Now to continue this look at Morrowind with Anna Valerian and a couple of mods. I will bring up which mods I have installed as this series goes on.
Last time, Anna has taken up a Fighter's Guild contract to deal with some egg poachers in a nearby eggmine. While doing so, she may be able to handle the flower-picking errand she received from Ajira of the Mages Guild.
As the well-informed reader can tell, this foliage is a result of the MGSO mod. It looks great though there is an excessive amount of grass here.
And then we get enhanced vistas like this. I personally feel this overhaul makes Morrowind look better than Oblivion at times (certainly far better than vanilla Oblivion).
Here we see the foliage obscuring one of the non-hostile creatures in the world, a scrib.
In the distance lies a Dunmer Ancestral Tomb. These entrances lead to tombs used by Dunmer families throughout Vvardenfell (and Morrowind) and can be a good source of loot. They also tend to be filled with undead guardians and the occasional Daedra hostile to looters as well so looting these places are risky (especially if the player loots a tomb housing high level daedra (remember, no level scaling)).
Turning around from the tomb and near the rope bridge depicted in an earlier picture, Anna finds these two men standing around a campfire with a cavern entrance in the distance.
Talking to one of them reveals that they are egg miners. In Morrowind, one resource that is mined are kwama eggs. Kwama are large insectoid creatures whose eggs are mined to use as food and exported goods. Kwama live in underground communal colonies and have a hierarchical structure similar to ants with a queen, soldiers (or warriors in the case of the kwama) and workers along with foragers and the larval scribs as mentioned earlier. Egg mines exist to allow for the harvesting of kwama eggs (along with other materials derived from kwama body parts like scrib jerky and kwama cuttle). It may sound crazy to have an entire economy and mining system based around insects but there we go. Morrowind has that and makes this system sensible.
The miners do not know where the egg poachers are but they note that the thefts are still ongoing, meaning that the two are likely hiding in the mines somewhere.
Only thing left to do is to head on in. Note that egg miners can walk among kwama as the kwama will have gotten used to their scents. Outsiders like Anna have no such luck.
Meaning certain aggressive kwama types like the foragers will become hostile to the player.
Workers however are not hostile at all unless provoked.
In any case, time to head to the mining camps.
Well, sadly not many of the miners know where the poachers are.
This leaves the Queen's Lair as the last place to check. Based on their descriptions, these two poachers would be well hidden and require Anna to search every nook and crany to find these elusive poachers.
Or they charge at Anna upon seeing her on sight... Why do I get the feeling these two remained in the mines because they couldn't figure out how to sneak out?
In any case, mining picks do not make for good weapons. So Anna deals with them and the random forager than came charging in.
During the fight, Anna managed to improve on her Light Armor skill along with various other skills leading to her being able to level up.
Here is some background dialogue.
Now to admire the scenery for a bit.
With that done, time to check out what lies across the rope bridge.
With the flowers on this side of the river and from the other side, Anna now has all the flowers she needs to hand over to Ajira.
Over in the distance is a door resembling the door to the egg mine.
Except this is... another kind of mine.
That seems abandoned.
And home to raw ebony. Ebony is a big deal as it is a valuable metal that can be used to forge powerful weapons and armor plus has high export value. As the latter statement suggests, ebony is another major export of Vvardenfell.
Leaving the mine aside, Anna heads back to town.
Reporting in nets Anna some gold, some potions and a new rank in the guild.
Now to get a new set of orders from Eydis. This one though... is fishy. Eydis seems rather pushy about it and keeps insisting that Anna follows orders regardless of her doubts.
With that in mind, time to hand over those flowers to Ajira. She gives Anna some potions for her troubles (better yet, no need to go through any foyadas for the flowers).
After a long day, it is time to get some rest.
And here is the level up screen. Levelling up involves picking Attributes to improves. What increases the multipliers for said improvements are the skills honed in-game; say I were to train in Long Blade five times, my multiplier for improving Strength would be x5 whereas if I were to train Security once, my multiplier for improving Intelligence would be x1.
Note that such a statement means that more duties need to be done and more skills need to be improved in order to advance.
Being of a lower rank than certain guild trainers like guild stewards will bar you from training under them. Which is understandable. It is not fair to other lower ranking members to learn from high ranking members who would be studying the more advanced aspects of the respective schools of magic.
Seeing as Anna cannot train under Ranis, she can at least take supplies from the chest. Inside are the assorted scrolls, potions and utilities. Significant are the Divine Intervention scrolls.
And the Almsivi Intervention scrolls.
Chatting with this MGSO NPC adds this entry to the journal. Technically, any other NPC can do this too.
