Stones of Barenziah

The Stones of Barenziah are an initially-scattered collection of twenty-four gemstones found in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Description
Prior to appraisal, each Stone of Barenziah will be called "Unusual Gem" by the game. Once the player finds his or her first stone, the miscellaneous quest "No Stone Unturned" activates and indicates that the next step is appraisal. The city of Riften has two people which are capable of handling this task, the first of which is Maul (an associate of Maven Black-Briar), and the second being Vex of the Thieves Guild.

After the appraisal, it is learned that a total of twenty-four Stones of Barenziah exist. Every stone is a Quest item of 0.5 weight that cannot be removed from the inventory until the entire set is obtained. Many of these stones can be found while completing "small jobs" for Vex and Delvin of the Thieves Guild.

No Stone Unturned quest


After handing in all twenty-four Stones of Barenziah, the Dragonborn is asked to recover the Crown of Barenziah from Tolvald's Cave.

Vex reveals that the Crown of Barenziah is an item that enhances a thief's ability. With the stones and crown in her possession, Vex says she can restore the paragon to its full strength. To avoid being charged with a crime, take the stones only when you are not seen by others.

Reward
Upon completion of the quest "No Stone Unturned" (by turning in all twenty-four stones and recovering the crown), Vex rewards the player with the active effect and ability, "Prowler's Profit". In addition, the fully restored Crown of Barenziah sits on the mannequin in the cistern portion of the Thieves Guild.

Helpful tip

 * For gems found inside dungeons where you might be fighting NPCs - they can be knocked off their table, shelf, pedestal or whatever by spells, arrows, bodies running into them, walking over them etc. and sometimes fall into inaccessible locations like a deep furrow in the ground or underneath furniture. In such a case, you may need to return to the area after a few in-game days and hope that the item locations are reset back to where they were at initially.

Bugs

 * When in combat, if you double tap/click the stone, you will receive one, but the quest will count it as two.
 * If the Stone of Barenziah in Reeking Cave cannot be found beside the dead mage after applying Patch 1.4, a glitch will need to be utilized to reaccess the Thalmor Embassy and pick it up from its original location. This bug has been found in all versions of the game, and videos to resolve the situation are available on YouTube.
 * Before being appraised, stones will stack under the name "Unusual Gem." After appraisal they will take the name "Stone of Barenziah" and will no longer stack.(This has been fixed in the latest patch)
 * For some reason, the gem may not appear on the counter where it supposed to sit in Fellglow Keep.
 * Periodically, some stones apparently respawn at their initial place, such as the one in Jarl Elisif the Fair's quarters.
 * In Calixto's House of Curiosities, it may be possible to obtain a stone at Calixto's museum on one of the shelves if every other location has been exhausted without obtaining all twenty-four.
 * Entering the Dwemer Museum after having completed Hard Answers will initiate that quest again.
 * To move the stone to your location without entering the museum, you can use the console command prid 7F909 followed by moveto player.
 * Alternatively, you can complete the Hard Answers quest again to score another Nightingale Blade. Subsequent Thieves Guild quests will not start again. Though untested, this is potentially a method to obtain unlimited Nightingale Blades. Note that Darkness Returns cannot be finished if Hard Answers is completed twice.
 * Maul's dialogue may not show up, prohibiting the initiation of the quest, though you can still start it with Vex.
 * If all the gemstones are collected prior to their appraisal, the entire collection may be forcibly retained in one's inventory while a bug bars the quest from being completed.
 * Sometimes the quest log will count more stones than have actually been obtained. This allows for a premature completion of the quest, and any future stone(s) obtained can be dropped.