Tag Archives: Elder Scrolls

Again, apologies for the crummy screenshots. They’ll return back to being a little better setup and shot with the next update.

“…but I did stay at a Faregyl Inn Express last night!”

From Garn’s recollections:

After leaving Hircine’s shrine I needed to bed down for the night and decided to head back towards civilization. After a short while I found a road and soon came upon a small inn where at I purchased a room for the night. The next morning I chatted briefly with the locals one of which recognizing me as an adventuring type asked if I’d find some potatoes that had just been stolen from her. She claimed she saw the thief running away through the woods but didn’t dare to pursue him herself. A bandit, eh? No problem. Hell, I figured it was probably a hungry kid and I wouldn’t even need to draw my blade to get her stuff back.

“Take that, potato snatching pervent!”

I left the inn and headed west through the forest. After not having much luck I took a seat on a hill to catch my breath and maybe eat a little when I noticed a strange figure in the distance. I quickly threw down my half eaten apple, grabbed my sword, and began to cautiously work my way back down the hill towards it. Once I got a little closer I recognized the huge, muscular, grotesque creature instantly – it was an ogre.

Unfortunately I had little time to prepare. A twig snapped beneath my feet and the ogre spun around towards me. It was no time and charged towards me. Although the ogre possessed great strength it was no match for my speed and dexterity. After searching its corpse I was surprised to find the potatoes in one of his belt pouches. The people at Faregyl Inn were lucky all this ogre did was a little pilfering.

“Some people just REALLY don’t want girl scout cookies.”

After returning the stolen potatoes to the Khajiit at the inn I decided to continue heading west through the forest. As usual I picked herbs, skinned some wolves and even a few bears, made note of but steered clear of a few caves, ruins, and other bandit habitats.

I soon came upon a secluded house nestled inside of a small valley. The house appeared to be abandoned so I decided to take a closer look and quietly entered. As I took a look around at the sparsely decorated, dusty den I overheard a conversation coming from upstairs. Oops! I crept back towards the door but froze when I noticed the voices suddenly stop – had they heard me? The very next moment two bandits were rushing towards me, weapons drawn. As it was quite evident that these weren’t simply protective homeowners I did not hesitate to defend myself. After slaying both I looted their corpses and picked the house clean of valuables of which there were few.

“Ahhh, beautiful, scenic end-of-map.”

Next I wandered far south. So far south, in fact, that my herbs and prey seemed to dry up entirely. As night fell I was quite lost in this desolate part of the forest but soon spotted some far off lights and made my way towards them. I did not know if I was approaching friend or foe but as I got closer and saw the silhouettes of a massive ruined temple of some sort I began to suspect the latter. Luckily when I finally came upon the source of the lights, a couple of torch bearing travelers, they turned out to be peaceful pilgrims coming back from a visit to a nearby shrine. I followed them as they made their way along the path back to their town and soon found myself entering Skingrad.

“Off to see the wizard! The wizard… err…’s guild.”

I had heard of Skingrad while in prison. Many of the wines that are found in and around Cyrodiil originate here though I know little else about it. The city seems to be almost entirely walled and I quickly observed that there were an abundance of guards on patrol.

As I spoke to a few locals out in the street I suddenly found myself under attack as an arrow glanced off of my shoulder armor. Thankfully before I even spun around several of the aforementioned guards were pursuing the criminal and quickly slew him. I have no idea why I was under attack – was this an accident, perhaps a case of mistaken identity, or was I the target of a failed assassination attempt?

“Hot guard on guard action.”

I didn’t have time to reflect on this, however, as the guards soon started to turn on each other. What was this? Conspiracy? When the dust settled two guards had been cut down in the streets. I’ve no ill will towards the guards nor the people of Skingrad but opportunity knocked and I looted the downed guardsmen after the public grew disinterested in the scene.

Wow, I’ve only been in this city for few minutes and I’ve already stumbled across some strange, strange stuff.

As Elder Scrolls veterans might suspect the guards were attacking each other because of some friendly fire while they were trying to catch the thief NPC. Oops! Nice loot though.

Apologies in advance for the less than spectacular screenshots this time around. It had been so long since I did one of these that I apparently forgot what the hell I was doing.

“It can be hard to squeeze through the crowds in the capital’s bustling market district.”

