Guild Quests

Guild quests are the bread and butter of the game. Although you can improve your rep with the Guilds indirectly by completing quests for other factions, the gain is slow and very random (alliances shift at midnight each day).

Each guildhall has a quest giver to test your mettle. A problem reported by some players revolves around being unable to report back after completing a quest (the dialogue launches a new quest rather than closing the old one). The solution is almost always to use the "Get Quest" button rather than the "Talk" button. When you "Talk" to the quest giver, you are dipping into the Merchant/Innkeeper pool of quests. When you use the "Get Quest" button, you are dipping into the pool of Guild quests.

There is no penalty for refusing a quest, so you can keep asking for a quest until you get one that you want. As with other factions in the game, successful completion of a quest will usually raise your reputation with that faction by 5 points (there are a few quests that will raise it by 10) and failure will reduce it by 2 points. Beware of quests that reduce your rep with factions you need.

Fighters Guild Quests

Fighters Guild ("Fighter Trainers" in most desert areas) quests are usually straightforward affairs. In the original version of the game, you should have been able to pick up a couple of artifact quests from them, but the quests were moved to the Knights Guilds with one of the very early patches. Fighters Guild quests can and do improve your rep with the commoners, so if the people aren't talking to you, try completing a few of these to fix the problem. Most of these quests should net you a new dungeon on your map, but it doesn't always work.

Non-Member Quests:

"I got a request to dispose of a giant scorpion..." (any rep): the quest must be completed within the game day, so don't take it unless you can find the house before midnight. Disposing of the critter shouldn't be too much of a problem, but remember that Scorpions cast "Paralyze" each time they hit.

"Seems some poor soul brought home a giant spider's egg that hatched..." (any rep): same as with the giant scorpion. It must be completed before midnight and be prepared for paralyzation.

"...chase off some barbarians..." (any rep): a local house and you have 24 hours to complete it. The Barbarian will be the same level as you, but they have more hit points than any of the other canned classes.

"...too menial for fighters of the guild to accept..." (any rep): a local house is infested with giant rats. There will be about 6 or 7 of them. Don't burn time loitering. Just wait and they will appear for you.

Member Quests:

"Seems there's a loup -- whatcha call your basic werewolf..." (any rep): there are two versions of this quest. Both involve a standard dungeon crawl, but your object could be either a lycanthrope or merely a bear. While infected with vampirism, this quest only turned up a bear for me, but this may just be my system.

"We have a request from a local citizen. Seems a wild animal has gotten into his place..." (any rep): the house is in town and it's either a bear, tiger, spider or harpy. A real quick quest that can be completed in a couple of minutes.

"Some fool left his back door open and a wild animal got in..." (any rep): this one requires traveling to another town. The critter is either a bear or a tiger and you should also get a new dungeon marked on your map.

"I have a relatively menial job..." (any rep): clear the bats/rats out of a local house. This one is a little buggy. You are supposed to get a message when you have killed all of them, but it doesn't pop up on my system. Also, when talking to the guild to close the quest, I get the right dialogue, but no money.

"...a job just came in for some giant-killing..." (any rep): you not only get to fight the giant you were sent to kill, but also a few of his buddies (about 6 or 7 of them) that start appearing when you hit the original target. Teleporting out of the dungeon doesn't do any good except to limit the number of buddies to four or five who appear with you (careful with civilian casualties -- "collateral damage" for the politically correct) and all at the same time. Occasionally you can rescue a merchant who asks to be taken to a store in another town.

"We have a rather interesting job requiring a bit of brains rather than brawn..." (any rep): you need to retrieve a noble's pet tiger from a dungeon. You will be given a bell. When you find the tiger, "use" the bell and then hit the tiger. The tiger will not respond until you have inflicted some damage on it. Be careful that you don't kill it. I find that unequipping a weapon and using my fist on it (or using an Iron Tanto) is the best way to inflict minimal damage. Somewhere in the vicinity of the tiger you should find a dead body with a letter. The body is "too heavy to lift", but turning to the side will usually bring the letter to the top. Report to the noble to collect your gold and find the person mentioned in the letter to collect a magic item.

"I have an important mission that will require the utmost discretion..." (rep 11 or more): this is the infamous Lord K’avar Quest. SAVE THE GAME AFTER ACCEPTING THIS QUEST!!! You should only be able to complete this quest once, but it's a little buggy in this respect. Report to the correct house at the correct time to meet your client. As soon as you leave the house, your client will be killed and you will be given a letter to deliver to Queen Akorithi in Sentinel. You will also get to fight two mages and three or four archers.

There is no way to avoid having your client killed. I have even gone so far as to anchor a "Recall" right in front of Akorithi and then accept the quest and the client still dies as soon as I leave the house (and the Mages now use spells because I'm in a dungeon).

If you take the quest early enough in the day, you should get a letter telling you to meet someone at a local tavern. If you go to this meeting you will be given an amulet that will supposedly protect you from the Necromancers. In reality, if the amulet is in your possession at the time you leave the house, you will be teleported into a random dungeon. The letter is a little buggy, so if you want to get it before meeting the client, activate "fast travel" and it will generate.

OK, your client is dead and you have the letter. You now have a decision to make. You can deliver the letter to Sentinel where you will be rewarded with some gold. You can deliver the letter to Lord K'avar at the palace mentioned in the letter and he will give you a reward (usually a diamond). You can talk to Lord K'avar at the palace, but not give him the letter. This will cause him to disappear and reappear in the dungeon mentioned in the letter. Or you can ignore the whole thing.

In any event, three archers will attach you once or twice per day until the quest is completed or expires. This can be a very good thing because each archer carries goodies, plus the same goodies as all of the other archers before him. By the time two or three weeks have passed, they are literally carrying a ton of goodies. Most of it is junk (leather, chain, iron weapons, etc.), but at high levels, they will be carrying a few really good items. If you are going to try to collect all of it, be aware that the game does not like to keep track of that much stuff and becomes very unstable. I have found that the best way to deal with it is to either sell it all as soon as possible or just pick out the good stuff and let the rest disappear when the body does.

Now for dealing with the quest options.

If you take the letter to Sentinel, Lord K'avar will be arrested, you will get your gold and be sent on your way. A few game weeks later, you will get a message from the queen telling you that K'avar has escaped and she wants you to go track him down and bring him back to justice (you should be able to capture him in this scenario). You get a second reward for doing this.

If you talk to K'avar but do not give him the letter, the queen will ask you to go track him down in the dungeon mentioned in the letter (Castle Necromoghan, if you accept the quest in Daggerfall province). You will not be able to capture him, but it is possible for him to escape if you don't kill him quickly. You will have about 30 days to do this, and you will get the archers every day until the time expires or K'avar is dead. If he escapes, you are supposed to get a message a few weeks later that he is in the dungeon at Wayrest, but this doesn't always work.

If you choose to give the letter to K'avar, you will get a reward and the nightly archers will stop. A few weeks later you will get a message to help him escape from Castle Sentinel before he is executed. He's going to be very difficult to find (Sentinel is a BIG dungeon) and you'll get to fight Spellswords all of the way to the exit. Once out of the dungeon, you need to take him to a contact in another town. He doesn't tell you this, but the town is going to be in the province where you first accepted the quest and the name of the residence is always wrong. You will probably have to run fixsave after getting out of the dungeon in order to deliver him. But on the other hand, because he's still alive, you should be able to complete the quest again.

If you choose to ignore the whole thing, you will get to fight the archers for about a month, but they will quit eventually.

Successfully completing the quest in favor of Queen Akorithi will give you about a 20 point rep boost in Sentinel. By the same token, helping Lord K'avar will give you a 20 point hit to your rep in Sentinel. Since completion of the Oracle quest for the Mages Guild boosts your rep by several points in Sentinel, you can easily repair your damaged rep.

Now for the really fun part. What happens if you accept the quest after completing it the first time (I'm assuming that you killed K'avar)? The answer is "a major headache". K'avar has already been killed, so he will not be at the Palace and will not appear in the dungeon. The only thing you can do in this instance is to immediately deliver the letter to the queen and weather the onslaught of archers. Interestingly enough, Lord K'avar is an NPC in Castle Sentinel. Even after completing the quest, he is still there (a really good trick for a dead guy) and you can still talk to him (he'll even offer you the occasional quest if you let your rep with him zero out again).

"Seems there's this flock of flying carnivores -- harpies..." (rep between 10 and 20): there are five of them. Fortunately there is a fairly easy way to deal with it. Since they appear randomly, a good trick is to clear the area around the entrance and then loiter or rest for a couple of hours. This will usually cause them to start appearing somewhere in your vicinity where you can dispatch them and then wait for the next one. This doesn't always work, so save the game as soon as you enter the dungeon (good advice regardless of the quest).

"There's this pack of giants that want killing..." (rep 20 or more): six giants. The first one is usually in one of the usual quest object locations and the rest appear randomly. Sometimes resting or loitering will cause them to generate, so you can try the same strategy as with the harpies.

"Standard protection job." (rep 21 or more): not so standard. Don't take this quest in your usual hangout because the quest giver won't talk to you for about a month. The client is already dead when you get there and you usually get to fight a few assassins. There is a note with the body directing you to the guy who ordered the assassination. You must go take him out (and his assassin buddies) in order to activate the last part of the quest. This will damage your rep with the Dark Brotherhood. Now you have to wait for a month or so (an in the interim, the quest giver won't talk to you because the quest is still active). At the end of that time you will receive a letter from the daughter of the client asking you to meet her in another town. I t's a trap and you get to fight a few more assassins. Deliver her to her destination and you will be rewarded with a magic item.

"There's this bad critter in <dungeon>, a Daedroth..." (rep 30 or more): standard dungeon crawl, but remember that you need Mithril weapons or better to hit a Daedroth.

"...it's offing a lich in <dungeon> and it only pays ## gold..." (rep 30 or more): standard dungeon crawl, but remember that you need Mithril weapons or better to hit a lich.

"Bit of a rummy domestic squabble..." (rep 30 or more): the husband is a zombie that comes out at night, so you'll need to loiter until he appears, usually about midnight.

"Some woodsmen have hired the guild to kill a Spriggan..." (rep 40 or more): there are two ways to complete this: kill the Spriggan and report back for your reward or try to make peace between the Spriggan and woodsmen. The Spriggan will offer to deal as soon as you inflict damage on it. At higher skill levels and special material weapons, you will probably kill the Spriggan before you have a chance to work a deal.

"A certain merchant needs to have a monster, a gargoyle to be precise, dispatched..." (rep 50 or more): standard dungeon crawl.

"We have a new client who wants someone to hunt down an atronach..." (rep 60 or more): standard dungeon crawl.