Oblivion:Secrets of the Ayleids

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Contents 1 Quick Walkthrough 2 Detailed Walkthrough 2.1 Rival Collector 2.2 Herminia Cinna 2.2.1 Steal the crown of Nenalata 2.2.2 Acquire the crown of Lindai 2.3 Nenalata 2.3.1 The true crown of Nenalata 2.3.2 You gave him the crown of Lindai 3 Notes 4 Journal Entries

Umbacano wants you to try and buy the Crown of Nenalata from a rival collector. edit Quest Giver: Umbacano at Imperial City Location(s): Imperial City, Talos Plaza District, Elven Gardens District, Nenalata, Lindai Prerequisite Quest: Nothing You Can Possess Next Quest: none Reward: 1000 gold; Ayleid Crown of Nenalata or Ayleid Crown of Lindai ID: MS27

The throne room of Nenalata.

[edit] Quick Walkthrough

1. After returning the carving from the High Fane, Umbacano will give you the next assignment.
2. Receive 1000 gold towards "persuading" a rival collector to hand over the crown of the last king of the Ayleids.
3. Proceed to Herminia Cinna's home, and choose whether to steal her crown or retrieve another one.
4. Either way, return to Umbacano with your findings, and he will instruct you to act as his bodyguard at Nenalata.
5. Depending on your actions, you will kill Umbacano and his summoned creatures. After the brawl (or fleeing), make your way out of Nenalata.

[edit] Detailed Walkthrough

[edit] Rival Collector

This quest is obtained from Umbacano after returning the carving from the High Fane to him in the Nothing You Can Possess quest. Umbacano tells you that this is a bit different from what he's had you doing before, but still thinks you might succeed where others have failed. A rival collector of Ayleid artifacts has obtained the crown of the last king of the Ayleids, and Umbacano wishes to own it. The collector, Herminia Cinna, refuses to sell it to Umbacano, and he is hoping you can convince her to sell it to you. He gives you some gold (1000 septims) to purchase the crown, and tells you that you can keep whatever you do not spend (possibly encouraging you to steal it).

[edit] Herminia Cinna

Go find Herminia Cinna; she lives in the Elven Gardens District. Upon talking to her, you will find that she refuses to sell you the crown. However, she does offer you an alternative. Herminia thinks that Umbacano has an ulterior motive in obtaining the crown. It has some minor magical powers of its own, but she believes it also has control of some other magic that Umbacano wishes to possess, and she believes it is for the best if he does not acquire it. Herminia explains that the Ayleid society was not a unified nation, but rather it was comprised of individual city states. Nenalata was known as the last kingdom simply because it lasted a few hundred years longer than the others, and Herminia thinks that if you brought Umbacano the crown of another Ayleid king, he wouldn't be able to tell them apart. She has already thought about the matter, and wishes you to obtain the royal crown of Lindai. She gives the key to the royal tomb of Lindai and shows you where it is located (a bit east of Chorrol; a map marker is given). You are now given two choices: steal the crown of Nenalata from Herminia's house, or go get the crown of Lindai from the ruins. This leaves you with two options.

[edit] Steal the crown of Nenalata

(Note: With this option, you will get better loot: both crowns are kept, the Nenalata crown is now better and not tagged as stolen anymore, all you need to do is loot the Dead Umbacano of his crown, and go get the Crown of Lindai from the other tomb, you should still have the key. This way, you keep both crowns!) Break into Herminia's house, make your way up to her bedroom and you'll find the crown in an Ayleid cask. You can either pick the lock on the Ayleid cask (Hard lock) or pick the lock on her desk (also a Hard lock) to obtain the key to the Ayleid cask. (For spellcasters, there is no difference between the two Hard locks; for lockpickers, the desk is the easier of the two.) Once you give the crown to Umbacano he looks it over, recognizes it as the crown and asks you to guard him as he delves into the ruins of Nenalata.

[edit] Acquire the crown of Lindai

Travel to the ruins of Lindai and delve deep into the ruins. Eventually, you'll find the crown near the end of the tombs. The crown itself is light armor with a few useful magical abilities. Return to the Imperial City and give the crown to Umbacano. He'll comment that the markings aren't quite as one of his reference books describes, but he mistakes it for the real artifact anyway. He now has one more task for you, which is the same as the end of the first option; travel to the ruins of Nenalata and act as his bodyguard.

[edit] Nenalata

Umbacano will meet you there in three days time, and he wishes you to escort him to the throne room. Nenalata is located where Silverfish River meets Niben Bay; you should have a map marker showing the exact location. (It is advisable, although not necessary, to arrive ahead of Umbacano, go in alone and clear out the ruins early so as to avoid the risk of Umbacano dying.) The ruin is populated with undead, mostly skeletons and a few ghosts, although it scales with your level. There are three levels to the ruins, so go ahead and clear out all three. Even though it won't be three days, you should find Umbacano waiting outside along with his other bodyguard, your old friend Claude Maric (that is, if you didn't kill him during the previous encounter). If you speak to Claude, he doesn't bear you any ill will and hopes you hold no hard feelings either; the incident was just business. Escort Umbacano all the way down to the throne room. There is a rectangular receptacle on the wall, and Umbacano will place the carving you recovered from the High Fane there, which opens the door to the throne room. Umbacano will walk to the throne, talking about how now he can begin to reclaim their ancient birthright, sit on the throne and recite a few words of power in the elven tongue. From this point, the outcome will vary depending upon which path you took.

