Im having a slight........ major problem with the MQ. It seems those crafty buggers in downtown Oblivion have managed to create a Joryn proof sigil stone. Since Im the only git in all of Tamriel who can close these darned gates (with everyone else being useless, ya know ) Tamriel doesnt have much hope when the Daedra create tamper proof sigil stones.

What Im really trying to say is Im trying to close the Oblivion gate near Anvil for the MQ but it seems the sigil stone is there, but I cant interact with it. Nothing appears, no name, pick icon, nowt. I was wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem and has a way to deal with it? Im on 360 so while any pc help is appriciated, it is also useless.

Im not of the mind of starting over again, but it looks that way as all my saves are after entering the Oblivion gate. While it helped me through the 360's freezing, it looks like I am now stuck with an unclosable gate. But like I said, any help or tips would be appriciated.

I have tried:
Reloading (obviously)
Leaving the plane and re-entering
Closing a non MQ related gate in the hopes that it might somehow jog this rogue sigil stone back into being an object.

If there is some pointer I am missing in this, I will be very grateful and embarrassed if anyone could share it with me. Thanks muchly.

This is part of the Aid for Bruma quest, right? That's an optional quest so you do not have to close all the gates near the cities in order to get help from that city. Doing this quest will only give you more guards to fight by your side in a later quest. But as said, you can just complete the quest Martin has given you instead and move on (should be the Armor of Tiber Septim quest).

Ahh, I see. Im still living in the Hortator - Morrowind days. I was under the impression that every city needed to send aid before you could continue. I have uncovered the great welkynd stone Martin needs, so as long as I continue with those quests Bruma will be attacked eventually right?

Ill give Bravil and Leyawiin a try for guards, but thanks for that. I was very near starting all over again. Thanks again.

Aye, that will happen no matter how many cities you have gotten to help you. You can even continue to this point without the support of any other Count. Of course, that will make things a bit more challenging later on.

Ah, good. Well Anvil can balls then. Theyll need more than a crowbar to move that hot potato. Im off back on the MQ now. Thanks a lot for the help Rane. Aprreciate it.

I did it without Anvil and another couple of cities You really don't need all unless you're playing with very high difficulty I think...

What does the help do anyway? I'm on that part myself, and I'm wondering it's worth it, does it just mean another companion or two to come with me through that dungeon? If it does it would only hurt since it'd screw up my fream rate.

There will eventually be an attack against Bruma. A few Oblivion gates will open outside the city but this time you (and Martin & Co) are prepared. So, the more Counts you have visited and gotten the support from, the more guards you'll have by your side when waiting outside Bruma for the gates to open. Once the gates open you'll be fighting Daedra until a bigger gate opens that you're supposed to enter. So, the guards you can get only help you in the fight outside Bruma. Once the main gate opens you're on your own to close it (much to the player's surprise).

You really don't need anyone's help, no matter your difficulty level. You just need to keep Martin alive (okay, that CAN be a challenge) long enough to run into the Big Bad Oblivion gate when it opens. Martin will be fine while you're gone. Run though the towers to the top to shut it down before the 13 min is up and you win!

I did it by getting the help of all cities (and got some excelent sigil stones huhu)... so no bug here.

Got the major sigil stone in just 5 minutes running all the way to the top of the tower casting invisibility spells.

Little interesting point I thought I would add. After skipping the Anvil gate, I went to Bruma, and saved the day. Of course what I didnt see coming is that all the survivors would be brawling with eachother and some attacking martin. I of course ran to his aid and killed the attackers only to get bounty on my head.

This bounty (like the sigil stone) was no ordinary bounty, but a SUPER bounty. After reloading my game to before the gates battle I dicovered that this super bounty had managed to travel back in time with me and I was immedietly caught by a guard. Although I paid no time passed or money was taken from me.

Still it was worth it after seeing a Bruma militia in fur armour kill a bruma guard in one punch. I was laughing my head off until I saw Martin and some guards alternate between clapping and cheering for me and killing eachother.

