@macole - I'm not surprised. I actually tried doing some trekking through the wilderness myself. One "dot" distance on the map was probably something like 5-10 or so minutes.
@Decrepit - That's one of the mods I plan on using when I ever get back to Oblivion and finally start modding it. The location just intrigues me because it is in the smallest region in the game, Cybiades has reputation stats and such despite the fact that there are absolutely no other NPCs on the island whatsoever, and there is only one location to go there for. The Elder Scrolls Online was also going to have it be a big part of the Thieves Guild DLC, although sadly that got cut out (but the name "Cosh" is still relevant in it).
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Well, boys and girls, I finally took the plunge last night and started playing Daggerfall Unity! I hadn't played the original game in what must have been about 5-and-a-half years. And it certainly showed, because it took some getting used to again.
Since my first playthrough of the game was with a male Argonian (as is tradition with me whenever I first play a TES game), I changed it up this time. I am running with a female Breton Spellsword, and I gave her the name of my Breton Sorceress from Elder Scrolls Online, Evelona Mathieu. Her name is the odd one out in the Iliac Bay since the series hadn't settled on French-inspired names as the norm for Bretons. And I got the Ebony Dagger in character creation this time, which saved my hide later on. More on that in a moment.
Surprisingly, I remembered much of how to get out of Privateer's Hold from my first playthrough years ago, or at least I vaguely had a sense of it. But, of course, it was not without hiccups. My old friend the screaming Skeleton came to say hi, and boy, was he tough. I don't remember other creatures attacking each other that much, but I worked that in a couple times in the fight. First, a Giant Bat got into it with the Skeleton and I got to get a couple hits on him as he tussled witb the winged monster. He eventually dispatched the bat, but I found a bear trying to get out of a door in the same room, so I released him to attack the skeleton. I still had to help kill the skeleton and then kill the bear. I also killed a thief who initially surprised and killed me, and she had a map to a dungeon called The Citadel of Wickhart.
After I got out of Privateer's Hold, I decided to run on foot to the nearest town, Gothway Garden and did a quick quest in town for a scantily-clad patron of one of the taverns. I then trekked a bit of a longer distance to Burgley, a somewhat larger town, just a few hours ago. A shopkeeper gave me a quest to clear out some Harpies in a rundown property that he no longer used, but he had to have taken care off due to some law that required him to have it be in a certain condition. I went there, and it was just BRUTAL. The Harpies hit hard and often, my rest got interrupted constantly, and I had to do a lot of save-scumming. Evelona died a lot in the dungeon but she eventually pushed through. I did not remember that Harpies needed to be hit by a certain quality of weapon, and my Iron Flail I was mostly using was not cutting it. That's when I remembered: I had an Ebony Dagger! It was still rough going, but the dagger made it possible to get through. I eventually found a specific Harpy I had to kill because it dropped a clan feather (and in typical Daggerfall fashion, there was little to no indication that this Harpy was different than the others).
It took some time to find the way back out, but the QoL changes Unity made to the map were extremely helpful. The map was easier to navigate even if it's still a cluster[censored]. You also get a red vertical pole indicating where you are relative the rest of the dungeon and a green vertical pole marking the entrance/exit of the dungeon relative to the rest of the dungeon, and big arrows in the respective colors marking exactly where you are and where the exit is.
After I came back and finished the shopkeeper's quest, I went off to meet Lady Brisienna, joined the Mages Guild, bought a bunch of spells, and traveled to the location that was on the map I looted off the thief I killed all the way back in Privateer's Hold: The Citadel of Wickhart. I ended the session right outside its entrance. The sky was this really cool red and black, which may be an ill omen...but oh well!
Forgot to mention that I purposely traveled to back to Daggerfall recklessly after I left it to meet Lady Brisienna in another town. As I hoped, I got back at night to hear our old friend, King Lysandus's Ghost yell "VENGEANNNNNCE!" a bunch of times. I climbed the wall and eventually a Wraith started chasing me. I luckily had a Slowfall spell from character creation, so I cast that as I jumped off the wall. I booked it to a tavern and bought a room for the night. Ordeal over, right? WRONG. The Wraith was still there when I left the tavern (which I am pretty sure is a bug), and I found that there had been a second Wraith in tow! That one cast a spell that hit a citizen, but she just kept walking like nothing happened. None of the citizens acknowledged the Wraiths were there. I made it back to the smith that was repairing my Ebony Dagger that got a lot of use against Harpies. I picked it up, ready to do battle with the Wraiths...and they were gone when I went back out the door. Seriously? Ah well.
Also, in case it is not known: You can capture screenshots easily in Daggerfall Unity! All you need to do is hit F8 (or in my case, CTRL and F8 because F8 already has a specific function on my computer). I'm excited that I can actually share pics from that game. Be on the lookout for those in the near future.
I can't believe I am playing Daggerfall again! And an upgraded version at that!