Skyrim talk:The Forsworn Conspiracy

Please use specific titles for new section topics. Titles such as "Bug" are vague and do not summarize a topic well. In addition, please check to see if your issue has already been discussed. If so, add to that section rather than creating a new one.

Archives
Archive 1: Nov 2011 - Mar 2012

Bug - A Night to Remember

It looks like if you get teleported to Markath by another quest, the event which triggers this quest chain never starts (if you grab the books involved by the quest first at least). You can still get the quest but Eltrys never spawns. He can be spawned with player.placeatme 00013394. PC version without patch. — Unsigned comment by 158.136.3.10 (talk) at 04:16 on 12 November 2011

If you mean appearing in the Dibella Temple after too much drink, there's no problem. W still sticks a knife in his victim when you encounter them & E give you "your" note. 118.208.86.234

I got to Markath for the first time through that drinking competition and my quest was fairly bugged - didn't have any of the quest in my log until I left the Warrens and had Dryston beat me up. Ended up randomly going into Talo's Shrine and started the next quest despite only having done 1/8 of the quest. Really buggy. :( — Unsigned comment by 123.243.126.106 (talk) at 12:37 on 4 December 2011

I had this same problem. Woke up in the Shrine of Dibella at nighttime the instigating incident in the marketplace never happened. Pickpocketed Thonar's Journal and then wandered into the Shrine of Talos where three guards wanted to arrest me for murdering a man I had never met! I had no idea what was going on. 93.96.149.93 00:41, 23 April 2012 (UTC)

I didn't notice this quest being any buggier than usual when I woke up in the Shrine of Dibella on my first character before completeing this quest. However it might have been because as soon as I got out of the temple I fast traveled and the game for some reason decided I didn't discover Markath. — Unsigned comment by 24.228.51.14 (talk) at 00:33 on 14 July 2012

How do i start tha quest "Forsworn Conspiracy" if i entered Markth via "A night to remember", i have done "A night to remeber" like 100 houers ago so loading cant be an alternative — Unsigned comment by Veacktor (talk • contribs) at 13:00 on 3 October 2013

(←) Go to the main entrance to Markarth. When you get to the vendor stalls, Weylin will attack. --Morrolan (talk) 13:09, 3 October 2013 (GMT)

I might had found a solution for this quest to be proceded if the player enter Markath using " A night to remember quest" So if u kill Weylin , right after that just enter the console command "player.additem 000D1955" to recive Eltry's note, than go to the Shrine of talos , at Eltry's corpse use the console comand "markfordelete" and right after that use the console comand "player.placeatme 00013394 1" to spawn Eltrys and the quest shall proced normal — Unsigned comment by Veacktor (talk • contribs) at 13:39 on 3 October 2013

Wait, Eltrys is dead? That can only happen at the end of this quest, after you've already completed it. He's essential. --Morrolan (talk) 13:42, 3 October 2013 (GMT)

MY SOLUTION: I had this problem with the quest as well. Here's what I did: (1) I went back to the market stalls during the daytime. Weylin was there, but wasn't attacking. (2) I used these Console Commands to force Weylin to attack: "Prid 9C8AB", and "Setrelationshiprank 9C8A9 -4". This caused him to attack Margaret, though it wasn't a one-hit backstab as normal. But once he was dead, the quest continued as normal. — Unsigned comment by 173.23.16.189 (talk) at 16:42 on 10 September 2018‎

bug - Quest Items

on the ps3 version, when i completed this quest it took all of my quest items from my inventory. — Unsigned comment by 108.75.40.143 (talk) at 21:55 on 16 November 2011

I'm on the 360 and I didn't lose all my quest items, just the 2 fragments of the Gauldur Amulet I had. I ended up reloading one of my autosaves to where I entered the shrine and got arrested so I left the quest, finished the quest to completely reforge the amulet and then went to finish this quest. I purposely emptied my inventory of everything first, except for my 3 quest items, the 2 diaries for this quest and the Saarthal Amulet. Lo and behold doing this quest again ended up with me losing the Saarthal amulet. So now I've had to reload my autosave again to go sort out the Saarthal amulet quest. Damn annoying. --Lyco499 06:24, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Your quest items are removed at the end of this quest, and given back to you after the next quest No One Escapes Cidnha Mine. -- DoL 20:17, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

