In Which Kendeshel Visits the Greybeards and the Jarl of Falkreath

Finally moving my Legacy of the Dragonborn playthrough a little further along. Mostly this is typical early Skyrim playthrough stuff, and I’m still getting the hang of displaying stuff in the gallery. But there’s also some quest hook action showing up for the Wyrmstooth and Moon and Star quest lines!

Play by play

Play dates: 9/11, 9/14/2023
Session numbers in this run: 3-4

Monday the 11th

Picked up at the gallery
Did some more exploration of the place just to try to familiarize myself with the layout, then headed out again to Whiterun
Sold a bunch of stuff but also bought some potions which got my gold down
Went to the Bannered Mare and talked to Hulda
Got the quest hook for Bones for a Crow, but she had no regular “give me a bounty” prompt
Read the For Sale note on the counter to trigger the pets quest
Talked to Saadia to progress her quest and get objective to talk to the prisoner in Dragonsreach
Read M’Sharra’s diary on the table to trigger the When the Cat’s Away quest
Realized I didn’t have enough on me to actually pay the prisoner’s bounty, but went in to do the encounter anyway; that set me up to need to go out and do some adventuring to get gold!
Read the Crimson Dirk book while I was in there to get the pointer to visit Edward’s grave in Falkreath
This was pretty late at this point so I think this was where I took the tent out and camped outside the city, since renting a room would have put me at 3 gold
Heh, heard Lydia throw the “stupid dog” line at Meeks
Headed towards Rorikstead to get to Lund’s Hut and get the silver armor for Lydia
Flyby dragon by the Western Watchtower
Saw Khajiit skooma dealer, and LOL, the he threw off a line about “I’m staying out of this” when the dragon flew over, even though it didn’t start attacking
Passed some Thalmor with a prisoner in the vicinity of Barleydark Farm; they warned me to move along
Proceeded onward towards Rorikstead
Stopped to check out Shoal’s Rest Farm
Went up to take out the skeevers outside Lund’s Hunt
Went inside and cleared the place, including getting the Shroud of the Gray Fox and other useful items lying around
Got the armor out of the chest and came back out
Called up familiar while Lyds and Meeko fought with the three heavies waiting outside; took ‘em out!
Took all their stuff, then threw a bunch of it onto Heidrun’s saddlebags to make sure I wasn’t overloaded
Rode over to run Goldenhills’ initial quest; grabbed a lot of the stuff lying around that house, too
Helped out the ghosts and got the key to the place
Planted potatoes and carrots to start the farming quest line
Headed back to Whiterun after that
Marked Jephre’s Stones for the map when I went by
Passed two giants slowly trudging along the road near Barleydark Farm; gave them a very wide berth
Returned to Whiterun and sent a bunch of stuff back to the museum
Slept in the inn, then got up in the morning and sold more stuff
Paid the prisoner’s bounty to get him to tell me where Kematu is
Found Amren and got him to tell me about his family sword being lost
Fuck yeah, pointer to Halted Stream! Went out to go run that 😀
As I got closer, saw a fight break out in front of the camp even before I got there! :O
Came over to find three Imperial female soldiers had taken out all the exterior bandits; way to go ladies, thank you for your timely intervention, pardon me while I go in here and take out the bandits in the mine
Took me two tries, first time through got killed by the bandit chief
Second time through had a better strategy, went straight to arrows rather than calling up the familiar, that gave me time to quickly take down the other two bandits while Lyds hammered on the chief; finally took him out too
Then cleared the place and hit all the ore veins on the way out
Returned to Whiterun
Did a little transmute action to turn some of that iron ore into gold so I could use it to try out creating a replica of the Golden Claw
Also used the storage spell to send all that ore and other crafty things into my museum storage
Did more sorting of the bandit loot and sent what things I could back to the museum via the shipment crates
Slept at inn
Action the next day: heading off to find that zombie ritual site
Passed another giant on the road to Riverwood; skirted around it
Found dead painted cow in the road not far from said giant, but no sign of what actually killed it? Maybe a wolf got it?
Also saw the river at the bridge by Riverwood being weirdly broken
Headed on through Riverwood and up to Helgen
Marked Fort Neugrad for the map
Had trouble getting to the damn ritual site again, got stuck up on a mountain and had to fast travel back to Fort Neugrad to get away from the very edge of the map
Got off the horse and started throwing Clairvoyance to get the route correct
Passed a couple of bandits and took them out
Killed by zombies on first try at the ritual site
Second time through, got flame atronach at the same place I fought the bandits
This time, got up on the rocks to take potshots at the zombies from above, which was safer than trying to engage them hand to hand
This time, we prevailed! Though I was nervous for a bit there about whether the zombies would take out Meeko
But Meeks survived as he is a very good doggo <3
Looted all the zombies as well as the ritual site
Hit the nearby chest with skeleton and the Warrior’s Charge skill book
Found the silver vein not far from Southfringe Sanctum; then found Southfringe Sanctum itself as well as the spellsword outside
Lyds and I took her out and she fell down the nearby rock overhang, so swung around down to loot her, too, and hit the other silver vein there
Returned to the museum at that point to play more with crafting, and updating the displays
Made replicas of the Golden Claw and the Charmed Necklace from the mead revelers, so I could display them
Also made a set of Leather Scout Armor just so I could put that on display as well
Between these and a bunch of other weapons and things, got the display count up to 93
Stuck a bunch of books in the library, and saved there until next time
Level ups taken:
- 6, Health bump
- 7, Magicka bump
- Took Novice Alteration and Novice Destruction perks

