Deceiving the Herd

Background
Feran Sadri will ask the Dragonborn to frame the Dawnguard for murder. His plan is for the Dragonborn to go to a hold capital and kill a resident in public while wearing the Dawnguard Armor. In addition, a note must be planted on the body that frames the Dawnguard.

An optional caveat is that the person should be someone of importance, such as a merchant, bard, or member of the Jarl's court. Feran will give the Dragonborn a mixed set of Dawnguard Armor to perform the task.

"You are to make a public show of murdering someone. Do it in the streets for all to see. The higher the profile the better. Make it seem you are a member of the Dawnguard, thus sowing confusion among the herd. Wear this armor and plant this note on the victim."

Walkthrough
Simply kill someone in the requested city and plant an Incriminating Letter on the victim. The murder must take place on the streets of the city for it to count, so if choosing a member of the Jarl's court, they must have left their respective palaces for the kill to qualify. Similarly, merchants and bards must be outdoors when killed, if choosing a high profile target.

In order for the murder to register as a public kill while wearing Dawnguard Armor, it must be witnessed by a guard or citizen. This will however incur a 1000 bounty. If a stealth kill is performed, the murder will be registered, but it will fail both optional objectives.

To avoid killing any citizens, a guard may be murdered or if the city is being attacked by vampires killing one will count as a victim, but this will fail the high profile objective.

Markarth

 * Bothela
 * Hogni Red-Arm
 * Kerah
 * Lisbet
 * Ogmund

Riften

 * Brand-Shei
 * Grelka
 * Marise Aravel
 * Vald
 * Madesi

Solitude

 * Aia Arria
 * Ataf
 * Endarie
 * Evette San
 * Giraud Gemane
 * Illdi
 * Jala
 * Pantea Ateia
 * Sayma
 * Taarie
 * Vittoria Vici (during Bound Until Death)

Whiterun

 * Adrianne Avenicci
 * Anoriath
 * Carlotta Valentia
 * Farengar Secret-Fire
 * Fralia Gray-Mane
 * Mikael
 * Olfina Gray-Mane (Probably after  Olfina becomes Housecarl to the new Jarl, Vignar Gray-Mane. If you sided with the Stormcloaks)
 * Ulfberth War-Bear

Windhelm

 * Aval Atheron
 * Hermir Strong-Heart
 * Hillevi Cruel-Sea
 * Jora
 * Oengul War-Anvil

Raven Rock
It has been noted that if you download both the Dawnguard and Dragonborn add-ons and begin this quest, then you may end up heading to Raven Rock for the quest. All of this has come up for a high profile target is one of the merchants in the town, (a.k.a.; Milore Lenth, alchemist; Glover Mallory, blacksmith; Garyn Lenth, grocer; and Fethis Alor, general goods.) Your best bet is to kill Garyn Lenth because he is pretty much useless in the way of trading. But seeing as how he is smack dab in the middle of town, it is advised to get out of sight when you kill him and then plant the letter.

Reward

 * Three Potions of Blood or leveled enchanted item.
 * Choosing a high profile target or not doesnt seem to affect reward.

Bugs

 * If the Capital Hold happens to be Markarth, and the Dragonborn has not visited it before, slaying the Forsworn before he murders the woman will count as a murder and the quest will be marked as failed when returning to Castle Volkihar.


 * This quest can start randomly when killing an Imperial Soldier while in Vampire Lord Form, or having killed attacking Dawnguard or Vampires. As the quest starts without the note being in the player's possession, it says "Failed" when the player wanders too far away.
 * Has also occurred upon the death of Shavari, the Khajiiti agent for the Thalmor, when escorting Esbern from the Ratway.
 * This particular side quest remains one of the easiest to fail. In some cases, simply talking to someone can cause failure. In others, entering the town then leaving before performing the task will cause failure.
 * If the optional requirements are not completed, returning to the castle makes the quest uncompleted (Tested in Markarth killing Weylin)
 * If you had the Deceiving the Herd quest active before the Bound Until Death, Dark Brotherhood Quest and then kill Vittoria Vici as part of this quest, you get a fail flag for the high-profile victim objective.
 * This quest may not update if you use the Ebony Blade to kill a target with a high disposition towards you. If you have not befriended the target before you receive this quest it will update the quest but if the person meets the requirements to upgrade the Ebony Blade the kill will not count towards the requirements for the Deceiving The Herd quest.
 * After completing this or other similar quests and asking for more, starts the quest talk to Vingalmo but no talk option appears.
 * A serious bug occurs if heading to any House or Home BEFORE heading to the target city occurs. With Hearthfire installed, if you head to any of your Homes before this Quest and you are attacked by Bandits or random enemies a glitch can occur after fast traveling to the target city after killing the bandits. If one kills the bandits then fast travels, upon reaching the target city the Quest may fail entirely, with the objective 'Plant the Incriminating Letter on Bandit Thugs Corpse' . Reloading a previous autosave seems to resolve this.
 * Skip quest -  Use console command " setstage DLC1RV03 100 " for skip all stages to "Return to Feran Sadri" (optional objectives will be failed, but you can finish the quest).
 * There are certain cases in which the only targeted city is Whiterun, no matter what.