In Which Finds-The-Way Goes Hunting for Auriel’s Bow

Another round of catchup on my Skyrim playthrough in German, starring Finds-The-Way the Argonian! Main action here: more moving the Dawnguard plot along, running Ancestor Glade, and getting far enough into Darkfall Cave and Darkfall Passage to reach the Forgotten Vale.

Play by play

• Play dates: 8/8-8/9/2024
• Session numbers in this run: 54-55

August 8th

• Didn’t do a real session, just loaded the game long enough to do some inventory managing at Lakeview
• Did assorted bits of crafting, all to try to get some better-enchanted gear for Smithing, which let me finally improve assorted armor and weapons
• Racked Chillrend though because I still couldn’t get it up powerful enough to match Dragonbane
• Also racked the dragonbone bow for now since it’s not doing as much damage as Firiniel’s End

August 9th

• Picked up at Lakeview again, and headed out with Serana to run Ancestor Glade
• Which mostly went as expected, except for the part with the fish, see below, LOL
• Got a bunch of Yellow Mountain Flowers as well
• Once done with Ancestor Glade, hoofed it over to the Dark Brotherhood Falkreath Sanctuary to see if Shadowmere had gone back there; answer: no
• Hoofed it further to get to Evergreen Grove for the other rare fish I still needed
• Killed assorted critters on the way, and got the fish
• Serana raised the dead alchemist in the middle of the lake, because of course she did
• Nabbed nirnroot since it was there
• Marked Bannermist Tower and Hunter’s Rest for the map
• Headed for Rorikstead
• Passed on the road but did not engage:
  • Giant
  • Trio of Imperials (no prisoner) going the other way
  • Trio of Imperials (with prisoner) going the same way
• Reached Rorikstead and took out Nahagliiv
• Rorikstead residents came out to gawk as they do, and also, LOL, the Imperials caught up and stopped to gawk as well
• Made it into the Reach, but the route I’d chosen meant I had a hell of a jump down into the river below unless I wanted to do a lot of backtracking–but that’s what the Become Ethereal shout is for! So used that and jumped
• Proceeded through Karthwasten and on up into the neighboring hills
• Came up behind Dragontooth Crater and got a rare overhead look at the dragon sleeping there
• Was curious to see if I could hit it with the dragonbone crossbow I had; answer: YES
• That pissed it off right good ;D
• At this point though I also noticed I’d lost track of Serana, so I had to fight the dragon alone
• Pegged it hard with crossbow bolts whenever it flew into range, and took care of that problem
• Then did Become Ethereal again just so I could jump down in front of its word wall, finally take it out, and get the boss chest loot and the Shout word for Elemental Fury
• Summoned Arvak as I got overloaded with loot at that point
• Decided my next action was going to have to be trading with the orcs at Mor Khazgur
• Waited a few hours game time for NPCs to wake up, then sold a boatload of stuff to their alchemist, including all my soul husks from the Soul Cairn because not like I’m going to use them again
• Then headed onward to Darkfall Cave
• Killed a couple of sabre cats on the way that I’d eluded while heading to the orcs
• Serana showed up again as soon as I entered the cave, since that’s a zone transition
• Then started running the place
• Made it to Gelebor and got his quest to kill his brother
• Then ran the rest of the place, taking out assorted Falmer as I went
• Reached Prelate Sidanyis at the Wayshrine of Illumination
• Then headed from there into the Forgotten Vale
• Marked it for the map and then stopped there for the night

Commentary

Running Ancestor Glade was almost standard for me this time through, with one exception. I’d discussed with Discord pal Mangouste that Ancestor Glade is one of the spots guaranteed to be a source of rare fish for the Fishing Legend quest–namely, angelfish.

But I forgot to dive into the pond in there to nab the fish I needed until after I did the main play of the area, and took out the Volkihar attack squad.

So Serana was all “What? Did you forget something? Did the Elder Scrolls show you something else?” She did, in fact, throw a line like that.

