Blood on the Ice

Blood on the Ice is a quest initiated in Windhelm. In order to start it you must have entered and exited Windhelm at least three times. The Destruction trainer Wuunferth can be contacted in his room at the end of the hall through the door that leads upstairs which is across from the Barracks within the Palace.

''Note: There are multiple different ways to end this quest. If you accuse the court mage, you will have to wait around three days outside the wall while he is in jail, and The Butcher will kill again, starting the second part.''

Overview

 * Prerequisites: N/A
 * Quest Giver: Windhelm guard in graveyard (at night)
 * Reward: Ability to buy a house in Windhelm

Walkthrough
At this point, the player can complete this quest in one of two ways:
 * 1) Enter into Windhelm 4 times. Upon the 4th, head to the Graveyard around 2am. REMINDER: If you are or have finished The Dark Brotherhood, this could rinder your possibilities of getting this Quest.
 * 2) Approach the graveyard outside the Hall of the Dead at night; there will be several people gathered around a female corpse.
 * 3) Speak with the guard.
 * 4) Visit Jorleif to be granted permission to help the investigation.
 * 5) Return to the guard.
 * 6) Enter the Hall of the Dead and speak with Helgird.
 * 7) Return to the body, follow the trail of blood to Hjerim.
 * 8) Return to Jorleif for advice.
 * 9) Pick the lock or receive a key from the Tova Shatter-Shield, Friga Shatter-Shield's mother and enter the house.
 * 10) Investigate all of the furniture that gives you the option. The wardrobe on the northeast side from entering the house will have a hidden door leading to an altar.
 * 11) Take the Butcher's Journal #2, exit and grab the first journal from the bloody chest up against the wall, Strange Amulet and flier from the shelf (if you turn around and face the main door, the amulet is on the shelves on the right side of the door, under the fliers).
 * 12) Visit the Candlehearth Hall or Calixto's House of Curiosities to speak with Calixto Corrium. You can show him the Strange Amulet and even sell it to him, if you so choose. He will tell you it belongs to the court mage.
 * 13) Visit Viola Giordano. She's often found in Candlehearth Hall (note: you can't talk to her if you don't have a copy of the "Beware the Butcher" pamphlet in your inventory).

Accuse the mage
Note: The court mage can train your destruction magic, take this into consideration before accusing him of murder.
 * 1) Return to Jorlief to end the quest and thus accuse the court mage of the murders.

Edit: He can still teach destruction magic even from behind bars.

Note: You can visit Wuunferth in the Windhelm dungeon after you accuse him. You are given the option to tell him "There has been another murder" which allows you to catch the real killer and set Wuunferth free. This brings the quest back from the completed state. You may have to allow Wuunferth to wait in jail for a day for the option to appear.

Catch the killer
Note: If you sold the amulet to Calixto earlier, after you "catch" (kill) the murderer, you can loot the complete amulet (Necromancer Amulet) off the body. It grants +50 Magicka, Fortify Conjuration 25%, and reduces Health and Stamina regeneration by 75%.
 * 1) Go and talk to Wuunferth, the court mage, rather than following the quest marker to Jorleif. Tell him you heard he was practicing necromancy. He tells you he doesn't, and that the amulet and journals are not his.
 * 2) Go to the marketplace area (right by the White Phial shop; the map indicator will be a little misleading) in the stone quarter at night, as Wuunferth suggests, find and stop Calixto, who is about to strike again.
 * 3) Alternively, instead of stopping Calixto in the marketplace, if you witness him successfully carrying out this murder, he will run off into the night. Your quest tracker will then lead you back to Hjerim, where the killer lies in wait and will attack you immediately upon entering. Alternatively, if the player is fast enough, they can catch up to Calixto and strike him down, with no added bounty.
 * 4) Return to Jorleif and tell him that the killer has been caught.
 * 1) Return to Jorleif and tell him that the killer has been caught.

Bugs

 * If you begin this quest, take over Windhelm for the Empire, and then try to complete it afterwards, you may notice that the crime scene is no longer there, though you may still have an objective to investigate it, depending on how far into the quest you were when you took over the city. For example, if you have finished the quest and Windhelm is still destroyed, and you go to see Calixto strike Elda Early-Dawn in the square, he will just stand on a pile of flaming rubble behind Elda without doing anything. This can be fixed by skipping away from Windhelm and coming back, so it will be rebuilt, and reinitiate 'Patrol Windhelm at Night'.
 * (XBOX 360 Version / PS3 Version / PC Version) Purchasing Hjerim before officially starting Blood on the Ice will drop you about midway through the above timeline once you visit your house for the first time, skipping over the murder scene in the graveyard. This also occurs if you pick the lock and enter the house out of curiosity. Simply investigate everything in the house, making sure to grab both Butcher Journals, and bring one of the pamphlets to Viola Giordano. She will tell you to talk to the Jarl's steward, at which point you can choose how to end the quest. Note: You will not be able to purchase any decorations for your home until after the quest is completed.
 * (XBOX 360 Version / PC Version) Purchasing Hjerim before midway through Blood on the Ice will drop you in the above timeline just after the murder scene in the graveyard involving Calixto. You will not be able to kill Calixto Corrium to catch the killer. After you talk to Jorlief in jail and he tells you to patrol the streets, Calixto Corrium will run into Hjerim and will attack you whenever you enter. You will not be able to kill him, but he will stop attacking you if you do enough damage to kill him. Attacking him a second time will cause a bounty which will be removed if you subdue him. The quest is incompletable after this bug. Workaround for this Bug: Console Command "setstage ms11 150" will complete the step "catch the killer". After you talk to Jorlief to complete the Quest, Calixto Corrium is gone.
 * (PS3 Version/XBOX360/PC Version) If you did not pick up the Strange Amulet and talk to Calixto Corrium before you accuse Jorlief, you will not be able to kill Calixto Corrium to catch the killer. After you talk to Jorlief in jail and he tells you to patrol the streets, Calixto Corrium will run into Hjerim and will attack you whenever you enter. You will not be able to kill him, but he will stop attacking you if you do enough damage to kill him. Attacking him a second time will cause a bounty which will be removed if you subdue him.
 * (PS3) If you kill Viola Giordano then purchase Hjerim, the quest will start but be incompletable, and you will not be able to purchase the upgrades for the house.
 * (XBOX 360)(PS3) When picking up the pamphlets in Hjerim, the game will act as if you picked up the amulet as well, allowing you to talk to Viola about it as if you'd already identified it.
 * If you accuse the magician before you speak to Calixto it will complete the first part of the quest, however you can not remove the amulet from your inventory. The new quest tells you to capture the butcher, however, he is immortal and the quest does not end.
 * (PS3) After you accuse the magician and you permanently have the amulet, you can wear two necklaces at once by equipping a necklace, then the pendant (so you will have the amulet and the necklace equipped), and then equip the second desired necklace.
 * If you pickpocket Calixto and search through his chest in the House of Curiosities you will find another journal entry of the Butcher. But don't worry, even though you already know who the killer is you will still have to follow the quest line as is.
 * If you enter the cell as the mage is being arrested you will be trapped. You can then pick the lock and escape as the watching guards do not care. The cell will remain open but the mage will stay put.
 * Quest will not start if you have more than 245 in games days passed.
 * Work around solution find a elf named Tova. She will most likely be at the "House of Clan Shatter-Shield" go to that house at night pick the lock (Master) then go to the left room where she will be sleeping (inconsistent where she is) pickpocket her and grab the "Hjerim" key then go to the hjerim house go to the left youll see a bloody chest open it grab the "Butcher Journal" then the quest should trigger. [Works for some people]
 * If you don't accept Calixto's offer to buy the amulet, it stays flagged as an undroppable and unsellable quest item, further clogging your inventory. Furthermore, it carries no enchantment, unlike if you sell and then retrieve it from Calixto's corpse. For a solution to this issue on the PC version open the console and type Player.additem 000D2328 -1, It will remove the strange amulet from your inventory. (PC) (XBOX 360) (PS3)
 * (PS3) Occasionally when you purchase the upgrade to "clean up that killers mess" for Hjerim, it may not actually clean it up. Reloading a previous save seems to fix it.
 * (PC)Fínding the Butcher's journal in Calixto's house before starting the quest seems to prevent you from starting it. (Does not apply for Xbox 360. Needs confirming for PS3.)