I got this quest while doing the Dark Brotherhood quest “The Silence has been Broken”, since that quest MAKES you go into Volunruud. If you want to start this quest, you’ll need to GET to Volunruud (if you don’t want to do it with the Dark Brotherhood quest, Volunruud is southeast of Morthal and north of Whiterun, up in the mountains). Once inside you’ll see a dead explorer named Heddic (he MAY be a skeleton, I can’t quite remember… he should be right inside the entrance though) and once you loot his person you’ll find Heddic’s Volunruud notes. Read the notes to be given the quest.

Our first objective will be to “Locate The Ceremonial Weapons”. There are two of them, and they both open the way ahead. The STRAIGHT path here leads to a locked door that NEEDS those weapons, while the right and the left paths lead to the weapons. Both paths are Draugr-infested but are pretty darn straight-forward. Watch out for Draugr “sleeping” in the walls and keep an eye open for floor plate traps. The LEFT path is linear with a ceremonial axe at the end while the RIGHT path makes you climb and retrieve a ceremonial sword at the end (beware of Draugr popping out once you grab that sword).

Once you have both weapons, take them back to the central door and activate it to load to a new screen (Volunruud Elder’s Cairn). You’ll also have a new objective to “Defeat Kvenel”, even though we have no idea who he is (at least I didn’t at this point…). Anyways, Kvenel is a ghost at the bottom of this path. There are two Draugr above you that you can snipe/sneak past, then a Draugr who gets out of a tomb a little ways in, and past that is Kvenel and one more Draugr wandering around. Try to get in a sneak attack on Kvenel if you can. Take him out (he’s not that hard) and you will have COMPLETED this quest.

We may as well finish exploring this area though. Loot the chest here for goodies as well as a ONE HANDED SKILLBOOK named “Night Falls on Sentinel”. Very nice. There’s also a WORD WALL nearby that will teach you the word LIFE for the shout AURA WHISPER. VERY nice indeed! You can check the upper floor for another chest and more goodies (as well as those two Draugr if you have not killed them yet) then you can leave knowing you’ve looted all you could!