In Unseen Visions, part of the Dawnguard quest-line, one must travel to Ancestor Glade to read the Elder Scroll (Blood). This is a walk-through of the Unseen Visions quest.
How To Complete Unseen Visions
- Travel to Ancestor Glade, located east of Falkreath, south of Pinewatch, behind Peak’s Shade Tower and up the mountainside.
- Once inside the glade, locate the Draw Knife which is located at the bottom of the glade.
- Activate it (take it).
- Harvest Canicle Bark from any of the trees located in the area. The trees look similar to cherry blossom trees.
- Attract 7 Ancestor Moth Swarms by walking through swarms to initiate the attraction. Tip: It can be difficult to spot other swarms once several have been attracted. To see more easily, stand in place and turn your position gradually until you see movement in the distance.
- Once you’ve collected all 7 swarms, stand in the column of light (near where you activated the Draw Knife) and read the Elder Scroll (Blood).
- The reading will reveal Darkfall Cave. Tip: Immediately following the reading, a Dawnguard ambush takes place.
- Speak with Serana to complete Unseen Visions and start Touching The Sky.
There have been some glitches reported with regards to exiting the Ancestor Glade. Any glitches should be remedied by taking Serana into the glade with you. If you have trouble exiting the glade, reload and take Serana with you.
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I’m playing dawn guard on 360 and on the quest ‘Unseen visions’ but once have collected all the moths etc… am unable to read the blood scroll. It just brings up the read screen with no cinematic. I’ve tried re loading but that doesn’t work.
I don’t know what a ‘console command’ is.
Is there anyway around this?
@Rob – This is a rare problem that doesn’t seem to have a fix (on 360). I have a couple recommendations.
1. Is Serana with you? She should be, but I’m assuming you have her with you already.
2. Reload to a previous save, which again I’m guessing you’ve already tried. Reloading to before you receive the Blood Scroll may help since the quest will have to be reinitialized.
3. Make sure you are standing directly in the light and reading the correct scroll.
I realize that isn’t too much help, but maybe one or the other will help you get past the glitch.
@Chief Geek, it doesnt seem to be as “rare” as you make it sound, at least not on the 360. So far it seems to be related to having Hearthfire installed, which only affects 360 owners due to the exclusivity. Some 360 owners have uninstalled Hearthfire, re did the mission to receive the scroll and have been able to complete Unseen Visions. Bethesda needs to patch this so those people who actually spent money on both DLCs can play and enjoy both without going back several hours to an old save, which some dont even have.
@Xoterik – I agree, Bethesda should address issues and patch quickly. Hopefully, you have let Bethesda know your experiences so that they can address them.
However, to be fair and experience it for myself, I reloaded an old save to before the blood scroll reading. Installed and initiated Hearthfire, then went back to read the scroll and it worked as it’s supposed to. Since I didn’t experience the glitch, I’m afraid I can’t offer any more guidance. If you know a large number of users experiencing this problem, then tell them to post here about it and I’ll do my best to ensure Bethesda receives the information and make them aware of the problem.
Thanks.
The blood scroll didn’t open for me and i spent many hours on hearthfire, i guess i have to go back to the beginning now, which really sucks, i want to jack the game in tbh.
I luckily had a save close to getting the blood scroll. Now that I have uninstalled hearthfire the blood scroll opens but in between getting the blood scroll and going to the ancestor glade, I have spent many hours building 3 new homes, becoming thane 3 times, getting 3 new stewards, getting married, adopting two kids and the other dawnguard quests.
I am glad I found this thread but I am pretty frustrated and don’t really want to start from scratch again, I had already stopped playing the game a few days ago when I could not open the blood scroll.
@Davey – Glad you were able to finally read the scroll. It’s too bad you had to lose so many hours of gameplay. Thanks for adding your experience here though, I’m keeping a running tab of folks with issues. If I get a significant amount I’ll send the info off to Bethesda.
PLEASE HELP… I am having a problem with this quest. Level 62 Nord. I have collected all the moths but cant read the blood scroll… or the sun scroll but i can read the dragon scroll. i would love to go back to an older save but, 1) i dont have 1 because i have so many characters i limit myself to 2 saves per character. 2) my last save was before i spent 12 hours building 2 houses… My biggest problem with this is i have already completed this quest and indeed all of the Dawnguard main quest but i had to go back to before i entered soul carin because a vampire attacked me in Whiterun and both traders from Warmaidens were killed in the fight. Is there anyway to fix this?? I really dont want to have to start again… i am over 200 hours with this character!!
I’m having the same problem as Rob (on 360.) I have hearthfire installed. Unfortunately I do not have any saves before getting the blood scroll. Can I remedy this problem by uninstalling hearthfire? If not I guess I’m screwed.
@Trent & @Lee – It looks like Davey (see previous comments) was able to read the Blood Scroll after uninstalling Hearthfire. However, he had a save point that he could revert back to, dated before the reading of the Blood Scroll. Additionally, all Hearthfire progress is lost in this method. If you don’t have a save point from before the reading of the scroll, then you may be stuck until a patch is created or another workaround is discovered.
It sounds like neither of you have a save point from before reading the scroll.
*** NOTE: I am not endorsing the uninstall of Hearthfire as a fix for the Dawnguard Blood Scroll issue. You do so at your own risk. ***
@Trent – If you decide to uninstall Hearthfire, please report back if it fixes the scroll reading problem.
@Lee – Since you have to replay Dawnguard (if I’m understanding properly), it’s likely the uninstall method is your only option as well. Please report back if you uninstall and it fixes your problem.
@ChiefGeek Thanks for the advice but honestly i wont uninstall Heartfire i worked to hard on the 2 houses i built so i guess i will have to wait until there is a patch released. Luckily i have more characters to keep me occupied in the meantime! Such a shame, an amazing game ruined by serious bugs! i could get over the ‘blood on the ice’ quest bug but this 1 really ruins the game.
@Lee – Thanks for checking back in. I can understand why you don’t want to lose all that time spent on Hearthfire. I’ll keep a look out for any patches and continue to post other methods for fixing the problem here, so check back every now and then in case something that helps you pops up.
If I uninstall hearthfire will I lose all saves that I made with it installed?
@Trent – If you uninstall Hearthfire, then everything associated with it will be removed from your game. I can’t answer whether the saves themselves would be removed, but I would imagine not. However, without the Hearthfire add-on info the saves could become corrupt or otherwise not load properly which is why I’m stressing caution if you decide to do it. If you have a save prior to Hearthfire, then I’d say you’ll be fine. If the only saves you have are after Hearthfire was installed, then you’re running the risk of damage to your saved game (imo).
Bottom line: If you can wait to see if Bethesda issues a fix, then I would. Wish I had a better answer for you.
The only way you can get the blood scroll to open is to uninstall hearthfire and go back to before you pick up the blood scroll, in the soul cairn. I tried uninstalling hearthfire and opening the scroll in the ancestor glade but it doesn’t work because the scroll has been glitched since picking it up.
So if you don’t have a save before picking up the blood scroll, you are stuck until they fix the problem.
Also I have uninstalled hearthfire and completed the dawngaurd questline and reinstalled hearthfire and had no problems at all.
@davey – Thanks for clarifying your steps. Hopefully others can benefit from this information.