The Neville Ryan Story-An Oblivion AAR

Come to the Imperial City they said... Meet interesting people they said.... They're really quite nice they said....



Well at least the view is lovely...

anyway welcome to my story, I'm Neville Ryan or as the guards who brought me in call me "The one responsible for the Yarn incident".

My day was going as per usual, I went over to have my morning talk with the fellow across the hall from me



Isn't he a stitch? it breaks me up how he can keep such a straight face while threating my impending doom.

anyway, I received a visit from the Emperor Uriel Septim and The Blades, now I must note that I was a little star stuck but the Emperor quickly made a rather pleasant surprise awkward



Umm... alright?

Luckily the emperor makes a save when he goes on about how he knows I am destined for great things and I will not be remembered for whatever I'm in jail for, I would normally be up for a chat but I begin to notice that a door has opened into a secret room connected to my cell that seems to go deeper into some other area.

I follow the Emperor because apparently despite the Blades reluctance to let a prisoner escape, Uriel's fine with having a man in his skivies run around defending him from assassins which, might I add, I did a decent job of



Pow! right in the..thigh maybe?

Luckily following the battle I found a sword on the body of a dead blade, but by the time I looked up I noticed that the Emperor had left and locked the door behind him, I assume by accident.



I noticed two rats coming at me who I quickly dispatched with two mighty slashes, judging by the sizes of them they've eaten whatever cats had been sent to deal with them, oi vey

I want to be the little devil on your shoulder!

What mods are you using?

I almost started one of these myself. You reading about the adventures of Nondrick as well?

Lovely moment, meeting with the Emperor.

@Princescamp, no mods actually, I have no clue how to add them without something crashing or just not working

@Kan, Aye I am quite the fan of living in oblivion, however I think the one downfall of the format is that he can't go on Quests and I've made sure not to restrict myself in what I can do

Oh come on. I figured out how to add mods to Morrowind when I was still a noob!

I left the area that I had slayed two rats in (who needs a mousetrap when you have a sword?) and began my walk through the hidden passages when almost immediately I came across an interesting case, fit for a deductive mind such as my own.



How does a man get into a secret escape path, manage to get himself killed by rats despite being rather well armed and finally how does his head fall off?

Elementary dear readers, as we can see by the light in the image theres a rather decent sized hole in the ceiling next to him which he quite likely fell through while chasing something, died in the fall and had his body eaten by rats, explaining the poor condition of the body!

I'm fighting a horde of rats it leaves plenty of time for the mind to wander

After searching the body I find some arrows and clothes which I use to hide my shame



On second thought, I'd like to change my deduction Watson, The Crazy Bugger was running around without any pants on and was thrown in a nearby hole by unappreciative citizens.

My one man crusade against the rats of the Imperial city continues until something strange happens, a Zombie joins in the Frey.



I dispatch one rat while the other runs at what it would seem to think the larger of two threats, I can't help but feel a little insulted, I even beat the Zombie.... but despite my victory the rat has psyched me out and I sense that I won only because he weakened him for me.

I continue through the paths and even fight my way through a Goblin base in which I find a neat little staff



I can't help but be a little creeped out, but its worth a decent amount of gold so I stick it in my backpack and continue on the journey (I hope to be rid of the thing before I need to sleep)

Finally I come to a change of scenery and even hear familiar voices in the distance

Defend the Emperor from you, it seems. That's a perfect ambush spot!

How are you going to be playing Neville, out of interest? Good/bad/stupid/mage/fighter? Or are you just going to let his story unfold as you go along?

I will be following this.. That Shaman stick is pretty disturbing indeed.

I've also been reading the adventures of Nondrick though he seems to have limited himself somewhat by not taking any quests

Strange, I don't seem to remember that staff having a Goblin head.

@Kan, Well the way I intend to play Neville is along the lines of a well meaning arse, I certainly don't expect poor Neville to go running around the countryside stabbing people who look at him funny

@Pugwash and Scamp, yeah I don't usually find the Goblin head staff all that strange but after rotating my character to take a better picture I noticed that he's rather transfixed with the head stuck on the end of it

Listening to the voices in the next room, all kinds of questions came to mind, What Emperor are they talking about and what are the odds of two emperors using the same escape route? uncanny! I decided to go out and meet with the voices in hopes of finding something alive thats not a rat.



Whoa! Whoa! Whoa Whoa Whoa!.... Whoa.....Whoa who let this guy get up to Emperor guarding duties? "hey! he might be working with the enemy, lets inflict bodily harm!" geez, thankfully Uriel called him off, thankfully for him.... because blood can be a pain to clean off of a blade so I could have been quite the inconvenience

After a short conversation with Uriel he allowed me to choose my birthsign and gain a decent bonus skill.



I figured as long as I'll be sticking around the Emperor and his stab happy guards the ability to disappear may be quite beneficial.

After a short walk, keeping close to the Emperor one of the Blades makes an interesting discovery



Ackbar here then instructs us to hide into the next room while they fend off the assasins while we have a nice little chat



I sense the begining of a great tale that will be the stuff of legends... of course I always predict that and I have yet to get one right, however I'm not given long to dwell on the situation as an assasin bursts through the hidden door to the Emperors left and kills him with a single stroke



I pull out an arrow and take aim, only to have my target killed by one of the blades who foolishly steps in the path of my projectile



With an arrow sticking out of his chest and the Emperor who had been responsible for calling these guys off of me bleeding on the floor, my chances don't look great right now

I like that calm "What the Hell?" expression on that guys face in that last shot.
Definatly be following this.

Once again I luck out, rather than run me through Baurus just asks me what I do for a living, I figure with an arrow sticking out of his chest we won't believe me if I claimed to be a marksman so I decide to answer truthfully



I assume Thief to be a rather safe career choice, and should the need come up I can always pick up a sword and wear some decent armour, while a Knight can't pick a lock at all.

After I walked through the remainder of the Sewers I saw a bright light at the end of a tunnel and followed it, outside I came across a lake and in order to survey my surroundings I walked on top of a hill and looked around



I think I know where I'm going...

P.S. finally figured out how to add a mod, it adds a shop that I can go to in order to buy new speciality arrows that are useful for thief work

You better hope that the guards who arrested you in Imperial City don't recognise you

Immediately upon entering the city I'm approached by a child



I follow the instructions on the letter given to me and crawl down a sewer grate, after a short walk I come across a nicely furnished room with a man who sells different kinds of arrows



I pick up a Grease arrow (people who run over it fall down) and a Blackjack, a big club thats used for thumping people over the head (doesn't kill but leaves them with a pretty impressive headache)

I wander around the merchant district until I notice that the only door unlocked is the Imperial Centre of Commons, I take advantage and walk inside



Theres not much downstairs worth stealing besides books, but I go upstairs and check out the shop owner




Now I can see why someone would keep a dagger nearby, but sleep with it? I decide that this person must be fairly handy with it to keep it on them while sleeping and be sure that they won't stab them self, needless to say I disarm her before I continue taking anything of value.

Afterwards I find myself rather exhausted and see if I can talk the Inn owner into letting me have a room



oh come on! theres three rooms with nobody in them and he wants me to pay 20 gold? I don't even have pants!

I promptly get him back for such cruelty by dropping my loot from the previous theft in his dining area



Ha! got you good! seeya in ten years jerk!

Apparently the guy is playing the 'dumb as a post' card. Clearly you must dump more crap in his Inn, that'll show him.

While searching around the barrels in the merchant district I came across something rather interesting, and may I add, thankfully received



While I normally would frown upon found pants I was rather glad to finally walk around in something besides a loincloth, This is the beginning of a hero people... Neville has pants!

naturally I celebrated by visiting the local warehouse




After giving the warehouse keeper a little good-night thunk on the head I helped myself to his selection of cloth and walked back out. for some reason he saw fit to talk to the guards and inform them of my activities, like the sporting chap I am I naturally went along with the nice guard, of course after running down an alley and throwing my goods in a barrel for later.

Upon getting out of jail I had a letter delivered to me telling me to go to the waterfront and wait until midnight, naturally I showed up without any kind of hesitation to wait behind a building after dark for some kind of secret meeting, what could go wrong?



everything went swimmingly well, I asked a peasant as to where I could find the journal, hopefully before Methredhel, although I later evened the odds



well... depending upon your idea of how one evens the odds, surprisingly I reached the journal first and since I had until the next night to deliver it I decided to flip through it





after reading that I'm glad I decided to be a thief instead of a dentist.... anyway, its been a day since I've slept and while visiting the waterfront I found a neat little place called the bloated float, with a name like that I can feel the comfort already

I wonder how those plants would "benefit all of cyrodiil". Pest control?

Great AAR, keep it coming.

(well, Precipice of Darkness has come out and I fail to update two days in a row... is there a link? )



well, after about 24 hours of being awake I'm beginning to believe that its time for sleep, should I go too long I could end up accidentally attacking citizens while yelling incoherently about assassins or something, happened to my uncle so it does run in the family.

The kindly owner allows me to rent a room for only 10 gold, half the price of the jerk in the merchant district.... note to self, dump more junk in his inn.

I go to bed for 10 hours and prepare to meet the next day head on



little did I expect it to be so literal, it appears the Inn has been taken over by a gang and set out to sea, this fellow was the first thing I see after waking up and opening my door, I decide to have a little chat and things go awry.

After I claim to be the cook for the ship he decides now would be a great time to start trouble and he pulls out his sword, little does he suspect that this cook is well prepared for battle and within a few seconds he's on the floor with a few arrows sticking out of him, I steal his clothes and sword and move up to the next level.

While on my way to the next floor I discover some rather nice clothes in a trunk and I come up with an idea, I'd prefer to get out of this conflict with as little bloodshed as possible but dressed the way I am I look like I'm ready for a fight.




so I wear the fancy clothes and go up top using the reasoning that everybody loves the rich, I meet another gang member and have a brief chat



Bloody Bolsheviks.... sadly I'm forced to take another gang member down and prepare to liberate the wheel so we can get back to the Imperial city, although once I get out of the ship and see the waves around me I change my tactic and charge right into the next fight



Oh I do love being a swashbuckler.... as I rarely get the chance to swash any buckles on land and since visiting this Inn I've been able to do it three times.

I dispatch the brute and prepare to meet the leader of this treacherous crew, I prepare my sword to face this brute... oh when I get ahold of him I'll....



Dammit... I really should have worn my nice clothes into this battle

What the hell? Is this a mod?


Wait, I've never slept in that inn...