A Cornered Rat

Background
During Diplomatic Immunity, the Dragonborn will find out about Esbern, an old friend of Delphine and only other existing member of the Blades. Delphine will tell the Dragonborn to go to the Ratway in Riften to find him before the Thalmor do. Thalmor Agents will pop up outside once you have Esbern aswell, so be prepared to fight!

Locating Esbern
Esbern is located in the Ratway Warrens behind a barred door with a viewing slot. Access the Ratway Warrens by travelling through several areas, including the Ratway, The Ragged Flagon and The Ratway Vaults. The Ratway's main entrance is located on the South end and lower level of Plankside.

Brynjolf, if not spoken to already, will be located in town during the day and at the Bee and Barb at night. Talking to Brynjolf at the Bee and Barb will trigger conversation leading to the Thieves Guild quest line. If the Dragonborn has already become a member of the Thieves Guild he or she can talk to Brynjolf or Vekel the Man inside the The Ragged Flagon - Cistern to advance to the next part of the quest. Alternatively, chatting to Keerava, the barmaid of the Bee and Barb, can give the player the information without putting the question to Brynjolf, although this will bypass the introduction to the Thieves Guild.

After meeting with Brynjolf and mentioning Esbern, he will give information that Esbern is in the Ratways and the quest marker will update accordingly. There have been problems reported with quest advancement if the quest, intentionally or inadvertently, A Chance Arrangement has been picked up. A Cornered Rat can progress after completing A Chance Arrangement or after being caught.He then will ask you if you want to join the thieves guild(if you havent already) and it will start a new quest. The slot on Esbern's door will be closed and conversation with Esbern is not possible if the quest has not advanced properly.

It is possible that, if not interested in joining the Thieves Guild and not wanting to end up with an unfinished quest in the journal, the Argonian bartender in The Bee and Barb can advance the quest without talking to Brynjolf. Then, either directly searching for Esbern or speaking to the Guild bartender, Vekel the Man, about Esbern. Vekel will not give information about Esbern unless the player has a high persuasion, 140 gold coins, beats him in a brawl, or is a member or Guildmaster of the Thieves' Guild. Vekel will give Esbern's location in the Ratway Warrens, with a warning that the Thalmor are looking for him as well.

Ratway
Some events in the Ratway may unfold differently depending on certain events in Diplomatic Immunity.

If this is the first time inside the Ratway, there will be a few enemies to fight through to get to the headquarters of the Thieves Guild. If a member of the Thieves' Guild, the Dragonborn may enter through the secret entrance in the Riften graveyard.

It is possible to be attacked by Thalmor outside the entrance to The Ragged Flagon. Inside, after the attack, a spy named Gissur was identified by Guildmembers and killed. From his body the Dragonborn can loot Gissur's Note. The note may also be found in the Ratway without the body. If Gissur was killed at the Thalmor Embassy, he will not appear during this quest.

From the Ragged Flagon, head through the Ratway Tunnels to get to the Ratway Warrens. You may have to fight several Thalmor while navigating through the tunnels before locating the entrance. Once in the Warrens, locate the locked door with a viewing slot at the top of a set of steps and activate the door to engage Esbern in conversation. The Dragonborn will then be able to tell Esbern about Delphine and warn him of the Thalmor searching for him. After being convinced, there is an unusually long delay as he gathers his thoughts and unlocks what seems like an absurd number of door locks and bars.

Once inside, the conversation will continue as he gathers his belongings. He will be able to provide some additional background information about the Blades and the dragonborn will bring him up to date on current events. There may be more Thalmor to engage while exiting the Ratway with Esbern in tow. These are easier to manage with him fighting for the Dragonborn. Alternatively you can just run back into the Ragged Flagon, Esbern should appear next to you, and have members of the Guild take them out.

Bugs
There are several bugs reported regarding conversations not continuing or completing with Esbern freezing. Also, there is a delay after making contact with him at his door where he fumbles through his room, then takes a long time for the door to actually open.

