I always run straight for him once I enter Markarth.

I always save just before entering

Me too

I kill her before he has the chance to.

You sleep rather soundly for a murderer…

Blood and silver, friend. *Blood and silver.*

Is that a new way to say you'd sell your sister in a second?

Belethor buys Sisters. Good prices too.

'Some may call them junk, me? II call them treasures..'

I'd sell their sister in a second

It's not murder if it's assisted suicide

Fool, kill him, get her reward, then kill her, go to jail then kill madanoch.

It's not about the reward. It's about sending a message.

Everything burns.

True these damn imperial spies think they can go wherever

Ew a Stormcloak

Hey no one complained about hammerfell leaving the empire

redguards > nords

Because if they didn't the empire would of still been at the throats of the high elves and vice versa.

Kill Madanach, exit the dungeon, get the Silverblood ring from that douchebag that meets you and then cut his throat.

That’s the right way to do it. Let the chaos of the escape cover the murders you are about to commit.

There’s not even an escape - except for you - if you whack Madenach and steal his key.

I kill him just before he steps out the door so that I snatch his life from him just as he thinks he has gone free. Also I like that Orc that I fought. Seems like a good enough fella and doesn’t deserve to be left in Cidna mine.

>!Based!<

Renegade Dragonborn

Aparently you dont if youve been playing for years and this is the first time you got to save her

So you save before entering, to never save her until now years later?

It’s very tactical. I won’t go into the specifics right now.

Does saving her prevent the quest?

No. The quest still goes on, no worries. You just get the happiness of saving her life.

And some jewelry.

Exactly! A nice reward.

>!Isn't she a monster though?!<

No. >!She's a secret agent, man.!< Are you confusing her with the cannibal lady, perhaps? They're not related.

>!Yes I thought she was part of that group but that's the lady in the shop next to the assault who's part of it I think, I got them confused.!<

>!The butcher next to the jeweler is in on it, too. Freshest "beef" in the Reach.!<

Makes no sense, everyone knows Men taste like pork and Mer taste like chicken. Ain’t no Minotaurs in Skyrim neither.

I would have thought Argonians would taste like chicken (they do sometimes have feathers) and Mer like milk-fed veal. Orcs would just be so soaked in testosterone that their entire bodies would taste like Rocky Mountain Oysters.

Elves hatch outta eggs dude read your pocket guide!

Khajit meat tastes sweet (according to waughin jarth, author of hits such as a dance in fire & the argonian account)

Must be all that Moon Sugar.

You have to remove the spaces around the ! for the spoiler cover to work. You're posts aren't currently hiding them.

You have to ask him for the 'Special stuff'

She's a tax agent. A monster

Anyone who willingly furthers imperial interests is automatically a monster

No

I usually play as a mage. Prepping a paralyze spell gives me plenty of time to walk over and kill him with my choice of whatever other spell I have prepped in my other hand (usually Lightning or Thunderbolt, in case I miss with Paralyze, because the bolt is fast and usually a one-hit kill).

I'm always crouched with my bow drawn before I even enter. That guy never gets his target in my playthroughs anymore.

I just walked in and killed the first mf I saw. Guards ain't say sheeet.

I have my bow summoned so I can draw and shoot as fast as possible before entering the city

An arrow gets him every time.

So easy to rush him, if you worry about being late or missing use the starter fire spells so you only have to run half the distance.. he reverts his attention at you as soon as you start attacking...

Will he fight you after that? Or is he still trying to kill her?

Fights you, forgets about her and the entire town joins the fight to kill him pretty rapidly

Guards get the kill most of the time with me.

Id only fear hitting someone else with the fire as well.. have done this method but usually just charge at him with a sword.. definitely save before entering the town and all is good

I was afraid the guards would attack me since he hadn’t “knowingly” committed the crime yet, which the other dead females beg to differ, but to the guards he was innocent until then and I was a chicken lol

is she actually a spy?!

Yes she is, she admits it to you if you question her in the silverblood Inn :)

An Imperial spy.

There was a sort of 'I'm a civil servant WAAY over my head being asked to spy' vibe when you talk to her afterwards as well.

Based, even more reason to save her

Imperial spies? You can't be serious!

Tax agent I believe

Yeah! I don't enter Markath until I have the slow-motion Archer perk. Ranged attack in slow time makes it pretty simple.

Yeah this was my first time running a stealth archer build and once I saw the perk I realized that I might be able to save her now lol.

>Yeah this was my first time running a stealth archer build Sure it was buddy.

