The Ultimate Heist (Oblivion)

Overview
Faction: Thieves Guild Prerequisites: All previous Thieves Guild quests completed Quest giver: Gray Fox Reward: Gray Cowl of Nocturnal; key to Dareloth's Basement (Thieves Guild Hall); named as Thieves Guild Guildmaster

Background Information
The final piece that the Gray Fox needs is an Elder Scroll from the Imperial City Palace itself. To start, he gives you the Boots of Springheel Jak (item), which he believes you'll need at some point, as well as the Arrow of Extrication, which supposedly should unlock something.

Note: Make sure you have a bow with you, it's a heck of a long trek back when you find you need it.

Walkthrough
As preparation, be sure to bring a bow, a few arrows and plenty of lockpicks. This is a long quest, so be sure you have time on your hands.

First, go to the Imperial City Palace in Imperial City. Head inside, make a left, picklock the door to the Palace Basement. Once inside, walk a few feet, turn right, and head to the other end of the room (north side); watch out for a patrolling guard. Activate the giant hourglass (the Glass of Time).

Second, head to the Imperial City Arboretum and head to the northern gate. A grate on the ground by a tree is the entrace to the South East Tunnels. Inside, make your way to the Beneath the Bloodworks area.

Kill the Vampire Nightblade and proceed. Once you get to some stairs, make a right, keep going straight, and then you’ll see a door to the left. You’ll need to open some gates with nearby turn wheels (see map) to get to the Imperial Palace Sewers. You may come across a zombie or two.

Once inside the Sewers, cross the bridge, head down the stairs, and watch out for the wraith. Go through the northwest hall, and you’ll come to a large circular room with a pool of water. Go through the hallway to the next room, then go through the next hallway and through the gate. Head through the Strange Door to the Old Way.

Old Way
In the Old Way, watch out for traps; look on ground for trap plates. The ruins are populated with leveled Undead. Go down the hall, make your first left and through the door into another room called Old Way. Be careful in here as there are more enemies, mostly skeletal and ethereal Undead. Fight your way through (there’s only one way to go here), then go towards and enter The Lost Catacombs.

Again, fight, or sneak your way through, there’s only one way. Head north, then east through a large area with a few enemies in the lighted center, then north again. When you come to two tunnels, take the right one. Follow it through and you should get to a very large elvish-origin room. Use Springheel Jak's Boots to get on the ledge to activate the switches to open the first gate. Go straight through it and through the door to the Hall of Epochs.

Inside the Hall of Epochs, go straight up the steps to the three statues. You’ll get a message that you need to find the keyhole. Go around back to the large "pillars" (they're walls) and you’ll get a message that you need to lower those walls. You'll see a gate when facing south, so head through it and you’ll find a button. Press it. Then continue through there, fighting to another room named the Hall of Epochs.

Again, fight your way through there. In the last chamber, where there are two catacomb rooms on each side, you’ll see a chest and a button above it; press it. Then go back to the large room with the statues.

You’ll notice that the big walls are now down. Fight the two zombies, stand on the small square on the small bridge and look straight across at the big center statue. You'll see that there is a hole to shoot arrows through (the keyhole). Practice with a few regular arrows at first (you should’ve gotten some from the dead skeletons). (Note: use the sword on the statue as aim) When you hit the hole with an arrow you will hear a loud "thunk" sound. That is when you know you hit it. You’ll actually need to aim high to hit it. Save the game first before shooting the real thing. If you miss, you can actually pick up the Arrow of Extrication, but save beforehand just in case. Fire the Arrow of Extrication at the keyhole.

Once you approach the door, the two Ayleid Statues will come alive and fight you. Defeat them and prepare yourself in sneak mode. (You are able to obtain their weapons if you get them via the inventory, but if it is dropped from a container or a person drops it, you will not be able to pick it up, as the weapon crumbles to dust.)

Back to the Imperial Palace
Sneak through the door and you’ll end up in the Imperial Palace Guard’s Room. Sneak your way out, make a left into the Library. Sneak forward more, until you see a door to the library on your left. Pick lock it, enter, make a right and follow the hallway. Pull the lever behind the Blind Priest, go back around to the front of the priest gate, and into the library. Sit on the chair.

