Skyrim:Containment

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Deal with the aftermath of the Eye's power surge. Location(s): Winterhold Prerequisite Quest: Revealing the Unseen Next Quest: The Staff of Magnus Reward: Savos Aren's Amulet (+50 Magicka), Torc of Labyrinthian ID: MG05

Magic Anomalies created by the Eye's power surge.

Quick Walkthrough

1. Find the Arch-Mage.
2. Defeat the Magic Anomalies attacking Winterhold.
3. Report to Mirabelle Ervine.

Detailed Walkthrough

College members mourning the death of the Arch-Mage.

After regaining consciousness and speaking to Mirabelle Ervine, head to the College’s central courtyard. There you will find the Arch-Mage’s body and a group of mages. Tolfdir will approach you and inform you that whatever killed the Arch-Mage has also affected the town of Winterhold. He wants you to go there and make sure it is safe. Go across the bridge where Faralda and Arniel are waiting. They will help you defeat the ten Magic Anomalies in Winterhold. Once you have secured the town, return to the College and talk to Mirabelle Ervine. She will give you Savos Aren's Amulet and the Torc of Labyrinthian and tell you to find the Staff of Magnus in Labyrinthian.

Notes

• If your horse is stabled within the city, the anomalies can quickly surround it and kill it. Simply rush down there at the start of the quest, hop on your horse, ride it out of town, hop off, and then sprint back on foot and join the fray, unless you have Shadowmere, then he can probably stay with you in the fight.
• At higher levels, the anomalies can be used to train Restoration very effectively, due to their large numbers and pitiful attack power.
• The souls of magic anomalies are leveled.
• When this quest is finished, all magicka trainers will either disappear or be unavailable to train until the next quest is finished.
• Casting Flames constantly seems to kill the anomalies quickly.
• You cannot loot the Arch-Mage's body.
• If you leave a follower somewhere away from the college or the town of Winterhold, when you go to speak with Mirabelle they will be there.
• If the battle goes on till 7pm Enthir will be headed to the inn and lend a hand. He will then comment "If this is your fault." but not activate speech dialog.
• Even after finishing the quest and talking to Mirabelle, Magic Anomalies will appear in the town of Winterhold and attack the guards.
• It is advisable to finish sub-quests involving the townsfolk before triggering the anomalies, as they are known to kill NPCs in town.

Bugs

• Sometimes after killing an anomaly it will explode but leave no ghostly remains on the ground. Instead above where it died there should be a floating blue glow. You may have to jump in order to open the remains, if you wish to collect the soul gem.
• One of the anomalies may not appear and is likely under the world or in a wall, and you may find that it has fallen to the bottom of the cliff near the city. Fast traveling back to the town has been known to work. ^?
• You may not receive the quest after the Eye of Magnus has been overloaded. ^?
• If a dragon appears while you are fighting the anomalies, the dead dragon will not give you a dragon soul, and when you kill the anomalies, the quest will mark as being moved on the next stage but you won't be able to enter the College, and people won't talk to you. It is recommended that you reload to a save from before the dragon appeared. ^?
• You may get no initiating quest once the archmage is dead, and there will not be a group of mages surrounding him. This problem may be solved by loading a save several quest stages before the Eye of Magnus explodes. ^?
  • Entering the console command startquest MG05 will start the quest if talking to Savos Aren does not update the previous quest and Mirabelle does not give the quest.
  • PS3 - To get the quest to start, complete all winterhold related quests that you have active including any under miscellaneous quests.
• After killing the anomalies, the entrance to the Hall of the Elements may be inactive. Wait for an NPC to enter and fix the door for you; saving and reloading won't fix this. It may also be possible to reset the door yourself by clicking around or near the edges of the door. ^?
• If you go into the Arch-Mage's quarters before going outside, you may encounter him alive but without any dialogue when you try to speak to him. ^?
• Followers may be teleported inside the Hall of the Elements after Ancano knocks everyone unconscious, even if they have been told to wait elsewhere. If you do not tell them to follow you out of the hall before leaving the college, you will be unable to rejoin them until after completing the quest. ^?

Quest Stages

Containment (MG05)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
10		(Objective is assigned): Assess the damage to the Great Hall
20		Ancano has done something to the Eye of Magnus, causing the orb to release incredible amounts of energy, and possibly putting the area in danger. I need to find the Arch-Mage and make sure he's safe. (Objective is assigned): Find the Arch-Mage
30		Ancano has done something to the Eye of Magnus, causing the orb to release incredible amounts of energy, damaging the College and killing the Arch-Mage. The town of Winterhold may be affected as well, and needs to be secured. (Objective is assigned): Protect the town of Winterhold
40		(Objective is assigned): Defeat the creatures infesting Winterhold (<Global=MG05CreaturesKilled>/<Global=MG05CreaturesTotal>)
50		Winterhold now appears to be safe from the creatures attacking it. Mirabelle needs to be informed of what's going on. (Objective is assigned): Report to Mirabelle Ervine
200		The town of Winterhold has been secured for now, but the Eye of Magnus cannot be reached and continues to jeopardize the College.

• The following empty quest stages were omitted from the table: 0, 1, 25.

 

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 MG05 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 MG05.

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