In Which Veghra Quests in Daggerfall and Glenumbra

ESO catchup time again. This is returning to the playthrough I’m running for Veghra the Orc, and this is from late February, just as I was getting Vegs started in the plotline for the Daggerfall Covenant. Other action here includes main quest and Mages and Fighters Guild stuff.

Play by play

Play dates: 2/22-2/27/2024
Session numbers in this run: 7-8
Leveled from 21 up to 27
Did a bunch of writs and harvesting and geysers and a bit of world boss action near Alinor

February 22nd

Picked up again in Daggerfall; did a lot, so taking this in sections rather than purely chronologically
Ran the plot that started with Giblets the dog trying to lead me to his dead master, and which led to saving King Casimir from assassination
Played this through pretty much the same as Gyllerah, including how I kept fighting assassins in the throne room and forgot I needed to go upstairs to explicitly protect the king
Ran brief side quest which I picked up from a scared beggar, who told me beggars had been getting murdered in the city
Went around and questioned a couple of people until I found a werewolf at the river, and took him out
Then had to talk to a lieutenant of the guard, who promised to pay more attention when beggars yell for help
Returned to the Harborage, and played through the part of the plot where I had to find the Imperial agent and meet Abnur Tharn in projection form
This sent me to an abandoned house in Daggerfall and into the cellar underneath it
Took out the Imperial in one go, and it helped that Veghra could summon two different types of critter
Was stupid about running into a spike trap, but at least it didn’t kill me
Reported back to the Prophet and Lyris at the Harborage; had a bit of a chat with Lyris
Got quest reward and the Prophet told me to come back in a bit
And of course he pinged me as soon as I set foot back in Daggerfall proper, LOL
Joined the Mages Guild; met Valaste and got the books quest underway
She sent me off to the Silumm delve, which I’d been to before as Gyllerah
Took out a bunch more werewolves and Dominion soldiers in there, and got the books; third one was the one that triggered Shalidor’s ghost showing up
Got the skyshard, killed the delve boss, and got out to return to the Mages Guild
Talked to Valaste and chucked the main book into the arcane fire
Shalidor’s ghost showed up and opened the portal to the Shivering Isles, so headed in to get the books
Talked to Haskill (LOL, still love Haskill)
Shut down the portal he summoned and killed assorted daedra, then went after the books
Took out Gutsripper, talked to Sheogorath, and got the first book from him
Witnessed Sheo’s little showdown with Shalidor
Reported back to the Mages Guild to talk to Valaste and get the quest reward
Meanwhile, talked to Vanus Galerion and picked up the prologue quest for Summerset
Also looked at a House Ravenwatch contract which gave me the prologue quest for the Dark Heart of Skyrim
Joined the Fighters Guild, and played through initial encounter with Merric and Aelif, then reported back to Sees-All-Colors at the Guild
Went back out to assist Merric and Aelif near Aldcroft, and OHNOEZ! Merric got kidnapped by Doshia!
Went after him with Aelif’s pointer on where to go, Dourstone Isle
Went in, took out Doshia, and rescued Merric; got the Guildmaster’s quest reward after
Last, ran another side plot I picked up on the way to Silumm, but ran this one after I was done with the delve
Came across a noble who was the son of a guy who’d hired a new mercenary group, the Daggers, who needed help investigating why the local flock of harpies was being unusually aggressive
I was asked to take help from an Orc in the camp, Bumnog
Found a couple of Bumnog’s compatriots who were trying to set harpy traps
Helped them out by snaring four of them, then found their leader and helped him by gathering four harpy eggs
Killed the head harpy, then returned to the noble’s camp
Before we got there, Bumnog pulled me aside to talk further and warned that the situation smelled off but that the priority was the Daggers getting paid
Found a woman arguing with the noble, and she turned out to be the sister of the Daggers’ leader
Noble was pissed that I only gave him four eggs and demanded to know where the fifth one was
Sister slipped me a pointer about where her brother might have gotten off to, so went to go investigate a nearby fishing shack
Found the brother in there, talked to him, and found he was also suspicious of the whole damn situation
Helped him search the shack, and found evidence that the noble had deliberately arranged to stir up the harpies and had poisoned them with fish to make them more aggressive
Went back out again and confronted the noble and took him out
Bumnog slipped me some jewels off the guy’s body
Followed up with the Daggers’ leader and gave him the jewels
Claimed I’d taken them, just to cover for Bumnog, and got quest reward
Leveled up to 22 through all of this
Got enough skyshards to get another skill point, and a couple off the plots as well
Dropped more points on crafting, and stopped there for the night

