Living In Skyrim

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Day 5: Close Encounters of the Contaminated Kind

Dawn comes to Cyrodiil, greeted by the chirping of songbirds and the crow of the rooster. A warm breeze blows through the window and Sharlassa breathes a contented sigh as she stirs in her bed. What a perfect way to start a day!

And then I open my eyes and remember my plight. Buggers. I'm on the run from psycho-killer-whore-thieves. No bed will be safe for long. I'm a fugitive, on the run from, er... injustice. And adventure. That's even worse. As an old philosopher once asked, "Which is better: to suffer an injustice, or to commit an adventure?" Well, if I don't get outta Dodge, I'm going to be suffering and committing. So I pack my things into my invisible extra-dimensional backpack.

It's 5:30am on the 31st of Last Seed, day 5 of my non-adventure, and I celebrate the blessings and not-quite-curses that life brings by enjoying a light breakfast of apple and cheese while I plan my route for the day.

Hmm... there seems to be a suspiciously large hole in my map north of the Brina Cross. What lies in that unmarked territory? Is it a mountainous paradise? Or perhaps a rugged wasteland? Is it miles of nothing but boredom and walking, or it filled with tedious adventure after sodding adventure? I dunno, but I've decided that's where I'm going. I gots to get my run on after all, lest I get caught by psycho-killer-whore-thief-gangsters (hmm... ever time I think of them a new colorful description pops into my head, and it's a bit longer than the last one).

Why not head for Kvatch, the city to the east? Well, there's a problem, see. See, Kvatch got destroyed in the main game, see, and there's no way you can see it as a normal town, see. So see, even though I've got a mod that delays the main quest, Kvatch is still designed as a destroyed city, see. See, they put a guard outside the front gate that tells you Kvatch is closed. See?

Besides, I'm a country gal, a hunter, used to roughing it and living off the land. Those hoes chasing me are pretty girls, not up for some serious slogging through the mountains. In a nearby town they might catch me. But in the mountains, the one doing the catching is me. Because I am... a hunter!

Okay, well, a huntress. But you get my point.

I stalk out into County Kvatch, keeping a brisk pace but still stopping to grab a pretty flower or two. For potions, I mean. I'm a huntrer... -ess. I'm not into the the whole "Ooo, a pretty flower! *melt*" thing. Really.

Pretty soon I'm welcoming the sight of the morning sun as it breaks over Colovia's mountains. Ah!

Oh hey, is that a fort? It's not on my map, so I creep forward to check it out, hopeful that my woman's intuition will divine the name of the ruins.

Hey, I think there's someone living here! I can tell by the fact they're shooting arrows at me. I turn to run, but an armored archer lady comes bursting out of the underbrush. Not one to be shown up by another chick, I draw my sword and slash at her until the falls.

In accordance with my religion, I strip her of her clothes and repair hammer, though I leave her noisy iron armor for a non-sneaky, non-hunter scavenger to take.

Even without taking on her armor, though, I'm feeling a bit... heavy. Hmm... why can't I move?

Woah, I've got some serious diseases going on after that fight. Rattles, my intuition tells me, and Colleywobbles. What the hell, man! I've been given a disease by some chick I don't even know! That's one of those things you think only happens to other people, but after a night of hitting the bar and buying drinks for the hottie next to you, you wake in with a horrid hangover and a note on your pillow saying you should probably get yourself to the clinic... I swear, though, I'm not into chicks. Didn't you see me checking out the sailors?

However this happened, there's only one thing I can do to cure it. Okay, well, there's several. But there's one I can do right now that's quick and painless. I hunt through my pack until I find some mandrake root. I've been picking this stuff all over, and its first property is Cure Disease. A few bites and I'm starting to feel better already. Good thing I had this, or I might've had to spend most of my blog hunting for ingredients for a Cure Disease potion, and no one likes a copycat.

Anyway, now disease-free, I creep towards the tower again, determined to learn its name before... great, now an armored orc chick is running to greet me, too. She's probably just as diseased ridden as her butch forester friend that attacked me. I fill one hand with mandrake root and the other with my sword. Die diseased ho!

Faster than I can take a screenshot, she cuts my health in half. Yipes! This is not the diseased ho I'm looking for. I perceive I have a choice. Run, or... well, okay, there's not really any other option.

