No Stone Unturned (Skyrim)

Journal entry
"I've found an unusual gem which seems to exhibit magical properties. I should bring it to Vex at the Thieves Guild for an appraisal." - Dragonborn

Objectives

 * 1) Bring the Unusual Gem to Vex in the Thieves Guild. Vex will tell you it is one of the Stones of Barenziah.
 * 2) Vex then goes on to tell you it is not worth much by itself and tells you that there are 24 of these stones. She then asks you come back when you find the complete set.
 * 3) Vex will ask you to recover the Crown of Barenziah from Tolvald's Cave then return to her.

Bugs

 * If you're a member of the Thieves Guild and have shown the gem to Vex, when you talk to Maul in Riften about the stone he will suggest becoming a member of the Thieves Guild. A quest objective will be added to join the Thieves Guild, and while this objective cannot be cleared, it will not affect your ability to complete the quest. Just follow all other necessary objectives. To avoid this bug, you can talk to Maul before Vex.


 * Also, if you already have all 24 gems when you first talk to Vex it will not be checked off as if you have found them all so leave one undiscovered then find it after Vex has asked you to find all 24. This bug has been fixed with the Unofficial Skyrim Patch


 * Sometimes the quest objective will count extra stones that you did not collect. IE: 10/24 Stones when you only have 8 in your inventory. You can complete this quest when your quest objective says you have them all, as if it were normal, meaning some stones may still be out there.


 * I cleared all the areas in Tolvald's Cave before I found all 24 stones, did not notice the crown. Once I did find all the stones Vex correctly updated the quest to find the crown, but when I went back there was no crown. The quest marker sits somewhere out of the explorable area in Tolvald's Crossing. I have found no way to finish the quest. This bug may happen, even if you have never entered the cave.
 * If you clear Tolvad's Cave before you are tasked to find the crown, you may find the entrance bugged when you go back there. When the Falmer agro near the end of the cave, they're supposed to trigger the two stone slab doors on either sides of the cavern. However, in some circumstances these doors do not trigger, even if the Falmer agro. The only way to get around this is to open the console with ` and use the command "TCL" (Toggle Collision Level) to allow you to pass through solid objects. Once on the other side, simply type the code again to re-enable collision.


 * Fixes for this quest if it becomes bugged or incompletable or if you're just plain lazy. Note that these may not update your journal but will unlock the appropriate responses from Vex. On the console type the following commands.

If you are missing a stone(s)

set TGCrownGemsFound to 24 set TGCrownGemsTotal to 24 setstage TGCrown 30 This will initiate the search for the crown.

If you have all the stones but Vex won't talk to you

setobjectivecompleted TGCrown 20 1 setstage TGCrown 30

If the Crown is missing

player.additem 0009dff5 setstage TGCrown 50

To remove the quest from your journal

​setstage TGCrown 200

Trivia

 * If the Thalmor Embassy has already been visited during the Diplomatic Immunity quest, it will be locked to the Dragonborn.(After recent patches, this is no longer the case, as the stone is now located next to the corpse in the troll den) There are a few ways to get back in, all of which exploit glitches found in the game.
 * Patch 1.4 has fixed all below problems. If you are locked out of the Thalmor Embassy, The Stone of Barenziah will appear in the cave/tunnel you exited the Thalmor Embassy during the quest. You will find it on the ground next to a dead mage.
 * Acquiring a horse then lock picking into the first court yard will turn all Thalmor agents hostile. On the left side, there will be a pile of rocks/snow in the corner where the high fence separating the two courtyards and front building meet. The player should come in from the left, heading toward the building, then once the fence is clear, head straight toward the second courtyard. He'll glitch over and be free to enter the second building.
 * The player should find a wooden bowl somewhere in Skyrim and add it to your inventory. When he fast travels to the Embassy, instead of entering the gate, he should go around the left side of the gate and follow the wall along the side until he is near the courtyard that is currently off access. Then, he should drop the wooden bowl and hold down the button to pick up the bowl, then put the bowl against the wall so that the rim is against the wall, and the bottom of the bowl is levelled with his face. Next, he should get as close to the wall as he can until he starts to see through the wall, and use the Whirlwind Sprint" shout to force himself through the wall. [This glitch works with platter best but also works with plates and bowls of all types]
 * A more difficult method involves entering a cave near the Embassy and climbing up through a hole in the top of the cave and using "Whirlwind Sprint" to force the Dragonborn into another area of the cave to enter through the bottom of the Embassy.
 * A horse can simply be ridden over the wall.

Locations

 * See: Stones of Barenziah