In Which Finds-The-Way Acquires Mehrunes’ Razor and Azura’s Star

All of the action in this post is stuff I’ve played through before, so not much in the way of new Skyrim commentary here; this post is mostly language commentary on the German run I’m doing with Finds-The-Way. Overall action here though is getting Mehrunes’ Razor and Azura’s Star.

Play by play

• Play dates: 10/22, 10/27/2023
• Session numbers in this run: 28-29

Sunday the 22nd

• Picked up at Shadowfoot Sanctum
• Decided to kill some more leveling time by going after all the pieces of Mehrunes’ Razor
• So boinged to Lakeview for supplies dropoff
• Got 19 of 20 nirnroots from the pond right by the house
• From there, rode over on Kara to Cracked Tusk Keep
• Bandit tower had respawned so fought the two bandits there
• Gaw a group of Thalmor with a prisoner just standing around just past that tower, then passed a second group of Thalmor without a prisoner walking the other way
• Did not engage either group, but Finds was not thrilled with the high number of Thalmor in the area, oh my no
• Ran Cracked Tusk Keep without any particular difficulty
• Did not have Telekinesis spell yet so had to actually physically grab the shards
• Tripped the tripwires doing this (which was kind of LOL because I made Lydia stay out of the way so she wouldn’t trip the tripwires), but nothing did any noticeable damage to me, just got darts
• Overloaded when I got out, so got on Kara and boinged to Falkreath and Whiterun to sell more stuff
• Noticed trio of Imperial soldiers hanging out near Warmaiden’s and chatting
• Set out from there to go to the Reach
• Got dragon at the watchtower, and the Imperials were also in on that fight, along with the watchtower guards
• Took out the dragon and didn’t see any obvious casualties, though the dragon kept flying off to nearby points across the plains and attacking something I couldn’t see
• Proceeded from there onward to the Reach
• Fought en route: cultists, bears, sabre cats
• Got final nirnroot for Ingun Black-Briar near the bridge towards Dushnikh Yal
• Marked Dushnikh Yal for the map
• Got close enough to the grave site for the Crypt of the Heart plot to spawn the hostile Forsworn there; took them out, and got their note about Karthspire
• Took the Iron and Steel Spell Knight armor off the dead knights lying nearby
• Then proceeded to Dead Crone Rock and Hag Rock Redoubt
• Got close enough to trigger the map discovery for Hag Rock Redoubt
• But also realized I was overloaded again and that was no state to be in when running the place, so did emergency boing back to Hendraheim to drop off stuff
• Left the Iron and Steel Spell Knight armor there, and miscellaneous weapons on the rack in the cellar
• Fast traveled right back to Hag Rock Redoubt
• Dropped into Sneak mode and evaded most of the place; did a lot of climbing to get to the door into Dead Crone Rock
• Got spotted on the way in but the guy didn’t catch up with me fast enough to be a problem
• Lydia got behind me but caught up again as soon as I entered Dead Crone Rock
• Evaded the Forsworn on the first floor but had to take out a couple others on the way up
• Flame atronach mostly did the work of taking out the final hagraven for me; took her out and got the pommel off of her
• Also got the Stone of Barenziah, the word for the Dismay Shout off the Word Wall, and the boss chest loot
• From there, boinged to Dawnstar
• Sold a few things to the Khajiit since Ahkari’s caravan was on site, then sold a few things to Rustleif at his forge
• Dropped off the Ring of Pure Mixtures with alchemist Frida
• Went over to Silus’ house to check in and go ‘hi, I have all the dagger pieces’
• He went YAY and ran off to the shrine, as he does
• Since I’d discovered the shrine in an earlier session, I was able to fast travel straight there
• Played through getting the Razor
• Once again pulled the thing where if I park in the right spot by the altar, I go straight to Silus attacking me
• Told Dagon to go fuck himself and that I’d use the Razor as I damn well pleased, then proceeded to kill all four of his dremora and loot his shrine; take that, motherfucker, Sithis says hello 😆
• Boinged back to Lakeview for supplies dropoff, including the gold and ebony ingots from the shrine
• Next stop: College of Winterhold, to check in with J’zargo
• Got there fairly late but NPCs were out walking around, and I found J’zargo quickly–but while I was talking to him about his scrolls exploding, a dragon showed up!
• Finished the conversation with him and then took out the dragon
• Took some training with Drevis in Illusion, which let me level up to 38
• Took five rounds of training in Conjuration with Phinis, and finally got the Frost Atronach spell off of him
• From there, boinged down to Riften
• Gave Ingun Black-Briar her nirnroot and got the key to her ingredients chest
• Parked in Honeyside and saved there until next time