Ha, check this out. I'm going to run and chug a coupla health potions. Even in her armor, the orc's faster than me, so my alchemy skill is the only thing keeping me alive as she hacks at my back. I chug away until I think I can turn around and face her with full reserves. It's a one in a million chance, but it just might work.

Fortunately, one in a million chances work out nine times out of ten. My skillful use of potions and poisons keeps me healthy while keeping her dead. That settled, I munch on some mandrake root to get her germs outta my system. Then... I get religious.

Booyah! Who's the kick-ass warrior now? Me, sister! I'm a lean, mean, green-fighting machi... damn, that hat is ugly.

Okay, that's better.

Booyah! Who's the kick-ass warrior now? Me, sister! I'm a lean, mean, green-fighting machine. Bring on your diseased butch orcs and your psycho-killer-whore-thief-gangster-wenches. I'm the last thing they'll ever see!

Day 4, Cont'd: My Kingdom for a Bed

I gotta say, it sucks leaving Anvil. I was just getting to know the place, its people, and its countryside. I even had an opportunity to buy a house. But that's gone, at least until I feel it's safe to return. After all, while it sucks to leave, it would suck even more to be skewered by psycho whore-thieves. Still, it's not without a heavy heart that I look back at the city that held all my dreams.

Ah well, I suppose it's for the best. I dunno what the rest of Cyrodiil is like, after all. What if there's a place that's so much better than the idyllic life of the Gold Coast? What if there's a place where the grass is actually green, or where huntable wildlife abounds? Besides, I'm a hunter NPC, not a settling down somewhere and do nothing NPC. I've got to roam far and wide, away from civilization where only nature knows. I'm not one for houses or fancy inns. Gimme a bedroll and I'll sleep under the stars!

A bedroll! Augh! I knew I forgot something. How am I going to make my way in the wild without a place to sleep? I may be a hunter, but I'm a lady hunter, and my tush needs somewhere comfy to rest for the night. Dammit, Norbert Lelles even had some in stock, but I didn't buy one because I thought I had a good, safe inn to stay at. How could I have been so unprepared? Curses!

I suppose I'll just have to trek to the Gottshaw. It's a ways up the road, but it's comfy and far enough from Anvil that by the time those thieves come looking for me, I'll be long gone.

I wander along the road in silence, grabbing to occasional ingredient until...

Oh hey, it's another inn. The Brina Cross, as the massive sign tells me. Well, it looks pretty big, and convenient, too.

I'm not far from Anvil yet, but... the thieves won't know I've skipped town until morning, most likely. I was supposed to meet them at eleven at Gweden Farm, east of the city. It'd take them most of the night to realize I'm not coming and search the local inns. By the time anyone got to the Brina Cross, it'd be dawn. Alright. In that case, I'll hit the hay early and leave before dawn.

Though I'm far enough from Anvil that I don't fear for my life, it's apparently not far enough the Fighter's Guild hasn't spread marketing material.

The inn's pretty crowded, but I push my way through the throngs of people to Christophe Marane, the barkeep, and plop down the ten septims for a night at the Cross, plus a bit more for a beefsteak, cheese, and a good strong drink.

I sit in the corner with my booze and hope no one bothers me. If I don't talk to anyone, I can't get into anymore trouble or start anymore quests.

The Mods, Part 1: Performance

Thought I'd make a brief note about some of the mods I'm using. Oblivion is one of those games that, while excellent on its own, can be tremendously improved with community mods. First, I'll cover those mods I use to increase performance.

I run Oblivion on a laptop. That means onboard graphics, which are notoriously sucky for playing games. Even on my machine, Oblivion is playable without mods. Careful tweaking and experimentation allowed me to keep my game running smoothly. If you want to tweak your Oblivion install, I suggest checking out Tweak Guides. Koroush Ghazi goes into great detail not only on how different settings affect your performance but also on the technical aspects of the settings. Dunno what anisotropic filtering is and why you might or might not want to turn it on? He explains it thoroughly. I highly recommend running through this guide and seeing how you can increase performance before you install any mods.

