The Black Star (Quest)

Background
"Aranea, a priestess of Azura, says I am destined to find an elven man, who can turn the brightest star as black as the night. She believes he is in Winterhold."

- The Dragonborn

Years ago, Malyn Varen was exiled from The College of Winterhold for pursuing questionable research with Soul Gems. Malyn was trying to find a way to prolong his life, and he believed that storing his soul inside the Daedric Artifact Azura's Star would prevent him from dying. Unfortunately for him, one of the properties of the Star was that black souls&mdash;the souls of sentient, mortal beings&mdash;could not enter it. As such, he began experiments to modify the Star's properties so that it would accept black souls. The further Malyn progressed toward this goal, the more Azura tormented him. The artifact slowly drove Malyn insane, causing him to hear voices and see people that were not there, and eventually, to murder one of his students. After this, he left the college, collected a band of followers, and continued his research at Ilinalta's Deep, an abandoned Imperial outpost that had mostly collapsed into the adjoining river. There, he continued his work, eventually succeeding in capturing his own soul inside the modified Azura's Star and achieving a state of immortality.

Outset
To receive this quest, the Dragonborn must talk with Aranea Ienith at the Shrine of Azura, south of Winterhold. She will tell you that the Daedric goddess has chosen you as her champion, and you must find an elf who can turn the brightest star to the darkest night. You can find this elf in Winterhold's The Frozen Hearth inn.

Talk to Dagur and ask him about the elf. He will tell you that the elf is called Nelacar, and that he has a rented room.

Talk to Nelacar and you can persuade, intimidate, or bribe the necessary information from him. He will tell you that his mentor, Malyn Varen, was experimenting with Azura's Star, and that the last known location of Malyn was Ilinalta's Deep.

Ilinalta's Deep can be found west of Riverwood. There is a trap door atop a partially submerged tower that leads into the underground complex.

Ilinalta's Deep
After entering, go past the crucified skeleton and enter a flooded room with a partially open doorway on the left. Walk through the doorway and down the subsequent hallway. Following the hallway is a small room containing a Skeleton and the first of many Conjurers (Necromancers at higher levels) found throughout the dungeon. In the next room are two more Conjurers, and a Skeleton lurks in the room on the left, which contains some food and a Potion of Water Breathing.

The door on the right leads to the next area, which contains a Conjurer, a Skeleton, and a wolf. The underwater passage behind the waterfall on the left leads to a hidden room with a chest and a Breathing Water Skill Book floating near the ceiling. Rather than teach the Water Breathing spell, the book increases the Alteration skill by one level.

The right-hand passage in the previous room leads to two Conjurers and a Skeleton. There is a small sleeping quarters to the left, as well as an Arcane Enchanter, an Alchemy Lab, and several useful pieces of loot. The door on the right has an Apprentice lock, with a chest and some potions on the other side.

At the end of the next passage is a high-level Conjurer, on the far side of a flooded depression that cuts across the room. There is a partially submerged stairway on the far side of the depression that can be used to approach the Conjurer from the safety of the water. Under the water near the stairs is a door with an Adept lock. Loot on the other side includes a leveled Soul Gem and a chest containing a Spell Tome, potions, and gold.

Back in the partially flooded area, a door on the left with an Apprentice lock opens onto a small room with a couple potions and alchemical ingredients. Up the stairs on the far side of the room is a door locked by a timber bar. Activate the bar to move it and go through the door to come onto a small landing area. Follow the landing to the right and through another door which leads to the final section of the dungeon, Ilinalta's Deluge.

Follow the path down to reach an area with two Conjurers. There is a chest, and quite a few potions and Soul Gems scattered throughout this room and the smaller one to the right. The door to the left leads down a path, through another door, and into a room populated by a Conjurer and a Skeleton, with cages along both walls. Through the door at the end of the room is a set of stairs opening onto a medium-sized room with a high-level Conjurer and four Skeletons. There is no loot in here, so continue straight up the stairs to the left.

In the room at the top of the stairs, Malyn Varen's skeleton sits peacefully in a chair, with the Broken Azura's Star at its feet. Also in the room is a chest with a small amount of loot. With the Broken Azura's Star in hand, the dungeon can be exited via the ladder that leads to the ceiling.

Cleansing the Star
There are now two options to fix the Broken Azura's Star: give it to Aranea Ienith, or give it to Nelacar. Speaking to the desired NPC with the Broken Azura's Star in one's inventory will begin this final step. Note: the rewards for this choice are described at the bottom of this section. Whichever option is chosen, the Dragonborn must enter the Star to cleanse it of Malyn Varen's soul. The Dragonborn is warped out of the Star several seconds after defeating Malyn inside, regardless of the status of Malyn's three Dremora henchmen.

