You can stop Lydia from getting killed. If she dies,you reload and you backtrack a bit, sometimes a good bit. If there is a door on your way, you close it and have her wait there. After a few tries, you know how far you have to go so she will not come back to fight. I am level 33 and she has not died for at least 12 levels. I like having her with me but I think I will let her go soon: I can`t sneak with her around. And she is less helpful now that I am almost unbeatable!!! She also need an upgrade on her armor but I haven`t found one yet. She is in orcish armor and it is not quite enough. I cant craft a better one for now.

Thanks Jacline,

Sometimes she just disappears when I go into a river or do something else, she is following and suddenly she is no where to be seen

In Ansilvund I just couldn't stop her going to a fight.

Hey, Tracy, you can do that one console command that will move you to whatever NPC you want. There is a command to move him to you but that's one you usually don't want to do because it moves a copy of the NPC to you and not the actual NPC, so you'd have two housecarls walking around Markarth. Just type player.moveto 000A2C92. That's the reference ID for him. Argis, his name is, and then you can tell him to follow you and you can take him to the house. Whether he'll stay there or not after that is anyone's guess.

Oh, you asked about modding on the last page. I mostly learned by trial and error. I started out with little things in New Vegas, like making Rex essential so he couldn't be killed. (I hate losing my dogs), I made it so the coyotes were friendly to me since I hated killing them. Then I got into housing mods. I downloaded a lot of mods similar to what I wanted to do and opened them with the Creation Kit, just to see how they did things. That helped a lot. The Nexus sites have a lot of tutorials that help and I've always gotten a helpful response whenever I asked a question on the forum. If you get into it, you'll probably love it. It can be a real headache at times when things don't go how you thought they would at all, but it's very rewarding too. I've had as much fun modding New Vegas and Oblivion as I have playing them.

Thanks you guys. I'm glad to know that the other housecarls are disappearing and not just mine. LOL I'm going to check on the Skyrim Wiki and see if there might be console codes to put people back into the game, after I check around town for my Markarth guy.

Tracy

Well, darnit, I lost my horse and lost it for good this time. I knew I'd regret getting mixed up in those College of Winterhold quests. He must be dead too because when I went to Whiterun, there was a new horse for sale. *grumbles*


My husband frequents a site called Cracked.com. They write humorous articles. I found two on Skyrim that had me giggling. Now if anyone here doesn't like rough language then you may want to give these a pass because they are both rife with four letter words. Personally, I thought they were hysterical.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/10-days-as-skyrim-widow-dark-side-gaming-addiction/

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-personality-flaws-skyrim-forces-you-to-deal-with/

Thanks for all your help Anne G. And btw, I appreciate the modding info. I really want to do that and so I think it's about time I get my feet wet.

btw---I loved Cracked.com and so I am definitely going to check out those sites and probably send them to my hubby too. Thanks!

PS Sorry you lost your horse! I don't have one yet because honestly, I had a heck of a time trying to learn how to ride one in Oblivion and so I've avoided that in Skyrim. But I can understand getting attached them, even though they're "graphic babies".

Speaking of horses, I am on my second go around. I played through the first time on the main quest to see how it was and now am on my second playthrough doing all the side quests I can find and having a good time.

Back to horses, both times I did the Dark Brotherhood and got Shadowmere and I never lost him. He is a tough horse and even helps you fight and is a better fighter than Lydia or other NPC's. I kept him right up to the end the first time and he has been with me all the way through several quests this time.

If I lose either Shadowmere or Lydia I just fast travel to a stable or farm or something and they both appear. If Lydia doesn't appear after a fast travel then she probably went back to Dragonsreach. I found that if she is not there then change the time to around 10 am and she's usually sitting at a table in front of the throne.

Wow Oldman, that is fast.

I'm meandering around doing side quests and building skills....and occasionally working on the main quest. Son says this will be a 43,000 hour game for me, and I said, "Fine."

"Son says this will be a 43,000 hour game for me, and I said, "Fine." "

We could be related, looney4labs, I seem to make them last too !!

I found this mod called Cooking Expanded. I love it. I could never figure out why you found these baked potatoes in the game but couldn't make them at all. I had over 20 potatoes in my inventory before I figured this out. Anyhoo, this mod adds a bunch of new recipes to your cooking repartee. Seems to work fine, too. You can even make sweet rolls apparently.

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1409

Hi everyone. I just had to post because I'm up late w/ insomnia and was in the kitchen making a sandwich when I caught myself singing to the cats: "Believe, believe the Dragonborn comes!" LOL! I love that song and the woman's voice is just terrific. Now that will be in my head all night and probably follow me into my dreams.

Just out of curiosity, what songs do you guys like from the game?

Tracy, who really wishes she was in a medieval style dress, carrying a flagon of mead and singing to the top of her lungs to a room full of bar patrons.....

15 pages of skyrim posts and I have been too immersed to check the forum.

Tracy, you should join the SCA

Does anyone know how I can arrange all the books that I've pinched on my bookshelf in my house? I want people to look at my books and think I'm more than just a big dumb brute who goes around breaking heads.

Guess what, I'm back. My satallite was down for 10 days or so and madmadmad. It' working now goodgoodgood.

Meeko, my doggy fast traveled to Whiterun with me and he had a good home in my house with Lydia taking care of him. Then one morning my hero spied him walking down mainstreet and the message was - I'm going home. OK your owner's note said you can take care of yourself.

Slaying dragons has become easier now and have 8 shouts with 6 dragon souls left over.

