The Forsworn Conspiracy

The Forsworn Conspiracy is a quest in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Eltrys has asked the player to uncover evidence surrounding the murder of a woman in Markarth's marketplace attacked by a man claiming to be a member of the Forsworn.

Overview

 * Prerequisite: N/A
 * Quest Giver: Eltrys in Markarth
 * Reward: Hatred from all city guards
 * Reputation Gain: N/A

Objectives

 * Read Eltrys’ Note
 * Go to the Shrine of Talos
 * Find evidence about Margret
 * Find evidence about Weylin
 * (Optional) Obtain the key to Margret’s room
 * Read Margret’s Journal
 * Find evidence about Thonar
 * (Optional) Obtain the key to Weylin’s room
 * Read Weylin’s Note
 * Find out who “N” is
 * Find evidence about Nepos
 * Return to Eltrys

Quick Walkthrough

 * 1) Witness Margret’s death (she CAN be saved) upon entering Markarth, loot her room key from her body
 * 2) Meet Eltrys inside the Shrine of Talos
 * 3) Investigate Margret’s room at the Silver Blood Inn
 * 4) Investigate Weylin’s room in The Warrens
 * 5) Head to the Treasury House and talk to Rhiada
 * 6) Speak to Thonar inside the Treasury House
 * 7) Go to Nepos’ House, speak to Nepos
 * 8) Return to Eltrys

Read Eltrys Note
Upon first entering Markarth by the front gate, the player is witness to an argument in the market. After a man shouts something about the Forsworn, he attempts to kill a woman named Margret; either failing or succeeding his attempt depending on if the Dragonborn intervened in time. At the moment that the attacker draws his weapon, the Markarth City Guards rush towards the attacker and slay him. Afterwards, Eltrys approaches and hands the player a note asking to meet him in the Shrine of Talos. If indeed Margret's life was saved, she gifted the Dragonborn with a necklace she initially bought for her sister.

Another option is killing, stunning, or disarming Weylin before he kills Margret; instead of a bounty, the Dovahkiin will get Margret's gratitude and a necklace as a reward. The way of gathering information about Margret changes, and some dialogues, but the rest of the plot remains the same. Assaulting or killing Weylin is not a crime.

Go to the Shrine of Talos
At the Shrine of Talos, Eltrys explains that his father was killed by the Forsworn and that he has been trying his whole life to find out why. He asks the player to investigate Margret's background at the Silver Blood Inn and Weylin's room in The Warrens.

Silver Blood Inn - Margret's Room
If Margret is dead: If the player obtained Margret's room key from her body, just proceed to her room. Otherwise ask the bar-keeper Kleppr about Margret. The player can also speak to his daughter, rent the room for 10 gold, bribe, intimidate, persuade, or pickpocket Kleppr to get the key. Margret's Journal is inside her room and will update the quest log after reading it. It mentions Thonar Silver-Blood and the next quest step becomes "Find evidence about Thonar".

If Margret is alive she will be staying by the fireplace. She can be persuaded or intimidated about revealing that she is an Imperial investigator, and she mentions Thonar Silver-Blood and the next quest step becomes "Find evidence about Thonar". Reading the journal in her room also works.

The Warrens - Weylin's room
Head down to the Warrens and talk to Garvey. Garvey can be bribed, intimidated or persuaded to hand the key over. Weylin's room is the last on the right side. Look into the chest and find Weylin's Note signed simply with the letter "N". When the Dovahkiin exits The Warrens, a mercenary will approach stating that the investigation has gone too far into somebody's business. There is no option to avoid the brawl; after being defeated, the mercenary confesses that he was sent by Nepos the Nose and the quest log updates to finding information about Nepos.

Going at this point back to Eltrys will grant some gold, as finding evidence about Nepos or Thonar will trigger the next quest stage (therefore skipping the reward part).

Find evidence about Thonar
The Treasury House is where Thonar is located. Talk to Rhiada there and learn that Thonar doesn't want to be disturbed, although she can be convinced with a persuasion, bribe or intimidation test; the door can also be opened with lockpicking. His room is to the left and then straight ahead. Once inside, Thonar is sitting at the table. He'll say something about not wanting visitors. No matter the response, he will say to get out. As soon as the conversation is finished, there is a commotion outside in the main room. Thonar gets up and runs down the hall where there is fighting going on outside. Thonar's wife is murdered by Nana Ildene at which point Donnel will join in the attack. They belong to the Forsworms faction so it's safe to kill them. At this point talk to Thonar, and he will reveal the truth about Madanach.

