Oblivion talk:Whodunit?

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Archive 1: June 2006 - April 2010

Notes

"Whatever you do, do NOT bring a follower into the manor at any time. The door is scripted to keep all of the quest-related NPCs from leaving, but as a result, no other NPCs can leave. The only way to fix this if you enter the manor is to kill the follower."

I don't think this is accurate, I'm sure I've gotten followers out of Summitmist Manor before by fast-travelling. With an NPC that's not in your "party" though (like Methredhel above), it could be tricker. -Weroj 00:34, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

nels can be the last

if you wait long enough, and your dispotition with nels is 70+, he will think you r not the murderer when it comes to you both and one other. he will kill the last guest, believing he is safe now. so wrong... he has only one hp so go ahead and take him out — Unsigned comment by 24.111.208.66 (talk) on 3 July 2010

whodunit

i think whodunit stands for who"s doing it meaning that is a stealth quest and all...just something to bring up — Unsigned comment by Thedrunknord (talk • contribs) at 02:20 on 12 September 2010

Whodunit is a colloquialism for detective stories, where the object is to figure out who committed the crime (very often murder). – Robin Hood↝talk 02:55, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

Magic

I feel that it should be explored if ALL magic doesnt work. I think the problem is that all spells do damage over 1 second, but spells like Finger of the Mountain do damage instantly, and might actually work. This might have been discussed before, but Im just adding it here.--Catmaniac66 21:07, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Moved notes

• While all NPCs have just one point health, this is actually equivalent to 6 points health on the hardcore difficulty level. Sometimes, when Neville is about to kill Nels, he will cast a Fortify Health spell on himself, increasing his health to 26 hit points, which is equivalent to 156 points on hardcore difficulty level. Since you are supposed to kill all residents with a single hit in order to avoid detection, this can make it impossible to finish the quest appropriately, since dealing 156 points with a single spell or weapon hit requires a very powerful character.
• While you can't use any hostile magic, the other characters can, which means Dovesi is capable of eliminating any of the others.
• When you tell Matilde to search in the basement, she agrees, saying that the chest may be hidden under the floorboards. The basement, however, is entirely floored in stone.
• Use of any hostile magic will void the bonus, even if you and your target are alone on the map (i.e., in the basement) or the target is the last one remaining. The only time it is safe to use hostile magic is if someone is already attacking you. It is possible to kill any NPC in the house using spells as long as nobody sees you (including the target) and as long as you manage to kill the target with a single spell; 100% Chameleon or Invisibility while casting the spell will result in a valid attack that will NOT forfeit the mission bonus.
• Any weapon will kill any of the guests in one hit, even if Neville puts his armor on, as they all have only one point of Health. Poisons, Poisoned Apples, and other more expensive tools are not necessary.
• If you use the Poisoned Apple method, Nels may not declare Neville the killer, and instead sit at the table and want to be left alone.
• Neville has a full suit of Imperial Legion Armor. If you give him time after the killing starts, he may actually retrieve it for you, depending on how the quest unfolds; if not, you can take the key from his corpse and retrieve it from his chest upstairs manually.
• The Gray Cowl of Nocturnal can be put on in front of any of the guests except Neville and they will not react in any way, meaning you can safely use the cowl's Detect Life enchantment to help locate your targets. Neville, however, will attack you on sight if you are wearing the cowl.
• If you don't want the Night Mother's Blessing, but you still want to complete the quest without getting caught, use the console command player.removespell CBD13 to remove the blessing.
• It is inadvisable to sleep in Summitmist manor after completing the quest, as messengers such as those related to the Thieves Guild, and Hermaeus Mora's quest will be trapped in the house for ever, as they will be unable to open the front door. Dion can also be trapped in the house, if Paranoia has been started.
• Though Vicente says "For Sithis' sake, don't wear your hood," wearing armor makes absolutely no difference to the guests' thoughts and actions, other than the Gray Cowl and Neville as mentioned above.
• There is an occasional glitch in this quest that causes Dovesi to conjure an axe and kill Nels. This doesn't affect your bonus and no one seems to realize who killed Nels despite the fact that everyone can be in the room at the time.
• If Neville kills Nels and you select "Nels" in the conversation topic while talking to Neville, he will say "One less Nord in the world is something I'd normally cheer about, but the fact that he was murdered by a fellow guest does put a damper on things." Seems he's forgotten it was he who killed the Nord. This bug only occurs if you urge Neville to kill Nels in the initial greeting. If, on the other hand, you select the "Say Nothing" conversation option in Neville's greeting and use the "Nels" topic to turn Neville on Nels, Neville will kill Nels all the same, yet he will just wander around the house afterwards, instead of breaking down the front door with an axe, as he is supposed to.
• When Neville is about to kill Nels, he believes him to be the killer, stating that "I've searched every inch of this house. It's sealed up tight. There's no way in or out, and there's nobody hiding anyplace." However, after he kills Nels he will proclaim that there's still an assassin in the house, which makes no sense: "Well, that's it, my friend. We're the last. And that damned assassin is still hiding out in this house somewhere."

I have been moving notes from the quest pages to their talk pages. Feel free to re-add these if you have just reasoning. --AKB ^Talk 16:16, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

The one about Vicente telling you not to wear your hood should probably be re-added, some players may not wear the hood and, possibly the shrouded armour, and therefore lose out on the significant sneak bonus. The one about the floorboards, if true, is somewhat funnny and could be added depending on what other people think. RIM 21:03, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Ok, interesting results using magic

I told Matilde to go to the basement, killed here with the basic on touch frost spell. I wasnt detected. When attempting the same thing with Dovesi, I was detected even though she was sleeping and I was alone with her on the 2nd floor. So magic does occasionally work, it just depends on the circumstance. But since a fist will kill them, it is kinda unimportant to use magic anyways.--Catmaniac66 17:57, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

Crashing?

Has anybody else had a problem with the game crashing upon completion of this quest? No matter the order I use, as soon as the quest is over, it will either crash the moment I attempt to save or the moment I leave the mansion. — Unsigned comment by 173.238.124.164 (talk) at 23:06 on 20 July 2011

I did have this problem. I had all DLC installed plus unofficial patches for oblivion, SI and all the DLC, as well as the quest item leveler.

I was able to fix the problem by using Movetoqt to move to Ocheeva once the quest updated. I was able to exit into Cheydinhal and save properly. I returned and tested the door by entering/exiting and it now worked fine. — Unsigned comment by 140.186.47.75 (talk) at 03:21 on 5 March 2016

Neville's too aggressive?

I had a glitch where I entered the manor to pursue the quest, and Neville (he's the redguard right?) attacks me on sight...Which kind of ruins the whole play everyone against each other. — Unsigned comment by 72.85.180.156 (talk) at 17:02 on 25 August 2011

Whodunit glitch

i can't find Fafnir, i've searched for him in all Skingrad, and he's not infront of the Summitmist Manor — Unsigned comment by 176.45.102.128 (talk) at 00:48 on 1 September 2011

Sleeping NPCs

When Dovesi heads to Neville's room it is possible that Matilde is sleeping in the same room ,depending on the time of day/night. When you stealth kill Dovesi, Mathilde will wake up but go right back to sleep without noticing the murder. Your cover won't be blown and you can also kill Matilde while she's sleeping. Two birds with one stone. — Unsigned comment by Greg (talk • contribs) at 07:58 on 26 September 2011

Bug with Dovesi

Has Dovesi ever fallen out of the house and died for anyone else? I had just come down from the living quarters, and I had a Detect Life enchantment, when I saw someone outside of the wall falling. I watched the purple glow get smaller and smaller as it fell, until eventually it was gone. After that, I talked to Nels and found out that Dovesi had died. Interestingly enough, I had just talked to her, and she said that she was going to check all the doors and windows. Maybe she jumped out of a window and fell to her death.75.9.55.196 12:22, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

Dovesi is the Murderer

When I entered the manor, I immediately went around to each person and bribed them to raise their disposition to the max (80 or more). I then killed Neville who slept upstairs by himself. I talked to a few of the other people until Dovesi decided to go invisible and killed Nels. I talked to another person who commented on the two people being dead. Dovesi then went invisible again and this time killed Matilde. I then talked to Dovesi who acted like she had no idea who killed the three. She came to the conclusion that Primo must be the killer since it could never be either of us. She then proceeded to pull a dagger and kill Primo. I talked to her afterwards, and she said she was glad the killer was dead. Finally I killed her to finish this part of the quest, ending up having to put very little effort to complete it. Looks like Dovesi should have been a Dark Sister. — Unsigned comment by 67.236.230.40 (talk) at 02:36 on 31 May 2013

I had the same problem with Dovesi as twice she murdered Nels for no apparent reason, the first time she used chameleon to do so. I have the impression that this quest was initially more complicated (but that its complexity became a problem so it was simplified) where Dovesi was also there to murder them and you to murder her. Whether she was DB(unlikely) or more likely a private contractor who needed a lesson I do not know. — Unsigned comment by 192.145.118.157 (talk) at 19:51 on 23 August 2021

Killing Nels with a poisoned apple

The article explicitly states that Nels, and only Nels, can be killed with a poisoned apple. However, after three days of waiting, he still hasn't eaten one. I took all the food from the house, and placed one apple on the table where he sits, one in the cabinet next to the table, and one in his inventory. I also made a potion out of the apple an renamed it AA (as mentioned in the article) and placed that in his inventory too. At this point I'm thinking it's probably a glitch or a mistake in the article. I was hoping someone could check his AI packages to see when/if he is supposed to eat. Dbbolton (talk) 20:03, 21 June 2014 (GMT)

"Only Nels cannot be killed this way." Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 20:06, 21 June 2014 (GMT)

Trivia section proposal

So, after doing this quest, I noticed that it is remarkably similar to the movie Clue, with the thunderstorm on arrival to a party, with initial high hopes, and then there's a murderer loose while everyone's trapped. I'm not particularly sure about how some things are done here (ex-Wikia, not used to much being done at all), but is there a specific way I should go about adding that? Boots of Speeding Blind (talk) 07:22, 7 May 2016 (UTC)

Bring it up on the Easter Egg talk page. We don't include trivia sections in articles. -- SarthesArai ^Talk 12:44, 7 May 2016 (UTC)