In Which Finds-The-Way Quests for the Dawnguard

Swinging around now back to catching up on Finds-The-Way’s Skyrim playthrough. This post is mostly all about Dawnguard action–not only the main Dawnguard plot, but also running Ruunvald and Mzinchaleft.

Play by play

Play date: 8/6/2024
Session number in this run: 52
Picked up right outside the entrance to Dimhollow Crypt
With Iona as backup, started running the place
Called up Dremora Lord periodically as necessary
No particular issues running the place, and made it through to take out Lokil and his henchvamps
Got Serana out of her obelisk
Picked up the Necromantic Healing spellbook on the way out, and got the word off the Word Wall as per usual
Got out of the crypt and then boinged to Rimerock Burrow as my closest landmark to Castle Volkihar
Killed a few assorted critters en route
Reached Castle Volkihar, and went in with Serana to talk to Harkon
As per usual declined his offer of his blood, so he banished me back out to the beach
RIGHT THEN, onward! Headed back towards Fort Dawnguard
Stopped first at Honningbrew Meadery to sell stuff to Mallus
Then arrived at Fort Dawnguard to the expected attack by a vampire group
Helped take them out and talked to Isran; got the quest objective to go find Sorine and Gunmar
Exited Dayspring Canyon along with Iona–and we got a dragon right at the canyon entrance, so took it out
From there, boinged to Deep Folk Crossing to make my way to Sorine
Killed a few Forsworn on the way to her, as well as random critters
Finally reached her and convinced her to join Team Dawnguard
Then boinged to Shor’s Watchtower to make my way to Gunmar, who was at Clearspring Tarn
Again, killed assorted critters, and passed some Stormcloaks
Got a horde of zombies! Took them out and proceeded to Clearspring Tarn
Mined iron vein on the way
Helped Gunmar with the bear inside the cave, and got him to agree to go to Fort Dawnguard
Took out a troll while in there, and nabbed the Bow of the Hunt and other loot
Returned to Fort Dawnguard and played through Isran testing us with sunlight
Then played through the convo with Serana, and persuaded Isran to let her stay
Boinged from there to the College of Winterhold to ask Urag about Moth Priests
Serana vanished at this point
Got objective to go to Dragon Bridge and boinged into there
Volkihar vamps showed up and killed one of the guards while Iona and I were fighting them
Questioned surviving guard, and got the pointer about the Moth Priest’s caravan going south over the bridge
Nabbed Solitude armor items off the dead guard just ‘cause
Then headed south on Shadowmere
Made it around to Forebears’ Holdout and started running the place
Still no sign of Serana, but took out the main vamp and all the lesser vamps and thralls
Freed Dexion, and talked him into going to Fort Dawnguard
Looted the place and by now was well and thoroughly overloaded again
Returned to Fort Dawnguard and checked in with Isran and Dexion
Serana showed up properly at that point–presumably because she had scripted behavior here?
Got Dexion to do the initial read on the scroll
Triggered the next objective with Serana
But first sold a bunch of stuff to Sorine and Gunmar, and bought all the Dawnguard gear off of Gunmar
Also got the quest to rescue Florentius from Sorine, and got her initial crossbow schematics quest
Bought the Sun Fire spell off of her as well
Talked to Isran and got pointer to go to Ruunvald to find Florentius
Then finally talked to Serana to get the objective to proceed to Castle Volkihar
Had to dismiss Iona before Serana would agree to let me go there with her, oops
Then headed out with her
Decided the plan would be to hit Ruunvald and rescue Florentius, hit Mzinchaleft and get the schematic (and also Mjoll’s sword, because why not), and then proceed to Castle Volkihar
Boinged to Red Scar Cavern as a nearby landmark
HI VIGILANTS! Try not to look askance at my showing up here with a vampire, mmkay?
Oh oops Serana disappeared again, and no sign of her even as I made my way over to Ruunvald
Parked Shadowmere by the exit from Ruunvald because I was sure I’d be overloaded coming out of there
Killed some spiders and trolls trying to make sure where the exit was–because Shadowmere kept running off to fight things!
But finally got him parked by the exit and went back up to the entrance on foot
Hit the quicksilver vein on the way up, and got the Dawnguard axe
Serana showed up again as I entered and started running the place
So since she was with me, didn’t bother with stealth; she and summoned Dremora Lord took out just about all opposition
Collected the journals, but of course couldn’t get the fourth one because of bug noted in previous playthroughs; tried Shouting at the bugged barrel a couple of times, but couldn’t get that to work
Took out Minorne without too much trouble–and from a distance, thank you bow and poisons
Freed Florentius and got him to agree to show up at Fort Dawnguard
Boinged to Bloodchill Manor to drop off some stuff before proceeding with the next leg of the plan
Got courier with a Letter from a Friend, and it pointed me at Shriekwind Bastion
Dropped off the Solitude guard armor and a lot of books, and stuffed a bunch of loose zero value papers into the safe
Racked some weapons on the weapons racks just to get my carry weight down
Tried on the Dawnguard gear and both sets were a hard pass, so I left both of those gear sets on mannequins
Boinged next to Lakeview to drop more stuff off, and Sofie gave me a gift
Did another visit to the meadery to sell more stuff to Mallus
Then finally boinged to Windstad, and HI VALDIMAR
Doublechecked that I didn’t have any pending building needed there
Then from there, rode over to Mzinchaleft–and yet again Serana went AWOL
Came at the place from the side, and Shadowmere ran down to fight with the bandits, LOL
Between the horse and me, we cleared all the exterior hostiles
Then I went in and started running the place without Serana
Found a Speech skill book in Maluril’s bedroom
Made it down into the end parts and found the schematic in a boss chest, along with other loot
Found a Paralyze spellbook! Excellent! Saved me having to buy it off of Tolfdir
Took out the final centurion, nabbed Mjoll’s sword, and came back out the lift
Had to hoof it back over to find Shadowmere, but he wasn’t far
From there, boinged back to Castle Volkihar–and still no sign of Serana, WTF
Went around to the back of the castle and fought the exterior skeletons by way of Dremora Lord
Finally went in through the door there, and then Serana showed up again
Saved there until next time

Yep, still had ESO muscle memory issues

I’ve bitched about this already in other posts, but noting here for the record that during this session, yep, I was still having issues with ESO control muscle memory still being dominant.

This still throws me off a lot when playing Skyrim, even as of this writing. I keep trying to hit the X, B, or Y buttons during combat–and no goddammit, Me, that’s not how I hit things in Skyrim!

I also keep hitting left on the D-Pad and being surprised when it doesn’t wield or unwield my weapon.

To date, though, I’m still not aware of any really good strategy to do anything about this, short of rearranging how all of Skyrim’s controls are mapped, completely.

Even if I try that, I know for a fact that I wouldn’t be able to get a hundred percent match of Skyrim controls to ESO controls, just based on the following differences:

ESO has no concept of a Wait command, and Skyrim does.
ESO has all its various skill-based attacks it lets you do, above and beyond just hitting things with a weapon or a spell, and all of these attacks take over the primary attack buttons if you’re playing with a controller. Or, on a Steam Deck. So in ESO, those attacks are mapped to the buttons 1-5. In Skyrim, those buttons are used for hotkeyed favorites.

So for now, my strategy for this is, just put up with it. I’m hoping that with practice, I can convince my muscle memory to just adapt to switching regularly between the two games.

Managing inventory in a non-modded Skyrim

And, of course, I kept getting overloaded. Because I’m a loot goblin, and I’m like that.

But since this was of course a non-modded Skyrim run, that meant I had to manage my inventory a lot.

So just to review, here’s what I usually have to do in a non-modded run to keep my inventory under control, or at least mitigate the impact of being chronically overloaded:

