The UESPWiki – Your source for The Elder Scrolls since 1995
[edit] Quick Walkthrough
- Traven promotes you to Arch-Mage, then he soul traps himself into the Colossal Black Soul Gem.
- Take the soul gem, and travel to Echo Cave.
- Make your way through the cave until you reach the King of Worms.
- After the dialogue, kill him.
- Return to the University triumphant.
- The Arch-Mage's quarters are yours!
[edit] Detailed Walkthrough
[edit] A Sacrifice
This task doesn't start off like any of the others Traven has given you. He explains that Mannimarco intended the Colossal Black Soul Gem for Traven's own soul and that you will grant his wish; by carrying the filled soul gem you will be immune to Mannimarco's attempts to turn you into a Worm Thrall. Traven then promotes you to Arch-Mage, leader of the Mages Guild, and then soul traps himself into the Colossal Black Soul Gem.
[edit] Echo Cave
Take the soul gem from Traven's corpse (the quest won't automatically give it to you) and head to Echo Cave far north of the Imperial City, just west of Bruma in the mountains bordering Skyrim. At the entrance to the cave you'll be greeted by a necromancer, Bolor Savel, who says he has the key to the cave and promises to protect it with his life. Kill him and take the key from his body. Make your way through the caverns, you'll encounter quite a few necromancers. The cave is fairly linear, just follow the compass.
[edit] The King of Worms
Mannimarco, the King of Worms, can be found in the large room in the Necromancer Chamber area. An event will occur in which a finger-bone style railing will pop up and surround the island. Mannimarco then 'paralyzes' you and approaches to talk. Chat with him for a while. Eventually he'll try to turn you into a Worm Thrall. When that doesn't work he'll just attack you. Despite the fact that Mannimarco is a powerful Necromancer, he will often forget about his magic and simply attack you with his dagger. He can, however, conjure very powerful undead minions to aid him so you might want to summon something of your own to serve as a distraction. Kill him by any preferred means - this may take a while as he's essentially immune to most normal attacks or the attacks of summoned creatures.
[edit] Return Triumphant
Return to the University and speak with Raminus with the news of Mannimarco's death to ascend to the head of the guild, the Arch-Mage.
[edit] Benefits of being Arch-Mage
- Now, as Arch-Mage, you have a few benefits that go with your position. This includes the Arch-Mage's quarters in the Mage's Tower. The quarters include its own spell making and enchanting apparatus.
- After speaking with Raminus Polus about an ingredient collection, he will direct you to Julienne Fanis in the Lustratorium, whom you should also ask about an ingredient collection. She'll explain the use of the Enchanted Chest in the Arch-Mage's quarters (this is actually a mini-quest known as "Alchemy Acquisitions"). Once a week you can place one ingredient in the chest and within 24 hours it will turn into a larger number of the same ingredient (e.g. put in one Flax Seed and 24 hours later it turns into 11 Flax Seeds). Note that after a week, the Chest will be cleaned out. Some special (and a few not-so-special) ingredients will not work. See the Enchanted Chest page for more details on using this chest.
- Also as Arch-Mage, you have the option to be a gang leader. Talk with the Mage Apprentices and they will ask you if they can help. You can ask them to follow you, stop, and go back to their lesson. There will be up to 5 Apprentices willing to follow you; in some versions, only one Apprentice will follow you. If you ask another, he will state that he's "busy right now".
- Caution: The chest at the end of the Arch-Mages bed resets itself periodically, storing items here is not advised, The nightstand next to the bed does not respawn but still has scripts on it so again it is not sensible to store items in it.
- The King of Worms' Robes are unlike standard Necromancer's Robes. Mages will still talk to you when you wear the King of Worms' Robes.
- There is currently a bug with the script on the Colossal Black Soul Gem given to you by Traven. It does not seem to disappear or let you drop it after the quest is completed. Technically you don't need the gem. You can just leave it on Traven's corpse, so it doesn't get stuck in your inventory. You will not be able to drop the Echo Cave Key as well.
- An easy way to kill Mannimarco is to get a reflect spell enchantment. He will cast magic on you and usually kill himself before he kills you and then the dialogue will appear saying you have defeated him. If he is hurting you too much just heal yourself.
- For 360 Users, don't be alarmed if you don't immediately get your 50 GamerScore points for finishing, about 15 seconds after you finish talking to Raminus and start walking around you'll get it!
- It is possible for Bolor Savel to never appear in front of the cave. Reloading old saves will fix the problem, but they need to be very old saves, possibly from the early Mage Guild quests or before beginning them altogether.
- One reason may be that approaching Echo Cave from a direction other than the proper road can cause this. Reload from a saved game, and approach by the road.
- Mannimarco cannot be hit until you have triggered his speech (so no stealth kills by poisoned blade or arrow). Unfortunately, a bug frequently occurs (still present even with v 1.1.511 patch) that means he still cannot be hit afterward. Not even NPCs allied with you (or at least hostile to Mannimarco) will be able to hurt him as well. Some workarounds:
- Reload an old save.
- Use this fix.
- If no amount of re-loading fixes the problem, one workable solution is to engage Mannimarco in dialog and then when he starts attacking you, run to the edge along the water and push him into it. Jump in after him, enable some type of Water Breathing effect, and then force him (or let him follow you if he does) into the underwater tunnel. In the tunnel block all his attacks until he drowns because he runs out of air. You will then get confirmation that you have killed him and you can finally progress with the game.
- Mannimarco is unhittable, but not immune to damage (see the drowning option above). He can still cause damage to you, which means Reflect Damage and/or Reflect Spell will still cause damage to him (Reflect Spell is usually best, since he is a mage). He will have one random Restoration spell, but if you are lucky it will not be a Restore Health spell, or he will not have enough sense to stop attacking and heal himself. After the completion of this method, the bone claws remain raised; however, a high skill in acrobatics can overcome this.
- Mannimarco will follow you straight off a cliff if it comes down to that. Hopefully your Acrobatics skill will save you from the fatal damage that Mannimarco is bound to endure.
- There are rare cases where it is possible to run up to him and kill him straight away, before he has the chance to paralyze you.
This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.
- It is possible that the bone railings will not rise after Mannimarco's speech.
- If you don't kill Mannimarco yourself (e.g. he is killed by a summoned creature or by reflected magic) the bone railings surrounding his island don't always go down again, and you could be stuck inside. Some solutions are:
- While fighting him, lure Mannimarco back over the bridge you came on. Then when the bone fingers come up you will be on the right side.
- By going behind the curtain you can actually squeeze around the end of the bone fingers at the left of the altar as you face it. Then jump over onto the land, or if you fall in the water, you'll need to swim out of the tunnel at the opposite end of the room.
- It is possible that the bone railings will rise with you outside of them before Mannimarco's speech. If this happens, jump on top of the cauldren filled with skulls and you can jump over the railings.
- Sometimes, for unknown reasons, Hannibal Traven does not sacrifice himself. If reloading an earlier save results in the same, pickpocket Traven for the Filled Collosal Black Soul Gem (Be sure not to get caught pickpocketing him, or you will be kicked out of the Mages Guild), or, as technically you don't need it, proceed without the gem. Continue with the quest as normal, and when you return to the Mages Guild, Traven will be gone and you will be Arch-Mage.
- It hasn't been confirmed, but silencing the Arch-Mage before he soul traps himself could also cause this bug.
- Talking to Traven immediately just as he is soul trapping himself will prevent him from dying.
- A minor bug can occur before the fight begins. If you have very high acrobatics and speed, you can run and jump to the side of where The King of Worms is standing. If done correctly, the bone fingers will rise and you will be catapulted out into the water. Then you must cross the bridge and talk to him through the fingers. Spells, arrows, and summons can be used to kill him through the fingers. When he dies, the fingers should go down, and you can proceed as normal.
[edit] Journal Entries
| Confront the King (MG18KingofWorms) |
| Stage |
Finishes Quest |
Journal Entry |
| 10 |
|
Hannibal Traven has promoted me to Arch-Mage, and has tasked me with stopping the King of Worms. I need to take the Black Soul Gem to Echo Cave and confront him. |
| 20 |
|
I've arrived at Echo Cave, and have gained access to Mannimarco's lair. I need to find him inside, and put an end to him. |
| 30 |
|
I have killed the King of Worms. I should return to the Arcane University to announce his defeat. |
| 100 |
0 |
Raminus Polus thanked me for putting an end to the King of Worms, and has recognized me as Arch-Mage of the Mages' Guild. |
- Notes
- 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 random order.
- 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. See SetStage for more information.
![[Content is available under Attribution-ShareAlike]](http://www.uesp.net/w/images/Somerights.png)