I have to admit, if I didn't know he was a Hlaalu, I would have mistaken Forrien for a Wood Elf. The antlers just screamed 'Bosmer.' But then again, I had antlers, and I'm not a Bosmer, so perhaps it was just evidence that this was indeed the mer I needed to speak with.

 

Unfortunately, I wasn't going to be doing any speaking with him. His loose-fitting robes might have hidden the most graphic signs of his violent end, but rolling him over I could see the slit in his robe where a sword had plunged into him, just about his right kidney. The little glowing thing seemed agitated by me disturbing the elf, bumping up against him and then sharply fluttering its deligate filigree wings in my face. 

 

"Was he your master, little guy?" I asked. I didn't really expect a response, but I thought its glow dimmed a little when I said that. It snapped its wings at me again when I tried to open Forrien's pack, and I held up both my hands to try and placate it. 

 

"I'm sorry I couldn't get here in time to save him," I said. "But I need to see if he has anything on him, any clue about what's happened to me." I pointed at my antlers. 

 

 

It flitted close then, wings buzzing as it practically touched my face, my brow, my antlers. Then it slowly drew back remaining facing me. Cautiously, I reached for the pack and started to undo its clasp. This time, the little construct didn't try to stop me. It just hovered there, occasionally fluttering its wings to keep its position.

 

Inside the pouch I found what looked like various bits of clothing and armor - bracers, a folded up leather harness of the sort a berserker might wear in lieu of armor, an a leather belt that plunged into a 'V' shape at the front. All of them seemed finely made and had the barely perceptible tingle of enchantment on them. Beyond those, I also found a strange stemmed bulb made of gold. The bulb itself was formed like a cage, leaving the interior empty and open.  

 

 

And beneath all of this, I found his books. One was a grimoire of some sort; surely valuable but of little use to me. The other, however, was a leather-bound manuscript. The cover face was blank, but inlaid in the spine I read the words 'Depravity and Degeneracy.'

 

"Is this your master's research?" I asked the orb idly. It fluttered at me, though whether that was affirmation or denial, I had no idea. After considering my options for a moment, I gently removed Forrien's pack and slung it over my shoulder, then started to lift his body. The little glow-thing seemed agitated by that, but I tried to calm it.

 

"I'm sorry, little guy, but I have to take him to town. He deserves a proper burial and the guards need to know what happened here. You can come with me if you want."

 

The bauble's light seemed to dim a little, but the beat of its wings became more regular and it started to follow me as I laid the elf over my shoulders. It struck me that this was a lot easier than the last time I'd had to heft something this heavy. Perhaps this was the influence of the Warrior Stone at work, or perhaps I'd just become more adept at bearing burdens. 

 

Still, by the time I reached the Helgen gates, I was exhausted. The guards, however, weren't very sympathetic about my need to sit down when I showed up with a dead body over my shoulder. I explained about the ambushed pilgrims and how the guard could find the abandoned cart. After answering far too many follow-up questions for my comfort, the guards finally took Forrien's corpse off my hands and let me enter the city walls. I half expected the little bauble to go with its master, but instead it stayed with me, flittering and fluttering around. 

 

 

'City,' it turned out, was being a bit too generous with Helgen. It was more like a mid-sized village that had sprung up around an Imperial fort and, in time, had the walls expanded to protect the townfolk. Curiously, the guards here were in Imperial Legion uniform, not the garb of Falkreath Hold guards, and I wondered who really held the reigns here. Perhaps that was why Forrien settled on here at last - no need to curry favor with the Jarl, just the predictable and regular hassles of Imperial bureaucracy to navigate. 

 

It wasn't long before I found the inn. I didn't waste any time in securing a room - today I didn't feel like sleeping on the floor in front of the hearth. For fifty Septims, actually, I was very pleased with what I got. A double bed in a spacious room, with dinner of salmon, bread, and cheese laid out for me promptly. I'd planned on reading through Forrien's book before bed, but once I'd finished filling my stomach the fatigue of the day hit me like a punch in the face. My earlier plan fast forgotten, I peeled out of my armor and climbed into bed. Sleep came for me fast, despite the warm glow of the little critter flitting about my room. 

