The time has come to announce the actual website where my mods and community will live.

I have unleashed ColdSun’s Creations upon the world!

My new website has all my free mods. It has information about my projects, the ability to crowdfund voice projects to help pay for Voice Actresses, support (yay! finally you can access me and support much easier), and more community features coming down the line.

Eventually, there will be a store for t-shirts, hoodies, and other cool unique ColdSun-branded products.

This site will now be dedicated to my storytelling. It won’t be updated as often as ColdSun’s Creations or Patreon when it comes to mod news.

I never wanted folks to Subscribe here, but many of you did out of your love for my work. For that I can’t thank you enough. Your support has kept me going.

I have paused all subscriptions here. You won’t be charged again. I’ve got a list of all users and how long they have paid for here at Substack (ColdSun’s World). I’m going to reward all of you with equal time on my Patreon if you were a subscriber here. So expect an email with information about the reward.

For now, head on over to ColdSun’s Creations and let me know over there what you think of the new community site for my modding. I sure hope you like it!

Thank you again,

Heath AKA ColdSun

Hello Folks!

A patron-favorite follower has just been released with full voice and Romantasy support. Head on over to Patreon to check it out!

Thanks,

Heath aka ColdSun

Hello Friends!

I just released another new fully custom-voiced follower. Head over to my Patreon and check her out!

Details Below:

Backstory

She doesn’t talk about the village. Ask twice and you’ll get a joke; ask a third time and you’ll get silence sharp enough to cut. What’s known is that she was orphaned young, the last one left to bury the dead, and grew up alone in the forests of a hard, unimportant land famous only for its hunters and its horses. She became both: a tracker who could follow a trail across bare stone, and a rider whose bond with her warhorse unsettled grown soldiers. She learned the bow before the blade, the trap before the charge, and the bottle somewhere along the way.

For years she lived as a thief, a sellsword, and an occasional disaster, loving where it was unwise, leaving before the morning, and stealing from the wrong queen at least once. The last theft was different. The treasure she lifted was old and wrong in a way she couldn’t name, a coiled thing that hummed against her skin and whispered when she slept. She melted it down and scattered it to be rid of it. She thought that was the end.

It wasn’t. Whatever the thing had touched, it had marked. On a cold night at the edge of the woods, the air split open, not a door but a wound in the world, ringed in pale light and the smell of burning. She did what she always does: she went toward the danger instead of away from it, sword drawn, because standing still has never once saved her life. The light took her.
She woke in snow, under a sky full of strange auroras, in a land of dragons and gods she’s never heard of. She has no way home and isn’t sure she’d take it if offered. So she does what she’s good at: finds the nearest fire, the nearest fight, and the nearest tavern, in whatever order they present themselves. Skyrim, she’s decided, is cold, beautiful, and absolutely full of opportunities. She intends to take all of them.

Fully Voiced, Start to Finish

Every line Red Sonja speaks is custom voiced with high quality audio. Her recruitment, her follower commands, her combat reactions, her romance, her healing moments, and her ambient commentary all carry her own voice and attitude.

• Over 500 custom-voiced lines

• Lots of Romantasy-specific lines

• ESL-Flagged

Voiced reactions woven through combat, romance, follower commands, bleedout recovery, healing, and quality of life systems

A Warrior Who Fights the Way You Ask

Red Sonja is built around player-selected combat styles, so you can tell her how you want her to fight and change that style through dialogue when the situation calls for it.

Bow style. Sonja fights as an archer and is tuned to keep using her bow, even when enemies close the distance. When a hostile gets too close, she has a close-quarters defender effect that can knock the enemy back and give her room to keep shooting.

Greatsword style. Sonja commits to two-handed combat with her custom greatsword. Her combat behavior is guarded so she does not drift into using a random weapon just because one ended up in her inventory.

Two dagger style. Sonja dual-wields her custom right and left daggers, fighting fast and close. The style is guarded so she keeps both hands on dagger work instead of swapping to another weapon mid-fight.

Custom weapons. Red Sonja comes with her own bow, greatsword, and paired daggers, all tied into her style-switching system.

Custom outfit. She uses a Red Sonja outfit built from dedicated armor pieces and integrated into her follower records. Red Sonja Outfit required (see below).

Essential and level-scaled. She is designed to stay with you through bad fights without being permanently lost because Skyrim decided to have a dramatic moment at the worst possible time.

Romance Through Romantasy

Red Sonja is integrated with the Romantasy relationship framework, so her romance is built around progression instead of a single switch. Your relationship grows through time, choices, and the moments you share on the road.

• Custom voiced reactions when your bond rises to a new tier

• Voiced moments when you gain ground with her

• Distinct voiced responses when your choices match her preferences, and when they very much do not

• Romance-aware follower dialogue that changes how she speaks to you as the relationship deepens

Her romance is not delicate in the usual sense. Sonja is sharp, guarded, physical, and painfully direct. She does not fall easily, and she does not pretend vulnerability is comfortable. If she lets you close, it means something.

A Companion Who Fits Your Game

Beneath the personality and the weapons sits a layer of quality of life features meant to keep her smooth to travel with.

Summon Red Sonja. Recruit her once and you gain a spell that calls her back to your side through a portal. You keep it even after dismissing her, so she is never permanently misplaced across the map.

Paced ambient chatter. Her idle lines are throttled so she comments naturally instead of repeating herself into the ground.

