The depths of Cyrodill

Being an adventurer in Oblivion is hard. Today I was searching the Heartlands of Cyrodill for lockpicks. As an honest member of the Fighters Guild I do not have access to merchants that sell lockpicks (only members of the Theives Guild have that and you need to be a convicted criminal to join). The only way for me to get lockpicks, is to search the deepest dungeons for long lost chests and fight every bandit lurking around the countryside and plunder them for lockpicks.

I need the lockpicks in order to get into a couple of chests in a house in the temple district of the Imperial City. The owner of the house is a suspected vampire and has absconded and I have been charged with finding him. I had searched every ruin I can find and scoured the local countryside for bandits and marauders to get the sought-after lockpicks and I had managed to scrape together 5 that I had found in some ruins to the north of the city. I rush back to the city and find the house. I break 2 lockpicks getting into the basement and there was nothing there so I use up 1 more in order to get into his bedroom. Here there are 2 chests that have the most complex locks that you can find in the game. I go to the first chest and... SNAP! There goes my second-last lockpick on the first tumbler. I try again, this time with more patience. I grow in confidence as I slowly pick each tumbler in turn successfully. Now I'm down to the last tumbler when SNAP! @*%$*@^$$^%£@*!!!! There goes hours of questing, gone in one second.

That was the most frustrating thing that has happened to me in Cyrodill. I switched my 360 off in disgust and spent a good hour playing Street Fighter 2 to work off my frustration. Perhaps tomorrow I'll pick those blasted locks...