In Which Ysani Takes Vorstag to the Blades and the Fight to Alduin

Back to a single session post this time, but one that packs a lot into it. Because I got Vorstag inducted into the Blades–and then returned to the main plot, having round one of the fight with Alduin and then proceeding to set up the peace conference at High Hrothgar!

Highlights

Play date: 5/7/2022
Session number in this run: 101
Finished running Ragnvald with Vorstag
Got Otar’s mask and staff, and the final word for Kyne’s Peace off the Word Wall
Quaff-traveled to Sky Haven Temple to drop off Vorstag with the Blades
Lololol a Revered Dragon showed up–but it was a flyby
Got Delphine to agree to accept Vorstag as a recruit
Vorstag was also rather started by Ingjard and Delphine sparring! As was I, really
Delphine sent me to go talk to Esbern about going on a dragon hunting expedition
He pointed me at Shearpoint, so I boinged to there and found an Ancient Dragon; killed it with Vorstag, Ingjard, and Jenassa
Got objective to report back to Esbern, but first, boinged to Heljarchen
Did a bunch of smithing, enchanting, and alchemy; leveled up to 78, took magic bump, and took Aspect of Terror perk on the Illusion tree to make Illusion spells impact higher level opponents
Overloaded, so rode Arvak down to Honningbrew; passed Imperial trio
Sold a bunch of enchanted weapons to Mallus
Quaff traveled to Whiterun, and sold stuff to all four shops
Boinged to mage college; did more alchemy, and put more ingredients into the barrel stash
Sold a few enchanted rings to Faralda; bought five rounds of Illusion training with Drevis
Boinged to Thieves Guild; sold a bunch of enchanted items and a couple of potions to Tonilia
Boinged to Lakeview; dropped off dragon priest masks and the glass dragon claw
Boinged to Sky Haven Temple and checked in with Esbern; gave him a dragon bone and a dragon scale and got his potion
Boinged to the Throat of the World, and read the Elder Scroll at the Time-Wound
Remembered not to look at the cutscene directly until Alduin actually showed up
Dragonrend learned (Fendragon in French)
Hard fight, but finally got the big scaly bastard down and defeated
Got Paarthurnax’s advice to go talk to Balgruuf in Whiterun about using Dragonsreach to capture one of Alduin’s allies
Went to Whiterun to talk to the Jarl, and en route, Lucia gave me a necklace as a present <3
Spotted Erith sitting down on the bench near Heimskr’s preaching spot
Got Balgruuf to agree to help me if something is done about the war
Boinged back to High Hrothgar and got Arngeir to agree to host peace talks
Boinged to Windhelm; got Ulfric to agree to show up for peace talks
Sold stuff to Niranye on the way out
Boinged to Solitude; got Tullius to agree to show up for peace talks
Saved for the night

Commentary

I liked running Ragnvald with Vorstag, I think. He seemed like an effective archer, and as I noted in my previous post, I like how his personality comes across. I’d consider using him as a follower again.

When I showed up at Sky Haven Temple to present Vorstag as my third recruit for the Blades, I noted with interest that Delphine drew her bow the instant a dragon came into view overhead–even though that Revered Dragon turned out to be a flyby.

I also noted that as soon as Ingjard and Delphine started sparring, Vorstag was quite startled by this! Actually yelped and ran back out of the way. And I have to admit I was slightly startled by it myself, just because they were going at it quite intently, and throwing standard combat lines as well. So I was legit slightly unsure about whether they were sparring, or if something had actually happened to piss them off at one another.

Kind of surprised also about how startled Vorstag was by this. He was pretty chill and laid back going through all of Ragnvald.

After that, did one round of asking Esbern for a pointer to a location for dragon hunting. And I was slightly disappointed that he actually sent me to a lair I’d been to before, i.e., Shearpoint. I’d hoped he’d send me off to either Arcwind Point or Ancient’s Ascent!

That said, fighting the Ancient Dragon at Shearpoint was still awesome. I quite enjoyed seeing all three armored Blades, Vorstag, Jenassa, and Ingjard, attacking the dragon with me. Good job, team!

After an interlude of crafting, it was time to finally get on with the main plot. So I boinged to the Throat of the World, only to discover that since I’d already been there once with the Elder Scroll, I’d already triggered the objective to talk to Paarthurnax. So my next objective was to go ahead and read the Elder Scroll at the Time-Wound.

Still have to deal with the bug with the cutscene, where I can’t actually look directly at the action until Alduin shows up. This time through, at least, I remembered to do that the first time. So I didn’t have to attempt the cutscene more than once.

The actual fight with Alduin was a hard one! Partly because I kept accidentally hitting Paarthurnax, not Alduin, with the Dragonrend Shout. Oops. I kept having trouble tracking which dragon was which, given how fast they were moving in the air, and given that I showed up at night. Once Alduin started in on dropping flaming meteors on my head, it made it really difficult for me to track them.

What actually let me get Alduin down properly was picking a spot with nominal amounts of cover, from which I could time throwing my Shouts to when I knew Alduin was in immediate range.

And sorry for throwing that Shout at you, Paarthurnax! I seriously honestly didn’t mean to hit you!

It still seems vaguely rude to me to leave the field of battle at this point of the proceedings without talking to Paarthurnax, so I made a point of doing that. And had the followup conversation in which he puts forth the suggestion of going to Dragonsreach to try to convince the Jarl to let me use the keep to capture one of Alduin’s allies.

I did legit waffle over whether to start running the war at this point, just because I learned from Delga’s run that having the war done and dealt with bypasses the whole question of whether to kill Paarthurnax. But I just could not see Ysani committing to fighting either side, as I’ve observed before. The Empire has an overt treaty with the Thalmor, which she could not accept. And she also knows from the documents she stole from the embassy that Ulfric is considered an inactive asset. So she’d have a real hard time trusting him as someone she could fight for.

Plus, she’s the Arch-Mage and the Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild. So not a politically savvy idea to actually jump in on either side of that war.

Going through Whiterun on my way to talk to the Jarl, I was greeted by Lucia who offered me a present. A necklace, specifically! So presumably that kid’s been putting the 2,000 septims I gave her to good use. 😉

Also spotted Erith out and about, but she hasn’t seemed as inclined as Lucia to come up and greet me? I specifically saw her sitting down on the bench near where Heimskr was preaching. Heh. Wonder if the kid’s going to grow up to be a priestess of Talos.

Boinging to Windhelm yet again required me to actually take Ulfric’s conversational prompt about joining the Stormcloaks before I could get to the prompt where I tell him I have a message from the Greybeards. But at least I don’t get that problem talking to Tullius!

Language commentary

Interesting terms observed:

Cryptes de Ragnvald: Ragnvald Crypts
Clé au crâne de Saerek: Saerek’s Skull Key
Clé au crâne de Torsten: Torsten’s Skull Key
Canal de Ragnvald: Ragnvald Canal
Temple de Ragnvald: Ragnvald Temple
Potion d’Esbern: Esbern’s Potion
Palliatif Draconique: Dragon Infusion (lit. “Draconic palliative”)

Four playthroughs in, and this is the first time I realized that one of the two guardians in Ragnvald has the same name as Torsten Cruel-Sea in Windhelm! Which I suppose is absolutely reasonable. Different people have the same name in real life all the time, so it’s legit to have different characters have the same name in a culture as long-running and well-developed as that of the Elder Scrolls franchise.

Particularly when Torsten Cruel-Sea is a living character, and the guardian in Ragnvald… not so much.

I already noted the Dragonrend Shout being called Fendragon in this post, but it’s worth noting again here just because this is the session in which I actually finally got that Shout.

Next time

Time to run that peace conference! At which point I will get one more opportunity to poke the Thalmor in the eye, which will be satisfying. I’ll have to see how my negotiation choices play out this time. I don’t think I’ll be able to get out of giving Markarth to the Stormcloaks, so I’ll have to think about which other places I specifically want in Imperial hands. I think I’d like turning over both Dawnstar and Winterhold to the Imperials as opposed to handing them Riften.

I’ll also have to high-tail it right out of High Hrothgar to see if I can avoid Delphine demanding that I kill Paarthurnax.

At that point I think I will actually go after those last two Shouts, and clear Arcwind Point and Ancient’s Ascent. Just because getting those Shouts seems like an appropriate tactical maneuver, giving the Dragonborn as much power as possible for another fight with Alduin.

Time permitting, I’ll then proceed to the rest of the plot, the trapping of Odahviing, going to Skuldafn, and finally to Sovngarde!

So I’ll either finish up Ysani’s run with the next session, or at the very latest, Monday’s.