Skyrim talk:Buy Dwarven artifact

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Quest Name[edit]

I think this quest has an improper name, instead of "Buy Dwarven artifact" its name should be something like "Deliver a Dwarven Artifact to Calcelmo". I do not know how to make this change though. But I've linked Calcelmo and Courier to this quest. 87.228.24.249 16:31, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

"Buy Dwarven artifact" is the name that Bethesda gave the quest, and is taken directly from the game data. Therefore that's the name that we use for the quest page. --NepheleTalk 09:10, 3 December 2011 (UTC)
Interesting. I wonder if "buying" an artifact is the only way to trigger this quest.87.228.24.249 12:42, 3 December 2011 (UTC)
This is one of those quests where I really can't claim to understand the game data well enough to say anything other than the obvious info that's already on the page (name, objectives). Nevertheless, my best guess would be that you have to buy an item to initiate the quest, based on the fact that the two triggers/toggles for the quest are named "WIAddItem07PayA" and "WIAddItem07PayB". --NepheleTalk 17:24, 3 December 2011 (UTC)
For what little it's worth - I only get this Quest when I've purchased an enchanted Dwarven Bow of some kind. He's never asked me for any other Dwemer artifact. ComaDivine 09:38, 21 January 2012 (UTC)
I got it for a mace, so it's possible to trigger with others. 71.178.105.64 20:25, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
I had it trigger on a Dwarven arrow. Unsurprisingly my character was unimpressed with Calcelmo dragging him across Skyrim for 8 gold, so he told him where to shove it.60.226.14.181 12:13, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Item not present at sale[edit]

In Skyrim patched with Update 1 Calcelmo will accept dwarven artifact even if the player no longer has it (for example, if the artifact was disenchanted by the player). If this is always true, or some conditions must be met, is unknown.

It's still true with 1.3, bought an enchanted helmet in Riften, traveled to Markath, met the courier, disenchanted the item in front of Calcelmo and "sold" it to him — Unsigned comment by 195.243.152.140 (talk) at 14:54 on December 12, 2011

PS3, patched to current (1.4). I broke the Dwarven Helmet of Waterbreathing at Calcelmo's own Enchanting station, and then turned around and talked through the quest. Completed, got 400bux, didn't bother with the Persuade or Intimidate options (I really don't need any more money). Nothing appeared to be removed from my inventory.
Reloaded to check. If you have the item he'll take it when he gives you the 400 gold. Either way the quest gets removed from your quest list. There's always an option to say you don't have it - he'll ask you to go find it if you can, but since he doesn't actually need the item, it doesn't really matter.
I've got games saved before and after, if people want to suggest stuff to test (Re: the verification needed). 12th 07:45, 19 April 2012 (UTC)
tested and found true that he recognises an item if it was disenchanted, but not if it was dropped. Added to "notes" section of the quest. Sergio 87.228.59.6 06:14, 23 April 2012 (UTC)
I sold my Dwarven Bow of Despair that he wanted, and even after buying a new bow, enchanting it, and renaming it Dwarven Bow of Despair, I can't give it to him and complete the quest. — Unsigned comment by 98.245.167.166 (talk) at 09:59 on 14 June 2012
Just encountered this quest on PS3 with current update (1.7.13.0.6). Calcelmo wanted the Sanctified Dwarven Greatsword I "bought" (read lifted from a merchant chest). I didn't get the note from the courier until I was walking out of Dragonsreach having just come from disenchanting said weapon. The only new dialogue option with Calcelmo read "I'm here about the Sanctified Dwarven Greatsword" or some such. The only option after that was to tell him that I no longer had it, whereupon he told me that he was still interested in it if I could remember where I "left" it and get it back for him. There was never an option to say that I had it in my possession. (Perhaps a patch fixed this?) On a final note, the quest is still in my log (in its original order) as "Bring a Sanctified Dwarven Greatsword to Calcelmo". Here's hoping one ever shows up again -- I really don't want to calculate the odds. — Unsigned comment by 140.247.0.9 (talk) at 08:18 on 3 February 2013 (UTC)

Execution Hood[edit]

Accidentally sold an Execution Hood to Tonilia in the Ragged Flagon and bought it back and then I received this letter. It is kind of amusing because he "needs it for his research". Just a note.— Unsigned comment by 88.132.45.92 (talk) at 20:28 on 18 December 2011

Same as above. Pickpocketed all 3 hoods because I wanted to see what the victims looked like. Fenced them, to remove the stolen tag, and got the note that Calcelmo wanted one a day or so later.— Unsigned comment by 173.18.1.212 (talk) at 18:54 on 14 January 2012
Can this method (sell & buy) be used for dwarven artefacts too? Would this be worthfull (money or otherwise)? — Unsigned comment by 188.24.10.61 (talk) at 00:18 on 22 January 2012
Yes, you can buy back whatever he wants if you have sold it to someone. It might be worthwhile if you want to get the quest out of your quest log. Otherwise, not really. Vardis 01:40, 22 January 2012 (UTC)
I meant if is feasible to use this method to trigger the quest for looted items...and if is worth to do so. — Unsigned comment by 81.196.151.13 (talk) at 11:47 on January 23, 2012
I have experienced this too and have added this to the bug list. Camron J. H. 68.229.252.3 08:21, 22 September 2012 (GMT)

reward amount random? + quest note[edit]

Calcelmo says in the dialogue "I'll give you double what it's worth" for my Dwarven Mace (purchased in Whiterun), and the offer was 380 septims. base value of the mace is 190. is that a coincidence or does he always offer double the value? seeing as how you could pay 3x or more at the merchants without shopping perks & powers, that dog doesn't hunt too well monsignor.

