In Which Delga Becomes Thane of Falkreath and Gains Dawnbreaker and Breezehome

This was a very busy session, featuring the acquisition of Dawnbreaker and the Masque of Clavicus Vile, becoming thane in Falkreath, making significant inroads on becoming thane in Riften, and last but not least, acquiring Breezehome in Whiterun.

Highlights

Play date: 11/6/2021
Session number in this run: 8
Started running Meridia’s temple with Barbas and Lydia
As expected, Barbas was very useful
Although he is also annoying with how he keeps pushing into me when he moves, and displaces me when I’m not expecting it; QUIT IT, DOG
Leveled up to 18, and took another Archery perk
Dawnbreaker achieved!
Fast traveled to Haemar’s Shame so Lyds and Barbas could catch up
Returned Barbas and the Axe to Clavicus Vile
Got the Masque
Fast traveled to Western Watchtower to go back to Whiterun and buy Breezehome!
Flyby dragon!
Got late into Whiterun
Tanned a little leather at Warmaiden’s
Sold a few things to Elrindir
Went to crash for the night at Jorrvaskr
Got up the next morning and sold a couple of staves to Belethor
Bought Breezehome 😀
Also bought loft decorations for it as that’s all I had gold for
Got a new bounty from the steward to take out bandits at Redoran’s Retreat
Blipped over to Falkreath
Sold jewelry to Solaf in Gray Pine Goods to build gold back up
Bought some ingredients from Zaria
Sold some potatoes to Mathies to finish up the helping people in Falkreath quest
Rented a room at the inn to crash for the night
Reported in to Siddgeir; Falkreath thaneship achieved!
HI RAYYA! Sit tight, I gotta go make enough gold to have a place for you to actually guard
Headed east towards Ivarstead to try to find three more bears
Passed dead giant frostbite spider
Engaged four bandits, killed three, fourth one ran off? Or else was killed by Lydia and I couldn’t find his corpse
Found an unmarked location that must have been their camp nearby; looted the camp
Engaged three more bandits (triggered by breaking into the chest, apparently)
Cut through Helgen without incident
Iron ore vein
Killed a bear outside Honeystrand Cave, and two more in the cave
Cleared the cave and looted a chest and dead bandit in there; 10 bear pelts acquired
Returned to Ivarstead and gave Temba her bear pelts; she gave me an enchanted axe for my trouble
Started following the river east from Ivarstead to look for nirnroot
Ran into hostile Wood Elf on a bridge and took out his familiar, then him
Couple of wolves, I killed one, I think lyds killed the other but I was overloaded, so didn’t go back to check as I kept tromping to Riften
Took out giant near Largashbur
Would have checked out stronghold except see previous commentary re: overloaded
(Hold that thought, orcs, i’ll be back for you, try to stay alive mmkay?)
Whirlwind Sprinted to Riften
Crashed at the Bee and Barb
Sold stuff to Balimund to unload
Went into the keep to chat with the Steward and the Jarl
Got dragon bounty for Lost Tongue Overlook
Realized oh right gotta go talk to Wujeeta again to get the raid quest going
Went to fishery to ask Wujeeta where she got her skooma from
Got pointer to the warehouse, and got Jarl’s permission and key to raid the warehouse
Killed dealer and his bodyguard, got note re: the hideout
Went back to report to the Jarl, got her quest to go take out the skooma dealers
Gave Ingun her deathbell on the way out
Stopped at Shor’s Stone to get ore sample from smith
Headed on to Cragslane
Hard fight getting through this place, killed at least three times, including one decapitation :O
Leveled up to 19 in the middle of trying to do all this; took an additional Heavy Armor perk
Finally cleared the damn place, and came right outside to a dragon, and at least one wolf as well
Goats were being hostile to me on the way back to Riften, WTF (happened earlier in the session on the way from Ivarstead too)
Fought hostile Argonian as well
Came up on the stables to find the stable horses and stable master fighting an apprentice necromancer
Got safely into the city though
Waited by the forge till daybreak, and sold stuff to balimund to get unloaded
Reported to the Jarl, and got enchanted weapon for my troubles
(Still not thane)
Went to Hall of the Dead to report to Alessandra that I’d handed off the dagger
(No spellbooks though have to be at least level 40 in Restoration oops)
Went to apothecary to report in to Hafjorg about the ore sample; she gave me some potions
Returned to Whiterun to decorate Breezehome!
Crashed in unfurnished Breezehome for the night
Sold stuff to Belethor to unload a bit
Went up to Dragonsreach; bought all the furnishings ^_^
Also destroyed a couple more items on the enchanter table there to learn their enchantments
Returned to Breezehome to put things away
Saved for the night

