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Quick WalkthroughEdit
- Enter Gallows Hall, the small fortress on the northern shore of Mara's Eye Pond.
- Read Naara's Journal.
- Read the first clue.
- Choose the following torches in this order: Morthal, Falkreath, Nightgate Inn, Fort Dunstad
- Retrieve the Staff of Worms.
- Reanimate the Skeleton Mage found to the East of the initial entrance to this room.
- Retrieve a key by searching the Skeleton Mage.
- Take the contents of the safe the key opens left of the Enchanting Table.
- Read the second clue.
- Pray to the small Statue of Vaermina along the west wall.
- Go to sleep in the bedroll next to the Altar of the Revenant at the center of the room.
- Starting from left of the Statue of Vaermina, search the coffin in front of you for a Dreamer's Greater Soul Gem. Find another in the hand of the skeleton in the open coffin next to it, then search the closed coffin on the lowest shelf on the other side of the main entrance.
- Read the final instructions.
- Place the four Dreamer's Greater Soul Gems in the Soul Gem Holders.
Detailed WalkthroughEdit
Begin by approaching Mara's Eye Pond, which is southwest of Windhelm. On one of the shores, built into the side of a mountain, is a wooden door to Gallows Hall which the player can enter.
As you approach the wooden door on the first floor of Gallows Hall, it will be slammed shut, the room will fill with a mist, and objects in the room will start to fly around. You will need to read Naara's journal, which can be found next to her body, alongside three notes. The journal will mention that the map in the center of the room is a good place to start. Go to the map to find that there is a clue placed on top of it.
Interact with the torches on the walls of the room based on the clue, which each torch given the name of a place in Skyrim, which will prevent any errors with trying to align cities and towns with the circle of sconces.
The solution is as follows:
- Morthal
- Falkreath
- Nightgate Inn
- Fort Dunstad
The mist will then dissipate and any flying objects will fall to the ground. Pick up the Staff of Worms and use it on the skeleton mage corpse lying within an open coffin in the eastern part of the room. Once resurrected, the skeleton mage can be searched to find the Arch Necromancer's key. This will unlock the safe next to the arcane enchanter. The safe contains the Bloodworm Helm, random leveled treasure and the second clue.
Look for a small, white statue to Vaermina on the perimeter of the room and interact with it to pray. After praying, go to sleep in the bedroll* that is in the center of the room (see Notes). Once you wake up, the purple mist will reappear, there will be blurring at the edges of the screen and you will have to search the coffins in the room for three Dreamer's Greater Soul Gems. Two of them are within closed coffins and one is being held by a skeleton in an open casket. After picking up the third Soul Gem, the player will find themselves back at the altar in the middle of the room, and they should read the Arch Necromancer's final instructions that is upon it.
Pick up the soul gem that is near Naara's corpse and head towards the table in the center of the room. Place all four soul gems (the three found in the dream, plus the one just now obtained) into the soul gems on the holders and activate the center of the altar. This will transform all four Greater Soul Gems into Black Soul Gems. With this, the quest will conclude.
NotesEdit
- Even if using Survival ModeCC, you can pray at the Shrine of Vaermina for free.
- Naara cannot be resurrected, even with the Staff of Worms.
- Using the staff on the hooded skeleton is considered an assault.
- You can use the Altar of the Revenant again and again after completing the quest, turning 4 Greater or Grand Soul Gems into Black Soul Gems, and there does not appear to be a limit to this beyond the number of greater or grand soul gems you can get hold of. Given the scarcity of monsters with actual Grand-level souls, compared to the sheer number of available human or elven enemies that require a Black soul gem (Bandits, Necromancers, Conjurers, enemy civil war soldiers, Thalmor Justiciars, Dark Brotherhood victims, any non-essential NPC that you find particularly obnoxious, and so on), this is a good way to get a huge number of Black Soul Gems to fill easily.
- Placing the soul gems in the holders will place Greater soul gems, in preference, before Grand soul gems. However, Greater gems are easier to fill normally, so you may want to put them down somewhere so you can convert Grand soul gems instead, if you should have a surfeit of Grand soul gems in your inventory.
- Sleeping during the second part of the quest will activate the Dark Brotherhood quest, With Friends Like These..., so if you are trying to avoid doing that quest at this point in time, it is recommended to either do this quest before activating the Dark Brotherhood questline, or if you've already activated it, then to wait to start this quest until you are ready to complete the Dark Brotherhood one (you will not be able to leave this quest once it's triggered). This is important because per the Dark Brotherhood article, the With Friends Like These... quest "will be your only opportunity to attack the Dark Brotherhood" if you ultimately decide you want to destroy them instead of joining them.
BugsEdit
- You can take the soul gem from the skeleton's hand before it's time and therefore be unable to finish the quest. On the PC, you could try
setstage ccRMSSSE001_Quest 100, and if you were short by one soul gem continue withplayer.additem FE03BD09 1. Otherwise, you can try to load the previous auto save from entry into the cell. - It may be difficult or impossible to remove the black soul gem from one of the four holders after creating it. This may sometimes be fixed by saving and reloading. ?