Thursday the 14th

Picked up at the gallery
Made a few iron plate and other iron items to add to the displays
Accidentally made an extra copy of Amren’s family sword, heh; I’d forgotten I already placed it
Auryen found me again and gave me another artifact, this time the sword Thornblade which was apparently in Oblivion
Met a new NPC, Avram, who was hired to guard the place, and said he’d be bringing in more people to help guard it
Headed out from there to start on adventuring
Sold a few things to Beirand, then boinged down to Southfringe Sanctum to run the place
Found the dark elf necromancer Selveni Nethri trapped by the spiders, and got her loose
Also noticed Lyds wasn’t following me properly
But shortly thereafter got killed by the orc boss; thrown back to freeing Selveni
This time I came back out the way I’d come in to track down Lydia
She’d gotten stuck on a rocky ledge near the cage holding the fox Pumpkin; got her unstuck with the console
Took out a few more spellswords as well as the boss
Got some enchanted things that I was able to destroy on the boss’s enchanter table
Returned to Selveni to tell her it was safe for her to leave
She headed out, and Lyds and Meeko and I followed
From there, boinged to Whiterun stables
Dropped a couple of things in the shipment crates, then headed in to sell stuff
It was something like 4am game time so Elrindir wasn’t awake in the Hunstman
Came back out of there and got courier with letter from the Jarl of Falkreath
Waited a few hours for shops to open
But also realized shops open up a little too quickly for them to actually be shoppable; racked up an accidental trespass in Belethor’s shop, and rolled back slightly from that 😛
But otherwise sold a bunch of things
Went out to saddle up and head to High Hrothgar
Flyby dragon by Honningbrew
Wolf near White River Watch, immediately followed by orc skooma junkie, and then another wolf near the iron vein
Thought I remembered there being another iron vein right by Valtheim Towers, but when i stopped to check it out, that alerted the necromancer up at the Ritual Stone
So Lyds and Meeks and I got into it with him and his various raised skeletons
Onward from there; killed another wolf
Told the toll bandit at Valtheim Towers she could have 50 gold, which she accepted
Killed frostbite spider after the descent and bend in the road
Stopped for another iron vein
Decided to run Hillgrund’s Tomb
Golldir grumpily let me loot some stuff as long as I helped him
Found another dig site in the room just before the boss chamber and dug that to get more fragments
Then ran the boss chamber; killed the first time through
Second time through did better, remembered to cast Oakflesh, which helped
Swapped off from the steel mace of frost I’d found to an Ancient Nord Sword
Took out the necromancer and got Golldir’s thanks
Went back outside and made camp since it was late at that point; slept until morning and then set out again
Killed a couple more wolves; also found a dead sabre cat, possibly killed by wolves?
Reached Ivarstead
Talked to the innkeeper and got:
- Tip about the haunted barrow
- Bounty to kill a dragon at Northwind Summit
- Rumor about Aventus Aretino
- Info about the Greybeards
Rented a room for later and then headed out
Got courier with warrior’s note about Hendraheim
Told Meeko to stay behind in Ivarstead
Got the supplies from Klimmek to take up the steps
Started up and hit all the emblems
Killed a few ice wolves
Realized Heidrun was actually following me up since I forgot to tell her to stay put, but at least she’s essential unlike Meeko XD
Took out that fucking frost troll, and then made it to High Hrothgar
Got the Greybeards to do the initial confirmation of my being Dragonborn
Got second word of Unrelenting Force, first word of Whirlwind Sprint, and directive to go get the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller
Headed back down the mountain just because I wanted to see if i could find one of the dead ice wolves that actually fell down the mountainside after Lyds and I killed it; did not find that
Did find an unfamiliar messenger coming up the steps to look for me, Theodyn Bienne
He was wearing Imperial light armor and said i was hard to find and that he was bringing me an urgent message from someone waiting for me in the Bannered Mare in Whiterun; this kicked off the Wyrmstooth quest line!
Shortly thereafter I also got a letter from the NPC I’d seen in Riverwood at the Sleeping Giant Inn, contacting me to ask for help; this kicked off the Moon and Star quest line
Headed on back down to Ivarstead; cue the cultists! Took those guys out as one does, and kicked off the Dragonborn plotline (hold that thought, Solstheim, I’ll get to you soon enough)
Found Klimmek and got his quest reward
Checked on Meeko; got him briefly following me again, but told Heidrun to stay put
Then ran initial bit of Shroud Hearth Barrow
Killed once by Wyndelius, who surprised me with ice spikes once i picked the lock on the door leading to his chambers; second time through, though, got him
Nabbed his Philters of the Phantom and the rest of the loot in his room
Went back out to the inn and chatted with Wilhelm to get the Sapphire Dragon Claw
Told Meeks to stay put again because I knew there was a swinging blade trap further on in this dungeon
Lyds got stuck again, same as she’d done at Southfringe Sanctum, and I hit her with the same console command to unstick her
Got through the rest of the barrow more or less okay
Skipped a couple of the side nooks in the area with the waterfall, just because this character is not Argonian, and her fervor for finding relics didn’t quite extend to diving into unfamiliar waters 😉
Got the word for Kyne’s Peace
Found a dig in the very last room, and kicked my Archaeology up to 5 by digging at it
Got an alert i could take a perk point, and took one of those that bumped up my carry weight, FUCK YES 😀
Got out again
Sent some stuff back to the museum, including one of the Philters of the Phantom, the Sapphire Dragon Claw, and some more examples of Ancient Nord weapons
Before leaving, got Temba to give me her bear pelts quest
Boinged back to the museum for a bit to check on getting displays up and running
Did a bunch of crafting
Discovered I had to manually place the Sapphire Dragon Claw
Got the display count up to 135 😀
Found the hidden access to the treasury in my bedroom
Also found the donation box in the entryway of the museum, and the Achievement Rewards box in my room; this bumped up my gold balance considerably!
Found Malakai wandering around in the library, and he enthused about the number of displays coming in
Boinged back to Whiterun
Had enough money on me to buy Breezehome so did that finally
Had Lydia stand down for a bit so I could return to Hillgrund’s Tomb and recruit Golldir as the steward for Goldenhills
First time I did this was disastrous as I triggered both a fast travel dragon and dragon attack + Stray Dog + carriage encounter, and two dragons on hand was a goddamn problem
Pretty sure the dragons killed Meeko–and then, though Golldir and I took cover just inside the outer bit of the tomb a lot, they eventually killed me
Thrown back to coming out of Whiterun, with Lydia dismissed already, so did take two of recruiting Golldir
This time I only had a flyby dragon, so I was able to get him safely
Boinged to Goldenhills and left him there to take over running the place for me
(Trust me, Golldir, this’ll be a lot healthier for you than hanging out at your family tomb)
Returned to Whiterun to pick up Lydia again
On the way back out stopped in the guard barracks and got the dossier to find the Orc smith at Embershard
Set out on Heidrun to head to Falkreath to answer the Jarl’s letter
Passed Talsgar the Wanderer vs. frostbite spider
Shortly thereafter Talsgar also got into it with a conjurer and a bone wolf; may or may not have been the conjurer from the circle right by Lakeview? Helped him take out those opponents
Just after that, spotted some colorful banners I did not recognize; investigated them, and found unfamiliar docks leading out to a settlement that marked as Little Vivec for my map
Proceeded to Falkreath, and got the guard asking about a dog in the road
Stopped in the inn and read the book in there to kick off A Dying Wish quest
Checked in with the Jarl and got the quest to take out bandits for him–at Embershard! YAAAAAS
Checked with Lod on the way out to ask him about the dog he wanted
Then headed out to Embershard
Took out the two bandits at the fortification over the road
Cut back through Lakeview’s future site to get over to the right road
Ran Embershard with no issues, Lyds and Meeks and i mopped up the place
That also got me a bunch of orcish plate armor samples to send back to the museum!
Looted the hell out of the place, and hit all the various ore veins on the way out
Returned to Falkreath; sold some stuff, and sent a bunch more stuff back to the museum
Checked in with the Jarl and got his quest reward, and also the pointer for the thaneship in Falkreath
Returned to Whiterun, sold more things, and bought all of the furnishings for Breezehome
Saved there until next time
Level ups taken:
- 8, Stamina bump, first Speech perk
- 9, Health bump, first Smithing perk
- 10, Magicka bump, second One-handed weapons perk
- 11, Stamina bump, first Lockpicking perk
- 12, Health bump, Novice Restoration perk
- 13, Magicka bump, Novice Illusion perk

