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[WillowLuman]

Either she was AFK, or she can't actually see us. If it's the latter, that's pretty cool. However, the "real" people of this world, its inhabitants, most certainly CAN see us, and you can bet they'll notice us lugging away anything large. Therefore, don't steal anything large.

Remember, unless something psychotic has occurred, this mage's guild is full of mages. There's no way we can take a daedric battleaxe and not get caught.

[Putnam]

Short term stuff is still important, though. Remember, our competition in learning-the-hell-out-of-magic are people like Divayth Fyr, who cured Corprus (a disease of divine origin) with simple alchemy (as a hobby!), can just travel at will through not just Mundus, but between realms of Oblivion, managed to invent cloning, has so many expensive artifacts he doesn't care if you just take the Cuirass of the Savior's Hide from him, is decked out in the only full set (not counting helmet) of Daedric armor in Vvardenfell. He's this powerful because he's lived for longer than the tribunal has existed. If we can get magic training ASAP, we should, but short-term opportunities like this are more important.

Of course, we're probably not bound by the same rules as him.

Still, take some (small) stuff.

[Parcae]

If Morrowind people learned as quickly as we do, then every old person would have 100 in everything. Clearly we are preternaturally fast learners. Also, the magic crafting system is a great leveler. Once we have access to it (plus a decent amount of skill in the various schools), we can probably take on stuff well outside our weight class.

It's possible that the NPCs don't even think of the stuff in the stash as Clover's. It isn't "marked" as hers in the way that items are usually marked as owned. Still, the small stuff is probably best to steal, not only for reasons of concealment but also because it has the best price-to-weight ratio.

[WillowLuman]

We aren't dealing with "item flags" here. They' see us hauling giant, expensive stuff out of their guild and take issue with it.

[Parcae]

There's probably enough small stuff there to pay for magic training anyway, right? We can also use a scroll to recall out or something, but for right now, no sense in worrying about what to do with the daedric armor when there's a ton of small stuff to grab and sell.

[WillowLuman]

Yep. So let's do that.

[LordBucket]

Just posting to say that I'm still here. Will probably start on the next update tomorrow night.

[WillowLuman]

We do have more stuff to do than just stealing things right? I mean, there is the mission and everything, but I just hope we've given you enough material.

[LordBucket]

Suggestion cutoff for episode 40. Update should be up tonight.

We do have more stuff to do than just stealing things right? I mean, there is the
mission and everything, but I just hope we've given you enough material.

It's probably going to be a small update relative to how long it's been since the previous episode. But that's ok. There will be a surprise.

[birdy51]

I hope it won't be a bloody surprise. ;.;

[WillowLuman]

Oh, now you've got me piqued

[LordBucket]

Episode 40, part 1: Proud Member of the Mage's Guild.

Ask the guild guide who left all this stuff blocking up the hall. Chances are, it's Clover's stuff, but we need to know.

this is probably a good idea go with this one.

I'll third this request.

And I will fourth it.

You walk back over to the guild guide.

: "Hello again. Leaving so soon?"

: "No, I'm just curious: what's the deal with the pile of stuff in the hallway?"

She frowns.

: "Oh, that's...yeah. Been that way for a couple weeks."

: "Whose stuff is it?"

: "I don't know her name. Never felt the need to ask. She's kind of loud and demanding, it's kind of annoying. Try asking Edwinna. She's the head of the guild here. I assume she's renting the room from her."

: "She? Dunmer girl?"

: "No, Edwinna's a Breton. Head downstairs. Blue robe, nose in a book. You can't miss her."

: "No, I mean the one renting the room."

: "Oh, yeah. Dunmer."

So probably Clover. You head downstairs and find Edwinna looking variously back and forth between a couple books with a scowl.



: "Hi, My name's Michael."

She seems a bit irritated at the interruption, but inhales and puts on a cheerful face.

: "Yes?"

: "This is my first time in Ald'rhun and I just noticed the pile of stuff upstairs. I was wondering if by chance that stuff belongs to Clover?"

: "Clover the Clever?"

: "You know her?"

: "Yes, good wizard. Operates out of Balmora. Quiet. Studious. We get along just fine. Friend of yours?"

: "...not exactly. We've just met in passing, sort of."

: "Well, to answer your question, no...sadly that particular pile belongs to SexyWithers, who is not nearly so quiet, nor I'm guessing...as studious, as Clover."

