Just discovered this dungeon on my lvl 63 character, he's on a word hunt, so I've trawled through a lot of draugr dungeons, and they had got rather samey and boring, and the loot was pathetic. (except for boss chests, and even then the contents I can mostly craft myself.)

Not so Valthume. Not only was it enjoyable, in terms of layout and mob placement, the loot in all of the containers was extremely good, no measly 6 gold and a garnet in here, and there was just the right amount of harvest-ables.

So whoever built it, Good Job, I wish all the other 'random' word dungeons were as well crafted.

Agree with you there. Valthume is one of my favorite dungeons in the game.

Last I checked loot was random, so if you got a good haul it wasn't just because it was Valthume.


Edit: I just looked up exactly which dungeon that was, and even though it was good in terms of layout, there were plenty of other Nordic ruins that had equally good layouts. Sorry OP, I think you're just riding high on a good treasure haul.

Oh, and you were level 63. Of course you're going to get a better haul than in previous ruins (which you presumably cleared at lower levels).

Loot is random, but in most draugr dungeons all I find in urns and so on is a low amount of gold and a random low lvl potion or amethyst/garnet, I came out of Valthume with about 100 gems of both normal and flawless quality. There were at least 2, and usually 4 or more, gems in each container. Previously I've only ever found flawless gems in chests or from mining.

Yeah because lvl 60 is so much lower than lvl 63...

Did you complete No Stone Unturned?

If so, that will result in much more gemstones being found in containers - including burial urns. The Prowler's Profit.

Guess I'll have to re-crawl it. I'm pretty sure you just lucked out though. Although...this was your first time crawling it? I do seem to remember that re-visiting ruins tends to yeild more goodies. Once again though, that is still probably due to a combination of luck and being at a higher level.

So you didn't do any of the Nordic ruins until you were level 60? In that case, fair enough.

Ah that might explain it, one of the side goals of my recent exploration was tracking down all of them and finally clearing that quest from my log.

I'd done some, but had been spending the last 15 or so levels doing other things, mostly rebuilding the thieves guild and assassinating people. But it seems the mystery of the extra gems has been solved, I finally finished the no stone unturned quest.

where is this, is it associated with any quests, other than word wall

It is south east of Markarth up in the mountains, and there is a quest that starts when you enter. You'd have to check the wiki for more info.

hm, Im pretty sure I got all the dragon priest masks at one point or another, but it must have been so long ago that I forget that dungeon