Skyrim:Avanchnzel

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Dwarven Ruin: Avanchnzel (view on map)
# of Zones	3
Clearable	No
Dungeon	Yes
Respawn Time	Never (storage is safe)
Level	Min: 16
Occupants
Dwarven Spider Workers, Dwarven Spheres, Dwarven Centurion
Console Location Code(s)
AvanchnzelExterior, AvanchnzelExterior02, AvanchnzelExterior03, Avanchnzel01, Avanchnzel02, Avanchnzel03
Region
The Rift
Special Features
# of Alchemy Labs	1
Ore Veins
# of Iron	2

The entrance to Avanchnzel.

Avanchnzel is a large Dwarven ruin filled with Dwarven automatons of all types.

Avanchnzel is located south-southwest of Lake Honrich and northwest of the Orc stronghold of Largashbur in The Rift. Once you obtain the Unfathomable Depths quest the cave entrance will be revealed on your map.

Related Quests

• Unfathomable Depths: Uncover the memories of the Dwemer.

Walkthrough

This section assumes you have obtained the Unfathomable Depths quest as you enter the ruins. Without this quest, some details may be different.

Avanchnzel

• You must start the quest before you can enter the cave*

As you enter the first room in the cave, you will overhear the conversation among a group of glowing figures that will quickly move further in the cave and disappear.

The next room contains a couple of Dwarven Spiders (one Worker and one leveled Non-Worker). At the bottom of the room under the light on the right-hand side, a few steps before the Dwarven steam pipe is an iron ore vein that can be mined. Beyond, you will enter a corridor, transitioning you to the proper Dwemer ruins. Beyond the first door, you will walk into a large multi-level room with moving elements (gears and other mechanical parts). You will see another short flashback of the previous party of adventurers (gawking at the location) moving ahead. While you are walking on a suspended bridge, you can spot (and kill) at the bottom of this room a number of Dwarven Spiders. The bridge forks midway.

To your left, the passage raises up to a closed door, beyond which lies a room with a Dwarven Sphere. The room leads to a wide slanted corridor leading both above and below your current position. One Dwarven Spider should be waiting for you at this point, using a Dwarven table as cover.

Avanchnzel's Balcony

Following the corridor up you will reach the top-most level in the structure. On one side you can see the large room whence you came (with the spiders at the bottom), and on the opposite side you will find a door blocked by a wooden beam. Remove the beam and open the door to reach the Avanchnzel Balcony. There is a (Apprentice-level) chest down the right side ramp from the Balcony.

Following the same corridor downward, you will reach a door locked and barred from the other side (this will be the quick-exit point once you get through the rest of the ruins), so you have to return to the large room with the suspended bridge and the spiders at the bottom, taking the direction across from the main entrance.

As the corridor you enter will snake its way around (and above) Dwarven Machinery, you will face a couple of Dwarven Spheres. Next the corridor begins descending and you will find a Dwarven Spider patrolling in front of a locked (Apprentice-level) gate. Beyond the gate you will find a Chest. The corridor will descend some more and twist back towards the main room. You will face more Dwarven Spiders in this section as well as when you get back to the main room (this time at the bottom level).

From the bottom of the main room you will see two doors: one close to the south direction, the other close to the east direction.

The south-bound door is trapped (Master-level), and leads to a room with random items including Dwarven Armor or weapons, there will also be a potion and two Chests.

The east-bound door opens on a downward slope where you will see another flashback from the previous party of adventurers (wondering why the metallic spheres are ignoring them, but they decide to eliminate them anyway - which explains the corpses). You can find a Chest and the remains of a couple of Dwarven Spheres before reaching the next door, opening onto the Avanchnzel Animoncultory.

Avanchnzel Animoncultory

The corridor from which you enter leads down to a room with more Dwarven machinery, a Dwarven Sphere and a Dwarven Spider. A brief appearance of the previous adventurers (complaining of their lack of lockpicking skills) will point to a locked (Adept-level) side gate. Within you will find a chest, a few iron ingots, and garnets.

Beyond this gate you will climb some stairs and continue in a wide corridor, where one locked chest can be found in a side alcove. Shortly thereafter you will climb down a set of stairs and find the remnants of an encampment of sorts (one lonely tent). You will be greeted by a flashback of the previous party deciding to camp here due to the unexpected size of the place.

Shortly after this point, you will find a trapped (Adept-level) door to your right, which leads to a side room with a chest, various Dwarven artifacts, and the remains of a few Dwarven Spiders for your looting. Past this side room you will enter a larger room with two shelves holding the remains of a Dwarven Spider and a Dwarven Sphere. On your left, you will find an Alchemy Lab, and one active Dwarven Spider. There are several gems both on and under the table with the Alchemy Lab.

On the other side of the room, a corridor dives deeper underground, and leads to a door beyond which another room with a shelf holding similar artifacts is found. This room is patrolled by a Dwarven Sphere and a couple of Dwarven Spiders. As you enter this room, you will see a locked (Adept-level) door to your right, leading to a side room with some more Dwarven artifacts, as well as a locked (Novice-level) chest. Opposite this side room, another locked (Apprentice-level) gate leads to a few other items and an unlocked chest.

The next room holds another shelf with repair parts on it. At the bottom of the next corridor, you see another flashback hinting that not all the sleeping guardians are inactive. Another downward slope and another door will lead you to a raised balcony running around a large room. On the floor of the room are several tables with inert Dwarven Centurions, Dwarven Sphere Guardians, and Dwarven Spiders. Once you eliminate the Spiders you can make your way around the balcony and into the room, where you can grab at least two Centurion Dynamo Cores from the inactive automata, as well as plenty of other Dwarven artifacts. There is also an unlocked chest on one of the shelves.

The exit from this room is up a set of stairs in the northwestern corner, leading to a passage where you will find Drennen's body. A few steps beyond you will trigger a new flashback from the previous party of adventurers (explaining how Drennen decided to leave the others). There is also an unlocked chest around the same area, and a few more Dwarven artifacts on a table. Finally, the door ahead leads to the Avanchnzel Boilery.

Avanchnzel Boilery

The Boilery zone starts with a downward passage, and a flashback from the remaining 3 adventurers. In the corridor beyond you will walk above a Dwarven Spider that can detect you but won't be able to hit you due to the grate between you. On the other hand, there is a Dwarven Sphere around the corner that can certainly attack you. There are two chests and several spider corpses on the shelves nearby. Past this guardian, you will find a room where another flashback takes place (during which Breya says "Something doesn't feel right about this") and several Dwarven Metal Ingots between a table and a shelf.

The door beyond opens onto a downward corridor with a trap. This trap will always trigger if the plates are stepped on, even if you have the Light Foot perk. The trap is activated by any of the pressure plates at the top of the corridor, and triggers a rotating blade that travels along the corridor's length. A series of pipes make passage to the sides of the blade difficult (higher level characters can jump over the pipes), but it is possible to carefully side-step or run ahead of the blade until you reach the bottom of the corridor, where a lever can be used to turn the mechanism off. You can use the Become Ethereal or Whirlwind Sprint shouts to ignore damage from the trap. There's enough room to walk around the trigger plates, and this is the obvious solution.

Note: Even if you turn the trap off, any new pressure on the triggers at the top will activate the trap anew. There is, however, enough space between the pressure plates and the rotating blades for your followers to wait while you disable the trap.

Note: This trap can be easily bypassed by using the "Wait Here" command on your follower to force the follower to walk in straight lines, bypassing the pressure plates, either to the right or left.

The trap seems to have claimed Watches-the-Roots from the old party of adventurers; his body is found next to the trap-stopping lever.

The next room contains the Lexicon's receptacle, your goal for the Unfathomable Depth quest. However, you will first have to deal with one leveled Dwarven Centurion that will activate as soon as you are close enough. Once the fight is over, you can loot his carcass, as well as that of another Centurion that is lying to the right of the raised center platform. On the steps of the platform, you will find Breya's corpse.

At the top of the stairs is a locked door which requires a key, but it will be automatically unlocked once you place the Lexicon on its Receptacle. When you do so, you will also receive the Ancient Knowledge effect. This completes the quest so there will be no convenient arrow to guide you out of the ruins.

The door at the top of the stairs leads to a Chest, and a lever-activated elevator that will lead you to the door, close to the entrance, that was barred from the other side. Remove the blocking beam, and exit into the first zone of Avanchnzel.

Notes

• The spider under the grate in the almost last section can be killed using the spell "Chain Lightning" or damage dealing shouts e.g "Fire Breath". It is also possible to summon an Atronach beneath the grate.

• You do not need the quest to be active to gain entry to Avanchnzel. By slowly panning across the door, an option to unbar the door appears. Once clicked, the door will open.

Bugs

• Just after the unreachable spider and before the flashback there is what appears to be a spike style entry into the pipe section where the spider is. This entry is non-functional and cannot be opened. ^?
• Despite finishing this quest, including killing the spider under the grate, the "Cleared" flag will not display on the map. ^?
  • This can be fixed by typing the following command in the console: SetLocationCleared 00018EE5 1
• Having a follower wait on the grating with the unreachable spider still alive may cause the follower to somehow drop beneath the grating to attack it. If they do, they will be irretrievable. ^?
  • This can be fixed by opening the console, selecting the follower (either by clicking on them or using the prid command with the follower's RefID), then entering moveto player.
• After placing the Lexicon on the pedestal, the next room appears to exist only as a skybox; walking inside causes the character to fall. This is easily fixed by saving and reloading, although it does not always work the first time. ^?