Oblivion:Permanent Retirement

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< Oblivion: Quests: Dark Brotherhood(Redirected from Oblivion:The Assassin's Gambit)

[edit] Quick Walkthrough

Receive the contract and the arrow for the assassination.
Eliminate Adamus Phillida .
Take his finger and place it in the desk.
Return to Ocheeva to collect your reward.

[edit] Detailed Walkthrough

[edit] The Assassin's Gambit

The mini-quest to get your next contract from Ocheeva is named "The Assassin's Gambit." She tells you that you must kill Adamus Phillida, a recently retired Imperial Legion officer, who has taken up residence in the City Watch barracks in Leyawiin. For this task, you have been given an enchanted arrow called the Rose of Sithis. If you can hit Phillida with the arrow when he is not wearing his armor, the strike will be fatal. Head to Leyawiin, stalk Adamus Phillida, and attack when the moment is right. The contract will be complete when Phillida is dead, whether you use the Rose of Sithis or not. When Adamus Phillida is dead, you can return to the Sanctuary for your reward. If you want to receive your bonus, however, there is one more task you must complete. Phillida wears an Imperial Legion ring. Take his finger, with the ring still attached, and put it in the desk of Phillida's Imperial Legion successor, in his office in the Imperial City.

[edit] Making the Kill

After you receive the quest from Ocheeva, travel to Leyawiin and head to the small pond. Every day at around 3:00-8:00 PM, Adamus, accompanied by his bodyguard, will unequip his armor and take a swim in the lake. Wait for him to go into the water, then go into sneak mode and make sure you are not detected. Find a good spot, and shoot the Rose of Sithis at a part of his body that is sticking out of the water. He will die instantly (even though it only counts as assault) and you can return to the sanctuary for your reward.

[edit] Alternate Assassinations

It is very hard to avoid incurring a bounty from this kill, as there is a glitch that will get you 40 bounty even if you shoot him with the Rose undetected.

This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.

Otherwise, possible ways to avoid the bounty include:

Feed him a Poisoned Apple by reverse pickpocketing it, then waiting for him to eat it.
Reverse pickpocket a cursed item onto him.
Equip the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal and let Adamus see you. He will come running out of the water to arrest you. Now pull out your bow with the Rose, and shoot him when he's right in front of you. Then, quickly unequip the Cowl (or switch to another headpiece) before any guards can address you, and walk away with 0 bounty.
If you have 100% chameleon, you can kill him in front of witnesses (including the bodyguard), loot his body and then stroll away with no problem at all.
You can also kill him with a headshot, using the Rose of Sithis while he's sleeping in the barracks.
If you have a ring or amulet with a Water Breathing enchantment, you can threaten Phillida then quickly enter the water and he will follow. Swim underwater and just block until he finally drowns.
If you have played the main quest to the point where the two oblivion gates open up outside of Leyawiin, you can provoke Adamus with the first dialogue option while he is in the Coast Guard Shack outside the town and lure him to the oblivion gates. Turn invisible and let the Daedra that pour out from the gates do your dirty work.

[edit] Loot the Finger

Now, loot the finger from his body (along with a bunch of keys to various places) and head for Imperial City. Now head for the Prison region of Imperial City, and wait for nightfall. Go into Sneak mode, and enter the Imperial Legion offices (remember all the keys?). There shouldn't be any guards around (the guard at the desk leaves around midnight), so head to the desk right by the entrance and pick the lock. Place the finger in the desk (by clicking on the desk and, within the inventory window, clicking on the finger; unlike some other quests, the quest item does not automatically get transferred for you). The chest to the left of the desk is known to have good treasures in it, it would be a good idea to loot it while you are there. Head outside undetected, then head to the sanctuary for your reward and bonus.

The reward for this quest is the standard 50-600 gold (level-dependent) reward given for each Dark Brotherhood quest. The bonus is an additional 500 gold.

[edit] Notes

The Rose of Sithis is specially commissioned and crafted to kill one person--in this case, Adamus Phillida. When fired on anyone else, it only wounds.
Be sure to use the key from Adamus's body on the Commanders Chest to the left of the desk, it contains a level dependent amount of gold and some random armor.
This may only occur after you demoralize Adamus and his guard, causing both of them to flee, and then reload the area, but Adamus will occasionally walk unaccompanied to the water without his armor equipped, causing you to be able to kill him unseen and avoid getting a bounty. This might be a glitch if you interrupt their walk towards the water, like with the spell above.
After you complete this quest, a special edition of the Black Horse Courier is published: "Adamus Phillida Slain!".
After you complete this quest, Adamus Phillida's bodyguard will commit suicide. The next time you return to the city you can find his corpse if you visit the Leyawiin City Watch Barracks. On his body is a Suicide Note explaining the reason behind his untimely demise:

This was my big break! Finally I'm given something important to do, and what happens? I blow it! All I had to do was keep Phillida alive! That's it! But no! I couldn't even accomplish that! Father was right -- I'm an idiot, and I haven't amounted to anything!

