This is part of my playthrough of the Dragonborn DLC for Skyrim. You can find my playthrough of the Dawnguard DLC, and earlier bits of this adventure on the Ongoing Series page.

When we left off, I had just been told by Frea’s father that I needed to head off towards some other dungeon and blah blah blah. You know the drill. Here’s where he told me all that good stuff:

I looked at my map and realized that one of the other side quests, where I was to find some sort of buried treasure, was nearer to me than the main story quest. Long-dead people and treasure are my forte at this point, so I figured I might as well do that first. So I headed to a small island off the norther coast, where I found a small camp of pirates who were also looking into this whole buried treasure thing.

On one of the bodies I found the treasure map marking the locations of more buried treasure, all surrounding this dead guy named Haknir Death-Brand. Coincidentally, these guys had already dug up the first treasure chest, and the Deathbrand helmet was found inside. There were 3 other X’s on the map, which had to mean that more armor was to be found. The set itself didn’t have huge stats, but the bonuses for wearing the complete set seemed like they would be well worth my time. So I was off.

I didn’t take a bunch of screens during this portion, because really I was just fast travelling around and finding the chests, which were all already dug up, and usually guarded by something nearby. I killed things, I got the loot, and soon I had a full set of DeathBrand armor.

It appeared that with all of the set bonuses I might actually be able to upgrade from my Dragonbone armor, but alas, it wasn’t to be. Perhaps when I get a moment and upgrade this gear, it might be an upgrade after all, but for now I tucked it safely away in my Breezehome in Whiterun. I did try it on. I don’t think blue is really my color though. What do you think?

The quest didn’t end there though. I actually found a key to a place called Gyldenhul Barrow, so there was more to find. It was fairly close to the Skaal village, so a hop skip and a jump got me to the entrance.

There were some baddies outside, though they were easily dispatched. From there, I unlocked the door with the found key, and found a very small chamber inside, that was distinctly lacking in good stuff to loot. There was a dead adventurer inside, and on him I found a note.

It seems he shared my sentiment for the lack of loot, but unlike him my pickaxe could chip away at the Stalhrim. There were a couple deposits, and one opened up a passage that lead further in. Of course, I was ready to check it out. Not too far beyond the entry, I found the jackpot.

NICE. Not that I really need the gold or anything. Still, LOOT. So I moved on beyond the door and found the remains of Mr. Death-brand, along with a nice looking sword. As soon as I picked up the sword though, I was attacked by Death-brand’s ghost and his ghostly crew! Apparently they didn’t want to give up there stuffs.

In the end, he and his crew were piles of ghostly ash/ectoplasm. Something. His remains held another sword, and the two of them wielded together would make for a nice dual-wielding setup. But I don’t roll that way, so they won’t see much use. It was still a fun adventure though, and during the battle, I dinged level 50, finally.

That netted me one of the last two trophies I needed to get the platinum for the game, and since I’ve been working on it for so long, I decided to break from my Solstheim adventures to complete the final trophy. This ended up taking a lot longer than I expected, but the end result was well worth it. See I had nearly completed the Thieves Guild quest line long ago, but it turned out that I made a terrible mistake. At some point I had upgraded beyond my thieves guild armor, and I sold it. At that point in time, there was no way to get it back, and that would keep you from being able to complete the quest chain, as you needed to give the armor to an NPC to upgrade it. They either patched in the fix, or it just took a while for someone to discover it, but a while back I found a YouTube video showing you where to pick up a new set of armor. I found it, and said I’d get back to that chain later on. Well, the time had finally come.

So I headed back to the Thieves Guild and I needed to get petty tasks from a couple of the members in the Ragged Flagon. They would give you options as to what quests you wanted to do, and I always picked “Numbers” and “Shill” jobs. The former involves forging ledgers, and the latter involves planting stolen goods in various people’s houses. Essentially it’s framing people for crimes so clients will be able to get ahead. You have to do 5 jobs in 4 cities (20 quests) in order to grab the attention of someone prominent in each of those cities. Then you’ll get a special request which amounts to another quest that is a little more involved. From there, you get to become the guild master, and you get the “One with Shadows” trophy, which was the last one I was missing. After getting that, the Platinum trophy popped! Sweet!

At some point while I was running around, I was met by a courier who gave me the following note:

Remember when I paid 1000 gold to that guy who was excavating on Solstheim? Well it appears that he made some progress. I set off back to the island to meet up with him and see what he had found. When I arrived, he wasn’t happy. I could see that they had definitely dug deeper than when I first ran into him, and a makeshift camp had popped up. He was intently staring at plans when I approached.

As you can see, Dragur were awoken, and he went on to explain that his entire crew was killed. He was the only one to escape. He implored me to deal with the Dragur problem, and I agreed. The excavation site awaits! What will I find?

