Secrets of the Ayleids (Oblivion)

Overview
Prerequisites: Nothing You Can Possess

Faction: None

Quest giver: Lord Umbacano

Reward: The Crown (depends on which one you give to Umbacano, see details below)

Lord Umbacano asks you to retrieve the Crown of the Ayleids (Crown of Nenalata) from Herminia Cinna. Cinna lives in the Imperial City Elven Gardens District, but you can find her in Green Emperor Way too.

She will not give the crown to you since it has hidden magical powers that will prove too dangerous in the hands of Umbacano. However, she tells you where to find another Ayleid crown that Umbacano might think is the correct crown. This other crown is in the ruins of Lindai, for which she gives you a key to and marks on your map.

At this point you can either be good and get the other crown or be bad and steal the correct crown from Herminia's house on the second floor. If you decide to give him the crown of Lindai he will comment that the markings on the crown are somewhat different to how his reference books describe but nevertheless he will mistake it for the real thing, or if you give Umbacano the correct crown he accepts it straight away and either way, asks you to escort him through the ruins of Nenalata in three days.

After you wait for three days, Umbacano appears at the ruins along with your old friend Claude Maric, and then you must escort them through the ruin. It is recommended that you tell him to wait or ignore him and then clear the area before you escort him, since he dies easily. Once you get him to the bottom he gives a little speech, then opens a door to a throne room. In here he sits on the throne then the storyline changes depending on which crown you gave him earlier on:

If you gave him the Crown of Nenalata
Umbacano will put on the crown and yell out in elven tongue, at that point the four dark welkynd stones lining the room will transform him into the King of Nenalata and he will turn rogue, also sections of wall around the room will slide down and skeletons (or liches if you are level 18 or higher) will come out to aid Umbacano. He has a leveled staff at this point which makes disposing of him that little bit trickier. You will soon see that the staircase you came down from will have lowered making escape impossible in that direction and you will have to run through the throne room and out the rear before making your way out of the ruin.

If you gave him the Crown of Lindai
Umbacano will put on the crown and yell out in elven tongue, at that point the four dark welkynd stones will destroy the crown of their hated rival, killing Umbacano in the process, once again the skeletons/liches will appear out of the now lowered sections of wall and the stairs will lower, so you will have to use the alternate way out of the ruin.