Oblivion

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MadGizmo

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MadGizmo

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About this mod

This mod features an unique combat system, a shop, 13 new NPCs, a quest involving a large fort and offers help during the Oblivion Crisis.

Permissions and credits
Nothing is for free, mage. - Janus Hassildor

This mod features an unique combat system, a shop, 13 new NPCs, a quest with involving a large fort and offers help during the Oblivion Crisis.

The mod is intended for high level players who have more money than a horse has hair and nothing to spend it on. It includes clothes, rings, amulets, armor, weapons, arrows, staves, spells, scrolls and poisons designed to work together. The mod also supports lower level players.

Some hardcore players are using spells which do more than the usual damage at a fairly low cost. They are using elemental damage in combination with weakness to elemental damage, weakness to magic and drain health spells to accomplish this. You can read about these techniques here:

Spell Making and Effective Custom Spells (at the UESP Wiki).

Black Gear goes a bit further than that and extends these techniques to weapons, scrolls and poisons.

In short: Every second hit with most Black Gear weapons does more damage than the first one. Using Black Gear can do double damage, quadruple damage and beyond.

Requirements
- Install variation 2 of: Initial Glow.
- If you do not install this mod the enchanted armor and weapons will look horrible.
- If you have previous versions installed then you can just install this version on top of it.
- Black Gear requires both the latest Official and Unoffcial Oblivion Patches.
- Optionally install the latest OBSE (Oblivion Script Extender). The mod won't crash without OBSE. However, for the best experience game you should install it.

Do I need OBSE?
If you want to get the best out of this mod then the answer is yes. Most parts of this mod run fine without OBSE, but defenders, most NPCs and some spells do require it, It won't slow down or crash your system and it won't eat lots of resources. In fact, OBSE is extremely fast, very stable and doesn't eat up much memory at all.

Installation (upgrade from an earlier version)
- Read the "Known Issues" section below.
- Follow the installation instructions for the first time use (see below).
- Defenders have been improved and several bugs have been fixed, but if you have more than one defender in your inventory before the upgrade then remove them from your inventory and add them again.
- Read the History section. Some items are obsolete and can be replaced by improved ones. Start the game and gather the equipment involved and bring them to Helviane. She will replace these by new and better gear. As compensation she'll reward you with 1000 septims and a repair hammer for each replaced item. She may also replace some spells, but there is no compenstaion.

Installation (first time use)
- Follow the steps below from top to bottom.
- Unzip the file "Hevianes Black Gear 237" in the Data folder of Oblivion.
- Make sure you overwrite any previous files when Windows prompts you for that.
- You won't need older Black Gear Patches.
- Start the game menu, select "Data Files" and tag "BlackGear.esp" in the list (a cross should appear in front of the mod name).
- Press OK and start the game.
- If this is the first time you are using this mod then after the game has started you will be given a new quest automatically.

Load order and compatibility
Don't worry about that. The mod just adds one door which leads to Helviane's shop. It doesn't change anything else. So, it is compatible with any mod, unless another mod changes the same location.

Helviane's Black Gear features:
- A shop in Skingrad.
- A quest to free 10 hostages to obtain the right to buy Black Gear.
- The quest features a 3 level fort with dozens of mutineers to slay.
- 13 named NPCs which have a mysterious life of their own.
- Optional aid during the Oblivion Crisis.
- Black glass armor and weaponry (enchanted and unenchanted).
- Godai katanas (one and two-handed).
- Black off-hand daggers (which act like a shield with an auto-equip mechanism).
- Black asymmetric gloves, hoods, robes, shoes, rings and amulets (enchanted and unenchanted).
- Some spells which were missing in vanilla Oblivion.
- New spells.
- New scrolls.
- New poisons.
- New staves.
- Upgrades of some Daedric quest items.
- Upgrades of some special armor and weapons found in the game.
- Recharge and repair services at times you can count on.
- And more...

What's new in this Version?
- See the "History" section at the end of the document.

When does Helviane start to sell Black Gear?
- Unenchanted Black Gear is always available.
- You won't be able to buy any enchanted Black Gear unless you have freed the prisoners.
- The first wave of enchanted Black Gear will be available at level 10 and at least one of the following two requirements should be met: You must have reached a critical stage in one of the faction quests or you must have given the Armor of Tiber Septim to Martin. However, if you reach level 17 then the first wave will be available no matter what.
- The second wave of enchanted Black Gear will be available at level 20. You also need to have reached the highest rank in one of the factions or you must have become the Champion of Cyrodiil.
- The third wave of enchanted Black Gear will be available at level 25. You also need to have met the requirements for the second wave.
- The enchanted Black Gear upgrades will be available at level 30. You also need to have met the requirements for the third wave.
- Nalcarum sells the unenchanted and enchanted gear of the first two waves. Helviane sells the gear of the other waves. That means that Helviane will just sell repair hammers at the lower levels. She will repair armor and weapons, recharge weapons and sell spells at any level.

Allies for Bruma
After Jauffre asks you to find allies for Bruma, visit Helviane. If you have freed the prisoners then Helviane makes sure that 3 ex-prisoners accompany Martin, Jauffre and Baurus during the final stages of the Oblivion Crisis. If Jauffre dies then the ex-prisoner assigned to him ends his service. The ex-prisoner assigned to Baurus will quit when Baurus dies. If any of the 3 ex-prisoners die before or during the Crisis then they won't be replaced. Their service ends after the Crisis.

Main Quest reward
Helviane rewards you with a Black Dragon katana for ending the Oblivion Crisis. The reward will be available after you have freed all hostages and after you have received the Imperial Dragon Armor.

