Darknut's Greater Dwemer Ruins walkthrough and bug hunting (lots of spoilers, naturally)

Not about OpenMW? Just about Morrowind in general? Have some random babble? Kindly direct it here.
Post Reply
dmbaturin
Posts: 6
Joined: 27 Aug 2017, 19:25

Darknut's Greater Dwemer Ruins walkthrough and bug hunting (lots of spoilers, naturally)

Post by dmbaturin »

Not long ago johnnyhostile told me about Darknut's Greater Dwemer Ruins mod that makes the Sixths House citadels
involved in the main quest larger and most challenging. I indeed do think those citadels are not sufficiently large
and challenging in the vanilla, so naturally I was quite enthusiastic about it. Besides, since it's a large and complex mod, it's also a good opportunity for compatibility testing.

General impression: the mod is quite cool, and it works pretty well with OpenMW. However, we both ran into bugs and frustrating moments, so I decided to make a walkthrough so that people who played it with the vanilla engine can spot unintended behaviour and tell us about the intended one; and people who get stuck can find their way forward.

1. Odrosal

Suggested items: levitation potions, lots of them.

We'll start with Odrosal since it's the smallest and the most straightforward of the citadels in question.

Past the entrance, there's "Dwemer Training Academy". That room is connected with the Northwest Tower (through a ladder),
the East Corridor (behind a closed door, Dagoth Odros has the key), and the Southwest Corridor.

Upstairs, Dagoth Odros is having a holographic meeting with Dagoth Ur, accompanied by a flame atronach.
The lock he has the key to is merely level 20, so you can kill him simply because he's a bad guy, and for his artifact.
The holographic Dagoth Ur will disconnect... I mean, disappear if you come close, he's harmless.

Above him, there's a room accessible by levitation that has some potions, hammers, and arrows, if you need any.

Image

The room upstairs also has a crank that is stuck and needs lubrication. Remember that crank, we'll find a way to
activate it later.

Image

The Northwest Tower is only worth visiting for its athmosphere. It has a large concentration of powerful ash creatures
and a dead hero. The most notable feature, however, is two prisoners behind a locked (level 40) fence.
Those prisoners are not actually prisoners, they are an ash ghoul and an ash slave in disguise and will reveal their
true selves if you come close.
Those poor people whose identities they assumed are dead and we'll see their corpses during out visit to Dagoth Ur, but that's for later.

Image

The Southwest Corridor reveals a large underground part, but it's blocked by some rocks and not accessible from there,
so we'll have to find another way to access it.

Image

The real way forward is the East Corridor. The entrance to the East Corridor is guarded by a dreamer guard. Hostile NPCs placed right behind the door is a recurrent feature in the mod.

To the right, there's Southeast Tower accessible through a ladder. There are no creatures or NPCs there, but on the table
there's a bottle of oil that we'll need for lubricating the crank we've seen earlier. Confusingly, it looks like bottles
that are in the original game are invariably empty and useless, I expected that it would be spoiled dwemer oil from
Tribunal and missed that bottle during my first playthrough.

Image

To the left, there's Tower. It's also empty, but on the altar, there's... Keening? No, that would be too simple if our
quest here was already over. This Keening is fake. You can tell by the fact that it lacks the enchantments of the original.
If you pick it up, you get ajournal entry that reads "I'd better try it out". In fact you'd better not,
because it will damage your health and kill you quickly even if you wield it while wearing Wraithguard!
Probably an early prototype incompatible with the current Wraithguard version rather than a cheap knock-off.

Image

By now we are are done with the East Corridor, there is nothing of value there. If you go forward, an ash ghoul will materialize out of thin air.
If you go down, the floor will open under your feet and you'll fall into a lava pit (use levitation to get out).
At the end of the corridor past the death trap there's a bedroll, for tired trap victims I suppose.

Now go back to the Dwemer Training Academy and find the crank. It will work this time, and open the hatch to what appears to be a lava pit.
It's not just a lava pit, however, it's a secret passage. Cast a levitation spell and go down the hatch, then land on the solid ground where
the flame atronach is standing.

Image

To the right from the flame atronach, there's the Lava Core Passage. It's not where Keening is, but it's an interesting place nonetheless.
It ends with a control room of sorts, staffed by two dreamer guards, that has two cranks. The crank on the left is a self-destruct trigger
that will flood the room with lava and kill you, so do not touch it. The crank on the right is more interesting, it has the opposite effect
and drains the lava from the pit, revealing that Odrosal is actually connected to the Dagoth Ur citadel's Lava Core Extraction Facility.
There is no way to access that door without TCL though, and the part of the Extraction Facility it leads to seems to end with a death trap,
so it may be nothing more than an easter egg, or even a cheater trap.
Also, a skeletal corpse in the Lava Core Passage has an ebony arrow of slaying.

