[Elder Scrolls] The Elder Scrolls Online

I'm a big fan of the Elder Scrolls series of games from Bethesda, specifically the console versions for Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. I've played Morrowind, Oblivion, and most recently Skyrim. I even tried the earlier computer game, Daggerfall, although I lacked an instruction manual and found it a bit challenging to play when I didn't know what I was doing.

I enjoy the open world, and the opportunity to play solo without having to ever follow the main quest if I don't want to. I've spent hours collecting alchemical ingredients and crafting armor rather than fight bandits, explore dungeons, or slay dragons. The game offers so many opportunities for the kind of play style I enjoy that I've never actually completed the main plot of any of the three games I mentioned above.

When Bethesda announced a few years ago that it would be producing a MMO version of Elder Scrolls, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I've never played any MMO; the horror stories of ruthless experienced players being awful to 'newbies' made me reluctant to try, as did the thought of having to team up with random strangers to complete certain activities. In addition I don't have a computer setup that would make playing such a game comfortable or fun. I was  disappointed because I feared this meant there wouldn't be any more solo open-world console games set in Tamriel, the world setting of the Elder Scrolls series.

The ESO MMO has been out for several years now, but just this week Bethesda announced an opportunity for players to try the game free for a week. Because it's now possible to play on Xbox or PlayStation through online services, my spouse decided to give it a try. I confess I haven't tried it out myself, I've only been observing while he plays. But here are a few of my observations.

The play experience has many things in common with Skyrim, the last ES console game released prior to the MMO. It has all the races, the various ethnic groups, and many of the same types of monsters and quests. The controls are a bit different since the game was designed to resemble other MMOs like World of Warcraft. You can play solo, but if you want to explore some dungeons you have to team up with other players; there's a function that will find you some people to team with if you don't have friends you can join. Like Oblivion and Skyrim, the NPCs you interact with are fully voiced, some of them by some well-known actors like Michael Gambon and Malcolm McDowell and others by some of the same voice artists who worked on Skyrim. But of course your character doesn't speak. You select responses when in a conversation. As in Skyrim, you usually only have two or three response options.

My mate didn't spend much time in the character creation menu, which is my favorite part of ES games. But it looks like there are plenty of options to individualize your character to suit your taste. Sadly the game's designers made the online elves look more human (and in my opinion less interesting) than the elves of the console version. The online game also introduces classes, which were something that existed in Oblivion but not in Skyrim. You also have to choose a faction, which really only comes into play if you choose to engage in PvP (player-versus-player) battles, which represent a war that is currently taking place in the game.

One of the big differences from the console/PC games is that there's a whole world out there to explore, not just one country or province. Skyrim limits you to the Imperial province of Skryim, which is Tamriel's Scandinavia analogue. Oblivion kept you in Cyrodiil, seat of the Empire, and Morrowind took place in the homeland of the dark elves, a land of strange plants and animals not found elsewhere in Tamriel. The MMO doesn't offer access to every part of Tamriel at present, but perhaps it will eventually. It does let you visit Morrowind and Daggerfall, and if you want to experience PvP combat you can visit Cyrodiil. If you're in other parts of the game world you can't attack other players and they can't attack you, which eliminates the issue of rude players killing your character for experience points that has been a problem in other MMOs.

The notable differences between the MMO and the console games include not only the bigger world and the menu options, but the presence of other players. You do see other players, lots of them. They run or gallop past constantly, never stopping to interact. Sometimes they run right through your character, having no effect at all. They suddenly appear to fight a monster your character is fighting and then go on their way. They stand in the middle of a street practicing their spells or attacks, or perhaps they're fighting an enemy you can't see. It feels a bit odd. You have to pretend that they're not really there, since you never speak to them and you can't fight them. This oddness becomes most obvious when a Daedric Anchor suddenly appears and every player in the region swarms to it to fight the daedra and gain experience and loot. If you're not within easy reach of the Daedric Anchor, there's no point in going because all the other players will have wiped everything out and eliminated the Anchor by the time you get there.

The 'boss' monsters and NPCs are also leveled, so it's possible to take on a quest that your character just isn't ready to face, and the game won't give you any obvious sign that you should wait until you're higher level to pursue that quest. I watched my spouse repeatedly fight one level boss and die until he gave up and went off to follow other simpler and less dangerous quests. This has happened to him several times. That's not something you usually face in other ES games; it's possible for a very low-level character in Skyrim to kill a dragon if you make sure to keep an eye on your health. My husband was either hitting a bug or a game limitation that wouldn't let him use a healing potion while fighting the level boss, which made it especially frustrating for him. I expect that if I try playing the MMO, I'll probably spend a long time taking on minor quests to gain experience and better equipment/magic before I attempt some of the bigger quests.

