In Which Ysani Seeks Crimson Nirnroot and Slays Dragons

This session was mostly all about returning to Blackreach and getting the rest of the crimson nirnroot (and, in the process, discovering that at least one bug in Skyrim does have a viable workaround!).

Wound up also having two different dragon encounters that resulted in NPC death and from which I rolled back. And I started the quest to get Volendrung as well.

Highlights

Play date: 4/2/2022
Session number in this run: 68
Started play where I left off in Riften; slept the night at Honeyside
Got up and sold some stuff at the Pawned Prawn; also went down to Elgrim’s Elixirs and sold him some of my dragon bits
Greeted by Ingun who warned me I looked ill, and she’s an alchemist, so she’d know! Thanks, Ingun! Potion of cure disease quaffed
Tried to leave out the front gates, but a Revered Dragon showed up, and a Frostbite Spider, and a bear
Dragon was killed but it also took out the stable owner and Shadr, and that was too many NPCs to lose, so I rolled back to coming out of Elgrim’s Elixirs
Decided to quaff enough potions to get to be able to fast travel straight to Windhelm
Sold more dragon bits to Quintus, and several things to Niranye
Fast traveled to the College of Winterhold
Dropped off Halldir’s Staff and the Staff of Ruunvald in the Arch-Mage’s quarters
Sold a couple of jewelry bits to Colette
Boinged from there to Windstad
Dropped off Ancient Shrouded Armor since I can’t improve it quite yet; also dropped off Harkon’s sword, the dragonbone sword and bow, and Auriel’s Bow
Boinged to Heljarchen and dropped off smithing materials in the cellar, and a bunch of gems into the safes
Nightingale’d up and headed to Tower of Mzark
Took the time to loot a few things in Mzark that I hadn’t gotten before, including a smithing skill book, then started the hunt for the rest of the crimson nirnroot
Got three more nirnroot and tried for a fourth, but got killed by a dwarven sphere
Thrown back to Mzark
Re-got nirnroot number 6, and that was enough to let me fix the counter bug by using a satchel inside the tower
Returned to where the sphere had killed me before and made sure to have the dremora queued up to solve that problem this time
Then derped around Blackreach looking for the rest of the nirnroot; had to have the dremora fight a chaurus and a couple of Falmer once, but otherwise got all the nirnroot unopposed
Got back out again via Mzark
Tried to fast travel to Snapleg Cave to make it to Avrusa’s farm
But a damn Frost Dragon showed up and blitzed the place, as well as killing Avrusa’s sister; NOT ACCEPTABLE
So I rolled back to coming out of Mzark and this time fast traveled to Rift Watchtower
This triggered an Ancient Dragon this time, so I called up Durnehviir hoping to get them to fight! Didn’t happen, though I did get the first word of the Soul Tear shout
Threw storm atronachs at the Ancient Dragon, and tried to zap it a few times myself, but it flew off to an unknown fate
Found dead Alik’r warrior by the water, not clear if the dragon got him, also found a dead bear and a dead deer
Went to the farm, and oh good the sister was still alive
Gave Avrusa the nirnroot–and while we were talking a damn troll ran up! Sister and the farm’s guard attacked it, I also jumped in to help kill the damn thing before it killed the sister
Used the Razor so as not to hit NPCs with ranged effects
Ha! M’aiq the Liar was a witness to this battle!
Then tried to find the dragon but no luck
Went by Heartwood Mill and saw the kid wandering around, though I didn’t see his mother
Did however find Angarvunde, didn’t run that place for now but may do so later
And Autumnwatch Tower; killed that dragon, which was a Blood Dragon
Got the word for Marked for Death off of the Word Wall
Headed east again; stopped by a thief who I persuaded I didn’t have any money
Attacked by a bear–which the thief then helped me kill, lol? Even though the bear got into a stuck state that wouldn’t let me loot it when it was dead, I’m amused the thief actually helped me fight it
Found Largashbur; killed the giant outside, but it had already killed Ugor and a couple of the other NPCs
Got Atub’s quest to bring the shaman a daedra heart and troll fat; okay then, guess imma get the hammer? I could give it to Argis as a present! But later
Saved for the night

Commentary

This session seemed goddamned bound and determined to a) throw me dragons, and b) throw me dragons that were going to kill NPCs.

