Well, no, it started because I was wondering what type of character to play in Oblivion when it comes out. In Morrowind both my characters where pretty much straight fighters, but I was thinking a sneaky, stealthy character might be fun. So I used an a web page to plot out a custom class in Oblivion. Wasn’t sure how it would play… and then realised I could make a very similar character in Morrowind as a test.

So I did. I made a custom class called the “Facilitator’. Basically, it’s a sweet-talker who’s sneaky enough to be a thief and not bad with a short blade when required. Made myself one of the cat people for the extra agility and the night vision. So, ignoring deaths and restarts, this is what happened in my evening’s play…

In the starting town I managed to get stuck on some scenery. That’s never happened to me before. Luckily, I’d bought a scroll that magics me back to the nearest temple, which happened to be in Vivec. Now I wouldn’t have thought to go to Vivec so soon, but as I was there I popped through a doorway and found myself in some woman’s home. She was home. I checked her stuff to see if it was worth killing her for her stuff. She had some nice expensive clothes and she looked weak, so I decided it would be. She took a while to go down, but she wasn’t much of a fighter and didn’t even leave a scratch on me. As she fell the floor she used her last breath to exhale the word “stupid”. I don’t know if she meant her or me, but it was unsettling and somehow reminded me that my first act of note in this world was the cold-blooded murder of someone for their clothes.

Wandering outside and up some stairs I found myself in the commercial quarter of this area of the city. I talked to a woman who asked me to steal some valuable cups and bowls from a ship in Ebonheart. I said I’d do it, but I didn’t mean it. It’s been a while since I’d been to Ebonheart with my other characters, so I couldn’t remember where it was.

Wandering around some more, an invisible man came up and begged me to help him. Turned out he’d been cursed by a wizard and everybody was thinking he was a ghost. So I went and found the wizard, who told a slightly different story. The guy had begged to be made invisible, so the wizard had obliged. However, the man hadn’t then paid the fee so the wizard refused to make him visible again. I didn’t have the money to pay the debt and I probably wouldn’t have anyway, so I wandered back to the guy to tell him so. Unfortunately he didn’t seem to be able to understand that fact. As he was invisisble and complaining everyone thought he was a ghost I wondered if anyone would mind if I killed him. So I took a swipe and a guard ran over and arrested me. Rather than pay a fine, I chose to go to prison.

Turned out that the nearest prison was in Ebonheart. Stroke of luck, eh? I found the ship I needed to steal pulled out my lockpick. Getting into the ship was easy, but on the first level were two imperial guards. I walked past them and they didn’t bat an eyelid. Once I was at the other end of the ship I hid myself in the shadowsk, unlocked the next door and climbed down to the bottom level of the ship. Found the goods I needed and exited. If the guards noticed me walking out of a supposedly locked and secure area of the ship they didn’t indicate it. Odd behaviour indeed, but I’d successfully used my thieving skills – lock-picking and sneaking – to complete a mission. Hooray!

So I took the goods to their new owner. She paid me 1,500 for the lot. A fraction of the full price, but possibly more than I could get elsewhere. And I’d said I’d get them, so I’m a thief with honor.

So I had a fortune. That amount of money is incredible to have so soon. I decided to pop over to Balmora to spend a bit. Walked there without incident. I would have taken public transport, but I couldn’t find it. The fog that blankets Morrowind isn’t helpful when it comes to locating things.

In Balmora I bought a full set of Netch leather armour, before remembering that being a big cat I couldn’t wear shoes. So I sold them back to the armorer. Went and bought a couple of daggers and a bow. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anywhere selling arrows, which is annoying. But I got everything for slightly less than list price using my silver-tongued negotiating skills.

And after that I went over to the guy on the east side of town I was meant to see and handed him a package, finishing off the first proper story mission. And I then fell into bed for a good eighteen hours of sleep.

Down on a jetty someone offered to give me a lift to the island of Solstheim. I was a bit worried as that’s a big new island that was added in the Bloodmoon expansion pack and thus is meant for high level characters. Not sure that level twelve Nord Knight counts. Thought I’d give it a go, though. After the boat arrived I wandered off into the wilderness, getting quite worried when a wolf ran at me. When I killed him in one hit I became less worried, I must say. Found a Barrow, which I picked my way around in the dark, because I wanted my shield out and you can’t carry a shield and a torch at the same time. I killed all the nasty things inside and then lit my torch to look around. Found a big new axe that’s dead good, but it’s a two-handed axe, meaning I can’t use a shield at all if I want to use it. Hmm. I’ll have to think about that.

After leaving the Barrow I wandered back to the large fort where the boat dropped me off. Huge maze-like place. However, as I’m an agent in the Imperial Guard everyone’s either deferential or friendly and I can use the beds, which is nice. The Captain of the place greeted me warmly and asked me to find out why the morale of the men in the fort is dropping so much. Seems to be a lack of alcohol, but I’ve not quite got to the bottom of it yet.

Loaded up my last save, dated 9th February 2004. Yes, over two years ago. Disturbingly, within about two minutes I’d remembered exactly what I was doing. I’d got stuck doing Imperial Guard missions when I got to a locked door in a tower that I couldn’t get past. I also remembered that in the PC version I’d found a key to the door and a bit of nosing around unearthed it. Inside the room was a nasty man who refused to pay his taxes and had imprisoned an orc who’d come to collect them. So I killed him. Harsh, but fair. He had some expensive stuff, so I took that. Freed the orc, went back to my commander. Got promoted to a trooper and got asked to see if I could find proof that some of the soldiers were in a cult planning to kill the Emperor. I had to use a fair bit of cash to bribe people, but I got my answers and found the proof. I was then tasked with killing the two main conspirators. Sorry, not killing, executing. I believe there’s a difference. Anyway, they died and I got promoted to the rank of agent and got given enough new armor to leave me unable to actually move.

I saved it there. I’ll have to drop some stuff when I reload. I probably shouldn’t play this too much before Oblivion appears, lest I get Elder-Scrolled-out. But I may have the bug again.

(And then I played Animal Crossing with p’anther for two hours.)