Morrowind Guide

--------------------------------Character Test---------------------------------THE ELDER SCROLLS III: MORROWIND (Game of the Year)BEGINNER'S GUIDEVer 4.0Algus [email protected]

********BULLETIN********My email address HAS changed! Learn it, live it, love it, and feel free to sendme your questions, comments, concerns, or outright flames.

No matter how out of date this guide is, I will be available to answer questionsfor this game! Check my contributor page on GameFAQs.com to ensure you have mynewest email address. It will always be listed there.

This guide is intended for the Xbox edition of Morrowind. Someday I shall haveto see about it getting relisted on GameFAQs. I cannot answer technical questions about getting the game to run on your PC. Sorry.

For posterity's sake I've begun to note the revision dates of the guide, thoughI only have copies of 2.0, 3.5, and 4.0 ************VERSION INFO************01/07/06 4.0 - Special thanks to the GameFAQs message boards for all the help they provided in this massive update! New tips, strategies, spelling improvements, all around a much better guide then past editions. Implemented character test at the top to conform to GameFAQs standard. Also added one search key, may add more as guide continues to be overhauled. Expect another version soon! Revision work began on 01/04/06

01/18/04 3.5 - Expanded info on Thirsk, was getting a lot of questions

3.3 - Change of contact information

3.2 – Various typos and errors corrected

3.0 - Updated to include Morrowind: GOTY content

2.5 - Assorted things updated

07/06/03 2.0 – Tons of typo fixes, content of guide overhauled. Much less spoilers.

1.0 – Initial Release

************INTRODUCTION************

Welcome to Morrowind, ahh yes it is a good game. By now you have played aroundin Seyda Neen and probably been killed by the Imperials after seeing what wouldhappen if you went on a murderous rampage. You don't have a clue what to doand you need some help.

So what do you do?

http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/morrowind_begin...

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Well, you went to GameFAQs, you stared at the FAQs and you said "What thecrap?!" because you didn't know where to begin. Not that the other FAQs arebad, they're actually very good, but many of them aren't "newbie" friendly.

The goal of this guide is to teach you how to survive in Morrowind. There area few spoilers that I mention, nothing major I hope, I've tried to eliminatemost from past installments of the guide, but I only bring them up because it is important information that you will need without ruining your gaming experience.

Stop reading at any time. You don't need to use this guide as a purewalkthrough. Heck, you don't even really need to beat the game with thecharacter I'm going to tell you to create. The best part of Morrowind isexploration, hard to do by following a guide. This is just to help you out andlearn about Vvardenfell. Actually, the character I'm going to discuss you using isn't the greatest build in the world, but it will serve for our purposes.

Further, you may have played and "know" about cheating such as killingordinators etc.... this guide is going to tell you how to be "ligit" withoutabusing bugs. This includes stealing crap items while avoiding punishment.

Although I have written an appendix at the end of the guide that lists some ofthe more amusing things you can do to give yourself a huge advantage.

I have made some foolish assumptions. I have assumed that

- You'll explore new towns somewhat- You'll read what people tell you- You'll pay attention to names of people and places

If you can't handle this on your own then I'm sorry. It is very important to talk to and listen to people in this game. They can add story, color, and give important information. The beauty of Morrowind is not in the tellingof the main plot but in exploring a world crafted to be as realistic as possible. Morrowind, Vvardenfel, and the Elder Scrolls World as a whole has ahistory and life running through it. Bethesda has truly created a masterpieceand I hope that by the time you finish this guide you will be able to exploreMorrowind on your own. Sometimes it's the journey that matters most and nothing truer could be said of this game.

Also, be sure to check the Game of the Year section of the FAQ. It comes at theend of the guide after I've run through exploring the game. It will tell youhow to get to the expansion areas: the island of Solstheim and the city of Mournhold. These are typically very frequent questions so you'll want to makesure to read through that so you know what to do.

Lastly if my little walkthrough seems much to basic to you. (Can already handle quests? Great!) Make sure to at least check the tips section. Throughcontributions from the GameFAQs message boards and my own experience I'veassembled some information that ought to be very helpful to any player, notjust new ones. ********CONTENTS********

Chapter Zero: The Basics- Terms you should knowChapter One: A Hero is Born- Developing a decent character


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- Getting around Seyda NeenChapter Two: Friendship in Balmora- Joining Guilds, building friendshipsChapter Three: Home is Where the Hearth is- Getting a house- Doing those introductory questsChapter Four: The Grand Finale- Being a Blades spy- Doing your job the thief's wayWHAT TO DO NOW?- Advice on the futureAppendix A: Seyda Neen fun- All those neat things to do in your first townAppendix B: Magic fun- Useful beginning spellsAppendix C: So you want a real edge? - Morrowind, the cheaters way!Appendix D: Game of the Year Content- How do I get to Mournhold?!- How do I get to Solstheim?! - Now What?

Chapter Zero: The Basics************************First thing first. When you get into the game, hit start, scroll down tooptions and select it. If you're playing the GOTY version (I assume youare) then you will find a difficulty selector. Unlike many games this is avery precise tool with 200 selectable difficulties ranging from -100 to 100.

0 is the standard difficulty the original Morrowind played it, while 100 is pretty hard and -100 is very easy. Obviously settings like -98 and -99 aren'tvery different from one another but at any rate you can use this to set thegame to a difficulty reflective of your skills.

Just a brief rundown of terms you will see both in the game and me using

Gold - money :)

Septims - When I, or characters in the game say septims they mean gold.

Drakes - The same with septims, just another word referring to gold in thegame.

Trainers - these people can improve your various skills by one point if youpay them to do so. Each trainer typically has three different skills they canteach you however there is a cap on how high they can train you. There are, ofcourse, 'master' trainers that can train you all the way to 100 in their respective skill, assuming you have the gold and your attributes are high enough.

Dunmer - Dark Elves, the green skinned ones

Altmer - High Elves, the yellow skinned ones

Bosmer - Wild Elves, Fargoth's race

Guild Guide - these are mages that hang out in the Mage's Guild. Each Guideoffers transportation to each of the other Mage's Guild scattered across Morrowind. Their prices fluctuate depending on their disposition. Joining the


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Mage's Guild and advancing through the ranks is a great way to get a huge increase in the Guide's disposition which results in transportation costs of only a few gold pieces per trip.

Silt Strider - similar to the Guild Guides, Silt Striders are a transportationservice. You'll actually be talking to whoever runs the local transportationoutfit as a Silt Strider is a giant bug. These offer transportation to manytowns on the west side of Morrowind.

Ferry - Im sure you know what a ferry is, but since I've detailed the other twoforms of transportation, Ferrys appear in most towns that are connected to theOcean, except for Seyda Neen. Sometimes they take the form of very large shipsand other times just a tiny rowboat, but whoever the Ferry Captain is will offer transportation to several other towns along the coast.

Ashlanders - The native Dunmer tribes of Morrowind, kind of like Indians, generally they hate Outlanders (you) You'll have plenty of dealings withthem.

Outlander - People that aren't native to Morrowind, you

Vvardenfel - For your purposes, another name for Morrowind, there's more to itthen that. If you're really interested in more then just the basics read someof the in-game books, they provide for very enjoyable reading as well as explain the history of the world Morrowind exists in.

Chapter One: A Hero is born****************************After dreaming of a nice pleasant female voice you wake up next to good oldJiub. Enjoy your time with Jiub as best as you can, you won’t be hanging outwith him for much longer.

Yes yes… no doubt you're eager to get on your way. But that nasty charactercreation process is in your way. Well, let’s get to it, ehh?

As far as race I myself suggest an Imperial or Dunmer, why? Imperials havegood personality bonus, Dunmer get disposition bonuses. Redguard is also agood choice because of his incredible long blade bonus.

*******************************************************************************Let me explain a bit more in detail about what I'm talking about with personality and disposition. If you don't care then search for "DC00" tojump out of this section.

Many things effect how characters in Morrowind react to you, personality, race,reputation. But all of these things come down to one single thing, disposition. While the other factors and things such as guild allegience effectan NPC's disposition rating, with the right bribe or persuasion, you can geteven the most ardent Dagoth Ur supporter to be at least somewhat friendlywith you. Now I mentioned Imperials and Dunmer get decent bonuses here, letme explain.

Imperials have a very nice bonus to their personality score. If you combinethis with personality as a class attribute and the sign of The Lady you geta huge starting personality score. This makes persuasion and bribing mucheasier and also helps starting disposition. Basically, it can help you getthose disposition scores much higher much more easily.

