One of the most powerful organizations in Skyrim is the Thieves Guild. Her followers prefer to constantly remain in the shadows and from there, secretly and unnoticed, carry out their dark deeds. Nevertheless, Dovahkiin will have the opportunity to join the famous guild and even receive certain privileges for this.

Before becoming part of the thieves' elite, the main character will have to complete a chain of tasks. Almost all of them will not cause any difficulties, but there is one that will make even Skyrim veterans sweat. “Pursuit” is the name of this quest and it is what will be discussed in the article.

Start of the chain

First, Dovahkiin needs to go to Riften. This city is famous for its skilled mead makers and is located in the southeastern part of the kingdom of Skyrim. The Thieves Guild, for reasons best known to itself, decided to establish its headquarters here, carefully hiding it in the sewer network.

To start the first of the tasks in the chain, the hero just needs to take a walk through the city market. There, a representative of the thieves' fraternity named Brynjolf will approach him and offer to do a small business. Its essence is to steal the ring and slip it to a local merchant, for which the latter will be thrown into prison.

After this, Dovahkiin will need to collect debts from local businessmen, infiltrate the estate, take part in showdowns between mead makers and complete other tasks that the Thieves Guild will give him. The "Pursuit" quest will become available towards the end of the chain. It's time to talk about it in more detail.

Passing the quest

So, Dovahkiin helped Karliah get evidence of her innocence, after which the thief invited him to meet at the Wild Flask tavern. It is at this point that the Skyrim quest “Pursuit” begins. Having arrived at the place, the hero needs to convince Brynjolf to open the Guild vault and make sure that it is empty.

Now Dovahkiin needs to go to the Riftweald estate and find out what Mercer did with the loot. The problem is that the house is guarded by a certain Wald. The guard can either be killed or persuaded to give up the key to the estate and leave the territory. One way or another, the path to the estate will be open and the hero will have no choice but to go there.

Once in the house, the first thing you should do is inspect the suspicious closet on the first floor. Behind him there will be a secret passage that will lead the hero to a secret room. Here on the table are Mercer's plans, which Dovahkiin must take to Brynjolf to complete the quest.

There are some useful tips that will make it easier for you to complete the "Pursuit" task. "Skyrim", the passage of the main storyline of which was supposed to teach you that any situation in the game can be solved in several ways, and this time does not deviate from its traditions. So, for example, Wald, who is guarding the estate, can not only be killed, but also persuaded to leave his post. And you can do this in two ways:

• If the hero has a high Speech skill, he can deceive Vald and tell him that Mercer is waiting for him in Markath. The watchman will give the key and go home.
• From Vex you can learn that Wald owes money to Maven. The latter will agree to forgive the guard, but will ask for an ambiguous feather for this. It can be found at the bottom of a lake near Riften.

Additionally, many of the locks in Mercer's estate will require you to have an expert level of Lockpicking skill. If you level up this skill, you can find several valuable items.

Bugs

During Skyrim "Pursuit" you may encounter several unpleasant bugs:

• Karla doesn’t want to go to the tavern at all and, accordingly, the quest stops there. This problem is solved using the console command Setstage tg07 20. It teleports the naughty thief to the appointed place, and you can safely continue to complete the task.
• If you visited Mercer's estate and took the plans from there before starting the Pursuit quest, the task will be bugged and its completion will become impossible. The situation will be corrected by the commands Setstage tg07 10 (it will launch the task) and Setstage tg07 60 (it will return the plans to the table in the estate).

Continuation of the quest chain

Dovahkiin, if desired, can continue to carry out orders from the Thieves Guild and make decisions that will ultimately affect the entirety of Skyrim. “Pursuit” is one of the most important quests in the chain, but far from the last. After its completion, the hero will not only have to sort out the squabbles of the thieves and join a mysterious cult, but also gain one of the powers of the dark goddess Nocturnal.

By the way, under a certain set of circumstances, the Dragonborn can even lead the Thieves Guild and return it to its former greatness. For this he will receive excellent armor, an amulet that replaces the Speech skill, and, of course, a key to a treasure chest. In general, thieves' quests are not only interesting for their plot, but can also bring good profit.

The justice system in The Elder Scrolls 5, unlike its predecessors, is no longer centralized. Now your offenses in one city will not be a reason for prosecution in others. This theoretically allows you to remain a respectable citizen of Skyrim in some settlements and be a desperate thug in others. In practice, this approach is not so practical, as it is associated with a number of difficulties, including time. After all, the pursuit of guards is regarded as a battle, with all the ensuing consequences. For example, it is more difficult to use the very convenient fast travel function.

It is only natural that the role-playing game Skyrim provides a wide field for crime. The most common of them will be theft, which in any case entails criminal prosecution. I'm not talking about those players who decided to clear any area of ​​the world of Skyrim from intelligent life. When passing tes 5 to the site, I try not to cause damage to civilians, since otherwise the meaning of the game changes somewhat, and the passage itself is delayed. Such fans of the Elder Scrolls series are unlikely to be interested in the process of surrendering to the authorities. But no one is safe from an accidental blow, especially from magic to city residents, so it’s easier to repent and pay a fine. Fortunately, the amount for such offenses is simply ridiculous, as well as for attempted theft.

So, after committing any offense, our character is immediately assigned a reward by the city in whose area of ​​responsibility the crime was committed. That is, the law also applies in villages, although it is not always easy to clearly determine whether a settlement belongs to any TES 5 city. In any case, from this moment we become a real criminal, and sometimes the victim begins to attack us. In this case, you just need to remove the weapon (magic is also considered a weapon) with the “R” key, after which they stop attacking us. And we see a guard running up who doesn’t mind talking to us. This is where we have the opportunity to choose from three points. By the way, if you continue to behave aggressively, waving weapons, then there will be no negotiations. So it is necessary to remove the weapon so that there is an opportunity to surrender to the authorities. And now, in the menu of conversation with a local law enforcement representative, we have a choice.

You can calmly pay the fine; fortunately, for theft and other minor crimes it is not high, as a rule, it does not even exceed one hundred gold coins. Bloodshed, especially fatal ones, will cost you significantly more in Skyrim. After paying the fine, all charges against the character are dropped, so this is the most convenient option for resolving conflicts. True, there is one thing, all stolen items will be confiscated from the inventory. Such items are marked stolen (stolen). You can get around this trouble in the following way: before the security guard arrives, throw all the stolen items directly onto the floor. After paying the fine and the search, you can take away the valuables again. What is interesting is how guards and merchants accurately determine the status of stolen items. Let me remind you that it is impossible to sell stolen goods from many honest traders.

The third option for the outcome of the conversation with the guards is to continue the battle, that is, refuse to surrender. You can try to simply avoid the conversation using the usual Tab key, but the consequences will be similar. So the battle will continue - you will finally take the criminal path.

You can directly surrender to Skyrim authorities without paying a fine. Likewise, all stolen items will be confiscated from you and placed in prison. In this unpleasant establishment, your skills will deteriorate, but you can escape. However, this will again require additional game time, which can be spent more profitably in The Elder Scrolls 5.

We can definitely say that paying a fine is the most convenient means of resolving conflicts with the authorities of the province of the Nords of Tamriel. The inconvenience of retrieving items obtained by theft can easily be overcome by dumping these items before the authorities arrive. You may quickly get tired of running away from pursuit, as this imposes some restrictions on the freedom of rapid movement. However, if you do not increase the amount of the fine to sky-high heights, you can try to evade the law. If you get tired of it, you can pay a fine.

