Frequently Asked Questions: Tools of Kagrenac - Omni-guides/Tuxborn GitHub Wiki

This page covers various questions of interest pertaining to the mod The Tools of Kagrenac.

"How does this mod alter vanilla content?"

The Tools of Kagrenac is basically what it says on the tin: a mod oriented around an alternate path for you to acquire Sunder, Wraithguard, and Keening, the Tools in question. In vanilla Skyrim, Keening is available as part of Arniel Gane's side quest at the College of Winterhold. Sunder and Wraithguard are normally available via a quest included in the Anniversary Edition content.

Keening

Our load order will still expect you to run Arniel Gane's quest, but the Keening you get as a result of this is going to be a corrupted form. You will get the final form of the weapon by running Tools of Kagrenac.

Sunder and Wraithguard

Since our load order contains Legacy of the Dragonborn and the Tools of Kagrenac, and requires the Anniversary Edition, there is a three-way conflict pertaining to how to get Sunder and Wraithguard.

The Tools of Kagrenac takes precedence in this conflict. The AE quest "Legends Lost", which you would normally use to get these items, should be entirely disabled in our load order.

"How does this mod impact Legacy of the Dragonborn?"

LOTD normally has its own versions of Sunder and Wraithguard. As with the AE's versions, LOTD's will be superseded by the Tools of Kagrenac.

The book "Auryen's Notes on the Tools of Kagrenac", which should eventually spawn on Auryen's desk in the office of the Hall of Heroes, should still work to give you an unmarked quest to find the tools.

"How do I start The Tools of Kagrenac?"

The intended way

The mod's intended way to start the quest has the following requirements for the quest to start:

  1. You need to complete The Way of the Voice in the main quest (so yes, this is another mod that expects you to be the Dragonborn)
  2. You need to join the College of Winterhold and play through all of its questline, as you'll need to have completed The Eye of Magnus before you can unlock Part 3 of Arniel Gane's side quest.
  3. You also need to finish Arniel's side quest, "Arniel's Endeavor".
  4. Keening needs to be in your inventory, so that it can become a quest item. So once you finish "Arniel's Endeavor", do not leave Keening anywhere, keep it on you.

A couple of days in-game after finishing "Arniel's Endeavor", you should get a courier with a letter to kick off the quest.

MCM way

On the MCM for this mod, you should be able to find an Alternate Start toggle which will allow you to bypass the starting requirements and kick off the quest immediately. Players who wish to avoid putting off the main quest as long as possible might want to consider this option, if nothing else to bypass the requirement to complete The Way of the Voice. If you toggle the alternate start on, as per the description given on the toggle, the quest will commence as soon as you pick up any item.

Additional suggestions

In addition to the requirements listed above, players may wish to do the following prior to kicking off this quest:

  1. Running "Lost to the Ages", which lets you help the ghost of Katria and find the Aetherium Forge, will give you a guaranteed fast travel marker for getting into the forge later
  2. Overlapping Tools of Kagrenac with the portion of the main quest that requires you to get the Elder Scroll out of Mzark will give you a guaranteed means to get down into Blackreach

"What custom items are in The Tools of Kagrenac?"

In addition to the actual tools themselves, the mod includes a full set of Aetherial gear, including armor, jewelry, and one spell. A list of known items can be found in this article on Nexus.

All of the items listed in the linked article should also be displayable in the LOTD museum. However, only the following items are known to have replica recipes, so plan accordingly depending on which of the items you actually might want to use:

  • Keening
  • Ring of the Wind
  • Sunder
  • Wraithguard

Players should take note of the enchantments on the mod's items, to determine which of them you want to keep for active use vs. putting on display in the museum. Notably, the Aetherial Amulet has an enchantment on it to buff improving armor and weapons by 25%, if you're wearing a full set of the Aetherial armor.

"I found aetherium ingots as part of this mod, what do I do with them?"

You use them to make some of the items from the mod at the Aetherium Forge, and to improve the armor items.

"How do I find aetherium ore to make ingots?"

As per LOTD's wiki items on various gear pieces from this mod, loose aetherium ore pieces should be findable in the Silent Ruins in Blackreach, while you are running this quest. Only one known location includes the ore, which is the same place you get the Aetherial gear from, through a portal that's available only while you're running the quest.

Smelting this ore into ingots should be done at the Aetherium Forge as well.

No other locations are known to have aetherium ore at this time, but we'll update this page if players report additional ones.

Credits

Shoutout to the following players on #txbn-general for contributing to this information:

  • Kok0 for confirming info on aetherium ingots and armor
  • Dinosaurusbaby for confirming the presence of the MCM toggle