Update: since the werewolf attack they have not respawned (been a few game days) and no murder was reported.

LOL
Anyways, a point against the Alik'r story is when the first crew talks to you at the gate. They tell you that if you find her, they will be waiting in Riften. Nobody decent hangs out in Riften.

The ones in my playthough stayed in Rorikstead.

Turned her in. If I'd have been sent after her she would have died a slow, painful death for aiding the Thalmor. That, and the Alik'r actually seemed genuinely sincere and honest with the dialogue before and after her capture. Yeah they hung out in a bandit cave...so would I if I couldn't go to the main city without attracting a bunch of attention. Talking to the guards after the quest shows animosity on their part towards the Alik'r, and it doesn't seem justified except that the Alik'r are "foreigners" to them.

I saved her because at the time I was trying to establish myself in Whiterun and I didnt want to lose the only folks that were cool to me at that early stage, the Bannered Mare folks. this was one of the first missions I found myself on, had no clue what was going on, lol.




Anyway, I now have the 2 permanent Al'akir warriors at the Whiterun Gates and I am wondering if you can kill them and they will go away?

I helped her because according to the Alik'r she sold the city out to the Dominion... at least 25 years ago. She looks and sounds to be around that age. Did she sell them out as a little child? Not to mention they were with bandits, which makes them seem untrustworthy.

To me, both stories are fishy. Both are lying. Probably some house conflict with nothing to do with the Thalmor, and they're both using "they're with the Thalmor!" as reasons you should help then.

I thought about helping the Redguard women until I found out she was involved with the Thalmor who I consider to be some of the biggest douchebags in all of Skyrim.

I turned her over. Sorry Sadia!

I helped her. If she was dangerous and guilty, then she would of instantly killed you once you told her with the Alikri warriors. She must have to done it for a good reason, who knows?

Dude, one look at her face and she is clearly not 25. She even mentions how she's been on the run for years before being able to "settle" in Whiterun. Also, if you listen to the bandits, they don't like having the Alik'r with them. The Alik'r are really just using the same cave as a base, that's it.

for the record, kematu is not 'hiding' in that cave. not only does he live there, that's his primary hang out. in fact, after the quest, he spends 6 continuous months in there. so now if the banditis showed up, it's because they're sharing kematu's cave.

as far as who's innocent, there's no evidence one way or another. let's assume saadia is a thalmor agent. she doesn't know who you are. she could be a double agent; this means she's actually working for the hammerfell pretending to be a spy for the thalmor. granted she's informing the thalmor - but the information she provides hammerfell is infinitely better. this would back up her swiss cheese story. since if she were both a hammerfell and thalmor spy, 1 of those truths will get her executed on the spot, gauranteed. which truth would you tell? if i were a double agent and someone in full armor and decked out weapons asks me if i'm wanted, my first reaction is to pull out a gun, shoot him, then move to another country. of course the sniffle-everyone-wants-to-kill-me-sniffle excuse coupled with puppydogeyes could equally be a viable strategy.

no evidence that kematu is or isn't an assassin. if he wants to maintain the guise of a legitimate bounty hunter, he needs to paralyze her. for example, if he has more than 1 mark in this city, he needs to kill her on the trip home rather than near a city with witnesses; he has to maintain cover. furthermore, if he kills her in front of you, you may react badly and come after him. by paralyzing her, he has bought you as an ally and reduced suspicion of him in the entire city - optimum strategy for a real assassin. it's like a real life assassin joining the police force. when he actually kills a mark, he can use his police background to cover the evidence and use his police friends to back him up.

in a land of skyrim, both paths are equally irrelevant. if only 2 people in hammerfell knew of saadia's role and they were killed, she becomes effectively a fugitive. she could try selling thalmor secrets - but it may cost her her life. so now she's SOL, no practical skills to speak of to get a job, no way back into either country without being highly suspicious. 25 years ago means she may no longer have pertinent secrets and the people who knew her identity might have died naturally; this is likely the case, seasoned veterans that oversee projects are usually well aged. in a land without challenge-response key cards to verify identity, it will boil down to (s)he said. kematu might have been chosen because of his race. in a band of assassins, he was probably trained in even hammerfell culture and speech in order to blend in. kematu's story is easily verified iff (if and only if) you can get word to and from hammerfell with an official seal. if weather or political conditions are volatile, then you, like everyone else, is playing a guessing game. assuming the hammefell government still has the personnel that remember sending kematu in the first place - if they were killed, everyone's an orphan operative.

I killed the Alik'r and threw them under the bridge in Whiterun.

Stole their swords and have them sitting on my table in my house.

Looking again, I agree that she isn't 25. Guess I got a bad look before.

I didn't hear the bandits. I just attacked as soon as I saw them.... hmm.

Damn it, now I feel bad. I sided with the Alik'r the first time I did the quest, too.

I tried to reason with klematu first but there was no option to tell him to leave so he never left the cave

That was an excellent post, Squiros.

There was a unfortunate incident with a Werewolf attack on the Alik'r Warriors in my game - dumb luck that - but there have been no 'reinforcements'...and this was months ago game time.

Edited for grammar.

Just one problem with that, bud; He still disappears eventually and the only reason they're still there is likely a bug that Bethesda overlooked. As I mentioned before, listen to what the bandits have to say when you first enter as part of the quest; neither side likes the other but, Kematu and his buddies are paying for the shelter/base of operations, but the Alik'r themselves don't terribly enjoy sharing space with bandits.


Not necessarily.


There is a MAJOR flaw in your thinking though; Saadia almost immediately claims that she fled Hammerfell for speaking out against the Thalmor. The Redguards of Hammerfell HATE the Thalmor and fought a long and bloody war of attrition and eventually fought the Thalmor to a standstill and forced them out of Hammerfell. There is no real reason to even consider that the nation that fought the Aldmeri Dominion and Thalmor for the longest time would persecute and chase across the continent a hosue noble for speaking out against the Thalmor.

Speaking with Kematu, he reveals that the Forebear city of Taneth would have held out if Saadia hadn't betrayed the city to the Thalmor. Furthermore, if she was truly fleeing for speaking out against the Thalmor, why would she settle in a province and city where the Thalmor essentially have free reign and mobility? There is no evidence to suggest she is a double-agent and she pulls a knife on you when you first talk to her. This is not how double-agents behave or should behave.


Actually, there's plenty of evidence to suggest that he isn't an assassin.


There are several problems with your line of thinking. Let's look at various assassins and assassin orders throughout the Elder Scrolls games. You are given a target, you generally have to be/should be discreet, and you alone do the deed. There is no need nor is there any benefit in sending a frikkin platoon of agents after a single target if the target is due for assassination; it costs more resources, is more visible, arouses suspicion, and is far more expensive and potentially unreliable.

If the Alik'r agents are assassins, they are terrible assassins. They interrogate Redguard women wherever they find them, obey the laws of the land and are more than happy to explain why instead of "none of your business". The captured Alik'r you talk to in the Dragonreach prison even talks of honour and that by being captured, he has dishonoured his comrades and will be barred from rejoining them so he will return home.

As for Kematu, the stuff you mention being "optimum strategy" is anything but, especially under the following circumstance; killing Saadia after he paralyzes her, he will say "After all that work, you killed her? You have ruined everything" There's another lore-specific reason to trust Kematu more; Redguards overwhelmingly abhor magic. Kematu uses a paralyzation spell. This has to be a rather high-priority target and the necessity to keep the target alive for a Redguard to use magic. And as I mentioned earlier, it makes no sense to send a platoon of agents who stick out like a sore thumb who openly interrogate and search for their target to be assassins.

This isn't Hollywood or TV; joining the police force to be an assassin is a TERRIBLE idea. There's so many problems with that, I don't even know where to start.


Everything you said here could be used to argue that Saadia is in fact NOT a double-agent and effectively a Thalmor spy.


Again, band of assassins doesn't make sense from any logicial, logistical and tactical point of view. Why train someone to be all those things when you can go to Hammerfell and get the real deal for cheaper? It also makes no sense since ALL of his agents are Redguards and ALL of them are wearing the garb of the Dunedweller Redguards, who in habit the Alik'r Desert. If you side with Kematu and help him capture Saadia, he says the following:

"Don't allow yourself to be fooled by a pretty face again, you're better than that."

and...

"The resistance against the Thalmor is alive and well in Hammerfell, friend."

And finally, the BIGGEST reason to trust Kematu is this:

My Shadowscale told the Alik'r he would bring them Saadia, then turned around and slit their leaders throat in front of his men. Now, I was thinking Saadia wants my scaly tail now... but unfortuantely she was quite rude about the whole ordeal, so she had to go as well.

Such is the life of my Shadowscale *sigh*

Well the 'net' end is, if I help her there remains a cute girl in the Inn (that I can't marry) and two Redguards hang out at the front gate. If I help the Redguards capture her then there really isn't anyone left and a Dark Brotherhood assassin always comes after me a few days later.

Just based on the ending, I'd rather help her just to have more people around in the game (and I can't loot the DB armor). I kind of like seeing her work in the Inn.

Course the right thing to do is turn her in ... right!

Yea I agree. Upon further inspection, her story just doesn't check out. A redguard in Hammerfell could literally speak out against anybody, and not have to resort to hiding out in skyrim. Hate the Forebears, flee to Crown territory. Hate the crowns, flee to forebear territory. Hate the empire, flee to crown territory. Hate the Thalmor? So does the rest of Hammerfell.

That is unless she exposed a network of traitors working with the Thalmor and those guards were sent after her to find out how much she knows.... Damn, maybe I'm overthinking this... I kept her alive my first playthrough since she was the only redguard woman around for miles, and I wan't sure if you could marry her

I may have Thalmor sympathies, but I can't stand traitors.

The first time I helped the Alikr warriors, the second time on this play I helped Saadia. However, it didn't seem to matter who I helped because there were no consequences for the actions....That is the thing which is missing from this game...There are now alikr stationed in whiterun and I run into them periodically throughout Skyrim, after I killed kematu or whatever his name is. In the game, the girl dsaid if you kill the leader the rest will split, but they are still around...Don't get it...

Haha! Awesome. I actually decided to try a follower assasination move I had read about. While hidden it seems you can order your follower to attack, in broad daylight, without reprocussion/bounty. The two Al'akir bought it, I dumped their bodies over the small bridge at the gates, kep their Curved_Swords as a momento and they appear to be on permanent vacation.

I sided with Saadia.