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[Baffler]

I have to agree with syvarris. At the beginning, Michael's bronyism just seemed like characterization, not a GM promise that "hey guys this is gonna be about ponies." I think you can concede that most us of came here for Morrowind, not ponies. Basically, imagine that you read all the way through Lord of the Rings, only for Invader Zim to come in at the end. You'd feel duped, wouldn't you? Like the entire story was an elaborate setup just to make an Invader Zim reference. It'd be as if the deeper narrative thread you thought was there the whole time turns out to be an appeal to go watch Invader Zim.

I may have misspoken. I'm not eloquent enough to put it into words myself, at least not without ending up saying something else entirely, but I just think it would be disappointing for a Morrowind LP with a great story to suddenly morph into something very different. It would be like finding out at the very end of Game of Thrones that Darth Vader was somehow pulling all of the strings.

A better way to say would be after finding out that the Game of Thrones world has been a planet in Star Wars the whole time, you look back and see clues that are completely obvious in hindsight. It doesn't make it any less jarring, simply because the premise you thought you knew and knew you loved has been consumed by something else.

I'm with Putnam in not really getting all this. If I start reading a Star Wars novel and a Lannister shows up halfway through, I'm not likely to feel cheated and betrayed. Even if it turns out to be Emperor Lannister who's working on a planet-sized Voltron rather than a Death Star, I'm not sure why I'd mind unless the transition was extreme or poorly done. If Azura turns out to be an incarnation of Luna, would that somehow invalidate all of Morrowind and all the Morrowinding we've done so far? If the Nerevarine is ponies, would you say this has all been for naught?

No, definitely not invalidated. I'm just saying that it would be a particularly extreme transition. But anyway, a +1 to asking around Seyda Neen, hanging out with Draren, and grinding some more.

[The_Jester]

No, definitely not invalidated. I'm just saying that it would be a particularly extreme transition. But anyway, a +1 to asking around Seyda Neen, hanging out with Draren, and grinding some more.

+1. Ask around about Maximus and the werewolf, what happened with the Ash creature, and where they all went. Don't spend too much time with Draren, but definitely invite him to grind with us.

[hostergaard]

+1 to asking around Seyda Neen, hanging out with Draren, and grinding some more.

+1 Because why not?

Also, I have some ideas and various loose thoughts that may or may not be correct, I haven't finished working them out.

First, one is that it seems like we met that werewolf before , and that she might be the NPC Imare (I-mare. I mare. I haven't bought the pony theory, but there is something for those who have). While the sample is small she did not show the abilities she did as a werewolf regarding reading the narrative and showing awareness of real world knowledge like the Vulcan death grip (altough it have been implied that many cultural aspect may be shared). It may be that she is a NPC turned PC.

It is possible that the other PC are too, are turned NPC. They aparence concedes with the dissaperence of NPC's. Like the dunmer sorceress and an orc appearing after Vodunius and Thavere left in episode . Might be a coincidence tough.

So how would they become PC? Its possible that Michael is the cause. In the sermons with Vivec Michael might have achieved CHIM (The world is a dream of a god, implied to be the the player, and every being in the dream is part of that gods mind in being its dream. Awarness of this, CHIM, allows the being to affect the world like a lucid dreamer would, if he does not "wake up" from the  realization) and thus inadvertently affecting the world trough it.

By asking Imare if she is playing a game he might have caused her to become a PC. Perhaps making her like Michael.

They might all be like Micheal, but some might lack the awareness of this. We might have been put in there in the same manner. And might have replaced someone else.

She is also referencing Déjà vu, it is possible that we may have interacted with her and had then had a Déjà vu outside the narrative we are served. She seems to know us better than our one encounter implies, hell, I don't think we ever gave her Michael name. But whe never had Déjà vu's after meeting her as far as I know. She mentioned forgetting stuff when Déjà vu'ing. And we could not remember much when asked by Vivec, so perhaps our entree into Morrowind was an episode of Déjà vu and we forgot everything before that. 

[WillowLuman]

This implies that, from Vivec's point of view, this world came into being (with all the history presumably forming retroactively) around the same time, just so Michael could enter it and be the protagonist of this forum game.

Furthermore (and remember that we only have a single data point for this one), it's still possible that Michael's death resets the world. LB never explicitly denied it, just cautioned us to avoid dying since the implications of other possibilities of what could happen upon our death are horrific. And I'm not eager to get us killed again. But it is a possibility.

I don't see how it could have reset, though, because we were still doing roughly what we were doing at the time. What parts of it would be "resetting" exactly? Not us, or the people around us, or the things we've done, as far as we can tell. Nor anything we've noticed, not that we've noticed a ton.

If you remember, the world did reset when we died. Not all the way to the beginning, just to a point several hours before, wiping out the events of 2 episodes. It's not entirely certain that it happened because we died, but it did happen.

[Mr. Strange]

A better way to say would be after finding out that the Game of Thrones world has been a planet in Star Wars the whole time, you look back and see clues that are completely obvious in hindsight. It doesn't make it any less jarring, simply because the premise you thought you knew and knew you loved has been consumed by something else.

I would read that story. And I don't like star wars. Or ponies.

+1 to asking around Seyda Neen, hanging out with Draren, and grinding some more.

+1 Because why not?

+1 and in that order. We could ask Draren to come with us grinding, we practice destruction and he Restoration.

[LordBucket]

Suggestion cutoff for episode 58

[WillowLuman]

Alright, but I'd just like to emphasize this.

Grind crabs

[LordBucket]

Episode 58, part 1: So...ponies?

go look around the town for Awesomicus/the werewolf

let's take care of business around Seyda Neen before we go anywhere else.

Inquire at people far braver than we were

+1 to asking around Seyda Neen

+1

You cross the bridge and head into town. The street is mostly deserted, with only Fargoth wandering around.

: "Excuse me, Fargoth?"

: "Hello, stranger. Do I know you?"

: "I'm Michael."

: "I see. Well, my time is short so I hope you won't take too much of my time."

You blink. The guy was seriously meandering aimlessly in the middle of town. What's his hurry?

: "What happened last night?"

: "Werewolf attack. The guards killed it though."

: "Whoa, really? After it died did it revert to its natural form? Was it a tall altmer woman?"

: "No, it was some sort of ash monster."

The Sleeper? That can't be right. Maybe Fargoth isn't the best source of information here. You thank him and step into the Census office, where you find Sellus Gravius on top of the hill giving a briefing to some soldiers.



: "-odds of that are rather slim, Recruit. But there are no bad questions. Anyone else?"

: "Yes, sir. If we've no idea where they'll next strike, why are we being assigned to Seyda Neen? Certainly there are more important towns to defend?"

: "There are, yes. And  in fact the General believes a followup attack is highly unlikely. Your presence here is mostly to reassure the citizens."

: "How long will this assignment last?"

: "A week, at most. But I wouldn't count on resuming the usual monthly rotations afterwards. We're on high alert. More attacks are expected, and you'll all be shuffling around at irregular intervals. Weekend leave and end of tour retirement have both been suspended until the crisis is resolved."

There's some grumbling at that last bit.

: "When will reinforcements be arriving from the mainland?"

: "You'd have to ask Officer Vantinius. And if he tells you, let the rest of us know."

There's some chuckling at that. You take advantage of the lull to ask a question of your own.

: "Even if we don't know when, are reinforcements definitely coming? Do we know how much help we can expect?"

The assembled legionnaires turn to look at you.

: "Darius requested a full cohort. I don't know if we'll get that, but word is every officers on the island signed his report. "

If you remember your Legion training correctly, a cohort is 360 foot soldiers and 120 mounted troops. 480 men. Nearly a fifth the entire estimated population of Vvardenfell. Enough to put a dozen men in every town, city and fort, and still have over a hundred leftover to march across the island. It seems the Legion is taking this situation very seriously. Morrowind is either about to become very safe, or things are about to go very wrong.

: "Why the delay? Surely it wouldn't take more than a few days to get the required authorization and begin recalling in?"

Sellus shakes his head.

: "They'll be sailed in. The logistics of teleporting that many men are complicated. Even setting that aside, there are political implications. Remember, Morrowind has had only a minimal garrison for centuries. If hundreds of troops suddenly show up unannounced that could make the local powers exceedingly nervous. The situation is serious, but nobody benefits from making the Telvanni or Tribunal Temple think we're violating the Armistice"

Well, at least they're being careful about it. It was what, three weeks between the attack on Khuul and the attack on Seyda Neen? And the Legion successfully repelled last night's attack using only available forces. They can probably afford to take a few weeks smoothing things over politically before they bring in reinforcements.

A few more questions are asked before Sellus Gravius orders his men to begin their patrol. You wait for them to file out then approach him.

: "Commander?"

: "What can I do for you, Recruit?"

: "What happened last night?"

: "We received a tip that an attack on Seyda Neen was imminent. Darius reinforced the town with a dozen men and a few hours later a werewolf and an ash creature resembling the one reported in Khuul both showed up. The ash creature was dispatched by Champion Awesomicus Maximus. The werewolf escaped. 8 Legionnaires died."

: "Any idea what their objective was?"

He sighs.

: "I'd love to know for sure, but only Maximus and some civilians survived the attack. My perimeter patrols all reported that first they knew anything was the wrong was when they walked into town and saw bodies. Personally, I was performing a dock inspection and by the time I joined the battle it was already over. From what I can gather from the, shall we say incongruous survivor's reports, the werewolf attacked only Legionnaires, and the ash creature attacked only Imperial civilians. No elves of any race were harmed. That's consistent with the Khuul interpretation that this was intended to be a racial cleansing, but if I examine this attack on its own without Khuul in mind, to me it looks like an act of revolution against the Empire."

That kind of makes sense. But, you'd assumed Dagoth Ur's interest in you was more than to simply kill you for being an Imperial. You decide not to volunteer that you were the 'Imperial civilian' it was after. Although, come to think of it, it seems unlikely that Seyda Neen was attacked solely because you were here. The Sleeper did offer to spare Seyda Neen if you went with it, but you'd guessed that your presence was a coincidence of timing. Is it possible the attack only happened because Dagoth Ur knew you were here? That's a frightening possibility. But the pattern mostly matched the attack on Khuul. It seems more likely that it was merely a coincidence that you happened to be here during the attack. In which case, apparently the Sleeper saw you and was willing to abandon the attack because you were a more important target? That's not exactly a comforting possibility. Why are you so important to Dagoth Ur? The simplest explanation, of course, is that you're the Nerevarine. But if so, how would he know? Nerevar was supposed to be a contemporary of Dagoth Ur, Sotha Sil, Almalexia and Vivec...but Vivec didn't identify you as his reincarnated friend. Though come to think of it you don't remember him ever saying that you weren't either. But if it turns out that you're not the reincarnation of Indoril Nerevar, suddenly that makes Dagoth Ur's interest in you all the more perplexing.

: "What about Awesomicus?"

Sellus squeezes the bridge of his nose and slowly takes a deep breath.

: "According to his report, after single-handedly defeating the ash creature and the 15 demonic hell beasts it summoned...and a dragon...he gave chase to the werewolf and they fought a mighty duel while jumping from rooftop to rooftop. With him blindfolded to keep it fair. Then some sort of four legged angel appeared to tell him he was the chosen one, and during that conversation the werewolf escaped, loudly proclaiming how lucky it was to have survived to brag to all its werewolf buddies that it got to fight him. The angel then apologized for interrupting, told Awesomicus how awesome he was, and asked for an autograph."

: "Out of curiosity, did any of the civilian reports corroborate any of that?"

Sellus looks at you like you're an idiot for even asking.

: "So what happened after the autograph?"

: "That's when the dragon army showed up to make him their king for slaying their vile oppressor, and also when I remembered how busy I was and ordered him to give the rest of his report to General Darius instead. He recalled out, babbling something or another about 'epic loot.'"

So presumably he thinks he's on that 'epic quest chain' you told him about. Come to think of it, what was he doing in Seyda Neen? Didn't he tell the other legionnaires when he first arrived that 'whats-his-name' had asked him to come defend the village? He already WAS on a quest to do the very same thing you told him to do. So why would he report back to you, the inconsequential npc with supporting dialogue, rather than the guy who told him to go defend Seyda Neen in the first place?

another person we should probably talk to at some point would be our old friend Vibius

: "One last question if you don't mind, can you tell me where Patrolman Vibius is stationed?"

Sellus looks through his papers.

: "According to what I have, he's at Fort Buckmoth this month. Though it's possible he might have been reassigned. We've had some shuffling, what with the attack last night."

: "What about Strillian Macro?"

: "General has him doing deadman comm runs. Stick around you might see him."

: "Deadman comm runs?"

: "He's recalling to several different stations every few hours. If he doesn't show up, or doesn't report back, that alerts everyone that something's up."

Huh. That's clever.

: "When's he next expected here?"

: "Need to know, Recruit."

You thank him for his time and head outside.

find more out about our new friend

Chat with Draren

I fully support maintaining cordial relations with as many people as feasible

You head back to Draren's house, passing several legionniares on the way. When you arrive, the door is locked. With time to kill, you have a seat and practice some Destruction magic.

Destruction skill is now 13

Would be nice to get in some melee training but you still don't have any way to heal yourself apart from the 'fight for two minutes then sleep for 8 hours' routine. Plus, you're hesitant to hurt yourself to near death and then simply hope for the best running back to town like you were doing last night. Instead, you have a chat with the voices.

every possible PC we've met has corresponded nearly exactly with a character from MLP

Guys, SexyWithers is Gamer Luna.

Awesomicus is actually Rainbow Dash.

The werewoof is almost certainly Pinkie

Clover is Twilight Sparkle

Fluttershy was supposed to be that Nord

Adorabella matches Rarity exceedingly well

Michael, clearly lost in thought, is silent for a long time. After a couple false starts, opening his mouth, changing his mind and closing it again, eventually he speaks.

: "I know you guys have been keeping secrets from me. Ever since you did that thing where you tried to send me a picture but I couldn't see it, you've been doing that same thing, whatever it is...so that I can't hear you. But before that you sent me a picture I DID get. You remember. The one that looked like a pony changeling? That got me thinking. And ever since then, there have been occasional little tidbits that have slipped through. Just every now and then I'd hear a little comment that was obviously in response to somebody who said something I couldn't hear. And now you're openly talking about it without bothering to keep it a secret from me. So I've got to ask: ponies?"

Michael casts another fleabite spell as his magicka replenishes.

