Episode 37: Assorted progress, and the second dream
test all our ingredients.
Test out the ingredients you found
test all untested alchemical ingredients
Try out all the ingredients and see if we don't get anything useful
check our own ingredients to see if we can MAKE mana restore potions,
Sure. That's easy enough. You pull out your recently picked alchemy ingredients, and taste them. Heather gives you Poison.
Health is now 13/50...Corkbulb root gives you Restore Luck, Comberry gives you Drain Health
Health is now 12/50...and Willow Anther gives you Water Breathing.
heal up when you get a chance.
We're almost dead, might wanna fix that yeah?
heal
Yeah, maybe that would be a good idea. You head back to Caius' house. You have some questions to ask anyway. Curiously, when you return it seems that his door is locked. Unsure what to do, you knock. A moment goes by, and then Nine-Toes, the Argonian operative who was here earlier, opens the door. Seeing you, he pokes his head out to look around, then pulls you inside and closes the door behind you.
A dunmer is tied up on the floor.
(
GM Comment: I can only do so much with the console. Pretend that he's tied up in a way that makes sense.)
:
"Ahh, good timing. You said earlier that we had two sleepers in Balmora. Is this one of them?"
:
"Dagoth Ur sees all! He knows all! He will come for--urk!"Caius steps on the base of his throat and applies pressure until he can't speak.
:
"Yeah, pretty sure that's a sleeper.":
"Good, good. Now, my friend, you're going to tell me everything you know."Nine-Toes hands Caius a pair of armoring prongs. Caius holds it in front of his prisoners face so he can see it, then grips one of his pinky fingers in the prongs.
:
"You will all perish in torment! The master will"--CRUNCH!
With a sickening cruch, Caius closes the prongs and reduces the finger to dangling pulp.
:
"You have lots of fingers, and when you run out, I'm quite skilled at restoration magic."Note to self: Do NOT piss off Mr. Cosades.
:
"Hey, you know...guys, I was hoping I could take a nap to heal up, but obviously you're...busy. I don't want to a be bother, so I think I'll just...leave you...to your work."Caius looks up, takes a few steps over to you and casts a spell. The two of you are engulfed in the white sparkles of restoration magic and you feel your wounds mend.
Health restored to full:
"Thanks."Caius nods and turns back to his captive. But with Caius no longer on top of him, the sleeper has turned his head and is now looking at you.
:
"So, it is you. Why don't you come to Red Mountain, Michael? Dagoth Ur would like to meet you. He can be most generous."The hairs on the back of your neck raise and you break out in a cold sweat.
:
"Oh, so you know our operative here, do you? Tell me how.":
"Dagoth Ur knows and sees all! Nothing shall be hidden from the master!"CRUNCH.
:
"Arrggghhh!!":
"Since apparently I was not clear, let me explain how this works..."upgrade our spear to the silver spear
You grab your chitin spear from under the bed and see yourself out.
murderer dude
Could we at least look into whether or not the guy was caught?
I'm going to guess that the murderer hasn't been apprehended yet, but it's worth checking.
Sure. May as well check in with the legion while you're at it. Larrius Varro's has a related quest chain. He should be able to tell you what the situation is. You leave Balmora and head south towards Fort Moonmoth. Shortly after crossing the bridge, you notice a shadow moving on the ground in front of you.
New skill: Light armor is now 1Health 46/50...yeah, that's bad. You frantically turn around and start poking at the cliff racer with your spear, but the thing keeps flapping around and won't stay in one place. Plus the fact that it keeps burrowing its beak through your armor and into your flesh makes it really hard to focus. Worse, while you're definitely hitting it, light as it is and with nothing grounding it, your spear seems to mostly just be pushing it around ineffectively rather than penetrating and doing any damage. Meanwhile, it merrily continues tearing you to shreds.
Light armor is now 3Agility is now 36Health is is now 3/50...not...good. You drop your spear to reach into your purse, grab your healing potion and down it. The cliff racer keeps attacking you, but you feel your flesh knitting together faster than it can hurt you. Pausing only to pick up your spear, you turn back around and
run towards the fort. The cliff racer chases you the entire way, pecking at your back occasionally, but by running the attacks come noticeably less often. Presumably it has a more difficult time hitting a moving target just like you do. When you get near the fort, one of the guards sees you and comes running.
You keep running a bit before you turn to watch. It takes the guard longer to dispatch the cliff racer than you expect, and for a terrifying few moments you're concerned that the racer might kill the guard, but after another 5 or 10 tense seconds, the cliff racer falls.
:
"Thanks."
