Kagrumez Resonance Gem Guide

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At the bright young age of nine years old, Eoin played his first-ever video game. Despite investing serious time into Esports, Eoin always found himself returning to narrative-driven games, vowing to one day make it as a narrative designer himself.His love for the Elder Scrolls have been a constant inspiration, and if he can come up with a world half as rich and expansive, he will consider it a successful venture.

Kagrumez Resonance Gem Guide – Key Details

Location: Nchardak, Fahlbtharz, Kagrumez, Tel Mithryn.
Cost: One Kagrumez Resonance Gem can be bought in Tel Mithryn for 1000+ Septims.
Features: Allows you to complete The Kagrumez Gauntlet miscellaneous quest and retrieve the Black Bow of Fate.
Related Quest: The Kagrumez Gauntlet.
Related Characters: Raleth Eldri, Revus Sarvani.
Item Type: Miscellaneous.

Kagrumez Lore

Like most new additions in Skyrim, there isn’t too much lore to talk about here. In the case of the Kagrumez Resonance Gems, there’s no lore at all. Not even the sole lore source for its own quest mentions the gems.

However, that sole source of lore does give us a tiny little insight into the lore of The Kagrumez Gauntlet itself. Raleth Eldri’s Notes on Kagrumez can be found on the Reaver with two Kagrumez Resonance Gems inside Kagrumez itself.

Unfortunately, we’re not able to ask Raleth about his notes as the Reavers killed him on their way in. Given that they came with Resonance Gems, it’s safe to assume they found out about the trials in advance; we don’t know how.

According to Raleth’s notes, he studies ancient Dwarven texts that revealed Kagrumez to be a training ground of sorts for the Dwemer.

Apparently, this is unprecedented in his prior research, so it’s possible that Kagrumez held a more significant role than just as a location for training. It’s plausible that it was the site of some sort of ritualistic trials, although that is speculation.

Speculation, granted, that’s backed up by the reward for completing the gauntlet being the Dwarven Black Bow of Fate. There is no mention of this bow anywhere. However, Raleth’s notes state that it’s possible the gate hasn’t been opened since the days of the Dwemer.

So, we can assume that the Black Bow of Fate was to serve as a reward for whoever managed to complete The Kagrumez Gauntlet.

The gems themselves are all found outside of Kagrumez. The Reavers bring two, assumedly from other Dwarven ruins. You find one in Fahlbtharz, one in Nchardak, and one can be purchased from Revus Sarvari. Again, we can assume this one originated in a different Dwemer city.

This is all extreme speculation, but a working theory could point to a Dwemer selected by “Fate” being required to travel to the various Dwarven cities on Solsthiem, collecting the gems, before returning to Kagrumez and completing the gauntlet before being rewarded with the Black Bow of Fate.

You could insert whatever else you wanted there. Perhaps they were to unite the cities or something along those lines.

At least, I hope that’s the kind of story Bethesda was implying when they wrote this quest because, in reality, all we know for sure is that it’s “the site of a set of trials, a training ground of sorts,” and that’s a massive waste of lore potential.

The Kagrumez Gauntlet

The Kagrumez Resonance Gems only have one use, and that’s to unlock the gates in The Kagrumez Gauntlet. You need four of the five gems to unlock all of the gates in the gauntlet, but you can collect the whole set of them. There’s no advantage to doing so, though.

The Kagrumez Gauntlet is a small series of three combat encounters of escalating difficulty. At the end of it, you’re rewarded with the Dwarven Black Bow of Fate. The gauntlet isn’t particularly challenging, especially if you’re several dozens of hours into your playthrough, but it can be tedious to finish if you don’t have enough gems to finish it when you start it.

So, make sure you come to The Kagrumez Gauntlet with at least two Kagrumez Gems in your inventory – there are an additional two inside the dungeon.

Collect 4 of 5 Kagrumez Resonance Gems

Before you even set foot in Kagrumez, you’ll want to make a few pit stops around Solstheim. The Kagrumez Gauntlet, and by extension, the Kagrumez Resonance Gems, are a part of a larger over-arching challenge that spans several dungeons and locations.

The idea is that you need to collect these gems and bring them back to Kagrumez to gain access to the ruin’s treasure. It’s a common trope and can feel like a stupidly long fetch quest, but I’m a fan of them.

Follow the guide below and make sure you have at least two of the four Kagrumez Resonance Gems before you head to the Kagrumez dungeon. Two additional gems can be found inside the dungeon itself, meaning you only need to find two in advance.

Gem 1 and 2

Gem one and two can be found inside Kagrumez itself. Almost immediately after entering the dungeon, you’ll find a group of three Reavers talking about the gauntlet. Listen to their dialogue for a bit of context on the dungeon, then brutally murder all of them.

