-
In Which Ysani Quests into the Soul Cairn
This is a double session post, covering a tiny amount of play done on Sunday 3/20, and more on Monday 3/21. Overall action here is Ysani and Serana proceeding into Castle Volkihar, making it to Valerica’s lab, and proceeding into the Soul Cairn.
-
In Which Delga Slays Lord Harkon and Kills a Thalmor Assassin
Primary action in this session was the finale of the Dawnguard plot, slaying Lord Harkon and putting a stop to the prophecy about blotting out the sun. And after that, some side action: taking out the Thalmor assassin targeting Malborn, and finding the Word of Power at Shriekwind Bastion.
-
In Which Delga Explores the Soul Cairn
This is actually a double session post, since I didn’t get to put up one yesterday. Covered here is the play done on Friday 12/24 and Saturday 12/25.
And it works out nicely regardless, because this basically means I can cover all of the Soul Cairn action in one single post!
So mostly, this post is all about the Soul Cairn. Which was mostly the same as previous playthroughs, with the exceptions of doing things in a different order, and also actually killing the Reaper this time through.
-
In Which Merawen Slays Lord Harkon Then Catches Up On Side Business
This session saw the conclusion of the Dawnguard plot, with the slaying of Lord Harkon, Serana’s father. And with the Dawnguard plot over and done, I took care of a lot of side business after that!
-
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!
-
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!
-
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.
-
In Which the Dragonborn Continues to Aid the Dawnguard
So far i’m finding that the plot for Dawnguard does not lend itself well to pausing and coming back to it later, the way Skyrim’s main plotline does. This may be because Serana is a required follower for a good chunk of this storyline, and if she’s immediately on hand urging you to do the next necessary thing, it does not seem narratively appropriate to blip back to Whiterun to hunt or craft or sell things!
Which means: I’ve made pretty fast progress through the main quests of this storyline. As of last night it looks like I have only three quests left in the main Dawnguard plot, though there are apparently side quests I could also do? We’ll have to see if the opportunity to do those arises.
Highlights and details behind the fold!