Prima Games eGuides Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition eGuide

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Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition Guide Dragonborn Quests Solstheim Side Quests

Solstheim Side Quests: Lost Knowledge

Lost Knowledge

Unspeakable Tomes

The haughty Dark Elf wizard you befriended during Dragonborn Main Quest: The Path of Knowledge is waiting to use you in his fungal tower—the largest structure in Tel Mithryn.

Float up to his quarters, and after some chatting about your heroics, Neloth brings up the Black Books. It seems Neloth has located another of them. He points out the location on your map and requests you obtain it for further study.

Forbidden Knowledge

The plan now is to head to the dungeon Neloth has indicated, battle your way through the many denizens in there, snag the tome, and then locate the dungeon’s exit. However, there’s just one issue, aside from the dangerous guardian each Black Book usually has protecting it: When you take the book, you automatically read it and you’re transported to Apocrypha to begin one of the Black Book Side Quests. So prepare yourself for the journey (or open the book in your inventory and reread it to return to Tamriel). When you take the Black Book, this Side Quest objective updates too.

There are seven Black Books. Four of these are not related to this quest:

Neloth will send you to find the other three Black Books if you have not already found them.

  • Black Book: The Hidden Twilight

Winding Draugr catacombs, with dangerous (and sometimes explosive and poisonous) Albino and Flame Cloaked Spiders await you. The bandits here have succumbed to the spiders’ bites and are little more than puppets. The mage Merilar Rendas has been conducting experiments in White Ridge Sanctum. In its innermost chamber, you can also find the legendary Acolyte Priest Dukaan, who guards a Word Wall and the pedestal the Black Book rests on.

  • Black Book: The Sallow Regent

You must be on Solstheim Side Quests: The Final Descent to explore most of this area. A long descent down a treacherous mine shaft leads to spiders, Draugr, and a conspiracy to solve. You must then wade through a waterlogged crypt, enter a grand basalt chasm, use the Bloodskal Blade to open a sealed door, slay the terrifying Acolyte Priest Zahkriisos, and finally enter a small chamber with a tumbling waterfall and spiral staircase, where the book is located.

  • Black Book: The Winds of Change

  • Location: [S.N15] Benkongerike
  • Black Book: Untold Legends
  • Solstheim Side Quest

Benkongerike begins as a glacial cave system filled with multiple Riekling camps and traps and intermittent Riekling ambushes from their clusters of collected detritus. This changes to a Draugr dungeon as you reach the Great Hall. The place is teeming with Rieklings. Solve the Nordic puzzle, claim a Word of Power, and then read the Black Book in an adjacent chamber.

  • Black Book: Untold Legends

Quest Conclusion

Trek back to Neloth, who is usually shouting at his apprentice Talvas or tinkering with his latest spells and other conjurings. Float up and mention that you have a Black Book in your possession. He eagerly takes it to make a copy before returning it. He also has a sizable gift for your efforts.

  • Gold (1,000)

Postquest Activities

You can repeat this quest until you’ve found and showed Neloth all three Black Books. Simply look for “Can I help with your research?” in the conversation choices and this Side Quest may occur again.