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Chance meeting

While walking around Riften, you can meet a Nord named Brynjolf, he will ask you to get involved in a criminal adventure. You just need to rob one person and frame another in a short period of time. All you need to do is agree and go along with your companion’s trick, he will gather a bunch of people around him, and you must steal the key from the Argonian Madesi.

You need this key to open the counter located just a few meters away. Having opened the chest, take everything you think is necessary, and you must throw the Madesi ring to the elf who is involved in deceiving Brynjolf, when the job is done you can talk to your partner, he will throw you some gold and ask for another meeting in the tavern located in the Rat Hole.

Reliable roof

After the previous shenanigan, Brynjolf decided to meet you at the Wild Flask Tavern, located in Rat Hole. On the way to the tavern, you may come across several opponents; after dealing with them, you can enter the tavern, where they will treat you peacefully, and Brynjolf will decide to entrust you with a triple task at once. Ask about each victim in more detail, you will become aware of their weak points.

Helga owns a small tavern. The easiest way to get money from her is to steal the statue. No one is guarding it and stealing it is easy. After the theft, approach Helga, she will give the money, provided that you do not break her favorite statue.

Bersi Honey Hand also owes money, and we will have to get it out of him. The best effect on him will be breaking his ancient vase. He will scream loudly and pitifully, but after breaking the vase he will come to his senses and repay the debt to you.

Kirava owns a large tavern by local standards, but money, like everyone else, is tight for her. To complete the task, we need to talk to the Argonian Talen-Jay, he is a good friend of Kirava and wishes only the best for her. He will find a peaceful way to solve the problem by lying about the fact that you know information about her relatives from Morrowind. She will give you the money and you can return to Brynjolf in the Wild Flask. Having given the money, you will receive potions as a reward.

Clarity

Brynjolf will ask you to follow him. In the next room he will introduce us to a man named Mercer Frey. He will officially accept us into the Thieves Guild and give us our first truly interesting job. We will be briefly introduced to the task on the spot, but will be recommended to talk with Vex.

We must penetrate the Golden Flower estate, which is famous for its apiaries. We must burn only three hives of honey and get the necessary papers from the safe. Vex will tell you that the estate is better guarded than any fort, but she knows a secret path through the sewer.

First you need to get to the estate itself. You can first burn the strings and only then get the papers, but it is better to first go through the collector, killing the unfortunate rats along the way. After walking along the collector you will find yourself near the entrance to the estate. Once inside, you will find yourself on the first floor of the estate. You can immediately try to crack the safe, or you can pick up the key from the owner of the estate, Aringot. Aringot is on the second floor, but he will not want to give up the key, you can convince him or kill him, but with the second option you will also have to fight with mercenaries.

Going down to the basement you will notice a guard watching the safe; you can distract him or kill him. Going down the stairs you will see a safe, break into it or use the key, take the papers and use the hatch into the collector located two steps away from you. After leaving the estate, you need to burn the strings, if you have not done so earlier.

With peace of mind we return to the Wild Flask and hand in the task. Brynjolf will say that Maven Black-Briar herself is calling us. Without further details, she will instruct you to go to Whiterun and meet a man named Mallius Macius at the inn.

Wrong Honey

Having reached Whiterun, we must visit the tavern and find Mallius Makiya there. He will tell you that we will need to deal with our competitor using rat poison. The fact is that Maven Black Heather wants to take over this meadery, and by coincidence, the meadery was filled with hordes of rats, and we will exterminate them, but our main task is to mix poison into a barrel of chalk. In the evening there is a honey tasting for the captain of the guard.

We get to the Meadery and ask the owner for rat poison, go down to the basement, clear it and purposefully walk along the tunnel until we reach a rat’s nest, so we will need to poison it. There are many enemies in the dungeon, and you should also be wary of traps. Near the nest you will find a madman without armor or clothing; he will be the most powerful enemy in this task. Our trip ends by pouring poison into a barrel of honey. Taking the key hanging on the wall, we go out and head to the owner.

We report that the operation was successful. The captain is already here and the tasting has begun! Let's see that everything worked out for us, the owner of the meadery will be sent to prison, and our friend Mallius Makiy becomes the new owner. He thanks us and sends us back to Maven Black-Briar, and she, in turn, asks us to return and tell Brynjolf about everything.

Scoundrel's whim

Brynjolf will thank us for completing the task for Maven, but he will say that Mercer Frey was looking for you. Mersus will say that he found out something, namely, in the matter of selling the Golden Flower there is the name Gulum-Aya, Mersus will send you to Brynjolf for further instructions.

Brynjolf will say that the deed of sale names a certain Gulum-Ai as the intermediary, and now you can find him in Solitude.

Gulum-Ai is located in the Laughing Rat tavern; when you approach him, he will begin to deny belonging to the deal, but if you offer him a box of fiery wine, he will agree to talk with you, you can also chat him up with the proper level of eloquence.

Let's go for the loot. Getting it is as easy as shelling pears, the box is in the palace in the basement, completely unpatrolled, not even in a restricted area. Returning with the box to the Argonian, we get some answers from him.

Having realized that these are not all the answers to the questions that interest us, we begin to spy on Gulum-Ai. We will have to walk for quite a long time; after leaving the city, we will head to the Warehouse of the Eastern Imperial Company, where security awaits us, which is best avoided, and our ward will lead us to the Salt Water Grotto.

Marauders will meet us there, we will have more than one fight with them, having killed all opponents, you will meet Gulum-Ai. This time he agrees to give out all the necessary information.

It turns out that a certain Karliya is to blame for all the troubles of the Guild, who, as it turns out, also killed the previous head of the guild, after which she disappeared without a trace. We return to the Thieves Guild, talk to Mercer, he is seriously surprised and gives a new assignment.

Conversation with silence

Mercer will tell you who Karliah is, what happened twenty-five years ago and why we will go with him to track down this very Karliah. Mercer will be waiting for you right next to the Snow Veil. The tomb is full of different traps, so you should step carefully, look under your feet and around, and listen to Mercer’s warnings.

In one of the halls you can find a model of a boat. It will stand on a pedestal; when you take it, the oil on the floor will light up. You need to take the ship to Delvin, he will give you money for such a rare find. When you reach the end of the tomb, you will see Karliah. She will shoot paralysis poison at you and lying on the ground you will have to listen to the conversation between Mercer and Karliah from which you will learn what really happened here twenty-five years ago.

Difficult Answers

Karliah will now answer all our questions, but in order to regain her reputation in the Guild, it is necessary to show Gall’s diaries, but the catch is that they are written in the Falmer language. You need to meet with Enthir, who will carefully study Gall's diary and inform you that to translate it he will need the works of Colcelmo, a magician from Markarth.

He is not ready to share his knowledge, but if there is some quest “Book of Love” or they killed a spider, then Conselmo will let you into the museum, otherwise you will have to take the key from the table nearby. You need to get to the laboratory. Along the way you will come across guards, some of them can be neutralized using various traps activated by valves.

You will also encounter a gas-filled corridor on your way. To pass it, you need to stand on the button, wait until the gas dissipates and then run through the corridor. We pass the last section of the laboratory and go to the Colcelmo tower. Here you will see the work that the magician was working on, it will be a huge stone slab that cannot be carried away. You need to copy it, for this you will need a piece of coal and a sheet of paper, which are scattered in abundance around the room.

