(updated March 07, 2009)

Chapter six

27 Last Seed, 3E433 (mid afternoon)

After a while I come to.  I'm lying on a gravel beach (which is not a very comfortable place to take a nap). "Goodness, I guess my body finally had enough and just shut down for a bit. Ok, it's time that I found a bed somewhere."  The only problem is that, ever when I was up on the hill, there were no towns or even any buildings in sight.  And it probably wouldn't be wise to go into the Imperial City, since I'm an escape prisoner and all.  But I'm probably not going to find a bed until I find an inn or an unoccupied home, and I have no idea how far I'll have to walk to find either. 

Wait a minute. I did see a campfire on this side of the water.  Let's see . . . it should be somewhere over that way . . . by those ruins.  On the way over I find a strange plant that "sings".  Ok, now the fainting elf is hearing singing plants!  So apparently I'm in even worse shape than I thought, if I'm starting to hear singing plants!  But I listen carefully.  And this plant is definitely making a high singing sound when I got close to it.
On impulse, I decide to pick it so that I can ask one of the locals about it.  And then I instantly regret my act. What if this is some rare protected plant? Maybe I should try to replant it. My thoughts are interrupted by a deep growl right behind me.

I slowly turn around and am looking right into the eyes of that large wolf again - or one that looks just him. There's no way that I'm strong enough to deal with a wolf right now, so I slowly back up, hoping to make a run for it. But I back right up against a very large boulder, and the wolf lunges at me.  Fortunately my little fainting spell must have restored some of my energy.  I'm now able to use my magic to launch a pretty impressive fireball, which hits the wolf right between his eyes.  It doesn't kill him, but the blast forces him back enough for me to grab my bow and finish him off with a couple of arrows.  Whew! That was way too close!  If that wolf had been a bit quicker . . . or quieter, I wouldn't need a bed - ever again.

Ok, time to find that campfire and see if some nice camper left his tent unoccupied for the day.  A few minutes later, I find the fire, along with a bandit, who is not at all friendly toward a dirty, exhausted Wood Elf.  The guy comes running toward me, while yelling very nasty things at me.  "Goodness! I haven't even done anything to you. I just came by hoping to find a place to nap."  He lashes out with a very sharp iron dagger and I jump back, but I'm not quite fast enough.  I'm now badly wounded, but there's no time to cast a healing spell.  All I can do is just keep jumping back out of the reach of the dagger.  I'm tiring fast and have just enough strength and time left to grab my bow and fire one arrow.  My timing was perfect. As he struck out with to finish me off, his shield was lowered just enough.  My arrow is deadly accurate and the dagger falls harmlessly to the ground.

My vision blurs as I collapse to the ground, panting, with my heart pounding loudly in my ears.  After my heart slows and my vision clears, I quench my thirst with a cup of water from my water skin and tend my wound.   Rising wearily to my feet, I start walking toward the campfire again, hoping it will now be a safe place for me to rest for a while.  Then an arrow whistles past my left ear, and before I can run to cover, a second arrow hits me in my right leg.  The pain is intense, but I'm not bleeding all that bad, and I'm able to hobble behind on of the stone walls of the ruins.  I try to get a quick peak at my attacker, but another arrow zings by, forcing me to jump back behind the wall.

There must be a second bandit and this one has a bow, and I'm now pinned down behind this old wall, with nowhere at all to run.  I haven't even seen her yet, and only know that this bandit is a she from her voice.  She yells out another string of insults, hoping to anger me and lure me from my cover.  But I'm too afraid to be angry . . . in fact, I hardly dare to move at all.  Another arrow whistles by my head . . . way too close.  I've got to do something and fast!  So I grab my bow and fire a couple off a couple of arrows in return, but my old rusty bow is not nearly powerful enough, and my arrows just stick in the ground, well short of my distant target.  This is not good.  I've got to find some way to get closer, if I'm going to have any chance at all.  At the end of the wall there's a small tree.  It's barely thick enough for me to hide behind, but its my only chance. So I run to the tree and reach it just as I hear the loud thud of an arrow that buries itself into the back side.  Peaking out, I catch her reaching for another arrow.   I jump out from behind the tree and shoot an arrow at her.

