Oblivion:Where Spirits Have Lease

Quick Walkthrough
# Purchase Benirus Manor from Velwyn Benirus for 5000 gold.
# Sleep at the manor just once, triggering an attack by ghosts. Kill them.
# Read the scrap of paper on the ground floor of the manor, next to the glowing, broken vase.
# Track down Velwyn and convince him to help you break the manor's curse.
# Take Velwyn to the manor's Sealed Portal so he can unseal it.
# Awaken Lorgren Benirus and defeat him to lift the curse.
# Benirus Manor will fix itself now that the curse has been lifted; it is fully upgraded automatically.

Detailed Walkthrough
Too Good to be True
Anyone in town may tell you the rumor that Velwyn Benirus has a manor for sale right in town. He can be found at The Count's Arms inn between noon and midnight (at other times of day, he will be in his room upstairs). Velwyn will offer his grandfather's house, Benirus Manor, to you for 5000 gold and says you can take a look at it first. 

Benirus Manor is located in the east of town, but you need the key to enter, which you will receive only after having bought the house. It is a large, though rather dingy place, but don't worry, as it will be better once you complete the quest. The manor is indeed haunted: sleep in the bed upstairs and you will be rudely awoken by three Benirus Manor Ghosts.  As with all ghosts, they are immune to normal weapons, so be prepared with silver, daedric, or enchanted weapons, or magic.  Your fists will also damage them provided you have reached at least Journeyman level in the Hand to Hand skill.

A Dark Secret
thumb|right|"The hand and note of Lorgren"
Head downstairs to the main floor to find that a jar has fallen from a cupboard (the jar only falls after you have defeated the ghosts upstairs.) The broken jar has spilled its contents onto the floor: a Skeletal Hand holding a ''Scrap from Lorgren's Diary.  Be sure to take both items, or else you will have to come back for them later.''' More Benirus Manor Ghosts appear, and you can put them to rest or just escape the manor; there will be new ones after your return.
 

Where's Velwyn?
Now you have to find Velwyn Benirus once again. Make sure you bring the scrap from the diary with you, to convince him that he's the only one that can open the secret door in the manor. Ask around Anvil and you'll be sent back to The Count's Arms. Speak with the bartender and he'll tell you that Velwyn went to The Imperial City. Go to the Elven Gardens District, and look for him in The King and Queen Tavern.  It may take Velwyn some time to arrive at the tavern; your quest marker will point to the tavern even if he is still in transit.  Once he arrives, speak with him to learn the sordid details and find out that he feels guilty selling you the place. Make sure you have the piece of Lorgren Benirus' diary with you. His disposition must be raised to at least 60, otherwise he just says "Sorry. But how is this my problem?" He agrees to meet you back at The Count's Arms in Anvil to help you lift the curse.

Who You Gonna Call?
thumb|right|"The Sealed Portal"
Meet Velwyn at the inn (you may have to wait a few hours until he returns), and follow him to the manor's basement, fighting or ignoring the ghosts you meet on the way. At the far end of the basement there's a Sealed Portal, which Velwyn will open. Once open, the remaining ghosts disappear and Velwyn runs from the manor in fear, leaving you alone to face what lies beyond the portal. Behind the wall there's a secret room. In it, you'll find the  Tome of Unlife (worth 350 gold).  In the open sarcophagus at the south end are a Weak Potion of Healing and a Sack containing a leveled piece of enchanted jewelry (plus four gems and an unenchanted ring). ''Lorgren's Altar dominates the middle of the room, with Lorgren's Skeleton'' lying on top of it.
 

Lorgren's Deception
thumb|right|''"Lorgren's altar"''
Stand inside the seal next to the altar and touch it to activate it.  Lorgren's dead voice will ask you to lift the curse by returning his hand. With the Skeletal Hand in your inventory touch Lorgren's Skeleton. It turns out that you've been deceived and Lorgren Benirus rises from the dead to live again as a lich.  At the same time, the portal closes behind you, so you cannot retreat. When he's killed for good, he leaves the unique Staff of Flame. Head back to The Count's Arms, and speak with Velwyn. He thanks you and returns to The Imperial City, ending the quest. If you return to your no longer cursed home, you will discover that it is fully repaired and cleaned. Having lifted the curse you are granted immediate access to all of your home's facilities without having to pay for upgrades, unlike the other homes you may purchase.
 

Notes
The manor ghosts don't open doors; you can force them out of the bedroom and shut the door, allowing you to heal and then venture out to strike before retreating behind the bedroom door.
If the first time you sleep inside the manor coincides with the activation of the quest A Knife in the Dark, Lucien will interrupt your fight with the manor ghosts and leave once the conversation is done without offering his assistance as the ghosts will not attack him.
Lorgren is a leveled lich.  At low levels he is a very challenging opponent, but he actually has much less health and weaker spells than a standard lich.  Because he is leveled, his soul can range in strength from lesser to grand.  His Staff of Flame is not leveled, however.
Once the quest is complete, Carahil will congratulate you and thank you for finishing the task that she was unable to complete.
Sleeping in the bed the first time, when you are awoken by the ghosts, will not level you up.

Bugs
 
Activating the "Sealed Portal" or casting  a Charm spell on him may fix this. You can also just wait one hour, after which his behavior should be reset.
  If this does not work, you can use the SetStage console command   to advance the quest and the   command to pass through the wall and come out the other side. Once there, you can proceed with the quest as normal and activate the altar. At which, the portal should open and Velwyn should leave.
  Similar to the portal animation failing at the end of A Brush with Death, this problem can be caused by setting the default 30:1 timescale used by the game to something else. If you have used mods or console commands to change the default timescale, put the following in the command console before Velwyn starts opening the portal:
: 
:After the animation has completed, you may set the timescale back to your preferred value.
 
:*    may be entered into the command console to advance the quest.
:*Reload a previous save.
 
 
 

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