Quest StagesEdit
| Dreams of the Dead (ccRMSSSE001_Quest) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Stage | Finishes Quest | Journal Entry |
| 10 | I've heard rumors of necromancer activity in one of the old abandoned forts. I should investigate to see what I can find.
Objective 10: Investigate the abandoned fort
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| 20 | I've heard rumors of necromancer activity in one of the old abandoned forts. Shortly after entering, however, I was trapped inside. A nearby necromancer's journal might provide more clues.
Objective 20: Read Naara's Journal
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| 30 | I've heard rumors of necromancer activity in one of the old abandoned forts. Shortly after entering, however, I was trapped inside. After reading a necromancer's journal, it appears I am trapped inside this room. I must solve a series of clues to escape.
Objective 30: Read the Arch Necromancer's First Clue
Objective 35: Pick up the torches that trace the mage's path
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| 40 | I've heard rumors of necromancer activity in one of the old abandoned forts. Shortly after entering, however, I was trapped inside. After reading a necromancer's journal, it appears I am trapped inside this room. I must solve a series of clues to escape.
Objective 40: Pick up the fallen staff
Objective 45: Read the fallen spell tome
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| 50 | I've found myself trapped in a necromancer's house, needing to solve a series of clues to escape. After solving a puzzle, I found a powerful staff which may help me progress further.
Objective 50: Find a use for the staff
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| 60 | I've found myself trapped in a necromancer's house, needing to solve a series of clues to escape. After solving a puzzle, I found a staff with a powerful spell which I used to raise a skeleton mage. On his body was a key.
Objective 60: Examine the raised skeleton
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| 70 | I've found myself trapped in a necromancer's house, needing to solve a series of clues to escape. After solving a puzzle, I found a staff with a powerful spell which I used to raise a skeleton mage. On his body was a key to a nearby safe.
Objective 70: Search the necromancer's safe
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| 75 | I've found myself trapped in a necromancer's house, needing to solve a series of clues to escape. After solving a puzzle, I found a staff with a powerful spell which I used to raise a skeleton mage. On his body was a key to a nearby safe. | |
| 80 | I've found myself trapped in a necromancer's house, needing to solve a series of clues to escape. After solving a puzzle, I found a staff with a powerful spell which I used to raise a skeleton mage. On his body was a key to a nearby safe. Inside the safe was another clue.
Objective 75: Read the Arch Necromancer's Second Clue
Objective 80: Find a way to the dream world
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| 90 | I've found myself trapped in a necromancer's house, needing to solve a series of clues to escape. Needing to enter a dream state to proceed, I prayed to Vaermina and went to sleep. According to the clues, I now need to explore this dream world and find special soul gems left in a necromancer's safe.
Objective 90: Find the gems inside a necromancer's coffers (0/3)
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| 100 | I've found myself trapped in a necromancer's house, needing to solve a series of clues to escape. Needing to enter a dream state to proceed, I prayed to Vaermina and went to sleep. Following the clues, I explored this dream world and found special soul gems left in multiple coffins.
Objective 100: Exit the dream
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| 110 | I've found myself trapped in a necromancer's house, needing to solve a series of clues to escape. Needing to enter a dream state to proceed, I prayed to Vaermina and went to sleep. Following the clues, I explored this dream world and found special soul gems left in multiple coffins. After returning to the waking world, I found a note sitting on the altar placed in the middle of the room.
Objective 110: Read the Arch Necromancer's Final Instructions
Objective 115: Find the last Dreamer's Soul Gem
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| 120 | I've found myself trapped in a necromancer's house. After solving a series of puzzles, I picked up a note sitting on the altar placed in the middle of the room. According to the note, I need to activate the altar using the soul gems I've picked up to free myself from this trap.
Objective 120: Use the Dreamer's Greater Soul Gems on the altar
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| 200 |  |
While traveling Skyrim, I found myself trapped in a necromancer's house. After solving a series of puzzles, I found a note sitting on the altar placed in the middle of the room. I activated the altar and the door in front of me opened. I can now make use of the fort as a personal home. |
- The following empty quest stages were omitted from the table: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 15, 35, 45, 46, 115.
- Any text displayed in angle brackets (e.g.,
<Alias=LocationHold>) is dynamically set by the Radiant Quest system, and will be filled in with the appropriate word(s) when seen in game. - Not all Journal Entries may appear in your journal; which entries appear and which entries do not depends on the manner in which the quest is done.
- Stages are not always in order of progress. This is usually the case with quests that have multiple possible outcomes or quests where certain tasks may be done in any order. Some stages may therefore repeat objectives seen in other stages.
- If an entry is marked as "Finishes Quest" it means the quest disappears from the Active Quest list, but you may still receive new entries for that quest.
- On the PC, it is possible to use the console to advance through the quest by entering
setstage ccRMSSSE001_Quest stage, wherestageis the number of the stage you wish to complete. It is not possible to un-complete (i.e. go back) quest stages, but it is possible to clear all stages of the quest usingresetquest ccRMSSSE001_Quest.