General commentary, and commentary on mod content that isn’t Legacy of the Dragonborn

Heh, hearing Lydia throwing the “stupid dog” line at Meeko was kind of snerkworthy. Lyds is apparently not a dog lover? Look, lady, no offense, but this dog had my back before you did. So as your thane, i officially order you to shut it.

And, LOL, I’ve now found multiple mods listed on Nexus to either reduce the frequency for “stupid dog” lines, or eliminate them entirely. So apparently there are at least a few modders out there who also want their NPCs to shut it about their dogs. 😉

On the other hand, Skyrim dogs are incredibly barky. I may also need to look into mods to make the dogs less barky! I like having a doggo following me around, but it’d be nice to be able to have them shut up when I need them to. Constantly barking doggos are not exactly conducive to stealth.

When the Thalmor ordered me to move along I did. Though I expect Kendeshel gave them a hard side eye, while calculating that a party of three did outnumber her and her housecarl. And as previously observed, she is not a warrior yet.

(Or at least, perhaps, Kendeshel doesn’t consider herself a warrior. There’s a difference between being able to defend yourself in a fight, and actually being a warrior.)

Meanwhile, I stopped at Shoal’s Rest Farm and confirmed that the two NPCs there didn’t seem to have anything interesting to say to me. I saw that this location is added in by Alternate Start, and it’s the place you land if you decide to choose the start option that means you own and run a farm. The NPCs there are apparently supposed to be your farmhands.

But if you don’t take that start option, it doesn’t seem as if the location and its NPCs have anything interesting to offer. At least, nothing that I could find on a casual visit.

I’ve seen my share of weird Skyrim bugs at this point, but have to admit, having the river just up and vanish by the bridge near Riverwood was one of the weirder ones. By which I mean: the water just was not rendering. The land was still there, as were the plants along the river bottom and the fish. But the fish were swimming in what looked like mid-air!

I was able to go into the water and dive under it, even though I couldn’t see it. And the underwater view rendered correctly. But the problem didn’t correct itself for sure until I left the cell and came back later. See screenshots for what this looked like!

I’m pretty damned sure Kendeshel was not terribly thrilled about having to pass by Helgen again on the way to the zombie ritual site. She probably eyed the sky nervously as she did so. The whole Dragonborn thing really doesn’t make all that much sense to her yet!

(And hmm, as I write this post, I realize that I’ve gone several sessions now with this alt without seeing a dragon since Mirmulnir. Interesting.)

After hitting the zombie ritual site, I thought about running Southfringe Sanctum but did not do so immediately. I did come back to it, though–just because Legacy of the Dragonborn’s got me in a mood to re-hit everything, just because I don’t know where new things are going to be.

I’ve been in Southfringe Sanctum before, but not often. And I’m pretty sure I never actually bothered to free Selveni Nethri from the webbing, either. But this time I ran the place in full, including freeing Selveni. Because again–in the mood to re-try a lot of things, especially stuff I’ve only skimmed over in prior playthroughs, to see if Legacy’s made any interesting changes to them.

I didn’t find anything in Southfringe Sanctum that struck me as Legacy-specific, but I did rather enjoy the conversation with Selveni. Especially the part where she’s entirely unapologetic about being a necromancer–but also that she’d lost her daughter when she’d gotten accused of exactly that. Selveni is not a major NPC by any stretch of the imagination, and she has no further impact on the game after you free her. But that brief backstory of hers is surprisingly powerful.

I’m a little sad now that I didn’t get to meet this character as Harrowhark! I feel like Harrow would have had a huge amount of sympathy for her.

