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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Hints
How does the sunderblade strategy work?
1 of 22: First off, you'll have to somehow save up enough money to buy the Akavari Sunderblade from the guy who sells it. It would be a good idea to buy Apotheosis too, but you hopefully won't need it.
2 of 22: The other thing you need to do is travel out to the Serpent Stone sometime and get its once-a-day power if you didn't choose the Lover for a birthsign.
3 of 22: You can use the sunderblade and your paralyzing power to mess Umbra up to where she won't be able to attack you at all.
4 of 22: Approach her and hit her with the Serpent Stone's power (or the Lover's birthsign power) in order to paralyze her, then start hitting her as fast as you can with the Akavari Sunderblade. Be sure to hit her at least seven times with it.
5 of 22: By the time the paralysis wears off and she gets up, her sword should be totally unusable, and her armor will be considerably weakened, too. (Exactly how weakened it is depends on how many times you hit her with the sunderblade.)
6 of 22: She should then not be able to attack you at all! (Note that if you just hit her with the sunderblade without paralyzing her first, she'll attack you in hand-to-hand combat after her sword is rendered useless.)
7 of 22: However, you're not done yet. She has a *lot* of health, and regenerates health at the rate of 2 points per second. That means she'll take a whole lot of punishment before dying.
8 of 22: But thankfully, you may not have to deal all that punishment out yourself.
9 of 22: If you've been practicing up your Conjuration skill and can summon a powerful creature, summon one now and let it pound on Umbra. If it disappears before she dies, quickly summon another one before she can regenerate much health. (You might also want to be attacking her yourself to help speed things along.)
10 of 22: If you're not much of a conjurer, then notice that Umbra now avidly follows you everywhere you go.
11 of 22: Leave Vindasel and make your way north to the big bridge that leads east to the Imperial City.
12 of 22: WARNING: Save your game a ways before you reach the bridge, just in case the glitch described below happens.
13 of 22: Once you're across the bridge, run up to the door to the Talos Plaza District, where one guard may see Umbra and start attacking her.
14 of 22: Or he may accuse you of a crime and arrest you. This is obviously a glitch since you committed no crime. If it happens, restore the save you made before approaching the bridge and finish off Umbra yourself. (This is where Apotheosis comes in very handy.)
15 of 22: If the guard instead attacks Umbra, enter the Talos Plaza District to get more guards to see her and attack her.
16 of 22: She'll suddenly remember how to punch people when she follows you inside, so run forward toward the big central dragon statue and jump over the outer stone ring that surrounds it.
17 of 22: Stay inside the ring to keep Umbra from hitting you and watch while a bunch of guards converge on her.
18 of 22: Once she's dead, you can claim her sword and armor from her body.
19 of 22: TIP: If you only hit her with the sunderblade the minimum number of times earlier, she'll most likely have killed a few guards, allowing you to loot their bodies. You can also find arrows and maybe even swords from disarmed guards lying around, free for the taking.
20 of 22: The only bad thing is that you'll have to repair the Umbra sword before you can use it, and it'll cost about 4,000 gold to have someone else repair it, such as the guys in "The Best Defense" in the Market District.
21 of 22: Your only other option is to wait until your Armorer skill is 50 or more so you can repair it yourself. To get some Armorer practice, recharge your sunderblade and use it on heavily armed marauders and such, then repair all their armor and weapons. (Or use the Fun With Guards method in the cities.)
22 of 22: On a brighter note, you can probably find and/or buy enough repair hammers to bang all the Umbra armor back into shape, after which you can either wear it or sell it.
