UESPWiki:Podcast/2 21

Fennorian's in my house printing money! Welcome to the UESPodcast! Join your host Pylawn with guests baratron and Sarthes as we go through the latest Elder Scrolls news and give some insight into the lore and mechanics of the Witches Festival in ESO

Twitch: VOD • Youtube: VOD • Anchor: Audio

Show Notes

Roster

Host:

• Pylawn

Guests:

• baratron

News

UESP:

• • New blog!
    • https://blog.uesp.net
    • Want to help out? Email pylawn@uesp.net
  • New Podcast recording time!
    • Start your week off right with the UESPodcast
    • Now you can get drops while you hang out with us!

ESO:

• The Witches Festival is live! Runs from now until Tuesday November 3 at 10am EST / 3pm GMT:
  • More about that later.
• The #TamrielTogether Promote Your Guild competition has begun. Closing date is Friday 6th November at 11:59PM EST (That's Saturday 7th November at 4.59am GMT).
  • Guilds must create a recruitment-styled poster or video that showcases the guild.
    • Video submissions must be no longer than two minutes and be uploaded to YouTube.
    • Poster submissions must be in JPG or PNG format.
  • The ESO development team will review entries based on their quality, creativity, and adherence to the theme of guild recruitment, and select two grand and four runners-up prize winners.
  • Much excitement because the Grand Prize winners will get a unique mount decorated with the winning guild's tabard colors and crest for each active guild member.
  • All 6 winning guilds will get a house furnishing wall banner bearing the winning guild's tabard colors and crest for each active guild member.
  • "Active" is defined as logging in between now and the end of the contest.
  • Note that while ZOS are limited in terms of which countries may participate in the contest for legal reasons, all members of a guild will receive the prizes regardless of which country they live in.
  • However, only the guild corresponding to the platform and server of the winning entry will be eligible for prizes. They cannot give the prizes to sister guilds on different servers or platforms.
  • More information on the website at https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/58891
• Following the initial six PvP tests, two more have been added to enable ZOS to gather more data. The goal is to see how a combination of changes from previous tests affect the game's performance in Cyrodiil, as they have not had a significant impact individually. The current PvP test finishes tomorrow, October 26th:
  • October 19 - 26:
    • Shared global AoE cooldown with a 3 second timer
    • Group size limited to 12 in Cyrodiil
    • Ally-targeted abilities only applied to group members
  • October 26 – November 2:
    • Shared global AoE cooldown with a 3 second timer
    • Group size limited to 12 in Cyrodiil
    • Ally-targeted abilities only applied to group members
    • Global ramping cost per successive AoE cast by 50%/100%/150%
    • Regen decrease per successive AoE cast by 33%/66%/99%
  • Their current plan is to disable all tests and double AP once Update 28 launches for PC on November 2. Unfortunately from my perspective, the main effect of the tests has been to discourage regular PvP players from playing in Cyrodiil because the queues are so long - both of my PvP guilds have discontinued events until the end of the testing.
• Crown Store

• • Many, many offers related to the Witches' Festival! All of these end at the end of the Witches' Festival, Tuesday November 3 at 10am EST / 3pm GMT:
  • The Exorcised Coven Cottage is available unfurnished for 3500 Crowns, or furnished for 4400 Crowns. Alternatively, if you have "An Unsparing Harvest" achievement, you can buy it unfurnished for 250,000 gold.
    • An Unsparing Harvest is awarded for completing the four achievements Reaper's Harvest (complete the quest The Witchmother's Bargain), Pumpkin Pairs Well With Guts (drink the Witchmothers' Brew), Plunder Skull Fanatic (earn 100 Plunder Skulls) and Happy Work For Hollowjack (collect all 14 pieces of Hollowjack Motif), on the same character.
    • It's a classic house in Glenumbra, near the Hag Fen area, very small inside area but relatively large garden. It has 200 item slots or 400 for ESO Plus members.
  • Hollowjack Crown Crates have returned, at the usual prices of 400 Crowns for 1, 1500 Crowns for 4, 5000 Crowns for 15.
  • The Nightmare Firestalker Cub is a non-combat pet available for 1200 Crowns. It appears to be a small lion cub with horns, but also on fire??
  • Sister Gellenna is an Icereach Coven witch who wants to experience other cultures. She is one of the new houseguest NPCs who can be added to a player home to make it seem more alive. She costs 1500 Crowns.
  • The Furnishing Pack: Sinister Hollowjack Items costs 3500 Crowns, or 2800 Crowns for ESO Plus members. Pumpkins, scarecrows, gravestones, and gross things in jars.

• • There are 4 limited-time offers running from October 26 until the end of the Witches' Festival:
    • The Floral Skull Fascinator, Warrior-Poet Tattoos, Skull Face Tattoo Pack and Warrior-Poet Skull Tattoos are all returning. ESO Plus members will receive a discount on these items.
  • There are 5 limited-time offers running from October 29 until the end of the Witches' Festival:
    • The Furnishing Pack: Witches' Coven, Black Cat pet, and Pumpkin Spectre polymorph are all returning. ESO Plus members will get a discount on these items.
    • The Grim Harlequin Motif is also returning. This is a Crown Store-only motif which does not drop from any in-game source.
    • The new Music Box, Subterranean Sonata will become available. It looks fantastic.

• Public Test Server
  • PTS patch v6.2.4 came out last week and is the final PTS patch before Markarth launches for PC on November 2nd. There's a new event available for testing – the Tribunal Celebration (Return to Morrowind and the Clockwork City).

Legends:

• King of the Hill Gauntlet, left lane is Fountain granting Ward to summoned creatures with 2 or less power, right lane is King of the Hill which grants Guard to creatures that cost 5 Magicka or more.

Blades:

• Get your free pumpkin decorations!

Call to Arms:

• first CtA community scenario is up, free! https://www.modiphius.net/products/the-elder-scrolls-call-to-arms-community-scenario-paths-to-glory-free
• This is a new scenario written by the lead designer for Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms, Mark Latham, and is designed to support the new Adventurers sets.

Supporters

Patreon:

• Tyler Burch
• Msjolly
• LotusofDoom
• Clyde

Twitch Subs:

• Xaxusx1

iTunes:

Wiki:

Scholarly Pursuits

I will ask our guests what they have been working on in the world of TES! This can be game play, wiki work, discord things, anything relevant to UESP/TES that you've been working on the past couple weeks / when you were last on the show.

• Pylawn
  • Lots of Witches Festival Runs!
  • Also been farming vMA but getting grumpy at the lack of weapons I want haha
  • Did a trial run and been gearing up my new DPS
    • Race changed my magden lol
  • Lots of Blog work
    • Basically the blog has consumed all my free time over the past 2 weeks
      • And reminded my that I'm terrible at coding CSS
• baratron
  • Ran Veteran Lair of Maarselok on Monday and streamed it.
  • Ran Cloudrest and Sunspire with The Adventurers League over on EU and Veteran Sanctum Ophidia Hard Mode with UESP on NA. New high score for the guild for Vet SO - 113343.
  • Have been digging up MANY Antiquities due to sudden high RNG with getting leads. I don't explicitly farm for leads, I just keep getting them when doing other content! Seat of the Snow Prince, Branch of Falinesti, Dwarven Articulated Paws, Petrified Snow Cedar, Dwarven Puzzle Box, Lacquered Wooden Tone-Box... Those are just the ones I remember.
  • Played so much ESO that I'm behind in Animal Crossing - it's Sunday night/Monday morning here and I haven't played Saturday yet!
• Sarthes
  • Also took part in the Veteran Lair of Maarselok and Cloudrest/Sunspire runs.
  • Farming for Witches Festival
  • Working on Skyrim Mods
    • Dwarven Ebony
    • Radiant Quest Expansion

Topic: Witches Festival

History / Lore

• https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Witches_Festival
  • The Witches Festival is an annual holiday that falls on the 13th of Frostfall.
  • It was first experienced in the game Daggerfall. "Today is the 13th of Frostfall, known throughout Tamriel as the Witches' Festival when the forces of sorcery and religion clash. The Mages Guild gets most of the business since weapons and items are evaluated for their mystic potential free of charge and magic spells are one half their usual price. Demonologists, conjurors, lamias, warlocks, and thaumaturgists meet in the wilderness outside (city name), and the creatures created or summoned there may plague Tamriel for eons. Most wise men choose not to wander this night."
  • It was also the Summoning Day for Mephala.
  • During the event, the denizens of Tamriel defy their superstitious fears. Ghosts, demons, and evil spirits are mocked and celebrated by both occult occurrences and outrageous costumes. Beggars take to the street and ask for alms, while children ask for festival treats, and people are obliged to provide them it. The youth often engage in wanton vandalism as a part of one of the festival's traditions. Pumpkins are iconic within the Festival. They are carved into hollowjack lanterns, cooked, or smashed for fun. The Undaunted practice a tradition intended to test dexterity known as Autumnal Ornamental Gourd Triple-Toss, wherein they juggle pumpkins. Festival themed foods are intended to look ghastly, with naming schemes fitting the theme. Three examples are Frosted Brains, Bowls of "Peeled Eyeballs", and Bewitched Sugar Skulls.
• https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Hollowjack
  • Hha-Lugh-Zhek, more commonly known as Lord Hollowjack, is a dread Daedra Lord who rules over the demi-plane of Detritus. He is also known as the Lord of Mortal Fears and the Fear Daedra.
  • He is a unique Greater Daedra, a Pumpkin Spectre who derives supernatural power by metaphysically feeding on the terrified whispers of all Men and Mer who are driven by fear to pray for divine intervention. It is in this moment of dread that Hollowjack appears, speaking softly or in whispers from a mouth full of long, sharp teeth in order to carry out this "fear feeding". He has long, slender, and agile fingers tipped with sharp talons that can slash or puncture, but which are usually used to gently emphasize what the voice behind them is saying.
  • Every year, during the Witches Festival on the 13th of Frost Fall, the portals between Nirn and Detritus open. As such, Hollowjack is closely associated with that festival, and it has become tradition for celebrants to masquerade as Hollowjack during the event. Hollowjack-style armor and weapons are crafted using pumpkin, black hawthorn, and amber marble.
  • There is a long literary tradition of personal accounts and folk tales detailing the mortal victims of Hollowjack who were driven mad with fear due to repeated visitations from the Daedra. The Psijic Order have gathered a collection of these accounts as part of their studies on Oblivion, and categorize these individuals as "Hollowjack's Haunted". In Nibenay folklore, Hollowjack has a connection to house cats. In the case of houses where the owner was murdered, Hollowjack is said to send the spirit of the owner's cat back to haunt the house and torment the killer.
  • Hollowjack bears some similarities to Jaque o' the Hollow, a malevolent spirit said to haunt a hidden hollow in Rivenspire. On the night of the Witches Festival, Jaque o' the Hollow curses riders all across Tamriel to ride headless throughout the night, clutching a carved pumpkin atop their mount.
  • Hollowjack may be associated with the Daedric Prince Hircine.
  • https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Lord_Hollowjack%27s_Dread_Realm
  • https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Detritus
  • Hollowjack derives his supernatural power by metaphysically feeding on the fear of mortals, and his realm is dedicated to this singular purpose. Detritus is described as a claustrophobic series of small spaces cluttered and jammed with piles of mortals' lost and broken personal items. Hollowjack frivols there among his collection of shattered memories, categorizing and classing and replaying them to find new vulnerabilities in the mortal mind. There is no outside on Detritus, only room after room of recurring nightmares and internal torments. According to Hollowjack, this is because "mortals fear most what is inside themselves".

Event Mechanic Explanations

To start the Event:

• Get the "The Witchmother's Bargain" Quest from the Quest Starters section of the Crown Store
• Obtain one piece of Guts, Pumpkin, and Essence of Death.
  • Guts drop from many small animals
  • Pumpkins can be obtained from containers like crates or baskets in the world
  • The Essence of Death drops from Delve Bosses while this quest is active.
• Return the items to Witchmother Olyve in her Brewery in Auridon, Glenumbra, or Stonefalls.
• Receive the Witchmother's Whistle, a Memento.
• Using the Witchmother's Whistle will summon the Witchmother's Brew, and apply a double XP buff for 2 hours to you.
• The Whistle is the same as the last years, so you only need to go through the quest if you have never done it before (on either character).

Event Mechanics:

• Each Boss you defeat drops a Plunder Skull.
• The first boss of each category you defeat each day grants a Dremora Plunder Skull instead
• The Categories are:
  • Delve Bosses
  • Public Dungeon Bosses or Bosses from Quests, Imperial City, or Dark Fissures
  • World Bosses
  • "World Events", such as Dark Anchors, Abyssal Geysers, Dragons, or Harrowstorms
  • Group Dungeon Bosses
  • Trial Bosses
  • Arena Bosses

Loot:

• New Pieces of the Throwing Bones memento
  • Combine 10 pieces to craft this collectible
• Grave Dancer Weapon Style pages
• Glenmoril Armor Outfit Style pages & Treasure maps to Glenmoril Weapon Style Pages
• Hollowjack Motif style items - Amber Marbles
• Dremora Motif style pages & items - Warrior's Heart Ashes
• Witches Festival-themed recipes
• Witches Festival-themed furnishings and furnishing recipes
• Bewitching Alchemy reagents
• Witches Writs
• New grab bags
• ...and an assortment of creepy items!

To understand which bosses you need to kill to get which motifs:

• Final Arena Bosses drop Dremora Motif pages for Bows and Legs.
• Dark Anchor, Geyser Bosses, Craglorn Focus Points, Harrowstorms, and zone Dragons drop Dremora Motif pages for Daggers and Gloves.
• Delve Bosses drop Dremora Motif pages for Staves and Belts.
• Final Dungeon Bosses drop Dremora Motif pages for Helmets and Maces.
• Public Dungeon, Imperial City Bosses, and Quest Bosses drop Dremora Motif pages for Shields and Boots.
• Final Trial Bosses drop Dremora Motif pages for Swords and Chests.
• World Bosses drop Dremora Motif pages for Shoulders and Axes.

Hot Tips

• Volenfell for skeleton achievements is like the best place to go.
• You have to use the whistle to get the 100% xp boost but you don't need to drink from the cauldron.
  • You do need to drink from the cauldron to be a spooky skeleton and get the achievement.
• The writs have a couple recipes with harder to get ingredients (Like Dragon Bones)
  • Probably not worth it to do those ones
• Running Normal Maelstrom Arena is actually one of the best ways for solo players to get Plunder Skulls.