In Which Kendeshel Quests Through Arkngthamz and Lost Valley Redoubt

Short-ish catchup post for my now-completed Kendeshel run in Skyrim. Not too much new to cover here, as most of what I was doing was stuff I’ve run before. But I do have some commentary in here re: trying to find an artifact for Auryen for Legacy of the Dragonborn. By extension, that also covers trying to get into the longhouse in Dushnikh Yal, a thing I hadn’t ever done in previous playthroughs.

No actual spoilers for Legacy of the Dragonborn here though.

Play by play

Play date: 10/1/2024
Session number in this run: 46
Picked up again on the Dev Aveza in Whiterun
Headed out from there on Heimdall, with Lydia and Faelor the wolf
Passed but did not engage:
- Ri’saad’s Khajiit caravan, setting out from Whiterun to head to Markarth
- Old Orc looking for a good death
- Vigilants of Stendarr
- Second spawn of the Old Orc, how many Old Orc are looking for good deaths anyway?
- Second pair of Vigilants of Stendarr
Critters killed:
- Sabre cats (three separate ones)
- Bear
Encountered and did engage:
- Random Dark Elf who’d been fighting the second sabre cat, and who then turned on me
- Vuljotnaak!
- Thalmor execution squad (which, conveniently, gave me a High Elf blood sample for Septimus)
Stopped at the Shrine of Dibella, but declined to follow her when I prayed at the shrine to get the museum display for it
Mined the silver ore vein by Reachwater Rock
Went in and ran the place; Gauldur amulet secured!
Headed back out from there, and aimed for Dushnikh Yal
Passed random Vigilant who’d taken out a bunch of skeletons
Killed usual bear on the way to the Orc stronghold
Passed random Stormcloak courier running the other way
Entered Dushnikh Yal and started talking to NPCs to see if I could get legitimate access to the longhouse; answer, not yet
Moved on to running Arkngthamz
Killed wolves just outside the place
Museum display activated when I went in, yay!
Met up with Katria and ran the place as per previous playthroughs
Got Falmer blood sample, last one I needed for Septimus
Had usual bit of a jam-up of followers on the pipes, LOL
Recovered Zephyr
Got the aetherium shard
Found a displayable book called Magna-Ge Pantheon in the loot
Found Dwemer excavation site and got out again
Proceeded to Purewater Run to talk to Fijeh
Got his instructions to proceed to Karthwasten and Ivarstead
Killed a cave bear
Went to Hag Rock Redoubt to get the pommel of Mehrunes’ Razor
Made it up to Dead Crone Rock via the sneaking route
Looted displayable book The Eastern Provinces off the Briarheart I took out
Took out the hagraven Drascua and got the pommel
Got the word for Dismay off the Word Wall
Found an artifact called Tempus Dominus in the loot chest
Proceeded to Karthwasten, and talked with Josla the Remnant spy
Stopped at Hendraheim to sleep
Passed Gjalrunn from Wyrmstooth on the road, heading over to Lost Valley Redoubt
Took out a mudcrab crossing the river to the redoubt
Found a Nordic excavation site
Then started running Lost Valley Redoubt
Took out the hagravens and got the word off the Word Wall
Also got a museum display!
Got a displayable weapon called Briarheart Geis off the briarheart the hagravens had been trying to create
Recovered Hrolfdir’s Shield from the boss chest
Once done with all that, went over and marked Cradle Stone Tower for the map
Also marked Runoff Caverns
Started the Dwarven Horse quest, though for now didn’t actually enter the place
Boinged back to Whiterun to return to the airship
Airshipped back to Solitude
Checked in with Latoria about her latest round of work on ruined books
Picked up 14K in gold out of the Sales Income strongbox
Put Zephyr and the Ivory and Emerald dragon claws on display
Took a sleep in the Safehouse
Put Bow of the Hunt, Briarheart Geis, Forsworn Staff, Treasure Map XIV, and the books The Eastern Provinces, The Poison Song Vol. 1, and Magne-Ge Pantheon on display

Auryen, old son, that better be one hell of a valuable Orc Doll

This was, I think, maybe the first time where I tried to interact with the NPCs in Dushnikh Yal to any depth. The main goal I had was to try to figure out if I could get into the chief’s longhouse to find that Orc Doll I needed to bring to Auryen–but as it happened, that was a lot more complicated than I wanted it to be.

Turns out that longhouse is usually locked under most circumstances. And you can’t get in there without either picking the lock, or getting a key.

Since Kendeshel’s run was not a Thieves Guild one, I wasn’t happy with the idea of just picking the lock to get in there. If nothing else, that would have been super fucking difficult to pull off with so many witnesses around! There are a lot of Orcs just hanging out in the stronghold in general. And depending on the hour of day, several of the Orcs would also go into the longhouse. Any way you sliced it, I had a high risk of getting caught if I tried to get in via lockpicking.

And it didn’t feel in character for Kendeshel, regardless. Her curator asked her to get an artifact! But that doesn’t mean her mandate included stealing it. Mind you, I’ve since learned that if you have trouble getting an artifact for Auryen, you can go back to him and tell him that, and he’ll cancel the objective to get that artifact and give you another one to look for. But I don’t think I really knew that yet as of when I was running this session.

So I was going to try to get in there legitimately if at all possible. About the only option I had to do this was to befriend Ghorbash the Iron Hand, the only NPC in the place who had the potential to become a follower. I had to get him actively following me, which would then give me access to his inventory, and therefore his copy of the longhouse key.

And yet, I was balking at the idea of just befriending the guy as a follower so’s I could get his key. So at least in this particular session, I didn’t go for it. I came back later, though!

Tempus Dominus artifact

This was a surprise I found at Dead Crone Rock in the boss chest there–an artifact added in by Wintersun, apparently!

According to the Legacy of the Dragonborn wiki, it makes your favor with Daedric Princes diminish 20 percent slower. Nice and all, I suppose, if you’re actively worshipping a Daedric Prince?

For my purposes, though, I called it ‘hey, free extra displayable artifact!’

Gjalrunn as post-Wyrmstooth encounter

Gjalrunn, the enspelled Nord I’d liberated on Wyrmstooth, started showing up again on mainland Skyrim! Took me a minute to remember who he was, when I encountered him in this session. Possibly because when I went past him, he was actually wearing clothes! But also drinking. Snerk.

Presumably, he decided Wyrmstooth was a little too uncomfortable a place for him to linger? Snerk ^ 2.

I feel like he ought to get along real well with the random mead reveler trio! Hopefully Gjalrunn will advise them that it’s not wise to get drunk near bears. Or sorceresses.

Running Lost Valley Redoubt and environs

Not too much different compared to previous playthroughs. Mostly, running that area this time through meant some displayable items for the museum, as well as a Nordic excavation site to dig at.

And this is definitely one of those spots where I’d have to wonder who the hell tried to do an excavation site that close to a bunch of easily pissed-off Forsworn! That seems unwise, even in the name of science! And I can’t imagine the Forsworn being willing to take anything from Auryen in exchange for not shooting at anyone who had the temerity to come close enough to their redoubt to dig for stuff.