Board Thread:Mod Discussion/@comment-23371555-20140610171822/@comment-23371555-20140613155550

Name of quest: Dragons of the Shadows.

The quest starts when Odahviing is downed in any battle after you hit level 81 and defeated Alduin, causing him to make a random comment of irritation, before saying "Restore the real me, return my power!" After he makes that comment, you can probe him further on the matter, after which he replies that there was once he knew many more shouts and was much more powerful, but Alduin was afraid of him and found a way to split his soul into fragments. This weakened him until the blades made short work of him, causing him to forget all his shouts. He thus tasks you to help him regain his power as you have all the time in the world after slaying Alduin.

The first part of the quest would be to question Paarthurnax (who is now essential, the blade's quest to kill him is undoable and Parthurnaax will tell you to ignore it) Odahviing's story. Paarthurnax confirms it as true, saying that Odahviing ranked among the mightiest dragons of his day, along with a few others, but he was weakened when Alduin turned paranoid and manipulated the people of the land into ripping the powers from him, before sealing them away. Paarthurnax tells you further that the power of the dragons are locked in places that can only be accessed by a certain "amulet of tears", which was created as a key to the vaults that stored the dragon powers. To open the vaults, one also needs to wield the dragonbane.

The second part would be to retrieve the fragments of the amulet. The ones who had sealed Odahviing's powers originally were all from different races, each providing the amulet with a drop of blood. Their descendants hold on to the fragments of the amulet, which was split equally among them. The ones who hold the amulet fragments are:

Khajit - J'zargo, who can be killed, persuaded, bribed or intimidated into giving up the amulet (speech checks are hard). If his quest is done, he will give up the fragment after a brawl or the usual speech check (rendered to medium).

Nord - Arngeir, who needs lots of persuasion to part with it.

Breton - Delphine, who can be killed, persuaded or intimidated. Speech checks are next to impossible.

Imperial - General Tullius, who can be bribed, persuaded or intimidated for it. If he is killed already, one can pick up his fragment from his room in castle dour.

Dunmer - Talvas, you must complete his quests and have him as a follower, he will sell the fragment. You can also kill him for it.

Altmer - Calcelmo, who will sell it to you, or you can brawl with him for it. If you killed Acaintor during the TG questline, you can browbeat him for the fragment easily.

Bosmer - A random encounter, who will attack you when you have gained 5 fragments

Redguard - Nazeem (lol). You must kill him for it, for he doesn't give the amulet to you in any way

Argonian - Derkeethus, who will give it to you after you free him and have a brawl against him

Once you gain 2 fragments (from any 2 people), you can open the first vault with dragonbane, located at the southern mountain ranges. It is a typical nord dungeon, except every draugr is a deathlord who uses full ebony gear, a leveled one handed enchanted weapon and powerful frost spells like ice storm. The final boss is a dragon priest guarding the first vault, who has unlimited magicka and a unique set of robes. He casts all spells from all destruction schools and is capable of using fire stream, frost stream and one handed lightning storm. If you close in on him, he uses a dragonbone sword with a pure black blade, enchanted with chaos and lifeleech, called "dark affinity" (60 chaos, 100 lifeleech enchant, never runs out of charge) to attack you. Killing him drops his sword and a heavy armor mask which increases destruction damage by 50% and reduces destruction cost by 50%. On unsealing the dragon vault, the thread of power flies through a skylight and on summoning Odahviing again outside, he will have both frost and fire breath, as well as increased health, magic resist and armor. Some of the power spills onto you and your time to recharge shouts is reduced by 20%. Dragonbane will immediately level up to its max level and it's enchantment strengthens to 60 extra damage to dragons, 20 extra shock damage to people, consumes charges half as fast. Also, the blade turns black.

Once you gain 4 fragments, you can open the second vault with dragonbane, this vault is located in the middle of the plains of whiterun, which has no enemies at the start, but many traps, all triggered by motion detectors, which means light foot will not work. One must plan their path to navigate the traps and triggering one will deal massive damage. The end of the vault is another boss, this time a spectre wielding a black dragonbone greatsword called shadow's link, enchanted similarly to the "dark affinity", wearing a black dragonbone curiass (imagine dragonbone crossed with daedric) that reduces all spell cost by 25%, increases magicka regen by 125% and gives 20% magic resist. Defeating him will allow you to loot his items and open the second vault, releasing another thread of power, some of which spills onto you. Odahviing again gains increased health, armor and magic resist, as well as faster health regen, drain vitality and the ability to cast lightning storm from his mouth. His overall damage also increases. You will gain another power that increases the power of your shouts by 30% (strength and duration). The dragonbane enchantment turns red and the hilt turns black as well, the sword now deals 70 extra damage to dragons and 30 extra shock damage.

Once you gain 6 fragments, the next vault can be opened, located in the ice sheets north of winterhold. A portal transports you to an arena like area, the vault containing the powers in the middle. 4 gates will spawn multiple waves of enemies to fight you, all levelled to be difficult. It will finally spawn a mage, who is wearing a pair of black dragonbone gauntlets, enchanted with fortify one handed, archery and two handed 60%, fortify unarmed 30 points and a pair of black dragonbone boots enchanted with muffle, fortify carry weight 60 points and fortify flame, shock and frost resist 35%. Kill him and loot his gear, then open the vault to release the powers once more. Again, Odahviing's stats increase further and he is capable of using unrelenting force, dismay, marked for death and cyclone. His shouts all cooldown at double speed. Also, you gain a third passive which increases all damage you do by 15%, your dragon aspect gains double duration and the bonuses go up by 20%. The edge of dragonbane glows red and the blade deals 85 extra to dragons and 40 shock.

