In Which Shenner Slays Ildari Sarothril

Last night’s session in Shenner’s playthrough was basically trying to get through Highpoint Tower so I could take out Ildari Sarothril! Finally did it, though it took several tries!

Highlights

• Play date: 9/23/2022
• Session number in this run: 60
• Tried multiple times to get past the spider infestation at the bottom of the first stairs; killed a few times doing that
• Also killed by Ildari the first time I reached her, which threw me all the way back to the beginning of the dungeon and I had to run the whole damn thing again AUGH
• So that time through I wound up skipping the entire section with the spiders, because I didn’t need to hit the geodes that badly
• Had a brief issue with Rulnik not properly following me down the stairs, so had to go back and get him
• Did however stop to pick up the full set of Skaal gear and the Black Soul Gem
• And this time through I remembered to frigging quick save so if I died again I wouldn’t get thrown all the way back
• Ildari got me again when she surprised me by coming down to the lower floor and I ran right into her coming around a corner, oops
• But that threw me back only a little because I’d remembered to quick save!
• Finally managed to take out Ildari properly by bolstering myself with Elixir of Resist Shock
• And, this is running the USSEP so her robes are no longer lootable at all
• Severely overloaded so Daedric-horse’d back to Raven Rock and parked in Severin Manor
• Did a bunch of crafting and leveled up to 65; took a Magicka bump and another perk in Alchemy
• Saved for the night

Commentary

After the frustration I’d been having in Morrowind lately with keeping getting killed by powerful opponents, it was somewhat disgruntling to have it happen here with Ildari, too. And I should know better by now, after four complete Skyrim playthroughs, than to get close to Ildari without proper preparation! The woman does pack a powerful punch, and shock resistance is critical when fighting her.

It also probably would have helped to not be overloaded either.

Likewise, the spiders at the beginning of the dungeon were more of a problem than they should have been. So really, running Highpoint Tower this time basically was a reminder that even if I’m running a high level character, this does not give me license to get cocky and forget to monitor my health bar, or not have proper resistances in place! Shock for Ildari, and fire for those frigging spiders.

I would have headed back to Tel Mithryn for the conclusion of the plot, but I was overloaded and didn’t want to try to tromp up into Neloth’s tower with that much stuff in my inventory. So I went back to Raven Rock instead, with the intent to sell a bunch more things before heading out once more.

Next time

I’ll need to return to Tel Mithryn to check in with Neloth. And see if I do in fact actually have a bed and a chest in his tower now!

And then I think I’ll go after Karstaag, as that’s about the last remaining thing on Solstheim I want to do before returning to the Skyrim mainland.

Screenshots

No screenshots to speak of, since I didn’t do anything new this session. I did however experiment with whether I could save screenshots out the same way if I play in the Deck’s Desktop mode–and the answer to that question is yes. I can make it save uncompressed screenshots out to my Dropbox the same way I’d been doing on the PC. That doesn’t work in Gaming mode. Which may mean I wind up playing in Desktop mode more? We’ll see!