Lost to the Ages

Lost to the Ages is a quest in . The quest details the investigation of a lost ancient Dwemer secret and the search for four pieces of solid Aetherium. It can be started by locating and reading a copy of the book The Aetherium Wars. It can also be started by entering Arkngthamz and talking to Katria, skipping directly to the second part of the quest.
==Background==
In Arkngthamz, I met Katria, the ghost of an adventurer who perished there. She offered to join me in my fight to the summit, and I accepted her help.
==Objectives==
#Investigate the ruins of Arkngthamz
#Identify the Crystal Shard (If an Aetherium Shard is found before completing Arkngthamz)
#Reach the summit of Arkngthamz
#Solve the Tonal Lock
#Claim the treasure of Arkngthamz
#Speak with Katria
#Search for the Aetherium Shards
#Retrieve Katria's Journal (Optional)
#Locate the Aetherium Forge
#Speak with Katria
#Place the Aetherium Shards
#Retrieve the Aetherium Crest
#Stand clear
#Find the Aetherium Forge
#Defeat the Guardians of the Forge
#Shut off the steam (Optional: While fighting the guardians)
#Speak with Katria
#Search for crafting materials (Optional)
#Use the Aetherium Forge
==Walkthrough==
After finding a copy of The Aetherium Wars and reading it, a miscellaneous task of traveling to Arkngthamz in The Reach will appear in the Quest Log.
Upon arriving at Arkngthamz, the earth will quiver, followed by a disembodied voice that can be heard warning the Dragonborn to turn back. When continuing through the ruin, the disembodied voice will be given a name — a female Nord named Katria who will reveal that she is on the quest to find the mythical Aetherium Forge. She reveals that she died during an earthquake in the Dwemer ruin.
Katria's Journal can be found on her body. In it, she expresses her displeasure that her former colleague, Taron Dreth (the author of The Aetherium Wars) stole her research to publish the book, but she insists that she alone has the leads for the locations of Aetherium and possibly where the Forge may be located.
The ethereal Katria aids the Dragonborn in retrieving the first of the four aetherium shards needed to unlock the Forge, and thus the quest "Lost to the Ages" begins, with the task of finding the Aetherium shards.
===Arkngthamz===
Reading "The Aetherium Wars" will create a marker at the Dwemer ruins of Arkngthamz located in The Reach near Dushnikh Yal and Valthume. There the Dragonborn encounters the corpse of a female Nord named Katria and finds a journal on her body that illustrates her findings regarding the Aetherium Forge and the ruins of Arkngthamz.
After reading the journal, the ghost of Katria appears and explains that she wishes to complete her research and find the Forge. She attempts to discourage anyone from venturing further into the ruin and insists on accompanying them through the ruin to the Summit. In the same room, she will ask the Dragonborn to retrieve the journal from her body on the small middle island they cross. If they look up from her body, they will see a log jutting out over the chasm, which is where they later find Katria's bow, Zephyr, and being the spot where she fell to her death when the quake happened.
Traverse up several levels of shattered earth and Dwemer steam pipelines. Along the way, Katria will comment on various enemies and possibly warn of upcoming ambushes. Shortly past a falmer camp containing chaurus, she will comment on the spot where she fell through the ground. In dialogue, she reveals that had she fallen two feet more to the left she would have landed in the water and survived. Upon reaching the log where the bow lies, she will comment on it.
Retrieving the bow, either physically or using Telekinesis, reveals that it is a Dwarven bow with an inherent enchantment allowing it to fire 30% faster than normal bows.
====Tonal lock====
Deep in the ruin—just past Zephyr—is a large antechamber with several falmer corpses, skeletons, and destroyed Dwemer spheres and spiders that lay strewn about with Dwarven arrows. Katria warns that this is an extremely effective—and lethal—security mechanism. The kinetic resonators have to be hit in a specific order to unlock the door, and that when she hit them in the wrong order it caused the earthquake. Katria has the first two successfully numbered in her book. A note found on a nearby dead adventurer reveals the third. Katria advises that they all have a certain pattern.
The pattern in this room is to shoot the first on the bottom left, then the one on the bottom right, then shoot the one on the top left, then the top right, then the bottom center, and the door will unlock. Shooting in the wrong order will trigger this series of traps.