Overall the experience of ESO seems very similar to playing Skyrim. You can still craft potions, cook food, make armor and weapons, and there are some new skills to learn. You can use magic and weapons freely, you can wander all over the landscape, you run into lots of random monsters, you can eventually have your own home. You can join various organizations to gain benefits and supplies. The big advantage of the online game is the ability to keep playing in that wonderful expansive setting. Now that it's possible to play the game just the same way I would play the console version, it's tempting me to give it a try myself.

Yes, I Admit It - I Cheat

After blogging about the new Skyrim Special Edition and the availability of mods, I have to make a confession: I'm using a mod that allows me to cheat.

One of the mods we downloaded is called, appropriately, 'Cheat Mod'. It allows a character to get any mundane or enchanted armor or weapons, any spell tome, any skill increase book, any potion ingredient, any magic accessory, any potion. It also provides a treasure chest containing 50,000 gold pieces and a ring that basically gives you unlimited carrying capacity. This means that a starting character could have some powerful enchanted armor and weapons, and know many more spells that a character ordinarily starts out with.

Just because the mod is available doesn't mean I have to take advantage of it. But I am. I know there are players out there who feel it's part of the fun of the game to work your way up through the quests, acquiring these items as loot or creating them through the crafting system. I like those parts of the game, too. But I've been playing this game for 5 years. I've gone through a lot of the basic quests several times. I know how to craft items, and where to find the minerals I need to make something special. I decided that this time I don't want to go through all of that again as a typical starting character.

Skyrim doesn't use character classes; you don't choose to be a mage, rogue, or warrior as you do in some other games. Every character has the capacity to both use magic and wield weapons. How good a character becomes at either skill is up to the player. When I play in tabletop roleplaying games I like to play mages, and the same is true in console games. But when starting out in Skyrim, your character knows very few spells and has a limited amount of magicka available to fuel them. You are forced by circumstance to pick up a weapon if you want your character to survive long enough to learn more magic. I didn't want to go through that process again, acquiring spell tomes to learn more spells and gradually building up magicka level by level. I decided to use the advantages provided by the Cheat Mod to skip over some of that so my mage could be somewhat more skilled at first level. I read a number of the spell tomes the mod provided. I took a magic staff from the supply cupboard. I also took some nice enchanted armor, and an amulet that increases my magicka. And I took the ring that increases carrying capacity so that I don't have to worry about going back to town to unload loot  in the midst of exploring every cave or mine or dungeon. I can focus on the exploration and stop concerning myself with how much stuff I pick up.

Taking these items doesn't mean that I'm really that much better at magic than a first level character who doesn't have such equipment. I still cast spells at a low level. I can't simply wipe out my enemies with a wave of my hand. But with this equipment, I don't have to worry as much about creeping up on enemies, or rapidly depleting my supply of healing potions (the mod doesn't provide an unlimited quantity of those). The mod means I can enjoy the things I like to do, without spending as much of my time on the parts of the game I find less entertaining.

I also took the 50,000 gold. One of the first perks you get in the game if you follow the main Dragonborn quest is to be given the right to purchase a house in one of Skyrim's holds. It takes a lot of gold to buy a house, and the houses come unfurnished, so you then have to buy furnishings. You can spend a lot of time trying to build up enough gold to put a bedroom suite or an alchemical lab in your house. I decided to use some of that special gold to buy a house and furnish it right away. Technically I don't need a house, since the underground secret lair the mod provides contains two alchemical labs. But I like the idea of having a house to go back to instead of creeping around in a rather spooky basement that doesn't include any incidental music or ambient sounds. Since I've already got a house, I can spend the rest of my money on other things, like potions, or equipment for my traveling companions.

Playing a game is supposed to be fun. The first four or five times I ran through the introductory quests, it was fun feeling that anxiety that my character might die at any moment. But now I want something different out of the experience, and using a mod that lets me cheat the game a bit allows me to achieve that goal. So, yes, I cheat. And if cheating means I can get past level 10 faster and dive into some of the more difficult quests that I've never played through before, then I'm not going to feel guilty about cheating.

It's Here! It's Here! Skyrim Special Edition

In 2011, Bethesda Games released the next installation in their popular Elder Scrolls series, Skyrim. My husband and I picked it up right away for our Xbox 360 console. We spent hours and hours playing it, because it's an open-world game where you can wander all over the map, visiting nearly every square foot of land in the titular location. You can buy and furnish houses in each of the major towns and cities. You can craft special armor and weapons for your characters, brew potions, create new spells, even cook food. You can become a thane of each hold, and have a housecarl to look after each of your homes. You can take one of your housecarls with you to help you carry loot and fight enemies, or you can hire someone to keep you company. You can acquire a horse, a dog, a magical construct, a mechanical construct, and even a spirit to keep you company as well. The game offers a massive amount of things to do. If you want to ignore the main quests and just spend your time exploring caves and ruins, or roaming the countryside collecting potion ingredients, you can do that.

But there were some things missing from the Xbox version of the game. The PC version offered the opportunity for users to create their own modifications to the game world and characters, something that wasn't available for the console versions. PC players could change the rules of the game so that, for example, all the hiking around in the snow your character will do actually causes hypothermia. Mods allowed players to make the game more challenging for themselves by removing automatic magicka regeneration (the statistic that allows a characters magic 'fuel' to replenish itself), removing automatic hit point regeneration, or removing the fast-travel option. They could also make the game easier by allowing themselves to gain high-level equipment and abilities more easily or increasing the amount of gold merchants would pay them for the loot they acquired. And they could add humorous mods that would make the game more fun, such as a mod that would allow a character to burp and fart after eating, or one that would rain steam locomotives on the player-character's enemies. Other mods added new locations, new mounts, new spells and equipment, and revisions to the challenge rating and level increase systems,

Not long ago my husband and I finally swapped our decade-old Xbox 360 for an Xbox One. The console isn't backward-compatible, so we couldn't play our old copy of Skyrim on the new console. But we didn't buy a new copy right away, because we new the Skyrim Special Edition was coming. Now that we're trying it out, here are a few thoughts on the remastered game and it's biggest selling feature: the availability of mods.

It took a while for my husband to be able to sign up to download the mods from Bethesda's site - there were some technical difficulties on Day One - but after he did so he discovered that the Xbox One version currently has 100 mods available to players. These include mods that I described above, like 'Immersive Indigestion' that adds belching and flatulence, and 'Call of Trainwiz' which creates a Dragonborn Shout effect that rains trains. But one of the most impressive mods (or appalling, depending on your point of view) is the aptly-named 'Cheat Mod'. This mod gives you a secret underground chamber in which you can find every key, skill increase tome, spell tome, specialty quest item, and crafting station type available in the game, as well as massive quantities of loot items, Dragonborn Shouts, and summonable creatures.

The Special Edition doesn't add much else to the game in terms of content if you choose not to use mods. It comes with all of the downloadable add-ons that were originally released, which add the secondary Solstheim location and the ability to build your own house and adopt children. There have been some lesser changes to existing content or appearance. Reports indicate that many of the game's infamous glitches have been fixed; clipping still occurs, but apparently the likelihood that your character will plummet infinitely after falling off a cliff has been removed, along with some of the other more egregious bugs that are amply documented on YouTube. The texture mapping seems a bit smoother, the contrast between foreground and background crisper, and my husband and I both noticed that the colors are much brighter - so bright, in fact, that we chose to turn down the contrast slightly to avoid eye strain.

If you're not like us and didn't recently purchase a new console that requires you to buy a different version of the game, you may still be perfectly happy with your existing version of Skyrim. But if you've never played the game before, or if you'd really like to see what the mods add to your game experience, I would recommend picking up the Special Edition. Skyrim is an endlessly playable game. While it is missing out on some of the features that make competitor Dragon Age: Inquisition a more immersive experience, the opportunity to just do whatever you want in Skyrim continues to make it an appealing game five years after it was initially released.

If you'd like to know more about the mods, you can read Kotaku's recommendations here, or view the complete list on Bethesda's site.

Adventures in Skyrim #2

From the memoirs of Nelyth Othrelas:

I have suceeded in winning the favor of Meridia. That is an accomplishment I shall long treasure.

