Don't go to the duel. Go to Caldera and get destruction training.
I know I am always preaching caution, but we don't really know how a PC is going to react to us. For one, unless I am forgetting some interaction we don't even know if they can see each other, they might all exist in their own individual versions of the game, while Michael is in the "real Morrowind" that is affected by those worlds or something. Not really a theory, just an example to show that we don't know what will happen. For all we know, they might immediately peg Michael as a threat. Also, we need to work on moving quicker. These world events aren't a bad thing, chaos is something we can use, but they do show that Morrowind is quickly filling up with powerful, possibly psychotic people. Michael needs to be able to defend himself better.
I don't see how "but what if we're all in parallel dimensions and she might kill us" is a good reason to avoid the duel like the plague.
I'd also say that given how little time and money going to Vivec for a minute will take, and given the impact it might have on local politics, going to see the duel and potentially meet with Adorabella is a better use of time than the alternative. How much stronger are we going to get in a few hours? Versus the benefits of finding out more about a possible PC and likely master of our most familiar guild branch? And yes, she
might murder us on sight for no particular reason, but that's true of everyone. In both directions.
Anyway, does anyone really doubt that Adorabella or whatever her name is is going to win? She is a PC after all.
The way she wins and the consequences thereof may be more important than the outcome. But then again, PCs aren't necessarily perfect and NPCs here don't necessarily act like NPCs, so maybe Ranis will pull through after all. What if Adorabella's being cocky? What if she's forgetting that vampires are weak to fire and Ranis is a mage? What if she just plain screws up? I'd say it's worth watching, even if it does play out exactly like we thought it would in the end.
Sometimes it's difficult, as the GM, to sit back and watch people share their views and to remain neutral. If you'll all forgive me...I have question. It's something I've been wondering about for a long time.
I neither confirm nor deny the validity of the theory that there are PCs in the game. But...for those of you who are working with the theory...what exactly is the criteria you're using to determine who is and isn't one?
For me, it's essentially anyone who stands out, and therefore doesn't seem like an NPC.
Clover has a name and nickname that doesn't sound local, and she was doing that creepy "meditation" thing wherein she doesn't move or react at all in any fashion. We never did ask about "meditating" enough to figure out if anyone else does anything like that, but it seems noteworthy and matches what the Wait action, sifting through menus, or going AFK might look like for a player. She's also risen incredibly rapidly in the Mages Guild, which the people we've labeled NPCs seem not to be known for but is right in line with players.
SexyWithersXOXOXO's name sounds like a cliche gamer tag and nothing like a given name or really even a self-introduced nickname. She ignored us entirely to hop off to wherever she had to go the first time we saw her, with a dagger drawn at the time. She's amassed a large amount of stuff and then just sort of left it lying around in a guild like her own personal museum. She may have decided to go massacre people in Balmora for fun. All of this sounds like player behavior and not NPC behavior. She was also described as an antisocial lunatic by Yagrum, which fits.
That pink elf was weird. Unnaturally friendly, gathers everyone together for a party out of nowhere and for no reason... maybe she's a noble or something and it all makes perfect sense, but again, it seems more like a player coming along and messing with stuff using their vast wealth.
Awesomicus sounds like a name a not very RPish player might give their character, and he even admitted to selecting it for being cool. Admittedly, he could have just decided on a new name for himself, but again, that's kind of outside the realm of what we've seen most people doing. We also saw him instachange armor, and he seemed a lot more impatient and less mature than most other people, more like everything's a game than your usual semi-serious NPC.
Bjorn Death-Dealer was doing quests and isn't a known NPC, which is fairly weak, but we haven't seen many other roaming, dynamic, or unexpected NPCs. He also had a very unique way of looking at and dealing with the rat situation, and was unusually shy. All of that could be a result of our lack of knowledge of the world, of course.
Adorabella is, once again, the name. Also the fact that she's a vampire out in the open, which is again a bizarre NPC thing and a reasonably common player thing. The fact that she's challenging the local hall for control also suggests that meteoric rise that we just don't see in most NPCs.
Compare this to the NPCs we know of. They're in the base game, they're standing roughly where we'd expect them to be standing, they're doing roughly what we'd expect them to be doing, and they seem like fairly reasonable, normal people.
So my definition of a PC is basically anyone who has enough of the following traits:
-Is more dynamic than expected. Goes on quests or the like, as opposed to sitting around doing a real job.
-Isn't in the base game.
-Has a name or mentality that doesn't seem like a normal person.
-Has abilities, including raw talent, that don't seem normal compared to those around them.
Fyr, for instance, is incredibly powerful, and has traveled the planes. But he's a several thousand year old Telvanni Lord, so of course he is and of course he has. He's not traveling the planes now, he's standing exactly where we find him in vanilla. He's
busy, of course, but only with the kinds of things you'd expect. So he seems like a really powerful, interesting NPC more than a PC. Compare that with Pinky, who's not really
doing anything, but isn't in the base game, and what she's doing is larger and stranger than "her job."
There are, of course, some edge cases. That dark elf we tried to escort was collecting alchemy ingredients, but needed an escort to do so. That could mean she's a relatively noncombat PC, but it seemed more like she was just an NPC alchemist who was going on a trip to gather alchemy ingredients because she's got to get them from somewhere. Cinia is obviously powerful, moves around, and is planning on becoming a magelord, but owning a transport boat seems more like an NPC job than a player's course of action. And, of course, she's
planning on becoming a magelord, as opposed to completing the quests for it right this minute, like every other Suspected PC mage we've run into.
Though now that I think about it, unnaturally strong, hardworking, friendly... hrm. That'd be interesting. Shame we never asked her about apples.
We are never going to make time for a pilgrimage to the shrine of azura are we? It's way in the south east from molag Mar. About as far from Caldera as you can get. To check out the dream.
We will have to go there eventually, but not right now. It's simply not feasible. We are in no way equipped to go trekking through the back country, despite having been here for ingame months. It's time to train up.
Plus, is this likely to yield anything? I mean, I'm all for checking it out when we get a chance, but I suspect walking up to Azura's Shrine and saying "HELLO WE ARE FROM THE PONIES CAN YOU TELL US WHAT TO DO?" will get the same silence everyone else gets unless they're an epic hero she's decided to bless with her artifact.
Speaking of which, that could be an interesting interpretation of the dream. Going to her shrine might not get us anywhere, we've got to be savaged by the night before the healing glow of day can mend us. Or something.
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Topic: Marooned in Morrowind (FINISHED) (Read 434597 times)