In Which Gyllerah Hunts for Antiquities, Time Breaches, and Materials

This is a multi-session post, covering five total sessions, none of which had any major plot action in them. So I’m glomming them together into one big post, just to clear my queue.

Main activity in all of these sessions here was exploring all over the place. I hunted for antiquities, time breaches, and survey materials. Main locations hit: Blackwood, Alik’r Desert, Stormhaven, Bangkorai, Craglorn.

Highlights

• Play dates: 11/19-11/23/2022
• Session numbers in this run: 48-52

Saturday’s play

• Had no writs to run, so went out to grab the last two of the artifacts for the Psijic Order side quest: one pretty much right by the entrance to Sunhold and the other just south of the Keep of the Eleven Forces
• Boinged to Artaeum to turn those in; got the achievement for finding them all, and the Fan of False-Face
• Boinged next via wayshrine back to the Alik’r Desert
• Found the time breach near HoonDing’s Watch
• Stopped at Lexi’s Blade to hit a skyshard up on a wall
• Found the next time breach west of Easterly Aerie (though I didn’t mark that locale on the map)
• Spotted a dolmen firing off nearby but did not run over to engage, was too far away
• Did however see a portal with baddies fire off and I did jump in on that with a couple other players
• Headed southwest-ish from there for the third of three breaches in the area
• Found that one finally on the edge of a cliff but only after cutting accidentally through a campsite full of Dominion troops–and only then did I realize hey those are my guys
• But they were hostile anyway, so I ran like hell and only killed one of them who insisted on following me
• Boinged back to Alinor after that and deconstructed a bunch of loot
• Did a bunch of crafting to burn through backlogged lower level materials and also to build up my gold reserve
• Made and sold a bunch of things, then threw six thousand gold into the bank
• Logged off for the night

Sunday’s play

• Ran writs, because I never ran them the night before so I had last night’s cycle; did those without too much effort
• Then went out and scried for another of the Summerset-local antiquities
• Found a couple Psijic portals and a chest while I was out
• Did some fishing at the sinkhole, and at one of the spots near the docks
• Got three rare fish to bring back and sell and also a coral formation furnishing item
• Returned to Alinor and sold things
• Also discovered the writ board had refreshed, so did round two of writs
• Mostly finished them except for running out of fell hide
• Parked in room and logged off for the night

Monday’s play

• Did a bunch of making of things to sell them and clear out carried inventory as well as bank
• Went out to try to run materials surveys
• Went back to the same jewelry spot I hit before in Blackwood and which I now had a duplicate survey for
• Worked my way north from there into territory I hadn’t been in before
• Found assorted hostiles along the northern part of Blackwood
• Couldn’t find a way north so returned to a previously discovered wayshrine at Hutan-Tzel
• Boinged from there to Bergama Wayshrine in the Alik’r Desert
• Had another instance of the clothing survey at Ogre’s Bluff, so re-cleared that one
• Hoofed it east from there trying to find a way into Craglorn; no luck
• Fought a few harpies at Tears of the Dishonored and yep a swarm of three harpies is a bit much
• Returned to Shrike’s Aerie wayshrine
• Boinged from there to Koeglin Village Wayshrine in Stormhaven
• Started working my way east to an alchemist survey spot
• Encountered hostiles all across the countryside
• Found Bearclaw Mine near where I wanted to find the alchemy ingredients
• And SO! MANY! BEARS! Gosh I wonder how the mine got its name!
• Bunch of bandit hostiles by Weeping Giant Wayshrine
• Found the alchemy ingredients and moved on, hoofing it east over the bridge into Bangkorai
• This landed me in Evermore, and there were a lot of hostiles just outside it
• In fact, most of Bangkorai appeared full of hostiles and I did a lot of retracting my steps trying to find a safe path through
• Found one area that was in particular full of Daedra, yikes, large and small ones
• Finally circled my way down into the southern stretch of Bangkorai
• Only to find that the road that led to the gates of Craglorn was under the control of hostile Imperial forces, and I could not figure out how to get around them 😛
• Also my inventory was close to full, so I used the Old Tower Wayshrine to retreat to Alinor
• Started inventory cleanup but then the writ board reset, so I ran writs
• Finished inventory cleanup and parked in inn room until next time

