From Garn's recollections:

The Fame and the Fury

"The Arena."

Having left Modryn Oreyn to see to my Fighter’s Guild business I decided that it was time for something a little different - some much deserved time off, perhaps. I returned to the capitol city to plot my next move as well as finally offload the considerable spoils that I had amassed in the previous months to the usual storekeepers and traders in the Market District. During this time I finally, mostly out of curiosity, visited the Arena. After watching and betting on a few low and mid-level gladiatorial matches I began to wonder if participating myself might be a good way to earn some extra gold while I was taking some time off of adventuring. It had also occurred to me that mingling with other gladiators as well as appearing in front of such a large audience could finally give me a break or at least some hints to discovering my still unknown past.

"That joke would probably go over a lot better in a place not so filled with necromancers and undead abominations."

Owyn, one of the Blademasters in the Arena and the one that everyone directed me to speak to about joining, was at first entirely dismissive of my interest in becoming a gladiator even after I offered him my Fighter’s Guild credentials. After I returned a second time, wearing my full armor and adventuring gear, he seemed to take much more interest in my claims and decided to offer me a spot, though only as a lowly “Pit Dog”. It was no matter, I was sure I could rise through the ranks rather quickly and was actually fairly relieved that I would be built up as anything too remarkable.

"One down..."

My first fight was a surreal experience: walking up the ramp from the Bloodworks while listening to the announcer describe the combatants, being blinded by the sun as I stepped outside, drawing my sword and kicking the dirt under my sandals as I waited for the gate to open, and the monstrous roaring of the crowd as I effortlessly blocked her attack and cleaved my Daedric blade into my Bosmer opponent's side. While the fight wasn’t any more difficult for me than it would be taking on a more aggressive bandit or marauder the stage of exhibition made the whole thing feel like something much different. I held up my hands and the crowd went wild. I had won my first match.

"Standing ready as the Argonian prisoners charge."

I fought a match or two every two or three days advancing through the ranks until I came to one of my first legitimate challenges. As my initiation for reaching the “Gladiator” rank I was to fight three Argonian prisoners. They were only lightly armed and protected but if they won they were to be given their freedom – a more meaningful prize than I or anyone else here was fighting for. I knew that they would fight hard and indeed they did. While I tried to pepper them with lightning and fire spells to keep them at a distance they were too quick and soon cornered me. Distracted by the melee, I let one of the three got around behind me and he began trying to choke me to the ground. It was a desperate fight for all involved but soon I was able to drop my first Argonian, and then a second, until finally it was just a one on one competition. The last Argonian and I circled each other, both out of breath, but not taking our eyes off of one another for even a moment. When he finally sprang for me I rolled under his swipe and swung at his legs, slicing into his calf and sending him tumbling into the dirt. I leaped to my feet and drove my blade into his chest as he struggled to gather himself. Another glorious victory - I was starting to get addicted to this.

Soon my reputation for decisive wins was gaining me some considerable fandom. Owyn told me that the crowd had nicknamed me “The Crimson Blade” after the strange red metal of my Daedric longsword. Enjoying this, I adopted the name officially rather than trying to further advertise my true identity. After all, I was pretty vulnerable to assassination attempts while fighting in the Arena and I still didn’t know who could be after me at that point.

"Dude, I hate to tell you this but your mom was kind of a dick!"

I also began to befriend some of the other gladiators including the enigmatic “Gray Prince”, the current Grand Champion of the Arena. His real name was Agronak gro-Malog , a half-orc whose fighting ability was legendary and whose whole life seemed to be wrapped up in the honor and fame of gladiatorial combat. Still, there was one thing that seemed to distract him: upon hearing that I had spent a considerable time adventuring he told me about how his father was a Lord but due to him being born out of an affair he was never able to claim his birthright. He proposed to me that if I were still up to adventuring I should enter the ruins of an old fortress called Crowhaven to look for proof of his noble birth. He even had a key which he believed would get me into the inner chambers of the fortress. As I respected Agronak and his request seemed steeped in sincerity I took a brief break from my regular Arena fights to honor his request.

"Great, I haven't even set foot in the place and I'm already facing hordes of enemies."

Crowhaven had definitely fallen into ruin yet it wasn’t quite abandoned. I encountered a variety of undead creatures lurking therein with increasing frequency until at last I was ambushed by a vampire, and quite an aggressive one at that. Having survived the attack (though sustaining some minor injuries) I continued searching the fortress only to discover some disturbing knowledge: evidence of Agronak’s birth indeed, but apparently his father, Lord Lovidicus, was a vampire. In fact, he was the very vampire that I had just slain! I gathered up all of the pertinent information: a journal and some letters and quickly returned to the Imperial City to tell Agronak the news. He was thrilled about my return but refused to hear me out nor to read what I had brought back until he had finished his training regime. Talking to him the next day it was evident that he was devastated by the thought of being what he considered a spawn of evil. It was not my place, nor was I of the heart to console him on such matters.

"The Champion and I square off."

I continued to rise up through the ranks and gain more and more popularity until, after surviving another rather outmatched battle, I finally gained the rank of Champion myself. I had risen to the top but to truly test myself I decided to do what few had done before me and challenge Grand Champion, The Gray Prince.

"Here goes nothing... no, literally. What a disappointing fight."

Agronak rushed me and swung at me with a ferociousness and anger I had rarely faced in all of my battles – the rumors of his excellent swordsmanship hadn’t been exaggerated. No sooner than the thought having only just occurred to me that I might have finally met my match, I was shocked to see Agronak purposely lower his blade. “Do it!” he screamed. It took me a moment to realize what was happening but by then it was too late – my sword was already traveling with some speed swords his neck. I had done it, I had defeated the Gray Prince. The crowd was none the wiser about what transpired and I decided right there and then to keep it that way, to let Agronak’s memory live on in honor despite the self-loathing he held for himself after learning of his terrible origins.

I had bested all that the Imperial City Arena could throw at me, I had experienced the lifestyle of a famed gladiator, and I now held yet another position of prestige for whatever that was worth. Still, I was no closer to learning of my past. I hadn’t felt any twinge of familiarity whilst battling below the grandstands, I hadn’t run into any familiar characters from my past, nor had I appeared to have been noticed by anyone who was previously familiar with me me during the couple of months I spent as a dedicated gladiator. It was time for something else: more adventure, more work, but now it was time to look into my gift with the magics and pay a visit to the Arcane University.

I’ve continued to play some Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 online here and there until relatively recently. I think I finally reached that “eh, I’m good enough at this now…” stage of burn out which I also reached before max level in the previous two Modern Warfare games. Interestingly though, my load outs are fairly different. In MW2 I had developed a mean hyper-aggressive, hip-firing shotgun build and would even occasionally whip out a pretty effective sniping build on certain maps. In the original MW I had several assault rifle builds but one of my favorites was a hip-firing, fast reloading, high rate of fire sub-machine gun build. Coming full circle back to MW3 I found myself most effective with a pretty similar sub-machine gun build again. Great game, for what it is. Expect me to talk more about it (and probably more negatively about it) sometime when the future when I get around to playing through the single player campaign.

Oh yeah, I also briefly revisited my Minecraft addiction as well when a friend of mine put up a certain... still a ton of fun! I didn't do much cooperative building but I did carve out a little niche of my own and own and do plenty of exploring.

"I built this seriously huge canal before remembering that they changed the way water physics worked online and I couldn't actually flood it properly. :/"

Star Wars: The Old Republic quickly came and went from my roster as well. Great game! I’ve definitely never felt so attached to my character or so drawn into the story of an MMORPG before, yet at the end of the day it is still a fairly cookie-cutter MMORPG and despite really enjoying it I decided that, at least for now, I would get more (and cheaper) enjoyment out of sticking with single-player titles. I’ve got such a huge backlog and tons of planned reviews for this blog and whatnot as it is, and with me spending so little time gaming lately, it just doesn’t seem worthwhile to invest so much time into yet another MMORPG. I do expect to return to this and finish out my main character's story eventually, but for now... cancelled!

"I actually modeled my Sith Inquisitor after my old UO character."