Friday the 27th

• Picked up again in Honeyside
• Went after the unicorn first thing to get that out of my quest journal
• Killed three frostbite spiders after I heard somebody yelp; that turned out to be a dead Imperial courier, so I took his stuff after taking out the spiders
• Reached the unicorn and tamed him
• Took him back to the stables to register him, and he got dubbed Alvis (so now I have this name active for horses in two different playthroughs); also bought him the elven horse armor
• Then decided to go after Azura’s Star
• Since I hadn’t been to the shrine yet, fast traveled to Saarthal so I wouldn’t risk dropping a dragon on Winterhold
• Didn’t get a dragon, but did get a pack of zombies vs. three frost trolls, and also assorted ice wolves, so had to kill all of those
• Marked Sightless Pit for the map, then made it up to the shrine
• Got Aranea’s request to go find the wizard in Winterhold
• Headed over to the town and talked to Nelacar in the Frozen Hearth; bribed him as per usual to get the location of the Star
• Popped into the Jarl’s longhouse to get the quest to go after the Helm of Winterhold (this time in Hob’s Fall Cave)
• Boinged to Lakeview to get within range of Ilinalta’s Deep
• Started riding around the lake to get over there
• There was a dragon but it was a flyby
• Passed hunter on horse
• Killed a couple of skeletons in the usual place
• Stopped to fish at Half-Moon Mill and also at the fisherman’s camp nearby; got Denstagmer’s Ring, fuck yeah
• Headed on around the lake and reached Ilinalta’s Deep
• Ran that place with no issues whatsoever, even the most powerful mages in there were pretty easy to take down
• Got the broken star and got back out again
• Fast traveled back to the shrine to check in with Aranea
• Let Azura pull me into the Star, which was also easier than I expected; aided by my having picked up a shield with a fire resistance enchantment on it, and liberal use of appropriate potions
• Took out all three dremora and got their hearts
• Got enough shock resistance off of potions that Malyn Varen himself couldn’t really put a dent in me; looted him too before Azura pulled me out (though he wasn’t carrying anything particularly interesting)
• And now I have the Star, and Aranea willing to help me out if I need her
• Boinged back down to Riften and hit the Guild to sell a bunch of stuff to Tonilia
• Left a few things in Shadowfoot Sanctum, the robes I took off of Silus, the necromancer gear off one of the mages in Ilinalta’s Deep, and Malyn’s grimoire
• Then went back out again to go to Mzulft
• Had not one, not two, not three, but four bears at the spawn point on the path leading towards Shor’s Stone; couple more bears as I proceeded along the road, too, JFC SO MANY BEARS
• Found a couple of wolves that I hadn’t killed–then saw what must have killed them: a trio of Stormcloaks further ahead of me on the road, fighting yet another bear
• Let them stay ahead of me but did stop and loot the bear they took out
• Then turned onto the steps up to Mzulft
• Hit the storeroom there first to get the aetherium shard; minimized looting in there though so I wouldn’t get all loaded up with dwarven ingots
• Then started running Mzulft proper
• Got only a little overloaded, was able to compensate with potions
• No serious issues running the place
• Played through to the point of discovering Paratus, helping him with the oculory, and having him bitch at me about its results
• Got him to confirm location of the Staff of Magnus
• Got vision from Nerien that I should haul ass back to the college
• Boinged back to Winterhold so I could stop and sell stuff
• Dragon flew over but it was a flyby
• Headed up to the college
• Took five rounds of training from Drevis in Illusion and sold him stuff too
• Parked at the entrance to the Hall of the Elements, ready to check back in with the Arch-Mage and Mirabelle, and prep for things going BOOM
• Saved until next time

Commentary

Nothing too unusual here, all of this stuff is content I’ve played before. So in the interests of keeping the length of this post down, I won’t go into it in depth here.

Language commentary

Interesting terms observed:

