The Endgame

Information Gathering

If you speak to Modryn after being promoted to Champion, he'll give you a new quest: you're to enter the Glademist Cave and "capture" one of the Blackwood Company leaders, a mage named Ajum-Kagin. Exactly what this capturing entails isn't made clear, but supposedly you'll have some way to subdue the mage before bringing him back to Chorrol for questioning.

These guys aren't playing around!

After tracking down the Glademist Cave, save your game and head inside, but be ready for some badass fights. The Blackwood Company isn't some group of bandits playing at thievery; they're well-equipped and will put up a tremendous fight. Bring poisons and potions, as well as plenty of charged soul gems to power up your magical weapons, since there aren't any creatures that you'll be able to Soul Trap inside.

At any rate, your goal here isn't too much different than it has been for most of these quests: just kill anything and everything that you see. You need to clear out all of the guards before you can find Ajum-Kagin, who'll helpfully agree to follow you out of the cave. Make your way back out, then warp back to Chorrol and head to Modryn, who'll tell you to begin the interrogation yourself.

Bangup job on the frisking there, Modryn.

Now, at this point, you have a couple of options. Ajum won't talk initially, but if you either bribe him and increase his Disposition towards you, or start pounding away with your fists, he'll eventually reveal the size of the Blackwood Company, and the name of its leader. When you ask the secret behind its strength, though, he chooses self-immolation rather than tell you any more.

Infiltration

With the name of the leader of the Blackwood Company ringing in your head, Modryn gives you one more dangerous task: infiltrate the Blackwood Company and find out the secret behind it. Head down to Leyawiin and find their company HQ to enter the belly of the beast...

Find Jeetum-Ze in the Blackwood Company headquarters to apply for a job. No matter what your stats are at this point, he's going to assume that you're not strong enough to run with the big dogs, but will still take you on as a provisional member. Meet him in the training area in the basement of the hall for more details.

Wait a minute...goblins don't attack villages....

When you meet up with Jeetum and the rest of the clan, he'll fill you in on the company's secret sauce: something called Hist Sap, which, when imbibed, apparently gives you increased prowess in battle. Legal? Maybe, maybe not, but you'll have to drink it if you want to complete the mission. Despite your misgivings, suck it down and head out to Water's Edge.

After the short goblin skirmish here, head into each of the three houses and clear them out as well. These guys shouldn't give you any trouble at this point. When you're done, you'll be quite jarringly transported back to Modryn's house; he has a new assignment for you. He worries that the Blackwood Company might've attempted to take over the Water's Edge settlement. Why they would necessarily care about some podunk village is difficult to know, but apparently he's convinced that they are!

Anyway, return to Water's Edge and speak to Marcel Amelion, the sole surviving inhabitant of the town. Apparently, in your Hist Sap trance, you saw the entire population of the village as goblins and slaughtered the lot of them. Personally, we say that that's there fault for not being more unambiguously human, but hey.

The Hist

It all comes down to this: you have to infiltrate the Blackwood Company headquarters, find the Hist tree, and destroy it. Only Ri'Zakar will have the key to where it's locked away, though, so you'll have to obtain it somehow. The Company members aren't going to be happy to see you, though, so come loaded for bear: bring poisons, potions, charge up your magical weapons. Do anything you think you might need to do to get ready for a tough fight.

I'm Going In As soon as you enter the facility, you'll come face to face with at least three enemies, with Jeetum-Ze likely upstairs. With any luck, he'll get stuck on the stairs and not be able to reach you for the fight, which is a very good thing. If you walk in while he's downstairs, however, you'll have a four-on-one fight. At any rate, you can't walk in and just attack, or you'll rack up a murder bounty; instead, you have to wait for Ja'Fazir to approach you and tell you that your life is forfeit before the festivities can begin.

Here's a basic run-down on your enemies in this room: Ja'Fazir is a two-handed weapon warrior; Rana is a staff-using mage; Jeetum-Ze is a warrior that will cast some kind of Conjuration spell to summon in an extra fighter; and Geel, an archer who'll attempt to get some distance and fire away at you. Now, three of the enemies here are going to be Argonian, meaning that they'll be highly resistant to poison; if you're relying on Damage Health to get the job done, then you might have problems.

Start off with some poison on Ja'Fazir.

Ja'Fazir is the exception here; as a Khajiit, he won't have any resistance to poison, so feel free to hit him with whatever you've got. If you don't have any poison, then skip him and head for Rana first, since she appears to have the smallest amount of health. Try to engage the melee fighters in the dining room area, since Geel won't be able to hit you with arrows while you're in there. When you've eliminated Rana, go after Jeetum-Ze and Ja'Fazir, using potions to keep your health up, then exit the dining room area and take down Geel. Be sure to search him for arrows; he should have quite an assortment on him, depending on your level.

Kill The Hist! When everyone's dead, search Jeetum's body for Ri'Zakar's Key. As the name indicates, this guy's another Khajiit, so feel free to poison up your weapon before heading inside. Kill him quickly, or his magical axe might do you in. Grab the Basement Key off of his body, then head downstairs and enter the basement, where the Hist Tree is being overlooked by two Argonians. Both of these guys have the capability to Conjure in helper creatures, so take them down quickly, then examine the tree. You'll need to find some way to destroy it....

You're like a Cyrodiilian Eliot Ness up in this place.

If you look around, you'll find two Loose Pipes. If you pick these up, then activate the Sap Pumps, they'll both be destroyed, which in turn will set the tree ablaze. Mission accomplished! Unfortunately, on your way out, Maglir will assault you, claiming that you finally wrecked his life. Although he's been complaining about the dangers of running contracts while having a family, you don't have many choices but to make some orphans here. Cut him down!

Now Look Who's Running The Place

Long story short? Returning to Modryn will net you the Helm of Oreyn Bearclaw, which will have some nice Agility and Endurance fortifications on it. He'll tell you to speak to Vilena. No matter what you tell her, she'll promote you to Guildmaster, and tell you that you'd be wise to bring Modryn back into the fold as your second-in-command.

After this point, there's little for you to do with the Fighter's Guild. If you need cash, you can tell Modryn to focus on getting contracts, but by this point in the game, you'll likely want to tell him to focus on recruitment, which will net you more magical items in the Master's Chest upstairs in the guildhall in Chorrol.