Dunmer have a 'race bonus' actually this isn't much of a special bonus, any NPCgenerally has a better initial impression of a member of their own race so


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Imperials get it too but just for other Imperials. Dunmer likewise get thisdisposition bonus when meeting other Dunmer. Now consider Morrowind is thehome of the Dark Elves as you might imagine most NPCs in this game are, in fact,Dunmer. This is why I recommend either of these two races. Plus, withouttrying to spoil the story TOO much a male Dunmer really fits in with the plotof the main game********************************************************************************

DC00****As far as class goes, this may be a little confusing, but you should do acustom class. Name it what you want, and take stealth as specialization. Makesure you get short blade, long blade, light armor, speechcraft and possiblymercantile mixed into your skill set. Stay away from athletics and acrobatics(actually... speechcraft can also cause some gains, I'll explain in a moment) Take some other stuff that sounds good. Make sure though your mainweapon (either short or long blade, I prefer short) and armor is in "major"skill, you get a better bonus. You also might want to take restoration. Isuggest the following

Major:Long BladeLight ArmorShort BladeRestorationSecurity

Minor:SneakSpeechcraftMercantileConjurationMysticism

For attributes take personality and either endurance, strength, or speed. Whenyou choose sign, take the Lady (for Lady Azura right?)

Why did I tell you all this? Simple, this character will havegreat personality (especially if you're an Imperial) pretty good endurance(important for hp) and can handle short sword and/or long sword, the two mostcommon weapons in Morrowind.

Be aware also that good personality and speechcraft scores will allow you to usethe taunt command. Taunt basically gets whoever you are talking to to attack you. You need to be successful with it a few times in a row, three, to getthem to go after you. If you do taunt them into attacking then you can killthem without any drawbacks. This can be very useful, especially when you getstrong enough to fight Ordinators. ~Thanks to RPGNick for reminding me to mention this~

I make no claims that this is the best or ultimate character. In fact, thisclass needs some work but it will have some skills for some of the guilds Itell you to join and can handle itself well enough. It gives you the skillsyou'll need when learning things.

Alright as for the 'unnecessary gains' I mentioned earlier, let me go into a brief explanation. This mostly has to do with my personal playstyle. In facta lot of people will tell you athletics and acrobatics are the two best skillsto take with a custom build.


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Here's how it works, athletics and acrobatics are increased whenever you walk(athletics) or jump (acrobatics) so you can see where these stats end up building up much more quickly then others in the game. Now when you gain a level if you have increased a certain type of stat (for instance one governedby personality) enough times you get a multiplier such as x2 which lets youincrease that stat much higher then you could otherwise. Normally at levelup you get three dots to assign to three seperate stats to increase them byone point. But with the right multipliers you can theoretically increase threestats by five points with each level up! This of course takes some delicate planning and the use of trainers (likely a result of you wanting to get an unglitched character with maxed attributes.) However regular wear and tear(assuming you're leveling through combat, basically your main weapon as wellas your armor stat) you should still gain some reasonable stat boosts at levelup. With athletics though you can end up gaining many levels with little tono multipliers and as such will gain stats very slowly, which can weaken youin the end. So basically it boils down to do you want to craft a characterthat can level up very quickly but with weaker stats or do you want to takethe time to strategically plan which stats will get multipliers in order tobuild a character with great stats.

This isn't something I can answer for you, it depends on your personalplaystyle. I will say that these days I'm pretty lazy, I haven't gone to thetrouble of maxing a character's stats in a couple years now (I've got save dataof such characters before completing any quests, so I just use them :p)

Phew, sorry for the long winded deviation, but hopefully you've been a littleenlightened on the character building process.

When you're done chatting with Ergalla, grab your paperwork. Head through thedoor, take the firsr right you see and welcome to loot city. You really don't need anything in here (you can get a good 100 septims or so for selling it though) I would suggest taking the lock-pick especially if you have security as a skill (as a stealth based it's useful) You can pick the chest for 30 gold, handy. Nothing else is of importance... there is a letter to Hrisskar, you'll meet him later but the letter is useless.

When you go into the courtyard, you can't leave until you raid the barrel,alas, you have to steal at least one thing. Get the healing ring. One moredoor, chat up the guard, hand over your paper and get Caius's package. Caiusyou will quickly discover can be a good friend and a brutal taskmaster. Yourfirst mission is to meet him. He can be found in Balmora though we shall getto that a little later. There are some things to do first.

Welcome to Seyda Neen. Save your game now, you don't want to have to gothrough all of that again and it can freeze here. (So damn annoying...) Yourfirst goal will be to find a fellow named Fargoth, he's usually hanging outnear the entrance. Strike up a conversation and fork over the ring you had to steal, it's his anyway. His disposition goes up (big deal) and more importantly he says he'll talk to the trader Arille (good for you.)

Arille's tradehouse is before the first wooden bridge. You'll have to go upthe stairs to find the door. Step inside, the rather lanky fellow behind thecounter is Arille. You should see he has quite a high disposition. Get intosome verbalization with him and choose barter. Depending on your race andpersonality this can fluctuate, I've seen it as low as 75ish to as high as 100.

Sell off any stuff you looted (except the lockpick and maybe the dagger) Makesure you don't go crazy and sell Caius's package. Now you want to buy somestuff. Choose apparel and get the chitin gear. Why? This is light armor(which you have as a major skill) only missing the greaves and helm, so you


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have almost a full suit already. You can also take either an iron long swordor possibly a short sword of some sort. You may not have enough gold for thisthough... so you're going to need to do some jobs. Don't worry, you can walkaway from this town with over 800 septims.

If you go up the stairs you'll meet Flat-Foot himself, he's the Nord fellowright at the top in the strapping leather armor that the fellow on the prisonship wore. A chat with him will find him offering to let you help him out inshaking down your new friend Fargoth. Welcome to Morrowind. You should takehim up on his offer though.

He'll tell you to go to the lighthouse. Do so. Rest until around 9 or 10 atnight. Then just watch, it can be hard to distinguish Fargoth from theImperials (he has a torch like them) but eventually you'll see the littlefellow head into the swampy green lake in the middle of the shacks on the westside of the town. When he departs get down from the light house top and headover there. Check the stump, you'll get yourself another lockpick (and betterthen the one you have) 300 gold and your ring of healing.

You can go back to Hrisskar but he'll take 200 septims from you. My advice is,don’t complete the quest and keep the money for yourself. It’s cheap, true,but you need the money more then he does anyway.

There is still one more thing you can do in Seyda Neen. You may have chattedwith some of the locals and they'll have mentioned that the esteemed taxcollector has gone missing. Well, the Imperials just let you out of jail soyou might as well help them back, right?

The body of the tax collecter is northwest of the town. Head out of town allthe way north, then west a bit and follow the trail. You should pass a smallpeninsula and come to some rocks where you may see a fearsome scrib andforager. The scrib wont attack, but you can kill it anyway. The foragerhowever will molest you. Slay him with your new sword. You'll see the taxcollecter has seen better days as he is now dead. Search his body to take thegold and tax record (and his duds if you must)

You now have two options. You can "cheat" again and keep the 200 drakes youjust liberated or you can return it to Ergalla. For our purposes I'm going totell you how to do it without cheating as that is taking abuse of a bug andthat isn't what the guide is about. (I explain this exploit in that cheater'sappendix I mentioned if you're interested)

Report to Ergalla with the record and hand over the 200 gold. He'll commissionyou to get the murderer (strangely though he says he likes you his dispositiondoesn't go up) If you talk around you may learn the murder is a fellow namedForyn Gilnith. He has a shack in the little cluster where Fargoth's stump is.

Enter, but first make sure you have full fatigue. Chat up Foryn and talk aboutthe tax collecter, tell him nothing is an excuse for murder and slay hisfetcher arse. When leaving claim the ring from his corpse and possibly thebook.

You now have two stops.

Stop One. Head to the light house and talk to the woman inside. It seems shewas going with the tax collecter, give her his ring and she'll reward you withtwo healing potions. Very useful, since your health score probably isn't thathigh.

Stop Two. Return to Ergalla, he'll give you 500 septims. You now have a small


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fortune which may well exceed 1000 gold if you played your cards right and dida bit of cheating. You'll have considerably less if you decided to report backto Flat-foot.

There is more to do in Seyda but that is for the appendix. For now you aredone.

What you should have accomplished by the end of this chapter

- A decent character with good personality- A set of chitin armor- A weapon of some sort- 600-1000 gold- Caius's package

If you have all this you're looking good.

See that large ugly looking bug? That's a Silt Strider. They are very handy indeed. Chat with the fellow standing near it, you'll have to cross the first bridge and go up the hill to find him. Transport and off to Balmora.

End of Chapter One.

If any of this has confused you... take time and follow it a couple of times.Seyda is a great learning area. There are still many things to do. For moreSeyda Neen fun check the end of the guide.

Chapter Two: Friendship in Balmora

The first time you get to Balmora, its ok to gasp. It may be raining, you'llget to experience weather. Balmora is an incredible town upon first enteringand you will likely be totally lost. Don't worry though, you have some spendingmoney, armor, and weapon. You aren't doing to bad.

You're immediate goals now are going to be establishing sources of income andforming alliances. Since you are stealthy, you may also want to find somestealthy friends. Balmora IS the place for you.

If you've been paying attention to the dialogue and reading your notes, youknow that the guards suggested you begin your search for Caius at South Wall. You could just listen to me tell you how to find Caius, but we need to head toSouth Wall anyway.

Walk down the steps of the strider and go to you're right. You'll see a riverand some bridges, cross the bridge.

On the other side of Balmora is a row of houses, pass under the arch to thenext row of stuff. A small building with an entrance to the right and somesteps in front of you should greet you. That building is South Wall. Stepinside.

