Turning a Blind Eye

Overview
Prerequisites: Completion of Taking Care of Lex and 500 gold fenced.

Faction: Thieves Guild

Quest giver: Gray Fox, via one of his messengers Methredhel or Amusei

Reward: 500g

Background Information
Methredhel will meet you in a major city and ask you to meet the Gray Fox at Helvius Cecia's House in Bruma. If you wish to save time, you can find Methredhel in her house in the Imperial City Waterfront. The Gray Fox wants you to steal Savilla's Stone from the Temple of the Ancestor Moths. He asks that you not kill anyone outside the temple, but those guarding the artifact inside are permitted to be killed, if necessary. The Gray Fox places a marker on your map of the temple location, in the far northeastern part of Cyrodiil in the Jerall Mountains.

Walkthrough
Start at Cheydinhal and head straight north, heading towards the marker on the map. Once there, you'll find a temple and Monk's Quarters, with Brother Hridi, Brother Hjar, and Brother Holger, as well as the Ancestor Moth Crypt.

Head into the crypt and then into the Temple of the Moth Halls. It'll be quite dark inside (blind enemies don't need light), so bring a torch, the Night-Eye spell, Fin Gleam or potion. Your main enemies in the crypt will be Blind Moth Priest and Blind Moth Prelate, some of whom are wielding Akaviri Dai-Katanas. Simply follow your way through the halls and rooms and sneak by them, but don't kill them, as you are only allowed to kill the guardian of Savilla's Stone in this quest. As long as you're in sneak mode, the priests won't detect you even if you stand in front of them. If you find some sat down save game take off your armour and sneak in a figure of 8 your sneak skill will increase very easily.

Head through the door to the Catacombs of The Temple of The Moth where you'll find more priests. Scout out the area if you wish, then head through the door to the Caverns of The Moth. Watch out for floor traps.

In the Caverns, also watch out for more floor traps. You'll find enemies such as Skeleton Heroes and Wraiths, however, the enemies will scale depending on your level. Fight your way through to the Shrine of the Moth.

Inside, you'll come to a large room with an altar and Savilla's Stone in the middle, along with a stone that fires frost spells at you every few seconds. There'll be at least a Blind Moth Prelate guarding the stone. Kill him or sneak past, grab the Stone and head to the room on the right, where you'll find a chest. Inside the chest, you'll find a note titled "Instructions: The Gray Cowl" that describes the mask of the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal. Apparently, the mask was stolen, so Nocturnal had a curse placed upon it, that whoever wears it is lost in the shadows, his name and memories never to be remembered. Take the note and the stone back to the Gray Fox in Bruma to complete the quest. Bringing the note back allows you discuss about the mask and the Gray Fox's nature.

Tip: A Telekinesis spell with sufficient range can pull Savilla's Stone towards you while you are outside the range of the Dark Welkynd stone that is firing the ice spell at you. Combine this will good poisoned arrow-sniping of the Prelate, and you can greatly reduce the risk to yourself.

Note: Oddly it has happened that on some games people have received this quest without even joining the thieves guild. If this happens, ignore the quest until all the other previous quests have been completed, otherwise you will not be able to do them.

Note: People have also reported a glitch where the gray fox never leaves the chair he is sitting on, thus the next quest will never start no matter how much gold you have fenced. This was thought to be caused by not having all the steps completed before having obtained the eye. So you wont be able to do Arrow Of Extrication... Advice is to Reload a saved game before you did this Quest or you will have to use the console. Open it and type "player.SetStage 00036336 1" (without the quotes, of course). Go back to Grey Fox, who is still sitting in the same house in Bruma and he will give you the next quest, leaving the house after that.