Getting Dawnbreaker

This was the first major action of the session, clearing Kilkreath to defeat Malkoran and get Dawnbreaker. And it is, I feel, indicative of how far I’ve come in skill with this game that the third time through this dungeon was not nearly as difficult as the first time through.

On the other hand, this time through I also had Barbas. Because I was also running the Daedra’s Best Friend plot and I hadn’t resolved it yet! And as I hoped, having an invulnerable Daedra dog along with me made it significantly easier to kill Malkoran.

Not easy enough that he didn’t kill me at all–because he did, once. He got me with the frost attack from his staff. Second time through though that wasn’t anything the Oakflesh spell and some potions of Resist Frost couldn’t handle.

Nor was Lydia in any real danger at any point, thankfully. Because having Barbas along also meant that the heat was off her to be the heavy in this fight.

And now I have Dawnbreaker! \0/ It’s still not my highest damage weapon yet, that is definitely the Skyforge Steel Greatsword. But I’ll be carrying Dawnbreaker for backup.

Getting the Masque of Clavicus Vile

Played this out pretty much the same way that I’d done with Merawen and Alarrah, i.e., refusing to take Vile’s proposal of getting to keep the Axe if I kill Barbas with it.

I think my headcanon here is that Delga struck a bargain with Barbas, getting him to commit to helping her take down Malkoran by reaffirming her promise to return the Axe to Vile–and specifically pledging to refuse any deal Vile tried to make with her about it.

I’ll need to think about whether I might actually use the Masque at some point? Probably not, but who knows, I may change my mind on that. At least this time through I’m playing a character who favors Heavy Armor. I’ll need to see if the armor boost on it is at all competitive with my current Wolf helmet.

Most likely, though, it’s going to stay in the chest in Breezehome.

And speaking of which…

I finally was able to buy Breezehome in Whiterun!

It took a couple rounds, first getting it and doing initial decorations, then coming back later to finish the decorations up.

Thinking about it, I think all three of the characters I’ve played would have the milestone of “owning their own home” be a big deal but for different reasons. For Delga in particular, I suspect that even a comparatively tiny home like Breezehome is way more space than she’s ever had to live in in her life.

It probably has not escaped her notice, either, that orcs aren’t exactly plentiful in Whiterun. And while she likes the Companions and is grateful that they’ve given her a place among them, she’s probably also very conscious of how she’s in a real weird position in this Nord city now. She’s thane. And a Companion. And the only orc she knows about in this entire city.

And Dragonborn.

I think the combo of all of this has probably made it important to her to have her own space where she doesn’t have to worry about anybody but Lydia being around. She’s barely gotten it through her head that this Nord woman has sworn to protect her with her life, and so she’s at least kind of okay with having Lydia for company. But one human at a time in her safe space is about her speed right now.

And now she doesn’t have to sleep in Jorrvaskr or in the inn. Which is a relief!

(Though I may periodically still sleep in Jorrvaskr, I think, on principle? Particularly once I get to the point of being Harbinger.)

Becoming thane in Falkreath

And if it wasn’t enough of a mindfuck to be thane in Whiterun, now Delga is also thane in Falkreath. Where orcs are also very thin on the ground, and where at least one Nord makes actively hostile commentary about “provincials” being allowed to wander Skyrim.

