The Heart of Dibella

The Heart of Dibella
A Forsworn Briarheart inside Broken Tower Redoubt.
Quest Giver	Hamal
Location	Markarth Karthwasten Broken Tower Redoubt
Reward	Agent of Dibella
Type	Miscellaneous quest
Quest ID	T01

"Through the Protocol, we have seen the home of the next Sybil, to the north, in a small village pressed against the stone. If you can travel there, and retrieve our young Sybil, your transgression will be forgiven."

―Hamal

The Heart of Dibella is a quest available in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The Dragonborn will need to find the next Sybil of Dibella for the temple in Markarth.

Background

To appease the priestess of Dibella, I have agreed to find the young girl who will be their next Sybil. It's been prophesised that she lives in the village of Karthwasten, to the north of Markarth.

Objectives

1. Speak to Degaine
2. Steal the statue in the Temple of Dibella
3. Bring the statue to Degaine
4. Find the future Sybil of Dibella
5. Rescue Fjotra from the Forsworn
6. Bring Fjorta to the temple
7. Pray at Dibella's Altar

Walkthrough

The interior of the Temple of Dibella.

Degaine in Markarth will give the Dragonborn a quest to steal a Statue of Dibella from the Temple of Dibella. Talk to Degaine and receive the miscellaneous quest "Steal the statue in the Temple of Dibella" before picking the lock to the Inner Sanctum and getting caught by the priestesses and Hamal. If the Dragonborn is caught by the priestesses and then tries to go talk to Degaine to receive the quest, the quest dialogue will not show. Degaine is usually at the market in front of the main door of Markarth, if not he is in The Warrens.

"What are you doing in here? Stay where you are. The mother will deal with you."

Very well. Who is the mother? "Here she is."

I'll kill you all before I let you keep me here. "If that's how you choose to end your life, so be it."

Break into the Inner Sanctum and sneak behind the priestesses. If caught while sneaking past the priestesses, Mother Hamal will give the Dragonborn this quest as a punishment for trespassing in the temple. Alternatively, sneak out, sell the statue to Degaine, and come back in to "get caught."

If unable to sneak past Hamal, there are several other Statues of Dibella at the following locations:

• Broken Tower Redoubt. After entering the redoubt, after the first room, go up the stairs on the right and go left on the second floor and follow it around. The statue is in a darkened area past a pile of rubble between two barrels. A light source may help, as it is quite dark.
• One statue can be found beside/in Hela's Folly, a nearby shipwreck. This can be found as a Dark Brotherhood contract for Nazir. The statue is counted as stolen despite the owner, Deekus, being dead.
• While doing the Daedric quest in the Midden below the College of Winterhold.
• One statue is in the Black-Briar Manor in Riften.
• One statue can be found inside Riftweald Manor, Mercer Frey's house in Riften.
• One statue can be found in Brinewater Grotto at the very back.
• One statue can be found in Haelga's Bunkhouse in Riften, it can be stolen as part of the Thieves Guild quest "Taking Care of Business."
• One statue can be found in the East Empire Company Warehouse.

Either way, if you get caught trying to sneak past and Mother Hamal gives you the quest as punishment for trespassing in the temple, you can still attempt to steal the statue and just sell it to someone else other than Degaine.

Without Degaine

Another way to acquire this quest without involving Degaine, is to simply break into the Inner Sanctum. Make sure to be sneaking and undetected when picking the lock if one does not wish to start a fight. If successful, one can then sneak into the Inner Sanctum and let Hamal "catch" them (getting caught sneaking, or standing up and approaching her), where she will then start the quest.

If caught picking the lock (or one was not sneaking or did not have the Quick Hands Lockpicking perk), the priestesses will be hostile, so one should utilize "calm" type Illusion spells (Calm, Pacify, Harmony) or the Imperial's Voice of the Emperor to calm the priestesses and to be able to speak with Hamal to get the quest from her.

Looking for the Sybil

Talk to anyone in Karthwasten about a little girl, and they will direct the Dragonborn to talk to Enmon, her father. Enmon will say that Fjotra was kidnapped by the Forsworn and taken to Broken Tower Redoubt. He offers to join in the rescue, but there is an option to go alone. Having Enmon joining offers no reward, except one or two lines of dialogue when his daughter is found. Unfortunately, Enmon can be killed easily, which has no consequences.

Travel to Broken Tower Redoubt and fight or slip past the Forsworn found there while making the way to the top (if recently cleared, the only enemy present may be the Forsworn Briarheart). Eventually the Dragonborn will get inside a small tower with a Forsworn Briarheart boss guarding the cell in which Fjotra is being held captive. Kill him, then loot the key off his body to open the cell. After telling her she is the Sybil of Dibella, Fjotra will follow you. Take her back to the Temple of Dibella in Markarth. If the Dragonborn returns to Fjotra's House after rescuing her and approaches Enmon with Fjotra, he will address his daughter and tell her she has to go to the temple.

Hamal tells the player to pray at the Altar of Dibella to receive the blessing. Note that the Altar of Dibella is the font-like object in the center of the top floor of the temple, not the normal Shrine of Dibella next to it. The Dragonborn will get a permanent effect called Agent of Dibella, which allows the player to do more damage to the opposite sex.

After praying at the altar, Hamal will be willing to train the Dragonborn in Enchanting.