To the left is the Southwest corridor. Cast levitation and go up. It's a pretty long flight and the steam can be disorienting, so make sure
you have means to stay airborne for a while. At the top, you can see the very rocks that blocked your way from the other side.
Walk through the tunnel and enter the Southwest Tower. That's where the real Keening is. It's not trapped in any way so you can just grab it.

Image

Now the real Keening is in your hands, but teleportation is disabled in Odrosal, so there is no quick getaway and you'll have to go back
the same way as you got there. Upon exit from Odrosal, you may meet an ash vampire insane berserker, and he's rather tough even for an
ash vampire, so make sure you heal yourself and repair your weapons before exiting.

Image

Now you can finally cast intervention/recall to rest and prepare for an assault on Vemynal.

2. Vemynal

Vemynal is a lot bigger than Odrosal, and proportionally more annoying. Note that the entire location has levitation disabled, and
appears to heavily rely on the script sequence to work correctly, perhaps too heavily for its own good.

Vemynal Outer Fortress is connected to the Tower and the Hall of Torque. Apart from the usual assortment of ash creatures, it may have
a greater bonewalker, so make sure you have a restore strength potion handy.
The way to Sunder goes down through the Hall of Torque, so we'll visit the Tower first.

There is little of interest in the Tower actually. Behind metal doors, there's either nothing, a couple of dreamers, or a steam centurion
that activates if you come close to it. One of the doors allows you to exit to the tower roof.

Image

The most interesting feature is a crank that has a script attached to it, but I couldn't find a way to activate it, though I haven't looked into the script in the CS yet.

Image

Now to the Hall of Torque. This version of the Hall of Torque is a lot bigger than the one from the original game.
To the right from the entrance, there's a heavily looked (level 100) trapdoor to another part of the Hall of Torque.
Downstairs, there's an inactive elevator and Dagoth Vemyn who conveniently has a key to the aforementioned door.

In the room above the trapdoor, there's a console with three buttons. The leftmost button lowers a cage onto you and summons an ash zombie that
resurrects every time you kill it, so don't touch it. The central button moves the elevator cabin to the shaft and the rightmost button lowers it
to the room downstairs.

Image

Go downstairs, enter the elevator cabin, and activate the "Lift Down" button. I expected that I'll be attacked during the ride, but that doesn't happen,
the ride is completely uneventful. Note that sometimes you can fall out of the cabin, so save before the ride and stay away from the walls.
The lower part of the Hall of Torque is completely empty, it's a twisty passage that brings you to a transit gate to the Torque Tube Passage.
Since there's nowhere else to go, go through the gate.

There's nothing but another elevator that also brings us down. And down there, things get interesting. We are in front of a tunnel, but inside the tunnel
there's a deadly energy wave going back and forth. You cannot outrun that wave even with a decent amount of fortify speed potions so we get to find another way.

Image

Jump over the barrels and enter the
Torque Mechanical. It's a centurion workshop with lots of spare parts, blueprints, hammers, and inactive centurions (one of them is less inactive and will come to live
when you come close, beware).
In front of the centurion rack, there are two buttons. The one on the right side activates and deactivates a force field at the room entrance, you don't need this one. The one on the left has two functions, it deactivates the energy wave in the tunnel and activates all the centurions on the rack. Don't ask me how these functions are related. The ensuing fights will leave you with enough dead centurions to regret there are no scrap yards in Morrowind.
Well, at least the tunnel is open now.

Image

Go back to the Tube Passage and climb the kegs. From this side, there are some kegs to use as stepping stones, you may or may not need a fortify acrobatics spell
to jump onto them.

Now walk through the tunnel. Over the grate, there's a "Lift Control" switch that shocks you. I couldn't figure out its purpose but I activated it just in case
nonetheless. At the end of the tunnel, there's another elevator. "Hello, Mr. Tyler, going down?". Go down and you and up in a room with four doors.
Behind most of the doors is an assortment of ash creatures. An odd thing about corprus stalkers in this mod by the way is that they keep making gurgling sounds for quite a while after you kill them.

The door to the left leads to the Torque Tube Chamber. There is nowhere else to go from here, so we have little choice.
That room has an impressive rotating machine with deadly blades. It also has a door to Test Tube Access.

Image

Go to the Torque Tube Access, and you end up in the worst part of Vemynal. You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.
The worst part is rotating walls that are, unlike normal doors, not visible on the mini map.
If you like mazes, you may try to find the key there.

