Skyrim:Lost Valkygg

Ruin: Lost Valkygg (view on map)
# of Zones	1
Clearable	No (see bugs)
Dungeon	Yes
Respawn Time	10 days
Level	Min: 24 (see bugs)
Occupants
Draugr
Important Treasure
Aevar Stone-Singer
Console Location Code(s)
ValkyggExterior01, ValkyggExterior02, ValkyggStart, ValkyggPuzzle, ValkyggOrigin
Region
Hjaalmarch
Location
Northeast of Labyrinthian West of Skyborn Altar
Special Features
# of Alchemy Labs	1

Lost Valkygg

Lost Valkygg is a small Nordic ruin northeast of Labyrinthian containing draugr. It contains only one zone, Lost Valkygg.

Related Quests

• Alteration Ritual Spell: Acquire Kahvozein's Fang and use it to get heartscales from a dragon for Tolfdir. (radiant)

Walkthrough

Exterior

Lost Valkygg is northeast of Labyrinthian. To find the entrance, go up the two sets of stairs east of the circular building in Labyrinthian where the Wooden Mask can be found, then turn north and go down a set of stairs to the door. Do not enter the ruin through the door at the top of a single flight of stairs to the south, as it will only provide access to the final chamber of the dungeon (see notes).

Lost Valkygg

Pressure plates

Upon entering, you are in a corridor. Follow it around and down two flights of stairs. You will be facing a window to a room containing two leveled draugr lying on a stone slab. There is a salt pile on the window ledge. If you want, you can attack the draugr through the window before following the path to the west. There are three pressure plates along the western corridor, at the end of which is a doorway. If the entrance is blocked by vertical bars, you will need to walk across the pressure plates in order to lower the bars to allow access. If they are already retracted (see bugs), the pressure plates can be avoided entirely. Once past the bars, you are in a small area with a sideboard in front of you, on which rests a thistle branch, a salt pile, and a potion of minor healing, with a burial urn and a sample of snowberries on the ground in front.

The corridor continues to the south before turning east and entering the room you saw through the window. Avoid the bone chimes across the entrance, as they might awaken the resting draugr. In the room is the stone table the two draugr were laid out on, along with a bowl of bone meal and a random helmet. To the east of the table is an alcove with three empty bookcases, and to the south is a doorway leading down a short flight of stairs before turning to the west. There is an alcove with an urn, a burial urn, and a food barrel on your left. The corridor continues down to a cave-in ahead, with an open door on your left into a large room.

Unfortunate prisoner

As you enter the room, on your left is an upright sarcophagus, which will burst open to reveal a weak leveled draugr. Around the corner to the right are two more leveled draugr. They are standing in front of a closed door to the west. There is also an open door to the south. In the room are two burial urns, an urn, and an alchemy lab. The door to the south leads to a room with a set of shelves holding a pair of random boots and a burial urn. Opposite this is a lever that operates a gate in the southwest corner that leads to a small cell with a bedroll, a potato on a wooden plate, an unlootable skeleton shackled to the wall, an apothecary's satchel, and a copy of the Pickpocket skill book Aevar Stone-Singer.

The door to the west in the large room opens into another corridor which splits to the north and south. To the south, it ends at an apprentice-locked gate with a pressure plate in front of it and a dead draugr lying to the left. The pressure plate activates a poison dart trap, which fires darts from multiple directions. Behind the gate is a sideboard with a random helmet, two burial urns, and a salt pile.

The shaft

Heading north, the corridor descends a flight of stairs before opening onto a raised section of another large room. As you descend, a sarcophagus to the right will open, releasing a weak leveled draugr that will start searching for you, even if you are sneaking and muffled. There's an empty table and two burial urns in this room, as well as stairs leading down to the lower, western part of the room. A strong leveled draugr patrols the lower area and the area through a door to the northwest. It always carries an ebony bow and several ebony arrows, regardless of player level. There are three nightshade plants, two blue mountain flowers, and one blisterwort fungus around the lower area. On a raised platform is an unlocked chest and a burial urn beside a large round shaft in the floor. Through the door to the northwest is a slanted room which contains an unlocked boss chest. The local map shows the exit as if it is in this room, but it's actually in the room below.

Final room

The only way onward is to drop down the shaft by the raised platform. There are wooden beams across it that you can use to break your fall and avoid damage. It's best to save before dropping, in case you miss. At the bottom, you will face a strong leveled draugr deathlord with an ebony greatsword, ebony battleaxe, or ebony warhammer. Again, the weapons will always be ebony, regardless of player level (see bugs). The room itself is cave-like, and has obviously suffered great damage, with broken slabs of stone, a dropped walkway, and general ruin. There are a couple broken urns that may contain minor healing potions, or you may find they've fallen out and are on the ground. There are three blisterwort fungi around the room, and to the northwest, on top of a rock, you will see an unlocked chest. This is easily reachable by following the broken walkway and jumping up from the end. To the right of this chest is a flight of stairs leading up to an iron door that is the exit.

Notes

• You can enter the ruin through the exit door, as unlike most such doors, it is not barred or blocked from the inside. The Draugr Deathlord will still be present if you enter this way, but you will not be able to clear the remainder of the dungeon, as you cannot climb the shaft overhead which leads to the rest of the ruin.

Bugs

• Lost Valkygg is linked to Labyrinthian in the game data. As a result, defeating the Lost Valkygg boss will cause Labyrinthian, but not Lost Valkygg, to appear on the map as cleared, and encounters within will match Labyrinthian's level.
  • The Unofficial Skyrim Patch, version 2.0.0, addresses this issue. Defeating the Lost Valkygg boss will mark the dungeon as cleared, and Lost Valkygg's effective minimum level is changed to 6, causing encounters and loot for low-level players to be lower in level than described in the article.
• The bars of the pressure plate mechanism at the beginning will already be lowered the first time you visit, allowing you to bypass the puzzle; they will be reversed every time you revisit the dungeon.