Elder Scrolls Online Season One introduced a new Thieves Guild questline, that takes place after the events of the first questline introduced in 2016 and it begins with The Codex Caper. You don’t need to complete the old questline first, but there are spoilers for it if you haven’t. You also receive new dialogue options and other bits if you’ve completed that one first, but it’s entirely up to you if you want take go out of your way to do that first.
There’s no level requirement, so you can jump into the first quest The Codex Caper by purchasing the questline for free off of the Crown Store, while it’s still available. Once you’ve done that, you can begin your search for Quen, and ultimately, great treasure.
All told, The Codex Caper in The Elder Scrolls Online should take around an hour, and will require you to lockpick once. If you’re good at it, no issues. If you’re bad at it, like me, bring lots of lockpicks and brute force through the Trivial Lock. Most of this mission requires you to avoid guards, but it seemed to not matter, as long as they didn’t escape or kill me.
This mission starts off by purchasing the Thieves Guild storyline for free in the Crown Shop, and it will task you with finding Quen, which we’ve already covered. That means the first steps, Speak with Skeever Nivo, Misdirect Captain Sansonne, and meet with Quen at the Rosy Lion can be found here.
If you just head upstairs at the Rosy Lion, you’ll find the Yvierry Estate Map, and it’s not especially difficult to locate. It’ll be sitting right on a table, and you won’t get into any real trouble taking it. Then, head back downstairs into the main room, and you’ll see a quest icon on Basil Menant. You can choose to speak with him or not. I recommend doing so.
Having the map will then lead you outside, and to the northern part of town to the Yvierry Estate, where you’ll talk to Quen. You’ll then need to bypass a Trivial Lock, but you stand a decent chance of brute forcing. If you are good at lockpicking, it won’t be any real challenge.
If you don’t care about niceties, you can just kill your way through a little hedge maze, or you can jump into the yellow glowing pot to avoid being seen. When the guard is walking away from you, resume your travels. The rest of the doors are unlocked (other than the Strongroom), so it’s smooth sailing. Enter the house where you see the quest marker to continue.
You’ll have to wait a few moments while scoping out the place, so just follow Quen until you can talk to her again. The next step of Elder Scrolls Online’s The Codex Caper calls for stealth, if you feel like it. There are plenty of items to hide in and behind while avoiding the patrolling guards. Just follow the quest icon upstairs and around corners, and before too long, you’ll be at the Master Bedchamber.
It’s really up to you if you want to get into fights or not. I only had to kill a few guards, but it kept the optional objective on screen, so I guess if they don’t call for help or anything, it still counts. This house is massive, so you’ll spend several minutes going upstairs, and hiding behind curtains and in massive pots.
There are two Ornate Jewelry Boxes in this room, in Elder Scrolls Online. The one on the desk has the Strongroom Key and a Letter. You can loot both though, there’s no harm in that. There are some guards in here, so do be careful (or kill them). It didn’t increase my bounty, so I was pretty much a murder-hobo anytime I was spotted.
The next step of The Codex Caper in Elder Scrolls Online is pretty simple. Head over to the nearby Strongroom after leaving the Master Bedroom, and follow Queen. When given the prompt, unlock the Strongroom, and enter to search for Treasures.
There are two treasures in this room with the quest icon on them, so just pick them up and leave through the Side Room. You’ll have to wait for a conversation to happen, and after that, a timed event that is also a stealth event begins! You have about two minutes before the Koldane Cartel finds you and takes hold of you.
You’re on a timer, so you can choose to deal with it whatever way you want. Fighting enemies takes time, but so does stealth. I was choosing to steal everything I could and fight my way out, but unfortunately, I got wrapped up and time ran out. If you get out in time, just jump to speak to Skeever Nivo.
If you get caught, you won’t have any extra treasure to bring back for this Elder Scrolls Online quest, so keep that in mind. If you do, you’ll have to wait a minute or two before your rescuer sets you free. Then, just leave through the side door, and enter the nearby Gallery to defeat Enforcer Urfan. They can summon wolves, and have a charge attack, but other than that are no great threat. Just deal with them and get outside.
Get to Skeever Nivo, who is nearby, and while optional, you may as well talk to them. Mount up and leave town, because the Thieves Den has an entrance outside. If you’re wanted, do your best to avoid the guards, and get there as soon as possible.
Once inside, you’ll talk to your rescuer, Basil Menant, and then tell Quen whether you were successful in stealing more loot, or if you got caught. Either way, she’ll reward you with the Curated Bahraha’s Curse Coffer, and the Prowler’s Talisman and Elder Scrolls Online's The Codex Caper will be complete. You will also immediately begin the next quest, Three Thieves in Daggerfall.
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