In Which Elessir Defeats Miraak in Apocrypha

Another Skyrim catchup post, knocking down a couple more sessions from Elessir’s now-finished run. These two sessions date from mid-September. Primary action here is taking out Miraak to finish off the Dragonborn main plot, but with a generous side helping of Solstheim side quests as well.

I have eleven more sessions of Elessir’s to write about, and then I can finally call his run finished.

Play by play

Play dates: 9/12-9/13/2024
Session number in this run: 57-58

September 12th

Picked up again at Severin Manor, and started off with a sleep to get to morning
Headed out from Raven Rock to go to the Wreck of the Strident Squall for the folio
Helped netch hunters near Old Attius Farm shoot down their target netch
Team Dragonborn proceeded to the wreck and fought reavers there
(Serana raised one as she does, LOL)
Got the folio and other loot, then returned to Severin Manor to drop off stuff
Returned the folio to Cindiri
Sold another East Empire pendant to Fethis
Then headed over to clear the Water Stone, and took out spriggans en route
Cleared the Water Stone, and got expected hostile cultist and hostile dragon shortly thereafter
Spotted only three of the four sailors still alive after the fight, not sure if the fourth one survived?
Then headed around past Bristleback Cave and made it to Northshore Landing–which had not spawned the Thalmor yet, since I hadn’t kicked off the plot for the stalhrim
But I did fight Old Salty and other mudcrabs there
Got the stalhrim fur armor off the little island after killing Skjol
Returned to Raven Rock again to drop off stuff, and sold another pendant to Fethis
Went back out to return to Kolbjorn, because I still hadn’t gotten a courier with his next message, and I wanted to see if I was getting buggy behavior
Netch hunters at the farm again, but this time did not engage
Talked to Ralis, but did not have any prompt to do anything, he told me to come back later
Boinged back to Raven Rock and slept for 24 hours in Severin Manor, to see if that would trigger a courier for me, but nope
Went back out again
Saw buggy behavior at Old Attius Farm, the shield previously worn by the dead Redoran guard was floating skyward, WTF
Also got hostile cultists, so dispatched them
Proceeded towards Tel Mithryn
Hit the final Deathbrand treasure spot, and killed hostile ash spawn there
Got the last bit of Deathbrand armor and the key to the barrow
Went in to talk to Neloth and got the prompt to find the missing Varona
Came back out again and helped Talvas by destroying the ash guardian
Went in to ask Elynea if she’d seen Varona, and got the prompt about her going to Raven Rock
Also got the quest to bring her soaked taproots to heal the house
Found dead Varona, and killed ash spawn near her
Rieklings showed up to help, HI RIEKLINGS <3
Revus also ran over to help, so made a point of stopping to talk to him
Returned to Neloth to tell him Varona was dead
Also told Talvas the ash guardian was dealt with and got him to give me the spell
From there, headed northward to hit Gyldenhul Barrow
Found Torkild fighting a reaver just south of Bujold’s Retreat, so helped him out with that battle
But of course then I had to fight Torkild himself
Returned to the Skaal village to tell Wulf about his brother, and then finally got the courier with Ralis’ next note
Also got the letter from Lucien, finally, to prompt me to return to Dumzbthar
Saw the convo that kicks off the stalhrim plot, and got the objective to go find Baldor
Noticed the one kid in the Skaal village actually has Skaal-style clothes on with this mod setup!
Talked to Wulf about his brother and got the skill bumps off of that
Then headed over to the Abandoned Lodge, took out all the exterior Thalmor, and freed Baldor
Returned to Severin Manor at that point and saved for the night

September 13th

Picked up again at Severin Manor
Sold stuff to dremora merchant
Sold stuff to Glover
Went into the Retching Netch and recruited Drovas as Neloth’s steward
Went back out again and got hostile Wood Elf at Old Attius Farm
Returned to Kolbjorn and ran next leg of that plot
Rieklings showed up!
Gave Ralis his 3,000 gold
Returned to Tel Mithryn and gave Elynea her taproots; she sent me next door to put the third one in the spot to mend the house
Checked in with Neloth to confirm new steward
Got permission to use his staff enchanter, then got the quest to go take out a briarheart for him
Tried to go back next door to tell Elynea that the taproot was planted, but the apothecary door was locked, and knocking on it didn’t let me get in
So oh-welled and proceeded to Gyldenhul Barrow; ran the place as per usual, with a bit of extra Serana mileage
From there, proceeded further north
Took out a trio of hostile reavers, who I think had been fighting ice wraiths before I showed up?
Got Castle Karstaag Ruins onto the map
Also found Castle Karstaag Caverns, so popped in there to nab the bonemold formula for Glover
Afterwards, found and fought a trio of werebears; Serana raised one of them
Returned to Northshore Landing and now the Thalmor were there, so succeeded at my Intimidate check to get them to fuck off, which also got me a Speech bump
Then started circling back east around the island, and found a hunter and his dog
Made it to the Glacial Cave and popped in there to get Karstaag’s skull (sorry I had to kill you to do that, rieklings!)
Then went to go try to take out Karstaag! Which I was able to do, though it took me two tries
With that done, returned to Dumzbthar to pick up Lucien, who happily came out to follow me some more
Returned to Raven Rock
Mogrul demanded the money that Drovas owed him, and I passed the Intimidate check to make him take half
Returned to Severin Manor, and put the two scimitars up on the wall over the bed
Sold Fethis another pendant
Returned to Glover to give him back the bonemold formula
Got the key to his cellar, and took most of the stuff down there
But for some damn reason, was not able to pick up his letter to Sapphire
Returned to Tel Mithryn and finally updated Elynea about the planted taproot
Returned to the Skaal Village and checked in with Baldor, who told me about how to forge stalhrim, yay!
Also sold him stuff
Got quest for Vahlok’s Tomb from Tharstan
And finally, talked to Storn
Cue Hermaeus Mora tentacle-stabbing him, and Frea telling me to go kill Miraak
New convo with Serana triggered at this point, see below
Realized however that I was fresh out of dragon souls, and therefore could not unlock the last word of Bend Will
So boinged to Saering’s Watch to try to fix that problem, but the dragon there hadn’t respawned yet
Leveled to 74; took Stamina bump and Atromancy perk in Conjuration
Set Light Armor to Legendary so I could get enough perk points to go all the way up to Twin Souls
Returned to Severin Manor for a sleep
Got up early the next morning to go hunt down the dragon on the hill near Miraak’s temple
Fought spriggans en route
Marked Highpoint Tower for the map since we went by there, and took out exterior ash spawn while there
Also marked the Ramshackle Trading Post
Found ancient dragon on the hill
Called in Durnehviir for my third round with him, who helped me take out the hostile dragon; got Durnehviir’s third Shout word
Finally parked near Miraak’s temple and ran the Black Book
Got Destruction skill bump off a book
This time through, tried to practice a little with controlling the dragon as he took me to Miraak, but not really enough time to play with that
Landed and fight was on
Called up two dremora lords to help with the battle; also threw the Dragon Aspect Shout
Fight proceeded as it does, and Mora took out Miraak
Did not bother to rearrange any of my skills for the time being
Returned to the Skaal Village, and had final convo with Frea
And had a convo kick in with Serana that made no sense
Returned to Raven Rock after
Got courier with third note from Ralis
Held off there until next time though

Commentary

Yet another post where I’m covering stuff that’s pretty much standard for me now when running Solstheim, but here at least are a few things I can say unique to this playthrough!

I do very much like when Revus comes running over to help you kill ash spawn, when doing the quest to find out what happened to Varona, Neloth’s steward. But his having to explain what a silt strider is to a fellow Dunmer is a bit weird, I feel!

But i suppose if Elessir was young enough, he might still never have seen one before?

Meanwhile, it was nice to see that Aeta, the one kid in the Skaal village and indeed on all of Solstheim, actually had Skaal-style clothes in this playthrough. Good, because it’s too fucking cold for that kid to be outside without a coat on!

