Forbidden Legend



Prerequisites: Under Saarthal or explore Geirmund's Hall
 * Quest Giver: The Gauldur Amulet Fragment in Saarthal, or the book "Lost Legends", or Daynas Valen's journal or Writ of Sealing.
 * Reward: The Gauldur Amulet
 * Reputation Gain: N/A

Background
''"Long ago, the Archmage Gauldur was murdered by his three sons, who stole his amulet of power and divided it among themselves." ''Once the three sons divided the amulet among themselves they began on a rampage around Skyrim. This attracted the attention of the High King of Skyrim. So the king sent a group of battlemages to kill the three sons.

Quest

 * "In Geirmund's Hall, I found a cryptic message on the body of a powerful Draugr, condemning him for his ancient crimes. What was his story? Why was he entombed with a broken amulet?"

Quest Progression
Objectives: Investigate the Gauldur legend

Rewards

 * Gauldur Amulet Fragment - (Stamina): Increase your stamina by 30 points.
 * Gauldur Amulet Fragment - (Magick): Increase your magicka by 30 points.
 * Gauldur Amulet Fragment - (Health): Increase your health by 30 points.

Walkthough
There are multiple ways to begin this quest. First is by reading the book "Lost Legend" found throughout Skyrim. Here are a few of known, confirmed locations:


 * Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary (Skyrim)
 * After completing the necessary initiation quest for the Dark Brotherhood, travel to and go through the Black Door to gain access to their inner sanctuary. Watch the right side of the path for a bookshelf that will contain a certain book laying on its back. Upon opening this book, you will begin the Forbidden Legend quest.


 * Cracked Tusk Keep
 * While doing the mission to acquire Mehrunes' Razor, you will travel here to acquire a piece of the dagger. Upon entering the Vault, there will be a room on your right that has spike bars preventing your entry. Look on the wall next to the door for a button to remove the bars. The book is on a bookshelf in the room.


 * Nightcaller Temple
 * There is a book on the bottom shelf of the podium in the very first chamber of the temple. It is unknown if you can access this without first starting the Waking Nighmare quest. In order to start this quest, simply go to the Inn in Dawnstar, watch the conversation between Erandur and the villagers, then talk to Erandur and offer to help him. He will guide you to the temple, which is on the hill overlooking the town.


 * Blue Palace
 * There is another copy of the Lost Legends book in Solitude. On the second level of the Blue Palace, there is a corridor leading away from the Jarl's greathall back and to the left; it terminates in Jarl Elisif's bedchamber (from which can be swiped a good amount of potions and ingredients if nobody's watching). All along this passage there are tables and bookcases with small food items and books. One of the books, either stacked on a bookshelf or laying on a table next to a plate and flagon, is Lost Legends. NOTE: Taking any of these items into your inventory constitutes stealing in full view of the Solitude guards. To avoid prosecution, you may want to simply pick up the book, read it, and place it back on the table or shelf where you found it.
 * Dragonreach
 * There is a copy of Lost Legends in the room next the jarl`s room where he keeps his books

If you do not want, or are unable, to acquire the book at any of these locations for whatever reason, just follow the steps below to get into Saarthal instead.

Saarthal Excavation
In order to gain access to the excavation site, you must first begin the quest Under Saarthal. This quest is found in The College of Winterhold, but don't be discouraged if your character is not skilled in magic. You can easily enter the college after completing the very short quest First Lesson, regardless of magic skill, and then start Under Saarthal by speaking with Tolfdir after his magic demonstration. Defeat Jyrik in Saarthal, by the orb, and take his Writ of Sealing and his Gauldur Amulet Fragment. Read the writ to start the next quest point. Then, go to the Arcaenum and read the book Lost Legends to get the next clue about the origin of the Gauldur Amulet Fragment.

Folgunthur
Travel to Folgunthur and read the journal of Daynas Valen in the camp outside the cave. It will tell you about his travels with the Ivory Dragon Claw. He traveled to Folgunthur looking for the Amulet. Follow him inside, past the corpse of his compatriot. He will be lying on a Claw button next to a bridge. Take the Claw and his notes, read them, and activate the button to cross the bridge. Eventually you will come to a room with two thrones, facing a chain lever, and a grille in the floor covering a staircase. There will be two connected rooms. One has a combination of images, and the other is opened by a lever next to the throne, and has spinning stones, which you must change to look like the combination in the adjacent room. Then, pull the chain lever. Once the grille is open, you may move on. You will come to another puzzle, similar to Bleak Falls Barrow, you will have to use the Claw's closeup to determine the answer to the puzzle. Once inside, fight Mikrul Gauldurson, and take his Gauldur Amulet Fragment.

Geirmund's Hall
Geirmund's Hall is a dungeon close to Ivarstead, grave of the hero Lord Geirmund. Travel there and upon entering the cave, you will come to a hole in the ground, drop through it. There is an underwater alcove, with a chest and a Potion of Waterbreathing. Climb up the steps and enter a room with a puzzle, the order of the stones starting from the first one is Eagle, Whale, Snake, Whale. Activate the lever by the door. The next room, after fighting a few Draugrs along the way you come to a large room and after climbing the steps, immediately to your right is an altar with the body of Archmage Geirmund holding a key. Take the door behind you, and follow the path to the left until you reach a dead end and a lever on the ground; it's a trap. Look behind you and there is another lever; pull that one instead and the drawbridge will drop. Follow the path.