From Garn’s recollections:

I entered the Imperial City and began looking for shops at which to offload some of the loot I had gathered. I admit, I was rather paranoid at first walking through the crowded city streets but soon enough I discovered that few people were taking much note of me. “Just another damn adventurer!” I’m sure many of them thought. As my nervousness decreased I found myself testing the waters a bit by going out of my way to strike up conversations with citizens and even the odd guard. Other than a little concerned chatter about the death of the Emperor everything seemed to be pretty normal.

I soon found myself in the Market District where I was able to sell my herbs, pearls, and other miscellaneous looted items to various shop keepers. After a stack of magic scrolls caught my eye I, at a shop keeper’s suggestion, purchased a couple of scrolls of conjuration to study. I decided that it would be in my best interest not to stick around too long to avoid raising any eyebrows and, after renting a room in a nice inn for the night, headed back out into the wilderness.

Since I made a fair amount of gold I decide to continue on my path of gathering herbs and pearls and hunting a bit. I decided to circle the Imperial City yet again only this time cutting a much wider swath out away from the road in order to hunt bigger prey than the simple mud crabs I had been fighting. Things went as expected – plenty of herbs to pick and the occasional wolf to skin all while practicing my new spells along the way. It was pretty uneventful, enjoyable even, and I temporarily let my worries drift away from me.

“This dude was apparently sick on the day his order had the class on how to kill weak ass goblins.”

Since I was feeling a bit more confident about my ability to defend myself I chose to head back into the goblin infested cave south of the city that I had fled from earlier. This time I managed to make it to the very end of the cave killing several more goblins. Along the way I found the remains of a few slain knights who evidently weren’t as lucky as I was. Knowing nothing of their order I pieced together some of their superior equipment for my own purposes hoping that it wouldn’t get me any unwanted attention later on. Overall, despite a few close brushes with death, this new expedition was quite a success.

I believe these dead Dragonborne Knights were added by Oscuro’s Oblivion Overhaul though I don’t know if they serve any purpose save for additional flavor and some helpful loot.

After this little excursion I decided to continue on my trek through the woods around the city. I came across a few interesting sites, such as a shrine devoted to someone named Clavicus Vile, surrounded by his somewhat odd followers. I also came across many more abandoned ruins and shrines which I tended to avoid rather than to explore due to my earlier observations about them often being inhabited by bandits and other unsavory types.

“Eeny, meeny…”

After a short period of time I wandered into an unusual scene – two rather large minotaurs violently attempting to wrangle what appeared to be a unicorn. Upon spotting me the minotaurs threw down their ropes and diverted all attention towards me. Getting the distinct feeling that I was interupting something I wasn’t supposed to have seen I attempted to flee but it was only a matter of time before the massive, muscular minotaurs caught up to me. A vicious battle ensued and I, somehow, came out the victor. Only remembering vague legends about unicorns I decided it would be best if I steered clear of the beast and be on my way.

The truth is while I have no idea how OOO has leveled the unicorn I highly doubt I can kill it. It is unclear to me how the Unicorn is regarded in Elder Scrolls lore and if someone such as the currently mostly good Garn would even consider killing it. I also don’t want to ride it and have its unpredictable, psychopathic ass permanently bound to me as my mount. Argh, damn annoying creature.

“No matter how hard I try I never find these pagan shrines in the woods in REAL life!”

Soon I encountered another active shrine in the wilderness. This one was surrounded by a small group of people who were obviously hunters judging by their garb. They seem accepting of me at first but soon insisted that if I truly considered myself a hunter I should make a sacrifice to their patron Hircine the huntsman. Having spent the last several days in secluded forests living off of the land by hunting animals and picking herbs I wondered if finding this shrine was something other the chance. Perhaps I should indeed pay my dues for, at the very least, continued success.

As I laid a wolf’s pelt at the feet of the statue of Hircine I was startled as a voice spoke to me. It asked me to hunt down and slay the very unicorn that I had aided earlier that day. Now this definitely cannot be coincidence! From the way I was contacted to the way the voice worded his statements pieces were starting to come together. Another foggy fragment of my memory returned – Hircine must be a Daedra! The Daedra are powerful beings from another realm who often dabble in our own world. A few people worship them as Gods though they’re usually considered to be evil and therefore Daedra worship is outlawed in many areas.

As I said my farewells to the other hunters it was apparent that they could tell that I had been contacted and seemed rather impressed though I doubt they suspected that, for better or worse, I would not be honoring their master’s request…

Hopefully this chapter will be a little more exciting now that I’m out of the tutorial dungeon. Even still it should take a while before I’m of appropriate level to do any of the real exciting dungeon hauls and quests and I’ll definitely be staying away from the main quest for a while.

“Garn’s first few minutes out of prison and already a murderer… great!”

From the journals of Garn:

As I step out of the sewers into the sunny wilderness I barely have enough time for the fresh air to fill my lungs before I realize that I am in the wrong place at the wrong time. Two bandits camping in the area attack me, unprovoked, and I have no choice but to defend myself. After a hard fought battle I emerge victorious. I search their camp site for supplies and valuables and exhausted from the day’s events decide to rest here myself. There is a little food, warm clothes, and relatively comfortable bedding. Concerned that other bandits may return from whatever expeditions they might be on I cannot fully enjoy my rest however.

“As it turns out killing bandits is completely legal.”

The camp is nestled next to some ancient ruins and later the next morning I decide to explore them as well. I find my way into a subterranean labyrinth and soon learn that there are many, many more bandits living within the ruins. I slay one who spots me but manage to use the cover of shadow to elude and observe the rest. They appear to be in the midst of some sort of pillaging expedition but whatever they are up to it is obvious that they greatly outnumber me and I quietly make my leave.

It should be obvious to most people who have played Oblivion that this is Vilverin. Unfortunately I didn’t feel like I could easily take the bandit in the main room of the first level due to my level, equipment, and rustiness with Oblivion’s combat so I gave exploring a miss for another day.

“…and usually profitable!”

Hungry and with little else but looted equipment I decide that I will hike around the perimeter of the nearby lake hunting mud crabs. The mud crabs pose little trouble, even in groups, and their meat is both delicious and in good demand amongst vendors and taverns so perhaps I can make a little gold in addition to feeding myself. I also occasionally manage to find the odd pearl bearing clam along the shore as well. From time to time I come across exotic looking herbs along the shore and harvest those as well. While I don’t believe I know much about alchemy, or perhaps I should say knew much about alchemy, I’m almost certain to find someone willing to purchase herbs and other alchemist reagents from me in the city.

“You’re kidding? The Emperor is dead?!”

Sometimes when the shore of the lake runs near to a road I run across an Imperial Guard patrol or some random traveler. Luckily as of yet my awkward interactions with them have not led to any trouble. Word has surely already spread about the Emperor’s murder and I am a little worried about the possibility of Baurus changing his mind and implicating me in the assassination plot.

“Shhh… I’m hunting goblins!”

Along the way I encounter a goblin infested cave. Slaying these goblins, at first, seems to be no tall feat, though the further I venture into this cave the tougher the enemies get until I find myself struggling to stay alive. While I find much in the way of weapons, armor, and other loot the risk becomes too great for the rewards and I turn back around and decide to continue with my mud crab hunting plans for the time being.

This is Fatback Cave south of the Imperial City. For the most part I had no trouble exploring it though the Goblin Berserkers were tough fights. I got all the way to the bottom, even killing the Goblin Shaman via a cunning strategy of running away, screaming through the nearby trapped hallway. Still, after barely surviving that encounter I didn’t feel like I would be lucky enough to survive the rest of the monsters on the level and retreated.

“The last guy who explored Fatback Cave.”

There are numerous ruins and shrines scattered around these shores. Many of them host additional bandits not unlike the ones who attacked me when I first emerged from the sewers. For the most part they offer me little trouble but I can’t help feeling some odd connection to them. That is, despite having slain several so far in self defense I feel no real malice towards them. I wonder if perhaps I was a bandit myself in the past? I obviously did something to wind up in the Imperial Prison and banditry definitely appears to be a popular profession. Regardless I quickly learn not to explore too many ruins, at least not yet, as these bandits and highwaymen seem to often call them home. On the bright side if I turn out to be some sort of bandit myself I know where to find potential partners in crime in the future.

“Civilization at last!”

After a long day of circling the lake gathering crabs I arrive back at the original bandit camp that I nestled down in last night and begin to shell a few of the crabs I’ve captured. A fresh crab chowder hits the spot like nothing I ever remember having before yet it is obvious that I have prepared and eaten this meal before in my hazy past. With my expedition widely successful I gather up my looted equipment, my bundles of herbs, and my sack full of mud crabs and at last make my way to the city.

I was now ready to reach level 2 and finally empty out all of my loot bags. I should note that for some entirely unknown reason I totally forgot about starting out with a conjuration summon spell and never used my skelton minion in any of these fights, instead eager to reach the Imperial City to buy myself my would be first summon spells which I anticipated would be a big help… Doh.