In Which Delga Battles the Dragon Priest of Kolbjorn Barrow

A weeknight session and therefore short. Primary point of action was finishing running Kolbjorn Barrow! After that, it was all about the selling of loot, and a boatload of crafting.

Highlights

• Play date: 1/19/2022
• Session number in this run: 78
• Gathered assorted loot in Severin Manor
• Went out to shop; met by courier with final letter from Ralis
• Attacked by hostile High Elf mage who also happened to have an orcish shield
• Reached Kolbjorn Barrow and ran the place
• Couple of draugr near the spinning blade trap seemed weirdly uninterested in my coming up behind them?
• Got Ahzidal helmet and armor
• Killed twice in boss chamber—Ahzidal kept resurrecting the slain miners and threw big fire at me O.O
• Got him the third time through by hanging back at the door and using archery
• Decided I could not let Ralis go unpunished this time, Delga’s moral compass takes offense at all of the dead miners and also Ralis fucking lying to her, and then he swore about Ahzidal’s commanding him anyway so okay then
• Ran the Filament and Filagree Black Book level; took Secret of Arcana power
• Mined stalhrim vein by the hidden exit; swung back and got the other stalhrim vein I missed
• Came out of the barrow and Arvak’d back to Raven Rock
• OH HI REVERED DRAGON
• Quaffed potion so I would have maneuverability to fight it; got to crash up behind the mine, but Miraak sniped its soul boooooo
• Retreated to Severin Manor for loot drop
• Did a bunch of enchanting now that I have Ahzidal gear
• Also did a bunch of smithing, and returned to 100; but not yet leveled up so couldn’t re-unlock Dragon smithing yet
• Did a little alchemy as well
• Decided to grab a bunch of loot and do a loot selling circuit
• Arvak’d to Windhelm
• Thought i would get level 67 training from Silda for Pickpocketing because cheap, but had forgotten I’d already done level 67 training getting Conjuration from Halvas
• Still though sold a bunch of stuff to Windhelm merchants
• Then Arvak’d over to college
• Did some alchemy to try to level up to 68
• Decided to set Speech Legendary since I hadn’t blown but one perk on it; put recovered perk on Enchanting
• Slept for the night
• Found Colette in the Arcaneum, and bought her out of soul gems which got me back several points of Speech quickly, but not quite leveled up
• Sold her several of my backlogged staves and enchanted items
• Went to go buy out Faralda of soul gems and that got me leveled up to 68; put perk on Daedric smithing since I was still a couple hops short of Dragon
• Trained with all the trainers; bought a bunch of new spells from Phinis as well, Conjure Storm Atronach, fuck yeah
• Made good progress rebuilding Speech
• Arvak’d over to Riften
• Built out the rest of a set of ebony armor and got Iona on active housecarl duty; gave her a Daedric bow from loot, also all my Daedric arrows; made her a Daedric war axe at Balimund’s forge as she is a One-Handed weapons fighter
• Sold stuff as well to Bersi and Balimund
• Made a few more better bits of enchanting gear
• Went outside Riften and oh hey finally! Khajiit! Bought moon sugar and other things as well
• Arvak’d back to Solstheim with Iona in tow
• Stowed gear to get down under carry weight
• Saved for the night

Commentary

Kolbjorn Barrow is a known quantity to me at this point, so by and large I’m not going to rehash its finale in this post. But I will touch on the bits that stood out to me this time through.

There’s a corridor with a swinging blade trap in it pretty deep into the dungeon. When I found it, just before I reached it, there were a couple of draugr ahead of me just standing there facing away from me. They did not turn as I approached, and I was able to sort of wedge my way past them.

Only when I started engaging the draugr beyond the swinging blades did the draugr I’d just passed get alerted and start trying to come fight me! Which did not work out for them given that the blades were still swinging, and, well, lol.

Actually took me three times to take out Ahzidal, in no small part because the bastard kept resurrecting the dead miners that Ralis had sacrificed to him. And making them fight me! This was not a thing that happened in the two previous playthroughs!

This time through, as described up in the highlights, I specifically opted to not show Ralis mercy. Partly just to play the ending of the plot out differently, and partly because it seemed more appropriate for Delga’s moral compass. I feel like she’d have taken deep offense at Ralis killing all the innocent miners, and then fucking lying to her about it.

The other overall major theme of this session was just going on a loot supply/sell run, to Windhelm, the mage college, and Riften. And picking up Iona to follow me around for a while, just because I felt undefended without a housecarl at my back–and, I’m pretty sure I hadn’t ever had Iona follow me around properly while running Alarrah’s run!

Next time

Deathbrand hoard! And maybe also Vahlok’s tomb!

Screenshots

Editing to add

• 11/20/2023: Restored missing gallery, and added play date and session number markers.