In Which Finds-The-Way Defeats Miraak and Takes a Bride

This is Finds-The-Way’s final post, combining the last three sessions of her run. Main action here is finishing out as much side questing as I felt like doing on Solstheim, taking out Miraak to finish off Dragonborn, and then returning to the Skyrim mainland–and finally finding a nice Argonian lady for Finds to marry!

Play by play

Play dates: 8/21-8/23/2024
Session numbers in this run: 65-67

Play by play details…

August 21st

Picked up again at Severin Manor
Tried sleeping but yeah at this point, done with all the All-Maker stones, so no worries about being randomly teleported away
Headed out again from Raven Rock
Netch hunters by Old Attius Farm
Returned to Kolbjorn Barrow for next round there
Got three of the Ahdizal artifacts since I’d missed the gauntlets the last time, so got those and the two rings
Took out all the draugr and reported back to Ralis, and gave him his 5,000 gold
Moved onward, found a Black Book madman, and took the guy out
His mini-quest pointed me at the Black Book at Tel Mithryn; conveniently, I was going there anyway!
So went there and as expected, got ambushed by ash spawn on the way in
Reported back to Neloth about having taken out the briarheart for him
Got the quest to track down where the ash spawn were coming from
Finally made the Staff of Sheogorath since i had access to Neloth’s staff enchanter now; yay?
Also peeked in Neloth’s Black Book since it was right there, and ran that
Took Mora’s Agony as the perk
Went to the graveyard with Neloth’s tracking ring on, and fought the risen ash spawn there
Took the heart stone and staff out of the sarcophagus
Reported back to Neloth and let him do his scrying about whether Ildari was still alive
Got quest to go take her out for him
Boinged back to Raven Rock first though, and dropped off assorted stuff
Then set out again the next morning
Took out random reaver who attacked me and Teldryn just behind Raven Rock
Found another Black Book madman, who actually pointed me at Tel Mithryn again
Since I’d literally just run that Black Book already, used the console to conclude that mini-quest so I wouldn’t have it still in my journal
Proceeded to Castle Karstaag Caverns to get the bonemold armor formula for Glover
Made surgical strike on the place, got in and out without having to fight any rieklings
Returned to Raven Rock to give that to Glover and resolve his quest
Got access to his cellar and took all the tasty loot, and the letter to Sapphire as well
Dropped off stuff at Severin Manor again
Went back out to hit Highpoint Tower and take out Ildari
Accidentally ported Thistle the Bun to me when I cast the wrong spell
Ran the place pretty much as per previous playthroughs, including freeing the one surviving prisoner
Summoning the Ayleid Lich made for a pretty fast battle with Ildari as well
She even came down to the lower floor to fight the lich and then me, which kept us out of the immediate line of fire of her spell traps, though I still had to be careful about that
Took her out, got her heartstone, disabled the traps, and headed back out again
Boinged back to Raven Rock, sold stuff to Fethis, and stopped there for the night