Gaining the 8th fragment will allow you to open the 4th vault with dragonbane, located north of Markath. The fourth vault is an extremely difficult puzzle, explained in minor detail by a book present in front of the inner vault the contains the power. Every try of the puzzle, if not successful, summons 2 legendary dragons to attack the player. If successful, a spectral shade of Alduin is released. He must be defeated to release the next thread of power, which empowers Odahviing further, giving him even higher health and stats. He also gains the shout ice form, battle fury (to buff you), a healing breath (to heal you), the power to summon 3 atronachs simultaneously, a frost, a storm and a flame and the passive "dragonborn force". The vault grants a 4th passive that makes bend will cool down faster and last longer. The red parts of dragonbane will turn blue and the sword deals 95 extra to dragons, 45 shock to everything, plus it runs out of charge at one third the speed of the original. Also, you gain a black ring that give the following effects: fortify all spells 25%, all spells last 25% longer, are 25% stronger, poisons applied on weapons have 50% more effect.

Gaining the final amulet fragment, you must talk to Paarthurnax to reforge the amulet, which he does. The amulet, now complete, gives plus 60 to all stats, 25% increased attack speed and 100% faster stamina regen. You must open the final vault, located in the throat of the world. This vault is practically the first and the second vault combined, filled with traps and extremely powerful enemies. The end is again a difficult puzzle, except failing releases levelled enemies, not dragons. Opening the final vault, a guy in full daedric armor (the red replaced by blue), minus the helm steps out (instead with a black aetherial crown), wielding a sword that looks like a glass sword hilt combined with a dwarven sword blade that is blue (same color as aetherium) and a shield that looks like a black spellbreaker, the middle with an aetherium crest. You must kill him too unlock the final powers and again, some of it spills onto you. His gear is even stronger, with the following enchants:

Circlet - heavy armor, 100 armor rating base, increase destruction damage by 100%, reduces cost of destruction by 65%, resist flame, shock and frost by 20%

Curiass - heavy armor, 350 armor rating base, reduce cost of all spell schools by 35%, increase magicka and stamina regen by 175% and resist magic 30%

Gauntlets - heavy armor, 50 base rating, increase one handed, archery and 2 handed damage by 80%, fortify unarmed 30 points, increase attack speed by 25%

Boots - heavy armor, 50 base rating, Muffle, fortify carry weight 100, no falling damage, resist fire, frost and shock by 25%

The sword, known as Aetherial Simulacrum - 22 base damage, attacks 20% faster than a normal sword, deals 150 lifeleech, never needs recharging. Power attacks release a blue energy ribbon like that from the bloodskaal blade, dealing 120 lifeleech to everything it cuts through. 10 carry weight, needs dragon smithing, a dwarven, ebony, moonstone, orichalum and malachite ingot to improve.

The shield is known as the darkwarden and is provides no armor rating, but creates a ward that blocks up to 150 incoming damage, be it physical or magical. Blocking consumes 15 stamina a second. Bashing with it shatters the ward with an unrelenting force effect.

Odahviing will be upgraded once more, reaching a final stat of 6500 hp, 65% magic resist, 300 armor. He will be able to storm call, summon Alduin's meteor rain and create a spectral dragon to aid in battle.

You will gain the final passive perk, which makes you immune to paralysis and resist stagger by 25%

The dragonbane reaches it's final evolution as well, the whole blade glowing blue. It deals 17 base damage, 135 extra damage to dragons and dragonrends them, 50 extra shock damage and power attacks cause it to fire out a bolt of lightning that dragonnrends dragons and cause 60 shock damage.

The consequences, though, for opening the vaults is that the power of the dragons is returned to them, thus all dragons become more powerful by 35%. Also, a new class of dragon (known only as daedric? dragons, yes, with the question mark) starts to attack you, looking like black revered dragons with a blue aura. They all can drain vitality, cast lightning storm from their mouth and use both frost and fire breath (all are much more damaging). They also summon fire wyrms and atronachs to distract and damage you and they can unrelenting force. They have 3 times the health of a legendary dragon and they always drop 1000 plus gold, multiple daedric items, misc ingots and gems. They have a 65% chance of ignoring dragonrend as well, plus archery and magic deal one third the damage to them.

Also, at the end, you can talk to Paarthurnax to start a new game plus (by using a new shout on an elder scroll), where your levels and perks will be saved, but almost everything else will be gone. You will retain up to 86 levels (your perk points are refunded), the Aetherial simulacrum sword and the "amulet of tears", which is upgraded to up all stats by 75, increase all regens by 100%. Also, you still encounter all the max leveled enemies. Dragonbane retains its characteristics and so does Odahviing (which makes fighting him later a chore!). You also retain all the passives granted during the quest, doing the quest again grants nothing new and you can ask Paarthurnax for new game plus anytime. Also, Paathurnax provides you with a chest with up to 150 carry weight, you can put your favourite stuff there and get it back in the new game plus