Horde aware. Red Sonja works with Horde and can route through the Horde follower system when asked to follow. When using other follower systems, she has her own custom follower setup. Do not import her into other follower frameworks besides Horde. NFF should be okay if you don’t use it to change any of her AI controlled features (combat, spells, etc).

Requirements

• The Romantasy framework (required for romance and her relationship systems)

• The Visions Asset Pack

• Red Sonja Bikini - CBBE/3BA. For the BHUNP Bodyslides go here. This mod is absolutely required or she will spawn nude.

Optional:

Horde, for streamlined follower management

Where to Find Her

Red Sonja waits at the Frozen Hearth in Winterhold. Walk in, talk to her, and decide whether you are brave enough, foolish enough, or interesting enough to travel with her.

Hello Friends!

I released a very cool utility that replaces the NPC Visual Copy feature of SkyPatcher with something more reliable and less crash prone. Head on over to GGMods and grab this cool little utility.

I know I promised a few weeks ago to do more updates around here, but I finally caught up and as you can see I’m am making those changes at last. Keep your eyes peeled here and on my Patreon for more updates coming soon.

Thanks!

Heath aka ColdSun

Hello!

Sorry for another email, but wanted you folks to know I fixed a bug with the follower builder and certain voices from Simply Open Sourced Voice Pack. Head over to GGMods to grab the latest version. During the install it will ask you to uninstall the old version and then it will install the new one. Choose NOT to delete the profile files in your system so it remembers your old settings.

Have a great day!

Heath AKA ColdSun

Hello Friends!

I’ve got a major update for Tailor today. You can download the new version at GGMods.

Update 2.0

Visual overhaul

1. Brand new design language with warm “Forge” colors (gold, copper, parchment) replacing the older flat amber theme

2. Gold gradient primary buttons with proper glow effects

3. Restyled scrollbars, dropdowns, tab bar, modal, and table rows

Main outfit screen

1. New categories table with sortable, scrollable rows (Category, Sex, Outfits)

2. You can now filter the outfit categories

Unlimited custom categories

1. The previous 10 per sex cap is gone

2. Every category list in the app sorts alphabetically (main table, library filter, create outfit dropdown, situations picker, manage categories)

Sex separated situation pools

1. Adventuring, Town, Home, and Sleep are now split into Female and Male versions so NPCs never get assigned an outfit meant for the wrong body

2. Automatic migration on upgrade: existing situation outfits are tagged as Female and empty Male pools are added

3. New read only “Situation Pools” section on the Categories screen so you can see their counts

Situations screen scrolling

1. The category picker no longer stretches the screen to fit every category, it scrolls inside a fixed area now

Quality of life

1. Toast notifications for outfit apply, save, reset, category create, and wig apply

2. Escape key now cancels outfit cycling (it already worked for wigs)

3. Keyboard cycling already existed for both cycle screens (arrow keys, A/D, Enter to confirm)

Lesser Power for Favorites

1. A new ESL flagged Tailor.esp adds a Lesser Power that gets auto granted and favorited, so you can open the menu from your Favorites list in addition to the Shift+Z hotkey

Bug Fix and Functional Improvements

1. Fixed the problem with being stuck in walk mode after closing Tailor

2. Escape key can be used to close Tailor

3. Improved freezing the NPC while Tailor is open - they should stay still now even if they are in the middle of an animation

Have a great day!

Heath aka ColdSun

My Jordis converted to photorealistic version by AI

Njada Stone-Arm converted to Photorealistic and Video Format by AI

Hello Friends!

Sorry I haven’t been posting here as much. I’ve spent many hours uploading all my mods to https://ggmods.com/. I’ve also been working on new applications like the Foundation Framework some of you have seen. You can get all of them on GGMods. I’m going to be taking my mods down from this site in order to focus on putting them on GGMods going forward. That said, this site will still have unique content, specifically around my story universe and a couple of surprises down the line.

I just want to thank all of you for your support on this adventure. I’m doing some really interesting things right now. Stretching my old developer muscles again and using them to make my followers and replacers better than ever.

See you soon!

Heath aka ColdSun

I’ve got another utility-type mod to release. After that its time to get back to follower and NPC related work. I’ve been working on this mod on and off since November. I hope some of you find a use for it. If you do, please remember to endorse. Have a great day!

Manage up to 10 followers from one sleek in-game panel. Follow, wait, summon, dismiss, assign homes, and sandbox — all without dialogue menus. Followers automatically sit, wander, and interact when you stop moving. Script-free SKSE plugin with modern Prisma UI interface. No MCM, no Papyrus, no patches.

Download Horde from Nexus

See you soon,

Heath aka ColdSun

Hello friends!

I’m sorry I haven’t been updating as much - I assure you that I’m working diligently on many very cool things right now. But before I get to that, please consider voting for mod of the month for my Tailor mod. It is but one of several SKSE plugin mods I’m going to release that I hope improves the gameplay of people who enjoy my mods.

Project Updates

The Revenant

This project is still going to happen. We found a fantastic voice actress who is recording the lines. It will take some time as there are quite a few lines and some unique features to this release that set it apart from others.

Foundation

I’m going to be adding a bunch of faces to the Foundation application. Many of these will be faces designed by Miggy that are males. Expect some other surprises in the Foundation update coming soon!

