In Which Delga Finds the Treasure in Arkngthamz

This session saw the conclusion of the trek through Arkngthamz, and the purchase of land for Heljarchen Hall! At which Delga established fellow Companion Ria as her steward.

Highlights

• Play date: 12/1/2021
• Session number in this run: 32
• Finished running the Arkngthamz dungeon
• Tonal puzzle was just a little further past where we fought the chaurus, and had no trouble doing the puzzle
• Got overloaded getting all the loot out of the final chamber but not badly enough that I couldn’t compensate with potions
• Katria gave me her farewell for now and vanished
• Quaffed a potion to get out without the movement hit
• Lydia didn’t follow me down the jump but she caught up when I went out the front door
• Tromped slowly over to orc stronghold Dushnikh Yal since it was nearby
• And hey, since I am an orc, I was able to walk right in and say hi Was greeted as a child of Malacath and welcomed <3
• Did some shopping with their smith once I found the forge, and that got me unburdened, yay!
• Set out for Markarth, but found Reachwind Eyrie first; explored the tower, and found quite a bit of loot, including dwemer scraps! So got overloaded again
• Also found a heavy armor skill book; reading that kicked me up to level 42, and took Matched Set perk for Heavy Armor
• Tromped back over to the orc stronghold and smelted down all the dwemer scrap to make ingots, so that got me under carry weight limit again
• Set out for Markarth, take two
• Critters killed en route: wolf, cave bear (gave me Bone Break fever, stupid bear)
• Found Reachcliff Cave, declined to engage
• Made it to Markarth; triggered Forsworn attack and Eltrys giving me the note at the gates
• Entered Silver-Blood Inn and gave purchase order to Kleppr
• Rented room for the night and stopped at the forge the next morning
• Improved my ebony battleaxe up another tick with the ebony ingot I got from Kleppr
• Also sold things to Ghorza the smith and got her quest to find her a training book for her apprentice
• Headed to Understone Keep and sold dwarven arrow to Calcelmo
• Explored the keep a little bit, but couldn’t find the smith in there
• Sold a few things at general goods store
• Set back out to head eastward
• Hostile NPCs encountered: usual three Forsworn at Kolskeggr; cultists (almost immediately after passing the Imperials); four bandits near Rorikstead and Lund’s Hut
• Non-hostile NPCs encountered: Imperials + prisoner; hunter, fighting skeevers, and who then said she’d been bitten by a vampire, so I gave her a potion of Cure Disease; two Vigilants
• Imperials may have helped in the cultist fight? Heard arrows being fired and they weren’t far away once Lyds and i took the cultists out, multiple steel arrows on the ground after
• Didn’t stop one of the Imperials from saying “Imperial business! Move along!” at me
• Dude, I am an Imperial, and a Legate for that matter, so I outrank you; also, they were attacking me, so I think this makes it my goddamn business, but okay fine, I’m moving along anyway, your assistance is appreciated, Auxiliary
• Reached Fort Sungard, cleared it, and got the book for Ghorza
• Apparently this fort won’t go to Imperial control even though I took out the Forsworn? Boooooo
• Lydia got stuck in the smithing area; I had to stash loot in a barrel because I was overloaded, then fast traveled to same location to get Lyds unstuck
• Retrieved loot and commenced Whirlwind Sprint to get to Whiterun
• But didn’t even have to do the whole trip that way because hi, Ri’saad’s Khajiit! Here, buy all my extraneous stuff, won’t you?
• Passed three imperial soldiers without prisoner for once, near Fort Greymoor
• Imperial: “Stay sharp!” That’s the plan, brother
• Yep, Greymoor, is in Imperial hands, excellent
• Stray dog still hanging out near watchtower; sorry, puppy, I would adopt you but game is blocking that
• Courier on the way into Whiterun, with a Letter From a Friend; heh, this one was also for Ragnvald? Between that one and Arngeir’s pointer, apparently i’m really supposed to go to Ragnvald 😀
• Did a bit of smithing at Warmaiden’s to burn through materials; got smithing up to 98!
• Sold a few things to Belethor
• Had Lydia stand down
• Fast traveled to Dawnstar to buy land for Heljarchen
• Chomped by Elder Dragon! OUCH
• Got it the second time through, though, and got it far enough away from the town that I’m pretty sure it didn’t kill anybody
• One of the Imperial soldiers came running to investigate; did not, however, go ‘holy crap you’re Dragonborn!’ 😉
• Stayed the night at the inn
• Bought land from the Jarl the next morning, while wizard and housecarl argued about her magic
• Boinged down to Fort Dunstad and then hoofed it to Heljarchen to start the house
• Boinged to Lakeview to get the rest of my building stuff
• Bandits vs. Ogol? Found two of the bandits in my fucking house, so helped Ogol and Rayya kill them
• Fortunately, the bodies vanished after i went downstairs to fetch materials and do a little smithing; bloodstain on the floor, though
• Moved materials to Heljarchen
• Boinged back to Whiterun to get more iron, and also stopped at Jorrvaskr
• Talked to Eorlund Gray-Mane who reported that the Skyforge felt more awake; will diplomatically refrain from asking him his opinion on how the war turned out
• Popped into Harbinger’s quarters, found blue fine clothes with fur cape, which looked kinda good on Delga?
• Found Ria and asked her to follow me to Heljarchen, engaged her as steward! Should be plenty of critters around here for her to hunt and fight
• Did a bunch more smithing and got smithing to 100 \0/
• Time to start making dragon things! (At least as of next level up)
• Boinged to Lakeview to get dragon bits–and found Gregor?
• Gregor: “Long life to you, thane!”
• Gregor, my dude, you’re at the wrong house
• Grabbed some dragon bits to move them to Heljarchen and/or make stuff with them if I can level to 43
• Boinged to Whiterun first, and sold a bunch of stuff to get gold to pay Ria to buy sawn logs
• Roinged to Heljarchen, got Ria to get the logs, and built more of the house! Decided to build the kitchen wing since I hadn’t done that before
• Spotted Gregor properly on site now
• Boinged back to Whiterun to sell and then save for the night