But the iron arrows that I found in the sewers don't fly very fast at all, so she easily steps out of its path.  Just as I fire my second arrow, she's about to shoot at me - but this time she's not quite fast enough. I survive only because I'm a bit quicker at ducking than she was, and because I had this tree to hide behind.  But I was hurt pretty badly by the arrow that is still sticking in my leg.  Luckily I'm still strong enough to casting a few healing spells, so I'm able to tend to my latest wound. But I sooo need a break from any more combat!

My old leather boots and my heavy iron helmet are in pretty bad shape now - and my sack cloth pants are full of holes.  There's not exactly a mall nearby, so I just take what I need from the two dead bandits. I replace my iron, leather, and sack cloth with fur - but I keep my old leather cuirass as its better protection.  When I finally make it to the bandit's camp I discover a tent and two bedrolls.  I probably shouldn't stay here long, but I just can't take another step until I get in a nap.  So I lie down on one of the bedrolls - not even bothering to remove my fur boots or helmet.

And I fall instantly to sleep.

After my late afternoon nap in the bandits camp, I wake feeling a little less tired. I'm guessing that I got at least a few hours sleep, as the sun is now pretty low in the sky, and the clouds are turning pink.  My nap was not nearly enough, but this does not look like the safest place to spend the night.  It's not going to be long at all before the sun sets, so I don't have much time to find a camping sport before dark.  So I roll up one bedroll and tie it on to the bottom of my pack, but when I lift the pack, it now feels a little too heavy for me.  It's not so heavy that I can't carry it, but this load will wear me out pretty fast.  If I try to carry this load, I'll likely have to spend more time resting than walking.  But I do think that should take the bedroll, even though it's rather heavy, as my chances of finding a bed before dark are very slim.  Ok, I do understand that a girl can only carry so much - but I sure do hate having to leave any of this stuff behind.  But I discard a few things, like this battered iron helmet.  Even though it has protect me a bit, it is heavy . . . and not at all comfortable.  Besides, I was starting to get a very bad case of helmet hair.

Hefting the still heavy, but now manageable pack onto to my back, I hike uphill, directly away from the city, until I come to a dusty road, which I travel southeast on.  I soon meet a couple of guys coming down the road from the opposite direction.  The one in front is a big guy (probably a Nord) in a full suit of armor, and his companion looks to be a Khajiit mage (with a tiger-like appearance), who is struggling to keep up.  I briefly consider hiding until they pass, but they don't really act like they are a threat.  They stop to chat with me, in a friendly way, and it's easy to see that they have been celebrating more than just a little.  Oh yeah, yesterday was Harvest's End and I'm guessing that these two took full advantage of free drinks at the taverns last night. 

The two head on their merry way and I continue on alone again.  It's really hard form me to believe that this is the same day that the Emperor arrived at my cell (although my day did begin extremely early, and I never did get a real night's sleep).  Goodness, it's been a very long day! No wonder I'm so tired - that 2-hour nap wasn't nearly enough.  And I yawn in agreement with myself (Now I'm taking to myself again - oh well, I really need some company soon). 

A little further on, I'm just walking along, minding my own business, when a bandit sneaks up behind me and demands 100 gold from me.  I can't believe it! "Excuse me! But do I look even remotely wealthy to you?"  Well, I'm certainly not going to just give my hard earned valuables away!  Then what would I live on? I consider fighting the guy . . . but I do really try to avoid that sort of thing.  Sigh . . . time to see how fast this guy can run.  And I'm off - dashing down hill through the meadow.  But I'm carrying way too much to run very far, and I'm worried that I won't have enough strength to get away.  But the guy is really pathetic! Apparently he's in way worse shape than I am.  I lose him in no time at all, make a loop hiking back to up to the road, and I'm on my way again.

