In Which Elessir Slays Alduin in Sovngarde

And now, swinging back around to catch up on Elessir’s playthrough! This is his turn to take out Alduin in Sovngarde! But with a hefty side helping of becoming the Guild Master of the Thieves Guild, too.

Also, this post features my first actual run of the Paarthurnax Dilemma mod, and my thoughts on how that played out. So in addition to this being an Elessir session report, it’s also a short review of that mod.

Play by play

• Play date: 8/24/2024
• Session number in this run: 49
• Picked up again at the Thieves Guild
• Talked to Tonilia to check in with her that I’d talked to Ri’saad
• Resolved her little quest to do that
• Boinged in rapid succession through two more Sweep Jobs in Whiterun, since Delvin still couldn’t give me a Bedlam Job: first one for Uthgerd the Unbroken’s house, and the second one for Ysolda
• Hit both houses with no trouble, and that finally unlocked the special job for Whiterun
• Ran that for Olfrid Battle-Born as per previous playthroughs, and no issues with that
• (Olfrid, old son, I am the thane around here, trust me, nobody will blink an eye about my wandering around in the Jarl’s quarters) (And I did nab the Stone of Barenziah while in there)
• Kept spotting the puppy! But usually just fast traveling into Riften, and once into Whiterun
• Leveled up to 65 while doing all of that, woo! Bumped Stamina and took Dwarven Smithing perk
• Returned to the Thieves Guild and got made Guild Master, woo!
• Got the Amulet of Articulation and the Guild Master’s armor
• Noticed during the ceremony scene that Serana, while watching, actually was smiling a bit
• Made sure to talk to Delvin to finish out the Whiterun special job quest, and confirm all merchants present in the Flagon
• Next stop: boinged to Septimus’ outpost to turn in his blood samples
• HI HERMAEUS MORA
• Got the Oghma Infinium, and took the Path of Magic since that seemed in character for Elessir
• That let me level up to 66; took Advanced Heavy Smithing perk, and Health bump
• Next stop: boinged back to Whiterun, and talked to the Jarl to trigger the final stages of the main quest
• Got objective to talk to Arngeir about the Greybeards hosting a peace council
• Got Arngeir on board, and got objectives to talk Ulfric and Tullius to set up the truce
• Decided to hit up Ulfric first, so boinged to Windhelm
• But as soon as I approached the Palace of the Kings, triggered Blood on the Ice
• Decided to go ahead and run that even though Elessir was feeling fairly short of fucks to give about dead Nord women (or at least so he told himself, LOL)
• Didn’t bother to seek out Tova to get a legit key to Hjerim (the Guild Master of the Thieves Guild scoffs at locks, also LOL)
• By then it was fairly late game time, and Elessir was not about to stay at Candlehearth Hall
• So even though the cornerclub is not set up to let you sleep there without appropriate mods, went over there and just waited there until morning
• Checked in with the steward the next morning and got the objective to ask Calixto about the amulet
• Had to wait a bit before the House of Curiosities opened up
• Had the convo with Calixto and sold him the amulet
• Hunted down Viola and asked her about the journals from the house
• She fingered Wuunferth and told me to go tell the steward, but I went straight to Wuunfurth anyway
• Had usual convo with Wuunferth
• On the way out, quaffed an invisibility potion and nabbed his Stone of Barenziah
• Then finally talked to Ulfric (which does go more smoothly when you can just tell him straight up that you have a message from the Greybeards, yep)
• Got him to agree to come to the peace talks
• Went back to the market to wait for Calixto to show up
• Had to do this twice! Because I’d wielded Mehrunes’ Razor and still missed my aim for hitting Calixto! Hit Arivanya instead and OH SHIT ROLL BACK ROLL BACK
• Second time through, made damn sure to position myself properly to hit the right goddamn person ;P 🙂
• Hurray, Arivanya is saved!
• Took the Necromancer’s Amulet back off of Calixto and his other loot as well
• Reported back to the steward, and then got the hell out of Dodge Windhelm
• Boinged to Solitude to talk to Tullius, and got him on board with the peace conference
• Then boinged to High Hrothgar
• Peace council played through as per usual
• But this time I made a point of not bolting out of the room before Delphine or Esbern could stop me, because I wanted to see what changes the Paarthurnax Dilemma put in (more on this below)
• Intimidated Delphine into standing the fuck down
• Went to Whiterun to go trap Odahviing
• Took me a try or two with Dragonrend to get Odahviing to land–and the animation for his getting trapped was a little dodgy
• But played through to getting him to take me to Skuldafn
• Took out the two exterior dragons, with the help of summoned Durnehviir
• But then had my ass handed to me by exterior draugr, and got thrown back to re-doing trapping Odahviing
• So did take two of the whole sequence, and that time through getting Odahviing trapped was smoother
• Re-did going to Skuldafn
• Leveled up to 67 while running the place, this time successfully
• Took Magicka bump and additional One-handed perk to bump up what damage I was doing
• It also helped that I started using a torch to block with, so that kept a bunch of the draugr from doing additional damage to me, as well as setting them on fire, which was handy
• Made it to the word wall and got the Storm Call word
• Made it to the dragon priest and took him out
• Made it to Sovngarde, and took Alduin out with the help of the three heroes
• Tsun returned me to Tamriel
• Lucien was present on the Throat of the World for the dragon finale–but did not have any lines of note at this point
• Serana was not present
• Returned to Lakeview
• Got courier with a Letter from a Friend, reacting to my shouting in Dragonsreach–and pointed me at Shriekwind Bastion, conveniently nearby
• Then spent a fuckload of time just doing a bunch of crafting
• Decided to set my Smithing skill Legendary so I could move all the perk points over onto Enchanting, which let me unlock putting two enchantments at once on a thing
• Did a fuckload of smithing, burning through my stash of materials, which let me run my Smithing skill clear back up to over 70
• Did a bunch of Alchemy as well to replenish my stock of healing potions, but also identify at least some of the stash I had
• Did not have enough correct ingredients to make better Enchanting potions, though, just got one out of the whole effort
• Was however able to make much better Smithing and Alchemy gear, including jewelry with double Smithing and Alchemy enchantments
• And since the mods in this run include Immersive Armors, was also able to drop those enchantments on some earrings and a bandana as well
• Meanwhile, dropped a fuckload of enchantments all over the Crimson Archer gear, as well as the Ringmail hood and Elessir’s dragonbone sword and bow
• All of this work let me level him to 68; took another Stamina bump, and took Basic Smithing perk again
• Then did a big run of selling stuff, including a bunch of the gear I made while smithing, and a bunch of jewelry
• Dropped some stuff off at Hendraheim, and sold stuff all over the place
• Took some Alchemy training with Arcadia
• And for that matter, while I was at it, finally adopted Lucia in Whiterun
• Swung by Goldenhills to pick up profits
• Told her she could live at Lakeview, and once I returned to Lakeview after selling all the things, found her safely arrived there
• Stopped there until next time <3

General commentary, part one

Every single time I play the Thieves Guild, it is still fucking hilarious to me to have the conversation with Olfrid Battle-Born setting up his little conspiracy out in public, while guards are walking right past us.

Olfrid, you might want to use your Inside Voice for conspiracy. Pro tip there.

(Unless you’re actually bribing the entire guard force, in which case nice work, but why do you need me to falsify the dungeon records then…?)

Once I got made Guild Master, Serana and Lucien were on hand for that little ceremony. I happened to notice that Serana was smiling a bit as she watched what was going on. I really liked that! And I suspect it was courtesy of the mod for more expressive female faces. A very small smile there seemed really appropriate for her. <3

I didn’t go into this session expecting to run Blood on the Ice in Windhelm. But when I went there to talk to Ulfric about the peace council, the guard started in on that dialogue even though I wasn’t actually physically in the graveyard. But apparently “in front of the palace” was close enough? So that was weird and slightly buggy, but then, this quest is on record as being buggy AF. So not really surprised.

Narratively speaking, I shall chalk this up to Elessir pretending to not have any fucks about Nord women being murdered–but he had more fucks to give about this than he let on, even to himself. So even though he really wanted to talk to Ulfric about the whole peace council thing, he went “Okay fine” and dealt with the whole murder problem. Which is, I feel, in keeping with his namesake!

Note to self: really need to corral an appropriate mod to make it possible to stay at the cornerclub in Windhelm. Because fuck that racist innkeeper at Candlehearth. Especially if I’m playing a Dunmer.

Also narratively speaking, I take the liberty of assuming that Elessir was pretty damn sure he could take an old necromancer, especially with Lucien and Serana (comma, his own necromancer) backing him up! Hence why, as per usual, I went to go talk to Wuunferth directly rather than going to the steward.

Thoughts on the Paarthurnax Dilemma

Honestly, my reaction to how that mod plays things out is mixed.

The additional voice lines put in by the supplementary mod were rougher work than I would have liked. I don’t know if this is a question of bad splicing of existing voice lines, badly used AI tools, or what; I don’t know enough of the particulars about how those voice lines were created. I just know that the end result sounded a bit rough to me.

Also, I kinda side-eyed all of Delphine’s behavior in the interaction I had with her. She only backed down because I threw a rumble of the Voice at her, and also, I still didn’t like her added lines.

“Dragonborn, that’s not your decision to make.”

“Bullshit. Who says it’s your decision to make? Or Esbern’s? And for that matter, since everybody and their mothers all over Skyrim pretty much have made this my decision to make, fuck you, Delphine. The Dragonborn says the dragon lives. Cope.”

“Paarthurnax is evil and needs to answer for his crimes.”

“Super reductive attitude, and completely ignoring that what Paarthurnax did was thousands of fucking years ago, that he has been hiding on top of a mountain ever since in self-imposed penance, and with great discipline of will fighting against his own nature. He’s had ample opportunity to to do more evil in the world and hasn’t. He also, when Alduin fought me on the Throat of the World, could have turned back to Alduin at that point and didn’t.”

“This isn’t about revenge.”

“The hell it’s not.”

“No one had reason to question either one of them.”