Think very, very hard about whether I really need to pick up that latest random armor piece or weapon found in whatever dungeon I’m running. Usually the answer to this question is “yes, of course“, but I try to at least make the effort. 😆
Steed Stone!
Every single potion of Fortify Carry Weight I can get my mitts on, whether bought in stores or crafted at Alchemy tables.
Shameless taking advantage of the glitch that lets potions of Fortify Restoration improve the strength of enchantments on worn items, which is super helpful if you have a bunch of items with Fortify Carry Weight enchantments.
And, of course, liberal use of Fortify Carry Weight enchantments. If it’s a thing that can take a Fortify Carry Weight enchantment, enchant the fuck out of it.
Keep any armor pieces around that come with Fortify Carry Weight enchantments if I happen to find random pieces thus enchanted, just in case I need them.
Get a horse as early as possible just to maintain ability to fast travel if I trudge overloaded out of a dungeon.
If I’m running a thief, keep Thieves Guild armor on me at all times, to swap into to use its Carry Weight bonus if I need it.
Run the Gray Cowl plot in the AE, whether or not I’m actually playing a thief, because the 50 point Carry Weight bonus is too useful to pass up.
Drop stuff off at a house if I want to keep it, and if it’s not critical to keep in my inventory

In Finds’ case, I used pretty much each and every one of these. Especially the Thieves Guild armor and the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal.

Horse riding in a non-modded Skyrim

On the way to Castle Volkihar, I definitely missed not being able to whistle for my horse, that’s for sure.

And for that matter, I also missed not being able to harvest things while on horseback.

Neither of these things are critical to playing Skyrim. But they sure are quality of life improvements!

So far though, the only real strategies I have for dealing with this in a non-modded Skyrim run are:

Put up with not being able to harvest from horseback at all. Because let’s face it, I’m usually swimming in ingredients anyway so I don’t really need that next sprig of Red Mountain Flower, do I? (YES, says the loot goblin brain, WHAT ARE YOU ON ABOUT, DISMOUNT AND HARVEST THE DAMN FLOWER, woman!)
Put up with not being able to whistle for my horse until I’m able to get Arvak via Dawnguard, or the Daedric Horse via The Cause.

Surprise daytime zombies

On the way to finding Gunmar at Clearspring Tarn, I got a horde of zombies. Which surprised me, because it was only around 5:20pm game time! The UESP wiki says zombies are supposed to show up between 9pm and 5am game time. (Scroll down to the first occurrence of the word “zombie” on the linked page.) And I definitely wasn’t in that time frame. So WTF?

i cannot, however, find any info about a known bug with this. So either the wiki is wrong, or else I somehow managed to stumble across some sort of weird edge case. Who knows?

Lots of Serana going AWOL this time

I frequently lose Serana when running Dawnguard. And I don’t have definitive evidence to back this up, but it feels like this has been happening more frequently since jumping from the Switch to the Deck.

And in this session in particular, it happened a lot. Three different times, according to my notes. And what I found notable about this, reviewing those notes, is that Serana did not reliably reappear again even when I changed zones. She seemed to only show up when she specifically had plot action to do.

This session took place several months after the one I documented in Elessir’s most recent post–and I wish I’d remembered what I did during that Elessir session, so I could do it again during this one.

As I wrote in that Elessir post, there’s at least one mod out there that provides the player a console batch file to run. I don’t know if I want to go to the trouble of downloading a mod for it when I’m perfectly capable of making a text file with the relevant commands in it myself–and I may well try that exact thing in Tuxborn. Alternately, the NFF mod may solve this problem for me, since it provides means to summon followers it tracks back to you. We’ll see!

Dawnguard armor: hard pass this time

I always try on the Dawnguard armor every time I take a character through that DLC, and I almost always do not bother to wear it. This time through was no exception.

The light Dawnguard helmet does not work on an Argonian head! It hid Finds’ eyes almost completely, which looked very strange to me.

And I didn’t want to put her in the heavy gear at all, since that didn’t seem appropriate for her fighting style. The heavy helmet didn’t look as weird on her head, granted–but it was also not really a shape that I feel would accommodate an Argonian head anyway.

Achievements unlocked

Awakening: For completing the quest to free Serana from her obelisk

Achievements count as of this post: 46.

