{"id":1520,"date":"2009-12-28T01:45:03","date_gmt":"2009-12-28T09:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chocolatehammer.org\/?p=1520"},"modified":"2026-06-15T17:07:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T01:07:23","slug":"in-a-hostile-country-the-saga-of-cahmel-lets-play-morrowind-part-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chocolatehammer.org\/?p=1520","title":{"rendered":"In a Hostile Country: The Saga of Cahmel (Let’s Play Morrowind, Part 29)"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Hadn\u2019t realized how much of my buffer I\u2019d eaten through\u2014not a whole lot to today\u2019s LP. I\u2019ll get some more gameplay under my belt before next week\u2019s entry.)<\/p>\n

When we last left our mighty hero, he\u2019d been inundated with curses until his muscles turned into licorice. At least, I\u2019m assuming <\/em>it was the curse that did it. It\u2019s possible that it was just a radioactive bonewalker, since I seem to have gained the proportional strength and agility of a rotted corpse.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

I had to tweak this screenshot heavily to make the bonewalker visible. I guess the CHEAPNESS is fogging up my vision.<\/p><\/div>\n

No hyperbole: my strength score was actually reduced to zero. This left me in a bit of a quandary. In Morrowind, your ability to carry objects is tied directly to your strength. The higher your strength stat is, the higher the upper ceiling of weight you can carry is. I\u2019d been lugging around some 240 pounds of assorted crap\u2014some of it essential (my armor\/weapons\/teddy bear), some of it valuable stuff I couldn\u2019t be arsed to sell just yet, some of it random rubbish that I picked up by accident when I was quicklooting chests or trying to pick up specific objects in crowded areas.<\/p>\n

Anyway, 240 pounds had been a comfortable load when I was Cahmel, muscle-boy and idol of ladies everywhere. Now that I\u2019m Cahmel, weed-boy and poster child for degenerative muscle diseases everywhere, my comfortable load is a little closer to -5 pounds. In fact, if I want to be able to move at all, I can carry somewhere in the neighborhood of no <\/em>pounds, nothing <\/em>ounces. Doing the math, and considering the average weight of my equipment and random loot, this works out to a carrying capacity of anywhere between zero<\/em> and none <\/em>items. If I want to powerwalk my fur diaper thing across the room, I\u2019m going to have to do so entirely unburdened, leaving all of my armor and weapons behind.<\/p>\n

Alternately, I could chug a potion of restore strength, which all experienced adventurers carry with them for exactly this purpose.<\/p>\n

\u2026Uh. I, uh. I think I left it in my other diaper. I mean, obviously<\/em>, I wasn\u2019t dumb enough to go up against a cult of necromancers without carrying restorative potions. Duh<\/em>. I guess\u00a0 I just, I just misplaced it or something. Maybe a scrib drank it while I was sleeping or something, I dunno.<\/p>\n

Well, I do have a spell that will boost my strength very temporarily, but I have to rest 24 hours between uses. I can\u2019t rest here, since there\u2019s bogies about, so I\u2019d have to cast it, do as much tomb-clearing violence as I could in a very short window, and then run outside before it expired so I could rest up again. It\u2019d be like deep-sea diving, only with evil skeletons, and I\u2019d be wearing a more ridiculous helmet.<\/p>\n

No, I don\u2019t like that idea. Nor do I like the idea of pressing on, sans gear. Something tells me that attempting this dungeon naked and unarmed is something other than a winning strategy.<\/p>\n

I scroll through my inventory, racking my brain for a solution. Unfortunately, I find one.<\/p>\n

Divine Intervention.<\/p>\n

It was a scroll I\u2019d saved for exactly this kind of emergency. When cast, it would take me from wherever I was and plop me down at the nearest Imperial fortress. Once there, I could rest up, cast the strength booster, then run inside and search for someone who could sell me a restore strength potion, or at least a protein shake or a gym membership or something. I wouldn\u2019t even have to abandon any of my gear. I\u2019d just have to abandon this entire dungeon, and very likely all of the progress I\u2019d made in it so far.<\/p>\n

Only that, huh.<\/p>\n

I wish I could say I thought long and hard about it, but\u2026well, there wasn\u2019t a whole lot to consider. True, there were a few possible solutions to this problem, but only one of which them was easy in the short term. I mean, in theory, I\u2019d have to re-fight my way through the tomb at some point after porting away, but that was in the future. This is the present, where I have a choice between streaking my way to the nearest town and blowing a scroll and calling it a night.<\/p>\n

I cast it, appearing outside Fort Somethingorother.<\/p>\n

The patrolling soldiers (well, milling around soldiers, anyway) seem rather unimpressed that a bloodied black Steven Hawkings in bug armor has just appeared in front of them without warning or explanation. Their apathy seems a little strange at first, but it makes sense once you think about it. The spells are widely available, and get shilled by random NPCs during conversations, so adventurers randomly teleporting into their courtyard is probably a pretty frequent occurrence. The first time a half-naked guy appeared out of nowhere with a dozen slaughterfish in his pants, impossibly both soaking wet and on fire<\/em>, they probably got used to the whole thing. I wonder if there\u2019s ever any awkward civilian applications\u2014like some middle-aged guy teleporting in with some lipstick and a sheepish expression on his face, or someone appearing clutching a couple bulging sacks of coins and trying to walk away casually.<\/p>\n

Now that I think of it, there\u2019s probably some sort of Divine Intervention betting pool going on. \u201cMan, if one more flaming wood elf appears this week, I\u2019ve got next month\u2019s rent all sewn up!\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyway, I cast my magic Charles Atlas Build Bigger Muscles In 1 Seconds spell and run inside. It doesn\u2019t take long to find a potion maker\u2014unfortunately, he only stocks the watery kind of potion, and he\u2019s barely got enough strength restorers to bring me back to my former glory. So\u2026if I\u2019m going to do this properly, I\u2019m going to have to go get supplies somewhere else.<\/p>\n

Great. Looks like I\u2019m walking to the nearest town, first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Hadn\u2019t realized how much of my buffer I\u2019d eaten through\u2014not a whole lot to today\u2019s LP. I\u2019ll get some more gameplay under my belt before next week\u2019s entry.) 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