Loud and Clear

It is the third quest pertaining to the Thieves Guild, acquired from Brynjolf.

Objectives

 * Follow Brynjolf
 * Listen to Mercer Frey
 * Talk to Brynjolf
 * (Optional) Speak to Vex about Goldenglow Estate
 * Burn three beehives
 * (Optional) Enter Goldenglow using sewer
 * (Optional) Obtain the key to Aringoth's safe
 * Clear out Aringoth's safe
 * Return to Brynjolf

Walkthrough

 * 1) Follow Brynjolf into the The Ragged Flagon - Cistern.
 * 2) Speak to Mercer Frey, he is generally found standing near his desk or wandering the main area. Mercer will assign you your first job in the Thieves Guild and request that you go to Goldenglow Estate to teach the proprietor a lesson.
 * 3) Make your way to the Goldenglow Estate by following your map marker.
 * 4) Either sneak in via the sewers or from behind the estate. (it is possible to enter the estate from the rocks below the eastern side of the building by jumping on them.) Ensure that you are not detected while sneaking.
 * 5) *Tip: Watch out for the pink liquid on the floor of the sewers and the basement, it will catch fire if you use fire or spark magic.
 * 6) Follow your map marker to the Bee hives. Use the flames spell or a torch on a beehive and it will catch on fire. Repeat for three hives. Make sure to only burn three hives, for if you burn any more you will forfeit your money reward. You will likely be detected, so either run back into the sewers or jump into the lake behind the house and swim for a little while until you lose detection. Note: being detected at any part of the quest will not cause you to lose the reward, so use this to your advantage if you don't feel like sneaking around the entire building.
 * 7) *Tip: It is possible to climb the rock wall just to the north-east of the beehives. Once you've made it up, you can go around the south end of the wall.
 * 8) *Tip: It is possible to climb on the rocks on the western side of the bee hives behind the fence and use the flames spell over the wall to ignite them.
 * 9) *Tip: From where the sewer is it is possible to simply walk around the wood platform on a thin ledge of rock.
 * 10) Pick the lock of the Goldenglow Estate's back door. It is on expert difficulty, but is not too hard. From here on, you will need to sneak up to the second floor of the estate, where you will find another locked door. This is Aringoth's room. Be wary of the hired mercenaries on your way to the second floor. Simply sneak past them while they aren't looking.
 * 11) *Tip: The slow time shout makes sneaking around incredibly easy. You can sneak directly in front of them even when the three are grouped up. Sneak near, muffle, slow time, silent roll across.
 * 12) Once you pickpocket Aringoth, who is crouching in a corner in his room, leave his room and make your way to the basement, which is through a steel barred gate, in the same hallway of the patrolling guard. You can also talk to him, and by persuading him, he states that he is as good as dead to the new owner, since he gave you the key (Once you take the safe key you cannot get rid of it until the quest is over)
 * 13) *Tip: Grab the Queen Bee Statue on the right of his bed to return to Delvin Mallory for some gold.
 * 14) *Tip: It's possible to place a wide-mouthed basket on top of his head in order to pickpocket him successfully. You can find one in the same room you enter the second level at. Carry it to his room and place it on top of his head and stand near him to remain hidden, (if he talks but you're still showing as hidden in sneak mode, it still works[Confirmed on PS3]) then pickpocket him.
 * 15) *Tip: It is nearly impossible to remain undetected, if persuasion fails, you can actually jump on top of his head to escape his field of vision and pickpocket him without being seen.
 * 16) *Tip: You could just kill him then loot his body, Brynjolf says you can if he is giving you trouble.
 * 17) *Tip: If you become detected and are being attacked leaving the estate seems to reset the guards. They will be in the same spot as when you entered and none hostile until detected.
 * 18) *Tip: You are able to pick up one of the drums near him and shield yourself from his view until you are hidden, then drop the drum and quickly pickpocket him before he detects you again.
 * 19) *Tip: It is, on occasion, possible to pick his pocket without starting the conversation by simply creeping up to him using the furniture he is crouching behind as cover from his speech. (Witnessed on PC. Confirmed on PS3.)
 * 20) Sneak through the basement, following your map marker. It is possible to sneak past all of the guards but the last one is tricky. You either need to save a potion of invisibility for him, have very high sneak, use the "Throw Voice" shout to send him away or carefully sneak up behind him and place a wide-mouthed basket over his head (Yes, that actually works. [Confirmed on PS3]). You can find one in the first room on the second floor. You need to first drop the basket when you are behind him then hold it and toss it around until it turns mouth-side down. Hold it again and gently place it over his head and let it go. It will stay and you can sneak past him. This basket trick can also work on Aringoth. You can also sneak past him if you go right in front of him, then cut back to the door, but it is most important to stay in the shadows. If you pickpocketed or looted Aringoth, which you should have, then the safe, which is in a corner, will unlock effortlessly. Retrieve the document and gold from the safe (or just kill him with a charged sneak attack from behind, there is no penalty).
 * 21) *Tip: It is also possible to get past the last guard without killing him, by creeping close to him and firing an arrow or using throw voice dragon shout back up the corridor. When he goes to investigate you can run down the stairs before he comes back. If you don't mind killing the guard, the easiest way to go about it is to light the gas on fire with flame spell.
 * 22) *Tip: As in the tip in number 4. You can just slow time and sneak roll directly in front of him with him being none the wiser of your presence as a simpler alternative. You can also use the Muffle with an invisibility potion to sneak by him, or cast Calm on him and just walk past.
 * 23) *Tip: If all else fails, you may be able to run by fully detected and grab everything while he is hitting you, assuming you can take a few whacks. While in any dialogue box, such as searching containers, picking a lock or accessing the safe, surrounding action is paused like any other time and he won't hit you until you are done. You can make a quick retreat down the sewer tunnel entrance off the room with the safe and he will not follow. A shout like Whirlwind Sprint may help with this strategy.
 * 24) *Tip: You can also run past him (taking a few whacks) and enter the sewer through the trap door in the floor. After a while, he returns to his post. You can then re-enter the basement, empty the safe at your leisure, and exit through the sewers again without alerting him.
 * 25) *Tip: If you have a bow, you can shoot it at another area of the room and he will go to inspect the noise. If you're fast enough and you a high enough sneak skill, you can make it down to the safe room before he fully detects you.
 * 26) After you escape the estate, return to Brynjolf. He will be in the Cistern of The Ragged Flagon. An easier way to get there is to go to Riften's graveyard, and press the button on the large tomb to reveal a secret passageway.

Bugs

 * Sometimes after finishing the previous quest, Loud and Clear won't initiate. Redoing Taking Care of Business doesn't seem to fix this.
 * If you do not allow Brynjoff to finish his speech on the previous quest, but ran off after quickly completing his task, he may remain in his stall forever and not lead you anywhere.
 * Even if you only burn down 3 hives, you still are told you burned down too many. Possibly happens when you burn them in no particular order, rather than the first 3 you see. (fixed in patch 1.4 on PC)
 * Fixed by using Arniel's Convection on the beehives rather than Flames.
 * After trying this bug repeatedly, and being very careful around the hives, it seems you can set a hive on fire if you just bump into one with a fire source (e.g., torch or "unsheathed" fire spell), even if the fire source in your hand doesn't directly touch it. After lighting the first 3 hives, stay up against the last hive you burned and deactivate ANY FIRE you might have going before you move again. Also, other enemies (e.g., dragons) can set them on fire, so be careful.
 * Aringoth can sometimes be stuck inside furniture. This does however not influence gameplay much besides making it slightly harder to pickpocket him.
 * If the statue is the last Larceny Targets item you need to turn in Delvin Mallory will not accept it.
 * Aringoth may sometimes become hostile even if persuaded.