Oblivion recap, part III
This good deed -- see previous post -- made me realize that I dearly needed to get famous for the right reasons (it grew to the point where I was so infamous guards would basically run to arrest me just because I was taking a stroll through town), and finally went into the Oblivion gate to close it down. I ran, and ran, and dodged, and ran, and healed myself, and dodged some more blows, passed through lovely rooms with lovely names such as "The Blood Feast", healed myself, ran up and up and up the tower, proceeded to get dizzy and lose my way about a million times, running around like a headless chicken and making my ennemies basically stop pursuing me because they knew I'd pass in front of them again at one point or another, finally got to the top and grabbed the goddamn stone, jumped into thin air...and found myself back into the real world. Not the most interesting thing ever, to be honest. And the worst thing? Now lots of new gates are sprouting up all over the country!!!! If I'd known that I'd have let the Klatch inhabitants deal with it on their own much longer, let me tell you.
It's an interesting phenomenon, though, because I've know started to look out for the gates, almost giddy when I find a new one (and disappointed when I reload a saved game and the door has suddenly disappeared because most of them are randomly created), just because...well, I'd rather know where they are (once they're on the map they can't go away) and be done with it, y'know?
The other thing is that I've read that once the main quest is done, you can continue playing forever but all the Oblivion gates close down by themselves, so they're not so threatening anymore. The very funny thing is the way they were saying it, which basically was "Enjoy the gates while you can guys, because they might close down before you can do it yourself!", and I was gaping at the screen, wondering who'd be masochistic enough to relish going into those hellholes where even rocks and plants want you dead.
I also keep trying to climb every mountain I meet to try and see if I can see several gates at once (you can pick out a tree in the distance and walk to it, and see the capital city from basically any high point in the country, so you'd think the scenery would show tower-tall gates of red fire, right? Wrong). Talking about mountains, I managed to climb the tallest one the other day, with my trusty horse, because I was looking for a sanctuary and thought it'd be in the mountain (the map doesn't really show moutains and such). After hours of hard vertical climbing, we arrived, panting, to the top. I looked down, tempted to shout "I'm the king of the world!"...only to see the sanctuary staring back at me from down in the valley, about four meters from where I'd started off.
My horse didn't like me that day. Didn't like me at all. Especially since, because as always I'd forgotten to save the game for a while, we had to go all the way back down, and the climb was so steep my horse fell and got knocked unconscious about half a dozen times. *coughs* I then proceeded to get lost in the forest and stumbled upon the sanctuary after one hour by pure chance.
...
...Now that you're done snickering, let's talk about my noble soul. Because as it happens, I'm a scoundrel with a heart of gold, in case you hadn't noticed it yet. The other day, I walk into a tavern, looking for a guy. Another guy, sitting at the bar, sees me and whispers "Don't say a word and sit down next to me." Cue me getting a little thrill of excitement, thinking I'd stumbled upon a new quest. As it turns out, it was just a guy from the main quest, which I'd forgotten I was supposed to find there. But anyway. We needed a very rare book, and I managed to get into contact with an obscure enemy brotherhood, who told me to meet them in the town sewers, alone.
First of all, the guy tells me he knows how to get there, and I should follow him. Now, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but every single time you follow or escort someone in any roleplaying game, they will die (click to see my point illustrated). Ask anyone. Because whereas I sneak around and avoid the enemies and basically am a basic intelligent human being, they will yell "Cover my back!" and rush at anyone they see in a blind fury, even if said "anyone" happen to be ten pissed off minotaurs with glowing axes.
Hence, inevitably, they die. Or, in the case of this guy, end up falling unconscious every two seconds because they are too important to the main quest to die quite just yet.
So needless to say, I decided to go to the meeting alone. I was supposed to meet them in the sewers under the Talos Quarter (it was in the capital). I, silly beast as I am, went to the Talos Quarter, found the entry to the sewers, and climbed down.
Within half an hour I was hopelessly lost and only managed to go back to the outside world by breaking and entering into somebody's cellar. Yes, my abismal sense of orientation even gets me screwed up in video games. Stop laughing right now, I can hear you from here.
I trudged back to the Inn and followed the guy, who went to the Elven Gardens's sewers, five miles from the rendez-vous point. How was I supposed to know this was the logical route, I ask you!
