Siege on the Dragon Cult

 is a quest in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Talking to Captain Valmir at the entrance of Forelhost starts the quest. He asks you to retrieve a mask for him out of the caves. The mask he is referring to is a Dragon Priest Mask known as Rahgot. He also, as an optional task, asks you to find Skorm Storm-Strider's Journal.

Captain Valmir
If you pickpocket the Captain and read "Valmir's Orders" (or you will get these orders at the end of the quest), you will find out that Captain Valmir is an impostor. The orders read: "You will proceed to the ruins of Forelhost to retrieve the Mask from the Dragon Cult there. If you are discovered, impersonate an officer. It is unlikely that anyone from Skyrim will be clever enough to see through the disguise. Once you have obtained the Mask, bring it to Labyrinthian ".....very interesting...I'm guessing this has something to do with the Dragon Priest Mask quest?

Undead
Once inside Forelhost, you will encounter many undead dragon cult Draugr. Some are Draugr 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 entrance 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 (Scourge's). These are pretty hard, and are usually accompanied by a few friends (some of them even summon Frost Atronach's).

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!

Misc Materials
There are quite a bit of misc items and materials in this dungeon. In the room with the dead spider, there is one gold ore vein, one quicksliver vein, and a lot of glowing mushrooms. There are a lot of alchemy materials in a few rooms since some of the undead are/were alchemists. There are a few alchemy tables. There is also an enchantment table right before entering the final room. There are some rooms with smithing materials and forge/grindstone/work bench (no smelter that I saw). There are a LOT of other random things in here, if you want to load up, make sure you are really light before entering (or do multiple trips back to a merchant).

Journal
As you progress through the dungeon, you will eventually find Skorm Storm-Strider's Journal. 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. Reading the journal is pretty interesting and details Skorm's adventures leading him to the dungeon and discovering the Dragon Cult. He mentions something about a key and that it should be found in the dungeon.

Dragon Claw key
The Dragon Claw Key for this dungeon is the Glass Claw. It can be found in the room where you are attacked by a bunch of Draugr's and a soul gem is shooting lightning at you. The claw is found on one of those waist high, dark gray pillars (mine was actually on the ground...it must have gotten knocked off the pillar during the crazy fight with all the Draugr). As you pick it up off the pillar, the little platform that it is laying on will rise. This will close a gate near you, blocking your passage. You have to find something else to place on the pillar to reopen the gates (for PS3 version of the game, just move your cursor over a loot-able item, and hold down your X button. This will physically pick up the item, not place it in your inventory. To drop it, just press X again. The PC and Xbox versions allow you to do the same, using their respective 'activation' keys).

This claw will open the Nordic puzzle door which leads to the final battle. Pattern from top to bottom is wolf, owl, snake.

End battle
Just passed the Nordic puzzle door, you will enter a fairly large room where you will do battle with Rahgot and a few of his buddies. He is a mage and uses his staff to cast a firewall spell. Drink your fire resist potions before the fight if you have thin skin. Kill him and loot the mask.

He will also have a key on him that will let you open the door in his lair. Once you are finished searching the room for random loot, head out the big doors (with the key). Once you are outside, you will be on a ledge just above where Captain Valmir is. DO NOT fall/jump off the ledge yet. Head to your right and you will see a Dragon Shout wall where you will learn the Storm Call shout (calls down a lightning storm to blast your foes...and it actually changes the weather too...pretty awesome!). After that, jump down and talk to Captain Valmir. Note that if you DO jump down before getting the shout, you can get back up using the structure around the entrance to Forelhost. It takes a bit of jumping, sliding, and using slight out-croppings on the wall to get up, but it's better than running through the dungeon again.

He is trying to lure another soldier into the dungeon to retrieve the mask. As soon as he sees you, he stumbles on his words trying to make up an excuse, but then realizes that he has been caught and attacks you. The soldier attacks you as well, but they both die very easily. As soon as the Captain is dead, the quest is complete. Loot his corpse.

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).


 * This isn't really a glitch, but if the Dragon Claw is not on one of the pillars as described above, look around on the floor. When I did this dungeon, the Dragon Claw got knocked off of the pillar during the fight and I ended up finding it on the floor amungst other debris.


 * Sometimes the puzzle door won't open, regardless of whether your puzzle combonation is Wolf,Owl,Snake. Preventing you from getting the mask and the storm call word.