With the Dremora's powerful fireballs complementing his own formidable lightning attacks, Malyn Varen can prove quite a challenge. One option for those having trouble is to focus on killing Malyn as quickly as possible, then avoid the Dremora until the Dragonborn is warped out of the Star. Whirlwind Sprint can be used to close the gap and begin attacking Malyn as quickly as possible. Ice Form is also useful, as it keeps Malyn from running away at the fight's outset. Slow TIme can also be useful to slow him down but could lead to your death of the dremora's fireballs.

Repeated use of Conjure Flame Atronach or the Sanguine Rose is an effective answer to both the Dremora and Malyn himself: the summoned minion absorbs attacks and deals damage, all while allowing the Dragonborn to attack from a safe distance. Alternatively, one could incapacitate the Dremora using Ice Form or Voice of the Emperor, then focus on Malyn or engage the Dremora one at a time. An Invisibility Potion, a high Sneak skill, and the Assassin's Blade perk can also be used to defeat Malyn unmolested, or to tackle the Dremora individually.

Another effective tactic, provided that you have enough soul gems, is to use the staff of Magnus to drain the Dremora's magicka while they attack a conjured familiar or atronach. The staff drains magic and then health very quickly, so provided you can survive their fireball attacks they will die within around 30 seconds.

The Atronach Stone can be useful here as it absorbs a portion of incoming spell damage, as can The Lord Stone thanks to its increase to Magicka resistance. Potions that grant resistance to Magicka, fire, or shock are also effective, as are weapons imbued with Damage Magicka via potions or enchanting.

Once Malyn's soul has been defeated, the Dragonborn is pulled out of the Star, thanked, and given either a working Azura's Star by Aranea Ienith, or The Black Star by Nelacar. The former can trap only white souls&mdash;those of non-sentient creatures&mdash;while the latter, according to Nelacar, can trap only black souls&mdash;the souls of sentient beings. In actuality, however, The Black Star can hold either white or black souls, just like a Black Soul Gem.

Additionally, bringing the Star to Aranea makes her available as a follower. While giving the Star to Nelacar does not provide a companion option, The Black Star has the advantage of a much more abundant source of Grand Souls, as all black souls are of the Grand level. Meanwhile, only white souls from exceptionally powerful monsters, typically unique bosses, are Grand Souls.

Bugs

 * If the Dragonborn is killed by the Dremora after Malyn is dead, but before being removed from inside the Star, the game will then reload at the last autosave. When the quest is tried again, it has already been completed, and the Star remains broken and unusable. Other times, the wrong autosave is loaded, and the Dragonborn will have the Broken Star but will still receive the chosen fixed Star. The quest will not end, making it possible to turn the extra Broken Star into another working Star. (Confirmed? Getting two Stars: yes [one fixed one broken]; getting the quest again: no )


 * If the Dragonborn is in werewolf form upon leaving the Star, Aranea will attack, even if the Dragonborn is incapacitated speaking with Azura. If the Dragonborn is killed in this way, when the game loads the autosave from within the Star, it will crash.


 * When Nelacar takes the Broken Star for examination, sometimes he never says anything, and trying to activate him simply prompts a "This person is busy" message. The quest cannot be advanced beyond this point, making getting either Star impossible. There have been reports of fixing this glitch by attacking Nelacar with a weapon until he passes out. (Confirmed on Xbox 360)


 * After completing the first section of Ilinalta's Deep, some people have found the path to Ilinalta's Deluge blocked by a boulder, as it is before the quest is activated. Leaving the dungeon and reentering seems to fix this.


 * Sometimes, the Dragonborn may be unable to pick up the Broken Azura's Star upon finding it. This can be fixed by using a Destruction spell on it, which will knock it to a new location in the room. It can then be picked up.


 * The Dremora inside the Star can be revived repeatedly using the Revenant spell. This can be abused to level up the Conjuration skill indefinitely, along with whatever offensive skill is used to kill the Dremora.


 * When the Dragonborn is looking for the mage who studies the stars, if Nelacar is spoken to first, he will confess that he is that mage and tell you about the next part of the quest. Afterward, if other people in the area are spoken to about the mage, they will still tell you to try talking to Nelacar, and the "Talk to Nelacar" part of the quest will be impossible to complete. Luckily, this does not affect completion of the quest as a whole.


 * It is possible to receive this quest again after completing it, by meeting a Dark Elf on a pilgrimage to the shrine. The quest cannot be advanced past talking to Aranea, however.
 * Another bug in this quest is directly after getting transported out of the star. This bug is capable of sending the player to a location near Ilinata's Deep. The player will be slowly 'floating' down and cannot move, jump, or fast travel. The player has to wait for their character to touch the ground before they can resume normal control over their character again.
 * Aranea may be hostile on your first visit for no known reason. This can be fixed with a calming abllty like Voice of the Emperor.
 * There may be a bug in which no matter whom you take the star to cleanse it, you will be stuck inside after killing everyone. This renders the quest incompletable, and you will have to load a previously saved game.