Oblivion:Cheydinhal Recommendation

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Contents 1 Quick Walkthrough 2 Detailed Walkthrough 2.1 Cheydinhal Mages Guild 2.2 You're Gonna Need A Bigger Feather 2.3 Falcar's Tantrum 2.4 Falcar's Secret 3 Notes 4 Bugs 5 Journal Entries

Recover a lost ring to obtain a recommendation from Cheydinhal. edit Quest Giver: Falcar at the Cheydinhal Mages Guild Location(s): Cheydinhal Mages Guild Reward: Cheydinhal Recommendation and a Buoyancy spell Fame/Infamy: Fame +1 ID: MG02Alter

The Cheydinhal Guild

[edit] Quick Walkthrough

1. Speak with Falcar, a bitter old Mage who asks you to find his Ring of Burden that was recently lost.
2. Go see Deetsan to obtain a key to the outside well and a Buoyancy spell.
3. Dive into the well and search around for the ring.
4. Return to the Guild and speak with Deetsan again to learn some dramatic news.
5. Search where you are told for your recommendation, you find something quite incriminating,
6. Speak once again with Deetsan, she will write your recommendation for you.

[edit] Detailed Walkthrough

[edit] Cheydinhal Mages Guild

Speak to Falcar in the Cheydinhal Mages Guild for a recommendation. He wants you to find a Ring of Burden an apprentice recently lost. He suspects it was thrown down the guild well and says you'll need a key to get in; a fellow Guild member, Deetsan, has the key. When you speak with Deetsan make sure Falcar is not in the room. You'll learn you're not the first one to get this task from Falcar. It seems a previous Associate, Vidkun, disappeared while trying to find the ring. Deetsan will give you the Well Key and a Buoyancy spell to help, saying it seems that Falcar is trying to get you killed. Note that Deetsan will not talk to you about it if Falcar is nearby, so simply wait for a few hours until Falcar either goes to sleep in his basement bedroom, or is in another part of the guild hall.

[edit] You're Gonna Need A Bigger Feather

The well is just behind the guild. Create a save point before entering the well because there is a bug if you should drop the ring. Note that when you go down the well you'll be completely underwater. Use the Buoyancy spell Deetsan gave you or a similar Water Breathing spell. There is no need to worry about this if you are an Argonian. Also, if you have completed the quest Go Fish and received the Jewel of the Rumare or found the hidden helmet Fin Gleam you have no worries as they both grant the wearer constant water breathing. The well itself is small, and you'll find poor Vidkun's body inside with the ring, strangely floating rather than "burdened" to the bottom. The ring weighs 150 lbs, so be sure you have at least that much spare if you want to carry it. You could also cast a Feather spell on yourself to lessen the weight, Deetsan's Buoyancy spell feathers an amazing 5 lbs (otherwise you may end up like Vidkun). Another option is to go into Falcar's room in the basement and take the feather potion off his desk. Or, you can simply drop the ring into the water right after you get it from Vidkun's corpse. You do not need to bring it back to continue the quest. If you do want to bring it back, you can drag it back without actually picking it up until you reach the exit, then pick it up and leave. The map marker inside the well is rather confusing as it points to a wall. This can cause many people to be searching the floor for hours. Look up on the roof and you will find the body.

[edit] Falcar's Tantrum

When you return, Falcar is nowhere to be seen; so speak with Deetsan, and tell her that Vidkun is dead. Falcar, it seems, got quite mad when Deetsan told him that she had helped you, and when she threatened to report him to the council of mages, he yelled some nonsense and stormed out of the guild. Deetsan says to search Falcar's room to see if you can find your recommendation or anything else unusual.

[edit] Falcar's Secret

Head down to the basement, and search Falcar's room. Open the locked drawer (its difficulty is leveled) and find two Black Soul Gems, a sign of Necromancy. There is nothing else to find, so return to Deetsan with the gems. Deetsan will take the two Black Soul Gems and offer to write the recommendation for you herself.

[edit] Notes

• You do not need to leave the well with the ring; you can simply put the ring back, or drop it, after you initially take it. Once you get the quest update, you don't need to bring it to the guildhall to proceed with receiving the recommendation. Be careful not to drop the ring before you receive the quest update.

• The well is very small and contains nothing but a Nirnroot plant and the floating body of Vidkun. So, if you cannot get a feather spell or have insufficient Alteration skill to use the spell given by Deetsan for this task, simply drop all your weapons and armor to give you enough capacity to carry an item with a weight of 150. There are numerous locations inside the Mages Guild where you can leave all your heavy weapons and armor safely for the duration of this task.

• If your Alteration level is too low to cast the the Buoyancy spell, simply drop the ring once you pick it up. Or you can purchase up the cheap "Open Very Easy Lock" spell and cast it repeatedly on any chest or door in the guild. You should get your level to 25 in a very short amount of time.

• It is possible, though difficult, to do this quest without any type of Water Breathing spell. This is useful if you are playing a character with very low Alteration skill, and cannot cast such a spell. Just go into the well, swim as fast as possible to the corpse and activate it, take the ring and wait for a second until the quest window pops up, then quickly activate the corpse and put the ring back on it and swim like mad for the exit. The trickiest part is finding the exit when you're very close to running out of air. Look straight up from inside the well structure to see it.

