For those who don’t know, there was an event in Morrowind where you found a corpse carrying three scrolls of “Icarian Flight” (if you were in the right place at the right time you’d actually see him hit the ground). The way the scrolls worked was they buffed your Acrobatics skill by 1000 (in a 1-100 system) allowing you to soar across the entire map in one bound… but the duration on the buff was shorter than the time it took to land, and your ability to absorb fall damage was also controlled by your Acrobatics skill. So unsuspecting players would try one of the scrolls and suffer exactly the same fate.
The genius was that these items weren’t actually useless; there were two ways to use them effectively. The first was to simply cast a second scroll right before you landed. The second was to have a spell, scroll or item that granted levitation; by casting it right before landing you could simply negate the fall damage and drift to earth safely. A famous speedrun used both methods, along with another trap item, The Boots of Blinding Speed; they made you incredibly fast. And blind.
Fortunately, the blindness can be countered with magic resistance, which only resists negative effects (like blind) while allowing positive effects (like fortify speed) to work unimpeded.
He actually does have unique dialogue if you save him, but not much. Trying to talk with him after saving him will have him say, “I don’t want to talk about it,” and immediately end conversation.
Additionally, Tamriel Rebuilt makes him the court mage at Old Ebonheart and adds a quest about selecting a replacement after he dies. Or, if you managed to save him, you can find him in Old Ebonheart for a reward.
6yo DM: “You encounter a corpse wearing a ring of jumping.”
Those scrolls are unironically crucial for the speedrun.
For those who don’t know, there was an event in Morrowind where you found a corpse carrying three scrolls of “Icarian Flight” (if you were in the right place at the right time you’d actually see him hit the ground). The way the scrolls worked was they buffed your Acrobatics skill by 1000 (in a 1-100 system) allowing you to soar across the entire map in one bound… but the duration on the buff was shorter than the time it took to land, and your ability to absorb fall damage was also controlled by your Acrobatics skill. So unsuspecting players would try one of the scrolls and suffer exactly the same fate.
The genius was that these items weren’t actually useless; there were two ways to use them effectively. The first was to simply cast a second scroll right before you landed. The second was to have a spell, scroll or item that granted levitation; by casting it right before landing you could simply negate the fall damage and drift to earth safely. A famous speedrun used both methods, along with another trap item, The Boots of Blinding Speed; they made you incredibly fast. And blind.
Fortunately, the blindness can be countered with magic resistance, which only resists negative effects (like blind) while allowing positive effects (like fortify speed) to work unimpeded.
If you prepared the right spell ahead of time you could save him, but unfortunately the devs didn’t anticipate that and give him any unique dialogue.
He actually does have unique dialogue if you save him, but not much. Trying to talk with him after saving him will have him say, “I don’t want to talk about it,” and immediately end conversation.
Additionally, Tamriel Rebuilt makes him the court mage at Old Ebonheart and adds a quest about selecting a replacement after he dies. Or, if you managed to save him, you can find him in Old Ebonheart for a reward.
If there isn’t a mod to fix that, that also matches the original tone of the game, I’ll eat my hat. Or maybe give modding another go…