August 22nd

Picked up again going after the stalhrim source, just because I hadn’t cleared the place yet
Marked Broken Tusk Mine for the map but did not enter or engage
Did have to fight assorted rieklings while trying to make my way to the stalhrim though
Reached the source and fully mined the place
Heard a dragon nearby while doing so
Marked White Ridge Barrow for the map while trying to track down the dragon
Killed a couple of the albino spiders from the nearby shack
Had a bitch of a time actually finding the dragon, because it crashed out of my line of sight, and I was pretty sure I hadn’t actually delivered the final blow
But near White Ridge barrow, finally found a crash path, and then the dragon itself
It was a respawned dragon so I didn’t get a soul off of it, but did loot it for the bones and other loot
Headed back to Tel Mithryn to check in with Neloth and let him know Ildari was dead
Spotted more netch hunters on the way but did not engage
Told Neloth the deed was done and got his gratitude and made a member of House Telvanni
Next up: headed for Vahlok’s Tomb
Fought random rieklings near the unmarked camp again
Ran Vahlok’s Tomb as per prior playthroughs
No issues with the magic bridges this time
Neither Tharstan nor Teldryn fell in or pissed off the shades down in the water, or at least not enough that I had to worry about fighting them
Next up: Thirsk Mead Hall
Decided to run the place in favor of the rieklings just because I like the little blue knuckleheads
Did the first quest to bring back the pet bristleback
Then went hunting for scathecraw, and killed assorted ash hoppers while doing that
Took out the dragon at the very top of that one unmarked location
Had to go all the way back to raven rock because I had trouble finding more of the stuff to pick
That triggered a courier with the final note from Ralis
Sold more stuff to Fethis, then went back to run the last bit of Kolbjorn Barrow
Got the word off the Word Wall in there
Made it all the way to the fight with the dragon priest—and got killed, DOH
So had to do “entering Kolbjorn Barrow for the last time, take two”
Second time through, remembered to bolster my fire resistances properly before going into the battle, and that made things go much smoother
Took out Ahzidal
Decided to let Ralis live again, in no small part because the idea of Finds thinking it might actually be good to recruit him for the Brotherhood made me LOL
Then proceeded to run the Black Book
Took the Secret of Arcana perk (though again, not really pertinent since I didn’t plan to play much more with Finds)
Returned to the mead hall and gave the riekling chief his scathecraw, which provoked the attack on the Nords
Took out all the Nords, then took out the riekling chief, and became chief of the tribe! Yay
Returned to Raven Rock and stopped there until next time

August 23rd

Returned to the Skaal Village and started talking to Storn
Hermaeus Mora took him out, as he does
Headed into the Black Book to take out Miraak
Ran that mostly as per previous playthroughs
Had a bit of a minor scare there as Sahrotaar did not show up when I expected him to
This turned out to have been caused by my not fully unlocking the Bend Will Shout, though, so that was easily fixed
As soon as I unlocked the last word of it, Sahrotaar showed up on cue
Most of the skill books you can find running this Black Book i’d actually read already, but I did get a Destruction point off of one of them
Didn’t bother to try to control Sahrotaar as he flew me off to Miraak, just because I didn’t want to try to parse the German directions for doing so, but eventually got to Miraak and had that final battle
Herma-Mora took him out at the end as he does!
Also did not bother to actually rearrange any of my skill points on the skill trees
Took all of Miraak’s stuff though, and the loot off all three dead dragons
Had final conversation with Frea; bye Frea, may you shaman well
Returned to Raven Rock and cleaned out Severin Manor of all stored stuff in preparation to return to Skyrim
Sold stuff to merchants in Raven Rock on the way out, then Arvak’d back to Windhelm
Picked up the quest from Shahvee to her Amulet of Zenithar back, which pointed me at Lost Knife Hideout
But first, did a huge circuit of selling stuff to assorted merchants in Windhelm
Next: College of Winterhold
Discovered Enthir had a balance of 4000 gold! Sold him a bunch of stuff
Slept in the Arch-Mage’s quarters
Then got up the next morning and bought training from Colette, just to make sure she’d have enough gold balance to buy stuff from me
Boinged next to Hendraheim and dropped off a bunch of the Solstheim artifacts there, since Hendraheim has dedicated space for them
Boinged next to Lakeview
Lucia asked me if I’d brought her something so I finally got to give her a dagger, too
Gave her the one with a paralyzing enchantment, LOL, because I am a good mother ;D
She ran inside and started practicing with it immediately!
Next stop: Whiterun
Sold stuff to Elrindir since I got in late, then sold a bunch of stuff to Mallus at the meadery
Next stop after that: Goldenhills to pick up money from Illia, just to see how high that would push my gold balance
Answer: up over 300K, woo!
Next stop: Solitude
Sold stuff to Gulum-Ei at the Winking Skeever, then, the next morning, to Beirand at the forge
Finally boinged off to Lost Knife Hideout, and basically rampaged through the place
Got Shahvee’s amulet back
Got the other boss loot in the chest but by and large ignored everything else lootable in the place, because I was trying to make a surgical strike on it
Returned to Windhelm finally and gave her the amulet back, with my Amulet of Mara on
But then realized oh right, I had to talk to the priest in Riften before I could propose to her
So boinged to Riften to do that, and sold stuff to Tonilia in the Thieves Guild while I was at it
Talked to Maramal and got him to give me the spiel about the Amulet of Mara
Donated to the temple since that seemed appropriate
Then returned to Windhelm! And proposed to Shahvee!
Sold stuff to Ma’dran since the Khajiit were on site at Windhelm
Returned to Lakeview to get some decent garb to wear for the wedding
Lucia asked me for an allowance so gave her another 1,000 gold
Went with an extravagant robe and the Aetherial Crown to wear, then returned to Riften for the wedding <3
Told Maramal I wanted to get married, and he told me to come back at sunrise the next day, so I had a little time to kill
Went down into the Thieves Guild and gave Sapphire the letter about Glover being her father
Then did the wedding <3
Iona and Gregor showed up, and also, of all people, Belethor, lolololol
Was also surprised to see Neetrenaza, one of the other Argonians from the Windhelm docks
Invited Shahvee to come back to Lakeview to live there with me
(Yes dear, my housecarls are humans and so are the kids, but they’re all right)
Returned to Lakeview, and dismissed Teldryn to send him on his way
(Sorry Teldryn, you were a perfectly acceptable follower, but the Dragonborn doesn’t need your services anymore, ciao. Have fun going somewhere besides Solstheim! Or settling in Riverwood if that’s what you want to do! Stop by and visit some time)
And stopped there, at last, to end Finds’ run <3
Ended with 58 of 75 achievements!

