In Which Kendeshel Masters Conjuration and Finds the Aetherium Forge
Double session catchup post for Kendeshel’s now-finished Legacy of the Dragonborn playthrough. Went ahead and did two sessions in this one, just because a lot of what’s covered here is stuff I’ve done before, and if I’d done these as separate posts, they would have been very short!
Play by play
- Play dates: 10/3-10/4/2024
- Session number in this run: 48-49
October 3rd
- Found Madras in the planetarium in the museum, and agreed to bring him more supplies to help build out more parts of the planetarium
- Airshipped down to Whiterun
- Found Farkas and turned in my quest with him
- Then got the quest to clear Farkas of his wolf blood
- Agreed to go with him back to Ysgramor’s Tomb
- Airshipped to Winterhold, but HELLO REVERED DRAGON
- Took it out just outside the town
- Then boinged over to Ysgramor’s Tomb and cleansed Farkas’ spirit
- Returned to Whiterun and found Vilkas, and got the quest to cleanse him, too
- Also got quest to take out some bandits for him
- Found Lydia at Breezehome and got her back on active duty, along with Faelor the wolf and Thistle the bun
- Headed over to Raldbthar
- Took out two dragons on the way; I think one was maybe at the spawn point near Fellglow Keep, and the other was Shearpoint? Screenshots didn’t show
- Passed Imperial squad without a prisoner
- Reached Raldbthar and started running the place
- One-shotted Alain Dufont as you do
- Got Sneak bump off a skill book
- Made it through to the end, and got the fourth aetherium shard
- Got objective to meet Katria to find the Aetherium Forge
- Headed on down to Bthalft
- I’d already cleared the place, but bandits had respawned, so did have the usual bit of a fight before I could get into the forge
- However, ran the place and took the lift down to the forge
- Got museum display when I came off the lift
- Found Dwemer excavation site as well
- Made the crown and bid farewell to Katria
- Looted the place on the way out, and found a displayable book for the museum, Guylaine’s Architecture of the Second Empire, and other books as well
- Boinged to Ivarstead, and LOL, my horse spawned in the air and dropped me down onto the roof of the inn 🤣
- Got courier with Letter From Muiri, thanking me for killing Alain Dufont! And offering a reward
- Talked to Sirayar in front of the inn to move the Remnants plot further along
- Boinged back to Whiterun
- Sold stuff to Belethor, and invested in his store
- Also invested in Arcadia’s shop and Warmaiden’s
October 4th
- Picked up again in Whiterun
- Airshipped over to Riften
- Went to the graveyard and had final encounter with the Stranger to get the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal
- Went to the fishery and followed up with Viriya about the mudcrab situation and the necromancer
- Got the Alik’ri Fishing Rod from her
- Also got the bounty to go take out the horker near Windhelm
- Airshipped over to Windhelm to do that
- Picked up Vernandi the Windhelm horse, and rode over to the horker
- Killed snow bear on the way
- Found a Shrine of Shor
- Took out a nearby bandit
- Then prayed at the shrine to activate it, though I didn’t actually elect to follow Shor
- At this point, realized I didn’t actually have an Arctic Grayling on me to attract the horker ;P
- So went back into Windhelm to try to fish at the dock, and got a fish
- Vernandi leveled up via Convenient Horses, so put a point on her Strength
- Put the Arctic Grayling down to attract Fangtusk, and then killed him
- Headed south to Steamcrag Camp
- Went past Aventus Aretino on the way; I think he was going down to visit the orphanage! Nice to see the kid actually out in the sunlight
- Took out a dragon and a cave bear; I think the dragon was the Bonestrewn Crest dragon?
- Found Bonestrewn Crest and got the word for Frost Breath off its Word Wall
- Returned to Windhelm; gave a gold piece to Silda the Unseen
- Turned in that bounty with the steward at the Palace of Kings and concluded the quest
- Airshipped to the College of Winterhold
- Slept on board the airship
- Summoned Daedric horse and then fast traveled over to Septimus’ outpost
- Gave Septimus the essence extractor full of samples
- Got to the Oghma Infinium, and Septimus go poof
- Took the essence extractor back since it’s displayable in the museum!
- Took the book and had convo with Hermaeus Mora
- Selected the Path of Shadow when reading the book
- Leveled up to 66 and a fair bit of the way to 67
- Took Physician perk in Alchemy
- Septimus had a displayable copy of Boethiah’s Proving on his bookshelf, so I took it
- This gave me an option to follow Boethiah which I declined
- Also got the objective to go find her shrine
- And realized I didn’t actually want that objective in my journal, so I rolled back a bit and re-did getting the Oghma Infinium
- This time through, took the Path of Might instead
- Again leveled up to 66, and took Physician perk in Alchemy
- Boinged back to the college
- Visited the Atronach Forge and made the spellbook for Conjure Ayleid Lich
- Took training in Destruction with Faralda
- Talked to Phinis about the Conjuration mastery quest
- Got objective to summon the dremora on top of the Hall of Attainment
- Talked to Tolfdir about the Alteration mastery quest
- Got the objective to get him dragon heartscales
- Found and read the notice about missing apprentices
- Talked to Phinis about that to get the quest to locate them
- But first, went up onto the Hall of Attainment, summoned the dremora, and kicked his ass to get the sigil stone–or tried to, because HE ATTACKED THISTLE THE BUN
- So rolled back a little and dismissed Thistle
- Then successfully summoned the dremora again, and this time got the sigil stone
- Went back to Phinis and got him to give me the spell
- Airshipped back to Solitude
- Slept, and then started putting things on display
- Parked the Gray Cowl in the Daedric wing
- Also displayed replicas of the various Aetherial Forge items you can make, assorted books, the replica of the Oghma Infinium, Aegisbane, a Dragonscale Ebonsteel Cuirass, the Sigil Stone, and the Essence Extractor
- Built display for Frostbite Spiders in the Natural Science wing
- Dropped off more Ruined Books with Latoria
- Left off there until next time
The Path to the Heavens quest for the planetarium
This session was, I think, the first in which I followed up with Madras after bringing him the initial planetarium supplies. At this point and after, it took a few more rounds of my bringing supplies in and doing building work on the planetarium myself in order to finish it all up.
