Repairing the Phial is the bittersweet follow-up to The White Phial, set in Windhelm in Eastmarch. You found the legendary flask, but it came back cracked and useless, and the old alchemist Nurelion is now dying in bed. His assistant Quintus Navale thinks he can mend it in time for his master to see it whole, if you fetch three unusual ingredients.
How to start
A few days after finishing both The White Phial and the main quest The Throat of the World, a courier brings you a letter from Quintus. He writes that Nurelion still clings to life and asks you to come to the White Phial shop to discuss repairing the flask.
Walkthrough
Speak to Quintus Navale
Quintus explains that the phial was finished with a kind of old magic lost since the Dragon War, but he believes he can imitate it with the right components. He sends you after three of them, which can be collected in any order.
Retrieve the Unmelting Snow
Climb back to the Throat of the World. The Unmelting Snow is an unmarked snowbank a short way south of Paarthurnax, close to the summit. Without the quest marker it is very easy to miss, so follow the marker closely.
Find some Mammoth Tusk Powder
Head to the giant camp at Stonehill Bluff. The powder sits in a bowl in the middle of the camp. Note that this quest item is not the same as the alchemy ingredient Powdered Mammoth Tusk. Giants and mammoths do not take kindly to visitors, so sneak in or come prepared.
Take a Forsworn Heart
You need a briar heart from a Forsworn Briarheart. The map marks one possible location, such as Red Eagle Redoubt, but the exact spot varies. Any living or dead Briarheart will do, and hearts also turn up as loot in Forsworn camps. Alchemists sell them too, Quintus included.
Return to Quintus Navale
With all three ingredients in hand, return to the shop and watch Quintus work at the alchemy station. He carries the restored phial upstairs to Nurelion, who manages one admiring word before he dies. Quintus takes comfort in the fact that his master’s life’s work was not wasted, but he cannot bear to keep the phial as a reminder of that obsession and gives it to you.
Choices and consequences
Quintus is no Curalmil, the phial’s original maker, so the repaired flask can only produce one kind of liquid. You choose it in conversation:
- Healing: restores 100 Health
- Resist magic: 20% magic resistance for 60 seconds
- Tougher in battle: +20 Stamina for 300 seconds
- Stronger magic: +20 Magicka for 300 seconds
- More damage: +50% one-handed damage for 60 seconds
- Better hidden: 20% harder to detect for 60 seconds
Finish the conversation properly. Walking away or letting the dialogue time out while he asks about the liquid can reset Quintus and leave you without the phial.
Rewards
- The White Phial, a reusable potion that refills every 24 hours
Tips and notes
- After drinking, the flask shows as White Phial (Empty), a miscellaneous item weighing 0.5, and refills after 24 hours.
- Get rid of any briar hearts you are carrying before you read Quintus’s letter. A heart already in your inventory may not count, and spare hearts can get stuck as quest items.
- Nurelion dies during this quest, so finish the Thieves Guild job The Numbers Job first if it targets the White Phial, or that job will fail.
- Oddly enough, the phial is an enchanted object, yet Quintus fixes it at an alchemy table.