They should be given back, but there seems to be a problem with adding quest items to the inventory. I just ran into this problem myself. My best guess is that quest items aren't able to be added to the inventory (by console or otherwise) for some reason or another, which prevents the game from returning your quest items come the completion of "No One Escapes Cidhna Mine". Best thing to do seems to be to finish any other quests involving quest items first - might be worth noting in the article. Shinymoogle (talk) 03:14, 4 April 2013 (GMT)

Another bug. - Guards/Legate

When I was supposed to return to the shrine instead of three guards there were two plus the legion legate of markarth. — Unsigned comment by 174.252.179.9 (talk) at 02:04 on 14 December 2011

Same for me (Xbox 360, no updates through Live). The Legion soldier asked me to join the Imperials (I haven't joined any of them yet) and then the marker shows on one of the pillars. No updates. No nothing. No quest ended, no new started. :-/ Tockenen 09:43, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

OK, after 300 different tries, this is my workaround ;-) I had visited Nepos first, and that was obviously wrong somehow (hmm) so I reloaded an earlier save and started with Thonar. Then it worked. No legion officer this time, and now the guards wanted to arrest me, so I've just gotten into the prison/mine now - and the next quest has started. Tockenen 10:57, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

I can confirm this, doing the quest in this order resulted in me getting arrested by the three guards, triggering the next quest in the questline. --Conjuring iLLusion 08:47, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

I followed this order, but still Legate Admand is there instead of one of the guards. The Legate cannot be killed, which means my only option is to continue fighting him or surrender to the guards right away. — Unsigned comment by 24.9.83.1 (talk) at 07:46 on 9 March 2012

I ran into the Legate there and he tried to recruit me into the Legion. The two Markarth guards were only interested in gossiping about the resurgence of the Dark Brotherhood in Dawnstar (I've finished that quest line). Eltrys is dead at the foot of Talos and I robbed his body, but the guards and the legate took no notice. This is after Patch 1.5, by the way. --174.6.51.17 07:54, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

(←) I seem to run into this bug quite a lot, so here's how to fix it on PC only! It doesn't matter in what order you go about the rest of the quest, this fix should work whenever the Legion Solider bug appears. Just close conversation with the legate and allow him to walk away. Loot Eltrys (he has a substantial amount of gold that he was going to pay you, before the guards killed him). Now, attack a guard and immediatley sheathe your weapon to allow the guard to stop you, then choose the jail option (the guards don't always stop attacking, so if not, run into the street and allow another guard to stop you). You'll be taken to Cidnha mine but this isn't enough; The Forsworn Conspiracy hasn't been completed. So, before the Orc prison guard has chance to talk to you in the mine, open up the console and type "setstage MS01 100" without the quotes. This will complete The Forsworn Conspiracy and immediatley start Noone Escapes Cidnha Mine. Enjoy :) — Unsigned comment by 90.220.68.169 (talk) at 01:01 on 6 April 2012

Im on Ps3 and I've tried to start again from before I walk into Nepos house. The same bug happened, where the legate was present and said "Wait...I know you" and did th classicle "I'll arrest you, unless you pay me 475 gold" business. I even tried to raise Eltrys as a zombie but that just turned him into a ple of ash and the guards took no notice of anything. I punched the guards several times so they could arrrest me and they did, leading to me losing all my stolen goods (which was a lot of things, could this affect it?) and got the shiv ready, but couldnt give it to anyone nor use it, so I did my time and came out with my bounty gone and my non-stolen belongings returned, just like a normal jail, and the quest arrow still hadn't moved from the shrine of Talos. Please help? Remember this is Ps3 with the latest update. Thank you. — Unsigned comment by 83.52.152.205 (talk) at 10:09 on 31 May 2012

I ran into this on 360 just now and managed to work around it. The Legate had no interest in arresting me, just stood there and talked about the Legion, so I went outside, FusRohDahed a random guard, then paid him off to not arrest me. Went back into the Shrine of Talos and the Legate's quest dialogue started up as I approached him down the stairs. — Unsigned comment by 69.108.99.97 (talk) at 03:02 on 15 January 2013

I reloaded from an earlier save and completed Thonar's objective and then returned to the shrine of Talos without talking to Nepos. There was a guard there to arrest me and not the imperial soldier this time. For some reason, by completing both the Nepos and Thonar objectives, the imperial soldier appears instead of the guard who arrests you. I was able to continue the quests without incident. 76.0.218.197 18:35, 9 July 2013 (GMT)ArgonianDragon (XBOX 360)

