Summary
- A veteran Oblivion player discovers an NPC he’d never met before, 19 years after the release of the game.
- A lot of commenters have also never met this character.
- Shady Sam is found in a relatively obscure location.
With rumours of an impending remake of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion in near-constant circulation at the moment, more and more players are diligently sharing their experiences with Bethesda’s beloved classic. Oblivion, like Skyrim after it, is a game full of non-player-characters (NPCs) to meet and locations to explore.
There are 946 different NPCs in Oblivion, and most of us probably believe we’ve spoken to them at one point or another over the nineteen years since the game released. However, a recent Reddit thread by Far_Run_2672 expressed surprise at the existence of one particular character found outside the Imperial City. The commenters agree about Sam’s relative obscurity, as several of them have only just discovered this mysterious individual.
Dodgy Character
The character is none other than Shady Sam, a ne’er-do-well and drug dealer found outside the Imperial City’s walls. The surprising lack of knowledge regarding his existence is a testament to his discretion. “I thought I knew everything about this game by now, but I’ve never seen this NPC,” reads the title of the post.
Shady Sam is a merchant who sells poison, lockpicks and skooma. He is one of only two merchants in the game that sells skooma, with the other being Nordinor, a dealer that spends his nights hanging out in an alley in Bravil. Nordinor is certainly the more prominent of the two, given that he inhabits one of Cyrodill’s cities.
Shady Sam is in a relatively obscure spot on Oblivion’s map, just northeast of the Imperial City’s stables near an indent in the city wall. Unlike the majority of Oblivion’s NPCs, Shady Sam doesn’t feel the need to eat or sleep. He just occupies his post, dealing skooma to interested passersby. It’s clear evidence of Shady Sam’s work ethic that he can maintain this schedule indefinitely.
For others, such as boiyougongetcho and Zytharros, Shady Sam is the first character they encountered in Oblivion after exiting the sewers. This is because Shady Sam isn’t far from where the player exits the sewers following the prologue. While some players may turn around and explore the exterior of the city’s walls, most players are more likely to cross the water to explore Vilverin or go straight to Chorrol as instructed by Oblivion’s main quest.
If you didn’t know about Shady Sam, now you do. He’s a very effective lockpick dealer if you can be bothered to find him outside the walls.