Speaking of my backlog, I just finished Shadow Complex on XBLA. Yes, I know this came out in 2009 and I’m massively late to the party (as usual) but wow, what a game! It’s no wonder so many people were raving over it at the time. For the uninitiated, the game takes the classic “metrovania” formula (probably an understatement: it is very much a direct rip-off of Super Metroid’s gameplay) and throws it into a slick, modern setting with a nice 3D engine to back it up. Don’t let the mention of it being 3D scare you – it’s still very much a 2D side scrolling platformer like the aforementioned Metroid and Castlevania games, though Chair did at least have the sensibility to use the more modern engine for things like in-engine cut-scenes and 2.5D environments. Let me explain the 2.5D thing: it means enemies can be in the background rather than only on the same plane as your character which may sound confusing but it generally works pretty well even with the occasional targeting oddities. It's used pretty effectively, allowing for a lot more enemies on screen without cluttering things up and just greatly enhancing the perception of depth in the environment in general.

"If you can't explore it, shoot it."

While the 3D graphics are nice and the polished presentation much appreciated, probably what impressed me most were all of the tiny little updates to the Super Metroid formula. Just little things, like using a flashlight to see what objects and doors were accessible/useable with what items, color coding those same doors on your mini-map for later reference, highlighting the route to your next objective, etc. Perhaps some of those intelligent tweaks aren’t new to the genre, as other than playing the DS Castlevania games I really haven’t played anything like this recently, but they’re all here and all work exceptionally well. Some of the item and weapon additions were quite cool as well and despite the game always highlighting your next goal there could be a lot of flexibility in what paths and methods you used to reach it if you want to explore and use your imagination a bit. I’m quite thankful for all of this as I was a little concerned before I got started that this would be one giant, tedious slog through backtracking hell… but no, it’s very easy to keep track of where you have and haven’t been, what secrets you have and haven’t unlocked, etc. and it only gets more and more fun to play as you progress.

"Judo chop!"

Highly recommended if you were a fan of Super Metroid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night or games of their ilk or, hell, even just a fan of 2D platformers in general. I definitely got my 15 bucks worth and I’ll probably play it again at some point in the future to go after more of the map secrets and challenges. Now if only they’d develop a new Metroid or Castlevania in this engine… *drool*

From Garn's recollections:

Hist Heist

The Blackwood Company's presence in Leyawiin was hard to ignore - they had a hall directly across from the Fighter's Guild hall which, to add insult to injury, was larger and grander in every way. My hand on the pommel of my sword, I cautiously entered. The hall porter referred me to an Argonian named Jeetum-Ze who at first seemed to recognize me. I was worried for a moment but then the Argonian scoffed it off and said that he had a lot of Fighter's Guild members defecting to the Blackwood Company for work so my association with them was of no concern. After interviewing me further he agreed to let me tag along to a new member evaluation and training mission and sent me to a basement room where some other prospective members had gathered for their assignment.

"Well, it was a good plan while it lasted."

Jeetum-Ze joined us after only a few minutes to tell us about the job. Apparently the villagers at Water's Edge just north of the city had reported a goblin infestation and we were to handle it. This sounded like a reasonable first task for a group of four new recruits - most goblins were easy fare for experienced fighters so even if it were swarming with them we should be up to the task. Before we set off Jeetum-Ze demanded that we all partake of a potion to aid us in battle as part of a Blackwood Company traditional ritual. When I inquired with him about what it was he told me that Hist tree sap. I expressed my surprise that they had been smuggling in Hist Sap from Black Marsh but he laughed at the notion, admitting instead that the Blackwood Company had brought a entire Hist tree back to Cyrodiil with them. Intriguing, but not much else at the time. The four of us toasted and downed the strange concoction then prepared to head out.

"Let the goblin slaughter commence!"