“Gee, fucking thanks, lady! You’ve fought at my side, you know damn well i’ve been busting my ashy Dunmer ass to save this world and everybody in it, and you have the gall to tell me now that you question my judgment?”

“That dragon has to die for his crimes, regardless of who you invoke.”

“Again, says who? You? Who appointed you his judge, jury, and executioner? You want Paarthurnax dead? Fine. Go kill him yourself. Have fun with that, if you think you can take him.”

Though I had to LOL that Delphine got pissy at me for comparing her behavior to the Thalmor:

“How dare you even suggest such a thing! You test our patience!”

“And you’re testing the fuck out of mine, woman. Back the fuck down.”

“You go too far, Dragonborn, give me one good reason why I shouldn’t put you down right now as a traitor to the cause!”

“Because I can Shout you straight into Cyrodiil from here the moment you draw your blade. Or set you on fire. Or–” <summons dremora lord> “–have my friend here chop your head off for me. Care to choose a way to die? Or are you going to keep trying to order me around?

If you think you can take me in battle, you’re welcome to try right here and right now, lady. Draw. Or shut up. Your choice.”

Or at least, that’s what I wish Elessir could have said to her. Instead, I rumbled at her with the Voice. And had an actual line in dragon speech there: “Dreh ni fus bahi!” Which apparently translates to “Do not force my wrath.” So apparently this mod is assuming that the Dragonborn does pick up at least a little bit of the dragon speech? I’m kind of okay with that.

But then Delphine backed down just at that. And I’m not entirely happy with that. I feel like Delphine being threatened with the power of the Voice, and that being the only reason she backs down, actually does her a little disservice as a character. She’s pissed off enough at the Dragonborn that she threatens to kill him, and she immediately backs down when he gets a little Shout-y at her?

That doesn’t speak well of her convictions. Or her courage. And that doesn’t fit well with the Delphine I see portrayed in the main game content. Like a lot of players, I’ve never been happy with how Delphine and Esbern insist point blank that Paarthurnax has to die, and refuse to support the Dragonborn any further if you don’t kill him.

But their convictions on this are really strong–to the point that even though the entire point of the Blades is to serve the Dragonborn, they’re willing to back off on that if the Dragonborn refuses to kill a dragon for them. (Which raises the question of what exactly Delphine and Esbern think they’ll do with their lives if they abandon serving the actual living breathing Dragonborn, but that’s a whole side thought…) And I feel like the Dragonborn getting slightly Shout-y shouldn’t be all it takes to make Delphine back off, satisfying though it might be in the moment.

I really wish I could have argued Delphine out of it rather than just intimidating her, or at least gotten her to a point of compromise. For example, “Look, from what I can tell he’s been doing penance for his ancient crimes for millennia already. If he becomes a problem again, I promise you, I’ll crossbow his scaly ass. But I’m not doing it until he becomes a problem. For now, he’s the dragon that helped me fight Alduin. For now, he lives.”

And a Delphine grumpily willing to accept that I could like a lot better.

I have, since running playthrough sessions earlier this year, become aware of other mods that do their own take on how to handle Paathurnax. I’ll be exploring them in playthroughs to come! At least one of these will in fact show up in Tuxborn. So more on that when I get to it.

General commentary, part two

I need to remember that if I have a weapon in my right hand, and a torch in the left, I can actually use the torch to block. This has the added benefit of a shot at setting my opponent on fire! This came in handy while running Skuldafn. Because draugr burn real good.

This time through, I told Tsun I was the Dragonborn, just so he wouldn’t give me any shit about being a Nightingale.

After the fight with Alduin in Sovngarde, I saw the Stormcloak soldier I’d led through the mist still following me around. I’m… pretty sure… he doesn’t normally do that. But not entirely sure. I’ll have to keep an eye out for him when Nona makes it to Sovngarde in my Tuxborn run.

LOL, making fifty, count ’em, fifty ebony rings sure does level up your Smithing quickly. 😀

And last but not least, this was the session where Elessir finally adopted a kid. I went with Lucia like I usually do, just because she’s right there in Whiterun and all. And it was definitely one of those “rogue with a heart of gold” moments. I imagine Serana and Lucien both made a note of Elessir being rather more compassionate to the kid than he usually lets on! But I also suspect Serana was wise enough to not tease him about it. Maybe Lucien, not so much. 😉

Notable Lucien quotes

While heading up to High Hrothgar for the peace council:

“Right. Peace treaty. I feel it’s worth mentioning we could still use this opportunity to Shout Ulfric off the mountainside. No? Fine. Let’s do this.”

I love this guy. 🤣

And here’s what Lucien had to say while we investigated Hjerim during Blood on the Ice, gotta say, boy’s not wrong:

“You know, I read a theory once that old buildings retain the memories of those that lived in them. I sincerely hope that’s not true here.”

Once we got to Whiterun to carry out the plan to trap Odahviing in Dragonsreach:

“I can’t believe we re actually going to try to trap a live dragon in the Jarl’s Palace. Madness. Glorious madness, yes, but madness nonetheless.”

Next time

Elessir’s next post will feature a short-ish session, running Shriekwind Bastion and boinging around to sell a bunch of stuff and get training. And prepping for running Lost to the Ages!

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