Day 14: Balmora & Mage quests, more exploring

Balmora

Well, after an interesting turn of events, it turns out I was correct in my suspicions about Ranis Athrys, and I can safely say that she won't be blocking that particular hallway anymore. But the tour of all the guilds of mages in the other cities has made me sort of anxious to start expanding my activities into other cities. Meanwhile, however, there are a number of unfinished quests in Balmora, one of which I completed today. It was that "murder of Ralen Hlaalo" quest. I had not joined House Hlaalu, as I'm still saving myself for House Telvanni, but I heard about Ralen's murder from a random NPC, and broke into his house to investigate. This house is one of the ones that I see listed in several places as a recommended home base in the vanilla game if you don't plan to install any house mods. Well, it's all right, but it doesn't feel any more like a "home" than the Mages' Guild does. More like someone else's place where you're temporarily dumping your stuff.

As it turns out, this quest has a common goal with Larrius Varro's little story (if Ralen's servant was telling the truth, of course). I like Larrius, and his very roundabout way of asking you to do something!

This was also the first place where I attempted to goad someone into attacking me first, so I wouldn't get in trouble for it later. I was going about it the wrong way at first. I thought that if you reduce someone's disposition to 0, they'll be likely to attack you, as happens in Oblivion. Here, though, it doesn't happen. Only by actively taunting them, and succeeding a certain number of times, will they attack you. And it also seems that a successful taunt requires their disposition to be high, strangely enough. I found that I got many more failures when I tried taunting him at disposition 0, than when I taunted him while I had him under the influence of a charm spell.

I have to say, though, that THE Morrowind NPC Makeover made an error in changing the appearance of one of the NPCs involved, as he no longer fits the description given by the servant.

And why is Ralen's last name "Hlaalo" instead of "Hlaalu"?

Weapons

While I was still in Balmora, I stopped by the shop of a raver -- oops, I mean Ra'Virr -- who buys those illegal narcotics Moon Sugar and Skooma, but more importantly, has a nice selection of enchanted weapons.

Early on in the game, I bought a Devil Spear from him, on the recommendation of something I had read...probably UESP's getting started guide. It was useful for finishing fights if I ran out of mana, had a good reach for keeping a bit away from the enemy, and like all of the "devil", "demon", and "fiend" series of weapons, actually conjures a daedric weapon to replace itself whenever you activate it, which has higher stats, and a constant effect of fortifying your skill in that kind of weapon. Very nice! I hadn't been using the spear for a while, since making my custom spells, and it was a bit heavy to be carrying around for no reason (at 14 pounds), and my short blade skill is higher than my spear skill anyway, so I decided to get a lighter replacement.

I went with the Fiend Tanto, which is only 4 pounds, and when the bound weapon is conjured it has faster attacks than the spear, with better slash and chop damage (though lower thrust). Like the spear, it also comes with a 10 second shock shield, and though it isn't quite as powerful as the one on the spear, I think it's worth it for the lighter weight. The bound dagger lasts for 60 seconds, which should be more than enough for a typical fight. A dagger or a staff is probably more classically suitable for a mage than a spear, anyway.

Crafts

I finally went back to Seyda Neen to check on some things. I think I was originally going there as a quicker trip to Pelegiad, but I got distracted. I went back to that ancestral tomb where I left that rotten log to see if it had finished drying yet. It had, but I was informed that it had been too rotten, and was not salvageable. I had the same results with the two rotten logs I'd left drying out in front of the Caldera guild of mages, which I couldn't pick up before because there was an unusually long rainy season there at the time. There really should be an option on those logs to abort the "drying" process and move them somewhere else.

I've also acquired more folded cloth, and have been attempting to sew some clothes. (There are some other cloth items that can be crafted aside from clothes as well, such as rugs, pillows, and usable bedrolls.) So far, my skill has been slow to rise in that area. I've been having a hard time finding cloth, as vendors don't usually sell it, so I have to resort to stealing it from various places. Not very ideal. I've read in the mod's readme that there's one vendor that has unlimited supplies, though. I'll have to look into that.

Over the course of my playing, I've found recipes for 3 of the mod's brewable poisons, for applying to weapons. These are found in books in different locations.

Additionally, I've figured out how to do a little metalworking, and made some probes at the guild in Ald'ruhn where there's a convenient hearth and anvil. I think I may have to add another room into the Magus Realm tower to accomodate some of my crafting. I need a hearth and anvil for smelting and forging, and a loom or two for sewing would be a nice alternative to the portable sewing machine, which has to be picked up to use it, whereas looms do not. I also need a larger kitchen, with more counterspace, I think. A hearth is also necessary for pottery and glassblowing. And perhaps I could also use a section for my carpentry crafts away from the library area. Carpentry is mainly for making furniture (beds are also usable), musical instruments, etc. Expansions and renovations to follow!

Seyda Neen and teleporting

While I was at the tomb where I left that log, I decided to swim out to a little island I saw a ways off the shore, to see if anything was there (also checking underwater to see if I could glimpse any of those fabled underwater palaces that Water Life is supposed to add, but no luck there). Indeed, there were two locations on the tiny island, right near each other, strangely enough. Seems hard to believe the tunnels of the cave and tomb wouldn't intersect each other, the way they're placed. And who in their right mind builds tombs right next to the ocean, anyway? Are they using magic force fields to keep the water out, or what? There are mountains right nearby, which would be a drier location for these things.

This cave was my first test of the Multiple Teleport Marking Mod, something I knew must exist, but couldn't be bothered to look for it until a reader here helpfully did the work for me (thanks, Dragatus!) This mod sort of eliminates the need for the pack guar, since I have 15 slots to mark for recall, so I can just mark my current location, and teleport back to Creeper to sell off my loot, or to my home to store some items, and then teleport back to the dungeon, tomb, etc. I don't mind the loss of the guar, anyway, since there was always that annoyance of him constantly getting in my way of doors or creatures to loot, etc.

I need to look into a way to reset Creeper's inventory, too, to get rid of the items I've sold him over the past few weeks that I don't plan on re-buying. Then again, I might regret that later, since I may want to buy some of those weapons back from him to melt down as scrap metal for crafting. Ah well.