Final thoughts on Finds-The-Way’s Skyrim Run

And now that I’ve just finally posted Finds-The-Way’s last actual playthrough post, here’s the wrapup post for her run, which I can finally now archive.

Favorite follower

I’ll go with Teldryn Sero, just because he was a last-minute impulse follow, on the grounds that I hadn’t actually ever run him before!

Favorite city

I think for Finds, I’m going to have to go with Riften. Just because of all the places in Skyrim, it does have the highest number of Argonians. And since it’s right there on a lake, there’s a nice amount of water around for an amphibious species.

Favorite Daedric quest

My personal favorite Daedric quests are pretty well established at this point: Meridia’s and Nocturnal’s. For this particular run, that swings over in Nocturnal’s favor.

Favorite non-Daedric plot

Heh, I think for Finds, I’ll have to go with Swims-In-Deep-Water’s side of the Fishing quests. Just because fellow Argonian.

Favorite armor

For Finds, that’s pretty much this: “Anything where the helmet actually fits my head. Stupid Nords and their stupid hornless heads!”

Favorite weapon

I don’t think any particular weapon stood out for me this run? I have my established favorites in this category too, at this point.

Favorite named dragon

The selection is slim in an unmodded playthrough. But honestly, kinda gotta go with all of them. I think more than any other Dragonborn I’d played to date, Finds was prepared to be a lot more sympathetic to every single dragon she met! Well, at least, the ones who weren’t actively trying to kill her.

Things I actively disliked

Not actually coming up with anything for this category. Unmodded playthroughs are a known quantity to me at this point, so nothing particularly stood out for me here.

Things I wish I’d done differently

It was probably not the wisest choice in the world to run the Dark Brotherhood for the first time in a German playthrough, heh. It took me out of the moment a lot to have to constantly refer to the wiki to look up dialogue, rather than just pay attention directly to the characters.

This is what I get for my German not being as solid as my French.

Likewise, it was probably similarly unwise to take on a follower I’d never run before in an English playthrough! Because I had to look Teldryn’s dialogue up a lot, too.

Both of these, though, are probably signs of my really needing to reach a bit to find stuff I haven’t done before in Skyrim. At least unmodded.

And now, some stats

• Finds did not break Kendis’ record for most gold I’d ever had in my inventory at once. But she still had a very respectable 362,169 gold in her inventory as of her last session!
• She was thane of all the holds except Eastmarch.
• She owned the following properties:
  • In Whiterun Hold: Breezehome, Tundra Homestead, Goldenhills Plantation
  • In the Rift: Honeyside
  • In Falkreath Hold: Lakeview Manor
  • In Winterhold: Bloodchill Cavern
  • In Haafingar: Proudspire Manor
  • In Hjaalmarch: Windstad Manor, Myrwatch
  • In the Pale: Heljarchen Hall
  • In the Reach: Hendraheim, Vlindrel Hall
• She was a member of the Bards College in Solitude
• She was Arch-Mage of the College of Winterhold
• She was the Listener for the Dark Brotherhood
• She was the Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild

Finds-The-Way definitely upheld my standard practices of either one-handed sword + spell, or else dual-wielded daggers. I tried to give a greatsword a fair shake with her on Solstheim, but it just didn’t feel right for her, even aside from Skyrim greatswords feeling clunkier to me to use than the ones in ESO.

Her run lasted for 385 days in-game.

Finds finished out with 8 total murders in her stats. Not surprising, given that she was an assassin.

And twenty trespasses. Well, she was not only an assassin, she was also a thief.

Skill trees video!

And, stats video!

Other commentary

Overall, playing an Argonian was a pleasant surprise. I very much appreciated that it made certain parts of the game a lot easier, since I was able to breathe underwater. This meant that pretty much any part of the game where I had to go diving, and where I’d normally have had to care about a waterbreathing spell or potion, was a cakewalk.

It was also fun trying to look at Skyrim and its Nord population through Argonian eyes, even the parts where I couldn’t help but feel Finds would get frustrated at how many helmets in Skyrim just were not suited in the slightest for a head with horns. And also, these northern barbarians have absolutely no concept of how to market to her people for proper scale care.

Last but not least, it was a challenge coming up with a backstory that I could accept, for actually playing the Dark Brotherhood. I’m pretty satisfied with where I landed on that, with Finds as a Shadowscale and devout follower of Sithis, who was willing accept the decrees of the Night Mother to send targets into the Void in exchange for the power to defend the world from Alduin.

I didn’t feel quite as engaged by German Skyrim as I did French Skyrim. This was perhaps a difference in how the German voice actors presented themselves? Or more properly, how my ear, attuned to the English build of the game, interpreted how they came across.

But that said, I still very much enjoyed experiencing Skyrim in German! And took great glee in looking for the longest German nouns possible.

Next time

This concludes my writeup of Finds-the-Way, and with this post, I’ll move her run down into the Archived part of the playthroughs.

I’m still working on getting caught up on Elessir and Kendeshel’s posts, though both of their runs are done as well. So I’ll be moving on to getting caught up on Elessir next!