Hour 70: Crystals' Maze

I eventually arrive at the awesomely impressive palace of Sheogorath:

He is a Daedric Prince and this realm exists only by his will. I have never quite got on board with the theology of The Elder Scrolls series and always found the concept of Daedric Princes / Lords to be a bit confusing and depressing. The subject seems to be treated with too much lightheartedness throughout the series without much thought as to how the inhabitants of such a world would really interact with these beings. For example, the blind devotion shown to certain daedra by their followers, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that their master literally doesn't care at all about mortals, is difficult to swallow. The all-powerfulness of the daedra in relation to the completely powerless and doomed mortals is also a bit depressing to contemplate. Nevertheless, I usually don't give this aspect of the world too much thought.

Sheogorath himself is very entertaining to talk to as he appears to be somewhat insane. In fact he is dubbed the 'Madgod' by his loyal (daedric?) guards. He tasks me with restoring a dungeon to full functionality. I do this by clearing it out of Grummites and returning several crystals to their rightful pedestals. As an aside, I think Grummites are a pretty good stand-in for Goblins. They are larger and somehow more sinister, as their ranks such as 'Grummite Torturer' and 'Grummite Painbringer' attest. Here is one of them battling my Faded Wraith:

It's also a welcome relief to be exploring dungeons that have different aesthetics to the last hundred or so I went in! After the dungeon is restored, I learn that it functions as a trap to lure in mortal adventurers, whereupon they are subjected to either deadly assaults or mental trickery - and the dungeon overseer (how long has he been stuck here?!) lets me choose which. I don't think it is explained exactly how the adventurers arrive here. Three adventurers arrive and I end up sending one insane and killing the other two.

Shortly afterwards, some 'Knights of Order' invade the dungeon and attack me. I manage to slay them and report back to Sheogorath.

Hour 69: Strange Door

Okay, so I managed to pick up a copy of the GOTY edition on eBay for 99p, so I've decided to have a go at the Shivering Isles right away.

I head to the strange door in the Niben Bay and successfully traverse between realms, ending up in 'The Fringe'. Mortals gather here before they can enter into the Shivering Isle proper - in order to do so, they must either gain Sheogorath's blessing (go mad?) or defeat the enormous and deadly Gatekeeper, who has keys sewn into his body (?!). I talk to the townsfolk and eventually attack the Gatekeeper at midnight, when he is weakened (I can't be bothered to explain why he is weakened) and with the help of a villager who made arrows out of the bones of another Gatekeeper, which for some reason means they are more deadly to him (?). I kill the Gatekeeper and enter the realm of Mania.

If nothing else, I'm already hooked on this expansion due to the new enemies and locations it provides. Skinned Hounds, Grummites, Gnarls, and horrific insectoid beasts are among my assailants, and the world itself is completely different to that of Cyrodiil, with huge mushroom-trees twisting up towards a multicoloured sky. I climb to the top of a tall hill to see the view:

I'm a bit confused, because I'm sure I entered the realm of Mania, but after traipsing around for a while I have seen nothing but swamps and murky landscapes like the one above. Perhaps the realm of Dementia is even darker. I head towards the city on the other side of the island, New Sheoth, getting into a few scrapes along the way.

Hours 67 - 68: Now You See Me

After researching how to obtain a 100% chameleon outfit, I set about starting the main quest (!). I track down Joffre and then head into the Oblivion gate outside Kvatch. Immediately I am set upon by two horrifying Spider Daedra and have to quaff litres of potions just to stay alive. They have a very nasty lightning spell - a few hits from that and I'm on death's door - as well as the ability to heal themselves. This is the first fight in a long time which presents a real challenge.

I progress through the trippy plane of Oblivion. I'd forgotten how depressing this place is:

The landscape is scorched and full of lava, the sky is red and violent, and the majority of the combat takes place inside foreboding Mordor-esque towers full of horrible fleshy decor and heads on spikes. All of the daedra I come up against present something of a challenge. It's basically essential that I soften them up with a Weakness to Fire spell first before burning them - if I do this, they go down in two or three casts. Actually hitting them with the Weakness spell proves tricky, though, as I only have a ranged version, and many of the daedra are nimble and weave hither and thither. I can handle one daedra with ease, but when two or more come at me the fights get quite intense. It's nice to have some challenging combat, at any rate.

I battle my way to the top of the tallest tower and claim the Sigil Stone which will shut down the Oblivion gate. Oh Mehrunes Dagon, you fool! Had you simply stationed ten Spider Daedra, ten Daedroths, and ten Dremora Kynreeves in the chamber with the Sigil Stone, then neither I nor any of the NPCs in Cyrodiil would have a hope in hell of ever claiming the Sigil Stone. Instead, you stationed one Dremora Kynreeve in the chamber, whom I dispatched with ease.

Before claiming the stone, I save the game, as I want to make sure I get a stone with Chameleon as a passive effect. I then begin the real meat of the mission - endlessly reloading the game and reclaiming the stone after if it doesn't have the desired magical properties. I get very close to giving up as I have to reload the game over 20 times, but eventually the chameleon stone is mine!

I then proceed to 'clone' the stone using the scroll duping glitch. I had no idea this glitch existed and to be honest would probably prefer if it didn't, but now that I know it does, there's no way I'm going to spend hours trying to get my Illusion skill up to 75 when scroll duping will get me to 100% chameleon in under an hour. Sue me. I make several copies of the stone and am able to enchant the following items:

I subsequently enchant some trousers as well so that I can wear the Boots of Spring Heel Jak whilst invisible. It's pretty cool how your character actually appears 'invisible' on-screen if you view in 3rd person. I have never done this before, so my first act is to do what any decent person would do - I kill a town guard. 