Chatting with Bocola Closicus will give you decent directions to Caius butbefore you head off for spymaster you should make some friends. Headdown the hall and you'll find a Khajit (one of those cat things you read aboutin the instruction book) wearing the same sort of armor as you, that is if you took my advice about getting the Chitin gear. Strike up a conversation and youwill quickly find an invitation to join the thieves guild. Take it.

Joining the guild will have many benefits for your character in the long run.


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For one, stealing stuff will give you a bounty. Paying your guild will remove this bounty. Very good. Also good, the early quests for thieves are easy and rewarding. In fact, it's entirely possible to complete the bulk of the missions with a level 1 character. Though you won't have the rank you deserve.

Well you're now a toad, oh joy. You can find Caius now, it's best to setyourself up before you go on missions for your new bosses. You canfollow your new friends' directions or mine, I care not. Head out of SouthWall and up the stairs next to it.

Turn left and head all the way down, Caius's locker is at the end of the row ofhouses. Step inside and whoah! Put a shirt on! Ahem... chat with Caius, hethinks you're crazy, then he finds out you're to be his new lacky. Let himinduct you into the Blades. You can ask him about the Blades Trainers(remember Trainers from the glossary) Talking about them will get directions to each one in your journal. This could be useful for future reference. Asking him about orders will net you 200 drakes since you look like a noob. Thanks Caius! (If you've gain a couple levels he will forego giving you thegold so it's best to get here as soon as possible. He cuts you off at level 4I do believe.)

You're done with Caius now, after all he told you to buy stuff before he givesyou your first mission as an imperial spy. You may be thinking, betweenthe Blades and the Thieves, I have lots of friends. And yes, yes you do havelots of friends. But you'll want a few more.

From Caius's cross the river again, head up the stairs and through the alley. To your right is the Dunmer Temple and your left the Fighters and Mages guild(contained in a nice little archway) and some shops. Go left and into thelittle corner thing where the fighters and mages guild are. The doors will namethem if you haven't figured that out yet. Step inside the mage's guild.

A rather snide looking creature will offer to allow you to join. Do so. Waityou say, I'm not a mage! True, but the mage's quests are fairly light, evenlater on, and you will gain some very useful rewards. Not to mention cheapertransportation expenses by having a high disposition with the guild guides.

You can also join the fighter's guild if you want to, but you don't need to.At most you'll have two easy to complete quests, and they may not be so easy. The Fighter's Guild also has some seedy connections and a somewhat hostilerelationship with the Thieve's Guild. For the sake of this character avoidingthem is likely for the best. Though I certainly encourage you to investigate the Guild when you're done with this guide ;) Caius might be able to shed somelight on who to speak to in the guild. Just ask him about it.

There is however, one more thing to do. With your membership in the Mage'sGuild you have two places to rest (the guild and Caius's) and a place to stashstuff (the chest in the Mage's Guild for items is good for this) and somefriends. Their dispositions will increase as you gain ranks.

You may have, in your run around Balmora seen some yellow armored fellows thatlook pretty mean. Those are the local Hlaalu thugs. Great House Hlaalu willalso prove to be a useful association for you to join. Each of the three houses(you may have heard of them if you like talking) is keyed to a certain type of character: combat, stealth, or magic. Hlaalu happens to be stealth. You'll want to join them. Doing so means that Redoran and Telvanni wont accept you, but the benefits are much greater the drawbacks.

Exit the guild area and find some stairs that lead to all the big mansions. They should be north of where you came up into this area. The big building


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where Hlaalu hangs out is in the middle left of Balmora if that helps. Onceinside, speak to the Dunmer lady in front of you. She'll try to get you to buysome book, feel free to refuse her (the book may be useful later but is easilyobtainable.) Eventually, you can get her to talk about business and she'lloffer to let you join Hlaalu. Do so, she will warn you to consider it, butjust plunge ahead.

Now stop, save your game if you want. You've actually done a lot, though youdon't know it. Balmora is now your base essentially. All your friends arehere and even some of your enemies. You're actually looking pretty good,especially if you have more then 1000 drakes. You'll find you are going to needa lot of that money for expenses however so try not to splurge to much. If yougo to your status screen you can scroll down and find a list of the guildsyou've joined, highlighting the guilds and holding Y will bring up a chart thatdetails the attribute requirements you need for promotion in the guild you'vechosen. You can use this to guide which attributes you want to raise. I recommend sticking to either the Blades Skills or the Thieve's Guild skills, theMage skills aren't essential and can be raised fairly easily without a trainer.

Alright, let's review what's happened so far

So far you should have

- Become a Toad of the Thieves Guild- An Apprentice in the Blades- An Associate in the Mage's Guild- An Associate in the Fighter's Guild (not necessary)- A hireling of Great House Hlaalu

Once you've got yourself set up nicely, you're looking good. Congratulationsyou've made some strong ties. You may want to do a little bit of exploring butdon't venture to far from Balmora, we've got some work to do here.

Chapter Three: Home Is Where The Hearth Is********************************************

Now that you're set up, you're first job is going to be to get a home. A homewill let you store equipment and hang out in your free time. Unfortunately tobe "ligit" the only way to get a home is to complete a Great House quest lineand build a stronghold but the fact of the matter is you are going to steal ahome. You need one, that's all there is to it. You do have a couple ofchoices.

I prefer to "take" an unoccupied home. They are smaller, but you won't have tokill anyone. Get your lockpick (preferably Fargoth's) and head back across theriver. A couple of the homes have some complicated locks but if you tooksecurity and have Fargoth's pick, you should be able to get it eventually. Thelocked homes represent the homes of people outside. Since they never go intheir homes, everything is free for the taking. Technically you are a thief, so you should have nothing against stealing stuff ;). Beware, if you are seen by the Hlaalu guards (try sneaking) they will get mad. They may even attack you. They will kill you in two hits, plain and simple. If one gets pissed off, take shelter in your home and rest for 3-4 days, it'll tame them down.

Empty the home if you want and drop any of your extra stuff. This is going tobe your base and your loot storage facility. You can also sleep in the bed torest. By the way, don’t bother with Tsiya’s house. Even though it’s locked,Tsiya is inside.

I recommend you try to keep items in baskets or containers if possible. So if


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you have a small house, try not to horde to much junk. If you just leave lotsof stuff lying around you're bound to spawn overflow loot bags. These thingsbasically round up all the items you drop on the ground and have a real nastytendancy to eat them.

There are a couple other options for "taking" a home, one of which is quiteuseful insofar as you will have a container that can be filled with as many items as you want. The other is just a large place with lots of shelving if you like to put things on display.

If you head back up to the central area where the Hlaalu Manor is you'll alsonotice there are several mansions here, as I said two are of interest to us. One is Nerano Manor and the other is Hlaalo Manor. I'll talk about Hlaalo Manor first.

Alright, here's a tiny, small, meager spoiler. Someone has murdered RaylenHlaalo. Tragic yes, and the scoundrel is sure to get his comeupance at the hands of some House Hlaalu Agent someday however, there is one fringe benefit.

See, since Raylen Hlaalo is already dead, his corpse isn't just a regular corpsebuta perma-corpse. That means that it will never rot or go away. So you canjust dump whatever you want in it and never run out of storage. Though I'vehad it act a little glitchy after dumping a lot of stuff into him. But I ama packrat. You'll have to break through the lock, but should be able to doit with Fargoth's pick. Just stick to the body on the first floor as upstairs is his maid and you don't want to let her out to see you running about the first floor looting stuff. Also you may notice a bottle of rather expensivebrandy on the shelves. Leave it. It's used in a quest later on.

But you want to display your weapons and armor you say? Fine, if you don't mind large file sizes for your saves (that can depressingly cause crashes) or the risk of leaving to much stuff in the open and spawning a loot bag. Youcan help yourself to Nerano Manor. There are a couple things you should be aware of if you choose Nerano Manor as your new residence however.

You are going to have to kill the current occupent, Ondres Nerano. Not a problem really, he's just a defenseless noble. However his, erm, well beingis needed for a pair of quests. One such quest requires him to be alive and involves Great House Redoran. The said quest is of such importance that you will be unable to advance to the Highest ranks of Redoran without Nerano. Soin the future when you presumably return with a better character if you chooseto play as a Redoran Retainer do not kill Nerano. The second quest does notrequire him to be alive and involves the Thieve's Guild. Essentially you willnot receive as good a reward if he is dead (However completing that quest withhim alive is somewhat more complicated so it works both ways I suppose. We willbe doing that quest so I will discuss it more later.)

The key on Nerano's body will get you into the bedroom upstairs and also throughthe door on the second floor (which just leads outside, its locked from both ends though so make sure to unlock both sides with the key before you get ridof it. Coincidently you need that key for a quest in a bit so do hang onto ituntil then.) The other chests and cabinets you will have to open with a lock pick or spell or somesuch.

