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That segues me rather nicely into my critique of the quest "The Ancient Dam". Oh boy. Talk about not understanding the concept of conveyance...quite frankly I'm not sure if I've ever seen a worse case. These dungeons this sprawling quest takes place in are simply put, bigger than vanilla Oblivion's already gargantuan Ayleid ruins and caves. There is little to no clue or indication given to the player that the bandits you run across that control the first set of ruins - who are adorned like any other common bandit - are a critical function of the questline and that attacking them will ruin any hope of information you might have had leading up to the labyrinthine quest you are about to embark upon.
I killed the bandit outside, entered the first dungeon, killed one other bandit. I then sprung a journal entry informing me that my cover was blown. Excuse me, what cover? At what point did the quest or the design leading up to the quest give me any notion that aggression towards these bandits was a bad thing? I pressed on and went further into the ruin. I killed a couple of named bandit NPCs who had curiously named "red Ayleid key" and "blue Ayleid key" and just pocketed them without much thought. I kept going across this huge dungeon in a spiral that felt like it would take me to the center of the planet. Eventually I am met by a ghost NPC, assuming he's an Ayleid - who tells me the dam is broken and everything is going to flood. He ends the dialogue and simply runs away, with absolutely no clue or indication whatsoever that he is critically important to the quest. I am simply told he went outside. Outside? Where on God's green earth is that? Did he take a flight to Maui? Is he a wanted criminal ghost fleeing the long arm of the law? Is he stung by bees and running around trying to get the sizzling stinging feeling out of his system? That aside I run into a "Shimmering barrier" that has an Ayleid inscribed rune panel next to it with some gibberish. I don't bother trying to figure out what's going on, I try to find the ghost.
If it weren't for the efforts of the fine commenters before me, I would never have found the ghost. Oh he's outside. On the other side of the river, past the ruin you were at and walking across some random wooden bridge overlooking the dam. What. The. Hell. I talk to him and he tells me to run up the hill and find another - presumably incorporeal - individual. I run up the hill, find a locked door to a house, and get a journal entry telling me to go BACK TO THE FIRST RUIN AND LOOK FOR A HIDDEN CLUE.
I went back and am still utterly stuck on this part. What the hell am I supposed to be doing here? Where is the key? Where are the clues leading me to finding the key? Where did the quest designers leave their brains when they sat down and implemented this part of this atrocious dung heap of a quest?
I recommend you download this and thoroughly enjoy the beautiful landscaping and exterior terrain. It's gorgeous. But don't set foot inside of that initial ruin unless you want to take a trip down pain lane.
*********EDIT***********
I want to save the poor souls who stumble across this mod a lot of pain and suffering if I can. Go back to the ruin where Bernice was. There's a pool of water, swim under and find a button. Some wall panels lower. Go through, up across the balcony, and press another button at the end. Return to the main room where the bandits are en masse. Find the cracked portion of wall and go through...notice the Varla Stone cage. Retrieve it, but LOOK AND DON'T MISS THE OLD RUSTED KEY ABOVE THE BUTTON
An absolute atrocity! I am only emboldened by this claim because of the below from the mod author, over 15 years ago Arthmoor said:
"You haven't spoken to all of them apparently. Hit up the ones in Seliavrelleis.
I do plan to go back and make the quest at least provide journal entries since it appears to be more difficult to engage than I thought."
He never went back and did what he said he'd do. And now, all this time later, we suffer for it.
Would adding the underlined to the end of the first quest log make sense?
Had you actually received the first quest log (from reading a note on an already dead bandit) before getting the entry that your cover was blown, or was blown cover the first quest log you saw?
For quest logs which suggest
I can lower the button down around waist height to make the key more visible.
Finding the key is easier for those who did not kill the bandits, as one of them gives you a clue.
Finally, the bandits are supposed to be able to be chatted with, but there is zero indication of this given to the player unless you fail that part of the quest. I am guessing once you kill the bandit outside the ruins and disguise yourself as one of them, you can go through the ruins and speak with the other bandits to get info, but if this isn't conveyed in either the note that you pick up off the corpse or the quest log, how in the absolute f*** are you supposed to figure that out.
TLDR; once you get to the bit about barriers covering doors, consider the location complete and just abandon the quest because the mod expects you to know every item/npc/area as if you designed it yourself without any documentation.
Copied directly from the readme:
The Strange Welkynd Stone is a form of key, you use it elsewhere to open access to a new location.
FWIW I installed this mod as part of the Unique Landscapes collection using Wrye Bash. Also tried installing this mod separately but the result is the same: no voice sounds.
It may be helpful to have the note about removing the standard border settings at the start of the description, and not way down the bottom...?
This also made the start of the quest a bit weird - since bandits kept telling me that the ruins we were in were "maybe the control centre for that massive dam!" - when I hadn't even seen a dam, and had to walk a long way along the standard game borders to even see it from a distance!
Though if the remainder of the quest continues to be this interesting and different, it'll be a pleasure to play.
(I use also sutch village)