Brynjolf (Skyrim)

Template:SkyrimNPCs Brynjolf is a Nord thief and a member of the Thieves Guild in Riften. Brynjolf is currently the second in command at the Thieves Guild, below only Mercer Frey, the current Guildmaster.

Interactions

Template:Spoiler Brynjolf is first encountered upon exiting the Bee and Barb tavern in Riften when he approaches the player and offers to let them in to a job he's working on. He tells the Dragonborn to find him in the Riften market between eight AM and eight PM the next day, thus starting the quest A Chance Arrangement.

Brynjolf is found manning a stall in the market. He says that he will create a diversion and, while everyone is distracted, the Dragonborn must break into the stall belonging to Madesi and steal his ring and reverse pickpocket it into Brand-Shei. (The ring under the stall, not in the display case.)

After Brand-Shei is arrested, Brynjolf will happily say that he found the right person for the job. He then directs the Dragonborn to The Ratways, an underground tunnel system underneath Riften, explaining that there is a tavern there called The Ragged Flagon, and if one can get to it, they can join his organization. (If the player fails to plant the ring, they will still be asked to go to the Ragged Flagon and join the Guild.)

Upon reaching The Ragged Flagon, Brynjolf will be impressed. He will then introduce the player to Mercer Frey, and induct the Dragonborn into the Thieves Guild.

Brynjolf also helps the Dragonborn by providing information and advice for future jobs.

During the main line of quests for the Thieves Guild, Brynjolf and the playable character become Nightingales like guild-master turned traitor Mercer Frey.

After the Thieves Guild main Questline, Brynjolf can be found wandering around the cistern and the flagon. Due to a bug, when spoken to he will say that he has important things to do and will talk sometime later rather than speaking his scripted post-quest dialogue.

Brynjolf will nominate the Dragonborn to be the Guild Master after the completion of the city influence jobs given by Delvin and Vex, and also give the player the Tribute Chest Key.

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Bugs

Click to see the list of bugs encountered

After planting Madesi's ring on Brand-Shei, Brynjolf will approach one's character and start a dialog. Talking to Brynjolf first may result in bugs, to avoid the bugs, wait for Brynjolf to approach and start the conversation. If not successful in planting the ring, the game could permanently bug and the quest will never be finished but one can do a couple more quests in the quest chain up until after the bee hives are burnt. After completing the quest where one shakes down three people for their protection money, Brynjolf may get stuck in his stall surrounded by people, preventing entry to the Thieves Guild. This may also happen after he tells the player to meet him in The Ragged Flagon after planting the ring. He will never be able to get to the tavern, preventing completion of the entry quest.  PC  If one has technically completed the quest, but Brynjolf still stays in his stall, the easiest way to fix this glitch is to open the console and type "clearquestaliases TG00SP". This will remove the bugged script from all npcs including him. He should then walk down to the Ragged Flagon.  PC  This can be gotten around simply by going to the Ragged Flagon, bringing up the console with the tilde key, and then typing "player.placeatme 0001b07d". This will summon him and allow the quest to progress.  PC  Another solution is to open the console and to click on Brynjolf (it shows his ID) when in town next to him; close the console, go to the Ragged Flagon, reopen the console, and type "moveto player ". This will summon him and allow the quest to progress.  PS3   Upon entering Riften, a Khajiit may follow the Dragonborn, making stealing the ring and framing Brand-Shei without any one knowing impossible. (This is technically not a bug since the Khajiit is a scripted encounter that will eventually resolve itself but it is quite annoying.) He is never to be found in the Ragged Flagon and surrounding areas. Another bug occurs if one tries to do both the finding Esbern and locate the Ratway quest at the same time causing Brynjolf to be trapped outside. To correct this bug, assault the townsfolk that are around Brynjolf and go to jail before getting killed. Then, when released from jail, follow Brynjolf to Mercer. During the Thieve's Guild quest Brynjolf may be stopped next to the wardrobe where a letter is placed about Rune's parents but the option to talk to him won't be there.  PS3   When Brynjolf tells The Dragonborn to follow him. He will sometimes appear on top of the Bee and Barb. Solution: Get as close as possible to him and he will come down and talk to the player.  PS3    360   Upon donning the Nightingale Armor and heading to the dwemer ruins to stop Mercer from obtaining The Eyes of the Falmer, one may acquire both Brynjolf and Karliah as permanent companions if desired. Talk to Karliah and have her follow. Draw a weapon and proceed up the stairs. Eventually both Brynjolf and Karliah will sheathe their weapons, indicating they have stopped following. Keep having them follow and every time the Dragonborn moves, draw a weapon. Eventually, they will bug past the scripted area to quit following, gaining the player two permanent Nightingales.  PS3  If Brynjolf and Karliah are permanent companions, making them wait outside could possibly result in the disappearance of either or both of them. This is due to a scripted behavior where Karliah and Brynjolf will attempt to follow if one gets too far ahead of them. This can be avoided by taking them into any building and having them wait there instead as they are limited by the dimensions of the area they are in. There's a bug where if Brynjolf is chosen as a follower, when exiting the Standing Stone cave, Brynjolf will just walk back into the Nightingale Hall, making the quest impossible to finish, (correct by reloading an old file). After the Dragonborn becomes guildmaster, the only dialogue Brynjolf offers is the "Not now lad/lass" quote. This is a bug, as there are scrited lines in the game for him to say to the Dragonborn after becoming guildmaster. These "hidden" lines include "Hello lad/lass! How are things?" and "It's good to see you, lad/lass." There normally would be dialogue options for the Dragonborn to talk to Brynjolf about, such as inquiring about how the guild is doing as well as checking in on the profits, with both options having unique dialogue of Bryn saying how great the guild is doing now as well as how proud he is of the new guildmaster. After completeing Blindsighted, Brynjolf can occassionally be found repeatidly entering and exiting the door between the Ragged Flagon and the Cistern.

