http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding Winding my way through Vvardenfell... en apathetic apathetic Tue, 12 Aug 2008 22:22:00 +0200 daily 1 I had two more sanguine items to collect.  I wasted time travelling to a remote island thinking the shrine of Ebernanit was there but I'd misread the numbers on a map, so I travelled south again over water, being attacked by slaughterfish and dreughs.  Finally found Ebernanit and killed the carrier of the sanguine item(s).  There was only one sanguine item left to get - from within the ghostfence.  Sigh.  I headed to ghostgate and went through and paused before moving forward killing the deformed diseased things ahead of me.  Most of them could be killed with one swipe of my two-handed sword.  Headed past the dwemer ruin and across the swing bridge and to my right was Ura..kul? (however you spell/pronounce it).  Killed the baddies without too much trouble but those daedric weapons and armour are too heavy for me to carry.  The first person I killed within the shrine was the very person who had the last sanguine item so that was quick.  Ran back to ghostgate because I couldn't seem to... Tue, 12 Aug 2008 22:22:00 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Grandmaster/22/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Grandmaster/22/ The guy at the temple in Vivec didn't have any more quests for me so I headed to Ald'ruhn.  I had to shut down the sixth house at Hassour.  I was glad I was headed south instead of north.  I do hate the Ghostgate region.  After killing a couple of creatures in the valley I turned and saw a door to a cave.  I thought it was a bandit cave but no, it was Hassour.  Initially I turned right and killed a couple of high-ranking beasties and then headed through but got killed.  When I re-loaded, I turned left instead and knocked off a couple of Ash creatures (can never remember their names) then snuck around some lava pools to find the head guy, Fovon.  He wasn't difficult to get rid of.  I avoided the door with spooky whisperings behind it, crept past the big elephant-looking creature and headed back to the stronghold near Balmora.  Mission accomplished, it seems.  The temple guy at Ald'ruhn had no more quests for me but promoted me to disciple.  He suggested I go to Ghostgate or... Sun, 10 Aug 2008 01:27:00 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Temple-quest/21/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Temple-quest/21/ Last year I had to give up playing Morrowind as I had some serious study to do.  A year later I finished that study and it's taken another four months to get back into playing.  What got me onto it again were others playing Oblivion and a book I read which reminded me of the world of Vvardenfell.  I have been trying to play Oblivion but I find it more difficult than Morrowind and I'm HOPELESS at lockpicking.  I can't count the number of lockpicks I've broken.  Anyway... When I last played, Zarn was head of the Mage Guild, the Thieves Guild, the Fighter's Guild, the house of Hlaalu but, thanks to winning a duel, she's also just become Knight of the Imperial Dragon.  It's taking me a while to get back into it and remember where I was and how to do anything.  Currently I'm seeking some more Sanguine objects.  I've obtained about 8 or so out of 26 (not counting the one that Eno in the Morag Tong has).  I'm hesitant to get back into the main... Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:02:00 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Surprise/20/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Surprise/20/   I made it to the end of the Mages Guild quests - I am now Arch-Mage!  So, onward to others.  A few temple quests and currently Imperial quests.  I just have to fight a duel with the head of the Imperial legion and I'm... whatever the head of the Imperial legion is called. There are quite a few quests that I can't do until I've gone forward on the main quest...  The last Temple quest I was given is quite difficult apparently, so I may leave that until later.  Zarn is Level 27 with a reputation of 36. Here she is in one of her bases in Ald'ruhn. Oh yes!  Moving day!  My stronghold was finished and I moved all my stuff from the little house in Balmora to the stronghold.  I have so many weapons I have to put some on the bedroom table.  There isn't that much more room really.  But what is useful is the storeroom downstairs.  I haven't moved any stuff from any of Zarn's other home bases - still lots more, but they... Sat, 10 Mar 2007 23:41:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Yes/19/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Yes/19/ First I had to find a trainer who could level me up in Destruction enough to advance.  So I got to Warlock and did a couple of quests for that weird khajiit in Balmora.  They weren't too easy.  I had to get a staff from Mt Kand and the fights were quite difficult.  I had no health potions so had to rely on the amulets, rings and belts I had to restore health.  At one stage I had to retreat, go outside, and rest a while before tackling the next lot of attackers.  Finally I got the staff.  It was the same for the warlock ring.  Not at all easy.  I'm now a wizard and have to go to a Dagoth lair to recover the next item.  It looks more and more likely that I'll have to do the main quest very soon. No pics.  Too busy trying to stay alive. Tue, 06 Mar 2007 08:32:11 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Mages-guild/18/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Mages-guild/18/ With so many quests to do, you forget what you got up to and whether you reported back.  Checking back on my in-game journal I'd discovered that I hadn't reported back for a Thieves Guild quest I'd done on the way to somewhere else.  Did so, and the next quest had also been completed as I'd killed the guys in question while doing another quest!  (It all gets quite confusing.)  So Zarn is now Master Thief.  That just leaves the main storyline, Mages, Temple and Imperial.  The third and final phase of my Stronghold has begun after killing off some bandits nearby with the help of a mercenary.  I wasn't even sure that quest was completed as the mercenary kept following me without a word, still wanting to fight, so I left him guarding my stronghold. I need to level up on some skills to get promoted. Until promotion there are some quests I can't do yet.  It was a particularly difficult battle to assassinate a person for the Morag Tong, as everyone around... Sat, 03 Mar 2007 21:54:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Onward/17/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Onward/17/ I haven't updated here in a while.  I've been posting pics of my Morrowind game in Myspace instead and forgot all about this blog!  Oh well. Zarn has progressed well.  I've concentrated on her and am attempting to complete quests for most guilds, etc before going further with the main storyline.  I don't want to get corprus and have the hassle of finding a cure, etc, while there is still so much to do elsewhere.  So, Zarn is now Guildmaster of the Fighter's Guild and has just been made Grandmaster of House Hlaalu.  Yippee!  The stronghold was being built but I haven't been back to see it completed.  Here it is on my first visit:   During her travels and quests, Zarn has battled some strange creatures, including the following two:     The "Hunger"     The "winged twilight" On the way she's come across some beautiful sights:     Ebonheart dragon statue  ... Sat, 03 Mar 2007 00:20:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Mastering/16/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Mastering/16/ Well I headed off to a daedric ruin just north of Hla Oad to rescue a man this time.  I made sure not to kill the object of my rescue. I had been past this particular ruin before and been attacked by a golden saint and paralysed so it was with some trepidation that I went there again.  However, no paralysis and I was able to kill her/him and steal the pretty shield and the cool looking ebony sword. I found a little side door and went inside - quite impressive. Killed off the baddies with the help of lots of health potions and found the guy to rescue.  He said he could find his own way out which was fine.  Gathered the goodies together and teleported out of there! More loot to sell.  Great stuff.  I really need that stronghold. Fri, 09 Feb 2007 03:38:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Another-rescue-another-daedric-ruin/15/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Another-rescue-another-daedric-ruin/15/ Aha!  I can't seem to upload photos but I can use a URL - so I took a couple of screenshots at last and here they be. After mistakenly killing the object of my previous quest, then killing some breeding netches, I then headed to Dagon Fel to kill a necromancer.  Here he is dead in his room of evil - corpses and books about corpse preparation.  I nabbed all his loot before taking the pic.  There he is dead on the floor (before I stripped him of any valuables). After doing the deed and taking anything worth selling, I returned to the village of Dagon Fel and informed the locals I'd done away with their evil neighbour and they were happy.  Then a guard went running off wildly.  I turned and found he was attacking a nasty giant bug called a shalk... Now I've remembered to take screenshots and figured out how to display them, I can take more.  The colour and exposure aren't quite right because it's very dark when I save it and I have to adjust... Wed, 07 Feb 2007 21:30:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Screenshots/14/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Screenshots/14/ Sometimes the game crashes before I've saved, and sometimes I save at the wrong point - after I've made a fatal error! I had a quest to rescue some kidnapped damsel and found my way to the cave in which she was held.  I killed off the baddies as they attacked me, then thought, ah this is the time to practise my marksmanship and pulled out my throwing stars.  I aimed one at the back of what I thought was a bandit and she came rushing towards me, sword drawn.  I killed her then went off in search of the damsel.  I'd killed everyone and found no more tunnels to explore and thought, well where the hell is she?  I went back up and checked the bodies.  Oops.  The woman I cleverly aimed my throwing stars at, was the very woman I was supposed to have rescued.  Oh dear.  It was too late to go back - too late to reload because I saved the game after the fighting in preparation for some more fighting... Heh. Needless to say the questgiver was not too happy that she was... Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:07:22 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Oops/13/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Oops/13/ Still with Zarn until things get really difficult.  But I figure she's doing well, so will keep going.  I've now done quite a few assassinations, but the latest two are more difficult.  So instead, turned back to a Mage quest I hadn't yet done and headed over to Hla Oad.  Before doing so, I discovered that there was a bandit cave near Vivec, so I thought some killing practice would be in order.  Quite a small cave and not a great deal of loot to be had, but enough to keep me happy and Zarn's pretty nifty with a short blade now.  Takes much longer to kill with any other weapon but she needs to practise - can try them out on rats and nix hounds. Anyway, after heading over to Caldera again to sell some extra loot, I headed over to Hla Oad.  I was looking for Shal but came across some Daedric ruin and I think a golden saint started attacking me, paralysing me.  I hadn't come here for that so reloaded and headed further north and eventually found Shal.  But I'm... Mon, 05 Feb 2007 21:29:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Bandit-caves/12/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Bandit-caves/12/ Since I can't seem to upload pics, I found this lovely German site of pictures of the architecture, landscape and characters of Morrowind here: home.arcor.de/.../html/architektur.html If you click on Grosse Bilder it gives larger versions.  Very pretty.  It's like the person's gone on a tour and taken touristy pictures.  Very cool!  I haven't been to Solstheim yet - looks good. Thu, 01 Feb 2007 21:49:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Piccies/11/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Piccies/11/ It had to come didn't it.  The joy of killing and looting.  Zarn joined the Assassin's guild - the Morag Tong and has done a couple of assassinations already.  So much easier when you can do it legally. There was someone in the Morag Tong headquarters who drew me aside and asked me to poison some guy in Balmora.  I agreed, a little hesitantly.  Perhaps he had a personal vendetta or something.  Anyway it wasn't official.  I journeyed to Balmora and discovered that my potential victim's house is the one I've taken over as my storage facility for all my goodies!  Apparently the legal owner of this house just wanders around outside!  I just thought it was some empty (but locked) house!  Well, at least he hasn't touched any of my treasures.  Actually I wonder if it's a 'she'.  With some of the names you can't tell and there is often some weird woman hanging around those parts.  I'll feel more at ease if the person is dead anyway, even though... Wed, 31 Jan 2007 20:38:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Assassin/10/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Assassin/10/ Well, Zarn's come a long way.  Killing seems easier or maybe she's just better skilled.  It doesn't take nearly as long to kill someone or something now. So, as Zarn, I did a few errands for Eyris at the Fighter's Guild.  On the way to killing an Orc I found an eggmine and it was easy enough to kill the residents and gather up some of their treasure.  This is getting easier!  The Orc was in the same region as the previous ghastly volcanic area and that frost atronach was still hovering around.  I crept past the monster and went in the ruins.  The first Orc I saw was the one I was supposed to kill - no problemo. Next errand was to kill a smugglers gang in a cave just south of Pelegiad.  Lots of them but thankfully they didn't attack me more than two at a time.  Noticed a few crates of loot including some dwarven weapons worth a bit.  Went on killing as I explored the cave.  Must have been 6 of them before I got to the leader.  More loot.  It took me... Sun, 28 Jan 2007 11:07:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Killing-and-looting/9/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Killing-and-looting/9/ Well, I finally got Zarn to the ghostgate and went to the shrine.  However, I took a wrong turn on the way back and was attacked by several creatures.  And I hadn't saved. So second attempt she went armed with more potions and mark and recall spells.  Bugger this climbing over mountains to be attacked by 5 cliff racers every time.  She's too scared to explore Ghostgate further but got to the shrine and used a divine intervention spell to get the fuck outta there and save.  Whew.  Now she can do other temple quests. Fueled on by the achievement, she now turned her attention to the people in Sulipund and Punabi.  A previous attempt had seen Zarn (or was it Selenius?) killed by the elf.  This time it was a piece of cake to persuade her to cough up the 2000 and just as easy to persuade the other dude to join the guild.  Another divine intervention spell got her safely home.  (On the way there she was chased by a Frost Atronach? and wasn't hanging around to let him get at... Wed, 24 Jan 2007 21:08:53 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Volcanic-regions/8/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Volcanic-regions/8/ Well, the Nord, Selenius, got quite far with the Blades - at least up to trying to prove he's the Nevarine.  However, it took a while for him to find the Burial chamber for a quest to get the ancestral sword (or something).  