:
"Anytime."Light armor is now 4Health is is now 14/50That was closer than you would have liked. On the bright side you did learn a bit about your new armor. Though if it had been up to you you'd have chosen to break it in on something less dangerous. Checking to confirm that the skies are clear, you loot the cliff racer but are unable to retrieve any useful alchemical ingredients from it. Apparently the guard mangled it pretty badly.
You enter the fort, find the barracks and take a nap...and dream.
You are standing knee deep in swamp water, with trees and shrubs all around you. In front of you but not facing you is a silver statue of a rearing horse that you recognize immediately: it's the horse on the right breast of the Imperial Legion guard armor. You step forward to inspect it more closely, but before you can get close enough to touch it a number of blurry and indistinct shapes rise from the swamp all around you. It's difficult to make out what they're supposed to be, or even how many there are. Then, suddenly one of them moves impossibly fast in no particular direction and the entire world slows to a stop.
Your eyes are suddenly filled with a blinding light that compels you to cover them, but doing so doesn't stop the light from reaching your eyes. Instinctively you know that the light is permeating not only your hand and eyes, but all of you. Every fiber of your being. Every cell in your body, every thought in your mind, everything that exists in your soul...it can see. With eye cover doing nothing to stop the light, you force your eyes open and turn to see a gold statue you hadn't noticed before. It is behind you, facing and mirroring the silver statue. It appears to be the horse from the left breast of the guard armor, and it's definitely the source of the light that permeates everything. You cautiously approach only to hear a faint sound, a voice. It says '...would like for us to be friends...'
And then you realize that the statue is not made of gold. It is wearing gold armor.You wake up drenched in warm sweat.
Health restored to fullmurderer
You approach Champion Varro.
:
"Excuse me, sir. Recruit Michael, presently on detached duty.":
"Ahh, yes. I read the report. What can I do for you, Recruit?":
"I was hoping you could give me the status of any outstanding warrants on Thanelen Velas. I understand that he is wanted on a number of charges."He smiles.
:
"Dead, recruit. He and his entire local chapter of the Camona Tong were all lawfully executed weeks ago by one of our own after resisting arrest. I understand it was quite the bloodbath.":
"Who, sir?":
"Awesomicus Maximus."Awesomicus? Not Clover?
:
"What about the bandit that was accosting travelers near Hla Oad?":
"Yes, Awesomicus brought him to justice as well.":
"What is the situation in Khuul? Has there been any news on the creature that attacked? Or attacks elsewhere?"At this he frowns.
:
"No, no news. The situation seems stable for the moment. But with two ash ghoul sightings followed by a coordinated and extremely successful attack on Khuul, it might only be matter of time. Whatever is it that did it is still out there."You thank Champion Varro for his time and return upstairs.
pick up a silver spear if we get the opportunity.
get a silver spear
Support upgrading our spear to the silver spear
spear
spear
spear
spear
spear
spear
You visit the Moonmoth weaponsmith and haggle her down to 89 gold for a silver spear, and sell her your old chitin spear for 3. It concerns you that the new spear is a little more than half again heavier than the old one, but by being silver at least you'll be able to hit monsters that are immune to normal weapons. Or at least, if you can't hit them it won't be because of your weapon. You also buy a healing potion for 38 gold to replace the one you used on the way here.
Mercantile is now 9Healed and equipped, you head back to Balmora. On the way you see a kwama forager and decide to test out your new spear. The battle is slow, but with a little persistence your'e able to finish off the forager.
Health is now 14/50Light armor now 8spear now 6Endurance is now 35Max Health is now 51Hmm. Honestly you're not impressed with it, but maybe it will grow on you. And to be fair, the last time you fought a forager in the Shulk eggmine you gave up and ran away without having ever hit it. So silver spear with full body chitin armor is definitely better than chitin spear with only your chest and head armored.
Instead of just buying the house or pack animal, can we at least inspect them first?
You head to the Council Manor and flag down Nileno Dorvayn.
athletics now 22:
"Excuse me, Miss Dorvayn? I'm considering that place you offered me for 250 gold/month. Would it be possible for me to see it so I know what I'm renting?"
:
"Of course."Nileno takes you to a room near the river running through town, unlocks the door and shows you inside. It's a tiny room. Mybe 20 feet by twenty feet, with a bed, a table and two chairs and a small bookshelf on a wall.