Another approach involves pickpocketing Thonar's Journal from Thonar, so his wife doesn't die and Donnel and Nana Ildene don't attack anyone. The player has to avoid any conversation with Thonar as this triggers the attack.

Find evidence about Nepos
Find evidence about Nepos by going to Nepos' house. You will be greeted by a woman named Uaile who tells the player to go away, however Nepos quickly calls from the background and overrules her. Talk to Nepos and he will reveal that he does not plan to let the player leave the house alive. Make sure to exhaust all dialogue options about Madanach and his plan. After the conversation with Nepos, everyone in the house attacks the player.

Another way to make it more silent is to quickly pickpocket Nepos' Journal from Nepos (instead of talking to him), and then run outside. If done correctly, no one will attack the player.

Return to Eltrys
Back in the Shrine of Talos, three guards will say the player has caused a lot of trouble and a lot of work for them. They inform the player they will now be pinning all the murders on the player. At this point the player can choose to go quietly or to fight with them. Fighting them will not prevent the next quest No One Escapes Cidhna Mine, you simply need to leave the shrine of Talos and surrender to the first guard you see. It is possible that when you surrender the game will crash.

Bugs

 * After killing Nepos, Eltrys is dead in the Shrine of Talos. The two City Guards standing beside him do not offer or initiate dialogue to finish off the quest.
 * Just wait 24hrs in the room and a third guard will spawn to offer dialogue and complete the quest. This method might not work properly sometimes, causing the 3rd guard to stop the conversation about the framing midway and not triggering the next quest (No One Escapes Cidhna Mine) in that case, exiting the Shrine of Talos and waiting 8-10 hours outside and then re-entering the Shrine will trigger the conversation with the guard and the subsequent quest correctly. (This or the below solution does not work, a Legate keeps insisting I go to Solitude to join the Legion. Help?)
 * XBOX: Similar problem Neither of the two fixes (above ^ and below v) work. A legate keeps drawing his sword stating that i am tresspassing and i should leave. Only two normal guards in the room aswell.
 * Xbox: OR, try to talk to the guard who rushes past you on the stairs on the way out. If you can't talk to him or stop him from leaving, keep clcking on talk and bumping into the other guard who is often found to the left of the white arrow against the wall. Note, if you investigate Eltrys's body, then this guard will also rush out, so skip that. If you keep bumping and trying to talk to the guard (even pickpocketing) this sometimes triggers him to let you start No One Escapes Cidhna Mine.
 * PC: drag Eltrys body under the pointer of the quest, in front of the right column of the altar
 * PC (via console): Open the console and type "setstage ms01 100". This will complete the The Forsworn Conspiracy questline and send you to jail. Once you wake up, type "setstage ms02 0", which will force the next quest (No One Escapes Cidhna Mine) to begin.
 * PS3: After the above tactics failed to fix the Shrine of Talos bug wherin Eltrys is dead and the guards do not initiate dialogue, the quest was mysteriously completed by killing a Markarth city guard in Calcemo's Laboratory in Understone Keep. No known fix yet to this bug; seemingly no rhyme or reason, either. NOTE: The quest No One Escapes Cidhna Mine is NOT initiated after the Forsworn Conspiracy is completed in this way.
 * Resisted arrest at the Shrine of Talos, killed the three guards inside to prevent the bug above from occurring, get arrested by a guard outside. After completing No One Escapes Cidhna Mine cannot fast travel because the guards are "chasing" me. Attacked a guard for a 40 gold bounty and they start the murder allegations dialogue, choosing to submit does nothing and loops the conversation. Because of this, I am unable to become Thane. Igmund and Raerek don't give me the Help 5 people in Markarth quest.
 * PS3: After finishing No One Escapes Cidhna Mine, guards approach the player and enter the dialog to start the quest again. If the player chooses to be arrested and thrown into Cidhna mine, the dialog loops back to he beginning again. It is impossible to do quests in the city as canceling the dialog results in the guards going hostile. Confirmed.
 * PS3/PC: The game to freezes if you choose to go to jail in the temple. Confirmed.
 * The player may get attacked by Thonar Silver-Blood before even speaking to him.
 * It is possible to exit the conversation with the guards when you return to find Eltrys dead. The guards will then reinitiate the conversation with the added choice of paying a 1000 gold fine. If you chose this it still finishes the quest and no guards will ever approach you again, however you will not be able to do the No One Escapes Cidhna Mine quest.
 * If you didn't kill Nepos but just ran away during the quest, he will not be found in his house after you complete No One Escapes Cidhna Mine. You will find him in the Temple of Talos. Be careful, he and the guards will attack you. (see bug above)
