In Which Shenner Goes Bandit Hunting

And now, to get caught up on Shenner posts! This one is for play done on Monday 5/23. Main action: what it says on the tin, i.e., hunting for bandits! And by extension, making myself known to the Jarl of Falkreath.

Highlights

• Play date: 5/23/2022
• Session number in this run: 7
• Headed out from Whiterun to go to Falkreath
• Flyby dragon near the crossroads by Honningbrew
• Giant on the road to Riverwood; snuck around him
• Found the bandits near the Guardian Stones, took them out, got Treasure Map 1
• Hit the Shrine of Talos and swiped all the stuff off the dead Thalmor
• Killed a couple of skeletons on the way to Falkreath
• Passed hunter on horse
• Made it into Falkreath and stopped at the inn
• Hostile Redguard by the inn counter
• Slept first, then got up the next morning and the Redguard was still there; he called me a milk-drinker so I delivered a beatdown on his ass when he drew on me and Lydia; he turned out to be wearing Steel Soldier Armor, so I grabbed that because it was new
• Went to go see the Jarl and get the pointer to go kill bandits for him; this time the bandit chief was at Bilegulch, not Embershard? Okay then!
• Sold stuff to Lod and Solaf on the way out
• Tried to cut cross-country to get to Bilegulch
• Found Roadside Ruins and cleared that locale of the one spriggan in there
• Leveled up to 10 here, but then got killed by later spriggans 🙁
• Thrown back to coming out of Falkreath, which also lost me the level up
• So boinged back to Whiterun first
• Did a bit of alchemy to make a bit more coin, then headed out for Bilegulch from Whiterun
• Passed M’aiq the Liar! Who then got attacked by a wolf! Kicked the wolf’s ass just for scaring M’aiq
• Then found a couple more wolves later actually fighting
• Ran into first Dark Brotherhood Assassin; took him down via Lydia and also my new conjurable familiar
• Turned off the road towards Bilegulch; hunter stopped me and begged for a potion to keep from turning into a vampire, gave him a cure disease potion, got 100 gold
• Onward to Bilegulch; cleared the place
• Got my level 10 level up back, took Magicka bump and novice Destruction perk
• Mined all the orichalcum veins and made ingots so I could get back under carry limit
• Boinged back to Falkreath
• Triggered three things at once when I arrived at the gate:
  1. The guard finally asking me if i’d seen a dog
  2. Durak of the Dawnguard trying to recruit me
  3. A courier with another letter, another new one, this time from someone wanting to bequeath the hall called Hendraheim to a worthy warrior
• Checked in with the Jarl first; got payment for taking out the bandit, permission to buy property in Falkreath, and pointer to become thane
• Sold more stuff to Lod and got his pointer to take meat and go catch the dog
• Saved

Commentary

Most of this was not new territory, really; I think a lot of my play energy on Monday went into more experimenting with mods and seeing if I could improve the frame rate I’m getting on the laptop. So far, I’ve seen only marginal improvements. But enough that my frame rates in interior locations is actually pretty good–I’m periodically actually hitting 30 in simpler, dark locations in particular.

Exterior locations, though, are still a problem. More experimenting is called for there.

So at least in this session, I mostly just kept it simple and went bandit hunting. This involved not only the bandits that hang out near the Guardian Stones (so I could get their treasure map), but also going to Falkreath and getting the Jarl’s quest to go kill bandits for him.

Both of these things went mostly as expected, though I was slightly surprised that this time through, the bandits I had to go kill for Siddgeir were actually at Bilegulch Mine rather than Embershard.

This session’s sighting of M’aiq the Liar was unusual in that I actually saw a wolf attack him! I didn’t know that could happen–and I’m not sure whether this is because I’m running this playthrough on PC, or what. I’ve certainly never seen that happen on the Switch. I went and killed the wolf on general Don’t Bother M’aiq Goddammit principles.

I think this may be the first time I’ve had Durak recruit me for the Dawnguard at Falkreath? I’m used to running into him in Solitude or Whiterun.

And the courier with a new letter was also interesting, though I am slightly disappointed that this is another area where you’d want the courier to say more things that don’t get said because that would have required additional voice lines! So every time he comes up to me with a new letter, he doesn’t actually say anything about what it is, he just gives it to me.

This time though it was a challenge from a warrior named Eydvina Shield-Hearth, who wanted to bequeath her home Hendraheim to a worthy warrior. I went !! but did not immediately follow up on that, not this session anyway.

Next time

I’ve already played the session for the post to come after that, and that’ll be a big action-packed one! Featuring Hendraheim, but also starting A Daedra’s Best Friend–and by extension, taking advantage of having Barbas to finally go take out those Saints bandits near Brittleshin Pass. Stay tuned!

Screenshots

Editing to add

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