UESPWiki:Reference Desk/2007 02

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1 Mage Guild's Recommendation Trouble
2 Hermaeus Mora
3 Skeleton Key
4 Wiki Syntax Highlighting
5 My Mercantile is stuck at 49
6 Can't access the Spies part of the main quest
7 Contracting Vamparism from a bedroll?
8 Drain Attribute Effect
9 Cheydinhal Recommendation Issue
10 I Killed Lucien Lachance

[edit] Mage Guild's Recommendation Trouble

Copied from: Oblivion Talk:Cheydinhal Recommendation

I've had a problem with the Xbox 360 version of this quest. I didn't have the alteration skill to cast bouyancy, so I entered the well without casting the spell, hoping to grab the ring. I didn't see a body anywhere and went back up. I figured that maybe the game wouldn't let me play the mission without casting bouyancy, so I upgraded it to 25. I cast it and went into the well, and still no body. I want to finish the Mage's Guild's quests, so if anyone can help me it'd be greatly appreciated. Lightman 12:21, 19 February 2007 (EST)

There's generally no need to ask the same question in multiple locations, especially if you haven't given people a chance to respond to the first time. I've answered the question on Oblivion Talk:Cheydinhal Recommendation. --TheRealLurlock ^Talk 12:29, 19 February 2007 (EST)

[edit] Hermaeus Mora

My character is level 38, I have completed the other daedric quest, and I am past the "Blood of the Daedra" segment of the main quest. But no one has come to talk to me and when I went to the shrine I got told that I did not follow the neccessary path. What did I do wrong? -Marc February 6, 2007-

You're sure that you've completed all 14 other daedric quests? Go through your list of completed quests, and make sure that every other quest listed at Daedric Quests is in there. If you chose to keep Umbra after completing the Clavicus Vile quest, you have to go to the shrine and tell Clavicus Vile that you're keeping the sword. --Nephele 15:21, 6 February 2007 (EST)

[edit] Skeleton Key

I have heard that if you get the skeloton key if your level is above 60 then you can go above 100. the skeleton key gives you +40 permanently. that means that if you already have 100 security then you will now have 140.^{—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.171.143.189 (talk • contribs).}

What exactly is the question? Yes, the Skeleton Key can increase your Security skill past 100. --Nephele 23:35, 9 January 2007 (EST)

There's a mod which edits the key's script allowing you to use it while still increasing your Security skill (it disables the +40 bonus at the same time, so it's just like having an unbreakable lockpick). My question is what's the UESP policy on mentioning this on the item page, and providing a link to this said mod? -- Felic 15:42, 1 February 2007 (EST)

We don't have an official policy on including information about mods, although this issue has been discussed recently (Mod Info in Articles; if you have any opinions, feel free to contribute to that discussion). Based on Wrye's proposed criteria, it sounds like the mod you're describing is relevant enough to be mentioned at Skeleton Key. --Nephele 22:59, 1 February 2007 (EST)

[edit] Wiki Syntax Highlighting

I'm looking for a decent syntax highlighting app or plugin for wiki editing. I've tried jEdit/MwJed & Diderot, but I can't get them to work with this wiki. I'm attempting to make my own syntax file for TextPad, but it's crude and inconsistent (my syntax file, not TextPad :D ). Anyone have a nice, clean & free solution for a WinXP user? -- Felic 15:47, 1 February 2007 (EST)

Well, I got this to work! I recommend free & platform independent jEdit text editor with the MwJed plugin. -- Felic 21:38, 6 February 2007 (EST)

[edit] My Mercantile is stuck at 49

I have tried getting this problem fixed on the forum section to no avail. My mercantile is stuck at 49. I have sold well over a hundred items and it hasen't budged at all. The level remains at the beginning of 49 (In the menu where it shows how close you are to leveling up.) I read through the Mercantile section and that didn't help either. I did enchant 4 pieces of armor that raised my mercantile to 89 which enabled me to invest in stores, but ever since I did that my Base Mercantile has not gone up. I have tried selling items with the Mercantile armor on and without. It made no difference. Any ideas? Thanks for the help. Oh, this is for Oblivion on 360. ^{—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Whitefang1968 (talk • contribs).}

Any chance you recently completed A Shadow Over Hackdirt, or some other quest that gives a free skill boost to Mercantile? And that you haven't installed the Patch? That combination of factors would produce exactly what you're describing: the skill bar showing how far you've advanced in Mercantile would be stuck at 0 for quite a while (worst case, if merc is a minor, non-specialized skill, for some 400 transactions; best case 150 or so). It's a glitch that happens when you get a skill boost, for example as a quest reward: your skill goes up, but you don't gain the experience that's supposed to go with the skill increase, so you still have to go and train the skill to collect that missing experience. If that's what has happened to you, eventually your mercantile will start going up again, you'll just have to keep using it. --Nephele 23:18, 2 February 2007 (EST)

