In Which Delga Finds the Hoard of Haknir Death-Brand

This was another of those “do side quests on Solstheim” type sessions, as I work on loose ends before finally taking on Miraak. With special guest appearance by Miraak himself!

Highlights

• Play date: 1/20/2022
• Session number in this run: 79
• Set out from Severin Manor to do shopping in Raven Rock; replenished ebony supply for smith at Thirsk
• Met up with party of netch hunters near Old Attius Farm; joined their hunt (I kinda figured an Orc would)
• Proceeded onward towards Deathbrand hoard
• Two ash spawn erupted and wait didn’t I kill all of those? I guess taking out Ildari doesn’t completely eliminate them?
• Engaged hostile Argonian mage near Nchardak; Iona and I took him out and he fell into the water, had to retrieve his loot from there
• Proceeded to Deathbrand hoard locale at Gyldenhul Barrow
• Engaged hostile reavers at the door
• Mined the stalhrim inside (sorry poor dead adventurer, too bad you didn’t have an Ancient Nord Pickaxe)
• Cleared out the hoard, including a dragonscale helmet
• Engaged Haknir and his ghost crew
• Got the scimitars \0/
• Swam around to the backside of the island and cleared the horkers; got Horksbane, Saden’s journal, and ship loot
• Arvak’d back to Raven Rock because overloaded
• Did loot dropoff, and some more enchanting and alchemy
• Came out to fast travel to stalhrim source and see if it’s respawned yet; answer: no
• Engaged rieklings at Bristleback Cave
• Looted Northshore Landing again; also got to the stalhrim deposits on the island northeast of that
• Practiced throwing fear at horkers to get them to run off
• Found Glacial Cave
• Fought three werebears who were fighting a horker
• DAMMIT killed by pyromancer; thrown back to prior coming out of Severin Manor
• Took the chance to sell potions to Milore and Fethis
• Then fast traveled straight to Northshore Landing; got the stalhrim again
• This time just fast traveled to Thirsk; handed over the ebony and stalhrim to Halbarn
• Came out of the mead hall and OH HI REVERED DRAGON
• Iona and I killed it but Miraak sniped the soul and was actually visibly there? Wait has he done this all this time on all three playthroughs and I just missed it?
• Headed off towards Vahlok’s Tomb and located it, but it was pretty late game time at this point and I didn’t want to enter the place in the middle of the night
• Found the nearby unmarked Dunmer camp; fought rieklings there and got the East Empire pendant
• Also found unmarked dragon burial mound; fought Elder Dragon there, and fuck you Miraak, this one’s mine
• Quaffed potion to get back to Raven Rock for loot dropoff
• Saved for the night

Commentary

Another general adventuring/do side quests type of session, really. Nothing new here in terms of specific session goals, but two things worth mentioning, which are:

One, I don’t think I ever realized that when Miraak snipes a dragon soul from you, it’s possible for him to actually be visibly present, even if he’s ethereal and invulnerable, and therefore unable to be attacked. Paul says that he doesn’t always actually visibly appear, so this suggests that I got lucky this time. Or else I completely missed any time where he appeared before?

This time I got a screenshot of it as well as an actual video!

And two, I thought I was done with ash spawn after having killed Ildari Sarothril, but apparently not? Since I had a couple of them come at me this session.

Next time

Kagrumez and Vahlok’s Tomb! And we’ll see what else I have time to do. Not quite done with places to visit on Solstheim yet but still plenty of things to do before I go after Miraak and conclude the plot.

Screenshots

And, a surprise bonus video! Because I accidentally nabbed this after taking the Miraak screenshot. So I got the tail end of the fight with the dragon, and then Miraak showing up to snipe the soul.

Editing to add

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