The role playing part
Once the quest is over the 10 freed hostages will find their way to their homes. You can follow them whenever you run into them and try to find out what Helviane's organization is about. Is it a faction? Who do they meet? Who is the leader? Are you part of it it? Is it evil? Should you fight it or not?

Not doing the quest
If you don't do the quest then only the unenchanted gear will be available. The 10 NPC are fairly strong and might cause havoc by accident. Not doing the quest makes sure they'll stay in prison.

Recommendations
The quests and enchanted gear are designed for high difficulty settings. If you feel a given item is too strong then look for a weaker one ;) Don't provoke the NPCs to kill guards... You may end up with half the town killed.

Killing the Black Gear members
If you kill 4 or more Black Gear members after the hostages have been freed then a quest starts in which these members will hunt you. This can cause havoc and innocent bystanders may be killed. However, at maximum difficulty settings it is extremely hard to kill 4 members and it is nearly impossible to kill them by accident. This is because they are loyal to you and flee rather than fight you. If you think it is too hard to kill the first 4 then there is a console command available to fake those killings. Because of the dangers to the game the quest is locked by default and must be unlocked by a console command. There is also a console command to abort the quest in case you change your mind. In the console commands below there are no spaces in SetStage and BlackGearAvengers:
- To unlock the Black Avengers quest: SetStage BlackGearAvengers 1
- To force the Black Gear members to hunt you: SetStage BlackGearAvengers 199
- To abort the quest: SetStage BlackGearAvengers 200
Do not set any other quest stages. The results may be unpredictable. You can only use these commands once. If you don't use the maximum difficulty setting then there is probably no use for the second command.

Drain and damage endurance
A weapon with a drain or damage endurance enchantment would also drain or damage the health of the player. However, NPCs and creatures have a different rules set and these spells do NOT reduce the health of NPCs and creatures. That's why these spells aren't used by any Black Gear items.

Leveled items
The mod is intended for players who have reached level 30 or above. The mod also tries to deal with lower level players. Enchanted items will be available starting at level 17. But if you reached level 10 and "have accomplished something" (in a faction or the main quest) then Nalcarum might decide to sell some of her items earlier. At level 30 upgrades will become available. At higher levels the items available at lower levels are still being sold. This allows you to balance the game as you see fit.

Glass armor and weapon stats
All glass armor use the standard stats of vanilla glass. The weapons use the durable glass stats of SI. In addition the weapons and arrows ignore normal weapon resistance. This is to make up for Nalcarum's and Helviane's somewhat high prices that lower level players need to pay. Note that black glass is in principle just as expensive as vanilla glass or durable glass. It's just that Nalcarum and Helviane charge more because they are journeyman merchants. Also, Black Gear's NPCs at lower levels needed normal weapon resistance to survive in the wilderness.

Automatic Off-Hand Daggers and Wakizashi
Black Gear includes an off-hand dagger (called a Defender). This looks like a dagger, but acts as a shield. In combination with any 1-handed blade or blunt it can be automatically equiped. No special keys are required. To switch on automatic mode equip the off-hand dagger when your weapon is out or unquip the defender when your weapon is sheathed. To switch it off equip the off-hand dagger when your weapon is sheathed or unquip it when your weapon is out. If you have more than one defender in your inventory then the last selected defender mode will be active. If you have OBSE running then the last defender in automatic mode will be equipped when have you select hand-to-hand, a bow or a 2-handed weapon. Although the mechanism is intuitive you may need to practice a bit to get used to it. Some of the defenders are designed to be used in combination with armor, others are designed to be used with Black Warlock's Gear, Black Mage's Gear or Black Caster's Gear. If a defender is designed to be used with clothing then "Warlock", "Mage" or "Caster" will be part of its name. There are also somewhat larger automatic off-hand wakizashi available. If you want to try an unenchanted defender then just talk to Helviane and she'll give you one for free.

Clothing
Nalcarum and Helviane sells black robes, hoods, gloves and shoes. Because the unenchanted black robe and hood now have a price tagged to them you can enchant them yourself and sell them later. The clothes are weightless. Note that the armored versions of the gloves are not weightless. They also sell enchanted versions of the clothing.

Jewelry
Both unenchanted and enchanted black amulets and rings are available. The amulets and rings are weightless. That also makes them a bit more expensive.

Asymmetric Gloves
The gloves on each hand differ. The right hand glove leaves the fingers uncovered and the left hand glove covers them. These gloves are intended for archers and thieves. They come in armored, unarmored, enchanted and unenchanted variations. The meshes of the gloves are created by Cethegus, who allows them to be used in other mods. No need to install them seperately. If you already installed Cethegus's mod then it won't confict with Helviane's Black Gear.

Wakizashi, Katanas, Dai-Katanas, Long Maces, Greatswords, Battle Staves and War Staves
Nalcarum and Helviane sell special versions of VagabondAngel's Godai series and some weapons are taken from the weapons in Trollf's Armamentarium (including his "Katanas & Wakizashi" release). The glass weapons are retextured by MadGizmo. Often these weapons are a bit more expensive than the originals, but Helviane's specs are slightly better to make up for that. Their weapon stats are scaled to make them fit in with the rest of the gear. A long mace has the same stats (and price) as a longsword, but acts like a blunt weapon. A greatsword is the heavier version of the claymore. It is a bit slower, has more health, deals more damage and is a bit more expensive.A battle staff is equivalent to a battle axe and war staff is equivalent to a warhammer. Note that I'll keep using the term Dai-Katana, eventhough some have pointed out that this is not the correct term. It's a common term used in Oblivion and most gamers are familiar with it. VagabondAngel's meshes and textures are used with his permission. Trollf provided permission in his mod's read-me file. Helviane's Black Gear does not require the installation of their original mods. Using these mods will not give any conflicts.

Black Warlock's Gear
If you don't want armor, but still want to swing a blunt or blade then Helviane sells an enchanted set of clothes dedicated to the Warlock. It becomes available at level 25. If you can afford the Black Warlock's Defender then all you need to do is equip your favorite weapon and you will switch to Light Armor with a rating of 85 automatically. Unequip your weapon and the Off-Hand Dagger will be unequipped automatically, leaving with you no armor and a spell effectiveness of 100%.

Black Mage's Gear
The Black Mage's Gear has most of the properties of the more powerful Black Warlock's Gear. A complete set will still cost you an arm and leg, though. This gear becomes available in the second wave and is sold by Nalcarum.

Black Caster's Gear
The Black Caster's Gear is a bit cheaper than the Black Mage's Gear, but fully functional. Nalcarum starts selling that gear as soon as enchanted Black Gear becomes available.

Recharging
You can use the the normal ways to recharge the weapons. Using a mage at the Mages Guild (or use Helviane's services) can be very expensive. Instead you can use Soul Gems and buy charged ones or fill them yourself using Soul Trap. Alternatively you can buy several weapons and use them until all run out of charge, then add them to your inventory and use a Varla Stone to recharge them all at once. Varla Stones are free, but the game has a limited number. You will notice that when you use a recharge service that recharging may be more expensive than buying a new enchanted weapon. So, selling a weapon when it runs out of charge and just buy a new one at Helviane's shop (which respawns after about 3 days) might be a cheaper alternative to consider. You can always visit the Black Stronghold again (it too will respawn after about 3 days) and find yourself some new enchanted weapons in loot. Helviane also sells Sponge Magicka spells which absorb the target's Magicka and store them in Soul Gems or Varla Stones. These require OBSE, though. See below.

Upgrading weapons and armor
Helviane sells upgrades to some special and Daedric quest armor and weapons. Most of the weapons look identical to the original and will have additional enchantments in line with the other Black Gear. However, heavy armor will be replaced by light armor black glass. You cannot buy upgrades to items which you didn't obtain in an earlier quest. Some of these items are not quest rewards. In that case you must bring the item with you. If you recently visited the shop and found a new item you want to upgrade then wait at least 3 days before visiting the shop. This will give Helviane time to create the upgrade. Well... To be honest, the shop must respawn and not visiting it for at least 3 days triggers that.

The following items can be upgraded:
- Blackwater Blade
- Blade of Woe
- Ebony Blade
- Goldbrand
- Hatred's Heart
- Hatred's Soul
- Hatred's Soul arrows
- Mace of Molag Bal
- Rockshatter
- Sinweaver
- Staff of Indarys
- Sufferthorn
- Thornblade
- Umbra
- Volendrung
- Boots of Bloody Bounding
- Escutcheon of Chorrol
- Helm of Oreyn Bearclaw
- Saviour's Hide
- Spell Breaker
- Greaves of Spell Absorption (Atronach only)
- Greaves of Spell Consumption (Atronach only)
- Mage Fighter's Greaves (Atronach only)
- Magekiller Greaves (Atronach only)
- Spellbinder Greaves (Atronach only)
- Spelltaker's Greaves (Atronach only)
- Greaves of Purity (Atronach only)
- Magebane Greaves (Atronach only)

Blackwater Blade
The original Blackwater Blade had stats close to a Daedric Longsword. The upgraded version has stats equal to durable stats (SI) of a Daedric Longsword instead. It still looks like the original, but the brown parts are changed into black. The original had a great (and very cheap!) Absorb Fatique enchantment which is still present in the original (same costs per hit). The blade now also has the usual Black Gear enchantments. That of course will increase the cost per hit, but it does make it a fine weapon.

Blade of Woe
The upgraded Blade of Woe will be a Durable Ebony Dagger and not the fake ebony dagger. In the original dagger the Demoralize echantment didn't work at all. In the upgrade this has been fixed and works for any creature which isn't undead. Although the enchantment is listed as up to level 27, it will work for creatures of any level. This requires a spell effectiveness of 95% or better, though. The Damage Willpower has been dropped, because this enchantment is way too expensive and its effect is questionable. However, the damage potential and the uses have been increased. In practice the upgrade works better and uses less charge than the original.

Ebony Blade
There are different upgrades: A dagger, a wakizashi, a kantana and a dai-katana and 4 defenders. All four weapons have the same enchantments (similar to the original, but with Black Gear style additions). The defenders have dagger and wakizashi versions match the armor or the Black Warlock Gear.

Goldbrand
There are different upgrades: A wakizashi, a kantana and a dai-katana and 2 defenders. All three weapons have the same enchantments (similar to the original, but with Black Gear style additions). The defenders are wakizashi match the armor or the Black Warlock Gear.

Hatred's Heart and Hatred's Soul
If you have one of these (including the arrows) then Helviane sells you upgrades of all 3 items. Just bring one of them along with you.

Molag Bal
Beth's orginal Mace of Molag Bal didn't have working enchantments because they have set the duration to 0. In the Black Gear quest reward upgrade (and the Unofficial Oblivion Patch) this has been fixed. Black Gear's Aborb Strength and Absorb Magicka enchantments are a bit stronger, though. The stronger Absorb Magicka enchantment makes it more useful for Atronachs. There are different upgrades: A mace, a long mace, a battle mace and a war staff: All four weapons have the same enchantments (similar to the original, but with Black Gear style additions).

Rockshatter
You may have noticed that the original Rockshatter is a Dwarven Mace with the stats of a Daedric Mace. Therefor Helviane has decided to sell this upgrade as a Daedric Mace with (SI) durable stats instead. This doubles its health and in combination with Black Gear enchantments makes it a very powerful weapon.

