Day 5 – Travel to Bravil

I wake up in the Two Sisters Lodge in Skingrad.  Pretty nice room that they have.

I head downstairs to the bar.  Mog gra-Mogkakh is downstairs, dutifully manning her station as barkeep.  I grab a stool next to her, drink a couple ales, and tell her of my life stories.  Doesn’t seem like she’s listening very intently, because after a couple minutes she says again “How are you?”.

I eat my bread, finish off my last beer, and leave the tavern.  I’m a little mad that no one seems to understand me.  I walk down the road towards the north side of town.  Soon I’m confronted by a strange little wood elf.

Um, how about no.  This guy looks a little sleazy.  And no way I’m going with him behind the Great Chapel.  At midnight.  Where no one can see us.  I have a feeling that he’s either going to rape me or kill me, and I don’t want either of those things.  I continue past him until I spot the Great Chapel.

Damn.  That’s a tall building.  It towers over all the two-story buildings in town.  I need to get my Yellow Tick disease cured.  It’s quite itchy and for the most part unpleasant.  I head inside the Chapel and see the father flirting with some whore inside.

It’s pretty nice in here, but a little dark and eerie.  Well, I walk up to the big circular dish in the front.  I stand next to it and touch it.  In my mind I receive a message saying “Rejoice!  Through faith, your afflictions are banished!”.  Wow, that was simple and easy.  I don’t believe the bullcrap about faith curing my yellow tick.  I bet there’s a wizard or something inside that huge circle that cures anyone’s diseases that walks bye.  I sit in one of the seats and stare blankly ahead, as if I am actually praying.  After a minute, I get bored and stand up.  I walk over to the bald guy in the nice clothes and greet him. 

Whoa, excuse me for asking how your day’s been.  Okay, screw you guys, I’m going home.  I leave the Great Chapel for good.  No way I’m going back in there with that stuck up guy.  Well, unless I contract another disease of course.  I walk past a few houses until I see a guy next to a big vat.  I hop the fence and peek inside the big bucket.  Ooh, grapes.

Huh.  Interesting professions.  A grape-grower AND trainer of shields and weapons.  Wow.  Well, I uh, pick flowers and kill wild beasts.  And no offense, but I don’t need the combat training of a guy that grows grapes.  Maybe I’ll come back if I need some advice about starting my own garden or something, but until then, see ya.  I head into the mages guild looking for a mortar and pestle, but nobody is selling anything other than spells in there.  Damn.  I head into the Colovian Traders store across the street to sell my goods, I mean wares.  I chat with the guy in there for a bit; he’s fairly friendly.  I buy some fur armor to complete my set from the guy.

Wow, I am so photogenic.  Look at me with my eyes closed…yeah…  I pull out my hammers to repair the damaged bits of my fur armor.  Which is a little confusing, because I would’ve assumed I would need cloth/leather and a needle and thread.  Oh, well.  I repair a couple pieces of armor before the hammer breaks.  I sell all of my uneeded stuff such as the flowers I picked for the past two days.  Oh my gawd.  In total I made 1039 gold from all the stuff I’ve collected.  Holy crap.  Those flowers are worth a lot.  Well, I did have like over 9000 different flowers in my backpack.  Okay, now I feel successful.  I buy some better quality, but more expensive leather armor from the merchant. 

And my eyes are still closed.  I say goodbye to the nice guy and head outside.  To the west I see a big statue with a truckload of flowers around it. 

Before: http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa120/85natrapS/Oblivion%20Blog/Oblivion2008-04-2610-03-32-95.jpg

After: http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa120/85natrapS/Oblivion%20Blog/Oblivion2008-04-2610-03-53-26.jpg

Hehehe.  Well, its public property, so it’s not morally wrong in my book.  I enter a big house and see that he’s having a party.  I talk to him and ask about buying a house.

Now that I have a little spending change, I want to know how much a typical, but small house is here in Skingrad.  A reasonable question right?  Even after boosting his disposition towards me, he replys with: “Look, I like you, but not enough to tell you that.”  Jeez, what a jerk.  See you later Shum gro-Yarug.  I head into the town’s blacksmith shop to look for a new weapon.  I settle with this beast of a sword. 

I then buy a chainmail helm and some regular clothes from her as well.  Amazing, my eyes are actually open in this picture of me.  I buy a repair hammer from her, and finish repairing the rest of my gear.  I thank her and leave the store.  Oops, I’m still wearing my armor and weilding my weapon.  I have to represent my fellow NPCs out there. 

I look pretty stylish, if I do say so myself.  And of course, I still have my weapon equipped, but not drawn.  Like all the other NPCs.  As if they expect themselves to be assaulted at any moment.  Yeah, right.  I head outside of Skingrad, and talk to the guy sitting on the bench in front of the stables.  I talk to him, and he directs me inside if I want to buy a horse.  I head inside and check out the bookshelves.

I take a couple off the shelf and open them, but don’t read past the first page.  I talk to the woman eating at the table.  I ask her about traveling, and she gives me a list of towns I can take a horse to.  I pay up 36 gold, and before I know it, I’m in Bravil.

That traveling service took a long time.  About six hours total have passed.  It’s about 9:00pm, so I head to the nearest inn for a bed…which happens to be right in front of me.  I stroll inside and talk to the high elf by the bar. 

I head upstairs and view the bed.  http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa120/85natrapS/Oblivion%20Blog/Oblivion2008-05-0315-45-08-62.jpg  A little expensive for what it’s worth, but it isn’t bad.  Although the barkeep was a little deceptive; this is the only inn in Bravil, so technically it’s the best and the worst, depending on how you look at it.  Well, it’s late.  I’m off to bed.  I sleep for eight hours, as usual.

Day 4 – A Rat, a Goblin, and a Spoony Dog

I wake up all groggy and grumpy. That bedroll that I slept on wasn’t very comfy. It is also 11:00am. The sun is already above me in the sky. So much for an early start.

I’m really hungry, considering I didn’t eat much yesterday, and I didn’t have my usual midnight snack. I decide to go all out for breakfast, so I cook my food.

That’s right. I light the logs under the pot, and put some venison, potatoes, and corn into the pot. Now that’s what I call roleplaying. Granted, it took me a while to levitate the food into the pot because picking up objects with your hands in this world is way too old school. Also, the fire dies out every couple of seconds, because my flare spell doesn’t last very long. Maybe a higher level spell will keep the fire lit longer… Well, I don’t have a higher level fireball, so I have to keep relighting the fire. After a couple of minutes, the food looks well done. I levitate each individual item back out and eat all three, while pretending they are mixed into a stew. I wash the food down with the five bottles of ale that I found in the camp. Those bandits are heavy drinkers; they must live hard lives. I drink the ale with food, as there is no edible water in Oblivion. I don’t use it to wash away my sorrows… I look back upon the camp one last time for any more items, then leave. I walk back onto the road and soon spot a guard on a horse.

I decide to tail him in case there are any enemies on the trail. Imperial Legion Guard is a pretty cool guy. He kills bandits and doesn’t afraid of anything. I wish I was as cool and strong as he is. I follow him along the path for a while, picking up ingredients, until I see a deer. I look through my inventory for anything that might be helpful against it. As I look through my weapons, I set my eyes upon the iron bow I looted from the bandit yesterday.

Now seems like an appropriate time to use it. I only have 18 iron arrows though, so I have to use them sparingly. I wield the iron bow in my hand. Whew, its heavy! But if it’s made of iron, how does the bow bend when you shoot it… Oh well, here goes nothing. I drop into a crouch and dodge behind a bush. I set my eyes upon the deer. I am the hunter. It is the prey. I nock an arrow, and pull back the string. I wait. I aim carefully, just above the head of the deer. The distance is not too great, so the Coriolis effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect) will not need to be taken into account. I adjust for wind speed and direction. I carefully time my shot, and fire it in between heartbeats. The shot silently flies through the air like a hawk during a dive. The arrow impacts the deer in the head, piercing into the skull. The hollow-point arrowhead split into multiple pieces on impact (known as the mushrooming effect) and proceeded to slice through the brain tissue. The deer is launched backwards from the force of the arrow. The deer doesn’t move. I have won.

After that exciting hunt, I pose ever so heroically after my victory at the battle of Cyrodiil. http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa120/85natrapS/Oblivion2008-04-2523-12-37-82.jpg

I’m past Kvatch, but still about a day’s travel time to Skingrad. I continue eastward, making a beeline towards Skingrad. And when I say beeline, I mean picking up every flower along the way. I get sort of sidetracked, and wind up going a little too far north as I run into a giant statue.

Wow. I want one of those in my backyard. I can’t seem to explain it, but I am drawn to the statue. For some reason, I keep traveling nearer, and nearer to it. Oh wait, it’s just the flowers. It’s a goldmine over here. But instead of gold, they’re flowers! A flowermine! I carelessly grab any flowers I can as I run towards the statue. I see some more by a wall, so I pick those too. I turn the corner and hear a snarl. I look back and see possible one of the most hideous…things I have ever seen.

