Skyrim:Taking Care of Business

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Help Brynjolf collect some debts for the Thieves Guild. Quest Giver: Brynjolf Location(s): Riften Prerequisite Quest: A Chance Arrangement Next Quest: Loud and Clear Reward: Membership in Thieves Guild, full set of Thieves Guild Armor ID: TG01

Bersi's Urn

Quick Walkthrough

1. Speak to Brynjolf in the Ragged Flagon.
2. (Optional) Speak to Talen-Jei.
3. Speak to Keerava.
4. Speak to Bersi Honey-Hand.
5. Speak to Haelga.
6. Return to Brynjolf.

Detailed Walkthrough

The Ratways are fairly easy to progress through as you will never face more than one enemy at the same time apart from the very first corridor. After facing the two bandits you will encounter a raised drawbridge, which will force you to jump down into the room below. At this point you can either open the expert-locked gate nearby or make your way through the remaining part of the sewer. Either way, you will arrive at a final room containing a bandit and a copy of Beggar, a Pickpocket skill book. Before leaving, activate the lever on the wall: this will lower the drawbridge and provide a shorter way in and out. If you have at least two levels of the shout Whirlwind Sprint, you can also jump the gap to the other side of the drawbridge and carefully edge around until you reach the lever.

Use the statue as pawn to break Haelga

Once you enter the Ragged Flagon, find Brynjolf at the bar. He will instruct you to collect debts from three business owners in town and will offer a few tips on how to get the money out of them.

• Keerava's debt (inside The Bee and Barb): Speak first to Talen-Jei just inside the door. He tells you he's in love with Keerava and, to protect her from harm, reveals she has some family on a farm not far across the Morrowind border. With this information talk to Keerava and she'll hand over the cash.

• Bersi Honey-Hand's debt (inside Pawned Prawn): To convince this stubborn Nord man you'll have to hurt him indirectly. Destroy the Dwemer urn in front of the counter with your weapon or fists and he will buckle.

• Haelga's debt (inside Haelga's Bunkhouse): Haelga is a devout follower of Dibella and you can use that to your advantage. Upon entering, turn right and steal the statue in the corner. Threaten to throw it down a well and she'll pay up immediately.

Whichever one is the last one to be racketeered will give up the money without incident. After you have collected the debts, return to Brynjolf. He'll lead you to talk to Guildmaster Mercer Frey, who will give you a new task and welcome you to the guild.

By completing the quest, you gain a few perks:

• Membership of the Thieves Guild.
• A full set of enchanted Thieves Guild armor (Armor, Boots, Gloves, Hood) from Tonilia in the Ragged Flagon.
• The possibility of using Tonilia as a fence.

Achievements

One achievement is unlocked at the end of this quest, when you become a member of the guild:

• Taking Care of Business (10 points/Bronze)

Notes

• If you fail to convince any of the NPCs, you can choose to brawl with two of them; word gets around and the third NPC gladly pays up to avoid a similar fate. If you picked up the Gloves of the Pugilist in the Ratway, you can make short work of both opponents.
• Killing the target NPCs will also complete this quest. Although Brynjolf won't be happy, there are no other repercussions.

Bugs

• Bersi Honey-Hand's prize urn can appear unbreakable. Winning a brawl against him instead advances the quest, or return later as the last person approached gives in without further intimidation. ^?
• If you are suffering from the Brynjolf market bug, please see A Chance Arrangement. ^?
• If one of the NPC merchants is killed during a raid or the town is given to the Imperials during the main storyline, the game will glitch and you will be unable to finish the quest. ^?
• Sometimes this quest will complete and you will be unable to start the next one, even through console commands. This means that if you go into the Ragged Flagon Cistern, you will be trespassing and all of the thieves will turn hostile.
• If Drifa has been killed prior to ending A Chance Arrangement, this quest will not be able to start.
  • This bug is fixed by version 1.3.2 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.

This is commonly known as The Brynjolf "hmmmmm" bug. If either during or after A Chance Arrangement or Taking Care of Business you get the Brynjolf "hmmmmm" bug (where all Brynjolf says is hmmmmm when you try interact with him) do the following Hit tilde "~" for drop down menu, type " setstage TG02 10 " then hit "enter" this will complete quest 2 so you will now have to open a missed trap door to proceed with the main quest. Now hit tilde again then type " player.moveto 49523 " then hit "enter"this will take you to the Ragged Flagon cistern "the thieves guild hide out" find the passage way with the ladder at the end and open to a pull chain. this will open the trap door. Proceed from here to the market and talk to Brynjolf and begin quest 3.

Quest Stages

Taking Care of Business (TG01)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
10		Brynjolf has promised me more work if I'm able to locate him at a tavern called the Ragged Flagon. Judging from the dangerous nature of its location, it seems as though he's having me perform some type of initiation, but I can't be certain. (Objective is assigned): Locate Brynjolf at the Ragged Flagon
20		After successfully locating the Ragged Flagon, Brynjolf has given me a new assignment. Three business owners in Riften are proving to be a thorn in his side and I'm supposed to teach them the error of their ways. I should speak to Brynjolf about these townspeople in the event that they prove to be as stubborn as I'm expecting them to be. (Objective is assigned): Collect Keerava's debt (Objective is assigned): Collect Bersi Honey-Hand's debt (Objective is assigned): Collect Haelga's debt
50		(Objective is assigned): Return to Brynjolf
200		I've dealt with the three troublesome business owners in Riften as Brynjolf had specified. Perhaps now that I've proven my worth to Brynjolf, I can discover more about this mysterious organization that he represents.

• The following empty quest stages were omitted from the table: 0, 12, 30, 35, 40, 42, 45, 47.

 

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 TG01 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 TG01.

Prev: A Chance Arrangement

Up: Thieves Guild

Next: Loud and Clear