In Which Finds-The-Way Goes Netch Hunting

Another post to try to finish off my writeup of Finds-The-Way’s playthrough in Skyrim. This one’s basically side questing on Solstheim, with obligatory German language geekery!

Four sessions left of Finds’ playthrough to cover.

Play by play

• Play dates: 8/17-8/18/2024
• Session numbers in this run: 62-63

August 17th

• Headed out from Severin Manor
• Encountered mage fight near Old Attius Farm
• Teldryn and I took out both mages, though this was honestly mostly on Teldryn and his flame atronach
• Initially found only the first of the two mages to loot, but finally found the pyromancer over by the farmstead
• Headed to Kolbjorn Barrow to run round one of the action in there, and killed all the draugr
• Picked up the skull to trigger the passage into the next part of the ruin, then went back out and paid Ralis his 2000 gold
• Headed over to the Wreck of the Strident Squall to get the folio
• No issues running that, and LOL, Teldryn nabbed a fire staff off one of the reavers
• Got the folio, and the East Empire pendant out of the strongbox there
• Found a bugged Telekinesis arrow on a barrel near the chest with the folio; couldn’t pick it up
• Returned to Raven Rock and gave Cindiri her book back, and resolved her quest
• Sold stuff to Fethis
• Stopped there for the night, short session

August 18th

• Went out from Raven Rock again for more adventuring
• Got another netch hunting party near the farm, and this time i agreed to join them, just to get more netch jelly
• Then moved on, took out some ash hoppers, and a Burnt Spriggan
• Found and cleared Brodir Grove
• This got me another East Empire pendant as well as Stormfang off the reaver leader
• Found Kagrumez, but didn’t run it, since I was more in the mood to run the netch leather armor plot
• Blew a Potion of Waterwalking to get over to the Riekling island
• Picked up objective to go help the Riekling hunting party, or the other alternatives as well
• Stopped at Haknir’s Shoal on the way just to go back and get the Deathbrand piece I’d missed, as well as the East Empire pendant
• Opted to help the hunting party again, as per previous playthroughs
• Killed assorted critters on the way, and a lurker near where the hunters had gathered
• Then helped the Rieklings take down their netch
• Found the unmarked camp with the dead Dunmer after that; got another pendant from there, and also took out the nearby hostile Rieklings
• Found the camp near the Skaal Village with the dead guy and kicked off the stalhrim fur armor plot
• Took the dead guy’s coat and hat and boots
• Headed into the Skaal Village and picked up the quest to find the missing Baldor
• Returned to the netch leather Riekling chief and got access to their chest
• Got the book with the instructions to make the armor and other materials in the chest, including the painted netch leather armor
• Returned to Raven Rock, since boy howdy was I overloaded
• Tried to make a full set of netch leather armor to resolve the quest, but misunderstood some translations
• Wound up making two pieces of the boiled netch leather armor, and four pieces of the regular, so I didn’t have a complete set yet, oops
• Tried a sleep to see if I could get flung over to the Water Stone; answer: no
• So went out into the town and sold stuff to Glover
• Dropped off the netch jelly I’d gathered with Milore, and pendants with Fethis
• Then headed out to rescue Baldor from the Thalmor, and killed a random reaver on the way
• Gathered some ash creep cluster
• Reached the Abandoned Lodge and took out the Thalmor as you do
• Rescued Baldor and got pointer to go get the map back from the Thalmor captain
• Afterwards hoofed it towards the Water Stone
• Headed past Fahlbtharz and marked that for the map
• Went at it with exterior Rieklings, but didn’t bother run the place
• Reached and cleared the Water Stone
• Got cultist and then a dragon as per usual with there, and hurray this time all four sailors survived!
• Then hoofed it northward around the island, and took out a couple of bristlebacks
• Also took out assorted surly Rieklings
• Got the Deathbrand bracers out of the chest
• Marked Bristleback Cave for the map but didn’t go in; no huge reason to go in there
• Reached Northshore Landing, and got the Thalmor captain to agree to fuck off with an intimidate check
• Looted the nearby shack and got another East Empire pendant
• Then went over and got the stalhrim fur armor, after taking out Skjol and a couple of horkers
• Got the rest of the loot there and mined the stalhrim
• Arvak’d back to the Skaal Village
• Checked in with Baldor to get him to teach me how to make stalhrim, and sold him a bunch of stuff
• Got Tharstan to ask me to accompany him to Vahlok’s Tomb
• Did the little plot to tell Edla’s son to not be a dick and abandon his mom
• Picked up the quest to find Wulf Wild-Blood’s brother
• Returned to Severin Manor to drop off a bunch of stuff
• Improved the stalhrim fur armor up to Legendary, and decided to make that Finds’ primary armor for the rest of the run
• (But apparently forgot to do a proper save as I discovered the next session? Oops!)

Commentary

Below decks on the Wreck of the Strident Squall, near the chest that contains Cindiri’s folio and other boss loot, I found a bugged Telekinesis arrow that I couldn’t pick up. And I don’t remember running into this issue before, in prior runs. The UESP doesn’t mention this arrow as a regular item to be found in that dungeon, and neither does the Elder Scrolls wiki. So I’m assuming this was a randomly generated arrow?

I’m not sure why the game wouldn’t let me pick it up, though. I don’t know whether it thought I didn’t have that spell, or whether something else was going on here. The UESP does say that some NPCs might be equipped with Telekinesis arrows that the player can’t obtain, though. Kinda wondering whether one of the reavers I fought on the way in happened to have some, and one of them got fired through the port during the fight, maybe landing on the barrel? I dunno.

Given that he’s capable of summoning a flame atronach, I had to giggle at Teldryn nabbing a flame staff off one of the reavers at the Wreck of the Strident Squall. Dude clearly loves his fire. As I suppose is appropriate, given that he’s a Dunmer!

Speaking of Teldryn, it only just now occurred to me that Finds hiring a Dunmer to guard her back is an in interesting story angle. I don’t think Finds was terribly friendly to any Dunmer. But on the other hand, she also wasn’t necessarily actively hostile to them, either. At least, not enough to dismiss the idea that she’d need someone at her back for as long as she was on Solstheim.

And given how much Teldryn bitches about Solstheim, I kinda suspect he and Finds probably maybe even bonded over that! Because Finds? Definitely not a fan of Solstheim’s ash-ridden hellscape. Or even Solstheim’s cold, non-ashy northern half!

Relatedly, I suppose it’s kind of redundant for an Argonian to actually bother with a Potion of Waterwalking? But I figured that while Finds might be able to breathe underwater, that didn’t mean she wanted to dunk herself into an ice-cold ocean. Even if the Hist gave the Argonians the ability to regulate their own body temperatures, this doesn’t mean it’s fun. At that point, she had to be super fucking tired of how cold it was in the northern half of Solstheim, even more so than regular Skyrim. And it’s pretty fucking cold in Skyrim, so!

Since I’d already decided to skip Ghosts of the Tribunal in this run, I also decided to skip running Fahlbtharz. For my money, there’s not otherwise a huge reason to go in there. I’ve never been terribly moved to get the Visage of Mzund, and this time was no exception.

I’m always amused at how easy it is to make the Thalmor captain at Northshore Landing fuck off. But this is particularly underscored when you’re an Argonian. How weaksauce a Thalmor do you have to be that an Argonian can make you fuck off? LOL.

Lastly, I discovered on the next session I played that I actually forgot to do a save at the end of this one, so I had to re-do some stuff. But more on that in the next post!

Language commentary

Interesting terms observed:

• Pyromant: Pyromancer
• Kryomant: Cryomancer
• Perlenauster: Pearl Oyster
• Bergmann: Miner
• Totenschädel: Skull
• Sackgasse: Dead end
• Einsatz: Stakes, pot (used by Ralis when telling the player that he’ll need to sweeten the pot to get another round of miners to work at Kolbjorn Barrow)
• Ersatz: Replacement
• Die dralle argonische Maid, Folioausgabe: The Lusty Argonian Maid Folio
• Telekinesepfeil: Telekinesis Arrow
• Plündererraufbold: Reaver Thug
• Herzsteinlager: Heart Stone Deposit
• Plündererbeutemacher: Reaver Plunderer
• Das Regenerat: The Reclamations
• Netchbulle: Bull Netch
• Verbrannter Zweigling: Burnt Spriggan
• Brodirhain: Brodir Grove
• Sturmklaue: Stormfang
• Rieklingshäuptling: Riekling Chief
• Netchleder: Netch Leather
• Schleicher: Lurker
• Riesennetchkuh: Giant Betty Netch (lit. “giant netch cow”)
• Riesennetchbulle: Giant Bull Netch
• Leder des Riesennetchbullen: Giant Bull Netch Leather
• Netchkalb: Netch Calf
• Skaal-Dorfbewohner: Skaal Villager
• Skjols Tagebuch: Skjol’s Journal
• Eine Neue Stalhrimquelle: A New Source of Stalhrim (the quest)
• Rieklingsspeer: Riekling Spear
• Bemalte Netchleder-Armschienen: Painted Netch Leather Bracers
• Bemalte Netchleder-Rüstung: Painted Netch Leather Armor
• Bemalte Netchleder-Stiefel: Painted Netch Leather Boots
• Bemalter Netchleder-Helm: Painted Netch Leather Helmet
• Skaalhut: Skaal Hat
• Skaalmantel: Skaal Coat
• Skaalstiefel: Skaal Boots
• Abgedunkelte Netchleder-Armschienen: Shadowed Netch Leather Bracers
• Abgedunkelte Netchleder-Rüstung: Shadowed Netch Leather Armor
• Abgedunkelte Netchleder-Stiefel: Shadowed Netch Leather Boots
• Abgedunkelte Gehärtete Netchleder-Rüstung: Shadowed Boiled Netch Leather Armor
• Abgedunkelter Netchleder-Helm: Shadowed Netch Leather Helmet
• Abgedunkelter Netchleder-Schild: Shadowed Netch Leather Shield
• Abgedunkelter Netchleder-Turmschild: Shadowed Netch Leather Tower Shield
• Abgedunkelte Gehärtete Netchleder-Helm: Shadowed Boiled Netch Leather Helmet
• Gehärtete Netchleder-Rüstung: Boiled Netch Leather Armor
• Gehärtete Netchleder-Helm: Boiled Netch Leather Helmet
• Netchleder-Armschienen: Netch Leather Bracers
• Netchleder-Helm: Netch Leather Helmet
• Netchleder-Rüstung: Netch Leather Armor
• Netchleder-Schild: Netch Leather Shield
• Netchleder-Stiefel: Netch Leather Boots
• Netchleder-Turmschild: Netch Leather Tower Shield
• Du wachst auf und fühlst dich ausgeruht.: You wake up feeling rested.
• Verlassene Hütte: Abandoned Lodge
• Rieklingjäger: Riekling Hunter
• Bürstenrücken: Bristleback
• Todesmalpanzerhandschuhe: Deathbrand Gauntlets
• Bürstenrückenhöhle: Bristleback Cave
• Nordküstenanlegestelle: Northshore Landing
• Soldat der Thalmor: Thalmor Soldier
• Uraltes Eis: Ancient Ice (the quest)
• Werbär: Werebear
• Geschwisterliebe: Filial Bonds (the quest) (lit. “sibling love”)
• Stalhrimfellhandschuhe: Stalhrim Fur Gauntlets
• Stalhrimfellhelm: Stalhrim Fur Helmet
• Stalhrimellrüstung: Stalhrim Fur Armor

Ralis has the following line to the player, after you come to Kolbjorn and clear out the first wave of draugr in the barrow for him:

We’ll have to sweeten the pot a bit, this time. I think I’ll need… say, two thousand septims to hire replacements.

In German, his line is this:

Diesmal müssen wir ihnen den Einsatz etwas versüßen. Ich glaube, ich brauche … sagen wir, zweitausend Septime, um Ersatz anzuheuern.

The first thing that stood out for me about the translated version of the line is the word “Ersatz”. In English, that has the connotation of a thing that’s an inferior knockoff of another thing. But apparently here, it just means “replacement”! And also, apparently there’s no distinct plural form of this noun in German, either. (Source) So it’s just getting used here to refer to the replacements that Ralis has to hire to mine the place.

And secondly, the word “Einsatz” also stood out for me, just because of the similarity to the word “Ersatz”. The closest translation I could find for it was basically “stakes”. (Source) So while I couldn’t find a specific translation of the English phrase of “sweetening the pot”, which at least to my ear has the connotation of gambling, the German translation seems to more or less say the same thing.

I’m amused that the translation of “Reaver Plunderer” itself contains “Plunderer”, or rather, “Plünderer”! Recursive translation is recursive.

I’m confused, however, by the translation of “the Reclamations” (i.e., the Dunmer term for the Good Daedra, after returning to worshipping them after worshipping the Tribunal) to “das Regenerat”. For one thing, it’s definitely not a direct translation. For another, I’m not really finding a good source for what “das Regenerat” actually means. Reverso just points me at an adjective if I try to look up “Regenerat”. (Source)

But based on that, it seems like the idea here is to use “das Regenerat” figuratively, maybe? That the idea of “regenerated material” is being applied here, in the same way that English applies the idea of the deities in question being “reclaimed”?

Next time

Finds-The-Way’s next post will cover re-doing the stuff forgetting to save required me to do. Also, a bunch of side questing (including trying out the quest with the Fork of Horripilation for the first time), and boinging back to Skyrim to take care of Neloth’s briarheart quest!

Screenshots