{"id":264,"date":"2007-03-07T16:39:53","date_gmt":"2007-03-07T16:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/livinginoblivion.wordpress.com\/2007\/03\/07\/taking-a-dive-anvil\/"},"modified":"2012-06-15T22:24:18","modified_gmt":"2012-06-16T06:24:18","slug":"taking-a-dive-anvil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/livinginoblivion\/nondricks-non-adventure\/taking-a-dive-anvil\/","title":{"rendered":"Day Two: Taking a Dive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>(Note: From here on, some pictures are clickable for larger versions.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Time to start Day Two, and I start it by stealing stuff. I don&#8217;t loot the entire hotel room, but I do help myself to the folded cloth on the dresser.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/screencuisine.net\/nmd\/npc\/cloth.jpg\" alt=\"Cloth\" width=\"450\" height=\"299\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Look, it&#8217;s a <em>hotel<\/em>. They <em>expect<\/em> you to take the folded cloth. I also snag a sweet roll off a table in the hallway before heading downstairs to the somewhat crowded lobby. I&#8217;m still a little peeved at the cost of the room and I&#8217;m determined to make up for it.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s cloudy and partly drizzly when I leave the hotel and head for the docks to begin what will hopefully be a more lucrative line of work: diving for pearls.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Click for larger image\" href=\"http:\/\/notmydesk.com\/npc\/anvildockslarge.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/screencuisine.net\/nmd\/npc\/anvildockssmall.jpg\" alt=\"Anvil Docks\" width=\"450\" height=\"281\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now, I&#8217;m no <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uesp.net\/wiki\/Oblivion:Argonian\">Argonian<\/a>, but I should be able to swim well enough to collect my weight in pearls, and Cyrodiil is known for its high percentage of pearl-bearing clams. I head out past the lighthouse, carefully navigate down the cliffs to the ocean, and stroll into the surf.<\/p>\n<p>And, after paddling around in the water for a couple hours, it becomes apparent that there are no clams in the waters of Anvil. I don&#8217;t find Clam One. There&#8217;s nothin&#8217; but rocks and sand and water. There aren&#8217;t even any slaughterfish!<\/p>\n<p>I hate this freakin&#8217; town. As I glumy crawl out of the water, while it&#8217;s <em>still <\/em>freakin&#8217; raining, no less, I run into some of Anvil&#8217;s surlier natives.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/screencuisine.net\/nmd\/npc\/crab1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"311\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A mudcrab! And two more close by. Well, luckily, I&#8217;m feeling good and stabby. This rusty old dagger isn&#8217;t ornamental! I dodge in and out of range, slashing and slicing away with my trusted dagger that I&#8217;ve never used before. Moments later, it&#8217;s over.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/screencuisine.net\/nmd\/npc\/crab2.jpg\" alt=\"dead crabs against rainy sky\" width=\"450\" height=\"284\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Who&#8217;s<\/em> ya daddy? That&#8217;s right, Ugly Clown-Face Trout-Lipped Guy&#8217;s ya daddy!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/screencuisine.net\/nmd\/npc\/crab3.jpg\" alt=\"crab lock\" width=\"450\" height=\"159\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Well, that&#8217;s weird. I plunder the crab for their presumably delicious meat, and one crab has a little surprise in it. Which raises the question: exactly who was trying to pick a crab? And why?<\/p>\n<p>I soon find another Nirnroot, but no clams or other ingredients. I even find another of those weird stone formations, but no pickable herbs around it. It&#8217;s already lunchtime and all I&#8217;ve collected is 3 gold pieces worth of crab meat. And it&#8217;s <em>still <\/em>raining! Is this Anvil or Seattle? I grouchily eat my stolen sweet roll and an apple for lunch, and decide I could use a pick-me-up. I head over to the lighthouse to see if I can reach the top and maybe &#8212; despite the lousy weather &#8212; see the distant spire of Imperial City&#8217;s White Gold Tower. Maybe that&#8217;ll inspire me.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/notmydesk.com\/npc\/anvilviewlarge.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/screencuisine.net\/nmd\/npc\/anvilviewsmall.jpg\" alt=\"Anvil Lighthouse View\" width=\"450\" height=\"281\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I have a chat with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uesp.net\/wiki\/Oblivion:Ulfgar_Fog-Eye\">Ulfgar Fog-Eye<\/a>, the lighthouse keeper, who seems to be making a damn comfortable living by lighting a fire once a day. Nice digs, and he doesn&#8217;t seem to mind that I just walked into his house and started nosing around in his stuff. Too bad he doesn&#8217;t need an assistant; it&#8217;d be nice to earn enough money to buy a sword or maybe some sleeves. I climb the steps to the top of the lighthouse and, while I have a nice view of Anvil, I can&#8217;t see the Tower in the distance. It&#8217;s just too darn overcast.<\/p>\n<p>Astoundingly, the day is about over. I head into The Flowing Bowl, and buy a loaf of bread and a wheel of cheese (4gp total) from Maenlorn, who I notice is selling my wolf pelt for 18 gp. I sold it to him for 5. Nice mark-up, <em>jerk<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Out of curiosity, I wander into the local Magic-Mart, or as they prefer to call it, the Mage&#8217;s Guild. I&#8217;m curious to see how much a mortar and pestle costs &#8212; I could use one to combine ingredients and make potions, which often fetch a higher price than their raw components. They&#8217;re going for 43 gp here&#8230; and I only have 38 gold anyway. Plus, I don&#8217;t have any ingredients besides crab. So, a pointless exercise.<\/p>\n<p>Glum, I head back to the Count&#8217;s Arms hotel, and rent a room for the night. Minus that 25 gold, I&#8217;m now down to 9. Nine friggin&#8217;gold pieces. I got here with 17, so I&#8217;m now officially operating at a loss.<\/p>\n<p>When I get to the room it hasn&#8217;t even been restocked with food! The plates are empty! And no fresh folded cloth! That tears it. I&#8217;m <em>done <\/em>with Anvil. Screw this lousy burg! Tomorrow, I&#8217;m getting up early and hitting the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Note: From here on, some pictures are clickable for larger versions.) Time to start Day Two, and I start it by stealing stuff. I don&#8217;t loot the entire hotel room, but I do help myself to the folded cloth on the dresser. Look, it&#8217;s a hotel. They expect you to take the folded cloth. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[684],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nondricks-non-adventure","section-livinginoblivion","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}