Tag Archives: Oblivion

Warning: potential side quest (Fighters Guild) spoilers ahead!

From Garn’s recollections:

Trolls and Traps

My next assignment was another seemingly typical job from my Fighters Guild experience up till that point. Modryn asked me to check up on a band of Guild members who were supposed to be cleaning out a troll infested cave but hadn’t been heard back from in some time. Modryn was particularly troubled by this one though, as the group was headed up by none other than Viranus Donton, the son of the Guildmaster whom I had brought along with me on an earlier assignment as a sort of confidence building and mentoring exercise. He was sure Viranus and his group would be able to handle the assignment and, even if it had been taking longer than anticipated, would have kept in communication with the Guild. Off I went to “Forsaken Mine” located near the city of Leyawiin.

“I like my trolls served flaming hot.”

As soon as I entered the old mine it became obvious that something had gone terribly awry – there were a few bodies of Fighters Guild members scattered throughout the various shafts and rooms. Of course, I discovered troll corpses as well, but nothing that seemed to indicate that the trolls were putting up a particularly fierce fight. Curious, I checked the bodies of some of the dead Guild members and noted that they seemed to have mostly been struck by weapons – swords, axes, and arrows. Trolls are not known to be very intelligent creatures and definitely did not use more than the most primitive weapons such as sticks and rocks in my experience. While this was quite puzzling the riddle was soon solved in blunt fashion: amongst the bodies I found the body of a man wearing the telltale armor of the Blackwood Company. Had the Blackwood Company been here as well? It seemed likely that they were responsible for whatever happened here. Still, I had yet to encounter a body recognizable as as Viranus and had started to encounter the more and more living trolls so I figured I’d continue exploring the mines and at least attempt to finish the original contract.

“Found him!”

I did eventually discover Viranus’s body. I found a bloody journal laying nearby which was quite revealing. It seemed that Viranus’s group was clearing out the trolls when Blackwood Company members suddenly ambushed. As quickly as they appeared they then vanished. Viranus was gravely wounded in the attack but managed to crawl away and record his last moments in the journal as some of the surviving trolls searched for him. A disturbing end and one that would no doubt trouble the leadership of The Fighters Guild to as of yet unforeseen levels.

“Rank amateurs? That’s all he has to say after that?”

Modryn was quite angry. I could see the hatred in his eyes has he cursed the Blackwood Company and vowed revenge. He told me that he’d break the bad news to Vilena, the Guildmaster, himself but asked me to keep a low profile in the meantime. Given the circumstance and respecting Modryn’s wishes, I decided to ride far back to the East to see if Burz had any work for me at the Cheydinhal guildhall.

Good old Burz gro-Khash had a simple job, or at least it would have been pretty simple if he weren’t so concerned with berating me about making sure I did it properly. Still, I was getting used to his temperament and he was an Orc after all. I was tasked with locating and returning Orc nobleman Lord Rugdumph gro-Shurgak’s missing daughter. An Orc nobleman? Perhaps there was more to Burz’s tone this time around.

Arriving at Lord Rugdumph’s Estate I spoke with Lord Rugdumph himself about the contract. While Lord Rugdumph was quite an interesting character the case seemed pretty cut and dry: his daughter was likely abducted by a group of ogres who lived in a nearby cave. Off I went.

“Look at these cute little guys!”

After a short hike around the perimeter of the estate looking for clues I headed east towards the area that Lord Rugdumph had suspected I might find her. Sure enough, as I crept through the woods I spotted her surrounded by three brutish ogres. She seemed to be unharmed but without knowing for how much longer I jumped out from behind a tree and hurled a rock towards them to get their attention. It worked, as all three ogres started my way leaving Lady Rogbut to make a run for it. I drew my sword and fought the three ogres. Despite their size these ogres obviously hadn’t done much fighting in their day and were no match for a blade and a few well timed fire spells. As I wiped my sword clean on the last of the ogres I called for Lady Rogbut to escort her home.

“Order is restored… weirdos!”