Ahhhhh! Run away! I start to run away, but the goblin pulls out his mace and hits me as I escape. No one hits Afroman and gets away with it. I turn around and gather my mystical energy. I focus the energy into my fingertips and launch a salvo of fireballs in the general direction of the goblin. Two of them hit, and bring him down to half health.

I pull an arrow out of my quiver and nock it. The goblin charges toward me in a frenzy, screaming and slashing at the air with its mace. I release the arrow and let it fly. The bowstring makes a twang noise as the arrow hits the goblin square in the chest. The goblin falls over dead. Whoohoo! I have defeated that ugly creature! The fewer goblins in Tamriel, the better, most citizens agree. I pass by the ruins and head once again towards Skingrad. I know I’m a hypocrite, but this is the last time I’m snooping around strange ruins. As I’m running, I see a rustle in the grass in front of me. I come to an abrupt halt, but it is too late. A giant rat springs towards me with its big, ugly fangs. I quickly ready my mace I looted from the goblin and swing away. One of my desperate flails connects! The force of the hammer causes the rat to do a barrel roll backflip.

After I kill the rat, I loot its body. I take the rat meat and a fork? Okay, now I have two questions:

1) Who was trying to eat a rat while it was still alive? You would need a steak knife as well, duh.

2) Who wanted to eat rat meat? Rat meat is one of the most vile meats in all of Cyrodiil. It’s only really use is an ingredient in alchemy.

I leave the fork inside the body and keep walking towards Skingrad. I walk through some tall grass and see a small farm in the distance. I decide to head over there. When I’m a few paces from the farm, a giant black paw lunges at me.

Ah! Bear! I run past the bear in a desperate attempt to reach the farm. I see a man digging furrows for his plants. I hop the fence in a single bound, and the black bear just goes around it. The man looks up from his work, and helps me kill the bear with his fists.

You don’t know what to do? You just killed a bear with your bare hands (ha, pun). Well, I was going to help you with your bear problem, but you seem more than capable of handling it on your own. Good-bye Thor! I find a small lake close by the farm, and decide to go for a swim.

I wade around in the water for a while, noting the strange opaqueness of the surface. I poke my head underwater and see some small white shells. I pry a few of them open and recover some flawed pearls. My mercantile intuition tells me that they’re worth 2gp each. As I’m getting out of the water, another black bear bull rushes me.

This time though, there’s no boxing champion around to help me. I pull out my mace and hack and slash till I’m beating the guts out of its dead body. Unfortunately, I am inflicted with Yellow Tick, a disease that drains my speed and strength. I check my pack, but I’m out of cure disease potions. Better not run into any more creatures on my way to Skingrad. I skin the bear of its valuable, but heavy pelt. It’s getting late. It’s almost 6:00pm. I check my map again.

I’m a little off course, but very close to Skingrad. I double time my way towards the front gates. Just my luck; it starts to rain. It pours heavily as I trek my way through the mud and wet plants. I see someone on his horse, but he looks friendly, so I run up to him.

I don’t really understand why he would be riding his horse while it is pouring rain, but I don’t give it a second thought. I can barely make out the shadows of the front gates of Skingrad. I’m running towards them when, you guessed it, something jumps out at me.

You’ve encountered a wild dog! I’m getting kinda tired of all these animals jumping out at me. I don’t understand why they always have to pick on me. Maybe they’re learned to communicate and they’ve formed a plan to piss me off as much as possible. Either way, I pull out my rusty dagger and slice the dog’s throat open. I loot the corpse, but the only thing that is on it is a spoon. You spoony dog! http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa120/85natrapS/Oblivion2008-04-2523-38-44-81.jpg Now seriously. At least a fork makes a little bit more sense than a spoon. You don’t slurp up a wild dog to eat it. Or maybe the dog was trying to use kitched untensils and failed miserably. I don’t have time to debate this, however. I’m so close to Skingrad! I pass by a vineyard as I run towards the gates.

I make a mental note to myself to check out the Vineyard when I have more time. Getting some wine and grapes might be useful later. I run to the gates and, finally, I’m in Skingrad. I see a couple cats walking outside in the rain. Cats in Oblivion apparently don’t mind the rain very much. It’s already 10:00pm, so I don’t have any time to explore the town. Plus, most shops are probably closed. I head in to the nearest inn, and pay for a room. I have about 150gp left, but I’ll sell my wares tomorrow in a general goods store. I run upstairs and go to sleep for eight hours.