Oblivion:Fingers of the Mountain

Quick Walkthrough
# Speak with Teekeeus. He wants you to find out why Earana - an excommunicated mage - is hanging around town.
# Find Earana around town and speak with her to be asked for help in retrieving a book.
# Return to Teekeeus. He tells you to bring the book directly to him instead.
# Travel north up the mountain to Cloud Top and retrieve the book.
# At this point, you can either give the book to Teekeeus or Earana:
#* If given to Teekeeus, Earana will ask you to steal it back (if you say no the quest will end here).
#* If given to Earana, you will be asked to steal it back by Teekeeus (but wait until Earana gives you her notes first).
#* Either way you will receive the Chorrol Recommendation.
# Afterwards, take the note from Earana and head back to Cloud Top. Follow the instructions below to gain the Finger of the Mountain spell. (optional)

Detailed Walkthrough
Chorrol Mages Guild
Speak to Teekeeus in the Chorrol Mages Guild about a recommendation, and you will receive instructions to find out what is bothering Earana - an excommunicated sorcerer. In short, Teekeeus just wants her out of town to avoid any trouble.

Talk to Earana
Find Earana either on the street outside the hall, or at The Grey Mare near the main gate. Talk to her and agree to help her find a book, Fingers of the Mountain. Receive the directions needed to find it and inform Teekeeus about the book. He wants you to find the book for the guild before Earana does.

Fingers of the Mountain can be found on Cloud Top, which is a ways northwest from Chorrol. Take the path that goes up the mountain directly in front of the north gate, keeping to the left at any forks. The book is located on the charred corpse.

Return the Book
There are two options at this point and both seem to lead to the same result, except for the amount of Fame gained:

Option #1: Give the Book to Teekeeus
Return with the book to Teekeeus to receive your recommendation and 2 additional Fame points. The quest will be marked as "completed" in your journal. If you are only interested in gaining access to the Arcane University, you have completed the requirements for such (although this may not be apparent; see Bugs).

However, the quest update suggests that you should tell Earana that she won't be getting the book. You can delay getting back to Earana at this point, especially since there are no additional Fame points to gain, and Finger of the Mountain is a poor reward, being far more expensive to cast than a similar custom spell.

When you speak to Earana, she will be very angry at you and will demand that you steal the book back from the Mages Guild, starting the quest "Fingers of the Mountain, Part II". If you refuse her request, this side quest will end right away and she will refuse to talk to you again.

Otherwise, steal the book back from Teekeeus - he puts it inside the chest in his room. Give the book to Earana and she will translate it in "a day's time", but you should wait for 25 hours, as 24 hours doesn't always register correctly.
You can anticipate Earana's demand to steal the book by simply following Teekeeus after you give it to him. If you do so, your sly efforts reveal the location of the container in his bedroom so that you can snatch it right away without looking too hard for it. Talk to Earana to start Part II, end the dialogue, and then wait for the quest to update before turning in the book to her. Alternatively, if you're good at sneaking and pickpocketing, right after giving Teekeeus the book, go into sneak mode and pickpocket the book off him. Note if you get caught, you will be in violation of guild rules and be kicked out.

Option #2: Give the Book to Earana
Give the book to Earana first: this will add 1 point to your total Fame. She needs to study the book for a whole day, and you should come back to see her again after that to get your "reward". She then departs to her room at the Gray Mare Inn.

Speak to Teekeeus and confess you've handed out the book to Earana: he'll ask you to steal it back.

Go to Earana's room at the Grey Mare Inn and steal the book back from the chest behind the door - you can do this right away without waiting 24 hours for Earana to transcribe it as she will not notice the book has disappeared. As you open Earana's chamber door, she will usually get pushed on the right side behind it, making it easy to access the chest and steal the book without getting seen or caught.

Hand the book back to Teekeeus, who agrees to overlook your transgression and send the Chorrol Recommendation to the Arcane University (no additional Fame point is given at this stage).

Fingers of the Mountain, Part II
For the optional second part of the quest (listed separately in your journal as "Fingers of the Mountain, Part II"), return to Earana 24 hours after you've handed her the book to get a note instructing you on how to obtain your "reward" (a powerful new shock spell) for helping her out. 

You'll need a shock spell and a Welkynd Stone to obtain your reward. You can search within any Ayleid ruin, or any of the locations listed on the Welkynd Stone page, for a stone. If you don't have a shock spell you can purchase one from Druja in Skingrad's Mages Guild, where you can also find a welkynd stone in a display case. You should also bring some resist shock items/potions.

Return to Cloud Top with the Welkynd Stone and prepare to cast a shock spell at the pedestal. You can use an on touch spell, but it is much better to use an on target spell so you can try and dodge the powerful counterspell that will hit you. Stand near one of the pillars that are situated around the site, drink your potions or put on your enchanted items just in case, then cast the spell and move behind a pillar. If you survive you will get a new leveled spell called "Finger of the Mountain". 

While the spell is leveled, it is also badly costed. All versions of the spell above the level 5 version are more expensive than any self-made spells, and can be extremely expensive to cast, bordering on impossible. Thus it's best to do this quest before level 5 if you want to make any use of the spell. After that, you can make your own version of the spell once you gain access to the Arcane University.

Notes
 
One way to avoid being obliterated by the pillar's shock spell during Fingers of the Mountain, Part II is to position yourself next to one of the two surrounding columns, cast your shock spell at the pillar, then retreat behind the column. Because the pillar's spell is aimed, it will hit the column and you won't receive any damage, but still receive Finger of the Mountain. Alternately, just stand on top of the pillar. The shock blast usually misses.
It is possible that the marker for Teekeeus will remain on your map even after you complete "Fingers of the Mountain". One way to avoid seeing this bug if you do all other recommendation quests before this one. Also, if you speak to Earana after the quest, the glitch disappears.
If you ended up giving the book to Earana during this quest, you can pickpocket it back from her after the quest is over and place it back in Teekeeus's chest. Earana will never notice that the book is gone, but Teekeeus apparently notices that it is back, since the dialogue option that leads him into mentioning that it has gone missing will disappear.
If you want to learn a higher level version of Finger of the Mountain, you can still receive the recommendation and proceed through the quest up until the point where you cast the shock spell on the pillar. The version of Finger of the Mountain you're rewarded with will be based on your level at the moment you cast the spell and finish the quest -- not when you receive the quest.

Getting the Spell and Keeping the Book
In order to get the Fingers of the Mountain spell, as well as keeping the book and having it marked as not stolen, follow these steps:

#Get Fingers of the Mountain from Cloud Top.
#Go to Chorrol and give the book to Teekeeus. Give it to him while he is sleeping so that he will put it straight into his chest.
#Take the book from the chest. At this point the "Join the Mages Guild" quest is still active.
#Give the book to Earana. She will tell you to wait so she can translate it.
#Wait at least 25 hours.
#If Earana is not at the Grey Mare, find her by the Mages Guild. You will need to pickpocket the book from her. Talk to her so that she will give you instructions to "shock the pillar" at Cloud Top.
#Shock the pillar at Cloud Top, and get the Finger of the Mountain spell.
#Now you can freely drop the book as it is no longer a quest item, but it is still flagged as "stolen". Go to the burned body and place the book in its inventory.
#Close and re-open the burned body's inventory and the book will be there, free of any stolen flags, as it was when you first got it. The flag does not return.

;Notes
The "Join the Mages Guild" quest will no longer be flagged for Chorrol. Also, Teekeus never mentions the book again, and you get into the Mages Guild just fine.
The "cloning" trick with scrolls works on it now, and the book has a weight of 2 and is still worth zero gold.
 

Bugs
 
You can use the command   to enable the remains, or directly add the book via additem with the refID "510d". 
 
 
 
 
 

Journal Entries