Bristleback Cave is a cave located south of Northshore Landing, next to a Riekling camp. The cave itself is one immense Riekling camp.
Quests[]
Pain in the Necklace[]
Locate the East Empire Pendants for Fethis Alor in Raven Rock.
Walkthrough[]
The cave begins heading north down a slope. At the bottom are the corpses of two reavers, but when it is approached, a riekling jumps out of the barrel nearby. From this point, turning left (west), the cave turns south and leads to a dead end. Back at the ambush point, the cave continues north down another slope. At the bottom, an encampment is off to the left (west), protected by three rieklings.
Continuing on north, there is another riekling. The passage becomes quite narrow, then widens into a long room where many more rieklings are living. There are many potions here, along with a chest at the northern end against the west wall, and a riekling hut with random loot against the southwest wall of the room.
Close to the northern end of the room, another passage leads east. At the first tent, a riekling will pop up from the snow floor. In the room beyond, numerous other rieklings are present to do battle.
At the eastern end of the room, a tent on the left contains an unlocked strong box with a single gem, and just past that is a master-locked chest with random loot. The path continues south, where another riekling is waiting in ambush. There is another riekling hut containing random loot.
The path turns left (east) again, proceeds through another narrow passage, and when it widens, leads to another ambush, plus several more rieklings who attack. It turns left (north) to another camp area with a riekling hut against the left (west) wall.
At the very northern end of the room, the path turns to the right and eventually heads south down a slope to another riekling camp area. At the southern end of the room is a riekling hut with random loot. To its left is a barrel with an East Empire Company strongbox on top, and just to its right is an open crate with the book Ahzidal's Descent (which, upon reading, begins a miscellaneous quest to "Investigate Kolbjorn Barrow").
The passage continues down to the right (west), where two more rieklings wait in ambush. The path takes a sharp bend to the right (northeast), then another sharp bend to the left (west) down to a small camp area where a single riekling waits. The path continues up a slope, then levels out. Where it turns left (south), there are two riekling huts, protected by four rieklings.
After going south, the path turns left (east) and leads to a very large room with many rieklings. A ramp against the left (north) wall leads down to one camp area, but the room continues up to the right (south), where a bridge needs to be crossed to get to the other side. This area has several unmounted and mounted bristlebacks. There are also two riekling huts to be looted.
There are two paths out from this room that start from the back (south) wall. One leads to the east down a narrow slope, then turns left (north), where a riekling hut and chest are found on the left side. The path continues down, then turns left (west) and leads to a dead end with a master-locked chest containing minor loot.
The other leads up to the southwest. It turns south and comes to a riekling hut with a chest to its left and a table to its right with various loot on/in them. The path turns left (east) and leads up a slope, then takes a left-hand U-turn, then right right (north) and comes out above one of the first rooms in the cave (the first dead end). This can be used as a shortcut back to the entrance (jumping down, then proceeding north, east, then south).
Enemies[]
Notable items[]
- An East Empire Company Strongbox
- A Nordic Dagger of Binding, in the final large room, next to the skeleton on the precipice on the east side wall (east of the bridge and below a wooden box with a soul gem).
- A piece of charcoal (the rare kind) can be found on a wood chopping block in the last room at the end of the cave, on the left side of the opening to the southwest tunnel that leads back to the cave entrance.