Having come back to the game recently, I've been reminded of a puzzle(s) in the game that I still have no clue about: the numerous examples of blocked passagesways in caves. For example:

Plundered Mine, apparently last level has a short bit of passage with rocks wedged blocking the way
Fat Back Cave, there is a section where, whenever you approach you hear a cave in, then this one side passage is blocked
At least a few other caves/mines that show exactly the same thing as above
The mines below Hackdirt: obvious ramp down to a lower level, blocked by breakdown
The cave/mine right outside Chorrol: crack into what appears to be a lower level in the castle and on which the bandits were evidently digging.

I'm not asking for a straight up "cheat" here, I'd prefer to figure it out on my own. However, having played now for literally hundreds of hours and not having figured it out I'm beginning to wonder if either:
(i) the blocked passages dont' really go to any more places, they are just dead ends
(ii) I just need to get to a higher level or something (max level character was 17 and she got totally caught up in quests and never went back to Goblin or Bandit caves after clearing them), or
(iii) I'm just not doing something right else missing some clues.

If anyone could clarify without giving it away totally, really appreciate it.

The ones I know are all Option 1. They are just dead ends, and the cave-in was done as a matter of adding flavor. Hackdirt is one excellent example of this. My impression is that the Deep Ones live down there, and the rocks open up to let them out when the townspeople make their sacrifices. But the rest of the time (like when the player character is around) it is closed up tight.

If you are really curious, look up the places in question on the UESP Wiki, and compare the maps to yours from the game. Obviously a second computer makes this much easier.

Bummer. I was kinda hoping there were additional places to go kill baddies.

Yeah, that is exactly what I thought about the Hackdirt blockage

I check my mini map. If there is something beyond that cave in or what looks like a dead end it will partially show. If there is not, it will show as a pretty clean stop.

Some quests will cause areas in certain dungeons to appear that simply are not there until you have the quest going.

There's at least one cave that has a cave-in, where you can work your way around to the other side. I disremember which cave it is at the moment, but there are several enchanted arrows lying beyond the cave-in, as if perhaps someone carrying them had been buried by the falling rocks.

Most of those places, if not all of them, are just dead ends. If every passage ended with the same static(s), it would get boring after a while, and cave-ins are perfectly believable reasons for a cave to end. Caves are sometimes just not very stable.

However, it is cool how they did some of them. For example, the one outside Chorrol--it looks like the bandits wanted to get into the sewers for some reason. Who knows why that was? Maybe they wanted to have a quick getaway after stealing from the castle? Perhaps they were trying to establish a new, secret skooma route that would be harder to trace? It just leaves something to the imagination.

The map will usually indicate whether or not you are supposed to be able to go farther or not. If you see a perfectly straight line ending a passage, that usually means that the static they were using for that part abruptly ends and is not supposed to be continued.

If you really want to go farther with it, mod it; these are open books waiting to be written, after all.

Fallen Rock Cave is the most obvious one of these - the mine Maglir defaulted on visiting when you first meet him - so Id guess that's the one you're referring to. I seem to remember a skeleton half-buried in that pile, too.

But there are quite a lot more where you see the same pile of rocks from both sides, and a few where the rock fall that blocks off the side-passage occurs when you get there.

I actually just went into Plundered Mine yesterday, so I have the answer for you.
That is a dead end (as are all the others), but Bethesda didn't seem to endd it very well, as if you look past the rock, you can see into the blue-ish nothingness.

99% of the time it's this.
I always TCL whenever I see one to check. :blush2: