The weapons in Skyrim come in many shapes and sizes, so there's something for everyone regardless of your play style. You can find regular weapons throughout Skyrim commonly; however, unique weapons are much rarer because of their special effects.
Keening is a weapon from Morrowind; however, it's also available in Skyrim if you complete the "Arniel's Endeavor" quest. Keening has a unique effect, and its appearance is also distinct from other one-handed weapons. In this guide, you can discover how to find Keening and everything else you need to know about it.
How Powerful Is Keening?
Keening is a unique one-handed dagger that grants you a chance to steal ten points of your enemy's Health, Stamina, and Magicka when you attack them. Since Keening's enchantment targets all three stats, it's more useful than weapons that can only absorb one type of resource.
Keening only deals eight base damage; however, it makes up for the lack of high damage because of its ability and unique appearance. Since there aren't many unique daggers in Skyrim, Keening fills an important role for one-handed stealth builds.
How To Get Keening
Finding Keening isn't as simple as delving into a dungeon. Instead, you need to complete the "Arniel's Endeavor" quest, which you can start at the College Of Winterhold. There are multiple steps to this quest, and the reason you get Keening isn't initially as a reward, so you will need it for certain steps throughout the mission. Here's everything you need to do to complete the "Arniel's Endeavor" quest in Skyrim.
Arniel's Endeavor Quest Walkthrough
After you complete the "Hitting The Books" quest, you need to speak with Arniel Gane in the College Of Winterhold. Ask him if he needs your help with anything, and this will start the "Arniel's Endeavor" side quest. Throughout the next few steps, you have to adventure into Skyrim's dungeons to find various items that Arniel needs to complete his project.
Collect Ten Dwemer Cogs
Before you can do anything else for Arniel, you need to collect ten Dwemer Cogs. This is a challenge because Dwemer Cogs are rare throughout Skyrim's open world, so you need to know the exact location of ten of them to complete this task. Luckily, there are a few set locations where you can find Dwemer Cogs.
The most notable location is the Dwemer Museum, which is inside Understone Keep in Markarth. There are more than ten Dwemer Cogs inside this museum; however, you will be stealing the cogs from this location. If you don't want to steal, then travel to the locations below instead. Some of the cogs require you to pick a lock, while others are sitting throughout the museum as you can see in the picture below.
The Tower Of Mzark is another location with lots of Dwemer Cogs. You can find five of the cogs near the contraption that you use in the "Discerning The Transmundane" quest. Mzinchaleft is another dungeon that you can find southwest of Dawnstar, and it has multiple Dwemer Cogs in its interior. The four cogs inside Mzinchaleft that you can easily obtain are directly behind the main gate when you enter the dungeon, so this is a great location to quickly acquire four Dwemer Cogs.
The easiest way to get all ten Dwemer Cogs without stealing is by searching inside of Mzulft. There are lots of cogs lying around this dungeon inside containers and on objects throughout its interior. However, they aren't in a group as with many of the other locations that contain Dwemer Cogs. Additionally, there's a storeroom right outside of Mzulft that contains four Dwemer Cogs, which may be enough to push you to ten if you only need a few more.
Obtain The Staff Of Tandil
When you collect all ten Dwemer Cogs and speak with Arniel, he'll tell you to talk to Enthir, who then tells you to go to a dungeon and find the Staff Of Tandil. This part of the quest will vary in difficulty for each playthrough because the location of the Staff Of Tandil is random. However, most of the dungeons you may need to visit are easy as long as you have a powerful weapon and a full set of armor.
You need to return to Enthir after you get the Staff Of Tandil, and then he will reward you with a Warped Soul Gem, which is a unique item that you need to give to Arniel to progress in "Arniel's Endeavor."
Find The Dwemer Convectors
Finding the Dwemer Convectors is the next step in "Arniel's Endeavor." Unfortunately, you need to complete the "The Eye Of Magnus" quest before you can complete this task. Once "The Eye Of Magnus" is complete, speak with Arniel, and he'll instruct you to find a few Dwemer Convectors to continue his research.
You have to travel to multiple locations to find the Dwemer Convectors. Once you're near a convector, you need to use the "Arneil's Convection" spell that Arniel teaches you at the beginning of this task. Use the spell to heat each Dwemer Convector and then return to Arniel. The locations where you will encounter the Dwemer Convectors all have quest markers leading to them on your map.
Acquire Keening
This is the final part of "Arniel's Endeavor." You can speak with Arniel once again after you visit every Dwemer Convector, and he'll tell you to talk to Enthir. You'll learn the location of a Courier carrying Keening when you speak with Enthir, but the Courier is also at a random location that varies from player to player. You can then follow the quest marker to retrieve Keening from the Courier.
When you return to the College Of Winterhold and speak with Arniel for the last time, you can converse with him briefly before he puts his plan into motion. Arniel will attack the nearby soul gem with Keening, causing him to disappear without a trace. The "Arniel's Endeavor" quest will complete, and you can pick up Keening to use as a weapon.