The next hour is spent roaming around Cyrodiil, picking on defenseless Ogres and bears, and trying (and failing) to climb Castle Bravil and Castle Anvil with my super-high jumping skills. Now that I've obtained the chameleon suit so quickly (I forgot that you got a Sigil Stone so early on in the main quest) I feel like this is a natural point to stop, for now. I don't have (and have never played) The Shivering Isles, so I will probably order the GOTY edition in the near future and give that a go, but for now, I think I've had my fill of Oblivion. I've finally completed three of the guild questlines, a bunch of side missions, and got the chameleon suit. For now I am quite pleased with Woodley's adventures, and it's a testament to the game that it still feels like there's a lot more to do when I decide to return, even after 68 hours. I'd guess there's another 10+ hours of side-quests, and 10+ hours in The Shivering Isles, so I may get to 100 hours one day.

Hours 65 - 66: Heist

After stealing a few more items, I am granted one final quest by the Gray Fox: The Ultimate Heist. He wants me to steal an Elder Scroll, and my last few missions have been collecting items to help me. Basically, he has arranged an appointment for a respected statesperson to view the Elder Scroll in the Imperial Palace. Obviously that's not me, so I will have to break in, and the Gray Fox knows of a torturous route through the very bowels of the ancient ruins beneath the palace, that will lead me via a magic portal into the heart of the palace.

The route is impressively arduous and epic, and this quest probably takes me longer than any other one so far - a little over two hours, in fact. I begin by traversing the sewers before finding a hidden entrance to 'The Old Way', which leads to a huge Ayleid ruin teeming with undead. There are so many of them, including Wraiths which often Silence me or drain my Endurance so that I can't move, that I decide not to even fight any of them. Instead I make liberal use of my Turn Undead spell, and send them fleeing whenever they come near me.

I encounter a brand new type of enemy within these ruins - Nether Liches. One of them wields a lightning staff which frazzles me within seconds and forces me to reload a couple of times. My Turn Undead spell would not work on the Nether Liches. The dungeon crawl has a couple of puzzles and a lot of locked doors (maddeningly, I only had one lock pick, so I had to keep saving in front of every door in case I broke the lock pick. This added a lot of frustrating time to the mission). Finally, I shot a magical arrow at a... special magic thing? And it opened a magical door into the Imperial Palace...? But where would I end up?

Straight in the guard barracks! I managed to sneak through without waking any of them, and made it to the great library in the centre of the palace, staffed by blind monks like the ones I encountered in the Ancestor Moth temple.

Because they're blind, they don't realise I am not the guest they were expecting. They show me the Elder Scroll and I nab it. I think you are supposed to sneak away at this point, but I just make a run for it with the angry monks in hot pursuit. They are soon joined by hordes of Palace Guards and as I flee back into the sewers four Palace Guards actually follow me through. I manage to slay them all and make it out alive - just about.

Apparently the Boots of Spring Heel Jak are supposed to stop you from dying at one point when you fall from a great height during your escape (this destroys the boots) However I forgot to put them on and I didn't die, though it was close. This means I still have the boots, hooray!

I return to the Gray Fox and he uses the Elder Scroll to lift a curse placed on him by Nocturnal, which erased him from history. He returns to his wife, a Countess, and gives me his gray cowl, making me the de facto leader of the Thieves Guild, as when you wear the cowl it magically makes everyone think you are the Gray Fox. It's... it's a little confusing. But I have finally completed the Thieves Guild! This last quest was insane and awesome, and felt decidedly epic. Just the Fighters Guild left, but I don't think that's one for Woodley - maybe another character, another time. There's still some more I want to do in Oblivion now, though, including making a 100% Chameleon outfit, and exploring a bit more of the world. So it begins!

Hour 64: Springing to Action

My next quest for the Gray Fox requires me to steal some ancient magic boots - the Boots of Spring Heel Jak, a deceased lord. I break into an old mansion and terrify the lord living there into letting me into the decrepit and haunted cellars beneath his house, which lead to a system of underground catacombs bristling with vampires, skeletons, and zombies. I battle my through them with relative ease and reach Jak's tomb, but he (and the boots) are not there. It turns out Jak is still alive - he is the current lord of the manor, who is a vampire, and was just biding his time before (a bit of a silly twist really. I think there are maybe a few too many of these 'twists' in Oblivion). I return to the mansion to confront him, and slay him with ease.

The boots boost my Acrobatics by 50. I also crafted a spell earlier in the game which boosts my Acrobatics by 80 for a few seconds. With the boots and this spell, my Acrobatics is pushed to over 200 in total, and I am able to perform huge leaps, even leaping onto the roofs of some smaller buildings.

I mess around with my new-found agility for a while before determining to head back to the Arcane University to see if I can make an even better spell.

Unfortunately it turns out that the spells I really want to make, such as a better Acrobatics boost, or a Chameleon spell, require higher skill in certain magical disciplines. And currently, my repertoire of three fire-based spells combined with drain life seem to be working a treat anyway (a ranged spell which causes a weakness to fire, a Ranged fire+drain life spell, and a Touch fire+drain life spell).

Hour 63: Moths & Mages

I go to the Imperial City and 'wait', and before long a messenger arrives telling me to meet the Gray Fox! At last! He has a job for me which involves stealing a crystal from some blind monks. Shouldn't be too hard, right? As an aside, I really feel like Bethesda could have gone out of their way a little more to give the Gray Fox a unique voice actor. I mean they did it with Lucien Lachance. I think they must have wasted too much of their budget on Sean Bean and Patrick Stewart, when they could have had some more perfectly fine voice actors scattered throughout the game instead.

So, I head to the Temple of the Ancestor Moths again, that place I stumbled upon a while ago. There are monks there this time, and I manage to convince one of them to show me to some secret catacombs, after casting my Charm spell on him. After that, it's a fairly simple dungeon crawl to get the artefact. I square off against many cool-looking blindfolded kata-wielding monks, but they all fall relatively easily to my spells.

