In Which Ysani Does General Adventuring

This post covers play on Tuesday 3/8 and Wednesday 3/9, and basically is a lot of me wandering around doing general adventuring, killing time till I’m able to proceed on the Potema plot.

Highlights

• Play dates: 3/8-3/9/2022
• Session numbers in this run: 43-44

Tuesday’s play

• Confirmed that yeah, the dragon that wiped out Left Hand Mine also killed Erith’s dog 😢
• Boinged from Left Hand Mine to Lakeview to pick up some stuff; got the dragonscale and Guildmaster armor
• Boinged to Whiterun to buy more iron at Warmaiden’s
• Checked on the kids and played Hide and Seek with them
• Shopped with Belethor and Arcadia
• Quaff-traveled to Heljarchen for building; built out a bunch of a greenhouse wing, and a little bit more decorations here and there
• Boinged back to Lakeview to pick up armor and weaponry
• Improved Argis’ ebony armor; also gave him the dragonbone bow and the dragonbone greatsword I made previously
• Boinged to Honningbrew to sell stuff to Mallus
• Boinged to mage college to blow some gold on spellbooks, but only Tolfdir had spells I hadn’t bought yet; got Detect Dead, Paralyze, and Mass Paralysis spells
• Meanwhile agreed to help Brelyna with her magic practice; she turned me green
• Picked up the Arch-Mage robes
• Enchanted the dragonbone dagger
• Decided to do the conjuration ritual quest; unbound dremora killed me on the first try, before I remembered, y’know maybe I should do this with calling my dremora first, and letting them take out the cranky unbound one
• Got the Sigil Stone, while Brelyna’s spell wore off
• Proceeded on Arniel’s side quest; Arniel told me about his arrangement with Enthir; got Enthir to tell me about the staff he wanted for Arniel’s Warped Soul Gem
• Congrats Brelyna, you turned the Arch-Mage into a horse, and yeah let’s never speak of this again 😉
• Hey Phinis, I got your Sigil Stone! Oh it’s my stone? Okay then!
• Also got the Flame Thrall spell
• Tried to head out to Fellglow Keep to get the staff Enthir wanted, only an Ancient Dragon decided to show up
• NOT IN MY MAGE COLLEGE YOU’RE NOT, LIZARD
• Called up the dremora and let them and Argis beat on it each time it landed, while I threw lightning at it; killed it!
• Switched off to dragonscale armor to be able to carry everything with additional dragon bits to haul around
• Next stop: Windhelm to sell stuff; did a little enchanting on the table behind Niranyne’s booth, then sold her a few things, and an armor piece to Oengul
• Boinged to Windstad next to drop off stuff
• Filled up the armory with assorted armor to try to go in mage mode for a while; kept the Nightingale weapons and Chillrend though
• Boinged to Western Watchtower to go to Fellglow again
• Heard something exploding as I crossed by the river but didn’t see what did it
• Made it to the spawn point near the keep
• Dead treasure hunter with a note talking about a mace
• Raided the keep and only fought a few of the respawned mages to get the staff that Enthir wanted
• Paused there for the night

Wednesday’s play

• Picked up again just outside Fellglow
• Headed north to find the treasure note item
• Corundum vein
• Passed Korvanjund
• Reached Shrouded Grove
• Had dremora and Argis kill a snow bear, and a spriggan! A Spriggan Matron from the look of it? French called it ‘chef spriggan’
• Inside the cave: another snow bear, a regular bear, and an Earth Mother Spriggan
• Onward: frost troll, iron vein, and then killed by sabre cat 😣
• Thrown back to coming out of the cave; redid frost troll and iron vein
• Made it to the road this time
• Spotted Khajiit going the other way; passed second set of Khajiit after seeing them fighting a frost troll further up the road
• Traded with Ahkari; bought Argis some ebony gauntlets
• Passed Imperials + prisoner
• Reached Windhelm safely; bought a bunch of potions and ingredients from Quintus
• Improved the ebony gauntlets and gave them to Argis
• Crashed at the inn overnight
• Headed back west-ish to swing north towards the college
• Veins mined in transit: 2 iron, 2 corundum, one orichalcum
• Cleared Yorgrim Overlook and the two skeletons there
• Hostile creatures fought: spriggan and allied sabre cat; two different frost trolls; ice wraith
• Bandits! Had to call up the dremora to even the odds on that fight; got heavily overloaded with bandit loot though
• Made it to the college courtesy of potion of Fortify Restoration to boost carry weight gear, then a potion of strength
• Sold a few things to Tolfdir; also resolved Warped Soul Gem quest for Arniel by giving Enthir the staff he wanted
• Boinged to Solitude next to sell stuff to Gulum-Ei
• Boinged to Heljarchen and built out more of the storage wing
• Boinged to Honningbrew to sell stuff to Mallus
• Headed into Whiterun and used excess materials to make and sell some armor to Elrindir
• Saved for the night

