Skyrim:A Cave in the Reach

icon-Miscellaneous.png Find the cave.
Location(s): Markarth, Coronach Redoubt, Druadach Redoubt
Reward: Player home
ID: BYORStoryQuest
Some Boobies

Quick Walkthrough

  1. Esca0pe Cidhna Mine with Madanach
  2. Level up and get a letter
  3. Locate the cave.
  4. Kill Magora and rescue Drusilla
  5. Get a hag's cure from Bothela
  6. Build the furnishings.
  7. Optionally recruit followers

Detailed Walkthrough

A Letter from Madanach

It all starts when you escape from Cidhna Mine, and choose to help Madanach rather than Thonar. After he's gone off to Druaach Redoubt, and you have leveled up, a courier will bring you a letter from him. It tells you about a young Forsworn, who is being made into a hagraven by Magora, a hagraven herself. The cave where this is happening is marked pn your map, and the key to the door comes with the letter.

Find the Cave

You will find the cave near the entrance to Ragnvald, not far from another hagraven's camp. You may run into hostile Forsworn in the area, so be careful in your exploration.

Rescue Drusilla

Enter the cave through the iron door, using the key Madanach provided. The hagraven Magora is well into the cave, initially near the stairs up to the tower at the back. Deal with her, and then look for Drusilla in the tower section. She'll be shackled to a wall in a small romm at the top. She has feathers growing from her back and arms, and her feet are already clawed and scaly. Release her, and ask her if she can be cured. She'll reply that since Magora was changing her with potions, perhaps other potions could reverse the process. Maybe Botela in Markarth would know one.

Go to Bothela for a hag's cure

So you need to go there and ask. Bothela will give you a list of ingredients she needs, and suggests that some of them are her payment, and some are for the potion itself. Just so you don't know how to make your own, and short-cut the story.

When you have everything, (which can be a frustrating task, as she wants Spriggan Sap and Sabre Cat's Eyes, and so they will drop nothing but Taproot and Teeth,) take them back and collect the potion. She'll have already made it, using her stocks of ingredients, but they do need replacing. You also have no idea if she used anything else in the potion.

Give the potion to Drusilla. She won't want you watching as she changes, so she'll send you off to tell her cousin Kaie that she's OK. Kaie of course is in Druadach with Madanach, and you won't get attacked when you go there, although Forsworn patrols along the way don't know who you are, and will be hostile. After telling Kaie the good news, travel back to the cave, where Drusilla will have recovered enough to wear normal clothes, which cover the areas where she was growing feathers, and her feet, which might still be scaly, bu they're normally shaped so she can wear boots again.

Start Building

At this point you're ready to start the contruction and the blood-spattered statue of Dibella you passed on the stairs yo the tower will have been replaced by a workbench amd a chest. The latter contains a few items to get you started, in particular, eouugh clay to make the smelter, and an iron fitting amd a leather strip, which will let you make the forge and tanning rack. You will also need quarried stone, but that's literally outside the door.

After the building is done, conversation with Drusilla can advance the quest by swapping back the statue of Dibella (without the blood). You'll have the chance to get the workbench back if there was anything you decided not to make yet.

Notes

  • The Courier used is the regular one. He may get replaced by a Forsworn courier in a later release.
  • The cave is based on Druadach, with a few changes such as the addition of a waterfall. A bathing idle may be added that uses it as a shower. This becomes another target for sandbox packages.
  • Drusilla may get some outfit changes, and grow a bit. She starts as a scrawny zero weight but may put on a bit over time, if the right triggers can be worked out in a future release.

Bugs

  • Finding them is your job!

Quest Stages

A Cave in the Reach (BYORStoryQuest)
Stage Finishes Quest Journal Entry
10 Objective 10 Read the letter. A courier has brought me a letter. I should read it.
20 Objective 20 Find the cave.: The letter is from Madanach, the King of the Reachmen. He wants me to rescue a young Forsworn from a hagraven. He has sent me the key to the cave.
30 Objective 30 Kill the hagraven Magora.: I have arrived at the cave. I should unlock the door and go in. I hope there is only the hagraven to get past.
40 Objective 40 Rescue Drusilla.: I have killed Magora, the hagraven. Now I should find Drusilla.
50 Objective 50 Go to Bothela in Markarth: I found Drusilla shackled to the wall in a tower scetion of the cave. She has already started to transform into a hagraven, but she thinks the process might be reversed. The only alchemist she knows who might be able to create a curative potion is Bothela in Markarth. I should go and ask for her help.
60 Objective 60 Find the ingredients: Bothela needs a lot of ingredients for the potion, although some of them are her payment. I don't think she wants me to know which ones she's actually going to use in the potion.
70 Objective 70 Return to Bothela" I have all the ingredients on Bothela's list. I should take them back to her, so she can make Drusilla's potion.
90 Objective 90 Take the potion to Drusilla: Now I have the potion, I should give it to Drusilla.
100 Objective 100: Tell Kaie - I should let Kaie know that Drusilla is safe.
110 Objective110: Return to Drusilla - I've told Kaie, time to go back.
120 Objective 120: Start building. - Drusilla is back to normal. No feathers, no clawed feet. It's time to start building a home in the cave.
140 Player uses workbench
150 Enough construction done
  • Any text displayed in angle brackets (e.g., <Alias=LocationHold>) is dynamically set by the Radiant Quest system, and will be filled in with the appropriate word(s) when seen in game.
  • Not all Journal Entries may appear in your journal; which entries appear and which entries do not depends on the manner in which the quest is done.
  • Stages are not always in order of progress. This is usually the case with quests that have multiple possible outcomes or quests where certain tasks may be done in any order. Some stages may therefore repeat objectives seen in other stages.
  • If an entry is marked as "Finishes Quest" it means the quest disappears from the Active Quest list, but you may still receive new entries for that quest.
  • On the PC, it is possible to use the console to advance through the quest by entering setstage FreeformCaravansA stage, where stage is the number of the stage you wish to complete. It is not possible to un-complete (i.e. go back) quest stages, but it is possible to clear all stages of the quest using resetquest FreeformCaravansA.