Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - GQ Magicka from Soul Gem

GQ Magicka from Soul Gem
Alternate Download Location (requires login).

This is a simple mod for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to empty soulgems and get some Magicka-restoring ingredient in return. It requires the Oblivion Script Extender.
This uses a modified version of Strategy Master's Soul Delete script aaSMSoulDeleteScript ( http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=24292 ).

GQ Magicka from Soul Gem

Version 2
- Now works on stacks of gems dropped.
- Added a quest-item key that does the same thing. Use the Console to get it. Form ID xx0037c7, where xx is the position in the mod load order in hexadecimal

Requires OBSE
This uses a modified version of Strategy Master's Soul Delete script aaSMSoulDeleteScript ( http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=24292 ).

This mods puts a script on a Pewter Pitcher (Form ID 1C61F). Hotkey it and, while looking at a filled soul gem, equip it via hotkey. There is also a quest-item Key that is not in-game but can be added with the console (FormID xx0037C7).

The soul gem will be emptied and the soul inside converted into units of a "Distilled Magicka" ingredient (which you can imagine to be poured inside the pewter pitcher). The amount received varies according to the Magicka values for each soul level (may vary with a mod), Mysticism skill, and Luck.
The Distilled Magicka ingredient returns 50 Magicka over 50 seconds when ingested. All four ingredient slots are Restore Magicka, which can advantage you when using the Alchemy Advanced mod.
Each time a soulgem is emptied, Mysticism skill is increased by 1-5 uses, depending on the soul level emptied.

KNOWN ISSUE - If there is more than one soulgem or soulgem stack near the one you are looking at, more than one gem might be grabbed by the script although only one is processed properly.
KNOWN ISSUE - If used on a non-vanilla Oblivion soulgem that is pre-filled, it will be replaced by a non-black vanilla soulgem with the same maximum soul capacity
KNOWN ISSUE - Clearing a pre-filled gem also clears a "stolen" attribute -- We destroy one pre-filled gem of the same type and create one new empty gem.
KNOWN ISSUE - Extra-data issue exists: If a stack of cleared player-filled gems is in inventory, the next time any one soul is captured, the entire stack becomes filled, instead of just one gem
- use an extra-data cleaner, like the Scrolls bag of the Portable Sorters mod, to clear it
- we can't simply remove them in inventory because we can't be sure which gems will be deleted
- using a proxy NPC to remove it caused a script bug where the script looped back to the start

Oblivion mod review - Mysteries of the Dulan Cult

Mod Review - Mysteries of the Dulan Cult
( http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7663 )


Overall: Do not download. Or, download, play this short mod, then unload it.

Why You Would Download This: Short dungeon run. With a medium or low-medium strength character, you can zoom through the dungeon portion and have one, maybe two, challenging fights.

The "do not download" recommendation comes from the fact that scores of cells are changed by the mod (if you look at it in the TES Editor), but none of this is evidenced in the game, so it's probably a "dirty mod" -- unintended changes that may or may not have an effect on your game. And honestly, it's not worth your while to figure it out.

Mysteries of the Dulan Cult starts out as a promising mod with focus on story. This is typical even of commercial games, where the early parts of the game receive attention, then maybe because fatigue sets in or time constraints force shortcuts, the rest of the game gets less detail. In the case of this mod, after you get access under the Abandoned House, all story seems to go out the window. Depending on what you are looking for, you may or may not uninstall the mod at this point.

There are practically no quest markers. Modders often defend this as a choice to not "dumb down" their mod, but Oblivion is such that just walking around, you will probably pick up 5 quests per city. If you don't have quest updates, you'll probably not even remember to get back to a particular quest.
Also, sometimes it's genuinely not clear what to do next. Maybe clear to the modder, but not to the general public.

You will also find overpriced items on just about every opponent. If you are willing to Fast Travel a lot, you can make a ridiculous amount of cash here. Pricing is not fully thought out, as some of the better items cost way less than inferior ones.
You also start the game with a hideously powerful sword and shield which you simply pick up from the Abandoned House, without yet having done anything to earn it.
Various enemies use them as well, but they are few and too easily defeated to count even as mini-bosses. As I said, lots of loot. Hardly any effort.

