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Author Topic: Marooned in Morrowind (FINISHED)  (Read 403708 times)

LordBucket

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Marooned in Morrowind (FINISHED)
« on: May 23, 2013, 11:27:17 pm »

Current Status
Finished.

Link to the MST3K thread

Spoiler: Self portrait (click to show/hide)




Location (as of end of game)
Standing at the silt strider ramp outside Seyda Neen with a naked Breton and an Imperial guard

Spoiler: Stats (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Attributes (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: skills (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Equipped (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Faction standings (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Spells known (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Alchemy Knowledge (click to show/hide)



Story posts, arc 1
Episode 1: Introduction
Episode 2: Wherefore art thou, mudcrabs and stars?
Episode 3: We're off on the road to Seyda Neen. We certainly do get mushrooms. (boomp ditty boomp ditty boomp)
Episode 4: Arille's Tradehouse, and introducing speaker avatars
Episode 5: The plot thickens
Episode 6: On to Vivec
Episode 7: Funding the trip to nowhere
Episode 8: Dark night of the soul
Episode 9: Letter to Vivec
Episode 10: Conversations with Vivec, Sermon 1
Episode 11: Conversations with Vivec, Sermon 2
Episode 12: Conversations with Vivec, Sermon 3
Episode 13: A sudden change of pace
Episode 14: On the road again
Episode 15: Let's make Fulcanelli proud
Episode 16: Suspicious npcs? Time for a new look.
Episode 17: In which nobody agrees on what to do except turn off the cellphone
Episode 18: Let's do the Timewarp
Episode 19: Some discussion. The Return to Seyda Neen. On to Gnisis, Fort Darius and the Imperial Legion
Episode 20: Travel to Pelgiad, Interupted
Episode 21, part 1: First Blood
Episode 21, part 2: To catch a killer
Episode 22: Dunmer culture and an unexpected letter
Episode 23: Hemorrhaging money, Michael gets annoyed, we abandon our oath, and more deja vue
Episode 24: Perhaps, necromancy?
Episode 25: Necros and Nordics and guilds, oh my!
Episode 26, part 1: Sugar, underestimated alchemy, Thavere, a strange couple and on to Gnisis
Episode 26, part 2: Joining the Imperial Legion
Episode 27: Legion training, week 2. Michael levels and meets an orc.
Episode 28: In which we ask questions we already know the answers to
Episode 29: Legion training, week 3. The big payoff, interspecies diplomacy and PC speculation
Episode 30: Legion training week 4, Ash Ghouls
Episode 31: Show some cards, and get a big clue. But what does it mean?
Episode 32: Genocide at Khuul
Episode 33: More factions get involved
Episode 34: Who was the Nerevarine when the world reset?
Episode 35: FINALLY autonomous again
Episode 36: Part 1, Fast Eddie and Balmora rentals
Episode 36: Part 2, Combat and re-equipping
Episode 37: Assorted progress, and the second dream
Episode 38: Fighter's Guild, long talk with Eddie, some dead ends but progress too
Episode 39: Part 1: Fighter's guild quests
Episode 39: Part 2: An expected treasure trove
Episode 40, part 1: Proud Member of the Mage's Guild
Episode 40, part 2: Blades delivery boy, Alchemy! And...oops.
Episode 41: Tomb-looting and divine intervention
Episode 42, part 1: Dance Magic, Dance Magic!
Episode 42, part 2: The Source of Magic
Episode 43: Introspection, and a Corprus Dilemma
Episode 44: "The fact that there is a PC running around terrifies me"
Episode 45: Wolverine Hall shopping and downtown scenic Sadrith Mora
Episode 46: "Papers, please"
Episode 47, part 1: Clover is popular, and annoying the Mage Guild
Episode 47, part 2: Chatter, boatless imperials and an explanation for 'marks.'
Episode 48: We're off to see the wizard
Episode 49: Tel Fyr
Episode 50: Azura's Star, Revealed
Episode 51: Chatting with Divayth, Morrowind physics, and a small problem
Episode 52: Yagrum Bagarn
Episode 53, part 1: Info dump with Yagrum Bagarn
Episode 53, part 2: Plot exposition with Yagrum Bagarn
Episode 54: The dominos begin to fall, Telvanni politics, the Third Dream
Episode 55: Caius' final report, learning destruction, and 'Epic mage duel for the win'
Episode 56, part 1: Practice that headache away, and reunion with Cinia and Ranis
Episode 56, part 2: Swaying to the Symphony of Destruction...training
Episode 56, part 3: Dashing through the ash, in a one-horse open sleigh
Episode 57: Have our questions been answered, or did we just make more questions?
Episode 58, part 1: So...ponies?
Episode 58, part 2:Adventuring with Draren Thiralas
Episode 59: You're the Apple of my Lie

Episode 60: To eat or not to eat, that is the quandry
Episode 61, part 1: The Light of Knowledge, and a Heartwarming Reunion
Episode 61, part 2: Why do you insist on adventuring with no potions or scrolls?
Episode 62: Correctly guessing many things that are not the password, and curious turn of events
Episode 63: Madness in third person D minor
Episode 64: Wait, who's my opponent?
Episode 65: A, B, C, D...L, M, N, O P.
Episode 66: Mandlebrony Ponies
Episode 67: Annoyedicus to the Maximus, and wibbly wobbly balls

Story posts, arc 2
Episode 68, part 1: Pelagiad
Episode 68, part 2: The safe road to chaos


Mystery Science Theatre 3000
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LordBucket

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Re: Marooned in Morrowind, a suggestion game
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2013, 11:27:58 pm »

Placeholder: This is where links for the probably eventual MST3000 version of this story will go.




Episode 1: Introduction
You're a freshman liberal arts student at your local community college. You're an average student, and you don't do sports. No real hobbies except the internet, games, watching My Little Pony and reading the occasional fanfic on Equestria Daily.

You just got home from a terribly dull basic algebra class. You're not sure why you were placed in it. You already know the material, but it's your first year, and that's where the matriculation tests put you. At least the homework is easy.

"Anyone home?" No answer. "Mom? Dad?"

Looks like nobody's home but you at the moment. With no particular plans, you head to your room. You sit down at your computer, turn it on and pull your college textbooks from your backpack while you wait for windows to load. It's slow. You could really use a faster computer.

Eventually windows comes up and you're staring at your favorite desktop wallpaper: an adorable picture of princesses Celestia and Luna nuzzling together before a glorious sunset. It warms your heart, but your mind is restless. What are you going to do? Homework? No...you can do it later. Maybe a game? Yeah, sure. You open up your start menu and...

...mumble...mumble...shall We...mumble...

You look around. You could of sworn you just heard a voice. You listen carefully, but you don't hear anything. Shrugging, you go back to your start menu and begin browsing though-

...but We're out of...mumble...

Your heart skips a beat. You totally heard someone talking. A female voice. You strain to hear, but all you hear is the sound of your own heartbeat. It's kind of creepy. You glance at your computer and notice that the speakers are powered on. Instantly you relax and giggle the anxiety away. Obviously your speakers were just picking up radio interference. Probably just a ham radio operator passing through the-

...mumble...what about this...mumble...

That's totally not coming from your speakers. At least you don't think it is. Curious, you reach to turn up the speaker volume when suddenly your chair drops out from beneath you and you feel yourself falling backwards. You see a blur, then sunlight in your eyes, then.

SPLASH!

You land in a murky pool of gross green swamp water.



A moment later something lands on your head. You leap to your feet, scrambling to get away...and then realize it's your backpack.  You drag yourself out of the waist-deep swampwater and up the embankment to a dirt road with fencing that has a familiar look to it. You take off your shirt, shoes and socks to try to squeeze out as much water as possible while looking around to take in your surroundings. You almost think that this looks like....nah, couldn't be.

You put your wet clothes back on, sling your backpack over your shoulder and start walking, taking in as much of the scenery as you can. The more your eyes take in, the more familiar everything seems. The trees, the dirt road you're walking on, the sky, the...is that a mudcrab?



Yeah. No sense denying it. You're in Morrowind.

You take a quick inventory. You have your denim pants, tennis shoes, a "20% cooler" Rainbow Dash t-shirt, a wallet with picture ID and some presumably worthless cash, your cellphone, and your backpack with nothing but a yellow notepad with 60 pages left and a pen. You check your phone, and sure enough: a couple bars of power left, but no connectivity.

