Dunbarrow Cave

JULY 15, 2007

LOCATION: WORLD
QUEST LINE: NONE (PLUG IN)

The Dunbarrow Cave plug in was given to me free in one of the issues of the Official Xbox 360 magazine. I won’t point out the cynicism behind getting people to buy a magazine by giving them a free side quest that allows you to rob people blind, so I’ll just say thanks and move on.

Much like Frostcrag Spire, this is not so much a quest as it is a “Spend a lot of your hard earned money to fix up a place that’s nowhere near anywhere you regularly go” option. But hey, like Frosty, it has its perks.

For starters, the things you buy are people, specifically: pirates. Once the crew is assembled, you can have them go out and plunder some anonymous folks, netting you a cool 1k a week, which means after like 8 weeks, you’ll be in profit. Which is more than I can say for myself, still in the red after 27 years.

But first, you must take on the ghosts of the pirates that are located inside the cave where the ship is housed (I got a real Goonies vibe on this one, and remain disappointed that there was no ghost octopus). With my trusty Akaviri Katana, they didn’t give me much trouble once their weapons were disintegrated (actually, for once, rather than just pound on me with their fists, they all ran away). The loot they left sucked, even the captain didn’t have much of a sword. 20 minutes of fighting in exchange for 5 bonemeal? Sweet.

The captain also left some diaries, which I actually read for once. The story was kind of interesting in a non sort of way I guess. After the last ghost was killed I got the quest update, with the person I had to go see in order to buy the crew who would bring the ship back to “working” order (how’s it going to get out of the cave?). They are a decent lot of folks (for pirates) though, as some can train and sell spells. And unlike Frostcrag, at least I will get a decent return on my investment (plus a bed).

If you haven’t gotten either plug in, and are more of a warrior than mage, I highly recommend choosing Dunbarrow over Frostcrag. It’s just as inconveniently located (even fast traveling to it puts you at about a 30 second walk/swim away), but the 1k a week reward is certainly more usable to you than an endless supply of milk thistle weed or whatever. If you’re like me and try to do everything, I’d say do Dunbarrow first and use the 1k a week to buy the Frostcrag upgrades.

Or just use a duplication glitch and sell enough Varla stones or whatever to buy everything at once. I don’t care.

Shut down console.