Here's the list of performance-increasing mods I use:

1. Oblivion Script Optimization: Each second, hundreds and even thousands of scripts run per second. For the most part this goes smoothly. However, Bethesda has been rather lax in its code optimization, which means busy areas with lots of scripts can run slower (we're talking lag here, not FPS) and that your load times can increase. This mod improves the efficiency of scripts throughout the game.


2. Unofficial Oblivion Patch: Fixes all the bugs that should have been fixed in Oblivion's patches. Currently, that's over 1800 bugs and 70,000 object placement errors. Probably won't increase your performance terribly, but will stop lots of annoyingness.


3. Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch: As above, but for the Shivering Isles expansion. If you don't have the expansion, you don't need this. If you do, you do.


4. Unofficial Official Mods Patch: As above for Bethesda's official mods. I have Knights of the Nine, which was included in the Game of the Year Edition, so I use this. If you don't have any of these, don't bother. If you do, do.


5. Operation Optimization: Optimizes meshes throughout the game with no loss in visual quality. It takes out unnecessary polygons that you never see, meaning things run faster with no difference in how the look.


6. Operation PolyGone Overhaul: Decreases the number of polygons in many objects around Cyrodiil. Note that this, unlike the above mod, does have a noticeable reduction in quality. However, it's not excessive. The goal is simply to correct Bethesda's "overly generous" use of polygons.


7. Optimized Distant Land MAX: Two mods in one. The first reduces the number of polygons in the distant land (distant land is what gives the scenic vistas in so many of my screenshots; distant land reduces my framerate, but it's just soo pretty :) ). After all, why do they need to be high-poly if they're so far off? The second mod reduces the texture sizes in distant land, since you don't really need 1024x1024 textures for distant objects.


8. Low-Poly Grass: Grass is one of the biggest performance eaters in the game. Without this mod, turning grass on ate about 10fps. Now, it eats only 1-2fps. Highly recommended.


9. Wiseman's Reduced Textures: Absolutely essential. This mod provides the largest performance increase of any mod I've found. It essentially uses medium quality textures in place of many large textures, letting you run the game with a large texture pack with the performance of the medium one. For example, a large wall needs a large texture. But a ring or a shirt doesn't. There's a slight drop in visual quality, but the only place it's stood out so far is in the Burgundy Shirt (see the screenie of Gogan in my last entry). If you use this, be sure to grab parts two and three.


10. Streamline: I no longer use this, as it introduced some problems for me. If you're still hurting for FPS, though, you might consider it. Essentially, Streamline optimizes your graphical settings as you play in order to achieve what you've told it is a good framerate. It's especially handy in combat, where it reduces your graphics to keep your FPS solid during the battle. I found that using its fog settings turned the sky black, and after uninstalling it, things didn't return to normal (I had to reinstall Oblivion to fix it). Also, it kept setting Actor Fade (which says how close creatures need to be to you before you see them) so close that I couldn't see enemies until they were right on top of me. Some folks swear by it, though, so try it out and see how it works for you. Requires the Oblivion Script Extender.

There's plenty of other performance increasing mods out there, but these are the ones I've tried and swear by.

Happy gaming!

Day 4: Adventures in Anvil (Curses!)

Anvil is a great town. It's big enough to serve my needs, yet its pace is slow and quiet. It's slightly seedy, but not a slum. I can walk the warm beaches of the Gold Coast without fear of adventure, and there's plenty of pickings for my alchemy. The people... well, I haven't talked much to the people. I should do that. But I'm sure they're nice, too.

I've begun to make a small fortune, and I've got it in my mind to see what a house goes for around here. Don't get me wrong. I don't mind staying at the Black Flag, but it'd be nice to be able to decorate a room or two, have a place to display my crab fork, and so on. I've found bushels of food in my travels, and I could stock a pantry with enough food 'til doomsday if I wanted. Yeah, I think I'll make some inquiries today.

First, though, it's time to level up. I suppose it's due to all the potion mixing and mud crab bashing.

I decide to boost Intelligence (good for alchemy and fireballs), Agility (sneaking and archery), and Endurance (staying alive). Though I would have gotten a sizable bonus to Personality had I chosen to boost that (presumably due to all my chatting with merchants), I forgo it in favor of the things that will make me rich and alive.

