Skyrim:Silenced Tongues

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Unlock the burial chamber of The Tongue Chieftain Kvenel. Quest Giver: Heddic's Volunruud Notes (Book) Location(s): Volunruud ID: dunVolunruudQST Suggested Level: 14

A puzzle door inside Volunruud.

Quick Walkthrough

1. Travel to Volunruud.
2. Read Heddic's Volunruud Notes.
3. Locate the ceremonial weapons.
4. Open the Elder's Cairn.
5. Defeat Kvenel.

Detailed Walkthrough

Getting the Quest

Following the linear path, the first room you come across holds Heddic's Volunruud Notes and what appears to be Heddic's skeleton. To the left is a skeleton sitting on a throne that will come alive and attack you if given the chance. Reading the book or attempting to open the puzzle door begins the quest.

Finding the Weapons

The next room branches off into several directions, one of which leads up to the puzzle door and the final chamber.

First, head through the southwest passage to find a chest and some loot. There's nothing else here (unless you are on the quest The Silence Has Been Broken), so head back and through the northeastern area.

Head on through to the next room, where there will be several more undead waiting for you, scattered around. Take care of them and head down past the swinging spike trap. At the next fork, take a right. When you get to an altar with an ancient Nordic helm, there is an undead in a coffin to your hard right. Continue through the iron door and to the first objective, which holds the ceremonial sword. As you approach, however, two final undead will pop out of the coffins behind you and attack. Head back to the big branching chamber.

Move through the northwest door. The first and second bends have undead sleeping in the walls. After that, there are a couple more waiting around the next corner. Head down through the cave and through the next set of iron doors to find the next objective and an undead boss with an ally to the right. Take them out while being careful of the floor traps scattered between them and you. The ceremonial axe is up on the wall, on display. There is also the One-handed skill book Mace Etiquette to the right, on the arm of the chair. Now, with the two pieces, head back to the puzzle door and go through to the next area, the Elder's Cairn.

At first, there is a small camp with a little bit of loot available. Up ahead is a room with a couple of undead waiting on either side of an overhead bridge. Take them out or run past them, and head to the next and final chamber. This holds the final boss of the quest, The Tongue Chieftain Kvenel himself, along with an undead conjurer.

Fighting Kvenel

The conjurer is off to Kvenel's right. It will summon a Frost Atronach when it sees you. The conjurer also uses ice magic, and Kvenel has an ice-enchanted sword and axe, both of which will slow you down, making running away or closing the initial gap difficult for melee fighters. Use the pillars to the left to your advantage by using them to block the ice spells or to aid in stealthily killing them by blocking their line of sight. For melee characters, Whirlwind Sprint and plenty of stamina is advised. Once the conjurer is dead, Kvenel is simple enough to defeat. Alternatively, you could draw Kvenel into another room to kill him first, then go back to the throne room to handle the conjurer.

A more stealth-oriented character can crouch in the shadows and continually sneak attack, creeping over to another shadowy spot when they approach. Done correctly, one can take out both Kvenel and his conjuring sidekick without ever being detected.

Among his ghostly remains is his enchanted sword, Eduj. Due to a bug, you may have to activate his remains again to obtain Okin, the enchanted axe. If it is not listed as loot on his corpse, you may also be able to find it on the ground near his remains.

To the right of the throne is a chest with leveled loot and around the stone platform are various potions, so make sure to grab them all. Head towards the right, past the throne room, and you'll encounter a word wall with a piece of the Aura Whisper shout. A bit further will be the bridge from before and any undead you left there. Wipe out what's left of them, and head for a final chest of leveled loot along with a Dragon Priest Dagger and a reference book about Labyrinthian on the floor.

As you return to the bridge, look to your hard right to find a chest in the shadows. You can reach it by jumping to the tree roots and then jumping again over to the chest, or by using Whirlwind Sprint. Drop down and head south to find the exit.

Bugs

• The swinging spiked door may be sprung by draugr and then not reset, making the rest of the northeast branch inaccessible. ^?
• Sometimes the ceremonial weapons are unable to be picked up. Reloading a past save should fix this. ^?
• Putting in the sword first, then getting the axe and putting it in, may make the door inoperable. ^?
• If you have the ceremonial weapons on you, the door might not take the weapons, making the rest of the quest and the word wall inaccessible. This may occur if you pick up one of the weapons before starting the quest. ^?
  • Drop the weapon(s) and then activate the door to start the quest and it should take the weapons.
• Sometimes, when you read the journal, it will not give you the quest. ^?
• Don't kill Kvenel while he is sitting on his throne. You can get Eduj, but when you activate his remains again to obtain Okin, it won't be there. Reloading a previous save to re-kill Kvenel off his throne solves the problem. ^?
• You can kill Kvenel while he is sitting and still get both weapons if you pickpocket Okin first. Eduj is still lootable from his remains. ^?

Quest Stages

Silenced Tongues (dunVolunruudQST)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
0
10		I may be able to recover two ceremonial weapons within Volunruud which will allow me to enter the Elder's Cairn. (Objective is assigned): Locate The Ceremonial Weapons
13		I've found the ceremonial axe in Volunruud.
14		I've found the ceremonial Sword in Volunruud.
20		Now that I have both ceremonial weapons, I should be able to open the door to the Elder's Cairn. (Objective is assigned): Open the Elder's Cairn
30		(Objective is assigned): Defeat Kvenel
100		I defeated an ancient draugr named Kvenel within Volunruud.

 

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 dunVolunruudQST 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 dunVolunruudQST.