Pantea’s Flute is a Bards College errand in Solitude, Haafingar. Instructor Pantea Ateia has lost a flute that has been in her family for seventeen generations: a careless student named Larina stole it and sold it to necromancers, who are now holding it for ransom. Getting it back means a trip to a frozen cave on the northern coast and a lot of dead necromancers.
How to start
- Become a full member of the Bards College (the quest becomes available after Tending the Flames).
- Speak to Pantea Ateia at the college; she tells you about Larina and the stolen flute.
- If you already found the flute before joining, you can simply hand it over when you talk to her.
Walkthrough
1. Travel to Hob’s Fall Cave
The flute is in Hob’s Fall Cave, east of Frostflow Lighthouse in Winterhold Hold. Expect necromancers throughout.
2. The first chambers
From the entrance room, take the icy tunnel on the left and deal with the necromancers at the desk. That frees up a chest to loot and a soul gem lying on the desk. Carry on until you reach a suspended bridge. From there you can look down on a necromancer camp below: pick them off with a bow from sneak mode, or jump down and fight it out.
The camp holds a Stone of Barenziah and the Restoration skill book The Exodus. There is also a hidden chest: under the bridge you came across there is an overhang; jump across to the right where a tree stands, then turn towards the bridge to spot the chest.
3. Finding the flute
Cross the bridge and follow the path into the next room, where more necromancers wait. The Arcane Enchanter there has the Enchanting skill book Enchanter’s Primer on it. Pull the hanging chain to open the way forward, and watch your step, because the passage beyond is trapped.
The final chamber is guarded by three necromancers. Once they are down, you will find a chest containing Pantea’s Flute, a table with a Black Soul Gem, and a locked cage holding a dead Redguard and Larina herself – selling to necromancers clearly did not work out for her.
4. Return the flute
Take the flute back to Pantea at the Bards College. Rather than paying in gold, she passes on a few tricks she picked up while performing for the mages of Winterhold.
Rewards
- +1 Alteration
- +1 Conjuration
- +1 Destruction
- +1 Illusion
- +1 Restoration
- +1 Enchanting
- Loot from the cave, including a Stone of Barenziah, a Black Soul Gem and two skill books.
Tips and notes
- Six skill points in one go makes this one of the better Bards College errands for mage characters; it is worth doing before training those skills elsewhere.
- The flute can be picked up in Hob’s Fall Cave before you have ever visited the Bards College, but see the known bugs: grabbing it early has been reported to block the hand-in.
- Hob’s Fall Cave is close to Frostflow Lighthouse, so you can combine this trip with Frostflow Abyss.
