Skyrim IV: Oblivion

[Avilan the Grey]

Actually, the Malacath Quest

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The cursed orc tribe was not a cruel act, it was to punish Chief Yamars who was a weak to protect his people. He was kinda an jerk and gloryhound who deserve to die. Skyrim quest are greyscale though (Some Daedric Quest). Sheogorath quest can also be intepreted as trying to sooth the mad emperor's mind.

A typical example where the third option is not available is the haunted house quest...

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You get roped into a quest with two options: Support the extremely evil Daedric Prince and torture a guy to death TWICE (same guy) OR side with the guy and instead help his just as evil Daedric Prince. It works just the other way, too; if you visit that shrine first, it is no better.
The third option I took was to simply kill the guy myself, outside, hence deliberately failing the quest.

Basically I want to be able to at least flat out refuse, and that would close the quest. I know it's not terribly important, but I hate to have open quests that I will not do, and I cannot close, in my log / journal.

[factotum]

Yeah, Skyrim really needs an "abort quest" option so you can get rid of stuff you either don't want to do or which has irretrievably bugged out...

[d12]

I haven't read this whole thread (nor all of the other threads before it), so sorry if this has been brought up before, but I have a question that I've kept forgetting to ask. On two occasions now I have had random NPCs (I don't remember whether they were named) approach me, give me an item (in one case an iron dagger with soul trap, in the other an elven shield with a bonus to blocked damage) and ask me to hold onto it for a while. These events were quite some time ago. Is there ever going to be a time when these NPCs return for the items they gave me, or was it some weird "random item drops out of the sky" random event?

As for the Black Star,

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I ended up getting it restored, so no reusable black soulgem for me. I dunno, I sort of like Azura and didn't feel like severing the star's connection to her. Kind of a roleplay-ish reason for my style, but there it is I suppose. i haven't really had to use it up to this point though. Weapon enchantments seem to last longer in Skyrim and soulgems seem more plentiful than in Oblivion.

Yup. Bethesda is sending a clear moral lesson. Being good gets you less content. No one let Jack Thompson's successors know.

The bitter, cynical side of me rejoices.

A typical example where the third option is not available is the haunted house quest...

Spoiler

Show

You get roped into a quest with two options: Support the extremely evil Daedric Prince and torture a guy to death TWICE (same guy) OR side with the guy and instead help his just as evil Daedric Prince. It works just the other way, too; if you visit that shrine first, it is no better.
The third option I took was to simply kill the guy myself, outside, hence deliberately failing the quest.

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You can side with the guy? Hmm, didn't know that. I loved the lead-in for that quest though. It was the first daedric quest I stumbled into, and I really wasn't expecting it after the shrine-finding to start every daedric quest in Oblivion, so it made for a nice surprise.

Basically I want to be able to at least flat out refuse, and that would close the quest. I know it's not terribly important, but I hate to have open quests that I will not do, and I cannot close, in my log / journal.

Oh yeah. I had to use the console to skip past a thieves guild quest that got bugged (something about it not showing up if you go to a certain location prior to starting that quest I think--I did a lot of aimless exploring early on before starting on many quests), and after the 1.4 patch it suddenly showed up, so I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

[Avilan the Grey]

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You can side with the guy? Hmm, didn't know that. I loved the lead-in for that quest though. It was the first daedric quest I stumbled into, and I really wasn't expecting it after the shrine-finding to start every daedric quest in Oblivion, so it made for a nice surprise.

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Well you have to find the book detailing his religious beliefs in the haunted house. That allows you to run off to the shrine of his Daedric prince.

I haven't read this whole thread (nor all of the other threads before it), so sorry if this has been brought up before, but I have a question that I've kept forgetting to ask. On two occasions now I have had random NPCs (I don't remember whether they were named) approach me, give me an item (in one case an iron dagger with soul trap, in the other an elven shield with a bonus to blocked damage) and ask me to hold onto it for a while. These events were quite some time ago. Is there ever going to be a time when these NPCs return for the items they gave me, or was it some weird "random item drops out of the sky" random event?

About 3 seconds after the guy runs off, the rightful owner of the item should run up to you, ask if you have seen the guy and then you can either lie and keep the item or hand it over to the second guy. In either event the second guy catches and kills the first guy (so no, he will never come back). Of course you can also kill the second guy and take the rest of his stuff, too...

[d12]

About 3 seconds after the guy runs off, the rightful owner of the item should run up to you, ask if you have seen the guy and then you can either lie and keep the item or hand it over to the second guy. In either event the second guy catches and kills the first guy (so no, he will never come back). Of course you can also kill the second guy and take the rest of his stuff, too...

Really? I don't believe that happened in either case. The instance with the dagger occurred in Dawnstar when I had just gotten the museum quest. I took it and just went on my way (may have fast travelled shortly thereafter). The second one was somewhere outside of Whiterun I think, near some kind of necromancy altar if I remember right (at the least, it was something unusual in the middle of the wilderness). The guy who gave the shield to me started sneaking off afterwards and I watched him for a while, because he seemed to be moving toward a couple giants, but eventually went on my way. Never approached by anybody asking about either item. At least I don't have to keep lugging them around just in case.

[Beowulf DW]

I love blackreach... I wish there was an option to start another hold in it's ruins. With the dragonborn as Jarl of course.

The place is big enough to fit Skyrim's entire population with room to spare. Combined with it's easily defensible entrances...Can you say "Helmsdeep Situation?" All of Skyrim could evacuate there in a time of war. Provided that you clear out all the Falmer, of course.

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Seriously, the size of that place is unreal. I went up one those elevators thinking that it was a convenient way to get in and out that Bethesda had put in to let you unload loot and such. But then I saw all the elevators. Judging by the positions of the elevators, Blackreach must stretch under a third of Skyrim's total area. I saw a giant and a dragon down there, for Pete's sake!

[Triaxx]

Blackreach: Check out the lower map

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Blackreach

[Triaxx]

Blackreach: Check out the lower map

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Blackreach

[Silverraptor]

Where do I get the next summon zombie spell? I have raise zombie and reanimate corpse. But now I'm starting to encounter creatures slightly stronger than reanimate corpse, so its time to find a more zombie raising spell.

[druid91]

Where do I get the next summon zombie spell? I have raise zombie and reanimate corpse. But now I'm starting to encounter creatures slightly stronger than reanimate corpse, so its time to find a more zombie raising spell.

Phinis at the college of winterhold.

He's the conjuration professor... as an aside, if you find a staff with reanimate on it... keep it. Staff animated minions don't disintigrate when time runs out.

As a further aside if you don't mind leveling up restoration I think necromage can increase the level of undead you can animate.

[Socratov]

Well, the whoel problem between the empire, the aldmeri and the nords is this: the almeri are plain evil and want to rule the world and lead it to purity (ok, not mentioned in so much words, but this is heavily implied). the Empire neds the Nords, the Orcs and the redguards to fight. those races are best in fighting and the empire knows that. So while the empire is regaining their strength, they need to give up a few minor things (at least, according to the empire). So the altmer play the "religious purity" card. The Nords have their beserkbutton (Talos is their version of the All-father after all) pushed and rebel (I can only assume the altmer know this and wanted this).

Now, it gets interesting after the completion of the Stormcloak questline... I sincerely hope the add-on will feature an aldmeri dominion attack, that would be awesome.

[ArlEammon]

Well, the whoel problem between the empire, the aldmeri and the nords is this: the almeri are plain evil and want to rule the world and lead it to purity (ok, not mentioned in so much words, but this is heavily implied). the Empire neds the Nords, the Orcs and the redguards to fight. those races are best in fighting and the empire knows that. So while the empire is regaining their strength, they need to give up a few minor things (at least, according to the empire). So the altmer play the "religious purity" card. The Nords have their beserkbutton (Talos is their version of the All-father after all) pushed and rebel (I can only assume the altmer know this and wanted this).

Now, it gets interesting after the completion of the Stormcloak questline... I sincerely hope the add-on will feature an aldmeri dominion attack, that would be awesome.

I'd pay to see the Dragonborn lure the Aldmeri troops to Secunda's Kiss.

[Silverraptor]

Phinis at the college of winterhold.

He's the conjuration professor... as an aside, if you find a staff with reanimate on it... keep it. Staff animated minions don't disintigrate when time runs out.

As a further aside if you don't mind leveling up restoration I think necromage can increase the level of undead you can animate.

I've been to him and leveled up conjuration as much as possible. But I'm looking for the next zombie spell and it doesn't seem like he sells it. Unless I'm blind, of course.

[Muz]

So there's a new high-res texture pack out today for PC. It's a 3GB download. Anyone care to have a look and do some before/after screenshots?

Oh, and something about a Creation Kit...

[Beowulf DW]

I've been to him and leveled up conjuration as much as possible. But I'm looking for the next zombie spell and it doesn't seem like he sells it. Unless I'm blind, of course.

What's the highest level zombie spell you have? It seems that the highest three of that particular type are Revenant, Dread Zombie, and Dread Thrall.

I'm going to be making a Conjuration-focused Breton soon, but I'll be sticking to the Summoned weapons and the Atronachs, myself.

[Gullintanni]

It's hard not to notice that Skyrim puts a morally ambiguous spin on just about everything. I always took this to mean that Bethesda's vision for Skyrim was for a place rife with corruption, internal conflict and brutality.

It's basically The Elder Scrolls: Grimdark Edition. Or if you prefer, Grimdark-lite. Because as morally bankrupt as Skyrim can be, it still doesn't really compare to 40K.

Also, Re: Black Soul Gems and not wasting souls, consider that even if you target only evil humanoids, what you're in effect doing is denying these people an afterlife. Instead, their souls are bound inside a gem until such a time as you decide to bind said souls to a weapon. Or worse still, you spend the soul that occupies a weapon, only so that you can shunt your newly captured soul into the weapon, and throw use of it's power, fragment and destroy said soul.

I mean...even if you're only targeting bandits, that seems pretty evil to me.

