SegmentNextQuests
Skyrim's quest log is long and our folder covers only eleven entries from it, so a walkthrough index would be thin. What the eleven share is more interesting than what they lack: each one hands over a reward with a distinct shape. Five of them end at a Black Book that offers a choice of three powers and keeps the other two. One ends in a title and a set of armor. One leaves you with a giant you can call exactly three times. One forces a choice between an axe and a helmet. One is a whole questline that ends in a bow. And one is a treasure map that leads to ten more. This guide is organized by those shapes, so you can pick a quest by what you want to walk away with.
Pick one of three: the Black Books
Reading a Black Book pulls you into Apocrypha, Hermaeus Mora's realm, and at the far end of each one you choose a single power from three. Our pages cover five of the seven books. The rule that matters is the darkness: in Apocrypha the shadows themselves hurt, so a candlelight spell, a torch or Stendarr's Aura is the first thing to equip, and every page ends with the same fix for a stuck return, which is to reload.
| Book | Where it is read | The three choices |
|---|---|---|
| Waking Dreams | The sanctum under the Temple of Miraak, with Frea, at the end of a temple full of draugr, pressure plates and a gatekeeper who carries the key | The main-quest book; its page covers the temple, the achievement The Temple of Miraak and the risk of losing Frea |
| Filament and Filigree | The end of Kolbjorn Barrow | Secret of Arcana (spells cost nothing for 30 seconds), Secret of Strength (power attacks cost no stamina for 30 seconds), Secret of Protection (no damage for 30 seconds) |
| The Sallow Regent | White Ridge Barrow | Seeker of Might, Sorcery or Shadows: combat skills 10% stronger, spells 10% cheaper, or stealth skills 10% stronger |
| The Winds of Change | A straight tunnel of gateways, seekers and lurkers | Scholar's Insight (skill books give an extra point), Companion's Insight (your attacks, shouts and spells cannot hurt followers), Lover's Insight (10% more damage against and better prices from the opposite sex) |
| Untold Legends | Five chapters of Apocrypha with two lurker guardians before the last hallway | Bardic Knowledge (a drum that raises stamina for you and allies for 300 seconds), Black Market (a Dremora merchant for 15 seconds), Secret Servant (a servant to hold excess items for 15 seconds) |
The Winds of Change page adds the one piece of timing advice in the set: take Scholar's Insight before you read any skill books, since it only pays on books read afterwards, and the items guide counts how many books that is.
A title: Guild Master
Under New Management is the last Thieves Guild quest and its reward is the guild itself. It does not appear until five other quests are done: four city jobs from Delvin Mallory (one for Whiterun, Silver Lining for Markarth, Summerset Shadows for Windhelm and The Dainty Sload for Solitude), each of which only unlocks after five small jobs from Delvin or Vex in that city, plus Darkness Returns from Karliah. Then Brynjolf, in his chest room in the Cistern, walks you to the center for the ceremony. If he is missing, the Skeleton Key is still in your pocket; it has to go back first. The ceremony pays the Amulet of Articulation, a key to the tribute chest, the Guild Master's armor from Tonilia, and the achievement One with the Shadows. The characters guide has the guild's trainers and vendors.
A summon with three charges: Karstaag
Nothing in your journal points at Karstaag. A skull sits in the Glacial Cave in northern Solstheim, west of Benkongerike; carrying it to the Castle Karstaag Ruins in the northeast and placing it on the throne summons the frost giant king from the old Bloodmoon expansion. He is immune to frost, poison, disease and paralysis of every kind, shrugs off Mehrunes' Razor, Mora's Grasp, Whirlwind Cloak and the Wabbajack's instant kill, resists shock by three quarters and cannot be knocked down, but takes a quarter more from fire. The floor shakes, his ice aura drains stamina and health at range, and partway through he calls ice wraiths. Shouts and melee beat aimed spells here; the page's pick is Dragon Aspect with Yol. Win and you gain Summon Karstaag, which works three times in total and never again. The page rates him above the level-81 duelist in the bosses guide.
