Day 1, Cont'd: Hunting in Cyrodiil

Sharlassa sets out for the gate about 9am. Right out of the gate, I spot another apple tree and some aloe. I pick as much as I can and start whipping up some more potions. Things are definitely going my way. Nothing can sour my mood, not even the sun-bleached skeleton I find near the road.

I spot a big, sinister stone shrine with a nice overview of Anvil's bay.

Shortly thereafter, I see someone sneakily moving through the grass. A bandit? I drop into a crouch to hide, and ready my bow in case of a confrontation.

She's already seen me, though. I consider shooting at her just in case, but she hasn't shown any hostility. I choose instead to approach. Turns out, she's just out hunting. She gives me the low-down on the criminal element this side of Tamriel, and she's happy to buy all my potions and some of the arrowroot I've managed to pick up in my hiking.

I'm starting to feel like more of a botanist than a hunter. I haven't seen so much as a squirrel in the couple of hours that I've been roaming the countryside, and my stomach is starting to rumble. I break for a midday lunch of bread and beef while I talk to the hunter. Then it's off to seek out some tasty animals.

I find the corpses of the deer the hunter just slew, but she's already stripped them of their meat. Dammit!

Ahead I see some ruins, and I sneak up to check them out. A voice in my head tells me they're called Crowhaven, which sounds pretty ominous. I make sure to walk very stealthily, just in case.

Aha! I see movement in the ruins, so I take aim and... huh? That looks like a skeleton. Hmm... maybe I'd better just leave. I start to creep away, but the skeleton spots me and runs at me with a giant mace. Waugh!

I pull out my rusty little dagger and slash at him, carefully blocking his blows with my head. After a few minutes of our deadly dance, he flops to the ground. No sooner does he fall than an even bigger one with a giant battle axe comes out swinging. I make him dead, but I nearly die myself. After I take a few moments to recover, I decide to investigate the ruins. After all, how many more skeletons could there be? I remember that one of Sharlassa's racial abilities allows her to Detect Life within 100 feet. I cast the spell to look around.

Holy crap! This place is swarming with skeleton guards! I take the only rational course of action:

After I get comfortably far from Crowhaven, I head north up the coast. It occurs to me to use my newly remembered power to look for game.

It works, though all I manage to spot is a couple of mud crabs. I splat them with the axe I salvaged from the skeleton warrior. Booyah!

I also find some more of that strange root.

Near some more ruins, which my woman's intuition tells me are called Garlas Malatar, I find buttloads of water plants to harvest.

I near yet more ruins, and this one houses a mage who seems not too happy to see me. She initiates hostilities, but I pwn her with my axe in one swing. Who's yo momma!

Among her possessions is a wicked magic staff, along with a shiny new dagger to replace my old rusty one. Nice! This makes up for the total lack of animals on this hunting trip. As thanks for making my day, I leave her naked in the grass.

I've about given up on finding anything worth hunting today. It's already 4:30, and I'm a long way from Anvil. I need to start heading back if I want to make it there by nightfall. I take one final look out at the ocean before I head inland to look for a road. Ahh... that's the great thing about hunting in Cyrodiil. Even if you don't kill anything, you can still find a sweet view.