» Sat Jan 05, 2013 11:17 pm So, I'm actually playing both Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood questlines for the first time, as odd as it may sound! So far they have lived up to my expectations; both seem to very good, with many kinds of quests. I'm vanishing from Thieves Guild's maps now that I've reached the rank of Shadowfoot since I don't want to be any higher. What I'm aiming for is to become the leader of the Dark Brotherhood. I don't even know if I'm becoming a Listener, a Finger or who, since I've heard some things about the plot and I don't know how my character will blend in in all of it. It's great how I experience my character: on the other hand I play him like a rogue/scout type adventurer, and that aspect is like a cover for him really being in Thieves Guild, which in turn serves as a cover for high-ranking DB membership (so that the Thieves Guild members and few others wouldn't suspect)! In his heart he is a Dark Brother.
So, sorry for the ramble; I guess I'm just so excited when Oblivion's beauty has finally dawned to me! So, now, let's finally move to some questions/notes/etc. You are free to comment in any way you like.
- One thing I thought will happen in the Thieves Guild questline is Methredhel double-crossing me. I guessed that she would remain angry after losing in the quest May the Best Thief Win or something like that, the one that grants you the guild membership. On the other hand it seemed fairly possible to lose this race to Methredhel, so I don't know if my suspicion has any ground at all. Nevertheless, I thought she seemed bitter about losing this. The next thing I know, though, she was in the guild, and not only helping me with the bust but also organizing the whole major, was it 3 or 4 simultanious theft strike against Hieronymous Lex! What the-? I thought for sure that she is setting me up for a trap, but decided to play along anyway since I damn well trust in my sneak skill!
- It's too bad I cannot seem to be able to tell my Brotherhood pals about the things I found out on my first visit to Deepscorn Hollow (added by a plugin). In http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Greywyn%27s_Journal, it says that a vampire servant isn't what Sithis would want. Before finding this journal, I seriously considered Vicente Valtieri's offer to, it seems, infect me with vampirism. I had had a couple of infections before but always cured them, so I thought that later, when I have nothing more to do with this character, and if Valtieri's still alive at the end of the DB quest, I would finally accept his offer. But now I'm having second thoughts. Is this Greywyn's Journal a credible source not to become a vampire if I want to please Sithis? Will the game at any stage offer any interaction between the Dark Brotherhood faction and things you can find in Deepscorn Hollow? I'd surely wish for this but don't find it very likely, especially since the hollow wasn't even in the vanilla game (as far as I know... the quest at least wasn't!).
- Speaking of the DB, I absolutely loved the quest "Whodunit?" where you go to a house and must murder all others there in secrecy. Shades of a classic situation for example from Agatha Christie's And Then There Was None among other works! I even ignored how absurd that gathering was in all aspects because it was so fun to actually play it.
I mean, there isn't any reasoning as to why they are there (or I missed it, or it's yet to come, but don't think so...), it isn't explained in the writing. One thing that made this especially interesting for me was that apparently a glitch made me think that one of the NPCs is also a murderer! That is,I was watching all the five characters in the house, thinking of ways to end them, when suddenly everyone was running away from somebody. When I turned behind the corner to see what caused the fuzz, I caught a mere glimpse of a skeleton that possibly read "Dovesi Dran's Skeleton" before it disappeared. That is, a summon. And, I saw Nels the Naughty lying on the ground, dead! What? I certainly hadn't killed him! I don't know what the skelly summon had to do with it, but possibly Nels just ended up dying due to every NPC in that house having only 1 HP. Maybe he just tripped on a Radish and died or something, and Dovesi Dran just reacted to the death she saw as if it was because someone had attacked Nels. You can imagine my theories after that little incident! Dovesi Dran caught with a summon in front of pretty much everybody in the house! Is she an agent too? Does she have her own intentions so that she can find the (nonexistant) chest of gold? Is she even the member or a rival group, like Morag Tong perhaps? Phew, that was maybe my greatest moment in Oblivion yet! Thank you, it seems, random glitch! 
- Do you feel like you know places in Oblivion when you travel in the wilderness? In both Skyrim and Morrowind, I seem to remember some landmarks and landscapes even if there are no roads nearby, but in Oblivion, I don't have a clue where I am half the time! Do you get the impression that everything pretty much always looks the same? More than in SR/MW? The world even seems maybe emptiest of the three, and map the smallest. Although these might have something to do with my character's low level (the encounters with hostiles will increase over time etc.) and the fact that I've played the game way less than TES III and V.
- Last, can you hint me sneakish/thiefish/darkish random (side)quests? That is, quests that resemble TG or DB quests. Or any quests really that could go together with my character. For example, I had fun roleplaying a quest I have done before, the one with the two ladies persuading you to come to their farm cottage for the night (so that they can rob you blind, I presume). When my char heard from this criminal gang, he was nothing but, "Hey, this is Thieves Guild hood! Get out of here, you rival organization you!" No other interests in that one.
The same goes for arresting the profiteer Guard Captain in Imperial City; I thought it would make me look good in the townspeople's and Imperial troops' minds, even though at the sake time I'm secretly undermining their peace of mind and financial situation!