Elder Scrolls Online Adventures: I Broke A Temple [Spoilers]

It’s been a minute since my last ESO Adventures column wherein I explored Murkmire for the first time and was blown away by the brilliant design shift from Summerset. This last week saw me continue my adventures as I sort of broke a temple. As always, spoiler warnings. 

       

I continued questing with Famia Mercius as she sought the ancient Kajin-Jat Crystal deep within an ancient Argonian Xanmeer -- a ruin of sorts. This felt very Tomb Raider-ish, as the temple was filled with puzzles, traps, and general nastiness.

However, what I loved about this quest is that I really got to understand Famia as a character. She’s filled with optimism, almost to the point of naivety. And I find that endearing. Her laser focus on the task at hand really speaks to her character and perhaps foreshadows what I may expect from her in the future.

As always, I’m so impressed with the design in ESO, and the ruin interior did not disappoint. I snapped so many screenshots because I was genuinely in awe at the way light and shadow was used to communicate clear design choices within each room. For example, the light streaming from the top in this room served to highlight the drawbridge and the puzzle you must solve in order to progress. I can only imagine how good ESO would look with ray traced global illumination implemented.

Throughout this Xanmeer, I had to help out various members of her crew, each requiring a different type of aid. This may be standard “game design 101” fare, but I didn’t mind the way it was implemented purely because of how differently designed each chamber in which each crew member resided appeared.

Eventually, however, I retrieved the crystal as the Xanmeer collapsed around me, leaving a heap of rubble in my merry wake. Nothing to see here. Just an outsider destroying an ancient Argonian ruin of cultural significance.

After this, I met an Argonian musician by the name of Nesh-Deeka who wanted to strike a trade agreement with a certain Captain Jimila. I didn’t intend to take this quest, but me being me and ESO being ESO, how could I resist?

And so, I struck up a conversation with him and found myself wrangling up frogs. Why frogs you ask? Well it turns out Nesh-Deeka thought that in order to show Jimila his sincerity, he must provide her a vossa-satl -- a native Argonian instrument whose music is produced from various indegenous frogs.

Honestly, the music sounds like shit Brian, but whatever. I’m a nice Breton, so I off I went searching for frogs. It wasn’t until I found myself knee-deep in mud, reeking of frog musk that I immediately regretted my proclivity for helping those in need.

Fortunately, it was worth it, as Captain Jimila not only accepted the vossa-satl, but requested an additional five from Nesh-Deeka. Nesh seemed pleased and gave me a reward for my troubles, thus ending a fun memorable side-quest I’m so fond of in ESO.

And that’s about it for this week. Hope you guys enjoyed my adventures, and see you again next week!