Lights Out! starts with a smooth-talking Argonian on the Solitude docks and a plan to wreck an Imperial cargo ship in Haafingar. Jaree-Ra promises easy gold and a share of the plunder, but the whole scheme is really a trap meant to get rid of you instead of paying you. Expect a betrayal, two boss fights and a cave full of pirates rather than the reward he dangles in front of you.
How to start
- Walk past Jaree-Ra on the Solitude docks, near the East Empire Company Warehouse, and he will call out with an offer of quick money.
- Listen to his pitch: put out the fire in the Solitude Lighthouse so that an incoming ship runs aground, then meet his sister Deeja to collect your cut.
- There are no prerequisites; the quest can be picked up whenever you are in Solitude.
Walkthrough
Put out the lighthouse fire
Head to the Solitude Lighthouse, climb to the top floor and activate the fire to extinguish it. Once the flame is out, the Icerunner appears wrecked on the shore. The lighthouse stays dark for the rest of the game.
Return to Jaree-Ra
Go back to the docks. Jaree-Ra is pleased that the ship crashed as planned and sends you to the wreck to meet Deeja, who supposedly has your share of the loot. The wreck lies further up Solitude’s eastern shoreline.
Find and defeat Deeja
Enter the Wreck of the Icerunner and work your way down through the hull, fighting the Blackblood Marauders on board. Jaree-Ra claimed no sailors would be hurt, yet the crew and the Imperial soldiers have all been slaughtered; their bodies can be looted on the way down. Deeja waits on the lowest deck where water is pooling. She thanks you for the help with the lighthouse, then announces that your reward is a quick death and attacks.
You can clear the remaining marauders before talking to her, and you can grab the loot from their boat early, before they row off with it; taking it from the boat may be flagged as theft. Deeja can also be killed without a conversation and the quest still moves on. Loot her body for a note that reveals where Jaree-Ra is hiding. When you climb back out, most of the longboats and the loot are already gone, just as Deeja said.
Travel to Broken Oar Grotto
Read the note and follow it to Broken Oar Grotto, a sea cave on the coast northwest of the lighthouse. Look for several longboats pulled up on the beach near the entrance. Inside, Blackblood Marauders patrol the cave.
Defeat Jaree-Ra
Jaree-Ra stands on or around the big wooden scaffolding in the middle of the grotto, protected by more marauders and Captain Hargar. Kill him to complete the quest, then take the key from his body; it opens the chest holding the Icerunner’s stolen cargo.
Rewards
- No payment from Jaree-Ra, despite his promises.
- The Icerunner loot chest, opened with Jaree-Ra’s key (leveled random items).
- Plenty of loot in Broken Oar Grotto, including a random spell tome and roughly 300-500 gold.
- Items from the dead sailors and soldiers aboard the Icerunner.
Tips and notes
- If you already know Ahtar in Solitude, he may hand you a bounty on a captain living in Broken Oar Grotto, so both jobs can be done in one trip. The same bounty can instead come as a letter from Corpulus Vinius at the Winking Skeever, turned in to Falk Firebeard; you cannot get it from both sources.
- Enemies in Broken Oar Grotto do not respawn, so clearing it for the bounty first makes the final fight easier.
- The captain’s chest sits in the sunken ship near his quarters. It has a Master lock, but the captain carries the key.
- Torches placed in the dead lighthouse fire pit will be burning when you return from elsewhere, but the light is not visible from a distance.
- Oddly, Deeja and Jaree-Ra count as friends for the purpose of charging the Ebony Blade.
- If Broken Oar Grotto is picked during the Dawnguard quest Protecting the Bloodline, the vampire is likely to be brawling with the marauders when you arrive.
- Cut content shows an alternative where you could side with Ma’zaka and Captain Aldis against the pirates and even spare Deeja, but it never made it into the game.
