In Which Gyllerah Saves an Oracle and Recovers a Tome

This is a multi-session post, in which most of the action is honestly just me running a boatload of writs–but also finishing up that quest that’s the prologue to Summerset. And advancing the Mages Guild questline a little, and claiming the second of the important books from Sheogorath, in the attempt to win back the island he’d claimed from Shalidor.

Play by play

Play dates: 12/10-12/14/2022
Session numbers in this run: 67-71

Saturday’s play

Boinged to Alinor to run writs
Ran most of them with materials available on hand (or in Guild bank), but had to boing to Amenos for a Blacksmithing survey
Mistook where on the island I needed to be though, thought it was the same location as the first writ I’d run there, near Brokerock Mine–but figured out my error and moved to the part of the island I needed to be on
Found en route: Banished Refuge
Found an NPC named Jolie Virane trying to ride a creature called a vulk’esh, who she’d named Rocky–and unsurprisingly it was burning her so I had to kill it for her
Then another bigger one showed up and she wanted to ride that one too; it vaporized her, and I had to kill that one too
But finally found the Blacksmithing spot, got half calcinium and half dwarven ore
Boinged back to Alinor to finish up the writ
Boinged to Auridon to go to Bewan and finish looking for the Oracle
Found a relic by a dead mage, whose ghost immediately appeared and lamented being killed by the Sea Vipers as soon as she’d found the relic–which made her fail a bet with a rival at the Mages Guild; I promised to take the relic back to the Guild for her
Leveled up to 40 finally partway through the delve
Found the Oracle being dragged through a portal into the Spiral Skein
So I followed her and had to fight a bunch of spiders and spiderkin before finally finding her, and then having to destroy a couple of anchor points and a fulcrum keeping her bound
Got her loose and she tiredly opened a portal back to Auridon, where I delivered her into the hands of Vanus Galerion
Boinged back to Alinor after that

Sunday’s play

Ran writs, no significant action

Monday’s play

Ran writs
Had to go out looking for topgrain hide scraps, finally got enough after killing several welwas and a salamander
Made my level 40 armor, mix of styles, Wood Elf + Khajiit + Sapiarch

Tuesday’s play

Ran writs
Mostly had enough stuff, minus ingredients for cooking and alchemy
So ran an Alchemy survey that took me back to Blackwood to the spot between Withered Root and Xeemhok’s Lagoon; place looked totally different in daylight :O
Found the place and got the materials, then boinged back to Alinor to finish up the writs
Bought needed mountain flower from a guild trader
Then boinged to Vulkhel Guard to follow up on pending small quest to find Angrel and tell her Beddi was dead; got that quest resolved but with epilogue of seeing the friend’s angry spirit show up and bitch at her about spending the bet money on a dress, LOL
Spotted Arch-Mage Shalidor waiting outside the door of the guild so stopped to talk to him
He told me to go find Valaste at the Elden Root Mages Guild hall–which was kind of hilarious given that I had literally spotted her inside just a moment before, on my way to talking to Angrel
But went to wayshrine and boinged over to Elden Root to find Valaste there

Wednesday’s play

Picked up in Elden Root at the Mages Guild
Talked to Valaste and Shalidor, and Shalidor opened a portal to the Shivering Isles
Talked to Haskill who told me Sheogorath demanded I recover a fork and a staff for him before he’d turn over the second book
So Haskill opened another portal off to Vuldngrav, which was totes a draugr hive Skyrim-style, although rather cleaner and less ruined 😉
Didn’t have the sound up so couldn’t tell if the draugr made appropriate noises
But I killed assorted draugr with Shalidor, and then went through a gate to get to Korthor, the boss
Got the Fork of Horripilation
Talked to Haskill again and got a new portal off to Asakala
Worked with Shalidor to collect small essences to activate some keystones
Killed a couple of undead generals to get their essences and activate a spider seal and a scorpion seal
Defeated Prince Maleel, the boss undead, to get the Wabbajack
Took a portal back to the Shivering Isles (which, at least in this part, looked suspiciously like Vulkhel Guard, LOL)
Gave the fork back to Sheogorath, but he demanded I hit five of his temple acolytes with the staff before he’d take it back and give me the book, so I did this
Got the book, returned to Elden Root, and turned in the book to Valaste to satisfy the quest
Since I was in Elden Root anyway explored a bit and found the various crafting tables and the writ boards, so for a change of pace I ran six of the seven writs right there
But had to boing back to Alinor for the provisioning writ since I couldn’t find a cooking fire quickly
Did the final writ there and turned in all the crafted things
Boinged to Moonmirth and logged off till next time

Revisiting Amenos

Boinging back to Amenos to run a Blacksmithing survey might have been otherwise unremarkable, if not for my finding the NPC Jolie Virane. I gotta admit, this was one of the more entertaining minor NPC encounters I’ve had. Because Jolie had gotten enamored of the idea of riding a vulk’esh, a creature she’d named Rocky. And which, I might add, is a lava creature.

