Let's Play Morrowind: A Whole New World! is up.

I've figured it out! Those boots that Pemenie gave me aren't useless after all! After a bit of experimentation, I found that the initial blinding only attacks once, immediately on putting on the boots. If I have a high resistance to magicka when I put the boots on, I can resist being blinded, while still benefiting from the massively increased speed. Wearing the boots, I can walk faster than I used to be able to run! What's more, it's transformed levitation from an achingly slow and inefficient form of transport to combining the best effects of jump, fast swim, and water walking. I can go anywhere at speeds I hadn't dreamed of before!

I've also come to a realization, I think. You know that I came here against my will. The imperial guard grabbed me in the tavern, shoved me in irons, and shipped me here to Vvardenfell. I didn't want to be here, and there's still a part of me that resents the disruption of my life. When I left Seyda Neen, I had one goal in mind: get to Balmora, shove the package into Caius' hands, and then work enough to pay for passage back to High Rock.

It's been a month, almost. Kinda lost track of time, between exploring new areas, training with Caius, and running around Vvardenfell. And I'm richer than I've ever been in my life. I have twelve-thousand septims in pocket, and almost fifty-thousand septims' worth of looted goods in a chest in my Mages Guild quarters from my most recent excursion into the daedric ruins. At the same time, my abilities have risen far above what I was able to do in Jehanna.

At some point, it stopped being about getting home and started being about "We're onto a good thing here. How far can we take this?" Hell, I might even get around to investigating Vivec, after I've had my fill of exploration.

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When I teleported back to Ashalmimilkala--I swear they make the names hard to pronounce on purpose--I was greeted with a daedra cheerfully swinging an ebony staff at my face. I only survived because I was quick enough on my feet to get some room for summoning. When the daedra lay dead in the water, I gave it a few extra pokes, just to make sure it was dead.

Stepping out of the ruins, I saw two things that looked interesting: one of those dunmer strongholds to the east, and another daedric ruin to the south. I figured I could do both quickly enough.

The dunmer stronghold was first. Hlormaren had the standard few people who hated me on sight and required stabbing, but when I got to the bottom floor, I found a slaving operation instead. I grit my teeth, and looked for the slaver who looked most threatening so I could do some more stabbing. The slaves thanked me for their freedom. Strangely, none of the rest of the slavers objected to me walking in, stabbing one of them, and freeing their slaves. Maybe it was a change of heart, or maybe the head slaver was just a jerk to the rest of them.

Either way, after a short swim through Hlormaren's sewer system, I emerged in the Bitter coast, and made for the daedric ruin I'd spotted before. Ashurnibibi was like most daedric ruins I'd seen so far--all uncomfortable juts and spurs, with more angles than dyslexic heaven. Two orcs outside greeted me, and one even gave me a few tips on how to sneak more effectively. The inside, however, was a different story, with two orcs rushing me with warhammers. I shrugged, stabbed them, and collected the loot. I was much more surprised to find that there was also an underwater section, and a secret door with a trapped imperial legion member behind it. As he left, I took the time to loot a shrine, and stabbed the daedra that appeared when I touched the heart on the altar.

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As I studied my map, I realized I was pretty close to Seyda Neen. If I made for there, I could just take the silt-strider back to Balmora. However, from where I was standing, I could see a small town--even smaller than Gnaar Mok--and a sunken ship. Hla Oad turned out to be nothing special, so I forgot about it and kept moving. The ship was more interesting, with a number of small ash statues in the belly of the ship.

Most interesting, though, was what happened as I ambled towards Seyda Neen. I'd been musing to myself about how these boots had opened up a whole new world of transport to me, when a yodeling came from up even higher than I'd been. A man came rushing straight down, and crumpled on impact with a sickly squelch. When I checked his body, he had three scrolls that, if I was reading them right, would massively boost your ability to jump for a short time--short enough that the spell would die before you came back down, and so would the unfortunate caster.

I shrugged. Maybe the world is weird enough without my going out to find more of it.