In Which Elessir Forges the Aetherial Crown

Catchup time for Elessir’s Skyrim playthrough! His playthrough’s actually done, this is just me getting caught up on posting about him. Main action in this run: running the Lost to the Ages content, up to and including finishing off at the Aetherium Forge; killing a whole bunch of dragons; and hunting all over Skyrim for crab meat!

Play by play

• Play date: 8/26/2024
• Session number in this run: 51
• Picked up at Lakeview, and immediately had to fight a wolf as soon as I came out of the house
• Rayya and the (nameless) horse in the Lakeview stable really took care of the wolf for me!
• Wolf was killed right in the garden, WELP I guess that’s one way of fertilizing the soil
• Went fishing at Reachwater Rock to try to get the last underground fish I needed
• Acquired same, and got directive to return to Swims in Riften
• Came out of Reachwater Rock and was vaguely surprised to see the generic Farmer who wants to go to Windhelm standing on a rock nearby; son, you are on the wrong side of the province for that, Windhelm is way east of here!
• Headed towards Markarth, intending to hit Arkngthamz, and passed M’aiq the Liar on the way
• Had to swing back around though because I overshot the trail off to Dushnikh Yal
• Found Arch Pyromancer and Arch Cryomancer fighting near the bridge, and took out both
• Marked Dushnikh Yal for the map
• Heard Orcs talking about hunting but nobody challenged me as we went past, so didn’t try to engage them
• Reached Arkngthamz and got into it with a wolf just outside the ruin, though this was another situation of me not actually killing the critter, I think Rigmor the unicorn took it out? Or either Serana or Lucien, flinging magic ranged attacks around
• Started running the place, pretty much as per previous playthroughs
• With both Serana and Lucien following me, didn’t bother with stealth
• The corridor leading to the pipes was a bit of a problem!
• Got through the rest of the place just fine though
• Got Zephyr
• Actually fucked up the sequence of the tonal lock puzzle, because I’d forgotten the 4 and 5 ones
• But this only triggered spiders attacking! U was surprised that didn’t wake up the centurion
• Corrected the sequence second time through and had no further trouble
• Got the shard, which was the second one for Elessir, and got Katria’s objective to find the rest and meet her at each place
• Successful in doing the jump down off the ledge at the end without landing in the water \0/
• Boinged to Darkfall Cave next as a landmark to get to Deep Folk Crossing
• Took a little derping around to get there
• Found Druadach Redoubt for the map, and fought exterior Forsworn there
• Made it to Deep Folk Crossing and got the next shard
• Boinged to Whiterun to sell stuff
• Learned Banish Undead spell
• Headed out on foot with Serana and Lucien for Raldbthar
• Killed Blood Dragon by Honningbrew Meadery
• This took a bit, it kept flying out of my shooting range, and at least a couple of times it flew over and started blasting the bandits at White River Watch
• Killed another Blood Dragon at the spawn point near Fellglow Keep
• Spotted Hunter and dog nearby
• Killed a third Blood Dragon at Shearpoint
• Finally reached Raldbthar, took out exterior bandits, and got the exterior loot
• Mined silver vein there
• Spotted flying dragon in the distance that was probably Viinturuth, since that direction was Windhelm
• Then started running Raldbthar
• One-shotted Alain Dufont as per usual, and got Aegisbane
• Ran the place pretty much as per previous playthroughs, and of course got overloaded
• But made it down to the centurion
• Waterbreathing enchantment on my gear certainly did help <3
• Took out the centurion and got the final shard, and the rest of the loot on the way out
• Bye Katria, see you at the forge!
• Returned to Lakeview, where Lydia reported skeevers in the basement!
• Lucia asked for a present, so I gave her a dagger, and she ran down into the basement to practice with it–and reacted to the skeevers! She was scared of them, aw
• Took out all the skeevers, then worked on a few pieces of jewelry until I leveled up to 70
• Took Health bump and Dwarven smithing perk
• Then went hunting for crab meat for Gisli’s seafood feast, which required boinging all over the place
• Killed a boatload of crabs, and not a single one of them dropped crab meat
• Also killed a fourth Blood Dragon while doing this
• Eventually got bored with attacking mudcrabs, and boinged to Riften
• As soon as I came in, found a female Riften guard in a fight with a bunch of the male Imperial guards
• They swarmed her, though I gotta say, good on her for going down fighting! I hope she went to Sovngarde!
• Returned to Swims and gave him his fish back, though I had to use the fishery key to get in and talk to him; got the quest for the rare fish from him
• Lots and lots of guards being respectful to me and calling me Dragonborn at this point
• Sold stuff to Bersi in the Pawned Prawn
• Next stop: Dawnstar, by way of boinging to Windward Ruins
• Got cultists at the spawn point near Agrane’s camp; took them out
• Tried to search the beach for mudcrabs, but no joy
• Boinged back to Lakeview and gave Lucia 1,000 gold
• Then went back out again on a fishing run, trying to find more mudcrabs
• This time I tried a circuit around Lake Ilinalta
• Passed Wabbajack madwoman, but didn’t have the Wabbajack on me
• Killed assorted hostile critters
• Talked to the fisherman camped at the end of the lake
• Hit a corundum vein by the lake
• Spotted a randomly wandering duck that seemed to have gotten out of Riverwood? It was a surprising distance away from the village
• Stopped at the Guardian Stones so I could blow dragon souls on the Dragonstone
• Picked up Elven Smithing perk, also Advanced Light Smithing
• Made it to Whiterun, but still no crab meat
• Stopped at Breezehome to grab stuff there, including toys I’d stashed in the chest, now that I had Lucia
• Nobody in Whiterun was selling crab meat either
• Took five rounds of Alchemy training from Arcadia
• Anoriath clued me in I was apparently sick, oops
• Had Bone Break Fever, presumably from that last bear I’d fought; quaffed a Cure Disease potion to clear that up
• Back to Lakeview again, and Lucia hit me up for more gold! Kid, did I not literally just give you 1,000 gold? Did you spend it already?
• Serana got into a weird state in the cellar, where she clipped through the floor at weird angles
• Finally boinged to Bthalft to run the Aetherium Forge
• Fought exterior bandits, and Serana raised one
• Ran the forge as per previous playthroughs; made the Aetherial crown and bid farewell to Katria
• Got assorted loot and got out again
• Boinged back to Lakeview and saved there until next time

