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!

Noooo!

So, I've gotten about 25 days into my non-adventure, have gotten a quaint little farmhouse, accidentally fought (and killed) liches, minotaurs, trolls, and atronachs, amassed a sum of 15,000 gp from hunting and alchemy, and so decide I might as well come make a post about it.

And... I come to find I'm missing screenshots. About 200 of them covering the next five or six days of Sharlassa's life. Which are pretty important.

Yeah.

So, what to do now? Well, I've been using the screenshots to remind me exactly what's been going on in the story, and without them it's hard for me to remember how I got to the point I am when the screenshots next appear. So I can't really paraphrase and pick back up later. On the other hand, I don't want to go back to 23 days earlier so I can pick things back up. I think the only thing I can really do now is to call it quits.

I hate to do that, but I don't have much of an option here. I may decide to roll up a new character and get underway, but I want to fix things up so it's not just more of the same, so there's a real character being fleshed out in the game.

I'll let you know what I'll do soon enough.

EDIT: Well, I was going to pick the blog back up with the other character I mentioned, but among the screenshots I lost were all but two of her first two days in Cyrodiil. Argh * 2.

Instead, I've chosen to go back and pick Sharlassa up from where the blog left off with her. I save my game quite frequently in case of crashes, and I have saves reaching all the way back to Day 1. I wasn't excited about trying to redo things to get to where I was. While I encountered quite a bit of excitement, I didn't want to have to relive all those days and try to get them right.

But Oblivion is a game that's never the same twice. I couldn't bring the game to where I was even if I tried. So why not try to do things different and watch how things play out? So I'll be loading the old save and picking things back up from Day 3. Hopefully an update will come tonight.

Day 2: Wandering

I'm up first thing in the morning, and after a hearty breakfast of venison and cheese, I'm out the door. The sun hasn't risen yet, but I can still get my movin' an' groovin' on.

Yesterday I explored the to the north of Anvil, along the gold cost. Today I'm going southeast. There's a big hole in my map I'll try to fill in today. But my real goal, of course, is to shoot something furry with my bow so I feel like a real man. Err... woman. A real woman.

A quick swim across Anvil's harbor and I'm hiking virgin territory. Well, I think I am, until a giant ruin looms in front of me. Yipe! I'm about to consider going around, considering how close my call at the last abandoned fort was. Hands up, everyone who wants to live today? Right, we're turning around!

But then the adventurous side of me says I should check it out before I run away. Eh, what could it hurt? So I creep up ever so slowly using my kick-ass ninja-hunter moves. It's a good thing, too, because right in the middle of the ruin I find... huh. Nothing but an abandoned chest. I take a look around, but I don't see an owner anywhere. I shrug and pop it open.

Jackpot! A handy little potion that would have cost me a pretty penny is here free for the taking. It also occurs to me that I just looted my first ruin. Okay, I didn't actually go inside, but who cares? Lookit me, ma! I'm an adventurer!

From atop the tower, I watch the sun rise over Anvil, enjoying the peacefulness of the morning. Ah, what a way to start the day!

I begin heading inland more, until I see a figure skulking around a wayshrine. Now, I know by now that the folks I see hanging out at shrines are probably friendly. But she hasn't seen me, so set myself a challenge. See all those flax plants around the shrine?

Yeah, I'm gonna pick all of those without her seeing me. So I do. Using my ninja skillz, I hop behind pillars and tiptoe around ever so carefully, freezing when her eyes fall over my hiding spot. After I pick all the flowers, I slip away. Needless to say...

Still, my awesome stealthiness doesn't hold out long. I spot a deer up ahead, pull back and arrow, and then spend forever trying to take a screenshot so you can see the awesomeness of the kill. The deer, probably hearing all the cursing going on as I try to hold down the mouse button and press the correct key combination to take screenshots, bolts. I chase after him, but I'm no match for his speed.

A little more wandering brings me to an old Ayleid ruin called Garlas Agea. There's some flashes of light as a conjurer starts summoning magical backup. But then he goes running the opposite direction, leaving me to assume he was not after me. I steer clear of the ruin anyway, preferring to pick the St. Jahn's Wort and Lady's Mantle that grows so thick around here. My gathering eventually leads me to a road. I see wht look like a little town ahead, so I approach. It must be a friendly place, because a fellow runs out to greet me. Hey there!

Oof! He starts swinging fists like whole hams at me. I backpedal and whip out my trusty blade. Bring it on!

Oh? He's drunk? Well, that explains a lot. Whatever he's on hasn't addled his wits too much, though, because as soon as I draw blood with my dagger, he hightails it. I consider firing an arrow over his shoulder as a warning, but think better of it. Given my luck hitting animals when I'm trying to, I'd probably stick him right in the back on accident. Hmm... maybe this could be a new hunting strategy? Try to miss and "accidentally" hit? I promise myself I'll try it on the next animal I see.

My woman's intuition tells me the town is actually an inn, and that it is called the Gottshaw Inn. This is confirmed by a large sign and by the proprietor, a genial Bosmer fellow quite willing to sell me lots of food that I can mush together into paste and sell back to him at a profit. I do enough of this that I begin to learn a thing or two:

I don't hang around long, though I make a a note of the inn on my map. This'd be a nice place to spend tonight, I think. No, I head back into the wild, determined to get me some meat for lunch. And determination must make things work my way, because my hunter's sight alerts me to some boar running around nearby. A single well-placed arrow nets me a tasty boar steak. Yummy!

