I know varla stones are supposed to be in elvish ruins. I've been in several and found them in only one. In that one, they were charging up and shooting fireballs at me. When I approached, I could see where there was a cage that should theoretially lower to stop them from shooting you. I couldn't get them to lower either by pressing the action button when close, or looking for anything to activate them with in the ruins. I can't grab them, nor get them to stop shooting me.

Is this a common way to get varla stones, or is there another approach or ruin to get them easier?

btw, for new folks varla stones let you recharge your magical weapons....

The first thing I did after finishing the character generation cave was to enter the ruins nearby, just a few steps away. There I found a Varla stone. I can't remember exactly were the Varla Stone was neither how well it was protected, but I do remember that nothing in that ruin was specifically hard. Actually everything was really easy, but I suppose it would be because of my and thus my enemies low level.

I actually didn't notice my stone until later when I saw it in my inventory, but as I try to recall I think I just grabbed it off it's location, without any fuss.

That is actually the only ruin I've been to, so I can't tell you if it's a common way or not.

Hmmm, that was one of the ones I thought I cleared out without finding one... might have to go back and see.

There are 8-10 of the less powerful Varla? stones in that ruin. There is one in the first large room on the upper level. There are at least 5 more in sconces (the large trap floor and the puzzle room, with six buttons). There is also one large recharge stone? under a lift mechanism that can be triggered from the balcony above that room.

Name of the ruin - Virden?

TY - will look again.

Steal it from chorrol castle. All they do is recharge items. There are npcs for that and as far as I know they work once. I rather use soultrap.

The valuable thing about Varla Stones is that they recharge *EVERY* magic item in your inventory when you use it.

Supposedly you can also use Soulstones to recharge magical items and if you'll pay attention, a lot of the Soulstones you find in dungeons allready have a soul in them so you dont even have to be a mage to get Soulstones with trapped souls in them!

I only have like 1 enchanted item because I didnt see a point until it killed flame antronarches in 1/5 of the normal amount of hits. I rather use soulstones to recharge.

Good suggestions. I don't know why I couldn't find them earlier (leveling?). I went into a few more ruins and found a bunch of varla stones and they're good stuff. I like recharging my three swords and my staff all at once.

That was was not a Varla stone, I found one like that^ along with several real ones, they are not the same thing. The one you mentioned is a trap I think, you think "Oh look a Varla stone, let me grab that."... "OW WHY DOES IT HURT!! AHHH!!", all the while Bethesda is in their tower laughting at you.

I've found them in several ruins. Generally they are under metallic cages that require you to push a button to reveal them. I didn't actually know you could use them to recharge magical weapons though, I thought they were just junk like the smaller blue ones that are everywhere (and worth about ten times less). So far I've only found one artifact, but probably...oh... four varla stones. In one ruin I actually found two.

I just sell them. Don't bother with magical recharge items because they're a pain in the buttocks and my armourer skill is only 38 at the moment, so I can't repair them anyway. Much better to use my glass longsword to knock skulls, and the odd fireball to roast ghosts.

I found a handful in this one ruin east of Chorrol... I can't get into the last room though, I need a "key" and I can't find it....

Yeah the one I found was on a pedestal, which was covered with a metal tea cosy or something I had to stand on a trigger to lift it.

So Varle stones are like precharged soul gems that only recharge your items? And is there a numerical limit on how much they recharge? Also, are soul gems reusable now?? ERR.... I need to just develope patience and experiment whenever it gets here...

/sigh

First off, Varla stones recharge ALL of the enchantment for ALL of your weapons. Second, no, soul gems are not reusable (Unless you do a faver for Azura and get her soul gem, which is reusable.).

Blah, most people are going to use that for the main quest.

No way! I'm stuck at the same ruin! I think it's called Morral or something that starts with the letter 'M'