit an immersion breaking one. If teleported to the void, I can save my game, look up the cell in Resaver, and then COC to the cell entry point to escape the void and still end up in the intended location. However, I'd like to fully patch this if possible. 

 

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Well, I think we know where the odd coordinates came from. They were the location my character was in during the sex scene. After discussing the issue with @VirginMarie, I think I've figured out the underlying cause - some sex scenes in the Toys Framework, and in particular Shout Like a Virgin Evolved - are locking the character's position while they execute their functions. Frostfall is successfully changing cell, but it's getting blocked from changing the character's position. In a vacuum, both mods are functioning as intended, so this isn't so much an error as a good old fashions mod conflict. There's a fairly easy solution that involves patching the Frostfall exposure script to add an additional test where it doesn't initiate the passing-out-from-hypothermia event while a Toys scene is running, but because of the way the devkits for FF and Campfire are set up, it's a much more frustrating process than it really should be. Long story short, it's very difficult to recompile the core Frostfall scripts because the same edits the devkit makes to facilitate easy recompiling of 3rd party mods make the compiler crash when working with its native scripts. So for now, I'll make do with the COC workaround until I can sort out a better approach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by gregaaz

7 Comments


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Another really well written chapter! ?

 

You're really good at describing what Kirstia is feeling and experiencing. In particular, her encounter on the dragon mound was very vivid. ?

 

I'll be eagerly waiting to see where Kirstia (and presumably Edippa's) adventures go! ?

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14 minutes ago, LexiAJ82 said:

Another really well written chapter! ?

 

You're really good at describing what Kirstia is feeling and experiencing. In particular, her encounter on the dragon mound was very vivid. ?

 

I'll be eagerly waiting to see where Kirstia (and presumably Edippa's) adventures go! ?

 

But for that big bug I ran into, Kirstia's adventure might have gone very differently in this chapter. She originally woke up at the Four Shields Inn at Dragon Bridge, but I couldn't use that save because if all the diagnostic junk I loaded up to figure out the possible. When I repeated my steps, FF sent me to Ivarstead instead, which in turn led to her getting forcegreeted by Edippa and subsequently recruiting her as a companion. Funny how these things work out!

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31 minutes ago, gregaaz said:

 

But for that big bug I ran into, Kirstia's adventure might have gone very differently in this chapter. She originally woke up at the Four Shields Inn at Dragon Bridge, but I couldn't use that save because if all the diagnostic junk I loaded up to figure out the possible. When I repeated my steps, FF sent me to Ivarstead instead, which in turn led to her getting forcegreeted by Edippa and subsequently recruiting her as a companion. Funny how these things work out!

The risk, and excitement of telling a story based on an actual playthrough. ?

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What an enjoyable read! I am definitely looking forward, to see, how the story continues. ?

 

As a sidenote: FF may not be the only possible cause of that grey-void teleportation glitch. Because I have encountered something that looked exactly like it, without having any of the mods mentioned installed.

I my case it happend a few times when using the lift at the end of the Mzinchaleft dwemer ruin. Instead of appearing back at the surface of skyrim my PC found himself in a grey void, just like in Kirstia's case.

Edited by HM1919
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29 minutes ago, HM1919 said:

What an enjoyable read! I am definitely looking forward, to see, how the story continues. ?

 

As a sidenote: FF may not be the only possible cause of that grey-void teleportation glitch. Because I have encountered something that looked exactly like it, without having any of the mods mentioned installed.

I my case it happend a few times when using the lift at the end of the Mzinchaleft dwemer ruin. Instead of appearing back at the surface of skyrim my PC found himself in a grey void, just like in Kirstia's case.

 

Thanks for the kind words! And yes, very good point that the Grey void can happen any time either A) a teleportation marker gets its coordinates conflicted, or B) something interferes with changing the positional coordinates of the actor during teleport so the cell changes but the position doesn't. 

 

In this case we (me and the mod author) determined that some SLaVE scenes contains failsafe code in some scenes, including the dragon mound love, that preserve the player's position to prevent them from being knocked out of place by environmental or magic effects. It interacted in an emergent way because the SLaVE scene was still running when Kirsti succumbed to the cold. 

Edited by gregaaz
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The Dragon Mound scene, in the pic, looks wrong. The animation scene is normally up on the skull, not down on the ground. So what's up with that? You are supposed to be making out with the skull! :P 

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