Shadowhunt
The upgraded Shadowhunt will be a Black Gear Bow and not the standard inferior steel bow. In the original bow some of the enchantments didn't work at all. The new upgrade has a Turn Undead up to level 27 enchantment. With a spell effectiveness of 95% this becomes level 25 (the maximum for this spell). That maximum also works for undead creatures above level 25. This is a standard game rule. It makes the enchanment usefull at any level. A bug in the original Turn Undead enchantment was the duration of 0 seconds. That caused the enchantment to be worthless. It didn't work at all. In the upgraded bow the enchantment works for 5 seconds. The same mistake was seen in the 0 seconds of the 20% Weakness to Poison enchantment of the original. It too didn't work at all. The upgrade has a working 100% Weakness to Poison enchantment for the duration of 5 seconds. The upgrade also features a stronger Damage Magicka enchantment (20 points for 3 seconds) and has the usual enchantments of other high end Black Gear bows.

Sinweaver
You need to have finished the quest in which you have found Sinweaver. Sinweaver must be in your inventory. Dark Brotherhood members have a choise of two variations. Note that the original Sinweaver had a Drain Fatique for 0 seconds enchantment and thus it didn't work at all.

Staff of Indarys
Instead of the expensive and relatively useless Damage Strength enchantment, the quest reward upgrade has a cheaper Drain Strength enchantment which better fits its firepower. If you've chosen the Thornblade reward instead then you can still obtain the Staff of Indarys as a quest reward upgrade.

Sufferthorn
Beth's original had its Drain Strength enchantment set to 0 and thus didn't work. In addition to the regular Black Gear enchantments the upgraded Sufferthorn does have a working Drain Strength enchantment. It has a weaker Shock Damage potential, but a stronger Damage Health enchantment. There are two variations: A dagger and (thanks to Trolff) a cool dual dagger (a dagger with 2 blades). The dagger has SI-style durable elven dagger stats and the dual dagger has SI-style durable glass dagger stats.

Thornblade
This is an unusual quest reward upgrade, because it does not feature the common Black Gear style damage enchantments. To fit the Disintegrate Armor enchantment the blade has Damage Fatigue, Drain Fatigue and Drain Health enchantments. This makes it a fun weapon if you want something else than the firepower of the other quest reward upgrades, If you've chosen the Staff of Indarys reward instead then you can still obtain the Thornblade as a quest reward upgrade. The weapon is also available as a claymore.

Umbra
Bethesda gave Umbra a very strong soul trap enchantment. The Black Gear variation has a much weaker soul trap enchantment. Using a 120 second soul trap for 125 uses would cost 72,500 using the standard Bethesda autocalc of the Construction Set, which is a bit too much in my opinion. Also, to give the upgrade 125 uses of the usual Black Gear enchantments would make the weapon extremely expensive. The upgraded Umbra has the standard Black Gear enchantments (60 uses) plus a 3 second soul trap. That's more than enough to capture s soul during combat. Umbra's appearance and basic stats didn't change of course. However, the upgrades have the SI-style durable health. There is also a 2-handed version of the upgrade. To be able to buy these upgrades you have to finish the Daedric quest without giving the original Umbra back to Clavicus Vile.

Volendrung
There are different upgrades: A warhammer and a battle staff. These two weapons have the same enchantments (similar to the original, but with Black Gear style additions).

Atronach birthsign support
The enchanted gear includes limited spell absorption. If you are an Atronach then you can upgrade some of the standard enchanted greaves to Black Gear greaves with similar enchantments. These versions are not available to other birthsigns. In addition enchanted asymmetric gloves are available with both Spell Absorption and Fortify Health. There is also an echanted ring available to Atronachs only. Last but not least Helviane sells several Restore Magicka spells.

Dark Brotherhood support
A wink here and there to Dark Brotherhood members. Afterall, do you really want a sword called "Sinweaver"? Helviane also continues to sell a favorite item which is no longer sold by the new Dark Brotherhood merchant. And Nalcarum and Helviane also sell enchanted arrows of course.

Female support
The armor and clothes include both female and male versions. Both sexes got the same attention. No shortcuts here.

Marksman support
There are about half a dozen enchanted bows. Most of them have weakness to poison support. Besides the earlier mentioned asymmetric gloves, Nalcarum and Helviane also sell great poisons and enchanted arrows.

Poison support
All enchanted bows include a 100% weakness to poison feature. Several other weapons have this enchantment too. Nalcarum sells several unique poisons which match the spells and the enchantments of the weapons. I think that combining these poisons with weapon enchantments, spells and scrolls designed to work together has not been tried out before. At least I haven't seen it in a mod yet. ;)

Stealth support
Nalcarum sell several potions and Helviane sells several spells targeted at stealth characters. Nalcarum also sells Black Chameleon clothing and jewelry. To higher level characters Helviane sells Black Shadow variants of these with additional enchanments. Black Mosquito, Black Varmint and Black Bug weapons are intended for sneak attacks and are available as soon as Black Gear enchanted items are available. Nalcarum sells those. Both Nalcarum and Helviane sell Black Sting arrows. Those are available at the same time.

Sponge Magicka spells (OBSE only)
These spells convert the target's Magicka into Soul Gems. There are 5 variations (from Petty/Novice to Grand/Master). Each time you hit an enemy with the spell the target's Magicka is stored until it can fill the Soul Gem. Once filled it is added to your inventory. You won't need any empty Soul Gems, though. They are created by the Magicka you provided and the target's Fatique. The spell damages all their fatique. There is also a Varla Stone variation. This takes much more hits to charge than Soul Gems. These spells require OBSE to be installed and running. If you cast a Sponge Magicka spell without OBSE you will be notified by a message.

Control Creature and Control Humanoid spells
These Master spells are powerfull variations of the Command Creature and Command Humanoid spells. They will work on creatures and humanoids of any level as long as you have a Spell Effectiveness of 95% or better.

Bound (Daedric) Armor spells
Helviane sells several spells which combine existing spells to bound a full set of Deadric Armor (including the shield) with and without a weapon. Note that only the cuirass and greaves count as heavy armor. This is because Bethesda decided to make the others behave like light armor with Daedric heavy armor ratings.

Restoration spells
Helviane sells several spells to fix attributes and cure paralysis (on self), disease and poison.

Namira's Curse
Players at higher levels may have a problem with Namira's Quest. Helviane sells a spell which may be of help.

Fortify Luck
Fortify Luck spells (25 or 50 points for 3 seconds) can help to change the odds. Either use these spells as they are (3 seconds is more than enough in most cases) or use them to create a custom spell at the Arcane University. Note that Fortify Luck also increases skills. Some are more affected by it than others. Also note that when wearing armor you will have a spell effectiveness of 95 percent or lower. That causes the spells to be less effective. For an example, at 95 percent spell effectiveness the 50 pts variation will drop to 47 pts. Most Black Gear armor comes with a Fortify Luck enchantment (between 5 and 10 pts). In most cases that is enough to reach a total of 100 pts.

Restore Magicka
Helviane sells several Restore Magicka spells to support Atronachs.

Charm
Dark characters with high infamy may have trouble getting information from NPCs. Helviane's sells a 100 pts Charm spell for 3 seconds. More than enough to start a conversation. You will be loved by all. For 3 seconds. The spell can be casted by a novice.

Merchant's Fear
The spell is a combination of a 100 pts Charm (on Touch), a 50 pts Fortify Luck (on Self) and 50 pts Fortify Mercandise (on Self) for 3 seconds. Dark characters with a high infamy often find that sooner or later merchants will be more expensive than before. This spell turns the tide.

Timing
The schedule of the named NPCs have been checked and tweaked by following them at the maximum difficulty setting in vanilla Oblivion only.

Known issues
- This issue applies only to those who upgraded from an older version: Because of new more complex schedules of Bugdulg and Barann in version 2.20 and later they may travel home during the Oblivion Crisis after installing the new mod and loading an old saved game. However, they will go back in less than 30 seconds. Pressing "Wait" in the first 30 seconds might cause them to actually reach their homes. It will then take a a day or so before they appear near Jauffre and Baurus again. So, after installing the mod start the game and wait a minute or so and save the game. If you didn't do that then wait until after they are back at the correct locations and save the game. Loading that game won't have the issue any more. Seguri shouldn't have this issue at all.
- Defenders now behave smart and several bugs have been fixed, but complete functionality is available only when you are running OBSE.
- Sponge Magicka spells only work when you have OBSE running. If you cast these spells without OBSE running then you'll notice a warning in the top-left of the screen.
- The quest in the fort might give your graphics card a hard time. The same goes for other situations where lots of NPCs wearing black gear hangout together. You might notice a performance drop or strange artifacts. To prevent these in the fort you should kill any mutineer in your path. ;)
- Some switches in the fort have been moved in version 2.35. If you have a saved game where the player is in the fort then these switches will still show up at their old location and may act funny (but still work correcttly). This caused by an engine bug. New games won't have this issue. It also disappears after the cell has been reset.

History
- Version 2.37: Added the Staff of Indarys and the Thornblade longsword and claymore quest reward upgrades. Added the Black Avengers quest. See "Killing the Black Gear members" for detail. Some battle and war staves with Fire Damage or Frost Damge enchantments had Weakness to Shock enchantments. However, those should have beeen Weakness to Fire or Weakness to Frost instead. These staves have been fixed. For some reason some persitent NPCs may have been disabled. However, this is very rare. It may be some unknown games engine bug or my booboo. Whatever the reason, any disabled persistent NPCs will be enabled once a day automatically and moved to a safe location from which they re-enter the world and resume their schedule.
- Version 2.36: Tweaked the mutineer's weapons. Added the Jailor. The 20 additional mutineers are now distributed as follows: There always will be 10 executioners no matter what level you are. Players between level 31 and 40 face up to 10 additional executioners. Players with levels 40 or better face all 20 executioners. So, forget about what you have read in the History sections of versions 2.34 and 2.35. You don't have to look for these executioners. They will look for you, they will find you and they will probably kill you. The lower level mutineers which use blade and blunt weapons are bit harder to slay. This make it a bit harder for lower level players. Now that the quest is significantly harder it was time to improve some of the items and spells to help the player survive. Another reason was that these changes are more in line with the initial goals of this mod: Smart use of magic and enchantments. However, most of the mod's NPCs will fight with the same items and spells. So be warned. Here are the changes. Helviane doesn't teach the Black Spark and Black Surge spells anymore. Instead she teaches 6 additional Black Shock spells and 10 new Black Touch spells to replace them. If happen to own any Black Spark or Black Touch spells then talk to Helviane. She'll teach you the new ones for free and removes the old spells from your spell list. The new spells are more powerful and/or use less magicka. They are used by all Black Gear NPCs. Because the spells inflict more damge the fort has become a bit harder. Added 3 Paralyze on target and 4 Paralyze on touch spells. Some NPCs will use them. Improved most Black Gear scrolls. Their damage is now done over time. In most cases the cost has been reduced and the damage increased. The same has been done for those arrows and staves which didn't do damage over time in previous versions. Finally some other fixes, changes and additions: The Black Ire, Black Leech and Black Liquidator have been improved. The last weapon became a bit cheaper. If you own an older model then head over to Helviane or Nalcarum and they'll replace them for the new one. Added Sufferthorn quest reward upgrades (dagger and dual dagger). Beth's orginal Sufferthorn didn't have a working Drain Strength enchantment (because its duration was set to 0). In the upgrade it does work and is set to 30 seconds. Beth's original Mace of Molag Bal's Absorb Strength enchantment didn't work either because (again) the duration was set to 0. The Unofficial Oblivion Patch has set the duration to 10, though. However, the Black Gear mod assumed a lower value for the Absorb Magicka spell and thus was a bit nerfed. The new quest reward upgrade is a bit better now. The new variation also has a bit more firepower, which is in line with the other quest reward upgrades. These changes make the weapon more expensive, though. If you own an older Mace of Molag Bal then Helviane will replace it for the improved one. Added 3 other Molag Bal variations (long mace, battle mace and war staff). Helviane now sells the Black Bow of Infernal Frost to Dark Brotherhood members. She even has Black Infernal Frost arrows. Helviane and Nalcarum now repair their shields. Weird bugs addressed: Activating Helviane or Nalcarum after they have been killed won't upgrade older weapons, spells, etc., anymore. Nalcarum had some spells which she wasn't supposed to have. This has been fixed.
- Version 2.35: Players with a level between 32 and 50 (inclusive) face up to 10 additional mutineers in the fort. Replaced 2 gates in the Black Arena by doors and replaced 13 gates in the Black Prison by doors. These doors make it a bit harder for some player types (archers and mages). These doors needs keys which the player needs to find and force the player to visit almost any part the fort (which makes it harder to avoid mutineers). Another advantage of the doors is that they allows smart optimization of the last level. The frame rate should be a bit better there. Corrected some mutineer inventories. Added the Volendrung Battle Staff quest reward upgrade. Barann now has a proper location to sleep in early stages of the game.
- Version 2.34: Players with a level between 12 and 30 (inclusive) face up to 10 additional mutineers in the fort. Removed an enchanted defender from Nalcarum's collection. Corrected a typo in the quest messages.
- Version 2.33: Archers in the fort now have their own class which includes Sneak as a major skill. That allows them to detect the player much sooner. In addition to that the archers are 1 or 5 levels above the player. The Black Requiem now has the correct name.
- Version 2.32: Fixed Nalcarum's inventory by replacing her persistent reference. If you have invested in her that investment will be lost. She will offer you a free Black Havoc arrow as compensation (even if you have never invested in her). If Nalcarum died in a previous saved game then she will be resurrected. Recompiled all Black Gear scripts to make sure that her new persistent reference will be included. This approach prevents the use of a script to fix her inventory bug.
- Version 2.31: Fixed the Black Dragon reward. Removed the Black Dragon from the vendor chest. Fixed the free defender. Removed some debug messages.
- Version 2.30: Added the Black Trance battle staff, the Black Incubus long mace and the Black Dream wakizashi. Those 3 weapons have damage and drain fatigue enchantments only and are available at lower levels. They damage and drain your opponents energy and as a result may paralyze them for a moment. Added the Black Sloth dai-katana, the Black Slumber greatsword and the Black Languor war staff. Those 3 weapons have a Paralyze for 1 second enchantment. That enchantment will effectively disable opponents for at least 3 seconds (fall, paralyze and stand up). Added some weapons to the leveled reward list. Added 2 additional sentinels and 2 additional mutineers to the Black Stronghold. Added 6 additional sentinels and 2 additional mutineers to the Black Arena. Added 1 additional sentinel to the Black Prison, Nalcarum's vendor chest now properly respawns. The new spells of Version 2.20 should be available to those who upgraded from an earlier version.
- Version 2.20: Added Nalcarum (a merchant who takes over Helviane's lower level gear). This should make opening Helviane's inventory a bit faster and may prevent items from disappearing. However, these issues cannot be solved completely without Bethesda fixing the inventory bugs. Added Sponge Magicka spells (OBSE only). Added Control Creature and Control Humanoid spells (Master level only). Added the Rockshatter upgrade. Added the Blackwater Blade upgrade. Added the Black Bite shortsword. Added the Black Blow war axe. Added 3 new Ebony Blade upgrades (dagger, wakazischi and dai-katana). Improved the Ebony Blade encantments. The old Ebony blade can be replaced by the new one (which has a new model too). Just visit Helviane with the old version in your inventory. Added 2 new Goldbrand upgrades (wakazischi and dai-katana). Improved the Goldbrand enchantments. Visit Helviane with the old one in your inventory and it will be replaced by the new one. Added a new Umbra upgrade (claymore). Improved the Umbra enchantments. Talk to Helviane with the old Umbra upgrade in your inventory and it will be replaced by the new one. Added 9 new weapons in several variations (wakizashi, katanas, dai-katanas, greatswords, long maces, battle staves and war staves). Improved a dozen weapon enchantments. If you own an older Black Carnage then you'll notice that it has been nerfed. Don't worry. If you visit Helviane with that weapon in your inventory then it will be replaced by the stronger Black Rampage. The Disintegrate Weapon enchantment of the Black Wrath and Black Rampage were in no proportion to their damage potential and have been removed. Instead the Shock Damage enchantment of the Black Wrath has been slightly increased and an Absorb Magicka enchantment is added to the Black Rampage. If you own such a weapon and it is in your inventory then Helviane will replace it by the new weapon. Fixed the magic effects order of some potions. Added additional eat packages to Barann, Bugdulg and Seguri which allow them to heal after their travels. Added a work-around for the engine's sleep package bug. The archers do now sleep and handle their bows properly when they are attacked while their sleep package is active. If you have OBSE installed the major NPCs repair and recharge their gear at critical points in their schedule. If their armorer skill is equal or greater than 75 then their gear will have 125% health. If you don't have OBSE installed then their gear will not be repaired/recharged. Tweaked Veric's and Vienele's schedules. If you had more than one defender then you were not able to switch off automatic mode. This isssue has been fixed. The scripts no longer select the defender type automatically. This allows you to select which defender you want to use. A defender added to an inventory won't be in automatic mode by default and a defender removed from an inventory becomes inactive. These fixes ensure that only one defender script is active at a time. A defender in automatic mode stays in that mode when changing to hand-to-hand, a bow or a two-handed weapon. If you don't have OBSE then switching to those won't equip the defender. If you do have OBSE running and you select hand-to-hand, a bow or a two-handed weapon in automatic mode then the current defender will be equipped. Defenders will now work properly for NPCs.
- Version 2.10: Fixed Surani's Schedule (another victim of the engine's schedule bug). Added off-hand daggers. Helviane will give you an unenchanted off-hand dagger for free. Because lots of items are added to this version the mod required rebalancing the enchantments. If you bring such an item to Helviane she will replace it. The replacements may differ in detail, but they are at least as powerful as the old version. As compensation she'll reward you with 1000 septims and a repair hammer for each replaced item. OK, here we go... Improved the Black Atronach's Ring. Improved the "Mark 4" Black Gauntlets. Improved the "Mark 3" and "Type Archer" Black Gloves. Redesigned the Black Warlock's Ring. Helviane stops selling the current Black Caster's Ring. Added the Black Charmer's Ring. Improved the Black Combat Ring. Simplified the Black Magicka Ring. Added the Black Art's Amulet. Improved the Warlock's Black Gear. Added the Black Warlock's Atronach Ring. Added the Black Warlocks's Defender. Renamed the Black Gloves (Type Caster) to Black Gloves (Type Charmer). Improved the Black Gloves "Type Absorber", "Type Atronach", "Type Charmer" and "Type Reflector". These four are now integrated in the Black Warlock's Gear. Note that the armored Black Gloves were already integrated in the Black Armor. Added Black Caster's Gear. Added Black Mage's Gear. Improved the Black Shadow Amulet, Gloves, Robe and Shoes. Added the Black Shadow Band. Added the Black Chameleon Band. Added the Blade of Woe upgrade. Added the Black Dragon reward.
- Version 2.01: Fixed armor upgrade errors. Added Shadowhunt to the upgrades.
- Version 2.00: First public release after 1.12.
- Version 1.33: Changed the Soul Trap enchantment of Umbra from 15 to 3 seconds.
- Version 1.32: Helviane's aid during the Oblivion crisis is now optional. Talk to her during the "Aid for Bruma" quest.
- Version 1.31: Fixed several schedules to circumvent the engine's schedule bugs.
- Version 1.30: Fixed the order of the Weakness to X enchantments and spells.
- Version 1.29: Helviane may send Black Gear members to the final stages of the Main Quest. Changed the character of Seguri. If he died in a previous version then he will appear when the new mod loads. This is because Seguri is redesigned and is actually a new character. However, he looks the same as the old one.
- Version 1.28: Reduced the number of septims, arrows, repair hammers, potions and poisons of named NPCs. Their current inventories will be automatically corrected. Improved the Restore Health spells of Black Gear NPCs.
- Version 1.27: Helviane has changed the requirements for selling enchanted Black Gear a bit. Black Gear will now be avaible in four waves. The requirements are decribed in this document. In previous versions the first wave and second wave appeared shortly after each other and upgrades appeared in the third wave. Now these four waves are better leveled and require key accomplishments.
- Version 1.26: Once you completed the quest a new quest starts which could not be completed. The idea is currently abandoned and its journal entry has been removed. Until I decide otherwise, the quest is hidden (but still active).
- Version 1.25: Helviane has increased her barter gold to 2000 septims. Her Katanas (single handed) are improved and a are little bit faster than longswords. The most advanced items are now available at level 30 (instead of 35). Added Boots of Bloody Bounding and Helm of Oreyn Bearclaw upgrades. Added Black Warlock's clothing and juwelry. Added a Black Atronach's Ring which is only available to Atronachs. The old Black Shadow clothes are renamed to Black Chameleon and added Black Chameleon amulets and rings. Black Chamelon shoes also have a Feather enchantment. Added a new set of of Black Shadow clothing and juwelry which have chameleon and other enchantments. Added 3 rings to complement the new clothing. Added 5 new high level scrolls. Added Resist Fire, Resist Frost and Resist Shock spells. Added Black Mosquito, Black Varmint and Black Bug weapons which are intended for sneak attacks and are available as soon as Black Gear enchanted items are.
- Version 1.24: The leveled reward is now calculated at the time the quest has been completed. Added a bedroll and a safe chest to the Black Stronghold.
- Version 1.23: More variety in Black Gear soul gem loot at lower levels. NPCs carry less food than in earlier versions.
- Version 1.22: Added 8 Restore Health spells. Added a weaker Fortify Luck spell. Added 5 Restore Magicka spells. Renamed the "Black Chameleon XX" spells to "Chameleon XX". Added a Train Armorer spell which corrodes your own armor and weapons.
