Scoundrel's Folly

It is part of the Thieves Guild questline.

Objectives

 * Speak to Mercer Frey
 * (Optional) Speak to Brynjolf
 * Speak to Gulum-Ei
 * Shadow Gulum-Ei
 * Confront Gulum-Ei
 * Return to Mercer Frey

Walkthrough

 * 1) Speak to Mercer Frey
 * 2) * Mercer thinks he may have finally caught the Guild's anonymous adversary slipping up. From the note you provide, he deduces that they are likely using an old Guild contact at the East Empire Trading Company in Solitude as a go between. He fingers Gulum-Ei and wants you to confront him and shake him down for information.
 * 3) * If you chose to speak to Brynjolf before you leave he'll give you more details of who Gulum-Ei is and his involvement with the Guild. He tells you that Gulum-Ei has no honor and in order to gain any useful information from him, you will need to either buy him off or follow him in order to gain information that could be used as leverage against him. Either way, Brynjolf makes it clear... Do Not Kill Gulum-Ei . If you do, you won't get any reward from Mercer Frey
 * 4) Speak to Gulum-Ei
 * 5) * Gulum-Ei will most likely be in the Winking Skeever in Solitude.
 * 6) * Using the Amulet of Dibella and a potion to increase speech, persuade will work if you have a high enough Speech skill.
 * 7) * He plays stupid at first, seems that bribing him is the only way to get information. He wants you to steal a case of Firebrand Wine from the Blue Palace.
 * 8) * Getting the wine is easy enough, just head over to the Blue Palace and pick it up. It's pretty close to the entrance.
 * 9) * He claims not to know anything except that the woman in question has a grudge against Mercer Frey.
 * 10) Shadow Gulum-Ei
 * 11) * He heads out of Solitude down towards the docks and into the East Empire Company Warehouse. You may pickpocket Gulum-Ei for the key to the warehouse.
 * 12) * For this you may find it is easier to stay on top of the shelves to follow him since the guards are always patrolling, there's a ramp just behind the small hut as you walk in. Remaining in the water below the docks is equally effective.
 * 13) * When you get to the end of the shelves go up the stairs and straight on, there's a small ledge you can walk across then drop down onto the walkway. At this stage the easiest way to follow him is just to drop into the water and move as slowly and quietly as possible. Follow him out of the water, up a ramp through a hidden door.
 * 14) * At the farthest northern point is an elevated building. To get to the building there is another ramp leading up to the left of the one to the hidden door. Inside the building on a table is the East Empire Shipping Map, which can be sold to Delvin.
 * 15) Confront Gulum-Ei
 * 16) * You find yourself in Brinewater Grotto which has several hostile bandits, you have two choices here, sneak past (rather difficult at lower levels) or eliminate them. If you chose to sneak, beware of a bandit swimming in the water. For some reason, you can sneak past him underwater. There is a chest underwater where he is. There is a way to get by the bandit in the water and the one on top, After seeing the two bandits on the dock talking to each other and right before going up those stairs look to your right and you will see a spider web. Cut it down with your weapon and continue through. You will have to fight three Frostbite Spiders. Note that the bandits are levelled, and that engaging one can alert the others, making the ensuing fight very difficult. One effective strategy is to climb up on top of the cages where Gulum-Ei is found and use a bow or spells from there, as the bandits cannot reach you.
 * 17) * When you get to the end of the line and confront him, he tells you the person you are after. Her name is Karliah. You're apparently supposed to know who she is. She murdered the former Guild Master and is now after Mercer. Gulum-Ei pleads innocent. Though, you're free to kill him if you choose to do so. If spared, he becomes available as a fence. Killing him will also forfeit your reward from Mercer.
 * 18) Return to Mercer Frey
 * 19) * Return to Mercer with the location Gulum-Ei said she was headed 'Where the End Began.'

Rewards

 * Three Soul Gems (randomly generated)
 * Deed to Goldenglow Estate
 * Able to upgrade one piece of your Thieves Guild Armor:
 * 1) Hood - Prices are 15% better. (up from 10%).
 * 2) Cuirass - Carrying capacity increased to 35 points. (up 15 from the 20).
 * 3) Gloves - Lockpicking is 25% easier. (up 10% from the 15%).
 * 4) Boots - Pickpocket success is 25% better. (up 10% from the 15%).

Bugs

 * (patch 1.4) If you did not kill Aringoth and little to no mercenaries in Goldenglow Estate for Loud and Clear quest, they will still be there when you return after obtaining the deed to the estate (completing Scoundrel's Folly).
 * If this happens on PC, one option is to switch to 'no clip' (~tcl) mode and find Gulum-Ei located on the side of the mountain in a continuous mid-fall. Kill him and then return to Solitude and turn 'no clip' back on. The quest should now say that you need to find another source of information. Continue to the quest marker as normal. If Gulum-Ei is killed, the only downside is that the rewards of keeping him alive are forfeited. If he is still standing, he can be spoken to. After that, you should proceed with the quest and clear the Brinewater Grotto. Once finished, go into no clip then, speak to him.
 * You can also first go to Brinewater Grotto without seeing him. Once you are there, you will receive instructions to confront him. After he leaves the Winking Skeever, you are supposed to shadow Gulum-Ei, but apparently he disappears from the game. Looking at the map shows you that he is in the Solitude cell, yet it shows him outside the city walls. If this happens, the quest cannot be completed unless reverting to a previous saved game or using the "~" key and typing "player.placeatme 00013284" at the three leavers at the end of the Brinewater Grotto section.
 * A second bug on the Xbox can occur right when you exit Solitude and enter Skyrim. Gulum-Ei can sometimes not move at all and simply stand at the front gates. To fix this, you need to kill him and then reload the last auto save. This fix does not work on the PC and you're only alternative is to kill him and move on with the mission that way.
 * A bug similar to the first also occurs after Gulum-Ei enters the East Empire Company Warehouse. He remains in the warehouse cell but is outside the walls. To fix this bug, when you must shadow Gulum-Ei, instead of shadowing him, travel to the warehouse and enter. If you wait 1 or 2 minutes, you'll see Gulum-Ei near the entrance.
 * Confirmed fix for the Xbox 360 bug: If you lose track of Gulum-Ei after he leaves the Winking Skeever, and his quest marker shows that he is in Solitude, you may be able to reach him by activating a texture glitch in Solitude. This glitch allows you to drop down under the surface of the city. To do this, start by going outside the Fletcher shop, from the door looking southwest, and jump over the small wall to land on the roof of Angeline's Aromatics. Jump to the small ledge on the south side of the roof, and face south. Use Whirlwind Sprint to cross the street onto the roof of Bits and Pieces. Go west to the edge of the roof, and look south to the roof of Raidiant Raiment. Walk onto the section of roof where Bits and Pieces and Raidiant Raiment meet (facing south), and you will drop down below the city. Gulum-Ei has been reported to be in many different places under the city, but you should be able to walk to his location following the quest marker. However, if you do find him under the city, he will not be able to move, so your only solution at this point is to kill him to finish the quest. Alternatively, if you want to keep Gulum-Ei alive, before using the glitch, you should go to the East Empire Company Warehouse and find the entrance to Brinewater Grotto. This will activate the 'Confront Gulum-Ei' part of the quest. You can then leave the grotto and use the glitch to reach Gulum-Ei. Caution: You may have to drop a long distance to reach Gulum-Ei, which can kill lower level characters.
 * If Gulum-Ei doesn't move when you enter the warehouse, and stops by the hut, simply wait outside the warehouse until about 8 o'clock or later and he should continue moving as normal.
 * Not a bug as such, but with a high enough sneak skill it is possible to reach Gulum-Ei without being detected by any of the bandits. You will only be detected when speaking to him, which leads to the comical scenario of several bandits engaging you in combat whilst you calmly hold a conversation with him. This can be deadly, as your health bar will not be displayed whilst in conversation.
 * You have to go to Tonilia to upgrade your armor. If you don't have any of the pieces, she tells you to come back. The problem arises if you sold your armor to her. She keeps asking if you have the armor and turning you away if you don't. This means that you can't buy it back from her even if she has it. This results in losing Tonilia as a fence because she's stuck in a conversational loop.
 * Possible fix for all platforms. In the Cistern check the bed on the right, entering from the Flaggon, between the bed and the end table. There should be Thieves guild armor sitting there. You can pick it up and give it to Tonilia.
 * (Tested on 360) One way to get around this issue, (and also possibly being unable to complete the Thieves Guild Storyline, because you need to talk to Tonilia to receive your Guild Master's Armor and thus get the final Thieves Guild achievement) is to kill Gulum-Ei before returning to Mercer Frey in the Scoundrel's Folly mission. If you kill Gulum-Ei, then you forfeit the mission reward, which includes upgrading the armor, and thus, Tonilia will never get stuck in the conversation loop. This means you lose Gulum-Ei as fence, obviously, but at least you can complete the Scoundrel's Folly mission and the be able to receive the Guild Master's Armor from Tonilia later.


 * Sometimes when going through the East Empire Company Warehouse if the player is attacking the guards, they will walk under one of the platforms holding the supplies and get stuck there.

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