Hour 48: Cashing In

At the end of the Miraak questline I'm given the option to use up a dragon soul (I have a bunch now because I gained a few from Miraak when he died) in order to remove all the perks from a skill tree. I choose Alteration - I then re-invest some back into the tree in order to keep my spell resistance, but I no longer need the more advanced Alteration perks or the 3 levels of Mage Armour, as I never both casting any of the [x]-flesh spells. This gives me a bundle of leftover perks which I can use for Enchanting, Illusion, or perhaps Smithing if I decide I need to make my own sweet sweet armour.

Speaking of Enchanting, it's at level 88. If I get to level 90, I can then wear Ahzidal's armour to give myself +10 to Enchanting, and then invest in the dual-effect perk. I train the 2 levels with Neloth, which costs a stomach-churning amount at almost 10,000 gold in total. I then return to Severin Manor and try to boost my level, but it won't work! After a while of trying various configurations I eventually realise I never actually found the torso armour in Kolbjorn Barrow! I'll have to head back there to see if I can find it.

Fearing an endless, confusing slog, I'm actually pleasantly surprised when I find it after a relatively short search. Not sure how I missed it the first time. Finally, I can don the complete armour set:

I think Tharon-Zul's a bit too scrawny to pull off this look...

It does boost my Enchanting to 100 - but I still can't buy the perk! After researching, it seems you can only buy perks based on your natural, un-boosted skill level. God damnit, what's the point of that! Ahzidal's set is completely useless then. The ring that gives you 2 spells could be useful in future, and I always have the waterwalking boots in my inventory because they make traversing water so much quicker, but the rest is just going to be stored away in my main chest in Severin Manor.

Having spent such an extortionate sum on training, I decide it's about time that I sold my gem collection. Here's the contents of my gem chest:

42 Amethysts

10 Flawless Amethysts

2 Diamonds

11 Emeralds

34 Garnets

21 Flawless Garnets

31 Rubies

5 Flawless Rubies

5 Sapphires

Total value = 33,140 gold

I sell them over the course of 2 days to my household merchant, whilst wearing an amulet that gives me 12% better prices, and make a total of 14,187 gold. I've no idea if that's a particularly good ratio or if I should have invested more in Speech etc to get a better price - I don't think I've ever invested in any Speech skills with any character - but it at least pays for Neloth's extortionate training plus a bit extra.

I also have 32 Heartstones and I believe I should be able to sell them for 250 gold each to Neloth's apprentice (I can never remember his name) or to Neloth himself, for another 8000 gold. However, no option to sell them appears for either character. Damn, so those are just useless items in my chest then.

I decide to bid farewell to Solstheim for now, and finally return to the mainland - although as I'm keeping Severin Manor as my home, I'll be heading back there every now and then to empty things into my various chests. I have a vague memory of seeing an Argonian camping out in the frozen northern wilds early on in the game (I checked - it was in hour 2) and decide to try and find him again to nick his dragon armour, but after a lot of searching I can't find him anywhere.

I have a bunch of things on my to-do list now, but one thing I've never done is collect all the Barenziah Stones. I already have 2 of the 24, so I decide to start making my way through the list, and head to Whiterun. Whilst there, I come across a 'Veteran Warrior' - I kill him and loot his plate armour set and 5000 gold! I'm then apprehended by the guards and pay off my bounty of about 2000 gold - so I still make a profit of 3000, plus I get to keep the armour set because I looted it from his dead body, which is somehow fine (whereas they'd have confiscated it if I'd stolen it from him whilst he was alive). The fools!