And all I could do was imagine Finds answering her placidly, “No, I just need to go back and get a fish.” 🤣

Meanwhile, Shadowmere remained AWOL. After running Ancestor Glade, I hoofed it over to the Falkreath Sanctuary to see if he’d returned there for some reason, but no luck.

So I consulted the Shadowmere page on the UESP wiki, which mentioned a bug with Shadowmere disappearing after you summon Arvak, which I did do in the Soul Cairn. And the possibility that he might have shown up at Castle Volkihar. Conveniently, I was headed there!

At Evergreen Grove, where I stopped to get more rare fish, Serana raised the dead alchemist in the middle of the lake. Because of course she did.

Finds: “You know, you don’t have to resurrect every single dead body we come across.”

Serana, primly, “A girl has to keep in practice.”

Dead alchemist: <zombie moan>

I report with satisfaction that for once didn’t actually get turned around while running Darkfall Cave, go me! Guess I’ve run this plot often enough finally that I know my way through! 😁

Language commentary

Interesting terms observed:

• Magickaregeneration senken: Damage Magicka Regen
• Zerstörung verstärken: Fortify Destruction
• Gesundheit senken: Damage Health, but also Lingering Damage Health AND Ravage Health, see below (lit. “lower health”)
• Leichte Rüstung verstärken: Fortify Light Armor
• Ausdauer regenerieren: Regenerate Stamina
• Erzürnen: Frenzy
• Schnittersteinfragment: Reaper Gem Fragment
• Gelbe Bergblume: Yellow Mountain Flower
• Canticumbaumrinde: Canticle Bark
• Ahnenmottenschwärme: Ancestor Moth Swarms
• Ihr wurdet kreidebleich: You were white as chalk/white as a sheet
• Schwarzfallhöhle: Darkfall Cave (lit. “Blackfall Cave”)
• Ewiggrüner Hain: Evergreen Grove
• Nebelbannerturm: Bannermist Tower (lit. “Mist Banner Tower”)
• Jägersruh: Hunter’s Rest
• Drachenzahnkrater: Dragontooth Crater
• Bösartiges Gift der Erzürnung: Virulent Frenzy Poison
• Schwarzfallhöhlennotiz: Darkfall Cave Note
• Großen Dom von Auri-El: Great Chantry of Auri-El
• Ritter-Paladin: Knight-Paladin
• Erzvikar: Archvicar (used by Gelebor to refer to his brother)
• Schnee-Elfen: Snow Elves
• Die Betrogenen: The Betrayed
• Allerheiligste: Inner Sanctum (lit. “holiest of holies”)
• Wegschrein: Wayshrine
• Erzkurator: Arch-Curator
• Blödsinn: Nonsense
• Schwarzfallpassage: Darkfall Passage
• Krug des Initianten: Initiate’s Ewer
• Prälat: Prelate
• Lichtblüte: Gleamblossom (lit. “lightflower”)
• Kettenzüge: Chain hoists (used by Serana when remarking on Falmer traps in Darkfall Passage)
• Seil ziehen: Pull Rope
• Talsäbelzahntiger: Vale Sabre Cat
• Talsäbelzahntigerfell: Vale Sabre Cat Hide
• Giftblüte: Poison Bloom
• Wegschrein der Erleuchtung: Wayshrine of Illumination
• Becken: Basin
• Vergessenes Tal: Forgotten Vale

When reviewing the screenshots for this pair of sessions, I saw something that confused me from the shots I’d taken. I’d used a Skeever Tail and an Eye of Sabre cat to make what the German game called a potion of “Gesundheit senken”.

