Nchuand-Zel: The Lost Expedition

Understone Keep

Meet Calcelmo at the entrance to the excavation site, and tell him you wish to see Nchuand-Zel. In order to proceed, he asks you to defeat Nimhe, the “poisoned one,” a giant Frostbite Spider. You receive the key to the dig site. Or, you can simply ignore Calcelmo and his spider problem (which isn’t part of this quest), and unlock the giant bronze door to the Nchuand-Zel Excavation Site (Adept).

• Key to Nchuand-Zel
• Miscellaneous Objective: Kill Nimhe inside Nchuand-Zel

Nchuand-Zel Excavation Site

Head through the connecting chambers, down the pit chamber, through the cobwebbed spider chambers, to an excavation entrance room where Nimhe attacks. Fight her or flee. Defeating her completes the Miscellaneous Objective.

• Miscellaneous Objective: Tell Calcelmo that Nimhe is dead

On the platform slightly above Nimhe’s intrusion point is a dead Imperial named Alethius. Check his corpse for some notes, which officially starts this quest. Read the note: It mentions chaperoning some researchers into these vast dwarven catacombs. Cut through the cobwebs, heading south into Nchuand-Zel.

• Alethius’s Notes

Nchuand-Zel

This is a giant open cavern with numerous towers and sloping paths linking them. Fight through the Falmer and down to the door leading to Nchuand-Zel Quarters.

Nchuand-Zel Quarters

Stromm’s body is located near a small tree and fire runes on the floor. Avoid them, but inspect the corpse, and read the journal as the objectives update. There is more research to find.

• Stromm’s Diary

Nchuand-Zel Armory

Return to the main cavern, and descend to the bottom of the chamber. Wade over to the door and enter Nchuand-Zel Armory. Battle Falmer to the chamber with the two guardian Dwarven Spheres. Erj’s corpse lies between them. Retrieve his journal.

• Erj’s Notes

Nchuand-Zel

The other exit in the Armory leads you back into the main cavern, onto a previously inaccessible platform, where a Dwarven Centurion waits motionless, close to the body of Krag. Take his journal. Head up the slope into Nchuand-Zel Control.

• Krag’s Journal

Nchuand-Zel Control

Staubin lies dead in a connecting corridor inside the Control district. Take his book; your search for the Lost Expedition is almost over.

• Staubin’s Diary

To switch the defenses on (which activates all the Dwarven Spiders, Spheres, and Centurions, who then clear the districts of Falmer), head into the control room with the grinding cogs and pistons, and pull the lever.

Understone Keep

Exit the Nchuaud-Zel Control area and move back into the main cavern and up the earthen ledge, dropping down to the upper walkway. Flee north back into the excavation site, passing Nimhe and winding your way to Understone Keep. Speak to Calcelmo. Tell him you killed Nimhe (if this occurred), and then ask if he’s researching the Dwemer. Calcelmo pays a good amount of coin for each research book you return. Don’t forget to keep on asking him about researching the Dwemer to off-load all the books.

• Dwemer Museum Key
• 300 gold pieces (x4)