In Which Finds-The-Way is Named Listener of the Brotherhood

Time to swing back around to Finds-The-Way, my Argonian assassin I’m running for my German Skyrim playthrough. Main action in this sessin: being named the Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, finishing up Katria’s quest for the Aetherium Forge, and getting the Elder Scroll (and crimson nirnroot) down in Blackreach.

Play by play

Play date: 1/28/2024
Session number in this run: 45
Picked up again at Lakeview
Boinged to Markarth to report to Muiri
Got payment for killing Alain Dufont, but she bitched at me for not killing Nilsine
Lady, this is what you get for not specifying a second target in your contract with the Night Mother!
Boinged back to the Brotherhood Sanctuary to check in
Astrid told me not to go to Volunruud yet
Got objectives to take out Lurbuk and Hern
Then boinged to Riften to check in with Tonilia about getting the Khajiit on board as fences
Next stop: going to the Aetherium Forge
Boinged to Alchemist’s Shack to get within range, then slept there for the night since it was dark
Rode over in the morning to Bthalft, which resulted in an all-out melee involving two bandits, a bear, and a Blood Dragon
Not sure why there weren’t three bandits? But, took out all the hostiles
Then ran the forge, made the crown, and bid farewell to Katria
Got an achievement for finishing off this quest 😀
Looted all the machines on the way out
And was very overloaded, so had to tromp around to find the Dwarven Horse; it had run over to the Imperial camp nearby, and was hanging out with the actual horses
Then fast traveled to Whiterun and sold a bunch of stuff
Boinged to Wayward Pass to go to Alftand and run the place
No particular issues doing that, fairly standard Alftand run
Got overloaded again, but compensated for it by quaffing a Fortify Restoration potion and bumping up the bonuses on various Fortify Carry Weight items I was wearing
At some point running Alftand was when my Light Armor skill reached 100, which unlocked another achievement
Made it past Sulla and Umana, and into Blackreach
Hit Sinderion’s Field Laboratory and started the crimson nirnroot quest
Did the sweep around Blackreach trying to find crimson nirnroot
Got to the one on the wall and had a bitch of a time getting to that one
Only realized later that derp, I was using the wrong damn button on the controller to jump
Made it into Mzark and got the Elder Scroll, and this time remembered to grab the Lexicon on the way out ;P
Got another achievement for finishing this quest!
Boinged to Whiterun–and was immediately attacked by guards, because OH SHIT RIGHT I was wearing the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal
So rolled back to coming out of Mzark and took the Cowl off
Then hit Whiterun, take two, and sold a bunch of stuff
Boinged back to Lakeview for final inventory and supplies managing
Gave Lucia a gift! Because yes, kid, your dragonmom did bring you something
Saved there until next time

Dark Brotherhood action

There will not, I think, ever be a time when I’ll want to run the Dark Brotherhood and kill Nilsine for Muiri. Nope. I don’t care how pissed off she is at the Shatter-Shields. Still not going to take out their only surviving daughter and drive the mother to suicide. So Muiri can just live with not actually specifying two targets when she called upon the Night Mother. And hopefully, Bothela can hook her up with some alchemical therapy. Because if anybody in all of Skyrim needs some damn therapy, it’s Muiri!

No problems whatsoever with taking out Alain Dufont for her, though. That bastard had it coming. 😀

Meanwhile, this session also marked Finds-The-Way getting named the Listener of the Brotherhood by the Night Mother. When I ran Harrowhark’s playthrough, I didn’t make it this far in the Brotherhood plotline before that playthrough imploded. So this was legit the first time I got to the scene where you have to hide in the Night Mother’s coffin.

EDITING TO ADD 7/7/2024: Actually I’m wrong, I did make it this far in Harrow’s playthrough, just no farther than that! Harrow did get as far as killing Lurbuk and Hern.

And okay yeah that was legit creepy, I’ll give it props for that! I’m not sure I entirely bought that the coffin was standing up vertically in Cicero’s room, and for that matter, open. Unless Cicero in his general batshittery had it open so he could talk to the Night Mother better?

For that matter, how did her body actually stay upright in the thing? Is what’s left of that corpse tied in place or something? This is another one of those “I should really just relax” things, yes. 😀 But this is also a result of my writer brain trying to work out the logistics of a scene, to make it make sense!

And given what I set up about Finds’ backstory, i.e., that she explicitly came to Skyrim with the intent to seek out the Brotherhood, this must naturally mark a significant point in her storyline. Because it justifies her tribe’s belief in her as a Shadowscale, and affirms for her that she is, in fact, accomplishing her goal.

I think it’s fair to say that after she discovered she was Dragonborn, she had some measure of doubt about whether proceeding to become a Shadowscale was the proper course of action for her. But when the Night Mother actually spoke to her, welp, that right there was probably a religious experience for her. A very creepy religious experience, but the point remains.

I’m pretty sure also though that she was more creeped out by Cicero than by snuggling up to her dead religious figure. LOL.

After that, the rest of this session was all familiar territory, so I won’t go into that past what I said above in the highlight notes.

The consequences of playing multiple Elder Scrolls games at once

Running the quest to gather crimson nirnroot in Blackreach gave me yet another incident of mixing up Skyrim and Elder Scrolls Online controller buttons. I was having a devil of a time trying to get up on the bridge to get one of the nirnroots–only to realize later that derp, I was using the wrong damn button on the controller to jump.

I mixed up the A and Y buttons. A is jump in ESO, assuming you’re not trying to activate an object. Y is jump in Skyrim. Oops!