As for Kendeshel, I’m seeing her as simultaneously appalled and more sympathetic than she’d like to admit. A mix here of resentment that actual necromancy would have frightened her family enough to turn them against her… and some measure of empathy for this woman who’s actually lost access to her own daughter because of what she can do. Kendeshel has to feel for that, I think. Because she’s smart enough to be able to imagine what might have happened if she’d had a daughter of her own by the time her family drove her out the door.

Also while running Southfringe Sanctum, I saw Lydia exhibiting behavior I’d seen her do before at Shroud Hearth Barrow, and that I saw again this time through: i.e., getting stuck at one point in the dungeon and not following me properly. The behavior in Southfringe Sanctum had in common with Shroud Hearth Barrow the aspect of Lydia being on a slightly higher level than I was, as if she was having trouble jumping down to follow me properly.

And in this specific case, she’d gotten stuck on a particular rocky ledge where I’d spotted the fox Pumpkin in its cage.

I wound up having to invoke the console command “moveto player” to get Lydia unstuck. Fortunately, this worked just fine, and once I did it I was able to run the rest of the cave okay, with Lydia properly following. Later, when I ran Shroud Hearth Barrow again, I used the same command to get Lyds unstuck from the dais in the first large draugr room. Definitely need to remember this trick for future playthroughs.

Still trying to get a sense of the impact on shop schedules when I’m running Immersive Citizens. Because without that mod, shops open up pretty on the dot at 8am. This does not happen when I have Immersive Citizens active–and there’s a certain interval of time when the door is open but the shopkeeper isn’t actually on duty yet. This time through, I got dinged for an accidental trespass in Belethor’s shop and had to roll back from that!

What this tells me is, maybe I need to readjust when I do my shopping in my modded playthroughs! Not too late in the morning either, because the shopkeepers do bugger off for lunch.

And heh, I kinda feel like Kendeshel didn’t really have the option to actually ask Golldir if she could take anything when I ran Hillgrund’s Tomb? I should doublecheck Golldir’s conversational options next time I run that place. Because I feel like Kendeshel would definitely have asked him first if he minded if she took a few things, with a promise to display them with care in the museum in Solitude, and give some public honor to his family heritage, maybe.

(I’m going to headcanon that she did that, anyway, even if the game gives me no such option!)

Something else I learned while running Hillgrund’s Tomb this time: I really don’t like the slower swing on a mace, and I could actually feel it. I tried using a Steel Mace of Frost, just to switch it up a bit and because it was enchanted, but yeah it had enough drag to it that I could definitely tell the difference between it and a sword.

Coming back down from High Hrothgar, I was surprised to get not one but two surprise quest line kickoffs, for Wyrmstooth and Moon and Star. The hook for Wyrmstooth was Theodyn Bienne, who told me I was very hard to find, but that somebody really, really wanted to see me in the Bannered Mare in Whiterun. Apparently this was urgent enough that that somebody sent this guy all the way to Ivarstead to catch up with me? And this guy thought it was urgent enough to follow me up High Hrothgar? He couldn’t have actually just left a message for me at the inn? Apparently not. LOL.

Then I also got a letter kicking off Moon and Star, from Mandyn Hlaalu, the NPC I’d spotted before in the Sleeping Giant in Riverwood. So apparently a courier also felt like they had to follow me up the 7,000 steps? (At least, I presume, since I didn’t actually get a courier, the letter just showed up.)

Both of these apparently kicked off automatically because I hit level 10. But I did not know if it was a good idea to actually start these quests yet, so I did some searching. Prevailing opinions I found on a couple of Reddit threads were that level 10 was indeed probably too soon. I saw some estimates that suggested I might want to be level 30 or so, first.

So I’m going to have to do some other things first, and then swing back around to pick up with these plots. Maybe this’ll let me get in some more early-level Legacy stuff, and maybe also Bards College and College of Winterhold.

And oh yes, speaking of dog-related mods: I think in a future playthrough I should grab the mod that lets you give Meeko to Lod. I like the closure there. <3 Can’t do that in this playthrough, though.

Last thing I want to note here is finding the Little Vivec settlement, on my way to Falkreath for the first time! I first noted colorful banners I did not recognize, right around the area where I usually turn left and head up the slope if I want to get to Lakeview. These banners led over to a dock and a small settlement, which promptly announced itself as Little Vivec for my map.

