Merchant/Innkeeper Quests

These quests are some of the most varied in the game. Although they are actually separate categories, there appears to be a lot of overlap and interchangeability.

"...the Old Switcheroo..." (any rep): travel to an inn, pick up one letter and drop another letter. The hitch to this quest is that the letter you need to pick up is always right on top of an item. If you disturb the item, you blow the quest and have to fight your way out. Save the game first, duck/squat, and turn until the letter covers the item. Then click on a CORNER of the letter to get it.

"My master asked me to find a brave adventurer..." (any rep): the "master" is a mage in disguise. If you do not kill him quickly, you will be teleported to a random dungeon and have to fight your way out. This is a buggy quest. You are supposed to be able to hunt down your enemy (who moves to another location after teleporting you), but I have only been able to do this once. The merchant is appropriately apologetic if you go back and talk to him.

"My house is infested with monsters..." (any rep): usually rats or bats and there are 7 to 10 of them that will appear at intervals of a few minutes (real time). Just hang around and bop them as they appear and then go collect your gold.

"...Spill a little blood..." or "...kill for gold.." or "...won't faint at the sight of blood..." (any rep): a simple assassination, but don't take this one if you want to maintain your rep with the Dark Brotherhood. Successful completion will cause your rep with them to plummet.

Pick a fight (any rep): you pick a fight with someone who says to meet them at a local tavern in six hours. It's usually a Spellsword or somesuch that shows up and is a very easy fight since they almost never sling spells at you.

"I need someone that can heal my cousin..." (any rep): ask around town (or go visit the cousin) and you'll eventually hear of a healer (alchemist) that has a cure. Pick it up (it costs 20 gold) and take it to the cousin. This one has a tight timeframe, so it's easier to ask around town (or hit up the Spymaster if you're a thief or assassin).

"Have you read <book>?" (any rep): seems a book has been stolen and you're to track down the thief. Ask around town (or hit up the spymaster) to find the name and location of the thief (usually in another town). You'll have to fight him to get it back.

"If you could see your way clear to delivering an item..." (any rep): just deliver the item. It usually goes to someone in town and is a quick quest to complete.

"Are you passing by <town> any time soon?" (any rep): another delivery, this time to another town. Once in a while you'll get a thief who tries to take it from you.

"Can you help me find my friend?" (any rep): someone has gone missing and you are tasked to find them. You are given a few names to work with. Just follow them up to find your quarry. It could be that they got arrested, left town because of a fight with the quest giver, or got killed by a mugger (who tries to kill you, too).

"I am in need of an escort..." (any rep): escort the merchant to his destination. Several possible outcomes:

no problems;

fight with the guards;

fight the Dark Brotherhood;

fight the Thieves Guild;

fight the Mages Guild.

If you turn your client over, you will see a rep increase with that faction (one way to raise your rep "in the eyes of the law"), but loose rep with the Merchants. If you fight, you loose rep with the faction that comes for your client, but gain rep with the Merchants. It’s time to decide who you need to suck up to the most.

"...A competitor of mine has usurped a contract of mine and has entered into an illegal, or at least immoral trading relationship..." (any rep): go to the store and get the item. You may or may not have to fight a guard. If you delay in returning to your employer, you should receive a letter from the victim offering to exchange the item for a gem.

"...It would appear that one of my former associates, in an effort to make my life more hellish, has passed some counterfeit gold bricks to me..." (any rep): you are tasked to retrieve up to four pieces of gold from various locations. One will be in a Palace, one in a house, one in a bank (all in different towns) and one in a dungeon. You are supposed to be paid for each gold that you retrieve, but you will only be paid for one, regardless of how many you actually get. You have 30 days to complete this quest.

"You wouldn't have any problem doing a bit of smuggling for me, would you..." or "Smuggling is a nasty word, isn't it..." (any rep): Be exceptionally cautious if you accept this quest. As soon as you do, your reputation drops to "hated" and will not rise until you successfully complete the quest. You are to deliver an item to a contact in another town. Sometimes the contact will be there and sometimes there will be a trap waiting for you. If it is a trap, you should receive a letter from someone setting up an alternate meeting place. In this instance you will get your reputation cleared, no pay and the merchant who gave you the quest will never speak to you again. Smuggling does not sit well with the Thieves Guild, either.

"I have been challenged to a duel..." or "This <person> here in <town> has sent me a challenge..." (any rep): you get to impersonate your employer in a duel. That's OK, though, because the challenger has hired an imposter, too. You can turn the tables by going to the lover and filling her in. She will pay your fee, but dump both of them. Or you can just show up and slug it out like you're supposed to.

"I've appealed to The Fighters Guild..." or "Those infernal orcs have stolen my little cousin..." (any rep): there are two ways this one can play out. The first is that it is a legitimate rescue. The second is that the child is under the protection of the Fighters Guild. In the latter case, you will not find the child in the dungeon, but will receive a letter from a representative of the Guild when you leave the dungeon and try to fast-travel. This is the only instance where it is normal to not find your quest object in a dungeon. If the child is under the protection of the Fighters Guild and you do not interfere, you will see a 10-point boost to your rep with them after about 30 days.

"...you look like that <race>, <PC name>..." or "You're not by any chance <PC name>, are you?" or "Wait a minute. You're not <PC name>, are you?" (any rep): if you say "Yes", you are accused of stealing a gem and your rep goes down the toilet. This is a tough quest and you have to talk to a lot of people (or spend a lot of time with a Spymaster) to sort it all out. What it boils down to is that you have been framed and you must not only get the evidence against the real thief, but also retrieve the stolen goods (usually in two different dungeons). It is very time-consuming, but it is also one of the two ways to boost your rep "in the eyes of the law".