Round one of this was my first attempt to come out of Riften. It was actually kind of awesome to see the Revered Dragon completely fucking swarmed–not only by the guards, but also by the Khajiit who were on site, by the stable staff, and the horses!

The problem with this, though, is that the stable NPCs are unarmored and even squishier than Ysani. Damn dragon killed both Hofgrir and Shadr from the stables. I don’t have many fucks to give about Hofgrir, but hey, I like Shadr! And I didn’t want him to be dead!

So I rolled back from that one and continued on playing. Take that, Revered Dragon!

It is a refreshing change of pace to find a bug in Skyrim that you can in fact actually fix by taking in-game action, without having access to the console. Specifically: the quest counter bug caused by putting crimson nirnroot into a container for storage while you have the quest to fetch all 30 samples active.

The core problem appears to be that if you put more than one sample into a container at once, it counts as only moving one sample, not all of the ones you put in. So the counter can get thrown off.

To fix this, I had to have more than five samples in my inventory so that when I tried to put some into a container, I could get prompted to put in a specified number. The ability to put in two or more into a container at once, and then take out each one individually, let me get the counter back into the state it was supposed to be in.

Noting this for benefit of Future Me on playthroughs to come, as well as anybody else who might happen to run into the crimson nirnroot bug!

As with Delga’s playthrough, I was mostly in there this time for a surgical strike on the place, to get all the nirnroot and get out again. Being able to constantly throw Invisibility on myself was very helpful to this goal.

I thought briefly about trying to summon the dragon you can fight in Blackreach–but as I believe crossed my mind before, it seems entirely counter to the purpose of being stealthy if you start throwing Shouts around down there! So I guess for now that dragon will still have to remain unfought by my Dragonborn.

So running Blackreach was reasonably uncomplicated. Once I got done with that, though, then the second attempt by the game to throw an NPC-killing dragon at me happened.

Came out of fast travel at Snapleg Cave and made my way towards Sarethi Farm. This time a Frost Dragon showed up, and started buzzing the place–and I discovered after I killed it that it had killed Avrusa’s sister.

NOT. FUCKING. ACCEPTABLE. So I rolled back from that one, too!

Still have no idea what happened to the Ancient Dragon, though. I don’t know if Durnehviir killed it, or if it just flew off out of range? I couldn’t find any sign of bones anywhere, and I never got it to come back to keep fighting with me.

I also hadn’t planned on starting the quest to get Volendrung either. And I’m less interested in the hammer with this character. But given that I am interested in having Argis come with me to Solstheim, I think I may get the hammer for him.

Also of note: when I found that giant, I saw that a couple of goats were also hostile to me, though none of them actually came close enough to attack me. Second time this has happened.

Language commentary

Interesting terms observed:

Station de pompage abandonnée: Derelict Pumphouse (lit. “abandoned station of pumping”?)
Raldbthar – Grand marché: Raldbthar Deep Market (lit. “Raldbthar – Grand market”)
Ruines silencieuses: Silent Ruin (lit. “silent ruins”)
Mzinchaleft – Poste de garde: Mzinchaleft Gatehouse (lit. “Mzinchaleft guardpost”?)
Maison du responsable de la ferme: Farm Overseer’s House (lit. “home of the person in charge of the farm”)
Lacération d’âme: Soul Tear (lit. “laceration of the soul”)
Tour d’Automnelle: Autumnwatch Tower

Interesting to me that Silent Ruin was made plural in French.

Responsable in this context taught me a new thing! Up until now I’d been interpreting that strictly as the translation of the English adjective responsible. But apparently it can also specifically be a noun meaning “person in charge”. (Source) So, legit translation of overseer.

I am not clear at all on why Autumnwatch Tower got translated over to Tour d’Automnelle. My only guess here is another possible portmanteau, possibly combining automn and the last syllable of sentinelle.

Next time

Guess I’m going to get this hammer from the Orcs! Which will require me to doublecheck my ingredients stocks, I don’t think I have any daedra hearts left!

And while I’m working on that, I should probably also check back in with Septimus and get this Runed Lexicon out of my inventory, and get that quest to get him the blood samples again.

Also of interest: visiting Ironbind Barrow! And getting that additional schematic for Sorine out of Raldbthar! And using J’zargo’s scrolls!

I’ll figure something out. <3

Screenshots

No screenshots this time.

Editing to add

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