Friday, December 26, 2014

Alice's Story: Chapter 1

><>< This story is no longer Alice canon, but I am leaving it up because I wrote it and might as well have people read it. ><><

Chapter 1 – Through the Fringe of Madness

Alice Kingsley had always been considered a bit odd. She had quite a magnificent imagination and would often voice her more interesting thoughts, not noticing or caring that others thought her strange for it. On occasion, her imagination seemed to take on a life of its own, and on those occasions Alice would often be found holding a conversation with herself, or scribbling poetry at lightening speed onto any scrap of paper she could find.

One rainy day as Alice was taking a quiet stroll outside Bravil, she just so happened to look out into Niben Bay. And it just so happened that when she looked, Alice saw a glowing blue light shining through the fog over the water. Seeing as she was already drenched from the rain, she decided to investigate. She waded out into the murky water and began to swim towards the light.
As she drew nearer to the light source, she discovered that it was in fact coming from an island in the center of the bay. The light looked to be a doorway centered in the open mouth of a giant statue. Well, that definitely needed to be investigated further, so she made her way onto the island and wrung out her dress and hair as best she could. Closer to the doorway stood a Bravil guard and a petite Khajiit woman. On closer inspection, Alice suspected that the woman was more than a bit mad, and so approached the guard.

As she opened her mouth to speak, a Dunmer man burst through the glowing doorway and began shouting curses and threats. This one was obviously more than a bit mad, and drew a dagger and attacked the guard. He met his end quickly and the frazzled guard turned to Alice and told her bluntly that if she chose to go through the door, she would end up the same as the others here. Alice thought for a moment and decided that as she was half mad already, she didn't mind the risk.

She stepped into the shining portal and found herself in a small room looking into the eyes of a very taciturn gentleman, who quickly told her to sit down. He introduced himself as Haskill, the chamberlain to the Prince of Madness: Sheogorath. This certainly peaked Alice's interest, and after a few more words, Haskill told her to make her way through the Gates of Madness. He left through the door on the far wall. As Alice stood up to do the same, the walls suddenly melted away into hundreds of butterflies, which was alarming but extremely beautiful at the same time. Alice decided that she liked the Shivering Isles already.

Alice made her way down a winding path that seemed to lead towards the village she had seen from the top of the hill. The plant life here was like nothing she had ever seen so it took her quite a while to reach the village, as she had to stop to stoop down to see every mushroom, and there were a lot of mushrooms.

She reached the village just before dusk. She determined that the settlement was called Passwall from listening to the villagers talk. Two of them ran up towards the Gates of Madness, so Alice followed behind them. That's when she saw what stood between her and the rest of the Isles: the Gatekeeper.
At that moment the Gatekeeper was battling what appeared to be a party of adventurers, and it was definitely winning. In a few moments all that remained of the group was the captain, and once alone, he quickly ran back towards the door to Cyrodiil. Alice knew she needed to plan carefully if she was to defeat the enormous creature guarding the Gates.

She made her way back to the village and headed to the inn for information. The innkeeper directed her upstairs to a very unpleasant woman named Relmyna. After enduring several insults and general unpleasantness from Remyna, Alice decided to snoop around her room once she left, a lucky decision as she found a letter Relmyna had penned to Sheogorath detailing exactly how she would defeat the Gatekeeper: Relmyna's tears were toxic to it. Fortunately, Relmyna was on her way up to see the Gatekeeper at that very moment, and if the letter was to be believed, she would be crying.

Alice managed to sneak up behind the Dunmer woman and watch from the shadows. She was in luck as Relmyna dropped a tear soaked tissue on the ground before she walked away, still crying. Alice crept over, picked it up, and squeezed as many tears as she could onto her sword. Still sneaking, she struck from the shadows. The Gatekeeper let out an ungodly wail as the tear-coated blade pierced its flesh. The battle was over surprisingly quickly and Alice retrieved the keys to the Gates of Madness from its corpse. Walking over to the Dementia entrance, she pressed the key into the lock and finally left the Fringe behind.
Butterfly Explosion

So Many Mushrooms



Outside the Wastrel's Purse

The Gatekeeper is Slain



Alice in Wonderland

I got Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland for Christmas (one of the best movies ever....) which has inspired me to make a Wonderland themed mod for Oblivion. I currently have a half-furnished cottage and a custom Alice race. The cottage relies heavily on the Shivering Isles but uses other resources as well. I even made my own shitty version of the Cheshire Cat. Chess will adventure with Alice. Alice can also summon three little mushroom creatures to fight with her. The spell summons one of the three at random. If I like what I end up with, I'll probably release my Wonderland Cottage and Alice race for everyone to play with. :)

Here's Alice in her custom blue dresses:



Here's Chess: (I'm aware that he looks pretty crappy, but it's the best I can do right now....)


And here's the rest of the cottage so far: (Not even close to finished, don't worry.)






Alice and Chess:


The Shrooms: 








I hope you like it. I'm certainly having fun putting it all together. I'm so obsessed with Alice in Wonderland it's ridiculous. I've been sleeping under a Cheshire Cat comforter sense I was 15, and I'm now 24.....

Monday, December 15, 2014

Remake of my Frost Sprite Mod

The first race mod I uploaded to the Nexus was a small blue race called Frost Sprites. My texturing skills were shit back then, and I can't stand the way they look now. So I made completely new textures for the Sprites and added a male version. (The original shared a face texture between genders. Not the best....) I also added 3 more male hairs converted from the sims by Maxim at MaxHeartFlan.