At Water's Edge we found the village overrun with Goblins, as reported. They roamed the streets, they infested houses, they were positively everywhere. Thankfully these seemed to be a relatively weak variety of goblin and most fell without even putting up much of a fight. Soon enough we had cleared out the entire place. We were preparing to leave, sending one of the recruits to ride ahead in order let Jeetum-Ze know that it was safe for the villagers to return. That was the last thing I remember before waking up in Modryn Oreyn's house in Chorrol. Modryn told me that I was found passed out in the streets of Leyawiin and some guild brothers brought me to him. When were began discussing the mission's progress and I told him about the Hist Sap he was amazed. He explained how Argonians ritualistically used the powerful sap to communicate with the Hist trees but he had never heard of non-Argonians taking the stuff and suspected that it was the reason I lost consciousness. He was to investigate further and in the meantime wanted me to return to Water's Edge to independently check on the status of the contract.

"Umm... oops?"

In Water's Edge I returned to a grizzly sight - There were bodies piled high in the streets but much to my surprised they were not goblin bodies. Where we had slain goblins now lay villagers. Something had gone terribly wrong. Had the Hist Sap made us hallucinate, or maybe even controlled us to commit this crime? Even so, the orders came from the Blackwood Company beforehand and where quite explicit. To what end would they do this? I was sickened by my participation in this tragedy and returned back to Chorrol to relay the horrible news with hope that Modryn might have some insight.

Modryn assured me that the massacre at Water's Edge was in no way my fault and asked me to instead focus on our next move. He theorized that the Hist Sap was the key to the Blackwood Company's seemingly unnatural power and that it might also explain their insane behavior at times. The mission was obvious - head back to the Blackwood Company hall and attempt to locate and sabotage the Hist tree and their stores of sap. I'd have to go it alone as I was the only member of the guild who had infiltrated them and we agreed that a more direct assault could be disastrous given their growing size and power, never mind that we didn't have any official backing from the Fighter's Guild on the matter.

"Does this mean I finally get to kill all of you Blackwood motherfuckers? Yes!"

When I entered the Blackwood Company hall I was immediately halted by the porter and a retinue of guards. Soon other members gathered including Ja'Fazir, their second in command. Ja'Fazir drew his sword and proclaimed me to be a traitor, ordering the Blackwood Company to dispatch me. Surprised, I drew my sword, raised my shield, and began to back away while I prepared to summon help from the Daedra. Underestimating me, some of the lower ranked guards and probationary members were first to come at me. I dropped my shield and cleaved one, cleanly passing his armor, into the neck. I cast a powerful lightning arch at another. The Dremora I had summoned tied some of the others up as I rushed towards Ja'Fazir. Ja'Fazir seemed to be a capable mage as well as a swordsman and we locked into a fierce sword fight, stopping at times to hurl lightning and firebolts at each other. Soon the fight was over as I timed one of my spells perfectly and set him aflame. I looked around to find the skirmish completely over - I had just slain the core of the Blackwood Company.

"Ack! Cut that shit out!"

Largely free of the restriction of being overseen by guards and other members, I then searched the Blackwood Company hall for signs of the tree. I located a locked door that seemed to be worth investigating but it was too secure to bash open or even my strongest spells and I had no luck picking the lock. I set off into the upper rooms and offices to try to find a key or some other way of opening the door. Instead what I found was Ri'Zakar, the leader of the Blackwood Company, apparently waiting for me. The battle that unfolded was fierce, I had to summon another Dremora just to even the odds a bit. Ri'Zakar must have confused the Dremora with me because of my Daedric armor and foolishly focused on it, giving me opportunity to focus on attacking from afar with spells. Just as he finished off the Dremora I blasted him with a fireball that blew him off his feet, sending him smashing into a bookself, dead. I found a ring of keys on his belt and returned to the suspicious door on the ground level.

"Burning the hist tree: Now where are my marshmallows at?"

On the other side of the door was a staircase leading down to a small courtyard on the basement level of the hall, a huge Hist tree sat in the middle, with all kinds of odd machinery surrounding it. The machinery, which Jeetum-Ze had made a passing reference to when first talking about the Hist tree, was evidently crucial in helping the tree survive in the foreign client so I figured destroying it would help ensure the destruction of the tree. After dispatching two of the attending Blackwood Company mages, I bashed the machine to pieces, break pipes, jamming levers, and causing whatever damage I could. I also set the tree ablaze for good measure. Modryn said that the Argonias believe the Hist trees are living, intelligent beings. If this is true I hope I'll be forgiven for dispatching this one in such a cruel manner.