After I return to the Gray Fox, he thanks me and says he may have more work for me but that I'll be required to fence more stolen good first. Fortunately, I have already fenced so much that I fulfill the requirement immediately. I feel this is a broken mechanic which broke my immersion a little - it would have been nice to have to actually complete some more Independent Thievery. My next mission involves stealing a special arrow from the Bravil court wizard. This quest is pretty involved and has me snooping around in the castle before finding a secret passageway to a tower out in the countryside. Part of the passageway is underwater and I have to defeat a Giant Slaughterfish - a pretty scary fight. The next part of the pathway is so well hidden underwater that for the first time so far I have to actually take to Youtube to find out where to go.

After battling my way through the labyrinthine 'Wizard's Grotto' to reach his secluded tower, and slaying numerous mages and Daedra, the wizard, above, who sports a neat set of ebony armour, is uninterested in me and is tinkering with some potions. I steal the arrow from under his nose and leave without so much as a peep from him. I return to the Gray Fox and must wait again for my next mission (the broken fencing mechanic kicks in again).

During this mission I leveled up for the first time in what feels like forever. I think I just haven't been doing much fighting over the last 10 hours, what with all the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild quests. I am now level 18, so it's as good a place as any to take stock and have a look at my stats again:

    

Hour 62: Vexing Lex

My next quest for the Thieves Guild requires me to get rid of the pesky Heironymous Lex once and for all. Not with bloodshed, of course, but with subterfuge. It's an epic quest which takes up a full hour and really showcases the diversity of Oblivion's quests. Unlike some other more recent Bethesda games, many of the quests (especially in the Thieves Guild) have no fighting at all, and are essentially just a story where you have to talk to various characters and go to various locations. There's usually a few different ways of completing them and many people to speak to along the way.

First of all I have to steal a letter intended for the countess of Anvil, which recommends a new guard captain for her. Lex is not in the running, but I need to change that.

I don't think I've been to Castle Anvil before. The courtyard, above, is probably my favourite place in Cyrodiil. Nay, Tamriel even! I especially liked it in the evening but couldn't get a good picture there due to screen glare, so I went back during the daytime to get a picture. The screen glare is still there unfortunately but it's not as bad due to the brighter on-screen colours.

I steal the recommendation letter, which she hasn't seen yet, from the castle, with the help of a blacksmith traitor working for us. I then find a master forger living in an abandoned shack in Anvil, and he agrees to forge the letter for a good bit of gold. He says it will take him a day, and it's little touches like this which really flesh out a lot of Oblivion's quests. Of course, I could just 'wait' 24 hours and go back to him, but the set-up sort of prompts you to go off and do some other things rather than just pressing 'wait' - it feels more natural and a nice jumping-off point to get other matters sorted. I remember I am low on lockpicks so I head off to the Imperial City to find Shady Sam, who sells them. Along the way I speak to the stablehands at the Imperial City stable and they both complain about losing all their horses. However, the stable seems to be fully stocked with horses - an oversight, perhaps? An abandoned side-quest that Bethesda forgot about?

I return to Anvil and get the forged letter, which now highly recommends Lex. This quest has already been more involved and interesting than practically any of the quests in Skyrim, but it goes one further still. The letter must be sealed with the official imperial seal - so I head back to the Imperial City and infiltrate a guards' office there, and use one of their stamps to seal it. I am seen by a guard and chased out, but I find Armande Christophe in the Waterfront District and pay off my fines and bounty.

Finally, I head back to Anvil and deliver the letter to the Countess. She assumes I'm a courier (even though I'M THE ARCHMAGE -_-) and thanks me, asking me to deliver the news to Lex myself. Altogether a fairly involved and satisfying quest, with no combat whatsoever, and a good bit of travelling round between two cities.

After returning to Bravil to inform Skriiva of my success, she tells me I should expect to be contacted by the Gray Fox soon. Awesome!

Hour 61: Thief Is Me

Before I can get any more Thieves Guild missions I have to some more 'independent thievery', and steal at least 400 gold worth of items. I'm already in Cheydinhal, so I take a look around and decide to break into a house called Riverview. It's the early hours of the morning but a servant is up and about. He asks me to leave but I ignore him and rush upstairs - he doesn't follow me! There's a man, presumably the lord of the manor, asleep in bed, but it seems I've struck gold because all around his room, and elsewhere upstairs, there are Skooma bottles strewn everywhere. Each one is worth 75 gold, and I snatch up about ten of them. Before leaving, I break into the basement just to take a look around, only to find filthy bunks full of people in rags! No more Skooma, but they do have this shepherds pie on the table:

I'm pretty sure I haven't seen any shepherds pie anywhere else! Not wanting to outstay my welcome, I head out again, and as I know the Skooma won't actually fetch 75 gold on the black market, I decide I had better steal some more things. I break into an armour shop and steal several helmets, gauntlets and shields, then head to Bravil to sell the stolen wares on to a fence.

My plan worked and I easily had enough to sell to advance with the missions. Skriva tells me that the Gray Fox is looking for a particular rare book, but that the thief who stole it hasn't been seen since he disappeared in Skingrad. I head there and learn that he was caught and imprisoned in the castle dungeons! I learn this from a beggar in Skingrad (beggars serve as the eyes and ears of the Thieves Guild. Hooray for stereotypes...).

The beggar glitch in Oblivion is well known (all the beggars have frail and decrepit 'common' accents when asking for money, but if you ask them about 'Rumours' then they switch to a completely different voice and become very well-spoken), but this instance is particularly hilarious: the beggar says the first half of the information in his normal beggar voice, then switches to the posh 'guard voice' for the entire second half:

This can't be a glitch at all, since those lines of text were only ever going to be said by a beggar, so there would have been no need to record them in a different voice. Therefore it must have been deliberate, so perhaps the other beggar 'glitches' aren't really glitches at all either!

For the record, I would probably prefer it if there were no actual voices, as that way they could add tons more dialogue options and you wouldn't actually lose anything from the game. At least in Oblivion your character doesn't speak, which something that completely ruined Fallout 4 for me. God, why did they make the character speak in Fallout 4?! What a dreadful, wrong-headed, immersion-destroying decision!