The trio leader will have the two Kagrumez Resonance Gems on his corpse, as well as Raleth Eldri’s Notes on Kagrumez. Raleth himself can be found dead outside the dungeon, presumably killed by the Reavers inside.

His notes offer some context on what you need to do to proceed through the gauntlet, but they’re not all that useful.

Gem 3

Gem three is found at the end of Fahlbtharz. This dungeon isn’t too long or challenging, but it has a few puzzles inside that you’ll need to solve. If you’re like me and have no patience, then check out the guide I wrote. You’ll save yourself a lot of time compared to solving everything in the ruin yourself, trust me.

At the end of Fahlbtharz, you can find the Visage of Mzund unique helmet. Next to the helmet is another Kagrumez Resonance Gem.

I would strongly recommend going for this gem in particular. While it’s not the easiest to obtain, the Visage of Mzund is arguably the best helmet in all of Skyrim. You’ll want to clear the dungeon at some point to loot it, so you might as well kill two birds with one stone.

Gem 4

Gem four is the easiest of the bunch to get your hands on. Instead of going dungeon diving, you’ll need to make your way over to Tel Mithryn. You should have well discovered this village by the time you go anywhere near Kagrumez, so I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and say that you don’t need directions there.

Just outside Tel Mithryn, you’ll find Revus Sarvani attending to his Silt Strider. Revus is a merchant and sells one of the five Kagrumez Resonance Gems.

It’ll cost you a pretty penny, especially if you haven’t invested in Speech. You’re looking at 1,500+ Septimus potentially, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem at this stage in your Skyrim adventure.

Gem 5

The last Kagrumez Resonance Gem is by far the most tedious to acquire. If you’re looking to only collect four of the five, this is the one I would advise you ignore.

It’s located in the Dwarven city of Nchardak. Don’t expect to just waltz in, clear the dungeon, and find it waiting on the final loot table for you, though. No, that would be too simple.

First, you’ll need to complete The Path of Knowledge. This is the main quest in the Dragonborn questline that has you travel to, and clear, Nchardak.

Throughout the course of The Path of Knowledge, you’ll collect a handful of cubes needed to access the different parts of the dungeon.

When you finish the quest and return to the Great Chamber, you’ll be able to take two of these cubes out of the boiler switches.

Take the cubes and swim to the North end of the room. There will be a locked door and a control switch. Put one of the cubes into the switch to unlock the door to the Nchardak Aquaduct.

Once inside the aqueduct, proceed to the area’s East side until you reach the control pedestal. If you look North, you’ll notice a ledge. Jump to it, then jump to the ledge above you. Once there, you’ll find another control pedestal.

Put your remaining cube in the pedestal to open the nearby door and defeat the Dwarven Ballista behind it. The final Kagrumez Resonance Gem will be sitting on a table in the room.

Complete the Kagrumez Trials

After you have two or more gems in your inventory, you can finally make your way to the Kagrumez ruins located just South of the Temple of Miraak.

Shortly after you enter the ruins, you’ll encounter three Reavers. One of these Reavers has two Kagrumez Resonance Gems on his body. Kill them, pick up the gems, and make your way to the pedestal in the middle of the chamber.

1st Gate

There are three different checkpoints in Kagrumez, with each requiring an escalating number of Resonance Gems to pass. The first gate requires two gems, the second requires three gems, and the final gate requires four gems to unlock.

On the pedestal, you’ll notice several different slots. Nine, to be precise. To your left, you’ll notice a gate. In the center of that gate, you’ll see the same pattern as the one on the pedestal.

However, two of the nine slots will be lit up. You must copy this pattern and insert your gems into the corresponding lit-up slots. In the case of the first gate, it’s the center-left and bottom-right slots.

A gate will rise around you after you put your gems in the correct slots. Remove your gems from the pedestal, and both the gate and pedestal will retract into the ground.

After this, the chamber will do some Dwemer-style-shifting and spawn in a bunch of enemies you need to defeat. After clearing them all out, the chamber will return to normal, and you’ll be able to proceed to the second gate.

2nd Gate

You can pull a lever to spawn in a Steadfast Dwarven Spider in this room to act as a temporary companion. You don’t need to get the Spider by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a fun little inclusion.

Loot the room, and take a look at the next locked gate. Again, you’ll see the pattern needed to open it. This time, it should be top-middle, bottom-middle, and bottom-right.

Return to the pedestal in the main chamber and insert your gems into the corresponding slots. Again, a gate will rise around you until you retrieve your gems from the pedestal.

The setup this time around is similar to the first. The room will shift, except this time, there will be fire traps to watch out for, and the enemies will be higher-leveled and more numerous. Clear them out to reset the chamber back to normal and proceed forward through the now unlocked second gate.

3rd Gate

Before you reach the final gate, you’ll again be given a chance to get yourself a Steadfast Dwemer ally. This time, it’s a Sphere.

Recruit the sphere, or don’t, keeping in mind that you can only have the Spider or Sphere recruited at once. You don’t get to take both with you. Then, have a look at the pattern on the gate. It should read top-left, bottom-left, center, and bottom-right.

Again, return to the pedestal in the main chamber, match the pattern, and retrieve the gems.

The room will undergo a more dramatic change this time. When the gate drops, the chamber shifts, and the majority of it will become flooded. The water here will deal shock damage to you if you touch it, so use the non-submerged platforms dotted around the room to move around.

Once again, you will need to defeat all the freshly-spawned enemies in the area to reset the chamber back to normal, allowing you to proceed.

Retrieve the Black Bow of Fate

That’s it, you’re done! After the third and final wave of enemies, you can proceed through all three unlocked gates into the loot room. On a pedestal, you’ll find the Dwarven Black Bow of Fate.

The bow has an enchantment that gives each shot a 50% chance to absorb 25 points of Health, Magicka, and Stamina. The bow is black in appearance, but aside from that looks the same as a regular Dwarven bow.

However, it is improved with Ebony as opposed to Dwarven Metal Ingots, suggesting that the bow is made of Ebony rather than traditional Dwemer materials.

Take the loot and bow, then leave the dungeon through a shortcut in the room.

Dwarven Black Bow of Fate

The big appeal of Kagrumez is the Dwarven Black Bow of Fate. It’s the only piece of unique loot in the dungeon, although there are plenty of high-value gems to be found in the area, too.

Considering all the effort that goes into completing The Kagrumez Gauntlet, the Black Bow of Fate is a little underwhelming. It’s a black Dwarven bow, which looks incredibly cool, but it can’t be disenchanted, which means it’ll never be as powerful as some of the bows you can create yourself.

Its enchantment is a slightly better variant of the Chaos enchantment that was introduced in the Dragonborn DLC. Whereas Chaos deals damage to Health, Stamina, and Magicka, the Black Bow absorbs them instead.

However, having a 50% chance to steal 25 points of each stat simply won’t hold up against high-level enemies on high difficulties. You’re much better off crafting and enchanting a bow yourself.

That being said, the bow does look cool. It’s a great addition to any trophy room. That alone is enough reason for me to get my hands on it, but you might disagree.

Skyrim Kagrumez Resonance Gem Guide – Gem Locations

Gem 1 and 2 – Found on a Reaver inside the main chamber of the Kagrumez dungeon.
Gem 3 – Found in the final chamber of the Fahlbtharz dungeon.
Gem 4 – Can be bought from Revus Sarvani outside of Tel Mithryn.
Gem 5 – Found in the Nchardak Aquaduct, accessible after finishing The Path of Knowledge.

FAQs

Question: How many Kagrumez Resonance Gems do You Need?

Answer: To complete The Kagruemz Gauntlet, you need to have four Kagrumez Resonance Gems. There are five total gems in the game, so you can afford to miss one of them. There were plans for all five gems to be needed during Dragonborn’s development, but that plan was scrapped.

Question: How do I get The Kagrumez Gauntlet Quest?

Answer: The Kagrumez Gauntlet is actually a miscellaneous quest. So, it doesn’t appear as its own individual entry in your quest log. Both following this guide to collect the gems or heading straight to the Kagrumez ruins will both cause the misc quest to trigger.

Question: How do you get the Dwarven Black Bow of Fate?

Answer: To get the Dwarven Black Bow of Fate, you need to finish The Kagrumez Gauntlet. To complete the gauntlet, you will need to collect four of the five total Kagrumez Resonance Gems dotted around Solsthiem.

Conclusion

That’s it for my Kagrumez Resonance Gem guide. I wish I had more to tell you, I really do, but Bethesda just didn’t give us much to work with here. While I’m hoping my lore speculation is on the money, it’s a long shot based on very little in-game evidence.

Practically, the Kagrumez Resonance Gems are all about getting your hands on the Dwarven Black Bow of Fate. There’s little to no reason you should be going through the effort of collecting them otherwise. That’s a shame, too, because the bow isn’t all that good.

Having a chance to absorb 25 points of Health Magicka and Stamina on each hit with a bow is barely noticeable against some of the harder enemies in Skyrim.

I mean, a Dragur Deathlord has between 1,000 and 3,000 hit points. So that 50% chance to steal 25 points of health accounts for less than one percent of a Deathlord’s total health on higher difficulties.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t do The Kagrumez Gauntlet. The quest design is pretty great, especially compared to the vanilla Dwemer ruins in Skyrim. Plus, the Black Bow looks excellent in a trophy room. Beyond that, though, I really don’t see a use for it.