"Oh, how I've been looking forward to cleaving your stubby little Elvish head in half, Maglir!"

Exiting the Blackwood Company hall I was greeted by Maglir, shortsword in hand. Surprised to see that it was me who had caused the destruction surrounding us, he cursed the day I joined the Fighter's Guild and charged haphazardly towards me. Maglir, evidently overcome with anger over losing his new and more fruitful job after deserting the Fighter's Guild, fell swiftly as in two quick motions I parried his attack and returned my own, slicing deep below his shoulder, through the meager protection of his armor and into the soft flesh of his armpit. It occurred to me that Maglir's death might earn me an initial denouncement from the Fighter's Guild but I was sure my actions would be quickly proven justified once everything was revealed. Attempting to appear as inconspicuous as possible, I left the scene and rode back to Chorrol.

"Free hard work and responsibilities I didn't ask for? Sign me up!"

In Chorrol I updated Modryn on the situation. He was quite pleased with the results - vengeance was served, though justice had not been completely done yet. I decided to return to the guild hall to see if I could talk Vilena into restoring Modryn's place in the guild. Vilena was quite shocked to learn of all that had transpired. While Modryn had intentionally kept her in the dark about many of the details surrounding the guild's conflict with the Blackwood Company, Vilena seemed to have the wool over her eyes even further than I had ever suspected. She seemed to realize this fact though, and after further questioning, thanked me for my part and decided that she would step down as Guildmaster and hand the title to me. I was surprised to say the least. My first order of business was to name Modryn as my second in command and place him in charge of handling the day to day operation of the guild so that I could continue concentrating on my original goals. One thing was for sure, there was no avoiding notoriety now...

Stupidly enough, when Maglir attacked me during the last part of the quest it somehow flagged me as killing a Fighter's Guild member despite Maglir attacking me first and not even technically being a member of the guild at that point in the story. This meant when returning to Modryn and Vilena to finish the quest line they pretty much told me I was an asshole and to fuck right off. Needless to say I was quite confused as that was far from the reaction I was expecting...

In general, I'm not a big fan of the Fighter's Guild quest line in Oblivion. Most of the missions are of the very simple "go to this cave and kill something/everything and/or find this item" variety and I never quite understood the Blackwood Company's motives in the latter parts of the story arc. We learned that their strength and boldness in challenging the Fighter's Guild may have been because of the effects of the Hist Sap that they're all slurping down constantly, but other than the Water's Edge incident we don't really see them doing anything all that "evil". Was having a Hist tree and drinking its sap evil? The conflict with the Fighter's Guild mostly seemed like businesses squabbling over territory. The Water's Edge incident is a bit more confusing - I suppose it could be explained as an unintentional side effect of the fact that the new recruits had yet to become used to the effects of the Hist Sap but then why did we receive a mission from higher up to go kill goblins at all if there weren't actually any there? Was Jeetum-Ze and/or the rest of the Company actually trying to get us to mass murder villagers and, if so, why? Perhaps there really were some goblins reported in the area and the job was legitimate? Hmph! I suppose what I'm getting at is that they never seemed all that evil to me, and the one truly evil thing they did never made much logical sense to me... but we murdered them all regardless. Theories?

From Garn's recollections:

Theft and Abduction

As soon as I stepped into the Anvil guild hall I was greeted by Azzan who told me that he only had one contract on the books for me, but he had me in mind for it and wanted it taken care of as soon as possible. The job sounded interesting: apparently the Stone of Saint Alessia, a religious artifact of some significance to followers of the Nine, had been stolen from the Chapel of Talos in Bruma and I was to track it down and see it returned. I joined in a small banquet with some of my Fighter's Guild brothers and then set off on the long ride north from Anvil to Bruma.

"Like a sore thumb, the Chapel of Talos in Bruma."

Arriving at the Great Chapel of Talos in Bruma I was quickly greeted by Cirroc who introduced himself as the chapel's resident healer. Cirroc said that 4 or 5 men were spotted leaving the chapel and heading east on the road out of the city on the night that the artifact was stolen. Bandits? Thieves? Pagans? It didn't really matter - I left immediately, mounted up, and began riding along the road to the east.

Soon I came upon a lone Khajiit limping along the road back towards the city. By his dress I suspected that he was a bandit or a thief of some sort so I rode up upon him, leveled my sword to his throat, and began to question him. Surprisingly the Khajiit gave no resistance at all - without much prompting he fully admitted to being part of the group of thieves who had stolen the stone and that he suspected I was the one who was hired to retrieve it. He then told me that the gang had camped near the Ayleid ruin of Sedor when they were ambushed in the night by a large group of ogres. Apparently he was the only one who managed to get away. With the stone most likely in the possession of the ogres now I sheathed my sword and rode onward to the east.

"Almost more appealing than staying out here in the biting, frigid cold... almost."

True to his word I found the freshly devastated site of the camp exactly as the Khajiit thief had described it. There wasn't too much to investigate though as it had apparently been looted clean by the ogres. Given the proximity to it, I figured there was a good chance that the ogres lived in the old ruins and made my way there. While Sedor resembled most Ayleid ruins on the surface when I breached the subterranean level it was obvious that something else had been living there, and recently too.

"It's an ogre party!"

Creeping into the lower passages it was only a matter of time before I encountered my first ogre. Soon, one ogre became two, and then three, with the sounds of battle attracting them from all around. By the time I had cleared the ruin I had faced more ogres than I'd ever encountered in one place before and they were of a particularly fierce variety as well. Still, between my blade and my magic they posed little threat to me. I then tended to the unpleasant task of rummaging through their stores to find the precious artifact. Finally I found the stone placed carefully upon an pedestal - apparently the church weren't the only ones fond of it.

Azzan had no more contracts for me and didn't think Burz did either. Work was really starting to dry up for the Guild. When I made a casual mention of the Blackwood Company being at least partly to blame Azzan dropped several hints that I should give Modryn Oreyn a visit at his home in Chorrol. Curious... and at his home? Having nothing else on my agenda I set off back up north to Chorrol.

A rather dejected and somewhat washed-up looking Modryn answered his door. He explained how he had been relieved of his title and his duties in the Fighter's Guild after the death of Viranus Donton. He didn't seem too upset about it though, at least not in contrast to his focus on exposing and/or destroying the Blackwood Company. In fact apparently his time away from the guild had proven quite productive, as he had already started hatching a plan to delve deeper into uncovering their secrets.

""Seriously, you can just say we're going to torture him for information. It's not like I haven't already ruthlessly murdered like 500 people for you..."

Modryn wanted to capture some high-ranking members of the group. This might have been fairly challenging under normal circumstances but he had learned of a camp being setup in a cave off of the Orange Road, to the east of the city. He theorized that this new hideout was probably meant to be strategically located near the Fighter's Guild's headquarters in Chorrol, perhaps they even had plans for a full scale war against the Guild. Regardless, one of their leaders, an Argonian mage named Ajum-Kajin, was said to be overseeing the project. Modryn then asked me if I'd do the honors of attempting to infiltrate the hideout and capture the Arongian. He feared that his Guild status and notoriety made him pretty poor choice for pulling such a stunt. I was definitely no fan of the Blackwood Company and had of course witnessed some of their schemes first hand so gladly volunteered to help out Modryn even if this time the job came without pay.

Glademist Cave was dusty, well lit with torches, with corridors lined with fresh supplies. Further into the cave I started coming across Blackwood Company guards. Although I had hoped to make a stealthy infiltration the layout of the cave system made avoiding direct action impossible. Perhaps if I had been able to disguise myself as a Blackwood Company member, but alas, after the first time I was spotted I was left with little choice but to slaughter my way to my goal. The Blackwood Company guards and other workers here seemed to be fairly inexperience and fell easily. Soon I was face to face with my target.

"Fancy meeting you here, my friend!"