Onwards to Caldera.
Still onwards!
But first, a stop to admire the Moonmoth Legion Fort. Note the Dwemer tower in the background, this may come up later.
Now onwards! ...And I should have had Anna equip a lantern.
What's that? In the distance... Something wicked this way comes...
The bane of dragons itself! Cliff racers!
(Writer's note: I am serious though. In the lore (presumably before Skyrim made it more implausible), cliff racers actually drove away the dragons from the land of Morrowind by being more numerous and tenacious. Kudos to the screeching devils!)
Anna will be seeing a lot of these things. The annoying parts of fighting cliff racers is their small hit-box and high aggression, meaning that a simple stroll can lead to several cliff racer fights. At lower levels, they can be a problem while at higher levels, they are an annoyance that are far beneath you.
Anna really needs a Night Eye spell.
While stumbling in the dark though, Anna discovers this corpse. With a named Skooma pipe. Hmm...
Looks like the pipe belongs to someone named Tsiya... Perhaps this Tsiya lives in a nearby town?
Time to keep moving on to Caldera even with this darkness... I hope nothing sneaks up on Anna...
Thank goodness for battle music and... it's an Alit... with poison attacks...
Only thing left to do... is to RUN AWAY!!!
Good thing the guard A.I actually works. A decent tip for beginners is to rely on guards if a monster is giving you a hard time. Though this does not always works (especially if the city has walls where the monster gets stuck to, like cliff racers in Balmora).
With the Alit dead, Anna asks about Caldera from one of her rescuers.
A named manor? Seems like an interesting place to look around in.
AH DAEDRA! KILL IT QUICK!!!
Actually, don't kill the Daedra. This is Creeper, one of two creature merchants in Morrowind. The unique thing about Creeper (and the other creature merchant) is that he buys anything at its base price. Useful for selling off loot at full price though one has to mind his limited supply of gold.
Outside Caldera's walls is this lady who was just robbed by bandits.
Looks like Anna picked up another quest. Good thing Aeta recalled where the bandits ran off to.
Up a mountain based on the directions.
Before that, it is time to rest up.
Time to climb.
Or not... Seeing as the mountain is rather steep and I couldn't be bothered with trying to circumvent it, I have Anna take her only Levitation potion.
Eventually, Anna does find a cave in the general direction she was told to search in. This could be their hideout.
The now-deceased hostile orc here makes it more likely.
I should have equipped a torch.
In case the reader was wondering, this was the attacker.
Onward now! Further into this hive of scum and villainy. Or rather hive of hostile humanoids.
Here's another one!
On him, Anna finds a slave key, spoiling the presence of slaves in this place.
With all the folks Anna has been killing, she's gathered plenty of items. Enough that they have made her over-encumbered. In future titles, over-encumbrance simply makes you unable to run fast (or sprint in Skyrim's case) and unable to fast travel. Here, it literally roots you in place. To be honest, over-encumbrance is better handled in the later games (somewhat) when compared to here seeing how being rooted in one spot for going over your weight capacity is rather unrealistic.
After dropping off the offending heavy item(s), Anna proceeds to find a Steel Shardsword in this crate. Looks like it is back to sorting through the inventory again...
With that done, Anna now has a new sword to use in place of her previous enchanted one.
Here Anna finds the slaves who can be freed with the key Anna found.
Before that though, another attacker killed in action. This one had a potion of attribute restoration or as the image shows, a bargain potion to restore intelligence.
Now to move ahead. Incidentally, notice that the mini-map is showing lava.
Ignoring the lava, Anna seems to have found this Khajiit. Based on the name, it appears to be the bandit she is searching for.
Surprisingly though, he is open to conversation despite the fact that Anna has killed possibly all of his fellow bandits. He offers a deal, return the heirlooms to the woman and give half the reward to him.
Seeing how hard it was to get here without a Levitation potion and because it would take too long, Anna rejects his offer. Dro'Zhirr turns hostile and engages in combat (or rather turns hostile because Anna had her sword ready to strike before she engaged in conversation).
With the Frost enchantment, Dro'Zhirr is quickly dealt with.
Aside from the heirlooms, Dro'Zhirr also has a Demon Tanto. A bound dagger could be useful.. IF ANNA KNEW HOW TO USE ONE!
Moving on, Anna goes to free the slaves.
Now recall that the lave in the mini-map. Turns out there is more to the cave than the direct path to Dro'Zhirr.
I wonder where this goes to. Treasure?
Or it leads to a lava pit. Note that there is something on the other side but having used the potion and having abysmal Acrobatics, Anna will probably not succeed in making the jump.
Well, time to move on...