After a breakfast of a whole watermelon, I dress in my town duds and hit the streets in hopes of getting to know the people of Anvil. I've chatted with a few of them, but usually only because I wanted to catch some gossip or get a good deal on something. Now I'm going to really take an interest in people. After all, these might be my new neighbors.

As a grubby fellow named Wilhelm the Worm informs me, the people of Anvil are quite nice. The sailors are all willing to quit whatever busy work they're doing to talk to me, though it may be on account of I'm a woman. Just to be sure they're not taking my admiring for flirting, I'm sure to throw in some boasts, jokes, and coercion. Though I smack any wayward hands, I still manage to have everyone greet me with a smile. I'm learning something about getting along with people, it would seem.

I'm feeling very neighborly now. Almost neighborly enough to help a self-pitying merchant:

Sure, I'll... wait. Nope. No, no. I know my last experience with ghost ships turned out to be profitable and adventure-free. But now the game's playing on that to drag me into adventure. I mean, if someone's actually telling me they need me to defeat some spirits and recover some talisman... I mean, that reeks of adventure. Nope, sorry. You can do that on your own.

Rather than getting caught up in exploring a ghost-filled ship, I choose to visit the lighthouse overlooking Anvil's harbor. Lighthouse is right. There's a nice little home situated at the base of the spire. It's unlocked, so I head inside to poke around. The owner's asleep, so I leer at the back of his head.

He must feel my stares because after a while he wakes up and strikes up a friendly chat. And why not? No one ever gets mad when you barge into their homes uninvited and wake them up, right? Turns out his name's Ulfgar Fog-Eye. After a bit of joking and admiring, followed closely by some boasting and coercing, I ask if he's got any jobs available. After all, a steady income would go a long way towards helping me afford a house. Turns out he has something for me:

It pays with a room rather than money, though. Free room for one night of work a week? Sounds like a steal. Still, I don't want to commit to anything just yet. That, and I'm not sure I wanna shack up with some dude I only met today. I tell him I'll think about it.

Barging in to one fellow's house worked so well, I decide to try it some more:

I happen upon the house of Gogan and Maelona, a Redguard couple. I go to chat with them when Maelona asks for my help. Uh-oh. Quest alert! Next thing you know she's going to ask me to retrieve some ancient talisman from a ghost ship, right? Close. She needs me to retrieve a ring that was taken by some thieves. Uh-huh. No way. I smell adventure. No thank you. I turn to leave, but Maelona continues with her sob story. Well, not a sob story, really. It's kind of funny, when you get down to it.

Gogan, it seems, fell victim to the schemes of a gang of thieves. An all-female gang. See, they go into bars and seduce men, leading them out of the city where they rob them. Gogan, the cheating bastard that he apparently is, got suckered into this. He lost a ring given to him by his mother-in-law on their wedding day (they being Gogan and Maelona, not Gogan and his mother-in-law; that would just be weird). So on top of not getting any action, Gogan got robbed, stripped naked, and sent back to an angry wife. Girl power! Hah! Haha! Hahahahaaa!

I laugh hysterically, but sober up when Maelona offers to pay me for the trouble of getting it back. Even though I'm set for weeks... I could always use a little pocket change. And I don't even have to get into any adventure, really. I can just keep an ear out and report anything I find to the guards, right?

Gogan, for a cheating pig, seems genuinely sorry. I agree to do what I can, and Maelona tells me to start at the Flowing Bowl, the restaurant outside the city walls.

A bit hungry, I head to the Count's Arms, the fancy hotel and eatery in town. I'm pretty wealthy, after all, and it won't hurt to eat somewhere other than my budget inn. After a lunch of beef and cheese, I begin to chat with the patrons.

Why yes, I am looking for a house. Only problem is the manor this fellow, Velwyn Benirus, offers me is a little out of my price range. He's asking 5,000 septims, and I only have about 2,000. Oh well. At the rate I'm making money, I should have that in another week, yes? I ask around about Benirus and his manor, and it sounds like a nice place to live. A fixer-upper, maybe? I make a mental note to check it out when I get a little more cash on hand.

The rest of the conversation at the Count's Arms is rather single track.

Sounds like the Fighter's Guild's marketing campaign has been doing wonders. It get annoying to hear people telling me to work for the guild over and over. Finally, I decide to visit the guild just to see what the fuss is about.

