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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Hints
How can I croak this guy without getting a bounty?
1 of 12: You don't want to hit him with the Rose of Sithis arrow when anyone else can see you do it. You'll probably just get a little 40-gold bounty, but the guards will attack you immediately instead of first asking you if you want to pay off the bounty in gold or jail time.
2 of 12: You could spend a lot of time following Phillida around to see what the best time for killing him would be, or you could just talk to his bodyguard to find out a bit about his schedule.
3 of 12: The swim that the bodyguard mentions is your best bet, and it happens each day at around 3 pm in the large pond NE of Ahdarji's house.
4 of 12: Either before or after Phillida gets into the pool, position yourself near the east end of the north wall of Ahdarji's house and go into Sneak mode.
5 of 12: Unless there's someone passing by on the street to the west, you should get the "faded eye" symbol on your targeting cursor that means you're unseen.
6 of 12: Quicksave just in case, then shoot Phillida in the pool with your special arrow.
7 of 12: Unfortunately, the game will always give you a 40-gold bounty when you kill Phillida, even if you do it while totally unseen. Also, even if you run pay off your bounty to a guard, you'll still be attacked by Phillida's bodyguard when you go anywhere near him, and your bounty will go up to 40 gold, and every guard everywhere will automatically attack you.
8 of 12: This has *got* to be a game glitch, and there are two ways that I know of to deal with it.
9 of 12: The first way is to have a Chameleon effect of 100% or more on you when you kill Phillida (see the Enchanting Tips). If you do, you can kill him any way, anywhere, and at any time without getting a bounty. However, the bodyguard glitch will still happen if you ever go anywhere near the bodyguard with less than 100% Chameleon.
10 of 12: The other way is to dump all your stolen goods into a container somewhere (like in the Mages Guild), then sneakily kill Phillida as mentioned above.
11 of 12: Move away from the area with Phillida's body since his nearby bodyguard is responsible for the glitch, and go find a regular guard to surrender to. Choose to serve your time in jail, then retrieve your stolen goods and go get the finger you need from Phillida's body (which will still be in the pond).
12 of 12: Even that doesn't always work, since it depends on Phillida's bodyguard not being around anymore. You may have to leave the city and wait several days for this to happen. (You could, for instance, leave the city without talking to any guards and then fast-travel to Bravil to get S'krivva to remove your bounty if you're a Thieves Guild member.)
