The White Phial has been found and delivered to Nurelion, damaged and unusable. Being overcome by sickness, he is bedridden and dying.
A few days after completing The White Phial and The Throat of the World quests, a courier will deliver a letter from Nurelion's assistant, Quintus Navale. The letter explains that his master is still alive and Quintus asks the Dragonborn to come and talk about the possibility of repairing the Phial. Upon repairing the phial, he gives it to the Dragonborn as a reward.
The Letter Received from Quintus Navale in order to start the Quest
In order to repair the Phial, Quintus asks for three ingredients to be found:
Unmelting snow can be obtained from the Throat of the World. Unmelting Snow is an otherwise unmarked snowbank a short distance south of Paarthurnax at the Throat of the World which can be extremely difficult to find without floating quest markers, even with the use of Clairvoyance.
Mammoth tusk powder can be obtained from Stonehill Bluff. The Mammoth Tusk Powder is found in a bowl in the middle of the encampment. It is different from the Powdered Mammoth Tusk alchemy ingredient.
The briar heart can be taken from any living or deceased Forsworn Briarheart and the map points to one possible place to find one (exact location varies). Briar Hearts can also be found as loot most typically in Forsworn camps and can even be purchased from Alchemist shops. Quintus Navale sells them as well.
The White Phial upon repair.
Once all three have been obtained, the Dragonborn can return to Quintus Navale and watch him repair the Phial. When complete, he takes the Phial upstairs to show it to his dying master, Nurelion. Upon seeing the Phial whole again, Nurelion dies. Quintus comments that his master died happy, realizing his life's work was completed. Quintus, however, can't stand to have the Phial around anymore because it reminds him of Nurelion's obsession. Instead, he gives it to the Dragonborn. However, since he isn't as skilled as Curalmil, its creator, the Phial will only regenerate a single kind of magical liquid. What it will produce can be chosen based upon how Quintus is responded to:
"I'd like it to have the power of healing." (+100 health)
"I want to resist the forces of magic." (20% magic resist for 60 seconds)
"I want to be tougher in battle." (+20 stamina for 300 seconds)
"I want to strengthen my magical skills." (+20 magicka for 300 seconds)
"I want to deal more damage in battle." (+50% to one handed damage for 60 seconds)
"I want to be better hidden in the shadows." (20% harder to detect for 60 seconds)
After drinking from the Phial it will be listed as "(Empty)" and the item will appear in inventory as a special Miscellaneous item and will not disappear. This allows multiple "White Phial (Empty)'s" in inventory at one time. These weigh 0.5 each and can be dropped. After 24 hours the liquid inside the Phial will regenerate and the potion will be drinkable again.
Journal
Journal Entry
Nurelion's assistant, Quintus, believes he's found a way to repair the White Phial.
Objective: Speak to Quintus Navale
Nurelion's assistant, Quintus, believes he's found a way to repair the White Phial, and has enlisted me to track down some materials for him.
Objective: Retrieve the Unmelting Snow
Objective: Find some Mammoth Tusk Powder
Objective: Take a Forsworn Heart
Objective: Return to Quintus Navale
I helped repair the White Phial in time for Nurelion to see it before he died.
Quest complete
Bugs
This section contains bugs related to Repairing the Phial. Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following:
Please reload an old save to confirm if the bug is still happening.
If the bug is still occurring, please post the bug report with the appropriate system template 360 / XB1 , PS3 / PS4 , PC / MAC , NX / PS5 , XS , depending on which platform(s) the bug has been encountered on.
Be descriptive when listing the bug and fixes, but avoid having conversations in the description and/or using first-person anecdotes: such discussions belong on the appropriate forum board.
Click to see the list of bugs encountered
PS3 Most of these bugs have been fixed in the Skyrim 1.4 update.
360 As of the 1.4 Update, the quest can be completed even if it had already bugged due to having a briar heart in inventory when speaking to the courier. However, all briar hearts will still be listed as quest items and will be unusable in alchemy and cannot be sold. All but one can be eaten, but the last one will still remain in inventory: undroppable, unsellable, inedible, unusable.
PC 360 PS3 The quest objective "Take a Briar Heart" will not update if the item is already present in inventory when the quest is acquired from Quintus Navale. To prevent this, the heart should be dropped before reading Quintus' letter, then picked up again after the quest has been finished. PC users can use the following console command to fix the above mentioned bug: setobjectivecompleted MS12b 50 1 (If the quest chain doesn't go ahead type in the console: "SetStage MS12b 60" [PC tested]). This command will make the game acknowledge that there already is a Briar Heart quest item in inventory, thus allowing the Dragonborn to proceed with the quest, providing the other two ingredients are also obtained.
360 If two Briar Hearts are in inventory after the quest has already been started, and the first Alchemy property of the Briar Heart hasn't yet been learned, one of the hearts can be eaten, thereby destroying it, and allowing the quest to be finished with just one heart. After the quest is completed, any subsequent Briar Hearts picked up will no longer be marked as quest items and will function normally.
360 PS3 Even after completing the prerequisite quests, this quest may not be obtained no matter how many days pass. Progressing the main story line has been known to fix this.
PC PS3 Even before the letter is delivered and read, Briar Hearts become quest items 72 games hours after completing the White Phial quest. Ensuring that there are no Briar Hearts in inventory after completing The White Phial, until this quest is complete, prevents the bug.
Sometimes even with all the ingredients in inventory, the quest will not update with the dialog option to proceed the quest.
PC Solution: PC users can type setstage ms12b 60 into the console.
PC 360 PS3 Exiting the conversation with Quintus when he asks what liquid he should fill the Phial with may cause him to "forget" that the reward has been chosen, thus resetting him to his normal conversation options.
360 The mammoth tusk powder may not be inside the bowl by the giant.
Note that there is more than one bowl; all should be checked.
By attempting to use the White Phial (empty) it will create duplicates of the empty phial. They will not refill as the actual phial does.
Once completed and possessing "the White Phial (Empty)" if equipped, it will create a duplicate in the inventory. These duplicates are created every time the "White Phial (Full)" is used.
Completing this quest while doing the Numbers Job for The White Phial shop will cause the Numbers Job to fail, due to the shopkeeper dying as part of the quest. This will cause Delvin to say the mark was killed when turning in the Numbers Job. To avoid this, the Numbers job should be completed first.
