Binary Swan

I received my third quest from the Mages Guild in Balmora which involved collecting some flower samples found in the Ascadian Isles region. I decided that in addition to this quest I would do a little sight seeing first to re-introduce myself to some of the nearby locales. I headed north out of Balmora, casting calm creature on a rat during my journey which leveled up my Illusion skill. I then arrived at Caldera, a fort town near the local Ebony mines. I visited the local shops to see if there were any enchanted items for sale that would either give me another source of spells or some form of magicka regeneration. Finding nothing, I left on my mission to the south. I passed Moonmoth legion fort on my way to the Isles to upset the local ecological balance.

Caldera

Moonmoth Legion Fort

During this mission I found the calm creature spell to be exceedingly useful in avoiding conflict with local fauna. I knew that I would soon need a more powerful version of this spell if it was going to be useful in the long run. I managed to find all four flower samples in short order so I decided that I would go south to visit the capital Vivec before teleporting back to Balmora to complete the quest. Heading south through the Ascadian Isles waterways using water walking and came across the cave of Punammu. I had yet to randomly explore a cave as a Pacifist so I jumped at the opportunity.

As I open the door I was caught by a Nix hound on the other side who quickly attacked me and I turned and fled. Not being deterrred I rested and healed before preparing my Calm creature spell and moving once more into the breach. I settled the large green animal and another of its kind before I noticed two bandits, deeper into the cave, standing around a fire with a chest nearby. Taking my chances I cast my shield spell, ran forward and emptied the chest of its low level armor pieces. The bandits attacked me but I was sufficiently protected  by my shield to get away and past the docile Nix hounds out of the cave. I then travelled south to Vivec where I did some window shopping, sold my loot and agreed to help out an armorer by stealing an supply order from his direct competitor. More notes on that soon.

A nice stroll through the Ascadian Isles

Vivec, the capital of Morrowind

What I learnt from this short session was that Morrowind has a good means of protecting Pacifists via the limits of the engine’s techonology. NPCs and creatures cannot travel betweeen interior and exterior locations and therefore any point between the two will provide me with a safe escape from any pursuit. I also noted how difficult it was to gain any type of loot with the armor from Punammu scoring me less than 100 gold pieces. Whilst I am supremely confident that I can be committed to Pacifism in Morrowind, it is a path that is alot harder than the path commonly taken. This speaks to the assumption of the game design that players would take violent acts as a matter of course and therefore set up part of its reward system in line with this.