Burz was quite pleased about the fact that I was able to close out that contract so easily even if he seemed to be incapable of offering a complement that wasn’t backhanded. Thankfully I didn’t have to endure his unpleasant demeanor for too long as he had another job already waiting and offered it to me right then and there. The people of Harlun’s Watch, a small village south of the city, had been recently experienced a number of disappearances and wanted the Fighters Guild to track down their missing villagers.

I rode down to Harlun’s Watch and spoke to the contact for the contract, a Dunmer woman named Drarana Thelis. Drarana told me that the residents had started seeing strange lights in the swamp at night for the past several days and that some villages had foolishly gone out to investigate at different times, never returning. I waited for nightfall and then set off towards the swamp, sword in hand.

“Ouch! Ouch! Fuck! Fuck!”

As I reached the swampy western shore of the Reed River I could definitely see them. Three bright yellow glowing balls hovering around the entrance to a rocky cave face. I watched them for a moment and noted them disappearing and reappearing. How unusual. I attempted to approach them stealthily but the terrain made it difficult to conceal my footsteps and soon I found myself stepping into a deep, wet hole causing my armor and packs to clang together loudly. Soon they were upon me and I could feel them sapping the very life from me as they hovered closer. These weren’t just lights, they weren’t some kind of mage’s enchantment or natural phenomena, these were will-o-the-wisps! I’d never encountered a will-o-the-wisp since escaping my cell many months ago but I’ve heard tale of them both in prison and since. I had personally always regarded them as legend… but here they were, attacking me.

I freed my foot and raised my shield to attempt to push the wisps off, giving myself just enough time to summon a Dremora Lord to help me fend off the attack. Although it took some time to take the wisps down I found that they caused a lot less damage to me than the rumors would have had me believe, thankfully.

“Again! Trolls plus fire: a winning combination!”

With no more will-o-the-wisps in sight I lit a torch and began to look for signs of what became of the missing villagers. With nothing obvious cluing me in I decided to venture into the near by cave. As I explored the dark, damp cave I soon came across a swamp troll which I quickly put down with my usual combination of fire magic and steel. Venturing further into the cave I came across more and more trolls. This place was absolutely rampant with the beasts, comparable to what the Forsaken Mine must have looked like before Viranus and company began clearing it out. Eventually I came upon a room where I found a grizzly site: a pile of bodies in various states of decomposition. The wisps must have lured the villages into the cave where they were then killed and eaten by trolls. Disgusting. I decided that since I couldn’t return any good news about the fate of the villages I should at least clear out the entire cave of these bloodthirsty creatures.

“Wow, that’s some genuine concern…”

With my task complete I returned to Harlun’s Watch to bring Drarana the grim news. While she was disturbed to hear of the fate of her villagers she was at least pleased that I had taken care of the problem and rewarded me with a nice enchanted ring. I tried to refuse the reward but she insisted and I returned to Cheydinhal to report to Burz. With no more contracts available in the area I said my farewells, loaded my belongings onto my horse, and began to journey back out west to Anvil.

Random observation: Gah, you do a lot of looking for people in caves in these Fighters Guild quests!

Warning: potential side quest (Fighters Guild) spoilers ahead!

From Garn’s recollections:

Loyalty and Deception

I hoped that I was in for a more interesting assignment when Modryn called me into his office on the upper level of the Chorrol Fighters Guild but no such luck – it was Maglir yet again! Modryn explained that he appeared to have defaulted on another contract and he wanted me to ride to Bravil to check out the situation and finish out the job if possible.

“Incredible that he could guess considering that this is the second time I’ve had to check up on his lame ass.”

