Siege on the Dragon Cult takes you into Forelhost, a mountain fortress in the Rift that was the Dragon Cult’s last great stronghold. A self-styled Captain Valmir is camped in the courtyard and wants the mask of the dragon priest Rahgot, supposedly for safekeeping. Expect a long dungeon, plenty of traps and a twist at the end that is easy to see coming if you have light fingers.
How to start
Approach Captain Valmir in Forelhost’s courtyard. He asks you to fetch the mask from inside and suggests you look for Skorm Snow-Strider’s journal, which may show a way past the collapsed sections. Follow him to the entrance. If you have a bounty, Valmir attacks you instead. Kill him and take the key to Forelhost Stronghold from his body.
Pickpocket Valmir before going in, or loot him later, and you will find Valmir’s Orders. They show he is an impostor told to pose as an officer and take the mask to Labyrinthian.
Walkthrough
Forelhost Stronghold
The first hall holds a dead Imperial by a campfire and a Dragon Cultist ghost. Its ash pile leaves a full set of Ancient Nord Armor, arrows and weapons. Pass the swinging log trap and fight more cultists at the crossroads; one of them carries a Dragon Priest Dagger. Go up the stairs and past a swinging blade trap to a room with two cultists and Skorm Snow-Strider’s journal on a table. It describes the old siege and points to a key to the well in the catacombs.
Continue through a bedroom, a smithy with ingots and ores, and a dining area. A room with coffins holds two draugr plus a cultist ghost, and its ramp leads up to a trapped chest. A corridor with burned corpses and a fire trap has a lever that opens the iron gate you passed near the start. Down the steps, a draugr guards the door to Forelhost Crypt.
Forelhost Crypt
Just inside, a table holds a grand soul gem. To the left, beyond a blade trap, a master-locked cage gate guards a spiral stair down. Pick the lock if you can and skip ahead. Otherwise go right through a long chain of crypts full of draugr, dart traps, lightning runes, spiked gates and possibly a frost atronach. Leave the loot on the trapped pedestals alone. The poison dart trap on the left one fires endlessly. In a large chamber a Draugr Wight Lord guards the Forelhost well key, kept in the chest beside his coffin. Cross the bridges above, deal with the soul gem trap and lift the bar on the door to loop back to the start.
Open the cage with the well key and descend into the flooded passages. Swim north to a cavern with quicksilver and gold ore veins, then on to a room with a note and the Restoration book The Exodus. Watch for a crushing pillar trap in the next crypt, then find the way into Forelhost Refectory.
Forelhost Refectory
Armor pieces on pedestals here trigger dart traps when taken. In the dining hall, a set of iron doors leads down past a fire rune to a garden room full of deathbell, snowberries and mountain flowers, with draugr on guard. Up the log ramp, a lever opens the iron gate you could not get through earlier. Beside the alchemy labs, Head Alchemist Froda sits dead on a throne. Notes nearby show Rahgot had her killed for disobeying him. Further up, shoot the lightning soul gem trap to disarm it, then take the glass dragon claw from the library. A master-locked door next to it holds a Honed Ancient Nord Sword and other loot. Pass the Arcane Enchanter room and its trapped chest to reach the claw door. Set it to fox, owl, snake from top to bottom.
Final battle
At the top of the stairs, draugr lords rise and Rahgot’s coffin opens. Placing a rune on the two coffins at the foot of the stairs draws their occupants out early. Rahgot fights with his staff, most likely Wall of Fire. Once he and the draugr fall, loot him for the Rahgot mask, his staff and the Forelhost balcony key. A chest on the northeast side holds more loot. Unlock the large southeast door to reach the balcony, where a Word Wall teaches part of Storm Call.
Return to Valmir
Drop down to the courtyard or walk back through the tomb. You will catch Valmir talking with a Stormcloak or Imperial soldier, from the side opposite to yours in the civil war (or, if you have not joined either side, the opposite of whoever you followed at Helgen). Valmir realises you overheard him and fumbles his words, then both men draw steel. Kill the impostor to finish the quest. His orders are on his body and hint that someone outside Skyrim hired him.
Choices and consequences
You can kill Valmir at the very start, for example with a sneak attack from range, and still clear Forelhost. The quest gets no updates along the way, but it completes when you pick up Rahgot’s mask. Showing Skorm’s journal to Valmir and looking for the well key are optional; a master lockpick can open the cage instead.
Rewards
- Rahgot, the dragon priest mask
- Rahgot’s Dragon Priest Staff
- A word of Storm Call
- Plenty of loot, including Ancient Nord gear, a Dragon Priest Dagger and the skill book The Exodus
Tips and notes
- Read Valmir’s Orders early to spoil the twist and plan your exit.
- The smithy in the Stronghold has a grindstone, anvil and workbench, which are handy for upgrading gear mid-dungeon.
- Two alchemy labs in the Refectory and the herb garden next to them make a good stop for potion makers.
