Oblivion:Independent Thievery

Steal as much as you can, and sell it to a Thieves Guild fence. Quest Giver: Armand Christophe in the Waterfront District Location(s): Everywhere Prerequisite Quest: May the Best Thief Win Reward: Advancing in the Thieves Guild ID: TGStolenGoods

Fence stolen goods for jobs!

Detailed Walkthrough

Independent Thievery

This is an ongoing quest, triggered immediately after completing May the Best Thief Win, your initiation into the Thieves Guild. The sole purpose of the quest is to keep track of the amount of stolen goods you have fenced, as each and every 'special job', starting with Untaxing the Poor, requires a particular amount of fenced gold to become available. See quest section for requirements.

Fences

You will gain access to fences in a set order as you progress in rank within the Thieves Guild by completing the 'special jobs' offered to you by your Doyen. If you are not a member of the Thieves Guild, and select the barter option with a fence, they will claim that they do not know what you are talking about, and will not buy, or sell items. You can still invest in their shops though.

Fence	Location	Gold	Mercantile	Rank Required
Ongar the World-Weary	Bruma	600	60	Pickpocket
Dar Jee	Leyawiin	800	70	Bandit
Luciana Galena	Bravil	1000	80	Cat Burglar
Orrin	Anvil	1200	90	Shadowfoot
Fathis Ules	Imperial City/Chorrol	1500	100	Master Thief

• After completing the Sins of the Father quest, you can no longer use Fathis Ules as a fence (see this section for details).
• An unaffiliated fence is added by the Thieves Den official download, named Khafiz.

Quests

Once you have fenced enough items, each of the "special jobs" will be triggered. The number after each of the following quests is the amount that must be fenced before it is triggered.

Untaxing the Poor: Steal the tax records for the Waterfront residents. (50 gold fenced)

The Elven Maiden: Steal a statuette for a mystery buyer. (100 gold fenced)

Ahdarji's Heirloom: Recover a ring stolen by a freelance thief. (200 gold fenced)

Misdirection: Help the Thieves Guild get the waterfront back to normal. (300 gold fenced)

Lost Histories: Finish a job from which a guildmate has not returned. (400 gold fenced)

Taking Care of Lex: Get Hieronymus Lex reassigned. (500 gold fenced)

Turning a Blind Eye: Steal a stone for the Gray Fox. (600 gold fenced)

Arrow of Extrication: Steal an arrow for the Gray Fox. (700 gold fenced)

Boots of Springheel Jak: Find out where Springheel Jak is buried and retrieve a pair of magical boots for the Gray Fox. (800 gold fenced)

The Ultimate Heist: Steal an Elder Scroll for the Gray Fox, and for glory! (1000 gold fenced)

Tips

• When starting out, you only have access to one fence in Bruma. If you are inclined, subsequent Thieves Guild quests can be made a bit easier by maxing-out the fencing prerequisites there early on.
• Even after you can access better fences, use the old ones for less expensive things. The "lower ranked" fences may have less gold, but they also have less Mercantile Skill, which makes it easier to get good deals for your loot. Investing in the lower ranked fences makes them much more useful.
• Good sources for stolen items include:
  • Armor from the Imperial Armory, located in the Prison District.
  • The Legion Commander's chest in the Imperial Legion Offices can hold up to three pieces of armor and three weapons, with a chance of one of each being enchanted, all of which can be the highest quality available.
  • The basement in Drakelowe contains over 4000 gold worth of potions and soul gems (the entrance is hidden inside the unlit fireplace).
  • The Castle Skingrad cellar has four racks of wine filled with many bottles worth over 1400 gold, including valuable wines such as Surilie Brothers Vintage 399 and Tamika Vintage 399.
  • The Red Diamond Jewelry store in the Imperial City Market District has over 1500 gold in lightweight, non-random jewelry, in addition to four randomly generated counters to steal from as well.
  • Several guaranteed magic items are found in houses or stores and can therefore be stolen.
  • In Castle Chorrol you can steal a Varla Stone (base price 1000) fairly easily. The stone is located in a display case on a staircase in the audience room (the room with the thrones).
  • The Skooma Den in Bravil holds 38 bottles of skooma (total of 2850 gold), though most must be pickpocketed. This is fairly easy as several of the residents have 0 Responsibility (see the place page for a full list of possible people who may be present). If the residents with 0 responsibility are the only witnesses then there will be no consequences for any theft.
  • After the Secrets of the Ayleids quest, stealing back the Ayleid statues and fencing them should be relatively easy, because Umbacano will no longer be in his private quarters.
  • Over the course of the game, several houses will become (mostly) uninhabited due to the death of their owners but with contents still marked as stolen. These include the homes of Arnora Auria (Bruma); Aldos Othran (Cheydinhal); Jakben Imbel, Umbacano, and Agarmir (Imperial City); Glarthir (Skingrad) and many of the Mythic Dawn Sleeper Agents.
  • There is a glitch that allows you to turn non-stolen items into stolen items.
• You cannot fence items with no value, as they will never appear in the fence's inventory when sold.

Bugs

• If you fence a lot of loot in one visit, you will exceed the amount necessary to get the next few special jobs. This may result in any following Independent Thievery quests becoming stuck in your quest log.
  • An advantage of this is that as long as the quest is active, your map marker will always direct you to your highest fence (which is Fathis Ules by the end of the storyline).
  • The quest can be forcibly completed using the console command setstage TGStolenGoods 120.

Journal Entries

Independent Thievery (TGStolenGoods)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
20		Armand told me that he won't have any commission jobs for me until I sell more stolen property to Ongar the fence. I'll need about 50 gold worth of stolen goods before he will trust me sufficiently.
25		I've reached my goal. I have fenced over 50 gold worth of goods. I should go see Armand sometime. He might have something for me.
30		Armand told me that he won't have another commission job for me until I sell more stolen property to Ongar the fence. I'll need about 100 gold worth of stolen goods before he will trust me sufficiently.
35		I've reached my goal. I have fenced over 100 gold worth of goods. I should go see Armand sometime. He might have something for me.
40		S'krivva told me that she won't have another commission job for me until I sell more stolen property to Ongar or Dar Jee. I'll need about 200 gold worth of stolen goods before she will trust me sufficiently.
45		I've reached my goal. I have fenced over 200 gold worth of goods. I should go see S'krivva sometime. She might have something for me.
50		S'krivva told me that she won't have any commission jobs for me until I sell more stolen property to Ongar or Dar Jee. I'll need about 300 gold worth of stolen goods before she will trust me sufficiently.
55		I've reached my goal. I have fenced over 300 gold worth of goods. I should go see S'krivva sometime. She might have something for me.
60		S'krivva told me that she won't have any commission jobs for me until I sell more stolen property to a fence. I'll need about 400 gold worth of stolen goods before she will trust me sufficiently. I should check out the new fence, Luciana Galena.
65		I've reached my goal. I have fenced over 400 gold worth of goods. I should go see S'krivva sometime. She might have something for me.
70		S'krivva told me that she won't have another commission job for me until I sell more stolen property to the guild fences, like Luciana Galena. I'll need about 500 gold worth of stolen goods before she will trust me sufficiently.
75		I've reached my goal. I have fenced over 500 gold worth of goods. I should go see S'krivva sometime. She might have something for me.
80		S'krivva told me that she has no more commission jobs for me. However, the Gray Fox may be contacting me soon. Until then I sell more stolen property to the guild fences. I'll need at least 600 gold worth of stolen goods to get his attention.. I should see what kinds of prices I can get from the new fence, Orrin.
85		I've reached my goal. I have fenced over 600 gold worth of goods. When I'm in the cities, I'll have to keep an eye out for messengers from the Gray Fox. He could call for me at any time. I should wait in the Imperial City if I want them to find me quickly.
90		The Gray Fox may be contacting me soon. Until then I sell more stolen property to the guild fences, like Orrin. I'll need at least 700 gold worth of stolen goods to get his attention..
95		I've reached my goal. I have fenced over 700 gold worth of goods. When I'm in the cities, I'll have to keep an eye out for another messenger from the Gray Fox. He could call for me at any time. I should wait in the Imperial City if I want them to find me quickly.
100		The Gray Fox may be contacting me soon. Until then I sell more stolen property to the guild fences. I'll need at least 800 gold worth of stolen goods to get his attention.. Now I can use the best fence the guild has, Fathis Ules.
105		I've reached my goal. I have fenced over 800 gold worth of goods. When I'm in the cities, I'll have to keep an eye out for another messenger from the Gray Fox. He could call for me at any time. I should wait in the Imperial City if I want them to find me quickly.
110		The Gray Fox may be contacting me soon. Until then I sell more stolen property to the guild fences, such as Fathis Ules. I'll need at least 1000 gold worth of stolen goods to get his attention..
115		I've reached my goal. I have fenced over 1000 gold worth of goods. When I'm in the cities, I'll have to keep an eye out for another messenger from the Gray Fox. He could call for me at any time. I should wait in the Imperial City if I want them to find me quickly.
120	Finishes quest

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.
• It is possible to use the console to advance through the quest by entering setstage TGStolenGoods 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. See SetStage for more information.