You're in the beggining of the Mod. When you first enter the location go through and you'll see a hanged man. Check his body or surrounding locations for a note and then go through the palace until you reach a certain point which will take you to the "memory" where everyone is alive and you do the quest. (Sorry for bad details or directions, it's been about a year since I've played Skyrim)

But why the hell would the jarl ask you to investigate on something he is guilty for ? : ()

Originally posted by Lachance:

But why the hell would the jarl ask you to investigate on something he is guilty for ? : ()

If you're in a position of power and you want to devert suspicion from yourself you would ideally forge evidience and frame someone else. I guess this Jarl was just stupid or something

Okay...
This mod haunts me.
Why did this team only created ONE mod ?

Ok, so i spent 3 days on this incredible mod and could see the best end, thanks to you all.
Here is my contribution (a sumary of this topic at least)
I'm frenchie so forgive my english ; )

I have so much respect for this creation i had more fun in it than in Dragonborn.. so this guide won't tell you everything. It's better to look for clues than reading everything in this topic & guide. Don't, unless you are really stucked. Cause this mod is so good, you don't want to wipe it clean without enjoying it.

* Guide to the Forgotten City *

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD (but you will still have to work your way ; - )
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Rule of the mod -
You can enjoy a nice and thrilling investigation in this "forgotten city", but if you do something bad, then everyone gets killed. The dwarves law says : "all shall suffer for the sin of a one" (or something like this ^^)

But you may break the law, and travel in time to revert your actions.

Every side quest is useful to understand the whole masterpiece this mod is, but you don't have to. It works like a point n'click because you have to look for clues, talking and searching everwhere, thinking about what you discover.
Sometimes it's like Tomb Raider, too.
Sometimes just like good old fights in Skyrim.

Inception + a good point n'click + Tomb Raider + Skyrim = The forgotten City, best narrative mod ever.

WALKTHROUGHS
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The short way -
Just kill the Jarl.
You can escape and ruin the mod in 25 secs. But this would be a shame.
Anyway, you can.

The revenge of Maisi -
Ulric's wife, Maisi, is missing. Go for it Sherlock.
Dooley's quest leads you to discover more about it.
If you free her, you will have a sad ending.
If you tell her husband first, it will be even worse.
You escape with the sex-slave but the city is destroyed.

The golden hero -
Collect the whole set of immaculate dwemer armor.
You will need it to meet the one who pulls the strings, in the abandonned tunnels.
Investigate a lot more, move you ass, and meet the arbiter; then beat him, go back in time, show him his helmet. He will cancel his law. Everyone survives. The city remains untouched and the community becomes happy hippies. You have your home here, Jashol still cleans the place up. Happy end.

(and there might be more : )

As I can find my ending in the width of the internet, I want to share it with you:

So you have to unravel all the little secrets and quest of the city and gather all armour pieces but the chest armour by rykas. But when you find Maisi in the Jarls secret room, let her hang there and don't tell anyone about her.
Then you kill Rykas for the last piece of armour and confront the Arbiter in the underground. With this setup you can convince the Arbiter of ending his law in your first conversation, as you're mentioning his failure in regards of the Jarl and Maisi. The rest is the same as the ending with the helmet.

PS: With this method you will have to time travel only once or zero times, if you lure Rykas in one of the tunnels.

I found a way to take the armor from Rykas without triggering the dwarwen law... All you have to do is wait till he gets to his training at the high path to the ancient palace (by the dwemmer statue). All you have to do is use the unrelenting force shout to knock him from the hight so he kills himself by the fall. ...and then you just take the armour just like he says "from his dead body"

That doesn't trigger the sentinels? Wow, I'm surprised no one else has figured that out

What about taking Rykas to Maisi's location if you don't mind using cheats (I have not tried this please let me know if it works?)

Even still, that's a flaw in the system. Since YOU used Unrelenting Force, YOU killed him. It's just a flaw.

Originally posted by Astartes:

Ahah... I finished it in one shot without even wanting it. I wandered around, talking with almost everyone, making Rikas stop threatning Vernon and then i explored everyone house. But it was already the night so they weren't happy to see me so i just told my self : Well, what if i just explore the underground ?
I found the radiation interesting so i used the ethereal shout to go throught it (i have a low cooldown with my shout so i could do it, thanks to the mod : amazing race tweaks) I found the arbitrer, persuade him to stop his dwarven law and... happy ending. I found later about Metellus and his creppy secret.

Now i'm just sad because i feel like i cheated in a way and i didn't saw the whole potential of this quest...

i did the shout too, but as i enter the Arbaiters chamber the radiation kills me during the conversation.. i also tried to free the dark elfs wife, but he killed the jarl and the explosion blew me back to present and found the lost guy i went in for... strange:)

So I have no clue what is happening. I've gotten to the near-end, where I have killed the Arbiter and leave the Underground Tunnel. I make it to the Lakehouse to use the portal again, and the Jarl comes inside immediately, rather than me having to wait on his arrival. He sacrifices himself, as per usual. I try to go outside, only to find that the hecking Sentinels begin to kill people AGAIN. Not sure if that's supposed to happen or not. If it helps, this happened with the first redo, but it was easily fixed with a reload. This one, not so much. (I apologize if this has been answered before, I looked through all 13 pages and the bugs forum and didn't find anything relative to this situation. I could easily have missed something, though.)

Originally posted by cybervampirekid:

What about taking Rykas to Maisi's location if you don't mind using cheats (I have not tried this please let me know if it works?)

I have tried this does not work without having to go to the lakehouse afterwards.

So i searched the abandoned palace
Where the hell are the gauntlets?

Originally posted by Captain Tastyshakes:

"Ideal" ending strat:
1ST RUN: Go find Dooley's key in the cave, go into the underground tunnels to find the remains, do every little bit of sidequest hoohah you can without making an acusation, including finding Maisi. (But don't release her!) Go into the abandoned palace, hop over the gate using crates to get the Gauntlets and find the old record all in the abandoned palace. (BRING LOCKPICKS UP THE ASS OR HAVE SOME ANTI-LOCK SPELLS DIALED, MAN) Go talk to the sick guy whose name escapes me, grab the boots after watching him die. Go and accuse Rykas, or just shank him. TAKE HIS ARMOR CAUSE HE'S A ♥♥♥♥♥. Run to the portal...

2ND RUN: No ♥♥♥♥-aroundsies; put dat armor on and go into the abandoned tunnels and beeline to the dome. Confront the Arbiter. Don't persuade him, just tell him Meritus ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up or whatever, get him to purge. Kick his ♥♥♥♥♥ ass and take his helmet. Go to the surface, laugh at the apocalypse of your friends who don't know what the hells is going on, go to the portal again...

IF YOU WANT THE, "DO I KNOW YOU," ENDING, simply repeat as above when you get out of the lakehouse but now put in the effort to either convince the Arbiter to ♥♥♥♥ off via persuasion or just show him his own damn head in your pocket. When you get back to the surface, everything is all hunky dory, but nobody knows who the ♥♥♥♥ you are and why you get a magical statue. Do this if you really don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about anybody in town and didn't feel engrossed in anyway during this awesome quest.

IF YOU WANT THE, "WTH HAVE YOU BEEN, BRO," ENDING, once you leave the lakehouse, take the time to repeat all the quests and speak/fetch for everyone so they know you when you leave for your timeline. That means, Find Maisi in BDSM mode, confront Rykas about his red letters, go get the ring downstairs for the interracial couple, give whaserface, the chef, skooma, go shank some lizard ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ underwater, (or don't, but get the key obviously and share it with Dooley you sycophant,) talk to the the ex-shanker and dat barkeep, the wizard punk, all of it. THEN go confront the Arbiter and persuade him or scare him. Boom, you wake up, everybody's like, "Hey how ya been bud?" and its all smiles all around and everything is just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ saccharine for literally everybody except for the Jarl, who got ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lynched.

IF YOU WANT ♥♥♥♥♥ ENDINGS ALPHA THROUGH GAMMA, just ♥♥♥♥ up the JArl by any of these three means. First two methods, go find Dooley's chest and get the key, then go and talk to Maisi. From here, you can release her, and then she will ♥♥♥♥ up the Jarl with some ice. OR go tell her husband and he will go slap a punk to death. OR get your shank on and stick it in the Jarl yourself. ♥♥♥♥ up the JArl, si what I am saying (which means no more looping!) and everyone escapes through the hole blown in the pisser.

Afterwards, you go talk to the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ you were supposed to find in the first place whose name escapes me but is definitely the guy who was hanging 10 when you first came in. If its an ideal ending, he will inadvertently suck your ♥♥♥♥ for how awesome you made the city and how you are a cool guy with a statue and everything, and how you have a ♥♥♥♥ made of pure light and sugar; whether or not the people know you is the only difference. If you aim for ♥♥♥♥♥ though, he will say basically everyone was okay and they took down a ♥♥♥♥ of a despot before escaping, but its too bad that the city got ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up... YOU ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. You might be able to go talk to the arbiter afterwards anyways, I wouldn't know, I felt ♥♥♥♥♥♥ for this ending and immediately reloaded.

: /

This was the bestand funniest Walkthrough Read I've ever read. Thank you, my friend! lol