Skyrim:Vahlok's Tomb

Nordic Ruin: Vahlok's Tomb (view on map)
# of Zones	1
Clearable	Yes
Dungeon	Yes
Respawn Time	Never (storage is safe)
Level	Min: 30
Occupants
Corrupted Shades, Draugr, Vahlok the Jailor
Console Location Code(s)
DLC2VahloksTombExterior01, DLC2VahloksTomb01
Region
Solstheim
Location
South-southeast of Thirsk Mead Hall North-northeast of Ashfallow Citadel
Special Features
Word Wall	Battle Fury

Vahlok's Tomb

Vahlok's Tomb is a small Nordic ruin south-southeast of Thirsk Mead Hall containing corrupted shades, draugr, and the dragon priest Vahlok the Jailor. It contains only one zone, Vahlok's Tomb.

Its word wall teaches all three words of the Battle Fury dragon shout. The tomb will not be accessible and its map marker will not appear until after starting the quest Lost Legacy; before starting the quest, a landslide blocks the entrance.

Related Quests

• Lost Legacy: Travel to Vahlok's Tomb and defeat Vahlok the Jailor.

Walkthrough

Vahlok's Tomb

The main chamber

The entrance leads into a passage that descends to the south and turns west to open into the large main chamber. A short flight of stairs leads down to a platform with a pedestal holding an etched tablet and a handle. Two more sets of stairs on either side of the platform descend to the west to a larger central platform, in the middle of which is a trap door over a firepit. North and south of the firepit are stairs and short bridges leading to gates on the north and south sides of the chamber. West of the firepit is another short flight of stairs ascending to a cage containing another pedestal holding an etched tablet and a handle. The cage is initially locked, with two keyholes flanking the cage; during the related quest, you must first proceed through the areas beyond the north and south gates to obtain the left and right halves of the dragon claw required for the keyholes. Eight dead draugr are found on and around the platforms and bridges. To open the north and south gates, you must drag one of the draugr on top of the trap door over the firepit, then use the handle on the first platform to open the trap door and "sacrifice" the draugr body.

North and south of the first platform are stairs descending to the flooded bottom level of the chamber. Near the bottom of the north set of stairs on a ledge just above the water level is a chest. Under the water are two more chests, with one near the northwest corner of the chamber next to a large coin purse, and the other southeast of the first and west of the locked cage partly buried near an underwater slope. Southeast of the second chest under the water is a potion of plentiful healing. Returning to the central platform and crossing the short bridge to the area in front of the south gate, on top of the angled pillar with a sculpted face nearby to the west is another large coin purse.

See the quest page for details on the areas beyond the north and south gates. In addition to the word wall and dragon claw piece, the area beyond the north gate contains three burial urns, a soul gem, a medium coin purse, an adept-locked chest, and another chest. Also, upon exiting the north area and returning to the main chamber, immediately below the exit on a lower ledge at the base of the large stone arch spanning the chamber is a chest. Similarly, the area beyond the south gate contains a staff of flames, an ancient Nord sword, an ancient Nord bow, a quiver of ancient Nord arrows, and two chests.

Once you have both halves of the dragon claw and use them to unlock the cage door west of the firepit, the handle in the cage creates a glowing blue magical bridge to a ledge on the west side of the chamber. Cross the bridge to the ledge, descend a short set of stairs, and proceed west through the doorway into a short corridor. On the south side of the corridor is a wooden door barred from the other side. At the west end of the corridor is a handle on a plinth, with a potion of healing on a sconce just above the plinth. Looking through the opening next to the plinth, you will see you are near the ceiling of a large partly flooded room with waterfalls cascading down the walls. Corrupted shades wander the water far below at the bottom of the room, but may not engage you at this time.

The handle creates another magical bridge that crosses the room to a second short corridor a short distance to the northwest. At the west end of this second corridor are two burial urns, a garnet, an emerald, and another barred wooden door to the south. At the north end of the corridor is another handle on a plinth, which creates another magical bridge that crosses the room to a third short corridor a short distance to the northwest. At the north end of this third corridor is a lootable skeleton, an empty common soul gem, and another barred wooden door to the east. At the west end of the corridor is another handle on a plinth, which creates a final magical bridge to a set of iron doors at the north end of the room. If at any point you fall to the flooded bottom level of the room, you can battle the shades, optionally harvest two white cap mushrooms that grow near two of the fallen stones along the walls to the northeast and northwest, and pass through one of three doorways leading to passages ascending to the far sides of the three barred doors.

Beyond the iron doors to the north is the usual wide corridor leading to a puzzle door, with the solution Eagle—Wolf—Dragon starting from the outer ring and working inwards. Beyond the puzzle door, a long flight of stairs ascends to a portcullis raised using the pull chain to the left. Beyond the portcullis is the boss room, which contains a chest and the final word wall, but nothing else of note. As there is no shortcut from this room to the exit of the tomb, after defeating the dragon priest, you must retrace your steps to the entrance.

Notes

• If you attempt to read the etched tablets before Tharstan interprets them for you, a message will display indicating you can't understand the writing.

Bugs

• If the puzzle door does not work, check here for possible fixes.
• Vahlok will respawn, even though the tomb does not. He is the only named dragon priest to do so.
  • The Unofficial Dragonborn Patch, version 1.0.1, fixes this bug.