In Which Kendeshel Slays a Spider and Stops a Conspiracy

Finally dropping another post to try to get caught up on Kendeshel’s now-completed Legacy of the Dragonborn v5 playthrough. Not a whole lot specific to LOTD in this session, though; it was mostly about running the Forsworn Conspiracy, and also finishing up the Interception quest with the Remnants.

Play by play

Play date: 10/5/2024
Session number in this run: 50
Headed out again on the Dev Aveza to hunt down Kahvozein’s Fang at Skyborn Altar
Took out multiple frost trolls, since I landed at Labyrinthian to get there
Got the Fang! And also the Word for Frost Breath off the Word Wall there
From there, headed off to Markarth
Turned in his father’s shield to Jarl Igmund and got permission to buy property in Markarth
Also got his pointer to become thane (and a suit of Glacial Crystal Heavy Armor)
Bought Vlindrel Hall on the spot
Also bought all the decorations
Went to go talk to Calcelmo and invested in his business
Got quest to go take out Nimhe the spider
And did so! With help of dremora lords and also Lydia
Got the note beside the dead Imperial up on the platform
Started running Nchuand-Zel (and noted a Dwarven Spider display being added to the museum)
Leveled up to 67
Found all the journals in Nchuand-Zel, and also its Dwemer Excavation Site
Got another perk point off of excavating, and lifted Archaeology skill to 55
Unlocked the Locate Relic Power
Found a couple of displayable artifact, a Dwemer Platinum Mark coin and a Dwemer blade called
Mhaznier
Returned to Calcelmo to let him know Nimhe was dead, and also what I discovered about the lost expedition in Nchuand-Zel
Then went to Vlindrel Hall to settle in for a night’s sleep
Got up the next morning and launched the Forsworn Conspiracy
Donated a gold piece to Degaine while doing so, just for the thaneship
Also invested in Lisbet’s shop
That got me enough favors done to go back and get thaned up, yay!
Unlocked the thane display for Markarth and got the Warhammer of Markarth
Then went to go talk to Muiri about having killed Alain Dufont, and she paid me a reward
Then picked up again running the Forsworn Conspiracy
Ran this pretty much as per previous playthroughs, but see below for additional commentary
Ran the side task to get a shiv in exchange for a bottle of skooma
Passed Persuade check to make it past Borkul the Beast
Argued with Madanach about not needing his help before I finally agreed to help him
Played through up to the escape, and got all my stuff back
Got the Armor of the Old Gods
Let the Forsworn rampage their way out
Meanwhile, nabbed displayable Markarth guard armor pieces off one of the casualties
Got a courier with a note from Calcelmo, which kicked off Much Ado About Snow Elves, which is Legacy of the Dragonborn content
But first, retreated to Vlindrel Hall to sleep and do an inventory check
HI ARGIS
Got up the next morning and sold stuff to Lisbet
Then went to go chat with Calcelmo about his note
He gave me some research notes he wanted me to study, which gave me three leads for fetch quests to do
But first, got back on the Dev Aveza and returned to the museum in Solitude
Checked in with Latoria about what she found from the last round of ruined books
Put assorted things on display:
- The Warhammer of Markarth
- Markarth guard armor pieces
- Dwemer Attunement Sphere
- Mhanzier from Nchuand-Zel
- All of the pieces of the Armor of the Old Gods
- Dwemer Engraving Tool
- The shiv from Cidhna Mine
- The Dwemer Platinum Mark I found in Nchuand-Zel
- A Jeweled Flagon
Got 6,356 septims out of the Sales Income strongbox
Got Snippy following me again
Slept at the Safehouse and got up in the morning to visit Solitude merchants
DRAGON! Took it out right in front of Bits and Pieces
Sold stuff to Heimvar at the forge
Headed into the Temple of the Divines to talk to Freir about the Dwemer god Xrib
She claimed she hadn’t heard of Xrib before but I got a prompt to make a temple donation for 500 gold, snerk
This gave me a quest marker to find a particular book nearby, which let me actually just take it rather than steal it
Got prompt to return to Calcelmo to ask him about that book
Then headed to Irkngthand, thinking I’d start in on the artifacts for this plot, but got distracted by dragon at Shearpoint
Was amused to see I could sneak up on that dragon!
Returned to Whiterun because overloaded from dragon loot
Found Khajiit on site and sold stuff to Ri’saad
Then decided I was more in the mood to run the rest of the Interception quest
Headed to Purewater Run and talked to Fijeh there
Got objective to meet up with the scouts near Sunderstone Gorge
Also got the Remnant gear out of the chest
Went to Hendraheim to get nearby to the scouts
Found Forsworn vs. Peddler encounter on the way but didn’t get there in time to save the peddler
Played through the encounter to free the hostage and fight the Forsworn
And a passing bear tried to get in on that action, so we took him out too
Got Boneshaver, displayable artifact for the museum!
Returned to Purewater Run to check in with Fijeh, spotted random Imperials on the way in
Next decided to hit Robber’s Gorge to finish the Companions quest to recover a steel warhammer
Heh, conjured Ayleid Lich actually raised a Bandit Outlaw
Returned to Whiterun so I could turn in that quest
Sold stuff at Warmaiden’s
Turned in the quest with Vilkas
Finally got his quest to purify his wolf blood
Headed off on the Dev Aveza to get to the College of Winterhold
Then took Vilkas into Ysgramor’s Tomb to make with the de-wolfing
Returned to the college
Tried to get Restoration training but saw Colette couldn’t train me any higher, though I was at 74
Talked to Urag for another of the stages of the Much Ado About Snow Elves quest
Spent 5 skill points off of Malrus’ Codex
Headed to Journeyman’s Nook and got Borvir’s Dagger
Also got Rundi’s Dagger
Stopped at Birna’s shop in Winterhold
Got the Coral Dragon Claw from her
Then headed over and got Yisra’s Necklace from the spot where she died, near Yngvild
Stopped there until next time

