How to Get Inside Mercer’s House in Skyrim & Finish “The Pursuit” Quest

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Find evidence of Mercer’s location in Riftweald Manor
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During the Thieves’ Guild storyline in Riften, you’ll be asked to complete a quest called “The Pursuit.” In this mission, you’ll be asked to get inside the house of Mercer Frey, the guild's leader, to look for clues proving his betrayal and revealing where he’s going next. Infiltrating Mercer’s house is actually pretty easy as long as you know where to go—and in this article, we’ll show you everything you need to know to get into the house and complete “The Pursuit” in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

The Quickest Way to Get In Mercer’s House

  1. Start “The Pursuit” at the Ragged Flagon and talk to Brynjolf and Vex.
  2. Go to Riftweald Manor’s back gate, next to the cemetery behind the Temple of Mara.
  3. Talk to Vald, clear his debt, or attack him and loot the house key from his body.
  4. Shoot down the balcony ramp mechanism with an arrow or Unrelenting Force.
  5. Climb up the wooden ramp and go through the door to enter Mercer’s house.
Section 1 of 3:

How to Infiltrate Mercer’s House in Skyrim

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  1. 1
    Follow “The Pursuit” quest and speak to Vex when prompted. If you’re following the Thieves’ Guild questline, you’ll pick up this quest after completing “Hard Answers.” To start it, meet Karliah at the Ragged Flagon in Riften. You’ll go through a cutscene where Karliah clears her name, and the guild discovers that Mercer has been stealing from them. From there, Brynjolf will task you with infiltrating Mercer’s house. [1]
    • Be sure to exhaust all the possible dialogue options with Brynjolf before you leave. When you ask him for information, he’ll tell you to ask Vex for more details on Mercer’s house guard, Vald.
    • Speak to Vex, too; she’ll explain that Vald is in debt to Maven Black-Briar and won’t betray her, but he might help if you clear his debt (or you could just kill him and take the key from his body).
  2. Riftweald Manor is in Riften, and it’s Mercer Frey’s house. From the point where you first appear when fast-traveling to Riften, Riftweald Manor is the fourth door on the left from the main gates. Use the following directions to get to the back gate behind the manor: [2]
    • Continue past Riftweald Manor until you reach the opening in the wall to the left leading to the Temple of Mara.
    • Enter the courtyard in front of the Temple of Mara.
    • Go through the archway to the right of the temple that leads toward the cemetery.
    • Go through the cemetery and follow the path to the left leading behind the temple.
    • The first gate on your left after you pass the temple is the gate to Riftweald Manor.
    • Note: You can’t get into Riftweald any other way—the front door has been barred.
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  3. Vald guards the property, and if he sees you trying to break in, he’ll attack. However, you can speak to him through the gate; if you have high enough speech skills, you can just convince Vald to run an errand to Markarth and get through the gate when he leaves. Otherwise, you’ll need to clear his debt with Maven, pickpocket him, or kill him. [3]
    • Clearing Vald’s debt: Talk to Maven, who will want you to fetch the Quill of Gemination. You’ll find it in Vald’s Strongbox, a locked box in an underwater rowboat about halfway between the big boat outside the Riften Fishery and the docked boat at Goldenglow.
    • Pickpocketing Vald: This is a tricky option since you’ll need to wait for Vald to stand against the gate with his back turned before pickpocketing him. You can grab the key from his inventory if he does (and your skill is high enough).
    • Killing Vald: This is probably the most straightforward option; you can attack Vald from afar or shoot the mechanism under the balcony to bait him into chasing you. Run back to the marketplace, and the guards will attack Vald—so you can kill him and loot his body.
  4. Once you’re through the gate, you still won’t be able to enter Mercer’s house on the ground floor—you need to get in via the balcony. An arrow pointer can be seen on the underside of the wooden balcony on the second floor. If you look there closely, you’ll see a small, dark mechanism that you can target with an arrow or the Unrelenting Force shout. [4]
    • If a Riften guard spots you in the area, they’ll try to question you about the “incident” (probably the manor being broken into).
    • Just say you don’t know anything about the incident when prompted, and the guard will leave. If you refuse to answer the question, the guard will try to arrest you.
  5. Once the ramp is down, climb the stone staircase on the left side to reach the bottom of the ramp. Then, run up the wooden ramp to get to the door leading inside Riftweald Manor. [5]
  6. If you have the key to Mercer's house, you can use it to enter the door at the top of the wooden ramps quickly, which will get you inside the house. Otherwise, you’ll have to pick an Expert-level lock to get inside. [6]
    • There you go: you’ve just infiltrated Mercer Frey’s house, Riftweald Manor! Keep reading to learn how to complete the quest.
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Section 2 of 3:

How to Complete “The Pursuit” Quest

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  1. 1
    Sneak past the guards inside or fight them. Mercer’s house is full of bandits in charge of guarding the place, and they’ll be hostile if they spot you. You can either sneak past them all or fight them—it’s your choice. Either way, your goal is to find the stairs down and, eventually, the tunnels in the basement. [7]
    • If you’re sneaking, you’ll need to pass a bandit right after getting inside, go through the bedroom, then head down the stairs.
    • On the ground floor, pass through a closed set of double doors and find a Suspicious Cabinet on the left side of the room. Open it, and you’ll find a second set of stairs down into the underground tunnels.
  2. 2
    Find Mercer’s plans in the underground tunnels. When you get down there, be careful: there’s a tripwire that’ll trigger a deadly trap, but you can set it off harmlessly if you spot it first. Turn right immediately, then just follow the tunnel until you get to a room with Mercer’s plans—they’ll be sitting right out in the open on his desk! Congratulations: you’ve successfully discovered evidence of Mercer’s location. [8]
    • In the same room, you can also grab the Bust of the Gray Fox , which you can sell to Delvin.
    • You can also take Chillrend , a unique glass sword that’s one of the strongest weapons in the game! Don’t leave until you’ve snapped up all the valuable loot in the area.
  3. 3
    Keep going through the last tunnel to exit into the Ratway Vaults. Take the eastern exit when you leave Mercer’s hidden room; at the end of the tunnel, you’ll find a door that leads back to the Ratway. From there, just return to the Ragged Flagon (following the quest objective marker) and talk to Brynjolf. This will complete “The Pursuit” and start the next quest, “Trinity Restored.” [9]
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Section 3 of 3:

Frequently Asked Questions: “The Pursuit” in Skyrim

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  1. 1
    Can you obtain (and live in) Mercer’s house? Technically, you can go inside Mercer’s house whenever you want after getting the key since he won’t be there—but, unfortunately, the bandits will always respawn after a short time, even if you kill them. So, no, you can’t take ownership of Riftweald Manor.
  2. 2
    Where’s the gate key for Mercer’s house? There are actually two gates leading to the house, and one doesn’t have a working key. The second does, and Vald has it—so you’ll need to get it from him.
  3. 3
    What should you look for in Mercer’s house? You’re looking for evidence of Mercer’s location, which is a set of documents labeled Mercer’s Plans . You can find them in the tunnels underneath the manor.
  4. 4
    What should you do if the ramp won’t drop? You should be able to shoot the ramp mechanism—it’s just small and can be hard to spot! If it’s really not working (because of a possible bug, for example), you can try breaking into the house next door, jumping from that house to a tree, then finally over the fence and into Riftweald’s backyard.
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Community Q&A

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  • Question
    What do I do if the mechanism won't lower when I try to get into the house? I have the key from Vald and can't get up to the second level.
    Community Answer
    This definitely isn't supposed to work like this, but here's how I did it. I jumped on the fire posts out in front of the Temple, jumped onto the roof, and shimmied my way up as high as I could go. (A tip for this part: strafe around the corner of the roof, spamming space bar. You should slowly be able to get high enough.) Then, I positioned myself to face the porch of the Manor, and used Whirlwind Sprint to cross the gap. I'd recommend dropping a quicksave in case you miss; it saves you having to go through the trouble of climbing the roof again.
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  • Question
    How do I get his house key?
    Community Answer
    To get his house key, you need to kill or pickpocket Vald, Mercer's house guard in the courtyard of Riftweald Manor. Vald has the key in his inventory, which will allow you to open the manor door after shooting down the staircase (the manor door at ground level is blocked off and cannot be opened).
    Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
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  • Question
    How do I get evidence of Mercer Frey's betrayal in Skyrim?
    Caeiia
    Top Answerer
    Presumably, you're in the quest "The Pursuit". In your Quests tab, set this quest as a priority, which will give you a compass for direction. Once you break into Mercer's house, the compass will guide you to a room behind a "Suspicious Cupboard/Dresser". You will then steal Mercer's personal notes and then go back to the Thieves Guild, where you will meet with Karliah and Brynjolf. These notes prove Mercer's betrayal. They will go through some dialogue, the rest of the guild will turn against Mercer, and a new quest to become a Nightingale (after which is a quest to defeat Mercer) will start.
    Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
    Thank you for your feedback.
    If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
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    Not Helpful 29 Helpful 19
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      References

      1. ↑ https://youtu.be/OKT9KjUOLxQ?t=129
      2. ↑ https://youtu.be/OKT9KjUOLxQ?t=436
      3. ↑ https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:The_Pursuit
      4. ↑ https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Riftweald_Manor
      5. ↑ https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Riftweald_Manor
      6. ↑ https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Riftweald_Manor
      7. ↑ https://youtu.be/OKT9KjUOLxQ?t=752
      8. ↑ https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:The_Pursuit
      9. ↑ https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:The_Pursuit

      About This Article

      Article Summary X

      1. Fast-travel to Riften.
      2. Go to the gate behind Riftweald Manor and pick the lock.
      3. Get the key to Mercer's house from Vlad.
      4. Shoot down the ramp on the balcony behind Riftweald Manor.
      5. Go up the ramp to the door outside Riftweald Manor.
      6. Enter the door.

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