Taking Care of Business

Taking Care of Business
Quest Giver	Brynjolf
Location	Riften
Prerequisite	A Chance Arrangement
Next Quest	Loud and Clear
Faction	Thieves Guild
Reward	Membership into the guild Thieves Guild Outfit Fence
Type	Thieves Guild, Main quest
Quest ID	TG01

This is the second quest pertaining to the Thieves Guild, acquired from Brynjolf.

Objectives

• Locate Brynjolf at the Ragged Flagon
• Collect Keerava's debt
• Collect Bersi Honey-Hand's debt
• Collect Haelga's debt
• Return to Brynjolf

Walkthrough

The Ratway

In order to access the Ratway, the Dragonborn needs to find the door to it, which is located on the lower levels of Riften. Once inside, there will be two bandits, Drahff and Hewnon Black-Skeever, who will need to be aggressively dealt with. After this the Dragonborn drops into a room, and must either pick the lock on the door to the left or take the path to the right. Shortly, continuing on the path, the entrance to The Ragged Flagon is found and the player can find Brynjolf conversing at the bar.

He will instruct them to collect debts from three business owners in town. If they chooses to ask Brynjolf for advice, he will suggest some alternative ways to collect the debt. Exit the Ragged Flagon by the front door, then go through the second archway on the right wall. Pull the lever to drop the draw bridge across the gap and follow the path to exit The Ratway.

Collecting the Debt

The Dragonborn may collect the debts in any order, but will quickly discover that none of the business owners are willing to pay up; the Dragonborn may opt to brawl the owner for the money, or negotiate a more peaceful solution using Brynjolf's advice.  Additionally, the final business owner may hear about the Dragonborn's activities in advance and decide to pay off their debt immediately, without conflict.

Keerava's debt in The Bee and Barb

Keerava is the female Argonian behind the counter at The Bee and Barb. Bringing up her debt to her, she tells them to go away, and Brynjolf is not getting anything; the Dragonborn may leave the conversation or choose to brawl her. Talking to Talen-Jei, the male Argonian and Keerava's lover, will reveal information about Keerava's family's farm in Morrowind. Going back to Keerava and threatening to take a visit to her family's farm will convince her to pay the owed gold.

Bersi Honey-Hand's debt in The Pawned Prawn

Right after entering the Pawned Prawn the Dragonborn will see Bersi Honey-Hand behind the counter greeting them upon entering. Talking to him, and bringing up his debt will result in him getting defensive. He lets his mouth get the better of him. They can either walk away from the conversation, or chose to brawl him for the gold. If they chooses to walk away, they can turn around and start smashing Bersi's beloved Dwarven Urn under the window. After it's destroyed, he will agree to pay.

Haelga's debt in Haelga's Bunkhouse

When Haelga's Bunkhouse is entered, the Dragonborn will be rudely greeted. Talking to Haelga and bringing up her debt will make her angry. They can either walk away or brawl her. If they chooses to walk away, like the others, Haelga gets bold and tells the Dragonborn she won't pay a single cent. To solve this problem, in the right corner is a statue of Dibella, the goddess which Haelga devoutly worships. Stealing and presenting the statue to her will result in Haelga begging the Dragonborn to not harm the statue and agreeing to pay.

Getting back to Brynjolf

Once the debts have been collected, the Dragonborn must return to Brynjolf in The Ragged Flagon. He will invite them to follow him to the cistern where the guildmaster Mercer Frey will give the next quest, "Loud and Clear", and welcome the Dragonborn to the guild.

Rewards

After completing the quest and accepting the follow up, "Loud and Clear", a few perks are gained:

• Membership into the Thieves Guild.
• Speak with Tonilia in the Ragged Flagon to receive the Thieves Guild Armor.
• Tonilia becomes available as a Fence.
• If one collects from Haelga last, then one can pick up and keep her unique Haelga's Statue of Dibella after she pays. It will no longer be marked as a Quest Item, so it can freely be stored or sold.

Journal

Taking Care of Business - TG01
ID	Journal Entry
10	Brynjolf has promised me more work if I'm able to locate him at a tavern called the Ragged Flagon. Judging from the dangerous nature of its location, it seems as though he's having me perform some type of initiation, but I can't be certain. Objective: Locate Brynjolf at the Ragged Flagon
20	After successfully locating the Ragged Flagon, Brynjolf has given me a new assignment. Three business owners in Riften are proving to be a thorn in his side and I'm supposed to teach them the error of their ways. I should speak to Brynjolf about these townspeople in the event that they prove to be as stubborn as I'm expecting them to be. Objective 20: Collect Keerava's debt Objective 21 (Optional) Use Talon-Jei to get to Keerava Objective 30: Collect Bersi Honey-Hand's debt Objective 31 (Optional) Smash Bersi's prized Dwarvern Urn Objective 40: Collect Haelga's debt Objective 41 (Optional) Steal Haelga's Statue of Dibella
50	Objective: Return to Brynjolf
200	I've dealt with the three troublesome business owners in Riften as Brynjolf had specified. Perhaps now that I've proven my worth to Brynjolf, I can discover more about this mysterious organization that he represents. Quest complete

