Summerset Shadows (Quest)

Summerset Shadows
The exterior camp of Uttering Hills Cave, where the Summerset Shadows are basing their operations in the area.
Quest Giver	Delvin Mallory
Location	Windhelm Uttering Hills Cave
Prerequisite	Five small jobs for Delvin or Vex in Windhelm
Next Quest	Under New Management
Faction	Thieves Guild
Reward	Niranye as a fence Thieves Guild influence in Eastmarch
Type	Thieves Guild side quest
Quest ID	TGTQ04

For other uses, see Summerset Shadows.

Summerset Shadows is a quest available in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in which the Dragonborn must disrupt the operations of a rival criminal organization, the Summerset Shadows to maintain the eminence of the Thieves Guild.

Background

Torsten Cruel-Sea's daughter Fjolti was slain and robbed of a silver locket by a Thieves Guild hailing from Summerset Isle. Calling themselves "The Summerset Shadows", they are looking into expanding their influence in Skyrim.

Objectives

1. Speak to Torsten Cruel-Sea
2. Speak to Niranye
3. Discover leverage to sway Niranye (optional)
4. Travel to Uttering Hills Cave
5. Recover Fjolti's Silver Locket
6. Destroy the Summerset Shadows' Banner (optional)
7. Return to Torsten Cruel-Sea

Walkthrough

The banner of the Summerset Shadows.

Delvin Mallory tells the Dragonborn of a rival thieves group, the Summerset Shadows. This rival guild needs to be looked into. In order to obtain this quest, 5 small jobs must be completed in Windhelm for the Thieves Guild.

"No need to explain, I'm well aware of your Guild's methods. It took me weeks, but I finally tracked down the killer. A bloody Altmer at that. Can you imagine?"

―Torsten Cruel-Sea

Travel to Windhelm and upon arriving, there will be information that there was a brutal murder in Windhelm not long ago. Speak to Torsten Cruel-Sea, who will request the return of the silver locket that was taken from his daughter Fjotli's corpse.

Talk to Niranye for more information. With a high enough Speech skill, she can be Persuaded to cooperate, but if this fails, she must be fought. Intimidating her is a more reliable option. Otherwise, the Dragonborn will need "leverage" to get her to talk, which can be found in the form of a note in her house from Linwe. To find the note, enter Niranye's House. The south wall of the dining area is a false panel. Open it, descend the stairs, pick an expert lock to enter her basement. Once in the basement, find Niranye's safe, pick another expert lock, and retrieve Linwe's notes.

After getting the location, go to the guild's headquarters in Uttering Hills Cave. The goal is to kill the group's leader Linwe and retrieve Fjotli's Silver Locket. Upon entering the cave tunnels, there will be a fork with left and right paths. Taking the right path will avoid two Summerset Shadows at the end of the tunnel. High-Sneak characters can also sneak past the thieves if taking the left path.

The locket is found on Linwe's corpse, along with Linwe's Armor, which is a unique set of armor similar in appearance to what some Thieves Guild members wear.

Burning the flag

In order to accomplish the extra objective, the Summerset Shadows' banner must be burned. To complete this, simply use a flame spell on the banner, e.g. Flames) or the Fire Breath shout.

Return to Torsten to finish the quest.

Rewards

• Enchanted Ring, Circlet or Necklace
• Niranye as a fence (if she did not fight and was not killed when spoken to)
• A new merchant just outside of the Ragged Flagon