View from the door
View looking at the door
:
"This is a bit small. And I expected more furnishings. Bags and barrels, and things.":
"Ra'virr the trader sells furnishing. You might also try Dralasa's pawnshop. And yes, this is the smallest room size we have in Balmora. I do have larger units available, but you did ask to see the less expensive one."get a pack animal instead of a house.
get a pack animal
It occurs to you that you've never seen one in Balmora, or any other city. House Hlaalu is all about trade though, so surely Balmora would be the place to ask.
:
"Hmm. Ok, change of topic then. Do you by chance sell pack animals?":
"A pack animal? You mean, for transporting goods?":
"Yes. Like, a guar, maybe?":
"Hmm. That's a difficult request. Other than our strider transports, the only people I know of who use animals for moving goods are the ashland tribes.":
"Why is that? I would think it would be very convenient.":
"Oh, goodness, no. It would terribly inefficient. Nearly all shipping on Vvrdenfell is handled by recall. Why spend days moving goods by road, risking attacks by bandits and cliff racers, when you can simply gather everything in a pile and teleport it instantly? Why, can you imagine if our egg shipments were sent by guar? Every single egg needing to be individually hauled by hand above ground and loaded onto an animal? It would take hours just to LOAD the creature. Meanwhile, any reputable mage with an appropriate mark can simply stand in the pile and instantly transport them to Dagon Fel, or Vivec, or anywhere else."Hmm. Actually, you're pretty sure you remember having a lengthy conversation with Strillian about recall when he teleported you from Khuul to Gnisis, in which he mentioned that recall is commonly used to transport materials. Come to think of it, Nalcarya mentioned something about that too back when you first noticed how big alchemy tools are. She suggested buying a slave, but you're not sure a single slave would be able to carry a full set of alchemy tools.
Speaking of Nalcarya...
check the price of mana restore potions,
:
"Hi, Nalcarya."
:
"Hello, Michael. What can I do for you today?":
"Couple things. First, quick price check on restore magicka potions.":
"Standard restore....40 gold.":
"How much magicka does that restore?"She pulls a small bottle off her shelf and hands it to you.
:
"Smell."
You open the bottle and smell the contents. It smells definitely like a restore magicka potion. But...that's all you can tell.
:
"I don't get any sense of potency.":
"Really? Haven't you been practicing at all over the past four weeks? I'd have thought you'd be able to identify potions by now.":
"...no, I joined the legion. Past four weeks have been basic training.":
"Ahh. Well, for an average, still inexperienced imperial or dunmer caster, that's not quite but almost enough to restore them to full. Me personally, I'd need about two and a half of them.":
"What about for a really powerful caster? Say...a Mage Guild steward?Or a Telvanni Mouth?":
"It really depends. I don't usually get customers like that, but if you just want a rough idea, the biggest standard potency would be 'exclusive' which is four times as potent as that."'Standard potency?'
:
"Nalcrya, I've been wondering. Why do you bother selling standard potions?":
"What do you mean?":
"Well, better alchemists make better potions, right? You can make better restoration potions than these, can't you?":
"Of course I can. I do all the time.":
"Why don't you sell them?":
"There's no money in it.":
"Why not?":
"Who would buy them?":
"...who buys these?":
"Commoners, craftsmen, guards, merchants...all sorts of people. People who know a little magic, have a little money, and who need a little boost now and then. But you know who doesn't buy them? Really powerful casters like Mage Guild stewards and Telvanni Mouths. Anyone who takes magic seriously learns alchemy themselves. Using restore magicka as an example, it only takes me 32 gold worth of materials to make a potion. Others I can make for less. Admittedly, I got lucky, and that's part of why I got into the business: I can make useful potions more cheaply than the average alchemist because some very cheap and abundantly available ingredients do useful things for me.":
"But why bother making weak potions like this?":
"I don't make 'weak' potions. I make potions to the best of my ability and then I dilute them to standard Mage Guild sanctioned potencies. At my current level of ability, when I make a raw restore magicka potion it turns out about 7 times as strong as the one you just smelled. But that's 7 times as much magicka as my average customer is capable of storing. So I take that single potion I made and dilute it down into 7 standard sized potions that people will buy for 40 gold each. Nobody would pay me 280 gold for a potion that wastes most of its effect. And anybody with a magicka pool big enough to need more can just as easily buy however many smaller potions they need."That...kind of makes sense.