Language commentary

Interesting terms observed:

Burg Volkihar: Castle Volkihar
Festung Volkihar: Volkihar Keep (lit. “Volkihar Fortress”)
Uralter Vampir: Ancient Vampire
Taste: Button
Kohlenbecken: Brazier
Steinmonolith: Stone Monolith
Geheimnisvolle Frau: Mysterious Woman
Erwachen: Awakening (the quest)
Kennenzulernen: Meet, get to know
Erbfolgekrieg: War of succession
Abwesenheit: Absence
Zauberbuch: Totenbeschwörerheilung: Spell Tome: Necromantic Healing
Schwindelig: Dizzy
Höherer Draugrtodesfürst: Draugr Death Overlord
Eiswassermole: Icewater Jetty
Begleiter: Follower (used in the warning that your follower cannot accompany you here, when entering Castle Volkihar)
Tochter: Daughter
Irgendwelche: Any
Jahrhundertelang: For centuries
Belohnung: Reward
Löwe: Lion
Schafen: Sheep (plural dative case, specifically; plural and nominative is Schafe)
Beute: Prey
So sei es: So be it
Schreckensreich: Reign of terror (used in one of Vori’s random dialogue lines about the Dawnguard)
Volkihar-Meistervampir: Volkihar Master Vampire
Großzügige Rekrutierungspolitik: Generous recruitment policy (used in Isran’s line about vampires finding out about the Dawnguard being the price they pay for openly recruiting)
Unterstützung: Support, help (used in Isran’s line about the Dawnguard needing help, when he orders you to go get Sorine and Gunmar)
Bastlerin: Tinkerer (feminine, used by Isran to describe Sorine)
Überredungskunst: Persuasion
Bestien: Beasts
Reinquellensee: Clearspring Tarn
Bogen der Jagd: Bow of the Hunt
Lebensmüde: Tired of life, suicidal (used when Isran dismisses Serana as possibly having a death wish)
Ihr seid Mittel zum Zweck.: You are a means to an end.
Zwischenzeit: Meantime
Mottenpriester: Moth Priest
Verzauberungsdienste: Enchanting services (used by Sergius at the College of Winterhold)
Galoschen: Galoshes
Nachforschungen: Research
Kutscher: Coachman, carriage driver
Gastwirte: Innkeepers
Psijic-Mönch: Psijic Monk
Ahnenversteck: Forebears’ Holdout
Weysteinquelle: Weystone Source
Weysteinfokus: Weystone Focus
Gebannten: Spellbound, enthralled
Rettung: Rescue, salvation
Weißgoldturm: White-Gold Tower
Vampirjäger: Vampire hunters
Retter: Savior, rescuer
Auriels Bogen: Auriel’s Bow
Bruchstückhaft: Fragmented, fragmentary (used by Dexion to describe his vision weakening and the words distorting, as he reads the Elder Scroll)
Anderswo: Elsewhere
Dämmerwachtpanzerhandschuhe: Dawnguard Gauntlets
Dämmerwachtstiefel: Dawnguard Boots
Schwere Dämmerwachtrüstung: Dawnguard Heavy Armor
Dämmerwachthelm: Dawnguard Helmet
Exzentrisch: Eccentric (used by Sorine to describe Florentius)
Armbrüste: Crossbows
Dwemerartefakte: Dwemer artifacts
Dwemerdiagramme: Dwemer diagrams
Liebenswürdig: Kind, gracious
Baupläne: Blueprints
Feigling: Coward
Innenhof: Courtyard
Anlegestelle: Dock
Ruunvaldgrube: Ruunvald Excavation (lit. “Ruunvald Pit”)
Quecksilbererzader: Quicksilver Ore Vein
Dämmerwachtkriegsaxt: Dawnguard War Axe
Bezauberter Wächter: Charmed Vigilant
Die Entdeckung von Ruunvald: The Discovery of Ruunvald (as in, the title of Moric Sidrey’s journals)
Ruunvald: Tempel: Ruunvald Temple
Schlamassel: Mess
Bollverk von Wimmerwind: Shriekwind Bastion (lit., “bulwark of whimpering wind”, I think?)
Schwere Dämmerwachtpanzerhandschuhe: Heavy Dawnguard Gauntlets
Schwere Dämmerwachtstiefel: Heavy Dawnguard Boots
Dämmerwachtvollvisierhelm: Dawnguard Full Helmet
Zauberbuch: Verdorbenen Zombie Beschwören: Spell Tome: Conjure Foul Zombie (I think?)
Zauberbuch: Sonnenfeuer: Spell Tome: Sun Fire
Mzinchaleft: Tiefengewölbe: Mzinchaleft Depths
Bauplan einer verbesserten Armbrust: Dwarven Crossbow Schematic (lit. “Blueprint of an improved crossbow”)
Lähmen: Paralyze
Mzinchaleft: Torhaus: Mzinchaleft Gatehouse
Daedrischer Pfeil: Daedric Arrow
Zwergenmechanismus: Dwarven Mechanism
Düsterklinge: Grimsever
Volkihar-Krypta: Volkihar Undercroft