*4 Dwarven spider workers
*2 Dwarven spheres
*2 Dwemer ballistae under the ceiling
*Dwarven Centurion
*From this point on, the ballistae will reload and fire
If the player did not bring a bow, then Zephyr will need to be used; alternatively, one can cast projectile-type spells at the tonal locks.
Retrieve the aetherium shard in the unlocked room. Katria will say that she will go out into the world searching for the remaining three and advises the reading of her journal to see where the others are located. She will appear at each subsequent location once they are found.
Note that the map arrows pointing to the shard locations are selected at random, so the order in which each Shard is located can change from what appears below. Also note that when surfacing from Arkngthamz, up to three map markers will have been added to the map if the locations were already discovered; if not, then the shards will not be marked, and so Katria's Journal must be used to locate the respective locations.
===Deep Folk Crossing===
The description for the location numbered "2", Deep Folk Crossing, in Katria's Journal, mentions a Bthar-zel, which is northeast of Bthardamz, northwest of Druadach Redoubt, and southwest of Mor Khazgur; it is located far to the north of the Reach Imperial Camp.
Deep Folk Crossing is a Dwemer bridge going over a river. Venture across it to the north side and up a slope to retrieve the next Shard atop a plinth (along with a Dwarven helmet, Dwarven sword, and a Dwemer Convector).
===Raldbthar===
The location numbered "3" in Katria's Journal is located in Raldbthar. Should the quest "Mourning Never Comes" for the Dark Brotherhood be started, then the ruin should be at least partly cleared. If not, the ruin is on a summit located east of the dragon lair Shearpoint, northwest of Gallows Rock, and southwest of Anga's Mill.
After fighting through the ruin, the second main area reached is called Raldbthar Deep Market. A room with four buttons will be reached; press the button that is second from the right to remove the metal bars. A little deeper in, there is a room filled with Dwemer gears, Falmer, and chaurus. The area needs to be cleared by removing the blockages (skull, leg bone, human spine, and Dwemer scrap metal) from the different gears. The hardest to find is the Dwemer scrap metal embedded in a submerged gear under the water. When all blockages are cleared, the power should return to the button that lowers the bridge, and the bridge can be crossed to fight a leveled Dwarven Centurion. The Centurion can be bypassed by raising the bridge when it is on it, then shooting it. It will march forward into the water, and slowly die.
After the Centurion is defeated, continue into a series of rooms where Katria will join in fighting some leveled Spiders and Spheres to locate the next shard. Take the lift across from the room back up to Skyrim to continue the quest.
===Mzulft===
The location numbered "4" in Katria's Journal is where the next Shard is located, in the Dwarven Storeroom south of the entrance into Mzulft. It is found along the eastern side of the mountains of Eastmarch, southeast of Windhelm, and directly north of Cragslane Cavern. It is also directly east of Steamcrag Camp.
If the chamber has not already been cleared, it is just a room with two apprentice level locks and one expert level lock filled with Dwemer metals, scraps, cogs, gyros, Dwarven metal ingots and a Dwemer convector. Only two out of three doors are needed to be opened in order to retrieve this Shard and the rest of the loot.
Regardless of what order the shards are found in, upon finding the fourth shard Katria will state that all that is left to do is find the Forge.
===Aetherium Forge===
Upon consulting Katria's Journal, the fifth point shows the Forge to be west of the Lake Honrich. In reality, it is slightly southwest and much farther. It is the Ruins of Bthalft, which is located south of Ivarstead and east of the Rift Imperial Camp.
Upon arriving at the Forge location, bandits will attack. After dispatching them, place the aetherium shards on a Dwemer Globe that Katria points out. The ground starts shaking violently, and Katria advises standing back on a wooden platform. The globe will shoot up into the sky and reveal a lift underneath.
(Note: at this point, Katria may become delayed on the site. Wait for her; do not revert to another save, just sprint into her to move her.)
Take the lift down into the abandoned Dwemer ruin and find the way through, where Katria will remark that no-one has set foot there in over four thousand years. Torches and beacons automatically light the way.
At the main antechamber before the Forge, a massive locked door will be in the way. Above the door are two Kinetic Resonators. Shoot them both, and the Forge Room will be opened.
