I head through the dock gate and into Anvil Proper. It's a nicer place inside, but my admiration of the city's nightly beauty is cut off by a sneaky-looking figure skulking through the streets.
Thinking him up to no good, I begin to follow him through Anvil's alleys. Soon enough, my suspicions about him are proven right. He begins looting the barrels and boxes outside people's homes. Huh. Must be an adventurer.
While thievery is one way of scrounging up some money, I don't want to get into trouble with the law my first day here. People get cranky when you take their stuff. No, if you're going to steal something, it needs to be public property; after all, Congress gets away with it. Er, I mean the Elder Council gets away with it. Anyway, I look around for something small, and soon I realize just the thing.
I proceed to stuff my pockets with flowers. Stealing the city's beauty is low, but it's something that grows back. After I pick a few, I realize morning glory has restorative properties as well, and I make a note to seek out an alchemist to sell them to.
I scour the city, picking morning glory here and aloe vera there. I also find a strange herb that emits a curious ringing sound. I pick it, hoping it'll be valuable. Dawn is starting to break, and I'm getting hungry. I'm about to break into my loaf of bread when something hits me on the head. Ow! I look down to see an apple rolling around.
Chow time!
I eat a few apples and pick whatever else I can reach. It's a graveyard, not an orchard, so I doubt anyone will complain. Still, I nearly jump out of my loincloth when I hear a man yelling. It wasn't me!
But the yelling continues, and it doesn't seem to be coming any closer. I follow my ears to a preacher fellow.
Ahh... this must be the prophet the pirates were talking about. I listen to his speech for a little while, nodding and giving the occasional "Amen!" just to be polite, but I really don't understand a word he says. I shouldn't have egged him on, though, since he starts talking directly to me about taking a quest and the writing in blood and some ancient king who's killed the gods. Both to humor him and to get away from his ranting, I decide to duck inside the chapel across the street to see the scene of the crime.
And what a scene it is! Dead bodies litter the chapel, and what looks like bloody runes circle the central altar. The guards are incompetent, I've been told, so maybe I should use my kick-ass tracking skills to pick up some clues as to the killer. I examine the bodies and find the murderer was not interested in money.
I stop to think for a moment. Why are the bodies still here? If the prophet arrived a few days after the attack and has been here "ever since", that would suggest the chapel was attacked a week ago or more. And yet, someone's left these bodies in here stinking it up! Typical government work, if you ask me. Incompetent guards? Yes. I decide to, uh, bag and tag the evidence. Specifically, that evidence which proves that they weren't killed for money. I tell myself it's acceptable. After all, if their property is unclaimed by relatives, that makes it public property, and it's only fair that I have access to it.
Feeling quite smug about my ability to rationalize thievery in broad daylight, I continue my search for alchemic ingredients, secure in the knowledge that now I've got 46 septims in my pockets. That'll last me a few nights at the Black Flag, but I can't count on finding slaughtered clergy every day, so stealing veggies it is. When I'm satisfied that I've gathered any vegetable matter in the city, I head over to the Mage's Guild to hoc my morning glory to the resident alchemist. I get there before he's awake, apparently, so I twiddle my thumbs for a while and listen to a Nord woman try to recruit the head mage into the fighter's guild. Persistent buggers.
Eventually the alchemist, a dark elf named Felen Relas, appears, and I begin to dump all my morning glory on him. I'm about to get rid of the aloe vera, too, when I realize there's a much better deal to be had. He's selling a mortar and pestle which, through my kick-ass livin'-off-the-land skills, I know will help me whip these common plants into some much cooler, and much more valuable, potions. So I buy it and mix up apple bits and aloe vera into mush to create a potion of restore fatigue. Felen, though watching me mush together two 1 septim ingredients, buys each of the potions for 6 septims. W00t! That's business in Cyrodiil, baby! You gotta spend money to make money, but when your ship comes in, buy does it come in! I sell off the excess ingredients that I can't make into potions and, when I step out of the guild, I'm sitting pretty on 297 septims. Now that's pocket change!
Next, it's off to Morvayn's Peacekeepers, the weapon and armor shop right across the street. I pick out a nice steel bow which, while more expensive than the iron one he has in stock, is more durable and lighter. He's only got eight arrows, though, so I buy those and make a mental note to conserve ammo. I also purchase a repair hammer for good measure.
I step out into the street a true hunter. With my bow in hand, all fluffy, cuddly things will fall before my awesome hunter skills. I also look pretty bad-ass, if I do say so myself.
Quit staring at my ass, pig!
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