The Black Star (Quest)

Overview

 * Prerequisite: N/A
 * Quest Giver: Aranea
 * Reward: Azura's Star/The Black Star
 * Reputation Gain: N/A

Although there is no required level it is recommended that you do this quest early on because the daedra won't be as hard and you can get the maximum benefit of Azura's Star/The Black Star.

Quick video guide can be found Here

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 (City).'"

Walkthrough
To receive this quest you need to talk with Aranea Ienith at the Shrine of Azura. She will tell you that the goddess Daedra has chosen you as her champion, and you must find an elf who can turn the brightest star in 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 and blackmail the necessary information from him. He will tell you that his mentor, Malyn Varen was experimenting with Azura's Star, and the last known location of Malyn was Ilinalta's Deep.

Ilinalta's Deep is west of Riverwood, there is a trap door on the side of the hill leading underground.

Ilinalta's Deep Walkthrough
Upon entering you will see a crucified skeleton, go past it and enter into a room flooded with a partially open doorway on your left, you go through the passage and enter a hallway.

Following the hallway you will find a small room where you will be facing a skeleton and a magician. Take all the loot in the room and open the next door. In the next area are two mages; kill them and then you have two paths, take the first left that leads to a room protected by a single skeleton and which has great loot and then open the right door and follow the path.

After passing through the hallway you will enter a room with a flooded area (if you swim under water there is a hallway leading to a flooded room, a Skill book called "Water Breathing" floating to the ceiling and a chest with minor loot) on the left and the right one passage, the passage is protected by a magician, a wolf and a skeleton archer. After killing them, on the left wall of the room there is an underwater passage that leads to a flooded room with 2 chests with great loot, however the path is too small. Go to the back door, and you will face a skeleton warrior.

Continue along the path left and you will face three necromancers. Continue on and you will find an alchemy table to renew potions and a table of enchantment to improve a weapon. From this room you must go through the passage on the left to get some more loot and the right has a locked apprentice level door. Inside the room is a chest with Spell Tomes, potions, gold. After all exploration follow the corridor ahead. Continuing down the hall you'll come to a room guarded by two skeletons warriors. The middle of the room will be flooded and another part on the bottom while diving you'll see a locked door, behind which is a chest with some more loot. Cross the water and then open the left door. Following the hallway you'll find a closet with little loot, continue down the hallway and you'll see a locked door to your right, do the same process to save and enter the door, grab the loot and continue down the hall. open the door and find the next passage: the continuation of Ilinalta's Deep.

Follow the path and you'll find a room guarded by two wise men, kill them grab the loot, then go for a right hand door open it and grab the loot potions, then go down the hall to the left, and you take the passage come to an aisle of cells guarded by a magician and a skeleton warrior, kill them and go through the door ahead. You then arrive at a partially flooded room with an altar guarded by mages and skeletons, kill them, followed by the right staircase flooded loot in two skeletons and left you come to a room full of skeletons in the ground and one on a chair, there is no danger in this room grab all the loot and exit the room by the ladder that goes to the ceiling.

Now you have two options to fix the Broken Azura's Star; give the star to Nelacar or to Aranea Ienith.

Turning in to Nelacar
If you decide to go to Nelacar at the Frozen Hearth in Winterhold, he warns that if he tries to fix it, only black souls will be able to enter the star from now on. When he tries to fix the star he finds out he needs Malyn Varen's soul dead, so he has the brilliant idea of ​​sending your soul into the star and get you out of it when you kill the soul of Malyn Varen. By agreeing to the idea he will suck your soul and place it inside the star, there you will find Malyn Varen that will attack you and then run away, to go after him you will come across three Daedra mages (sort depending on level) who use strong melee attacks and powerful fireball spells. After you kill them, loot them and go after Malyn Varen who is a lot weaker than those Daedra. Nelacar will repair and give you the Black Star.

Turning in to Aranea Ienith
If you decide to deliver the star to Aranea Ienith, go to the Shrine of Azura and speak with Aranea Ienith and deliver the star to the goddess Azura for her concert star. After a moment she'll ask you to talk to Azura, who will tell you that the soul of Malyn Varen is inside the star and she needs to send you into it to kill Malyn Varen. By agreeing to the idea she will suck out your soul and place it inside the star. There you will find Malyn Varen, who will attack you and then run away. Go after him and you will come across three Daedra mages, (sort depending on level), who use strong melee attacks and powerful fireball spells. After you kill them, loot them and go after Malyn who is much weaker than the Deadra. Take all the loot and kill him. Azura will then pull you back to your body, thank you, and give you Azura's Star.

Strategy for defeating Malyn Varen
If you are having an exceedingly difficult time getting past his daedric mages to kill him, try using the Ice Form shout. Line it up so they all freeze when they gang up on you, then ONLY hit Malyn. Otherwise if you do not have this shout or find you die before you can gather up the mages, then try bringing lots of fire and magic resistance potions and use your whirlwind shout to charge Malyn. Run around dodging the fireballs until you are pulled out of the artifact, you will miss out on some Daedric Hearts this way but at least the star is yours!

Alternatively, use ranged attacks to take Malyn out as quickly as possible, ignoring the Dremora. It might be a good idea to use the Whirlwind shout to get to the first corner, then immediately turn and start firing, as you need to be quick. A few seconds after you kill Malyn, Nelacar will pull you out, regardless of how many Daedra are left. Again, you miss out on the hearts, but get the star much easier.

Always keep this item because this is certainly one of the best items in the game. It works as a re-usable Soul Gem that fits any size of souls, and never disappears from your inventory.

Another strategy for beating Malyn Varen:
Equip the following things at start: Conjure the flame atronach at the first corner, back off and wait for all 3 mages to gather at that point. Conjure another one if needed. If all 3 mages are within range, use your voice of the emperor to calm down the mages.(Shout key) Don't attack them, just run downstairs. Should be an easy fight if you switch back to your favorite equipment halfway down. You still have to beat Malyn in 60 seconds before the voice wears off.
 * Conjure Flame Atronach
 * Voice of the Emperor (Calm)

Strategy #2

Equip the following things to start: Conjure the Flame Atronach right away and wait for the Daedra mages to attack it, then use dual Frostbite on the mages as they attack it one at a time(this should kill them rather quickly). Once all the mages are dead enter sneak mode and wait until you are hidden again to move. Make your way down to Malyn, using the enchanted bow perform a sneak attack (3 shots if you do not have the Deadly Aim perk, 2 shots if you do). Using this method allows you to still grab the Deadra hearts and loot before leave the star.
 * Conjure Flame Atronach
 * Frostbite
 * Any enchanted bow

An easy strategy for beating Malyn Varen, or any other archmage who lives in a tower with a winding staircase...:
Level: I was level 14 when I ran into this quest line. Equipment to bring:

Fortify Health potions, Fortify Magicka potions, 1 or 2 elemental daggers - I used lightning and fire, Damage Magicka Regen potions - this is key, Summon Flame Atronach.

Optional: Fortify Conjuration to make conjured beings 20% longer in duration, I also had a potion of instant health??? which healed me of 100 damage instantly. I haven't been able to find the exact name yet.

After the speech, Malyn runs down the curving staircase. There are 2 mages waiting for you in different sections with a 3rd who joins them. Don't let them see you. Cast the flame atronach on full power using dual cast method with a potion of conjuration, near the corner where Malyn stood. The atronach will gather the mages into an area.

One of them may break off to attack you. You can dual wield daggers or single wield with the other hand casting healing or conjure flame atronach as needed.

Attack as fast as you can, no slow power attacks. A flurry of attacks will down one of the mages. Your atronach is now dead, so switch to conjure. You probably won't have time to power cast her, so just single wield dagger and left hand cast the atronach. You want her to tank for you and she's very good at that. Help her out by attacking one of the mages.

You can also cast fireball since the flame atronach is invulnerable to flame attacks, but she has reflect damage, so you should be careful about using attack spells around her. A flurry of dagger attacks is more than enough to kill the mages off.

Loot all 3 bodies quickly. Save. Heal up. Magicka up. Get to the bottom of the stairs, just out of sight of Malyn.

FULL POWER CAST the flame atronach at the bottom of the stairs near the entrance or just inside. She will start attacking Malyn. You can easily see him because his white quest triangle is visible through the walls. Once you see Malyn heading towards the entrance, cast the flame atronach again. He should now be visible at the bottom of the stairs or just inside. Coat your daggers with a Damage Magicka Regen potion. Now flurry him to death. Quickly loot his body. His lightning staff is very nice. If you fail, just reload the save. There are 2 great save locations. 1 is where Malyn stood at the beginning and where you finished off his mages. The 2nd is on the staircase where you can see the bottom turn left and see the entrance to Malyn's lair. This way, if you die, you can resave further up the stairs or near where you should cast the flame atronach.

I had died several times before I hit upon this strategy. Normally, on normal adept level of play, your housecarl Lydia, should be your main tank and be invulnerable to all damage. Even if she dies, she gets back up after a minute break. But, in this realm, she cannot travel with you. Your flame atronach is your friend and tank. Not a great tank, but against mages, she's awesome. She's immune to flame attacks and she reflects damage back at the mages. Great anti-mage tank. Just make sure to bring potions.

Anyhoo, good luck.

==Reward (Differences) == Bringing the star to Aranea Ienith will create a restored Azura's Star which can only trap creatures (white souls), and the option of Aranea becoming your companion.

Bringing the star to Nelacar will create The Black Star which can only trap human(oid) souls (black souls), but will not get you another optional companion. This is a more economically beneficial option since there are tons of bandits to soul trap and they are always Grand souls.

Bugs

 * If in werewolf form while leaving the spirit world within the star, and are killed on arrival; when the game loads the autosave within the star, it will crash.
 * If you kill Malyn while the Daedra are still alive, Azura will talk to you and you can be killed by the Daedra. The game will then reload and you will appear at your last auto save but when you go to try the quest again it has already been completed and the star remains broken and you cannot use it. Other times, the wrong autosave is loaded, and you will have the broken star, but you will still get the star you chose, allowing you to get both stars, as the quest will not end.
 * On the part where you need to find the mage who studies the stars, if you go straight to Nelacar, he will confess that he is the mage you are looking for and tell you about the next part of the quest. Afterwards if you decide to talk to the other people in the area, they will still tell you to try talking to Nelacar, and there will be a quest marker that says "Talk to Nelacar". Going straight to Nelacar without talking to the other people will result in you being unable to complete the "Talk to Nelacar" part, which luckily does not affect the quest.
 * After completing the first section of Ilinalta's Deep, some people have found the path to the second area blocked by a boulder. Leaving the Dungeon and reentering seems to fix.
 * It is possible to receive this quest again after completing it, by meeting a dark elf on pilgramage to the shrine. You will not be able to get past talking to Aranea, however.