"My poor darling <name> has been kidnapped by the Thieves Guild..." or "The Thieves Guild has taken my dearest <name>..." (any rep): you have two ways to pull this off. The first (and the one that helps your rep with the Guild) is to simply pay the ransom. The second is to try to rescue the victim. In order to to this, you will need to fight the contact (and friends). You will find a note giving the location of the victim (a dungeon) on the body. From there it's a standard dungeon crawl, but your rep with the Thieves Guild will take a serious hit.

"You've heard of <book>?..." or "I am looking for a very special book..." (any rep): a standard dungeon crawl with a book as your object.

"I fear for my life..." (any positive rep): show up at the appropriate house around 9 pm and wait. You'll get to fight three or four bully boys.

"I need the services of a hunter of men..." (any positive rep): you must find the answer to a riddle by tracking down the person who asked it. You'll need to talk to two or three people before you get the location of the dungeon where the target is hiding. Clicking on him will put the answer to the riddle in your inventory and you can return to collect your reward.

"My master asked me to find a brave adventurer..." (any positive rep): the "master" is an orc shaman in disguise. If you do not kill him quickly, you will be teleported to a random dungeon and have to fight your way out. This is a buggy quest. You are supposed to be able to hunt down your enemy (who moves to another location after teleporting you), but I have only been able to do this once. The merchant is appropriately apologetic if you go back and talk to him.

"My sister is having a birthday next month..." (any positive rep): pick up an item from across town and bring it back to the quest giver. Two possible outcomes: (1) it's a legitimate present; (2) it's ingredients for a poison to kill the sister. In either event, talk to the sister before delivering the item.

"Somebody has been filling the streets with lies..." (any positive rep): ask around town (or hit up the spymaster) to get the location of a house that has a letter in it. Take it back to the quest giver and you'll be sent to a dungeon to rescue the victim of one of the quest giver's plots. The victim will reward you for rescuing him.

"My former partner...has taken more than his fair share of our profits..." or "That damnable <name> let me trust him..." or "I am looking for a manhunter..." (any positive rep): a standard dungeon crawl, but you'll get a better reward if you can "bring 'em back alive".

"Imagine the purity of my delight when my sniveling, cheating lover of the past two years..." (any positive rep): you are to foil the ransoming of a kidnap victim by (1) killing the victim (the vitcim has a heart attack or commits suicide as soon as you click on her); (2) killing the cousin who is going to ransom the victim; or (3) stealing the gem that is going to be used for the ransom. All three options involve a standard dungeon crawl. The Thieves Guild will usually send you a letter telling you where the victim is and giving their sanction to your action (the kidnappers are freelancers).

"You're <PC name>, yes? The one who was shipwrecked?" (any positive rep): This is actually related to the Main Quest because your reward is information about how you came to be shipwrecked in Daggerfall. Don't take this quest without Mithril or better weapons because you have to fight a Daedroth to get to the quest object. If you use the quest object (try to read it), you will destroy the object and summon a Fire Daedra. A standard dungeon crawl, otherwise.

"Whoever brings me <item> will be rewarded with Chrysamere..." (rep between 1 and 10 only): a fake artifact quest. The item has a daedra (usually a Seducer) guarding it. You can fight the Seducer and take the item to the quest giver (an orc shaman in disguise that you'll have to fight) or doublecross the quest giver. If you opt for the double-cross, you'll gain about 10 points of rep with the Mages Guild. If you try to double-cross the Seducer, you'll lose 10 points of rep with the Mages Guild.

"I have a not uncommon situation on my hands. A nest of harpies has moved into an old property of mine..." (rep between 1 and 10): a standard dungeon crawl with a twist. Your object is a harpy with a griffon feather on its body. This will usually be the 5th or 6th harpy that you kill. The twist is that after you take care of the harpies and try to fast travel back to the merchant, you should receive a letter asking you to go back into the dungeon to rescue the mercenary previously hired to do the job. Another standard dungeon crawl, but if you rescue the mercenary, you'll get a boost to your rep with the Fighters Guild.

"The Dark Brotherhood has taken my child..." (rep 10 or more): don't take this one if you want to keep a good rep with the DB. Go to the location (usually a house) and grab the child. You'll have to fight four or five assassins (be prepared for poisoned weapons) and your rep with the DB will drop by about 20 points.

"I am betrothed to <name>..." (rep 10 or more): escort your client to the next town to pick up his beloved, then take them both to the appropriate temple and report to the head priest. This quest is a little buggy because the bad guys sometimes start showing up after you have completed it.

"I loaned a certain sum of money to a noble by the name of <name>, who you may or may not have heard of..." (rep 30 or more): retrieve either the money your employer loaned (some gold), the deed to the house used as collateral for the loan, or kill the con man. It is possible to do all three in the 30 days you are allotted, but it will require a lot of hustling on your part. The gold and the deed will be in one dungeon, while the target will be in a second one. You get the locations to these by following up at the bank where the deed and gold were stolen. Except for the time you must spend chasing down rumors, this is almost a standard dungeon crawl.

"I need someone to deliver something for me, and I'm willing to pay very generously..." (rep 41 or more): the "Mummy's Finger" quest. The questgiver vanishes right after giving you the finger (that's a pun, folks). Ask around to find a sage who knows about it. Talk to the sage to get the location of the Mummy's Tomb. Kill the Mummy before the Mummy kills you. While all of this is going on, the Mummy will visit you every night, about midnight.

Noble Quests

All Noble quests start with a minimum reputation of 10. This means that until you do some sucking up, they probably won't help you very much. Nobles like to smuggle (this puts you in conflict with the Thieves Guild), so be careful with those quests.

"If you are available for hire, I need someone reliable to carry out a certain, covert mission..." (rep 10 or more): take the emerald to the first contact, then take the item to the second contact, then either give the item to the Thieves Guild or fight four or five thugs (and take a hit on your rep with the Guild).

"If you want work, I am looking for someone to take a special item to an acquaintance of mine..." (rep 10 or more): another smuggling operation and (again) you have the choice of turning the item over to the Thieves Guild thugs or delivering it (and taking a hit on your rep). You get a ruby for your efforts.

"I need someone to bring an item to a contact of mine in <town>..." (rep 10 or more): take the gold to the contact and bring the item back to the questgiver. You may or may not run into a thug who wants to relieve you of the gold.

"The whining peasants who work my land near <dungoen> have long complained about evil wizardry being practiced in that dungeon..." (rep 10 or more): a standard dungeon crawl. You should see a slight boost to your rep with the commoners after completing this one, too.

"You may be aware that I am forming an alliance with <name>..." (rep 10 or more): a standard dungeon crawl. The dialogue indicates that a Giant is your target, but it could be anything. The only odd twist is that you must report to a different noble to collect your reward.

"I have an item that's very precious to me. It's been handed down from generation to generation in my family..." (rep 10 or more): the item was stolen by some orcs (good luck finding any orcs) and your job is to retrieve it. A standard dungeon crawl.

"If you could, I am in need of assistance from someone I know isn't a complete buffoon..." (rep 10 or more): you are to steal an item from a temple, get it to a contact in another location, then return to the quest giver for your reward. Your rep with that temple will take a hit if you are successful.

"Yes, I do have something for an able-bodied young <race>. It's nothing special...." (rep 10 or more): a standard dungeon crawl, but you'll get to fight a few thugs after you get the item from your contact.

"If you are interested in earning <number> gold for doing nothing more than delivering a little parcel..." or "I could use the services of someone of moderate talent..." (rep 10 or more): a smuggling operation. Deliver the item to the contact for your reward.

"You are not by any chance free to run a little errand for me?..." (rep 10 or more): another smuggling operation (why do kings have to smuggle? Aren't they the ones that make the import/export laws?).

"Yes, this is a potentially awkward situation I'm in..." (rep 10 or more): another smuggling operation.

"I have a mission of some diplomatic importance. A gift of peace that needs be exchanged..." (rep 10 or more): a simple delivery. Watch the time.

"Are you by any chance available for a little assignment that should not take you any time at all..." (rep 10 or more): a simple delivery.

"I have a somewhat complicated mission that needs a fourth man involved..." (rep 10 or more): a two-step delivery. Take the diamond to the first contact and get the second item, then deliver that to the second contact, who will pay you.

"I was wondering if you might do me a small favor..." (rep 10 or more): another 2-step delivery; moving drugs this time.

"Are you free for a few days to do me a little favor? I just need something I borrowed brought back to its owner..." (rep 10 or more): another 2-step smuggling operation (there's a gem hidden inside the first item). The Thieves Guild is supposed to show up to collect the gem (if you don't turn it over to them, your rep will take a hit). Usually there will be four thugs for you to deal with.

"How would you like to have a lovely reward from my treasury..." (rep 10 or more): pick up the ingredient and deliver it to the alchemist.

"My cousin has appealed to me for aid in a rather distasteful situation..." (rep 10 or more): stop the consecration of an orcish temple by killing the shaman. A standard dungeon crawl, but you'll lose some rep in Orsinium for completing it.

"I have an acquaintance, an alchemist of some skill by the name of <name>..." (rep more than 10): deliver the Daedra Heart and fight the Daedra that come to take it from you. Tough for low and mid-level characters.

"If you have a couple days to spare and wouldn't mind being <number> gold pieces richer, I have a mission requiring some speed and delicacy..." (rep more than 10): a two-step delivery. Take the telescope to the first contact and pick up the item, then deliver the item to the second contact.

"I'm in rather a delicate situation... If I could count on your diligence and your silence..." (rep more than 10): retrieve a ring from a pawnbroker. You get to fight a lot of thugs afterwards.

"I was wondering if you might do me a small favor. You see, I have a friend who requires a certain shipment of a certain substance brought by a certain time..." (rep more than 10 -- there are three of these quests that are identical): another 2-step delivery.

"I have a friend, a potential ally, who is in need of discreet assistance. It's a relatively simple salvage operation..." (rep 20 or more): a standard dungeon crawl with a sapphire as your object.

"If you are available for hire, I am looking for someone to purvey a special item to an acquaintance of mine..." (rep 20 or more): sounds like a simple delivery, but you'll be attacked by orcs (a lot of them). One of them will give the name of a contact. If you go talk to the contact, you will find out that the item was stolen from Orsinium. Giving the item to the contact will boost your rep with Gortwog (unless Gortwog gave you this quest in the first place - the game's a little flaky in this respect).

"I need someone to bring a certain item to a contact of mine in <location>. You will receive an item in return..." (rep 30 or more): a two-step delivery that will probably put you afoul of the Thieves Guild. The item will be stolen from you, but you can track it down and retrieve it (you'll find the location on your attacker's body). You will also get a magic item as part of your reward and (if you're lucky) the location of a Witch Coven.

