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                                    ~o The Ebony Blade o~
                                          By Astion
                                            V1.0

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To install the plugin, extract the contents to the Morrowind\Data Files directory, making sure the "Use Destination Path" or similar is checked.

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                                   ~o Table of Contents o~

1                                      ~o Overview o~
2                                      ~o Warnings o~
3                                      ~o Credits o~
4                                     ~o Walkthrough o~
5                                   ~o Contact Details o~

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                                       ~o Overview o~

For a while, I'd been wanting to do a good mod of this nature. I've made several mods before, but never one with an engaging, interactive quest. They were mostly retextures and, more recently, models that I'd done for myself and decided to release.

The idea has been floating around in my head a while. Never having played previous Elder Scrolls games, I wondered about the Ebony Blade - a weapon whose reputation had caught my fancy - and what it would be like. Who created it? What kind of enchantment would it have? How would it look?

The answers to the first two questions were answered at the Imperial Library. The Ebony Blade was created by Boethiah, the Daedric Prince of Plots and Schemes. It carries a powerful vampiric-esque enchantment; the unfortunate recipient of the blow receives debilitating wounds that drain his strength. The health of the foe flows through the blade into the wielder, replenishing his own strength and health.

The final answer, however, was a bit more difficult. What would the Ebony Blade look like, indeed? The Artifact compendium on TIL mentioned it looked like a dark Ebony Katana. However, not too long after I looked up the Blade I saw an incredible piece of fan art by DarkWing on Waiting4Oblivion; Boethiah, standing over a vanquished foe, whose bloodied hand clutched piteously at the blade buried in his chest.

This, I told myself, is what the Ebony Blade should look like. True, it was no katana. However, in my opinion no katana can look as good as DarkWing's creation. Darkwing's render is included in the mod as a JPEG.

So the foundation was set. But for some reason I couldn't work up the determination to get off my duff and begin. Then Infectious Moon came along on the Morrowind Summit and founded the competition this mod was submitted for (didn't win :) ). It was all the motivation I needed.

This mod, first and foremost, is a quest mod, as the rules of the competition dicated. It begins with the sad tale of Sevilius Onus, a former adventurer grieving for his friend, who died under horrific circumstances. He spends his days at Shenk's Shovel, Caldera, unwilling to tell anyone of the ordeal. His story is linked to a dungeon beneath ruins on an uncharted island, and ultimately to the Ebony Blade.

Go to Caldera. Find Sevilius. Speak to him, and convince him to tell you his story. There his story ends, and your own begins. Good luck.

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                                       ~o Warnings o~

I will try to adress any possible warnings or errors in this section.

o~      If you receive a message that there is a missing mesh or model, it is due to a 	missing model for the sword. Double-check to see if the file "TEB_Ebony Blade_Longsword.nif" or "TEB_Ebony Blade_Claymore.nif" is in your Meshes/AA 	directory. If not, it was installed to the wrong area. If it is present, there is something amiss with the mod. Open the Construction Set, activate the mod, go to the Weapons tab, and find the "TEB_Ebony Blade" entry. Click on the Art File box (To the right of the weapon ID) and change the path to the mesh corresponding to the version of the ESP you want to use.

o~      If you receive a message saying that there is a texture missing from the Ebony Blade 	mesh, check to see if you have that texture in you Textures directory. If the  texture is not present, you have not installed the mod correctly. If it is, there is a problem with the textures.

o~      If, for example, the island is swallowed up by a seperate continent, there is a plugin conflict. Plugin conflicts occur when objects from two different mods share the same ID, landscape coordinates, mesh instance coordinates, etc. Go to the Data Files window in the launcher and deactivate the plugin.

o~	Unfortunately, since weapon objects don't appear to move at the same rate as statics and activators, the Ebony Blade may not keep up with the stone it is set into at the end of the quest, or it may phase through it altogether. This depends on your framerate, as Morrowind's timer option is linked to frames. As I have a relatively high-end PC, this small bug might be less noticeable if you have a high FPS.

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If you discover any problem concerning quests, please email me immediately. My contact details can be found later on in the readme.

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                                       ~o Credits o~

~o Astion - Mod creation, Dialogue, Meshes, Textures, and story.

~o AlienSlof - For graciously applying the alphas to the textures and icons prior to my acquiring Photoshop.

~o DarkWing - Original model design; much praise go to him for his stunning rendering.

~o My Father - provided the funky sound effects. Thanks, dad.

~o Infectious Moon - Host of the Summit Mod Competetion, 08/08/2005. Thanks for your    commitment to the forum, Moon! :)

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                                      ~o Walkthrough o~

WARNING! THE FOLLOWING SECION CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS. UNLESS YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT TO DO NEXT (or if you are simply the type to skip the boring quest crap and get straight to the ub3r 5w0rd|\|355), DO NOT READ THIS SECTION.

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                                        SEVILIUS' TALE

Sevilius in Shenks Shovel in Caldera is despondent. It will require some of the local liquor to get him to share his tale. Buy him a Mazte and he'll recount of how he and his friend Saddus Adras was given a lead to the Ebony Blade in a tavern by a strange and sinister man, how they traveled to an uncharted island north of Dagon Fel, and how Saddus was slain by their Daedric deceptor.

Sevilius will not give you the map to the island for any amount of gold. His grief for Saddus is the only thing on his mind after the ordeal, and only a pledge to avenge his life will convince him to give it to you. You can still find the island without the map, but you will not be able to get to it via ship unless you have the map.

                                TROUBLE ABOARD THE NOMEG GWAI

Once you have spoken to Sevilius and acquired the map, speak to Yrana Searunner at the Dagon Fel docks. If you show her the map, she offers to take you to the island, on one condition. Yrana is beginning to sense that there is a plot aboard the ship. Yrana vouches for Jorgan the Swift, Jadier Mannas and Debienette Alcone, leaving Gashuk gro-Nagrak, Minerva Melania and Lanson.

Everything seems to point to Gashuk gro-Nagrak, the orc. However, hidden beneath Jorgan the Swift's pillow is a strange document that incriminates him. Yrana will only believe that he is the culprit if you give her this paper, albeit reluctantly. Yrana will take you to the island whether you name Jorgan the guilty party or not, but your choice will influence conditions later in the mod. 

                                      THE EBONY BLADE

On the island, you will discover Saddus' corpse at the entrance to the ruin. Attempting to open the door when your level is lower than thirty will result in failure. If you are over level 30, you will enter the Assaddamasimul Vestibule.

In the Vestibule, you will come across a giant statue of Boethiah. Set into the four corners of the platform it stands on are four receptacles. The eastern doorway is sealed. The northern doorway leads to the deeper caverns, and the western passage to the ancient city of Assaddamasimul. There is also a door in the western passage which leads to an antechamber with some incomplete Dwemer machinery in it.

On the mezzanine above the statue, you will find the remains of a doomed archeological expedition. Antonius Masonus of Chorrol, the leader of the expedition, has kept a journal that offers a few clues to what you have to do, and in the expedition's camp is a map of the ruined city that you may find useful. Antonius also has a Star Sapphire on his person.

Retrieve the Star Sapphire, and go downstairs. When you insert the sapphire into the receptacle, the receptacle will begin to emit a blue flame. There are three other receptacles, and so logically you need to find three more Star Sapphires. 

Head west and enter the city. The city is overgrown with moss and filled with the Feral Alits and Greater Clannfear. The remains of what used to be a store lie directly North of the city entrance. In the store you will find a scroll of the lost spell "Passwall", which was used in the earlier Elder Scrolls games to demolish walls. You can use this to clear the landslide deeper in the city, and retrieve a second Star Sapphire.

The third Star Sapphire Will require a bit of exploration to find. Somewhere in the city, you will find a ruined home. The former inhabitants have been killed, and one of them has been impaled on a spear and pinned to the pillar in the center of the room. His skeleton still holds the sapphire in his hands. You will have to look carefully to spot it.

The final gem is above a chamber to the Northwest, on the highest level of the city. The lower level is a ritual chamber, and the upper an opulent living area. There are no stairs to the upper level - the only way into the living area is through a hole in the ritual chamber's roof. The most obvious way to reach the sapphire is levitation, but there is an alternative. There is a small altar against the far wall. If you burn three Daedra Hearts upon its brazier, a section of the dais in the center of the room rises upward, and you can use this as an elevator. The sapphire is on a table in the living area, among some chests.

Once all three of these gems are inserted into their receptacles in the Vestibule, the eastern door will be unsealed, opening the way into the Broken Halls, a section of the ruins that has been devastated by the volcanic action of Red Mountain. There are three doors in the Broken Halls that lead to different areas of the ancient Dwemer ruin of Bzcharn - the main ruin, the Factorium, and the Steamworks. 

In the Bzcharn Factorium, there is a puzzle that consists of steam pipes that have to be activated in a certain pattern. You can find the key to this puzzle in the final area, the Bzcharn Steamworks. Once you have created the right pattern by turning the cranks to activate the steam pipes, turn the crank on the adjacent wall and a hidden door will open. Below is a vault chamber, guarded by a large guardian animunculus. Once you defeat the it, the walls in the center of the vault will recede, and reveal a key that you will need to operate the Dwemer machinery in the Vestibule.

Now, head back to the Vestibule. If you wish, you could insert the key into its receptacle, but without the missing gear in the system, nothing happens. Head through the northern door, and you will enter the Abyssal Galleries of Assaddamasimul. The Galleries are crawling with Daedra, and you will either have to avoid or kill them to get to the floor of the cavern. A passage at the water level leads to the cavern area of Hanin's Throat. There you can recover the missing gear you need.

When you set the gear into the Vestibule machinery, the gear system is complete. When you turn the key, the gears mesh and a hidden doorway opens to reveal a way into the Sancum Santorum.

The Ebony Blade is set into a stone in the Sanctum. When you touch it, it will disappear, and the Guardian of the shrine will appear behind you and attack you with it. You must fight it in order to claim the sword. Once you kill it, its body will disappear and the Blade will appear in your hands.

                                          CONCLUSION

Emerge from the ruins and return to the Nomeg Gwai. Depending on who you named as the guilty crewmember, the circumstances will be different. If you did not choose Jorgan the Swift, he will have killed everyone on board. If you did, Yrana will have killed him and can offer you passage back to Dagon Fel.

If you journey with the blade to Ebonheart, you can find Sevilius at the docks. He will congratulate you on your success, and tell you that he leaves for Cyrodiil on the morrow. Unfortunately, the ship he wrecks near the Daedric ruin of Kaushtarari in the Azura's Coast. In it, you will find a message from the orchestrator of the elaborate game that led you to the Blade; Boethiah, the Prince of Plots.

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                                    ~o Contact Details o~

Send your praises, queries, flames and boerewors recipies to me at cassius@ssws.co.za, or    find me on the Morrowind Summit Forums as "Astion" or the Official Forums as "AstionM".


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