: "What can I say? I mean, I see it. I totally see it. Awesomicus flying and crashing into Draren's house? Just like Rainbow Dash crashing into Twilight's library. Clover the Clever in a purple robe surrounded by books? Much like the purple unicorn Twilight Sparkle who also likes books and happened to play a character by the same name? Pink party girl, possibly a friendly werewolf who loves hugging people and knows things she shouldn't? Like what a Vulcan is? Where did she even get that dress? Is there any pink clothing in Morrowind?"

Clover the Clever

Imare I-mare. I mare.

"SexyWithersXOXOXO." The withers is a ridge on the back of a horse.

Heh. Lunatic.

: "Yeah. Look at the names. Clover the Clever? Seriously? This has been staring us in the face, jumping up and down and waving for our attention for a long time now. Yagrum called SexyWithers a lunatic for crying out loud. A LUNA tic. And don't pretend you guys haven't known about it for a lot longer than you're admitting to. Remember, it was YOUR idea to give 'Friendship is Magic' to Vivec as a passcode so he'd recognize me if I ever sent him another letter. You guys somehow sent me a picture of a pony changeling in my head forever ago. You were literally putting ponies into MY head. Back when a few of you were trying to talk me into suiciding to take advantage of time reverts, we talked about a MLP fanfic that used the same premise. You've all been speculating about 'PCs' and having me ask people if they are practically almost since I got here, and there's one voice in particular among you whose been talking about his 'PCs are ponies' theory for almost half my entire time in Morrowind. So, yeah. Don't pretend this is any big surprise."

Michael pauses and attempts another spellcast. It fails.

: "But what does it mean? Did Discord bring me here? If you remember, that was one of my first guesses when I first arrived here in Morrowind. But I have a tough time imagining Discord bringing me here and not showing up to gloat about it. Did I hit my head when I fell from my chair and I'm in a hospital right now imagining this whole thing and both the pony thing and the Morrowind thing are happening only because that's what I was looking at on my computer when I hit my head? Am I in mental hospital hallucinating this whole thing? That would explain you guys talking in my head pretty well. Obviously I hope that's not the case. But what's really going on here?"

these characters have pony aspects because they originate from aspects of Michael, and Michael is a huge fanboy.

they may simply be patterned on MLP characters

those characters themselves playing Morrowind

this whole thing was machinated by a MLP character

this is a possible .Hack coma?

I'm starting to like the notion that this is the same general idea as the movie,
where some rogue pony flees to another dimension and must for some reason be stopped.

: "Sure. Could be any of those things. Why not? My point is, 'PCs are ponies' doesn't explain anything. This isn't Equestria. This is Morrowind. I think we're past the point where we can seriously pretend that ponies have nothing to do with what's going on here. Yes, people are obviously acting like ponies. Some of them are even obviously named after ponies. Clover the Clever is an actual pony who is portrayed in MLP. Season 2, I think. If we're going to ignore that we may as well ignore the fact that werewolf girl was talking about Vulcans from Star Trek. Obviously there's some kind of awareness of things not-Morrowind here. For example, it's come up a couple times that people have used 'gamer speak' like Folms Mirel in Caldera talking about DoTs and several of you have pointed out that Nalcarya was talking about a singular 'god' that didn't sound anything at all like the Imperial or Tribunal pantheons. And yes, some people are acting like ponies. But WHY are there people acting like ponies in Morrowind? And why do they know about Star Trek? Why are people who nobody thinks are ponies using gamer slang and talking about a monotheistic god? And more importantly, at least as far as I'm concerned, what about me? Why am I here? How do I fit into any of this?"

we're back in the running for being Spike

Michael frowns.

: "I don't want to be Spike. He's kind of a loser. If it turns out that I'm just Twilight Sparkle's little assistant and all that's going on is that we all got transported to Morrowind and lost our memories and we're now supposed to reunite and use the 'Power of Friendship' to remember who we are and return to Equestria...which, trite as that is, even that doesn't make sense. We bumped into SexyWithers on our first day here, but Clover and Awesomicus apparently didn't show up until much later. If Sexy is Luna and I'm Spike, why would the two of us have arrived in Morrowind at the same time but in different places, yet Twilight and Rainbow Dash arrived weeks later together? Even if we propose I was in Canterlot helping Luna with some magical experiment that went awry and resulted in us being sent us to Morrowind...for some reason, and that Celestia later sent Twilight to come rescue us, why would she have come with only Rainbow Dash, and not the rest of the mane six? Remember, Darvame and Ranis said those two were travelling together, and everypony else we've-"

Michael facepalms.

: "Damn it, now I'm saying 'everypony.' The others weren't with them. Why would they come alone? Anyway, even if something like that really is what's going on, what kind of ending would that be for me? A few months ago we were talking about me ASCENDING TO GODHOOD. And now you're trying to claim I'm just a baby dragon library assistant and the 'big win' in store for me is to go back to Equestria so I can spend my time endlessly rearranging books for an obsessive-compulsive neurotic unicorn and pining over a pony who obviously doesn't want me? No thank you. Not interested."

