Two Sides Of The Coin

JULY 18, 2007

LOCATION: BRUMA
QUEST LINE: NONE (SIDE QUEST)

Since Purchase A Home... took no time, I decided to take on Two Sides Of The Coin, which I believe is the last Bruma based side quest to complete. After hearing the appropriate rumor, I headed into the quest giver’s home, and like all Oblivion residents, she seemingly didn’t mind the intrusion and instead began telling me about her scoundrel husband. Remember when Robert Downey was so high he went into the wrong home? Imagine if, instead of calling the cops and screaming, the little girl was just like “Hey man, wanna help me find some treasure?” Life as we know it could be very different.

Anyway, this quest required me to get thrown in jail. I didn’t want to do that, but a quick consult to the UESP told me I could get thrown in for a minor offense and be left with no infamy or bounty or whatever, so that’s good. I like to be a good guy. Naturally, there was a plot twist here: the guy in jail was innocent, the wife was the actual crook. I wish I could just kill them all and be done with it, but oh well.

I’d also like to address a concern: retrieving your items. They are inside a little chest with an easy lock, but the guard watches you like a hawk, even when you go upstairs. He’s impossible to lose, so how do you get your stuff back? I only had a few stolen scrolls so I don’t care, but still. I assume since it’s there it can be re-obtained, but I can’t for the life of me figure out how.

After this, I got the location of the treasure, which was hilariously located in a chest like 2 feet from the city gate. Looked really hard, did you? Naturally, there was another guy there, who was apparently eavesdropping in the prison when I was told about the location. And of course, he wanted the treasure for himself, and attacked me. He didn’t give me much trouble; though I had trouble finding his sword after I disintegrated it. Damn tall grass!

For all the effort, the treasure was pretty weak: a couple hundred gold and another couple hundred in junk. Plus I lost some stuff to evidence. Lame. But at least I am done with Bruma more or less. That place gives me the creeps. Mainly because it’s so boring.

Shut down console.

Purchase A Home In Bruma

JULY 18, 2007

LOCATION: BRUMA
QUEST LINE: NONE (SIDE QUEST)

Purchase A Home In Bruma is yet another “buy a bunch of upgrades” non quest that requires no skill other than haggling and having a lot of disposable income. For close to 25k dollars, I now have a bed in Bruma, a town I’ll probably only need to go to 2-3 more times in the game. Unlike Frostcrag and Dunbarrow Cave, there is no monetary or item based benefit to doing this quest, unless you really like calipers and planters. Waste of money.

Shut down console.

A Brotherhood Betrayed

JULY 16, 2007

LOCATION: BRUMA
QUEST LINE: NONE (SIDE QUEST)

Knowing that the Bruma mage guild was about to meet a bad end, I headed over to buy the Summon Dremora Lord spell from Volanaro, who is the only guy in the game selling it for some reason (I can’t even use it for god knows how long, but oh well). While I was there, I figured I might as well do a side quest or two. Bruma isn’t exactly a hotspot, so I have no idea when I’ll be back there. After a bit of poking around, I discovered A Brotherhood Betrayed, which turned out to be a nice change of pace, as you got to play detective for a bit.

Seems a vampire hunter named Raynil Dralas had just killed some poor schmuck named Bradon Lirrian under suspicion of being a vampire. However, Bradon’s wife is convinced he was just murdered in cold blood, and naturally, Grayland, a man she has never met and just strolled on into her home uninvited, is the man to help her.

After a while, you get as far as searching Dralas’ room at the inn, and you find a diary that proves the woman was right, and Bradon was killed not because he was a vampire, but because he and another dude were partnered with Dralas over a treasure. So now you gotta go retrieve it, from a cave conveniently located a bit west of town. Fine, it was worth the hike for the boost on athletics (one of my majors).

Plus, on the way I discovered an oddity: two Imperials shooting arrows at one another. The “danger” music came up, so I thought they were BOTH shooting at me, but it turns out there was a damn bandit running around. After dispatching him and looting him of his 2 gold (must be some bandit), the music ended, and I just stood and watched these two guys shoot at each other for some reason. I got a good chuckle out of it.

Anyway, after like an hour of amusing myself, I continued on and found the cave. Luckily, Dralas was the only guy in it, and didn’t put up much of a fight (especially after disintegrating his sword: love my enchanted Akaviri Katana). I found the treasure and some other minor loot, and then fast traveled back. The reward? The same goddamn amulet I just retrieved. Except now it fortifies my speed a bit. Big deal. I considered killing the widow Lirrian and stealing her pumpkins, but I opted to sell the worthless trinket (the amulet I already wear fortifies strength, which is much more useful) and call it a night.

It’s times like this I wish we were told in advance what the reward was, like World of Warcraft. Not that it was a bad quest, but it took a while for all the back and forth (not to mention bribery/conversation exercises) and I didn’t really get much out of it other than another quest completed. It was nice to have a detective type scenario, but it was so linear, it wasn’t like it really taxed my brain skills. Plus, now Cyrodiil is short a perfectly good vampire hunter. THE NEXT BLOOD A VAMPIRE SPILLS IS ON YOUR HANDS, WIDOW LIRRIAN!

Shut down console.