The Ritual Stone (Skyrim)

The Ritual Stone
Map
Constellation
Hold	Whiterun
Location	East of Whiterun
Type	Standing Stone
Description	Once a day, those under the sign of The Ritual can reanimate nearby corpses to fight for them.
Effect	Raise all nearby dead enemies to fight for you for 60 seconds once a day.
Location ID	DoomstoneTundra01

For other uses, see The Ritual Stone.

The Ritual Stone is a standing stone in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Effects

This stone grants a power to the Dragonborn to reanimate corpses to fight for them once a day. The ability granted by the stone is not a simple resurrection spell that reanimates a single dead body, but rather a 75-foot resurrection field that expands out from the Dragonborn, resurrecting all corpses within a fairly large radius for 200 seconds.

Only corpses level 75 and under can be reanimated, however this limit can be increased with the Necromage perk. Once the time has elapsed, the reanimated will fall to the ground but not disintegrate.

There is no apparent limit to the number of corpses that can be reanimated by this power, however reanimating a high concentration of corpses causes some to be unresponsive.

For those with Lycanthropy, the dead raised with this power remain active even after changing to Werewolf form.

Usefulness

This power can be an effective trump card to play against a boss-level opponent since a typical dungeon-diving scenario has the Dragonborn cutting through a large number of lesser foes before confronting the boss character.

Location

The Ritual Stone is found east of Whiterun, between Whiterun and the Valtheim Towers (south of the river), guarded by a hostile necromancer and two skeletons.

Perks

This power is affected by the following perks:

• Necromancy – Greater duration for reanimated undead.
• Dark Souls – Reanimated undead have 100 points more health.
• Twin Souls – Reanimate two corpses.
• Necromage – Increases the potency by 25%, allowing higher level corpses to be raised.

Exploits

Armor and item duplication

An exploit to duplicate items and armor on almost any corpse is available by using the Ritual Stone, provided they are the default items of the character. The following steps explain how this can be achieved:

1. Remove all items from a corpse.
2. Cast the Ritual Stone power.
3. Once the corpse is reanimated, travel to a different zone.
4. Upon entering the new zone, the reanimated corpse will have all items/apparel that they originally had in their inventory.
5. Kill the reanimated corpse and retrieve the duplicated items from the corpse.

This exploit is confirmed to work on the following unique armors/clothing:

• Ancient Falmer Armor set from the corpse of the Arch-Curate Vyrthur.
• Ancient Shrouded Armor set from the corpse of the Assassin of Old.
• Cicero's Outfit from the corpse of Cicero.
• General Tullius' Armor from the corpse of General Tullius.
• Linwe's Armor from the corpse of Linwe.
• Telvanni Robes from the corpse of Ildari Sarothril.
• Wedding Dress, Sandals, and Wreath from the corpse of Vittoria Vici.

However, weapons do not seem to respawn on corpses when transitioning between zones. This exploit is also possible via the Dead Thrall spell.

Multiple uses per day

By assigning the Ritual Stone to the Aetherial Crown, the power can be used multiple times per day by un-equipping and re-equipping the crown after it is used.

Bugs

This section contains bugs related to The Ritual Stone (Skyrim). 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.

•  360   After killing all or most of a hold's guards and thereby using the Ritual Stone on them, some of the raised dead can become permanent. For example, a Whiterun Hold Guard will act as if he was on duty. Speaking to them directly initiates normal dialogue, but outside of dialogue, he might moan like a normal raised zombie would.
•  360   PS3   Upon attempting to activate the stone, the dialogue box may not show up and thus the effect can never be gained. There is no known fix.
•  PS3   When riding Shadowmere down the Ritual Stone hill the game may freeze.
• The effect will sometimes fail if used in 1st person settings but will not in 3rd person.

Appearances

• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim