In Which Ysani Does Assorted Side Quests

In this session I took a break from the main Thieves Guild plots and did a bunch of side quests instead. Mostly because I wanted to build up a gold balance, so I could get in some training, work on improving Iona’s gear, and get more building and crafting materials.

We’ll return to the Thieves Guild action shortly!

Highlights

Play date: 2/12/2022
Session number in this run: 19
Bought some building materials in Whiterun and boinged to Lakeview
Had Lydia sell me a bunch of sawn logs; built out more of Lakeview, including finishing the structure of the library wing, and starting on enchanter tower
Got Lydia into follow mode
Boinged to Shroud Hearth Barrow as closest place to Geirmund’s Hall
Headed over there to get the last Gauldur amulet fragment; ran the place; killed once, but otherwise not too much of a problem; got the Gauldur Blackbow and the amulet fragment, and found an ebony bow as dungeon loot, fuck yeah
Boinged back to Whiterun; bought a bunch more materials, improved and sold a bunch of the loot; bought several important potions from Arcadia; did a little enchanting at Farengar’s table in Dragonsreach
Boinged back to Lakeview to drop off Lydia and a bunch of stuff in the inventory
Boinged to Riften to pick up Iona, then boinged to Windhelm; went on foot from Windhelm towards Forsaken Cave to get the White Phial
Passed Khajiit setting out to Dawnstar, hi Khajiit!
Flyby Blood Dragon
Intercepted by two snow bears, which were killed by Iona and the Khajiit
Made it safely to Forsaken Cave
Began to run the place, periodically summoning the dremora lord to augment Iona’s fighting; got killed a few times, once when Iona triggered a trap and I got clobbered by a battering ram OW; finally made it through though and let Iona and dremora take out Curalmil and his other draugr buddies
Got the word for Marked for Death; got the Cracked White Phial, and all the ingredients from the back room; ooh also found some glass armor in the boss chest, bitchin’
Fast traveled to Windhelm
Gave a coin to Silda
Started enchanting loot at the table behind Niranye’s stall
Leveled up to 40; took perk to boost fire damage on the Destruction tree
Sold loot to Niranye and Aval
Put fire damage enchantment on the ebony warhammer I found in the dungeon
Went into the White Phial shop to hand over the Cracked White Phial to Nurelion; got tiny payment from him and better payment from Quintus
Shopped a bit with Oengul since in this game he doesn’t hate my guts 😉
Bought a glass helmet and ebony boots; gave the ebony warhammer and boots to Iona
Went out to the docks; bought all the flowers from Sofie, then found Kjar and got bounty on the deserted crewmember i killed for him at Stony Creek without even knowing i killed that person for him 😉
Boinged back to Riften
Hit the Thieves Guild and got four rounds of Pickpocket training from Vipir, one round of archery training from Niruin
Bought alchemy lab and enchanter table for Honeyside from Anuriel; also got a dragon bounty from Anuriel
Got the quest from the Jarl’s son to pick up his sword from Balimund; went to Balimund to fetch the sword; brought it back and got a couple of gems for the trouble
Did some alchemy in Honeyside; made a bunch of potions and went to sell them at Elgrim’s Elixirs
Got Ingun’s quest to bring her ingredients
Went over to the Hall of the Dead to get Alessandra’s dagger quest
Got the ice wraith teeth quest from Marise
Went out from Riften on foot to run the dragon bounty as it was pointing at Northwind Summit
Went through the mine and came out to fight the dragon, which was a Blood Dragon; got the word for Aura Whisper; also got dragon bits and loot
Boinged to Whiterun to do some more shopping
Went to the Hall of the Dead to do the dagger quest, and also the quest to get Andurs his amulet (and get the next Stone of Barenziah while in there)
Boinged back to Riften
Did additional shopping with Balimund; got Iona some ebony gloves, and a pair of glass boots to go with the glass armor set I’m building; also got Iona an elven bow
Reported back to Alessandra that the dagger had been dropped off; got assorted spellbooks from her, three of which I didn’t know yet, yay!
Parked in Honeyside
Saved for the night

Commentary

All of the stuff I ran in this session was pretty low-key, and also familiar territory. So not too much new to say about any of this that isn’t covered in the highlight notes.

Language commentary

Interesting terms observed:

Nécropole: Hall of the Dead (I’m assuming this is literally “necropolis“?)
Demeure de Geirmund: Geirmund’s Hall (lit. Domicile of Geirmund)
Pic du Mistral: Northwind Summit (lit. Peak of the Mistral, where mistral is a particular wind known in France)
Dents de spectre de glace: Ice wraith teeth

Next time

Much more high stakes action, as I return to the Thieves Guild plot and discover that the Guildmaster is a murderous lying bastard!

Screenshots

Ysani in Noble Clothes
Ysani in the Noble Clothes outfit I swiped out of the East Empire Company Warehouse. This looks rather good on her if I do say so myself!

M'aiq Has Opinions on Nord Beards
M'aiq the Liar is of the firm belief that Nords are jealous of Khajiit manes! Translation of his line here: Nords are so serious about beards. So many beards. M'aiq thinks they wish they had glorious manes like Khajiit.

Empty Vault
I haven't actually gotten to the part of the Thieves Guild quest where the Guild members freak out about their vault being empty. However, I found it standing wide open anyway and very obviously empty. So uh yeah Brynjolf? You might want to make a note of this, my dude.

Amazing Sky
Said it before, will say it again: goddamn, the skies of Skyrim at night are amazing looking. Even on a tiny Switch screen. Can't wait to see what this'll look like on the Steam Deck.

Garden at Honeyside
It took me this long to figure out that OH HEY, Honeyside actually has an entire garden! _Awesome_. And rather pretty, as well.

Editing to add

11/21/2023: Restored missing gallery, and added play date and session number markers.