(updated March 07, 2009)

Chapter twelve

Last Seed 31, 3E433 (early morning)

It's barely dawn when I wake up in my bed at Newlands Lodge.  But I'm wide awake so I get up and a nice big breakfast down in the inn's tavern with Dervera, the owner.  As soon as the shops open I'm going to go do some serious shopping.  Actually I plan on doing more selling than buying, as I want to sell most of the items that I found in Fort Farragut. Dervera also mentioned that the Cheydinhal Mages Guild might be interested in purchasing some of the potions that I whipped up last night.  I wasn't even aware that Cheydinhal had a Mages Guild . . . I really need to check out more of this town.

After breakfast I head directly to the March Rider, since all the heaviest stuff that I want to sell is weapons . . . and my pack is getting difficult to haul around.  I heard the chapel bell clearly ring 8 on my way here.  But the March Rider front door is still locked. I'm sure that Dervera told me that all the shops in town open at 8, so what's going on here?  Hmmm, I bet the owner of the shop slept in this morning.  I guess I'll just wait out here on the steps for a while and see if anyone shows up. But no one does . . . even after it's well past the time this shop should be opened. Well I'm certainly not going to wait out here all day . . . I'll just go one of the other shops and come back later.  Maybe I'll try the door just one more time . . . hey it's unlocked! Goodness, the owner must live in the shop. "You know, you really might want to let people know when you're open . . . a "We're Open" sign would be extremely helpful."

Terlia seems very happy to see me - probably because she noticed how loaded down I was.  Even though she obviously wants to buy these weapons, she drives a hard bargain . . . so it takes a bit of negotiating.  I found a nice silver dagger at the abandoned fort, so I decided to sell my 10 pound iron long sword.  Then I stop by Borba's, and have to also do a lot of negotiating with her before I can get much at all for my items.  Borba offers me so little for my potions that I decide no to sell any of them to her.  I did bring back another book for Mach-Na, so I stop in at his bookstore next.  He greats me warmly with his big Argonian grin, and is thrilled that I found another book for him.  I try to give it to him but he insists of paying me for it (well, it wasn't like it was a rare book, but it was actually worth more than what Terlia gave me for my long sword.

Then I go directly to the Mages Guild, which is in a section of the town that I haven't been into yet.  The two inns and all the shops are along the Blue Road, which seems to pass through the center of the Cheydinhal.  The Mages guild is behind the Cheydinhal Bridge Inn, not far from where the aqueduct.  By the way, someone should really inform the town council or the public works or whomever, that this thing isn't working . . . as in there's sign of any water coming from it.  Personally I don't see why this city needs an aqueduct, since there are a number of good wells here and the Corbolo River flows right through the city.  Anyhoo I do get a much better price for my potions at the Mages Guild than what Borba was offering me.  So I sold off a bunch of them.  When I add it all up, my goods from the fort added 500 gold to my funds . . . and that's after restocking my supplies (plus I ended up with some new alchemy equipment, and my silver dagger).  Not a bad day's pay! As I'm leaving the Mages Guild, I hear the chapel bell chime 12 times . . . it's still only noontime.

It's raining again, but it's only a light rain . . . hardly more than drizzle, and I'm not really hungry yet, so it seems like a good time to take a walk outside of the city walls.  This time I head off in a totally different direction, past the stables and up the steep hillside. There's some new plants here, and I'm so focused on collecting ingredients that I back right into a stone wall.  Beyond the wall is a large building that looks like a country inn.  But it's just outside the city's walls, and a bit far from the road, so it's probably not actually an inn.  The place looks sort of neglected, as it's a bit overgrown with bushes and large sections of the stone wall are missing.  Ok, I think I NEED to take a closer look at this place.  This is just too tempting for my naturally curiosity - which by-the-way, is not the same thing as being nosy.  So I walk through an open section of the wall and walk around the building, exploring the grounds.

At first I thought that this place was abandoned, but there's a large well which has good clear water in it.  Plus none of the windows are broken or boarded up, and there are some brand new targets in the back.  The targets are make out of bundles of hay, and are the type that one would use for archery practice.  Hmmm, so now I'm thinking that this place isn't abandoned at all - I wonder if anyone's home.  But when I knock on the door, no one answers, or opens it.  So I give it a try - and it's unlocked - so I open it and walk in.  Ok, so this may look like I'm trespassing . . . but, to me, an unlocked door is just an open invitation for visitors.  Once I'm inside, it looks like no one's home.  But then I hear footsteps upstairs, so I holler out, "hello, is anyone home?"   Instantly, a young knight comes running down the stairs, and runs across the room to me. 

Just a sec.  Why is this guy wearing a full suit of heavy armor in here?  First of all, most armor isn't exactly comfortable.  And secondly, there's a reason that heavy armor is called heavy.  So most people don't wear heavy armor, unless they have to (like guards do), or unless they need the protection.  NO ONE wears heavy armor in their home (or whatever this place is).  He's not at all friendly, and tells me that I should leave.  "Ok, I'm sorry for breaking into your home or whatever, but I did knock first."  Then he gets a bit friendlier, "bids me welcome" and tells me that he's the newest member of the Knights of Thorn.

Ok, so that explains the full suit of armor!  This guy is a rookie, and probably LOVES wearing his armor.  But then he suddenly tells me to leave again . . . and that this is my last warning.  Goodness - how RUDE! And he wouldn't even tell me anything about what the Knights of Thorn is.  "Ok, don't get your chainmail in a knot - I'm leaving already!"  Goodness, talk about uptight!  I've obviously stumbled into some kind of fraternity here, and the nervous newbie doesn't know what to do with me.  After leaving (quickly), I return to Cheydinhal, where I have some lunch at Newlands.

Even though I had a late lunch, there's still time for me to do some more exploring.  So far I've stayed in sight of the walls all day.  And it has turned out to be a nice day, so I really don't want to waste it by crawling through some musty old dark dungeon.  Hey, I know . . . I'll go out and gather some more ingredients for making potions.  That way I can spend time outside and still make a little money selling off some of the potions.  I just have to go back to my room at Newlands and change into some proper hiking clothes (ok, so I don't actually have any shorts or hiking boots, so I'll have to settle for my light armor.  But I do have a backpack, and I'll grab my bow and a bunch of arrows . . . just in case some of the local wildlife is hungry this afternoon. 

Once outside the East Gate, I leave the Blue Road and head Southeast into the forest.  The woods here isn't very thick . . . it's actually more like a meadow with large trees . . . so I can still enjoy the sun.  After an hour or so, I've collected a fair amount of ingredients, including some that are totally new to me.  I'll have to do some studying to know how to use these - perhaps I can find a potion book at the book store.  The good thing is that the only wildlife I've seen have been been a few deer . . . so it's been a very peaceful hike.  It's now mid afternoon, and I'm about to start back to Cheydinhal, when I notice some sort of ruins off in the distance.  Ok, since I'm so close and all, I might as well go check them out, but I'd better get my bow ready . . . just in case. 

Getting to the ruins involves a rather steep uphill climb - so I'm really hot by the time that I reach them.  I find a nice flat spot to sit down and rest. And I'm just getting a drink of my water, when I'm attacked by a very large dog.  Ok, I really don't want to hurt someone's dog, but this is one very mean dog . . . which is now hurting me a great deal.

Unless I fight back, I'm going to be one very dead Wood Elf . . . so it's not like I really have a choice here. I'm hoping that one arrow will be enough to make the dog run off, but it doesn't seem to have any effect.  Nether does the 2nd arrow . . . and my 3rd arrow kills it . . . which makes me feel really bad.  I didn't want to have to kill the dog, I just wanted it to stop attacking me.  Then, while I'm taking care of my wounds, this guy comes out of nowhere and attacks me with his claymore!  (Which, by the way, is a very long, two-handed sword - that would probably have killed me if I did not jump out of the way.)

Ok no, he's probably the dog's owner, which is why he's so angry at me.  "Hey, I'm really sorry about your dog . . . but you really should have kept such a vicious animal on a leash!  But he doesn't seem to want to listen to me, so I make a run for it.  But I back into a wall, where he traps me.  So I have to kill him too, and then I find out that's he was a bandit.  Goodness!  All I wanted to do today is pick some flowers and stuff.  Now I've had to kill both a dog and its bandit owner . . . just to defend myself.  (What is it with the people in this province?)  I do end up finding a few things at the man's camp in the ruins, but nothing all that valuable.  But there's some stuff up on a higher level , which is really difficult to get to, but after a bunch of running jumps, I reach it.  My best find by far is a "Fine Steel Bow," which is more than twice as powerful as my old iron bow.

