In Which Faanshi Discovers Miraak’s Hold on Solstheim

ESO has really been dominating my gaming time now that I’ve started playing it, because it’s the cool new kid in my gaming town. But I did jump back to Skyrim a bit, because I don’t want to abandon my playthroughs in progress! So I moved the Dragonborn plotline a little further along with my Khajiit Faanshi on the Switch.

Highlights

• Play date: 10/16/2022
• Session number in this run: 61
• Picked up where I’d left off several days ago in the middle of running Miraak’s temple
• When we got down to the section of the temple that led over to the Word Wall, I got ahead of both Serana and Frea, who proceeded to kick the ass of the cultists who tried to attack us
• Finished the place and hit the Black Book, had initial confrontation with Miraak, and got thrown back out
• Followed Frea to her village and spoke with her father
• Headed to Saering’s Watch
• Killed a cranky High Elf on the way
• However, kllled by dragon at Saering’s Watch; had to re-do stopping at the Skaal village and talking to Storn
• Take two of Saering’s Watch: killed again ;P
• But this time at least I was only thrown back to a prior point in the battle
• Third time through, actually took out the dragon properly
• Miraak showed up and sniped the soul
• Dragon skeleton actually fell over the side of the cliff, though, and I couldn’t even loot it
• Took out the remaining draugr
• Got the word for Bend Will
• Got ahead of Serana as I tried to work my way down the cliff and see if I could find where the dragon skeleton landed, but no luck
• Confronted a snow bear who’d killed some ice wraiths en route
• Made it to the Wind Stone and cleared it
• Returned to the Skaal village and talked to Storn, and got his pointer to go find out about the Black Books from Neloth
• But first boinged with Serana (who caught up finally) back to Raven Rock for loot dropoff
• Cleared the Earth Stone and helped the townsfolk kill the resulting lurkers
• Also took out reavers in on the fight and was briefly confused, until I realized that oh right those are the reavers for the Nordic jewelry side plot
• So went over a little towards the beach and found the slain crafter who had the journal about how to make Nordic jewelry
• Went back to town and hung out a bit making jewelry at Glover’s forge, and then a few potions at Milore’s alchemy table
• Sold a few things; got a couple of the AE robes from Fethis
• Then returned to Severin Manor and saved for the night

Commentary

Dragonborn-wise, main thing to comment on here is that having Serana along as backup in Miraak’s temple, as well as at Saering’s Watch, was definitely beneficial. And it was amusing to hear her throw her “teamwork” line while she and Frea cut a swath through the cultists who jumped us just before we reached the Word Wall.

Mind you, if Serana hadn’t been marked Essential, she would have had a harder time of it. I saw her drop down into the bleedout crouch at least a couple of times, particularly when we were fighting the dragon at Saering’s Watch. And I figure that if something is giving Serana a hard fight, that’s the signal for me to hang the hell back–and throw dremora ahead of me. Or storm atronachs. I invoked the dremora quite a bit in the temple, and the storm atronachs when fighting the dragon!

And I’m definitely not used to having the AE on the Switch yet. It took me a moment to realize what was going on with the reavers showing up during the fight with the lurkers at the Earth Stone. Likewise, I was slightly surprised, at least for a moment, to be able to buy the Extravagant Robe and Common Robe from Fethis.

Next time

I remembered that having the AE on the Switch means Faanshi can build campsites now, so I’ll be making one for her to drop at the Skaal village, since I liked having that with Shenner.

And I’ll have to think about how to run the AE content available to me on Solstheim in general. I’ll give the Stalhrim Fur Armor another try, I think. Also, real big question of how I’ll want to run Ghosts of the Tribunal. I enjoyed running that as Shenner!

But there’s a real big question here of whether to run this plot as Faanshi at all, and if so, how. Shenner had very little stake in this particular plot, but I came up with a way for her religious uncertainty to contribute to it. Shenner, however, is a Nord. Faanshi’s a Khajiit. And as such, even aside from questions of Faanshi having her people’s own interpretations of the Divines and the Daedra, Faanshi’s a Khajiit traveling through Skyrim and Solstheim, areas which are not friendly to her people.

Moreover, Solstheim is Dunmer territory. And while the Dunmer in Raven Rock have welcomed Faanshi’s aid, some part of her must surely be aware that the Dunmer used to use her people as slaves. So it’s not like she’s letting her guard down in Solstheim any more than she has anywhere in Skyrim. Overall, she’s a much warier Dragonborn than Shenner, I think.

Which seems to argue in favor of not running this plot as Faanshi. I will ponder this some more and see if I change my mind!

In the meantime, there is still plenty to do on Solstheim! Kicking things off with Neloth seems like the next logical thing to do, and that’ll give me the chance to clear the Sun Stone as well.

Screenshots

Editing to add

• 11/24/2023: Restored missing gallery.