Commentary

Decided to go ahead and combine all three sessions into one post because at this point, I just wanna finish off Finds’ playthrough writeups finally! And just about everything in these last few sessions of hers was familiar territory, even if it was run in German. So let me focus here on the stuff that was more or less new-ish.

Making the Staff of Sheogorath was anti-climactic. I did it just because I wanted to close out the quest. But as noted in my last post, the staff wasn’t terribly useful or interesting to me, despite its tasty enchantment. I’ll still probably run this quest again in any playthrough that includes Legacy of the Dragonborn, just to get the relevant artifacts for museum display. But outside of that context, nah.

Also anti-climactic: running the Black Book in Neloth’s tower. I took Mora’s Agony as the perk off of that, but honestly, what perk I chose didn’t matter much since I knew I wasn’t going to do much more play with this character at the time. It does amuse me, though, that my gut reaction to this power has shifted a bit, now that I’ve started playing an Arcanist in ESO.

I don’t think I’d realized before that if you run into a Black Book madman on Solstheim more than once, he can point you at the exact same random location for another book, even if it’s one you’ve already run.

(And I’d have some questions here for Neloth, given that both of the Black Book madmen I ran into pointed me at Tel Mithryn. And Neloth’s Black Book is not exactly in a place where random people can just walk in on it. Neloth, who else have you been experimenting on?)

For benefit of Future Me, as well as any other Skyrim players who might trigger the same situation, here’s the console command I used to clear the second Black Book quest out of my journal:

setstage DLC2WE06 200

When I hit Highpoint Tower to take out Ildari, I accidentally ported Thistle the bunny to me when I cast the wrong spell. That wasn’t the part that surprised me, though. The surprising part was seeing Thistle immediately run off again, without my doing anything about it! I couldn’t find any mention of this being a known bug on the wiki, though. So not sure what was up with that.

I can’t exactly fault the bun for taking one look at Solstheim and going “nope, I’m out”. Not much in the way of tasty grass to nibble on in southern Solstheim, for bunnies!

