(updated March 07, 2009)

Chapter Four

27 Last Seed, 3E433 (sometime still before dawn)

So much has happened since my last entry!  After being cooped up in a prison cell for weeks . . . bored out of my mind . . . my life has suddenly become exciting.  In fact, it's become a bit too exciting.

Let's see, where was I . . . oh yeah, I finally got out of my horrid prison cell, only to end up trapped in an old abandoned lower level of the Imperial Prison.  I followed the guards who were escorting the Emperor, but they all left though the only door, which they locked behind them . . . leaving me all alone in here.  And there doesn't seem to be another exit - I even tried to return to my cell (ok, so I was getting a bit desperate), but found that the entrance to the secret tunnel had closed up again.  One of the guards gave me a small sack which contained a drinking cup, a dinner plate, and a full water skin, so I won't die of thirst for a while.  Unfortunately there wasn't any food in the sack, and I haven't eaten anything for a couple of days, and there's absolutely nothing down in this old basement (or whatever this place is) to eat.  All I've found so far are crumbling stones and dust.  

After unsuccessfully trying to find another exit, I decided to go back to the locked door to wait, hoping that one of the guards will eventually come back for me. After all, they would just leave me here to starve to death . . . would they?  My plans of taking a nap near the locked door were interrupted when two cave rats jumped out of the dark shadows and attacked me.  I managed to kill the rats with a sword that had belonged to the captain of the guards, who was killed protecting the Emperor.  The rats had knocked down a section of stone wall, which I was able to easily crawl through.  On the other side was a large room with a dirt floor, which   must be part of the imperial cellar.

On the other side of the room there was some light filtering down through through what appeared to be a hole in the ceiling.  Before I get very far at all, a third cave rat attacks me.  Even though I had my sword ready, the rat still surprised me, and I stumbled as I was trying to back away from the nasty thing.  I was able to recover and kill the rat, but I was hurt really badly and was losing blood fast.  Casting a few healing spells did nothing to stop the blood, but they did keep me alive long enough to bandage my wound.  After resting for a bit to regain my strength, I was able to mostly heal myself by casting a few more restore health spells, but it will be a while before I am fully recovered.  Thank goodness that the guard left me the bandages!  the only problem is that I've only got one left now. I find that the daylight is coming down through the remains of an old dry well shaft.   Exploring along the darker edges of the room, I discover a couple of bodies - one that's been here so long that only its skeleton remains. But the other body is a not-too-long-dead-but-really-gross-smelling goblin.  There's a some pretty good stuff in here as well - I even find some gold coins (called Septims), and a few other valuable things . . . none of which is going to be of any use down here, but I'll need some items to trade if I ever find a way out of here. 

There's also a number of items that might make it possible for me to actually get out of here in one piece (providing that there is some way out).  One of my first really good finds is a leather cuirass, which is sort of like a heavy leather coat.  It used to belong to the skeleton guy, so it was very dusty - and I don't even want to think about what the dust used to be.  But it seems to be in fair shape, considering. So I brushed it off as best I could and put it on.  The cuirass is a bit large on me - but it's warm and it will protect me from the rats much better than my itchy sack cloth top.  I also found some leather boots, so now maybe my sore toes will survive as long as I do.  The boots sort of fit, but it was rather disgusting having to wear them without any socks. Yet they do go pretty well with the leather jacket (Cool, now I look more like a biker chick, than a beggar).  Thank goodness the guy had died a long time ago . . . but having to wear a dead guy's clothing did make me a bit sick.

Oh, I also found a bow and a bunch of arrows.  It's just an old iron bow, but Wood Elves are really good at archery - we just sort of have a knack for it.  So now I might be able to get the rats before they even see me.  and I did find a bag that had another bandage in it, which makes me breath a bit easier.  But that dead goblin really bothers me because I was hoping that they hadn't discovered this place.  The thing is that goblins are clannish - meaning that they travel in packs. So there are likely more of them down here.  And goblins are much more dangerous than large rats.

My best find turned out to be an old iron key, because it unlocked a nearby door, which opened into another dirt basement-like area.  "Hey, I wonder if this key might also unlock the door that the Emperor and his guards went through? It just seems to make more sense to follow the guards, who actually know where they're going, instead of just wandering around in a basement - totally lost.  Since it wasn't far, I decided to run back there and check - unfortunately the key didn't fit at all, which was a bummer.  So I return to the unlocked and enter the next basement area.  The room is rather small, but has an exit that leads down through sort of a long, descending winding hallway, which ends in a large room, with a bit of daylight filtering down through a hole in the floor above (my ceiling).  There's even a bit of real food lying in the dirt . . . I find a rather shriveled tomato and a couple of dirty, but still eatable wedges of cheese (which are way better tasting than raw rat meat). 

For the next couple of hours, I continue to explore the Imperial Substructure - looking for a way out.  At first I just collected everything that I found,  but trying to carry all this stuff had soon become a major problem.  At first I had  used my old sack cloth top as sort of a sack . . . after all, it had been made out of an old sack. But that was very awkward to carry and it couldn't hold much at all.  Then I found an old dusty backpack, which worked out so much better.  But, even with the pack, my load was beginning to get too heavy for me to carry (after all, I'm a Wood Elf, not an Orc).   So I had become much more selective in what I picked up, and even have to discard some of my earlier finds, just to be able to drag all this stuff around.  One of my more useful finds was a rather battered on steel helmet . . . which isn't exactly stylish, but a girl can't be too fussy when she's just trying to survive.   Even being selective, my collection still became heavy enough that it was slowing me down quite a bit, but it's really not easy for me to pass up all these wonderful treasures.  (Ok, so I've been stuck in a cell a tad too long. But it is sort of weird how so much valuable stuff was just abandoned down here.)

The hallways and small rooms all have dirt floors, with posts and beams holding up the dirt ceilings, but the walls had been made out of squared blocks of stone.  Then I come to the end of the basement, and worry that my search for a way out has reached a dead end.  But then I find that someone has broken through a section of the stonework and made a tunnel through the hard packed dirt, which I follow, as my only other choice would be to retrace my steps.  In just a few minutes I see a light in the distance, which looks to be coming from a small fire - like a campfire.  Ok, so who (or what) is camping down here? 

I slow down and make my way very cautiously, staying in the shadows, and listening carefully (Did you really think these large pointy ears were just for looks).  Other than a very large rat, there's no sign of anyone, which is very weird,  because I'm pretty sure that even imperial cave rats don't know how to make fires.  But then I get close enough to see a wooden door. Ok, so that's how the fire-maker-thing got out of here.  Right in front of the door is what looks like a bunch of balls, hanging from ropes.  Oh . . . GROSS . . . those round things aren't balls at all, but are human skulls strung together - which are obviously meant to be some sort of a warning.   But, once again, it's not like I really have a choice here.  If there's a way out of this place - it's on the other side of that door.  So, warning or not, here I go . . .

It turned out that I didn't really have anything to worry about, since the door just leads to some natural caverns.  But the warning was for real, as it wasn't long before I ran into my first goblin.  Fortunately he didn't notice me at first and when he did attack, I was ready with an arrow notched in my bow, so I survived without even getting a scratch.  The deeper I go into the caverns, the more of these foul creatures there seem to be.  So I have to keep fighting them off, almost always using my bow, although I also get pretty good at hitting them with fireball spells. 

I'd rather not have to kill so many creatures, but goblins are such horrid creatures that I have no choice.  I tried to sneak by some, which nearly got me killed, as I ended up being surrounded and had to fight two at once.  At first I was concerned that I didn't find many arrows with the bow, but this hasn't been a problem at all, because I keep finding more arrows, and get a bunch off some of the goblins, who seem to use bows as much as clubs.  I'm also able to retrieve nearly half of the arrows that I shoot - so I have way more now than I started out with.  After fighting my way through a large cavern, I find an upward leading passage that ends at another wooden door.

Could this finally be the door to the outside?  My heart races as I push open the heavy door, but all I find is another dark tunnel . . . but then I notice that the walls are stone blocks again - and the air is a bit fresher here.  At least I'm finally out of the caves, and the tunnel slopes steeply upward, which is a really good sign.
Before I travel very far I notice some faint light in the distance, so I extinguish my torch and creep toward it. The light is coming from a hole in the wall.  I cautiously peek through, and discover that I'm high above the floor of what looks to be the same crumbling basement.

Oh, no! . . . Did I just make a huge circle?  Now I'm feeling really discouraged.  If I'm back where the guards left me, then that door they went through really is the only way out of here.  Oh well, no sense staying up here any longer.  But just as I'm about to make the long jump down to the floor, I hear faint voices.  The Emperor must have sent the guards back for me!   I'm so glad that I nearly shout out to them . . . but decide that it might be a good idea to use a bit of caution.  Then I hear sounds of combat.  So I jump down and quietly sneak toward the sound of the fighting . . . but it soon gets quiet again.  Then I take a good look at my surroundings.  "Hey, this isn't the same place where the guards left me - it just looks very similar."

Then I hear what I am positive is the Emperor's deep voice, and I run toward the sound.  I'm one level above the Emperor and his guards, and they haven't noticed me yet (Wood Elves like me can move nearly silently).  Since it looks safe, and the fighting seems to be over, I jump down, and one of guards immediately runs toward me.  It's like really obvious that he's not running up to greet me , because he drew his long sword, and he yelled something like, "It's that prisoner again . . . kill her."

