In Which Delga Cleanses the Companions of Most of Their Lycanthropy

This session’s main point was to cleanse Vilkas, Farkas, and myself of lycanthropy, though I wound up having to do a few side quests to get to the point of being able to do that. Discovered a fun new game: siccing flame atronachs on Forsworn!

Highlights

• Play date: 11/23/2021
• Session number in this run: 25
• Had Lydia stand down at Breezehome
• Went to Jorrvaskr to see if I could get either of the boys to ask me to de-wolf them
• Nope, Vilkas gave me a Family Heirloom quest that happened to be at Red Eagle Redoubt
• So decided to run that stacked with Red Eagle’s sword, to clear those off the list
• But first went to Lakeview to build remaining iron things, down to just decorations in the place now
• Also helped Rayya kill a giant by the house, using ebony battleaxe
• After building, set off on foot to see if i could run into anything interesting
• Killed trio of wolves, also with ebony battleaxe; heh feel a little guilty not using Volendrung!
• Passed a hunter on the road
• Attacked by two necromancer adepts and a skeleton
• One of the necromancers had a scrawled note ordering him to avenge the death of Malyn Varen and take out the holder of Azura’s Star; this did not work out the way he’d planned
• Assholes also killed a horse that was probably the horse of that hunter I just passed; assholes, the horse didn’t do anything to you!
• Fight turned out to be near North Shriekwind Bastion; went close enough to mark it on the map but did not engage the place yet
• Flyby dragon
• Imperials + prisoner
• Two different sabre cats
• More Imperials + prisoner
• Left the road at this point to cut overland
• Bear and then cave bear
• Reached Soljund’s Sinkhole
• Stumbled across Karthspire from the other side from what I am used to coming into it; right then, let’s do this, Forsworn and hagraven
• Summoned flame atronachs a lot so I could set them on fire in between hitting them up close with the ebony sword
• Then went back to looking for Red Eagle Redoubt; made it up the hill closer to the spot
• Silver vein
• Made it to Sundered Towers and Forsworn round two
• Got Red Eagle’s Fury off the Forsworn Briarheart
• Cleared the towers as well as Red Eagle Redoubt
• Poked around a little in Red Eagle Ascent before realizing the warhammer for the Companions quest was actually back out in the chest I’d just looted
• Tromped over to Rebel’s Cairn to go ahead and finish up Red Eagle
• Very overloaded so started Whirlwind-Sprinting back to Whiterun
• Alerted bandits at the crossroads near Rorikstead but they didn’t vanquish me and my flame atronach
• Tromped slowly through Rorikstead, and once i was out of range, tried going wolfy again for carry weight bonus
• That did actually help for a bit but the transformation didn’t hold long enough for me to get across the plains–and somebody shot at me from a distance
• After I changed back encountered a witch who’d summoned a hostile flame atronach and been killed by it; killed the atronach
• Made it back to Whiterun and sold a bunch of loot at Drunken Huntsman
• Converted some of the iron ore i mined in this session over to gold so I’d have a couple of gold ingots
• Sold a couple of ebony loot weapons to Adrianne
• Returned to Jorrvaskr and turned the warhammer over to Vilkas; Vilkas then showed the right dialogue prompt to be de-wolfed, but I wanted to do Farkas first
• Farkas gave me another side quest first: kill spriggans in Shadowgreen Cavern, where I’d already been this playthrough
• Boinged over there, did the thing, boinged back
• That unlocked the de-wolf dialogue prompt for Farkas
• Boinged to Ysgramor’s tomb to help him out with that; Farkas is happy! <3
• Boinged back to Western Watchtower
• Got dragon vs. giant coming out of fast travel; killed dragon and giant, though the giant took out at least one guard, RIP guard!
• Khajiit went by on the road, bye Khajiit! Sell lots of goods and wares!
• Returned to Jorrvaskr
• Hey Vilkas got any work? Oh you also want to be de-wolfed? Conveniently, I have extra witch heads! Let’s do this!
• Returned to Ysgramor’s Tomb; de-wolfed Vilkas and de-wolfed me, and Vilkas helped me kill my wolf spirit too
• Went out to the Word Wall this time and made sure to mine the gold vein
• Returned to watchtower, no dragon this time
• Did a little more transmuting and now i have four gold ingots
• Parked in Breezehome
• Hey Lydia! Guess what I’m not anymore!
• Saved for the night

Commentary

So yeah, as noted above, mostly this quest was all about de-wolfing as many of the Companions as possible, including me.