Commentary

This is run number three through finishing Arkngthamz, and that went well. No further issues like the chaurus from the previous session! So I made it to the tonal puzzle, triggered it with no problems, and got the first of the Aetherium shards. Katria blipped out to go meet me at the other locales when I’m ready to hit them.

And I got out without any issues. Was overloaded, but not to a problematic degree. And even though Lydia didn’t follow me over the jump into the river to get out, she showed up properly once I left the dungeon, so it was all good.

Visiting the nearby Orc stronghold Dushnikh Yal, after that, was quite pleasant. <3 It was nice to walk into the place and be greeted as a child of Malacath! And I was happy to do a little bit of trading with their smith as well as their alchemist.

Not far away from the stronghold, I found Reachwater Eyrie–which was new to me. It’s nice to find that even on playthrough number three, I can still find unfamiliar locations! No hostiles in the tower, but it was chock fulla useful loot. Mostly Dwemer scraps that could be melted down into ingots, but a skill book as well.

Venturing into Markarth was brief. I was there long enough to trigger the encounter that starts the Forsworn Conspiracy plot, but for the immediate moment, I didn’t follow up on it. Still pondering if I want to do that plot again.

I did however take care of delivering that Dwarven Arrow to Calcelmo, and visiting Ghorza’s forge. Got her side quest to get her the skill book for her apprentice, because a) always help the smiths, and b) helping this one in particular is extra necessary as I’m playing an Orc!

Vaguely disappointed that I could not hand Fort Sungard over to Imperial control, according to the wiki! In order for that to happen, the Reach has to be turned over to the Stormcloaks first, and then the Empire has to take it back.

Oh well! I did however enjoy exploring the place in depth. I didn’t run this place before as Alarrah, just as Merawen, and according to that post I didn’t fully explore the place then. Fun to do so now!

Next major action was to go buy the land for Heljarchen. And I chose Ria of the Companions as my steward, partly to give one of the Companions something to do, and partly because Ria was the next newest Companion before me. She’s nice, and she sounds like Lydia! So I’m partial to her. <3

I figure as well that Heljarchen should have plenty of opportunity for her to get in some fighting. Plus, she’s not too terribly far from Whiterun if she wants to swing into Jorrvaskr, and arrange going off on a hunt with somebody! She and Gregor can take turns looking after the property.

Weird though that Gregor showed up at Lakeview before I had Heljarchen built! But apparently this is a known bug with him.

Last but not least, this was the session where I got Smithing to hit 100. Took me a moment to realize that this didn’t auto-unlock Dragon smithing and that I had to level up again to get to that!

Next time

A visit to Ragnvald to find the Word Wall there, pointed at by both Arngeir and the Letter From a Friend.

Heh. I wonder if one of the other Greybeards is sending the letters? They can’t talk like normal people anymore since their voices are too powerful, so I could totally see one of them sending these notes.

After that, dunno yet!

Screenshots

Editing to add

• 11/19/2023: Restored missing gallery, and added play date and session markers.
• 10/6/2024: Converted gallery to a native WordPress one.