Hey anyone done this? Im just stuck at the very end. I dont know how to start killing the guy. he cast this spell on me and i cant seem to hit him with anything. in the beginning of the quest the arch mage killed imself to protect me. so how am i suppose to do that. anyone know what i need to do. i have the black sould stone with me too.

well what i did, i put a paralyze potion on my sword, hit him, he lay down, and then i slash n smashed him outta the realm of the living. Easy, i found.

I faced the same problem. I though, once I had the colossal black soul gem in my inventory, I just needed to go up to him and kill him, but he enthralls you. What I did (and this worked, with me), I tried to equip the black soul gem inside my inventory. It tells you that you cannot equip it, but then, once you go up to Mannimarco, he starts chatting with you, rather than enthralling you. Then, it's just a battle to the death.

ok i tried doing the equiping the soul gem and trying to paralize him. it didnt work. was there something ur suppose to take from Traven? another ways? Or do i need to activiate the soul gem? haha any ideas. i just cant seem to hit him or avoid getting hit by his spell. and if i dont get hit by his spell. it starts again and i'll have to talk to him. So what do i do after i get hit by his spell to be able to kill him

I just kileld him, he ahs the worlds greatest staff, re-animating is fun

haha damnit. i cant seem to get pass this part. ANyone else have any ideas. I just cant seem to damage him. With anything

Well I just did what I was told I went up to him with the Filled Giant Black Soul Gem and he started talking to me. After the conversation was over he was pretty easy to kill because I was well equipped. And agreed the staff he drops is great.

ok well i found out im doing everything right, and its just a bug thats fcking me over. How can i get pass the bug or am i just screwed over?

Technicly my headless zombie killed him but I injured him pretty badly before that zombie took his first and final blow to poor mannimarcos head.

listen to this, I DROWNED HIM. i ran away from him, in to the watery area. went down through this hole and came back up. The AI made it so he couldnt get out so he just drowned. it was pretty cool

Perhaps try talking to him before he gets the chance to cast the spell on you. Perhaps equipping the soul gem really does do nothing...

Like you say there is a known bug for some with this mission. I had it as well. Nothing I did hurt him; blades and spells went right through, same for summoned creatures.

In the walkthrough found here it says to reload and try again if it happens.

It also links to a fix found here.

None of these worked for me, although I didn't want to reload from before going into the cave since I had spent so much time looting.

I 'killed him' the same way Count Valerius mentions; I made him jump into the water, and when he started swimming through that underwater canal he drowned. I tried a few times before succeeding. The first couple of times he was swimming fast and got through ok, but that last time he was swimming very slowly and drowned. Not sure why. I was using full 100% chameleon gear this last time, by the way. Maybe this was the reason for the slow swimming, since he couldn't detect me.

Good luck!