Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition Guide Quests City Influence Quests

City Influence Quests: Ultimate Rewards

Stages of Influence

Building the Thieves Guild’s influence across Skyrim is the key to continued success and wealth. The can be measured, based in stages. The following table shows how each of the stages are triggered:

Stage Number	City Influence Quests Completed (Out of 4)
Stage 0	None: Only Riften is influenced
Stage 1	Riften + one City Influence Quest
Stage 2	Riften + two City Influence Quests
Stage 3	Riften + three City Influence Quests
Stage 4‡	Riften + all four City Influence Quests

Reward 1: Additional Visitors and Vendors

As your influence grows, additional visitors appear (they offer little more than conversation), and vendors take up residence in the niches across from the Ragged Flagon, plying a variety of special or themed wares. Be sure to inspect, barter, and purchase from them. The following table shows who turns up, and when.

Stage Number	Visitor	Vendor
Stage 1	None	Syndus; Wood Elf Fletcher
Stage 2	None	Arnskar Ember-Master; Nord Blacksmith
Stage 3	Garthar	Herluin Lothaire; Breton Apothecary
Stage 4	Ravyn Imyan	Vanryth Gatharian; Dark Elf Light Armorsmith

Reward 2: Guild Fence Gold

As you should be aware, Tonila—and every other Fence you bring into the cause—fences any items you may have “appropriated” from across Skyrim, as most other merchants don’t touch stolen goods. The amount of available gold they offer for items you wish to fence increased depending on your City Influence stage, as shown:

Stage Number	Available Gold
Stage 0	1,000 gold pieces
Stage 1	1,500 gold pieces
Stage 2	2,250 gold pieces
Stage 3	3,000 gold pieces
Stage 4	4,000 gold pieces

Reward 3: Crime Amnesty

When you enter one of the Holds that has a completed City Influence Quest—The Rift (Riften), The Reach (Markarth), Haafingar (Solitude), Whiterun (Whiterun), and Eastmarch (Windhelm)—and a guard from one of those cities attempts to arrest you for a crime you’ve caused, you have two additional options:

You can pay the guard to overlook the crime this once. This won’t work on violent crimes (murder), but it’s a great way to prevent getting arrested for theft when you have a bag full of stolen loot you’d hate to lose. This only works on a given guard once per day. Also note that the bounty on your head remains in place; nothing is cleared. Therefore, if you reengage another guard in dialogue, they might just try and arrest you again.
If your pockets are brimming with gold, you can immediately pay off your bounty for that Hold, regardless of the crime. This will also allow the guard to overlook the crime. The amount of gold required to pay off the crime is equal to half your bounty.

The advantage to either option above is twofold:

You aren’t moved to the Keep (unless you were trespassing—then you are still moved to the Keep) as if you were released from jail.
Best of all, none of your stolen loot is confiscated. Normally, when you’re arrested, all stolen loot is completely stripped, never to return. In these instances, the thief can avoid that inconvenience!

Reward 4: Guild Growth

For every stage that the Thieves Guild attains, it visibly changes: You should start to notice more containers that can be looted, more expensive and lavish furnishings, and of course, the arrival of the aforementioned vendors. Their “shops” now appear in the Ragged Flagon area, in one of the wall niches across from the bar.

Reward 5: Thief Caches

When you complete a City Influence Quest, “Thief Caches” appear in that Hold’s Capital City. These are wooden barrels emblazoned with the “Thieves’ Cache” Shadowmark. Each city has three such barrels hidden somewhere within the city walls. The chart below reveals their locations:

Solitude Thief Caches

Cache	Location
1	Amid the barrels to the right of the entrance to Erikur’s house.
2	Behind Vittoria Vici’s House, tucked into an alcove.
3	At the end of the alley between the Winking Skeever and Angeline’s Aromatics, behind the pine shrubs.

Markarth Thief Caches

Cache	Location
1	Where the water from Ghorza Gra-Bagol’s Blacksmith shop cascades into the river, half submerged.
2	In a plain, covered walkway in the city’s northwest corner; follow the walkway west from Nepos’s front door.
3	On the landing, just outside Vlindrel Hall.

Whiterun Thief Caches

Cache	Location
1	Behind Carlotta Valentia’s house
2	South of House Gray-Mane in the corner of the city’s wall (next to the gate connecting the Plains to the Wind Districts)
3	Tucked up against the rear exterior wall of the Bannered Mane.

Windhelm Thief Caches

Cache	Location
1	In the small courtyard on the side of Niranye’s house.
2	Right next to the door to Sadri’s used wares.
3	Tucked at the end of a tiny alley to the left of Hjerim’s entrance

Riften Thief Caches

Cache	Location
1	On the lower walkway along the canal, almost directly across from Valindor’s house.
2	In a corner on the balcony walkway overlooking the training grounds at Mistveil Keep.
3	In the garden area of Honeyside, against the city wall.

These caches are occasionally restocked, so they are well worth checking out: A cache always contains a random number of lockpicks and arrows and may contain the following (randomly, and leveled):

Potions
Gems
Enchanted Weapon, Light Armor, or Bow