If you are not fond of mazes, there's another way though. The funny thing is that the entry and exit points of that maze are in the same cell,
the Torque Tube Chamber, and the rotor is the only thing that gets in your way. The location you need, the Torque Tube Core, is two levels below
behind a heavily locked (level 100) door.
If you have means to open a level 100 lock and have a slowfall spell (or simply enough health to survive
a decent fall), by carefully timing the jump you can jump past the blades to the lower level.

Assuming you got to the Torque Tube Core, you'll see an even more impressive looking machine surrounded by some ash creatures, and no obvious way to get around it. Go down the ladder, kill the ash creatures, then... Ok, I have no idea what's the intended way to get around it.
What I've found is that you can walk under its rotor if you stay very close to the wall, though it apparently does need some timing to avoid getting hit
by a spike.

Image

From there things are straightforward, for a while. Go to the Dagoth Tunnel, kill the dreamers and whoever else you meet, go forward until you reach
the room with an altar. Sunder is in the spherical container. Now things get interesting.

Image

When you activate the container, a red hot rock will roll from the ceiling. It's not too hard to outrun though. Fortify your speed, open the container,
grab Sunder, and run for your life. Apparently, worthy equals fast in this context.

Image

Now go back to the Torque Tube Chamber, unlock the door to the Torque Tube Access and enter it. A dreamer guard is guarding a Rickity (sic!) Lift.
That elevator is indeed quite rickety and you can fall from it, so save before you ride. It takes you to the second level of the Torque Tube,
bypassing a substantial part of the maze.

At the level where the elevator stops, turn to the right, then to the left, and you'll see a ladder. Climb the ladder, open the door above you,
go forward and activate the revolving wall in front of you. Now turn to the right and go forward, you'll see a door to the Torque Chamber.
It's on the same level where we started.

Go back to the Torque Tube Passage, press the Lift Down button and wait for the elevator cabin to arrive (it takes a while).
Going up is, sadly, a lot more dangerous than going down. I fell through the cabin floor multiple times, and eventually resorted to TCL
to go back up.

The first elevator in the Hall of Torque tends to get stuck and not respond to the Lift Up button. Apparently it's because the variable associated with it isn't set correctly. If this happens to you, do "set DNV_isdown to 3" in the console.

Otherwise the way back is uneventful. I haven't met another insane ash vampire behind the door, either.

The Dagoth Ur walkthrough will follow.
dmbaturin
Posts: 6
Joined: 27 Aug 2017, 19:25

Re: Darknut's Greater Dwemer Ruins walkthrough and bug hunting (lots of spoilers, naturally)

Post by dmbaturin »

If anyone cares, here's the walkthrough of Dagoth Ur. I guess those PNG images in the original size were over the top so I took measures to reduce their size this time.

3. Dagoth Ur

The door to the Outer Facility is blocked and the crank that used to allow to open it from the outside is gone, so we'll have to find another way.
Image

On the plus side (for Dagoth Ur anyway), the citadel got a lot bigger and got two towers, so let's explore them.
Image

The North Tower doesn't have an entrance at the top, it can only be entered from the bridge. It's inhabited by a couple of rats and there's a Dwarven Key
in the drawers. It is connected to the Upper Entrance, that can also be entered from outside.

The Upper Entrance has an assortment of ash creatures, and an inaccessible cell where an Imperial Legion soldier is fighting and is quickly killed by
a lame corprus. There seems to be no way to open the gate, but if you TCL through it, you can find a note that tells the story of the person who became
the lame corprus, and a key to an unspecified vault.

Image

That's about it though... The thing marked as the door to the Hall of Passage is not a door but a strange cylindrical device. It's actually a teleport,
but it's inactive so we cannot use it and have to find another way.

Image

Let's try the South Tower then.
The South Tower can be entered through a heavily locked (level 100) hatch at the top. The top level is empty (save for a couple of corpses) and is connected to the Lower South Passage.
The Lower South Passage can also be entered from a bridge between the towers, that door is unlocked. The passage is also unpopulated and is connected
to the Mid South Tower.

The Mid South Tower is inhabited by a bunch of rats, enough to start a small rat meat restaurant.
As you enter it, a holographic Dagoth Ur appears and greets you, suggesting that you are on the right track.
The only door from there is to the Lower South Tower.

Image

The Lower South Tower has a bunch of ash creatures and is connected to the Sub South Tower and the North Passage.

