Morrowind

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Idle query: Can you pay your own bounty, and get off scott-free? On that basis, wandering around killing folks and paying the fines would make a lot of sense, if they're worth it...

[Ryudo Lee]

Indeed you can.  Commit a crime and then the guards will be looking for you.  They give you a choice.  You can pay your fines (if you're in the Thieve's Guild you get a discount), go to jail (or work in a mine) or resist arrest.  But if you've got any stolen goods on you, the guard confiscates them.

[Tapewolf]

Idle query: Can you pay your own bounty, and get off scott-free? On that basis, wandering around killing folks and paying the fines would make a lot of sense, if they're worth it...

It certainly worked last night.  If it scales up and Vivec doesn't go ballistic because I've been killing his worshippers for fun and profit, I'm going to have loads of cash to burn on the enchantment shop.

For reference, swords are usually about 25-300gp.  I have 40'000gp in my pocket - how Cat Dude manages this is another story - and some of the more expensive enchantments I'm pondering will run up to about 16 million gold pieces.  

[Ryudo Lee]

On that note, you can get people to attack you first.  If you kill someone out of self defense (they hit you first) then it's not a crime.  You can get someone to attack you by continually taunting them through the pursuasion section.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Ah. In that case, wearing the armour seems like a fun way to make money.... :-]

[Tapewolf]

Ah. In that case, wearing the armour seems like a fun way to make money.... :-]

At a guess, I'll only be able to handle about three Ordinators a day at my current power level.  They're tough, and it's only because I've managed to acquire some kick-ass magical trinkets from somewhere that I'm finally able to stick up to them.


Here's a "dismantled" Ordinator after the body has been disposed of (given that he's a carnivore we'll skip over how he does this).
Note the gloves - all villains have to have black gloves.  The surviving Ordinators don't seem to care - I guess it's stuff like the helm and breastplate that gets really them going, and the helm won't fit on his cat head.


http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k216/tapewolf/games/mw_catordinator.jpg

Doesn't quite work without the helmet or boots, unfortunately.  It would have been better if he was a plantigrade cat - he doesn't even get a speed boost from walking digitigrade.

My initial estimates were a bit low - each Ordinator has a scrap value of almost 32000 gold coins, so the fine was probably the best 40gp I've ever spent.

"HE KILLED OVER TWELVE BEINGS!"
"Yeah, shame... pay a fine and stuff."


http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k216/tapewolf/games/mw_ahnassi.jpg
Just some stuff the cat brought in, including a fruit bowl filled with jewels.  If I keep this up, she's going to have to buy a bigger house - fortunately the weapons on the table alone are worth more than the entire town.

[Ryudo Lee]

That's a fine collection.  You should join up with one of the houses (I prefer Hlaalu myself) so that you'll be able to get yourself your very own stronghold.

[Tapewolf]

That's a fine collection.  You should join up with one of the houses (I prefer Hlaalu myself) so that you'll be able to get yourself your very own stronghold.

Intriguing.  What happens?  Do you get to subvert them from within?  And was Hlaalu one of the manors in Vivec, or am I getting confused over the names again?

[Toric]

Hlaluu is one of the three major Houses (along the line of clans or noble families) that you can join. Redoran is full of fighters, Telvanni is full of mages, and Hlaluu is full of rogues/agents. Over the course of you climbing the ranks of the house you join, you get access to a stronghold (in Telvanni you actually grow your house out of the ground as a plant) that is yours to use as you please.

And as far as I know, no, you don't initiate a coup detat and eliminate the governing members, but you do advance in rank until you sit beside them in power.

[Ryudo Lee]

But they do send you on a mission to eliminate the head of the stronghold of the opposing house.

Oh, and if your level is high enough, there will be some expensive goodies in the stronghold too.

[Tapewolf]

Back to the Ordinators, I've taken to killing them if they call me scum.  While trying to ferry the loot from my Ald Sotha expedition, I was called 'scum' four times, which was a little unfortunate as it generally happened while I was carting the loot of the previous victim to the teleport room in the Mage's Guild, so I was forced to leave the corpse lying around somewhere until I could deal with them, by which point someone else would have to die...  When I was all done I had 1100kg(?) of booty to transfer to Caldera - I now have 280'000 gold coins.