A little bit of herb gathering later and I'm charged by a wolf. He doesn't seem to like it when I slice him with my dagger, though. In protest he falls down dead. After I skin him, I go to continue on my way, only to find the corpses of two more boar. Wow, the little guy must've killed them just before I came. That explains a lot; he was defending his kill from me. Of course, he failed, which means now I get to take the meat. Looks like I'll be eating boar steak for a while!

I also run into another old fort. Considering the profit I made at another fort earlier today, I decide to peek inside this one. One fast paced fight with a marauder later, in which I was too busy fighting for my life to take screenshots, and I've used most of my poisons and potions, lost 3/4 of my health and my nice new armor has been ripped to shreds. Dammit! Yeah, I'm not going to be checking out any more ruins any time soon. Not if I want this blog to last another day, anyway.

So it's back to the road towards the Gottshaw Inn. I get me a room for the night, head upstairs, and find this place, too, stocks their rooms with free clothes. Sweet! I change, and head back downstairs for a night of drinking with the shirtless barflies. Yee-haw!

Day 1, Cont'd: Bandits and Pirates

I pause to give the highwayman's offer some thought. On the one hand, I don't want to die over some money. On the other hand, I've nearly died getting some of that money. And if I can take on axe-wielding skeletons, I can take on criminal furries. I tell him where he can shove his threats and he comes at me with his warhammer.

Ouch! My vision blurs as the iron clonks against my head, but I whip out the trusty dagger I pulled off the mage. I dart in and out, dodging what I can and trying, quite unsuccessfully, to block what I can't. Pretty soon, my health has begun to diminish and I'm regretting not parting with my money. Oh, if only there was a way out!

No sooner do I cry out than an armored legionnaire bursts through the bushes and starts hacking at the bandit. Get 'im!

It was a one-sided battle really. After all, I'd pretty much stabbed him silly with my dagger. I mean, seriously, I did most of the work, right? Right? The legionnaire strides off into the sunset before I can even explain, and I'm left wondering what to do with the bandit. I decide to keep his memory alive by carrying a memento of him.

Yeah, now I'm really looking like a huntress!

I once again start down the road to Anvil, my spirits high. I've challenged skeletons, mages, and bandits, laughed at green people, and bravely run from danger. I stride into Anvil a rich NPC.

First things first. I head to the Mage's Guild to sell off the ingredients I've gathered and potions I've mushed together. I also catch up on local gossip, buy a spell to lighten my pack (I'd had to leave some good loot, like that warhammer, behind), and ask about the strange root I found. Felen Relas tells me he's got no clue, but he points me in the direction of Skingrad.

The sun's setting as I leave the Mage's Guild, and I take the opportunity to slow down and enjoy the warm evening air. I visit the pond with the naked statue, check up on the mad prophet (he's still yelling people's ears off; what a loon!), and wander the docks. Finally I head to the Black Flag Tavern for dinner and a night's rest.

I plop down ten gold coins, get a key from Peg Head Jack, and head upstairs. The accommodations are nicer than I'd expect from a pirate joint. Really, I was expecting the bedsheets to be made of sailcloth or something. I go to put my equipment in the drawers only to find they're full of clothes. Nice ones, too. Hey, how do I look?

Too fancy? Yeah, I think this one's more down to earth.

Satisfied, I head back downstairs to have dinner. I head to the bar first, but the dark elf there keeps trying to get me to buy some skooma. So I sit down with an old sea captain for dinner instead. We laugh away the hours over some Goblin's Butt Wine.

Finally, it's time to turn in. It's been a long first day, after all, and it's catching up to me. I head back upstairs to my room, set my internal alarm clock for 5:00am (the earlier the better, as far as hunting goes), and bed down.

Ahh... It's good to sleep!

Day 1, Cont'd: The Road Home

My wanderings through the wilderness bring me to a lovely little clearing where lots of not-so-lovely green folks are praying to a statue. I use my hunter's cunning to determine they're orcs. One of them, apparently a high priest, uses his own mad skills to determine that I, on the other hand, am not an orc. Woah! I'd better be careful around this one. He tells me not to near the statue, but I decide to go for it anyway. Hunters gotta compete, you know.

Eh... on second thought, I'll leave the guy with the giant sword and an unnatural love for green people alone. You never know when the ominous warnings you get from cultists will turn out to be true.

There's another fellow at the shrine, a wandering mage name Geontene.

He buys my potions that I've been mushing together, so I go through my pack and potionize everything that can be squished in a cup. He also buys the staff I found on that mage who I walloped with my axe, as well as the axe itself. By the end of our trading, I'm sitting pretty on 756 septims.

A bit more walking and I reach the road back to Anvil. The sun is beginning to get low in the sky, and I'm excited to finally be heading back to Anvil, 739 coins richer than I started today.

Up ahead, a khajiit dressed in fur (does that seem wrong to anyone else?) runs toward me. Maybe he's got an urgent message?

Huh?