Shivering:The Lady of Paranoia

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1 Quick Walkthrough
2 Detailed Walkthrough
3 Notes
4 Glitches
5 Journal Entries

Investigate who wants Lady Syl, the Duchess of Dementia, assassinated. ^edit

Quest Giver: Syl at the House of Dementia
Location(s): Crucible
Prerequisite Quest: Understanding Madness
Next Quest: The Cold Flame of Agnon
Concurrent Quest: Addiction
Reward: Ruin's Edge
ID: SE05

Torture citizens for information.

[edit] Quick Walkthrough

Speak with Syl to learn of her predicament
Interrogate and torture her subjects, with Herdir's assistance, to glean information
Follow your leads to find out who is behind the plot against the Duchess
Report your findings to Syl
Receive your reward, Ruin's Edge

[edit] Detailed Walkthrough

Travel to the House of Dementia to locate Syl, the Duchess of Dementia. Syl is an extremely paranoid woman, and appoints you her "Inquisitor" before tasking you with investigating a conspiracy to kill her. She also grants you the assistance of her torturer Herdir for the duration of the investigation. Herdir is a capable torturer who can be found in the House of Dementia's Torture Chamber. He is efficient at "persuading" people to talk. His "persuasion" consists of a bolt of lightning.

You can start the "investigation" with Syl's steward Kithlan. Torturing him, he reveals that Anya Herrick, another of Syl's assistants, may know something. Some brief coercion from Herdir, and Anya will reveal that Ma'zaddha is involved in a plot against Syl. At this point, questioning Ma'zaddha he will reveal nothing, as he boasts that you don't have enough evidence.

A quest update suggests you question Crucible citizens. Certain citizens (such as Caldana Monrius, Bhisha or Sickly Bernice) will reveal, with some "persuasion" that Ma'zaddha has been meeting surreptitiously with Nelrene, a Dark Seducer Guard. Eavesdrop on their meeting unseen, and confront Ma'zaddha after Nelrene has departed. He will reveal that he was involved in a plot to kill Lady Syl and requests that if you return in a day and he will have more information for you.

After one day has passed, enter Ma'zaddha's house. Once inside the house you will find his dead body which, when checked, should yield a key. Take the key and proceed to his room. A search of his cabinet yield both Ma'zaddha's Crinkled Note and Nelrene's ceremonial shortsword. Take both and speak with Nelrene. Confronted with the evidence, Nelrene will admit that Muurine was the mastermind behind the plot. Interrogate Muurine to get a confession, and report your findings to Syl. Pleased now, Syl rewards you with the unique bow, Ruin's Edge and will request that you meet her in the Torture Chamber, where she kills Muurine, thus completing the quest.

[edit] Notes

Once Muurine has been killed, it is possible to loot her body through the viewing window part of the cage. She has a duelist key, her house key, a paper titled "Liturgy of the Duelists", and some ale.
It is not always necessary to wait for a day before going to Ma'zaddha's house. You can enter his house and proceed with the quest by waiting at least an hour after confronting him.
If you are having difficulty eavesdropping on Ma'zaddha and Nelrene, a good location to hide is underneath the stairs, and behind the crates. Dismissing Herdir back to the House of Dementia may also help.
Understandably, instructing Herdir to torture someone will lower their disposition towards you.

[edit] Glitches

In order for the "Conspiracy" topic to appear, Herdir must be in the room. However, sometimes Herdir will not follow you when you enter a house or store. To make sure that he follows you, you may need to walk into him in order to push him to stand right next to the door before you go through it. As long as he is close enough to you, he will always reappear when entering a new cell.
When you are outside, make sure that Herdir is nearby before asking him to torture someone. After you have asked him to torture a subject, you are unable to talk to either Herdir or the subject again until the subject has been tortured. If Herdir happens to be stuck out of sight of the subject, the quest will basically be frozen until you can get the subject within range of Herdir. In that case, try walking into either or both people to nudge them closer together.
Occasionally, Ma'zaddha and Nelrene will meet, will not exchange dialogue with one another. The exact cause of this glitch is unknown. Resetting or retrying the espionage session may not be effective at preventing this from occurring. It is possible avoid or solve this by:
- Waiting for a couple of hours and talk with the two conspirators. It will end their meeting, and you will need to wait until the next day to try again.
- Stopping and following just one conspirator about one hour before and the meeting may avoid the afore mentioned glitch.
- Leaving the area and re-entering. Should this still fail, restart the game or reload a previous save.
- You may try selecting Nelrene in the console, then typing the code set SE05Conv to 1. This is normally done by her script when she's nearby Ma'zaddha to makes them initiate the conversation. If the variable isn't set to 0 or 1, then the Ma'zaddha proximity check doesn't happen and this can be one cause for the glitch.
- Finally, you can use the console command setstage SE05 70 to advance the quest.
Sometimes after Ma'zaddha and Nelrene have their meeting and you talk to Ma'zaddha, he will not have the conspiracy topic. The only ways to fix this are to reload an earlier save or get back to the palace, tell Herdir to follow you and then torture Ma'zaddha again.
Sometimes Muurine will not die when she is shocked. To fix this, get yourself arrested, and she will be standing outside the cage where you can kill her. Other option is to use an area Destruction spell on the cage.

[edit] Journal Entries

The Lady of Paranoia (SE05)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
0
5
10		I need to travel to the House of Dementia, and seek an audience with Syl.
15		Kithlan has told me that Lady Syl is especially reclusive lately. I may be able to catch her in the garden late around midnight.
20		I have been tasked with finding the people conspiring against Lady Syl. I need to find and speak to Herdir. He can always be found at the torture chamber in the House of Dementia.
30		Herdir has agreed to accompany me. I need to speak with people in Crucible for information about this supposed conspiracy. Perhaps starting with those close to Syl would be useful.
40		I have been told that Anya Herrick may know something about a conspiracy. I should find and interrogate her.
45		Anya Herrick refuses to speak with me. I need Herdir with me to help convince her to talk.
50		Anya Herrick has named Ma'zaddha as being involved in some sort of plot against Lady Syl. I should find and speak to him.
55		Ma'zaddha refuses to give me any information. I need evidence that he's involved; I should speak to the citizens of Crucible to learn more.
60		I've been told that Ma'zaddha has been meeting Nelrene late at night in Crucible. I'll need to find them and listen in on their conversation.
65		I was discovered while attempting to overhear Mazaddha's conversation with Nelrene. I will have to try again another night, and be more careful to remain undetected.
70		I've overheard Ma'zaddha and Nelrene speaking. I need to confront Ma'zaddha with this information.
80		Ma'zaddha admitted to being involved in a plot to kill Lady Syl. He's asked for time to learn more about who's behind it. I should meet him at his house in one day's time. In the meantime, I should investigate Nelrene's role in this.
90		Nelrene has denied involvement in any sort of conspiracy. I'll need to be more persuasive with her, or find direct evidence she's involved.
92		I've found Ma'zaddha dead in his home. I should see if he was holding any evidence of this conspiracy.
95		I found a key on Ma'zaddha's body; he has hidden evidence somewhere that may help my investigation. I'll need to find it.
100		I have found the items Ma'zaddha hid in his house. The evidence points to Nelrene, and I should confront her about it.
110		Nelrene admits to being involved in a conspiracy, and has named Muurine as the architect of the plot. I'll need more evidence before confronting Muurine.
120		I have confronted Muurine, who has confessed to trying to kill Lady Syl. I should report this news to Lady Syl at once.
130		Lady Syl has asked me to meet her in the torture chamber. I should travel there immediately.
200	0	The conspiracy has been stamped out. Lady Syl has executed Muurine, and thanked me for my help.

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.