....finished

It's been almost two months since I last posted. About two weeks ago I finished the mian question of Morrowind. The whole thing. I had to cheat and look up how to do things a couple times to do it. Not like I used the console or something.

I have to say I'm not really that much a of the storyline. I mean I guess it's slightly higher than "mediocre" but not the best.

I was around level 28 when I finally finished. My armor rating was at a ridiculous level, although that didn't much matter at the end given all the spells being cast one me.

If I ever play this game again I'm going to play it completely opposite: some sort of elf, pure mage.

Also during my adventures I installed both expansion packs for the game but never started either of them. I did enjoy the enhancements of them: the journal organizing by quest is especially great. Marking the local map though, not so useful.

Almost back on track

As it turns out I enjoy the game more than writing about it. Since the last entry I clearned out another set of ruins, Molg Mar, this time in one trip. I spent a lot of time wandering the coastal area east of Vivec, visiting ruins as I found them.

Eventually I made it all the way to Tel-Branora. Here I first started experimenting with "rising force" potions to speak with the rather loony head of the Great House Telvani. She didn't have anything useful to say. I did get a mission to take out a rival faction however. Another mage with several soldiers standing immediately outside the city. I finally found the NPC that was giving out that quest and for 1,000 gold I killed off the rivals. Turns out they really weren't that special or well armed/armored.

As long as I was in the area I did have a mission for the Erabenimsun Camp to rescue the prisonor the Imperial Legion mentioned a long time ago. I finally found the camp and started asking around. These people don't like outsiders too much and Imperials even less. I did learn some rogue former wise woman was holding the guy at a nearby camp, near a lava river and a trail of papers would lead me to him.

After what I thought wasn't a very long time I found the camp. The ex-wise woman wouldn't give him up however. I suppose I could have killed her but she just wanted me to find a replacement male for some sort of magic she was doing. These morrowind guys got some strange psychology going on. What kind of spells would require a male? Anyway I went back to the camp and found the person the wise woman had requested. Some how I actually manipulated him into going to live with some strange woman in the middle of no where for the rest of his life.

Once this was done the man in question finally left.

After leaving the Erabenimsun camp I came across an argonian slave. Seems he had escaped and wanted me to take him to sactuary in Ebonheart. Unfortunately for some reason he didn't have a "travel together/wait here a while" type option that all other NPCs that follow me do and he got stuck behind some rocks and confused enough he ran back to where he started from a couple times. Finally I gave up on him and didn't bother trying to find him again when he got lost. I even tried the ra command in the console but it didn't work.

I also found an ancesteral tomb right near the Erabenimsun camp. I cleared it out however upon killing the final human in the tomb I recieved a message that I had ruined the main quest: either reload a save game or continue in a doomed way. This didn't make sense to me because he only attacks, there's no way to talk to the guy. Upon research I found out killing him doesn't in fact ruin the main quest and this is some sort of glitch/bug/oversight even the patch didn't fix.

I decided I had enough money I was going to try some enchanting through the enchanter at the Guild of Mages. Eventually I came up with the forumla I wanted: when strikes I will be healed and cast soul trap for 10 seconds; on my ebony broad sword (I call it heal-and-trap).

Turns out it wasn't such a good idea because the sword doesn't seem to do nearly the damage it did before it was enchanted. So I use that sword to cast soul trap then switch to a normal sword to kill the creature. So far this has worked out pretty well.

So far I have captured at least two Twilight Guardians in some Grand Sould Gems. Grand Soul Gems, by the way, I am finding seemingly every place I go. Maybe because my luck rating is in the high 40s, I'm not sure. I started finding so many it was literally weighting me down. I had to go drop some into storage it was so many.

Speaking of which I figure I was finally leveled enough I could beat the Commona Tong at the Council Hall in Balmora. First I marked a recall point near the man in at Fort Moonmoth then decided to try: as it turns out I am a lot higher rank now and beat them all without much effort. I now have that building to store all my stuff and sleep etc.

Also speaking of which: I finally found that item that does the mark point for me: it was in a cave near Gnaar Mok. Also near Gnaar Mok is an "abandoned shack" and some other caves. Upon reporting back to the Nord at Fort Moonmoth I was assigned going back to Gnaar Mok to rescue a damzel held by some smugglers. This also wasn't too terribly hard and got the feeling I was intended to do so about 10 levels back when the people inside may have provided a challenge.

The next mission was to yet again go back to Gnaar Mok and kill some Netchers harrasing the local town folk. If I had to guess I'd say this also wasn't going to be much of a challenge.

I actually forgot the details already but I actually found a wizard's staff that gives me 1 point of levitate for 120 seconds. Once I got that I was really having some fun in Ald'ruhn walking around on the roof of Skar and floating above the mountains behind Skar. Then I realized the magical portion of the staff wasn't regenerating for some reason and soul gems didn't give me the option to regenerate it. So eventually I'll use one of my worthless 60k grand soul gems to create a "constant effect" levitation device. That'll be awesome. I know I'll eventually need something that levitates me in order to continue at all.

Currently I am a level 22 Imperial Knight with level 100 long sword, STR at 100 and Heavy Armor in the 80+ range. My axe rating is around 54 and the amount of armor I have is around 150. I still die sometimes though.

Finally I get back to Gnaar Mok via a combination of silt striders and boats to kill the netchers. All I know is they're "north of town". Eventually I instead find yet another tomb, this one referring to the carcass of a saint. This is a long confusing series of tunnels with a few "dreamers", ash zombies and ash slaves and at least one Golden Saint. I had dropped a large number of my Grand Soul gems so I did capture a couple rather valuable creatures but was out of gems by the time I reached the Golden Saint. This was rather annoying as I know how valuable those souls can be. And for once

Eventually I cleared out this tomb and managed to find at least one breeding nether. Back in Balmora I decided to try out a "continuous effect" enchantment on an item. The 16k worth of gold I had was burning a hole in my pocket. So I paid the guild enchanter to make an exquiset amulate a constant effect of levitation. Now I'll no longer need to worry out not getting up to places. Best thing is it'll never wear out. Isn't that awesome? Now all I need is constant magic resist and magic reflect and possibly restore health and I should be all set. The health one will cost some serious gold though.

Eventually I'll have to get back to the actual main quest. Lately I've been doing an awful lot on the southern half of the island, haven't done much of anything on the eastern or nothern portions. For that matter south of Ebonheart hasn't been much explored either.

For some reason a max carry weight just doesn't seem to be enough for me currently. Although now that I think of it I'm carrying around all those soul gems with valuable souls in them and they're just taking up space. I should really pick a chest at one of my many storage locations and leave them there. I have three weapons: my trusty glass sword, the heal-and-trap ebony sword and an axe so I can practice that skill. The only other thing that could weighing me down is all the armor I'm wearing. Other than that are the various pieces of apparel I carry around with me: robes, rings, etc. I also have some potion ingrediants and various potions I've obtained. Not really sure what is taking up all that much weight.

Finally I found the second "breeding netch" near Gnaar mok. It was out over the water rather high up in the air. Luckily I had just paid 6k or so gold to make a "amulate-o-levitate" with 1 pt. levitate, constant effect. So I used that to float above the water and kill the last netch. I then recalled back to the creeper in Caldera and using another enchanted item of mine, "Amulate-o-Devintevention", along with the intervention that takes me to a temple I made it back to Fort Moonmoth to get the next Legion quest from the Nord there.

One note: I found out if I start in Caldera devine intervention will take me to fort Buckmoth while the temple's intervention will take me to Balmora. So I can get to Balmora then devine intervention to Moonmoth. If I make it as far as Buck motht hat way I can temple intervention up to Ald'ruhn. I'm getting lazy in my early 20s ;-). That's Balmora to Ald'ruhn with out walking. And for free. Ok I could take both the silt strider and Guild of Mages to do the same but that's beside the point.

