A Night to Remember (Skyrim)

Background
''I have awoken in the Temple Of Dibella in Markarth. Sam and the staff he promised me have disappeared. I have no idea how I got here but a priestess has told me I trashed the Temple. The priestess might tell me what happened to Sam and the staff if I pick up the place.''

Quick walkthrough

 * 1) Meet Sam Guevenne and accept the drinking contest at any tavern in Skyrim major cities
 * 2) Help clean up the Temple of Dibella or pay the fines
 * 3) Ask about Sam and the Staff in Rorikstead
 * 4) Talk to Ysolda in Whiterun about the staff
 * 5) Head to Morvunskar
 * 6) Search Morvunskar for Sam and the Staff

In any Tavern
In any tavern across Skyrim it is possible to encounter a man named Sam Guevenne. He offers the Dragonborn a chance to join a drinking contest and win a staff. After three drinks the screen will black out and the Dragonborn will awaken in the Temple of Dibella in Markarth, which is now trashed.

Temple of Dibella
The priestess Senna tasks the Dragonborn with picking up several seemingly meaningless items, including a giant's toe, two bottles of wine, Hagraven Feather and a confusing note from Sam. These items and any already in the inventory or that are picked up before the end of the quest will be marked as quest items.

The clean up duties may be skipped with a high enough speech rating, meaning the items will not be marked as quest items. This will be the case at each step of the quest, allowing you to skip any errands in order to win people's favor. After the temple is clean and the Dragonborn apologizes to her, the priestess will mention Rorikstead.

Rorikstead
Upon arrival, an angry Redguard named Ennis will greet the Dragonborn, saying that the night before, the Dragonborn had stolen his goat Gleda and sold it to a giant named Grok. Retrieving the goat can be skipped if a speech, intimidate or bribe challenge is passed. It is also possible to retrieve the goat simply by approaching it and leading it back to the hamlet. If there is a follower present, they will attack the offended giant and the giant might have to be killed to save the follower. Once one of these requirements is met, Ennis will point the Dragonborn to Whiterun and Ysolda.

Whiterun
Upon finding Ysolda in Whiterun, she will mention the price owed her for a purchase of a wedding ring. She also mentions that the Dragonborn's spouse-to-be was met in Witchmist Grove, and the wedding was called off. Finding the ring can be skipped if the Dragonborn passes a speech, intimidate, or bribe challenge. Otherwise, in Witchmist Grove the Dragonborn finds a Hagraven named Moira. She will become jealous of an Esmerelda that has "dark feathers" and attack. Either way, when talking to Ysolda again, she mentions the Dragonborn getting married to someone in Morvunskar.

Morvunskar
Morvunskar is a ruined fort, now inhabited by hostile mages. Within the ruin is the entrance to Misty Grove, occupied by Sam and several dinner guests, just labeled "Commoners". Sam Guevenne reveals that he is actually the Daedric prince Sanguine, whose sphere is debauchery and drunken revelry. He presents the Dragnborn with a Daedric Artifact, the Sanguine Rose. The Dragonborn is then teleported back to the tavern where Sam was first encountered. The items collected in the temple will no longer be marked as quest items.

Later in the game an Argonian named Deep-In-His-Cups will come and talk to the Dragonborn and say he walked into that bandit camp. If he is not paid any money, he will attack.

Trivia

 * The Rorikstead stage can be skipped, moving straight on to the Ysolda stage immediately after the temple.
 * It is possible to travel to Morvunskar directly after leaving the temple and obtain the reward from Sam, skipping all other steps. As it turns out Sam only wants the Dragonborn to "Explore the world and spread merriment".
 * If this is done, then Moira is killed later, her corpse has the wedding ring but it has no value.
 * If the Dragonborn is married to Ysolda, the location marker for her will be at her marital home, but the legend will state that she is in Whiterun. She will actually be in her marital home.
 * Also if the Dragonborn is married to Ysolda she will talk about how a wedding ring was bought from her to marry some other girl, mentioning how they met in Witchmist Grove and so on. She will have her normal spouse dialogs available during conversation, and not be at all bothered about the attempted marriage to another, ending the conversation with "Goodbye, my love!". Being married to Ysolda does not appear to glitch the quest.
 * If the final location of the quest (Morvunskar) has previously been cleared before the quest begins, the castle will be repopulated during the quest.
 * If Ysolda is given gold to pay for the ring, it does not show up in her merchant gold.
 * Random world encounters can occur after the quest is completed with NPCs asking payment for bets/pranks made during that night. Refusing to pay or failing the speech challenge to lower the price results in the NPC attacking.
 * Sam's true identity is foreshadowed throughout the quest.
 * The name Sam Guevenne sounds very similar to Sanguine, with two added vowel sounds.
 * The Dragonborn's night involves various pranks, a pastime for the Daedric Lord.
 * Sam invites the player to a drinking contest, fitting for a god of drunkenness and debauchery.
 * There is a long dinner table with several seated guests near Sanguine in the grove. This, and his mention of a prank over 100 years ago could be a possible reference to the Sanguine quest in, in which the player is tasked with ruining a dinner party in Leyawiin Castle.
 * In  there is a quest called The Siren's Deception in which Signy Home-Wrecker says "I'll give you a night to remember." The quest name could possibly be a reference to this.

Bugs
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Resolved Bugs

 * The player will not black out after a third drink, simply receive a "Completed" notification. This is caused by killing Ysolda before beginning the drinking contest, since without her, you cannot find out where Sam went. However, you will not receive a "Quest Failed" notification upon killing her, meaning the quest cannot be started. Marrying Ysolda may fix this. (Resolved With Skyrim Patch 1.5)
 * It was originally possible to kill Ennis before starting this quest, causing problems with quest progression. This has been fixed as of Skyrim Patch 1.5.
 * It was originally possible to kill Senna before starting this quest, causing problems with quest progression. This has been fixed as of Skyrim Patch 1.5.

Others
If you speak to Moira about the ring before speaking to the NPC at Rorikstead then his dialog will be stunted and it will not be continuable
 * When player attends drinking contest and the Markarth-Forsworn questline is still active, and/or Markarth town guards are hostile towards player, the player will be waken up by guards instead of Senna. After the dialogue with guards is triggered, they will then proceed to eventually attack/arrest the player. This causes that automatic dialogue with Senna is not triggered, and player may now continue "A night to remember" quest from, for example, talking to Ysolda - talking to Senna and Ennis is not requested. If you choose not to meet those characters, it won't have any negative effect on quest completion.
 * Upon completion of the quest, if the player returns to Morvunskar, they may find Sanguine waiting near the portal to the Misty Grove. He will not have dialog, just brief responses. The portal to the Misty Grove is still active, however, and if the player enters, they will have no way to return since Sanguine is no longer inside to transport the player out. If the player entered the portal without defeating the mages in the area, upon returning, Sanguine will be fighting with the remaining mages, using his fists.
 * Sanguine will not appear in the grove with just a blank quest marker at the spot he should be at. The only way to get out of the Grove is to reload a previous save.
 * Another way that might fix the above bug, is simply to pause the game for a few seconds. Then, when you`ve exited the pause-menu, Sanguine appears and finishes the conversation.
 * If you speak to Ysolda about her ring before meeting with the NPC in Rorikstead you will not be able to enter dialog with him and continue his quest to retrieve the goat. Talking to him will only prompt random statements.
 * Cleaning the temple will cause picked up items to become quest items, meaning they will be stuck in your inventory. You cannot turn them in because you already completed that portion of the quest. This is a pain if you are trying to use Giant's Toe in alchemy recipes because it won't let you use them. A way to avoid this is to choose the pay option; Senna will tell you what you need to know without cleaning anything. You can come back after the quest is over to pick up those items and they will act as regular items.
 * Sometimes there will be no items where the arrows say they should be, having sunk into the floor, and the player cannot clean up the temple to continue the quest. To get to the next part of the quest would be to bribe priestess of Dibella.
 * When trying to retrieve the goat, the goat and giant might not be anywhere to be found.
 * After meeting Ysolda and using the Persuade option to get further information on the ring you may find that going to Witchmist Grove and meeting Moira the witch will not give you any speech options and you can not interact with her. Only option it seems is load earlier save point, and return to Ysolda and purchase the ring for 2000g and continue with the quest (PS3) Patch 2.01
 * In the journal before accepting the contest, such as by walking past Sam Guevenne and having him talk to you without actually starting conversation, the Miscellaneous tab calls him "Sam Guenvere".
 * If you have Ysolda set up marry when you initiate the quest, and rush to the Temple of Mara rather than clean the temple. The quest conversations will be available. Then finishing the part of it in Witchmist Grove will auto complete helping clean up the temple.
 * When you persuade Ysolda you can move on and finish the quest. After you've finished the quest you can visit Moira and she won't attack you, after killing her you can loot the item "Wedding Ring" from her, a miscellaneous item which is still marked as a Quest item, you can't get rid of it.
 * Being a Stage Four Vampire while in Misty Grove will result in Sam Guevenne (not turning into Sanguine) to attack you using various spells. He is immortal, since he is a part of the quest. Only way to fix this is to reload a save and feed before going to Misty Grove.
 * Sanguine will be hostile if you are in your Beastform if you are a Werewolf. Easy way to fix this is to reload a save and wait for an hour to transform back.
 * A glitch might occur preventing your passing out if you see him in the Bannered Mare in Whiterun.
 * There is a possibility to skip many of the steps in this quest. Occasionally if you are unable to persuade or pay off the priestess when you wake up after drinking, the quest will not move on despite all items that she wishes you to pick up being picked up. At this point, you can exit the temple and go to Ysolda in Whiterun and speak to her about the quest. Saying the "I don't even care about the ring..." option will convince her to tell you Sam's location, allowing you to skip the Goat and Hag portions of the quest.
 * The player also won't blackout and received the "Completed" notification if the Priestess of Dibella is killed before beginning the drinking contest.
 * Once Sam transforms at the quest's ending, sometimes Sanguine will not replace him, rendering the character unable to leave the Grove.
 * Sometimes before even starting this quest, Moira will send Hired Thugs after the Dragonborn for no reason.
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