The Argonian called for his guards but upon hearing nothing but silence in response, agreed to come with me. I lead him out of the cave with the tip of my sword in his back, then tied him up, blind folded him, threw him on my horse, and brought him to Modryn's house.

"This is where it gets ugly... (Argonian joke!)"

Untying Ajum-Kajin and having him sit down, Modryn and I began to interrogate him. He wasn't cooperative at first. Modryn insisted we force him to talk but I decided to try to win him over by making it seem like we were sympathetic to him. At first he refused to have any of it but eventually I succeeded in swaying him a little. We learned of the Company's size and who their leader was, but as we started to put more and more pressure on him to provide more details he suddenly screamed in defiance and exploded into a fireball nearly taking us up with him. He must have had some sort of enchanted item on him, or had some kind of a suicide spell, but regardless our interrogation was widely unsuccessful.

Modryn's next course of action was slightly less direct but perhaps much more risky: He suggested that I infiltrate the Blackwood Company itself by pretending to be a perspective member. This was definitely a surefire way to learn more about them but how long would it take? Still, it seemed like an easy way to get started, providing of course that my identity hadn't been linked to any of the previous assaults on the Company. I rode for Leyawiin while Modryn stayed behind to clean up the mess...

From Garn's recollections:

Trolls and Traps

My next assignment was another seemingly typical job from my Fighter's Guild experience up till that point. Modryn asked me to check up on a band of Guild members who were supposed to be cleaning out a troll infested cave but hadn't been heard back from in some time. Modryn was particularly troubled by this one though, as the group was headed up by none other than Viranus Donton, the son of the Guildmaster whom I had brought along with me on an earlier assignment as a sort of confidence building and mentoring exercise. He was sure Viranus and his group would be able to handle the assignment and, even if it had been taking longer than anticipated, would have kept in communication with the Guild. Off I went to "Forsaken Mine" located near the city of Leyawiin.

"I like my trolls served flaming hot."

As soon as I entered the old mine it became obvious that something had gone terribly awry - there were a few bodies of Fighter's Guild members scattered throughout the various shafts and rooms. Of course, I discovered troll corpses as well, but nothing that seemed to indicate that the trolls were putting up a particularly fierce fight. Curious, I checked the bodies of some of the dead Guild members and noted that they seemed to have mostly been struck by weapons - swords, axes, and arrows. Trolls are not known to be very intelligent creatures and definitely did not use more than the most primitive weapons such as sticks and rocks in my experience. While this was quite puzzling the riddle was soon solved in blunt fashion: amongst the bodies I found the body of a man wearing the telltale armor of the Blackwood Company. Had the Blackwood Company been here as well? It seemed likely that they were responsible for whatever happened here. Still, I had yet to encounter a body recognizable as as Viranus and had started to encounter the more and more living trolls so I figured I'd continue exploring the mines and at least attempt to finish the original contract.

"Found him!"

I did eventually discover Viranus's body. I found a bloody journal laying nearby which was quite revealing. It seemed that Viranus's group was clearing out the trolls when Blackwood Company members suddenly ambushed. As quickly as they appeared they then vanished. Viranus was gravely wounded in the attack but managed to crawl away and record his last moments in the journal as some of the surviving trolls searched for him. A disturbing end and one that would no doubt trouble the leadership of The Fighter's Guild to as of yet unforeseen levels.

"Rank amateurs? That's all he has to say after that?"

Modryn was quite angry. I could see the hatred in his eyes has he cursed the Blackwood Company and vowed revenge. He told me that he'd break the bad news to Vilena, the Guildmaster, himself but asked me to keep a low profile in the meantime. Given the circumstance and respecting Modryn's wishes, I decided to ride far back to the East to see if Burz had any work for me at the Cheydinhal guild hall.

Good old Burz gro-Khash had a simple job, or at least it would have been pretty simple if he weren't so concerned with berating me about making sure I did it properly. Still, I was getting used to his temperament and he was an Orc after all. I was tasked with locating and returning Orc nobleman Lord Rugdumph gro-Shurgak's missing daughter. An Orc nobleman? Perhaps there was more to Burz's tone this time around.

