Tes4Mod:Order of the Dragon/Temple of the Dead

Access to the temple is barred unless and until you undertake the quest The Way of the Dead.
 
Related Quests
 
 
 

Exterior
The exterior is located at coordinates: ODDDesert01 -16, -4.
This location does not have a map marker.

Zone 1: Temple of the Dead
This level is a maze of corridors and empty rooms, but there are no traps and no monsters besides a handful of sandcrawlers. Your objective here is to find several sets of golden bones (skull, ribcage, arms, pelvis, legs) and take them to the last room, where Drela will notice a niche in the wall. Place the bones here, and they'll form a golden skeleton; once it's complete, the door will lower, granting access to Zone 2.

Zone 2: Temple of the Dead
This level is another maze; unlike the first level, you can head straight to the bottom, but there is some loot here and there for those interested. When you enter the last room, Drela will move ahead to activate the altar, setting off a trap. A skeleton guard will appear in one of the four ash pits; when you kill that one, another will appear, until you've killed all four, then an undead temple guardian will appear in the middle pit. When you kill that one, the door will open, granting access to Zone 3.

Zone 3: Temple of the Dead
A straightforward level. In the second room you encounter (more like a large hall), you won't be able to open the two doors immediately - both have switches on the other side. You'll need to find a pair of ceremonial skulls on this level; there are also a handful of potions and other items. When you come to the long hallway lined in gold, go right - the left leads to a door that you won't be able to open just yet. The other way has a door that leads to Zone 4.

Zone 4: Temple of the Dead
The door here opens into a hall that's a mirror image of the one above. Avoid stepping on the first spiderweb-grate - it will collapse under you, dropping you into a spiked pit. At the far end, you'll find a side passage leading to an octagonal chamber, which has a large chalice on a pedestal in the middle. This is the Blood Chalice; taking it will start the quest The Chalice and the Stone, but will also set off a spear trap. The three bowls in the niches also hold more ceremonial skulls (taking them will disarm the trap).

Aside from this chamber, the only other point of interest here is a room with five torches and six switches. Each of the switches on top of the altar activates or deactivates one or more torches; the one on the front deactivates them all. The purpose here is to light all five torches. For the purpose of this walkthrough, the switches are numbered from left to right; the order to do so is thus: 3, 1, 2, 5, 3, 5, 4. If you did it right, you'll get a message about hearing a noise in the distance (it's not on this level). Return to the previous room and take the ramp up; this goes to Zone 5.

Zone 5: Temple of the Dead
This level is rather small. You end up in a long, high hall lined with scattered coffins and inhabited by a mummy and a pair of skeleton archers. Ignore the door at the far end for the time being and go down the side passage. You'll encounter the Supreme Embalmer, who (after some dialogue) will attack you. After you kill him, look in the last stone urn on the dais - you'll find a skeletal arm that serves as a switch. This opens the door out in the hall, which leads to Zone 6.

Zone 6: Temple of the Dead
Another long hallway with a sealed door. In order to proceed, you must follow the side passage down and look for a switch in the middle of a golden spiderweb on the wall near the floor (it's a blue button, not hard to miss). This opens one of the side passages, go down here, hit the next switch, and then across the hall to hit the final siwtch, whereupon you can continue on to Zone 7.

Zone 7: Temple of the Dead
Just after entering this level, you'll reach a four-way intersection. The passage to the right leads back to Zone 3; the one to the left goes to a sealed door; and the one ahead goes down to a room. There's a switch on the far right pillar that opens the door; you can also grab the loot on the pedestal in the center, if you're so inclined. The door leads to a grand gallery with another door at the end which leads to Zone 8 (this one can be activated normally).

Zone 8: Temple of the Dead
This level is one large circular room; holes in the walls lead to shafts up to the surface. Each hole has a sacrifice coffin before it (more on those later), and a spider figurine on a pedestal in front of it. You have to activate all five spiders and turn them until you hear a click; once this is done, go back to the switch by the door and hit it. Drela will move to the center of the room to pray to the Daughter of the Threads, who summons Ilu. He kills her, then turns on you. Once you deal with him, you can investigate the coffins - they enable you to teleport to various other coffins scattered all over Mephala's realm.

A pedestal in the middle of the room holds a book - a copy of Onak O S'wit. This book is used in the quest Sword Search.