Hours 64 & 65: Cairn You Believe It

I decide it's time to get on with some more proper quests to take a break from all the traipsing and grinding. I last did a Dawnguard quest in hour 36, and I've been visiting Isran from time to time for Heavy Armour training, so I think I'll jump back into that.

I have to locate several people - a couple of people Isran knows who can help with the Dawnguard, and a Moth Priest. This involves a bit of travelling through the wilderness. My journey takes me to Dragon Bridge at one point, and I'd forgotten what a nice place it is:

Eventually, I've tracked down everyone I need to, and back at the fortress the Moth Priest reads the Elder Scroll which Serana, the vampire I freed earlier, has handily brought back, having defected from her father Harkon's evil scheme.

I now have to find some more Elder Scrolls, which first entails tracking down Serana's mother. She's in hiding, and we decide that Castle Volkihar itself is probably where she is - 'last place you'd think to look' and all that. We head there and sneak in through a back entrance to the dungeons. There then follows a fairly involved trek through the bowels of the castle, which go on seemingly forever. Eventually, I get stuck and find myself retreading the same ground over and over, getting more and more frantic. After half an hour, I give up and have to consult YouTube - very annoying. I'd missed a hidden candlestick-handle to open a secret passageway.

At the end of the dungeon we discover that Serena's mother has most likely vanished into something called the Soul Cairn. We work out an overly-complicated way of following her (I choose not to become a vampire and instead allow myself to be weakened whilst in the Cairn).

Behold, the Soul Cairn

This is an unrelentingly bleak and forbidding place which is almost completely empty, with just a few scattered bands of skeletal enemies. It's more purpley-blue than just blue like in the picture above. We track down Serana's mother and I complete a fetch-quest type thing to release her from a magical prison. Next, she tells me she has the Elder Scroll I'm seeking and asks me to follow her. However, she doesn't move! I try all sorts of things, including reloading from earlier, and attacking her, but nothing works and it seems I can't proceed with the quest!

Hour 63: The Higher They Gate

Since I cleared out the exterior of Hag Rock Redoubt, I figure I might as well explore inside. It's a pretty small area though and not really a full Nordic ruin. I decide to visit a larger ruin afterwards to really see Prowlers Profit in action. I've previously discovered but never entered High Gate Ruins, far to the north, so I head there:

Upon entering, I come across a Nord named Anska who wants help retrieving a scroll from inside. I agree to help her, although if it's a powerful scroll that I could find useful I'll obviously keep it for myself and immolate her.

There are several levels to the ruins, and being a fully-fledged ancient Nordic ruin there are tons of burial urns everywhere. For the first time, I see how truly ridiculous Prowlers Profit is, and by the end of the dungeon I've collected what feels like it could easily be tens of thousands of gold worth of rare gems. It's so good that I think if and when I do my next playthrough (probably as a Khajit assassin) I'll try and collect all the Barenziah stones as early as possible so that I have this boon throughout my whole playthrough. How possible this will be remains to be seen, as some of the dungeons were no joke, but the reward is so great that I'll probably give it a go.

At the end of the dungeon there's a surprise Dragon Priest called Vokun, whom my Dremora Lords dispatch without too much effort. There's another mask my by chest in Severin Manor, then. I collect the scroll for Anska and there doesn't seem to be any option but to return it to her, and she repays me by giving me a spell tome for Flaming Familiar.

Returning to Raven Rock to offload my loot, I then try out the spell on the hapless guards and townsfolk (before re-loading the game). It's quite an interesting and unique spell - it summons flaming wolves who charge at the enemy and then explode after a few seconds. The problem is that all the explosions could damage my other summons, and also if an enemy is too far away when it's summoned it charges at me and explodes for some reason! Not a spell I'll be making use of, then.

Hours 60 - 62: Suiting Up

After several unsuccessful attempts to surrender to the guards - they just absolutely hate my guts and all suicidally attack me, I decide to leave town for a while to see if it all blows over. I head back to the mainland and clear out an iron mine near Whiterun - this is just the same a goldmine for me, because with the Transmute spell I can turn all the iron ore into gold. The only catch is that it's pretty boring casting the Transmute spell about 60 times.

Gold ore transmuted, and with pockets overflowing with precious gems thanks to Prowlers Profit, I set about creating more jewelry. I sell a lot off for a good bit of gold (after enchanting, of course - putting my Enchanting level up to 94), but I decide that the time has finally come for Tharon-Zul to encase himself in armour.

I found a complete set of 'Nordic Carved Armour' at some point during a mission ages ago, and stashed it away in the main chest at Severin Manor. I enchant the helmet to increase my Magicka by 66 points, to take the place of the circlet I've been wearing this whole time. The gauntlets and torso armour don't have great options, so I just enchant them to boost my Heavy Armour skill. The boots are even worse, and the best I can stick on them is to fortify my Carry capacity by 40 points. Better than nothing I guess.

The end result - Tharon-Zul's first set of heavy armour. The enchantments aren't great, my Heavy Armour skill is quite low (although it's artificially boosted to something like 86), and it's not the most intimidating-looking armour I've ever seen, but it's a start.

