In Which Ysani Goes on a Thieving Spree

I had thought I’d hit the Thalmor Embassy in this session. But Paul pointed out to me quite correctly that that is a thing I really should savor, so I think I’ll be keeping that for the weekend when I have time for longer play sessions! So in the meantime, that’ll let me finish up all the stuff necessary to become Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild!

And with that goal in mind, I finished up Solitude and started in on Markarth’s jobs!

Highlights

Play date: 2/28/2022
Session number in this run: 35
Enchanted several items at Windstad
Boinged to Solitude to sell stuff to Gulum-Ei, Sayma, and Beirand
Tried to sell stuff to Radiant Raiment, but triggered that bug again where I was counted as a trespasser when I walked in, so I had to roll back from that
Went up to the Blue Palace to find Erikur
Oh hey somebody’s come in from Dragon Bridge to report suspicious activity in a cave! Gosh, I wonder what that’s about
Hi Erikur, I’m here from the Guild, and you look like an asshole, but I mean that in the most professional sense
Got Erikur’s job to go plant contraband on the Dainty Sload
Sabine is still a bitch; paid her for the goods though and retrieved them from the underwater chest
Then hit the Sload, and not a single pirate spotted me, fuck yeah
Kept throwing Invisibility every 30 seconds and between that, Quiet Casting, and Sneak, I just gently eased my way through the place, HA
Planted the contraband, nabbed the Stone of Barenziah, helped myself to a few other things in chests, and out again with no one the wiser!
Reported back to Erikur to say the job was done; he gave me a spellbook of Fear, lol; my dude, way ahead of you on that one
Boinged back to Riften anyway to report back to Delvin
Second merchant in the Flagon, yay
Sold a bunch of stuff to Tonilia
Got five rounds of Pickpocket training with Vipir
Boinged next to Lakeview to check on building needs
Spotted a wolf taking out a deer nearby; got materials off the deer that the wolf left
Did some alchemy in the alchemy tower to burn through ingredients
Boinged next to Windstad for building purposes; built an elk head trophy there using the antlers; still flat out of iron though so couldn’t build much else
Time to go to Markarth!
Realized I still had some furnishings to buy in Vlindrel Hall (Gentilhommière de Vlindrel); went up to Understone Keep to get furnishings from the steward
Did the Daedra heart quest with the Jarl’s smith and got some ebony armor from him
Darn the Thalmor aren’t pissed off at my presence! Hold that thought, guys, I’ll go work on that
Bought a bunch of iron from Ghorza
Returned to Vlindrel Hall; oh right I left a couple things in the bedroom chest here, glass shield, battleaxe of the Reach, Red Eagle’s sword; racked the weapons, took the shield; gave the ebony armor to Argis
Stand by, dude, I’ll need you for something sooner or later (and he does look pretty good in the ebony armor!)
But first I had to go rob the smelter overseer’s house; left him all my gold (about 2900) and a resist fire potion to get up over 3,000
Boinged from there back to Riften; checked in with Vex and Delvin again; got new jobs queued up from both of them, this time for Windhelm, which should let me finish Windhelm off \0/
Did a bit more shopping with Tonilia to sell her a bunch of the potions I made
Shopped with the new alchemist in the Flagon and got more Daedra hearts
Boinged back to Windstad to do a bunch more building with the replenished iron supply; filled out more of the armory and the cellar
Since I’d acquired a glass shield, boots, and gauntlets, went ahead and made myself some armor; I’ll need to make or find another helmet since I sold the last one, but that should outfit me with glass armor till I can make dragonscale
Saved for the night

Commentary

So yeah this session was all about the thievery!

I’ve been focusing almost exclusively on Sweep and Bedlam jobs in this run, which has given me another chance to be amused that the Sweep Job generates three items to steal out of the same set of seven items.

Which makes for an amusing narrative question here, particularly given that Ysani is dropping 3,000 septims into any house she robs for a Sweep Job. I see a thing going on here where word of this mysterious thief is spreading, and people go “hey if these three items are in my house, the mysterious thief will show up and give me 3,000 septims!”

Maybe people start trading those three items back and forth to see if they can provoke a visit, lol. I could even seen Ysani encouraging this, by getting the fences to spread the items around, and to let the Guild know when three of them show up again in the same place. Because seriously, how many Golden Ship Models can there be in Skyrim anyway? ;D

And it is, after all, all about building up the rep of the Guild! Maybe a bit more “rob from the rich, give to the poor” than the game seems to intend. Or, rather, more of that than the game actually allows you to do!

And I gotta say, now that I have the Quiet Casting perk, I love it. Because I got to take full advantage of this, sneaking onto the Dainty Sload to plant the contraband drug there, and steal the Stone of Barenziah. Not a single corsair saw me. I just kept sneaking, periodically throwing Muffle and Invisibility spells, and light-footed my way onto and back off the ship without anyone the wiser. It was absolutely delightful.

This was a splendid dry run for tackling the Thalmor Embassy, too. Because now I know that Sneak + Quiet Casting + Invisibility can work wonders. And that I have more than enough magicka to cast the Invisibility spell every 30 seconds! Particularly if I’m wearing the Nightingale armor, since I get a reduction in cost of Illusion spells doing that.

Language commentary

Not too much language-wise this time, but I can report that the name of the ship for the Solitude was shown as Le Sload douillet. This isn’t quite a direct translation, I think? Just because the sources I consult say douillet translates to cozy or soft, not dainty. Still though, close enough!

Bleu de Balmora, on the other hand, was directly translated over.

And oh yeah, one more thing: I noticed when I got Vlindrel Hall earlier that it was oddly translated compared with the other houses that have ‘Hall’ in their name in English. This one uses the word Gentilhommière instead of, say, Manoir. This was a new word to me, but it does appear to be a legit French word. (source, and source)

The part that particularly interests me here is that this word appears to mean “small country manor”. But Vlindrel Hall is specifically in Markarth. It’s not out in the countryside. So if anything, I would think that this word should be better used on Windstad, Lakeview, or Heljarchen? This would be a question I’d love to ask Skyrim translators about, what their line of reasoning was for using this word just on Vlindrell Hall.

Next time

Since I want to save the Thalmor Embassy for the weekend, I’ll work instead on finishing up more of the Guild jobs. Windhelm, you’re up!

Screenshots

No screenshots this time.

Editing to add

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