Skyrim:No One Escapes Cidhna Mine

Quick Walkthrough
# Complete The Forsworn Conspiracy and go to jail.
# Brawl, bribe, and/or lie your way into a meeting with Madanach.
# Follow Madanach's instructions and escape with the rest of the prisoners, or kill Madanach and escape on your own.

Detailed Walkthrough
Doing Time
thumb|left|Borkul the Beast
You will arrive in Cidhna Mine after completing the quest The Forsworn Conspiracy and choosing to go to jail, where Urzoga gra-Shugurz tells you that you will have to mine for your freedom. Your journal will inform you that you must find Madanach, also known as the King in Rags, to help clear your name. Head through the gate, walk down the wooden platform, and talk to miner Uraccen who is sitting by the fire.

Uraccen will say that you won't be able to speak with Madanach unless you can get past his bodyguard Borkul the Beast. Uraccen can entertain you with a story of one of Borkul's exploits before you go speak with him. Borkul is guarding one of the three gates in this room. When you ask him to see Madanach, he tells you that the toll for entry is a shiv. As alternatives to his request, you can brawl with him, intimidate or persuade him, or pickpocket the key from him.
 

To get a shiv, talk to Grisvar the Unlucky, who will ask for a bottle of skooma. To get the skooma, you have to find Duach and pass a speech challenge, win a brawl, or pickpocket him.

Bring the skooma to Grisvar, who will give you the shiv. If you want to keep the shiv, then you can still attempt the alternatives to completing Borkul's request. You can pickpocket an additional bottle of skooma from Duach and bribe Borkul with it. Alternately, you can also start a battle with the Forsworn prisoners (attack anyone but Grisvar). This locks you into killing Madanach, as he becomes hostile. This fight can be difficult; you have no armor, no enchantments, and your only non-conjured weapons are pickaxes and possibly shivs, though you can still use any magic or powers that you may possess. Once you've won, loot the key off Borkul's body and proceed to kill Madanach per the next section.
 

The King in Rags
thumb|right|Planning to escape
Once you get past the Orc, you will see Madanach sitting at a desk. He will direct some disparaging remarks at you regarding your predicament, and ask you what you want. Here, you can take one of two paths: take your revenge, or find your answers. If you seek revenge, you can kill Madanach here (or at any time) and then escape on your own. If you want a fair fight, you can tell him you plan to kill him; otherwise, just attack him. Attacking him will make all of the other prisoners hostile (except Grisvar), but as long as they are out of range, they will not rush in to join the fight. Search Madanach's body for a key and a note, then unlock the gate and exit the prison.

If you seek answers instead, Madanach will direct you to Braig, another prisoner, to hear his story of injustice. After you have convinced Braig to tell his story, return to Madanach. You will see a different side of Madanach, and the horrors that drive his purpose. He tells you he wants to return to the war and will help you escape as well, but only if you prove your loyalty to him by killing Grisvar the Unlucky. If you gave your shiv to Borkul, you can get a new one from Madanach at this point. Find Grisvar and kill him. If you tell him that, "Madanach says hello", Grisvar will eventually become hostile and the other inmates will attack him. Once he's dead, return to Madanach, who will declare you an honorary member of the Forsworn and lead the prisoners to the escape tunnel.

Escape
thumb|left|Fighting for freedom
After a short speech, follow Madanach and the Forsworn through the tunnel to Markarth Ruins. You will encounter a pair of frostbite spiders, then one or two Dwarven Spheres as you make your way through the ruins. If you're on your own, you can sneak off the bridge onto the floor below, as fighting alone will be quite difficult without any of your normal equipment. Once past the automatons, continue through the ruins until you reach a short tunnel that leads to a door to Markarth. Thonar will return your equipment and give you the Silver-Blood Family Ring if you are on your own and have killed Madanach when you exit the gates.

If you sided with Madanach, a Forsworn woman named Kaie will be there to return your confiscated goods and give you the Armor, Boots, Gauntlets, and Helmet of the Old Gods. The Forsworn will all equip their own armor and run out. When you follow them through the door, you will emerge into a skirmish between the Forsworn and Thonar Silver-Blood, accompanied by a Markarth City guard. After a short conversation, Madanach and the Forsworn will attack and kill Thonar, then fight their way through the rest of the city guard to the gates. Note that some of the townsfolk may be hostile to the Forsworn and can be killed during the breakout. To avoid collateral damage, wait in the tunnel until midnight before exiting out to the city, then no one except for the guards will be present.

Outside the city walls, Madanach and any remaining Forsworn will then run to Druadach Redoubt where they will take up permanent residence. Madanach's Forsworn at Druadach Redoubt will remain friendly to you if you sided with him. No matter which approach you used, you will be pardoned.
 

Two Rewards
It is possible to obtain both the Armor of the Old Gods and the Silver-Blood Family Ring, but it might prove difficult for lower-leveled players to survive, as well as keeping Thonar alive:
# Run through the ruins with Madanach and acquire the Armor of the Old Gods.
# Keep him engaged in dialogue to stall him as the other Forsworn escape.
# Kill Madanach, loot him for his key and leave the ruins. The Forsworn will attack you once you exit. DO NOT kill any of them inside the ruins!
# After the Forsworn are taken care of, return to Madanach's corpse; loot and read his note.
# Exit the ruins again, talk to Thonar and receive the Silver-Blood Family Ring.
Townsfolk will speak of how you escaped with the Forsworn and act as if Madanach escaped, however.

