Salty Sea-Dogs

Recover a lost shipment of Fine-Cut Void Salts for Captain Wayfinder of the Sea Squall in Dawnstar and earn a leveled gold reward.

Sailors and mead rarely mix well with valuable cargo. Captain Wayfinder, whose ship the Sea Squall is moored at Dawnstar, had a crew that got drunk and lost a shipment of rare void salts somewhere in a cave. He will pay handsomely for anyone willing to go looking. This radiant quest in the Pale sends you after a special batch of Fine-Cut Void Salts.

How to start

Talk to Captain Wayfinder at the Dawnstar docks. He explains how his crew lost the merchandise and offers good gold if you are not afraid of a little exploring.

If you stumble on the Fine-Cut Void Salts before ever meeting him, picking them up starts the quest automatically and points you straight back to Wayfinder (see the notes below to avoid a bug).

Walkthrough

Find the Fine-Cut Void Salts

The salts are placed by the radiant quest system, so their location changes from game to game. Follow the quest marker to the chosen dungeon, clear your way through, and grab the salts.

Bring the salts to Wayfinder

Return to Dawnstar and hand the salts over to the captain to complete the quest and collect your pay.

Rewards

Gold, scaled to your level:

  • Level 1-9: 500 gold
  • Level 10-19: 750 gold
  • Level 20-29: 1,000 gold
  • Level 30-39: 1,200 gold
  • Level 40+: 1,500 gold

Tips and notes

  • Found the salts first? When you meet Wayfinder, choose the option to hand them over directly. Do not ask about his story first – that can restart the quest and spawn a duplicate set that cannot be turned in.
  • Once you have the salts, the journal refers to him simply as “Wayfinder” rather than “Captain Wayfinder”.
  • As with other leveled rewards, it can pay to wait until you hit the next level bracket before turning the salts in.
  • Fine-Cut Void Salts have the same alchemical properties as ordinary void salts.

Objectives

Find the Fine-Cut Void Salts for Wayfinder
Bring the Fine-Cut Void Salts to Wayfinder

Walkthrough

Choices & consequences

Known bugs & fixes

Finding the salts before starting the quest and then asking Wayfinder about his story can create a duplicate that cannot be turned in. Sometimes the salts stay in your inventory after completion; they then never get used up in alchemy.

Lore notes

Characters in this quest

Captain Wayfinder in Skyrim: the young Nord captain of the Sea Squall in Dawnstar, who sends you after Fine-Cut Void Salts in the repeatable Salty Sea-Dogs.

Creatures you will meet

Locations

Dawnstar is the cold northern port of the Pale – a mining town plagued by nightmares, home of Jarl Skald the Elder, the Windpeak Inn and a Mythic Dawn museum.

Factions

Quest rewards

Sources checked: Fandom Elder Scrolls wiki (quest article), Skyrim game files

Salty Sea-Dogs

Quest type
Game
Quest giver
Captain Wayfinder (Sea Squall, Dawnstar)
Location
Hold
Faction
Prerequisites
None
Previous quest
Next quest
Gold
500-1,500 (leveled)
Rewards
Missable
Quest ID
FreeformShipsDawnstar