Tamriel Rebuilt:The Vanishing Highwaymen

Break a band of teleporting bandits. Quest Giver: None Location(s): Roth Roryn Reward: 8250 gold ID: TR_m4_wil_VanishBandits

A strange figure on a Roth Roryn outcrop

Quick Walkthrough

1. Encounter the highwaymen in Roth Roryn.
2. Speak to the highwaymen and either:
   • Pay the gold demanded.
   • Refuse to pay the gold, and fight the highwaymen.
   • Convince the highwaymen that you have no gold. (Sway Check)
   • Convince the highwaymen that you have a sick aunt. (Sway Check)
   • Intimidate the highwaymen. (Sway Check/Level 15+)
3. If the highwaymen teleported away:
   • Search the area for an ancestral tomb.
   • Enter the highwaymens' hideaway.

Detailed Walkthrough

A band of highwaymen operate in canyon-ridden Roth Roryn, and you may run into them on your travels. The start of this encounter can be found by traveling north up the path from Menaan, keeping the lake on your right. At the T-junction at the end, take the left. Continue straight along the road, over a crossroads (pictured), and into a rocky gorge. You may see a figure standing upon a large rock, which will teleport away as you approach.

Meeting the Highwaymen

Continue down the road, sticking to the path. As you pass between two rocks, you will freeze in position and four highwaymen will teleport in all around you. One of them, Aldaronwe, will address you and demand gold. You are being robbed. You will have four options to respond with.

1. "Okay. Take it all."

2. "[Lie] I don't have any gold."

3. "I'm not giving you anything."

4. "Can't we talk about this?"

Option 1 will give the highwaymen the gold amount they have asked for - up to 30,000, if you're wealthy enough.

Option 2 is a Sway check - a behind-the-scenes check that measures your Personality, Speechcraft and Luck, modified by your Fatigue and by the disposition of the character you are trying to convince. Ensure that your fatigue bar is full before entering the conversation to have the highest chance of success. If successful, the bandits will believe your claim to poverty and leave you be.

Option 3 will see the highwaymen get aggressive, but continued aggression from you will persuade them to back off if you succeed on a Sway check, or have a level higher than 15.

Option 4 will allow you to claim that you have a sick aunt - another Sway check. If successful, the highwaymen will leave without robbing you.

Entering the Tomb

If you refuse to pay the highwaymen and cannot convince them to back off, then combat will begin. They are heavy magic users, preferring to paralyse and then blast away with ranged spells. However, assuming you do not enter combat, the highwaymen will ultimately teleport away, making mention of an ancestral tomb that they are returning to. If you wish to pursue them, you'll need to look for ancestral tombs in the area of your ambush. This particular one is the Llendu Ancestral Tomb, atop the south ridge of the canyon you have passed through, near the crossroads you entered from.

When ready, enter the tomb. You'll find three of the highwaymen in the first chamber. Killing them leaves only their leader, Aldaronwe, who will teleport into the locked room as you approach. Unlock the door to confront her. She'll curse that she has used the last of her Magicka, and will give you the band's key, while requesting that you spare her life. Do so, or otherwise, and use the key to retrieve a substantial portion of gold and gems from the level 75 locked chest behind Aldaronwe.

Quest Stages

The following Journal ID and Index codes can be used with the Journal console command to manually update the quest to a certain point.

The Vanishing Highwaymen (TR_m4_wil_VanishBandits)
Index	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
5		On the road in Roth Roryn, I was suddenly surrounded by a group of masked figures in black robes.
10		The so-called Vanishing Highwaymen demanded that I give them all the gold I'm carrying.
50	Finishes quest	I refused to give the highwaymen anything. They attacked me.
70		The Vanishing Highwaymen let me go.
80		I gave the Vanishing Highwaymen the gold that they wanted.
100		Before they teleported away, I heard the Vanishing Highwaymen leader say that they were going back to "the ancestral tomb", which is probably their base of operation. I suppose this tomb is somewhere relatively nearby. I could look for it, if I want to pursue the bandits.
110	Finishes quest	I have vanquished the Vanishing Highwaymen gang. Only their leader remains.
115	Finishes quest	Having ran out of magicka, the leader of the Vanishing Highwaymen acknowledged their defeat. She wants me to spare her life. She told me that I could take everything that they have stashed in their hideout.
120	Finishes quest	The Vanishing Highwaymen are all dead.