I am trying to abtain the Staff of Magnus to get in a get the 9th Dragon priest mask so I can go on the special quest for the last mask. The problem is that I am on a PS3 and the survior at Mzulft in the front door will not die and I cannot pickpocket him to get the key to get in to go further on the quest to Reveling the unseen. What have I missed?

So you're playing through the College quest line? I've done that with like 4 characters on my xbox and never had this bug happen. The guy in the front ALWAYS dies and then you get the key from his corpse and his log too.

However, the staff isn't in the dwarven ruin anyway. Neither is the mask. They're both inside Labyrinthian.

So if finishing the college quest line doesn't matter all that much to you, head there.

Otherwise I'm not sure what can be done about this (evident) bug you've encountered. Maybe try an earlier save?

You can get the staff without the quest line?

That I'm not certain about because I've never obtained it without the quest line. The priest will be in Labyrinthian anyway and he will have the mask (I'm assuming, because the masks are always there whether you kill them as part of a quest or not).

Have you checked the bug forums? Or tried an earlier save? Or zoned in/out of Mzulft to see if the guy will die like he's supposed to?

I've had glitches happen where I basically had to just wander off and do another quest and then come back to it, and it would work fine. Glitchy game is glitchy.

Did you try killing him?

Well, I think you have to do it at least until you get the Torc of Labyrinthian, right?

You can't get the Staff of Magnus if you're not on the College of Winterhold questline. That's that.

For the OP, is the guy you mentioned sitting down against the wall? He'll appear injured when you go there on the questline, and I'm fairly certain he just wards you away if you go there under any other circumstances.

This will get that door open for you:

1. Get a follower.
2. Give follower a Lockpick.
3. Order follower to stand as close to the key-locked door in Mzulft as they can.
4. Get 'uncomfortably' close to the follower.
5. Follower will eventually try to back away from you. If it takes to long, you can tell them to resume following you, or sprint into them.
6. As the follower tries to get away from you invading their personal space, they will open the door.
7. ???
8. Profit.

Edited for clarity. Also, I'm not the creator of this method.

You actually can get in the back way and fight Morokei without doing the college questline. Someone on gamefaqs detailed it.

I don't think that trick works on doors that lead to a new cell.

Really? I hadn't thought about doing a more roundabout way. Now I'm tempted to try it on a new character and see if it works. ><

The guy had trouble getting up there, even with a Nord, so he suspected that anything shorter than an Orc probably wouldn't be able to make it up (meaning Nord, Orc, Altmer would be the best choices).

Right, because height factors into jump height. I might just make a new character and console myself over there to see if I can even get in there if you just fly over, just to make sure there's no locked doors and such.

Or you could just take a horse up either side of the mountain and slowly steer it down, or use Become Ethereal and try to aim for the trap door I suppose.

Try using a wooden plate and repeatedly bashing your body against the plate into the wall.


Magic... Unless it leads to another cell.

Here is a description of how to get to Morokei from the exit.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/615804-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/61762055

I just tried this on one of my old saves. I wasn't able to use the author's method of bypassing barred doors, but the platter glitch worked for me. Also, I could not get the forcefield to drop, but my melee weapons could penetrate it.

I was refering to the key-locked door in Mzulft. Next to the dying guy. All he gives you is the key to that door. If I recall correctly, you get the other important thing in that quest from a Falmer later on.

Oh ok, I thought you were referring to the door to Labyrinthian.