Knight without a Cause

During my many trips to the cave near Hla Oad I decided to rest a while. My rest was abruptly interupted however by an assassin. I wasn't expecting this but managed to kill this guy off rather easily. My journal says I should report this to a guard as soon as possible, but I haven't got around to it yet. I took the special assasin armor off of the assasin along this his sword and sold it to the guy in the Guild of Fighters in Balmora.

For some reason vendors like to wear the best or most special armor as soon as they get it. Maybe this is to let me know that's where I sold it in case I need it back. Was kind of humorous to see this guy wearing the assasin's custome some somehow. Assasin armor isn't very protective but it's certainly valuable. Over my adventures since that first assasin several other attempts by assasins have been made, all failures of course. It's also called "Dark Brotherhood" assassin's armor, so I'm guessing it's the dark brotherhood that's trying to kill me. Despite that there's at least two dark brotherhood members in Vivec who will talk to me without incident and and would likely be trouble with the guards if I tried to kill. Not that I think this isn't consistent or unfair or anything.

Having finally finished the treasure-rich cave near Hla Oad I decided to move on. Not quite feeling like finding either camp assigned to me by Caius Cosades of the Blades or the fighter's guild I decided to wander down the coast more, adventuring through the various shrines and other caves. I was having fun doing this when I realized I had made it all the way to Seyda Nean. I decided to stop by and see if I could unload some stuff.

One thing I noticed once I got to level 15 or so levels start come rather quickly. And as I mentioned virtually every level I've made I increased my strength level. By level 18 I could carry nearly 500 (I assume pounds) and I had attained level 100 in long sword skills, the maximum level. Now all I need to work on is my axe, short sword and marksman skills. My axe is at 50, left over from a fire axe I had at the beginning as I tried to increase swordsmanship and axe skills at the same time. But that axe got taken away by some guards because I had apparently found it in a crate.

My short sword is closer to 20 and marksman is even lower than that.

I also started working on my magic skills. In other words bought lots and lots of training in the various magical schools. Haven't yet made a lot of progress.

I'm now rather good at finding items that are worth more than 30,000 gold. But again what good does that do me if the most any NPC ever has is 2,500 gold?

I started practicing enchanting. This skill is actually listed as one of my minor skills I just haven't been practicing it. To enchant, of course, I need to Soul Trap. To Soul Trap I need either lots of soultrap scrolls, the soul trap spell or find a soul trap ring/amulate/whatever. I had money from the cave near Hla Oad as well as some other caves on the coast so I went to the Guild of Mages to get some enchanting done. Turns out that whole enchanting thing is a little expensive.

After more exploring I had made it all the way to Vivec. On the way I came across a traveler with a Guar. He was a little too attached to that guar. Kept referring to it as if it could talk or it was the real brains of the two or somethin'. I tried talking to it and I got a "has nothing to say to you at this time" type message.

In the Vivec area I decided found a few more caves, also with lots of treasure. I'm finding Grand Soul Gems like nobody's business over here. These couple caves again took me several trips of recalling to the local barterer at the Guild of Fighters before I moved on.

Then I found Ald Sotha: a really, really giant set of ruins. This one actually took me at least three trips, but I did beat it. Even managed to get an "ebony broad sword". After all the stuff in that one place I should have well more than 100,000 gold by now, but alas, as I like complaining about, damn NPCs are too damned poor.

Would have been nice if I could just set up a credit account with an NPC or perhaps all barterers at all fighter's guild or somethin and every time I buy something they just subtract it from the value of the expensive item. Would that be so much to ask? Seriously: what is the point of 80,000 gold soul gems? May as well make it unsellable, priceless or worth 0.

After some research in various forums and sources on the internet I discovered there are at least two creatures that have either 5k or 10k of gold. Better than the max 2.5K I've found other wise but still not all that impressive. I'm still contemplating if I want to go in and modify the 5K character (he also buys for the real value of the items) to have a much, much larger amount of gold.

Horray, post-vivec: Level 13!

For all practicle purposes I'm done with Vivec. At least I hope to avoid it as much as possible.