You can clear out all the junk lying around and make a tidy profit (around 400-500g perhaps) which is not so bad at this stage of the game. Then youcan display items you want on the shelves and tables. Be aware of the overflowloot bag but I must also mention that you will really have to leave a lot ofgarbage just lying around to make one. I had all the shelves filled, the tablescompletely covered and huge piles of equipment lying around before I finally


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had one spring up. You don't want one as once it appears it is there for goodand can screw the whole area up. However if you exercise some caution then youshould be fine.

Alright, you should be just fine, but if for some reason you do have a bountyyou may want to head to the Thieve's Guild and have it removed. Or you couldjust wait as you'll be able to have any bounty problems taken care of fairlysoon.

Alright, have you got a house? Does it have storage? Good, drop any excess itemssuch as clothing you're not equipped with or junk like 'Directions to Caius Cosados' and meet me down below.

Note(10/09/03): I recently received an email from a fellow who had killedNerano and later joined Redoran. To my knowledge a late stage Redoran questcan *not* be completed if you kill Nerano. Have a care with characters youmight make that you plan to join Redoran with. I recommend using as a base theRedoran Hostile in the Redoran Council Chambers, it's a luxurious two roomapartment with no one in it that you can help yourself too and being that it'sin the Council Chambers it's suitably located near the Redoran councilers andNeminda (Redoran's first questmistress). <end note>

Your first stop? Nileno Dorvayn. If you've been keeping up then you know sheis the Hlaalu Questmistress. Talk to her about business, she'll tell you tosay that again, when you say that again (note the option say that again) she'lltell you that you sound like some Redoran punk. Then she'll give you a RedoranHelm.

Your mission? Don the helm, go to Ald'ruhn and pretend you're some slimy Redoran guy (note he is slimy... he's dead) You may ask where the hell is Ald'ruhn? Don't worry, it's just a silt strider away! You could take the GuildGuide as well if you wanted to.

Go back to the silt strider and talk to the caravaner. Tell him you want to goto Ald'ruhn. Away you go! There may be a sand storm on arrival, don't flipout, it can't hurt you, but it is annoying. Go down the ramp, to your rightyou'll see some stairs, go up those, keep going up the next set into theGIGANTIC building. This building actually houses several mansions makingRedoran probably the most impressive House if you measure impressivity by square inches of floor space.

Go inside and find the Redguard lady in the extravagant garb. This isNeminda. Where you Redoran she'd be your questmistress. Lucky for you, youbelong to Great House Hlaalu. Chat with her and give her the code word Nilenotold you. She'll take you for that Redoran fellow and hand over some messagetelling you to go to Maar Gan. Alas, if you want to double cross Hlaalu youcan't (believe me, I tried). Get out of Redoran (and take off that smelly helmif you want) and get back to Nileno. Chat her up and hand over the plans. She'll let you keep the helm (joy!). You can also ask for a promotion if youwant. I'd say junk the helm (it's medium and not very good for your build) but you can keep it if you like. Either way, you're done with Hlaalu for now. (It isn't that the next quest is hard, it just takes you to Vivec, Vivec can be...unsettling for beginners)

When you're ready, report post-haste to the Mage's Guild. Head down the hall,down the stairs, and to the back room. You'll find a Khajit. Talk to her,she's your new boss. You're no wizard, but you'll serve her, and herdisposition will get quite high thanks to you.

Your first task is to hunt down four varieties of mushrooms. (Mmm... mushroom)


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These things actually grow around Seyda Neen, so it'll be like going home sortof. Back to the Silt Strider (this guy is useful huh?) and you're off to SeydaNeen.

What you're looking for is one type of mushroom that grows in the green ickylakes, two that grow on trees, and one that grows randomly.

If you sniff around you should find all of them. Go to the green lake firstand get that 'shroom. There are many to choose from. Then you'll want to graba shroom from the blue that grows out of the ground. Just stare at the ground. I'm not joking when I say they are all over. It may sound ambiguous but whenyou see it you'll realize it isn't. The last two grow on the side of trees. They look similar but there is a difference, just try not to stray to far awayunless you must, and you should quickly find one of each type. Now, reportback to Ajira with her shrooms. She'll thank ye kindly.

If you're having trouble - three of the mushrooms can be found in the areaaround the tax collector's body and all four can be found in the area aroundthe light house.

Your next mission is going to get you involved in a little mage drama. It seemsthat Galbedir and Ajira have made a bet to see who will get promoted first andyou're going to help Ajira take the upper hand. Galbedir is the wood elf on the top floor of the Mage's Guild, notable for wearing an exquisite robe. Wheredid she get the cash for that if she's just a lowly apprentice anyway?

Ajira will give you a fake soul gem and tell you that Galbedir is going to bedistracted. Sure enough as you head to Galbedir's quarters you'll see herwalking into the guild proper. Head up to her office and check the desk, slidein the fake gem. You COULD take stuff (the grand soul gem is damn tempting)but you really want Galbedir as a friend, I advise leaving everything alone.Report back to Ajira your success.

Note that there are plenty of other enchanters besides Galbedir in the gameso in the future if you repeat this mission you may want to help yourselfto the gem if you can remember that Galbedir will from then on be uselessas an enchanter. I'll just throw in that I prefer not to take it (the coinacquired from pawning the gem can be easily acquired later on in the game andI enjoy the convenience of being able to use an Enchanter in Balmora, one ofthe major towns of the game.) At any rate, let us continue on with the guildassignments.

Your next goal is even more fun, get flowers! This is easy... but it can beannoying. Actually, it can be real annoying for a beginner. Ajira will saysomething about going to Lake Amaya, you'll probably be thinking WHAT THEHELL?! And no, you don't need to go to Lake Amaya to succeed.

Here is what you need

- Gold Kanet- Stoneflower- Willow anther- Heather

You may want to save to. This wont kill you, but it may take some time. It'san easy quest but requires some exploring. Head south out of Balmora and youshould be able to find Gold Kanet Willow Anther and Heather. Once you havethree of the samples, head back north. The stoneflower is a different matter.Nalcaya of White Heaven might have some. Her shop is behind Nerano Manor. Check misc stock to see if she has it. If not, you're out of luck. You could


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check EACH and EVERY container in Balmora and you'll probably find one,otherwise you may want to head to Suran.

Darkpho66 writes:

“In the clothier store next to the alchemy shop in Balmora, to the left of thedoor is a flower pot. Inside is a stoneflower.”

If you go there, that will definitely make picking up the stoneflower mucheasier.

I've received several other locations for acquiring the flowers in my inbox,there are lots of them mind you because they grow all over the Ascadian Islesregion and that's a pretty big region. The locations that have been pointedout, near Balmora and in the Clothier's shop are as good as anywhere and Iwould appreciate if, in the future, my inbox wasn't flooded with flowerlocations. Thanks for the thought though :).

You can Silt Strider there (thank god) If you head east out of Suran, (you canjump down from the strider) and check the plantations. You should berelatively unmolested although sometimes a Nix-Hound or Kagouti could lurkabout (at the relatively low level of 1 you tend to be safe from these beastsas the game wont spawn them in this area) When you finally get your hands ona stoneflower report back to Ajira and look on the bright side: this is an easyquest for someone with more knowledge of Vvardenfell.

Asking again for a job will have her babble about a bowl or something(optionally you can just leave and come back to skip the bowl quest)

If you get the bowl quest it's quite simple, Ajira forks over 10 septims andtells you to go buy a bowl. Go to one of the traders and get said bowl. Bythe time you return, Ajira won't be concerned with the bowl anymore. Shebarely even acknowledges your success, she has other problems. Oh, mage drama!

Alas, Galdebir got revenge and stole Ajira's reports. Talk to Ajira about thereports then go find them. One is under the closet in the "rest area" justoutside of Ajira's room the other is in the small enclave of barrels just belowGaldebir's area. Return to Ajira with reports in hand and you are... DONE! Yes truly, Ajira has only one quest left and it isn't really a quest per-say. But she won't hand it over unless you are high ranking. You should have doneenough quests for Ajira to get at least two promotions but you may not have theskills to get them all. Advance as much as you can (it helps with dispositionand what not. You want your mage friends to like you) Then save. You aredone! And the best part is not the ranks but the several some items Ajira gaveyou. In addition, her disposition is surely 100 and you can buy some stufffrom her. Ajira might mention that she has some good information, but shewon't cough it up until you are considerably higher ranked in the guild. Don'tworry about this now, the item in question is more useful for a mage characteranyway. But you may want to make a mental note in case you decide to play a mage. They are quite fun.

Now finally you will go work for your good thief friends. Actually, thethieves are a pretty moral lot all things considered. And they aren't jerkslike the Cammona Tong (the native counter-part).

Go to Sugar-Lips (she inducted you Toad *GRIBBIT!*) Discuss some jobs with herand she'll whine about not having diamonds. You can go back to your friendNalcarya to correct Sugar-Lips diamond deficiency. You can squander goldbuying them from Nalcarya or you can do it the true thief way by thieving them! But don't be stupid and steal the ones right in front of you, steal the ones


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in Nalcarya's private stash. Her shop also serves at her house. If you go upthe stairs and over to the bed, you'll see a chest on a shelf over the bed.