Trivia

• He is voiced by Robin Atkin Downes,
• When in combat, he will say "So, its to the Pain then?" This may be a reference to The Princess Bride, during the confrontation between Westley and Humperdinck.
• Unlike the Dark Brotherhood quests, where one had a choice to join or kill Astrid, the Dragonborn is expected to become a thief and complete the Thieves guild storyline, there is no alternative questline. Because Brynjolf is necessary for that, he is not only marked as essential, but he is also invulnerable to damage should one attack him. Using the console to make him non essential does not change that. If he is attacked, even with the whole town as backup, he will kill everybody without taking even so much as a point of damage. The only way to kill him is to use the console to set his essential value to 0 and then also use the console to damage him to death. This will destroy the Thieves' Guild questline, however. Brynjolf can be killed after completing Under New Management.
• If one wishes to bypass The Thieves Guild questline entirely. You can continue the main quest line where you are sent to Talk to Brynjolf without talking to him (and being required to frame an innocent man for the information you need to find Esbern ) simply by going to the Bee and Barb and speaking to Keerava the barmaid to continue the quest "A Cornered Rat,"
• Brynjolf says something different depending on how many septims the Dragonborn is holding.
  • If the Dragonborn has little money, he says, "Running a little light on the pockets, lad/lass?" Likewise, if the Dragonborn has a lot of septims, Brynjolf says, "Never done an honest day's work in your life for all that coin you're carrying. Eh, lad/lass?"
• When given Gallus's journal, Brynjolf is able to read it without the accompanying translation notes from Calcelmo. Any chance that Brynjolf would happen to be read Falmer in it is highly unlikely. More probably, Enthir wrote down his translation without explicitly stating he was doing so, or it may be an error on the developer's behalf.
• He can be exploited as an extra follower. When Karliah introduces the Dragonborn to Nightingale Hall, she will enter it herself. Brynjolf, however, is scripted to follow the player into the hall. As long as the player does not enter Nightingale Hall, Brynjolf will follow and fight, however he will not sneak and will only repeat two lines of dialogue, (with the exception of in-combat dialogue).
• Brynjolf's name is a combination of Old Norse for "(chain) mail armour" and "wolf".
• In Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon, there was a Blacksmith named Brynjolfr, who made snow wolf light armor. Whether or not there is any relation is a mystery, but the root of the name is the same.

Appearances

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Template:1st