Skyrim talk:From the Ashes

Spell availability after quest

The dragonborn spells article says that many spells are sold by Talvas or whatever the apprentice's name is after this quest. I completed it a while back but the only spell that became available was conjure ash guardian. Later on, I completed a different quest to gain conjure ash spawn. Does anyone know what the other quests are, and if so, can they perhaps correct the spells page? Thanks! 50.124.52.12 08:11, 23 December 2012 (GMT)

This will be much easier to do once Dragonborn has been released on PC, when these details can be looked up in the Creation Kit. It may be that most spells have the possibility of appearing after this quest, but only some of them will, as his sale inventory may be partially randomly generated. For example, I was able to purchase Ash Shell and Poison Rune, but not Ash Rune, after this quest. Also, spells of higher levels may not appear if your skill in that magic school is too low. --Enodoc (talk) 14:40, 23 December 2012 (GMT)

What I can see is that each tome has it's own leveled list, controlling it's appearance via a global value. For Ash Rune, Ash Shell, Conjure Seeker, Frenzy Rune and Poison Rune it is just the appropriate one to make it available after a certain skill level is reached (see Skyrim:Spells). The other ones have global values referenced by the following quests:

Conjure Ash Guardian - From the Ashes

Conjure Ash Spawn - Telvanni Research

Whirlwind Cloak - Wind and Sand

--Alfwyn (talk) 17:49, 23 December 2012 (GMT)

Does this mean that if you complete the quest at a low level, you won't be able to obtain the other spells? I have leveled up quite a bit since doing it and I still don't have any other spells available. And yes, I have waited for his inventory to respawn.Getting ash guardian before ash spawn is weird because ash guardian is, I believe, an expert level conjuration spell, but i was nowhere near level 75 conjuration when I did the quest. In any case, I'll try leveling the specific magic skills even more. Thanks for the replies! 50.33.230.178 21:44, 4 January 2013 (GMT) (this is the original poster but on a different device)

He appears to sell mainly Conjuration and Destruction spells, along with a selection of spells from the DLC. --Morrolan (talk) 20:07, 24 January 2013 (GMT)

(←) It seems that if you don't take the conjure ash guardian spell as a reward for this quest, it gives you a random staff instead (not a staff of conjure ash guardian as the article says). Michaelt919 (talk) 02:15, 17 February 2013 (GMT)

Reward?

All I got from completing this quest was 200 gold and the spell tome became available to purchase but wasnt given to me.--82.46.168.98 07:34, 13 March 2013 (GMT)

You can't choose the reward after completing the quest... i've loaded and redone it many times and the only reward is a random staff. I've also looked many times in his inventory and the conjure ash guardian spell tome is nowhere to be found. This is confusing — Unsigned comment by 99.240.215.152 (talk) at 08:48 on 21 April 2013‎

It may be that the spell only appears as a reward if your Conjuration skill is high enough. If not, you only get the staff. From what I can tell, the staff is random, as there is no Staff of Conjure Ash Guardian at all. I thought the spell appeared in his inventory straight away, but maybe it only appears there again if your skill level is high enough. --Enodoc (talk) 14:41, 21 April 2013 (GMT)

Just like Enodoc said, the staff has a random effect. To name a few that I was rewarded with: "healing hands" or "magelight". I don't want to mess the page up, someone should edit the reward information indicating the staff is random. HellRider (talk) 14:10, 4 July 2013 (GMT)

(←) Poking a bit around in the CK, the possible rewards depend on the players Conjuration skill. If it is 100 he can choose between the spelltome (plus a Heartstone) or the staff. Otherwise it is the staff. The staff is random from the list LItemStaff25 . --Alfwyn (talk) 23:05, 16 December 2013 (GMT)

I have the option to get the spell tome as reward at Conjuration level 66. Does it count as a verification? Penuser (talk) 02:25, 23 July 2016 (UTC)

Judging by this and the discussion below, it sounds like some more in-depth studying of the CK files is in order. Since two users report getting the tome below level 100, I think it's safe to say that it's possible to get it at lower conjuration levels, though we should definitely search through the CK to find out a clear level range, if one is given. Zul do onikaan^{Laan tinvaak} 13:59, 23 July 2016 (UTC)

(←) tl;dr: I always got the staff as a reward, but the availability of the Ash Guardian spell tome in Talvas' inventory seems to vary for me. I am at Conjuration 32.

This is toward Enodoc's point above about when the Ash Guardian spell tome becomes available for purchase.