Unsurprisingly, this thing was burning her every time she tried to get on it, and when I found her, she was yelling for help. So I came over to kill the thing for her. At which point its mother showed up, and Jolie tried to ride that, too. It promptly vaporized her.

WHY DID SHE THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA. WHAT. HOW. WHY.

Apparently the people on Amenos are very, very strange.

Finishing the Through a Veil Darkly quest

Finally got this finished off, by running the Bewan delve and then having to follow the kidnapped Oracle through a portal into Mephala’s realm. Hard on the heels of the Summerset quest, I feel like Gyllerah probably went “oh for fuck’s sake, this place again?” And possibly might have also had a frisson of unease, wondering if she was going to spot her earlier self running through with K’sragi and Valsirenn, to rescue Darien.

Interestingly, once I rescued the Oracle and delivered her safely to Vanus Galerion, the resulting conversation actually let me drop answers that I’d already been to Summerset and Artaeum, and that I’d spoken with Ritemaster Iachesis. Which I feel like was perhaps a sign that the original intent was to design the Summerset quest line to allow for you maybe have already started it before doing this prologue. But I’d be surprised if the intention here was to account for the possibility that you’d already saved Summerset and Artaeum!

Still though, it played pretty nicely into this whole “slightly unstuck in time” thing I’ve got going on for Gyllerah in my head. 😀

Lost Bet quest

Parallel to Through a Veil Darkly, I found a mysterious relic in Bewan while I was looking for the Oracle. This relic was lying next to a dead mage, and as soon as I picked up the relic, the mage’s ghost appeared. Beddi had been killed by the Sea Vipers just about as soon as she’d found the relic, which prevented her from returning to the Mages Guild and resolving a bet she had running with a rival, Angrel.

I promised to take the relic back to the Guild for her. And when I found Angrel, Angrel was very bitchy about how she’d spend the money from winning the bet on a new dress. This immediately got Beddi’s spirit to show up and start bitching at her. Heh. Clearly this is a rivalry that’ll transcend minor quibbles like being killed by Sea Vipers.

Continuing the Mages Guild plot

I didn’t actively intend to jump back to this, but it wound up happening anyway when I went back to the Vulkhel Guard guildhall looking for that NPC Angrel to tell her about her rival Beddi dying. That put me back into a position to talk to Shalidor, and that led me to the next phase of the plot. So there ya go.

The most interesting part of this, honestly, was boinging to Vuldngrad and then Asakala to get the fork and the staff. I cheerfully own up to being tickled about setting foot in a legit Skyrim draugr hive! Though as with other differences between “Skyrim as portrayed in Skyrim” and “Skyrim as portrayed in ESO”, I found the graphics of the place more simplistic and streamlined than I’d like. Vuldngrad looked way too neat and tidy to be a ruined draugr hive!

(As I’ve said before, I get why ESO’s graphics are simpler than Skyrim’s. I.e., it’s an MMO. And I don’t mind the simpler graphics in ESO, I just prefer the depth and detail in Skyrim!)

When I was playing this part, I had the volume down on the game because we were watching TV at the time. So I legit don’t know if the draugr in Vuldngrad were making the classic draugr noises from Skyrim. I need to hit another draugr hive in ESO just to doublecheck this. 😀

I don’t much get the point of the Fork of Horripilation, I must admit. I know it’s available in Skyrim now as part of the AE, but I haven’t bothered to get it yet. And while it apparently does exist in Morrowind and Oblivion, I haven’t played enough of Morrowind to find it, and I haven’t played Oblivion at all. So finding the Fork here didn’t have any more interest for me than any other random MacGuffin.

At least you do get to play with the Wabbajack a bit, with Sheogorath demanding that you whack a few of his temple acolytes with it. But, meh. This honestly is about the same level of use I ever get out of the Wabbajack in Skyrim!

And the second book acquired as a result of this was about as incoherent as you’d expect any book involved in a plot starring Sheogorath would be. One presumes Valaste will have a bit less trouble studying this one.

Next time

Paul’s about to go visit his folks for the holidays, so he and I won’t get in too much joint play time for a while. We’ll do a bit with the New Life festival that’s kicking in, but while Paul’s gone, I expect to do more work on the Main Quest.

Screenshots

Editing to add

11/25/2023: Restored missing gallery.
10/11/2024: Converted gallery to native WordPress one. Changed header graphic to the one I’m using on later Gyllerah posts.