The early part of the game has no risk -- as directed, you read a flyer in the Imperial City Market District. Following the information there, you go to Anvil and travel far to the south east of the city to the Abandoned House. Another clue will take you to Sideways Cave, then you finally have access to the deeper part of the basement of the Abandoned House. If you happened to walk into Sideways Caver prior to this, you will already have what is necessary to finish up at the Abandoned House.

The "dungeon" part of this mod is nearly pitch-dark, as a "real" dungeon ought to be. The cultists here have armor that has a transparent or no texture. It's not clear whether this was intentional, but the cultists look like disembodied heads and limbs. Harder to spot in the dark except for the Alchemists who have permanent Bound Weapons (like the Mythic Dawn Assassins) in the Tutorial that might glow in the dark, depending on what mods you have running.

There's evidence that this was in fact unintentional because the magic elemental damage sword had no texture and showed up pink, and there was a statue in the dungeons with the big yellow "I'm missing a texture" message.

Enemies do not appear to be levelled. You can sneak and snipe just about everyone. One or two "bosses" will have over 100 Health, but you may well also kill those even before you get to mouse over their names and figure out they were a boss monster.

The majority of the enemies (sporting 1000-gp see-through armor) appear to have only about 20 health, but carry health potions of which they might get to use one or two if you didn't one-shot-kill them. This is good and bad in terms of mod design.
On the good side, it means minions are minions and you can blow past them to get to the good stuff while experiencing the atmosphere of the dark dungeon. The hundred or so potions you'll end up picking up also means that if you don't like running back and forth to resupply, you don't really have to. With the number of enemies in this dungeon, aggressively levelling minions could have resulted in a pretty tedious experience.
On the bad side, it can get boring for a mage or thief who can one-shot minions with 20, 50, even 100 health.

There are really only two boss monsters, and the difficulty jumps up suddenly, so if you were used to the cheesy minions, suddenly you might need to come back at a higher level. This big leap is, IMO, rather bad design and probably an oversight.

Another probable oversight is one of the "experiments" you come across. It is mentioned in a note you find in-game that this being was promising in its intelligence and aptitude. When you finally encounter it, it is no tougher than one of the weaker cultists.

Finally you'll come to the titular boss mentioned in various notes. That you might be able to one-shot him with a powerful spell makes this an anti-climactic encounter. Even if you can't, he's still the weakest of the three bosses.
Still no quest update, so you can't be sure what to do next or if this is the end. You can pick up some wierd "artifacts" worth tens of thousands, but nothing happens. Some people have mentioned getting a "pyramid helmet", but it didn't do anything.

Overall, you'll download this mod if you like a fairly quick dungeon run in a pitch-dark dungeon. If you like sneaking and a quick game where you just blow through popcorn minions and have a couple of moderately tough fights. Otherwise, there's not much to recommend this mod. If there's more story than what I experienced, it wasn't communicated adequately and clearly I missed it.

If you run a lot of mods and especially city overhauls, I highly recommend not installing this for the aforementioned reason that it changes a lot of cells with unclear effect. I have over 200 items loaded and Wyre Bashed, and I was appalled to find out this was a dirty mod with so many apparently unnecessary cell edits.

Tiber Septim Brothel Walkthrough

Adult Adventure - Tiber Septim Brothel is a "mature-rated" mod for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, by ghsmithDallas. It's a tongue-in-cheek style fun mod, but the lack of Oblivion-style lead-you-by-the-nose clues and journal updates makes it challenging. Here are some helpful hints:

There is a HUGE amount of running around in this mod. You may want to get some sort of teleportation spell, either from LAME (Less Annoying Magic Experience); or the excellent SN Mark Recall mod which can mark over 40 locations, uses cheap spells that can be cast at low skill levels, and is somewhat configurable by an INI file.

You will need cash. Alchemy is a good way to raise cash that doesn't take up too much time as you will have to go into various taverns anyway.

