In Which Ysani Saves Councilor Morvayn

Back to a double session post, where my main action was proceeding through the Served Cold plot, and foiling the assassination conspiracy targeting Councilor Morvayn of Raven Rock!

This post covers play done on Sunday 4/17 and Monday 4/18! And also, lol, I am now past the one year mark when I first bought Skyrim for the Switch and started Alarrah’s playthrough! This game’s given me a good solid year of entertainment. <3

Highlights

Play dates: 4/17-4/18/2022
Session numbers in this run: 81-82

Sunday’s play

Picked up next to the Retching Netch
Popped in to speak to Geldis and got his suggestion to stake out the tomb
Went and staked out the tomb and found Tilisu, hi there, Ms. Not the Slightest Bit Suspicious
Popped back out again, and OH HEY REVERED DRAGON BUZZING THE TOWN TIME
Ran up onto the Bulwark to shoot at the dragon from there; got the dragon to crash just outside the Bulwark, and ran down to collect the loot and soul; no sign of Miraak
Headed back in and by that time it was like 2am, so waited until daybreak before coming into Councilor Morvayn’s house to bother Adril at breakfast with the news; got his authorization to go look for evidence in Severin Manor
Raided the place and fought and slew Tilisu and Mirri; got them downstairs this time, so pulled their bodies at least out of the main hallway and stuck them in the side room; we’ll see if they stay there
Headed back out again to report to Adril, who asked me to go meet the Redoran guards at Ashfallow Citadel; set out with Argis to do that
Fought en route:
- Arch pyromancer vs. arch cryomancer battle number one
- Pissed off Redguard in mostly ebony armor who was apparently a battlemage as she kept throwing fire spells at us
- Arch pyromancer vs. arch cryomancer battle number two; threw dremora at these two
- Two reavers at unmarked lean-to nearby, who immediately attacked us when we were in range; dremora and Argis took care of this problem
Reavers had another East Empire strongbox so I raided that as well as their chest
Then headed over to Ashfallow Citadel nearby; took out a couple of the exterior assassins
Saw the dead Redoran guard
Saved there for the night, poised to raid the place

Monday’s play

Picked up at Ashfallow Citadel
Ran the place with Argis + dremora
Wound up actually having to go back through the spike gauntlet when I realized I’d missed one of the two chains to open the spikes between me and Vendil–who came out after me, by the damn spikes! But finally got him and various other assassins taken out
Super overloaded by the time I got out but not so bad that potions couldn’t fix; quaffed up on Fortify Restoration + Fortify Carry Weight, and fast traveled back to Raven Rock
Met by courier on the way in with the first message from Ralis
Tracked down Adril in the Retching Netch to report in; he went YAY and took me to fill in Councilor Morvayn
And now I have custody of Severin Manor!
Grabbed my stash of belongings out of the urn by the Netch, then took the whole shebang over to my new house and stashed everything in assorted chests
Did a bunch of smithing (notably, improved the heavy stalhrim armor I’d acquired and the full set of Nordic up to Legendary), alchemy, and enchanting (dropped an enchantment on my current dragonbone bow finally)
Leveled up to 70; took another Stamina bump, and Dwarven Smithing to make my way back up to ebony
Went out to sell stuff to Glover, Milore, and Fethis
Got Milore’s quest to bring her netch jelly
Headed out to Kolbjorn Barrow
On the way met a party of netch hunters; joined the hunt so I could get one of the netch jellies for Milore (already had two from Bloodskal Barrow)
Then reached Kolbjorn; talked to Ralis and got his request to go clear the first wave of draugr
Took care of that and got the waterwalking boots
Went back out and headed towards Tel Mithryn
Attacked by three jumping flame spiders!
And immediately after, Lurker Vindicator—who was, I think, attacking the same hunters who’d just been going after the netch? I ran over to help but the lurker had killed one of the hunters 🙁
Shortly thereafter: burnt spriggan
Reached Tel Mithryn and found Varona and Talvas, with Talvas trying to practice his spell
Went in to talk to Neloth about the Black Books
Got him to agree to lead me to Nchardak
Followed him there and saved for the night

Commentary

It’s kind of hilarious to be thinking about staking out the Ulen family tomb and being all suspicious about Tilisu Severin coming in there… because, in theory, GASP! She’s not an Ulen! Why does she care about the Ulen family tomb, HMM?

Like it’s any less suspicious for a Breton outlander and her big brawny Nord housecarl/husband to be barging in on the place? 😉

Let it also be noted that Ashfallow Citadel was perhaps the first place in this entire run where I found having multiple followers actively counterproductive–because Argis and the dremora kept triggering the three spike traps! SO MUCH CLANG.

And I gotta giggle a bit at how Talvas is the highest tier in Conjuration training, but Ysani? Naaah, she doesn’t really need help with that. Sadly, the game does not give me any mechanism to actually teach Talvas how to throw that spell without fucking it up!

Language commentary

Interesting terms observed:

Tombeau ancestral des Ulen: Ulen Ancestral Tomb
Archicryomancien: Arch Cryomancer
Archipyromancien: Arch Pyromancer
Citadelle de Marnecendre: Ashfallow Citadel
Le Créateur: The All-Maker
Netch mâle: Bull Netch
Bottes de marche sur l’eau d’Ahzidal: Ahzidal’s Boots of Waterwalking
Rôdeur justicier: Lurker Vindicator

Ralis, like Neloth, suffers a little in his French performance. Not as drastically as Neloth does, but at least to my ear, he sounds less outright sly. Which loses a little something with the character.

Archicryomancien and archipyromancien are practically German in their multi-syllabic, words-smooshed-together glory! I kind of love both these words.

I’m not a hundred percent sure of the translation of Ashfallow to Marnecendre. Marne is apparently a legit French word, which translates to English as marl. Which is a kind of stone. So the translation in French roughly becomes Ashstone Citadel, maybe? But I’m totally guessing here.

Le Créateur is the translation for All-Maker, and that’s basically Creator. Which is certainly the right idea, even if I find it a little bit too literal as a translation choice. Not sure what else they could have done with this, though.

Bottes de marche sur l’eau d’Ahzidal kind of goes in the exact opposite direction as archicryomancien! Because it’s exploding out into more words rather than condensing, LOL.