Skyrim:The Wolf Queen Awakened

Potema must be stopped. Quest Giver: Courier Location(s): The Blue Palace, Hall of the Dead in Solitude, Potema's Catacombs Prerequisite Quest: The Man Who Cried Wolf Next Quest: Let Sleeping Wolves LieCC Reward: Leveled gold, Shield of Solitude Disposition: 0→1 (Styrr) ID: MS06 Required Level: 10

The Wolf Queen, awakened

Quick Walkthrough

1. After receiving the letter from the courier, speak to Falk Firebeard.
2. Speak to Styrr.
3. Fight through the underground tunnels.
4. Defeat Queen Potema and Potema's Remains.
5. Retrieve Potema's Skull from the throne.
6. Give the remains to Styrr.
7. Return to Falk.

Detailed Walkthrough

The Unbound

After you complete The Man Who Cried Wolf, you soon discover that your battle with Potema is not over. Once you have leveled up after interrupting the binding ritual, a courier will approach you outside of Solitude with a letter from Falk Firebeard. The letter warns you of an impending threat and requests that you return to Solitude. When you get there, Falk will inform you that Potema has indeed escaped. He asks you to speak with Styrr, a priest of Arkay, as he can provide you with more guidance on how to secure the threat.

The Wolf Queen and You

Styrr is located in Solitude's Hall of the Dead. You should probably ask him exactly what you are getting yourself into with Potema. Potema is the granddaughter of Uriel Septim II, and former Queen of Solitude, and was quite intent on becoming Empress. She was a formidable necromancer and had raised armies of dead led by vampires to help her. Since she had not achieved her corporeal form during the summoning, she has fled to a place of the dead, her Catacombs. Because you were present at Potema's summoning, there is now a strange connection between the two of you, and it must be you that deals with her. In order to keep Potema from returning fully, you must find her remains and bring them to Styrr to be sanctified. To assist you, Styrr gives you the key to the catacombs, and the spell Turn Undead.

The Wolf's Den

"You've arrived at last."

The entrance to the catacombs is in the Temple of the Divines. When you arrive in the temple, go to the back, past the pews, and on your left will be some stairs going down. Take the stairs, and you will be confronted with a locked iron gate, which can only be unlocked using the key Styrr gave you. Through here you will see the hole one of Potema's servants created into Potema's Catacombs. The dungeon is filled with Potema's minions, namely leveled draugr and vampires. The dungeon itself is very linear, and proceeding through it is a fairly simple endeavor.

Upon entering, the voice of Potema resonates out towards you: "You've arrived at last. The hero/heroine who prevented me from being bound returns to my fold. I have much to thank you for, little one. When you die I will raise you and you can take your place by my side." The iron gate that previously barred your path is opened once Potema has finished speaking. Proceed forward until you reach a room located at the bottom of a set of stairs with purple flammable liquid on the floor. There is a table in the center of this room, with a copy of the Lockpicking skill book Surfeit of Thieves.

A draugr rising from the water.

You will eventually reach what seems like a dead end, but there is a lever to open the path forward. Activate the lever, and the stone wall in front of you will start to revolve. Waiting will reveal that there is a door opening barred by an iron bar gate cut out in the rotating wall. If you throw the lever at just the right moment, you can stop the revolving wheel as the gate is opening.

Potema's Refuge

Walking forward will bring you to a room with three additional revolving-stone doorways and three corresponding levers. Activating the first lever in line will stop and start the first revolving door, etc. Stop all three doors when the entrance is open to you, and walk forward. These rotating doors may slip over time so it's a one way trip past this point (or you can keep them spinning and run through carefully).

You will come to a room with a "sleeping" draugr in a throne near the back of the room and an accompanying vampire. The vampire will approach you and speak before attacking: "You've come far, mortal. No doubt you seek to enter Potema's Sanctum. I can see to that. We'll need plenty of fresh corpses to rebuild her army, you see." The draugr will now rise from the throne. The key to Potema's Sanctum is found on the body of the vampire (another copy of the key is found on the armrest of the draugr's throne). Loot it to avoid picking the master lock to Potema's Sanctum, which is the final area of the dungeon.

"No doubt you seek to enter Potema's Sanctum."

Potema's Sanctum

"Serve me in death."

Proceeding forward will bring you to a room full of dead draugr, a dead vampire and a locked iron gate. Potema's voice will speak out to you:"Not much further. Come, little thing. Serve me in death." The iron gate will then unlock, and Potema will reanimate the vampire and two of the draugr in the room. Defeat them, then continue. In the hallway before the final encounter, there are two resist shock potions on the shelf near the door; take them as you will need them to protect yourself against Potema. You will eventually come to a room with a floating spirit and tombs scattered around the perimeter and center of the room. This is the boss fight.