I have a further refinement to the process now - since the Toxic Cloud and Firestorm rings are delayed-action kills, it is possible to pay the 40gp fine (presumably for assault) to the Ordinator you're killing, which saves having to go off and find another one and the attendant risk of him calling you 'scum' as well.

However, if you pay the fine and then stand and watch them die, be sure to only take the loot after the body has hit the ground - if you loot the corpse before then, it counts as pickpocketing and the dead guard will demand a 1000gp fine.  In this case I paid up because 1 grand out of 35 is no big deal, but I do wonder what would have happened if I'd resisted arrest, given that the guard was already dead

In fact I'll have to see if I can reproduce that tomorrow 

[Azlan]

I'm usually magically inclined, so the Telvanni is my choice for a stronghold... plus someone made a rather nice plug-in for their stronghold that makes the place, a small town and the surrounding countryside (bound by the caldera-like walls) lush, green and populated... including effective soldiery. 

I also have a plug-in that allows one to complete all the house quests... it alters things somewhat so that completing one does not break the other two.  Hlaalu is the most convenient of the strongholds as it is just down the road from Balmoora.

Drat... now I want to play Morrowind again...

[Tapewolf]

I believe I had an offer to join Hlaalu house when I was trying unsuccessfully to get the actor to leave (looks like I've crashed the script).  Telvanni haven't made any such offer, which is a shame as Cat Dude is a Mage himself.  Are they likely to offer when I'm a higher level?  (Currently level 16)

After finally locating Dagon Fell via Google, I kicked off the main quest exactly one year after I was given the package.  I guess he just glanced at the date.  And I accidentally summoned some evil god thing while desecrating shrines - it told me to kill someone. 

[Azlan]

The cat in the ordinator suit reminded me of something that might be useful, their was a plugin created to allow armor leggings for all digitgrade characters for all standard armor sets.  You can edit the plugin for nonstandard races (like my dark khajit Ra'kath) and custom armor sets... I believe the plugin was called Aduls Leggings.

[Ryudo Lee]

I believe I had an offer to join Hlaalu house when I was trying unsuccessfully to get the actor to leave (looks like I've crashed the script).  Telvanni haven't made any such offer, which is a shame as Cat Dude is a Mage himself.  Are they likely to offer when I'm a higher level?  (Currently level 16)

After finally locating Dagon Fell via Google, I kicked off the main quest exactly one year after I was given the package.  I guess he just glanced at the date.  And I accidentally summoned some evil god thing while desecrating shrines - it told me to kill someone. 

You can be invited to join house Hlaalu by solving the murder mystery in Balmora.

[Tapewolf]

I am now Archmage of Vardenfell and have 600'000 gold coins.  I'm not sure what the benefits of being Archmage are, to be honest - it doesn't seem to confer the power to boot undesirables like that evil woman in Balmora out of the order, and they still keep calling me 'Outlander' instead of 'Archmage' or 'Boss  .

At one point I also collapsed wearily in the nearest bed and was promptly expelled from the order (Yeah right - I'm the Archmage and I'll kick the ass of anyone who says otherwise).

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

"I... I... I'll get the Archmage to expel you!"
"He's closer than you think."

:-]

[bill]

"GTFO."
"Fuck you, I'm the Archmage, bitch!"
"Yeah, that's what everyone says. GTFO."

[Tapewolf]

Stupid lizard should have considered it an honour for the Archmage to crash out in his bed for a few hours.  Never understood why that was illegal anyhow.  "Get out of my bed!" and preventing him from sleeping would have been a more appropriate response from the program...

Obviously I didn't keep that game, but the whole situation makes me curious.  I think there's a lot of scope for evil deeds here.  Who becomes the next Archmage after I've been expelled?  Is it possible to rejoin the order after being kicked out for littering or whatever?  If so, I'd have to kill someone else to take control.  Even if you can't it would be tempting to slaughter all the other mages until Anjira or someone is head of the order by default.

