did anyone else kinda find it funny that when archmage traven sacrificed himself to fill the black soul gem, you didn't have to take the soul gem and you could just go an fight mannimarco like you normally could if you got the black soul gem

That might be how the game engine has things play out, but as I understood it his sacrifice still works in the story; the black gem needs to be full so Manimarco can't turn you into a zombie thing...

Personally, I didn't like that part of the story.

Mannimarco probably made the mages believe this as it would make it harder for them to fight him, or perhaps it was your evil character who fooled the arch-mage so you could get rid of him.

I've always taken the Colossal Black Soul Gem (CBSG). However I understand the game may not require it due to a (major) oversight. That is a horrible bug in the game. If you confront Mannimarco without the CBSG he should use his Worm Thrall spell and it should be "Game Over Man, Game Over!"

Just sloppy programming.

or maybe it was just having the CBSG filled that limited his powers?

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/3838/therealmannimarco.jpg

I feel exactly the same way like you do moosa. That part should really be rewritten imho.

The only guild my mystic archer belongs to is the guild of mages. Her nature is such though that she is just not the type to be in charge of anything. We have her stop doing MG quests right before anyone gets hurt at the Bruma guild. And certainly, the Arch Mage is not going to die in her game. It was horrible enough that some of her guildmates got killed at Wellspring. She hates necrodudes. :stare:

Fully agree with this.