In Which Delga Quests Across Solstheim

Finally, a nice big crunchy Skyrim session! This one saw action on a lot of the side quests available on Solstheim, which I want to get out of the way before I return to the main Dragonborn plot and take down Miraak.

Highlights

Play date: 1/14/2022
Session number in this run: 73
Tried to get Alchemy training from Milore, but oops okay i’m already past her pay grade
Set out with Calder from Raven Rock to go to Tel Mithryn
Hostile Nord who was all “time to end this little game”. What game? Dude, I literally just met you and I gotta say, you are not very friendly
Pyromancer vs. cryomancer near Tel Mithryn; cryomancer won and then came at me, so I took her out; got her staff and the staff off the pyromancer too
Made it to Tel Mithryn
Visited the alchemist Elynea and got her quest to get her taproots dipped in the headwaters to fix Neloth’s house
Proceeded northward along the shore
Ran into two spriggans and an elk; welp there’s two of my taproots!
Reached Bujold’s Retreat and overheard initial conversation re: the Nords in the camp needing to take back the mead hall
Chatted with some of the Nords in the camp
Got Elmus’ side quest to get him a bottle of the Ashfire Mead, which may require me to break into Thirsk and avoid the rieklings there?
Didn’t talk to Bujold yet, just because I didn’t want to run the battle for the mead hall quite yet
Headed on north into the Skaal village
Overheard opening convo re: Baldor being missing; cue the New Source of Stalhrim quest! Time to go fuck with the Thalmor!
Talked to Edla and bought another netch jelly from her; also got her quest to talk to her son
Talked to her son and convinced him not to bail on supporting his mother
Talked to Wulf Wild-Blood and got his quest to find out what happened to his brother the werebear
Followed the trail given by Deor; overshot direction though, and wound up passing Benkongerike again
Calder killed a frost troll
Saering’s Watch apparently respawned? Re-killed the serpentine dragon, and this time got its soul properly
Mined a sapphire geode
Killed another frost troll en route to the Abandoned Lodge
Also found Moesring Pass; had to fight a few rieklings
Reached the lodge and the Thalmor tried to yell at me to fuck off; I’m sorry, if you have the smith in there I’m looking for, I will not be able to comply with your order to fuck off at this time, and oh hey look, you do
Got Baldor’s info about the ship and the map; off to go find Ancarion!
Fought a couple more rieklings, but lost track of Calder
Found and cleansed the Water Stone; Lurker Vindicator came out of the pool, and attracted a dragon with the fight, regular dragon though, and easily killed
Took out the cultist who kept trying to smack me with lightning, I am not having any of that bullshit, bitch
Sailors saved! Also a hunter! But other hunter got killed by the dragon :~(
Took out two wild bristlebacks
Fought a bunch of rieklings at Bristleback Cave; Calder caught up at that point
Swung back a bit to get that last Deathbrand chest and get the gauntlets and key to the hoard
Proceeded onward to Northshore Landing
HI THALMOR! Geez you guys are assholes
Hey Ancarion, gimme your map! (Gosh that was easy) (Continue to be slightly disappointed that I always pass the persuade checks on this quest, lol)
Mined a nearby ebony vein
Quaffed a potion and fast traveled back to the Skaal village
Hey Baldor i got your map! And yay! Now i can forge stalhrim!
Tharstan came up and gave me the job offer re: guarding his back at Vahlok’s tomb
Hold that thought, old dude, i will take you up on it
BUT FIRST: headed east of Skaal village
Made it to giant nirnroot island; took out the spriggans there for taproots
Also got all the giant nirnroot
Hit the riekling island nearby by accident, as I was trying to swim to the main island shore; rieklings didn’t take kindly to that, so Calder and i had to fight them
Made it back to the main shore
Killed assorted horkers who were fighting a hunter; hunter lost her dog though :~(
Made it to the headwaters to dip the taproots
Quaffed a potion and fast traveled to Tel Mithryn
Greeted by courier with first message from Ralis at Kolbjorn!
BUT FIRST: checked in with Elynea re: taproots; she kept two and sent me next door with the third one
Neloth bitched at me about Varona being missing, also refused to accept the taproot
I planted the third taproot since Neloth couldn’t be arsed to do it
Then he bitched about someone being after him and that he needed to do more research to find out who
I asked him if I could help; he asked me to get him an ash spawn sample
Tried to leave; Talvas came up and begged for help with his ash guardian
I killed it for him, then went next door and told Elynea the taproot had been planted
Asked her if she’d seen Varona; answered that Varona had left for Raven Rock hours ago
Went looking and yep Varona sure is super dead!
Reported back to Tel Mithryn; Neloth ordered me to get him a new steward
Told Talvas his little problem is sorted; bought five rounds of Conjuration training from him, also four spellbooks
Fast traveled to Raven Rock for loot drop
Sold stuff to Glover and Fethis; got both to make snarky commentary about being steward for Neloth
Went into the Netch and got Drovas on board with being the steward
Then went back to Severin Manor and did a bunch of crafting
Leveled up to 65 and took additional Enchanting perk
Started slapping double enchantments on things (blacksmith apron, gloves, necklace, ring, to double up on smithing and alchemy enchantments)
Also started double enchanting the heavy stalhrim gear
Dropped off a lot of stuff to really pull down the weight and cut down on the number of weapons I’m carrying; sorry Volendrung you are really heavy and i have better weapons than you now
Went back out again to go to Koljborn Barrow
Khajiit skooma addict attacked me, fought him barehanded, Calder finally ran him through
Did first round of clearing the draugr and giving 2000 gold to Ralis; also, found a stalhrim light shield in the barrow
Calder and I fought a couple of burnt spriggans
Went back to Tel Mithryn to tell Neloth yep I sure did send him a steward
Got Elynea to ask me to bring her a Daedra heart
Headed a short ways on foot towards the stalhrim source
Fought a pyromancer (no cryomancer? Must have lost that battle but I didn’t see where a cryomancer might have fallen)
Decided to fast travel to Bristleback Cave to get to the stalhrim source
Looted Northshore Landing now that the Thalmor are gone; emptied several fish barrels and a couple of chests; killed several mudcrabs
Made it up to the stalhrim source and mined all of it
Fast traveled back to Raven Rock
Cue Mogrul being cranky I cost him 1000 septims; I intimidated him into accepting half
Went back to Severin Manor and improved up the stalhrim armor I’d already made
Also made a greatsword and a dagger and improved both of those, along with the previously made bow; enchanted the fuck out of the greatsword and bow, and also the shield I found in Kolbjorn Barrow
Saved for the night

Commentary

Most of the action in this session was familiar territory, but not entirely. The main new thing is that I made an effort to find and engage with the Nords who’d been kicked out of Thirsk Mead Hall by the rieklings, just because this time through, I think I may aid them instead of the rieklings just for a change of pace.

So I took the time to talk to a few of the NPCs, just to see what they were like. This led me to getting Elmus’ side quest to bring him a bottle of Ashfire Mead, which is another new thing to do. The wiki claims it doesn’t have to specifically be mead fetched from Thirsk, which would be helpful just because I’d like to not have to hit the place until it’s time for the actual battle.

But on the other hand, not sure when or where I’ll find another bottle? I may give it a bit before I swing back to this plot, just to see whether a bottle of it turns out someplace else.

I did not however talk to their leader Bujold yet, just because talking to her directly is what triggers the attack on the mead hall. So I think my plan here will be, try to find a bottle of that mead, and if I don’t find one somewhere else besides the mead hall yet, then try to get one of the mead hall. Then go back to talk to Bujold.

(And ah okay the other wiki says I might be able to buy some from Geldis at the Retching Netch? Excellent!)

Meanwhile, I queued up the various other interesting side plots connected to the Skaal village. Most notably, the stalhrim source quest! Which is one of my favorite things to do on Solstheim at this point, since it basically unlocks the ability to forge stalhrim and gives you the opportunity to go get a boatload of it to play with. Bonus that it gives you an additional opportunity to fuck with the Thalmor. 😀

Next time

More side questing, now that I’m properly outfitted with stalhrim gear improved up to levels to be competitive with the heavier things I’ve been carrying around!