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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Hints
Find Karliah.
1 of 11: Move along the passage to reach a room with a trapped treasure chest. Either disarm the trap before opening the chest or be ready to kill a couple of draugr who will attack as a result of the trap going off.
2 of 11: In the next room, go over to the closed gate, then pull the chain that's to the right of it to open it. (Then back up quickly, since the trap that Mercer warns you about will trigger.)
3 of 11: Past the gate, start watching for bear traps and "live" draugr in wall niches. Note that you can often get a preemptive strike against those draugr before they "wake up" and attack you.
4 of 11: After you hack up several more draugr, you'll come to an area where a hanging oil lamp is connected to two tripwires. It's best to hit one of the tripwires and then back off and wait for the flames to die down before continuing.
5 of 11: Past the gate, skip by the locked door if you don't want to pick it open for extra loot, then enter the room full of hanging "bone alarm" chains carefully. There are several draugr in there, and you'll want to hang back and let Mercer take most of the heat.
6 of 11: Use the pull chain that's to the right of the next gate to open it, then move on to the next room full of draugr. Use the same "hang back" tactic with it, then go up the stairs in the room's NW corner.
7 of 11: NOTE: Before you go up those stairs, you might want to get the item for the "Return the Ship Model to Delvin" miscellaneous quest.
8 of 11: Kill a couple of skeevers, then move on to find the door to the Snow Veil Sanctum area. Enter it, then fight your way past several draugr to reach another pull-chain-opened gate. (Note that this one has a dart trap just past it, so dodge out of the way until it stops firing.)
9 of 11: Past the gate, you'll find another draugr to fight, plus several more (including an overlord) in the room past the large iron doors. After you help Mercer trash them, go to the south side of the room to get a word for the Disarm shout from a Word Wall.
10 of 11: Open the gate on the east side of the room using the pull chain to the right of it, then go down the passage (watching out for bear traps) to find one of the "infamous Nordic puzzle doors," as Mercer calls it.
11 of 11: Wait for him to open it, then go through it and wait through a non-interactive sequence to get the next objective.