Serana didn’t do too much new in this pair of sessions. But she did throw the line “Incredible, simply incredible” at the sight of the Deathbrand hoard. That was well done.

And she pulled the same power move I’d seen her do in previous runs, raising Haknir Death-Brand’s own skeleton to fight for us while we were fighting his ghost. That’ll never not be hilarious.

It’ll also never not be hilarious that the Thalmor at Northshore Landing are so easy to intimidate. Though I suppose it’s for the best, since the Dragonborn and a vampire who’s also a master necromancer against a half a dozen Thalmor would not be a fair fight! 🤣

This time through, it took me two tries to take out Karstaag. I probably would have done better if I’d had better frost defenses!

Getting Lucien out of Dumzbthar was easy enough. He was just hanging out down in the very bottom of the place, back in his default fine clothes. Which I suppose makes sense from a standpoint of not trying to overload Lucien’s mod with extra activity. Dumzbthar already has a lot going on in it when you’re down there for plot purposes, so trying to add in extra stuff like idle animations of Lucien doing research work would likely be more work than would be worth it.

But that said, from a narrative perspective, it did strike me as a bit weird that Lucien makes a big deal of wanting to research the place, and the initial visit is in fact a big deal. Yet when you come back there to pick him up again, he’s not actually doing anything. He’s just hanging out by himself down in the bottom of a creepy Dwemer ruin.

So yeah. Lucien, son, it’s not healthy for you to be down in here all by yourself. C’mon out for some fresh air! At least, as fresh as air gets on Solstheim, so choose between “frosty” and “full of ash”.

It was odd to make it down into Glover’s basement and not be able to pick up his letter to his daughter. So I had to rule out taking it back to Riften to clue Sapphire in about the identity of her father. 🤷🏼‍♀️ And I couldn’t find a satisfactory explanation for that bug, or a solution for it. There isn’t any information about it on either the UESP or on the Elder Scrolls wiki.

Hermaeus Mora tentacle-stabbing Storn Crag-Strider as he does was a trigger for a new conversation with Serana, added in by the dialogue mod. It wasn’t exactly smoothly cobbled together IMO, but the gist of it was, Serana was upset that she couldn’t come with me to fight Miraak. And I had to point out to her that I hadn’t been able to bring her into any of the previous Black Books.

Even though I didn’t find the conversational lines entirely smooth, I did like the idea. And it played well into my headcanon that Elessir and Serana totally were attracted to one another, and neither of them was prepared to actually vocalize it. 😉

And after I returned from fighting Miraak, another conversation with Serana kicked off, which didn’t play for me quite as well. Her line was, “Is it really you? I can’t believe it!”

I had literally just traveled with her to the Skaal Village, from Miraak’s temple. So of course she knew it was me.

I think the mod author must have assumed that you’d be reading the Black Book right there in the Skaal Village? And maybe was using the final convo with Frea as the marker to kick off that convo with Serana?

But what should have happened, IMO, was Serana throwing that reaction as soon as I came out of the Black Book. This would help account for the scenario I played out, i.e., having to bugger off for a short bit before I could run the Black Book properly.

Even with that as a scenario, though, the line was still kind of awkward. It wasn’t a line previously used by Serana anywhere at all. It sounded AI-generated, kind of like her, but also not. It was too emotive.

Now, I can argue that this, too, was evidence that Serana was in fact romantically interested to Elessir! And fretful AF about his going off without her to fight Miraak. But that’s the kind of headcanon that may not work for all players.

Plus, this was absolutely not the first time that Serana had seen me read a Black Book in general. So her freaking out about this one in particular strikes me as narratively weird.

So yeah, that was a bit of a bumpy experience there.

Notable Lucien lines

Lucien’s observation on a burnt spriggan we had to kill on the way to taking out the dragon near Miraak’s temple:

This is the meanest piece of firewood l’ve ever met.

Next time

Elessir’s next post will be another double session post, and feature kicking off Ghosts of the Tribunal–and also following up on Lucien’s personal quest.