In Which Delga Establishes a Presence in Markarth

This session was all about working on establishing the Dragonborn’s presence in Markarth. Did the initial couple of quests to get the Jarl friendly to me, bought Vlindrel Hall, and started working on gaining the thaneship.

Highlights

• Play date: 12/31/2021
• Session number in this run: 62
• Did some enchanting at Honeyside, enough to get to 99, almost to 100; this also let me enchant all remaining loose jewelry items I had on me
• Did a little additional alchemy as well
• Sold things to Bersi at the Pawned Prawn
• Went over to the forge and did a little smithing, which let me hit level 60; sold a few things to Balimund, then went and sold a few things at Elgrim’s Elixirs
• Boinged to the college for training; got a round of training from Colette and also sold her some stuff, then tried to get a round of training from Drevis who was right behind her
• But then a dragon showed up, first Revered Dragon sighting of the game, and it promptly fried me, augh >_<
• Thrown back to coming out of Elgrim’s Elixirs in Riften
• This time fast traveled to Shrine of Azura; got a dragon encounter, but this time it was just a flyby
• Killed snowy sabre cat on the way to the college on foot
• This time was successful at all five rounds of training, and sold several enchanted items to all the trainers
• Took Unhindered perk in Light Armor
• Fast traveled to Lover Stone to go to Markarth
• Killed a bear, practiced power bashing with Auriel’s Shield
• Had a Stormcloak run up and then run right off again without saying anything? Apparently he just came over to see what was going on, and decided to nope right off? LOL
• Closed in on Markarth and saw a city guard chasing… somebody? Maybe a Forsworn? But whoever it was ran off, or got killed, and the guard stood down
• Headed into Markarth and sold a few things at the forge
• Then headed into Understone Keep to see if I can be thane; answer: not yet, apparently I don’t get to be thane that quickly in Markarth, probably because it didn’t change hands in the war
• Jarl sent me off to take out the Forsworn leader at Bruca’s Leap Redoubt
• Sent out on foot from Markarth
• Ran into four Forsworn who didn’t actually initially attack me and who tried to warn me off; was going to leave them alone until I found three orc hunters lying dead nearby, and the Forsworn came after me still warning me off
• I turned around and waited for them to come at me, then took them out; I envision Delga seething when she realized these assholes had killed some of her people, possibly from Mor Khazgur, and yeah no
• Killed a bear
• Got near Karthwasten? Came at it from behind
• Mined iron vein
• Frost Dragon!
• Two red dots on the HUD while I fought it though, and the second dot didn’t disappear after I killed the dragon; fight music started back up and no sign of an opponent? Finally discovered the second dot was a slaughterfish who’d been attracted because I swam across the stream; killed it with Unrelenting Force because I couldn’t see it
• At which point a mudcrab came up to bother me, and really, mudcrab? I just killed a Frost Dragon and you think you’re going to start something with me?
• Reached Bruca’s Leap Redoubt, which I don’t think I’d ever actually visited before; it was not large, and I cleared the place after fighting only four Forsworn, including the target leader, a briarheart
• Returned to Markarth and slept the night at the inn
• Sold stuff to Lisbet
• Reported in to the Jarl and got reward for the Forsworn job, then got his job to go get his father’s shield back
• Fast traveled back to Bruca’s Leap Redoubt to get within range of Deepwood Redoubt and Hag’s End
• Killed bear
• Found poor dead Lynoit of the Dawnguard and three vampire ash piles; well fought there, brother; took his orders and his warhammer
• Proceeded towards Deepwood Redoubt and encountered two Forsworn on the loose
• One yelled “Come and face the Forsworn!” Honey, howsabout you face the Dragonborn? And how did you think that was going to go, which of us is clad in leather scraps and which of us is clad in dragonscale? JUST SAYING
• Took out the first two Forsworn outside Deepwood; third one up by the altar actually panicked and ran off, so I let her bugger off and headed in
• Cleared the place and got the shield; didn’t even need much stealth or the flame atronach all that much
• Returned to Markarth to give the Jarl his shield; got his permission to buy property, and his declaration that I could be thane if I help his people; counter ticked up to one already because I’d helped Ghorza earlier
• Gave a coin to the beggar Degaine
• Agreed to take a ring from Kerah to Calcelmo
• Also agreed to go fetch the Dibella statuette for Lisbet
• Took a Daedra heart over to Ghorza’s brother Moth once I finally found him
• Thalmor went by and told me I had an obligation to report any signs of Talos worship to them, and yeaaaaaah i don’t think so
• Took Kerah’s ring to Calcelmo
• Agreed to go take out the spider for Calcelmo
• Saved there for the night

Commentary

Decent little session, this! Partly old stuff, partly new, but all in the service of establishing my presence in Markarth and working on getting Vlindrel Hall and the thaneship there.

Before I hit up Markarth, though, I did get in a round of training at the college. Which was notable this time through for marking my first official sighting of a Revered Dragon in this run–a dragon which did then promptly fry me.

Not at all sure what the hell was up with the Stormcloak who ran up to me briefly at the Lover Stone, while I was fighting that bear. He showed up just long enough for me to see him and then ran off again! No dialogue, no nothing.

I hadn’t found Bruca’s Leap Redoubt before in previous playthroughs, and I’d only passed by it for the first time earlier in Delga’s run. This time, I actually set foot properly in the place. It didn’t take me long; it’s not large. There’s only a little bit of exterior fortification, and the cave that makes up the rest of the locale isn’t large either.

So not many opponents to kill there, either. Took them down, including the Forsworn Briarheart, without any problems.

This time through, only after looking up Lynoit again on the wiki, did I discover that there are a couple more Dawnguard field agents you have a chance of running into. And I think I did spot one of them earlier in Delga’s run: Saliah, who must have been the Dawnguard agent I saw ride by me on a horse.

And now I have Lynoit’s warhammer and the key to the caches he was supposed to establish. I’ll have to see if they have anything useful.

Running Deepwood + Hag’s End is familiar territory to me at this point, not much new to say about that, though I was a little surprised that I made it through as easily as I did. Didn’t even have to sneak much, or call up the flame atronach very much either.

Returned to Markarth to find I was able to get Vlindrel Hall, and since I had enough gold on me for it, fully decorate it as well. It was slightly odd to me to realize that the steward had the same voice actor as Tolfdir, though! I don’t think I’d caught that before. So this will be another instance of how if I imprint on a particular actor as a specific character, all the other characters that actor does will just sound like the first one to me. Like how all of Claudia Christian’s characters sound like Adrianne. 😉

Started working on a mix of new and old things to do the favor quests to get the thaneship in Markarth. The most notable of these being, finally finding Moth, the other orc smith in Markarth, who’s the personal blacksmith of the Jarl and who also happens to be Ghorza’s brother. After bringing him a Daedra heart, I got on his good side and apparently now he’s a candidate for marriage!

Next time

I’ll kill that spider for Calcelmo, and then go get the statuette for Lisbet. Which ought to finish me up for becoming thane in the Reach, and get Argis the Bulwark on board as my final housecarl.

Then I suspect I’ll run the Forsworn Conspiracy plot just to get it marked off my journal list.

Screenshots

No screenshots this time either.

Editing to add

• 11/20/2023: Added play date and session number markers.