Reachwater Rock

Reachwater Rock
Hold	The Reach
Location	Southeast of Markarth West of Old Hroldan
Type	Cave
Sublocations	None
Quests	Forbidden Legend
Characters	None
Location ID	ReachwaterRock01

Reachwater Rock is a cave located in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

The entrance to Reachwater Rock is behind a waterfall. A bridge can be seen from the road, circle around behind it to find the path up to the cave entrance. Reachwater Rock is the final resting place of Arch-Mage Gauldur.

Walkthrough

All three Gauldur Fragments and the Ivory Dragon Claw from Folgunthur are needed to gain entrance.

On the way in, get the Emerald Dragon Claw from the pedestal with the note next to the dead adventurer. If the Forbidden Legend quest isn't active, take his copy of Lost Legends and read it to start the quest. The note on the pedestal hints of a gruesome trial ahead. In the water surrounding the pedestal is an adept locked chest with some potions and random loot. There is also a skeleton with random sword, shield, helmet and gold. There is a Orichalcum Ore vein beside the Juniper Berry tree. There is another chest on a ledge directly opposite the first dragon claw door. It is too far to jump, but the gap can be crossed by using Whirlwind Sprint while standing in front of the gap. The chest is not locked, and contains random loot.

• It is possible to reach the cliff side chest using one word of Whirlwind Sprint. To do this, stand upon the broken piece of decor right beside the adventurer, aim slightly right and above of the chest or try to stand on the branches of the tree the adventurer's corpse is laying against.

Let this place be forgotten forever.
Let it be struck from the rolls of history.
Let it never be spoken of by man or mer.
Let its very name be lost to the ages.

Ye who enter here, know:
This place was sealed at great price.
Honor those who perished here.
Turn back, and leave them to their rest.

See the Forbidden Legend main page for more information on this location.

Match up the Emerald Dragon Claw with the door (Bear, Whale, Snake) and unlock it. Three other doors will unlock behind it and drop down, making an expansive hallway. At the end of the hall (there are no enemies or traps) unlock the last door with the Ivory Dragon Claw (Hawk, Hawk, Dragon).

Place the three fragments on the altar in any order (it will automatically remove them from the inventory). The three spirits of the Gaulderson brothers will manifest over the alter, and in turn each will challenge the Dragonborn. The first challenger is Mikrul Gauldurson, who summons Draugr, but they die when Mikrul does. The second challenger is Sigdis Gauldurson, who will teleport about and make three copies of himself, the real one will have horns on the side of his helmet while the copies have horns pointing straight up. The third is a straightforward fight with Jyrik Gauldurson, who changes between elemental affinities each time his teleported, represented by the graphic effect around him. The ghosts teleport on set locations. It is possible to stay hidden the entire time, and their souls can be trapped.

After defeating Jyrik, Gauldur's ghost will appear and reforge the amulet. Take it to complete the quest.

After winning the battle and collecting the amulet, check the casket on the upper platform. Gauldur's remains are inside, along with a large amount of gold. And on the way out a door will have opened with another chest and miscellaneous loot.

Notable loot

• The Emerald Dragon Claw

Trivia

• There is an abundance of Namira's Rot, Fly Amanita, Bleeding Crown, Imp Stool, and a handful of White Cap, Blisterwort and Juniper Berries.
• Check the pool at the entrance to loot an adept-level locked chest and a skeleton with a random greatsword.
• From the exit from the cave, head north-west down the river (towards Kolskeggr Mine), there is an abandoned row-boat with an adept-level locked strongbox and an apothecary's satchel. There's also a soul gem, soul gem fragment, emerald and flawless diamond on the floor of the boat. In the river next to the boat is a mead barrel and a chest containing gold and random loot.
• The second son, Sigdis Gauldurson, provides an effective way to train Sneak. Since the clones have less health than the original and killing them with a single melee attack does not break stealth, it is possible to keep killing clones to repeatedly gain the large experience bonus from melee sneak attacks.

Bugs

This section contains bugs related to Reachwater Rock. Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following: Please reload an old save to confirm if the bug is still happening. If the bug is still occurring, please post the bug report with the appropriate system template  360  /  XB1  ,  PS3  /  PS4  ,  PC  /  MAC  ,  NX  /  PS5  ,  XS  , depending on which platform(s) the bug has been encountered on. Be descriptive when listing the bug and fixes, but avoid having conversations in the description and/or using first-person anecdotes: such discussions belong on the appropriate forum board.

Click to see the list of bugs encountered

Sometimes, the first door which requires the Emerald Dragon Claw, won't open with the correct combination. And sometimes the rings won't turn. Reload the save or load a previous save.  360   PS3   bug fix. Leave cave. Save. Turn off Xbox and back on again. Re-enter cave try wrong combination first. Then try correct combination. Door should open. Sometimes it doesn't work. 1. Line the symbols up correctly 2. Click inner ring to initiate a spin, then click the middle ring, then outer ring. 3. By the time the outer ring is moving, inner ring is ready to go again. 4. continue this until they have all done one rotation and are lined up correctly again. 5. activate with the claw. In the chamber outside the main door, where there is a chest on a ledge across from the path leading up to the door, the walls on either side of the pillar with the chest are glitched. Attempts to climb the walls or missed attempts to cross over can result in the Dragonborn looking through the map into nothingness, although they will not be able to pass through the wall and probably won't get stuck. In the final battle, it is possible that one of the opponents will blow the Dragonborn into the area above and to the rear of the altar with an Unrelenting Force shout. This necessitates loading a previous save, since this area is behind an invisible wall.  PS3  If the tomb above the pedestal is looked at before placing the amulets pieces on it, a hand may be seen coming out of the lid.  360  Sometimes if the Bullseye (archery perk) activates, and the second enemy teleports while paralyzed, he'll remain paralyzed and also invincible.  PS3  If the Dragonborn drops into the pool at the beginning of the cave and follows the side downwards, towards the skeleton with a sword, the effect of having exited the water occurs when the bottom is reached. They will take a deep breath in and the underwater effects will disappear as if outside. Also if they look up, the surface of the water has the same texture as looking at the water from outside the pool.  PS3  If a save is made while the first puzzle door is opening, and it is reloaded, not all of them will open. After two doors, the sequence will stop, blocking further progress. Reload a save prior to entering the combination to fix. If any of the ghosts are disintegrated with lightning magic, the final sequence where Gauldur appears may have nothing to attack. The only solution appears to be to reload to the beginning of the fight and avoid disintegrating any of the ghosts. In the main circular pool, there is a place that is not counted as underwater, at the base of the pool. There is a falling bug that is encountered in the main pool where the Dragonborn falls while underwater.

Appearances

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim