Upon fleeing the imperial city, I set out along the path before me. At this point I didn’t realize the map compass had a red arrow showing where my quest destination is so I instead decided to follow the road signs. The problem is that the forks in the road don’t always have road signs.
Along the trail I came across Fort Ash. The perfect opportunity to do some real exploring. Unfortunately there wasn’t much exciting in the caves of Fort Ash. A few rats and goblins. Most importantly though, I took a nap at one point in the cave. I was awakened by a member of the Assassins Guild. He told me he had been observing me and wished to offer me a position in the guild. All I had to do was take the “Virgin Blade” (called the Blade of Woe) and kill a man staying at the Inn of Ill Omen. Sounds simple enough.
This also brings up a bit of an odd glitch with the game. Or at least an interesting side effect. After speaking to the Messenger, I head off to explore the rest of the dungeon. At one point I’m taking aim at a Rat and notice that suddenly in my path is a shadowy “transparent” silhouette. Any regular gamer would recognize this as “someone is invisible”. I direct my arrow away and miss the rat but avoid accidentally shooting the invisible guest. After chasing him down I discover that it’s the messenger! I’m sure that would have gone over well with the Guild, accident or not.
But first I still planed to deliver the Emperor’s Treasure to Chorrol. This quest ended up being excessively simple. Outside of Chorrol is a monastery where a monk named Jauffre lives. He tells me I have to find the Emperor’s only remaining living Heir, a guy named Martin.
Boring.
Instead I head off to the Inn of Ill Omen, a simple enough trip. Once there, I scope the place out looking for my target. The woman says the Inn is almost always deserted. The guy at the counter seems happy that he finally has a customer. He also tells me my target lives in the basement. There is also an imperial guard here. I sneak off to the basement.
Instead of just slashing his throat in his sleep I wake him up in an attempt to find out why the Guild wants him dead. This causes him to run off in a panic, so I gut him anyway. I take a short rest in his bed and am confronted again by the Assassins Messenger. He tells me where to find the Guild’s hideout and informs of the rules of the guild. The rules essentially amount to “Don’t be mean to guild members”.
Fortunately, conveniently take your pick, the guild’s lair is in the same town that another quest I’ve picked up is in. Cheydinhal. I’ve got another quest picked up in Chorrol to find an impersonator of a drunk from Chorrol. Looks like Cheydinhal is a good place to hit next. Unfortunatley I’ve still got the body of my victim to deal with. Not wanting it to be discovered, I head back up stairs. I figure the Inn is a deserted nowhere sort of place so I slaughter the 3 remaining inhabitants. The woman drops easily. The guard gives me a bit of trouble but I manage to take him down with a few fireballs and arrows. The Innkeeper ends up dropping to a stray fireball during my fight with the guard.
I head south to Bravil first to rest. Once again the omnipotence of the guards kicks in. I’m quickly thrown in jail for murder.