Commentary

I forgot to include the video of Ysani killing the Ancient Dragon at Left Hand Mine in my previous post, so I’ll include that one here! But as I lamented on Facebook and Twitter, it was only after prepping that video for posting did I realize there was a dead dog lying near where I was fighting the dragon.

Which meant that not only did that damned dragon wipe out everybody in Left Hand Mine, it also killed Erith’s dog. Which was just extra special cruel there, game!

Confirmed it when I started the play on Tuesday night, because I found poor Torom. Well, at least Erith will get to be safe in Whiterun, and hopefully she’ll be comforted by the presence of a different dog?

Meanwhile, all the hilarity of Brelyna turning the player into different animals aside, this suggests that Brelyna is rather more powerful than she gives herself credit for. She does after all successfully turn you into different animals—and turns you back without any harm done. And that’s pretty fucking powerful magic right there, that is.

Because almost nothing else in the game is capable of that kind of transformation of targets. Hell, as a player, I don’t have the ability to transform people like that unless I do the quest to get the Wabbajack!

(Apparently there is code for a spell that the player could use to transmogrify a target, but which is not actually accessible to the player? So doesn’t count for this purpose!)

Which means as far as I know, Brelyna is the only NPC mage in the in the game actively able to transform a target. Not even Neloth in Tel Mithryn can pull that shit off!

So I can’t help but think Brelyna Maryon is a future Arch-Mage of the College of Winterhold!

I did pop into Whiterun long enough to check on the kids. Erith is confirmed now safely at Breezehome with Lucia! Though I think I’ll have to give at least one of them a different color dress, they’re both in green and that does make it a trifle tough to tell them apart!

And I was a little surprised to see two different sets of Khajiit in close proximity on the same road! But I guess if one group goes between Dawnstar and Riften, and another group goes between Solitude and Windhelm, it’s reasonable for them to pass one another on that road.

Last but not least, not sure yet how many fucks I will have to give about having the Sigil Stone? Since I’m playing a mage I don’t anticipate ever wanting Daedric armor for myself–but it’s certainly possible I might want to whip up a set of it for housecarl purposes? I guess it’ll depend on how many more centurion dynamo cores I get. I know there’ll be at least a few more in Ysani’s future.

Language commentary

• Bosquet Voilé: Shrouded Grove
• Déesse mère spriggan: Earth Mother Spriggan (lit. “goddess mother spriggan”)
• Chef spriggan: Spriggan Matron (lit. “chief spriggan”)
• Auberge de la Porte nocturne: Nightgate Inn
• Cap de Yorgrim: Yorgrim Overlook

Interesting, this is the second time in this run that I’ve seen “Cap” used in a name that contains “Overlook” in English. Still not finding reference sources that explain this wording to me? But given that this is the second occurrence I’ve found, it certainly seems like there’s deliberate translation reasoning here.

Next time

Still only about halfway through level 57, and I’m going to need to find something else to do to keep making progress to level 58! I don’t quite want to start running Dawnguard yet, so I think I’ll go run Ironbind Barrow and get that Fiery Soul Trap enchanted weapon squared away!

And maybe I’ll see about getting the Wabbajack, as long as Brelyna’s reminded me of this whole “transform living creatures” thing?

Screenshots

And meanwhile, here’s that video of Ysani killing the Ancient Dragon at Left Hand Mine! Which must have been witnessed by Erith? Kind of raises some concerning questions about her opinions on this woman who just fried the dragon who killed her mother and her dog and every other adult she’d had prior experience with in her life!

Editing to add

• 11/21/2023: Restored missing gallery, and added play date and session number markers.
• 10/9/2024: Converted gallery to a native WordPress one.