Oblivion:The Ghost Ship of Anvil

The UESPWiki – Your source for The Elder Scrolls since 1995

Contents 1 Quick Walkthrough 2 Detailed Walkthrough 2.1 Serpents Wake 2.2 The Anvil Harbor Massacre 2.3 Forget the Crew, Get the Ball 3 Notes 4 Journal Entries

Varulae needs you to recover her crystal ball from the haunted ship. edit Quest Giver: Varulae at Anvil Docks Location(s): Serpents Wake; Anvil Prerequisite Quest: None Next Quest: None Reward: Redwave Enchanted Cutlass ID: MS93

Is anything in Anvil not haunted?

[edit] Quick Walkthrough

1. Speak with Varulae on the deck of the Serpents Wake in Anvil Harbor.
2. She asks you to retrieve her Crystal Ball from the cargo hold of the haunted ship.
3. Defeat the Spectral Sailors or run past them making your way down to the hold.
4. Return Varulae's Crystal Ball to her, she rewards you the "leveled" cutlass, Redwave.

[edit] Detailed Walkthrough

[edit] Serpents Wake

On the west side of Anvil docks, there's a ship by the name of the Serpents Wake. Speak with Varulae standing on the main deck, and she'll ask you to go down to the cargo hold and recover her crystal ball, but the ship is haunted. When you agree to help, you're given a key so that you may enter. You can either run this quest quickly, without a fight, or stand against five Spectral Sailors; as with all ghosts, they are immune to normal weapons. In the first door is a ghost that will sometimes stay in the room, so you can use the ranged spell to kill it easily, even at a low level. Once a ghost dies it leaves a sharpened cutlass, which can be used to fight other ghosts.

[edit] The Anvil Harbor Massacre

Inside the ship you have a trap door to the mid deck on the floor to your left, and a normal door in front of you. There's a Spectral Sailor behind the door in front, but some nice treasure too. If you decide to enter the room up ahead, make sure you search the 'Dead Captain' to find the Serpent's Wake Captain's Key and open the Captain's Chest at the foot of the bed to get the randomly generated treasure. Proceed to the mid deck through the trap door. There are two Spectral Sailors here, and they'll most likely attack you at once. You can fight or run across the corridor, to another trap door leading to the cargo hold. There's nothing of interest in the mid deck anyway.

[edit] Forget the Crew, Get the Ball

Downstairs, there's a Chest just next to where you enter, and in it is 'Varulae's Crystal Ball' that you're after. The last two Spectral Sailors are here as well. There's no need to fight them if you choose, but there's a bottle of Skooma behind them. Track your steps back to the main deck, and speak with Varulae again to give her back the ball you fetched and receive Redwave, an enchanted cutlass, as your reward.

[edit] Notes

• If you don't kill the ghosts they will follow you up onto the deck and even out to the docks, where any NPCs who are around are drawn into the fight. The ghosts are much tougher than most of the denizens of the quayside, and will probably kill some of them (Varulae is unkillable while the quest is in progress, but when you give her the crystal ball, this ends the quest and the ghosts can then kill her). If you wish to take advantage of this to kill the ghosts, you can bring the ghosts one at a time. If you leave the zone, the ghosts will still be there when you return.
  • This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.

• This quest is one possible source of Ectoplasm.

• After you finish the quest, this ship makes a decent free house. All the sacks, the captain's chest, the chest (on top of the drawer) in the room to the right of the stairs and both chests on the lowest deck do not respawn.

• The Redwave sword is technically leveled, but all seven variations of it are exactly the same. Thus, for all practical purposes, you receive the same reward no matter when you complete the quest.
  • This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.

• You can pick-pocket the crystal ball back from Varulae after you've given it to her. This isn't recommended, however, as it's still considered a quest item and you can't give it back to her, so you'll be stuck with it forever.
  • This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.

• In the quest Following a Lead you will find the Traitor's Diary, which reveals what happened to the ship's crew.

• If you want a bottle of Skooma, there is one hidden on the cargo hold level where a dead sailor is on a barrel. It is easy to miss as it is very small and obscured by other shelves- it is on the middle one of the low shelves next to the corpse surrounded with some gems.

[edit] Journal Entries

The Ghost Ship of Anvil (MS93)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
10		A High Elf Sorceress named Varulae has asked me to retrieve her crystal ball, located in the hold of the ship the Serpent's Wake, which is moored up in Anvil Bay. The crystal ball is in a chest in the ship's hold. I should be careful, however -- the crew have all been slain, and now roam the ship's decks as creatures of undeath.
20		I have retrieved Varulae's crystal ball. I must now return it to her on the top deck of the Serpent's Wake.
100	0	I have given Varulae her crystal ball. She gave me the captain's enchanted cutlass as a reward.

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.