[edit] The true crown of Nenalata

Umbacano transforms into the King of Nenalata and will go hostile. In addition, the three walls will raise and bones Undead will come out to aid him. These undead will detect you even if you are invisible or chameleoned. Umbacano will also attack you, using his staff or one of his range of shock spells. Kill him and the skeletons, loot his corpse and exit the ruins through the side passageway that opens in the throne room.

[edit] You gave him the crown of Lindai

The Dark Welkynd stones lining the room will kill Umbacano and destroy the crown of their hated rival, Lindai. Several alcoves will open, allowing skeletons to enter the room and attack you. As above, the skeletons will always detect you. You can run back out the way you came in, though the stairs leading down have retracted and you cannot go very far, go in and help Claude out, or just run in, turn left, and run up the stairs for the exit. Be warned the skeletons might well pursue you. Once those skeletons are defeated, you can loot the bodies. Umbacano is still wearing the crown (now destroyed and not repairable), has the keys to his house, and some level dependant equipment. Claude also has the usual range of level-dependent equipment. Retrieve what you wish, and then head back to the Imperial City.

[edit] Notes

• If Herminia Cinna should die in any way, the quest marker will still lead you to her corpse. Remove her house key from her body and continue the quest as normal.
• The quest concludes with the death of Umbacano but the guards at his manor house are still there, wondering why he hasn't returned. The items in his house are still considered someone else's property by the game but there is an opportunity for an enterprising thief. There is a female orc, named Umog gra-Marad, who works as a night guard right inside the entrance. If you raise her disposition to 75 or above she'll tell you that she slips out now and then to get a drink at the Tiber Septim Hotel. You'll get a conversation option "That's pretty expensive", so select that one, and it will give you the option to treat her to a drink. You can do that now or later, and it'll cost 100 gold to do so. That should make her go away for a while. You don't have to wait until Umbacano is dead to do this either, if you feel like cleaning out his house, but it just seems somewhat efficient to sell him all 10 statues, the carving, a crown, watch him die, and then go back to town and steal it all back. The statues are in a display case in his room upstairs, they are under a hard lock, but if you open that, you can just take all the statues you gave him...
• Another way to "reacquire" the statues you sold to Umbacano is to return to the house after you have agreed to accompany him to the ruins of Nenalata, but before actually taking him inside (where he dies). During this window of time, Umbacano will have left the house to travel to the ruins, but when you approach his butler Jollring he will ask you if you would like to be shown upstairs (as usual). When you agree, however, Jollring will walk out the front door, as though he is going in the direction of Umbacano's location at Nenalata (I presume). You can now go upstairs and steal the statues without being bothered, for free. When you exit, Jollring will walk back inside and resume his regular position.
• To equip either the staff of Nenalata or the crown of Nenalata you have to drop the items and pick them up again.
• It is possible to jump up the stairs from the throne room before they completely descend allowing you to snipe with a bow or ranged spells.
• If Umbacano dies before he has a chance to use the carving from the High Fane, and you take it from his body, it will be tagged as a quest item and you'll be unable to drop it, despite the fact that it's useless now.
  • This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.
• The incantation chanted by Umbacano to gain entry to the throne chamber is "Av Auri-El ye Tamri-El dellevoy an Arpen Aran tarnabye!", which translates roughly as "By Auriel and Tamriel grant the noble King passage!". When he ascends the throne, he says "Av Sunna Tam Riel arctavoy an Arpen Aran malaburo!" (By blessed Tamriel acknowledge the Noble King [in your] loving-vassalage).
• Herminia Cinna's cask only appears after Umbacano hires you (Journal Entry 10) so you cannot rob her of the crown beforehand.

[edit] Journal Entries

Secrets of the Ayleids (MS27)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
0
5
10		Umbacano has hired me to obtain an Ayleid Crown he wants from Herminia Cinna, a rival collector. He paid me in advance; whatever I do not use to purchase the crown I can keep as my fee.
15		Umbacano hired me to retrieve the Crown of the Ayleids from Herminia Cinna, a rival collector. By chance, I had already stolen the crown, and was able to deliver it immediately, to Umbacano's great surprise.
20		I need to bring Umbacano one of the Ayleid Crowns, either by stealing the Crown of Nenalata from Herminia Cinna, or by recovering the Crown of Lindai as Herminia Cinna suggested.
30		I have retrieved the Ayleid Crown from Herminia Cinna's house. Now to deliver it to Umbacano.
35		I have found the Ayleid Crown of Lindai, just as Herminia Cinna said. Now to return to Umbacano to complete my task.
50		I gave Umbacano the Ayleid Crown of Nenalata, as he requested.
55		I gave Umbacano the Ayleid Crown of Lindai, as Herminia Cinna suggested. He did not appear to be aware that it was not the Ayleid Crown that he had asked me to retrieve.
60		Umbacano has asked me to meet him at the Ayleid ruin of Nenalata. He wants me to help him reach the throne room so that he can complete his research on the last king of the Ayleids.
70		I met Umbacano outside the ruins of Nenalata. I need to guide him safely to the throne room.
80
84		Umbacano is dead. The only thing left to do is try to escape this death trap!
85
86
89		Umbacano died during the expedition to Nenalata. I failed in my duty to protect him. Now I will never know what secrets are hidden in the Throne Room of Nenalata.
90		Umbacano was transformed into an evil Ayleid King in the throne room of Nenalata. I must escape from this death trap!
95		Umbacano was horribly destroyed in Nenalata when he declared himself King of the Ayleids using the crown of the rival city of Lindai. Now to escape the wrath of the undead denizens of Nenalata!
100	0

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.

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