Michael casts another fleabite spell while he considers his last statement.

: "Ok, I take that back. I'd rather be Spike than a corprus beast. But I'm pretty sure we can do better than either of those options. We need to find out what's going on, and then decide what we're going to do about it."

the new construction near Dren Plantation. Being located near an existing plantation makes me suspect it's a farm
itself, and Applejack is shown working on her farm fairly frequently. The odds that her equivalent is there at any
given moment sounds reasonably likely

Michael nods.

: "Yeah. I think that's a good idea. If this pony theory is correct, she's the one member of the mane six we haven't met yet, right? So I propose we go to the Dren Plantation, find this new stronghold, and confront her. Applejack is the Element of Honesty. She won't lie to us, she won't speak in riddles like Vivec and finding her doesn't depend on getting to a shrine in a cave on cliff on an island in the middle of nowhere like Azura. If truth is what we want, Applejack seems like our best bet for finding it right now."

Destruction skill is now 15

Around noon it starts raining. A few minutes later Draren shows up.

(continued in part 2)

[LordBucket]

(continued from part 1)

Episode 58, part 2:Adventuring with Draren Thiralas

: "Michael?"

ask him if he'd be interested accompanying us on an adventure.

I approve of encouraging him to better himself, on us or otherwise. If he's interested
I'd totally be down for having him come harass slaughterfish with us.

: "Draren. Hello. I was going to do some skill training, and I thought I'd stop by to see if you wanted to join me."

: "Really?" he blurts out. "I'd love to!"

Companion gained: Draren Thiralas

: "I don't suppose you have any weapons or armor or anything?"

: "Will a kitchen knife do?"

You shrug.

: "Sure, bring it along. "

continue training

Grind crabs

When we go back to combat training, hunt for mudcrabs instead.

The two of you chat on your way to go find mighty mudcrabs to heroicly slay. It doesn't take long before you find one.



It takes even less time to dispatch it. Draren remains enthusiastic, but it's clear that his fighting skills are much worse than yours and his kitchen knife is worthless against mudcrab hide. He quickly resolves to stand back and play healer.

Block is now 7
Shortblade is now 9

Within minutes you find a second mudcrab, and dispatch it too. Then a scrib. Finding nothing else to fight, you attack it. It paralyzes you several times but it presents little difficulty.

Light armor is now 26

Unfortunately, after that you find that there simply aren't any more mudcrabs around Seyda Neen, leading you to trek further into the jungle.



Which brings you within sight of a cliff racer. Fortunately it seems to have a difficult time smelling you through the rain, and you manage to dispatch a third mudcrab without getting close enough to attract any aerial attacks.

Shortblade is now 10
Block is now 8

That's about when you notice Draren pausing to scrape some mushrooms.

I'd like to find out what Draren does for a living. He's presumably just
some common laborer or peasant, but what exactly does that entail?

: "Hey, Draren. Are you an alchemist?"

: "No, nothing like that. I just collect herbs to sell to Arrille. Most months that brings in enough money to pay the rent. Some months, not so much. There's a lot of competition collecting ingredients in these parts, and I'm not much of a fighter or caster so I can't go very far into the jungle. I'd never come even this far if you weren't here with me. Thanks for the invitation, by the way. Life's been dull lately. You breaking into...not breaking into my house is the best thing that's happened to me in years."

: "It was actually Awesomicus who crashed through your roof, not me. Anyway, who taught you about herbs?"

: "My mother, before she died. Along with a little restoration and mysticism. But I never got very good with either."

: "Why's that?"

: "I never thought I'd need to." He looks uncomfortable. "I suppose I can tell you. Our family was reasonably wealthy until my generation. We still have our ancestral tomb in the Grazelands, but we lost our house and most of our fortune in a bad business deal with the East Empire Company."

: "Really? You come from money? I did notice that you speak a bit differently than most dunmer I've met in Seyda Neen. You're not always calling me 'sera' all the time."

He nods.

: "That's mostly a lower class expression used when speaking to one's betters."

: "Really? I hadn't realized."

: "Yes. For example, you've met the caravaneer?"

: "Darvame?"

: "Yes. She calls her customers sera. But have you ever heard Arille call you that?"

: "Now that you mention it, no. But he has a servant who calls him sera."

: "Yes, that's why. Arille's a patrician. Darvame's parents were peasants."

: "She seems nice enough."

: "Yes. Well mannered girl. I wish her well. But she grew up thinking other people were better than her, and she'll probably see herself that way all her life. It's not even about money. If she struck it rich tomorrow, she'd still think the same way. Whereas me, I went from well off to picking plants to pay for my shack in the slums, but I still don't feel the need to bow and scrape to everyone."

: "I guess that makes sense."

The two of you venture northish, generally keeping to the road. At one point you pass a legionnaire patrolling the road, and Draren explains that while the mudcrabs mostly keep to the waterline, cliff racers generally avoid the roads because of the patrols.

: "Cliff racers are that smart?"

: "You'd be surprised."