"I am in trouble with a group of daedra and am looking for someone to purvey a rare manuscript to an acquaintance of mine..." (rep between 40 and 49): deliver the book and fight the Daedra on the way. A very tough quest for low and mid-level characters. Turning over the book to the appropriate Daedra Prince will blow the quest, but you'll gain a few brownie points with the powers of Oblivion and that Prince will usually remain in that location for subsequent quests (if you're lucky you'll get Peryite so you can say that you actually got to talk to a dragon). Completing the quest should net you a map to a Witch Coven (unless the location is already on your map).

"...always a pleasure to see you, my dear friend, especially when I need help..." (rep 60 or more): deliver an item that the local vampire tribe wants. You can turn it over to the vampires and gain a few points (plus some gold and a magic item) with them. Delivering the item (and killing the vampires that try to take it from you) should net you a map to a Witch Coven (unless the location is already on your map).

Witch Coven Quests

Once you have found a Witch Coven, you simply walk up to the figure that keeps changing from a young woman into an old hag and click on her. This brings up a menu. Selecting "Summon Daedra" will cost you a couple of hundred thousand gold, but you might get lucky. Selecting "Quest" will (hopefully) generate a quest for you. Your rep with the Coven is very important because it not only reduces the cost for Daedra Summoning, but it also increases the chances that you will be able to get a Quest without having to keep clicking until you get lucky.

The only oddball thing about Coven quests is when you finish, you don't click on "Quest" as you would for the Guilds. Instead you must click "Talk" as you would for the Merchants and Innkeepers.

I think the Coven quests are some of the neatest in the game. About half of them will net you a magic item of some sort as your payoff.

"We would use thee to find a perfidious document circulated by our enemies..." (any rep): travel to the temple and get the item (you'll usually have to fight a couple of guardians) and return it to the Coven. You get a magic item for your reward.

"The <coven> actually could use thy assistance in a most absurd and yet serious matter..." (any rep): take the child to its home and come back for your reward (a gem). You'll get to fight a few fanatics along the way.

"<Coven> have been contacted by the Mages Guild and asked about a special potion, a very sacred formula much desired in <province>..." (any rep): this is the "universal cure", so you'll get to fight vampires and lycanthropes while you are trying to deliver it. "Use" the item to cure your own disease, but you'll still have to fight them (and run the risk of reinfection). This will ruin the item and blow the quest, by the way, so make sure you have a little rep with the Coven under your belt before you blow this one.

"We have a potential problem I fear. A vampire ancient hateful of witches hath moved into an abandoned castle in our territory..." (any rep): a standard dungeon crawl with a Vampire Ancient as your object. Go prepared for a fight.

"Our sister has been in imprisoned. We need someone like thee to rescue her..." (any rep): a standard dungeon crawl.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, thou could help us.... We are an isolated coven, viewed with fear and hostility..." (any rep): pick up the book, avoid the guards, get a magic item for your reward.

"Thou wouldst help <coven>? Many come to us for aid, and then turn from us..." (rep between 0 and 9): deliver the bracelet to the contact (who will change into some sort of critter and attack you) and return to the coven for your magical reward.

"If thou wisheth the help of the <coven>, first thou must help us. Will thou bring us the three ingredients we need to complete our brew..." (rep 10 or more): retrieve 3 items from 3 different dungeons. Other than that, it's standard dungeon crawling with a decent reward at the end.

"Thou art friend to <coven>, this we know. But to help thee, a spell must be woven..." (rep 20 or more): retrieving the item will cost you 1000 gold. Pretty standard, otherwise.

"...We require a heart of a daedra for our spellcraft but the heart must be recently plucked and by thou..." (rep between 40 and 49): a standard dungeon crawl with Daedra as your target (any Daedra will apparently do).

Vampire Quests

These quests are only available to vampires. After contracting vampirism, you will eventually be contacted by your tribe and directed to the quest giver. You'd think that would make you pals with all of the other vampires in the province, but that just doesn't pan out.

Like the Thieves and DB, you have an entry quest for your tribe. It's a standard dungeon crawl with a vampire as your object. After killing your target, report to the contact to be officially inducted into the tribe (you get a ring that marks you as a member). All Vampire quests should be launched by a summons at a random time though some players report being able to get quests from the original contact.

"<Tribe> summon you to <location>" (any rep): Deliver the letter as instructed.

"<Tribe> have a potential problem I fear. Come to me in <location>" (any rep): kill the rival vampire. Pretty much a standard dungeon crawl.

"Perhaps you remember a warrior you met once..." (any rep): seems one of your victims didn't stay dead and is now an embarrassment to the tribe. A standard dungeon crawl.

"Those doddering, unenlightened barbarians who call themselves the Mages Guild are involved in yet another rather pointless endeavor..." (any rep): the tribe wants you to retrieve the notes of a mage who is researching vampires in the Bay. If you are a member of the Mages Guild, they will also send you to retrieve the notes (which means you don't have to kill the old man), but you can turn them over to the tribe instead (probably taking a slight hit to your rep with the Guild).

"We have a small task for you to perform to prove your resolution to be one of us..." (any positive rep): retrieve the item from the Mages Guild.

"We are having difficulty with a local warlord who, despite our many, many polite verbal and written threats, continues to wage a war against <tribe>..." (rep 10 or more): a standard dungeon crawl, but you are not supposed to kill your target -- just rough him up a little.

