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.