Where is understone keep

Understone Keep is a seat of the Ard in Markarth. It can be accessed through the main entrance in western Markarth. When you enter the building, you have three options: head north, head south, or continue west. Traveling north brings you to the Announcement Hall, which is unlocked during the last epilogue quest , and remains accessible after the quest is complete. If you head south, you'll reach Nchuand-Zel. After a certain point in Story Quest progression, the entrance to Nchuand-Zel becomes unlocked, connecting the building with a section of the Blackreach caverns.

A copy of Legend of Arkthzand is sitting on a side table in the north side of this room. Unless approval has been received from Calcelmo , being in the following areas is also considered trespassing. Unless the Thieves Guild quest " Hard Answers " is active, the laboratory and tower are inaccessible.

The Dwemer Museum showcases Calcelmo's collection of artifacts recovered from ruins across Skyrim. Only three guards patrol this area, keeping watch for intruders.

This space is normally off-limits—the guards will aggressively arrest any trespassers here—but Calcelmo's permission to visit the museum can be attained in any number of ways; see the Thieves Guild quest page " Hard Answers " for details. The museum has the finest collection of Dwarven artifacts weapons, armor, items, and books in the entirety of Skyrim and the highest concentration of locked containers in any area of the game.

There is even a small selection of Falmer items. To the south is an apprentice-locked gate leading to a small workshop with an Unusual Gem. To the northwest is a locked gate to a two-level storage room. Up the steps to the west is the laboratory door. This area is the main living and research quarters for Calcelmo and Aicantar , although they typically spend most of their time in the Keep, closer to the Nchuand-Zel Entrance.

Most of this area is locked unless the Thieves Guild quest " Hard Answers " is ongoing. There is a clear view of the city from here. One section of the balcony wall has broken away, exposing a path around the cliffside that ends in a waterfall, which can be reached by a jump. The tower has a lower-level entry hall, an upper-level office, and a massive stone relic containing a text in Dwemer and Falmer on the same granite slab. This section contains bugs related to Understone Keep Skyrim.

Across the opening is an apprentice-locked display case with mixed Dwemer items. The opening aligns with the corridor asending to the west to Calcelmo's Laboratory, which is adept-locked. By the next pillar is a loaded but inactive Dwemer ballista , and by the wall a broken spinning blade trap is on display.

Down the steps there is a stone shelf with an assortment of Dwemer-related books, including the three books Calcelmo wrote. Past the shelf is an adept-locked display case with two dwarven ingots. There is an inactive dwarven sphere on display, along with an assortment of construction items and an expert-locked display case containing an enchanted dwarven sword. In the corner is a working example of dwemer central heating. There is a room to the south with an expert-locked gate.

Inside is a Dwemer dresser, an expert-locked chest, a stone table, and an Unusual Gem on the table. Back by the entrance to the museum are two adept-locked display cases and three unlocked display cases on the shelves.

The two locked cases contain some rare books, including the Chronicles of Nchuleft , the ordinary version of Chimarvamidium , Nerevar Moon and Star , and War of the First Council. The museum is centered around an inactive dwarven centurion.

Around the pedestal are twelve expert-locked display cases containing one of each type of Dwarven weapon, including an extra sword, some arrows, the dwarven sphere centurion arrow , and also some pieces of Dwarven armor, including a set of boots, a pair of gauntlets, two helmets, and two shields.

Clearing out the museum before starting the Hard Answers quest has no effect, since the guards respawn. During the quest the only difference is that two guards will have a conversation by the first pillar about the extra guards drafted in by Calcelmo before moving to their patrol routes.

There is a stone shelf straight ahead that holds a few Dwemer scrap items. Once you enter the main room, there is a room to the left which contains two random soul gems. There is an oil slick on the ground running from this room around the rubble in the main room to a locked gate. The large room is a mess, with mixed Dwemer items lying on the floor all around the room. Through the unlocked door to the west is a pillar with a stone table by each side. The four tables each have two stone chairs, and hold an assortment of Dwemer items.

Past the pillar to the west is a room with four stone benches facing a broken pulpit. There is a guard that patrols around the benches, sometimes sitting at the table to the left. Behind the pulpit is another locked door. There is a room to the north that is ostensibly Calcelmo's, which implies the bedroom to the south belongs to Aicantar. Aicantar's room contains a single bed, an end table, a cupboard, and a fair amount of food.

Calcelmo's room is actually two rooms, with a short L-shaped corridor leading to it from the pulpit area. The first room has a Dwemer dresser and a cooking pot by the fireplace to the left, and a small round table with a single chair and a wardrobe to the right; there is a fair amount of food in this room.

