Skyrim:A Scroll For Anska

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Help Anska trace her roots in High Gate Ruins. Quest Giver: Anska Location(s): High Gate Ruins Reward: Spell Tome: Conjure Flaming Familiar, Word for the Storm Call shout, Vokun ID: dunHighGateRuinsQST Suggested Level: 24

High Gate Ruins

Quick Walkthrough

1. Meet and talk to Anska in High Gate Ruins and agree to help her.
2. Protect Anska as you fight through the ruins.
3. Defeat Vokun.
4. Retrieve Anska's scroll.

Detailed Walkthrough

Anska

High Gate Ruins is a remote Nordic ruin on the snowy tundra east of Solitude, near the shores of the Sea of Ghosts. When you enter it soon becomes clear that someone visited the ruin recently, as the residing draugr enemies have been killed already. Proceed into the first room and you will meet the person responsible, a Nord wizard named Anska. When approached she will politely introduce herself and the place, referring to it as Vokun's Crypt. She then explains her goal, namely to locate a special scroll that could link her family blood all the way back to the legendary Ysgramor. She will also briefly describe Vokun as "Some old priest buried here long ago.", hinting at her lack of research and explaining her need for help. She fears the old priest could awaken and prove too powerful a foe, so she wants you to lead her through the ruin and help her fight the opposition. Accept her request and the quest will start.

High Gate Ruins

"Sometimes I just like to watch them burn."

Anska is not your average follower and you will have to escort her safely through the ruin; she is, however, capable of taking care of herself using a variety of leveled wizard spells, so keep an eye out and stay upfront during the crawl. Take the northern tunnel to a huge chamber infested with leveled draugr enemies. Claim some minor loot from the chest in the alcove, then head upstairs and locate the iron door leading north where three more draugr will attack. Go through the room with the alchemy lab and a few useful potions. The next tunnel contains a pressure plate triggering a spike wall, so make sure Anska gets through unharmed. A lever puzzle awaits in the next room, so take a thorough look at the symbols above the southern ledge. From left to right, they are: Eagle, Dolphin, Fox, Snake. Look around the room for the levers, all of them on pedestals with corresponding symbols. The two first levers are upstairs while the last two are on the ground floor. When all four levers are pulled in the right order, the grate in the middle of the room will disappear, so head downstairs and enter the catacombs through the door.

Only one draugr will attack you in the first section of the catacombs and a slide will lead you down to another catacomb area with more draugr enemies. A chest can be found in an alcove, but watch out for the pressure plate and the corresponding darts. Before long, you will reach a room with a black soul gem placed on a weight sensitive plate, releasing two draugr enemies from the adjacent coffins if triggered. Continue into a hallway filled with ancient carvings and numerous pressure plates on the floor, triggering darts or spear traps, then proceed into another puzzle room. Facing the lever, two stone walls cover hidden doors, so pull the lever and watch the wall to the right disappear, then fight the boss-leveled draugr guarding anther lever. Pull that lever and the door to the left will open and release yet another boss-leveled draugr. Pull the lever behind him, then head through the now opened entrance to the east and open to Vokun's Throne Room.

Vokun

Anska vs. Vokun

Before the throne room, a hallway offers a few potions; as soon as you open the next door, the Dragon Priest Vokun will burst out of his sarcophagus and start using his staff of fireballs to attack you from a distance. Anska will keep her distance away, but will use her ranged attacks to help out. Corner the priest and dispose of him quickly, then claim his unique mask and his staff from the remains. Proceed to the chamber to the east, where you will find a word wall with a word for the shout Storm Call. The nearby table holds the sealed scroll for Anska, so pick it up and hand it to her. She will be overwhelmed with joy and hand you the unique spell tome for learning the spell Conjure Flaming Familiar as a reward. Additionally, a boss-leveled chest can be found on the upper level to the north, in an alcove right next to the shortcut back to the first zone of the ruin, where Anska will stay behind and try to decipher the scroll indefinitely.

Notes

• Be careful about bringing other followers with you, since Anska's use of destruction magic can cause them to attack her if she hits them by mistake.
• This quest only counts towards the Sideways achievement if Anska survives.
• Should you choose not to hand over the scroll to Anska right away, she'll continue to follow you around, but only in the close perimeter of the ruins. In other words, she can't be used as a "free" follower. If and when you do give her the scroll she returns into the ruins (presumably to study it in Vokun's throne room).
• It is possible to clear the dungeon without Anska's help. To do this, avoid talking to her at the start of the dungeon. Once Vokun is dead, she will run up to you and allow for the quest to finish normally.

Bugs

• On entering the Catacombs, Anska will comment on the soul gem well before you reach it, and before it is in your line of sight.
  • This bug is fixed by version 1.2 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.
• Anska is not considered an essential NPC, and can be killed prior to starting the quest. This prevents the start of the quest and the acquisition of the Flaming Familiar spell. You may also be stuck with the sealed scroll, should you pick it up after failing the quest.

Quest Stages

A Scroll For Anska (dunHighGateRuinsQST)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
0
10		Find Anska's scroll and return it to her for a reward. (Objective is assigned): Find And Return Anska's Scroll To Her
20		Help Anska retrieve the scroll from High Gate Ruins. (Objective is assigned): Help Anska Retrieve Her Scroll
30
80
90		I have the scroll, I should return it to Anska for my reward. (Objective is assigned): Return The Scroll To Anska
100		High Gate Ruins is clear and Anska has rewarded me with a powerful new fire spell.
110
150		I have failed to protect Anska, now I'll never know what her scroll was for.

 

Notes

• Any text displayed in angle brackets (e.g., <Alias=LocationHold>) is dynamically set by the Radiant Quest system, and will be filled in with the appropriate word(s) when seen in game.
• Not all Journal Entries may appear in your journal; which entries appear and which entries do not depends on the manner in which the quest is done.
• Stages are not always in order of progress. This is usually the case with quests that have multiple possible outcomes or quests where certain tasks may be done in any order. Some stages may therefore repeat objectives seen in other stages.
• If an entry is marked as "Finishes Quest" it means the quest disappears from the Active Quest list, but you may still receive new entries for that quest.
• On the PC, it is possible to use the console to advance through the quest by entering setstage dunHighGateRuinsQST stage, where stage is the number of the stage you wish to complete. It is not possible to un-complete (i.e. go back) quest stages, but it is possible to clear all stages of the quest using resetquest dunHighGateRuinsQST.