I found some Soul Gems at an undisclosed location, managed to pick the lock to the case they were in, stole them in broad daylight, and escaped from the police by jumping off an extremely high bridge :)
I foolishly returned to the stables to get my horse, only to find that Ben wasn't there! Those ectoplasms must have arrested him :'(
So, I stole another horse (bounty now 700 gold), at which point I also realized that my stolen soul gems had disappeared out of thin air. Well... I ran back to the university (a long chain of guards chased me there, some even on horses!), looked at the case, and saw that the stones definietly were not there... I'm giving the game the benefit of the doubt, and assuming that either the stones were enchanted and are now under the close watch of the Arch Mage, some blasted pickpocket stole them while I was on the run, or I had a hole in my pocket. (Very annoyingly, I seem to still be in posession of a crystal ball that I unkowingly stole from the same place. I seem to have become rather obsessed with robbery, to the extent that it is an uncontrolable habit).
Well, this is great... so, with no choice available due to lack of funds and the fact that they currently do not want to negotiate, I've ended up on the run from authority. I abandoned the horse and swam my way to some strange ruins, and my only comfort now is a big case of whisky that I found. I'd best stay in hiding for a while before I come back to sort things out... A prison sentence will not cut it, but the only alternatives are to scrounge up another 600 gold or kill every imperial guard in this entire place.
I could have sworn I saw somebody there when I arrived at the ruins, but he ran off. If I can find him, he may fulfill my vampiric needs... If I can't, I am doomed unless I can travel back to that baboon of a witch before the next day's sun and suck her blood dry!
...Maybe force her to give me that information, too...
There seems to be a bed here, so perhaps it belongs to him. Only time will tell. For now, I seem to have been left in posession of his ale... and there's noone more in need of that than I.
I'm really annoyed about that disappearing Soul Gem (and in fact that whole Sould Gem quest in general, especially since there is no explanation about those things for newbies such as myself, who are left completely in the dark about how to acquire one of them... let alone 5! I have a few simple soul gems, but I can't imagine how to get a Grand one)...but holy witty remark, Batman! This thing is deep! I know there's been running away from authority before, but it's rarely like this!
I learned the way to enjoy this game most: If you screw up everything, don't go back to your last save; Keep Going! It's not like Doom or Freelancer, where screwing up makes you fail because it's excessively linear.
In RPGs like this, it can only get better. If you play through the game without screwing up, there's no challenge and it won't be nearly as awesome. I'm on the run and everyone probably hates me by now, thus (judging by RPG cliches) inadvertently dooming the entire universe? So what! Now I get to be one with the forest people... or against them :P
(Hmm... I wonder if they put effort into those folks who aren't on the map).
Uhm... any hints on ways to acquire the soul gems? I'm not asking for exactly where they are, but just for a general idea of what they are, what they do, and if they are buyable or only acquireable through dungeons or something, as there are no guides at the moment where I could find such information (a good sign?)... And whether I should bother launching a search specifically for them, or just keep my eyes peeled while swallowing people's blood, (which is getting to be a bit less of a problem because it works well along with my role in the Thieves Guild).
You can probably tell that I haven't enjoyed an RPG in ages.
I agree that the Oblivion gates are a shame. I've done two of them, and I've vowed to never bother with one again unless it is significantly different from the first two... perhaps with some kind of fancy epic battle sequence with hundreds of soldiers all charging in. It's unlikely, though. Actually, I just hate overusing of dungeons... they kill the otherwise open-ended and big feeling of a game like this.
Why have dungeons when you can have ghost cities and covert operations between really @#!*ed off factions???
I foolishly returned to the stables to get my horse, only to find that Ben wasn't there! Those ectoplasms must have arrested him :'(
So, I stole another horse (bounty now 700 gold), at which point I also realized that my stolen soul gems had disappeared out of thin air. Well... I ran back to the university (a long chain of guards chased me there, some even on horses!), looked at the case, and saw that the stones definietly were not there... I'm giving the game the benefit of the doubt, and assuming that either the stones were enchanted and are now under the close watch of the Arch Mage, some blasted pickpocket stole them while I was on the run, or I had a hole in my pocket. (Very annoyingly, I seem to still be in posession of a crystal ball that I unkowingly stole from the same place. I seem to have become rather obsessed with robbery, to the extent that it is an uncontrolable habit).
Well, this is great... so, with no choice available due to lack of funds and the fact that they currently do not want to negotiate, I've ended up on the run from authority. I abandoned the horse and swam my way to some strange ruins, and my only comfort now is a big case of whisky that I found. I'd best stay in hiding for a while before I come back to sort things out... A prison sentence will not cut it, but the only alternatives are to scrounge up another 600 gold or kill every imperial guard in this entire place.
I could have sworn I saw somebody there when I arrived at the ruins, but he ran off. If I can find him, he may fulfill my vampiric needs... If I can't, I am doomed unless I can travel back to that baboon of a witch before the next day's sun and suck her blood dry!
...Maybe force her to give me that information, too...
There seems to be a bed here, so perhaps it belongs to him. Only time will tell. For now, I seem to have been left in posession of his ale... and there's noone more in need of that than I.
I'm really annoyed about that disappearing Soul Gem (and in fact that whole Sould Gem quest in general, especially since there is no explanation about those things for newbies such as myself, who are left completely in the dark about how to acquire one of them... let alone 5! I have a few simple soul gems, but I can't imagine how to get a Grand one)...but holy witty remark, Batman! This thing is deep! I know there's been running away from authority before, but it's rarely like this!
I learned the way to enjoy this game most: If you screw up everything, don't go back to your last save; Keep Going! It's not like Doom or Freelancer, where screwing up makes you fail because it's excessively linear.
In RPGs like this, it can only get better. If you play through the game without screwing up, there's no challenge and it won't be nearly as awesome. I'm on the run and everyone probably hates me by now, thus (judging by RPG cliches) inadvertently dooming the entire universe? So what! Now I get to be one with the forest people... or against them :P
(Hmm... I wonder if they put effort into those folks who aren't on the map).
Uhm... any hints on ways to acquire the soul gems? I'm not asking for exactly where they are, but just for a general idea of what they are, what they do, and if they are buyable or only acquireable through dungeons or something, as there are no guides at the moment where I could find such information (a good sign?)... And whether I should bother launching a search specifically for them, or just keep my eyes peeled while swallowing people's blood, (which is getting to be a bit less of a problem because it works well along with my role in the Thieves Guild).
You can probably tell that I haven't enjoyed an RPG in ages.
I agree that the Oblivion gates are a shame. I've done two of them, and I've vowed to never bother with one again unless it is significantly different from the first two... perhaps with some kind of fancy epic battle sequence with hundreds of soldiers all charging in. It's unlikely, though. Actually, I just hate overusing of dungeons... they kill the otherwise open-ended and big feeling of a game like this.
Why have dungeons when you can have ghost cities and covert operations between really @#!*ed off factions???