There are many quests to complete in Skyrim’s Thieves Guild quest. Some quests are optional while others are necessary to end the faction’s story. Not every quest you complete for the Thieves Guild is directly about theft. Instead, you may encounter tasks where information retrieval is the goal.
“Scoundrel’s Folly” is a quest that has Dragonborn traveling to Lonely to investigate who is the enemy of the Thieves Guild. Here’s how to complete Scoundrel’s Folly and any rewards you can earn from it.
How to complete Scoundrel’s Folly
There are a few steps required in “Scoundrel’s Folly”, however, you can complete some optional objectives.
Talk to Mercer Frey
Talk to Mercer Frey in Ragged Flagon, and he’ll inform you of a man named Gulum-Ei, a former ally of the Thieves Guild. Mercer needs you to investigate him and gather information on a possible culprit working against the thieves faction. Gulum-Ei is at Solitude, so that’s where you need to travel. Loneliness is located at the location on the map below.
You can optionally talk to Brynjolf before leaving Ragged Flagon and he will give you more information about Gulum-Ei. Brynjolf will tell you to follow or bribe Gulum-Ei for information.
Bribing and stalking Gulum-Ei
Travel to Solitude and into Winking Skeever, is one of the first buildings on the left side of the city when you first enter through the main gate. Gulum-Ei is located to the left inside of the Winking Skeever, and you can approach him without any hostility. If for any reason Gulum-Ei is not in the Winking Skeever, follow your quest marker to his location.
Talk to Gulum-Ei and convince or bribe him. Bribing him requires a lower Speaking skill, so that might be your only option. If you bribe Gulum-Ei, then you’ll need to get Firebrand Wine from the Blue Palace in Solitude, will show up on your map via the quest marker.
Once you bring the Firebrand Liquor Box to Gulum-Ei after successfully bribing or persuading him, he will tell you that the woman working against the Thieves Association doesn’t like Mercer Frey.
Unfortunately, that’s all Gulum-Ei will tell you, so you have to track him inside the Eastern Empire Company Warehouse next to the Lonely Pier, that’s where he goes after finishing the conversation.
There are guards inside the warehouse that will become hostile if they see you, this is also true for Gulum-Ei, so you need to keep an eye on him using stealth.
If your Sneak skill isn’t high enough to avoid detection, then you can use the water in the shed to evade the guards while slowly tracking Gulum-Ei. This is one of the easiest ways to avoid agitating the guards.
There is a building above the pier containing the Eastern Empire Shipping Map, that you can sell to Delvin Mallory, in Ragged Flagon. You need to take the stairs to the left of the pier to get to the building, which you can see in the image above.
Next, follow Gulum-Ei through a secret door, and you’ll enter the Brinewater Grotto.
Enter Brinewater Grotto
Follow Gulum-Ei through the entrance to the Brinewater Grotto, and you’ll immediately notice the bandits. Bandits are hostile to you, so you need to sneak past them to avoid confrontation.
There is water inside the Brinewater Grotto, but it is difficult to use it for sneak attacks because a bandit is swimming in it. Use path-transparent objects as cover.
If you can’t avoid attracting attention, follow Gulum-Ei underwater and try to avoid the bandit by swimming under them. You can kill bandits without getting bonus, but it’s easier to sneak past them to avoid Gulum-Ei becoming hostile.
Once Gulum-Ei reaches his final destination, you can talk to him to find out the location of a woman named Karliah who seems to want to kill Mercer Frey. After researching, Don’t kill Gulum-Ei; otherwise you will not earn the reward. Besides, Gulum-Ei is now available as a merchant that will buy your stolen items.
Talk to Mercer Frey again
After you figure out where Karliah is going, head back to Mercer Frey at Ragged Flagon, and you’ll get the next quest in the Thieves Guild quest.
All Rewards for Completing the “Wrong One” Quest
Scoundrel’s Folly offers a few bonuses. The first reward is to upgrade a piece of your Thieves Guild Armor by talking to Tonilia in Ragged Flagon.
The second bonus is the ability to sell stolen items to Gulum-Ei. However, this can only happen if you don’t kill him.
The third bonus is optional and you can only get it if you get the Eastern Empire Shipping Map inside the Eastern Empire Company Warehouse. You can give the Eastern Empire Shipping Map to Delvin Mallory for 100-800 yellow.
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https://www.thegamer.com/skyrim-scoundrels-folly-quest-walkthrough/ Skyrim: Scoundrel’s Folly Quest Walkthrough
