Oblivion:Vampire Cure

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Contents 1 Quick Walkthrough 2 Detailed Walkthrough 2.1 Getting Started 2.2 Melisande's Shopping Lists 2.3 At last: Potions! 2.4 Reward 3 Notes 4 Bugs 4.1 PS3 GoTY Vampirism Cure Notes 5 Journal Entries

A long quest for the cure for vampirism. edit Quest Giver: Raminus Polus at the Arcane University Location(s): Arcane University, Skingrad, Drakelowe, Redwater Slough Prerequisite Quest: must be a Vampire Next Quest: none Reward: Cure Vampirism Potion, gold (level-dependent) ID: MS40

Headshot of a vampire.

[edit] Quick Walkthrough

1. Work your way through various referrals: from Raminus Polus, to Count Janus Hassildor of Skingrad to Melisande in Drakelowe.
2. Retrieve some Soul Gems to get Melisande to help you.
3. Collect a long list of ingredients for the potion.
4. Retrieve the potion, and take it back to Janus Hassildor for a reward.

[edit] Detailed Walkthrough

[edit] Getting Started

Before you can start this quest, you must have already become at least a first-stage Vampire (i.e., normal Cure Disease effects will not work to cure you; Vampirism shows up in your Active Effects page). At that point, Cure Vampirism will start to show up as a conversation topic, in particular when talking with healers. Asking about 'Cure Vampirism' will lead to a referral to Raminus Polus in the Arcane University in the Imperial City. But in fact, Raminus doesn't really know much, other than that Count Janus Hassildor of Skingrad is a vampire, and may have been doing some research on a cure. So, off to Castle Skingrad you go, where you have to tell Hal-Liurz why you want to talk to the Count before she will go and find him for you. Talking to Janus Hassildor yields an interesting backstory on him and his wife and reveals that he will reward you for obtaining a Cure Vampirism potion (so he can heal his comatose wife), but still no potion. Instead he sends you off to yet another person: an alleged witch of Glenmoril who lives somewhere near the Corbolo River (your map places a marker at Drakelowe.)

[edit] Melisande's Shopping Lists

Travel to Drakelowe and you will find one inhabitant, Melisande, who will let on that she might be able to help you. But before even agreeing to help you, she requires five empty Grand Soul Gems. If you are at least level 11, there is small chance (<5%) of finding empty grand soul gems in most dungeon chests. If you are at least level 12, any of the Merchants who sell magical equipment may stock them. Places where you can always find empty grand soul gems include:

• Calindil at the Mystic Emporium in the Market District has one, which can be bought or pickpocketed.
• With the exception of Skingrad, the merchant in each city's Mages Guild has one which can either be bought or pickpocketed.
• You can steal one from Melisande's basement (accessible through the fireplace next to her bed).
• There is one available in nearby Squandered Mine while you are on this quest.
• There is one available in the Crayfish Steep zone of nearby Crayfish Cave.
• There is one in the Arch-Mage's Lobby of the Arcane University. It is in a locked display case along with two more Grand Soul Gems that are not empty.
• There is one in a locked display case in the Mage Quarters of the Arcane University at the bottom of the staircase on the left as you enter.
• The Chorrol Mages' Guild has one empty one in a locked display case in a room just left of the front door, and another one in a display case beside the stairs. If you are a Guild member, picking the locks and taking the gems will not count as a crime.

Once you provide Melisande with the soul gems, she will task you with finding a long list of ingredients necessary to make the potion. Several are regular alchemy ingredients: two Bloodgrass shoots, six cloves of Garlic, and five Nightshade leaves. Full details on where to find these ingredients are provided on the individual ingredient pages. Two are trickier: the blood of an Argonian and the ashes of a powerful vampire.

• Two Bloodgrass: This is the tall red grass you see everywhere in Oblivion and at some Oblivion Gates, and it can be bought in some alchemy shops as well, so it is easy to find. A bug (see Bugs) may prevent the Bloodgrass from being presented to Melisande.
• Six cloves of Garlic: Many homes have these lying around on the dinner table or stacked somewhere else. Almost every home in Skingrad has some bunches of garlic (often 3 or 4), most often hanging from a beam in the basement.
• Five Nightshade leaves: Nightshade is prolific throughout the West Weald. You can also find some (or maybe all) at "The Main Ingredient" in the Imperial City Market District, the only alchemy shop guaranteed to have Nightshade in stock. The Arcane University has several growing there as well.
• Blood of an Argonian: Melisande gives you a special Enchanted Dagger to use and collect the blood. You do not need to actually kill the Argonian, just stabbing your victim once with the dagger is sufficient. You can find Argonians in just about any city, but of course stabbing a townsperson is likely to get you in trouble (you can yield when they try to attack you, but you will still have an assault charge and bounty). A complete list of all named Argonians in the game is available at Oblivion-Argonian. Luckily, there are some easier alternatives:
  • One Argonian can be found at Peryite's shrine; if you have not completed Peryite's quest, he is frozen and there are no consequences to stabbing him.
  • Another possible location is Veyond Cave, which is inhabited by Argonian tribesmen who will attack you on sight, making it perfectly legal to stab them back (and then probably follow through with killing them so they don't keep chasing you).
  • Argonians serve as archers in Marauder bands, so any venture into a Marauder-filled ruin or cavern may bring you into contact with one.
  • If you spared Scar-Tail in the The Renegade Shadowscale quest, he will still be standing around at Bogwater. You can simply stab him once, and then yield.
  • There are two instances in the Arena in which you face Argonians; you must fight an Argonian archer early on, and later, three Argonian prisoners.
  • There is an Argonian to be killed in the quest given by Boethia. (Although he will not appear if your character is also an Argonian)
  • You can cast a Frenzy spell on any Argonian, who will proceed to attack you allowing you to collect blood without penalty.
  • You can cast a Command Humanoid spell on any Argonian, which will allow you to stab the Argonian once without penalty.
  • If you have purchased the Thieves Den Official Mod you can easily stab Yinz'r without getting penalized.
  • Shaleez is a good candidate if you are a member of the Dark Brotherhood. You're asked to kill her during the Final Justice quest.
• Ashes of a powerful vampire: This 'powerful' vampire's name is Hindaril. Ask the witch about it and she will mark his location in Redwater Slough on your map. Killing Hindaril will provide you with Ashes of Hindaril instead of regular Vampire Dust. His home is a nesting ground for vampires but they die easily (especially with Fire Damage spells). If you still have trouble you could wait until you're in the fourth and final stage of being vampire and kill them with ease. (You can kill Hindaril before starting the Vampire Cure quest; if so, you will already have the Ashes of Hindaril in your inventory).

If you have installed the Wizard's Tower plugin, bloodgrass and nightshade can be found in the tower's alchemy garden.

Once you deliver all these ingredients to Melisande, she'll tell you to return in 24 hours. You'll have to go somewhere else and come back, because if you linger inside the house at Drakelowe, Melisande considers it trespassing and becomes hostile. See Notes, below, for tips on waiting if you're a vampire.

[edit] At last: Potions!

When you return, Melisande will have two potions ready. (If Melisande's shack is empty when you return, just wait a short while and she will reappear near the fireplace.) One of the potions (the Cure for Vampirism that appears under Potions in your inventory) is for you; you can either drink it immediately or save it for a rainy day. The other one (Vampirism Cure Potion, which appears in the miscellaneous section on the last page of your inventory) needs to be taken to Skingrad for Count Janus Hassildor's wife.

At Castle Skingrad you again need to work through his steward, Hal-Liurz. Mention the cure and she will lead you outside the Hall to the entrance to the Chamber of the Lost, which is the countess' secret chamber. Count Janus Hassildor is waiting there, as is your favorite witch, Melisande. Tell the count that you acquired the cure to give it to him. He will allow you to stay and watch provided that you keep quiet. Melisande wakes up the countess and the count explains that she can end her suffering. The countess drinks the potion, is healed from vampirism and drops dead on the bed. (You can loot her corpse for jewelry and some gold). The count tells you to let him grieve for 24 hours, then return for your reward.

Again, you need to get Hal-Liurz to fetch the Count for you. The dialog item "Reward" will cause him to give you a level-dependent amount of gold (see below).

[edit] Reward

Level	Reward
1-4	250 Gold
5-9	500 Gold
10-14	1,000 Gold
15-19	2,500 Gold
20-24	5,000 Gold
25-29	7,500 Gold
30+	10,000 Gold

[edit] Notes

• If you are in the later stages of vampirism, be careful during the witch part of the quest. After she tells you to wait 24 hours for her to finish the potion you cannot wait under the protection of her roof because she will consider it trespassing and attack you. If you look on your map you will also realize that there are no places close by to run to for protection from the sun. Because of this, you will get stuck in a constant cycle of her trying to kill you and you being killed by the sunlight because there are no other shady places nearby to wait. You have a couple of alternatives:
  • Make sure you start this quest in the early evening so you have enough time to complete everything in the safety of the dark.
  • If you arrive during the night, feed on her while she is sleeping. This will allow you to take no damage if you need to wait outside during the day.
  • The closest place to wait indoors is Squandered Mine, northeast of Drakelowe up the cliff.
  • If you have a high enough sneak ability, you can alternately hide in the house. Melisande will simply believe you to have left and leave the room. Since it is light outside you won't be able to leave, and as you are trespassing you can't sleep or wait; but it is an alternate way to pass the time safely.
  • If you have a water breathing enchantment, you may also wait in the river just below the hill. (The tip of the player's head must be above water to wait.) Your health decreases but only until halfway.^{[verification needed -- I believe your health simply decreases more slowly.]}
• Once cured, you cannot become a vampire again (except using the console). Porphyric Hemophilia becomes just another disease.
• A much easier vampire cure, the Font of Renewal, is made available if you buy the official plugin Vile Lair.
• The door to Melisande's shack in Drakelowe always has a red cursor; entering her shack counts as trespassing. Therefore, do not wait too long to begin the dialogue with her or she will change to combat mode and attack you. Trespassing does not affect the quest dialogues with her (until she attacks).
• The witch will not accept stolen garlic cloves.
• If you were to complete this quest without ever having been a vampire, Janus Hassildor would offer you a choice for the final reward:

"I can offer you money, of course, but given my condition, I am in a position to offer you something relatively unique. If you wish, you can become a vampire. It will be slightly painful, but far easier on you than... other methods. Which would you prefer?"

If you then choose the topic "Make me a vampire", he continues:

"This is not a gift to be taken lightly. It may cause you harm in the long run, but at least you already know a way to rid yourself of it. Once you have the disease for several days, rest and let the effects take hold. And please, be careful. Good luck."

Finally, he casts the "Vampire Reward Spell", which infects you with Porphyric Hemophilia. However, given that the only way to obtain this quest is to first become a vampire; as such, this option is currently inaccessible (without using the console).

[edit] Bugs

• You may not be able to start this quest if you were in the Mages Guild but have been suspended from the guild. If so, you will need to complete the required task and be reinstated in the guild before starting Vampire Cure.
• If the Count only greets you with "I've said all there is to be said. Trouble me no more" and refuses to say anything else, the problem is that you have started but not completed the quest Ulterior Motives. You will need to finish Ulterior Motives (by talking to Raminus Polus) before Janus Hassildor will talk to you about any topics.
• There have been problems with the witch not accepting Bloodgrass. The "Bloodgrass" topic will effectively disappear when you complete the main quest. You can solve it by reloading a previous save, or typing set MS40.cureready to 1 in the console. This will cause a new topic to appear and allows you to complete the quest properly.
  Note: This has been corrected by the Oblivion 1.1.511 patch.
  • On the PS3 Game of the Year (GoTY) edition, this bug has returned though the latest official patch is already built-in. A workaround is available but requires a non-GoTY Oblivion disc; see PS3 GoTY Vampirism Cure Notes below.
• There is a translation problem in the German version regarding the ingredients. Nightshade leaves is translated as "Nachtschatten Blätter" whereas it is correctly translated "Tollkirsche". Since the rest of the game uses the correct translation, you will not be able to find the right ingredient, but will have to collect "Tollkirsche" instead. There is a similar translation problem in the French version where you are told to find some "Clous de girofle" (cloves - ingredients that do not exist in the game) while you must bring "Ail" (garlic) instead.
• If you give Melisande the last ingredient and the order to brew to potion at 11 p.m., she will never return from the basement so you can’t get the potion from her. To solve this problem either load an previous savegame and talk to her at a different time, or type the following commands into the console (not at 11 p.m., or the bug will occur again!) and wait 24 hours:
  set MS40.currentday to GameDay
set MS40.currenthour to GameHour
set MS40.cureready to 3
  • This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.
• There is a glitch where Hal-Liurz, the Count's Steward, becomes stuck in the Chamber of the Lost. Every time you speak to her she will say "Please, wait here. I shall let the count know you are waiting for him" but will never go anywhere.
  • One possible way to finish the quest is to find the count, hit him, and have him chase you back to where Hal-Liurz is standing (without getting stopped by any guards along the way). Hal-Liurz should then go back to the Great Hall, although may require similar forceful persuasion. You will need to pay the fine for assaulting the count and his steward, but then you can go to the Great Hall, wait for 24 hours, and the Count should show up to give you your reward.
  • Other way to complete this quest is break in the Castle Hall and speak to the count by yourself. The Count is upstairs from the hall with a throne.
  • This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.
• It is possible that at the end of this quest you can wait more than 24 hours but the Count will still only say "Please, go" when you talk to him. To fix the problem, you need to make Hal-Liurz bring the Count to you (even if you're already standing next to the Count, Hal-Liurz has to act as intermediary for the quest to be updated). Sometimes just talking to Hal-Liurz is sufficient. Otherwise, you can use a Command Humanoid spell to force her to follow you to wherever the Count is standing, at which point talking to Hal-Liurz should work to complete the quest.
• After the quest reward is received, it is possible to keep pressing the reward topic to receive the reward over and over again. It is possible to return to the count later and do this anytime, even after the quest is completed. There does not seem to be any limit to the amount of gold you can amass.