It's about what I expected. Not much fighting going on, but there's plenty of folks strolling around in armor with giant weapons. Oh, and hitting things with heavy objects. So, the Fighter's Guild is basically a frat house? Sweet, where's the beer?

Apparently I look like a fighter, because these armor-clad frat boys want me in their club. Get paid to hit things with a stick? How can refuse?

That's how. Adventure? No thanks.

Frustrated at the game's constant attempts to entertain me, I head to Morvayn's Peacekeepers to do some business. I'm going to be heading out to the Gold Coast again before too long, after all, and I want to be well stocked. I sell off all the heavy iron arrows I'm carrying and stock up on steel ones instead. I also grab some repair hammers in case of weapon breakage. Then, hard as it is, I sell that wicked pirate's cutlass. I mean, the thing practically weighs 25 pounds. That's like trying to swing three sledgehammers. So as cool as it is, I'm going to part with it and use my dinky little dagger. In the interests of weight conservation, I also sell off my armor. It's not protecting me much, and it's rather weak in combat. Instead of repairing it constantly, I'll just wear my regular clothes.

After my sales, I ask Morvayn what be with the up:

They most certainly are not talking about that! They're talking about the Fighter's Guild and how they're recruiting and how I should sign up if I've got stones (which I haven't, literally or figuratively).

To ensure people recognize my lack of man bits, I go and buy a skirt. Looks like it's a turn-on for dull old Imus.

For dinner, I head to the Flowing Bowl. I enjoy a little meal of ham, cheese, and grapes while I try to decide who I should speak with to turn up information about the gang that stole Gogan's ring. Turns out I don't have to think long.

A couple of women march in the door and, seeing my new dress, decide I'm too sexy not to spill all their secrets to.

Oh, okay. It seems they want me in their gang. Hmm... nope. In fact, now that they've revealed themselves, I decide to call the guards. Suckaz!

Huh? What? Who was going report you to the guards? Certainly not me. Nope. No way. Never. Uh-uh. Not even remotely in my mind. I mean, maybe if I hadn't just sold my armor and that big-ass pirate sword. But no, not now.

They leave, but I'm faced with a quandary. On the one hand, I can take my chances and tell the guards. Only I don't know who all is in the gang. Even if the guards capture these two, who's to say more wouldn't catch me? On the other hand, I could go to the appointed meeting place and pretend to be in their gang, only to play Judas and take them out once I've assessed their strength. Both of those options sound unduly adventurous. Looks like the only option is the other other hand. Hand three.

I've got to leave Anvil. It was fun while it lasted, but I'm not going to hang around town if there's bloodthirsty killer women after me. If I don't join their gang, they may assume I'm in league with the guards and kill me anyway. Nope, I'm going away for a few days. Let the guards take care of things while I skeedaddle.

I head back to the Black Flag and collect my possessions. Goodbye, Anvil! It was nice knowing you.

Day 3: Back to the Beach

The next day starts out badly. By which I mean that I mysteriously lose about 20 screenshots, most of them carefully posed (I've learned a thing or two about taking better screenshots since my last post). But I don't sweat it. Nope, Sharlassa gets up at the crack of dawn. Well, before dawn, really. Having gone to bed early, she rises at 3:30 am. The inn is alive even at that late hour, and she spends a relaxing morning drinking ale around the warm fireplace. After a hearty breakfast of cheese, bread, and mutton, she begins her daily wanderings north of Gottshaw Inn.

I wander aimlessly, gathering ingredients as I find them. I'm trying to pick things that I can make into potions now, though, rather than gathering handfuls of whatever I can find. Since my alchemy skill has improved, I'm finding lots of new recipes for potions. The corn and potatoes in my pack, for instance, can be used in Restore Health potions, and the occasional cluster of Lady's Mantle and Aloe Vera go nicely with these. I find some St. John's Wort (good for poisons that damage my quarry's health), but I don't have anything to mix it with, so I hold on to it.

As I wander through the waist-high grass, I spy what looks to be a camp ahead, and the light of a couple of torches glimmer around it. I creep forward, hoping my woman's intuition will spontaneously tell me the name of the encampment. No such luck, though, because a boar rushes at me through the grass. I backpedal madly, trying to fend the beast off with my dagger. I'm knocked off my feet by an arrow that thuds into my shoulder. Yargh! I'm bein' attacked by boars and bandits at the same time!

