Hour 42: Into the Temple

I return to Solstheim once more, which I regard as my home now. I only recently realised that you can fast-travel there without having to pay 250 gold each way for a journey by boat - now that I know this, I don't see any need to spend the coin on a house in the mainland, when Severin Manor is more than adequate and has multiple chests in the bedroom for the very convenient sorting of treasures. I have one chest for items of interest, one for gems, one for books, one for soul gems, and notes go in the safe. Have I mentioned this before? I think I might have, but I can't be bothered to check.

I waste no time and head straight to the Temple of Miraak. There I meet a Skaal woman, Frea, who accompanies me inside, as she wants to free her people from what's clearly the malign influence of Miraak, making them build strange structures all round the island.

The dungeon is fairly epic and satisfying, with some pretty tough enemies sprinkled throughout. I collect a large amount of expensive items, including several ebony swords and Elven axes, which weigh me down too much. For some reason, my Dremora Merchant hasn't been showing up lately, even after I read the Untold Legends book again and de+re-selected him, but fortunately the Dremora Butler does materialise when bidden, so I offload the heavy stuff on to him.

At the end of the dungeon is another Black Book, Waking Dreams. I read it and am confronted by Miraak himself in Apocrypha, flanked by tame Seekers and a weird-looking Dragon:

He scorns me in a cut-scene and I'm powerless to do anything before his Seekers spirit me away back to Solstheim. He's the second person, after Harkon, to banish me from somewhere - I don't like it, and I shall have my revenge on both of them. He looks pretty impressive with his fancy gear and his Seeker buddies there to help him, but that won't protect him against 10 Dremora Lords...

After a brief visit to the Skaal Village, I return to Severin Manor to sell off my loot, raking in a good bit of coin. I then attempt to summon the Dremora Butler again to retrieve the expensive weapons I left with him, and he won't appear. What the hell! The accursed Butler has stolen my loot! I try fast-travelling to other locations, and also travelling back into Untold Legends again to try and reset it, but try as I might, he refuses to materialise in Mundus. He's obviously off galavanting somewhere in the Deadlands with my hard-earned loot.

Other than the Dremora Butler glitch, this was a very satisfying quest overall, establishing Miraak as a very powerful adversary, and after I've sold off my loot, sorted out any trinkets such as gems, and done a bit more enchanting, exactly an hour has passed.