So I finally gave in and loaded Oblivion on my computer, even though I had promised myself repeatedly that I wasn't going to until I finished two of the games already on my computer. Oh well. So much for goals. I just couldn't stand looking at the box (well, three boxes, actually) on my desk day after day and wondering what sort of wonderful goodness they contained.
So I started off pretty well. I found a horse, some armor, and a sword, and then consulted my map. My goal was the town of Kvatch, roughly aheckofalongway to the southwest. Wouldn't have been a problem if the road actually ran to the town. Which it did, in a roundabout, sort of curving let's add an extra hundred miles in there just for the fun of it way. So I decided to ride my old nag (which is actually what it said if I selected the horse - that I had an old nag) straight across the country to save time.
On the way, I found an old ruin. In that ruin was a door. Beyond that door was a corridor. Beyond that corridor was a room full of riches. Yay riches! So I took the riches and began to trek back to the surface.
A floorplate I didn't see till I'd stepped on it released the score or so of ghosty things I was in no way prepared to deal with. So I ran, but the ethereal realm is not encumbered by such pesky things as gravity, friction, and say... walls and rocks and things. So the ghosties caught up to me and I died.
So I loaded my save game and decided to follow the road. Which went all well and good until I was mugged by a group of thieving thieves. So I died again.
For the third time I loaded my game and decided this time to use the quick travel feature to reach Kvatch. I got to the town in a matter of seconds, fully intact, and after speaking briefly to a couple of soldiers about why I was there, I marched straight through the yawning gate to hell that had decided to open up in the middle of town. Like I could do anything about it, lol.
I couldn't. The fiery minions of deathspawn ganged up on me and again I died, this time writhing in fiery agony.
I loaded again and things have been going a bit better. I decided to forgo the town of Kvatch for now (they can handle themselves, right?) and see what else this world has to offer. I headed west instead of south at first and found an old fort, I think it was Fort Sutch, which after dismounting and leaving my horse in easy reach of the exit, should I need to leave the fort in a hurry, I entered. I quietly and with no small amount of sneaking managed to defeat all the mercenaries hiding within. Too bad I couldn't take their armor and sell it. I was almost overburdened as it was. So availing myself of everything I could, I left the fort, only to find my horse was missing. Had someone stolen my horse? The nerve! I searched frantically, running an ever widening circle around the fort until I found her, the poor old nag, lying dead in the tall grass with an arrow in her eye. Some evil thing had shot my horse! Do you know how much horses cost? I am never going to be able to buy one.
So, downhearted, I trudged on foot the long weary miles south to the town of Anvil, too depressed to even think about going eastward to Kvatch. I defeated a gang of womenthieves wreaking havoc on the gullible menfolk of Anvil, and I gave my seven apples to a beggar. Then I found a curiously large chest in an abandoned farmhouse, and in an attempt to open it, I broke all my lockpicks. I am now wandering about, desperately searching for more lockpicks so that I might open the chest and behold the wonders it contains.
