I was somewhere in White Run, on the edge of Fort Graymoor, when the scoma began. I then saw two of these strange insects near me and realized that they were probably not the best companions for a ten-part scoma binge.

Skooma is a narcotic substance made from refined moon sugar that is banned in some parts of Tamriel because of its addictive properties, but is considered sacred scripture by the Khajiit. In Morrowind and Oblivion, it enhances speed and strength while depleting intelligence and agility, while in Skyrim it merely restores stamina. Its addictive and hallucinatory nature has never actually been modeled in any of the "Elder Scrolls" games to date.

JaySerpa is the developer of the Skyrim on Skooma mod (opens in new tab), which not only makes Skooma addictive, but also allows for 69 different psychedelic experiences, one random one for every bottle of the mad god's favorite drink. It may sound like a joke, and it was uploaded on April 1, but it is clearly the labor of JaySerpa's nearly five months in the making. One of the best Skyrim mods" Well, I agree.

The next bottle I drank made me feel 10 feet taller, like Alice in the song. In fact, it might have been closer to 30 feet. While we jogged to the nearby giant's mammoth and compared our heights, the world changed colors to purple, orange, and blue, each as vivid as an ugly reshade mod. I thought that at this size I could probably take down a giant and a mammoth, so I readied my mace. So I took another drink.

"This scuma will make you lose your head," popped up and a swirl of red light surrounded me. I switched to the third-person camera and it was literally true. I lost my head, leaving only a jagged red stump and a piece of white bone protruding from its center.

The mammoths lunged at me as I got too close, but this did not phase them, nor did the three wolves that later joined the party. The mammoths began trampling the wolves instead of me and my elytra friends.

The next bottle turned me into a motionless chair for 60 seconds, and the next bottle turned me into a darker color again, this time with a "why is this option in photo mode?" kind of optical illusion setting that would smear my vision if I looked away. I defeated the last wolf, but everything was tinted blue and I could no longer see. Then hazard yellow highlighted the red of the dark elf's eyes.

"You're going to want more scuma," another popup told me, and since I had gotten so much scuma using Skyrim's console command, I decided to stop (the console appears at ~, so "player.additem 00057A7A" followed by any number of units you want). Sure, addiction reduces your strength, stamina, and mana by 30 points each, but that's only when you're not drinking the scuma. There is a simple solution to that problem.

The next bottle had the effect of increasing my archery score, so I figured I could take another bottle before the effect wore off. I responsibly waited for the timer to run out and took another drink, but soon passed out again.

The strange vision that followed certainly looked like the opening credits of a video game, only instead of transitioning to a cart ride, it ended with me lying on the floor of a shack near Iverstead. A seedy down and out named Rolf, well aware of the dangers of Sukhuma, woke me up and gave me a glimpse of the bleak future if I continued down this path.

If I had been able to stand up, that might have made me walk away from Sukhuma's life. Instead, I was stuck in a prone pose when I ran out of the building. This may have been more of a bug than part of the journey, but who knows?"

I solved that by fast traveling to Iberstead.

It was worth it, and a fine goat appeared. The goat wore a floppy hat, left a rainbow under its hooves, and was named Cabrite Bartholomew in accordance with the prompt to ride Cabrite Bartholomew. Of course, I had Elytra by my side. I wonder what adventures await me next.

The Skyrim on Skooma mod is available in Skyrim Special Edition (opens in a new tab) and in the original flavor of Skyrim (opens in a new tab). You can install this mod in the middle of your play without having to worry about its impact on your save files.