Doing that would ruin the teleport links though.  Is it possible to learn how to teleport between Mage Guilds under your own steam?  I'm already using the Recall spell, but it looks like it can only have one destination and that's Ahnassi's palace in Pelagiad.

Azlan, you were saying that the Telvanni stronghold [Why is 'Telvanni' in the spellchecker dictionary?] was grown from a seed.  Does that mean it ends up something like Tel Fyr?

**EDIT**
Oh, and is it possible to become Dagoth-Ur's bitch?

[superluser]

Oh, and is it possible to become Dagoth-Ur's bitch?

Have you beaten the game, yet?

[Tapewolf]

Oh, and is it possible to become Dagoth-Ur's bitch?

Have you beaten the game, yet?

No.  The game seems to be ramping up for me to go and kill him, but he did invite me up the mountain for a nice chat.  Since all the signals I'm getting from the game are that killing him is good, I'm naturally curious about the alternatives.  It would have been kind of fun to join up with Bob Page in Deus Ex and rule Europe, but I digress.

Of course this may turn out to be some kind of twist like the terrorists in Deus Ex, in which case I'm not sure I want to know about it.

[Ryudo Lee]

Actually no, you can't join sides with him, even if you do kill Vivec.  You're plot driven to kill him.  I've tried all the various conversation items when you actually get to him and talk to him.  So no, you're railroaded into killing him.  The idea is that your character gets so swept up into prophecy that you're the Neravarine and Dagoth-Ur is your enemy and you must kill him, no if's, and's, or buts about it.  But I believe you can do something different with the heart though (if you haven't gotten that far, I won't divulge anymore than that).

[Tapewolf]

I've just got the Moon-and-Star.  The ancestors loaded me up with so much junk that I couldn't get back to the camp and had to use the Intervention spell.  Barring the ring of course, do I need to keep any of this shit or can I sell it all to Creeper?

[Ryudo Lee]

Yeah you don't need their stuff.  I usually only keep the lockpicks.  The only stuff you might want to keep is the stuff you get from joining all the tribes together and all the Hortator stuff you get from the great houses.

[Blazehawk]

I've just got the Moon-and-Star.  The ancestors loaded me up with so much junk that I couldn't get back to the camp and had to use the Intervention spell.  Barring the ring of course, do I need to keep any of this shit or can I sell it all to Creeper?

Same with me, except I had Mark/Recall.  They give you too much crap.

[Tapewolf]

Same with me, except I had Mark/Recall.  They give you too much crap.

Unless it's possible to have multiple Marks like in U7, that's a no-go.  I've permanently marked Ahnassi's house.

Now I finally have one million gold coins in my pocket.  (I'm curious to know what the most other people have hoarded is)
I've also got the Hlaalu belt.  Does this mean I can stove Councillor Ules' head in yet or do I still need her?  Frankly I'm amazed she voted for me given that I tried to assassinate her earlier on in the game.  That I rate 0/100 on her fandom scale is no surprise whatsoever.

One more thing - Cassius seemed to be trying to chat me up.  What's with that?

[Blazehawk]

If you'd be interested in using a mod, there is a way.

Multiple mark mod with up to 12 locations (needs Tribunal or Bloodmoon): http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=1397

It's been so long since I've done the main quest that I can't remember the other stuff though. My memories are awash in a sea of mods. 

Speaking of mods, this is a handy list/guide to quite a bit of the best stuff out there for Morrowind: http://www.mwmythicmods.com/telesphoros.htm 

[Ryudo Lee]

One more thing - Cassius seemed to be trying to chat me up.  What's with that?

Yeah, you know why.  He thinks you're cute.  I'm not kidding.

[Janus Whitefurr]

One more thing - Cassius seemed to be trying to chat me up.  What's with that?

Yeah, you know why.  He thinks you're cute.  I'm not kidding.

To get into house Hllalu with him, I recall you have to strip naked.

And you can get his vote for Hortator later by giving him a kiss if you're extra nice.

He's adorably creepy that way.

[Tapewolf]

One more thing - Cassius seemed to be trying to chat me up.  What's with that?

Yeah, you know why.  He thinks you're cute.  I'm not kidding.

Does this only happen if you're a male Khajiit?  What if you're a female human?