I let everyone down, so this is it. Goodbye cruel Empire! I'm ending it all!

Like any other Town Guard, Adamus' bodyguard will eventually respawn, so if you wait too long after completing this quest all you will find is a distraught (and living) bodyguard who will never leave the barracks.

This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.

When you take Adamus's severed ring finger, no fingers are lost on either of his hands.

This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.

Depending upon the location of the attempted theft, if you try pickpocketing him and he catches you, the other guards will actually kill him instead of going after you. Chameleon might be required for this.
The Rose of Sithis can be duplicated, if you are concerned about bad aim and want more than one shot at Adamus.
It seems this quest originally had a different plot, or at least, extra elements to the existing plot. An NPC named Gwendolyn and two Imperial Legion Centurions are defined in the Construction Set with ids that start with "Dark09", suggesting they were intended to play roles in this quest. None of them exists in the game, however.

[edit] Bugs

Sometimes the Rose of Sithis does not work to kill Adamus, even while he is swimming and apparently wearing no armor. The problem appears to be that he is still carrying his shield in his inventory (although it is not visible when looking at him), and therefore his armor rating is not actually zero. If you can first pickpocket the shield off him then the Rose of Sithis works. However, the shield can only be pickpocketed after he has taken off his armor, so the times when it is possible are limited. Also, he is very likely to notice the pickpocket attempt and prevent it; high Sneak skill and partial Chameleon are necessary to be successful. If you are able to walk on water, simply make sure that you are not visible in sneak mode and pickpocket him while standing on the surface of the water. However he is still very likely to see you and stop you.
- This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.
It is possible for Mazoga the Orc to be killed if she comes to your aid while you are being chased by the town guards. To prevent this from happening, complete the quest Mazoga the Orc beforehand, or be sure not to flee in the direction of Leyawiin Castle.
If you break back into the Imperial Legion Office, you can take Adamus' finger back out of the desk, and when you exit the desk, you will get a message saying that you have completed the quest. Even though it has been previously finished. It will not raise your number of quests completed, and will only move the Permanent Retirement quest log under "Completed Quests" to the top, not duplicate it.
When Phillida dies, his bodyguard will become hostile to you if he actually sees you. It does not matter how Phillida dies. Even if you reverse pickpocket a poisoned apple on him and wait some place else, far away from Phillida, then, after the quest confirmation message appears stating that Phillida is dead, if you approach his bodyguard at this point without Chameleon/Invisibility protection, he will turn on you. Since you do not have any bounty on your head, many NPCs will side with you, but all guards will help Phillida's bodyguard and attack you. If you approach the bodyguard with the Chameleon 100 effect active, he will not be hostile. This bug can be fixed by casting an area Charm spell on the bodyguard and any other city guards helping him and then yielding to them. Since you do not have a bounty on your head, all guards including the bodyguard will immediately turn peaceful and walk away. As an alternative, you can cast a Rally spell on any non-guard NPCs who side with you and let them kill the bodyguard. The bodyguard will still lock on you and you only in the fight, so 100% Reflect Damage is recommended.

[edit] Journal Entries

The Assassin's Gambit (Dark08WhodunitFIN)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
10		I must accept a contract from Ocheeva.
100		I have accepted a contract from Ocheeva.

Permanent Retirement (Dark09Retirement)
10		I must kill Adamus Phillida, a recently retired Imperial Legion officer, who has taken up residence in the City Watch barracks in Leyawiin. For this task, I have been given an enchanted arrow called the Rose of Sithis. If I can hit Phillida with the arrow when he is not wearing his armor, the strike will be fatal. I should head to Leyawiin, stalk Adamus Phillida, and attack when the moment is right. The contract will be complete when Phillida lies dead, whether I use the Rose of Sithis or not.
20		Adamus Phillida is dead. I may return now to the Sanctuary for my reward. If I want to receive a bonus, however, there is one more task I must complete. Phillida wears an Imperial Legion ring. I should take his finger, with the ring still attached, and put it in the desk of Phillida's Imperial Legion successor, in his office in the Imperial City.
30		I have acquired the severed finger of Adamus Phillida, with the ring still attached. I should now go to the Imperial City, and place the finger in the desk of Phillida's Imperial Legion successor, in his office in the Prison Barracks. If I do this, I will receive a bonus. Or, I may forfeit the bonus and simply return to Ocheeva at the Sanctuary.
40		I have placed the finger of Adamus Phillida in the desk of his successor, in his office in the Imperial City. I should now return to Ocheeva and claim my reward, and bonus.
100		I have returned to Ocheeva at the Sanctuary.

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 Dark09Retirement stage. Where 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.