So very similar idea to building any of the Hearthfire houses. I think I would have enjoyed it more, though, if the planetarium area hadn’t been so damned dark. I’ll be interested to see how this plays out in version 6 of Legacy, which I’m now running in my Tuxborn playthrough.
Also, I was legit confused that the planetarium to be built is actually inside the museum–not the one at Karagas’ Tower. Because there is a whole ruined planetarium room in the tower, too!
But there’s no apparent quest to clean that tower up. The actual living areas are in decent shape when you initially find the place, but there’s a large side room with what looks like a ruined planetarium in it. And as far as I know, there’s no way to actually renovate that planetarium.
Having it be in the museum makes the best sense, to be sure. But I feel like Kendeshel would have been all “hey, can I rebuild this other planetarium in the tower? Or at least, harvest that room for parts?”
Side thought about Viriya and her Alik’ri Fishing Rod
It occurred to me while writing this post that Kendeshel was a Redguard, and so is Viriya. So it hits a little different when Viriya gives you her father’s fishing rod, if you are also a Redguard!
Also, since I do in fact semi-regularly visit the Alik’r Desert in ESO, and I know where its fishing spots are, this raises fun questions too about where her father actually did his fishing! Presumably at Sentinel or maybe Tava’s Blessing? Or any other settlement along the coast.
Though possibly he might also have fished at any oasis in the desert with enough of a water supply to maintain fish! There’s one of those in ESO, too.
Kendeshel would definitely have appreciated such a gift from a fellow Redguard, anyway. ❤️
Aventus has very interesting ideas about what assassins actually do
I think this was maybe the first time I ever actually saw Aventus Aretino outside his family house in Windhelm? My passing him near Steamcrag Camp was–I think–an encounter that can be triggered if Aventus goes down to visit the orphanage in Riften. He’s supposed to do this in the vanilla game, but doesn’t. And the USSEP fixes this. But I don’t recall running into him before in my other modded runs; I don’t think Harrowhark or Shenner or Elessir ever saw him outside.
Which, heh, at least the kid actually got outside for some fresh air and sunshine. Yay?
But I’m not entirely sure how Kendeshel actually handled the idea of his being all “I’m going to be an assassin just like you when I grow up!” I suspect this probably called for her taking the kid aside to the nearest place to sit down, leveling with him, and making sure he understood that she was not, in fact, a member of the Dark Brotherhood. But that she helped him anyway because it was the right thing to do. And maybe even giving him back the money for selling the plate he gave her, just so he could have it to actually buy food or something! Or, hiring somebody to help him actually clean up his family house.
Heh. I also suspect Kendeshel probably alerted her housecarl Calder (since her run did include getting to be thane of Eastmarch) to keep an eye on the kid for her. Give that boy a good male role model to look up to!
Dremora hate bunnies, apparently
Had another instance of a hostile creature attacking poor sweet Thistle the Bun, when Kendeshel ran the Conjuration mastery quest! Her summoned unbound dremora was totally uninterested in attacking her at first. Maybe he thought the bunny summoned him? 😀
I stand by my theory that Thistle is a Daedra Lord.
Kendeshel and Hermaeus Mora
This was, I think, the first point at which Kendeshel was seriously tempted by Hermaeus Mora. ‘Cause the whole “access to all the knowledge” thing has got to be tempting for somebody with a scholarly mindset. Which is of course probably Hermaeus Mora’s entire point. And that’s extra creepy as well now that I’ve encountered the Hushed in ESO!
So that’s a pointed little reminder that even the seemingly more benevolent Daedric Princes are not to be trusted.
And that’s also a fun little thought: how much knowledge from Apocrypha, exactly, would a Dragonborn have to slurp up before they succumbed to the Hush? We see madmen running around Solstheim who broke after exposure to one Black Book. The Dragonborn can find up to seven of the things, with no impact upon them. More, if you’re running any mods that include Black Books!
Miraak certainly hung in there without going all Hushed, and he was in Apocrypha for a hell of a long time. You can make a decent argument that Miraak isn’t exactly a paragon of sanity; he is, after all, megalomaniacal AF. But that’s not the same thing as one’s entire self being obliterated by the thirst for knowledge!
So the thought of how much knowledge it would take to break a Dragonborn and throw them into the Mush is, indeed, creepy AF. Shades of Sauron and the Nazgul, amirite? Because it’s really the same idea: mortals giving in to the desire for power (and knowledge is power), and being consumed by it!
Next time
Kendeshel’s next post will feature getting Kahvozein’s Fang at Skyborn Altar; a lot of action in Markarth, including the Forsworn Conspiracy and becoming Thane of the Reach; kicking off the Much Ado About Snow Elves plot for Legacy of the Dragonborn; finishing off the Remnants plot; recovering a stolen weapon for Vilkas of the Companions; cleansing Vilkas of his wolf blood, as well as cleansing her own; and tracking down what happened to those missing college apprentices.
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