In Which Finds-The-Way Quests for the Guild, the Fishery, and the Brotherhood

More mid-December Skyrim catchup, this time with Finds-The-Way. Main action here is her moving stuff along with the Thieves Guild, fishing-related quests, and most importantly, finally joining the Dark Brotherhood!

Play by play

Play date: 12/15/2023
Session number in this run: 41
Picked up again at Shadowfoot Sanctum, and dropped off a few things
Then sold stuff to the merchant in the Flagon, and to Tonilia
Went topside and finished off the Gray Cowl quest by picking up the journal and handing over the sword to the Gray Fox, and getting the Gray Cowl
Checked in with Viriya and got the Alik’r fishing rod, and the next fishing quest to go to Windhelm to take out Fangtusk
Also immediately got the courier with the update from Swims for his next round of fishing work, so went to go talk to Swims
Then realized I did not have all four arctic fish to give him as I thought I did, I had only three of them
Read Fishing book number 3 and then went off to do other questing
Boinged to Whiterun and ran the stacked jobs there by hitting Uthgerd the Unbroken’s house
Stopped by Lakeview for supplies check
Lucia honey, it’s the middle of the night, go back to bed
Also, your dragonmom has to go join the Dark Brotherhood, ciao
Rode over to the sanctuary
Passed usual hunter in the area; she was fighting a wolf, but I did not stop
Finally reached the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary and got in
Talked to Astrid and officially signed up, and got the Dark Brotherhood Shrouded Armor, which triggered achievement number 35
Did my best to try to figure out all of the various characters’ lines, especially Astrid, Nazir, and Cicero
Recognized Babette’s line about being a lot older than the player, as well as most of her story about how she lured in a victim by pretending to be a helpless child
Made a point of stopping to talk to Veezara
Got the word for Marked for Death off the Word Wall in there
Also found the Stone of Barenziah, which put me at 13
Talked to Nazir and got the first three jobs from him
Nabbed the set of robes lying around for later, and also confirmed that as an Argonian, I can’t use the masked version of the cowl
Headed over to take out Narfi
Boinged to Alchemist’s Shack to get within range of Ivarstead
Fucked up the first attempt to kill him, was spotted and got a murder bounty
So redid the attempt and whittled that down to just the 40 gold assault bounty
Boinged back to Riften
Sold things to the Khajiit and immediately after, they all got in a fight with a spider
Saw a wolf active nearby as well; took that out
From there, boinged to the Windhelm stables and rode over to take out Fangtusk
Got into a fight with a snow bear on the way
Noticed with surprise that the wild horse that hangs out near Windhelm, the Pale Mare, actually came over to join the fight
Tried to tame her but failed
Took out a few other critters after the snow bear, then took out Fangtusk and got the Vampiric Ring
Returned to Windhelm and got the bounty reward for that
Did a bit of fishing on the Windhelm dock until I got the angler larva I needed to finish Swims’ quest
Headed out from Windhelm to go take out Ennodius Papius, but had to take out Viinturuth first
Neither of these had any issues
From there, headed to Dawnstar and parked the Dwarven Horse at the Windward Ruins
Then snuck over to Dawnstar and attempted to take out Beitild
Did this finally by taking her out in her house at night
Then I was finally clear to return to the sanctuary, at which point Cicero had shown up to upend things
And Astrid ordered me to go see Muiri in Markarth
Talked to Nazir to get the rewards for his three jobs, and had next conversation with Cicero
Did one more boing back to Riften
Turned in the Whiterun jobs with the Guild and this time got another Bedlam/Sweep pair, conveniently queued up for Markarth
Talked to Viriya to turn in her Fangtusk quest and got the quest to go give fishing lessons in Markarth
Talked to Swims and gave him all the arctic fish, and got the quest for the underground fish
Last but not least picked up Iona for some non-criminal Dragonborn activity!
First stop: Faldar’s Tooth
Ran that place to get the note about where the sword Bloodthirst is, and got the hook to go find it in Broken Fang Cave
One-shotted all the wolves in cages to give them merciful deaths
Took out assorted bandits and got the boss chest loot as well
Next up: boinged to the College of Winterhold to make the Conjure Ayleid Lich spellbook
Took one round of training each with all of the trainers and sold them assorted loot
Rode over to run Yngvild
Got all the books and got the Stone of Barenziah in there as well
Boinged next to Hob’s Fall Cave to re-run the place and get the Helm of Winterhold
Then boinged back to Winterhold to turn in the helm
Got the Jarl’s prompt to become thane but already had three favor quests, so insta-thane, fuck yeah
Got the Blade of Winterhold
From there, boinged to Wayward Pass to get within range of Bloodchill Cavern
Rode from there over to it, and spotted a two giants vs. bandits fight nearby; did not interfere, but it was a hell of a show!
Then went in to run the feast
Did it in one go this time since Finds was high enough level that the waiter was less of a threat–and Verin survived the fight again! 😉
Looted a bunch of things off the slain and also off the feast table
Stepped out and back in to reset the place
Then left some stuff on the weapons racks, including the Blade of Winterhold, which I gave its own weapons plaque up on the wall
Finally boinged back to Lakeview for inventory managing and crafting
Saved there until next time

Commentary

It occurred to me during this session that running the Dark Brotherhood plotline, essentially for the first time since I never did finish it in Harrow’s run, was not necessarily the wisest decision in a German playthrough. My reading comprehension of German is improving, but it’s still uneven, and I am not fully picking up on all the dialogue even with subtitles turned on so that I can read them.

And given that the Brotherhood is one of the parts of Skyrim I am not yet fully familiar with, this means running this plot with Finds is a bit more challenging than it would be in English!

This isn’t going to stop me from going through with it, but it may take me a little longer to finish than it would in an English playthrough. We’ll see!

I made a specific point of stopping to talk to Veezara. He didn’t have any particular reaction to my being an Argonian–but I think Finds perked right up at finding another Argonian there, especially a Shadowscale.

And I’m also aiming for the proper tone to take on Finds’ dialogue choices with Astrid and others in the Brotherhood. The game seems to want to give me a “middle of the road” set of choices, a “fervent believer” set, and one where I mostly just keep my mouth shut. Harrow was definitely the “keep her mouth shut” type of character.

But for now, I’m running Finds as more middle of the road. She’s quite happy that she’s finally managed to pull off the thing that brought her to Skyrim to begin with. But I think Astrid’s way of handling her sanctuary maybe threw her off a bit, and she’s not entirely sure what she thinks of this yet. So she’s aiming for a more tempered presentation of herself in interactions with others in the group.

And I got the word for the Marked For Death Shout off the Word Wall, as well. Since this is an unmodded playthrough, I triggered the bug with that Shout triggering duplicates in the Shouts list. But I’m used to that one now after seeing it so much on the Switch. If I ever bother to actually use that Shout (so far, I haven’t, not so much), I’ll just need to take care to select the correct one.

It does occur to me to wonder, though, what the Brotherhood thinks of this weird wall with runes all over it in their sanctuary. If they think anything at all about it, that is. Some of the Brotherhood members strike me as too practical to give much of a fuck about it. But a couple of the others might have found it a curiosity, maybe? I don’t have much of a feel yet for many of these characters, so I don’t know yet who I feel would find such a feature in their sanctuary interesting.

Here’s another thing that only just now occurred to me, as well: what’s the story with the door into the sanctuary? Whose voice is it that demands the password? Is it an enchantment? A shrine of sorts with a connection to Sithis? A little of column A, a little of column B?

Having the pale mare come over to join my fight with a snow bear near Windhelm was a pleasant surprise. Finds was not able to tame her, but that did at least give me useful data on where to find that horse later for Kendeshel.

Taking out Beitild in Dawnstar took me a couple of tries. I tried to replicate what Harrow did in her run, with sniping her off the roof of the building near her mine–but I got spotted. Same when I tried to snipe her from the nearby mountaintop. I finally had to punt to sneaking into her house at night, and shooting her with no witnesses.

Of course, as I write this, I have now discovered that I did not in fact have to do all of Nazir’s jobs. Apparently you have to do only the bare minimum required to make the main Brotherhood questline progress. I wish I’d known that before I took out poor Narfi!

Achievements unlocked

With Friends Like These…: For joining the Dark Brotherhood.

Achievements count as of this post: 35.

Language commentary

Interesting terms observed:

Der Graue Fuchs: The Gray Fox
Kennenzulernen: To get to know
Zuflucht der Dunklen Bruderschaft: Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary
Schwarze Tür: Black Door
Schätzchen: Dear/sweetie (used by Astrid while telling the player “our Family”)
Willkommensgeschenk: Welcome gift (used by Astrid when giving the player the Shrouded Armor)
Die Mutter der Nacht: The Night Mother
Der Zuhörer: The Listener
Zuckerstück: Piece of sugar (used by Babette while telling the story of how she cornered her latest victim)
Problemfamilie: Problem/dysfunctional family (used by Nazir to describe the Brotherhood)
Ehemaliger: Former
Minenleiterin: Mine boss
Konkurrierende Bergbaubetriebe: Competing mining operations
Schattenschuppe: Shadowscale
Graue Kapuze von Nocturnal: Gray Cowl of Nocturnal
Schattenfaustbänder: Shrouded Hand Wraps
Schattenhandschuhe: Shrouded Gloves
Schattenkapuze: Shrouded Hood
Schattenrobe: Shrouded Robe
Schattenrüstung: Shrouded Armor
Schattenschuhe: Shrouded Shoes
Schattenstiefel: Shrouded Boots
Fanghauer: Fangtusk
Vampirring: Vampiric Ring
Alik’r-Angel: Alik’r Fishing Rod
Seeteufellarve: Angler Larvae
Unterschlupf: Shelter
Diesem brummelnden Tölpel: That muttering fool/that blubbering idiot (used by Astrid to describe Cicero)
Einen abgemagerten Bettler: An emaciated beggar (used by Nazir to describe Narfi)
Faldars Zahn: Faldar’s Tooth
Zauberbuch: Ayleidenlich beschwören: Spell Tome: Conjure Ayleid Lich
Die Wichtigkeit des Wo: The Importance of Where (the book)
Alte Sagen der Dwemer Teil III: Ancient Tales of the Dwemer Part III (subtitle of said book)
Geisterhafte Überreste: Ghostly Remains
Yngvild: Thronsaal: Yngvild Throne Room
Die Irrlichtmütter: The Wispmother (the book)
Blutfrosthöhle: Bloodchill Cavern
Königliche Vampirrüstung: Vampire Royal Armor
Vampirpanzerhandschuhe: Vampire Gauntlets
Vampirkapuze: Vampire Hood
Vampir-Lederkapuze: Vampire Leather Hood
Aloe-Vera-Blätter: Aloe Vera Leaves

Not too much to get into in terms of language commentary this time, but I can at least note that in general, the naming scheme for the various pieces of Shrouded Armor in German uses “Schatten”, which I know translates to “Shadow”. So not a direct translation from English. Still though, appropriate to the theme of armor pieces worn by the Dark Brotherhood.

I’d comment on the voice acting of the various assassins, except I’m not really familiar enough with them all quite yet to really have a sense of how well their performances in German match up with their performances in English. One exception to this is Cicero, though, and I’ll have more to say on him later.