question about Ralen Hlaao murder *spoiler*

[Odonatathrope]

Okay, so in the thieves guild quests I have to steal some brandy and come across his body. Servant says it was a dunmer. Rumours say it's Nine Toes, but I'm pretty sure it's not. Murderer's description sounds like the guy in the Council Club (according to some), but he won't cop to it. What do I do? Anything? Do I have to join a house first or something?

[fishhead]

This is where the open freestyle game comes to play. There is a witness that will describe him, but I don't think he will ever own up to killing anyone. You can do a couple of things. Kill him outright or taunt him to attack you first. In the game I play, I taunted him,(took awhile) because I did not want a bounty on my hide. He attacked me so I defended my self, killed him and went to get my reward from house Hlaalu. Some ppl have noted that the other goons in the bottom floor will come up to aid him, but in my instance they never did. When you do successfully taunt someone they will not actually attack until the "goodbye" in red displays in the dialog box, even then exit the dialog and wait for him to actually try to hit you before you fight back. hope that helps.

[Sirius_Sam]

I finished the quest before I ever got it, so if you want to get double credit for this one go see the head honcho in Fort Moonmoth...

SPOILER
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You're going to have to kill the guys n' girls in the Council Club anyway, so get the Moonmoth Fort quest and then go back and kill them all (if you can Sneak, you won't have a problem at all...if you can't then 'Taunt' until you can fight). You get a nice reward from the Guard Commander at the fort and can go to Hlaalu and get that quest reward too

I actually had the Moonmoth quest very early and decided to join Hlaalu later...I didn't find the body until I got Sugar-Lips' quest for the brandy. By then, I had already 'sanctioned' the members of the Council Club

S_S