In Which Shenner Thwarts a Conspiracy and Battles a Giant Spirit Crab

This session saw my running the last couple of quests on Viriya’s branch of the Fishing content! Which sent me boinging between Bronze Water Cave, Alftand Ruined Tower, and Markarth–and then off to Dawnstar, for round two of the invasion of the frenzied mudcrabs! Meanwhile, since I was in Markarth anyway, I ran the Forsworn Conspiracy.

Also, did a little unexpected activity that started the Brothers in Irons quest, one of the few remaining Alternative Armors quests I haven’t done yet!

Highlights

Play date: 7/18/2022
Session number in this run: 39
Started in Riften
Shopped with Bersi and Balimund, bought a bunch of iron
Boinged to Windstad to see if i needed to do any building; answer: not much, because I didn’t have the rest of the materials I need and Windstad is mostly built out
Boinged to Heljarchen and did build stuff there
Crafted a bunch of leather armor to sell just to bump Smithing a little more
Boinged to Lakeview to merge building materials
Sofie greeted me; hi kid, enjoy your new house and sister and mothers to protect you! <3
Did some alchemy and enchanting to work on further leveling up
Boinged to Whiterun to sell stuff
Sold things to Arcadia and Belethor
Boinged to Nightgate Inn to get near Bronze Water Cave
Ancient Dragon!
Spotted Balagog—the Gourmet—who went “this is going to be good” as he saw Gogh, Swift Wind, and me starting to fight the dragon
Had to run around a bit to find where the dragon actually landed, to start fighting Gogh and Swift Wind; kind of hilarious to see the dragon reacting to Swift Wind as a bigger threat than me, lol
Went back into the inn to see about getting a room
Spotted a note on the counter and read it; turned out to be a snarky note from an unidentified party who stashed something out in the barrel in the back of the inn; went to look, and found an undercover guard’s journal
Dude was apparently looking for bandits? Wrote about a suspect cave near Northwatch Keep
However, decided not to go for it yet; instead proceeded to Bronze Water Cave
Got turned around a little because I had the wrong quest marker active
Wound up finding Shrouded Grove; killed a snow bear and a spriggan outside; cave bear, snow bear, and a spriggan earth mother inside the cave; got the boss chest cleared
Went back out and returned in the proper direction towards Bronze Water Cave
Killed a couple of frost trolls en route
Spotted dragon in the distance that again was probably Viinturuth but too far away to come fight us
Found the fisherman’s journal with info on aetherium dynamo cores, and the directive to find the dwarven rod schematic at Alftand Ruined Tower
Boinged to Wayward Pass to get there
Ran into ice wizard vs. fire wizard fight and had to take out both wizards
Found the actual top of Alftand Ruined Tower rather than the bottom, so I didn’t find the dead fisherman, but I did find the schematic and also looted a couple of chests
Came out of there and boinged off to Markarth
As soon as I arrived, got a courier with a message from Viriya; OHNOEZ, more frenzied mudcrabs are threatening Dawnstar!
Invested in Lisbet’s shop, Ghorza’s forge, the Hag’s Cure; sold a bunch of things to them
Went in to talk to Calcelmo and give him the schematic; also invested in his dig, and saw his armored mudcrab, lolololol
Got directive to wait 24 hours to come back and get the dwarven fishing rod, so decided to go ahead and run Forsworn Conspiracy
Helped Madanach as per previous playthroughs
Killed once by dwarven guardian trying to get out through the ruins; second time through, called up a Golden Saint warrior and had her help out
Got out again and hung back while the Forsworn rampaged their way out of the city; counted seven slain guards I think?
Got Markarth armor for Shenner’s guard armor collection, LOL
Faffed around a little smelting things until daybreak to kill time until I could return to Calcelmo; made some leather scout armor and sold that to Ghorza
Got stopped three times by a guard wanting to know if i ‘knew anything about this’ (presumably the dead guards lying around?); nope, sorry, don’t know nothin’
Returned to Calcelmo and got him to give me the dwarven fishing rod
Also spoke to the jarl about finding work; he told me to go kill a Forsworn leader–at Druadach Redoubt, which is where Madanach’s crowd will have retreated to
Boinged back to Bronze Water Cave
Fished up the aetherium dynamo cores and placed them; got a chest to surface out of the water with the Irkngthand War Axes and a couple other tasty pieces of loot
And only at this point did I realize there were two fishing spots, which didn’t seem to matter because I got both cores at the one? Quest successfully concluded anyway
Overloaded, so boinged back to Heljarchen for a loot drop
Came back out and killed a surprise giant; Gregor, Rulnik, Gogh, and Swift Wind all helped! Go team!
Got Rulnik back on follower duty
Boinged to Dawnstar
Khajiit were on site but also Blood Dragon! Killed the dragon though it took a bit, it flew off once to go fight with a frost troll and possibly also a nearby giant; finally killed it when it came back to attack the town
Stopped to buy things from Ahkari
Then rode off to check out this mudcrab problem
Beach was occupied by Viriya (in armor!) and a bunch of Dawnstar guards–and a boatload of pissed off mudcrabs
Fought a few waves of them, and then OH SHIT GIANT MUDCRAB SPIRIT; now that was actually pretty cool
Finally took out the giant spirit mudcrab and got Viriya’s thanks
Returned to Windpeak Inn to sleep for a few hours, then reported to the Jarl and got 1,200 septims as a reward
Saved for the night

Brothers in Irons quest

First interesting new thing of the session was a thing I hadn’t even planned: going into Nightgate Inn, which led me to finding the note that started the Brothers in Irons quest. This is one of the few remaining ones for the various types of new armor that I haven’t done yet, and it required me to go back behind the inn and investigate a barrel that turned out to contain an undercover guard’s journal.

Apparently the guy was investigating bandits, and he had intel on a particular Argonian last known to be camping near Northwatch Keep.

I didn’t elect to go there yet–partly because I was too busy working on fishing stuff, and partly because this quest is for the iron plate armor, in which I have less interest. But I’ll still do it later, when I’m actually in that neck of the woods for Dawnguard purposes!

Beneath Bronze Waters quest

Of much more immediate interest was running the Beneath Bronze Waters quest, which had a few interesting stops and steps. The Nightgate Inn activity happened because I was specifically on my way to Bronze Water Cave–and once I got the inn action settled, I proceeded to the place I was going to begin with!

While there, I spotted a dragon in the distance. Probably Viinturuth again, though I didn’t get close enough to confirm this, or have to fight.

Instead I was able to search the site and find the fisherman’s journal that talked about the schematic I needed–which was supposed to be in Alftand Ruined Tower.

I haven’t run Alftand yet with Shenner, so I didn’t have it on the map. But I did have Wayward Pass, so it was easy to get there. And I wound up actually finding the top entrance to the tower rather than the bottom one which, I think, would have actually let me trigger the right location indicator. This also meant I didn’t find the fisherman’s dead body. But I did get the important thing: the schematic.

Next stop after that: Markarth, and Shenner’s first interaction with Calcelmo. I gave him the schematic, but that got me the objective to wait for 24 hours before I could get the Dwarven Fishing Rod from him.

So I killed time by running the Forsworn Conspiracy!

And after I did that, I was able to get the new rod. (And I noted, as I did so, that the Dwarven Armored Mudcrab was hanging out in the vicinity too. LOL.) Then it was back to Bronze Water Cave.

Where I fished up two aetherium dynamo cores, which in turn let me actually get access to the submerged chest that contained the fancy Irnkgthand War Axes.

Important side notes here:

While in Markarth, I got a courier note from Viriya initiating the next fishing quest, but didn’t answer that immediately.
Those dynamo cores did identify themselves as aetherium dynamo cores, specifically. Which means a couple other items that contain aetherium in the world!

Forsworn Conspiracy

This played through pretty much as per previous playthroughs. But it’s worth noting that the political dynamics here are a little different if you happen to be playing a Nord! And also, it was a trifle odd just actually getting a better look at Eltrys this time through. I don’t think I’d ever known he had facial tattoos, just because I can’t frigging see him very well in the Switch build.

I have yet to play the version of this plot that has me assassinating Madanach for the Silver-Bloods. At this point, it’s not likely I will, just because fuck the Silver-Bloods. Consequently, though, I figure this entire experience was a significant blow to whatever remaining vestiges of interest in the Stormcloaks Shenner might have been maintaining.

In the aftermath of running the plot, two items of note:

One: got a guard trying to stop me at Ghorza’s forge three times in a row, just because of the proximity of the guards slain by Madanach’s men, and I kept telling the guard nope, sorry, don’t know nothin’ ’bout no dead guards (just ignore the guard armor I’ve stuffed in my pockets plzkthx). #AllGuardsAreBastards

And two: talked to the Jarl to get the thaneship underway, and he pointed me at Druadach Redoubt to kill a Forsworn leader, which is where Madanach will have retreated. To wit: awkward. I’ll have to see how I can run the place without pissing off the few non-hostile Forsworn I can meet in the game! (Apparently I can pickpocket the briar heart off my target maybe?)

Wave Breaker quest

Last but not least, I went to Dawnstar to follow up on Viriya’s urgent note!

And I got a Blood Dragon shot to go with the frenzied mudcrab chaser, later. After I killed the thing just outside the town, I spotted the NPC Irine again. Also spotted another unfamiliar NPC, Guthrum, but he’s just one I haven’t paid much attention to before since he’s a sailor on the Sea Squall.

When I returned to the beach, it was definitely much changed. Viriya was on hand in studded armor, and there were also half a dozen Dawnstar guards and a couple of catapults.

And a whole helluva lot of pissed off mudcrabs, even before the Emperor Crab Guardian Spirit showed up! Mind you, I could have quibbled about why exactly catapults were going to do anything to a spirit. But I didn’t, because it was just too cool. 😀

It was a fight with high stakes, too! All the guards were killed in the fight. :O (And ohwells, Dawnstar armor for the guard armor collection!)

I wasn’t clear how exactly the mudcrabs got hold of the flaming pots during the fight. Apparently I missed in the action that there had been a wagon of them, presumably there to provide fuel for the catapults. But the wagon exploded, which let the mudcrabs swarm to pick up the pots, which I then had to take from them.