Hour 8: Ashes to Ashes

I haven't given a character update since the start. Tharon-Zul is now level 12 - it seemed to take ages to gain the first few levels, but now each level is positively flying by. My Conjuration is in the high 60's, but all other spell classes are in the 20's still, with Destruction the second highest at something like 27. I've just been relying almost exclusively on Conjuration, and I even trained a few levels in it with Neloth's apprentice. I recently swapped out my Mythic Dawn robes for some Cultist robes:

I previously sported Daedric gauntlets and boots, but I decided to go full mage and embrace the robes.

I decide to get on with some quests, and speak to the wizard Neloth in his giant mushroom, who asks me to collect some ash from an Ash Spawn. I spend a good while trekking around the countryside in near Fort Frostmoth, where I previously slew a ton of the buggers, but don't find any. Eventually I return to the vicinity of Raven Rock and happen upon a guard being attacked by three of them! I help him out (my Skeletons are now utterly powerless against the Ash Spawn, but my Seekers make short work of them) and this starts another Ash Spawn-based quest which I'll return to later.

After returning to Neloth with the sample, he asks me to find his steward. It turns out she's been killed, so he asks me to find a replacement for him. I figure it's probably a good idea to help him out, humiliating as it is, as he might be able to bestow powerful gifts upon me, so I search around Raven Rock for a while and speak to various people until someone agrees to be his steward. As an aside, I'm starting to appreciate the design style and unique insectoid architecture of Solstheim, which I guess is supposed to hark back to Morrowind. Here's the inside of the tavern, the amusingly-named Retching Netch:

Neloth thanks me with a bit of coin and access to his enchanting room. It was a strange quest and another one which highlights the poor quality of the quests compared to those in Oblivion. I just literally walked around talking to people until one of them agreed to do the job. There didn't seem to be any alternative ways of completing the quest - in fact, I've now checked and the person I asked is in fact the only one who can accept. There could have been multiple options, with different comments from Neloth depending on who you find and how suitable they are, perhaps different things happening down the line, or even different quests coming up later on. But instead we get the most basic fetch-quest imaginable. Still, it was enjoyable walking round Raven Rock.

I take a look inside Neloth's study and it turns out he has another Black Book just lying around! Looks like it's time for another foray into Hermaeus Mora's plane of Oblivion...