In Which Delga Hunts for Schematics and Blood Samples

This session was more tying up of loose ends post-Dawnguard: hunting for more schematics for Sorine, visiting the Paragon Portal in the Forgotten Vale, and tracking down the remaining needed blood samples for Septimus.

And oh yes: getting the Oghma Infinium, and the next meeting with Hermaeus Mora!

Highlights

• Play date: 12/29/2021
• Session number in this run: 60
• Hoofed it from Heljarchen down to Whiterun
• Passed close to Halted Stream and saw one of the bandits zap a passing deer or elk; did not however get close enough to engage
• Also saw a giant and mammoth fighting at least one bandit; thought maybe I’d check out the bandit’s remains, but the giant and mammoth were still too close and the mammoth kept trumpeting, so even though I was in Sneak behind a rock, I buggered off and gave them a wide berth
• Mined the iron and corundum veins that had respawned
• Made it to Whiterun safely, and did a bunch of selling, alchemy, and smithing
• Leveled up to 57, and re-unlocked Orcish smithing
• Boinged to Bilegulch Mine to get Sorine’s schematic
• Killed a few of the orcs there including bandit chief, with help of flame atronach; cleared the boss chest and got the treasure there as well as the schematic
• Boinged next to Forgotten Vale to run the paragon portal; hit all five paragon gates and got various bits of treasure, as well as Auriel’s Shield and Unknown Book Vol. II
• Boinged next to college
• Resolved quest with J’zargo by letting him know the scrolls totally exploded
• Got training from all five trainers, and also sold assorted jewelry items
• Sold the unknown books to Urag and got the translated editions
• Boinged next to Fort Dawnguard to give Sorine the schematic
• Hi Serana, oh hey you’re human again \0/
• Hi Sorine, I brought you a present, and yes I will go get you another one
• Boinged back to Mzinchaleft; hmm not quite prepared to re-run the place, can I get in a back way?
• Moved west of the ruin, fought a frost troll
• Also a frost-breathing Ancient Dragon; took it out as well as a bandit
• Discovered that I couldn’t get in via the lift, the bars were back up
• Overloaded anyway, so Arvak’d to Solitude
• Sold dragon bits to Angeline and bought a bunch of potions
• Sold armor and weapon loot to Sayma, Beirand, and Fihada
• Boinged to Lakeview to see if I left the Shrouded Armor there; answer: no
• Boinged to Windstad; answer: yes
• Picked up the Shrouded Armor as well as some gems from the strongbox
• Did a little smithing, bumped closer to 59
• Back to Whiterun to pick up materials; did more smithing and got smithing up to 60 \0/
• But still only halfway through experience level 57
• Sold more stuff to Arcadia, Belethor, Adrianne
• Boinged back to run Mzinchaleft and get the schematic
• Re-killed a bunch of bandits and Falmer; one of the bandits was a Bosmer, so I got that ticked off the list for Discerning the Transmundane
• Got the schematic
• Took out the final centurion again and got Daedric arrows \0/
• Briefly boinged to Alftand thinking to search for more samples, but changed mind and boinged to Fort Dawnguard instead
• Slept the night, then gave Dexion the Sun and Blood scrolls
• Checked in with Sorine to give her that schematic; got quest for next one, and ah okay, that one’s on Solstheim at Bloodskal Barrow
• Tried Alftand again, but it was a wash, Varie’s body was gone, so I had to find another Altmer
• Boinged to Falkreath and then to Half-Moon Mill trying to find Evergreen Grove for Dunmer sample; got that done, but not before having to kill a Frost Dragon, a spriggan, and a spriggan matron
• Fast traveled to Guardian Stones to find a Shrine of Talos massacre for the Altmer sample–which meant I got it off a Thalmor, and yeah that is acceptable
• Boinged to Septimus to give him the samples, and he promptly went poof as soon as he opened the box and found the Oghma Infinium inside
• Fuck off Hermaeus, I am not your champion, book’s kinda neat though, OOH HEY, my magic feels more powerful
• That leveled me up to 58, and almost all the way through 58 in fact; took Arcane Blacksmithing perk again \0/
• Boinged to college for new round of training; got four rounds in before leveling up to 59, but I was still able to get in round 5 with Tolfdir and then take the level up
• Took another alchemy perk to improve my potions, then took another round of training with all the trainers
• Spent some time bumping up my enchanting by enchanting several of the jewelry pieces I was lugging around
• Boinged back to Whiterun for important smithing business, and got the Shrouded Armor improved up to Legendary!

Commentary

Not much in the way of brand new territory here, but a few things are worth noting.

One: in previous playthroughs, I’d gone back to Alftand to get most of the blood samples needed for Septimus’ quest. This time through, I waited too long–the relevant bodies had been cleared by the game. So I had to look for alternate places to find those samples.

I’d already known about Evergreen Grove, but had not realized that the dead alchemist there was a Dunmer. And I hadn’t known about the Shrine of Talos massacre site at all, despite it being super-close to Lakeview Manor!

Which just goes to show that this game is chock fulla little surprises, and that even on my third playthrough, even with how much I rely on the wikis for info, I’m still finding stuff I hadn’t known about before.

Two: according to one of the wikis, the lift you can use to get back up out of Mzinchaleft is supposed to stay open if you hit the lever on the inside to lower the bars. I did not find this to be the case. I suspect those bars stay down only as long as it takes for the dungeon to respawn?

And what this tells me is, Mzinchaleft’s lift is not a guaranteed fast way to get down into Blackreach. Likewise, the wiki page for Alftand says that that lift remains accessible to you only until the zone resets. I’ll have to check the lift at Mzark to see if that’s the case there as well. So I’ll have to decide which is the fastest way to get down into Blackreach again, if I have to go the long way no matter which place I choose.

Three: useful to discover that when I level up, I can still get in five rounds of training if I don’t take the level up immediately. Good to know!

Next time

Gonna head back down into Blackreach, once I figure out which access point is fastest, and track down the rest of the crimson nirnroot!

Which means, unfortunately for Delga, that she’s going to have to sneak some more. But having the Shrouded Armor will help with that! 😉

Screenshots

Editing to add

• 11/20/2023: Restored missing gallery, and added play date and session number markers.
• 10/7/2024: Converted gallery to a single native WordPress image.