He wound up plying a phial of his 'wares' to somebody on the road just before entering Wawnet Inn. He doesn't dare try to sell to merchants; they can wind up calling the guards (and putting a Trespass crime on him) if things go wrong.

Last I saw he got rid of almost all his stash (7 more phials) in Dzonot Cave. 🍾

Sounds like Snaat Rayag (what a name) is feeling the effects of a recent crackdown on the illegal Skooma trade.

But what about the legal Skooma trade? Is that still going alright?

In the meantime, Geralt is having a very similar problem in the Northern Realms. He needs "alcohest" and "saltpeter" for his potions and bombs, and those are supposed to be really common ingredients... But there's none to be had! Not from merchants and not from loot! And I didn't install any "economy" mods either! I suspect illegal drug trade. Someone's set up a alchemy lab and guzzled up all the ingredients from the market!

Wow, hope Geralt is able to find those!

In my gameworld skooma is illegal, (through a mod, of course). Presumably there are regions where the skooma trade occurs with little consequence, but if my guy gets caught by a guard and chooses to Go To Jail or Pay The Fine, all his product gets confiscated.

His bounty right now is 400-something, because occasionally he sells to someone who "calls the guards", adding a small bounty of 40 Septims each. These fees rack up over time, but for now nobody really cares> I think once his bounty gets over 500 is when soldiers and guards will start to get into his face, "STOP! You violated the law!"

Shameful plug: all of the NPC reactions which occur while Snaaty tries to ply his wares are my own idea. And it's neat playing a dealer; I've never played a merchant before to this extent. Disposition and the Mercantile skill are at the forefront of his interactions, rather than the usual Magic and/or Weaponry skills.

Edit: oh and last I saw, he was in All Saint's Inn.

Pretty cool that if you sell or try to sell skooma, whoever you try and sell it to might report you!


-------------------

After clearing out Plundered Mine, Lothran has now also cleared out Capstone Cave. Well, except for two friendly female Khajiit who were more willing to chat than to fight. They also saw no problem in Lothran killing their friends and taking all their gold and silver

That's awesome. He should try asking those kitties on a date.

Kidding. First Seed 29, mid-afternoon: Snaat Rayag just finished roaming the Waterfront. He left Chorrol with about 70 gold and now he's got 491. Time to get a posh room and maybe a lady of the evening to share it with. Tomorrow he might head off to Bravil so he can restock. Bravil's the mecca of moon sugar products, after all. 🚬

I can recommend Snaat going to the Isles; lots of sugar there too


-----------------------

Lothran has spent another evening at Olav's. It's morning and he will now make his first trip way out west east and clear Silver Tooth Mine and then camp the night at Azura's shrine.

Say hi to Buffy's godmother, the Mistress of Twilight.

Will do!


Lothran cleared Silver Tooth Cave in record time yesterday. That's mainly because he didn't sneak, taking his time trying to clear the place without being detected like he's usually done it in the past. No, this time he did the Plundered Mine thing where he goes in with horns and trumpets and just went Terminator on the goblins. His main weapon quickly ran out of charge so he switched to Snowflake. While it isn't the strongest weapon it does wonders when coupled with the dedicated Weakness spell. Slashing like it's no tomorrow helps too
Snowflake has a huge charge due to the low enchantment so it did last the rest of the cave easily. However, it did go from fully 533 to around 240 which tells you how heavily Lothran used it. It otherwise rarely goes below 400 before Lothran recharges it because why not. As a backup weapon, Snowflake is great!

Now a night has been spent at Azura's shrine and come next session Lothran will return to Bruma.

Nice to see Snowflake still in service.

Well, it's nice to come back from a looong break and find familiar faces. I've been afk for many years and haven't played any Bethesda games is quite a while. Looks like the Bethesda forums are completely shut down but good to see Chorrol alive and well.