Not much to work with, but you can't help but feel a smile on your face as you consider the possibilities. You know this game! You've played it all the way through a couple times. You know what the goal is, you know all about the heart of Lorkhan, and Sunder and Keening. You know where the Morag Tong guildhall is. You know where fully a third of the artifacts in the game are just off the top of your head. You know how to get Eltonbrand, you know how to get both the left and right handed versions of Wraithguard, you know how to get Azura's Star, you know how to...

Huh.

"Hey, Sheogorath," you say out loud. "Did you do this? Did you bring me here?" No answer. You glance down at your Rainbow Dash t-shirt and try another possibility.

"Discord, maybe?" Still no answer. "Q?" Nothing.

Hmm. Well, however you got here, you know all about this game and you're pretty confidant that you can totally exploit that knowledge to get ahead. If you're stuck here...well, at least your life will be more interesting than it would otherwise have been.

Experimenting, you reach out with your hand into the empty air and press with your middle finger trying to right click. Nothing happens.

"Right click," you say. Nothing happens.

"Escape?" Still, nothing happens.

"Xyzzy?" Sure enough, nothing happens.

Well, you're in Morrowind, but hint of unease creeps through you as you consider the circumstances. You arrived in the middle of a swamp, not on a boat. Are you the Nerevarine? Do you have a star sign? I mean, sure you're a Taurus, but...do you, you know? For that matter, you're a human. Can you even cast spells? If you're arrested, will you have to actually sit and wait for weeks to be released? What's it like to be permanently afflicted with corprus disease? If you...die, will you be able to restore from a previous save? How do you save? Can you? Or will you just be dead?

You don't know.

At first you were feeling pretty optimistic about this, but now that you think about it, you're not sure you want to be here after all. How did you get here, anyway? Is it possible to get back home? Do you really want to? Which version of the game is this? Is this vanilla, or are there mods installed? Does it even work that way?

You don't know any of that either.



What do you do?

Sirus

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Re: Marooned in Morrowind, a suggestion game
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2013, 11:43:33 pm »

You seem to be on a road, and roads mean (relative) civilization. Look for a sign leading towards the nearest village.
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Jarod Cain

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Re: Marooned in Morrowind, a suggestion game
« Reply #3 on: May 24, 2013, 12:37:02 am »

Okay, before we do anything, establish the situation and our general position.

Situation:
In Morrowind.
Wearing only clothes.
Nothing suitable for armor and weapons.
No supplies of any sort.
Been awake for an unknown amount of time, last time we ate anything: unknown. Are we thirsty? Hungry? Tired?

Also, what kind of person doesn't carry a pocketknife or multi-tool on their person? Seriously.

Look at the sun's position, establish cardinal directions. Then follow Sirus's suggestion and look for a road & sign.
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Frumple

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Re: Marooned in Morrowind, a suggestion game
« Reply #4 on: May 24, 2013, 01:00:39 am »

... mudcrabs aren't hostile unless you attack, right? Or am I misremembering something?

Because in that particular situation, I'd totally want to set other concerns aside for a few minutes and go see what the mudcrab feels like. New critter of strange textures I can pet that probably won't try to remove a limb! Time to gently poke it and see what mudcrab shell feels like. And maybe if they're tamable. Thinking can come after that.

Though sign is a good idea. Need to find out if we can read the language. Hunting around for someone to eavesdrop on would probably be step two. Step three might be prepping the dumb mute act just to avoid suspicion until you can learn the language. S'going to be interesting if there's major phenotype mismatch with the other species, heh. Don't remember what Morrowind's general reaction to mutants are.

... and maybe see if the chair managed to come with you. That might sell for something.
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Sirus

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Re: Marooned in Morrowind, a suggestion game
« Reply #5 on: May 24, 2013, 01:06:56 am »

Having played Morrowind the other day: Mudcrabs are indeed hostile. Kinda slow though, so I guess if you really wanted to touch it you could give it a shot.
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Frumple

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Re: Marooned in Morrowind, a suggestion game
« Reply #6 on: May 24, 2013, 01:22:14 am »

Hrm... possibly even better. If it doesn't try to attack, that means you are dealing with mod content, to the extent such a concept exists in this scenario.
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Parsely

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Re: Marooned in Morrowind, a suggestion game
« Reply #7 on: May 24, 2013, 01:32:00 am »

Also, what kind of person doesn't carry a pocketknife or multi-tool on their person? Seriously.
Haha. Kind of hoping you were joking.
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Xantalos

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Re: Marooned in Morrowind, a suggestion game
« Reply #8 on: May 24, 2013, 01:32:57 am »

We're in Morrowind?
Head toward civilization. DO IT NOW.
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Jarod Cain

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Re: Marooned in Morrowind, a suggestion game
« Reply #9 on: May 24, 2013, 02:14:54 am »

Also, what kind of person doesn't carry a pocketknife or multi-tool on their person? Seriously.
Haha. Kind of hoping you were joking.
Short of a rock a knife is the oldest tool in the world and immanently useful. I can pry things open with it, open stubborn boxes & packaging, eat with it if necessary. A multi-tool only increases the usefulness. So no I'm not joking and I apologize for being a tool using primate.
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LordBucket

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Re: Marooned in Morrowind, a suggestion game
« Reply #10 on: May 24, 2013, 02:32:57 am »

Episode 2: Wherefore art thou, mudcrabs and stars?

Quote
Been awake for an unknown amount of time, last time we ate anything: unknown. Are we thirsty? Hungry? Tired?

You had a sandwich and coke at the school cafeteria about two hours ago. Your cellphone seems to think it's 1:17pm, and you wouldn't usually eat until 6, You're not particularly hungry, thirsty or tired. Though it occurs to you that the $30 you have in cash probably won't buy anything here, so while there's no huge rush...food might become an issue at some point.

It also crosses your mind that in vanilla Morrowind, it wasn't actually necessary to eat, drink or sleep at all. But you're not ready to assume that you won't have to. In fact, you're guessing you probably will. This feels very real.

Quote
Look at the sun's position, establish cardinal directions.

Being just afternoon, the sun is fairly close to directly above you. Holding one hand in front of your face and looking straight up, you can see that the sun is clearly a bit "that way" off of center. But very obviously, the sun is much bigger than it seems like it should be.



"Let's see," you state out loud, "The sun rises in the east and sets in the west." That's the expression, right? But you're not entirely sure how to interpret that. Is the sun still rising right now, or is it setting? If it's rising, then that way is east. But if it's setting, then that way is west. Your cellphone says it's 1:19 now, so if the two worlds are the same...then presumably it's afternoon so the sun is setting and that way is west.

But...doesn't it also depend on where on the globe you are? The sun rises in the east where you live back on earth, maybe...but how do you know that you're in the same hemisphere here? Even if the general east-to-west progression is the same, doesn't your position on the globe change the relative angles involved? You're pretty sure Morrowind is in the northern hemisphere of Tamriel, but...does that necessarily mean it's the same as on Earth? Or, for that matter, how do you know if the orientation of the sun to the planet's rotation is the same as on earth? From it's size in the sky, that star is either much bigger or much closer than you expected it to be. But the temperature isn't hot at all. In fact, it's a bit chilly. You're pretty sure that's not Sol and this isn't Earth.

So, yeah...you're really not sure which way is which. If you had to guess, you'd probably guess that that way is west...ish. Plus or minus thirty degrees. Maybe.

Quote
in that particular situation, I'd totally want to set other concerns aside for a few minutes and go see what the mudcrab feels like. New critter of strange textures I can pet that probably won't try to remove a limb! Time to gently poke it and see what mudcrab shell feels like.
Quote
Mudcrabs are indeed hostile. Kinda slow though, so I guess if you really wanted to touch it you could give it a shot.

You approach the mudcrab. As soon as you get within 10 feet of it, it rises up on its legs and starts walking towards you, with pincers opening and closing menacingly.



Fortunately it's top speed seems to be about half of your comfortable walking pace, so you have no difficulty reaching out to touch it while keeping out of reach.

The thing is fully three feet across and the pincers (jaws?) almost as long as your arms, so you have to bend at the waist and reach to get close enough to touch it. The upper shell feels hard and rough. You tap it, hard, with your knuckles and it makes a solid thunk noise. Right as you do, the mudcrab comes up on its hind legs and tries to bite you.



Gah!" you shriek as you jump back. You forgot that they did that. You immediately jog a short distance way while keeping on eye on it, and it eventually gives up chase. As slow as it was, you'd guess that the mudcrabs don't pose any huge danger so long as you're careful, but it occurs to you that if one of them caught you unaware, or if you were to trip or something...those jaws might be strong enough to crush bone. It's an unsettling thought.