You can pick the lock (you might also buy some lock picking scrolls from yourmage friends) and take not one but three diamonds. One for Sugar-Lips. Twofor you. Note that selling items to shopkeepers you stole from them is a badidea. So just keep the diamonds for now. Or pawn them at one of the otherstores. Report back to Sugar-Lips with diamonds in hand and get an advancement to get away from the horribly stupid rank of Toad.

At last we're going to revist Ondres Nerano. If you've killed him hopefully youknow where that key is. Sugar-Lips mentions the key is exactly what she wantsso if you have it, give it to her. She'll be a bit annoyed that Nerano is deadand won't give you a reward, but at least you didn't have to go to any trouble.

Now if you don't have the key you're going to have to get one. You can eithersteal it from Nerano (hard) or kill Nerano (easy) to get it. Or you can paya visit to the Balmora Corner Club to find his servant.

His servant is a Cammona Tong thug and you may have learned from conversationthat the Cammona Tong hang out in the Corner Club. And you as a thief's guildmember aren't their favorite person. The Corner Club is just inside thesouthern entrance to Balmora, right at the foot of the silt strider ramp (NOTE: not the Lucky Lock-up) Go inside, take note of the guy standing rightnext to you (you'll get to play with this fellow in a Hlaalu quest) and go downthe stairs.

Nerano's lacky is actually a rather well-dressed Dunmer chap. Talk to him andhe'll spill some Cammona Tong mantra at you. Discuss Nerano Manor and he'lllikely give you the cold shoulder. What to do? You need to get hisdisposition up.

You can try persuasion and fail, your speechcraft is probably too low andthough your personality is so-so, the Cammona Tong just don't like you. Bribingworks nicely (100 gold bribes) though he may still be a jerk, in which you'llhave real problems. If you do knock his disposition up to 70 or so, you cantalk to him about Nerano Manor and he says he'll hook you up for another 100gold. With the incentive you have the key. Optionally you can try to steal itand be slaughtered by the Tong.

My recommendation? Save before you do this quest, if you find yourself simplyspending too much gold for your taste then whack Nerano and take his key. Remember, your goal right now is to figure out what the hell you are doing, notto complete the quests perfectly.

Either way, once you figure out how to take care of this report to Sugar-Lips.

And the end of this chapter is nigh.

What you have completed

- A Hlaalu mission- All of Ajira's mage's guild missions- The first two thieves guild missions.

Things are going to get a heck of a lot harder with the next quest, so you'llwant to prepare yourself. If the mage's guild overwhelmed you, you might wantto retrace some steps. You've actually dealt with a lot of you've survivedthis far.


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As far as your condition goes? You should have somewhat good disposition withthe mages, some nice prizes from Ajira, and perhaps 1500 gold. Along with thetwo diamonds you got from Nalcaya. The Nerano mission is a real pain onlybecause of the cost, but deal with it. This is why you've been stock-pilinggold, for emergencies. Take a rest if you must, I'll meet you in the nextchapter.

Chapter Four: The Grand Finale********************************

Much you have learned, yes. You have learned how to make friends. Youhave explored some not-so-exotic lands. You have stolen. You have beenrewarded. Your missions now are going to be difficult, but should you succeedyou will be more then prepared to survive on your own.

Sugar-Lips isn't done with you just yet. Her next mission is to go collectsome dwemer artifacts from a fellow who hasn't paid up. They’re in Hla Oad. WHOAH! What the heck is Hla Oad? You can't silt strider there... (alas) Sothat means you'll get to walk.

Let's take just a quick moment here to chat about equipment:

The armorer can sell you all of the chitin stuff, which you may want. It'sgood lowbie armor. You also have a couple of weapon choices. A shop in thenorthern part of town sells a variety of weapons including the Steel Katana andSteel Wakizashi, take your pick. These are both somewhat powerful non-magicalweapons. Steel is the best weapon type you can get at this point in the game.

There is also a very potent short sword that you can acquire that is completelylegit, if you have the coin for it. Again, I have been encouraging you to save. The weapon I speak of is called 'Last Wish' it is a Dwemer Shortsword,which gives it moderate strength, that is enchanted with a potent poison spell.

This poison spell hits whenever the blade strikes for added damage making it apretty powerful weapon, for a short blade. As far the main quest goes, it ishelpful up through Kogohruhn at which point it begins to get a tad underpowered.

Assuming you are playing on a lower difficulty setting however, you will find the weapon even more potent. 'But how do I get this weapon?' you might ask. Your destination is Ald-Ruhn.

Remember the giant complex you had to go to to find Neminda? Head there, but don't go into the Redoran Council Chambers. You'll note that on the floor ofthe shell are several shops. On the northeast side is an enchanter's shop.Inside is where you want to be. I am almost 100% certain that Last Wish isstocked here 100% of the time. However, the Last Wish in this store has seenbetter days so you will have to get it repaired. Good in that you can buy itcheaply, bad in that it will be ~expensive~ to repair it. If you have the coinI recommend getting it. Again its price will fluctuate based on your disposition with the shopkeeper.

One final note, check out the GOTY section if you want, it has some morespecifics on how to acquire a POTENT long blade very easily at level one. Andby potent, I mean good enough to be your weapon of choice through the mainquest if you so desire.

Enough about eq... back to the Hla Oad journey. It's actually VERY easy to getto Hla Oad if you know what you're doing.

Make sure you have a lockpick or perhaps some scrolls from your mage friends


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then head south out of Balmora. Keep heading south, past the mine and minersand you should see a path up into the hills. You'll be heading up into an areacalled Odai Plateau. From the middle of the plateau you can head right (facingsouth) and skid, slide, whatever, down the slopes. Beware, there may be acreature of some sort to deal with, however you should be able to deal with it.As long as you have a semi-decent weapon (such as the steel katana/wakizashi). Hla Oad is nearby. You should find it easy enough, it's along the west closequite close to the plateau.

When you get to the shanty-town, you're looking for a place named Fatleg's DropOff. Inside are two fellows A Khajit and another chap. The Khajit is the oneyou come in search of, but he plays stupid. You may notice a trap door, thisheads to Cammona Tong territory, best to avoid it for now. The chest is whatyou are looking for. There are actually two, the one BEHIND the Khajit is theone you want. Pop the lock (try to sneak... you MAY not get caught) and graball three dwemer things, then run like hell. The odds of not getting caughtare slim and the two fellows are good fighters.

Once outside with the three dwemer artifacts retrace your steps back to Balmoraand Sugar-Lips. Surrender the artifacts and complete this annoying quest.

Remember how I said to leave the vintage brandy alone in Ralen Hlaalo's house?Well guess what your next quest is! Yep, to retrieve the brandy. So hopefullyyou did as I said, because you need it. So go fetch it and give it to Sugar-Lips. Cake! Especially if you've already been in Hlaalo's house.

You actually only have two more quests to do in the Balmora branch of the ThiefGuild. The next one though, unfortunately, is annoying. If you've beenadvancing as much as possible, you may have been stopped by a lack of skillthough. You should still finish out the Balmora quests though, you could usethe final "reward" for completing this string of quests. And Sugar-lips willgive you a really good prize when you finish.

Talk to Sugar-Lips about jobs. She wants you to go to Pelegaid. Great anothertown you can't silt strider to. Something about rescuing a prisoner orsomething. You actually don't have to escort anyone (you'll learn more ofannoying escort quests later) though, which is good.

The quickest way to get to Pelegiad is to silt strider to Seyda Neen.Fortunately, the roads are farely clear. From the Silt Strider head right,also known as east along the road. There should be signs to point your way.

The road will eventually spin around west and cut between some hills. Beware,Nels Lendo may be near. Nels will try to extort money from you (or justsmoochy up if you happen to be a fair maiden) and if you don't pay him he willkill you (he's actually not that great but tough for a level 1-2 characterwhich you probably are.)

The road will head back west, just keep following it and eventually Pelegiadwill come up on your right. You should see the buildings or at least the road. Head on in.

You want to go to Mister Mebestian Ence, the trader. In his shop you can buy aDwemer coherer. You see trading Dwemer (note: Morrowind word for Dwarf) stuffis very much bad. But the local imperials don't seem to mind. Now let’s go toPelegiad base. An orc lady inside is the chief. Sugar-Lips will havementioned her name: Shadbak gra-Burbug. Talk to Shadbak about the coherer andsay something about how you got your hands on it. Choose the intelligentanswer or be attacked.


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She'll agree to let your thief friend go and you're done. Feel free to reportback Sugar-Lips now. Note: The true thief would steal the coherer, it'supstairs in a chest in Ence's small place.

Fortunately the next quest is disgustingly easy compared to the two"side-trips" you had to make. Sugar-Lips knows there is a security expert inBalmora but isn't sure who. She does have some clues for you. I have the bestclue for you however, it's Hecerinde. His house is in town and you may havenoted it earlier while looking for a house to claim. It's on your side of theriver in the first row of homes.

Speak with him, he'll agree to help you and your buddies out. Here's the bestpart, he is the security expert meaning you can train security to 100 with him.This is good news for you. Get back to Sugar-Lips to report a job well done.Get your last promotion, if you can. Guess what? You've finished Sugar-Lipsquests! Her big reward? She removes any bounty you've incurred... for free!Aengoth and Big Helende will also do this when you finish their quest strings She'll tell you to go visit Aengoth or Big Helende. You certainly can tacklethese quests but instead we'll turn to Caius.