And so we went down in the sewers. And he started attacking everything in sight. Luckily for me, most of what you encounter in the sewers are mud-crabs and rats, basically as harmful as ticks, so I let him slash away in peace and sneaked on my merry way ahead of him (not much ahead, though, because the bastard would stop and wait for me if I got too far, apparently not realizing I was ahead, and not behind). The problems arose when we reached two Shaman Goblins. Now, Shaman Goblins aren't exactly the kind of guys you want to piss off. They share my philosophy and instead of fighting, will send super-strong headless zombies to do the dirty work. I'll let you imagine how it went, and how much I swore under my breath, looking at the carnage from the top of the nearby stairs, having, of course, sneaked by totally undetected while my partner was getting repeatedly knocked unconscious.
Eventually, I realized he'd never make it, and crept back down, waited for one of the Shaman to get into a side-tunnel, slit his throat, went back and helped my partner kill the other one (good thing is the zombies vanished as soon as he was dead). By this point I was, shall we say, a little miffed.
We finally get to the final door, and there my partner stops me and tells me he knows this kind of procedure and will go get the book, while I can sneak up a flight of stairs and watch the scene from above. I was delighted to no end that one of my possible answers was a very dry "No, I will do it.". He insisted. I insisted back. He caved in.
I go in the room, where there was nothing but a wooden table, a stool, and a burning candle. A guy in a red cloak walks in and starts reciting a speech as if I wasn't even there, totally listening to himself talk. I look up just in time to see two other cloaks walk the upside bridge with burning torches, spot my comrade, and start fighting. Cue my comrade dying (because apparently his time had come) and me clicking on "Load Saved Game", seething.
We switch places, because I'm figuring, my dumbass partner probably wasn't hidden at all. Turns out the torch-guys will end up spotting me if I so much as twitch my finger. I don't like the idea of my partner dying (neither do I like the idea of having to fight three super-strong super-pissed-off cloaks, I admit), so I go back in time once more and, because I'm an intelligent human being, I try another tactic, slipping inside the room behind my partner and waiting for the speech-guy, hidden in the shadows. Speech-guy strolls in, starts his speech. I creep behind him, pick his pockets, get the book. My partner, amazingly enough, realizes I'm clever and without a word exits the room, while speech-guy keeps on talking (told you he didn't need any audience), and there you go, we have the book and no blood has been shed.
And you know what? My partner, who was obviously doomed in the normal course of the game? Didn't even thank me.
See if I ever save anybody's ass again.
It's an interesting phenomenon, though, because I've know started to look out for the gates, almost giddy when I find a new one (and disappointed when I reload a saved game and the door has suddenly disappeared because most of them are randomly created), just because...well, I'd rather know where they are (once they're on the map they can't go away) and be done with it, y'know?
The other thing is that I've read that once the main quest is done, you can continue playing forever but all the Oblivion gates close down by themselves, so they're not so threatening anymore. The very funny thing is the way they were saying it, which basically was "Enjoy the gates while you can guys, because they might close down before you can do it yourself!", and I was gaping at the screen, wondering who'd be masochistic enough to relish going into those hellholes where even rocks and plants want you dead.
I also keep trying to climb every mountain I meet to try and see if I can see several gates at once (you can pick out a tree in the distance and walk to it, and see the capital city from basically any high point in the country, so you'd think the scenery would show tower-tall gates of red fire, right? Wrong). Talking about mountains, I managed to climb the tallest one the other day, with my trusty horse, because I was looking for a sanctuary and thought it'd be in the mountain (the map doesn't really show moutains and such). After hours of hard vertical climbing, we arrived, panting, to the top. I looked down, tempted to shout "I'm the king of the world!"...only to see the sanctuary staring back at me from down in the valley, about four meters from where I'd started off.
My horse didn't like me that day. Didn't like me at all. Especially since, because as always I'd forgotten to save the game for a while, we had to go all the way back down, and the climb was so steep my horse fell and got knocked unconscious about half a dozen times. *coughs* I then proceeded to get lost in the forest and stumbled upon the sanctuary after one hour by pure chance.
...