As of now I have enough levels to be extremely high ranked in almost all the factions I'm currently joined to. I'll I have to do is a whole lot more quests for them all. After the quest in the ruins for scrap medal I was having a little trouble trying to decide what to do next. I remembered someone in Vivec had mentioned something about a guy who owed money in Hla Oad. Starting from Balmora I decided that's where I was going next.

Didn't seem to be a quick way via roads so I decided to head out via cross-country. Part way there I found a place apparently called the "Odai Plateau". Not sure what that is or if it's important but it's now on the map. About half way between the Plateau and the Hla Oad I found a cave (I'll have to look up the name). Didn't seem to be any people around so I went in. The first I went in there was a fork in the path and down one fork was a (I think it's called) Fire Elemental. I wasn't ready though so I died in that instance. The next time I came in I ran past that path and went to the end. Mostly it seems to be a good supply of raw ebony but not much else. I did run into some bandits but managed to take care of them rather quickly.

Finally I went back toward the entrance to take care of the other path. This time instead of fire there was a frost elemental (or whatever). I managed to care of him with a combination fireball ring and uber-sword. I think I remember reading somewhere about a quest invovling a lost ebony mine. My journal I don't think updated so either this isn't the mine or I read it online.

In Hla Oad I found the guy who owes the money. After some bribing he told me to look under someone else's house to find what I was looking for. There I found a big treasure chest containing around 900 gold. Upon checking the journal it looks like this individual owed 800 gold and I could keep half.

I explored more of Hla Oad and found out there was some sort of Dwemer imports expected by a local citizen. After artificially raising that citizen's disposition of me to 100 he still would only give me "what dwemer artifics" or "what are you talking about". Somehow this seems like a bug to me but I'll have to wait and see if anything else comes of this.

I then decided I would wander some more along the coast. Actually the last time I played this game I had left it at a rather treasure-rich cave. I can't quite remember but I think that cave was outside of Hla Oad. Or perhpas it was another city, I just remember it was long the coast some where.

Upon a rather short wandering time I found a dock and ship with a few people aboard. After saving several times ahead a time I went aboard the boat. Luckily no one started attacking but no one would say anything particulary helpful or new or at all indicative of a group of smugglers or bad guys. In the lower hold I did some barrel and crate exploring and found a rather nice looking two-handed Nord sword. My pick-pocketing skills really aren't terribly good however. Again saving several times I tried to sneak to the crate containing the nice sword as well as a grand soul gem and some other items. I was caught rather abruptly however and had to fight the guy off. Upon beating him I noted I had never recieved a messsage about a crime being reported and upon checking there was no bounty on my head. I decided not to risk any thing else and recalled back to the fighter's guild in Balmora.

Everybody still likes me and I'm not dead so it looks like I got away with it. Or perhaps those were smugglers who were ok to kill. I don't know. I should probably be careful with the stuff I got from him though or else it could get taken from me by some guards. I'd hate that.

While in Balmora I started to think some more about enchanting and potion making. I am a member of the mages guild now after all. I actually downloaded a seperate program that shows me all the ingredients for almost all potions but I decided I would just start with the ingredients I had a large number of and then drop each of the other ingredients in combination and see if anything came up. Eventually I did find some combinations but more often then not the potions fail. But then my alchemy skill is rather low. My armorer rating is at 39 and I still fail when I try to do that. So I know I have a long way to go as far as alchemy skills.

I also started experimenting with Soul Captures. I purchased the spell a while ago but still don't have even close to enough magica/intelligence to cast it. So purchased some scrolls and set out with my shiny new "Grand Soul Gem". With the help of my glass jink sword I managed to paralyze a few critters and capture some souls. Not know better however I ended up with a rather low-level critter in my Grand Soul Gem. As far as I know there's no way to actually expunge a soul from a soul gem once it's in there. So I went back to Balmora to see if I could use this soul to enchant an item at the Mage's Guild.

