In Which Faanshi Finds an Orb and Delivers a Fugitive to Justice

Main two actions in this session, which was played on Monday the 23rd: finishing the Saarthal portion of the mage college plotline, and moving that along to the point of needing to recover the stolen books; and, finishing the In My Time of Need plot, siding this time through with Kematu!

Highlights

• Play date: 5/23/2022
• Session number in this run: 14
• Finished running Saarthal, though it took some doing
• That Draugr Scourge required me to hide under stairs and throw the flame atronach about a dozen times, but it eventually worked and I was able to proceed
• Made it past a couple more lower tier draugr I was better able to engage directly
• Made it past the puzzles and Tolfdir finally caught up with me
• Taking down Jyrik Gauldurson also basically had to be a situation of throwing the flame atronach at him (and periodically, distance arrows), and he still killed me a few times, as did his frost atronach
• Finally got Tolfdir’s objective to return to the college to report to the Arch-Mage
• Cleared the boss chest on the way out; got the word for Ice Form Shout
• Quaff-traveled back to mage college
• Checked in with Savos Aren; was directed to Urag, who told me to go fetch the stolen books
• Had initial chat with Ancano
• Quaff-traveled from college to Thieves Guild
• Sold a boatload of loot to Tonilia to clear the inventory
• Got five rounds of Light Armor training with Grelka
• That let me level up to 27, took Health perk, and next perk on Light Armor
• Got Balimund’s fire salts quest and Ingun’s three ingredients quests
• Boinged from there to Lakeview
• Blood Dragon! Killed it with flame atronach + Rayya; it died right in front of the front door, fun! (Hope it won’t be a problem with dragon stalking later, since Rayya walked right through it?)
• Dropped off building materials in the chest inside
• Boinged from there to Whiterun
• Sold dragon bits to Arcadia and stocked up on healing potions
• Also sold stuff to Belethor and bought a filled grand soul gem
• Went up to Dragonsreach and destroyed a couple things on Farengar’s enchanter table; dropped a Fortify One-handed enchantment on the scaled bracers
• Got the quest to get Nettlebane from Danica
• Dropped off some stuff at Breezehome
• Decided to finish running In My Time of Need; went to the Bannered Mare to talk to Saadia; got her to tell me about the Alik’r looking for her
• Went and questioned the prisoner in the Dragonsreach dungeon and got pointer to Swindler’s Den
• Headed over that way on foot; three nirnroot en route
• Got there and started running the place; took some doing and a boatload of throwing healing all over Lydia, as well as repeated flame atronach action
• Agreed to help Kematu and get Saadia to the stables; returned to Whiterun to do that; handed Saadia off to Kematu
• Then did some shopping; bought Orcish helmet and gauntlets and orichalcum from Warmaiden’s to improve them, and gave them to Lydia
• Sold a few things to Belethor and got a filled greater soul gem; went up to Dragonsreach and dropped a fire damage enchantment on my ebony bow, and a Fortify Archery enchantment on the scaled helmet
• Saved

Commentary

Boy howdy, getting through the tail end of Saarthal was a challenge. Getting past that Draugr Scourge midway was problem number one–which I pulled off only because I found a safe place under the stairs to hide, while I kept flinging flame atronachs up onto the upper level.

Likewise, getting past Jyrik Gauldurson while Tolfdir slurped power off of him was a challenge. But oddly, not quite as difficult as getting past the draugr scourge? I don’t think it took me quite as many attempts at throwing my atronach at him as it did the scourge–and again, this is entirely because I found a reasonably shadowed place to hide up on the upper level of that chamber.

The big thing I realized about running Swindler’s Den this time was that if I wanted a prayer of making it through the end in a timely fashion, I needed to not have to fight my way through the Alik’r. Which meant siding with Kematu this time rather than Saadia.

(Which I’m kind of inclined to do anyway on the Switch build, since otherwise I get the bug with the warriors stuck at the Whiterun gate, and the bug with the repeated hassling of random Redguard women.)

I have to be kind of amused at Kematu’s snark about Saadia appealing to a more “base” instinct, though. A line that clearly was intended for a male lead character, I think. It hits differently when you’re playing a woman. And especially if you’re playing a Khajiit.

“Khajiit is insulted by what you are implying. But she will ignore that, for she also does not care for having been deceived by a traitor. She will not support one who betrayed her land.”

Next time

I’ve got another post coming already for Tuesday the 24th, wherein I took some time to follow up on the ingredients quests, mostly, but with a side helping of dragon and getting the first bit of Mehrunes’ Razor! Stay tuned!

Screenshots

Editing to add

• 11/22/2023: Restored missing gallery, and added play date and session number markers.