Solstheim or bust

Finally made it over to the big island. The ash look is a little depressing but its fun to see the giant mushrooms again as its been a long time since I last visited the Shivering Isles.

Haven't done too much in the way of quests, but have walked the coastline to get some locations marked. I read on the 'net that the DLC isn't as large as the SI dlc, but it still seems impressive when I went on walkabout.

Slightly perturbed that the Mead Hall storyline is an either-or proposition ... as Dragonborn and ArchMage, I was aiming for a win-win solution. Alas, the wiki says its a win-lose only quest. Gah.

Without too many spoilers, is there any highlights to the island I should look for? Awesome waterfalls, fantastic/unique dungeons to clear out, that kinda thing. I have started the story for Miraak's temple (the big one with the Nord female helper) but
was going to explore a bit more first.

:)

 

Use the Waking Dreams Black Book more than once???

Were you on Solstheim? The books only work on Solstheim, not in Skyrim.

 

Hircine's Plane

well yeah, we can all hope that werewolves are in the base game, but it makes so much more sense that they would hold off and make a huge dlc with hircine and solstheim in all it's glory. the only thing i'm curious about is how they would bring him in, since
he only comes to solstheim to hunt every thousand years or so.

 

Talk to everybody there are quite a few easy to miss quests. If you are into heavy armor or getting achievements, then you need to do the blacksmith quests in the Skal Village. He will send you off to find a Stahlrim deposit and then teach you how to craft
Stahlrim gear. The blacksmith in Raven Rock has a relative in Riften and if you are in the thieves guild will give you some quests. Don't forget to explore all the little offshore islands either. And talk to the Silt Strider guy near Tel Mithrin. The best
advise I can give about Solstheim is to walk it. Don't ride except when you are in a hurry (though Arvak is very useful) and never fast travel until you have seen the whole island. Dragonborn is a very good expansion and bigger than you think it is.

 

Up in the northwest (given that Raven rock is in the southwest) of the island there are many high peaks reminiscent of The Reach, and nearer to shoreline up there is a waterfall that plummets nearly into the sea.

Many offshore islands to explore as LadyB suggests, lots of testy Horkers on them. Good thing they are slow, mostly stoopid, and nearly blind. I do not kill them, it's just too easy. Also much to do inside forts and ruins, not to mention when you start reading
certain books. Quite a bit of "hidden" acreage in this DLC. The only time I ride now is on board a dragon, why drive a Yugo when there is now a ZR1 Corvette in the garage? Controlling the beastie is somewhat limited but the views are often impressive and attacking
is fun. I read on the wiki if you target a human being who is on an exposed height, (ie: tower, mountaintop) the dragon will swoop down and *** them up, then drop them from very high up. I've yet to manage this. Hoping it's true.

 

s w o o p is censored... what was I thinking, using such awful language? My sincere apologies to all those offended...

I'm fairly certain I could bang out a very sexually explicit paragraph, using no words that would trigger the censor-bot here, yet would be clearly understood by any teen with even a below average IQ, yet would only be taken down after being flagged or otherwise
spotted by one of the mods here.

 

Potty mouth!

For some reason I have a fascination with the ES waterfalls -- likely because IRL its such a swoop to get even one good vantage point at one of them, let alone the multiples one can get somewhat easily within the game.

I did talk to the Stilt rider guy but didn't get a quest (I think). I'll check. I'll be heading back to the mage and his giant mushrooms, so will be in the neighbourhood.

Currently glitched/stumped at the Ravenrock mine quest (find the 300 year old journal) --- I'll have to prop the ipad up beside me when entering it again to reference the walk through to find it.

 

hahaha, swoop not censored for me!!??

Maybe you are on the "extra moderation needed" blacklist GM?! Must be the sunglasses.

 

The silt strider guy doesn't give a quest just a lot of lore and it's kind of nostalgic to see the last silt strider in existence. You can get quite a few quests from the Telvanii mage and also the ability to make a staff, though I never use them myself.

Before doing the black books be sure you know candlelight or have a torch. I'm just sayin' it will be useful once. The barrow quest will net you some useful waterwalking boots early on. I liked to walk out to the islands instead of swimming.

 

I like the look of Ahzidal's armour, even if I'm a light armour character. I'll do that quest soon.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if I'm on a few watch-lists...

After attaining all smithing perks and enough crafting materials to sink the Edmund Fitzgerald, I put Ahzidal's armor on a mannequin in the basement of Lakeview, seems to keep the skeevers down.

 

I keep the boots with me for occasional offshore jaunts but I like the armor I made for myself better. That always seems to be the case though. By the time I get anything really good, I have made better for myself. Except for Morrowind. In Morrowind, I looked
like a bag lady in the final battle. I maybe could have made something better but I'm not sure. The rewards were very good and could be had before you had to go face Dagoth Ur but, they were on common clothes and totally mismatched. I did not look at all heroic

 

The dragonborn dlc was too short to be honest. They should have made the island a bit bigger as I had seen and explored everywhere within 3 hours in real life and was dissapointed with how short the main quest was. Needed more backstrory/lore. Favorite place
is horker island tho =D

 

Did you do all the books? The Telvanni? Bloodskaal? Raven Rock Mine? Those are all long quests. It isn't Shivering Isles but I found lots of things to do. I didn't do many side quests with the first character I took into Solstheim and then it felt kind of
short but I was happy just revisiting a place I remembered from Morrowind. It looked more like Vardenfell in the south. All those ashfields were green in Bloodmoon. Dawnstar is much shorter though or was for me.

 

Yes I did find all the black books and all the side quests I could. Would have been alot better if you had to find all the book's before fighting miraak, and hopefully shed alot more on his backstory and why/how mora chose him as his champion.