PixlBit

     I did most of the Mage Guild quests in Oblivion today.

     This game angers me sometimes in the vagueness of its quests. In one quest I did, you have to use four different spells on a pillar to open it. You have to do it in a specific order which is hinted at in the dialog. At the time I was very frustrated with it and ended up looking up a walkthrough, but in retrospect, I think I was just distracted by watching my friend shoot at animals in Cabela’s next to me and didn’t pay close enough attention to the dialog.

     I did another quest where you have to climb this hill to a cave where the Necromancers do some sort of ritual. A book clues you in to a certain time of day and week that it’s performed so you can spy on them and give the information to the Mages Guild. Again, I didn’t pay close enough attention because I missed which particular day it was and the book with the info had been taken away from me. Instead of heading back to the Arcane University and look for the clue I missed, I looked up a walkthrough. I got the right hour and day and waited. Thunder and lightning happened and the time passed, but there was no ritual like the walkthrough said. Finally I looked up another description and found out the Necromancer was just inside the cave door all this time.  All I had to do was run in, grab the note off him, and leave. All the clues had led me to believe I was going to be witness to the scene of this ritual of Necromancy. Not the case.

     This is kind of how the missions are in Oblivion. They are sometimes not exactly what you think they will be and you waste a lot of time figuring it all out.

    My final mission of the day was one of killing a bunch of Vampires in a cave and the Vampire Hunters who had come to get them. I got the Vampires just fine, but when I had to go into town to get the Hunters, problems arose. I followed one behind some buildings and expected to light him up with a Flare spell like I did the Vampires, but he took considerably more damage than any of the Vampires. Being in town, he started to yell and the guards came running so fast, it was like they were waiting somewhere close by. I decided to resist arrest, since The Count had promised to save me from the law, and just run pell-mell through the town, chasing the rest of the Hunters down while the guards tried to kill me. Luckily, I was playing on easy, and as long as I kept moving, I couldn’t be killed.

     It was a crazy chase through the streets that eventually led to a field just outside the city where I finished off the last of the Hunters. Then I had to go back into the town and get into the castle to meet with The Count and get pardoned and finish the mission. I dodged dozens of guards and made it inside the Castle and talked to The Count’s secretary (or whatever her title was). She said she’d get The Count but then the guards busted in and chased all of us around a long ‘U’ shaped dining table like in some comedy movie. She kept running around with the guards, so I gave up waiting for her to get the count and ran for the throne room myself. I had to pick a tough lock to get in (it’s funny that all the guards stop while you do this) and then run into the dark throne room. The Count seemed to not be there, but then I stumbled across him in the wings and quickly ended the mission (the guards waiting again while I talked to him). But did he pardon me? Of course not! As soon as I ended the conversation, the guards resumed their attack, and I had to run out of there and up a hill and into a shrine, where I saved the game, because I had to leave my friend’s place. The guards didn’t follow me all the way to the shrine, but I know there will be a bounty on my head when I return to the game, and I’m going to have to figure out how to get rid of it.

     It was just another typically hectic day in Cyrodiil getting confused by quest goals and run out of town by the law. C’est la vie.