Vampire Screwed IV: Oblivious

On 10/22/2013 at 02:59 AM by KnightDriver

Today I started the second half of the Mages Guild Quests in Oblivion but had some trouble because I contracted Prophyric Hemophila or Vampirism. OMFG!!!

I was at the Arch-Mage’s Tower in the Imperial City to get more tasks and took a nap in a friendly Alchemist’s house on the Arcane University grounds. When I woke up, I got a message saying I’d had a strange dream that someone had bitten me. Seriously? Getting bit by a Vampire in the safest place I could be, the Arcade University. WTF! I started taking damage while in daylight, and I had no idea how to feed or what that would do to me if I did. So I just lived nocturnally, which made finishing the Mage Guild quests a real pain.

But I finally became the Arch-Mage of the guild and got the last achievement for that quest line, despite being Vampire challenged, and set out to cure myself of being a Vampire (not being able to fast-travel during the day was too annoying to ignore). The first task was to find five empty Grand Soul Gems and then a long list of ingredients for this witch.

Along the way, I stumbled by accident on how to feed by activating a sleeping person, but I didn’t use it, not knowing what it would do to me. I wasn’t dying from hunger, so why bother, I thought.

After getting the soul gems, and several of the ingredients, another problem arose. The door to the witch’s house was always red, so I always had to break in to talk to her. She didn’t seem to mind for a while but then she started attacking me just when I was bringing back an ingredient. How on Earth was I going to give her ingredients if she never came out of her house and attacked me when I broke in? Finally, I guessed she might let me in during the morning hours, so I set up in a nearby cave and, in the morning, ran quickly to her door before the light killed me. Well, I kept dying before I got there. It all seemed totally hopeless, which is a frequent feeling I get playing Oblivion, and so gave up and reloaded an old save.

I started the process of joining the Thieves Guild without Vampirism but also without Mage skills. Then I had to stop for the night and leave my friend’s place.

At home later on, I looked up a guide to Vampirism here: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Vampirism and got the full breakdown of what it is and how it works. I wish the game could’ve given me a quick lesson on Vampirism so I would’ve known simple things like: that feeding once a day stops you taking damage in daylight. How on Earth was I supposed to figure that one out? It’s not exactly a standard Vampire trick in movies or books. I guess I could’ve just fed on someone and found it out by accident, but my instinct was to NOT feed, because I wasn’t dying of hunger, and I didn’t want to continually have to run from the law or sneak into people’s houses. Grrr.

Now, after reading all that stuff, I’m thinking I can reload my save where I’m an Arch-Mage/Vampire and attempt the Thieves Guild quests as is. Ah, the things this game does to me!

KnightDriver

10/22/2013 at 03:18 AM

Further reading has revealed that I probably contracted Vampirism in a quest I did last week where I had to kill some vampires as a Mage and didn't realize I'd got it. Three days later, when I went to sleep at the Arcane University, I became a full blown Vampire and had a dream about being burried alive (I miss-remembered the dream above). Apparently it takes 3 days for the disease to become permanent.

Once before, when I was in the Fighter's Guild, I had gotten the disease and noticed it. So I drank a Cure Disease potion right away. You can cure Vampirism like that if you catch it early.

daftman

10/22/2013 at 09:24 PM

Dang, that's complicated. I can't see myself playing such a time-intensive game, especially since it doesn't have clear goals to go for, but I enjoy hearing about your adventures

10/23/2013 at 01:17 AM

The goals are clear, but there's always something that goes wrong to mess it all up, and Vampirism is pretty easy to get. In three of the Guilds, I had to deal with Vampires. Two of them got me infected, one of which I cured right away, and I got it in the last one.

It's like, Bethesda wanted you to get Vampirism at some point in the game to give you something else to do, or make you change the way you play by staying a Vampire. If you don't want it though, it's a real pain in the neck. Hardy har har!

I figure each of the quest lines of each Guild takes about five hours or so. There's four Guilds, so that's 20 hours. Then there's the main quest which I'll start after doing the Thieves Guild. The guide I'm using says you can do all the major quest lines and the DLC in 25 hours. With all my screw ups, I'm probably gonna spend about 35 after all is done. So, it's not that long really if you stick to the main quest lines. There's a lot of side quests that net you experience or special items. I'm not doing any of those this time around.

10/23/2013 at 09:11 AM

I want to play an Elder Scrolls game eventually, even if just to say that I have played one. There are just so many other games I'd rather play lol. Maybe when I'm retired But I stand corrected about the goals. Guess I just like a linear structure.

10/23/2013 at 04:28 PM

Super open world games are really not my thing either. I always get lost in them, but Oblivion has a special place in my heart because its graphics turned me on to the 360. So with this guide I'm using, like training wheels on a tricycle I keep falling off of, I'm attempting to make the game as linear as possible and get a perfect achievement score to show off my enthusiasm on XBL. I think I've made it obvious that it's not easy for me.

NSonic79

11/03/2013 at 05:57 PM

sounds like being a pain to be a vampire in that game. It could've been worse and you could've become one of those "modern" vampires and sparkled in the sunlight. I would've killed myself right there and then if I did become such.

11/04/2013 at 01:09 AM

That would be a "great" mod for either Oblivion or Skyrim. First you'd make all the Vampires look like models, and then you'd add in a dating sim, and if you're date went bad, you would lose all your powers and have to lie on a couch and groan and cry for a whole day to recover.

PixlBit