Caius is going to offer you your first real challenge. Exploring a dungeon. If you've managed to get Last Wish (or Shadowsting) this won't be too hard. You may need some healing potions though. Go to the Spymaster and he'll tellyou he wants info on the Nereverine Cult and the Sixth House cult. He saysthat a chap in the Fighter's Guild is a big expert in this field. So headthere.

Go down the stairs, around the hall, through the last door to find an Imperialand his female companion. Talk with him and he'll recognize you as a friend ofCaius. He says he can give you what you need but first you need a DwemerPuzzle Box. He says that box is in a nearby dwemer ruin. Finding the ruinisn't the hard part though.

When done learning what you must do, get out and go out the south exit. Headacross the bridges to the east and follow the path. You'll come to acrossroads, one leads up around the Fort Moonmoth, the other leads to it. Takethe left path. Another crossroads almost immedietly and not quite clear needsyou to take the right path. You should be heading up now with Fort Moonmoth toyour right. You'll get to a bridge. And you've got trouble

Snowy Granius. Why is it that guys without shirts are bad dudes? Your firstencounter with him might lead you to say to me "What the HELL is wrong withyou? I can't take this guy!" And yes he is quite difficult for a low-levelcharacter. He's a battle mage. Upon approaching he'll dispatch a skeletonafter you. Run backwards, keep him in view. Dodge his spells he tosses at youand keep from the skeleton. He'll actually expend his magicka this way and youwon't have to deal with his conjured beasties.

The problem is, as a battle mage, his weapons also pack a punch. He'll have aspear or axe or both. If he hits you with them you could see much of your lifetaken from you. This is where heals come in handy. Last Wish makes this realeasy, as does being a redguard with a katana. Either way, you will need todeal with him. I've read stuff about running past him, but this can be moredangerous then just outright battle with him. If/when you do get him though,you can finish the mission. If you have light armor as a major skill and thechitin eq then this will be easier. Granius hits hard though, even without hismagic expect to see a good 1/3 of your health taken, and he can hit even harder.

When Granius falls you can move on. All he has is his crap iron armor whichisn't even good for you since you use light armor. Cross the bridge and keep


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your eyes glued to the left. A small stretch of pipe has a crank on it, spinthe crank and you can open the door before you. Just run ahead and get throughthe door before it closes.

As a special note, if you are having a lot of trouble with Granius and happento own the GOTY edition, you may want to consider lowering the difficultyslider.

I received an email recently from a fellow (I forget his name unfortunately)commenting on how his warrior took down Snowy Granius without any problems etcetc. Well... yes... Snowy isn’t that difficult for a character strapped to thebejeezus with armor and weapons... but the whole point here is that you areusing a stealth character who isn’t as strong at straight combat. Anyway...where was I? Oh yes.

Welcome to your first Dwemer ruin. And don't worry, Snowy was the only toughthug. The idiots around her only have daggers. Feel free to take the clothesoff their back (actually not such a bad idea, the black clothes which are hardto come by in shops can be ill-gotten gained here and they look kind of cool.)

The parts with tough monsters are locked up tight however. You actuallydon’t even need to deal with most of the thugs at all. Following the path youshould see a giant area in front of you with two levels. If you sniff aroundyou'll find the way to the upper level. The single door here leads to theboss's room. He's no tougher then his other thugs (And Snowy was the lackythey put as the guard?) End his existence then glance over at the shelf closestto the door. At the very bottom left corner is Hasphat's box. Snatch it andreturn post-haste.

The hardest part of this quest is Snowy, honestly. Once you find the dungeon,things are easy. Just dont pop any locks. You probably wont be able to, butto get to the box you don't need to. There are some real nasty baddies in thedungeon's lower depths so just stay away and you'll do fine.

Did you enjoy the dungeon crawl? Yes? Good, cuz there’s a few more ;) Onceyou have Hasphat's notes give them to Caius and you can get the next quest fromhim. Go chat with an orc in the mage's guild.

You may have talked with Caius's orc friend before, she's pretty nasty but whenshe finds out your Caius's friend she warms up to you. She'll gladly help, butshe needs the skull of a fellow that's rather dead. She says the skull is in atomb in the Pelegiad area. You should know that area well! She even gives youa magical short sword (which will look like a joke if you’ve gone to thetrouble of procuring Last Wish or Shadowsting) and some scrolls. If for whateverreason your short sword skill is lousy and you don't have a decent long swordthat is enchanted, you might want to guy buy a silver longsword from somewhere.The next area does have creatures that can only be hit by magic or silverweapons. At any rate, Silt Strider to Seyda and head back towards Pelegiad. Keep your eyes open for the tomb which is on the left as you head west towards Pelegiad. The skellies can be annoying, so some heals will serve you well, nothing in this dungeon should be any harder then Snowy was. The skull is in the deeper parts of the tomb. When you find it head on back to the orc and get her info for Caius. Now you get some real fun! Disturbing dreams and the sleepers will chat you up about Dagoth Ur. Actually, you're doing really well.

That brings this unit to a close

You should have


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- Finished up the Balmora Thieves Guild Quests- Got a foot-hold into the main quest- Obtained a couple of useful items

That's it! That's all I have to offer you as a walkthrough! If you've made it this far you've sampled a wide variety of different quests and hopefully youhave a good idea of the kinds of services and transportation available in getting around Morrowind. Good luck, and good adventures!

WHAT DO I DO NOW?*****************

As I mentioned before the character build I gave at the beginning of the guideis not the best build in the game. You have plenty of options if you wouldlike to continue using it, after all you have completed quite a few questsand made some headway into the game. Or you can recreate and hopefully builda character more suited to your tastes. Either way, hopefully you have a muchbetter idea of handling quests in Morrowind and have a good idea of what youneed to do from this point on.

Make sure to check out Dao Jones Character Creation Guide at GameFAQs.com. It is tailored to new players and should give you a good look at the different options you have for building a character. Not to mention you can run throughsome of the things I told you in this guide again to get a feel for how different sets of skills work in relation to the quests you can expect.

gritta also has a Character Creation FAQ that might put a slightly differentspin on things that you can look at if you want some more character creationadvice.

If you wish to continue using this character then you have several options. Caius's next quest takes you to Vivec, although he will not give it to youuntil you have reached level4. It is ideal however since you can get a foothold on your Hlaalu questing. The other Thieves' Guild quests arepretty easy, even though you may not be able to get your promotions. TryAengoth in Ald'ruhn since you've already been there and probably had to explorea bit to find Under-Skar.

You can do the first couple of Fighter's Guild quests which involve squishingsome baddies. But don't go crazy with the Fighter's Guild. Remember what I said earlier about their shady dealings. If you're hell bent on joining the Fighter's Guild then make sure to talk to Caius about them first. Or just makea warrior type and forget you ever had any allegiance to the Thieve's Guild atall ;)

You can also go talk to Edwinna Elbert in Ald'ruhn Mages Guild. She will offersome easy quests to start you off and you can get rewarded with magicalpendants enchanted with divine intervention and almsivi intervention. SeeAppendix B for more details.

Now that you're familiar with some guilds you should a new character, moretailored to the guilds you'll be a part of. Go through this again to get aneven better feel for Morrowind or go with who you've got now. It would mean alot to me honestly. Though I admit, I made about four characters before I wasfinally satisfied. The most important thing is to explore. Probably the bestpart of Morrowind is taking in it's breath-taking landscapes.

RPGNick of the Morrowind message board at GameFAQs described the character I designed as a "throw away" character. Personally I think that's a really accurate description. Learn what sort of skills and abilities you like and


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build something according to your own tastes. Don't like swords? Don't use'em! I recently made a very cool 'Dragoon' type character out of an Argonianthat uses spears. Quite fun. Or use a pre-built, or check some FAQs for tipson a custom build, or try that answer questions to determine class session, itsinteresting.

Your worst problem honestly is money. You need money, and alot of it, for mostthings you want to do. Although at this point you may have enough gold totrain your skills and gain a couple of levels. The extra hp will help.

Consult the Great House Hlaalu FAQ on GameFAQs along with the Thief Guild FAQfor more guidance if you intend to develop this character more.

You have friends in the Mage's and Thieve's Guilds (probably the two most usefulguilds in the game) and you have the knowledge to survive. All you need now isto continue to explore. Oh, and about that short sword. Todwendy, in theLucky Lockup is the Short Sword Master Trainer. So that makes Short Sword andSecurity that you can max out in Balmora.

There are plenty of guides out there for the game as well as a community thatis still very active so any questions or concerns you have about a quest youshould be able to find an answer to. GameFAQs has guides that cover all theindividual factions by themselves which is great since it's much easier tofind information on what you're looking for.

However, if you do have a Gameplay question that you can't seem to find ananswer for, feel free to shoot me an email. If its something I think I canhelp you with, I'll be glad to send a response.