Just reinstalled Oblivion (the GOG version this time) and made a new mod list (so many new mods). My new character, Reylan Jend, a Breton mage just got to Cheydinhal where he joined the guild and is now waiting to catch Deetsan alone so he can talk to her about the foul smell coming out of the well. Good thing Reylan saved up his ale bottles from the tutorial dungeon because he isn't going to be drinking water anytime soon

Wow, welcome back Turija. Yeah, I think Beth's forums are basically Discord nowadays. Which is fine. Their revamped forums which launched in 2018 weren't as good in a few ways.

Hoy there, Reylan Jend. Nice to have a new face.

Welcome back, Turija! Enjoy your game. We have several folks here playing Oblivion.

Is several folks me? Oh, and Renee and Lena


Yes; welcome back Turija and welcome Reylan!

And macole.

Hey Renee!

Hey Acadian!

Hey Mirocu!

Good to see you all again!! Feels like Bruma here in the Pacific Northwest. We've been snowed in since Friday, so I have been playing in the snow and playing Oblivion. More snow tonight but then it is supposed to all melt away after that.

Reylan is working his way through through the recommendation quests, taking time out to buy the Imperial Waterfront shack. Now he is in Leyawiin trying to find a certain amulet.

Welcome back Turija, long time no see.

Thanks! Good to see you again too!

Reylan Jend completed the Leyawiin recommendation quest last night and had an ominous feeling that an unseen force witnessed his ruthless dispatching of Kalthar. Don't know why it counted as "murder" since Reylan was just defending himself, but you gotta love Oblivion's random glitches -- they so often play into interesting roleplaying opportunities . . .

When Reylan returned to Dagail, she said something rather prophetic: "I must warn you. I have seen things in your future. Things which may be, and things which will be. It will be up to you to decide the fate of many. Life and death are strange things, easily manipulated, and both will be altered by your hands." Dagail has some powerful visions, seeing into the future of Reylan's moral struggles, as he will soon be tempted down a dark path by Lucien Lachance.

Yeah. Lothran got his when killing the Grey Prince. What path will Reylan take?

------------------------
The Dark Elf has just completed his patrol route west past Hermaues Mora's shrine. A spider Daedra waited at the end this time which was quickly disposed of, and now awaits the trekk home to Olav's Tap and Tack.

Surprisingly, only one ogre encountered whereas there's usually four or five. Only bears this time

When Reylan was traveling back to his shack in the Imperial City, he was jumped by some brigands near the Wayshrine of Zenithar and ended up randomly wandering past the Inn of Ill Omen. He resisted the temptation to go inside. Who knows how long he will be able to resist temptation? After all, he is a Jend, and as we all know, the Jends of Cyrodiil have a reputation of being rather unpredictable, some might say reckless, and like his more famous cousin, Reylan too enjoys exploding his enemies.

Ah yes, Delphine 'Make Enemies Explode' Jend.

Buffy got her DB invite for preemptively taking out Earana (Chorrol) for violating the Buffy Doctrine*.


*'If you are kind to me, I will love you dearly; if you are a threat to me or my friends, I will likely kill you.'

Nice avatar pic, Turija!

Got the day off because *gulp* it is actually snowing in Maryland! ❄🌨⛄ Enough snow that we got the day off. It also snowed on Monday. so...

Morndas, Rain's Hand 1, 3rd Era 434 -- Snaat Rayag is in Wawnet Inn. It's nighttime and raining hard outside. The city (where he can sell his latest re-up of skooma) is less than a half-hour away but Snaaty's wearing nice clothes, and he doesn't feel like venturing out until the rain abates.

Nerussa is glaring at him though. And there's a guard virtually stationed inside the inn. Rowley Eardwulf, that shady guy who sits by the fire, keeps saying "psst.... you. Yeah you!" and he keeps trying to ply his wares on my elf. But he's got nothing Snaaty wants. Right now Snaat Rayag wants a cheaper shirt so he won't ruin his nice threads.

