Arrow of Extrication (Quest)

Overview
Faction: Thieves Guild

Prerequisites: Completion of Turning a Blind Eye and 700 gold fenced

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

Reward: 500 gold, Fathis Ules in Imperial City Elven Gardens District as a fence

Background Information
Amusei will meet you in a major city and ask you to meet the Gray Fox at the home of Malintus Ancrus in Chorrol. The Gray Fox wants you to steal the Arrow of Extrication (item) from Fathis Aren's room in Castle Bravil.

Walkthrough
This is a long quest with many locks, so be sure you have plenty of Potions of Healing and lockpicks or the Skeleton Key that is Gained from a side quest.

Head to Bravil and enter the castle. From the Great Hall, head up the stairs and into the Lord's Manor North Wing. It will be hard to gain undetected access to at night, since two guards stand by the door at all times. Either use invisibility to disguise yourself as you pick the lock, or go away and rest, or wait until morning.

Go down the hallway a bit and enter the first room on your left; this is Fathis Aren's room. You won't find the Arrow in his room, however, you may notice that there is a movable pillar straight across from the door you entered. Activate it and enter Bravil Wizard's Grotto.

The Grotto is a long winding set of tunnels and rooms that are filled with Conjurers, Mud Crabs and enemies scaled to your level (Spider Daedra, Frost Atronach, etc). Head straight ahead and you'll be confronted with Dremora Kynmarcher or Dremora Markynaz. Kill him and keep going straight through the gate. (Note: It is very hard or impossible to open the grates with an Open spell, so bring a few lock picks or the Skeleton Key.) Follow the water-filled tunnel until you get to a deep pool of water. Kill the slaughterfish and swim down ( past a few rock ledges. If you look to your left (roughly north), you'll notice an opening in the wall. Swim through that and back onto land. (If you swim too far down you'll pass it, and your underwater, so watch out)

(Note: If you swim all the way down through the hole at the bottom, you'll come across a Giant Slaughterfish and a small tunnel (roughly west) that leads to a trapdoor. The fish will drop a large loot with an enchanted item. The trapdoor comes out underwater in the southern end of Niben Bay! You will need some form of water breathing to reach the trapdoor and to reach the surface when you go through it. From there you can see the entire bay, including Bravil to your west, and north up the Upper Niben to the Imperial City in the distance.)

After this, follow the tunnels and rooms (there's only one main way) to the Bravil Wizard's Lair. You may come across more Conjurers, rats, or Dremora. In the Lair, here again it's one main way, follow the hallways and rooms, fighting or sneaking past Conjurers or other enemies. Before entering the door to Fathis Aren's Tower, save your game.

Once you enter the Tower, you will be met with multiple Oblivion-type monsters depending on your level, and Fathis Aren himself, along with anything else he or the Daedra conjure, and often at the same time (again, the exact enemies depend on your level). Kill them all, fight your way to the third floor where you'll find a small room with a chest containing the Arrow of Extrication (item) and the tower key. You can pick all the contents of the chest (the only chest that does not belong to Fathis) and walk out of the tower's large door using the key from the chest. Fathis also has the key to the tower if you manage to kill him. Return to the Gray Fox in Chorrol for your reward. The Gray Fox will give you 500 gold.


 * Note: If you had a glitch with the previous quest "Turning a Blind Eye" and you fixed it by using the console, Grey Fox will be waiting for you in Bruma at Helvius Cecia's house, instead of being in Chorrol. This may also work if The Grey Fox doesn't appear in Chorrol even if you had no glitch last time, at least on PS3.


 * Note: If you are also part of the Mages Guild, it's best not to kill Fathis Aren as this will kick you out of the guild. The easiest way is to annihilate the rest of the mobs and quickly run in and take the arrowhead, then run out through the big door. You shouldn't take any "owned" (hand/bag icon is red) items in this location, because it will be considered as stealing from a guildmate (the Arrow of Extrication (item) itself isn't considered "owned" and you can take it freely).


 * Note: There's a way to kill Fathis Aren without getting kicked out of the Mages Guild. He does not heal himself, and is anxious to go after you. So you can use the tower to your advantage by climbing to the top of the tower, then quickly jump down to the bottom floor by floor. Fathis will follow you by jumping all the way down, and after one or two tries, he will kill himself jumping down. If you are clever enough you may also hit him a few times first then push him down from the top of the tower. This way you don't incur the penalty of killing a member of the Mages Guild.
 * EDIT*: This method does work, though instead of following you down, Fathis must be pushed down, usually by backing him to a ledge in combat and delivering a power attack. He will heal himself, but it shouldn't noticeably change this tactic.


 * Note: There's a way to do it without getting caught. Sneak behind him and then jump onto the tables to the right and slowly make your way to the chest with the arrow in it. Your sneak icon may turn gold but probably nothing will happen. This may or may not be because one of the monsters in the tower saw you, so watch out for them in case you didn't kill them. In fact, you can sneak through the entire quest without fighting anything at all if you are good enough at sneaking. Slowly make your way out and get out of the tower to continue the Thieves Guild and Mages Guild without expulsion.


 * Note: There is a fun glitch here if you have full Chameleon by enchanted items or spells where if you do a couple of weak punches on Fathis Aren causing him to take out his staff then put it away then after a few times doing this his staff will become stuck in one of the bottles he is examining. Do it another time and he will place the bottle on his shoulder and start examining his staff, be careful not to kill him if you are in the Mages Guild and observe the fun.

Stationary Fox
 * Note: If you have already achieved the rank of Arch-Mage in the Mages Guild, Fathis Aren will not attack you. You can talk to him, but really he has nothing important to say. To steal from his chest without getting caught, punch him, run to the bottom floor of the tower, yield, and run up to the chest before he gets there.

During the transition from one quest to another the Gray Fox may not move to give you the new quest. The quest arrow however will move. After the quest is completed the gray fox may resume at the correct house. If you follow the arrow and can't find the gray fox go to the last house the Gray Fox was in.

Glitches

 * Sometimes, killing Fathis Aren will give you a bloodprice.
 * Unable to use unlock door spells on certain doors (spell goes right through the door)