Find Finn's Lute
Quest Giver	Inge Six Fingers
Location	Solitude Stony Creek Cave
Prerequisite	Tending the Flames
Reward	Permanent +1 to each Stealth skill
Faction	Bard's College
Type	Miscellaneous Objective

Quick Walkthrough

1. Speak to Inge Six Fingers
2. Locate Finn's Lute in Stony Creek Cave
3. Return the lute to Inge Six Fingers

Walkthrough

After you become a member of the Bard's College, faculty members will ask you to perform certain quests. Inge Six Fingers, the lute instructor, tells you she is sad because thieves stole her precious historical relic, Finn's Lute, which was the first eight-course lute ever invented.

The quest leads you to Stony Creek Cave in southeastern Eastmarch. Outside the cave is a pleasant small pond with a dock, fishing pole, and a boat. Once you enter, seeing a dead Breton dangling over a railing and two skeletons in the water shows this cave isn't about being pleasant. Go up the stream and kill the bandits defending their lair and its treasure.

Where the path splits, there is a door guard sitting at a desk watching the stream entrance, sneak by or take him out. Upstream is a bandit mining a moonstone ore deposit that you can mine for some ore plus a modest chest. Going past the door guard will lead to the bandit leader and some treasure, but watch out for a swing mace trap right before the final room.

Finish off the remaining bandits and take the precious lute, (in a chest with some random loot), along with an Unusual Gem, an Illusion Skill Book "Mystery of Talara, Part 4", some ingredients, and another fragment of the treasure map mystery, "Treasure Map X".

Take the lute back to Inge who is ecstatic at its return. Since she is unable to properly reward you, she teaches you "a few tricks picked up on the road" from her younger years. This turns out to be one-point skill increases for Light Armor, Lockpicking, Speech, Sneak, Pickpocket and Alchemy.

Bugs

•  360   PC   PS3   After completing the quest the item will be stuck in your inventory.
• It is possible that when collecting the reward the Lute will not leave your inventory. PC players can remove it using the Console and the following console code:

player.removeitem 000DABAB 1

• If you complete the quest and gained the reward, but still have the quest open asking you to find the lute then enter the console code to close the quest:

setstage bardscollegelute 40

360  PS3  The quest is impossible to complete if the Lute is found before starting the quest. The reward can still be collected, but the quest will not be marked off in the journal.

• Choosing the speech option "I found Finn's Lute" first will make it so that the quest is never added to the journal. The Lute is still removed and all rewards are still gained.