Here, one can catch a glimpse of the Ghostfence.
And yet another cliff racer.
Now to head back to Caldera and find that lady.
As a reward, she provides 300 gold and seeing as Anna killed Dro'Zhirr, the gold is deservedly hers.
Before moving on to the mines, Anna goes to repair her gear.
As so. Seeing as she has no skills in Armorer, she will have to fork out some gold.
Now to visit the local pawnbroker.
Take note of this unique item. It is part of a collection. One that would be of interest to completionists and vampires.
Inside is also this skill-book.
Now to truly move on.
Or not...
A naked Nord man. I wonder if he has a tale for Anna.
And he does! Looks like a witch (or more likely a mage) had paralyzed him, stolen his clothes and his precious axe.
Seeing as Anna is a helpful sort, Anna decides to agree to helping him find the witch. Seeing as he is naked, he will obviously need the help.
Regarding his axe, seems that its claim to fame is having slain... a nix-hound. Going by that logic, Anna's swords should be regarded as legendary.
Still we proceed based on the vague directions he provided. Here, Anna goes right.
Following the path leads Anna and Hlormar to this robed lady. I wonder...
Ah, she recognizes him! Looks like Anna has found the 'witch'!
Now for the more likelier story. Seems that Hlormar was accompanying the lady as her escort and tried to get frisky with her so she casted a sleep spell on him before stealing his gear and leaving him behind.
So her offer is that she will return the axe to Hlormar after three days at the Caldera Mages Guild, most likely hoping that he would be less angry after said three days.
He does not accept. Leaving Anna in a dilemma. Either help the barbarian reclaim his axe from the thieving woman or defend a seemingly innocent healer from the angry Nord barbarian... Hmm...
My in-universe reason for siding with Hlormar is as follows (it may be flawed but let me roll with it): Sosia's response to dealing with a frisky escort was to knock him out, steal all of his gear and leave him stranded in the wilderness that is filled with creatures capable of killing people, especially an unarmed person even if said person is a Nord barbarian. Her response to knock him out for getting too frisky may be justifiable but leaving him unarmed and nearly naked in the wilderness (discounting the fact that Caldera is not too far away), is rather disproportionate. She should have offered the axe to Anna to let her sort out this mess or left Hlormar some collateral so that she would have to honor the offer she had made to him rather than make a verbal offer. The ideal solution here would be to head into town and have a magistrate sort it out but that is not likely going to happen. So... this leaves forcing Sosia to return the axe with force and if she responds with lethal force, then Anna will have to do so in kind.
Out of universe, Hlormar has a somewhat better reward and hers are not that useful in the long run.
So the battle begins! She has some spells that harm Attributes so that is something to be wary of during the fight. Hlormar is mostly useless here.
Now to get her stuff... And the axe too.
Picking up the axe immediately initiates conversation with Hlormar. He wants his axe back.
Seeing as Anna has no reason to refuse (no proficiency with axes after all), she hands it over. As a reward, Hlormar offers Anna a lesson that raises her Strength attribute. Useful for circumventing over-encumbrance.
Now to move on again.
To visit the nearby Blades Trainer, Sjorvar Horse-Mouth. He is a guar farmer as well.
Like the previous ones, he offers advice that is added to the journal. He is also one of the harder Blades Trainers to find.
Here is a normal tamed guar. There are wild ones as well.
Walking back towards the mines, Anna stumbles upon this lady, Pemenie.
She has an interesting offer with a unique gift for accepting said offer. The Boots of Blinding Speed. Interesting...
As one can tell from her dialogue, she seems shifty... At the very least, sneaky.
Time to head over to Gnaar Mok per Pemenie's request.
Luckily, the slopes near Sjorvar's farm are easy to climb. So Anna does so with Pemenie in tow.
Doing so leads Anna back to the Bitter Coast region.
Walking northwards, Anna catches sight of a small settlement.
Pemenie engages in conversation, confirming that the settlement is indeed Gnaar Mok. Thus, she hands over the boots.
As the reader can see, she obviously hated giving them up.
Now to explain what the boots does. The boots buff the Speed attribute by 200 points and have a constant effect which means that the player character will move faster than the wind. Literally.
The only flaw; the Blind effect. The blinding in the name has a reason for being there. Without magic resistance, the boots will inflict a blind effect on the user. Still with the mini-map and quick use of the world map, the boots become a viable method of travel between settlements.
Now to check out the village.
The first person Anna meets mentions the breeding netches near the village but more notably, asking about Pemenie reveals that she has a bounty on her head.
Now to confront the wanted felon.
Asking her about the bounty causes her to get jumpy.
Asking further agitates her.
Now she is beginning to turn suspiciously aggressive.
And now she has turned homicidal. Looks like there is some truth to being a wanted felon.
Enchanted sword in hand, Anna slays the wanted felon.
Before resuming her travels, Anna goes to deal with the breeding netches. Netches are essentially jellyfish-like creatures that live on land. Generally, netches are non-hostile unless provoked but these two are hostile by default.
The netch here is a betty netch. Contrary to its size in comparison to the other netch, this one hits hard.
This one is the bull netch. While it does not hit as hard as a betty netch, it does inflict poison damage. Killing these netches nets unique messages.
Here is what one NPC in Gnaar Mok says after dealing with the netches and Pemenie.
Now for a quick gaze out at the scenery. Reflective water...
And back to the West Gash.
Now to head to the mines. Nothing will distract Anna now-
Oh come on! Well, the orc is offering a present so time to hear him out.
Looks like it is time to pass notes.
Looks like it is time to head back to Caldera.
Before that, it is time to check in on another Blades Trainer.
As seen here, glass is a valuable material. In Morrowind, glass weapons and armor are late game tier items that are both rare, valuable and viable. The material... not as much though useful for selling or for alchemy.
Here is the other Blades Trainer who actually lives in Caldera, Surane.
Speaking to her nets Anna advice on good spells to learn.
Past this unlocked door is her bed which you are allowed to use.
Well, it is time to deliver that note.
At least Anna found the right person though now she wants Anna to pass another note instead.
An amusing aspect about this quest is that this is one of the few quests where the player character expresses personality through sarcasm and frustration from dealing with the two.
Returning the note and asking for the reward nets Anna... a shiny rock...
Well, okay it is actually a diamond so no actual harm done.
Again, it is nice that the journal entries for this quest have personality to them. Anyone would feel stupider for dealing with morons like those two (more on Bugrol than Bashuk). For readers curious about the notes, here are links to both of them:
http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Note_from_Bugrol and http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Note_from_Bashuk
Now, finally Anna can head to the mines.
A short stroll along the path leads Anna to said mines. Too bad it is nightfall so she cannot see much.
Looking away from the mines, Anna spots this Wood Elf standing nearby a cave entrance. That is not visible here due to it being night.
Asking him about the Telvanni agents turns him hostile.
Upon killing him, Anna proceeds to loot his body for anything worth selling.
After doing so, Anna continues onward.
Ahead are three Dunmer women. All hostile and if Anna was holding a light source, visibly charging towards her.
The fight was a tough one due to their numbers but luckily for Anna, she came prepared with an enchanted weapon and plenty of potions.
With that done, it is time to loot the place.
Now note that this chest is not only locked but trapped. In Morrowind, chests can also be trapped with nasty enchantments.
To circumvent this, a probe like the one equipped here is to be used.
Seeing as there is a hammock in the cave, Anna uses it to sleep and recover. Due to her various adventures, Anna has improved enough of her skills to level up.
Once that is done, it is time to explore the cave further.
Further in the cave is a pool that contains items. I would have taken more screenshots but honestly, this is dragging on too long.
To spare Anna, myself and the reader from the journey back, it is time to use an Intervention scroll.
Using the Almsivi scrolls takes Anna directly to the door of Balmora's Temple.
Now to report in. 400 gold, eh? I guess those four were worth a 100 each.
Asking about a little secret nets this bit of dialogue... Seems like a legionnaire wants to see Anna.
Now to use the hammer from the equipment chest to attempt some repairs. What this amounts to is clicking on the item to repair until it works. At low skill levels, it generally fails.
Now to find one more Blades Trainer. Back in Seyda Neen.
Looks like Elone had more than one reason to be so helpful in guiding Anna to Balmora. Speaking to her nets Anna a book on Vvardenfell.
One more Blades Trainer can be found in Ald'Ruhn. Anna decides to head over to get the last piece of advice.
Upon immediate arrival, she is greeted by an ash storm. In the Ashland regions, ash storms are a frequent weather condition. Ash storms can slow the player down and can obstruct the view as seen in the above screenshot. In addition, the player character may raise their arm to block the ash from their faces as also seen above.
Interesting... looks like something to investigate later.
Here is another set of rumors. Looks like some Dunmer youth is squandering his inheritance.
Now to check on Gildan.
Her advice is to get a Jinkblade. To be fair, a Jinkblade is fairly useful as Paralysis can be useful in a pinch.
With the rumor of someone seeking to pay for someone to go to Ghostgate at The Rat in the Pot, Anna proceeds to investigate. With that and this shot of Anna covering her face, I end this part of my look at Morrowind.
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