Once more through the Forsworn Conspiracy

This time through, running the Forsworn Conspiracy, I got thaned up before the guards nabbed me. And, at this point, I’d already killed Alduin and taken out the Dark Brotherhood. Both of these came up in random guard dialogue while I was going around Markarth doing stuff:

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

And:

You’re the one all the guards are talking about. You went into that Sanctuary… wiped out the Dark Brotherhood! Friend, I owe you a drink.

Which I feel makes for a somewhat odd RP situation, given that the Markarth guard force of course framed me for murder and threw me into Cidhna Mine! One presumes that not every single guard in Markarth was in the Silver-Blood’s pocket? Or else a couple of them put up a real good front about being impressed by me while also being willing to frame me for murder. Snerk.

Not to mention that at this point I was also now thane.

My money’s on maybe not every single guard in the guard force being corrupt. And maybe the ones who were not giving a flying fuck about who the Jarl decided to make thane, as long as the Silver-Bloods were lining their pockets.

I hadn’t figured out as of this playthrough that you don’t have any way to get Thonar Silver-Blood to recruit you to take out Madanach for him, even if you volunteer. But I did try!

But I had solidly established that you can go back to Eltrys between the various stages of the investigation, just to get additional gold out of him as you report back to him on your findings. And I’m actually a little ambivalent about that! On the one hand, it seems appropriate to periodically check in with Eltrys to keep him informed. On the other hand, it seems every time you enter the Shrine of Talos, that’s another opportunity for somebody to spot you going in there. Not exactly subtle, if you’re trying to investigate an ongoing conspiracy!

And, also, it’s not like a level 67 Dragonborn really needs Eltrys’ money!

Once I got thrown into Cidhna Mine, of course my usual objections to how feasible this actually is apply. Because at this point, not only was I a level 67 Dragonborn with a fuckload of Shouts in my repertoire, I was also a powerful mage with the ability to summon an entire trio of atronachs or Dremora Lords. It should have been trivial to break out of there.

Now that I’ve played Project AHO a couple of times and have seen how that plot uses amulets to constrain the slaves in Sadrith Kegran, it makes me legit wonder why the guards in the mine don’t have something similar to constrain prisoners.

Which brings up another point here for RP purposes: I’d played Project AHO in Kendeshel’s run to have specific impact on her and how her RP proceeded from there. Being thrown into slavery was trauma, yo. And even though Kendeshel was quite powerful as of this session, that didn’t mean that trauma was completely gone. I can only imagine it bubbling up in the back of her mind again as she got thrown into the mine.

In fact, I can easily see it probably being for the best that nobody actually tried to put any kind of will-constraining amulet or ring on her. Because it would have legit been a narrative option for her to flip the fuck out at that point, and Fus Ro Dah the offender right into the nearest wall.

With the particular set of mods I was running in this run, I still had no option in play to break out of the place other than what the vanilla plot provides. So I must consider here that Kendeshel managed to keep control of herself, even though her old trauma started shrieking in her nerves, because she was well aware by this point that she did have enough power to rampage through Markarth if she saw fit. And that it wouldn’t actually get her anywhere.

Even a level 67 Dragonborn can be taken down, after all, with one well-aimed crossbow bolt.

And given that she’d just been made thane and that none of the corrupt guards seemed to give a fuck about this, I can also play with the narrative ideas here that Lydia (original housecarl) might well have gone running to Argis (new housecarl) to figure out the proper course of action to take to deal with this. Kendeshel could have made herself keep her shit together by telling herself that Lydia was still in Markarth and could hopefully act on her behalf. And that she could very likely yell loudly enough about the situation that Jarl Igmund would surely have to notice if his brand new thane had just been thrown into Cidhna Mine!

Borkul the Beast: what’s his story?

Meanwhile, here’s a fun side question: why the hell does Borkul the Beast give a fuck about the Forsworn? He’s an Orc.

Here’s what I know about the Orcs in the Reach:

The Reach includes two strongholds, Dushnikh Yal and Mor Khazgur
The strongholds are known to be super insular
The Forsworn are known to be hostile to pretty much everybody that isn’t a Breton, one would therefore presume that extends to Orcs?
Orcs not associated with the strongholds are often soldiers for the Empire

I can legit see an argument either way as to whether the strongholds would be for or against the Forsworn. On the side of for, I can see the Orcs absolutely being sympathetic to a people trying to reclaim their own land; that’s certainly all over Orc history. But on the side of against, I could also see the Orcs wanting to keep their heads down given the upheaval of the Skyrim civil war.

Of course, we don’t know a damned thing about Borkul in particular. He might not be from any of the Orc strongholds in Skyrim. He might be a bandit that fell in with the Forsworn. He might be an Imperial deserter. We just don’t know!

But it’s a real interesting question. I wonder how Madanach gained his loyalty!