As soon as you transfer Conselmo’s works to paper, you will meet a detachment of guards led by the magician’s nephew. You can break through in battle or wait until the guards disperse and slip to the door.

As soon as you exit, dive from the balcony into the waterfall. Now you need to return to Enthir. He will translate the diary and also tell Karliya everything, and he will also become a buyer of stolen goods.

The pursuit

After Karliah can prove her innocence to the Brotherhood, she will agree to meet you at the Ragged Flagon. After a dialogue between Brynjolf and Karliah, Brynjolf finally decides to open the vault to discover that there is nothing there.

To find out where Mercer went with the loot, you need to find out his plans. We are sent to Mercer's house, but they warn that the house is guarded by Wald, it is better to talk about this with Vex, who will tell you that Mercer's guard is in debt to Maven. She will forgive Vald's debt, but in return she will ask you to get a feather, which is located at the bottom of the lake between Riften and the Golden Flower.

Approaching the house, you have to either kill Wald or tell him the good news that the debt has been forgiven. To enter Mercer's house, you need to shoot at the ladder mechanism, it will fall and open up the opportunity to inspect the house. Inside you will find several bandits, and many closed doors. But in the room on the first floor you can find a suspicious cabinet behind which a passage is hidden. There will be many traps there, but in the room you can find the Cooler sword, a bust of the Gray Fox and, most importantly, Mercer’s plans, they must be returned to the “Flask”.

Revived triad

After talking with Karliah about the murder of Mercer and the Nightingale, she will ask us to come to the Standing Stone where she will be waiting for you along with Brynjolf. Karliah will lead us by telling us about the Nightingales. Afterwards, we will be given the opportunity to put on armor. Once dressed, follow the instructions and wait for the ritual to end.

Karliah will thank us, and Brynjolf will also appoint us as head of the guild. Now it's time to kill Mercer.

Blindness

We need to get to the Dwemer ruins of Irktand, where the legendary “eyes of the Falmer” are rumored to be located. Karliah and Brynjolf will be waiting for us inside. We need to stop Mercer Frey from stealing the Eyes and fleeing Skyrim with the Noctyrnal key.

To get to Irktand itself, you need to go through the bandit camp and climb the stairs. Inside you will find bandits, but already dead. We reach Karlia and Brynjolf and continue the path through the ruins, the three of us.

Soon you will see Mercer, though from afar, and even shooting at him with a bow is useless. We need to fight our way through the Falmers and soon you will find yourself in a large hall, the exit from which is closed by a grate.

To open the grate in this room, you need to find two levers and activate them. Moreover, this must be done as quickly as possible, otherwise the exit will not open. You can also see the third lever, behind the closed gate, it will help deal with the Falmer below.

When the gate is open, you can continue on your way. Along the way, Karliah and Brynjolf will tell you where to go, how to hide and what to do, so we just move forward, fighting off the Falmer as necessary. You will also have the choice of sneaking past the Dwemer centurion or starting a battle. In addition, there are a lot of traps, which, however, can be used to get rid of the Falmer.

In the end, you will reach a hall with a huge statue of a snow elf, whose eyes Mercer is now picking out. Using his art of magic, he will force Karliah to be distracted by Brynjolf. You will have to fight with Mercer, which, in fact, is not so easy - he runs fast and often becomes invisible. From his corpse we take the eyes of the Falmer and the skeleton key. After Mercer's death, the room will begin to fill with water, you need to wait until it is almost completely filled and then you can get out into the resulting passage. Karliah will give us her bow and send us to the Twilight Tomb to return the skeleton key to its place.

Return of Twilight

In the Twilight Tomb we will meet the Nightingale Guardian, who turns out to be Gaul. He won’t tell you anything useful, but he will advise you to take the diary of a certain Nystrom. His diaries describe the difficulties of completing the pilgrim's path.

Ahead of us are the shadows of guards, attacking with insane screams. Ahead of us awaits an unusual room, where all we need to do is walk along a dark path, carefully stepping over tripwires.

Near the Nocturnal statue, pull the chains hidden behind the stone lamps on the sides to open the door. We move on, making our way through the traps and looking at our feet. Finally, we get to the well and jump there. In just a few seconds the floor will react to the proximity of the key and the further path will be open. We return the key to its place, listen to Nocturnal’s praise and talk to Karliah who appears, and finally, select the gift ability by stepping on one of the slabs. Once a day we can become invisible while sneaking or absorb 100 units of health or make enemies fight each other for 30 seconds

After this, you will have the opportunity to return the guild to its former glory. Delvin and Vex will now give out small quests. There are six types in total, and all of them are generated. After five of these quests are completed in any city, an additional quest for that city will become available. After completing quests in all cities, you will receive new armor, as well as the opportunity to trade stolen goods with Khajiit caravans.

In the world of Skyrim, you can be either a defender of the weak and poor, or a villain and a thief. The Thieves Guild is precisely intended to play the latter role.

How to join the Thieves Guild?

The Thieves Guild is one of the few guilds in Skyrim that you can’t just go to the right NPC and join.

In order to join the thieves guild, you need to complete two “introductory” tasks. We go to Riften and find Brynjolf there. I found him in the tavern, although he could be in another place.

As soon as you meet him, he himself will start a dialogue and offer to do a “business”.

Chance meeting

The essence of the task is to rob one merchant and frame another. For a fee, of course.

Go to the square and find Brynjolf there (if it’s night then you will need to wait until the morning). Tell him you are ready. He will start advertising his new “product” so that everyone will take a break from their work and gather around him. Your goal is the pockets, the key from the lizard’s pockets, and his counter (at first I thought that his counter was a house, in fact it is a simple counter in the market.

A little instruction on pickpocketing:

• for the stealing option to appear, you need to enter a secret stance (Ctrl);
• the chance of theft is checked for each item separately, so take only what you need;
• if your theft skill is low, save before stealing so that you can reload in case of failure.

You can take anything, the main thing is to take the ring. Now, you need to put this ring on someone else (forgot his name, open the magazine - it will be written there to whom). An object is placed in the same way as it is stolen.

After a successful operation, wait until Brynjolf finishes, and if he still won’t calm down, enter and exit any building. Then talk to him, tell him that everything is done, and receive a reward.

Reliable roof

Talk to Brynjolf again. He will say that he likes savvy and nimble guys like you. And he will say that he will accept you into his guild if you complete one more task.

Note: he can give you this task immediately, or he can send you away, subtly hinting that you need to find a suitable place - such a place is from the “headquarters” in the dungeons under the city, it was there, in my case, that he gave second task:

It consists in the fact that you need to get the debt out of 3 people. Moreover, the most important thing, as it turns out, is not money. It is necessary for people to understand that the thieves guild must be taken into account. The only rule is that the victims must survive.

Instructions for knocking out money:

• Kirava. You won’t be able to get the money out directly; you need to talk to the Argonian Talen-Jay and convince him to influence Kirav. He will not want anything bad to happen to her, and will find a peaceful way to persuade her;
• Helga. Her weakness is her favorite statue. Find the statue in her tavern and steal it. Then talk to Helga, threatening that if she does not give the money you will break her;
• Bercy. To touch Bersi's nerve, you will need to break his favorite vase. He will scream for a long time, but then he will still return the debt.

We return to Brynjolf, talk about the successful completion of the assignment, and welcome to the thieves guild!

