Part 28: Lizard Wizard II - Wizard Harder
Lizard Wizard II - Wizard Harder
Today we need a Grand Soul Gem. Why? We kinda...squandered the ones Skink-in-Tree's-Shade gave us for his quest.
First things first, I chcek Tel Naga in Sadrith Mora just to be extra sure I didn't miss one in there. No dice.
We take a little break to level up, though.
I set a Mark for when I'm ready to turn in my quest, and think. Where can I get a Grand Soul Gem? Maybe the guy in Mournhold has one? So I start heading for Ebonheart.
On the other hand, there's always time for caves.
Right from the get-go, a few Daedra attack, so I'm not quite sure what to expect here.
Oh, now I see. It's because of the eeeeevil mages. I have no idea what's going on with her head there, but I summarily kill her with my staff.
And leaf through her skill book.
And here's the other mage, in your bog-standard end-of-cave living area.
Whoa hold on what's that magic-lookin' sword you pulled out there. I want that.
It is pretty magical! And damn. 5-70 damage. That means if I "hold in" my attack for a few seconds, I'll do about 70 damage. You were right, guy who said that's how it works earlier!
I continue my journey, trapping any souls I come across to feed into the Staff and hopefully raise my enchanting level. Also, landfish!
Getting closer to Vivec, I duck into another cave, feeling understandably lucky.
It's a smuggler's cave! Which means...
C'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon
Just outside, we cleave Dreamer Man in half.
Then we pull into Vivec and secure passage to Ald'Ruhn, which is closest to the Ghostgate.
This time, I'm ready. Unfortunately I somehow managed not to get a screenshot of the Ash Ghoul, but he was just sorta walking around inside the Ghostgate minding his own business. Anyway, we got the soul, so back to Sadrith Mora!
I imagine Skink is saying this with the most dickish inflection possible, since we were gone for at least the better part of a month when you factor in the amount of time we spent summoning shit and then sleeping on a mountain.
This is a quest to find a rare book. Immediately a light goes off in my head.
To Vivec!
Library in the Hall of Justice?
This calls for some sorcerous snooping!
That's a bit conspicuous. Unfortunately, there are a few NPCs standing watch.
So we employ a simple illusion trick! Stand in this area to make them look the wrong way...
..then immediately turn invisible and do what ya gotta do! Once the lock is picked, using the door is no longer a crime, so we can basically come and go as we please now.
Well. That's a bit blatant, but I guess the door has to say something.
Plenty of skillbooks here!
And there's our quest book!
I get out, begin swimming to the coast, and then realize the point of casting Mark in the first place.
He's pretty pleased this time, and gives us his amulet. Unfortunately, it's not magical. I think he just ran out of rewards. Got any more work?
Will do! To reach the next rank, we have to get one of the Guild's favored skills to 80. As you may have guessed, this is why we're grinding Enchant. Let's check in with the Telvanni Mouths.
Essentially, we need to get an internship under one of the Important Telvanni GuysTM. As it turns out, Aryon is the only one hiring. To Tel Vos!
This time we have to go talk to the guy who we asked those dwarf questions to, before.
He lives "just northwest of Gnisis", but actually he pretty much lives in Gnisis.
He wants three books. I try to ask him about one, but this leads him to think I'm turning it in, and he chides me for sassing him.
We know where to get one, at least.
There's another, also in the Secret Library.
And the last one would be in the regular library. One thing's bugging me, though; Caius said for us to talk to Mehra Milo about the Lost Prophecies, and she was hanging out in the library last time we saw her. NPCs don't move from cell to cell, and I haven't seen her, so something must be wrong.
I check her quarters, which I seem to recall burgling at one point.
Well, this obviously isn't good. To action!
The note goes on to mention this guard who will let us in. Thanks, lady!
Let's do this.
So yeah. We've got us a system of rock hallways. Get close to an Ordinator here and they'll start a dialog, then fight you.
Wearing a certain piece of the Ordinators' armor will make 'em all pretty hostile to you, and I'm not sure if it's the cuirass or the shield. So I'm trying the shield first for testing purposes to see which one is safe to run out of here with.
Then this gal comes in swinging on sight.
So I leave the shield and get myself a cuirass.
Eventually I come to the prison area. See how the corpses are all kinda far away from me? Not a single one of the Ordinators could figure out how to get past that corner post. None of them.
Milo's in the third door, just off-camera to the right, for any aspiring Morrowind speedrunners out there.
I give her the scroll, she tells me where to go next for the main quest. We'll get riiiiiight on that.
On my way out, I place a bunch of my useless crap on this Ordinator's corpse, and take a suit of his armor. For fundraising purposes.
Huh. I guess it is the cuirass that offends them. Oddly enough, they don't even give a fuck until you try to talk to them.
We make a quick pitstop in Caldera to offload that set of Ordinator armor.
And from there it's a quick jog to Ald'Ruhn, and a strider to Gnisis.
Baladas is placated.
And now we have a new questgiver!
We go up a rank, and...wait, what? Stronghold?
We can see about a badass wizard castle, or we can go to an egg mine.
The only correct decision!
We just need to cough up two of our gems contaning Golden Saint souls, so it's off to Ebonheart! Every NPC will tell you that the Duke is in Castle Ebonheart. For those of you playing along at home, there is no building labeled "Castle Ebonheart" -- he's in the Grand Council Hall over there.
And then he hands over the contract. This is probably gonna bite us in the ass later, though.
Stuff delivered! She lets us know that construction is underwaym, so we should probably just check back after a while.
Now to deal with that egg mine. It's pretty simple, really. Just gotta beat a handful of Kwama to death and get to the queen.
There, isn't that better?
That little stone hut would let us go back to Tel Vos via the castle's dungeon system, but that sounds dangerous. Also the castle is literally right over there.
As a reward, we get a skill book. It's one we've already read, but how thoughtful!
Waaaaaay ahead of ya, Aryon. We get another book.
Then, slightly more distressing news: a fellow member of House Telvanni is under attack by Hlaalu agents!
Next time on Lizard Wizard, Spellwright Wizard, we'll get those Hlaalu sons of bitches!
