Online:A Melodic Mistake

Quick Walkthrough
#Talk to Manore Mobaner.
#Talk to Foreman Lathdar.
#Speak to the addled workers inside the mine.
#Investigate the kwama queen.
#Delve deeper to locate the source of the sound.
#Get past the barrier.
#Find the source and fix the problem with the machine.
#Talk to Revus.
#Return to the foreman.

Detailed Walkthrough
Learn about the Problem in the Mine
As you enter Gnisis, you'll find Manore Mobaner trying to reassure an angry Ulves Llothas. Apparently, there's been some trouble at the local egg mine, and the miners are having to be dragged out. House Redoran, which administers the town, has been called in, but no one has arrived yet. This seems like the perfect opportunity for a freelance adventurer, so after Ulves stalks away, speak to Manore.

He says the trouble is a sickness, and they've elected to keep the affected miners in the mine until they are sorted out. However, he does hint that they aren't exactly able to get out on their own. He directs you to speak to the foreman if you want to help.

Head up to the mine. A group of miners is gathered around the entrance, including the latest victim of the 'sickness', Thagbruth. He's in pretty bad shape, rambling on about a song that needs to be fixed. You'll get no help from him, so talk to the foreman instead. He says there's a strange noise in the mine that's driving everything that hears it&mdash;the kwama have gone rabid, and the egg-hands become obsessed with fixing the song. They have to be dragged out of the mine. If you talk to him more, he'll mention another clue to this mystery: earthquakes have been hitting the area for weeks, caving in parts of the mine, and they may have uncovered something better left buried.

Explore the Mine
Head inside. There are dead miners lying everywhere, as well as a few living ones who will only hum a few notes over and over as you pass by. Only a few are more coherent&mdash;though not by much. You'll need to speak to them to figure out this mystery. The first one is just to the left at the four-way intersection. The second is straight through the intersection, at the edge of an underground lake. Both are clearly addled, but you'll get an important piece of information: someone is behind the madness, and there is a way to fix it.

Head deeper into the mine, passing by the nursery on the way, and enter a large central chamber with the kwama queen&mdash;or what's left of her. Examine the body, and it becomes obvious that her own children killed her. Just then, a third miner speaks up from nearby, echoing what you just discovered. Speak to him next. He has an ominous warning hidden in his ramblings, that the song will spread outside the mind if left unchecked, but you'll get nothing else new out of him. There is, however, a narrow path to the north. It's the only way forward.
thumb|right|A Dwarven Tonal Barrier
The mine suddenly looks much more like a natural tunnel, complete with glowing mushrooms. The foreman was right&mdash;new areas of the cave system have been uncovered. Then you'll start running across signs of a Dwemer ruin: gears, pots, and even the occasional spider. At one point, you'll jump down into the ruin proper and start finding centurions as well.

Head ever deeper to find an obstacle: a strange barrier at the other end of a chamber, powered by an invincible centurion. In the chamber itself is Centurion Mthgrazzen. It wanders back and forth in front of a gem on a pedestal. Watch it for a moment and you'll notice something: while it is within a certain distance of the gem, a link appears between them and it gains a shield that makes it much more difficult to beat. At the farthest reach of its patrol, the link, and subsequently the shield, disappear.

The best strategy is to pull it out of the reach of the gem and kill it as fast as possible. Spiders and spheres will also spawn during the fight, and the still-living ones will continue to hound you after Mthgrazzen is dead, but no new ones will appear after the boss' death.

Grab the gem, a Dwarven Tonal Prism, and use it on the barrier. This will kill the other centurion and dispel the barrier. Go on past, into an area where the Dwemer structures have been overtaken by nature, and enter the Dwarven Sanctum.

Fix the Machine
thumb|The Dwarven resonator
Finally, you'll see the source of this madness: a huge machine with switches and glowing lights&mdash;and standing before it, someone who is clearly not a miner. He mutters to himself as you approach, beating himself up over breaking the machine. Talk to him and he'll be startled; apparently, he plugged his ears to avoid succumbing to the noise as well, which means that he didn't hear you approach, nor can he hear you question him. He won't be of much help for the moment, but he does tell you how to work the machine: turn the dials until you think they're in the correct position, then throw the lever to execute it.

Fiddle with the machine as long as you need. If you talk to Revus again, he will suggest that the egg-hands may hum or mumble something important. Indeed, they've been humming since you entered the mine. Every miner you've passed by has been humming the same sequence of notes, over and over. This is the correct tune, but you need to translate that into the positions of the machine's dials.

The sequence to fix the Dwarven resonator is as follows (from left to right): middle-bottom-top-top-bottom. The red lights will flash yellow when they are in the correct position and you pull the lever.

When the machine is fixed, Revus will be overjoyed, even as the miners return to their senses and run away. He will yell that he has a camp in the next section and to meet him there. At the camp, you'll see Revus warming himself by his fire. He isn't sure whether the egg-hands will be okay, but he promises to try to help fix the situation. He bids you return to the foreman, but you can talk to him a bit more about what he was doing and his theories about the machine's purpose.

Take the back exit and return to Gnisis. Foreman Lathdar can be found outside the Resting Kwama inn, along with Manore Mobaner and a group of miners. When you tell him the short version of what happened, he correctly guesses Revus was responsible&mdash;turns out Revus may have caused some trouble before. Never to this magnitude though. Lathdar is angry, but grateful that his people are safe.

He'll give you a reward; you can then receive the next quest, Hatching a Plan, if you wish.

Notes
When you head up to the mine after receiving the quest, you'll pass by a bard who has been kicked out of the Temple on the way; remember him for the next quest.
Revus mentions there are "one thousand twenty-four" possible combinations, but there are actually only two hundred forty-three.
 

Quest Stages