Talk:Rulindil

Factual correction
The battle with Rulindil is NOT unavoidable. It's extremely hard to avoid it, but it is possible.

Note:

Tthis took me almost an hour of sneaking around Diplomatic Immunity when I could've just blown through but I had an obsession of keeping the 5 named Thalmor leaders in the game alive (Elenwen, Ondolemar, Estormo, Ancano, and Rulindil). Ancano is impossible to keep alive on Xbox 360 and Elenwen is completely safe and Ondolemar doesn't die unless certain quests go down a certain path and Estormo is safe as long as you sheath your weapon at the right time when he confronts you. Rulindil is hard to save. Btw, this is good if you want to go back and get him later as a good Thrall candidate because his body isn't permanent but him alive is.

Here are the steps to save Rulindil:

First step is to make sure you have no follower with you otherwise they'll show up near the end of the quest in the embassy and cause a mess. Tell them to wait somewhere or part ways before you go to the party.

Get to Elenwen's Solar without causing a ruckus. To do so, make sure your sneak is fairly high as well as your archery and you have good poisons to tip your arrows with. This means killing the Thalmor Soldiers in the yard first and then the Thalmor Wizard guarding the door last.

Enter the Solar and you'll hear Gissur and Rulindil's conversation and get out of sight to the left in the closet area behind the bar, Gissur will leave eventually and Rulindil will exit into the dungeons.

Snipe the one Thalmor soldier in the Solar with a poisoned arrow. Get the dossiers to advance the task. Now, there's two doors that lead to the dungeons. One comes out behind Rulindil's desk and one comes out behind the interrogator torturing Etienne. You want the second door for now.

You will trigger the interrogation scene. Snipe the torturer when she's in the cell. If she's out of the cell, you may trigger Rulindil to fight.

Once you killed the torturer, free Etienne but DO NOT ask why they were torturing him. Just tell him to Doing so will trigger the next questmark and the Thalmor soldiers coming in with Malborn. You do not want that to happen in this room because it causes a big mess. Sneak back out the cell and save Breyas too if she's there. Both shouldn't trigger Rulindil because they both hide by the Reeking Cave entrance. If your sneak skill is high enough, just sneak around Rulindil and grab the Dossier for Esbern in the chest behind him. If you're not, go out the way you come in and go around to the other dungeon entrance and sneak behind Rulindil to grab it. Once again, DO NOT read it because it will trigger the Malborn cutscene.

Back out the room and go back to Elenwen's solar and stand near the door that has the entrance behind Rulindil's desk where the soldiers come in with Malborn. Make sure you're on the Solar side of the door, not the Dungeon side. Now, if you read Esbern's dossier, Malborn and the soldiers will spawn right next to the door. Kill them quickly and quietly and grab the Trap Door Key. Malborn will follow you now and attack Rulindil once he gets too close, so you need to go back to the torture side Dungeon entrance and sneak as fast as you can to the Reeking Cave entrance. If you're fast enough, Malborn will not be detected by Rulindil and you'll be in Reeking Cave with Etienne, Malborn, and Breyas without Rulindil following. If Rulindil follows, just re-load and move faster or use an invisibility potion.

Now, kill the Troll and exit Reeking Cave. Go back to Delphine and complete the mission and get the rest of your gear.

Now, if you go back to the Thalmor Embassy and use the horse jump glitch to get over the wall, you'll find Rulindil alive and sitting behind his desk in the Solar. Better yet, if you do it before all the hostile Thalmor re-spawn, Rulindil will just sit there eating a piece of bread or drinking out of a goblet and saying "Yes? Need something?" to you. It's kind of funny. A nice little easter egg.