On the other hand, given my running theory that Thistle is in fact a disguised Daedra, given the number of hostiles I’ve seen attack it, I could also see my having inadvertently interrupted Thistle on important disguised Daedra business. ;D

Neloth making me a member of House Telvanni was yet another point where I felt the absence of Dwight Schultz’s performance–just because that lack of Neloth sounding full of himself really kinda removed the snark from the whole experience!

That said, I still feel there was a fair amount of snark involved here anyway. Because if there’s anybody who’s going to be straight up “Yeah, no” at the prospect of joining one of the Great Houses of Morrowind, it’s an Argonian.

I don’t think Finds would actually have snarked to Neloth’s face about it, mind you. I’ve always seen this character as fairly laid-back. So at the most she might have said, “How nice,” and then just resolved to never, ever set foot in Morrowind. Neloth might be all right (as arrogant Telvanni master wizards go), but that doesn’t mean she has to trust the rest of his House any further than she can throw daggers at any of them!

This time through I let Ralis live again–but less because of mercy, and more because of the idea that Finds might want to recruit Ralis for the Brotherhood. Not that the game lets me do that, but if it did, she would totally do so.

Ralis: “Of course! I don’t even want to hear the word ‘barrow’ again. Ever. I’ll go to Raven Rock and you… you won’t mention this to anyone. If you see me there, just… give a nod and I’ll lend a hand if you need it. It’s… it’s the least I can do. Just… keep this quiet.”

Finds: “I promise you, I am adept at silence. And if you’re interested… you need not even return to Raven Rock. I could put you to other work. Your technique is crude, but could be refined. You show great promise.”

Ralis: “Promise at… what?”

Finds: <lizard-grins>

For the very last session, I briefly considered running White Ridge Barrow and Benkongerike. As y’all know, I’m a completist gamer. And that tendency made me want the Shouts and the Black Books from both of those spots.

But I ultimately decided nah, just for the sake of going ahead and taking out Miraak, and finishing Finds’ run.

Switching back to Skyrim’s version of Hermaeus Mora, after running Necrom in ESO, really underscores that Mora really is an asshole in Skyrim. Which raises a bunch of questions about whether ol’ Herma-Mora took a turn to being more of an asshole between ESO’s time frame and Skyrim’s.

But then, he’s not entirely benevolent in ESO, either. So this may be more of a question of, whether it simply better served his purposes in ESO’s timeframe to be more benevolent than he is in Skyrim’s.

I still haven’t run West Weald’s plot properly in ESO, so I’ll have to see how he’s handled there!

(But I digress.)

And speaking of Hermaeus Mora, when I headed into the Black Book to take out Miraak, I found I’d forgotten to fully unlock the Bend Will Shout. This was easily fixed, since I did have enough dragon souls for it. Which just goes to show that Mora is clearly less generous with his knowledge than other plot-critical sources of Shouts! You don’t have to use souls to unlock Dragonrend, or the Shout to call Odahviing, or the Shout to summon the hero of Sovngarde. The Greybeards basically give you Unrelenting Force for free, as well as the first word of Whirlwind Sprint. And Paarthurnax gives you a word of Fire Breath, if you don’t already have it unlocked by the time you see him.

But Hermaeus Mora’s all “nope, sucks to be you, you have to learn how to use this Word of Power on your own. Have fun with that!”

I’m not sure how I made it this far in my Skyrim adventures without realizing that if you become Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild, Enthir at the college does get a balance of gold to match all of the other fences. Nice. This is, I think, a function of my not being in the habit of remembering that Enthir is, in fact, a fence. I need to keep this in mind for future Thieves Guild playthroughs!

I decided to take Finds’ playthrough out on a romantic note. Since Finds was an Argonian, I really felt that by and large, she wasn’t likely to be romantically interested in any of the characters she was likely to encounter in Skyrim. Just because the vast majority of marriage candidates in Skyrim’s NPC pool are, after all, Nords. There are a few exceptions, but of these, even most of those are elves.

