Daedric Quest: The Only Cure
Prerequisites: Level 10 or higher
Locations: Bthardamz (Arcanex, Dwelling Lower District, Study, Upper District, Workshop), Shrine to Peryite
Duration: This quest is maybe, 40 minutes?
Intersecting Quests: None
Reward: The powerful Dwemer shield, Spellbreaker. This shield blocks nearly all magic damage. You can fight dragons and not take damage from their fire/ice breath. Super awesome.
Enemies: Afflicted, Dwarven Centurion, Dwarven Sphere, Dwarven Spider, Orchendor, Vampire
A Fine Fume
To start this quest, you can either travel to the Shrine of Peryite to talk to Kesh the Clean (after level 10), or you can stumble upon some Afflicted in World Encounter: Peryite’s Pilgrim. On the clifftop above Druadach Mountains above Karthwasten lies a Shrine to Peryite, Bringer of Pestilence. When you find Kesh the Clean (tending to his alchemy lab) you can ask him about Peryite and if you can talk to the deity. Kesh the Clean asks for a few ingredients first.
Bring Kesh some vampire dust, a deathbell flower, silver ingot, and a flawless ruby. (Don't worry, you can pick his pocket and get them back before he uses them)
Once you give Kesh the ingredients, he stuffs them in his pot and makes you snort it. Who said you can’t get high off of life? Not Skyrim. Anyway, Peryite tells you to kill Orchendor, an elf mage. Peryite sent a plague onto a bunch of Bretons and Orchendor had the balls to bring them to dwarven ruins instead of back to Peryite!
Assault on the Afflicted
So, Orchendor is in the Bthardamz Arcanex. He’s pretty powerful, apparently. If you stand by Kesh the Clean and look west, you can see it. So, head down the mountain and climb the stone steps to the pavilion. Some stand guard. The Afflicted warriors are supposed to be strong, but have weak constitutions. You can get infected by fighting them, so bring some Cure Disease potions. Head from the pavilion into the entrance and down the steps with the blade trap in the middle. Turn them on with the first golden level you see and off with the second one, blocked by spears if you want. I think the exit is by the second lever. This gives you access into the Bthardamz Upper District.
Go down the ramped passage and around the corner to the right (north). You can either open the Novice gate or around two sleeping areas with Afflicted. Continue past a storage room and down another slope into a large piston chamber where the Afflicted hang out to breathe in the weird vapor. Defeat or sneak around them, leading you to the Bthardamz Upper District Courtyard. Amid all the pipes and stonework is this bubbly green ooze. Fight enemies, then climb the stairs to the balcony and switch the lever. Spears retract from a pathway, allowing you to leave by the stone path. Open the gold door and head into the west passage. This activates Dwarven spheres. Take the sloping corridor to your right, or the South, with the blade trap. Journey down a cobblestone street to a carved stone arch opening. Slay the Afflicted guards and go into the Bthardamz Workshop.
Move around the pipes checking for sleeping quarters. The second bedroom has a note that reveals were Orchendor is (the Bthardamz Arcanex). Keep going along the greenish corridors to a stairwell where you find some Dwarven Spiders. The staircase brings you into the Upper District again. You can look over the maze and open a small chest here. If you drop down from the southeast side, you can save yourself from walking. If not, you can return to the workshop and head south into a steam pipe room with Afflicted and a second entrance into the Upper District. Once there, head SE toward stone steps. You can loot the balcony and the Dwelling if you want. The stairs continue around the SW. When you go up the last stone ramps, you get a nice view of where you came from, and a corridor leading into the lower district.
Once in the Lower District, find the gate (it has a chest behind it), and head through the gold door. Dwarven Spiders will attack. You will find yourself in a large ruined coliseum. In the center sits a chest. The lever on the balcony activates the blade trap. You will then have to battle Afflicted. The exit is to the east and leads to the main Lower District. Cross the curved courtyard, the open gate, and two stone platforms over an underground stream. Afflicted are all around here.
(Don’t worry, you’re over halfway there. Also all the random fumes you’re gonna see around the ruins? They aren’t toxic)
Head through the open gate; battle Dwarven spheres and a mass of afflicted just past the archway with the lever. The level activates a spike behind you. You can use it to prevent enemies from following you, but it would just be easier to kill them. Here, you see two sets of steps. To your north you’ll go to a circular platform. The east staircase leads to Dwarven Spiders, but also the Bthardamz study.
Once in the study, theres a gate to the east and through that, a small study. To your south is a golden door. Go through that and up the stairs, watch out for a pressure plate here. Go through another gate to find yourself in the Lower District.
You’re now in the upper walkways that you could see from the north staircase a few paragraphs back. Head down the rooftop stone ramp. To the east is a gate and a chest. To your west is a large walkway with a turret balcony in the middle. Expect to be attacked by at least six Afflicted here, and watch out for the steep drop off the pathways. Move through the south walkway and exit into the Bthardamz Arcanex!
(You’re finally here!!)
The Bthardamz Arcanex is pretty much a dreary underground grotto with towers and platforms built into it. Head along the platforms and fight Dwarven Spheres along the way. Climb the spiraling stone steps to a corridor where a Dwarven Centurion roars to life. You can attempt to sprint around him, or to hurt him with ranged attacks. If you sprint around him, though, Dwarven Spiders and waiting to overwhelm you; be careful.
Once you hack the centurion to pieces, you can climb the stairs beyond to reach a balcony area. Say hello to six more Dwarven spiders and sprint past a clanking pipe corridor that opens into a pipe-laden Arcanex chamber with two Dwarven Spheres. Kill them and then head to the gap in the north wall to the back of the ARcanex, where you FINALLY find Orchendor.
Orchendor doesn’t have much to say and attacks immediately. Take out the wasted forty minutes of your life on him. While fighting him, you can use the gap in the wall or the stairs behind him to hide or fire from. Watch out for Orchendor’s teleportation and any Dwarven foes you didn’t kill (because they will follow you into this fight). Search Orchendor’s body for a key to an elevator out of the extensive ruins. Report Orchendor’s death to Peryite, who rewards you will Spellbreaker (the magic-eating shield of fiery doom). After you finish the quest, there’s a chance of the World Encounter: The Afflicted vs. You where a few Afflicted will attack you somewhere.