...Now that you're done snickering, let's talk about my noble soul. Because as it happens, I'm a scoundrel with a heart of gold, in case you hadn't noticed it yet. The other day, I walk into a tavern, looking for a guy. Another guy, sitting at the bar, sees me and whispers "Don't say a word and sit down next to me." Cue me getting a little thrill of excitement, thinking I'd stumbled upon a new quest. As it turns out, it was just a guy from the main quest, which I'd forgotten I was supposed to find there. But anyway. We needed a very rare book, and I managed to get into contact with an obscure enemy brotherhood, who told me to meet them in the town sewers, alone.
First of all, the guy tells me he knows how to get there, and I should follow him. Now, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but every single time you follow or escort someone in any roleplaying game, they will die (click to see my point illustrated). Ask anyone. Because whereas I sneak around and avoid the enemies and basically am a basic intelligent human being, they will yell "Cover my back!" and rush at anyone they see in a blind fury, even if said "anyone" happen to be ten pissed off minotaurs with glowing axes.
Hence, inevitably, they die. Or, in the case of this guy, end up falling unconscious every two seconds because they are too important to the main quest to die quite just yet.
So needless to say, I decided to go to the meeting alone. I was supposed to meet them in the sewers under the Talos Quarter (it was in the capital). I, silly beast as I am, went to the Talos Quarter, found the entry to the sewers, and climbed down.
Within half an hour I was hopelessly lost and only managed to go back to the outside world by breaking and entering into somebody's cellar. Yes, my abismal sense of orientation even gets me screwed up in video games. Stop laughing right now, I can hear you from here.
I trudged back to the Inn and followed the guy, who went to the Elven Gardens's sewers, five miles from the rendez-vous point. How was I supposed to know this was the logical route, I ask you!
And so we went down in the sewers. And he started attacking everything in sight. Luckily for me, most of what you encounter in the sewers are mud-crabs and rats, basically as harmful as ticks, so I let him slash away in peace and sneaked on my merry way ahead of him (not much ahead, though, because the bastard would stop and wait for me if I got too far, apparently not realizing I was ahead, and not behind). The problems arose when we reached two Shaman Goblins. Now, Shaman Goblins aren't exactly the kind of guys you want to piss off. They share my philosophy and instead of fighting, will send super-strong headless zombies to do the dirty work. I'll let you imagine how it went, and how much I swore under my breath, looking at the carnage from the top of the nearby stairs, having, of course, sneaked by totally undetected while my partner was getting repeatedly knocked unconscious.
Eventually, I realized he'd never make it, and crept back down, waited for one of the Shaman to get into a side-tunnel, slit his throat, went back and helped my partner kill the other one (good thing is the zombies vanished as soon as he was dead). By this point I was, shall we say, a little miffed.
We finally get to the final door, and there my partner stops me and tells me he knows this kind of procedure and will go get the book, while I can sneak up a flight of stairs and watch the scene from above. I was delighted to no end that one of my possible answers was a very dry "No, I will do it.". He insisted. I insisted back. He caved in.
I go in the room, where there was nothing but a wooden table, a stool, and a burning candle. A guy in a red cloak walks in and starts reciting a speech as if I wasn't even there, totally listening to himself talk. I look up just in time to see two other cloaks walk the upside bridge with burning torches, spot my comrade, and start fighting. Cue my comrade dying (because apparently his time had come) and me clicking on "Load Saved Game", seething.
We switch places, because I'm figuring, my dumbass partner probably wasn't hidden at all. Turns out the torch-guys will end up spotting me if I so much as twitch my finger. I don't like the idea of my partner dying (neither do I like the idea of having to fight three super-strong super-pissed-off cloaks, I admit), so I go back in time once more and, because I'm an intelligent human being, I try another tactic, slipping inside the room behind my partner and waiting for the speech-guy, hidden in the shadows. Speech-guy strolls in, starts his speech. I creep behind him, pick his pockets, get the book. My partner, amazingly enough, realizes I'm clever and without a word exits the room, while speech-guy keeps on talking (told you he didn't need any audience), and there you go, we have the book and no blood has been shed.
And you know what? My partner, who was obviously doomed in the normal course of the game? Didn't even thank me.
See if I ever save anybody's ass again.