After eventually finding the entrance and making his slow way to the right chamber, he couldn't jump his way past a pool.  Evidently he needs better jumping skills before completing this quest.  It was a long hard slog back to civilisation to rest and try to improve his skills. Couldn't even get Zarn to another volcanic location without being attacked by numerous diseased beasts.  So, she went to Mournhold to find out about the assassins. Mournhold is a weird place - a fairly small city with most of the action, apparently, in the sewers.  Zarn did a couple of little quests, but they were strangely dissatisfying and some were difficult.  Even at Level 13, Zarn couldn't kill or fight satisfactorily.  So, she went back 'home' to... Sun, 21 Jan 2007 07:58:26 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Difficulties/7/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Difficulties/7/ Considering Selenius' generally poor performance, I thought I'd concentrate on Zarn in the short time I have left. Zarn had a quest to obtain pieces of ebony, so I took her to the abandoned ebony mine where Selenius only had to deal with a couple of rats.  Zarn, on the other hand had other more powerful creatures to deal with including a powerful frost giant thing.  Too powerful for Zarn, so we gave up that idea even when I tried a few times and there was always too much to fight. So to get the ebony I sneaked some from the Caldera ebony mine, which was a piece of cake.  Mission accomplished.  I continued on the thieving quests with Gentleman Jim who promoted me to captain.  I did a few of his quests until the last one which seemed a bit tricky, so I did the good robber quests with the gloves (Bal M something).  The last one of those seems a bit tricky too (I always put off the tricky quests).  I think I only have tricky quests left, so I'll have to choose the... Fri, 12 Jan 2007 09:34:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Thievery/6/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Thievery/6/ Well, I took Selenius on some little adventures to give him some more experience.  Tried to do the rat infestation job in Vivec but the enchanter didn't even want to talk to him to tell him about it!  As Selenius, I'm not popular at all -  have to work on those personality skills.  So, I thought, bugger you, I'll steal your soul gem and that expensive glass dagger anyway.  Journeyed to Hla Oad and found quite a cave under Fatleg's Drop.  I escorted a slave to Balmora but the guy I was supposed to deliver it to was behind a locked door in his house.  I wonder if the door would be locked for Zarn.  Anyway, wasn't too high a level and good practice for Selenius and the minute I got in the door the guy starts attacking - apparently he was trying to kill the slave.  Well I killed him off and was thanked by the slave and then escorted him/her (never know which) to Ebonheart.  Another little quest happened to be in Ebonheart, but my unpopularity didn't trigger that one... Thu, 11 Jan 2007 22:51:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Little-adventures/5/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Little-adventures/5/ Ok, so I'm back already.  I did have a break and some contact with real people, but the trouble with Morrowind is that you're thinking about it when you're not playing, and planning your next strategy. So I returned to Zarn and thought I'd try a little side quest in Vivec - getting rid of an infestation of rats.  The reward for doing so was a rare grand soul gem so yeah - easy stuff.  I started killing the rats in the sewers and realised I had no walk-on-water potion to reach the others (stupidly).  So I went up to look for potions and ended up in the Mages Guild because the Telvannis are so damned unfriendly.  It was then, as I was walking away from one of the mages, that I discovered Sirilonwe's room.  I had hunted high and low for her and her room for another quest, and missed the turnoff every time!  I couldn't believe how dumb I was.  So I was sidetracked into completing the mission of 'borrowing' her book, locked away in a chest.  Easy, except for... Wed, 10 Jan 2007 10:52:55 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Back-so-soon/4/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/Back-so-soon/4/ Well, I concentrated on Zarn today, as poor old Selenius really needs to improve his security and sneak skills if he's going to complete any quests.  Before concentrating on Zarn, I tried taking Selenius to Vivec to contact Gentleman Jim Stacey for some thieving quests.  However, a high lock level prevented him from even doing that and, using Zarn who could get through the door, discovered he's not available for quests until you complete other thieving quests first. First idea was to use Zarn's lockpicking talents to explore the locked buildings in Seyda Neen, loot a few items, then sell them off.  After selling as much as I could find of value, I picked the lock on the trader's warehouse and stole a few of his weapons for sale in another town (obviously).  I took these to Balmora and sold them off.  Ra'Virr, the trader of smuggled and illegal items, is even less friendly to Zarn (despite them being the same race), so I figured I'd try the suggestion of killing him... Wed, 10 Jan 2007 03:46:00 +0100 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/A-hard-day-s-work/3/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/Morrowinding/A-hard-day-s-work/3/