Skyrim:Dead Men's Respite

Nordic Ruin: Dead Men's Respite (view on map)
# of Zones	1
Clearable	Yes
Dungeon	Yes
Respawn Time	10 days or 30 days
Level	Min: 6
Occupants
Draugr, Frostbite Spiders
Console Location Code(s)
DeadMensRespite01
Region
Hjaalmarch
Location
Southwest of Morthal
Special Features
Word Wall	Whirlwind Sprint
# of Arcane Enchanters	1

Dead Men's Respite

Dead Men's Respite is a Nordic barrow southwest of Morthal containing draugr and frostbite spiders.

The barrow is related to the first quest of the Bards College. The ghost of the bard Svaknir will lead you further into the dungeon. He is standing near the ruby dragon claw. Taking it will awaken a couple of draugr.

Related Quests

• Tending the Flames: Unveil the truth about a deceitful King and become a member of the Bards College.

Walkthrough

A copy of the Speech skill book The Buying Game is in a hidden room on the east of the map. This room contains a trap as well. The next big room has a couple of frostbite spiders that will drop out of webs overhead to attack you. Once they are dealt with, activate the pull chain on the wall to open a trap door in the floor. Drop into the well to continue.

Once you go up a spiral staircase, you will see an iron gate that bars the way across a stone bridge. You can open the gate, but this will trigger four sets of swinging blade traps along the bridge. However, at the bottom-right corner of the gate you will find a trigger for the trap, which you can disarm by picking the adept-level lock. If you have to cross the bridge with the trap activated, a chain will turn it off on the far side, allowing your follower to pass safely.

Just past the bridge is an arcane enchanter, near a magically sealed door. Behind an expert-locked door, there is a master-locked chest with leveled loot.

At the bottom of the dungeon the quest item King Olaf's Verse can be found lying in Svaknir's hand. The ghost will disappear, and go to unseal the sealed door. This leads to a locked door that requires the ruby dragon claw, found in the first room, to open. The correct order in which the door will open is Wolf—Hawk—Wolf.

The next room contains the tomb of King Olaf, and a whole host of draugr. Most of the seated draugr are alive, and upon waking will swarm you. If your Sneak skill is high enough you can use a bow and arrow to kill them before entering the room completely and waking any (although the Draugr Deathlords will get up and try to investigate where the shots come from). After killing all of the draugr, Svaknir will bid King Olaf to rise, and upon doing so King Olaf will attack you. Svaknir will join in the combat, and will trivially kill everything since he is immortal; you can take advantage of this if King Olaf is too tough for you.

This room is also home to a word wall for part of the Whirlwind Sprint shout. After the battle, you can obtain a key from King Olaf's body to open the door to a room containing a treasure chest. To the right of the chest is a lever which opens the wall and provides you a way out.

Notes

• This dungeon can be completed before activating the related quest. The ruby dragon claw and King Olaf's Verse will remain marked as a quest items and cannot be removed from your inventory until after Viarmo receives King Olaf's Verse.

Bugs

• If the dragon claw door does not work, check here for possible fixes.
• Occasionally Svaknir will just sit by his corpse and not activate. Saving and reloading the game usually gets him moving. ^?