Tuesday’s play

• Went with Paul back to Bangkorai to try to find a way into Craglorn
• We got past the Imperials there okay, once Paul led me through the best sneaky way to do it and reach the gate; got through the gate and landed in friendly forces territory
• Went north and east to try to find the first of my surveys, which was a blacksmith one
• Locations located:
  • Dragonstar
  • Crossroads Encampment
  • Skyreach Wayshrine
  • Atelier of the Twice-Born Star
  • Defunct Nirncrux Mine
• This one turned out to be right by the mine; Paul didn’t see it because he didn’t have the survey map
• We worked our way south from there
• Additional locations:
  • Valley of Scars Wayshrine
  • Spellscar
• Found the enchanter survey right by Spellscar but hoo boy that place was rough, full of atronachs, and Paul and I mostly tried to stay the hell out of the way
• We decided to not try for my third survey, because that one had location markers in its note that we hadn’t found yet, so we utilized Spellscar Wayshrine to boing back to Alinor
• Don’t remember exactly when it happened, but I did level up to 36, so returning to Alinor meant I was able to make a whole new set of armor with the next level of materials
• Got all the armor made but wasn’t yet happy with styling and coloring
• Ran writs, then logged off for the night

Wednesday’s play

• Brief session; popped in long enough to get daily reward
• Fucked around with armor styles a little but didn’t change from current Breton look with green and brown color scheme
• Went out scrying for antiquities
• Got another couple rounds of the decanter on Summerset just to pull in a few hundred gold
• Found a few extra loot items from false dig sites but also bonus items in the actual one
• Returned to Alinor to sell stuff, then returned to room for the night

Commentary

Paul tells me he’s really grooving on the Antiquities system now that we’re both able to do it. He’s actually spent more time on it than I have, and he’s pulled in quite a pretty chunk of change doing it. I’m clearly going to need to spend a bit more time on this, just because it seems more immediately profitable than running writs, maybe? Paul’s to a point where he’s starting to consider purchasing an actual house for K’sragi. I’m not there yet, but I’m starting to build up a credible balance in my bank account.

I appreciated running around Summerset looking for the missing cursed artifacts from the standpoint of just exploring the island. But I was underwhelmed by the end of that quest, since all I got out of it was an achievement, and the Fan of False-Face. Yay? It would have been nice if the Relicmaster might have at least said something grateful for my going to all that work for him!

Running the quest to find the time breaches, on the other hand, is still entertaining. In no small part because of the commentary from the Augur of the Obscure. <3

Looking for the breaches in the Alik’r Desert, too, answered a question I’d had earlier–i.e., that yes, I could in fact have Dominion forces be hostile to me. Even though I, in theory, am affiliated with the Aldmeri Dominion. But I definitely pissed off the Dominion forces camped out near one of those breaches I had to get to!

It took me a considerable amount of time to make it through Stormhaven and then Bangkorai. Partly because of just trying to constantly check the map against where I needed to be, but also for how there were hostiles all over the damn place. Particularly in Bangkorai, through which I had to constantly double back on paths I’d taken before, just to try to avoid the hostiles swarming the area.

And eventually I did have to recruit Paul, who’d gotten into Craglorn before me, to show me the path he’d taken to get in. Even with him along, we found Craglorn a bit much for us to handle! I’d seen on the wiki that the place was originally intended as a group adventure zone, but had been scaled down a bit with the One Tamriel update. Even given that, just getting through Craglorn without actually trying to run any delves or anything was challenging. Particularly near Spellscar, which had atronachs swarming the place.

Ultimately, the most satisfying part of all of this activity was finally making it to level 36. Because that was the point at which I could upgrade what materials I could use for my gear! So now I’ve got a set of armor that’s a mix of spidersilk (for the hat, mostly because I don’t care for the High Elf styles of helmet for either the medium or heavy armors), thick leather, and dwarven metal.

Next time

Paul and I just have to do the epilogue of the Summerset plot (though that feels pretty optional at this point?), and then we’ll have an appointment to go see a Hooded Figure.

Screenshots

Editing to add

1. 11/25/2022: Missed a screenshot! I had just the one, but I’m adding it here for amusing commentary out of one of the Antiquarians about the decanters I keep sending them.
2. 11/24/2023: Restored missing gallery.
3. 10/11/2024: Converted gallery to single WordPress image. Changed header graphic to the one I’m using on later Gyllerah posts.