Note: This has been corrected by the Oblivion 1.1.511 patch.

[edit] PS3 GoTY Vampirism Cure Notes

PS3 GoTY edition players currently have no way of curing their vampirism due to the above bug as the Vile Lair and other official plug-ins are not yet available on PSN. The Bloodgrass topic will be absent or greyed-out and Melisande will not accept the Bloodgrass even if the main quest is not completed, unlike what occurs on unpatched PC and XBox360 non-GoTY Oblivion (on the GoTY version the patch is built-in, so this bug will never occur.) A workaround is to obtain (ie through rental) a non-GoTY Oblivion disc and use that to play through the completion of the quest. The Bloodgrass topic can then be chosen and and the player's vampirism can be cured.

Steps:

1. Because the player's current save must be saved under a version of Oblivion without the Shivering Isles present, items specific to Shivering Isles may be lost. To prevent the loss of items if the Isles have already been entered, first place all Shivering Isles items into a safe container in Cyrodiil, not in the Isles.
2. Travel to Drakelowe with the required two shoots of Bloodgrass, enter and save. It would be advisable to note which save slot it is, as it may be required to revert to it should something go wrong.
3. Completely exit Oblivion, remove the GoTY disc from the PS3, and insert the non-GoTY disc.
4. Launch Oblivion and load your current save in Drakelowe.
5. Speak to Melisande and choose the Bloodgrass topic. She should now accept it.
6. Save the game into a new save slot so that if something has gone wrong your previous save is still accessible.
7. Completely exit Oblivion, remove the non-GoTY disc from the PS3, and re-insert the GoTY disc.
8. Launch Oblivion, load your new save and continue. Retrieving any Shivering Isles items from their safe container at this point to ensure that they are still there would be advisable.

If your game freezes at step #4 (when you try to load the GotY save using the non-GotY disc), it may help to put all items (not just SI items) from your inventory into a container. If your game still freezes on the load screen, then you will essentially be unable to cure your vampirism with this character.

Known side effects on Shivering Isles:

• There will be little or no impact if this is performed before the player has entered the Isles at all so it is preferable to get rid of vampirism as soon as possible if the Isles have not been entered yet.
• If Shivering Isles quests are active, they may disappear or bugs may occur. Keep your pre-workaround savegame just in case.
• Although Shivering Isles items may be kept with the workaround of storing them in Cyrodiil, spells, powers and abilities will almost certainly disappear. You will have to purchase any missing spells again. If the Main Quest has been completed, speak with Haskill and the two Greater Powers obtained at quest end should be restored.
• Shivering Isles items kept in player inventory may not disappear if they have been enchanted by the player.
• Golden Saint and Dark Seducer guards may lose all of their conversation topics. Their arrest behaviour will still occur normally. If the Main Quest has been completed, the Escorts should still have all of their dialog topics.
• If the Main Quest has been completed, the ownership of the Duke's/Duchess' Quarters may revert and the player may be trespassing in them. Any items stored in them that were previously player-owned will similarly revert and will be considered stolen.

[edit] Journal Entries

Vampire Cure (MS40)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
5		I should travel to the Arcane University in the Imperial City and speak with Raminus Polus about the possibility of a cure for Vampirism.
10		I need to speak with Count Hassildor of Skingrad. I should find his Steward at Castle Skingrad.
20		Count Hassildor of Skingrad has asked me to find the cure for vampirism. I should look for a woman in the wilderness along the Corbolo River, east of the Imperial City and south of Cheydinhal.
30		I have found Melisande, who has offered to help me with a cure for vampirism. Once I have brought her five empty Grand Soul Gems, she will give me further instructions.
40		I have delivered the Soul Gems to Melisande. Now I must collect a series of ingredients for her, so that she can brew the potion to cure vampirism. She needs six cloves of garlic, five nightshade leaves, and two shoots of bloodgrass.
41		Melisande has given me a special dagger, with which I am to collect the blood of an Argonian. I should find an Argonian, stab him with the dagger, and return it to Melisande.
42		Melisande requires the ashes of a powerful vampire to complete her cure. I should search the area near the North Panther River for Hindaril, a vampire who was imprisoned in an underground cavern many years ago.
50		I have collected the ashes of Hindaril for Melisande. I should bring them to her at once.
60		Melisande's dagger is covered in Argonian blood. I should deliver it to her so that she can brew the potion.
70		Melisande has created a potion to cure vampirism. I have been given two doses; one for myself and one that I need to take to Castle Skingrad. I should travel there and speak with Hal-Liurz.
80		The Countess of Skingrad is dead. I need to speak with Hai-Liurz at Castle Skingrad after the Count has had time to grieve for his wife.
100	0	Count Hassildor thanked me for finding a cure for his wife.

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.