Proving Honor

Background
"'The Companions have given me one final challenge before inducting me. I'm to retrieve a fragment of Wuuthrad, the Blade of Ysgramor, from Dustman's Cairn while Farkas judges my valor."

Walkthrough
Speak to Skjor after completing Trouble in Skyrim; he will tell you that you’ve yet to prove yourself worthy of the Companions. He says you must complete one final quest before joining, and says that Farkas will be your Shield Brother and will assess your skill on the quest. Talk to Farkas and agree to meet him at Dustman’s Cairn. Farkas will temporarily replace any existing Follower.

Dustman’s Cairn
The entrance is a bit hard to see. If you asked Farkas to meet you there, he will be standing on the path beside rocks that are hard to climb. Find a better way up the small hill to a ring of stones surrounding a pit. At the south end of the pit is a set of stairs leading down into the pit. The entrance is near the bottom of the stairs.

Enter the first room; Farkas will tell you that it looks like someone has been digging here recently.

Continue down a path to a room where you will be attacked by Leveled Draugr. Once you’ve killed them, proceed through a wooden door and take the path down to a large cavern - Explore the area; pull the lever in the middle of the adjoining room to close the door behind you (trapping you inside) and trigger a cutscene. After the scene speak to Farkas about what happened.

Continue through the caves; you will be attacked by a Silver Hand. Proceed through two wooden doors. Dispatch the Silver Hands inside, and go up the stairs and past the burial urns to the next room - go through the wooden door. Continue down the path; you will encounter Silver Hands and Draugrs along the way until you reach the door to Dustman’s Crypt.

Dustman’s Crypt
You will be attacked by members of the Silver Hand upon entering the crypt. Take the side door, go across the bridge, and go right to take the path down, fighting Silver Hand and Draugr as make your way through the crypt, but if done right you can kill the draugrs laying down before they even get up to fight you, leaving only the Silver Hand to deal with. You will come to a large room with a chest containing Dustman’s Cairn Key to the left as you enter; this opens the iron door ahead. There are several Skeevers as you continue down the path. The next room contains two Frostbite Spiders followed by several Draugr.

The next iron door leads to a larger room; on the altar is the fragment you seek. Behind the altar is a word wall; approach it to learn a new word of power for Fire Breath. After retrieving the fragment you will be attacked by several waves of leveled Draugrs. At higher levels most of the enemies are Draugr Deathlords, and up to and possibly exceeding 12 Draugr Deathlords. When facing higher level enemies Farkas will be of little help, and his heavy armor will destroy any attempts at sneaking. If this room is giving you trouble, try placing runes underneath the spawn points for the Draugr to lure them out of hiding before you take the fragment. This will allow you to clear them out one at a time. Once finished go up the stairs and through the door to return to Dustman's Cairn and a quick path to the exit.

Return and Reward
Return to Jorrvaskr; Vilkas meets you at the door and asks you to follow him. Follow him to the courtyard, where Farkas vouches for you and you are formally inducted into the Companions through a cut scene.

Notable loot

 * In the first room there is a Two-Handed skill book on the table (Battle of Sancre Tor).
 * After the cutscene you will be able to find the Skyforge sword that Farkas dropped during the cutscene as Farkas doesn't pick it up.
 * Further in the Cairn their is an alcove to the north, in there you will find a chest with a Master level lock, containing two magical items and gold.
 * Be warned, if you take anything off of certain pedastals you will be shot by poison arrow traps

Bugs

 * Farkas will repeatedly talk to you throughout quest, haven't found fix and makes very hard to finish quest. (This is a problem with the scripting to Farkas, he is scripted as a guard, clear ALL your bounties in all cities before approaching Farkas and it should solve the problem)
 * As you start the quest you will need to talk to Skjor he may not be there the map will direct you to Bleakwind Basin but when you get there he will not be there and it will tell you to go back to Whiterun. So the mission will be impossible


 * Sometimes your follower won't appear at their location after the quest, especially if you talked to them while Farkas was your follower. You may find them inside the Jorrvaskr, and may be required to repay their hire fee if a mercenary.


 * Glitch encountered where the door was inaccessible, though the quest icon was hovering there; saving, exiting, and relaunching the game worked to allow access. this dungeon is on the dungeon lock outs list unless you have started this quest it will not be available to you to explore also you can not get in to if you have not started the quest on the list of (Dungeon Lock Outs)


 * Fast-travel sometimes did NOT allow Vilkas to meet on the steps. You walk into Jorrvaskr, Skjor takes the fragment and says that you must speak with the leaders to receive work. Nobody had an option for work. Quest became unfinishable. I suggest you save before you leave the Cairn. Also try fast travelling somewhere like the whiterun stables, then walking up to Jorrvaskar.


 * A workaround for the bug above is to type "setstage C02 0" in the console. I did it while standing in the Courtyard behind Jorrvaskr and it initiated the brief ceremony where Farkas vouches for you and you get inducted into the Compansions. After this, you can once again receive work from the Companion leaders, get the special forged weapon from Eorland, and proceed with the Companions storyline.
 * While walking around the Cairn a visual glitch will occur that turns most of the picture light blue. Flashes repeatedly between standed and light blue. Continuous. (PS3)
 * During the cutsceen while trapped behind the gate in Dustman's Cairn, when Farkas changes into a werewolf, he throws down his Skyforge Steel Greatsword, which sometimes results in a glitch allowing it to be picked up off the floor after the Dragonborn is released from the trap. Farkas still has the sword, however, indicating the one found is a copy. (PC)
 * (PS3) After Returning to whiterun to turn this quest in, when you are made a companion Kodlak will begin to talk to you as the meeting breaks up but there will be no dialogue prompts and the (O) Exit button will not work. The only way out is to reload the PS3. SAVE BEFORE TURNING IN THIS QUEST.
 * Draugr in the Word Wall room may respawn an infinite number of times, but may not be a bug as it may be put in on purpose as like a survive until you can leave room type thing.
 * The quest will enter the completed section of you'r journal before you have completed "returned to Jorrvaskr" (which is vital to begining the next compaions quest). I haven't found any way to fix this bug yet.
 * Sometimes farkas will say "I cannot follow you because you already have a follower". Just load your last save and try it again

Trivia
After seeing Farkas turn into a werewolf you may ask the question "The Companions are werewolves?" Farkas will respond saying "Not everyone, but all the members of the Circle are. It's a secret to everybody." This is a reference to The Legend of Zelda and the popular internet meme.