I manage to gain access to the castle dungeons by accepting a job delivering food to the prisoners. A great little touch is that after accepting the job, the castle guards start being horrible to me and say things like 'out of the way, slop drudge!'. It turns out the thief was killed by a vampire who feasts on the prisoners (I presume this is connected to the Count in some way) but his cellmate learned of the location of the book, and tells me after I free him.

All in all this was a great quest - it took some time to do, involved a bit of role-playing and some interesting conversations, and Castle Skingrad itself feels huge and realistic to explore. 

Hours 59 - 60: Latter Day Assassins

Over the course of just over an hour, I continued with the Silencer quests from Lucien's dead drops. I completed four more. They were all fairly similar, with instructions to kill a target in a distant city who was usually known to be deadly in one way or another, but varied enough to keep them interesting. One had me swimming through a flooded mine in order to find an Argonian, who was able to attack me underwater, which led to some moments of panic before I was able to find solid ground again and immolate her with my fiery fireballs. Another saw me ascend to the snowy peak of Mount Gnoll in order to slay my quarry:

The dead drop instructions were usually left in tree stumps or hidden boxes, but one was underwater, behind a locked door inside an Ayleid ruin, guarded by a Minotaur. What the hell, Lucien?!

After my fourth victim was slain, Lucien Lachance appeared and informed me I had been killing the wrong targets! Someone had been switching the dead drop instructions for fake ones (it turned out to be some oik who runs scared when I confront him - so how the hell did he get past the Minotaur?!), and I had been gradually eliminating key members of the Black Hand - the organisation that runs the Dark Brotherhood! Well it serves them right, they were all pushovers and no match for my advanced archmagic techniques.

I set about trying to uncover the identity of the traitor but it was too late, as the Black Hand took revenge on Lucien (fortunately suspecting nothing of me, as I was only following orders). They stripped him, hung him upside down and brutally mutilated his body, before killing him, which I then discovered. It was actually a genuinely horrific sight and pretty macabre as I spoke to each of the surviving members of the Black Hand and they took great delight in telling me of the thrill that torturing him had given them. Unfortunately I knew about this twist already (overheard someone mention it years ago). If I had not then I would have been hugely shocked and upset!

The Black Hand fools, who couldn't see the flaws in the imbecilic logic which lead them to conclude that Lucien was the traitor, led me down with them to the Night Mother's shrine, to consult her. They give me some badass Black Hand robes, which of course I try on:

You can see I've also amassed a good bit of gold by this point too. 

In the Night Mother's shrine, the traitor finally reveals himself and I slay him (not before he actually tries to futilely stab the ghost of the Night Mother - what a fool! Then again, I suppose I *do* fight and kill wraiths and ghosts all the time, so I don't know why she was immune to his swipes).

I am then informed that I will work for the Night Mother as a Listener, and gradually rebuild the Cheydinhal Sanctuary which had previously been cleansed in the Purification.

With that, I've reached the end of the Dark Brotherhood questline! Looking back, it did seem epic - 29 quests all-told, far more than the Mages Guild, although they were mostly very straightforward assassinations that didn't take long to complete. There were several twists and I'm glad I've finally completed it now. I did find the very end, where you meet the Night Mother, a bit anti-climactic though.

And that's the best part of another two hours gone. The quests were interspersed with jaunts back into local towns in order to sell my loot (usually glass weapons or enchanted weapons) and a few random fights here and there (I killed another Land Dreugh and a couple of Spriggans). I guess I will have a go at finishing the Thieves Guild next!

Hour 58: The Silencer

I now work for Lucien Lachance as his 'Silencer', receiving assassination quests from dead-drops. I complete three over the course of the next hour.

One of the quests requires me to travel all round Cyrodiil to assassinate a whole family. I return to the Imperial City to track down one of them. Look at the awesome view above. Oblivion's graphics may be over 10 years old now but for me they retain a timeless charm and still manage to take my breath away.

The third quest, 'Broken Vows', proves the most challenging, as I must slay a Khajit 'master of unarmed combat' who is also expecting me. I track him down to his basement, which is kitted out as a training room, and inform him he's about to die. His powerful swipes stagger me, leaving me almost unable to respond before he lands the next blow. With some frantic jumping, dodging, and healing, I manage to eventually land a few Immolates on him and he goes down mercifully quickly.

I intend to plough straight on with Lucien's assassination quests, as I'm eager to see where the plot will take me.

Hours 56 - 57: The Swing of Things

Well, here we are again! It seriously does not feel like three fricking years have gone by since I last played Oblivion. More like 6 months! Reading back over some of my old posts it almost feels like yesterday!

My latest foray into the world of Cyrodiil comes hot on the heels of finishing one of the best games I've ever played: Horizon Zero Dawn. Yes, I recently purchased a PS4 and HZD just came as part of the bundle. I was not prepared for how engrossing and well thought out the world and the gameplay would be. If you haven't played it, I suggest you rethink your life choices.

Unfortunately, Fallout 4, Uncharted 4, and The Witcher 3 all left me underwhelmed and a bit depressed (especially Fallout 4 - stop phoning it in Bethesda!). I considered purchasing Skyrim Special Edition, but the more I thought about it the more I remembered how lifeless and empty Skyrim felt in comparison to Oblivion. I then remembered I was part way through the Dark Brotherhood quest-line with Woodley, so I fired up the old PS3 and dived back into Oblivion.

I spent a good hour or so reacquainting myself with my spells and equipment. I wandered around for a bit and made my way into a cave, where I promptly got my arse handed to me by some powerful undead creatures. It's a testament to the breadth and depth of the game that I took stock afterwards and it all started to come back to me. I'd need to remember what spells I had crafted and in what order to best cast them, I remembered old bits of equipment I had picked up and what they did. I am only just scratching the surface of the gear available in the game, having basically just picked up odds and sods, and I was eager to explore and increase my power. I felt once more like a minnow in the ocean, an underdog eking out an existence in a vast world. This after 55 hours already! What an amazing game.