 * A solution is to pull the NPCs out of the temple and make a run for it. Then come back later after a few in game days have past.
 * If you do not follow up on Eltrys' original note, instead continuing other quests or exploring, it is possible for the guards to approach you later in Markarth and suggest you've been asking too many questions, if at any point after this you enter the temple you will find Eltrys already dead, with the guards waiting to escort you away, without having followed up on this quest chain in anyway. Very confusing when they start dropping NPC names you've yet to encounter, and suggesting things you've not (but were meant to) have done.
 * PC: If you are somehow able to enter Nepo's House before Weylin attacks Margaret and steal Nepo's journal, Weylin will not attack Margaret. This will be a lot easier if you haven't discovered Markath yet and enter the city through the Shrine of Dibella during the A Night to Remember quest. Confirmed.
 * The player's follower is trapped in the temple when you are arrested, and the guards reappearing to arrest you again if you return to the Temple of Talos to attempt to reclaim said follower. (With me, this happened with Farkas, who I now want my items back from and to be able to do quests with. Would someone mind finding a solution?). Console Moveto commands do not fix this issue, the NPC will move to the player but then immediately begin walking back to the temple. Kill/resurrect does not help either, and neither does resetai. EDIT: Using kill commands on the guards when they reappear before initiating conversation helps SOMETIMES. You still cannot reclaim the follower if the guards were not there to console kill. (NOTE: I married my follower which got her to leave the shrine. I told her to live at my house in Whiterun. Now I cannot find her anywhere...)
 * I have found that by doing this quest on my ps3 that any time one commits a crime in Markarth the guards will not offer one a chance to pay there fine but try to take them to jail causing a conversation loop unless one choices the dialogue along the lines of I won't be taken alive.
 * PC: If you kill the guards in the temple and escape into the mine, a guard will follow you in and all NPCs in the mine will attack you. You are not able to open the gates into the mine. The chains are not possible to activate.
 * PS3: Getting Weylin's note before the quest begins causes the objective to come up as completed then and the mercenary to fight you outside, if you then start the quest it is needed to again read Weylin's note inside his room, but despite being given a quest icon to talk to the mercenary you cannot have any dialog and he will simply say random standard things such as "yes". anyone got a fix for this yet i kinda need it.
 * PS3: Giving Markarth to the Stormcloaks in the negotiation may cause the quest not to update or function properly.
 * Xbox and PS3: After searching Weylin's place and exiting the Warrens, the brawl against Dryston may cause the guards to become hostile and attack the player. Fix: Must attack Dryston with fists only. (Note: If wearing the Ebony Mail during the fight, the properties of the armor will poison Dryston and act as a weapon. This alerts the guards and gains you a 40 bounty which only increases during the fight. Reload an autosave after leaving the Warrens and take off the armor before your brawl. Wearing the armor, fighting and possibly killing Dryston will cause a quest breaking glitch to occur and this also answers the question as to why the player gains a bounty during the brawl. It should also be assumed that wearing the armor during any other brawl will also have the same negative reprucussions.)
 * Xbox: After defeating the Mercinary outside the Warrens, the system freezes. Any fix?\
 * Resisting arrest inside the temple and killing the guards, and then later getting accused of "Murder and treason, etc." and going to Cidhna mine and finishing the quest will result in the dialogue loop of the guards accusing you whenever you come back to Markarth after leaving during the brawl between the guards and the Forsworn. They won't take a bribe, or any other for of persuasion. You can't pay off your bounty, and if you try going to jail it just restarts the loop. As soon as the guards come up to you in the Shrine, just go peacefully to avoid this.
 * PS3: After completing the quest, and after returning to the museum after the Thief Guild quest chain, guards will halt you and get stuck in the Forsworn Conspiracy conversation loop. Clicking "I'll go to jail quietly" does nothing, and the Thane and Bribes options also don't work. The only option is to kill the guards. The Jarl, Thalemor, his Housecarl, and Clerk will all attack you on sight inside the palace.
 * PS3: After defeating Dryston, he doesn't talk. He simply walks away and the quest updates to "Find evidence about Nepos."
 * All Platforms: The third guard who is supposed to talk to you about you being framed etc., is replaced by a Legate who only asks you if you want to join the Legion or, if you've already joined, will revert to basic Imperial dialogue. No fix yet.
 * After fighting the Forsworn agents in the Treasury house, Thonar will not talk to you, and he will keep fighting indefinitely.