Snapleg Cave sits between Ivarstead and Riften, and it’s basically a witches’ coven with a spider problem. Hags and witches have set up camp inside, guarded by frostbite spiders, and a hagraven lurks near the end. It’s worth the trip for the loot, the alchemy ingredients and a rather sweet side moment with a captive spriggan.
What you’ll find
- An entrance that drops you straight down a chasm onto three skeevers chewing on a dead deer.
- A large cavern with a frostbite spider, two hags, a cooking pot and tents with a chest and ingredients.
- A troll in a side area, then a pillar room full of egg sacks and more spiders; a dead end straight ahead hides a giant spider, a dead bandit and a chest.
- A pull chain (with a chest behind cobwebs next to it) that opens a rock wall into another witch’s den.
- A final watery hall with a hag, the hagraven and a spriggan locked in a cage; a body floating in the water carries loot.
- An alchemy lab, an arcane enchanter, two leveled soul gems and a second pull chain that opens a shortcut out.
Notable items
- Staff of Paralysis, lying across a crate on a small mound in the first big cavern
- Breathing Water – Alteration skill book, in a tent in the hidden den
- Four chests and two leveled soul gems
- Ingredients: fly amanita, slaughterfish eggs, slaughterfish scales, frost salts, spider eggs and canis root outside the entrance
Tips
Free the spriggan. It won’t turn on you and will head back to a clearing outside Eldergleam Sanctuary. Sneaky players can open the cage without the hagraven noticing, and then the spriggan helps you kill her before leaving – a rare case of nature taking your side.
You can also run the cave in reverse: turn left right after entering and jump up. And grab the Staff of Paralysis early – freezing a hagraven mid-spell is very satisfying.
Good to know
If you come back after the cave has respawned, you may spot the freed spriggan walking back to its old cage, ready to be rescued all over again.
Nearby
Closest places covered on TamrielSaga: Rift Stormcloak Camp, Darkwater Pass, Rift Watchtower, Sarethi Farm, Nilheim.
Location data (hold, map position, editor ID) read from the Skyrim game files; details checked against community wiki articles and summarised in our own words.