Yay. I just defeated Miraak, making the Dragonborn DLC the first story arc I actually finished in Skyrim. I did not really intend to make it the first, it’s just that, Miraak’s theft of the souls of the dragons I slay has started to become a pain in the neck. So I decided to finally do him in.
However, I encountered a real show stopper of a bug along the way. I found a workaround to it myself, but one with which I’m not very pleased.
I haven’t found this bug described anywhere else so if anyone else encounters the bug, here goes…
Bug behavior: Upon dismounting Sahrotaar to face Miraak, the Dragonborn is instantly killed. Note that I dismount while Miraak is making his little welcome speech.
Dragonborn glows green and dies. No explanations whatsoever. What a way to finally face an arch-nemesis, keeling over to instant death.
Workaround:
- When the game prompts you to make a landing (e.g., in PC, the text “Press E to land” is displayed), do not land. Steer Sahrotaar to the Summit of Apocrypha and use the Bend Will shout once more. This will make Sahrotaar take ground without the Dragonborn dismounting.
- I’m not sure if you can order Sahrotaar to interrupt Miraak’s speech and just do battle but I sat through it.
- When the battle starts, you will have to battle while riding Sahrotaar. You can order him to attack Miraak, but not the other two dragons. Miraak behaves normally (i.e., keeps attacking you, the Dragonborn).
- Miraak still kills Sahrotaar last. When Sahrotaar is killed, the Dragonborn is automatically dismounted from him. Beware that, at this moment in the fight, the Dragonborn becomes very open for Miraak’s attack. Plan your actions well after this forced dismount. (This caught me by surprise but I was able to handle it with a well-timed consumption of a healing potion or two).
- Continue the battle. At this point, Miraak only needs to be weakened once more before Hermaeus Mora finally ends him.
Notes:
- My biggest annoyance with my workaround is in how it cut the battle with Miraak very short. Since, in the first three rounds, I’m ordering Sahrotaar to attack Miraak, Miraak was quickly weakened. I appreciate the leg-up but I really prepared to face Miraak: items, skills, tactic research, game plan preparation, the works. It sucks that I only get a single round out of four; Sahrotaar took the first three. And even the first three rounds did not last long as Sahrotaar was dealing damage way more than what my Dragonborn could’ve dealt.
- As I noted in (3), the fight goes on even if you have not yet dismounted Sahrotaar. I’m not sure how Skyrim implements battles while dragon riding, but will it be possible for Sahrotaar to have died before his turn to heal Miraak? Judging by the wiki bugs list for this quest, in the event that Sahrotaar dies before healing Miraak, the quest may not complete.
- Some experiments with my workaround would be interesting, but I haven’t got the proper save points to try it out. For one, would it be okay to dismount once the battle has started (and remedy my big annoyance described above)?
For the record, here’s the kind of battle I prepared for:
In contrast, I think my whole battle with Miraak did not even go beyond five minutes.
The First Dragonborn is dead. Long live the Last Dragonborn!