Spoilers: Mythic Dawn Infiltration Quest

[Joyntsun]

Thought I would go to the forums for this one:

I'm at the Mythic Dawn infiltration mission, where you are trying to find the stolen Amulet of Kings and end up needing to steal the Mysterium Xerxes book.

I'm level 23 abouts, a thief. I've tried this mission every way possible. I wanted to do the infiltration method, like the quest kind of leads you to do, but it seems impossible. Either way, you end up fighting 6-8 dudes with just a crappy knife. Refuse to sacrifice the guy? 6-8 dudes with a knife. Free the guy? 6-8 dude, knife. Steal the book? Too many dudes and a knife. And I'm guessing you never get your items back after they are confiscated (I've tried leaving them at home before the quest too).

You can't steal your items or money back from Harrow. You can't get into the storage area before you end up fighting all the cult members (which I'm guessing is inevitable), because your lockpicks are stolen. Maybe I can buy an open lock spell to use but... What's the point of infiltrating the shrine to steal the book if you end up just laying waste to everyone inside? It seems like the only viable option is to kill them all before they take all your items because 1. You end up killing them all anyways, so your infiltration ruse is pointless really, 2. is VERY difficult to kill them all without your items, and just with the sacrficial dagger available to you.

The game is awesome up to this point, but unless I am missing something this quest is set up pretty poorly and it compromises the game's immersion into story and "player freedom." Also for how difficult it is, the difficulty curve of the game goes up REALLY fast here.

TLDR: Am I missing something here? Do I just need to level up so the fight against 6-8 cult members with just a knife is possible? At this point I guess I'm willing to just load up on a bunch of health potions and obliterate them, but I like the infiltration/story way better.

I could MAYBE understand the game writers purposefully putting in a quest that forces you to lose your items to kind of "mix it up a bit" and force you to acquire new items by further questing but... i dunno. Seems like they could have done that with a deus ex machina mechanic instead.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

You don't need to give them your items. You can just kill them all which is what I usually do.

If you do give them your items, you get your items back later. They are in a chest somewhere towards the end before you leave the cavern.

The easiest way to do it using the hand over all items method is with Umbra or the Honorblade of Chorrol. Both are quest items and so they can not be taken from you permanently. If you use the Hotkeys to bind Umbra or the Honorblade before handing over your items you can use the hotkey to equip either of them even though you can not see them in your inventory. They are still there because they can't be removed.

You can also just use the Knife for the Ceremony to kill Harrow to get your items back. Once you have your items back you can probably just make a run for it. Free Jeelius and grab the book before you do. Only two enemies can leave a zone at a time so once you escape just kill the two that followed you or load the autosave immediately after zoning and that will trap them all inside usually.

If Jeelius manages to survive and escape he will give you some skill boosts at the Temple of ther One.

[Joyntsun]

Thanks for the advice. Some of that sounds like exploits though. I am wondering if there is another way that I can do the quest without dropping all my items in front of Harrow before he asks me to hand them over and then picking them all back up again.

I tried killing Harrow or pickpocketing the key to the storage area where my things are kept. Made sense to me. Either way like 5 cultists are alerted before you can get your things. I just don't think the quest is meant for stealth and I suspect there's no way to do it without "blowing your cover."

I ended up just killing them all from the start. Its kind of funny too because when you enter the part of the shrine where they are doing the ritual in stealth mode, Harrow still follows you around wherever you go even though he can't see you and he's never met you.

I really like the Elder Scrolls games because of the freedom they allow the player, but it looks like there's always going to be a part of a game that doesn't allow you to do what you want to. In Oblivion it's often stressed that playing a thief isn't the same as playing an assassin, what with the stealth mechanics and the thieves guild blood price rules. Did the developers test this part by playing a thief? Didn't they anticipate players trying NOT to blow their cover, especially when the whole quest is set up to have you infiltrate the cult?

Also, with almost every quest so far, an NPC questgiver will hint to when a huge battle is coming up (i.e. "Are you sure you are ready?" and give you an option to prepare). However this quest throws you into a situation where you a forced to take on over five enemies that hit hard without really letting you know to prepare for that adequately. I don't need hand holding, but considering the way the game has gone so far, it seems out of place.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

I'm not sure you can complete the mission as a member of the Red Dawn Faction because at some point you will have to blow your cover because stealing the book is requirred to progress. That means that it is not possible to complete the mission using stealth.

If you choose to kill Jeelius there is a point where you can steal the book after everyone moves further away, but once you steal the book the cults disposition towards you decreases and they will attack you on sight. I'm not sure if you can sneak past them at this point without using Chameleon or Invisible.

Have you tried pickpocketing some of your items back from Harrow? You can also drop lockpicks on the ground before talking to him and pick them up afterwards to unlock some of the chests in the storage area for armor.

If you don't want to drop all your items on the ground you can probably lure an enemy from outside into the cavern and then kill it. Then you can then store key pieces of gear or all of your items inside the body until after you talk with Harrow.

[Nalvarin]

It's actually scripted in the game where you blow your cover, I think. You can't avoid it. You can just agree to scarifice Jeelius, but then proceed to kill everyone else, release Jeelius then grab the book. It is possible to sneak past them but I think you need a high sneak and a chameloen or invisbility spell. Harrow usually has all your items on his body once you kill him. I don't think the quest is able to be completed with stealth, since either way you have to end up fighting. I normally just agree to kill Jeelius, use my chamleon spell to kill everyone in stealth, recover my items, free Jeelius then grab the book before leaving.