Shivering:The Lady of Paranoia

Quick Walkthrough
# Speak with Syl to learn of her predicament.
# Interrogate and torture her subjects, with Herdir's assistance, to gain information.
# Follow your leads to find out who is behind the plot against the Duchess.
# Report your findings to Syl and receive your reward, Ruin's Edge.

Detailed Walkthrough
The Grand Inquisitor
Travel to the House of Dementia and meet Syl, the Duchess of Dementia. Syl is a very paranoid woman and is convinced that someone is out to get her. She appoints you to the position of "Grand Inquisitor" and tasks you with uncovering these conspirators. She also grants you the assistance of her torturer Herdir for the duration of the quest. Herdir is a capable Imperial who can be found in the House of Dementia's Torture Chamber. He is quite efficient at "persuading" people to talk using his favorite tool, a bolt of lightning. The countess then leaves you to your investigation with one final warning: "If no one is found, you will be held responsible."

Coercing the Court
You can start the "investigation" with Syl's steward Kithlan, who is conveniently located in the House of Dementia's main chamber, or with Ushnar gro-Shadborgob in Crucible. After torturing or persuading either of those two, you can learn that Anya Herrick, another of Syl's assistants, has been looking even more afraid than usual, and that she may know something. After some brief coercion from Herdir, Anya will reveal that Ma'zaddha is involved in a plot against Syl. Questioning him at this point, however, will reveal nothing, as he boasts that you don't have enough evidence against him.

Canvassing Crucible
A quest update suggests you question Crucible's townsfolk about the conspiracy. As Haskill says, "Paranoia is the order of the day in Crucible. Many keep their eyes open constantly, and some of those eyes may have seen something useful." Certain citizens, such as Caldana Monrius, Bhisha, Cutter or Sickly Bernice, will reveal, with some "persuasion" from Herdir of course, that Ma'zaddha has been meeting surreptitiously with Nelrene, one of Syl's Dark Seducer guards.

The Not-So-Secret Meeting
thumb|right|The not-so-secret meeting
The two conspirators will meet after midnight, near the sewer gate by Brithaur's House. Ask Herdir to wait out of sight, and sneak close enough to eavesdrop on their conversation. If you have difficulty eavesdropping, a good hiding place is located behind the crates underneath a nearby set of stairs. The way to get the best view and listen to the conversation is to use an invisibility spell and stand right next to the two. Once the discussion has ended and Nelrene has departed, confront Ma'zaddha and he will reveal that he is indeed involved in a plot to kill Lady Syl and requests that you meet him at his house in a day's time for more information. If you choose to confront Nelrene immediately after you confront Ma'zaddha she will deny that she is involved and say you have no evidence. The quest log then suggests you need proof or to be more persuasive with Nelrene. If you go and get Herdir to follow you again you can have him torture Nelrene three times and she will admit she is guilty and implicate the ring leader of the Conspiracy Muurine. Your other option instead of confronting Nelrene after overhearing the conversation is that you can simply choose to wait for a day and enter Ma'zaddha's house.

The Best Laid Plans...
thumb|right|Ma'zaddha, dead
After one day has passed, enter Ma'zaddha's house for your scheduled rendezvous. Unfortunately, as soon as you enter, you find Ma'zaddha lying in a pool of his own blood. Search the corpse to find his key, which opens a cabinet in his room, located upstairs. Inside you will find Ma'zaddha's Crinkled Note and Nelrene's Ceremonial Shortsword. Retrieve both and speak to Nelrene. Confronted with the evidence, she reveals that Muurine was the mastermind behind the plot. Locate the would-be assassin and interrogate her to hear a confession. Once you report your findings to Syl, she requests that you meet her in the Torture Chamber. Once you are present, you'll notice that Muurine has been imprisoned in the central cage, awaiting her fate. After passing judgment, the Duchess executes Muurine herself, activating a lethal electric trap and crushing Muurine's conspiracy for good. Pleased with your efforts, Syl then rewards you with the unique bow Ruin's Edge and the rather meaningless title of "Courtier of Dementia".

 

Notes
In order to be able to interrogate someone, Herdir must be in the same cell; otherwise, the "Conspiracy" topic will not be available.
Herdir's disposition towards you will be lowered every time you choose ''"What's my current task?" or "Who should we be looking for now?"'' if it is greater than 40.
Upon successfully completing the quest, a trophy version of the Inquistor's cage will appear on a platform in Sheogorath's Palace.
A Dark Seducer named Brevi seems to have been the original choice for Herdir's role, but she does not appear in the final game.

Bugs
 
The best option is to reload a save in which the quest has not yet been started. Alternatively, waiting for one or two days in Crucible or summoning Haskill and asking him about the Conspiracy may also fix the problem.
 
Wait for a couple of hours and talk with the two conspirators. It will end their meeting, and you will need to wait until the next day to try again.
Stopping and following just one conspirator about one hour before the meeting may avoid the aforementioned glitch.
Leaving the area and re-entering. Should this still fail, restart the game or reload a previous save.
  Remove any NPCs in close proximity to the pair. It is possible that a nearby NPC may prevent Ma'zaddha and Nelrene from talking, just as they will not talk if you are nearby.
  You may try selecting Nelrene in the console, then typing the code  . This is normally done by her script when she's nearby Ma'zaddha to makes them initiate the conversation. If the variable isn't set to 0 or 1, then the Ma'zaddha proximity check doesn't happen and this can be one cause for the glitch.
 Finally, you can use the console command   to advance the quest.
 
  It is possible to solve the problem using the console command  .
 
 Select Syl in the console and type  . This should force her execution speech and proceed with the quest normally. 
 
Sneak attack her before talking to the Duchess in order to lower her health before entering the cage.
 

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