Blackreach Map Guide

Blackreach Map Guide

A – Exit to Mzinchaleft Gatehouse

B – Elevator to Altand Cathedral (This is where you arrive from)

C – Exit to Blackreach Elevator (Raldbthar)

D – Exit to Blackreach Elevator (Alftand)

E – Elevator to Raldbthar Deep Market

F – Exit to Mzinchaleft Exterior

1. Reeking Tower

2. Sinderion’s Filed Laboratory: Skill book, 2 chests, crimson nirnroot, potions

3. Silent Ruin: trap under throne, crimson nirnroot, chest, skill book

4. Hall of Rumination: 2 chests, crimson nirnroot

5. Pumping Station: chest

6. Debate Hall: skill book

7. Silent City Catacombs: trap, crimson nirnroot, Shaman’s Key, 4 chests

8. War Quarters: 2 chests

9. Farm Overseer’s House: 2 locked chests, potions

10. Tower of Mzark: elder scroll, skill book, 2 chests, potions, ruined lexicon

11. Derelict Pumphouse: 2 chests, skill book, crimson nirnroot

i.                     Overpass

ii.                   Wispmother Encounter: crimson nirnroot, 3 wispmothers

iii.                  Guard Towers

iv.                 Fungus Field: crimson nirnroot

v.                   Sleeping Charus: sneak up and kill the two sleeping chaurus

vi.                 Blackreach City, main gate:

vii.                Blackreach arena: trap, skill book

viii.              Troll Den: two trolls and a crimson nirnroot

ix.                 Shrine: crimson nirnroot, potions

x.                   Falmer Mining Camp: 2 chests, crimson nirnroot, Corundum ore (mineable)

xi.                 Vulthuryol’s Gong: hit the central, globe light above the city with Unrelenting Force to unleash a sleeping dragon (which lands to the South, beside the random, wandering giant)

(dont be afraid to enlarge the picture)

Key:
Red dot --> Crimson nirnroot
Yellow Line --> (not-so-yellow brick) Road
Letter --> Exit, or elevator
Number --> Location (separate room)
Roman Numeral --> Secondary Location

Daedric Quest: Discerning the Transmundane, (Main Quest: Elder Knowledge)

Daedric Quest: Discerning the Transmundane, (Main Quest: Elder Knowledge)

Prerequisites: You must be level 15 or higher to begin the second half (“Blood Harvest”)

Intersecting Quests: Main Quest: Elder Knowledge/Alduin’s Bane, College of WInterhold Quest: First Lessons

Locations: Alftand, Blackreach, College of Winterhold, Arcanaeum, Hall of Elements, Septimus Signus’s Outpost, Tower of Mzark, Oculory

Enemies: Falmer, Dwarven Centurion, Dwarven Spider (and Spider Worker), Dwarven Sphere

Reward: You have three choices, based on what you’d like for your character.

1.       Path of Might: +5 in skills: Smithing, Heavy Armor, Block, Two-Handed, One-Handed, Archery

2.       Path of Shadow: +5 in all skills: Light Armor, Sneak, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Alchemy, Speech

3.       Path of Magic: +5 in all skills: Illusion, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Enchanting

4.       You could always be a stick in the mud and decide not to choose any of them.

Acute Occult Ruminations

There are two ways to begin this quest. In the Main Questline, you are sent to the College of Winterhold and you have to ask Urag gro-Shrub, who runs the Arcanaeum (fancy word for book keeper), about the Elder Scroll. Then the magical little quest compass points you to Septimus Signus’s Outpost. If you aren’t doing the main quest, you’ve got to find it by yourself, unfortunately. If you ARE doing the main quest, ask Urag gra-Shrub about the Elder Scrolls and wait until he places books on the table (you can take these). Then tell him that the one titled Ruminations is nonsense and he tells you to go talk to the author yourself. Shrubbie is very helpful; I can’t believe he doesn’t charge for this.

Septimus Signus’s Outpost is nearly straight north (and a little to the left) from the College of Winterhold (Zone 4.20 if that helps) and is a cave symbol on the compass.

Puppet of the Abyss

So Septimus is just chilling with a big dwemer thingy in his ice hut when you find him. There are some fire salts in his cave, though. Very rare; very nice. Ask Septimus about the Scroll and he gives you an Attunement Sphere and a Blank Lexicon. After this, head over to Alftand. This is an excavation site of dwemer ruins and has an elevator that will take you into Blackreach.

Alftand is a huge tunnel, pretty much, and it’s basically goes in a straight line, so that’s probably worth a whole separate guide. However, It’s got a few surprises, like a Dwarven Centurion holding the key to the elevator, and three bandits. The first is J’darr and is a khajit near the beginning of the trip. The last two are Sully (an imperial) and Umanda (a redguard) who pop out of nowhere literally directly before the entrance to Blackreach (behind the dwarven centurion) and fight each other (and you). Throughout Alftand, there are plenty of lockpicking opportunities, and a few traps. There are a bunch of chests, if you can find them. I recommend a lot of carry weight? Mine was around 500 and I only made it to the dwarven centurion before I had to take the elevator to the surface and sell it all off to make room. (Hello, money)

Now, Blackreach is huuuuge. It might as well be a separate realm. It’s got a bunch of evil guys in it, like Wispmothers, frostbite spiders, maybe a chaurus, a sleeping dragon, two trolls, falmer, and falmer slaves. Blackreach also has its own quest: A Return to Your Roots. That pretty much involves collecting all 30 crimson nirnroot you find in the cave. I’ve included their locations in my big magical picture.

As soon as you enter Blackreach, you maybe want to head to the Southeast and press the button on top of the fake-dwarven-centurion-dude’s face to turn on the elevator (for future mobility). Okay, so, when you first enter Blackreach, you’ll find yourself at B (on the map). This is directly across from Sinderion’s Field Lab and taking his journal and the crimson nirnroot pretty much puts you on the quest: A Return to Your Roots. To complete the quest, you need to find the Tower of Mzark (10).

Bonus! So, when you’re in (roughly) the middle of Blackreach, you’ll find yourself in the middle of a little town center. There’s a debate hall, a hall of ruminations, and stuff. Looking up, you’ll see a big, glowing orb. Hit this with your Unrelenting Force Shout and a dragon flies out.

When at the Tower of Mzark, you’re gonna see this big telescope-room-thingy. It’s a puzzle. Go up above the door to that balcony and put the Blank Lexicon into the receptacle. Then press the second pedestal from the right three or four times (four for me) until another button starts glowing. This should be the second. Push this until a third starts glowing (twice?). Then press that last button and the elder scroll drops down from the ceiling in an overly-dramatized fashion.

Blood Harvest (quest part II)

Take the lexicon back!! Then bring it to Septimus. He tells you it needs blood. So he gives you an essence extractor and tells you to get busy. As you’re going to leave, a big gloopy mist shows up and pretty much tells you that when you give the blood back to Septimus, he’s going to die. The mist is supposed to be the form of Hermaeus Mora.

The blood you need are from the races: High Elf, Dark Elf, Wood Elf, Falmer, Orc. This blood can be gotten from any corpse as well.

Race	Location
High Elf	Hob’s Fall Cave, Yngvild, a warlock lair
Dark Elf	Hob’s Fall cave, Yngvild, a warlock lair
Wood Elf	Pinepeak Cavern, any hunter camp (1/4 chance)
Falmer	Blackreach, Alftand, Falmer Hives, Dwarven Ruins
Orc	Cracked Tusk Keep, Rift Watchtower, any bandit camp, or the falmer servants

Take these back to Septimus, who opens the big dwarven box in his cave. He runs into it, sees a book, and turns to ash. You can pick up this book and receive a skill-level blessing. At higher levels, this is a huge gift. It’s like, 16 thousand Gold of training. Choose whichever suits you.

1.       Path of Might: +5 in skills: Smithing, Heavy Armor, Block, Two-Handed, One-Handed, Archery

2.       Path of Shadow: +5 in all skills: Light Armor, Sneak, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Alchemy, Speech

3.       Path of Magic: +5 in all skills: Illusion, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Enchanting

Daedric Quest: Ill Met By Moonlight

Prerequisites: None

Reward: Ring of Hircine (allows one more werewolf transformation a day, and is needed for an achievement) or Savior’s Hide

Intersecting Quests: None

The Curse on Falkreath

For such a modest town, Falkreath has a sizeable cemetery. As you enter this location, a burial ceremony is under way for a young girl. Instead of marching right in and interrogating everyone, you should talk to the townsfolk for some info. You can speak to the child’s parents (Indara Caerelia or Mathies). Either will tell you that their daughter was ripped apart by a man named Sinding and that he’s located in the Falkreath Barracks. If you miss the funeral, visit the parents on their farm.

Visit the Falkreath Barracks and find Sinding. He tells you he is a werewolf and was given a cursed ring. He says he honestly feels bad about the girl, too. He asks you to help him appease Hircine, Daedric Lord of the Hunt (who owns the cursed ring) by slaying a White Stag in the woods nearby.

WARNING!! When you have this ring in your inventory, it can’t be removed until the quest is over. This is bad because if you are already a werewolf, every minute that you are in a town, you have a 10% chance of transforming suddenly (this gives you an insta-bounty of 1000 Gold every time you change forms)

The Lord of the Hunt Smiles on You

The great White Stag is usually around the path by Peak’s Shade Tower, but it’s always moving. Long range weapons (magic and bows) are probably preferred here. Kill the Stag and a ghost-Hircine appears (ironically as a stag). He tells you that Sinding has escaped and gone into hiding and that the Great Hunt has been called on him (meaning you gotta kill him). Hircine tells you to bring him Sinding’s skin…literally.

Sinding has fled to Bloated Man’s Grotto, which is just north of Lake Ilinalta, on the southern rim of the Tundra. You’ll notice as you enter that the sky is blood red and full of swirly clouds. The Bloodmoon looms overhead (*cue evil music*). As the entrance cave opens up (by the way? The sky is red because Hircine has focused his powers here by calling the Great Hunt on Sinding, apparently), you spot a campsite where a bunch of dead, icky hunters lie. Yum. No, ew, gross! You can talk to a khajit, who’s on his deadbed. He can only tell you that Sinding is strong (oooh, scary) and that more hunters have been called in (backup).

The path to the left has been blocked by fallen trees, so you’re gonna wanna take door number two (path past the pond). You hear a roar (Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!) and turn around to see Sinding (standing epically on a rocky outcrop). Time to CHARGE IN AND BASH BRAINSSS! Ohhwait! Before I forget, there iiiis another option. There are two ways to complete this quest, starting now.

Path 1 involves attacking Sinding or telling him he has to die. This makes him sad and he dashes off. You’ve got to give (annoying) chase and will probably require the use of Whirlwind Sprint or Slow Time Shouts to catch up to him. Sinding will run into the first clearing, kill two hunters, flee into the second, kill three hunters, and finally run into the last clearing to begin fighting 3 more hunters. Here, Sinding will stand his ground and fight. If you’re dying, it’s helpful to know that Sinding has no ranged attacks, so if you’re hurting, back up and start spewing fire or arrow-spamming. After killing Sinding, skin him and give his skin to Hircine, who appears. He rewards you with Savior’s Hide. This is armor which is slightly weaker than Elven Armor at 28 base protection. However, the armor has strong poison and magic resistance. If you wear this armor while playing as a Redguard or Wood Elf, you should have 100% Poison resistance (perfect for vampire and falmer dens)

Path 2 involves talking to Sinding and telling him that you’ve been told to kill him, or that you’ve decided to spare him. Sinding is grateful and the two of you gang up on the hunters.  There are two hunters in the first clearing and three in each of the next two clearings. After this, you can speak with Sinding and leave the grotto. In Path 2, Hircine appears outside of the cave and tells you that regardless of the outcome, he was satisfied by the hunt. He removed the curse on the ring and it grants you one extra werewolf transformation a day as well as counting toward your daedric artifact collection.

Bonus! I’ve heard that it’s possible to get both the hide and the ring. To do this, you have to side with Sinding, kill all the hunters, and then kill and skin Sinding. Hircine will appear, take the skin, give you the armor, and when you leave the cave, he will remove the ring’s curse instead of taking it. I don’t yet know if this is true.

Side Quests

1. Blood on the Ice
2. Forbidden Legend
3. The Forsworn Conspiracy
4. No One Escapes Cidhna Mine
5. The Golden Claw
6. In My Time of Need
7. Kyne’s Sacred Trials
8. Laid to Rest
9. Lights Out!
10. The Man Who Cried Wolf
11. The Wolf Queen Awakened
12. Missing in Action
13. Promises to Keep
14. A Return to Your Roots
15. Rise in the East
16. Rising at Dawn
17. Unfathonable Depths
18. The White Phial
19. Repairing the Phial
20. Captured Critters
21. The Forgemaster’s Fingers
22. The Great Skyrim Treasure Hunt
23. Masks of the Dragon Priests