I found a bit of a translation discrepancy once I made it to Castle Volkihar. The main map called it “Burg Volkihar”. But the gate access point was translated to “Festung Volkihar”.

Interestingly, I don’t think this was actually a bug. I only realized during this playthrough that, technically speaking, Castle Volkihar does have different named zones. “Castle Volkihar”, according to the UESP wiki, is the part of the castle that you go through on the way to Valerica’s laboratory. “Vokihar Keep”, on the other hand, is the part that Harkon’s court actually lives in.

I also noticed a weird discrepancy when I found Sorine. Her full name is Sorine Jurard–but when I reviewed the screenshots for this post, I saw that she was tagged as “Sorine Jurad”. I’m pretty damned sure this is an issue unique to the German build, too. I went back to other playthroughs and doublechecked screenshots, and found at least two examples of screenshots from the same conversation in English, where Sorine was tagged correctly as “Sorine Jurard”.

Isran tells Serana in the English game that she’s not a guest; she’s a resource, an asset. In German, however, he tells her:

Ihr seid Mittel zum Zweck.

This translates to “You are a means to an end.” Another example of the translation not being exact, but still getting the point across.

I actually noted “Zwischenzeit” in a previous post, but I’m noting it here again just because it’s used with a slightly different translation: “meantime”, rather than “interim”.

When you go to the College of Winterhold to ask Urag for a tip on where to find a Moth Priest, he asks you what in Oblivion you need a Moth Priest for. Your response to this is to tell him it’s your own business. And in the English game, he says:

No need to get your breeches in a twist.

In German, however, he says:

Ihr müsst ja nicht gleich aus den Galoschen kippen.

And for the life of me, I cannot find a reference to this on any of my usual translation sources. If I try to translate this via engine, it comes back as:

You don’t have to tip out the galoshes.

And I’m all, whut?

I’m assuming this is basically a German equivalent of the English idiom “get your knickers in a twist” (adapted to “breeches” for Skyrim, of course). But I can’t confirm that. And also, it’s really weird anyway, just because I’m pretty damn sure galoshes don’t exist in Skyrim. This definitely suggests to me a translation team working on this that did not necessarily actually know the lore of the game.

Lastly, I remember that my French playthrough had a discrepancy of translations of Grimsever, Mjoll’s sword. In this session, I only noticed the one translation in German, Düsterklinge–but that was only for the actual sword object when I found it. I didn’t think to check my quest journal to see if there was a translation discrepancy in the German build like there was in the French. Oh well!

Voice acting commentary

Serana’s voice actress in German sounds pretty good! She breaks out of the trend of everybody mostly sounding very even-toned, and has more expressiveness to her lines. Which is good, at least for my ear. <3

But her dialogue is also pretty damned complex, even in the English version of the game. In the German version, it’s full of a bunch of very large German words.

So even though I pretty much know all of Serana’s lines by now, I still couldn’t really parse them in German unless I paid extremely close attention to the subtitles. Which I didn’t mind doing! Because this is after all the whole point for me of playing Skyrim in a language I’m trying to learn.

Harkon’s German actor, likewise, sounded pretty good in his performance!

Dexion’s voice actor made him sound raspier and weaker–to my ear more distinctly so than in the original English lines. I did not notice this in the initial rescue of Dexion, but it stood out for me when he read the Elder Scroll. And I thought that was a nice touch. It helped sell the idea that Dexion was worn out by the reading.

Next time

Finds-The-Way’s next post will feature one of my ongoing favorite bits of the Dawnguard questline, the Soul Cairn!

Screenshots

Sorine's Surprise Name Change — What Does This Even Mean