This quest is tied to the ruin of Rannveig’s Fast in Hjaalmarch. Nobody hands it to you: the ruin itself is the quest giver. Inside, a necromancer named Sild the Warlock has set a trap baited with a word wall, and the apologetic ghosts haunting the place are what is left of his previous guests.
How to start
- Travel to Rannveig’s Fast and go inside. There is no quest giver and no journal objective; the quest runs in the background as you explore.
- Two subjugated ghosts guard the entrance. They attack, but apologise while doing it – they do not want to fight you.
Walkthrough
1. Through the upper ruin
The first chamber is overgrown with plants, including two mountain flowers. The second has a subjugated ghost standing by a table of potions. The third opens onto an overlook; below it another ghost patrols near some thistle.
On the right is a door with an Apprentice lock and a chest behind it. At the back of the room stands a word wall with an empty chest in front of it – and right in front of that chest is a large trapdoor. This is Sild’s lure.
2. The word wall: avoid or spring the trap
You can reach the wall without falling by jumping onto the horseshoe-shaped ledge running along its base. That lets you learn a word of power for Kyne’s Peace and leave the way you came. If you have a follower, tell them to wait well away from the wall and the trapdoor first, or they may drop through it and drag you into the rest of the dungeon.
Alternatively, step on the trapdoor on purpose (or fall through it by accident) to meet Sild and clear the lower levels.
3. Escaping Sild’s cage
The fall lands you in a cage with an Expert lock. Sild gloats about how greed makes a fine lure and is surprised you survived the drop, then wanders off to pick a poison for his experiments. You have several ways out:
- Pick the lock while he monologues; there are lockpicks on the bodies in the water.
- Use the key from his assistant’s satchel lying on the floor next to the cage.
- Sneak and pickpocket the key from Sild if he comes close enough.
- Order a follower to open the cage, or raise Sild’s dead companion, who will open it for you.
4. Kill Sild
Sild carries his key, black mage robes and a leveled dagger, plus a staff of fireballs at higher levels. His key opens an Expert-locked chest with leveled loot. His journal describes the trap and his experiments, and the caged corpses nearby belong to the ghosts you met upstairs. The room holds plenty of potions and poisons and an alchemy lab; the lab table just right of the cage has a Stone of Barenziah. Hang around a few minutes and another unlucky bandit will drop through the trapdoor and die on impact.
5. Getting out
- Left hallway: past a ghost is a passage with a door raised by a lever. One route returns to the trapdoor room; the other leads upstairs to a second lever. The upper path crosses a bridge over the trapdoor room into a room with a ghost and an Apprentice-locked chest with gold (dead end). Opening the gate from up there also lets you sneak down on Sild instead of falling into his cage.
- Right hallway: past another ghost are a dead-end wooden door and an Expert-locked iron door that Sild’s key opens. Behind it are a chest and the way out.
Choices and consequences
The main choice is whether to deal with Sild at all. Using the ledge gets you the word of power without the dungeon below; dropping through the trap (or sneaking down via the upper levers) lets you kill him and loot his lair.
Rewards
- A word of power for Kyne’s Peace.
- Sild’s gear and key, the Expert chest’s leveled loot, a Stone of Barenziah and plenty of potions and poisons.
Tips and notes
- The quest has no journal objectives; all its stages are empty, so do not expect it to show progress in your log.
- The objectives listed here describe the natural flow of the ruin rather than in-game journal text.
- Two mountain flowers in the entrance room are easy alchemy pickings on the way in.
