The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Walkthrough and FAQ for the Thieves Guild Quests Written by: Nick Bartosic This file is Copyright (c)2006 Nick Bartosic. All rights reserved. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Table of Contents +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1. About Me 2. The Guide 3. The Game 4. *NEW* Thieves Guild Tips *NEW* 5. Joining the Thieves Guild 6. Armand Cristophe's Quests 7. S'krivva's Quests 8. The Gray Fox's Quests 9. Miscellaneous 10. FAQ 11. Credits 12. Copyright Notice 13. Contact Information +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ About Me +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This is my first FAQ/Walkthrough of any kind on GameFaqs, so please be gentle and merciful =) With that said, any help would be greatly appreciated ( constructive criticism that is ). I'm a recent Software Apps and Programming graduate from ITT Tech, and it was actually my professor that first got me interested in the Elder Scrolls games by introducing me to Morrowind. Since I heard about Oblivion, I was very eager to get my hands on it. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This Guide +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Version 1.0 March 27, 2006 Began writing introductions Completed "Joining the Thieves Guild" section Added Contact and Copyright information Version 1.1 March 27, 2006 (Later that day) Completed Armand's Quest line Completed S'krivva's Quest line Completed The Gray Fox's Quest line Version 1.1a April 2, 2006 Information update regarding contact information Version 1.2 April 8, 2006 Updated a ton of info in the guide, including some bugs and typos Added sections in Misc, FAQ, and Thieves Guild Tips Version 1.2a April 17, 2006 Information update regarding contact information Working on next update currently, will be up within the next few days +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This Game +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Version 1.0 March 21, 2006 Bethesda releases Oblivion for the PC +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thieves Guild Tips +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ *1* The first tip I have is, by far, the most important. Make sure you learn it if you haven't already. Save, Save, SAVE! This means save frequently, and save using more than 1 file! I can't TELL you how many times I'll get e-mails with people that have gotten stuck on something, or they run into a bug (Which can be expected with a new game). Often times by reloading to your last save, or a previous save (Provided your last fresh save file isn't over 15 hours old) you can fix a problem. This can help you get out of many jams, including ones where you are suspended from the Guild. This also will include the annoying bugs in the final Heist quest. Some of you will consider this "cheating" by some stretch of the imagination, but Bethesda encourages frequent saving as well. With a new game like this, do yourself a favor and just do it to avoid yourself some headache, if you want a challenge run the difficulty bar up and get to higher levels... X-Box 360 users, I've been told that your cache memory will often screw with quests if you run into a bug, so not only will you need to reload to a previous save when you encounter a bug, you have to make sure to restart your console and clear your cache, this will fix problems many times. *2* First learn rule numba 1 =) *3* If you're looking for an answer to a particular question, try using the Find command by hitting Ctrl + F. Often times by putting in a keyword or two you can find good info pretty quickly. *4* Scheherazade says if you invest in a Life Detection spell, or Life Detection potions and scrolls if you can make them. It can help you see through doors and walls to find out where NPCs are located, and which way they are looking, which can make sneaking around much easier on you. *5* If you run into a bug, and you have the X-Box version of the game, you should try to clear your cache as previously stated. To do this, you need to reset your system, and hold the "A" button till the Bethesda logo shows up on your screen. This should clear everything, and help to bypass bugs. Thanks to phill0037 for info on how to do this, as I don't have an X-Box =) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Joining the Thieves Guild +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ *UPDATE* Some people have told me that the beggars and Armand will not have anything to do with them when asked about the Thieves Guild or the Gray Fox. I may not have had any problems with this myself because I took Speechcraft as a major skill (Don't know why) and I used it frequently anyway. If you have problems with either of them, try and boost your disposition with both through the Persuasion mini-game, and/or use Charm spells and scrolls. Also, I left this out because no one really wants to go to jail, but RussianReefer reminded me another way to roleplay a thief. You get caught stealing, go to jail and do your time, and when you go to sleep next an elf will be waiting for you. He'll give you a note to head to the Waterfront to speak to Armand, then you can begin the Thieves Guild competition as normal. Personally, I don't like to go to jail and lose my stolen goods, but its up to you =) *****Quest: May the Best Thief Win***** Alright, you may have gone straight for the Imperial Capital after breaking out of the prison, or you have have wandered around for a bit. In any case, you can head there at any time to begin the Thieves Guild quests. Theres a few ways to start out, you can either go straight to the Garden of Dareloth at midnight, or you can treat it as an actual quest and read the next paragraph. Once you enter the Imperial City, you'll notice a wanted poster near any of the gates. Once you click on that poster, you can then ask any of the beggars around town about the Gray Fox. They'll ask why you want to know, just give them the acceptable answer "Yes, I want to work with him." The beggar will refer to Garden of Dareloth, and tell you to be there at midnight. The garden is located in the Waterfront district, you can either run through the whole city to get there, or bring up your map and click on the Waterfront District inside the Imperial City. So, now you're in the Waterfront district. Dareloth Garden is in the western part of the Waterfront district, near several shacks on the other side of the wall. The actual garden is located behind the "Abandonded Shack" (Not the building you can purchase). If you try to go there before midnight, you won't find anything there. You can press "t" on your keyboard and wait till midnight if the game clock is too slow for you. About the time it starts to hit 12:00AM you'll notice an Argonian named Amusei, a female named Methredhel, and a male (with torch) named Armand Cristophe approach the garden. Talk to Armand, and he should have a topic for the Gray Fox. He'll see that you contacted a beggar about the Thieves Guild, and says thats fine because beggars are the eyes and the ears of the Gray Fox. You'll do well to remember that in the future, because you'll be relying on beggars in all towns for information. After you ask Armand about the Gray Fox, he'll have a topic about "Joining the Thieves Guild." He'll go on to say that its unusual to have three potential recruits, so hes going to make it a contest. The rules are you must steal Amantius Alectus's diary. You cannot kill him, and you cannot kill any of the other recruits (Although I have heard you can kill one and still pass the test, but its risky and you will receive quests for both later, so try to avoid it, eh?). Methredhel will say something about the garden by sunrise, but disregard this. You need to return at midnight once again. At this time you can talk to Armand if you wish and buy lockpicks from him for 5g each. Now we're off to steal the diary. If you need directions to Amantius's house, you can ask any beggar in the area. If you head north along the wall from the garden, you should find one sleeping on a bedroll. Ask him about Amantius and he'll provide directions to the Temple district (South-western Imperial City). Click on the Temple district on your map, or simply run through the city to get there. I'm going to tell you right now, unless you have a decent speed rating and know exactly where you're going to begin with, you probably aren't going to beat Methredhel there. Thats ok though, just skip to the next paragraph. In the event you do beat her there, just pick the lock on the front of Amantius's door, head to the right when you enter his house, and take the diary from the desk. David.mrwally says if you follow Methredhel as soon as the quest begins, you can follow her all the way to the house, let her open the door for you, then head in right after and beat her to the desk on the right side of the room. In the event Methredhel does beat you there, and more than likely she will (She beat me there the first time I ran the quest), don't worry about it! You're a thief now, sometimes you have to get creative =) You can either wait a few days and speak to Armand again for a new quest, or you can try to take the diary off of Methredhel's hands, I prefer the latter. If you would rather do the other quest, scroll to the bottom of this section. Leave the house after she finishes gloating to you, and look to see where she goes. There has been a few occasions when I've seen her actually go into Amantius's basement, which I think may be a bug. In that case, just pick the lock and follow her down there. When you begin to follow Methredhel, your quest info will update, saying you need to get the diary back by stealing if off her. Theres no easy way to do this, especially if your sneak level is low. Just hit the left "CTRL" key, and stalk her from behind. You may want to quicksave first, if your theft happens to go awry. Hit the Space key to attempt to pickpocket the diary. If you don't mind waiting, scissorslizard says you can head to Methredhel's house in the Waterfront district, and I've noticed just as the sun begins to come up she likes to head back there and go to bed. If you pick the lock on her door, you'll find a chest locked in there. If you open it while she sleeps, you can take the diary back. Be careful, as theres usually another lady in the room with you, be sure to Sneak if you try this. So, by either beating Methredhel there, or by stealing if off her afterwards, you now hold Amantius's diary. You can head back to the garden and wait till midnight again, or you can shop around town and do some quests to waste some time. If you get back to the garden by 3AM, Armand may still be there and you can turn the diary in then. When you give Armand the diary, he will admit you to the Thieves Guild, and some new topics will appear. He will also tell you the three rules to the Thieves Guild: 1. Never steal from fellow Guild members. 2. Don't kill anyone on the job, you're a thief, not an assassin! 3. Don't steal from the poor, they're under the protection of the Gray Fox. He'll also tell you a little about Harmonius Lex, an Imperial Officer that really has it out for the Gray Fox and the guild. He'll tell you about Doyen's, the eyes and ears of the Gray Fox (Armand is one, S'krivva is the other). He'll also say if you break any of the three Thieves Guild rules, you'll be booted from the Guild until you can pay a fine to a guild Doyen. Finally, he'll mention the guild's fences, which are the people that you'll be selling stolen loot to. Armand will tell you that Ongar is the first and only fence you can access in the beginning, and he lives in Bruma (to the North). You can't advance in the Thieves Guild by doing normal quests at first, you need to actually do a little independant thieving before you can do any of Armand's special guild quests. So, if you don't already have some goods you've cased off of people, get to work and start pickpocketing and looting houses! If you want to grab some quick items, Chorrol isn't far away. You can sneak into Chorrol's castle and steal anything of value in the throne room and pick up 50g or more quickly. Remember, even small items such as books and wine can contribute to your running fenced items total. Your "Items Fenced" total can only be added to by selling stolen items to a fence. That means items that don't have a little hand icon on them are considered to have been acquired by legal means, and so fencing them will give you gold, but won't contribute to your independant thieving amount. *UPDATE* If you let Methredhel turn in the diary, all is not lost. Return to Armand after a few nights (At midnight as always) and he'll give you one more chance. This time you need to steal a sword off Rohssan of the store A Fighting Chance, which is located in the Marketplace district. You can ask a beggar for directions as usual. Head there at night, sneak to the door and pick the lock. You'll have to head upstairs, still sneaking. Be prepared, because on the 2nd floor is a dog that may see you and let out a bark. Be quick, and head right and around the corner. You'll find an Easy locked chest, pick it and grab the sword. Hightail it out of there, and look for Armand at midnight again (Or if its before 3AM, you can just return to him the same night). You'll get accepted into the Thieves Guild. Thanks to Syme for letting me know about this quest. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Armand Cristophe's Quests +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ So, you've done a little independant thieving and managed to steal at least 50 gold worth of items, good! Go back to the Garden of Dareloth at midnight to find Armand. You can't just stop in his house any time you please, he'll only deal with Thieves Guild stuff between midnight and 3AM in the garden. Find him there to receive your first official quest as a guildie. *****Quest: Untaxing the Poor***** Ask Armand about Special Thieves Guild jobs, and he'll feel like you're up for a challenge. Lex has collected taxes from everyone in the Waterfront district, and the Gray Fox wants you to fix it. You need to find out where Lex is stationed at, get a list of everyone he collected taxes from, and also return with the money Lex collected. To start off, ask a beggar where Lex is. You can use our little buddy just north of the garden, he should be sleeping again. Ask him about Lex, and he'll let you know he stays in the South Guard Tower in the Temple district. Run to the Temple district, or click on the Temple district on your map. The South Guard Tower is located in the south-eastern part of the zone. You can do this quest at any time of the day, but it seems to be rather difficult to do at night. I waited until 8 or 9 AM, and noticed that several guards left the building, making it a lot easier to sneak in and out. Start sneaking before you even click on the door to the tower. There may be a few guards on the first floor, get behind them while sneaking and click on the step ladder to reach the second floor. There will be a few guards sleeping, don't pester them, okay? =) Once you get to the third floor, you should have to pick the lock to Lex's room. While still sneaking, click on the step ladder to begin working on the lock. If you're out of lockpicks, you can still buy some from Armand for 5g. Pick the lock to Lex's room, and you're in. If you look to your right, you should see a locked desk. Pick that lock as well, and you'll find the list of people taxed, as well as the gold taken. Grab both, and sneak your way back down the tower. Talk to Armand in the garden at midnight. Give him the record of people that were taxed, and he'll tell you he'll pay them back personally. You get to keep the gold taken from the people, sweet! He'll tell you he just wanted to teach Lex a lesson because he went too far. He'll also promote you to Footpad, yea! Now, if you've fenced a total of 100g, Armand will be able to give you your next special mission, otherwise hit some more houses up for loot and check out Ongar in Bruma. *****Quest: The Elven Maiden***** Once you've fenced a total of 100g, Armand will be ready to give you this mission. Armand wants you to steal a statuette of Llathasa Indarys from the town of Cheyhindal. Accept the mission and start running to Cheyhindal, or click on your map and travel there instantly if you're lazy like me. When you arrive in Cheyhindal, scope out a beggar to get information from. Ask one about the bust of Llathasa, and they'll tell you the Count recently asked the Elves to carve the statue, and he placed the statue at her grave in the Chapel Undercroft. It used to be available to the public, but its now being guarded and off-limits. Uh oh, time for more sneaking, heh heh. Hopefully your skill is improving. Head into the Chapel and downstairs. You'll have to pick the lock to get inside, hopefully your Security skill has been going up too. If you haven't already guessed, Thieves use Sneak and Security a lot. When you get into the Undercroft, you'll notice a guard walking about the room. Make sure you're in Sneak mode, and always stick to the shadows when you can. Also remember that if you're not already at Journeyman level in Sneak, the weight of your boots can affect how well you can sneak. If you have metal boots on, take them off to reduce your chance of being heard. Stop for a moment and watch how the guard moves around the room. You'll notice she will head down the stairs to the left, come back up, walk across the room to the stairs to the right, wash, rinse, repeat. Move across the room slowly to the left set of stairs, and hide shadows behind a pillar. When you see the guard start her path towards the right set of stairs, begin slowly moving towards the left stairs and use the shadows when you can. When you get into the room, head to the right side and wait in the darkness for a moment till you see the guard come back down the stairs. When you see her leave, its now safe to grab the bust to your right. Sneak towards the stairs again, remaining hidden, and when you see the guard come back down a second time, begin walking behind her out of the room. Be sure to keep at least 6 feet or more between you and her, otherwise she may hear you. Leave the Chapel then, and head back to the Dareloth garden at any time. We're not done yet! You'll soon find out that something is amiss in the Waterfront. Guards will ask you if you've seen Armand anywhere, and if you head to the garden your quest will update. It will say the Waterfront is crawling with Imperial guards, and Armand will most likely not show at midnight. You should seek other Thieves Guild members to figure out your next move. There are many members of the guild in Waterfront, if you talk to any of them they'll say that Armand is in hiding because Count Indarys reported the statue stolen and Armond is being blamed. Your guild will also tell you that Methredhel is looking for you. Methredhel's house is near the garden, so step inside and look around. If shes not in there, when you leave the house she may be waiting there for you. In any case, she'll say that Armond used you to flush out a traitor in the guild. As it turns out, Myvryna Arano was part of the Thieves Guild, but shes really been an informant for Lex! Methredhel's plan is to blame the statue theft on Myvryna by planting the bust in Myvryna's house and telling Lex about it. This can be a little tricky because Imperial guards are running all around Waterfront, and Lex is standing near the house. Myvryna's house is a few houses north of Methredhel's. Sneak over there, and try to avoid letting the guards see you. With any luck, you can get a position at Myvryna's door where your Sneak "eye" is dark, signifying no one can spot you currently. Begin picking the lock on her door and head inside. Myvryna should be sleeping right now, so make sure you don't have heavy boots on while you sneak over to her cupboard by her bed. If you click on the cupboard, your quest will update and let you know that the bust has been planted, and now you must convince Lex that Myvryna was behind it all along. Sneak out of the house and walk over to Lex. If you have low Personality and/or Speechcraft skill, you may have to do the Persuasion mini-game a bit to boost your reputation with Lex. Eventually he'll hear you out, and decide he has to check Myvryna's house. He'll head inside and find the bust you planted. Myvryna will try to explain you were the one that actually stole the bust, but Lex admits even if I wasn't telling the truth Myvryna has still been exposed as the informant, so he has no further use for her. In any case, the bust was still in her cupboard, so she gets arrested for the theft, booya! Make a save here in case you encounter a bug soon. You'll have to wait till the next midnight to speak to Armand again, so head over to the Dareloth Garden then to get an update from him. Some people have reported that Armand sometimes does not appear in the Garden, even after waiting several nights for him at midnight. My only solution is to reload from our previous save and wait again, hopefully he'll show. Armand will admit he used you to flush out the traitor, but he couldn't know that you weren't in cahoots with Myvryna. Even though the bust is gone, he pays you the 100g he promised, and promotes you to Bandit. At this time, if you've fenced 200g or more you can start taking quests from S'krivva the Argonian in Bravil. Armand only works with the less experienced guild members, so he has no more quests for you. He'll let you know that you can access a new fence with more gold to spare. You can now use Dar Jee as your fence, in the town of Leyawiin. He doesn't have much more gold than Ongar, but if you happen to be in the Leyawiin area he can save you a trip. We're now done with Armand, so if want head to Bravil to talk to S'krivva, or if you haven't fenced 200g worth of goods, go do some looting and check out Ongar or Dar Jee. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ S'krivva's Quests +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Once you've completed Armand's quests, and you've fenced a total of 200g worth of goods to either Ongar or Dar Jee, head to Bravil to meet with S'krivva. Unlike Armand, you can usually contact her any time during the day, except when shes locked within her house. You could probably pick the lock and try to talk to her then, but I wouldn't recommend it. You can find her sometimes hanging out in her house near the northern gate of Bravil, and other times in the Lonely Suitor Lodge in the south-west part of Bravil. *****Quest: Ahdarjis's Heirloom***** The first quest S'krivva gives you is to return an heirloom to a Khajiit kitty in Leyawiin. Ahdarji was the mate of a former fence with the guild, and she had a ring stolen from her by a freelance thief. Start running south to Leyawiin, or bring up your map and click Leyawiin to go there. When you get to town, your quest markers should be pointing to the local beggars, unless Ahdarji's Heirloom isn't your active quest. Talk to a beggar and they'll inform you where Ahdarji goes throughout the day. I found her in her own house, which is just west of the castle, at 8AM. When you ask her about her ring, she is rather...upset to say the least. She tells you an Argonian named Amusei has taken the ring (You may remember him from your guild initiation quest). She wants the ring back, as well as the death of Amusei. As per guild rules, you must remember not to kill him though! When you are done with Ahdarji, go grab another beggar to inquire the whereabouts of Amusei. After speaking to a beggar, they will inform you that Amusei tried to swindle the Countess of Leyawiin and is currently in the castle dungeon. Busted! The beggar will also let you in on a little info that the jailor can be bribed to get access to the dungeon. Make sure you have at least 20g, then head to the over to the castle. Once inside the castle, head forward until you see the first hallway on your left, it will lead to the dungeon. Head down and you'll see a guard sitting. Speak to him and ask about Amusei. He'll inform you the Countess doesn't allow people to speak to Argonian prisoners. Tell him you have 20g and the jailor suddenly has a change of heart. He opens the dungeon up to you. Talk to Amusei and he tells you what happened after the Thieves Guild trials. He won't talk about the ring unless you decide to help him get out of his cell, so go ahead and hand him a lockpick. Don't worry about following Ahdarji's orders, you don't have to beat him up and you probably won't want to soon. He'll say he returned home to Leyawiin where he stole Ahdarji's ring...but no fence would take it. He realized from the inscription on the inside that the ring really belonged to the Countess herself! That dirty Khajiit Ahdarji lied. Anyway, give him the lockpick and leave him to his own devices. If you speak to the guard again, you can ask him about the "Recovered Caro family ring." He'll mention that the Countess is happy to have it back and rarely takes it off. He'll also mention you can talk to Hlidara if you want more info about it. This will spawn a new topic you can ask him about, "Finding Alessia Caro." He'll say she spends her mornings in the town Chapel, evenings hosting dinner in the castle at 8PM, and she goes to bed in the evenings. He also says she spends the Ides of each month traveling to Chorrol, so I wouldn't bother looking for her in town during that time. I think the guard said the Ides fall on the 15-17 of each month. If you talk to the Countess's lady in waiting, Hlidara, she'll add a little more info for you. She'll say the Countess only removes the ring when she goes to bed and during bath time, so if you want to grab the ring then you'll want to check the jewelry box in her bedroom. I've tried to see if you can pickpocket the Countess herself to get the ring, but it doesn't seem to be possible. Do you think even the greatest thief could slide a ring off your finger without you knowing? Anyway, so we know she keeps the ring in her jewelry box when she isn't wearing it, so thats when we need to recover it. While you can't take the ring off the Countess herself, you can help yourself to the jewelry box key she has on her, as well as any other castle keys you desire, although you DON'T need it, so if you're having a tough time snatching it off her, don't worry. Theres a couple different ways to get to the Countess's bedroom, and you'll definitly need to Sneak to get there. The way I prefer is to use the castle's secret room to get to the Lord's Manor Private Quarters (LMPQ). To do this, head to the castle basement, which is located to the right of the thrones. You'll come to a room with lots of boxes and junk. Under one of the torch's you'll find an open barrel that contains a secret switch. Hit the switch, and a hidden door will open. Head through the hallway and you'll come to another area with some...strange things. Continue on, and you'll find a door to the LMPQ. Now, the Countess goes to bed around 11PM, so you don't want to be snooping around before then, and you can't use the wait function while trespassing in the castle, so you may have to actually wait normally for this to happen (which can take awhile). Better yet, when you're ready to steal the ring, head outside the castle and wait till 9 or 10PM, then enter the castle again and head to the basement. To my knowledge the guards won't bother you if you're in the throne room after hours, and they won't know if you go into the basement or secret room unless you do something stupid like swipe an item in front of them or slap them around. At this point, make a clean save just in case. The next part can get nasty, and theres a small bug when you go for the ring, so use this as a fallback. When you get into the LMPQ, head up several flights of stairs till you get to a little room with some chairs and a table. At approx. 11:12PM I noticed the Count begin to head to bed, accompanied by a guard. At nearly 12:00AM the Countess followed suit, followed by Hlidara. The guard will leave, and Hlidara go to bed in a nearby room, so don't worry about her...unless you're being loud and not sneaking. Don't head to the Count's chambers just yet, you have to be on the watch for a patroling guard. I noticed one came by shortly at 12:25AM, and he goes around reguarly, about once an hour in game (a few minutes in real time). The Count and Countess's room is to your left up a flight of stairs. Once the guard passes by to your right, begin sneaking in that direction. The Countess doesn't actually lay down to sleep until nearly 1AM, so if the door isn't already open don't try opening it before then. Make sure your boots are off if you aren't a Journeyman in Sneak, then proceed to tip-toe to the right side of the bed. The jewelry box is on the table, if you stole the key off the Countess, use it to open the box, otherwise you'll have to pick the lock. Whatever you do, if you open the jewelry box and find two rings DO NOT TAKE BOTH! Theres a bug here that will keep you from turning the ring in to Ahdarji. Grab the ring, and make your way back to the bedroom door. Careful though, the patroling guard may be making his rounds again. Another thing, be sure you aren't taking too much time grabbing the ring, the first time I did the quest I started it too late, and around 6AM the Count began to wake up! Make sure you're sneaking to the room, while you're in the room, and on your way back. Guards or Hlidara may hear your footsteps and come running...and if they find you you're in bid trouble. Make sure the patroling guard is on his way back, and when hes out of sight head back to your little room with the chairs. Close the door behind you, breath again, and head to the secret room. You should be able to head back to the throne room without sneaking now, and the guards shouldn't care. Head out the castle gate and head to wherever Ahdarji may be. Give the dirty Khajiit the ring, then head back to S'krivva in Bravil. S'krivva will give you some gold and promote you again to Prowler, nice. If you've fenced at least 300g to Ongar or Dar Jee you can accept your next quest, otherwise you know what you need to do. *****Quest: Misdirection***** After you've fenced 300g total, S'krivva will give you another quest. It looks like Lex is up to his old tricks again, hes invaded the Waterfront district in the Imperial City and vows not to leave until he gets the Gray Fox. The Fox is kind to the poor, so they won't give him up, but they won't be able to hold out forever. Your job is to find Methredhel in the Imperial City and devise a plan to get Lex out of there. Head to the Imperial City by any means you wish, and look for beggars again. One will tell you that Methredhel escaped the Waterfront and is currently hiding in the Talos Plaza of the city in the house of Dynari Amnis. Head there now, Dynari's house is located a little north of the Plaza's center. The plan Methredhel has drawn up requires you to steal Hrormir's staff from the Arch Mage's room in the Arcane University. You will be one of four thieves stealing precious items from around the city, the idea is if you piss off enough people, Lex will have to withdraw his troops to police the city once more. Methredhel says the Archmage sleeps between 1 and 7AM, so check your map and head over to the Arcane University located in the south-eastern part of the city. Wait till about 1AM, make sure you save before heading forward into the Arch Mage's lobby. The mage downstairs should leave, but another will take the portal to the second floor. Head to the second floor, the mage shouldn't care that you're there right now. Initially the mage didn't give me any problems, but after I came back downstairs from the 3rd floor he decided he wanted me out right away. Anyway, sneak up to the Arch Mage's room on the 3rd floor by clicking on the other portal. The Arch Mage should be sleeping, the staff is at the foot of his bed. Sneak over and grab it, but remember the larger and heavier the item, the greater chance you'll alert someone to their presence. Now you have to leave the Gray Fox's note in the Arch Mage's desk. Head over to the left side of the bed slowly and click on the dresser. The quest should be done now, all you have to do is sneak out. Head back to the portal to get to the 2nd floor. If the mage gives you guff, just head straight to the portal to the 1st floor. Head outside and back to Methredhel to show her the staff (Don't sell it, heh heh). Methredhel will tell you the other three thieves have already pilfered their items, so now the plan is in motion. She'll ask you to head to the Waterfront and wait for a messenger to approach Lex and call off the lockdown. So head to the Waterfront and find Lex where he was during the Elven Maiden mission. Don't worry about sneaking or anything, just go right up to Lex and a little cutscene will ensue. A Dremora will approach Lex, tell him to leave, and it will hand Lex a note. Lex will then call off the search, but before he leaves he'll drop the note. Pick the note up, read it, then head back to Methredhel. It looks like everything is peachy-keen now, but you have one last task to take care of before you can get paid and move on to other quests. As a sign of good faith, the Thieves Guild is going to give the staff back, but you DON'T put it back where you found it...they'd kill you. Instead Methredhel wants you to put the staff in the Safebox of the former Arcane Researcher, Ontus Vanin, whose house is also located in the Talos Plaza. Head there now, and if the door is located you'll have to pick it. Be sure there aren't any guards watching, and make sure you're sneaking anyway when you do open the door (A guard spotted me just before I came in, and after I planted the staff he was waiting for me downstairs). Head up the stairs to your left, still sneaking as always, and you'll probably find Ontus sleeping. Stealth over to the right side of the room and click on his Lockbox to plant the staff. When you're done, sneak out the way you came in and head to Bravil to check in with S'krivva and get your reward. When you talk to S'krivva she'll thank you on a job well done, and give you the 300g you were promised. She also promotes you to Cat Burgler, go you. Better yet, she gives you access to a new fence, Luciana Galena who is located right there in Bravil. You can find Luciana in the Lonely Suitor Lodge where S'krivva often is, but you can also pick the lock on her house and visit her even when shes sleeping (She doesn't seem to care when I invade anyway). I prefer Luciana to any of the other fences, even though she doesn't have the most gold. Bravil isn't a bad little town, it isn't exactly gorgeous since its located in a swamp, but Luciana isn't as stiff a negotiator as the final two fences you find, and Bravil is already located pretty close to the Imperial City. On top of that, if you buy the shack in Bravil, your house will be located right underneath Luciana's house, and will be very near the Lonely Suitor Lodge as well (So if you want to drop off excess gear, it'll be close by). *****Quest: Lost Histories***** Your next target amount to fence is 400g. Once this is done, speak to S'krivva in Bravil and she'll give you a new quest. The guild is in need of a book called the Lost Histories of Tamriel. A cat burgler named Theranis was sent to Skingrad to obtain this book from a wizard, but he hasn't been heard of since. Your job is to head to Skingrad, recover the book, and if Theranis is alive bring him back. Either way you get paid. Head to Skingrad, which is south-west of the Imperial City. Begin asking your beggar friends for information about Theranis. One will mention that Theranis was in the bar, bragging that he had stolen something from the castle, when Captain Dion overheard him...you can guess the rest. So, we have to begin looking for Theranis in the castle dungeon, but it won't be as easy as paying off the guard like last time, we have to get a little creative. Ask a guard in town about "Work in the Castle" and one will mention that the butler is looking for someone to do a job, sounds like a good start. The butler is an Orc by the name of Shum Gro-Yarug. The guard will give you a list of places Shum visits, but he doesn't leave the castle much so chances are you'll find him there. Head out the east gate of the town, then up the path to the castle. Head into the castle courtyard, then straight ahead into the Skingrad County Hall. I saw Shum in there around 4PM, ask him about work in the castle and he'll offer you the lovely position of feeding the prisoners their slop (affectionately known as the "slop drudge" to the guards). Say you'll take the position, and Shum says he'll pay you 2g a week, a loaf of bread, and a thing of mead, what a ripoff! I never actually went back to him for my pay, so oh well. Anyway, as slop drudge you now have access to many parts of the castle without being bothered too much. Head back to the courtyard for now, and to the left you should see some stairs. Head up those, and at the top of the stairs you should see a doorway to the dungeon to your right. Head through that door, then make your way down the hallway and stairs till you find a guard sitting in a chair. Tell him you're the new slop drudge, and he'll open the door for you (Don't worry if you don't actually have the prisoner's slop on you). In the cell area, talk to Larthiar the Laggard. He'll ask if you're there to rescue him, I usually say no, but you can probably say yes if you like. After he responds, you can then ask him about Theranis. He'll say Theranis used to be there in a cell with an Argonian, but the "Pale Lady" took him 3 days ago. If you ask him about the Pale Lady, he'll say she comes for prisoners now and then, sometimes the prisoners return, sometimes they don't..but those that are taken 3 times never return...and it was Theranis's third time. If you ask him where the Pale Lady takes them, he says he doesn't know...but he does point out that she took the Argonian less than an hour ago, and he put up quite a struggle. Not only that, but he bled all over the place...does that sound like a good way to find Theranis to you? If you look near one of the cells you'll notice the blood on the ground, follow it to a dead end. To your right is a candlestick on the wall that opens a secret door. Hit that, head through the door. You'll find a small table to your left before the next door, upon it are three lockpicks, so help yourself. When you're done, take the door to the Wine Cellar. Continue to follow the trial of blood. If its night time, you'll have to start sneaking because Shum lives down in the Wine Cellar and your footsteps may wake him as you pass by his room. Follow the trail of blood to a room with 3 large wine storage barrels. If you continue to follow the blood to the right side, you'll notice another candlestick, this one with blood upon it. Hit it to open another secret door, this one is actually inside the large center barrel in the room, which was kinda neat. Now comes the tricky part! The pale lady is there waiting for you, and it just so happens that shes a vampire. Shes not a very tough one, but more than likely you still won't finish her off without getting the hemophilia disease. If you don't want to become a vampire yet, fear not. You have a few days until you become a full fledged vampire, and I believe you have to rest in a bed before that happens. Check out the Misc section on how to get rid of the disease. Once the vampire is dead, loot her body to pick up a few items, including the secret cell key. You'll notice Theranis's dead body to the left, but the book you're looking for isn't on him. If you look to the right you'll find our good buddy, Amusei, again. Talk to him, and he'll say Theranis never mentioned a book, but he did have a message for the Thieves Guild. He also told Amusei of the location of a treasure, theres a good chance he was talking about the book. The problem is Amusei won't tell us anything until we get him out of the castle...sounds like fun. Since Amusei has decided to join the Thieves Guild and all, you should probably help him out, and we need his information anyway. Begin stealthing again if you aren't already, and make your way out of the secret room. Instead of heading back the way you came, you'll have to take a different route (You probably won't get past the jailor near the dungeon). Instead of heading left past Shum's room, head to the right and to the castle's Dining Hall. You'll notice an open doorway to right right once you head up the steps in the Dining Hall. Be careful, as a guard sometimes walks down the hallway outside that door. You'll want to head left out of that doorway, and head to the Castle Skingrad County Hall again. Go through the door, and you'll find yourself upstairs and out of sight (Hopefully). Sneak straight ahead and you'll see a locked doorway to the courtyard. If you grabbed the castle key off the vampire, you should be able to use that to unlock the door, otherwise you'll have to pick it. Now comes another potentially tricky part. You have to exit the courtyard and head down the long walkway to the castle...when there are no guards out front. My best advice is to make a new save when you get to the courtyard, and then just run down the stairs to the front gate and check it out. If theres guards there, reload from the save. I've been able to lead Amusei through the courtyard and down the front castle walkway at 7PM and in the morning around 8AM I think, but the guards may be randomly patroling so you'll have to see for yourself. You can actually wait in the courtyard several hours just outside the door you just came from (Upstairs, from the County Hall) if you need to wait for the guards to leave outside. Eventually you'll lead Amusei down the stone walkway, and down the path towards the town. He'll thank you for saving him once again, then he'll tell you where Theranis said the treasure was. He says to check behind Nerastarel's house, under a bush (Its also by a well). Part ways with Amusei, and go check out the bush. You should find the book there, pick it up and head back to S'krivva in Bravil. She'll reward you for returning the book, give you a reward and thats about it. No new fence or rank, after all that work stealthing through a castle and fighting a vampire! Before you can get a new quest from her, you'll have to have at least 500g fenced from Ongar, Dar Jee, or Luciana. *****Quest: Taking Care of Lex***** This quest involves a lot of running around and sneaking, but its also pretty fun...and we finally get to take care of Lex once and for all! No, we don't plant a knife into his skull, we get to reassign him. As it turns out, Lady Umbranox of Anvil Castle is looking for a new Guard Captain. A letter of recommendation has been sent by the Imperial Watch in the Imperial City, but the Gray Fox wants to make sure Lex gets the job. Anvil is far away, so Lex won't be able to cause havoc in the guild anymore. Whats more, the Gray Fox has extended his protection to the Umbranox family, especially to Lady Umbranox herself. Lex would make a good protector because of his undying dedication and loyalty. To get Lex the recommendation, we're going to forge the original letter sent by the Imperial Watch. The letter is already in Anvil, but its currently being held by Lady Umbranox's steward, Dairihill. For whatever reason, Dairihill is telling the Lady that the letter hasn't shown up yet. We'll use this to our advantage to grab the letter, so find Anvil on your map and get there by any means you wish. Make sure you have at least 500g with you, or a means of getting said cash before you get there. When you get to Anvil, search out one of our beggar friends and ask about Dairihill's office. The beggar will tell you that he doesn't really have any directions within the castle itself, but he will tell you for free that there are many secret places and people within. You're to look for the smith inside (Yes, there is a smith in town, but hes not the same one). Head south to the gate, follow the walkway and enter the Anvil Castle Courtyard. From here, look for the door into Anvil Castle and go inside. To your right you'll see a hall that leads to the Smithy, thats your next destination. If Orrin is in, have a chat with him. He'll immediately recognize you as the cat burgler sent for the letter, and tells you to follow him (That was easy, eh? It sure is good to have connections). He'll take you to a room with a hidden door, and he'll show you how to open it. Follow the hidden path to the Private Quarters, pick the lock and go inside. Start sneaking immediately now, you're still in a secret area, but the guards will be able to hear your footsteps. You'll come to a dead-end, with another moveable pillar to open a secret door. While still sneaking, hit that pillar and the wall will drop down. Careful now, as a guard is usually stationed just to your right. Head to the left and you'll be right there in front of Dairihill's office. Pick the lock on the door and head in. Go straight to her desk, pick that lock and you'll find the list of canidates. One part done, now we have to go find a forger. Sneak back through the secret passage to the Smithy, and make your way back to the town there. When you get back to town, look for your friendly neighborhood beggar. When you ask about a Master Forger, they'll let you know theres one in town that goes by the name "The Stranger." They'll mention he lives near the Chapel, in the Abandoned House, but occasionally hes running errands in the morning. Look for your quest marker and seek the forger. Ask him about a forged letter, and he says it can be done. It will take 24 hours though, and 500g. We have to do this, so go ahead and accept. He'll take the list of canidates from you, but will accept the payment once the job is finished. If you want, go outside his shack and wait for 24 hours, then go back in. He may not be there, I've seen him coming back from the castle the next day, or one time he wasn't even done after 24 hours. Nevertheless, keep waiting some more, and eventually the copy will be finished. Pay him the 500g, and get ready to depart for the Imperial City. Our next task is to get the letter sealed by the Imperial Watch. Once you return to the Imperial City, head to the Imperial Prison in the north-western part of city. To your left you'll see two doors that lead to the Offices of the Imperial Legion. Make sure you save now, this may get a bit hairy with the guards inside. One door will probably have a very tough lock on it, the other door's lock will be very easy. The first time I tried to get inside I chose the very hard door to the right, and walked right into the Captain himself, Adamus Phillida. That was bad, I had to reload...but this is the room we're looking for. On my next attempt I stealthed over to the easy lock, picked it, and found myself in a lobby. From there I went up the stairs to the left, and right into the Imperial Guard sleeping area. It sounds bad, but if you sneak through you'll be ok, as long as all the guards inside are asleep. Once you get to the other side, you'll find a door back to the Imperial Legion Offices. You'll now be in the room that was on the other side of the very hard lock outside (The right door). If Adamus Phillida is at his desk, you can stay stealthed at the top of steps and keep an eye on his shiny shoulder. When you see him leave the room, nows your chance to hit the desk. Stealth down the steps, and in the far left corner of the desk you'll see the seal. Hit it to seal your new list of recommendations, and stealth out the door to your right. If you have time you can pick the hard lock on the chest near the desk, if you've gained a few levels in the game you may find some decent gear in there, I found a nice set of armor. If you head back to the Imperial Prison gate you came from, you can also find the building the Guards use to store their weapons and armor. If you stealth in there you can pick up all sorts of heavy armor and weapons with the five finger discount =) In any case, we now have our new list of recommended Captains for Lady Umbranox, now we just need to deliver the letter personally. Head back to Anvil and head to the castle, or wherever your quest arrow points you. Hand the letter to Lady Umbranox, and she'll look it over. It appears her steward, Dairihill, was holding onto the letter so she could convince her Lady to hire her cousin for the position. Plan thwarted, Lady Umbranox decides to hire Lex as per your new recommendations, and gives you Transfer Letters to give to Lex. How sweet will that be, seeing the reaction on Lex's face when he realizes his games are over? Head all the way back to the Imperial City and look for Lex. He may be wandering all over the city, so use your quest marker to find his location. Both times I've done the quest hes ended up wandering the Waterfront district, a fitting place for him to receive the news. Obviously hes shocked and outraged, realizing the Gray Fox had something to do with this, and after all these years hes finally won. He'll eventually leave for Castle Anvil, good job, the Thieves Guild is safe from his hatred now. Head back to S'krivva in Bravil. She'll give you 500g for the cost of forging the letter, and another 500g for completing your objective. She'll also promote you to Shadowfoot and give you access to our good friend Orrin, our Smith contact in Anvil, as a new fence. Hes a bit stingy it seems though, as S'krivva puts it "Hes a tough negotiator, but he has more gold than the others." Anvil is also a bit out of the way, so I don't usually bother with Orrin, I tend to stick to Luciana. At this point, you've finished all the quests for S'krivva and Armand. They're the only Doyens in the guild, so you can guess what happens next...you get to finally meet the Gray Fox! The Gray Fox is always on the move though, so you won't always find him in the same spot. Before he'll come and inform you of his whereabouts you'll also have to have a total of 600g fenced to Ongar, Dar Jee, Luciana, or Orrin. When you've done that, the quickest way to get contacted by a messenger of the Gray Fox is to wait in the Imperial City. When you're ready, head there and eventually Methredhel will come find you. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Gray Fox's Quests +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Alright, you've completed all of Armand's and S'krivva quests, and you've fenced 600g or more. Waiting around in the Imperial City, eventually Methredhel will approach you. She'll inform you the Gray Fox has requested your presence, and to find him in Bruma (Where Ongar lives) in the house of Helvius Cecia. Head to Bruma, and find Helvius's house south-east of the Chapel. Inside you'll find the man himself, ready to offer you a quest. I'll tell you now that the rest of the Thieves Guild quests are more like dungeon crawls than looting and pillaging, so if you're combat skills are low you may be in for a hurtin'. Thats not to say you can't avoid a few battles, but you're going to have to fight a few tough ones, so you might as well make sure you have some good gear, you're decently proficient in a weapon, and you're skilled in whatever armor you chose. I also suggest that in your weapon arsenal you have at least one silver weapon at all times from now on, or something equivalent to bring down ghosts and vampires. If you have a good affinity for destruction magic, that should work too. *****Quest: Turning a Blind Eye***** The Gray Fox needs you to head to the Temple of the Ancestor Moths (Its not on your map yet, unless you've been exploring). He'll tell you its north of the town of Cheydinhal. Located there is an item known as the Savilla's Stone, he wants you to retrieve it for him. This temple is a place where Blind Moth Priests retire to, but know that not all of them are blind. The Gray Fox also mentions you cannot kill any of the monks, but if theres a guard at Savilla's Stone you may slay it/him/her without incurring a blood price. When you're ready, leave Bruma and head to Cheydinhal to begin your trek. In the beginning there doesn't seem to be any path leading north to the temple, so I just did some running, following the quest marker north. You'll have to climb a lot of hills on the way there, you'll pass a Lord's Estate on the way, and eventually you may see a path that will take you to the temple. If your Speechcraft and Personality skills are low, you may not get much out of the monks. The second time I came to the temple, I raised my rep with a monk named Holger and he led me to where the stone is being kept. He even unlocked two doors for me, heh heh. Ig you can't presuade a monk to help you, no prob. Just head up the hill to the Ancestor Moth Crypt and head on in. Not much to see in here, continue on to the Temple of the Moth Halls. If the monk opened the doors for you, hes gone now. Things begin to get hairy in here, you'll have to sneak through these catacombs to get to the Stone. There are a few guards around, so make sure to remove your boots if you're not Journeyman in Sneak (Hopefully you are by now), and if you hear any voices make sure you decrease your Sneak speed to a walk. There may be Moth Priests praying, keep your distance and head to the left. You'll open a few wooden doors, continue down the catacomb. Always be mindful of any voices you hear, if they hear footsteps they may begin looking around. Try to avoid the large rooms in the Catacombs, they usually have people inside. Just head toward the red marker on your map (Make sure this quest is active). Be careful, because near the end theres a rat in the hallway that you need to avoid, fighting may alert the guards. Eventually you'll find a door to the Catacombs of the Temple of the Moth. If theres no one behind you, make a new save, pick the lock on the door, and head in. This section can be tricky, its smaller than the last section, but theres also a few patrolling Blind Monks, at least during the daytime I know theres a few. The other crummy part is to continue forward, you have to sneak through the sleeping area of some Blind Moth Priests. Theres two ways into the room, if a theres a guard patrolling in there when you open the door, you may be in trouble. In that case, wait a bit so the guard can leave, then try to enter again. Follow your quest marker to the left if you entered the door nearest to the Temple of the Moth Halls. You'll come to a door that says Caverns of the Temple Moth. Forge ahead by picking the lock on the door. This next area is filled with some traps and nasty little things to keep intruders out. Always watch your feet for any trip wires that may be around, if you don't you may find a giant spiked ball lodged in your skull. Theres also a room with spikes covering the ground, but if you're a precise jumper you can make your way through. Theres other traps too, trip wires that release rolling logs at you, theres cracks in the floor that release harmful gases, and a skeleton and ghost waiting for you at the end of the area (Hope you brought a silver weapon or equivalent for the ghost!). Finally you'll come to a locked door that leads to the Shrine of the Moth. Finally, the last room! You'll come to a hallway leading to a large, square room. In the center area is the Savilla Stone, along with a Blind Monk Priest standing at it. You know what the Gray Fox said about no blood price on the guardian of the stone? Its time to make use of that, or if you have some really good sneak skills I have been able to just grab the stone to the right and take off. Then again, we never get to take anyone out as thieves, why not take advantage of this? If you do fight the priest, I'll tell you now hes no pushover, if you do have a high Sneak skill, hit him with a Sneak attack to improve your chances of winning the battle. Another word of warning, the large red stone in the middle of the room will also give off some sort of damaging burst, so if you want to fight the Prelate hit him once, then move far away from the stone to avoid taking extra damage. Your reward for finishing the Prelate will be an Akaviri Dai-Katana, which has some decent damage. When you're finished and you have the stone you can head to the left of the stone and find a room with a ghost and some mild treasure. You don't have to go here though, when you're ready to leave the catacombs just take the short cut. To the right of the stone you'll find a pathway to a chest and a set of steps going up. Inside the chest is a letter actually regarding the Gray Cowl worn by the Gray Fox. I don't believe its required you take this letter, but you can ask the Grey Fox about it later. When you're finished with the catacombs, head up the steps and you'll be outside the Temple well. Make your way back to Bruma to give the Gray Fox Savilla's Stone. Capital! You've retrieved the stone for him, he'll reward you and mention something about using the stone to pierce the Imperial's defenses. He'll then say its time to depart Helvius's house, and the Gray Fox will contact you again in time. These means we have to fence a total of 700g this time, and wait for a messenger like before. For the next quest, I suggest once again that you have some decent battle skills under your belt, and a weapon with the capability of bringing down magical creatures. If you haven't already, bring your fenced items amount up to 700g as requested, and wait for the Gray Fox's messenger in the Imperial City. *****Quest: The Arrow of Extrication***** *UPDATE* I've gotten tons of e-mails about this section. Please note there is more than one way to complete the quest. If you're part of the Mages Guild (Accepted into the Arcane University) you can go right up to the chest and take the Arrow without attacking Fathis. You're better off not attacking him anyway, because doing so will probably get you suspended from the Guild. Keep this in mind when you do the quest, Fathis shouldn't bother you if you've been accepted to the Arcane University. Thats the ideal way for a Mages Guild member to do this quest, if you're not that far yet you can use an Invisibility spell or scroll to possibly grab it. Thanks to Demon_Talade for first providing info about this, and to Evelyn S. for providing more input. When you've fenced your 700g or more, and you're ready for your next task, sit in the Imperial City for awhile. You'll be contacted by our good buddy, Amusei. Looks like he joined the guild after all, and is trusted enough to run errands for the Gray Fox. In any event, he'll let you know the Gray Fox is expecting you in Chorrol, in the house of Malintus Ancrus. Head to Chorrol now, you can find Malintus's house in the south-western part of town. The Gray Fox will tell you he used Savilla's Stone and has found something else he'll need for the plan hes devising. You have to locate and retrieve the Arrow of Extrication. He says the Arrow was recently acquired by the Bravil wizard by the name of Fathis Aren. The Gray Fox also mentions that there will be no blood price on Fathis if you choose to kill him, but only if the deed is done outside the castle walls. The reward for retrieving the arrow will be 500g. Head to Bravil, and look for your friendly neighborhood beggar. The beggar may tell you that Fathis has a tower just outside the city walls, which is where he keeps he prized possessions. You can check Fathis's room in the castle, but you won't find the arrow there (Although there are a few nice things to pilfer). Fathis is the only one that can open the door to his tower, so as it turns out you'll have to head to his room anyway. To find his room, head to the throne room in Bavil's castle, and up to the second floor. Find the door to the Lord's Manor North Wing and pick the lock. Once inside, watch for guards and sneak your way to the first door on your left, this one belongs to Fathis. I don't think hes ever here though, so shut the door behind you and loot the place. Of course the staff won't be here, Fathis keeps it in his tower with his other goodies. I came back to Fathis's room every two hours for an entire day, but he was never there, so the guy clearly doesn't sleep at all unless he returns there on certain days only. Anyway, since the tower door is locked, that means to get to the arrow we'll have to take the secret entrance. If you talked to the Count of Bravil, he actually mentions it in conversation when you ask about Fathis. If you look near the back of Fathis's room, you'll notice another special moveable pillar you can hit to open a door to the Bravil Wizard's Grotto. Be ready, however, as soon as you enter the Grotto you may come face to face with a Dremora. There will be more than one tough battle down here, so be prepared. With any luck the Dremora may drop a nice Dremora weapon. If you look at your map of the area, and scroll waaaay to the right you'll see the quest marker you need to get to. Theres a lot of twists and turns in the Grotto, but eventually they'll all lead to that location. The gate to your left doesn't lead to anywhere in particular, nor any great treasure, its mostly just a lot of twisting tunnels and a few little rats. The gate right in front of you (Coming from the castle) is where you want to go. There are several nasty badies down here though, including some scamps, a Conjurer (And anything she'll probably summon), as well as more Dremora. Be ready for some fights, and be mindful that there may be another enemy around the corner, so be careful where you fight. You'll know you're going the right direction when you have been running through some knee high water and you come to a section where you can dive down further. Theres some slaughter fish here, so you may want to take them out before going further. To continue on, you must dive down into the water and find a small submerged cave. The cave it about 15 yards or so down, you can spot it easier if you look for a pile of bones in front of it. Check your map to find exactly where the cave is located, it will be the pathway heading to the north. Swim through the cave quickly, and you'll arrive on the other side. If you found a door earlier that was locked, but required a key, you'll now be on the other side of that. I never found the key, but if anyone happens to come across it, please let me know. Continue through the grotto, you'll probably have to kill another Dremora and a Scamp, just follow the quest arrow till you finally come to a door leading to Bravil Wizard's Lair. This next section can be really difficult, or just difficult. One time I went here I encountered tons of tough monsters in pairs, other times I'd go into the same room and there would be one lone Conjurer there (Which was easy enough to sneak up on and do a Sneak Attack for 6x damage). It may be related to the time of day, I'm not sure. Anyway, make your way through this area, nothing too special, just some fights you'll have to deal with. There is a Flame Atronach halfway through the area, which can be a difficult fight, especially if you're running the game with max detail on your graphics, he can lag your computer during fights on occasion =( If that does happen, you're better off turning your settings down a bit so you complete the fight without a lot of lag. If you just can't seem to bring the Flame Atronach down, do your best to Stealth around him to the right. The last room always seems to have two enemies in it when I get there. Once there were two conjurers, another time a conjurer and a scamp. I don't have any good strategies for you, other than attempting to sneak some more around both of them. If that doesn't work, buff yourself if you can, pray to the Nine, and try to Sneak attack any Conjurers first. When you're done clearing the room or sneaking out, you'll find the door to Fathis's Tower finally. I would hit your Sneak ability immediately. Theres a chance, if you're good enough and lucky enough, that you can sneak your way up the tower to the 3rd floor where Fathis is located. Keep in mind there will be several Scamps, Conjurers, and/or Flame Atronachs wandering the area. If you watch their movements and stick to the shadows, you can make it to the 3rd floor. From there, you'll find Fathis in a small room across from where the stairs are located. Sneak over there, you'll see the chest you need in front of him on ground. Theres no way you'll be able to sneak in front of him and pick it, not without a little help anyway. An Invisible potion, spell, or scroll will allow you to grab it without alerting Fathis. If you don't have these, and you're not at least Apprentice with the Mages Guild, you may have to fight, so prepare to hit him with a Sneak attack and finish him off quick. If you're tough enough, you may finish him off quick without alerting his minions. When you're finished, grab the Arrowhead (It seems the arrow has been broken) and hightail it out of the tower. You may be able to use any form of Invisibility to loot the chest and take the arrowhead, but I haven't tried it myself. Any input would be great. Rather than sneaking up to Fathis, you can fight your way up, but the one time I tried it got rather...messy to say the least. I'm talking multi-man battles such as fighting Fathis, a Flame Atronach, and a couple Conjurers and their pets all at the same time. Now that you're out of the tower, arrowhead safely in your hand, head back to Chorrol to check in with the Gray Fox. Hand him the arrowhead and he'll let you know that his plan (Whatever it is) has reached the next phase. He needs to leave to have the Arrow of Extrication repaired, but before he goes he'll give you the 500g promised and promote you to Master Thief, yeah! He also lets you know that you can contact Fathis Ules in the Imperial City to sell your stolen goods. While Fathis Ules obviously has the best location among all 5 fences, as well as the largest sum of cash, I still prefer Luciana since shes not far from the Imperial City and haggling with her isn't as rough. Theres also another good reason to visit her often, check out the Misc section and I may describe what that is, heh heh. You're done here for now, the Gray Fox will take off again and let you know that he'll contact you again soon. As you can guess, the next mark you need to hit in your fenced items total is 800g. Once you've done that, wait around in the Imperial City again for your next mission. *****Quest: Boots of Springheel Jak***** Amusei will approach you again if you've done your 800g in fenced items. He says the Gray Fox requests your presence once more, in the town of Cheydinhal, within the house of Ganrendel. Pack your bags and head there now, Ganrendel's house can be found south of the East Gate. Head inside and talk to your Guild Master. He'll let you know that Savilla's Stone has shown him another item he'll need before his plan can be enacted. He wants you to acquire the Boots of Springheel Jak, a famous thief that died 300 years ago. The Gray Fox lets you know that the only known relative of Jak is a man known as Jakben, Earl of Imbel. Jakben resides in the Imperial City, so prepare to make your way back there to question Jakben about his ancestor's old boots. When you get to the Imperial City, ask a local beggar on Jakben's whereabouts. One will point you to the Talos City Plaza on the west side, and they say his house is located near the center of that area. They also mention that Jakben is a real night owl, only comes out at night. Head over to Jakben's house, and begin stealthing. You'll have to watch your back while you pick the lock on the front door, you'll be right out in the open so it isn't too easy to hide from prying eyes. Once inside, head to the second floor to look for the Earl. I don't believe you can sneak up on him, he seems to have some sort of magic item that allows him to detect living creatures nearby, so just go up to him and speak. He'll quiver and whimper in your awesome might, and asks that you don't hurt him. Get him to squeal about the family crypts in the basement, and he should give you a key. When you're done pestering him, sneak your way to the basement and look for the entrance to the crypts. You may encounter Jakben's house guest while you go through his house, be sure to avoid him if you can, he likes to yell for the guards. When you get to the crypt, prepare for some fights. We have a nice little infestation of vampires, how lovely. Pull out something pointy or heavy and prepare for some tough fights. You can try and sneak up behind one for a Sneak Attack, but I can't guarantee your Sneak is high enough to do it. There will be 3 or 4 vamps in the Crypt, along with a Timber Wolf for some reason. Don't go into the room where your green quest arrow is yet, clear out the other rooms just in case (You might find some good loot too, a Vampire Patriarch randomly dropped a Bitter Claymore for me that had a disintegrate property to it, heh heh. He was a tough fight though). If you can, avoid alerting the others when you begin to fight any of them. More than likely you'll contract the Hemophilia disease, check out my Misc section on how to avoid turning into a vampire if you're not ready to do so yet. When you clear out the crypt and loot the bodies and coffins, head to the back of the crypt where Springheel Jak's casket lies. There will probably be one more vampire here, and maybe a second enemy like a skeleton. Fight your guts out, don't just sneak for the coffin, then heal up when the fight is done. When you're ready, check out Jak's casket and read his diary for information on his boots. As it turned out, Jak was originally buried with his boots, but something happened...I'll let you read it and find out the rest, I spoil enough as it is. Just be sure you read the diary near the tomb to find out where the boots are located. After finding out where the boots have gone to, loot them and make your way back to the Gray Fox in Cheydinhal. Capital! You've brought the Gray Fox the Boots of Springheel Jak, which appears to be the last piece in the Gray Fox's plan. He needs some more time to consult Savilla's Stone, so he'll send for you once more when hes ready. You know, if you read Jak's diary, you'll notice he once knew a great thief, but can't seem to remember his name anymore...does that sound like the curse the Gray Fox has which makes everyone that knows him forget his name and identity? On top of that, the Gray Fox has been around 300 years or more, could it be that our Guild Master is a...vampire? We only seem to meet him indoors, away from the sunlight. Prehaps he favors beggars so much because they make the easiest cattle for him to feed on. I'm sure you're already thinking about a lot of this and more. Before you go he hands you 500g, and you'll get a message saying the last amount you need to fence is 1000g before you can begin the Gray Fox's master plan. If you haven't already hit that amount, go sneak through a castle or two and case the place (I don't recommend Cheydinhal's Castle, I didn't find much loot in the usual spots). When you're ready, wait for a contact in the Imperial City to receive your final message. *****Quest: The Ultimate Heist***** This is it, all of your training and running around has culminated to this moment. First things first, I'll let you know now that Oblivion 1.0 is very buggy when it comes to this quest. For some people, certain buttons you need to press in this quest won't work the first time. I suggest making MANY saves and frequently. If something goes wrong, you don't want to have to restart a new character, do you? Make Quick Saves often, and make a new save anytime you go through a doorway to a new zone. With that in mind, lets begin the quest =) Amusei will approach you and mention the Gray Fox is ready for you, and this time hes actually waiting in the Imperial City. Amusei will tell you to head over to the Elven Gardens district and look for the Gray Fox in the house of Othrelo. Othrelo's house is located in the north-eastern part of the zone. Step inside and you'll find the Gray Fox within. Are you ready for this? The Gray Fox actually wants to break in to the Imperial Palace and steal one of the Elder Scrolls! Talk about ambitious. He mentions there is no monetary reward for this quest, only the glory of completing the greatest heist of all time, becomming a legendary thief, and receiving an unnamed item afterwards. The Gray Fox says there is no buyer for the Elder Scroll, but he does have a personal need for the item. IF you accept the mission, he'll go into great detail and not so great detail on what you must do to attain the scroll. He mentions you cannot just saunter into the Palace and grab the scroll, too dangerous and theres an unbreachable door there anyway. Instead, using Savilla's Stone hes found out theres a path below the castle known as the Old Way which will get you around the unbreachable door and to the library. The Old Way was once an escape tunnel for Imperial Emperors, but its been long forgotten for centuries (Meaning its probably infested with nasty things). To get there you'll first have to travel through the sewers underneath the city. Then, using a key the Gray Fox pilfered off Octavo himself, you'll make your way through the Old Way. The Fox gives you the Springheel boots which you may need to reach a fairly high location, and you'll also need them for a long, long fall. He'll also give you the repaired Arrow of Extracation which will be used to open the final door in the Old Way (Make sure to bring a bow with you, I didn't the first time but happened to find one off a Skeleton Archer). You'll then find yourself within the Palace where you'll make your way to the library reading room, and fool the Blind monks there into thinking you're Celia Camoran. The monks think Celia asked to read the Elder Scroll, but as it turns out she'll be detained and we'll be there instead, hee hee. At fist you'll have to head to the castle and you'll need to activate the Glass of Time (I'll point this out later when you get to that point). It all sounds so EASY, doesn't it? I'm warning you right now, this is one heck of a dungeon crawl. Bring a weapon or two (At least one that can take down ghosts), some Smithing hammers, and a dozen or two lockpicks unless you trust your skill in the mini-game. When you're ready, lets go take care of that Glass of Time first. You actually head straight to the Imperial Palace and walk on in to the first floor, which is the Elder Council Chambers. Make sure the Ultimate Heist is your Active Quest, and look to see where the quest arrow is sending you. We need to activate the Glass of Time first before we head down to the sewers and look for the Old Way. Once inside the Palace, head to your left, don't worry about sneaking just yet. You'll eventually come to a set of stairs going down. Once you're out of sight of the guard, hit the sneak and begin to pick the lock on the door. Once you've picked the lock and you're on the bottom floor, make sure sneak is still working and the guard from the upper floor didn't hear you. Keep an eye up ahead, theres a guard that is patrolling the area. Wait for him to walk off in front of you, then head into the circular room to your right. Find a place off to the right that is concealed in the shadows, and wait there. Eventually the guard will pass through the room and right by you. When hes out of sight, keep heading to the right and out of the circular room. At the end of the hallway you'll find the Glass of Time, activate it, then make your way out of the palace the way you came. Time to head to the sewers. Head to the Imperial City Arboredum and look for your green quest arrow to find the sewer grate. It'll be very tiny and kind of hidden next to a tree. Take one good breath of fresh air, then head on down. Welcome to the South East Tunnel. If you scroll around on your map, you should be able to find the quest arrow. Just plow your way through these sewers, working your way toward the arrow. Nothing really special here, there will be on door where you'll have to activate a lever to open the gate, but other than that the sewer is only infested with rats and mud crabs, nothing to be scared about. Eventually you'll come to a door leading to Beneath the Bloodworks. A little creepy, eh? Check your map again and locate where the quest arrow is pointing. When you first enter the area, take the first right gate you encounter. You'll see some creature on the other side, probably a skele or a vamp. Kill it, then check the table in this room. You should find a Potion of Cure Disease, grab it but don't drink it yet! Even if you've been infected with Hemophilia, there will be many more lovely vampires to come, you might as well save it. Head north from this room and you'll find yourself on a bridge/catwalk. Jump down from here and head to the gate on your right. You should find another catwalk, but don't jump down from this one...yet. Head across to the next room where you'll find a lever for one of the remote gates. Hit that, then head back to the catwalk we were just on. Jump off, and you can now proceed through the northern door. If you jumped or fell off the 2nd catwalk, don't worry. You can head south and around the corner to get back up to the lever room, I'm just saving you some time and a potential fight or two. After you head through the northern door you'll go through a twisting little tunnel. If you take a look at your map, you'll notice your next target location is just to your left, but one of those remote gates in the water is blocking the path. Head north through a swinging gate to find the lever, and probably a vampire. Slay the creature, then hit the lever in this room to remove the gate and proceed west to the last room here. You'll open the gate using the key the Fox stole off Ocato, revealing an entrance to the Palace sewers. We haven't even reached the Old Way yet! Head on down into the Palace Sewers. Surprisingly this section is very short, with only rats to speak of again. Head north-west from your starting position and just follow the path. Its linear, so you can't really screw up. If you made sure to hit the Glass of Time in the palace, the door to the Old Way should be there waiting for you. We still have a long way to go, be patient, I've done this once already and now a second time as I type this =) You're not in the first part of the Old Way. Theres a quest arrow on your map, but theres actually three different doors you can take to get to the next section. The first time I ran this area I took my first left which lead to the closest stairs to the Old Way. You can take the door marked at the quest arrow, and you'll run into a horde of ghosts and skeles early on, but if you took the first left you'll eventually make up for it later on, so the choice is yours, pick your poison. I think you'll run into less enemies by taking the first left path, but its all randomly generated anyway. Anyway, whichever door you decide to take, you'll find yourself in another area called The Old Way. Nothing much to say here, its all very linear, so fight and/or sneak your way through the area till you find a door leading to the Lost Catacombs. This place is pretty dark, so some nightvision would be helpful, although not necessary. The undead in this area can be snuck past if you have some good sneaking skills and stay in the darkness. This area is also pretty linear, but theres one thing I'd like to point out. You'll eventually come to a fairly well lit room with several undead in the middle. I don't particularly enjoy fighting multiple undead if I can avoid it, so inside that room you'll notice a small pathway that goes off to the right. Take that and go around the room, you may even be able to stick to the shadows and sneak past any undead you find down that path. You should be heading in a north- eastern direction, eventually you'll come to another semi-lit room with a door that is remotely locked further down. *UPDATE* Make a fresh save here, trust me on this. Many people have run into a bug here, and if you do the only way to open the door is to reload and try again. X-Box users, before you reload you'll want to clear your system chache as well. Just be patient, this is the only way around the bug until Beth can fix it. Not everyone will experience the bug, I never did in 3 runs of this quest. You may encounter a similar bug on other buttons down here, just use the same strategy. This is the first place you'll need to use Jak's Springheel Boots. Go ahead and equip them now, and go ahead and leave them on for the rest of the quest. You may not have time to put them on when you need them later, trust me. If you look at the northern end of this room you'll notice a set of broken stairs. Using the boots, jump up to the ledge where you'll find a button you need to push. Hit it, then walk across the room to the other side to hit the other. The door at the eastern end should now be open, head on through and to the door with the picture of the White Tree on it, which leads to the Hall of Epochs. We're getting closer to the Imperial Palace now, stay with me here. You'll find yourself no longer in the dark catacombs and once again in a stone-tiled area. You'll be within a fairly symmetric room with a large pillar at the far end...with two statues on either side that just don't seem to be perfectly still...hmm. Inspect the pillar and you deduce this is where you must fire the Arrow of Extracation to open the final door into the palace. You must have spoken to Miss Cleo, because you also figure that you need to step on a plate somewhere in the room to get the pillar to rotate 180 degrees, and it has to be within clear view of the pillar. If you look across the room from the door you came through, you'll notice two red crystals, this is where you must fire the arrow. If you head that direction though you'll notice there are walls on either side preventing you from getting in. You'll need to find a way to bring those walls down before you can fire the arrow and get inside the Palace. Check your map, you should see a path upstairs in the southern end of the large room. Pick the lock on the door and head in. Immediately to your left you'll see a button, hit that to open a door downstairs in this new room. Head down the stairs across the hall from this button, and then through the door you just opened. You'll eventually come to another room called the Hall of Epochs again. This section area is short, I promise. Head through this 2nd area called the Hall of Epochs, keep heading north even though your quest arrow is probably pointing back to the first room called the Hall of Epochs. This area is very small and completely linear except for one small room with some treasure chests, so Sneak around if you can and keep going forward. Eventually you'll come to a dead-end with a button, and two rooms on either side with coffins within. Grabs whats inside the coffins if you want, then hit the button at the dead-end. This will remove the walls in the previous area we were in so we can shoot our Arrow of Extracation at the pillar. *UPDATE* This is a small little tip that you can use to your benefit, but I think it will take quite a lot of time and may be useless to most of you. Nevertheless, eventually the statues in the room will come to life. If you cannot beat them by fighting, and you cannot sneak past them, you have another alternative. You can push them back toward the other zone called "Hall of Epochs." If you remember, there is a door leading to that area that can only be opened with the button on the wall nearby. If you use the boots of Springheel Jak, jump up to the statues, and push them all the way to that room and hit the button, you'll basically trap them in there. Its a long process, I know, but it can be used as a last ditch. Thanks to compsonheir for the tip. sirbular4885 also suggests you can use the boots to just push the statues off the back of their pillars, which can help you Sneak past them. We're done here, so head back to the other room called the Hall of Epochs (Why did Bethesda call them both the same thing, I dunno). You'll probably see a lone zombie or two in the area now that the walls have been removed. Send them to the afterlife with a few good smacks, then when the room has been sufficiently cleared, make a clean save at this time! If you have any Iron Arrows you can equip them at this time to practice the shot you're going to take, if you have no other arrows you can spare you may have to make use of your save multiple times. Now, you'll find a little switch you can step on right between the two red crystals we scoped out earlier. Step on that switch now, and turn to the east to look at the pillar. You'll notice it rotate now, showing the keyhole you need to shoot from all the way back here. What a nice little elaborate security system. Take a few practice shots with any Iron arrows you may have, when you think you're prepared pull out your Arrow of Extracation and let it fly. droknar says if you shoot at the hilt of the statues sword, often times it will go in, this may or may not work for everyone, depending on height of PC, and Marksman level, so be sure to make a Save first and use some Iron Arrows. If you hit the mark you'll hear a funny sound, and the pillar will begin to rise, showing you the path into the Palace that you've been looking so hard for. Before you head over there, make sure you pull out your normal weapons...I have a feeling those statues beside the pillar are going to want to move. Take the statues out, although the fight won't be easy. I have been able to sneak past the statues though, so if you can't seem to beat them hopefully your Sneak skill is good. If you try to take their weapons, you'll find they crumble into dust, bummer. Before you head through the door under the pillar, be SURE to make a fresh save here, trust me. Many people have had problems in the next room with guards seeing you right away, this seems to be a bug of sorts. Just make the save, and turn on your Sneak. If a guard in that room spots you, you're done for basically, so just reload and try to wait a few hours and see what happens. If you take the stone door beneath the pillar, you'll find yourself in the Imperial Guard Quarters. Make sure you're stealthing from now on, there are no more battles from this point on, unless you want a price on your head. You'll be in a room with several sleeping guards, be on your best behavior. Sneak to either of the two exits in the room, the left or right door, and head on in. Close the door behind you if you want to be careful. I don't believe theres a guard patrolling the rest of the floor, so you may be able to get to the next area easily. In any case, head through the door in front of you and you'll be in the familiar circular hallways of the Imperial palace. You're now on the 3rd floor though, which if off-limits to all civilians, especially you. Head down the hallway to your left, and you'll find a set of stairs leading up to the Elder Scrolls library, first floor. *UPDATE* As it were, I totally missed the lever near the Moth Priest on the 1st floor of the library, which is used to open the remote door. You can still go straight to the 2nd floor if you wish, but I've updated the quest info here. Its actually pretty funny, I pickpocked a key right off the Blind Monk and NEVER saw the lever right beside him =P Thanks to all of you that pointed this out, SuperAfroBoy was the first one =) On this floor there is a patrolling guard, so be very careful as you make your way down the hallway. Stay stealthed always, and hide in the shadows whenever possible. Your quest arrow will lead to a door halfway down the hallway, you can enter from here. It will lead to the first floor of the library, and theres also a gate in there that has to be opened remotely. If you look left of the gate you'll see a Blind Monk sitting in a chair, the lever to open the door is to his right, so head around the hall to get to him. There is another way in, you can always sneak to the 2nd floor if you wish, and then head through the door in the middle of the hallway to get to the Library (Which is what I did the first time I did the quest). Anyway, either way you will get access, be sure to start sneaking. Make a fresh save here if you got to this point without alerting anyone, if you did alert anyone you're better off reloading to a previous save. You'll find yourself within the library itself, with Blind Moth Priests all around. In the middle of the room you'll see a chair. Sit down there, wait, and don't say a word. Soon a Blind Moth Priest will come down the stairs and bring you the scroll the Gray Fox requested. Pick it up, booya, its yours! Now the final tricky part, we gotta get the heck outta here. When you stand up, you HAVE to turn your sneak back on. These Priests begin to get very suspicious, and even though they can't see they can hear well enough. You need to head back up the steps to the 2nd floor, so take the spiral staircase up to the next floor, be sure to walk if your Sneak skill isn't high enough. We're going to take the short cut out of here and bypass the Old Way entirely (We still have to trek through the sewers though). Once you're back on the second floor, start heading counter-clockwise again, being careful to watch for the guard. Make your way to the stairs, which will lead to the Moth Priest's Quarters. Theres nothing to see here, so continue heading down the next hallway, counter-clockwise of course, being sure to avoid the patrolling Moth Priest in the hallway. You'll finally come to the last floor, the Imperial Battlemage's Chambers. I'll tell you now, I've only been able to sneak into the Ocato's actual bed chamber without alerting the lady there once, so when the time comes to enter that room, be mindful where the exit is to the Old Way and use it! Be sure your Springheel boots are on too. When you're ready, make your way down this last hallway. Theres a guard here patrolling as usual, so stick to the shadows and all that. Pick the lock on the door halfway down the hallway, and be prepared. The lady mage on the other side may or may not be in the next room waiting. If she isn't there, she may come in at any moment, so don't get comfy. She has some tough spells too. Don't pout if you don't get to loot the items on this floor, I've never found anything of great worth. There is a display case filled with potions, but I rarely use potions so I didn't bother with it. Eventually head to the next room by picking the lock on either door (Or just walk/run on through if a door has already been opened). If the lady mage wasn't in the first room, she'll most likely be in the second. Sneak if you can to the fireplace to drop on down and escape, if she spots you just make a run for it. You'll fall for quite awhile before you'll finally end up at the beginning of the Old Way, just outside the sewers. You're basically home free now! All you have to do is retrace your steps through the sewers to get back outside to the free world. I'll leave that up to you, shouldn't be too tough since you've already cleared the path (Unless you snuck your way there). You may have to fight one or two vampires Beneath the Bloodworks, so save your Cure Disease Potion(s) until you've seen sunlight again. The quest arrow will actually take you through the Market Sewers instead of the South East Sewers you took originally. Its probably a little shorter, so just follow your arrow. When you're finished with the Market Sewers, you'll find yourself in the basement of the Best Defense in the Market district. Head up the steps, out the front door, and breath a sigh of relief. Now all you have to do is head back to the Gray Fox and present him with a fabled Elder Scroll. Capital job! The Gray Fox says hes been studying how to decifer the scroll for seven years, but he'll still need some time to study it further. While he begins to work on that, he has one final little task for you. I promise this doesn't involve vampires or anything else nasty. He gives you a ring and asks that you head to Anvil and speak to Lady Umbernox. He asks that you only see how she reacts to the ring, and if she asks whom the ring is from, say its from a stranger. Make the long trip to Anvil once again, and head to the castle. Hopefully Lady Umbernox will be waiting in the throne room. If you look to your left you may notice the Stranger sitting down. Destinatus says if your Sneak is any good, make a fresh save and check out what the Stranger has. You may be able to take the Boots of the Olympian, which will have lots of nice little stats on them. If you can't take the boots without getting caught, but you really want them, grab the boots and anything else, then hightail it to Armand or S'krivva to take care of bounties. Speak to Umbernox about the ring whenever you want, and a scene will ensue. I won't describe everything that happens, its quite a bit of info though! I will say its rather interesting. Lets just say Lex might have gotten his last wish when leaving the Imperial City. Anyway, after the events unfold and the dust clears, you're the new guildmaster of Thieves Guild, woooooooo! You'll receive a key to the new Thieves Guild Hall, which is located in the Garden of Dareloth in the Waterfront district. Theres a nice cozy room for you in there with lots of souvenirs from your Thieves Guild quests, like the Stone of Savilla. You can often find Armand at the top of the stairs...for whatever reason...its not like you have a use for him anymore. That just about wraps things up for the Thieves Guild. If anyone else has any information or corrections to contribute, please send me an e-mail using the address I listed in the contact information. Check out the Misc section if you're looking for any other related tips, or the FAQ if you're looking for a quick answer to your question. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Miscellaneous +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ *****The Gray Cowl***** Many people have felt let down by the rewards of becomming Gray Fox in the Thieves Guild. In all honesty, the Cowl can be a great asset or a waste of space, it all depends on how you use it. If you notice, when you have the Cowl on your bounty will start off at 500 (Unless you had a bounty previously on your character). Using the Cowl, you could wipe out an entire town if you felt like it, and when a guard tried to approach you, just take the Cowl off and submit to the guard (Hit the block key, then activate/talk to him) and he'll let you go. siryumyum decided to play around with the Cowl more than I did, and submitted a few more properties: 1. While wearing the Cowl, your infamy is always 100, while your fame is 0. 2. The bounty on the Gray Fox's head is equal to 500 minus any bounty your PC currently has on his head. For example, if you haven't done any crimes with the Cowl on yet, and you have 25 bounty on your head currently, the Gray Fox will have 475 bounty. 3. Because you and the Gray Fox have your seperate identities, if you accept a quest as the Gray Fox, you cannot turn that quest in as yourself, and visversa. 