PC Bug - Game Freeze

When on the final objective - in the shrine of talos where you're supposed to meet up with Eltrys - I enter the temple only to find him dead and the three guards wanting to pin the murders on me and arrest me. When I try to surrender, and the dialogue about how no one escapes from Cidhna Mine the game freezes at the end of "No one." Using the console command "setstage ms01 100" but the game freezes after the quest completed text disappears. Killing the three guards then trying to get arrested after also doesn't seem to work. — Unsigned comment by 118.100.251.26 (talk) at 11:25 on 9 April 2012

moved from page

"If you complete the negotiations between the Empire and the Stormcloaks and you choose to give Markarth to the Stormcloaks, you will not be able to complete this quest if you began it but did not meet with Eltrys. Upon entering the Shrine of Talos, you will find Eltrys dead, but the guards will not arrest you for the murder. If you choose to go to jail, you will not be able to gain entrance to the King in Rags' cell to continue the quest."

This last bit is false. I gave Markarth to the storm cloaks AFTER having started this quest but before meeting in the Shrine. I was still able to complete the quest. --19:40, 16 April 2012 75.57.152.65

on xbox i gave stormcloaks markarth without ever having been there and quest triggered normally. (Dawnguard and 1.7patch) Lord Eydvar ^{Talk | Contribs} 20:53, 3 September 2012 (EDT)

I gave the stormcloaks Markarth before I met Eltrys for the last time, and before I went to nespos' house. The quest completed, but no new quest, no guards in the temple, nothing. Going to jail sent me to the mine, but with none of the options (Key on the beast, conversation optins) On xbox with latest patch, no add ons. 70.77.241.32 04:36, 8 March 2013 (GMT)

I can confirm on the PC edition you can start the quest and then give Markarth to the Stormclocks and still complete the quest with no issues.--Ray The Great 21:29, 10 August 2013 (GMT)

easy nepos and company kill

An easy way to defeatel nepos and everyone else in the house is to run outside after talking to Nepos. They will then all spawn in front of you, letting you fus ro dah them off the parapets into the market below. Have tested this multiple times. 98.166.134.138 18:55, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Mulush Speech Challenge

I reversed the deleting about Mulush ; it's about the quest, you ask him where you can find Weylin's key and it gives you a free speech point (which can't be aquired after u completed the quest). Sorry for my bad english — Unsigned comment by 88.167.54.80 (talk) at 20:03 on 5 May 2012

Gaurds Bug - Dialogue Freeze/Loop

okay so i have experinced a bug here when the gaurds seek to arrest you and take you to the mine the game freezes after the guad is done talking very annoying 360 version — Unsigned comment by 72.200.207.187 (talk) at 03:36 on 9 May 2012

There is a bug on the PS3 similar to this, except the guard's arrest dialogue loops. I keep trying to surrender, and once they tell me no one ever leaves the mine I am given the option to ask what the problem is, thus repeating the options about my arrest. If you tell the guards you would rather die and you haven't already got your weapon drawn, you won't be able to draw it. — Unsigned comment by 79.97.147.83 (talk) at 20:55 on 10 May 2012

Bug? - Guards still there after completion

for some reason the gaurds are still in the shrine even after i completed the quest and completed no one escapes from cidna mine. they also try to arrest me. this a bug or something? — Unsigned comment by 66.82.162.42 (talk) at 00:43 on 14 May 2012

Yeah, that can happen if you didn't immediately agree to surrender. That's supposed to have been fixed by Patch 1.5 though... ThuumofReason 00:48, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

Xbox 360 Bug - Guard attacking during other guard dialogue

Did everything prior to reentering the Shrine and then talking to guard like normal. When in the conversation with the guard it can lead to another guard attacking DURING the conversation. Haven't picked a side in the civil war on this save.

No idea why this is happening, but when trying to "surrender" to the guard that initiated the conversation in regards to the conspiracy will make that option stay on the screen. When exiting from it will make the guards act like a crime has been committed. Eventually the black screen will be triggered to teleport to Cidnha Mine but unsure if it will have ramifications on later stages of the quest or even afterwards. — Unsigned comment by -Sean- (talk • contribs) at 23:20 on 18 June 2012

Edit-

After reloading a save while in Nepos' house but before I killed him I was able to avoid the bug. I avoided using the same spells that I used last time (Conjure Dremora, Fire Storm, Blizzard) and just killed him normally; I also let the dialogue play out and didn't skip any of it, but when I went into the Shrine I did not see any bug. Hope that helps anyone. -Sean- 23:32, 18 June 2012 (UTC)

bug - sent to Cidhna after completing quest

I was playing after I escaped went back to the shrine of talos and the guards repeated their dialog and I was sent back to chidna mine even though I had already completed the quest — Unsigned comment by 71.29.245.120 (talk) at 00:05 on 22 July 2012

This sounds the same as the question addressed 2 topics above (this section). --Xyzzy^Talk 06:04, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

Im on the PS3 version.. and after id been at eltirs ther wer three guards but i said i rather die than go to jail.... so i took the run but i cant pick up my weapons anymore an son cant i speak to people or go into houses.. so i cant actully dont do nothing.. sombody has a anser to this?— Unsigned comment by 89.23.237.139 (talk) at 17:29 on 20 August 2012

This sounds like a pretty seriously glitched savegame. Your only solution may be to reload a previous save. --Xyzzy^Talk 04:48, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

PS3 bug - Eltrys already dead

Okay, so after killing the forsworn in the marketplace and receiving the quest from Eltrys to meet him in the shrine of talos, I decided to skip it for the time being (note: I already knew what the quest was about and didn't feel like going into the mines just yet). After 30+ hours of gameplay later, I decided to go back and finally do the quest, however, upon arriving at the shrine to meet Eltrys, I find him already dead and the three guards there. I haven't even done anything (haven't gotten any of the journals nor killed nepo) and they're already taking me to the mines. It's like I skipped the entire quest. — Unsigned comment by 69.235.130.124 (talk) at 00:56 on 31 August 2012

this happened to me as well on the PC, this is caused by pickpocketing Thonar's journal before heading to the shrine (I didn't know he was part of the quest and I pick pocket everyone... I can't help myself). I have made a note in the walk through. i know it is in the bug section, but I think a note inline makes more sense. 98.196.226.75 04:49, 12 December 2013 (GMT)

bug - can't complete quest

Well when I first started playing I tried doing this quest and didn't know that I had to go to jail to complete it. So that was about a couple months ago and I already gave markarth to the stormcloaks and then won it back in the war ans I went in to try and finish it and it wouldn't let me I also tried killing the 2 guards and legate and it still doesn't work even after I pickpocketed him and was sent to jail. — Unsigned comment by 98.28.71.0 (talk) at 20:40 on 3 September 2012‎

Yes you can save Betrid Silver-Blood

By not initializing dialogue with Thonar Silver-blood, but picking pocket his journal instead. Neither Nana or the other male cleaner became hostile and nothing happened. - Fireanddream (talk) 23:09, 2 October 2012 (GMT)

Never mind, didn't read carefully. Fireanddream (talk) 23:11, 2 October 2012 (GMT)

*Bug*I refused arrest once,now can't be arrested

I went into the Shrine of Talos and the three guards were there like normal.I then refused arrest,ran away for a long time,came back and tried to get the guards to take me to jail,but after they say "You will rot in Cidnah Mine for the rest of your days."I can only ask something like this after the tell me I will rot,"What seems to be the problem?"I tried doing this for 5 minutes,gave up and exited the dialogue,and was then attacked.I have this for the Xbox 360,not the PC.Alduin,Bane of Kings (talk) 20:22, 21 April 2013 (GMT)

Interesting bug

I was playing this quest simultaneously with Compelling Tribute (in the Stormcloak Civil War questline), and had completed the Thonar/Margret side of this quest (saved Margret, talked to Thonar, saw Betrid get killed) when I went to talk to Eltrys. At the end of the conversation with the guards when I was about to be sent to Cidhna Mine, the game froze (on XBox). Nothing could be done about it.

However completing Compelling Tribute (without returning to the Shrine of Talos) and the Battle for Fort Snowhawk and then fast-traveling away from the Reach marked this quest as complete (with the usual text stating that I'd been framed for killing Eltrys) but didn't give me a bounty in the Reach. I didn't return to the Reach for more than 30 days ingame. The next time I was there, I tried committing a crime and getting sent to Cidhna, but I just got the regular Cidhna (although still full of Forsworn) and was allowed to serve my time to get out, no life sentence.

This is on the current patch, 1.8. --Morrolan (talk) 03:57, 1 January 2013 (GMT)

Missing Betrid bug

Out of curiosity and the kindness of my heart, I killed Nana Ildene and Donnel in cold blood before talking to Thonar (and then ran away from the guards because I'd forgotten to drop my stolen goods before openly doing something illegal!). I returned after dealing with my bounty to find Thonar no longer at home - I eventually found him at the stables. The quest dialog triggered as normal. After the first half of my conversation with him, which usually triggers the murder, nothing happened. I spoke to him again and got the line about them having killed his wife, and the conversation proceeded normally.

When I returned to the Treasury House, Betrid was mysteriously missing, and I've been unable to locate her about town.

Then again, maybe this isn't a bug, and some other Forsworn just broke into the house and murdered her before carting away her body, while I was busy avoiding guards. — Unsigned comment by Iesika (talk • contribs) at 07:32 on 15 June 2013‎

It sounds like an oversight by the devs. I guess they didn't account for players slaughtering NPCs out of hand when they wrote the scripts for this quest. I wouldn't consider it a bug, however, since you intentionally deviated from the normal quest progression. We really can't document every possible way that a quest could go wrong when we intentionally mess with it. --Xyzzy ^Talk 14:56, 15 June 2013 (GMT)

First entry into Markarth

The opening scene of the quest plays as soon as the door opens into the markets (7.00 p.m in this case)

One has to be quick with Weylin, as stated, or (in my game) he kills Margret with one hit. A console_resurrect was performed on Margret before talking to anyone else, and the quest continues as if I saved her.

On another save-game load, I hit Weylin immediately, no bounty, but that, unfortunately, counts as an assault. Lmstearn (talk) 16:18, 25 October 2013 (GMT)

Shivs & Skooma

If, at first Borkul the Beast is persuaded to give the gate key to the Dragonborn, subsequently locating skooma for Grisvar the Unlucky and receiving his reward of a shiv will get screen updates, but no journal updates. (Lmstearn (talk) 12:41, 30 October 2013 (GMT))

Bug - Vilkas follower AI is overwritten by guard script

So. I have Vilkas as follower. Partway through the quest, he stopped following me. When I arrived back at the temple to finish the quest, he was one of the guards waiting for me. Okay, he's part of the guard faction, so that's understandable. What doesn't make sense is that after escaping from the mine, he's still waiting the Temple of Talos, crossing his arms. He still has all his regular dialogue, but he won't be moved - enabling and disabling does nothing, ResetAI command does nothing, dismissing him and asking him to follow again does nothing, and neither does blasting him across the room with unrelenting force. Any action that forces him to move from his post simply causes him to walk back to the same spot, cross his arms, and simply stand there - even when I use the console to teleport him to Whiterun, he'll just walk all the way back to the temple, even ignoring dragon attacks on the way. --112.119.47.41 10:04, 8 February 2014 (GMT)

"Followers may get permanently stuck in the Shrine of Talos, regardless of if the quest is completed and you escaped from Cidhna Mine. If this happens, the follower will not leave even after you tell them to go home, and if they are moved elsewhere via console, they will walk back to the Shrine of Talos, no matter where in Skyrim they are." This existing bug seems to cover what you are experiencing, just without the specific guard imitation behavior. Unfortunately, there isn't any fix listed. There may be other relevant codes that you could try, but I can't think of any others off-hand. If you do discover a fix, please let us know so it can be added to the article. Good Luck! --Xyzzy ^Talk 13:32, 8 February 2014 (GMT)

Losing the brawl - moved from article

Losing brawl or fight is disrupted causes you to not be able to find out who "N" is. simply reloading from last save seems to fix this.

Moving this from the article for verification. There are so many shortcuts to this quest that there might be one for this as well. Even if there isn't, I don't know that it would be considered a bug. I mean, who actually LOSES a brawl? ;) --Xyzzy ^Talk 15:16, 6 March 2014 (GMT)

Finding evidence about Thornar

I stole his journal and ran straight out of the Treasury House, avoiding the fight. Should this be added onto the page?

Guard Doesn't Do Anything

On my 360, I started The Forsworn Conspiracy, and everything went fine. Except I hadn't done the main quest yet, and therefore hadn't chosen a side. When I went to finish that part of the quest and start No One Escapes Cidhna Mine, the guard ran up to me, as though he were going to try to arrest me, but instead, just said one of the generic guard phrases that they say when you pass by them. He does this every single time that I try to talk to him. Will it fix itself if I chose a side, or do I have to create a completely new save? — Unsigned comment by 174.45.233.238 (talk) at 18:30 on 12 June 2014‎

Try committing a crime right in front of the guard or attacking him then yielding (sheathe your weapons). See if that fixes the issue. If it works, it'll obviously get you arrested, but it should correct the behaviour. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 18:47, 12 June 2014 (GMT)

Apparently I'm in WAAAAY to friendly with the guards. I don't know why, but they just refuse to arrest me unless I do something extreme, and that still doesn't continue the quest from where Eltry's is found dead at the Shrine of Talos. Reading something else on this page, I went outside and FusRohDahed a guard. Twice. I even went up and hit the guard with a sword. The most that happened was the guard said "Hey! I'm on your side!" Finally when I killed the guy, another guard went to arrest me. I paid of my bounty (1000) and went back to the Shrine of Talos to see if it had worked. The Legate and two Markarth Guards there continued to talk about the war. — Unsigned comment by 75.149.166.197 (talk) at 16:36 on 13 February 2015 (GMT)

Eltrys didn't spawn.

Hi. I have a PS3 v1.9.3.... I just saved Margret but instead of talking to anyone I entered the store to sell my belongings. Eltry never showed up. He is not at Talos Temple. how do I proceed ? CanuckMan (talk) 12:53, 16 February 2015 (GMT)

update: I grabbed Margret's and Thonar's journals and went to Shrine of Talos. Only 2 guards were there. I spoke to one, just 'xxxxxxxxxxxx' on controller and eventually Complete: The Forsworn Conspiracy. And it worked. Yay.

The jailor attacked me. When the game reloaded; there were three guards. All is well.

Hope others can be helped by this. CanuckMan (talk) 13:59, 16 February 2015 (GMT) 13:59, 16 February 2015 (GMT)

Another Quest Bug??

In my latest game file I decided to do this quest a little out of order than I normally do. I managed to save Margret and after the first discussion with Eltrys in the Shrine of Talos I went to the Warrens to get info on Weylin. That done I headed back to shrine and Eltrys was still alive and gave me gold for that information. It should probably be noted in the Quest page that if you skip gathering evidence for Margret and instead gather evidence on Weylin, that after you take that info to Eltrys, he will NOT tell you to looking into Thonar's involvement, nor will the quest update to tell you to gather evidence about Thonar. Even if you then go talk to Thonar and he admits to knowing about Madanach, the quest will never update to include him - and pickpocketing his journal will not update the quest either. Also as a consequence, Thonar's wife, Betrid, will never be attacked if the quest step to gather evidence about Thonar is not activated. If you don't like Betrid you can trigger the attack on her by attacking or killing one of the Forsworn servants, which will make the other one aggressive and kill Betrid. But simply talking to Thonar without the quest option will not cause any aggression on the Forsworn's part. Also, if you skip Margret and go talk to Thonar he will simply give a few comments and you will be unable to talk with him at all, but this can be fixed by either reading or pickpocketing Thonar's journal. He will then give you the info you're looking for, but it will still not trigger the attack on his wife, nor will the quest update about gathering evidence on Thonar. However, even if you trigger all of the above stuff, going back to the Shrine without confronting Nepos, it will cause the guards to spawn and Eltrys will be dead. So, considering all this, the only gold you can actually get from Eltrys is if you gather evidence on Weylin and bring it to him - returning to the shrine after gathering evidence on anyone else (Margret, Thonar, and/or Nepos) will cause the guard scene to trigger and the quest to end. A note concerning this should probably be added to the page, unless someone else wants to confirm this method first. Also, I am playing the Legendary edition on a PS3. Chocoholic (talk) 00:34, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

Bugs from skipping parts of the quest are not taken as proper bugs. However, notes on the effects of skipping are, and the second note on the page seems to generally cover your situation. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 11:25, 13 June 2015 (UTC)

I understand now how what I experienced was not a bug, but the second note doesn't explain what happened in my game since I deliberately did not gather evidence on Margret and had not talked to her or taken her journal, so I did not "learn" that she is a spy. After gathering evidence about Weylin, I first went directly to Nepos's house and took them out and that was sufficient to trigger the guards in the Shrine. Then I reloaded the save file, and instead of going to Nepos's, I went instead to Thonar and he would not talk to me, so I pickpocketed him and just read his journal. That triggered him to finally talk to me, and while it did not trigger his wife's death it DID trigger the guards in the Shrine. If someone wants to duplicate my actions to confirm that this is consistent, then perhaps we should update the note on the page to include talking to Thonar or Nepos as sufficient to triggering the final part of the quest, and not just discovering Margret's status.Chocoholic (talk) 04:26, 25 June 2015 (UTC)

Two New Bugs (PC)