I think Delga is less than thrilled with Falkreath, and certainly less than thrilled with its Jarl. And its other thane, since Dengeir tried to get her to actually break into Lod’s house and steal something. Fuck that noise! Because Delga, unlike Merawen and I think also even Alarrah, is actively anti-theft.

(Good thing stealing that letter for Dengeir wasn’t a required action to getting favors done for the thaneship! I was able to go sell vegetables to Mathies instead.)

And now I have housecarl number two! Hi Rayya! Hang on, I gotta go get enough money to buy Lakeview so you can have a house to live in too.

Bear hunting around Ivarstead

Next up was heading to Ivarstead to see about resolving Temba’s quest for bear pelts. I did manage to pull that off by clearing Honeystrand Cave!

And on the way to Riften from Ivarstead, I noted two oddities:

Goats were showing up as hostile around me for no apparent reason, WTF? This happened again later coming out of Crasglane Cavern, too
Fought a giant near Largashbur, which may or may not have been the same giant meant to kick off the quest to get Volendrung; I will definitely have to visit that stronghold later, Delga needs that hammer oh my yes

Working on thaneship of Riften

I’ll note here for the record that it is definitely odd to be coming back into Riften and hearing Brynjolf out doing his “Falmer-blood elixir” schtick in the market. 😀 (It’s definitely a shame that he never does that again after you go through the Thieves Guild plotline, dude is way more entertaining to start with!)

But Brynjolf will not be an option for this character, so I will just have to assume that Delga gives him the side-eye and moves on. Yes, human, I heard you making that crack about me not doing an honest day’s work in my life for all the coin I’m carrying. Fuck you, I’ll have you know bashing bandits’ heads in is absolutely honest work. Particularly on your town’s own Jarl’s orders!

Because yep, made significant inroads on getting the thaneship of Riften in this session, too. From a player perspective this is all about me wanting to get this out of the way while all the NPCs in Riften are actually still alive!

From a character perspective, it does suggest interesting things about my orc girl though. Definitely the idea here I’m shooting for of her wanting to help everybody, but in Riften’s case perhaps a little more than that. Just because she’s heard everybody talking about Riften being corrupt to the core, so she may be having a reflex kick in of “this place needs more help than most”.

And this time through, I’ll also be able to do Mjoll’s quest with a clear conscience. 😀 Delga will like Mjoll, I feel!

Also noting for the record that wow, clearing Cragslane Cavern of the skooma dealers was unexpectedly difficult. It took me multiple times to make it through that dungeon, and one time through even featured the bandit chief CUTTING OFF MY HEAD. :O

This was a thing I’d never seen happen to me in Skyrim before! Got a very clear killcam shot of him doing it, too! Yowza!

Lessons learned during this fight:

I cannot neglect my archery, I need to get better at taking opponents out at distance, up close melee may be Delga’s preference, but it’ll make it easier if she can thin the herd before they reach her
I have Shouts; use them, dammit, especially Unrelenting Force when going up against a large group of hostiles
Do not forget to use Oakflesh

Got the place eventually cleared, though. And after the interruption of a dragon, wolves, and more strangely hostile goats on the way back to Riften, I did check in with the Jarl to get the reward for clearing out the bandits from that lair.

Now I just need to finish doing the favor quests for Riften and get enough money to buy Honeyside, and then I should be home free to being thane.

And now that I’ve done Alessandra’s quest and Hafjorg’s, there is a large question here if whether I need to do one more favor quest to finish up Riften’s thane requirements.

Because giving Wujeeta her healing potion might also count? And there’s a question here of whether bringing the deathbell back to Ingun also counts, or if I’d have to bring her the rest of her ingredients for her favor quest to be considered done.

Going to have to check!

Next time

I have multiple bounties that need clearing, and that job to do for the Companions, too. These will probably be next, as I work on getting enough money for both Honeyside and Lakeview!

Screenshots

In honor of getting Breezehome I took the time to actually try on various pieces of clothing before putting them away, and to get an idea of what non-armor outfits I’d like on Delga. So these screenshots are entirely that!