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Will someone please explain to me or tell me where to find info on how you trap enemies in soul gems or whatever it is you do? And what does it do for you? TIA.

First off, you need to have the appropriate soul gem and the Soul Trap spell. You can find soul gems in the Mage Guild chests, as random loot, and buy them in Tel Branora (trader's shop). I find it best to create a custom Soul Trap spell with a range of 5 (better for nailing moving creatures) and duration of 60 seconds. To soul trap a creature (you cannot soul trap NPC's) - cast the spell on it and kill it before the spell runs out. If you have a soul gem capable of holding it - you will successfully soul trap it.

You use loaded soul gems to re-charge enchanted items and to create your own magic items.

umbra

i've heard of an old orc called umbra or something, in full orcish armor, and he's got this sword... which is, not surprisingly, called umbra's sword. my friend's got it, it's this huge purple, dai-katana(?) thing that has soul-trap 120 seconds when cast i think... i know ur supposedly able to find the location of anything in the construction kit... but... eh... i havent as yet figured out how to use it...

does anyone know where i can find umbra and his sword?

Umbra is in the mountains due east of Suran.

Originally posted by Sojourner
Umbra is in the mountains due east of Suran.

He is just over the mountains due east of Suran Tradehouse - if you can levitate. Otherwise you need to walk around the mountain mass to the second path leading north (the first goes to an egg mine); as you head north keep bearing to the west.

Umbra isn't really old in the feeble sense, he's a veteran, and a very tough opponent who give give up his sword only to someone who can best him. GOOD LUCK!

Anyone else have a problem with their journal not clearing out the Umbra quest after you give him his honorable death? I've played a half-dozen times now and I always end up with an open quest entry. I've killed him with arrows, with fists and with swords and always the same thing. Is this just a glitch in the journal (it's not the only quest that won't clear after completion) or do you need to report his death to someone?

@Antimatter: Here's what I do. I buy the soul trap spell and then have a spellmaker create me a custom ranged soul trap spell with 30 seconds on it. I find that adequate as most battles are over in about 3 seconds anyway. But if you like you can make it a 60 second spell. You can also have the spellmaker combine soultrap and paralyze into one spell. Umbra's sword is okay but definitely not the best two-handed sword in the game and the soultrap enchantment is a waste IMO. Once you have the spell and some soul gems its time to go hunting. I like to use my bow for this so I can hit my target with the ranged spell and as they charge at me I put a couple of arrows into them. Try soultrapping small stuff at first like Kagoutis with petty soul gems. These are pretty much worthless soul gems but you can sell them to Creeper for 100-300 gold depending on what you trapped. Bull netch fits into the lesser soul gem nicely and sells for 1000. Common soul gems hold Betty netch, fire atronach and imps and are worth 3,000-4,200 gold. Still pretty much worthless for enchanting. Just sell them to Creeper and you can use them to make change when selling him big ticket items. The purple soul gems (greater ?) hold storm and frost atronachs as well as Ogrims. They sell for 8,000+ gold. Finally grand soul gems will hold the big daedra (Golden saints, dremora lords, hungers, etc.) as well as ash ghouls and ascended sleepers. Only golden saints and ascended sleepers are really worth trapping though as these are the only soul gems that can be use to make Constant Effect enchanted items. Keep in mind that if you soul trap something it will fit into the smallest soul gem you have that it is allowed to go into, but if you don't have the right gem it will go into the next higher gem. For example, if you soul trap a nix hound (which fits into a petty soul gem normally) but you only have a grand soul gem in inventory, it will go into that gem and you have just wasted a scarce commodity. I recommend that you find Azura's Shrine and talk to her statue to get her quest (it's on the paper map that came with the game). I always try to enchant only with grand soul gems with golden saints or ascended sleepers and I use the best quality items available (exquisite clothing and jewelry, daedric weapons/armor or ebony items). I also always pay to have my enchanting done to ensure 100% success. Its costly but you can easily amass over 1 million in gold in this game. If you like, later on you can buy back all the crappy soul gems you've sold Creeper and use them to recharge enchanted items. Hope this helps. Study the game manual, it explains the mechanics of enchanting items.

More on soul gems - the trader in Tel Branora, Fadase Selvayn, sells petty, lesser, common, and greater soul gems. If you have Tribunal, you can buy greater soul gems from the enchanter in Mournhold. You're also more likely to find greater soul gems as random loot in dungeons when your PC is high-level (30 or greater).

@UncleScratchy: I always have a problem with some of the quest entries not clearing - it seems that the developers forgot to ensure the journal is properly updated for some quests.

Even more on soul gems -
The following is a list of the largest/best aninal to fit into a given soul gem and it's value (I don't bother to trap anything less than the largest for any given gem):
petty - shalk, skeleton (300)
lesser - bull netch (1000)
common - ash slave or zombie (4000)
greater - ogrim (NOT OGRIM TITAN) (9900)
grand - ascended sleeper, golden saint (80000)

UncleScratchy makes several very good points:

-practicing soul trapping with the lesser gems and various 'lesser creatures'. When you're in a battle with a GS or AS you don't have much time to fumble with spells etc.

-many people have many schemes to make money. The easiest is soul gems. There are hundreds of them in bandit caves scattered around the island, and since you don't pay for them, your profit margin is enourmous.

-to sell creeper (or any merchant for that matter) something worth more than their on-hand cash they must have high value items available for sale.