: "SexyWithers?"

: "SexyWithersXOXOXO, actually."

Her name is SexyWithersXOXOXO? Well, after Awesomicus Maximus, nothing really surprise you. You briefly wonder if the next name you run into will have dashes and numbers in it or be in alternating caps. Anyway, assuming SexyWithers isn't a new player on the scene...that only leaves...

: "Is she a dunmer? Curly dark hair?"

: "Yes, that's her. You've met?"

Bingo. The dunmer from Seyda Neen. The first one you saw.

: "Again, just in passing. So she's renting the room upstairs then?"

Edwinna's eyes open wide as if in sudden realization.

: "Yes! Renting. She's renting the room. Yes. Why do you ask?"

You're not sure what to make of that reaction but clearly there's more that she's not telling you.

: "...uhh, just something the guild guide upstairs mentioned. I thought I'd ask."

You glance over at the book she's reading. Unlike other books you've looked at here in Morrowind, you notice that this one isn't written in a language you recognize.

: "What's that book you're reading?"

She blinks a few times as if surprised by the question, then shrugs and answers.

: "This one's Hanging Gardens of Wasten Coridale. A travel guidebook, apparently. It's written in Dwemer with Altmer translations and it's one of the only references for dwemer words that exist. And this..."

She scowls and she slams the other book shut in annoyance.

: "...so far as I can tell is the random ravings of a dwarven lunatic. There are so many words I can't find entries for in Hanging Gardens. Which comes as no surprise. But from the ones I can find, this book is either a highly metaphorical enchanting treatise written by a 12 year old, or it's a cooking recipe for some kind of fancy meat dish. I can't tell which."

: "May I take a look?"

: "Be my guest."



You can't read any of the runes, but from the picture you're guessing that's the Heart of Lorkhan, and those are Kagrenac's tools. It's obviously one of the quest books, but you don't recognize which from looking at it. You close it and check the cover, but the title is written in dwemer runes too.

: "Out of curiosity what makes you think it's a cookbook?"

: "Well, you can clearly see in this image that a meat tenderizer and knife are being used on a heart. Heart is considered a delicacy in some places, and we don't know much about dwarven cuisine.  And the title of the book is 'Beating Eggs' so clearly-"

Beating Eggs? That's not a standard book. Modded content, maybe? Or maybe she's mistranslating the title? Beating. Beat. Egg-beating. Beating your wife. Musical beats. Music beats that happen in...

: "Do you mean 'Egg of Time?

: "Time? No, I'm positive that word was..." she picks up Hanging Gardens and flips through the pages. "...loquari nest pu gayna furrplo...here it is: jes. That rune pair clearly corresponds to the Altmer word 'jes,' which means 'to beat.' Unless the preceeding word ends in 'lo' in which case it becomes a conjunctive adjective meaning that the thing being spoken of is green."

: "It's possible you might be interpreting it too literally."

She raises an eyebrow.

: "Oh? Are you fluent in Altmer?"

: "No, but I do know a bit about the dwemer, and I happen to know the names of a number of dwemer books. Chronicles of Nchuleft for example, Antecedants of Dwemer Law, and of course...Egg of Time."

She suddenly becomes excited.

: "You're a student of dwemer literature?!?!? Can you read this?"

You smile and shake your head.

: "Sadly, no. But I can tell you that's no cookbook. "

: "What else can you tell me?"

Hmm. That's a good question. What else can you tell her? You're only even guessing this particular book is Egg of Time, though it seems likely. And you're pretty sure the picture shows Sunder and Keening smashing Kagrenac's Heart. You could tell her about that, but are you sure you want to? It's probably safe, but npcs here have shown an ability to do whatever they want. Those two villagers from Seyda Neen apparently left Vvardenfell, and you saw Fast Eddie grinding one of his magic skills. Do you really want to tell a dwemer scholar like Edwinna about Sunder and Keening? What if she goes and gets them? Or dispatches some adventurer to get them? That might be a problem if suddenly you can't deal with Dagoth Ur because some random npc picked up those two artifacts and then gets himself killed on the road on the way back. Of course, you're assuming that somebody hasn't already done that. Hmm. Yes, you'll definitely have to think very carefully about what to reveal to Edwinna.