I really want that dredric armor to klunk around in.

Tracy, hope you had wonderful medieval style dreams.

Smoosh, it is easy to loose sight of RL while playing for sure. Glad you found us. I just sell the books. Sorry.

Yankee, glad to have you back! You have more shouts than I do. It's always so fun to get a new one.

I'm off to play for a sec. I have to drop back a save 'cos I did something, quick saved (dumb dumb dumb) and then decided I didn't like it.

Thanks guys for not making fun of me. LOL btw---what is the SCA?

Also, Smooshmonster, I have the houses in Whiterun and Markarth, and you can put all of your books (or lots of them anyway) in the book cases. You just stand in front of one of them and text will come up on your screen staying something about "Press E" to use the bookcase, and then you can go into your items and put them on the shelves using the R button. I think you can put like 18 books on all three shelves, so I've been trying to put a few on each shelf so it looks more "full" and balanced.

Hope that helps!

Tracy

My son gave me this game as an early Christmas gift. So far I really enjoy it. I ran into a glitch this morning and was wondering if anyone else is haveing the same probelm. The carriage rides don't work. I talk to the man, pick my place to travel, get into the back of the carriage and there we sat. He keeps shouting at me to hurry up, he doesn't have all day.

I have tried everything I can think of, then I noticed when I pay him the money doesn't leave my bag. No wonder he's pissed at me.

So I guess I'll walk. I want to ride to the capital's to discover them and fast travel later on.

I caught my husband today out in Windward Pass, fighting a sabre cat with Ria, one of the other companions! I helped them out and then he's all like "It's good to see you again, dear." *humph* I'm sure...

AnneG--LOL! Hmm...Ria's pretty cute, maybe they were having a secret rendezvous.

Tracy, who's finding many more men in Skyrim attractive and wondering if Farkas would mind if she had a little "friend" on the side. LOL

This is fun.

Whiterun, though allegedly a major trading centre, is a one-horse town. I hope there are larger places where a person of quality could find a decent inn? These little backwater places have such drafty accomodations and I swear the beds actually have bugs...

Some dastardly lout has actually put out a contract on me - ME. It's from the alchemist in Dragonreach. The idea that I would get caught thieving, I mean, it's too much. Those men were actually chasing me and if it weren't for that wide river and my superior non-detection skills they would have caught me, too. I shall have to brew me up some poison, that''s the ticket.

I bought a house and have started storing what paltry things I have, but honestly, the furnishings are absolutely dreadful and the roof leaks. Good enough to store my things, such as they are. I can't imagine what I was doing wearing that filthy leather armour when those soldiers picked me up. I must have left all my pretty things behind when I got that blow on the head. Leather chafes so, and it is impossible to get out the stains. Oh for a silk gown.

Judging from what I'm hearing, a girl might do well to keep her options open in this burgh, and not fall for the first set of rippling muscles she sees. Though suprisingly no-one has made a pass just yet. But the ones here are louts. Surely once I reach civilization again, a big city, with art and grand houses...one can hope.

Thanks Tracy! I think I overloaded my bookshelf and broke it, because all the books have disappeared and I can't open the bookshelf any more. It's probably just a glitch. I've run into a couple so far but it's actually surprising how few I've run into.

I haven't tried the carriages but that does sound like a glitch. I used to have a horse, but a dragon killed him and now I just run everywhere. It's good exercise. I don't think Lydia appreciates having to run after me in that heavy armour of hers. I think she secretly harbours a grudge against me and wants to murder me in my sleep. That's why she's always in my house. Luckily I never sleep.

I've caught a glimpse of talk of marriage in this thread. The option hasn't cropped up for me, but I do want to adopt all those children in Riften. I don't suppose I can do that?

Hagatha

I've at long last started to play Skyrim (ok maybe it hasn't been out that long).

I'm playing an Imperial this time round. In Oblivion I played a Nord. So for some reason when in the Imperial homeland I played a Nord and now that we are in the Nord homeland I'm playing an Imperial.

I'm somewhat boring in that I like mostly to hack n' slash my way through these games. Although I might throw in using a bow here and there as well.

I'm really liking the changes they've made to levelling system. I like the perk style system (similar to Fallout: New Vegas). I just wish they had made the perk trees a little easier to navigate and see.

The graphics are great (as always) and the world and everything in it is quite stunning to look at.

There's so much to do as well. I have a long list of quests already from just visiting White Run and I haven't even gone through the place fully yet.

I spent about an hour and a half just reading books today (here we go again with that).

I'm still using the sword I got from the very beginning though, maybe I should spend less time reading and more time questing.

Templeton, I like to read the books too. And sometimes, you get a free recipe or free level from doing so.

So - I'm really just wandering around, but am on my wy to joining the Thieve's Guild

I'm not able to use the quick menus very well because you have to memorize where everything in is your slots instead of being able to see them, so I'm unable to swap spells quickly or use potions in battle. If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears.

I wasn't impressed in my first couple of days but now I see that they've really done us proud. This seems to be a mix of the best parts of both Morrowing and Oblivion. I just about whooped for joy when I saw that first Dweemer ruin. Dang dragons, though. I'm not good at tracking them with my bow and arrow.

Good for you Hagatha. I'm in the guilds (both of them) and did the same as you. Talk about satisfying! LOL

btw--everyone----I joined w the Imperial Legion sort of by default at the beginning, but now I'm wondering what it's like to be a Stormcloak. Does anyone know if it's possible to try both factions or to leave one and join the other?

Thanks so much and glad you're all having fun!

Tracy