In Which Elessir Acquires Mehrunes’ Razor and Quests Through Rielle

Continuing my hard push through getting caught up on my backlog of playthrough posts, here’s the next one for Elessir in Skyrim! Main action here: reforging the Gauldur amulet; acquiring Mehrunes’ Razor; taking out Aesrael and acquiring the Elven Hunter armor; slaying Crowstooth and acquiring the dragonplate armor; clearing Arcwind Point; and last but not least, questing into Rielle to see what the Mythic Dawn cultists are seeking in its depths.

Play by play

Play dates: 11/9, 11/12/2023
Session numbers in this run: 33-34

Thursday the 9th

Picked up at Windstad, and returned to Lakeview to unload supplies
Boinged to Whiterun to sell stuff
Headed out for the Reach for the reforging of the Gauldur amulet
Got a dragon at the Western Watchtower and took it out
Passed some Vigilants of Stendarr and confirmed that they were not hostile
Went by Thalmor vs. Stormcloaks at the spawn point near Hendraheim, and noted all three of the Thalmor were wearing Vvardenfell glass armor
Reached Reachwater Rock, ran the place, and got the reforged amulet
Hit the iron and silver veins on the way back out
Boinged back to Lakeview for supplies dropoff
Headed from there for Cracked Tusk Keep to get the shards of Mehrunes’ Razor
Passed more Thalmor on the way and noticed one was wearing Vvardenfell glass armor, again
Reached and ran Cracked Tusk Keep with no problems
Got the haunted potato again partway through, LOL
Did another round of loot dropoff at Lakeview, then boinged to Purewater Run to get close to Hag Rock Redoubt
Camped with Lucien at that point since it was dark and I didn’t want to risk zombies
Made it into and even through Dead Crone Rock without killing a single Forsworn, go me \0/
Did have to fight the Briarheart and hagraven though, so threw the daedroth at the Briarheart
For some damn reason the daedroth wouldn’t go up the stairs fully to fight the hagraven, so threw a dremora lord at her to take her out
Got the pommel of the Razor, the Stone of Barenziah, and other boss loot
And also the word for Dismay off the Word Wall
Fast traveled to Dawnstar, and got there in the middle of the night
Saw dragon vs. giant encounter not far away, and a frost troll got in on that action
Dragon won the fight, and that drew the attention of Dawnstar guards; they actually took out the dragon, I didn’t have to
Did loot it though!
Retrieved unicorn and rode over to Silus’ house, which was open
And he was awake, so I was able to get in, give him the parts of the Razor, and get his payment
He gushed about remaking the Razor and zoomed off to the shrine to meet me there
Before I left Dawnstar, sold stuff to Rustleif to unload
Boinged down to Heljarchen Hall as the closest landmark to get to Mehrunes Dagon’s shrine
Ran the shrine, stood in the usual spot, fought Silus, told Dagon to fuck off, and got the Razor
Killed all the Dremora and looted the shrine
Then returned to Lakeview to pick up building mats
Found that that put me well over 2200 units of weight, and the unicorn would not actually fast travel with that, or even just let me ride her
So I had to hoof it all the way from Lakeview to Heljarchen
Stopped at the Guardian Stones on the way and spent 10 dragon souls on a perk point, which I dropped on Advanced Light Smithing
Finally made it to Heljarchen and built out a lot more of the Main House
Got Gregor on board as steward there
Put the enchanted weapons I got off of Dagon’s Dremora on various racks there, along with the Blade of the Pale
Left a bunch of building mats in the chest there until I was under 1500 units of weight
That let me get back to Lakeview and stash a bunch more stuff there
Saved at Lakeview until next time
Leveled up from 54 to 55 in this session

Sunday the 12th

Picked up again at Lakeview and did some initial inventory managing
Boinged between Lakeview, Heljarchen, and Whiterun to work on building stuff at Heljarchen
Boinged to Hendraheim to take out Aesrael, and got the Elven Hunter gear
Had a copy of the Firebolt spellbook in my inventory, which I knew already, so taught that to Lucien
Boinged to Riften and went through the Guild; Etienne thanked me for rescuing him from the Thalmor!
Dropped off Nightingale gear, the Gauldur Blackblade, and the Elven Hunter gear in Shadowfoot Sanctum
Convinced Nivenor to let me get into her and Bolli’s house
Got the Stranger’s instructions and forged deed out of the strongbox there
Killed a dragon just outside the Riften gates
Was overloaded but went out on foot anyway to head for Crowstooth’s camp, just because I wanted to see how long it’d take Rigmor to catch up with me
Answer: not too long actually!
Once Rigmor caught up, saddled up and headed for Crowstooth’s Camp
Avoided going through Darklight Tower because I wasn’t in the mood to run it, but did mark it for the map
Which meant I had to derp my way up to the camp the long way, but finally made it there
Took out the Forsworn and the hagraven Linelle, and got the note pointing off to Arcwind Point
Camped there since it was pretty late, then headed out again in the morning
Had to climb down the cliffside and that actually landed me right in the back of Largashbur, so said hi to the Orcs (and they were even still alive!) and bought some iron from the smith Garakh
Then headed onward and fought a goblin hunting party, and also assorted critters
Had what I am pretty sure was another TestJeremyBig sighting though he wasn’t tagged as such, I couldn’t get an activator off of him
Got near the bandit camp at Bthalft, but I think some of the bandits got taken out by nearby Stormcloaks–who were also in a fight with Imperials
May or may not have been Imperials from the nearby camp; I found a couple of dead Imperials after that fight
Finally reached Arcwind Point
Took out the dragon, the Draugr Death Overlord from the coffin, and assorted skeletons
Got the Word of Power for Drain Vitality off the Word Wall
Went up to the tower to look for Crowstooth
Took out assorted draugr and Crowstooth’s Khajiit compatriot Alvasorr the Rat
Got the dragonplate armor off of Bjormund Wind-Strider’s corpse–but did not find Crowstooth :O
Did a bunch of poking at this and did finally find her body in a difficult to reach location, more on this below
Looted her and took her stuff and got out again
Boinged to Heljarchen for loot dropoff since I was overloaded
Boinged right back to Arcwind Point so I could run Rielle to move the Cause plot further along
Got through that okay, found all the elemental shards and took out Norion the Undying
Mostly ignored the final fighting between the Vigil of Stendarr and the cultists, since I was overloaded again at that point and just trying to get out of the ruin
Went to Tundra Homestead and dropped off the Ebony Spell Knight and dragonplate armors there
Also Crowstooth’s and Alvasorr’s weapons
After that did a bunch of boinging around between Whiterun and Heljarchen; built up Heljarchen’s Kitchen and Enchanter wings
Started on an Alchemy wing but wasn’t able to finish it off
Boinged back to Lakeview finally, and saved there for the night

