The Forsworn Conspiracy

Objectives

 * Read Eltrys' Note
 * Go to the Shrine of Talos
 * Find evidence about Margret
 * Find evidence about Weylin
 * (Optional) Obtain the key to Margret's room
 * Read Margret's Journal
 * Find evidence about Thonar
 * (Optional) Obtain the key to Weylin's room
 * Read Weylin's Note
 * Find out who “N” is
 * Find evidence about Nepos
 * Return to Eltrys

Quick Walkthrough

 * 1) Witness Weylin's attack against Margret upon entering Markarth.
 * 2) Meet Eltrys inside the Shrine of Talos
 * 3) Investigate Margret ’s room at the Silver Blood Inn
 * 4) Investigate Weylin’s room in The Warrens
 * 5) Head to the Treasury House and talk to Rhiada
 * 6) Speak to Thonar inside the Treasury House
 * 7) Go to Nepos' House, speak to Nepos
 * 8) Return to Eltrys

Read Eltrys Note
Upon first entering Markarth by the front gate, the player is witness to an argument in the market. After a man (Weylin) shouts something about the Forsworn, he attempts to kill a woman named Margret, either failing or succeeding his attempt depending on if the Dragonborn intervenes (assaulting or killing Weylin is not a crime). At the moment that the attacker draws his weapon, the Markarth City Guards rush towards the attacker and slay him. Afterwards, Eltrys approaches and hands the player a note asking to meet him in the Shrine of Talos.

There is no significant difference to the plot between saving Margret or allowing Weylin to kill her. The way of gathering information about Margret changes, as do some dialogues, but the rest of the quest remains the same.

Go to the Shrine of Talos
At the Shrine of Talos, Eltrys explains that his father was killed by the Forsworn and that he has been trying his whole life to find out why. He asks the player to investigate Margret 's background at the Silver Blood Inn and Weylin's room in The Warrens.

Silver Blood Inn - Margret 's Room
If Margret is dead and the player obtained Margret 's room key from her body, just proceed to her room. Otherwise ask the bar-keeper Kleppr about Margret. The player can also speak to his daughter, rent the room for 10 gold, bribe, intimidate, persuade, or pickpocket Kleppr to get the key. Margret's Journal is inside her room and will update the quest log after reading it. It mentions Thonar Silver-Blood and the next quest step becomes "Find evidence about Thonar".

If Margret is alive she will be staying by the fireplace. She can be persuaded or intimidated about revealing that she is an Imperial investigator, and she mentions Thonar Silver-Blood and the next quest step becomes "Find evidence about Thonar ". Reading the journal in her room also works.

The Warrens - Weylin 's room
Head down to The Warrens and talk to Garvey. Garvey can be bribed, intimidated or persuaded to hand the key over. Weylin's room is the last on the right side. Look into the chest and find Weylin's Note signed simply with the letter "N". When the Dovahkiin exits The Warrens, Dryston, a mercenary, will approach stating that the investigation has gone too far into somebody's business. There is no option to avoid the brawl; after being defeated, Dryston confesses that he was sent by Nepos the Nose and the quest log updates to finding information about Nepos.

If playing on a higher difficulty, it might be difficult to win the brawl with Dryston. Note: you must brawl. No magic or weapons. Otherwise, all the guards will attack. Also, if you have any sort of enchanted armor that does proximity damage, it will cause the guards to attack. Another option is to lose the brawl, and he will go to Weylin's room and sit in a chair. With decent sneak, you can kill him without causing any alarm from the Markarth guards. He will drop Dryston's Note; if you read it you can continue with the quest line without having to win the brawl.

Going at this point back to Eltrys will grant level dependant amount of gold for both investigating Margret's and Weylin's Rooms. Finding evidence about Nepos or Thonar will trigger the next quest stage (therefore skipping the reward part).

Find evidence about Thonar
The Treasury House is where Thonar is located. Talk to Rhiada there and learn that Thonar doesn't want to be disturbed, although she can be convinced with a persuasion, bribe or intimidation test; the door can also be opened with lockpicking. His room is to the left and then straight ahead. Once inside, Thonar is sitting at the table. He'll say something about not wanting visitors. No matter the response, he will say to get out. As soon as the conversation is finished, there is a commotion outside in the main room. Thonar gets up and runs down the hall where there is fighting going on. Thonar's wife is murdered by Nana Ildene at which point Donnel will join in the attack. They belong to the Forsworn faction so it's safe to kill them. At this point talk to Thonar, and he will reveal the truth about Madanach.