 

 

The following morning, I had the innkeeper fetch me a bucket of warm water for a washing up before sitting down for breakfast. After I finished off a bowl of oatmeal and a plate of apple slices, I retrieved Forrien's oddly-titled book and cracked it open to read. The book wasn't Forrien's own writing, but rather the work of a wizard, a member of the Synod of Cyrodiil, and evidently the descendant of a man named Crassius Curio. The author wrote at length about the workings of the long-departed Dwemer, and the tools they created to control their slaves. Tools that, I realized, resembled a great deal the items I'd found in Forrien's bag. 

 

I read the entire work, and it was somewhat to my disappointment that I found no real clues about the link between these Dwemer magics and the powers influencing my fate. The only hint I could discern was a mention of a place of power on Lake Ilinalta - not far from Helgen, in fact - that was linked to the toys' unusual magical powers. There was also a reference to several other works by Curio that resided in libraries far to the south in Cyrodiil. Perhaps, if the pass was open, I might venture to Bruma and points south, but this felt like a tenuous link at best. I decided to visit Lake Ilinalta first and see if I could discover what secrets it held.

 

I plopped the cover of the book closed and it shut with a crack. Not the crack of air being forced from between the pages, but a crack like lightning. Then, I could feel Forrien's pack vibrate slightly and warm against my hip. I looked down just in time to see Forrien's 'toys' passing through the side of the bag as if it wasn't even there. A moment later, and I found the belt, bracers, and harness tightening themselves until they were snug against my body. A moment later, I felt a cold presence against my back passage, and I realized the bulb was forcing its way into my anus. I tried to clench down and keep it out, but it pushed on despite my efforts, demonstrating the same 'phasing' enchantment it had used to escape the pack. 

 

 

I stretched my arms and legs experimentally, and found to my relief that the bindings weren't actually restricting my movement at all. The leather straps were snug, even tight, but not uncomfortable. In fact, it was as if they had a perfect fit to my body. So perfect that I was confident I could still don my armor over them. I tried and found that not only did my armor still fit, the harness underneath provided a bit of extra support that spread the weight more efficiently and took some of the strain off my upper back and shoulders. 

 

"OK," I said the floating orb, "maybe this isn't so bad. Any thoughts on visiting the lake?" Its wings buzzed in response, a gesture as undecipherable as always. Leaving my room, I thanked the innkeeper Matlara for her hospitality and put foot to road. Rather than retrace my steps from before, I left out the west gate; descending along a fairly steep road, I could see why the Empire chose to keep a garrison at Helgen. It held the literal high ground against any attack from the north or west, and controlled the mountain pass to the east. I followed that road for a time until I reached the town of Pinewatch. I recalled from my studies of the provincial maps that a logging road went north from Pinewatch right to the banks of the lake. 

 

Shortly after passing the town's gatehouse, I stopped a woman dressed in leathers - a hunter I suspected - and asked her about the logging road.

 

 

Pointing towards a ramshackle stone house on the outskirts of town she said, "head around the old farmstead and across the little stream. From there, you should pick up the trail and its a straight shot through to the lake. Looking to do some fishing?"

 

"Of a sort," I said. "I'm fishing for information. An acquaintance of mine told me about a treasure hidden at the lake."

 

"Aaaah," she said with a wry grin, "another treasure hunter. Just mind yourself near the old fort. I hear its haunted. And, you know, watch out for slaughterfish."

 

"Thanks," I said, "I'll do that." With a smile and a parting wave, I made my way to the old farmhouse. True to the hunter's words, I found the little stream and after that, the dirt path. 

 

 

Soon enough, I reached the tree line and then a dozen paces later, I was at the edge of the lake. I scanned left and right, not sure what to do next. I had a vague sense of a pull towards the lake itself, but I couldn't make out a firm destination. 

 

Then the little bauble started to fly away, before turning back and buzzing its wings towards me. A moment later, it repeated the gesture, and I realized it was pointing towards a shallow spot in the water between show little islands. From where I stood I couldn't quite make out any detail, but it looked like something lay just below the surface. 

 

 

Rolling up my fur cloak and making sure my travel pack was tightly sealed, I made my way into the water. Considering Skyrim's generally cool climate, I found the water pleasantly warm; clearly the morning sun had shone on it long enough to raise the temperature just a little bit. Soon I was standing under drooping branches of a large tree on the western of the two islands, and from here I could see much more clearly what lay beneath the surface. It was stone, but not rock. Instead, it looked like a momument of some sort, of carved stone long neglected, was tipped over and lying just below the waterline. 