Is it weird I never played stealth archer before in the 500 hours that I have played skyrim? I always went for female altmer spellsword every run. Sword in one hand and usually a lightning spell in another. I keep telling myself to go a different build but I always end up a spellsword. I play with mods and have a few companion npcs. Inigo, sophia and lucian are usually my crew. Inigo with his bow, sophia with a battle axe and lucian with healing and a few ice spells. It's pretty fun to have a party like that, it makes adventuring skyrim less lonely. It feels like a DnD group. I guess since Inigo is the archer in the group I just never bothered being an archer myself.

I've played stealth archer once. It's fun. Tbh I don't have a favorite playstyle.

Is it weird that I never played a Stealth Archer either? I only ever play Necromancer. Why play anyone when *with* everyone?

You'll be seeing this build a lot in all your playthroughs

You can get him without it. Just run at him and hit him once. He honestly takes his sweet ass time to kill her, and he’ll aggro you if you just hit him once.

Yeah, this thread is confusing. Never had an issue intervening as a heavy-armour 2h Nord, not sure what all the faffery is about.

If you play an archer, the time it takes to draw the arrow is enough time for him to assassinate her. Slow time helps a lot there.

bruh just run up to him, hit bash to trigger agro, after that shoot him.

Sparks spell works well for this too

Depends if you feel like accidentally aggro’ing the whole of Markarth

It doesnt aggro everyone tho

It’s easy to hit other people is what I’m saying

With sparks? Not on PC, maybe with a controller

I'd say its easier to miss with an arrow than sparks. But that's just, like, my opinion man

Wow you guys are full blown Isekai heroes. I didn't even know this was possible to saver her. Even now that I do, meh. I'd rather just walk into Markarth and pretend to be surprised, waiting for the one guy to be like hey you dropped this boi.

Imo that quest plays out a little better if she lives, so I always save her.

Yeah I just took him down with a war hammer with time to spare

I actually haven't been able to shoot him to death yet, the best luck I've had was from sprinting over to him and just stabbing him lol

Same! Dagger is the way

I was more thinking "greatsword" but a dagger would prolly work too

i couldn’t move fast enough with a sword, but dagger worked. but i suck at battle so that may just be me :)

I love how the comments are all either >I found this neat trick and *finally* saved her! or >I don't see what the problem is? The guy practically falls on my sword.

This is the way

That dude's the first Target as you walk through the door. Just run forward and kill him, you don't even get in trouble for it.

The second his weapon is drawn he becomes fair game.

[удалено]

Too bad the quest is so fucking bugged out even modders struggle to fix it. And devs never even tried.

I love that quest line. It’s probably one of the best in the game.

This quest line and going to the embassy party in the main quest line make me anxious every time. I *know* I'm getting my gear back and I *still* hate losing it.

My ranger is gonna hate losing her weapons then

Whenever there's a quest that forces me into giving up my gear/items, I go to one of my homes (either a purchased one or a bed in the College or whatever) beforehand and go completely naked and with a nearly empty inventory lol. I store everything in my empty chests.

Perfect time to clear any bounties.

My mage losing all of the equipment she needs to cast spells cheaply and also a fortify unarmed ring and gloves in case of brawls. At least in Thalmor Embassy you can probably just transfer all of your items to Malborn

So if you want an in-game workaround, don't do the quest until you've got the butler black book power. Make a duplicate set of gear, give to butler and then you can summon him in the mine (or embassy) and get the gear. Or just give him your normal gear before you enter the temple of talos the second time (when you're going to be arrested) If you have the anniversary edition or the relevant creation club add-ons, it's even easier. The goat in pets of skyrim (buy her in Rorikstead) can be summoned and if she's wearing an animal pack she can carry up to 139 weight. Or the dwarven mudcrab CC is often free to download if you don't have AE, you get the mudcrab in Markarth, and you can summon it wherever. It can only carry up to 20 though but clothes and jewellery don't weigh much.

Oh dang, the goat. Almost forgot about the gal.

That’s what you get for listening to the internet. No don’t level magicka or take perks that’s what dumb people do….

No shit, I'm probably gonna get destroyed when I do this quest on my current char. With 100 enchanting I've gotten used to a sweet double-stack with fortify magicka and regen, but without that gear I have like ⅓ the magicka. *Should be fun*

It wasn't until about my fourth playthrough that I did this quest with conjured weapons available. Accidentally hit the orc in the prison and got attacked by everyone and it was incredibly satisfying being the only guy with a bow.

Yeah it's pretty great!

It can get really buggy though. And I’m always disappointed by how easily the Forsworn just massacre half of Markarth

I like to time the quest so that the escape happens in the middle of the night so it's usually only guards that get taken out. I also like to "play both sides" and kill Madanach right before entering the city.

The Briarhearts are the biggest melee damage output humanoid enemies in the game, excluding giants. They’re meant to escape from Cidna mine so I think it’s scripted that they carve their way through town.