But Rowley hasn't got anything to wear that doesn't cost less than 100 Septims, and certainly no cheap shirts. On top of this he's not interested in buying any skooma. Two shady merchants, neither plying wares to the other. Ha.

Reylan Jend was on his way to Cheydinhal when he came upon a pair of adventurers travelling in the same direction. He wasn't too sure of their intentions, so he cast his new invisibility spell and snuck up behind them to shadow them for a bit until he could decide if they were friend or foe. One of them was Khajiit wearing plain robes and carrying a staff. The other was Imperial wearing baggy necromancer robes with a silver axe. They seemed like a bit of an odd pair but before Reylan could form any strong opinions, they were jumped by a few marauders who had come down from Skyrim.

Reylan was still invisible so he could have just held back and see who won, but at the moment combat began, he formed his decision. Was it something he saw in these two, or was it just that they were attacked and slightly outnumbered by the Nords? Who can say, but Reylan didn't hesitate to make himself known and he quickly started blasting the Nords with fireballs while he summoned his flame atronach. With Reylan in the fight, the numbers were evenly matched and the Nords soon met their end.

After it was over, he introduced himself to Sinbil Tavakhan and Marara Burtilius. They thanked him for his help and agreed to join up with him for the trip to Cheydinhal (safety in numbers). Up until this point, Reylan thought Marara was a dude. She wore her hair short cropped with a headband and didn't look at all feminine in those baggy necromancer robes, but as soon as they started talking it was obvious she was all girl. But no romance is on the table. The last thing Reylan needs is a love triangle messing up his merry band of adventurers.

They cleaned out a cave near Chedinhal together and then decided to head up to the Shrine of Azura, which Reylan heard about from a certain Redguard mage. Reylan has always travelled alone, so having a group of friends is something new but they seem to be forming a tight knit group.

Safety in numbers works very well, indeed. I like that there's some unsureness about that first set of encounters.

Morndas, Rain's Hand 15: Snaat Rayag is in Bruma. He needed to come all the way up here so he could pay some money for his home, Skytop Manor, located along the Orange Road. He is sick, and it's late at night. Hopefully the Mages Guild sells mandrake. He can afford a Cure Disease potion but that'd take up most of his pouchful of money! 👛 Praying at an altar is out of the question, for obvious reasons.

And he won't dare try to ply his wares in this town, except to maybe Ongar or somebody who's more of a criminal. Otherwise, all the Nords pretty much hate him on sight.

Lothran is trudging along, wandering the Jeralls, keeping an eye on things.

Plundered Mine proved to have been repopulated a couple of days ago so that was dealt with. Capstone Cave however was still empty and so was the bandit camp out east so Lothran headed back to town and is now enjoying a quiet evening in one of the rooms in the basement at Jerall View. Olav's Tap and Tack is next up. Gotta see how many times Ongar can get in trouble for stealing food

Middas, Sun's Dusk 13, Fourth Era Year 1: Lady Saga is in Garlas Agea, a ruin northeast of Anvil.

And that's the extent of my update with her at the moment. The thing about my elf archer is she tends to roam around. I have no idea where she wants to go next. I'm thinking it'll be southeast, though. Her map looks blank in that area.

Loredas, Sun's Dusk 16, late afternoon, Fourth Era Year 1: Lady Saga is on the Golden Plains or whatever they're called. West of Kvatch. She's just outside of Fort Wariel. Been here before, but that's okay. She's ready for a nice dungeon crawl.

Marauders, sweet! Time to break out the crossbow of steel!

Before she does though, she's spotted a grove of arrowroot and goldenrod. Time for a quick snack.

Bruma season is coming to an end. This Sunday, Lothran will pack up, put out the fireplace and trekk through the mountains towards Chorrol.


Yes; I think Spring might on some level soon be in/or somewhere by the air!

Renee, I hope Lady Saga enjoyed her dungeon crawl vs marauders.

mirocu, One the first signs of spring!

