Oblivion:Mephala

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Contents 1 Quick Walkthrough 2 Detailed Walkthrough 2.1 Location 2.2 Mephala's Task 2.3 House Wars 3 Notes 4 Bugs 5 Journal Entries

Start a feud between two prominent families. edit Quest Giver: Mephala at Mephala's Shrine (map) Location(s): Mephala's Shrine, Bleaker's Way Reward: Ebony Blade Fame/Infamy: Fame +1 ID: DAMephala Required Items: Nightshade Required Level: 15

Shrine of Mephala

[edit] Quick Walkthrough

1. Travel to the Shrine of Mephala, and make an offering of nightshade as Dredena Hlavel tells you to.
2. Activate the shrine with the offering, and you are given the task of killing the leaders of two prominent families.
3. Once they are dead, plant evidence suggesting the deaths were the product of house warring.
4. Return to the shrine for your reward of the Ebony Blade.

[edit] Detailed Walkthrough

[edit] Location

See the oblivion map for the location of this shrine. It is located in the Great Forest, east of the Silver Road, halfway between where it meets the Orange and Red Ring Roads.

The location of this Shrine can be marked on your map by:

• Speaking to Ontus Vanin about "Daedric shrines"; you must have already read Modern Heretics or have spoken with Ulene Hlervu about "Cheydinhal".
• Speaking to Luther Broad about "Imperial City"; you must raise disposition to 60.

[edit] Mephala's Task

You need to be at least level 15 to start this quest. Talk to the Dunmer there, Dredena Hlavel. Request an audience and she will tell you to make an offering of nightshade between midnight and dawn; places where it can be found are detailed on the Nightshade article. Once you have some nightshade activate the shrine. Mephala wants you to go to Bleaker's Way and kill the leaders of the two prominent families there. Her exact dialogue is:

Call me 'Webspinner'. Pluck but a single thread, and the weave unravels. In Bleaker's Way, two families, Nord and Dunmer, live in perfect harmony. But beneath the surface lurks the secret seed of strife. Kill the leaders of the two families. Plant evidence to implicate the other family as the killer. And don't get caught. Be cunning. Don't spoil my scheme. And don't die... that would spoil everything. Ha-ha-ha-hah!

The leaders are Hrol Ulfgar and Nivan Dalvilu. After killing them you are supposed to plant evidence making it look like the other family was responsible for the murder.

[edit] House Wars

When you first get to Bleaker's Way, you need to find the fake evidence. Inside Nivan Dalvilu's house you will find a Dalvilu ceremonial dagger, located on a low table to the right of the entrance; this dagger should be planted on Hrol Ulfgar's body after you've killed him. In Hrol Ulfgar's house you will find an Ulfgar family ring, located next to a Guide to Leyawiin on a table near the base of the attic stairs; the ring should be planted on Nivan Dalvilu's body also after you've killed him. Wait in their houses until they come home, and kill them. Plant the evidence listed above. Before returning to Mephala's shrine, talk to any of the Dalvilu or Ulfgar family members about Hrol Ulfgar or Nivan Dalvilu to plant the seeds of animosity. Once that is done, the families will openly attack each other until one of the families has been destroyed.

Return to the shrine to receive the Ebony Blade, a one-handed blade with Silence and Absorb Health enchantments. Mephala will congratulate you:

Well done, little webspinner. Is there a prettier sight than friends at war? Take pleasure in the strife you have caused, mortal. Savor the divine essence of a well-spun plot. And here's a little needle to help you stitch your own tangled tapestries.