I think part of it is to do with how the map feature works. In Skyrim, you can view a lot more of the map at once (you might even be able to view all of it? I can't remember) and the shape of the 'world' is more rectangular. In Oblivion, I only have a 'sense' of where I am; I'm north of Anvil, or Cheydinha is to the West, or I'm near the Imperial City. I know the lay of the land and the relative locations of the cities, but I never seem to revisit places other than cities over and over again like I often did in Skyrim.

During my travels I kill a Spriggan, which I think might be my first. Then again it might not, I can't remember. They're pretty cool looking things which can summon bears to fight for them.

After mucking around for a while longer, I complete the quest to assassinate an imperial captain. As I approach it him it turns out he was bathing in the buff so proves an easy target for my poisoned arrow (which I had been given by the Dark Brotherhood).

Unfortunately I am somehow seen committing the murder, and am chased around town by the guards. I accidentally go into the Castle and the guards start brawling with an orc called Mazoga, whom they slay!

I escape and make it back to the Imperial City, whereupon I pay off my bounty to the Thieves Guild. 

My next quest from the Dark Brotherhood comes from Lucien Lachance himself, and he tells me I must kill all of the Dark Brotherhood members as part of a Purification! I am genuinely shocked at this twist and more than a little saddened, as I liked talking to some of the guild members. Nevertheless, I carry out the task, and they prove to be fairly easy pickings for me as I get to grips with my spells again.

Hour 55: Best Served Cold

It suddenly strikes me that in Hour 6 I vowed to murder the foul Orc in Cheydinal who called me a "little fly". In fact I vowed to murder all of the Orcs in that particular Inn, but I said I would murder him most of all. Back then I was weak and ill-prepared for violence of any kind, but now I'm the head of the Mages Guild and an active member of an assassin death-cult, with an inventory full of arcane and deadly artefacts. No longer can the Orc's offensive comment go unpunished! I travel back to Cheydinhal and find the inn - Newlands Lodge. The Orcs aren't there so I wait around, and before long the brutes come sauntering in. Here's the doomed one, insulting me to my face again as he stuffs his own with bread and mead:

I wait until the dead of night and break into his house. He's fast asleep in bed, but unfortunately he shares his room with another Orc. That doesn't stop me, though. I immolate him with magical flames and soon his pitiful life is snuffed out of existence. I turn to his friend to repeat the process, when all of a sudden a city guard bursts in and tries to arrest me!

What the hell? No one saw me break in. How is a guard here so quickly? I 'resist arrest' and run away.   I run out of Cheydinhal and into the bleak night, with the entire city guard in pursuit. A series of strange events then ensues...

Firstly, as I sprint down the path away from Cheydinhal, I see the unicorn walking along the path. I haven't seen this beast in, what 25 hours? Why it's suddenly shown up now I have no idea. The timing couldn't be better, though, and I leap onto its back and gallop away.
Next, as I'm riding along a few minutes later, a Minotaur attacks the unicorn. Not so strange, perhaps - I've come across Minotaurs in the wild before. The difference is, though, all of the random wild Minotaurs I've fought have carried no weapons. The only ones with weapons were the three which guarded the unicorn - the first three I ever fought. And this Minotaur wields a weapon - a hammer - just like they did. That, and the fact that it ignores me and goes straight for the unicorn (which fights back) unsettled me somewhat.
Lastly, I dismount the unicorn further down the road when a lone Imperial Legion soldier tries to attack me. News travels fast, it seems, and now even the military want the Archmage dead for the oh-so-terrible crime of killing that worthless Orc. I easily slay the soldier, then use the Staff of Worms to resurrect him just to see what happens. To my horror, he attacks me once resurrected! What?! What good is the staff if my enemies attack me when I raise them? But Mannimarco didn't attack me when I raised him. How odd.

After slaying the soldier for a second time, I ponder what to do as I gaze upon the silhouetted White-gold Tower looming in the dark distance.

I decide to carry out one more revenge-killing - against the filthy Dunmer Alval Uvani who threatened me in Hour 7, in Bruma. It's also a good excuse to traverse the northern path and get into a few scrapes. Along the way, I encounter and kill a full-size Ogre (possibly my first? I'm not sure), two bandits with expensive weapons, two bears, and a mountain lion. Not a bad tally, and it's with relief that I reach the snowy walls of Bruma itself... only to be greeted by a furious group of Bruma guards swinging their swords at me! How on earth did news of my murder get here so fast? I dodge the guards and head into Bruma anyway, but Alval's nowhere to be found, and upon further research it turns out he actually travels all over Cyrodiil. Curses! I will kill the wretch one day, but it seems he's safe for now. Looks like I'd better track down Armand Christophe in the Imperial City now to see  if I can get my bounty lifted (it's currently 2007 gold).

Hour 54: Renovation

One more old quest, I think. I picked up the quest 'Where Spirits Have Lease' many hours ago, so I might as well give it a go. I fast-travel to Anvil and speak to a nervous-sounding young man who offers to sell me his mansion for 5000 gold. Sounds like a bargain! It's a bit decrepit, but I purchase it.   I take a look around inside after he gives me the key and scarpers - the place is a mess. I have a short nap in the bed, only to be awoken by violent ghosts! I slay the spectral assailants, but something's not right. There's a bad feeling in the house - it's cursed! I find an old journal containing the demented rumblings of a former occupier.

I track down the man who sold me the house (in the Imperial City) and he tells me of his grandfather who dabbled in necromancy and went insane. He agrees to help me lift the curse. We travel back to Anvil and re-enter the house, battling more ghosts and working our way through a seemingly endless cellar area (I think I kill about 8 ghosts all-told). Eventually, we reach a strange symbol on the wall, which he's able to use to open a secret passage. With trepidation, I head inside.

His grandfather is interred inside in a terrifying-looking tomb! His spirit asks me to reunite him with his skeletal hand (which I found elsewhere in the house) so he can be at peace and face judgement for the foul necromantic crimes he committed during his life. However, when I reattach his hand, he is engulfed in magical fire and bursts to life with an evil cackle, resurrected in a glowing mantle of war complete with helm, staff, and billowing cape. He spews powerful bolts of fire at me and kills me within seconds!