The ruins turns out to be Fort Scinia, which is just another old, falling down, has-been fort.  (Why is it that all the forts around here seem to be deserted?  Where are the new forts?)  In my exploring of the grounds, I stumble upon an old wooden door that leads into the underground part of the fort.  Ok, now what do I do? This was supposed to be a relaxed day for me, sort of like a day off.  But I've already been in two battles, like no reward.  That man's camp was pretty close to this door, so he was probably guarding the place.  And he wouldn't be guarding this unless there were some valuables inside.  Ok, so I'm going in.  I can take tomorrow off, or at least sleep in late . . . especially if today turns out profitable. 

The first thing that I find out is that this fort isn't deserted at all.  Well, it is sort of deserted, since it is no longer full of Imperial Soldiers.  But now it's being used as a hideout for a bunch of marauders, which are basically the same thing as pirates.  Only these guys don't have a boat, so I guess that means they're land pirates.  Perhaps they tried to be the regular type of pirate (the ones on a boat), but flunked out of pirate school or sometime.  So that would make them pirate wannabees.  Whatever.

All I know is that they aren't at all friendly, especially to any unannounced visitors such as me.  I barely get to the bottom of the first set of stairs, before the first two come running at me.  So I immediately holler an "Oops . . . sorry, my bad," and make a run for it.  But they follow me outside and don't seem to care that I'm willing to leave them alone with their silly treasure.  Now fighting two Khajiit (the cat people) marauders at once is like totally impossible.  So I run around the outside of the fort and hide behind some large boulders.  But they come searching for me, and then when the first guy finds me, he's all alone, so I'm able to defend myself.  Then I run into the second guy who tries to attack me, but several well-aimed arrows are take care of him as well. 

I do get pretty badly injured though, so I have to spend time tending my wounds.  Thank goodness I'm getting so good at casting Restoration Spells!  Then I return to the fort to see what these guys might have stashed for treasure.  This time I'm careful not to make any noise and I make it down to the bottom of the stone stairs, where I find an iron helmet and cuirass just sitting on a shelf, waiting for someone to pick them up.  I decide to leave them there, since they are rather heavy and it's going to be a semi difficult climb back to Cheydinhal.  But I'm still noticed by another marauder - who chases me out of the fort as well. Once outside, I try out a new spell that I've been practicing . . . I conjure up a skeleton, who fights for me.  Unfortunately my skeleton is a bit of a wimp (I guess I need a lot more practice at conjuring), so the marauder kills it pretty easily. 

Ok, so that didn't work very well - time for plan B. The only trouble is that I don't have a plan B, so I just conjure up another skeleton.   Only this time I manage to hit the marauder with several well-aimed arrows, while he is distracted by the skeleton.  I have to repeat this a couple of times, but eventually there is no more marauder to worry about. 

The sun will be setting soon, which concerns me.  But I still haven't ventured very far at all into the old fort, so I decide to try one more time.  Apparently there are no more guards in the large room at the bottom of the steps, as no one attacks me this time.  So I'm able to collect a few potions and a number of gold coins.  Pushing my luck, I decide to explore more of the fort.  And it's not long before I'm defending myself again.  But I survive, which is largely do to the fact that I now have a much more powerful bow.  Even though there is still more fort to explore, I decide to call it a day.  For one thing, I'm carrying about all I can - if I put much else in my pack, it will be an extremely slow trip back to the city.  So I make my way back to the entrance, where I find out that my other concern was justified . . . it is now dark out.