:
"What if I knew a really powerful caster who would be interested in buying full strength potions?":
"Send him my way. I'll sell them, no problem. I'll even make custom mixed effect potions if he wants. You want one? Restore magicka and restore health together in single bottle at a strength half a dozen times stronger than that standard potion you just smelled? I can do that. But I'm going to charge you four or five hundred gold for it.":
"Why so much?":
"Because that's how much I can make by taking the same potion and diluting it into multiple bottles and selling them at standard potencies. It doesn't make sense for me to take 30 gold worth of materials, for example, and sell them to you in a single bottle for 200 gold when I can take 30 gold worth of materials and sell them to 7 people for 280 gold.":
"Who determines the standard potencies?":
"Mage Guild. They have a monopoly on most everything related to magic. Potion potencies were established centuries ago. Every now and the standards change a bit, but it's pretty constant overall. It makes business easier, since like you, most of my customers aren't skilled alchemists and so they have no way of checking potency themselves. But they buy one potion, and since they're casters they get a feel for how much magicka is restored, and they know when they buy another potion by the same name from me or any other alchemist it will restore the same amount. It would be very difficult for my customers...with no way of smell-testing themselves...if I tried selling them non-standard potencies. Nobody is going to give me 300 gold for a potion just on my say-so that it will do 'a lot.' And my 'a lot' would be different than the 'a lot' made by another alchemist with more or less skill than I have.":
"Nalcarya, I wonder if we could negotiate a deal. what if I had a friend...say, who wanted-":
"Fast Eddie?"Damn it.
:
"Yes, Fast Eddie. How'd you know?":
"He's my biggest single customer. You started this about restore magicka potions, you wanted to know how much a Telvanni would need...it was pretty obvious. He's the only Telvanni in town I know of, and pretty much every time he gets his hands on any gold he dumps it all on restore magicka potions.":
"Does he buy big potions like you described?":
"No, he buys standards. He's training, so that means casting lots of little spells over and over. It would be wastefully inefficient for him to drink a potion that kept restoring after he's already at full. Smaller potions allow him to cast and drink only when he needs to."You rack your brain for some way to exploit this or negotiate some kind of deal...but nothing comes to mind. You sigh and change the subject.
see if we can buy any alchemical reagents for the cheap
:
"Ok, moving along...I'm still trying to learn some useful recipes. So far restore fatigue is the only beneficial potion I know how to make. So many things just do poison and paralysis.":
"That's normal. It will get easier once you're able to sense secondary and tertiary effects.":
"I'm sure it will, but right now I'm still trying to figure out primary effects. Could you sell me one each of all your cheap ingredients? Anything you can sell for 1 or 2 gold? One of each just so I can taste them?":
"Sure. Give me just a moment."You buy one each of black anther, bonemeal, Chokeweed, crab meat, grave dust, green lichen, marshmerrow, muck, roobrush, scale and scathecraw for 14 gold.
Bon apetite.
New alchemy knowledge:black anther [1]Resist poison
bonemeal [1]Drain health
Chokeweed [1]Drain health
crab meat [1]Restore fatigue
grave dust [1]Burden
green lichen [1]Night Eye
marshmerrow [1]Resist common disease
muck [1]Poison
roobrush [1]Restore intelligence
scale [1]Swift swim
scathecraw [1]Paralyze
Health is now 11/51...ok, so going through our full list of known effect, restore fatigue, and restore luck are the only beneficial potions we know how to make. Plus drain health, poison, paralyze if we include negative effects.
:
"Hey, Nalcarya. How well do drain health, poison, paralyze, restore luck and restore fatigue potions sell?":
"In general, nobody buys negative effects. Poison, you might be able to find a Morag Tong buyer...maybe, but I doubt it. Restore fatigue is a popular gift for newlyweds, but it's hard to sell because it's the most common beneficial effect. Everybody can make it cheaply and easily. Restore attribute potions in general don't sell often, but when they do...they do sell. It's one of those effects that every week or so somebody comes looking for. It's nice to have in stock, but it's not a big seller. Personally I can make them for 2 gold worth of ingredients, and then I dilute that into multiple potions. So I wouldn't buy any, but if you find an alchemist who doesn't stock them because he happens to not be able to make them cheaply, they'll probably be willing to buy a few. My advice would be to not try to get rich from them, but whenever it's convenient for you, make a few to carry around with you. Every time you talk to an alchemist, make an offer. Sooner or later someone will buy them."Well, maybe we can do that once we get set up to actually make potions.
offer fast Eddie information on Telvannie he can use to get back in
+1 from PTTG
give him any house Telvanni information
:
"Like what? What do we know about House Telvanni that would help somebody get back in, when we don't even know why he can't get back in just by asking to be let back in? Caius said something about him having been evicted "for reasons of political expediency." And Fast Eddie himself asked if we had any friends who'd be "willing to go out on a limb politically."
