In Which Shenner Gains Two Hammers and the Thaneship of Haafingar

Eventful session! Returned to Crystaldrift Cave and acquired the hammer Nerveshatter; concluded the Cursed Tribe quest, and acquired the hammer Volendrung; concluded the Beyond the Grave quest, and acquired Daedric plate armor; acquired Proudspire Manor and got the thaneship of Haafingar; and successfully cleared Giant’s Tooth, to move the Dying Wish quest towards its conclusion.

Highlights

• Play date: 6/16/2022
• Session number in this run: 20
• Started in Breezehome
• Did a little shopping around Whiterun, sold things to Belethor and bought iron from Warmaiden’s
• Boinged to Lakeview and built more things in the armory and bedroom wings
• Dismissed Lydia so I could get her into steward mode to buy logs
• Made a few more amber ingots and stored those for later
• Dropped off Staada’s helmet and the helmet I got off of Thoron, as well as Daedric gauntlets from chest loot
• Put the Ring of Disrobing and the Ring of Surroundings in the strongbox by my bed
• Went back outside with Gogh
• Got courier with a note from Ri’saad thanking me for dealing with the bandits, and also a notice of his new wares
• Boinged with Gogh to Crystaldrift Cave; got flyby dragon; also a bear; after fighting multiple Seducers bandits with summoned Golden Saint archer and warrior, and also Gogh and Swift Wind, got Nerveshatter hammer
• Overloaded after all that, so tromped back to Swift Wind and then fast traveled to Riften to sell stuff; sold bandit loot to Balimund and Grelka
• Went out to the dock and did a little fishing but no goldfish yet
• Went into Honeyside and oh hey look I have a troll fat
• Got Iona on follower duty
• Tried to boing to Heartwood Mill because I hadn’t actually discovered Largashbur for the map yet, since I talked to Atub outside of the walls; also, I wanted to try to fish the mill’s fishing spot too
• But the game hung, and had to reboot; fortunately I didn’t actually lose much progress
• Tried to boing to Heartwood take two and did a little fishing; amusing remarks from Gralnach, the kid who lives there; also, Iona kinda got in my way while I was fishing
• Then headed over to nearby Largashbur; a couple of bears en route
• Gave Atub her materials, and ran the rest of the Cursed Tribe plot
• Frostbite spider and a wolf while trying to catch up with Yamarz at Fallowstone Cave
• Rode around rather than through Riften, since I was on the unicorn
• A couple of sabre cats once past Riften
• Also spotted the Old Orc who wants a good death; not going to kill you today, I gotta go follow that other Orc
• Followed Yamarz into the cave
• Noticed that there was a boss chest just before the entrance to Giant’s Grove, probably never saw this before because the Switch build is so dark
• Called up the Golden Saint warrior again to help take down the giant; Team Dragonborn didn’t even need my help with that
• Looted the giant, the boss chest at the shrine, and also Yamarz; hey Iona, wanna wear this guy’s armor? You’ll look bitchin’
• Tromped back out to Swift Wind, then fast traveled to Largashbur; resolved the plot and got Volendrung
• Yay! I can actually buy things from Garakh the blacksmith now
• Boinged next to Hendraheim and racked Volendrung there to get it out of the inventory
• Rode from there to Knifepoint Ridge since it wasn’t far away
• Team Dragonborn pretty much took out all the exterior bandits at the place, including the bounty hunter that wound up being the one wearing the Daedric plate armor
• Mined the veins inside the mine while I was there
• Rode back towards Hendraheim and hit a corundum vein
• Boinged to Lakeview to do more building since I’d replenished my stock of iron some
• Put the Daedric plate mail on a mannequin
• Upgraded Iona to mostly Nordic armor, since the Bandit Chief at Knifepoint Ridge had been wearing Nordic, and made her a shield as well
• Leveled up to 32; took Stamina bump and Allure perk in Speech
• Went outside to mount up
• Got courier with note from Tyra Blood-Fire! Wants to fight me at the Shrine of Talos near Windhelm
• Boinged to Whiterun to sell more things, to make it to 25K for Proudspire–which I then bought, after boinging to Solitude
• Got Elisif to make me her thane immediately as I’d already fulfilled five favor quests? Obviously the three in the Bard’s College, but I think I still have Noster’s and Angeline’s quests queued up, so not sure what else fulfilled the list? But whatevs, I’m thane!
• Also bought living room and bedroom decorations for the house
• HI JORDIS
• Once Proudspire was secured, headed to Dawnstar to see if I could clear Giant’s Tooth now
• Briefly passed Driftshade Refuge; one Silver Hand outside tried to start some shit, and Team Dragonborn was not having it
• Passed the Pale Imperial Camp
• Passed empty tent near Dawnstar that appears to be included on the list of Unmarked Places on the wiki
• Came into Dawnstar the back way, wound up going between Silus’s house and the one next door; overheard Silus’s starting conversation with Madesi
• Parked the unicorn at the shore line, then went and hired the boat
• Made it to Giant’s Tooth
• Tried to sneak around into the cave, but Iona and Gogh went after the giants, and this time Team Dragonborn prevailed \0/
• Finally reached the cave and got a bunch of ironwood fruit
• Returned to Dawnstar by boat, then fast traveled back to Whiterun
• Slept the night then made ironwood soup; took it to the acolyte in the temple so she could give it to the ailing Rulnik
• Returned to Breezehome and saved for the night

Commentary

First notable new action of this session was going to Crystaldrift Cave to follow up on getting the hammer Nerveshatter. Which was more complex than I was expecting, in no small part because I had quite the party of hostiles show up as soon as I came out of fast travel there! Two different sets of Seducers bandits who were pissed off that I’d killed their leader Svarig, with a bonus bear, and a flyby dragon.

One set of bandits was outside the cave, and the other set was inside. This gave me an opportunity to try the summon spells I’d gotten for calling both Golden Saints and Dark Seducers. Threw a Golden Saint archer at the outside bandits, and a warrior at the inside ones.

According to the wiki, the Saints and Seducers you can summon are level 18. Which makes them a better offensive backup than flame or frost atronachs, but not competitive with storm atronachs. And definitely not dremora lords. So for now the Saints and Seducers summons will do, given that I have a while to go yet before I can call storm atronachs or dremora lords with this alt!

Nerveshatter looks pretty memorable design-wise, and slightly more powerful than Volendrung in terms of raw damage. Plus it has a shock enchantment on it. However, it’s still a two-handed weapon and therefore kinda not my personal speed. I may hand it off to one of the housecarls, though! After I unlock Amber Smithing and can make myself amber armor; I don’t want to spend the amber necessary to improve this weapon until I’ve done that.

And I was surprised and pleased to note that the amber and madness ore I had to bring to the cave in order to make the weapon visible was not actually consumed by this effort. So I got to retrieve both ore bits once I picked up the hammer.

Took me two tries to successfully fast travel to Heartwood Mill, since that was the closest fast travel marker for Largashbur, and also because I wanted to fish there. When I showed up, the kid that lives there, Gralnach, said, “I hope you’re not here to start any trouble. I’ll fight you if i have to.”

Heh. Kid, I promise I’m just here to fish.

Meanwhile, Iona did some of the same thing Lydia did, reacting to not actually apparent threats, possibly slaughterfish in the water? And she actually went out in front of me in the water while I was trying to fish and that interfered with my ability to use my fishing rod. Wound up losing the catch. Oops!

Couple of things I want to note about Largashbur this time:

1. Following Yamarz on the way to Fallowstone Cave is a little bit trickier if you’re mounted, but you can at least ride around Riften without having to follow Yamarz through the city
2. I was actually able to buy and sell with their smith, Garakh! Thank you, USSEP!
3. Possibly just because the PC build is so much less dark than the Switch build, I realized for the first time that there’s a boss chest right before the exit out to Giant’s Grove!

Main point of interest re: running Knifepoint Ridge: I was surprised that the person wearing the Daedric plate armor was not actually Edward the bandit. It was a bounty hunter. Doublechecking the wiki, it’s not clear to me whether Edward the bandit is actually still supposed to be alive? Because it certainly seems like he faked his death, and that in theory he’s still in hiding somewhere else.

Heh. If that’s the case, then by rights I’d expect him to come be very, very cranky at me for killing his sister Erwan. Even though the impression I have of Erwan is that she wasn’t exactly a paragon of mental stability… but then, LOL, maybe to avoid his sister is why Edward faked his death? 😉

That said: the Daedric plate armor set is enchanted with some pretty tasty enchantments. But maybe not quite as tasty as the Imperial Dragon armor. I need to accumulate some ebony to get it improved up, though. And I need to doublecheck whether the Daedric plate or the Daedric mail look more interesting to me to wear.

Oddly enough, the Daedric mail actually looks like it has more plating involved than the Daedric plate? But otherwise they look very close in design.

And related to the whole Crimson Dirks/armor plotline, I finally got the note from Tyra Blood-Fire demanding to meet and fight me. Apparently she is not looking for revenge for the deaths of her crew, this is more of a “if you’re worthy, I want you to be the one to come deliver my judgment” kind of deal. Maybe she figures it’s inevitable that the Dragonborn is going to come kick her ass, so she’s owning that? I can kind of respect that as a plot choice.

Then I moved on to finally buying Proudspire Manor, and getting the thaneship from Elisif! Notable points this time for that:

1. I went straight to having fulfilled the favor quests and I’m not sure why? I had the three from the Bard’s College already, but I think I still have both Noster’s and Angeline’s quests in my journal, so not sure what else would have allowed for that? Unless it’s enough to actually have the quests even if I haven’t fulfilled them yet?
2. It’s nice to actually see the housecarl’s quarters in the basement actually furnished!

Next up: returning to Dawnstar, for another go at clearing Giant’s Tooth. This time through, at level 32 with significant improvement in power levels for followers as well, clearing the place was actually doable. And in fact, Iona and Gogh attacked the giants even though I was trying to sneak into the cave first.

Fortunately, this time we were able to take down the giants! At which point I was then able to head into the cave and clear it, and get several samples of ironwood fruit. I returned to Whiterun with this, made some ironwood soup, and brought it to the temple so that the priestess there could share it with the ailing Rulnik Wind-Strider. Looking forward to meeting this dude! He can be a steward and he apparently has a level cap of 75, which means he ought to be a very handy follower indeed if I want to engage him.

Next time

The conclusion of the Dying Wish quest, probably! Hearing from Rulnik is the last stage of the quest according to the wiki.

After that, feeling pretty strongly about heading back to Arcwind Point to see if I can clear that place, too. And maybe also the Interception quest, for the promise of more chances to beat up on the Thalmor. 😀

Screenshots

Editing to add

• 11/22/2023: Restored missing gallery, and added play date and session number markers.
• 10/9/2024: Converted gallery to native WordPress one.