Raldbthar

It is located just east of Irkngthand. It is the location of Alain Dufont, whose death is an objective of the Dark Brotherhood quest, Mourning Never Comes. In addition, it is overrun by Bandits, Falmer, and Dwarven Automatons. At the end of the dungeon, the player may exit to Skyrim or Blackreach. If the DLC is installed, this is also the location of one of the Aetherium Shards for the quest Lost to the Ages.

Walkthrough
The first room inside the ruins contains a flame trap blocking the way forward, with a charred skeever impaled by a pole that is set up so the flames will cook it. Damage can be minimized using Whirlwind Sprint to go through it without getting burned, or it is possible to go around the back (right) side of the post that is shooting fire. Straight ahead is a master-locked gate with Alain Dufont and two other bandits behind it. With high enough Sneak and Lockpicking skills, the gate lock can be picked and Alain killed without too much trouble.

The alternative is to proceed the long way around. At the flame trap, a hallway leads to the left. Down the hall is a large room with a single bandit towards the left (northeast) side. The right (southwest) end of the room contains two more bandits and a workbench. The path proceeds down a hall and to the right, where an open gate leads to the same room with Alain Dufont and two other bandits. Alternatively, straight ahead is a master-locked gate can be opened, and through it and to the right are two dwarven crossbow mechanisms aimed at the bandits that can be used by pulling the levers next to each one.

After the bandits are dealt with, a gate underneath the crossbows leads to another large room with a bandit and many fallen rocks. The room contains more loot, mostly behind a locked gate. Through the next door and around a corner lies a Dwarven Sphere and then another door. The next large room contains loud gears, a spider worker, and two more Dwarven Spheres.

The next door should be open, and leads to a hallway with a spider worker, and then stairs with a double blade trap, which should shut off automatically after you defeat the spider worker. (Note: The blades tend to be very glitchy, so a save is recommended before going through the open door.) If the blades don't stop after defeating the spider worker, they can be bypassed by getting next to the parts of wall where they can't reach, then once the blades are past, running to another part of the wall to get to the top. Next is a pusher/flame trap, and 2 more dwarven spheres. Up the stairs leads to a hallway with another workbench, a short set of stairs up, two spider workers, and, at the end, an elevator to the Raldbthar Deep Market.

Down the corridor is a ramp down with another spinning blade trap. At the end is a door leading to steps down to a large room with many Falmer and two skeevers in a pen. On the far side is a set of stairs that lead up to a spiral ramp up to a platform with more Falmer. Another ramp leads down again to a button that drops a draw bridge from back at the previous platform. Back up the ramp, the draw bridge can now be followed up to another platform and another ramp down. From here, the rooftops can be crossed to gain access to a room behind dwarven metal grates. A hallway leads to a door, then to a set of steps down to a room with many pipes and escaping steam. Another door on the other end of the room leads to a room with a large quantity of Dwemer scrap metal, 4 buttons and a blocked hall to the left. The button on the left will activate a fire trap, the second from right will open the gate, and the other two do nothing.

Through the door beyond the open gate is a room with a gate, a few levelled Falmer, and two Chaurus behind another gate to the left (south) that is novice locked. The Chaurus can be shot with an arrow through the opening to the left of the gate. There is a bridge with a button labelled "unpowered". This can be corrected by going to the stuck gears in the room and removing various objects jamming the cogs. Note that one set of stuck gears is located beneath the bridge underwater. After unjaming all the gears, the button on the bridge can be pressed, which drops a draw bridge and activates a Dwarven Centurion.

Behind the centurion is a door that leads to a hallway with a lever at the other end that opens a gate. The room beyond contains two Dwarven Spiders and a Dwarven Mechanism. One side hallway (to the southwest) has a gate that leads to an elevator back to Skyrim. If Dawnguard is installed, another side hallway from this room (to the northeast) will contain an Aetherium Shard. The mechanism opens a set of stairs down to a door. The hallway beyond connects Raldbthar to Blackreach.

There is another section with a chest above the pathway before the room with the final boss. It can be reached by climbing the pipes and using the Whirlwind Sprint to get across to the ledge.

Tips

 * Any dagger with a base damage of 25 (not including enchantments) will two-hit the centurion if you use shrouded gear and get both 30x crits.
 * Iit is wise to save the game before trying to use the dragon shout Whirlwind Sprint to cross the bridge.
 * The Centurion then rises on the other end of the bridge. Keeping at safe distance and using a ranged attack (bow or spells) is advised; the Centurion's steam attack can be devastating. One strategy is to run into a Falmer nest, defeating its attack range. It is also possible to press the button once more when he is on the tip of the bridge to send him to the ceiling; At that point, get his attention, and he will fall into the water and die.
 * Another tactic to kill the centurion, is to get behind the door he comes out of. If it is opened quickly and a conjuration spell is used to distract him, then while he is distracted he can be killed without harm. Having the Conjure Dremora Lord spell or Sanguine Rose makes it possible to kill the centurion in seconds without ever having to go anywhere near it. As long as the spell is cast its spell into the centurion's chamber as soon as the bridge drops, the Dremora will finish the Centurion off before he even takes a step, allowing entry to the door behind it.

Quests

 * Mourning Never Comes
 * Lost to the Ages

Notable items

 * 2920, vol 08 - Last Seed - Sneak skill book on a table in the room with Alain Dufont.
 * Aegisbane - on Alain Dufont's corpse.
 * Human Flesh - A rare alchemy ingredient located in the market in the first room with falmer by the skeever cage.
 * Various Ingots and ores including 1 gold ingot, 1 iron ingot, 2 Dwarven metal ingot.
 * In the Raldbthar Deep Market, there are various other Ingots and ores.
 * Aetherium Shard - At the end if Dawnguard is installed.

Bugs

 * The various bones jamming the gears powering the bridge may spawn on the floor or near the gears, instead of wedged in them.
 * The objects jamming the gears may not respond to the player. Backtracking to the area that the bandits were in and then returning may fix this.
 * Unjamming the gear underwater last may also fix this.
 * If the player returns to the dungeon upon completion, the jammed gears may reset but the objects jamming them might not. This makes it impossible to access the end of this dungeon after reset.
 * On PC, you can type tcl in the console to disable clipping and fly through the bridge. Until a bugfix is released this can at least be used as a workaround.
 * A possible method for avoiding the aforementioned bug is to exit the dungeon from the front. Then complete Dark Brotherhood Contract For Muiri by returning to her. Upon completion, you may now go north of Winterhold in search of Septimus Signus's Outpost.
 * The boss, who would normally attack, may follow you without attacking.
 * When trying to leave Blackreach through the Raldbthar Dwarven elevator to Skyrim, the game may freeze. Raldbthar.jpg (Not fixed by patch.)
 * Sometimes upon entering the ruins after doing the Dark Brotherhood mission you will not be able to proceed deeper into the dungeon due to an invisible wall.
 * When entering the water to un-jam the cogs the game might crash, save first.
 * Sometimes, when unable to remove the items to power the button, exiting the area to the previous one and then returning does not fix the problem. It can glitch even more and cause the pieces to be immovable objects on the floor.
 * When entering the left hand side of the pool, if you swim against the wall on the left and turn around, you can see a strange half-pillar which is only visible and solid from this side.

Appearances


Raldbthar Raldbthar Ральдбтхар