Quest: Defense of Bruma

After completing both the Miscarcand and Aid for Bruma quests, speaking to Martin again will net you the Defense of Bruma quest. The ingredients you've obtained thus far are not enough to open a gate to Camoran's Paradise: you also need a Great Sigil Stone, and Great Sigil Stones can only be found inside Great Gates, such as was opened at Kvatch. Martin's plan? Allow the Mythic Dawn to open the Great Gate outside Bruma. Martin will lead the defense of Bruma while you head into the Great Gate and find the Sigil Stone.

He asks you to head to Bruma and inform the Countess of his decision. Well, he's just giving you all the plum assignments today, isn't he? "Oh, well, could you go and grab the Great Sigil Stone and place yourself in unimaginable peril? But before you go, go and tell the Countess that we're probably going to get her city destroyed."

Head to Bruma, the streets of which are now littered with the soldiers from other towns. Speak to the Countess and tell her about Martin's plan. Although she's upset, she'll agree to speak to Martin in the Chapel. You'll have to walk her there, but when you do finally unite Narina and Martin, they'll agree to the plan, which will have Narina's troops cease destroying the lesser Oblivion Gates around the city. In order to open a Great Gate, the enemy will have to open three smaller gates.

Escort Martin out of town to meet up with the Imperial defense squadron. How many soldiers does it take to defend a city? Apparently the answer is thirteen.

Defending The Town

If you get swamped by Daedra, you're unlikely to survive the battle here.

When you first exit the city, there'll only be one lesser Gate open. Soon enough, though, two more will pop open, and all of them will start discharging Daedra, and plenty of them. Ostensibly, your job here is to protect Martin until the Great Gate opens up, but really, most of the enemies here are going to make a beeline for you, so your real objective should be to just stay alive.

Do so by remaining behind the main line of battle and keeping your blocking up, preferably with a shield. The numerous soldiers in the area will be able to handle the foes that attack you, allowing you to loot their bodies and see if they've dropped anything magical. Just be sure to heal yourself when you take damage, as the number of enemies that will be attacking will multiply with each successive gate that opens up. The Dremora will be particularly painful to you if you let them get close, so just avoid them as best you can while the soldiers in the area cut them down.

As soon as the Great Gate opens up, book it for the entrance and pop inside.

Quest: Great Gate

After entering the Great Gate, you'll have fifteen minutes to reach the top of the citadel and shut down the gate. Why the specific amount of time? Because the daedric siege engine is crawling towards the gate! After fifteen minutes, it'll emerge from the gate, and even if you shut down the Gate, it'll still be able to destroy most of Bruma. Thus the fifteen minute timer. Save your game as soon as you enter the Plane, then. You should be able to get past most of the enemies and scale the tower (it's slightly smaller than most citadels) within the timeframe, but if not, then you'll be able to reload and try again.

With a running start, you should be able to make this jump.

At the outset of the level, the large gate in front of you will open up, revealing the siege engine off in the distance and a couple of opponents in the foreground. The siege engine will begin firing Flares at you, so keep your weapons sheathed (and preferably unequipped) while you run past your enemies into the tower on your right, to the northeast. (It should be highlighted on your compass in red.) Ignore your foes if they follow you into the tower; just ride the Corpse Smasher up to the walkways and walk all the way to the top of the tower here, killing anything in your path. The door at the top of the tower will lead you over a walkway to the next tower to the north.

The top level of this tower has two doors; one heading south (through which you just entered) and one heading west. Ignore the western one and head down to the mid level of the tower, just above where the Corpse Smasher would normally reach its maximum height. There's another door here leading north, and that's the one you want to come to. It leads to what will probably appear to be an intimidatingly long jump, but it should be doable for almost every character, if you can get up enough speed. You need to jump from the platform you're on to the one farther ahead. If you unequip your weapon (and we mean actually putting it in your inventory, not just sheathing it or slinging it onto your back or whatever) and all of your armor (especially if you're wearing heavy armor), then you should be able to make the jump. Just be sure to save your game before attempting it!

Save your game after grabbing the Great Sigil Stone and reload if the Stone you get back in Bruma isn't worth picking up.

After making the jump here, make your way to the tower directly north of you; you'll probably have to circle behind it to reach the gray road that leads from east to west. This last minitower features a switch at the top of it, so scale the tower, flip the switch to open the gate, then return to the bottom of the tower and exit. The gate nearby will be swinging open, revealing the path to the Citadel.

After killing the Sigil Keeper on the first floor and grabbing his key, head into the Vaults of End Times. Flip the switch after reaching the top of the ramp to drop the blade traps in front of you, then run under them as they're rising. You'll come to three doors: to your right (north) is a door leading to a treasure chest; to the west are a pair of magicka and health regenerators, and to the south is the exit to the upper levels of the citadel.

We said that the citadel here was small, and indeed, the next interior section you'll enter will be the Sigil Stone sanctuary. Kill the guards (or just run past them, but don't neglect to check the Punished for treasure), then get to the Great Sigil Stone and activate it.

After you reappear in Bruma, survey the battlefield. The siege engine, cut in half by the collapse of the Great Gate, collapses itself, discharging a Sigil Stone onto the battlefield. Martin, who now has everything he needs to complete the portal to Cameron's Paradise, asks you to meet him in Cloud Ruler Temple when you're ready to go. Jauffre may have died, no matter what you do in the Plane of Oblivion, so feel free to mourn him before looting his corpse. Old coot didn't even manage to carry any magical items.