"<Tribe> have need of you. Come immediately..." (rep 10 or more): go to the dungeon and beat up on the Daedra for the honor of your tribe. Standard dungeon crawl.

"<Tribe> need you. Come immediately..." (rep 10 or more -- notice the difference in the wording of the summons): escort the vampire to his destination without getting killed by the vampire hunters along the way.

"<Tribe> need you. Come immediately..." (rep 20 or more -- you'll just have to talk to the quest giver to find out which one this is): standard dungeon crawl with a wereboar as your object. He'll have a tusk as part of his treasure, which is your proof you accomplished the mission.

Cure Quests

At some point in your gaming career you will probably be infected with either vampirism or Lycanthropy. At some point thereafter (usually within a game year) a letter will show up offering you the choice of seeking a cure or being hunted.

Lycanthropy: the letter launching this quest just kind of appears in your inventory at some point after you contract the disease. It is dated the 1st of Morning Star, but arrives at a random time (kind of like the real postal system, huh?). You will be directed to a contact in a temple who will then direct you to an alchemist who draws a little of your blood. You must then go find another person. This person is always dead, but you are directed to yet a fourth person (a kid) who drinks the blood and changes into a werecritter and attacks you (giving you the opportunity to contract the disease again -- sheesh!). As soon as the kid drinks your blood, you are cured.

My conscience kind of nags me on this one because it's a kid, so I very seldom follow up on this quest. Usually I will either endure the hunters (they show up every couple of nights) or seek out a Coven for the universal cure. The Hircine Ring makes Lycanthropy very easy to live with, and the hunters occasionally have decent goodies.

Vampirism: the letter launching this quest appears randomly, but it isn't dated so I can't make any snide comments about the postal service.

You are directed to a particular vampire to get the name and location of your "bloodfather". If you show the letter, you will not be given the name of your quarry. If you do not show the letter, you will be given two names and two locations. The second name and location is the correct one. You will also be given the name of another vampire in another location who can tell you the correct name and location and a bracelet to identify you (don't lose the bracelet). If you kill the wrong vampire, the real one will get away and the rest of the tribe will be on the alert for you. Your "bloodfather" is a Vampire Ancient; so don't undertake this quest lightly. Vampire Ancients are tough critters, even for high-level characters.

If you choose to not follow up on this quest, you will get a Knight every couple of nights that tries to kill you (can be a good source of goodies). If the curse of vampirism gets to be too much for you, you can always go seek out a Coven and get the universal cure. I think Bethesda should have let PC's become hunters and tossed in a couple of Knight or Fighter quests to liven things up. Maybe in "Morrowind".

COMBAT TIPS

There are a few things to remember that can make combat more survivable.

MAJOR TIP NUMBER ONE: SAVE OFTEN!!!! At a minimum you should save your game before accepting any quest, at the entrance to the dungeon (you can save over this slot when you get whatever it is that you're after), before a fight and after you finish resting (you can use the same slot for these). You've got six slots for saved games - USE THEM!!!

ENEMY MOVEMENT: If you’re still at missile range, enemies (especially humans) prefer to use missiles or spells. You can do the same. When an enemy hits you, you’ll notice that your head bobs around. This is only your view. If your cursor is still centered, you can still shoot and hit. When you hit an enemy, they are physically moved from where they were standing. This means they will usually have to close with you again before they can start swinging. If you’ve knocked them around a corner, they’ll have problems getting back to you for a few seconds. This can be enough time to get off a spell or two.

There is a middle ground. If you are close enough, the bad guys will try to close for melee. If you are far enough, they’ll try spells and/or missiles. But there is a small space that is neither melee nor missile. Once you get into that space, you can missile them, but they won’t missile you and they won't try to close with you. Experience will show you where it is. Take advantage of it whenever possible.

Enemies have problems with corners and coming up stairs. If you can catch them at a corner with a bow readied, you can make a pincushion out of them. The same cannot be said for stairs. For some strange reason, they can shoot at you, but you can’t shoot at them if you have to elevate or depress your aim. If you’re on stairs, use a melee weapon. Run up, get in a couple of swings, and then back off before they can get their shot in.

You can shoot through closed doors and walls. If you can see your target (however slightly) through the cracks on the side of the door, you can get a few shots off at him even if the door is closed or if there’s a wall between you. If he’s on the other side of a wall and you’ve got a pretty good idea of where (a "Detect Enemy" spell from the Spell-Maker is good for this), waste a couple of arrow to see if you can get him. You’ll be surprised how powerful your bow is.

When engaged in melee with an enemy, back up a step or two. Your enemy will have to engage you again and you can get in a couple or three swings while he’s maneuvering to do that.

If you’re in an area where you have lots of room to back up and a serious bad guy in front of you, cast “Recall” and start backpedaling. The bad guy will follow you. When you’re far enough from where you first engaged him, cast “Recall” again and (ta-da!) you’re behind him. You can then run for it and lose him.

Pickpocket freely in dungeons. Sometimes, when you’re pickpocketing someone who’s trying to beat up on you, they’ll freeze and you can get away or cast a “Heal” or two before laying into them again. At worst, you’ve wasted a few mouse clicks and picked up a couple of gold pieces.

Occasionally, when you jump or levitate down a hole, you’ll land on top of something that’s trying to eat you. They can hit you with impunity, but you can’t see them to hit back. Look down, start swinging wildly and turn around at the same time. When your weapon hits something, stop turning and hit it until it’s dead. You’ll then drop to the ground (unless your levitate is still active) and can go about your merry way. If worse comes to worst, hit <alt>+f11 to take you back to where you were last standing on the floor (you must have the v.212 or v.213 patch installed for this to work).