I’ve been considering rearranging some of my button mappings in Skyrim to make them closer to ESO, because I’ve also had issues with hitting Left on the D-Pad in Skyrim, expecting it to wield my current weapon. Skyrim uses that button to wield or unwield whatever weapon I’ve marked as a favorite, which is not the same thing.

But ESO’s button layout and Skyrim’s are different enough that I’m pretty sure it’d take considerable work to bring Skyrim’s closer to ESO’s. The really big point of difference being how the X, Y, and B buttons are all combat attack buttons, as are the left and right bumpers. But all of those buttons have their own meanings in Skyrim. It would be a very bad idea, I feel, to mess around with which button throws a Shout!

So really, the proper answer here is that I need to get back to playing Skyrim, to remind my muscle memory of how that game’s buttons work. ;D

Achievements unlocked

Lost to the Ages: For finishing that quest, and helping Katria discover the Aetherium Forge and successfully create an aetherium object
Skill Master: For getting a skill up to 100
Elder Knowledge: For finishing that quest, and acquiring the Elder Scroll in Mzark

Achievements count as of this post: 39.

Language commentary

Interesting terms observed:

Untertreibung: Understatement
Stehlen: Steal (in the sense of sneaking)
Belauschen: Eavesdrop
Entwürdigende: Degrading
Befleckende: Defiling/staining
Der Zuhörer/Die Zuhörerin: The Listener
Ruinen von Bthalft: Ruins of Bthalft
Dwemermechanismus: Dwemer Mechanism
Bezwinge die Wächter der Schmiede: Defeat the Guardians of the Forge (quest objective)
Aetherische Krone: Aetherial Crown
Aetherischer Schild: Aetherial Shield
Aetherischer Stab: Aetherial Staff
Aetheriumkrone: Aetherium Crest
Rift: Kaiserliches Militärlager: Rift Imperial Camp
Zwergischer Metallbarren: Dwarven Metal Ingots
Verzierter Dwemerbalken: Large Decorative Dwemer Strut (lit. “ornate Dwemer beam”)
Großer Dwemerbalken: Large Dwemer Strut (lit. “large Dwemer beam”)
Verbogenes Stück Dwemermetall: Bent Dwemer Scrap Metal (lit. “bent piece of Dwemer metal”)
Große Dwemermetalplatte: Large Dwemer Plate Metal
Kleine Dwemermetallplatte: Small Dwemer Plate Metal
Massives Dwemermetall: Solid Dwemer Metal
Altes Dwemermetall: Dwemer Scrap Metal (lit. “old Dwemer metal”)
Dwemerzahnrad: Dwemer Cog (lit. “Dwemer gear”)
Expeditionsmanifest: Expedition Manifest
Alftand: Eisruinen: Alftand Glacial Ruins (lit. “Alftand ice ruins”)
Forschungsnotizen: Research Notes
Glatthäuter: Smooth-skinned (used by J’darr when raving to himself about non-Khajiit looking for food)
Alftand: Animonculatorium: Alftand Animoculory
Falmernachtschleicher: Falmer Nightprowler
Alftand: Kathedrale: Alftand Cathedral
Schild des Blutigen: Targe of the Blooded (lit. “shield of the bloody”)
Sinderions Feldlabor: Sinderion’s Field Laboratory
Purpurne Nirnwurz: Crimson Nirnroot
Stille Ruine: Silent Ruin (in Blackreach)
Zauberbuch: Beschworene Streitaxt: Spell Tome: Bound Battleaxe
Abgelegenes Pumpenhaus: Derelict Pumphouse (lit. “remote pumphouse”)
Die Herausforderung des Waffenschmieds: The Armorer’s Challenge (Smithing skill book found in the Tower of Mzark)
Runenverziertes Lexikon: Runed Lexicon (lit. “rune-adorned lexicon”)
Schriftrolle der Alten (Drache): Elder Scroll (Dragon)
Turm von Mzark: Tower of Mzark

When I went to Markarth to tell Muiri I’d taken out Alain Dufont, this was my line to her in German:

“Alain Dufont ist Geschichte.”

Which translates to “Alain Dufont is history.” And this made me LOL, just because that seems like such a very Anglophone way to put it. Compare to the actual original line in the English game: “Alain Dufont now lies dead.” I think I actually like the German line better.

Cicero is arguably creepier in German while ranting at the Night Mother, I think. And even a little creepy being overjoyed about my being chosen as the Listener! In general, he’s just creepier with German dialogue. Mad props to the voice actor who turned in that performance.

When Cicero learned that I was the Listener, he used two different translations of that title: Zuhörer and Zuhörerin. The suffix -in denotes a feminine version of the same word, and he didn’t use that version until he told Astrid what was going on. Which suggests to me that the translation team used the masculine version generically, when Cicero states that the Night Mother speaks only to the Listener–but there is no Listener. When he talks to Astrid, though, he’s talking about me specifically. And I’m a female character, hence the -in suffix.

The translators got a little confusing in regards to items at the Aetherium Forge. The German word “krone” means “crown”, but I saw them use that same term for both the Aetherium Crest (which you make out of the four shards) and the actual Aetherial Crown that you can forge.

The term “Abgelegenes” is not a translation of “derelict” from English to German. From what I’m seeing, it actually means “remote” or “isolated”. Which I suppose still fits the pumphouse in question, given how it’s really rather sequestered off from a lot of the other reachable locations in Blackreach.

Next time

Finds-The-Way’s next post will feature advancing the Main Quest, including meeting Hermaeus Mora and the first fight with Alduin on the Throat of the World; and major advancing of the Dark Brotherhood plotline, including taking out Vittoria Vici at her wedding, and chasing Cicero into the Dawnstar sanctuary. About which I have opinions!