• Festung Bruchzahn: Cracked Tusk Keep
• Leichte Rüstung schmieden: Light Armor Forging (the book)
• Festung Bruchzahn: Gewölbe: Cracked Tusk Vault (lit. “Cracked Tusk Keep: Vault”)
• Eisenhelm des Bannritters: Iron Spell Knight Helmet (lit. “Iron Helm of the Spell Knights”)
• Eisenpanzerhandschuhe des Bannritters: Iron Spell Knight Gauntlets (lit. “Iron Gauntlets of the Spell Nights”)
• Eisenrüstung des Bannritters: Iron Spell Knight Armor (lit. “Iron Armor of the Spell Knights”)
• Eisenstiefel des Bannritters: Iron Spell Knight Boots (lit. “Iron Boots of the Spell Knights”)
• Stahlhandschuhe des Bannritters: Steel Spell Knight Gauntlets (lit. “Steel Gauntlets of the Spell Knights”)
• Stahlhelm des Bannritters: Steel Spell Knight Helmet (lit. “Steel Helmet of the Spell Knights”)
• Stahlrüstung des Bannritters: Steel Spell Knight Armor (lit. “Steel Armor of the Spell Knights”)
• Stahlstiefel des Bannritters: Steel Spell Knight Boots (lit. “Steel Boots of the Spell Knights”)
• Totenkrähenfelsen: Dead Crone Rock (lit. “Dead Crow Rock”)
• Unbehagen: Dismay (the Shout) (lit. “discomfort”)
• Eine alte Alchemistin: An old (female) alchemist
• Geheimnisse: Secrets
• Das Rüttelfieber: The rattles (the disease) (lit. “shaking fever”)
• Klingenteile: Blade parts (used when Silus asks you if you’ve come back with one of the parts of the Razor)
• Fürst des Wandels: Prince of Change (title used for Mehrunes Dagon by Silus)
• Sterblicher: Mortal (used by both Mehrunes Dagon and Azura to address the player)
• Ich werde Euch zermalmen: I will crush you (Dagon’s threat to the player if you don’t obey him and kill Silus)
• Dremora-Markynaz: Dremora Markynaz (type of Dremora)
• Felsenhaxe: Rockjoint
• Bodenloses Loch: Sightless Pit (lit. “bottomless hole”)
• Schrein von Azura: Shrine of Azura
• Reisender: Traveler
• Fürstentümern: Holds (of Skyrim) (lit. “principalities”)
• Ilinaltas Tiefe: Ilinalta’s Deep
• Seelensteinfragment: Soul Gem Fragment
• Die Türen ins Reich des Vergessens: The Doors of Oblivion (book) (lit. “The doors to the realm of Oblivion”)
• Totenbeschwörer-Meister: Master Necromancer
• Azuras Stern (zerbrochen): Broken Azura’s Star
• Prophezeiungen: Prophecies
• Zwergenruine: Dwarven ruins
• Aetheriumsplitter: Aetherium shard
• Okular: Oculory (section of Mzulft)
• Wissenschaftlern: Scientists/researchers
• Dwemerkreisel: Dwemer Gyro
• Zwergenöl: Dwarven Oil
• Chaurusjäger: Chaurus Hunter
• Chauruschitin: Chaurus Chitin
• Wissenschaftler der Synode: Synod Researcher
• Falmerschild: Falmer Shield
• Mzulft: Kesselhaus: Mzulft Boilery
• Falmerschattenschleicher: Falmer Gloomlurker (24 characters!)
• Gehärtete Falmerrüstung: Hardened Falmer Armor
• Gehärteter Falmerhelm: Hardened Falmer Helm
• Gewetztes Falmerschwert: Honed Falmer Sword
• Falmerhelm: Falmer Helmet
• Chaurusschnitter: Chaurus Reaper
• Der Mond Lorkhan: The Lunar Lorkhan (book)
• Falmerohr: Falmer Ear
• Mzulft: Aedrom: Mzulft Aedrome
• Fokuskristall: Focusing Crystal
• Schlüssel erforderlich: Key required
• Etwas Unaussprechliches: Something unpronounceable (Paratus snarking on the Dwemer tongue)
• Zwergenarmillarsphäre: Dwarven Armillary (the structure on which you must place the focusing crystal in Mzulft) (lit. “Dwarven armillary sphere”)
• Nachthimmel: Night sky
• Die Kaiserstadt: The Imperial City
• Labyrinthion: Labyrinthian

“Dead Crone Rock” in English gets translated over to “Dead Crow Rock” in German, apparently? From what I’m seeing looking it up, “crone” doesn’t have a direct German equivalent. The translations I’m seeing are either “old woman” or “aunt”. (Source)

But that said, I still kinda like “crow” as a translation decision here, because it hooks well into the concept of the hagravens.

Okay, now as of this post I think I finally have the official translation of “Oblivion” into German, thanks to finding the book “The Doors of Oblivion”: namely, Reich des Vergessens. So I guess the translation team wanted it a bit more obvious to German players that Oblivion has a very specific meaning in the context of the Elder Scrolls? I guess that they couldn’t rely on the cue an English speaker would pick up on, with the term being capitalized–because nouns are capitalized in German anyway!

I’m kind of charmed by the word for “aetherium shard” being “Aetheriumsplitter”. That sounds like it ought to be a fancy Dwemer machine for doing fission on aetherium samples or something!

Next time

In Finds-The-Way’s next post, she’ll become Arch-Mage of the College of Winterhold, and also thane of both Hjaalmarch and the Pale! Stay tuned!

Screenshots

Editing to add

• 11/26/2023: Restored missing gallery.
• 11/30/2023: Corrected spelling of “Hjaalmarch”.