The Temple of Miraak

Down Among the Dead

As the snow flurries dance around this circular arena, ignore Frea’s mind-addled friend and talk to her yourself. She sternly explains she is one of the Skaal, the native people of this region, and that something has taken control of the minds of her tribe. Many work on great stone shrouds that corrupt the island’s venerated and ancient standing stones. Her father is a shaman, who believes that Miraak has returned. You respond that you’ve already had a run-in with his cultists. You can ask Frea for:

• More information about Miraak. This updates your objective.
• Further knowledge of her people, the Skaal.
• Why she’s out here on her own.
• And what exactly the Tree Stone is.
• OBJECTIVE: Find the source of Miraak’s power
• TARGET: Black Book, the Temple of Miraak Sanctum

It doesn’t take Miraak’s cultists long to show themselves. Face them down with Frea’s fearsome axe-work, and descend the curved ramp they came from. Open the door and enter the temple, working your way down the stone corridor and checking the antechambers on each side for supplies, as Frea advises. Aside from the burned and caged corpses, expect potions and poisons before you descend farther. Watch for the dart trap just before the narrow stairs where two more Cultists appear. Defeat them, and any Draugr you disturb if you stumble to the sides of this room.

Pass through the small burial chamber where Frea warns of the many traps Miraak’s minions may have prepared for you. Sure enough, there are floor plates to avoid in the subsequent connecting chamber (unless you’re ready to receive a battering ram to the stomach), steps down to a portcullis that opens via the adjacent chain, and a vast pit chamber where Frea notices more poor souls trapped in hanging cages. She also spots a stone viewing abutment overlooking the vast steps in the chamber’s center of.

Head clockwise around the chamber’s edge, repelling Draugr threats that burst from their vertical coffins. After two or three Draugr, face three or four Cultists ascending from the pit steps. Once you and Frea cut down all foes, thoroughly inspect the chamber: As Frea predicted, there is a way to the stone abutment; maneuver up the rubble and coffins under the pillar and then clamber atop the pillar, where you find a large treasure chest. Return the way you came, and descend the pit steps into a Draugr crypt.

Activate the handle next to the small portcullis door and step through into a small tomb where the walled coffins contain a variety of long-dead Nords to cut down (you may wish to move around the pillars and rubble so Frea attacks from a different direction than you, splitting your enemies’ focus). After you defeat the Draugr, clamber through to a long passageway heading north. Watch for the seated Draugr behind you.

Avoid the swinging blade trap’s floor plates as the passage splits into two narrower corridors. Both meet up farther along the crypt, both have Draugr infesting them, and both have a floor plate and a battering ram to avoid as you enter. The lower chamber offers higher ground, making it slightly easier to navigate. The corridors merge at the entrance to a long hall. Beware the floor plate and fire trap as you reach the double doors.

Enter this long hall of swinging blade traps and make short, quick bursts of speed between the swings to avoid any nasty contusions. A Whirlwind Sprint Shout can see you to the hall’s end, but don’t dash too early and stop at a blade’s arcing cut. Pull the lever to remove the spear bars, step over the remains of the inactive Nordic Puzzle Door, and descend to the wooden double doors.

Bars block the way to the west, so head down the narrow passage, ignoring the dead Draugr that collapses out of its tomb. Pull the handle to remove the barrier. As the wooden bridge falls into place, step down into the three-ramped chamber, where a Cultist and two Draugr minions are waiting to repel you. Watch the floor plate and dart trap as you descend to meet them. Tackle any ranged foes, then the Cultist, and split or combine your attacks with Frea if you wish. After the battle, locate the double doors leading to the Temple of Miraak Sanctum.

Keeper of the Dragon Cult

Proceed along a suspended cage bridge. Step across the scattered bones, into the connecting tunnel, and wind around, slaying four to six skeletons and a couple of Draugr who step out of their coffins and onto a floor plate that activates battering rams; attack these foes from above. Step into the cavern of the guardians, watching for active Draugr and bursting coffins as you go.

Head down the steps across the stone crypt, keeping to the cavern’s right (northeast) side so you don’t end up in a small dead-end pit. Watch for a floor plate and battering ram, and work your way around the stone ledge to face down further Cultist threats. A fiery cauldron has been lit at the top of the narrow steps down into an ancient burial site for members of a dragon cult. Frea is shocked that Miraak would display the skeletal remains of a dragon in such a disrespectful manner.

Animosity between Miraak and his dragon cult brethren is the least of your worries. Step up to the Word Wall on your left (south) and learn a word of the Dragon Aspect Shout. The transference of power from the wall triggers a Draugr ambush; expect two or three annoyances from the row of coffins and a particularly nasty foe known as the Gatekeeper to burst from the tomb below the dragon skeleton. Defeat everything that moves, and inspect the Gatekeeper’s corpse to claim the key to go farther into the temple. The door to which the key belongs is behind the Gatekeeper’s sarcophagus.

• Word of Power: Dragon Aspect
• Temple of Miraak Key

Waking Dreams of a Starless Sky

Pass the banquet table and its long-dead feasters, opening a second iron door with the key. After a connecting corridor with a window, move into another feasting hall, devoid of foes but featuring strange carved totems you haven’t seen before. Pass by these weird fishlike heads into the kitchens, which hold a few ingredients and a narrow windowed passage with a handle to pull. This opens a secret door between two sets of shelves in the feasting hall. Gather your resolve and head south, through the winding tunnel to a ruined reading nook.

This circular chamber has a large spiral staircase below, but it is currently barred. Frea points out there is nothing here but ruined books. But there’s also a secondary chamber with a square-shaped trapdoor and menacing statuary. Activate the handle in front of the fish faces to open the trapdoor. Descend the spiral steps, which connect to the ones you could see if you looked down from the reading nook.

Descend to the connected circular corridors with the fiery maws lighting your path. At the end is a stone wall with a handle to pull, lowering a staircase. Go even lower, opening a wooden door. This leads to a massive and lengthy stepped chamber, adorned with dragon bones and falling boulders. Prepare to be embroiled in a fast-paced battle with some skeletons, three falling boulder traps (stay mobile and leap to the side if you trigger any), and a nasty veteran Draugr with a sharp blade. Once you bring this foe to his knees, climb the final steps to a large treasure chest near the odd, lumpy carving of the Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge, inspect it, then activate the chain in the alcove behind the chest.

Scramble down a winding tunnel to reach a particularly ominous final chamber. This circular area is dominated by a thick stone altar, upon which rests the weighty Black Book. Frea warns you there are dark magics at work here. When you are ready, pick up the book and read it.

• Black Book: Waking Dreams

Unlike other books you may have read, this one strangles you with a dark tentacle and transports you to a strange plane of existence. This is Apocrypha, the realm of Hermaeus Mora, where the crackling towers of learning mingle with archways of despair and confusion. Forced to kneel and unable to move, your appearance interrupts Miraak. Flanked by Seekers (and his own gigantic serpent dragon, Sahrotaar), he speaks to you as a pretender to his throne as the true Dragonborn. If you’ve completed Main Quest: Dragonslayer, he comes close to commending you on your prowess but insists you have no idea of the power a true Dragonborn can wield.

Yelling the Dragon Aspect Shout, his form is imbued with power—a power that you cannot hope to achieve. After further hubris, he commands two of his Seekers to return you to the mortal plane and sets off on his dragon mount.

Quest Conclusion

You regain consciousness at the Black Book altar. Speak with Frea and answer her questions. Miraak has proven himself to be extremely dangerous, and the book you retrieved must be shown to her father. He might be able to further your knowledge.