Hi,

question for anyone who's been to Markarth. I understand I'm supposed to give myself up to the guards and get tossed in Cidna Mine after finding out about the conspiracy. And I suppose I'll talk to the Madanach at some point inside. However, they give you the option to fight your way out. So is it possible for me to fight my way to Madanach and complete whatever I'm supposed to complete?

I don't think so because then you never get to talk to the forsworn leader etc.

You have to talk to the leader in order to complete the quest and clear your name. Just make sure you just follow them out and let them do all the killing, do not raise a finger or you will regret it later when trying to navigate in markarth on other quests lol.

There's two ways of getting the gate open, brawl the orc or do his favor.....I personally battled him this time around hes a pretty mean brawler being an orc.

Nah. you have to talk to the leader and get thrown in jail. I discovered this because I killed the guards in the temple in stead of going quietly. Don't matter. I turned into a werewolf after all of it was over and tore through every forsworn I could find (except briarheart, those guys are on something)

just kill mardoch once you seen him and then you can steal his key for the secret escape tunnel, him and his friends kill all the guards in the town so killing him keep the town on your side and that eliminates any problem of the guards trying to kill you when you're in markarth.

If you kill him in the prison do the post-quest rumors actually stay consistent with that? I mean, if you kill him people don't still talk about him escaping, right?

I let him "escape" in mine but before he could get out of the city I ran him through. People still seem to think he's out there in the hills though...

If you kill him in the prison the NPCs know it and act like it. When you leave you'll be pardoned for killing him and the guards will thank you for getting rid of him.

on my sneaky play through i cast frenzy on the orc many lol's were had!