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