Bugs

This section contains bugs related to Taking Care of Business. 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 Bugs

During this quest, it is possible that after failing to collect Keerava's debt during the speech options, she will run off and disappear. So far, there is one fix: reloading from an autosave. If the brawl option is selected, the Dragonborn's opponent may draw a dagger and attack with it. This usually only happens with the first character being shaken down. Lowering the fists will stop the attack and the brawl can be restarted and the dagger may not be drawn again. However, if it is Keerava, bystanders will kill her immediately, causing the quest to be blocked from further progression. Loading a previous save and selecting Bersi Honey-Hand as the first encounter should help. One must be sure no other NPCs than his wife are in the shop, as she will also attack but will stop along with Bersi when the fists are put down. Though the cause is unknown, there is a break in this quest line where Brynjolf keeps standing in the stand like he is still giving an announcement to the traders from the previous quest, unwilling to go anywhere else. This can be resolved by simply going to the Ragged Flagon and then bringing up the console with the tilde key and typing "player.placeatme 1b07d" will summon him in front of the Dragonborn and allow the quest to progress. There is a bug where Brynjolf tells the Dragonborn to follow him, walks to the door of the Cistern, but the thieves inside attack the Dragonborn. Fix: Once Brynjolf has told the Dragonborn to follow him one should: 1. Open the console. 2. Type setstage TG03 10, this will allow the player to skip the "Loud and Clear" quest and start the "Dampening Spirits" quest, but everyone in the guild will still attack them. 3. Then, one must type player.addfac 29da9 1. This will make the Dragonborn a member of the Thieves Guild. Alternately, punching him while unarmed once and immediately stop should help. This can sometimes jolt him out of his paralysis and walk towards the secret entrance. The Dragonborn may also have to open the secret entrance to the Cistern by simply going through the fake storage closet and opening the hatch to Riften, then pulling the lever. The Dragonborn may also have to wait for him to enter the cistern. After waiting for an hour, and the Dragonborn should go inside, and the quest will continue normally. Also, if the Dragonborn hits him causing a fight, they should have him chase them to the Ratways door, then beat him down, unequip a weapon and heal him using Healing Hands. When healed he shouldn't attack the Dragonborn further. To get him through the door the Dragonborn needs to initiate conversion and then exit before he finished talking and enter the Ratways then repeat to get him to follow the Dragonborn to the Ragged Flagon. Another alternative way for the Dragonborn to do this is to sprint into Brynjolf and make him step back and continue to do so until he is at the door to the cistern, then open the door. Once the door is opened, they need to immediately talk to Brynjolf, which will make him appear in the Ratway, then push him a bit more further and save. After that, punching him once, unarmed, and proceeding to run to the Ragged Flagon and entering the bar (one should make sure he is close by at all times) then knock him down with unrelenting force if that doesn't work the player will need to use fists then lower them again and quickly talk to him. The same applies to using unrelenting force but without the punching. Also solved by punching Brynjolf out of sight from a guard, and then attacking a townsmember where a guard can see the Dragonborn.  360  Solved by clearing the system cache.  360   When the Dragonborn is walking with Brynjolf at the end of the quest, sometimes the Cistern door is locked. Reloading fixes this.   PS3   Talking to Haelga last can extort the coins from her without her taking the statue by the Dragonborn, however if it is taken, she will take the statue anyway.  The Quest, "Rescue Mission" previously prevented this quest from being completed. As of Skyrim Patch 1.5, this problem is resolved. While collecting Keerava's debt, it is possible to choose an option to say that it doesn't matter for the Dragonborn to collect the debt. Once the dragonborn exits and talks to her again, the dialog bar won't pop out, thus making it impossible for the Dragonborn to continue any further. Sometimes (probably due to discovering the Flaggon beforehand), the Dragonborn will be considered as a trespasser upon entering the Cistern, thus rendering it impossible to complete the questline, because everyone there, including Mercer and Brynjolf, will attack.  360   After the quest, Bersi Honey-Hand will not mention about the debt like it never happened.  PS3   Too long of a delay after killing Haelga and not giving Brynjolf the owed debt can effectively void that section of the quest. The only solution found so far is to load an earlier save file.