Skyrim:Valtheim Towers

Nordic Tower: Valtheim Towers (view on map)
Clearable	Yes
Dungeon	Yes
Respawn Time	10 days or 30 days
Level	Min: 6
Occupants
Bandits
Important Treasure
The Black Arrow, v2
Console Location Code(s)
ValtheimKeepExterior01, ValtheimKeepExterior02, ValtheimKeepExterior03
Region
Whiterun Hold
Location
East of Whiterun West of Darkshade
Special Features
# of Alchemy Labs	1
# of Cooking Pots/Spits	1
# of Clay DepositsHF	1
Ore Veins
# of Corundum	1
# of Iron	1

Valtheim Towers

Valtheim Towers is a small pair of linked ruined Nordic towers east of Whiterun containing bandits.

Related Quests

• Amulet of the Moon: Find the Moon Amulet for Kharjo. (radiant)
• Dungeon Delving: Do a favor by retrieving an item from a bandit hideout. (radiant)
• Trouble in Skyrim: Fulfill a contract for the Companions to clear out a troublesome area. (radiant)

• This location is one of many potential targets for one or more of the Radiant quests.

Walkthrough

The towers straddle the White River along the main road east of Whiterun. They support a stone bridge spanning the river high above. Along the road just outside the southern tower is a cooking pot often attended by a bandit who will attempt to extort a toll when approached. The treasure chest marked on Treasure Map II is on the rocky riverbank just east of the southern tower.

The southern tower contains a chest at its base rigged with a swinging mace trap. The trigger may be deactivated by picking a leveled lock. Stairs inside rise to the second level, from which an exterior wooden ramp leads up to the stone bridge and the third floor of the tower. At the top is a platform normally guarded by an archer. A second archer patrols the bridge between the towers.

Across the bridge, the northern tower has two interior levels, with a dresser on the first floor and an alchemy lab on the second. A copy of the Archery skill book The Black Arrow, v2 is on the bedside table on the second level. Above this is a platform where you can find the bandit chief, who carries a random enchanted weapon. A random enchanted bow can normally be found on the table here.

The first floor has a second door leading out to the mountains. An iron ore vein is immediately north of the door, and to the right is another archer whose chair is near a corundum ore vein. A clay deposit^HF is near the riverbank just west of the northern tower.

Notes

• In the local map and quest journal, Valtheim Towers is designated "Valtheim Keep".
• If you approach the bandit who demands the toll in a different form, such as beast form or Vampire Lord^DG, they will still demand money, even if you are attacking.
• Persuading or intimidating the toll bandit gives Speech skill experience. Moving away from the towers sufficiently far resets the toll demand; going west a short distance to a fallen tree that half covers the road is sufficient. This allows for fast Speech leveling.

Bugs

• There seems to be an issue with the "Intimidate" option when dealing with the bandit who demands the toll. Even if your intimidation is successful, 200 gold is removed from your inventory.
  • The Unofficial Skyrim Patch, version 1.0, fixes this bug.
• Aela the Huntress might send you here for the quest Striking the Heart, but there may be no one here to kill. This prevents you from completing the quest and advancing in the Companions questline.
  • Reload a save from before you were assigned the quest and obtain one with a different target location.
• It may not be possible to pick up the enchanted bow in the northern tower.
  • Saving and loading the new save fixes the problem.
• Sometimes when the bandit leader is killed, this location will not be marked as cleared. Reloading a save and killing him again does not solve this problem.
  • Use the console command setlocationcleared 000192c1 1 to force the game to mark it as cleared.