We barely had a winter this year, or for the four past years. It already feels like spring where I am. Which sucks, imo. Anyway, glad to hear he'll be back in Bruma. What game are you playing next?

Why thank you, sir Acadian. 'Twas quite the delve, for sure. Wariel only includes one level though, so it was One Stop Shopping for my elf.

Morndas, Sun's Dusk 18, early afternoon, Fourth Era Year 1: She's just arrived to Sutch. Sometimes, my plant & ingredient-eating Bosmer must return to civilization, for this and that. She really needs several bows and armor pieces repaired. Could use more cheap arrows. She needs to make a new batch of Damage Health poisons.

Yeah, but not until the end of next November


Next up is a final raid of Plundered Mine and Capstone Cave!

Plundered Mine cleared out of goblins one last time for this season but Capstone Cave proved to only have one friendly female Khajiit bandit so no fighting there.

Back in Bruma, Lothran has recharged his weapon and repaired all his gear and now we have the rest of the day left and one evening at Olav's Tap and Tack before it's time to leave and head out into Cyrodiil again.

Heh. Those gobbies, they're finally gonna get some relief! They're like "whoa, is that Dunmer with the silver hair coming back? He's gone? GOOD! Now we can all relax!"

Kidding. Does he still have Snowflake?


Sun's Dusk 5, mid-afternoon

Day: 438
Playtime: 297:37:31

Joan of Arkay is in Nenatala, where we last saw her back in November. Consulting my notes from 3 months ago (ahem) I can see the following: She is in Nenalata, which appears to be a wasted trip because there's nothing to find here, yet Umbacano wanted her to go here for some reason.

So yeah, headed back to the Imperial City, probably to get involved with the Jagged Crown quest she tried to jump ahead of.

Until the end of November


Yes. It's back in its drawer now however, repaired and fully charged.

Nenalata was fun iirc

------------------
Fireplace is out, it has stopped snowing and Lothran is currently way out west in the Colovian Mountains.


Winter season is officially over.

Almost butterfly season!

Lothran has now reached Chorrol and after conducting some business and repairing gear, he's now resting at The Oak and Crosier.

Funny thing when going to Chorrol: Close to the mine west of town stood a Black Horse Courier and her horse. This isn't anything too unusual. However, what happened next is. Lothran struck up a conversation with her and as per usual she handed him a paper. Usually after this the courier mounts her steed and rides off, but this time she didn't! She just stood there, so Lothran talked to her again and recieved another paper. And still she didn't ride off. This repeated so eventually Lothran had two copies of every Black Horse Courier paper available to date, save for one, after which he couldn't be bothered anymore and ran off to kill an imp. He was gonna go to Chorrol after this but decided to talk to the courier once more which he did, got the last paper again and THIS time she finally rode away.


Crow's note: This is unprecedented. As far as I can remember this has not happened once in all the 16 years of gaming.

Sounds like she was carrying too many papers to move until she unloaded a bunch on Lothran.

That's the thing. Even in a close-to-vanilla game odd stuff can still happen sometimes.

"Our sister returns to the fold."

Joan is in the Imperial City. Slept for 8 hours (until midnight) and now she's about to speak to the Order of Virtuous Blood guy: Roland Jenseric. Wait. Hold on, everybody. READY?

"Another vampire has been slain, here's your reward." *clink!*
"Another vampire has been slain, here's your reward." *clink!*
"Another vampire has been slain, here's your reward." *clink!*
"Another vampire has been slain, here's your reward." *clink!*
"Another vampire has been slain, here's your reward." *clink!*
"Another vampire has been slain, here's your reward." *clink!*
"Another vampire has been slain, here's your reward." *clink!*
"Another vampire has been slain, here's your reward." *clink!*
"Another vampire has been slain, here's your reward." *clink!*
"Another vampire has been slain, here's your reward." *clink!*
"Return to me when you have slain another vampire, and I'll reward you."

Ahem, she took care of a Vampire Matriarch in Barren Cave, and is headed to Fort Camarla next, for obvious reasons. 🧛‍♀️🦇

But before this, she'll stop in Umbacano's place. I'm not sure what's gonna happen there, but we'll see. Eight statutes found so far.

Oh, one last thing, Battlehorn Castle (which Joan owns) has been fully furnished, with all add-ons except the Trophy Room, which Joanie doesn't care much for. She's in the business of killing creatures and monsters; why would she want to display them in her home?

Joan is turning into a quite wealthy woman. One *clink!* at a time


-------------------

Lothran has spent a night in his tent high up in the Colovian Highlands west of Chorrol. He's got no time to waste this year btw; as Easter comes early he has to plan for Skingrad already, with a stop in the Imperial City in between!

Sounds sort of like the Black Bow Bandit clink.

Busy elf!

Mirocu that sounds lovely. But yeah, he'd better get a move on. What are you gonna play next?

Acadian: True, I did have a couple characters (Dyan for sure) way back who mined those Black Bow Bandits for a while.

Sundas, midnight, Sun's Dusk 17: Joan arrives to Imperial Bridge Inn with her guard. As in Morrowind, she still travels with guards, but at least the ones she travels with won't drown themselves chasing underwater creatures. Anyway, it's amazing she found IBI; it's raining so hard outside. Hard enough that she lost the path, and then had a heck of a time navigating around boulders and such.

Tomorrow is the BIG day. She'll be heading to Nenalata. Umbacano told her he'd get there in three days, and she should be exactly on time..

No time in Chorrol but then all the time in the world in Skingrad :LO


I bet Joan will find Nenalata interesting..

Yesterday when bumping into a couple of monks at Weynon Priory, we found a monk that Lothran never spoke to when in his early days he spoke to everyone. Make note; he deliberately did avoid Weynon Priory out of fear of triggering Oblivion Crisis events so that is most definitely the reason. But to find a character after 16 years that was never spoken to about topics not even relating to the Amulet is a bit astonishing.

Comes with a bit of caveat however; Lothran has done the Persuasion thing and bumped it up to 96, so the monk was spoken to at least that much. But again; that monk having all his topics still in GOLD after all this time is quite interesting

I bet that monk is all like "WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO SPEAK TO JAUFFRE? It's been 16 years, and he's still waiting!" Or maybe Lothran already spoke to Jauff, and everyone's waiting for him to head to Kvatch!

Coloring text is fun!

Last I saw Joan she was in Imperial Bridge Inn. Tomorrow's the big day. In a way it's good she's already been thru Nenatala a bit. She knows what to expect by now, enemies and traps, at least in the first half of the dungeon.

Imperial City, Waterfront District


Lothran left Chorrol early this morning and headed for the big city. Currently roaming the waterfront but will go to the Market District tomorrow for supplies and some time later this week it's time to go to Skingrad.

I hope Nenalata went well for Joan.

Does Lothran have any spellcrafting or enchanting plans during his stop at the University?

Probably not. He's quite content with his spellbook now and see no reason to change anything


And yeah; Nenalata. Cool place

It's quite well-known at this point that Lothran often encounters friendly female Khajiit bandits. Well, today was the first time he met a friendly male Conjurer, it was at the Ayleid ruin of Ceyatatar on the road to Skingrad. After the persuasion minigame (99) the Conjurer wandered around with a Glass dagger at the ready, unsure of whether or not he ought to attack his new friend. I reckon there was a bit of internal conflict going on there


At the moment Lothran is once again resting at Shadeleaf Copse, with Skingrad just off in the distance.

Nice! Pretty soon you might just have an easygoing, non-hostile Cyrodiil to travel (not including monsters, of course).

Joan of Arkay.. actually let me update where she's at when I get to gaming later on...

That would be quite nifty and totally unexplainable!


Btw, is there any news on Kahreem? I seem to be missing some cheap wine bottles...