Oblivion:Sanguine

Current Best Route

Quest stages are indicated in parentheses at the end of each step when they are updated. Keep in mind that these optimized steps are within the context of the 100% speedrun route, meaning that certain items and setups are sometimes assumed to have already been performed prior to the start of the quest.

This quest and Ahdarji's Heirloom are completed simultaneously to take advantage of an exploit. This quest assumes you already have Ahdarji's Heirloom in your journal, and will show the steps for completing both quests up to the point that the exploit related to Sanguine is complete.

1. Reach level 8 and acquire Cyrodilic Brandy from the Cloud Ruler Temple West Wing.
2. Activate Ahdarji's Heirloom and fast travel to the Quest Marker. Wait until 9am, then talk to S’Krivva.

   ↳ Thieves Guild special jobs.

   ↳ I’ll help out this poor widow.

3. Fast travel to Fort Dirich NNW of Skingrad. Make a save outside of the entrance to the fort. This will be referred to as the FortDirich_Save later.
4. Fast travel to the Shrine of Sanguine SE of Fort Dirich.
5. Activate the shrine.

   Select, “Yes.” (This offers the Cyrodilic Brandy.)

6. Wait for the cutscene to end, then activate the Sanguine quest. (20)
7. Fast travel to the Quest Marker and make a save outside of the entrance to Castle Leyawiin. This will be referred to as the CastleLeyawiin_Save later.
8. Talk to a guard and pay the gold fine if you have a bonuty.
9. Wait until it is between 6pm and midnight.
10. Talk to the guard outside the door to the dinner party the Quest Marker is pointing to.

    Bribe the guard until his disposition is greater than 70.

    ↳ Dinner Party. (25)

11. Go through the door and see if Countess Alessia Caro is there. If she is not, wait another hour a few more times. If this does not work, keep waiting 24 hours at a time to see if she appears.
12. Equip the Stark Reality spell and use it on Countess Alessia Caro. (30)
13. Quicksave, load the FortDirich_Save, then Load Warp the quicksave through the door.
14. Exit the fort and fast travel to the Shrine of Sanguine SE of Fort Dirich.
15. Activate the shrine and wait for the cutscene to end. (✔ 100)
16. Retrieve your items from the chest behind the benches near the shrine. Re-equip any gear that was unequipped.
17. Quicksave, load the CastleLeyawiin_Save, then Load Warp the quicksave through the door.
18. Head East down the hall to get back to the dinner party.
19. Save Clip facing SW in the corner next to the door to the Servant’s Quarters. Quickly look up and activate the floating chest out of bounds after clipping.
20. Take Ahdarji’s Ring from the chest and head NW to Void Warp back in bounds.
21. Complete the remainder of Ahdarji's Heirloom as described on its quest page.

Bugs

• This quest has an excessive amount of bugs between it and Ahdarji's Heirloom that have been routed around by getting Ahdarji's Ring in the middle of the Sanguine quest. The only bug remaining that can still affect this quest is that Countess Alessia Caro may not always arrive at the dinner party correctly, resulting in having to wait over and over until she appears.

Route Logic Considerations

• An extremely useful exploit has been discovered that allows the player to acquire Ahdarji's Ring as early as possible for Ahdarji's Heirloom using the Stark Reality spell. See the script analysis section below for a full explanation.
• This quest should not be started until Ahdarji's Heirloom has been started to avoid several bugs that affect both quests.
• The merchant Engorm should be invested in while at the Shrine of Sanguine during this quest.
• Warrior [Block] should be read in the private quarters while in Leyawiin Castle.
• Count Marius Caro in Leyawiin Castle has several other route logic points that can overlap with this quest, including Buying a house in Leyawiin, Aid for Bruma, and the Mazoga the Orc quests.
• If you fail to cast Stark Reality on the dinner party guests, you will be unable to get the Daedric Artifact and be unable to get 100% completion.
• The Cyrodilic Brandy is obtained without having to go very far out of our way by getting it from the West Wing of Cloud Ruler Temple. To avoid it being stolen, we need to wait until we have joined the Blades at the start of Spies in order to do this. See the Cyrodilic Brandy page for more details.
• Since a specific player level is required to start this quest, it is best done after the first instance of Power Leveling in the route logic.
• Like most Daedric Shrine quests, there are unskippable cutscenes that we need to find a way to avoid.

