Skyrim:Dimhollow Crypt

It has two zones, Dimhollow Crypt and Dimhollow Cavern.

A trail from near the Hall of the Vigilant runs above Frostmere Crypt on the way to the Shrine of Mehrunes Dagon; Dimhollow Crypt is a short distance up this trail.

Before the related quest, only the first chamber of Dimhollow Crypt will be accessible; the rest is blocked by rubble. Several leveled animals will be present. The southwest tower with the chest, potions, and enchanted weapon is still available, but there will be no pull chain.

 
Related Quests
 

Dimhollow Crypt
Dimhollow Crypt begins as a narrow tunnel. It quickly opens into a medium-sized cavern with an underground river running through it and a few waterfalls. In the southwest corner of this cavern stands a small tower. Inside the tower, an enchanted sword lies in an open sarcophagus to the right of the stairs. On the platform at the top of the stairs are an urn, an unlocked chest, and two potions on the floor next to a window.

If the Awakening quest is not yet active, the cavern will be inhabited by several beasts, and the passage into the rest of the crypt will be blocked by stones. If you have begun Awakening, moving forward toward the cavern will prompt a conversation between two vampires, and there will be three corpses nearby: two vampires, and the unfortunate Vigilant Tolan who slew them both before he died. A death hound stands guard as well. To the northeast, a gate blocks the way deeper into the crypt. Inside the tower, next to the window above the two loose potions on the platform, there is a pull chain to open the gate. The gate can be seen through this window. The pull chain will not be present before Awakening.

Past the gate, a potion and a lootable skeleton are in the sarcophagus to the left as you move through a natural corridor across a stream. Farther in and up a flight of stone steps, a vampire stands by a graveyard. When you get close enough, three skeletons will rise from the ground and attack. In the shadows of the southeast corner of this room on the ledge above the stream, there is an unlocked chest with a dead draugr lying nearby. Wind around to the western ledge, where there are some glowing mushrooms on either side of another closed gate. This time the mechanism is a lever, which is on top of a stone to the right of the gate. The next room has an unlocked chest behind the sarcophagus on your left when you enter the room. There are two soul gems and a potion on an arcane enchanter in the corner, and two dead draugr to be looted, but no enemies.

Turn north and you'll see two draugr battling a death hound and a vampire at the end of the hall. Finish off the weakened victor(s). There are four gated tunnels leading from this room. Each pull chain can be found next to its associated gate. The first gate to the left (west) is partially hidden by a pillar, but has a master-locked chest at the far end of the tunnel. Opening the east gate will make a leveled draugr burst from its coffin; there are two weapons in the alcoves of that tunnel. The north gate has a pedestal with two potions on it at the end of its tunnel, and six more potions in the alcoves. To retrieve the items in the alcoves along the east and north tunnels, you can knock them close enough with area-of-effect spells or arrows, grab them with Telekinesis, or move them closer by telling your follower "I need you to do something." and then dragging the items into reach. The final gate, the second on the west wall, is the way forward.

The next room is mostly a natural cave which contains another graveyard that has been flooded by a stream. Three skeletons will rise from their watery graves. Up the hill beyond, a lurking vampire will be alerted by sounds of fighting. Continue through the northwest door, where the crypt becomes more like a crypt again. An urn is straight ahead, while the passage continues to the left. The dead end to the right has a potion on the floor among the cobwebs, and to the left are two burial urns, with three more burial urns up the stairs ahead to the southwest. The dead frostbite spiders lying around here betray another vampire's presence; slay it, but be careful, because the death hound in the next room may hear you. More potions are in the next room to the southeast, along with another vampire and death hound duo, three more burial urns along the northeast wall, two urns along the first southwest dead end passage, and an unlocked chest at the end of the second southwest dead end. The exit to the southeast takes you to a natural ledge, where someone has built a railing overlooking the cave where the skeletons rose from the water. There is another vampire on the other side of a large gate. This vampire is fighting a wounded frostbite spider, and the vampire is usually the victor. The lever to open the gate is on top of a rock to the left of the gate. Across the stream, in a room with an elegant floor of octagonal and diamond tiles, there is an egg sac on the eastern wall, and in the southern wall, a wooden door leads to Dimhollow Cavern.

Dimhollow Cavern
thumb|The main room of Dimhollow Cavern after the button is pressed
thumb|The word wall
You enter into a room adjacent to a balcony overlooking a large cavern, with a Scroll of Fire Storm on a pedestal in the room; this scroll may prove useful against the following enemies: more vampires. If you wait on the balcony for a moment, you'll hear a conversation between Vigilant Adalvald, Lokil—whom you may have heard the vampires in the very first room of the crypt mention in their own conversation—and an unnamed leveled vampire. Whenever you like, continue down the stairs to the right and around to confront the vampires and a thrall; Adalvald has a scripted death, and you cannot save him. Once the way is clear, you can search behind the stairs you descended to find a chest against the cavern wall.

Cross the bridge to find a puzzle on the island. Before solving the puzzle, cross over to the other side to the northeast and find a chest up the short set of stairs ahead, and the remains of a novice conjurer before the stairs and under an earthen ramp on the right with some minor loot and two large coin purses (using a torch or Candlelight spell will help here). Return to the island to push the button in the middle, and purple flames will light part of the floor. To solve the puzzle, push the braziers back and forth until the fire has lit all of them in a pattern around the circle. Once the final brazier is in place, the screen will shake and the floor will descend in the middle, revealing a stone monolith. Activate the monolith to reveal the Mysterious Woman.

After a conversation, you'll be prompted to leave with the woman, Serana. The way you came in is now blocked by a gate you cannot open. Instead, go northeast across the bridge. As you cross, two gargoyles will come to life ahead and attack. The path out is actually not by the gargoyle platform, but to the right, up the eastern ramp and through a wooden door. There are two malachite ore veins on a ledge to the northwest below the platform, and two more to the south on the bottom level of the main chamber, while an urn is found to the left of the door. Through the door, the next room has a lever which will open a gate blocking the passage, but beware: two skeletons will rise from the floor back the way you came, and two draugr will burst from standing coffins on the east wall. Before you leave, check along the south wall on the level just below the lever; there's a chest with a Spell Tome: Necromantic Healing on the table next to it. Behind the two standing coffins on the east wall are an unlocked chest (to the left) and an urn (to the right); two more urns are near the entrance to the room. As you leave the room, passing under the now-raised gate to the north, there are benches flanking the gate. On one bench is a random potion of health, magicka, or stamina, and on the other are two more. These may be difficult to see due to cobwebs.

Through the raised gate, you'll find no fewer than five skeletons and one boss draugr surrounding a fiery pit in a cavernous room which also features a word wall for the Drain Vitality shout. The boss chest is behind the draugr's throne, opposite where you come in, and the word wall is to the northeast of the throne, illuminated by natural light from a hole in the ceiling. Hidden behind the word wall, accessible up the stairs to either side, you'll find three coin purses and two enchanted weapons on a table. Four malachite ore veins are around the room: two are on the east side near the word wall, one is on the west side beside a set of stairs, and one is to the northwest to the right of a table at the top of the stairs.

A double door to the north leads out of this room. A short stairway with a gate at the end leads outside; the chain to raise the gate is on a pillar to the right. You'll emerge on the opposite side of the mountain, north and slightly west of Stonehill Bluff.

Notes
In the main chamber where you find Serana, there are two malachite ore veins along the northwestern wall on the ground near the water. There are two additional veins on the south cliff. To find them, head right just before reaching the door exiting Serana's chamber, and go down a ramp. The veins are on both sides of that tall cliff.

Bugs