In Which Ysani Acquires Dawnbreaker and Journeys into the Rift

Major notable thing in this session was getting Dawnbreaker! \0/ But also getting the Masque of Clavicus Vile, working on favor quests to get the thaneship in Falkreath, and heading into the Rift to take on the bandit bounty at Treva’s Watch.

Highlights

Play date: 2/1/2022
Session number in this run: 8
Finished running Kilkreath to get Dawnbreaker, did it in one go!
Made it close to four thousand gold but not quite there
Landed back by the shrine after final chat with Meridia
Ran into Plautis Carvain and his bodyguard, and chatted with him about his trying to get Vittoria Vici’s wedding; had option to try to steal his wedding gifts and did not do that, I mean honestly, I may be a future thief but I’m not a bandit 😉
Fast traveled to Haemar’s Shame, which let Barbas and Lydia catch up with me; returned Barbas and the Rueful Axe to Clavicus Vile and got the Masque
Fast traveled to Western Watchtower, got flyby dragon
Started selling stuff in Whiterun to see if I could make it to 5,000 gold; answer: yes! So now I have Breezehome, and a place to drop stuff, but i still need to furnish it
Dropped off the elven armor just because now that I know Ysani’s backstory is heavy on the Thalmor drama, I feel like she wouldn’t want to fucking wear this armor
Headed back to Valtheim to get the treasure hunter weapon
Hi Talsgar le vagabond!
Retrieved random treasure weapon and fuck yeah it’s a soul trap enchanted weapon, that needs nuking on the enchanter table
Passed hunter and dog on the way back to Whiterun
Passed orc standing in the road on the way towards the future site of Lakeview; assumed this was the hostile adventurer “what’s a milk drinker like you doing out here” encounter, so did not bother to engage
Two weirdly green glowing deer near bandit tower? But no sign of a spriggan?
Made it to Falkreath after hours, so went into the inn to stay the night
Got Thadgeir’s quest to take ashes to Runil
Slept the night in the inn and took ashes to Runil the next morning, but couldn’t get his quest to get his journal, damn
So did Denngeir’s quest to swipe the letter out of Lod’s house
Set out east from Falkreath to head towards Treva’s Watch and see about that bounty
Had fugitive/hunter encounter; gave the hunter the stolen item
Then was immediately also attacked by three bandits; took them down via Lydia and flame atronach; realized hunter was still active and shooting, just not at me, but at the fugitive cornered in a pond; went over to check it out and Lydia got the guy
Spotted dead necromancer in the road? Might have been killed fighting with the bandits?
Passed farmer looking to join the Stormcloaks; dude, you’re heading west, Windhelm is not that direction
Found and camped at Alchemist’s Shack
Several wolves
Revelers again—who promptly got attacked by a friggin’ cave bear right after I talked to them, and it killed two of them before I could throw an atronach at it, sorry revelers; third guy got killed by a wolf shortly after
Killed a couple more wolves after that and a regular bear as well
Reached Treva’s Watch and started that quest with the old man camped outside
Saved for the night

Commentary

It took me a whole bunch of tries to make it through Kilkreath when I did Alarrah’s run. For Merawen and Delga, it only took me two times through. This time?

I did it in one go. Fuck yeah. Thank you, Barbas and flame atronach. \0/

Moral of this story: absolutely run this dungeon with the Daedra dog, no matter how annoying it is when he gets underfoot and pushes me into things. It’s worth it to make getting Dawnbreaker easier!

And I say this aware that as a character who’s specializing in magic, arguably I shouldn’t be worrying as much about physical weapons. But making vampires explode is just too damned entertaining to pass up. And Dawnbreaker should stand me in good stead till I get a better weapon. By which I mean: Chillrend or the Nightingale blade!

So yeah this was all about me sending in Barbas and the flame atronach to beat up on Malkoran, while Lydia and I hung back at the door. Lydia got in some potshots with her bow, but for the most part, we were both out of the line of fire.

A little disappointed that I wasn’t able to run Runil’s quest to get him his lost journal. That’s a fairly low-key quest and I was hoping to do that one as one of the favor quests to get the thaneship of Falkreath, oh well!

Going to have to see about bringing crop items to the farmer in Falkreath instead, I guess.

Curious about the glowing deer and elk I ran into? They looked like they’d been enchanted by a spriggan, but I could find no sign of one in the immediate area.

Let’s pour one out for the poor sad revelers in the Reach, who were promptly killed by a cave bear and a wolf before I could save them. The moral of this story: maybe “in the wilds of the Reach which are teeming with bears and wolves” is not the best place to have your mead party?

Because yeah that was pretty sad. Dudes just wanted to share their mead with me, and suddenly SURPRISE BEAR, and two of them are down before I have time to react. The third one tries to go on his way, and he gets jumped by a wolf!

(I should probably feel more guilty about swiping the third guy’s necklace with a carry weight enchantment on it. Lol.)

Language commentary

Interesting terms observed:

Scélérat: This is one of the terms I’ve seen assigned to the various bandit NPCs; translates to “scoundrel”
Méridia: Meridia, only difference here being she has an accent over the first e in her name in French, which changes the pronunciation; presumably they did this because her name is similar to the word “meridian”?
Hache du chagrin: The Rueful Axe, literally “axe of the chagrin”
Masque du Vil Clavicus: The Masque of Clavicus Vile, though having du in there makes this more literally “the Masque of the vile Clavicus”, not sure if translators were interpreting “Vile” as a name or an adjective, or both
Douce Brise: Breezehome, or, literally, “Gentle breeze”
Cap de Treva: Treva’s Watch

This session saw the first time any character in the game addressed me with the informal tu rather than the formal vous. I was wondering when that was going to happen! And I’m not surprised that it was Meridia who did it, as she’s definitely one of the haughtiest Daedra in the game.

Interestingly, Clavicus Vile did not use tu with me, he used vous. Which says intriguing things about Vile’s general level of power, as well as his personality. One wonders whether he’d use tu with the Dragonborn in other circumstances—such as, if he actually had more power? Would he use tu with anybody else?

It’ll also be fun to see how Paarthurnax, Alduin, and other named dragons address me, as well as other Daedra and other powerful NPCs. My current predictions for that:

Azura: Genuinely not sure, I could see her going either way
Vaermina: Tu
Mehrunes Dagon: Tu
Hermaeus Mora: Tu
Alduin: Tu
Paarthurnax: Vous
Durnehviir: Vous
Odahviing: I could see him starting with tu but moving to vous
Lord Harkon: Tu
Miraak: Tu
Maven Black-Briar: Tu, lololol
Thieves Guild NPCs: The Thieves Guild strikes me as a situation where they may all specifically tu one another? But I could also see them starting with tu with me, and then moving to vous once I’m Guild Master
General Tullius and Legate Rikke: Tu, but possibly vous by the time I’m a Legate?

Next time

Going to run Treva’s Watch. And after that, probably blip back to Falkreath to finish up the favor quests there. Then off to Whiterun for another round of selling of things.

Then actually I think I’ll go after the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. I need that first word for the Become Ethereal Shout–and it’d be good to finish up Unrelenting Force, too.

Screenshots

No screenshots this time.

Editing to add

11/21/2023: Added play date and session number markers.