Objective: Capture Odahviing in Dragonsreach and learn the location of Alduin's portal.
Maybe first: "Season Unending" — a peace council, only if the Civil War is unresolved and Whiterun is contested.
1. Season Unending (if needed)
Jarl Balgruuf won't risk his city while the Civil War rages. If you haven't finished the war, Arngeir hosts a peace council at High Hrothgar between the Stormcloaks and Imperials. Broker a temporary truce — you can trade holds and prisoners in the negotiation to appease both sides. Once there's peace, Balgruuf agrees to bait the trap.
If you plan to pick a side in the Civil War, do it before this quest to skip the council entirely — Season Unending only triggers while the war is unresolved.
2. Setting the Trap
Balgruuf leads you to the great porch of Dragonsreach — built by the ancient Nords specifically to hold a dragon. The plan: lure one in, drop the yoke, and interrogate it. The dragon to summon is Odahviing, one of Alduin's allies.
3. Trapping Odahviing
- 1
Call the dragon
Step onto the balcony and use the shout Call Dragon (Od Ah Viing), which you learn on hearing his name: from Esbern after the peace council, or from Paarthurnax if there was no council. Odahviing answers and attacks the guards.
- 2
Lure him inside
Retreat into the Great Hall so Odahviing follows and pokes his head through the doorway. Wound him enough and he'll fly in to bite — that's your cue.
- 3
Spring the yoke
Once he follows you in, the Whiterun guards drop the ancient yoke onto his neck — you don't work the trap yourself. Trapped, Odahviing strikes a bargain: he'll fly you to Skuldafn, the temple where Alduin's portal to Sovngarde lies.
4. To Skuldafn
Free Odahviing and he carries you to Skuldafn. Fight through the temple to the portal, where the dragon priest Nahkriin and two dragons stand guard. Take his staff from his body to reopen the portal (his mask is yours too), and step through into the afterlife for the final confrontation.
Sources
Checked on 1 October 2026 against the Spanish walkthroughs of EliteGuias and Eurogamer.es and against UESP, which set who gives you Odahviing's name, how the Dragonsreach trap is sprung, and what guards the portal at Skuldafn.