Definitely an interesting questline, but I really do not like some of the events. So here's a gigantic wall of text.
Firstly, how the other characters treat you. Several times, they threaten you and you just meekly knuckle under. For a new character, I can understand that. But when I did this quest, I was the master of the Fighters' Guild, Arch-Mage of Cyrodiil, the Arena grand champion and, although nobody knew it (hopefully), the Grey Fox and the Listener of the Dark Brotherhood. Wait another few weeks and I'd be the Madgod himself. Some "councillor" or some wandering nobody trader is absolutely not going to scare me. No, if they make that threat to my character, said character would make it right back. And it wouldn't be an empty threat.
Yes, you could make the point that I'd get in trouble with the law, but at that point you've already seen several things that could be used to retaliate in the court of public opinion. Chiefly that the damned Ayleids are back. This might just be me, but the impression I got is that the average Imperial citizen either hates or fears the Ayleids. And even if not, there was that whole Knights of the Nine business to bring it back into the public view.
That, more than anything, stopped me from caring about the quest and its outcomes. Why, exactly, am I kneeling before a bunch of pointies which "we" (technically, Alessia and her army) overthrew and then exterminated (or at least tried to) millennia ago? Why, for the final mission, can I not take the option to just blow the whole thing wide open? Send in the Legions - the real legion, not that snivelling bunch of traitors headed by Tertia Aurum which we meet in-game. Have them destroy Fefandor. Hell, the first thing I did at the end was to deactivate the device, shut off the steps network and then teleport out using a mark/recall spell. I know it won't have any effect on the actual quest, but I felt so very, very spiteful.
Why, exactly, was I supposed to have any positive interest in the fate of the Ayleids? I want them all dead. Anyone who's read a few of the in-game books about them would want the same. At least, unless they're a treacherous elf sympathiser. Slave-masters who had such wonderful practices as "Flesh-sculpting" and "Gut-gardening". These "True Descendents" are going to storm Fefandor and destroy the Ayleid remnants there? Let them. Then march in afterwards and kill all the survivors. Or let me do it. The player character is, after all, the successor of Pelinal Whitestrake (assuming you've finished the Knights of the Nine questline) and his dogma is "suffer not the Ayleid to live".
EDIT: Related to this, there's the mission where you first meet the True Descendents. The dialogue tree is missing an option for "laugh in their faces" when they tell you to bare your throat so that they can kill you.
And then there's that final mission. How, exactly, are a bunch of whacko cultists supposed to render me unconscious and steal all my items when I'm clad head to toe in ebony plate (or have a shield amulet or spell on which gives the same effect) and are immune to magic and poison through enchanted items? Especially when I had a detect life spell running which would make it impossible for someone to sneak up on me.
Yes, I know that analysing the player's current loadout and active spells and then putting in a huge branching tree of dialogue options and mission setups is a ridiculous amount of work. But cutscene or enforced stupidity is something that I hate more than anything else in games. As far as I'm concerned, better to just not have that scene (item loss/incapacitation) in the first place. Point Lookout and The Pitt (addons for Fallout 3) both did this and I utterly hated those parts. Enough so that I made finding mods to get rid of that my first priority.
However, I will give you one thing. In the stealth section, you made the fail state as "enemies are alerted and in combat with you" instead of "that plus anyone dies". Which meant that I could use my favourite Deus Ex approach to stealth: kill everyone. No witnesses means no alarms. And if they die in one shot, whether that's to an arrow from sneak or Deadly Reflex's "stab them to death while they're sleeping" mechanic, there's no alert. So thank you for that. Depopulating Vanuasecul was fun.
LOL, as a Frank Zappa fan, got a chuckle reading this line in the description "hitherto unknown to man" and of course added "but destined to take the place of the Mudshark in your mythology"...
I may have missed something, but can't find the "opener" for the second quest. I suppose it's the coded list of Steps mentioned in the second diary, lost in an inn in the Elven Garden District. Is this correct? I've searched both, the Tavern and the Boarding House, but haven't found anything.
Due to some cave mods I use (Snus), I am having trouble in MemorialCave finding the first step to Lost Rillim. Can anyone give a hint as to where in the cave it is? Any help is greatly appreciated.
edit: sorry I paniced. Using Ervvin's notes I was able to find the stepstone. It is buried under a couple Snus boulders. Disabled two bolders and ta da , there sits the stepstone.
