Does anyone know of a way to get into the Thieves' Guild without actually joining? I wanted to get my hands on the Shadowmarks book for reference, but the only place I know it exists is in the Thieves' Guild. I can't find a key to the false door in the Ratway and I don't know of any way to activate the fake coffin from the outside.

And yes, I know I can look up the symbols online, but I want an in-game reference for RP purposes.

I think the coffin is the only way to sneak into the Thieves Guild. You'll have to press a symbol in the middle of the fake coffin to enter.

I've tried that, but I can't interact with the button if I'm not part of the guild.

dont you have to be a member to use the secret entrance?

You can access the Ragged Flagon without joining, but I think the cistern is members only

Hmm, it seems obvious that there is no way to get into the Cistern.

Does anyone know of any other locations of the Shadowmarks book?

ive looked on wiki, but it seems its only in the cistern. you might have to join, buddy.

The wiki I checked says there's a copy next to the East Empire Company Warehouse door
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Shadowmarks_(Book)

Let us know how it turned out

-edit: Fixed link

I'll check it out. Thanks!

i think thats just someone saying they saw a mark near the door, not a book.

I know I had joined the Thieves Guild on one of my characters and loaded him back to a prior point before joining the guild,
then for some reason I could still access the secret entrance. Not sure if that is some kind of scripting bug or what but it worked.

Anyway, another Shadowmark book can be found next to the East Empire warehouse door. Have a look there.

Just join. All the perks you get from finishing the Thieves Guild quests are pretty helpful and useful. Like fences to sell stolen goods in each of the 5 main cities. Plus the Thieves Caches in those 5 cities always have awesome stuff to loot. And they respawn every few in game weeks. Not to mention training for sneaking, archery, pickpocketing, and lockpicking.

You also get 4 merchants addd to the Ragged Flaggon along with the statue of Nocturnal which gives you a choice of 3 blessing type active effects.

And the quests are fun and a change of pace from just fighting all the time.

theres no book at the EEC that i could find just now.

The fences are pretty buggy though. None of them unlocked for me and I completely finished the Thieves Guild. They don't even have regular merchant interaction, except for the one in Windhelm obviously.

Fortunately I got the 'Fence'-Speech perk, so now I can rob merchants and then sell them back their own stuff

Didn't see anything there. I found the Beggar Prince, but nothing else.

Oh well, maybe I'll just spawn a copy for myself.

Sorry to hear that, probably was just someone reporting a mark on the wrong wiki page then

That svcks. I got a fence in every city. And they each hold at least 4000 gold. And you also get 3 Thieves Caches in each of those cities. (Barrels marked with shadowmarks holding goods left by members of the Thieves Guild usually holding some pretty good stuff such as Deadric arrows, Unique potions and weapons etc.)

Did you go to the East Empire company offices or warehouse?

The warehouse is on the Solitude docks. The offices are in Windhelm docks.

Go to the Solitude docks, you'll find the book next to the door (inside, if I remember correctly).