another reason why i really hate the 'blade' pretenders in tis game....

yes, when i did it it was a huge HUGE moment for me, thye screwed up the blades sooo bad in this game, and as far as how she go in....wtf is she gonna lock the backdoor if there is one, stupid senile old lady thinking shes the baldes woman argh making me do more work.....

I my game there were quite a few dead dreugh lying around.

well it would make sense that she would use the "back door" and then seal it because she said she wanted to test us to make sure we were dragon born. what better way to do that then have us fight through all the drauger and then have to use a shout to reach the note.

just look around. plenty of dead dreugh you didn't kill in this dungeon. it should be quite obvouis that someone went through there before you.

Like others said, she must've used the backdoor, leaving all the traps intact and undead untampered with. She also probably got there before the Necromancers accidentally woke the Dragur as well.

The back door is in the room with all the big jars near the entrance. You are only able to open it from the other side after finding her note, but she must've known some other way to open it.

It's nice that the ancient Nords worked in Disney-ride-esque side passages that lead back around to the entrance in no time at all.

She asked Bill and Ted to put the note there after you finished the main quest.

A most excellent explanation! *Air guitar*

Yeah, unfortunately as noted in many threads lately the plot lines are all a bit thin to say the least.

Think about it. The Greybeards obviously knew for years exactly where this artefact that embodied everything they believed in and could almost be considered a holy grail to them was and yet they wait patiently for some young inexperienced whelp who can make a few noises which, while sounding impressive does not do much. They then send this milk drinker into a sacred tomb filled with undead, traps and gods know what else to prove that he is indeed Dhovakiin. After he had just demonstrated his ability to learn new shouts in seconds.

So let's assume for entertainment value it was a test designed specifically for wannabe dragon slayers. Because the alternative would be that you were just being used as an errand boy since the Greabeards could not be bothered to go fetch their own holy grail. So you get there after having to pass a gate puzzle that you could only do by using a shout. You have to fight countless draugr and other not so dead things and unlock a puzzle door with a claw that was conveniently left there. After all that, you find a note from a 50 year old has been Blade who seemingly just walked in, took the horn and left a note. Go have a look at that back door again. Aint no way you're getting up there once you leave.

This really made my character feel like a loser. The wizards at the college says it might take years for him to deal with the trauma.

Because she knew retrieving the horn would be the trial the graybeards would set forth so she set off to get the horn the moment they summoned you giving her a few days head start. And plenty of dungeons you walk through have dead Duregar in them along side the knew ones that wake up. Obviously they don't throw everything they have at the first delver to stumble inside.

Perhaps you should think about it, there was no need to retrieve the horn its cosy in its resting place alongside its owner. The graybeards know where it is and they don't need it. But it symbolism there is no need to take the horn from the crypt unless you are the dragonborn.

I assumed she haxxed boots of speed from one of the prior games to get through the gates. Probably a 100% chameleon gear too.

Tell me this won't end like the Saadia and Kematu thread, where people argued who was the real "lair".

what Im getting at is, if they greybeards could learn it, whos to say Delphine couldn't? if the blades were dragonslayers, maybe she had their notes. some of em at least. idk you proved me wrong, well played

She was able to access the tomb to leave the note because the story is forced and uninspired. It expects a suspension if disbelief, because what she did doesn't fit inside the rules of the game world and there is no effort made to clarify.

The thing is she makes a point of being a [censored] about it, being all like "Well I got the Horn, does that make ME Dragonborn?" No it means the writers directly complicated the plot by intentionally making this character as obnoxious as possible.

And this is why I would love to fus-ro-dah her and esbern off the throat of the world

That's a possible explanation. We know that the original dragonslayers created the 'Dragonrend' shout so using the Th'um is not a prerogative of 'dragon-huggers'. BTW, the cave has a backdoor (like all the caves in Skyrim) that connects the end with the beginning of the dungeon.

You can, but they are essential.

How's this for a theory: Delphine got past the timed gates by switching to her werewolf form and sprinting past them.

Since when is she a werewolf? Well, maybe she is and maybe she isn't. She might also have summoned helpers, or lured skeletons into place. But ... her namesake, Delphine von Agnua of Ankh-Morpork (Discworld), is a werewolf so maybe that's a meta-clue.

Has anyone tried using werewolf sprint in place of Whirlwind shout? I'm curious if it can be done, but no way am I letting the companions make a beast of me.

She knew because getting the horn is the last trial of the Dragonborn for the Grey Beards.

lol yeah i agree

She kills Dreugh and doesn't afraid of anything.

*whistles*

Seems perfectly plausible that she was able to sneak by the draugr, or that they hadn't awakened at the time she stole the horn. As for the shout puzzle, maybe she was able to tamper with the mechanics behind it, or trick the puzzle by using an object or even another person. Just because we have to play by the rules of the game, doesn't mean she has to have done.