Dawnguard
Posts pertaining to play for the Dawnguard DLC
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In Which Merawen Escapes the Soul Cairn and Finds the Location of Auriel’s Bow
This session was all about moving the Dawnguard plot along, finishing up adventures in the Soul Cairn and then moving on to Ancestor Glade, to do the necessary ritual to locate Auriel’s Bow. And now we’re getting into my favorite part of the whole Dawnguard quest line!
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In Which Merawen Returns to the Main Dawnguard Plot
This session finally saw the last of the Dawnguard side quests I wanted to do, i.e., acquiring the Dawnguard Rune Axe. Which meant I was also finally able to rendezvous with Serana and proceed with the next phase of the main Dawnguard plot: infiltrating Castle Volkihar in an attempt to find Serana’s long-lost mother Valerica.
And getting into one of my favorite bits of the Dawnguard plotline: the Soul Cairn!
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In Which Merawen Hunts Still More Vampires for the Dawnguard
This was another session all about the Dawnguard side quests, because I had to chug through a few more to finally get to the last one I wanted to do! With the obligatory side helpings of confronting dragons and bandits, and this time also Thalmor. And more building work on Heljarchen Hall as well.
Plus, Gregor the housecarl is now properly outfitted with his own suit of dragonplate armor, as well as dragonbone weapons. You work for the Dragonborn, you will be outfitted correctly!
Also, this post contains considerable saltiness about the Hide and Seek quest, since I got another round of that. And today’s favorite Skyrim bug: trying to rescue a kidnap victim from vampires, only to discover the kidnap victim has buggered off for home all by herself!
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In Which Merawen Rescues a Future Sybil and Hunts Yet More Vampires
I had not planned to visit the Temple of Dibella during this run, or to do their Heart of Dibella quest, but events conspired otherwise! Because one of the side quests for the Dawnguard pointed me at one of the temple priestesses as a lead on finding a vampire–and I couldn’t get at her without doing the Heart of Dibella quest. But it was a new thing, so that was fun!
Also, there was more vampire hunting. And severe chastising of bandits who attacked me at Lakeview.
And, sadly, the loss of the blacksmith Ghorza in Markarth, killed by the Traveler NPC vampire. RIP Ghorza! 😢
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In Which Merawen Quests All Over Skyrim for the Dawnguard
This session was all about the side quests for the Dawnguard, with a mix of quests from Sorine, Gunmar, and Florentius. Kidnap victims were rescued! Vampires were plammoed with crossbow bolts! Lost Dawnguard relics were acquired!
And through it all, Merawen boinged back and forth to several points between Markarth and Riften, all over the map. Most of the locales I hit in this session were places I’d been to before, either as Alarrah or as Merawen. But a couple of them were brand new to me, and that was fun!
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In Which Merawen Marries Jenassa, Adopts Children, and Quests for the Dawnguard
Very eventful session! This saw my girl Merawen marrying Jenassa, the Dunmer mercenary who is perhaps the one person in all of Skyrim who really gets her. Except maybe also Karliah, and the game won’t let me marry Karliah! So Jenassa it is. 😀
Also adopted two children this time, Sofie from Windhelm, and Runa from the Riften orphanage.
And last but not least, ran two more side quests for the Dawnguard! And got in some practice using Dawnguard spells and weaponry to take out the undead.
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In Which Merawen Saves a Priest of Arkay and Returns to Solstheim
This session was predominantly about doing side quests for the Dawnguard—but with a side helping of getting the party started for the Dragonborn plotline as well. Because Merawen’s now visited Solstheim a second time, and she’s experienced firsthand some of the creepiness involved with what’s going on with the All-Maker Stones there. Muahaha.
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In Which Merawen Saves a Moth Priest, Hunts a Disguised Vampire, and Gathers Jazbay Grapes
I’m well and thoroughly into the Dawnguard content at this point, with a lot more mileage to that entire plotline than I got with Alarrah. Because this time through, I’m trying out more of the Dawnguard side plots, too!
So while I moved the main Dawnguard plot along some in this session, I spent most of the rest of it on side quests.
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In Which Merawen Slays a Dragon Priest and Quests for the Dawnguard
Mostly familiar territory again in this session, only this time, there was more mileage of stuff done in different ways. Not the killing of the Dragon Priest Hevnoraak–that did go pretty much as it had done for Alarrah–but I got some fun variations of events once I returned to the Dawnguard plotline and got Serana at my back.
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In Which the Dragonborn Slays Lord Harkon
This session saw the ending of the main Dawnguard plotline, which was over surprisingly quickly! So I did a few epilogue-type things afterwards, and then a bunch of general building and crafting and selling.