Other tips**********Looking to sell things? I Can Explode of the GameFAQs message boards remindedme that you would probably like to know where to go to do just that! If youuse the Guild Guide and travel to Caldera then you can go to Ghorak Manor,near the South Entrance of the town. Inside are a bunch of Orcs milling aboutand you should hear a very odd sound coming from...somewhere. That's Creeper.He's a scamp. He also runs a little merchant business on the side. He alsohas 5,000 gold in his inventory. Anyway, head all the way up to the top floorto find him. Don't kill him, just talk to him. Note that he doesn't have a disposition rating. What does this mean?

Whatever you sell he always pays for at FULL PRICE! The only reason he wouldpay less then full price for a piece of equipment is if it is damaged (repairit for pittance and sell it for that much more coin!) Great you say, but whatif the item I want to sell is worth more then 5,000g. Do I have to take a loss?

No you do not! You just have to know how to do business with the Creeper. Makesure to sell him a few items that are valued at right around 5,000 gold. Nowsay you have a sword worth 15,000 gold. Sell the sword and buy enough itemsfrom his inventory that are worth 10,000 gold. Do this all in the sametransaction and confirm. Now you have 5,000 gold, some items, and he has yoursword and 0 gold.

Just rest for 24 hours. You can pass the time right in front of him. Now hehas 5,000 gold again. So start selling the junk you took from him. Rest whenhis gold is exhausted. Repeat until you are rid of all your unwanted items andenjoy your 15,000 gold. Ordinator Equipment is especially good to sell to thecreeper. You can make around 32,000 gold just by killing one Ordinator! Ofcourse, killing an Ordinator isn't an easy task for a level 1 character.


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Redoran is probably the most painful of the Houses. They give you few rewardsfor your service.

Telvanni isn't as difficult as it sounds and you get some awesome magic itemsfor being a Telvanni.

Save up about 3000G then buy a common shirt that has a red shirt and blackvest. Buy five cyrodillic brandies then go to Ebonheart. Join the ImperialCult and speak to the head of the almoners. He doesn't actually make you dohis quests so as long as you have the gold and items he asks for he'll rewardyou. Tell him you've doubled his goals and he gets real happy, you can getsome nifty items this way, including a glove with constant effect fortify luck.You can also advance real fast this way. It's cheap but it can help if youhave the gold to spare

Escort Quests? They’re a pain, basically someone follows you until you leadthem to their destination. They move slowly and are very weak. They willattack your enemies but will likely get killed. In fact, the only really goodcompanion you can get is during a Fighter’s Guild quest with an ImperialLegionaire that is mildly strong.

As an interesting tidbit, a Cyrodil with personality as a main skill and thesign of the Lady can start with an 85 personality. You may recall me bringing this up way back when we were discussing character building. This is thehighest starting attribute that can be made without all sorts of hacks from theConstruction Set. If you have speechcraft as a main skill (say if you are anImperial Agent, heh) then from the get go you'll have virtually all thepersonality you need to be almost always succesful in your bribes and can dopretty will with admire.

Make sure to check Raug's Helpful Tips - The Evil FAQ on the GameFAQs messageboard, especially if you decide to start posting there! He's got some greatinformation. At the time of this update, the topic has been stickied andcan be found through this link: http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=915084&topic=20928509

Raug also goes into selling to Creeper if my explanation confused you. He also points you in the right direction to find the Talking Mudcrab Merchant,though personally I'm to lazy to go to the mudcrab.

Besides boosting my ego by telling me my guide helped him when he was a newplayer to Morrowind, chaos striker, another GameFAQs board user, wanted me to make sure to mention that there is a full set of alchemy equipment in the Caldera Mage's Guild. If you Guild Guide there then you'll spot two doors on the first floor, one leads outside and the other leads to the back of the Guild. No one is in the back area of the guild so this alchemy equipment is free for the taking! Actually, it might be best to leave it be. The stuff is pretty heavy but you could stop by anytime you need to use it. Or relocate it to wherever you're storing your extra loot. Whatever is most convenient.

More useful help from chaos striker, "I know that when I was new to gamefaqsI never ever ever ever looked at message boards." The moral of this experience?Check 'em! There are some great people on the boards that can offer some excellent advice.

And a link chaos striker suggests:

http://www.quanze13.com/morrowind/index.html


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x Shadow describes Quanze's site: "Quanze's site. Has an insane amount of thingson it. Look here if you want locations of items, spells, etc. Also has someinfo about other, unrelated things."

Was there something I didn't explain properly? Is there a concept you'd likeenlightenment about? Always feel free to email me!

Appendix A: Seyda Neen fun**************************Being that this is a beginner's guide and being that Seyda Neen is the firsttown, this section will be a comprehensive index all that can be done in SeydaNeen.

Three Quests are offered, two of which you have done.

The third is offered by an Imperial fellow named Vodunius Nuccius. Talk to himand he'll tell you to mention him to the silt strider caravaner. Go talk tothe caravaner about Nuccius and the caravaner will speak of Nuccius's woes.

Talk to Nuccius again and he'll boohoo about being on Vvardenfell. Fork over100 septims and he'll hand you a crap ring that drains health but boostsathletics. Actually not very productive unless you like being a nice guy. Myself, I'd rather have the 100 septims.

Eldafire, the local female high elf, also whines about some bandits holed up ina cave. This isn't an actual assigned quest, just a bit of info. Apparentlythe Imperials don't seem to care and aren't doing anything. The cave is rightnear the Silt Strider and you may have seen the door. Inside you'll encountera person with a crap melee weapon to slay. Grab the key and go through thedoor. To your left will be slaves to free. To your right will be an annoyingmage that can probably kill you with his magic. If you're fortified a bitthough and can manage to dodge the spells you can take him out. The last thugthrows missile weapons at you. Do the slayer thing then you can loot the cave.It doesn't have very many goodies but it'll be your first taste of bandit caveaction. Bandit Caves are all over the place and later on will be a primesupplier of some important items like soul gems.

Another elf is play some magic tricks. Head about northwest of Seyda Neen,along the road and you'll see a book in the road. As you approach the book theowner comes at you, plummeting to his death from the sky. Careful his body canhurt ya ;) He's actually got a pretty nice sword on him for a level one personin need of a long blade. He's got on an extravagant robe (people like you ifyou have expensive clothes on) one of those stupid looking yellow hats, andsome icarian flight scrolls. What is Icarian Flight? <g> use it and findout,just save first heheh. You can get the fellow's journal too. Technically itis a rare book. One other dungeon is near Seyda Neen. It's a tomb so have amagic item, it's along the coast a bit to the north of Seyda Neen. Not much ofvalue inside though, but it can be fun to explore and it might net you a skillpoint in your weapon or armor.

A tree-stump near the light house has a magical axe. And with that, you'vepretty much scoured Seyda Neen of everything. You've righted wrongs and takencare of the Imperials dirty work. And no one will really care. But it can bea good place to learn some stuff. The chaps hanging out at Arville's can giveyou all kind of info, just stay away from Flat-Foot if you plan to cheat himout of his gold.

Appendix B: That Magic Stuff****************************I've already talked about some magic, so let's talk about some other magic


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stuff.

Important Spells:Bound <anything>

Bound stuff is really handy. I use Bound Longsword frequently myself. It'llgive you armor or a weapon and fortify some skill. It only lasts a minute butit's still handy. These are worth picking up, at least bound longsword andmaybe the cuirass.

Soul Trap

You need this to get souls which you use for enchantments. A handy spell topick up for later on. You can get it from the local mages.

Hearth Heal

Take restoration as one of your major skills and you start with this. A usefulhealing spell, multiple healing spells exist, you can also get one from the orcmage in the Mage's Guild, a healing spell that is.

Ondusi's Open Door

Pretty hand, pops open anything up to level 50, can be bought in spell andscroll form. Also keep on the look out for Locksplitter Scrolls which can openlevel 100 locks

Divine Intervention

You can pick this up in some Imperial Shrines, NOTE: not in Fort Moonmoth. Itwarps you instantly to the nearest Imperial Shrine. VERY useful. EdwinnaElbert gives you a magic pendant with this spell as a reward for one of herearly quests. Most of these quests involve stealing stuff which is just yourdepartment.

Almsivi Intervention

The tribunal counterpart. Edwinna also gives this as an award for the samequest. Warps you to the nearest tribunal temple, most major towns have one. You should be able to get this in Balmora's Temple along with...

Recall

Warps you to your marked destination. You can get a pendant of recall inCaldera (warp there with the 'Guild Guide' in the Balmora Mage's Guild) fromthe pawnbroker. Recall is useless without mark

Mark

Marks a destination for recall

Restore <Attribute>

Many enemies, including most stuff in the main quest can drain attributes,restore <attribute> and a good restore skill is a necessity for any character,potions are simply to unconventional. These spells are scattered but apriestess outside High Fane in Vivec has most of them

*As a rule stay away from fortify health/magicka/fatigue spells, when theyfade, it'll sap it from your current numbers. For instance say you have 50 max


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hp, fortified by 20, when the fortification goes away, say your at 19....you'll die. Yes, it is annoying. The fortify skill powers on the other handare pretty useful.