Afterwards I take a stroll through Raven Rock, and fortunately I no longer seem to be a wanted man. I chance a visit back to Neloth and he's calmed down too, so I'm able to finish the quest by informing him that I slew his enemy - he rewards me by making me an honourary member of House Telvani. 

I next spend a while travelling round to all the major cities, buying up all the available iron ore from blacksmiths and transmuting it into gold ore. After several cycles round the whole of Skyrim, I'm able to craft a huge amount of expensive gold gemmed jewelry, which I enchant with more soul gems I acquired via the same method (cycling through as many vendors as possible). The end result is that I finally get my Enchanting up to level 100, and grab the Extra Effect perk. This will help me a lot when enchanting my next set of armour. I also get my Smithing up to 44, and I visit Isran at Fort Dawnguard a few times for Heavy Armour training too.

All the traipsing around, enchanting, selling, and training takes up a lot of time and gets quite monotonous. The only break from the grind is a trip to the exterior of Red Eagle Redoubt near Markarth. A large Forsworn encampment, led by a foul Hagraven, dwell within the ruins, and give fierce battle.

A mighty battle is fought upon these ancient ruins.

They prove to be remarkably tough opponents, with their archers taking out my Dremora Lords in a single shot, and one particularly aggressive Briarheart warrior taking out at least 4 or 5 of them in combat before they could finally best him. The Hagraven also rains down fiery meteors which explode cataclysmically and destroy all in their path. It's a difficult and bitter struggle, but I eventually prove victorious as I summon wave after wave of assailants to throw at them. To my annoyance, I find that I can still be taken out by one stray arrow. However, I haven't been able to grab many Perks yet, and I also hope to find a Fortify Health item to disenchant and use on my next set of armour, so I haven't given up hope yet.

One other thing I realise during these hours traveling round Skyrim is that I forgot how cool Solitude is:

This probably has to be the nicest and happiest-looking town, maybe on par with Whiterun. The whole place is kind of a like a castle, and indeed an actual castle and battlements form a large part of the town. It kind of reminds me of Skingrad from Oblivion, but with the castle actually incorporated into the town. It's pretty big, is clean and neat, and feels very secure. Raven Rock's still my favourite town, though.

Hour 59: Low in Highpoint

After a perfunctory investigation, I learn that an enemy of Neloth's (a former apprentice of his - actually it sounds like he 'experimented' on her, so I'm not sure her attacks are entirely unjustified) is holed up in Highpoint tower. I head to the tower which looks out across the southern part of the island. Previously this tower didn't have an entrance and was nothing more than a geographical feature. Now part of it has fallen away to reveal an entrance - it's nice that there's now a dungeon in the central part of this region, instead of it being a large expanse of nothingness.

Inside the tower is crawling with Ash Spawn, so I slog through to the end with the aid of my Dremora. At one point an Ash Guardian is summoned by the enemy, which proves to be a potent adversary, but once my minions close in on it it can't withstand their powerful flaming attacks.

During my rampage through the ruins I come across a prisoner - an experimental subject awaiting the same fate which Neloth's former apprentice experienced at the hands of Neloth, it seems - asking to be freed. I free her and she starts giving me her life story so I immolate her immediately. Tharon-Zul's unholy unholy fire does not discriminate. Weirdly, I get a 'bounty' added for killing her, which then immediately removed due to the 'last witness' (i.e., she herself) being killed.

After slaying Neloth's nemesis, I return to Tel Mithryn only to find Neloth hostile! He attacks me and I have to re-load. After trying unsuccessfully a few more time, I instead head to Raven Rock, only to find that the Redoran Guard have also turned against me! I can only assume it's because of the killing of the captive earlier - ridiculous, as she was just a lowly outlaw and there were no witnesses anyway. I slay a few of the guards before making my escape from town.

Tharon-Zul scowls out at Raven Rock from across the ash-plain, plotting his next move.

Hour 58: Smithing for Fun & Profit

 My last character overview was in hour 34, so it's high time for another one.

Level: 42

Magicka: 673

Health: 200

Stamina: 100

Gold: 55,366

Conjuration: Legendary 100 (so, I've got to level 100 twice)

Alteration: 94

Destruction: 55

Restoration: 54

Illusion: 32

Enchanting: 92

Smithing: 31

Spells learned: 62

Favourite Spell: Fire - Potent Flames (lies)

Favourite School: Alteration (more lies - it must be because I keep casting the Enhance Speed spell)

Locations discovered: 147

Dungeons cleared: 48

Days passed: 98

Gold found: 214,099

Quests completed: 48

Misc objectives completed: 34

People killed: 563

Animals killed: 298

Creatures killed: 223

Undead killed: 413

Daedra killed: 184

Automatons killed: 89

Assaults: 89

Murders: 25

Largest bounty: 6080

Total lifetime bounty: 13,950

I spend this hour collecting as much gold ore as I can find from a gold mine near Markarth. I then head into a small barrow called Mouldering Ruins and loot the place. It's only one small room with a few chests and urns, but I now get to see the power of Prowlers Profit, which took me 9 hours to acquire. Pretty much every single urn, burial urn, and dead Draugr corpse yields multiple gems, including flawless ones, diamonds, and emeralds. Just in this one room, I pick up an absolute ton of gems, and I've decided to head into a larger Draugr ruin as soon as possible.

Spectacular view from some rocks near to the Mouldering Ruin. You can see Solitude way off in the distance. Again, it wasn't this blue in the game and I have no idea why it comes out like this on my phone.

I return to Markarth, smelt the gold I found into ingots, and make a large amount of jewelry at the forge. Doing so rapidly increases my Smithing level, which is why it's level 31 in the stats above. Selling it all off could be a pain, but I know I have a merchant back in my house in Raven Rock who buys anything and has 10,000 gold, so I head there. I've invested in a few Speech perks by this point, too, and get much better prices than I used to previously.

Just from the sale of the jewelry alone (most of which I enchant before selling) I make 9,582 gold. And that's just from one mining expedition and one room of a Nordic ruin! I can immediately see that the 25,000 gold required to purchase Proudspire Manor in order to get all the Barenziah stones will pale into insignificance in the face of the sheer amount of coin I'll be able to make - and quickly, too.

With my riches, and since I'm on Solstheim again, I decide to buy some more Enchanting training from Neloth. However, he won't train me any more - I'm above level 90 in Enchanting, and he says he doesn't want me to be better than him. Damnit, getting it to 100 is going to a grind! Instead, I spend some money with him purchasing filled soul gems, because casting Soul Trap to capture souls for enchanting purposes is absolutely not something I can be bothered with. I also get another quest from him, which I don't think was available before - I'm to help him track down the source of recent attacks on Tel Mithryn.

Hour 57: The Un-hollow Crown

Tolvald's Cave turns out to be one of the most difficult areas I've yet explored, and takes up the best part of an hour. It's certainly a meaty mission to end the quest-line on, as it's a 3-tiered cave system absolutely crawling with high-level Falmer. Not only are the Falmer frequently present in huge mobs (5 or 6 to a room sometimes) but their archers are annoyingly powerful. At one point even 30+ Flame Atronachs isn't enough to win by attrition, and I have to find a safe angle to start summoning Dremora Lords closer to the archers.

After an epic and weary slog, I eventually reach room where I spy the crown discarded on the floor. I'm then set upon by several ghosts for some reason, but my Dremora cut them down quickly. Weirdly, I'm able to loot a full set of Elven armour from each of the ghosts.

Crown in hand, I return triumphantly to Riften. I receive the Prowler's Profit reward, which should drastically increase the amount of gems found as loot, and the completed crown is put on display on Mercer Frey's desk:

So, the whole Barzenziah quest ended up taking 9 hours in total - significantly longer than the Mages College and the Miraak quest-lines. I also rushed through a lot of the missions - there were more areas to explore, and more little side-quests and mysteries built into a lot of the caves and dungeons, but I decided that I'm only interested in the stones at the moment, so cut out a lot of that. It was a long slog at times, but it does feel good to have finally collected all the stones for the first time.

Although I've been forced to join the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild, I won't be doing those quest-lines with Tharon-Zul. I might see if it's possible to wipe out the Dark Brotherhood, though. They serve a master other than the mighty Tharon-Zul, and for this they must pay with their lives. It's not a priority, though. I now want to focus on levelling up my Smithing and Illusion, and getting Enchanting to 100.

Hours 55 & 56: Stoneseeker III

Last 4 stones now. The stone in Reeking Cave is a doddle, as is finding the one in the Blue Palace in Solitude. The next one requires me to own Proudspire Manor, and to do that I have to complete a couple of quests for the Jarl's steward. The main one is to clear out Wolfskull. I love this mission, as the final part of the cave system involves battling through a towering subterranean ruin whilst a gigantic summoning ritual is taking place:

As usual, it turns out there's very little that a horde of Dremora Lords can't sort out. After this mission I undertake one more simple one and I'm then allowed to purchase Proudspire Manor, for 25,000 gold. I do this, not bothering to furnish it, and grab the penultimate stone.

The final stone is in Astrid's room in the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, and to access this I need to join the Brotherhood. So, I do that (when it comes to killing a prisoner in the abandoned shack, I immolate them all; Tharon-Zul has no time for petty interrogations.

Now that I finally have all the stones, I need to speak to Vex in the Thieves Guild to prompt the quest to search for the crown of Barenziah. Only problem is, she won't speak to me until I'm a fully-fledged member of the Guild, so that takes up some more time doing a few missions for Brynjolf. Ugh.

I completely forgot about this awesome 'Cistern' area of the Thieves Guild HQ. I haven't been here since my last assassin character in 2012.

Once I've completed a few trivial tasks (seriously, for one of them I have to collect about 300 gold of debts for the Guild - whereas even after purchasing Proudspire Manor I'm still walking around with over 40,000 gold... also, is this a Thieves Guild or some kind of mini-Mafia?) I finally get to talk to Vex. She tells me to head for Tolvald's Cave, north of Riften, to search for the lost crown.