Upon reaching Bravil my first order of business was to attempt to locate Maglir. Asking around town yielded immediate results – citizens and guards alike knew of him quite readily and pointed me to The Lonely Suitor Lodge on the south side of town. As I walked up to the bar Maglir slowly turned to me, a look of recognition quickly turning into a sour expression. He greeted me by calling me a rat, asking if I was there to check up on him for Modryn again. This time he wasted no time trying to dance around the truth or feign pleasantries and bluntly told me that he had left the Fighters Guild for the Blackwood Company and that we’d need someone else to finish out his previous contract. I could tell by the body language of his Argonian friend, dressed in similar Blackwood Company regalia, that he wasn’t thrilled with Maglir potentially starting a brawl in public, so I decided to simply return to Modryn and let him know what I had discovered.

Modryn was furious to learn of Maglir’s defection though his focus quickly turned to the Blackwood Company themselves, as he claimed that, losing members to them aside, they had been taking a lot of work from the guild recently, especially down in the south. Modryn told me that my next assignment was to meet up with a woman named Aryarie who was to be Maglir’s contact in Bravil. Aryarie was at the Bravil Mages Guild and was none too pleased with the Fighters Guild’s lack of progress on her contract so far. I could see why – it was a simple enough task. She needed to gather some Imp Gall for some alchemy research she was conducting. I humbly offered my apologies and told her that I’d deliver her double the Imp Gall for the same fee to make up for our poor performance up till then.

“Imps are one thing but Gargoyles? Ugh.”

Imp Gall was, of course, found on imps. Given all of the imps I’d encountered since I began my adventures you’d think I’d have a massive stash of them by now but I had been frequently selling my alchemical ingredients on my regular Imperial City market visits and didn’t have enough on me. Luckily imps were relatively common pests to run into in secluded areas and sometimes even congregated in caves and ruins. With some luck, the first cave I visited outside of Bravil, Robber’s Glen Cave, had quite a population of the little fiends. I cleared out the cave with little effort, save for that spent on the occasional gargoyle amongst them, and the bodies brought back to the city to have carved up.

Aryarie was quite pleased with the quality of the Imp Gall I brought her and gave me an enchanted ring as a token of her appreciation. Another job well done by the Fighters Guild, despite Maglir’s meddling.

“Modryn’s rousing speech…”

When I spoke to Modryn upon returning to Chorrol he seemed to be of an odd demeanor – he covertly asked me to meet him at his home later that night. That evening Modryn laid out his suspicions about the Blackwood Company’s involvement with Azani Blackheart, a well known and powerful outlaw. The Fighters Guild had taken a contract from a mage named Argoth to retrieve Azani’s enchanted sword, Sinweaver. The guild raided the ruins where Azani had been known to be hiding out with an impressive band of twenty brothers in arms but was routed without being able to defeat Azani, losing fifteen of their number before pulling back to safety. The Blackwood Company claimed it completed the contracted afterwards, both establishing themselves as a legitimate rival to the Fighters Guild and making the guild look inferior in the process.

Being involved in the original raid personally, Modryn had doubts about the Blackwood Company handling the task which such apparent ease, particularly when Argoth was found to be mysteriously killed shortly afterwards and with no sign of the sword Sinweaver left behind. Modryn instead suspected that the Blackwood Company had made a deal with Azani to fake his death and later retrieve his sword from the mage. Modryn had apparently been harboring these suspicions for some time but was finally ready to uncover the truth. He wanted me to go back with him to Azani’s hideout in the ruins of Arpenia – he stressed the dangers inherent in this mission and that my participation was purely at my digression but I saw no reason stay behind, and if Azani was really such a threat Modryn would need all the help he could take.

“Quietly stalking up to the ruins…”

The two of us met just before sunrise in front of the Chorrol guildhall and road out together for Arpenia. After breaching the doorway into the lower catacombs we both slowly crept under cover of darkness through the corridors, weapons drawn and tensions high, but before I knew it we had reached the main chamber with no sign of anything save a few rats. In the main chamber there were no bodies or much of anything else and indeed no sign of any recent battles. Modryn sheathed his sword and, a look of disgust washing over his face, proclaimed that his suspicions were likely correct. After a little cursing he suggested I check the rest of the ruins while he did some research. As suspected the rest of the ruins yielded very little as if most of the items of significance were relocated in an orderly fashion. When I returned the surface I found Modryn near our horses studying some maps.

Modryn suspected that, in accordance with whatever deal the Blackwood Company had struck with him, Azani had relocated to another Ayleid ruin, likely somewhere nearby. He guessed that it would most likely be Atatar, not far to the northeast. We road a short distance towards the ruin then lead our horses before finally leaving them and quietly walking the rest of the way towards the entrance. While the outside of Atatar was quiet there were obvious signs of recent, heavy foot traffic around the entrance. We drew our swords and entered.

“Azani Blackheart, dead again!”

Unlike the last dungeon we almost immediately encountered bandits in some of the larger rooms in this one – some camping, some obviously patrolling, but as unusual as the presence of a large number of bandits occupying an Elven ruin might be it wasn’t necessarily a sign of Azani’s involvement. The two of us managed to take down every bandit we encountered without making too much noise and spreading the alert of our presence. When we reached the main chamber of this ruin, however, we found Azani Blackheart himself waiting for us. Azani seemed surprised to see us but not at all unprepared to face us. He drew his blade with one hand as flame rose from the other. He charged Modryn, likely recognizing him as a leader of the last assault, while hurling a firebolt at me. I dodged and rushed to flank him. As Modryn and I desperately attempted to land blows Azani skillfully weaved away from and occasionally deflected both of our strikes while peppering us with his own. Still, as frantic as this fight was it was only a matter of time before someone was hit and luckily it was Azani who ended up falling, my blade plunged hilt deep into his Elven mail.

After catching our breaths and seeing to our wounds Modryn and I split up as he searched and looted Azani’s chambers and Azani’s body, making sure to recover his signet ring and, of course, Sinweaver. Upon handing the ring over to Modryn and cautiously exfiltrating the ruin, the job was complete…

Warning: potential side quest (Fighters Guild) spoilers ahead!

From Garn’s recollections:

Thieves and Children

Modryn sent me back to Anvil to speak with Azzan about an important contract. After the cold and wet journey southwest I was greeted at the guildhall’s entrance by Maglir, who I had previously been sent to investigate for defaulting on one of his jobs. Maglir was none to pleased to see me but managed to put forth at least a little effort in feigning indifference towards me. After bedding down in the guildhall for the night I went upstairs to speak with Azzan. Azzan informed me of reports that a gang of Bosmer thieves had been striking out against the local populace as of late. The gang’s base of operations was unknown but patterns seemed to suggest that they were based in or very close to the city. Azzan told me that since we didn’t know how many thieves there were I’d be working with another guild member – Maglir. As you might guess, I wasn’t thrilled with the idea and was eager to get this job taken care of immediately.

Maglir and I split up and canvased the city asking around for witnesses, victims, or anyone with any kind of clue as to where the gang might be based. Finally someone referred Maglir to Newheim the Portly – a large Nordish man who was incensed about having his flagon, a family heirloom, stolen from him by the same gang we were hunting. Newheim had heard that they had been hanging around in Hrota Cave off of the northern road out of Anvil. Although Maglir was less than interested, I told Newheim I’d keep an eye out for his flagon and we set off on our way.

“My Dremora Lord bravely takes an elvish arrow in the face.”

As Maglir and I crept into the cave and drew our swords we heard whispers in the darkness ahead. We were able to sneak up on the first two thieves and dispatch them quietly though a third walked in upon us as we searched the bodies and screamed out as he peppered us with arrows. As Maglir dove for cover I summoned a Dremora and followed suit. Although none of his companions came to assist they were all too aware of our presence by that point so we tread less carefully while clearing out the rest of the cave. Despite his apparent lack of dedication to the guild Maglir performed admirably in Hrota Cave – he seemed to have absolutely no qualms about killing his own kin. We dispatched 8 thieves in total, cleared the place of its meager loot, leaving much of for the Anvil guard to sort with later, and returned to the city.

“Ughhh, is this what I’ve come to? Talking to ass ugly Nords about drinking piss?”

