Skyrim:Halldir's Cairn

Cave: Halldir's Cairn (view on map)
# of Zones	1
Clearable	Yes
Dungeon	Yes
Respawn Time	10 days or 30 days
Level	Min: 6
Occupants
Draugr, Ghosts
Important Treasure
Halldir's Staff Rjorn's Drum
Console Location Code(s)
HalldirsCairn01
Region
Falkreath Hold
Location
Southwest of Falkreath
Ore Veins
# of Iron	2

Halldir's Cairn Entrance

Halldir's Cairn is a small cave and tomb in the southernmost part of Skyrim that was built to house the remains of the fierce Halldir. The tomb is populated by ghost warriors and draugr.

On entering the cave a cairn can be seen emanating magical energies upwards, surrounded by the dead bodies of three bandits—Agrius, Vidgrod, and Raen. On a nearby pedestal are Agrius's Journal, which tells the bandits' story, and the key to Halldir's Crypt, which unlocks the crypt door, permitting further adventure into the cairn.

There are two iron ore veins in this initial cave, and alchemists may be interested to note that there are over fifty various mushroom samples in the cave alone, comprising Bleeding Crown, Blisterwort, Fly Amanita, Imp Stool, Namira's Rot, and White Cap.

Related Quests

• Dungeon Delving: Do a favor by retrieving an item from a cave. (radiant)
• Rjorn's Drum: Retrieve a drum for Giraud Gemane.

Halldir's Crypt

The crypt immediately moves up a wooden winding staircase into a long burial hall filled with draugr and skeletal remains. The right fork continues on while the hallway ends in a small collapse and a pool of water. From this point on, ghosts will begin to materialize and attack in twos as you progress. At the next fork, be careful of a spike wall trap in the dead end to your right. The left leads deeper, past a set of bone chimes that is fairly impossible to avoid. More ghosts will attack and now draugr will begin to rise as well from their resting places along the walls. A Spell Tome: Raise Zombie will sit on another pedestal as you approach a throne. The lever to open the iron grate is behind the throne.

The Puzzle Room

Unlike some other puzzle rooms, this solution is pretty obvious, as the banners are easy to see and stand out in the room. An apprentice-locked door in the room leads only to a little stray loot and an adept-locked normal chest. To solve the puzzle itself, look for three pillars in the corners of the room. The banners directly in front of them depict which symbols they should be:

• South-Facing Pillar: Whale
• East-Facing Pillar: Snake
• North-Facing Pillar: Eagle

Once you pull the lever to the entrance, it will lead out to a cave area and again split off. The trail on the same level leads around to a treasure chest that is visible from the puzzle room. There is a tripwire connected to a battering ram directly in the hallway that you should avoid. The chest itself is rigged with an adept-level tension cable that sets off a flamethrower statue.

Halldir

The path up leads to the final room and the boss of the zone, the eponymous Halldir. He is a leveled draugr caster with several Destruction spells. He'll begin to speak in an ancient Nordic tongue as you start to take away his health. At about 66% health, he will disappear and split into three different elemental versions of himself. All three are casters and are spread out enough to make this part rather difficult; as such, magic resistance is recommended. The cold and fire casters are close to the room's entrance, while the lightning version sits apart. Focus on taking out the fire one first as his fire spells will cause massive burst damage. The cold one should be next, as he can severely reduce your movement speed. Finally, take out the lightning version of Halldir, and his ghost should materialize back in the room, ready to be killed.

Make sure to loot the augmented boss chest and pick up Halldir's Staff off the ground or from his ghostly remains. A trap door leads back to the entrance. The cairn that was radiating magic should now be reduced to a pile of rubble, and interestingly enough, the bandits' bodies may have disappeared.

Notable Loot

• Halldir's Staff: Guaranteed drop from the final boss.
• Rjorn's Drum: Located in the final chest.
• Iron Ore Veins: Two in the entrance area.
• Mushrooms: Numerous to be found, mostly in the entrance area. Approximate samples:
  • 7x Bleeding Crown
  • 7x Blisterwort
  • 11x Fly Amanita
  • 20x Imp Stool
  • 19x Namira's Rot
  • 19x White Cap

Notes

• Halldir's clones are kept in a small room, unconnected with the rest of the dungeon. You can see them by using Aura Whisper in the first chamber of the cairn. If you happen to kill Halldir before he summons his clones, you can still reach them by opening the console and typing tcl, and then "flying" into their room. The clones can then be killed and looted.

Bugs

• Picking up Rjorn's Drum before you receive the related quest may render it unable to be completed.
  • This bug is fixed by version 1.2 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.
• Halldir's Staff duplicates when you kill him. It is possible to find one copy on the ground and another on his remains.
• Some or all of the named bandit corpses may disappear in the bottom section after the magic rock cairn collapses.
• Sometimes the puzzle totems will not activate. ^?
  • This can be fixed simply by reloading a save or walking out of the dungeon and walking back in.