Hi everybody!


After the conversation with Etiene(in objective "Search for information about the ragons returning", some guards appear, and one of them carries the key to open the "reeking Cave"
BUT, Etienne is dead!!


What do I do to complete this goal and get the key from the cave?

And I have no save to go back!

You don't need Etienne. If he gets out great if not whatever. Not saying I'm indifferent towards him, he's just a random guy. There is a floor door which the key unlocks. I don't know if that helped. It's over by the cell you encountered Etienne in.

Thanks for quick help!

So, but I need the key, and I can′t locate!

You need to trigger whatever it is that brings the guards, I forget right now what that is I always stumble around till it happens,

I think freeing him triggers the guards (who have the key), try reloading the autosave when you entered.

I imagine you can backtrack and find the guards back in the embassy, then kill them for the key.

What brings the guards (I think), is the conversation with Etienne.


I do not have the save!

I tried to find the guards, but all I found none possessed the key

Have you looked in the chest and picked up the journal on Esbern, and have you read it? On my playthroughs that is what triggers the gaurds.

Etienne doesn't matter to the quest; he is just a captured TG member. Surely you have an autosave to go back on? If not, just kill the guard and the interrogator then search the chest, which holds the dossier on Esbern. After grabbing it and reading it then exiting out of the menu, three Thalmor guards walk in having captured the Bosmer helper guy. You gotta kill them to get the key I believe. Saving the Bosmer has no effect on the story aside from the absence or presence of an unmarked side quest.

If the guards don't carry a key, search the torturer or the interrogator; one has to carry a key.

Finding the information about Esbern through the dossier triggers the guards

IIRC you don't ever get the key - I think Etienne unlocks the trap door or, if you have the key, you can't open it until he's ready to leave. On my 2nd playthrough I couldn't open the trap door at first because I had told Etienne that I wasn't ready and he should go ahead without me. He waited at the trap door until I talked to him again and either he unlocked the trap door or I was able to. Even if I had gotten the key from the late-comer guards with Malborn I still couldn't open the trap door until I spoke with Etienne again and told him I was "ready".