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 hang out in the entrance of the
fort/underground dungeon. Looking at the deeper parts of the place, I
spot a heavily armed man, a woman with a bow and a large dog. I don't
feel like murdering what , in this childless world, seems to be the
closest thing to a little family of outlaws I've yet to see. Martor
isn't here for a fight so I sneak into other tunnels around. Killing
a couple of rats, I spend most of the day just sneaking around. Then
it's night again, I can get out and get to the last bit of this
quest.
The place where the quest has marked
the Redwater Slough on my map, where that mighty vampire whose ashes
I need is supposed to dwell, is further south than I have ever
traveled. I fast-travel to the shrine where I drew blood from that
Argonian, then I move onwards on horseback, seeking that cave. It
does take a while to ride there so I have already given up the
fantasy of returning to Melisande during this night. Finding the
cave, I check my equipment. I have my steel claymore, in a decent
state of sharpness. I have my katana but lacking it's best buddy, the
leather shield, the weapon is of limited use to me, especially as it
is rather used by this point. I have the magic mace I bought in case
I have to fight ghosts again. As it does deal extra fire-damage, I
consider it a possible weapon for my fight with Hindaril and assign
it to a quick-draw-slot. I also ready the bow with steel arrows.
Maybe I'll get a sneak-attack on someone. I enter the vampire-lair,
claymore in hand.
The entrance cave is quite large, when
it comes to natural caves. There is a pit in the center, with a stone
coffin and some rocks. There are several beams of wood protruding
from the pit walls, on which there are coffins. In the middle of the
pit there is a stone sarcophagus and there is a corpse tied to one of
the rocks with bent metal girders. Creeped out by the corpse, I fire
an arrow at it. Then I sneak closer, retrieving the arrow. The corpse
isn't moving, luckily. The sarcophagus is not to be interacted with,
which is somewhat a relief as I was afraid that a vampire might rise
from it. There is a tunnel leading away from the central pit and I
follow it. It is half-flooded a bit in, where it ends in a
T-intersection. As I know from my wiki, I have to go right in order
to get a key for the area to the left. While I'm contemplating this,
I hear a voice from the left, asking who's there, while, from the
tunnel to the right, a ghost appears and attacks.
It doesn't take long to get over my
initial fright of fighting another noncorporeal enemy. I have just
checked my equipment and reminded myself of the magic weapon I have
so I switch to the mace and pummel the ghost into a puddle of
ectoplasm. It works! Sadly, the noise has attracted the attention of
the vampire who was inquiring about who was there earlier. He's seen
me and, to my chagrin, instead of attacking me and running into my
sword, starts summoning zombies. The first zombie gets an arrow by
me, then I draw my claymore and start fighting them. After four or
five zombies, I realize that he isn't going to stop summoning them. I
have to attack. I hack my way through another zombie, get hit by a
fireball the vampire caster throws at me, then I reach him and
quickly cut him down. I turn around and go towards the area where I
know the key is supposed to be.
I have to dive through some water to
get to that cave, which even if I wasn't a vampire who doesn't need
to breathe wouldn't be a problem as I have a necklace that keeps me
alive under water. There are two creepy looking fish down here, which
I kill. The cave in which I surface contains a passageway to another
cave, where I think I spy a hung body and suspect more vampires. I
don't have to go there yet, as the first chest I search holds the key
I need to proceed in the other half of the cave. I want to do that
before doing the rest of the cave, as I want all my resources,
daily-spell and repaired items-wise for the fight against Hindaril. I
dive back through the water and go to the passage where I killed that
vampire conjurer. I sneak through some tunnels and run into the next
vampire, who calls me a dirty Nord. He is indeed the first person
in-game who is using my nationality/race as an insult, the second who
even mentions it at all. I lay into him until he stops moving.
In the next cave over there is a female
vampire, who I sneak up on but I only get an x1 bonus for the
sneak-attack. The fight drags on for a while despite her fighting
bare-fisted. She buffs and heals herself with magic and after killing
her, she is identified as a vampire-monk. Weird. Wouldn't that be a
nun or something? Bikkuni, if you want it martial-arts-Eastern-style?
Whatever. I sneak to the next cave and see another vampire.
Forgetting about my magic mace, I attack him with my claymore. It is
the infamous Hindaril and I use a protection-spell and then a
frost-based attack-spell that my vampirism has granted me. He dies
surprisingly quickly. It is almost to easy.
I gather his ashes and see that indeed,
he didn't have a weapon. But he did have a magical shield. I pick it
up and decide that the night is almost over so I might as well
explore the rest of the cave, as I'm going to spend the entire day
here anyways. I dive through the underground lake again, this time
going into the cave where I thought I'd seen a hung body. Another
vampire is there, a vampire wizard, as he manages to hurl a single
fireball at me before I reach him and cut him down. His body is
identified as „Vampire witch-hunter“, which seems somewhat weird.
But he's dead now and I have all I need for the cure. All I have to
do now is wait 12 hours for it to become night again and then
fast-travel to the witch house. Finally...
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