"Hey you big oaf, it's just me, the Bosmer prisoner . . . what is your problem anyway?"  Goodness, this isn't anything like the greeting I was hoping for (not that I expected that the guards would actually missed me or anything).  So I pull back the arrow in my bow and point it directly at his chest.  The guard immediately stops, surprised to see that that I now have a weapon and worried that I might actually use it.  When the Emperor commands him not to kill me, he sheaths his sword and turns away.  And I lower my bow.

The Emperor wants me to come closer - he says that he needs my help. "Right! Like I could actually help you. I'm staying right where I am. I really don't trust your guards at all."  But he tells me that I have nothing to fear . . . and, for some strange reason, I trust him completely.  Perhaps it's because he has such a kind voice, or maybe it's the deep sadness that I feel coming from him.  So I go closer and the Emperor asks me about my religious beliefs.  At first this seems like a very strange thing for him to ask, but then I understand.  He just wants to make sure that we share the same faith - as assurance that I'm really on his side.  So I answer his questions honestly and he smiles knowingly.  Then he asks me what sign I was born under.  This seems like a test, and I want him to know that I'm telling the truth.  Without any hesitation, I tell him that my birth sign is The Ritual.  My answer seems to satisfy the Emperor and he tells me a few more things - like how he expects to die soon.  He asks for my promise to help him.  I still don't see how I can actually help him, but I promise that I'll try.

Once our conversation ends, Baurus (not the guard who wanted to kill me) hands me a torch to carry.  He explains that they are the Emperor's Imperial body guards, but are also secretly members of "The Blades."  (Ok, THAT explains things. I was a member of the Blades back in Morrowind - but that was a couple of years ago.)  The Blades are an elite group of warriors and mages.  On Morrowind they operated in secret, but here in Cyrodiil they seem to be much less secretive. 

Then they all exit through another wooden door.  But this time they allow me to me follow them.

Notes About MODs:

Oblivion Wound Effects & Penalties (OWEP): When the third rat attacked my character in the beginning of this chapter, I got a message that she had suffered a "grievous wound," and that she was losing blood.  Casting healing spells didn't heal her, but they did keep her alive long enough to activate the bandages.  After a bandage had been used up (unfortunately no bandage actually appears on my character), I was able to cast healing spells until her health was restored. 

At first I though that it would be difficult to find enough bandages to tend all my wounds, but that hasn't been a problem (yet).  For one thing, you don't get grievous wounds that often, and the bandages are not hard to come by.  You start the game with two bandages, and I found more in the tutorial dungeon.  When I exited the prison sewers, I had only needed to use bandages ones to stop my bleeding, and I had 5 bandages in my inventory.

Race Balancing Project mod, which alters the abilities of races and birthsigns from the vanilla game. So my character is very different from what I would have in the vanilla game.  Now there are drastic differences between races - playing a Bosmer is now very different from playing any other race.  The Ritual Birthsign: gives me a huge Magicka bonus - my character goes from 130 points to 205 points - plus I get some very cool new abilities (in the form of new spells).  I'll go into more details on this mod a lot more in later chapters.

Lights Out: I left my prison cell around 1 am, and spend the night wandering through the Imperial Substructure.  Every now and then there's an opening into the upper level that lets in daylight.  Now this just doesn't make any sense.  It's the middle of the night, so why is there any daylight at all?  This mod attempts to correct this out of sync daylight issue by turning off most of the daylight light sources in the underground areas at 7PM and back on at 7am. (It doesn't affect window lighting, so the cell window will still remain bright.)

Corean Hair for Original Race - This mod adds like 26 new hairstyles, and one suited my Wood Elf perfectly.  (Note: her previous hair was the vanilla ponytail.)

Role-Playing:

Lack of Discovery Options:  The beginning of Oblivion is extremely linear - until you get out of the sewers, you really don't have any real choices at all - the thing is, everyone's game is pretty much identical - we all have to make our through the Imperial Substructure, through the Natural Caverns, through the Imperial Sanctum, and then out through the Sewers - in that order.  But that is just the the tutorial section of the game, where you develop your character and where you get accustomed to the interface.  Seeing the outdoors for the first time is amazing - but that wasn't even the best part for me.  The best part was finally having the freedom to chose where I wanted to go next - after playing the game for hours I finally am not forced into the route that Bethesda picked for me.  In Morrowind this happened so much earlier in the game - all I had to do was get through the census building - and then I was on my own.

The Blades: When I wrote, "I was a member of the Blades back in Morrowind - but that was a couple of years ago," that was actually partially true, because when I was playing the game Morrowind, my character did join the Blades.

Continued in Chapter 5

Ambush