Interlude #2

After putting Lysandus to rest by taking care of Lord Woodborne, you will hopefully have a little breathing space. If you tackled Lysandus's Tomb at 10th level, you should have a couple more levels before the next major quest kicks in (emphasis on "should" -- it's a little flaky in this regard).

Your next quest is going to be to retrieve the Totem of Tiber Septim. That's the Magical Dingus of Ultimate Power that everyone seems to be so hot to get their hands on.

Once you have the Totem, everyone who likes you will send you a letter offering rewards for giving them the Totem. On the other hand, everyone who dislikes you will just send thugs to take it off of your dead body, and the thugs show up just about every night (makes it difficult to get your beauty sleep).

Decide very quickly how many nightly hit squads (three thugs per group) you can handle and then spend your time building rep with as many people as possible to avoid getting thugs from them. The two major players that you cannot do quests for are the Underking and the Emperor, but they tend to be somewhat tolerant in the negative rep department. Everyone else (Gothryd, Gortwog, Eadwyre, Akorithi, and the King of Worms) can and does send thugs.

Use your breather wisely.

The Totem

You are supposed to be about 14th level before this quest kicks in, but I've had it launch as early as 10th or 11th level. The quest itself isn't too terribly difficult; it's the after-effects that can get a little hairy. You'll receive another letter from Brisienna asking you to meet her in a random tavern somewhere in Wayrest province. Don't ignore this letter. The mission? Retrieve the Totem of Tiber Septim (a.k.a. "The Magical Dingus of Ultimate Power") from the treasury at Daggerfall Castle. I didn't mark it on the maps, but the red squares are critters (hopefully you've figure that out by now).

	You enter through the front door, just like usual. The entrance to the dungeon is the door on Gothryd's side of the throne room and it will be locked. Kind of hard to get lost at this point -- keep going until you get to the big room with the platforms and pillars. Levitate over to the big platform in the middle and go out the north door.
	Go west and follow the ledge around to a passageway with a critter in it. You go through the first door on the north.
	This is the treasury room. There are Knights and Barbarians scattered around the upper levels of the room. When you get to the bottom, they will be Battlemages and Spellswords (see the last map for locations).
	After disposing of the opposition, jump down into the big hole in the middle and follow the east passage on the south wall. You'll go underwater and run into an Atronach at the bottom. Turn the wheel and come back up. The vault is now lowered (blocking your escape route -- ooops!). Now use the west passage on the south wall. There are three chains in the back corner. The right one casts a water-breathing spell. The left one teleports you above the vault, but somewhere in mid-air. Clicking the middle chain will teleport you to a ledge near the vault.
	On the top of the vault is a lever. Pull it and some blue bars will move up, opening the chamber with the Totem (it's the Papoose-looking thing on the pedestal). The treasure in the vaults is nothing to rave about. You can look for the other triggers if you want, but it's generally not worth the effort.

Although it took a few levitates to get to the Totem, getting back can be done with a few running jumps. If you didn't take care of the Knights and Battlemages in the Throne Room, you'll probably have to deal with them on the way out. Once you're out of Castle Daggerfall, the real fun begins.