I'm feeling pretty smug until I soon spot two guards coming toward me on horseback, so I quickly duck into the bushes and flee back downhill, the way that I just came . . . all the way back to the water.  I'm still worried about my wrist bands getting me in trouble, so I'd better stay off the roads for now.  So I follow the shoreline killing a few more mud crabs that just won't back off.  And then I notice that I'm right back at the same bandit camp I left two hours ago.  "Ok, so THAT didn't go very well! I'm no closer to finding a place to spend the night - and it is going to be dark pretty soon." This time I try a different route, heading east, walking along the shore. I soon come to a small dock, which is just below an old fort, but now I can see that I'm actually getting closer to the city. Since I'm trying to get away from the Imperial City, I decide to head away from the shore again.  But I keep my distance from the ruined fort as I don't want to disturb whatever might be calling that place home. 

My hike takes me between the old fort and what looks to be the remains of an old homestead, which I check out.  But I don't find anything of any value, so I continue on, only seeing a few harmless deer that run off.  Before long I come upon the road again, right where it intersects with another road, which goes off towards the north.  There is a road sign, but without knowing the towns or cities in Cyrodiil, or having a map of the province, I still have no idea which way to go.  I'll have to see if I can buy a map once I reach a town, as I'll need one just to locate Jauffre.  All Baurus told me was that he was a monk who lived at Weynon Priory, which is near the city of Chorrol.  The trouble is that I don't even know where Chorrol is. It could be in practically any direction.  Well, I'm not going to worry about it right now.

Yes, I do remember that I promised the Emperor that I would take the Amulet to Jauffre, but I can't just go running off in any direction - I need a plan and some provisions first. As I get closer, I notice a tall Redguard woman standing near the the intersection of the two roads.  But what surprises me is that she has a young guar with her.

And this is the first guar that I've seen since leaving Morrowind as a prisoner, over two months ago.  In Morrowind, no one owned horses (in fact I never even saw a  horse there).  People there used tamed guars, which resemble a small dinosaur, as their pack animals.  So I'm wondering if this woman is from Morrowind. If she is, she might be willing to help me.  She tells me that her name is Relian, and that she's a trader, who spent several years in Morrowind.  I tell her of my ordeal, and she feels really bad for me, but says there's very little that she can do to help me.  She tells me that she is trained as a blacksmith, but doesn't have the tools to remove my wrist bands with her.  Bummer.

She also says that she has a good friend in a nearby city, who is a really good blacksmith. If I tell her friend that she sent me, she's sure that she'll remove my wrist bans for me.  The blacksmith's name is Terlia Viducia and the city's name is Cheydinhal, and she says that it's less than have a day's travel by foot to the east.  I thank Relian and am off to find the blacksmith, really excited about finally getting rid of these things.  But thing I remember that Relian told me that she's a trader . . . "Hey Relian, I've got a whole bunch of good stuff in my pack. Are you interested in doing some trading?"

After we finish trading and I decide to run back to retrieve the stuff that I had to leave be hind at the bandit camp.  Getting rid of so much heavy stuff sure makes running easier, in fast I only have to rest once to get there.  But my return trip is a lot more difficult, since I'm carrying a heavy load again, including the old iron helmet . . . and it's all up hill.  On the way back, I'm in such a hurry to get back to Relian before she retires for the night, that I get a little too close to the old fort.  And a nasty goblin, armed with a bow, attacks me.  The horrid creature gets me with two arrows before I can find cover behind a large tree.  Once I have time to grab my own bow I'm able to easily out-shoot the goblin.  Other than the pain of the two arrows, this turns out surprisingly well, as I'm able to get a few more tradable items.  In the end, my trading turns my 110 gold into over 900 gold - and I'm now carrying a lot less weight again.  Relian even has a good supply of repair hammers, so I buy 4 from her, and spend some time repairing my beat up gear.

So I'm feeling pretty good again, as I start following the road to Cheydinhal - until I spot two more guards on horseback.  "Goodness . . . there sure are a lot of patrols today!"  I was hoping that this road would be free of guards for a while, so that I could make it to the city by sunset.  Oh well, it looks like I'd better stay off the road.  So I run over into the middle of the nearby meadow and head east.  The meadow is a steep hillside, but I'm able to make pretty good time due to my light load and I reach a large pool.