====The Forge room====
Upon entering, steam will be rising from a grate in the center; use the valves to shut off the steam and approach the forge. Upon the approach, a new objective becomes evident: defeat the Forge's Guardians, who will appear and immediately attack. Fight off Dwemer spiders, Dwemer spider guardians, and warped Dwemer spiders.
After defeating the spiders, Dwarven spheres, sphere guardians, and warped spheres will join the fray, and the steam will turn back on. Using the valves, turn it off again and return to the fight.
It is recommended to fight on the top decks near the valves and use the steps as a funnel. Katria will either dual wield daggers or use Zephyr. A good tactic is to make use of the Unrelenting Force, Fire Breath or Frost Breath, and area of effect Destruction magic to whittle down the animunculi's strength.
After defeating these, the Forgemaster will appear out of the lava behind the Forge. It is the most powerful Dwarven Centurion Master known, and can breathe fire (instead of steam, like other centurions) and is resistant to fire damage. Katria, being a spirit, can prove her worth against it, and if one has multiple companions, they too will be a formidable match, as will essential followers.
After defeating the Forgemaster, Katria says to get some supplies from the chest near the Forge (unless some were brought along) and the aetherium Forge can be used to craft one item from the Aetherium Shards.
There are two gates that seem to just lead into the lava on either side of the forge. If Become Ethereal is used, one can swim in it. If by any chance Ahzidal's Boots of Waterwalking are possessed or the Dragonborn is a Vampire Lord, the lava can be traversed, but the fire damage will still be taken. Whirlwind Sprint can also be used to explore the area.
Using the Become Ethereal shout, take the left path up to a small chest and another on the right. These paths lead to an overlook position of the forge, making it easier to shoot enemies from a distance.
Straight back from the forge is a large chest. To get to it, use the Become Ethereal shout to swim from the right side of the forge to the small island in the middle of the lava, then turn slightly left and the small alcove with the chest in can be seen. It is also a good idea to have resist fire potions because it is a long swim, and the islands are small. Full magic resistance will work as well. Also using a resist fire potion of 60% or higher and Whirlwind Sprint to reach the middle island is advised. Stop and restore health and allow the Shout capability to rebuild, then drink another Resist Fire potion and Whirlwind Sprint to the chest. Another resist fire potion and Whirlwind Sprint will allow access to the left ramp back to the forge.
====The Aetherial equipment====
The Dragonborn can choose from three pieces of equipment. However, only one can be chosen.
*Aetherial Crown: allows the Dragonborn to have two Standing Stones powers (the crown must be worn to keep the previous standing stone power)
*Aetherial Shield: enemies are turned ethereal for 15 seconds when bashed so they cannot be harmed or harm the Dragonborn, while also running away as though they were under a Fear spell
*Aetherial Staff: spawns a Dwemer Spider or Sphere for 60 seconds
After forging the selected item, Katria comments on whichever item which was chosen to be forged, and mentions that there most likely is not any more aetherium in Skyrim. With a sigh of relief, she thanks the Dragonborn and expresses that she is finally at rest, and after a few final departing words, she fades away, to take her place among the honored in Sovngarde. This completes the quest, and awards the Achievement (Xbox360) or Trophy (PS3) "Lost to the Ages."
===After the quest===
When the quest is complete, Katria says,
"And now... I think I can rest. Farewell, my friend, wherever your travels take you."
She then disappears (with a bow of gratitude), bound for Sovngarde. Despite this, if the Sovngarde quest is done after this one, she will not be found there.
After completion of "Lost to the Ages," Taron Dreth can appear as a random encounter along the roads with three mercenaries in tow. If the Dragonborn has one of the items forged out of Aetherium (the Aetherial crown, shield or staff) in their possession, Dreth will ask the Dragonborn how they acquired this item. He will initiate combat with the Dragonborn no matter which dialogue option is chosen.
==Journal==
Lost to the Ages – DLC1LD 	Lost to the Ages – DLC1LD
ID 	Journal Entry
100 	In Arkngthamz, I met Katria, the ghost of an adventurer who perished there. She offered to join me in my fight to the summit, and I accepted her help.
*Objective 100: Reach the summit of Arkngthamz
111 	In Arkngthamz, I met Katria, the ghost of an adventurer who perished there. She warned me that the Treasury of Arkngthamz was sealed by a dangerous Tonal Lock and protected by deadly traps.