This 'lich' gives me more trouble than any enemy I've yet encountered. I have to re-load the game four times since he keeps slaying me. I eventually work out a method of summoning my Faded Wraith to bear the brunt of his spells, then darting in behind him to fire off a few Immolates / Kindlebolts. Even so, he does a lot of damage to me and it's only by quaffing tons of potions that I'm able to stay alive long enough to bring him down.

When he finally dies, the curse is lifted, and the mansion is restored to order. Here's a shot of the outside:

I climbed onto the roof and took a shot of the Main Street of Anvil:

This mission took the best part of an hour, due to my repeated failures at trying to kill the Lich. I spend the remaining part of the hour strolling round Anvil and talking to the mad preacher near my house.

Hour 53: Purple Haze

Whilst in Cheydinhal, I decide it's high time I completed the 'A Brush With Death' quest. I think this was the first quest I received, after exiting the sewers at the start of the game. Everyone in town's always talking about Rythe Lythandas, a missing painter, so I head over to his house and his wife lets me into his studio. I then magically enter one of his paintings, and find them there. He needs help retrieving his magical (Daedra-enchanted) paintbrush, which allows him to paint from inside the canvas, from a thief. I traverse the beautiful dreamlike terrain:

It's filled with 'Painted Trolls', drawn by the thief. Although I'm given some turpentine by Rythe to help slay them, I kill them easily enough without this. It takes 1 Kindlebolt and 2 Immolates to bring them down, or 5 (!) Immolates without Kindlebolt. I retrieve the paintbrush and all is well.

Whilst I'm completing old missions, I may as well finish the 'A Brotherhood Betrayed' quest, which I started back in Hour 8 (Vampire-Hunters and Thieves). I return to Bruma, and to Olav's Tap & Tackle. In Hour 8 I wrote that I was unable to persuade Olav to give me the key or any more information, but I find I already have the key now, so I must have gone back at some point and forgotten to mention it. In any case, the quest involves tracking down the murderous Raynil Dralas, who used 'vampire-hunting' as a ruse in order to kill two of his friends, so that he could claim for his own a magical amulet which they'd discovered. All the detective work in this quest was quite enjoyable, and in the end I tracked down Raynil and enacted swift fiery justice upon him.

Hour 52: Deadly Guest

My next assassination mission for the Dark Brotherhood was unusual. It involved travelling to a mansion in Skingrad and being locked in there with five other guests. They were all under the impression that we're there to look for treasure as part of a mysterious game. What they haven't been told is that I've actually been sent to murder them all. This quest is very content and dialogue-heavy. Since your only task is to kill all the guests, you could do that as soon as you walk in (they're just four civilians and one retired soldier). However, if you like you can spend a long time talking to them about themselves and what they think of the other guests, and even manipulate them into suspecting each other of murder as you secretly kill them one by one.

I opted for a middle-ground. I enjoyed talking to them and seeing what they had to say, but I didn't fully explore all of the possibilities and dialogue they had to offer. Since you can kill them in any order, there must be a lot of different reactions and outcomes you can stumble upon based on who's left at the end. I saved the retired solder (Neville) and the drunkard (Nels the Naughty) til last, then convinced Neville that Nels was the killer all along. He cried out:

He actually shouted the word 'Aaaaaiiiieee!' It was awesome. I let him kill Nels, then I robbed him of his life with a well-aimed spell.

Even though I didn't exhaust all the dialogue, I spent well over half and hour all-told on the quest. I reported back to the Cheydinhal Sanctuary and witnessed a conversation between two of the Dark Brotherhood members in which one of them described slaughtering an orphanage, and how he thought it was funny when the children tried to defend themselves. Talk about grim!

Afterwards, I pottered around Cheydinhal for a bit, admiring some of the scenery. I felt like getting more in-character, so I bought a book from the nearby bookstore (entitled Varieties of Daedra), rented a room the the Cheydinhal Bridge Inn, and purchased some food from the bar (a steak, a sweetroll, and some grapes) I then retired to my room to read the book, which is on the table along with my food:

Hours 50 - 51: Killing Spree

I decided to devote the next two hours to completing as many Dark Brotherhood quests (i.e. assassinations) as possible. I fast-traveled as much as possible,and didn't hang around much. The only exception is that I did spend a bit of time talking to my fellow guild-members about some of the assassinations, as they mostly had something interesting to say.

The first two missions went by smoothly. Each mission requires you to assassinate a target, and there is an extra stipulation for each mission which, if fulfilled, will earn you an extra bonus. I managed to do six missions in the two hours. The first involved killing a pirate captain, and the next staging an 'accidental' killing. I failed to avoid detection and lost the bonus for that one.

Next, I had to break into the Imperial Prison and kill an inmate - and kill no guards. I gained access through the extensive sewer network. My 'drain life 100' spell proved invaluable here, as it allowed me to kill the numerous rats and mudcrabs which infest the sewers with virtually no hassle and no mana expenditure - they die to one cast.

Once I entered the prison, I began to sneak around, but always got seen and attacked by the guards. I reloaded from the prison entrance a few times, until I had the thought of simply sprinting my way past all the guards, using my increased speed and agility to avoid their blows. It worked! I ran all the way through the prison, with about give guards hot on my heels, but they just couldn't keep up with me. I reached the target, cast Immolate, and then before the guards knew what had happened I had jumped back over their heads and was on my way back to the sewers. I soon lost them. This earned me a nice bonus - the Scales of Pitiless Justice, which provide permanent stat boots just by being in my inventory! I also earned an amulet called Cruelty's Heart from the next quest, providing a large boost to Willpower and Strength.

I haven't posted a summary of my character since I was level 6, ten levels ago, so now seems as good a time as any.

Level: 16
Health/magicka/fatigue: 152/330/239
Days passed: 91
Quests completed: 51
Creatures killed: 523
People killed: 219
Places found: 93

I forgot to take a picture of my 'Skills' page, I will try to remember to include that in a future entry. I would like to have more magicka - I am often depleted after a few spells, but overall I am happy with my stats. My personality is drained by the Scaled of Pitiless Justice, but that doesn't mater since I can Charm anyone 100% with a spell. I do remember that my Illusion skill is only at 45 (just 10 higher than when I was level 6) and it needs to be 75, I think, before I can start making use of Paralyze spells. Something I will try to work on.

I completed the next three assassinations with no trouble. I'm enjoying the Dark Brotherhood so far, and it's providing a nice change. It's also given me some much better equipment already than what I got from the Mage's guild. I sell off most of the 'stealth' equipment I gain, though, as since the prison mission I am not really bothering with it - I can rely on my speed, and my healing spells to heal myself if any stray blows connect as my pursuers try in vain to catch me. I can imagine it might be quite fun to do a 'speed run' of Oblivion some time

During one of the missions I paused to observe the night sky, which I'd never really paid attention to before. Behold!

Also, during the fifth quest (The Lonely Wanderer), I encountered the target's girlfriend, who turned out to be by far the most attractive (in fact the only attractive) looking female character in the game!

Hour 49: Hail Sithis!

As the new Archmage, I can instruct several of the lesser mages in the University to follow me (only one at a time, though). That could be fun, and I resolve to try it out some time. Another perk is that I get an enchanted chest which duplicates any ingredient ten times. This could potentially be quite a nice money-spinner - I'll have to investigate how lucrative it could be. For now though, I want to start the Dark Brotherhood quest-line, as I already have a fair bit of gold - over 15,000, I think. Back in hour 35, I murdered a vampire-hunter, and Lucien Lachance paid me a visit. He gave me the Blade of Woe and told me that if I kill a man by the name of Rufio, I will be accepted into their ranks.

Rufio is staying in the aptly-named Inn of Ill Omen. I creep into his unlocked room and murder him in his sleep. I then return to the Imperial City. I decide to walk back and enter it, for the first time, through its main entrance. On my way, I encounter quite a few Minotaurs, and stop to clear out Horn Cave, which also has a few Minotaurs and Wisps. Fighting these raging bulls in the narrow confined of a cave is more scary than outdoors. At one point, I have to escape the wrath of two of the beasts by using my water-walking boots to good effect and floating on an underground lake, where they can't get to me. I then pelt them with soul-sapping fireballs. 

The impressive grand entrance bridge to the Imperial City, with the Wawnet Inn on the left. Behind it, you can see White-gold Tower and the walls of the city itself. This entrance would be even more amazing if there were guards and crowds of people coming and going. If Oblivion has 10x the amount of NPCs that would be a start - I hope this is something which TES: VI is able to rectify, with the enhanced capabilities of the PS4 / Xbox One.

Lucien will visit me when I next rest in a location he deems secure. What better place than my very own Arch Mage's quarters? Sure enough, he visits me and bids me to enter the Dark Brother sanctuary in Cheydinhal. 

I enter the old Abandoned House and reach a forbidding-looking door in the basement:

I give the password and am granted entry. The guild chambers are full of all manner of assassins from every race, and I take the time to speak to all of them; not from a 'completionist urge', but because I really want to; as usual, Oblivion's dialogue and characters are far more engrossing than Skyrim's. 

Hour 48: King of Worms

Only I can now defeat the looming menace of the King of Worms. Perhaps I missed something, but my quest marker tells me exactly where to find him, and I'm not sure how I know this. Shouldn't there be some investigation required? Anyway, I head off to Echo Cave the slay the brute and put and end to his insidious cult of Necromancy. There's a necromancer outside the entrance called Bolor - I slay him and take the key to the entrance from him. Great plan, Wormy - lock the door and place a guard with the key right outside it, waiting to be slain. The Necromancers in the previous mission sealed their door with magic, why didn't you?!

Not only is the cave populated by Necromancers, there are also indigenous undead creatures. Here's a shot of my summoned Faded Wraith doing battle with a skeleton:

The skeleton (I think it's called a Skeleton Hero or possibly Skeleton Guardian) is glowing red because it has been hit by some sort of spell by the Wraith.

Eventually I reach Mannimarco himself (after crossing a cool unique-looking bridge with spiky bony protrusions). He engages me in haughty conversation, telling me he will reanimate me after my death so he can study the source of my power, then attacks me. His onslaught is ferocious but I rush in and cast Immolate a few times. He goes down surprisingly quickly, after a few casts, and his summoned minion/s (not sure if there were more than one, as I was focused on bringing him down) crumble with him.

I was expecting something a little more taxing from the so-called King of Worms. For his insolence, I strip him of his robes and staff. Here I am with his gear:

The Staff of Worms is even cooler looking than the Goblin Totem thing I had a while back. It can reanimate slain opponents for 30 seconds. Hmmm, if only there were a fallen, disgraced corpse lying around for me to reanimate. Oh, wait...

Not so tough now, are you, you insolent fool! Perhaps I'll study the source of your power. Oh that's right... you had none! Bwahahah! Now dance! Dance for your master, you wretch!

The staff looks like it could come in pretty handy in future (provided the reanimated corpse will fight for me, which remains to be seen). I return triumphant to the Arcane University. I have completed the Mages' Guild! I finished the Recommendations after 18 hours, and now, 30 hours later, I have finished all the guild quests. Of course, there were many distractions along the way, and I even started another guild for a while. Overall, I'd say it was a satisfying and epic-feeling experience. There were 7 Recommendation quests and 11 regular quests, most of which were enjoyable, and I felt this was a good amount and provided enough content to feel like a real progression from novice to Arch mage. Could it be improved? Definitely - it is only 11 quests, after all, and I could have completed them much more quickly. I'd love to see multiple sub-plots and maybe a branching quest system which could lead to enhanced replayability - imagine 20+ quests, which branch after 5 and 10 quests, giving you essentially 4 completely different quest-lines to complete, based on your choices. What if I could have joined Mannimarco's side and played another 10 quests trying to bring down the Mages' Guild? That would have been amazing. 

