Dampened Spirits

Dampened Spirits is the fourth quest pertaining to the Thieves Guild. After completing the quest Loud and Clear, Brynjolf will tell you that Maven Black-Briar wants to speak to you.

Overview

 * Prerequisite: Loud and Clear
 * Quest Giver: Brynjolf
 * Reward: Enchanted Sword, Dagger or Mace
 * Reputation Gain: N/A

Objectives

 * Speak to Maven Black-Briar
 * Speak to Mallus Maccius
 * Speak to Sabjorn
 * Poison the Nest
 * Poison the Honningbrew Vat
 * Attend the tasting ceremony
 * Identify Sabjorn's silent partner
 * Return to Maven Black-Briar

Walkthrough

 * 1) Speak with Maven Black-Briar.
 * 2) *She will be waiting for you upstairs in the Bee and Barb or the Black-Briar Meadery. She'll tell you that she needs you to get rid of the competition, a brewery that's just opened and wants you to find out how Sabjorn has managed to fund such a costly project.
 * 3) Speak with Mallus Maccius.
 * 4) *He'll be waiting for you in the Bannered Mare in Whiterun. He asks you to talk to Sabjorn so you can get into the basement to clear out the pests he's having a problem with and poison the vat in the process.
 * 5) Poison the nest and Honningbrew vat.
 * 6) *Speak with Sabjorn and he'll let you do the job without many complaints.
 * 7) *Getting to the nest is pretty straight forward, there are quite a few skeevers and a few frostbite spiders to deal with. What you need to watch out for is Hamelyn, a man who appears to have been living next to the nest, he has a fairly powerful magic attack so keep an eye on your health bar. The nature of his magic attack varies depending on race. If you're playing as a Nord or an Imperial he may use a fire spell, but if you're playing any other race he'll use an ice or shock spell. (Note: not entirely true, playing as an Imperial, Hamelyn used Shock spells, and playing as a Nord, he also used Shock spells, so the nature of his spells could be random). If you are having trouble with him you may want to transform into a werewolf; your growl will cause him to go into "fear", you then have the chance to kill him.Poision the boiler.jpg
 * 8) *Continue through the tunnel to the Honningbrew Boilery, go up the stairs and pour the poison into the vat. The key for the door is hanging up right next to it so you can leave without having to backtrack.
 * 9) *Go back into the meadery and tell Sabjorn the job is done.
 * 10) Attend the tasting ceremony.
 * 11) *Commander Caius or Sinmir tastes the mead and is unhappy with it, he then puts Mallus in charge and drags Sabjorn off to Dragonsreach Dungeon.
 * 12) *Talk to Mallus Maccius and he'll tell you where the books are that will help you locate Sabjorn's 'silent partner'.
 * 13) Identify Sabjorn's silent partner.
 * 14) *Go upstairs and look in Sabjorn 's dresser there should be a promissory note.
 * 15) *Unlock the door to the right of the dresser. Inside this room you will find the Honningbrew Decanter, which you sell to Delvin Mallory.
 * 16) *Travel back to Riften and give Maven Black-Briar the note.
 * 17) *She tells you to take the information to Brynjolf who acknowledges your findings and sends you to Mercer Frey, who he feels will be able to identifty the symbol on the note and shed some light on the Thieves Guild's anonymous adversary. Then Scoundrel's Folly begins afterwards.

Rewards
Upon returning to Maven Black-Briar you will be given a reward of a leveled weapon with a random enchantment on it.

Bugs

 * If you do not speak to Maven Black-Briar shortly after being given the quest, the quest will bug out and you will not be able to continue with the Thieves' Guild quest line. This is an issue as of 11/17/2011. (A not so elegant but effective solution is to open the console and enter the command "setstage TG04 1". That will allow you to skip the bugged quest entirely (if it´s not showing up for you) and continue with the Thieves Guild line). (confirmed on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC (for PC only occurs if you click to make the dialogue skip untested on Xbox 360 and PS3))
 * Not exactly a bug, but sometimes when you head back downstairs after completing the quest, you will see Mallus drinking from the same poisoned keg that the Commander drank from.
 * Not exactly a bug either, but sometimes Commander Caius is there, tasting the mead, even if you have killed him, or taken over Whiterun with the Stormcloaks.
 * (Present on all three systems as of 1/16/12) To complete Thieves guild quest "Loud And Clear", you must talk to Brynjolf. Unfortunately, Brynjolf does not assign "Dampened Spirits" despite providing the necessary dialogue and task. Speaking to Maven as Brynjolf asks will not trigger any new dialogue on her part, and there is no known fix to this bug, so save before talking to Brynjolf, then try talking to him, and if it doesn't work load again and complete other quests until Bethesda fixes this bug.
 * When going through the caverns, near some bear traps, there is an un-activated tripwire. If the player dies sometime after tripping it, and respawns, the wire will appear broken as if already tripped, however it is indeed un-activated. (confirmed on Xbox 360)
 * After completing the quest correctly and continuing on with the Thieves Guild storyline, in some cases Mallus will never operate correctly as a fence. He has dialog options that correctly correspond with the quest being completed correctly, and other dialog that indicates he will buy things from you if you ever need someone to sell to, but he never opens up a merchant window.

Trivia

 * When you go to Sabjorn's room in his office to collect his notes, under his bed you'll find a bottle of Black-Briar Mead. It can be assumed that Sabjorn liked the competition's brew better.