Balagog gro-Nolob is an Orc living quietly at the Nightgate Inn, southeast of Dawnstar. He’s polite, well-spoken and clearly wants to be left alone. The innkeeper finds him more refined than most Orcs, and with good reason. Balagog is secretly the Gourmet, the famous chef and author of the cookbook Uncommon Taste.
Where to find them
Balagog is a long-term guest at the Nightgate Inn. He has paid for months in advance. He spends his time around the inn, walks down to the nearby lake, and helps himself to the wine in the cellar. He’s essential until his story quest begins.
Quests
Balagog is the target in the Dark Brotherhood quest Recipe for Disaster. Festus Krex sends you after Anton Virane, a friend of the Gourmet, who can be scared into giving up the chef’s real identity. Balagog was supposed to cook for the Emperor at a feast that got called off. Gaius Maro kept him in Skyrim in case plans changed again.
Your job is to kill him quietly and hide the body: stuff it into or behind a wine barrel, behind the hay, under a bed, or in the lake. You then take his place in the kitchen at Castle Dour so you can poison the Emperor with jarrin root. When confronted, Balagog insists he’s only on holiday. His reactions are a mix of bewilderment and quiet terror.
Personality & relationships
Balagog is gentle and reserved. He politely sends people to Hadring instead of chatting, and says he values his privacy. Hadring can’t even remember his name and calls him Balablob or Malaclob. The regular Fultheim reads him better, noting that the Orc seems to like people but keeps apart because he has to.
Good to know
- Despite being an Orc, the Gourmet cooks Breton food.
- Holding the Gourmet’s Writ of Passage lets you pretend to be the Gourmet later in the quest.
- Dropping his dagger into the wine barrel also counts for the optional hide-the-body objective.
- After his death, the other guests still talk about him as if he were alive.
Quick facts
- Race: Orc
- Gender: Male
- Level: 6
- Class: Rogue
- Status: Essential
- Found in: Nightgate Inn
- Base ID: 00038C6E
Also in Nightgate Inn
Race, level, class and factions read from the Skyrim game files; story details checked against community wiki articles and written in our own words.