AI Voiced Followers

I would love to hear people’s thoughts on using AI voice for followers. After I created Sava (the AI follower using SkyrimNet), I realized I could likely make a very high quality AI-voiced follower that you may not be able to tell the difference from the real thing. My problem is I just really like using real voices for my mods. Its nothing against AI voices, its just knowing that a real person voiced the follower just feels right to me. Let me know what you think in the comments. If you think it doesn’t matter and I should make AI-voiced followers I want to know about it. If you hate the idea, I also want to know!

Follower Framework

A couple months ago I mentioned MCF (Master Control Framework) as a mean to speed up my workflow delivering custom-voiced followers. I built a version that is fully functional and a follower that uses it. Then I realized some of the shortcoming and cons to doing this for custom-voiced followers. I’m not going to bore you with the details, but I found other workarounds to speed up my workflow that I consider MUCH better than a shared framework for custom-voiced followers. That said, now that I made a framework like this, I realized that I really wanted to make a follower framework that was lighter than the others out there, completely designed as an SKSE Plugin with zero ESP plugins and zero Papyrus scripts. Using the same framework I used to create Tailor, I’ve made just such a framework. I will be releasing that very soon!

Technical Mods

Expect more SKSE Plugins and other things like this from me in the future. Mostly things that enhance playing in the world I’ve created. Things to improve what you can do with my followers and replacers and much more.

Custom-Voiced Followers

I still love making custom-voiced followers. Its expensive and time-consuming, but as long as I have sponsors that will help pay for the voice acting (and I do have some right now), I will keep doing it. With that said, I’ve leveled up on my technical abilities and I’m going to make all future custom-voiced followers just freaking amazing. Stay tuned.

Hope this was a good read and I didn’t bore you too much. Have a great day folks!

Heath aka ColdSun

I released a Patron-only mod and application tonight that many of you will enjoy. Please head over to Patreon for more information!

I’m sorry I’ve been so quiet, but I’ve been working hard on new followers. I’ve created tools to speed up my workflow, but the complexity of my followers has also increased. That said, I think you will like what I’ve been doing. I can’t wait to release the new followers here on Patreon for you folks. Now that I’ve got the new workflow in place, I think I will start to improve my speed and deliver more excellent content.

I’m working on multiple projects at once. I have two different voice actresses working on custom-voiced followers, I’ve written scripts for five, yes you read that correctly, five followers. By scripts I mean voice scripts. I’m really happy with the quality of their stories and voice lines.

Today I’m showing you the follower that is closest to complete - as in I’m hoping to release her here on Patreon within a week. She is a fully-voiced follower with a lot of cool features:

• Set her home anywhere

• Select from three different combat styles

• Select from three different outfits that will automatically equip based on her location (Adventure, Town, and Home).

• Custom Weapons and Spells

• Sandboxing like Serana

• If she goes into bleedout (near death) mode, she will pull herself out of it by healing herself

• Romance system similar to the Vayne Remastered system, but with improvements.

• Marriage Gift special ability for the player

• Quest-aware comments and many other type of reactive comments

• and more!

Ambellina will be the template feature set of all the followers I make this year. My plan is to provide a custom voice for every single follower I’ve made, even the ones on Patreon. It is a tough challenge, but I can do it.

I’ve also been working on some secret projects that I’m hoping to share more about soon. These are not quite followers or replacers but things I think you will find very useful and fun to have.

I really appreciate the support of those who stick with me while I work on these projects! I couldn’t do this without you. I’ll try to provide more updates as I improve my workflow and fill in the gaps.

Have a wonderful day!

Heath AKA ColdSun

Hello Friends!

January is just blasting by. I’ve had my head down and working hard. I’ve had to juggle some priorities based on VA availability and lessons learned from more technical coding. That said, a good amount of work has been done on two specific voiced followers.

Malice - The Dark Seducer

Malice is a Dark Seducer (Mazken) follower pictured in the images included in this post. She carries two swords and wears special Mazken armor designed by Aokili. She can also summon a Golden Saint as slave during combat. She has a nightmare steed that she rides. I have a voice actress for this role who is very experienced. More info coming soon, but this follower will be my next release.

The Curse of Karla Raven

This follower will be my most ambitious and technically difficult follower so far. Because of this, she will take longer to make and come after Malice. I’ll talk more about her features in future posts here and on my website.

Vixi Talax Remastered

This one is on hold for a bit. Sorry about that! I’ll let you know when work starts on her again.

I have some other things I’m working on that are of a more technical nature. I’ve posted about at least one of them in the past. Keep your eyes peeled for more about them.

Don’t worry, although I’m juggling these projects a bit, I enjoy moving from one to another as each puzzle piece fits in place. That said, at a certain point in each project, I point my focus on the project that needs it and it gets finished.

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Thanks for your support!

Heath aka ColdSun

Hello my friends!

The new year has kicked off and I’m working hard on a lot of new things. Please read through today’s update to see everything that I’m working on.

The Master Control Framework (MCF)

I’ve finished work on version 1 of the MCF. I’m in the process of testing it with multiple followers. So far it’s working perfectly, and I’m pretty stoked that I even managed to make horses work better than any of my previous mods. I expect to release the MCF on NexusMods in the next week or two (see below for more info on NexusMods).

Vixi Talax Remastered

The VA for Vixi got busy again so I might have to delay this one for the time being. So sorry folks, but she is a good friend of mine and she is doing this work for free so I just want to leave her be until she has time. I’ll let you know when the situation changes.

The Curse of Karla Raven

This one is full-steam ahead now. I’ve got some really special things planned for her. The script is pretty much done and I’m sending it off to Gina Galore in the next day or two. While she is recording the lines, I’ll be focusing on all the technical work that still needs to be done.