: "Hey, Draren?"

: "Yes?"

: "What about Nix hounds? How smart are they?"

: "Not nearly as smart as they are dangerous. Why?"



The fight with the nix hound proves to be largely a stalemate. Draren is not a very good healer, and you're not very good at hitting things, but you've become surprisingly good at taking hits. This allows Draren to more or less keep pace with the damage, but by now your dagger is so worn that you can't penetrate the hound's hide very well. It's much like the fight with the rat on that fighter's guild quest. Your healer is keeping you alive, but you just can't hurt your opponent.

Light armor is now 28
Block is now 9

: "I can't keep casting forever."

For a moment you're unsure what to do. Run back to Seyda Neen and depend on Draren to keep you alive? Try to find that legionnaire you passed earlier? You really, really need to remember to get some panic potions for situations like this. Fortunately you remember you still have your magic viper blade. You pull off your pack and quickly rummage through it, the nix hound clawing into you all the while.

: "What are you doing?!?!"

: "Just keep me alive."

After the weapon swap the hound is dead within several hits.

: "Well done. I was worried we weren't going to make it."

: "Me too. My dagger's blunt from all those mudcrabs. I couldn't hurt it. If I hadn't had that other dagger we might have died."

: "Fortunately you did, and we didn't."

: "Yeah, but I'd rather keep it as our panic weapon than use it until it gets blunt too and then die out here. Let's head back to town."

The trip back to Seyda Neen is uneventful, though Draren again stops to pick from some tree mushrooms. For a moment this annoys you, as you'd sort of hoped to be doing that yourself. But the guy is keeping you alive, and he obviously needs to be getting something out of the trip. He can just as easily practice restoration without you as you can practice destruction without him.

: "Hey, Draren, I have a great idea. You can't come out this far alone to pick ingredients, and I can't fight monsters without someone to heal me. But together, we can do this. So how about I guard you while you pick flowers, you heal me while I fight monsters, and we split the profits?"

: "Agreed."

Unfortunately Draren is smart enough to realize that this means also splitting the materials you scavenged from the creatures you killed. Fortunately it turns out that he's a better haggler than you, and Arille gives him better prices than you'd be able to get on your own.

Also, unfortunately, your sortie turns out to be a losing proposition in terms of gold because of equipment repair costs. You're so bad at repairing things that it's cheaper to buy a new dagger than to repair the old one. Whilre you're at it you buy a couple to avoid having them break in combat. But that's not an option for armor, as it's even more expensive than repair hammers and Arille doesn't have full suits of light armor laying around.

Net change: -74 gold
Armorer skill is now 8

: "Will you be checking out also, or staying for another night?"

Oh, right. You rented a room last night.

: "Draren, we're both out of magic and need to rest. Would it be ok if I stayed at your place?"

: "Of course."

You turn in your roomkey to Arrile and head to Draren's house to sleep. The rug on the floor is uncomfortable, but serviceable. You have no dreams.

Two days later
After some experimentation you take to carrying multiple daggers in your belt and simply swapping them out as they break. And rather than repair them, you simply sell damaged daggers to Ariile and watch as he repairs them then buy them back at a loss. It's inefficient, but it cheaper than repairing them yourself. You spend most of your gold as well as your half of the loot mostly on repair hammers to keep your armor more or less intact, but it's expensive and your armor is now in fairly bad shape. Still, while it's been an materially expensive few days, you feel you've learned a lot.

As for Draren, he seems happy both for your company as well as the economy of your arrangement. His healing has noticeably improved, but he still fails a lot. He apparently only knows a few circinate spells, and the spell he's been using on you is a low power custom restore health over time that takes 3-4 successful casts to heal you to full. It's suitable for keeping you standing through gradual damage, but you wouldn't want to depend on it in a dangerous situation, and his mana endurance is not very good. He'll need to skill up and probably learn some new spells if you're going to depend on him as a healer. And whether it's you or him casting, you're fairly convinced that sooner or later any reasonable rate of progress is going to depend on having a steady supply of restore magicka potions. It's not a problem yet. You're both improving your skills at a reasonable rate just from natural regeneration and the occasional nap. It's possible it might not even be a problem if you kept grinding skills like you've been doing for another week. But you suspect it will become a problem eventually.

