In Which Faanshi Continues Through Forgotten Vale

Previous playthroughs established that getting through the Forgotten Vale is a multi-session endeavor, and this time was no exception! Still, Faanshi and Serana made good progress, reached a couple more of the Wayshrines, and took out the twin dragons under the ice.

Highlights

• Play date: 8/11/2022
• Session number in this run: 50
• Started in Forgotten Vale near the second Wayshrine
• Made it to arch that leads up along stairs
• Killed three frostbite spiders + giant frostbite spider
• Found the chest with the first unknown book
• Third Wayshrine
• Passed the waterfall to Darkfall Grotto
• HIt both of the chests with ice wraiths
• Reached both the amethyst and sapphire frost giants
• Reached fourth Wayshrine
• Ore veins mined: gold (1), quicksilver (1), malachite (8), moonstone (3)
• Killed twice by the dragons under the nice, so okay new plan!
• Emergency fast travel home to Lakeview for a supply run
• Sofie asked for a present so I gave her a steel dagger out of the loot I had; she started practicing in the basement!
• Improved my dragon armor and bow, and made a bunch of dragonbone arrows
• Dropped off a lot of loot to get back under weight
• Boinged back to Forgotten Vale and used the shrines to get back to the Wayshrine of Resolution
• Tried the dragons again, killed once more
• Finally realized i could get Durnehviir in on this fight, and that helped enough that Serana and atronachs and I were finally able to get the two dragons taken out
• Could barely see Durnehviir fighting him in the sky though as it was snowing
• Lost track of Serana after the battle? Saved at that point for the night

Commentary

I’ve covered the Forgotten Vale in depth on previous posts, so won’t get too detailed again here.

The main notable aspect of this session was the difficulty I had fighting the twin dragons Naaslaarum and Voslaarum. Not surprised by this, really, given that I’m running on Master difficulty in this playthrough! Two higher level dragons at once is a bit much.

My main challenges in that fight: both dragons were fire-breathers, and I do not have good fire resistance enchantments on my current gear. (This, clearly, is a thing I need to fix.) And there isn’t much in the way of good cover to hide under at the site of the fight with these dragons. Most of it is open iced-over lake, and there aren’t any useful ledges I can hide under, or pillars I can safely hide behind while taking potshots at them, and such.

So even with throwing two storm atronachs at them, and Serana gamely throwing ice spikes right and left, I wound up getting repeatedly fried.

Which precipitated my first strategic withdrawal out of the Vale, and a fast travel back to Lakeview to not only drop loot off, but also to improve my gear. Got a few rounds of additional improvement on my dragonscale armor and dragonbone bow, and also made a boatload of dragonbone arrows.

And took the time to give Sofie a steel dagger out of my loot! Which promptly got her down into the cellar working on slashing at the practice dummies. Good job, kid! Work on your form!

Then it was back again to the Vale, for the next round of trying to take out those dragons. And it was at that point that I realized I had another weapon to deploy in my arsenal: calling Durnehviir.

I was not successful at this the first time, and got killed again. Second time, though, I did get him summoned correctly, and into the air to battle the other dragons! Which, I have to admit, looked pretty damned badass. 😀 I just wish it hadn’t been snowing, so I could have seen the fight better.

Next time

Onward through the Vale! Now that I’ve taken out the two dragons, it’ll be time for the long jaunt through the Falmer-occupied portion of the valley. I may or may not make it all the way to Vyrthur. We’ll see!

Screenshots

No screenshots this time.