4. If you use the Cowl to help you carry goods inside dungeons (The Cowl will decrease your encumberance), be sure to learn a Feather spell, or carry a potion with you. You won't be able to get near towns with the Cowl on, and normal merchants probably won't sell to you anyway, so bring a potion or spell for the trip back to town. *****Avoid Becomming a Vampire***** You will more than likely run into vampires in your travels through the game, and you certainly will run into them during the final Thieves Guild quests. Now, some of you may be into the whole vampire thing with all of the bonuses it can bestow to your stats, but the first time I fell asleep and became a full fledged vampire, I wasn't quite ready to go through the steps to get a cure. If you're in the same boat and want to cure the Hemophilia, you only have a few options open to you most likely. First off, I decided to head to a church and see if I could pray to the alter of a god and get my disease removed. Unfortunatly, if you've done enough Thief quests, your Infamy will probably be higher than your Fame (Unless you've been busy doing other quests). This will ultimately piss off the gods, and they probably won't want to speak with you. The next option I thought I'd try is learning a Cure Disease spell. As luck would have it, I hadn't been using my Restoration magic very much, and I didn't even have enough Magicka to cast one anyway. If you're curious, a Cure Disease spell requires 50 in Restoration, and around 200 Magicka (Depending on how good your skill really is). You can find the spell sold in many Chapels, if you're interested. As it is, it seems there is only one other option to cure the Hemophilia disease before it becomes full blown Vampirism. You'll have to seek out a Cure Disease Potion or Scroll. Your best chance to find one of these is to scope out Mage Guilds throughout the world, or any place that sells Alchemy supplies. One drink should take care of things Once you find a place that does sell Cure Disease potions or scrolls, I would suggest buying a few of each. You're going to run into vampires more than once in this game, and you might as well be prepared so you don't have to trek back to a shop, or try to remember where you bought it to begin with. *****Lockpicks***** Many people have told me they run out of lockpicks, and wonder where they can buy more. First off, if you practice enough with the little lockpick mini-game you shouldn't have to worry about needing many lockpicks. It doesn't take too long to get good at it, and after awhile you'll be able to go through whole dungeons only using a few picks, no reloads. First off, before you pick ANY lock, be sure to do a Quick Save or make a new one. That way, if you find yourself screwing up big time and breaking locks like crazy, you can reload before you go through 1000. Next, you're going to need a little patience. This doesn't take much, it takes about 30 seconds to pick any lock in this game, just think of the time and concentration it takes to pick on in real life? Anyway, begin on any tumbler you feel like, I personally like to start from the right and work my way left. Begin tapping the tumbler up, and watch how fast it moves. Occasionally (Depending on your Security ability) the tumbler will go up slowly, pause, then fall again. This is when you want to left-click or hit your button on your controller. Just give it time, it doesn't take long. The higher your Security score, the more often the tumbler will rise slowly, even on Very Hard locks! It just takes a little practice, before you know it looking for lockpicks will be a thing of the past. If you're still looking for locations of lockpick dealers, you need to look no farther than your fences. Armand will sell you lockpicks for 5g during your first Thieves Quest, stock up on some then. After that Ongar should have a few in Bruma, and I've bought and stolen some off Luciana in Bravil. The next section will have locations of all the fences. *****Fence Locations (And a Good Way to Acquire Money)***** Fences will be your best buddies in the Thieves Guild. Why else did you join the Guild, if not to sell your stolen goods? The monetary rewards from quests sure isn't a lot, the only other reward is the Gray Cowl...which would be worth it. Anyway, as you progress in the Thieves Guild, you will have more fences available for use. At first, you'll only be able to talk to Ongar. I prefer Luciana over all the fences, mostly because she has a decent amount of cash to work with, shes easy to negotiate compared to the final two fences, and I already had a house in Bravil, which isn't too far from the Imperial City. Not to mention, if you pick-pocket Luciana, you can get a key to the chest outside her house...which contains ALL the items she has in her possession to sell... meaning you can actually sell her a load of goods, loot the chest, get those items back, and sell them back to her! Its a nice little way to line your pocket with gold, eh? Heres a list of all the fences, and where you can find them normally: *Ongar: The Trap and Tack in Bruma, and inside his house other times. *Dar Jee: Likes to pop in the Five Claws Lodge now and then, and wander town *Luciana Galena: Spends her time mostly in the Lonely Suitor Lodge, and her house. She also likes to go swimming in the lake on occasion (She won't sell to you there I think, heh). *Orrin: Find him in the Smithy of Castle Anvil, his bedroom is there too. *Fathis Ules: I've gotten a lot of e-mails about this guy. Some people say he gets bugged once you become the Gray Fox, but I've only been able to fence from him in two places anytime. Occasionally you can find Fathis in the Tiber Septim Hotel around 6:00PM, and most days he likes to stop in the King & Queen Tavern in the Elven Gardens around 12:30PM. After you become the Gray Fox, he will show up in the Guild Hall, but he won't sell there. If you find him on the streets, he won't sell. He sometimes spends the morning in an Orc's house in the Elven Gardens, won't sell there either. The fact he doesn't sleep in his own house, that he won't sell to you in the Thieves Guild Hall, and he can get super bugged after an unrelated side quest are all not good. If you still want to use him, HybridSyndrome has provided the location of a mod that will fix him at: http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=2106 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FAQ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Q1) Help! I was on the Final Heist, and the Blind Moth Priests spotted me before I could get the Elder Scroll. Now I have to return to the Gray Fox without it, what can I do? A1) Well, I don't have a good answer for you on this one. As far as I know you cannot complete the quest without bringing him the Elder Scroll, and once you leave the castle you cannot get back to the library. Until Beth decides to patch this (They may not), there are two things you can do. If you were a good boy or girl, you should have been saving frequently, so you could just reload from a previous save. If this won't work for you, PC users can add the scroll to their inventory using the console, then the Gray Fox should still accept it from you. The command to do this is: player.additem 00022DB0 "1" This way you get the Elder Scroll in your inventory, you can escape the castle early still like your quest says, and you can complete the quest. Thanks to theringmaster for confirming my hypothesis on this =) Q2) I'm on the last Heist, and I'm in the room with the two buttons and the door that is opened remotely. I've hit both buttons, but the door hasn't opened, whats wrong? A2) This seems to be a bug, and it happens very, very frequently with people. I honestly haven't had any trouble with the door myself, I've done it three times with no problems, so I'm left to believe this is a reoccuring bug that affects people now and then. My best advice is to save before you get to that room (Fresh save), and try to hit the buttons. If this doesn't open the doors, reload and try again. X-Box users, you also want to clear out your cache memory before you reload, I've heard this can often aid you in getting the door open. You don't need to hit the buttons in any certain order, and there isn't a timer on it to my knowledge, so just keep reloading till you can get it to work. Hopefully Bethesda will take a look at this and patch it soon. Q3) I'm done with Armand and S'krivva's quests, and now I'm supposed to be waiting for the Gray Fox to contact me. I've been waiting in the Imperial City for weeks now, but no one has come up to me! What am I doing wrong? A3) I've ran into this problem once before. First off, make SURE you have fenced the proper amount before you begin waiting. If you aren't up to the new total yet, go see a fence and sell some more stolen goods. If your fenced goods total is up to par, then next make sure that your Thieves Guild quest is in the "Active Quests" section. Go to your "Current Quests" area and find the quest that says that you've fenced the amount you need, now you need to wait for a Thieves Guild representative. Click on this quest to make sure it gets sent to your Active Quests section. Lastly, the location you wait for a member of the Thieves Guild may be important too. I once waited in the middle of the Marketplace district in the Imperial City for a week and didn't get a contact. Then, I fast traveled to another place in the Imperial City and waited one hour right by the gate, behind the guards. Amusei was there immediately after, so give that a shot if you're having trouble. Making sure you don't try to kill Methredhel or Amusei in any missions could also help =) Q4) I'm doing the quest "Ahdarji's Ring" and I picked up two rings from the jewelry box, now Ahdarji won't complete the quest for me, what do I do? A4) This is another quest bug, it seems the jewelry box will occasionally have two of the rings inside. Whatever you do, DON'T pick up both of them! In the case you have, and you cannot go back to a previous save, PC users can type: player.removeitem 00035E95 "1" to remove one of the rings. I've been told you may need to do this twice to get Ahdarji to speak with you. Thanks to aquadog for first sending me info on this bug, and the quick fix. warpedchild13 tells me you can also get yourself suspended from the Thieves Guild (Steal from one), then pay the blood price to get readmitted and then Ahdarji should speak with you. Q5) I try to go into Chapels to use the alters, but all of the gods hate me. What can I do to regain their favor? A5) This seems to be an Infamy thing. By doing Thieves Guild quests, your Infamy will gradually rise, and if its greater than your Fame, the gods will not bestow you with blessings anymore. If you're a PC user, you could use the console to change this, but otherwise the only legit way to change it is to do quests for more worthy groups like the Mage's Guild to increase your Fame. Q6) Can I be a part of other guilds as well as the Thieves Guild? A6) Yes! I'm currently head of the Thieves and Mages Guild, and I plan on moving to the Fighters Guild next, so you can be part of multiple guilds. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Credits +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks to GameFaqs for posting this guide Thank you Bethesda for making such a great game Thanks to siryumyum for some more tips on using the Gray Cowl Thanks to theringmaster for confirming for me that you can add the Elder Scroll to your inventory to fix the Final Heist mission Thanks to aquadog for first telling me about the Ahdarji bug, and a quick fix Thanks to warpedchild13 for another way to get around the Ahdarji bug Thanks to Evelyn S. and Demon_Talade for giving tips for Mages on the Arrow of Extracation quest Gracias to David.mrwally for another tip on May the Best Thief Win quest Merci to RussianReefer for reminding me of an alternative way of getting info on joining the Thieves Guild Thanks to scissorslizard for another way to retrieve the diary in "May the Best Thief Win" Thanks to Syme for letting me know of a fallback quest you can do if Methredhel turns in the diary for the "May the Best Thief Win" quest Thanks to SuperAfroBoy for first pointing out the lever in the Imperial Library Thanks to Scheherazade for the tip on using Life Detection spells Gracias to droknar for a tip on shooting the Arrow of Extracation Spanks to Jink for letting me know my Savilla Stone location was rather mixed and confusing =) Thanks to Destinatus for some info about the Boots of the Olympian Thanks to HybridSyndrome for info on where to find a Fathis Ules fix Thanks to compsonheir & sirbular4885 for tips on the statues in Ultimate Heist Thanks to phill0037 for info on how to clear the cache for the X-box users +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Copyright Notice +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This piece of work is copyright Nick Bartosic c)2006. If you want to add this to your site, please contact me for permission first. All information written has come from me alone, unless otherwise specified. This information may not be sold without permission. If you wish to use any part of this guide in your own FAQ or Walkthrough, just send me an e-mail. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Contact Info +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ At this time I'm disabling contact info again. I'm just receiving too much mail from people, and even though I've replied to nearly all of it, I just don't have the time anymore in my busy schedule to tackle it all, update the FAQ, and still take care of the rl business. A good portion of the e-mails can be solved simply by reading a little further in the guide, checking out the FAQ section, or just trying a few new things in the game. I also get a lot of e-mails regarding information on quests not related to the Thief Guild, about unrelated items, or "tips" that are nothing more than info from the guide reworded. If you have a legitamate question, do yourself a favor and check out the Oblivion boards at Elderscrolls.com, chances are when you do encounter a problem, you can get an answer there much quicker than you can from me by e-mail. Sorry to be like this, but with the little free time I've had in the last week, I haven't even been able to launch the game =P