Well it looks like this can often be rather expensive. I also attempted this myself, a bad idea as you may have guessed. I didn't think the Soul Gem would be destroyed if I failed I thought it would only lose the soul. So I destroyed a Grand Soul Gem. I suppose I could have gone back and reloaded my save game but I didn't.

I also did some experimenting with "spell making" at the Guild-of-Mages. This can be done rather easily and cheaply. At least to get the custom spell anyway. Again casting it successfully is another problem altogether. Except that I could enchant that custom spell to an item with a soul gem which I could do if I had more money. Did you get all that? In conclusion I need more money.

With that rather obvious realization I went back to Hla Oad to find that mystery cave I know has lots of treasure. I run back to Hla Oad and continue looking for more caves.

I should also mention I had purchased the Game of the Year edition of the game so I could get the two expansion packs together. I didn't want to be bothered with the plots of those two expansions until I had finished with the main quest. But after reading of the various journal and map enhancements I decided I would install them after all.

In Hla Oad I did eventually find yet another cave entrance. After saving I entered and was immediately attacked by two bandits. I guess I'm getting better because the two of them really weren't much of a challenge. I did have to do some healing however. A further jog down the cave revealed two more bandits. Unfortunately these two managed to take me out. Upon reload I healed up and manged to attract the attention of only one of them. I broke out the paralyzing jink blade to paralyze then beat him down. Then attracted the attention of the second guy and did much the same. This time I barely had any life left but at least I beat them.

Upon looking at the bodies and all the crates and barels I realized this was a rather treasure-rich place. In fact I found at least four more grand soul gems and several other soul gems of various degrees. Soon I realized it would take several trips to sell all this stuff. So I loaded up and recalled back to Balmora where I sold off some of the trinkets I had collected in the cave. I then ran back to the cave, grabbed more treasure and recalled one more to Balmora. Fortunately the fighter's guild guy had come into money and had 2000 gold each time I recalled back.

Then I decided all this running was pointless and realized I could take the silt strider in Balmora to Vivec where I could catch a boat back to Hla Oad. This take a long time in game-time but is much faster for me in real-time. I'm now in day 52 and have reached level 14.

Avoiding Vivec...I give up (avoiding) - part 2

I'm fairly certain I was in the cave with psycho imperial guy wearing the lord's mail when I found this enchanted dagger. Another rather valuable item (around 6k) that is rather useless since no NPCs actualy have that much money. The enchantment is paralyzation for about 10 seconds.

In one of the under works I found what looked like a shrine albeit guarded by a heavily armored nord. I saved before I was within eye-sight of him and tried many times to beat him but never could quite do it. I tried potions, echanted items, turn invisible to get the jump on him, everything. Finally I got out the dagger-of-paralyze and tried that. Too bad my short blade skills are so lousy. After several seconds of swiping madly at the air I finally hit him and he was frozen for a few seconds at which point I beat him rather harshely. Then the paralyze wore off and it was time to run and swipe at the air till I hit him again and beat him some more. Finally, I took him out. I don't know why he was so good. I have a way higher armor rating, my weapon is better too. Maybe my dodge is just lousy or he was a higher level. In any case I'm sure I wasn't supposed to be able to beat him at my level but I did.

Once inside the shrine he was guarding it was even more fun. This also took a long time snce there were so many people all firing at me at once. Luckily they all fall for the invisibility ring and I manage to make it to a back room. Here I find a "sheild level 3" scroll and a "summon fire elemental" (something like that) who helps immensely. The first time I tried this I had saved but the I still managed to die. The second attempt the elemental was turned on me I still managed to beat everybody.

In another underworks there was yet another shrine also with someone guarding it. This one didn't kill me however. Seemed not to care I was there at all. Upon entering the shrine however I encounter three bad guys all going for me. After many reloads I do manage to kill the weakest of the group however between the battle mage and the guy with the crossbow-and-lightning-bolts I don't survive very long.

After an hour worth of reloading the same save game I decide I may not be of a high enough level or I need a new strategy. So I move on.