And there are only three total Argonians you can marry in that set: Shahvee and Scouts-Many-Marshes in Windhelm, and Derkeethus at Darkwater Crossing. Of the three, Shahvee is the only female. So I decided to go with her.

In Shahvee’s available dialogue options, once I reviewed the screenshots for this post, I saw that the game writers clearly hadn’t really accounted for the possibility of the player actually being Argonian as well. Because when you take the dialogue options that let you offer to go get Shahvee’s amulet, even if you’re Argonian, Shahvee talks about “my people”. Not “our people”. And your responses are the same: they involve “your people”, not “our people”.

I wish there’d been a bit of a reword there, for Argonian Dragonborns! I feel like that conversation should have a whole separate course, if the Dragonborn’s also Argonian.

Up until now I’d been used to seeing at most three guests showing up for any wedding I’ve done in Skyrim, but this time I actually got four! Iona and Gregor weren’t surprising, as they were housecarls. I had to LOL at Belethor showing up, too–but I had invested in his store. So maybe that was enough to make that old rascal kindly enough disposed to me to bother to come to Riften for my wedding.

What surprised me, though, was the fourth character I spotted: Neetrenaza. He’s another of the Argonians from the Windhelm docks. I hadn’t actually done anything for him specifically–there is, in fact, no favor quest that involves him. But he showed up at the wedding anyway!

So helping Shahvee maybe also raised his disposition? The wiki doesn’t say if there’s any bug with that on him.

Still, I can also just chalk this up to Neetrenaza being willing to show up as well just because it was fellow Argonians getting married. Even if they were using weirdo Nord customs for doing so.

I’m not sure how long Finds and Shahvee would have bothered to stay in Skyrim, though. Eventually, I’m pretty sure Finds would have wanted to go back to Black Marsh. But I’m sure Finds would have remained long enough to make sure the kids would be able to look after themselves! And she’d have had to make sure all of her various properties were handed off to the various housecarls. And made sure that all of the factions she took over, as well, would have leadership after she left!

If nothing else, she had become the Listener for the Brotherhood, and that was one of her life goals. So she may well have remained in Skyrim for as long as the Night Mother seemed to want her there!

Achievements unlocked

Dragon Aspect: For learning all three words of that Shout
At the Summit of Apocrypha: For finishing the quest of that name
Hidden Knowledge: For learning the secrets of five Black Books
Married: For getting married!

Achievements count as of this post: 58.

Language commentary

Interesting terms observed:

