Gloombound Mine

Description
Gloombound Mine is the only true Ebony Ore mine throughout Skyrim. The mine is located southeast of Windhelm, near the Orcish settlement of Narzulbur.

It can be accessed if you are an Orc or Blood-Kin to the Orcs by going through Narzulbur, but if you do not want to have to retrieve the The Forgemaster's Fingers to gain access you can move along the ledges on the right side of the entrance to Narzulbur. To the right of the entrance is a small hut in which a copy of Heavy Armor Forging can be found.

Several Orc miners work in the mine throughout the day and don't seem to care if you mine any of the ores. If you are not an orc or blood-kin, they will make comments about how you need to leave. The mine itself contains 16 Ebony Ore veins, 6 Iron Ore veins, and 3 pieces of Ebony Ore laying on the ground. There are 2 more pieces of ore in the bucket at the far end of the mine (it should be noted that taking the ore from the ground counts as theft and will incur a bounty). In the cart going across the bridge to the mine is another bucket with a piece of ebony ore in it. There is an Orichalcum vein, 4 pieces of ebony ore, an ebony ingot, a Smithing skill book and an apprentice level chest (under the bed) outside the mine in a small hut. There is also a full set of smithing tools outside.


 * This results in a total of 58 Ores and an Ingot, or 30 Ingots when all Ores are melted. This is more than enough for a full set of Ebony/Daedric armor including a melee weapon and a bow/shield, or two one-handed weapons for dual-wielding, assuming you have the other materials needed.

There are pockets of gas throughout the mine, as little as equipping a fire spell or a torch is enough to cause an explosion. If an explosion causes damage to any of the orcs it will be considered assault and they will attack you for your foolishness. Still, it seems the lanterns found in the mine do not cause an explosion though lanterns are proved to not be airproof.

It should also be noted that there is a spot in the mine where the ground can fall through and kill any miners on the level below and this may make the miners hostile. In addition, should any of the loose pieces of Ebony Ore be stolen - even if the theft is undetected - a group of Hired Thugs will be sent after the Dragonborn by Dushnamub. A signed contract will be in their possession as evidence of this. This will occur whether or not the Dragonborn is Blood-Kin to the orcs as the Ebony Ore is flagged as stolen regardless.

Characters
Blacksmith Miners
 * Dushnamub
 * Mogdurz
 * Bor
 * Gadba gro-Largash
 * Mul gro-Largash

Trivia

 * On occasion, the miners present in Gloombound Mine may stop the Dragonborn from reaching particular ores ("Someone else is using this"). Unless you are an Orc, the miner will not move away from the vein, but simply tell you that you are not welcome here. Because of this, players sometimes choose to kill the miners, and have permanent access to all the veins. Alternatively, you can use the wait function for an hour and they will have moved off.
 * Altan equip a pickaxe as a weapon and swing it at the rock. This will collect ores the same way and you can mine the same spot as an orc.
 * Sometimes a glitch may occur, that when you enter the mine a few days after getting all the ores, and then returning to get even more, you may not be able to mine the ores. This can be fixed by exiting and then entering the mine again.