Skyrim:A Scroll For Anska

Help Anska trace her roots in High Gate Ruins. Quest Giver: Anska Location(s): High Gate Ruins Reward: Spell Tome: Conjure Flaming Familiar, Staff of Fireballs, 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 have already been killed. Proceed into the first room and you will meet the person responsible, a Nord wizard named Anska. When approached she will introduce herself and ask if you are there to help her as she has finally located 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 as you proceed into the dungeon. Take the northern tunnel to a huge chamber infested with leveled draugr. 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—Whale—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. 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 leveled soul gem resting on a weight sensitive plate, which releases two draugr from the adjacent coffins if triggered. The locked door to the right contains a chest behind it. 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 another 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 into 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 use his staff of fireballs to attack you from a distance. Anska will keep her distance from Vokun, but will use her ranged attacks to help out. Defeat the priest and 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 Storm Call Shout. 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. 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, or if they hit her.
• 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 within close proximity to the ruins. In other words, she can't be used as a "free" follower. If you withhold the scroll from her and head outside, then later give her the scroll, she will return to the ruins and remain in Vokun's throne room indefinitely.
• It is possible to clear the dungeon without Anska's help. To do this, avoid talking to her when you enter the dungeon. Once Vokun is dead, she will run up to you and allow for the quest to finish normally.
• 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.
• Be careful with the Fire Storm spell next to the sarcophagus. The spell has a long range and can knock back any physical object, which can cause the scroll to be sent to a place where you can't reach it.

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.
  • The Unofficial Skyrim Patch, version 1.2, fixes this bug.
• Similarly, she may comment on Vokun's presence and the scroll beyond him ("There it is! On the table!"), before the door to his throne room is even open. ^?
• You may be stuck with the sealed scroll, should you pick it up after failing the quest.
  • The Unofficial Skyrim Patch, version 2.0.1, fixes this bug.
• Upon killing Vokun, Anska may just stand in battle pose, not finishing the quest.
  • This can be fixed by opening the console, targeting Anska, and using the recycleactor command. She will then vanish, re-enter the room, run toward Vokun's tomb, and you can now speak to her.
• The scroll may be left in your inventory after you complete the quest (you can remove it at that stage though, since it is no longer a quest item).
  • The Unofficial Skyrim Patch, version 2.0.1, fixes this bug.
• Leaving the reward room without taking the scroll will lead you to be locked out of the room. Even if you return to the throne room, the gates will be locked and cannot be opened anymore since the priest is already dead.

Quest Stages

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

• The following empty quest stages were omitted from the table: 0, 30, 80, 110.
  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.