: "Well, personally I'm more well versed in items than history. I can distinguish dwemer cups and bowls, for example. And I'm familiar with coherers and cogs and tubes. The books I mostly recognize by title."

Edwinna looks disappointed.

: "..but...I do have a friend..."

That's sort of true.

: "...who happens to know a great deal more. If you'd like I might be able to ask him the next time I see him a little more about this book."

Edwinna smiles excitedly.

: "Yes! I mean...yes. Please. I would be very interested to hear what he has to say."

: "Well then, next time I see him I'll be sure to ask."

: "Thank you."

: "By the way, I wonder if you might do me a favor."

She raises an eyebrow suspiciously.

: "I'm in a bit of a rough spot. I never learned any magic. And I do mean ANY magic. At all. Can't even channel. I'd like to learn. Obviously I'd like the mage guild to teach me, but I spoke with Ranis and she said I'd need to get very special training to learn."

: "Probably, yes. Learning to channel as as adult is dangerous. Imagine trying to suck liquid up through a straw, but in your case the straw will be filled with dirt and sticky, grimy honey from a lifetime of a lack of use. So you have to suck really hard to get the liquid through. Now imagine that the liquid is molten lava and you're sucking with your brain. It's very precise work sucking just hard enough to get the liquid up to the tip of the straw, but not so hard that you melt your brain."

: "Interesting visual. In any case, I would like to join the guild, and Ranis says I can't join until I know magic."

: "Yes. And?"

: "I wonder if you could help me with that."

She blinks a couple times as if she doesn't understand. Then she silently mouths 'oh,' and walks over to a nearby shelf, pulls a book off, opens it up and says:

: "Sign here."

Speechcraft skill is now 20

You sign your name. Then she signs hers, speaking aloud.

: "Authorized by, Edwinna Elbert, Ald'rhun branch. There you go. Welcome to the Mage Guild, Associate. You know the rules, right?"

: "No killing or stealing from Mage Guild members, advancement requires relevant magical ability, if I'm expelled talk to any guild head for readmission...and don't accept quests from Trebonious."

She laughs, then covers her mouth and checks to see if anyone heard her.

: "...yes, I'm sure you'll fit right in. Best of luck getting some training. I can fudge the rules a bit, but we can't really call you a wizard if you can't cast any spells, now can we? I'd offer myself, but I'm terribly busy with my studies. You might try Folms Mirel at the Caldera guildhall. He's certainly capable, and Caldera is a bit more casual than our other Vvardenfell offices. And do let me know once you've spoken with your friend. I'd love to hear what he has to say."

You say your goodbyes and head back upstairs. All in all that went rather well. You managed to get into the guild, you received yet another training referral, and if you come up with something good to offer, you might be able to negotiate some sort of beneficial deal with Edwinna. Of course, you can already imagine the voices in your head clamoring over one another "tell her stuff for magic training!" But if you recall correctly, Edwinna is one of the foremost scholars of dwemer lore on the entire Imperial side of Vvardenfell. It will obviously take more than two or three sentences of unsubstantiated claims to get her to arrange for thousands of gold worth of training. And you're not certain it's wise to tell her about Kagrenac's tools, so you'll have to decide very carefully what to reveal. In any case, you have time to think it over.

(continued in part 2)

[LordBucket]

(continued from part 1)

Episode 40, part 2: Blades delivery boy, Alchemy! And...oops.

take some (small) stuff.

Take some small but expensive things

You head back upstairs to SexyWither's pile of stuff and look around. Nobody in line of sight. The guild guide is out of view inside her alcove. You step inside the room and close the door behind you.

Then....you wait.

You listen.

You breath.

Just in case there's an invisible thief watching you, you wave your spear around the room. It makes contact with nothing but the walls. It's probably safe. Probably. You glance at the desk on your right covered with dwemer objects. You open it  and find yet more inside. It's very tempting to take some. Some of these things are valuable, but not only are they obviously collectibles, you also know from your time with the Legion that they're illegal to buy or sell. You decide to pass. The books too, would be easily noticed if missing. And the cogs are 50 pounds each. That pretty much just leaves the chest of alchemy materials.

You open up the chest and quickly take some things that hopefully won't be missed.