i really wanted one of these maces & was happy to buy it. i already invested resources into smithing & enchanting it before the courier came with Calcelmo's letter. the letter says he is interested in this item or one just like it, so when I found a spare mace I brought it to him. I dropped the first one in case he decided to take that one, but in the end he gave me the 380 gold (speechcraft fail) without taking either mace. — Unsigned comment by 172.131.183.191 (talk) at 08:12 on 21 April 2012

Smithing[edit]

I bought a Dwarven Helmet of Eminent Archery, and being skilled in archery and smithing, immediately upgraded it for my own use. Soon I got the letter from Calcemo, and decided to see what he wanted it for. However because it was now called "Dwarven Helmet of Eminent Archery (Legendary)" (or similar), I could not sell it to Calcemo. Do you think this is a bug, or perhaps Fridge Brilliance because he no longer considers it an authentic artifact now that I've hammered away at it? Can anyone else confirm this? Either way, I've added it to the notes section so people are aware. This item has not yet come up for sale again (and I doubt it will this game) so the quest is unfinishable.--210.80.142.30 01:53, 16 August 2013 (GMT)

I rewrote it so the note is less speculative. If you want to complete this quest, you'll have to acquire another Dwarven Helmet of Eminent Archery to give him. --AKB Talk Cont Mail 16:23, 16 August 2013 (GMT)

A little digging on the Reward...[edit]

Right, I was somewhat bored and ended up on this page and thought how varied is the gold reward and still couldn't find the answer. What I did find was this: wonderful script! For those of you who don't want to read the, the relevant bit is this:

WIAddItem07PayA.SetValue(itemValue * 2)
WIAddItem07PayB.SetValue(itemValue * 2.5)

I'll also note that "itemValue" is set by the script as the "akItemBase.GetGoldValue()" which i'll presume means the items base value.
I became stuck at this point, I could not find a list of "possible" items, or conditions of PayA or PayB.
What the idea i'd had was to list lower value and higher values for both PayA and PayB and note how to get each pay grade. --Kiz(email - talk) 10:13, 26 January 2014 (GMT)

Selling item before getting letter[edit]

This note was recently removed from the article: You don't need to wait for the courier to come; you can just simply buy a Dwarven weapon or armor and sell it to him.

Though you should read the letter first in order to unlock the dialogue, I actually have been able to sell off my item BEFORE receiving the letter. But, I did this by accident. I buy dwarven arrows all the time, so I get a letter for it every time. Now, I think it's because I'm always buying the same dwarven item, this may make it possible to sell before getting the letter. It was when I saw the dialogue option I was a bit confused, since I didn't remember getting a letter. When I got another letter though, none of the letters (you know you have several after a while) gave me a quest update to talk to Calcelmo, nor was I able to sell the arrow, and it's because of this I knew I had already sold it. And indeed, I later got a second letter which did give me the objective to see Calcelmo. So basically, it didn't yield any advantageous situation other than being able to sell it then and there just once.

So in short, it may be possible if you acquire the same item from the previous time, though it would need some testing from someone else ~ Dwarfmp (talk) 01:51, 14 February 2015 (GMT)

Fort Dawnguard a city?[edit]

The description says that this quest only triggers after buying a Dwarven item from a city. However, I got this letter after buying a Dwarven crossbow from Sorine. Does Fort Dawnguard count as a city in this regard? MidbossVyers (talk) 02:08, 22 April 2015 (GMT)

Reach stormcloak camp is also not city[edit]

I been buying items from stormcloak camp and when i got to whiterun i got letter about item i have buyed from camp so this quest can start not only from items from cities but also camps Ciberzombie (talk) 08:36, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

This isn't the first note like this, and I'd be loath to classify the military camps as "cities." Perhaps "purchased from a merchant" would be more accurate? Echo (talk) 01:27, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

Persuade Loop Exploit[edit]

If you use the Persuade option to convince Calcelmo to raise the price, then cancel the sale by exiting the dialogue, you can keep doing this repeatedly with the same item to raise Speech. 98.68.147.103 07:11, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

Sold item remains in merchant's inventory forever?[edit]

At the beginning of my current playthrough I bought Dwarven Sword of Animus. Calcelmo obviously sent me a letter that he wanted it. I used the sword for a while, then I found a better weapon and I sold the Dwarven sword somewhere without remembering to bring it to Calcelmo. Now, some 30+ levels later and a lot of ingame time passed, I was checking goods at Fihada's shop in Solitude and I saw that he has a Dwarven Sword of Animus, so I decided to buy it to finally finish the quest. But when I looked closely at the sword, I found out that it is only halfway charged and it even has the little mark that marks your favorite items. I bought it and nothing changed (it didn't charged up, it remained marked as my favorite). So I'm very sure that it is in fact the exact sword I sold a long time ago. Did it happen to anyone else too? 37.48.42.122 19:14, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

The item marked for the quest can be enchanted but cannot be named[edit]

I have encountered this at least twice - possibly three or four times - over the years. Usually with a Dwarven bow purchased in Whiterun. It is my custom to buy two Dwarven bows for my warrior characters as soon as they become available. I enchant one for general use and the other for Soul capture. This happened most recently a few days ago. I had received the letter prior to trying to enchant the bow. I bought two Dwarven bows from Elrindir. I was able to name only one of them. At first I thought it was a bug or a glitch. It took me a little while to remember it had happened before and to realize the item had been marked for the quest. So imo it is not a bug; it has to do with the way the system processes quest items.--Siddha (talk) 15:38, 27 September 2020 (UTC)