In Which Delga Does General Adventuring

This is another double session post, covering play on Sunday 1/2 and Monday 1/3, since the session on Sunday wasn’t really long enough to warrant a post by itself.

And basically, this was me doing some general adventuring, working my way westward across the map to get back to Markarth.

Play by play

Play dates: 1/2-1/3/2022
Session numbers in this run: 64-65

Sunday’s session

Finished up Frostmere Crypt
This time through chose to banish the Pale Lady by putting the Pale Blade back on its holder, because seriously it ain’t like i don’t have an entire armory’s worth of swords 😉
Got the word for the Ice Form Shout
Came out of the crypt only to spot a dragon overhead, and I heard it shout the Drain Vitality Shout, so okay then a Revered Dragon; it landed somewhere out of sight though fighting something else, so I elected to not go engage with it
Saw periphery of what looked like a battle between a couple of vampires and maybe a Vigilant? Hard to tell from a distance, so I went over to investigate
By the time I got to the one visible combatant I found she was a vampire fledgling, and she tried to fight me, so I took her out as a member of the Dawnguard damn well should
Then I found the other vampire, standing over the corpse of Dawnguard novice Hakar, so I took down that vampire as well
RIP Hakar, you were apparently not very good at being in the Dawnguard, but you tried your best and I have avenged you
Realized I was near Labyrinthian, and hey good time to run Shalidor’s Maze!
Headed in to do that, and killed three frost trolls
Cleared Shalidor’s Maze, got the loot off the top of the side walls, also got the second word for Dismay Shout
Got the Diadem of the Savant correctly this time, and a Daedra heart!
Killed once by storm atronach coming out of the Trial of Conjuration, but took down said atronach second time through after throwing a few atronachs of my own at it, and making sure to quaff an Elixir of Resist Shock
Boinged to Whiterun to sell stuff to all four vendors
Saved for the night

Monday’s session

Headed out from Whiterun to go to Rannveig’s Fast
Dragon (regular dragon) vs. giant as I got near the Western Watchtower
Giant won the fight! I came up on the far side of the dragon corpse so as not to bother the giant, just so I could get the dragon soul and dragon bits and loot
Cultists
Killed two sabre cats right by Greenspring Hollow (also looted that camp since the hunter was dead)
Dunmer thief (did not put up with his bullshit)
Made it to Rannveig’s Fast
Killed a couple of subjugated ghosts outside the entrance
Also saw respawned Eldersblood Peak dragon (Blood Dragon) flying around, so took it out, which got me overloaded with dragon bits
Arvak’d back to Whiterun for dropoff
Headed back out again on foot to Rannveig’s Fast
Made it as far as a gold vein before a Frost Dragon tried to start some shit with me
I threw the fire breath shout at it, and it buggered off to try to start shit instead with a nearby giant and two mammoths; this was not a strategically sound decision on the part of the Frost Dragon
Watched the giant and mammoths kill it, then snuck up to loot the bones and soul
Proceeded to go mine that gold vein!
Reached Rannveig’s and cleared it
Bypassed the trapdoor by the Word Wall, but then went down through the rest of the place and took out Sild the warlock because fuck that guy
Overloaded again at this point so potion’d over to Solitude for loot drop
Sold a bunch of things to Sayma and Angeline; dropped off some books at Proudspire
Headed out of Solitude on foot towards Dragon Bridge
Ran into Taron Dreth and his guards, and boy howdy was he pissed when I said the name ‘Katria’; he sicced his guards on me, and even attracted a soldier from Dragon Bridge who went after him too
He unfortunately killed the soldier, but I finally took him out after I found he’d fallen a bit down the cliffside towards the water
I hope Katria kicks your ass in Sovngarde, asshole!
Whirlwind-Sprinted my way across the water a couple of hops, and headed southwest-ish
Took out a frostbite spider
Took out Dunmer mage in mostly ebony armor
Got near Rorikstead and took out a pack of bandits
Took out a bear going near-ish to Moldering Ruins again
Near-ish to Valthume, spotted a hunter by the cliff wall and went over to check him out OH SHIT he’s a werewolf; had to take him out
Passed a Forsworn camp that warned me off, but didn’t bother to engage, so I guess I heeded their warning? 😉
Made it to Valthume only to realize I was almost overloaded, so boinged to Markarth for loot dropoff
HI ARGIS
Boinged back to Valthume; ran the place and got heavily overloaded after killing multiple Draugr Deathlords who had ebony gear, and that shit’s heavy, but grabbed it all because it’s pricey 😉
Got the word for the Aura Whisper Shout from there
Also took out Hevnoraak and got his mask and staff
Arvak’d back to Markarth
Sold some stuff to Lisbet, Ghorza, and Moth
Returned to Vlindrel Hall (HI ARGIS) and saved for the night

Commentary

Couple small but notable new things about Sunday night’s session. One, I decided to conclude the run through Frostmere Crypt by actually returning the Pale Blade to its holder rather than fighting the Pale Lady–partly because it felt like the thing Delga would do, and partly because it ain’t like I don’t have a whole bunch of swords already! I don’t really need another one. And the Pale Blade isn’t awesome enough to warrant adding it to my armory.

And two, I ran into Dawnguard Novice Hakar for the first time that I can remember. Or, rather, ran into the periphery of his battle with vampires and his untimely death. RIP Hakar! You were apparently a really incompetent member of the Dawnguard? But I’m sure you tried your best, and I have avenged you and taken out the vampires that killed you.

This now means that I’ve run into all three random Dawnguard encounters that you can have in the wild–because I’m pretty sure at this point that the other person I saw in Dawnguard armor on a horse earlier in Delga’s run must have been Saliah, a Redguard. And apparently the only Dawnguard NPC encounter (outside of the main Dawnguard plot) that involves the NPC not actually being dead!

Shalidor’s Maze is not new to me at this point, but the thing worth mentioning here is that unlike with Merawen’s run, I did actually get the Diadem of the Savant correctly when I killed the Daedra coming out of the Trial of Conjuration. So I don’t have to go grab the extra one down at Froki’s Shack!

Monday’s session had nothing new in it. But I was amused by the Frost Dragon’s supremely bad life choices, just because okay sure, I can buy it deciding that a Thu’um-wielding Dragonborn is not an opponent it’s really wise to fight–but then promptly running off to fight with a giant with not one but two pissed off mammoths is not really an improvement over the Dragonborn. 😀

And pissing off Taron Dreth by mentioning the name “Katria” to him will never not be funny!

Next time

I was thinking I’d go do the Forsworn Conspiracy, but I am reminded by doublechecking the wiki that there is a known issue with the Elder Scroll vanishing out of your inventory if you have Alduin’s Bane active at the same time.

So hmm. I think maybe it’s time to go to Solstheim!

(Though I still need to engage a new steward at Heljarchen, too. And I’m reminded that I still haven’t married anybody in this playthrough! But the problem is I’m not sure who I actually want to marry with Delga!)

Screenshots

No screenshots for these two sessions. I took a few but they weren’t interesting/new enough to keep. (Note to self for later, this post was sessions 64-65, next screenshot session should be 66.)

Editing to add

11/20/2023: Added play date and session number markers.