Side Quest: Blood on the Ice

Side Quest: Blood on the Ice

Prerequisites: Enter and exit Windhelm 4 times

Rewards: The title: Special Investigator of Windhelm, Hjerim is now cleaned up free of charge when you buy it, and the Necromncer’s Amulet, along with the money you get from selling it to Calixto (+50 magicka, health and stamina 75% slower, 25% less to cast Conjuration spells)

Note: This quest becomes available once you’ve entered Windhelm, leave, go to a different place, and return four times each. You must also have no bounty in Windhelm in order to progess past the very first scene.

Murder Most Foul

You’re walking along the Stone Quarter in Windhelm, aka the cemetery part, and you stumble on a young woman’s corpse strewn across a grave. The guard is sort of busy, and asks you to investigate. Now, until you get rid of your bounty, you won’t be able to talk to him again. So you talk to the three suspects hanging around: Calixto Corrium (who has seen a man fleeing), Sidla the Unseen (who heard a scream), and Helgird (Who noticed that this couldn’t be a robbery). Get rid of your bounty (or give all stolen items to your partner and pay the bounty off right there) and report back to the guard. There’s a cool trail of blood leading to Hjerim. Oooh.

Get into Hjerim

Path 1: Lockpick the Master Lock. Keep trying, you’ll get it eventually!

Path2: Talk to a guard and ask about Hjerim. Then speak to Tova Shatter-Shield for the key. Tova Shatter-Shield can mostly be found in the (SE) Stone Quarter nearby or the marketplace. Nights she can be found in the Shatter-Shield House.

You can also speak to Jorleif (who gives you the guard’s “support”) and Helgird who works in the Hall of the Dead and tell you only that the blade used to make the cuts was curved, like a Nordic embalming blade.

A Butcher’s Handiwork

So now you’re in Hjerim. There are six rooms in the house and you’re playing CSI.

North Front Room: The pots and pans look neglected, if the crap and spider webs inside them have anything to say.

Front Entrance: The chest is full of blood and has been pushed against the wall. Inside is a bunch of leaflets by Viola Giordano and a journal.

Front Room: You see scattered mead bottles.

West Wall of Front Room: A low shelf is full of leaflets. Take them and underneath you find a very special amulet!! The Necromancer’s Amulet is yours (+50 magicka, health and stamina 75% slower, 25% less to cast Conjuration spells)!

Back Wardrobe of Front Room: inside the closet is a hidden room with a sacrifice thingy going on inside. There may or may not be a bunch of rare alchemy ingredients including Human Flesh or Human Heart (very rare).  You’ll also find the second journal. Checking the altar, you find this as proof of black magic.

Upstairs: A chair and bed have been placed weirdly.

So, out of this, you need to have both journals, the amulet, and some “fear the butcher” leaflets. You’re done with Hjerim, time to stalk Viola Giordano!

Viola Giordano: Her Hearsay

Ask about the butcher, blah blah blah, and she asks you to meet her back at Hjerim. Ooooor, you can go to Calixto and he’ll buy the amulet from you. I would recommend selling it, since you ultimately get it back once the quest is over, so this is pretty much free money. Unless you like, don’t like Calixto. Even though he’s not as ugly as, say, Viola.  Anyway, 500 Gold later and you can revisit Viola at Hjerim to gossip about Wuunferth the Unliving: Windhelm court mage. He isn’t called the “Unliving” for nothing! Maybe he’s behind the murders! Well, sorry to spoil it, but I’ll tell you now that he’s not. If you stick him in jail, he won’t really be happy. Kay, so you talk to Jorleif now. You can arrest Wuunferth and be done with it, oooor you can talk to Wuunferth, who tells you to wait until tomorrow night and try to catch the real necromancer red-handed. Dum dum dah! So, I waited. And Waited. Go to the Stone Quarter at night and look for Calixto, who is speaking with a woman. Suddenly, he attacks her!! You can attack him (he will run towards Hjerim) and kill him. Yaaayy! You go back to Jorleif, who gives you the amulet and thanks you lots.

Back Story:

Calixto and his twin sister, Lucilla were amazingly close and shared a love of exotic things. They decided to make Calixto’s House of Curiosities together. However, Calixto recently suffered the loss of his dear sister. While mourning, he discovered black magic, and a way to bring his sister back. The magic required large amounts of human body parts (heart, bone marrow, sinew, flesh, and blood) so Calixto began wandering the streets at night butchering young woman for parts so he could build his sister a new body (in Hjerim) and bring her back.