After panicking for a bit, which never does any good at all, I decided that I would just sleep here and return to Cheydinhal in the morning.  After all, I had plenty of food, although my water was getting a bit low.  And I wouldn't even have to sleep in the fort (where I might be ambushed during the night) . . . I could sleep out here under the sky in the bandit's tent.  Hey, wait a sec . . . it is not as nearly as dark as I first thought it was.  The night is clear, with thousands of stars filling the sky, but there's also a bright glow to the east.  Masser, the larger of the two moons, is beginning to rise over the distant mountain peaks.  I'm in luck.  I'm going back to the city tonight.  After all, I did pay for my room again, so it would be nice if I could actually sleep in the bed that I paid for.

Yes, I still have a couple of torches, but have you ever tried to find your way in the wilderness with a flickering torch.  All a torch does is light up a few feet around you, while making anything beyond this small circle of light even darker.  This makes it extremely difficult to find your way unless you have a trail (or a road) to follow . . . which I don't.  The moonlight will be bright enough for me to find my way without a torch, although I'll likely stumble a bunch (you have like no depth perception with just moonlight to see by).

Before I start hiking, I sit by the small campfire and have a late dinner of bread and cheese.  I also empty out my pack, trying to decide what I should leave here.  Even though I thought I was being really selective, I still ended up with more than I can really carry back to the city.  If it was all downhill, I could carry this load.  But my most direct route is over the lower spur of a mountain.  My only other choice is to retrace my way here, but that would involve a long decent, followed by an even longer climb.  "Ok, what should I leave behind?  This is going to be sooo difficult, as I want to take everything back with me.  After all, I worked really hard to collect all this."  I end up leaving my old iron bow, and some of my heavier items . . . including my sleeping roll, and some of the heavier food.  This reduced my load by a good amount, but I'm still going to have a difficult trek getting up over that spur.  Before I leave the camp, I stash the stuff that I'm leaving behind in what I hope is a safe place . . . just in case I ever get back here (after all, I didn't have time to explore the entire fort.)

The first part of my hike is even steeper than I expected.  There's no way that I would have been able to make the climb if I hadn't lessened my load.  In places it is too steep to even climb, so I have to traverse across the ridge for a long ways to find a route that I can climb.  This is taking me forever, as I'm spending more time resting than climbing.  And I thought I was getting back in shape.  By the time that I reach the top of the spur, the moon is high in the sky.  At the top is an Ayleid ruin, which I rest at for a bit.  Then the land drops off steeply toward what I hope is Cheydinhal.  The nice clear night has suddenly clouded up, which means that I've lost the moonlight. 

Now I need to use my torch to keep from stumbling, as a misstep here could result in a fatal fall.  To make matters worse, it has started raining.  So I'm taking my time, trying to be very careful, when I am suddenly thrown to the ground, knocking the wind out of me, and sliding off the edge.  A very large timber wolf had snuck up on me from behind, and jump on me from up above.  Fortunately my fall was a short one, which was halted by a large boulder . . . unfortunately the wolf fell right on top of me.  I still have my bow in my hand, but it is totally.  The wolf has the advantage and he knows it.  And I'm not going to last much longer unless I find a way to defend myself.  Finally, I'm able to get to my silver dagger, and am able to kill the beast. 

But I'm still in trouble.  The problem is that I'm rapidly losing blood.  I need to bandage this wound, but I just don't have enough strength.  My heart is pounding in my head, I'm gasping for air, and then my vision begins to blur.  I know that I don't have much time left.  Just before I pass out, I use all my remaining strength to cast a couple of healing spells.  Even that doesn't help much, as I my wounds are too severe.  But it gives me some time.  My pack holds a couple of Restore Health potions, which I've been keeping for an emergency.  And this is most definitely an emergency! "Ok, now where is that potion?  Here it is . . . oops, this is a green bottle, so it's a Damage Health potion.  Drinking that one would be a very bad idea. Ok, I found the right one . . . I hope it doesn't taste too awful."  The potion isn't exactly yummy, but it does make me strong enough to sit up and bandage my wounds.  Once the bleeding stops, my healing spells are enough to take care of the rest of my injuries.  Whew!  That was way too close.

After resting for a bit, and grumbling at myself for being so dumb in trying to get through the wilderness at night, I recover my torch, and stumble on.  I'm tire, cold, and sleepy . . . basically one miserable Wood Elf.  Then I reach a clearing when I can see the city down below me.  Goodness, I actually made it!

By the time that I reach Newlands, I'm completely soaked . . . and shivering violently.  So I make a beeline to the stone fireplace, to warm up.  After a while my shivering stops and I begin to feel warmer, but I'm still soaking wet, so it takes a long time to dry out completely.  Dervera is still up ("Doesn't that woman ever sleep?"), so I stop over to say goodnight before going up to my room.  The clock on the wall says that it's 1:39 am.  Goodness, no wonder that I'm so tired!  I'm definitely sleeping in tomorrow . . . err, today.  What ever!  Cancel my regular wake-up call, Dervera."

Notes About MODs:

Persuasion Overhaul - This mod replaces the mini game with more immersive persuasion - closer to what was in Morrowind.  But is much harder now to raise your disposition - in fact, it can be a real challenge when your speechcraft skills aren't very high.  But I feel that's the way it really should be.  In the mini game thingie, I could always raise my disposition to the maximum . . . even when my speechcraft skills were at their lowest.  I just didn't like how unrealistic that was.  This mod makes it much harder, but it also becomes much more rewarding.

Enhanced Weather - If you're using the OBSE, this mod includes an ini file which allows you to customize the darkness at night (I'm using the 80% darker nights values).  As you can see in the last screenshot of this chapter, this makes the nights REALLY dark (and that was actually taken at around 9:30, before it got really dark.) This is so much more realistic than the vanilla game, where even rainy nights are not all that dark.  On moonless nights, you will need torches just to find your way.

OOO - The mod also (by default) slows down leveling up.  I'm using the default setting of 3X, which means that it takes me three times longer to level up.  I also edited the Realistic Leveling ini file to slow down my skill progression.  Slowing down your leveling up rate is something that I would recommend - but is highly recommended when you're using a slower timescale.  I didn't level up to level 3 until I went to sleep on the night of my 4th day.

Role-Playing:

Knights of Thorn:  Why does Jhared invite me in and then almost immediately demand that I leave?  And I didn't even do anything at all to provoke him.  And why doesn't he tell me anything at all about this order?  Even if it's some sort of a secret society, he should still tell me something about . . . even it all he'll tell me is that it's a secret society, so he can't tell me anything else about it.

Knocking on Doors: In the game there's no way to knock on doors.  Doors are either locked or unlocked, and there's no way of knowing if an unlocked door means that it's ok to open it.  Sometimes it is totally ok to enter an unlocked home, and sometimes doing so can get you killed.  What I want in the game is a way to be able to knock on a door, and hear an NPC say something like "come in" or "go away".  That way I would know it I'm welcomed or not.  Also, when I rent a room in an inn, other guests constantly walk in on me - even when I'm sleeping.  Why aren't I given a room key, so that I can lock my door when I want some privacy?

NPCs Go Through Exits: OK, I sort of brought this up in an earlier chapter - but this is one of the really cool things about Oblivion.  When I ran out of Fort Scinia, the two marauders came right outdoors after me.  In Morrowind, attacking NPCs would only go as far as the exit - so this is a big improvement, as far as realism goes (but it took me by surprise the first time that it happen, as I thought that I had escaped, only to discover that NPCs no longer stopped at exit doors or gates.

Combat: This is the other major issue that I have with this game . . . Oblivion is just way too focused on combat.  I suppose that if you just want to play as a warrior, this isn't an issue.  But, if you're trying to do as little killing as possible, this becomes a major issue. I was hoping that there would be more alternatives to combat - but my one choice seems to be fight or flee (And the fleeing part isn't always a choice).  And it's really not much fun to spend so much of the game running away from all the attacking NPCs and creatures.

The one exception that I've noticed so far has been the robbers, where I'm given a third choice; which is to give them 100 gold.  (But that's not a very good way to get ahead - especially in the early part of the game, when most people don't have any gold to spare.)   I'm still hoping that mods will be able to shift the focus, but this is likely not going to happen until some a mod is released that remakes the entire game.

OOO does improve this some.   "Tag's" Natural Wildlife MOD has been merged with OOO, which makes wildlife act a bit more normally - so every wolf will not attack you - some will actually be timid and run away.  And often an attacking animal will run off after being hit by an arrow or two.

continued in chapter 13

Meeting More of the Locals

(still being written)