Journal

Speak to Degaine – T01Intro
ID	Journal Entry
10	Objective 10: Speak to Degaine
Steal the statue – T01DegaineFavor
10	Degaine the beggar has asked me to steal a chalice form the Temple of Dibella in Markarth. Objective 10: Steal the statue in the Temple of Dibella
20	Objective 20: Bring the statue to Degaine
The Heart of Dibella – T01
60	To appease the priestesses of Dibella, I have agreed to find the young girl who will be their next Sybil. It's been prophesised that she lives in the village of Karthwasten, to the north of Markarth. Objective 60: Find the future Sybil of Dibella
70	To appease the priestesses of Dibella, I have agreed to find the young girl who will be their next Sybil. The girl must be rescued from the Forsworn who have kidnapped her. Objective 70: Rescue Fjotra from the Forsworn
80	Objective 80: Bring Fjotra to the temple
100	Objective 100: Pray at Dibella's Altar
200	After offending the priestesses of Dibella, I paid for my offense by rescuing their new Sybil from the Forsworn. Quest complete
205	I stole a statue from the Temple of Dibella and sold it to the beggar Degaine. Quest complete
210	Quest failed

Trivia

• It is possible to start this quest without having the Dibella Statue removed from the inventory, or made inaccessible by using physics grab (hold the Activate button) to move the statue near the walls behind the area where the monks are originally communing.
• Hamal's dialogue, upon being caught, is different for both genders. If a female Dragonborn, she will state that "the uninitiated" are not allowed in the inner sanctum, and that a "period of servitude" is the normal punishment. If a male Dragonborn, she will state that men are not allowed within the sanctum, and that a "quick death" is the normal punishment.
• It is possible to approach the Broken Tower Redoubt from the hill behind it, and then drop down onto the ledge. In this way, one will only have to fight the Forsworn on the ledge to get to the Briarheart, and the other four when leaving with the Sybil, instead of going through the whole complex. Doing so will mark Broken Tower Redoubt as a cleared area, despite there still being Forsworn present.
• It is also possible to still do the quest and get the money from Degaine. Just go back into the Inner Sanctum and talk to Hamal.
• Hamal will talk about the Agent of Dibella blessing differently, based on what gender the player character is. If female, she will state that the blessing will make her more appealing to men, while if a man, Hamal will state that the blessing "is not normally given to a man," but will make this one exception, as well as stating that the blessing will make it easier for "wooing women."
• When told by Hamal to go prostrate themselves before Dibella's altar, the animation shown actually does not have the player laying down, but rather sort of crouch before the well.
• If "The House of Horrors" is started and Logrolf the Willful is imprisoned in Broken Tower Redoubt as well, he and Fjotra will be found in the same cell, allowing the player to rescue them simultaneously.

Bugs

This section contains bugs related to The Heart of Dibella. 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 see the list of bugs encountered

PC   360   PS3   Hamal sometimes suffers from "lightning fast dialogue," the same bug that has been noticed with Esbern, causing Hamal and the priestesses to attack the player. Avoid this situation by entering the Inner Sanctum using a key pickpocketed from Senna, instead of picking the lock. Using the Scroll of Harmony can prevent any of the priestesses from attacking, and Hamal can be talked to normally. Reloading from a previous save works occasionally as well.  PC   360   PS3   When the Sybil leaves after the quest finishes, she re-locks the expert lock on the inner sanctum door, possibly trapping the Dragonborn. Waiting will eventually cause the door to unlock.  PC   360   Occasionally, Enmon will "forget" who the Dragonborn is during the escape from Broken Tower Redoubt, causing him to repeat his typical lines about not talking to outsiders. Despite this, he will still accompany the player as if he were a follower.  360   The Dragonborn must talk to Degaine and receive the miscellaneous quest "Steal the statue in the Temple of Dibella" before picking the lock to the Inner Sanctum and getting caught by the priestesses and Hamal. If they are caught by the priestesses then try to go talk to Degaine to receive the quest, the quest dialogue will not show. If the Dragonborn speaks to Degaine and accepts the miscellaneous quest to steal the statue, then goes to the Silver-Blood Inn and asks the innkeeper about work and rumors, he will give a quest objective to "Speak to Degaine." Since the quest has already been started, this objective cannot be cleared, and will remain in the quest log. If this happens to you before going to the temple, the objective will be cleared upon beginning the temple quest.  360   If Degaine is killed (such as from a dragon attack), this quest can still be initiated by entering the Inner Sanctum with a key stolen from Senna. When either of the two priestesses attending the rites performed by Hamal sees the Dragonborn, they will approach and give the Dragonborn a choice of either speaking with Hamal, or fighting. The statue is actually a part of a separate miscellaneous quest given by Degaine. There is a glitch where, when going to search for the Sybil in Karthwasten, the town will be empty aside from one guard next to the mine. Loading from an earlier save and restarting the game does not appear to fix this glitch. This can be fixed on the PC by using the recycleactor command in the console, the IDs for the town characters are: 00019931, 00019932, 00019933, 00019934, 00019935, 00019936, 000622E7  PS3   It is possible for Enmon to be killed during a dragon attack before the quest appears in the user's journal. The quest can still be completed by heading to Broken Tower Redoubt and talking to Fjotra in the tower's cell. The Forsworn Briarheart may not have the key to the jail cell. This may happen if Broken Tower Redoubt has already been visited. If both "The Heart of Dibella" and "The House of Horrors" quests are activated, and if one goes directly to the Broken Tower Redoubt without having talked to Enmon, Fjotra and Logrolf the Willful will be found in the same cell. Once the cell is opened and Fjotra has been spoken to, she will follow the Dragonborn. However, the quest objective Find the new sybil of Dibella will stay unachieved; thus, the quest will be impossible to complete, even once Fjotra has been taken back to the Temple of Dibella in Markarth. However, the Dragonborn will still receive the Agent of Dibella active effect.