Expanding My Modding Horizons

If have some ideas for some utility mods that I want to release this year. Some of these things haven’t been done before and I’m hoping to release them before someone else comes up with the same idea (I’ve had this happen a couple times now!). I don’t want to give away what they are for obvious reasons, but I think you folks will like them.

About NexusMods

The other day my wife and I were taking a walk together and we had a discussion about our finances. NexusMods came up and I told my wife how I moved all my mods here with plans to abandon my modding on NexusMods. She made an excellent point during the discussion. In no way was she telling me what to do, but it really got me thinking.

So basically, I closed down a revenue stream by making the decision to abandon my modding there. Even if it is a very small revenue stream, it still serves as an excellent place for people who don’t know about me to find my work. As long as I can follow their rules and stay out of trouble, it might be best if I continue posting my free mods on Nexus and my premium mods on Patreon.

So where does that leave coldsun’s world (the website)? To be honest, I’m just as excited about my own website and I can advertise my free and Patreon mods on coldsunsworld.com. That said, I want to provide unique content on coldsunsworld.com! In that light, I will take down my free mods from coldsunsworld.com (and make sure they are on NexusMods) and begin preparing unique content for coldsunsworld.

I will start publishing stories and tutorials here to begin with. I’ve also got some unique ideas about what other kinds of content I can have here. Trust me, I will make coldsunsworld.com a fun and interesting place to visit.

With that said, I know some of you have signed up as premium subscribers at coldsunsworld.com, even though I did mention that I wasn’t ready for folks to do that. I do appreciate that extra support and know that it went to helping my wife and I last month. I would encourage people not to sign up for a paid subscription on coldsunsworld.com unless they just want to provide me some extra support. I would rather you sign up on my Patreon so you can get the premium mods.

Now that we have gotten that out of the way, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

I’m hoping this is the best year of modding so far. I can’t wait!

Heath aka ColdSun

Just a quick message and update. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and well wishes!!

This previous year I took some very large steps forward in what is possible with my follower mods. That being said, I hope this next year brings twice as much growth and entertainment to all of you. I will be working hard and I already have some new innovations I’m planning to show off soon.

Welcome to 2026!!

Have a great day!

Heath aka ColdSun

The Master Control Framework

Guess what? We have a fully-working Master Control Framework! I finished the development of the first version. It still needs some testing, and maybe some slight tweaks based on the feedback from testing, but here are the features so far:

• Base follower framework commands - follow, dismiss, rest (wait), and trade.

• Supports 30 custom-voiced followers

• Sandboxing when at home or while resting (waiting)

• Home assignment

• Horse Riding (can be turned off)

• MCM to help manage settings per follower

• Summon follower (also works before you meet them in case you have trouble finding one due to mod conflicts)

I decided not to include outfit management since there are several very powerful mods that do it already. I also decided not to include combat styles because I like to make each follower completely different and I didn’t want them to feel similar in any way.

I will release the MCF before I finish Vixi Talax Remastered. It will be available to other mod authors with detailed documentation on how to create your own voiced follower using the system. There is still some learning you need to do before you can use this framework. Those of you interested might want to look get a head start. That said, 90% of the hard work that goes into making a custom-voiced follower has been done for you with this framework, and I believe I made it easy for other people to make their own followers to use with it.

In case you are interested in learning what you will need to still need to know, you should study:

• Creating Followers

• Custom-voiced followers by Joseph Russel (focus only on adding voice lines since you are using MCF as the system and don’t need to create your own)

• Advanced topics that might help you do some cool stuff: creating scenes and quests in the Creation Kit - just search youtube - there are so many videos there to help

I’m hoping to release the MCF on or around Christmas here on my website. Keep your eyes open!

Vixi Talax Update

I’m always trying to improve when I create these followers. I made a pretty cool romance system for Vayne. It took me a long time to figure out how to do that to be honest. That said, I have learned some lessons from it. Back when I added romance to the Iceheart Sisters, I wanted romance to evolve over time. That system was a good step in the right direction and Vayne’s system took a few steps beyond that. I hated many existing followers out there that you had to give gifts to the follower for the romance to advance.

Using the same system I did for Vayne, I decided to make it even more immersive with Vixi. When you level up your romance with Vayne, a message box pops up giving you an update. For Vixi, I decided that she will approach you at the appropriate time and start a scene with you. You will have a detailed discussion about your relationship. It will feel much more natural and you won’t need to know some number telling you how far along you are. The number of points needed will likely be similar, but you will be more focused on the situations and time you spend with Vixi than watching for points to level up.

Additionally, when you do something wrong that Vixi doesn’t like, points will go into a “grievance pool.” When you reach a certain amount, Vixi will again start a scene with you telling you that you’ve done things she doesn’t like. You can choose to own up to it and tell her you will do better or you can double-down and tell her that’s just how it is. Based on what you have decided she will file away this information. Keep doing things she doesn’t like, and eventually she will leave your service and you can never recruit her again.

This may seem rather harsh, but you will be given many chances to mend your ways and just like real life, eventually you will run out of chances and she will lose interest in you.

Each follower I make in the future that uses a romance system like this will have different things they like and dislike. She if one is too “good” you can recruit a more “evil” personality type. That said, they don’t know what you are doing when they aren’t with you, so if you do things they don’t like when they aren’t with you they can’t hold it against you.

This system is every bit as detailed as creating the MCF itself - maybe more so. I imagine Vixi won’t be finished until mid to late January.

