In Which Ysani Forges the Aetherial Crown, and Becomes Thane of Hjaalmarch

Very eventful session! Finished running Raldbthar, and got the final shard of aetherium! Did a little job for Olfrid Battle-Born that got him to throw his support to the Thieves Guild! Headed off after that to find the Aetherium Forge, and forge the Aetherial Crown! And last but not least, went to Morthal to help them with a little vampire problem, and helped the folk of Hjaalmarch so Idgrod Ravencrone would make me her thane! So now I have Windstad Manor, and Valdimar as the latest housecarl to join Team Dragonborn. <3

Highlights

Play date: 2/22/2022
Session number in this run: 29
Picked up where I left off in Raldbthar
Killed once getting past spinning blade trap number two; note to self: always do Become Ethereal around spinning blade traps, no exceptions!
Lydia, bless her “doesn’t know how to dodge” heart, clonked her way through after me, protected by her ebony armor
Took a few tries to actually make it through the rest of the dungeon, as Lyds and Réjean and i got swarmed by Falmer the first few of times through the final chamber
Last time through, made an explicit point of hanging back by the door after casting Conjure Dremora Lord, so i wouldn’t distract the Falmer from the bigger nearby threats
Finally cleared the place though, less stealthy than I might have liked, but this what happens when your less than stealthy housecarl actually makes it through the traps 😉
Got the fourth shard and Katria’s ghost asking me to meet me at the forge
Interesting loot carried out: Daedric shield! (Which I sold later, but it was interesting to see it show up in random chest loot)
Boinged to Whiterun once out of the lift, and after quaffing potion
Sold a whole bunch of things to the four usual vendors; also bought five rounds of Alchemy training from Arcadia
Went briefly up to Dragonsreach to do some enchanting
Sent Lydia home to Lakeview
Talked to Olfrid Battle-Born about his little job (right in the public street, while other NPCs were walking by, lololololol, MISTRESS OF STEALTH, BABY)
Got Olfrid’s instructions, and headed up to Dragonsreach again to implement
Forged the prison register, nabbed the letter, and returned to Olfrid for his payment
Boinged to Lakeview for a little more building
Boinged to Solitude and did a little shopping at Bits and Pieces, also sold a bunch of stuff to Gulum-Ei
Robbed Bryling’s house, and left her 3,000 gold
Boinged to Riften to collect payment for the Solitude job, also to check in with Delvin re: Olfrid, and sell him the Left Eye of the Falmer
Got new job from Vex, Sweep job in Windhelm
Boinged once more back to Lakeview to build a few more decorations; also picked up Lydia for housecarl duty
Boinged to Alchemist’s Shack to head to Bthalft
Arrival there unexpectedly lively! Because dragon from Autumnwatch flew overhead, and responding to that attracted the bandits from Bthalft
It also attracted the quartermaster from the nearby Imperial camp, which made for a pretty bracing free-for-all as that dude jumped in to help fight the bandits
After that, headed over to the ruin where Katria’s ghost was waiting
Made it down to the forge, and fighting with the initial machines let me level up to 49; took Twin Souls perk \0/
So I was able to conjure both storm atronach and Réjean the dremora
Cleared the place and made the crown! Thank you, Katria, you are awesome, go now to Sovngarde and rest in peace and power <3
Returned with Lydia back to Lakeview to drop off materials
Boinged to Morthal to start working on the thaneship there
Got a dragon bounty from the inn for Skyborn Altar; also started the Laid to Rest plot by asking the innkeeper about the burned down house
Got that done just about as easily as I’d ever done it, certainly helped to be able to throw two dremora at once at Movarth; RÉJEAN! ANDRÉ! KICK HIS ASS! 😀
Also, actually talked to Thonnir before going into the cave to get him to stand down, while the other villagers actually are supposed to bail and go OH SHIT VAMPIRES WE DIDN’T SIGN UP FOR THIS oh wait we kinda did but regardless OH SHIT VAMPIRES
Don’t worry, people of Morthal, Team Dragonborn is now four and we got this
Got Movarth sorted; also found his boots with the sneak bonus, which I will destroy for the enchantment
And Alva, your outfit is kinda cute so Imma hafta confiscate that, which I would not normally do this run except you’re a vampire, so fukkit
Reported back to the Jarl and got her payment; also got her pointer to become thane!
Already had one favor quest considered done? Pretty sure I didn’t do anything in Morthal before? Not sure if Laid to Rest quest adjusts Thonnir’s disposition to me, maybe that counts because I revealed what happened to his wife?
Got quest from Idgrod the Younger to take her letter to Whiterun, and quest from Gorm to take his letter to Solitude
Boinged to Solitude
Sold stuff to Gulum-Ei (who has more money now that the Guild is re-established in Whiterun, yay!)
Stayed the night at the inn
Noted while bard was singing “The Dragonborn Comes”, translation into French is blatantly different in the actual recorded vocals, vs. what’s in the subtitles
Dropped off letter with Aldis the next morning
Did some shopping with both Angeline and Sayma
Boinged to Whiterun
Talked to Danica Pure-Spring (or in French, Danica Pure-Source)
Got the quest to restore the Gildergreen; also gave her the letter
Did a little shopping with Arcadia
Boinged back to Morthal
Got the thaneship! Hi Valdimar! Welcome to Team Dragonborn!
Also found Aslfur and bought the land for Windstad; hoofed it over there with Lydia
Built small house
Then boinged to Lakeview to do more building there and pick up materials to bring to Windstad
Saved for the night

Finishing the Lost to the Ages quest

Main interesting thing to note here about Raldbthar is, as I mentioned in the previous post, I got Lydia safely through the two different spinning blade traps in this dungeon.

