Siege on the Dragon Cult

SIEGE ON THE DRAGON CULT

BLUF: This is a short synopsis, with some hints/tips. I have not completed the dungeon yet (will update when I do).

So I started this quest last night at lvl 18 (on adept difficulty). Talking to Captain Valmir at the enterance of Forelhost starts the quest. He asks you to retrieve a mask for him out of the caves. He also (as an optional task) asks you to find his friends journal.

This is a fairly big dungeon. It took me about 3 hours before coming to a stopping point, including taking time to reload quite a few times from deaths and glitches.

UNDEAD:

Once entering the cave, you will encounter many undead dragon cult Draugr. Some are ghosts, and they were invisible until they saw me. One thing I found interesting was that I could sneak around, and as long as I didn't attack, they would "detect" me, but they wouldn't attack me. The "hidden" and "detected" indicator would change back and forth as the ghost moved around, which would increase my sneak skill fairly quickly. After initiating an attack on me, they remained in ghost form (opaque with a blue hue) until I hit them, either with a spell or weapon, which would make them appear in physical form.

The undead at the enterance aren't that difficult, but as you get deeper into the dungeon, you will encounter melee and mage undead, as well as ones that can actually do dragon shouts (undead Dragonborn??). These are pretty hard, and are usually accompanied by a few friends (some of them even summon frost golems).

TRAPS:

There are a lot of traps in this dungeon. There are floor plates that trigger various traps. Some of the chests are trapped. There are swinging axes in slim hallways. There are mage runes in random spots that blast you if you get too close. There are trigger plates that lift when you take an item that is sitting on them. There are soul gems that are rigged to shoot lightning or frost at you (high damage) if you get in line of sight with it (these are wicked and will drop you fast). There is even a room that I found where the floor raises up as you step on it and impales you with spikes in the ceiling. Be cautious!

JOURNAL:

As you progress through the dungeon, you will eventually find the journal that the Captain was speaking about. It is just sitting on a desk. Don't bother bringing it back to the Captain right away. He just complains that you haven't found the mask yet..lol. Reading the journal is pretty interesting and details his troops adventures through this dungeon. He does mention something about a key and that it should "probably" be found in the dungeon.

DRAGONCLAW KEY:

So I made my way through all the traps, and tough undead. Eventually I came to a door with one of those "dragon claw" key holes. Unfortunately I do not have the dragonclaw key yet. The journal hints that the "key" is somewhere in the dungeon. I went all the way back to the entrance and talked to the Captain to see if he had it, or if he would be able to give me a clue after showing him the journal...but he was no help. I must have just missed the key. I am going to go back in tonight, now that all the mobs are dead and I can take my time and look around carefully.

GLITCHES:

In the hallways with the swinging axes, my companion would get hit with the axe. As the axe hit her, she would get pushed into the wall and disappear (with a loud, disgusting sounding "squish" sound...lol).