• If you swim to the left when you first enter the well, you can harvest a Nirnroot plant.

• If you break into Falcar's drawer and steal the black soul gems before you go on the well quest, you will not be able to immediately expose him as a necromancer; you must still go to the well and get the ring. However, you will be able to skip the trip to the basement upon your return.

• You only need to have one of Falcar's Black Soul Gems in your inventory when you talk to Deetsan. However, both soul gems will disappear when the quest finishes, so it is not possible to keep one for your own use after the quest is over.

• The only way to use one of Falcar's Black Soul Gems is to use it before finishing the quest. You can steal them at any time, even before starting the quest (you will need to pickpocket Falcar's key to obtain them before the quest starts). They will be quest items, so you cannot drop them or steal them. But it is possible to fill them with a soul and use them to recharge items, just like regular Soul Gems. Ironically, although they are identified as black soul gems and are considered to be incriminating evidence, they are not really black soul gems; they are only grand soul gems and cannot be used to trap NPC souls. Be careful to only use one, however, because the soul gem will disappear when used to recharge a weapon; if you lose both of them you will never be able to complete the quest (see bugs). Deetsan will still recognize either soul gem if it has been filled with a soul. Falcar's Black Soul Gems will not be accepted as an offering to Vaermina.
  • If you don't want to or cannot pickpocket Falcar, you can wait for him to open the door to his room while going to and from his bed. However, the door will most likely slam shut behind you, still requiring his key to open it to get back out.

• Deetsan does not notice if you have other Black Soul Gems in your possession. She only removes Falcar's gems from your inventory, and does not accuse you of necromancy.

• Prior to finishing this quest, if you overhear some of the other mage NPCs talking to each other, they will discuss how the water has tasted strange lately...assuming they are drawing their water from the mage's guild well, the dead body might be why!

• After completing this quest, the Mages in the other guild halls will sometimes talk about how Deetsan has taken over from Falcar in running the Cheydinhal Guild hall

[edit] Bugs

• If you steal Falcar's Black Soul Gems before the quest starts, it is possible to lose them. It will then be impossible to complete this quest and impossible to gain access to the Arcane University. The soul gems are identified as quest items, and therefore are difficult to lose. However, Falcar's soul gems can still be used as regular soul gems (although only as grand, not black soul gems, see notes) and filled with a soul; once filled, they can be used to recharge a weapon and will then disappear.
  • If you are on the PC, you can fix this problem by entering the console command player.additem 3C7FC 2 to give your character new copies of the soul gems.
  • There are no known ways to fix this bug on the Xbox 360.
  • This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.
• The Black Soul Gems will count as stolen items in your journal. There is no way to get them without having them adding to your stolen statistic; this is the one case where virtuous characters are forced to do something illegal in order to enter the Mages Guild.
  • This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.

• If you enter the well, do not retrieve the ring, then return more than three game days later, Vidkun's body will have disappeared. Without the body it is impossible to get the ring, and, as with the previous quest, impossible to complete the quest. This is fixed with the 1.1.511 patch.
  • Make sure you receive the quest update before you drop the ring. Or you will not be able to find the ring on the floor and you will have to start over from a previous save.
  • If you do have to leave the well, deactivating the quest (choose another quest to be your current active quest) will prevent Vidkun's body from disappearing.
  • On the PC, you can fix this problem by entering the console command player.additem 2E5AC to give your character the ring.

[edit] Journal Entries

Cheydinhal Recommendation (MG02Alter)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
10		I need to get the key to the Cheydinhal Mages' Guild well from Deetsan.
20		I need to enter the well behind the Mages Guild in Cheydinhal to retrieve a Ring of Burden for Falcar. The last person given this task has disappeared; should I learn anything about him, I should speak with Deetsan.
30		I have found the Ring of Burden, and should return it to Falcar.
80		I need to search Falcar's quarters in the Cheydinhal Mages' Guild for any sign of his recommendation letter. If found, it should be given to Deetsan, along with anything unusual.
90		There's no evidence of a recommendation in Falcar's room, but I've found Black Soul Gems. I should take them to Deetsan immediately.
100	0	Deetsan has agreed to send a letter of recommendation to the Arcane University in Falcar's stead.

Notes

• Not all Journal Entries may appear in your journal; which entries appear and which entries do not depends on the manner in which the quest is done.
• Stages are not always in order of progress. This is usually the case with quests that have multiple possible outcomes or quests where certain tasks may be done in random order.
• If an entry is marked as "Finishes Quest" it means the quest disappears from the Active Quest list, but you may still receive new entries for that quest.
• On the PC, it is possible to use the console to advance through the quest by entering setstage quest stage. Where quest is the internal name of the quest, and stage is the number of the stage you wish to complete. It is not possible to un-complete (i.e. go back) quest stages. See SetStage for more information.

Next: There are seven Mages Guild recommendation quests that can be completed in any order: Anvil Recommendation Bravil Recommendation Bruma Recommendation Cheydinhal Recommendation Chorrol Recommendation Leyawiin Recommendation Skingrad Recommendation Once all seven are completed, your induction into the Mages Guild is completed by: A Mage's Staff