February 26th

Picked up again in Daggerfall
Ran short side plot involving talking to a swineherd who was pissed off about his pig going missing, and thought the guy in the inn had taken her
Went to talk to the guy in the inn, who was insulted about the accusation because it’s apparently happened before
Inn guy suggested I look through a particular alley for the pig
Found her—and she was nomming on one of those weird vines being grown all over the damn place by the Bloodthorn Cult
Got the pig, but also got attacked by a Bloodthorn assassin, so dispatched him
Swineherd guy told me to go talk to the Mages Guild about the vine, since he had no fucks to give about it
So went over to do that, and found an Orc to talk to about the matter
That guy clued me in that the vines were caused by the Bloodthorn cult, and that resolved the quest
Next, tried to talk to an NPC who turned out to be a recruiter for the Undaunted
She made a crack at me about being ugly, so I snarled right back at her, LOL, because Orcs
However I was only level 24 at this point, so was pretty sure I couldn’t actually do anything with the Undaunted yet (about which I was wrong, see below)
Next up: back to the Harborage!
Ran the part of the plot where I had to rescue Abnur Tharn, which went as per previous playthroughs, including getting Cadwell’s help to sneak into the stronghold
Threw a lot of lightning around and LOL, Lyris, you’re a giant-blooded Nord and I’m an Orc that throws lightning bolts around, I don’t think ‘subtle’ is in either of our game plans, just sayin’
Played through to the point of rescuing Tharn and getting him back to the Harborage, and the prophet fessing up to being Varen Aquilarios
After that, Bera Moorsmith told me the Guildmaster of the Fighters Guild wanted to see me at the guildhall in Wayrest
But for the immediate moment I wanted to follow in Gyllerah’s footsteps and run Deleyn’s Mill
Played through all of that as Gyllerah had done, with a brief break to run the Daenia dolmen nearby
Played all the way through to saving the Wyrd Tree, and got the quest to proceed to Aldcroft
On the way, ran a side quest involving a ghost kneeling by his own dead body at the side of the road
He told me he’d been killed by the Bloodthorn cultists while trying to look for ancient treasure in a nearby ruined keep, Dresan Keep
Went down there on his behalf to check the place out
Had to leave some artifacts at three statues of heralds to activate the way in, and killed a few cultists while doing so
Got down into a ruined archive with a lot of books in it
Read a strange scroll that conjured an Ayleid ghost
Couldn’t talk to it initially until I searched around and found an amulet in the shape of a golden tongue (snerk); used that and was then able to understand the ghost
The ghost told me his backstory, and I was initially convinced he must have been an evil ghost to be locked away like this, but was surprised to find that wasn’t the case
Had to find and destroy the three nearby artifacts that kept him bound, but the result of this was just that I got the choice to convince him to go to Aetherius, or to try to see the world and how it’d changed since Ayleid times
Told him to go on to Aetherius, which seems appropriate for an Orc
Then also saw another ghost who was apparently the Keeper of Knowledge
He gave me an index and told me how I could get safely out of the archive
Went back to the ghost of Richard Dusant to tell him what had happened
He was disappointed that I hadn’t found monetary treasure, but gave me the name of a contact at the Mages Guild I could take the index to, and advised me to tell her as well what had happened to him
This contact was conveniently in Aldcroft and i was headed there anyway, so!
On the way picked up yet another side plot, this one involving another Orc who was a recruit of the Lion Guard
He’d gotten wounded in a fight with the cultists and needed my help
Recovered a dispatch from General Gautier for him, and then helped him back to the Lion Guard camp
Specifically because he was an Orc who seemed to believe very heavily in the Lion Guard, I think Veghra was sympathetic, and made a point of talking him up to his commander
Which got him promoted to Private and being all “this is the happiest day of my life!” <3
From that point I proceeded with the main Aldcroft plot
Rescued the duke from his kidnappers as Gyllerah had done, then rescued Gloria Fausta
Picked up one more side plot at that point when I saw a quest marker in another nearby house
This led to a young woman mourning the death of her father at the hands of the cultists
She was taking shelter in the abandoned house and was overcome with grief, but asked me to recover her father’s pipe as a memento of him
Went to the family’s house and found the pipe, but also found the father’s ghost, who told me the location of a cache of gold he wanted me to give to his daughter so she could go to another town where his brother lived
So did this and resolved that quest
Then returned to the main Aldcroft quest, and played through finding the undercover werewolves
Got the quest objective to capture a werewolf and bring it to Gloria
Left off at that point
All this action let me level up to 27, and since I cleared 26 in the middle of the Aldcroft action, swapped over to Gyllerah to make level 26 gear
Then outfitted Veghra in that and flipped back
Left off just past level 27