A couple of well placed fireballs and powerful attacks dispatch the boar, and I leap at the bandit, who's turning me into a pincushion. My health is down to about half, and I'm about to turn and run (which is generally not so effective a strategy against archers) when another boar rushes me. Ye, gods!

Someone must have been listening to my prayers, because the boar comes after the bandit rather than me. I chuck my puny Flare spells at the two, and by the time the bandit falls to the boar's razor sharp tusks, the feral beast so weak that a single thrust of my dagger defeats it. Huzzah!

I'm a religious person, so I decide to honor the gods by stripping the bandit naked and taking her stuff. She's got a good-size quiver of steel arrows to replace my heavy iron ones and a snazzy green shirt and leather bracer that go well with my fur greaves. And... ooo! A shiny necklace! The boars have some excellent hides, and I take some time to saw off their tusks, too. Those should fetch a good price!

I briefly consider assaulting the bandit's camp. After all, if they're as rich as this one, I could make a good haul today. But that's not what we NPCs do. We don't go looking for fights, especially when all the fights we have been in so far have left us dangerously close to ending the blogs about our lives. Oh, and I count four torches moving around the camp. Nope, I decide to take a wide circle around the camp, avoiding the sight of its keepers as best I can.

An hour's walk west brings me to a large estate with plenty of crops around. There's also plenty of servants. One of them, a surly Nord named Bjorn the Basher, fixes up all my damaged equipment for a modest fee. I want to change into my now repaired furs, but there's no privacy around. Instead, I wander the estate, which my womanly knowledge tells me belongs to a Lord Drad. A bit of curiosity leads me to a familiar face. It's Geontene, the mage who bought all my loot! I tell him about my battles and he tries giving me some advice:

I also purchase a couple of spells from him. One is a healing spell that's a bit stronger than the weak one I already use, and the other buffs my health. They're expensive, but I think thy'll increase my survivability if I run into bandits again.

I have fun chatting with the locals, all of whom urge me to join the Fighter's Guild. Man, I must really look the part. But no, no fighting for me, thank you. I'd rather live my life in peace.

At last it's time to continue my wandering. There's a woman named Nilin heading out into the woods, and I decide to follow here. I make that decision based on the fact that she has a guard dog and a huge honking battle axe. The more protection the merrier!

After a while, Nilin turns around to head back to Lord Drad's Estate. Having just been there a half hour ago, I decide not to keep following her and continue my course westward. I can hear the surf pounding the beach ahead, so I follow my ears, moving silently through the grass just in case I should find any furry animals to shoot. As I slip over the crest of the hill, though, I see what looks to be the burned out ruins of a town.

Curiosity gets the better of me, and I head down the hill to investigate, keeping my hunter's eyes peeled and looking for any movement that might indicate danger. I don't see much, though, except for charred timber. There's not so much as a barrel to root through. I suppose that's good, though. After all, I wouldn't want to loot more ruins and break my code of non-adventuring.

Still, I'm somewhat disappointed as I begin to head south along the beach. Just outside of the ruins, however, I see something that makes my day. Oysters!

A few minutes of swimming later and I find what I'm looking for:

My swimming nets me 15 pearls, as well as some Sacred Lotus Seeds. I examine their properties and find they can be combined with my St. John's Wort to produce Damage Health poisons, so I whip some up. Those should give me an edge in any battles I might be thrust into.

While I'm working on my alchemy, I hear some chittering behind me. The oyster-filled pool has spawned mud crabs. And dreughs. Hordes of them! I get in some practice with my trusty dagger...

...and blast a few with clumsily flung Flare spells.

I crack some of the crabs open to pry out their tasty meat. A few contain more than just meat, though:

Okay, the fork I can understand. Some dude thought he'd killed the crab, popped it open, and started eating the meat. Only it wasn't dead, so it crawled off, fork still inside, and healed up. Okay, I can buy that. But the lockpick?

Some more exploring shows me the wreckage of a few ships.

I consider swimming down to see if there's anything valuable inside, but I decide against it. Diving for pearls is one thing. You can surface for air quickly. I can't breathe underwater, though, and I don't want to get caught inside a sunken ship. I leave the ship and head south down the coast.