Even easier is to wear enough constant effect chamelon enchantments to get to 100% - I know I've said it plenty of times, but you are truly uber at that point - you can't be seen and can attack with impunity. The only way you can die then is the 'storm' effect of storm atronachs (which are constantly swirling around them) or the Oblivion fire towers which detect you no matter what. With a speed enchantment and chameleon, I made it in less than 4 min.

I've started using chameleon enchanted items recently, and the game gets a bit boring when I do, I must admit. Still I can't seem to stop myself...

Wearing two rings (one of them the 35% chameleon from that shrine quest), one amulet, one cuirass and a pair of gloves I get 103% chameleon. No one will see me or attack me, not even if I try talking to vampires etc. in caves. I can loot caves with a blazing torch in my hand, and enemies will go about their business without interrupting me.

I know it's up to me to limit the use of chameleon, but still I wish there would be an in-game limitation to perhaps 50% or something.

Ok, sorry for the off-topic. I'll go away now...

It has happened to me, however if you were to go to bruma and finish without any help that means only you, Martin, Jauffre and Baurus can defend bruma and if Martin gets killed it's game over

Hey i got a question. Im on this one Oblivion Plane i forget where. I stuck finding help for bruma, ya know? So my problem is that there are tons of towers, and my compass doesn't work! Arrg! I've gone thru other oblivion gates, (duh) but i JUST CAN'T GET THIS ONE!

There are these towers called the Tornado and Hurrican do u guys recognize them?

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!

ALso, what happens when its 'game over'? does it come down in big letters or summat? Im curious?

Pleze tell so that im not tempted to make a game over! Is it just like when u die???????

That should be the gate that has the secret tower leaned over on it's side as soon as you enter the gate. (Hatred's Heart weapons inside - bow, arrows, and mace) Awesome weapons! - if you need a walk-through for that, I can post it.

Okay, the path leads around to either the left or right, you can take either. You will come to a smaller tower with a bridge over to the 5 big towers in a circle. Go inside and take the walkthrough into the next tower. I think you have to go down all the way on that one and step out. Only two towers will get you to the central tower, I think Hurricane and Tsunami. Turn the gate crank in each till you find that tower.

When you are on the walkways, look around and you will see the right towers have another walkway that is lower on them.

Once inside either of those towers, go down till you find that lower walkway. Then cross over to the central tower on that lower walkway. That will be the right one.

And there is no game over! It ain't over till Petra says its over! You can play as long as you like, even after completing the Main Quest or anything else you want. Most players get to a point where they simply retire their character and make a new one. If you're like mALX and I, you will probably someday simply take the same character and start her anew! mALX = Maxical; Acadian = Buffy. Lol.

Thats basicaly what I have been doing with Silver-Tongue ever since the original was pulled into the Morrowind Incident. Keeps things interesting, or so I think anyway. Always fun to invent new reasons to why he is is tossed into prison in Morro. and Obl.

Better than my plan!

I was about level 30 when I went through the big gate. I thought "Hey,why not just not attack anyone and run to the top" worked ok until I renembered I was wearing full daedric without any other clothes.

sooo.......


I became the first argonian streaker in oblivion!

without any help you dont have a whole lot of chance to be honest . i think your receive 2 guards from each city ( although i think one or two actually provide one single guard) - i always thought the contribution was truely measly . clearly the rest of cyrodill didnt care much for the nords eh ?

without any help you will have one or two bruma guards and jauffre and baurus ( depending on if he survived)

even with the full help i still struglle to keep martin alive , the main issue is the guards stick to there bows whilst martin rushed right in and tends to end up getting killed by swarms of angry daedra

And some of us just stick to our character without starting anew

That was my first game, when all the quests were completed and nothing to do she just kept clearing dungeons after they respawned (plus found all the easter eggs and treasure chests hidden in the wilderness) - unfortunately, my 360 hard drive crashed and I had to start a new game.

It was so much fun to run through all those quests again that I ended up doing that every time I ran out of things to do (but held onto that last save for the longest running character so I could go back to that game if I wanted to).

I hate to break it to you but given that the post you quoted was done seven years ago, I doubt he's still having an issue with it.