Arriving at Lord Rugdumph's Estate I spoke with Lord Rugdumph himself about the contract. While Lord Rugdumph was quite an interesting character the case seemed pretty cut and dry: his daughter was likely abducted by a group of ogres who lived in a nearby cave. Off I went.

"Look at these cute little guys!"

After a short hike around the perimeter of the estate looking for clues I headed east towards the area that Lord Rugdumph had suspected I might find her. Sure enough, as I crept through the woods I spotted her surrounded by three brutish ogres. She seemed to be unharmed but without knowing for how much longer I jumped out from behind a tree and hurled a rock towards them to get their attention. It worked, as all three ogres started my way leaving Lady Rogbut to make a run for it. I drew my sword and fought the three ogres. Despite their size these ogres obviously hadn't done much fighting in their day and were no match for a blade and a few well timed fire spells. As I wiped my sword clean on the last of the ogres I called for Lady Rogbut to escort her home.

"Order is restored... weirdos!"

Burz was quite pleased about the fact that I was able to close out that contract so easily even if he seemed to be incapable of offering a complement that wasn't backhanded. Thankfully I didn't have to endure his unpleasant demeanor for too long as he had another job already waiting and offered it to me right then and there. The people of Harlun's Watch, a small village south of the city, had been recently experienced a number of disappearances and wanted the Fighter's Guild to track down their missing villagers.

I rode down to Harlun's Watch and spoke to the contact for the contract, a Dunmer woman named Drarana Thelis. Drarana told me that the residents had started seeing strange lights in the swamp at night for the past several days and that some villages had foolishly gone out to investigate at different times, never returning. I waited for nightfall and then set off towards the swamp, sword in hand.

"Ouch! Ouch! Fuck! Fuck!"

As I reached the swampy western shore of the Reed River I could definitely see them. Three bright yellow glowing balls hovering around the entrance to a rocky cave face. I watched them for a moment and noted them disappearing and reappearing. How unusual. I attempted to approach them stealthily but the terrain made it difficult to conceal my footsteps and soon I found myself stepping into a deep, wet hole causing my armor and packs to clang together loudly. Soon they were upon me and I could feel them sapping the very life from me as they hovered closer. These weren't just lights, they weren't some kind of mage's enchantment or natural phenomena, these were will-o-the-wisps! I'd never encountered a will-o-the-wisp since escaping my cell many months ago but I've heard tale of them both in prison and since. I had personally always regarded them as legend... but here they were, attacking me.

I freed my foot and raised my shield to attempt to push the wisps off, giving myself just enough time to summon a Dremora Lord to help me fend off the attack. Although it took some time to take the wisps down I found that they caused a lot less damage to me than the rumors would have had me believe, thankfully.

"Again! Trolls plus fire: a winning combination!"

With no more will-o-the-wisps in sight I lit a torch and began to look for signs of what became of the missing villagers. With nothing obvious cluing me in I decided to venture into the near by cave. As I explored the dark, damp cave I soon came across a swamp troll which I quickly put down with my usual combination of fire magic and steel. Venturing further into the cave I came across more and more trolls. This place was absolutely rampant with the beasts, comparable to what the Forsaken Mine must have looked like before Viranus and company began clearing it out. Eventually I came upon a room where I found a grizzly site: a pile of bodies in various states of decomposition. The wisps must have lured the villages into the cave where they were then killed and eaten by trolls. Disgusting. I decided that since I couldn't return any good news about the fate of the villages I should at least clear out the entire cave of these bloodthirsty creatures.

"Wow, that's some genuine concern..."

With my task complete I returned to Harlun's Watch to bring Drarana the grim news. While she was disturbed to hear of the fate of her villagers she was at least pleased that I had taken care of the problem and rewarded me with a nice enchanted ring. I tried to refuse the reward but she insisted and I returned to Cheydinhal to report to Burz. With no more contracts available in the area I said my farewells, loaded my belongings onto my horse, and began to journey back out west to Anvil.

Random observation: Gah, you do a lot of looking for people in caves in these Fighter's Guild quests!