It's early 2012 and I'm playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Why? Because I (finally) can. Join me on my path to glory and the stabilization of the status quo in almost-Tolkien-land.
I haven't gotten far away
from the city, in fact, it's right on the other side of the water,
when a bandit fires arrows at me from some interesting-looking ruins.
I bring up the map and notice that this is a named place –
interesting. Martor must get off his horse and charge the bandit. The
place is half in the water, features a big statue that is strangely
intact in comparison with the rest of the compound. By the dead
bandit there are some bottles of dark beer sending a smile on Martors
lips. Then I realize that there are stairs with an entrance to some
underground dungeon. Adventure here I come! Maybe there is some of
that mysterious side-quest-wine down there. Martor chugs down three
of his newly looted beers and enters the dungeon.
The dungeon is, as it
turns out, some ancient temple/grave in a rather good shape compared
to the other dungeon right next to the capital. It is also infested
with the undead. Fighting them off is not as hard as it could be,
zombies are rather slow and skeletons firing arrows at me aren't all
that resistant against getting pummeled to bits. Fearless as Martor
is, we clear and explore room after room of interesting architecture
lit by magic crystals, some of which have apparently fallen down from
their sockets to be looted. I'm sure they're worth something and soon
reach Martors carrying capacity. Annoyed I dump some of the less
valuable stuff looted from broken skeletons and dead bandits.
Martor practices sneaking
around a lot too, the zombies and skeletons don't have too much
sight-range so it is a good place to do this. The place is an ancient
complex of chambers with ancient but still working mechanisms. It's
interesting how this always works out, isn't it? Stonework crumbles
but the mysterious mechanics capable of opening doors at the switch
of a lever are all in working condition. Most of the chests here, if
they can be called that, are locked and I sadly lack the picks to
open them. I guess the wine has to wait for a later time if ever.
Every couple of fights I have Martor wait for his magical energy to
recover in order to use my healing-spell. Then I come to a strange
chamber that my gamer-instinct screams “BOSSFIGHT!” at.
A misty apparition
hovers towards Martor, slinging some weird ball-lightning spell. The
UI informs me that
this is, in fact, a ghost. My arrows pass through it and so does my
sword. This doesn't really surprise me (and for once I don't panic)
as I used to play Warhammer: You need a magic weapon to hurt ghosts.
Sadly, I carry no such thing BUT I have something the ghost is going
to dislike: My old fireball spell, which I last used in that
arena-fight and have forgotten about ever since. After having
acquired a bow it hasn't seen much use but now it's the way to go. I
retreat through the labyrinth, fleeing from the ghost and hurling
fireballs at it whenever my magic has regenerated enough to do so.
It's a long-winded, tedious fight.
After
backing out of the ruins a couple of times, waiting for my magical
strength to return, then going back in to hurl some more mystical
fire at my non-corporeal foe, the ghost is finally defeated. It's
looting-time and Martor goes through the cleansed dungeon and gather
all he can carry. It's a bit of a bummer that I have to leave a lot
of lesser loot behind because I can't carry any more and the
difference between carrying within capacity and carrying a pound more
is that between full mobility and total immobility so I leave some
bows and other weapons behind. I do gather up some of the broken
light-crystals that litter and light the place and I hope that the
alchemists-store will give me a good price for those. As I am now
fully loaded with stuff that is in no way relevant to adventuring, I
travel back to the city once more, selling almost all of it.
As
I leave the shop it is getting dark again. Too lazy to search for a
guest-house to spend the night in but also unwilling to travel on at
night, I have Martor set up camp right in the middle of the busy
urban street and rest for eight hours. At this point I've given up on
some of the role-playing aspects of the game such as always sleeping
in beds or not fast-traveling. I intend to get on the road to
Skingrad again tomorrow morning.
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