Purity of Revenge

Severing the Silver Hand

Vilkas wishes to immediately depart for the Silver Hand stronghold of Driftshade Refuge and accompanies you as your Shield-Brother. Purchase any equipment if necessary, and then journey north into the Mountains of Winterhold, to the southeast of Dawnstar. Combat begins immediately. Sneaking is inadvisable for a Companion, especially one with an optional objective to fulfill and a recently slain advisor. Dispatch the foes guarding the entrance to the Refuge. Kill the one on the roof with ranged weapons, or sneak up the steps to the rear of the entrance.

Descend the stone-stepped corridor and into a lower shrine room, with moss-covered pillars and Silver Hand to cut down with speed and ferociousness. Make a systematic sweep of every chamber via the connecting corridors, culling foes as you go. Leave no one alive, lest you mock the death of the beloved Kodlak! Eventually, you reach a chamber with vertical spears blocking an entrance. Activate the lever just to the right of the spears, and they retract, allowing you into Driftshade Cellar.

Fight your way past the stacked wood and barrels, watching for the pressure plate lest you receive a swinging gate trap in the face—a fate you can attempt for any foes if you wish. Venture farther into the cellar, and split open the Silver Hand guarding a large distillery tank of mead. Exit via a hole in the stone wall and into a snow tunnel. You appear in a small cavern complete with holding cells. Release any werewolves still alive (they are locals afflicted with lycanthropy, rather than Companions). The snow tunnel connects back into the cellar.

Pass the remains of a werewolf and shred the foes in the torture room. Enter the remains of the cellar’s grand hall, now full of collapsed masonry. After more Silver Hand slaughtering, head south, up the steps and back into the refuge area. Enter the small dungeon room, then turn left and bound up the stairs. The remaining Silver Hand are in this chamber. Kill them all. Your optional objective should complete at this point. Then inspect the table on the elevated dining area, where all the fragments of Ysgramor’s Blade can be found...again. Take them before resting for a moment with Vilkas, who seems to have finally realized your prowess as a fighter.

• Fragments of Wuuthrad

Quest Conclusion

Head south out of Driftshade Refuge, back outside, and then to Whiterun and your longhouse home. As you near Jorrvaskr, Vilkas remarks that your brethren should have finished preparing the funeral of Kodlak by now.

Postquest Activities

The Companions Quest: Glory of the Dead begins immediately. There are now no Radiant Quests available, due to the preparations for Kodlak’s departure.