This is a comparison between the old and new versions. You can see why I hate the old one....



Stats:

Str: 30
Int: 50
Wil: 50
Agi: 30
Spd: 50
End: 30
Luc: 40
Pers: 30

Abilities:

Frostskin - Constant

Resist Frost 100%
Weakness to Fire 75%

Frost Sprite Enhanced Magicka - Constant

Fortify Magicka 100 points

Freeze - Lesser Power - 25 Magicka

Frost Damage 25 points on touch
Paralyze for 1 second on touch


You can download either version from the Nexus, but really why would you want the original?
Here's a link to the new version:


Credits:

Nequam for Eyes
Flonne and Bnnfish for Eyes
Cazy, Anto and FumoFumo for Crazy Hair
Anto and Lucha for Coolsims Hair
Ren for Ren's Hair
Mondstein for the facial piercings
Kafei, Kikaimegami , AlienSlof, Luchaire, JC Clyde, Chingari, SavageArtistry and Spirited Treasure for the Smaller Elf Ears With Piercings resource
ThrottleKitty for the Head06 Resource
Scanti for the Merged Mouth and Merged Teeth
jclyde6108 for the original eyelash mesh
RAIAR and MadCat221 for the HGEC body
Exnem for the original Eyecandy body
Robert2 for Roberts Male Body
Dustin Flan @ maxheartflan.com for the face texture, eyebrows, and the male body texture
Ozmo for the hi-rez HGEC textures
Obsidian Dawn at http://www.obsidiandawn.com for the makeup brushes
Geonox and Apachii for 3 male hairs, and Maxim @ maxheartflan.com for the conversions
Sinblood for the white teeth texture

Screenshots:





This is Belle.... I just made her to take the pictures. I don't actually play this race anymore, but the original was horrid and I wanted to fix it.


Sunday, December 14, 2014

Introducing Freya Windsinger

Freya Windsinger is a character that I've played on and off for almost 2 years, but I was never quite satisfied with how I had her set up. She started out as just a vanilla Nord, and has evolved from there. I spent last night piecing together some new equipment for her, and making a new face and eyes. I quite like how she turned out. I haven't decided if she will end up with a lip piercing yet....





Unlike pretty much every other character I play, Freya is a warrior and fights with a longsword. I don't usually do that, as I kinda suck at it. Like really.... But I'm hoping that playing Freya more routinely will improve my hack and slash skills. =)

When Freya first came into existence she was a paladin of the Nine, but now she's a bit looser in her beliefs and slightly more amoral at times. I haven't made her a home yet, but plan to start on that today. The original Freya lived in a cottage I made in the West Weald, but I don't have that house anymore. I might still put her home in that spot, though. It's pretty near Bleak Flats Cave, so I had a small cottage there for a long time. Anyway.... This is Freya. She kicks ass. Or she will once I get better at melee...lol.

~~~~~~~~~~

Update: She ended up with a small silver stud in her nose, which I like better than a lip piercing anyway.


Saturday, December 13, 2014

Wren's Quest for Stinkhorn Caps

Wren the Shaman was set on a quest from Kynareth to bring a Stinkhorn Cap to the Druid's Temple. This is what she got up to on the way...

Wren made her way to Blackwood, stopping to enjoy the scenery along the way.

Wow Nirnroots Are Huge:


Along the way, she stumbled across a quiet pool of water, and made friends with the water birds living there.

Communing With Nature:


When she got close to Leyawiin, she decided to pay a visit to her friend S'Dara, who owns a small alchemy shop in town.

S'Dara's Cauldron:



And, finally, a short way from the city gates, she found what she needed.

Finally:



I hope you enjoyed this little peak into the life of Wren. I mostly just wanted to show off the screenshots I took while on this quest, but hey, maybe someone will be interested.... So there you go.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

A Tour of Luna's House

My self character Luna's house is a never ending project. I'm constantly remodeling it. This is how it stands at the present. I don't have plans to release it at this point, because I never stop working on it.

The Foyer:

There is a cozy sitting area and a convenient table for Luna to unload her pockets onto, hence why it's littered with gold coins and her spare key.



The Kitchen:

It's small but fully functional. Luna can make soup, fry eggs, bacon, and pancakes, and make coffee. The dishes the food comes in are randomly chosen from 4 china patterns. The picnic basket actually works. There is a portable version inside, and she can access whatever she puts in the basket by dropping and activating the portable version.



(Ignore the mugs in the above picture. It's an older screenshot from before I added the new china...)


The Picnic Basket:




The Bedroom:

The bedroom is the largest room in the house but is still has a very cozy feel. There is an area for her pet cat on one wall, and a comfy love seat under the windows. The bed has a book with some of Luna's paintings in it, and there are pictures from Alice in Wonderland on the walls. The picture on the dresser is of her mother (actually my mom made into an Oblivion character).





The Bathroom:

Luna's bathroom is done in purples and greens, and uses furniture from my pinewood furniture resource (which will be released once I get around to taking screenshots of it all). There is space for Luna to brush her teeth and hair by the sink (scripted sounds and messages), and the toilet flushes.




The Tower:

The first floor of the tower is a small greenhouse with many flowers and a chair to relax in.



The top floor is a made up of an alchemy and enchanting laboratory. It's not quite done yet. I have plans to make a library on the middle floor.




I hope you enjoyed taking this tour of Luna's home. Here she is saying hi: