Oblivion:Whodunit?

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Contents 1 Quick Walkthrough 2 Detailed Walkthrough 2.1 The Night Mother's Child 2.2 Blind, Deaf, and Dumb (Yet Very Talkative) 2.3 Playing with your Victims 2.4 Guest Details 3 Each Guest's Opinions 4 Guide 5 Notes 6 Journal Entries

Summitmist Manor; there were six on the night of last and then there were none... save one.  edit Quest Giver: Ocheeva at Cheydinhal Sanctuary Location(s): Cheydinhal, Skingrad Prerequisite Quest: Bad Medicine Next Quest: Permanent Retirement Reward: Up to 600 gold, Night Mother's Blessing Fame/Infamy: Infamy +1 ID: Dark08Whodunit

Summitmist Manor, Skingrad

[edit] Quick Walkthrough

1. Receive your assignment.
2. Choose any method of killing everyone in the Manor.
3. Return to Ocheeva for the reward.

[edit] Detailed Walkthrough

[edit] The Night Mother's Child

The mini-quest to get your next contract from Ocheeva is titled "The Night Mother's Child." You will be directed to Skingrad to rendezvous with Fafnir, a Dark Brotherhood assassin posing as a doorman for a house party in Summitmist Manor. He'll provide you a key and some details on the party. Once you enter the manor, you will not be allowed to leave until the contract is fulfilled. Your objective is simple enough: kill everyone within Summitmist Manor. In order to get your bonus you must not be observed/suspected by the remaining guests. Luckily all of the guests are easy enough to kill with an ordinary punch. When you have finished, return to Ocheeva for your reward of up to 600 gold (level dependent), and if you have achieved it, a bonus of the Night Mother's Blessing: a permanent +2 to your Marksman, Security, Sneak, Acrobatics and Blade skills.

[edit] Blind, Deaf, and Dumb (Yet Very Talkative)

The only way to be identified as the killer is to use a hostile spell or staff. Even a weapon with an area-of-effect enchantment that hits multiple guests won't set off any alarms^{[verification needed — see talk page]}. Everyone has only one point of health and will die with any attack. No weapon hit will be detected, regardless of whether you are sneaking or not. If you are directly seen it will however be noticed. Being noticed seems to be shaky, sometimes you will be able to kill someone directly in front of someone and get away with it other times you won't. It's best to be careful if you wish to receive the bonus.

[edit] Playing with your Victims

While Gogron gro-Bolmog might applaud such brutal efficiency, it's certainly more fun to be creative.

• An interesting method to achieve your goal is the manipulation of your targets. As some of your Dark Brotherhood companions will tell you before you execute the contract, your (possible) reward from Bad Medicine, The Deceiver's Finery, will come in handy during this contract, as it provides a nice boost to personality and speechcraft. Raise each target's disposition high enough and you'll eventually be able to gain their trust, meaning that they will suspect you the least, if at all. This relationship will prove beneficial in their disposal.
• Also try lowering the disposition of the guests; they will begin to suspect you as the killer. Depending on their respective aggressiveness, they may even attack you. Note that despite the fact that the last guest will finger you as the killer (unless Nels is convinced to kill Antonius, in which case he will exclaim the need to escape, oblivious to the real culprit), this does not forfeit the bonus. Execute the quest under the parameters of "undetected" and you will still receive the Night Mother's Blessing.
• Snipe from across the room with your bow.
• Use Poisoned Apples, which can be purchased from M'raaj-Dar in the Cheydinhal Sanctuary. Only Nels cannot be killed this way.
• If you're lazy and don't feel like taking the time to raise their dispositions, an alternative method of getting them to do your dirty work is to use Frenzy and watch them kill each other.
• If you opt to bribe the guests, you can recover all of your money from their corpses at the conclusion of the quest.

[edit] Guest Details

• Dovesi Dran: Talk to Primo about her. He'll tell you that he rather likes her, and asks you to "put in a good word" for him. Go to her, and if you have raised her disposition, she will confide in you that she is attracted to Primo, also. Tell her that he said for her to wait for him in his room. She will run off excitedly to his room, at which point she will be isolated and a prime target. After one of the guests has died, she will give you the option to say a few things to assuage her fears of being killed, one of which is the familiar [Say Nothing]. If you choose this, she goes down to the basement alone and sits on a stool facing the wall, making herself easy pickings. She dislikes Matilde (accurately accusing her of being racist). If she is the last one you leave alive, she will beg for her life. She doesn't understand why people call Nels naughty. She thinks he seems nice.

• Matilde Petit claims to be a Breton aristocrat. She will greet you when you walk in; tell her that you're an assassin to earn a disposition bonus, as she will view your reply as a grand joke, even if you're wearing the Shrouded Armor and have a knife in your hand. Wait a while and she'll offer to work with you to find the treasure. You will be able to send her to the basement, where she will be alone and prime for killing. Matilde doesn't like Dovesi because she's Dunmer, and is disgusted by Nels because he told her "the most off-color joke about an Argonian maid". She is more fond of Neville and Primo. If she and Dovesi are the last two alive and her disposition towards you is high, she'll attempt to kill Dovesi.

• Nels the Naughty likes to drink. He stands in the same spot all the time, and is an easy target when no other guests are present. He likes Dovesi because she reminds him of his late daughter. He doesn't dislike Primo, but Nels will begin to suspect him earlier on in the quest. He dislikes Neville because the Imperial Legion refused to help him and his fellow villagers when they were attacked by bandits in Skyrim, leading to the death of his daughter Olga. If he and Neville are the last two alive, Nels will likely pick up any nearby weapon and attempt to kill him. Also, if you have raised his disposition high enough, he will attack Matilde if he and she are the last two guests left. If he's the last one alive, he will head for the basement. If Nels and Dovesi are the last two alive, and you have a high disposition with Nels, he will choose to believe that the attacker must be coming in through the window rather than believe that you or Dovesi could be the killers. Dovesi has no such inhibitions about killing Nels however...Nels can also be convinced to kill Primo if they are the last two alive.

• Neville is the soldier type. He sleeps long and soundly. He hates Nels and sees Primo as bored. If he and Nels are the last two alive, he'll head to his room to retrieve his gear so that he may try to kill Nels (disposition of 70 required to persuade Neville to attack Nels). He pities Matilde and her loss of income, and thinks that Dovesi doesn't like him, which is true. If Neville is the last one left alive and your disposition is high enough when you talk to him, he says that he will find an axe and try to chop down the door. It is during his attempt to break down the door that he is most easily killed. If his disposition is low however and he is the last one alongside you, he will conclude you as the assassin and attack you. Though even equipped in his Imperial Legion armor he is laughably easy to kill, as he has only 1 hitpoint. Him figuring you out as the murderer does not effect your bonus either. If he is the last one left alive, he will sometimes go down to the basement, pick up the iron battle axe on the floor there, and begin to hack away at the front door in a futile attempt to escape.

• Primo Antonius is an Imperial from a wealthy family. He sits around the ground floor most of the time. He doesn't believe that Matilde is really an aristocrat, and is attracted to Dovesi. He views Nels as the tragic drunk and Neville as the typical greedy soldier. If Primo and either Dovesi, Nels or Matilde are the last two left alive, talk to Primo and he'll attempt to kill the remaining guest (assuming your disposition towards him is high enough).

[edit] Each Guest's Opinions

Here is a brief summary of what each guest feels about the others.

• Dovesi is attracted to Primo, likes Nels, doesn't like Neville, and sees Matilde as racist.

• Matilde likes Primo and Nevile, and dislikes Dovesi and Nels.

• Nels likes Dovesi, doesn't like or dislike Primo, dislikes Matilde, and hates Neville.

• Neville likes Dovesi and Matilde, views Primo as bored, and hates Nels.

• Primo is attracted to Dovesi, and doesn't like or dislike Nels, Matilde, or Neville.

[edit] Guide

Upon entering the manor, speak to all the guests and raise their dispositions until they confide in to you about what they think of each other. Talk to Antonius about Dovesi. Then tell Dovesi to go wait upstairs. However, wait until Neville goes to sleep. make sure no-one can see you, and kill him. Then go kill Dovesi. Speak to the guests. Kill Antonius. Speak to Nels. If your disposition high enough, he'll kill Matilde, and then you can finish him off.

Alternative:

Talk to Matilde and agree to her offer to split the gold 50/50. Tell her to search in the basement. Follow her and kill her in the basement. Tell Dovesi to go to bed, as she is stressed by the murder. Kill her while she is sleeping. Kill Antonius while he is downstairs by the front door (Nels is upstairs, Neville is sleeping). Talk to Neville. Provided your disposition is high enough, he will kill Nels and chop at the front door with an axe, trying to get out. Sneak up on him from behind and finish him off.

[edit] Notes

• Use of any hostile magic will void the bonus, even if you and your target are alone on the map (i.e., in the basement) or the target is the last one remaining. The only time it is safe to use hostile magic is if someone is already attacking you. It is possible to kill any NPC in the house using spells as long as nobody sees you (including the target) and as long as you manage to kill the target with a single spell; 100% Chameleon or Invisibility while casting the spell will result in a valid attack that will NOT forfeit the mission bonus ^{[verification needed — Does this work?]}.
• Any weapon will kill any of the guests in one hit, even if Neville puts his armor on, as they all have only one point of Health. Poisons, Poisoned Apples, and other more expensive tools are not necessary.
• If you use the Poisoned Apple method, Nels may not declare Neville the killer, and instead sit at the table and want to be left alone.
• Neville has a full suit of Imperial Legion Armor. If you give him time after the killing starts, he may actually retrieve it for you, depending on how the quest unfolds; if not, you can take the key from his corpse and retrieve it from his chest upstairs manually.
• The weather will always be a thunderstorm when you arrive at Summitmist Manor. Fafnir's script is written to force the weather to turn stormy when you approach him.
• The Gray Cowl of Nocturnal can be put on in front of any of the guests except Neville and they will not react in any way, meaning you can safely use the cowl's Detect Life enchantment to help locate your targets. Neville, however, will attack you on sight if you are wearing the cowl.
• If you don't want the Night Mother's Blessing, but you still want to complete the quest without getting caught, use the console command player.removespell CBD13 to remove the blessing.
• It is inadvisable to sleep in Summitmist manor after completing the quest, as messengers such as those related to the Thieves Guild, and Hermaeus Mora's quest will be trapped in the house for ever, as they will be unable to open the front door. Dion can also be trapped in the house, if Paranoia has been started.
• Though Vicente says "For Sithis' sake, don't wear your hood," wearing armor makes absolutely no difference to the guests' thoughts and actions, other than the Gray Cowl and Neville as mentioned above.
• There is an occasional glitch in this quest that causes Dovesi to conjure an axe and kill Nels. This doesn't affect your bonus and no one seems to realize who killed Nels despite the fact that everyone can be in the room at the time.
• If Neville kills Nels and you select "Nels" in the conversation topic while talking to Neville, he will say "One less Nord in the world is something I'd normally cheer about, but the fact that he was murdered by a fellow guest does put a damper on things." Seems he's forgotten it was him who killed the Nord. This bug only occurs if you urge Neville to kill Nels in the initial greeting. If, on the other hand, you select the "Say Nothing" conversation option in Neville's greeting and use the "Nels" topic to turn Neville on Nels, Neville will kill Nels all the same, yet he will just wander around the house afterwards, instead of breaking down the front door with an axe, as he is supposed to.
• When Neville is about to kill Nels, he believes him to be the killer, stating that "I've searched every inch of this house. It's sealed up tight. There's no way in or out, and there's nobody hiding anyplace." However, after he kills Nels he will proclaim that there's still an assassin in the house, which makes no sense: "Well, that's it, my friend. We're the last. And that damned assassin is still hiding out in this house somewhere."
• While all NPCs have just one point health, this is actually equivalent to 6 points health on the hardcore difficulty level. Sometimes, when Neville is about to kill Nels, he will cast a Restore Health spell on himself, increasing his health to 26 hit points, which is equivalent to 156 points on hardcore difficulty level. Since you are supposed to kill all residents with a single hit in order to avoid detection, this can make it impossible to finish the quest appropriately, since dealing 156 points with a single spell or weapon hit requires a very powerful character.

[edit] Journal Entries

The Night Mother's Child (Dark07MedicineFIN)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
10		I must accept a contract from Ocheeva.
100		I have accepted a contract from Ocheeva.

Whodunit? (Dark08Whodunit)
10		I must go to Summitmist Manor in Skingrad, meet with the other guests, and pretend I too have been invited by a mysterious, unknown host. I must then kill all the other guests. I should start my mission by speaking with the doorman, just outside the manor.
15		I have spoken with Fafnir, the doorman, who appears to be a fellow member of the Dark Brotherhood. He has provided me with the key to Summitmist Manor, which I am to use only after all the guests lie dead. I should now proceed inside and meet the other guests.
20		I have arrived at Summitmist Manor. I must now kill the unlucky guests -- Matilde, Dovesi, Primo, Neville and Nels. If I can eliminate each guest secretly, without any witnesses, I will receive my reward and a very valuable reward. If I am discovered, the contract will be complete, but any bonus will be forfeit.
30		All of the guests are dead, and no one knew I was the killer. I must now return to the Sanctuary and speak with Ocheeva to receive my reward and bonus.
35		I have been detected! I must now complete the contract by killing everyone in Summitmist Manor, but my bonus will be forfeit.
40		All of the guests have been killed, but someone discovered I was the assassin. I must now return to the Sanctuary and speak with Ocheeva to finish out the contract. Unfortunately, I will receive no bonus.
50		I have spoken with Ocheeva and received a special reward, the Night Mother's Blessing. I now have permanent increases to my Sneak, Blade, Security, Acrobatics and Marksman skills.
100		I have completed the Summitmist Manor contract.

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 Dark08Whodunit 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.

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