Not finishing the "Cleansing the Stones" quest, what consequences does it have?

[Code Blue]

I've bought the game during the Autumn Sales and I'm playing it for the first time. I've got carried away with the main quests and got to a quest too tough for my character. I've already destroyed all but one of the stones by luring the lurkers to settlements that were nearby and defeating them. I've only got the Water stone lurker to defeat (the dragon is already dead) but my character is too weak right now to fight a lurker on it own so I've returned to Skyrim to level him up.

At the beggining of the quest it says that by destroying the stone I'll delay the return of Miraak. If I don't finish the quest soon will it have negative effects on the story?

PS Any tips on the best way to defeat the lurker? I like my character to use as little magic as possible, he's a big viking looking brawler with an axe and a shield, not really suited for casting spells...

[Neala]

The consequences I know about is:
A chance to wake up working on that stone after resting in Solstheim.
No negatives with the story AFAIK. The progress with DB quest will stop after some point of Gardener of Man (in the end of that quest) until you will finish cleansing.
As for lurkers - if I have troubles with them, I just paralyze them... So the only advice – try to boost your own stats with potions (fortify weapon skill, health and so on)? Oh, and some stone powers will help – “bones of earth” for example and summon werebear as a backup. You should have 4 of the stone powers by now. And they are more blessings then magic, so no problem for your Dragonborn?

[Trigger]

bash and slash until he is dead, you sound low level

[Code Blue]

I'll have to start to get used with using all types of potions, right now I'm playing the game like its M&B... :D How do you paralyze them? I haven't tried the other spells the stones gave me but I've tried the wearbear and I was shocked to see him run away after the lurker hit(stomped) him once.

@Trigger, I thaught it was pretty clear that my character was low level so bashing and slashing doesn't work right now. Not to mention that it's bad for your health to get too close to a lurker unless he has other distractions... I was hoping there is some weapon or spell he's vulnerable against and not just brute force. Anyway since there is no countdown I'll just wait until I get to level 15 than I'll try again.

OT: Any idea why I can't take screenshots using the Steam hotkey? I can only take them using the printscreen key and the images are saved in the Skyrim folder but they don't show up on Steam.

[Trigger]

i don't know this steam hotkey, but when i'm in-game i use f12 to take a screenshot

[Neala]

Level 15? I think that the lowest level the lurker can be is level 24 (818 health, yeah). So it is no wounder you have troubles! Leveling up a bit is a wise move.

Bones of earth will give you the max possible damage resistance (80%) but for a short time. Sun flare will soften that lurker up a bit. North wind will have a little chance to slow him down. Did the werebear really run away? I knew that fishy SOB was tough, but this o_O Hilarious :)

Potions are your friends, get as many health as possible - you can drink all of them in one go.

The only effect I did find them especially vulnerable is Paralyze. It comes in 3 flavors: a spell, a poison and an enchantment. Your Dragonborn do not like magic and IIRC lurkers are pretty resistant to poisons (and you are more combat oriented, not an alchemist if I get it right) and to get an enchanted weapon with that effect you have to be really lucky.

[Neala]

Oh, just curious, how many dragons did you kill after the Temple of Miraak?

[Code Blue]

@Trigger, that's the key I'm talking about but I've changed it to Insert when I was using F12 in some game. For whatever reason the key doesn't work in Skyrim...

@InsertNameHere, now that explains it. Perhaps they should have put a sign "You have to be this tall to be a hero" so I wouldn't pull my hair out thinking how am I supposed to kill it with my lvl 6 warrior. :)) But everything is fine now as I'm playing the side missions I ignored the first time and I'm winning any battle in my weight class.

I don't remember the exact line of events but today I killed 2 dragons with both help and bait. :)) The first one was a random encounter with three elfs fighting a dragon and some bandits on a hill, it was free for all. The second one was the dragon from the quest with the inn keeper Delphine.

[Neala]

Originally posted by bogdan1807:

@Trigger, that's the key I'm talking about but I've changed it to Insert when I was using F12 in some game. For whatever reason the key doesn't work in Skyrim...

@InsertNameHere, now that explains it. Perhaps they should have put a sign "You have to be this tall to be a hero" so I wouldn't pull my hair out thinking how am I supposed to kill it with my lvl 6 warrior. :)) But everything is fine now as I'm playing the side missions I ignored the first time and I'm winning any battle in my weight class.

I don't remember the exact line of events but today I killed 2 dragons with both help and bait. :)) The first one was a random encounter with three elfs fighting a dragon and some bandits on a hill, it was free for all. The second one was the dragon from the quest with the inn keeper Delphine.

Good, some leveling and you will turn the tables on the lurkers. Make them pay :<