There's a stone well near the pool with cold, sweet-tasting water.  After a long refreshing drink I fill up my waterskin, which was getting pretty low.  Suddenly three large mud crabs come out of the nearby bushes and they all come at me in their attack mode ("attack mode" means their large, razor-sharp claws are raise and they're heading right at me).   Mud crabs aren't generally much of a threat to me, unless they surprise me - and I saw these three in plenty of time.  After collecting the crab meat for my dinner (which is sooo much better tasting than rat meat), I realize something. This is the perfect place for a Wood Elf to camp! 

Now that I have a bedroll, there's really no reason that I have to get to a town - I can't spend the night right here.  The only thing that bothers me about camping out in this spot is that there's one of those ancient ruins on one side of the lake.  Those places always make me nervous - for good reason, since they tend to attract the worse kind of people.  I'm really not in the mood for any more combat today, so I head out along the opposite shore of the pond.  Scouting around I soon find a nice flat spot under a couple of trees to roll out my bedroll.  Up against a nearby large bolder would be the perfect place to build a fire to roast the crab meat on.  The only problem is that it rained really hard earlier today, and I can't find any dry wood.  Fortunately I still have four torches left, so I soon manage to have a nice hot fire burning.

Once I get the crab meat roasting over the fire, I get out of my filthy adventuring outfit.  I don't have any soap for a real washing, but just scrubbing my clothing in the pond gets rid of most of the grime.  Then I drape my clothing across some tree limbs above the fire to dry. Now it's my turn.  It is now totally dark out and the fall air is rapidly cooling down, so this is going to be a really chilly swim.  The water is so cold that it takes my breath away, but it still feels wonderful to finally soak my tired, aching body.  I wash (well, rinse really good) my long hair and scrub myself as best I can - even my iron 'bracelets' get scrubbed.  The pond is quite large, with waters that are deep and clear, so I enjoy a very refreshing swim under a starry sky.  It feels so good to swim here with no worries, but my teeth are chattering and I'll turn blue if I stay in much longer. 

By the time that I'm done feasting on some very well done crab meat (yeah, I sort of forgot it was cooking),
my torches have all burned out.  In near total darkness I feel me way into my nice warm bedroll, and instantly fall into a dreamless sleep . . . until something startles me, and I jump up in bed, grabbing my bow, which I laid on the ground right beside me.  It must have just been a bird or something, because I can't spot anything else nearby.  As I stretch, I notice that it appears to be still very early morning, as there's a very faint pre-dawn light to the east.  I should probably get up and have some breakfast, but I could really use a bit more sleep . . . so I crawl back into my bedroll again.

Notes About MODs:

Roleplaying Dialogues and Enhanced Quest Roleplaying: These two MODs add some additional dialog choices and some consequences from your choices in some of your character's "conversations" with many of the other characters in Cyrodiil.  So my earlier complaint on lack of dialog choices has now been partially fixed with these mods.  I'll likely be covering these two mods (and other dialog mods) in more detail in later chapters.

Louder Nirnroots: I had trouble hearing the "singing" NernRoots, which was the strange "singing" plant that I found just before the wolf attacked me - this MOD turns up their volume a bit.

Relian & her Guar: are part of the Tamriel Travelers Mod, which adds a great deal of immersion to traveling on the roads (and it's really nice to be able to trade outside of the settlements).  They also are not static, but move around, and even switch locations.  So you can never be sure which (if any) merchant will be at the various locations.  And different merchants purchase different items - and have different abilities (like being able to repair your armor and weapons).  The merchant's pets (like Relian's Guar) and guards can be toggled on an off with the traveler's ring.

Real Sleep Extended:  This mod is an updated and more advanced version of Real Sleep (and Real Sleep Updated). There are no bed or bedrolls in the tutorial dungeon, so sleeping is not an option until you get out.  In my earlier games, when I was using the earlier versions of Real Sleep, this was a problem. (By the time that I had emerged from the sewers, my character needed 7 hours of sleep, and my stats were taking a real hit.)  But things are different with this new version, as you start the game fully rested and I get a message that I can go 11 hours before getting sleepy . . . this is what is referred to as optimal wake time (OWT).  After staying awake beyond her OWT, my character began to get sleepy, but his was not until she had been out of the sewers for several game hours.  To simulate the negative effects of being sleepy, all of her stats began to drop.  The default is 1 stat point drop for every 3 hours beyond the OWT.

This is how lack of sleep affects your character with this mod - it's not a sudden collapse, but a gradual reduction of all of your abilities - that just keeps getting worse the longer you go without sleep. But the time that my character had killed the two attacking bandits, she had been sleepy for over an hour, so all her stats had dropped by 1 point.  Ok, so 1 little point drop doesn't seem like all that much, but it does make a difference, especially with a low level character.  The result was that her health dropped 2 points (from 45 to 43), her magicka took a 5 point hit (from 215 to 210), and her fatigue dropped 4 points (from 161 to 157).  So, her lack of sleep is starting to have a negative effect on her abilities.  And because of this, you just can't ignore your character's need to sleep for too long.

Just before my character took her nap in the bandits bedroll, a message popped up stating that she needed 13 hours of effective sleep.  Well, it was like 4pm, and I had already decided that this wasn't a very good place to spend the night, so all I could afford right now was a 3 hour nap, as I wanted enough daylight left to find a better spot to camp.  In the older versions of Real Sleep, a 2-hour nap used to give me quite a boost, so I figured that 3 would be more than enough.  But I was totally wrong!  After her 3-hour nap, all her stats were still getting a 1 point penalty . . . and when I clicked on the bedroll, I was informed that she still needed 13 hours of effective sleep.  So what happened?  What happened is the result of how advanced this mod actually is.  Sleeping outside is 50% less effective than sleeping indoors, and sleeping during the daytime is much less effective than sleeping at night.  So, my character's 3-hour nap only gave her about an hour of effective sleep!  I would have been better off she had just waited until she find a good place to sleep for the entire night.

My game timescale is set at 8:1 (instead of the default 30:1), which enable survival  mods to work well in my game.  The game begins in the middle of the night . . . at around 1 am.  When my Bosmer finally makes it to the outdoors, I had been playing the game for about an hour and 20 minutes (1.3 real hours).  With my timescale set at 8, 10.5 game hours had passed (1.3 hours * 8), so it was still only 11:30 am, on the 1st day.  If I had been playing at the default timescale setting, 39 game hours would have passed, and it would have already been 4 pm, on the 2nd day!  (And my character would have been in deep trouble long before that.) 

Real Sleep Extended also adds an optional dynamic timescale feature (that you can customize in the mod's ini file), so that the timescale changes according to your character's actions.  For instance, I currently have it set up so that my normal timescale is 8:1 (24 game hours = 3 real hours), but when my character is in combat or in sneak mod (when not running), the timescale automatically changes to 4:1 (24 game hours = 6 real hours).

Role-Playing:

Compass:  I do use the basic compass (without the quest arrows), but I just pretend that my Wood Elf is only using the sun for direction.  And, of course following the road signs. 

Map:  It seems really silly that my character has a complete map of the province in her possession while she's in a prison.  Why wasn't the map something that you have to buy in one of the shops?  I mean, it's not like you need a map to get out of the prison, since you only have one choice in the direction that you can go.

Clothing: When I wrote  "My old leather boots and my heavy iron helmet are in pretty bad shape now - and my sack cloth pants are full of holes." that was just role-playing. Clothing and armor in the game do no actually get holes in them or show any signs of wear.  Armor does become damaged and you have to repair it, just like you repair weapons . . . with the hammers.  There just isn't any graphical changes (although I'm currently play testing a mod where an armor piece is damage down to zero health it will be completely destroyed, and be removed from your inventory.  And when armor is only "cracked" or "shattered" it will be unequipped.)

Continued in Chapter 7

Looting an Old Fort