Before long I encounter another shipwreck, but this one is mostly above water. I decide to board it and see what's below. After all, I'm not superstitious about ghost ships. Umm... right?

Turns out the bigger thing to worry about is the smell. The corpse of what appears to have been the captain of this vessel is thrown against the hull, and the hot sun of the Abeccean Sea has turned this ship into an oven. Phew! I do manage to recover a few books and some food, and when I search the captain's body I find a wealth of gold coins, gems, some fine boots, and a seaman's cutlass.

Excited about my finds, I head to the lower deck. There's more flooding going on here, and it's a bit harder to move around since there's furniture blocking the doorways. I don't really want to hang around here too long, though. The corpse pinned to the wall with a cutlass has something to do with that. He died with his eyes open, and they just stare at me lifelessly. Ugh.

As the chills run down my spine, I strip another corpse of its belongings, then shimmy back up the ladder to leave the ship.

Hey, how do I look in my corpse clothes?

I spy some mud crabs ahead and decide to use this as a chance to test out my new cutlass. Have at thee, crabs!

I find a cave inside the stump of a driftwood tree. I decide to call it Treestump Cave in honor of the obvious. Treestump Cave is locked, though, and I don't want to spend my crab-pick trying to enter.

Having had enough pretending to be a pirate for one day, I change back itno my furs and begin the trek southward again.

Near some Ayleid ruins (Garlas Malatar, which I discovered on Day 1), I snipe some slaughterfish from the shore. They, like the mud crabs, eat interesting things:

I know this area. At least, I think do. I came this way up the Gold Coast my first day, but things look different now. Whatever the reason, I'm glad to be exploring it again. I'm seeing new things. Like that ruined lighthouse.

I check it out. There's not much to find, save for an old corpse dashed by rocks. Nearby I find what appears to be his tattered journal. It confirms my suspicions. This was indeed and old lighthouse, but it was destroyed when its fire leapt out of control. Apparently, that's what caused the many shipwrecks at the burnt-out village, which the journal identifies as Oyster Bay.

I poke around the tower for a bit, but accidentally fall off into the ocean below. Gah! The water is pretty shallow, so it doesn't break my fall. Instead, I crack my ankle on the rocks below. My health falls down below half, and I pull myself from the waves onto the nearby beach in hopes that I can cast my healing spells to fix my leg. Of course, something is waiting for me.

Even in my weakened state, I manage to kill the dreugh quickly. After I heal a bit, I gingerly walk around the little beach. Ooo... there's a Nirnroot. And another. Oh, and another. I suppose this was a worthwhile injury. I begin the swim towards the shore, but take a quick dive when spot a sunken chest below. I recover a few gold coins from it, but the real treasure is an alembic which I can use to improve my potions. Hah!

As I continue south I finally spot Anvil's harbor in the distance. Now there's a welcome sight! It's getting late in the afternoon, so I hurry toward the docks, eager to sell my finds before the shops close for the night.

I manage to sell off the jewels, pearls, animal bits, and my slaughterfish plate at Norbert Lelles' Merchandise, then head to the Flowing Bowl to buy all the corn and potatoes that I can. I'll turn those into Restore Health potions tomorrow. When it's all said and done, I'm sitting on over 1,700 septims. Not bad for a day's work! To celebrate, I sit on the docks and talk with a beggar named Imus the Dull. Sadly, he lives up to his name. The conversation is rather poor, so I spend my time checking out the shirtless sailors.

Whoa! I'm a guy playing a chick who likes guys. Is... is that role-playing? It just might be. Lookit me, ma! I'm role-playing!

(Aside: Why do so many male gamers who decide to play chicks make them into lesbians? Is it because gamers are acting out fantasies? Or is it because they're too uncomfortable role-playing liking their own sex? It doesn't make you gay to play a straight chick, does it?)

After a while, the sailors start heading to the Black Flag tavern, so I follow Maybe it's the cutlass hanging off my belt, or maybe it's the coin jingling in my pocket; whatever the reason, the pirates save me a seat at their table. I feast on boar meat, cheese, and ale, and the party goes on into the night. To life in Cyrodiil!