 

I waded closer and then found myself fighting to keep my footing. In a gout of blue magical energy, the fallen monument began to right itself and rise from the water. As it broke the surface, I could see that it was a standing stone... and like the one that had drawn my hand on the mountain road, this one bore the markings of the constellation of the Warrior.

 

 

Remember that you chose this path, The Teacher whispered in my ear as the stone fully emerged from the water. I knew what would happen next: the spheres of power emerged and waited for me to accept them. I undressed and, somewhat to my surprise, discovered that the belt and harness seemed to have vanished. I recalled from Forrien's book that some of the so-called toys were known for this kind of behavior, and I think I had already seen one manifestation of it when they passed touchlessly through Forrien's pack. 

 

I felt a powerful draw to this standing stone, far more than I'd experienced from any of the previous ones I'd communed with. A quick check with my fingertip revealed that my pussy was already slick with warm juices, and I rubbed my slit up and down the length of the pole before lowering myself down a bit more and opening myself to the first sphere. My anus, having been stretched for some time by the golden bulb, easily admitted the spheres with little resistance, and I guided them deep into my body, until I could feel hot, tingling magic spill into me. I rocked back and forth, each time working the spheres a little deeper into my guts and each time feeling just that much more pleasure pulse through my body.

 

 

I fucked the stone with ever-growing passion until finally I could take it no longer and felt spasms start to wrack my body. I pushed back as hard as I could then, going almost far enough to push my buttocks against the stone, and an intense shock ran through my body light a lightning bolt. Feeling as if my heart was about the leap out through my throat, I could feel thick, hot sweat pour from every pore of my body, coating and drenching me in hot slime. I cried out in a long, fervent moan, and only then realized that the sweat pouring from my body was black like ink. 

 

 

 

Behind the Scenes

 

Body Diversity

While I was browsing the Nexus today, I came across a new BHUNP Bodyslide Preset. Presets like this are important because they feed into the body randomization function of OBody Standalone, which adds distinctiveness and variety to the look of the different characters in the world. It's not perfect, as it won't do anything for characters wearing armor or clothes with a vanilla reference body (this was a big part of why I converted the Wench's Wardrobe to BHUNP earlier) but otherwise it's a super valuable feature. On further review, I discovered this author had previously published three other presets, all of which appear to be pretty high quality.

 

These mods don't contain a plugin or any traditional assets (meshes, textures, etc.). Instead, they contain xml files with slider position data for the preset. We do want to look at these and make a decision about whether or not we need to hide any files.  

 

 

The author was nice enough to include separate nude and outfit versions for three of their four mods. If I was only using this one preset and building my outfits to it in bodyslide, I'd pick and choose which version I used based on the fit of the clothes I was working with. Unfortunately, OBody isn't quite that sophisticated yet and it'll load any xml files it finds into its randomizing array. In my experience, "outfit" bodyslides usually look fine even on an undressed character, but this "extra pushup" one might be a little too gravity-defying. Fortunately, there's an animated gif of the variations on the author's nexus page and it doesn't look too bad.

 

I still ultimately decided to hide the Xtra Pushup version. I didn't feel like I was missing anything, but a the same time this profile would skew the probabilities towards this particular body more than I wanted. After doing that, I activated all four mods and moved them to my BHUNP Presents section.

 

 

 

Waiting List Additions

I came across a few mods that look promising, but that I can't install right now because they'd break my configuration. These I added to my waiting list.

 

• The Hive -- may want to move the worldspace locations to Solstheim or Wyrmstooth to keep the chilly alpine feel but get them out a fairly crowded, relatively low-level part of the game world.
• Extra Gloves SE -- there are also a number of other gloves mods that I should look at and consider adding at the same time I do this mod. Will need better world integration than just a vendor.
• Bridge customization -- specifically Wooden Bridges, More Wooden Bridges, Skyrim Bridges, and Covered Bridges of Skyrim. Mix and match to get maximum diversity within the world. Also pick up and install Northern Marshes Bridges at the same time; probably Ice Floes, too.  

 

Fine-Tuning Stonegirl

While I kind of concealed it in the screen shots of the standing stone love, I'm still not getting quite the results I want with Stonegirl. I'm going to try a different approach that, in the future, should get better results with her various scenes.

 

Rather than use the custom race approach, which gives the pole the right height but encounters some variability issues with customized races, we're going to make stonegirl a clone of the Dragonborn through templating. While this still won't give perfect results, I'm hoping it will give better overall alignment for the standing stone love.