List of Thieves Guild members

Primary:

Mercer Frey Leader of the Thieves Guild	Brynjolf accepts us into the guild, essentially Mercer’s deputy.	Vex master locksmith, gives small contracts
Delvin Malory gives small contracts, buys a variety of unique interesting things	Tonilla buyer of stolen goods	Gravedigger security guard
	Vekel Warrior bartender

Minor:

Clarity

Gives: Brynjolf
Purpose of the task: Punish Aringolf

So. Our first task in the Thieves Guild. You need to get into the estate of a certain Aringolf, rob the safe and burn three hives. It would seem like nothing. In reality, as usual, there is a catch. And it lies in the fact that Aringolf’s guard consists of mercenaries. Not very good news. Maybe you can somehow get in secretly? Yes, you can. We talk to “little Vexy”. She will tell us that you can get into the estate through the sewers. Classics of the genre. Yes, don't forget to go to Tonilla for armor, you will like it.

Well, let's go. The Golden Flower estate is waiting for us.

It is best to go at night there is less chance of being noticed by security. And here is our entrance to the sewer.

Everything is simple there - you walk along the corridor, kill the skeevers, and reach the stairs. Get up and go into the house. And this is where the fun begins. There are guards in the house. Most sit, two or three walk. In general, it won’t be difficult to get around them with the proper stealth skills. But beginners will have to work hard. To begin with, I advise you to walk around the house and pick up everything that is not nailed to the floor, and only then go to the safe.

We reach this grate.

Here you can turn back and go to the second floor - the owner of the mansion will be there, who has the key. Or you can go further and open the safe with master keys. Choose. But getting a key is more difficult than opening it with master keys. For those who still want to open with a key.

We go to the second floor and see this picture:

It’s very easy to get around we go through the door. We pass through the room, exit, go a little further and see this:

You can't get around this anymore. You just need to sneak around very slowly. And here comes the surprise:

The owner occupies an uncomfortable position for us. I don’t advise you to talk to him; you won’t be able to kill him; you won’t be able to give him the key; besides, he’ll raise the alarm and the guards will come running. Just try to steal the key from his pocket.

Regardless of the option of action, we look to the right into the corridor, if we see the back of the guard we open the grate and make our way further, if we see his face we wait until we see his back and only then we open the grate and make our way further. In the basement we will see this careless guard:

No, well, I should have thought of putting the chair on a puddle of flammable oil. Okay, I'm a fool myself. It will be extremely difficult to get past him - the space between him and the stairs we need to climb is well lit. You can try to get through, or you can set the oil on fire with a fire spell. But he won’t die instantly; he’ll have to finish him off. And then two guards from the next room might come running. But with luck, you can already run through the stairs and hide there in the shadows. In general, the choice is yours.

So we found the safe.

We open it or open it with a key, take everything we have and leave through the sewer or through the front entrance. Whichever is more convenient, because the next part of our insidious plan is vandalism. Namely setting fire to hives. Through the front entrance it will be closer in my opinion. We carefully cross the bridges, passing or waiting for the guards, and set fire to three hives with fire spells. Beauty:

That's it, we can leave. We return to the shelter (a secret passage is now available to us) and receive a well-deserved reward - 200 coins. Plus the fact that you managed to honestly steal from the estate.

Wrong Honey

Gives: Brynjolf
The essence of the task: Talk to Maven Black-Briar and fulfill her request.

Let's go to Maven (I found her in the tavern or on the street near the trading stalls)

She wants us to eliminate her competitor, Honning Meadery. She sends us to Whiterun, to the Prancing Mare tavern to a measure named Mallius Macius:

Mallius tells us that Sabjorn is recently organizing a tasting of his honey for the Captain of the Guard. And bad luck: skeevers appeared at his meadery. It would be necessary to poison, and Sabjorn is looking for someone who will take on this. “And rat poison and honey don’t go well together” But you still need to get rid of the rats Maven plans to take over the meadery when Sabjorn leaves it. As usual, all the dirty work falls on our shoulders. Well, where to go? Let's go to the meadery:

We go into the building and talk to Sabjorn.

We offer to help him with his problem, demand a deposit (if possible) and go to the basement. We kill the skeevers, the Psycho named Heimlin:

(examine it and read the diary we again foiled the plan to take over the world by a psycho. This is already becoming a routine), we pour rat poison into the nest and go to the meadery itself. Add poison to a vat of honey. Well, I did something nasty that brings joy to my heart. And to the wallet:

Now we need to attend the tasting. The commander of the Whiterun guard will try the honey, but he won’t like it (and who would like honey that tastes like rat poison?) and he will take Sabjorn to prison, and will appoint Mallia in charge. Happy end. Almost. All that remains is to inspect Sabjorn’s room for an explanation of how he was able to open his meadery so quickly. We take the key from Mallius and go up to Sabjorn’s room.

We open the chest of drawers, take away the coins and the document. But don't rush to leave. Hack the second door and take the Decanter of Honning's Honey there. Delvin will give you 200 coins for it and put it on a shelf where he will put all the interesting items you brought. We go to Maven, give the document and as a reward we receive... A holy orc dagger.

Hmmm...Well, okay, at least you can sell it.

Let's go to Brynjolf. He says that Mercer Frey urgently wants to see us.

Scoundrel's Caprice

Gives: Brynjolf
The essence of the task: Find out from the lizard named Gulum-Ai about the buyer of the Golden Flower estate

We go to Solitude, to the Laughing Rat tavern and talk to the lizard.

We try to bribe him and he tells us about a box of fiery wine in the Blue Palace, which one person really wants to get. And we, therefore, must help him with this. It’s difficult there is nothing - there is no one at all near this box. They came, took it and left. We give the wine, and in return we receive information about a certain woman who came to Gulum-Ay with a purse of gold and offered to represent her interests in one case. Namely, to take payment for the estate to Aringot. He, of course, did not remember the name and face. But this lizard is somehow dark. We are not in a hurry to leave when we finish the dialogue. Let's follow him to the Eastern Imperial Company Warehouse.

We go after him. Be careful, there will be guards on the way. I advise you to take all the torches from the holders along the way - there is less light, which means there is less chance of being noticed. Kill the guards quietly or pass by depends on your preferences. The main thing is not to make noise. By the way, the guards also carry torches, which makes it difficult for us to follow the lizard.

We reach the entrance to the Salt Water Grotto. That's where Gulum-Ai went. We follow, but the lizard is already in an unimaginable way at the very end, and we will have to make our way through the robbers. Proceed in the same way as with the guards earlier. We reach Gulum-Ai. There are two robbers nearby. We have no choice but to kill them. We kill, threaten Gulum-Ay and he tells us about a certain Karliya thief who killed the former head of the guild Gall, and is now hunting for Mercer. Gulum-Ai doesn’t know where she is, she just said “she went to the beginning of the end.” Don't forget to talk to him again and tell him that he owes a favor - another buyer of stolen goods will appear. We open the secret door with one of the levers and go to Mercer. We tell him about Karliah and the “beginning of the end.” From which he concludes that Karliah went to the ruins where she had once killed Gall. And that he will go there with us and help kill her. Okay, but first let's go to Tonilla for a reward - exchanging one of the armor components for a better one.

Conversation with Silence

Gives: Mercer Frey
The essence of the task: Go to the ruins of the Snow Veil and kill Karliah.

