Foyada trips from hell, and other memorable Morrowind things

[acatlady]

This is the thread for MW gameplay stories that just... stick with you.

First one, which inspired the thread title: my first serious character, Lilana the Dunmer assassin, and her long walk with Julan Kaushibael from Ghostgate to Vos.

See, this was before I was familiar with the game map, so I didn't realize I could fast travel to Vos via Sadrith Mora, and instead took Julan's (bad as usual) advice to just circle around the base of the Red Mountain. Figured, how bad could it be? I'd just managed to save Julan from an Ash Ghoul without Lilana also dying to it, so we're probably strong enough now...

Oh gods.

The trip took several days, real world time. Hounded by cliff racers and assorted land predators the whole way, doubled back and went off course so many times. Getting lost in ash and blight storms because I was a doof and didn't use the map enough. Lava. Running out of health potions, and learning the utility of Alchemy. Never having enough HP. Leveling up A LOT, like I think Lilana gained at least 10 levels.

When we finally went over a ridge and the other side was all grass and guars and nix-hounds, I pretty much stood up and whooped IRL.

[jgf]

Morrowind does not coddle the player as Oblivion does so, especially in your first characters, you never know what you will encounter. Every trip is an adventure into the unknown.

Also Morrowind has no "radar" to guide you to your goal, and is notorious for turgid directions; you may be instructed to visit a cave "east of Balmora", directions as accurate, and useful, as being told Baltimore is "east of San Francisco". Or you're told to visit a particular cave, whose name was the same as a large foyada on the map, so obviously assume that is where the cave would be found, but ...you guessed it, hours of searching that foyada disclose nothing, days later you stumble onto the cave far to the northwest.

And how many of us have fallen to one of the first quests given in the game, as you wander Seyda Neen you will hear, "Someone should run off those bandits in the cave near town", and you assume that now means you. (Press button to restart from your last save.)

If, like many of us, you loathe the incessant cliff racer attacks (I have a screenshot of my character standing knee deep in dead cliff racers while hacking away at the bottom one in a stack of five overhead), try the Passive Healthy Wildlife mod; this makes many animals non-aggressive unless you attack first, but doesn't affect nix-hounds, kagouti, etc. that you would naturally assume to be dangerous, nor does it affect diseased animals.

Fast travel is, while not as overdone as in Oblivion, debatable. Many see it detracting from the immersion of the game and prefer to walk everywhere, while others see it as necessary to avoid the tedium of walking everywhere; I'm in between, using ships and siltstriders when convenient, guild guides only when an upper level Mages' Guild member, Intervention spells only if a member of the Temple or Cult, and not using Mark/Recall. In this vein I also improve replay value by limiting a character to joining only two or three factions, so not every character does every quest nor has access to all travel options.

Alchemy is very useful, even if you're not a mage; you can soon make potions much more powerful than any you can buy. For a challenge try a pure mage character - no weapons or armor skills at all, relying solely on magic; for the first few levels you will be decidedly underpowered compared to a weapons based character, mainly due to limited magicka reserves, but you will eventually surpass other characters when you create ranged spells that can drop a dremora lord with one hit from 100 yards (though you will need that alchemy skill for the fortify magic potions that allow you to cast such spells).

[acatlady]

jgf: already figured that out re alchemy, thanks though It's weird because in a lot of older RPGs I've played alchemy was kind of disappointing, or just boring to use. But in Morrowind it's the most powerful skill in the game. Even with no exploits at all, it makes the game so much easier.

I'm the opposite re fast travel TBH, I use it with total abandon.

The thing I don't do is spam booze to enhance physical combat. My suspension of disbelief can take a lot, but that's a bit much even for a girl who grew up on vintage space opera.