If you can afford to run around without a shield, carry two weapons. Weapons have a nasty tendency to break when you least want them to, especially enchanted weapons. If you’re carrying a second weapon, hit the “s” key and swap to your other weapon to continue the fight without having to wait to equip another weapon. There is apparently no right- or left-handedness in the game, so there’s no penalty for doing this. Please note that two-handed weapons, such as the dai-katana or bow, will not allow you to equip a second weapon. However, you can do Hand-to-Hand.

On the topic of Hand-to-Hand, your hands can hit anything in the game. Some critters require special materials to hit them. This isn’t the case with your hands. At the higher skill levels of Hand-to-Hand, you do as much damage as most Daedric weapons. When your Speed is really up there, the frequency of your attacks would make a Japanese chef green with envy.

If it can be avoided, don’t try to take on more than one opponent at a time. If at all possible, maneuver to get both critters facing you. Then back up and let one get in the way of the other.

Critters like to pile up on each other. For example, it’s not unusual to run into four or five archers all occupying the same space. When you hit one, you hit them all. Unfortunately when one hits you, they all hit you (ouch!). Also, they tend to die on top of each other, which makes treasure retrieval a real pain. To avoid this, dash up and hit, back up and let them maneuver, hit, back up, hit, back up, etc. If you do it right you’ll have all of them laid out in a nice, neat little row.

VAMPIRISM

(IT'S GOOD TO BE DEAD)

Vampirism is a disease you get after being smacked a few (or a lot of) times by vampires. Each time a vampire successfully hits, you have a small chance of contracting the disease (6/10ths of 1%, to be exact). You should know when you’ve caught it because you're supposed to get a spooky dream that marks the onset of the disease. But this isn't always the case. For example, if you catch the disease and then travel before resting, you'll just up and die with no warning, coming back as one of the undead. It's always best to rest for a few hours after having been in combat with a vampire. It's the best way to make sure you get the warning in case you want to get it cured. If you have the dream, you've got 3 days to get to a temple and get cured. If you can't make it in 3 days, you're (un)dead.

When you die, there are a couple of things that can happen. If the journey is long enough (more than a couple of weeks), you'll simply arrive at your destination as a vampire. If it's shorter than that, you'll wake up three weeks later in a random dungeon and have to fight your way out. You'll still have all of your stuff, though. It's only the adventurer types who make a habit of robbing dead bodies, and there's only one of those in the game (dat's you, buck-o).

Being Undead has a lot of really nifty advantages.

all of your stats (except intelligence - and there's a way around that) increase 20 points to a maximum of 100

30 skill points are added to the following skills: Climbing, Critical Strike, Hand-to-Hand, Jumping, Running, and Stealth. Skills can exceed 100.

Calm Humanoid, Charm Mortal and Levitate (and others, depending on your tribe) appear in your spell book. If your Thaumaturgy skill is high enough, the casting cost for Levitate can drop to 1.

Vampires are immune to disease and paralysis, but it is possible to catch a fatal disease at the same time you catch Vampirism. It is not possible to get Vampirism and Lycanthropy at the same time.

Being Undead also has some major drawbacks.

you can't rest (can't even loiter) unless you've killed something within the last 24 hours.

you take damage while you're out in the sun (I've looked for the SPF 3000 sunblock - it ain't there) or in Holy Places. This makes conducting business in town and talking to people a risky proposition unless you're well-rested and/or have a few hit points to spare. There are some Fighters Guilds and Knights Guilds that count as Holy Places. Exercise caution and you'll only take minimal damage.

you lose all of your guild affiliations. As far as they're concerned, you're dead.

once or twice a year, you'll have to worry about vampire hunters.

you can't fast-travel during daylight hours. You can go cross-country (and take damage while the sun's up), though.

Here are a few suggestions on how to deal with the drawbacks.

As far as resting goes, you have a couple of options. First, you can watch your schedule closely so that you don't have to wait for things like stores and guilds to open. Second, you should always travel in "Cautious" mode. This will get you to where you're going after the sun goes down. The town gates will be closed, but you've got that cheapo "Levitate" spell and good climbing skills, so getting into town shouldn't present a problem. As an added measure, buy some soul gems and get a soul trap spell. Go soul trap a few rats, bats and whatnot. Soul-bind them into an article of clothing that casts a harmless spell (like "Light"). If you need to loiter and haven't eaten in a while, just "use" the item until it breaks. This will release the critter and you can kill it. Now you can loiter/rest for 24 hours.

Another option (when you need to rest) is to anchor a "Recall" at your destination, travel to a graveyard and munch on whatever is there and then teleport to your destination when you hit the right time of day. If you're in a province where you don't care about your rep with the law, just kill a few guards and hightail it out of there. This is another area where a ship is handy (you can't fast-travel with guards hot on your tail, but you can always change transportation modes).

For dealing with damage from sunlight, you'll either have to avoid it (hard to do when you need to talk to people who are only out in daylight hours), or be able to cure it. Equipping a couple of magic items with the "Regenerate" power can help offset this.

Losing your guild affiliations is more of an annoyance than a problem. You can rejoin all of them, except the Thieves and Assassins. The drawback is that you have to wait 28 days to get your former rank back. If you're not a member of the Thieves or Assassins Guilds, then you can join them by following the regular admissions procedures. If you're a member of a religious order, remember that you'll take damage every time you visit your guild.