*Objective 100: Reach the summit of Arkngthamz
112 	In Arkngthamz, I met Katria, the ghost of an adventurer who perished there. We made our way through the ruins and reached the summit together. There, she warned me that the Treasury of Arkngthamz was sealed by a dangerous Tonal Lock and protected by deadly traps.
*Objective 110: Solve the Tonal Lock
120 	In Arkngthamz, I met Katria, the ghost of an adventurer who perished there. With her help, I solved the Tonal Lock that protected its ruined treasury.
*Objective 120: Claim the treasure of Arkngthamz
125 	In Arkngthamz, I met Katria, the ghost of an adventurer who perished there. With her help, I solved the Tonal Lock that protected its ruined treasury and found a strange glowing crystal shard within.
126 	In Arkngthamz, I met Katria, the ghost of an adventurer who perished there. With her help, I solved the Tonal Lock that protected its ruined treasury and claimed the Aetherium Shard within.
*Objective 125: Speak with Katria
130 	In Arkngthamz, I met Katria, a ghost searching for the mythical Aetherium Forge. Together, we found one of the four Aetherium Shards that make up the key to the Forge. She left to search for the other shards and the Forge itself, and urged me to do the same.
*Objective 130: Search for the Aetherium Shards (<Global=DLC1LD_ShardsFound>/<Global=DLC1LD_ShardsTotal>)
135 	
*Objective 135: (Optional) Retrieve Katria's Journal
150 	In Arkngthamz, I met Katria, a ghost searching for the mythical Aetherium Forge. With her help, I found the four Aetherium Shards that make up the key to the Forge, and now seek the entrance to the Forge itself.
*Objective 150: Locate the Aetherium Forge
160 	In Arkngthamz, I met Katria, a ghost searching for the mythical Aetherium Forge. With her help, I found the four Aetherium Shards that make up the key to the Forge, and met her outside its long-sealed entrance.
*Objective 160: Speak with Katria
170 	
*Objective 170: Place the Aetherium Shards
180 	
*Objective 175: Retrieve the Aetherium Crest
181 	
*Objective 180: Stand Clear
190 	In Arkngthamz, I met Katria, a ghost searching for the mythical Aetherium Forge. With her help, I found the four Aetherium Shards that made up the key to the Forge, and combined them to reveal the entrance to a long-sealed ruin.
*Objective 190: Find the Aetherium Forge
195 	
*Objective 195: Shut off the Steam
200 	In Arkngthamz, I met Katria, a ghost searching for the mythical Aetherium Forge. With her help, I found the four Aetherium Shards that made up the key to the Forge, then confronted its ancient guardians.
*Objective 200: Defeat the Guardians of the Forge
205 	
*Objective 205: (Optional) Shut off the Steam
210 	In Arkngthamz, I met Katria, a ghost searching for the mythical Aetherium Forge. With her help, I found the four Aetherium Shards that made up the key to the Forge, then defeated its ancient guardians.
*Objective 210: Speak with Katria
220 	
*Objective 220: (Optional) Search for Crafting Materials
*Objective 225: Use the Aetherium Forge
225 	In Arkngthamz, I met Katria, a ghost searching for the mythical Aetherium Forge. With her help, I found the four Aetherium Shards that made up the key to the Forge, defeated its ancient guardians, and forged a powerful artifact.
*Quest completed
Lost to the Ages – DLC1LD_Misc	Lost to the Ages – DLC1LD_Misc
11 	
*Objective 10: Investigate the ruins of Arkngthamz
20 	
*Objective 20: Identify the Crystal Shard
30 	
*Objective 30: Identify the Crystal Shard
40 	
*Objective 40: Identify the Crystal Shard
50 	
*Objective 50: Identify the Crystal Shard
==Gallery==
Dlc01arkngthamzpuzzlesolution.png|A hint to the order of the tonal lock.
==Trivia==
*This quest can be extremely profitable, as a very large number of Dwemer crafting equipment can be found and sold to merchants and blacksmiths, smelted into Dwarven metal ingots, and used to craft Dwarven weapons and armor.
*While Katria does appear to be a ghost, she still triggers the Detect Life and Heal Other spells.
*Katria is reminiscent of Ria Silmane from , whose ghost led the Eternal Champion all over Tamriel to find pieces of the Staff of Chaos to destroy Jagar Tharn.
*If the Dragonborn takes the armor from Katria's corpse, her ghost will ask them to pay some respect to her body: "Really? You had to take the armor? Come on, leave me with a little dignity..." Feeding on her however does not provoke such a comment.
*Interestingly, while Katria has a unique voice line if the Dragonborn already has an Aetherium Shard, there are no additional unique voice lines for having two, or all three of them. Despite this, there are dialogue options for having more than one.
*This is the only quest with the Dawnguard DLC to award the player an Achievement/Trophy that does not involve the Dawnguard faction or the Castle Volkihar family.
*Standing around outside Arkngthamz before entering for the first time with the quest active, every minute there is a rumble and the ground shakes slightly. The effect is similar to what happens inside the ruin. The shaking and rumbling stops after the tonal lock is solved.
==Bugs==
Click to show
* When traveling to the locations of the other three Shards, their quest markers might not show at first. Note: If any of the locations have been previously discovered, the quest markers for those should appear.
**Fix: Read Katria's journal again, and/or fast traveling to a location may activate/reactivate the quest markers. (Confirmed)
**Fix: Manually traveling to the locations if they are not previously discovered reactivates the quest once the location is registered as discovered by the game.
* After defeating the bandits outside the Forge's location, Katria might become stuck or delayed after the entrance has appeared.
**Fix: Running into Katria, or using the first word of Unrelenting Force may displace her and fix the issue (may need several attempts). (Confirmed)
**Fix: a much more difficult but successful approach is pushing her all the way to the wooden platform with sprint and the first word of Unrelenting Force, then killing her. She will re-appear on the platform, un-hostile, and the platform will raise.
* When the forge comes out of the ground, the elevator for the forge may not appear, making it impossible to continue with the quest.
**Fix: Reloading a previous save will fix this.
* When placing the Aetherium crest in the forge, it will sometimes fail to bring up the menu that would allow the item to be forged.
** Place the crest in the forge. Next, pick one item to be forged and use console as follows. Use help "item name" to discover the item's XX id. Then enter setstage dlc1ld 225 followed by player.additem XXid 1. Leave the console and the quest will progress normally to the denouement with Katria.
* After forging with the Aetherium crest into one of the three artifacts, the quest may not update and the Dragonborn will become stuck in the room (the doors will not open).
** This can often be fixed this through the console by entering setstage DLC1LD_misc 185 or setstage DLC1LD_Bthalft 90. Also make sure the item that was created is still in the pack. If it is handed to a follower before speaking to Katria, she simply says, "Huh?" instead of praising the specific item, which she needs to do before terminating the quest.
* Sometimes, when the book is picked up, the quest is not activated, therefore making the quest impossible to complete.
**Solution: Read book, Travel to Arkngthamz and Katria will give a warning to turn back; upon finishing conversation with her the quest starts up.
**Fix: If the fragment is dropped, the book is read, and the fragment is picked back up, the quest will be activated.
* At the forge, when Katria is talked to, she may spin in a circle, being unable to move, which has caused a couple bugs to occur; the quest cannot be completed and the stairs that lead to the forge to not raise up again, trapping the Dragonborn inside.
**Fix: Taking out a weapon sometimes will get Katria to move again.
*While in the forge, if the lava is walked into slightly, one's sight will become red and yellow, permanently rendering the Dragonborn blind.
* When traveling to the Storeroom in Mzulft, already had the shard and sold it, Katria wants it to be picked up from there. However, the shard has to be gotten back or the item gotten: xx01433C and, if a glowing Crystal Shard is then gotten, the stage will have to be set to DLC1LD 40 (DLC1LD_Misc 40 if it does not work), sometimes it is 20, 30, 40, or 50 (the shard will not be in the inventory, which may be causing the stage DLC1LD 170 to be used later when instructed to place the shards at the forge but it is the only way to continue the quest).
*Sometimes when the guardians appear, one of the Dwarven spiders may not ascend from its storage area under the lava.
* While on the final part of the quest that leads to the Aetherium Forge, attempting to read Katria's Journal can cause the game to crash or freeze. Reloading a previous save and reading Katria's Journal again still can cause the game to freeze. No known fix, except to simply not read the journal at this point if this does occur (Incident occurred May 7, 2014, on Xbox360 Patch 1.9).
