A Missing Book

A Missing Book
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Quest Giver	Guildmagister
Location	Various
Prerequisite	Privateer's Hold
Faction	Mages Guild
Reward	None
Quest ID	n0c00y10

A Missing Book is a Mages Guild quest available during the events of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. The Agent, in their attempts to join the Mages Guild in the Iliac Bay, is sent to retrieve a book, recently stolen from a Guild Hall.

Background

After escaping from Privateer's Hold, the Agent may wish to enhance their reputation within one of the major organisations of the Iliac Bay: The Mages Guild. However, without any true standing within the guild, the Agent will have to complete a few menial tasks for the Guild to prove their worthiness, as well as enhance their skills to meet the Guild's standards.

Objectives

1. Speak with a Guildmagister from the Mages Guild.
2. Ask around town for the location of the thief.
   1. Track down and kill the thief.
   2. Loot the book from their corpse.
3. Report back to the Guildmagister, with the book, before the time limit expires.

Walkthrough

Speaking with a Guildmagister from a local branch of the Mages Guild reveals that the Agent lacks the required reputation to join the Guild. However, the Guildmagister will offer the Agent a chance to boost their reputation, if they can track down a book that has recently been stolen from the Guildhall. The only issue is that the Guildmagister lack any clues as to who has taken the book, but they are certain that the local population do.

The Fable's Fable

The Agent will only be armed with the title of the book, and so will have to ask around the people of the town they are in about said book. Unfortunately, without any solid information, the populous can do little more than point the Agent to a gossip, currently staying in one of the Taverns. The gossip will willingly tell the Agent the thief's name, although they know little about the thief's whereabouts.

A Local Looter

Now armed with the thief's name, the Agent will have more success speaking with the local populous, eventually piecing together a list of potential places to find them: At home (between midnight and 08:00); At a Weapon Smith (08:01 until 16:01); Or a Tavern (16:02 til midnight). The Agent can now visit those places at the appropriate time to find the thief. When found, the thief, who appears as a thief, will instantly attack, stating:

"I hear you've been looking for [thief's name]. Well, you've found [him/her]. Now get lost before you make me really want to hurt you."

―A book thief

Once the thief lies dead, the Agent must loot the book from their corpse and head back to the Guildmagister before the time limit expires.

Rewards

The Agent will not receive any physical reward for completing the quest successfully, but will a boost to their reputation. The penalties for failing the quest are relatively high by comparison, but will also see gains among some anti-Mage Guild factions:

Success Faction Reputation Mages Guild +5 Mercenary Mages +5 Allied Factions +2

Failure Faction Reputation Mages Guild -3 Mercenary Mages -3 Allied Factions -2 Region -1 Glenmoril Witches -1 Merchants -1 Bards -1 Prostitutes -1 Sheogorath -1 Daedric Princes +1 Dark Brotherhood +1 Thieves Guild +1 Witch Covens +1

Journal

A Missing Book - n0c00y10
ID	Journal Entry
0	[Date]: I have agreed to find the book [book title] for the Mages Guild of [town]. If I find it, I need to get it back to [Guildmagister's name] and [he/she] will put in a good word for me with the guild. Quest accepted

Trivia

• If the town lacks a Weapon Smith and/or a Tavern, the thief will be absent completely during those times.
• The Merchant quest "The First Printing" is almost identical to this quest.
• NPCs will make a variety of comments relating to the quest when asked for any news:
  • Acceptance:
    • "The Mages Guild has a very rare edition of [book title]. Or at least, they had one."
    • "[Book title] is a rare book, but the edition the Mages Guild had was even more rare."
  • Success:
    • "The Mages Guild's library is enriched now that [book title] is back on the shelves."
  • Failure:
    • "It's a great loss to the Mages Guild -- that special edition of [book title]."
    • "The Mages Guild library isn't what it used to be, now that [book title] is gone."

Bugs

This section contains bugs related to A Missing Book. Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following: Please reload an old save to confirm if the bug is still happening. If the bug is still occurring, please post the bug report with the appropriate system template  360  /  XB1  ,  PS3  /  PS4  ,  PC  /  MAC  ,  NX  /  PS5  ,  XS  , depending on which platform(s) the bug has been encountered on. Be descriptive when listing the bug and fixes, but avoid having conversations in the description and/or using first-person anecdotes: such discussions belong on the appropriate forum board.

•  PC   The quest time limit will always be ten days, despite the lack of a limit appearing in any dialogue/journal.

Appearances

• The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall