In Which Gyllerah Seeks a Kidnapped Bride-to-Be

This session saw Paul and me running Archon’s Grove, another delve on Summerset, and seeking a woman who’d been kidnapped by werewolves.

Highlights

• Play date: 10/20/2022
• Session number in this run: 19
• Finished up running my writs from the day before
• Did some exploring on the northern part of the island, hunting down the last couple of wayshrines I needed to find
• Killed a bunch of reef vipers and Coral-Splitter goblins as I worked my way north along the beach
• Found a hidden camp with a dead elf who’d left a note for his betrothed; he’d been turned into a vampire and accidentally killed her mother
• So I took his note and the necklace so that I could return them to his betrothed
• Spent some time trying to find a nearby skyshard as well; that took some doing, since it was up on top of a rock outcropping and I had to get over there across a thin wooden bridge
• Paul logged on about this point and was in the mood to run something that didn’t involve talking to a lot of NPCs, so that meant running a delve
• We decided to hit Archon’s Grove since we had only two delves left on Summerset that we hadn’t hit yet
• Once we did, we found an NPC, Esterdel, bitching about how his fiancée had been kidnapped by werewolves–and apparently he was enough of a dick to be way more concerned about the hit to his reputation than he was about his fiancée’s well-being
• And he had snark to spare at me
• So Paul and I rather grudgingly agreed to find his fiancée, and he asked us to meet him by the Mages Guild in Shimmerene once we had news
• Went into the place to check it out, and it was certainly one of the prettier delves, with nice greenery even inside the cave part
• Quickly found assorted dire wolves as well as werewolves, the Thornfang pack, apparently?
• Who were explicitly trying to expand their numbers by capturing Summerset elves
• We found the missing fiancee, Niralin, and learned from her that she’d already been turned and her Wood Elf lover had been killed
• She outright asked us to kill her, but Paul and I both refused, and instead took her ring so we could take it back to Esterdel as evidence that she’d been turned and didn’t want to return to him
• Killed Seldene Second-Skin who appeared to be the boss character for the werewolf pack
• Found and triggered the skyshard in the delve
• Returned to Shimmerene and checked in with Esterdel, who gave us a tiny amount of gold, because of course he did; see previous commentary re: his being a dick ;P
• Paul quit for the night at this point
• Since I was in Shimmerene anyway I took the time to explore the Mages Guild, but didn’t find anything interesting other than a couple of NPCs who could sell me stuff
• Went up just north of Shimmerene at that point to trigger another skyshard
• Returned to Alinor and finally triggered the skyshard right by the gate by the inn
• Stopped at that point for the night

Commentary

The solo bit of this session, at the beginning when I was exploring, had a couple of interesting bits I’ll talk about here.

I liked finding the hidden camp of the elf who’d been turned into a vampire and who accidentally killed his own betrothed’s mother–and who fled into the wild as a result. Sad story! And it underscores a bit more impact of vampirism on the world at large. You don’t see much in the way of this kind of impact on the citizenry in Skyrim. (And possibly not in Morrowind, though I haven’t been all over Morrowind yet with the same depth I have Skyrim, so I don’t know for sure?)

And I’ll say this as well, now that I’ve done some pretty broad exploration of the various beaches on Summerset: they are interesting to explore from a general visual perspective, and also a geographical one. Lots of interesting coral structures and complex little cliffs and outcroppings, some of which certainly have made it a challenge to get a couple of those skyshards!

Once Paul logged on and was ready for joint play, we decided to run another delve. This time we chose Archon’s Grove, since we were running out of delves to run on Summerset. Finding it was a trifle challenging, although we’ve both now found all the wayshrines, so it’s easier to get around!

When we found the place, we met the latest entry in the annals of Asshole NPC Altmer, Esterdel. Who bitched at us about how his fiancee had been kidnapped by werewolves, and in the process, made it clear that he was way more concerned about the hit to his reputation than he was about his fiancee’s actual well-being.

Nor did he scruple to snark at me about how I didn’t know about matchmaker customs on Summerset, and about how, as an Altmer, I might want to look into a matchmaker as well. Though of course a matchmaker wouldn’t take as long for me as it did for him. Bold of you that I’m the slightest bit interested in marrying anybody on this island, asshole.

Running the delve was easy enough, and one of the easier and faster delves as well–though at this point Paul and I have leveled up enough that the delves are getting easier in general, I think.

I wasn’t surprised to find Niralin, the missing bride-to-be, had already been turned by the werewolves. Also not surprised that she was heartily sick of her fiancé and not exactly in a mood to return to him, given that she’d actually run away with her Bosmer lover to begin with–though neither of them had predicted they’d get kidnapped by werewolves.

She seemed awfully tidy for a woman who’d been kidnapped by werewolves, but we left that aside, and talked with her about whether she could return. She didn’t want to, but neither was she looking forward to being a werewolf. And at one point during the conversation just outright asked us to kill her and put an end to it.

Neither Paul nor I was comfortable with that as an option, though. So we persuaded her instead to give us her ring, so that we could take it to Esterdel as evidence that we’d found her and that she didn’t wish to return to him. She accepted this option and steeled herself to try to live her life under her terms moving forward.

(And personally, I hope she starts by beating the shit out of the pack who forcibly inducted her and killed her lover. Not cool, werewolves!)

And, when we went to Shimmerene and reported in to Esterdel, he was unsurprisingly stingy in his recompense for bringing him word that his betrothed was now a werewolf. Fuck that guy. I hope he stays single for the rest of his long Altmer life.

Next time

Paul and I return to Wasten Coraldale to seek out the Augur of the Obscure, and heal time breaches! And I also go to Cey-Tarn Keep to see exactly what mysterious deaths someone named Silurie is apparently on about!

Screenshots

Editing to add

• 11/24/2023: Restored missing gallery.