I can't escape Volskygge

[Worse]

I was wandering around the overworld and came across this location, found some bandits and decided to practice stealth kills, then got into the room with the lever puzzle and decided to press on.

After getting my ass handed to me by the Draugr Death Overlord at the end five times in a row, I decided to trek back and try leaving the way I came, but now the gate that closes behind the player in the lever puzzle room won't open. Shouldn't there be a chain I can pull or a lever I can activate? There's no way to complete the puzzle again, since "the handles are locked in place". I can imagine this mechanic would get followers stuck for other people.

What should I do?

[The Frozen One]

go to a previous save

[Worse]

Wow, ok, I guess I had good timing when someone else revived a thread about the same issue. I guess I just have to run past the boss if I don't want to lose all of the loot and experience I earned along the way.

[Worse]

LEEEEROOOOY JEEEENKIIIIINS.
That worked better than expected.

[G]

Or if you are on pc open the command menu and type tcl

[MistySun]

Or coc riverwood or whiterun

[Biff]

Killing the Overlord probably will open the gate or allow you to move on. Or like others have said, load a previous save, use the console and type kill, or tcl - don't forget to tcl again once you're through, or coc town of choice. My choice is previous load. Once you level up more, you'll be able to continue it in a normal fashion. Something about cheating,.......