Tolvald's Cave turns out to be one of the most difficult areas I've yet explored, and takes up the best part of an hour. It's certainly a meaty mission to end the quest-line on, as it's a 3-tiered cave system absolutely crawling with high-level Falmer. Not only are the Falmer frequently present in huge mobs (5 or 6 to a room sometimes) but their archers are annoyingly powerful. At one point even 30+ Flame Atronachs isn't enough to win by attrition, and I have to find a safe angle to start summoning Dremora Lords closer to the archers.
After an epic and weary slog, I eventually reach room where I spy the crown discarded on the floor. I'm then set upon by several ghosts for some reason, but my Dremora cut them down quickly. Weirdly, I'm able to loot a full set of Elven armour from each of the ghosts.
Crown in hand, I return triumphantly to Riften. I receive the Prowler's Profit reward, which should drastically increase the amount of gems found as loot, and the completed crown is put on display on Mercer Frey's desk:
So, the whole Barzenziah quest ended up taking 9 hours in total - significantly longer than the Mages College and the Miraak quest-lines. I also rushed through a lot of the missions - there were more areas to explore, and more little side-quests and mysteries built into a lot of the caves and dungeons, but I decided that I'm only interested in the stones at the moment, so cut out a lot of that. It was a long slog at times, but it does feel good to have finally collected all the stones for the first time.
Although I've been forced to join the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild, I won't be doing those quest-lines with Tharon-Zul. I might see if it's possible to wipe out the Dark Brotherhood, though. They serve a master other than the mighty Tharon-Zul, and for this they must pay with their lives. It's not a priority, though. I now want to focus on levelling up my Smithing and Illusion, and getting Enchanting to 100.
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