But of course, it's easy to say all that. More content would always be appreciated, but the quest-line I completed was still fun. The only other thing I'd really want from the quests would be some kind of ability progression unlocked by them. Most of the quests did not require me to even be a mage at all, and whatever power increase I gained after unlocking spell-making and enchanting after the Recommendation quests was really all my own doing. I would have liked some stat bonuses or better equipment, so that a mage who has done all the Mages Guild quests is really more powerful than a mage who hasn't.

I decide to head to the Arena and partake of a fight. I am given a choice of opponents - I choose the hardest set, two Ogres and a Land Dreugh. They go down easily. I've never seen a Land Dreugh in the wild - what the hell are they?

It looks like something from The Predator. It's larger than an Ogre and pretty terrifying-looking. I really feel Oblivion could do with some massive creatures. Apart from Mehrunes Dagon at the end of the main quest, the biggest things (I think) are Minotaurs, followed by these crab-things and then probably Ogres. Compare this to Dark Souls, which boasts numerous gigantic beasts. Even Skyrim only has Giants and Mammoths as large beasts, and they're not that big either.

Hours 46 - 47: Rising Through the Ranks

I must next retrieve the Necromancers Amulet, which has been stolen by guild members. Upon tracking them to a cave, I speak with their leader, Caranya, who reveals that she is in league with Mannimarco. I kill her with relative ease. I find a book called The Mystery of Princess Talara, Part IV, and read it. It's quite long, in face - about 20 pages or so if I recall correctly. I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled for the other parts of the book. I think having books like this (and in Oblivion, there are well over 200 of them!) adds so much to the game. You can quite easily go through the entire game without reading a book, but knowing they're there to peruse from time to time creates a lot of immersion. Certainly they're not the most astounding pieces of literature, but it's a nice touch all the same.

I then fight my way back out of the cave with the Amulet. The mages / necromancers fall to one, or sometimes two, casts of my 'Immolate' spell. I don't have much need of my Faded Wraith. 

Upon my return, I am promoted to Master Wizard - the highest rank! Unfortunately, I still get this response when talking to the other wizards who bustle past me in the Arcane University (apologies for the massive amount of screen-glare):

It's a little annoying. There's so much depth and so many nice touches in Oblivion that it feels churlish to complain, but when it comes to things like this I'd be so much happier if the responses of NPCs were multi-layered, and they responded to you differently as you rose through the ranks. It's similar in Skyrim, where you can, for example, be a high-ranking member in the Fighters' Guild, but still be sneered and and spoken to like a new-hire ("so you're the newest member, huh? So what do you do, bring the mead?" or something like that). It ruins the immersion a little. Bethesda giveth, and Bethesda taketh away.

As Master Wizard, I am sent on a dangerous assignment - to retrieve an enormous black soul gem from the clutches of the Necromancer cult. If Mannimarco gets his hands on it, all hope is lost. This mission is quite nice as it adds in something a bit different - I meet with three fellow mages and we lie in wait to ambush the group of Necromancers. Based on their preference for magic or combat, I have to decide whether they should wait near to the entrance (closer to the fray) or hang back. Errr... not exactly a complex tactical decision, but it's something different, at least.

After we defeat the first group of Necromancers, however, I am shocked that my comrades instruct me to enter the Necromancer's hideout to find the gem - and then don't come with me! Thanks a lot!? I battle my way through without much trouble (picking up a lot of potions on the way - I love Necromancers) and finally encounter Falcar - the ex-head of the Cheydinhal Mages Guild, who tried to have me drowned during my initiation! He's a pushover, though, and I nab the soul gem.

I return the gem to Archmage Traven, who explains that it will protect me against Mannimarco's influence. He then kills himself and his soul is transferred into the gem! Noooo!

I strip him of his robes to add them to my collection. Since, as per Traven's final instructions, I am Archmage now (!) I want to look the part. Unfortunately, his robes aren't enchanted or anything. He looks a bit too ripped for an old wizard, don't you think? He has a six-pack! Then again, I suppose wizards would just use alteration on themselves.

I settle into my new quarters. Traven's room is nice, with it's own altar of spellmaking and enchanting, a large double bed, and a teleporter to reach the mages' lobby. I then flounce around town for a bit - many of the mages now recognise me and call me Archmage (hooray!) and sell off my wares for a pretty penny, before readying myself for the final battle against Mannimarco - 'The King of Worms' (gross!)...

Hour 45: The Bloodworm Helm

I return to Traven, and he asks me to return two artefacts which were stolen by guild members in their panic to find ways to combat Mannimarco. The first of these is the Bloodworm Helm (I think Lady GaGa wore one of these at her last show...). I head off to an abandoned fortress in a distant, gloomy corner of the map. I have to footslog a long way to get there, and the terrain is murky and filled with large boulders:

These boulders prove to be a great help, though. I encounter my first Spriggan, but with my increased Acrobatics I am able to jump atop many of the boulders and stay out of close combat. The journey to the fortress actually takes quite a while as I encounter two Spriggans, a Troll, and an enraged 'Hedge Wizard' (?).

The fortress is overrun with Necromancers. Strangely, there also seems to have been a Daedra incursion, and many of the Necromancers are being attacked by Flame Atronachs and Clannfear demons. The Necromancers are a piece of cake, but the Daedra less so. Eventually I take to my heels with a mob of Daedra in pursuit. I arrive at the end of the fortress into a large 'pit' area. To my relief, I'm able to jump out of the pit, whilst the Daedra remain stuck. Two Clannfear, two Atronachs, and a Dremora, no less! It's a simple matter then of summoning my Faded Wraith into the pit a few times, who makes short work of them.

I return the Bloodworm Helm to Traven. I picked up a lot of loot from the fortress, including potions, and sell the gear for a few thousand. One item I won't be parting with, however, are the Water-walking boots I stole from the corpse of one of the Necromancers. Here I am, floating on the surface of a lake and enjoying the view: