I started Morrowind a few days ago and am still struggling with some of the game basics. My character is a male Redguard Crusaders with The Tower as my birthsign. My attributes are strength and agility. Major skills: block, armorer, heavy armor, long blade, and athletics. Minor skills: alteration, conjuration, mysticism, restoration, and security.

Here are my questions:

1) How do I use the tower capability (open 50 pts touch power)? To be more specific, is this an open lock capability? If it is how do I use it? My security skill is 10 and I am using a journeyman lock pick. I don’t have much luck in opening locks that are higher than 20 ratings
2) How do I use the ring of healing?
3) How do I use the sneak key? The manual said hold down the left control key, an icon will appear on the lower left screen. I tried it on many occasions with a stable NPC both inside and outside a house, but it didn’t work. The icon just won’t appear. I tried again with the guard in the guard tower in Balmora. It still didn’t work. My sneak skill was 10 and I spent a fair amount of money to train this skill up to 15. It still didn’t work. What am I missing?
4) Where and how do I get a decent long blade in the early part of the game? I arrived in Balmore and joined the Blade and the fighter guild. I completed the first fighter guild mission. I discovered a number of caves but I am not strong enough to fight the bad guys probably because my skill is too low and I don’t have a lot of money to buy good armor and long blade. On top of that, since I haven’t figured out how to use the sneak key, I can’t steal good weapons.

Any help is appreciated.

Granville

1, in your magic menu click on the 'tower' ability
then out of the menu press 'r' to enable magic. then click to cast it. you need to be targeting a locked door or chest.
2. Same as number 1 just dont have to target anything
3. your doing it right, the icon only shows up if you can successfuly hide. at low levels (such as 15) you wont succede much if people are around. plus other things effect your ability to sneak.
4. there is a thread around here somewere about a good longsword under the bed at the top of the suran guard tower. that may help.

Low levels of sneak very rarely succeed. I have found that you need a skill over 30 to have even marginal success. If you can get your hands on an item that has the chameleon power, your chances of sneaking are significantly improved.