Adventures In Elder Scrolls Online House Hunting

Between the recently announced Morrowind expansion and this week’s release of the free player housing update, I decided it was time to venture back into The Elder Scrolls Online. I might be a little out of practise.

To be honest, I’ve not played much of The Elder Scrolls Online since the first couple of months after launch. The initial rollout was a bit dull, and while I had heard the game had gotten much better since becoming Tamriel Unlimited and introducing level scaling to the game’s zones, I didn’t have time to check it out.

Well, now I do.

I figured I could just hop in, do the Homestead expansion quest real quick and show off my new starter home. I logged into my old Khajit, whose skills and ability points had all been reset in some game update I wasn’t around for, and headed to the big city to fetch my home, after remembering how to fast travel and use the map. And open the menu. The video up top is heavily edited.

But the quest wasn’t that simple. My housing contact in Aurindon told me the tale of a tenant who had skipped with the keys and deed to one of his homes. In order to get those keys and that deed, I had to find a guy in the sewers who saw her last, rummage through some papers to figure out where he’d gone and then run across an unfamiliar zone to get to a dungeon.

Did I mention I had no skills set or ability points spent?

Being in a hurry, I delved anyway, meeting up with a couple of nice players who were also after houses and likely knew how to play the game. I helped them fight, by which I mean I clicked my mouse like a madman, hoping to connect.

Deep within this enemy-infested dungeon I finally found the skipped tenant, who handed over the keys and deed without much fuss.

Then all I needed to do was return to the quest-giver and make some starter furniture (buy some starter furniture from the Crown Store with spare points) and I was in my new home!

More of a hole, really, with barely enough space for a nice rug. Oh well, gotta start somewhere.

There’s actually a nice range of homes available in The Elder Scrolls Online‘s Homestead update, purchasable with coin after completing various quests, earning achievements or just by dropping cash in the Crown Store. I particularly like the Ebonheart Chateau, a lovely little massive castle complete with expansive grounds and a couple of side buildings.

It’s a bit pricey, but one day I will be worth it.

But this really wasn’t about the housing. It was about popping into a game I’ve not played in ages and having an exciting adventure, if a woefully unprepared one. I think I’ll stick around a bit.