During the quest "The Pale Man" in Western Skyrim the player is asked by Aerolf to gather Intact Draugr Parts. A gathering quest like any other, I thought, naturally I went through all of the dialogue options. Including the one for why to go to Dead Man's Respite in particular? Wouldn't any draugr do? Aerolf's answer was of course it's possible, but this is the closest place to the current location that he knew. (And even the Quest Journal refers to this; "One place I can find draugr is Dead Man's Respite".) I felt I was challenged to find draugr elsewhere and get some intact draugr parts.

Now where else was I going to find draugr? Well, Skyrim is still the best place for that. So off to Eastmarch I went, cleared Icehammer's Vault... But apparently I was too brutal, none of them were intact after I was done with them. But fine, maybe the journey was too far away from Aerolf for my character to remember that they actually head to be intact by the time they hit the ground. So I returned to Western Skyrim and cleared Dragonhome, again no intact part of a draugr to be found. Bleakridge Barrow? Apart from some centipedes and Reachmen, no draugr in sight. And so my search continues...

But in all fairness, has anyone attempted and been successful at finding an intact draugr part of a draugr outside of the quest area? It this a sad case of discrepancies between gameplay features and narrative? I obviously knew there was a 99% chance that Aerolf was a liar and a fool, as most people deemed him as before, but I felt guidable enough to give it a try, like the few other people who believe him now.