In Which Finds-The-Way Does Favors for the Jarl of Markarth

Short post since this is mostly familiar action, and hardly any German language commentary, even. Main action here is Finds-The-Way running favor quests to achieve the thaneship of the Reach, but with a side helping of aetherium shard acquisition, and also thievery!

Play by play

• Play date: 12/27/2023
• Session number in this run: 43
• Picked up at Lakeview and went out with Iona
• First goal: finding Ri’saad to resolve the fishing quest with him
• Saw his quest marker parked at Markarth, so was fairly sure he’d set out out from there with his caravan if I fast traveled there
• So just rode out from Lakeview and took the long way to Markarth, to see if the caravan would start moving and meet me on the way
• Stopped in Riverwood and sold assorted items to Lucan
• Killed assorted wolves
• Went by some Imperials and later some Thalmor, but did not engage
• Made it almost all the way to Markarth
• And once I was within visual range of the usual camp spot for the Khajiit, saw that they had indeed finally started moving!
• So I intercepted them on the bridge and gave Ri’saad back his flin, and resolved that quest
• Decided next to journey northward to hit Deep Folk Crossing
• Killed a Blood Dragon and a cave bear not far from the Lover Stone
• Had a weird encounter en route that started with just fighting a couple of Forsworn
• Dwarven horse went to town on the two Forsworn who attacked me, but then ran over to fight with somebody else
• Came running only to find a “Befallener” dead on the ground (one of the Afflicted) and a couple of Imperial soldiers
• One of which I think was telling me in German that I was interfering with Imperial business and needed to move along? Regardless, I moved along
• Found Bthardamz, but did not investigate
• Shortly thereafter finally reached Deep Folk Crossing
• Got the third shard, and Katria showed up to go YAY YOU GOT THE THIRD ONE
• From there, fast traveled to Lost Echo Cave to get within range of Deepwood Redoubt
• Reached and ran the place; tried to go in stealthy, but that just wasn’t going to happen with Iona backing me up
• So threw Staada around a lot and got her to take out a bunch of the hostiles, including the Briarheart for the Jarl of Markarth’s quest
• Made it into Hag’s End but Iona fell behind, so I ran the last bit of it with just Staada
• Got the second word for Slow Time off the Word Wall
• Took out the final hagraven, got the Bloodthorn dagger, and boss chest loot
• Then Whirlwind Sprinted over to get the Predator’s Grace boots and the other boss chest
• From there, fast traveled back to Markarth and sold stuff to Lisbet
• Checked in with the Jarl and got his quest to recover his father’s shield, this time pointing at Dead Crone Rock
• Which I’d already cleared, so I had a fast travel marker to go straight there
• Had to fight a few respawned Forsworn though
• Made it out to the final area, recovered the shield, and got other boss loot
• Then boinged straight back to Markarth and checked in again with the Jarl
• Got permission to buy property, so bought Vlindrel Hall and all of its furnishings
• Got pointer to become thane and had 2/5 favor quests queued up already, but decided not to pursue the rest of the favors for now
• Dropped off the ebony helm the Jarl gave me at Vlindrel Hall
• Boinged back to Lakeview for a supplies check
• Lucia gave me an ingredient, what a good kid <3
• Boinged off next to Bloodchill Cavern to drop off the Markarth guard gear, the armor of the Old Gods, and Bloodthorn, which I put on a weapons plaque
• Next up: returned to Riften, checked in with Delvin and Vex, and turned in the last round of jobs I’d completed
• Got two more Whiterun jobs out of each; I only needed one, but this was enough to go ahead and finish up Whiterun
• Dismissed Iona once I got to Whiterun
• Re-robbed Uthgerd the Unbroken’s house, then boinged right back to Riften and turned in those jobs
• Got special job to talk to Olfrid Battle-Born, so boinged right back to Whiterun
• Got the job, sauntered into Dragonsreach, and falsified the registry
• Got the letter out of the Jarl’s quarters, and also got his Stone of Barenziah while I was in there
• Saved there until next time

Commentary

A useful little bit of info for Future Me: apparently I can get to Deep Folk Crossing more or less by going north-ish from where the Khajiit make their Markarth camp, as long as I go off road. This will be a much quicker way of finding Deep Folk Crossing in future playthroughs. I’ll need to keep this in mind!j

For the record, I’d like to note that I like the Armor of the Old Gods even less on an Argonian than I do on a human or mer character–because it just continues to emphasize my bafflement about why the hell Argonian females have boobs.

The headdress doesn’t exactly sit well on an Argonian head, either. Though I’ll give it this: Finds may have actually kind of liked the feathers. Just because she had feathers prior to her visit to the Face Sculptor. I expect she misses them. It has to be weird for her to periodically reach up to the top of her head and not find feathers and horns there.

My timing was a little off once I got the Thieves Guild jobs to run in Whiterun. I should have dismissed Iona while still in Riften, rather than once I arrived in Whiterun. For narrative purposes, I’ll assume that’s what Finds did. Somebody needs to keep an eye on both her houses in Riften while she’s busy stealing stuff in Whiterun, after all!

Other than that, not too much else to say about this post since this was all action I’ve run before in previous playthroughs.

Language commentary

Interesting terms observed:

• Befallener: Afflicted (as in, one of the Afflicted)
• Aetheriumsplittern: Plural of Aetheriumsplitter, “aetherium shard”, noted in a previous post
• Tiefenwaldschanze: Deepwood Redoubt
• Verwüster der Abgeschworenen: Forsworn Ravager
• Tiefenwaldtal: Deepwood Vale
• Gerüchten: Rumors
• Waidmanns Huld: Predator’s Grace (the boots) (lit. “Huntsman’s Grace”)
• Andenken: Memory
• Ausmaß: Extent
• Haus Vlindrel: Vlindrel Hall (lit. “House Vlindrel”)
• Rüstung der Alten Götter: Armor of the Old Gods
• Blutdorn: Bloodthorn (the dagger)
• Olfrid Kampf-Geborener: Olfrid Battle-Born
• Richtblock: Executioner’s block
• Gefängnisausbruch: Prison break
• Häftlingsverzeichnis: Prison registry (lit. “inmate directory”)

Next time

Finds-the-Way’s next post will feature more thievery, including running the special job for both Solitude and Markarth; becoming thane of the Reach; becoming Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild; and running Raldbthar to kill Alain Dufont and get the final aetherium shard.

Screenshots