I’d thought about staying a wolf all the way to Solstheim, at which point I’d be able to interact with the werewolf pack there. I’d also thought about doing the Totems of Hircine quests with Aela. But I decided the narrative was pushing me in a direction to go ahead and get de-wolfed. It makes sense for Delga to do it now, now that she’s ramping up on being Dragonborn, and also now that she’s committed to fighting for the Empire.

Can’t risk turning wolfy in the middle of fighting Stormcloaks, after all. That has “get shot down by the Stormcloaks and your own forces” written all over it.

However, before de-wolfing myself, I did want to de-wolf Vilkas and Farkas as well. And I had to do a side quest for each of them to get them to the point of asking me for that help.

Vilkas’ side quest, as noted above, stacked up nicely onto the quest to get Red Eagle’s sword. Wound up fighting way more Forsworn than anticipated! But this turned out better than I might otherwise have feared, going into this with no actual follower on duty–because turns out that regularly conjuring a flame atronach to set your opponents on fire helps clear the field nicely.

And I did try wolfing out one last time on the way back from that quest, partly just because I was so overloaded. But I also noted somebody shot at me from a distance. Far enough away that I couldn’t tell who–might possibly have been bandits, or a hunter, or any number of other NPCs. Extra impetus, I think, to prod Delga along in the direction of “get this wolf blood out of your system”.

Farkas’ side quest, by contrast, was much easier. All he wanted me to do was go kill some spriggans in Shadowgreen Cavern, and I’d already been there. So getting that done was fast.

De-wolfing both of the boys was likewise fast, since all I had to do for that was boing back to Ysgramor’s Tomb and do the same thing for them that I’d done for Kodlak: throw a witch head into the Flame of the Harbinger. Convenient that the flame knew whose wolf spirit to give me!

And after I did Vilkas, I did me as well. Which leaves one Companion who embraces the wolf-blood: Aela. I feel a little sad for her because of that, and it does raise some questions about what her eventual future might be. If she decides to finally lose the wolf-blood so as not to lose her bond with the other Companions… or if she decides that following Hircine is more important, and she has to leave because of that.

I have a bit of headcanon in my head now about Aela looking disappointed when Delga comes back from de-wolfing both Vilkas and herself. Aela could probably tell, I think, that they’re no longer lycanthropes just by smelling them. And I’m pretty sure that she wouldn’t outright snap at the Harbinger for cleansing herself as well as Vilkas and Farkas. But I can definitely see a flare of disappointment coming up in her face before she squashes it.

And Delga catching it and telling her solemnly, “I know this must hurt you. You gave me your wolf blood, and I burned it out of me. I want you to know that I still appreciate that you shared it with me, even if I couldn’t keep it. I also want you to know that it’s not about rejecting you, or Lord Hircine. It’s about what I am above all else. You still have a wolf’s senses. Can you smell it on me? Can you smell that I am Dragonborn?”

Aela, frowning: “You… smell like… fire. Not forge fire. Hotter than that. And it’s sharper now. Is this what a dragon smells like?”

Delga: “Yes. I’ve killed a few of them now. I’m told this is what I’m meant to do: slay dragons. If you stay with us, perhaps you’ll get a chance to battle one yourself. Will you stay among us?”

Aela, looking away: “With you and Vilkas and Farkas rejecting the beast blood, do I still have a place among you?”

Delga: “As far as I’m concerned, you’re still our Shield-Sister. Please. Stay and fight at our side.”

Aela, smiling crookedly: “Thank you, Harbinger. I will stay.”

One other thing I’ll note for this session that I don’t think happened for either Alarrah’s or Merawen’s run: i got attacked by a couple of necromancers with a note on them ordering them to kill the bearer of Azura’s Star.

And there’s a real interesting question as to who the hell sent them after me, given that I killed all of Malyn Varen’s disciples in Ilinalta’s Deep. Which kind of leaves Nelacar as a real likely suspect!

You’re on notice, Nelacar. I’m watching you.

Next time

Probably going to run the Jagged Crown quest for the Empire. And one or more side quests!

Screenshots

Editing to add

• 11/28/2021: Galleries are finally fixed! So here are the screenshots for this session.
• 11/18/2023: Galleries broke again, so restored the missing gallery, and also added play date and session number markers.