Dragonborn:At the Summit of Apocrypha

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Confront Miraak at the summit of Apocrypha and defeat him once and for all. Quest Giver: Frea Location(s): Apocrypha Prerequisite Quest: The Gardener of Men, Cleansing the Stones Reward: Miraak's Equipment, Skill Tree Clearing ID: DLC2MQ06

The summit of Apocrypha

Quick Walkthrough

1. Unlock the Bend Will shout and read the Black Book Waking Dreams.
2. Traverse Chapters I to VI.
3. Use the Bend Will shout to tame Sahrotaar.
4. Reach the summit of Apocrypha.
5. Confront Miraak and kill him.

Detailed Walkthrough

Chapter I

With the complete Bend Will shout at your disposal, it is now time to face Miraak. Using dragon souls, unlock the remaining words of the Bend Will shout and read the Black Book Waking Dreams, where Miraak was first encountered during the quest The Temple of Miraak. You will be transported to Apocrypha, Hermaeus Mora's plane of Oblivion. Walk down the path and up the staircase, where Chapter II will be accessible from a pedestal.

Chapter II

Ascend the stairs and defeat the seeker, where a copy of the Smithing skill book Heavy Armor Forging is on a table to the right. On the top landing, grab the book Boneless Limbs and go up the now-accessible staircase to reach Chapter III.

Chapter III

This next area may be a bit tricky to navigate, due to its maze-like structure. Defeat any seeker you encounter and make your way to the other end of the room, where the book Delving Pincers and a copy of the Alchemy skill book Song of the Alchemists lay. Make sure to pick up the former and return to the entrance, where the (previously closed) gate is now open. Activate the scrye and travel down the hall, picking up a copy of the Enchanting skill book Catalogue of Weapon Enchantments from the table if you choose to do so.

Be careful in the next room, where it is easy to fall off of the edge. If you choose to activate the scrye in this room, a door will open off to the side that contains a vessel with a bit of loot. Traverse the narrow walkways and pick up the book Prying Orbs. With the book in your possession, the gate will open and you can now continue onward to Chapter IV.

Chapter IV

Eliminate the seekers and walk down the stairs to either side of you. At the bottom, you will enter a small room that forks off in two directions. Walking into either hallway will cause it compress and summon a group of seekers. Once they are killed you should notice that, where you had entered, there is a hallway that had not been there previously. Follow it to the next room.

Climb the stairs and pick up the book Gnashing Blades. This will open a second path to the left, directly across from where you entered. Continue down the hallway as it extends outward and take a left turn at its end. In this next room, follow the path until you reach a scrye. Activate it and go back to the same hallway you came from - it has shifted and leads to a room with a small pool of poisonous water. From the pool will rise a lurker. When the room is clear, activate the scrye to the left of the closed gate and go around a corner at the far end of the room (across from the previously mentioned closed gate). Here, activate the second scrye and examine the room next to it, which had been opened by the first scrye, for any valuables. You can find Chapter V through the gate opened by the second scrye.

Chapter V

The hallway will lead you to a large open room with a pillar in the middle emitting a green light. Defeat the seeker.

Surrounding the central pillar are four pedestals with inscriptions. Place the four books that were collected in the previous Chapters on the appropriate pedestal:

• Boneless Limbs is placed on the 'tentacle' symbol
• Delving Pincers is placed on the 'pincer' symbol
• Prying Orbs is placed on the 'eye' symbol
• Gnashing Blades is placed on the 'fangs' symbol

A seeker will appear. Once all four books are placed correctly, the book located in front of the central pillar will glow. This will take you to Chapter VI.

Chapter VI

A copy of the Destruction skill book The Art of War Magic is located to the right of the entrance. The path will take you to a large open area surrounded by water. Kill the two seekers and approach the word wall, which teaches a word for the Dragon Aspect shout. Sahrotaar, a serpentine dragon, will attack you; however, you are tasked with taming it using Bend Will. Using the full shout on Sahrotaar will instantly tame him. He will land and offer to take you to Miraak. Mount Sahrotaar and fly to the large tower circled by dragons, but not before forcing you to fight enemies on another platform. After you kill the two Seekers and the Lurker, Sahrotaar will fly towards Miraak's tower. As you reach the top, Miraak will chide Sahrotaar for being so easily swayed by your thu'um. Once you land, approach Miraak, who will explain that his time in Apocrypha is done, and that although you are powerful, you are still subject to Miraak's power. Miraak will then conclude that the final key for his escape is your soul, and with it he will be strong enough to return to Solstheim.

The death of Miraak

Miraak absorbing a dragon soul

The conversation will quickly end and the battle will commence. It is completely up to you as to how you would like to battle, either on the back of Sahrotaar or on foot. However, be careful of the other dragons trying to attack you. As Miraak health is weakened, he will enter an invulnerable state and return to full health. Each time he regenerates, he will sacrifice a dragon: first Kruziikrel, then Relonikiv. The third regeneration will lead to Sahrotaar's demise, as Miraak absorbs his soul, too. With all three dragons eliminated, you can deal the final blows to Miraak. When his health is low enough, he will move to the center of the area in an attempt to escape. At this point, Hermaeus Mora will intervene, claiming that Miraak can hide nothing from him in his realm. The Daedric Prince then impales Miraak with a tentacle, and explains to Miraak that his death is insignificant, as he has found a new Dragonborn to 'serve' him. As Miraak dies, he wishes upon the player the same fate he is about to suffer, and then disintegrates into nothing but bones as his soul departs from his body and is absorbed by the player.

For Miraak's death, you will be rewarded with at least six dragon souls (along with any other dragon souls he may have stolen from you)^{[verification needed — see talk page]} and may loot his body for his equipment, as well as the bodies of the dragons. Reading the Black Book Waking Dreams will allow you to gain access to your skill trees (see the notes section). Read the book once more to exit Apocrypha.

Achievements

One achievement is unlocked when you complete this quest:

• At the Summit of Apocrypha (40 points/Silver)

Reaching the end of Waking Dreams counts as one of the five black books for this achievement:

• Hidden Knowledge (40 points/Bronze)

Notes

• If you fully traversed Waking Dreams before this quest, you will be returned to Chapter VI, where Sahrotaar will be waiting for you. You must then use Bend Will to tame him and continue the quest, as above.
• At the end of the quest, you will have access to different portals (one for each skill) which allow you to clear and regain any perks in that skill tree, at the cost of one dragon soul. You remove all perks from a single skill perk tree and can use these reclaimed perks on unlocking any perks you wish, including perks taken from said perk tree. By reading the Black Book Waking Dreams, you can return to Apocrypha and alter the skill trees whenever you wish.
• If you are defeated during this quest, before confronting Miraak, you will be transported back to where you initially read Waking Dreams. You will return to the chapter you last accessed when re-entering Apocrypha.
• If you return to Skaal Village after completing this quest, Frea will inform you that the Oneness of the land has been restored, and that the Tree Stone is now free. She will also warn you not to become involved further with Hermaeus Mora.
• If you return to Tel Mithryn after completing this quest, Neloth will check that you have no indications of Hermaeus Mora's permanent influence. After satisfying himself that you don't, he will direct you to find more Black Books, if you have not found them all already.

• After you absorb Miraak's soul and his skeleton falls to the ground, striking it with a weapon will yield the same splash of blood as if you struck a fresh corpse.

Bugs

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• In the final battle with Miraak, once he sacrifices the first dragon, he may freeze in his invulnerable state. This issue can sometimes occur if you make many attacks very quickly or do a large amount of damage from a single attack, also if Sahrotaar attacks Miraak while he is in his ethereal state.
  • Killing the other dragon before striking Miraak down may fix the issue.
  • Open the console, click on Miraak, and type resurrect 1 or ResetHealth
  • Alternatively, reloading a save prior to the issue occurring and trying the fight again should work.
  • If none of the above solutions have any affect, remain mounted on Sahrotaar until he is killed by Miraak and lands, causing you to de-mount. You may be required to use tgm in order to slowly damage Miraak until his defeat. If you find you are hitting too hard, you can lower your damage by using player.setav AttackDamageMult 0.5.
• After Miraak is defeated his corpse may fall through the floor preventing his items from being looted.
  • Use tcl to go back to the book that brought you here, where you used Bend Will on the dragon, and then go back to where the fight was. Go underground to take Miraak's equipment.
• If you become fully hidden in sneak mode, Miraak will come out of his ethereal state and will continue the fight. ^?
  • Upon exiting the ethereal state you may be able to continue fighting Miraak, however should he re-enter his ethereal state a loop can occur where Miraak attempts to take the soul of one of his dragons. He may also become "fixated" on trying to absorb the soul of only one of his two dragons, consistently calling for one of the dragons even if both have already been sacrificed.
• After defeating Miraak, when the skill symbols are shown, heavy armor may not appear. Reloading a save can fix this. ^?