We go to the ruins and meet Mercer there. He states that Karliah is still here, he is sure of it. And he lets us go ahead, and he himself follows us. Okay, we need to hurry before she disappears again. We approach the door, watch Mercer open it, and go inside. Be careful - there are a lot of traps and draugr here. Mercer will warn you about most traps. One of the words of power can be found in the Sanctuary:

We reach a door that requires a claw to open. But since we don’t have a claw, Mercer has to be cunning, and he opens the door without a claw (he’s not there to tell us how to do this). We go in and... we fall from an arrow shot at us. We lose consciousness, but almost immediately wake up and see that Mercer and Karliah are talking.

From the conversation it turns out that it was not Karliah, but Mercer who killed Gallus! Mercer wants to send Karliah after him, but she runs away. But we won’t succeed, and so we get a sword in the stomach. But we won't die. And when we wake up, we will see Karliah in front of us.

She tells us everything that we ourselves have already guessed. And she says that, fortunately for us, her arrow was poisoned with a special paralytic poison, which slowed down our heartbeat and prevented us from bleeding to death. Thanks to her for this. She also found Gall’s diary in these ruins; it’s not just that she came here. But the diary is written in a language unknown to her, but she knows who can translate it Entir, friend of Gall. It is to him that we must go. To Winterhold.

We need the Frozen Hearth tavern.

Enthir will tell us that Gall kept a diary in the Falmer language. Original, considering that only a few people in all of Skyrim know him. He cannot decipher it himself, but he knows someone who can. Colcelmo, court magician of the Jarl in Markarth. Let's go there:

And here is Colcelmo himself:

He is truly an expert in the Falmer language. But he categorically refuses to show his work. You can gain his trust by completing the quest, or you can steal the key from the pedestal behind him and sneak past the guard into the museum. By the way. The guard will speak to you for the first time anyway, even if you are invisible. Please take this into account. So, regardless of the route, we made our way to the museum. There will be guards and a lot of light. Carefully make your way to the entrance to Colcelmo's laboratory. But if you are confident in your abilities, you can scour this room and look for something useful or expensive. It will be there. In the laboratory, at the very beginning, you can steal the spider control rod. Instructions in the diary nearby. And here is the spider:

There are also guards in the laboratory. You can sneak past them or kill them. Or you can set off traps to make “accidents” happen. After all, Dwemer mechanisms are old, who knows what malfunctions might happen there? In the room where Aykantar sits, you can also launch a trap - you will kill him faster. Don't forget to pick up the cube in that room - give it to Delvin.

From this room we go out onto the balcony, and from there we find ourselves in the Colcelmo Tower. It's almost done. In his office, take coal and a roll of paper. If you want to inspect his office for useful things, now is the time, then he will no longer be there. We go out through the door in the office to the stone and redraw it on paper. Ready. Oops. And here is the cavalry:

You can wait and slip past them to the exit. Or you can kill them. The captain will linger a little in the passage - a good chance to cut his throat without being noticed. Then one will stand at the stairs, and the other two will go up. We kill him quickly. Then one will reach the top of the stairs and turn back, and the second will go further towards the stone. We kill one, then the second. That's it, you can return to Enthir in Winterhold. We go into the basement and see Karliah next to Entir:

We give him the copied text of Colcelmo, and he begins to translate. It turns out that Gall has long had suspicions about Frey's loyalty. Gall learned that Mercer was leading too luxurious a life. Looks like he was stealing from the guild. Robbed the thieves guild. Ironic. In addition, Gall mentions that Mercer desecrated a certain Twilight Tomb. Karliah says that the transfer needs to be delivered to the guild immediately so that everyone knows how bad Mercer Frey is. But first, let's talk to Enthir - he will invite us to visit him at the College if we want to sell stolen things. Another buyer. Great. Now we are talking with Karliya, and the mosaic is starting to take shape little by little. Twilight Tomb Temple of Nocturnal, patroness of the night and thieves. The nightingales vowed to protect the temple to the last drop of blood, because all her gifts are kept there. And even more, through him she interacts with our world. And Mercer desecrated the temple. Hence the fall of the thieves guild - Nocturnal herself turned away from them. We need to go to Riften as soon as possible and punish Mercer. Finally, Karliah will give us the Nightingale Blade - the sword of Gall:

The pursuit

Gives: Karliah.
The essence of the task: Expose Mercer Frey.

We go to Riften, to the Wild Flask and talk to Karliah. Together with her we enter the guild, and we are greeted with a warm welcome by Brynjolf, Vex and Delvin. And all with drawn blades. Wonderful.

But Karliah gives Brin Gall's diary, he does not believe his eyes and offers to open the vault. Delvin states that two keys are needed to open the vault. Vex says it's impossible to pick this lock. But Bryn insists on his own, and he and Delvin open it. It turns out that Gall was right - we see empty chests.

Vex is furious and threatens to kill Frey with her own hands, but Brin calms her down and sends her and Delvin to the Flask to notify them. If Mercer comes here. And we have to go to his estate “Riftveld” and look for clues where he could have gone. And we are allowed to kill everyone who gets in our way. Lovely.

The easiest way to get into the estate is from the courtyard, along the ladder that Mercer made in case of emergency departure. But there is a small catch Wald. Mercer's security guard. Let's talk to Vex - she once knew Wald very well. Vex will tell us that it is impossible to make friends with him - he is only friends with money. But you can promise him that Maven will pay off his debt. Do as you wish - you can close the debt, or you can simply kill him and take everything you need from his corpse. No difference.

This is actually the ladder mechanism itself, where you need to shoot for it to go down.

The house itself is empty, but there is one secret. One of the cabinets is a door to Narnia. Well, at Mercer's hideout, I mean. It is on the second floor. In the shelter, keep your eyes open - the traps are not asleep. And there will be something to profit from, just like in the house. We get to his room, take the plans, a good sword in the display case (glass, cold damage) and the Gray Fox Bust give it to Delvin. Well, and whatever else you like. There is no need to go back - here there will be a passage to the Rat Hole. We go through it to Brynjolf and give the map. It turns out that Mercer is after the Eyes of the Falmer - huge gems that are worth a fortune. If he finds them, we will never find him. This money will be enough for him until he grows old, and there will be some left over for his children. We must stop him at all costs! You need to talk to Karliah. There is little time left.

Revived Triad

Gives: Brynjolf
The essence of the task: Become a Nightingale.

Yes Yes. We will become the Nightingale. As usual, our hero is uber-super-duper-many. Well, okay, everything is in order. Karliah asks us to meet her at the ancient standing stone outside Riften.

Upon arrival there, we see both Karliah and Brin. Karliah asks us to follow her, she will explain everything along the way. And we enter the Word Hall. Karliah really wants us to become Nightingales. To do this, you need to put on their armor and undergo a rite of passage. We go to the Stones and, taking the armor, put it on.

Now the rite of passage. We need to stand on the left circle, stand and listen. And so, the initiation was completed, and we became Nightingales. So, what is next? And then Karliah will tell us about Mercer’s true crime. It lies in the fact that Frey stole... the Skeleton Key. If you've played Oblivion, you should remember what it is. But this key opens more than just physical locks. After all, the capabilities of the human body are very great, and we use only part of them. And when you realize that the key can open such “locks” as well, the possibilities become almost limitless. Such a thing cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of a man like Mercer.

Before we head out, let's talk to Brin. He will invite us to become the head of the Thieves Guild. Naturally we will agree. Where are we going? Now let's go after Mercer. The path lies to the ruins of Irktand. The entrance will be guarded by bandits - I counted six. We kill or sneak, go inside. First level nothing interesting. A bunch of corpses of bandits, broken Dwemer robots, 4-5 living robots and that’s it. We go to the second level and immediately come across Karliah and Brin. Kariya claims that Mercer was here recently. We need to find him. Next, we will watch the scene of Mercer killing two Falmers. Go ahead. We find a huge room with a grate at the end. To open it, you need to pull two levers on the left and right of the room on a hill. By the way, there is a ballista nearby behind the door with the Expert lock. We pull the levers, shoot from the ballista at Falmer and move on. And watch your step - these are Dwemer ruins after all. Nobody canceled the traps. In general, these are ordinary Dwemer ruins. Enemies: Mechanisms and Falmers. True, Centurion can cause trouble.

It's a big machine, tenacious and hits hard. Going hand-to-hand with her is not the smartest idea, of course, but with good armor it is possible. Or you can give Brynjolf this honor, and join Karliah yourself and shoot him with a bow. Or magic. Improvise, show your imagination.

And finally we made it to Mercer. We go into the Sanctuary and see how he gouges out the Eyes of Falmer from the statue.

But suddenly the platform on which we are standing breaks off and falls. Karliah and Bryn remain upstairs. You'll have to fight Mercer alone. And he also bewitched Brin so that he was forced to fight Karliah. We need to hurry. This fight is difficult because Mercer is tenacious. And no more. Yes, he likes to go invisible, but at the same time it’s not difficult to see him. After his murder, the cave, in the best traditions of the genre, begins to collapse, and the room itself begins to flood. The door doesn't open. What to do? Wait until the room floods. No, I'm serious. Wait. When the room is flooded, stones will collapse above the statue's head and open a passage leading to the Bronze Water Cave.

Return of the Twilight

Gives: Karliah
The essence of the task: Walk the Pilgrim's Path.

We talk to Karliah, and she will tell us that we need to return the Nocturnal key. But to get to her, you need to go through the Pilgrim's Path. She can’t get there because because of her the tomb was desecrated, Brin needs to return to the guild and maintain order there. Who stays? That's right we. Before leaving, she will give us her bow - a useful thing.

By the way. After all, you don’t have to give up the key right away, right? And the Eternal Master Key is a very good thing. You can, for example, keep it until you have such a perk. But at the end of this task a very good reward awaits you. But more on that later.

Our path lies to the Twilight Tomb:

There will be a Nightingale Guardian at the entrance:

When talking with him, it turns out that this is none other than Gall himself. But he himself cannot return the key to the Tomb - the closer he gets to the Well of Night, the weaker he becomes. And even now he feels that he is dying. We'll have to. Don't forget to read Nystrom's diary - it lies against the wall to the left of the Nightingale Guardian, near the skeleton.

Then the quest marker disappears. But even without him, everything is transparent here. In the first room three Nightingale guards are waiting for us. Two together and one a little further away. In the next room you need to walk through the shadows without touching the light - you will die very quickly. Light is light, but you shouldn’t forget to look at your feet. Next there will be a room with a Nocturnal statue and a dead bandit nearby (I wonder how he got here?). It seems to be a dead end. Although... What is there behind the right torch in the form of a bird's head? Yeah! Chain! We pull and... Nothing happens except that the torch goes out. Hmm... And if you look behind the left? Also Chain. We pull it, and the door behind Nocturnal opens.

The next room contains banal pressure plates and pendulum blades. There will be a surprise behind the door. And it will most likely be unpleasant for you. Let me just say that no one has ever died from caution and quicksaves. And here you are in front of this door:

And now, finally, we are in the Sanctuary. But...there is only a hole with a skeleton at the bottom and nothing else. Don't get upset and jump. It won't hurt too much. But there is no way out of the hole, is there? Not scary. Sit a little or run along it soon our hero will take out the key, turn it and suddenly lo and behold! the floor will dissolve and we fall into the holy of holies of the tomb.

All that remains is to stick the key into the lock (logical, isn’t it?) and... listen. Nocturnal herself will speak to us. Frankly, I thought her face would be prettier.

But maybe it's just my graphics that are to blame. Doesn't matter. The important thing is that we will be called selfish. That, they say, neither honor, nor duty, nor loyalty lay here and there - the main reward. Well... okay, she's right. And the reward is truly worthy. By standing on the circle with the picture of the month, we will receive a talent, the use of which provides an excellent buff for thieves - when sneaking, invisibility is automatically applied. Standing in a semicircle frenzy spell all creatures in the spell's area of ​​effect attack everyone indiscriminately for 30 seconds. And standing on the full moon, we will receive a spell that drains the enemy’s health; I don’t know whether it is leveled or not, but at level 18 it eats up 100 health from the enemy. Agree, not a little? But, unfortunately, these are not spells, but talents. This means you can only use it once a day. It's a shame, but there's nothing to be done. And you won’t be able to take all three either. Choose. After choosing we will see Gall. He came to say goodbye to Karliah.

Here you go. The adventure is over. You can complete generated endless quests from Vex and Delvin, or you can simply forget about the guild and visit only to sell stolen goods. Good luck to you. Keep your eyes open go to the Shadows.

At first, the Wild Flask tavern looks, to put it mildly, spartan. Then it will be better.

The Thieves Guild is a collection of thieves, robbers and scammers who have set up a nest in the sewers under the city of Riften. Under damp stone vaults, they practice their craft, put their loot into chests and drink in the makeshift tavern, the Wild Flask. However, things have not been going well for the guild lately - to such an extent that “they should take Mondays and cancel them.” Who will help the unfortunate swindlers and thieves? Of course, our hero!

Guild tasks are structured differently than those of the Companions or the mages of Winterhold. Side quests here are not just for fun and do not advance the plot - they help the hero earn money and help the guild sewer look decent. You can do this after completing the thieves' plot. The more we help the guild, the better the sewer looks and the more useful NPCs it contains - such as alchemists, merchants and blacksmiths. In addition, side quests open up buyers of stolen goods throughout Skyrim.

The plot of the guild is also unusual - it is closely connected with the daedric mistress Nocturnal. She is the only one who does not give the player a quest directly, like other Daedra Lords do.

Chance meeting

Thanks to our efforts, Brand-Shay ended up in this inhospitable place. Later he will return to the market.

You will meet the guild when you first find yourself in Riften, a bandit town in the southeast of Skyrim. At the bazaar, a certain Brynjolf will approach you and, after a heart-to-heart conversation, offer to teach an elf merchant named Brand-Shay a lesson.

The plan is this: Brynjolf attracts the attention of the entire bazaar with a loud announcement, and we steal a ring from another merchant - a lizard with the strange name Madesi - and throw Brand-Neck into his “pocket”. The rest is a matter of technique: guards, a search and several days in prison for the elf we set up.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION: nothing irreparable will happen to the elf - he will sit behind bars for several days and return to his workplace. Do not be afraid that the opportunity to do his quest to find the family tree will disappear.

The technology is simple: we wait until the counters are empty, carefully open the chest, take the ring, sneak up on Brand-Neck from behind the counter and, opening the pickpocket menu, move the ring into his “duffel bag”. You can safely fail the quest. If we get caught by the guards, wait until Brynjolf gets tired of tearing his throat, or throw away the ring, we will still be given the next quest.

THIS IS A BUG: Under no circumstances try to throw the ring to the elf at night - the plot may get stuck tightly, and Brynjolf may disappear from sight. If problems do begin, you can summon Brynjolf from oblivion with the magic word “ Player.placeatme0001b07d" The quest ends with the word " Setstage tg00 200", and the next one begins with " Setstagetg01 10».

When the job is done (or failed), Brynjolf will call you to the Ragged Flagon tavern. But we still need to get there.

Reliable roof

Upon learning that the farm in Morrowind is in danger, Kirava unquestioningly pays the money.

The entrance to the sewers, where the guild awaits us, is located on the lower tier of the city, under the stairs, near the water. The dungeon is guarded by alien bandit elements, which you will have to deal with in the usual ways - poking with sharp objects and pouring magic napalm on them. Lower the drawbridge and watch out for traps.

In the Wild Flask itself, you will witness a conversation from which it turns out that the thieves guild is going through hard times. Your first task is to get the debt out of the three “businessmen” on the surface. Each of them can be convinced with fists - the main thing is to attack for a reason, but by selecting the desired dialogue item, otherwise the whole city will start beating the hero. It is enough to beat one so that within a day the rest will become more accommodating. But there are easier ways.

• Argonian Kirava from the Bee and Sting tavern is worried about her farm in Morrowind - her colleague Talen-Jay will tell us about this. Promise Kirava problems, and she will part with the money.
• Bercy Honey Hand from The Pawned Shrimp can't stand the sight of the broken jug across from the counter.
• Helga from Helga's Flophouse will agree to pay if you grab her statue of Dibella (in the next room) and promise to throw it down the well.

Return to the Flask. There you will be introduced to the head of the guild, Mercer Frey, and introduced to your future brothers in the craft.

Clarity

Mercer Frey and Brynjolf. We are presented as a new, promising swindler and thief.

Mercer Frey suspects that someone is undermining the guild - he will issue a task to teach the elf Aringot a lesson, who decided to go against the guild. We need to get into the Goldenflower estate, burn three (and only three, no more!) bee hives and clean out the safe in the house to find out from the papers what is happening. Talk to Vex - she will tell you that you can get into the house through the sewer.

The best way to get to the apiary is by water. The estate is well guarded, but you know what to do with the guards. You can set the hives on fire with a torch or a fire spell (you don’t have to cast a spell, just approach the hive with a “burning” hand). It is important that no more than three hives burn down, otherwise the guild will punish you with a ruble.

If you decide not to make your way into the mansion directly (the guard has the key to the entrance), but choose the sewers, keep in mind that there are a lot of skeevers and traps there.

In the house itself, a slight difficulty may arise - how to open Aringot's safe in the basement? The lock there is of an expert level, and the elf himself has the key. It is possible to kill an elf, but it is not advisable - the guild does not approve of this. Stealing the key can be difficult if the hero is bad at stealth. There is a third way - using threats to force Aringot to part with the key, but success here is not guaranteed.

A bill of sale will be found in the safe - the estate was purchased by mead makers, direct competitors of Maven Black-Briar, the patroness of the guild. She will be furious.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION: Having passed the quest, you will become a full member of the thieves guild, you will be able to use the secret entrance through the crypt to the cemetery and dispose of all the goods that lie in the Cistern and the Wild Flask. But putting things in local storage facilities is still risky - whatever one may say, this is a guild of swindlers and thieves!

Wrong honey

It was in vain that the guard drank half a mug at once. This honey is definitely wrong.

Talk to Brynjolf and he will tell you that Maven Black-Briar is waiting for us at The Bee and the Sting. Ask him what she needs. She planned to deal with her competitors from the Honning meadery. Her agent Mallius Machius is waiting for us in the Whiterun tavern.

The plan is very, very Jesuitical. Sabjorn, the owner of the meadery, has a problem with rats. We need to introduce ourselves as a rat catcher and, having thus gained access to the meadery, pour rat poison into a vat of branded honey. The quest consists mainly of conversations and skits. In a dungeon where you need to poison a rat's nest, beware of traps. Your enemies will be spiders, tough skeevers and their “overlord” - a hopelessly crazy, but quite powerful magician, about whom they will “forget” to warn you.

After pouring the poison into the vat of honey, return to Sabjorn and witness the “tasting”. Then talk to Mallius again and take the documents on the second floor of the meadery. Return to Maven Blackbriar with a report, and then to Brynjolf.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION: from this moment on, Mallius becomes a buyer of stolen goods.

Scoundrel's whim

The capricious scoundrel does not even suspect that we are following on his heels through the entire warehouse.

The "capricious scoundrel" is an Argonian Gulum-Ei who works on the docks. There are strings leading to him, pointing to an unknown scoundrel who stood in the way of the guild. As a reward for cooperation, Gulum-Ai (you will find him in Solitude, in the “Laughing Rat”) will demand not just anything, but a box of fire wine straight from the Blue Palace. It's not a long walk, but if you're lazy, you can try to influence your friend with threats or persuasion. True, then he will not give us soul stones - and these are useful things.

For fire wine, the Argonian will say that a woman spoke to him, very angry with the head of the thieves guild. But the capricious lizard won’t tell us the name of the buyer, so we’ll have to follow him. The hike from the Laughing Rat to the Eastern Imperial Company warehouses will be long, and there will be a fair amount of walking involved. Fortunately, hanging on the lizard’s tail, so to speak, is not necessary. You can stay as far behind as you like in order to easily get rid of the mercenaries you meet in the warehouse. The cave in which he will hide is located on the lower tier of the warehouse, under the walkway.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION: You can even kill the lizard so as not to follow on its heels and calmly find the information we need.

In a secluded cave, you will pin Gulum-Ai against the wall, and he will tell you that the buyer is a certain Karliah. She used to be in the guild, but now she is suspected of murdering the former head of the guild, Gall, and she is in hiding, plotting evil against Mercer Frey.

When exiting the cave, beware of horkers!

Conversation with silence

A new character in the drama is Karliah, a dark elf with Frank-Herbert-colored eyes.

After a conversation with the concerned guild boss and a visit to Tonilla to improve the thief's armor, we move to the catacombs of the Snow Veil, where Karliah killed the former head of the guild Gall and where, in all likelihood, she is now hiding. With us is Mercer Frey. He is determined to find Karliah and deal with her.

Snow Veil - standard catacombs with draugr, traps, spilled oil and bone “alarms”. If things get difficult, let Frey go first, he is immortal here. After defeating the draugr boss, learn another word of Power and let Mercer figure out the last puzzle door.

But the exploration of the dungeons will suddenly be interrupted by an arrow flying into our hero’s back. An interesting conversation will follow, in which we will take, let's say, a passive position. Meeting old acquaintances will not lead to hugs and pats on the back. But a lot will become clear.

When the hero wakes up, ask Karliah about everything. The elf will give you the diary of Gall Desidenia - it must be delivered to the magician Enthir in Winterhold for deciphering.

Difficult Answers

You can send a mechanical spider forward instead of yourself - the most unusual companion in the game.

You will find Entir either at the College or at the local Frozen Hearth tavern.

After looking at the journal, he will recognize it as Falmer and will send you to Markarth, to the antiquities researcher Colcelmo. The old man will take a long time to persuade, but if we are in good standing with him (we completed his quests), he will give us the key to the Dwemer museum, where the stone with Falmer inscriptions is kept. And if it doesn’t give it away, the key can be stolen from the table.

