One thing I've always loved about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the fact that players can approach quests in a variety of different ways. You might choose to avoid dangerous enemies by sneaking through dungeons, or talk your way out of trouble with a silver tongue. Violence is often the answer - but it's not always the only answer.
One Skyrim quest that I thought always had to end in unavoidable bloodshed is 'The Blessings Of Nature'. This is a quest that the player can take on that involves them finding a way to repair a dying sacred tree called the Gildergreen.
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To restore this very special tree, players need to travel to a place called Eldergleam Sanctuary where a bigger, more important tree known as the Eldergleam rests. If the player can take a small amount of sap from this tree and take it back to the Gildergreen, it's mission accomplished.
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Unfortunately, players who simply storm in and unceremoniously attempt to take the Eldergleam sap will be met with force. Spriggans appear that need to be dealt with, but not before they manage to murder pretty much every NPC that has come to pay their respects at the Sanctuary. You've saved a tree, but have a big old pile of dead innocents on your conscience. Yikes.
Except it turns out there's an entirely peaceful way to get through this particular quest. While many players may already be aware of this solution, a number of long-time Skyrim fans were shocked when Reddit user Fizzet713 explained what they'd discovered after 1,000 hours of adventuring.
In the middle of this particular quest, an NPC called Maurice will ask to accompany you to Eldergleam Sanctuary because he's always wanted to see it. I don't remember ever accepting this request personally, but apparently you have to if you want to end this particular story without any casualties.
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Patient players will need to escort Maurice to the Sanctuary. Once there, instead of simply attacking the roots of the Eldergleam to clear a path to the sap, you need to follow Maurice's lead. He'll pray to the tree instead, which grants an entirely new sapling and completely avoids the Spriggan fight and subsequent death of the pilgrims.
The reason a lot of people didn't know about this is because there are a few conditions. For one, if you have a follower with you Maurice will not ask to accompany you to the Sanctuary. There's also the fact that Maurice is a particularly dumb NPC that will run at any enemy no matter the size and take them on with his bare hands. In other words, if you don't fast travel to the objective with him, he will almost certainly be killed en-route.
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Topics: GAMING, The Elder Scrolls, News, Skyrim, Bethesda