In Which Faanshi Fights Pirates and Thalmor

Meanwhile, back in Faanshi’s playthrough, I got in some side questing on Solstheim! Mix of AE stuff and older stuff here.

Highlights

• Play date: 11/19/2022
• Session number in this run: 63
• Picked up where I left off on Solstheim, in Severin Manor
• Went out from there and aimed for Kolbjorn Barrow
• Mage fight at Old Attius Farm; threw Serana and the dremora at them
• Went to talk to Ralis and did first round of Kolbjorn Barrow; killed all the draugr and opened the back passage by taking the skull; went back out to talk to Ralis and gave him 2,000 septims
• Continued towards Tel Mithryn
• Killed a cranky Imperial in a mix of armor types, and also two rounds of ash spawn near Dusty
• Headed on around towards Bujold’s Retreat; marked it for the map but did not engage with those Nords
• Proceeded past them until I reached the island with the dead peddler
• Took all the dead peddler’s stuff, including his journal, and read that to get the netch leather armor quest started
• Serana started fighting a nearby horker, and that also attracted the attention of the pirates next island over, so I called up the dremora
• Serana resurrected the peddler, who promptly tried to start punching the pissed off horkers, snerk
• Then we charged en masse over to the pirates; wiped out all the pirates, got the Deathbrand treasure map, and raided the chest with the Deathbrand helm
• Headed over to the Skaal village next
• Set up a campsite just outside the village but this time in a different spot, for variety
• Investigated around the village and found the camp with the dead villager; read the journal to get the quest for the stalhrim fur armor
• Went into the village and saw the discussion about Baldor being missing; talked to Deor to get A New Source of Stalhrim quest started
• Talked to Wulf and got the quest to look for his brother started
• Headed over towards Thirsk Mead Hall; talked to riekling scout and then went in to talk to the chief to get that quest started too
• Went from there past temple of Miraak and Kagrumez (and stopped at Kagrumez long enough to discover it for the map, and to take the dead scholar’s stuff)
• Reached the Abandoned Lodge; wiped out all the Thalmor mostly by throwing the dremora at them
• Freed Baldor and got the next stage of the quest
• Overloaded, so Arvak’d back to Raven Rock
• Sold a bunch of things to Glover and Fethis
• Parked in Severin Manor and saved for until next time

Commentary

This’ll be a short post, since I didn’t do anything particularly heavy duty in it, and it was all side quest level stuff.

I didn’t particularly want to engage with the Nords at Bujold’s Retreat this time, since I’m planning on Faanshi being Team Riekling. I shall assume that she took one look at that ragtag band of fugitives, and decided that Nords who are clearly in fairly dire straits are not exactly going to be inclined to trade with her. And also may be inclined to actually be bandits, and give her and Serana shit for daring to cross their stretch of beach.

Serana, gesturing crankily at the entirety of ash-ridden southern Solstheim: “Let’s get indoors. Or in a cave. Anything would be better than this.”

Faanshi, curling her lip as she eyes the nearby Nord camp: “This one does not think that camp would be an improvement. They look like bandits. And this one has found that Nords who look like bandits do not usually want to trade with her, or have anything worth stealing.”

Serana, blinking: “I’m sorry, did you say stealing?”

Faanshi: “This one is Khajiit, and yes, a thief. You would prefer perhaps to travel with less unsavory company?”

Serana: “I’m a vampire. I’m not exactly in a position to judge.”

Faanshi: <chuff-laughs>

Shortly after that, of course, we found the island with the dead peddler. As I was looting the dead peddler (see previous commentary re: thief), Serana got aggro at a nearby horker. The ensuing melee attracted the attention of the pirates over on Haknir’s Shoal, so then we had to go fight them.

Faanshi: “Greetings, pirates. Khajiit would like to introduce you to her dremora friends, her vampire friend, and her vampire friend’s zombie horker.”

And after that, got both the Thirsk Mead Hall quest started with the rieklings, and A New Source of Stalhrim quest started with the Skaal village. Most of this action was familiar Greatest Hits of Solstheim kind of stuff for me, with the exception of the quest for the stalhrim fur armor and the quest for getting the netch leather stuff.

Next time

As with the Shenner playthrough, I’m feeling close to being done with Faanshi. But I don’t want to shortchange her on Solstheim time, either, so I’m not quite ready to bail on playing her completely. So I feel like she’s at least got another week’s worth of sessions in her. I want to finish her up on Solstheim, at least doing the quests I’ve set up here. And I need to of course defeat Miraak.

How much more I’ll do on the mainland once I’m done, not sure yet. Not feeling hugely inclined to pursue most AE content with Faanshi, just because, as noted, feeling done with her. And I want to proceed to launch a Survival Mode playthrough on the Switch!

But I feel like I should at least buy her Shadowfoot Sanctum on general Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild principles. 😉

So what I’ll wind up doing next time will probably be chugging through various Solstheim side quests to see how fast I can get those wound up. Heading into Thanksgiving weekend, so should have time to get that done!

Screenshots

No screenshots this time.