Esbern will search his treasure, desk, and lab area of his room - if you cannot hear him you don`t know that he's actually talking to you while he does this - you may think he is frozen. The same goes for after you bring him back to Delphine, he will be talking to her but you cannot hear.

In some cases bugs can be avoided altogether by using console command, which forces Esbern to skip all dialog, open door and follow player to Riverwood.

Esbern's door

 * In first conversation, Esbern is voiceless and after the conversation he fails to open the door. you may have to wait several minutes before the door will open as scripted.
 * If waiting doesn't work try using the TCL command to walk through the door. Shut down the TCL, talk to him, when he starts using the chest, kill him. Then you can talk to him again and tell him to lead the way.
 * You can disable the door, then re-enable it through console commands by clicking the door with command open, then entering disable, then enable. Or just leave the door disabled.
 * This can be sometimes fixed by deleting (BACKUP FIRST!) "Skyrim.ini" and "SkyrimPrefs.ini" from "C:\Users\[USERNAME]\Documents\My Games\Skyrim". All preferences are now default. If everything works it is recommended to set up preferences again rather than overwrite new files with backup.
 * [pc] If the door does not open, face door type "setstage MQ202 160" force Esbern out of the door and close it. he will then open the door to get back in, he then will continue on with the quest though he may speak too fast to understand.

Esbern's voice

 * It is possible to correct speech issues with Esbern by installing a 3rd party speech mod
 * There is another fix to this problem: using a game manager (like the Fallout Mod Manager), you can extract the "voices extra" file in the "data" folder of the game's program files into the same folder (doing so places a folder named "sound" in it) and it will be fixed completely.

Esbern frozen or stuck
Each time he seems to be frozen you can try one of several reported fixes:
 * Make sure you kill everything in the Ratway beforehand, Esbern instantly summons a Frost Atronach in combat which will get him stuck occasionally.
 * If he gets stuck just start a dialogue with him, keep doing it if it continues.
 * If you cast Paralyze on him he will not turn hostile and upon regaining his muscle control he will skip to his next task speeding everything up.
 * If he ever gets stuck you can just kill him. If killing doesn't work try failing to pickpocket/place an item.
 * You can also try to push him by using sprint or Unrelenting Force, to make him walk again if he stops.
 * After Esbern gathers his essentials before leaving with you, Alduin's wall is supposed to activate but sadly due to mods, this prevents the quest from starting and thus also making it impossible to make Esbern follow you to Riverwood as he'll just lounge about. The bug can be corrected by not loading mods before launching Elder Scrolls Skyrim in the Data Files and then when meeting back in Riverwood with Esbern, you should be able to re-activate them mods once again. This fault is known to happen with Delphine before engaging the quest Diplomatic Immunity.
 * (PC) It is possible to first make Esbern follow you by opening the console, clicking on Esbern, typing disable, then typing enable. He will then proceed to his next "task". This may have to be done multiple times before he will follow you.

Quest issues

 * Sometimes this quest will fail to start at all and never even show up in your quest log after completing Diplomatic Immunity, in which case you will have to skip ahead to the next quest, Alduin's Wall. In the dev console, type setstage mq203 5.
 * After speaking to Delphine about Esbern, she will direct you to Brynjolf, but there will be no mission start and you cannot ask the bartender in the Ragged Flagon of The Bee and Barb about Esbern. This may be a result of having Darkness Returns active at the time.
 * Esbern may simply tell you to "go away" anytime your activate his door if you have not advanced the quest or are not currently on the quest.

General

 * If your follower gets into a fight with him, switch the scene and come back, Esbern will appear as normal again.


 * Sometimes Esbern may conjure/summon a friendly Storm Atronach. If the Atronach gets caught in one of Dragonborns shouts or is accidentally hit by the Dragonborn, it will turn hostile and attack friendlies.

Крыса, загнанная в угол