As Meridia commanded, I took the orb to her temple at Kilkreath near Solitude. As I placed it at the base of her statue, a brilliant light suddenly robbed me of my sight for a moment. When I could see again I found myself hovering high above the land, looking down as if from the clouds. It was both exhilarating and terrifying. Meridia told me that a necromancer named Malkoran had defiled her temple, and she wished me to take upon myself the task of slaying him and freeing her temple of his corruption by re-lighting her beacon. It is difficult to refuse a Daedric Prince anything, especially when one is floating helpless in the sky. But I would have agreed even if Meridia had not made her request under such circumstances.

After I agreed I saw the blinding glare again and found myself once more standing beside her statue with Talvas. We then entered the temple, where we found it infested with corrupted shades and littered with desecrated corpses, which were presumably both the source of the shades and of the desecration of the temple. Curiously the people who had been slaughtered there all appeared to have been carrying substantial quantities of coin. The temple interior was also littered with other treasures that I felt no shame in taking as recompense for my labors.

Talvas and I worked our way through the temple and the catacombs beneath it, lighting the beacons along the way and following their lights to the next beacon to be activated. At last we came to Malkoran, who proved a challenge to slay, for even when he fell he rose again as an especially powerful shade. But we prevailed at last, and I was rewarded by Meridia with possession of a most effective blade called Dawnbreaker. I also found near the temple a wall inscribed with a word of the dragon tongue to add to my collection.

Once we had achieved this, I felt confident that retrieving Nettlebane from the hagraven would not be beyond our power. We made our way to the spot where the priestess of Kynareth had told me to find the hagraven at Orphan Rock. There I found Talvas' presence invaluable, for he and his atronach disposed of the hagraven and her hag servants with little help from me.

We returned to Whiterun with the blade and sought out the priestess Danica Pure-Spring to find out what to do with it. She was reluctant to take it herself, and asked me to go to Eldergleam Sanctuary to obtain the sap of the great tree Eldergleam, which she believed could be used to revive the sacred tree outside the temple in Whiterun. As I was about to depart on this mission, a man called Maurice Jondrelle approached and asked to accompany us to the sanctuary. I agreed, and we set off together to find it.

Just as we arrived at Eldergleam Sanctuary, I heard the roar of a dragon from the sky. I met it near the sanctuary amid a hot spring and swiftly claimed its soul. Then the three of us descended into the underground sanctuary. Despite its subterranean location, the sanctuary is lush with plant life, especially the sacred tree Eldergleam. A pilgrim named Asta explained that the tree's enormous roots blocked any approach to the tree itself. I realized that only the touch of Nettlebane would make the roots part. But once I plied the blade against the roots, Jondrelle objected, asking that instead of taking the tree's sap with the blade, I permit him to pray to the tree for a sapling. I saw that injuring the sacred tree to save the life of another tree seemed wrong and agreed to his plan.

After Jondrelle entreated Eldergleam, it presented us with a small sapling, which Talvas and I took back to Whiterun to the temple while Jondrelle chose to remain at the sanctuary. At first Danica Pure-Spring was dismayed that I had not brought the sap as she requested, but when I told her what Maurice Jondrelle had said, she also saw that the sapling was good and was willing to plant it. I hope that it will grow quickly. I have been allowed to keep Nettlebane, but I think I will use Dawnbreaker, for it is indeed a fine and enchanted sword.

Now that I have cleansed Meridia's temple and brought the new sapling to Kynareth's temple, I wonder if I should return to Solstheim to find out more about the mysterious Miraak who apparently causes the people of Raven Rock to stray from their homes at night and build curious structures. I have already seen the effect of this disturbing compulsion, for while I visited the island I myself experienced it. This cannot be a good thing. Only a creature of evil would enslave people so and rob them of their rest.

I have reason to believe that this Miraak is also behind the cultists who have more than once attacked me without cause in Skyrim. On one of them I found a note proclaiming that I am a false Dragonborn and must die. This gives me even more reason to want to know who Miraak is and what he is doing.

Adventures in Skyrim, part 1

A couple of months ago I restarted playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Back when I first got the game, I tried to blog my adventures, but eventually I stopped playing. I've decided to give it another go this time, but rather than blog each session, I'll summarize. 

I'm playing a Dunmer (dark elf), initially concentrating on archery, but now starting to pursue Destruction magic. As of this writing, my character is 16th level and has become a thane of Whiterun, as well as claiming the title of Dragonborn.

The Memoirs of Nelyth Othrelas

Part 1:

It is difficult to believe that many weeks have passed since my adventures first began. Yet at the same time it feels as though years have passed, for in those weeks I have experienced so much.

Let me begin at the beginning. Not my own beginning, which is of little consequence to my story – or perhaps not. Perhaps none of this would have happened had I not chosen to leave Solstheim to visit Skyrim. Certainly I would not have been arrested and sentenced to death as a rebel. I still do not know how that occurred, for I cannot recall what happened to me before I woke in the back of a wagon on the way to Helgen. I must have been struck on the head, or perhaps afflicted by magic. I have found no one to ask. Those who were with me in the prisoner wagon must not have been present when I was taken captive. They did not seem to know me. It came as a surprise to find myself in a wagon with the rebel leader, Ulfric Stormcloak. Even when he could not speak I found him unpleasant to be near. He is not a leader I would have chosen to follow.

Whatever the reason, the Imperial soldiers had deemed me a rebel, too, and they meant to execute us all. There was no trial, no pleading our case before any magistrate. One moment I was in the wagon, my head still thick from whatever robbed me of my senses, the next I was giving my name to a soldier just before I was made to kneel at the headsman’s block.

What rescued me, you may wonder – a sudden reprieve given by an Imperial official? An attack by rebels rescuing their leader? No, my salvation came from a source I could never have looked for. Until that day I believed, like the Nords, that dragons no longer existed. But it was a dragon that saved me. The soldiers and the headsman died or fled. I was able to gain my feet and seek shelter in a nearby stone tower as the dragon breathed flame at Helgen. When I climbed to the second floor too look out, I was nearly burned myself. Once the dragon moved away I leaped from the window to the roof of a nearby house to make my escape.

I met the one Imperial soldier who had shown me a tiny amount of kindness, and he helped me find my way out of Helgen. He even permitted me to take weapons and armor from the stores of the Imperial troops. We had to fight off a few Stormcloak prisoners who had escaped their cells, as well as a bear who had decided to take refuge in the caverns below the town. Eventually we escaped the caverns and emerged on the road leading to the town of Riverwood, where the soldier who had helped me told me we could seek aid from his uncle the smith.

In Riverwood the smith showed me much kindness, giving me leave to take clothing and food from his household and allowing me to sleep there as well. He has even given me training in smithcraft. Once I had recovered from my experiences at Helgen, I set about finding a way to earn some gold to carry me back to Solstheim. The soldier who had helped me suggested I join the Imperial army, but was not surprised that I found that suggestion distasteful. I have no desire to join the ranks of either the Imperial army or the Stormcloaks. His uncle the smith also recommended that I visit the city of Whiterun to tell the Jarl there what had befallen Helgen. The soldier had to return to the army. Before leaving for Whiterun, I made the acquaintance of some of the people of Riverwood, including the local trader and his sister. The trader asked me to pursue thieves to a nearby ancient barrow to recover an item that had been taken from his shop. I agreed, but decided that I would go to Whiterun first.

In Whiterun I was welcomed by the Jarl, though his steward was less friendly. After I had spoken with them I met the Jarl’s court wizard, who asked if I would be willing to seek out a tome on dragons he wished to acquire. Curiously this book could be found at the same ancient barrow where the Riverwood trader’s stolen golden claw had been taken, though the wizard would not say how he knew the book was there. As I now had two reasons to go to that barrow, I set off to recover both the golden claw and the book.

Vanquishing the bandits who had occupied the antechamber of the barrow was no great feat. It was simple to creep up on them unseen and dispatch them with a few arrows. As I explored further I found more difficult challenges, not only draugr but also dangerous traps. I discovered that in order to access the book I must first recover the golden claw, for it acted as a key to open the chamber where the book lay.

Once I had both items in hand, I returned to Whiterun to give the book to the wizard. While I was there, a second dragon – or perhaps the same one as Helgen, I cannot say – attacked the watchtower outside the city. I went with the Jarl’s guards to combat it. It was not my responsibility alone to slay it, but when it died a startling thing happened: some energy flowed from its body into mine! I could not explain it, but the Nords immediately proclaimed me Dragonborn.

When I returned to the city, I heard a strange voice calling out as if from a very great distance. After I went to the Jarl’s palace again he told me that the voice I had heard was the call of the Greybeards of High Hrothgar, calling the Dragonborn to come to them. The Jarl also made me a Thane of his lands, granting me the right to purchase a home in Whiterun and assigning me a housecarl to serve me. Lydia has become my faithful companion and protector since that day.

I did not go at once to High Hrothgar to meet the Greybeards. I heard that trolls are often seen in the mountains, and though High Hrothgar does not lie far from Whiterun it is on the other side of the mountains and there is no pass. Instead I sought to earn more gold, with a thought to purchasing a house in Whiterun. Before that day I would never have thought of doing such a thing. I have since slain many of the bandits who now infest the lands while other men are away fighting in the interminable war between the Empire and the rebel Stormcloaks, as well as ridding Skyrim of innumerable wolves, bears, spiders, and other troublesome creatures. I have killed two vampires. I have earned enough gold to buy and furnish a handsome house in Whiterun, Breezehome, which fortunately lies conveniently close to the smith’s forge and to the Drunken Huntsman, a charming tavern run by a friendly Bosmer.

Only after I had made the acquaintance of the Jarl of Falkreath and also visited the town of Morthal and the village of Rorikstead did I make my way to Ivarstead, the village which lies at the bottom of the mountain below High Hrothgar. Fear of trolls no longer troubled me, for I had slain five or six of the creatures already in my travels and I now had Lydia to help me. But I did not expect to be attacked by another dragon as we climbed the 7,000 steps to the Greybeards’ abode. This one long refused to land and let us ply our blades against it; we had to expend a good number of arrows before at last it settled on the mountainside and we slew it. After that the lone troll that lurked above the path waiting to attack unwary pilgrims was hardly a challenge.

The Greybeards have taught me that the energy I feel when I am near a dying dragon is its soul, being absorbed into my body. I can use this energy to power my thu’um, to give the powerful Shouts they have shown me how to use. I know now how to run briefly at tremendous speed, and to knock things back with the power of my voice. I do not know what I am meant to do with this power, other than use it to slay more dragons should they appear to threaten the good people of Skyrim. I will learn my destiny as I continue to travel the length and breadth of Skyrim. But for now I will go to fetch the horn of Jurgen Windcaller, as the Greybeards have asked me to do.

Part 2:

I have completed my task for the Greybeards, but when I entered the tomb I found the horn missing. In its place I found a note inviting me to meet someone a the inn in Riverwood. Upon returning there I learned that the innkeeper, Delphine, is more than she seems, for it was she who had somehow crept into the tomb through another entrance and absconded with the horn. She and her friends, who I have yet to meet, are suspicious of the motives of the Thalmor and think they may have something to do with the arising of the dragons. She wants me to infiltrate the Thalmor headquarters. I am not sure that I am willing to go along with this plan, but I will cooperate for the time, as she seems to have much information about dragons that would be of benefit to me. It was Delphine who gave the wizard in Dragonsreach the information about the book I retrieved for him from Bleak Falls Barrow.

After parting with Delphine, Lydia and I traveled much of Skyrim, visiting most of the larger towns and cities, slaying more bandits, and being asked to carry out various tasks for people we met along the way. The priestess of Kynareth in Whiterun has asked me to retrieve a blade called Nettlebane from a hagraven, so that the blade can be used to gather sap from the tree Eldergleam to revive the sacred tree that stands outside the temple in Whiterun. I have not yet completed that task. Instead, I took passage back to Solsteheim. 

What a pleasure it was to return to my home, though I was greeted as an outlander by the people there. The island has not been spared the depredations of dragons, and I slew one just outside Raven Rock. I have also cleared Fort Frostmoth of an undead menace and have hopefully stopped the swarms of ashspawn that have plagued the land. After clearing the for I met with the wizard Neloth at Tel Mithryn, and while I cannot call him a friend, he will perhaps have a more favorable opinion of me since I have helped his mycologist find a way to repair his tower. At Tel Mithryn I met his apprentice, Talvas Fathryon, and in the end I chose to send Lydia back to Whiterun and ask Talvas to accompany me.

While we wandered about the island, we stumbled upon a Dwemer ruin, which I will eventually want to explore, but not yet. In the meanwhile I have returned to Skyrim with a new goal. After I completed the task Tel Mithryn's mycologist set for me, which concluded with slaying a spriggan Earth Mother, I found a chest in a cave. Within the chest lay an oddly shaped gemstone. The instant my hand touched it, I heard the voice of Meridia, telling me that I must take the stone to her shrine, which lies near Solitude. I have decided that I will complete this task first, before taking Talvas with me to retrieve Nettlebane. His spellcasting capability should be of good use against a hagraven.