Journal

Summerset Shadows – TGTQ04
ID	Journal Entry
10	Torsten Cruel-Sea, a wealthy merchant residing in Windhelm, has requested assistance from the Thieves Guild. Objective 10: Speak to Torsten Cruel-Sea
20	Torsten Cruel-Sea's daughter Fjotli was slain and robbed of a silver locket by a Thieves Guild hailing from Summerset Isle. Calling themselves "The Summerset Shadows," they are looking into expanding their influence in Skyrim. Objective 20: Speak to Niranye
25	Objective 30: (Optional) Discover leverage to sway Niranye
40	Torsten's daughter wasn't slain by the Summerset Shadows, but their leader, Linwe, has them robbing the dead of their valuables. Linwe and the rest of his guild have established a hideout in Uttering Hills Cave. Objective 40: Travel to Uttering Hills Cave
50	Objective 50: Recover Fjolti's [sic] [Do not change this to Fjotli's . This misspelled word is how it appears in-game.] Silver Locket
55	Objective 60: (Optional) Destroy the Summerset Shadow's Banner
60	I've slain Linwe and obtained Fjotli's Silver Locket. This ends the presence of the Summerset Shadows in Skyrim. Objective 70: Return to Torsten Cruel-Sea
200	The locket has been returned to Torsten Cruel-Sea, and the Thieves Guild can now count on him as an influential ally in Windhelm. Quest complete

Trivia

• The group's name refers to the Summerset Isles, the homeland of the Altmer.
• After completing the quest, Summerset Shadows will continue to spawn outside the cave system, though the interior remains cleared out.
• Though difficult, it is possible to pickpocket the locket off of Linwe and finish the quest through stealth. However, this does not change the quest text, and the quest will still proceed as if Linwe was killed.

Bugs

This section contains bugs related to Summerset Shadows (Quest). Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following: Please reload an old save to confirm if the bug is still happening. If the bug is still occurring, please post the bug report with the appropriate system template  360  /  XB1  ,  PS3  /  PS4  ,  PC  /  MAC  ,  NX  /  PS5  ,  XS  , depending on which platform(s) the bug has been encountered on. Be descriptive when listing the bug and fixes, but avoid having conversations in the description and/or using first-person anecdotes: such discussions belong on the appropriate forum board.

Click to show

After accepting the quest, it may not start and will not be present in the quest journal, making the Thieves Guild questline impossible to complete.  PC   Normally, Uttering Hills Cave is populated by generic bandits. Once this quest starts, the Summerset Shadows replace these bandits. If the Dragonborn happens to have an outstanding quest to kill the bandits there (a bounty quest from the Jarl, or side quests given by Brunwulf Free-Winter, Annekke Crag-Jumper, and Kjar), it will become impossible to complete once this quest begins, since Linwe will replace the default bandit leader but will not respawn.  PC (Fix)   If this happens, using the console command resurrect on Linwe and then killing him will complete the objective.  PC (Fix)   Using the console command: c5688.kill completes the objective. Torsten Cruel-Sea's map marker can sometimes point somewhere other than where he actually is located. One such location is just to the west of Windhelm, around the base of the mountain, but still "inside" the Windhelm city map cell. If this is the case, enter Windhelm, then use the console command tcl to float outside of Windhelm's walls and toward the quest marker. Occasionally Torsten will be there inside the mountain right at the marker. Torsten moves around Skyrim at times, and may change locations while the Dragonborn is fast traveling, leading to what appears to be this bug. For Xbox and PlayStation users there is a wall in Windhelm that you can walk through to leave the boundaries of Windhelm without leaving its interior cell, you will just have to walk all the way to his marker to find him. Sometimes the banner that must be burned will be invisible, but still burnable. Sometimes the optional objective to burn the banner never appears in the journal. If it is burned anyway, Delvin will still mention it.  PC   Burning the banner can freeze the game. It will burn normally, but the game freezes when the objective should update. The bug seems consistent for those who encounter it and there are no known solutions at this time, save leaving the banner alone. Sometimes, burning the banner and running out of the area immediately, without looking back at it, can avoid this bug.  PS3   Sometimes Torsten Cruel-Sea will not provide the reward after Fjotli's locket is returned.  PS3   Sometimes after completing this quest, Niranye never becomes a fence. If the dialog option "How's Business?" is available, select it to make her open her services. If Niranye is dead before the quest is given, locating her coffin in the Hall of the Dead and stealing the Linwe letters will trigger the prompt to go to Uttering Hills Cave.  PC   Fjotli's Silver Locket might not always spawn.  360   Speaking to Delvin after completing the quest will cause him to award 500 , even though this does not happen with the other city jobs. He will give 500 every time you leave the Flagon, then return and say you have finished the special Windhelm job.

Appearances

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim