The White Phial (Quest)

Nurelion, a dying Altmer Alchemist, is the owner of The White Phial, the Windhelm apothecary shop that bears the name of a magical phial that he has spent much of his life in search of. He explains that the White Phial is a magical vessel made from Unmelting Snow gathered at the Throat of the World and that it purifies, amplifies and refills any liquid placed within it, the ultimate embodiment of Alchemy itself. He has finally discovered its final resting place but is, unfortunately enough, now too old, sickly and dying to retrieve it on his own. He now must reluctantly seek the aid of the Dragonborn in his quest to recover it.

Objectives

 * 1) Retrieve the White Phial
 * 2) Bring the Phial to Nurelion
 * 3) Speak to Quintus

Walkthrough
Upon accepting the quest from Nurelion, he will produce Nurelion's Mixture to help gain access to the Phial. It is learned that the Forsaken Cave is the final resting place of his coveted phial and that the cave is located west of Windhelm.

Forsaken Cave
The cave is primarily populated with Draugrs. In fact, it is more a Nordic crypt than a cave. Continuing through the cave and into the Forsaken Crypt, one will encounter the burial chamber of Curalmil, a strong Draugr Overlord, as well as a small cohort of his minions. They are the final guardians of the White Phial, as well as a Word Wall.

Finding the Phial
An Ancient Bowl sat atop a pedestal will be encountered after continuing through the passage directly beneath the Word Wall. Filling it with Nurelion's Mixture will reveal the doorway into the sanctum of the White Phial. Displayed prominently in the room is the Phial along with a number of various alchemical reagents and an Alchemy Lab. However, upon closer inspection, the Phial has unfortunately been damaged.

Returning with the Phial
Upon returning to his shop in Windhelm, Nurelion is heard complaining somewhere—as usual, not in a good mood and perhaps having become even sicker than before. Upon inspecting the Phial, he is livid that the Phial is cracked and vociferates at having sent such a clumsy adventurer to retrieve his life's ambition. He then rescinds after realizing the power and intelligence that would be needed to damage such an item... which is surely not the present case. With his lifetime dream broken, he is crushed and only manages to part with a lousy five gold.

Nurelion's apprentice Quintus is much more sympathetic to the ordeal of actually retrieving the Phial from such a dangerous place, he explains that Nurelion isn't well and parts with a more reasonable reward of 500 gold pieces.

Repairing
Some time later, Quintus will send a letter via the Courier regarding the White Phial. After reading the letter, the follow up quest will begin: Repairing the Phial.