Feran Sadri will ask the Dragonborn to frame the Dawnguard for murder. His plan is for the Dragonborn to go to a hold capital and kill a resident in public while wearing the Dawnguard Armor. In addition, a note must be planted on the body that frames the Dawnguard.
An optional caveat is that the person should be someone of importance, such as a merchant, bard, or member of the Jarl's court. Feran will give the Dragonborn a mixed set of Dawnguard Armor to perform the task.
"You are to make a public show of murdering someone. Do it in the streets for all to see. The higher the profile the better. Make it seem you are a member of the Dawnguard, thus sowing confusion among the herd. Wear this armor and plant this note on the victim."
Walkthrough
Simply kill someone in the requested city and plant the Incriminating Letter on the victim. The murder must take place on the streets of the city for it to count, so if choosing a member of the Jarl's court, they must have left their respective palaces for the kill to qualify. Similarly, merchants and bards must be outdoors when killed, if choosing a high profile target.
In order for the murder to register as a public kill while wearing Dawnguard Armor, it must be witnessed by a guard or citizen. This will however incur a 1000 bounty. If a stealth kill is performed, the murder will be registered, but it will fail both optional objectives.
To avoid killing any citizens, a guard may be murdered or, if the city is being attacked by vampires, killing one will count as a victim, but this will fail the high profile objective. The best exploit to complete this quest without killing anyone, is by using the Dead Thrall spell on a hunter's body and killing it in any town, which counts as a high profile target.
It has been noted that if you download both the Dawnguard and Dragonborn add-ons and begin this quest, then you may end up heading to Raven Rock for the quest. All of this has come up for a high profile target is one of the merchants in the town, (a.k.a.; Milore Ienth, alchemist; Glover Mallory, blacksmith; Garyn Ienth, grocer; and Fethis Alor, general goods.) Your best bet is to kill Garyn Ienth because he is pretty much useless in the way of trading. But seeing as how he is right in the middle of town, it is advised to get out of sight when you kill him and then plant the letter.
Choosing a high profile target or not doesn't seem to affect the reward.
Journal
Journal Entry
Feran Sadri wishes to sow confusion and anger amongst the people of <radiant city>. I am to kill a citizen out in the streets while impersonating a member of the Dawnguard. Then I am to place an incriminating letter on the corpse. The higher the profile of my victim the better.
Objective: Kill someone out in the streets of <radiant city>
Objective: (Optional) Make it a public kill while wearing Dawnguard armor
Objective: (Optional) Choose a high profile victim
Objective: Plant letter on <victim's> corpse
Objective: Return to Feran Sadri
Feran Sadri wishes to sow confusion and anger amongst the people of <radiant city>. I am to kill a citizen out in the streets while impersonating a member of the Dawnguard. Then I am to place an incriminating letter on the corpse. The higher the profile of my victim the better.
Quest complete
Bugs
This section contains bugs related to Deceiving the Herd. 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.
Click to see the list of bugs encountered
If the Capital Hold happens to be Markarth, and the Dragonborn has not visited it before, slaying the Forsworn before he murders the woman will count as a murder and the quest will be marked as failed when returning to Castle Volkihar.
This quest can start randomly when killing an Imperial Soldier while in Vampire Lord Form, or having killed attacking Dawnguard or Vampires. As the quest starts without the note being in the player's possession, it says "Failed" when the player wanders too far away.
Has also occurred upon the death of Shavari, the Khajiiti agent for the Thalmor, when escorting Esbern from the Ratway.
This particular side quest remains one of the easiest to fail. In some cases, simply talking to someone can cause failure. In others, entering the town then leaving before performing the task will cause failure.
If the optional requirements are not completed, returning to the castle makes the quest uncompleted (tested in Markarth killing Weylin).
If you had the Deceiving the Herd quest active before the Bound Until Death, Dark Brotherhood Quest and then kill Vittoria Vici as part of this quest, you get a fail flag for the high-profile victim objective.
If you receive this quest but do not complete it before receiving the cure for vampirism from Falion you will not be able to turn the quest in to Feran Sadri. He will merely make various comments about you no longer being a vampire and that Serena can grant you the gift again.
This quest may not update if you use the Ebony Blade to kill a target with a high disposition towards you. If you have not befriended the target before you receive this quest it will update the quest but if the person meets the requirements to upgrade the Ebony Blade the kill will not count towards the requirements for the Deceiving The Herd quest.
After completing this or other similar quests and asking for more, starts the quest talk to Vingalmo but no talk option appears.
A serious bug occurs if heading to any house or home before heading to the target city occurs. With Hearthfire installed, if you head to any of your Homes before this Quest and you are attacked by Bandits or random enemies a glitch can occur after fast traveling to the target city after killing the bandits. If one kills the bandits then fast travels, upon reaching the target city the Quest may fail entirely, with the objective 'Plant the Incriminating Letter on Bandit Thugs Corpse'. Reloading a previous autosave seems to resolve this.
PC Skip quest - Use console command "setstage DLC1RV03 100" for skip all stages to "Return to Feran Sadri" (optional objectives will be failed, but you can finish the quest).
There are certain cases in which the only targeted city is Whiterun, no matter what.
Publicly killing Heimskr in Whiterun can start the quest if you had not received it. This will result in failing the quest, since you were never given the Incriminating Letter.
Sometimes the quest will activate after killing Anoriath in Whiterun or Ma'randru-jo (wherever he appears) for the Dark Brotherhood contract questlines.
Occasionally the incriminating letter will be bugged and unable to be passed into the victim's inventory, such as with killing Mikael in Whiterun.
If the quest becomes active after killing a hostile enemy, but the letter has not been given, it is possible to pickpocket the letter off of Feran Sadri. If the body is still present, you can then place the letter on the corpse and complete the quest. Though this still fails the optional objectives.
bounty. If a stealth kill is performed, the murder will be registered, but it will fail both optional objectives.