The Wolf Queen Awakened is the follow-up to The Man Who Cried Wolf. You may have broken the ritual in Wolfskull Cave, but Potema Septim, the infamous Wolf Queen, is far from finished and is gathering strength under Solitude in Haafingar. Falk Firebeard calls you back to finish the job, and it turns into one of the longest undead crawls in the game.
How to start
- Complete The Man Who Cried Wolf and be at least level 10.
- After you gain a level, a courier brings a letter from Falk Firebeard asking you to return to Solitude.
- Talk to Falk in the Blue Palace. He explains that Potema was not destroyed and sends you to Styrr in the Hall of the Dead.
Walkthrough
Speak to Styrr
Styrr believes that interrupting the ritual has tied you to Potema, so you are the one who has to go after her. He wants her remains so he can bless them, hands you the key to Potema’s Catacombs and teaches you Turn Undead, which makes undead flee from you for a short time.
Find the way into the catacombs
Go to the Temple of the Divines on Solitude’s upper courtyard, across from the Castle Dour barracks entrance. The quest marker likes to point at the wall to the right of the door, which is not helpful. Instead, walk forward almost to the shrines, turn left twice and follow the path down to a locked gate. Open it with Styrr’s key and take the path on the left into Potema’s Catacombs.
Potema’s Catacombs
Below the first stairs you reach a wolf statue and a barred doorway; Potema talks to you and opens it herself. Expect draugr throughout and a Vampire Nightstalker in the big two-level hall. If you are neither a vampire nor a werewolf, be careful: the vampires’ Drain Life can infect you with Sanguinare Vampiris. A skill book lies on a table on the lower level.
Further on, a draugr hanging on the wall stays passive, but the floor in front of it is a fire trap. A switch around the corner opens the gate to the next stairway, where a second wall draugr does wake up. In the flooded caverns that follow you meet more draugr and a leveled vampire, a foot-switch spike trap at a doorway and a trapped chest near a grindstone: stand to one side of the chest when you open it to dodge the poison darts. A switch at the end controls a revolving door, a small preview of the puzzle to come. Note that these doors tend to close again after a while.
Potema’s Refuge
Take the right-hand path to a room with three switches, one for each of three revolving doors. Before using them, open the gate on the right: a vampire waits inside, and a switch behind the coffin opens a hidden passage to a chest. Back at the switches, use each lever to stop its door when the opening lines up, then walk through. At the end of the hall two soul gems on pedestals power a fire trap; lift them off to stop the flames. Upstairs in the throne room a Vampire Fledgling and a draugr (a Deathlord at higher levels) wait. The vampire carries the key to Potema’s Sanctum, and a spare copy sits on one of the thrones.
Potema’s Sanctum
A Vampire Mistwalker here can raise the dead draugr on the altar, and two more draugr join in. Next comes a room full of corpses that Potema reanimates after she speaks. If you get in before she talks, you can take the corpses’ weapons away, which makes the fight far easier. Retreating into the passage to fight them one by one also works, and if you wait long enough the spell wears off and they collapse again. The following chamber holds a couple of Resist Shock potions, which you will want soon. Save before going further.
Defeat Potema
Potema now throws her “inner council” at you in waves while her purple energy vortex drains health and magicka and fills the room with shock magic. The safest approach is to step in to get her attention and then fight from the doorway of the previous room, so the draugr have to come at you one at a time. That bottleneck is perfect for Chain Lightning, Fireball, Fire Breath or Unrelenting Force. Repeatedly conjuring a Flaming Familiar in the middle of the room while sneaking also pulls the draugr away from you. Killed draugr get raised again, so expect a Wight or Scourge early and a Deathlord, perhaps with an ebony weapon, in the last wave depending on your level.
When the last wave falls, Potema retreats to her throne in the next room and fights you herself. She summons atronachs, casts Lightning Bolt, raises lesser draugr, knows the Unrelenting Force shout and usually carries a leveled enchanted weapon. Once she is beaten, take her skull, then loot the chest near the back door.
Return to Solitude
Beyond the sanctum you pass two occupied thrones, so expect one last fight, before the exit drops you on a ledge on the mountainside north of Solitude, with a chest, potions and a leveled weapon. Give Potema’s remains to Styrr so he can sanctify them, then report to Falk Firebeard in the Blue Palace.
Rewards
- Shield of Solitude
- Leveled gold
- The Turn Undead spell from Styrr
- Plenty of dungeon loot along the way
Tips and notes
- Handing Potema’s remains to Styrr counts towards helping the people of Haafingar, one of the steps to becoming Thane of Haafingar for Elisif.
- Potema’s ghost leaves little loot. With careful use of the Wabbajack you can defeat her in a way that lets you take her rare Fine Raiment.
- For lore, read Biography of the Wolf Queen and The Wolf Queen.
- If the courier never appears, other active quests may be holding him up. Finishing a few of them usually lets him through.