Gained 1 each of Alit Hide, Ampoule Pod, Black Anther, Emerald, Daedra Heart, Scamp Skin, Fire Salt, and 5 each of Chokeweed, Hound Meat, Rat Meat, Racer Plume and Saltrice

That should do it. You're probably being more cautious than is necessry, but a few of those items should be worth a couple hundred gold each, if you remember correctly. Barring the crazy non-vanilla economy here rearing its ugly head. Plus, you figure you can always come back later. If SexyWithers is coming back regularly it might be safer to take a little bit at a time than a whole bunch at once. You close the chest, open the door and step back outside. The only sound is your heartbeat. You walk around the upstairs balcony of the guild, pass the guild guide and glance over the railing down to the bottom floor in the middle. Edwinna is still scowling at her books. There's no way to know just yet whether anyone in the thieves guild somehow saw you, but you're pretty sure that at least noone in the mage guild noticed.

You still feel nervous, though.

Taste-Test one of everything that we still know nothing about.

New alchemy knowledge: Alit Hide [1]Resist Poison
New alchemy knowledge: Hound Meat [1]Poison

You eye the emerald, the daedra heart and the racer plume. Until now all the ingredients you've tried have seemed  reasonably edible. You try the feather.

New alchemy knowledge: Racer plume [1]Levitate

The texture wasn't that bed, but the flavor definitely was. Fortunately you have a good excuse to avoid trying the others: It's possible they might be worth a couple hundred gold. You decide to price them before eating them.

go to Ald'Ruhn and do the damn quest

complete Caius's mission.

+1

support doing that mission

...yeah. Maybe you'll go finish that delivery mission for Caius' before making potions. The tools are right on the other side of the door, but you don't want to make off with reagents then immediately use them. That seems too obvious. Instead, you leave the guild and step out into-



... a sandstorm. Grumbling, you cover your face and squint a lot trying to keep sand out of your eyes. Occasionally you need to stop to pluck the accumulated sand from your eyelashes. It's unpleasant, and you rush through the town to get it over with quickly. You end up having to stop and ask a guard for directions, but you make it to the Ald Skaar Inn without too much trouble.

Once inside you ask the bartender if she can direct you to Surane Leoriane, and she tells you that Surane is renting a room downstairs.



: "Hello. I have a delivery for Surane?"

: "I'm Surane."

You hand her the sealed letter from Caius. She unseals it and reads it. Then she holds it between her hands and incinerates it with a blast of destruction magic.

: "Thank you."

She turns and goes back inside her room.

That was...anticlimactic.

: "Any return message, or anything?"

: "No, thank you."

Ok. On to the next thing, then.

Use alchemy equipment, hang around for a while, try to make some useful stuff

You could do that. From your time with the Legion you know for a fact that it's not a crime to handle unattended objects provided you don't take or damage them. You can read books, for example. Alchemy tools should be no different.

You return to the Mage Guild and go to the alchemy equipment. You figure you'll start with the recipes you know. Checking to confirm that nobody's watching you set your spear on the ground, then drop your pants, and begin.

...oh, right. You have only one empty bottle. Fortunately this being a mage guild there's a conveniently nearby alchemy supplier. You spend 10 gold for ten bottles. That could be troublesome at some point, but for now, worst case you can simply pour out the bottles and re-use them. While you're at the vendor, you price check the emerald, daedra heart and fire salts for 177 gold. Much less than you were hoping for, but you sell them anyway. That brings you to 576 gold. Enough to get started with Fast Eddie if you still want to. Sorting through your materials for recipes you can make, poison is what you have most in abundance. May as well make less useful stuff first, and save the more useful stuff for after you've gained some skill. You wanted to experiment with using poison anyway.

Used:
6 Heather + 6 Hound meat
4 Heather + 4 Rat Meat

Gained:
3 potions of poison

Alchemy skill is now 7

Only three successes, but you feel more comfortable with alchemy. And you've discovered something: even though you're pretty sure you haven't had anything to drink since that bottle of greef you shared with Vibius back in Seyda Neen over a month ago, apparently you can pee on demand. Anyway, next you pull out...

...wait. Suddenly you feel something. It seems familiar. This isn't deja vu but-


















This. Is. Bad.

You whirl around.



So far nothing threatening. But you set your spear down on the ground in order to have your hands free to use the alchemy tools. So right now you have no weapons on you at all. You knew that choosing a spear would be create problems, but this particular one never occurred to you. You were standing in the middle of SexyWithers' stuff. She must have had a recall point right where you were standing and when she recalled, you swapped places with her. Strillian warned you that could happen.

