High Gate Ruins: A Scroll for Anska

High Gate Ruins (Interior)

Enter these old Draugr catacombs and meet up with a wizard named Anska. Speak with her, and she’s quick to ask for help. This plucky adventurer and powerful fire mage has already begun advancing toward Vokun’s Throne Room, where she believes she will find a scroll tying her family’s history to that of the hero of yore, Ysgramor. Your reward for helping her? Any loot you wish, aside from the scroll. Agree, and the quest begins. Battle through more powerful Draugr, past a gate trap, and to a Nordic puzzle chamber.

Puzzle Solution: Look up and to the south. Note the sequence of Hawk, Whale, Fox, Snake. The northern ceiling has the same sequence, but the third carving has fallen to the ground. Now match up the pedestals (which also contain a specific animal carving), and activate the lever of the Hawk, Whale, Fox, and Snake pedestals to match the ceiling order. There are two Hawk pedestals; it doesn’t matter which one you activate first. If you’re successful, the grating swings open. Descend the spiral stairs, and enter door to High Gate Ruins Catacombs.

High Gate Ruins Catacombs

There are more traps (and Draugr) as you progress, so beware of floor triggers. Head through the altar room, down the long hall to a second altar room, where three levers must be activated:

Puzzle Solution: Pull the lever in the center of the room. The next is in the right alcove, fight the Draugr guarding it, activate the lever, and face a second foe in the left alcove before activating the alcove lever behind it. This opens the portcullis allowing you into Vokun’s Throne Room.

Step into the Throne Room, which seems to be honoring an ancient serpent god, and wait for the lich to appear. Be sure Anska survives this confrontation, and use the chamber’s columns to hide from the fiend’s more deadly attacks. Defeat Vokun, and then enter the chamber behind the throne room; this is a ceremonial altar chamber where the chanting reaches a crescendo, and you receive a Word of Power! Be sure you learn that and take the Sealed Scroll.

• Vokun
• Word of Power: Storm Call
• Sealed Scroll

High Gate Ruins (Interior)

Exit the chamber via the north door at the end of the narrow corridor. Locate Anska, handing over the Scroll (which is otherwise useless to you and can’t be sold). Anska is most grateful and gives you a gift.

• Spell Tome: Flaming Familiar