In Which Tembriel Has Trouble in Odirniran and Ebonheart

This was one of my more challenging sessions of Morrowind to date. Started trying to run the Odirniran quest for House Hlaalu, only to discover exactly why Greater Bonewalkers are a goddamn problem. So there was a lot of retreating being the better part of valor here, and eventual fallback to trying to finish off a different plot entirely!

Highlights

Play date: 9/2, 9/4/2022
Session number in this run: 14
Brief preliminary pop into the game on 9/2 just to test controller configuration and taking screenshots, in Balmora, just next to the council club
Went ahead and accepted this as part of this session just because I got a couple more interesting dreams out of it when I went into the Mages Guild to rest
Went over to try to take out the next of the targets in the Council Club, but she killed me which threw me back to last save, so redid a few things
Used one of my opening spell scrolls to unlock the cabinet in the Mages Guild, and stashed some of the hammers off the first guy in the Council Club in there to get my weight down
Did a bit of training with Wayn at the Fighters Guild, then a couple rounds with Caius and Nileno
Got level up alert, so returned to Mages Guild for a rest
Leveled up to 8; spent points on Strength, Willpower, and Endurance
Went back to the Council Club and snurched the axe still lying there; sold that to Ra’Virr
Then came back and picked a fight with Tong number two on the bottom floor of the club; this time I was successful
Took all her stuff and sold it to the pawnbroker
Boinged by silt strider to Vivec and then to Molag Mar
Derped around on foot until I found the dwarven ruins of Nchurdamz
Killed assorted critters; got blight off of a rat, but fixed that with a potion
Finally found my destination, Odirniran and started running the place
Got my stats beaten down by a Greater Bonewalker 😛
Dropped a Mark on the place where I was, to get back quickly
Then pulled a retreat and did my Amulet of Almsivi Intervention, which dropped me back at Molag Mar
Sold a bunch of my less useful potions at the temple to stock up on Restore Strength and Restore Endurance potions
Tried several times to cast Recall until I finally blipped back to Odirniran
Killed another Greater Bonewalker and a Bonelord and a Skeleton Warrior
Found Talmsa Falas, who was dead, so I took her Steel Blade of Heaven
Backed off with the theory that I would attempt to backtrack and get the good booze that was supposed to be in this tower, but that led me to getting my ass handed to me by another Greater Bonewalker
So had to pull another retreat to Molag Mar; did another round of getting Restore Strength and Restore Endurance potions
Returned to the tower, then promptly had my ass handed to me by a skeleton and a dremora beyond the next door
Thrown back to Molag Mar, this time via loading from previous save
Did another attempt to return to tower and got the good booze, then deliberately retreated to Molag Mar to sell the good booze
This let me build my stats back up and finish repairing my armor
Decided to retreat to Ebonheart and see if I could finish up Nileno’s quest, only to discover that I have to fulfill both objectives in the quest to get the glass armor 😛
Also, managed to piss off the dude I was supposed to talk to in Ebonheart
So had to beat another retreat to Balmora and then to Caldera, so I could sell the really good booze and get enough money to bribe the guy’s Disposition back up further
Only managed to get him up into the 50’s though and I needed him over 71
Finally paused and saved for the night

Commentary

Part of this session was technically two days before the rest of it, in which I rearranged my button layout on the Deck a little more. But I did some of that as well during the bulk of this play on 9/4, experimenting with what I could do with the left trackpad. I am however going to dedicate a whole separate post to my configuration experimentations, just because that’s a whole separate rabbit hole and worth its own post. I’ll focus this one on the actual game play in this session.

Started off this session by getting a couple more bad dreams off of what I’m assuming is Dagoth Ur fucking with me. NOT THE SLIGHTEST BIT CREEPY or anything. I think when I next go talk to Caius for orders, I’ll have to mention this whole bad dreams thing.

Then I proceeded to try to take out the next of the “bad people” in the council club in Balmora–but she handed me my ass, so I basically re-did the start of the session. And made a point of getting in additional training and a level up before coming back for a rematch.

My next plan was to try to do the Odirniran plot for Edryno in House Hlaalu. Traveled all the way over there, only to discover that this plot was going to be one great big string of challenges.

First up: learning all about the joys of Greater Bonewalkers! And how they can stomp all over your Strength and Endurance stats! Which, given that Morrowind hard-locks your ability to move if you go over your carry weight, is a goddamned problem.

I killed the first one I found but still was pinned in place. Which was no damned good. But this kind of situation was exactly what I’d hunted down the Mark and Recall spells for, and also what I had amulets and scrolls of Almsivi and Divine Intervention for.

So I dropped a Mark to try to set it up so that I could come back as fast as possible. Then I invoked the Amulet of Almsivi Intervention to get myself out of there, which landed me right by the temple in Molag Mar.

I managed to get my stats restored by buying potions, but this was only the first of three retreats I had to beat out of Odirniran, not counting once where I was thrown back to Molag Mar due to death and rollback to previous save. OUCH.

I did, at least, manage to get far enough into the place that I reached the room with some very expensive booze in it. So I snurched all of that, and made my last deliberate retreat out of Odirniran an opportunity to sell that very, very expensive booze and try to finance leveling up further.

This was a good plan in theory. In actual practice, the plot I tried to punt to, Nileno’s Epony Mine plot for House Hlaalu, didn’t go nearly as well as I’d hoped for. When I made it to Ebonheart, I found the East Empire Company guy I was supposed to talk to–and managed to fuck up both my Admire and Bribe checks, which hammered his Disposition clear down to zero.

So I had to boing all the way over to Caldera, where the trader actually had enough money on him to buy the really good booze I’d snurched out of Odirniran. That money let me return to Ebonheart and try to bribe my way back into my contact’s better graces. But I only got him up into the 50’s, and I had to get him over 71.

Which was not really a satisfying way to end this session, but that was where I wound up!

Next time

Next session after this has already been run, so that’ll feature actually resolving the situation with the guy in Ebonheart. There is also getting a weird noble in House Hlaalu to sponsor me for further advancement, acquiring a Daedric katana, and leveling up some more!

And finally finding that even when returning better prepared to Odirniran, the damn undead in there respawned. AUGH.