Daniel (@dungeondive) returns to Heart of the Mountain having switched builds off camera: heavy armour, a shield and Sunder, his dwarven hammer, as part of a deliberate attempt not to drift into the stealth archer that Skyrim funnels most players towards. He leaves Bjorn guarding the city wall, since two followers tend to cross-talk, and takes Audrey, the doll only he can see, because this is her story.
The quest is to recover the blacksmith Anagok’s heirloom chisel from a dungeon dedicated to imprisoning the dreams of cats in Vaermina’s nightmares. Five cages must be smashed while nightmare spectres hit hard enough that Audrey, suddenly flinging spells, carries the fight; he takes her sword back afterwards. He calls the tile set unlike anything in vanilla Skyrim and the mod’s original music excellent, if mixed loud.
Back in the village, the chisel earns him a lesson in smelting dry blood ingots and the title of blood sculptor. Along the way he admits he has never crafted a single potion in Skyrim and wants this character to finally try smithing, alchemy and enchanting. He also blames practising Dark Souls parries for scrambling his muscle memory, and wonders aloud what keeps so many people coming back to Skyrim after more than a decade.
Daniel confesses he has never brewed a potion or done serious smithing in years of Skyrim. Which system in a game you love have you never touched, and is it time to try it?