Plus, he was a former Mouth on the council. So what are we going to tell him that he doesn't already know? That Baladas in in Gnisis? That Divyth Fyr has a corprusarium? That Master Aryon is forward thinking and wants to push changes that are unpopular with most of the other councilors? Things like that are probably all common knowledge within the House. Certainly with somebody who sat in the council house and regularly communicated with councilors. And even if they aren't, how are they going to help him win favor?
I can only assume he was expelled because he was unpopular, or affiliated with someone or something that fell out of favor...or who knows? Maybe he slept with the wrong person. Telling a former Telvanni information about House Telvanni in order to get him back into House Telvanni...maybe there's something we could tell him. But...what?"You stop buy Fast Eddie's real quick, but his door is locked. He's probably still sleeping. Oh well. That gives you some time to think about what information to offer him, if any.
Test the possibility of poisoning our weapons.
:
"Sure, I can experiment with that as soon as I get an alchemy set. There's no shortage of ingredients that make poison."Prioritize magic over alchemy.
+1
+1
If we can't learn magic, rent the house.
Try to do the magic thing -
:
"Unfortunately, between the spear upgrade, replacing that health potion and alchemy ingredients, I'm down about a third of my gold since this morning. 100 gold I could probably have scrapped together somehow. 250, not so much."
Level 5
Health 11/51
Armor rating: 1
25.7 Strength (20)
33.3 Speed (30)
36.6 Agility (30)
35.0 Endurance (30)
42.0 Intelligence (40)
43.2 Personality (40)54.0 Luck (50)
Numbers in parenthesis are starting values
27 Acrobatics (0)
22 Athletics (5)
5 Armorer (0)
5 Block (0)
5 Heavy Armor (0)
5 Medium Armor (0)
8 Light armor (0)
5 Unarmored (0)
5 Blunt Weapon
5 Hand to Hand
5 Longblade
5 Shortblade
6 Spear
5 Alchemy (0)
5 Enchanting (0)
19 Speechcraft (10)
9 Mercantile (0)
* Silver spear
* Colovian fur "helm"
* Chitin left + right gauntlets
* Chitin greaves
* Chitin cuirass
* Chitin left + right pauldrons
* Chitin boots
* Cursed ring of athletics and drain health
* Combat belt
* Commoner's shirt
* Commoner's pants
* Interior coinpurse, containing:
* 100 gold
* Standard restore health potion
Backpack (Worn)
Main compartment:
* Tennis shoes
* A strange note that reads 'Remember, we are watching you.'
* Letter of introduction from Ranis Athrys
* Commoner's belt
* Yellow notepad with 55 pages left
* 1 divine intervention scroll, trigger words 'take me home'
* 1 pen
* "20% cooler" Rainbow Dash t-shirt,
* Denim pants
* a cellphone and wallet with picture ID and $30 in cash
* 2 soulgems of uncertain size
Small compartment
* 149 gold
* 1 empty bottle
* 36 Heather (not yet tasted)
* 4 Corkbulb (not yet tasted)
* 1 Comberry (not yet tasted)
* 1 Willow Anther (not yet tasted)
* 1 ampoule Pod
* 1 bread
* 7 bungler's bane
* 3 hypha facia
* 1 kwama cuttle
* 11 luminous russula
* 1 rat meat
* 3 saltrice
* 5 spore pod
* 6 violet coprinus
Blades, Novice
Imperial Legion, Recruit
* Steel tanto, with scabbard and carrying straps
* Imperial steel Cuirass
* Apprentice mortar and pestle
Ampoule Pod [1]Restore speed
Black Anther [1]Resist poison
Bread [1]Restore Fatigue
Bungler's Bane [1]Drain agility
Chokeweed [1]Drain health
Coda Flower [1]Restore luck
Comberry [1]Drain health
Corkbulb Root [1]Restore luck
Crab Meat [1]Restore fatigue
Gravedust [1]Burden
Green Lichen [1]Night Eye
Heather [1]Poison
Hypha facia [1]Drain speed
Kwama cuttle [1]Restore health
Luminous russ. [1]Paralysis
Marshmerrow [1]Resist common disease
Muck [1]Poison
Rat meat [1]Poison
Roobrush [1]Restore intelligence
Saltrice [1]Restore endurance
Scale [1]Swift swim
Scathecraw [1]Paralyze
Spore pod [1]Paralysis
Sm. Kwama Egg [1]Restore Fatigue
Violet coprinus [1]Water Walking
Willow Anther [1]Water Breathing
What do you do?
Author
Topic: Marooned in Morrowind (FINISHED) (Read 434182 times)