[druid91]

I've been to him and leveled up conjuration as much as possible. But I'm looking for the next zombie spell and it doesn't seem like he sells it. Unless I'm blind, of course.

They only sell the ones of your rank.

Level up conjuration to the next rank (IE qualify in levels for adept, master, whatever) and he'll have it.

Which is why alteration was annoying for me to level... all the good training spells are adept.

In any case. Dead thrall is awesome.

[Volthawk]

A high-resolution texture pack has been released on Steam for free.

[t209]

Well, the whoel problem between the empire, the aldmeri and the nords is this: the almeri are plain evil and want to rule the world and lead it to purity (ok, not mentioned in so much words, but this is heavily implied). the Empire neds the Nords, the Orcs and the redguards to fight. those races are best in fighting and the empire knows that. So while the empire is regaining their strength, they need to give up a few minor things (at least, according to the empire). So the altmer play the "religious purity" card. The Nords have their beserkbutton (Talos is their version of the All-father after all) pushed and rebel (I can only assume the altmer know this and wanted this).

Now, it gets interesting after the completion of the Stormcloak questline... I sincerely hope the add-on will feature an aldmeri dominion attack, that would be awesome.

Talos is not just all father to Nords, it is for the empire.

[Muz]

So there's a new high-res texture pack out today for PC. It's a 3GB download. Anyone care to have a look and do some before/after screenshots?

Oh, and something about a Creation Kit...

A high-resolution texture pack has been released on Steam for free.

It's official. My posts are invisible to anyone but me.

[Volthawk]

It's official. My posts are invisible to anyone but me.

Ah, my quick searches of this page didn't find that (due to 'res' bringing up 'rest' and the like, I just checked 'rez' and 'resu', which is why I didn't see it).

[userpay]

The Creation Kit appears to have been released. In Steam go to your game library, set the filter to tools, find the Creation Kit entry, right click it and hit install.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Aye, Creation Kit and High-Res texture pack. Downloading texture pack, will post impressions as compared to the 2K High-Res Texture Pack and various other texture packs from Nexus.

[Socratov]

ooh double quoted *ego rising*

Talos is not just all father to Nords, it is for the empire.

yes, but only in the eyes of the Nords he is worshipped as the all father, especially while the Empire allowed the Aldmeri dominion to outlaw and persecute Talos worship, it just thoes Nords who are that strongheaded

[Beowulf DW]

Furthermore the nords are the ones who made the empire to begin with. 500 Nord warriors wiped out an entire elven civilization. The nords are some seriously Bad#@% People.

There is a reason that when the Nords finally got to the fight in the great war the Thalmor army was quite litterally obliterated. They barely had enough troops left in Cyrodiil to keep the bluff up through the White-gold Concordat.

Less than 500, actually. There were 500 in Atmora, but they lost one ship in the crossing.

Also, the Thalmor army in Cyrodiil was completely obliterated. The Empire only sent word to the Thalmor when they realized they needed more time to prepare for Round 2.

Also, I'd like to point out that the Thalmor wanted the Civil War to continue indefinitely. Ulfric winning was won of their worst case scenarios. The sudden appearance of the Dragonborn throws a monkey-wrench into their whole plan.

Let's face it, the Dhovakiin is pretty much the second coming of Talos Stormcrown (yes, that was his full Nord name). Ulfric dubs the Dragonborn "Stormblade" and considers the Dragonborn as his adoptive kin by the end of the civil war. Ulfric (and by extension Bethesda) is clearly drawing parallels between the Dragonborn and Talos, much the same way he tries to draw comparisons between himself and Ysgramor.

P.S. To those saying that the Stormcloaks are a cult of personality and also that most of them are just simple farmers: you're wrong. It gets mentioned several times that most of the Stormcloaks were once part of the Legion. The Legion falls apart the same way the Stormcloaks would if Tullius is killed. As to what would have happened if Alduin hadn't interrupted the executions, there's no consensus on that in the game. Some NPCs think the rebellion would have ended. Others felt that the Nords would have seen the Empire for "what it really is" and the uprising would have gained momentum.

[pffh]

Oh my gosh oh my gosh creation kit! And since it functions just like morrowinds I've already started on my first dungeon. It will be under whiterun and feature a skeletal dragon and traps. Puzzle and trap ideas more then welcome.

[Maxios]

...I really wish that I had Skyrim on the PC

[druid91]

Hmm, Perhaps a puzzle room? Where opening one bridge closes another?

Otherwise, a pressure plate that swings a bridge in horizontally to seal off an area....


behind you.

Your precious follower is no longer there! Maybe even put in a quest follower just for this purpose.

[AgentPaper]

Ah! Can't believe I missed the new thread for so long. Is the editor out yet? Where do I get it? I've got a mod to make!

[pffh]

Argh I had forgotten how much of a pain it was to place lightsources since the editor does not give an accurate representation of how much light each source gives so I must physically enter the place in game to see if it's to much or to little.

In other news I'm now the proud owner of a cave entrance and a largish cave that look like they have around three suns in them.