Main quest stuff, and Fighters Guild and Mages Guild

I’m not going to go into commentary on the main quest, Fighters Guild, and Mages Guild stuff here, just because by the time I launched Veghra’s playthrough that was familiar territory to me. And I’ve written a lot about those plots already. The main points of interest this time through, for the Guilds in particular, were running them for the Daggerfall Covenant this time. So all the locations chosen were local to the Daggerfall Covenant, and that part at least was interesting and fun, just to see places I hadn’t been in before.

And since I did get as far as the reveal of the Prophet’s identity, I will note that I feel like Veghra had a more volatile reaction to either Gyllerah or Marwyth. I totally see her letting out a loud roar of WHAT?!

Which raises a question for me as to what kept her actually moving forward with the situation. Lyris talking her down, probably. Veghra was probably pissed off enough to start to stomp out of the Harborage right then and there, while also grumpily aware that the Prophet is an old man and it would not have been honorable to punch him in the face. She was also likely aware that if she tried, Lyris would kick her ass.

But I can also see Lyris blocking her from leaving, and talking very fast to try to persuade her to stay. And Veghra being willing to listen only because she’d fought at Lyris’ side in Coldharbour. And remembering that Lyris had, after all, helped her get out of her initial imprisonment there.

The Dagger’s Edge plot near Daggerfall

Things got more interesting though once I started hitting Daggerfall Covenant plots I hadn’t already done as Gyllerah.

I really liked the side plot involving the noble who’d hired some mercenaries to investigate harpy attacks. And a lot of my amusement with that involved an Orc NPC, Bumnog!

This dude was initially dismissive of me, and claimed my hands looked soft and delicate, not used to beating something into submission. The game did not give me an opportunity to push back on that, which was a damn shame–because an Orc letting loose with that at another Orc seemed like a missed opportunity for some crunchy RP!

I can actually buy the other Orc being contemptuous if I looked enough like a city Orc, maybe? But this guy was also presumably a resident of Daggerfall or the immediate environs. So not like he was a stronghold Orc, either. Either way, I could totally see Veghra not taking any of that shit.

“My hands are strong enough to wield this battleaxe just fine. Would you like me to use it to beat you in submission?” And there should totally have been a duel. ;D

As the plot proceeded, I noticed that Bumnog didn’t seem to have an actual weapon, either. He was fighting with his fists, and I feel like Vegs would not have let that escape without comment.

Veghra: “What, idiot, are you going to punch a harpy down out of the sky?”

Bumnog: “Do you have a better idea?”

Veghra: “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.” <calls lightning> <summons twilight> “I got this.”

I don’t think I realized at the time of playing this that the noble I was talking to was not the one who’d hired the Daggers. He was the son of the noble who’d hired them. Which, belatedly, makes the plot make much more sense to me–because I was a trifle baffled about why the guy had hired mercenaries to investigate a situation he himself had caused? But I doublechecked and confirmed that ah okay, it was actually his father who’d hired the mercenaries.

