When you accidentally start the worst quest in Skyrim

Admit it! The quest is really bad.
#morrowind #skyrim #memes

[lukemorgan]

Ah yes the barenziah stones. I sure hope none of them can be permanently missed and completely screw the quest

[Gambito]

When you have to buy the most expensive house in the game to finish the quest

[nguyenquyetthang]

This is why the marker mod for this quest remains one of the most popular

[ramiel]

The problem...is that it could have been a good up rumors in cities that say where you find a stone, receive them as quest rewards, radiant thief quests that let you rob an owner of the stone, so many different ways to make it we had

[markmawords]

The moment I always dread is looting everything in a chest and hearing "A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON"

[spoonge]

I actually found the crimson nirnroot quest to be quite easy. Not a walk in the park, but a lot easier than the stones of barenziah quest.

[DarthVader]

The thing that bothers me the most about this quest is not that there are no markers telling you each stone location, but that when you find a stone, there’s no unique identifier or parentheses next to the stone telling where you found it

[glasswolf]

Walt: "How many stones are there in this game?"
Vex: "Stendar's mercy, Walt..! They're minerals."

[Janoha]

All locations of the Stones of Barenziah:
Proudspire Manor (Solitude Player Home Master Bedroom)
Blue Palace (In Jarl Elisif's quarters)
Reeking Cave (Beneath the Thalmor Embassy)
Dainty Sload (Captain's quarters, docked near Solitude)
College of Winterhold (Arch-Mage's Quarters)
Yngvild (North of Winterhold's coast, in the bedroom behind the throne room)
Hob's Fall Cave (Winterhold, in the necromancer's sleeping area)
Treasury House (Markarth, on a nightstand in the Master Bedroom)
Understone Keep (Locked side room of the Dwemer Museum)
Dead Crone Rock (on a makeshift altar)
Jorrvaskr (Kodlak's bedroom)
Whiterun Hall of the Dead (In one of the crypt alcoves)
Dragonsreach (Jarl's Bedroom)
Rannveig's Fast (Table in the room with Sild the Warlock)
Fellglow Keep (workroom at the top of the front foyer)
House of Clan Shatter-Shield (Windhelm, in a bedroom)
Palace of Kings (In Wuunferth's quarters, on a table)
Stony Creek Cave (In the Bandit Wizard's cavern)
Ansilvund (Near Fjori's ghost in the burial chambers)
Sunderstone Gorge (On the altar in front of the Word Wall)
Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary (On the dresser in Astrid's room)
Pinewatch (In a locked treasure room)
Mistveil Keep (Beside the Jarl's bed)
Black-Briar Lodge (Upstairs Master Bedroom)
The crown is in Tovald's Crossing, accessed through Tovald's Cave southwest of Riften.

[Jjk]

Hell, 120 nirnroot in Oblivion was a cakewalk in comparison to these 24 bastard stones. Of course, one of them is usually close to a certain beacon.

[Liesmith]

The quest would be infinitely better if it was just "You can sell the stones for increasing amounts of gold, and you get a bonus for getting them all", so you at least get *something* for finding some of the damn things.

The excuse of "even though these are gems from a royal crown, no one wants to buy them unless you have the whole set" is absolutely nonsensical.

[BabinSquared]

In earlier versions of the game, the stones weren't even anchored to their spawn points. They could be knocked around the room by effects such as your shouts. So if you were running through a dungeon but unaware that a stone was hidden there, and if you were using one of the game's foremost combat mechanics, there was a good chance that you might accidentally send the stone flying into some obscure corner without even realizing it.

[JohnDarksoul]

This is definitely one of the quests of all time

[grimreaper]

To be fair, atleast with the nirn root they make a sound when you get within a certain radius of them. Which makes finding them easy. Haven't found one of these stones yet but I don't think they do the same thing. And since I haven't found one yet even by accident that kinda tells me how hard these are to find

[firstlast]

*Ten Years Later* and I still refuse to do this quest.

[poslednisoud]

Not to mention doing this quest organically instead of just chasing after them specifically gives you the reward in the absolute endgame when it's almost worthless.

[fergochan]

I like the idea that, to make up for every other quest being map-markered to all get-out, they'd have one, traditional, map-markerless quest. It's like Morrowind, again, yeah? Except there are no clues, no interesting interactions, nothing. You just randomly bump into them and take them or look them all up. There was so much potential here!

[BreezyStreamy]

You know, they could have an unofficial patch quest(s) where after a certain amount of time after you find the first stone, a courier finds you and gives you a letter which would say a rumor where another stone is located, show a new location on the map, and it could be from an anonymous source. I would much prefer that than having to just hope I come across one without looking it up.

[ClickBeetleTV]

An added problem with this quest is that the reward effect comes far too late to be useful, I think. By the time you complete this quest, there is probably nothing left you really need to spend money on, and you probably have a stockpile of at least a few hundred thousand gold. At that point, finding gems in every chest just creates a new way to clog up your inventory list.

[StonerWaifu]

And then he moved to Cyrodiil to start a skooma empire.
"Jesse, it's time to cook some Balmora Blue!"