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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Hints
Arniel's Endeavor
1 of 16: After you finish the "Hitting the Books" main-line quest, talk to Arniel Gane in the Hall of Attainment about College business to learn that he wants 10 dwemer cogs.
2 of 16: Go around and search dwarven ruins for cogs. You might want to start with Alftand, since you'll need to visit it for the "Discerning the Transmundane" Daedric quest (which is also required for the main quests.)
3 of 16: Once you have 10 dwemer cogs, go turn them over to Arniel to finish the quest. You can then ask if he needs any more help with his project to get this quest again, but with a different objective.
4 of 16: Go talk to Enthir, whose room is near Arniel's. Say you understand that he has something of Arniel's, then ask him what he wants.
5 of 16: He'll send you off after a magic staff, which will be in the inventory of a random enemy in a random location. Make this quest active to see where you need to go.
6 of 16: Get the Staff of Tandil from whoever has it after you kill him, then return to Enthir and give him the staff to get a warped soul gem.
7 of 16: Give the soul gem to Arniel to finish this quest again. There are two more parts to it, but you can't get the third part until after you finish the "The Eye of Magnus" main-line quest.
8 of 16: Talk to Arniel again to get the warped soul gem back along with a special Destruction spell. You're to heat the soul gem in three special convectors using the spell.
9 of 16: You'll have quest arrows pointing to a bunch of dwemer convectors. Two of them are at Mzulft, which you've already been through, and a third one is in some outdoor ruins a ways to the south of Mzulft. Those will probably be the easiest ones to get to.
10 of 16: Travel to the spot closest to any of those convectors and fight your way to it if necessary. When you reach it, open it up and put the warped soul gem into it.
11 of 16: Equip the Arniel's Convection spell, then fire it at the convector until you get an objective for retrieving the soul gem. Do so, then go to the next convector and repeat the process.
12 of 16: After you've heated the warped soul gem in three convectors, return to the College and talk to Arniel to once again finish this quest.
13 of 16: After 30 or more hours have passed, talk to Arniel again to get the final stage of this quest, which starts with talking to Enthir about another essential item.
14 of 16: Talk to Enthir in his nearby room about the item to learn that the courier who was to deliver it never arrived. This will get you a quest arrow pointing to the randomly chosen location where the courier got killed.
15 of 16: Loot the courier's body to find a fancy magic dagger named Keening, which will be very familiar to anyone who's played Morrowind. Return to Arniel and watch as he uses Keening on the warped soul gem.
16 of 16: After he vanishes himself dwemer-style, the quest will be over. You'll get a special Conjuration spell called Summon Arniel's Shade, and you can pick up Keening from the floor and keep it. (Note that the spell doesn't cost any magicka at all to cast, which makes it very useful for when you're out of magicka and need a summoned creature to help in combat.)