A short set of stairs opposite the wardrobe leads to the bedroom. The bedroom contains a double bed, an end table, two dressers, and two chairs. On the left-hand dresser are three scrolls a scroll of Firebolt , a scroll of Courage , and a scroll of Candlelight and a leveled potion or poison.

On the right-hand dresser is a small coin purse and an apprentice-locked display case containing the three books written by Calcelmo. This is as far as you can go without doing the quest Hard Answers. Everything that follows is described as when the quest is active, as this is the first time you will be able to access the below areas.

All of the living guards from this point are wizard's guards who wear a full set of steel or steel plate armor, making them tough to handle as a group. The Spider Control Rod can be found on the table in the first room to the left of the entrance.

It controls Aicantar's Spider , which is present at all times in the lower Dwemer hatch to the right, though it will not emerge until the rod is lifted. Aicantar's lab journal is also on the table, and provides some insight into the research and making of the rod and spider. The traps do reset, and can be used on the wizards' guard that comes through the first locked gate.

The gate can only be unlocked by the guard, which will always happen as a scripted event. The second door just past the gate is barred from the other side, so the guard phases through it rather than opening it, meaning you must take the long way around.

The Markarth City Guard does not respawn if killed beforehand, though a wizards' guard appears either alongside the city guard or on their own. The lock on the door behind the pulpit is changed to a master lock. Both wizards' guards carry a copy of Calcelmo's Laboratory Key , while another copy of the key appears on the table beside Calcelmo's bed. The door behind the pulpit opens to a short zigzag corridor that ends with a set of ascending stairs. To the left at the top of the stairs is a corridor guarded by two wizards' guards, who are discussing previous malfunctions of the mechanisms in the corridor.

The corridor is fairly long, with two sets of alcoves, and in between each section there is a static spinning blade trap a total of three. The two guards patrol along the sides of the corridor, while a third may be present on the other side, but does not venture into the corridor. The first alcove to the left contains a table with two pieces of leveled heavy armor, while the second alcove to the right has a master-locked Dwemer chest behind the Dwemer construction. To avoid the guards, you must travel underneath them.

Follow the path past the corridor to the west from the entrance and descend the ramps, turning right three times until you come to a corridor filled with a green mist. There is a potion hidden in the rubble at the bottom of the ramps. The poisonous gas is quite deadly, though luckily not flammable. Trying to cross in a single movement usually results in death, but there is a trick to crossing. To the north, before entering the mist-filled corridor, is a pressure plate which activates the vents which drain the gas.

There are a further five plates strategically placed along the corridor to aid passage, with the additional bonus of being unaffected by the Light Foot perk. You may want to pause at each plate to recover your health, and consider saving along the way.

There is a city guard lying dead by the entrance to the gas-filled corridor, as well as a lootable skeleton straight ahead and a plate immediately to the right, and another guard between the skeleton and the plate. Dragging a guard's body onto a plate is an easy way to turn off the gas. Just before the next dead guard and skeleton there is a plate on either side. Through the arch and immediately to the left is another plate, then a third skeleton by the final plate to the right.

There is a ramp at the other end of the corridor, and at the top of the next ramp to the right is a valve that activates the nearby spinning blades. The patrolling guards will be oblivious to the activated blades, and will walk right into them. Past the pillar with the blades is a door to the east which, through a few short linear corridors, leads to the wizards' guards rooms.

The first room is centered around a large square table with two chairs on a raised section of the floor. There is a guard patrolling from the door on the other side of the room to the room on the left, past another guard who is eating a meal.

The table holds some food, and there are two inactive Dwemer spheres opposite the entrance. The dining room to the left has four tables, each with two seats, placed by the faces of a square pillar. There is another room on the other side, with a random weapon in the rubble to the left, and a lootable skeleton with a potion and a large coin purse nearby just around the corner to the right.

Through the double doors to the east is the section blocked by the barred door. Aicantar and up to three guards can be found in this room. At the far end of the caged section overlooking the room is a valve that activates a Dwemer ballista, which is aimed directly in front of the valve.

The valve also activates a spinning blade and several flame spouts in the room, with the latter aimed both across the room and in a V across the viewpoint from the caged section.

Strangely, the flame spouts are situated above head height, meaning you can walk under them. If you wish to keep Aicantar alive, he will panic and run from the room when the valve is activated, opening the barred door.

Otherwise, choose your moment to activate the valve to decimate the guards, then move quickly to prevent Aicantar from leaving.