In Which Faanshi Quests Though Volskygge

Very brief session! Primary highlights: ran all of Volskygge, then had a long fight with an Elder Dragon at Folgunthur.

Highlights

• Play date: 6/15/2022
• Session number in this run: 26
• Started running Volskygge
• Lydia and dremora did most of the work taking out the exterior bandits, though the Hulking Draugr in the nook by the stairs outside was a problem first time through, it killed me; second time through it spawned already dead
• Ran all of Volskygge without any particular problems, surprisingly, not even the Draugr Death Overlord
• Found Kahzovein’s Fang in the boss treasure chest
• Got out to the Word Wall and the dragon priest Volsung okay, killed him with a few swipes after the dremora and Lydia softened him up
• Third word of Whirlwind Sprint and Volsung mask achieved!
• Boinged to Solitude to sell stuff
• Sold a bunch of things to Beirand and Sayma
• Thought I’d run Folgunthur next
• Explored the Blue Palace a bit to see if I could find a back way out; answer, no
• Went out through the windmill instead, which got me close enough to swim across the water and come out near Folgunthur
• Reached the camp underneath the ledge and read the skill book there
• Then found the campsite next to Folgunthur itself
• However, also found an Elder Dragon! Took a while to fight it because it kept flying off
• Did a lot of Slow Time Shout + ebony bow shots + lightning, and a lot of storm atronach
• Finally killed it but almost overloaded from dragon bits, so decided to boing to Lakeview and do some building instead of running Folgunthur
• Spent what little iron I had on me to build more furnishings; also made some items to sell to burn through materials
• Boinged to Whiterun
• Bought Lydia some ebony armor to upgrade her from the Nordic, and also a pair of Ebony Boots of The Ox
• Bought more iron as well and boinged back to Lakeview to continue building
• Startled to see Fihada, the bows and arrows merchant from Solitude, at my house? :O
• Forgot to document where I leveled up? Reached level 45, took another Stamina bump, took Atromancy perk in Conjuration
• Saved there for the night

Commentary

This was a very short session, really, but I’m going ahead and doing a post for it just to keep my queue clear!

The exterior of Volskygge was the main notable part of it this time through. There’s a nook next to the stairs outside containing a couple of coffins, one of which has a draugr that will burst out and attack you. This time through it was a Hulking Draugr, which killed me on my first attempt. Second time through, the draugr actually spawned already dead.

Which was a little weird! And I only realized what had happened once I saw what might have been the draugr’s foot sticking out of the bottom of the coffin. But hey, I’ll take it!

Interior of Volskygge didn’t give me any particular problems. Surprisingly, not even with the Draugr Death Overlord in the last interior chamber! Since it was distracted by the bigger threats of Lydia and the dremora, I was able to wail on it from behind.

Found Kahzovein’s Fang in the boss treasure chest so I guess I’ll be carting that around until I make it to being able to run Tolfdir’s Alteration quest!

Had a bit of an interlude after that, as I decided to go to Folgunthur next. But before I did that, I was curious to see if there was any way to get there via the Blue Palace. That icon is very near Folgunthur’s on the game’s map, and plus, I hadn’t really explored all the bits of the Blue Palace before, so I wanted to see what I could find out.

So I derped around through the Blue Palace for a bit, and discovered that no, I couldn’t find a back way out. But I did finally find the lower floor beds where the palace staff probably sleep!

And I wound up going out through the windmill to the back way out of Solitude, which accomplished my goal anyway. Because that let me cross the water and reach the beach very close to Folgunthur.

One last bit of oddity I want to remark on: when I showed up at Lakeview, somebody else showed up at Lakeview that I totally did not expect: Fihada, the merchant who sells bows and arrows in Solitude! Dude was right there when I came out of fast travel, and delivered his line about “true, I may look the part of dashing swordsman…”

And then promptly wandered off while I was boggling. :O

I’ve seen Gregor and Valdimar wandering around in weird places before, as I’ve said on prior posts. But I’ve never seen any of the city’s merchants showing up at my properties!

Next time

I did hit level 45 during this session, but that still leaves me one short of the 46 required to go raid Mercer Frey’s house.

Legit waffling between trying Folgunthur again, and maybe going ahead and running the Thalmor Embassy! But right now I can only summon one dremora, and I’d really like to be able to go in there with two. Particularly given my Difficulty level on this run!

So I’ll probably try Folgunthur again. Whether I’ll bring Lydia is an open question, too, I still need to spend some of J’zargo’s scrolls, and I don’t want to set my housecarl on fire!

Screenshots

No screenshots this time.

Editing to add

• 11/22/2023: Added play date and session number markers.