Now, if you put those two ingredients together in the English game, what you get is a potion of Ravage Health. (Source)

However, if I look up “Skeeverschwanz” on the German version of the Elder Scrolls wiki, I see it listing these two effects:

• Gesundheit verwüsten (Ravage Health)
• Gesundheit senken (Damage Health)

But if I look up “Säbelzahntigerauge“, I see:

• Gesundheit senken (Damage Health)

So the DE wiki seems to think that an Eye of Sabre Cat does Damage Health, not Ravage Health. But I can’t blame this on the wiki, because that’s also what I saw in the screenshot I took.

This smelled like a game translation error to me, so I dug into it a little further by loading up the old save that was just prior to this session. I was able to reproduce the problem. And what I see here is that the German translation of the game apparently used “Gesundheit senken” for all three types of poisons that can damage health: Damage Health, Lingering Damage Health, and Ravage Health.

That seems less now like a translation error and more like a deliberate translation choice. I’m not sure it’s one I agree with, but I could see how they got there. All three of these potion types ultimately do the same thing–damage the target’s health–and the difference between them is just what type of damage they do.

Skeever Tail + Deathbell = regular Damage Health, and here’s the screenshot of the result of my doing one of those:

Skeever Tail + Eye of Sabre Cat = Ravage Health, and here’s that screenshot:

Lastly, here’s a potion of Lingering Damage Health that I already had in my character’s inventory in that save:

So while it’s a trifle confusing to have the same name for poisons that have different effects, I feel it’s reasonable to categorize all three of these things into the same general poison type. It does make for easier translation. And I do wonder if that “Lingering Damage Health” term in particular might have nudged the translators in that direction, given that it would have made for a much longer potion name in German.

Because I’ve worked in software localization, as well as in testing localized web pages and products! And I know in particular that if you’re translating an English piece of software into German, you can absolutely expect a bunch of issues with direct translation overflowing the boundaries of the English UI. So given what Skyrim’s UI looks like in English, I could absolutely see the translation team having to make some choices here that would prevent poison names from getting truncated once they were translated.

I also suspect, but did not have a chance to confirm in Finds’ game, that similar nomenclature may have been used on poisons that damage stamina and magicka. For the damage health poisons, anyway, the key to telling them apart would be to look at the description of what each one actually does.

“Verursacht 23 Giftschaden.” -> “Inflicts 23 poison damage.”

“Verursacht 16 Schaden durch Konzentriertes Gift.” -> “Deals 16 damage from Concentrated Poison.”

“Verursacht 30 Sekunden lang 8 Giftschaden pro Sekunde. Das Ziel ist für 8 Sekunden gelähmt.” -> “Deals 8 poison damage per second for 30 seconds, and the target is paralyzed for 8 seconds.”

In the last case, that was actually a multi-effect poison I’d made, so the first sentence is the relevant one for our purposes. And these translations all match up with the potion types on the wiki.

Moving on from that, I note that Serana, after I read the Elder Scrolls in Ancestor Glade, said this to me in German:

“Ihr wurdet kreidebleich.”

This translates back to “You were white as a sheet” or “You were white as chalk”. Perfectly reasonable translation given that Serana’s original line in English is “You went white as the snow.”

But in either case, it’s still weird given that I was playing an Argonian here. Is it even biologically possible for Argonians to go pale? I mean, I could see blood rushing out of their faces as a stress reaction, as with mammalian humanoids. But would that still have enough of a visual impact on their scales that Serana could actually see it?

(These, folks, are the kinds of worldbuilding questions writers think about!)

I suppose you could make an argument for Serana, a vampire, being more attuned to the flow of blood than mortals? So she could sense this maybe even without a visual factor involved. But that wouldn’t explain why she said “You went white as the snow.”

I was a little surprised at the term “Erzvikar”, which showed up in Gelebor’s mention of my having to kill his brother. It translates to “Archivicar”, not “Arch-Curate”, which is how Vyrthur’s referred to in the English game. Later on in my conversation with Gelebor, I also saw the term “Erzkurator” used, which was more like what I was expecting. So just a bit of translation weirdness there.

Next time

Finds-The-Way’s next post will feature running the Forgotten Vale!

Screenshots