Under Saarthal

Overview

 * Prerequisite: First Lessons
 * Quest Giver: Tolfdir
 * Reward: Staff of Magelight
 * Reputation Gain: N/A

Saarthal
Go to the ruins of Saarthal (marked on your map), and meet your class and Tolfdir. Follow him into the ruin, and when he reaches the end of the long stairway he asks if anyone has any questions. Once you are ready to begin he tells you to find Arniel Gane. Follow your marker to him and he will give a job to do. If you head to the back of the room he is in you will find the Saarthal Amulet. Pick it up and try to walk back to Arniel. Oh no! You're trapped! Equip the amulet and go back to the tablet where you found it. Cast any spell at the tablet and it will shatter, revealing a long passage way. Take it. When Tolfdir gets down to the room at the end of the passage time will stop, and the screen will turn gray. You will have a short vision in which you get a warning that "judgment has not been passed, as you had no way of knowing". Tell Tolfdir about the visions, then get ready for a fight. Dispatch the enemies and then follow Tolfdir through the middle coffin. When you come to a bared gate, look to your left and pull the lever. Dispatch the enemies in this room and your quest updates. Follow your marker to a gate in front of a door, and open them both using the two chains hanging from the candle brackets. Continue into the next area.

Puzzle
Be careful here as there are many enemies that will come out of coffins when you pass. Eventually you'll make your way into a big, but cramped room, so head upstairs (be sure to explore, as there are a few chests with fairly good random loot). There is a door on the second floor near a broken coffin, open it and proceed. You'll come to a puzzle with 6 different movable pillars. The correct position for each pillar is shown on the wall behind it, just match them up, then pull the level in the middle of the room. Open the iron door just down the passage and get ready, because a Draugr Deathlord will come down the log ramp as you move closer. This is the toughest enemy of this dungeon. Dispatch him in any way you see fit and then head to the second level of this room, then through the door.

Now comes the second puzzle. There are four more movable pillars, but this time it gets a little trickier. Match them to their picture in this order. Start with the one on the front-left a whale, then move to the one at the back left a snake. Make the front-right pillar a bird, and the last one a whale. Then pull the level in the middle of the puzzle. Continue through the door.

As you move down the stairs, none other then Tolfdir catches up with you ("I thought it was high time I caught up with you"). He will follow you now. As you open the final iron door, quite a sight greets you. Jump down to the glowing ball and a Jyrik Gauldurson will attack you. At first you can't kill it, but wait about 30 seconds and Tolfdir will start casting a spell on the glowing ball that weakens the Jyrik enough to kill it. Talk to Tolfdir when he's dead.

Open the door behind the artifact and jump down to the garden (make sure you loot the chest in here and learn the Dragon shout nearby), then head through the door marked by your quest marker. Head to the exit and fast travel to the college. Find the Arch-Mage (Savos Aren) and inform him of your discovery and He will reward you with the Staff Of Magelight (his office is through the door to the Hall of the Elements and then immediately to your left).

Bugs

 * The door which breaks at the beginning of this quest (while you're trapped in the room and Tolfdir is watching you) can cause some people's games to freeze if they're looking at the door while it breaks.


 * One way to avoid this bug for some players is to equip the Amulet + a Ring that you can find next to it, another way to avoid this bug without messing with settings or video cards is to fire something like a Firebolt or other projectile spell at the door, then look away as quickly as possible so that it's not in your field of view when it breaks. Try standing up against the barred door in front of Tolfdir, aiming your reticule at the left side of the door, firing the spell, and then jerking your view as far to the left as possible. If the door breaks while you're looking away from it, your game should not freeze. Another way is to go to the barred door farthest from the stone door, where you can only see the lowest part of the stone door and cast something like lightning bolt to it.


 * In some instances where Firebolt freezes the game, using Flames works.


 * Jyrik Gauldursonj 's body may fall through the floor or disappear. Leaving the area and returning may restore his body for loot.


 * Equipping the amulet can cause players to have infinite magicka. Which is by no means a bad thing.


 * If you are in beast form when Tolfdir catches up with you, you will not be able to progress in the quest, even if you run and let the beast form wear off.
 * Sometimes the six pillars will not rotate when you try to spin them.


 * Pulling the lever in the room where you rotate the four pillars right before Tolfdir rejoins you can cause your follower to disappear. Best way to avoid this is to dismiss your follower before pulling the lever. You can have them rejoin you after you pulled the lever.


 * Another problem that can happen with the second pillar puzzle is that the game will not recognize the completed puzzle. When you've solved it, you'll still get shot at by darts and the door will not open. In a few circumstances, players have found the solution to be some other random combination of pillar faces, though systematically going through every combo can be a pain thanks to the fact that 3 of 4 pillars will rotate other pillars as well. This can also be resolved by entering the console, selecting the lever at the center of the puzzle, and entering 'setpv numPillarsSolved_var 4', followed by 'setpv puzzleSolved_var true'. After exiting the console and activating the lever, the door should open as normal.


 * For some users, Tolfdir doesn't appear at the meeting place outside of the Saarthal entrance, and cant be found anywhere in between Saarthal and The College of Winterhold. To fix this bug, simply fast travel back to the college and then fast travel back to Saarthal.*Edited* Also try waiting a few hours. He just takes his time.*
 * Confirmed on XBOX 360. Note: Both waiting for several days in-game and attempting to travel back to the college did not seem to work, however traveling back to the college and entering the Hall of the Elements, and then returning to Saarthal seemed to fix this.