Short blade skill is now 18
Light armor is now 33
Block is now 14
Destruction is now 18
Acrobatics is now 34
Athletics is now 24

Strength is now 28
Speed is now 36
Agility is now 37
Endurance is now 41
Intelligence is now 44

Level is now 9

Max Health is now 64
Max Magicka is now 73

Armor is in bad shape
Gold is now 52

Spoiler: Stats (click to show/hide)

Level 9
Health 64/64
Magicka 10/73
Armor rating: 6

Spoiler: Attributes (click to show/hide)

28.3 Strength (20)
36.4 Speed (30)
37.2 Agility (30)
41.5 Endurance (30)
44.2 Intelligence (40)
41.2 Willpower (40)
45.2 Personality (40)
58.0 Luck (50)

Spoiler: skills (click to show/hide)

Numbers in parenthesis are starting values
34 Acrobatics (0)
24 Athletics (5)
 8 Armorer (0)

33 Light armor (0)
14 Block (0)
 9 Unarmored (0)
 7 Heavy Armor (0)
 5 Medium Armor (0)

18 Shortblade
12 Hand to Hand
 8 Spear
 5 Blunt Weapon
 5 Longblade

18 Destruction (0)
 7 Alchemy (0)
 5 Enchanting (0)

23 Speechcraft (10)
13 Mercantile (0)

Spoiler: Equipped (click to show/hide)

 * Iron dagger
 * Chitin shield (damaged)

 * Chitin left + right gauntlets (damaged)
 * Chitin greaves (damaged)
 * Chitin cuirass (damaged)
 * Chitin left + right pauldrons (damaged)
 * Chitin boots (damaged)

 * Combat belt
  * Iron dagger (no sheathe)
  * Cruel Viperblade (no sheathe)
 * Commoner's shirt
 * Commoner's pants
 * Interior coinpurse, containing:
   * 52 gold
   * lockpick
   * 1 potion of water walking

Backpack (Worn)
Main compartment:
 * Dwemer Puzzle Box
 * small leather pouch
 * Tennis shoes
 * Yellow water-damaged notepad with 54 pages left
 * 1 pen
 * "20% cooler" Rainbow Dash t-shirt (crunchy from having dried poorly)
 * Denim pants (crunchy from having dried poorly)
 * wallet with picture ID and $30 in cash
 * 2 lesser soulgems (empty)
 * 29 Whickwheat
Small compartment
 * 9 empty bottle
 * 2 Ampoule Pod
 * 1 Black Anther
 * 7 bungler's bane
 * 5 Chokeweed
 * 3 Corkbulb
 * 25 Heather
 * 3 hypha facia
 * 11 luminous russula
 * 4 Racer Plume
 * 8 saltrice
 * 2 Stoneflower petals
 * 5 spore pod
 * 6 violet coprinus

Spoiler: Faction standings (click to show/hide)

Bearer of Azura's Mark
Bearer of 'scholarly acquaintance of Divayth Fyr' mark
Imperial Legion, Recruit
Fighter's Guild, Associate (1 quest completed)
Mage Guild, Associate
Registered Sadrith Mora business visa, with slave-handling endorsement

Spoiler: Spells known (click to show/hide)

Fleabite (cost:1) (Damage fatigue 1-10 on touch)

Spoiler: Alchemy Knowledge (click to show/hide)

Alit Hide [1]Resist Poison
Ash yam [1]Restore personality
Ampoule Pod   [1]Restore speed
Black Anther   [1]Resist poison
Black lichen [1]Drain Health
Bread      [1]Restore Fatigue
Bungler's Bane   [1]Drain agility
Chokeweed   [1]Drain health
Coda Flower   [1]Restore luck
Comberry   [1]Drain health
Corkbulb Root   [1]Restore luck
Crab Meat   [1]Restore fatigue
Gravedust   [1]Burden
Green Lichen   [1]Night Eye
Heather      [1]Poison
Hound Meat [1]Poison
Hypha facia   [1]Drain speed
Kresh fiber [1]Cure common disease
Kwama cuttle   [1]Restore health
Large kwama egg [1]Restore fatigue
Luminous russ.   [1]Paralysis
Marshmerrow   [1]Resist common disease
Muck      [1]Poison
Racer plume [1]Levitate
Rat meat   [1]Poison
Roobrush   [1]Restore intelligence
Saltrice   [1]Restore endurance
Scale      [1]Swift swim
Scathecraw   [1]Paralyze
Spore pod   [1]Paralysis
Stoneflower petal [1]Fortify health
Sm. Kwama Egg   [1]Restore Fatigue
Violet coprinus   [1]Water Walking
Whickwheat [1]Cure paralysis
Willow Anther   [1]Water Breathing

What do you do?

[Descan]

I wonder if there are any quests Michael and Draren can do together. Obviously we'd have to split the profit with him, and obviously we can't actually TELL the quest-giver we'd be doing it with a companion (or else they might want him to join the guild, if it's a guild-given quest) so if they found out we might have trouble... It should still be profitable (unlike that last excursion) even with the split, and might help us skill-up faster. Of course, getting the quest giver to actually GIVE us the quest, without them knowing we have help, might be an issue. A few times in the past we've been passed over for a quest because of our perceived power-level. That might take some thinking...

It's POSSIBLE they wouldn't have an issue with us being a two-man team, but I think it's safer to play our cards close to our chest unless and until we find out the rules regarding two-man teams like that, especially if one of them is not a member of the quest-giving guild. I don't exactly know how we could find out, if we just straight-out ask them and then ask them for a quest that they think is beyond our power-level once they say it's not allowed/would be a hassle for us, then they would probably get suspicious.

