Black Book: The Hidden Twilight is one of the Dragonborn add-on’s Black Book quests. Opening the book drops you straight into Apocrypha, the endless library-realm of Hermaeus Mora, where you have to find the hidden knowledge at the end of a winding maze of chapters. Reward: one of three powers, and the eternal smell of old paper.
How to start
Simply read the Black Book called The Hidden Twilight. The quest begins the moment the tentacles grab you. If you want out before finishing, read the book again to escape. Neloth hands you this book as a reward for Reluctant Steward, so that is the usual way to obtain it on Solstheim.
Walkthrough
The realm is split into numbered chapters. Each chapter usually holds a scrye, a glowing device that raises stairs, extends bridges or opens doors when activated, plus a book that acts as the portal to another chapter. Expect seekers nearly everywhere and a few lurkers in the bigger rooms.
Chapter 1
Use the scrye and walk through to the book for Chapter 2. A lootable pod sits beneath the platform. (A shortcut also starts here, see the alternative route below.)
Chapter 2
Follow the path into a large room guarded by seekers; fight or sprint past them and climb the stairs. The next scrye raises a bridge that rolls up and away behind you, so run as it lifts and jump from platform to platform until you reach the second bridge, which behaves the same way. Where the path forks, the left side leads to a pod and an altar holding books, soul gems and sometimes a spell tome. The right side continues to Chapter 3.
Chapter 3
This is the hub. Every path ends in a big room; a pod hides off the far left path. A seeker waits at the top of the stairs, but just inside the room two ramps lead up to the same spot where a scrye is waiting. Activating it brings out the central stairs. Go through into the next room, deal with the lurker, then follow the hallway to the right of the stairs to find the book for Chapter 4.
To push on through Chapter 3 itself, climb the second staircase and ramp to another scrye. This opens the door at the first stairs; continue up between the book stacks to yet another scrye. Behind the next door, two hallways patrolled by a single seeker meet in a room with two pods. Past it, a corridor ends at two more books: Chapters 5 and 6.
Chapter 4
Kill or avoid the seeker at the start and use the scrye to open a door, then head back to the hall leading to Chapter 3.
Chapter 5
Another seeker greets you. The scrye here opens the next door from Chapter 4, and the following room holds a pod and an altar with five skill books: Before the Ages of Man, 2920, vol 09 – Hearth Fire, Breathing Water, Racial Phylogeny and A Hypothetical Treachery. Then return to Chapter 3.
Chapter 6
The paths here simply lead to a room with the books for Chapters 7 and 8.
Chapter 7
Past the opening seeker, the scrye extends the bridge in Chapter 8. Go back to Chapter 6 afterwards.
Chapter 8
One more seeker at the start. Before the bridge, an altar on the far left holds soul gems. Two lurkers guard the bridge itself; defeat or evade them and activate the scrye. Across the bridge you find a pod, two altars and the Black Book whose reading completes the quest.
Alternative route
On first entering Chapter 1, go right instead of into Chapter 2. You reach a wide area with a little island in the middle of a poisonous lake. That island is actually Chapter 7. Crossing safely needs something like a fully charged Whirlwind Sprint, Become Ethereal, Ahzidal’s Boots of Waterwalking, a werewolf power sprint or the Vampire Lord form. Activate the scrye there, hop back to Chapter 6, enter Chapter 8, handle the lurkers and read the book.
Rewards
Reading the final book lets you pick one Secret, and only one:
- Mora’s Agony – conjures a patch of writhing tentacles that poison enemies.
- Mora’s Grasp – traps the target between Oblivion and Tamriel for 30 seconds, during which it cannot be damaged.
- Mora’s Boon – restores 1,000 points of Health, Magicka and Stamina.
Along the way you can also loot pods, soul gems, the five skill books in Chapter 5 and possibly a spell tome in Chapter 2.
Tips and notes
- The two lurkers in Chapter 8 can be shot from the bridge or the end platform with arrows, bolts or spells. They will not come forward and only answer with very weak ranged attacks, which makes them easy prey.
- If things go badly, reading the book again pulls you back to Tamriel.