I did have an interesting adventure in the "Puzzle Canals" below the Palace. The Palace has but one door: locked at 100 and trapped to boot. I seem to be good enough now I can disable a trap (traps don't have complexity ratings apparently) but I can't come even close to a 100 level lock. Maybe if I had a spell or scroll. Eventually I'll be able to afford a scroll or amulate or whatever that can do door unlocking.

I have also found a new sword with the name something to the effect of a demon blade. It allows me to summon an even cooler blade, albeit just really lite and effective not necessarily uber-damaging.

In the Puzzle Canals, a multi-leveled pyramid-like structure with water ways, or canals I suppose, at each level. Each great is an entry into the structure itself. Inside looks just like the underworks of the Vivec cantons accept a little smaller and simpler. You enter one great and there's another greate at the other end. There's also passages to the side where there's another passage with more grates. When you exit via a great you come out on another level of the pyramid. As for as I know there's no combination of enters/exits that actually gets you into the temple at the top. On level 3 is something interesting however: a platform with gap and what looks like another room protected by a barrier. A nearby shrine-looking object gives you a supposed clue on how to get in.

If you want to know how to get across the gap/lower the barrier you'll have to cheat on the internet as I'm not going to spoil it. All I will say is read the clue given and don't over-think it. No metaphors involved, no analogies, no book reading. Just take it literally. And save first :). Remember this is a religious shrine so faith may be invovled...

There's one place in Vivec I never did visit on account it's a giant levitating rock with no way to get up to it. Accept for potion of levitation and the one scroll I used to have to give me 1000 jump. I didn't have either of those however so I skipped it. The locaiton in question is called the "Ministry of Truth". I think.

There's several sub-quests assigned via various characters in Vivec. One involves a serial killer. Another an invisible man. Yet another an annoying rash that doesn't seem to go away. Eventually I'm sure I'll finish these what I call "busy work" errand quests. But right now I'm not terribly motiviated.

I also found a guy who said he found some sunken ship somewhere or other. For an alcoholic beverage he told me where the ship was and gave me a key to get into it. Appears there's some sort of enchanted axe on ship. Them Nords sure do love their axes don't they? Good thing they didn't have Frued back then, heh.

Having thoroughly exhasted myself of Vivec and everything Vivec-related I finally went back to balmora. Here I tried to turn in my info to Caius Cosades but was promptly told I needed the rare book one of the contacts mentioned to me. So back to Vivec I went. Wasn't too terribly hard to find this rare book as the store that carried it was called "rare books". I guess banned books aren't too banned in that placed. So back to Balmora and finally Caius Cosades accepts me and my accomplishment of a boring Vivec adventure. After some pressing he gives me a new quest.

So I new I have a choice: either jump straight to the next Blades quest or tackle some more Legion/Fighter's Guild/Imperal Cult/mages guild quests.

Ya, I joined the mages guild too. Not sure why really. Wasn't much reason.

As a side note I found one of the best Morrowind sites out there. I also managed to find a rather easy way to find them: at google type anything related to the game followed the word morrowind. For instance if you needed help with Vivec go to google and type in Vivec morrowind and the first link will be this site. Or just use that link and click morrowind once there for the home page and you can find help on anything else you need. Like the solution to every quest for every faction and the secrets to every location. Or use the link. Either way.

I did decide to do at least one Legion quest. I headed to Ft. Moonmoth and grabbed the quest: appears there's a contest between the Legion and another group. The Legion is to get some scrap medal from the ruins while the other group is to find some "corpus meat". I went back to balmora to talk to the fellow in the basement about a key to the lower ruins he had mentioned. This secured I headed back to the ruins. It was fun to be back in there and killing those mechanical creatures once more. I certainly did find enough scrap medal for the contest. Actually I wasn't told how much to get, just to get some. So I had 10 peices of scrap medal. As far as I know for virtuallly every level I've progressed I've added to the strength level. I'm assuming there's a cap to that attribute and I have a feeling I'll be reaching it pretty soon.

Officially (more or less) done with Vivec, time to move on.