- Version 1.21: High level atronachs will be able to obtain asymmetric gloves with both Spell Absorption and Fortify Health. These new gloves are still called "Black Gloves (Type Atronach)", however the old gloves (without Fortify Health) are renamed to "Black Gloves (Type Absorber)". The latter are availabe to characters of any birthsign. There are also "Black Gloves (Type Reflector)" which include Reflect Spell and are available to any high level character. The Aborb Spell enchantment of Black Greaves for atronachs are a little weaker than the pervious version to prevent rising above 100 percent when using high-end Black Gear armor.
- Version 1.20: When creating a new character, the mod starts after the character generation has been completed. Like the UOP bows now have a reach of 1. All Black Gear weapons now have the same specs as their "durable" Shivering Isles counterparts. That makes the weapons also a bit more expensive. Black Gear's Hatred's Soul and Hatred's Heart have now SI's basic Durable Daedric weapons stats. This causes a change in their weight which makes Hatred's Soul much heavier and Hatred's Heart a bit lighter than the original ones. Now Black Gear's Ebony Blade, Goldbrand, Mace of Molag Bal, Sinweaver, Umbra, Virtueweaver and Volendrung are also made of a durable material. There is no need to upgrade to the durable versions because "upgrading" will be automatic. If you have damaged weapons before installing version 1.20 then you'll notice that the damage of Black Gear weapons has been increased after installing Black Gear version 1.20. This is because the maximum health has been increased and what is shown in your inventory is a percentage of that health. So, depending on your point of view, repair your weapons before installing this version or use the situation to your advantage by repairing the additional damage. Of course, only the Black Gear weapons are effected by this. None of the standard Oblivion or SI weapons have been altered. Another significant change is the shift in armor enchantments from Fire Shield to Shock Shield. This was required because Dunmer characters, who already had a 75% resistence to fire, were in a disadvantage. On the other hand none of the races have a natural resistence to shock. Depending on the armor type Fire Shield now has a maximum of 25% and Shock Shield a maximum of 60%. This used to be the other way around. The percentage of the shielding itself didn't change. You will notice that pieces which previously had Fire Shield only now also have Shock Shield. Because Black Gear's weapons mainly use shock damage this is also more in line with that. Added 5 new illusion spells and 10 new destruction spells. These 15 spells are the same ones as those used by the NPCs. Helviane now offers repeair services and sells repair hammers. She also sells the clothes to lower level characters.
- Version 1.12: The freed hostages now pay their bounty as soon as they commit a crime. This was required to prevent chain reactions after these NPCs comitted a crime (intentonally or not), That simple construct makes the mod much safer to use. Version 1.12 is also a proof of concept which shows that NPCs comitting crimes can add more depth to the mod. Currently only Vienele is involved in this. A new character (Hasell) sleeps with both Chanel (Monday, Tuesday and Friday) and Casta Scribonia (the rest of the week). Vienele is hired by one of the two to assassinate Hasell one month after the release of the prisoners. You can see the whole thing happen - if you are following them or run into them by accident that is. The idea is to add more of such hidden crimes in future releases of this mod.
- Version 1.11: The shop now sells Black Gear immediately after doing the quest. If you downloaded an older version then just don't visit the shop for 3 days. That causes the shop to respawn and make the new stuff available.
- Version 1.10: Added 2 more enchanted gloves (unarmored). These are intended to be used by casters and atronachs. Reduced the enchantment costs of a lot of weapons without reducing the damage. Added a new high-end enchanted mace. Added a new enchanted battle axe and warhammer. Increased the damage of the high-end enchanted warhammer. Changed the enchantments of the Black Viper to increase the damage and reduce the charge. The effectivesness of the cheapest bow has been improved. To further reduce costs silence enchantments of bows have been set to 10 seconds, those of other weapons to 5. This still is effective, especially for blade and blunt weapons, because chances are that you'll hit an opponent more than once. Helviane thinks that the cost of the 3 seconds paralyze of her Volendrung upgrade doesn't justify its high price. She therefor reduced it to 1 second (which effectively disables an opponent for 3 seconds), doubled the damage and still reduced the cost. These changes complete the Black Gear weapontry line. All weapons now have at least 5 different enchanted versions each, although not all of the weaker versions are being sold. Some of them are used by the mutineers and named NPCs only. Depending on your level these can end up as a quest reward, though.
- Version 1.06: Added 3 enchanted daggers. All daggers have, in addition to other enchantments, a weakness to poison enchantment.
- Version 1.05: Some mutineers didn't have any spells. This has been fixed. Some weapons were enchanted with disintegrate weapon and disintegrate armor over time. It turns out that the time factor was useless and just caused the enchantment to be more expensive. Also, the disintegrate armor/weapon enchantments are likely to be ineffective against high-end armor/weapons. For that reason the disintegrate armor enchantments have been removed. The required adjustments caused some changes in the enchantments of the high-end longswords, katanas and dai-katanas. The 3 arrows with similar enchantments have been fixed too. However, their disintegration types and damage did not change. New in this version are several enchanted katanas and dai-katanas with more or less "economic" enchantments. They do more damage than their longsword and claymore counterparts and have similar recharge costs.
- Version 1.04: Added asymmetric gloves (armored, unarmored, enchanted and unenchanted). The meshes of these were created by Cethegus. Now archers don't wear gauntlets by default, but some of them do (ususally at lower levels). Most of the archers at higher levels wear asymmetric gloves.
- Version 1.03: Added 4 katanas (unenchanted, enchanted, 1-handed and 2-handed). The meshes and textures of these were created by VagabondAngel.
- Version 1.02: Fixed Hatred's Soul Arrow update bug.
- Version 1.01: Increased the number of basic enchanted arrows sold. Included readme file.
- Version 1.00: Fixed some doors, fixed a typo and added 3 spells.
- Version 1.00 RC2: Fixed the path finding.
- Version 1.00 RC1: Initial release

Credits
- Thanks to Soor for creating Initial Glow.
- Thanks to Trollf for the greatsword, wakizashi, katana, dai-katana, long mace and staff meshes.
- Thanks to VagabondAngel for his permission to use the katanas from his Godai series in this mod.
- Thanks to Cethegus for the meshes of the asymmetric gloves.
- Thanks to Alegs, Darina, Mythgaard, and many others for their suggestions, help, tips and bug reports.
- Thanks to DarkOne for fixing the "banning bug". ;)

Note
Do not upload this mod to another site and do not use any part of it in another mod without contacting me first. The home of this mod is TES Nexus.

Have fun,

MadGizmo (March 2008).