A Scroll for Anska takes you into High Gate Ruins in Haafingar, the resting place of the dragon priest Vokun. The mage Anska has spent years hunting for a scroll she believes ties her family line all the way back to Ysgramor, and she would very much like you to walk in front of her while she looks for it. The payoff is a dragon priest mask, a Word of Power and a unique fire spell.
How to start
- Enter High Gate Ruins. Just inside, Anska is finishing off a draugr with Destruction magic.
- Talk to her and agree to help find her scroll. She then follows you through the dungeon.
- Anska is not essential, so if she dies before you speak to her the quest can never be started.
Walkthrough
High Gate Ruins
Anska fights mostly with spells and tends to hang back, while the ruin is full of mostly leveled draugr. Your first obstacle is a pillar puzzle. Look up at the southern ceiling, where carvings show the order Hawk, Whale, Fox, Snake. The northern ceiling repeats the sequence, but its third carving has dropped to the floor. Each pedestal in the room shows an animal; set the levers so the Hawk, Whale, Fox and Snake pedestals match the ceiling order. The gate swings open, and a spiral staircase leads down to the door to High Gate Ruins Catacombs.
High Gate Ruins Catacombs
Watch for pressure plates and trip-wires as you push through the first altar room and down a long corridor to a second altar room with three levers. Pull the one in the middle of the room first. Then go to the right alcove, kill the draugr guarding it and pull its lever, and finally deal with a second guardian in the left alcove before pulling the lever behind it. This raises the portcullis to Vokun’s throne room.
Defeat Vokun
Vokun bursts out of his sarcophagus as soon as you enter. He casts fireballs from a staff and protects himself with Ebonyflesh and Flame Cloak, so use the pillars to break line of sight and close in between volleys. Take his mask, Vokun, right away: it does not come back later, and you need it for the dragon priest shrine at Labyrinthian.
Find the scroll
Behind the coffin is a small room with Anska’s sealed scroll on a table and a word wall teaching a word of Storm Call. Grab the scroll before you approach the wall, since the shout-learning effect can blast the scroll somewhere unreachable.
Return the scroll to Anska
Take the north door at the end of the narrow corridor, which brings you back into the upper part of High Gate Ruins. Find Anska and give her the scroll. She thanks you with a spell tome for Conjure Flaming Familiar and the quest is complete.
Rewards
- Spell tome: Conjure Flaming Familiar (from Anska)
- Vokun, the dragon priest mask
- Vokun’s Staff of Fireballs
- A Word of Power for Storm Call
Tips and notes
- The quest fails if Anska dies, so keep her out of trouble. One trick is to not accept the quest at all: clear the dungeon, kill Vokun, and when she shows up pick up the scroll, which starts the quest at the hand-in stage. She may still teleport to you on entering the catacombs, though.
- Anska is impatient and often shoves you forward from behind, which can set off traps.
- Her area spells can hit your follower and start a fight between them. If that becomes a problem, have your follower wait at the entrance.
- Finish the quest on your first visit. The gates around Vokun’s tomb close once you leave the dungeon and he does not respawn.
- Ask Anska about the scroll afterwards and she only says it is encrypted and will take time to read; this never changes.
- You can tell Anska you are keeping the scroll, but she just objects and nothing happens.
- The quest only counts toward the Sideways achievement if Anska survives.
- The snake symbols on the throne room walls look like a puzzle, but there is none.
