The Serpent Stone is a standing stone on Serpentstone Isle, a floating iceberg east of Winterhold and north of Windhelm. Getting there means a cold swim or some careful ice-hopping across the Sea of Ghosts, but it’s worth the shivers: this is one of the more fun blessings in the game, and anyone signing up with Ulfric’s rebels will end up here anyway.
What you’ll find
- The Serpent Stone itself, on top of the iceberg.
- Icy surroundings that, according to Galmar, attract ice wraiths for some strange reason.
The blessing
Activating the stone lets you fire a ranged paralysis poison at an enemy once per in-game day. The target freezes in place for 5 seconds and takes 25 points of poison damage over that time. Only one standing stone blessing can be active at a time, so it replaces whatever stone you had before.
Quests
Joining the Stormcloaks – Galmar Stone-Fist sends would-be Stormcloaks to this isle as their test of strength. He claims men have been sent here for generations to prove themselves.
Tips
The paralysis is at its best when a conversation suddenly goes sour and an NPC turns hostile: freeze them, then decide what happens next at your leisure. It also stops a charging melee enemy dead for a few precious seconds. Five seconds isn’t long, so line up a follow-up attack or use the moment to get away. When swimming out, keep an eye on your health – icy water and ice wraiths are a miserable combination, and nobody wants to be paralyzed by the cold before the blessing even kicks in.
Good to know
In the game files the effect is split into two parts nicknamed Serpent’s Spit (the paralysis) and Serpent’s Venom (the damage, 5 points per second for 5 seconds), which explains the stone’s name nicely.
Nearby
Closest places covered on TamrielSaga: Wreck of The Pride of Tel Vos, Bleakcoast Cave, Skytemple Ruins, College of Winterhold, Journeyman’s Nook.
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.