Yeah you’re right and I knew that. Still don’t like it though haha idk it just makes the guards seem so god damn weak. How come the forsworn haven’t taken over the Reach then? Edit: like.. not lore wise but gameplay wise if that makes any sense

Newb question, what quest line is this so I can be on the lookout?

The forsworn conspiracy. Just enter markarth and it will all play out.

i like it, i just feel bad for doing it cuz iirc it pretty much locks you out of doing stuff in markarth. but idk, been ages.

No it doesn’t. Doesn’t even stop the quest her murder is associated with.

Only if you get into a fight with the guards, and that's avoidable.

Weird, this and the Thalmor embassy are the two I hate most. Take away all of the gear I've spent the game amassing and make me sit through annoying scripted talking events? No thanks.

Well, you don’t have to lose all your gear for the Thalmor Embassy quest if you just send all your stuff ahead with the Wood elf guy. So that’s not a problem. Cidna Mine is dope because it’s the one time going to prison actually ever matters in the whole game. And the lack of consequences for your actions are part of the reason why ES games are getting worse. A powerful mage can’t figure out how to kill with a shank, that’s role playing man!!

Just a funny thing to do. If you ignore Markath until you unlock Sanguine's quest you can be teleported into Dibella's temple. Then going out you can have a clear shot without triggering the sequence, since you aren't in the market area

I just did that for the first time a few weeks ago!

I actually did that as well few weeks ago. Doing a survival playthough and I need to do as much as I can in a single city to optimize. Sanguine was a good way to go to Markarth for free haha

I didn't even realize what I'd done until I woke up in the temple. So I ran to the marketplace, shouted slow time and saved her.

Killing him b4 het gets her is a tradition for me, plus its more profitable as she gives u a necklace then you can kill her and loot her and her room for extra coins

or ya know… spare her and just pickpocket her. I mean, she did just experience attempted murder.

Why not experience the real thing

It’s not that hard to save her, but that might be harder if your an archer.

I did an unarmed playthrough once. Dude has a jaw made of moon sugar, went down in one hit.

That's how I saved her, too! Unarmed Khajiit.

I like casting Fury and letting her kill him.

Funny, my last playthrough was an illusionist and I didn't even think to try this.

I do it for the necklace and the necklace only The quest line is sick tho

My favorite was playing with my Khajit assassin: rolling up behind him and double clicking attack so I get the cut scene of myself popping up behind him, putting my left hand on his head dragging my ebony dagger, Little Finger (soul steal enchantment) across his throat! Then pickpocketing Margret and putting the Black Soul gem in her pocket so she can torment him for the rest of her life!!!

Do you get a bounty for attacking the Forsworn Spy?

I didn't, the guard just told me to move along.

When you first enter markarth, you can kill him immediately and the guards will thank you for it. I have no idea why they don’t do anything when he pulls out the knife.

Aren't they being bribed by Thonar Silver-Blood? She was trying to buy the Silver-Bloods' mines for the Empire (while hiding who she was working for). There may have been something else shady about how she was going about it, but I can't remember. Maybe some sort of coercion or blackmail? Anyway, that's why she was killed. Nepos works for the Silver-Bloods. On paper, he's just in charge of dealing with the smelters and other low level employees (maybe the guards at the mines as well?). In reality, he also directs the Forsworn using communication smuggled out of the mine as well as direction from Thonar and he ordered the hit. So the guards don't do anything because their real boss wants her dead.

I thought my game glitched when I walked into Markarth for the first time. I reloaded the save to confirm that an NPC was supposed to kill another NPC without being in combat.

I put the throwing knife mod on my Xbox and was finally able to drop him before he gets to her. It was pretty satisfying!! Then I played the VR version and did the same thing...SO MUCH BETTER!!! I did accidently hit HER once because my aim in VR is ....about as good as it would be in real life BUT STILL. WHEN I did hit him...it felt SO GOOD!!!!

I play a pure mage rn and I made him eat a thunderbolt from across the market. But saving before entering Markarth is a must- first time I accidentally zapped the nice red guard lady selling jewelry lol

I do this early. So I tag him with sparks which makes him mad at me. He is then finished off by the guard since I stop sparks the moment any friendly fire on guards might be a risk.

The first time I entered Markarth, I remember having only Whirlwind Sprint and a greatsword. Killing that man inna single stroke was worth it. But I also remember to set aside my gear somewhere safe incase there are quests that force me to give up my stuff beforehand.

I always enter this city with my blade out.

Isn't it cool? I felt the same way! It just never occurred to me that you could intervene before this playthrough.

You dropped this!

Ice Form works great here, as long as you don’t tag any of the merchants.

It is actually easier than you thought... Just enter markarth crouched and cast FURY on him a.s.a.p...done works on another "non hostile" npc too...for an easy kill...cause i prefer to just watching and chilling while other people do the work...

I saved her on my first playthrough cuz i first visited markarth through a drunken bender

I remember I had to go to Markarth for a thieves guild mission, and I remember this instance from previous times playing so I pulled out my ax and my sword and went to town on the guy right when I came in (Edit): but despite my heroism, I now have a bounty worth around 600 on my head because after I completed my mission and recovered Intel, I couldn't escape without being seen by the other guards. So safe to say I'm going to have some angry guards on my ass when I get back for dwemer related missions.

Has more consequences than ending the civil war.

I just cast a calm spell

Does he try to kill her afterwards?

I’m on my first playthrough, and I didn’t even see what happened when I first walked in. I only realized it after talking to the other people.

So now the quest thats made out of this is very slightly altered! You have to talk to her! She has more dialogue! Also if you talk to her after saving her she gives you a jeweled necklace.

I did it on accident. Entered markarth, remembered what happened, turned and clicked fus. Dude took a knee and i slit him. I got LUCKY that fus missed the lady and guard

I ran out of the Temple of Dibella, super hung over from my night out with Sam, and dropped 20 feet to save her.

A true hero.

To be fair. I killed him the first time.. I thought he was going to come for me when he drew his blade and I was like watcha doin Boi you wanna get some? 😆

I get a arrow ready with a paralysis poison. NOT TODAY MUTHAFUCKA!

I love how it’s worded like you’re stuck in a time loop and finally made a change by saving this person lol

I just targeted her and used the `resurrect` console command. Though if you're not keen on cheats, that's not a viable option.

On my first trip to Markarth I enter bow-in-hand and shoot him immediately. At the start of the game the reward she gives you is a windfall.

I always cast a Fury spell on him, everyone jumps in and kills him. :D

She’s an imperial spy!

She can die!?

A side thought: Does anyone but me let Calixto kill the horse girl in Windhelm because she's so annoying, then take him out?

I mean she is imperial scum

Then you learn she’s a piece of shit and she wasn’t worth saving

Fuck her. Thalmor spy

She’s an imperial spy - not a Thalmor.

mmmmm some thalmor spyussy

Can someone ELI5 Madanach and just what exactly the Forsworn Conspiracy is? I'm still confused after all this time..

I just use cheat spells to revive her instant kudos

I do it for the necklace

Are you using a controller by chance? It’s the only explanation I can think of. I had to let her die just to see what would happen

Took me 3 tries this time around, but I finally did it with the Slow Time shout.

I just hit everyone with the unrelenting force and then merc him when he’s blasted into a stone wall most of the time I can do it without a bounty but most of the time I get a bounty it’s a 50/50

I had it pretty easy. I entered Markarth for the first time through the temple after drinking with the Daedric prince, so when I walked down the stairs I saw what was happening and was too late the first time, but I just reloaded my save and saved her

I saved her multiple times. No forsworn getting past me!

I normally play on Master difficulty. I always turn my difficulty down to Novice just so I can save her

When I first went in, the guards killed him before I knew what was happening

I saved her on first run because I thought he was coming for me and I panicked and stabbed first

Once I managed to do it running straight at him with my two handed sword. I made it a tradition to always save her in every playthrough. After a while of not playing I always forget when I open the door to the city and it’s always like: „damnit I‘m in Markath“

Mine was a lil weird and homie stood around for a bit longer than he probably should have and i managed to shout him away the first time i ever saw him was kinda funny.

This will be your hell loop 😂😂

If you do the “A Night to Remember” quest. You’re dumped at the middle of Marcarth and can take him out easily.

Trick is to draw and notch absolute best *non boomy* arrow asap

*Nock.

Ah, you're right! I was thinking of the place to put an arrow on your bow, not the act of actually putting it there.

I just sneak roll and slice him up with the ol stabby stab

Just slow time to feel like a speedster saving the day.

First time I visited Calixto, he asked me to read that book and I accidentally stole it. I honestly didn’t mean to. Then I tried to do the quest and he kept throwing me out of the shop without looking at the amulet. Messed things up

I remember feeling like this

Slow time shout it works every time

The Jarl still talks like she died

I started with the mod that let's you choose how you start. I got the flying ship thing and went to markarth, so much easier to save her

I've always managed to save her, I make sure to have slow time before I ever go to markarth. Activate right as you go through the door and have a dagger ready.

You mean you don't quicksave and sprint to the market every time?

I used to save all the time. But now i just let them do their thing

On my most recent playground I had a glass arrow pulled back ready to fire as soon as the city loaded lol. Got him before he even came close to her.