Oblivion:The Battle for Castle Kvatch

Try to save the Count of Kvatch, and rid the city of any remaining Daedra. Quest Giver: Savlian Matius at the Chapel of Akatosh in Kvatch Location(s): Kvatch, Kvatch Castle Prerequisite Quest: Breaking the Siege of Kvatch Reward: Kvatch Cuirass Fame/Infamy: Fame +1 ID: MS49

The ruined remains of the city of Kvatch

Quick Walkthrough

1. Help Savlian Matius fight through the Daedra to reach the castle gates.
2. You are sent to Berich Inian in the Chapel of Akatosh to collect the key to the guard house.
3. Acquire the key, rally your new reinforcements, and make your way through the tunnels to get to the gatehouse and open the gates.
4. Reach and storm the castle, clearing out the Daedra infestation.
5. Find the count's corpse, and recover his signet ring.
6. Return to Savlian Matius with news of the count's death and his ring to finish the quest, and receive your reward.

Detailed Walkthrough

Make it to the Castle

Whenever you're ready, speak to Savlian Matius to begin the battle to free Kvatch Castle. Follow him and any of the survivors from your efforts to the break the city's siege out of the chapel. Savlian is marked as essential, so he cannot be killed, but the rest of your allies are mortal and unleveled. Keeping them alive—although optional—is a challenge at high levels (see the Notes section for tips).

After battling past three Daedra and a Dremora, Savlian and his men will reach the moat, only to find that the gate has been sealed. Savlian tells you that there is however an alternative route which runs underground from the northern guardhouse. Berich Inian holds the key and you are therefore sent back to the Chapel to retrieve it.

Gatehouse

When you return to the Chapel, you will meet reinforcements: two Imperial Legion Soldiers and one Imperial Legion Archer tell you that they saw the smoke from the Gold Road. Ask them to follow you, then talk to Berich. He will lead you into the Chapel Undercroft, where you will encounter four Daedra. At the far end of the Chapel Undercroft is a door leading back outside. Berich will lead you through the city streets, fighting past nine Daedra as you go, until you reach the ruins of the Kvatch Arena, which are guarded by a further two Daedra. Press on until you see the guardhouse to your right, dispatching the two Daedra and the single Dremora nearby. Once you're at the guardhouse, Berich will open a locked trapdoor with his key and depart, leaving you and your Imperial Legion soldiers to it. If Berich gets killed at any point on your way toward the gatehouse, you will have to loot the key to the trapdoor from his corpse and open the trapdoor yourself.

The tunnel is straightforward and free of enemies. At the end, take the ladder up and into the gatehouse. On the upper level of the gatehouse is a turn wheel which opens the gates. Berich, Savlian and any remaining men will rush headlong into the courtyard and you will need to help them clear the area of another nine Daedra.

Into the Castle

Inside the Great Hall

Once the courtyard is clear, Savlian will run into the castle. Approach him and he'll tell you to go find the Count of Kvatch while he takes care of the main hall, which contains another five Daedra. He and his soldiers will remain at the entrance to the throne room. Only the Imperial Legionnaires will follow you as far as the entrance to the next zone. Be sure to grab A Dance in Fire, v4—an Acrobatics skill book—from a table in the Great Hall (second zone) immediately to your right when entering.

Fight your way through the Great Hall, past four Daedra and towards the north end, where there is a passage leading to the Count's bedroom, which hosts another Daedra. Count Ormellius Goldwine is dead in his chambers; there is no way to save him. When you find the count, a quest update will tell you to at least take his Colovian Signet Ring back to Savlian. Back in the main hall, inform Savlian of the Count's death to complete the quest. If you give him the ring, he'll give you his Kvatch Cuirass in return. The leveled light armor cuirass fortifies Strength and Endurance by two to eight points.

Notes

• This quest is optional to the main quest, although you will need to finish it off in order to receive help from Kvatch during Allies for Bruma and to be able to complete the Restoration master trainer quest.
• If you talk to Brother Martin, he will follow you throughout this quest. Since he is essential and has powerful Destruction spells, he can be a significant help.
• Keeping your allies alive during this quest can be a major challenge.
  • Having a heal other spell and topping up your allies' health after each segment can be very helpful.
  • If you get to a point that is safe from enemies, wait at least one hour, and your allies' health will be fully replenished.
  • Upon discovering that the castle gates are closed, leave the area quickly, as your allies will be taking fire from continuously respawning enemies up on the battlements while you are present.
  • When opening the Castle gate, you will usually get swarmed by enemies and your allies will be constantly getting in your way. The gate blocks all attacks and spells except for touch-range spells. Since Daedra rarely use these, it is possible to draw them to the closed gate and kill them with on-touch spells yourself. Beware, however, that some swings from Daedra and the player can also pass through the gate, and Daedra can sometimes pop through if there are many pushing each other into the gate.
  • One additional trick is to make a cheap custom spell that paralyzes for a short while. Dash in and paralyze all enemies on sight and let your allies mop them up. This also assures that your allies won't be killed by friendly fire.

Bugs

• Sometimes the Count's signet ring will not be visible in his inventory when you loot his body. This seems to occur when the game spawns a generic ring in his inventory—only the generic ring is displayed. The signet ring can still be acquired in one of two ways:
  • By taking the generic ring from the Count's inventory, exiting the Count's bedroom back into the main hall, then returning to the bedroom and looting the Count again. The signet ring should now be visible in his inventory.
  • By using the 'Take All' button to loot everything from the Count's body. Even though it is not visible in his inventory, the signet ring will be taken along with all of the other items.
• Berich Inian might get stuck in the Chapel Undercroft. Since he is needed to open the gate unless he dies, you will not be able to move on in the quest.
  • To get him out, just re-enter and exit the Undercroft, and he will appear. If this does not work, walk over to him and he should begin to move.
• Daedra will usually keep showing up on the walls above the castle gate, firing arrows or ranged spells. This may prevent Savlian from noticing the gate is locked. You cannot interact with Savlian at this point, unless you kill the enemies fast enough (an area effect ranged spell fired at the ramparts can be quite effective) or knock Savlian unconscious. You can talk to him for about five seconds once he gets back on his feet, but while running from left to right in front of the castle gate, he will only tell you "We have to reach the castle gate!" Be careful with the second approach, as you may gain a bounty, causing the guards around you to try to arrest you.
  • You can solve this by using the console to turn off AI detection for Savlian. Select him and enter tdetect followed by stopcombat. He should now notice the gate, therefore advancing the quest. Don't forget to use tdetect on him again to turn his AI detection back on before continuing.
  • This can also be fixed by leaving Kvatch and coming back again several days later, giving the Daedra time to repopulate. This will pull Savlian away from the gate to fight them. He will be out of range of the archers, but he will still recognize that you have previously made it to the gate. Once you have killed all the Daedra on the ground, you can speak to him to trigger his dialogue about the gate being closed.
• If the quest has been finished and Savlian still stands in the castle, he will not have the dialogue option "Martin", and instead say "Kvatch was rebuilt from ruins once, and she'll do it again.", causing you to have to look for him yourself.
• It is possible to steal the Colovian Signet Ring from Savlian Matius after the quest ends. Because it is a quest item, it is impossible to drop for the rest of the game.
  • The Unofficial Oblivion Patch, version 3.5.4, fixes this bug.

Journal Entries

The Battle for Castle Kvatch (MS49)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
10		Savlian Matius has asked me to help with the next phase of the battle for Kvatch. I should speak to him when I'm ready.
20		I need to accompany Savlian Matius to the gates of Castle Kvatch.
30		I need to look for Berich Inian in Kvatch's Chapel, and ask him for a key to the Guard House.
40		Berich Inian has agreed to lead me through Kvatch. I need to follow him through the city to reach the guard house, and gain access to the Castle Gatehouse.
45		Berich Inian has died. I need to get the guard house key off his body and proceed on my own.
50		I've found the tunnel entrance in Kvatch. I need to follow it to the gatehouse, so I can raise the gates and let the guards into the castle courtyard.
60		I've raised the gates into Castle Kvatch. I must now help Savlian and his men defeat the monsters within.
70		I need to follow Savlian Matius into Castle Kvatch, and help find the Count of Kvatch, Ormellius Goldwine.
90		I've found the body of Count Goldwine. I should deliver his signet ring to Savlian Matius.
100	Finishes quest	Castle Kvatch is now safely under Savlian Matius' control.
200		Savlian Matius has died. (This Journal Entry is not found in-game and is technically impossible to get because Savlian is marked as Essential and thus cannot die.)

Notes

• 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 random order.
• 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.
• It is possible to use the console to advance through the quest by entering setstage MS49 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. See SetStage for more information.