Then face Sigdis Gauldurson, the hardest of the three sons. There are four sigils on the ground in the cave where you fight him. He will teleport to whichever three you are furthest away from and make two copies of himself. All three will attack you, including using Shouts like Unrelenting Force and, at higher levels, Disarm. If you attack one of the clones, it will dissipate after one hit, and after both clones have died Sigdis will teleport away again. It is possible to tell Sigdis apart from his clones because he is the only one with the true health amount (the clones will have full health), and also by the fact that his clones, being summoned, will be surrounded by a bluish glow. The easiest way to kill him is using a ranged attack and staying hidden until after he uses his shout, then popping out to attack. (Preferrably a ranged weapon like the Staff of Fireballs, which causes burning damage as well) After you have killed him, take the last Gauldur Amulet Fragment.

(SEE ALSO: Geirmund's Hall)

Gauldur's Grave
Finally, go to Reachwater Rock, near Karthspire. Inside, you will find a dead Adventurer near the Emerald Dragon Claw, on a pedestal on top of a note warning you away from the site. Throw caution to the wind and enter regardless, of course, using the key inscribed on the Emerald Claw. Inside will be yet another Claw door, this time using the Ivory Claw's puzzle. Then place the three amulet fragments on the pedestals. The ghost of each son will appear, and you will have to fight each one in turn. Sigdis will attempt the same tactics as before, disappearing and reappearing to shoot arrows at you, only he has 6 spots to choose from and will use 4 of them. Take advantage of his teleports to abuse the wait function, restoring your health and providing a handy autosave. A good tactic is hiding next to the doorway you came in, and using your sneak and bow to do some ranged damage, and if your sneak is high enough, he will not attack you at all. After him, Jyrik will appear, and will summon a Frost Atronach to help him, occasionally teleporting around. Once all three have been defeated, they will appear back above the pedestal and then vanish. Archmage Gauldur will appear, and reforge the Gauldur Amulet Fragments into The Gauldur Amulet, which is a prized reward, boosting your health, magika, and stamina all by 30 points.

Bugs

 * Reading the note before you got the quest will make you unable to progress further, subsequently reading the Writ does nothing. The only known way to fix the quest (if you got it by killing Jyrik) is to obtain a copy of "Lost Legends" and read it. Then the quest will progress correctly.
 * If you enter and clear Geirmund's Hall before starting the quest, Sigdis' body and amulet fragment will disappear; a marker will hover where the body was when you defeated him. Until the complete list of items is released, completing this quest is no longer possible (the fragment will need to be spawned in or Sigdis revived). The trick is that you must do this at the location that you kill the boss. If done correctly the bugged quest indicator will be gone. The journal will not be updated, but you can complete the quest normally.
 * If the amulet in Saarthal is not picked up before the Eye of Magnus is moved there is a chance it will disappear along with the corpse of Jyrik.
 * At a high enough level Sigdis can use the "Disarm" shout to remove your equipped weapon, if you are standing in certain parts of the dungeon the weapon may be dropped outside the mapping making it impossible to retrieve.
 * Disintegrating any of the three bosses will prevent the triggering of the script which forges the amulet, trapping you in the room.
 * Killing the thralls while in the sarcophogi prevents them from spawning during the battle.
 * Killing or paralyzing Sigdis before he teleports for the first time, such as with a fatal sneak attack, the Paralyze spell or enchantment, or the Unrelenting Force shout, can cause him to fail to reappear or reappear paralyzed and unattackable, making it impossible to retrieve his Fragment.
 * Sigdis' Unrelenting Force attacks can push the player up onto the platform where Gauldur's body sits. Once up there, the player will not be able to come down again (they'll be stuck behind an invisible wall), and Sigdis will not be able to attack the player. You escape using the 'tcl' console command, or by reloading a previous save.
 * In case there are any problems in completing the quest, here is a list of the relevant items, for use with 'player.additem'.
 * Lost Legends: 000ED608
 * Sigdis's Gauldur Amulet Fragment: 0002D753
 * Mikrul's Gauldur Amulet Fragment: 000F1C17 (on french version: 0002D74F)
 * When the Amulet was reforged by Gauldur it failed to appear. Saving and reloading the save made the Reforged Amulet appear correctly.
 * Sigdis's shout is disarm, the fact that it blows the weapon away can make it impossible to find, and in some cases making the items go through walls.
 * Sometimes, the first door which requires the Emerald Dragon Claw, Won't open even if you have the combination right. And sometimes you can't even turn the rings, you can reload the save or load a previous save. If this doesn't work, then the quest is glitched and you can't proceed. (Confirmed on Xbox)
 * If the symbols on the first puzzle door are "Owl, Bird, Bird", then the symbols won't change when you try to activate them. Reloading your last save usually resets the symbols and causes it to work.