In Which Faanshi Discovers the Location of the Staff of Magnus

This session was mostly all about the mage college! Moved the plot pointer there along by running Mzulft, which got me the info about the Staff of Magnus being in Labyrinthian. And as a bonus, I killed a Blood Dragon at Largashbur, where the remaining Orcs are in fact still alive!

Highlights

• Play date: 6/6/2022
• Session number in this run: 22
• Boinged from Whiterun to Shor’s Watchtower to head to Mzulft
• Engaged en route:
  • Two bears
  • Frostbite spider
  • Three wolves
• Reached and ran Mzulft; went pretty well, threw dremora and Iona at almost everything
• Grabbed all 10 cogs needed for Arniel later (though I had to give them to Iona to carry so I could actually fast travel out of the place)
• Also found a few tasty loot items
• Got the vision from Nerien to urge me to return to the college
• Did not clear the storehouse with the aetherium shard in it yet, will swing back to that later
• Returned to college and found oh shit everything has gone explodey
• Fought the magic anomalies in Winterhold
• Leveled up to 40 while attacking the anomalies with my ebony sword; took Health bump and Unhindered perk in Light Armor
• Dropped off the cogs in the wardrobe in my space in the Hall of Attainment
• Actually saw Mirabelle coming in through the door so apparently she can, in fact, move after that initial round of explodey?
• Time to go to Labyrinthian! But first gotta sell some of this loot
• Attempted to get training from Drevis, but nope, I’d forgotten that the mage college trainers won’t offer training until the mage college plot is resolved
• Boinged to Riften and checked in at Honeyside
• Destroyed some armor I’d brought out of Mzulft with a Fortify Health enchantment
• Did a bunch of alchemy on the alchemy table
• Sold assorted things to Balimund, Bersi, Tonilia, and Hafjorg
• Boinged next directly to Largashbur to get training with Atub since she’s the only other available Illusion trainer
• Blood Dragon showed up! And surprisingly, killed none of the Orcs
• LOL, they all gawked at me slurping the dragon soul like everybody else does, and had the lines about ‘gasp! It’s like the ancient legends! Dragonborn!’
• Only had enough gold for three rounds of training, but Atub thanked me for helping her tribe and getting them a second chance, aw <3
• Boinged next to Honningbrew and sold a few things to Mallus
• Hoofed it into Whiterun for additional shopping and also selling of the dragon bits
• Picked up a pair of glass gauntlets from Drunken Huntsman
• Also got glass armor and gauntlets improved up a bit more
• Went up to Dragonsreach and dropped enchantments on the armor, gauntlets, and helmet since I wound up getting a lot of interesting soul gems fighting the anomalies
• One more shopping check at warmaiden’s where I sold Adrianne my shittier arrows
• Saved for the night

Commentary

The main College of Winterhold plot is very familiar to me at this point, so not too much new I can write about that. One thing I can note, though, is that I discovered that it’s possible for Mirabelle to actually move from where she’d fallen after the explosion. When I went into the Hall of Attainment to drop off the heavy cogs (because 10 of those cogs is 100 units of weight I don’t need in my inventory), I saw her coming in through the entrance while I was on my way out.

Also, I re-discovered that while the finale of this plot is active, none of the college trainers will actually offer services. I think I remember actually seeing this on the wiki at some point? But I’d forgotten that this was the case, and only when I went to Drevis to see if I could get Illusion training from him did I discover that that was going to have to wait. He and Faralda both, when I checked them, just offered anxious dialogue about the current critical situation.

Not being able to get training from Drevis led me to discover that Atub, the wise-woman at the Orc stronghold Largashbur, is the game’s only other available Illusion trainer. The one concern with this: she’s in Largashbur. Which by definition means that if I set foot in the place, there’s a risk of giants spawning to beat up on the remaining inhabitants of the stronghold.

I risked fast traveling directly in, though. I didn’t get giants, but I did get a Blood Dragon. Which, surprisingly, didn’t actually kill any of the Orcs. The four remaining other named NPCs, Gularzob, Garakh, Lob, and Ogol, helped me kill the dragon. And even Ogol, who doesn’t actually wear armor by default, survived the fight! Well done, Orcs!

The horse I’ve seen hanging out in the stronghold also galloped out to battle the dragon just outside the gates. And it also survived the fight. Well done there, horse!

I was amused to discover, as well, that the Orcs are just as prone to running over and gawking when you absorb a slain dragon’s soul. And they throw the same lines, too. “It’s like the ancient legends. Dragonborn!” One could wonder why Orcs actually know anything about ancient Nord legends? But hey, these Orcs do live in Skyrim, and we know from lore that a lot of Orcs have a history of fighting for the Imperial Legion. So they clearly have had access to Nords and opportunities to hear about Nord legends from them.

Whether the Orcs in this specific stronghold have, ah, now that’s the question. We also know from The Cursed Tribe that Yamarz had forbidden his people to leave Largashbur, but that seems like a recent development. So who knows where the Orcs of Largashbur might have gone before Yamarz’s disastrous edict?

After killing the dragon, anyway, I found Atub in the longhouse and asked her for training. And was quite amused at the response she gave me: “Your power over others will be great, like mine.” LOL. Very different from Drevis’ “I shall explain to you the mysteries of the Outer Realms!”

Khajiit thinks perhaps she approves of this sorcerer of the Orcs. 😉

Also, Atub had a nice greeting line about thanking me for giving her tribe a second chance. Aw. Hopefully giants won’t smash the rest of you! Try not to die, okay? <3

Last but not least, did a round of shopping and enchanting in Whiterun. And while at least in un-modded play ammunition has no weight in the inventory, still, I went ahead and sold my shittier arrows to Adrianne. This doesn’t get me much gold, but it does reduce the likelihood that I’ll default to shitty arrows queued up if I change weapons back to a bow.

Next time

Now that I’ve cleared 40, six levels to go before I hit 46 and can safely go after Chillrend and Dragonbane.

Which means some definite hard presses through major locations is now called for. Labyrinthian is queued up now, so I expect I’ll run that in Faanshi’s next session, so I can go ahead and finish off the mage college plot and become Arch-Mage. I’m already halfway through level 40, so I expect I’ll level up to 41 running that dungeon.

And I need to make the time to go run Volskygge! Because I need that Volsung mask for important waterbreathing purposes! And also the third word of Whirlwind Sprint.

Screenshots

No screenshots this time.

Editing to add

• 11/22/2023: Added play date and session number markers.