Potema’s Refuge is the first sublocation beneath Potema’s Catacombs, the ancient tomb under Solitude. It stands between you and Potema’s Sanctum, so anyone chasing the Wolf Queen will have to fight, puzzle and dodge their way through. Expect draugr, vampires and some very determined masonry.
What you’ll find
- Enemies – draugr including a Draugr Deathlord, plus vampires. One draugr waits at the end of the first corridor, a vampire guards the lever room.
- The lever room – three levers control three slowly revolving doors. Each lever toggles between clockwise, stop and counter-clockwise. Line them up until there’s a gap wide enough to squeeze through; perfection not required.
- A hidden loot room – visible through a window just past the doors, opened by a lever behind the coffin in the previous room.
- The fireball room – pass the central pillar and fireballs start shooting from the walls, powered by soul gems you can remove.
- The final chamber – a vampire fledgling and a radiant-difficulty draugr. The vampire carries the key to Potema’s Sanctum; a second key lies on the draugr’s throne.
Quests
Tips
For the fireball room, sprint through with Whirlwind Sprint and pull out the soul gems, or stay out of range and knock them loose with arrows. In the last chamber you don’t actually have to beat the draugr: draugr can’t open doors. Kill the vampire, grab the key, hold the draugr off with shouts, slip through and close the door. Then sneak to drop out of combat, or it may follow you into the Sanctum. Patience with the revolving doors pays off – they turn painfully slowly, as if Potema herself is still deciding whether to let you in.
Good to know
Reportedly, when you return from the Sanctum the revolving doors may be spinning out of alignment, which can block the way back to Solitude through the dungeon.
Details checked against community wiki articles and the Skyrim game files, summarised in our own words.