An axe or a masque: A Daedra's Best Friend
From level 10, a guard outside Falkreath sends you to the blacksmith Lod, who has lost a dog. The dog is Barbas, he talks, and he wants to be taken to his master Clavicus Vile at Haemar's Shame, a vampire-filled shrine below the Throat of the World near Helgen. Vile's price is the Rueful Axe from Rimerock Burrow in the map's far northwest, guarded by the mage Sebastian Lort and his atronachs. Back at the shrine the quest forks: kill Barbas with the axe and keep it, or hand it over and receive the Masque of Clavicus Vile. The page's verdict is the masque, which improves speech, prices and magicka regeneration and counts toward Oblivion Walker, while the axe drains your own stamina for a 20-point enchantment. There is an unofficial third ending: fetch the axe and never return, and Barbas stays at your side as an uncontrollable but powerful follower. The axe's place among the unique weapons is in the weapons guide.
A bow at the end of a questline: Dawnguard
The Dawnguard questline is eleven quests long if you side with the hunters: the recruitment at Fort Dawnguard, then Awakening and Bloodline, then A New Order and Prophet, then Chasing Echoes and Beyond Death, then Seeking Disclosures and Unseen Visions, and finally Touching the Sky and Kindred Judgment. It starts with rumors above level 10 or a guard at the Riften gate, and Isran hands over a crossbow on arrival. The fork is Bloodline: at Castle Volkihar, Harkon offers his blood, and refusing it locks you to the Dawnguard side the page follows. Touching the Sky is where Auriel's Bow is found in Darkfall Cave, Gelebor then makes Sunhallowed arrows for the fight with Harkon, and Serana blesses Bloodcursed ones after it. The page also lists the fort's radiant side quests, from Sorine's six Ancient Technology errands to Florentius's three Lost Relic artifacts, plus the vampire-side equivalents for players who take the other road.
Awakening ends at a puzzle that has its own page. In Dimhollow Crypt, southwest of Dawnstar, pressing the central button lights a purple flame, and pushing each brazier along its track until the whole circle burns sinks the floor and raises the monolith holding Serana. The way out is not the way in: cross the bridge northeast, take the slope to the right past two gargoyles, pull the lever, deal with the skeletons and draugr it wakes, loot the boss chest behind the throne, climb the stairs behind the word wall and leave by the chain-operated gate onto the far side of the mountain. What Serana offers after that, and the cost of accepting Harkon's blood, is in the mechanics guide under becoming a vampire.
A map that leads to ten more
Fort Neugrad, southeast of Helgen through the mountains, is overrun and has to be cleared floor by floor until a ladder puts you on the tower roof beside a chest holding the fort's treasure map. Its chest is east of the fort, across the lake and up the hill against the rock wall. The page then lists ten further treasure maps: on a guard at the bandit camp in the Ilinalta foothills, in a knapsack by a fire in Winterhold, in Eastmarch's Riverside and at Traitor's Post, on a chest beside the bandit cook at Redoran's Retreat, by the bed in Angi's cabin near Falkreath, on a dead elf in the Pale's mountains, on a dead hunter at the Haul of Horkers, on Lucky Lorenz's body by a fallen tree south of the river, and on the wizard bandit in Creek Cave.
Quest questions
Which Black Books are not covered here?
Two of the seven: Epistolary Acumen and The Hidden Twilight. The Waking Dreams page names Epistolary Acumen as its sibling in the main quest.
Can I keep both the Rueful Axe and the Masque?
Only through a glitch the page points to a video for. The supported outcomes are one or the other, or the unofficial third where you keep the axe and the dog and never finish the quest.
Do I need an add-on for these?
Every Black Book and Karstaag need Dragonborn; the Dawnguard line and Dimhollow need Dawnguard; A Daedra's Best Friend, Under New Management and Fort Neugrad are base game. The Skyrim hub sorts all 166 pages the same way.