Modryn Oreyn is out, but still wants to keep his hand in. When you ask either gro-Khash or Azzan for more contracts, you'll be delicately directed to Oreyn. The overarching storyline for this last set of duties is to infiltrate the Blackwood Company and destroy it from within. So you have three missions to complete: Information Gathering, Infiltration, and The Hist. The three must be completed in that order, so I'm going to present them that way. Depending upon your skills and playing style, these missions can be ridiculously simple or maddeningly difficult.
Oreyn needs information about the Blackwood Company before he can move against them. They have set up a new base of operations in Glademist Cave, which is a bit east of Chorrol. You need to kidnap the leader of the group, an Argonian named Ajum Kajin, and bring him back to Oreyn for questioning.
The cave is a single-level structure with seven Blackwood Company guards, and a few nuiscance critters. The guards are leveled NPCs and have leveled equipment (the last time I tackled this, I made a real haul off of Ebony equipment). Kajin will not come with you as long as any of the guards are still alive. If you talk to him before they're all dead, he'll summon the remainder to gang up on you. A highly combat-oriented character might see this as a good opportunity to simply bypass as many of the guards as possible so that they can be dealt with in one place at one time. It's a workable plan if you've got the stones for it. For the rest of us mere mortals, though, the guards are generally paired up, so they shouldn't be too much of a problem to take out. Once the guards are dead, talk to Kajin and he'll surrender and follow you back to Oreyn's house in Chorrol.
Once you're back in Chorrol, it's interrogation time. Oreyn needs three pieces of information: how many Blackwood Company members there are, who the leader is, and the secret of their power. He doesn't care how you get the information from Kajin, as long as you get it. Depending upon your skills, you can sweet-talk it out of him, Charm it out of him, or beat it out of him. So Personality-strong characters can be prepared to play the persuasion mini-game or use bribery to get his Disposition up. Magic-oriented characters can Charm the pants off of the guy. And more combat-oriented characters can just beat on him (use bare hands only, please - otherwise you might kill him, which would amount to "not a good thing").
You'll need to have Kajin's disposition up to at least 70 to get the first piece of information (there are about 100 members). Raise his Disposition to at least 90 to get the second piece of info (Ri'Zakar is their leader). But rather than give you the third piece of info, Kajin immolates himself using a ring that you didn't know he had (until now). If you chose Bribery as the method of raising his Disposition, you can get your gold back from his body.
Well, two out of three ain't bad. Even though you didn't get the secret, you got the rest of it. It's a good start. Talk to Oreyn again to kick off the next phase. (back to top)
Oreyn wants you to go to Leyawiin, join the Blackwood Company, go on a mission for them, and find out the secret of their combat effectiveness. He warns you that you're going to be on your own and can expect no support from him or the Fighters Guild, so prepare to go it alone.
The guildhall is just south of the Fighters Guild in Leyawiin, so it's not hard to find. Anyone there will direct you to Jeetum-Ze if you ask about joining the Blackwood Company. He'll ask your reasons for joining, so the easiest response is that there aren't any contracts for the Fighters Guild. Once you've joined, he'll have a mission for you, so go downstairs where there are three other newbies.
The Waters Edge settlement (a little ways north of Leyawiin on the road to Bravil) has been overrun by Goblins. The Blackwood Company has been hired to clear out the problem. Before you go, you need to have a little pick-me-up: a potion made from the sap of The Hist. Follow the conversation threads to find out that they have somehow managed to bring a Hist tree into Cyrodiil and keep it alive. Mages helped them set it up and are making the potions from its sap. So drink up (otherwise the mission won't start).
You'll arrive at the Waters Edge settlement with your other team members. Sure enough, there be Goblins here. Seven of them to be precise. Oddly enough, the Goblins are unarmed and are just kind of standing there. Your fellow team members wade in with gusto. You can either join them or not. When all seven are dead, talk to another team member. You'll be told that they can smell more Goblins, so your job is to check the houses. You'll find four more Goblins in the houses, also unarmed. Once all four are dead, you'll get a message that the town has been cleared and you'll automatically fast-travel to Oreyn's house in Chorrol.
If it will make you feel better, you don't actually have to go into the houses looking for the remaining Goblins. You can simply leave town and you'll wake up in Oreyn's house. Of course you get the dreaded "ranawaylikeapunk" set in the script controlling the quest, but that's between you and your operating system. It doesn't seem to have any effect on the mission itself that I can tell.
Oreyn sends you back to Waters Edge to see what happened to the residents. When you get there, you'll find seven sheep and the four residents of Waters Edge, all dead. Marcel Amelion (Biene Amelion's father) will be standing near the bodies. There's nothing meaningful that you can say to him, so go back to Oreyn (who also has nothing meaningful to say) to complete the mission.
You now have a new "duties" topic with Oreyn. He wants you to destroy the Hist tree at the Blackwood Company headquarters in Leyawiin. It's a very straightforward mission, but not as easy as it sounds. You'll need to kill Ja'Fazir, who has the key that you use to get to Jeetum-Ze, who has the key that will let you get at Ri'Zakar, who has the key that will let you into the basement to deal with the Hist tree.
Ja'Fazir is a Kajiiti Battlemage eight levels higher than you. To complicate matters even more, there are a couple of extra NPCs in the building. One is an archer who hangs out on the first floor and will probably start taking potshots at you while you're engaged with Ja'Fazir. The other, Rana, hangs out on the second floor and tends to run back and forth between the 2nd and 3rd floors. It's a little tedious, but she can be coaxed down to the first floor by doing a little running around of your own.
Jeetum-Ze, the Argonian, is also a Battlemage five levels higher than you. You'll find him on the second floor. If he is not in his room, he'll be right outside of it when you leave. Because you're on a balcony area, you don't have a lot of room to maneuver, so Rana can be a major problem if you don't take care of her first.
Ri'Zakar is a Warrior who is ten levels higher than you. He's all by himself in his room on the third floor. Well, not by himself really. He's got his favorite enchanted warhammer to keep him company. Once you take him out, you can collect the Basement key.
At this point I'd recommend taking a break from the fighting for a little looting. You may have noticed that all of these Blackwood Company folks have some pretty decent equipment. Because they are Heavy-Armor kinds of guys, it may take a couple or three trips to get it all out of there. Since you may be needing to have some of your own equipment repaired about now, you might as well take care of several things in one trip by cashing in on the equipment you don't want to keep. The Hist tree isn't going anywhere and the loot on the bodies probably won't, either, but why not enjoy the fruits of your victory before heading back to Chorrol?
Once you have the key to the cellar, head down there and deal with the two Argonian mages. Neither of them has anything to jump up and down about, although they carry some decent offensive spells to lay a hurt on you. After that's done, search around the room and you'll find two loose pipes on a table against one of the walls. Pick them up and then activate the two Sap Pumps on either side of the Hist tree. This will destroy the pumps and burn the Hist tree. Mission completed, so report back to Oreyn.
Oreyn congratulates you on your victory and presents you with the Helm of Oreyn Bearclaw (which Morrowind players might remember). He suggests that you go tell Vilena Donton what you've done. She will fuss and fume about your recklessness, but recognises the necessity of it and promotes you to Master of the Fighters Guild and recommends that you name Oreyn as your second-in-command. Oreyn doesn't sound too happy about coming back out of retirement, but figures he can at least keep you from bringing the guild crashing down around everyone's ears. Congratulations, Guildmaster.