Skyrim:Find the Thalmor Assassin

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The Thalmor are after Malborn. Help him get to safety. Quest Giver: Malborn Location(s): Windhelm Prerequisite Quest: Diplomatic Immunity Reward: Gold ID: MQ201Malborn

An assassin waits for his prey outside Windhelm

Quick Walkthrough

1. Talk to Malborn after the quest Diplomatic Immunity.
2. Locate and kill the assassin.
3. Return to Malborn.

Detailed Walkthrough

An Old Friend

If you manage to get Malborn out of the Thalmor Embassy at the end of Diplomatic Immunity, he will run all the way to Windhelm and seek shelter inside the New Gnisis Cornerclub, a Dunmer tavern located in the Gray Quarter. Due to his treachery, Malborn is obviously blacklisted by the Thalmor, and has decided to flee to Morrowind; however, every time he tries to sneak out of Windhelm, he sees a suspicious Khajiit outside the gates. Convinced that the Thalmor have sent an assassin to kill him, and still blaming you and Delphine for putting him in a tight spot, the scared Malborn is now stuck in the Cornerclub and will request your assistance to get him to safety.

Locate the Assassin

Malborn will not provide a description of the supposed assassin, just that he is standing outside the city gates. Your map marker will disappear when you exit Windhelm, so cross the pathway and make your way to the Khajiit trading caravan camped behind Windhelm Stables. You will find caravan leader Ma'dran in his tent and his fellow Khajiiti roaming around, offering their services, so start asking around. One of the more talkative Khajiiti, Ri'saad, will point you towards a stranger in the group, namely J'datharr, who stands on the fringes, away from the others. Approach him and he will try and brush you off. Send him a message from Malborn and he will blow his cover and attack. The peaceful Khajiiti in the caravan will do nothing to help you, so take him out yourself. After the kill, loot his body and read his note, obviously written by the Thalmor. Lastly, return to the Cornerclub and tell Malborn the good news. He will be grateful and reward you with some of the gold he stole from the Thalmor. He will then leave Windhelm, steer towards the safety of Morrowind, and disappear from the game.

Notes

• After talking to you upon your return, Malborn will start (slowly) running out of the city. It's possible to "escort" him all the way to Refugees' Rest at the border with Morrowind. As soon as he reaches the podium with the Decree of Monument on it, he will disappear from the game.
• This quest will cancel out if Malborn was killed prior to this quest.
• The Thalmor assassin may carry an object titled <Missing Name>. It is unknown whether this will affect gameplay if taken.
• The quest can be started as soon as Malborn arrives in Windhelm. When the player arrives in Windhelm, a 24 hour timer starts, regardless if you talk to Malborn or not. Ri'saad's caravan (which normally travels between Markarth and Whiterun) will be placed outside of Windhelm, and Ri'saad is the only character in game who can be asked about the assassin ("I'm looking for a Khajiit... might be a Thalmor spy."). If you let the 24 hours pass without talking to Ri'saad outside of Windhelm, his caravan will be reverted to the old path, and Ma'dran's caravan will once again camp outside of Windhelm. The only way to then advance the quest is to kill him and then loot his note (or use the console, see below).

Bugs

• If the <Missing Name> item looted from J'datharr is equipped, it will take the place of a shield. ^?
• If you let the hidden 24 hour timer between arriving in Windhelm after Malborn getting there, and Ri'saad's caravan returning to their old route, run out, the only way to advance the quest is to pickpocket the assassin. ^?
  • You can circumvent this by opening the console and entering setstage MQ201Malborn 30. This will place a quest marker on the assassin and allow you to talk to him. After picking "Malborn has a message for you." he will turn hostile and you can kill him normally.
• Upon completion of this quest, you can talk to Malborn again, but he will have the same dialogue option as if you are starting the quest even though it is completed. ^?
  • This appears to have no effect however, as the quest cannot be repeated.
• There seems to be a bug where none of the Khjaiit will tell you about J'datharr being the stranger in the group meaning you can not talk to him to send him a message from Malborn. Reloading does not fix this nor does looting the note from his pocket. The only way to continue if this happens is to kill J'datharr (preferably from hiding as to not incur a bounty) and the mission will update to tell Malborn the assassin is dead. ^?

Quest Stages

Find the Thalmor Assassin (MQ201Malborn)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
20		I met Malborn hiding out in Windhelm. He thinks there's a Thalmor assassin on his trail, a Khajiit, waiting for him outside the city. I promised I'd take care of this assassin, if there really is one. (Objective is assigned): Find the Thalmor assassin
100		I met Malborn hiding out in Windhelm. I killed the Thalmor assassin who was on his trail. I should let him know it's safe for him to leave Windhelm. (Objective is assigned): Tell Malborn the assassin is dead
150

• The following empty quest stages were omitted from the table: 0, 10, 15, 30, 50, 80, 110, 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 MQ201Malborn 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 MQ201Malborn.