Stones of Barenziah

The Stones of Barenziah are an initially-scattered collection of twenty-four gemstones found in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Prior to appraisal, each Stone of Barenziah is labeled as "Unusual Gem". Once the first stone is found, there will be a miscellaneous objective that activates and indicates that the next step is appraisal. The city of Riften has two people capable of handling this task: Maul (an associate of Maven Black-Briar), and Vex, a member of the Thieves Guild.

After the appraisal, it is learned that a total of twenty-four Stones of Barenziah exist, thus activates the quest "No Stone Unturned". Every stone is a Quest item of 0.5 weight and each is worth 200 gold, which 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. Taking the stones while hidden avoids crime charges.

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." Furthermore, the fully restored Crown of Barenziah sits on the mannequin in the cistern portion of the Thieves Guild.

Helpful tips

 * 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 load a previous autosave.
 * It is also possible to get the gem via the console command 'tcl'.
 * There is a simple way to obtain 2 or more gems from only one. First, find one of the stones. Second, use the shout Slow Time. Third, while the shout is active, mash the interact button as fast as possible while highlighting the stone. If done correctly, you should obtain 2 or more stones instead of the single stone. Slow Time doesn't even necessarily need to be used; up to four or more stones can be obtained from a single stone, provided the player can tap the "take" button quickly enough.

Bugs

 * There is a delay between when you click on the stone and when the stone is added to your inventory. If you click on a stone multiple times before it actually picks up, you will receive one stone but the quest will count it as two or more (works on the very first unusual gem you pick up, when the quest starts your counter will be more than 1 right away). This can be used to complete the quest faster as it does not affect the ability to move forward.
 * If there are Stones of Barenziah remaining after the above method is used, the ones not acquired will remain in their normal locations after the quest is completed. You will be able to pick them up and drop them, as they are not considered a quest item after completion. Dropping them will cause them to float in mid-air and they can not be moved unless picked up again. They can also be sold to any shopkeeper as a normal item.
 * 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.
 * For some reason, the gem may not appear on the counter where it supposed to sit in Fellglow Keep.
 * The stone in Wuunferth the unliving's quarters may not be there after the quest Blood on the Ice. as of now, there is no known fix to this
 * 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.
 * [Xbox 360] 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.
 * Occasionally, Stones of Barenziah (and other miscellaneous items) may not stack properly. This results in multiple stacks being formed of the same item.
 * Sometimes when you take a Stone of Barenziah although it says Take taking counts as stealing.
 * If you speak to Vex before Maul, then speak to Maul after you have started the quest you get a miscellaneous objective to become a full member of the thieves guild. Because you have to be a full member to get it appraised you can't complete the objective.