Azzan was pleased with our success. He offered me another contract that involved escorting a scholar named Elante of Alinor to an old Daedric shrine located at the bottom of Brittlerock Cave. Having to kill a variety of minor Daedra aside, this was another contract that I was able to complete with ease. Azzan took me aside and told me that Burz had a job he thought I could handle up in Cheydinhal. While I wasn’t thrilled about the lengthy ride back east I was happy for more action so quickly. After a long journey I was disappointed when Burz rudely informed me that the job was far south, in Water’s Edge near Leyawiin. Another long ride and I met the subject of the contract: an attractive Breton named Biene Amelion.

“Ahhh, now this is more like it.”

Biene explained to me that her father had been taken away due to some outstanding gambling debts. At first I was confused about the nature of the job – surely she didn’t expect the guild to intervene in such a matter unless her father was someone of some kind of significance. Indeed, she clarified – she wanted me to retrieve her grandfather’s precious enchanted armor and sword from the family tome so that she could sell them to pay off her father’s debts. While this sounded a lot more in line with my usual line of work I didn’t quite appreciate the idea of her selling off her precious family heirlooms and, indeed, robbing her own family tome in the process. Instead, having sized her up to be a decent person I decided take a more chivalrous route and simply pay her myself and let her keep her and her family’s honor intact. She was overjoyed with this previously unthinkable option and I got to head back up north in record time, knowing full well that my payment would take care of the majority of my cost and I’d recover the rest in due time.

Finally, I was dispatched back to Chorrol. Modryn performed a small ceremony and declared me to be promoted to rank of Protector within the guild for my exemplary performance. After the attending members cleared off he took me aside to tell me about my next job. My duty was to take Viranus Donton, the son of the Guildmaster, to help him get his feet a little wet and boost his confidence. Officially the mission was to search for Galtus Previa, a farmer who went missing exploring Nonwyll Cavern. I have no idea why a farmer would be heading into any wilderness caves or ruins alone though perhaps he was tempted by the same tales of riches that had drawn me into my life as an adventurer.

“Viranus Donton fucking owning a troll. Not too shabby!”

I met Viranus at his house in the city and we marched by foot into the northern wilderness to hunt for the cave. Viranus has a vague idea of its location and we soon found it easily enough. Almost as soon as we entered we were ambushed by a pair of bloodthirsty trolls. Thankfully Viranus wasn’t as green as Modryn let on and we were able to dispatch them without too much difficulty. Further into the cavern we encoutered more trolls and even an odd ogres or two. Nonwyll Cavern definitely wasn’t a place for farmers – in fact I was starting to wonder if the guild hadn’t misjudged my own qualities as a protector. Surely the Guildmaster wouldn’t look favorably upon her son dying under my watch.

“Hiding behind my shield in mortal terror.”

More and more trolls rushed us as we explored the narrow passageways, in fact the most I’d seen in any one place up till then. Finally we made it to the bottom level of the cave only to be greeted by a fearsome minotaur. Finally, the body of Galtus Previa lay in front of us. Of course I wasn’t shocked to find him dead considering the opposition we encountered just making it down there, if anything I was surprised that the corpse had been brought this far below but hadn’t been devoured. We collected a couple of his personal effects to bring to his relatives to prove that we found him and Viranus attempted to map the location of the body in case his family wished to retrieve it for a proper burial.

“Stick to growing beets, buddy.”

Modryn was saddened to hear about the death of Galtus but quite intrigued by the shield we found with his body, confiscating it for further study. While I didn’t know what that was all about he was quite pleased with the completion of the contract regardless and rewarded me with my share of the gold and a powerful enchanted Daedric longsword which, my misgivings about furthering my bond with the Daedra aside, I’d no doubt be using. At last my guild membership was starting to yield some real benefits!

I didn’t expect such a nice blade for an reward in this quest but I believe Oscuro’s Oblivion Overhaul boosted the stats of this rare weapon. Sweet!