By far the biggest headache is the vampire hunter. Once or twice a year you'll get a letter from a vampire hunter. If you follow the instructions outlined in the letter you can get yourself cured of vampirism (see the previous section on Cure Quests). If you don't follow the instructions, you'll get a string of people trying to kill you (usually at the rate of one per night). Of course this is one way around the need to feed each day, but it's still a pain. Eventually they'll get the message and leave you alone (until the next batch). Fortunately it only happens once or twice a year.

There is one illogical item in being a vampire. You do not have Vampiric Effect. Beating up on a critter does not suck health out of them and transfer it to you. It just makes them very dead. One way to cure this is to create an item that has Vampiric Effect. The ability costs 1000 enchantment points. Any Daedric weapon larger than a dagger has more than enough capacity to hold it. On the other hand, simply being walking death has its advantages. With your speed and agility up close to 100, you'll get in a lot more shots at your opponent, so you'll be taking less damage to start with.

Vampires are loosely organized into tribes. Each tribe has certain additional advantages that go with being a member. For all but one of the tribes, you get additional spells in your spellbook. For that one oddball tribe (the Anthotis tribe), you get 20 points added to your intelligence. So, if you want to boost all of your stats, go hang around the south central side of the Alik'r Desert and get smacked around by vampires until you catch the disease.

As mentioned above, the only way to get vampirism is to get beaten up by vampires and survive. Simple enough, but how do you find the vampires to get beaten up?

If your level is high enough you'll encounter them as monsters in the various dungeons as you go about your Guild and Merchant quests. Another option is to go hang out in graveyards or in the wilderness. Rest and deal with the random encounters until vampires show up.

Two dungeons always have vampires in them, if you're not picky about which tribe you join: Scourg Barrow and Direnni Tower. Get up close and personal with them and then beat feet before you die. Do it enough times and you'll catch vampirism.

Get the quest to deliver the potion from a Witch Coven and the vampires (and werecritters) will come to you if you still have the potion when the sun goes down.

OK, you've got vampirism and you want to get rid of it. As mentioned above you'll get a letter from a vampire hunter once or twice a year. The time for the onset of the cure quest is random. I've had the letter show up within a few days of catching Vampirism and at other times it has been close to a full game year before it starts. If you follow the instructions in the letter (finding and killing a particular vampire), you'll be cured. A second method is to find witches covens (the Glenmorial Witches are your best shot since they can be found in towns as well as on the overland map) and ask for a quest. Eventually you'll get a quest to deliver a component to the Mages Guild. The component is a cure for vampirism AND lycanthropy. Drink it and you're cured.

Once you're cured, you will find all of your guild affiliations restored (including the Thieves and Assassins) unless you rejoined while you were a vampire.

One possible problem with curing vampirism concerns your stats. I don’t know what the code actually does, but it appears that the game just subtracts 20 points from each of the stats that it raised when you became a vampire. For most players this will not present much of a problem. But if any of your stats were higher than 80 when you contracted vampirism, they will be dropped to 80 when you cure it. There doesn’t appear to be anything you can do about it except live with it.

LYCANTHROPY

("Do you know how hard it is to get your nails done when you're shaggy?")

Many players feel that being shaggy is the only way to go. Far be it from me to disagree with them. You get shaggy by being whupped on by a werebeastie. In the original version of the game, all player lycanthropes were wereboars. One of the later patches fixed this problem. Now you will become whatever it was that gave you lycanthropy. If you get beat on by a werewolf, you will become a werewolf. If you get beat on by a wereboar, you become a wereboar.

Like vampirism, the onset of Lycanthropy is marked by a spooky dream. From the time you have this dream you have three days to get to a temple to get cured or you will become a lycanthrope.

There are some decided advantages to being shaggy.

you get 40 points added to your STR, AGI, END and SPD, to a maximum of 100.

you get 30 points added to Climbing, Critical Strike, Hand-to-Hand, Jumping, Stealth, and Swimming (it is possible to go over 100).

you're immune to Iron and Steel weapons (which is what most bad guys carry until you reach higher levels). In effect, most humanoids can't touch you while you're in wereform, except with spells.

you get the Lycanthropy spell added to your spellbook. The effect of the spell is to change you into wereform and it's a freebie to cast once per day (not once every 24 hours - once per day).

unlike vampirism, you don't die, so you won't lose your guild affiliations or ranks

(this is such sweet revenge), you can kill guards all day long while you're in wereform and it doesn't affect your legal rep in the slightest because they'll never ask you to surrender (yell, "Halt! Halt! Halt!" at me, will ya?). The reason for this is that they have to inflict damage on you before the surrender message will pop up and most guards don't have Silver or better weapons available, so they can't damage you.

you're immune to vampirism (you can't have both diseases at the same time) and other diseases, but you can be infected with a fatal disease at the same time that you are infected with Lycanthropy.

There are some severe disadvantages to being shaggy, though.

when you're shaggy (in wereform) you can't use weapons or armor and you can't access your inventory. You do get a couple of furry paws with black nails that show up in place of your weapon on the screen, though, and the whuffling sound you make while fighting is much less annoying than the vampire's noises.

no one likes you. The streets empty while you're shaggy. (It could have something to do with your breath. Have you tried MilkBone?)

you will involuntarily change to wereform during the full moon. Not good when you're trying to get something accomplished and you need to access your inventory or deal with people.

you've got to feed your appetite for the innocent every month or your hit points will drop to 4, making you fodder for the next rat you run into. That means keeping a careful eye on travel times.

there's those pesky lycanthrope-hunters to deal with. Fortunately it's only one or two episodes per year.