As another note, with the advent of the GOTY edition it is now possible to buymagic that can fortify skills, also very useful if you can make some constanteffect items. Previously, the only way to get such a spell was to complete theThreads of the Webspinner subquest for the Morag Tong, now it’s as easy asgoing to Mournhold or Solstheim and picking up the spell (granted, that isn’tnecessarily EASY for a new character).

Appendix C: So you want a real edge?************************************

I just couldn't feel right without imparting the ways of the bugs unto you, myfaithful reader.

If you steal stuff in the Census Office before you complete the sequence(exiting and getting Caius's package) then you wont go to jail. Grabsomething, quickly drop it. The guard will yell at you then you can pick it upand go away. This is good in two ways.

You can get the limeware platter value: 650g in the first room. Thistranslates to around 597g from Arille.

In the last room you can get the wherehouse key. If the Imperial Officer isnear you, you can swing behind him and grab the key, try to get as far away aspossible. If he is towards the back wall, right next to the key, then youmight need to distract him by grabbing a candlestick or something.

There's also another interesting trick. If you attack someone in the CensusOffice (say with your new dagger) before you exit it it, then they yell at youbut don't do anything. You can actually kill(!!!) all three characters in hereand take their stuff. Ergalla is the only one who is used in a quest later onto my knowledge. This means you could theoretically get the hard to findtemplar armor from the beginning of the game.

Once you have the key you can go in the census wherehouse, the door right infront of you when you exit the Census building. Inside is a real guard youmust avoid but you can loot a nice collection of items including 150(!) arrows,possibly a magic item, and some skooma.

If you go kill Gilnith without first reporting to Ergalla then he wont take the200g from you and will just give you the reward of 500g.

Someone wrote in about the above, evidently they didn't read this far ;) Mindyou, it is a bug with the quest.

These are just some of the things you can do early on to "cheat" There arealso more tricks but I shall leave those for other guides. Of special note isthe "ordinator" trick. <g> Have fun.

Appendix D: Game of the Year****************************With the release of the Game of the Year edition of Morrowind, Xbox playersfinally have the opportunity to explore Mournhold and the Island of Solstheim.

While I will leave the details of Bloodmoon and Tribunal to other guides, thereare a few important things I would like to note about the expansions.


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1. It is now possible to have armor forged.2. The acquisition of ridiculously powerful items at level 1.

Armor Being Forged******************Six types of armor can be forged:

-Ebony-Glass-Adamantium-Snow Wolf Armor-Snow Bear Armor-Ice/Stalhrim armor

The first three can forged at the Craftsman's Hall in Mournhold (located inGodsreach). The first time you speak to the smith he will provide you with alist of what he can forge, how much raw material he needs and how much eachitem will cost. The same holds true for the other smith in Thirsk, thedifference being that you will need to collect pelts of snow wolves and snowbears instead of searching for raw ore.

Stalhrim is a bit trickier to get forged. You are going to have to join theEast Empire Company and when forced to choose between Falco and Carnius, you’llwant to select Falco. I do believe you can acquire some pieces from Carnius aswell, but it pays off to help out Falco more.

(Yes, I did forget to mention Stalhrim armor in the first version of the GOTYupdate...jeez you people got on my case about that one fast)

Getting to the Expansion Areas******************************1. Mournhold

You can not get to Mournhold until you are attacked by a Dark Brotherhood Assassin. This attack typically comes at around level 6 though it can happenat any time. Once you are attacked by the Assassin report to the nearesttown guard. He will tell you what to do.

It is worth noting that Assassins will continue to harrass you until you dealwith them so you may have to take a quick break from the main quest and popover to Mournhold for a bit regardless.

2. Solstheim

if you talk about Solstheim to anyone, ask about latest rumors and then Solstheim and you'll usually get what you're looking for. Basically theyexplain that to get to Solstheim you need to travel through Khuul. If youuse the Silt Strider you can travel to Khuul, but only from Gnisis. You can get to Gnisis via the Silt Strider at Seyda Neen (as well as some other places)so with that knowledge in hand you should be set.

Once in Khuul head over to the docks, you'll recognize the ferry to Solstheimimmedietly as the individual in question has some unusual clothing on (itemsfrom Solstheim.)

Ridiculously Powerful Items***************************Before you even begin to read this section let me make ONE THING CLEAR. YOUCAN ONLY GET TO THIRSK IF YOU HAVE BLOODMOON OR THE GOTY EDITION OF MORROWIND.


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I have gotten an upsurd amount of questions asking about this from people whohave neither. If you don't have either of the above, you CAN NOT get to Thirsk.

There exists outside of Thirsk, along the back wall a hollow treestump. Withinthe treestump are five ebony arrows of slaying capable of doing 5000 damage(yes, 5000, that is not a typo). Needless to say, these arrows are assured ofkilling anything in one hit. Use them well. Along with said arrows are twogloves, treachery and deceit, both of which fortify your sneak and securityskills respectively. A ring called Raven's Eye has fortify marksman 20 andnighteye 20, also very useful. Finally, there is a blade called Shadowstingwhich does 10-50 base damage and casts poison 5 pts for 20 seconds andchameleon when it hits. While it might seem strange for it to cast chameleon,it is pretty cool to watch the enemy go invisible then reappear moments later,dead. The chameleon effect makes the weapon a bit strange, but other then thatit is very powerful. If you can use long blade, I recommend picking this up assoon as possible, it is much better then Last Wish which I have oftenrecommended.

The run can be pretty dangerous at level 1 however. Enemies on Solstheim don'tfool around and they will KILL you if you try to fight them. I have only beensuccessful at fighting enemies at such a low level with the difficulty slider set to -100 and that was with a fully armed warrior type. Save frequently, usea map, and be cautious and you should be able to make it though.

GOTY: FAQ*********Q: How do I get to Mournhold?

A: You need to be attacked by an agent of the Dark Brotherhood. This can happen any time but seems to be most common once you are about level 6. At thispoint you need to report the attack to a guard. They will explain what to doand where to go.

Q: Help! I can’t find Mournhold on the map!

A: The only way to get to Mournhold is to be transported there by a mage atEbonheart. This can only be done after a Dark Brotherhood member attacks youwhile you sleep.

Q: Are there any new factions?

A: Just the East Empire Company, find Carnius in the Shrine at Fort Frostmothon Solstheim

Q: What are some new good weapons?

A: Trueflame/Hopesfire which come at the end of the Tribunal main quest arevery nice. Other neat toys in Tribunal include the Dagger of Symmachius, andKing’s Oath. As far as Bloodmoon goes, you’ll want to look at Shadowsting andthe Mace of Aevar Stone-Singer (terribly enchantment but amazing raw damagescore.)

Q: What about armor?

A: Ehh...while daedric is still your best bet (you can now find pauldrons!)Nordic Mail Armor which is worn by the Skaal Honor guards and High OrdinatorHer Hand’s Armor is very nice. Check out the enchanted variety which you canacquire off an Ordinator you have to kill in Godsreach. (Ask him about hissplendid armor then tell him you’re not mocking him, honest...be warned he isnot an easy opponent but as mentioned, killing him is part of the main Tribunal


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quest) As always, speaking to Ordinators/High Ordinators with Ordinator helmsand cuirasses results in very bad things happening to you (so don’t do it!)

Q: What the **** is Gaenor and why did it kill me?

A: Heh...perhaps revenge for all the humiliating deaths Fargoth has suffered?Don’t give him money (i.e. don’t talk to him about ‘favor’) and you won’t haveany problems. Other then that, just build up. His luck attribute is throughthe roof, but if you can slay him a full set of ebony armor is yours.

Q: How do I become a werewolf?

A: You will be infected during the main quest

Q: But when?

A: This is a Beginner's Guide...not a Bloodmoon walkthrough

Q: [unrelated question having nothing to do with my brief walkthrough]

A: Oooo! Look at the delete key! It's all shiney!

Q: Where is Thirsk?

A: Do you have Bloodmoon or GOTY?

Q: Yes

A: Alright, try using this map, it should help

http://www.uhs-hints.com/uhsweb/hints/bloodmn/21.php

Once more, with feeling!

~EOF

*******CREDITS*******Bethesda - I have a home for my imagination thanks to the greatest RPG seriesever created.

CJayC - creating GameFAQs, etc. RPGNick - Good advice, yep, thanks for the commentsI Can Explode - Where should I go to sell things anyway? ;) Raug the Evil Dwarf - his sticky topic makes my job that much easier for anyone who checks the Morrowind Message Boards! chaos striker - the alchemy set is handy!

All the other contributers and people who have emailed me. Even if I don't respond it's good to know my work is appreciated!

***************ADDITIONAL FAQS***************SaGa Frontier Debug FAQFinal Fantasy Tactics NPC Class FAQ


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Hunter the Reckoning: Redeemer Secrets FAQ Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold Plot Guide

The content of this guide is copyright 2003-2006 Curtis Mitchell. You maydistribute this guide freely so long as it remains unmodified. You may notdistribute this guide for profit of any sort.

~Oblivion comes soon! Hope you've got your copy reserved! :)


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Morrowind Guide

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Transcript of Morrowind Guide