Also, does Draren have any connections? Guild membership, people who need things done that we could do as a team, child-hood friends, that kind of thing? He's apparently from a well-off family and grew up in that situation, he could have connections that survived his destitution. At the very least, showing an interest in him would help us with the connection we have formed with HIM. Might not be a great connection as it is, a guy in a slum who hasn't thought to train his own skills, but as someone raised in a well-off position, he might have information we could otherwise not find. And you never know if he manages (hopefully with our help) to get back into high society, which opens up a lot of options. At the VERY VERY least, it's good practice for our speechcraft and charisma for use on people who actually ARE in a good position (and therefore already are immune to a lot of charismatic techniques).

[WillowLuman]

If we can get our destruction up to 30, we'll be in good shape. It might be good to train up our hand-to-hand some more on weaker creatures, so that we could have that as a backup. We're not likely to punch serious foes to death, but it could make a good backup against animals.

While we're here, we need to send some messages. Things are moving while we're here, just as they moved while we went through Basic. Without the Blades marker (which may only have been visible to other blades in the first place), there's no way for other people in the Legion to tell we're anything other than a recruit, so only the General would know. We have some things we need to tell him (and other people), but I have yet to think of what's prudent to say and how to say it. Still, letters. We ought to test how feasible letters are, or at least some other form of communication other than running all over to tell people in person. Might save us a lot of time and/or gold.

[Xanmyral]

Two random ideas as to explain everything that's been going on, from least crazy to hilariously crazy.

Least Crazy: Michael has a very mild Chim going on. Its not major enough to change entire continents, like with Talos, but its enough that he's literally bringing in concepts that only he'd know into this universe because of the simple fact that he is utterly and fully aware of them as fact. He's subconsciously altering the world around him to meet his expectations, his experiences, and what he knows.

Double Ultra Crazy: Michael is doing the same as above, but instead because he's the godhead's avatar, persona, the one and only, or because he's mantling him/her/it something fierce.

I'm personally in the 'least crazy' camp.

[LordBucket]

there's no way for other people in the Legion to tell we're anything other than a recruit, so only the General would know.

That's not correct. General Darius marked you for detached duty when he put you on detached duty. You simply didn't notice because you hadn't learned about magic or marks yet at that point. Your Legion mark is unrelated to the Blades mark that Caius removed.

: "Recruit Michael, I am hereby placing you on detached duty until further notice. Please note that detached duty personnel are not eligible for monthly pay or provisions like regular patrol duty personnel. Thank you for your service. Glory to the Emperor."

Any magic-capable Legionnaire of sufficient rank to be in the know about such things would probably recognize the detached duty qualifier on your Legion mark. If fact, in the original edit of this previous episode it came up in the conversation with Sellus Gravius, but ultimately I decided it didn't add much to the story and it was already kind of long so I removed that sequence.

Note that this came up indirectly once before:

: "Excuse me?"

: "Yes, citizen?"

Interesting that he called you 'citizen' and not 'Legionnaire.' Does he not know, or does he know and he's just trying to avoid blowing your cover?

Semi-related: remember that there's nothing faction-specific about mark recognition, and that the only security is through obscurity. For example, both Cinia and Angaradhel at the Gateway Inn made mention of your affiliations with factions they weren't themselves members of.

: "For example I see that you're a Mage Guild Associate."




: "What other marks do I have?"

He raises an eyebrow in apparent bewilderment that you would ask this.

: "Well, I see that you're in the Legion, though I don't recognize your rank designation. And that yellow mark is an Imperial Fighter's guild mark, one of the lower ranks I believe. And these two here...hmm. I don't recognize those. And of course, here I can see that you recently ran afoul of the guard for a minor offense that was paid in full."

: "So anyone can know all this just by looking at me?"

: "Of course." He pauses. "Well, not anyone. Anyone with any magical training can see the marks if they look, but seeing isn't the same as knowing what they mean. I recognize the Telvanni and imperial Mage Guild marks because I work with them so often, but the others I'm less sure of.

Point being, not only will Legionnaires beside the general know, there are probably a few people not even in the legion who will recognize your status.

[GlyphGryph]

I think he was specifically talking about our status in the Blades.

[Putnam]

Two random ideas as to explain everything that's been going on, from least crazy to hilariously crazy.

Least Crazy: Michael has a very mild Chim going on. Its not major enough to change entire continents, like with Talos, but its enough that he's literally bringing in concepts that only he'd know into this universe because of the simple fact that he is utterly and fully aware of them as fact. He's subconsciously altering the world around him to meet his expectations, his experiences, and what he knows.

Double Ultra Crazy: Michael is doing the same as above, but instead because he's the godhead's avatar, persona, the one and only, or because he's mantling him/her/it something fierce.

I'm personally in the 'least crazy' camp.

Usually, CHIM is a very delicate state of mind. It sounds more like you're describing a sort of very strong mythopeoism, if anything.

Then again, it's kind of clear that Michael's state of mind is somewhat delicate...