1. You should receive a journal update when you load a game with this mod active. Go to the Tiber Septim Hotel to meet your manager, Madam Barrows. Don't blow the 30,000 cash that you will be given.
2. Madam Barrows asks you to hire three prostitutes. Stop at three and report back, to save some running around.
1. Because the "prostitute career" dialogue option always ends in exiting dialogue, be careful when using it on non-prostitutes as you might break quest dialogues in Oblivion or other mods.
2. None of the Middle-Class or Imperial City prostitutes will join yet.
3. Locations of the prostitutes:
1. Anvil
1. Heidi - Mage's Guild
2. Holly - The Count's Arms
3. Pablo -Fighter's Guild
4. Riker - The Count's Arms
2. Bravil - Amber - Silverhome on the Water
3. Bruma - Candy - Olav's Tap and Tack
4. Cheydinhal
1. Suzie - Cheydinhal Bridge Inn
2. Vivian - Newlands Lodge
5. Chorrol
1. Geraldine - Castle Barracks
2. Irma - Northern Goods and Trade
6. Imperial City
1. Gabrielle - Waterfront District, Waterfront Trading Company Office
2. Jasmine - Market District, First Edition
3. Xaviera - Prison District, The Bastion
7. Leyawiin
1. Kirstin - Best Goods and Guarantees
2. Sasha - Chapel of Zenithar
8. Skingrad
1. Domenica - Colovian Traders
2. Sera - Hammer and Tongs
3. Vicki - Castle Skingrad, County Hall
4. Holly and Sasha have pimps who will come after you in a public place. If you are worried about hitting bystanders, just keep blocking and occasionally heal yourself. They aren't meant to be deadly encounters, and the bystanders will eventually defeat them for you.
5. Hiring Geraldine and Xaviera results in a bounty placed on you. To avoid paying it, you can raise the disposition of the nearest guards to 90+. Because they like you so much, they will remove the bounty on you as a favour (recall that they say "if you run into trouble, come find me"?). If you are having trouble getting a high disposition with them, try a Charm spell to raise their Disposition or alchemy to raise your Personality.
6. The key prostitutes to get are Vicki, Geraldine, Candy, Sasha, Pablo.
3. Madam Barrows will ask you to buy a brothel license and licenses for each prostitute on staff. If you can afford it, buy 14 licenses for prostitutes to save you a bit of running around later. (Total $8000!)
4. Madam Barrows will suggest various administrative tasks. Buy everything you can afford. You may be penalized later if you don't.
5. Madam Barrows will tell you to market the brothel to at least 15 inns and taverns.
1. Eventually you will want to do as many as you can and hire along the way. For now, do 15 and report back to Madam Barrows to unlock the next task. You'll run around more later, so you can do the rest afterwards en route.
2. If a proposition results in the topic "maybe later", then the prostitute is hireable but you need to do more marketing to get more clientele first. If you don't advance in the dialogue at all (to "Offer Job" or "Maybe Later"), then she's not available for hire at all at this stage of the quest.
3. You can now hire Middle-Class prostitutes. Hire them all.
4. The following Inns do not offer a Bribe option: The All-Saints Inn, Border Watch Inn, and Imperial Bridge Inn. At the King and Queen in the Imperial City Elven Gardens, you will need to speak with Ley Marillin; his wife Pista does not have the Bribe option.
5. Try to take note of what they say when you bribe them, as they essentially tell you what type of prostitute to hire.
6. Madam Barrows offers marketing schemes. Buy everything you can as it increases your clientele, allowing you to hire more prostitutes.
7. Madam Barrows will tell you to "recruit cities". You might as well do this while you are working on bribing more inns and taverns. To complete this task...
1. Talk to any one man and any one woman in every city (not the small villages). You can take note of what they say, although it is probably too vague to be useful at this time.
2. Go back to Madam Barrows. If you don't yet have the right prostitute mix, she'll suggest you ask beggars. If you noticed what the innkeepers told you when you bribed them, you might not even need their help.
3. Whenever you have the right mix of prostitutes, you can skip all this running around and just report back to Madam Barrows. There will not be a journal entry or other notification telling you this.
4. Complete your prostitute list by getting the Lower Class prostitutes Vicki, Geraldine, Candy, Sasha, Pablo; and getting all the Middle Class prostitutes as you can.
5. Go back to Madam Barrows when your roster is complete. She should now say you have the perfect mix, and ask you to recruit the cities (again). Go to every city and gain talk to a man and a woman. They should all be happy with your brothel. Report back to Madam Barrows.
8. Good News Bad News - Pablo
1. You will have to help Pablo twice, once with Manly Mike (Anvil Docks) and then with Mandi (standing next to Manly Mike).
2. Both solutions are the same: Getting a Red Velvet Outfit. This is NOT the same as a set of Red Velvet Garments and Red Velvet Pants, even though those are redder in appearance.
3. Without mods, there are very few guaranteed instances of the outfit:
1. Anvil, Mage's Guild, Living Quarters
2. Bruma, Nord Winds
3. Leyawiin, Rosentia Gallenus's House, 2nd Floor
4. Imperial City, Talos District, Dorian's House, 2nd Floor
4. You can give yourself an outfit via the console with "player.additem a498e 1"
5. Pay attention to what Mandi says!
9. Good News Bad News - Heidi
1. Go back to Heidi in Anvil, Mage's Guild. She will say her husband Duncan is a "Guild member".
2. Go to the Fighter's Guild and ask around. You will be directed to Aleswell.
3. Go to Aleswell and talk to Duncan. He will want to meet back in the Anvil Fighter's Guild. If you don't want to wait, you can use the console:
1. Click him to get his name and ID showing in the upper middle of your screen.
2. Go to the Anvil Fighter's Guild and open the console again.
3. His name and ID should still be displayed in the upper middle of your screen if you haven't clicked on anything else while in console mode.
4. Type the command "moveto player". He should appear a short distance away. He may run for a second or so until his AI realizes he's already at his destination.
4. Go back to Anvil and wait for him to get there. He wants a wife.
5. Remember what Mandi said? She said exactly the same thing Manly Mike said, and then something else about wanting a Fighter's Guild member. So, talk to Mandi and lead her to the Fighter's Guild to hook them up.
1. There is a chance she will not enter the guild hall with you at night when the doors are locked. You can still complete this quest as she doesn't need to speak with Duncan directly.
2. If you enter the guildhall at night (and are not a Fighter's Guild member), the door will be locked from the inside.
10. Serial Killer
1. After being informed of this development, exit the Tiber Septim Hotel to find Sally dead in the plaza there, even though she was working the Market District before.
2. Talk to the guard (or not). Take her black book from her body. Apparently "x" means she completed her appointment with them already. Jack Reaper is the obvious suspect since a modder would never dare kill off a vanilla Oblivion NPC that might be important in a vanilla Oblivion quest.
3. The guards say no one local would kill her, so head out to the sites of the other killings - Anvil, Bruma, Cheydinhal.
1. Because no locals would kill her, you don't really need to go through Sally's black book and talk to the Imperial City suspects.
2. There are no dead bodies at the other cities. You can talk to any guard (even unique characters, as long as they have "guard powers" to arrest you). All the guards will refer to a killing and say it must have been a stranger.
3. Since strangers to town would stay at an inn, that is your next stop.
4. Ask innkeepers about strangers. Even if you have what sounds like a good lead, you must talk to all three innkeepers on this list in order to proceed. No one else will have a "strangers" dialogue option.
1. Anvil - The Count's Arms
2. Bruma - Jerall View Inn
3. Cheydinhal - Cheydinhal Bridge Inn
5. You get a lead that sends you to Leyawiin. Talk to a guard there about Jack Reaper to learn his history.
6. Go back to the Merchant Inn to confront Jack. Jack tells you that you don't have proof and to instead find proof of his innocence. He then runs off to "complete his mission". Follow him so you'll know where to find him later -- On the bridge from the Market District to the Prison.
7. By now you will have learnt that he frequents / talks to prostitutes. Go to the various cities to talk to prostitutes. Or, you can just talk to Vivian in the Cheydinhal Newlands Lodge. Vivian tells you about his "mission". Go back to apologize to Jack.
8. Jack gives you a lead about Althea.
1. Check it out by talking to a guard in the city in which it happened.
2. Confront her in the Imperial City, Elven Gardens District, Luther Broad's Boarding House. Don't sell her skooma.
1. If you have the other Adult Adventure mod, Sword and Scabbard, there will be another Althea in the Tiber Septim Hotel. She's not the correct one and won't have appropriate dialogue anyway.
11. Specialty Prostitutes - Madam Barrows wants you to hire three Specialty prostitutes. They are the three in the Imperial City.
12. Madam Barrows next wants you to market the specialty prostitutes at the King and Queen. This is just a straightforward bribe as before.
1. It is possible that there was some mix-up with the taverns as the All-Saints is the only place in the Imperial City that doesn't give an option to bribe for marketing. Possibly it was meant that the King and Queen was reserved for marketing the specialty prostitutes at this stage.
13. Drug Dealer - Madam Barrows is worried after a drug dealer in the Talos Plaza approached one of the prostitutes.
1. Speak with Freddie in the Talos Plaza, The Foaming Flask. He'll want (one bottle of) skooma.
2. If you sold Althea's skooma, there's no shortage of it nearby unless you've already looted Tamriel. Without mods, here are sources of skooma, with several in the Imperial City.
3. Freddie directs you to his source in the Imperial City Waterfront, Bloated Float Tavern. Talk to Bethany Stone.
4. Bethany Stone wants you to "rescue" her sister Diane from Prison. You just need to somehow unlock her cell and thereby get to speak with her.
1. Facing the jailor, take the stairs of the right. The jailor will probably just sit at his desk, so even if he detected you as you walked down the stairs, if you stand still, you will go into hiding again. Pick the lock and go downstairs, then pick the lock to her cell.
5. Talk to Diane, who then leaves Prison to meet you and her sister in the basement of the Tiber Septim Hote. She won't be there, and neither will her sister. Instead, go to the Bloated Float and report to Bethany.
6. Bethany suggests a scheme that requires 50 bottles of fake skooma. You can order this from either Sinderion (Skingrad, West Weald Inn, basement) or Dagail (Leyawiin Mage's Guild).
1. If Sinderion is working on an Elixir of Exploration for you (which requires 24 hours), he will immediately exit conversation with you, so you'll have to try Dagail.
2. Even if you haven't finished the Leyawiin Recommendation and Dagail is still a nutjob, she will offer to make the fake skooma for you.
7. Pick up the fake skooma when a day has passed. Go back to the Bloated Float to give it to Bethany, who says she will meet you with her sister at the Tiber Septim basement. She will appear there in about 24 hours.
14. After speaking with Bethanyh and concluding the skooma dealers quest, report back to Madam Barrows. There are no more quests.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - GQ Upgrade Arrows

GQ Upgrade Arrows
Alternate Download Location (requires login).

This mod for for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion requires the Oblivion Script Extender.

This mod for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion puts a script on Metal Goblets (Middle Metal Goblet, FormID cd401). It has two functions:

(a) Standardize Arrows
If you use a few weapon mods, you may end up with an assortment of arrows of different types, sometimes just a handful, and it's a pain to switch in more arrows after just a few shots.
When you equip such arrows and then equip the Metal Goblet, this script will change the arrow into one of the "standardized" ones that can be used in the Upgrade function below.
Arrows with base damage 8 to 15 are converted to vanilla Oblivion arrows (Iron to Daedric) for free. Arrows with base damage 1-7 are converted to "standardized" arrows that are identical to Iron Arrows except for their base damage. They look and fly just the same but inflict less damage.
All enchantments and scripts are lost.
Don't use this on Quest items.

(b) Upgrade Arrows
If a stack of 3 or more of our standardized arrows or vanilla Oblivion arrows are equipped, the script will check your Alteration and Armorer skills and convert them to arrows of 1 base damage point higher. E.g., 3 Iron Arrows become 1 Steel Arrow.
The benchmark skill required is (5 x base damage of the arrow - 60) you are working on. Your Armorer skill can be as low as half of this benchmark if your combined Alteration and Armorer skills are at least twice the benchmark.
You receive a little bit of XP to each skill for each successful upgrade of 3 arrows into 1 better one.
You can upgrade arrows all the way up to Daedric.
Note that only Silver and Daedric ammunition are "silvered" (they can ignore Normal Weapon Resistance) unless they are also enchanted.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - GQ Change Soul Gem Size

GQ Change Soul Gem Size
Alternate Download Location (requires login).

This mod for for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion requires the Oblivion Script Extender.

This mod for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion lets the player change the size of soul gems. Any souls contained are lost. Non-vanilla Oblivion soulgems can be upgraded or downgraded, but only into vanilla soulgems.
The basic ratio is 3:1. Not having high enough Alteration and Mysticism skills can increase the number of soulgems required to upgrade, or decrease the number of soulgems returned from a downgrade.

To upgrade a soul gem, throw down one of the type to be upgraded. While looking at it, equip a Ceramic Bowl (UpperBowlCeramic01, Form ID 2507a).
To downgrade, do the same but equip a Stone Mug (LowerClassMug01, Form ID 104cb).

The upgrade script does not count pre-filled gems with empty or player-filled ones. Use another mod to empty them first (e.g., GQ Magicka From Soul Gems).

KNOWN ISSUE: Gem stack counts in inventory do not always update immediately. To force an immediate update drop the entire stack and pick it up again.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - GQ Get Nearby Loot - UPDATED

GQ Get Nearby Loot
Alternate Download Location (requires login).

This mod for for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion requires the Oblivion Script Extender.

This mod for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion simplifies post-combat arrow and loot collection.
It puts a script on Brush Jars (PaintbrushJar01, 1BBCB) that runs once when you try to equip the Brush Jar.
It collects all inventory items in containers, in dead bodies, and in the game world within a certain distance
It WILL steal...
at close range (150% activation distance)
if the item is visible to the camera (not relative to player)
if the player is in Sneak mode
It will not take from locked containers.
It will run if the player is in combat, because Oblivion's in-combat detection is occasionally flawed.

March 7th/2010 Update - There are now two versions of this mod. The file includes two ESPs. Use only one. The "radius" version is the original one. The LOS version is similar, but even when not stealing, it will only collect items in line of sight of the camera (the range has not been modified). This makes it easier to exclude collecting things you haven't yet seen in the game world, or just don't want to pick up.

BUG/FEATURE - Arrows that are stuck in an object fail a check for LOS to the camera and detect as Off Limits (i.e., would be stealing) for pickup by the player. We can therefore exclude them. The GetFirstRef and GetNextRef functions detect them as an inventory item, however.

For a more comprehensive auto-grabbing mod, try The Art of Speedy Looting.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Imperial City Arena Strategy

Imperial Arena Fight Strategy - Conjuration

If you're playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and having difficulty in the Arena fights because you are a spellcaster and weak in combat skills, you may want to try this tactic:

Enemies in the arena differ from enemies elsewhere in that they almost always ignore summoned creatures and go straight for the player. One tactic then is to summon a creature and then go on the defensive. This has several benefits:

When you have your shield up, hand-to-hand combat enemies will typically strike less often while they wait for your shield to drop, or try to move around your shield. This reduces the overall amount of damage they are sending your way.

Enemies ignore the summons, and do not even try to block or dodge attacks. They will steadily be whittled down in health by your summons.
Enemy archers do not move aggressively, and once they draw an arrow and hold, they often move slowly. It is then easy to evade their line of sight by ducking behind a pillar.

Once the enemy is at low health, you can either try a quick spell to finish them, or stay on the defensive and let them drink their health potion (if any).

Bring health potions to restore your own health if necessary, and sorcery potions to re-cast your summons a few times.

I used this tactic to breeze through most of the fights at level 4, using Francesco's Levelled Arena. Because I was using a levelling slow-down mod, I did not gain any levels while advancing in the Arena, and stayed at level 4 all the way through.