Commentary

I’d had that previous bit of weirdness with Jaree-Ra being weirdly hostile in Solitude, and later in that same session, Vigilants of Stendarr being weirdly hostile at me as well. At the beginning of the session on the 9th, I was relieved to go by a couple other Vigilants and confirm that they were not hostile. Well, no more than usual anyway. And it’s probably for the best that the game didn’t allow me to snark about the helmet one of those Vigilants was wearing, at least not to her face. She probably would have gotten a lot more hostile then. ;D

Also as of these sessions, I started spotting Thalmor in the Vvardenfell version of glass armor added in by Immersive Armors. And I’m not entirely sure I approve of that. I don’t mind that armor set existing, in general. But it seems weird to me that the Thalmor, as anal as they are about elves in general and Altmer in particular being the superior race of Tamriel, would go around wearing armor from Vvardenfell.

Comma, where the Dunmer live.

But eh well, I don’t care enough about it to go fucking around with the settings in Immersive Armors to turn that armor set off, anyway! Not right now, at least. I may change my mind later if I decide it’s visually distracting.

In Cracked Tusk Keep, I got the same Haunted Potato that I saw when running the place as Ysani. One, LOL. And two, this reminded me that one of the few things I like better about the Switch than the Steam Deck is the Switch’s ability to easily create 30-second videos! I really wish I could do that on the Deck.

I was very, very pleased to make it almost all the way through Hag Rock Redoubt and Dead Crone Rock without killing a single Forsworn. Elessir’s Sneak game was strong in that session! I even somehow managed to make it through most of Dead Crone Rock without making nearby Forsworn realize I’d set off the fire traps, LOL.

But I do have to say almost here, because I did still have to fight the final hagraven and Briarheart. There was no way of getting the pommel of the Razor without doing that, I think–I’d have needed much higher Pickpocket mojo, maybe.

And at this point I’ve definitely confirmed that Convenient Horses doesn’t want me to be carrying more than 1500 units of weight if I expect any mount to actually want to carry me anywhere. Which I’m absolutely fine with; that’s well more than twice what Elessir is able to carry normally, so that’s very generous! Still to determine: whether that 1500 units is total between me and a mount. I will need to test this. and see if I can back off that limit some if some of the 1500 units are carried by the mount and not me.

I got a little alarmed while trying to finish off the Crowstooth quest, because I couldn’t find her body! To my relief, I did find Bjormund Wind-Strider’s corpse where I expected it to be, and was able to get the dragonplate armor off of it. But I was still concerned about where the hell Crowstooth’s body was. And since I’m that kind of completist player, I spent quite a bit of time trying to find it, using the Detect Dead spell.

This told me there was a body in a difficult to reach location, supporting the theory that Crowstooth must have been sent flying by a draugr throwing a Shout. Or maybe even the dragon I’d killed throwing a Shout? I didn’t see her die, so I don’t know!

However, I still had to prove that that body was Crowstooth. Which meant I had to reach it.

And that took a while for me to figure out. I even camped overnight nearby, just so I wouldn’t have to derp around doing this in the dark. Then I tried again in the morning, and finally managed to reach the body in question. Found that yep, it was Crowstooth. Which let me get the Tyrant’s Bane weapon off of her!

Not that I’m actually going to use it, mind you. But see previous commentary re: completist!

Notable Lucien lines

While I’m fishing in Reachwater Rock, since there is a fishing spot in there, Lucien started singing:

“Looks like we’re in a Nordic ruin… Hope that the Draugr won’t be chewin’… on our bones. Bee dum dum dum….”

After we take out Aesrael, Lucien perks up when I find a key on him. If this boy’s getting excited by secret stashes, heh, maybe hanging out with the future Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild is rubbing off on him?

“Ooh, a key. It must be to his secret stash! How exciting.”

And even though Lucien is in fairness very knowledgeable, he’s not entirely immune from being Captain Obvious. Once we get Aesrael’s gear:

“What unusual, armor! Elven make, obviously, but customised for extra utility, Ideal for a hunter, I’d say.”

Next time

Elessir’s next post will feature some side questing, but also finishing off The Cause (and accidentally opening an Oblivion gate, oops), getting the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal, and going to see a guy in a fort who’s recruiting vampire hunters! That’s right y’all, it’s time for Elessir to join the Dawnguard.