A Blind Priest will come down and give you the Elder Scroll. Take it, sneak up the stairs (don’t worry, as long as you’re sneaking, the priests won’t bother you, even if you're directly in front of them). Picklock out, then make a left and picklock into the Moth Priest’s Chambers. Go around, picklock to the Imperial Battlemage’s Chambers.

Picklock into the bedroom. Make sure you’re wearing the Boots of Springheel Jak, as you’ll be falling soon. Go to the fireplace and escape through there and fall to the Old Way.

Once you’ve fallen, go back the way you came and return to the Gray Fox with the Scroll. You can also choose not to wear the shoes and instead fall without them if you want to keep them.

He asks you of one last thing before your reward: He asks you to take a Wedding Ring to Countess Millona Umbranox in Anvil, and gauge her reaction. If she asks who’s it from, say it’s from a stranger who wants you to have it.

Revelation at Castle Anvil
Head to Castle Anvil and give the wedding ring to her. You'll discover that it’s her husband’s ring and that she deeply misses her husband. The Stranger will walk up, and will turn into the Gray Fox. He takes off his mask, and reveals that he is Count Corvus Umbranox, her long-lost husband. He wore the mask ten years ago when it was inherited from the former Thieves Guild guildmaster and lost his identity for 10 years. Corvus renounces his life of thievery, names you guildmaster, and gives you the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal, which is no longer cursed. Wearing it in public will cause guards to attack you, however people will not recognize that you are the Gray Fox if you remove it in front of them. If you wear the cowl while leaving the Anvil Castle, arch-rival Lex will confront you and battle will ensue. Lex can not be killed, except in the Playstation 3 version. He instead gets knocked unconscious and gets back up afterwards. It is good training, and is also very fun, but, like all plot important NPCs, you cannot loot his body.

Corvus also reveals that Emer Dareloth is the true thief of Nocturnal's cowl. History, having been altered by the magic of the Cowl, now allows the Thieves Guild to have formed a guildhall at the ruins of Dareloth at the Imperial City Waterfront, where you first met Armand.

Note
When you jump down the chute, do not wear the Boots of Springheel Jak. Wearing the boots you will destroy them (as in removing them from your inventory). If you want to wear them again, make sure you're at full health, save, and jump down. If you die, then load up from your last save, wear them, and jump down. If you have one, a fortify endurance potion will help keep you from dying. High Agility, Acrobatics, and Fortify Health potions will help as well.

Another way of falling without destroying them is dropping EVERYTHING you have. That way you fall on a cushy pillow without dying. Then pick every thing back up and go on your way.
 * Note: this won't work on the Xbox 360 or the PS3 version as the game will not allow you to drop items while you're in the air.


 * Note: keeping the boots (and the arrow, if you picked it up after you fired it) keeps them in your inventory as 'quest' items. If anyone knows the console commands (PC version only) to remove them or to at least make them non-quest items and be removable, please post here.

Bug
There seems to be a bug where the Countess will go to her throne, but sit the wrong way. You'll then be stuck where you are, unable to move, without receiving the cowl. There is also one where you are killing all of the enemies to lower the walls and open the doors and a Zombie is stuck in the wall and can't get out, so you will be there but can still find a way out.

there is another bug that might occur when you are going to fire the arrow of extrication and it wont fire because "arrow of extrication is a quest arrow" if this happens sometimes you have to stand exactly in the middle of the pressure plate...

Another involves the Countess's apparent vampire-phobia. If you are a vampire, this quest is impossible to complete because Countess Umbranox will not talk to you, saying only, "Get away from me, blood-sucking scum!" One possible fix is to use the console to add the vampire cure potion to your inventory, then drink it. She should talk to you after this.

Another irritating bug can be that after Corvus Umbranox finishes his speech, rather than approaching you and giving you the cowl, he simply walks away, this has been known to occur if you have been to the Temple of the Ancestor Moth and completed the relevant quest before you are supposed to, this means that you can be the wrong rank when Corvus should speak to you and thus he cannot promote you.