In the Sub North Tower, an imperial legion soldier and a thief are fighting with ash creatures. Oddly, if you help them out and kill the
ash creatures, they attack you. The imperial legion guy has a copy of Dagoth Ur's plans with him, which makes the whole situation even more
mysterious.

Image

The hatch door to the Sub South Tower is a death trap. The right hatch goes to the West Passage. You can go there if you feel like exploring,
but there is no need to. That passage reveals that Dagoth Ur has an escape route to the Red Mountain Region, though it wouldn't be useful as an entrance
unless you have a good jump spell.

Walk behind the lava pit into the North Passage instead. It's a very spatious hall with a lava pit and a broken bridge. On the other side of the bridge is
a door to the Hall of Passage, a location we need, but it's inaccessible from here.

Image

At the lower level you'll find a door to the Lower East Passage. It's also connected to the West Passage so you could enter it through the South Tower as well.
In the Lower East Passage you can find the entrance to the Lava Core Extraction Facility. To the left over the lava pit (you may need a jump spell to jump over it safely), there are some dwemer robots and corpses, one skeleton has a "strange green tube" in its inventory. Pick up that tube, it's actually a key to the teleport network. Maybe there are other places where you can find one, but I didn't stumble upon other green tubes. At the screenshot, the owner of the tube is the skeleton sitting near the wall.

Image

To the right, a gate that can be opened with a crank. You don't need to go there, but if you go anyway, beware, when you go forward towards the metal door, the floor will open into a lava pit under you, so run and open the door quickly.
A dark hole leads to the Odrosal Lava Core Passage where we've been earlier. The door to Odrosal is "blocked and very hot", unless you drained the lava with the right crank perhaps, and even then you hardly have a reason to go there anymore. I was starting to suspect that it was supposed to be an alternative way to finish the main quest without ever going to the surface, but since the other side of the grate in that Odrosal room is inaccessible, I guess it's not the case.

Go back to the North Passage.

There's an extensive network of underground tunnel beneath Dagoth Ur that you can use. Walk down the rocks near the lava flow, kill the ash creatures,
and find a hatch to the Tunnels.
In the tunnel, the door at the dead end in front of you is a death trap so don't go there. Turn to the right, then just follow the path and you'll find a ladder
up to the North Passage. Climb up the ladder, and you'll find yourself at the other end of the broken bridge. This is a good progress.
Activate the broken lamp at the left side to raise the gate and enter the North Hall.

Image

In the North Hall, you'll find corprus stalkers fighting with dreamers and ash zombies. This is puzzling. My best guess is that they are fighting for
equal rights with other ash creatures.
The most important object there is the Sphere of Passing. If you have the "strange green tube" in your inventory, it will open and reveal a teleport.

Image

Activate the teleport and you'll be transported to the Hall of Passing, the teleport network hub.

Image

Do not activate the teleports labeled "Portal". They will teleport you to lost dwemer ruins and the teleport at the destination will deactivate itself. What's worse, the ruins will quickly get flooded, so make sure you have some water breathing items with you.
If you want to exit the Lost Dwemer Ruins, from the teleport, go to the right, then take the first turn to the left, open the steel and iron door,
turn to the right, and one wall segment ahead you'll find the Secret Door. Upstairs is the upper level filled with durzogs and goblins.
In the east part there's a "passage to Mournhold" though it doesn't seem to actually be connected to Mournhold. In the west part there's a working
teleport back to the Hall of Passage.
All in all, that place is not worth the trouble and it's better to not go there at all.

Oddly, there are two teleports to Vemynal (to the Outer Fortress Tower, and to the elevator control room in the Hall of Torque), but no teleports
to Odrosal. Maybe Dagoth Odros failed to pay his teleport bill.

Well, no matter. Take the teleport to the Outer Facility. That's the location behind the now blocked external door that used to be directly accessible
outside in the vanilla game. This location is mostly familiar from the vanilla game. Go to the Inner Facility, visit the Inner Tower and grab the
Crosier of St. Llothis for the temple quest if you want.

The path to the Lower Facility is straightforward. In the Lower Facility, we meet an unusual ghost. Maybe the rest of its body has evaporated due to
all the heat from the lava.

Image

The room is filled with oversized dwemer equipment and has two elevators.
Take the elevator down, kill the ash creatures, and go down the passage and proceed to the Lower Facility Tunnel. The Lower Facility Tunnel is filled
with powerful ash creatures but perfectly straightforward and leads to the Facility Cavern. That's where Dagoth Ur is.

He has a nice model of Vvardenfell there. It would be perfect if he had a map on the wall instead. "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the war room". Chat with Dagoth Ur, then kill him, as usual, Pick up his ring, and proceed to the Akulakhan's Chamber.

Image

In the Akulakhan's Chamber you will meet a few instances of the holographic Dagoth Ur, this time they will be a lot more material and will attack you.
They are pretty tough, but nothing too unusual. The real Dagoth Ur is not there, yet. It seems like you can go destroy the hear unhindered, but sadly it's not the case. When you come close to the heart, a force field will form around it.

Image

Go down the ledge, kill the dreamers if you meat any, and go all the way down to the gate. Behind the gate, there are a few dreamers. They are quite unusual in that when you kill them, they turn into skeletons. The bad thing, they will rise soon, so it may be a good idea to lure them away before killing.

Behind the crypt door, Dagoth Ur is sleeping in his tomb. When you come close, he'll rise, so will the dreamer skeletons, and the force field around
the heart will disappear. Additionally, a few holographic Dagoth Urs will appear.
You know the drill, hit the heart with Sunder, then hit it five times with Keening, then kill Dagoth Ur, then run back to the door. Except the door
is now blocked by a stone that fell from the ceiling, and you need to find another way. Activate the strange device near the door, and go down to the
Akulakhan's Chamber Tunnel.

In the tunnel, jump down the hole (slowfall is recommended), go past all the lava pits and find the dark hole to the Facility Cavern.
There you will meet Azura as usual, and teleportation will be enabled.

The only issue is that after exiting by teleportation, levitation is still disabled, which can be fixed with the "enableLevitation" command.
I didn't check if it gets enabled when you exit the location by foot.

4. Bug Summary

In Vemynal, the player falls through the elevator cabin floor when trying to go up.
In Vemynal, the first elevator in the Hall of Torque doesn't go up after going down, a variable is not getting set correctly.
In Dagoth Ur, elevators in the Power Facility do not go up after going down (also a variable not getting set correctly?).
Darknut
Posts: 5
Joined: 01 Mar 2016, 19:57

Re: Darknut's Greater Dwemer Ruins walkthrough and bug hunting (lots of spoilers, naturally)

Post by Darknut »

You are very wrong to say there is no reason to go to the lost Dwemer ruins ... there is a very bad ass suit of armor plus a killer shield & sword.
The elevator bug is a common issue in Morrowind & OMW acts the same. if you stay still it usually doesn't happen.

The insane ash vampires only show up when certain criteria is met.

"elevators in the Power Facility do not go up after going down ..that was by design" ... it is a ruin after all
Allyserian
Posts: 4
Joined: 23 Mar 2019, 15:07

Re: Darknut's Greater Dwemer Ruins walkthrough and bug hunting (lots of spoilers, naturally)

Post by Allyserian »

"The Upper Entrance has an assortment of ash creatures, and an inaccessible cell where an Imperial Legion soldier is fighting and is quickly killed by
a lame corprus. There seems to be no way to open the gate," Yes, there is.
Allyserian
Posts: 4
Joined: 23 Mar 2019, 15:07

Re: Darknut's Greater Dwemer Ruins walkthrough and bug hunting (lots of spoilers, naturally)

Post by Allyserian »

You are very wrong to say there is no reason to go to the lost Dwemer ruins ... there is a very bad ass suit of armor plus a killer shield & sword.....Plus with a little perserverance(sic) there is the thrill of revenge on your host and the coveted Severed Norse Leg.
dmbaturin
Posts: 6
Joined: 27 Aug 2017, 19:25

Re: Darknut's Greater Dwemer Ruins walkthrough and bug hunting (lots of spoilers, naturally)

Post by dmbaturin »

@Allyserian How do I open that gate?

I've found that alleged badass set of armor in the end. I stilll maintain it's not worth the trouble. ;)
Allyserian
Posts: 4
Joined: 23 Mar 2019, 15:07

Re: Darknut's Greater Dwemer Ruins walkthrough and bug hunting (lots of spoilers, naturally)

Post by Allyserian »

Spoiler: Show
Allyserian
Posts: 4
Joined: 23 Mar 2019, 15:07

Re: Darknut's Greater Dwemer Ruins walkthrough and bug hunting (lots of spoilers, naturally)

Post by Allyserian »

dmbaturin wrote: 30 Mar 2019, 19:45

I've found that alleged badass set of armor in the end. I stilll maintain it's not worth the trouble. ;)
A matter of perspective I guess. It's a rare addition to my display room and a lot of "friends" ask where I got it and I am more that happy to send them on the adventure that is DNGDR.

....Plus with a little perserverance(sic) there is the thrill of revenge on your host(sorry DN but a favorite for me :):) }, and the coveted half eaten Severed Norse Leg.
Post Reply