Happy Holidays

I just wanted to thank all of you for your support and friendship. From me and my wife, we both want to wish you and your families a very happy holiday season. I would love to hear from you in the comments. Tell me what you want to see in future mods. You can even give me ideas outside of followers and replacers.

Thank you!

Heath aka ColdSun

One of the hardest things about making a custom-voiced follower is creating the custom follower framework that the follower uses. The interesting thing is that most of us doing this now learned how to do it from some tutorial or another (in my case Joseph Russel’s youtube tutorial) and have since expanded upon what we learned and created our features and ideas.

The fact remains that every time we create a custom-voiced follower, we are doing most of the same work over and over. Not only that, but when we add features to one follower, we may add different features to another. The end result is wasted opportunity for followers to use all the features you have created over time, as some of them don’t have each other’s features. Terrible sentence, but at lest you know it wasn’t written by AI. 😂

I was watching Tron Ares the other night and it gave me an idea. Why not have one framework that controls all my custom-voiced followers? You might think, well Heath, why not just use Nether’s Follower Framework? There are two good reasons. His framework is for vanilla voiced followers using the vanilla system and the features I’ve created for my custom-voiced followers were not designed for vanilla voiced followers and were coded in a specific way for a custom framework.

So I have created a Master Control Framework. The first follower that will use it will be Vixi Talax Remastered. Any future custom-voiced followers will also use this framework. This allows me to make features just one time inside the MCF and then any follower added to the framework gets those features. Also, if I upgrade the framework with new features, I can easily add them to the existing followers that use that framework without having to write custom code for each follower to use the features.

I’ve already created the first functional version of the MCF. I did it while working on Vixi Talax Remastered - so no time was wasted! Now, I’m adding features to the framework that I would have added to Vixi. The first version of the framework will have:

• Support for up to 30 Custom-Voiced Followers (I can max it out later to 128 if I so choose)

• Sandboxing when waiting which can be toggled on and off (stay put or sandbox while you wait)

• Horse Riding - each follower has their own custom horse! The horse is in the follower’s plugin and the framework to manage horse riding is in the MCF.

• Outfit Management - To start it will support an adventuring outfit and a sleep outfit. Decided that there are really good mods for this already - no need to include it.

• Home Assignment - Assign a home to your followers.

• Consistent features across all followers in the framework

• Friendly Fire Protection

Features that might be available at release or in future updates:

• Combat Styles

• Healing

• MCM to Manage settings

• Hairstyle System (like the one Vayne Remastered uses)

• and more!

I imagine I’m less than a month away from releasing Vixi Talax and this new MCF. I hope you’re as excited about it as I am!

Supporting Me

If you want to help keep me going, and yes, that is exactly what you would be doing because this is my only job to support my wife and I, you can either sign up here or on Patreon. If you don’t care about the goodies on Patreon, sign up here to support me. If you sign up here and not on Patreon, I will make sure you have access to anything in the $5 Tier at Patreon that you want. Just send me a message. This really goes for new supporters only. I don’t want Patreons to cancel there and move here yet. I’m still working on the logistics of moving content over here from there, and I don’t want to cause a hassle for my Patrons there.

I really appreciate everyone who has signed up here or on Patreon, free subscriber or otherwise. I’m glad you are here and interested in my own little world in Skyrim. I plan to keep this going as long as I have enough support to do so and I have so many cool ideas to show you.

Have a great day!

Heath aka ColdSun

Folks, I am very picky about replacers for my followers. Rarely have I ever replaced my own design for a follower, especially one of my voiced followers that I spent a LOT of time on. I must say that ✶ 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐓 𝐇𝐄𝐓𝐘𝐓 ☽ hit the design out of the park on Vayne with her replacer. I was speechless when she first showed her to me, as if she ripped Vayne’s soul right from my own mind. So, please, even if you don’t want to use this replacer (I have no idea why you wouldn’t), download this replacer and endorse it. She did a fantastic job and honestly, going forward, I might have to convince Serket to let me use this design as her original design as part of the mod itself.

You can find her replacer on NexusMods.

Thanks!

Heath aka ColdSun

Hello Everyone!

I hope those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving had a wonderful weekend. I can tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed my pumpkin pie - perhaps too much.

As you know, last week I put up my new website and released my full 91 SkyPatched NPCs. That was a huge mountain of work that took me months to complete. I was deadass tired for a few days after, but I’m back to work again and wanted to give an update.

First of all, if you haven’t noticed, there are a couple small updates to the SkyPatched NPCs, so don’t forget to grab those updates.

What I’m working on:

• Updated voice script for Vixi Talax

• New voice script for Ambellina

• New script for Karla Raven

• Planning Karla Raven’s new technical features and testing papyrus scripts

• Anja Iceheart OStim Voice Addon

• Vayne Remastered OStim Voice Update with dialogue

• Horror short story from the Dark Tales universe

• Skyrim Short story based on my Woken Furies characters

These aren’t really in Priority order, although Vixi Talax is the highest priority large project to finish as fast as possible. I’ll be working on the OStim addons a lot this week too though and expect one or both of them to be done by either the upcoming weekend or shortly after.

I would love to see some comments about which of the above projects are most exciting to you. These next projects are going to continue the tradition of improvement, especially in what I’m offering as technical features.

Thanks again to all who support my work. I wouldn’t be here without you!

Hello Readers!