[edit] Can't access the Spies part of the main quest

In my main quest I've got to the point where it says "SPIES Martin asked me to speak to jauffre about Mythic dawn agents spying on cloud temple" Jauffre shows up as the green active quest icon but whenever I speak to him or anyone else at cloud temple no one says anything new and no mention is made about spies at all??? I would really appreciate some help here. I've tended to wander about and do daedric and fort ruins as I come accross them and not in some ordered plot. I'm at level 22, I have Azure's Star and a few items I can't drop as they are quest items even though I haven't started those quests. Could this have messed it up, or have I just got some bug? In otherwords (a) is it fixable and (b) will I just have the same problem if I start over from scratch?? Please and thank you in anticipation.GrimNir 18:01, 3 February 2007 (EST)

Have you delivered the Mysterium Xarxes to Martin? In other words, have you completely finished the previous quest (Dagon Shrine)? It looks like it may be possible to get the first update for the Spies quest to appear (the one you're seeing) even without having the book Mysterium Xarxes, but to get Jauffre to talk to you about "Spies" you have to give Martin the book. If Dagon Shrine still appears in your list of current quests, make it the active one and keep following its instructions until it's completely done. Or another possibility is that the "Spies" topic is already in Jauffre's list of available topics, but you have to scroll down to see it. --Nephele 20:16, 3 February 2007 (EST)

[edit] Contracting Vamparism from a bedroll?

After purchasing The Thieves Den, I started the Dunbarrow Cove quest. After clearing the area of skeletons I slept on the bedroll found near the entrance in order to level. I recieved the first vamparism dream message update. The disease progressed as described elsewhere on this site and I was a full vampire as of the third day. I believe I contracted Porphyric Hemophilia from this bedroll. Can anyone else confirm this?

Oblivion, 360 version - patched

--24.21.180.127 02:55, 14 February 2007 (EST)

Beds and bedrolls will not give you Porphyric Hemophilia, at least not without unofficial mods that you obviously are not using if you're playing on the Xbox 360. The Thieves Den plugin does not add any vampirism-related items. You must have caught the disease at some point before using the bedroll and just not noticed it until you decided to sleep. It could have occurred at any time before that, even days before if you hadn't slept in the meantime. --Nephele 12:53, 14 February 2007 (EST)

I thought of this possibility and loaded a save made immediately prior to entering the Thieves Den. I traveled back to a city and slept and did not have any dream. I waited several days and sleep cycles to ensure that I was not infected. I then went back to the Thieves Den and cleared it out again and then slept on the bedroll. Same result. --Dhardrian 16:34, 14 February 2007 (EST)

I can definitely look into it some more; so far I just did some broad searches through the Oblivion.esm and DLCThievesDen.esp files (i.e., the files with all the main game data and the Thieves Den plugin data). And I know this has also been discussed previously at Oblivion_Talk:Vampires. But you've obviously done some of the first order tests that I myself would do, and what you're describing is worth a few more checks. Just to get all the facts completely straight: which exact bedroll is this? The one in the Smuggler's Cave cell, or one inside Dunbarrow Cove somewhere? And do you have any other official mods installed? (There shouldn't be interactions between the mods, but might as well be sure). And all you did in between the non-infected save and the onset of vampirism was clear out the skeletons in Dunbarrow Cove? --Nephele 18:10, 14 February 2007 (EST)

[edit] Drain Attribute Effect

I am looking to get hold of the Drain Attribute effect for enchanting and spellmaking, using the XBOX 360 version of Oblivion. I have read on this site that one way to get access to the effect is to catch a disease with a Drain Attribute effect. I did this (difficult as it was - I am a Redguard) and before curing myself, as instructed, tried to create a spell at the altar. However the effect was not there. What could I be doing wrong? Do I need a certain Destruction level (it is 50)? Or should I just try again? Thanks. -Iain 90.240.132.164 13:33, 16 February 2007 (EST)

Good question :) I know that when I tested that tip, the first time I tested the effect didn't show up at the spellmaking altar; the second and third times it did. I don't know why it didn't show up the first time; I thought at the time that perhaps other experiments I'd been doing before that might have messed something up. Definitely catching a disease can give you access to it, but maybe there's some extra twist or some random factor that hasn't been identified yet. I'd suggest before curing yourself perhaps try playing some more, sleep a bit, whatever, then go back and try the altar again. I don't think there should be a Destruction skill requirement to get it to appear, but I can't say for sure. I know I tested about ten different diseases before getting bored and figuring that absolutely any disease would work. If you get it to work and have any ideas about what else needs to be done, your tips would be welcome (either here or at Oblivion talk:Drain Attribute). And when I get a chance I'll try to experiment some more and see what I can figure out (at least get a definitive answer on whether there's a skill level requirement). --Nephele 13:44, 16 February 2007 (EST)