Quote
Look for a sign
Quote
follow Sirus's suggestion and look for a road & sign.
Quote
Though sign is a good idea. Need to find out if we can read the language.

Well, you've already found a road, so you pick an arbitrary direction and start walking. Within a few minutes you come to a sign.



Each panel of the sign seems to have two scripts on it. The one on top you don't even recognize the characters, but the one on the bottom is plain english. From top to bottom on the left, the side reads "Ald'ruhn," "Gnaar Mok," "Hla Oad.", and on the right you see "Seyda Neen."

You now know exactly where you are.

Looking back at the sun...it appears that the direction you thought was west looks kind of like it might be more like southeast. But you're not certain. You're pretty sure that Seyda Neen would be "south" of you relative to where you are, but it's possible the road itself might meander a bit rather than actually lead directly south. So maybe the direction you thought was west really is west and the road just curves around. At this point, you're not really sure.


Status:
Healthy and sated.

Inventory:
Denim pants, tennis shoes, a "20% cooler" Rainbow Dash t-shirt, a wallet with picture ID and $30 in cash, your cellphone, and your backpack with nothing but a yellow notepad with 60 pages left and a pen.



What do you do?

Kanil

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Re: Marooned in Morrowind, a suggestion game
« Reply #11 on: May 24, 2013, 02:48:21 am »

I'd head to Seyda Neen and then on to Vivec/Ascadian Isles in general. I'd imagine cliff racers to be extremely dangerous to your average nerd.

Plus, just to the southeast should be Tarhiel... (unless we're Tarhiel. We did apparently "land", albeit a bit more gently.) He has a sword, I don't know if we can use it, but it's gotta be better than getting pecked to death by cliff racers. It's magical too, it might fetch a couple of gold coins. And the hat, oh the stylish hat. This is definitely the most sensible option.

Given the nature of his scrolls, I'd advise we not use them to for experimenting with spell casting however.
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Yah, it sounds like minecraft with content, you have obviously missed the point, people dont like content, they like different coloured blocks.
Seems to work fine with my copy. As soon as I loaded the human caravan came by and the world burst into fire.

Frumple

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Re: Marooned in Morrowind, a suggestion game
« Reply #12 on: May 24, 2013, 07:44:10 am »

At this point, I'd probably kind of belatedly remember alchemy and seeing if there's anything along the way that can be harvested. Short of the soul trap glitch, there's not much in Morrowind quite as capable of breaking the game open as the mystic moonshine. Money, land, power, safety... all this and more can be yours through the arcane science of doping to the gills. Including gills! Assuming that's how waterbreathing works, anyway. And that you can find some alchemy equipment.

And yeah, staying away from the mountains right now sounds like a good idea. Cliff racers can't really be outran if they get close to you, ha, and they're a bit less likely to show up away from tall places, iirc.

Also, hey... kinda' wondering if we could use acrobatics as a bit of a baseline stat detection thing, assuming stats exist. Jumping around a bit and seeing if we're suddenly magically jumping higher every few dozen hops would be a rather safe way of seeing if we're under morrowind skill rules, methinks.
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Parsely

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Re: Marooned in Morrowind, a suggestion game
« Reply #13 on: May 24, 2013, 08:29:20 am »

Wait, don't we remember these towns and where they are relative to how we would see them on the game map? Now we know the cardinal directions. So figure out how the sun moves relative to those. And plus one to Frumple's idea of trying to improve our acrobatics skill. It probably won't work. :/
« Last Edit: May 24, 2013, 08:31:44 am by GUNINANRUNIN »
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Parsely

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Re: Marooned in Morrowind, a suggestion game
« Reply #14 on: May 24, 2013, 08:34:18 am »

Short of a rock a knife is the oldest tool in the world and immanently useful. I can pry things open with it, open stubborn boxes & packaging, eat with it if necessary. A multi-tool only increases the usefulness. So no I'm not joking and I apologize for being a tool using primate.
-J-
No need to be hostile.. I just meant that 99% of people don't make sure to keep tools on them when they're sitting around inside, especially not college students, or Americans, or anyone for that matter. But I suppose you never know when you're going to find yourself stranded inside a video game. ::)
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