If you finish the quest this way, Borkul the Beast will not be hostile with the rest of the Forsworn, and attacking him will incur a bounty. After talking to Thonar, he will be kneeling as if bleeding out.

Another possible way to obtain both the Armor of the Old Gods and the Silver-Blood Family Ring is to:
# Run through the ruins with Madanach and acquire the Armor of the Old Gods.
# As the Forsworn are leaving, attack one of them, leading them to become hostile.
# Kill the Forsworn and simply exit. Thonar will act as if you had escaped by yourself and present you with the Silver-Blood Family Ring.

Note: This method may lead to the bug described below (Thonar not appearing) and is not recommended.

Notes
It is possible to avoid the Markarth massacre by simply going back into the ruins (and then you get the message that the quest is complete). At that point simply reload the auto-save and when you exit the ruins there should be no Forsworn outside.
If you side with Madanach, he gives you all your non-quest items at the exit of the ruin. You will receive all your quest items after Madanach has finished his dialogue with Thonar and started fighting.
Your stolen items will be returned.
Once either Madanach or Thonar returns your items to you, then individuals will act as if you helped that individual, regardless of whether or not you killed him after receiving your items.
If you don't kill Madanach, you can follow him and his men after escaping Markarth. They will lead you to Druadach Redoubt, a Forsworn encampment and cave that is now friendly.
Escaping from Cidhna Mine during this quest does not add to "Jail Escapes" statistic, nor will it grant you the Wanted achievement.
Escaping from Cidhna Mine after killing Madanach causes the Forsworn to spawn at a significantly lower rate, and causes the Forsworn camps to become hostile to one another. 
Escaping with Madanach and the Forsworn bring up the rate of Forsworn attacks on Markarth Hold, and traveling NPCs are commonly attacked afterward. 
The inhabitants of Cidhna Mine are all scripted to die if you decide to kill Madanach in his cell and escape from the mine alone.
This quest counts towards the Sideways achievement regardless of whether you choose to help or kill Madanach.
Vigilant Tyranus, required for the quest The House of Horrors, will never sleep and will thus attempt to attack the Forsworn. As he is essential but weak, he can get stuck in a fight and thus cause the battle to last much longer than necessary, so it is advised to begin his quest in order to remove him from the streets.
Even if you side with Madanach, Forsworn you encounter in locations other than Druadach Redoubt will be hostile.
The Markarth Ruins remain accessible after this quest; however you cannot sneak back into the mine this way as the way back into Madanach's cell is closed off.
If you are doing one of Delvin's and/or Vex's special jobs, and you trigger this quest before you report back to them, you will be told you have failed the Thieves Guild quest when you return to them, because you were arrested. (This has been fixed in a patch)
It is possible to smuggle outside weapons into the prison to use during the current quest. To do this, you must first hotkey the equipment before entering the Shrine of Talos. The items will not show up in the Character Menu, but instead will show in the HOTKEY Menu allowing you to select which hand to equip. Beware, that appears to be only quest items, but then the item(s) never appear in your inventory again.
If you have Dragonborn installed, another method of smuggling possessions into the mine would be to give some of them to the Secret Servant acquired from the Black Book, Untold Legends, before being incarcerated. Once within the mine, simply summon the servant and take your possessions from him.

Bugs
 
 The quest's beginning, fixed by the console command  .
 Escaping the mine with Madanach, fixed by the console command  , using the console command   (Thonar), or by casting a Fury spell on Thonar.
 
Loading a previous save can fix this.
 
Only loading a save prior to capture will fix this. Carefully unfavorite any quest items before capture.
 
 
The bug occurs while Urzoga gra-Shugurz is speaking to you. If you load an old save and kill her before starting the quest, the bug should not be triggered, although due to another bug, killing her might lead to you not being able to escape the prison.
If you own the game on disk, delete your installation, then re-install the game, but don't apply any patches. Play the game; after you've exited the cell, it should work to save the game, apply all patches, then continue playing.
 
Exiting the Markarth ruins to Markarth proper (through the door that's right in front of you at this point) should return your missing quest items during the end of quest notification message.
 
 This is fixed by entering the console command  prid 198E6  to select Thonar, and then  moveto player . This will teleport Thonar Silver-Blood to you. Simply talk to him and retrieve your pardon to finish the quest.
 
To avoid this and the bug mentioned above, equip your returned gear and kill Madanach as fast as possible. Don't wait until the Forsworn return inside, but follow and kill them outside the ruins. If this does not work, going in and out of Cidhna Mines may solve the issue.
 
To fix, place Madanach's note back on his body, and pick it up again.
If you have read Madanach's note at any stage before looting it as part of the quest, the quest will not update further. Fixed by the console command  . When outside you may need to manually finish the objective "Escape from Cidhna Mine" by the console command  .
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
To fix this, cast a Calm spell on him.
Another way to fix this is to run away until you are able to fast travel. Wait 24 hours and then return to escape exit point, Thonar should be calm and complete the quest.
 
 
 

Quest Stages