As you can see, I’ve released one short story so far, and its still needs some editing. That said, I’ve got more on the way, including more horror from the Dark Tales universe I’m working on.

What is Dark Tales?

This series of short stories all take place in the same universe and are connected in one way or another. Here is a preview of the upcoming stories:

Encounter Three

A young FBI agent is assigned to the mysterious Special Circumstances Team (SCT). Their task is to investigate the strange, unlikely, or absolutely ludicrous cases that come to the bureau. When he finds a box of evidence on his desk that contain reports about strange encounters, his investigations lead him down a very dark path.

Predations

A rich man hires a strange bounty hunter to track and kill a serial killer that murdered his daughter and son-in-law. The killer is known as The Predator, and leaves a shark tooth at the scene of his crimes, but no bodies are ever recovered - just footage of the victims being thrown into the ocean with Great White sharks and eaten alive. Can the killer be stopped before he claims more lives?

See You on the other Side

A group of teenagers borrow their parents RV for a camping trip in the mountains. As they travel to the location of their camp, they enter a tunnel that passes through a mountain. When they come out the other side, they realize they are lost. In fact, they may not even be on Earth anymore.

Skyrim Stories

Woken Furies

I’ll be telling the story of the Woken Furies, a group of heroes led by a former Valkyrie and her sidekick, a vampire.

The Heartbow Rangers

Tales from Solvi, Samandriel, and Kayle, as they work to protect Skyrim.

The Bloodgrym

A band of mercenaries who don’t always make the best choices. Our first tale is from Merka Blood-Brow, a Nord Berserker who has a bone to pick with the Woken Furies.

I have quite a bit of other fiction I’ve written, am writing, or have documented for the future. Stay tuned, especially to my first big novel, “The Spikes,” which I will detail a bit more on down the line.

Thanks for reading!

Heath aka ColdSun

“I’ll do it.” Mike took a pull from his Mountain Dew and looked over the rim as his friends gaped at him. He smiled behind the can, thinking about the easy money these fools would be paying him tomorrow.

“Come on, Bannister. You’re not serious, are you?” Alex asked. Mike slammed his can on the table and laughed as Alex jumped. Alex was a lot like Mike—six feet tall, but with dark brown hair instead of Mike’s blond, and brown eyes instead of Mike’s ocean-blue ones.

Mike loved it when his friends dared him to do something. Every time they were stupid enough to think the task was too much for him, he took their money with a smile. His last adventure was a dare to punch the biggest guy in the bar they were in. Not only did Mike pull it off, but the guy he punched was knocked unconscious before they fled the scene. This new dare, however, was far more interesting.

“Hell yeah, I’m serious.” He folded his arms and looked at his friends with an air of superiority. “I’ll stay in that house at the edge of the swamp tonight. If I do it without leaving, each of you owes me fifty bucks—two hundred total. Deal?” Alex, Ben, and John looked at him in disbelief. They knew Mike was the town’s tough guy, but still didn’t think he had the guts to spend the night in the old house.

“You know the story behind the house, right?” John asked. Mike nodded and pointed at him.

“You want to come with me?” he asked the little guy. John looked down at his feet and gulped. They all knew the rumors—supposedly, the house once belonged to some psychopath who killed his family. The same old story told about every haunted, abandoned place around. Mike didn’t give a damn. He was sure it was just an old, broken-down house at the edge of the swamp.

“Some old guy’s been missing for a couple of weeks,” John mumbled, still not looking up.

“You mean that bum? He probably had too many beers and got lost,” Mike scoffed. “I’ll be sure to say hello if I see him. Now, let’s head over to the house so you boys can see me off on my next adventure.” Mike picked up the remaining cans of Mountain Dew and grabbed his bat. Alex grabbed a sleeping bag and pillow. Ben grabbed the flashlight.

“So, if something happens to you, is it okay if I ask Sophia out for a drink?” Ben joked. Mike chuckled. Ben had the hots for his girlfriend—obvious enough—so Mike loved rubbing it in his face. Sophia was tall and blond, with the perfect body to match the face of an angel. Not the sharpest tool in the shed, but Mike liked them that way. And he definitely liked showing her off. He knew Ben would never score a girl like Sophia.

“I’ll tell her you asked when I get back.” Mike teased. Ben turned a bit red and smiled, then looked at the clock as he closed the door. It was 5:27. For the briefest moment, Mike felt dizzy and nauseated, but the feeling passed almost instantly. Mike just shrugged, locked the door, and followed his friends to the truck.

It was an overcast day, the sun barely peeking out from behind the clouds after a hard rain. Mike sat in the front passenger seat, watching the town crawl by in slow traffic. At one stop, he glanced out the window at a street bum holding a creative sign that read:

Wife left. Kids too. Need money. 27 bucks for a bus will do.

The bum was grinning right at Mike, missing teeth and all, thrusting a dirty coffee can forward. Mike panicked for a moment, gripping the door handle until his knuckles went white. Then came another brief wave of nausea and dizziness, which passed as quickly as before. When the light turned green, the truck moved on, and the bum continued to stare at Mike. They passed a newspaper stand where the local paper reported on the arrest of a serial rapist in bold letters.

Finally, the group reached their destination on the edge of town and turned into a gravel driveway. In the distance sat the ramshackle old house where Mike would be spending the night. The windows were all broken, wide open to the elements. They walked along the road to the house as the sun dipped below the horizon.

“Stop! Did you see that?” Ben asked as they approached the place. Everyone looked at the house, then at Ben, who was staring at the second story.

