Oblivion:Arielle Jurard

Arielle Jurard, a Breton battlemage, is a Conjurer of the Mages Guild. She is currently located at the Brina Cross Inn working undercover in order to investigate a series of brutal attacks on traveling merchants along the Gold Road. To receive a recommendation from Carahil, you need to contact Arielle to see if you can help out.

Before the related quest, Arielle wanders around the Inn all day and night without sleeping or eating. She will continue to do so even after you have started the quest, but will make a couple of exceptions as you progress. After you've made contact with her, she will sneak up into your room and fill you in on the plan. After you have spent the night at the Inn, she will wait for you outside and then travel along the Gold Road in order to offer her protection should you come across the rogue mage responsible for the attacks. After the mage has been dealt with, she will head back to the Inn and return to her usual routine until you speak to Carahil and complete the quest. At that point she is disabled and will disappear from the game.

Her attire and inventory vary as well. While undercover, she wears typical middle-class clothing: a brown shirt, brown linens, and pigskin shoes.  She also carries a leveled amount of gold. When you reach stage 40 in the related quest and if you are below level 5, she changes into an almost complete set of iron armor: boots (plus a spare pair), a cuirass, gauntlets, and greaves, as well as her mage's hood. If you are level 5 or above, she will have the same pieces of armor in steel. In either case, she also has a steel mace and steel dagger, which she uses alongside a leveled set of spells from all of the magical schools but Illusion. Upon the demise of the rogue mage, she returns to the Inn and changes back into her middle-class attire, but will keep the mage's hood on. All of the heavy armor can now be found in her inventory.

thumb|right|Arielle in action
Before the quest is initiated, she will tell you nothing but rumors. Once the quest is started, however, she will prove much more talkative: "Hello, stranger. What can I do for you?" After this greeting, she will start to whisper: "Carahil has sent you, has she not? Go and speak with Christophe. Rent a room for the night. Once you have your room, I will meet you there. If anyone asks, you are a traveling merchant, nothing more. Do not say otherwise to anyone." After this set of instructions, she will shift back to her normal voice again: ''"No, friend. I'm afraid I don't know the way to  , but good luck in your travels. Please excuse me." 

After you have rented a room from Christophe Marane, Arielle will follow you up there and give you further instructions: "All right, it should be safe to speak here. Once you've rested here, you need to continue along the Gold Road, heading east towards Kvatch. I shall be following out of sight, along with a fellow Battlemage. Make no attempts to speak to us; trust that we will protect you. Should you be confronted by this cowardly mage, do not hesitate to protect yourself by whatever means possible. Once the mage has revealed himself, we will step in and settle the matter quickly. Now, get yourself some sleep. You'll need to be well-rested."'' If you had not followed Carahil's instructions and had talked to someone else in the inn she will angrily say "''You don't follow orders well, do you? You were supposed to find me before you spoke to anyone else here. We shall look forward instead of back, however. You still have work to do." before giving you instructions for the following day.

Once you have rested, Arielle and another battlemage, Roliand Hanus, will be waiting outside the inn. If you try to approach her, she will cut you off: "Did I not tell you to avoid contact with us? Travel along the road, and act normally. We shall be shadowing you." After Caminalda has been exposed and slain, Arielle will tell you to return to Carahil: "You've done well. The Gold Road should be a little safer for now. You should return to Anvil and let Carahil know the work is complete. We'll remain here and clean things up."''

 
Related Quests

Notes
Curiously, during an unmarked quest added by the Fighter's Stronghold plug-in there is an evil lich inhabiting a dark room who shares the same name, and who also happened to be a Breton battlemage in life.