Script Analysis

If you would like to see this explanation in a video format, refer to this video.

The goal of this exploit is to acquire Ahdarji's Ring from Countess Alessia Caro as early as possible. It doesn't appear in her inventory until you reach stage 10 of Ahdarji's Heirloom first by talking to S'Krivva. Obtaining the ring will skip that quest all the way to stage 60, bypassing a myriad of bugs that can make both that quest and Sanguine become impossible to complete. However, the ring cannot be pickpocketed from her, as it is scripted to not visibly appear in her inventory when pickpocketing her. She is also an essential NPC, so killing her is not an option either. The ring does appear in containers however, since the intended way of acquiring the ring during the quest is to take it from a jewelry box that she puts it in at night.

Conveniently, the Stark Reality spell that you get from the Sanguine quest needs to be cast on the Countess, and runs a script that removes all of the items from her inventory. These items are temporarily stored in a chest out of bounds near the dinner party that the player can reach by Save Clipping, which does allow the player to take the ring early. The problem is that the chest will display the popup "You cannot open this chest without Sanguine's blessing." unless certain conditions have been met.

The chest DASanguineChest2 has the script DASangunieChestScript tied to it, which checks OnActivate if the Sanguine quest is at stage 100 (i.e. the quest is completed), before allowing the player to open the chest. This script is likely carried over from the chest that is sitting by the Shrine at the end of the quest when you retrieve your own items. The basic logic structure is the following:

1. Get Ahdarji's Heirloom to stage 10 so the ring spawns in the Countess' inventory.
2. Start Sanguine to get Stark Reality, and cast the spell on the Countess at the dinner party to move Ahdarji's ring to the out of bounds chest.
3. In the span of 2 minutes of real time, finish the Sanguine quest and return to Leyawiin Castle to reach the out of bounds chest.
4. Take Ahdarji's Ring out of the chest.

Stark Reality lasts for 2 minutes (of real time) before items are moved from the out of bounds chest back to the NPCs, but casting Stark Reality and fast traveling back to the Shrine would result in the spell wearing off since the simulated travel time will be longer than that. Load Warping directly to the Shrine is not an option since it has no doors, but Fort Dirich's entrance can be used to Load Warp the player near the Shrine, which doesn't advance time since it isn't fast traveling. At this point, the fast travel to the Shrine is well under 2 minutes, and the final cutscene takes very little time. Finally, a Load Warp to instantly move back to Castle Leyawiin will allow the player to return to the location of the out of bounds chest before the Stark Reality spell has worn off.

Quest Stages

Sanguine (DASanguine)

Stage	Finish	setstage Scripts	Journal Entry
10			The follower of Sanguine have told me that, in order to summon the Daedra, I will need to leave an offering of Cyrodilic Brandy at the statue. [You must be level 8 to begin this quest.]
20			After I provided the offering to Sanguine, the Daedra Prince spoke to me. Sanguine believes that the Countess of Leyawiin is too stuffy, and wants me to do something about it. She will be hosting a dinner party tomorrow, and I am to sneak into the castle undetected and cast the spell of Stark Reality on her.
25			I have convinced the guard to let me into the Countess Caro's dinner party.
30			I have succeeded in casting the Stark Reality spell on the Countess of Leyawiin and her company. I should return to the Shrine of Sanguine.
90			I was detected while attempting to cast the spell of Stark Reality on the Countess of Leyawiin and her guests. I should return to the Shrine of Sanguine.
100	✔		Sanguine was pleased with my efforts. He has given me the Sanguine Rose as a reward. I may retrieve my belongings in the nearby chest.
105	✔		I failed to affect all the guests with the Stark Reality spell. The spell has worn off, and my items have been returned to me, but I have failed my quest for Sanguine.