In Which Shenner Quests Through Raldbthar and Alftand

As expected, I picked up where I left off after the last Shenner session, re-doing the beginning of Raldbthar, and proceeding on to finding the Aetherium Forge. And since I had time to do so, I proceeded to go pester Septimus Signus about his thoughts on where I could find an Elder Scroll. Spoiler alert: Alftand!

Highlights

• Play date: 7/30/2022
• Session number in this run: 45
• Re-ran Raldbthar; stepped outside first and told Gogh to wait near Swift Wind, then ran the place with Rulnik
• This time through actually did kill Alain Dufont and got Aegisbane
• Picked up a bit more loot than in previous playthroughs just because I could actually see stuff
• Hit the chaurus pen in the final boss chamber to pick up the extra ore and ingots in there
• Used Viriya’s charm to get underwater to clear the final gear
• Took out the centurion hand to hand \0/
• Got the final shard
• HI KATRIA SEE YOU AT THE FORGE
• Got out through the lift and swung back down to pick up Gogh and Swift Wind
• [Notes Fail: forgot to account for when I hit the Aetherium forge, see below]
• Boinged to Whiterun to sell stuff
• Got courier with a letter from Muiri thanking me for killing Alain Dufont!
• Proceeded to do a little smithing and got up over 80
• Sold assorted things to all the shops
• Boinged to Heljarchen and then Windstad for materials check, then boinged to Lakeview
• Made madness boots and armor, then did some alchemy and smithing
• Boinged to Riften; sold stuff to Balimund and Bersi
• Went out through north gate and ELDER DRAGON, which killed the guy in charge of the stables, oops, well then, guess Shadr is in charge now
• Boinged to mage college
• Got 5 rounds training with Colette; also sold her and the other trainers assorted enchanted items
• Then went back out again and hoofed it to Septimus’ outpost
• Got him to point me at Alftand
• Boinged to Wayward Pass
• Briefly spotted dragon but it flew off before i could engage, possible Mount Anthor dragon? Also possibly Viinturuth
• Rode through Wayward Pass
• Encountered en route:
  • Another horde of seven zombies
  • Ice wolf
  • Wolf
• Made it to Alftand and started running the place
• Surprised that I got both Rulnik and Gogh past the five piston traps!
• Started throwing conjured bear at Falmer; here, have a face full of RAAAAAR
• Made it to final centurion and Sulla and Umana
• Then into Blackreach
• Saved there for the night

Commentary

This session wound up being rather shorter than I expected it to be for a Saturday night run. Which I blame entirely upon the heatwave the Seattle area was dealing with at the time. I wound up going to bed way earlier than I do on a Saturday night! So I didn’t get as much Skyrim played that day as is my current habit.

That said: I did still get in a decent session.

Main thing I want to note about Raldbthar take two is this: leaving Gogh outside worked well. I was able to get Rulnik past the spinning blade trap again–and then past the second one that I’d forgotten is in this dungeon. I just had to remember that when I got out again, and came out through the lift, that I had to swing back around to Raldbthar’s front entrance, since both Gogh and Swift Wind were still waiting there.

Also, this time through I did actually bother to kill Alain Dufont. Just because I got close enough to him that I triggered his “I don’t know how you got this far, but you won’t go any farther” line. Which continues to be hilarious coming from a dude with no armor on whatsoever, confronting a heavily armed and armored Nord warrior, who also has heavily armored and magically gifted backup.

I mean honestly, son, how the hell did you think this was going to go?

This time, also, killing Dufont actually had a surprise result. Because when I got back to Whiterun, I actually had a courier come up to me with a note from Muiri in Markarth, asking to reward me for taking the guy out! I knew this was a thing that could possibly happen, i.e., if you kill an NPC you have a chance of hearing from somebody who considered that NPC an enemy. But this was the first time I ever actually had it happen in one of my sessions.

(Mind you, this is the same Muiri who, as I understand it, hires you to kill Dufont if you’re in the Dark Brotherhood. But from what I’ve seen of that quest, it has some very unfortunate side effects. I.e., it wrecks what’s left of the Shatter-Shield clan. So I’m pleased to avoid that.)

I only realized while working on this post that I’d completely forgotten to note when exactly I hit the Aetherium Forge–I don’t remember if I did that before I hit Whiterun, and got the courier note from Muiri. Or if I hit it just before I went to Riften to sell things there.

Since I don’t actually remember, I’ll just note that yes, I did make it to the forge to conclude the Lost to the Ages plot. And as per previous playthroughs, I forged the Aetherial Crown. Katria was sent off to her well-deserved peace, and at some point soon I look forward to Taron Dreth flipping his shit at Shenner. Muahaha.

Stopping at Riften this time resulted in an NPC death by dragon, sadly. I decided to go ahead and let it stand, just because meh, I haven’t ever particularly liked Hofgrir Horse-Crusher, the dude who runs the Riften Stables. (Seriously: “Horse-Crusher”? What kind of name is that for a guy in charge of stables?) Since he died fighting the Elder Dragon that showed up, this means Shadr got the stables in his stead. And Shadr’s a nicer dude anyway.

Onward to the mage college, Septimus’ outpost, and finally, Alftand.

And, given the trouble I had having Rulnik and Gogh both following me in Raldbthar, I was frankly stunned that I got them both past the five piston traps in Alftand!

Also, I took probably more glee than warranted at throwing around my conjured bear at the Falmer. Here, have a face full of RAAAAAR, you sneaky bastards!

Next time

Time to run Blackreach! And I’ll probably do with Shenner what I did with Faanshi, and get all the crimson nirnroot while I’m down there.

Screenshots

Editing to add

• 11/23/2023: Restored missing gallery.
• 10/10/2024: Converted gallery to a single WordPress image.