The very first time I went in to talk to Talvas after killing the Ash Guardian, he gave me a Staff of Magelight. While I was still in the dialogue tree from that, I selected "What have you got for sale?", and he had both the Ash Guardian and Ash Shell spell tomes (plus a number of other spell tomes) for sale. I bought them both... and then promptly missed hitting Float Down in time, so I fell down the stem of Tel Mithryn and died.  :D

My save was from when I had just entered Tel Mithryn, so I floated up and talked to him again - I got another staff (Flame Atronach, I think), but he didn't have Ash Guardian to sell that time, just Ash Shell (plus others). I tried exiting the dialogue tree, then walking back up to him and trying again, and it still wasn't in his inventory. I reloaded my save, floated up again, talked to him, got a staff (Minor Turning) again... and still no Ash Guardian spell book in his inventory.

I did another quest for a couple of days of in-game time, and then returned to Tel Mithryn and talked to Talvas again. This time, Ash Guardian (plus others) were in his inventory again, so I bought Ash Guardian. (I also still had the "What went wrong with the Ash Guardian spell?" option in the dialogue tree when I talked to him, but I'm not sure if that's related.)

My Conjuration was 32 for all of these interactions, and they were all on 1.9.31.0.8, PS3. 73.3.56.178 10:46, 8 June 2020 (UTC)

I saved before turning in the quest and used console commands to level up my Conjuration. Conjuration level 65 was the first level the Ash Guardian spell reward was available. --Satarack (talk) 06:58, 30 April 2022 (UTC)

I just updated the page and removed the VN after checking the Creation Kit and confirming my findings in game. I think the bit about him needing to restock his inventory explains why some people didn't get the book right away and therefore thought it might be level- or skill-based. If you don't want to wait for the restocking to occur naturally, you can either exit and reload the game or you can save, attack Talvas, then reload. – Robin Hood ^(talk) 07:03, 3 August 2022 (UTC)

Reward

I've written the detailed walkthrough but linked back to this page for the reward. I got a staff (of Ice Spikes) and the tome became available, but my Conjuration was at 30 at the time. It is linked to my Conjuration level, correct? Apparently a staff has been confirmed to always appear, but can someone determine at which point the tome will become available? If you're too low a level to make it appear at the time you complete the quest, will it become available later? I could do some tinkering in-game with console commands, but I am woefully inexperienced with the CK. EDIT: setav conjuration 15, 20, 25, no tome. But then I reloaded a previous save and ran through again, at 30 conjuration, and no tome! What is going on? Likelolwhat (talk) 20:03, 22 December 2013 (GMT)

(2021) I just killed the ash guardian at a low level with Conj skill 25. First time, after the quest was complete his store offered to sell me Conjure Ash Guardian but none of the other ash spells. Just for fun, I reloaded a save from the point where I had just left the tower and the guardian was running loose, but he hadn't yet asked me to kill it. I killed it and this time when I told him the guardian was dead, his store did NOT contain any ash spells at all to sell, not even CAG. Did it a third time with same results as second time. The staff he gave me did change. First time was staff of magelight, second was staff of flame atronach and third time was staff of healing hands. — Unsigned comment by 8.3.127.123 (talk) at 23:02 on 24 September 2021 (UTC)

Speaking to Neloth to start the quest?

In the article it states that you must speak to Neloth for the quest to start, and that just entering and exiting the tower doesn't work. I had the quest start while I was completing the quest to plant the soaked taproot in the withered part of the tower. I entered the tower, went straight to the withered bit, planted the tap root, then left. I saw Neloth bent over a table across the room, but never approached him nor spoke to him. When I exited the tower, the apprentice guy asked me to destroy the ash guardian. I have no way to tell if this is just an oddity, or if it's a case of some other thing being necessary to start the quest. For the record, I'm on the xbox. Obax (talk) 02:20, 6 February 2015 (GMT)

Exact same scenario for myself. Also on Xbox. Mwakefield (talk) 20:33, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Same here. I am on PS3, 1.9.31.0.8, no mods. The very first time I walked up to Tel Mithryn, I spoke to Talvas right after his argument with Varona, and he explained he was trying to use a spell. I spoke with him once again on one of my trips to or from the alchemist for Healing a House; he still couldn't get his spell to work. I remember his "idle" dialogue that time being something like "Two fingers must be pronated... what's pronated? Oh, extended. That might work". I went in to Tel Mithryn, planted the one soaked taproot, and walked up to Neloth. I got the "(X) Talk Neloth" prompt, and pressed X, but he didn't say anything. I floated back down, went out the door and down the path, and that's when Talvas ran up to me and asked me to kill the ash guardian. 73.3.56.178 11:12, 7 June 2020 (UTC)