The museum is guarded by guards. If we enter there with Colcelmo's knowledge and permission, they will tolerate our presence. If not, they will attack as soon as they notice, and fighting them will be considered a crime. A hero with good stealth skills will be able to pass through the halls undetected. But this is not very easy to do.

Colcelmo's laboratory is no longer guarded by guards, but by mercenaries. There are two news related to them. The bad news is that they don’t care whether the scientist allowed you to do something or not. The good thing is that you can fight them without risking being on the list of wanted criminals.

Then you will go through a room with traps (activate them from stealth - the effect will be funny) and through the balcony - into the Colcelmo tower, where you will find a stone with writing. And here one of the most unusual gaming puzzles awaits you. How to copy letters? There are no clues or drawings on the walls. The solution is charcoal and paper! They are lying all over the room. Take them, go to Colcelmo's stone, and the hero will do what is needed.

At this point, a team of guards with Colcelmo’s nephew will burst into the laboratory. A stealthy approach works too. In any case, the shortest path to freedom is through the balcony and jumping into the waterfall.

Return to Winterhold and report to Karliah and Entir. Find out everything about Soloviev and the goddess Nocturnal.

The pursuit

Here are Mercer's plans. From afar it is clear that they are very insidious.

Returning to the Wild Flask with Karliah will not be easy. The cemetery entrance is closed, and we will have to repeat the original, long, path. Brynjolf has a lot of questions for Karliah, but the decrypted diary will answer them. The empty guild vaults will be even more telling.

We receive a new task - to break into Mercer's hideout for evidence.

THIS IS A BUG: if it happened that Karliah did not go with you to the “Flask”, push the quest a little further with the magic word “ Setstage tg07 20" If you have already visited the hideout and taken Mercer's plans, the quest will not begin. Enter in the console " Setstage tg07 10- and it will begin. At the point where you should take the plans that are no longer on the table, enter " Setstage tg07 60».

The Riftweald estate, where we need to get, is guarded by the warrior Vald. He will attack the hero when he tries to break into the house. This is not a problem, since the guards and townspeople will immediately oppose him. But this is not our method.

There is a way to resolve the matter peacefully. Wald owes Maven Black-Briar a lot of money - Vex will tell us about this. Talk to Maven and she will promise to forgive the debt if we help her find a magic pen for forging signatures at the bottom of the lake. The required place is not marked on the compass, but it is easy to find - a sunken boat with a chest is located exactly between two longships, strictly south of the Merry Farm.

Maven will give us a piece of paper confirming the debt has been forgiven, but it won’t be easy to give it to Wald. Opening the back gate is too risky, so he won’t talk to us, but if he attacks, he will attack. Stand at the back or side gate, wait for the warrior to approach, and tell him everything. Wald will happily hand over the key to the gate and run away.

Shoot the mechanism on the balcony with a bow and lower the ramp leading to the attic and enter the Riftveld estate. It is guarded by bandits who are easy to get around even with little stealth skills. We need a "suspicious closet" on the first floor. Behind it is a false panel and the entrance to a network of underground tunnels. In the room with a fire trap on the floor, go around the slabs with traces of flame (you will have to walk in a “snake”). The entire corridor is filled with traps, and even the door to Mercer’s office itself is protected by poisonous arrows.

In the office you will find notes with Mercer's plans. Grab the bust of the Gray Fox too - it will be useful for one of the side quests of the thieves guild. And further along the tunnels it’s a stone’s throw to the “Flask”.

Revived triad

“We failed you, Nocturnal. But don't take it to heart. Who will remember the old..."

This unusual quest is a kind of repentance before the mistress Nocturnal. There are no difficulties - meet Karliah and Brynjolf at the appointed place and go with them to the Nightingale Cave. Having put on the Nightingale armor, stand in the indicated place and listen to Nocturnal’s reproaches.

To regain the goddess' favor, we need to find Mercer Frey, punish him and destroy the Skeleton Key. Brynjolf will hint that we will become the head of the guild in the future, provided that we do side “city” quests.

Blindness

Mercer Frey poses in front of an eyeless snow elf statue.

The path of our trio (we, Karliah, Brynjolf) lies in the dwarven dungeon of Irkntand. To get to the entrance to its first part - Arkanex, you can either climb the chain of stairs from below (be careful - bandits), or jump to the door from above, straight from the towers.

The dungeon itself is ordinary Dwemer halls with steam pipes and fire traps. The population of Arkanex are bandits, defense mechanisms. Take the elevator down to the Great Hall, where after a scene with Mercer fighting in the distance, you will be warmly greeted by the Falmer. The ballista can be used to thin out enemies running near the door. But there is no need to be afraid of anyone - you have two immortal companions with you, and in case of problems, all battles can be left to them.

Make sure that all the Falmer are killed in the hall with the locked passage, and quickly activate two levers in turn on the ledges on the left and right. Immortal companions will be especially useful in the battle with the centurion, whom you will stumble upon shortly after Mercer brings down the tower.

Next stop is the Slave Pens. Falmers also live there, and a trap activated by a lever will help us deal with them. After passing through long caves with entire Falmer villages, we will find ourselves in the Sanctuary.

Here we will catch up with Mercer, who is carefully gouging out precious eyes from a huge statue of a snow elf. You will have to fight him personally - Karliah and Brynjolf will be temporarily busy with other matters. If the fight turns out to be difficult for the hero, you can, at the moments when Mercer becomes invisible, climb to the very top, to the head of the statue, and “blow away” Mercer from the top with the cry of Ruthless Force.

With the death of the main villain, the situation will quickly begin to develop towards a catastrophic one. Talk to Karliah. Search Mercer's body, take both "eyes" and the Skeleton Key. Climb to the very top of the statue and wait for a passage in the cave vault to open near its head. All three heroes will emerge through it, like wet gophers from a flooded hole.

Return of Twilight

Soar nightingales like eagles! Surrounded by birds and surrounded by blue mist, Nocturnal herself appears.

This is the ending of the story. The skeleton key will have to be returned to the goddess.

Here our task is to walk the Pilgrim's Path alone.

Go to the Twilight Tomb. Inside, talk to the shadow of Gallus, study the diary of the less fortunate pilgrim and set foot on the Path.

The path consists of five elements:

• First we need to defeat the shadows guarding the Path.
• Then go through the hall, hiding in the shadows and not leaving them (the light causes damage, and very serious - it can kill the hero in seconds).
• Then you need to extinguish the torches next to the Nocturnal statue by pulling the chains.
• After that, go around the corridor with traps, opening the lock.
• And finally - jump into a dead-end trap with no way out.

After the scene, you will find yourself in the inner sanctum of Nocturnal. Return the Skeleton Key to the Black Lake and listen to the Daedra Master. Drink from the Black Lake and talk to Karliah.

THIS IS A BUG: If Karliah disappears somewhere, try waiting for her for a few hours. The magic words “Player.placeatme 1b07f” and “setstage tg09 60” will help you force her onto the stage and continue the quest. It is also possible that Karliah refuses to talk to you. The “setstage tg09 70” command will help you skip the problem.

All you have to do is choose one of the Nocturnal gifts:

• Month- the ability to switch to invisibility once a day during a moment of secrecy.
• Half moon- a powerful rage spell (enemies fight each other).
• Full moon- a strong “vampire” energy blow, taking away and transferring to us a serious portion of health (again, once a day).

The most useful thing, of course, is invisibility. But you can choose any option, because later you can come back here once a day and change the gift for another.