Vocabulary…

Ahzidals Ring der Totenbeschwörung: Ahdizal’s Ring of Necromancy
Ahzidals Panzerhandschuhe des Schutzes: Ahdizal’s Gauntlets of Warding
Ahzidals Ring des Arkanen: Ahdizal’s Ring of Arcana
Kritzeleien eines Verrückten: Scribbles of a Madman
Stab von Sheogorath: Staff of Sheogorath
Schwarzes Buch: Das verborgene Zwielicht: Black Book: The Hidden Twilight
Zauberbuch: Sucher beschwören: Spell Tome: Conjure Seeker
Vor den Zeitaltern der Menschheit: Before the Ages of Man (the book)
Moras Qualen: Mora’s Agony
Neloths Ring der Suche: Neloth’s Ring of Tracking
Ildaris Sarkophag: Ildari’s Sarcophagus
Stab der Besänftigung: Staff of Calm
Gipfelturm: Highpoint Tower
Burg Karstaag: Kavernen: Castle Karstaag Caverns
Knochenrüstungsrezeptur: Bonemold Formula (lit. “bone armor formula”)
Diebesversteck: Thief Cache
Blackguards Handschuhe: Blackguard’s Gloves
Blackguards Kapuze: Blackguard’s Hood
Blackguards Rüstung: Blackguard’s Armor
Blackguards Stiefel: Blackguard’s Boots
Tier teleportieren: Distel: Teleport Pet: Thistle (the spell)
Ildaris Tagebuch, Band I: Ildari’s Journal, vol. I
Telvannirobe: Telvanni Robes
Hinrichtungserlass: Finds-The-Way: Execution Order: Finds-The-Way
Mine Zerbrochener Hauer: Broken Tusk Mine
Stalhrimvorkommen: Stalhrim Source
Weißkammhügelgrab: White Ridge Barrow
Albinospinne: Albino Spider
Albinospinnenhinterleib: Albino Spider Pod
Vahloks Grab: Vahlok’s Tomb
Inschrift: Inscription
Amethystklaue (linke Hälfte): Amethyst Claw, Left Half
Kampfeswut: Battle Fury (the Shout)
Amethystklaue (rechte Hälfe): Amethyst Claw, Right Half
Die Halle der Geschichten: The Hall of Stories
Aufgepasst! Wir haben Gesellschaft!: Watch out! We have company! (Used by Tharstan in Vahlok’s tomb when he’s warning you of incoming hostiles)
Vahlok der Gefängniswärter: Vahlok the Jailer
Methalle von Thirsk: Thirsk Mead Hall
Rieklingsanführer: Riekling Chief
Kielschlamm: Bilgemuck (the riekling pet bristleback)
Rotgras: Redgrass (riekling term for scathecraw)
Göttersprechtanz: Godspeak dance (riekling ritual)
Zyklon: Cyclone (the Shout)
Ahzidals Rüstung der Rache: Ahdizal’s Armor of Retribution
Ahzidals Helm der Vision: Ahzidal’s Helm of Vision
Schwarzes Buch: Filament und Filigran: Black Book: Filament and Filigree
Geheimnis des Arkanen: Secret of Arcana
Knochenlose Glieder: Boneless Limbs (the book)
Forschende Scheren: Delving Pincers (the book)
Spähkugeln: Prying Orbs (the book)
Knirschende Klingen: Gnashing Blades (the book)
Miraaks Schwert: Miraak’s Sword
Miraaks Handschuhe: Miraak’s Gloves
Miraaks Stiefel: Miraak’s Boots
Miraaks Stab: Miraak’s Staff
Miraaks Robe: Miraak’s Robe
Sadris Gebrauchtwaren: Sadri’s Used Wares (the shop in Windhelm)
Hochzeitszeremonien: Wedding ceremonies
Spendenbüchse: Donation Box

This isn’t direct commentary on German terms per se since “n’wah” is a Dunmer word, but here, here’s a line from Ralis in the German build:

Ihr geht und erledigt erneut die Draugr, und ich halte den Rest dieser N’wah davon ab, davonzulaufen.

What interests me here is that “N’wah” is capitalized! Which makes sense in German, just because that language does capitalize all nouns. And “n’wah” is a noun.

I’m unsure about the term “Albinospinnenhinterleib” as a translation for “Albino Spider Pod”. “Hinterleib” appears to mean “abdomen” or “hindquarters”. (Source) And while that seems to be visually accurate, at least if you’re looking at what the Albino Spiders in Skyrim look like, I’m not entirely sure whether it’s in keeping with the intention of what an Albino Spider Pod is supposed to be? “Albino Spider Pod” to me sounds like it ought to be more of a “a spider is going to hatch out of this” thing, rather than “this is the spider’s ass” thing.

But then, I have never paid very close attention to this particular part of the game, as I’ve written about before in prior playthroughs. And maybe Skyrim calling it “Albino Spider Pod” was the best they could do without outright calling it “Albino Spider Ass”.

Alert readers may note this is the second time I’ve called out a translation for “Riekling Chief” in this playthrough. This is because there were two different translations! This is doubtless because the Dragonborn DLC was released long before the Anniversary Edition content was. So it’s not really surprising to me that the mead hall riekling chief has a different translation than the one that shows up for the netch armor plot.