Of course, there’s still a question here about why the guy would bother to hire a random adventurer to check on the mercenaries! Because that’s bringing in additional witness who might actually stumble across evidence of your shenanigans. 😉 If anything, I’d expect this guy to want to hire somebody to make sure the other mercenaries didn’t report back in!

Still, I was amused by my final confrontation with the guy. Unsurprisingly, the dickweed didn’t believe me when I claimed to be in good with the king!

“Dude, no, seriously, I saved his ass, he likes me! You don’t believe me? Oh well, I guess imma just have to kick your ass.”

And I also take the liberty of assuming that Bumnog and Veghra had a friendly little brawl, she kicked his ass, and they totes became best buds. Because Orcs, amirite?

Adept Rider + Swift jewelry = zoom

While harvesting resources on Summerset, I discovered that since I’d outfitted Veghra with Adept Rider gear and jewelry with the Swift trait on it, she absolutely booked when I ran. Which also made it super easy to overshoot my destinations!

But heh, it at least let me unlock additional places on Summerset for Veghra’s map.

Later on I moved off of that gear setup for her, but at least in the early stages of her run, it was very helpful!

Apparently you can join the Undaunted earlier than I expected?

It took my third playthrough in ESO to realize that you can actually join the Undaunted earlier than level 45. That level is just when you get the in-game mailed invitation.

But apparently long before that, you can talk to recruiter NPCs to join up before then. I should have realized this–because I’d already leveled up two characters, and had seen all of the various stages where you unlock access to various base game dungeons. But I hadn’t put it together before this point!

Nor did I really put it together for the session on 2/26, too. I noted at the time that the wiki said I didn’t actually have to run a dungeon to join the Undaunted, just had to go to it. But I bailed on the quest anyway for the moment, while also noting that I got access to the Undaunted skill line.

And I was curious about whether I could in fact join the Undaunted prior to level 45. I learned later that the answer to this question was yes, with a caveat. You can join the faction, but you don’t get access to the daily dungeon pledges until you hit 45. So that was the difference.

This came in handy later, setting up my fourth alt, Ashoshah!

Action at Dresan Keep

This was some fun side-quest-y stuff, in the general theme of “helping a ghost deal with the bad guys who took him out”.

And I particularly liked the part of this where I found a non-hostile Ayleid ghost, and had to figure out how to talk to him. I had to find a magical item that let us understand each other–one of the few times in any Elder Scrolls game where the plot has in fact acknowledged a language barrier. Well done, plot!

I just wish that kind of thing happened more often in the games, even with how different races have their own languages. The games kinda touch on this a bit with the Khajiit having their odd syntax when they’re speaking Tamrielic. But the Khajiit are not the only race to have their own native language. I’d love to see more signs of that sprinkled into the worldbuilding.

I also was pleasantly surprised that the Ayleid ghost was not in fact evil! And the point of choice with this little plot was that I had to advise him either to go on to Aetherius, or go out into the world and see what had changed since he’d been alive. I went with Aetherius, just because that seemed appropriate for an Orc.

Action with the Lion Guard Orc

This was another side plot I quite liked, just because it gave me an opportunity to work out a thing for Veghra where whenever possible, she will absolutely help out a fellow Orc. I got started with that during the opening stretch of the Daggerfall Covenant plotline, after all, where she chose to destroy the relic rather than put it in Covenant hands–and risk it being turned against her people. Even if it meant that Captain Kaleen got furious with her.

So with that lingering in the back of her mind, I feel like she’d go out of her way to help out a fellow Orc in Covenant territory wherever possible. And in the case of the recruit who wanted to join the Lion Guard, that meant even talking him up to his commander so he’d get his dearest wish and be able to join their ranks.

Mind you, I’m pretty sure Veghra didn’t care about the Lion Guard much per se herself. But this fellow Orc sure did. And I daresay she felt that if she helped him out, he’d be in a position to maybe eventually make sure the Lion Guard didn’t actually ever turn against their people. And if not, well, at least she helped out one fellow Orc!