Avoiding Vivec...I give up (avoiding) - part 1

As I'm writing this I've completed Vivec already. Not all the quests but at least talked to all the people I had to. To try to keep some semblance of what the hell is going on I'm going to try and summarize what I've done. Also while in Ebonheart I did a couple more things.

For starters I was about to leave Ebonheart when I decided to swim around the side for no apparent reason. Seriously. I had no reason to do this at all. But I did for the hell of it. After a bit of this I got bored and was about to leave but checked my map. It had a door symbol on it. Wuhoo! I thought. A secret under water door. So I go in. Look it's some Imperial near a fire. Ok I'll go chat.

Nope, attacks me. Well I'm not backin' down from this thanks. Takes a while but it's just him so I beat him eventually. Upon looting I find he is indeed wearing the "lord's mail". The lord's mail being a mere 130 armor rating. Normal mail I've been wearing is aound 35 armor rating. Also it's worth A LOT. In fact so much no vendors in the whole game has enough to pay for it. So ti's kind of pointless to put a price on it, now isn't it? Worth 10k gold if it matters. Which it don't.

In fact no NPCs seem to have much more than 2k gold. That's really annoying. What the hell am I to do with all this valuable crap anyway?

I did some spoiling on the Internet for a while and found retrieving that mail is actually a really high-level quest for the Legion. That I found early. So lucky me!

And the imperviousness I expected to some degree via this "lord's mail" wasn't nearly so much. I can still die for instance. What's up with that?!

Finally I leave Ebonheart and it's time to decide what I feel like doing. I have plenty of quests and other leads I could decide to go and do. Anything but Vivec.

Ok fine, I decide to do Vivec. It's only way to move the stupid plot along anyway. What do I want this thing to last 10 years? So I enter Vivec. By boat this time. Looks like I didn't have to walk from the silt strider in Vivec to Ebonheart like I did, I could have taken a boat straight there. Good no know.

I start in the "foreign quarter". Vivec is made of of several of what are called "cantons". Most all cantons contain a plaza at the very top, some "waists" in the middle, canal works below that and under works at the bottom. For the foreign quarter I started in the middle. Took of Caius Cosades' first person I was assigned to find and talk to everyone. Then I went to the top, the plaza. Here is a conveniently located fighter's and mage's guild right near each other as they always are. At least I know I have a convenient way to get back to Balmora.

After that I explore the canal works and finally get to the under works. All the under works have amazingly similar floor plans except some have gaping holes in the walls or haunted shrines to explore. And rats. Lots of rats.

Then I get a little smarter and decide to start at the top and move my way down.

Now I could try to remember all that crap I did but it was annoying enough living through it once I don't want to have to re-live it. Suffice to say it took two entire real days of play and about 10 game days worth. I'm now on day 41 or so and level 13. Leveling seems relatively easy now. Just go through a dungeon or two, kill a couple beasts, and the next level is pretty quick.

One thing I did notice: I managed to up the likeability of one of the NPCs that is a part of the "dark brotherhood". I did this via my innate power I was born with called "Voice of the Emperor" that raises the likeability rating by 20 to 30 points, supposedly temporarily. So the NPC gives me a name of Kajik inthe plaza and says to mention his name. So I talk to the cat-like creature but there's no option to mention the first NPC's name. The Kajiik only says "ok, I'm ready to talk to your boss, Eno Hlaalo". Wait, what?! I'm not a member of that house!! Nor have I even met that particular person. What hell is she talking aboot?!

Maybe that's a bug, maybe not. I don't know. I actually know where this Eno is but I didn't have the mad lock pick skills (or scrolls) to open the door containing therein.

I'm pretty sure the "Dark Brotherhood" has a rivalry with the House Hlaalo. Just about everybody has a rivalry with the Dark Brotherhood actually.

This post is long enough I'll have to break it up into several parts. So wait with baited breath for the next post. Or read my journal. Either way.

From skar to Ebonheart

Finally having visited every place and talked to everyone actually in the town of Ald'ruhn I made for this large structure known as "skar". A lot of places are referred to has "under skar" so I can see why. I wasn't paying attention to the details but it's a large shell-like structure with many, many doorways inside.

Many of these places have really similar names and look extremely a like. I didn't really have a lot of reason to go in there except for one minor quest but skar is like an entire city in and of itself. So I went in. Several hours later I had accomplished maybe one thing and was thoroughly dizzy from all the similarly named NPCs I had encountered most of which had told me the same thing. I did find some kind of wise woman who had a lot of information and some books that leveled me up. Finally, I left skar for greener pastures.

At this point I could have gone back to Fort Buckmoth to look for the NPC that'd give me a new legion quest but instead I decided I would make for Ebonheart and the promise of "shrine sergeant" quests via the Imperial Cult. I no longer felt like walking however so I took a couple silt strider rides down Vivec and hiked over to Ebonheart. Ebonheart is a giant castle-like structure divided into three main sections connected by walkways on top of castle walls. Within the castle is the main office of the East Empire Company.

Didn't the British have a similarly named company several hundred years ago? No? Fine whatever.

Eventually I did find the Imperial Cult cathedral and "Kaye" who promptly gave me the position of shrine sergeant and gave me a mission: finding a high elf named Caryarel who had been treated for swamp fever in the chapel some time back after a which a rare limeware bowl disappeared turned up mission. I am to find this elf and try to retrieve the bowl. The high elves are a close-knit community and I am to ask other high elves where I may find Caryarel in particular. I don't even know where the high elves hang out actually. So I'm clueless on this mission.

I also found the local in charge of the Imperial Legion, Frald the White, who also gave me a mission: to challenge Buoyant Armiger Salyn Sarethi at the Ghost Gate to a contest of contest of wit, poetry, and honor. Salyn Sarethi it seems has been doubting our courtesy. Although why we care I don't know. And I just came from there. And there's a fire-demon in the way. Damn.

Also what makes him Buoyant? Does he float real well? Is there a water-logged Armiger too? Why am I the only one asking this questions??

After more wandering I found Llaalam Dredil, advisor to duke dren. He asked me to deliver a letter to J'Zhirr at the East Empire Company. I looked at the letter and it had a list of price markups for various items including "D. Artifacts". Aren't those the things that are protected by Imperial law and treason to sell? Damn hypocritical Empire.

I deliver the letter and receive a letter to return: this one accepting the prices in the form of a promissory note. Although how such a contract could be enforced since it specifies illicit activities and items I don't know. Llaalam Dredil thanks me for the errand and gave me 75 whole gold for doing so.

Although it apparently was never officially assigned as quest via the journal I have also heard of some "Lord's Mail" that has gone missing. After some bribing I was told to talk to someone at the Imperial Commission. He gave me a name and told me to talk to the soldiers at the Imperial Guard HQ. They weren't useful as all they said was "he stayed in the sout west room here". I went in to what I though was that room but couldn't find anything of interest. Just a bed and some candles on a nightstand. So I tried casting the old "detect enchantment" spell. I succeeded with the spell but apparently nothing showed up. Must be something I'm missing there.

Reasonably certain I've completed everything to be completed in Ebonheart I now get to decide what I get to do next.

I could go back to Balmora and join the Mages guild or Thieves guild. Or there is this "House Redoran" that is held in high regard by the Legion. Or I could simply skim over my journal and see if there's any other quests I may have forgotten about. Anything to avoid the long arduous trial that will be Vivec in other words.

I just remembered I had received a new mission from the fighters guild: Percius Mercius, who I did find at Fort Buckmoth told me to aid Buoyant Armiger Ulyne Henim in an expedition to Vas, a remote island west of Dagon Fel. That's all it says in the Journal however the longer version is that this NPC acknowledges it's a rather long walk irregardless and my best bet is a boat out of another city; Tel Mora I think.

That sounds like it could take longer than Vivec and I'm fairly certain I'm not to the level that would allow this quite yet.

The decision of what to do will have to wait for next time.