Skyrim:No Stone Unturned

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Find the 24 gems to restore the Crown of Barenziah. Quest Giver: Quest received upon finding the first "Unusual Gem". Location(s): Skyrim Reward: Prowler's Profit ID: TGCrownMisc, TGCrown Suggested Level: 18 (for the final part)

The Crown of Barenziah restored

Quick Walkthrough

1. Find one of the 24 "Unusual Gems" scattered throughout Skyrim.
2. Become a full member of the Thieves Guild (if not one already).
3. Have the gem appraised by Vex at The Ragged Flagon in Riften.
4. Collect the remaining stones of a full set and return to Vex.
5. Retrieve the Crown of Barenziah and return to Vex.

Detailed Walkthrough

An Unusual Gem

Obtaining the Quest

At one of 24 places in Skyrim, you will find an ornate jewel called an Unusual Gem. What happens after you pick one up depends on whether you are a member of the Thieves Guild.

Not a Member of the Thieves Guild

If you are not a member of the Thieves Guild, picking up the first Unusual Gem you encounter will activate the miscellaneous quest objective: "Bring the Unusual Gem to an appraiser".

Depending on your past travels and interactions, following your objective marker will likely involve you in a conversation with Maul in Riften. If you have not yet spoken with Maul, and converse with him about the gem, he will tell you that you need to show it to Vex of the Thieves Guild, thus activating the quest. He will also tell you that to get to Vex, you must first become a member of the Thieves Guild.

If you press for information on the guild, you will be told to find Brynjolf in Riften's marketplace during the daytime. You can find him as suggested, or in the Bee and Barb at night. Talking to him will activate the quest A Chance Arrangement, which will lead you toward becoming a member of the Guild. Then seek Vex at The Ragged Flagon for her appraisal. She will tell you that it is one of 24 stones that were pried from the crown of Queen Barenziah by a thief in an attempt to cover his tracks, and that only the complete set of 24 stones would be valuable.

If Maul does not tell you to find Brynjolf, you can seek him out yourself.

Already a Member of the Thieves Guild

If you are a full member of the Thieves Guild when you pick up the first stone, the quest is immediately activated with the objective: "Bring the Unusual Gem to Vex in the Thieves Guild". Find Vex in The Ragged Flagon. She will tell you that it is one of 24 stones that were pried from the crown of Queen Barenziah by a thief in an attempt to cover his tracks. She will further inform you that the stone is worthless on its own, but that if you can find the other 23, the collection would be worth a substantial sum.

Finding the Gems

After showing an Unusual Gem to Vex, the gems are renamed "Stones of Barenziah," and will appear as such in your inventory when in your possession. You must now find all 24 stones.

You must complete some other tasks before you have access to all locations listed below:

• Begin the Dark Brotherhood questline or start the Destroy the Dark Brotherhood! quest.
• Progress the Main Quest far enough to gain access to the Thalmor Embassy. This is no longer a requirement after patch 1.4.
• Purchase or gain access to Proudspire Manor in Solitude.
• Join the College of Winterhold by completing First Lessons. You must also start Under Saarthal and progress at least to the point where Tolfdir tells you to speak with the Arch-Mage; until this point, the Arch-Mage's Quarters are locked behind a non-pickable door.

The stones are located in the following places:

