Briarheart Necropsy

A Briarheart out of Reach

That Dunmeri wizard all the folks in Raven Rock think of as an uptight loony has a problem. You’ll know this if you visit him once you finish Dragonborn Main Quest: The Path of Knowledge. Return to his tower in Tel Mithryn, and he exclaims, “Curse these heart stones!” Ask if there’s a problem, and he asks if you’re familiar with the Briarhearts. Neloth seems keen on furthering his knowledge regarding the briar seeds they use in place of their hearts. You’re to examine one of these fierce warriors of the Forsworn. Neloth casts a memory trace spell on you so he doesn’t have to rely on your puny descriptive verbiage; therefore, there’s no need to take notes. You can:

• Set off immediately.
• Or ask where Briarhearts can be found. His description points you in the direction of the Reach.
• Or ask what Briarhearts have to do with Heart Stones. His explanations don’t help this quest.

Harvesting the Heart

There are no Forsworn on the isle of Solstheim. This means you need to travel back to Skyrim and trek west to the mountainous Hold known as the Reach (Markarth is the capital). At this point, you need to find a Primary Location where Forsworn are active. The easiest way to do this is:

• Locate the Reach section of the Atlas in this guide. Then scour each of the Primary Locations, noting the dungeon type in the statistics: You’re looking for areas that are referred to as “Forsworn Redoubts” or those with “Forsworn” listed as enemies. These are known locations where Forsworn are active. There are well over a dozen such settlements.
• Or, you can simply travel to Bard’s Leap Summit, Druadach Redoubt, Lost Valley Redoubt, or Red Eagle Redoubt. Any of those locations should have a Briarheart (and many other troublesome foes) ready to face you in combat. Kill one of these primitive abominations and examine the corpse. Choose to Harvest Briarheart, optionally picking up the Briar Heart.

Quest Conclusion

Return to Neloth and tell him you’ve examined the Briarheart warrior. He extracts the memories from your mind and offers up a coin reward for your lengthy trek.

• [Leveled] Gold

Postquest Activities

Further quests and sarcastic put-downs are available from Neloth.