Another approach involves pickpocketing Thonar's Journal from Thonar, so his wife doesn't die and Donnel and Nana Ildene don't attack anyone. The player has to avoid any conversation with Thonar as this triggers the attack. if you have a high bounty on your head, Betrid will become hostile towards the Dragonborn therefore the quest can not be completed

Find evidence about Nepos
Find evidence about Nepos by going to Nepos' house. You will be greeted by a woman named Uaile who tells the player to go away, however Nepos quickly calls from the background and overrules her. Talk to Nepos and he will reveal that he does not plan to let the player leave the house alive. Make sure to exhaust all dialogue options about Madanach and his plan. After the conversation with Nepos, everyone in the house attacks the player.

Another way to make it more silent is to quickly pickpocket Nepos' Journal from Nepos (instead of talking to him), and then run outside. If done correctly (without being seen at all after pickpocketing the journal) no one will attack the player.

Return to Eltrys
Back in the Shrine of Talos, three guards will say the player has caused a lot of trouble and a lot of work for them. They inform the player they will now be pinning all the murders on the player. At this point the player can choose to go quietly or to fight with them. Fighting them will not prevent the next quest No One Escapes Cidhna Mine, with the exception of shooting them with a bow before they can talk at which point the quest ends, or you simply leave the shrine of Talos and surrender to the first guard you see. It is possible that when you surrender the game will crash.