I have not chosen a side in the civil war nor participated in it in any way, other than killing every Thalmor I could find. For the first time in my many, many playthroughs, I decided to save Margret this time, so the minute I got inside Markarth I drew my weapons and killed Weylin before he could strike Margret. As I proceeded through the quest, I experienced the following two bugs:

1. After I saved Margret, I got the expected dialog and note from Eltrys. After meeting with him in the Shrine of Talos, my quest objectives correctly updated to "Find evidence about Margret" and "Find evidence about Weylin," as well as "(Optional) Talk to Margret." However, when I finally located her on the steps of the Jarl's palace, just standing there 24 hours a day, all she would say is some meaningless drivel about having to leave Markarth soon. I tried resetai on her, which only resulted in her returning to the marketplace, but no new dialog options appeared. Even after finding and reading her Journal, I still had "(Optional) Talk to Margret" as an objective, but talking to her remained unproductive.
2. After obtaining and reading Weylin's Journal, the Quest Objective correctly advanced to "Find out who 'N' is" and I was ambushed by Dryston upon leaving The Warrens. I won the ensuing brawl, but all subsequent attempts to talk to him resulted only in a renewal of the brawl, and when I inadvertently killed him bare-handed, all the guards attacked me even though I let him attack me first in order to avoid precisely that complication. I finally re-entered The Warrens immediately after defeating (but not killing) Dryston in the first brawl, then exiting out of the ensuing dialog wherein he wanted to brawl again; he then followed me into The Warrens and went on about his business, still carrying a Quest Objective arrow over his head. The quest objective remained stuck at "Find out who 'N' is." After reloading several saves and trying multiple times, I finally just advanced the quest to "Find evidence about Nepos" using setstage ms01 48.

This is my first playthrough wherein I had any trouble at all with this quest. I would suggest that someone confirm these issues so I can post them as Bugs with the recommendation to simply let Margret die as Bethesda obviously expects in order to avoid these and other subsequent issues.

HoggyDog (talk) 23:42, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

Do you have any mods running? I've saved Margret numerous times playing on 360, never had any problems resulting from that. --Morrolan (talk) 16:17, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

I've saved Margret and then played this quest at least four times on the PC, and I've never experienced either of those bugs. Bookwyrm1357 (talk) 00:12, 19 October 2015 (UTC)

Essential Nepos/Thonar et al.

I'm having a problem I don't see described anywhere else on the discussion page. I haven't seen anything like it before. I'm fairly deep into this run-through, level 102, I think, and I'm trying to clean up my quest journal in preparation for running through the Civil War questline. I picked up the Forsworn quest quite early, so it's been a long time; I left it so long because I find it ... distasteful. So regardless, the Forsworn quest is running normally up to the point where I have to talk to either Nepos the Nose or Thonar Silver-Blood. I've tried both, and the result is the same either way. All of the characters in their respective locations are essential, can't be killed or even damaged. This includes Betrid Silver-Blood, who is attacked as normal, but doesn't die. I tried running off to the Shrine of Talos, hoping that I'd get put in prison and the quest would advance; guards were there and Eltrys was there, too, dead, but the guards just attacked me and wouldn't interact otherwise. I ran back outside, only to be attacked by every single citizen of Markarth. (OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration; only the ones I encountered.) Anyone run into anything similar? Any suggestions? 174.56.243.121 19:41, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

Edit: Found a workaround. As suggested in another section, I pickpocketed Thonar Silver-Blood's journal and ran out of Treasury House. No fight, no essential NPC's. Read the journal; quest objective updated. Went to the Shrine of Talos, got put in prison, blah blah blah. I'd still like to know what caused the NPC's to become essential, and whether it's going to cause further problems. 174.56.243.121 20:18, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

If you're on PC, do you have any mods running? Probably one of them caused it if you do. Otherwise you're going to have to list all the quests you've done, ideally listing all the misc quests too. It looks like something seriously borked the quest script. --Morrolan (talk) 03:30, 28 July 2016 (UTC)

No Eltrys

Someone else has mentioned this before, but Eltrys never showed up for me. I came in, saved Margaret, the guards killed Weylin, I talked to a couple of shopkeepers who were too distraught to do business, went into the inn, talked to the innkeeper and a couple other people, came back out of the inn, ran around the city a bit, and am now back at the market, and no Eltrys. Should this be put in the bug section, maybe, since it seems to be an issue? For the record, I'm playing the remastered version on xbox one, and have a few mods running. Obax (talk) 23:29, 3 December 2016 (UTC)

Reading Thonar's Journal before Eltrys' Note fastforwards the quest

I pickpocketed Thonar and read his journal before reading Eltrys' note. I then started the quest by reading the note and went to the Shrine of Talos, where I found Eltrys already dead and the guards waiting for me. I also confirmed that Margret does not offer me any dialogue options to ask her about her status as an Imperial Agent, nor do I get any dialogue options from Kleppr or Frabbi as stated in the walkthrough.

Reading Thonar's journal early on allows you to skip 3 or 4 stages in the quest. I think this should be mentioned in the note. — Unsigned comment by Gotama (talk • contribs) at 09:21 on 26 December 2016

Yes, this is accurate. Should it be listed as a bug maybe? The quest completes, apparently properly, but without most of its content. --Morrolan (talk) 12:45, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

I think it might warrant being placed under bugs. This isn't my first playthrough, but I was randomly pickpocketing people in Markarth (specifically Thonar) and ran into this issue as well. After you walk into Markarth and read Eltrys' note, if you pickpocket Thonar's journal (didn't even read it) and try to return to Eltrys, you meet the guards/dead Eltrys. Quest complete, No One Escapes quest starts. After you finish that quest and return to the main part of Markarth, Thonar's wife, Nana, Donnel, Treasury House maid, Nepos, both Nepos' guards, and Nepos' maid all live and give exactly the same dialogue options as before the Forsworn Conspiracy quest started. No hostility or trespassing warnings whatsoever. If it was my 1st run-through, I'd be really confused. You don't get to read Weylin or Margret's papers, don't talk to Thonar, don't confront Nepos. It skips all of the essential dialogue/info and just throws you in jail. Seems like you should at least have to have read some/any of the journals/notes for the quest to make sense.

Skipping quest stages

In SSE, you can go straight to steal Thonar's journal even without interaction with Eltrys, then he will be found dead in the shrine. Additionally You can avoid bounty by discreetly killing the middle one of the three guards. — Unsigned comment by Ifoolb (talk • contribs) at 07:13 on 30 April 2018

Those two are both also true in original Skyrim. --Morrolan (talk) 17:19, 23 June 2018 (UTC)

Bug: Your Timing Was Off

In my newest playthrough, when I walked into Markarth the first time, I heard Kerah give her line of dialogue that she usually says to Margret, but neither Margret nor Weylin was anywhere in evidence. Several seconds later, Weylin came creeping up from the alley next to the Silver-Blood Inn to brutally attack thin air, shouting "The Reach belongs to the Forsworn!". I stayed out of it; the guards killed him, and a crowd of passers-by came running up to see what was going on, including Margret. When I talked to Margret, she said "By the gods, that man almost killed me" and gave me a pendant to thank me for saving her life, even though she hadn't been anywhere near the scene and I hadn't laid a finger on Weylin. Then Eltrys came up to give me "my" note, as usual. (Except for a small guard dialogue tweak, I don't have any mods that alter vanilla NPC behavior.) --68.34.19.73 15:29, 26 May 2019 (UTC)

You don't have to pickpocket the journals

The wiki points out that you can skip some parts (and keep some people alive) by pickpocketing Thonar's and Nepos' journal to skip various parts of the quest. But you don't actually have to steal the journal. You can hold shift* to read the journal without taking it, which means not having to worry about pickpocket success or even 'being a thief'. It's not a huge thing, but I found it by accident and thought it would matter. It might also apply to some other quests out there.

*You can press some button to use items in someone else's inventory; Eat food, learn from spell books, equip weapons and armor, etc. I could be wrong on it being shift and of course it's different on console.

— Unsigned comment by 24.22.253.92 (talk) at 05:47 on 1 June 2021 (UTC)

Outdated info

If you complete the negotiations between the Empire and the Stormcloaks and you choose to give Markarth to the Stormcloaks, you will not be able to complete this quest if you began it but did not meet with Eltrys. Upon entering the Shrine of Talos, you will find Eltrys dead, but the guards will not arrest you for the murder. If you choose to go to jail, you will not be able to gain entrance to the King in Rags' cell to continue the quest. It appears that by handing over Markarth during the negotiations, this quest will automatically end.

I guess, this is all fixed in certain version of Unofficial Skyrim patch, since I gave Markarth to the Ulfric and met Eltrys after that, all ok, quest proceed as usual. 188.126.89.146 21:35, 9 July 2021 (UTC)