Skyrim Black Book: Epistolary Acumen Quest Guide

This Skyrim guide has all the details which help you collect the Epistolary Acumen black book along with its rewards.

There are a total of 7 black books that are part of the main questline in Skyrim. Reading each book unlocks special rewards and hidden knowledge. Epistolary Acumen is the 4th Book in Skyrim, which is found in Hermaeus Mora’s plane of Oblivion, Apocrypha. It is a very small book as compared to other books making it very easy to acquire.

This Skyrim guide has all the details which help you collect the Epistolary Acumen black book along with its rewards.

Epistolary Acumen quest walkthrough

The first thing you must do is travel to the southeastern part of the island mushroom village of Tel Mithryn. Here you’ll find Neloth and he will tell you that he knows of a black book located in one of the ruins. Follow him into a big room.

Find cubes before following him. These cubes are for the boiler’s steam needed to unlock the black book. To do this, you need to do is head over to the first store and use the power cube to open the door. Red Pedestals only require you to have a power cube to interact while blue pedestals force you to leave the cube at the pedestal.

To keep it active in the next room, use one cube to drain the water and the second to activate the two red pedestals on the bottom floor. Follow the path around to collect the cube. Take back the cube you placed to lower the water level and then swim through this route to the South.

Four Boilers

Follow this path to pick up another cube. After this, you will have 4 exits back to the main room with the four boilers.

Place two of the cubes on the blue pedestals to lower the water level. Hop down to the bottom and enter through the door to the right in this next room. You’ll have to solve the quick puzzle that involves three red switches. Hitting one of the switches will cause the platform to go up and if the switch is either up or down, the left-most switch will control the left and middle platforms.

The middle switch only controls the left platform, and the right switch controls the middle platform. The right switch makes the right platform go down. Use the middle switch to move the left platform. After that use the left switch to make them, both go down. Now with all three platforms down, head across them to find a place to put a cube.

This will cause the water to drain and open another door that will eventually lead you to the final cube located behind a bunch of traps. Carefully grab the cube. Neloth will grab the Cube early and you’ll be ready to finish this puzzle.

Now head back to the boilers and make sure to take the cube back from Neloth. Take one cube out of the blue pedestal to stir the water and use the remaining four to power up the boilers. After it’s done, it will take you back to Neloth’s first room.

Memory realm

Once you’re inside her memory’s realm, you must fight your way through the path which is for seekers and workers. You must deal with some confusing segments where you’ll get into a large tunnel and wait for it to turn to face the next platform.

Once you’ve reached the end, you will see the Epistolary Acumen black book waiting for you.

Rewards

After completing the Epistolary Acumen quest in Skyrim, you will be rewarded with the following abilities:

  • Dragonborn Force
  • Dragonborn Flame
  • Dragonborn Frost

Glitches

Dragonborn may find Neloth missing if they return to Nchardak before Neloth opens the door. The door remains locked, suggesting Neloth has entered. Neloth appears to come out after 24 hours, allowing the quest to continue.

The door to Nchardak will be locked if the bandits are left behind after the bandits are killed. There is a possibility that Neloth won’t be able to unlock the front door.

Neloth won’t have a head after returning from Apocrypha. We will continue to have normal conversations. It can be fixed by exiting Nchardak.

Most of the time, Neloth will move slowly. To retrieve him, one must wait for him in the previous room.

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Ali is a passionate RPG gamer. He believes that western RPGs still have a lot to learn from JRPGs. He is editor-in-chief at SegmentNext.com but that doesn't stop him from writing about his favorite video ...