Additional Tips & Information

 * It is possible to kill all guards at the shrine of talos without being seen and finish the quest without triggering the next quest No One Escapes Cidhna Mine, whether or not that this is a glitch, it was tried on a maxed out player with high sneak skill, all of the perks unlocked.
 * Simply getting the quest and pickpocketing Nepos' journal then visiting the Shrine ended the quest (360 confirmed).
 * It is possible to kill the 3 guards inside the temple without getting a bounty. However, it requires invisibility (whether potion or magic, but magic requires 'silent casting' perk to erase the casting sound) and high enough sneak skill to avoid detection while moving. First you need to go to Cidhna mine to complete the quest - in case of possible glitch where the quest never ends. After breaking out of the mine, go back to the Talos temple, use an arrow to kill the center guard. (WARNING: Do not start a conversation with the guards - exiting the dialogue automatically puts bounty on the Dragonborn, turning the guards hostile.) If the player has a high enough archery skill, lowering the difficulty level may help. Before the arrow stikes, either drink or use inivisibility to 'hide' from the guards. The center guard (the one who start the conversation) is the ONLY one who will approach the exit door to search the Dragonborn. There is a small space at the right side of the exit door, outside the guard's path, to hide. Once the center guard is killed, repeat the first two steps (shoot, and then immediately use an invisibility effect), but this time the guards will not investigate the 'slanted path' toward the exit; which makes easier to avoid the hostile guards. With a high enough archery skill and arrow/weapon damage, the 3 guards are easily killed 'without' gaining a bounty or turning the guards hostile. (PC confirmed)
 * One can also avoid gaining bounty by changing into Beast Form at the top of the stairs. Killing as a werewolf does not add bounty to your non-werewolf character. (Though if anyone sees you transform, it will add a 1000 septims bounty.)
 * It is possible to prolong the acquisition of this quest for player who only came to deliver Purchase Agreement for Bolli from Riften and does not want to be bothered with the additional Side Quest which is extremely long and apparently puts the player in jail. This can be done by sprinting into Silver-Blood Inn right after entering the city and sprinting out the gate on exit. All of this can be done before Weylin is killed and will allow player to temporarily prevent The Forsworn Conspiracy quest from being automatically added to Main Page Quest Log. When player come back to the city, regardless of the time passed, Weylin will still be alive and fighting with the City Guards. Whirlwind Sprint can also be used in lieu of sprinting.
 * It is possible to save Margret in the market. However, if the player speaks to Thonar, it is not possible to save his wife; her death is scripted even if you pre-emptively stealth-kill the two assassins.
 * It is possible to kill both Nana Ildene and Donnel silently and not have any repercussions; however this is not the case at Nepos' House, where killing Uaile and another Forsworn member (no matter who) will make everyone hostile. However, killing Nana and Donnel before they kill Betrid Silver-Blood will count as murder.
 * The killer can also be revealed by pickpocketing Thonar's journal off him (the key to his room can be pickpocketed from the Treasury clerk). This can be done before talking to Eltrys at the shrine. Doing this and entering the shrine spawns the guards there, and allows the player to skip over most of the quest.
 * If the player has become Thane, the quest will still run the same way and no new dialogue will appear for the guards when they warn or later attempt to arrest the player. However, when they try to frame you for murder you can just cancel out of that conversation. This will follow up with a new conversation and the usual bust line 'You have committed crimes against Skyrim and her people, what say you in your defense?'. At this point you can claim you are a Thane or thieves guild member and they will just leave you alone as if you were doing a burglary. This will save you on fighting them but you also won't get to go to Cidhna Mine and escape from there. If you agree to go to jail, but in the second conversation, they will take you to jail and you will do time, but it won't trigger the No One Escapes Cidhna Mine quest.
 * Fighting the guards in the Shrine of Talos will add a huge bounty (1000) for the Dragonborn in the Reach. If more guards notice the battle inside the Shrine, they will come to aid the corrupt guardsmen as well (killing them adds further bounty - 1000 per extra guardsman slain). The initial bounty can only be removed by going to prison - the Cidhna Mine quest listed above (Thieves Guild membership, being Thane, paying a Bounty Collector - don't work in this case). However, the extra bounty for killing additional guardsmen is removed automatically when/if the last witness is dead or if the Dragonborn pays the Bounty Collection at a later time.
 * After attacking and killing all the guards at the temple, it may be difficult to turn oneself in to continue the quest. Guards inside the Keep will attack on sight. Other guards in town will keep attacking. Sheathing one's sword in the presence of the Imperial Guard leader inside the Keep halts any ensuing battle. This may also be true of other major NPCs in the Keep.
 * It should be noted that it is possible to remove the above mentioned fixed bounty, during the main story quest "Season Unending" - if Markarth is given to the Stormcloaks as part of the treaty with the Empire, leadership of the city is replaced and the Dragonborn's bounty is erased completely in the Reach. The "No One Escapes Cidhna Mine" quest can then be obtained by committing another crime (any small crime will do) and yielding to the guard.
 * It is possible to complete this quest without having the bounty added to you. Simply shoot the guard that talks to you with a bow and kill him as soon as you walk into the Shrine of Talos. The Quest will be over then and if you stay at a distance the other guards will not attack you once he is dead.
 * If you do not want to be framed for conspiracy then do not complete this quest. If you do, do not speak to the guards in Markarth again, as there is no way avoiding arrest other than fighting. However, if you ignore a guard, they will leave you alone. Do not do these quests if you own Vlindrel Hall in Markarth, as it makes visiting the house difficult.
 * If you finish the questline with Ulfric Stormcloak taking the side of the Stormcloaks, the guards that confront you will be Stormcloak Soldiers instead of the city guards.
 * If you use your Unrelenting Force shout on Dryson, the City Guards will attack you. Dryson will unsheathe a sword and join the attack.
 * To finish this quest quickly: Walk into Markarth, the instant Weylin draws his weapon, attack and kill him, hen talk to Margret and she will give a reward. Once the note is obtained go into the Shrine of Talos. Listen to Eltrys, then go talk to Margret in the Silver-Blood Inn. Use the Pursade option on her, as it works even at the lowest level. Then go to see Thonar. Usually the Intimidate opinion works at the women at the reception desk. If not, bribe her, or go pick the lock into Thonar's room. Then once his wife is dead and speak Thonar him a final time, return to Eltrys. He will be dead, and the Dragonborn will be sent to Cidhna Mine, which really isn't so bad.