Since the steps in this mod use Welkynd Stones as a means of energy, does that mean that this mod comes with a way to renew our supply of Welknyd stones as well, given that there are a finite number of stones available in the vanilla game? If not, would you recommend a mod that makes Welkynd Stones respawn or adds them to levelled lists? Or would that conflict with this mod?
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https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/52772
Vanilla voices! Thanks to Dispensation.
Firstly, how the other characters treat you. Several times, they threaten you and you just meekly knuckle under. For a new character, I can understand that. But when I did this quest, I was the master of the Fighters' Guild, Arch-Mage of Cyrodiil, the Arena grand champion and, although nobody knew it (hopefully), the Grey Fox and the Listener of the Dark Brotherhood. Wait another few weeks and I'd be the Madgod himself. Some "councillor" or some wandering nobody trader is absolutely not going to scare me. No, if they make that threat to my character, said character would make it right back. And it wouldn't be an empty threat.
Yes, you could make the point that I'd get in trouble with the law, but at that point you've already seen several things that could be used to retaliate in the court of public opinion. Chiefly that the damned Ayleids are back. This might just be me, but the impression I got is that the average Imperial citizen either hates or fears the Ayleids. And even if not, there was that whole Knights of the Nine business to bring it back into the public view.
That, more than anything, stopped me from caring about the quest and its outcomes. Why, exactly, am I kneeling before a bunch of pointies which "we" (technically, Alessia and her army) overthrew and then exterminated (or at least tried to) millennia ago? Why, for the final mission, can I not take the option to just blow the whole thing wide open? Send in the Legions - the real legion, not that snivelling bunch of traitors headed by Tertia Aurum which we meet in-game. Have them destroy Fefandor. Hell, the first thing I did at the end was to deactivate the device, shut off the steps network and then teleport out using a mark/recall spell. I know it won't have any effect on the actual quest, but I felt so very, very spiteful.
Why, exactly, was I supposed to have any positive interest in the fate of the Ayleids? I want them all dead. Anyone who's read a few of the in-game books about them would want the same. At least, unless they're a treacherous elf sympathiser. Slave-masters who had such wonderful practices as "Flesh-sculpting" and "Gut-gardening". These "True Descendents" are going to storm Fefandor and destroy the Ayleid remnants there? Let them. Then march in afterwards and kill all the survivors. Or let me do it. The player character is, after all, the successor of Pelinal Whitestrake (assuming you've finished the Knights of the Nine questline) and his dogma is "suffer not the Ayleid to live".
EDIT: Related to this, there's the mission where you first meet the True Descendents. The dialogue tree is missing an option for "laugh in their faces" when they tell you to bare your throat so that they can kill you.
And then there's that final mission. How, exactly, are a bunch of whacko cultists supposed to render me unconscious and steal all my items when I'm clad head to toe in ebony plate (or have a shield amulet or spell on which gives the same effect) and are immune to magic and poison through enchanted items? Especially when I had a detect life spell running which would make it impossible for someone to sneak up on me.
Yes, I know that analysing the player's current loadout and active spells and then putting in a huge branching tree of dialogue options and mission setups is a ridiculous amount of work. But cutscene or enforced stupidity is something that I hate more than anything else in games. As far as I'm concerned, better to just not have that scene (item loss/incapacitation) in the first place. Point Lookout and The Pitt (addons for Fallout 3) both did this and I utterly hated those parts. Enough so that I made finding mods to get rid of that my first priority.
However, I will give you one thing. In the stealth section, you made the fail state as "enemies are alerted and in combat with you" instead of "that plus anyone dies". Which meant that I could use my favourite Deus Ex approach to stealth: kill everyone. No witnesses means no alarms. And if they die in one shot, whether that's to an arrow from sneak or Deadly Reflex's "stab them to death while they're sleeping" mechanic, there's no alert. So thank you for that. Depopulating Vanuasecul was fun.
Because even Wrye Bash is refusing to install the entire COBL package
Turns out the COBL 174 zip is corrupted, I used 172 instead.
Edit: God damn Lost Varlavale is so big. I got trauma throughout that damn dungeon.
Update: Found it! Post can be deleted!
in the cave it is? Any help is greatly appreciated.
edit: sorry I paniced. Using Ervvin's notes I was able to find the stepstone. It is buried under a couple Snus boulders. Disabled two bolders and ta da , there sits the stepstone.