* Occasionally, the Shard in Mzulft will fail to spawn.
* It is possible for the forge room to bug after the first wave of spiders, thus not progressing the quest to the sphere wave or the Forgemaster. It appears to happen if, in the middle of the first wave, one changes weapons. Weapons used in the first reported instance of this glitch—Nightingale Bow switched to Wabbajack. The glitch also disabled shouts and weapon usage.
*Switching magic in the middle of the battle also makes this bug appear, i.e. Magelight to Ebonyflesh.
**Fix: Reloading the autosave that should have taken place upon entering the forge should correct this.
*Sometimes the quest will fail to update after the Forgemaster has been killed. To fix this, reload the autosave that should have taken place upon entering the forge and talk to Katria before the forge room is entered. She will go through all of her previous dialogue and disappear. When the forge guardians start to appear, Katria will re-appear and start fighting as she normally would.
* Activating the tonal locks in Arkngtharnz in the proper order does not seem to work and all gates remain locked. After loading earlier saved games, second and third attempts also failed. Gates remain closed and cannot be interacted with.
** This bug was encountered on the PS3 version and can be fixed by purposely failing the Tonal puzzle multiple times, killing everything, and then solving the puzzle the correct way. Another way to solve it may be to quit the game and reload a save at or prior to arriving at the locks, especially if each lock does not emit the gong sound when triggered.
** Another way to fix this is to restart the console and load a save prior to entering the ruins for the very first time. Do not bring a follower. Speak with Katria and go straight to the tonal locks. Use her bow to activate each lock.
* The tonal lock diagram in Katria's journal does not display properly the first time it is examined. Closing the book and then opening it a second time, however, seems to solve the problem.
* After solving the tonal lock puzzle the doors will not open, and it will be impossible to progress further into the ruins.
** Load a saved game before doing the tonal lock puzzle. Drop copies of The Aetherium Wars carried. Pick each back up reading each in turn. Solve Tonal Lock.
** A possible fix to this bug may be to restart the system and reload a save before the Tonal Lock was solved. Then proceed to use the Zephyr Bow located earlier in the quest along with Dwarven arrows found scattered across the ground to shoot at the Kinetic Resonators.
** Restart system and reload a save from before any of the Kinetic Resonators are struck, drop The Aetherium Wars, and pick it back up. Wait 24 in-game hours. Solve Tonal Lock.
* When running through the last corridor in Raldbthar, if the lever to open Raldbthar Deep Market is pulled before killing the Dwarven spider worker(s), they will also be transported. However, they cannot cause harm to the Dragonborn.
*Sometimes, the Shard at Deep-Folk Crossing will fail to spawn.
* Sometimes, the mission will not start. Loading a previous save does not solve this.
* Sometimes Katria will stop talking and leave the quest in the Journal; she will not talk again.
** To fix this load an previous save.
* At the forge, the Forgemaster might knock Katria into a wall, therefore making her unable to be spoken to.
** Go to last save to fix this.
* If "Mourning Never Comes" has not yet been completed, the storeroom near Mzulft will directly be the second objective, this will result in the neglecting of Raldbthar and this will result in no quest marker being shown after retrieving the shard in the storeroom near Mzulft. This can be fixed by simply going to Raldbthar.
* Katria may sometimes never show up to the Ruins of Bthalft. This is due to her fading out at the last area a shard has been collected from without actually leaving. Do not start up the creating of the crest, as the quest will bug further and possibly be rendered broken entirely.
** Go to console and type prid XX006754, with XX being where Dawnguard is in the load order (most would be 02). Afterwords, type disable and then enable.
* The quest will not start if any shards have been collected before reading the book or going to the ruins.
** To fix this, load a prior save.
** Even if Katria has already been spoken to, this issue can be fixed by dropping all of the shards collected and reading the book The Aetherium Wars. Once the book is read, the objective "Investigate the ruins of Arkngthamz" will appear on the screen and as a "Misc" quest entry.
* In Raldbthar, the Dwaren scrap metal may not appear, rendering the quest impossible to complete.
**Re-entering Raldbthar may fix this.
==Achievements==
==Appearances==
*
de:Verloren in der Vergangenheit
es:Perdido en los eones
fr:Perdue dans les Âges
ru:Затерявшееся в веках
Category:Dawnguard: Side Quests