Bugs

 * After receiving this quest and before meeting Eltrys at the temple for the first time, If the player pickpocket Thonar's journal, the quest will advance to stage 90, which leaves Eltrys dead in the temple. Resetting the quest has no effect.
 * It is advisable to dismiss your follower before completing this quest (certainly before returning to Eltyr) as they may get become trapped in the Shrine of Talos after " No One Escapes Cidhna Mine ".
 * If your spouse lives with you in Vlindrel Hall, he/she may be present during your confrontation in the Shrine of Talos by the corrupt guards, and attacking the guards will cause him/her to attack you when the guards are dead.
 * Fixed by using Voice of the Emperor, asking her to follow me, dismissing her, and leaving the shrine before the calm effect wore off. Unknown if this is all necessary.
 * After killing Nepos, Eltrys is dead in the Shrine of Talos. The two City Guards standing beside him do not offer or initiate dialogue to finish off the quest.
 * In the scenario where the third guard who is supposed to talk to you about you being framed etc., it can be replaced by a Legate who only asks you if you want to join the Legion before treating you as a trespasser, there is a workaround (although it entails having to start at a point prior to gathering the evidence). The problem may be due to the lack of an "objective" to return to Eltrys after each piece of evidence is found for Margret, Weylin, Nepos, and Thonar. If you gather evidence for Weylin and Thonar and Nepos before reporting back to Eltrys, the Legate will be at the Shrine of Talos and you will not be able to finish the quest. However, if you return to Eltrys immediately after each piece of evidence is found, he will give you gold for the information, and more importantly, the correct dialogue will appear once you go to the Shrine of Talos for the "Return to Eltrys" objective. Keep in mind that when you start the new quest "No One Escapes Cidhna Mine" any miscellaneous quest items (like the Elder Scroll) will not be returned to you when you get your inventory back. (Confirmed on PC)
 * Waiting 24hrs in the room will spawn a third guard to offer dialogue and complete the quest. This method might not work properly sometimes, causing the 3rd guard to stop the conversation about the framing midway and not triggering the next quest "No One Escapes Cidhna Mine" in that case, exiting the Shrine of Talos and waiting 8–10 hours outside and then re-entering the Shrine will trigger the conversation with the guard and the subsequent quest correctly.
 * Similar method works as a fix for 360; walk outside the temple and wait 24 hours. The third guard should be standing in his normal spot upon re-entering the temple.


