Skyrim:Beyond Death

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Search for Valerica in the Soul Cairn. Quest Giver: Serana Location(s): The Soul Cairn Prerequisite Quest: Chasing Echoes Next Quest: Seeking Disclosure Reward: Summon Durnehviir shout ID: DLC1VQ05 Suggested Level: 13

Durnehviir

Quick Walkthrough

1. Locate Valerica.
2. Kill the Boneyard Keepers.
3. Follow Valerica.
4. Slay Durnehviir.
5. Retrieve the Elder Scroll.
6. (If not a vampire) Retrieve the Soul Essence Gem. (Misc. objective)

Detailed Walkthrough

Serana fighting a Keeper

Upon your arrival in the Soul Cairn, follow your quest marker to the Boneyard and find Serana's mother Valerica standing near the entrance. While you are able to speak with her, she cannot be reached due to an invisible barrier. During the course of interacting with her, she will reveal that the barrier can only be removed by defeating the three Boneyard Keepers.

The Keepers each live in separate towers, apart from the main Boneyard. The quest markers will lead to all three.

The locations of the Keepers are relatively far apart. Because of this it is recommended that you have some means of quick transportation. Arvak will do nicely for this purpose.

Each of the Keepers will have 1-4 minions (bonemen, mistmen or wrathmen) that will attack you, usually ahead of your encountering the Keeper. Sadly you can't pick up any of their armor or weapons that they drop. The keepers themselves may prove to be quite a challenge to lower level players. One possible strategy is to use Unrelenting Force to blast them off the edge of the towers.

Once the final Keeper is defeated, the quest will update and you will need to return to Valerica. She will then lead you into the Boneyard. Once inside the Boneyard, you will have to "slay" Durnehviir. There will also be numerous skeletons in combat, but they will die along with him. Let Valerica and Serana handle any of the minions while you focus on Durnehviir. Once he has been defeated, take the Elder Scroll, and speak to Valerica. If you are not a vampire, and allowed Serana to partially soul trap you in order to enter the Soul Cairn, Valerica will instruct you on how to retrieve your soul from a Soul Essence Gem located at an offering altar not far away. The miscellaneous objective "Retrieve the Soul Essence Gem" will lead you to it.

Once you leave the Boneyard, Durnehviir will rematerialize and speak to you, starting his quest. If you tell him you have more pressing matters to attend to, his quest will not begin and you will need to return to him at a later time to initiate it. Afterwards, you may proceed to the offering altar to retrieve your soul if necessary, then travel back to the portal and complete the quest.

Achievements

One achievement is unlocked when you complete this quest:

• Beyond Death^DG (20 points/Bronze)

Notes

• Durnehviir's shout acts as a summoning spell and must be shouted at an area on the ground with enough space for him, as opposed to the shout for Odahviing.
• The soul essence gem can be retrieved before talking to Valerica if you find it beforehand.

Bugs

• After you kill Durnehviir, there will be a prompt to search him but it is impossible to do so.
• Sometimes after you retrieve your fragmented soul, the stairs leading back to Volkihar Castle on the return trip will be unusable and be part pixelated and you will walk right through them. Re-load a previous save to correct. ^?
• If you try to ride through the portal on the horse, Arvak, it will make you dismount. After you dismount it can cause your screen to turn black. Nothing happens after that, besides music and seeing a black screen. The way to get out of it is to turn off your game, seeing as you cannot access the start menu.
• Immediately upon leaving the Boneyard, it is possible to attack Durnehviir before he begins dialogue with you. This may make him hostile or at least prevent dialogue from occuring, making it impossible to obtain the "Summon Durnehviir" shout and by extension the "Soul Tear" shout.
• Valerica will sometimes not move when returning to her after killing the Boneyard Keepers. ^?
  • Enter the Boneyard and defeat Durnehviir, press the "~" key to open console, and type tcl then press enter. You should be able to fly and move through objects; go to the Elder Scroll case and enter the container to pick up the scroll. This will trigger the next stage of the quest, and solve the bug without creating the later bug in the quest Unseen Visions.
  • Another way of solving this is to go into Boneyard and type prid xx003B8E first and then moveto player . This will teleport Valerica next to you, and she will resume to her correct pathing. As for Serana, just repeat the process but type Prid xx002B74 instead.

Quest Stages

Beyond Death (DLC1VQ05)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
10		Serana and I have entered the Soul Cairn in pursuit of her estranged mother, Valerica, and the Elder Scroll she took when she fled Castle Volkihar. (Objective is assigned): Locate Valerica
25		(Objective is assigned): Speak to Valerica
30		Serana and I have located Valerica imprisoned within a massive ruin. When confronted by us, Valerica revealed that Serana's blood is an integral part of the Tyranny of the Sun. After the reconciliation between the two of them, Valerica confessed to having the Elder Scroll hidden in her ramshackle living space. In order to free her from the prison, Serana and I will have to locate and slay the Keepers who maintain the barrier around the ruins. (Objective is assigned (if any still alive)): Kill the Boneyard Keepers (<Global=DLC1VQ05KeepersKilled>/<Global=DLC1VQ05KeepersTotal>)
40		(Objective is assigned): Speak to Valerica
50		Serana and I have slain all three of the Keepers and the barrier around Valerica's prison has faded. We rejoined Valerica, who has agreed to take us to the location where the Elder Scroll is hidden. (Objective is assigned): Follow Valerica
60		(Objective is assigned): Retrieve the Elder Scroll
70		(Objective is assigned): Slay Durnehviir
80		As Valerica was leading us to the Elder Scroll, an ancient dragon named Durnehviir swooped into the ruins and attacked. It proved to be a challenging battle, but we've emerged unscathed. (Objective is assigned): Speak to Valerica
110		(Objective is assigned): Follow Valerica
120		(Objective is assigned): Retrieve the Elder Scroll
130		(Objective is assigned): Speak to Valerica
140		(Objective is assigned): Return to Tamriel
200		We've exited the Soul Cairn with the Elder Scroll in hand. Serana's mother, Valerica, is unwilling to return with us to Tamriel until we've dealt with her husband and thwarted the Tyranny of the Sun. or We've exited the Soul Cairn with the Elder Scroll in hand. Serana's mother, Valerica, is unwilling to return with us to Tamriel until we've dealt with her husband and completed the Tyranny of the Sun using our own methods.

Beyond Death Soul Gem Handler (DLC1VQ05SoulGemHandler)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
20		(Objective is assigned): Retrieve the Soul Essence Gem
200

• The following empty quest stages were omitted from the first table: 0, 20, 28, 29.
• The following empty quest stages were omitted from the second table: 10, 30.

 

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 DLC1VQ05 stage, where 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 DLC1VQ05.

Prev: Chasing Echoes

Up: Dawnguard or Volkihar Vampire Clan

Next: Seeking Disclosure

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