We should carry at least 2 weapons at all times, in case we need a backup.
Honestly, I thought we already agreed on that

Yes, yes. It was on the to-do list, but your tanto is back at Caius' and you were planning to talk to him anyway after you delivered his letter. You didn't want to go barging back in and have to explain why you hadn't done it yet. So now here you are in some random dunmer tomb, without a weapon.



Well, on the bright side it looks like the place has already been cleared. Odds are, when whomever swapped positions with you they had already finished the tomb and were returning home to drop off loot. You search the various bodies. A dunmer with expensive-looking clothes that are probably worth taking when you're not worried about being murdered by tomb undead, a skeleton with a silver sword and iron shield, both of which are stupidly heavy. And an imperial with a bunch of cloth armor that isn't really an upgrade for you, and...aha. A steel tanto and a lockpick, You take them both. In a corner you find a chitin shield, which you take also. The tanto won't damage tomb undead, but hopefully there aren't any left.

You leave the room in the only direction you can, and go up a flight of stairs into a room with more urns.



There's probably a bunch of bonedust you can scavenge from those urns, but right now you're too nervous to go digging through them. You make a right and head up another flight of stairs. Then turn left and come to a door. You open it.



You have absolutely no idea where you are.

Spoiler: Stats (click to show/hide)

Level 7
Health 59/59
Armor rating: 4

Spoiler: Attributes (click to show/hide)

26.8 Strength (20)
34.8 Speed (30)
36.6 Agility (30)
39.7 Endurance (30)
42.4 Intelligence (40)
43.8 Personality (40)
56.0 Luck (50)

Spoiler: skills (click to show/hide)

Numbers in parenthesis are starting values
30 Acrobatics (0)
22 Athletics (5)
 6 Armorer (0)

 5 Block (0)
 7 Heavy Armor (0)
 5 Medium Armor (0)
 20 Light armor (0)
 9 Unarmored (0)

 5 Blunt Weapon
 12 Hand to Hand
 5 Longblade
 5 Shortblade
 8 Spear

 7 Alchemy (0)
 5 Enchanting (0)

20 Speechcraft (10)
 9 Mercantile (0)

Spoiler: Equipped (click to show/hide)

 * Steel tanto
 * Chitin shield

 * 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:
   * 85 gold
   * 2 Standard restore health potions
   * 3 poison potions
   * lockpick

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 54 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
 * 491 gold
 * 8 empty bottle
 * 2 Ampoule Pod
 * 1 Black Anther
 * 1 bread
 * 7 bungler's bane
 * 25 Heather
 * 5 Chokeweed
 * 3 Corkbulb
 * 1 kwama cuttle
 * 3 hypha facia
 * 11 luminous russula
 * 4 Racer Plume
 * 8 saltrice
 * 1 Scamp Skin
 * 5 spore pod
 * 6 violet coprinus

Spoiler: Faction standings (click to show/hide)

Blades, Novice
Imperial Legion, Recruit
Fighter's Guild, Associate (1 quest completed)
Mage Guild, Associate

Spoiler: Equipment (currently at Caius Cosades' house in Balmora) (click to show/hide)

 * Steel tanto, with scabbard and carrying straps
 * Imperial steel Cuirass
 * Apprentice mortar and pestle

Spoiler: Alchemy Knowledge (click to show/hide)

Alit Hide [1]Resist Poison
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
Hound Meat [1]Poison
Hypha facia   [1]Drain speed
Kwama cuttle   [1]Restore health
Luminous russ.   [1]Paralysis
Marshmerrow   [1]Resist common disease
Muck      [1]Poison
Racer plume [1]Levitate
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?

[Supercharazad]

Follow the road to the next sign, follow the signs to a town. Pick all alchemy ingredients on the way.

[GlyphGryph]

NOPE
Loot everything that remains. The explore around outside. Prepare to use your own recall scroll in any situation that isn't trivially easy to deal with. We basically just got handed a bunch of free money for reals! Report back to Caius, sell stuff, check around the guild for people willing to teach us the basic OR just schools, obtain basic magical training from Eddie if we find no better offer, learn at least one useful school from someone in the guild (we're a lot more likely to find people willing to teach us for cheaper in the guild if we've already got the basics, I think, schools probably require significantly less expertise)