Thank you very much for your prompt reply. I will do as instructed and report my findings :) -Iain 90.240.132.164 16:51, 16 February 2007 (EST)

Update: I caught a different disease with a Drain Attribute effect. Once again, I was not able to create a spell. I am thinking that there must be another variable intertwined with this. I will play some more and then try again... -Iain 81.77.16.106 09:59, 17 February 2007 (EST)

I've been doing some more tests, but I'm going to describe them at Oblivion_Talk:Drain Attribute so that they can be found more easily by other readers. --Nephele 13:41, 17 February 2007 (EST)

[edit] Cheydinhal Recommendation Issue

Early on in the game, before I even got into doing any of the Guild quests, I took the black soul gems from Falcar. I don't know what had happened to those gems since, maybe sold, maybe just dropped somewhere. Is it possible to get around this? Or do I have to go around looking for those specific Black Soul Gems that I stole.

--Ghost of Salvatore 00:22, 18 February 2007 (EST)

The bad news is, yes, you have to have Falcar's black soul gems. His two soul gems are uniquely identified by the game; in order to complete the Cheydinhal recommendation you have to have one of the soul gems in your inventory. The good news is they're quest items, so you can't have done anything with them (unless you used a console command to de-quest them); they should still be sitting in your inventory. If you are on the PC and did something strange to forcibly remove them from your inventory, then you can console them back using the command player.additem 3C7FC 2. --Nephele 01:42, 18 February 2007 (EST)

Well then there must have been something that had happened to those gems as they are not in my inventory anymore. The reason I took them was I thought I could use it as an offering to Vaermina. I have the 360 version of the game, so there was no forced removal of those gems. If they were in my inventory than Deetsan should just take them off my hand and write the recommendation for me, but that does not happen as everytime I talk to her, she just says to go and look for something unusual in Falcar's room. I know they show up as stolen in the inventory, but they must have been dropped or sold (maybe to a fence of the Thieve's Guild is my latest theory) --147.136.249.101 17:39, 18 February 2007 (EST)

Is it possible that you were jailed and stolen items were removed from your inventory? All stolen items, even quest items, are removed from your inventory and placed in the prison's Evidence Chest. It couldn't hurt to check there.

Note: I am copying this discussion to the Cheydinhal Recommendation discuusion page.

--GuildKnight 20:18, 18 February 2007 (EST)

You can't have dropped or sold them, because they're quest items. But another option I'm not sure about is what would happen if you had tried to fill the soul gems (i.e., if you cast a soul trap spell with them in your inventory). It's possible that the developers overlooked that loophole for soul gems that are quest items, so they may have allowed them to be filled, at which point the soul gems could have been changed into a non-quest item. If I get a chance later I'll test that. --Nephele 20:19, 18 February 2007 (EST)

I checked every Evidence Chest in every town and nothing. I've only been jailed twice. Once in Bruma and once in the Imperial City. It is not there. I guess the theory of having a soul in it may have done me in. --147.136.249.101 17:55, 19 February 2007 (EST)

I just tested and confirmed that it is possible to use Falcar's soul gems as soul gems: you can fill them and then use them to recharge equipment, just like regular soul gems, at which point they will disappear. It is also possible for them to disappear when you go to jail: if you break out of jail, the soul gems are not returned to you when you retrieve the rest of your belongings from the evidence chest. They are returned if you serve your time in jail. I'll add info about this bug to the quest page. --Nephele 20:01, 19 February 2007 (EST)

OK, one last remote possibility. If you ever broke out of jail, you would have lost the soul gems at that point (along with any other quest items in your inventory). You can get the quest items back by going back to jail and this time serving your sentence. So just pickpocket a guard, sleep in the jail bed and serve your one day sentence. But this is only worth doing if you have previously broken out of jail. --Nephele 20:53, 19 February 2007 (EST)

[edit] I Killed Lucien Lachance

This question was moved here from Technical Support --Nephele 17:05, 20 February 2007 (EST)

Problem: I'm dumd and killed lucien lachance before finding out that the dark brotherhood wasnt just another "Vampire hunting" or "Black bow killing" thing. And 20levels later, id like to complete the dark brotherhood.
Cause: stupidity on my part.
Solution: I've used the resurrect command to revive him but now what? Can the quest be restarted? or is there a way to "complete" failed quest's?? ^{—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 206.162.157.170 (talk • contribs).}