 * Try to talk to the guard who rushes past you on the stairs on the way out. If you can't talk to him or stop him from leaving, keep clcking on talk and bumping into the other guard who is often found to the left of the white arrow against the wall. Note, if you investigate Eltrys's body, then this guard will also rush out, so skip that. If you keep bumping and trying to talk to the guard (even pickpocketing) this sometimes triggers him to let you start "No One Escapes Cidhna Mine".
 * Dragging Eltrys body under the pointer of the quest, in front of the right column of the altar
 * (via console): Open the console and type "setstage ms01 100". This will complete the The Forsworn Conspiracy questline and send you to jail. Once you wake up, type "setstage ms02 0", which will force the next quest " No One Escapes Cidhna Mine" to begin.
 * If the above tactics failed to fix the Shrine of Talos bug when Eltrys is dead and the guards do not initiate dialogue, the quest may be mysteriously completed by killing a Markarth city guard in Calcemo's Laboratory in Understone Keep (needs confirmation).
 * Completing the civil war quest sided with the Stormcloaks, before entering the shrine will replace the Legate (who is the guard captain of Markarth) by the third guard.
 * When entering Weylin's room and activating his chest, reading the note while the chest is still activated and taking it after reading will trigger the quest topic 'Read Weylin's Note' but will not be completed. Reading the note after still does not complete the quest, the only fix is to load from a previously saved game.
 * A way to workaround this is by exiting the Warrens, Dryston will be waiting outside to brawl. After fighting him, 'Read Weylin's Note' will be completed. Unsure if Patch 1.4 fixed this.
 * After finishing No One Escapes Cidhna Mine, guards may approach the player and enter the dialog to start the quest again. If the player chooses to be arrested and thrown into Cidhna mine, the dialog loops back to he beginning again. It is impossible to do quests in the city as canceling the dialog results in the guards going hostile. Confirmed. No known fix on 360. UPDATE: As of 2/9/2012, the 1.4 patch fixed this issue.
 * The game freezes if you choose to go to jail in the temple. Confirmed.
 * The player may get attacked by Thonar Silver-Blood before even speaking to him.
 * If you didn't kill Nepos but just ran away during the quest, he will not be found in his house after you complete No One Escapes Cidhna Mine. You will find him in the Temple of Talos. Be careful, he and the guards will attack you.
 * A solution is to pull the NPCs out of the temple and make a run for it. Then come back later after a few in game days have past.
 * If you do not follow up on Eltrys' original note, instead continuing other quests or exploring, it is possible for the guards to approach you later in Markarth and suggest you've been asking too many questions, if at any point after this you enter the temple you will find Eltrys already dead, with the guards waiting to escort you away, without having followed up on this quest chain in anyway. It is very confusing when they start dropping NPC names you've yet to encounter, and suggesting things you've not (but were meant to) have done.
 * If you are somehow able to enter Nepo's House before Weylin attacks Margaret and steal Nepo's journal, Weylin will not attack Margaret. This will be a lot easier if you haven't discovered Markath yet and enter the city through the Shrine of Dibella during the A Night to Remember quest. Confirmed.
 * The player's follower is trapped in the temple when you are arrested, and the guards reappearing to arrest you again if you return to the Temple of Talos to attempt to reclaim said follower. (With me, this happened with Farkas, who I now want my items back from and to be able to do quests with. Would someone mind finding a solution?). Console Moveto commands do not fix this issue, the NPC will move to the player but then immediately begin walking back to the temple. Kill/resurrect does not help either, and neither does resetai. EDIT: Using kill commands on the guards when they reappear before initiating conversation helps SOMETIMES. You still cannot reclaim the follower if the guards were not there to console kill. (NOTE: I married my follower which got her to leave the shrine. I told her to live at my house in Whiterun. Now I cannot find her anywhere...)
 * Doing this quest on ps3 may cause a bug that at any time one commits a crime in Markarth, the guards will not offer one a chance to pay their fine but try to take them to jail causing a conversation loop unless one chooses the dialogue along the lines of "I won't be taken alive".
 * If you kill the guards in the temple and escape into the mine, a guard will follow you in and all NPCs in the mine will attack you. You are not able to open the gates into the mine (the chains are not possible to activate).
 * Getting Weylin's note before the quest has started can cause the objective to come up as completed and Dryston to fight you outside, if you then start the quest, when it is needed to read again Weylin's note inside his room, despite being given a quest icon to talk to Dryston you cannot have any dialog and he will simply have common dialogues.
 * Giving Markarth to the Stormcloaks in the negotiation may cause the quest not to update or function properly.
 * Resisting arrest inside the temple and killing the guards, and then later getting accused, despite going to Cidhna mine and finishing the quest will result in the dialogue loop of the guards accusing you whenever you come back to Markarth after leaving during the brawl between the guards and the Forsworn. They won't take a bribe, or any other for of persuasion. You can't pay off your bounty, and if you try going to jail it just restarts the loop. As soon as the guards come up to you in the Shrine. Just go peacefully to avoid this.
 * After completing the quest and returning to the museum after the Thieves Guild quest chain, guards will halt you and get stuck in the Forsworn Conspiracy conversation loop. Clicking "I'll go to jail quietly" does nothing, and the Thane and Bribes options also don't work. The only option is to kill the guards. The Jarl, Thalemor, his Housecarl, and Clerk will all attack you on sight inside the palace.
 * After defeating Dryston, he may not talk, simply walking away and making the quest updates to "Find evidence about Nepos."
 * After fighting the Forsworn agents in the Treasury house, Thonar may not talk to you, keeping fighting indefinitely.
 * It is possible that when "Find evidence about Thonar" and "Find evidence about Nepos" parts of the main quest are left, and you kill Nepos in his house before finding evidence about Thonar, then go back to the Shrine of Talos to inform Eltrys about the Nepos' death, your follower (if you have any at that moment) becomes one of the guards who are already waiting for you in the Shrine for your arrest. As known, you can choose to fight the guards. In this case the follower will be fighting on your side till the end. Or you can decide to pay the bounty to the guards which will prevent you from fighting, but this will prevent you from taking the next quest No One Escapes Cidhna Mine. In both cases, after fighting the guards or paying the fine, you will be able to communicate with your follower and trade some items with him, unfortunately, he will no longer follow you. Even if you ask him to leave your service, the follower will just stay in that very Shrine of Talos. This can be fixed by actually finishing first "Find evidence about Thonar" and only then accomplishing "Find evidence about Nepos" quest topics. Anyway, it is better for you to ask your follower to wait in a certain place, before finishing the quest.
 * On 360, if you didn't read the Weylin's Letter inside the Warrens, but at any other place a few days later, when you return to Markarth you won't find Dryston, and therefore you won't be able to brawl with him and get the following objectives. Instead, you can go to the Shrine of Talos and the quest will be instantly concluded as the guards start talking to you. They will normally send you to Cidhna Mine though, starting the quest No One Escapes Chidna Mine as it should.