Which meant by definition that I could not really sneak past all the subsequent Falmer! Even though a proper Nightingale really should have snuck past all of them. So I had to rely on Lydia and Réjean kicking all the ass on my behalf.

And as I noted above, arrival at Bthalft was unexpectedly lively, since it involved the dragon (probably from Autumnwatch Tower) buzzing by overhead while the main fighting action involved the bandits. Also, the Imperial quartermaster from the nearby camp. (Slightly surprised none of the soldiers came running over?)

Once Katria, Lydia and I actually made it down to the forge, I had the additional point of excitement of making it to level 49, which let me unlock the Twin Souls perk. So now I can actually have two conjuration active at once. And I gotta say, having two Dremora Lords kicking ass on your behalf at once is pretty frigging awesome.

And now I have the Aetherial Crown! I need to put some thought into what Standing Stone ability I want to put into it. Right now the likely immediate candidates are the Atronach Stone and the Apprentice Stone.

Thievery interlude

This stuff happened in between getting the fourth aetherium shard, and actually going to the forge. But for purposes of writing this post, this gets its own section!

I still have to giggle about how easy it is for me to waltz right into Balgruuf’s quarters in Dragonsreach and take stuff. And guards see me come in, too. I saw at least two react to my presence as I walked through that wing of the keep. So you would think that if the Jarl goes “Hey! What happened to my letter, and also my unusual pink gem? And why do I have an extra 2,000 gold stashed in my furniture?”, at least one of the guards might be able to go “Well, we did see your thane going into your quarters, sir…”

I can only therefore conclude that the Jarl is willing to turn a bit of a blind eye given my surreptitious donation to his coffers. Snerk.

Meanwhile, it was also stupendously easy to rob Bryling’s house in Solitude. And I gave her a donation, too, 3,000 gold into one of her storage chests. The only bit of difficulty I had at all was that one of the random ornate items I was supposed to nab for this quest spawned behind a table and chair I could not go around. So I had to jump over the chair to get to where I could reach the item.

Damn good thing I waited for Bryling’s housecarl Irnskar to not be in the house, huh?

With the conclusion of Olfrid’s quest, the Guild now has its presence established in Whiterun. Which unlocked a merchant in the Ragged Flagon, and which bumped up the amount of money Gulum-Ei had available as a fence. Yay!

Quick tally of status for jobs done:

Whiterun: complete
Solitude: three jobs completed
Windhelm: no jobs done yet, one pending
Markarth: no jobs done yet, one pending

Laid to Rest quest, and thaneship in Hjaalmarch

The Laid to Rest quest went this time about as easy as I’ve done it to date. Particularly given that I came into Movarth’s lair able to call up two dremora to go fight Movarth and his minion vampires on my behalf!

Mind you, I had to re-summon the dremora multiple times because apparently Movarth is formidable enough to stand against a single dremora pretty well. Two, though, coming back him repeatedly? Rather more difficult.

I was slightly surprised that when I got Idgrod’s quest to become her thane, I’d already apparently completed one of the required favor quests. What I did for that to happen, I have no idea. But hey, I took it! It meant I was able to just drop off the two letters to their intended recipients, and get set up as the thane of Hjaalmarch and get Windstad Manor begun.

Language commentary

The main point of linguistic interest for me in this session was finally getting to hear a bard singing “The Dragonborn Comes”. Or, rather, for the second time. I’d heard it once already on a prior session’s visit to the Winking Skeever, but hadn’t noted it properly at the time!

So this time through I was able to hear that yeah, the lyrics in the French version are explicitly different from both the original English, and the translated subtitles. As I strongly suspected would be the case, the translated subtitles look like a direct translation from English—but the actual recorded sung lyrics were tweaked to make them actually scan to the tune.

I’ve been able to find transcriptions of the subtitle text—because that’s the same text that appears in the in-game book Songs of Skyrim, and that’s referenced on the French version of the Elder Scrolls wiki. I have not however been able to find a transcription of the actual recorded French lyrics.

I did find somebody’s YouTube video with playback of both the English and French versions of the song, though!

What I can hear in the French version is that any time the English version has the phrase “the Dragonborn comes”, the French version has “l’Enfant de dragon” instead, because the syllable count matches.

What I can’t quite pull in yet is full comprehension of all the rest of the words. I do have a rough sense that the lyrics are probably still having the same overall ideas, but just with the lines rewritten to accommodate the tune rhythm.

Next time

Running High Gate Ruins! Working more on Windstad Manor!

And whatever else comes immediately to mind. Not entirely sure what yet.

Screenshots

Village Vengeance — Right Eye of the Falmer

Editing to add

11/21/2023: Restored missing gallery, and added play date and session number markers.
10/9/2024: Converted gallery to a native WordPress one.