Lycanthropy is easier to live with than Vampirism, thanks to an artifact. The Glenmorial Witches can summon Hircine (or any Daedra Summoner at temples or the Mages Guild will do it on the proper day if you are the proper rank), who will send you on a quest to get Hircine’s Ring (it's actually a shield, but occupies a ring slot - go figure). The Ring removes most of the disadvantages of Lycanthropy. The possessor of the Ring can change form at will, will not change during the full moon, and does not have to feed every month. However, the Ring will not work for anyone who is not already a Lycanthrope.

Of course, you still can't use weapons or armor while in wereform. And Lycanthrope hunters will still be knocking at your door. And there's the funny reaction people get when you're in town and looking hairy.

OK. You've weighed the pros and cons and have decided that life without hair is no life at all, especially in a society without Rogaine. How do you go about getting shaggy?

The fastest way is to go to the Fighters Guild and keep asking for a quest until you get the quest to go kill a lycanthrope (this does not seem to work if you've been infected with vampirism - the werebeastie is a bear).

The second fastest way is to go take Cyndassa's quest (you've got to find and kill a werewolf).

The third way (and this does not seem to work very well at high levels) is to just hope you meet one in a dungeon.

The fourth way is to hang out in the wilderness until one shows up as a random encounter. I've encountered werecritters in the wilderness all over the Bay area. Just walk outside of any town and rest or loiter in front of any dungeon and you'll get one eventually.

The fifth way is to get the quest to deliver the item from a Witch Coven. The critters will come to you.

Getting rid of Lycanthropy is accomplished in much the same way as getting rid of vampirism. The hunter will offer you a chance to redeem yourself by completing the quest that will cure you. You may also take quests from witch covens until you get the quest to deliver the item to the Mages Guild. Use the item and you'll be cured. Or, if you're feeling persnickety, keep it and kill all of the werecritters that come looking for you to get the cure themselves. Since werebeasties don't carry any treasure, you've got to be feeling awfully persnickety.

On the bright side, the problem with reduced stats does not seem to affect cured lycanthropes as it does vampires. Or if it does, no one has bothered to mention it to me and it has never cropped up in one of my games.

ENCHANTING ITEMS

Members of the Mages Guild and Temple Julianos have access to an item-maker upon reaching the required rank. In order to use the item-maker you need to have a couple of things. First, you've got to have an item in which to embed a spell or spell effect. Second, you've got to have the money to pay for the enchantment. Enchanting isn't cheap. Plan on spending several thousand gold for minor enchantments and a small fortune for major enchantments.

Not all items can be enchanted and some items are more suitable for enchanting than others. What you're trying to do is get the most bang (powers you want) for your bucks (money and harmful side effects). Items have a certain "Enchantment Potential" (or EP). Iron and steel items have the lowest EP while Daedric generally has the highest. You can increase the EP of the item by adding side effects (disadvantages) to the item, but the total cannot be exceeded.

Armor 1 (Table)

Armor 2 (Table)

NOTE: All non-special material helmets have the same number of enchantment points regardless of design (there are about 5 or 6 different styles) or protection provided (+1, +3, +4). Once you reach +5 or better, the helmets have the same EP's as the helmets that are obviously made of special materials. Some +4 helmets will be made of silver, but unless you have taken silver as a forbidden material, you will not be able to tell the difference. Silver armor is extremely rare. Unless you have extraordinary patience or luck, you will probably not find a single piece (helmets excepted). Try as I might, I have not been able to acquire a silver Greaves, and so I do not know what the EP of this item is.

There seems to be a discrepancy in the numbers I get for Cuirasses. I first noticed this with an embossed, skirted Ebony Cuirass that came out at 1400 EP's while a simple Ebony breastplate came out at 800. I have not checked to see if this holds true across materials, but I would not be surprised if fancier cuirasses had more EP's than plain ones. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if this was just a hiccup.

The pluses that go with the various materials do not add up to the armor class shown on the inventory screen. As best I can make out, you receive +1 to your armor class for wearing armor plus twice the armor bonus for the material. Thus, a leather cuirass would provide +1 for wearing armor plus +2 for the material of the armor, giving you an armor class of 3 in the area protected by your cuirass. By the same token, a daedric cuirass would provide +1 for wearing armor and +20 for the material, giving you an armor class of 21.

Shields 1 (Table)

Shields 2 (Table)

Regardless of their material, all shields of the same type provide the same protection. Silver seems to be equivalent to Adamantium as far as shields go. Bucklers provide +1, Round Shields provide +2, Kite Shields provide +3 and Tower Shields provide +4.

Weapons

Steel is the standard by which weapons are rated. I have used it as the base and the pluses indicate how much more damage the weapon will do. Silver is equivalent to steel in terms of damage, but is equivalent to Adamantium in its enchantment potential. Mithril is superior to Elven in terms of damage, but is equivalent in terms of enchantment potential. Mithril and Adamantium are equivalent in terms of damage, but Adamantium is clearly superior in its enchantment potential.

Long Blades 1 (Table)

Long Blades 2 (Table)

Short Blades 1 (Table)

Short Blades 2 (Table)

Axes and Bows 1 (Table)

Axes and Bows 2 (Table)

Blunt 1 (Table)

Blunt 2 (Table)