[edit] Notes

• If you don't want to get your hands dirty, you can try to entice bandits or creatures to follow you into town. It's best to do this in the evening when there are no other villagers outside. If neither man is outside, run into their homes. Their doors should be unlocked if it's early enough in the evening. Otherwise, you'll have to pick the locks. The hostile should follow you in. If it gets killed, you'll have to find another one to continue. There should be some bandits on the nearby Silver Road.
  Avoid harming the hostiles or they may not engage Hrol or Nivan. If you have good stealth or acrobatics skills, you should be able to easily evade the creature or bandit once they've disposed of the two men.
• An alternative to the above, provided you have mastered Illusion, is to frenzy the clan leaders into attacking each other. It's a bit tricky of course, but rather fun, since this is what you are trying to stage in placing incriminating "evidence" on the bodies of the fallen.
• Killing both family members with a poisoned apple doesn't count as a murder either - provided your sneak skill is high enough, reverse pickpocket a poisoned apple into the inventories of both family members and wait for the message telling you that both have been killed.
• If you've already obtained the Sanguine Rose reward from Sanguine, you can use its power to summon Daedra to kill both men on your behalf. Evade any attacks until the summoned Daedra have done your dirty work for you and you will not be marked as a murderer for your involvement. Alternatively, if you have completed the Vaermina quest, you can use the Skull of Corruption on your victims. The copies created will commit the murders instead of you.
• If you want to invest in every store in Cyrodiil, you should ensure that you have already invested with the Bleaker's Way innkeeper, Kirsten Ulfgar. Even if she survives the battle you will be unable to trade or invest with her afterwards.
• In the German version of Oblivion Dredena Hlavel tells you to offer "Nachtschatten", but such a plant does not exist. It is a translator's error: Nightshade (literally translated as "Nachtschatten") is named "Tollkirsche" in the German version.
• There are a couple of possible ways to fail this quest:
  • If you are caught committing a crime in Bleaker's Way (i.e., if you are caught breaking into one of the family's houses). If you commit a crime there before starting this quest, you will not be allowed to even start the quest.
  • If everybody in Bleaker's Way dies
• It is impossible to keep the Dalvilu Ceremonial Dagger or the Ulfgar Family Ring if you complete the quest. Once the items are placed in the dead bodies, they are removed from the game via script.
  • They are initially flagged stolen, but unlike most quest items, can be fenced and bought back to clear the flag.
  • These items cannot be duplicated by the scroll/arrow glitch. More unusually, the Skull of Corruption method does not work either - putting these items a unique category along with Umbra, Wabbajack, and the Skull of Corruption.

[edit] Bugs

• If you go back to Bleaker's Way after you completed the quest and kill the remaining family members, you'll still get a message that everybody in Bleaker's Way died and that you've spoiled Mephala's scheme.
  • This bug can be very useful to XBox360 and PS3 players who have no access to the command console and have been unintentionally disqualified from Hermaeus Mora's quest by failing Malacath's or Namira's quests. When the erroneous quest update happens, the counter used to track completed Daedric shrine quests to determine when Hermaeus Mora's should start is incremented for a second time, thus will make up for a missing quest. So, if either Malacath's or Namira's have been failed, simply complete Mephala's quest properly and get the reward if this hasn't already been done, then return to Bleaker's Way and murder all remaining residents until the "spoiled Mephala's scheme" journal update appears, and Hermaeus Mora's quest will then be available.
  • This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.
• Sometimes, if you kill either leader and plant evidence too quickly, the game will act as though the evidence wasn't planted; this can be remedied by simply removing the evidence, and re-planting it

[edit] Journal Entries

Mephala (DAMephala)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
5
10		Mephala's followers have told me that, in order to summon the Daedra, I must first leave an offering of nightshade at her statue between midnight and dawn. [You must be level 15 to begin this quest.]
20		Mephala has told me about the settlement of Bleaker's Way. She would like me to kill the leaders of the two families, and leave evidence that the murders were done by the other family. I am to allow no one to see me commit the crimes.
30		I have learned Nivan Dalvilu is the head of the Dalvilu family, and Hrol Ulfgar the leader of the Nordic clan.
40		I have found a Dalvilu ceremonial dagger. This might be useful to leave as evidence.
50		I have found the Ulfgar family ring. This might be useful to leave as evidence.
60		I have killed Nivan Dalvilu. I should leave something in his corpse to implicate the Ulfgar clan.
65		I have left the Ulfgar family ring in the corpse of Nivan Dalvilu.
70		I have killed Hrol Ulfgar. I should leave something in his corpse to implicate the Dalvilu clan.
75		I have left the Dalvilu dagger in the corpse of Hrol Ulfgar.
80		I've placed evidence on both bodies of the family leaders. Now I must tell someone I saw them attack each other.
85		I reported the 'attacks' on the family leaders. Soon the families will be at each other's throats. Now I must return to the shrine of Mephala.
90		I've been detected committing a crime in Bleaker's Way. I will not be able to continue my task for Mephala.
100	0	Mephala was pleased with the strife I have caused. She has rewarded me with the Ebony Blade.
105	0	Mephala was disappointed in my failure.
110	0	Something I did in Bleaker's Way apparently spoiled Mephala's schemes, so she refused my offering.
115	0	By killing everyone in Bleaker's Way, I've spoiled Mephala's scheme, and spoiled any chance of gaining her favor.

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.