Awesome. I didn’t stop to explore the place yet, but I strongly suspect it’s connected to Moon and Star. I’ll definitely have to check this place out once I start that plot in earnest. More on this to come.

Legacy-specific commentary

In these early sessions, I’m still very much in a mode of just getting to know the museum, how to put displays in place, how to make replicas of certain things, and such.

Apparently Auryen just up and handing me random artifacts is going to be a thing? Because in the sessions I’m covering here as well as in the ones for the next Kendeshel post I’ll be writing, it’s kept happening. I really kind of like this, actually. Partly because the museum is so damned big that it’s reasonable to not make the player have to fill in everything… and partly because it actually helps bolster the feeling that Auryen is doing things when I don’t see him. Man’s got his own job to do, after all.

I also really liked meeting Avram, a new NPC who showed up in the place and told me he’d been hired to be a guard. Also that he’d be hiring additional guards. Which again, makes sense and adds to the feel of the museum being a place with its own action even though I’m not always there.

Also, it did not escape Kendeshel’s notice that this dude is a Redguard. Likewise, it does not escape my notice on a cursory glance at his page on the Legacy wiki that he apparently does have important backstory. Noting for the record that I am not reading his page in depth yet, just because I want to avoid spoiling myself. 😀

Continuing to find the Nordic dig sites in draugr hives gave me another pleasant surprise: getting my Archaeology skill up to 5 meant I was able to actually take a bonus off of that. The UI gave me several options, and I immediately leapt on the one that bumped my carry weight up by 100. Because this is highly, highly relevant to my chronically overloaded interests.

And speaking of those Nordic dig sites, even as I’m appreciating their usefulness, I’m also considering the story angles here. So far I’m finding them in barrows regularly, and I found one in Kilkreath, too (more on this in Kendeshel’s next post). Which suggests that someone is clearly arranging expeditions to hit all of these ruined tombs and barrows and temples and things. Auryen, most likely. (Though I kind of like the idea that at least some of those dig sites might also have been prompted by the College of Winterhold, or even the Bards College. Maybe in partnership with Auryen?) It’ll be interesting to see if I get an opportunity to ask Auryen about this, or any other new NPCs I meet.

I’ve got to LOL that Legacy of the Dragonborn actually gives me a reason to use at least one of Wyndelius’ Philters of the Phantom, to put on display. There are more useless things in Skyrim in my experience… but not many. ;D Nice to have something to do with at least one of them!

Similarly, the museum’s shipping crates in various strategic places, an option I did turn on because it seemed super helpful, suggest an organized museum effort to collect relics from all over Skyrim. One wonders how well Skyrim locals are taking to this. I could see a lot of NPCs bitching about this (c.f., the guard line bitching about the College going to Saarthal, “It’s a place for Nord dead! Not your weird experiments!”). But I could also see a lot of NPCs grudgingly putting up with it if Auryen is throwing around a lot of coin.

And that, in turn, raises real interesting questions about how much coin, exactly, Auryen has at his disposal. I’ve already written about how the museum is hands down the nicest place in Solitude in this run. Auryen’s clearly got very deep pockets if he’s managed to set up that fancy a space and do an organized effort to find relics to bring to it. LOL. I find myself suspecting this guy has coffers to rival what an experienced Dragonborn has at the end of a Skyrim run!

It also says interesting things about Auryen’s coffers and his motives that he’s able to pull off this kind of effort even while Skyrim’s got a war going on. He tells the player that he’s been working on the museum for a few years, so clearly he got started before the war broke out. But the outbreak of the Stormcloak rebellion doesn’t seem to be slowing down Auryen any; if anything, he’s clearly redoubling his efforts by bringing me in as the relic hunter! And starting to hire guards, and draw in patrons on the strength of what I’m finding and/or making.

And while I’m covering interesting questions to be raised, here’s a fun one:

Why, exactly, does a museum of antiquities and other relics in Solitude need a safehouse?

That, that right there, seems like an extremely pertinent plot question.

Intrigued to see where this all goes next, once I get to a point where actual plot shows up. For now, I’m just enjoying getting to know the museum and figuring out how all the displays and stations work!

It does feel kind of weird, though, to be buying the usual starter Skyrim homes and not actually storing things in them!

Next time

More standard “early in a Skyrim run” stuff! Going after the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, helping Cicero out with his wagon, taking out Peladius at Dragon Bridge, clearing Robber’s Gorge, running A Daedra’s Best Friend, and last but definitely not least, running the Break of Dawn to get Dawnbreaker.