Location	Map	Notes
Whiterun	map	Hall of the Dead (Whiterun). Inside the Catacombs, go down the left stairs and it will be to your left, next to a skeleton.
Whiterun†	map	Dragonsreach, the Jarl's bedroom.
Whiterun†	map	Jorrvaskr's living quarters, on the bookshelf in Kodlak's room.
Solitude†	map	Blue Palace, Jarl's bedroom, Right side of the bed on top of the wardrobe.
Solitude	map/ map	Proudspire Manor. Buy the house or pickpocket the Key to Solitude Fletcher. The key opens the rear door to the house*, the stone is found on the top floor in the master bedroom, left of the door.
Riften†	map	Mistveil Keep, Jarl's bedroom, top of the stairs pick the center door, on your left on the end table left side of the bed.
Windhelm†	map	Palace of the Kings Upstairs. Take the first door to the left upon entering the main palace area, then find Wuunferth's room at the end of the hall.
Windhelm†	map	House of Clan Shatter-Shield, on a bookshelf in the room to the left of the top of the stairs.
Markarth†	map	The Treasury House, on a bedside table in Thonar's bedroom, which is down the hall on the left from when you enter the front door. You may need to pick an apprentice-level door, but no one reacts.
Markarth†	map	Understone Keep's Dwemer Museum, on a table in the first room to the left. Note: Do not go into the museum after completing the quest Hard Answers until you have finished the quest Darkness Returns. See the Hard Answers quest page for details.
College of Winterhold†	map	Arch-Mage's Quarters. Access may be gained at the end of the quest Under Saarthal.
Dead Crone Rock	map	On the stone altar opposite a Dragon Word Wall.
Black-Briar Lodge	map	East of Riften. The gem is in the top floor bedroom, next to the bed.
Ansilvund	map	Northeast of Shor's Stone and due north of Riften, on the table at the end of Ansilvund Burial Chambers.
Stony Creek Cave	map	Just north of Ansilvund, on the table next to the alchemy lab in the room off to the side.
Rannveig's Fast	map	After falling down the trapdoor in front of the chest and Dragon Word Wall, the stone is next to the alchemy lab and chest on the right.
Fellglow Keep	map	Northeast of Whiterun. Head straight up the stairs and to the right.
Dainty Sload	map	Ship along the coast northeast of Solitude, in the last room on the table.
Sunderstone Gorge	map	On the table with two bodies in front of the Dragon Word Wall.
Yngvild	map	The island northeast of Dawnstar. The gem is in the bedroom behind the throne in Yngvild Throne room.
Hob's Fall Cave	map	On the northern coast, directly between Dawnstar and Winterhold. The gem is near the alchemy set in a room well off the main path through the cave.
Reeking Cave or Thalmor Embassy	map/ map	Prior to patch 1.4, the stone is located in the Thalmor Embassy in Elenwen's Solar on the second floor. After patch 1.4, inside Reeking Cave and next to a corpse in the back. Acquiring the gem during the Diplomatic Immunity quest is advised, since the easiest way to access the cave is through your escape near the end of that quest. However, it is still possible to access Reeking Cave without doing that quest.
Pinewatch Bandit's Sanctuary	map	In a house west of Helgen, there is a secret hideout accessible from the basement (you have to push a button on the wall to open the bookshelf). The gem is found in a locked room in the Bandit's Sanctuary.
Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary	map	On the dresser in Astrid's room. It is still accessible after the Death Incarnate quest; however, the game may freeze when you try to enter the Sanctuary after completing that quest.

^† Will be marked as stolen unless you are of an appropriate faction rank.
* The Key to Solitude Fletcher opens the rear door to the manor. Version 1.9 of the Official Skyrim Patch fixed this.

Recovering the Crown

Find the Crown within Tolvald's Cave

Show Vex the full set of Stones, and she will have you travel to Tolvald's Cave to retrieve the Crown of Barenziah. The cave is three layers deep, and crawling with Falmer, so be sure to prepare yourself. After returning with the Crown, you will receive the permanent effect Prowler's Profit, which significantly increases the chance of finding gems in randomized containers.

Notes

• The gems that will be marked as stolen may say "take" instead of "steal"; in this case, they will still be marked as stolen and you will be reported for taking them.
• Curiously, the finished crown has 25 stones in it, even though only 24 exist. Also, when found without the stones, the crown has all of its 25 slots empty.
• If your game is prior to patch 1.4 and you haven't recovered the stone from within the Thalmor Embassy, there are multiple workarounds detailed on the location page.
• There are no quest markers for the stones, so unless you intend to find all the stones by chance, it may be best to print out a list of their locations and cross each one off as you find it.
• It is impossible to remove this quest from your list without joining the Thieves Guild, so if you do not want to do that then you may be better off just ignoring any Unusual Gems you come across as they have no other use in the game and cannot be removed from your inventory without Vex.
• The stone in the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary and the interior of the Sanctuary is not generated by the game until either of the related quest lines is started.

Bugs

• If you gather all 24 stones before getting Vex to identify them it won't advance to the stage where you need to turn them back in to her and your journal will still say to recover the gems (24/24).
  • This bug is fixed by version 1.9.26.0.8 of the Official Skyrim Patch.
  • To fix this, type these console commands: setobjectivecompleted TGCrown 20 1, followed by setstage TGCrown 30.
• The Prowler's Profit may not appear in the Active Effects menu, but it should still be in effect.
  • This bug is fixed by version 1.3.0 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.
• Once you've learned that these Unusual Gems are actually Stones of Barenziah, they will no longer stack in your inventory.
• Repeatedly pressing the activate button while picking up a Stone may shortcut this quest. Your inventory will only increase by one Stone, but your quest progress will increase by more than one, allowing you to return to Vex and move onto recovering the Crown before visiting all 24 Stone locations.
• Sometimes the gems that are supposed to be in Fellglow Keep and Pinewatch Sanctuary don't appear and will prevent progress with the quest. ^?
  • Type the following three commands into the console for a workaround: set TGCrownGemsFound to 24; set TGCrownGemsTotal to 24; setstage TGCrown 30. This will not update the journal entry with the correct number of gems found but it will unlock Vex's dialogue to proceed with the quest.

Quest Stages

No Stone Unturned (TGCrownMisc)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
10		I've found an unusual gem which seems to exhibit magical properties. I should bring it to someone knowledgeable in such goods for appraisal. (Objective is assigned): Bring the Unusual Gem to an appraiser
20		With Maul in Riften no longer speaking to me, I'm going to have to continue my search for someone who can identify my unusual gem. (Objective is assigned): Find someone who can identify the Unusual Gem
200
No Stone Unturned (TGCrown)
5		It was suggested that I show my Unusual Gem to Vex, a member of the Thieves Guild in Riften. However, I'll need to wait until I'm full member of the Guild before she'll be able to assist me. (Objective is assigned): Become a full member of the Thieves Guild
10		I've found an unusual gem which seems to exhibit magical properties. I should bring it to Vex at the Thieves Guild for an appraisal. (Objective is assigned): Bring the Unusual Gem to Vex in the Thieves Guild
20		The unusual gem has turned out to be one of twenty-four "Stones of Barenziah." According to Vex, they have little value unless the set is complete. (Objective is assigned): Recover the Stones of Barenziah (<Global=TGCrownGemsFound>/<Global=TGCrownGemsTotal>)
30		(Objective is assigned): Speak to Vex
40		Vex has revealed to me that the Crown of Barenziah is actually a paragon for the Thieves Guild. If I can recover the crown from Tolvald's Cave, she should be able to restore our paragon to its full strength. (Objective is assigned): Recover the Crown of Barenziah
50		(Objective is assigned): Return to Vex
200		I've brought the Crown of Barenziah back to Vex, who has restored it to its original condition where it now serves as a paragon for the Thieves Guild.

• The following empty quest stages were omitted from the table: 0 (for both).

 

Notes

• Any text displayed in angle brackets (e.g., <Alias=LocationHold>) is dynamically set by the Radiant Quest system, and will be filled in with the appropriate word(s) when seen in game.
• 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 any order. Some stages may therefore repeat objectives seen in other stages.
• 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 TGCrownMisc, TGCrown 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, but it is possible to clear all stages of the quest using resetquest TGCrownMisc, TGCrown.