“See what?” Alex asked sarcastically.

“I thought I saw a light on in that window up there.” Ben pointed. It was dark now; no light was visible. “It’s gone,” he said, looking worried.

“Right. I know what you’re trying to do, hipster boy, and I’m not buying it.” Mike punched Ben’s arm in mock anger. “You should know by now I don’t get scared,” he added as he continued toward the house.

“I know what I saw,” Ben muttered. Then, more loudly, “Last chance. We can leave right now and forget this nonsense.”

Such a coward, Mike thought.

“Shit, Mike,” Alex said. “Looks like the bottom floor might be a little flooded. You sure you want to sleep in there?”

“No problem. I’ll just sleep upstairs.” Mike glanced at the address on the rusty mailbox: 27 Craven Court. He suddenly tripped on something and had to catch himself. “Damn it.” His friends looked at him expectantly. “Tripped on a rock,” he muttered. “You guys can leave me here. Let’s get this over with so I can take your money tomorrow.” He laughed at their frowns. “See you tomorrow!” he yelled as he headed for the house. When he turned for one last look, Ben was smiling strangely, almost evilly. Mike did a double-take, but by then his friends had already turned away down the street. Weird, he thought, prying the front door open and stepping inside.

The first thing he noticed was the smell—musty and rotten. The walls were grimy, and the place looked ready to collapse. The first floor was covered in mud and about two inches of water. Weeds poked through the floorboards in random spots, and swampy marshland was visible through the broken windows. Mike looked at the stairs, which appeared old but sturdy enough, and sloshed toward them. Then he heard a scratching noise—like someone running a single, long fingernail across wood. It made the back of his neck tingle. It didn’t sound like an animal. It had…purpose.

Scratch. Scratch. Pause. Scratch. Pause. Scratch.

When his foot touched the first stair, the sound stopped. Mike’s grip on the bat grew white-knuckled.

“Who’s there?” he called out. “Listen, guys. If one of you is in here trying to mess with me, you lose the bet right now, and I’ll just leave.” Silence. “Okay then.”

When he reached the top of the stairs, he saw five doors down a long, dark hallway. Trash littered the floor, and spider webs stretched across the ceiling. It was almost completely dark outside, so he flicked on the flashlight. Something scurried into a shadow at the far end of the hallway, and Mike jumped.

“Shit!” he exclaimed, stumbling back. He panned the flashlight around. Nothing. All the doors were closed, including the one right next to him. He suddenly felt liquid soaking into his sneakers. Looking down, he realized he had dropped his pack of Mountain Dew, and one of the cans had burst open on the floor.

“Fuck. Guess I’ll be buying new shoes tomorrow,” he grumbled. Turning the knob of the door next to him, he swung it open.

The hinges screeched in protest, revealing an empty room with a rusted bed frame—no mattress—and an old desk missing its drawers. Across from the bed was a broken window. Mike tossed his sleeping bag on the floor and shut the door behind him. He decided to camp right by the door, figuring he’d know if anyone tried to enter. He sat down and cursed. Ben had insisted he hand over his phone earlier, arguing that having it would nullify the challenge. Now Mike was bored out of his mind: no calls, no games, no web.

An hour later, he wished he could close that damn window. The swamp insects were unbelievably loud, and he’d never sleep through their racket. He realized he hadn’t planned this very well—no supplies, nothing to pass the time. Bored shitless, he thought, wondering if the money was really worth it. Mike turned on the flashlight again and walked over to the desk, the floorboards creaking under each step. He noticed a scrap of paper on the desktop and shined his light on it. It read:

Dexter said, “Round we go, 27! Hello!”

Mike’s knees went weak. What the fuck!? He whipped his flashlight around the room, looking for signs of his friends or anything suspicious. Nothing. Just darkness—and now, total silence. No chirping. No rustling. The bugs had gone quiet. His heart hammered, but he fought to keep his composure. If someone was here messing with him, he’d be ready to dish out a beating. Still, that note unnerved him. The sudden silence made it worse.

He grabbed his bat, and then heard that same scratching sound outside the door, only this time it had a clicking quality to it.

Scratch-click. Scratch. Scratch. Pause. Scratch-click. Scratch-click.

The instant he strained to listen more closely, the noise stopped, and the insects resumed their deafening chorus. It struck him that their noise was now comforting—at least he wasn’t alone. He sank to his knees, leaning back against the door, and tried to relax.

He jolted awake sometime later, cursing when the flashlight—balanced on his leg—slipped and smacked against his foot. He’d apparently dozed off, bored out of his mind. The bat was still clutched in his hand, though, which offered a bit of comfort. But the moment he realized how long the night still was, he started thinking about fleeing, about forfeiting the bet.

That was when he heard whispering in the hallway:

“Hello, twenty-seven…” It was a slow, sibilant, impossibly deep voice.

Mike screamed at the top of his lungs, raising the bat over his head. “Get the hell out of here or I swear I’m coming out there to fuck you up!”

Silence. No more whispering. He stood there for a solid five minutes, bat poised, beam from the flashlight shaking with his trembling hands. That voice was definitely not from one of his friends. He felt eyes on him, felt the house wasn’t as empty as he’d assumed.

Mike couldn’t bring himself to open the door, so he decided to wait until sunrise. Darkness was his enemy now, and the only friends he had were his flashlight and his bat. He groaned as the flashlight’s beam dimmed slightly. No light at all, or save the battery? He flicked it off, settling on saving what was left.

The moment the light went out, he heard pounding from the room next door. It was rhythmic, like a couple having rough sex, each thrust slamming the bed into the wall. The moaning grew louder—two distinct voices, and Mike recognized them both. He couldn’t believe it. Fear flared into pure rage as the woman’s pleasure-laden screams intensified.

“You son of a bitch! I’ll kill you, Ben!” He roared, racing into the hallway and flicking the flashlight back on. The corridor was empty. Slowly, he approached the neighboring door, pressing his ear against it. Ben and Sophia? Why would they do this here? Could they hate him that much?

“You bastard!” Mike yelled, trying the handle. It was locked. He pounded on it with the end of the bat. “Open the damn door. When I get my hands on you, you’ll wish you were dead! Is this some sick joke?”

The flashlight flickered. He slapped it against his thigh, and suddenly, all sound ceased. The door eased open by itself with a creak.

Mike shined his light in. The room was completely empty—no bed, no furniture, nothing. His anger dissolved, replaced by cold, creeping fear. He backed away and felt something brush against his foot with a scratch-click, scratch sound. Spinning around, he screamed and pointed the flashlight downward.

A massive purple spider, about the size of a dog, was backing away from him. It scuttled into the darkness. Mike wailed, sprinting back toward his original room. Something dropped onto his shoulder from above—he felt a weight, batted at it with his flashlight, and heard a squeak as he struck it. At the top of the stairs, he pointed the beam below.

Standing there was a man wearing an old high school football jersey with the number 27 on it. His hair was scraggly, dirty, and snow-white. He wore a grin identical to the weird one Mike had seen on Ben’s face. His hands were thin with elongated fingers ending in claws, his ears pointed, and his nose long. He looked almost like a rat, right down to his glowing red eyes. Mike’s bowels went loose, and his mouth hung open, unable to scream.

“Heeelllloooooo,” the rat-man hissed in that same echoing whisper Mike had heard earlier.

The rat-man took one step up the stairs—and the flashlight died. Mike was trapped. Jump out the window? he thought desperately, bolting back into the room with his sleeping bag. He slammed the door as the rat-man’s face appeared in the doorway. Mike collapsed in terror, screaming and sobbing. The door shuddered under the man’s pounding. The scratching sound started again—this time inside the room. Mike pounded the flashlight on his leg until it flickered to life.

He wished it hadn’t. Hundreds of those huge spiders were streaming in through the open window, illuminated by the moonlight. The door opened wider as the rat-man kept trying to force his way in. Mike screamed, and he didn’t stop.

In the Dexter Ward Research Facility…

The patient in the test room was screaming non-stop, running in circles as though fleeing invisible threats. Occasionally, he’d slam into a wall and collapse, but he never stopped shrieking. Drool ran from his mouth, and his eyes fixed on things that weren’t there. A doctor stood outside the sealed room, speaking on his phone while observing the patient.

“Dr. Benner, please read your report,” said the voice on the line. “I need all the details.”

“Yes, sir. While working with Patient 27, we encountered problems with the latest toxin,” the doctor replied softly, glancing at the test room with growing concern.

“Which toxin is this?” the voice asked.

“We call it XA-109. You may know it as the Grim Reaper Project. It’s designed to induce terror in enemy combatants, giving our troops time to capture their positions. It’s administered as a gas.”

“I’m familiar. Proceed.”

“Yes, sir.” The doctor looked at the screaming patient again. “Once the toxin was administered, the patient began talking to himself and hallucinating. The compound is meant to cause immediate fear, but he didn’t show uncontrollable terror until twenty-seven minutes in—at which point he began screaming non-stop. We moved to terminate the test. The chamber was cleared of the toxin, and a nurse went in to administer a sedative.”

“The patient was still screaming when the nurse entered?” the voice prompted.

“Yes. He bit the nurse on the neck as she tried to inject the sedative—still screaming the entire time. She managed to retreat without severe injury, and we resealed the test room. He didn’t stop screaming until exactly twenty-seven more minutes had passed.”

“I see. Then what happened?”

“Sir, that’s why we’re in full lockdown. This is well outside our expected parameters. We need an immediate evacuation under quarantine procedures,” the doctor said, his voice trembling. “After the second twenty-seven-minute cycle, the nurse who was bitten began to show the same symptoms—talking to herself for twenty-seven minutes, followed by uncontrollable screaming. We’re calling it the ‘Fear Cycle.’”

“How many have been infected?” the voice asked.

“Twenty-six. The original patient is on his twenty-sixth Fear Cycle now. We’re all terrified of what will happen during the twenty-seventh,” the doctor said, swallowing hard. Through the glass, he saw the patient suddenly stop screaming and fix him with a grin straight out of Alice in Wonderland.

The voice on the phone kept talking, but the doctor barely heard it. He realized he was actually standing in a different hallway—Room 26, not outside the original test chamber. I’ve been hallucinating this entire time. The facility had been in quarantine since the outbreak, and the twenty-seventh Fear Cycle was about to begin. The phone clattered to the floor as dread overtook him.

He dropped to his knees, screaming, his sanity in tatters.

Top Secret - POTUS Eyes Only

Final Report Summary: Incident at the Dexter Ward Research Facility
By Homeland Security Director Benner

“The President authorized bombing of the facility one minute before the twenty-seventh Fear Cycle. The site is now sterilized. May God save our souls. I fear we didn’t stop the spread of whatever this is.”

THE END