Getting past those pipes in Arkngthamz

Every single time I take more than one follower at once into Arkngthamz, swear to Divines, somebody gets stuck on those pipes you have to climb over to get to the Dwemer resonators. This time was no exception!

The corridor to those pipes was tight quarters. And when we fought the automatons there, either Lucien hit Serana with a magic attack, or vice versa. They started fighting each other, and I had to console-smack both of them with StopCombatAlarmOnActor.

After that, a line of Lucien’s got stuck on the screen for a bit, until it finally went away later. So that was distracting, but thankfully also only temporary.

Getting past that bit of pipe was also tricky. Lucien followed me down okay, but I had to invoke the console to unstick Serana. Also thankfully, I know how to move a stuck NPC to me now!

Running Raldbthar

This worked out pretty much as per previous playthroughs, but there were a couple of amusing bits!

One-shotted Alain Dufont, but of course since Serana was following me, she raised him. And it was a trifle disquieting hearing him make zombie noises, since he has the same voice actor as Belethor!

Meanwhile, Lucien threw his line about Neramo in the Second Era being a source of a bunch of his Dwemer knowledge. And hee, I know who that is, of course. <3

Fucking basement skeevers!

After the adventures in Raldbthar, I boinged home to Lakeview–where my housecarl informed me there were skeevers in the basement.

Lyds. Hon. You’re bigger and brawnier than I am. If there was any doubt in your mind, yes, you have my express permission to enter the cellar and kill any skeevers you find. Do I need to leave you appropriate skeever-killing weapons?

Meanwhile, Lucia asked me for a present. So I gave her a dagger, the only thing I had on me that I could give her. She happily ran off to the cellar to practice with it–which meant she also was there to react to the skeevers, which i hadn’t seen happen before!

The kid was actually scared of the skeevers, aw:

I think there’s something in the basement. I’m afraid to go down there.

And, well, kinda legit, the damn things are a pretty significant fraction of her size! Her line about this was a little odd, though, because she said “I’m afraid go down there” literally as we were in the cellar. So looks like either that line was written with incorrect assumptions about when it should trigger, or else I fired off an edge case the game didn’t account for.

It says on the wiki that any NPC that resides in your house can comment upon odd noises coming from the basement. So I think Lucia’s “comment on noises in the basement” scenario must have fired off. But it didn’t account for her already being in the basement, because she’d come down there to practice with the dummy!

Lucien also had a line about the skeevers, heh:

Urgh, look at you. A lovely little bundle of disease with teeth. My favorite.

Who or what do I have to kill to get some crab meat around here? NOT CRABS, apparently

It was surprisingly difficult to find crab meat for Gisli’s seafood feast in this session! I had to hunt around all over the place.

Places I tried:

• The pond right by Lakeview
• Plains by Whiterun
• Stream near Halted Stream Camp
• River heading towards Orotheim and the Crabber’s Shanty
• The beach near Dawnstar
• Circuit around Lake Ilinalta
• Vendors in Whiterun

On Whiterun’s plains, I saw what looked like giants and mammoth fighting some bandits, in the distance. Bodies went flying sky high a couple of times. And I did not go anywhere near the giants. That was definitely not going to get me any crab meat, that’s for damn sure.

Along the river to Orotheim, took out yet another Blood Dragon. And also spotted a strangely non-mobile slaughterfish in the water.

Even the anglers are hearing the news about me!

While going around Lake Ilinalta to hunt for yet more mudcrabs, I talked to the angler who hangs out at the end of the lake. And she threw a line clearly reacting to me saving the world, which I don’t think I’d seen before:

Word is spreading like magefire! The great evil has been vanquished! You have truly saved us all!

Aw, shucks. Yer makin’ me blush.

Tally of people and creatures raised by Serana in this session

1. Alain Dufont at Raldbthar
2. Miraak cultist near Agrane’s camp
3. Bandit at Halted Stream Camp

She got pretty busy with the necromancy this time, LOL.

Other notable Lucien lines

Lucien name-checks Neramo! Who I have of course seen in ESO:

Much of what I know about the Dwemer comes from a Second Era scholar called Neramo – an old family friend, actually, and a personal hero of mine.

Next time

Elessir’s next post is going to feature finishing off all the fishing stuff–and moving on to Solstheim!

I have eighteen more sessions of Elessir’s run to finish documenting, before I can sign off on his playthrough on this blog.

Screenshots