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Elder Scrolls

For other uses, see Swindler's Den.

Swindler's Den is a cave east of Rorikstead and southwest of Morthal. It is infested with several leveled bandits. Swindler's Den serves as the base of the Alik'r in the quest "In My Time of Need."

Quests[]

Notable items[]

Trivia[]

Skeleton Reaching for Mead
  • A skeleton found in a haystack reaching for a bottle of mead can be found in an alcove.
  • To the right of the first hall, there are a couple of boulders, the Dragonborn can climb up with spamming the jump button. With that, it is recommended to follow the path into the final hall; this spares the Dragonborn almost every battle with local bandits.
  • Upon entering the first hall, there is a practice dummy with a red apple perched atop its head. This is a reference to the story of William Tell, who had to shoot an apple off of his son's head. Amusingly, the dummy has two iron arrows in it, being nowhere close to the head. The Dragonborn can play a mini-game of trying to shoot the apple with the long bow and iron arrows provided on the opposite ledge after clearing the dungeon.
  • Outside of Swindler's Den there are three unmarked locations, each containing a skill book:

Bugs[]

This section contains bugs related to Swindler's Den (Cave). Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following:

  1. Please reload an old save to confirm if the bug is still happening.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  •  360   If the cave is reentered after finishing the quest "In My Time of Need" and choosing the ending by helping Kematu, the Alik'r Warriors and Kematu are still in Swindler's Den, without Saadia. The warriors can be attacked and killed.
    • Upon entering the den under this scenario, the Alik'r spawn with a Bandit Chief and a couple of regular bandits who immediately become hostile to the Alik'r. Whoever is left alive can now be finished off and looted (the Alik'r will also have no conversation options and are not needed for any further quests).
  •  360   PS3   If the cave is reentered after finishing In My Time of Need, there is the possibility that the game will get stuck on the loading screen and never load the cave. The problem may arise as soon as the Dragonborn accepts the "Stealing Plans" quest from Aela the Huntress after clearing Gallows Rock in the Companions questline.
  •  PC   360   PS3   Sometimes, after completing In My Time of Need, all subsequent reentries into Swindler's Den will cause the game to crash. This can make completing the Companions quest line impossible.
  •  PC   During In My Time of Need, once the Dragonborn enters Swindler's Den, upon trying to exit, the screen will turn dark, but will not teleport the Dragonborn. Certain features will also be locked up, such as saving. This bug is related to an error during the decompression of the teleport script of this specific area. Reloading to an earlier save will not fix this. The only way outside is through the use of a command code that teleports the Dragonborn outside.
  •  360   The "Night Falls On Sentinel" book can fall into the crate and become inaccessible.
  •  360   Killing Kematu and his men by skipping the dialogue, via hopping up the wall in the first room, will cause two A'likr warriors to permanently appear inside Whiterun at the gates. This can be beneficial as vampire protection if The Elder Scrolls V: Dawnguard is installed.

Appearances[]

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