Defeating Potema

"You've come far, mortal, but can you stand against my inner council? Let's see!"

Again, you will hear Potema's voice: "You've come far, mortal, but can you stand against my inner council? Let's see!" She will radiate bolts of electricity and rotate the bolts, dealing shock damage to those the bolts of electricity hit. It is advisable to consume potions which give you Resist Shock - such as those in the antechamber. During the fight, she will mock you, "Don't applaud yourself too soon, worm!" and spur on her minions, "Rip the eyes from his/her head!". It is important to note that arrows will not affect Potema, but magic will. Potema will also release draugr from their tombs to attack you. Some of the draugr are warlocks and can summon frost atronachs to join the fight. After each wave of defeated draugr, Potema will reanimate some of them, and will release more draugr, as well. Each wave of draugr you defeat will make Potema weaker. Keep killing the draugr, and the spirit of Potema will eventually recede into the locked room opposite where you came in.

Follow the spirit of Potema, and Potema's Ghostly Remains will appear, ready to fight you. The apparition respawns and has to be defeated several times. It also has the ability to resurrect the draugr you just killed in the last room so watch for attacks from behind. After defeating the apparition, you will see that there is a seat with a skull on it. This skull is Potema's Remains. Take Potema's Skull, and loot the chest. Inside the chest is the Sneak skill book Legend of Krately House. Exit the room.

Potema's Remains at her throne.

The Unholy Remains

There are only two more enemies between you and the exit at this point, two draugr, one higher level than the other. They are found seated in facing alcoves with a short pillar in the middle of the hall between them. On the pillar is a helmet or some other piece of loot. If you take this bait, the draugr awaken and attack you. You can ignore them and walk past (the object on the pillar is usually low-level), or deal with them individually. A short distance after this, you pass through a door and emerge on a mountain overlooking a docked ship in Solitude. There is an unlocked chest with random loot to your immediate left as you emerge onto the mountain ledge and a random potion to the right of the chest and a random helmet on the rock above. Travel to Solitude and go to the Hall of the Dead. There, speak with Styrr and he will gratefully accept the remains. He goes off to bless the remains, and all there is left to do now is to report to Falk Firebeard. Returning the remains will count as assisting the people of Haafingar.

The Shield of Solitude

Travel to the Blue Palace and speak to Falk, where he will speak on behalf of the jarl in expressing his gratitude. Your reward is gold and the Shield of Solitude. The quest concludes here.

After the release of the Anniversary Edition and with the Bone Wolf Creation installed, you will receive another letter by courier once this quest has been completed. Reading this letter will trigger the next quest, Let Sleeping Wolves Lie.

Notes

• The Shield of Solitude that is received as reward for this quest has a unique Resist Magic enchantment that can be learned through disenchantment, and can be stacked with the regular Resist Magic in double enchantments to create a single item with 45% magic resistance.
• Reading Falk's note will not trigger a quest in your Journal, and no quest marker will appear, until you speak to him. However, reading the note is still a requisite for even being able to speak to him about the quest.

Bugs

• In order to receive the Letter from Falk Firebeard, you must gain a level after completing The Man Who Cried Wolf. If you have already reached level 81, the only way to acquire the letter and activate this quest is to steal it from Falk.
  • The Official Skyrim Patch, version 1.9, addresses this issue. The patch introduces a new feature removing the level limit, allowing potentially unlimited level-ups.
  • This issue has been addressed by the Unofficial Skyrim Patch; version 1.3.1 alters the requirement to simply changing locations (i.e. leaving the Palace).

• The courier will occasionally not appear at all to deliver the Letter from Falk Firebeard, regardless of how long you wait. If this occurs, complete any other action which could cause the courier to appear (for example, a different quest), and the courier will deliver the note then instead, alongside the note for the other quest. You might notice a delay in the speech when this occurs, just allow a minute or so for the conversation to time out, and the note should appear in your inventory. ^?

• Falk Firebeard has the Letter from Falk Firebeard in his inventory from the start of the game. It can be pickpocketed but is then unable to be dropped as it is tagged as a quest item.
  • The Unofficial Skyrim Patch, version 1.2, fixes this bug.

• The Letter from Falk Firebeard may not always be removed from your inventory at the conclusion of the quest and will remain behind as an unremovable quest item. ^?
  • Use the console command player.removeitem D91D1 1 to remove the letter.

• Backing out of conversation with Styrr too early can block quest progress.
  • The Official Skyrim Patch, version 1.5, fixes this bug.

• When fighting Potema's three waves of summoned draugr, all three waves may not spawn, leaving the quest stuck.
  • Reloading from a previous save prior to entering the room is the only way to correct the issue.

• After defeating Potema's inner council, the door to Potema's throne might not open
  • Use the console command TCL to no-clip through the door. You will skip the Potema battle but you can complete the quest.

• The room with the draugr may not load properly. The draugr waves will load, but the room is missing visual assets. The room may be very dark and filled with green mist. Potema's lightning attack does not function. The final door may also be missing.
  • Exiting the zone and re-entering should load the room assets properly. Potema will load and activate, and the final door will load. Any draugr previously killed will remain dead.

• One of the draugr may get knocked through the non-door to Potema's Remains, or be teleported there on loading a save, making it impossible to kill it and leaving the quest stuck (you can tell by the red icon on your compass behind the door). ^?
  • Try conjuring a creature on the other side of the door by facing the door up close and casting the spell.
  • Use the console command TCL to no-clip through the door and defeat the draugr.

• If you have reanimated any of the draugr in the room, Potema's spirit will not recede trough the locked door, nor will the door be opened until this very last draugr has also crumbled to the ground. ^?

• The bar on the door after you collect Potema's Remains may be unresponsive even though the door behind it opens.
  • Backtrack through Potema's Sanctum and enter Potema's Refuge. Then re-enter Potema's Sanctum again. The bar should now operate normally.

• Potema's Skull may not be "active", making it impossible to pick it up and complete the quest.
  • Save and reload. The skull should be near where Potema's remains have fallen (or where it would have rolled from the throne).
  • Using the Unrelenting Force shout on the skull may fix this.

• When you take Potema's Skull, the quest marker will point you back the way you came, not through the door behind her throne.

• Sometimes after defeating Potema's summoned draugr in the first room where she is encountered, her ghostly remains will not appear to fight you and you are able to take the remains and finish the quest anyway.
  • You can make her appear by the command enable 00103499.

• At the end of the quest, if you back out of dialogue before Styrr has said his last line, the quest may not be able to be completed.
  • The Unofficial Skyrim Patch, version 2.0.4, fixes this bug.

• At the end of the quest, if you engage in dialogue with Styrr before Falk Firebeard, the quest may not be able to be completed.
  • Using setstage ms06 150,or closing and restarting the game, then speaking to Falk, may allow the quest to advance.

Quest Stages

The Wolf Queen Awakened (MS06)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
50		Potema has been summoned from beyond the grave and is gathering power. Falk has sent me to Styrr to get the key to Potema's Catacombs. Objective 50: Speak to Styrr
100		Potema has been summoned from beyond the grave and is gathering power. Styrr has given me the key to Potema's Catacombs. I must enter the catacombs and prevent Potema from fully resurrecting by acquiring her bones. Objective 100: Defeat Potema
125		Objective 125: Retrieve Potema's remains
150		Potema has been summoned from beyond the grave. I've defeated her in the Catacombs and retrieved her bones. I must return them to Styrr for blessing and tell Falk Potema has been defeated. Objective 150: Return to Falk Firebeard Objective 155: Give Potema's remains to Styrr
250	Finishes quest	I have defeated Potema and been rewarded by Falk Firebeard.

• The following empty quest stages were omitted from the table: 0, 5, 10, 60, 160, 170, 190.

Notes

• Any text displayed in angle brackets (e.g., <Alias=LocationHold>) is dynamically set by the Radiant Quest system, and will be filled in with the appropriate word(s) when seen in game.
• Not all Journal Entries may appear in your journal; which entries appear and which entries do not depends on the manner in which the quest is done.
• Stages are not always in order of progress. This is usually the case with quests that have multiple possible outcomes or quests where certain tasks may be done in any order. Some stages may therefore repeat objectives seen in other stages.
• If an entry is marked as "Finishes Quest" it means the quest disappears from the Active Quest list, but you may still receive new entries for that quest.
• On the PC, it is possible to use the console to advance through the quest by entering setstage MS06 stage, where stage is the number of the stage you wish to complete. It is not possible to un-complete (i.e. go back) quest stages, but it is possible to clear all stages of the quest using resetquest MS06.

Prev: The Man Who Cried Wolf

Next: Let Sleeping Wolves LieCC