We’ll find out, next time.

#Skyrim #Dragonborn

This is part of my playthrough of the Dragonborn DLC for Skyrim. You can find my playthrough of the Dawnguard DLC, and earlier bits of this adventure on the Ongoing Series page.

Having cleared the last few side quests and earning a house on Solstheim was a great accomplishment, but I was then left with a choice. The current quest chain had ended and there were others in my journal, but all were on the far end of the island and it was starting to feel like I should either start on the main questline or wander around until I found more quests that were closer to “home” as it were. I decided that I wanted to get to the bottom of the case of the missing Miraak. When my quest began I headed in the direction of the Temple of Miraak, fully intending on entering it straight away. But then I came across a solitary building and had to know what was inside. Skyrim has that effect on me.

When I approached the entrance, a Riekling (which appears to be a goblin-esque race) stopped me and said “You. Fol. Low. Me” and I figured I’d see what the little guy wanted. Even if the place was swarming with the little bastards I figured I’d be able to decimate them. Inside, I was taken to their chief, king, or whatever they call their leader.

The leader recognized that I’m a bad ass, so he sent me off to recover Bilgemuck, their prized boar. Apparently the boar had broken out of his pen and was wandering the wilds. I first had to hunt down some meat so I slaughtered wild animals until I found some (it’s not something I typically carry around, since you know, bad asses don’t need to eat). Bringing some meat to Bilgemuck, he then followed me and I put him back in his pen. Easy peasy.

Returning to the chief, he then asked me to collect some “red weed” so they could make “God-dance” or something to that effect. I’m not sure how my strength plays into fetching boars or picking weeds, but I decided to play along — for now.

Thankfully these weeds were all over the place, so collecting ten of them didn’t take long. Returning to the chief, he said that there were “evil men” nearby that wanted to take this building from them, which sounded a lot like “we stole this, and we don’t want to let them have it back.” For the sake of continuity, I followed along, and we killed some Nords. I have no allegiance to either faction really, so who cares.

Funnily enough, right after killing off the Nords who threatened the tribe, the chief turned on me. First he acknowledged my strength yet again, then he proceeded to rant about how I might try to take his place. I simply told him yes, I want the hall for myself, and he attacked. He was easily dispatched. The tribe then moved on, leaving the Mead Hall empty. Perhaps I’ll come across the original owners and let them know that I cleared it out, which will probably come with a reward. Oh how I love the way this world works.

Now I was near the Temple of Miraak and hadn’t seen anymore quests come my way so it was time to get in there and see what the fuss was about. Between hearing voices and seeing a bunch of workers who seemed like mindless zombies (much like those near the Earth Stone in an earlier segment) it seemed like I wouldn’t get any real answers. Then I heard shouting from a female who seemed relatively sane, so I talked to her.

Frea was her name, and she also wanted to enter the temple, recognizing that the temple seemed to be the source of magic power that was controlling all of the locals into constructing this building, and enshrining the stones on the island. I took her along and our party grew to three (which really made this dungeon run super easy). Inside was the typical dungeon running tropes, traps, beasties and treasure. Cultists seemed intent on our destruction, and Dragur were ever present. Soon we had made it to a point where one of the Dragur dropped a key to the interior of the temple, which seemed a little more “homey.”

We descended deeper, and Frea was concerned that the temple would go on forever. She also couldn’t figure out how a long dead person could convince so many people to build all of this. We would get our answer soon enough though, as we came upon a shrine with a book upon it, and I was instantly reminded of the book that transported me to one of the planes of Oblivion.

Of course, as soon as I picked up the book I was transported to that plane, though this time I was unable to move about freely. Floating masses of tentacles surrounded me, and a dragon swooped in a dropped off an armored figure. He was Miraak, and though he was not fully alive, he was not dead. It seemed he was contained to that plane until all of the stones and the temple were completed, but he did admit to being a fellow dragonborn, and told me he would see me again soon. I was then banished from the plane and returned to the shrine room.

We exited the Temple shortly thereafter, and Frea asked that I accompany her to Skaal village, where her father was keeping the village safe with a magical barrier.

It appeared that the barrier would be held for much longer. The “Wind Stone” was nearby and that was the source of corruption. The village was scarcely populated due to the mind controlling effects of the stone, all stemming from Miraak’s power. Frea’s father implores me to go to Saering’s Watch where I can learn a new word of power that might come in handy in the potential battle to come.

At this point I paused the playthrough, but I have a feeling there may be other side tasks to be done in this village. I’m unsure if I will continue the main story or get side tracked again, but you’ll have to stay tuned if you want to find out!

#Skyrim #Dragonborn