Skyrim:A Cornered Rat

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Locate Esbern. Quest Giver: Delphine Location(s): Riften, The Ratway Prerequisite Quest: Diplomatic Immunity Next Quest: Alduin's Wall Reward: None ID: MQ202 Suggested Level: 8

Esbern in his room in the Warrens

Quick Walkthrough

1. Talk to Brynjolf in Riften or talk to the Argonian bartender in The Bee and Barb.
2. Search the Ratway for Esbern's hideout.
3. Find Esbern in the Ratway Warrens.
4. Talk to Esbern.
5. Bring Esbern back to Delphine at Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood.

Detailed Walkthrough

Finding Esbern

After infiltrating the Thalmor Embassy, return to Riverwood and inform Delphine of what you learned from the Thalmor records. Now, you must retrieve the archivist Esbern from his hiding place in Riften, and you're given a code phrase to say to him.

The journal will direct you to talk to Brynjolf. You may speak to him, Dirge, or Vekel the Man inside The Ragged Flagon. All three give an option to persuade or bribe them for information on Esbern's location.

Brynjolf

Option	Dialogue				Reaction
Let me find him first. Dragons are bad for business. (Persuade)	Passed: Aye, you've got a point there. Failed: Passing on a golden opportunity is worse.				Passed: Locate Esbern Failed: Nothing

Vekel the Man

Option	Dialogue				Reaction
I need to talk to him. I'm a friend. His life's in danger. (Persuade)	Passed: Maybe I'm just getting soft in my old age, but I actually believe you. Failed: That's a touching story. Now get outta my face.				Passed: Locate Esbern Failed: Nothing
Maybe this will help your memory. (Bribe)	Passed: Well... when you put it that way, I think I do know the old guy you're talking about. Failed: Big talk for someone with a light purse.				Passed: Locate Esbern Failed: Nothing

Dirge

Option	Dialogue				Reaction
I need to talk to him. I'm a friend. His life's in danger. (Persuade)	Passed: A friend, huh? Well... then it's probably okay if I tell you. Failed: I guess you don't hear too well. I never heard of this "friend" of yours.				Passed: Locate Esbern Failed: Nothing
Maybe this will help your memory. (Bribe)	Passed: You know what? I think I do know the guy you're talking about. Failed: Maybe it would. If you had it.				Passed: Locate Esbern Failed: Nothing
I can break some of your bones if that's what it's going to take... (Brawl)	Passed: Easy there. I don't want that kind of trouble. Guy ain't worth it. Brawl: Yeah. That's what it's going to take. Victory: You're tougher than you look. You got me, fair and square. Now where's Esbern? He lives somewhere in the Ratway Warrens. Must be crazy or desperate to live down there. Maybe both. Failure: (Nothing)				Passed: Locate Esbern Failed: Brawl

This is not necessary if you have already joined the Thieves Guild. They will tell you that Esbern is located in the Ratway Warrens. As the location is accessible before this, you have the option to proceed directly to Esbern without talking to them. Speaking with Keerava, the Riften innkeeper, also advances the quest. The quest continues as normal and will update with both finding Esbern and talking to Brynjolf. Thalmor are still present in the Ratway regardless.

The Warrens

The sewers and tunnels beneath Riften are inhabited by a number of thugs and three or four Thalmor warriors searching for Esbern. When you reach the door to Esbern's room, he is very wary of Thalmor agents and initially refuses entry. You may persuade him by saying Delphine sent you, you can tell him the password "Where were you on the 30th of Frostfall?", or you may explain that you are the Dragonborn.

Once Esbern is convinced that Delphine sent you, he tells you what he knows: Alduin the World-Eater's return has apocalyptic implications, and Esbern's warnings of this threat have been consistently ignored. He agrees to follow you to Delphine's base in Riverwood.

Return to Delphine

As soon as Esbern leaves his hovel, more Thalmor agents show up and attack. Esbern is a capable mage, summoning atronachs whenever engaged in battle. In the Warrens, the retired soldier Salvianus will attack the first Thalmor that appear, shouting "No, you cant be here! You're all dead! I already killed you over and over!" Exit back to Riften through the Warrens. While escorting Esbern through Riften, watch out for Gissur and Shavari (hired informants for the Thalmor), who will likely attack.

Leave Riften for the Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood. You can fast travel if he is following you. Note that if you asked him to show you the way out via the "Do you know the way out?" dialog option, he is not actually following you and you must have him wait and re-follow; otherwise, he will potentially get stuck on the way out and will not automatically show up with fast travel.

Once he is reunited with Delphine, the next quest begins.

Notes

• If any follower is hired prior or during the quest, they will not be forced to return to their original location when Esbern comes along, making him a second follower.
• Gissur may be seated at a table in the Ragged Flagon when you get Esbern's whereabouts from Vekel the Man. After you end conversation with Vekel, Gissur will get up from the table and leave the Flagon. Vekel will suddenly say "That one, right there, walking out the door! He was one of them asking about that old man you were looking for." If confronted, Gissur will only rebuff your attempts at conversation. However, he can be attacked and killed with no repercussions, and other Thieves Guild members will join the fight on your side. This may make your escape with Esbern easier.
• It is possible to proceed directly to Esbern without returning to Delphine first. Esbern will unlock his door if you tell him you are dragonborn.

Bugs

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• Esbern sometimes has no voice and will not open the door.
  • One solution is to delete Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini and run the game. You will need to adjust settings again but the save games will stay.
    • The easiest way to attempt to fix this is to first backup, and delete the Skyrim.ini file located in
      My Documents\My Games\Skyrim\
      and then run the game again. Do not restore your original file until the quest is completely finished, as the same bug may happen again in Riverwood.
  • However, sometimes deleting the .ini file does not work. The cause may be that in some PC versions of the game, Esbern really is missing some key dialogue audio files.
    • Adding/correcting this line in your Skyrim.ini to the [Archive] section may cause the game to correctly identify the archive with the voice file:
      sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa
      If your ini-file has no such section, just add it.
    • Alternately, you may use the BSAUnpacker to extract 'Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa'. It will give a warning about an unknown version number since it was made for Oblivion, but will still work.
    • Once the loose audio files are extracted the game should recognize them on the next startup and the problem will be corrected.
• Esbern might freeze randomly during the trip out of the sewers.
  • The easiest solution is to disable him and enable him again from the console. If you do not have access to the console then it is possible that attacking him and/or forcing him to his knees (the "death" that essential NPCs suffer) might get him to unfreeze. ^{[verification needed — see talk page]}
• The quest may fail to start after completing Diplomatic Immunity, and even trying manually start or end it with the console will not work.
  • This bug is fixed by version 1.2 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.
  • You may have to skip forward to the start of the next quest, Alduin's Wall, by using the console and typing in setstage MQ203 5, which will allow you to continue.
  • Use console command setstage MQ202 (stage #) to force Esbern to open the door and talk again. Stage 160 makes Esbern open the door, if bugged. Stage 170 makes Esbern talk again, if bugged. Another easier way to avoid bugs is to type in CompleteQuest MQ202, which would work for any quest value.
• If you have a mod that makes you actively hated by NPCs so that they attack you on sight, you cannot progress this quest. Become unhated, then speak to Esbern again.
  • Mods such as Better Vampires by Brehanin, which make NPCs hostile toward your vampire character, prevent quest progression until the character is no longer hated. Once your character is no longer hated, Esbern will speak to you and the quest will progress normally.
  • Check to make sure your character isn't hated before making changes to the .ini files or using the console.
    • If you are still hated and you use the console to open Esbern's door he will become aggressive and attack you, preventing the quest from being completed.
    • If you are still hated and use the console to make Esbern speak to you after the door has been forced open with console commands, he will talk only briefly before becoming hostile and attacking you, preventing the quest from being completed.
• When attempting to turn in the quest to Delphine, she may not recognize that Esbern is with you even if he is following you. This is accompanied by the game freezing at random intervals for one to three seconds. There is no known cause or fix at this point.
• There may be a glitch where if you are halfway through the Thieves Guild quests, you will not be able to continue the quest as there are no dialogue options for Brynjolf.
  • This may occur if you have started the quest A Chance Arrangement, where the first requirement is to speak with Brynjolf outside. Complete that to advance.
• Sometimes there is no option to bribe Brynjolf. ^?
• After you talk to Esbern and start to follow him out, when you exit the Ratway Warrens and then enter and shortly after exit the Ragged Flagon and enter the Ratway, Esbern will exit into Riften and sometimes the door will shut and you can not open it. To fix this just reload to a past save, preferably the autosave when you entered the Ratway with Esbern. ^?

Quest Stages

A Cornered Rat (MQ202)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
10		The Thalmor are just as puzzled as we are about why dragons are returning. I learned that they are looking for a Blade named Esbern, who Delphine says is an expert on ancient dragon lore. We need to find him before the Thalmor do. (Objective is assigned): Talk to Brynjolf
20		(Objective is assigned): Search the Ratway for Esbern's hideout
50		The Thalmor are just as puzzled as we are about why dragons are returning. I learned that they are looking for a Blade named Esbern, who is supposed to be an expert on ancient dragon lore. I've learned that he's hiding out in the Ratway Warrens in Riften. (Objective is assigned): Find Esbern in the Ratway Warrens
150		The Thalmor are just as puzzled as we are about why dragons are returning. I learned that they are looking for a Blade named Esbern, who is supposed to be an expert on ancient dragon lore. I found Esbern hiding in the Ratway in Riften, and convinced him to let me in to explain myself. (Objective is assigned): Talk to Esbern
180		The Thalmor are just as puzzled as we are about why dragons are returning. I learned that they are looking for a Blade named Esbern, who is supposed to be an expert on ancient dragon lore. I found Esbern hiding in the Ratway in Riften, and convinced him to let me in to explain myself.

• The following empty quest stages were omitted from the table: 0, 1, 5, 55, 56, 60, 65, 70, 100, 130, 140, 145, 160, 170, 175, 200, 300.

 

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 MQ202 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 MQ202.

Prev: Diplomatic Immunity

Up: Main Quest

Next: Alduin's Wall