In Which Delga Clears Highpoint Tower and White Ridge Barrow

What it says on the tin, really! This is the session where I ran Highpoint Tower and White Ridge Barrow as the primary locations.

Highlights

• Play date: 1/18/2022
• Session number in this run: 77
• Ran Highpoint Tower
• Practiced throwing my own ash guardian up against the ash guardian circle
• Killed once by Ildari; second time through also threw the ash guardian at her, and got her that time
• Coming out of Highpoint Tower, killed by pyromancer shortly thereafter AUGH
• Went the other way coming out the second time, and avoided her
• Made it to Tel Mithryn; reported back to Neloth to conclude the plot
• Bought five rounds of training from Talvas
• Fought cultists en route back to Raven Rock
• Tried summoning an ash guardian again but didn’t quite realize it’s locked to a location unless destroyed? Okay
• Made it back to Raven Rock and OH HI REVERED DRAGON; killed it right outside the Bulwark, and no sniping from Miraak this time
• Redoran Guards: YOU TOOK ITS VERY SOUL! :O
• Headed up along the western shore
• Stopped near Bristleback Cave and fought a few rieklings, but mostly just stood near other ones throwing spears at me till i collected 50 of them
• Verified stalhrim source had not yet respawned
• Ran White Ridge Barrow
• Did not build any spiders on the grounds that I feel like Delga would go “ew” and also be a lot more sympathetic to Farkas now (and also, as a player I know I will NEVER USE THESE SPIDERS and let’s just not tell any other mages about this mmmkay?)
• Got the word for the Cyclone Shout
• Also ran the Sallow Regent Black Book level; chose Seeker of Sorcery as the reward
• Went OH HEY I KNOW WHERE I CAN FIND A HAGRAVEN CLAW, and derped around a little looking for path southward to Altar of Thrond
• Found Snowclad Ruins first and found the one dude and two werebears; they got stuck on a slope trying to charge me, so I hit them with Unrelenting Force and knocked all three of them into the river; one of the werebears survived that and came back at me, so I engaged him in battle and took him out
• Finally found the path south to Altar of Thrond; engaged the hagravens there and got a claw
• Fast traveled to Skaal Village
• Bought a bunch of ebony from Baldor to take over to Thirsk later once I hit 15 ingots; also bought a couple bits of stalhrim from him
• Bought a few bits of ingredients off of Edla
• Reported in to chieftain and got her bounty on the bandits
• Fast traveled to Thirsk; gave Hilund her 50 riekling spears
• Fast traveled to Tel Mithryn; gave Elynea her hagraven claw
• Fast traveled back to Raven Rock
• Parked in Severin Manor
• Did a round of enchanting to make slightly better crafting gear
• Saved for the night

Commentary

This was another short-ish session given that it was a weeknight. And also, this was nothing particularly new, so not much here for me to go over in depth.

Regarding running Highpoint Tower, it took me only twice to get through it, just because Ildari is a formidable opponent. But it was interesting throwing an ash guardian at her!

Regarding running White Ridge Barrow, the main new thing here was my deciding to specifically not build any of the spider scrolls. This time through in particular I feel like Delga was a bit squicked out by how many tiny spiders were running all over the place. Almost more squick-inducing than the big ones in some ways! And I feel like she came out of there with more sympathy for Farkas of the Companions.

Also: given that she saw evidence in the journals that the experiments were possibly driving the two Dunmer in the barrow batshit, this didn’t sound to her like a thing she wanted to pursue.

Other than those two main goals, the session was mostly about taking care of minor side quests.

Next time

More finishing off of side quests, and probably finishing off Kolbjorn Barrow as well! Then maybe the Deathbrand hoard?

Screenshots

No screenshots this time either.

Editing to add

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