{{Bug|After finishing the quest and reading Waking Dreams, your game may freeze on a black screen, forcing you to revert to a previous save.

• If you get to chapter VI without obtaining any dragon souls to unlock your shout, the dragon whom you can ride will not come, and you will be stuck at the start of chapter VI. ^?
• Sometimes Miraak will not absorb dragon souls from you, leaving him unable to heal himself and thus permanently ethereal during the fight as you steal all of his dragon souls. This may be due to not killing any dragons after starting the quest line as it never triggers him to steal dragon souls from you (which is possible if you have a few dragon souls saved up to use along the way). ^?
• At the end of quest when you beat Miraak, he doesn't get impaled by Hermaeus Mora. ^?
  • One possible solution is to use the "disable" and "enable" console commands on Miraak. He will then get impaled.
  • Use these commands to end the quest: setstage dlc2mq06 550 followed by setstage dlc2mq06 580. The 580 state of the quest is what raises the new altar from the pool of liquid. The raising of the altar will sometimes bring up Miraak's body if he is stuck under the liquid. This is also the state that causes the glowing skills icons to appear.
    • This or the following setstage fix may cause the combat music to become stuck, looping forever. In this case, entering "removemusic DLC2MUSCombatBoss" into the console without the quotes should solve the problem.
  • use fire breath shout on the slime pool in the middle and it should work.

• For some players there is no fix for the fight. So, open the Console, Choose Miraak, xx01fb99 must be seen. Then write these commands; Setstage dlc2mq06 500, Disable, Enable then the fight will end. Hermaeus Mora will take the life of Miraak and the quest will be completed without any problem. To loot Miraak, add kill after the dialogs.
• When Sahrotaar lands near Miraak before the battle and you dismount, your character will glow yellow and lose all their health.
  • Exiting and rebooting the game may fix this.
• If you prematurely pass through every chapter of the Black Book: Waking Dreams before the shaman's daughter tells you to avenge her father, visiting Apocrypha will not prompt Miraak or the dragons to attack ^?
• The Black Book: Waking Dreams does not teleport you to Apocrypha preventing you from completing the quest. ^? This could be fixed by killing yourself by jumping to the black pool and will teleport you back to Skaal Village.

Quest Stages

At the Summit of Apocrypha ()
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
10		Hermaeus Mora taught me the final Word of Power of the "Bend Will" Shout, killing Storn in the process. I now have what I need to return to Apocrypha and face Miraak.
200		Hermaeus Mora taught me the final Word of Power of the "Bend Will" Shout, killing Storn in the process. With this Shout, I can tame Miraak's dragon and force him to fly me to Miraak's temple in Apocrypha.
400		Hermaeus Mora taught me the final Word of Power of the "Bend Will" Shout, killing Storn in the process. I used the Shout to tame Miraak's dragon and flew to his temple, where he was waiting for me.
550		Hermaeus Mora taught me the final Word of Power of the "Bend Will" Shout, killing Storn in the process. I used the Shout to tame Miraak's dragon and flew to his temple, where I fought and killed him. Miraak will never threaten Solstheim again.

• The following empty quest stages were omitted from the table: 0, 100, 220, 240, 250, 300, 330, 335, 340, 350, 420, 440, 460, 500, 520, 580, 590, 600, 1000.

 

Notes

• 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 quest stage, where quest is the internal name of the quest, and stage is 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 using resetquest quest, where quest is the internal name of the quest.

Quest Objectives

At the Summit of Apocrypha ()
Index	Objective	Shown When
10	Unlock your "Bend Will" Shout
20	Read "Waking Dreams"
25	Reach Miraak's Temple
30	Use the "Bend Will" Shout to tame Sahrotaar
40	Defeat Miraak

Prev: The Gardener of Men

Up: Main Quest

Next: None